Compositional and thermal state of the lower mantle from joint 3D inversion with seismic tomography and mineral elasticity.

The compositional and thermal state of Earth's mantle provides critical constraints on the origin, evolution, and dynamics of Earth. However, the chemical composition and thermal structure of the lower mantle are still poorly understood. Particularly, the nature and origin of the two large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) in the lowermost mantle observed from seismological studies are still debated. In this study, we inverted for the 3D chemical composition and thermal state of the lower mantle based on seismic tomography and mineral elasticity data by employing a Markov chain Monte Carlo framework. The results show a silica-enriched lower mantle with a Mg/Si ratio less than ~1.16, lower than that of the pyrolitic upper mantle (Mg/Si = 1.3). The lateral temperature distributions can be described by a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation (SD) of 120 to 140 K at 800 to 1,600 km and the SD increases to 250 K at 2,200 km depth. However, the lateral distribution in the lowermost mantle does not follow the Gaussian distribution. We found that the velocity heterogeneities in the upper lower mantle mainly result from thermal anomalies, while those in the lowermost mantle mainly result from compositional or phase variations. The LLSVPs have higher density at the base and lower density above the depth of ~2,700 km than the ambient mantle, respectively. The LLSVPs are found to have ~500 K higher temperature, higher Bridgmanite and iron content than the ambient mantle, supporting the hypothesis that the LLSVPs may originate from an ancient basal magma ocean formed in Earth's early history.

Elastic properties of Fe-bearing Akimotoite at mantle conditions: Implications for composition and temperature in lower mantle transition zone.

The pyrolite model, which can reproduce the upper-mantle seismic velocity and density profiles, was suggested to have significantly lower velocities and density than seismic models in the lower mantle transition zone (MTZ). This argument has been taken as mineral-physics evidence for a compositionally distinct lower MTZ. However, previous studies only estimated the pyrolite velocities and density along a one-dimension (1D) geotherm and never considered the effect of lateral temperature heterogeneity. Because the majorite-perovskite-akimotoite triple point is close to the normal mantle geotherm in the lower MTZ, the lateral low-temperature anomaly can result in the presence of a significant fraction of akimotoite in pyrolitic lower MTZ. In this study, we reported the elastic properties of Fe-bearing akimotoite based on first-principles calculations. Combining with literature data, we found that the seismic velocities and density of the pyrolite model can match well those in the lower MTZ when the lateral temperature heterogeneity is modeled by a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of ∼100 K and an average temperature of dozens of K higher than the triple point of MgSiO3. We suggest that a harzburgite-rich lower MTZ is not required and the whole mantle convection is expected to be more favorable globally.