Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri based on Crameri et al. (2019) is available via the open-access s-Ink repository.
Related reference: Crameri, F., C.P. Conrad, L. Montési, and C.R. Lithgow-Bertelloni (2019), The dynamic life of an oceanic plate, Tectonophysics, 760, 107-135, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2018.03.016
Temporal evolution of a global, fully spherical, 3D model of whole-mantle convection.
Movie showing the temporal evolution of a global, fully spherical, 3D model of whole-mantle convection under a stagnant lid with hot temperature isosurface (red) and stiff viscosity isosurfaces (grey).
Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri and Tackley (2016) is available via the open-access s-Ink repository.
Related reference: Crameri, F., and P. J. Tackley (2016), Subduction initiation from a stagnant lid and global overturn: new insights from numerical models with a free surface, Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 3(1), 1–19, doi:10.1186/s40645-016-0103-8
Temporal evolution of a global, fully spherical, 3D model of whole-mantle convection.
Animation showing the temporal evolution of whole-mantle convection including plate tectonics. The convective turnover of the mantle is characterised by hot rising mantle plumes (indicated by a hot, red temperature isosurface), and cold and stiff subduction zones of heavy tectonic surface plates (indicated by grey viscosity isosurfaces). Like on the Earth, in this model the mantle convects including its surface thermal boundary layer, with subduction zones (i.e., the sinking of cold and heavy oceanic plates) being its main driver. The global, fully spherical, 3D mantle convection model has been run by the code StagYY and represents the actual dynamics in the Earth’s mantle under some assumptions and simplifications.
Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri and Tackley (2016) is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
Related reference: Crameri, F., and P. J. Tackley (2016), Subduction initiation from a stagnant lid and global overturn: new insights from numerical models with a free surface, Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 3(1), 1–19, doi:10.1186/s40645-016-0103-8
Illustrative vertical cross-section showing the oceanic plate as part of whole-mantle convection.
The oceanic plate as part of whole-mantle convection. Illustrative vertical cross-section showing the oceanic plate sinking and destructing on its way down into the deep mantle, whereas hot mantle plumes next to large-low-shear-wave-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) form and rise back to the surface forming the process of mantle convection. Resisting whole mantle overturn are only the continental lithosphere, which is light and strong and therefore resists subduction, and the large-low shear-wave velocity provinces (LLSVP), which are chemically heavy features atop the core-mantle boundary. Somewhat passive features in mantle covection are the centre parts of the mantle (in some locations at around 1’000–2’200 km depth) around which the anomalously hot or cold material circles, sometimes called BEAMS, an abbreviation for “bridgmanite-enriched ancient mantle structures“. Thicknesses of individual layers and structures are not perfectly to scale.
Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri is adjusted from Crameri et al. (2019) is available via the open-access s-Ink repository.
Related reference: Crameri, F., G.E. Shephard, and C.P. Conrad, (2019), Plate Tectonics☆, Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, Elsevier, doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.12393-0
A schematic highlighting Ocean-plate tectonics: ocean-plate formation, cooling and destruction as part of the planet’s global mantle convection.
A schematic highlighting the ocean-plate formation, cooling and destruction as part of the planet’s global mantle convection driven by the temperature gradient between its hot deep interior and the cold surface environment. Ocean-Plate Tectonics is the concept that describes not only the horizontal surface motion of the oceanic plate (grey arrow), but also highlights the pull from its subducted portion as the main driver (green arrow), distinguishes the oceanic plate (dark brown) from its continental counterpart, acknowledges the plate–mantle coupling that induces characteristic regional mantle-flow patterns (black flow lines), and describes the dynamics of the oceanic plate as part of the larger framework of global mantle convection that transports heat out of the interior (light-red arrow) due to the heat gradient between the planetary interior and outer space.
Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri et al. (2019) is available via the open-access s-Ink.org repository.
Related reference: Crameri, F., C.P. Conrad, L. Montési, and C.R. Lithgow-Bertelloni (2019), The dynamic life of an oceanic plate, Tectonophysics, 760, 107-135, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2018.03.016
