Geology Reference
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was being generated within it. Thus if the mantle should be overcooled, it would
become more viscous, its convection would slow, its heat loss would slow and it
would begin to warm up again. Conversely if the mantle became overheated, its
viscosity would drop, convection and heat loss would speed up and it would cool
again. This was a very sound argument that was borne out by later calculations of
the thermal evolution of the mantle, which we will see in Chapter 9.