It is unlikely that the Earth's mantle — the layer beneath the crust and above the core — was completely homogeneous when it initially formed. Over time, cooling-induced convection as well as ...

Starting from basic principles, coverage provides a fundamental exploration into the principles of convection in the earth's mantle, summarizes key observations and presents all the relevant physics.

The emerging model of mantle convection suggests that some relatively cool subducting slabs of oceanic plate (blue) are deflected at the 660 km discontinuity (dashed black line) whereas others ...

evidence suggests it is the plates that drive the convection. Slab pull occurs where older, denser tectonic plates sink into the mantle at subduction zones. As these older sections of plates sink ...

The diagram below shows the structure of ... are where tectonic plates pull apart due to convection currents in the mantle. Most constructive plate boundaries are found on ocean floors.