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Dear Colleagues
We would like to draw your attention to a special session at Fall AGU (15-19
December).
This session is about the mantle and how surface observations constrain
interior structure and dynamics. We invite you to submit an abstract on a
broad range of topics, including seismic tomography and anisotropy, surface
topography, lithosphere stress, heat flux, plate motions, electrical
conductivity, mantle modeling, mineral physics, volcanism, gravity, polar
motion and geomagnetism. A full description of the session entitled ‘Linking
Earth’s deep interior to the surface : Present day mantle’ is included below. It
is under the ‘Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior’ section. Abstract deadline is 10
September 2008, 2359 UT (Universal Time). We look forward to receiving your
abstracts.
Best wishes
Huw, Peter and Saskia,
Peter Bunge (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich); Huw Davies (Cardiff
University); Saskia Goes (Imperial College London)
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Full description of the session
D13 Linking Earth's Deep Interior to the Surface: The Present Mantle
One of the big current challenges for solid Earth geoscientists is to replace the
kinematic theory of plate tectonics by a dynamic model. Rapid progress
continues to be made with improving observations and their interpretation
from a wide range of fields, including seismology (waveforms, arrays,
(anisotropic) wave speed and attenuation tomography), geodesy (surface
deformation, polar motion, length of day), volcanism (location, type, age),
gravity (geoid), tectonics (stress, uplift, subsidence, topography), heat flow,
electrical conductivity, and geomagnetism. Significant mineral physics
advances include identifying post-perovskite, and improved methods and
mineral parameters to relate geophysical observables to thermo-chemical
structure; while geodynamic modelers are now able to model in spherical
geometry at high vigor with increasingly realistic thermal and rheological
parameters. It is only by bringing together all these aspects that the
challenge of producing a successful dynamic model will be met.
We therefore wish to bring together scientists from these and related
disciplines to help push forward our understanding of how the deep interior
dynamics relates to the surface. This session will focus on relating present-
day (geologically speaking!, i.e., a few Ma) observations to models of the
dynamics of the deep interior. Provided there is an attempt to link one to the
other, we encourage contributions on observations and on modeling, as well
as methods to relate the two. Our sister session ‘Linking Earth's Deep Interior
to the Surface: Earth Evolution’ will focus on the evolution of mantle-
lithosphere dynamics through time.
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