Numerical model of the supercontinental cycle stages: Integral transfer of the oceanic crust material and mantle viscous shear stresses |
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| Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">A?M?BobrovEmail author A?P?Trubitsyn |
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| Institution: | (1) Institute of the Physics of the Earth, Russian Acad. Sci., Bolshaya Gruzinskaya 10, 123995 Moscow, Russia |
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| Abstract: | We compute the transfer of oceanic lithosphere material from the surface of the model to the inner convective mantle at successive
stages of the supercontinental cycle, in the time interval from the beginning of convergence of the continents to their complete
dispersal. The sequence of stages of a supercontinental cycle (Wilson cycle) is calculated with a two-dimensional numerical
model of assembling and dispersing continents driven by mantle flows; in turn, the flows themselves are forming under thermal
and mechanical influence of continents. We obtain that during the time of the order of 300 Myr the complete stirring of oceanic
lithosphere through whole mantle does not occur. This agrees with current ideas on the circulation of oceanic crust material.
Former oceanic crust material appears again at the Earth’s surface in the areas of mantle upstreams.
The numerical simulation demonstrates that the supercontinental cycle is a factor which intensifies stirring of the material,
especially in the region beneath the supercontinent. The reasons are a recurring formation of plumes in that region as well
as a global restructuring of mantle flow pattern due to the process of joining and separation of continents.
The computations of viscous shear stresses are also carried out in the mantle as a function of spatial coordinates and time.
With a simplified model of uniform mantle viscosity, the numerical experiment shows that the typical maximal shear stresses
in the major portion of the mantle measure about 5 MPa (50 bar). The typical maximal shear stresses located in the uppermost
part of mantle downgoing streams (in a zone that measures roughly 200 × 200 km) are approximately 8 times greater and equal
to 40 MPa (400 bar). |
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| Keywords: | supercontinental cycle mass transfer shear stresses numerical experiment |
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