Enjoy the journey through Earth's dynamic interior!
Photo courtsey: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/core/
This video shows how Sagduction dynamics work with a dense lower crust. This dynamics is relevant for early Earth tectonics when subduction is not so dominant. The model domain starts from surface to 660 km and geometry is 2D cartesian. Yellow and green lines are contours of compositional fractions of lower crust and mantle lithosphere respectively. The mantle convection code ASPECT and visualization code Paraview are used here.
Time's measured in Ma. This video reveals how a slab (the magenta part) stimulates plume generation from two thermo-chemical piles (in yellow). The model geometry is 3D cartesian with depth starting from surface to the core-mantle boundary. For a cooler experience, go fullscreen!
This video shows how cold slabs (in blue) impinge to the
core-mantle boundary, pushes the bottom 100 km
thermo-chemical layer, resulting the generation of
upwellings/mantle plumes. The top of the bottom 100 km
layer is shown by yellow colour. The model is running
forward beginning from 250 millions of years back
to present day. The geometry of the model domain is 2D annulus.
Time's measured in Ma. This video reveals how a viscous vertical slab penetrates to the lower mantle, pushes the bottom thermal boundary layer (TBL) and generates plumes. The right side plume is thermo-chemical as it forms at the edges of a chemical pile (shown by a box at the bottom right area of the model domain), whereas the left plume is thermal as it generates from the bottom TBL. The model geometry is 2D cartesian with depth starting from surface to the core-mantle boundary (2900 km) along Y axis and the lateral extent is 8700 km along X axis.