Generation of plate tectonics with two-phase grain-damage and pinning: Source–sink model and toroidal flow

The grain-damage and pinning mechanism of Bercovici and Ricard (2012) for lithospheric shear-localization is employed in two-dimensional flow calculations to test its ability to generate toroidal (strike-slip) motion and influence plate evolution. This mechanism posits that damage to the interface between phases in a polycrystalline material like peridotite (composed primarily of olivine and pyroxene) increases the number of small Zener pinning surfaces, which then constrain mineral grains to ever smaller sizes, regardless of creep mechanism. This effect allows a self-softening feedback in which damage and grain-reduction can co-exist with a grain-size dependent diffusion creep rheology; moreover, grain growth and weak-zone healing are greatly impeded by Zener pinning thereby leading to long-lived relic weak zones. The fluid dynamical calculations employ source–sink driven flow as a proxy for convective poloidal flow (upwelling/downwelling and divergent/convergent motion), and the coupling of this flow with non-linear rheological mechanisms excites toroidal or strike-slip motion. The numerical experiments show that pure dislocation-creep rheology, and grain-damage without Zener pinning (as occurs in a single-phase assemblages) permit only weak localization and toroidal flow; however, the full grain-damage with pinning readily allows focussed localization and intense, plate-like toroidal motion and strike-slip deformation. Rapid plate motion changes are also tested with abrupt rotations of the source–sink field after a plate-like configuration is developed; the post-rotation flow and material property fields retain memory of the original configuration for extensive periods, leading to suboptimally aligned plate boundaries (e.g., strike-slip margins non-parallel to plate motion), oblique subduction, and highly localized, weak and long lived acute plate-boundary junctions such as at what is observed at the Aleutian–Kurile intersection. The grain-damage and pinning theory therefore readily satisfies key plate-tectonic metrics of localized toroidal motion and plate-boundary inheritance, and thus provides a predictive theory for the generation of plate tectonics on Earth and other planets.

► Grain-damage and Zener pinning can couple to allow strong shear localization.
► The damage-pinning mechanism is tested with convective source–sink flow.
► Results show that the mechanism excites plate-like toroidal or strike-slip motion.
► Pinning also impedes healing and allows plate-boundary memory and inheritance.
► Damage memory strongly influences plate evolution after a plate reorganization.