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Plume Movies

This movie shows a basic plume growing from a thermal boundary layer. The viscosity depends on temperature only: hotter fluid is less viscous. The plume head rises steadily to the top, entraining some surrounding fluid as it goes and growing as a result.

Lines of tracers show how various parts of the fluid are entrained into the plume head. The fluid that will produce most of the magma, near the top and center of the plume, comes mostly from within 10 km of the bottom of the convecting mantle.
Three additional lines of tracers (white) are inserted every 50 Ma, in order to reveal the strong shearing within the plume tail conduit.

More background is given in mantle dynamics.

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Notes: Last modified: Wed, 19 Dec 2001