In this paper, we study the unconditional convergence and error estimates of
a Galerkin-mixed FEM with the linearized semi-implicit Euler time-discrete
scheme for the equations of incompressible miscible flow in porous media. We
prove that the optimal L2 error estimates hold without any time-step
(convergence) condition, while all previous works require certain time-step
condition. Our theoretical results provide a new understanding on commonly-used
linearized schemes for nonlinear parabolic equations. The proof is based on a
splitting of the error function into two parts: the error from the time
discretization of the PDEs and the error from the finite element discretization
of corresponding time-discrete PDEs. The approach used in this paper is
applicable for more general nonlinear parabolic systems and many other
linearized (semi)-implicit time discretizations