HR: 09:20h
AN: T41H-06    [Abstracts]
TI: The Surface Heat Flow Constraint Upon Mantle Convection and Earth Evolution
AU: * Peltier, R W
EM: peltier@atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca
AF: University of Toronto, Department of Physics, Toronto, ONT M5S 1A7 Canada
AU: Butler, S L
EM: sam.butler@usask.ca
AF: University of Saskatchewan, Department of Geological Sciences, Saskatoon, SAS S7N 5E2 Canada
AB: Although the primary impact of the mantle convection process, apart from its role as prime mover of surface plate tectonics, is through the control it exerts upon the rate of radial heat transport, little or no use is normally made of the constraint upon convection models provided by surface heat flow measurements. In this paper we will both review and extend a range of recent analyses in which observed surface heat flow has been employed as a target in the modelling process. The models that have been employed in this way include those based upon seismic tomographic imaging of mantle lateral heterogeneity, a priori models of convective mixing based upon direct solution of the governing field equations, and finally models of the thermal evolution of the Earth in which the convection process is "parameterized". As we will discuss, the constraint upon such models that is provided by the spherically averaged mantle derived contribution to the surface heat flow is both non-trivial and extremely useful. Additional important information is also provided by the observed age dependence of this field as is well known.
DE: 8121 Dynamics, convection currents and mantle plumes
DE: 8124 Earth's interior--composition and state (old 8105)
DE: 8125 Evolution of the Earth
DE: 8130 Heat generation and transport
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting