How Earth's mantle is like a Jackson Pollock painting

phys.org ^ | 05/20/2019

[BenLurkin]

Lambart and her colleagues from Wales and the Netherlands, sought to discover what the mantle looks like before it rises as lava at a mid-ocean ridge. They examined cores, drilled through the ocean crust, to look at cumulate minerals: the first minerals to crystallize when the magmas enter the crust.

They analyzed the samples centimeter by centimeter to look at variations in isotopes of neodymium and strontium, which can indicate different chemistries of mantle material that come from different types of rock.

The amount of isotope variability in the cumulates was seven times greater than that in the mid-ocean ridge lavas. That means that the mantle is far from well-mixed and that this variability is preserved in the cumulates.

The first rock to melt, for example the old crust, can create channels that can transport magma up to the crust. Melting of another type of rock can do the same. The end result is several networks of channels that converge towards the mid-ocean ridge but don't mix—hearkening back to the streaks of paint on a Jackson Pollock painting.

To get at what this finding means for geology, picture a smoothie. No—go farther back than that and picture the blender carafe full of fruit, ice, milk and other ingredients. That's like the mantle—discrete ingredients, as different from each other as a strawberry is from a blueberry. The fully blended smoothie is like the mid-ocean ridge lava. It's fully mixed. At some point between the deep mantle and the mid-ocean ridge, Earth turns on the blender. Lambart says that her results show that at the very top of the mantle, the mixing hasn't happened yet.

[aynrandfreak]

Why, did someone randomly splatter paint on it?

[NonValueAdded]

I think the erf came before the paintings.

[dangus]

Uh... yeah. Can’t be bothered to click the links?

(Definitely more 70s acid-metal band than Pollock, but still...)

[grobdriver]

So are we doomed, or what?

(Seems to be the scientists' bottom line these days...)

[Zathras]

Jackson Pollock’s work seems simple until you see one face to face.
I stared at of his best works for 30 min and was surprised at the complexity.

[BenLurkin]

Are we doomed?

You bet your bippy we are!

[Larry Lucido]

Global mantle-mixing?

How many years do we have left?

[Track9]

I would suppose these geological patterns would have fractal properties similar to ones seen in alluvial plain images taken from space.

[BenLurkin]

11.68 sez Sandy Cortez

[DocRock]

bookmark

[onedoug]

I splashed some paint on a canvas when I was 11 that had about the same effect.

[ConservativeDude]

it’s so true...glad you had the guts to defend him against the random paint splatter charge....

I haven’t yet watched the biopic available, I believe, on Netflix. I believe Ed Harris plays him? I hear it is amazing.

[trebb]

Or maybe Pollock’s art mimics the Earth’s Mantle...

[kosciusko51]

Sorry, this reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy:

Gamora: And Quill, your ship is filthy.
Gamora: [She walks away]
Peter Quill: Oh she has no idea. If I had a blacklight, this would look like a Jackson Pollock painting.
Rocket Raccoon: You got issues, Quill.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

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[SunkenCiv]

Why Do Lunar Satellites Eventually Crash Into The Moon? | Scott Manley | YouTube | Published on May 22, 2019

[SunkenCiv]

A topic from a year or so ago, just updating the ping message.

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