Subduction-zone initiation
How do oceanic plates start to sink back into the mantle?
πάντα ῥεῖ · everything flows
Already the Ancient Greek philosophers knew that, if you just wait long enough, even something as hard as rock flows. High pressure, high temperature and, most importantly, tiny defects in crystals allow the Earth's interior to flow over Millions of years. The Earth's mantle even convects, with hot material rising from the core-mantle boundary and cold material, including some plates at the surface, sinking back into the mantle.
How do oceanic plates start to sink back into the mantle?
What role play the oceanic plates in whole-mantle convection?
How does the sluggish whole-mantle overturn work?
Ocean-plate tectonics is the Earth’s primary mode of planetary cooling, with the oceanic plate being part of the overarching overturn of Earth’s mantle: The plate forms out of rising mantle material at spreading ridges; it cools the Earth’s interior as the cold thermal boundary layer to mantle convection; and its sinking portions drive not only the plate itself but also dominate global flow in the mantle. Ocean-Plate Tectonics must have emerged on Earth at least 1 Billion years ago, and dominates Earth’s dynamics today.
Crameri et al., 2019, The dynamic life of an oceanic plate
Crameri et al., 2019, Plate tectonics☆
Crameri and Kaus 2010
Crameri and Tackley 2016
Crameri et al., 2012, GRL
Crameri and Tackley, 2014
Crameri and Tackley, 2014
Crameri and Tackley, 2014
Crameri et al., 2020, A transdisciplinary and community-driven database to unravel subduction zone initiation
Crameri and Tackley, 2014 & Crameri and Tackley, 2015