Lyu, Tianyang;
Ballmer, Maxim D;
Li, Zhong-Hai;
Lee, Man Hoi;
Yan, Jun;
Wu, Benjun;
Zhao, Guochun;
(2025)
Dissecting the puzzle of tectonic lid regimes in terrestrial planets.
Nature Communications
, 16
, Article 10037. 10.1038/s41467-025-65943-1.
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Abstract
The surface tectonic style of rocky planets controls interior evolution, geologic activity, dynamo action, atmospheric composition, and thus, habitability. In the solar system, Earth is unique in exhibiting plate tectonics, but it also displays a protracted history of diverse tectonic regimes. To understand the dynamics of the coupled plate-mantle system, here we explore 2D hemispheric-scale thermochemical mantle convection models with self-consistent magmatism that reach the statistical steady state. By statistical analysis of model predictions, we quantitatively distinguish between six tectonic regimes, including the mobile, stagnant, sluggish, plutonic-squishy and episodic lids. In addition, we discover the episodic-squishy lid regime, characterized by alternating episodes of plutonic-squishy lid and mobile-lid behavior. By mapping out these regimes over a wide parameter space, we constrain the conditions for potential regime transitions during planetary cooling. Based on geological evidence of Earth’s tectonic history, our results point to decreasing effective lithospheric strength during planetary evolution, consistent with previously-proposed physical weakening mechanisms. We also suggest an important role of the episodic-squishy lid for early Earth and present-day Venus. Thus, our study helps to understand the tectonic history of terrestrial planets as they cool over time.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Dissecting the puzzle of tectonic lid regimes in terrestrial planets |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-025-65943-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65943-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10217963 |
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