Mantle Convection

Hot (low density) plumes shown as white/red (this is a model for either density or temperature fluctuations (the two being proportional; we assume constant expansion coefficient).

a=1.8, C1=0.1, H= -1, Hz=3 (d=2, c=-1) this has ls=1 (aspect ratio= 1:1). If the mantle is 3000km thick, then the entire thickness is modeled with 30km pixels, each the size of the sphero-scale. This is approximately equal to the sphero scale (20-30km). Note that the paramter estimates are based mostly on dimensional analysis, not on direct measurements (Lovejoy et al 2001).