Continental growth and volatile exchange during Earth's evolution

We investigate the thermal and degassing history of the Earth with the help of a parameterized mantle convection model including the volatile exchange between mantle and surface reservoirs. The weakening of mantle silicates by dissolved volatiles is described by a functional relationship between creep rate and water fugacity. We use flow law parameters of diffusion creep in olivine under dry and wet conditions. The mantle degassing rate is considered as directly proportional to the seafloor spreading rate, which is also dependent on the mantle heat flow and the continental area. To calculate the spreading rate, we assume three different continental growth models: constant growth, delayed growth, and the one proposed by Reymer and Schubert (1984, Tectonics, 3: 63-77). The rate of regassing also depends on the seafloor spreading rate, as well as on other factors. Both mechanisms (degassing and regassing) are coupled self-consistently with the help of a parameterized convection model under implementation of a temperature and volatile-content dependent mantle viscosity. We calculate time series for the Earth's evolution over 4.6 Gyr for the average mantle temperature, the mantle heat flow, the mantle viscosity, the Rayleigh number, the Urey ratio, the volatile loss, and the seafloor spreading rate. In those numerical simulations with continental growth from the beginning and a high initial average mantle temperature water is outgassed rapidly. In the delayed continental growth model there is a very early outgassing event and the delayed continental growth has no remarkable influence on the thermal and outgassing history. A similar situation is found for the linear continental growth model but not for the Reymer and Schubert (1984) model. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.