Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
50
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C, how deep does your tank have to be to have the same Ra as the mantle?
The answer is 19 cm. This is a feasible scale for a laboratory experiment, and the
vigour of your experiment will be analogous to the vigour of the mantle.
However, having the same value of Ra doesn't ensure that everything about
the experiment will be like mantle convection. For example, it is difficult to get a
laboratory material that will give a good simulation of tectonic plates. The presence
of plates as part of mantle convection has a big effect on the form of the convective
flow, and on some of the main things we can observe about mantle convection, as
we will see in the next chapter.
