Dynamics and evolution of the deep mantle resulting from thermal, chemical, phase and melting effects

Abstract

The core–mantle boundary (CMB) – the interface between the silicate mantle and liquid iron alloy outer core – is the most important boundary inside our planet, with processes occurring in the deep mantle above it playing a major role in the evolution of both the core and the mantle. The last decade has seen an astonishing improvement in our knowledge of this region due to improvements in seismological data and techniques for mapping both large- and small-scale structures, mineral physics discoveries such as post-perovskite and the iron spin transition, and dynamical modelling. The deep mantle is increasingly revealed as a very complex region characterised by large variations in temperature and composition, phase changes, melting (possibly at present and certainly in the past), and anisotropic structures. Here, some fundamentals of the relevant processes and uncertainties are reviewed in the context of long-term Earth evolution and how it has led to the observed present-day structures. Melting has been a dominant process in Earth's evolution. Several processes involving melting, some of which operated soon after Earth's formation and some of which operated throughout its history, have produced dense, iron rich material that has likely sunk to the deepest mantle to be incorporated into a heterogeneous basal mélange (BAM) that is now evident seismically as two large low-velocity regions under African and the Pacific, but was probably much larger in the past. This BAM modulates core heat flux, plume formation and the separation of different slab components, and may contain various trace-element cocktails required to explain geochemical observations. The geographical location of BAM material has, however, probably changed through Earth's history due to the inherent time-dependence of plate tectonics and continental cycles.