Programme theme
The Earth's mantle is almost entirely solid, but on geological timescales it convects vigorously, the well-known surface expression of this being plate tectonics. At depths up to ~100 km beneath plate-tectonic boundaries (mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones), and beneath ocean islands such as Hawaii, the mantle melts, and that melt rises to the surface to feed volcanism and form new crust. Such magmatism plays a key role in the chemical evolution and dynamics of our planet. Although the basic thermodynamics of melt generation in these settings is well understood, how the melt is transported to the surface is not, despite several decades of work on the problem. Furthermore, recent observational evidence suggests that mantle melting is not restricted to the near surface (top 100 km): it may occur within the mantle transition zone (410-660 km depth) and above the core-mantle boundary (2900 km). For these deeper instances of melting, an understanding of the dynamical and thermochemical characteristics is currently lacking.
Understanding the formation and migration of melt in the mantle presents a formidable scientific and mathematical challenge. One key challenge is in bridging diverse length scales - melt lies along grain boundaries at micron scales, may focus into channels at metre scales, and migrates over 100 km. Sophisticated mathematical techniques, such as homogenisation theory, are needed to map an understanding of physics at the smallest scales to plate-tectonic scales. Seismology offers a way to image melt in the mantle, but the development of new tools in inverse theory are required to extract that information. Models of melt transport are eventually cast as a series of coupled non-linear partial differential equations, which require advanced numerical techniques to solve. This programme will bring together a broad spectrum of mathematicians and solid Earth scientists to tackle these and other fundamental challenges of melt in the mantle.
Click here to download the programme's final scientific report
Workshops
From foundations to state-of-the-art in magma/mantle dynamics
15 February 2016 to 19 February 2016
From the grain to the continuum: two phase dynamics of a partially molten, polycrystalline aggregate
11 April 2016 to 15 April 2016
From the continuum to the tectonic: the magma/mantle dynamics of planet earth
6 June 2016 to 10 June 2016
Seminars
| Thursday 3rd March 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:30 to 15:30 |
Jed Brown University of Colorado; Argonne National Laboratory |
Room 2 | 
|
| Thursday 10th March 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Takehiro Koyaguchi University of Tokyo |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 17th March 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
David Rees Jones University of Oxford |
Room 2 |
|
| 15:30 to 16:30 |
Meng Tian Yale University; University of Oxford |
Room 2 |
|
| Monday 21st March 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 to 17:00 |
Jan Nordbotten Universitetet i Bergen; Princeton University |
Room 2 | |
| Thursday 31st March 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Urmi Dutta None / Other |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 7th April 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Kundan Kumar Universitetet i Bergen |
Room 2 |
|
| Friday 8th April 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 to 17:00 |
Maarten de Hoop Rice University |
Room 2 |
|
| Monday 18th April 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 to 17:00 |
Peter Kelemen Columbia University; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 21st April 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Alex Song University College London |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 28th April 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Mikel Diez University of Bristol |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 5th May 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Paula Antoshechkina CALTECH (California Institute of Technology) |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 12th May 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Jacob Jordan University of Texas at Austin |
Room 2 |
|
| Monday 16th May 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 to 17:00 |
Andrew Fowler University of Limerick; University of Oxford |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 19th May 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Timo Heister |
Room 2 |
|
| Thursday 26th May 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Ryan Grove None / Other |
Room 1 |
|
| Thursday 16th June 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:15 to 15:30 |
Laurent Montesi University of Maryland, College Park |
Room 2 |
|
Organisers
- Todd Arbogast University of Texas at Austin
- Arwen Deuss Universiteit Utrecht
- Richard Katz University of Oxford
- Jerome Neufeld University of Cambridge
- John Rudge University of Cambridge
- Yasuko Takei University of Tokyo
Speakers
- Paula Antoshechkina CALTECH (California Institute of Technology)
- Jed Brown University of Colorado; Argonne National Laboratory
- Maarten de Hoop Rice University
- Mikel Diez University of Bristol
- Urmi Dutta Jadavpur University
- Andrew Fowler University of Limerick; University of Oxford
- Ryan Grove None / Other
- Timo Heister
- Jacob Jordan University of Texas at Austin
- Peter Kelemen Columbia University; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Takehiro Koyaguchi University of Tokyo
- Kundan Kumar Universitetet i Bergen
- Laurent Montesi University of Maryland, College Park
- Jan Nordbotten Universitetet i Bergen; Princeton University
- David Rees Jones University of Oxford
- Alex Song University College London
- Meng Tian Yale University; University of Oxford
Participants
- David Al-Attar University of Cambridge
- Paula Antoshechkina CALTECH (California Institute of Technology)
- Todd Arbogast University of Texas at Austin
- Paul Asimow CALTECH (California Institute of Technology)
- Amiya Baruah Royal Holloway, University of London
- Benoit Bevillard Université d'Orléans
- Jed Brown University of Colorado; Argonne National Laboratory
- Jonathan Burley University of Oxford
- Samuel Butler University of Saskatchewan
- Yann Capdeville CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique); Université de Nantes
- Juliane Dannberg Texas A&M University
- Arwen Deuss Universiteit Utrecht
- Mikel Diez University of Bristol
- Urmi Dutta Jadavpur University
- Isarapong Eksinchol University of Cambridge
- Andrew Fowler University of Limerick; University of Oxford
- Ryan Grove None / Other
- Lars Hansen University of Oxford
- S. Majid Hassanizadeh Universiteit Utrecht
- Timo Heister
- Ian Hewitt University of Oxford
- Sash Hier-Majumder Royal Holloway, University of London
- Herbert Huppert University of Cambridge
- Margarete Jadamec University of Houston
- Richard Katz University of Oxford
- Boris Kaus Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; University of Southern California
- Peter Kelemen Columbia University; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Tobias Keller University of Oxford
- Matthew Knepley Rice University
- David Kohlstedt University of Minnesota
- Takehiro Koyaguchi University of Tokyo
- Kundan Kumar Universitetet i Bergen
- John Lister University of Cambridge
- John MacLennan University of Cambridge
- Christopher MacMinn University of Oxford
- Simon Matthews University of Cambridge
- Dan McKenzie University of Cambridge
- Laurent Montesi University of Maryland, College Park
- Stephen Morris University of Toronto
- Elvira Mulyukova Yale University
- Jerome Neufeld University of Cambridge
- Jan Nordbotten Universitetet i Bergen; Princeton University
- David Rees Jones University of Oxford
- Sander Rhebergen University of Waterloo
- Neil Ribe CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique); Université Paris Saclay
- John Rudge University of Cambridge
- Tim Schulze University of Tennessee
- Ralph Showalter Oregon State University
- Valery Smyshlyaev University College London
- Alex Song University College London
- Marc Spiegelman Columbia University
- Yasuko Takei University of Tokyo
- Robert van der Hilst Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Garth Wells University of Cambridge
- Andrew Wells University of Oxford
- Son-Young Yi University of Texas at El Paso
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