The Dynamics of Plate Tectonics and Mantle Flow: From Local to Global Scales
Abstract
Plate tectonics is regulated by driving and resisting forces concentrated at plate boundaries, but observationally constrained high-resolution models of global mantle flow remain a computational challenge. We capitalized on advances in adaptive mesh refinement algorithms on parallel computers to simulate global mantle flow by incorporating plate motions, with individual plate margins resolved down to a scale of 1 kilometer. Back-arc extension and slab rollback are emergent consequences of slab descent in the upper mantle. Cold thermal anomalies within the lower mantle couple into oceanic plates through narrow high-viscosity slabs, altering the velocity of oceanic plates. Viscous dissipation within the bending lithosphere at trenches amounts to ~5 to 20% of the total dissipation through the entire lithosphere and mantle.
- Publication:
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Science
- Pub Date:
- August 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1191223
- Bibcode:
- 2010Sci...329.1033S
- Keywords:
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- GEOCHEM PHYS