ESP's Eric Brown, Kenni Petersen (alumnus), and Charles Lesher have published new work on a new method to invert mantle temperature/composition from basalts. Their method combines Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling with a forward melting model.

Specifically the new inverse mantle melting model constrains mantle potential temperature, lithologic abundance (e.g. peridotite and pyroxenite), and the initial trace element and isotopic compositions of the source lithologies by coupling a Metropolis Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling method with the forward melting model REEBOX PRO. The model has shown that in SW Iceland temperatures are ?125-150 °C above ambient, and the SW Iceland source contains <10% of a very incompatible element-enriched pyroxenite.

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