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Geodynamics refers to the processes by which mantle convection shapes and reshapes the Earth and other rocky planets. Its study includes plate tectonics, volcanism, the chemistry of lava and volcanic rocks, gravity and geomagnetic anomalies as well as seismic investigations into the structure of the mantle.
Through the detection of postcursors of shear waves diffracted at the core–mantle boundary, a zone of ultralow seismic velocities has been identified at the base of the mantle beneath the Himalayas. The presence of this zone is probably linked to a subducted slab remnant that is driving mantle flow in the region.
The Cenozoic eastward growth of the Tibetan Plateau can be explained by slab tear and the resulting mantle flow beneath the eastern region, according to analysis of seismic tomography, tectonic and magmatic records of the Indian mantle lithosphere.
Global detections of ultralow velocity zones in high-velocity lowermost mantle regions are associated with thermochemical anomalies linked to subducted slabs, according to analysis of SKKKP B-caustic diffractions with anomalous seismic structures in the mantle and outer core.
This study reveals that in the Earth’s mid-mantle, ferropericlase (the second most abundant mineral) undergoes a major electronic reconfiguration. At the base of the mantle, an enrichment in silica may represent a crystallised ancient magma ocean.
Spreading-rate dependent magmatism plays a central role in controlling the global systematics of oceanic transform fault topography, according to geodynamic modelling.
Through the detection of postcursors of shear waves diffracted at the core–mantle boundary, a zone of ultralow seismic velocities has been identified at the base of the mantle beneath the Himalayas. The presence of this zone is probably linked to a subducted slab remnant that is driving mantle flow in the region.
Giant impacts can hit Venus harder than Earth in the end stages of planetary formation, super-heating Venus’s core. Slow escape of that heat drives long-lived surface volcanic activity.
There are two competing hypotheses for the origin of oceanic plateaus: plume versus plate. Thermodynamic modelling of magmatism at Shatsky Rise, in the Pacific Ocean, now suggests that neither mechanism is adequate on its own and in fact plume–ridge interaction is required to explain the formation of this ocean plateau.
The chemical signatures of granitic continental crust from the earliest Archean are consistent with formation during subduction, indicating some form of plate tectonics was active at the time.
The post-garnet transition has been found to have a curved phase boundary, with negative slopes in cold regions and positive slopes in hot regions of the Earth’s mantle. This varying slope could be a reason for the puzzling dynamics of subducting slabs and upwelling plumes observed seismically in the upper part of the lower mantle.