Mantle Convection

Inside the Earth, hot rock acts like boiling soup. The hot parts rise up, cool down, and then sink back down. This "circular" motion is the engine that pushes the giant tectonic plates around on the surface.

Deep, invisible forces are the reason the world looks the way it does on the outside.

Mantle Convection is a Rayleigh-Bénard instability on a planetary scale. It is the process by which Earth sheds its primordial and radiogenic heat. The viscosity of the mantle allows for plastic flow over geological timescales, creating the advection currents that drive plate kinematics and volcanic hotspots. It mirrors Grassroots Movements: small, "hot" ideas at the bottom of a hierarchy rise, circulate, and eventually move the massive "plates" of established law.

SOUND: The low "glub-glub" of a thick pot of oatmeal simmering.

SMELL: The scent of steam rising from a hot pavement.

TASTE: A warm soup that is hot at the bottom and cooler on top.

TOUCH: Hold your hand above a heater and feel the warm air rising (convection).

SIGHT: Watch the "lava" move up and down inside a lava lamp.

BODY: Feel the heat rising from your body after you run fast.

Music: Valentina by The Hunts

Music: Read My Mind by The Killers

Part of Earth & Geology — SCIENCE — Education Revelation