Critical factors for plate tectonics on rocky planets

Abstract

<p>Convective mantle flow of terrestrial planets is governed by a temperature- and pressure-dependent rheology. This results in a stagnant-lid regime observed on most terrestrial planets. Plastic deformation can lead to breaking of the strong upper lithosphere, which resembles plate tectonics on Earth.</p> <p>Most efforts to model mantle convection with self-consistent plate tectonics combine Newtonian power-law with a stress-dependent pseudo-plastic rheology.<br />In the uppermost mantle, where stresses are high, deformation is thought to be driven partly by dislocation creep. This is often neglected in viscoplastic consideration, which employ purely diffusion-creep-driven flow combined with a yield criterion.</p> <p>In our models we employ an effective viscosity law combining both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian power laws with a pseudo-plastic model. We study the influence of rheology in combination with grain size and different yield stress parameterizations on the likelihood of the on-set of plate tectonics in a 2D-spherical annulus geometry. We compute common diagnostic values related to the characterization of a mobilized surface. With this model we aim at identifying key planetary factors for the occurrence or absence of plate tectonics. </p>