RudolphLekicLithgowBertelloniData

Here, we provide the results from the paper (Rudolph et al. 2015, RLL15 henceforth):

Rudolph, M.L., Lekic, V., and Lithgow-Bertelloni, C. Viscosity Jump in Earth's Mid-mantle. Science 350(6266):1349-1352. doi: 10.1126/science.aad1929

You are welcome to download and use these results as you see fit. However we ask that you cite our paper as the source of these model results.

Overview

The solutions presented in RLL15 (Figure 2 and supplementary materials) are based on posterior probability density functions produced by our transdimensional, hierarchical, Bayesian inversion procedure. Each model that is a member of the posterior pdf is parameterized using piecewise-constant viscous layers, but due to tradeoffs, the average value of viscosity appears to vary smoothly with depth in some of the pdfs. The inversions performed in RLL15 are constrained by the long-wavelength dynamic geoid, which is not sensitive to the absolute viscosity - only to relative variations in viscosity. For convenience, we have fixed the viscosity at 250 km depth among all solutions. The viscosity in the upper mantle and shallow lower mantle is well-constrained in absolute terms from modeling observations of glacial isostatic adjustment.

Data Format

The data is provided as an ascii-formatted file with tab-separated values. Non-data lines (comments and description) start with '#'. The first column gives depth (in km) and subsequent columns give log-mean viscosities for posterior ensembles with different a priori assumptions about the conversion from Vs anomalies and density anomalies. The header describes the assumptions made in each of these inversions.