A low viscosity wedge in subduction zones

By Magali I. Billen, Michael Gurnis. 2001

252 citations recorded by the source corpus.

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e8b26470de58874ed7dbc5be8f8bb0cb38c9510c

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In Geophysics

Citations in the corpus

Modeling the Dynamics of Subducting Slabs (2008, background): “…structure, such as a low-viscosity region in the mantle wedge, can greatly diminish the magnitude of dynamic topography lows, switch the sign of the geoid, and switch the stress state from compressional to extensional in the overriding plate (Figure 4; Billen & Gurnis 2001, Billen et al. 2003).”
Dynamic models of downgoing plate-buoyancy driven subduction: subduction motions and energy dissipation (2007, background): “, 1993; Billen and Gurnis, 2003). In the models where RS is included, it is applied as an additional horizontal component to the drag tensor (Turcotte and Schubert, 1982; Garfunkel et al., 1986), between 40 and 180 km depth, with a linear transition to zero in the 20 km above and below this depth in”
The thermal structure of subduction zone back arcs (2004, background): “raphy, geoid and gravity observations [Billen and Gurnis, 2001; Billen et al., 2003]. In addition, in the western United States (former back arc), Dixon et al. [2004] argue that the”
Thermal Structure due to Solid‐State Flow in the Mantle Wedge Beneath Arcs (2013, background): “However, this assumption is apparently inconsistent with arc topography and gravity data, which are better fit with a weak coupling between the subducting plate and the overlying mantle, implying a low viscosity mantle wedge [Billen and Gurnis, 2001; Zhong and Gurnis, 1992].”
Plate tectonics on the early Earth: Limitations imposed by strength and buoyancy of subducted lithosphere (2008, background): “Previous studies have shown that hydration of the mantle wedge probably makes this region at least an order of magnitude weaker than elsewhere under similar, but drier conditions ( Billen and Gurnis, 2001; Kukaˇcka and Matyska, 2004).”
A review of water contents of nominally anhydrous natural minerals in the mantles of Earth, Mars and the Moon (2010, unknown): “ments (Billen and Gurnis, 2001).”
Slab stiffness control of trench motion: Insights from numerical models (2008, unknown): “[57] Despite the setup of the numerical models by Billen and Hirth [2007] being significantly different from our one, they also found that the slab strength and a higher viscosity contrast between plate and mantle controls primarily the evolution and the dip of the slab during its sinking.”
The generation of plate tectonics from mantle convection (2003, background): “It may very well be that melting (and/or hydration) and subsequent viscosity reduction in the mantle wedge (the accute corner of mantle above the slab) plays an important role in causing the downwelling asymmetry, as well as subduction dynamics in general [75,76].”
Rheology of the Earth's mantle: A historical review (2010, background): “Similarly, a large variation in viscosity is expected in subduction zones (e.g., Billen and Gurnis, 2001; Karato et al., 2001).”
Lateral variation in upper mantle viscosity: role of water (2004, unknown): “However, water released by the downgoing slab counteracts this effect, weakening the surrounding mantle and making it easier to sustain subduction [127].”
Numerical simulations of subduction zones: Effect of slab dehydration on the mantle wedge dynamics (2005, methodology): “Besides, a low viscosity in the mantle wedge associated to hydration has been argued to occur in the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone by Billen and Gurnis (2001) and Billen et al.”