Non‐hotspot volcano chains originating from small‐scale sublithospheric convection

Ballmer, Maxim D.; Hunen, Jeroen van; Ito, Garrett; Tackley, P. J.; Bianco, T. A.

doi:10.1029/2007gl031636

Cited by 106 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The composition function C is advected through a particle tracking technique (Ballmer et al, 2007;Di Giuseppe et al, 2008), in which tracers move with the flow velocity and give the compositional information to discriminate the buoyant continental crust from the lithospheric and mantle material. The initial tracer distribution is random with a minimum density of 40 tracers per element.…”

Section: Numerical Methods and Governing Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical models of slab migration in continental collision zones

et al. 2012

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Abstract.Continental collision is an intrinsic feature of plate tectonics. The closure of an oceanic basin leads to the onset of subduction of buoyant continental material, which slows down and eventually stops the subduction process. In natural cases, evidence of advancing margins has been recognized in continental collision zones such as India-Eurasia and Arabia-Eurasia. We perform a parametric study of the geometrical and rheological influence on subduction dynamics during the subduction of continental lithosphere. In our 2-D numerical models of a free subduction system with temperature and stress-dependent rheology, the trench and the overriding plate move self-consistently as a function of the dynamics of the system (i.e. no external forces are imposed). This setup enables to study how continental subduction influences the trench migration. We found that in all models the slab starts to advance once the continent enters the subduction zone and continues to migrate until few million years after the ultimate slab detachment. Our results support the idea that the advancing mode is favoured and, in part, provided by the intrinsic force balance of continental collision. We suggest that the advance is first induced by the locking of the subduction zone and the subsequent steepening of the slab, and next by the sinking of the deepest oceanic part of the slab, during stretching and break-off of the slab. These processes are responsible for the migration of the subduction zone by triggering small-scale convection cells in the mantle that, in turn, drag the plates. The amount of advance ranges from 40 to 220 km and depends on the dip angle of the slab before the onset of collision.

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Section: Numerical Methods and Governing Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical models of slab migration in continental collision zones

et al. 2012

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“…Eq. (4) is solved by a particle-tracking technique (Ballmer et al, 2007), in which the tracers, that carry the information about density and rheology, are advected with the velocity field from Eq. (1) and (2).…”

Section: Governing Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Craton stability and longevity: The roles of composition-dependent rheology and buoyancy

Wang

Hunen

Pearson

et al. 2014

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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. (2014) 'Craton stability and longevity : the roles of composition-dependent rheology and buoyancy.', Earth and planetary science letters., 391 . pp. 224-233.Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.epsl.2014.01.038 Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A denitive version was subsequently published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 391, 2014Letters, 391, , 10.1016Letters, 391, /j.epsl.2014 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract:Survival of thick cratonic roots in a vigorously convecting mantle system for billions of years has long been studied by the geodynamical community. High strength of the cratonic root is generally considered to be the most important factor, but the role of lithospheric mantle depletion and dehydration in this strengthening is still debated. Geodynamical models often argue for a significant strength or buoyancy contrast between cratonic and non-cratonic mantle lithosphere, induced by mantle depletion and dehydration. But recent laboratory experiments argue for only a modest effect of dehydration strengthening. Can we reconcile laboratory experiments and geodynamical models?We perform and discuss new numerical models to investigate craton stability and longevity with different composition-dependent rheology and buoyancy. Our results show that highly viscous and possibly buoyant cratonic root is essential to stabilise a geometry in which thick cratonic lithosphere and thinner non-cratonic lithosphere coexist for billions of years. Using nonNewtonian rheology, a modest strengthening factor of Δη=3 can protect compositionally buoyant cratonic roots from erosion by mantle convection for over billions of years. A larger strengthening factor (Δη=10) can maintain long term craton stability even with little or no intrinsic buoyancy. Such composition-dependent rheology is comparable to the laboratory experiments. This implies that a strict isopycnic state of cratonic lithosphere may not be necessary for the preservation of a cratonic root, provided a sufficient level of compositional strengthening is present.

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“…While all these factors are intimately related, their influence on the generation of SSC and the evolution of OL have never been systematically explored with thermomechanical models. A relevant exception is the recent 3D numerical study of Ballmer et al [2007], who included compositional effects on the density calculation to study intraplate volcanism in OL. Yet, rheological stratifications due to melt extraction and the expression of SSC on geophysical observables were not explicitly considered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of compositional and rheological stratifications on small‐scale convection under the oceans: Implications for the thickness of oceanic lithosphere and seafloor flattening

Afonso¹,

Zlotnik²,

Fernàndez³

2008

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] Pressure-release melting at mid-ocean ridges generate compositional and rheological layering in the oceanic mantle that may control the evolution of the oceanic lithosphere. We use dynamic models coupled with melting and petrological models to explore 1) the influence of this layering on the development of small-scale convection under the oceans, 2) its role in determining the thickness of oceanic lithosphere, and 3) its feasibility as responsible for the deviations of seafloor and surface heat flow from predictions by conductive models in mature oceanic lithosphere. Here we show that the existence of smallscale convection is entirely compatible with experimental creep parameters and flow laws, and that the viscosity stratification due to melt extraction (i.e., H 2 O removal) is the main factor controlling the plate's thermal evolution, its asymptotic thickness, and the flattening of seafloor and surface heat flow at ages^70 Ma. The effects of Al-rich phase transitions and compositional layering are minor.

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Non‐hotspot volcano chains originating from small‐scale sublithospheric convection

Cited by 106 publications

References 37 publications

Numerical models of slab migration in continental collision zones

Numerical models of slab migration in continental collision zones

Craton stability and longevity: The roles of composition-dependent rheology and buoyancy

Effects of compositional and rheological stratifications on small‐scale convection under the oceans: Implications for the thickness of oceanic lithosphere and seafloor flattening

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