Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published September 10, 1993 | public
Journal Article

Comparisons Between Seismic Earth Structures and Mantle Flow Models Based on Radial Correlation Functions

Abstract

Three-dimensional numerical simulations were conducted of mantle convection in which flow through the transition zone is impeded by either a strong chemical change or an endothermic phase change. The temperature fields obtained from these models display a well-defined minimum in the vertical correlation length at or near the radius where the barrier is imposed, even when the fields were filtered to low angular and radial resolutions. However, evidence for such a feature is lacking in the shear-velocity models derived by seismic tomography. This comparison suggests that any stratification induced by phase or chemical changes across the mid-mantle transition zone has a relatively small effect on the large-scale circulation of mantle material.

Additional Information

© 1993 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 6 May 1993; Accepted 8 July 1993. We thank A. Dziewonski, W.-J. Su, and R. Woodward for their unpublished Earth models and resolution analysis; G. Masters, H. Bolton, and P. Shearer for their unpublished Earth model; and B. Hager for helpful discussions. Supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and by the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 19, 2023