Title: Cooling the earth by whole mantle subsolidus convection: A constraint on the viscosity of the lower mantle
Abstract: Numerical calculations of the earth's internal temperature which include cooling of the entire mantle by subsolidus convection, yield temperatures at the core—mantle interface which are smaller than the melting temperature of pure iron when the viscosity of the lower mantle is less than 1024 cm2/sec. Thus, subject to the assumptions of the model,in particular that the earth's heat is largely produced by radiogenic sources uniformly distributed throughout the mantle, 1024 cm2/sec is a lower bound to the kinematic viscosity of the deep mantle. Whole mantle convection can occur for viscosities less than ~2 · 1027 cm2/sec.
Publication Year: 1976
Publication Date: 1976-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 28
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