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On The Temporal Evolution Of Long-Wavelength Mantle Structure Of The Earth Since The Early Paleozoic, Shijie Zhong, Maxwell L. Rudolph
On The Temporal Evolution Of Long-Wavelength Mantle Structure Of The Earth Since The Early Paleozoic, Shijie Zhong, Maxwell L. Rudolph
Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations
The seismic structure of the Earth’s lower mantle is characterized by a dominantly degree-2 pattern with the African and Pacific large low shear velocity provinces (i.e., LLSVP) that are separated by circum-Pacific seismically fast anomalies. It is important to understand the origin of such a degree-2 mantle structure and its temporal evolution. In this study, we investigated the effects of plate motion history and mantle viscosity on the temporal evolution of the lower mantle structure since the early Paleozoic by formulating 3-D spherical shell models of thermochemical convection. For convection models with realistic mantle viscosity and no initial structure, it …