Mantle plumes and their role in Earth processes

AAP Koppers, TW Becker, MG Jackson… - Nature Reviews Earth & …, 2021 - nature.com
The existence of mantle plumes was first proposed in the 1970s to explain intra-plate,
hotspot volcanism, yet owing to difficulties in resolving mantle upwellings with geophysical …

Continent-sized anomalous zones with low seismic velocity at the base of Earth's mantle

EJ Garnero, AK McNamara, SH Shim - Nature Geoscience, 2016 - nature.com
Seismic images of Earth's interior reveal two massive anomalous zones at the base of the
mantle, above the core, where seismic waves travel slowly. The mantle materials that …

Deep mantle structure as a reference frame for movements in and on the Earth

TH Torsvik, R van der Voo… - Proceedings of the …, 2014 - National Acad Sciences
Earth's residual geoid is dominated by a degree-2 mode, with elevated regions above large
low shear-wave velocity provinces on the core–mantle boundary beneath Africa and the …

Persistence of strong silica-enriched domains in the Earth's lower mantle

MD Ballmer, C Houser, JW Hernlund… - Nature …, 2017 - nature.com
The composition of the lower mantle—comprising 56% of Earth's volume—remains poorly
constrained. Among the major elements, Mg/Si ratios ranging from∼ 0.9–1.1, such as in …

[HTML][HTML] Density structure of Earth's lowermost mantle from Stoneley mode splitting observations

P Koelemeijer, A Deuss, J Ritsema - Nature Communications, 2017 - nature.com
Advances in our understanding of Earth's thermal evolution and the style of mantle
convection rely on robust seismological constraints on lateral variations of density. The large …

Compositional mantle layering revealed by slab stagnation at~ 1000-km depth

MD Ballmer, NC Schmerr, T Nakagawa, J Ritsema - Science advances, 2015 - science.org
Improved constraints on lower-mantle composition are fundamental to understand the
accretion, differentiation, and thermochemical evolution of our planet. Cosmochemical …

Chemical complexity of hotspots caused by cycling oceanic crust through mantle reservoirs

M Li, AK McNamara, EJ Garnero - Nature Geoscience, 2014 - nature.com
Lavas erupted at ocean island hotspots such as Hawaii have diverse geochemical
signatures. These ocean island basalts are thought to be derived from many sources with …

[HTML][HTML] Core formation, mantle differentiation and core-mantle interaction within Earth and the terrestrial planets

RG Trønnes, MA Baron, KR Eigenmann, MG Guren… - Tectonophysics, 2019 - Elsevier
The terrestrial planets accreted from a diverse suite of solar system materials ranging from
strongly O-deficient materials similar to enstatite chondrites via ordinary chondrite materials …

Deflating the LLSVPs: bundles of mantle thermochemical plumes rather than thick stagnant “piles”

A Davaille, B Romanowicz - Tectonics, 2020 - Wiley Online Library
Based on SEMUCB‐WM1 tomographic model, validated by other recent models, and fluid
mechanics constraints, we show that the large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) …

[HTML][HTML] Melt–crystal density crossover in a deep magma ocean

R Caracas, K Hirose, R Nomura, MD Ballmer - Earth and Planetary Science …, 2019 - Elsevier
The crystallization of a magma ocean (MO) early in Earth's history shaped the entire
evolution of our planet. The buoyancy relations between the forming crystals and the …