As a result of Earth’s mantle convection, rocks in the earth’s interior flow and develop a crystallographic texture. These textures reveal the planet’s thermal and tectonic history and are responsible for the viscous anisotropy, which can be used to study the planet’s deeper recesses that are not visible through other means. This necessitates the use of models that can pred ...[Read More]
We are living in an anisotropic world. From rock-building crystals, ice, and trees growing in your garden to your favourite slice of cake many materials or objects has some anisotropic behaviour. What does this mean? Anisotropy (non-isotropy) implies that a material property depends on the direction of the measurement. In geodynamics we often talk about seismic anisotropy, originating from microsc ...[Read More]
Mantle flow and deformation beneath tectonic plates
While we have sent several rovers to Mars, drilling down even just to the mantle of our own planet is a challenge that we are yet to overcome. How is it then that we know all these things about our planet’s interior? It turns out, we do not need to be inside the Earth to know what is happening there. Observations from geophysics and geochemistry can inform us about the processes and the properties ...[Read More]
