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Strongly Chaotic Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Mantle Convection

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Chaotic Processes in the Geological Sciences

Part of the book series: The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications ((IMA,volume 41))

Summary

The topic of hard turbulent thermal convection is discussed with application to the earth sciences. These new ideas, stimulated by laboratory experiments initiated by physicists, may be useful for understanding the dynamics of magma oceans developed in the early stages of terrestrial planets. Results drawn from two-dimensional numerical simulations of base-heated thermal convection for both linear and non-linear rheologies are presented to show by visualization of the temperature, viscosity and vorticity fields in the transition to the hard turbulent regime. The vorticity fields may provide a good diagnostic measure for the transition to hard turbulence. Both the vorticity and viscosity fields in the non-Newtonian hard turbulent regime reveal small-scale motions and the contours of these heterogeneities assume a fractal-like appearance. The threshold Nusselt number, around 20, for the transition to hard turbulence is lower for base-heated non-Newtonian convection than for Newtonian solutions, thus making it possible for the Earth’s upper mantle to be in a hard-turbulent state today.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Minnesota Supercomputer Institute, Army High Performance Computing and Research Center, and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, 55415, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    David A. Yuen & Andrei V. Malevsky

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  1. David A. Yuen
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  1. Minnesota Supercomputer Institute, Army High Performance Computing and Research Center, University of Minnesota, 55415, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    David A. Yuen

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Yuen, D.A., Malevsky, A.V. (1992). Strongly Chaotic Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Mantle Convection. In: Yuen, D.A. (eds) Chaotic Processes in the Geological Sciences. The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications, vol 41. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0643-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0643-6_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

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