Significance The composition of ocean island basalts is known to correlate with zones in the lowermost mantle almost 3,000 km below, thought to represent piles of hot, dense material. One important open question in the Earth sciences is the mechanism behind this link between the surface and Earth’s deep interior. Here, we use high-resolution 3D geodynamic models with a realistic subduction history, plate geometries, and plate motions to identify a dynamically feasible mechanism for how rising hot material can inherit the lower-mantle geochemical structure despite variations in material density. Our findings provide a framework for mapping chemical anomalies at the surface to the deep mantle and illuminate the composition of one of the least well-understood regions of the Earth.
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Dannberg et al. (2018) studied this question.
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