Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufm.p12b1064l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #P12B-1064
Physics
3210 Modeling, 3230 Numerical Solutions, 5418 Heat Flow, 6225 Mars, 8147 Planetary Interiors (5430, 5724)
Scientific paper
Lacking the possibility of direct examination of Mars' interior at least in the present days, mathematical models -- so-called thermal evolution models -- are of key importance for the understanding of the planet's history and its present structure. However, due to the complexity of the corresponding processes and the enormous computer power needed to study these processes, thermal evolution models often investigate the internal dynamics of a planet by the use of appropriate scaling laws. While these scaling laws imply crucial simplifications they cannot provide information about the dynamics of internal processes like the actual planform of mantle convection or its effects on the tectonics of the planetary surface. In order to take a step beyond present models and to study especially the interplay of internal dynamics and surface tectonics, we apply a three-dimensional (fluiddynamical) mantle convection model to study the internal evolution of Mars. Particularly to investigate the plausibility and the circumstances of an early plate-tectonic episode on Mars without introducing it artificially, i.e. by the means of boundary conditions. In order to study the thermal evolution of the planet we consider thermally driven convection in an incompressible boussinesq fluid with infinite Prandtl number. The fluid is both heated from below and from within applying a variable core temperature (depending on the temperature at the CMB) and a temporally declining heatproduction rate. The governing equations are solved on a 3D Cartesian domain using a Finite Volume technique. The model has proven to be well suited to study mantle convection under consideration of strongly temperature- and depth-dependent viscosity and to investigate the coupling of mantle convection and plate tectonics. Calculations that model the so-called stagnant lid mode of convection, which is the present state of the martian mantle, yield results that are in good agreement with those acquired by models employing parameterized convection. These studies will improve the understanding of the very early part of Mars' evolution, especially a potential episode of plate tectonics. The main question that is addressed by our studies is whether such a period showing a tectonically active surface is dynamically plausible for Mars and if so, what are the circumstances of the following transitional period (e.g. initiation, duration etc.)
Hansen Ulrich
Loddoch Alexander
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