GEOPHYSICAL

RESEARCH
LETTERS,VOL.24,NO.22,PAGES2749-2752,
NOVEMBER15,1997

Growing the Earth's D" layer' Effect of density

variations at the core-mantle boundary
LouiseH. Kellogg
Departmentof Geology,Universityof California,Davis,CA 95616

Abstract. The D" regionof the mantle has been in- showthat molten iron alloy can penetrate alongbound-
terpretedasa variable-thickness
layerof hot, chemically aries of perovskite-magnesiowfistite
grains, reactingto
heterogeneousmaterial at the base of the mantle. This create pocketsof heterogeneity[Poirier, 1993]. The
paper reports the results of numerical simulations test- chemicalboundary layer that resultsis likely to be only
ing whethergrowthof a chemicallydistinctlayerat the a few metersdeepif percolationalonggrain boundaries
baseof the mantle is possibleby influx of molten iron al- is the primary mechanism of its formation. Penetra-
loy from the core to the mantle. A finite-element model tion may be more extensive if a pressurehead is cre-
of thermo-chemical mantle convection was used to simu- ated by topography on the core-mantle boundary, but
late exchangeof material betweenthe mantle and core. the resulting chemicalboundary layer is still unlikely to
Growth of a significantlayer at the base of the man- be morethan a few kilometersthick [Stevenson, 1988].
tle dependson severalfactors;we focuson the effectof A pre-existing, chemically distinct layer can be main-
densityof the materialin the chemicalboundarylayer. tained at the base of the mantle if it is not entrained
Relativelylow densitymaterial was sweptaway from into upwellingplumes[Sleep,1988].The layerwill tend
the core-mantle boundaryby mantleupwellings.Very to pile up under upwellings[Hansenand Yuen, 1990].
highdensitymaterial,in contrast,wasnot sweptaway, For chemical exchangebetween the core and mantle to
but flowedinto the mantletoo slowlyto form a layeras form a stable layer severalhundred kilometers deep, the
thick as D•. For moderatedensitycontrastsbetween material must be neither so dense that it forms a thin
materialin a chemicalboundarylayer and the overly- armor against further reactions, nor so light that it is
ing mantle,a laterallyheterogeneous layerformed.The carried away by mantle convection. Convective mixing
stablelayer resultsin an elevatedtemperaturecontrast in the lower mantle plays a crucial role in the devel-
betweenthe coreand the mantle. High temperaturesin opment of the layer. This paper presents the results of
this layer are associated
with broadregionsof elevated numericalmodelsof the growthof D• by infiltration and
temperature in the overlyingmantle. mixing of core material into the mantle. Development
of a thick (100 km or more) layer dependson a vari-
ety of factors, including the vigor of mantle flow near
the boundary layer, how easily core material penetrates
Introduction
the mantle, and the density of material in the chemical
The boundary between the Earth's core and mantle boundary layer. This paper examines the influence of
is a fundamentalcompositional
discontinuity,
wherethe the last factor on the growth of a layer.
molten iron alloy of the core contactsthe solid silicate
rockof the mantle. The core-mantle
boundaryis almost Model description
certainly a thermal boundary layer, and may be the
sourceof upwelling mantle plumes. On the mantle side A finite element model for thermo-chemical convec-
lies the D• region,a complex,laterallyheterogeneoustion in a 2-dimensional incompressiblefluid [King et al.,
layer of low seismicvelocitygradient[Loperand Lay, 1990]with an influx of corematerial [KelloggandKing,
1995]. The thicknessof D• varieswidely; it is very 1993] was used to simulatemantle convection. Flow
thin to non-existentin somelocations[e.g., Vidaleand is governedby three parameters: the Rayleigh number
Benz,1992]whileelsewhere [Garneroet al., 1993]D• is Ra, the Lewis number Le, and the buoyancy number
much more prominent and shows evidence of chemical B. Density p varies linearly with temperature T and
heterogeneity
[ Wysession
et al., 1994]. compositionC; p = p0(1- c•T(T- To) 4- c•c(C - Co)),
Du may be a thermal boundarylayer, a chemical where P0 is a referencedensity at T = To and C = Co.
boundary layer, a residual layer from the formation of The coefficient of thermal expansion c•T has a counter-
the core, a phase change, a graveyardfor subducted part"coefficient ofcompositional ex,•ansion" c•c.The
slab, or somecombination,and may alsocontainsome Rayleighnumber, Ra = pogc•TATd/yon (whereg is
moltencoreor mantlematerial[Williamsand Garnero, gravitational acceleration, AT is the temperature con-
1996]. Intense chemicalactivity at the core-mantle trast acrossthe convectinglayer, d is the depth of the
boundarycouldproducechemicalheterogeneity in the convectinglayer, /•0 is a referenceviscosity,and tc is
lowermost mantle if molten iron infiltrates the mantle
thermal diffusivity),is a dimensionless
measureof the
andreactswith mantlerock[KnittleandJeanloz,1989]. buoyancyforce created by temperature variations, and
Experimentalsimulationsof the core-mantleboundary governsthe vigor of the thermal convection. A buoy-
ancy number, B = c•cAC/c•TAT, is the ratio of the
Copyright
1997bytheAmerican
Geophysical
Union. thermal to compositionalcontributionsto the variations
in density. A buoyancy number of 0 representsa "pas-
Papernumber97GL02952. sive tracer" that contributes nothing to the dynamics.
0094-8534/97/97GL.02952505.00 ForthesemodelsRa = 107,andB rangesfrom0 to 10.
2749
2750 KELLOGG' GROWING THE EARTH'S D" LAYER

The Lewis number, Le - n/D, is the ratio of the (a) B=O Topof mantle r=w0
thermal diffusivity, n, to the model chemicaldiffusiv-
ity, D (seereviewby Hansenand Yuen,[1990].)It is
difficult to determine the appropriate value of Le for
this model. If the flux of iron alloy into the baseof the
mantle is limited by diffusion, Le must be extremely
large. The resultingchemicalboundarylayer would be Plume
(;armes •
only centimeters or meters thick much too small to neutrally
buoyant
•
be resolvedin thesecalculations.It is more likely, how-
ever, that iron alloy flows into the base of the man-
tle alonggrain boundariesor fractures,perhapsdriven
by topography on the core-mantle boundary. In this
dye
from
CMB
• ••
case,D would representan effectivediffusivitythat de-
termines the thickness of the influx zone of dense ma-
C =Cc• Core-mantle
boundary T=Tc•
terial at the base of the mantle. In the calculations
shown here, we used Le - 100, resulting in a "diffu- (b) B=I
sive" chemical boundary layer that is 3% the thickness
of the thermal boundary layer. This low value was cho-
sen to allow the developmentof a chemicalboundary
layer by influx of densematerial. One consequence of
using a relatively low Lewis number to simulate the in-
flux is that there is a certain amount of mixing, within Denselayer
the upwelling plumes, for instance. Hansen and Yuen pilesup under
[1988]havefound,however,that whenmodelsrun for upwelling
time periods much shorter than the diffusiontime, the
consequences for the structure of the compositionand
temperature fields are minor. 40o •
The viscosityIt dependsonly on temperature: It -
Itoexp(E*(1/(T- Tog)- 1/(Tcmb-- Toff))), whereE*
is a nondimensionalactivation energy and Tcrnbis the
temperature at the core-mantle boundary. Tog is a (c) B= 10
temperature offset to prevent a singularity at T =
0. Temperature-dependent viscosity can dramatically
changethe planformof thermal convection[Tackley,
1993]; however,in the modelsconsideredhere, the
buoyancy number, not the viscositylaw, determinesthe
evolution of a denselayer. We ran calculationsusing Thin layer
both constant and variable viscosityand found that the slows further
viscositylaw useddid not significantlyalter the growth mass transfer
or lack of growth of a denselayer. All resultspresented
here used E* - 3.0. The viscosityin the cold boundary
layer was not allowed to exceed1000It0.
Isothermal boundaries were maintained at the top
and bottomof the convecting
layer(Fig. la); the sides •'igure 1. Snapshotof temperature(color)and com-
were insulating. Influx of material from the core into position(contourlines). Red is the hottest, blue the
the mantle was simulated by imposinga boundary con- coldestmaterial. Initial and boundary conditionswere
dition consistingof constantcompositionalongthe base the samefor all calculations.(a) B = 0 (Thermalcon-
of the mantle(to simulatethe contactwith molteniron vection only) at a nondimensional time of t = 0.039.
alloy) and diffusionof this markerinto the baseof the The dye is a passivetracer; it is simply carried away
mantle(to simulateinfluxof molteniron alloy). There from the CMB. Traces can be seen returning to the
was no flux of this material acrossthe top and sidewalls CMB in downwellings.
(b) B = I (Layer-growing case)
of the box. Previous work in sphericalaxisymmetricge- at t = 0.052. The dye, 6% to 13% more densethan the
ometry at lowerRayleighnumbers(and with constant overlyingmantle, piles up under upwellings,to create a
viscosity)showedthat plumeswerecapableof carrying heterogeneousdenselayer up to hundredsof kilometers
material up to about 6% more densethan the overlying thick. (c) B = 10 (Armor-formingcase)at t = 0.055.
mantle.[KelloggandKing, 1993].The Cartesiangeom- The dye, many times more dense than the overlying
etry used here has the advantagethat the upwellings mantle, formsa thin (< 100 km) armoringshell,pre-
and downwellingsare free to migrate laterally, without venting further influx of densematerial to the CMB.
being constrainedto an axisymmetricgeometry.

Conditions for developing a dense layer B = 10) areshownin Fig. 1. All the calculations began
Le, B, Ra, and the viscositylaw were all varied in
with a uniform compositionrepresentingthe average
testingthismodel;the primaryfactorcontrolling
devel- mantle. All the modelsexperiencedan initial transitory
opmentof a denselayeris the buoyancynumber.Snap- period of extremely time-dependentflow while a chemi-
shotsof threerepresentativecases(B = 0, B = 1, and cal boundarylayer grew. The modelseventuallysettled
 KELLOGG' GROWING THE EARTH'S D"LAYER 2751

to a quasi-steady state in which the characteristicsof 1.0

the layer and overall flow changed more slowly. The
snapshots were taken at the time the calculation was
terminated; they are representativeof the late stages 0.9
of the model. In each case the model had developed
the characteristicsdescribedbelow by a nondimensional
time of less than 0.015. Time is nondimensionalized us-
ing the timescalefor diffusiveheattransfer't - n•/d2,
where• is the timein years.Takingn- 10-6m2/sand
d- 2900 krn, t - 0.015 correspondsto 4 By. E 0.7-
For B - 0, (Fig. la) the material seepinginto the !-- -
base of the mantle is a passive tracer; this case repre-
sentsthermal convectionalone. The tracer generatesa 0.6 -'
thin chemicalboundarylayer (a reactionzonebetween
the coreandmantle)that israpidlysweptawayby man-
tle currents. Any layer of chemically distinct material
that forms in this case is never much thicker than the
zone of influx of core material; this layer is a few tens of o 2ooo 4ooo
kilometers thick in the numerical model, and could be
much thinner in the Earth's mantle. This "sweeping" Distance (km)
processwas also seen for small, non-zero values of B. Figure 3. Temperaturesat a depth of 2500 km. With
If the material flowing into the base of the mantle no compositional contributions to the density(B = 0),
is too dense, it forms a thin protective armor at the upwellings appear as narrow temperature spikes; for
core-mantleboundary. In this case(B - 10) there is B > 0, the upwellingsare more diffuse.
little convectivemixing betweenthe densematerial and
the overlyingmantle (Fig. lc). Both B - 0 and B -
10 share the characteristic that the chemically distinct
layer is quite thin; in the former caseB is too small, and the piles beneath upwellings,the denselayer rangesup
in the latter case B is too large, to allow development to 400 km thick, while beneath somedownwellingsit is
of a layer several hundred kilometers deep. hardly seenat all. This heterogeneousstructure resem-
When B is just right, a substantiallayerformsat the bles the Earth's D" layer, which alsovariesin thickness
baseof the mantle (Fig. lb). For B - 1, materialfrom (e.g. Kendall and Shearer[1995];Lay et al., [1997]).
the chemical boundary layer is swept up in mantle up- The layer grows only when the density of the mate-
wellings,but is not carriedfar from the boundary. This rial flowing into the base of the mantle is marginally
material mixes with overlying mantle material, grad- unstable. When B: 1, the variation in density due to
ually growing a heterogeneous layer of variable thick- compositionis equal, but of oppositesign, to the change
ness. By sweepingmaterial away from the core-mantle
boundary, the mantle currents leave behind a "fresh"
in densitydue to temperature.The densitycontrast
surface where additional dense material can seep in. In
due to composition is givenby Ape: BATc•T. Tak-
ingc•T-- 1.8to 2.5X 10-5K-1 [Utsumi
e! aL, 1995],
if the temperatureat the core-mantle
boundaryis be-
tween3800 K and 5300K, then for B: 1, the material
seepinginto the baseof the layer is 6% to 13% more
densethan the overlyingmantle.
B=O
2500
B=I
Thermal consequencesof a stable layer
B=10
• 2000 The nondimensionaltemperature contrastacrossthe
E core-mantleboundaryvariessignificantlyamongthe
three cases(Fig. 2). To apply the model resultsto
.= 1500 the mantle, this nondimensional
temperaturemust be
related to values for the Earth. From measurementsof
• 1000 the phase diagram of iron alloys, severalstudiesesti-
mate temperatures of 3800 K to 5300 K for the core-
mantleboundary[Williamsand Jeanloz,1990;$azena
5OO et al., 1994;Boehlere! al., 1995]. Thesecorrespond
to
temperaturecontrastsof 1100 K to 1500 K for B = 0,
1300 K to 1900 K for B = 1, and 1400 K to 2000 K for
B = 10. Boththe layer-growing
case(B = 1) and the
armor-growing
case(B = 10) permitthe development
of
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
a largetemperaturecontrastacrossthe D" layer. Thus
Horizontallyaveraged temperature a denselayer couldresult in temperaturesat the baseof
the mantlehighenoughto inducepartialmelting;par-
Figure 2. Laterally averagedtemperature profiles. tial melting has been offeredas an explanationfor the
The referencecaseof plain thermalconvection (B - 0) thin, ultra-low velocity layer observedin somelocations
is shown as a solid line. [Williamsand Garnero,1996].
2752 KELLOGG: GROWING THE EARTH'S D" LAYER

In both the layer-growingcase (B = 1) and the Hansen, U., and D. A. Yuen, Numerical simulations of
armor-formingcase(B = 10), the lateral variationsin thermal-chemical instabilities at the core-mantle bound-
temperature are substantiallygreaterin magnitudeand ary, Nature, œ3d, 237-240, 1988.
wavelengththan in the passivetracer case(B = 0). Hansen, U., and D. A. Yuen, Nonlinear physicsof double-
At a depth of 2500 km, for instance, the model in- diffusiveconvectionin geologicalsystems,Earth Sci. Rev.,
cludingthermal buoyancyonly developsplumesabout œ9, 385-399, 1990.
200 km wide that are about 0.1 (350- 500 K) hot- Kellogg, L. H., and S. D. King, Effect of mantle plumes on
ter than the surroundingmantle (Fig. 3). In con- the growthof D" by reactionbetweenthe coreandmantle,
Geophys. Res. Left., œ0,379-382, 1993.
trast, for B = 1 (the layer-growingcase)the thermal Kendall, J. M., and Shearer P.M. On the structure of the
anomaliesare broader(about 1000km across)andhot- lowermost mantle beneath the southwest Pacific, south-
ter (with ATplumem 0.15). This resultis consistent east Asia and Australasia, Phys. Earth and Planet. Int.,
with recentmodels[Farnetani, 1997]investigatingthe 9œ, 85-98, 1995.
consequencesof a denselayer at the baseof the mantle King, S. D., A. Raefsky, and B. H. Hager, ConMan: Vec-
for the thermal structure of plumes. With a composi- torizing a finite element code for incompressibletwo-
tionally heterogeneous layer at the baseof the mantle, dimensional convection in the Earth's mantle, Phys. Earth
the upwellingsin the overlyingmantle form broad, dif- and Planet. Int., 59, 195-207, 1990.
fuse structures. This result fits with the observations Knittie, E., and R. Jeanloz, Simulating the core-mantle
that seismicvelocity anomaliesin the lower mantle are boundary: an experimental study of high-pressurereac-
well correlatedwith structuresin D" [Suet al., 1994]. tions between silicates and liquid iron, Geophys. Res.
The variable structure of the dense layer in the layer- Left., 16, 609-612, 1989.
growingcaseresembles the structureof D" determined Lay, T., E. J. Garnero, C. J. Young, and J. B. Gaherty, Scale
from seismicobservations.Kendall and Shearer[1995], lengthsof shearvelocityheterogeneityat the baseof the
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mantle downwellings, as doesthe denselayerin Fig. lb. Res., 10œ,9887-9909, 1997.
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Concluding Comments Poirier,J.-P., Core-infiltratedmantleand the natureof the
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One proposedmechanismfor the formation of the Saxena,S. K., G. Shen,P. Lazor, Temperaturesin Earth's
D" layer is an influx of iron alloy from the coreto the core basedon melting and phasetransformationexperi-
lower mantle, combined with mixing and partial en- ments on iron, Science,œ6•, 405-407, 1994.
trainment of the iron alloy into the mantle flow. We Sleep,N.H., Gradualentrainmentof a chemicallayerat the
tested this model with a finite-element simulation of base of the mantle by overlyingconvection,Geophys.J.,
double-diffusive convection, and the proposed mecha- 95, 437-447, 1988.
nism is plausible for reasonablevalues of Ra, Le, and Stevenson,D. J., Infiltration, dissolution,and underplat-
the buoyancy number, B. Formation of a layer that is ing: Rulesfor mixingcore-mantle cocktails,EOS, Trans.
several hundred kilometers thick requires B • 1 for the A G U, 69, 1404, 1988.
core-mantle boundary. The preciseconditionsrequired Su, W. J., R. L. Woodward,and A.M. Dziewonski,Degree-
to form this layer will likely depend also on the rate of 12 model of shearvelocityheterogeneityin the mantle, J.
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The resulting denselayer can grow up to severalhun- Tackley,P. J., Effectsof a stronglytemperature-dependent
dred kilometers thick, is laterally heterogeneous,and viscosityon time-dependent, three-dimensionalmodelsof
varies in compositionand temperature, much like the mantle convection, Geophys. Res. Left., 20, 2187-2190,
1993.
Earth's D" layer. A stable, chemicallydistinct layer
at the base of the mantle creates a higher temperature Utsumi, W., N. Funamori,T. ¾agi, E. Ito, T. Kikegawa,
and O. Shimomura,Thermal expansivityof MgSiO3 per-
contrast between the core and mantle than if the layer
ovskiteunderhighpressures up to 20 Gpa, Geophys.Res.
layer
did not
correspond
exist. Temperature
to regionsof
variations
high andin
lowthe
temperature
modelD" Lett., 22, 1005-1008, 1995.
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Williams,Q., and R. Jeanloz,Melting relationsin the iron-
Acknowledgments. I thank E. Garnero, M. Manga, sulfursystemat ultra-highpressures: implicationsfor the
Q. Williams, and R. Jeanlozfor discussions
on the nature thermal state of the Earth, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 19,299-
of the core-mantle boundary, and M. Kendall for a helpful 19,310, 1990.
review of the manuscript. This work was funded by the NSF Williams,Q., andE. J. Garnero,Seismicevidence
for partial
(EAR-93-05892and a PresidentialFacultyFellowship). melt at the base of Earth's mantle; Science, œ73, 1528-
1530, 1996.
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