Seismological evidence for thermo-chemical heterogeneity in Earth's continental mantle

International audienceEarth's thermo-chemical structure exerts a fundamental control on mantle convection, plate tectonics, and surface volcanism. There are indications that mantle convection occurs as an intermittent-stage process between layered and whole mantle convection in interaction with a compositional stratification at 660 km depth. However, the presence and possible role of any compositional layering in the mantle remains to be ascertained and understood. By interfacing inversio