Measurement requirements for glacial uplift detection of nonadiabatic density gradients in the mantle

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Abstract
Recent isotope studies have rekindled interest in the possibility that the mantle may be chemically stratified and therefore nonadiabatic. Previous calculations of the last ice age are compatible only with a ∼1022P mantle. Calculations of the isostatic response of an adiabatic, partially nonadiabatic, and fully nonadiabatic 1022P mantle to the load cycle of the last ice age show that the uplift responses of an adiabatic and even partially nonadiabatic mantle are very different. However, geoid perturbations mask these differences, and the emergence curves of the two mantle types are nearly identical except in the regions near and under the ice loads at the early stages of isostatic readjustment. The calculations suggest that we must seek shoreline emergence data around glaciated areas more than 6000 years before present if nonadiabatic density gradients in the mantle are to be detected from emergence data.

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