How the Indian Ocean Geoid Low Was Formed

Pal, D and Ghosh, A (2023) How the Indian Ocean Geoid Low Was Formed. In: Geophysical Research Letters, 50 (9).

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Abstract

The origin of the Earth's lowest geoid, the Indian Ocean geoid low (IOGL) has been controversial. The geoid predicted from present-day tomography models has shown that mid to upper mantle hot anomalies are integral in generating the IOGL. Here we assimilate plate reconstruction in global mantle convection models starting from 140 Ma and show that sinking Tethyan slabs perturbed the African Large Low Shear Velocity province and generated plumes beneath the Indian Ocean, which led to the formation of this negative geoid anomaly. We also show that this low can be reproduced by surrounding mantle density anomalies, without having them present directly beneath the geoid low. We tune the density and viscosity of thermochemical piles at core-mantle boundary, Clapeyron slope and density jump at 660 km discontinuity, and the strength of slabs, to control the rise of plumes, which in turn determine the shape and amplitude of the geoid low.

Item Type:	Editorials/Short Communications
Publication:	Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher:	John Wiley and Sons Inc
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Keywords:	Indian Ocean geoid low; Large Low Shear Velocity provinces; mantle convection; plumes; Tethys slabs
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Earth Sciences
Date Deposited:	23 Jun 2023 09:05
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2023 09:05
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/82032

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