Mantle upwellings are a significant component of the Earth’s convective system that can cause volcanism and anomalies in surface topography. They can rise from thermal boundary layers as hot “plumes”. Alternatively, they can be a rather passive response to upper-mantle flow, subduction, or rifting. Clearly, different mechanisms sustain mantle upwellings of various temperature, vigour and size, causing signals that are potentially expressed in geophysical data as well as geochemical signatures of related volcanism.

This session invites contributions that focus on mantle upwellings from geophysics, geochemistry, and modelling perspectives. Our aim is to bring together constraints from multiple disciplines to understand the origin and dynamics of mantle upwellings, as well as their potential to trigger mantle melting, create volcanism, generate ore deposits, and build dynamic topography.

Solicited oral presentations by Claudia Adam (Kansas State University) and Mark Hoggard (University of Cambridge)