Tomographic evidence for compositional heterogeneity deep in earth’s mantle

Abstract

In the past decade, tomographic imaging has revealed that trajectories of mantle convection are more complex than expected from end-member models of unhindered whole mantle circulation or layered convection with an interface at 660 km depth. In the context of recently proposed mantle flow models, we discuss evidence for compositional heterogeneity in the deepest 1000 km of the mantle, and describe how this could survive in a system of thermochemical convection.