The Influence of Partial Melt on Mantle Convection

The thermo-chemical evolution of a one-plate planet like Mars strongly influences its atmospheric evolution via volcanic outgassing, which is linked to the production of partial melt in the mantle. In earlier thermal evolution and convection models melt production has been considered by the release and consumption of latent heat, the formation of crust and the redistribution of radioactive heat sources. We present thermo-chemical 2D convection models that examine the influence of partial melt on the mantle dynamics of a one-plate planet such as Mars. Assuming fractional melting, where melt leaves the system as soon as it is formed, cooling boundary conditions and decaying radioactive elements, we investigate the effects of partial melt on the melting temperature, mantle density and viscosity. In the present study, we examine the influence of these effects on the mantle dynamics of Mars

A Particle-in-Cell Method to Model the Influence of Partial Melt on Mantle Convection

Solid-state convection is the principal mechanism that controls the global dynamics and thermal evolution of the terrestrial planets. Observations such as seismology and mission data from geological structures at the planetary surfaces offer important constraints for the interior dynamics. However, our main knowledge stems from laboratory experiments and in particular from computer models. In the last years, due to the significant improve of high performance computing, computer simulations have became the most powerful access to this fluid-dynamical problem by solving partial differential equations in a discrete formulation to describe the flow in space and time. In the present work we will present results obtained using the cylindrical/spherical code GAIA with a particle-in-cell method to account for compositional changes due to partial melting of the mantle