MANTLE CONVECTION WITH INTERNAL HEATING AND PRESSURE-DEPENDENT THERMAL EXPANSIVITY

Recent laboratory work [1] suggests that the thermal expansivity alpha of the mantle decreases strongly with pressure. alpha determines the buoyancy of plumes and the rate at which plumes lose their thermal signature as they rise, and so may be expected to have a strong influence on the temperature and velocity structure of the mantle. Numerical simulations were conducted on convection in an internally heated, compressible mantle including constant and pressure-dependent alpha and thermal conductivity k. They show that a pressure-dependent alpha allows the existence of thermal plumes rising from the core-mantle boundary (CMB), however the plumes are weak and dissipate higher in the mantle.