Plate tectonics and Geodynamics

I am interested in global plate tectonics and geodynamics.

The right figure shows the calculated temperature and phase distributions associated with the subduction of the Mariana slab at 10 Myr after its initiation. The model explains the depth of the seismologically detected metastable olivine wedge and the amount of depression of the 660-km phase boundary in the Mariana slab (Yoshioka et al., Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 240, pp. 70-81, 2015).

Grain-size evolution associated with the metastable olivine-spinel phase transformation

Strength profiles of subducted slabs in the mantle transition zone show an unusual temperature dependence through the temperature dependence of spinel grain size. Consequently, cold slabs develop a complicated rheological structure, with a weak region, below the tip of a metastable olivine-bearing wedge (Riedel & Karato, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 148, pp. 27-43, 1997).