Topic
Slab
About: Slab is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 31617 publications have been published within this topic receiving 318693 citations.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the plausibility of a two-sided fluid-based model of lithospheric subduction that is based upon current views of the lithosphere structure and found that the viscous lower lithosphere flows downward, and the brittle upper lithosphere deforms in passive response.
Abstract: The plausibility of a two-sided fluid-based model of lithospheric subduction that is based upon current views of lithospheric structure is examined. In this model the viscous lower lithosphere flows downward, and the brittle upper lithosphere deforms in passive response. This process is potentially double-sided, since it is found that even a buoyant plate can be dragged downward by a dense descending neighbor. Thus an apparent overriding plate may be worn away by a process of viscous ablation, with the rate of ablation a function of plate buoyancy. This process, called 'ablative subduction,' makes it possible to simply interpret observations concerning slab profiles, interplate seismicity, back arc tectonics, and complex processes such as double subduction and subduction polarity reversal. When experiments modeling the evolution of simple fluid 'slabs' are performed, slab profile is found to be strongly influenced by ablation in the overriding plate. When ablation is weak, as when a buoyant continent borders the trench, deformable slabs adopt shallow Andean-style profiles.
117 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the rotational behavior of a stratified visco-elastic planet submitted to changes in its inertia tensor is studied in a viscous quasi-fluid approximation.
Abstract: The rotational behaviour of a stratified visco-elastic planet submitted to changes in its inertia tensor is studied in a viscous quasi-fluid approximation. This approximation allows for large displacements of the Earth rotation axis with respect to the entire mantle but is only valid for mass redistribution within the planet occurring on the time scale of a few million years. Such a motion, called true polar wander (TPW), is detected by palaeomagneticiens assuming that the Earth's magnetic field remains on average aligned with the spin axis. Our model shows that a downgoing cold slab induces a TPW which quickly brings this slab to the pole for a mantle of uniform viscosity. The same slab is slowly moved toward the equator when a large viscosity increase with depth takes place in the mantle. Our model is also suitable to investigate the effects of a non-steady-state convection on the Earth's rotation. We discuss these effects using a simple mass redistribution model inspired by the pioneering paper of Goldreich & Toomre (1969). It consists of studying the TPW induced by a random distribution of slabs sinking into the mantle. For such a mass redistribution, only a strongly stratified mantle can reduce the Earth's pole velocity below 1d Ma-1, which is the upper bound value observed by palaeomagnetic investigations for the last 200 Ma. Our model also shows that when corrected for the hydrostatic flattening, the Earth's polar inertia generally corresponds to the maximum inertia, as it is presently observed. However, this may not be the case during some short time periods. We also discuss the amount of excess polar flattening that can be related to tidal deceleration. This frozen component is found to be negligible. Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved
117 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, a number of models are considered for the effects of fluid percolation in the mantle wedge, and the available data on arc rocks are consistent with Dwedge/fluid ∼ 10−2 for the LILE.
117 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors measured the dip of the slab down to depths of 250 km along 164 sections crossing 13 subduction zones and compared it with the age of the subducting oceanic lithosphere both at the trench and at depth.
117 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe field evidence for brittle hydrofracture in previously subducted rocks from the Western Alps, with a free aqueous fluid phase produced by dehydration reactions in the host blueschists and serpentinites.
117 citations