The role of the heating mode of the mantle in intermittent reorganization of the plate velocity field

ABSTRACT

The geological record indicates that stages of relatively steady plate motion have been punctuated by comparatively brief periods in which plate velocities have reorganized. The distribution of buoyancy sources in the mantle has generally been regarded as evolving too slowly to explain these rapid transitions in plate velocity. We investigate the feedback between mantle convection and plate velocity using 2-D and 3-D mantle convection models that incorporate mobile dynamic plates. We focus on the influence of internal heating in the mantle and consider the effect of mantle viscosity stratification and different plate geometries on the plate velocity time dependence. As either the Rayleigh number or the internal heating rate is increased to magnitudes approaching mantle values, the record of the plate motion from our calculations becomes characterized by intermittent changes in direction. This behaviour is a result of the influence of plates on heat loss from the inherently unsteady, internally heated convecting system. Plate motion instills a pattern of organization on the underlying convection that reflects the plate geometry and results in the formation of sheet-like downwelling structures at convergent plate boundaries in both 2-D and 3-D calculations (in contrast, upwellings in 3-D models are not sheet-like). The role of the sheet-like downwellings is critical in the observed episodic reorganization of the plate velocities. Warm material below the plates is entrained by plate motion into regions enveloping the downwelling sheets. During periods of fairly steady plate motion, buoyancy associated with the build-up of heat around the downwelling sheets leads to the creation of an unstable convection pattern. This build-up of heat is dramatic in calculations with mantle-like internal heating rates and resists continued long-term plate motion towards mature downwellings. When there are limitations on the degree of freedom of the direction of plate movement, such as in 2-D models, these effects become even more pronounced. Accordingly, the effect of plates on mean global thermal quantities is more dramatic in 2-D calculations than it is in 3-D calculations. Nevertheless, 3-D calculations incorporating plates of different sizes do exhibit rapid reorganizations in their convection patterns as the pull of young slab-like features supersedes the pull of mature downwelling sheets. We compare the timing and frequency of the reorganization events in our calculations with the general characteristics of plate motions determined from plate reconstruction studies.