Ruedas, Thomas

Convection and Melting Processes in a Mantle Plume under a Spreading Ridge, with Application to the Iceland Plume

Mid-oceanic ridges and plumes are two major types of geodynamic features ofthe Earth and contribute significantly to terrestrial volcanism. Especiallystrong melt production in the mantle as well as increased crust formation andvolcanic activity at the surface take place where a ridge and a plumecoincide. This study combines a succinct survey of current knowledge onconvection and melting in a plume--ridge setting with several series ofnumerical models probing the importance of various parameters for theseprocesses; predictions of observables are also derived from the models.Emphasis is put on applications to Iceland, where such a setting is presentlyrealized, and a geodynamic model for the upper mantle beneath Iceland isproposed.