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Deep-mantle high-viscosity flow and thermochemical structure inferred from seismic and geodynamic data

Nature volume 410, pages 1049–1056 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Surface geophysical data that are related to the process of thermal convection in the Earth's mantle provide constraints on the rheological properties and density structure of the mantle. We show that these convection-related data imply the existence of a region of very high effective viscosity near 2,000 km depth. This inference is obtained using a viscous-flow model based on recent high-resolution seismic models of three-dimensional structure in the mantle. The high-viscosity layer near 2,000 km depth results in a re-organization of flow from short to long horizontal length scales, which agrees with seismic tomographic observations of very long wavelength structures in the deep mantle. The high-viscosity region also strongly suppresses flow-induced deformation and convective mixing in the deep mantle. Here we predict compositional and thermal heterogeneity in this region, using viscous-flow calculations based on the new viscosity profile, together with independent mineral physics data. These maps are consistent with the anti-correlation of anomalies in seismic shear and bulk sound velocity in the deep mantle. The maps also show that mega-plumes in the lower mantle below the central Pacific and Africa are, despite the presence of compositional heterogeneity, buoyant and actively upwelling structures.

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Figure 6: Lateral variations in iron content at 2,740 km depth.
Figure 1: Geodynamic inferences of density structure in Earth's mantle.
Figure 2: Depth-dependent effective viscosity of Earth's mantle.
Figure 3: Predicted convective flow in Earth's lower mantle.
Figure 4: Flow-induced deformation or ‘stretching’ in the mantle.
Figure 5: Compositional and thermal heterogeneity at 2,740 km depth.

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Acknowledgements

We thank I. Jackson for a review, for suggestions used in the Methods section, and for the detailed check of the derivatives in Table 1. A.M.F. also thanks A. Davaille for many helpful discussions. We acknowledge support from NSERC, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Innovation Trust, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research—Earth Systems Evolution Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Biology & Geology Building, London, N6A 5B7, Ontario, Canada

    Alessandro M. Forte

  2. Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St George Street, Toronto, M5S 1A7, Ontario, Canada

    Jerry X. Mitrovica

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  1. Alessandro M. Forte
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Correspondence to Alessandro M. Forte.

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Forte, A., Mitrovica, J. Deep-mantle high-viscosity flow and thermochemical structure inferred from seismic and geodynamic data. Nature 410, 1049–1056 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35074000

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