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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.
The figure is a schematic diagram depicting a subduction zone. The subduction slab on the right enters the mantle with a varying temperature gradient while importing water in a downward motion. A model of the subducting Farallon slab under North America. In geology, the slab is a significant constituent of subduction zones. [1]
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.
At a subduction zone the relatively cold, dense oceanic crust sinks down into the mantle, forming the downward convecting limb of a mantle cell, which is the strongest driver of plate motion. The relative importance and interaction of other proposed factors such as active convection, upwelling inside the mantle, and tidal drag of the Moon is ...
The volcanism often attributed to deep mantle plumes is alternatively explained by passive extension of the crust, permitting magma to leak to the surface: the plate hypothesis. [24] The convection of the Earth's mantle is a chaotic process (in the sense of fluid dynamics), which is
The pressure at the bottom of the mantle is ≈140 GPa (1.4 Matm). [24] The mantle is composed of silicate rocks richer in iron and magnesium than the overlying crust. [25] Although solid, the mantle's extremely hot silicate material can flow over very long timescales. [26] Convection of the mantle propels the motion of the tectonic plates in the
Forced convection: when a fluid is forced to flow over the surface by an internal source such as fans, by stirring, and pumps, creating an artificially induced convection current. [ 3 ] In many real-life applications (e.g. heat losses at solar central receivers or cooling of photovoltaic panels), natural and forced convection occur at the same ...
The mantle controls the rate at which heat is extracted from the core. Heat sources include gravitational energy released by the compression of the core, gravitational energy released by the rejection of light elements (probably sulfur , oxygen , or silicon ) at the inner core boundary as it grows, latent heat of crystallization at the inner ...