Constraining mantle density structure using geological evidence of surface uplift rates: The case of the African Superplume
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We explore the hypothesis that southern Africa is actively being uplifted by a large‐scale, positively buoyant structure within the mid‐lower mantle. Using a new formulation in which dynamic topography and uplift rate are jointly used, we place constraints on mantle density and viscosity. The solution of the momentum equation is coupled with the advection of the density field to solve for the surface uplift rate in both an axisymmetric and fully spherical geometry. We demonstrate how dynamic topography and its rate of change depend on density and lateral and radial variations in viscosity. In the full spherical models the geometry of mantle density is derived by scaling a tomographic shear velocity model. Using a variety of geologic observations, we estimate residual topography (i.e., the topography remaining after shallow sources of density are removed) and an average Cenozoic uplift rate to be 300–600 m and 5–30 m/Myr, respectively, for southern Africa. We are able to satisfy these constraints with a mantle model in which the mid‐lower mantle beneath southern Africa is 0.2% less dense and has a viscosity of ∼ 1022 Pa s. In addition, if the continental lithosphere is thick beneath southern Africa, as suspected from seismic inversions, and has a high effective viscosity, then we find that southern Africa can be further elevated owing to increased coupling between the deep mantle and surface. We show that recent estimates of mantle density, suggesting that the lowest parts of the African anomaly may be anomalously dense are compatible with geologic constraints. We conclude that uplift rate, when combined with estimates of present‐day dynamic topography, provides a powerful tool to constrain the properties of the deep mantle.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".