Stress memory effect in viscoelastic stagnant lid convection

Present thermochemical convection models of planetary evolution often assume a purely viscous or viscoplastic rheology. Ignoring elasticity in the cold, outer boundary layer is, however, questionable since elastic effects may play an important role there and affect surface topography as well as the stress distribution within the stiff cold lithosphere. Here we present a modelling study focused on the combined effects of Maxwell viscoelastic rheology and a free surface in the stagnant lid planetary convection. We implemented viscoelastic rheology in the StagYY code using a tracer-based stress advection scheme that suppresses subgrid oscillations. We apply this code to perform thermal convection models of the cooling planetary mantles and we demonstrate that while the global characteristics of the mantle flow do not change significantly when including viscoelasticity, the stress state of the cold lithosphere may be substantially different. Transient cooling of an initially thin upper thermal boundary layer results in a complex layered stress structure due to the memory effects of viscoelastic rheology. The stress state of the lid may thus contain a record of the planetary thermal evolution.