Curved post-garnet phase boundary may explain puzzling subducting slabs and upwelling plumes

An international research group led by Dr. Takayuki Ishii from HPSTAR and Okayama University, Institute for Planetary Materials, has precisely determined the temperature dependence of the high-pressure phase transition pressure of a mantle mineral of pyrope garnet to bridgmanite plus corundum (post-garnet transition) which may well explain the puzzling dynamics of subducting slabs and upwelling plumes observed seismically in the upper part of the lower mantle.