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Detailed Reference Information |
Dubuffet, F. and Yuen, D.A. (2000). A thick pipe-like heat-transfer mechanism in the mantle: Nonlinear coupling between 3-D convection and variable thermal conductivity. Geophysical Research Letters 27: doi: 10.1029/1999GL008338. issn: 0094-8276. |
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We have investigated the dynamics and heat-transfer of 3-D mantle convection with a realistic temperature-and pressure-dependent conductivity in a constant viscosity medium. Variable thermal conductivity is found to stabilize greatly the interior flow and the boundary-layer dynamics, as compared to constant conductivity solutions for Rayleigh number up to 5¿105. Due to the nonlinear interaction between variable conductivity and convective flow, a great deal of heat can be transported coherently through the mantle within thick pipe-like structures with a radius of around 500 km. These pipe-like solutions can be understood from the intermediate asymptotic nature of the nonlinear heat diffusion equation. We suggest that these thick plume-like structures in the lower mantle imaged recently by tomography may be a manifestation of this nonlinearity in the conductivity of the temperature equation. ¿ 2000 American Geophysical Union |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Global Change, Solid Earth, History of Geophysics, Tectonophysics, Mathematical Geophysics, Modeling, Mathematical Geophysics, Numerical solutions |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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