Interaction of Rising and Sinking Mantle Plumes

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Read Full Article Cited by GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 28, NO. 3, PAGES 455–458, 2001 Interaction of Rising and Sinking Mantle Plumes Nathanaël Schaeffer Departement des Sciences de la Matière, École Normale Supérieure, Lyon Michael Manga Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon Abstract The frequency of plume formation in fully-developed thermal convection is determined experimentally. Because the fluid has a temperature-dependent viscosity, the cold and hot thermal boundary layers have different thicknesses and viscosities. As a result, plumes are released from these layers with different frequencies. There also appears to be a direct temporal interaction between the cold and hot boundary layers. In particular, whereas there is a single frequency for cold plume formation, hot plumes form with multiple frequencies, one of which is similar to the frequency of cold plumes. The measurements thus suggest that cold sinking “plumes” may induce hot rising plumes. Received 15 August 2000; accepted 16 November 2000. Read Full Article Cited by Citation: Schaeffer, N., and M. Manga (2001), Interaction of Rising and Sinking Mantle Plumes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(3), 455–458. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.