E-mail: edward.bolton@yale.edu

Computational Mantle Dynamics

I worked with Neil Ribe on two problems relevant to upper mantle "fluid" dynamics. I developed a numerical code to examine entrainment and mixing in an infinite Prandtl number fluid with temperature- and concentration-dependent viscosity. The flow is driven by temperature gradients, while being partially stabilized by concentration gradients. This work is being compared with recent experimental high Rayleigh number convection studies of Anne Davaille. In another project with Ribe, we examined the lubrication limit behavior of a large viscous drop (or "splat") in contact with a rigid upper lid. The splat was assumed to be embedded in a background fluid possessing a constant shear. I developed a numerical code for the evolution of such a splat, as a model for thermal plumes interacting with the Earth's lithosphere.

Nonlinear convection in plane layers may take on a variety of planforms when the viscosity is temperature dependent. For the square planform case, we have developed neutral curves and small-amplitude results, as well as a fully nonlinear code [Bolton and Ribe, 1989, abst.].

E.W. Bolton and N.M. Ribe, Square-cell convection in a fluid with temperature dependent viscosity, EOS, Trans of Am. Geoph. Union, 70, p. 1333, 1989.