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Olivine lattice preferred orientation (LPO), or texture, forms in relation to deformation mechanisms such as dislocation creep and can be observed in the upper mantle as seismic anisotropy. Olivine is also mechanically anisotropic, meaning that it responds to stresses differently depending on the direction of the stress. Understanding the interplay between anisotropic viscosity (AV) and LPO, and their role in deformation, is necessary for relating seismic anisotropy to mantle flow patterns. In this study, we employ three methods to predict olivine texture (D-Rex, MDM, and MDM+AV) in a shear box model and a subduction model. D-Rex and MDM are two representative texture development methods that have been compared before, and our results are in line with previous studies showing that textures computed by D-Rex develop faster and are stronger and more point-like than textures calculated with MDM. MDM+AV uses the same isotropic mantle stresses and particle paths as D-Rex and MDM but includes the effect of AV for texture predictions. MDM+AV predicts a texture similar to MDM with a distinct girdle-like orientation for simple shear deformation or at low strain in the subduction model. At larger strains, MDM+AV’s textures are more point-like and stronger compared to the other two methods. The effective viscosity for MDM+AV drops by up to 60% in a shear box model and can be either strengthened or weakened relative to isotropic viscosity for different regions of the subduction model experiencing different patterns of deformation. Our results emphasize the significant role of AV in olivine texture development, which could substantially affect geodynamic processes in the upper mantle. 

Abstract The redistribution of past and present ice and ocean loading on Earth's surface causes solid Earth deformation and geoid changes, known as glacial isostatic adjustment. The deformation is controlled by elastic and viscous material parameters, which are inhomogeneous in the Earth. We present a new viscoelastic solid Earth deformation model in ASPECT (Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth's ConvecTion): a modern, massively parallel, open‐source finite element code originally designed to simulate convection in the Earth's mantle. We show the performance of solid Earth deformation in ASPECT and compare solutions to TABOO, a semianalytical code, and Abaqus, a commercial finite element code. The maximum deformation and deformation rates using ASPECT agree within 2.6% for the average percentage difference with TABOO and Abaqus on glacial cycle (∼100 kyr) and contemporary ice melt (∼100 years) timescales. This gives confidence in the performance of our new solid Earth deformation model. We also demonstrate the computational efficiency of using adaptively refined meshes, which is a great advantage for solid Earth deformation modeling. Furthermore, we demonstrate the model performance in the presence of lateral viscosity variations in the upper mantle and report on parallel scalability of the code. This benchmarked code can now be used to investigate regional solid Earth deformation rates from ice age and contemporary ice melt. This is especially interesting for low‐viscosity regions in the upper mantle beneath Antarctica and Greenland, where it is not fully understood how ice age and contemporary ice melting contribute to geodetic measurements of solid Earth deformation.