Controls on sublithospheric small-scale convection

Physics of multiscale convection in Earth’s mantle: Evolution of sublithospheric convection

[1] We investigate the physics of multiscale convection in Earth’s mantle, characterized by the coexistence of large-scale mantle circulation associated with plate tectonics and smallscale sublithospheric convection. In part 2 of our study, the temporal and spatial evolution of sublithospheric convection is studied using two-dimensional whole mantle convection models with temperatureand depth-d...

Physics of multiscale convection in Earth’s mantle: Onset of sublithospheric convection

[1] We investigate the physics of multiscale convection in Earth’s mantle, characterized by the coexistence of large-scale mantle circulation associated with plate tectonics and small-scale sublithospheric convection. In this study, conditions for the existence of smallscale convection beneath oceanic lithosphere are investigated by deriving a scaling law for the onset of convection in a fluid ...

Small-scale Convection and the Evolution of the Lithosphere

In this thesis we calculate the effect of small-scale convection on the thickness and temperature structure of the lithosphere for three cases where geophysical and geological data may allow us to see these effects. The problems are: (1) the cooling of the oceanic lithosphere; (2) the cooling of a passive rift temperature structure; and (3) the rate of thinning of lithosphere which has been thi...

How does small-scale convection manifest in surface heat flux?

On the state of sublithospheric upper mantle beneath a supercontinent

S U M M A R Y An assumption of isothermal and static asthenosphere as the normal state of sublithospheric mantle, as commonly employed in studies of terrestrial magmatism, may be physically implausible for a system cooled from above. The growth of an unstable thermal boundary layer at the base of the lithosphere can lead to small-scale convection, so asthenosphere is expected to be usually conv...