Lithosphere

A lithosphere (from

Earth's lithosphere, which constitutes the hard and rigid outer vertical layer of the Earth, includes the crust and the lithospheric mantle (or mantle lithosphere), the uppermost part of the mantle that is not convecting. The lithosphere is underlain by the asthenosphere which is the weaker, hotter, and deeper part of the upper mantle that is able to convect. The lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary is defined by a difference in response to stress. The lithosphere remains rigid for very long periods of geologic time in which it deforms elastically and through brittle failure, while the asthenosphere deforms viscously and accommodates strain through plastic deformation.^{[citation needed]}

The thickness of the lithosphere is thus considered to be the depth to the isotherm associated with the transition between brittle and viscous behavior.^[2] The temperature at which olivine becomes ductile (~1,000 °C or 1,830 °F) is often used to set this isotherm because olivine is generally the weakest mineral in the upper mantle.^[3]

The lithosphere is subdivided horizontally into tectonic plates, which often include terranes accreted from other plates.^{[citation needed]}

History of the concept

The concept of the lithosphere as Earth's strong outer layer was described by the English mathematician A. E. H. Love in his 1911 monograph "Some problems of Geodynamics" and further developed by the American geologist Joseph Barrell, who wrote a series of papers about the concept and introduced the term "lithosphere".^[4][5][6][7] The concept was based on the presence of significant gravity anomalies over continental crust, from which he inferred that there must exist a strong, solid upper layer (which he called the lithosphere) above a weaker layer which could flow (which he called the asthenosphere). These ideas were expanded by the Canadian geologist Reginald Aldworth Daly in 1940 with his seminal work "Strength and Structure of the Earth."^[8] They have been broadly accepted by geologists and geophysicists. These concepts of a strong lithosphere resting on a weak asthenosphere are essential to the theory of plate tectonics.^{[citation needed]}

Types

The lithosphere can be divided into oceanic and continental lithosphere. Oceanic lithosphere is associated with

Oceanic lithosphere consists mainly of mafic crust and ultramafic mantle (peridotite) and is denser than continental lithosphere. Young oceanic lithosphere, found at mid-ocean ridges, is no thicker than the crust, but oceanic lithosphere thickens as it ages and moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. The oldest oceanic lithosphere is typically about 140 kilometres (87 mi) thick.^[3] This thickening occurs by conductive cooling, which converts hot asthenosphere into lithospheric mantle and causes the oceanic lithosphere to become increasingly thick and dense with age. In fact, oceanic lithosphere is a thermal boundary layer for the convection^[10] in the mantle. The thickness of the mantle part of the oceanic lithosphere can be approximated as a thermal boundary layer that thickens as the square root of time.^{[citation needed]}

$${\displaystyle h\,\sim \,2\,{\sqrt {\kappa t}}}$$

Here, ${\displaystyle h}$ is the thickness of the oceanic mantle lithosphere, ${\displaystyle \kappa }$ is the thermal diffusivity (approximately 1.0×10⁻⁶ m²/s or 6.5×10⁻⁴ sq ft/min) for silicate rocks, and ${\displaystyle t}$ is the age of the given part of the lithosphere. The age is often equal to L/V, where L is the distance from the spreading centre of

Geophysical studies in the early 21st century posit that large pieces of the lithosphere have been subducted into the mantle as deep as 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) to near the core-mantle boundary,^[14] while others "float" in the upper mantle.^[15][16] Yet others stick down into the mantle as far as 400 kilometres (250 mi) but remain "attached" to the continental plate above,^[13] similar to the extent of the old concept of "tectosphere" revisited by Jordan in 1988.^[17] Subducting lithosphere remains rigid (as demonstrated by deep earthquakes along Wadati–Benioff zone) to a depth of about 600 kilometres (370 mi).^[18]

Continental lithosphere

Continental lithosphere has a range in thickness from about 40 kilometres (25 mi) to perhaps 280 kilometres (170 mi);

Because of its relatively low density, continental lithosphere that arrives at a subduction zone cannot subduct much further than about 100 km (62 mi) before resurfacing. As a result, continental lithosphere is not recycled at subduction zones the way oceanic lithosphere is recycled. Instead, continental lithosphere is a nearly permanent feature of the Earth.[19]^[20]

Mantle xenoliths

Geoscientists can directly study the nature of the subcontinental mantle by examining mantle xenoliths^[21] brought up in kimberlite, lamproite, and other volcanic pipes. The histories of these xenoliths have been investigated by many methods, including analyses of abundances of isotopes of osmium and rhenium. Such studies have confirmed that mantle lithospheres below some cratons have persisted for periods in excess of 3 billion years, despite the mantle flow that accompanies plate tectonics.^[22]

Microorganisms

The upper part of the lithosphere is a large habitat for microorganisms, with some found more than 4.8 km (3 mi) below Earth's surface.^[23]

See also

• Carbonate–silicate cycle
• Climate system
• Cryosphere
• Geosphere
• Kola Superdeep Borehole
• Mohorovičić discontinuity
• Pedosphere
• Solid earth
• Vertical displacement

References

Further reading

• Chernicoff, Stanley; Whitney, Donna (1990). Geology. An Introduction to Physical Geology (4th ed.).
  ISBN 978-0-13-175124-8
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lithospheres.

• Earth's Crust, Lithosphere and Asthenosphere
• Crust and Lithosphere