Models of convection-driven tectonic plates: a comparison of methods and results

doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.1992.tb00111.x

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Wiley InterScience

Geophysical Journal International

Volume 109 Issue 3, Pages 481 - 487

Published Online: 2 Apr 2007

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Models of convection-driven tectonic plates: a comparison of methods and results

Scott D. King* ¹ Carl W. Gable ² Stuart A. Weinstein† ³

¹ IGPP, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA ² IGPP, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ³ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

*Now at: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.

†Now at: Department of Geological Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. MI 48109. USA.

KEYWORDS

convection • Earth's mantle • plate tectonics

ABSTRACT

Recent numerical studies of convection in the Earth's mantle have included various features of plate tectonics. A number of different methods for modelling 'plate-like' behaviour have been used. The differences in the methods of modelling plates may assume or predict significantly different plate deformation. We describe three methods of modelling plates through: material properties, force balance, and a thin power-law sheet approximation. We compare the results obtained using each method on a series of simple calculations. From these results we are able to develop scaling relations between the different parametrizations. While each method produces different degrees of deformation within the surface plate, the surface heat flux and average plate velocity agree to within a few per cent. The main results are not dependent upon the plate modelling method and therefore are representative of the physical system we set out to model.

Accepted 1991 November 8. Received 1991 November 6; in original form 1991 June 28

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1365-246X.1992.tb00111.x About DOI