Plate tectonics and mantle controls on plume dynamics

Maëlis Arnould , Nicolas Coltice (1) , Nicolas Flament , Claire Mallard

1 ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris

Mantle plumes provide valuable information about whole Earth convection: they originate at the core-mantle boundary, cross Earth's mantle and interact with the lithosphere. For instance, it has been proposed that the mobility/stability of plumes depends on plume intrinsic properties, on how slabs interact with the basal boundary layer, on mantle flow, or on their proximity to mid-ocean ridges. Here, we use 3D-spherical models of mantle convection generating selfconsistent plate-like behaviour to investigate the mechanisms linking tectonics and mantle convection to plume dynamics. Our models produce fullydynamic mantle plumes that rise vertically with deflection < 10 • and present excess temperatures, rising speeds, buoyancy and heat fluxes comparable to

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

Maëlis Arnould, Nicolas Coltice, Nicolas Flament, Claire Mallard. Plate tectonics and mantle controls on plume dynamics. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2020, 547, pp.116439. ⟨10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116439⟩. ⟨hal-03228588⟩