The effects of bathymetry on the long-term carbon cycle and CCD.

The shape of the ocean floor (bathymetry) and the overlaying sediments provide the largest carbon sink throughout Earth's history, supporting ~one to two orders of magnitude more carbon storage than the oceans and atmosphere combined. While accumulation and erosion of these sediments are bathymetry dependent (e.g., due to pressure, temperature, salinity, ion concentration, and available productivity), no systemic study has quantified how global and basin scale bathymetry, controlled by the evolution of tectonics and mantle convection, affects the long-term carbon cycle. We reconstruct bathymetry spanning the last 80 Myr to describe steady-state changes in ocean chemistry within the Earth system model LOSCAR. We find that both bathymetry reconstructions and representative synthetic tests show that ocean alkalinity, calcite saturation state, and the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) are strongly dependent on changes in shallow bathymetry (ocean floor ≤600 m) and on the distribution of the deep marine regions (>1,000 m). Limiting Cenozoic evolution to bathymetry alone leads to predicted CCD variations spanning 500 m, 33 to 50% of the total observed variations in the paleoproxy records. Our results suggest that neglecting bathymetric changes leads to significant misattribution to uncertain carbon cycle parameters (e.g., atmospheric CO2 and water column temperature) and processes (e.g., biological pump efficiency and silicate-carbonate riverine flux). To illustrate this point, we use our updated bathymetry for an Early Paleogene C cycle case study. We obtain carbonate riverine flux estimates that suggest a reversal of the weathering trend with respect to present-day, contrasting with previous studies, but consistent with proxy records and tectonic reconstructions.

On the relative temperatures of Earth's volcanic hotspots and mid-ocean ridges.

Volcanic hotspots are thought to be fed by hot, active upwellings from the deep mantle, with excess temperatures (Tex) ~100° to 300°C higher than those of mid-ocean ridges. However, Tex estimates are limited in geographical coverage and often inconsistent for individual hotspots. We infer the temperature of oceanic hotspots and ridges simultaneously by converting seismic velocity to temperature. We show that while ~45% of plume-fed hotspots are hot (Tex ≥ 155°C), ~15% are cold (Tex ≤ 36°C) and ~40% are not hot enough to actively upwell (50°C ≤ Tex ≤ 136°C). Hot hotspots have an extremely high helium-3/helium-4 ratio and buoyancy flux, but cold hotspots do not. The latter may originate at upper mantle depths. Alternatively, the deep plumes that feed them may be entrained and cooled by small-scale convection.

Oceanic plateau of the Hawaiian mantle plume head subducted to the uppermost lower mantle.

The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain that includes the Hawaiian volcanoes was created by the Hawaiian mantle plume. Although the mantle plume hypothesis predicts an oceanic plateau produced by massive decompression melting during the initiation stage of the Hawaiian hot spot, the fate of this plateau is unclear. We discovered a megameter-scale portion of thickened oceanic crust in the uppermost lower mantle west of the Sea of Okhotsk by stacking seismic waveforms of SS precursors. We propose that this thick crust represents a major part of the oceanic plateau that was created by the Hawaiian plume head ~100 million years ago and subducted 20 million to 30 million years ago. Our discovery provides temporal and spatial clues of the early history of the Hawaiian plume for future plate reconstructions.

Extrinsic Elastic Anisotropy in a Compositionally Heterogeneous Earth's Mantle.

Several theoretical studies indicate that a substantial fraction of the measured seismic anisotropy could be interpreted as extrinsic anisotropy associated with compositional layering in rocks, reducing the significance of strain-induced intrinsic anisotropy. Here we quantify the potential contribution of grain-scale and rock-scale compositional anisotropy to the observations by (i) combining effective medium theories with realistic estimates of mineral isotropic elastic properties and (ii) measuring velocities of synthetic seismic waves propagating through modeled strain-induced microstructures. It is shown that for typical mantle and oceanic crust subsolidus compositions, rock-scale compositional layering does not generate any substantial extrinsic anisotropy (<1%) because of the limited contrast in isotropic elastic moduli among different rocks. Quasi-laminated structures observed in subducting slabs using P and S wave scattering are often invoked as a source of extrinsic anisotropy, but our calculations show that they only generate minor seismic anisotropy (<0.1-0.2% of Vp and Vs radial anisotropy). More generally, rock-scale compositional layering, when present, cannot be detected with seismic anisotropy studies but mainly with wave scattering. In contrast, when grain-scale layering is present, significant extrinsic anisotropy could exist in vertically limited levels of the mantle such as in a mid-ocean ridge basalt-rich lower transition zone or in the uppermost lower mantle where foliated basalts and pyrolites display up to 2-3% Vp and 3-6% Vs radial anisotropy. Thus, seismic anisotropy observed around the 660-km discontinuity could be possibly related to grain-scale shape-preferred orientation. Extrinsic anisotropy can form also in a compositionally homogeneous mantle, where velocity variations associated with major phase transitions can generate up to 1% of positive radial anisotropy.

Viscosity jump in Earth's mid-mantle.

The viscosity structure of Earth's deep mantle affects the thermal evolution of Earth, the ascent of mantle plumes, settling of subducted oceanic lithosphere, and the mixing of compositional heterogeneities in the mantle. Based on a reanalysis of the long-wavelength nonhydrostatic geoid, we infer viscous layering of the mantle using a method that allows us to avoid a priori assumptions about its variation with depth. We detect an increase in viscosity at 800- to 1200-kilometers depth, far greater than the depth of the mineral phase transformations that define the mantle transition zone. The viscosity increase is coincident in depth with regions where seismic tomography has imaged slab stagnation, plume deflection, and changes in large-scale structure and offers a simple explanation of these phenomena.

How mantle slabs drive plate tectonics.

The gravitational pull of subducted slabs is thought to drive the motions of Earth's tectonic plates, but the coupling between slabs and plates is not well established. If a slab is mechanically attached to a subducting plate, it can exert a direct pull on the plate. Alternatively, a detached slab may drive a plate by exciting flow in the mantle that exerts a shear traction on the base of the plate. From the geologic history of subduction, we estimated the relative importance of "pull" versus "suction" for the present-day plates. Observed plate motions are best predicted if slabs in the upper mantle are attached to plates and generate slab pull forces that account for about half of the total driving force on plates. Slabs in the lower mantle are supported by viscous mantle forces and drive plates through slab suction.