An Oceanic Mantle Dynamics Workshop, to be held September 18-20, 2002, in Snowbird, Utah

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

In recent years, many models of flow in the upper mantle beneath the oceans have been developed including plume upwelling and swell formation at hotspots, small-scale convection beneath plates, mantle flow and melt migration beneath fast and slow spreading centers, channelized mantle flow from hotspots to spreading centers, convective overturn above subducting plates, asthensopheric flow associated with propagating rifts, downwelling beneath the Australian-Antarctic discordance, return flow from trenches to ridges, and flow around subducting slabs during trench rollback. Now, for the first time, we are entering an era when these often speculative models of mantle dynamics can be tested and refined with measurements in the oceans that have the power to resolve subsurface structure at the critical length scales. The establishment of a U.S. National Ocean Bottom Seismometer Instrument Pool with a total of more than 100 long-duration, wide-band instruments provides an opportunity for progress in understanding the dynamics of flow in the upper mantle beneath the oceans. The first Ocean Mantle Dynamics community workshop will be held September 18-20, 2002 in Snowbird, Utah. This workshop has five major objectives: (1) highlight the science that can be done by the program, (2) develop a plan for "leapfrogging arrays", (3) define the design and technical requirements for an offshore component to USArray, (4) describe program needs in other areas like geodynamic modeling, petrology/geochemistry and laboratory measurements, and (5) descuss the relationship of the program to other major geoscience initiatives.