References

SED

Solid Earth Discussions

SED

1869-9537

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/sed-3-713-2011

Influence of the Ringwoodite-Perovskite transition on mantle convection in spherical geometry as a function of Clapeyron slope and Rayleigh number

Wolstencroft

¹ ² Davies

J. H.

School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3AT, UK

now at: University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

04 08 2011

3 2 713 741

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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We investigate the influence on mantle convection of the negative Clapeyron slope ringwoodite to perovskite and ferro-periclase mantle phase transition, which is correlated with the seismic discontinuity at 660 km depth. In particular, we focus on understanding the influence of the magnitude of the Clapeyron slope (as measured by the Phase Buoyancy parameter, P) and the vigour of convection (as measured by the Rayleigh number, Ra) on mantle convection. We have undertaken 76 simulations of isoviscous mantle convection in spherical geometry varying Ra and P. Three domains of behaviour were found: layered convection for high Ra and more negative P, whole mantle convection for low Ra and less negative P and transitional behaviour in an intervening domain. The boundary between the layered and transitional domain was fit by a curve P = αRaβ where α = −1.05, and β = −0.1, and the fit for the boundary between the transitional and whole mantle convection domain was α = −4.8, and β = −0.25. These two curves converge at Ra≈2.5×104 and P≈−0.38. Extrapolating to high Ra, which is likely earlier in Earth history, this work suggests a large transitional domain. It is therefore likely that convection in the Archean would have been influenced by this phase change, with Earth being at least in the transitional domain, if not the layered domain.

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