Time changes of geoid and inertia tensor for models of mantle flow
This project is aimed at better understanding the mantle processes
that are most responsible for Cenocoic true polar wander.
Here the predicted geoid change for the
Harvard 3-D Earth model
S12_WM13 by Su et al. (1994)
is shown as an example. The sinking of the geoid
centered at the northern tip of New Zealand that is predicted here could be partly responsible for cenocoic polar wander towards Greenland -- polar motion
tends to move regions of sinking geoid to the poles and regions of rising geoid
towards the equator such as to maximize the moment of inertia tensor.
These results are included in an article for an AGU monograph.
This project was initiated during my Ph.D. thesis with
Richard J. O'Connell, and has been continued with Gabriele Marquart and Karen Niehuus, and most recently with
Trond Torsvik
-
Steinberger, B. and R.J. O'Connell (2002).
The convective mantle flow signal in rates
of true polar wander, in
Ice Sheets, Sea Level and the Dynamic Earth,
Geodyn. Ser., 29,
ed. Mitrovica, J. X., and L. L. A. Vermeersen, AGU, Washington, DC., 233-256.
[abstract]
[pdf]
[Figure 9, corrected]
[Figure 10, corrected]
- Marquart, G., B. Steinberger and K. Niehuus (2005).
On the effect of a low viscosity asthenosphere on the temporal change
of the geoid -- a challenge for future gravity missions,
J. Geodyn., 39, 493-511,
doi:10.1016/j.jog.2005.04.006
[pdf]
- Steinberger, B. and T. H. Torsvik (2010),
Toward an explanation for the present and past locations of the poles,
Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., Q06W06,
doi:10.1029/2009GC002889
[pdf]
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