The rheology of oceanic lithosphere is important to our understanding of mantle dynamics and to the emergence and manifestations of plate tectonics. Data from experimental rock mechanics suggest rheology is dominated by three different deformation mechanisms including frictional sliding, low‐temperature plasticity, and high‐temperature creep, from shallow depths at relatively cold temperatures to large depths at relatively high temperatures. However, low‐temperature plasticity is poorly understood. This study further constrains low‐temperature plasticity by comparing observations of flexure at the Hawaiian Islands to predictions from 3‐D viscoelastic loading models with a realistic lithospheric rheology of frictional sliding, low‐temperature plasticity, and high‐temperature creep. We find that previously untested flow laws significantly underpredict the amplitude and overpredict the wavelength of flexure at Hawaii. These flow laws can, however, reproduce observations if they are weakened by a modest reduction (25–40%) in the plastic activation energy. Lithospheric rheology is strongly temperature dependent, and so we explore uncertainties in the thermal structure with different conductive cooling models and convection simulations of plume‐lithosphere interactions. Convection simulations show that thermal erosion from a plume only perturbs the lithospheric temperature significantly at large depths so that when it is added to the thermal structure, it produces a small increase in deflection. In addition, defining the temperature profile by the cooling plate model produces only modest weakening relative to the cooling half‐space model. Therefore, variation of the thermal structure does not appear to be a viable means of bringing laboratory‐derived flow laws for low‐temperature plasticity into agreement with geophysical field observations and modeling.
Flexure occurs on intermediate geologic timescales (∼1 Myr) due to volcanic‐island building at the Island of Hawaii, and the deformational response of the lithosphere is simultaneously elastic, plastic, and ductile. At shallow depths and low temperatures, elastic deformation transitions to frictional failure on faults where stresses exceed a threshold value, and this complex rheology controls the rate of deformation manifested by earthquakes. In this study, we estimate the seismic strain rate based on earthquakes recorded between 1960 and 2019 at Hawaii, and the estimated strain rate with 10−18–10−15s−1in magnitude exhibits a local minimum or neutral bending plane at 15 km depth within the lithosphere. In comparison, flexure and internal deformation of the lithosphere are modeled in 3D viscoelastic loading models where deformation at shallow depths is accommodated by frictional sliding on faults and limited by the frictional coefficient (
- Award ID(s):
- 1940026
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10449128
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
- Volume:
- 22
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1525-2027
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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