Variations in grain size and viscosity based on vacancy diffusion in minerals, seismic tomography, and geodynamically inferred mantle rheology

Abstract

The effect of grain size on mantle viscosity is comparable to that of temperature and pressure. The current 3-D distribution of grain size in the mantle is, however, unknown. To explore the possible variability of grain size, we use the following: geodynamic inferences of effective viscosity, vacancy diffusion rates in upper mantle minerals and perovskite in the lower mantle, lateral variations in temperature derived from seismic images, and different geotherms. An important outcome of this modeling is a new mapping of lateral viscosity variations throughout the mantle. The corresponding 3-D variations in grain size are characterized by 2 orders of magnitude changes. We find a correlation between grain size variability in the mantle and absolute viscosity changes with depth. Our findings suggest that the traditional assumption of Arrhenius temperature dependence for vacancy diffusion in the lower mantle is not sufficient to constrain the deformation mechanisms that determine its effective bulk viscosity.