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Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Thermal boundary layer, thermal lithosphere?

Also known as: thermal boundary layer · thermal lithosphere

Definition 10.15 University Earth and Space Sciences — Year 1 · Chapter 10 — The Earth’s Heat Budget

In a convecting fluid, a thermal boundary layer is a layer along a boundary across which heat passes by conduction and the temperature changes from that of the boundary to that of the well-mixed interior. The thermal lithosphere is the upper thermal boundary layer of the mantle: the outer shell of the Earth from the surface down to the depth where the conductive geotherm meets the mantle adiabat.

Isotherms in a cooling oceanic plate: a half-space initially at 1350 C, cooled from its surface, with = 10-6\, m2\, s-1. Every isotherm deepens as the square root of age; the shaded layer above the 1200 C isotherm is the thermal lithosphere. Arrows are schematic.
Isotherms in a cooling oceanic plate: a half-space initially at 1350∘C1350{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}, cooled from its surface, with κ=10−6 m2 s−1\kappa = 10^{-6}\,\mathrm{m}^{2}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}. Every isotherm deepens as the square root of age; the shaded layer above the 1200∘C1200{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C} isotherm is the thermal lithosphere. Arrows are schematic.
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