Semi analytical model for the effective grain size profile in the mantle of the Earth: partitioning between diffusion and dislocation creep through the Earth's history

Abstract:

We present a semi analytical model of mantle convection able to predict the grain size profile of the present day Earth. Grain size evolution has been studied with increasing interest over the last decades but its behavior in both mantle and lithosphere remains largely misunderstood due to its non-linearity. Several recent studies suggest that it might play a fundamental role in localization of deformation in the lithosphere but we focus here on the mantle in which we also observe important processes.
We propose a 1D compressible thermal convection model based on the equality of advective heat flux and the integral of viscous dissipation in the whole domain. Imposing mass conservation, our model is able to predict all rheological parameters able to produce both present day average surface velocity and lower mantle viscosity. Composite rheologies involving dislocation creep and grain size dependent diffusion creep are considered. The effect of phase transitions on the grain size is also explicitely taken into account. We present the family of solutions for the activation volume and the viscosity jump at the 660 discontinuity according to any initial choice of activation energy. The scaling laws for rheological parameters obtained are compared to self-consistent evolutionary simulations of mantle convection in 2D spherical annulus geometry considering composite rheologies. The transition between diffusion and dislocation creep due to the cooling of the Earth is illustrated in a set of numerical simulations starting from the physical conditions of the Archean.