HR: 13:40h
AN: U33B-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Sublithospheric small-scale convection and its role in global mantle dynamics and evolution
AU: * Solomatov, V S
EM: slava@levee.wustl.edu
AF: Washington University, Campus Box 1169, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130 United States
AB: Sublithospheric small-scale convection is an important part of global mantle dynamics. It was proposed as an explanation for the bathimetry, the heat flux and the gravity anomalies in the oceanic region. It was also proposed to occur in the continental region. Sublithospheric small-scale convection could be a major convective mode on other terrestrial planets where plate tectonics is absent. I will discuss fluid dynamical constraints on small-scale convection, including the heat flux and temperature variations, the lithospheric stresses, and the length scales associated with small-scale convection. I will also discuss the possible role of small-scale convection in the origin of plate tectonics and in the secular cooling of the Earth.
DE: 8120 Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle--general
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: Union [U]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting