Publication Date:
2003-12-06
Description:
We present tomographic evidence for the existence of deep-mantle thermal convection plumes. P-wave velocity images show at least six well-resolved plumes that extend into the lowermost mantle: Ascension, Azores, Canary, Easter, Samoa, and Tahiti. Other less well-resolved plumes, including Hawaii, may also reach the lowermost mantle. We also see several plumes that are mostly confined to the upper mantle, suggesting that convection may be partially separated into two depth regimes. All of the observed plumes have diameters of several hundred kilometers, indicating that plumes convey a substantial fraction of the internal heat escaping from Earth.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Montelli, Raffaella -- Nolet, Guust -- Dahlen, F A -- Masters, Guy -- Engdahl, E Robert -- Hung, Shu-Huei -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Jan 16;303(5656):338-43. Epub 2003 Dec 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. montelli@princeton.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14657505" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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