MR012
The Microphysics Of Mantle Flow and Plate Boundary Formation
Session ID#: 161709
Session Description:
Knowing how and why plate tectonics began is critical for understanding Earthâs surface and interior evolution, as well as that of other planets. However, it remains a mystery how forces from the convecting mantle overcome the apparent rheological strength of the lithosphere, and thereby initiate different types of tectonic plate boundaries: rifts, transform faults, and subduction zones. Experimental, theoretical, and modeling studies, as well as observational field data, have generated various hypotheses regarding mechanisms for lithospheric weakening, shear localization, and rheological evolution of plate boundaries both over short (human) and long (planetary) time scales. Microphysical rock deformation processes - including mobility and recovery of crystalline defects, mechanics of faults and fractures, evolution of grain size and the presence of multiple phases or fluids - are of fundamental importance in advancing and testing these hypotheses.
This session invites presentations about the development and application of rock mechanics models emerging from theoretical, experimental, numerical and observational field studies, which further our understanding of formation and evolution of plate tectonics.
Index Terms:
3902 Creep and deformation [MINERAL PHYSICS]
5112 Microstructure [PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF ROCKS]
8120 Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle: general [TECTONOPHYSICS]
8160 Rheology: general [TECTONOPHYSICS]
Primary Convener: Elvira Mulyukova, Northwestern University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Evanston, United States
Conveners: Chhavi Jain, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States and Jennifer Girard, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
The Mechanical Mysteries of Lithospheric Thickness (Invited) (1046604)
Harriet C. P. Lau, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, United States, Benjamin K Holtzman, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY, United States, Christopher Havlin, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States and Guy Paxman, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
Viscoplastic deformation of fault damage zones and its implications for fault stress accumulation. (Invited) (1053667)
Hiroki Sone, University of Wisconsin, Geological Engineering Program, Madison, WI, United States and Mayukh Talukdar, University of Wisconsin Madison, Geological Engineering Program, Madison, WI, United States
Combining electron tomography of dislocations and continuum mechanics to investigate the rheology of olivine (1065106)
Timmo Weidner1, Alexandre Mussi1, Karine Gouriet1 and Patrick Cordier1,2, (1)Université de Lille, UMET, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, (2)Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
Microstructural Evolution of Experimentally Deformed Diabase (1068303)
Katherine Josephine Billings, Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, St. Louis, United States and Philip A Skemer, Washington University in St Louis, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, St. Louis, MO, United States
A Coupled Model for Phase Mixing, Grain Damage and Shear Localization in the Lithosphere: Comparison to Lab Experiments (1123490)
David Bercovici, Yale University, Earth & Planetary Sciences, New Haven, CT, United States, Elvira Mulyukova, Northwestern University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Evanston, United States, Jennifer Girard, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States and Philip A Skemer, Washington University in St Louis, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, St. Louis, MO, United States
The effect of grain size reduction for the origin of the mid-lithosphere discontinuity (1154190)
Mingqi Liu, ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Department of Earth Sciences, Institute of Geophysics, Zurich, Switzerland, Taras Gerya, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, Ling Chen, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS, Beijing, China and James A Connolly, ETH-Zurich, benglen, Switzerland
