Studies on the thermal and mechanical interaction between the supercontinent cycle and mantle convection using numerical models

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In this study, I performed numerical simulations of mantle convection with the continental lithosphere in a three-dimensional spherical-shell. Results reveal that a highly viscous supercontinent previously located at the top surface of the mantle breaks up, and the continental blocks drift, and finally they newly gather in one place to form a new supercontinent after about six hundred million years from the beginning of simulation. This result indicates that I could reproduce the actual behavior of the supercontinent cycle (i.e., supercontinent cycle) in the computer. I found that the driving force of the supercontinental cycle is not only the thermally convective motion in the mantle, but also plate boundary forces resulting from a complex kinematic interaction among all the plates, i.e., continental plates and the surrounding oceanic plates on the earth.