The growth of point source plumes at Rayleigh numbers up to 108 and Prandtl numbers up to 1000

Two-dimensional numerical simulations were conducted of the growth of thermal plumes from a point heat source at Rayleigh numbers up to 108 and Prandtl numbers up to 1000. Scaling the convection equations by the free fall velocity rather than the thermal diffusivity, increased the Prandtl number range available to numerical simulation by one order of magnitude from Prandtl number 100 to 1000. We present animations showing how the plumes grow with time for different Prandtl numbers. Plumes with Prandtl numbers around 7 (water) were found to be unstable to sinuous instabilities; whereas those at Prandtl numbers of 1000 had straight stems and fewer sinuous instabilities. Wavelet analysis was used to analyze the scales at which plumes initiated, and the scales at which sinuous instabilities occurred. The scale of both the plume structures and instabilities was found to decrease with Prandtl number.     

Intracratonic geodynamics

Geodynamic concepts of deformation and metamorphism of continental lithosphere are dominated by the effects of subduction, accretion or collision along the margins of continental lithospheric blocks. Yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that suture zones, presumably representing fossil subduction zones, but occurring far from ambient continent boundaries, play a key role in intra-cratonic deformation. In such zones the crust is strongly sheared and mantle lithosphere metasomatised. Reworking of such settings reveals a surprisingly large range of instabilities that develop in compressed/extended lithosphere with lateral heterogeneities inherited from fossil subduction settings. Structural complexity arises which is quite sensitive to the pre-existing geometry and tectonic setting. This influences localization of deformation, topographic evolution, melt generation and fluid flow patterns. We recognise a class of instabilities, labelled acceleration instabilities, of which the classical Rayleigh–Taylor instability is one example. In many cases shown in this paper such instabilities are responsible for triggering most of the response of the lithosphere. In an elastic-plastic material a necessary condition for instability is that the material reaches the yield point; thus not only density contrasts between media drive instability but also processes induced by other forces normal to the interface. As a geological example the Petermann orogeny in central Australia is given.     

地幔对流的数值模拟方法

地幔对流的数值模拟研究为理解地壳运动、地幔内部的性质和地球的动力学机制提供了手段。笔者回顾了地幔对流数值模拟的发展,总结了各种常用的描述地幔对流的数学模型,边界条件以及数值解法。分析了级数展开方法,有限差分方法,有限元方法和多重网格方法的性质和特点,针对某些方法编写了二维地幔对流的计算机软件,使用了实际的地质参数,无穷大的Ｐｒａｎｄｔｌ数,在１０４到１０７之间的Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数,并给出了数值结果和地质解释。     

An Approach to a Visual Language for Convective Fluid Flows: Visualization of Geophysical Simulations

It was known that deep within numbers and binary data from simulations of geophysical convective flows resided various patterns. Two models of convective fluid flows were being considered. One was a model of two-dimensional (768 × 256) air convection with finite Prandtl number of one and Rayleigh number of 10⁸−10¹⁰, and another was a model of three-dimensional (up to 120 × 120 × 90) mantle convection with infinite Prandtl number and Rayleigh number of 10⁶−10⁸. Clearly, phenomena existed which superceded each individual dimensionless computer model to provide a piece of information regarding actual fluid flows. The problem was how to find, prove, and communicate these patterns and phenomena for convection simulations with gigabytes of data. In a search for such an analytical and communicative tool, the alternative of visualization was considered. The need for visualization was recognized and discussed. Then, utilizing both two- and three-dimensional models of high Rayleigh number convection, basic techniques of style and content were developed. Applications of the visualization techniques were designed utilizing IBM’s Data Explorer in order to create communicative images and movies, and after the applications, the problems of data storage and transfer became apparent. Throughout the process though, it became clear how important the language of vision actually could be in the geophysics community. In a field in which words such as plumes and internal waves have in ways replaced mathematics as the basic language for science, there is a need for another resource, another language-the visualization of convective fluid flows.     

Characteristics of severe Atlantic hurricanes in the United States: 1949–2006

Property insurance data available for 1949–2006 were assessed to get definitive measures of hurricane losses in the U.S. Catastrophes, events causing >$1 million in losses, were most frequent in the Southeast and South climate regions. Losses in these two regions totaled $127 billion, 85% of the nation’s total losses. During the period 1949–2006 there were 79 hurricane catastrophes, causing $150.6 billion in losses and averaging $2.6 billion per year. All aspects of these hurricanes showed increases in post-1990 years. Sizes of loss areas averaged one state in 1949–1967, but grew to 3 states during 1990–2006. Seven of the ten most damaging hurricanes came in 2004 (4) and 2005 (3). The number of hurricanes also peaked during 1984–2006, increasing from an annual average of 1.2 during 1949–1983 to 2.1 per year. Losses were $49.3 billion in 1991–2006, 32% of the 58-year total. Various reasons have been offered for such recent increases in hurricane losses including more hurricanes, more intense tropical storms, increased societal vulnerability in storm-prone areas, and a change in climate due to global warming, although this is debatable.     

A numerical investigation of the thermal state of the earth's mantle

An idealized convecting mantle with internal heat generation and viscosity dependent on temperature and pressure is examined with numerical calculations. Temperature and viscosity are coupled and self-regulating in the quasi-steady solutions. The lack of any tendency for upwelling flow to constrict itself to narrow channels argues against the existence of plumes. Unsteadiness is an essential feature of mantle convection, not only for mixing at large Rayleigh numbers, but also to prevent the flow from being impeded by continuous rigid regions.     

Resources Conditions of Coalbed Methane Districts in China

The China National Administration of Coal Geology accomplished an assessment of coalbed methaneresources of China in 1988. The total amount of coalbed methane resources in China is 14336.944 billion m , occurring in recoverable coal seams and beneath weathering zones, with coalbed methane content equal to or higher than 4 m3 per ton and buried depths smaller than 2000 m, among which there are 967.51 billion m of predicted reserves and 13369.434 billion m of future reserves. The resources in coal reservoirs with methane content of more than 8 m per ton are 12444.087 billion m , and those with methane content between 4 to 8 m per ton are 1892.856 billion m . There are 35 districts in which the resources abundance is higher than 150 million m3 /km2 , 49 districts with the abundance between 50 million and 150 million m 3/km2 , and 31 districts with the abundance less than 50 million m3 /km2 . There is 9256.078 billion m3 of methane occurring in coal seams with buried depths less than 1500 m, and 5080.866 bi     

Probing the history of the Mathematician paleoplate using surface waves

This paper investigates the shear velocity structure under the northern East Pacific Rise at the latitude range of 9–18°N, using intermediate-period Rayleigh and Love waves. The selected ocean-bottom seismic records provide source–receiver paths that ideally constrain the lithospheric mantle structure beneath the southern Rivera plate and the Mathematician paleoplate. The Rayleigh wave data infer a relatively thin ( 30 km) lithosphere under the eastern side of the present-day East Pacific Rise. The associated shear velocities are consistent with existing models of oceanic mantle beneath this region, and the estimated plate age of 2–3 million years agrees with results from magnetic dating. The west of the rise axis is characterized by a thicker and faster lithosphere than the eastern flank, and such structural differences suggest the presence of a relatively old Mathematician paleoplate. The discontinuous change in mantle structure across the East Pacific Rise spreading center are observed in both isotropic and anisotropic velocities. The young oceanic lithosphere east of the rise axis shows strong polarization anisotropy, where the dominant orientation of crystallographic axes roughly parallels the spreading direction. However, the western flank of the rise axis is approximately isotropic, and the lack of anisotropy suggests complex deformation mechanisms associated with earlier episodes of ridge segmentation, propagation and dual-spreading on and around the Mathematician paleoplate.     

Supercontinent formation from stochastic collision and mantle convection models

The large-scale tectonics in the last billion years (Ga) are predominated by the assembly and breakup of supercontinents Rodinia and Pangea. The mechanisms controlling the assembly of supercontinents are not clear. Here, we investigate the assembly of a supercontinent with 1) stochastic models of randomly-moving continental blocks and 2) 3-D spherical models of mantle convection with continental blocks. For the stochastic models, we determined the time required for all the blocks to assemble into a single supercontinent on a spherical surface. We found that the assembly time from our stochastic models is significantly longer than inferred for Pangea and Rodinia. However, our study also suggests that the assembly time from stochastic models is sensitive to the rules for randomly assigning continental motion in the models. In our dynamic models of mantle convection, continental blocks are modeled as deformable and compositionally distinct materials from the mantle. We found that mantle convective planform has significant effects on supercontinent assembly. For models with moderately strong lithosphere and the lower mantle relative to the upper mantle that lead to degree-1 mantle convection, continental blocks always assemble to a supercontinent in  250 million years (Ma) and this assembly time is consistent with inferred for Pangea and Rodinia. However, for models with intrinsically small-scale mantle flows, we found that even when continental blocks merge to form a supercontinent, the assembly times are too long and the convective structures outside of supercontinent regions are of too small wavelengths, compared with observed.     

Thermal convection in a heterogeneous mantle

Both seismology and geochemistry show that the Earth's mantle is chemically heterogeneous on a wide range of scales. Moreover, its rheology depends strongly on temperature, pressure and chemistry. To interpret the geological data, we need a physical understanding of the forms that convection might take in such a mantle. We have therefore carried out laboratory experiments to characterize the interaction of thermal convection with stratification in viscosity and in density. Depending on the buoyancy ratio B (ratio of the stabilizing chemical density anomaly to the destabilizing thermal density anomaly), two regimes were found: at high B, convection remains stratified and fixed, long-lived thermochemical plumes are generated at the interface, while at low B, hot domes oscillate vertically through the whole tank, while thin tubular plumes can rise from their upper surfaces. Convection acts to destroy the stratification through mechanical entrainment and instabilities. Therefore, both regimes are transient and a given experiment can start in the stratified regime, evolve towards the doming regime, and end in well-mixed classical one-layer convection. Applied to mantle convection, thermochemical convection can therefore explain a number of observations on Earth, such as hot spots, superswells or the survival of several geochemical reservoirs in the mantle. Scaling laws derived from laboratory experiments allow predictions of a number of characteristics of those features, such as their geometry, size, thermal structure, and temporal and chemical evolution. In particular, it is shown that (1) density heterogeneities are an efficient way to anchor plumes, and therefore to create relatively fixed hot spots, (2) pulses of activity with characteristic time-scale of 50–500 Myr can be produced by thermochemical convection in the mantle, (3) because of mixing, no ‘primitive’ reservoir can have survived untouched up to now, and (4) the mantle is evolving through time and its regime has probably changed through geological times. This evolution may reconcile the survival of geochemically distinct reservoirs with the small amplitude of present-day density heterogeneities inferred from seismology and mineral physics.     

柴达木盆地一里坪坳陷新生界咸化特征及生烃潜力分析

柴达木盆地目前所发现的油气都围绕着侏罗系、古近—新近系及第四系富烃洼陷区分布。近年来,围绕"富烃洼陷"油气勘探,发现了昆北和英东两个"亿吨级"油田、阿尔金山前东段"千亿方"天然气及扎哈泉"亿吨级"致密油勘探区,勘探成效显著。随着柴达木盆地建设千万吨高原油气田及新区、新领域勘探的迫切需求,借助于中国石油重大科技专项,利用硼元素及黏土矿物资料,引用科奇公式开展古水体盐度恢复,明确柴达木盆地新生界为咸化湖盆沉积。从柴达木盆地新生界咸化特征及与已知富烃洼陷进行类比,结合一里坪坳陷周缘有机地球化学测试资料,提出一里坪坳陷为潜在的生烃洼陷,可能为新的富烃洼陷,围绕该洼陷进行油气勘探将是一个新的接替领域,对柴达木盆地油气勘探具有重大战略意义。     

The evolution of the mantle''s chemical structure

The geochemistry of flood basalts and their associated picrites, and of komatiites and their associated basalts, combined with a theoretical model for the structure of mantle starting plumes, can be used to decipher key elements of the geochemical structure of the deep mantle and show how it has varied through time. We argue that the thermal boundary layer above the core consisted mainly of depleted mantle similar to the present MORB source during the Archaean and this was largely replaced between 2.7 and 2.0 billion years ago by enriched mantle to form the OIB source. We suggest that this change in the nature of the hotspot source reflects a fundamental change in the dominant component of downward convection: from cold plumes breaking away from beneath a stable lithosphere during the pre-Archaean to subduction of lithosphere in the Archaean and post-Archaean mantles.     

Rice research: Food for 4 billion people

Rice is the staple food for about 2.4 billion people and provides more than 20% of their daily calorie intake. This number will increase to 4.6 billion people by 2050. Just to meet the projected demand for rice in the 21st Century, the world's annual rough rice production must increase from 520 million tons today to at least 880 million tons by 2025, an increase of almost 70%. That requirement may rise to one billion tons by the year 2050.To produce such an increase, on decreasing arable land, with reduced water resources, with less rural labor input, and with fewer agrochemical inputs, will require major contributions from research to increase yields and reduce inputs, costs and losses. And, more important, it will require coordinated national and international scientific efforts and, above all, strong political will, determined governments and major investments in food research in the rice-consuming countries of the world.     

浅析长江中下游成矿带深部矿找矿潜力及找矿方向

对长江中下游成矿带内主要矿产地和远景区进行分析,结合近年来找矿工作的进展,提出长江中下游地区中深部资源潜力巨大,浅中深部（地下500m-1000m）铜的资源潜力可望达到1000万t以上、铁10亿t,其中大型-超大型矿床（区）7处-10处。深部（地下1000m～2000m）具有10处-15处大型-超大型矿床资源潜力区的可能。可通过深部找矿勘查工作,在已知大型矿床深部和外围、中新生代盖层覆盖区及新层位、新类型地区等地,实现深部“第二空间”的找矿突破。     

On the implications of the coupled evolution of the deep planetary interior and the presence of surface ocean water in hydrous mantle convection

We investigate the influence of the deep mantle water cycle incorporating dehydration reactions with subduction fluxes and degassing events on the thermal evolution of the Earth as a consequence of core–mantle thermal coupling. Since, in our numerical modeling, the mantle can have ocean masses ∼12 times larger than the present-day surface ocean, it seems that more than 13 ocean masses of water are at the maximum required within the planetary system overall to partition one ocean mass at the surface of the present-day Earth. This is caused by effects of water-dependent viscosity, which works at cooling down the mantle temperature significantly so that the water can be absorbed into the mantle transition zone and the uppermost lower mantle. This is a result similar to that without the effects of the thermal evolution of the Earth's core (Nakagawa et al., 2018). For the core's evolution, it seems to be expected for a partially molten state in the deep mantle over 2 billion years. Hence, the metal–silicate partitioning of hydrogen might have occurred at least 2 billion years ago. This suggests that the hydrogen generated from the phase transformation of hydrous-silicate-hosted water may have contributed to the partitioning of hydrogen into the metallic core, but it is still quite uncertain because the partitioning mechanism of hydrogen in metal–silicate partitioning is still controversial. In spite of many uncertainties for water circulation in the deep mantle, through this modeling investigation, it is possible to integrate the co-evolution of the deep planetary interior within that of the surface environment.     

利用地震台阵观测资料研究大庆地区深部构造

利用绥芬河-满洲里地学断面上布设的流动地震台阵,并结合固定地震台记录到的2009年6月-2011年5月间的远震资料,通过有限频方法开展体波走时层析成像研究,获取研究区上地幔三维P波速度结构;采用瑞利面波双台相速度和背景噪声相速度层析成像方法,反演研究区的三维S波速度结构。应用两种方法最终得到大庆地区三维速度分布特征。结果显示：松辽盆地地壳厚度较薄,盆地周边的大、小兴安岭隆起区厚度变厚,松辽盆地地壳内部多存在低速异常,壳幔及上地幔与周边相比呈现高速异常,分析上地幔物质上升会造成局部高速异常结构。速度结构异常多是南北向或北北东向,可能与区域性断裂对上、中地壳影响有关。     

Deep Velocity Structure of Southeast Asia from Rayleigh Wave Group Velocities: 3D Isotropic Model of the S-Wave Velocity Distribution in the Upper Mantle

Geotectonics - We present the results of studying the deep velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Southeast Asia based on data from a representative dataset of Rayleigh wave group...     

Mantle convection with continental drift and heat source around the mantle transition zone

Geological studies have suggested that a significant amount of crustal material has been lost from the surface due to delamination, continental collision, and subduction at oceanic–continental convergent margins. If so, then the subducted crustal materials are expected to be trapped in the mid-mantle due to the density difference from peridotitic materials induced by the phase transition from coesite to stishovite. In order to study the effect of the subducted granitic materials floating around the mantle transition zone, we conducted two-dimensional numerical experiments of mantle convection incorporating a continental drift with a heat source placed around the bottom of the mantle transition zone. The simulations deal with a time-dependent convection of fluid under the extended Boussinesq approximation in a model of a two-dimensional rectangular box with a height of 2900 km and a width of 11,600 km, where a continent with a length of 2900 km and heat source below the continent are imposed. We found that the addition of heat source in the mantle transition zone considerably enhances the onset of upwelling plumes in the upper mantle, which further reduces the time scale of continental drift. The heat source also causes massive mechanical mixing, especially in the upper mantle. The results suggest that the heat source floating around the mantle transition zone can be a possible candidate for inducing the supercontinent cycle.     

The split fate of the early Earth,Mars, Venus,and Moon

Plate tectonics shaped the Earth, whereas the Moon is a dry and inactive desert, Mars probably came to rest within the first billion years of its history, and Venus, although internally very active, has a dry inferno for its surface. Here we review the parameters that determined the fates of each of these planets and their geochemical expressions. The strong gravity field of a large planet allows for an enormous amount of gravitational energy to be released, causing the outer part of the planetary body to melt (magma ocean), helps retain water on the planet, and increases the pressure gradient. The weak gravity field and anhydrous conditions prevailing on the Moon stabilized, on top of its magma ocean, a thick buoyant plagioclase lithosphere, which insulated the molten interior. On Earth, the buoyant hydrous phases (serpentines) produced by reactions between the terrestrial magma ocean and the wet impactors received from the outer solar system isolated the magma and kept it molten for some few tens of million years. The planets from the inner solar system accreted dry: foundering of wet surface material softened the terrestrial mantle and set the scene for the onset of plate tectonics. This very same process also may have removed all the water from the surface of Venus and added enough water to its mantle to make its internal dynamics very strong and keep the surface very young. Because of a radius smaller than that of the Earth, not enough water could be drawn into the Martian mantle before it was lost to space and Martian plate tectonics never began. The radius of a planet is therefore the key parameter controlling most of its evolutional features.     

Stirring geochemistry in mantle convection models with stiff plates and slabs

Numerical models of mantle convection are presented that readily yield midocean ridge basalt (MORB) and oceanic island basalt (OIB) ages equaling or exceeding the apparent ∼1.8-Ga lead isotopic ages of trace-element heterogeneities in the mantle. These models feature high-viscosity surface plates and subducting lithosphere, and higher viscosities in the lower mantle. The formation and subduction of oceanic crust are simulated by means of tracers that represent a basaltic component. The models are run at the full mantle Rayleigh number and take account of faster mantle overturning and deeper melting in the past. More than 97% of the mantle is processed in these models. Including the expected excess density of former oceanic crust readily accounts for the depletion of MORB source relative to OIB sources. A novel finding is of gravitational settling of dense tracers within the low-viscosity upper mantle, as well as at the base of the mantle. The models suggest as well that the seismological observation of a change in tomographic character in the deep mantle might be explained without the need to postulate a separate layer in the deep mantle. These results expand the range of models with the potential to reconcile geochemical and geophysical observations of the mantle.