Correlation Between Mobile Continents and Elevated Temperatures in the Subcontinental Mantle

Abstract:

Rolf et al. (EPSL, 2012) and Coltice et al. (Science, 2012) have previously shown that continents exert a first order influence on Earth’s mantle flow by affecting convective wavelength and surface heat flow. With stationary continents, Heron and Lowman (JGR, 2014) highlighted the decreasing role of continental insulation on subcontinental temperatures with higher Rayleigh number (Ra). However, the question whether there exists a correlation between mobile continents and elevated temperatures in the subcontinental mantle or not remains to be answered.

Continental motion is attributed to the viscous stresses imparted by the convecting mantle and the extent of this motion depends on the heat budget of the mantle. Core-mantle boundary (CMB) heat flux, internal heating from decay of radioactive elements, and mantle cooling contribute to this heat budget. Out of these sources, CMB heat flux is not well defined. However, the recent determination of core’s high thermal conductivity requires a CMB heat flow of at least 12 TW (de Koker et al., PNAS 2012; Pozzo et al., Nature 2012; Gomi et al., PEPI 2013). Thus it is necessary to characterize the impact of basal heating on mantle dynamics with mobile continents and self-consistent plate tectonics.

By systematically varying parameters such as CMB temperature, continental size, mantle heating modes, and Rayleigh number; we model Boussinesq, incompressible, thermo-chemical mantle convection with 2D spherical annulus geometry using StagYY (Tackley, PEPI 2008). We observe the aforementioned correlation irrespective of the variations in basal heating and continental size (except for very small continents). Moreover, we see episodicity between correlation-anticorrelation with increasing convective vigour. Furthermore, the effect of radioactivity in the continental crust on this correlation is investigated. At present, mobile continents in StagYY are simplified into a compositionally distinct field drifting at the top of the mantle; thereby lacking the complexities of real Earth. We aim to further develop the code to allow for realistic continental growth and destruction.