Dr. Rosie Jones - University of Oxford
The chemical and isotopic evolution of the Earth’s mantle is largely influenced by the formation of oceanic and continental crust at spreading ridges and through arc volcanism, and the subsequent recycling of this material back into the mantle via subduction. Such processes play a key role in producing the geochemical variability we observe in mantle derived samples (e.g., OIB, MORB). In this presentation I will show how a combined geodynamical-geochemical modelling approach can be used to investigate the geochemical evolution of the terrestrial mantle and crust. Specifically I combine geochemical information with a mantle convection model, initially developed by Brandenburg et al. (2008), to investigate the Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd isotope systems, and the effect of continental growth on the coupled crustal-mantle reservoirs.