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Mantle convection is the very slow creep of Earth's solid silicate mantle as convection currents carry heat from the interior to the planet's surface. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Mantle convection causes tectonic plates to move around the Earth's surface.
This convective flow of the mantle drives the movement of Earth's lithospheric plates; thus, an additional reservoir of heat in the lower mantle is critical for the operation of plate tectonics and one possible source is an enrichment of radioactive elements in the lower mantle. [14] Earth heat transport occurs by conduction, mantle convection ...
Mantle convection is the slow creeping motion of Earth's rocky mantle caused by convection currents carrying heat from the interior of the Earth to the surface. [33] It is one of 3 driving forces that causes tectonic plates to move around the Earth's surface.
First, the mechanism of thermal transport changes from conduction, as within the rigid tectonic plates, to convection, in the portion of Earth's mantle that convects. Despite its solidity, most of Earth's mantle behaves over long time-scales as a fluid, and heat is transported by advection, or material transport.
Simulation of thermal convection in the Earth's mantle. Hot areas are shown in red, cold areas are shown in blue. A hot, less-dense material at the bottom moves upwards, and likewise, cold material from the top moves downwards. Convection (or convective heat transfer) is the transfer of heat from
The thermal catastrophe of the Earth can be demonstrated by solving the above equations for the evolution of the mantle with =. The catastrophe is defined as when the mean mantle temperature T man {\displaystyle T_{\text{man}}} exceeds the mantle solidus so that the entire mantle melts.
The main sources of heat are: primordial heat due to Earth's cooling and radioactivity in the planets upper crust. [14] There is also some contributions from phase transitions . Heat is mostly carried to the surface by thermal convection , although there are two thermal boundary layers – the core–mantle boundary and the lithosphere – in ...
The slab affects the convection and evolution of the Earth's mantle due to the insertion of the hydrous oceanic lithosphere. [3] Dense oceanic lithosphere retreats into the Earth's mantle, while lightweight continental lithospheric material produces active continental margins and volcanic arcs, generating volcanism. [4]