Seismo Lab Seminar
The Earth's lowermost mantle harbors two large low shear-wave velocity provinces with patches of ultra-low velocity zones. These structures exhibit distinct seismic and geochemical signatures compared to the surrounding mantle. Yet, their origin remains enigmatic. Here, I propose a new long-term core-mantle chemical interaction model termed basal exsolution contaminated magma ocean (BECMO) which considers the addition of oxide exsolved from the core into the basal magma ocean. As a first step, I will show that oxide exsolved from the core can selectively deliver core-like signatures, by leveraging large-scale atomistic simulations powered by cutting-edge machine learning techniques and density functional theory, as well as high-pressure experiments. I then delve into the long-term interaction of core-derived exsolution and the mantle, and present geodynamic modeling and thermodynamic modeling results of the BECMO mantle, and discuss the implications for forming deep mantle geochemical and geophysical heterogeneities of various scales.