Do lower mantle slabs contribute in generating the Indian Ocean geoid low?

Abstract

The Indian Ocean geoid low (IOGL) is one of the lowest geoid anomalies on Earth. Several theories have been proposed to explain this geoid low, including past subduction (Nerlich et al., 2016; Rao and Kumar, 2014), subduction coupled with low velocity anomalies in the upper mantle (Spasojevic et al., 2010) and hot, low density anomaly in the upper to mid mantle depths (Reiss et al., 2017; Ghosh et al., 2017). It was also argued by Ghosh et al. (2017) that subducted slabs in the lower mantle have minimal role to play in contributing to this geoid signal. We further investigate that claim here by looking at the geoid contributed from various processes (density vs dynamic topography) as well as by inspecting the contribution from different spherical harmonic degrees. Our current findings substantiate the earlier claim that lower mantle slabs indeed play a minimal role in creating this anomalous geoid low.