Mantle Convection in a Microwave Oven: New Perspectives for the Internally Heated Convection

Abstract:

The thermal evolution of silicate planets is primarily controlled by the balance between internal heating - due to radioactive decay - and heat transport by mantle convection. In the Earth, the problem is particularly complex due to the heterogeneous distribution of heat sources in the mantle and the non-linear coupling between this distribution and convective mixing. To investigate the behaviour of such systems, we have developed a new technology based on microwave absorption to study internally-heated convection in the laboratory. This prototype offers the ability to reach the high Rayleigh-Roberts and Prandtl numbers that are relevant for planetary convection.

Our experimental results obtained for a uniform distribution of heat sources were compared to numerical calculations reproducing exactly experimental conditions (3D Cartesian geometry and temperature-dependent physical properties), thereby providing the first cross validation of experimental and numerical studies of convection in internally-heated systems. We find that the thermal boundary layer thickness and interior temperature scale with RaH^-1/4, where RaH is the Rayleigh-Roberts number, as theoretically predicted by scaling arguments on the dissipation of kinetic energy.

Our microwave-based method offers new perspectives for the study of internally-heated convection in heterogeneous systems which have been out of experimental reach until now. We are able to selectively heat specific regions in the convecting layer, through the careful control of the absorption properties of different miscible fluids. This is analogous to convection in the presence of chemical reservoirs with different concentration of long-lived radioactive isotopes. We shall show results for two different cases: the stability of continental lithosphere over a convective fluid and the evolution of a hidden enriched reservoir in the lowermost mantle.