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A case for mantle plumes

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

The existence of at least several plumes in the Earth’s mantle can be inferred with few assumptions from wellestablished observations. As well, thermal mantle plumes can be predicted from wellestablished and quantified fluid dynamics and a plausible assumption about the Earth’s early thermal state. Some additional important observations, especially of flood basalts and rift-related magmatism, have been shown to be plausibly consistent with the physical theory. Recent claims to have detected plumes using seismic tomography may comprise the most direct evidence for plumes, but plume tails are likely to be difficult to resolve definitively and the claims need to be well tested. Although significant questions remain about its viability, the plume hypothesis thus seems to be well worth continued investigation. Nevertheless there are many non-plate-related magmatic phenomena whose association with plumes is unclear or unlikely. Compositional buoyancy has recently been shown potentially to substantially complicate the dynamics of plumes, and this may lead to explanations for a wider range of phenomena, including “headless” hotspot tracks, than purely thermal plumes.

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  1. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, ACT 0200, Canberra, Australia

    Geoffrey F. Davies

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Davies, G.F. A case for mantle plumes. Chin.Sci.Bull. 50, 1541–1554 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1360/982005-918

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