Conceptual illustrations of different styles (regimes) of tectonics and mantle convection, which are relevant for rocky planets.

Conceptual illustration of different styles (regimes) of tectonics and mantle convection, which are relevant for rocky planets. A planet in “stagnant-lid” regime is covered by a single plate, without any plate boundaries and little to no surface motion. Today, this is likely the case for Mars. A planet evolving in a “heat-pipe” regime, such as Jupiter’s moon Io, is characterised by vertical channels through the lithosphere through which magma erupts to the surface in the form of volcanism. In a “mobile lid” style planet, the multiple cold surface plates are continuously in motion, often with differing (usually higher) velocities than the mantle below. Earth’s ocean-plate tectonics is a subcategory of such a mobile-lid regime, marked by narrow plate boundaries at which plates are either created or recycled back into the mantle. The “squishy-lid” regime is characterised by a strong surface plate that is regionally weakened and deformed by intrusive magmatism. Venus is commonly considered to be in a squishy-lid mantle regime.

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