A free plate surface and weak oceanic crust produce single‐sided subduction on Earth

Crameri, Fabio; Tackley, P. J.; Meilick, I.; Gerya, Taras; Kaus, Boris

doi:10.1029/2011gl050046

Cited by 167 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…However, this mode of subduction can be excluded on mechanical grounds, as it requires the cool lithosphere of both plates to bend sharply at right angles, while the lithosphere of the oceanic plate bends gradually into the trench with ordinary subduction. Crameri et al [89] confirmed these inferences with numerical calculations.…”

Section: (B) Ancient Subductionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Terrestrial aftermath of the Moon-forming impact

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Zahnle

Lupu

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Much of the Earth's mantle was melted in the Moon-forming impact. Gases that were not partially soluble in the melt, such as water and CO 2 , formed a thick, deep atmosphere surrounding the post-impact Earth. This atmosphere was opaque to thermal radiation, allowing heat to escape to space only at the runaway greenhouse threshold of approximately 100 W m −2 . The duration of this runaway greenhouse stage was limited to approximately 10 Myr by the internal energy and tidal heating, ending with a partially crystalline uppermost mantle and a solid deep mantle. At this point, the crust was able to cool efficiently and solidified at the surface. After the condensation of the water ocean, approximately 100 bar of CO 2 remained in the atmosphere, creating a solar-heated greenhouse, while the surface cooled to approximately 500 K. Almost all this CO 2 had to be sequestered by subduction into the mantle by 3.8 Ga, when the geological record indicates the presence of life and hence a habitable environment. The deep CO 2 sequestration into the mantle could be explained by a rapid subduction of the old oceanic crust, such that the top of the crust would remain cold and retain its CO 2 . Kinematically, these episodes would be required to have both fast subduction (and hence seafloor spreading) and old crust. Hadean oceanic crust that formed from hot mantle would have been thicker than modern crust, and therefore only old crust underlain by cool mantle lithosphere could subduct. Once subduction started, the basaltic crust would turn into dense eclogite, increasing the rate of subduction. The rapid subduction would stop when the young partially frozen crust from the rapidly spreading ridge entered the subduction zone.

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Section: (B) Ancient Subductionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Terrestrial aftermath of the Moon-forming impact

Sleep

Zahnle

Lupu

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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“…To promote one-sided subduction (Crameri et al, 2012b), the top 8 km of the mantle material is a layer of weak crust, which has a lower yield strength as described above. The material accommodates the plastic deformation of the bending plate (Capitanio et al, 2009).…”

Section: The Surfacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Models produce a diverse set of mantle convection styles (Solomatov and Moresi, 1997;Crameri et al, 2012b;Gerya et al, 2008;O'Neill, 2012;Lenardic and Crowley, 2012;O'Rourke and Korenaga, 2012), including stagnant lid, twosided downwellings, and one-sided subduction. Our geodynamic models use the rheological laws of viscoplastic, temperature-dependent material to provide a laboratory for examining subduction systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The subduction dichotomy of strong plates and weak slabs

2017

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Abstract. A key element of plate tectonics on Earth is that the lithosphere is subducting into the mantle. Subduction results from forces that bend and pull the lithosphere into the interior of the Earth. Once subducted, lithospheric slabs are further modified by dynamic forces in the mantle, and their sinking is inhibited by the increase in viscosity of the lower mantle. These forces are resisted by the material strength of the lithosphere. Using geodynamic models, we investigate several subduction models, wherein we control material strength by setting a maximum viscosity for the surface plates and the subducted slabs independently. We find that models characterized by a dichotomy of lithosphere strengths produce a spectrum of results that are comparable to interpretations of observations of subduction on Earth. These models have strong lithospheric plates at the surface, which promotes Earth-like single-sided subduction. At the same time, these models have weakened lithospheric subducted slabs which can more easily bend to either lie flat or fold into a slab pile atop the lower mantle, reproducing the spectrum of slab morphologies that have been interpreted from images of seismic tomography.

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“…Mantle convection is propelled by both bottom-up and top-down, T-induced density instabilities, i.e., hot, buoyant, plume-driven mantle overturn, and cold, dense, sinking lithospheric slabs, respectively (Davies 1999;Anderson 2001;Maruyama et al 2007;Crameri et al 2012). The existence of deep-seated, elevated temperatures and surficial platelets in the Hadean Earth suggest that times of widespread, vigorous overturn and plume ascent from the base of high-T mantle realms mainly powered convection (Lambert 1981;Davies 1993;Condie 1994Condie , 2005Sleep 2007).…”

Section: Terrestrial Heat Content and Mantle Circulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate-tectonic evolution of the Earth: bottom-up and top-down mantle circulation

2016

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Abstract:Intense devolatilization and chemical-density differentiation attended accretion of planetesimals on the primordial Earth. These processes gradually abated after cooling and solidification of an early magma ocean. By 4.3 or 4.2 Ga, water oceans were present, so surface temperatures had fallen far below low-pressure solidi of dry peridotite, basalt, and granite, ϳ1300, ϳ1120, and ϳ950°C, respectively. At less than half their T solidi, rocky materials existed as thin lithospheric slabs in the near-surface Hadean Earth. Stagnant-lid convection may have occurred initially but was at least episodically overwhelmed by subduction because effective, massive heat transfer necessitated vigorous mantle overturn in the early, hot planet. Bottom-up mantle convection, including voluminous plume ascent, efficiently rid the Earth of deep-seated heat. It declined over time as cooling and top-down lithospheric sinking increased. Thickening and both lateral extensional + contractional deformation typified the post-Hadean lithosphere. Stages of geologic evolution included (i) 4.5-4.4 Ga, magma ocean overturn involved ephemeral, surficial rocky platelets; (ii) 4.4-2.7 Ga, formation of oceanic and small continental plates were obliterated by return mantle flow prior to ϳ4.0 Ga; continental material gradually accumulated as largely sub-sea, sialic crust-capped lithospheric collages; (iii) 2.7-1.0 Ga, progressive suturing of old shields + younger orogenic belts led to cratonal plates typified by emerging continental freeboard, increasing sedimentary differentiation, and episodic glaciation during transpolar drift; onset of temporally limited stagnant-lid mantle convection occurred beneath enlarging supercontinents; (iv) 1.0 Ga-present, laminar-flowing asthenospheric cells are now capped by giant, stately moving plates. Near-restriction of komatiitic lavas to the Archean, and appearance of multicycle sediments, ophiolite complexes ± alkaline igneous rocks, and high-pressure-ultrahigh-pressure (HP-UHP) metamorphic belts in progressively younger Proterozoic and Phanerozoic orogens reflect increasing negative buoyancy of cool oceanic lithosphere, but decreasing subductability of enlarging, more buoyant continental plates. Attending supercontinental assembly, density instabilities of thickening oceanic plates began to control overturn of suboceanic mantle as cold, top-down convection. Over time, the scales and dynamics of hot asthenospheric upwelling versus lithospheric foundering + mantle return flow (bottom-up plume-driven ascent versus top-down plate subduction) evolved gradually, reflecting planetary cooling. These evolving plate-tectonic processes have accompanied the Earth's thermal history since ϳ4.4 Ga.Résumé : Un intense dégagement de matières volatiles et une différentiation selon la densité chimique faisait partie de l'accrétion de planétésimaux à la Terre primordiale. Ces processus ont grandement diminué après le refroidissement et la solidification d'un océan primitif de magma. Vers 4,3 ou 4,2 Ga, il existait des océan...

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A free plate surface and weak oceanic crust produce single‐sided subduction on Earth

Cited by 167 publications

References 43 publications

Terrestrial aftermath of the Moon-forming impact

Terrestrial aftermath of the Moon-forming impact

The subduction dichotomy of strong plates and weak slabs

Plate-tectonic evolution of the Earth: bottom-up and top-down mantle circulation

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