Regional Vp, Vs, Vp/Vs, and Poisson's ratios across earthquake source zones from Memphis, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri

USGS Publications Warehouse

Catchings, R.D.

1999-01-01

Models of P- and S-wave velocity, Vp/Vs ratios, Poisson's ratios, and density for the crust and upper mantle are presented along a 400-km-long profile trending from Memphis, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri. The profile crosses the New Madrid seismic zone and reveals distinct regional variations in the crustal velocity structure north and south of the latitude of New Madrid. In the south near Memphis, the upper few kilometers of the crust are dominated by upper crustal sedimentary basins or graben with P-wave velocities less than 5 km/sec and S-wave velocities of about 2 km/sec. P-wave velocities of the upper and middle crust range from 6.0 to 6.5 km/sec at depths above 25 km, and corresponding S-wave velocities range from 3.5 to 3.7 km/sec. The lower crust consists of a high-velocity layer (Vp = 7.4 km/sec; Vs ~4.2 km/sec) that is up to 20-km thick at the latitude of New Madrid but thins to about 15 km near Memphis. To the north, beneath the western-most Illinois basin, low-velocity (Vp < 5 km/sec; Vs < 2.3 km/sec) sedimentary basins are less than 1-km deep. The average velocities (Vp = 6.0 km/sec; Vs = 3.5 km/sec) of the underlying, near-surface rocks argue against large thickness of unconsolidated noncarbonate sediments within 50 km of the western edge of the Illinois basin. Most of the crust beneath the Illinois basin is modeled as one layer, with velocities up to 6.8 km/sec (Vs = 3.7 km/sec) at 37-km depth. The thick, high-velocity (Vp = 7.4 km/sec; Vs ~4.2 km/sec) lower crustal layer thins from about 20 km near New Madrid to about 6 km beneath the western Illinois basin. Refractions from the Moho and upper mantle occur as first arrivals over distances as a great as 160 km and reveal upper mantle layering to 60 km depth. Upper mantle layers with P-wave velocities of 8.2 km/sec (Vs = 4.5 km/sec) and 8.4 km/sec (Vs = 4.7 km/sec) are modeled at 43 and 60 km depth, respectively. Crustal Vp/Vs ratios range between 1.74 and 1.83, and upper mantle Vp/V s ratios range from 1.78 to 1.84. Poisson's ratios range from about 0.26 to 0.33 in the crust and from about 0.27 to 0.29 in the upper mantle. Modeled average densities range from about 2.55 in the sedimentary basins to 3.43 in the upper mantle. Geophysical characteristics of the crust and upper mantle within the New Madrid seismic zone are consistent with other continental rifts, but the crustal structure of the Illinois basin is not characteristics of most continental rift settings. Seismic and gravity data suggest a buried horst near the middle of Reelfoot rift, beneath which is a vertical zone of seismicity and velocity anomalies. The relative depth of the Reelfoot rift north and south of the Reelfoot graben suggests that the rift and its bounding faults may extend eastward beneath the city of Memphis.

Tracking silica in Earth's upper mantle using new sound velocity data for coesite to 5.8 GPa and 1073 K: Tracking Silica in Earth's Upper Mantle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Ting; Liebermann, Robert C.; Zou, Yongtao

The compressional and shear wave velocities for coesite have been measured simultaneously up to 5.8 GPa and 1073 K by ultrasonic interferometry for the first time. The shear wave velocity decreases with pressure along all isotherms. The resulting contrasts between coesite and stishovite reach ~34% and ~45% for P and S wave velocities, respectively, and ~64% and ~75% for their impedance at mantle conditions. The large velocity and impedance contrasts across coesite-stishovite transition imply that to generate the velocity and impedance contrasts observed at the X-discontinuity, only a small amount of silica would be required. The velocity jump dependences onmore » silica, d(lnVP)/d(SiO2) = 0.38 (wt %)-1 and d(lnVS)/d(SiO2) = 0.52 (wt %)-1, are utilized to place constraints on the amount of silica in the upper mantle and provide a geophysical approach to track mantle eclogite materials and ancient subducted oceanic slabs.« less

Crustal and Upper Mantle Structure from Joint Inversion of Body Wave and Gravity Data

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

CRUSTAL AND UPPER MANTLE STRUCTURE FROM JOINT INVERSION OF BODY WAVE AND GRAVITY DATA Eric A. Bergman1, Charlotte Rowe2, and Monica Maceira2...for these events include many readings of direct crustal P and S phases, as well as regional (Pn and Sn) and teleseismic phases. These data have been...the usefulness of the gravity data, we apply high-pass filtering, yielding gravity anomalies that possess higher resolving power for crustal and

P wave velocity of Proterozoic upper mantle beneath central and southern Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyblade, Andrew A.; Vogfjord, Kristin S.; Langston, Charles A.

1996-05-01

P wave velocity structure of Proterozoic upper mantle beneath central and southern Africa was investigated by forward modeling of Pnl waveforms from four moderate size earthquakes. The source-receiver path of one event crosses central Africa and lies outside the African superswell while the source-receiver paths for the other events cross Proterozoic lithosphere within southern Africa, inside the African superswell. Three observables (Pn waveshape, PL-Pn time, and Pn/PL amplitude ratio) from the Pnl waveform were used to constrain upper mantle velocity models in a grid search procedure. For central Africa, synthetic seismograms were computed for 5880 upper mantle models using the generalized ray method and wavenumber integration; synthetic seismograms for 216 models were computed for southern Africa. Successful models were taken as those whose synthetic seismograms had similar waveshapes to the observed waveforms, as well as PL-Pn times within 3 s of the observed times and Pn/PL amplitude ratios within 30% of the observed ratio. Successful models for central Africa yield a range of uppermost mantle velocity between 7.9 and 8.3 km s-1, velocities between 8.3 and 8.5 km s-1 at a depth of 200 km, and velocity gradients that are constant or slightly positive. For southern Africa, successful models yield uppermost mantle velocities between 8.1 and 8.3 km s-1, velocities between 7.9 and 8.4 km s-1 at a depth of 130 km, and velocity gradients between -0.001 and 0.001 s-1. Because velocity gradients are controlled strongly by structure at the bottoming depths for Pn waves, it is not easy to compare the velocity gradients obtained for central and southern Africa. For central Africa, Pn waves turn at depths of about 150-200 km, whereas for southern Africa they bottom at ˜100-150 km depth. With regard to the origin of the African superswell, our results do not have sufficient resolution to test hypotheses that invoke simple lithospheric reheating. However, our models are not consistent with explanations for the African superswell invoking extensive amounts of lithospheric thinning. If extensive lithospheric thinning had occurred beneath southern Africa, as suggested previously, then upper mantle P wave velocities beneath southern Africa would likely be lower than those in our models.

Relationship between the upper mantle high velocity seismic lid and the continental lithosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Priestley, Keith; Tilmann, Frederik

2009-04-01

The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary corresponds to the base of the "rigid" plates - the depth at which heat transport changes from advection in the convecting deeper upper mantle to conduction in the shallow upper mantle. Although this boundary is a fundamental feature of the Earth, mapping it has been difficult because it does not correspond to a sharp change in temperature or composition. Various definitions of the lithosphere and asthenosphere are based on the analysis of different types of geophysical and geological observations. The depth to the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary determined from these different observations often shows little agreement when they are applied to the same region because the geophysical and geological observations (i.e., seismic velocity, strain rate, electrical resistivity, chemical depletion, etc.) are proxies for the change in rheological properties rather than a direct measure of the rheological properties. In this paper, we focus on the seismic mapping of the upper mantle high velocity lid and low velocity zone and its relationship to the lithosphere and asthenosphere. We have two goals: (a) to examine the differences in how teleseismic body-wave travel-time tomography and surface-wave tomography image upper mantle seismic structure; and (b) to summarise how upper mantle seismic velocity structure can be related to the structure of the lithosphere and asthenosphere. Surface-wave tomography provides reasonably good depth resolution, especially when higher modes are included in the analysis, but lateral resolution is limited by the horizontal wavelength of the long-period surface waves used to constrain upper mantle velocity structure. Teleseismic body-wave tomography has poor depth resolution in the upper mantle, particularly when no strong lateral contrasts are present. If station terms are used, features with large lateral extent and gradual boundaries are attenuated in the tomographic image. Body-wave models are not useful in mapping the thickness of the high velocity upper mantle lid because this type of analysis often determines wave speed perturbations from an unknown horizontal average and not absolute velocities. Thus, any feature which extends laterally across the whole region beneath a seismic network becomes invisible in the teleseismic body-wave tomographic image. We compare surface-wave and body-wave tomographic results using southern Africa as an example. Surface-wave tomographic images for southern Africa show a strong, high velocity upper mantle lid confined to depths shallower than ~ 200 km, whereas body-wave tomographic images show weak high velocity in the upper mantle extending to depths of ~ 300 km or more. However, synthetic tests show that these results are not contradictory. The absolute seismic velocity structure of the upper mantle provided by surface wave analysis can be used to map the thermal lithosphere. Priestley and McKenzie (Priestley, K., McKenzie, D., 2006. The thermal structure of the lithosphere from shear wave velocities. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 244, 285-301.) derive an empirical relationship between shear wave velocity and temperature. This relationship is used to obtain temperature profiles from the surface-wave tomographic models of the continental mantle. The base of the lithosphere is shown by a change in the gradient of the temperature profiles indicative of the depth where the mode of heat transport changes from conduction to advection. Comparisons of the geotherms determined from the conversion of surface-wave wave speeds to temperatures with upper mantle nodule-derived geotherms demonstrate that estimates of lithospheric thickness from Vs and from the nodule mineralogy agree to within about 25 km. The lithospheric thickness map for Africa derived from the surface-wave tomographic results shows that thick lithosphere underlies most of the Archean crust in Africa. The distribution of diamondiferous kimberlites provides an independent estimate of where thick lithosphere exists. Diamondiferous kimberlites generally occur where the lower part of the thermal lithosphere as indicated by seismology is in the diamond stability field.

The crustal and mantle velocity structure in central Asia from 3D traveltime tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Y.; Martin, R. V.; Toksoz, M. N.; Pei, S.

2010-12-01

The lithospheric structure in central Asia features large blocks such as the Indian plate, the Afghan block, the Turan plate, and the Tarim block. This geologically and tectonically complicated area is also one of the most seismically active regions in the world. We developed P- and S- wave velocity structures of the central Asia in the crust using the traveltime data from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbek. We chose the events and stations between 32N65E and 45N85E and focused on the areas of Pamir and western Tianshan. In this data set, there are more than 6000 P and S arrivals received at 80 stations from about 300 events. The double difference tomography is applied to relocate events and to invert for seismic structures simultaneously. Our results provide accurate locations of earthquakes and high resolution crustal structure in this region. To extend the model deeper into the mantle through the upper mantle transition zone, ISC/EHB data for P and PP phases are combined with the ABCE data. To counteract the “smearing effect,” the crust and upper mantle velocity structure, derived from regional travel-times, is used. An adaptive grid method based on ray density is used in the inversion. A P-wave velocity model extending down to a depth of 2000 km is obtained. regional-teleseismic tomography provides a high-resolution, 3-D P-wave velocity model for the crust, upper mantle, and the transition zone. The crustal models correlate well with geologic and tectonic features. The upper mantle tomograms show the images of Tian Shan. The slab geometry is quite complex, reflecting the history of the changes in the plate motions and collision processes. Vp/Vs tomography was also determined in the study region, and an attenuation tomography was obtained as well.

Upper mantle and crustal structure of southwestern Scandinavia: Results of the TopoScandiaDeep project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Köhler, A.; Balling, N.; Ebbing, J.; England, R.; Frassetto, A.; Gradmann, S.; Jacobsen, B. H.; Kvarven, T.; Maupin, V.; Medhus, A. Bondo; Mjelde, R.; Ritter, J.; Schweizer, J.; Stratford, W.; Thybo, H.; Wawerzinek, B.; Weidle, C.

2012-04-01

The origin of the Scandinavian mountains, located far away from any presently active plate margin, is still not well understood. In particular, it is not clear if the mountains are sustained isostatically either by crustal thickening or by light upper mantle material. Within the TopoScandiaDeep project (a collaborative research project within the ESF TOPO-EUROPE programme), we therefore analyse recently collected passive seismological and active seismic data in the southern Scandes and surrounding regions. We infer crustal and upper mantle (velocity) structures and relate them to results of gravity and temperature-composition modelling. The Moho under the high topography of southern Norway appears from controlled source seismic refraction and Receiver Functions as relatively shallow (<= 45 km) compared to the deeper conversion (>55 km) imaged beneath the low topography in Sweden and elsewhere in the Baltic Shield area outside Norway. The Receiver Function modeling as well as the active seismic results suggest that the differences in the observed Moho response may represent the transition between tectonically reworked Moho under southern Norway and an intact, cratonic crust-mantle boundary beneath the Baltic Shield. Furthermore, the 410km-discontinuity and the LAB is imaged, the latter one suggesting a lithospheric thickening in NE direction. Upper mantle P-wave and S-wave velocities in southern Sweden and southern Norway east of the Oslo Graben are correspondingly relatively high while lower velocities are observed in the southwestern part of Norway and northern Denmark. The lateral velocity gradient, interpreted as the southwestern boundary of thick Baltic Shield lithosphere, is remarkably sharp. Differences in upper mantle velocities are found at depths of 100-400 km and amount to ± 2-3%. S-to-P wave conversions, interpreted to originate from the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, are preliminary estimated to 90-120 km depth. Inversion of Rayleigh and Love surface wave phase velocity dispersion curves from observations of ambient noise and earthquakes yield another independent model of the crust and upper mantle structure below southern Norway. Inverted crustal velocities and Moho depths are consistent with the results of seismic refraction and receiver functions. Additionally, indications for radial crustal anisotropy of up to about 3% are found. The inferred upper mantle S-wave velocities show that the lithosphere under southern Norway has characteristics usually found under continental platforms and changes towards a cratonic-like velocity structure in the East, in agreement with the body wave tomography. All in all, these separate investigations give a very consistent and stable picture of the crust and upper mantle configuration. Integrated geophysical modeling of the results shows that a lateral transition from thinner, warmer lithosphere under southern Norway towards thicker, colder lithosphere under Sweden results in a density distribution that significantly adds to the isostatic support of Norway's high topography.

Coupled anisotropic and isotropic tomography of the upper mantle beneath northern Fennoscandia - Application of a novel code AniTomo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munzarova, Helena; Plomerova, Jaroslava; Kissling, Edi; Vecsey, Ludek; Babuska, Vladislav

2017-04-01

Seismological investigations of the continental mantle lithosphere, particularly its anisotropic structure, advance our understanding of plate tectonics and formation of continents. Orientation of the anisotropic fabrics reflects stress fields during the lithosphere origin and its later deformations. To contribute to studies of the large-scale upper-mantle anisotropy, we have developed code AniTomo for regional anisotropic tomography. AniTomo allows a simultaneous inversion of relative travel time residuals of teleseismic P waves for 3D distribution of isotropic-velocity perturbations and anisotropy in the upper mantle. Weak hexagonal anisotropy with symmetry axis oriented generally in 3D is assumed. The code was successfully tested on a large series of synthetic datasets and synthetic structures. In this contribution we present results of the first application of novel code AniTomo to real data, i.e., relative travel-time residuals of teleseismic P waves recorded during passive seismic experiment LAPNET in the northern Fennoscandia between 2007 and 2009. The region of Fennoscandia is a suitable choice for the first application of the new code. This Precambrian region is tectonically stable and has a thick anisotropic mantle lithosphere (Plomerova and Babuska, Lithos 2010) without significant thermal heterogeneities. In the resulting anisotropic model of the upper mantle beneath the northern Fennoscandia, the strongest anisotropy and the largest velocity perturbations concentrate in the mantle lithosphere. We delimit regions of laterally and vertically consistent anisotropy in the mantle-lithospheric part of the model. In general, the identified anisotropic regions correspond to domains detected by joint interpretation of lateral variations of the P- and SKS-wave anisotropic parameters (Plomerova et al., Solid Earth 2011). Particularly, the mantle lithosphere in the western part of the volume studied exhibits a distinct and uniform fabric that is sharply separated from the surrounding regions. The eastern boundary of this region gradually shifts westward with increasing depth in the tomographic model. We connect the retrieved domain-like anisotropic structure of the mantle lithosphere in the northern Fennoscandia with preserved fossil fabrics of the Archean micro-plates, accreted during the Precambrian orogenic processes.

Seismic Tomography of the Arabian-Eurasian Collision Zone and Surrounding Areas

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-05-20

zone. The crustal models correlate well with geologic and tectonic features. The upper mantle tomograms show the images of the subducted Neotethys...We first obtain Pn and Sn velocities using local and regional arrival time data. Second, we obtain the 3-D crustal P and S velocity models...teleseismic tomography provides a high-resolution, 3-D P-wave velocity model for the crust, upper mantle, and the transition zone. The crustal models

Upper mantle seismic velocity structure beneath the Kenya Rift and the Arabian Shield

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Yongcheol

Upper mantle structure beneath the Kenya Rift and Arabian Shield has been investigated to advance our understanding of the origin of the Cenozoic hotspot tectonism found there. A new seismic tomographic model of the upper mantle beneath the Kenya Rift has been obtained by inverting teleseismic P-wave travel time residuals. The model shows a 0.5--1.5% low velocity anomaly below the Kenya Rift extending to about 150 km depth. Below ˜150 km depth, the anomaly broadens to the west toward the Tanzania Craton, suggesting a westward dip to the structure. The P- and S-wave velocity structure beneath the Arabian Shield has been investigated using travel-time tomography. Models for the seismic velocity structure of the upper mantle between 150 and 400 depths reveal a low velocity region (˜1.5% in the P model and ˜3% in the S model) trending NW-SE along the western side of the Arabian Shield and broadening to the northeast beneath the MMN volcanic line. The models have limited resolution above 150 km depth everywhere under the Shield, and in the middle part of the Shield the resolution is limited at all depths. Rayleigh wave phase velocity measurements have been inverted to image regions of the upper mantle under the Arabian Shield not well resolved by the body wave tomography. The shear wave velocity model obtained shows upper mantle structure above 200 km depth. A broad low velocity region in the lithospheric mantle (depths of ≤ ˜100 km) across the Shield is observed, and below ˜150 km depth a region of low shear velocity is imaged along the Red Sea coast and MMN volcanic line. A westward dipping low velocity zone beneath the Kenya Rift is consistent with an interpretation by Nyblade et al. [2000] suggesting that a plume head is located under the eastern margin of the Tanzania Craton, or alternatively a superplume rising from the lower mantle from the west and reaching the surface under Kenya [e.g., Debayle et al., 2001; Grand et al., 1997; Ritsema et al., 1999]. For the Arabian Shield, the models are not consistent with a two plume model [Camp and Roobol, 1992] because there is a continuous low velocity zone at depths ≥ 150 km along the western side of the Shield and not separate anomalies. The NW-SE trending low velocity anomaly beneath the western side of the Shield supports the Ebinger and Sleep [1998] model invoking plume flow channeled by thinner lithosphere along the Red Sea coast. The NW-SE low velocity structure beneath the western side of the Shield could also be the northern-most extent of the African Superplume. A low velocity anomaly beneath Ethiopia [Benoit et al., 2006a,b] dips to the west and may extend through the mantle transition zone. The observed low velocities in the upper mantle beneath the Arabian Shield could be caused by hot mantle rock rising beneath Ethiopia and flowing to the north under the Arabian Shield.

Regional Wave Propagation in Southeastern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jemberie, A. L.; Langston, C. A.

2003-12-01

Broad band seismograms from the April 29, 2003, M4.6 Fort Payne, Alabama earthquake are analyzed to infer mechanisms of crustal wave propagation, crust and upper mantle velocity structure in southeastern United States, and source parameters of the event. In particular, we are interested in producing deterministic models of the distance attenuation of earthquake ground motions through computation of synthetic seismograms. The method first requires constraining the source parameters of an earthquake and then modeling the amplitude and times of broadband arrivals within the waveforms to infer appropriate layered earth models. A first look at seismograms recorded by stations outside the Mississippi Embayment (ME) show clear body phases such P, sP, Pnl, Sn and Lg. The ME signals are qualitatively different from others because they have longer durations and large surface waves. A straightforward interpretation of P wave arrival times shows a typical upper mantle velocity of 8.18 km/s. However, there is evidence of significantly higher P phase velocities at epicentral distances between 400 and 600km, that may be caused by a high velocity upper mantle anomaly; triplication of P-waves is seen in these seismograms. The arrival time differences between regional P and the depth phase sP at different stations are used to constrain the depth of the earthquake. The source depth lies between 9.5 km and 13km which is somewhat more shallow than the network location that was constrained to 15km depth. The Fort Payne earthquake is the largest earthquake to have occurred within the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone.

Tracking silica in Earth's upper mantle using new sound velocity data for coesite to 5.8 GPa and 1073 K

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Ting; Liebermann, Robert C.; Zou, Yongtao; Li, Ying; Qi, Xintong; Li, Baosheng

2017-08-01

The compressional and shear wave velocities for coesite have been measured simultaneously up to 5.8 GPa and 1073 K by ultrasonic interferometry for the first time. The shear wave velocity decreases with pressure along all isotherms. The resulting contrasts between coesite and stishovite reach 34% and 45% for P and S wave velocities, respectively, and 64% and 75% for their impedance at mantle conditions. The large velocity and impedance contrasts across coesite-stishovite transition imply that to generate the velocity and impedance contrasts observed at the X-discontinuity, only a small amount of silica would be required. The velocity jump dependences on silica, d(lnVP)/d(SiO2) = 0.38 (wt %)-1 and d(lnVS)/d(SiO2) = 0.52 (wt %)-1, are utilized to place constraints on the amount of silica in the upper mantle and provide a geophysical approach to track mantle eclogite materials and ancient subducted oceanic slabs.

Structure of the crust and upper mantle in the western United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pakiser, L.C.

1963-01-01

Seismic waves generated by underground nuclear and chemical explosions have been recorded in a network of nearly 2,000 stations in the western conterminous United States as a part of the VELA UNIFORM program. The network extends from eastern Colorado to the California coastline and from central Idaho to the border of the United States and Mexico. The speed of compressional waves in the upper-mantle rocks ranges from 7.7 km/sec in the southern part of the Basin and Range province to 8.2 km/sec in the Great Plains province. In general, the speed of compressional waves in the upper-mantle rocks tends to be nearly the same over large areas within individual geologic provinces. Measured crustal thickness ranges from less than 20 km in the Central Valley of California to 50 km in the Great Plains province. Changes in crustal thickness across provincial boundaries are not controlled by regional altitude above sea level unless the properties of the upper mantle are the same across those boundaries. The crust tends to be thick in regions where the speed of compressional waves in the upper-mantle rocks (and presumably the density) is high, and tends to be relatively thin where the speed of compressional waves in the upper-mantle rocks (and density) is lower. With in the Basin and Range province, crustal thickness seems to vary directly with regional altitude above sea level. Evidence that a layer of intermediate compressional-wave speed exists in the lower part of the crust has been accumulated from seismic waves that have traveled least-time paths, as well as secondary arrivals (particularly reflections). On a scale that includes many geologic provinces, isostatic compensation is related largely to variations in the density of the upper- mantle rocks. Within geologic provinces or adjacent provinces, isostatic compensation may be related to variations in the thickness of crustal layers. Regions of thick crust and dense upper mantle have been relatively stable in Cenozoic time. Regions of thinner crust and low-density upper mantle have had a Cenozoic history of intense diastrophism and silicic volcanism.

Seismic anisotropy of the upper mantle beneath Fennoscandia - Preliminary results of anisotropic tomography with novel code AniTomo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munzarova, Helena; Plomerova, Jaroslava; Kissling, Edi; Vecsey, Ludek; Babuska, Vladislav

2016-04-01

Seismological investigations of the continental mantle lithosphere, particularly its anisotropic structure, advance our understanding of plate tectonics and formation of continents. Orientation of the anisotropic fabrics reflect stress field during the lithosphere origin and its later deformations. We process teleseismic body waves recorded during passive seismic experiments SVEKALAPKO (1998-1999) and LAPNET (2007-2009), deployed in the south-central and northern Fennoscandia, around the contact of the Archean and Proterozoic parts of the shield, to retrieve both anisotropic and isotropic velocity images of the upper mantle. Standard isotropic teleseismic P-wave tomography distinguishes two major regions of the mantle lithosphere in the northern part of Fennoscandia, boundary of which follows the surface trace of the Baltic-Bothnia Megashear Zone (BBZ). Apart from that, joint interpretation of lateral variations of anisotropic P- and SKS-wave pattern detected domains of mantle lithosphere with differently oriented anisotropic fabrics within those two regions (Vecsey et al., Tectonophysics, 2007; Plomerova et al., Solid Earth, 2011). The retrieved anisotropy reflects fossil fabrics of the mantle lithosphere (Babuska and Plomerova, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., 2006). The contact of the Proterozoic and Archean Fennoscandia appears as a broad transition in the south-central Fennoscandia (Vecsey et al., Tectonophysics, 2007), while the contact seems to be more distinct towards the north. We have developed a novel code (AniTomo) that allows us to invert relative P-wave travel time residuals for coupled isotropic-anisotropic P-wave velocity models assuming weak hexagonal anisotropy with symmetry axis oriented generally in 3D. The code was successfully tested on synthetic data and here we present results of its first application to real data. The region of Fennoscandia seems to be a right choice for the first calculation of anisotropic tomography with the new code as this Precambrian region is tectonicly stable and it has thick anisotropic mantle lithosphere (Plomerova and Babuska, Lithos, 2010) without significant thermal heterogeneities.

Seismic evidence for a tilted mantle plume and north-south mantle flow beneath Iceland

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shen, Y.; Solomon, S.C.; Bjarnason, I. Th; Nolet, G.; Morgan, W.J.; Allen, R.M.; Vogfjord, K.; Jakobsdottir, S.; Stefansson, R.; Julian, B.R.; Foulger, G.R.

2002-01-01

Shear waves converted from compressional waves at mantle discontinuities near 410- and 660-km depth recorded by two broadband seismic experiments in Iceland reveal that the center of an area of anomalously thin mantle transition zone lies at least 100 km south of the upper-mantle low-velocity anomaly imaged tomographically beneath the hotspot. This offset is evidence for a tilted plume conduit in the upper mantle, the result of either northward flow of the Icelandic asthenosphere or southward flow of the upper part of the lower mantle in a no-net-rotation reference frame. ?? 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Crustal structure in Tengchong Volcano-Geothermal Area, western Yunnan, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chun-Yong; Huangfu, Gang

2004-02-01

Based upon the deep seismic sounding profiles carried out in the Tengchong Volcano-Geothermal Area (TVGA), western Yunnan Province of China, a 2-D crustal P velocity structure is obtained by use of finite-difference inversion and forward travel-time fitting method. The crustal model shows that a low-velocity anomaly zone exists in the upper crust, which is related to geothermal activity. Two faults, the Longling-Ruili Fault and Tengchong Fault, on the profile extend from surface to the lower crust and the Tengchong Fault likely penetrates the Moho. Moreover, based on teleseismic receiver functions on a temporary seismic network, S-wave velocity structures beneath the geothermal field show low S-wave velocity in the upper crust. From results of geophysical survey, the crust of TVGA is characterized by low P-wave and S-wave velocities, low resistivity, high heat-flow value and low Q. The upper mantle P-wave velocity is also low. This suggests presence of magma in the crust derived from the upper mantle. The low-velocity anomaly in upper crust may be related to the magma differentiation. The Tengchong volcanic area is located on the northeast edge of the Indian-Eurasian plate collision zone, away from the eastern boundary of the Indian plate by about 450 km. Based on the results of this paper and related studies, the Tengchong volcanoes can be classified as plate boundary volcanoes.

Upper mantle structure beneath the northern part of the East African Plateau using data from the NE Uganda temporary seismic network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bressers, C. A.; Nyblade, A.; Tugume, F.

2017-12-01

Data from a newly installed temporary seismic array in northeastern Uganda are incorporated into an existing body wave tomography model of eastern Africa to improve imaging of the upper mantle beneath the northern part of the East African Plateau. Nine temporary broadband stations were installed in January 2017 and will be operated through 2018 to obtain data for resolving structure under the northern part of the plateau as well as the East African rift in northern Kenya. Preliminary tomography models incorporate several months of data from stations in NE Uganda, plus many years of data from over 200 seismic stations throughout eastern Africa used in previously published body wave tomography models. The data come from teleseismic earthquakes with mb ≥ 5.5 at a distance from each station of 30° to 90°. P and S wave travel time residuals have been obtained using a multichannel cross correlation method and inverted using VanDecar's method to produce 3D tomographic images of the upper mantle. The preliminary results exhibit better resolved structure under the northern part of the East African Plateau than pervious models and suggest that the fast-wave speed anomaly in the upper mantle associated with the Tanzanian Craton—which is bounded by the Western and Eastern branches of the rift system—extends across most of northern Uganda.

Waveform Modeling of the Crust and Upper Mantle Using S, Sp, SsPmP, and Shear-Coupled PL Waves

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-05-10

and excitation of shear-coupled Pl waves with distance and corresponding phase velocity ( Vph )-period (T) curve: αN and βN are the P and S wave...Pulliam and Sen, 2005) (b) Propagation characteristics and excitation of shear-coupled Pl waves with distance and corresponding phase velocity ( Vph

Finite-frequency wave propagation through outer rise fault zones and seismic measurements of upper mantle hydration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Miller, Nathaniel; Lizarralde, Daniel

2016-01-01

Effects of serpentine-filled fault zones on seismic wave propagation in the upper mantle at the outer rise of subduction zones are evaluated using acoustic wave propagation models. Modeled wave speeds depend on azimuth, with slowest speeds in the fault-normal direction. Propagation is fastest along faults, but, for fault widths on the order of the seismic wavelength, apparent wave speeds in this direction depend on frequency. For the 5–12 Hz Pn arrivals used in tomographic studies, joint-parallel wavefronts are slowed by joints. This delay can account for the slowing seen in tomographic images of the outer rise upper mantle. At the Middle America Trench, confining serpentine to fault zones, as opposed to a uniform distribution, reduces estimates of bulk upper mantle hydration from ~3.5 wt % to as low as 0.33 wt % H2O.

Developing Tools to Test the Thermo-Mechanical Models, Examples at Crustal and Upper Mantle Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Pourhiet, L.; Yamato, P.; Burov, E.; Gurnis, M.

2005-12-01

Testing geodynamical model is never an easy task. Depending on the spatio-temporal scale of the model, different testable predictions are needed and no magic reciepe exist. This contribution first presents different methods that have been used to test themo-mechanical modeling results at upper crustal, lithospheric and upper mantle scale using three geodynamical examples : the Gulf of Corinth (Greece), the Western Alps, and the Sierra Nevada. At short spatio-temporal scale (e.g. Gulf of Corinth). The resolution of the numerical models is usually sufficient to catch the timing and kinematics of the faults precisely enough to be tested by tectono-stratigraphic arguments. In active deforming area, microseismicity can be compared to the effective rheology and P and T axes of the focal mechanism can be compared with local orientation of the major component of the stress tensor. At lithospheric scale the resolution of the models doesn't permit anymore to constrain the models by direct observations (i.e. structural data from field or seismic reflection). Instead, synthetic P-T-t path may be computed and compared to natural ones in term of rate of exhumation for ancient orogens. Topography may also help but on continent it mainly depends on erosion laws that are complicated to constrain. Deeper in the mantle, the only available constrain are long wave length topographic data and tomographic "data". The major problem to overcome now at lithospheric and upper mantle scale, is that the so called "data" results actually from inverse models of the real data and that those inverse model are based on synthetic models. Post processing P and S wave velocities is not sufficient to be able to make testable prediction at upper mantle scale. Instead of that, direct wave propagations model must be computed. This allows checking if the differences between two models constitute a testable prediction or not. On longer term, we may be able to use those synthetic models to reduce the residue in the inversion of elastic wave arrival time

Joint inversion of seismic and gravity data for imaging seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Utah, United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Syracuse, E. M.; Zhang, H.; Maceira, M.

2017-10-01

We present a method for using any combination of body wave arrival time measurements, surface wave dispersion observations, and gravity data to simultaneously invert for three-dimensional P- and S-wave velocity models. The simultaneous use of disparate data types takes advantage of the differing sensitivities of each data type, resulting in a comprehensive and higher resolution three-dimensional geophysical model. In a case study for Utah, we combine body wave first arrivals mainly from the USArray Transportable Array, Rayleigh wave group and phase velocity dispersion data, and Bouguer gravity anomalies to invert for crustal and upper mantle structure of the region. Results show clear delineations, visible in both P- and S-wave velocities, between the three main tectonic provinces in the region. Without the inclusion of the surface wave and gravity constraints, these delineations are less clear, particularly for S-wave velocities. Indeed, checkerboard tests confirm that the inclusion of the additional datasets dramatically improves S-wave velocity recovery, with more subtle improvements to P-wave velocity recovery, demonstrating the strength of the method in successfully recovering seismic velocity structure from multiple types of constraints.

Observations of Quasi-Love Waves in Tibet Indicates Coherent Deformation of the Crust and Upper Mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, X.; Park, J. J.

2012-12-01

The high uplift of the Tibet area is caused by the continental collision between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate. The style of deformation along with the collision is still being debated, particularly whether the deformation is vertically coherent or not, i.e., whether the upper mantle deforms coherently with the crust. In this work, we have used quasi-Love (QL) waves to constrain the anisotropy pattern around the Tibet region. The existence of anisotropy gradients has been identified with the observations of QL waves, which is a converted Rayleigh-wave motion that follows the arrival of the Love wave. Further, the locations of the anisotropy gradients have been pinned with the delay time between the Love wave and the QL wave, which is determined from cross-correlation. Our results show that the frequency content of Tibetan QL wave is centered around 10 mHz, indicating the depth range of anisotropy should be in the asthenosphere. Most of the scatterers of QL wave that we can detect lie outside the Tibet Plateau. Their distribution correlates well with the boundary of the Persia-Tibet- Burma orogeny, which has been identified from surface geologic data. This correlation, between surface geology and upper mantle anisotropy inferred from QL observations at the orogenic boundary, suggests that the crust and upper mantle of the orogeny are deforming coherently. Other scatterers that are off the Persia-Tibet-Burma orogenic boundary mostly cluster in two locations, the Tarim Basin, and the Bangong-Nujiang Suture, where there could exist contrasting anisotropy patterns in the upper mantle. The deformation in the Tibet region is complicated, yet our research suggests a vertically coherent deformation style of the upper mantle in Tibet.

Upper Mantle Responses to India-Eurasia Collision in Indochina, Malaysia, and the South China Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hongsresawat, S.; Russo, R. M.

2016-12-01

We present new shear wave splitting and splitting intensity measurements from SK(K)S phases recorded at seismic stations of the Malaysian National Seismic Network. These results, in conjunction with results from Tibet and Yunnan provide a basis for testing the degree to which Indochina and South China Sea upper mantle fabrics are responses to India-Eurasia collision. Upper mantle fabrics derived from shear wave splitting measurements in Yunnan and eastern Tibet parallel geodetic surface motions north of 26°N, requiring transmission of tractions from upper mantle depths to surface, or consistent deformation boundary conditions throughout the upper 200 km of crust and mantle. Shear wave splitting fast trends and surface velocities diverge in eastern Yunnan and south of 26°N, indicating development of an asthenospheric layer that decouples crust and upper mantle, or corner flow above the subducted Indo-Burma slab. E-W fast shear wave splitting trends southwest of 26°N/104°E indicate strong gradients in any asthenospheric infiltration. Possible upper mantle flow regimes beneath Indochina include development of olivine b-axis anisotropic symmetry due to high strain and hydrous conditions in the syntaxis/Indo-Burma mantle wedge (i.e., southward flow), development of strong upper mantle corner flow in the Indo-Burma wedge with olivine a-axis anisotropic symmetry (i.e., westward flow), and simple asthenospheric flow due to eastward motion of Sundaland shearing underlying asthenosphere. Further south, shear-wave splitting delay times at Malaysian stations vary from 0.5 seconds on the Malay Peninsula to over 2 seconds at stations on Borneo. Splitting fast trends at Borneo stations and Singapore trend NE-SW, but in northern Peninsular Malaysia, the splitting fast polarization direction is NW-SE, parallel to the trend of the Peninsula. Thus, there is a sharp transition from low delay time and NW-SE fast polarization to high delay times and fast polarization directions that parallel the strike of the now-inoperative spreading center in the South China Sea. This transition appears to occur in the central portion of Peninsular Malaysia and may mark the boundary between Tethyan upper mantle extruded from the India-Asia collision zone and supra-subduction upper mantle of the Indonesian arc.

Mantle Upwellings Below the Ibero-Maghrebian Region with a Common Deep Source from P Travel-time Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Civiero, C.; Custodio, S.; Silveira, G. M.; Rawlinson, N.; Arroucau, P.

2017-12-01

The processes responsible for the geodynamical evolution of the Ibero-Maghrebian domain are still enigmatic. Several geophysical studies have improved our understanding of the region, but no single model has been accepted yet. This study takes advantage of the dense station networks deployed from France in the north to Canary Islands and Morocco in the south to provide a new high-resolution P-wave velocity model of the structure of the upper-mantle and top of the lower mantle. These images show subvertical small-scale upwellings below Atlas Range, Canary Islands and Central Iberia that seem to cross the transition zone. The results, together with geochemical evidence and a comparison with previous global tomographic models, reveal the ponding or flow of deep-plume material beneath the transition zone, which seems to feed upper-mantle "secondary" pulses. In the upper mantle the plumes, in conjunction with the subduction-related upwellings, allow the hot mantle to rise in the surrounding zones. During its rising, the mantle interacts with horizontal SW slab-driven flow which skirts the Alboran slab and connects with the mantle upwelling below Massif Central through the Valencia Trough rift.

Crustal and mantle velocity models of southern Tibet from finite frequency tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Xiaofeng; Shen, Yang; Chen, Yongshun John; Ren, Yong

2011-02-01

Using traveltimes of teleseismic body waves recorded by several temporary local seismic arrays, we carried out finite-frequency tomographic inversions to image the three-dimensional velocity structure beneath southern Tibet to examine the roles of the upper mantle in the formation of the Tibetan Plateau. The results reveal a region of relatively high P and S wave velocity anomalies extending from the uppermost mantle to at least 200 km depth beneath the Higher Himalaya. We interpret this high-velocity anomaly as the underthrusting Indian mantle lithosphere. There is a strong low P and S wave velocity anomaly that extends from the lower crust to at least 200 km depth beneath the Yadong-Gulu rift, suggesting that rifting in southern Tibet is probably a process that involves the entire lithosphere. Intermediate-depth earthquakes in southern Tibet are located at the top of an anomalous feature in the mantle with a low Vp, a high Vs, and a low Vp/Vs ratio. One possible explanation for this unusual velocity anomaly is the ongoing granulite-eclogite transformation. Together with the compressional stress from the collision, eclogitization and the associated negative buoyancy force offer a plausible mechanism that causes the subduction of the Indian mantle lithosphere beneath the Higher Himalaya. Our tomographic model and the observation of north-dipping lineations in the upper mantle suggest that the Indian mantle lithosphere has been broken laterally in the direction perpendicular to the convergence beneath the north-south trending rifts and subducted in a progressive, piecewise and subparallel fashion with the current one beneath the Higher Himalaya.

Imaging of Upper-Mantle Upwelling Beneath the Salton Trough, Southern California, by Joint Inversion of Ambient Noise Dispersion Curves and Receiver Functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klemperer, S. L.; Barak, S.

2016-12-01

We present a new 2D shear-wave velocity model of the crust and upper-mantle across the Salton Trough, southern California, obtained by jointly inverting our new dataset of receiver functions and our previously published Rayleigh-wave group-velocity model (Barak et al., G-cubed, 2015), obtained from ambient-noise tomography. Our results show an upper-mantle low-velocity zone (LVZ) with Vs ≤4.2 km/s extending from the Elsinore Fault to the Sand Hills Fault, that together bracket the full width of major San Andreas dextral motion since its inception 6 Ma b.p., and underlying the full width of low topography of the Imperial Valley and Salton Trough. The lateral extent of the LVZ is coincident with the lateral extent of an upper-mantle anisotropic region interpreted as a zone of SAF-parallel melt pockets (Barak & Klemperer, Geology, 2016). The shallowest part of the LVZ is 40 km depth, coincident with S-receiver function images. The western part of the LVZ, between the Elsinore and San Jacinto faults (the region of greatest modern dextral slip), appears to continue to significantly greater depth; but a puzzling feature of our preliminary models is that the eastern part of the LVZ, from the San Jacinto Fault to the Sand Hills Fault, appears to be underlain by more-normalvelocity upper mantle (Vs ≥ 4.5 km/s) below 75 km depth. We compare our model to the current SCEC community models CVM-H and CVM-S, and to P-wave velocity models obtained by the active-source Salton Sea Imaging Project (SSIP). The hypothesized lower-crustal low-velocity zone beneath the Salton Trough in our previous model (Barak et al., G-cubed, 2015), there interpreted as a region of partial melt, is not supported by our new modeling. Melt may be largely absent from the lower crust of the Salton trough; but appears required in the upper mantle at depths as shallow as 40 km.

P wave anisotropic tomography of the Alps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hua, Yuanyuan; Zhao, Dapeng; Xu, Yixian

2017-06-01

The first tomographic images of P wave azimuthal and radial anisotropies in the crust and upper mantle beneath the Alps are determined by joint inversions of arrival time data of local earthquakes and teleseismic events. Our results show the south dipping European plate with a high-velocity (high-V) anomaly beneath the western central Alps and the north dipping Adriatic plate with a high-V anomaly beneath the Eastern Alps, indicating that the subduction polarity changes along the strike of the Alps. The P wave azimuthal anisotropy is characterized by mountain chain-parallel fast-velocity directions (FVDs) in the western central Alps and NE-SW FVDs in the Eastern Alps, which may be caused by mantle flow induced by the slab subductions. Our results reveal a negative radial anisotropy (i.e., Vph < Vpv) within the subducting slabs and a positive radial anisotropy (i.e., Vph > Vpv) in the low-velocity mantle wedge, which may reflect the subvertical plate subduction and its induced mantle flow. The results of anisotropic tomography provide important new information on the complex mantle structure and dynamics of the Alps and adjacent regions.

Mantle Structure Beneath East Africa and Zambia from Body Wave Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulibo, G.; Nyblade, A.; Tugume, F.

2011-12-01

In this study, P and S travel time residuals from teleseismic earthquakes recorded on over 60 temporary AfricaArray seismic stations deployed in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia between 2007 and 2011 are being inverted, together with travel time residuals from previous deployments, for a 3D image of mantle wave speeds variations extending to a depth of 1200 km. Preliminary results show that at depths of 200 km of less, low wave speed anomalies are well developed beneath the Eastern and Western Branches of the East African Rift System. At deep depths, the low wave speed anomalies focus under the center and southern part of the East African Plateau and extend into the transition zone. At transition zone depths and within the top part of the lower mantle, the low wave speed anomaly shifts to the southwest beneath Zambia, indicating that the low wave speed anomaly is continuous across the transition zone and that it extends into the lower mantle. This result suggests that the upper mantle low wave speed anomaly beneath East Africa is connected to the African superplume anomaly in the lower mantle beneath southern Africa.

Tomographic evidence for recent extension in the Bentley Subglacial Trench and a hotspot beneath Marie Byrd Land

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lloyd, A. J.; Wiens, D. A.; Nyblade, A.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Aster, R. C.; Huerta, A. D.; Wilson, T. J.; Shore, P.

2013-12-01

Here we present the first regional P and S wave relative velocity models of the upper mantle beneath much of West Antarctica using P and S wave relative travel time residuals from teleseismic events recorded by seismographs from the POLENET/ANET project. 21 of the seismographs form a sparse backbone network co-located with continuously recording GPS stations at rock sites throughout West Antarctica, and 17 stations formed a seismic transect extending from the Whitmore Mountains across the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) and into Marie Byrd Land (MBL) with a station spacing of 90-100 km. Corrections for heterogeneities above the Moho, including the ice sheet, are applied to the relative travel time residuals using the receiver function models of Chaput et al., [submitted, 2013]. Both P and S wave velocity models indicate velocities faster than the mean of the model beneath the Whitmore Mountains that may be interpreted as thicker, colder lithosphere relative to the rest of West Antarctica. Slow velocity anomalies are observed beneath the Bentley Subglacial Trench (BST) and MBL. Slow velocities extending from the Moho to the transition zone beneath MBL are centered beneath the Mt Sidley volcano and coincide with high topography that is not isostatically supported by the crust [Chaput et al., submitted, 2013]. The slowest velocities occur at 200-300 km depth and are consistent with warm, low viscosity mantle that provides topographic support for the elevated MBL volcanic dome. Poor vertical resolution, typical of body wave tomography, hampers the models ability to resolve whether the anomaly beneath MBL is strictly an upper mantle hotspot or a classic mantle plume that extends into the lower mantle. The shallow (≤ 100 km depth) slow anomaly beneath the BST coincides with a region of thin crust and likely reflects a localized region of Cenozoic extension in the WARS that may have undergone a last phase of extension in the Neogene [Garnot et al., 2013]. Anomalously high heat flow reported by Fudge et al.[2012] at the WAIS divide ice core is also consistent with recent Neogene extension and a thermal perturbation suggested by both P and S tomography models. In general, the strong heterogeneities in our models are predominantly interpreted as reflecting upper mantle temperature variations in addition to possible mantle partial melting beneath MBL.

Joint inversion of seismic and gravity data for imaging seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Utah, United States

DOE PAGES

Syracuse, Ellen Marie; Zhang, Haijiang; Maceira, Monica

2017-07-11

Here, we present a method for using any combination of body wave arrival time measurements, surface wave dispersion observations, and gravity data to simultaneously invert for three-dimensional P- and S-wave velocity models. The simultaneous use of disparate data types takes advantage of the differing sensitivities of each data type, resulting in a comprehensive and higher resolution three-dimensional geophysical model. In a case study for Utah, we combine body waves first arrivals mainly from the USArray Transportable Array, Rayleigh wave group and phase velocity dispersion data, and Bouguer gravity anomalies to invert for crustal and upper mantle structure of the region.more » Results show clear delineations, visible in both P- and S-wave velocities, between the three main tectonic provinces in the region. In conclusion, without the inclusion of the surface wave and gravity constraints, these delineations are less clear, particularly for S-wave velocities. Indeed, checkerboard tests confirm that the inclusion of the additional datasets dramatically improves S-wave velocity recovery, with more subtle improvements to P-wave velocity recovery, demonstrating the strength of the method in successfully recovering seismic velocity structure from multiple types of constraints.« less

Joint inversion of seismic and gravity data for imaging seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Utah, United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Syracuse, Ellen Marie; Zhang, Haijiang; Maceira, Monica

Here, we present a method for using any combination of body wave arrival time measurements, surface wave dispersion observations, and gravity data to simultaneously invert for three-dimensional P- and S-wave velocity models. The simultaneous use of disparate data types takes advantage of the differing sensitivities of each data type, resulting in a comprehensive and higher resolution three-dimensional geophysical model. In a case study for Utah, we combine body waves first arrivals mainly from the USArray Transportable Array, Rayleigh wave group and phase velocity dispersion data, and Bouguer gravity anomalies to invert for crustal and upper mantle structure of the region.more » Results show clear delineations, visible in both P- and S-wave velocities, between the three main tectonic provinces in the region. In conclusion, without the inclusion of the surface wave and gravity constraints, these delineations are less clear, particularly for S-wave velocities. Indeed, checkerboard tests confirm that the inclusion of the additional datasets dramatically improves S-wave velocity recovery, with more subtle improvements to P-wave velocity recovery, demonstrating the strength of the method in successfully recovering seismic velocity structure from multiple types of constraints.« less

Southern Africa seismic structure and source studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Ming

1998-09-01

The upper mantle seismic velocity structure beneath southern Africa is investigated using travel time and waveform data. Waveform and travel time data used in this study come mainly from a large mine tremor in South Africa (msb{b} 5.6) recorded on stations of the southern Africa and the Tanzania Broadband Seismic Experiment. Auxiliary data along similar profiles are obtained from other moderate events within eastern and southern Africa. The waveform data from the large tremor show upper mantle triplications for both the 400 and 670-km discontinuities between 18sp° and 27sp° distance. The most notable feature of the data is a large, late P phase that propagates to at least 27sp°. This phase is striking because of its late arrival time (as much as 15 seconds after direct P at 27sp°) and high amplitude relative to the first arrival. Travel times from all available stations are used to invert for the P wave velocity structure down to 800 km depth and S wave velocity structure down to 200 km using the Wiechert-Herglotz (W-H) inversion technique. The P wave velocities from the uppermost mantle down to 300 km are as much as 3% higher than the global average and are slightly slower than the global average between 300 and 400 km depths. The velocity gradient between 300 and 400 km is 0.0015 1/s. The S wave travel time data yield fast velocities above 200-km depth. The S wave velocity structure appears inconsistent with the P wave structure model indicating varying Poisson's ratio in the upper mantle. Little evidence is found for a pronounced upper mantle low velocity zone. Both sharp and gradual-change 400-km discontinuities are favored by the waveform data. The 670-km discontinuity appears as a gradual-change zone. The source mechanism of the mb 5.6 mining tremor itself is important for seismic discrimination and insight into mining tremor sources. Source parameters for this event as well as some other large mining tremors from the South African gold mines are studied using detailed waveform modeling. All these events (mb > 4.8) indicate normal-faulting slip with P wave nodal planes striking approximately NS. Tectonic stress is essential to control the mining seismicity of large magnitude. Mining geometry also plays an important role in influencing the seismicity. The crustal velocity structure at the study area is investigated in detail using teleseismic receiver function and regional surface wave dispersion data. The results indicate some lateral variation in the shallow crust. The thickness of the crust beneath the GSN station BOSA is 33-36 km. Gradually increasing velocities with depth in the crust are preferred. A thin layer with rather low velocity at the top of the crust beneath BOSA is important for generating the regional waveforms. The crust beneath LBTB is a few kilometers thicker than at BOSA and the Moho there is likely to be dipping. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Seismic Velocity Structure of the Pacific Upper Mantle in the NoMelt Region from Finite-Frequency Traveltime Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hung, S. H.; Lin, P. Y.; Gaherty, J. B.; Russell, J. B.; Jin, G.; Collins, J. A.; Lizarralde, D.; Evans, R. L.; Hirth, G.

2017-12-01

Surface wave dispersion and magnetotelluric survey from the NoMelt Experiment conducted on 70 Ma central Pacific seafloor revealed an electrically resistive, high shear wave velocity lid of 80 km thick underlain by a non-highly conductive, low-velocity layer [Sarafian et al., 2015; Lin et al., 2016]. The vertical structure of the upper mantle consistent with these observational constraints suggests a plausible convection scenario, where the seismically fast, dehydrated lithosphere preserving very strong fossil spreading fabric moves at a constant plate speed over the hydrated, melt-free athenospheric mantle with the presence of either pressure-driven return flow or thermally-driven small scale circulation. To explore 3-D variations in compressional shear wave velocities related to the lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle dynamics, we employ a multichannel cross correlation method to measure relative traveltime residuals based on the vertical P and traverse S waveforms filtered at 10-33 s from telseismic earthquakes at epicentral distance between 30 and 98 degrees. The obtained P and S residuals show on average peak-to-peak variations of ±0.5 s and ±1 s, respectively, across the NoMelt OBS array. Particularly, the P residuals for most of the events display an asymmetrical pattern with respect to an axis oriented nearly N-S to NE-SW through the array. Preliminary ray-based P tomography results reveal similar asymmetric variations in the uppermost 100 km mantle. To verify the resulting structural features, we will further perform both the P and S traveltime tomography and resolution tests based on a multiscale finite-frequency approach which properly takes into account both the 3D off-path sensitivities of the measured residuals and data-adaptive resolution of the model.

P-wave Velocity Structure Across the Mariana Trench and Implications for Hydration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eimer, M. O.; Wiens, D.; Lizarralde, D.; Cai, C.

2017-12-01

Estimates of the water flux at subduction zones remain uncertain, particularly the amount of water brought into the trench by the subducting plate. Normal faulting related to the bending of the incoming plate has been proposed to provide pathways for water to hydrate the crust and upper mantle. A passive and active source seismic experiment spanning both the incoming plate and forearc was conducted in 2012 in central Mariana to examine the role of hydration at subduction zones. The active-source component of the survey used the R/V M.G. Langsethairgun array and 68 short period sensors, including suspended hydrophones, deployed on 4 transects. This study at the Mariana trench offers a comparison to related studies of incoming plate hydration in Middle America, where differing thermal structures related to plate age predict different stability fields for hydrous minerals. The forearc structure is also of interest, since Mariana is characterized by large serpentine seamounts and may have a serpentinized mantle wedge. The velocity structure will also be important for the relocation of earthquakes in the incoming plate, since the seismicity can offer a constraint for the depth extent of these bending faults. We examine the P-wave velocity structure along a 400-km long wide-angle refraction transect perpendicular to the trench and spanning both the forearc and incoming plate. Preliminary results indicate a velocity reduction in the crust and uppermost mantle at the bending region of the incoming plate, relative to the plate's structure away from the trench. This reduction suggests that outer-rise faults extend into the upper mantle and may have promoted serpentinization of that material. Mantle Pn refraction phases are not observed in the forearc, consistent with the ambient noise tomography results that show upper-mantle velocities similar to that of the lower crust. The lack of contrast between the upper mantle and crustal velocities from the ambient noise has been interpreted to indicate extensive serpentinization of the shallow mantle wedge.

Proxies of oceanic Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary from Global Seismic Anisotropy Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burgos, Gael; Montagner, Jean-Paul; Beucler, Eric; Trampert, Jeannot; Capdeville, Yann

2013-04-01

Surface waves provide essential information on the knowledge of the upper mantle global structure despite their low lateral resolution. This study, based on surface waves data, presents the development of a new anisotropic tomographic model of the upper mantle, a simplified isotropic model and the consequences of these results for the Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary (LAB). As a first step, a large number of data is collected, these data are merged and regionalized in order to derive maps of phase and group velocity for the fundamental mode of Rayleigh and Love waves and their azimuthal dependence (maps of phase velocity are also obtained for the first six overtones). As a second step, a crustal a posteriori model is developped from the Monte-Carlo inversion of the shorter periods of the dataset, in order to take into account the effect of the shallow layers on the upper mantle. With the crustal model, a first Monte-Carlo inversion for the upper mantle structure is realized in a simplified isotropic parameterization to highlight the influence of the LAB properties on the surface waves data. Still using the crustal model, a first order perturbation theory inversion is performed in a fully anisotropic parameterization to build a 3-D tomographic model of the upper mantle (an extended model until the transition zone is also obtained by using the overtone data). Estimates of the LAB depth are derived from the upper mantle models and compared with the predictions of oceanic lithosphere cooling models. Seismic events are simulated using the Spectral Element Method in order to validate the ability of the anisotropic tomographic model of the upper mantle to re- produce observed seismograms.

Structure of the Lithosphere and Upper Mantle Across the Arabian Peninsula

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Al-Amri, A; Rodgers, A

2007-01-05

Analysis of modern broadband (BB) waveform data allows for the inference of seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle using a variety of techniques. This presentation will report inferences of seismic structure of the Arabian Plate using BB data from various networks. Most data were recorded by the Saudi Arabian National Digital Seismic Network (SANDSN) which consists of 38 (26 BB, 11 SP) stations, mostly located on the Arabian Shield. Additional data were taken from the 1995-7 Saudi Arabian IRIS-PASSCAL Deployment (9 BB stations) and other stations across the Peninsula. Crustal structure, inferred from teleseismic P-wave receiver functions,more » reveals thicker crust in the Arabian Platform (40-45 km) and the interior of the Arabian Shield (35-40 km) and thinner crust along the Red Sea coast. Lithospheric thickness inferred from teleseismic S-wave receiver functions reveals very thin lithosphere (40-80 km) along the Red Sea coast which thickens rapidly toward the interior of the Arabian Shield (100-120 km). We also observe a step of 20-40 km in lithospheric thickness across the Shield-Platform boundary. Seismic velocity structure of the upper mantle inferred from teleseismic P- and S-wave travel time tomography reveals large differences between the Shield and Platform, with the Shield being underlain by slower velocities, {+-}3% for P-waves and {+-}6% for S-waves. Seismic anisotropy was inferred from shear-wave splitting, using teleseismic SKS waveforms. Results reveal a splitting time of approximately 1.4 seconds, with the fast axis slightly east of north. The shear-wave splitting results are consistent across the Peninsula, with a slight clockwise rotation parallel for stations near the Gulf of Aqaba. In summary, these results allow us to make several conclusions about the tectonic evolution and current state of the Arabian Plate. Lithospheric thickness implies that thinning near the Red Sea has accompanied the rupturing of the Arabian-Nubian continental lithosphere. The step in the lithospheric thickness across the Shield-Platform boundary likely reveals a pre-existing difference in the lithospheric structure prior to accretion of the terranes composing the eastern Arabian Shield. Tomographic imaging of upper mantle velocities implies a single large-scale thermal anomaly underlies the Arabian Shield and is associated with Cenozoic uplift and volcanism.« less

On the potential asthenospheric linkage between Apenninic slab rollback and Alpine topographic uplift: insights from P wave tomography and seismic anisotropy analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malusa', Marco Giovanni; Salimbeni, Simone; Zhao, Liang; Guillot, Stéphane; Pondrelli, Silvia; Margheriti, Lucia; Paul, Anne; Solarino, Stefano; Aubert, Coralie; Dumont, Thierry; Schwartz, Stéphane; Wang, Qingchen; Xu, Xiaobing; Zheng, Tianyu; Zhu, Rixiang

2017-04-01

The role of surface and deep-seated processes in controlling the topography of complex plate-boundary areas is a highly debated issue. In the Western Alps, which include the highest summits in Europe, factors controlling topographic uplift still remain poorly understood. In the absence of active convergence, recent works have suggested a potential linkage between slab breakoff and fast uplift, but this hypothesis is ruled out by the down-dip continuity of the Alpine slab documented by recent tomographic images of the upper mantle beneath the Alpine region (Zhao et al. 2016). In order to shed light on this issue, we use a densely spaced array of temporary broadband seismic stations and previously published observations to analyze the seismic anisotropy pattern along the transition zone between the Alps and the Apennines, within the framework of the upper mantle structure unveiled by P wave tomography. Our results show a continuous trend of anisotropy fast axes near-parallel to the western alpine arc, possibly due to an asthenospheric counterflow triggered by the eastward retreat of the Apenninic slab. This trend is located in correspondence of a low velocity anomaly in the European upper mantle, and beneath the Western Alps region characterized by the highest uplift rates, which may suggest a potential impact of mantle dynamics on Alpine topography. We propose that the progressive rollback of the Apenninic slab induced a suction effect and an asthenospheric counterflow at the rear of the unbroken Alpine slab and around its southern tip, as well as an asthenospheric upwelling, mirrored by low P wave velocities, which may have favored the topographic uplift of the Alpine belt from the Mt Blanc to the Ligurian coast. Zhao L. et al., 2016. Continuity of the Alpine slab unraveled by high-resolution P wave tomography. J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1002/2016JB013310.

East African upper mantle shear wave velocity structure derived from Rayleigh wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Donnell, J.; Nyblade, A.; Adams, A. N.; Mulibo, G.; Tugume, F.

2011-12-01

An expanded model of the three-dimensional shear wave velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath East Africa is being developed using data from the latest phases of the AfricaArray East African Seismic Experiment in conjunction with data from preceding studies. The combined dataset encompasses seismic stations which span Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. From the new data, fundamental mode Rayleigh wave phase velocities are being measured at periods ranging from 20 to 180 seconds using the two-plane-wave method. These measurements will be combined with similarly processed measurements from previous studies and inverted for an upper mantle three-dimensional shear wave velocity model. In particular, the model will further constrain the morphology of the low velocity anomaly which underlies the East African Plateau extending to the southwest beneath Zambia.

Geophysical Modeling in Eurasia: 2D Crustal P and LG Propagation; Upper- Mantle Shear Wave Propagation and Anisotropy; and 3D, Joint, Simultaneous Inversions

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

improved resolution for shallow geologic structures . Jointly inverting these datasets with seismic body wave (S) travel times provides additional...constraints on the shallow structure and an enhanced 3D shear wave model for our study area in western China. 2008 Monitoring Research Review...for much of Eurasia, although the Arabian Shield and Arctic are less well recovered. The upper velocity gradient was tested for 10-degree cells

Illuminating heterogeneous anisotropic upper mantle: testing a new anisotropic teleseismic body-wave tomography code - part II: Inversion mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munzarova, Helena; Plomerova, Jaroslava; Kissling, Edi

2015-04-01

Considering only isotropic wave propagation and neglecting anisotropy in teleseismic tomography studies is a simplification obviously incongruous with current understanding of the mantle-lithosphere plate dynamics. Furthermore, in solely isotropic high-resolution tomography results, potentially significant artefacts (i.e., amplitude and/or geometry distortions of 3D velocity heterogeneities) may result from such neglect. Therefore, we have undertaken to develop a code for anisotropic teleseismic tomography (AniTomo), which will allow us to invert the relative P-wave travel time residuals simultaneously for coupled isotropic-anisotropic P-wave velocity models of the upper mantle. To accomplish that, we have modified frequently-used isotropic teleseismic tomography code Telinv (e.g., Weiland et al., JGR, 1995; Lippitsch, JGR, 2003; Karousova et al., GJI, 2013). Apart from isotropic velocity heterogeneities, a weak hexagonal anisotropy is assumed as well to be responsible for the observed P-wave travel-time residuals. Moreover, no limitations to orientation of the symmetry axis are prescribed in the code. We allow a search for anisotropy oriented generally in 3D, which represents a unique approach among recent trials that otherwise incorporate only azimuthal anisotopy into the body-wave tomography. The presented code for retrieving anisotropy in 3D thus enables its direct applications to datasets from tectonically diverse regions. In this contribution, we outline the theoretical background of the AniTomo anisotropic tomography code. We parameterize the mantle lithosphere and asthenosphere with an orthogonal grid of nodes with various values of isotropic velocities, as well as of strength and orientation of anisotropy in 3D, which is defined by azimuth and inclination of either fast or slow symmetry axis of the hexagonal approximation of the media. Careful testing of the new code on synthetics, concentrating on code functionality, strength and weaknesses, is a necessary step before AniTomo is applied to real datasets. We examine various aspects coming along with anisotropic tomography such as setting a starting anisotropic model and parameters controlling the inversion, and particularly influence of a ray coverage on resolvability of individual anisotropic parameters. Synthetic testing also allows investigation of the well-known trade-off between effects of P-wave anisotropy and isotropic heterogeneities. Therefore, the target synthetic models are designed to represent schematically different heterogeneous anisotropic structures of the upper mantle. Testing inversion mode of the AniTomo code, considering an azimuthally quasi-equal distribution of rays and teleseismic P-wave incidences, shows that a separation of seismic anisotropy and isotropic velocity heterogeneities is plausible and that the correct orientation of the symmetry axes in a model can be found within three iterations for well-tuned damping factors.

Determining the Upper Mantle Seismic Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains from Regional P- and S-wave Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brenn, G.; Hansen, S. E.; Park, Y.

2016-12-01

Stretching 3500 km across Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-compressional mountain range on Earth. It has been suggested that the TAMs may have served as a nucleation point for the large-scale glaciation of Antarctica, and understanding their tectonic history has important implications for ice sheet modeling. However, the origin and uplift mechanism associated with the TAMs is controversial, and multiple models have been proposed. Seismic investigations of the TAM's subsurface structure can provide key constraints to help evaluate these models, but previous studies have been primarily focused on the central TAMs near Ross Island. Using data from the new 15-station Transantarctic Mountain Northern Network as well as data from several smaller networks, this study investigates the upper mantle velocity structure beneath a previously unexplored portion of the northern TAMs through regional body wave tomography. Relative travel-times were calculated for 11,182 P-wave and 8,285 S-wave arrivals from 790 and 581 Mw ≥ 5.5 events, respectively, using multi-channel cross correlation, and these data were then inverted for models of the upper mantle seismic structure. Resulting P- and S-wave tomography images reveal two focused low velocity anomalies beneath Ross Island (RI; δVP= -2.0%; δVS=-1.5% to -4.0%) and Terra Nova Bay (TNB; δVP=-1.5% to -2.0%; δVS= -1.0% to -4.0%) that extend to depths of 200 and 150 km, respectively. The RI and TNB slow anomalies also extend 50-100 km laterally beneath the TAMs front and sharply abut fast velocities beneath the EA craton (δVP=0.5% to 2%; δVS=1.5% to 4.0%). A low velocity region (δVP= -1.5%), centered at 150 km depth beneath the Terror Rift (TR) and primarily constrained within the Victoria Land Basin, connects the RI and TNB anomalies. The focused low velocities are interpreted as regions of partial melt and buoyancy-driven upwelling, connected by a broad region of slow (presumably warm) upper mantle associated with Cenozoic extension along the TR. Dynamic topography estimates based on the imaged S-wave velocity perturbations are consistent with observed surface topography in the central and northern TAMs, thereby providing support for uplift models that advocate for thermal loading and a flexural origin for the mountain range.

Surface wave tomography applied to the North American upper mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van der Lee, Suzan; Frederiksen, Andrew

Tomographic techniques that invert seismic surface waves for 3-D Earth structure differ in their definitions of data and the forward problem as well as in the parameterization of the tomographic model. However, all such techniques have in common that the tomographic inverse problem involves solving a large and mixed-determined set of linear equations. Consequently these inverse problems have multiple solutions and inherently undefinable accuracy. Smoother and rougher tomographic models are found with rougher (confined to great circle path) and smoother (finite-width) sensitivity kernels, respectively. A powerful, well-tested method of surface wave tomography (Partitioned Waveform Inversion) is based on inverting the waveforms of wave trains comprising regional S and surface waves from at least hundreds of seismograms for 3-D variations in S wave velocity. We apply this method to nearly 1400 seismograms recorded by digital broadband seismic stations in North America. The new 3-D S-velocity model, NA04, is consistent with previous findings that are based on separate, overlapping data sets. The merging of US and Canadian data sets, adding Canadian recordings of Mexican earthquakes, and combining fundamental-mode with higher-mode waveforms provides superior resolution, in particular in the US-Canada border region and the deep upper mantle. NA04 shows that 1) the Atlantic upper mantle is seismically faster than the Pacific upper mantle, 2) the uppermost mantle beneath Precambrian North America could be one and a half times as rigid as the upper mantle beneath Meso- and Cenozoic North America, with the upper mantle beneath Paleozoic North America being intermediate in seismic rigidity, 3) upper-mantle structure varies laterally within these geologic-age domains, and 4) the distribution of high-velocity anomalies in the deep upper mantle aligns with lower mantle images of the subducted Farallon and Kula plates and indicate that trailing fragments of these subducted oceanic plates still reside in the transition zone. The thickness of the high-velocity layer beneath Precambrian North America is estimated to be 250±70 km thick. On a smaller scale NA04 shows 1) high-velocities associated with subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Aleutian arc, 2) the absence of expected high velocities in the upper mantle beneath the Wyoming craton, 3) a V-shaped dent below 150 km in the high-velocity cratonic lithosphere beneath New England, 4) the cratonic lithosphere beneath Precambrian North America being confined southwest of Baffin Bay, west of the Appalachians, north of the Ouachitas, east of the Rocky Mountains, and south of the Arctic Ocean, 5) the cratonic lithosphere beneath the Canadian shield having higher S-velocities than that beneath Precambrian basement that is covered with Phanerozoic sediments, 6) the lowest S velocities are concentrated beneath the Gulf of California, northern Mexico, and the Basin and Range Province.

Crust and Upper Mantle Structure Beneath Tibet and SW China From Seismic Tomography and Array Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van der Hilst, R. D.; Li, C.; Yao, H.; Sun, R.; Meltzer, A. S.

2007-12-01

We will present a summary of the results of our seismological studies of crust and upper mantle heterogeneity and anisotropy beneath Tibet and SW China with data from temporary (PASSCAL) arrays as well as other regional, national, and global networks. In 2003 and 2004 MIT and CIGMR (Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources) operated a 25 station array (3-component, broad band seismometers) in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, SW China; during the same period Lehigh University (also in collaboration with CIGMR) operated a 75 station array in east Tibet. Data from these arrays allow delineation of mantle structure in unprecedented detail. We focus our presentation on results of two lines of seismological study. Travel time tomography (Li et al., PEPI, 2006; EPSL, 2007) with hand-picked phase arrivals from recordings at regional arrays, and combined with data from over 1,000 stations in China and with the global data base due to Engdahl et al. (BSSA, 1998), reveals substantial the structural complexity of the upper mantle beneath SE Asia. In particular, structures associated with subduction of the Indian plate beneath the Himalayas vary significantly from west Tibet (where the plate seems to have underthrusted the entire plateau) to east Tibet (where P-wave tomography provides no evidence for the presence of fast lithosphere beneath the Plateau proper). Further east, fast structures appear in the upper mantle transition zone, presumably related to stagnation of slab fragments associated with subduction of the Pacific plate. (2) Surface wave array tomography (Yao et al., GJI, 2006, 2007), using ambient noise interferometry and traditional (inter station) dispersion analysis, is used to delineate the 3-D structure of the crust and lithospheric mantle at length scales as small as 100 km beneath the MIT and Lehigh arrays. This analysis reveals a complex spatial distribution of intra-crustal low velocity zones (which may imply that crustal-scale faults influence the pattern of middle/lower crustal flow). We will also show preliminary results of surface wave inversion for azimuthal anisotropy, which - combined with previous results from shear wave splitting (Lev et al., EPSL, 2006) - give insight into the deformation of the upper mantle beneath the area under study.

Mantle beneath the Gibraltar Arc from receiver functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morais, Iolanda; Vinnik, Lev; Silveira, Graça; Kiselev, Sergey; Matias, Luís

2015-02-01

P and S receiver functions (PRF and SRF) from 19 seismograph stations in the Gibraltar Arc and the Iberian Massif reveal new details of the regional deep structure. Within the high-velocity mantle body below southern Spain the 660-km discontinuity is depressed by at least 20 km. The Ps phase from the 410-km discontinuity is missing at most stations in the Gibraltar Arc. A thin (˜50 km) low-S-velocity layer atop the 410-km discontinuity is found under the Atlantic margin. At most stations the S410p phase in the SRFs arrives 1.0-2.5 s earlier than predicted by IASP91 model, but, for the propagation paths through the upper mantle below southern Spain, the arrivals of S410p are delayed by up to +1.5 s. The early arrivals can be explained by elevated Vp/Vs ratio in the upper mantle or by a depressed 410-km discontinuity. The positive residuals are indicative of a low (˜1.7 versus ˜ 1.8 in IASP91) Vp/Vs ratio. Previously, the low ratio was found in depleted lithosphere of Precambrian cratons. From simultaneous inversion of the PRFs and SRFs we recognize two types of the mantle: `continental' and `oceanic'. In the `continental' upper mantle the S-wave velocity in the high-velocity lid is 4.4-4.5 km s-1, the S-velocity contrast between the lid and the underlying mantle is often near the limit of resolution (0.1 km s-1), and the bottom of the lid is at a depth reaching 90-100 km. In the `oceanic' domain, the S-wave velocities in the lid and the underlying mantle are typically 4.2-4.3 and ˜ 4.0 km s-1, respectively. The bottom of the lid is at a shallow depth (around 50 km), and at some locations the lid is replaced by a low S-wave velocity layer. The narrow S-N-oriented band of earthquakes at depths from 70 to 120 km in the Alboran Sea is in the `continental' domain, near the boundary between the `continental' and `oceanic' domains, and the intermediate seismicity may be an effect of ongoing destruction of the continental lithosphere.

the P-wave upper mantle structure beneath an active spreading center: The Gulf of California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walck, M. C.

1983-01-01

Detailed analysis of short period travel time, and waveform data reveals the upper mantle structure beneath an oceanic ridge to depths of 900 km. More than 1400 digital seismograms from earthquakes in Mexico and central America recorded at SCARLET yield 1753 travel times and 58 direct measurements of short period travel time as well as high quality, stable waveforms. The 29 events combine to form a continuous record section from 9 deg to 40 deg with an average station spacing of less than 5 km. First the travel times are inverted. Further constraints arise from the observed relative amplitudes of mantle phases, which are modeled by trial and error.

Mapping seismic azimuthal anisotropy of the Japan subduction zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, D.; Liu, X.

2016-12-01

We present 3-D images of azimuthal anisotropy tomography of the crust and upper mantle of the Japan subduction zone, which are determined using a large number of high-quality P- and S-wave arrival-time data of local earthquakes and teleseismic events recorded by the dense seismic networks on the Japan Islands. A tomographic method for P-wave velocity azimuthal anisotropy is modified and extended to invert S-wave travel times for 3-D S-wave velocity azimuthal anisotropy. A joint inversion of the P and S wave data is conducted to constrain the 3-D azimuthal anisotropy of the Japan subduction zone. Main findings of this work are summarized as follows. (1) The high-velocity subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea (PHS) slabs exhibit trench-parallel fast-velocity directions (FVDs), which may reflect frozen-in lattice-preferred orientation of aligned anisotropic minerals formed at the mid-ocean ridge as well as shape-preferred orientation such as normal faults produced at the outer-rise area near the trench axis. (2) Significant trench-normal FVDs are revealed in the mantle wedge, which reflects corner flow in the mantle wedge due to the active subduction and dehydration of the oceanic plates. (3) Obvious toroidal FVDs and low-velocity anomalies exist in and around a window (hole) in the aseismic PHS slab beneath Southwest Japan, which may reflect a toroidal mantle flow pattern resulting from hot and wet mantle upwelling caused by the joint effects of deep dehydration of the Pacific slab and the convective circulation process in the mantle wedge above the Pacific slab. (4) Significant low-velocity anomalies with trench-normal FVDs exist in the mantle below the Pacific slab beneath Northeast Japan, which may reflect a subducting oceanic asthenosphere affected by hot mantle upwelling from the deeper mantle. ReferencesLiu, X., D. Zhao (2016) Seismic velocity azimuthal anisotropy of the Japan subduction zone: Constraints from P and S wave traveltimes. J. Geophys. Res. 121, doi:10.1002/2016JB013116. Zhao, D., S. Yu, X. Liu (2016) Seismic anisotropy tomography: New insight into subduction dynamics. Gondwana Res. 33, 24-43.

New Constraints on Upper Mantle Structure Underlying the Diamondiferous Central Slave Craton, Canada, from Teleseismic Body Wave Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esteve, C.; Schaeffer, A. J.; Audet, P.

2017-12-01

Over the past number of decades, the Slave Craton (Canada) has been extensively studied for its diamondiferous kimberlites. Not only are diamonds a valuable resource, but their kimberlitic host rocks provide an otherwise unique direct source of information on the deep upper mantle (and potentially transition zone). Many of the Canadian Diamond mines are located within the Slave Craton. As a result of the propensity for diamondiferous kimberlites, it is imperative to probe the deep mantle structure beneath the Slave Craton. This work is further motivated by the increase in high-quality broadband seismic data across the Northern Canadian Cordillera over the past decade. To this end we have generated a P and S body wave tomography model of the Slave Craton and its surroundings. Furthermore, tomographic inversion techniques are growing ever more capable of producing high resolution Earth models which capture detailed structure and dynamics across a range of scale lengths. Here, we present preliminary results on the structure of the upper mantle underlying the Slave Craton. These results are generated using data from eight different seismic networks such as the Canadian National Seismic Network (CNSN), Yukon Northwest Seismic Network (YNSN), older Portable Observatories for Lithospheric Analysis and Reseach Investigating Seismicity (POLARIS), Regional Alberta Observatory for Earthquake Studies Network (RV), USArray Transportable Array (TA), older Canadian Northwest Experiment (CANOE), Batholith Broadband (XY) and the Yukon Observatory (YO). This regional model brings new insights about the upper mantle structure beneath the Slave Craton, Canada.

Sensitivity analysis of seismic waveforms to upper-mantle discontinuities using the adjoint method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koroni, Maria; Bozdağ, Ebru; Paulssen, Hanneke; Trampert, Jeannot

2017-09-01

Using spectral-element simulations of wave propagation, we investigated the sensitivity of seismic waveforms, recorded on transverse components, to upper-mantle discontinuities in 1-D and 3-D background models. These sensitivity kernels, or Fréchet derivatives, illustrate the spatial sensitivity to model parameters, of which those for shear wave speed and the surface topography of internal boundaries are discussed in this paper. We focus on the boundaries at 400 and 670 km depth of the mantle transition zone. SS precursors have frequently been used to infer the topography of upper-mantle discontinuities. These seismic phases are underside reflections off these boundaries and are usually analysed in the distance range of 110°-160°. This distance range is chosen to minimize the interference from other waves. We show sensitivity kernels for consecutive time windows at three characteristic epicentral distances within the 110°-160° range. The sensitivity kernels are computed with the adjoint method using synthetic data. From our simulations we can draw three main conclusions: (i) The exact Fréchet derivatives show that in all time windows, and also in those centred on the SS precursors, there is interference from other waves. This explains the difficulty reported in the literature to correct for 3-D shear wave speed perturbations, even if the 3-D structure is perfectly known. (ii) All studies attempting to map the topography of the 400 and 670 km discontinuities to date assume that the traveltimes of SS precursors can be linearly decomposed into a 3-D elastic structure and a topography part. We recently showed that such a linear decomposition is not possible for SS precursors, and the sensitivity kernels presented in this paper explain why. (iii) In agreement with previous work, we show that other parts of the seismograms have greater sensitivity to upper-mantle discontinuities than SS precursors, especially multiply bouncing S waves exploiting the S-wave triplications due to the mantle transition zone. These phases can potentially improve the inference of global topographic variations of the upper-mantle discontinuities in the context of full waveform inversion in a joint inversion for (an)elastic parameters and topography.

Upper mantle structure beneath southern African cratons from seismic finite-frequency P- and S-body wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Youssof, M.; Thybo, H.; Artemieva, I. M.; Levander, A.

2015-06-01

We present a 3D high-resolution seismic model of the southern African cratonic region from teleseismic tomographic inversion of the P- and S-body wave dataset recorded by the Southern African Seismic Experiment (SASE). Utilizing 3D sensitivity kernels, we invert traveltime residuals of teleseismic body waves to calculate velocity anomalies in the upper mantle down to a 700 km depth with respect to the ak135 reference model. Various resolution tests allow evaluation of the extent of smearing effects and help defining the optimum inversion parameters (i.e., damping and smoothness) for regularizing the inversion calculations. The fast lithospheric keels of the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe cratons reach depths of 300-350 km and 200-250 km, respectively. The paleo-orogenic Limpopo Belt is represented by negative velocity perturbations down to a depth of ˜ 250 km, implying the presence of chemically fertile material with anomalously low wave speeds. The Bushveld Complex has low velocity down to ˜ 150 km, which is attributed to chemical modification of the cratonic mantle. In the present model, the finite-frequency sensitivity kernels allow to resolve relatively small-scale anomalies, such as the Colesberg Magnetic Lineament in the suture zone between the eastern and western blocks of the Kaapvaal Craton, and a small northern block of the Kaapvaal Craton, located between the Limpopo Belt and the Bushveld Complex.

The upper mantle shear wave velocity structure of East Africa derived from Rayleigh wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Donnell, J.; Nyblade, A.; Adams, A. N.; Weeraratne, D. S.; Mulibo, G.; Tugume, F.

2012-12-01

An expanded model of the three-dimensional shear wave velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath East Africa has been developed using data from the latest phases of the AfricaArray East African Seismic Experiment in conjunction with data from preceding studies. The combined dataset consists of 331 events recorded on a total of 95 seismic stations spanning Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi. In this latest study, 149 events were used to determine fundamental mode Rayleigh wave phase velocities at periods ranging from 20 to 182 seconds using the two-plane-wave method. These were subsequently combined with the similarly processed published measurements and inverted for an updated upper mantle three-dimensional shear wave velocity model. Newly imaged features include a substantial fast anomaly in eastern Zambia that may have exerted a controlling influence on the evolution of the Western Rift Branch. Furthermore, there is a suggestion that the Eastern Rift Branch trends southeastward offshore eastern Tanzania.

The upper mantle structure of the central Rio Grande rift region from teleseismic P and S wave travel time delays and attenuation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Slack, P.D.; Davis, P.M.; Baldridge, W.S.; Olsen, K.H.; Glahn, A.; Achauer, U.; Spence, W.

1996-01-01

The lithosphere beneath a continental rift should be significantly modified due to extension. To image the lithosphere beneath the Rio Grande rift (RGR), we analyzed teleseismic travel time delays of both P and S wave arrivals and solved for the attenuation of P and S waves for four seismic experiments spanning the Rio Grande rift. Two tomographic inversions of the P wave travel time data are given: an Aki-Christofferson-Husebye (ACH) block model inversion and a downward projection inversion. The tomographic inversions reveal a NE-SW to NNE-SSW trending feature at depths of 35 to 145 km with a velocity reduction of 7 to 8% relative to mantle velocities beneath the Great Plains. This region correlates with the transition zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Rio Grande rift and is bounded on the NW by the Jemez lineament, a N52??E trending zone of late Miocene to Holocene volcanism. S wave delays plotted against P wave delays are fit with a straight line giving a slope of 3.0??0.4. This correlation and the absolute velocity reduction imply that temperatures in the lithosphere are close to the solidus, consistent with, but not requiring, the presence of partial melt in the mantle beneath the Rio Grande rift. The attenuation data could imply the presence of partial melt. We compare our results with other geophysical and geologic data. We propose that any north-south trending thermal (velocity) anomaly that may have existed in the upper mantle during earlier (Oligocene to late Miocene) phases of rifting and that may have correlated with the axis of the rift has diminished with time and has been overprinted with more recent structure. The anomalously low-velocity body presently underlying the transition zone between the core of the Colorado Plateau and the rift may reflect processes resulting from the modern (Pliocene to present) regional stress field (oriented WNW-ESE), possibly heralding future extension across the Jemez lineament and transition zone.

S-P wave travel time residuals and lateral inhomogeneity in the mantle beneath Tibet and the Himalaya

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Molnar, P.; Chen, W.-P.

1984-01-01

S-P wave travel time residuals were measured in earthquakes in Tibet and the Himalaya in order to study lateral inhomogeneities in the earth's mantle. Average S-P residuals, measured with respect to Jeffrey-Bullen (J-B) tables for 11 earthquakes in the Himalaya are less than +1 second. Average J-B S-P from 10 of 11 earthquakes in Tibet, however, are greater than +1 second even when corrected for local crustal thickness. The largest values, ranging between 2.5 and 4.9 seconds are for five events in central and northern Tibet, and they imply that the average velocities in the crust and upper mantle in this part of Tibet are 4 to 10 percent lower than those beneath the Himalaya. On the basis of the data, it is concluded that it is unlikely that a shield structure lies beneath north central Tibet unless the S-P residuals are due to structural variations occurring deeper than 250 km.

New constraints on the upper mantle structure of the Slave craton from Rayleigh wave inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chin-Wu; Rondenay, Stéphane; Weeraratne, Dayanthie S.; Snyder, David B.

2007-05-01

Rayleigh wave phase and amplitude data are analyzed to provide new insight into the velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath the Slave craton, in the northwestern Canadian Shield. We invert for phase velocities at periods between 20 s-142 s (with greatest sensitivity at depths of 28-200 km) using crossing ray paths from events recorded by the POLARIS broadband seismic network and the Yellowknife array. Phase velocities obtained for the Slave province are comparable to those from other cratons at shorter periods, but exceed the global average by ~2% at periods above 60 s, suggesting that the Slave craton may be an end member in terms of its high degree of mantle depletion. The one-dimensional inversion of phase velocities yields high upper-mantle S-wave velocities of 4.7 +/- 0.2 km/s that persist to 220 +/- 65 km depth and thus define the cratonic lithosphere. Azimuthal anisotropy is well resolved at all periods with a dominant fast direction of N59°E +/- 20°, suggesting that upper mantle anisotropy beneath the Slave craton is influenced by both lithospheric fabric and sub-lithospheric flow.

Analysis of converted S-waves and gravity anomaly along the Aegir Ridge: implications for crustal lithology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rai, A. K.; Breivik, A. J.; Mjelde, R.; Hanan, B. B.; Ito, G.; Sayit, K.; Howell, S.; Vogt, P. R.; Pedersen, R.

2012-12-01

The Aegir Ridge is an extinct spreading ridge in North-East Atlantic ocean. A thinner than normal crust around the Aegir Ridge appears as a hole in the extensively magmatic surroundings. Its proximity to the Iceland hot-spot makes it particularly important for understanding the changing dynamics of hotspot-ridge interaction. An integrated seismic and dredging experiment was conduced during the summer of 2010 with the primary aim to understand the nature of magmatism along the ridge shortly before cessation of seafloor spreading through variations of sub-seafloor lithological properties. Here, we present results of analysis of converted shear-waves recorded on OBS-sesimic data, and ship-gravity data. The shear-wave study enables us to quantify the variation of Vp/Vs in the sediments, crust and the upper-most mantle. We also inverted the gravity data to determine the sub-seafloor density distribution. The P- to S- converted shear-waves were identified on 20 OBSs along a profile with a total length of 550 km parallel to the ridge-axis. The sedimentary section on top of the crystalline crust is well illuminated in the streamer data. The forward modelling of the OBS data reveals that the Vp/Vs ratio in sediments are as high as 4.8, decreasing rapidly to a value of 3.00, primarily due to compaction of sediments with depth. Identification of sufficient PnS and PSn phases enable us to model the crustal and upper-most mantle Vp/Vs. The upper crystalline crust requires a Vp/Vs value of 1.99 and 1.89 for the southern and the northern profiles respectively, to fit the observations. The lower crust and upper-most part of the mantle have a Vp/Vs of ~1.82 and 1.795 respectively. Slightly lower Vp and moderate increase in Vp/Vs in parts of the crust and upper mantle presumably indicate presence of faulting, fracturing in the crust and moderate degree of serpentinization of the upper mantle. A sub-seafloor density model is derived by non-linear inversion of the gravity anomaly. The distribution of sediments appear to control the short-wavelength features of the gravity data, whereas density variations are required in the upper mantle to optimally fit the overall gravity anomaly. Our results suggest certain degree of temperature and/or compositional heterogeneities towards the southern ends of Aegir Ridge, near the Iceland-Faroes Ridge.

A Review of Geophysical Constraints on the Deep Structure of the Tibetan Plateau, the Himalaya and the Karakoram, and their Tectonic Implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molnar, P.

1988-09-01

The Tibetan Plateau, the Himalaya and the Karakoram are the most spectacular consequences of the collision of the Indian subcontinent with the rest of Eurasia in Cainozoic time. Accordingly, the deep structures beneath them provide constraints on both the tectonic history of the region and on the dynamic processes that have created these structures. The dispersion of seismic surface waves requires that the crust beneath Tibet be thick: nowhere less than 50 km, at least 65 km, in most areas, but less than 80 km in all areas that have been studied. Wide-angle reflections of P-waves from explosive sources in southern Tibet corroborate the existence of a thick crust but also imply the existence of marked lateral variations in that thickness, or in the velocity structure of the crust. Thus isostatic compensation occurs largely by an Airy-type mechanism, unlike that, for instance, of the Basin and Range Province of western North America where a hot upper mantle buoys up a thin crust. The P-wave and S-wave velocities in the uppermost mantle of most of Tibet are relatively high and typical of those of Precambrian shields and stable platforms: Vp = 8.1 km s-1 or higher, and Vs≈ 4.7 km s-1. Travel times and waveforms of S-waves passing through the uppermost mantle of much of Tibet, however, require a much lower average velocity in the uppermost mantle than that of the Indian, or other, shields. They indicate a thick low-velocity zone in the upper mantle beneath Tibet, reminiscent of tectonically active regions. These data rule out a shield structure beneath northern Tibet and suggest that if such a structure does underlie part of the plateau, it does so only beneath the southern part. Lateral variations in the upper-mantle structure of Tibet are apparent from differences in travel times of S-waves from earthquakes in different parts of Tibet, in the attenuation of short-period phases, Pn and Sn, that propagate through the uppermost mantle of Tibet, and in surface-wave dispersion for different paths. The notably lower velocities and the greater attenuation in the mantle of north--central Tibet than elsewhere imply higher temperatures there and are consistent with the occurrence of active and young volcanism in roughly the same area. Surface-wave dispersion across north--central Tibet also requires a thinner crust in that area than in most of the plateau. Consequently the relatively uniform height of the plateau implies that isostatic compensation in the north--central part of Tibet occurs partly because the density of the relatively hot material in the upper mantle is lower than that elsewhere beneath Tibet, the mechanism envisioned by Pratt. Several seismological studies provide evidence consistent with a continuity of the Indian Shield, and its cold thick lithosphere, beneath the Himalaya. Fault-plane solutions and focal depths of the majority of moderate earthquakes in the Himalaya are consistent with their occurring on the top surface of the gently flexed, intact Indian plate that has underthrust the Lesser Himalaya roughly 80-100 km or more. P-waves from explosions in southern Tibet and recorded in Nepal can be interpreted as wide-angle reflections from this fault zone. P-wave delays across the Tarbela network in Pakistan from distant earthquakes indicate a gentle dip of the Moho beneath the array without pronounced later variations in upper-mantle structure. High Pn and Sn velocities beneath the Himalaya and normal to early S-wave arrival times from Himalayan earthquakes recorded at teleseismic distances are consistent with Himalaya being underlain by the same structure that underlies India. Results from explosion seismology indicate an increase in crustal thickness from the Indo--Gangetic Plain across the Himalaya to southern Tibet, but Hirn, Lepine, Sapin and their co-workers inferred that the depth of the Moho does not increase smoothly northward, as it would if the Indian Shield had been underthrust coherently beneath the Himalaya. They interpreted wide-angle reflections as evidence for steps in the Moho displaced from one another on southward-dipping faults. Although I cannot disprove this interpretation, I think that one can recognize a sequence of signals on their wide-angle reflection profiles that could be wide-angle reflections from a northward-dipping Moho. Gravity anomalies across the Himalaya show that both the Indo--Gangetic Plain and the Himalaya are not in local isostatic equilibrium. A mass deficit beneath the plain is apparently caused by the flexure of the Indian Shield and by the low density of the sedimentary rock in the basin formed by the flexure. The mass excess in the Himalaya seems to be partly supported by the strength of the Indian plate, for which the flexural rigidity is particularly large. An increase in the Bouguer gravity gradient from about 1 mGal km-1 (1 mGal = 10-3 cm s-2) over the Indo--Gangetic Plain to 2 mGal km-1 over the Himalaya implies a marked steepening of the Moho, and therefore a greater flexure of the Indian plate, beneath the Himalaya. This implies a northward decrease in the flexural rigidity of the part of the Indian plate underlying the range. Nevertheless, calculations of deflections of elastic plates with different flexural rigidities and flexed by the weight of the Himalaya show larger deflections and yield more negative gravity anomalies than are observed. Thus, some other force, besides the flexural strength of the plate, must contribute to the support of the range. A bending moment applied to the end of the Indian plate could flex the plate up beneath the range and provide the needed support. The source of this moment might be gravity acting on the mantle portion of the subducting Indian continental lithosphere with much or all of the crust detached from it. Seismological studies of the Karakoram are consistent with its being underlain by particularly cold material in the upper mantle. Intermediate-depth earthquakes occur between depths of 70 and 100 km but apparently do not define a zone of subducted oceanic lithosphere. Rayleigh-wave phase velocities are particularly high for paths across this area and imply high shear wave velocities in the upper mantle. Isostatic gravity anomalies indicate a marked low of 70 mGal over the Karakoram, which could result from a slightly thickened crust pulled down by the sinking of cold material beneath it. Geophysical constraints on the structure of Tibet, the Himalaya and the Karakoram are consistent with a dynamic uppermost mantle that includes first, the plunging of cold material into the asthenosphere beneath southern Tibet and the Karakoram, as the Indian plate slides beneath the Himalaya, and second, an upwelling of hot material beneath north--central Tibet. The structure is too poorly resolved to require such dynamic flow, but the existence for both a hot uppermost mantle beneath north--central Tibet and a relatively cold uppermost mantle beneath southern Tibet and the Karakoram seem to be required. Both group and phase velocities of Rayleigh waves and Love waves are delayed along paths crossing Tibet. The low velocities require a crustal thickness in excess of 50 km, and for most regions in excess of 60 km. Crustal thicknesses in excess of 80 km can be ruled out for all paths studied, and for most of Tibet, a crustal thickness of 65-70 km seems required. Clear evidence for lateral heterogeneity beneath Tibet is provided not only by body waves (discussed below) but also by surface waves (Brandon & Romanowicz 1986), which show an area of lower uppermost shear-wave velocity and thinner crust in north--central Tibet than elsewhere in the plateau. These variations might explain the differences in group velocities measured by different workers, and the different structures that they deduced, but if so, they also render the regionalization of surface-wave dispersion into arbitrary tectonic provinces risky. Although Rayleigh-wave phase velocities can resolve large differences in upper-mantle velocities for regions the size of Tibet, constraints on these velocities are best derived from body waves. Thus, with the exceptions of Brandon & Romanowicz's (1986) detailed investigation of north--central Tibet, the study of southernmost Tibet by Jobert et al. (1985) and that of Romanowicz (1982) for the northeasternmost part of the plateau, I do not think that surface waves have placed an important bound on the velocity in the upper mantle beneath Tibet. The seismic data are broadly consistent with partial melting of the uppermost mantle of north--central Tibet, where recent volcanism has been observed. Correspondingly, there is no suggestion of such low velocities, and such high temperatures, in the mantle elsewhere beneath Tibet, for which late-Cainozoic volcanism has not been reported. The results are also consistent with a slightly thinner crust in north--central Tibet than farther south, suggesting that both Airy and Pratt isostasy share compensation for north--central Tibet's great height. Finally, the average shear-wave velocity in the upper mantle of southern Tibet seems to be higher than that in northern Tibet, but neither is the degree of difference well determined, nor is the location of the transition from one to the other well mapped.

Seismic velocity anisotropy and heterogeneity beneath the Mantle Electromagnetic and Tomography Experiment (MELT) region of the East Pacific Rise from analysis of P and S body waves

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hammond, W.C.; Toomey, D.R.

2003-01-01

We use teleseismic P and S delay times and shear wave splitting measurements to constrain isotropic and anisotropic heterogeneity in the mantle beneath the southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR). The data comprise 462 P and S delay times and 18 shear wave splitting observations recorded during the Mantle Electromagnetic and Tomography (MELT) Experiment. We estimate the mantle melt content (F) and temperature (T) variation from the isotropic velocity variation. Our results indicate that the maximum variation in F beneath our array is between zero and ???1.2%, and maximum variation in T is between zero and ???100 K. We favor an explanation having partial contributions from both T and F. We approximate the seismic anisotropy of the upper mantle with hexagonal symmetry, consistent with the assumption of two dimensionality of mantle flow. Our new tomographic technique uses a nonlinear inversion of P and slow S polarization delay times to simultaneously solve for coupled VP and VS heterogeneity throughout the model and for the magnitude of anisotropy within discrete domains. The domain dimensions and the dip of the anisotropy are fixed for each inversion but are varied in a grid search, obtaining the misfit of the models to the body wave delay data and to split times of vertically propagating S waves. The data misfit and the isotropic heterogeneity are sensitive to domain dimensions and dip of anisotropy. In a region centered beneath the SEPR the best average dip of the hexagonal symmetry axis is horizontal or dipping shallowly (<30??) west. Given the resolution of our data, a subaxial region characterized by vertically aligned symmetry axes may exist but is limited to be <80 km deep. We infer that the mantle flow beneath the SEPR is consistent with shallow asthenospheric return flow from the direction of the South Pacific superswell.

P-wave and S-wave traveltime residuals in Caledonian and adjacent units of Northern Europe and Greenland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hejrani, Babak; Balling, Niels; Holm Jacobsen, Bo; Kind, Rainer; Tilmann, Frederik; England, Richard; Bom Nielsen, Søren

2014-05-01

This work combines P-wave and S-wave travel time residuals from in total 477 temporary and 56 permanent stations deployed across Caledonian and adjacent units in Northern Europe and Greenland (Tor, Gregersen et al. 2002; SVEKALAPKO, Sandoval et al., 2003; CALAS, Medhus et al, 2012a; MAGNUS, Weidle et al. 2010; SCANLIPS south, England & Ebbing 2012; SCANLIPS north, Hejrani et al. 2012; JULS Hejrani et al. 2013; plus permanent stations in the region). We picked data from 2002 to 2012 (1221 events) using a cross correlation technique on all waveforms recorded for each event. In this way we achieve maximum consistency of relative residuals over the whole region (Medhus et al. 2012b). On the European side 18362 P-wave travel time residuals was delivered. In East Greenland 1735 P-wave residuals were recovered at the Central Fjord array (13 stations) and 2294 residuals from the sparse GLISN-array (23 stations). Likewise, we picked a total of 6034 residuals of the SV phase (For the Tor and SVEKALAPKO projects we used data from Amaru et al. 2008). Relative residuals within the region are mainly due to sub-crustal uppermost mantle velocity anomalies. A dominant subvertical boundary was detected by Medhus et al. (2012), running along the Tornquist zone, east of the Oslo Graben and crossing under high topography of the southern Scandes. We delineated this boundary in more detail, tracking it towards the Atlantic margin north of Trondheim. Further north (Scanlips north), a similar subvertical upper mantle boundary seems to be present close to the coast, coinciding with the edge of the stretched crust. The North German Caledonides were probed by the new JULS (JUtland Lower Saxony) profile which closes the gap between Tor and CALAS arrays. Mantle structure found by the Tor project was confirmed, and modelling was extended to the eastern edge of the North Sea. References: Amaru, M. L., Spakman, W., Villaseñor, A., Sandoval, S., Kissling, E., 2008, A new absolute arrival time data set for Europe.Geophysical Journal International, 173, 465-472. England, R. W.; Ebbing, J., 2012, Crustal structure of central Norway and Sweden from integrated modelling of teleseismic receiver functions and the gravity anomaly.GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, 191, 1-11. Gregersen S., Voss P., TOR Working Group, 2002. Summary of project TOR: delineation of a stepwise, sharp, deep lithosphere transition across Germany-Denmark-Sweden, Tectonophysics, 360, 61-73. Hejrani, B., Jacobsen, B. H., Balling,N. and England, R. W.. 2012, A seismic tomography study of lithospheric structure under the Norwegian Caledonides.Geophysical Research Abstracts, 14, 4334. Hejrani, B.; Jacobsen, B.H.; Balling, N.;Tilmann, F.; Kind, R., 2013, Upper-mantle velocity structure beneathJutland, Denmark and northern Germany:Preliminary results. Joint Assembly Gothenburg Abstract S401S2.01, Medhus, A. B., Balling, N., Jacobsen, B. H., Weidle, C., England, R. W., Kind, R., Thybo, H., Voss, P. (2012a): Upper-mantle structure beneath the Southern Scandes Mountains and the Northern Tornquist Zone revealed by P-wave traveltime tomography. Geophysical Journal International, 189, 3, 1315-1334. Medhus, Jacobsen, B. H.,A. B., Balling, N., 2012b, Bias Problems in Existing Teleseismic Travel Time Databases: Ignore or Repair? Seismological Research Letters, 83, 1030-1037. Sandoval, S., Kissling, E. &Ansorge, J., 2003.High-resolution body wave tomography beneath the SVEKALAPKO array: I. A priori three-dimensional crustal model and associated traveltime effects on teleseismic wave fronts, Geophys. J. Int., 153, 75-87. Weidle, C., Maupin, V., Ritter, J.,Kværna, T., Schweitzer J., Balling, N.,Thybo, H.,Faleide, J. I.,and,Wenzel, F., 2010, MAGNUS-A Seismological Broadband Experiment to Resolve Crustal and Upper Mantle Structure beneath the Southern Scandes Mountains in Norway. SEISMOLOGICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 81, 76-84.

Constraints on upper mantle Vp/Vs ratio variations beneath eastern North China from receiver function tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Si, Shaokun; Tian, Xiaobo; Gao, Rui

2017-05-01

To detect the thinning, modification, and replacement of the basement of the lithosphere is a key step in understanding the destruction mechanism of the North China lithosphere. The difference of the basement of the lithosphere is mainly displayed by the variation of the peridotite composition and its physical state. Vp/Vs ratio (hereafter referred to as velocity ratio) is more sensitive to this change than Vp or Vs alone. By means of the strong dependence of the travel-time of the wave converted at the 410-km discontinuity (P410s) observed in the receiver function (RF) on the velocity ratio in the upper mantle, we developed a new mapping method to constrain the velocity ratio between the Moho and 410-km discontinuity. Using the RFs extracted from 246 broadband stations beneath the North China Craton (NCC), we obtained a high-resolution velocity ratio image of the upper mantle. The abnormal velocity ratio indicates a strong lateral variation of the mineral composition in the upper mantle beneath North China. Two low-velocity-ratio patches are imaged at the top of the upper mantle and the 410 km depth, respectively. The former may be related to the orthopyroxene enrichment in the lithospheric mantle, and the latter may reflect the stagnant Pacific slab in the mantle transition zone (MTZ). A prominent high-velocity-ratio anomaly is also imaged in the upper mantle beneath the Shaanxi-Shanxi rift system in the central NCC, with the highest anomaly reaching 10%. We speculate that the high velocity ratio of upper mantle is related to convective flow due to slab dehydration in the MTZ. The dehydration of the retained slab in the MTZ results in partial melting and upwelling of upper mantle materials. Such convective flow and their melting are closely related to the Cenozoic basalt eruption in the northern section of the Shaanxi-Shanxi rift system.

Geothermal Heat Flux and Upper Mantle Viscosity across West Antarctica: Insights from the UKANET and POLENET Seismic Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Donnell, J. P.; Dunham, C.; Stuart, G. W.; Brisbourne, A.; Nield, G. A.; Whitehouse, P. L.; Hooper, A. J.; Nyblade, A.; Wiens, D.; Aster, R. C.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Huerta, A. D.; Wilson, T. J.; Winberry, J. P.

2017-12-01

Quantifying the geothermal heat flux at the base of ice sheets is necessary to understand their dynamics and evolution. The heat flux is a composite function of concentration of upper crustal radiogenic elements and flow of heat from the mantle into the crust. Radiogenic element concentration varies with tectonothermal age, while heat flow across the crust-mantle boundary depends on crustal and lithospheric thicknesses. Meanwhile, accurately monitoring current ice mass loss via satellite gravimetry or altimetry hinges on knowing the upper mantle viscosity structure needed to account for the superimposed glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) signal in the satellite data. In early 2016 the UK Antarctic Network (UKANET) of 10 broadband seismometers was deployed for two years across the southern Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land. Using UKANET data in conjunction with seismic records from our partner US Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET) and the Antarctic Seismographic Argentinian Italian Network (ASAIN), we have developed a 3D shear wave velocity model of the West Antarctic crust and uppermost mantle based on Rayleigh and Love wave phase velocity dispersion curves extracted from ambient noise cross-correlograms. We combine seismic receiver functions with the shear wave model to help constrain the depth to the crust-mantle boundary across West Antarctica and delineate tectonic domains. The shear wave model is subsequently converted to temperature using a database of densities and elastic properties of minerals common in crustal and mantle rocks, while the various tectonic domains are assigned upper crustal radiogenic element concentrations based on their inferred tectonothermal ages. We combine this information to map the basal geothermal heat flux variation across West Antarctica. Mantle viscosity depends on factors including temperature, grain size, the hydrogen content of olivine and the presence of melt. Using published mantle xenolith and magnetotelluric data to constrain grain size and hydrogen content, respectively, we use the temperature model to estimate the regional upper mantle viscosity structure. The viscosity information will be incorporated in a 3D GIA model that will better constrain estimates of current ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Attenuation in the Upper Mantle Beneath the Northern Apennines (Italy) from Teleseismic P- and S-Wave Spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucente, F. P.; Piccinini, D.; Dibona, M.; Levin, V.; Park, J.

2007-12-01

We present preliminary results for seismic attenuation in the mantle beneath the Italian region. We estimate P- and S-wave spectral ratios from teleseisms recorded at the temporary broadband seismic network deployed during the RETREAT (Retreating-TRrench, Extension, and Accretion Tectonics) project. We examine body-wave attenuation variation across the northern part of the Apennines mountain belt, which represents the accretionary wedge exposed during recent episodes of the subduction process in Italy. The data recorded during the three-year seismic campaign were analyzed using an ad hoc semi-automated procedure based on the cross-correlation analysis of a single phase across all the stations for each event. The seismic phases analyzed (P, S, SKS) display different patterns of seismic attenuation. Furthermore, we observe systematic variations in the distribution of the attenuation values as function of both the azimuth and the incidence angle of the seismic rays. Relatively high attenuation values are found on the Tyrrhenian side by seismic rays coming from the SW for both P- and S-phases. For NE-approaching rays the pattern of high attenuation values varies considerably, depending on the seismic phases: for P-waves it grossly corresponds to the mountain belt, while for S-waves it extends over almost the whole study area. By correlating attenuation estimates and the velocity structure from the existing tomographic models, we can make some inferences on the thermal state of the sublithospheric mantle, and on the physical properties of the tectonic elements which constitute the subduction system in the region. From the analysis of the P-phases we can clearly distinguish three main areas with different attenuation values, corresponding to the back-arc mantle (high attenuation), to the slab (low attenuation) and to the retro-slab mantle (high attenuation). The correspondence between the identified elements of the subduction system and the S- waves attenuation is not straightforward, and need to be further investigated.

Geophysical study of the structure and processes of the continental convergence zones: Alpine-Himalayan Belt

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Toksoez, M. N.

1981-01-01

The seismic wave velocity structure in the crust and upper mantle region beneath the Tibetan plateau was studied in detail. Also, a preliminary study of the uppermost mantle P wave velocity beneath Iran and Turkey was carried out, and the results are compared with those for the Tibetan plateau. These two studies compose the bulk of the efforts on the observational aspects of continental collision zones in addition to satellite derived data. On the theoretical aspects the thermal evolution of converging plate boundaries was explored using a finite difference scheme.

Structure of the North Anatolian Fault Zone from the Autocorrelation of Ambient Seismic Noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, George; Rost, Sebastian; Houseman, Gregory

2016-04-01

In recent years the technique of cross-correlating the ambient seismic noise wavefield at two seismometers to reconstruct empirical Green's Functions for the determination of Earth structure has been a powerful tool to study the Earth's interior without earthquakes or man-made sources. However, far less attention has been paid to using auto-correlations of seismic noise to reveal body wave reflections from interfaces in the subsurface. In principle, the Green's functions thus derived should be comparable to the Earth's impulse response to a co-located source and receiver. We use data from a dense seismic array (Dense Array for Northern Anatolia - DANA) deployed across the northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) in the region of the 1999 magnitude 7.6 Izmit earthquake in western Turkey. The NAFZ is a major strike-slip system that extends ~1200 km across northern Turkey and continues to pose a high level of seismic hazard, in particular to the mega-city of Istanbul. We construct body wave images for the entire crust and the shallow upper mantle over the ~35 km by 70 km footprint of the 70-station DANA array. Using autocorrelations of the vertical component of ground motion, P-wave reflections can be retrieved from the wavefield to constrain crustal structure. We show that clear P-wave reflections from the crust-mantle boundary (Moho) can be retrieved using the autocorrelation technique, indicating topography on the Moho on horizontal scales of less than 10 km. Offsets in crustal structure can be identified that seem to be correlated with the surface expression of the northern branch of the fault zone, indicating that the NAFZ reaches the upper mantle as a narrow structure. The southern branch has a less clear effect on crustal structure. We also see evidence of several discontinuities in the mid-crust in addition to an upper mantle reflector that we interpret to represent the Hales discontinuity.

Determining the upper mantle seismic structure beneath the northern Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, from regional P- and S-wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brenn, Gregory Randall

Stretching 3,500 km across Antarctica, with peak elevations up to 4,500 m, the Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-compressional continental mountain range on Earth and represent a tectonic boundary between the East Antarctica (EA) craton and the West Antarctic Rift System. The origin and uplift mechanism associated with the TAMs is controversial, and multiple models have been proposed. Seismic investigations of the TAM's subsurface structure can provide key constraints to help evaluate these models, but previous studies have been primarily focused only on the central TAMs near Ross Island. Using data from the new 15-station Transantarctic Mountain Northern Network as well as data from several smaller networks, this study investigates the upper mantle velocity structure beneath a previously unexplored portion of the northern TAMs through regional body wave tomography. Relative travel-times were calculated for 11,182 P-wave and 8,285 S-wave arrivals from 790 and 581 Mw ≥ 5.5 events, respectively, using multi-channel cross correlation, and these data were then inverted for models of the upper mantle seismic structure. Resulting P- and S-wave tomography images reveal two focused low velocity anomalies beneath Ross Island (RI; deltaVP ≈ -2.0%; deltaV S ≈ -1.5% to -4.0%) and Terra Nova Bay (TNB; deltaVP ≈ -1.5% to -2.0%; deltaVS ≈ -1.0% to -4.0%) that extend to depths of 200 and 150 km, respectively. The RI and TNB slow anomalies also extend 50-100 km laterally beneath the TAMs front and sharply abut fast velocities beneath the EA craton (deltaVP ≈ 0.5% to 2%; deltaV S ≈ 1.5% to 4.0%). A low velocity region (deltaVP ≈ -1.5%), centered at 150 km depth beneath the Terror Rift (TR) and primarily constrained within the Victoria Land Basin, connects the RI and TNB anomalies. The focused low velocities are interpreted as regions of partial melt and buoyancy-driven upwelling, connected by a broad region of slow (presumably warm) upper mantle associated with Cenozoic extension along the TR. Dynamic topography estimates based on the imaged S-wave velocity perturbations are consistent with observed surface topography in the central and northern TAMs, thereby providing support for uplift models that advocate for thermal loading and a flexural origin for the mountain range.

Teleseismic surface wave study of S-wave velocity structure in Southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prindle-Sheldrake, K. L.; Tanimoto, T.

2002-12-01

We report on a 3D S-wave velocity structure derived from teleseismic Rayleigh and Love waves using TriNet broadband seismic data. Phase velocity maps, constructed between 20 and 55 mHz for Rayleigh waves and between 25 and 45 mHz for Love waves, were inverted for S-wave velocity structure at depth. Our starting model is SCEC 2.2, which has detailed crustal structure, but laterally homogeneous upper mantle structure. Depth resolution from the data set is good from the surface to approximately 100 km, but deteriorates rapidly beyond this depth. Our analysis indicates that, while Rayleigh wave data are mostly sensitive to mantle structure, Love wave data require some modifications of crustal structure from SCEC 2.2 model. Various regions in Southern California have different seismic-velocity signatures in terms of fast and slow S-wave velocities: In the Southern Sierra, both the crust and mantle are slow. In the Mojave desert, mid-crustal depths tend to show slow velocities, which are already built into SCEC 2.2. In the Transverse Ranges, the lower crust and mantle are both fast. Our Love wave results require much faster crustal velocity than those in SCEC 2.2 in this region. In the Peninsular ranges, both the crust and mantle are fast with mantle fast velocity extending to about 70 km. This is slightly more shallow than the depth extent under the Transverse Ranges, yet it is surprisingly deep. Under the Salton Sea, the upper crust is very slow and the upper mantle is also slow. However, these two slow velocity layers are separated by faster velocity lower crust which creates a distinct contrast with respect to the adjacent slow velocity regions. Existence of such a relatively fast layer, sandwiched by slow velocities, are related to features in phase velocity maps, especially in the low frequency Love wave phase velocity map (25 mHz) and the high frequency Rayleigh wave phase velocity maps (above 40 mHz). Such a feature may be related to partial melting processes under the Salton Sea.

Lithospheric Delamination or Relict Slab Beneath the Former North American Cratonic Margin in Idaho and Oregon? New Constraints From Seismic Tomography.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanciu, A. C.; Russo, R. M.; Mocanu, V. I.; VanDecar, J. C.; Hongsresawat, S.; Bremner, P. M.; Torpey, M. E.; Panning, M. P.

2016-12-01

We present a new high-resolution P-wave velocity model of the upper mantle beneath the former passive margin of the North American craton in Oregon and Idaho. We identify high velocity anomalies in the central part of the model and low velocity anomalies to the northwest and southeast. Our results derive from an integrated data set of teleseismic P waves recorded at 145 broadband stations, 85 deployed between 2011 and 2013 as part of the IDOR Passive experiment, and 60 USArray-TA stations. We determined 15,000 travel-times using multi-channel cross-correlation (VanDecar and Crosson, 1990). Phanerozoic tectonic events that affected upper mantle seismic structure here include subduction of Farallon and Juan de Fuca lithosphere, accretion of Blue Mountains terranes, Sevier and Laramide orogenies, Idaho batholith formation, Yellowstone and Columbia River volcanism, and Basin and Range extension. Our results indicate a high P-wave velocity anomaly located beneath the Idaho Batholith in west-central Idaho traceable down to 150-200 km depth. A similar anomaly identified by Schmandt and Humphrey (2011) beneath Washington and Montana was interpreted as a slab remnant from the accretion of Siletzia to North America. Alternatively, the fast Vp anomalies are delaminated North American craton lithosphere. Thickened lithosphere may have formed during Farallon subduction, terrane collision and accretion. Crust as much as 55 km thick present during Late Cretaceous (Foster et al., 2001; Gaschnig et al., 2011) is potentially indicative of lithospheric thickening leading to delamination. To the southeast, upper mantle low velocity anomalies occur beneath the Western Snake River Plain. We associate these low velocities with high temperatures generated by the Yellowstone mantle plume system. We observe a low velocity anomaly beneath the Wallowa Mountains starting at 150-200 km extending to depths below the resolution of our model.

Discrimination Studies Using Short-Period P Waves at Upper Mantle Distances.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-01

interpolate seismic reflection and refraction data in the tau - p, or intercept time - apparent velocity, domain (Thorson and Claerbout, 1985; Kappus et al...Sierra Geophysics Annual Report SGI-R-8-136, DARPA contract F08606-86-C0014. Kappus , M.E., A.J. Harding and J.A. Orcutt, 1987, To tau-p and back

New upper mantle model for North America: no longer a pyrolite composition?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perchuc, E.; Malinowski, M.

2009-04-01

We compare the traveltimes data for P and S waves from the long range seismic profiles and from the earthquakes recorded to the offset of 3000 km with theoretical traveltimes predicted by standard seismological models: PREM, IASP- 91, AK-135 and especially by seismo-petrological model PREF (Cammarano and Romanowicz - 2007). For our analysis we are used data from north American array also. Our analysis suggests that for several events in the distance range 2000-3000 km, the first-arrivals are characterized by a relatively high velocity of 8.7-8.9 km/s. It is about 2.5% higher than P-wave velocity of the Lehmann phases, observed in the nearest offset and about 3% smaller than velocity below 410 km discontinuity. S waves model suggested significant differences in Vp/Vs ratio. We suggest that this is a new first-order seismological boundary which can be interpreted as a top of the mantle transition zone. Seismological arguments for the existence of such a boundary are as follows: refracted waves with velocity 8.7-8.9 km/s and reflected waves find by Warren at al. (1967) and by Thybo and Perchuc (1997b). Several new publications suggested existence of a low velocity zone above the 410-km discontinuity. We also see this feature in our studies. Important suggestion is existence of 300 km discontinuity below cold areas and it is also difficult to exclude this boundary below "cold" areas however phases from this boundary are in secondary impulses. Depth of this boundary strongly depends on the thermal state of the mantle in particular regions. In conclusion we can say that the mantle transition zone starts much earlier and the lower part of the upper mantle is much faster than predicted by purely pyrolitic mantle model. Several petrological studies suggest influences of fluids (especially H2O) on the character of the 410 km discontinuity and of the transition zone. All the differences in experimental data can be explained by the effect of temperature on the phase transformations within the olivine-wadsleyite system.

Evidence for an upper mantle low velocity zone beneath the southern Basin and Range-Colorado Plateau transition zone

USGS Publications Warehouse

Benz, H.M.; McCarthy, J.

1994-01-01

A 370-km-long seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profile recorded during the Pacific to Arizona Crustal Experiment (PACE) detected an upper mantle P-wave low-velocity zone (LVZ) in the depth range 40 to 55 km beneath the Basin and Range in southern Arizona. Interpretation of seismic data places constraints on the sub-crustal lithosphere of the southern Basin and Range Province, which is important in light of the active tectonics of the region and the unknown role of the sub-crustal lithosphere in the development of the western United States. Forward travel time and synthetic seismogram techniques are used to model this shallow upper mantle LVZ. Modeling results show that the LVZ is defined by a 5% velocity decrease relative to a Pn velocity of 7.95 km s−1, suggesting either a ∼3–5% mafic partial melt or high-temperature, sub-solidus peridotite.

Anomalous density and elastic properties of basalt at high pressure: Reevaluating of the effect of melt fraction on seismic velocity in the Earth's crust and upper mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Alisha N.; Lesher, Charles E.; Jacobsen, Steven D.; Wang, Yanbin

2016-06-01

Independent measurements of the volumetric and elastic properties of Columbia River basalt glass were made up to 5.5 GPa by high-pressure X-ray microtomography and GHz-ultrasonic interferometry, respectively. The Columbia River basalt displays P and S wave velocity minima at 4.5 and 5 GPa, respectively, violating Birch's law. These data constrain the pressure dependence of the density and elastic moduli at high pressure, which cannot be modeled through usual equations of state nor determined by stepwise integrating the bulk sound velocity as is common practice. We propose a systematic variation in compression behavior of silicate glasses that is dependent on the degree of polymerization and arises from the flexibility of the aluminosilicate network. This behavior likely persists into the liquid state for basaltic melts resulting in weak pressure dependence for P wave velocities perhaps to depths of the transition zone. Modeling the effect of partial melt on P wave velocity reductions suggests that melt fraction determined by seismic velocity variations may be significantly overestimated in the crust and upper mantle.

Anomalous density and elastic properties of basalt at high pressure: Reevaluating of the effect of melt fraction on seismic velocity in the Earth's crust and upper mantle

DOE PAGES

Clark, Alisha N.; Lesher, Charles E.; Jacobsen, Steven D.; ...

2016-06-27

Independent measurements of the volumetric and elastic properties of Columbia River basalt glass were made up to 5.5 GPa by high-pressure X-ray microtomography and GHz-ultrasonic interferometry, respectively. The Columbia River basalt displays P and S wave velocity minima at 4.5 and 5 GPa, respectively, violating Birch’s law. These data constrain the pressure dependence of the density and elastic moduli at high pressure, which cannot be modeled through usual equations of state nor determined by stepwise integrating the bulk sound velocity as is common practice. We propose a systematic variation in compression behavior of silicate glasses that is dependent on themore » degree of polymerization and arises from the flexibility of the aluminosilicate network. Likewise, this behavior likely persists into the liquid state for basaltic melts resulting in weak pressure dependence for P wave velocities perhaps to depths of the transition zone. By modeling the effect of partial melt on P wave velocity reductions it is suggested that melt fraction determined by seismic velocity variations may be significantly overestimated in the crust and upper mantle.« less

Anisotropy beneath the Southern Pacific - real or apparent?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasse, Philipp; Thomas, Christine

2016-04-01

Anisotropy of the lowermost mantle beneath the South- to Central Pacific is investigated using US-Array receivers and events located near the Tonga-Fiji subduction zones. Differential splitting in three different distance ranges (65° -85° , 90° -110° and >110°) of S-ScS, SKS-S, SKS-Sdiff phases is used. By utilizing differential splitting technique, it was possible to correct for upper mantle, as well as source- and receiver side anisotropy and effectively quantify shear wave splitting originating in the lowermost mantle. Delay times of horizontal (SH) and vertical polarized (SV) shear waves show that predominantly the SH wave is delayed relative to the SV wave. Motivated by the discrepancy in previous Pacific studies investigating the lowermost mantle beneath the Pacific the possibility of isotropic structure producing the observed splitting is tested. Synthetic seismograms are computed, based on various isotropic models and the resulting synthetics are analysed in the same way as the real data. While simple layered models do not produce splitting and therefore apparent anisotropy, models in which the lowermost mantle is represented as a negative gradient in P- and S-wave velocity, produce clear apparent anisotropy. Thus, this study presents a possible alternative way of explaining the structure of the D" region.

P-wave velocity structure beneath the northern Antarctic Peninsula: evidence of a steeply subducting slab and a deep-rooted low-velocity anomaly beneath the central Bransfield Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Yongcheol; Kim, Kwang-Hee; Lee, Joohan; Yoo, Hyun Jae; Plasencia L., Milton P.

2012-12-01

Upper-mantle structure between 100 and 300 km depth below the northern Antarctic Peninsula is imaged by modelling P-wave traveltime residuals from teleseismic events recorded on the King Sejong Station (KSJ), the Argentinean/Italian stations (JUBA and ESPZ), an IRIS/GSN Station (PMSA) and the Seismic Experiment in Patagonia and Antarctica (SEPA) broad-band stations. For measuring traveltime residuals, we applied a multichannel cross-correlation method and inverted for upper-mantle structure using VanDecar's method. The new 3-D velocity model reveals a subducted slab with a ˜70° dip angle at 100-300 km depth and a strong low-velocity anomaly confined below the SE flank of the central Bransfield Basin. The low velocity is attributed to a thermal anomaly in the mantle that could be as large as 350-560 K and which is associated with high heat flow and volcanism in the central Bransfield Basin. The low-velocity zone imaged below the SE flank of the central Bransfield Basin does not extend under the northern Bransfield Basin, suggesting that the rifting process in that area likely involves different geodynamic processes.

Teleseismic P-wave tomography and mantle dynamics beneath Eastern Tibet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, Jianshe; Zhao, Dapeng

2016-05-01

We determined a new 3-D P-wave velocity model of the upper mantle beneath eastern Tibet using 112,613 high-quality arrival-time data collected from teleseismic seismograms recorded by a new portable seismic array in Yunnan and permanent networks in southwestern China. Our results provide new insights into the mantle structure and dynamics of eastern Tibet. High-velocity (high-V) anomalies are revealed down to 200 km depth under the Sichuan basin and the Ordos and Alashan blocks. Low-velocity (low-V) anomalies are imaged in the upper mantle under the Kunlun-Qilian and Qinling fold zones, and the Songpan-Ganzi, Qiangtang, Lhasa and Chuan-Dian diamond blocks, suggesting that eastward moving low-V materials are extruded to eastern China after the obstruction by the Sichuan basin, and the Ordos and Alashan blocks. Furthermore, the extent and thickness of these low-V anomalies are correlated with the surface topography, suggesting that the uplift of eastern Tibet could be partially related to these low-V materials having a higher temperature and strong positive buoyancy. In the mantle transition zone (MTZ), broad high-V anomalies are visible from the Burma arc northward to the Kunlun fault and eastward to the Xiaojiang fault, and they are connected upward with the Wadati-Benioff seismic zone. These results suggest that the subducted Indian slab has traveled horizontally for a long distance after it descended into the MTZ, and return corner flow and deep slab dehydration have contributed to forming the low-V anomalies in the big mantle wedge. Our results shed new light on the dynamics of the eastern Tibetan plateau.

A seismic transect across West Antarctica: Evidence for mantle thermal anomalies beneath the Bentley Subglacial Trench and the Marie Byrd Land Dome

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lloyd, Andrew J.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Nyblade, Andrew A.; Anandakrishnan, Sridhar; Aster, Richard C.; Huerta, Audrey D.; Wilson, Terry J.; Dalziel, Ian W. D.; Shore, Patrick J.; Zhao, Dapeng

2015-12-01

West Antarctica consists of several tectonically diverse terranes, including the West Antarctic Rift System, a topographic low region of extended continental crust. In contrast, the adjacent Marie Byrd Land and Ellsworth-Whitmore mountains crustal blocks are on average over 1 km higher, with the former dominated by polygenetic shield and stratovolcanoes protruding through the West Antarctic ice sheet and the latter having a Precambrian basement. The upper mantle structure of these regions is important for inferring the geologic history and tectonic processes, as well as the influence of the solid earth on ice sheet dynamics. Yet this structure is poorly constrained due to a lack of seismological data. As part of the Polar Earth Observing Network, 13 temporary broadband seismic stations were deployed from January 2010 to January 2012 that extended from the Whitmore Mountains, across the West Antarctic Rift System, and into Marie Byrd Land with a mean station spacing of ~90 km. Relative P and S wave travel time residuals were obtained from these stations as well as five other nearby stations by cross correlation. The relative residuals, corrected for both ice and crustal structure using previously published receiver function models of crustal velocity, were inverted to image the relative P and S wave velocity structure of the West Antarctic upper mantle. Some of the fastest relative P and S wave velocities are observed beneath the Ellsworth-Whitmore mountains crustal block and extend to the southern flank of the Bentley Subglacial Trench. However, the velocities in this region are not fast enough to be compatible with a Precambrian lithospheric root, suggesting some combination of thermal, chemical, and structural modification of the lithosphere. The West Antarctic Rift System consists largely of relative fast uppermost mantle seismic velocities consistent with Late Cretaceous/early Cenozoic extension that at present likely has negligible rift related heat flow. In contrast, the Bentley Subglacial Trench, a narrow deep basin within the West Antarctic Rift System, has relative P and S wave velocities in the uppermost mantle that are ~1% and ~2% slower, respectively, and suggest a thermal anomaly of ~75 K. Models for the thermal evolution of a rift basin suggest that such a thermal anomaly is consistent with Neogene extension within the Bentley Subglacial Trench and may, at least in part, account for elevated heat flow reported at the nearby West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core and at Subglacial Lake Whillans. The slowest relative P and S wave velocity anomaly is observed extending to at least 200 km depth beneath the Executive Committee Range in Marie Byrd Land, which is consistent with warm possibly plume-related, upper mantle. The imaged low-velocity anomaly and inferred thermal perturbation (~150 K) are sufficient to support isostatically the anomalous long-wavelength topography of Marie Byrd Land, relative to the adjacent West Antarctic Rift System.

Seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle beneath the MAGIC array, mid-Atlantic Appalachians: Constraints from SKS splitting and quasi-Love wave propagation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aragon, J. C.; Long, M. D.; Benoit, M. H.; Servali, A.

2016-12-01

North America's eastern passive continental margin has been modified by several cycles of supercontinent assembly. Its complex surface geology and distinct topography provide evidence of these events, while also raising questions about the extent of deformation in the continental crust, lithosphere, and mantle during past episodes of rifting and mountain building. The Mid-Atlantic Geophysical Integrative Collaboration (MAGIC) is an EarthScope and GeoPRISMS-funded project that involves a collaborative effort among seismologists, geodynamicists, and geomorphologists. One component of the project is a broadband seismic array consisting of 28 instruments in a linear path from coastal Virginia to western Ohio, which operated between October 2013 and October 2016. A key science question addressed by the MAGIC project is the geometry of past lithospheric deformation and present-day mantle flow beneath the Appalachians, which can be probed using observations of seismic anisotropy Here we present observations of SKS splitting and quasi-Love wave arrivals from stations of the MAGIC array, which together constrain seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle. SKS splitting along the array reveals distinct regions of upper mantle anisotropy, with stations in and to the west of the range exhibiting fast directions parallel to the strike of the mountains. In contrast, weak splitting and null SKS arrivals dominate eastern stations in the coastal plain. Documented Love-to-Rayleigh wave scattering for surface waves originating the magnitude 8.3 Illapel, Chile earthquakes in September 2015 provides complementary constraints on anisotropy. These quasi-Love wave arrivals suggest a pronounced change in upper mantle anisotropy at the eastern edge of present-day Appalachian topography. Together, these observations increase our understanding of the extent of lithospheric deformation beneath North America associated with Appalachian orogenesis, as well as the pattern of present-day mantle flow beneath the passive margin.

Teleseismic P-wave Tomography and Mantle Dynamics beneath Eastern Tibet: Insight into Tengchong Volcano and Large Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, J., Sr.; Zhao, D.

2016-12-01

We determined a new 3-D P-wave velocity model of the upper mantle beneath eastern Tibet using 112,613 high-quality arrival-time data collected from teleseismic seismograms recorded by a new portable seismic array in Yunnan and permanent networks in southwestern China. Our results provide new insights into the mantle structure and dynamics of eastern Tibet. High-velocity (high-V) anomalies are revealed down to 200 km depth under the Sichuan basin and the Ordos and Alashan blocks. Low-velocity (low-V) anomalies are imaged in the upper mantle under the Kunlun-Qilian and Qinling fold zones, and the Songpan-Ganzi, Qiangtang, Lhasa and Chuan-Dian diamond blocks, suggesting that eastward moving low-V materials are extruded to eastern China after the obstruction by the Sichuan basin, and the Ordos and Alashan blocks. Furthermore, the extent and thickness of these low-V anomalies are correlated with the surface topography, suggesting that the uplift of eastern Tibet could be partially related to these low-V materials having a higher temperature and strong positive buoyancy. In the mantle transition zone (MTZ), broad high-V anomalies are visible from the Burma arc northward to the Kunlun fault and eastward to the Xiaojiang fault, and they are connected upward with the Wadati-Benioff seismic zone. These results suggest that the subducted Indian slab has traveled horizontally for a long distance after it descended into the MTZ, and return corner flow and deep slab dehydration have contributed to forming the low-V anomalies in the big mantle wedge. Our results shed new light on the deep origin of Tengchong volcano and large crustal earthquakes as well as the mantle dynamics of the eastern Tibetan plateau.

Mountain Building in Central and Western Tien Shan Orogen: Insight from Joint Inversion of Surface Wave Phase Velocities and Body Wave Travel Times

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, S.; Yang, Y.; Wang, K.

2017-12-01

The Tien Shan orogeny, situated in central Asia about 2000 km away from the collision boundary between Indian plate and Eurasian plate, is one of the highest, youngest, and most active intracontinental mountain belts on the earth. It first formed during the Paleozoic times and became reactivated at about 20Ma. Although many studies on the dynamic processes of the Tien Shan orogeny have been carried out before, its tectonic rejuvenation and uplift mechanism are still being debated. A high-resolution model of crust and mantle beneath Tien Shan is critical to discern among competing models for the mountain building. In this study, we collect and process seismic data recorded by several seismic arrays in the central and western Tien Shan region to generate surface wave dispersion curves at 6-140 s period using ambient noise tomography (ANT) and two-plane surface wave tomography (TPWT) methods. Using these dispersion curves, we construct a high-resolution 3-D image of shear wave velocity (Vs) in the crust and upper mantle up to 300 km depth. Our current model constrained only by surface waves shows that, under the Tien Shan orogenic belt, a strong low S-wave velocity anomaly exists in the uppermost mantle down to the depth of 200km, supporting the model that the hot upper mantle is upwelling under the Tien Shan orogenic belt, which may be responsible for the mountain building. To the west of central Tien Shan across the Talas-Fergana fault, low S-wave velocity anomalies in the upper mantle become much weaker and finally disappear beneath the Fergana basin. Because surface waves are insensitive to the structures below 300 km, body wave arrival times will be included for a joint inversion with surface waves to generate S-wave velocity structure from the surface down to the mantle transition zone. The joint inversion of both body and surface waves provide complementary constraints on structures at different depths and helps to achieve a more realistic model compared with body wave or surface wave tomography alone. The joint inversion model will be presented.

A New Comprehensive Model for Crustal and Upper Mantle Structure of the European Plate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morelli, A.; Danecek, P.; Molinari, I.; Postpischl, L.; Schivardi, R.; Serretti, P.; Tondi, M. R.

2009-12-01

We present a new comprehensive model of crustal and upper mantle structure of the whole European Plate — from the North Atlantic ridge to Urals, and from North Africa to the North Pole — describing seismic speeds (P and S) and density. Our description of crustal structure merges information from previous studies: large-scale compilations, seismic prospection, receiver functions, inversion of surface wave dispersion measurements and Green functions from noise correlation. We use a simple description of crustal structure, with laterally-varying sediment and cristalline layers thickness and seismic parameters. Most original information refers to P-wave speed, from which we derive S speed and density from scaling relations. This a priori crustal model by itself improves the overall fit to observed Bouguer anomaly maps, as derived from GRACE satellite data, over CRUST2.0. The new crustal model is then used as a constraint in the inversion for mantle shear wave speed, based on fitting Love and Rayleigh surface wave dispersion. In the inversion for transversely isotropic mantle structure, we use group speed measurements made on European event-to-station paths, and use a global a priori model (S20RTS) to ensure fair rendition of earth structure at depth and in border areas with little coverage from our data. The new mantle model sensibly improves over global S models in the imaging of shallow asthenospheric (slow) anomalies beneath the Alpine mobile belt, and fast lithospheric signatures under the two main Mediterranean subduction systems (Aegean and Tyrrhenian). We map compressional wave speed inverting ISC travel times (reprocessed by Engdahl et al.) with a non linear inversion scheme making use of finite-difference travel time calculation. The inversion is based on an a priori model obtained by scaling the 3D mantle S-wave speed to P. The new model substantially confirms images of descending lithospheric slabs and back-arc shallow asthenospheric regions, shown in other more local high-resolution tomographic studies, but covers the whole range of the European Plate. We also obtain three-dimensional mantle density structure by inversion of GRACE Bouguer anomalies locally adjusting density and the scaling relation between seismic wave speeds and density. We validate the new comprehensive model through comparison of recorded seismograms with numerical simulations based on SPECFEM3D. This work is a contribution towards the definition of a reference earth model for Europe. To this extent, in order to improve model dissemination and comparison, we propose the adoption of a common exchange format for tomographic earth models based on JSON, a lightweight data-interchange format supported by most high-level programming languages. We provide tools for manipulating and visualising models, described in this standard format, in Google Earth and GEON IDV.

Multifrequency tomography of the La Reunion mantle plume with P and S waves using ocean bottom seismometers in the Indian Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsekhmistrenko, M.; Sigloch, K.; Hosseini, K.

2017-12-01

The RHUM-RUM experiment (Reunion Hotspot Upper Mantle - Reunions Unterer Mantel) investigates the presence or absence of a whole mantle plume beneath the volcanic hotspot island of La Reunion. From 2011 to 2016, RHUM-RUM instrumented a 2000 km x 2000 km area of western Indian Ocean seafloor, islands and Madagascar with broadband seismometers and hydrophones. The central component was a 13-month deployment of 57 German and French Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) in 2300-5600 m depth. This was supplemented by 2-3 years deployments of 37 island stations on Reunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues, the southern Seychelles, the Iles Eparses and southern Madagascar. Two partner projects contributed another 30+ stations on Madagascar. We present results of multifrequency P- and S-waveform tomography of the entire mantle column beneath the Reunion hotspot. We use all frequency passbands that efficiently transmit body waves and rise above the considerable noise floor of OBS measurements. More than 200 teleseismic events during the 13-month long OBS deployment yielded usable measurements, and another 400 events before and after. We present our methods, discuss data yield and quality of ocean-bottom versus island/land seismometers and hydrophones. 150,000 combined cross-correlations measurements were used in multifrequency P-wave tomography, in passbands between 30 s and 2.7 s dominant period. Cross-correlation coefficients at permanent and temporal land stations are generally higher than on OBS, which are more affected by both microseismic and self-noise. Hydrophones worked more reliably, but strong reverberations from the water column mean that they are still less usable than seismograms. All measurements of the RHUM-RUM array are embedded in a global P-wave inversion. Mantle structures obtained from this new, high resolution tomographic model of the La Reunion area are compared to existing tomographies. We also compare to local and global convection models in order to understand the relation between mantle flow and the development of mantle plumes through time.

Complex deformation in western Tibet revealed by anisotropic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Heng; Zhao, Junmeng; Zhao, Dapeng; Yu, Chunquan; Liu, Hongbing; Hu, Zhaoguo

2016-10-01

The mechanism and pattern of deformation beneath western Tibet are still an issue of debate. In this work we present 3-D P- and S-wave velocity tomography as well as P-wave radial and azimuthal anisotropy along the ANTILOPE-I profile and surrounding areas in western Tibet, which are determined by using a large number of P and S arrival-time data of local earthquakes and teleseismic events. Our results show that low-velocity (low-V) zones exist widely in the middle crust, whereas low-V zones are only visible in the lower crust beneath northwestern Tibet, indicating the existence of significant heterogeneities and complex flow there. In the upper mantle, a distinct low-V gap exists between the Indian and Asian plates. Considering the P- and S-wave tomography and P-wave azimuthal and radial anisotropy results, we interpret the gap to be caused mainly by shear heating. Depth-independent azimuthal anisotropy and high-velocity zones exist beneath the northern part of the study region, suggesting a vertically coherent deformation beneath the Tarim Basin. In contrast, tomographic and anisotropic features change with depth beneath the central and southern parts of the study region, which reflects depth-dependent (or decoupled) deformations there. At the northern edge of the Indian lithospheric mantle (ILM), P-wave azimuthal anisotropy shows a nearly east-west fast-velocity direction, suggesting that the ILM was re-built by mantle materials flowing to the north.

Färoe-Iceland Ridge Experiment: 1. Crustal structure of northeastern Iceland

USGS Publications Warehouse

Staples, Robert K.; White, Robert S.; Brandsdottir, Bryndis; Menke, William; Maguire, Peter K.H.; McBride, John H.

1997-01-01

Results from the Färoe-Iceland Ridge Experiment (FIRE) constrain the crustal thickness as 19 km under the Northern Volcanic Zone of Iceland and 35 km under older Tertiary areas of northeastern Iceland. The Moho is defined by strong P wave and S wave reflections. Synthetic seismogram modeling of the Moho reflection indicates mantle velocities of at least 8.0 km/s beneath the Tertiary areas of northeastern Iceland and at least 7.9 km/s beneath the neovolcanic zone. Crustal diving rays resolve the structure of the upper and lower crust. Surface P wave velocities are 1.1–4.0 km/s in Quaternary rocks and are rather higher, 4.4–4.7 km/s, in the Tertiary basalts that outcrop elsewhere. The highest crustal P wave velocities observed directly from diving rays are 7.1 km/s, from rays that turn at 24 km depth. Velocities of 7.35 km/s at the base of the crust are inferred from extrapolation of the lower crustal velocity gradient (0.024 s−1). A Poisson's ratio of approximately 0.27, equivalent to an S wave to P wave travel time ratio of 1.78, is measured throughout the crust east of the neovolcanic zone. The Poisson's ratio and the steep Moho topography (in places up to 30° from the horizontal) indicate that the entire crust outside the neovolcanic zone is cool (<800°C). Gravity data are well matched by a velocity/density conversion of our seismic crustal model and indicate a region of low mantle density beneath the neovolcanic zone, believed to be due to elevated mantle temperatures. The crustal thickness in the neovolcanic zone is consistent with geochemical estimates of the melt generation, placing constraints on the flow within the Iceland mantle plume.

The North American upper mantle: density, composition, and evolution

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mooney, Walter D.; Kaban, Mikhail K.

2010-01-01

The upper mantle of North America has been well studied using various seismic methods. Here we investigate the density structure of the North American (NA) upper mantle based on the integrative use of the gravity field and seismic data. The basis of our study is the removal of the gravitational effect of the crust to determine the mantle gravity anomalies. The effect of the crust is removed in three steps by subtracting the gravitational contributions of (1) topography and bathymetry, (2) low-density sedimentary accumulations, and (3) the three-dimensional density structure of the crystalline crust as determined by seismic observations. Information regarding sedimentary accumulations, including thickness and density, are taken from published maps and summaries of borehole measurements of densities; the seismic structure of the crust is based on a recent compilation, with layer densities estimated from P-wave velocities. The resultant mantle gravity anomaly map shows a pronounced negative anomaly (−50 to −400 mGal) beneath western North America and the adjacent oceanic region and positive anomalies (+50 to +350 mGal) east of the NA Cordillera. This pattern reflects the well-known division of North America into the stable eastern region and the tectonically active western region. The close correlation of large-scale features of the mantle anomaly map with those of the topographic map indicates that a significant amount of the topographic uplift in western NA is due to buoyancy in the hot upper mantle, a conclusion supported by previous investigations. To separate the contributions of mantle temperature anomalies from mantle compositional anomalies, we apply an additional correction to the mantle anomaly map for the thermal structure of the uppermost mantle. The thermal model is based on the conversion of seismic shear-wave velocities to temperature and is consistent with mantle temperatures that are independently estimated from heat flow and heat production data. The thermally corrected mantle density map reveals density anomalies that are chiefly due to compositional variations. These compositional density anomalies cause gravitational anomalies that reach ~250 mGal. A pronounced negative anomaly (−50 to −200 mGal) is found over the Canadian shield, which is consistent with chemical depletion and a corresponding low density of the lithospheric mantle, also referred to as the mantle tectosphere. The strongest positive anomaly is coincident with the Gulf of Mexico and indicates a positive density anomaly in the upper mantle, possibly an eclogite layer that has caused subsidence in the Gulf. Two linear positive anomalies are also seen south of 40°N: one with a NE-SW trend in the eastern United States, roughly coincident with the Grenville-Appalachians, and a second with a NW-SE trend beneath the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. These anomalies are interpreted as being due to (1) the presence of remnants of an oceanic slab in the upper mantle beneath the Grenville-Appalachian suture and (2) mantle thickening caused by a period of shallow, flat subduction during the Laramie orogeny, respectively. Based on these geophysical results, the evolution of the NA upper mantle is depicted in a series of maps and cartoons that display the primary processes that have formed and modified the NA crust and lithospheric upper mantle.

Test of high-resolution 3D P-wave velocity model of Poland by back-azimuthal sections of teleseismic receiver function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilde-Piorko, Monika; Polkowski, Marcin; Grad, Marek

2015-04-01

Geological and seismic structure under area of Poland is well studied by over one hundred thousand boreholes, over thirty deep seismic refraction and wide angle reflection profiles and by vertical seismic profiling, magnetic, gravity, magnetotelluric and thermal methods. Compilation of these studies allowed to create a high-resolution 3D P-wave velocity model down to 60 km depth in the area of Poland (Polkowski et al. 2014). Model also provides details about the geometry of main layers of sediments (Tertiary and Quaternary, Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic, Permian, old Paleozoic), consolidated/crystalline crust (upper, middle and lower) and uppermost mantle. This model gives an unique opportunity for calculation synthetic receiver function and compering it with observed receiver function calculated for permanent and temporary seismic stations. Modified ray-tracing method (Langston, 1977) can be used directly to calculate the response of the structure with dipping interfaces to the incoming plane wave with fixed slowness and back-azimuth. So, 3D P-wave velocity model has been interpolated to 2.5D P-wave velocity model beneath each seismic station and back-azimuthal sections of components of receiver function have been calculated. Vp/Vs ratio is assumed to be 1.8, 1.67, 1.73, 1.77 and 1.8 in the sediments, upper/middle/lower consolidated/crystalline crust and uppermost mantle, respectively. Densities were calculated with combined formulas of Berteussen (1977) and Gardner et al. (1974). Additionally, to test a visibility of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary phases at receiver function sections models have been extended to 250 km depth based on P4-mantle model (Wilde-Piórko et al., 2010). National Science Centre Poland provided financial support for this work by NCN grant DEC-2011/02/A/ST10/00284 and by NCN grant UMO-2011/01/B/ST10/06653.

Continental crust

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pakiser, L.C.

1964-01-01

The structure of the Earth’s crust (the outer shell of the earth above the M-discontinuity) has been intensively studied in many places by use of geophysical methods. The velocity of seismic compressional waves in the crust and in the upper mantle varies from place to place in the conterminous United States. The average crust is thick in the eastern two-thirds of the United States, in which the crustal and upper-mantle velocities tend to be high. The average crust is thinner in the western one-third of the United States, in which these velocities tend to be low. The concept of eastern and western superprovinces can be used to classify these differences. Crustal and upper-mantle densities probably vary directly with compressional-wave velocity, leading to the conclusion that isostasy is accomplished by the variation in densities of crustal and upper-mantle rocks as well as in crustal thickness, and that there is no single, generally valid isostatic model. The nature of the M-discontinuity is still speculative.

Comment on `Banana-doughnut kernels and mantle tomography' by van der Hilst and de Hoop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montelli, R.; Nolet, G.; Dahlen, F. A.

2006-12-01

E debbasi considerare come non è cosa più difficile a trattare, né più dubbia a riuscire, nè più pericolosa a maneggiare, che farsi capo ad introdurre nuovi ordini. Perché lo introduttore ha per nimici tutti quelli che delli ordini vecchi fanno bene, et ha tepidi defensori tutti quelli che delli ordini nuovi farebbono bene.† Machiavelli, Il Principe The claim by van der Hilst and de Hoop that finite-frequency (FF) inversion of seismic traveltimes does not result in measurable improvements in tomographic images is misguided, and based upon a biased selection of images in the upper mantle, where wave front healing effects are indeed small, and where our models are generally poorly resolved because we primarily used teleseismic waves that travel steeply in the upper mantle; and upon an improper application of statistics to the better-resolved anomalies in the lower mantle. If station corrections for long-period P waves are computed using ray theory, as we do, unmodelled FF effects may be responsible for slow anomalies of up to 0.3 per cent beneath very small island stations, but these effects are negligible for larger islands such as Reunion and Kerguelen. The presence of a plume beneath these islands is the most probable explanation for the observed low velocities.

Upper mantle seismic structure beneath central East Antarctica from body wave tomography: Implications for the origin of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lloyd, Andrew J.; Nyblade, Andrew A.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Hansen, Samantha E.; Kanao, Masaki; Shore, Patrick J.; Zhao, Dapeng

2013-04-01

The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM), located near the center of East Antarctica, are the highest feature within the East Antarctic highlands and have been investigated seismically for the first time during the 2007/2008 International Polar Year by the Gamburtsev Mountains Seismic Experiment. Using data from a network of 26 broadband seismic stations and body wave tomography, the P and S wave velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath the GSM and adjacent regions has been examined. Tomographic images produced from teleseismic P and S phases reveal several large-scale, small amplitude anomalies (δVp = 1.0%, δVs = 2.0%) in the upper 250 km of the mantle. The lateral distributions of these large-scale anomalies are similar in both the P and S wave velocity models and resolution tests show that they are well resolved. Velocity anomalies indicate slower, thinner lithosphere beneath the likely Meso- or Neoproterozoic Polar Subglacial Basin and faster, thicker lithosphere beneath the likely Archean/Paleoproterozoic East Antarctic highlands. Within the region of faster, thicker lithosphere, a lower amplitude (δVp = 0.5%, δVs = 1.0%) slow to fast velocity pattern is observed beneath the western flank of the GSM, suggesting a suture between two lithospheric blocks possibly of similar age. These findings point to a Precambrian origin for the high topography of the GSM, corroborating other studies invoking a long-lived highland landscape in central East Antarctica, as opposed to uplift caused by Permian/Cretaceous rifting or Cenozoic magmatism. The longevity of the GSM makes them geologically unusual; however, plausible analogs exist, such as the 550 Ma Petermann Ranges in central Australia. Additional uplift may have occurred by the reactivation of pre-existing faults, for example, during the Carboniferous-Permian collision of Gondwana and Laurussia.

The African Lithosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Priestley, K.; Debayle, E.; McKenzie, D.; Pilidou, S.

2007-12-01

There have been a number of prior, large scale surface wave studies of Africa, the majority of which rely on fundamental mode observations. In this study we use a large data set of multi-mode surface waves recorded over epicentral distances most of which are shorter than 6000 km, to investigate the Sv wave speed heterogeneity of the upper mantle beneath Africa. The inclusion of the higher mode data allow us to build an upper mantle model for the African plate with a horizontal resolution of a few hundred kilometers and a vertical resolution of a few tens of kilometers extending to about 400 km depth. Our tomographic images of the upper mantle beneath Africa displays significant shear velocity features, much of which correlate with surface geology. High velocity mantle persists beneath the West African and Congo cratons to 225-250 km depth, but the high velocity root beneath Kalahari Craton extends to only about 175 km depth. Low velocity upper mantle underlies the Pan- African terranes of Africa with the exception of the Damara mobile belt separating the Congo and Kalahari Cratons. The Damara mobile belt is underlain by a thick high velocity upper mantle lid which is indistinguishable from that beneath the Congo Craton to the north and the Kalahari Craton to the south. Low velocity upper mantle underlie the Hoggar, Tebesti and Darfur volcanic areas of northern Africa, and very low velocities underlie the Afar region to at least 400 km depth. We use the relationship between shear velocity and temperature of Priestley & McKenzie (2006) to derive a model for the African thermal lithosphere. Two types of lithosphere underlie Africa. Thick lithosphere underlies most of western Africa and all of southern Africa; in the latter the extent of the thick lithosphere is significantly different from the distribution of Archean crust mapped at the surface. Thick lithosphere forms one continuous structure beneath the Congo and Kalahari Cratons. Other than the Pan-African Damara mobile belt, the only Pan-African terrane of Africa free of recent (<30 Ma) volcanism, all of the Pan- African is underlain by lithosphere whose thickness is too thin to be resolved by our current surface wave analysis.

Upper mantle structure of central and West Antarctica from array analysis of Rayleigh wave phase velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heeszel, David S.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Anandakrishnan, Sridhar; Aster, Richard C.; Dalziel, Ian W. D.; Huerta, Audrey D.; Nyblade, Andrew A.; Wilson, Terry J.; Winberry, J. Paul

2016-03-01

The seismic velocity structure of Antarctica is important, both as a constraint on the tectonic history of the continent and for understanding solid Earth interactions with the ice sheet. We use Rayleigh wave array analysis methods applied to teleseismic data from recent temporary broadband seismograph deployments to image the upper mantle structure of central and West Antarctica. Phase velocity maps are determined using a two-plane wave tomography method and are inverted for shear velocity using a Monte Carlo approach to estimate three-dimensional velocity structure. Results illuminate the structural dichotomy between the East Antarctic Craton and West Antarctica, with West Antarctica showing thinner crust and slower upper mantle velocity. West Antarctica is characterized by a 70-100 km thick lithosphere, underlain by a low-velocity zone to depths of at least 200 km. The slowest anomalies are beneath Ross Island and the Marie Byrd Land dome and are interpreted as upper mantle thermal anomalies possibly due to mantle plumes. The central Transantarctic Mountains are marked by an uppermost mantle slow-velocity anomaly, suggesting that the topography is thermally supported. The presence of thin, higher-velocity lithosphere to depths of about 70 km beneath the West Antarctic Rift System limits estimates of the regionally averaged heat flow to less than 90 mW/m2. The Ellsworth-Whitmore block is underlain by mantle with velocities that are intermediate between those of the West Antarctic Rift System and the East Antarctic Craton. We interpret this province as Precambrian continental lithosphere that has been altered by Phanerozoic tectonic and magmatic activity.

Continent-Wide Maps of Lg Coda Q Variation and Rayleigh-wave Attenuation Variation for Eurasia

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-30

lithosphere and crustal strain lead us to infer that fluids, originating by hydrothermal release from subducting lithosphere or other upper mantle heat...relatively low Qo values in the Arabian Peninsula are produced by fluids that have been released in the upper mantle by hydrothermal processes and have...Advection of plumes in mantle flow: Implications for hotspot motion, mantle viscosity and plume distribution, Geophys. J. Int., 132, 412–434. Talebian, M

Crust and Mantle Deformation Revealed from High-Resolution Radially Anisotropic Velocity Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, A.; Dave, R.; Yao, Y.

2017-12-01

Love wave tomography, which can achieve a similar model resolution as Rayleigh wave, so far has limited applications to the USArray data. Recently, we have developed high-resolution Love wave phase velocity maps in the Wyoming craton and Texas using data at the Transportable Array stations. 3-D, radially anisotropic velocity models are obtained by jointly inverting Love and Rayleigh wave phase velocities. A high-velocity anomaly extending to about 200 km depth beneath central Wyoming correlates with negative radial anisotropy (Vsv>Vsh), suggesting that mantle downwelling develops under the cratonic lithosphere. Surprisingly, the significantly low velocity beneath the Yellowstone hotspot, which has been interpreted as partial melting and asthenospheric upwelling, is associated with the largest radial anisotropy (Vsh>Vsv) in the area. This observation does not support mantle upwelling. Instead, it indicates that the upper mantle beneath the hotspot has experienced strong shear deformation probably by the plate motion and large-scale mantle flow. In Texas, positive radial anisotropy in the lower crust extends from the coast to the Ouachita belt, which is characterized by high velocity and negative radial anisotropy. In the upper mantle, large variations of velocity and anisotropy exit under the coastal plain. A common feature in these anisotropic models is that high-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle often correlate with negative anisotropy (Vsv>Vsh) while low-velocity anomalies are associated with positive anisotropy (Vsh>Vsv). The manifestation of mantle downweling as negative radial anisotropy is largely due to the relatively high viscosity of the high-velocity mantle block, which is less affected by the surrounding large-scale horizontal flow. However, mantle upwelling, which is often associated with low-velocity anomalies, presumably low-viscosity mantle blocks, is invisible in radial anisotropy models. Such upwelling may happen too quickly to make last effects or too slow to alter the dominant shear deformation in the asthenosphere.

The p-wave upper mantle structure beneath an active spreading centre - The Gulf of California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walck, M. C.

1984-01-01

Over 1400 seismograms of earthquakes in Mexico are analyzed and data sets for the travel time, apparent phase velocity, and relative amplitude information are utilized to produce a tightly constrained, detailed model for depths to 900 km beneath an active oceanic ridge region, the Gulf of California. The data are combined by first inverting the travel times, perturbing that model to fit the p-delta data, and then performing trial and error synthetic seismogram modelling to fit the short-period waveforms. The final model satisfies all three data sets. The ridge model is similar to existing upper mantle models for shield, tectonic-continental, and arc-trench regimes below 400 km, but differs significantly in the upper 350 km. Ridge model velocities are very low in this depth range; the model 'catches up' with the others with a very large velocity gradient from 225 to 390 km.

North American Crust and Upper Mantle Structure Imaged Using an Adaptive Bayesian Inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eilon, Z.; Fischer, K. M.; Dalton, C. A.

2017-12-01

We present a methodology for imaging upper mantle structure using a Bayesian approach that incorporates a novel combination of seismic data types and an adaptive parameterization based on piecewise discontinuous splines. Our inversion algorithm lays the groundwork for improved seismic velocity models of the lithosphere and asthenosphere by harnessing increased computing power alongside sophisticated data analysis, with the flexibility to include multiple datatypes with complementary resolution. Our new method has been designed to simultaneously fit P-s and S-p converted phases and Rayleigh wave phase velocities measured from ambient noise (periods 6-40 s) and earthquake sources (periods 30-170s). Careful processing of the body wave data isolates the signals from velocity gradients between the mid-crust and 250 km depth. We jointly invert the body and surface wave data to obtain detailed 1-D velocity models that include robustly imaged mantle discontinuities. Synthetic tests demonstrate that S-p phases are particularly important for resolving mantle structure, while surface waves capture absolute velocities with resolution better than 0.1 km/s. By treating data noise as an unknown parameter, and by generating posterior parameter distributions, model trade offs and uncertainties are fully captured by the inversion. We apply the method to stations across the northwest and north-central United States, finding that the imaged structure improves upon existing models by sharpening the vertical resolution of absolute velocity profiles and offering robust uncertainty estimates. In the tectonically active northwestern US, a strong velocity drop immediately beneath the Moho connotes thin (<70 km) lithosphere and a sharp lithosphere-asthenosphere transition; the asthenospheric velocity profile here matches observations at mid-ocean ridges. Within the Wyoming and Superior cratons, our models reveal mid-lithospheric velocity gradients indicative of thermochemical cratonic layering, but the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary is relatively gradual. This flexible method holds promise for increasingly detailed understanding of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system.

A Bayesian method to quantify azimuthal anisotropy model uncertainties: application to global azimuthal anisotropy in the upper mantle and transition zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, K.; Beghein, C.

2018-04-01

Seismic anisotropy is a powerful tool to constrain mantle deformation, but its existence in the deep upper mantle and topmost lower mantle is still uncertain. Recent results from higher mode Rayleigh waves have, however, revealed the presence of 1 per cent azimuthal anisotropy between 300 and 800 km depth, and changes in azimuthal anisotropy across the mantle transition zone boundaries. This has important consequences for our understanding of mantle convection patterns and deformation of deep mantle material. Here, we propose a Bayesian method to model depth variations in azimuthal anisotropy and to obtain quantitative uncertainties on the fast seismic direction and anisotropy amplitude from phase velocity dispersion maps. We applied this new method to existing global fundamental and higher mode Rayleigh wave phase velocity maps to assess the likelihood of azimuthal anisotropy in the deep upper mantle and to determine whether previously detected changes in anisotropy at the transition zone boundaries are robustly constrained by those data. Our results confirm that deep upper-mantle azimuthal anisotropy is favoured and well constrained by the higher mode data employed. The fast seismic directions are in agreement with our previously published model. The data favour a model characterized, on average, by changes in azimuthal anisotropy at the top and bottom of the transition zone. However, this change in fast axes is not a global feature as there are regions of the model where the azimuthal anisotropy direction is unlikely to change across depths in the deep upper mantle. We were, however, unable to detect any clear pattern or connection with surface tectonics. Future studies will be needed to further improve the lateral resolution of this type of model at transition zone depths.

Constraints on radial anisotropy in the central Pacific upper mantle from the NoMelt OBS array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, J. B.; Gaherty, J. B.; Lin, P. P.; Zebker, M.

2016-12-01

Observations of seismic anisotropy in ocean basins are important for constraining deformation and melting processes in the upper mantle. The NoMelt OBS array was deployed on relatively pristine, 70-Ma seafloor in the central Pacific with the aim of constraining upper-mantle circulation and the evolution of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system. Azimuthal variations in Rayleigh-wave velocity suggest strong anisotropic fabric both in the lithosphere and deep in the asthenosphere, and we aim to evaluate whether radial anisotropy shows a similar pattern. We use a combination of Love waves from earthquakes (20-100 s) as well as high-frequency ambient noise (5-10 s) to estimate VSH in the upper 300 km beneath the NoMelt array. Waveform fitting of the ambient-noise cross spectra provide phase-velocity estimates that are sensitive to the upper 50 km of the mantle. To constrain structure beneath the lid, we employ an array-based approach to measure Love-wave phase velocities across the array using seven shallow-focus events (< 25 km) with high signal-to-noise ratio and diverse azimuthal coverage. The Love wave phase-velocity measurements suggest strong interference of the first overtone for intermediate periods (20-50 s), while longer periods (>60 s) are mostly dominated by fundamental mode energy. Through forward modeling of Love wave Fréchet kernels, we find an extremely strong nonlinearity in individual mode-branch sensitivity that is dependent on the relative velocity difference between the low-velocity zone (LVZ) and the overlying Pacific lid. For the fundamental mode in the presence of a strong LVZ, intermediate periods (20-50 s) have little sensitivity within the lithospheric mantle with peak sensitivity pushed to the base of the low-velocity zone. This peak sensitivity migrates to much shallower depth as the lid/LVZ contrast is reduced. Therefore, we use a Monte Carlo approach to systematically explore the model space and identify the most robust model features required to minimize phase-velocity misfit of the full multimode Love wave arrivals. The resulting VSH model is combined with the NoMelt VSV model to obtain estimates of radial anisotropy for the top 300km of the central Pacific upper-mantle.

The shear-wave splitting in the crust and the upper mantle around the Bohai Sea, North China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yutao, Shi; Yuan, Gao; Lingxue, Tai; Yuanyuan, Fu

2015-11-01

In order to infer the distribution of local stress and the deep geodynamic process in North China, this study detects seismic anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle beneath the Bohai Sea area. A total of 535 local shear-wave and 721 XKS (including SKS, PKS and SKKS phases) splitting measurements were obtained from stations in permanent regional seismograph networks and a temporary seismic network called ZBnet-E. The dominant fast polarization orientation of local shear-waves in the crust is nearly East-West, suggesting an East-West direction of local maximum compressive stress in the area. Nearly North-South fast orientation was obtained at some stations in the Tan-Lu fault belt and the Zhang-Bo seismic belt. The average fast orientation from XKS splitting analysis is 87.4° measured clockwise from the North. The average time-delays of XKS splitting are range from 0.54 s to 1.92 s, corresponding to a 60-210 km thick layer of anisotropy. The measured results indicate that upper mantle anisotropy beneath Bohai Sea area, even the eastern part of North China, is mainly from asthenospheric mantle flow from the subduction of the Pacific plate. From the complicated anisotropic characteristics in this study, we infer that there might be multiple mechanisms in the crust and upper mantle around the Bohai Sea area that led to the observed anisotropy.

Determining Ocean-Bottom Seismometer Orientations from the RHUM-RUM experiment from P-wave and Rayleigh wave polarizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scholz, John-Robert; Barruol, Guilhem; Fontaine, Fabrice R.; Sigloch, Karin

2016-04-01

To image the upper mantle structure beneath La Réunion hotspot, a large-scale seismic network has been deployed on land and at sea in the frame of the RHUM-RUM project (Réunion Hotspot and Upper Mantle - Réunions Unterer Mantel). This French-German passive seismic experiment was designed to investigate and image the deep structure beneath La Réunion, from crust to core, to precise the shape and depth origin of a mantle plume, if any, and to precise the horizontal and vertical mantle flow associated to a possible plume upwelling, to its interaction with the overlying plate and with the neighboring Indian ridges. For this purpose, 57 Ocean-Bottom Seismometers (OBS) were installed around La Réunion and along the Central and Southwest Indian ridges. Broad-band instruments were deployed with the French R/V Marion Dufresne in late 2012 (cruise MD192), and recovered 13 months later by the German R/V Meteor (cruise M101). The pool of OBS was complemented by ~60 terrestrial stations, installed on different islands in the western Indian Ocean, such as La Réunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Mayotte and the Îles Éparses in the Mozambique channel. The OBS installation is a free-fall down to the seafloor, where they landed in an unknown orientation. Since seismologic investigations of crustal and upper mantle structure (e.g., receiver functions) and azimuthal anisotropy (e.g., SKS-splitting and Rayleigh waves) rely on the knowledge of the correct OBS orientation with respect to the geographic reference frame, it is of importance to determine the orientations of the OBS while recording on the seafloor. In an isotropic, horizontally homogeneous and non-dipping layered globe, the misorientation of each station refers to the offset between theoretical and recorded back-azimuth angle of a passive seismic event. Using large earthquakes (MW > 5.0), it is possible to establish multiple successful measurements per station and thus to determine with good confidence the sensor orientations. In this study, we analyzed particle motions of P-waves (P-pol) and of Rayleigh waves (R-pol) to quantify the orientation of each of the 57 OBS. We performed 213 polarization measurements based on 35 earthquakes for P-pol, and 381 polarization measurements based on 48 earthquakes for R-pol. This allowed us to successfully determine the North/South orientations for 40 out of 57 OBS: 13 stations were devoid of usable data and 4 stations were too noisy. From twice the standard deviation (95% confidence interval), we estimate the errors between 1° and 20°.

Waveform anomaly caused by strong attenuation in the crust and upper mantle in the Okinawa Trough region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padhy, S.; Furumura, T.; Maeda, T.

2017-12-01

The Okinawa Trough is a young continental back-arc basin located behind the Ryukyu subduction zone in southwestern Japan, where the Philippine Sea Plate dives beneath the trough, resulting in localized mantle upwelling and crustal thinning of the overriding Eurasian Plate. The attenuation structure of the plates and surrounding mantle in this region associated with such complex tectonic environment are poorly documented. Here we present seismological evidence for these features based on the high-resolution waveform analyses and 3D finite difference method (FDM) simulation. We analyzed regional broadband waveforms recorded by F-net (NIED) of in-slab events (M>4, H>100 km). Using band-passed (0.5-8 Hz), mean-squared envelopes, we parameterized coda-decay in terms of rise-time (time from P-arrival to maximum amplitude in P-coda), decay-time (time from maximum amplitude to theoretical S-arrival), and energy-ratio defined as the ratio of energy in P-coda to that in direct P wave. The following key features are observed. First, there is a striking difference in S-excitation along paths traversing and not traversing the trough: events from SW Japan not crossing the trough show clear S waves, while those occurring in the trough show very weak S waves at a station close to the volcanic front. Second, some trough events exhibit spindle-shaped seismograms with strong P-coda excitation, obscuring the development of S waves, at back-arc stations; these waveforms are characterized by high decay-time (>10s) and high energy-ratio (>>1.0), suggesting strong forward scattering along ray paths. Third, some trough events show weak S-excitation characterized by low decay-time (<5s) and low energy-ratio (<1.0) at fore-arc stations, suggesting high intrinsic absorption. To investigate the mechanism of the observed anomalies, we will conduct FDM simulation for a suite of models comprising the key subduction features like localized mantle-upwelling and crustal thinning expected in the region. It is expected that simulation results help to resolve rift-induced crust and upper mantle anomalies in the trough showing maximum waveform distortion as we observed in broadband records, and will enhance understanding of tectonic processes related to back-arc rifting in the region.

Synthesis of regional crust and upper-mantle structure from seismic and gravity data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, S. S.; Lavin, P. M.

1979-01-01

Available seismic and ground based gravity data are combined to infer the three dimensional crust and upper mantle structure in selected regions. This synthesis and interpretation proceeds from large-scale average models suitable for early comparison with high-altitude satellite potential field data to more detailed delineation of structural boundaries and other variations that may be significant in natural resource assessment. Seismic and ground based gravity data are the primary focal point, but other relevant information (e.g. magnetic field, heat flow, Landsat imagery, geodetic leveling, and natural resources maps) is used to constrain the structure inferred and to assist in defining structural domains and boundaries. The seismic data consists of regional refraction lines, limited reflection coverage, surface wave dispersion, teleseismic P and S wave delay times, anelastic absorption, and regional seismicity patterns. The gravity data base consists of available point gravity determinations for the areas considered.

Seismic and petrological properties of the upper mantle between 300 and 400 km depth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perchuc, E.; Malinowski, M.; Nita, B.

2008-12-01

We compare the traveltime data from the long range seismic profiles and from the earthquakes recorded to the offset of 3000 km with theoretical traveltimes predicted by standard seismological models: PREM, IASP- 91, AK-135 and especially from seismo-petrological model PREF (Cammarano and Romanowicz - 2007). We try to compare our models to earlier studies by Thybo and Perchuc (1997a). Our data suggests that for several events in the distance range 2000-2800 km, the first-arrivals are characterized by a relatively high velocity of 8.7-8.9 km/s. It is about 2.5% higher than P-wave velocity of the Lehmann phases, observed in the nearest offset and about 3% smaller than velocity below 410 km discontinuity. We suggest that this is a new first-order seismological boundary which can be interpreted as a top of the mantle transition zone. Seismological arguments for the existence of such a boundary are as follows: refracted waves with velocity 8.7-8.9 km/s and reflected waves find by Warren at al. (1967) and by Thybo and Perchuc (1997b). Also the interpretation of the SS precursor phases (Deuss and Woodhouse 2002) suggested a reflection boundary around 300 km (our interpretation). Depth of this boundary strongly depends on the thermal state of the mantle in particular regions. In conclusion we can say that the mantle transition zone starts much earlier and the lower part of the upper mantle is much faster than predicted by purely pyrolitic mantle model. Several petrological studies suggest influences of fluids (especialy H2O) on the character of the 410 km discontinuity and of the transition zone. All the differences in experimental data can be explained by the effect of temperature on the phase transformations within the olivine-wadsleyite system.

Upper Mantle Texture Patterns In Eastern North America From Seismic Anisotropy And Global Mantle Flow Calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, V. L.; Moucha, R.; Yuan, H.

2013-12-01

Global seismic models show gradual and systematic changes in upper mantle seismic properties beneath North America. Faster and thicker lithosphere of the interior thins eastward. Upper mantle rock fabric reflected in observations of seismic anisotropy also varies. Near the coast apparent fast directions of split shear waves are nearly east-west, with considerable scatter. Further inland they are more uniform and align SW-NE, close to the absolute plate motion direction of North America. Mantle convection simulations driven by density inferred from global joint seismic-geodynamic tomography models exhibit complex flow beneath the eastern edge of the North American continent due to the ongoing descent of the Farallon slab deep beneath it (figure 1). Flow predicted beneath the coast is nearly horizontal with a small, though dynamically important, vertical component, while west of the Appalachians it turns downward. Long records of teleseismic observations accumulated at permanent seismic stations HRV, PAL and SSPA (figure 2) are inverted for vertical distribution of anisotropic parameters. We find preference for more than one layer of anisotropy beneath all sites, with significantly different parameters that could reflect either lateral variations in the lithospheric thickness, variations in the asthenospheric flow field, or both. Since we find considerable consistency in directional patterns of P-to-S mode converted waves associated with the lower part of the lithosphere, variations of asthenospheric flow seem to be a more plausible explanation. We explore the links between predicted flow and inferences from seismic data with additional observations of anisotropy and calculations of flow-induced rock fabric.

High-Resolution P'P' Precursor Imaging of Nazca-South America Plate Boundary Zones and Inferences for Transition Zone Temperature and Composition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Y. J.; Schultz, R.

2013-12-01

Knowledge of upper mantle transition zone stratification and composition is highly dependent on our ability to efficiently extract and properly interpret small seismic arrivals. A promising high-frequency seismic phase group particularly suitable for a global analysis is P'P' precursors, which are capable of resolving mantle structures at vertical and lateral resolution of approximately 5 and 200 km, respectively, owing to their shallow incidence angle and small, quasi-symmetric Fresnel zones. This study presents a simultaneous analysis of SS and P'P' precursors based on deconvolution, Radon transform and depth migration. Our multi-resolution survey of the mantle near Nazca-South America subduction zone reveals both olivine and garnet related transitions at depth below 400 km. We attribute a depressed 660 to thermal variations, whereas compositional variations atop the upper-mantle transition zone are needed to explain the diminished or highly complex reflected/scattered signals from the 410 km discontinuity. We also observe prominent P'P' reflections within the transition zone, especially near the plate boundary zone where anomalously high reflection amplitudes result from a sharp (~10 km thick) mineral phase change resonant with the dominant frequency of the P'P' precursors. Near the base of the upper mantle, the migration of SS precursors shows no evidence of split reflections near the 660-km discontinuity, but potential majorite-ilmenite (590-640 km) and ilmenite-perovskite transitions (740-750 km) are identified based on similarly processed high-frequency P'P' precursors. At nominal mantle temperatures these two phase changes may be seismically indistinguishable, but colder mantle conditions from the descending Nazca plate, the presence of water and variable Fe contents may cause sufficient separation for a reliable analysis. In addition, our preliminary results provide compelling evidence for multiple shallow lower-mantle reflections (at ~800 km) along the elongated plate boundary zones of South America. Slab stagnation at the base of the transition zone could play a key role, though a proper interpretation of this finding would likely entail compositional (rather than strictly thermal) variations in the vicinity of the descending oceanic crust and lithosphere. Overall, the resolution and sensitivity differences between low/intermediate- S and high-frequency P wave reflections are key considerations toward reconciling seismic and mineralogical models of transition zone structure, both at the study location and worldwide.

Lateral variation in upper mantle temperature and composition beneath mid-ocean ridges inferred from shear-wave propagation, geoid, and bathymetry. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sheehan, Anne Francis

1991-01-01

Resolution of both the extent and mechanism of lateral heterogeneity in the upper mantle constraints the nature and scales of mantle convection. Oceanic regions are of particular interest as they are likely to provide the closest glimpse at the patterns of temperature anomalies and convective flow in the upper mantle because of their young age and simple crustal structure relative to continental regions. Lateral variations were determined in the seismic velocity and attenuation structure of the lithosphere and astenosphere beneath the oceans, and these seismological observations were combined with the data and theory of geoid and bathymetry anomalies in order to test and improve current models for seafloor spreading and mantle convection. Variations were determined in mantle properties on a scale of about 1000 km, comparable to the thickness of the upper mantle. Seismic velocity, geoid, and bathymetry anomalies are all sensitive to variations in upper mantle density, and inversions were formulated to combine quantitatively these different data and to search for a common origin. Variations in mantle density can be either of thermal or compositional origin and are related to mantle convection or differentiation.

Anisotropy and tectonic deformation in the Ordos basin revealed by an active source seismic experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jun, W. S.; Wang, F.; Xu, T.

2016-12-01

With the purpose of exploring the Ordos block, western North China Craton, two controlled-source deep seismic transects were conducted across this region. The first one is a 650 km long profile oriented N-S; the second is 1530 km and is oriented E-W. The upper mantle P wave-velocity derived from these profiles features a 0.25 km/s difference between them. Being the E-W higher that the N-S. The results obtained from both seismic profiles indicate that the upper mantle beneath the Ordos block presents seismic anisotropy in terms of discrepancy in Pn-wave velocity, such as the apparent seismic velocities observed along the two reference profiles demonstrate. This result is consistent with SKS-wave splitting measurements in the interior of the Ordos block. This indicates that the compressive stress state in Ordos during the Mesozoic became an extensional stress state in the Cenozoic. The high-velocity anomaly in the uppermost mantle under the west-east profile suggests that the lithospheric mantle is still not water-rich. Unlike what happened in the NCC to east of the Taihang Mountains, where the lithosphere experienced its thinning and destruction since the Mesozoic, the lithosphere in the interior of Ordos has suffered less deformation and remained tectonically stable. Keywords: wide-angle seismic profiling, Pn phase, high-velocity anomaly, upper mantle anisotropy, Ordos block, North China Craton. ReferencesChen L., 2009. Lithospheric structure variations between the eastern and central North China Craton from S- and P-receiver function migration. Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 173, 216-227. Gao S., Rudnick R.L., Xu W.L., et al., 2008. Recycling deep cratonic lithosphere and generation of intraplate magmatism in the North China Craton. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 270, 41-53. Xu T., Zhang Z.J., Gao E.G., et al., 2010. Segmentally iterative ray tracing in complex 2D and 3D heterogeneous block models. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 100, 841-850. Zhu R.X., Zheng T.Y., 2009. Destruction geodynamics of the North China Craton and its Paleoproterozoic plate tectonics. Chinese Sci. Bull. 54(14), 1950-1961 (in Chinese).

Inversion of gravity and bathymetry in oceanic regions for long-wavelength variations in upper mantle temperature and composition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Solomon, Sean C.; Jordan, Thomas H.

1993-01-01

Long-wavelength variations in geoid height, bathymetry, and SS-S travel times are all relatable to lateral variations in the characteristic temperature and bulk composition of the upper mantle. The temperature and composition are in turn relatable to mantle convection and the degree of melt extraction from the upper mantle residuum. Thus the combined inversion of the geoid or gravity field, residual bathymetry, and seismic velocity information offers the promise of resolving fundamental aspects of the pattern of mantle dynamics. The use of differential body wave travel times as a measure of seismic velocity information, in particular, permits resolution of lateral variations at scales not resolvable by conventional global or regional-scale seismic tomography with long-period surface waves. These intermediate scale lengths, well resolved in global gravity field models, are crucial for understanding the details of any chemical or physical layering in the mantle and of the characteristics of so-called 'small-scale' convection beneath oceanic lithosphere. In 1991 a three-year project to the NASA Geophysics Program was proposed to carry out a systematic inversion of long-wavelength geoid anomalies, residual bathymetric anomalies, and differential SS-S travel time delays for the lateral variation in characteristic temperature and bulk composition of the oceanic upper mantle. The project was funded as a three-year award, beginning on 1 Jan. 1992.

Upper mantle seismic structure beneath southwest Africa from finite-frequency P- and S-wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Youssof, Mohammad; Yuan, Xiaohui; Tilmann, Frederik; Heit, Benjamin; Weber, Michael; Jokat, Wilfried; Geissler, Wolfram; Laske, Gabi; Eken, Tuna; Lushetile, Bufelo

2015-04-01

We present a 3D high-resolution seismic model of the southwestern Africa region from teleseismic tomographic inversion of the P- and S- wave data recorded by the amphibious WALPASS network. We used 40 temporary stations in southwestern Africa with records for a period of 2 years (the OBS operated for 1 year), between November 2010 and November 2012. The array covers a surface area of approximately 600 by 1200 km and is located at the intersection of the Walvis Ridge, the continental margin of northern Namibia, and extends into the Congo craton. Major questions that need to be understood are related to the impact of asthenosphere-lithosphere interaction, (plume-related features), on the continental areas and the evolution of the continent-ocean transition that followed the break-up of Gondwana. This process is supposed to leave its imprint as distinct seismic signature in the upper mantle. Utilizing 3D sensitivity kernels, we invert traveltime residuals to image velocity perturbations in the upper mantle down to 1000 km depth. To test the robustness of our tomographic image we employed various resolution tests which allow us to evaluate the extent of smearing effects and help defining the optimum inversion parameters (i.e., damping and smoothness) used during the regularization of inversion process. Resolution assessment procedure includes also a detailed investigation of the effect of the crustal corrections on the final images, which strongly influenced the resolution for the mantle structures. We present detailed tomographic images of the oceanic and continental lithosphere beneath the study area. The fast lithospheric keel of the Congo Craton reaches a depth of ~250 km. Relatively low velocity perturbations have been imaged within the orogenic Damara Belt down to a depth of ~150 km, probably related to surficial suture zones and the presence of fertile material. A shallower depth extent of the lithospheric plate of ~100 km was observed beneath the ocean, consistent with plate-cooling models. In addition to tomographic images, the seismic anisotropy measurements within the upper mantle inferred from teleseismic shear waves indicate a predominant NE-SW orientation for most of the land stations. Current results indicate no evidence for a consistent signature of fossil plume.

Velocity and Attenuation Structure of the Tibetan Lithosphere using Seismic Attributes of P-waves from Regional Earthquakes Recorded by the Hi-CLIMB Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowack, R. L.; Bakir, A. C.; Griffin, J.; Chen, W.; Tseng, T.

2010-12-01

Using data from regional earthquakes recorded by the Hi-CLIMB array in Tibet, we utilize seismic attributes from crustal and Pn arrivals to constrain the velocity and attenuation structure in the crust and the upper mantle in central and western Tibet. The seismic attributes considered include arrival times, Hilbert envelope amplitudes, and instantaneous as well as spectral frequencies. We have constructed more than 30 high-quality regional seismic profiles, and of these, 10 events have been selected with excellent crustal and Pn arrivals for further analysis. Travel-times recorded by the Hi-CLIMB array are used to estimate the large-scale velocity structure in the region, with four near regional events to the array used to constrain the crustal structure. The travel times from the far regional events indicate that the Moho beneath the southern Lhasa terrane is up to 75 km thick, with Pn velocities greater than 8 km/s. In contrast, the data sampling the Qiangtang terrane north of the Bangong-Nujiang (BNS) suture shows thinner crust with Pn velocities less than 8 km/s. Seismic amplitude and frequency attributes have been extracted from the crustal and Pn wave trains, and these data are compared with numerical results for models with upper-mantle velocity gradients and attenuation, which can strongly affect Pn amplitudes and pulse frequencies. The numerical modeling is performed using the complete spectral element method (SEM), where the results from the SEM method are in good agreement with analytical and reflectivity results for different models with upper-mantle velocity gradients. The results for the attenuation modeling in Tibet imply lower upper mantle Q values in the Qiangtang terrane to the north of the BNS compared to the less attenuative upper mantle beneath the Lhasa terrane to the south of the BNS.

Small-scale convection beneath the transverse ranges, California: Implications for interpretation of gravity anomalies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Humphreys, E. D.; Hager, B. H.

1985-01-01

Tomographic inversion of upper mantle P wave velocity heterogeneities beneath southern California shows two prominent features: an east-west trending curtain of high velocity material (up to 3% fast) in the upper 250 km beneath the Transverse Ranges and a region of low velocity material (up to 4% slow) in the 100 km beneath the Salton Trough. These seismic velocity anomalies were interpreted as due to small scale convection in the mantle. Using this hypothesis and assuming that temperature and density anomalies are linearly related to seismic velocity anomalies through standard coefficients of proportionality, leads to inferred variations of approx. + or - 300 C and approx. + or - 0.03 g/cc.

Three-dimensional shear wave velocity structure in the Atlantic upper mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

James, Esther Kezia Candace

Oceanic lithosphere constitutes the upper boundary layer of the Earth's convecting mantle. Its structure and evolution provide a vital window on the dynamics of the mantle and important clues to how the motions of Earth's surface plates are coupled to convection in the mantle below. The three-dimensional shear-velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath the Atlantic Ocean is investigated to gain insight into processes that drive formation of oceanic lithosphere. Travel times are measured for approximately 10,000 fundamental-mode Rayleigh waves, in the period range 30-130 seconds, traversing the Atlantic basin. Paths with >30% of their length through continental upper mantle are excluded to maximize sensitivity to the oceanic upper mantle. The lateral distribution of Rayleigh wave phase velocity in the Atlantic upper mantle is explored with two approaches. One, phase velocity is allowed to vary only as a function of seafloor age. Two, a general two-dimensional parameterization is utilized in order to capture perturbations to age-dependent structure. Phase velocity shows a strong dependence on seafloor age, and removing age-dependent velocity from the 2-D maps highlights areas of anomalously low velocity, almost all of which are proximal to locations of hotspot volcanism. Depth-dependent variations in vertically-polarized shear velocity (Vsv) are determined with two sets of 3-D models: a layered model that requires constant VSV in each depth layer, and a splined model that allows VSV to vary continuously with depth. At shallow depths (˜75 km) the seismic structure shows the expected dependence on seafloor age. At greater depths (˜200 km) high-velocity lithosphere is found only beneath the oldest seafloor; velocity variations beneath younger seafloor may result from temperature or compositional variations within the asthenosphere. The age-dependent phase velocities are used to constrain temperature in the mantle and show that, in contrast to previous results for the Pacific, phase velocities for the Atlantic are not consistent with a half-space cooling model but are best explained by a plate-cooling model with thickness of 75 km and mantle temperature of 1400°C. Comparison with data such as basalt chemistry and seafloor elevation helps to separate thermal and compositional effects on shear velocity.

P and S Wave Velocity Structure of the Crust and Upper Mantle Under China and Surrounding Areas From Body and Surface Wave Tomography

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-31

Validation Results The 3D shear-wave velocity models are shown in Fig- ures 5–7 and can be accessed Ⓔ in the electronic edition of BSSA. Depth slices... edited by S. Karato and M. Toriumi, Oxford Sci., New York. Levshin, A. L., M. H. Ritzwoller, M. P. Barmin, A. Villasenor, and C. A. Padgett (2001), New...vol. 16, edited by K. Fuchs and C. Froidevaux, pp. 111–123, AGU, Washington, D.C. Nolet, G., C. Coutlee, and R. Clouser (1998), Sn velocities in

Seismic tomographic imaging of P- and S-waves velocity perturbations in the upper mantle beneath Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alinaghi, Alireza; Koulakov, Ivan; Thybo, Hans

2007-06-01

The inverse tomography method has been used to study the P- and S-waves velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle underneath Iran. The method, based on the principle of source-receiver reciprocity, allows for tomographic studies of regions with sparse distribution of seismic stations if the region has sufficient seismicity. The arrival times of body waves from earthquakes in the study area as reported in the ISC catalogue (1964-1996) at all available epicentral distances are used for calculation of residual arrival times. Prior to inversion we have relocated hypocentres based on a 1-D spherical earth's model taking into account variable crustal thickness and surface topography. During the inversion seismic sources are further relocated simultaneously with the calculation of velocity perturbations. With a series of synthetic tests we demonstrate the power of the algorithm and the data to reconstruct introduced anomalies using the ray paths of the real data set and taking into account the measurement errors and outliers. The velocity anomalies show that the crust and upper mantle beneath the Iranian Plateau comprises a low velocity domain between the Arabian Plate and the Caspian Block. This is in agreement with global tomographic models, and also tectonic models, in which active Iranian plateau is trapped between the stable Turan plate in the north and the Arabian shield in the south. Our results show clear evidence of the mainly aseismic subduction of the oceanic crust of the Oman Sea underneath the Iranian Plateau. However, along the Zagros suture zone, the subduction pattern is more complex than at Makran where the collision of the two plates is highly seismic.

Origin of short-period signals following P-diffracted waves: A case study of the 1994 Bolivian deep earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tono, Yoko; Yomogida, Kiyoshi

1997-10-01

Seismograms of the June 9, 1994, Bolivian deep earthquake recorded at epicentral distances from 100° to 122° show a train of signals with predominant frequencies between 1 and 2 Hz after the arrivals of short-period diffracted P-waves (P diff). We investigate the origin of these signals following P diff by analyzing a total of 20 records from the IRIS broad-band network and the short-period network of New Zealand. The arrivals of late signals continue for over 100 s, that is two times longer than the estimated source duration of this event. Subsequent aftershocks, which cause the following signals, are not expected from the long-period records. These results indicate that the long continuation of short-period signals is not due to the source complexities. The signals following P diff have small incident angles, and their spectra show peaks at about the same frequencies. These characteristics of the following signals exclude the possibility that their origin is shallow structure such as the heterogeneities beneath the stations or upper mantle. P diff propagates a long distance within the heterogeneous region near the core-mantle boundary. We conclude that the short-period signals following the main P diff are scattered waves caused by small-scale heterogeneities near the core-mantle boundary.

Inverse problems for torsional modes.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Willis, C.

1984-01-01

Considers a spherically symmetric, non-rotating Earth consisting of an isotropic, perfect elastic material where the density and the S-wave velocity may have one or two discontinuities in the upper mantle. Shows that given the velocity throughout the mantle and the crust and given the density in the lower mantle, then the freqencies of the torsional oscillations of one angular order (one torsional spectrum), determine the density in the upper mantle and in the crust uniquely. If the velocity is known only in the lower mantle, then the frequencies of the torsional oscillations of two angular orders uniquely determine both the density and the velocity in the upper mantle and in the crust. In particular, the position and size of the discontinuities in the density and velocity are uniquely determined by two torsional spectra.-Author

Upper mantle anisotropy from long-period P polarization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulte-Pelkum, Vera; Masters, Guy; Shearer, Peter M.

2001-10-01

We introduce a method to infer upper mantle azimuthal anisotropy from the polarization, i.e., the direction of particle motion, of teleseismic long-period P onsets. The horizontal polarization of the initial P particle motion can deviate by >10° from the great circle azimuth from station to source despite a high degree of linearity of motion. Recent global isotropic three-dimensional mantle models predict effects that are an order of magnitude smaller than our observations. Stations within regional distances of each other show consistent azimuthal deviation patterns, while the deviations seem to be independent of source depth and near-source structure. We demonstrate that despite this receiver-side spatial coherence, our polarization data cannot be fit by a large-scale joint inversion for whole mantle structure. However, they can be reproduced by azimuthal anisotropy in the upper mantle and crust. Modeling with an anisotropic reflectivity code provides bounds on the magnitude and depth range of the anisotropy manifested in our data. Our method senses anisotropy within one wavelength (250 km) under the receiver. We compare our inferred fast directions of anisotropy to those obtained from Pn travel times and SKS splitting. The results of the comparison are consistent with azimuthal anisotropy situated in the uppermost mantle, with SKS results deviating from Pn and Ppol in some regions with probable additional deeper anisotropy. Generally, our fast directions are consistent with anisotropic alignment due to lithospheric deformation in tectonically active regions and to absolute plate motion in shield areas. Our data provide valuable additional constraints in regions where discrepancies between results from different methods exist since the effect we observe is local rather than cumulative as in the case of travel time anisotropy and shear wave splitting. Additionally, our measurements allow us to identify stations with incorrectly oriented horizontal components.

Finite Frequency Traveltime Tomography of Lithospheric and Upper Mantle Structures beneath the Cordillera-Craton Transition in Southwestern Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Y.; Gu, Y. J.; Hung, S. H.

2014-12-01

Based on finite-frequency theory and cross-correlation teleseismic relative traveltime data from the USArray, Canadian National Seismograph Network (CNSN) and Canadian Rockies and Alberta Network (CRANE), we present a new tomographic model of P-wave velocity perturbations for the lithosphere and upper mantle beneath the Cordillera-cration transition region in southwestern Canada. The inversion procedure properly accounts for the finite-volume sensitivities of measured travel time residuals, and the resulting model shows a greater resolution of upper mantle velocity heterogeneity beneath the study area than earlier approaches based on the classical ray-theoretical approach. Our model reveals a lateral change of P velocities from -0.5% to 0.5% down to ~200-km depth in a 50-km wide zone between the Alberta Basin and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, which suggests a sharp structural gradient along the Cordillera deformation front. The stable cratonic lithosphere, delineated by positive P-velocity perturbations of 0.5% and greater, extends down to a maximum depth of ~180 km beneath the Archean Loverna Block (LB). In comparison, the mantle beneath the controversial Medicine Hat Block (MHB) exhibits significantly higher velocities in the uppermost mantle and a shallower (130-150 km depth) root, generally consistent with the average depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath Southwest Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). The complex shape of the lithospheric velocities under the MHB may be evidence of extensive erosion or a partial detachment of the Precambrian lithospheric root. Furthermore, distinct high velocity anomalies in LB and MHB, which are separated by 'normal' mantle block beneath the Vulcan structure (VS), suggest different Archean assembly and collision histories between these two tectonic blocks.

Topography of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary below the Upper Rhine Graben Rift and the volcanic Eifel region, Central Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seiberlich, C. K. A.; Ritter, J. R. R.; Wawerzinek, B.

2013-09-01

We study the crust-mantle and lithosphere-asthenosphere boundaries (Moho and LAB) in Central Europe, specifically below the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) rift, the Eifel volcanic region and their surrounding areas. Teleseismic recordings at permanent and mobile stations are analysed to search for shear (S) wave to compressional (P) wave converted phases. After a special processing these phases are identified in shear wave receiver functions (S-RFs). Conversions from the Moho at 2.9-3.3 s arrival time are the clearest signals in the S-RFs and indicate a relatively flat Moho at 27-30 km depth. A negative polarity conversion signal at 7-9 s arrival time can be explained with a low shear wave velocity zone (LVsZ) in the upper mantle. We use forward S-RF waveform modelling and Monte-Carlo techniques to determine shear wave velocity (vs)-depth (z) profiles which explain the observed S-RF and which outline variations of the lithospheric thickness in the study region. Across the URG rift and its surrounding mountain ranges (Black Forest, Odenwald etc.) the LAB is at a depth of about 60 ± 5 km. This depth is found for the rift itself as well as for the rift shoulders. Southeast and southwest of the URG, in the regions of the Swabian Alb and Vosges Mountains, the LAB dips to about 78 ± 5 km depth. In the volcanic Eifel region the LAB is at a much shallower depth of just 41 ± 5 km. There an upwelling mantle plume thermally eroded the lower lithosphere. The reduction of vs is about 2%-4% in the upper asthenosphere compared to the lower lithosphere. This vs contrast may be explained with a low portion of partial melt or hydrous minerals in the asthenosphere.

Seismic imaging of the upper mantle beneath the northern Central Andean Plateau: Implications for surface topography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, K. M.; Zandt, G.; Beck, S. L.; Wagner, L. S.

2015-12-01

Extending over 1,800 km along the active South American Cordilleran margin, the Central Andean Plateau (CAP) as defined by the 3 km elevation contour is second only to the Tibetan Plateau in geographic extent. The uplift history of the 4 km high Plateau remains uncertain with paleoelevation studies along the CAP suggesting a complex, non-uniform uplift history. As part of the Central Andean Uplift and the Geodynamics of High Topography (CAUGHT) project, we use surface waves measured from ambient noise and two-plane wave tomography to image the S-wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle to investigate the upper mantle component of plateau uplift. We observe three main features in our S-wave velocity model including (1), a high velocity slab (2), a low velocity anomaly above the slab where the slab changes dip from near horizontal to a normal dip, and (3), a high-velocity feature in the mantle above the slab that extends along the length of the Altiplano from the base of the Moho to a depth of ~120 km with the highest velocities observed under Lake Titicaca. A strong spatial correlation exists between the lateral extent of this high-velocity feature beneath the Altiplano and the lower elevations of the Altiplano basin suggesting a potential relationship. Non-uniqueness in our seismic models preclude uniquely constraining this feature as an uppermost mantle feature bellow the Moho or as a connected eastward dipping feature extending up to 300 km in the mantle as seen in deeper mantle tomography studies. Determining if the high velocity feature represents a small lithospheric root or a delaminating lithospheric root extending ~300 km into the mantle requires more integration of observations, but either interpretation shows a strong geodynamic connection with the uppermost mantle and the current topography of the northern CAP.

Improved Seismic Images of the Pacific Northwest Interior, With a Focus on the Region of the Columbia River Flood Basalts and Central Idaho

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanciu, A. C.; Humphreys, E.; Clayton, R. W.

2017-12-01

We construct a P-wave model of the upper mantle based on new and previously acquired data from the USArray-TA stations and regional deployments, including the HLP, ID-OR, and the currently recording Wallowa stations. Our teleseismic arrival times are corrected for crustal structure (based on surface wave, receiver function, and controlled-source models from the region). Our modeling incorporates 3-D ray tracing and several simple considerations of radial anisotropy on travel time. As imaged previously, we find high P-wave velocity anomalies located beneath the Wallowa Mountains and beneath the Idaho Batholith in central west Idaho. Our improved imaging finds that these two anomalies are located down to 350 km depth, and are clearly separated from one another and from a shallower fast anomaly in the uppermost mantle beneath the westernmost Snake River Plain. Our preferred interpretation includes a combination of delamination and slab fragments in this region. As fast (and presumably cool) structures, these upper-mantle anomalies are thought to have a lithospheric origin. The anomaly beneath central Idaho is interpreted as the leading edge of the Farallon slab associated with the accretion of Siletzia terrane to North America. This anomaly may include some North American lithosphere that delaminated from the Laramide-thickened lithospheric mantle, perhaps related to Challis magmatism. The Wallowa anomaly is likely to represent Farallon lithosphere that delaminated during the Columbia River flood basalt event. The small anomaly between the two deeper fast anomalies, occurring at depths above 150km, could represent an isolated lithospheric fragment or a structure created by the Columbia River flood basalt event.

Mantle Attenuation Estimated from Regional and Teleseismic P-waves of Deep Earthquakes and Surface Explosions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ichinose, G.; Woods, M.; Dwyer, J.

2014-03-01

We estimated the network-averaged mantle attenuation t*(total) of 0.5 s beneath the North Korea test site (NKTS) by use of P-wave spectra and normalized spectral stacks from the 25 May 2009 declared nuclear test (mb 4.5; IDC). This value was checked using P-waves from seven deep (580-600 km) earthquakes (4.8 < M w < 5.5) in the Jilin-Heilongjiang, China region that borders with Russia and North Korea. These earthquakes are 200-300 km from the NKTS, within 200 km of the Global Seismic Network seismic station in Mudanjiang, China (MDJ) and the International Monitoring System primary arrays at Ussuriysk, Russia (USRK) and Wonju, Republic of Korea (KSRS). With the deep earthquakes, we split the t*(total) ray path into two segments: a t*(u), that represents the attenuation of the up-going ray from the deep hypocenters to the local-regional receivers, and t*(d), that represents the attenuation along the down-going ray to teleseismic receivers. The sum of t*(u) and t*(d) should be equal to t*(total), because they both share coincident ray paths. We estimated the upper-mantle attenuation t*(u) of 0.1 s at stations MDJ, USRK, and KSRS from individual and stacks of normalized P-wave spectra. We then estimated the average lower-mantle attenuation t*(d) of 0.4 s using stacked teleseismic P-wave spectra. We finally estimated a network average t*(total) of 0.5 s from the stacked teleseismic P-wave spectra from the 2009 nuclear test, which confirms the equality with the sum of t*(u) and t*(d). We included constraints on seismic moment, depth, and radiation pattern by using results from a moment tensor analysis and corner frequencies from modeling of P-wave spectra recorded at local distances. We also avoided finite-faulting effects by excluding earthquakes with complex source time functions. We assumed ω2 source models for earthquakes and explosions. The mantle attenuation beneath the NKTS is clearly different when compared with the network-averaged t* of 0.75 s for the western US and is similar to values of approximately 0.5 s for the Semipalatinsk test site within the 0.5-2 Hz range.

Lithospheric Structure Beneath the Hangay Dome, Central Mongolia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stachnik, J. C.; Meltzer, A.; Souza, S.; Munkhuu, U.; Tsaagan, B.; Russo, R. M.

2014-12-01

The Mongolian Plateau is a broad regional uplift positioned between the Siberian Craton to the north and the far northern edge of the India-Asia collision to the south. Within this intracontinental setting of high topography, the Hangay Dome in central Mongolia reaches elevations of 4 km and contains intermittent basaltic magmatism over the last 30 Ma. The relationship between high topography, magmatism, and geodynamic processes remains largely unsolved although processes ranging from lithospheric delamination to mantle plume effects have been proposed. A temporary array of seismic stations was deployed around the Hangay Dome to determine lithospheric structure. Preliminary results are shown from receiver function analysis, ambient noise tomography, and teleseismic P-wave tomography. Crustal thickness measurements from H-k stacking of receiver functions range from 42 km to 57 km across the array, with thicker crust beneath the highest topography. The bulk crustal Vp/Vs ratio ranges from 1.71 to 1.9 with a median value for the array of 1.77, perhaps indicating a variable crustal composition with some regions having a more mafic crust. The stacked receiver functions are also combined with ambient noise phase velocity dispersion measurements in a joint inversion for shear velocity profiles at each station which reveals crustal thickness estimates consistent with the H-k stacks while also determining the shear velocity step at the Moho. Teleseismic P-wave travel time residuals ranging between +/-1 second are inverted for a 3D P-wave velocity model using finite-frequency kernels. Notable features include 1) a low velocity anomaly (-3%) in the upper 200 km beneath the eastern part of the Hangay Dome near the Orkhon River Valley, , 2) a steeply dipping low velocity anomaly to the north of the Hangay Dome, perhaps related to the nearby Baikal Rift, and 3) generally higher velocities in the upper 200 km surrounding the high topography. To first order, the high topography of the Hangay Dome appears to be largely supported by thickened crust. However, lower P-wave velocities in the upper mantle beneath the dome are observed. The relative contributions of crustal thickness and upper mantle structure for support of topography and their relationship to magmatism will be determined with further refinement of the models.

Upper Mantle Dynamics of Bangladesh by Splitting Analyzes of Core Refracted SKS and SKKS Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiwari, A. K.; Bhushan, K.; Eken, T.; Singh, A.

2017-12-01

New shear wave splitting measurements are obtained from hitherto less studied Bengal Basin using core refracted SKS and SKKS phases. Splitting parameters, time delays (δt) and fast polarization directions (Φ) were estimated through analysis of 64 high-quality waveforms (≥ 2.5 signal to noise ratio) from 29 earthquakes with magnitude ≥5.5 recorded at eight seismic stations deployed over Bangladesh. We found no evidence of splitting which indicates azimuthal isotropy beneath the region. Null measurements can be explained by near vertical axis of anisotropy or by the presence of multiple anisotropic layers with different fast polarization directions, where combined effect results in null. We consider that the presence of partial melts within the upper mantle due to Kerguelen mantle plume activities may be the potential geodynamic cause for observed null measurements. It locally perturbed mantle convection flow beneath the region and reoriented the lattice preferred orientation of the upper mantle mineral mainly olivine as this disabled the core refracted SKS and SKKS phases to scan the anisotropic characteristics of the region, and hence null measurements are obtained.

Elasticity of Orthoenstatite at High Pressure and Temperature: Implications for the Origin of Low VP/VS Zones in the Mantle Wedge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qian, Wangsheng; Wang, Wenzhong; Zou, Fan; Wu, Zhongqing

2018-01-01

Orthopyroxene (opx) is an important mineral in petrologic models for the upper mantle. Its elastic properties are fundamental for understanding the chemical composition and geodynamics of the upper mantle. Here we calculate the elastic properties of orthoenstatite (MgSiO3), the Mg end-member orthopyroxene under upper mantle pressure and temperature conditions using first principle calculations with local density approximation. Bulk and shear moduli increase nonlinearly with pressure at mantle temperatures, but the shear modulus and VS show very weak pressure dependence in comparison with VP. Compared to other major minerals in the upper mantle, orthoenstatite has the lowest compressional velocities (VP), shear velocities (VS), and VP/VS ratio down to the depth of approximately 300 km. The enrichment of opx in the upper mantle can cause the unusually low VP/VS observed in the mantle wedge.

Upper Mantle of the Central Part of the Russian Platform by Receiver Function Data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goev, Andrey; Kosarev, Grigoriy; Sanina, Irina; Riznichenko, Oksana

2017-04-01

The study of the upper mantle of the Russian Platform (RP) with seismic methods remains limited due to the lack of broadband seismic stations. Existing velocity models have been obtained by using the P-wave travel-times from seismic events interpreted as explosions recorded at the NORSAR array in 1974-75 years. Another source of information is deep seismic sounding data from long-range profiles (exceeding 3000 km) such as QUARTZ, RUBIN-1 and GLOBUS and peaceful nuclear explosions (PNE) as sources. However, the data with the maximum distances larger than 1500 km have been acquired on the RP and only in the northern part. Being useful, these velocity models have low spatial resolution. This study analyzes and integrates all the existing RP upper mantle velocity models with the main focus on the central region. We discuss the completeness of the RP area of the LITHO 1.0 model. Based on results of our analysis, we conclude that it is necessary to get up-to-date velocity models of the upper mantle using broadband stations located at the central part of the RP using Vp/Vs ratio data and anisotropy parameters for robust estimation of the mantle boundaries. By applying the joint inversion of receiver-function (RF) data, travel-time residuals and dispersion curves of surface waves we get new models reaching 300 km depth at the locations of broadband seismic stations at the central part of the RP. We used IRIS stations OBN, ARU along with MHV and mobile array NOV. For each station we attempt to determine thickness of the lithosphere and to locate LVL, LAB, Lehman and Hales boundaries as well as the discontinuities in the transition zones at the depth of 410 and 660 km. Also we investigate the necessity of using short-period and broadband RF separately for more robust estimation of the velocity model of the upper mantle. This publication is based on work supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project 15-05-04938 and by the leading scientific school NS-3345.2014.5

Upper mantle structure under western Saudi Arabia from Rayleigh wave tomography and the origin of Cenozoic uplift and volcanism on the Arabian Shield

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Park, Y; Nyblade, A; Rodgers, A

2007-11-09

The shear velocity structure of the shallow upper mantle beneath the Arabian Shield has been modeled by inverting new Rayleigh wave phase velocity measurements between 45 and 140 s together with previously published Rayleigh wave group velocity measurement between 10 and 45 s. For measuring phase velocities, we applied a modified array method that minimizes the distortion of raypaths by lateral heterogeneity. The new shear velocity model shows a broad low velocity region in the lithospheric mantle across the Shield and a low velocity region at depths {ge} 150 km localized along the Red Sea coast and Makkah-Madinah-Nafud (MMN) volcanicmore » line. The velocity reduction in the upper mantle corresponds to a temperature anomaly of {approx}250-330 K. These finding, in particular the region of continuous low velocities along the Red Sea and MMN volcanic line, do not support interpretations for the origin of the Cenozoic plateau uplift and volcanism on the Shield invoking two separate plumes. When combined with images of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities beneath the southern part of the Arabian Shield, body wave tomographic models, a S-wave polarization analysis, and SKS splitting results, our new model supports an interpretation invoking a thermal upwelling of warm mantle rock originating in the lower mantle under Africa that crosses through the transition zone beneath Ethiopia and moves to the north and northwest under the eastern margin of the Red Sea and the Arabian Shield. In this interpretation, the difference in mean elevation between the Platform and Shield can be attributed to isostatic uplift caused by heating of the lithospheric mantle under the Shield, with significantly higher region along the Red Sea possibly resulting from a combination of lithosphere thinning and dynamic uplift.« less

High-Resolution Body Wave Tomography of the Ross Sea Embayment, Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White-Gaynor, A.; Nyblade, A.; Wiens, D. A.; Aster, R. C.; Gerstoft, P.; Bromirski, P. D.; Stephen, R. A.

2017-12-01

The West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) is one of the least understood continental rift system on the planet. The 1000 km wide WARS includes the Ross Sea Embayment between Marie Byrd Land and the Transantarctic Mountains (TAMS). Active volcanism on Ross Island continues to challenge our understanding of the generally quiescent rift system. Previous regional-scale body wave tomographic investigations have identified areas of low seismic wave speeds to 200 km depth beneath Ross Island. However, the spatial extent of the low velocity structure across the entirety of the WARS remains poorly constrained due to the insufficient resolution of upper mantle structure under the Ross Sea Embayment away from Ross Island. We utilize teleseismic P wave observations recorded on the RIS/DRIS network, which consists of 34 seismometers deployed across the Ross Ice Shelf, along with data from nearby POLENET and TAMSEIS stations to better resolve this region. Relative P wave travel time residuals from 1300 teleseismic events, obtained using a multichannel cross-correlation method, have been inverted for a seismic velocity model of the upper mantle throughout the Ross Sea Embayment. Our results suggest that the low wave speed structure under Ross Island extends roughly halfway across the Embayment and south along the Transantarctic Mountains. This observation is consistent with a two-phase rifting history for the WARS in which broad, late Cretaceous rifting between Marie Byrd Land and the TAMS transitioned to more focused rifting along the TAMS margin in the Cenozoic.

Mantle wedge anisotropy beneath the Western Alps: insights from Receiver Function analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piana Agostinetti, Nicola; Salimbeni, Simone; Pondrelli, Silvia; Malusa', Marco; Zhao, Liang; Eva, Elena; Solarino, Stefano; Paul, Anne; Guillot, Stéphane; Schwartz, Stéphane; Dumont, Thierry; Aubert, Coralie; Wang, Qingchen; Zhu, Rixiang

2017-04-01

Orogens and subductions zones are the locus where crustal materials are recycled into the upper mantle. Such rocks undergo to several metamorphic reactions during which their seismic properties vary due to the changes in P-T conditions. Metamorphic reactions can imply: (a) the formation of schist-like materials, and (b) a pronounced water flux from the subducted crust. Both these processes should generate highly anisotropic volumes at upper mantle depths. Thus, unveiling the presence of seismic anisotropy at such depth level can put constraints on the metamorphic reactions and the P-T conditions of the subducted materials. The Alpine orogen is composed of three main regions where different geodynamic processes shaped a highly heterogeneous mountain chain. Beneath the Alps, a high velocity body has been imaged sinking in the upper mantle, indicating the presence of a relict of subduction. Such subduction process has been probably terminated with the closure of the Piemont-Liguria Ocean, but evidence of continental subduction has been found beneath the Western Alps. Seismic anisotropy is likely to develop both in the subducted materials and in the mantle wedge, where serpentinized materials could be found due to the low T conditions. We analysed P receiver function (RF) from 46 seismic stations deployed along a linear array crossing the Western Alps, where previous studies revealed the presence of the subducted European lower crust to 80 km depth. RF is a widely used tool for reconstructing subsurface seismic structures, based on the recognition of P-to-S converted phases in teleseismic P-wave coda. The RF data-set is migrated at depth and decomposed into azimuthal harmonics. Computing the first, k=0, and the second, k=1, harmonics allows to separate the "isotropic" contribution, due to the change of the isotropic properties of the sampled materials (recorded on the k=0 harmonics), from the "anisotropic" contribution, where the energy is related to the propagation of the P-wave through anisotropic materials (recorded on the k=1 harmonics). Preliminary results show the presence of a Ps phase on the k=0 harmonics along the western portion of the profile, with increasing time-delay toward East. This phase is interpreted as the European Moho Ps, confirming the geometry of the European Moho beneath the Western Alps. Beneath the internal portion of the orogen, the k=1 harmonics display energetic pulses between 3-7 s, indicating the development of anisotropy within a broad volume of rocks, at lower crustal and upper mantle depths. The presence of anisotropic materials is jointly interpreted with the depicted geometry of the main seismic discontinuities and the location of the intermediate-depth seismicity recorded in the region.

Complex Anisotropic Structure of the Mantle Wedge Beneath Kamchatka Volcanoes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, V.; Park, J.; Gordeev, E.; Droznin, D.

2002-12-01

A wedge of mantle material above the subducting lithospheric plate at a convergent margin is among the most dynamic environments of the Earth's interior. Deformation and transport of solid and volatile phases within this region control the fundamental process of elemental exchange between the surficial layers and the interior of the planet. A helpful property in the study of material deformation and transport within the upper mantle is seismic anisotropy, which may reflect both microscopic effects of preferentialy aligned crystals of olivine and orthopyroxene and macroscopic effects of systematic cracks, melt lenses, layering etc. Through the mapping of anisotropic properties within the mantle wedge we can establish patterns of deformation. Volatile content affects olivine alignment, so regions of anomalous volatile content may be evident. Indicators of seismic anisotropy commonly employed in upper mantle studies include shear wave birefringence and mode-conversion between compressional and shear body waves. When combined together, these techniques offer complementary constraints on the location and intensity of anisotropic properties. The eastern coast of southern Kamchatka overlies a vigorous convergent margin where the Pacific plate descends at a rate of almost 80 mm/yr towards the northwest. We extracted seismic anisotropy indicators from two data sets sensitive to the anisotropic properties of the uppermost mantle. Firstly, we evaluated teleseismic receiver functions for a number of sites, and found ample evidence for anisotropicaly-influenced P-to-S mode conversion. Secondly, we measured splitting in S waves of earthquakes with sources within the downgoing slab. The first set of observations provides constraints on the depth ranges where strong changes in anisotropic properties take place. The local splitting data provides constraints on the cumulative strength of anisotropic properties along specific pathways through the mantle wedge and possibly parts of the slab. To explain the vertical stratification of anisotropy implied from receiver functions, and the strong lateral dependence of shear-wave splitting observations, we cannot rely on simple models of mantle wedge behaviour e.g., olivine-crystal alignment through subduction-driven corner flow. Diverse mechanisms can contribute to the observed pattern of anisotropic properties, with volatiles likely being a key influence. For instance, we find evidence in favor of a slow-symmetry-axis anisotropy within the uppermost 10-20 km of the mantle wedge, implying either excessive hydration of the mantle or else a presence of systematically aligned volatile-filled cracks or lenses. Also, shear-wave splitting is weak beneath the Avachinsky-Koryaksky volcanic center, suggesting either vertical flow or the influence of volatiles and/or thermally-enhanced diffusion creep.

Structure of Lithospheric and Upper Mantle Discontinuities beneath Central Mongolia from Receiver Functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Z.; Meltzer, A.; Fischer, K. M.; Stachnik, J. C.; Munkhuu, U.; Tsagaan, B.; Russo, R. M.

2017-12-01

The origin and preservation of high-elevation low-relief surfaces in continental interiors remains an open questions. Central Mongolia constitutes a major portion of the Mongolian Plateau and is an excellent place to link deep earth and surface processes. The lithosphere of Mongolia was constructed through accretionary orogenesis associated with the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) from the late Paleozoic to the early Triassic. Alkaline volcanic basalt derived from sublithospheric sources has erupted sporadically in Mongolia since 30 Ma. Constraining the depth variation of lithospheric and upper mantle discontinuities is crucial for understanding the interaction between upper mantle structure and surface topography. We conducted receiver functions (RF) analyses suitable data recorded at112 seismic broadband stations in central Mongolia to image the LAB and mantle transition zone beneath Central Mongolia. A modified H-κ stacking was performed to determine crustal average thickness (H) and Vp/Vs ratio (κ). Central Mongolia is characterized by thick crust (43-57 km) enabling use of both P wave RF and to S wave RF to image the LAB. The PRF traces in the depth domain are stacked based on piercing point locations for the 410 and 660 discontinuities using 0.6 ° × 0.6 ° bins in a grid. From south to north, the average lithospheric thickness is 85km in Gobi Altai gradually thinning northeastward to 78km in the southern Hangay Dome, 72 km in the northern Hangay Dome then increases to 75km in Hovsgol area. While there is overall thinning of the lithosphere from SW to NE, beneath the Hangay, there is a slight increase beneath the highest topography. The thickness of the mantle transition zone (MTZ) beneath central Mongolia is similar to global averages. This evidence argues against the hypothesis that a mantle plume exists beneath Central Mongolia causing low velocity anomalies in the upper mantle. To the east of the Hovsgol area in northern Mongolia, the MTZ thickens 10-15 km mainly due to depression in the 660-km discontinuity, perhaps representing a relict of subducted plate during CAOB.

Mantle transition zone, stagnant slab and intraplate volcanism in Northeast Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chuanxu; Zhao, Dapeng; Tian, You; Wu, Shiguo; Hasegawa, Akira; Lei, Jianshe; Park, Jung-Ho; Kang, Ik-Bum

2017-04-01

3-D P- and S-wave velocity structures of the mantle down to a depth of 800 km beneath NE Asia are investigated using ∼981 000 high-quality arrival-time data of local earthquakes and teleseismic events recorded at 2388 stations of permanent and portable seismic networks deployed in NE China, Japan and South Korea. Our results do not support the existence of a gap (or a hole) in the stagnant slab under the Changbai volcano, which was proposed by a previous study of teleseismic tomography. In this work we conducted joint inversions of both local-earthquake arrival times and teleseismic relative traveltime residuals, leading to a robust tomography of the upper mantle and the mantle transition zone (MTZ) beneath NE Asia. Our joint inversion results reveal clearly the subducting Pacific slab beneath the Japan Islands and the Japan Sea, as well as the stagnant slab in the MTZ beneath the Korean Peninsula and NE China. A big mantle wedge (BMW) has formed in the upper mantle and the upper part of the MTZ above the stagnant slab. Localized low-velocity anomalies are revealed clearly in the crust and the BMW directly beneath the active Changbai and Ulleung volcanoes, indicating that the intraplate volcanism is caused by hot and wet upwelling in the BMW associated with corner flows in the BMW and deep slab dehydration as well.

Differences in the Upper Mantle Structure between 'Hot' and 'Cold' Areas in North America based on USArray Seismic Data along California - Virginia Profile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dec, M.; Sroda, P.; Tesauro, M.; Kaban, M. K.; Perchuc, E.

2013-12-01

Nowadays, United States is an area extensively studied by seismic research due to the fact that the EarthScope USArray project provides an unique opportunity to verify previous seismological models and improve our understanding of the upper mantle structure. The data from this experiment are fundamental to study the upper mantle structure because they allow us to present much more detailed analysis. In this study we use the data recorded by the Transportable Array of the USArray and data from the ISC bulletin. We refer also to data from longitudinal Early Rise project while analysing New Madrid Seismic Zone. We use the travel time data from the earthquakes recorded at a distance up to 3500 km in order to image the upper mantle down to about 600 km depth. We present P- and S-wave velocity models for the tectonically stable central part of US and for the active western part. The 1D models are constructed based on the forward modelling of traveltimes from the events located along the California - Virginia profile, for e.g. in California, Colorado or Virginia. This provides a possibility to update the previous MP-1 model (Malinowski et al., 2010). The models were corrected for the crustal effect using the crustal model of Tesauro et al. (2013). All the models have been verified by synthetic seismograms calculated using the reflectivity method. The models show significant differences in the first-arrivals observed at the 800-1800 km epicentral distance range. In the Western, tectonically active region, the 300-km discontinuity is observed. It is interpreted based on the refracted phases with the apparent velocity of 8.9-9.0 km/s and clearly observed reflections. In this area, a low-velocity zone at the bottom of the upper mantle significantly deepens the 410-km discontinuity. The stable North American Craton is characterized by blurred arrivals from the 300-km discontinuity. These 1D models of the upper mantle structure in North America served as a starting point for calculation of a 2D model along the profile using forward and inversion approach. We distinguish three parts in our profile: western - tectonically active, central cratonic - stable one and eastern - tectonically active. The New Madrid Seismic Zone is characterized by an anomalous structure in the lower lithosphere at the offset ~2500km. Very interesting part of the studied area is the marginal part of North American Craton, which separates two tectonically different areas. The seismic P- and S-wave velocity models were inverted for temperature using different mantle composition and anelasticity models. The modelling results are in agreement with those obtained for the strength and the elastic thickness of the lithosphere.

High resolution mapping of seismic properties across upper mantle discontinuities in the stagnant slab region beneath Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Y.; Shen, X.; Song, T. R. A.; Lim, H.

2016-12-01

Plate tectonic processes operating over much of the Earth's history induce long-term mantle mixing of chemical heterogeneities, recycling of volatiles into the mantle and regulate basalt geochemistry. Fundamental questions relevant to the mantle transition zone concern the nature of phase transition, the distribution of chemical heterogeneities (e.g., harzburgite, basalt), the temperature gradient, as well as the degree and extent of hydration and melting. One particularly important question is how the slab stagnation may be influenced by hydration or/and basalt enrichment in the mantle transition zone. To help answer these questions, we aim to detail upper mantle seismic discontinuity properties, including the shear velocity contrast, the density contrast, the transition sharpness and the gradient using high quality receiver functions using broadband data in South Korea, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the imaged stagnant slab near northeast China. Our approach involves broadband observation and amplitude analysis of direct converted waves (Pds) and multiples (PpPds) from the 410 and 660 seismic discontinuities, following our previous effort in a similar analysis in China. We processed waveforms from 52 broadband seismic stations of the Korea seismic array using an automatic scheme to remove noisy waveforms and retained close to 12,000 high quality receiver functions. After gathering receiver functions as a function of epicentral distance, we perform slowness stacking of direct converted waves and the multiples, respectively, at several discrete frequency bands between 1 sec and 15 sec. To avoid interferences from other mantle waves (PP, PPP, PcP, PP410s, PP660s), we stack receive functions across epicentral distances of 74-90 (62-76) degrees for the 410 (660) seismic discontinuity and obtain amplitude estimates and uncertainties through the bootstrap method. To properly calibrate the amplitudes of receiver functions, we take into account the effect of incoherent stacking due to discontinuity topography and frequency-dependent attenuation. Preliminary result will be presented and contrasted against our previous work in east China.

The effects of the theoretical formalism and data selection on mantle models derived from waveform tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mégnin, Charles; Romanowicz, Barbara

1999-08-01

Most global tomographic models to date are derived using a combination of surface wave (or normal-mode) data and body wave traveltime data. The traveltime approach limits the number of phases available for inversion by requiring them to be isolated on the seismogram. This may ultimately result in limiting the resolution of 3-D structure, at least in some depth ranges in the mantle. In a previous study, we successfully derived a degree 12 whole-mantle SH-velocity tomographic model (SAW12D) using exclusively waveform data. In that inversion, a normal-mode formalism suitable for body waveforms, the non-linear asymptotic coupling theory (NACT), was combined with a body wave windowing scheme, referred to as the `individual wavepacket' (IW) technique, which allows one to assign individual weights to different body wave energy packets. We here compare the relative merits of this choice of theoretical formalism and windowing scheme at different depth ranges in the mantle. Choosing as the reference a model obtained using 7500 transverse-component body wave and 8000 surface wave seismograms and the NACT and IW approaches, we discuss the relative performance of the path average approximation (PAVA), a zeroth-order theoretical approximation appropriate for single-mode surface waves, relative to NACT, and compare the IW windowing scheme with a more standard `full window' (FW) approach, in which a single time window is considered from the first body wave arrival to the fundamental-mode surface waves. The combination PAVA/FW is often used in global tomography to supplement the traveltime data. We show that although the quality of the image derived under the PAVA/FW formalism is very similar to that derived under NACT/IW in the first 300 km of the upper mantle, where the resolution is dominated by surface waves, it deteriorates at greater depths. Images of the lower mantle are shown to be strongly sensitive to the theoretical formalism. In contrast, the resolution of structure near the core-mantle boundary depends mostly on the windowing scheme. This is because this resolution is controlled by low-amplitude phases such as S_diff, which are downweighted in the FW scheme. Whilst the image obtained in D'' using the combination NACT/IW is in good agreement with images obtained by other authors using both waveforms and traveltimes, we show that, when using FW, uppermost mantle structure can be mapped into D''. This result is confirmed by synthetic tests performed on a composite of the upper-mantle geodynamic model 3SMAC. We also show, based on synthetic tests, that for structures in the upper mantle with sharp boundaries, differences are observed between NACT and PAVA. Whilst a combination of traveltimes and surface wave data is adequate for resolving relatively smooth features in the mantle, our results show that by potentially increasing the achievable sampling, the waveform approach shows great promise for future high-resolution tomographic modelling of mantle structure, if cast in an appropriate theoretical framework.

Deep structure of the Alborz Mountains by joint inversion of P receiver functions and dispersion curves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rastgoo, Mehdi; Rahimi, Habib; Motaghi, Khalil; Shabanian, Esmaeil; Romanelli, Fabio; Panza, Giuliano F.

2018-04-01

The Alborz Mountains represent a tectonically and seismically active convergent boundary in the Arabia - Eurasia collision zone, in western Asia. The orogenic belt has undergone a long-lasted tectono-magmatic history since the Cretaceous. The relationship between shallow and deep structures in this complex tectonic domain is not straightforward. We present a 2D velocity model constructed by the assemblage of 1D shear wave velocity (Vs) models from 26 seismic stations, mainly distributed along the southern flank of the Alborz Mountains. The shear wave velocity structure has been estimated beneath each station using joint inversion of P-waves receiver functions and Rayleigh wave dispersion curves. A substantiation of the Vs inversion results sits on the modeling of Bouguer gravity anomaly data. Our velocity and density models show low velocity/density anomalies in uppermost mantle of western and central Alborz at a depth range of ∼50-100 km. In deeper parts of the uppermost mantle (depth range of 100-150 km), a high velocity/density anomaly is located beneath most of the Mountain range. The spatial pattern of these low and high velocity/density structures in the upper mantle is interpreted as the result of post collisional delamination of lower part of the western and central Alborz lithosphere.

Regional P wave velocity structure of the Northern Cascadia Subduction Zone

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ramachandran, K.; Hyndman, R.D.; Brocher, T.M.

2006-01-01

This paper presents the first regional three-dimensional, P wave velocity model for the Northern Cascadia Subduction. Zone (SW British Columbia and NW Washington State) constructed through tomographic inversion of first-arrival traveltime data from active source experiments together with earthquake traveltime data recorded at permanent stations. The velocity model images the structure of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate, megathrust, and the fore-arc crust and upper mantle. Beneath southern Vancouver Island the megathrust above the Juan de Fuca plate is characterized by a broad zone (25-35 km depth) having relatively low velocities of 6.4-6.6 km/s. This relative low velocity zone coincides with the location of most of the episodic tremors recently mapped beneath Vancouver Island, and its low velocity may also partially reflect the presence of trapped fluids and sheared lower crustal rocks. The rocks of the Olympic Subduction Complex are inferred to deform aseismically as evidenced by the lack of earthquakes withi the low-velocity rocks. The fore-arc upper mantle beneath the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound is characterized by velocities of 7.2-7.6 km/s. Such low velocities represent regional serpentinization of the upper fore-arc mantle and provide evidence for slab dewatering and densification. Tertiary sedimentary basins in the Strait of Georgia and Puget Lowland imaged by the velocity model lie above the inferred region of slab dewatering and densification and may therefore partly result from a higher rate of slab sinking. In contrast, sedimentary basins in the Strait of Juan de Fuca lie in a synclinal depression in the Crescent Terrane. The correlation of in-slab earthquake hypocenters M>4 with P wave velocities greater than 7.8 km/s at the hypocenters suggests that they originate near the oceanic Moho of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

Shear velocity structure of central Eurasia from inversion of surface wave velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villaseñor, A.; Ritzwoller, M. H.; Levshin, A. L.; Barmin, M. P.; Engdahl, E. R.; Spakman, W.; Trampert, J.

2001-04-01

We present a shear velocity model of the crust and upper mantle beneath central Eurasia by simultaneous inversion of broadband group and phase velocity maps of fundamental-mode Love and Rayleigh waves. The model is parameterized in terms of velocity depth profiles on a discrete 2°×2° grid. The model is isotropic for the crust and for the upper mantle below 220 km but, to fit simultaneously long period Love and Rayleigh waves, the model is transversely isotropic in the uppermost mantle, from the Moho discontinuity to 220 km depth. We have used newly available a priori models for the crust and sedimentary cover as starting models for the inversion. Therefore, the crustal part of the estimated model shows good correlation with known surface features such as sedimentary basins and mountain ranges. The velocity anomalies in the upper mantle are related to differences between tectonic and stable regions. Old, stable regions such as the East European, Siberian, and Indian cratons are characterized by high upper-mantle shear velocities. Other large high velocity anomalies occur beneath the Persian Gulf and the Tarim block. Slow shear velocity anomalies are related to regions of current extension (Red Sea and Andaman ridges) and are also found beneath the Tibetan and Turkish-Iranian Plateaus, structures originated by continent-continent collision. A large low velocity anomaly beneath western Mongolia corresponds to the location of a hypothesized mantle plume. A clear low velocity zone in vSH between Moho and 220 km exists across most of Eurasia, but is absent for vSV. The character and magnitude of anisotropy in the model is on average similar to PREM, with the most prominent anisotropic region occurring beneath the Tibetan Plateau.

NoMelt Experiment: High-resolution constraints on Pacific upper mantle fabric inferred from radial and azimuthal anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, J. B.; Gaherty, J. B.; Lin, P. P.; Lizarralde, D.; Collins, J. A.; Hirth, G.; Evans, R. L.

2017-12-01

Observations of seismic anisotropy in the ocean basins are important for constraining deformation and melting processes in the upper mantle. The NoMelt OBS array was deployed on relatively pristine, 70 Ma seafloor in the central Pacific with the aim of constraining upper mantle circulation and the evolution of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system. Surface-waves traversing the array provide a unique opportunity to estimate a comprehensive set of anisotropic parameters. Azimuthal variations in Rayleigh-wave velocity over a period band of 15-180 s suggest strong anisotropic fabric both in the lithosphere and deep in the asthenosphere. High-frequency ambient noise (4-10 s) provides constraints on average VSV and VSH as well as azimuthal variations in both VS and VP in the upper ˜10 km of the mantle. Our best fitting models require radial anisotropy in the uppermost mantle with VSH > VSV by 3 - 7% and as much as 2% radial anisotropy in the crust. Additionally, we find a strong azimuthal dependence for Rayleigh- and Love-wave velocities, with Rayleigh 2θ fast direction parallel to the fossil spreading direction (FSD) and Love 2θ and 4θ fast directions shifted 90º and 45º from the FSD, respectively. These are some of the first direct observations of the Love 2θ and 4θ azimuthal signal, which allows us to directly invert for anisotropic terms G, B, and E in the uppermost Pacific lithosphere, for the first time. Together, these observations of radial and azimuthal anisotropy provide a comprehensive picture of oceanic mantle fabric and are consistent with horizontal alignment of olivine with the a-axis parallel to fossil spreading and having an orthorhombic or hexagonal symmetry.

Local Upper Mantle Upwelling beneath New England: Evidence from Seismic Anisotropy.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, V. L.; Long, M. D.; Lopez, I.; Li, Y.; Skryzalin, P. A.

2017-12-01

The upper mantle beneath eastern North America contains regions where seismic wave speed is significantly reduced. As they cut across the trend of the Appalachian terranes, these anomalies likely post-date the Paleozoic assembly of Pangea. Most prominent of them, the North Appalachian Anomaly (NAA), has been alternatively explained by the localized disruption of lithospheric fabric, the passage of the Great Meteor Hot Spot, and the current local upwelling of the asthenosphere. Comprehensive mapping of shear wave splitting identified a local perturbation of an otherwise uniform regional pattern, with no apparent splitting occurring at a site within the NAA. To evaluate the reality of this apparent localized disruption in the anisotropic fabric of the upper mantle beneath northeastern North America we used observations of shear wave splitting from a set of long-running observatories not included in previous studies. Three methods of evaluating shear wave splitting (rotation-correlation, minimization of the transverse component, and the splitting intensity) yield complementary results. We show that splitting of core-refracted shear waves within the outline of the NAA is significantly weaker than towards its edges and beyond them (Figure 1). Average fast orientations are close to the absolute plate motion in the hot-spot reference frame, thus we can attribute a large fraction of this signal to the coherently sheared sub-lithospheric upper mantle. A decrease in average delay we observe, from 1 s outside the NAA to under 0.2 s within it, translates into a reduction of the vertical extent of the sheared layer from 130 km to 16 km (assuming 4% anisotropy), or alternatively into a weakening of the azimuthal anisotropy from 5% to 0.6% (assuming a 100 km thick layer). The splitting reduction within the NAA is consistent with a localized change in anisotropic fabric that would be expected in case of geologically recent sub-vertical flow overprinting the broadly uniform upper mantle fabric detected throughout the region. Figure 1. Splitting intensity (red circles) plotted over best-fitting sinusoidal functions (blue, parameters in upper right) and predictions based on average delays and fast polarizations (green, parameters in upper left). Outlines of the NAA at 200 km depth from tomographic studies using Earthscope data.

Advanced Multivariate Inversion Techniques for High Resolution 3D Geophysical Modeling (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maceira, M.; Zhang, H.; Rowe, C. A.

2009-12-01

We focus on the development and application of advanced multivariate inversion techniques to generate a realistic, comprehensive, and high-resolution 3D model of the seismic structure of the crust and upper mantle that satisfies several independent geophysical datasets. Building on previous efforts of joint invesion using surface wave dispersion measurements, gravity data, and receiver functions, we have added a fourth dataset, seismic body wave P and S travel times, to the simultaneous joint inversion method. We present a 3D seismic velocity model of the crust and upper mantle of northwest China resulting from the simultaneous, joint inversion of these four data types. Surface wave dispersion measurements are primarily sensitive to seismic shear-wave velocities, but at shallow depths it is difficult to obtain high-resolution velocities and to constrain the structure due to the depth-averaging of the more easily-modeled, longer-period surface waves. Gravity inversions have the greatest resolving power at shallow depths, and they provide constraints on rock density variations. Moreover, while surface wave dispersion measurements are primarily sensitive to vertical shear-wave velocity averages, body wave receiver functions are sensitive to shear-wave velocity contrasts and vertical travel-times. Addition of the fourth dataset, consisting of seismic travel-time data, helps to constrain the shear wave velocities both vertically and horizontally in the model cells crossed by the ray paths. Incorporation of both P and S body wave travel times allows us to invert for both P and S velocity structure, capitalizing on empirical relationships between both wave types’ seismic velocities with rock densities, thus eliminating the need for ad hoc assumptions regarding the Poisson ratios. Our new tomography algorithm is a modification of the Maceira and Ammon joint inversion code, in combination with the Zhang and Thurber TomoDD (double-difference tomography) program.

Redox-influenced seismic properties of upper-mantle olivine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cline, C. J., II; Faul, U. H.; David, E. C.; Berry, A. J.; Jackson, I.

2018-03-01

Lateral variations of seismic wave speeds and attenuation (dissipation of strain energy) in the Earth’s upper mantle have the potential to map key characteristics such as temperature, major-element composition, melt fraction and water content. The inversion of these data into meaningful representations of physical properties requires a robust understanding of the micromechanical processes that affect the propagation of seismic waves. Structurally bound water (hydroxyl) is believed to affect seismic properties but this has yet to be experimentally quantified. Here we present a comprehensive low-frequency forced-oscillation assessment of the seismic properties of olivine as a function of water content within the under-saturated regime that is relevant to the Earth’s interior. Our results demonstrate that wave speeds and attenuation are in fact strikingly insensitive to water content. Rather, the redox conditions imposed by the choice of metal sleeving, and the associated defect chemistry, appear to have a substantial influence on the seismic properties. These findings suggest that elevated water contents are not responsible for low-velocity or high-attenuation structures in the upper mantle. Instead, the high attenuation observed in hydrous and oxidized regions of the upper mantle (such as above subduction zones) may reflect the prevailing oxygen fugacity. In addition, these data provide no support for the hypothesis whereby a sharp lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary is explained by enhanced grain boundary sliding in the presence of water.

A shear-wave velocity model of the European upper mantle from automated inversion of seismic shear and surface waveforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legendre, C.; Meier, T.; Lebedev, S.; Friederich, W.; Viereck-Götte, L.

2012-04-01

Broadband waveforms recorded at stations in Europe and surrounding regions were inverted for shear-wave velocity of the European upper mantle. For events between 1995 and 2007 seismograms were collected from all permanent stations for which data are available via the data centers ORFEUS, GEOFON, ReNaSs and IRIS. In addition, we incorporated data from temporary experiments, including SVEKALAPKO, TOR, Eifel Plume, EGELADOS and other projects. Automated Multimode Inversion of surface and S-wave forms was applied to extract structural information from the seismograms, in the form of linear equations with uncorrelated uncertainties. Successful waveform fits for about 70,000 seismograms yielded over 300,000 independent linear equations that were solved together for a three-dimensional tomographic model. Resolution of the imaging is particularly high in the mantle lithosphere and asthenosphere. The highest velocities in the mantle lithosphere of the East European Craton are found at about 150 km depth. There are no indications for a large scale deep cratonic root below about 330 km depth. Lateral variations within the cratonic mantle lithosphere are resolved by our model as well. The locations of diamond bearing kimberlites correlate with reduced S-wave velocities in the cratonic mantle lithosphere. This anomaly is present in regions of both Proterozoic and Archean crust, pointing to an alteration of the mantle lithosphere after the formation of the craton. Strong lateral changes in S-wave velocity are found at the western margin of the East European Craton and hint to erosion of cratonic mantle lithosphere beneath the Scandes by hot asthenosphere. The mantle lithosphere beneath Western Europe and between the Tornquist-Teyissere Zone and the Elbe Line shows moderately high velocities and is of an intermediate character, between cratonic lithosphere and the thin lithosphere of central Europe. In central Europe, Caledonian and Variscian sutures are not associated with strong lateral changes in the lithosphere-asthenosphere system. Cenozoic anorogenic intraplate volcanism in central Europe and the Circum Mediterranean is found in regions of shallow asthenosphere and close to sharp gradients in the depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. Low-velocity anomalies extending vertically from shallow upper mantle down to the transition zone are found beneath the Massive Central, Sinai, Canary Islands and Iceland.

Computing 3-D wavefields in mantle circulations models to test hypotheses on the origin of lower mantle heterogeneity under Africa directly against seismic observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuberth, Bernhard; Zaroli, Christophe; Nolet, Guust

2015-04-01

Of particular interest for the tectonic evolution of the Atlantic region is the influence of lower mantle structure under Africa on flow in the upper mantle beneath the ocean basin. Along with its Pacific counterpart, the large African anomaly in the lowermost mantle with strongly reduced seismic velocities has received considerable attention in seismological and geodynamic studies. Several seismological observations are typically taken as an indication that these two anomalies are being caused by large-scale compositional variations and that they are piles of material with higher density than normal mantle rock. This would imply negative buoyancy in the lowermost mantle under Africa, which has important implications for the flow at shallower depth and inferences on the processes that led to the formation of the Atlantic Ocean basin. However, a large number of recent studies argue for a strong thermal gradient across the core-mantle boundary that might provide an alternative explanation for the lower mantle anomaly through the resulting large lateral temperature variations. Recently, we developed a new joint forward modeling approach to test such geodynamic hypotheses directly against the seismic observations: Seismic heterogeneity is predicted by converting the temperature field of a high-resolution 3-D mantle circulation model into seismic velocities using thermodynamic models of mantle mineralogy. 3-D global wave propagation in the synthetic elastic structures is then simulated using a spectral element method. Being based on forward modelling only, this approach allows us to generate synthetic wavefields and seismograms independently of seismic observations. The statistics of observed long-period body wave traveltime variations show a markedly different behaviour for P- and S-waves: the standard deviation of P-wave delay times stays almost constant with ray turning depth, while that of the S-wave delay times increases strongly throughout the mantle. In an earlier study, we showed that synthetic traveltime variations computed for an isochemical mantle circulation model with strong core heating can reproduce these different trends. This was taken as a strong indication that seismic heterogeneity in the lower mantle is likely dominated by thermal variations on large length-scales (i.e., relevant for long-period body waves). We will discuss the robustness of this earlier conclusion by exploring the uncertainties in the mineralogical models used to convert temperatures to seismic velocities. In particular, we investigate the influence of anelasticity on the standard deviation of our synthetic traveltime variations. Owing to the differences in seismic frequency content between laboratory measurements (MHz to GHz) and the Earth (mHz to Hz), the seismic velocities given in the mineralogical model need to be adjusted; that is, corrected for dispersion due to anelastic effects.

Insights Into Layering in the Cratonic Lithosphere Beneath Western Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Weijia; Fu, Li-Yun; Saygin, Erdinc; Zhao, Liang

2018-02-01

The characteristics of internal lithospheric discontinuities carry crucial information regarding the origin and evolution of the lithosphere. However, the formation and mechanisms of the midlithosphere discontinuity (MLD) are still enigmatic and controversial. We investigate the midlithospheric discontinuities beneath the Archean Western Australian Craton, which represents one of the oldest continents on the globe, using a novel receiver-based reflectivity approach combined with other geophysical information comprising tomographic P and S wave velocity, radial anisotropy, electrical resistivity, and heat flow data. The MLD is rather shallow with a depth of 68-82 km. Multiple prominent discontinuities are observed in the lithospheric mantle using constructed high-frequency (0.5-4 Hz) P wave reflectivities. These multiple discontinuities coincide well with the broad-scale reduction of relative P and SV wave velocities at the top of the graded transition zone from the lithosphere to the asthenosphere. Strong radial anisotropy in the upper lithosphere mantle tends to be weak across the MLD, which might reflect quasi-laminar lithospheric heterogeneity behavior with a horizontal correlation length that is greater than its vertical correlation length. Broad-scale electrical resistivity variations show little coherence with the MLD. Given these various geophysical observations, the upper lithosphere exhibits rigid and elastic properties above the MLD, while the lower lithosphere tends to be ductile and rheological or viscous. A model comprising quasi-laminar lithospheric heterogeneity could effectively represent the MLD characteristics beneath the Archean continent.

High-resolution Body Wave Tomography of the Ross Sea Embayment, Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyblade, A.; White-Gaynor, A.; Wiens, D.; Aster, R. C.; Gerstoft, P.; Bromirski, P. D.; Stephen, R. A.; Winberry, J. P.; Huerta, A. D.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Wilson, T. J.

2016-12-01

The West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) remains the least understood continental rift system on the planet. The WARS is largely composed of the Ross Sea Embayment, which is overlain by the Ross Ice Shelf between Marie Byrd Land and the Transantarctic Mountains. Active volcanism on Ross Island continues to challenge our understanding of the seismically quiescent rift system. Previous regional-scale body wave tomographic investigations have identified areas of low seismic wave speed to about 200 km depth beneath Ross Island. However mantle structure under the Ross Sea Embayment away from Ross Island has not been previously well imaged. For this investigation we utilize teleseismic P waves recorded on the recently deployed RIS/DRIS network, which consists of 34 seismometers deployed across the Ross Ice Shelf, along with data from nearby POLENET stations and TAMSEIS stations. Relative P wave travel time residuals were obtained from 560 events using a multichannel cross correlation method, and have been inverted to obtain a preliminary model of the upper mantle. Initial results suggest that the low wave speed structure under Ross Island does not extend beneath the Ross Sea Embayment portion of the WARS.

Cenozoic extension, volcanism and plateau uplift in eastern Africa and the African Superplume

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyblade, A.; O'Donnell, J.; Mulibo, G. D.; Adams, A. N.

2013-12-01

Recent body and surface wave studies combine to image mantle velocity structure to a depth of 1200 km beneath eastern Africa using teleseismic earthquake data recorded by the AfricaArray East African Seismic Experiment in conjunction with permanent stations and previously deployed temporary stations. The combined network spans Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi. The 3-D shear wave velocity structure of the uppermost mantle was imaged using fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave phase velocities measured at periods ranging from 20 to 182 s, subsequently inverted for shear velocity structure. When considered in conjunction with mapped seismicity, the shear velocity model supports a secondary western rift branch striking southwestwards from Lake Tanganyika, likely exploiting the relatively weak lithosphere of the southern Kibaran Belt between the Bangweulu Block and the Congo Craton. In eastern Tanzania a low-velocity region suggests that the eastern rift branch trends southeastwards offshore eastern Tanzania coincident with the purported location of the northern margin of the proposed Ruvuma microplate. The results suggest that existing lithospheric structures exert a significant governing influence on rift development. Sub-lithospheric mantle wave speed variations extending to a depth of 1200 km were tomographically imaged from the inversion of P and S wave relative arrival time residuals. The images shows a low wave speed anomaly (LWA) well developed at shallow depths (100-200 km) beneath the Eastern and Western branches of the rift system and northwestern Zambia, and a fast wave speed anomaly at depths greater than 350 km beneath the central and northern parts of the East African Plateau and the eastern and central parts of Zambia. At depths below 350 km the LWA is most prominent under the central and southern parts of the East African Plateau and dips to the southwest beneath northern Zambia, extending to a depth of at least 900 km. The amplitude of the LWA is consistent with a 150-300 K thermal perturbation, and its depth extent indicates that the African superplume, originally identified as a lower mantle anomaly, is likely a whole mantle structure. A mantle transition zone about 30-40 km thinner than the global average in a region 200-400 km wide extending in a SW-NE direction from central Zambia, across Tanzania and into Kenya was inferred from P to S conversions from the 410 and 660 km discontinuities observed in receiver function stacks. The thinning of the transition zone indicates a 190-300 K thermal anomaly in the same location where the P and S wave tomography models suggest that the lower mantle African superplume structure connects to thermally perturbed upper mantle beneath eastern Africa. These findings provide compelling evidence for the existence of a continuous thermal structure extending from the core-mantle boundary to the surface associated with the African superplume, implying an origin for the Cenozoic extension, volcanism and plateau uplift in eastern Africa rooted in the dynamics of the lower mantle.

Ground Truth, Magnitude Calibration, and Regional Phase Propagation and Detection in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

Arabian Shield. Background The Arabian Shield consists of a late Proterozoic crystalline basement overlain by Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic...mantle structure under the Arabian Shield using body waves, we measured and inverted relative travel times from stations in Arabia. We augmented the...Rodgers, and A. Al-Amri (2008). S wave velocity structure of the Arabian Shield upper mantle from Rayleigh wave tomography, Geochem. Geophys

Upper mantle anisotropic attenuation of the Sierra Nevada and surroundings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardino, M. J.; Jones, C. H.; Monsalve, G.

2016-12-01

We investigate the contribution of anelasticity in the generation of seismic velocity variations within the upper mantle of the Sierra Nevada and surrounding regions through teleseismic shear-wave attenuation. Given that anelastic effects are most sensitive to temperature and hydration and less to composition and small degrees of partial melt, we aim constrain the thermal structure beneath this region and identify locations where elevated upper mantle temperatures dominate. We also investigate the dependence of shear-wave attenuation on direction by accounting for seismic anisotropy in our measurements. S-wave t* values are determined from teleseismic S- and SKS- phases recorded on permanent and temporary deployments within the California region with particular focus on the Sierra Nevada Earthscope Project (SNEP) and the Sierran Paradox Experiment (SPE) stations. S-waveforms are rotated into the Sierran SFast, N75°E, and SSlow, N15°W, components. Following the method of Stachnik et al., (2004), S-wave spectra for each event are jointly inverted for a single seismic moment, M0k, and corner frequency, fck, for each event, and separate t* for each ray path. The resulting t*Fast and t*Slow measurements are then inverted for three-dimensional variations in (1/QFast) and (1/QSlow). Results are compared with previous magnetotelluric, surface heat flow, and body-wave velocity inversion studies.

Seismic Waveform Tomography of the Iranian Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maggi, A.; Priestley, K.; Jackson, J.

2001-05-01

Surprisingly little is known about the detailed velocity structure of Iran, despite the region's importance in the tectonics of the Middle East. Previous studies have concentrated mainly on fundamental mode surface wave dispersion measurements along isolated paths (e.g.~Asudeh, 1982; Cong & Mitchell, 1998; Ritzwoller et.~al, 1998), and the propagation characteristics of crust and upper mantle body waves (e.g. Hearn & Ni 1994; Rodgers et.~al 1997). We use the partitioned waveform inversion method of Nolet (1990) on several hundred regional waveforms crossing the Iranian region to produce a 3-D seismic velocity map for the crust and upper mantle of the area. The method consists of using long period seismograms from earthquakes with well determined focal mechanisms and depths to constrain 1-D path-averaged shear wave models along regional paths. The constraints imposed on the 1-D models by the seismograms are then combined with independent constraints from other methods (e.g.~Moho depths from reciever function analysis etc.), to solve for the 3-D seismic velocity structure of the region. A dense coverage of fundamental mode rayleigh waves at a period of 100~s ensures good resolution of lithospheric scale structure. We also use 20~s period fundamental mode rayleigh waves and some Pnl wavetrains to make estimates of crustal thickness variations and average crustal velocities. A few deeper events give us some coverage of higher mode rayleigh waves and mantle S waves, which sample to the base of the upper mantle. Our crustal thickness estimates range from 45~km in the southern Zagros mountains, to 40~km in central Iran and 35~km towards the north of the region. We also find inconsistencies between the 1-D models required to fit the vertical and the tranverse seismograms, indicating the presence of anisotropy.

Seismic properties of the upper mantle beneath Lanzarote (Canary Islands): Model predictions based on texture measurements by EBSD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vonlanthen, Pierre; Kunze, Karsten; Burlini, Luigi; Grobety, Bernard

2006-12-01

We present a petrophysical analysis of upper mantle xenoliths, collected in the Quaternary alkali basalt fields (Series III and IV) from the island of Lanzarote. The samples consist of eight harzburgite and four dunite nodules, 5 to 15 cm in size, and exhibit a typical protogranular to porphyroclastic texture. An anomalous foliation resulting from strong recovery processes is observed in half of the specimens. The lattice preferred orientations (LPO) of olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene were measured using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). In most samples, olivine exhibits LPOs intermediate between the typical single crystal texture and the [100] fiber texture. Occasionally, the [010] fiber texture was also observed. Simultaneous occurrence of both types of fiber textures suggests the existence of more than one deformation regime, probably dominated by a simple shear component under low strain rate and moderate to high temperature. Orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene display a weaker but significant texture. The LPO data were used to calculate the seismic properties of the xenoliths at PT conditions obtained from geothermobarometry, and were compared to field geophysical data reported from the literature. The velocity of P-waves (7.9 km/s) obtained for a direction corresponding to the existing seismic transect is in good agreement with the most recent geophysical interpretation. Our results are consistent with a roughly W-E oriented fastest P-wave propagation direction in the uppermost mantle beneath the Canary Islands, and with the lithosphere structure proposed by previous authors involving a crust-mantle boundary at around 18 km in depth, overlaid by intermediate material between 11 and 18 km.

Lithospheric velocity structure of the Anatolian plateau-Caucasus-Caspian region

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gök, R.; Mellors, R. J.; Sandvol, E.

The Anatolian plateau-Caucasus-Caspian region is an area of complex lithospheric structure accompanied by large variations in seismic wave velocities. Despite the complexity of the region, little is known about the detailed lithospheric structure. Using data from 31 new, permanent broadband seismic stations along with results from a previous 29 temporary seismic stations and 3 existing global seismic stations in the region, a 3-D velocity model is developed using joint inversion of teleseismic receiver functions and surface waves. Both group and phase dispersion curves (Love and Rayleigh) were derived from regional and teleseismic events. Additional Rayleigh wave group dispersion curves weremore » determined using ambient noise correlation. Receiver functions were calculated using P arrivals from 789 teleseismic (30°–90°) earthquakes. The stacked receiver functions and surface wave dispersion curves were jointly inverted to yield the absolute shear wave velocity to a depth of 100 km at each station. The depths of major discontinuities (sediment-basement, crust-mantle, and lithosphere-asthenosphere) were inferred from the velocity-depth profiles at the location of each station. Distinct spatial variations in crustal and upper mantle shear velocities were observed. The Kura basin showed slow (~2.7–2.9 km/s) upper crustal (0–11 km) velocities but elevated (~3.8–3.9 km/s) velocities in the lower crust. The Anatolian plateau varied from ~3.1–3.2 in the upper crust to ~3.5–3.7 in the lower crust, while velocities in the Arabian plate (south of the Bitlis suture) were slightly faster (upper crust between 3.3 and 3.4 km/s and lower crust between 3.8 and 3.9 km/s). The depth of the Moho, which was estimated from the shear velocity profiles, was 35 km in the Arabian plate and increased northward to 54 km at the southern edge of the Greater Caucasus. Moho depths in the Kura and at the edge of the Caspian showed more spatial variability but ranged between 35 and 45 km. Upper mantle velocities were slow under the Anatolian plateau but increased to the south under the Arabian plate and to the east (4.3–4.4 km/s) under the Kura basin and Greater Caucasus. The areas of slow mantle coincided with the locations of Holocene volcanoes. Differences between Rayleigh and Love dispersions at long wavelengths reveal a pronounced variation in anisotropy between the Anatolian plateau and the Kura basin.« less

Lithospheric velocity structure of the Anatolian plateau-Caucasus-Caspian region

DOE PAGES

Gök, R.; Mellors, R. J.; Sandvol, E.; ...

2011-05-07

The Anatolian plateau-Caucasus-Caspian region is an area of complex lithospheric structure accompanied by large variations in seismic wave velocities. Despite the complexity of the region, little is known about the detailed lithospheric structure. Using data from 31 new, permanent broadband seismic stations along with results from a previous 29 temporary seismic stations and 3 existing global seismic stations in the region, a 3-D velocity model is developed using joint inversion of teleseismic receiver functions and surface waves. Both group and phase dispersion curves (Love and Rayleigh) were derived from regional and teleseismic events. Additional Rayleigh wave group dispersion curves weremore » determined using ambient noise correlation. Receiver functions were calculated using P arrivals from 789 teleseismic (30°–90°) earthquakes. The stacked receiver functions and surface wave dispersion curves were jointly inverted to yield the absolute shear wave velocity to a depth of 100 km at each station. The depths of major discontinuities (sediment-basement, crust-mantle, and lithosphere-asthenosphere) were inferred from the velocity-depth profiles at the location of each station. Distinct spatial variations in crustal and upper mantle shear velocities were observed. The Kura basin showed slow (~2.7–2.9 km/s) upper crustal (0–11 km) velocities but elevated (~3.8–3.9 km/s) velocities in the lower crust. The Anatolian plateau varied from ~3.1–3.2 in the upper crust to ~3.5–3.7 in the lower crust, while velocities in the Arabian plate (south of the Bitlis suture) were slightly faster (upper crust between 3.3 and 3.4 km/s and lower crust between 3.8 and 3.9 km/s). The depth of the Moho, which was estimated from the shear velocity profiles, was 35 km in the Arabian plate and increased northward to 54 km at the southern edge of the Greater Caucasus. Moho depths in the Kura and at the edge of the Caspian showed more spatial variability but ranged between 35 and 45 km. Upper mantle velocities were slow under the Anatolian plateau but increased to the south under the Arabian plate and to the east (4.3–4.4 km/s) under the Kura basin and Greater Caucasus. The areas of slow mantle coincided with the locations of Holocene volcanoes. Differences between Rayleigh and Love dispersions at long wavelengths reveal a pronounced variation in anisotropy between the Anatolian plateau and the Kura basin.« less

Sub-crustal seismic activity beneath Klyuchevskoy Volcano

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carr, M. J.; Droznina, S.; Levin, V. L.; Senyukov, S.

2013-12-01

Seismic activity is extremely vigorous beneath the Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group (KVG). The unique aspect is the distribution in depth. In addition to upper-crustal seismicity, earthquakes take place at depths in excess of 20 km. Similar observations are known in other volcanic regions, however the KVG is unique in both the number of earthquakes and that they occur continuously. Most other instances of deep seismicity beneath volcanoes appear to be episodic or transient. Digital recording of seismic signals started at the KVG in early 2000s.The dense local network reliably locates earthquakes as small as ML~1. We selected records of 20 earthquakes located at depths over 20 km. Selection was based on the quality of the routine locations and the visual clarity of the records. Arrivals of P and S waves were re-picked, and hypocentral parameters re-established. Newl locations fell within the ranges outlined by historical seismicity, confirming the existence of two distinct seismically active regions. A shallower zone is at ~20 km depth, and all hypocenters are to the northeast of KVG, in a region between KVG and Shiveluch volcano. A deeper zone is at ~30 km, and all hypocenters cluster directly beneath the edifice of the Kyuchevskoy volcano. Examination of individual records shows that earthquakes in both zones are tectonic, with well-defined P and S waves - another distinction of the deep seismicity beneath KVG. While the upper seismic zone is unquestionably within the crust, the provenance of the deeper earthquakes is enigmatic. The crustal structure beneath KVG is highly complex, with no agreed-upon definition of the crust-mantle boundary. Rather, a range of values, from under 30 to over 40 km, exists in the literature. Similarly, a range of velocity structures has been reported. Teleseismic receiver functions (RFs) provide a way to position the earthquakes with respect to the crust-mantle boundary. We compare the differential travel times of S and P waves from deep events observed at a site closest to the epicenter to delay times of Ps phases in RFs that we associate with the crust-mantle transition. Both observations are essentially differences between travel times of S and P waves originating at the same place, and traversing the same velocity structure. Consequently, the uncertainty of the velocity structure beneath the KVG does not influence the comparison. For all events nominally located at 28-30 km beneath KVG the S-P time at the nearest site (CIR) significantly exceeds 4 seconds. Given that crust-mantle boundary Ps times at nearby sites are ~3 s, these earthquakes take place in the upper mantle. Both recent RFs and wide-angle reflection (Deep Seismic Sounding) studies in the late 1970s identified additional boundaries beneath KVG at depths in excess of 40 km. The nature of these boundaries is unclear, however their sharpness suggests chemical changes or the presence of fluids or melts. Chemistry of Klyuchevskoy lavas suggests sub-crustal origin with no clear magma chamber within the crust. Sub-crustal earthquakes we describe show that processes in the magma conduit at the base of the crust beneath KVG are vigorous enough to promote brittle failure in the surrounding mantle rock. The complex seismic structure of the uppermost mantle beneath KVG may reflect a history of magma injection that is accompanied by seismic energy release.

Structure of the European upper mantle revealed by adjoint tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Hejun; Bozdağ, Ebru; Peter, Daniel; Tromp, Jeroen

2012-07-01

Images of the European crust and upper mantle, created using seismic tomography, identify the Cenozoic Rift System and related volcanism in central and western Europe. They also reveal subduction and slab roll back in the Mediterranean-Carpathian region. However, existing tomographic models are either high in resolution, but cover only a limited area, or low in resolution, and thus miss the finer-scale details of mantle structure. Here we simultaneously fit frequency-dependent phase anomalies of body and surface waveforms in complete three-component seismograms with an iterative inversion strategy involving adjoint methods, to create a tomographic model of the European upper mantle. We find that many of the smaller-scale structures such as slabs, upwellings and delaminations that emerge naturally in our model are consistent with existing images. However, we also derive some hitherto unidentified structures. Specifically, we interpret fast seismic-wave speeds beneath the Dinarides Mountains, southern Europe, as a signature of northeastward subduction of the Adria plate; slow seismic-wave speeds beneath the northern part of the Rhine Graben as a reservoir connected to the Eifel hotspot; and fast wave-speed anomalies beneath Scandinavia as a lithospheric drip, where the lithosphere is delaminating and breaking away. Our model sheds new light on the enigmatic palaeotectonic history of Europe.

3-D Upper-Mantle Shear Velocity Model Beneath the Contiguous United States Based on Broadband Surface Wave from Ambient Seismic Noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Jun; Chu, Risheng; Yang, Yingjie

2018-05-01

Ambient noise seismic tomography has been widely used to study crustal and upper-mantle shear velocity structures. Most studies, however, concentrate on short period (< 50 s) surface wave from ambient noise, while studies using long period surface wave from ambient noise are limited. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using long-period surface wave from ambient noise to study the lithospheric structure on a continental scale. We use broadband Rayleigh wave phase velocities to obtain a 3-D V S structures beneath the contiguous United States at period band of 10-150 s. During the inversion, 1-D shear wave velocity profile is parameterized using B-spline at each grid point and is inverted with nonlinear Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. Then, a 3-D shear velocity model is constructed by assembling all the 1-D shear velocity profiles. Our model is overall consistent with existing models which are based on multiple datasets or data from earthquakes. Our model along with the other post-USArray models reveal lithosphere structures in the upper mantle, which are consistent with the geological tectonic background (e.g., the craton root and regional upwelling provinces). The model has comparable resolution on lithosphere structures compared with many published results and can be used for future detailed regional or continental studies and analysis.

Comparisons of seismic and electromagnetic structures of the MELT area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, R. L.; Hirth, G.; Forsyth, D.; Baba, K.; Chave, A.

2003-04-01

Both seismic and electromagnetic (EM) models from the MELT experiment show similar broad scale features in the mantle beneath the Southern EPR. In all EM models, the conductivity in the upper 50-60˜km is considerably higher to the west of the ridge than to the east. Similarly, seismic models of short period Love waves are asymmetric in velocity structure, with slower velocities to the west of the ridge within the upper 60˜km. Body wave data suggest a similar asymmetry, although the depth extent is not as well defined. West of the ridge, both the higher conductivities and lower velocities have been attributed to the presence of a small melt fraction, although the anomalous regions estimated from different techniques do not entirely agree. To the east, there is a rapid increase in resistivity and S-wave velocity, indicating that within 25˜km of the axis the mantle above 70˜km is both dry and melt-free. Further away from the ridge, the boundary between a conductive asthenospheric mantle and a resistive overlying mantle flattens, at a depth around 60-80˜km. Rayleigh wave inversions also show fairly flat velocity contours with a broad minimum centered at 60-80˜km. Both of these features are consistent with a transition from dry to damp mantle. Also away from the ridge, EM data, shear-wave splitting, and Rayleigh waves all require an azimuthally anisotropic mantle consistent with the a-axis of olivine being preferentially oriented horizontally and perpendicular to the ridge. Anisotropy in EM data suggests damp mantle conditions in the 100-200˜km depth range, with enhanced conduction along the a-axis of olivine. Rayleigh waves are most sensitive to shallower structure and require anisotropy in the upper 70˜km. In the uppermost 40˜km, the most conductive and lowest velocity regions are close to the axis but offset 5-10˜km to the west. Some anisotropic inversions recover a vertically conductive feature that could be interpreted as a few percent melt distributed in vertically aligned channels or tubes. However, modeling of seismic data rule out the presence of a vertical melt bearing channel larger than 5˜km wide with a velocity reduction of 0.5˜kms-1 (3-4% melt fraction). This apparent discrepancy may provide clues as to how melt is distributed.

Possible emplacement of crustal rocks into the forearc mantle of the Cascadia Subduction Zone

USGS Publications Warehouse

Calvert, A.J.; Fisher, M.A.; Ramachandran, K.; Trehu, A.M.

2003-01-01

Seismic reflection profiles shot across the Cascadia forearc show that a 5-15 km thick band of reflections, previously interpreted as a lower crustal shear zone above the subducting Juan de Fuca plate, extends into the upper mantle of the North American plate, reaching depths of at least 50 km. In the extreme western corner of the mantle wedge, these reflectors occur in rocks with P wave velocities of 6750-7000 ms-1. Elsewhere, the forearc mantle, which is probably partially serpentinized, exhibits velocities of approximately 7500 ms-1. The rocks with velocities of 6750-7000 ms-1 are anomalous with respect to the surrounding mantle, and may represent either: (1) locally high mantle serpentinization, (2) oceanic crust trapped by backstepping of the subduction zone, or (3) rocks from the lower continental crust that have been transported into the uppermost mantle by subduction erosion. The association of subparallel seismic reflectors with these anomalously low velocities favours the tectonic emplacement of crustal rocks. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.

Whole-mantle P-wave velocity structure and azimuthal anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamamoto, Y.; Zhao, D.

2009-12-01

There are some hotspot volcanoes on Earth, such as Hawaii and Iceland. The mantle plume hypothesis was proposed forty years ago to explain hotspot volcanoes (e.g., Wilson, 1963; Morgan, 1971). Seismic tomography is a powerful technique to detect mantle plumes and determine their detailed structures. We determined a new whole-mantle 3-D P-wave velocity model (Tohoku model) using a global tomography method (Zhao, 2004, 2009). A flexible-grid approach with a grid interval of ~200 km is adopted to conduct the tomographic inversion. Our model shows that low-velocity (low-V) anomalies with diameters of several hundreds of kilometers are visible from the core-mantle boundary (CMB) to the surface under the major hotspot regions. Under South Pacific where several hotspots including Tahiti exist, there is a huge low-V anomaly from the CMB to the surface. This feature is consistent with the previous models. We conducted extensive resolution tests in order to understand whether this low-V anomaly shows a single superplume or a plume cluster. Unfortunately this problem is still not resolved because the ray path coverage in the mantle under South Pacific is not good enough. A network of ocean bottom seismometers is necessary to solve this problem. To better understand the whole-mantle structure and dynamics, we also conducted P-wave tomographic inversions for the 3-D velocity structure and azimuthal anisotropy. At each grid node there are three unknown parameters: one represents the isotropic velocity, the other two represent the azimuthal anisotropy. Our results show that in the shallow part of the mantle (< ~200 km depth) the fast velocity direction (FVD) is almost the same as the plate motion direction. For example, the FVD in the western Pacific is NWW-SEE, which is normal to the Japan trench axis. In the Tonga subduction zone, the FVD is also perpendicular to the trench axis. Under the Tibetan region the FVD is NE-SW, which is parallel to the direction of the India-Asia collision. In the deeper part of the upper mantle and in the lower mantle, the amplitude of anisotropy is reduced. One interesting feature is that the FVD aligns in a radiated fashion centered in the South-Central Pacific at the bottom of the mantle, which may reflect the mantle upwelling of the Pacific superplume as well as the Hawaiian plume.

New Constraints on Extensional Environments through Analysis of Teleseisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eilon, Zachary Cohen

We apply a variety of teleseismic methodologies to investigate the upper mantle structure in extensional environments. Using a body wave dataset collected from a regional deployment in the Woodlark Rift, Papua New Guinea, we image anisotropic velocity structure of a rapidly extending rift on the cusp of continental breakup. In the process, we develop a technique for azimuthal anisotropy tomography that is generally applicable to regions of relatively simple anisotropic structure. The Cascadia Initiative ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) deployment provides coverage of an entire oceanic plate in unprecedented detail; we measure attenuation and velocities of teleseisms to characterize the temperature and melt structure from ridge to trench. Our study of shear wave splitting reveals strong azimuthal anisotropy within the Woodlark Rift with fairly uniform fast directions parallel to extension. This observation differs markedly from other continental rifts and resembles the pattern seen at mid-ocean ridges. This phenomenon is best explained by extension-related strain causing preferential alignment of mantle olivine. We develop a simple relationship that links total extension to predicted splitting, and show that it explains the apparent dichotomy in rifts' anisotropy. Finite frequency tomography using a dataset of teleseismic P- and S-wave differential travel times reveals the upper mantle velocity structure of the Woodlark Rift. A well developed slow rift axis extending >250 km along strike from the adjacent seafloor spreading centers demonstrates the removal of mantle lithosphere prior to complete crustal breakup. We argue that the majority of this rift is melt-poor, in agreement with geochemical results. A large temperature gradient arises from the juxtaposition of upwelled axial asthenosphere with a previously unidentified cold structure north of the rift that hosts well located intermediate depth earthquakes. Localization of upper mantle extension is apparent from the velocity structure of the rift axis and may result from the presence of water following recent subduction. In order to resolve potential tradeoffs between anisotropy and velocity gradients, we develop a novel technique for the joint inversion of Delta VS and strength of azimuthal anisotropy using teleseismic direct S-waves. This approach exploits the natural geometry of the regional tectonics and the relative consistency of observed splits; the imposed orthogonality of anisotropic structure takes care of the non-commutative nature of multi-layer splitting. Our tomographic models reveal the breakup of continental lithosphere in the anisotropy signal, as pre-existing fabric breaks apart and is replaced by upwelling asthenosphere that simultaneously advects and accrues an extension-related fabric. Accounting for anisotropy removes apparent noise in isotropic travel times and clarifies the velocity model. Taken together, our results paint a detailed and consistent picture of a highly extended continental rift. Finally, we collect a dataset of differential travel time (delta T) and attenuation (Deltat*) measurements of P- and S-waves recorded on OBS stations that span the Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates. We observe large gradients in Delta t*, with values as high as 2.0 s for S-waves at the ridge axes. Such high values of differential attenuation are not compatible with a purely thermal control, nor are they consistent with focusing effects. We assert that melt, grainsize, and water enhance anelastic effects beneath the ridge. The combination of attenuation and velocity measurements enables us to place quantitative constraints on the properties of the upper mantle in the vicinity of the spreading axis.

Spatial Distribution of Seismic Anisotropy in the Crust in the Northeast Front Zone of Tibetan Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Y.; Wang, Q.; SHI, Y.

2017-12-01

There are orogenic belts and strong deformation in northeastern zone of Tibetan Plateau. The media in crust and in the upper mantle are seismic anisotropic there. This study uses seismic records by permanent seismic stations and portable seismic arrays, and adopts analysis techniques on body waves to obtain spatial anisotropic distribution in northeastern front zone of Tibetan Plateau. With seismic records of small local earthquakes, we study shear-wave splitting in the upper crust. The polarization of fast shear wave (PFS) can be obtained, and PFS is considered parallel to the strike of the cracks, as well as the direction of maximum horizontal compressive stress. However, the result shows the strong influence from tectonics, such as faults. It suggests multiple-influence including stress and fault. Spatial distribution of seismic anisotropy in study zone presents the effect in short range. PFS at the station on the strike-slip fault is quite different to PFS at station just hundreds of meters away from the fault. With seismic records of teleseismic waveforms, we obtained seismic anisotropy in the whole crust by receiver functions. The PFS directions from Pms receiver functions show consistency, generally in WNW. The time-delay of slow S phases is significant. With seismic records of SKS, PKS and SKKS phases, we can detect seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle by splitting analysis. The fast directions of these phases also show consistency, generally in WNW, similar to those of receiver functions, but larger time-delays. It suggests significant seismic anisotropy in the crust and crustal deformation is coherent to that in the upper mantle.Seismic anisotropy in the upper crust, in the whole crust and in the upper mantle are discussed both in difference and tectonic implications [Grateful to the support by NSFC Project 41474032].

Regional variations in upper mantle compressional velocities beneath southern California 1. Post-shock temperatures: Their experimental determination, calculation, and implications, 2.. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raikes, S. A.

1978-01-01

The compressional velocity within the upper mantle beneath Southern California is investigated through observations of the dependence of teleseismic P-delays at all stations of the array on the distance and azimuth to the event. The variation of residuals with azimuth was found to be as large as 1.3 sec at a single station; the delays were stable as a function of time, and no evidence was found for temporal velocity variations related to seismic activity in the area. These delays were used in the construction of models for the upper mantle P-velocity structure to depths of 150 km, both by ray tracing and inversion techniques. The models exhibit considerable lateral heterogeneity including a region of low velocity beneath the Imperial Valley, and regions of increased velocity beneath the Sierra Nevada and much of the Transverse Ranges. The development is described of a technique for the experimental determination of post-shock temperatures, and its application to several metals and silicates shocked to pressures in the range 5 to 30 GPa. The technique utilizes an infra-red radiation detector to determine the brightness temperature of the free surface of the sample after the shock wave has passed through it.

Crustal and Upper Mantle Velocity and Q Structures of Mainland China

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-11-01

CLASIFICATION OFTHIS PAGE(117..t- [).(t ntred) with identical source-receiver geometry. The generalized surface wave inversion technique was applied...in the recent past. A particularly unusual crustal and upper mantle structure is found underlying the Tibet Dlateau. AOceSIon For DDC TAB Ubazmnounced...the AIR FORCE OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH by the GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Contractor: University of Southern

Deep Europe today: Geophysical synthesis of the upper mantle structure and lithospheric processes over 3.5 Ga

USGS Publications Warehouse

Artemieva, I.M.; Thybo, H.; Kaban, M.K.; ,

2006-01-01

We present a summary of geophysical models of the subcrustal lithosphere of Europe. This includes the results from seismic (reflection and refraction profiles, P- and S-wave tomography, mantle anisotropy), gravity, thermal, electromagnetic, elastic and petrological studies of the lithospheric mantle. We discuss major tectonic processes as reflected in the lithospheric structure of Europe, from Precambrian terrane accretion and subduction to Phanerozoic rifting, volcanism, subduction and continent-continent collision. The differences in the lithospheric structure of Precambrian and Phanerozoic Europe, as illustrated by a comparative analysis of different geophysical data, are shown to have both a compositional and a thermal origin. We propose an integrated model of physical properties of the European subcrustal lithosphere, with emphasis on the depth intervals around 150 and 250 km. At these depths, seismic velocity models, constrained by body-and surface-wave continent-scale tomography, are compared with mantle temperatures and mantle gravity anomalies. This comparison provides a framework for discussion of the physical or chemical origin of the major lithospheric anomalies and their relation to large-scale tectonic processes, which have formed the present lithosphere of Europe. ?? The Geological Society of London 2006.

Upper Mantle Shear Wave Structure Beneath North America From Multi-mode Surface Wave Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshizawa, K.; Ekström, G.

2008-12-01

The upper mantle structure beneath the North American continent has been investigated from measurements of multi-mode phase speeds of Love and Rayleigh waves. To estimate fundamental-mode and higher-mode phase speeds of surface waves from a single seismogram at regional distances, we have employed a method of nonlinear waveform fitting based on a direct model-parameter search using the neighbourhood algorithm (Yoshizawa & Kennett, 2002). The method of the waveform analysis has been fully automated by employing empirical quantitative measures for evaluating the accuracy/reliability of estimated multi-mode phase dispersion curves, and thus it is helpful in processing the dramatically increasing numbers of seismic data from the latest regional networks such as USArray. As a first step toward modeling the regional anisotropic shear-wave velocity structure of the North American upper mantle with extended vertical resolution, we have applied the method to long-period three-component records of seismic stations in North America, which mostly comprise the GSN and US regional networks as well as the permanent and transportable USArray stations distributed by the IRIS DMC. Preliminary multi-mode phase-speed models show large-scale patterns of isotropic heterogeneity, such as a strong velocity contrast between the western and central/eastern United States, which are consistent with the recent global and regional models (e.g., Marone, et al. 2007; Nettles & Dziewonski, 2008). We will also discuss radial anisotropy of shear wave speed beneath North America from multi-mode dispersion measurements of Love and Rayleigh waves.

SH wave structure of the crust and upper mantle in southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau from teleseismic Love wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Yuanyuan V.; Jia, Ruizhi; Han, Fengqin; Chen, Anguo

2018-06-01

The deep structure of southeastern Tibet is important for determining lateral plateau expansion mechanisms, such as movement of rigid crustal blocks along large strike-slip faults, continuous deformation or the eastward crustal channel flow. We invert for 3-D isotropic SH wave velocity model of the crust and upper mantle to the depth of 110 km from Love wave phase velocity data using a best fitting average model as the starting model. The 3-D SH velocity model presented here is the first SH wave velocity structure in the study area. In the model, the Tibetan Plateau is characterized by prominent slow SH wave velocity with channel-like geometry along strike-slip faults in the upper crust and as broad zones in the lower crust, indicating block-like and distributed deformation at different depth. Positive radial anisotropy (VSH > VSV) is suggested by a high SH wave and low SV wave anomaly at the depths of 70-110 km beneath the northern Indochina block. This positive radial anisotropy could result from the horizontal alignment of anisotropic minerals caused by lithospheric extensional deformation due to the slab rollback of the Australian plate beneath the Sumatra trench.

Mantle transition zone structure beneath India and Western China from migration of PP and SS precursors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lessing, Stephan; Thomas, Christine; Rost, Sebastian; Cobden, Laura; Dobson, David P.

2014-04-01

We investigate the seismic structure of the upper-mantle and mantle transition zone beneath India and Western China using PP and SS underside reflections off seismic discontinuities, which arrive as precursors to the PP and SS arrival. We use high-resolution array seismic techniques to identify precursory energy and to map lateral variations of discontinuity depths. We find deep reflections off the 410 km discontinuity (P410P and S410S) beneath Tibet, Western China and India at depths of 410-440 km and elevated underside reflections of the 410 km discontinuity at 370-390 km depth beneath the Tien Shan region and Eastern Himalayas. These reflections likely correspond to the olivine to wadsleyite phase transition. The 410 km discontinuity appears to deepen in Central and Northern Tibet. We also find reflections off the 660 km discontinuity beneath Northern China at depths between 660 and 700 km (P660P and S660S) which could be attributed to the mineral transformation of ringwoodite to magnesiowuestite and perovskite. These observations could be consistent with the presence of cold material in the middle and lower part of the mantle transition zone in this region. We also find a deeper reflector between 700 and 740 km depth beneath Tibet which cannot be explained by a depressed 660 km discontinuity. This structure could, however, be explained by the segregation of oceanic crust and the formation of a neutrally buoyant garnet-rich layer beneath the mantle transition zone, due to subduction of oceanic crust of the Tethys Ocean. For several combinations of sources and receivers we do not detect arrivals of P660P and S660S although similar combinations of sources and receivers give well-developed P660P and S660S arrivals. Our thermodynamic modelling of seismic structure for a range of compositions and mantle geotherms shows that non-observations of P660P and S660S arrivals could be caused by the dependence of underside reflection coefficients on the incidence angle of the incoming seismic waves. Apart from reflections off the 410 and 660 km discontinuities, we observe intermittent reflectors at 300 and 520 km depth. The discontinuity structure of the study region likely reflects lateral thermal and chemical variations in the upper-mantle and mantle transition zone connected to past and present subduction and mantle convection processes.

Slab geometry of the South American margin from joint inversion of body waves and surface waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porritt, R. W.; Ward, K. M.; Porter, R. C.; Portner, D. E.; Lynner, C.; Beck, S. L.; Zandt, G.

2016-12-01

The western margin of South America is a long subduction zone with a complex, highly three -dimensional geometry. The first order structure of the slab has previously been inferred from seismicity patterns and locations of volcanoes, but confirmation of the slab geometry by seismic imaging for the entire margin has been limited by either shallow, lithospheric scale models or broader, upper mantle images, often defined on a limited spatial footprint. Here, we present new teleseismic tomographic SV seismic models of the upper mantle from 10°S to 40°S along the South American subduction zone with resolution to a depth of 1000 km as inferred from checkerboard tests. In regions near the Peru Bolivia border (12°S to 18°S) and near central Chile and western Argentina (29.5°S to 33°S) we jointly invert the multi-band direct S and SKS relative delay times with Rayleigh wave phase velocities from ambient noise and teleseismic surface wave tomography. This self-consistent model provides information from the upper crust to below the mantle transition zone along the western margin in these two regions. This consistency allows tracing the slab from the South American coastline to the sub-transition zone upper mantle. From this model we image several features, but most notable is a significant eastward step near the southern edge of the margin (24°-30° S). West of this step, a large high shear velocity body is imaged in the base of and below the transition zone. We suggest this may be a stagnant slab, which is descending into the lower mantle now that it is no longer attached to the surface. This suggests a new component to the subduction history of western South America when an older slab lead the convergence before anchoring in the transition zone, breaking off from the surface, and being overtaken by the modern, actively subducting slab now located further east.

Lithospheric Structure of the Zagros and Alborz Mountain Belts (Iran) from Seismic Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, A.; Hatzfeld, D.; Kaviani, A.; Tatar, M.

2008-12-01

We present a synthesis of the results of two dense temporary passive seismic experiments installed for a few months across Central Zagros for the first one, and from North-western Zagros to Alborz for the second one. On both transects, the receiver function analysis shows that the crust has an average thickness of ~ 43 km beneath the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt and the Iranian plateau. The crust is thicker in the back side of the Main Zagros Reverse Fault (MZRF), with a larger maximum Moho depth in Central Zagros (69 ± 2 km) than in North-western Zagros (56 ± 2 km). To reconcile Bouguer anomaly data and Moho depth profile of Central Zagros, we proposed that the thickening is related to overthrusting of the Arabian margin by Central Iran on the MZRF considered as a major thrust fault rooted at Moho depth. The better-quality receiver functions of NW Zagros display clear conversions on a low-velocity channel which cross-cuts the whole crust from the surface trace of the MZRF to the Moho on 250-km length. Waveform modeling shows that the crustal LVZ is ~ 10-km thick with a S-wave velocity 8-30 % smaller than the average crustal velocity. We interpret the low-velocity channel as the trace of the thrust fault and the suture between the Arabian and the Iranian lithospheres. We favour the hypothesis of the LVZ being due to sediments of the Arabian margin dragged to depth during the subduction of the Neotethyan Ocean. At upper mantle depth, we find shield-like shear-wave velocities in the Arabian upper-mantle, and lower velocities in the Iranian shallow mantle (50-150 km) which are likely due to higher temperature. The lack of a high-velocity anomaly in the mantle northeast of the MZRF suture suggests that the Neotethian oceanic lithosphere is now detached from the Arabian margin. The crust of the Alborz mountain range is not thickened in relation with its high elevations, but its upper mantle has low P-wave velocities.

Seismological evidence of the Hales discontinuity in northeast India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anand, Aakash; Bora, Dipok K.; Borah, Kajaljyoti; Madhab Borgohain, Jayanta

2018-04-01

The crust and upper mantle shear wave velocity structure beneath the northeast India is estimated by joint inversion of Rayleigh wave group velocity and receiver function, calculated from teleseismic earthquakes data recorded at nine broadband seismic stations. The Assam valley and the Shillong-Mikir plateau are the two important tectonic blocks in the northeast India, which are surrounded by the Himalayan collision zone in the north, Indo-Burma subduction zone in the east and by the Bengal basin in the south. The joint inversion followed by forward modeling reveal crustal thicknesses of 30-34 km beneath the Shillong plateau, 36 km beneath the Mikir hills and 38-40 km beneath the Assam valley with an average shear wave velocity (Vs) of 3.4-3.5 km/s. The estimated low upper mantle shear wave velocity (Vsn) 4.2-4.3 km/s may be due to the rock composition or grain size or increased temperature and partial melt (<1%) in the upper mantle, or an effect of all. Also, we report for the first time, the existence of the Hales discontinuity at depths 56-74 km with Vs ∼4.4-4.6 km/s. Variable depth of the Hales discontinuity may be explained by the geotherm and/or addition of Cr3+ and Fe2+ in the spinel-garnet system.

Crustal and upper-mantle structure beneath ice-covered regions in Antarctica from S-wave receiver functions and implications for heat flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramirez, C.; Nyblade, A.; Hansen, S. E.; Wiens, D. A.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Aster, R. C.; Huerta, A. D.; Shore, P.; Wilson, T.

2016-03-01

S-wave receiver functions (SRFs) are used to investigate crustal and upper-mantle structure beneath several ice-covered areas of Antarctica. Moho S-to-P (Sp) arrivals are observed at ˜6-8 s in SRF stacks for stations in the Gamburtsev Mountains (GAM) and Vostok Highlands (VHIG), ˜5-6 s for stations in the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) and the Wilkes Basin (WILK), and ˜3-4 s for stations in the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) and the Marie Byrd Land Dome (MBLD). A grid search is used to model the Moho Sp conversion time with Rayleigh wave phase velocities from 18 to 30 s period to estimate crustal thickness and mean crustal shear wave velocity. The Moho depths obtained are between 43 and 58 km for GAM, 36 and 47 km for VHIG, 39 and 46 km for WILK, 39 and 45 km for TAM, 19 and 29 km for WARS and 20 and 35 km for MBLD. SRF stacks for GAM, VHIG, WILK and TAM show little evidence of Sp arrivals coming from upper-mantle depths. SRF stacks for WARS and MBLD show Sp energy arriving from upper-mantle depths but arrival amplitudes do not rise above bootstrapped uncertainty bounds. The age and thickness of the crust is used as a heat flow proxy through comparison with other similar terrains where heat flow has been measured. Crustal structure in GAM, VHIG and WILK is similar to Precambrian terrains in other continents where heat flow ranges from ˜41 to 58 mW m-2, suggesting that heat flow across those areas of East Antarctica is not elevated. For the WARS, we use the Cretaceous Newfoundland-Iberia rifted margins and the Mesozoic-Tertiary North Sea rift as tectonic analogues. The low-to-moderate heat flow reported for the Newfoundland-Iberia margins (40-65 mW m-2) and North Sea rift (60-85 mW m-2) suggest that heat flow across the WARS also may not be elevated. However, the possibility of high heat flow associated with localized Cenozoic extension or Cenozoic-recent magmatic activity in some parts of the WARS cannot be ruled out.

Adjoint tomography of crust and upper-mantle structure beneath Continental China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, M.; Niu, F.; Liu, Q.; Tromp, J.

2013-12-01

Four years of regional earthquake recordings from 1,869 seismic stations are used for high-resolution and high-fidelity seismic imaging of the crust and upper-mantle structure beneath Continental China. This unprecedented high-density dataset is comprised of seismograms recorded by the China Earthquake Administration Array (CEArray), NorthEast China Extended SeiSmic Array (NECESSArray), INDEPTH-IV Array, F-net and other global and regional seismic networks, and involves 1,326,384 frequency-dependent phase measurements. Adjoint tomography is applied to this unprecedented dataset, aiming to resolve detailed 3D maps of compressional and shear wavespeeds, and radial anisotropy. Contrary to traditional ray-theory based tomography, adjoint tomography takes into account full 3D wave propagation effects and off-ray-path sensitivity. In our implementation, it utilizes a spectral-element method for precise wave propagation simulations. The tomographic method starts with a 3D initial model that combines smooth radially anisotropic mantle model S362ANI and 3D crustal model Crust2.0. Traveltime and amplitude misfits are minimized iteratively based on a conjugate gradient method, harnessing 3D finite-frequency kernels computed for each updated 3D model. After 17 iterations, our inversion reveals strong correlations of 3D wavespeed heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle with surface tectonic units, such as the Himalaya Block, the Tibetan Plateau, the Tarim Basin, the Ordos Block, and the South China Block. Narrow slab features emerge from the smooth initial model above the transition zone beneath the Japan, Ryukyu, Philippine, Izu-Bonin, Mariana and Andaman arcs. 3D wavespeed variations appear comparable to or much sharper than in high-frequency P-and S-wave models from previous studies. Moreover our results include new information, such as 3D variations of radial anisotropy and the Vp/Vs ratio, which are expected to shed new light to the composition, thermal state, flow or fabric structure in the crust and upper mantle, as well as the related dynamical processes. We intend to use these seismic images to answer important tectonic questions, namely, 1) what controls the strength of the lithosphere; 2) how does lithosphere deform during the formation of orogens, basins and plateaus; 3) how pervasive is lithospheric delamination or partial removal beneath orogens and plateaus; 3) whether or not (and how) are slab segmentation and penetration into the lower mantle linked to upwellings associated with widespread magmatism in East Asia.

Seismicity and S-wave velocity structure of the crust and the upper mantle in the Baikal rift and adjacent regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seredkina, Alena; Kozhevnikov, Vladimir; Melnikova, Valentina; Solovey, Oksana

2016-12-01

Correlations between seismicity, seismotectonic deformation (STD) field and velocity structure of the crust and the upper mantle in the Baikal rift and the adjacent areas of the Siberian platform and the Mongol-Okhotsk fold belt have been investigated. The 3D S-wave velocity structure up to the depths of 500 km has been modeled using a representative sample of Rayleigh wave group velocity dispersion curves (about 3200 paths) at periods from 10 to 250 s. The STD pattern has been reconstructed from mechanisms of large earthquakes, and is in good agreement with GPS and structural data. Analysis of the results has shown that most of large shallow earthquakes fall in regions of low S-wave velocities in the uppermost mantle (western Mongolia and areas of recent mountain building in southern Siberia) and in zones of their relatively high lateral variations (northeastern flank of the Baikal rift). In the first case the dominant STD regime is compression manifested in a mixture of thrust and strike-slip deformations. In the second case we observe a general predominance of extension.

Lithospheric structure of the Arabian Shield from the joint inversion of receiver functions and surface-wave group velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Julià, Jordi; Ammon, Charles J.; Herrmann, Robert B.

2003-08-01

We estimate lithospheric velocity structure for the Arabian Shield by jointly modeling receiver functions and fundamental-mode group velocities from events recorded by the 1995-1997 Saudi Arabian Portable Broadband Deployment. Receiver functions are primarily sensitive to shear-wave velocity contrasts and vertical travel times, and surface-wave dispersion measurements are sensitive to vertical shear-wave velocity averages, so that their combination bridge resolution gaps associated with each individual data set. Our resulting models correlate well with the observed surface geology; the Asir terrane to the West consists of a 10-km-thick upper crust of 3.3 km/s overlying a lower crust of 3.7-3.8 km/s; in the Afif terrane to the East, the upper crust is 20 km thick and has an average velocity of 3.6 km/s, and the lower crust is about 3.8 km/s; separating the terranes, the Nabitah mobile belt is made of a gradational upper crust up to 3.6 km/s at 15 km overlying an also gradational lower crust up to 4.0 km/s. The crust-mantle transition is found to be sharp in terranes of continental affinity (east) and gradual in terranes of oceanic affinity (west). The upper mantle shear velocities range from 4.3 to 4.6 km/s. Temperatures around 1000 °C are obtained from our velocity models for a thin upper mantle lid observed beneath station TAIF, and suggest that the lithosphere could be as thin as 50-60 km under this station.

Contrasting upper-mantle shear wave anisotropy across the transpressive Queen Charlotte margin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Lingmin; Kao, Honn; Wang, Kelin

2017-10-01

In order to investigate upper mantle and crustal anisotropy along the transpressive Queen Charlotte margin between the Pacific (PA) and North America (NA) plates, we conducted shear wave splitting analyses using 17 seismic stations in and around the island of Haida Gwaii, Canada. Despite the limited station coverage at present, our reconnaissance study does reveal a systematic pattern of mantle anisotropy in this region. Fast directions derived from teleseismic SKS-phase splitting are mostly margin-parallel (NNW-SSE) near the plate boundary but transition to predominantly E-W-trending farther away. We propose that the former is associated with the absolute motion of PA, and the latter reflects a transition from this direction to that of the absolute motion of NA. The broad width of the zone of transition from the PA to NA direction is probably caused by the very obliquely subducting PA slab that travels primarily in the margin-parallel direction. Anisotropy of Haida Gwaii based on local earthquakes features a fast direction that cannot be explained with regional stresses and is probably associated with local structural fabric within the overriding crust. Our preliminary shear wave splitting measurements and working hypotheses based on them will serve to guide more refined future studies to unravel details of the geometry and kinematics of the subducted PA slab, as well as the viscous coupling between the slab and upper mantle in other transpressive margins.

Upper mantle structure of the Tonga-Lau-Fiji region from Rayleigh wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, S. Shawn; Zha, Yang; Shen, Weisen; Wiens, Douglas A.; Conder, James A.; Webb, Spahr C.

2016-11-01

We investigate the upper mantle seismic structure in the Tonga-Lau-Fiji region by jointly fitting the phase velocities of Rayleigh waves from ambient-noise and two-plane-wave tomography. The results suggest a wide low-velocity zone beneath the Lau Basin, with a minimum SV-velocity of about 3.7 ± 0.1 km/s, indicating upwelling hot asthenosphere with extensive partial melting. The variations of velocity anomalies along the Central and Eastern Lau Spreading Centers suggest varying mantle porosity filled with melt. In the north where the spreading centers are distant from the Tonga slab, the inferred melting commences at about 70 km depth, and forms an inclined zone in the mantle, dipping to the west away from the arc. This pattern suggests a passive decompression melting process supplied by the Australian plate mantle from the west. In the south, as the supply from the Australian mantle is impeded by the Lau Ridge lithosphere, flux melting controlled by water from the nearby slab dominates in the back-arc. This source change results in the rapid transition in geochemistry and axial morphology along the spreading centers. The remnant Lau Ridge and the Fiji Plateau are characterized by a 60-80 km thick lithosphere underlain by a low-velocity asthenosphere. Our results suggest the removal of the lithosphere of the northeastern Fiji Plateau-Lau Ridge beneath the active Taveuni Volcano. Azimuthal anisotropy shows that the mantle flow direction rotates from trench-perpendicular beneath Fiji to spreading-perpendicular beneath the Lau Basin, which provides evidence for the southward flow of the mantle wedge and the Samoan plume.

Of Mantle Plumes, Their Existence, and Their Nature: Insights from Whole Mantle SEM-Based Seismic Waveform Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romanowicz, B. A.; French, S. W.

2014-12-01

Many questions remain on the detailed morphology of mantle convection patterns. While high resolution P wave studies show a variety of subducted slab behaviors, some stagnating in the transition zone, others penetrating into the lower mantle (e.g. Fukao & Obayashi, 2013), low velocity structures - the upwelling part of flow - are more difficult to resolve at the same scale. Indeed, depth extent and morphology of the low velocity roots of hotspot volcanoes is still debated, along with the existence of "mantle plumes". Using spectral element waveform tomography, we previously constructed a global, radially anisotropic, upper mantle Vs model (SEMum2, French et al., 2013) and have now extended it to the whole mantle by adding shorter period waveform data (SEMUCB-WM1, French & Romanowicz, GJI, in revision). This model shows long wavelength structure in good agreement with other recent global Vs models derived under stronger approximations (Ritsema et al. 2011; Kustowski, et al. 2008), but exhibits better focused, finer scale structure throughout the mantle. SEMUCB-WM1 confirms the presence in all major ocean basins of the quasi-periodic, upper mantle low velocity anomalies, previously seen in SEMum2. At the same time, lower mantle low velocity structure is dominated by a small number (~15 globally) of quasi-vertical anomalies forming discrete "column"" rooted at the base of the mantle. Most columns are positioned near major hotspots, as defined by buoyancy flux, and are wider (~800-1000 km diameter) than expected from the thermal plume model - suggestive of thermo-chemical plumes, which may be stable for long times compared to purely thermal ones. Some columns reach the upper mantle, while others deflect horizontally near 1000 km - the same depth where many slabs appear to stagnate. As they reach the transition zone, the wide columnar structure can be lost, as these "plumes" appear to meander through the upper mantle, perhaps entrained by more vigorous, lower viscosity, convection. Most "plumes" in the Pacific LLSVP region appear as isolated columns rising from the CMB, such as beneath Hawaii (rooted near a known ultra low velocity zone, Cottaar & Romanowicz, 2012). Conversely, the African LLSVP region appears more massive up to mid-mantle depths, with isolated "plumes" at its borders, including that beneath Iceland.

Heterogeneous seismic anisotropy in the transition zone and uppermost lower mantle: evidence from South America, Izu-Bonin and Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynner, Colton; Long, Maureen D.

2015-06-01

Measurements of seismic anisotropy are commonly used to constrain deformation in the upper mantle. Observations of anisotropy at mid-mantle depths are, however, relatively sparse. In this study we probe the anisotropic structure of the mid-mantle (transition zone and uppermost lower mantle) beneath the Japan, Izu-Bonin, and South America subduction systems. We present source-side shear wave splitting measurements for direct teleseismic S phases from earthquakes deeper than 300 km that have been corrected for the effects of upper mantle anisotropy beneath the receiver. In each region, we observe consistent splitting with delay times as large as 1 s, indicating the presence of anisotropy at mid-mantle depths. Clear splitting of phases originating from depths as great as ˜600 km argues for a contribution from anisotropy in the uppermost lower mantle as well as the transition zone. Beneath Japan, fast splitting directions are perpendicular or oblique to the slab strike and do not appear to depend on the propagation direction of the waves. Beneath South America and Izu-Bonin, splitting directions vary from trench-parallel to trench-perpendicular and have an azimuthal dependence, indicating lateral heterogeneity. Our results provide evidence for the presence of laterally variable anisotropy and are indicative of variable deformation and dynamics at mid-mantle depths in the vicinity of subducting slabs.

Azimuthally Anisotropic Global Adjoint Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bozdag, E.; Orsvuran, R.; Lefebvre, M. P.; Lei, W.; Peter, D. B.; Ruan, Y.; Smith, J. A.; Komatitsch, D.; Tromp, J.

2017-12-01

Earth's upper mantle shows significant evidence of anisotropy as a result of its composition and deformation. After the first-generation global adjoint tomography model, GLAD-M15 (Bozdag et al. 2016), which has transverse isotropy confined to upper mantle, we continue our iterations including surface-wave azimuthal anisotropy with an emphasis on the upper mantle. We are focusing on four elastic parameters that surface waves are known to be most sensitive to, namely, vertically and horizontally polarized shear waves and the density-normalised anisotropic parameters Gc' & Gs'. As part of the current anisotropic inversions, which will lead to our "second-generation" global adjoint tomography model, we have started exploring new misfits based on a double-difference approach (Yuan et al. 2016). We define our misfit function in terms of double-difference multitaper measurements, where each waveform is normalized by its number of pairs in the period ranges 45-100 s & 90-250 s. New measurements result in better balanced gradients while extracting more information underneath clusters of stations, such as USArray. Our initial results reveals multi-scale anisotorpic signals depending on ray (kernel) coverage close to continental-scale resolution in areas with dense coverage, consistent with previous studies.

Love-to-Rayleigh Conversions and Seismic Anisotropy in Cascadia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rieger, Duayne Matthew

Seismic anisotropy is often attributed to the development of lattice-preferred orientation (LPO) of olivine crystals in peridotite, induced by the dislocation creep component of mantle deformation (Karato et al., 2008; Ribe, 1992). Mantle-flow-induced seismic anisotropy is often modeled in the simple form of hexagonal symmetry, where the anisotropic volume is uniaxially fast or slow. This relationship between seismic anisotropy and mantle deformation allows for the mapping of mantle dynamics using measurements of seismic anisotropy. Presently, methods of measuring seismic anisotropy in Earth's mantle include shear-wave splitting and surface-wave tomography. These methods are tuned to seismically fast axes laying in the horizontal or surface-tangent plane and are limited in discerning clipping seismic fast axes. This is a shortcoming. It is reasonable to suspect the presence of dipping seismic fast axes induced by mantle flow in several tectonic regimes such as subduction zones. The slab rollback model of the subduction zone system has been argued to exhibit trench-parallel subslab anisotropy due to the lateral evacuation of the subslab mantle material (Hall et al., 2000; Russo and Silver, 1994). This model has been emboldened by the dominance of trench-parallel shear-wave-splitting measurements in the subslab mantle of global subduction zones. This model has significant geodynamic implications, requiring viscous decoupling between the subslab mantle and the sub-ducting slab. The Cascadian subduction zone is of particular scientific interest. While experiencing slab rollback (Zandt and Humphreys, 2008), trench-perpendicular shear-wave-splitting measurements are observed in the subslab mantle of Cascadia (Currie et al., 2004; Eakin et al., 2010; Long and Silver, 2008; 2009). This suggests either viscous coupling resulting in slab-entrained flow or the presence of an alternate relationship between finite strain in the mantle and seismic anisotropy. The ability to discern a clipping anisotropic axis would help gain insight into the mantle dynamics of regions such as Cascadia. Lateral gradients of seismic anisotropy in Earth's upper mantle induce coupling among Earth's spheroidal and toroidal normal modes. This coupling can manifest as observable surface-wave polarization anomalies resulting from Love to Rayleigh wave conversions. These Love to Rayleigh conversions are known in the literature as Quasi-Love (QL) waves (Park and Yu, 1992) and are sensitive to both the strike and the dip of an anisotropic symmetry axis. In this dissertation I investigate the phenomenology of QL surface-wave scattering, including its sensitivity to the type and orientation of seismic anisotropy. I then apply my findings to observations of QL wave scattering in Cascada in order to further constrain subslab mantle anisotropy in the region. First, I make initial observations and confirm the presence of QL scattering in Cascada and the western U.S. using data recorded on USArray. I then move on to develop an algorithm to model efficiently QL wave scattering in the presence of 3-dimensional anisotropic structure. Using this forward-modeling algorithm, I investigate the dependence of QL wave scattering on the type and orientation of seismic Anisotropy. I find that P and S anisotropies exhibit independent effects on scattering. Scattering due to S anisotropy is stronger than that due to P anisotropy for all orientations and dominates in the observed scattering pattern. Both the phase and amplitude of the QL wave is dependent on the orientation (strike and dip) of the symmetry axis relative to the incident propagation azimuth of the source-receiver great-circle path. Due to this, the orientation of the anisotropic symmetry axis provides a distinct signature which is observable in the variation of QL wave scattering with wave-propagation azimuth. Finally, using data recorded on USArray, I observe the variation in QL wave scattering with propagation azimuth. I then attempt to forward-model the observed behavior using the algorithm developed earlier. The best-fitting model suggests coherent trench-perpendicular mantle anisotropy with an eastward dip in the sublsab mantle of the Cascadian subduction zone. The resulting anisotropic model adds confidence to the entrained subslab mantle-flow model for Cascadia and further refutes the 3-D return-flow model associated with slab rollback.

Seasonal Anisotropy of Short-Period Seismic Noise in South Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koper, K. D.; de Foy, B.

2008-12-01

We calculated frequency-wavenumber spectra for 955 samples of seismic noise recorded at the short-period Chiang Mai seismic array (CMAR) from 1995 through 2004. At frequencies above about 1.4 Hz the noise is isotropic and diffuse, but at lower frequencies the noise at CMAR is strongly partitioned by apparent velocity into two categories: teleseismic P wave energy with apparent velocities higher than 25 km/s (ray parameters of 0.0-5.0 s/deg) and higher mode Rayleigh energy with apparent velocities near 4.0 km/s. The ring of slowness space in between, corresponding to P waves turning in the crust and upper mantle, is relatively quiet. The Rayleigh noise is further partitioned by direction, with the strongest signal arriving from the Bay of Bengal at backazimuths of 180-255. A secondary peak in the Rayleigh noise occurs in the direction of the South China Sea at backazimuths of 80-120. The Rayleigh noise is strongly seasonal with annual variations of 10-15 dB in power. The easterly noise has peaks in local winter and troughs in local summer, while the noise from the southwest has the opposite pattern. This behavior is well-matched by the seasonal anti-correlation in significant wave heights in the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, as determined from TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite tracks. While propagating Rayleigh waves are often observed in seismic noise, it is less common to observe teleseismic body waves. Nearly all reports of body wave noise document ray parameters of 8-12 s/deg, which correspond to P waves that turn in the upper mantle, therefore our observations of a consistent noise peak with ray parameters of 4.5 s/deg and smaller, equivalent to apparent velocities of 25 km/s and higher, may be unique in the geophysical literature. Like the Rayleigh noise, the P noise observed at CMAR is seasonal. It has an annual power variation of 5-10 dB, with peaks in local winter and troughs in local summer. The seasonality implies that the noise is unrelated to small unidentified earthquakes or other tectonic processes, and instead is created at least indirectly by ocean waves, similar to the Rayleigh noise. Under this assumption there are several geographical regions that could act as sources: the western Atlantic Ocean near the coast of northern Brazil may contribute PKP energy, the Pacific Ocean just north of New Guinea may contribute PcP energy, and central portions of the North Pacific may contribute P waves that turn in the lower mantle. However, none of these sources provides an ideal match to our slowness observations and so none are preferred over the others. In order to resolve the uncertainty of the source location of the P noise at CMAR, a finer comparison of seismic data and ocean wave data is required. In any case, and irrespective of the precise source mechanism for the high velocity noise, our observations point towards a new method of imaging Earth's deep interior. Just as Rayleigh microseismic noise has been used to image Earth's crust it may be possible to use microseismic P-noise to image Earth's lowermost mantle and core. This could be especially beneficial for regions of the deep Earth that are poorly sampled by present-day patterns of seismicity.

The P wavespeed structure in the mantle to 800 km depth below the Philippines region: geodynamic implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, C.

2009-03-01

P waves from earthquakes south of Taiwan, recorded by the BATS seismic array and CWB seismic network, were used define the P wavespeed structure between depths of 100 and 800 km below the Philippines region. The presence of a low wavespeed zone in the upper mantle is inferred, although the details are unclear. Wavespeeds in the uppermost mantle are low, as expected for seismic energy propagating within an oceanic plate. The estimated depths of the 410- and 660-km discontinuities are 325 and 676 km respectively. The unusually shallow depth of the upper discontinuity below and to the east of Luzon is inferred by clearly resolving the travel-time branch produced by refraction through the transition zone. A possible explanation for the northern part of the region covered is that seismic energy reaches its maximum depth within or close to the cool, subducted oceanic South China Sea slab where subduction has been slow and relatively recent. Further south, however, the presence of a broken remnant of the South China Sea slab, formed during a period of shallower subduction, is suggested at depths below 300 km to explain the broad extent of the elevated 410-km discontinuity. The 660-km discontinuity is slightly deeper than usual, implying that low temperatures persist to lower mantle depths. The wavespeed gradients within the transition zone between depths of 450 and 610 km are higher than those predicted by both the pyrolite and piclogite models of the mantle, possibly due to the presence of water in the transition zone.

Seismic structure of the European upper mantle based on adjoint tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Hejun; Bozdağ, Ebru; Tromp, Jeroen

2015-04-01

We use adjoint tomography to iteratively determine seismic models of the crust and upper mantle beneath the European continent and the North Atlantic Ocean. Three-component seismograms from 190 earthquakes recorded by 745 seismographic stations are employed in the inversion. Crustal model EPcrust combined with mantle model S362ANI comprise the 3-D starting model, EU00. Before the structural inversion, earthquake source parameters, for example, centroid moment tensors and locations, are reinverted based on global 3-D Green's functions and Fréchet derivatives. This study consists of three stages. In stage one, frequency-dependent phase differences between observed and simulated seismograms are used to constrain radially anisotropic wave speed variations. In stage two, frequency-dependent phase and amplitude measurements are combined to simultaneously constrain elastic wave speeds and anelastic attenuation. In these two stages, long-period surface waves and short-period body waves are combined to simultaneously constrain shallow and deep structures. In stage three, frequency-dependent phase and amplitude anomalies of three-component surface waves are used to simultaneously constrain radial and azimuthal anisotropy. After this three-stage inversion, we obtain a new seismic model of the European curst and upper mantle, named EU60. Improvements in misfits and histograms in both phase and amplitude help us to validate this three-stage inversion strategy. Long-wavelength elastic wave speed variations in model EU60 compare favourably with previous body- and surface wave tomographic models. Some hitherto unidentified features, such as the Adria microplate, naturally emerge from the smooth starting model. Subducting slabs, slab detachments, ancient suture zones, continental rifts and backarc basins are well resolved in model EU60. We find an anticorrelation between shear wave speed and anelastic attenuation at depths < 100 km. At greater depths, this anticorrelation becomes relatively weak, in agreement with previous global attenuation studies. Furthermore, enhanced attenuation is observed within the mantle transition zone beneath the North Atlantic Ocean. Consistent with typical radial anisotropy in 1-D reference models, the European continent is dominated by features with a radially anisotropic parameter ξ > 1, indicating predominantly horizontal flow within the upper mantle. In addition, subduction zones, such as the Apennines and Hellenic arcs, are characterized by vertical flow with ξ < 1 at depths greater than 150 km. We find that the direction of the fast anisotropic axis is closely tied to the tectonic evolution of the region. Averaged radial peak-to-peak anisotropic strength profiles identify distinct brittle-ductile deformation in lithospheric strength beneath oceans and continents. Finally, we use the `point-spread function' to assess image quality and analyse trade-offs between different model parameters.

Fine crustal and uppermost mantle S-wave velocity structure beneath the Tengchong volcanic area inferred from receiver function and surface-wave dispersion: constraints on magma chamber distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Mengkui; Zhang, Shuangxi; Wu, Tengfei; Hua, Yujin; Zhang, Bo

2018-03-01

The Tengchong volcanic area is located in the southeastern margin of the collision zone between the Indian and Eurasian Plates. It is one of the youngest intraplate volcano groups in mainland China. Imaging the S-wave velocity structure of the crustal and uppermost mantle beneath the Tengchong volcanic area is an important means of improving our understanding of its volcanic activity and seismicity. In this study, we analyze teleseismic data from nine broadband seismic stations in the Tengchong Earthquake Monitoring Network. We then image the crustal and uppermost mantle S-wave velocity structure by joint analysis of receiver functions and surface-wave dispersion. The results reveal widely distributed low-velocity zones. We find four possible magma chambers in the upper-to-middle crust and one in the uppermost mantle. The chamber in the uppermost mantle locates in the depth range from 55 to 70 km. The four magma chambers in the crust occur at different depths, ranging from the depth of 7 to 25 km in general. They may be the heat sources for the high geothermal activity at the surface. Based on the fine crustal and uppermost mantle S-wave velocity structure, we propose a model for the distribution of the magma chambers.

African hot spot volcanism: small-scale convection in the upper mantle beneath cratons.

PubMed

King, S D; Ritsema, J

2000-11-10

Numerical models demonstrate that small-scale convection develops in the upper mantle beneath the transition of thick cratonic lithosphere and thin oceanic lithosphere. These models explain the location and geochemical characteristics of intraplate volcanos on the African and South American plates. They also explain the presence of relatively high seismic shear wave velocities (cold downwellings) in the mantle transition zone beneath the western margin of African cratons and the eastern margin of South American cratons. Small-scale, edge-driven convection is an alternative to plumes for explaining intraplate African and South American hot spot volcanism, and small-scale convection is consistent with mantle downwellings beneath the African and South American lithosphere.

Integrated seismic model of the crust and upper mantle of the Trans-European Suture zone between the Precambrian craton and Phanerozoic terranes in Central Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilde-Piórko, Monika; Świeczak, Marzena; Grad, Marek; Majdański, Mariusz

2010-01-01

The structure and evolution of the Trans-European Suture zone (TESZ), contact between Precambrian Europe to the northeast and Phanerozoic terranes to the southwest is one of the main tectonic questions in Europe. The knowledge of the crustal structure, lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary and mantle transition zone between two seismic discontinuities at depths "410" and "660" km, is one of the most important issues to understand the Earth's dynamics. To create a mantle model of the TESZ and surroundings we used different seismic data collected along the 950 km long POLONAISE'97 profile P4. Previous results of 2-D ray-tracing and P-wave travel time modelling and new results of P-wave travel time residuals methods and receiver function sections provide facts about the seismic structure from the surface down to 900 km depth. In the TESZ a large basin, about 125 km wide, is filled with sedimentary strata (Vp < 6.0 km s - 1 ) to about 20 km depth. This basin is asymmetric with its northeast margin being most abrupt. The crystalline crust under this basin is only about 20 km thick today indicating that the lithosphere of Baltica was either thinned drastically or terminated along the northeast margin of the basin. The East European craton (EEC) has a ~ 45 km thick three-layered crust. The crust of the accreted terranes to the southwest is relatively thin (~ 30 km) and similar to that found in other non-cratonal areas of Western Europe. The lower crust is relatively fast (Vp > 7.0 km s - 1 ) along most of the P4 profile. However, lower values to the southwest may indicate the termination of Baltica. High velocity (~ 8.35 km s - 1 ) uppermost mantle lies beneath the Avalonia/Variscan terranes, and may be due to rifting and/or subduction. The seismic lithosphere thickness for the EEC is about 200 km, while it is only 90 km in the Palaeozoic platform (PP). The mantle transition zone is shallower and about 30 km thicker under the EEC, which could be due to thermal conditions (lower temperature) and/or the presence of water and FeO. The result of this paper is a new compiled and integrated seismic velocity model, available in digital form down to 900 km depth ( http://www.igf.fuw.edu.pl/p4-mantle), which can be used as a preliminary model of the crust and upper mantle in the TESZ area in Central Europe.

Piecewise Delamination Drives Uplift in the Atlas Mountains Region of Morocco

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bezada, M. J.; Humphreys, E.; Martin Davila, J.; mimoun, H.; Josep, G.; Palomeras, I.

2013-12-01

The elevation of the intra-continental Atlas Mountains of Morocco and surrounding regions requires a mantle component of buoyancy, and there is consensus that this buoyancy results from an abnormally thin lithosphere. Lithospheric delamination under the Atlas Mountains and thermal erosion caused by upwelling mantle have each been suggested as thinning mechanisms. We use seismic tomography to image the upper mantle of Morocco by inverting teleseimic p-wave delay times, complemented with local delays, recorded on a dense array of stations in the Iberian peninsula and Morocco. A surface wave model provides constraint on the shallower layers. We determine the geometry of lithospheric cavities and mantle upwelling beneath the Middle Atlas and central High Atlas, and image delaminated lithosphere at ~400 km beneath the Middle Atlas. We propose discontinuous delamination of an intrinsically unstable Atlas lithosphere, enabled by the presence of anomalously hot mantle, as a mechanism for producing the imaged structures. The Atlas lithosphere was made unstable by a combination of tectonic shortening and eclogite loading during Mesozoic rifting and Cenozoic magmatism. The presence of hot mantle, sourced from regional upwellings in northern Africa or the Canary Islands, enabled the mobilization of this lithosphere. Flow around the retreating Alboran slab focused upwelling mantle under the Middle Atlas, where we image the most recent delamination. The Atlas Mountains of Morocco stand as an example of mantle-generated uplift and large-scale lithospheric loss in a mildly contractional orogen.

VP and VS structure of the Yellowstone hot spot from teleseismic tomography: Evidence for an upper mantle plume

USGS Publications Warehouse

Waite, Gregory P.; Smith, Robert B.; Allen, Richard M.

2006-01-01

The movement of the lithosphere over a stationary mantle magmatic source, often thought to be a mantle plume, explains key features of the 16 Ma Yellowstone–Snake River Plain volcanic system. However, the seismic signature of a Yellowstone plume has remained elusive because of the lack of adequate data. We employ new teleseismic P and S wave traveltime data to develop tomographic images of the Yellowstone hot spot upper mantle. The teleseismic data were recorded with two temporary seismograph arrays deployed in a 500 km by 600 km area centered on Yellowstone. Additional data from nearby regional seismic networks were incorporated into the data set. The VP and VS models reveal a strong low-velocity anomaly from ∼50 to 200 km directly beneath the Yellowstone caldera and eastern Snake River Plain, as has been imaged in previous studies. Peak anomalies are −2.3% for VP and −5.5% for VS. A weaker, anomaly with a velocity perturbation of up to −1.0% VP and −2.5% VS continues to at least 400 km depth. This anomaly dips 30° from vertical, west-northwest to a location beneath the northern Rocky Mountains. We interpret the low-velocity body as a plume of upwelling hot, and possibly wet rock, from the mantle transition zone that promotes small-scale convection in the upper ∼200 km of the mantle and long-lived volcanism. A high-velocity anomaly, 1.2%VP and 1.9% VS, is located at ∼100 to 250 km depth southeast of Yellowstone and may represent a downwelling of colder, denser mantle material.

Subduction beneath Laurentia modified the eastern North American cratonic edge: Evidence from P wave and S wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyce, A.; Bastow, I. D.; Darbyshire, F. A.; Ellwood, A. G.; Gilligan, A.; Levin, V.; Menke, W.

2016-07-01

The cratonic cores of the continents are remarkably stable and long-lived features. Their ability to resist destructive tectonic processes is associated with their thick (˜250 km), cold, chemically depleted, buoyant lithospheric keels that isolate the cratons from the convecting mantle. The formation mechanism and tectonic stability of cratonic keels remains under debate. To address this issue, we use P wave and S wave relative arrival-time tomography to constrain upper mantle structure beneath southeast Canada and the northeast USA, a region spanning three quarters of Earth's geological history. Our models show three distinct, broad zones: Seismic wave speeds increase systematically from the Phanerozoic coastal domains, through the Proterozoic Grenville Province, and to the Archean Superior craton in central Québec. We also recover the NW-SE trending track of the Great Meteor hot spot that crosscuts the major tectonic domains. The decrease in seismic wave speed from Archean to Proterozoic domains across the Grenville Front is consistent with predictions from models of two-stage keel formation, supporting the idea that keel growth may not have been restricted to Archean times. However, while crustal structure studies suggest that Archean Superior material underlies Grenvillian age rocks up to ˜300 km SE of the Grenville Front, our tomographic models show a near-vertical boundary in mantle wave speed directly beneath the Grenville Front. We interpret this as evidence for subduction-driven metasomatic enrichment of the Laurentian cratonic margin, prior to keel stabilization. Variable chemical depletion levels across Archean-Proterozoic boundaries worldwide may thus be better explained by metasomatic enrichment than inherently less depleted Proterozoic composition at formation.

From rifting to spreading - seismic structure of the rifted western Mariana extinct arc and the ParceVela back-arc basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grevemeyer, Ingo; Kodaira, Shuichi; Fujie, Gou; Takahashi, Narumi

2017-04-01

The proto Izu-Ogasawara (Bonin)-Mariana (IBM) Island arc was created when subduction of the Pacific plate began during the Eocene. Today, the Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR) at the centre of the Philippine Sea and the western Mariana Ridge (WMR) are considered to be a remnant of the proto IBM Island arc. The KPR and WMR were separated when back-arc spreading began at 30 to 29 Ma in the Shikoku Basin and ParceVela Basin (PVB). Volcanic activity along the arcs diminished at 27 Ma and there is little evidence of volcanic activity between 23-17 Ma. Arc volcanism was reactivated at 15 Ma, when the opening of the Shikoku Basin and PVB ceased. At about 5 Ma the Mariana Basin opened, rifting the WMR from the Mariana arc. Here, we report results from the seismic refraction and wide-angle profile MR101c shot in summer of 2003 by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) aboard the RV KAIYO during the cruise KY03-06, extending from the PVB across the WMR and terminating just to the east of the WMR. Along MR101c 46 OBS recorded shots from an airgun array of 12,000 cubic inches (197 litres); 44 OBS provided excellent P-wave data, including arrivals sampling the crust (Pg), the crust/mantle boundary (PmP), the uppermost mantle (Pn) and a deep reflection (PnP) under the WMR. To yield the seismic velocity structure, we used a joint reflection and refraction tomography, revealing the crustal and mantle P-wave velocity structure, the seismic Moho, and a deep-seated reflector. Distinct features are a 14 km thick crust forming the WMR, a high-velocity lower crust in both transition zones to the ParceVela Basin and Mariana Basin, and a reflector at 24 km depth, which shallows to 18 km in the transition zone to the Mariana Basin, perhaps reflecting rifting-related thinning of the entire lithosphere. The deep-reflector, however, did not occur under the PVB. Upper mantle velocity below the WMR is <7.5 km/s. High velocities of the lower crust of the WMR flanking the adjacent basins mimic the structure found in the Lau Basin - Tonga Arc system, perhaps indicating entrainment of hydrous melts from the adjacent arc governing early seafloor spreading when the spreading centre was at close distant to the volcanic arc. Upper mantle below the PVB shows typical mantle properties, supporting a P-wave velocity of >8 km/s. However, with respect to oceanic crust sampled in the Pacific Basin, PVB crust is with 5 km thinner and seismic velocities in the lower crust are with 6.7 km/s much lower.

Modeling Wide-Angle Seismic Data from the Hi-CLIMB Experiment in Tibet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowack, R. L.; Griffin, J. D.; Tseng, T.; Chen, W.

2009-12-01

Using data from local and regional events recorded by the Hi-CLIMB array in Tibet, we utilize seismic attributes, including arrival times, Hilbert amplitudes and pulse frequencies, to constrain structures of seismic wave speed and attenuation in the crust and the upper mantle in western China. We construct more than 30 high-quality, regional seismic profiles, and select 14 of these, which show excellent crustal and Pn arrivals, for further analysis. Travel-times from events at regional distances constrain large-scale velocity structures, and four close-in events provide further details on crustal structure. We use the 3-D ray tracer, CRT, to model the travel-times. Initial results indicate that the Moho beneath the Lhasa terrane of southern Tibet is over 73 km deep with a high Pn speed of about 8.2 km/s. In contrast, the Qiangtang terrane farther north shows a thinner crust, by up to 10 km, and a low Pn speed of 7.8-7.9 km/s. Preliminary estimates of upper mantle velocity gradients are between .003 and .004 km/s per km, consistent with previous results by Phillips et al. (2007). We also use P to SV conversions from teleseismic earthquakes to independently constrain variations in speeds of Pn and depths of the Moho. For instance, amplitudes of the SsPmP phase, when its last reflection off the Moho is near-critical, are particularly sensitive to the contrast in seismic wave speeds across the crust-mantle interface; and results from these additional data are consistent with those from modeling of travel-times. Additional seismic attributes, extracted from wave-trains containing Pn and major crustal phases, are being compared with results of numerical modeling based on the spectral element method and asymptotic calculations in laterally varying media, where both lateral and vertical gradients in seismic wave speeds can strongly affect Pn amplitudes and pulse frequencies.

High resolution image of uppermost mantle beneath NE Iran continental collision zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Motaghi, K.; Tatar, M.; Shomali, Z. H.; Kaviani, A.; Priestley, K.

2012-10-01

We invert 3775 relative P wave arrival times using the ACH damped least square method of Aki et al. (1977) to study upper mantle structure beneath the NE Iran continental collision zone. The data for this study were recorded by 17 three component broad-band stations operated from August 2006 to February 2008 along a profile from the center of Iranian Plateau, near Yazd, to the northeastern part of Iran on the Turan Platform just north of the Kopeh Dagh Mountains. The results confirm the previously known low velocity upper mantle beneath Central Iran. Our tomographic model reveals a deep high velocity anomaly. The surficial expressions of this anomaly are between the Ashkabad and Doruneh Faults, where the resolution and ray coverage are good. A transition zone in uppermost mantle is recognized under the Binalud foreland that we interpreted as suture zone between Iran and Turan platform. Our results indicate that Atrak Valley which is the boundary between the Binalud and Kopeh Dagh Mountains can be considered as the northeastern suture of the Iranian Plateau where Eurasia and Turan Platform under-thrust beneath the Binalud range and Central Iran.

Seismic Evidence for Widespread Serpentinized Forearc Mantle Along the Mariana Convergence Margin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tibi, R.; Wiens, D. A.

2007-12-01

We use P-to-S converted phases from teleseisms recorded at broadband stations in the Mariana Islands to image the forearc and arc regions of the Mariana convergence margin. The Moho in the subducting Pacific plate is observed at depths between 75 and 110 km beneath the region extending from Rota to Saipan. The S-wave velocity in the subducting crust is inferred to be ~10% slower than the surrounding mantle. This demonstrates that the crust has not yet undergone conversion to eclogite at these depths, in agreement with observations made for other arcs. A low velocity zone (LVZ), approximately 10--25 km thick, whose upper boundary is imaged at about 40--55 km depth, is detected in the forearc region of the mantle wedge along the entire margin. The anomaly is located too shallow to represent subducted oceanic crust. We interpret the LVZ as a serpentinized region in the forearc mantle, resulting from hydration by slab-expelled water. The occurrence of the serpentinized zone along the entire margin suggests that serpentinization of the forearc mantle is a widespread phenomenon in the Mariana arc. The inferred S wave velocity in the LVZ of as low as ~3.6 km/s represents a level of serpentinization of 30--50%, corresponding to a water content of about 4--6 wt%.

Crust and upper mantle shear wave structure of Northeast Algeria from Rayleigh wave dispersion analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radi, Zohir; Yelles-Chaouche, Abdelkrim; Corchete, Victor; Guettouche, Salim

2017-09-01

We resolve the crust and upper mantle structure beneath Northeast Algeria at depths of 0-400 km, using inversion of fundamental mode Rayleigh wave. Our data set consists of 490 earthquakes recorded between 2007 and 2014 by five permanent broadband seismic stations in the study area. Applying a combination of different filtering technics and inversion method shear wave velocities structure were determined as functions of depth. The resolved changes in Vs at 50 km depth are in perfect agreement with crustal thickness estimates, which reflect the study area's orogenic setting, partly overlying the collision zone between the African and Eurasian plates. The inferred Moho discontinuity depths are close to those estimated for other convergent areas. In addition, there is good agreement between our results and variations in orientations of regional seismic anisotropy. At depths of 80-180 km, negative Vs anomalies at station CBBR suggest the existence of a failed subduction slab.

Structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banda, E.; Ansorge, J.; Boloix, M.; Córdoba, D.

1980-09-01

Data are presented from deep seismic sounding along the strike of the Balearic Islands carried out in 1976. The interpretation of the data gives the following results: A sedimentary cover of 4 km around Ibiza to 7 km under Mallorca overlies the crystalline basement. This basement with a P-wave velocity of 6.0 km/s at the top reaches a depth of at least 15 km under Ibiza and 17 km under Mallorca with an increase to 6.1 km/s at these depths. The crust-mantle boundary lies at a depth of 20 km and 25 km, respectively. A well documented upper-mantle velocity of 7.7 km/s is found along the entire profile. The Moho rises to a depth of 20 km about 30 km north of Mallorca and probably continues rising towards the center of the North Balearic Sea. The newly deduced crustal structure together with previously determined velocity-depth sections in the North Balearic Sea as well as heat flow and aeromagnetic data can be interpreted as an extended rift structure caused by large-scale tensional processes in the upper mantle. The available data suggest that the entire zone from the eastern Alboran Sea to the area north of the Balearic Islands represents the southeastern flank of this rift system. In this model the provinces of Spain along the east coast would represent the northwestern rift flank.

Joint inversion of shear wave travel time residuals and geoid and depth anomalies for long-wavelength variations in upper mantle temperature and composition along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sheehan, Anne F.; Solomon, Sean C.

1991-01-01

Measurements were carried out for SS-S differential travel time residuals for nearly 500 paths crossing the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, assuming that the residuals are dominated by contributions from the upper mantle near the surface bounce point of the reflected phase SS. Results indicate that the SS-S travel time residuals decrease linearly with square root of age, to an age of 80-100 Ma, in general agreement with the plate cooling model. A joint inversion was formulated of travel time residuals and geoid and bathymetric anomalies for lateral variation in the upper mantle temperature and composition. The preferred inversion solutions were found to have variations in upper mantle temperature along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge of about 100 K. It was calculated that, for a constant bulk composition, such a temperature variation would produce about a 7-km variation in crustal thickness, larger than is generally observed.

The Upper Mantle Flow Field around South-Africa as Reflected by Isotopic Provinciality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyzen, C.; Blichert-Toft, J.; Ludden, J.; Humler, E.; Mevel, C.; Albarede, F.

2006-12-01

Isotopic studies of MORB have established the existence of broad isotopic provinces within the underlying asthenosphere, such as in the Indian Ocean (DUPAL). How these features relate to mantle circulation is, however, still unknown. The steepness of the transition between such isotopic provinces will define the geometry of the velocity field in the upper mantle. In this respect, the transition between the Indian and South Atlantic provinces, two domains that are isotopically contrasted, should be readily identifiable over this long ridge segment. Here, we present Hf isotope data for 60 samples dredged along the SWIR between 35° and 69°E. The new Hf isotope data show that the Indian asthenosphere does not spill directly into the South Atlantic upper mantle: the general decreasing southward gradient observed for ^{176}Hf/^{177}Hf down the mid- Atlantic Ridge, and also for Sr isotopes and model Th/U ratios (derived from Pb isotopes), is overprinted by material with radiogenic Sr, unradiogenic Hf and high Th/U. The Indian domain grades into the South Atlantic around Bouvet, while the South Atlantic collides with the Atlantic province around Tristan. We interpret these features to represent fronts between three adjacent isotopic provinces similar to what has been suggested for the Australian-Antarctic Discordance. The common DUPAL signature of MORB and OIB from the Indian province and the geochemistry of Gulf of Aden MORB and the Afar plume suggest that the source of this distinctive mantle component is deep and lies to the north of the province. This is also what the three-dimensional flow field computed by Behn et al. (2004) from shear-wave splitting shows with a major lower mantle upwelling radiating at the base of the asthenosphere under the Afar plume. Lower mantle gushing out from this source flows southward unimpeded along the Indian ridges, whereas it only reaches the South Atlantic ridge after first having been deflected under the deep roots of the South African Archean cratons. Erosion of these roots by the asthenospheric drift confers a distinct continental signature on the source of South Atlantic MORB. This pattern is also consistent with the observation that the lowest He isotope values occur, on average, along the South Atlantic ridge. To some extent, the dynamics of the North Atlantic upper mantle mirrors the Indian situation: the flow field of Behn et al. (2004) shows that the North Atlantic asthenosphere also fills up through deep mantle upwellings, which is consistent with the Dupal-like isotopic signature of the Arctic ridges. M.D. Behn, C.P. Conrad and P.G. Silver (2004), Detection of upper mantle flow associated with the African Superplume, Earth. Planet. Sci. Lett., 224, 259-274.

Mapping the Earth's thermochemical and anisotropic structure using global surface wave data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, A.; Boschi, L.; Connolly, J. A. D.

2011-01-01

We have inverted global fundamental mode and higher-order Love and Rayleigh wave dispersion data jointly, to find global maps of temperature, composition, and radial seismic anisotropy of the Earth's mantle as well as their uncertainties via a stochastic sampling-based approach. We apply a self-consistent thermodynamic method to systematically compute phase equilibria and physical properties (P and S wave velocity, density) that depend only on composition (in the Na2-CaO-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 model system), pressure, and temperature. Our 3-D maps are defined horizontally by 27 different tectonic regions and vertically by a number of layers. We find thermochemical differences between oceans and continents to extend down to ˜250 km depth, with continents and cratons appearing chemically depleted (high magnesium number (Mg #) and Mg/Si ratio) and colder (>100°C) relative to oceans, while young oceanic lithosphere is hotter than its intermediate age and old counterparts. We find what appears to be strong radial S wave anisotropy in the upper mantle down to ˜200 km, while there seems to be little evidence for shear anisotropy at greater depths. At and beneath the transition zone, 3-D heterogeneity is likely uncorrelated with surface tectonics; as a result, our tectonics-based parameterization is tenuous. Despite this weakness, constraints on the gross average thermochemical and anisotropic structure to ˜1300 km depth can be inferred, which appear to indicate that the compositions of the upper (low Mg# and high Mg/Si ratio) and lower mantle (high Mg# and low Mg/Si ratio) might possibly be distinct.

Full-wave multiscale anisotropy tomography in Southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Yu-Pin; Zhao, Li; Hung, Shu-Huei

2014-12-01

Understanding the spatial variation of anisotropy in the upper mantle is important for characterizing the lithospheric deformation and mantle flow dynamics. In this study, we apply a full-wave approach to image the upper-mantle anisotropy in Southern California using 5954 SKS splitting data. Three-dimensional sensitivity kernels combined with a wavelet-based model parameterization are adopted in a multiscale inversion. Spatial resolution lengths are estimated based on a statistical resolution matrix approach, showing a finest resolution length of ~25 km in regions with densely distributed stations. The anisotropic model displays structural fabric in relation to surface geologic features such as the Salton Trough, the Transverse Ranges, and the San Andreas Fault. The depth variation of anisotropy does not suggest a lithosphere-asthenosphere decoupling. At long wavelengths, the fast directions of anisotropy are aligned with the absolute plate motion inside the Pacific and North American plates.

Dissonance and harmony between global and regional-scale seismic anisotropy and mantle dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, T. W.

2017-12-01

Huge numbers of SKS splitting observations and improved surface-wave based models of azimuthal anisotropy have advanced our understanding of how convection is recorded in mantle fabrics in the upper mantle. However, we are still debating the relative importance of frozen to actively forming olivine fabrics, subduction zone anisotropy lacks a clear reference model, and regional marine studies yield conflicting evidence as to what exactly is going on at the base of the plates and below. Here, I review the degree of agreement between regional and global observations of seismic anisotropy and how well those may be matched by first-order mantle convection models. Updated bean counting can help contextualize the spatial scales of alignment, and I discuss several examples of the relative roles of plate shear to mantle density anomalies and frozen-in structure for oceanic and continental plates. Resolution of seismological models is globally uneven, but there are some locales where such exercises may yield information on the relative strength of asthenosphere and mantle. Another long-standing question is how olivine fabrics record flow under different stress and volatile conditions. I illustrate how different petrological assumptions might be used to reconcile observations of azimuthal dependency of wave speeds for both Love and Rayleigh waves, and how this could improve our models of the upper mantle, much in the spirit of Montagner's vectorial tomography. This is but one approach to improve the regional realism of global geodynamic background models to understand where in space and time dissonance arises, and if a harmonious model may yet be constructed given our assumptions about the workings of the mantle.

Crust-mantle coupling mechanism in Cameroon, West Africa, revealed by 3D S-wave velocity and azimuthal anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojo, Adebayo Oluwaseun; Ni, Sidao; Chen, Haopeng; Xie, Jun

2018-01-01

To understand the depth variation of deformation beneath Cameroon, West Africa, we developed a new 3D model of S-wave isotropic velocity and azimuthal anisotropy from joint analysis of ambient seismic noise and earthquake surface wave dispersion. We found that the Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL) is well delineated by slow phase velocities in contrast with the neighboring Congo Craton, in agreement with previous studies. Apart from the Congo Craton and the Oubanguides Belt, the uppermost mantle revealed a relatively slow velocity indicating a thinned or thermally altered lithosphere. The direction of fast axis in the upper crust is mostly NE-SW, but trending approximately N-S around Mt. Oku and the southern CVL. The observed crustal azimuthal anisotropy is attributed to alignment of cracks and crustal deformation related to magmatic activities. A widespread zone of weak-to-zero azimuthal anisotropy in the mid-lower crust shows evidence for vertical mantle flow or isotropic mid-lower crust. In the uppermost mantle, the fast axis direction changed from NE-SW to NW-SE around Mt. Oku and northern Cameroon. This suggests a layered mechanism of deformation and revealed that the mantle lithosphere has been deformed. NE-SW fast azimuths are observed beneath the Congo Craton and are consistent with the absolute motion of the African plate, suggesting a mantle origin for the observed azimuthal anisotropy. Our tomographically derived fast directions are consistent with the local SKS splitting results in some locations and depths, enabling us to constrain the origin of the observed splitting. The different feature of azimuthal anisotropy in the upper crust and the uppermost mantle implies decoupling between deformation of crust and mantle in Cameroon.

Upper-mantle tectonic compartmentalization beneath Amazonian Craton from P-wave seismic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rocha, M. P.; Azevedo, P. A. D.

2017-12-01

The Amazonian Craton (AC) is one of the largest cratonic areas in the world, with more than 4.4 million square meters, defined as a cratonic nucleus composed of Archean to Mesoproterozoic provinces. Among the questions that remain open about AC, is that of its formation. Geochronological studies suggest that smaller blocks would have assembled in successive collisions until they stabilize in the current configuration, being AC formed by six provinces with different ages. Recent results using the P-wave seismic tomography method suggest that the geochronological boundaries between the Archean blocks exist and reach the upper mantle. These limits appear as low-velocity anomalies with NW-SE direction inside AC, differently from the expected velocity signatures for cratonic regions (high-velocities). The Archean blocks can be interpreted as high-velocity anomalies between the low-velocity anomalies, and are consistent with previous geochronological models. These results were achieved mainly by the installation of the stations of the Brazilian Seismographic Network in recent years, improving coverage especially in the northern region of Brazil. However, they are still preliminary since the seismographic stations in AC region are very distant from each other, which impairs the resolution of such structures. New stations would need to be installed in the region to confirm these results.

Detecting lower-mantle slabs beneath Asia and the Aleutians

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schumacher, L.; Thomas, C.

2016-06-01

To investigate the descend of subducted slabs we search for and analyse seismic arrivals that reflected off the surface of the slab. In order to distinguish between such arrivals and other seismic phases, we search for waves that reach a seismic array with a backazimuth deviating from the theoretical backazimuth of the earthquake. Source-receiver combinations are chosen in a way that their great circle paths do not intersect the slab region, hence the direct arrivals can serve as reference. We focus on the North and Northwest Pacific region by using earthquakes from Japan, the Philippines and the Hindu Kush area recorded at North American networks (e.g. USArray, Alaska and Canada). Using seismic array techniques for analysing the data and record information on slowness, backazimuth and traveltime of the observed out-of-plane arrivals we use these measurements to trace the wave back through a 1-D velocity model to its scattering/reflection location. We find a number of out-of-plane reflections. Assuming only single scattering, most out-of-plane signals have to travel as P-to-P phases and only a few as S-to-P phases, due to the length of the seismograms we processed. The located reflection points present a view of the 3-D structures within the mantle. In the upper mantle and the transition zone they correlate well with the edges of fast velocity regions in tomographic images. We also find reflection points in the mid- and lower mantle and their locations generally agree with fast velocities mapped by seismic tomography models suggesting that in the subduction regions we map, slabs enter the lower mantle. To validate our approach, we calculate and process synthetic seismograms for 3-D wave field propagation through a model containing a slab-like heterogeneity. We show, that depending on the source-receiver geometry relative to the reflection plane, it is indeed possible to observe and back-trace out-of-plane signals.

A review of crust and upper mantle structure studies of the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone volcanic system: A major lithospheric anomaly in the western U.S.A.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Iyer, H.M.

1984-01-01

The Snake River Plain-Yellowstone volcanic system is one of the largest, basaltic, volcanic field in the world. Here, there is clear evidence for northeasterly progression of rhyolitic volcanism with its present position in Yellowstone. Many theories have been advanced for the origin of the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone system. Yellowstone and Eastern Snake River Plain have been studied intensively using various geophysical techniques. Some sparse geophysical data are available for the Western Snake River Plain as well. Teleseismic data show the presence of a large anomalous body with low P- and S-wave velocities in the crust and upper mantle under the Yellowstone caldera. A similar body in which compressional wave velocity is lower than in the surrounding rock is present under the Eastern Snake River Plain. No data on upper mantle anomalies are available for the Western Snake River Plain. Detailed seismic refraction data for the Eastern Snake River Plain show strong lateral heterogeneities and suggest thinning of the granitic crust from below by mafic intrusion. Available data for the Western Snake River Plain also show similar thinning of the upper crust and its replacement by mafic material. The seismic refraction results in Yellowstone show no evidence of the low-velocity anomalies in the lower crust suggested by teleseismic P-delay data and interpreted as due to extensive partial melting. However, the seismic refraction models indicate lower-than-normal velocities and strong lateral inhomogeneities in the upper crust. Particularly obvious in the refraction data are two regions of very low seismic velocities near the Mallard Eake and Sour Creek resurgent domes in the Yellowstone caldera. The low-velocity body near the Sour Creek resurgent dome is intepreted as partially molten rock. Together with other geophysical and thermal data, the seismic results indicate that a sub-lithospheric thermal anomaly is responsible for the time-progressive volcanism along the Eastern Snake River Plain. However, the exact mechanism responsible for the volcanism and details of magma storage and migration are not yet fully understood. ?? 1984.

Lateral variations in upper-mantle seismic anisotropy in the Pacific from inversion of a surface-wave dispersion dataset

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eddy, C. L.; Ekstrom, G.; Nettles, M.; Gaherty, J. B.

2017-12-01

We present a three-dimensional model of the anisotropic velocity structure of the Pacific lithosphere and asthenosphere. The presence of seismic anisotropy in the oceanic upper mantle provides information about the geometry of flow in the mantle, the nature of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, and the possible presence of partial melt in the asthenosphere. Our dataset consists of fundamental-mode dispersion for Rayleigh and Love waves measured between 25-250 s with paths crossing the Pacific Ocean. We invert the phase anomaly measurements directly for three-dimensional anisotropic velocity structure. Our models are radially anisotropic and include the full set of elastic parameters that describe azimuthal variations in velocity (e.g. Gc, Gs). We investigate the age dependence of seismic velocity and radial anisotropy and find that there are significant deviations from the velocities predicted by a simple oceanic plate cooling model. We observe strong radial anisotropy with vsh > vsv in the asthenosphere of the central Pacific. We investigate the radial anisotropy in the shallow lithosphere, where previous models have reported conflicting results. There is a contrast in both upper-mantle isotropic velocities and radial anisotropy between the Pacific and Nazca plates, across the East Pacific Rise. We also investigate lateral variations in azimuthal anisotropy throughout the Pacific upper mantle and find that there are large areas over which the anisotropy fast axis does not align with absolute plate motion, suggesting the presence of small-scale convection or pressure-driven flow beneath the base of the oceanic plate.

Upper Mantle Velocity Structure beneath the Northeastern Philippine Sea Constrained by Waveform Modeling of P Triplicated Phases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, S.; Rhie, J.; Lee, S. H.; Kim, S.; Kang, T. S.

2017-12-01

A study on the detailed velocity structures of the stagnant Pacific slab is important to understand the complex processes happening in the upper mantle. Although waveform modeling of P triplicated phases can reveal the detailed velocity structures especially for the discontinuities, the regions where the method can be applied are limited due to uneven distribution of earthquakes and stations. In this study, we used waveforms generated by two deep earthquakes near Izu-Bonin Trench and recorded by stations in South Korea. These event-station pairs are appropriate to study the upper mantle structures beneath the northeastern Philippine Sea, where no previous results by triplicated waveform modeling have been reported. In this region, the subducting Pacific slab seems to hit the 660 km discontinuity and become stagnant. We applied the reflectivity method to calculate waveforms and found the best fitting model by trial-and-error and manual inspection. In general, our best model is similar to M3.11, which is widely accepted 1D model for the regions where the stagnant slab exists and the 660 km discontinuity is depressed by the slab. The most noticeable feature of our model is that P wave velocities of inside and above the slab are considerably higher and lower than ones for M3.11, respectively. This specific velocity model is necessary to explain arrivals of two distinct phases identified in observed waveforms; one refracts inside the slab and the other reflects on the upper boundary of the slab. To understand the cause of the differences between our model and M3.11, further studies including thermal and mechanical modelling of the slab in this region will be recommended.

Seismic Structure of the Antarctic Upper Mantle and Transition Zone Unearthed by Full Waveform Adjoint Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lloyd, A. J.; Wiens, D.; Zhu, H.; Tromp, J.; Nyblade, A.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Aster, R. C.; Huerta, A. D.; Winberry, J. P.; Wilson, T. J.; Dalziel, I. W. D.; Hansen, S. E.; Shore, P.

2017-12-01

The upper mantle and transition zone beneath Antarctica and the surrounding ocean are among the poorest seismically imaged regions of the Earth's interior. Over the last 1.5 decades researchers have deployed several large temporary broadband seismic arrays focusing on major tectonic features in the Antarctic. The broader international community has also facilitated further instrumentation of the continent, often operating stations in additional regions. As of 2016, waveforms are available from almost 300 unique station locations. Using these stations along with 26 southern mid-latitude seismic stations we have imaged the seismic structure of the upper mantle and transition zone using full waveform adjoint techniques. The full waveform adjoint inversion assimilates phase observations from 3-component seismograms containing P, S, Rayleigh, and Love waves, including reflections and overtones, from 270 earthquakes (5.5 ≤ Mw ≤ 7.0) that occurred between 2001-2003 and 2007-2016. We present the major results of the full waveform adjoint inversion following 20 iterations, resulting in a continental-scale seismic model (ANT_20) with regional-scale resolution. Within East Antarctica, ANT_20 reveals internal seismic heterogeneity and differences in lithospheric thickness. For example, fast seismic velocities extending to 200-300 km depth are imaged beneath both Wilkes Land and the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, whereas fast velocities only extend to 100-200 km depth beneath the Lambert Graben and Enderby Land. Furthermore, fast velocities are not found beneath portions of Dronning Maud Land, suggesting old cratonic lithosphere may be absent. Beneath West Antarctica slow upper mantle seismic velocities are imaged extending from the Balleny Island southward along the Transantarctic Mountains front, and broaden beneath the southern and northern portion of the mountain range. In addition, slow upper mantle velocities are imaged beneath the West Antarctic coast extending from Marie Byrd Land to the Antarctic Peninsula. This region of slow velocity only extends to 150-200 km depth beneath the Antarctic Peninsula, while elsewhere it extends to deeper upper mantle depths and possibly into the transition zone as well as offshore, suggesting two different geodynamic processes are at play.

Dynamical links between small- and large-scale mantle heterogeneity: Seismological evidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frost, Daniel A.; Garnero, Edward J.; Rost, Sebastian

2018-01-01

We identify PKP • PKP scattered waves (also known as P‧ •P‧) from earthquakes recorded at small-aperture seismic arrays at distances less than 65°. P‧ •P‧ energy travels as a PKP wave through the core, up into the mantle, then scatters back down through the core to the receiver as a second PKP. P‧ •P‧ waves are unique in that they allow scattering heterogeneities throughout the mantle to be imaged. We use array-processing methods to amplify low amplitude, coherent scattered energy signals and resolve their incoming direction. We deterministically map scattering heterogeneity locations from the core-mantle boundary to the surface. We use an extensive dataset with sensitivity to a large volume of the mantle and a location method allowing us to resolve and map more heterogeneities than have previously been possible, representing a significant increase in our understanding of small-scale structure within the mantle. Our results demonstrate that the distribution of scattering heterogeneities varies both radially and laterally. Scattering is most abundant in the uppermost and lowermost mantle, and a minimum in the mid-mantle, resembling the radial distribution of tomographically derived whole-mantle velocity heterogeneity. We investigate the spatial correlation of scattering heterogeneities with large-scale tomographic velocities, lateral velocity gradients, the locations of deep-seated hotspots and subducted slabs. In the lowermost 1500 km of the mantle, small-scale heterogeneities correlate with regions of low seismic velocity, high lateral seismic gradient, and proximity to hotspots. In the upper 1000 km of the mantle there is no significant correlation between scattering heterogeneity location and subducted slabs. Between 600 and 900 km depth, scattering heterogeneities are more common in the regions most remote from slabs, and close to hotspots. Scattering heterogeneities show an affinity for regions close to slabs within the upper 200 km of the mantle. The similarity between the distribution of large-scale and small-scale mantle structures suggests a dynamic connection across scales, whereby mantle heterogeneities of all sizes may be directed in similar ways by large-scale convective currents.

Elastic Properties of Orthoenstatite at Simultaneous High Pressure-Temperature Conditions and the Implication for the Origin of Low VP/VS Zones in the Mantle Wedge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qian, W.; Wang, W.; Zou, F.; Wu, Z.

2017-12-01

The compositions of the Earth's interiors are critical in understanding the origin and evolution of the Earth and its geodynamics. Orthopyroxene is an important component for the upper mantle both in pyrolite model and in piclogite model. Furthermore, many evidences suggest the local enrichment of opx in the upper mantle. Therefore, its thermodynamic and elastic properties are fundamental for understanding of chemical compositions and dynamics of the upper mantle. We obtain the elastic properties of orthoenstatite (MgSiO3), Mg end-member orthopyroxene with space group Pbca, up to 20 GPa and 2000 K using first principles calculations with local density approximation (LDA). The calculated results are in good agreement with previous available experimental measurements and theoretical results. Both bulk and shear modulus show noticeable nonlinear pressure dependence, and the softening of shear wave velocities is prominent at high pressure. Meanwhile, orthoenstatite exhibits a negative temperature derivate of VP/VS ratios. This is different from other upper mantle minerals, such as olivine, ringwoodite and garnet, whose VP/VS increase with the increasing of the temperature. Compared to other major minerals in the upper mantle, orthoenstatite shows the lowest compressional velocities, shear velocities, and VP/VS (<1.7) ratio up to the depth of 200 km. Recently, many seismic studies have observed unusual low VP/VS (below 1.72) zones in subduction mantle wedge and orthopyroxene has been proposed to be a possible interpretation of this unusual observed. However, this explanation is still under debate because no experimental or calculated elastic data at the conditions of the upper mantle are available before. Our calculations show that VS and VP/VS ratio of orthoenstatite under the mantle wedge conditions (2-3 GPa and 1073-1723 K) are consistent of the unusual seismic observations of VP/VS in subduction mantle wedge. Therefore, the enrichment of orthopyroxene may potentially account for the observed low VP/VS in the mantle wedge.

Surface wave tomography of the European crust and upper mantle from ambient seismic noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LU, Y.; Stehly, L.; Paul, A.

2017-12-01

We present a high-resolution 3-D Shear wave velocity model of the European crust and upper mantle derived from ambient seismic noise tomography. In this study, we collect 4 years of continuous vertical-component seismic recordings from 1293 broadband stations across Europe (10W-35E, 30N-75N). We analyze group velocity dispersion from 5s to 150s for cross-correlations of more than 0.8 million virtual source-receiver pairs. 2-D group velocity maps are estimated using adaptive parameterization to accommodate the strong heterogeneity of path coverage. 3-D velocity model is obtained by merging 1-D models inverted at each pixel through a two-step data-driven inversion algorithm: a non-linear Bayesian Monte Carlo inversion, followed by a linearized inversion. Resulting S-wave velocity model and Moho depth are compared with previous geophysical studies: 1) The crustal model and Moho depth show striking agreement with active seismic imaging results. Moreover, it even provides new valuable information such as a strong difference of the European Moho along two seismic profiles in the Western Alps (Cifalps and ECORS-CROP). 2) The upper mantle model displays strong similarities with published models even at 150km deep, which is usually imaged using earthquake records.

Shear wave splitting and upper mantle deformation in French Polynesia: Evidence for small-scale heterogeneity related to the Society hotspot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russo, R. M.; Okal, E. A.

1998-07-01

We determined shear wave splitting parameters at four island sites in French Polynesia: Tiputa (TPT) on Rangiroa in the Tuamotu archipelago; Papeete (PPT) on Tahiti in the Society Islands; Tubuai (TBI) in the Cook-Austral island chain; and Rikitea (RKT) on Mangareva in the Gambier Islands. We also examined splitting at Pitcairn (PTCN) on Pitcairn Island; because of the short time of operation of PTCN, our results there are preliminary. We find substantial differences in splitting, most likely caused by variable upper mantle deformation beneath the five stations. At TPT the fast split shear wave (ϕ) direction is N66°W±4°, parallel to the current Pacific-hotspots relative motion (APM) vector; the delay time between fast and slow waves is 1.3±0.2 s. At PPT, on Tahiti, we could detect no splitting despite many clear SKS observations. At TBI, on Tubuai we detected splitting with a delay time of 1.1±0.1 s and a ϕ direction midway between the local APM direction and the fossil spreading direction (N86°W±2°), as locally indicated by the nearby Austral Fracture Zone. At RKT in the Gambier Islands, ϕ trends N53°W±6°, 16° clockwise of the local APM azimuth, and delay time at RKT is 1.1±0.1 s. Results at PTCN include ϕ near N38°W±9° and a delay time of 1.1±0.3 s. These different results imply variable upper mantle deformation beneath the five sites. We interpret splitting at TPT and, possibly, RKT as indicative of asthenospheric flow or shear in the APM direction beneath the stations. At PPT, azimuthal isotropy indicates deformed upper mantle with a vertical symmetry axis, or absence of strong or consistently oriented mantle deformation fabric beneath Tahiti. Either effect could be related to recent hotspot magmatism on Tahiti. At TBI, splitting may be complicated by juxtaposition of different lithospheric thicknesses along the nearby Austral Fracture Zone, resulting in perturbation of asthenospheric flow. The absence of splitting related to fossil spreading in French Polynesia indicates that upper mantle deformation processes postdating lithosphere formation are important at all four sites within that region. The ϕ azimuth at PTCN does not align with either the fossil direction or the APM direction, but our best individual determination of splitting parameters at this station lies within 10° of the local APM at Pitcairn Island.

Active and fossil mantle flows in the western Alpine region unravelled by seismic anisotropy analysis and high-resolution P wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salimbeni, Simone; Malusà, Marco G.; Zhao, Liang; Guillot, Stéphane; Pondrelli, Silvia; Margheriti, Lucia; Paul, Anne; Solarino, Stefano; Aubert, Coralie; Dumont, Thierry; Schwartz, Stéphane; Wang, Qingchen; Xu, Xiaobing; Zheng, Tianyu; Zhu, Rixiang

2018-04-01

The anisotropy of seismic velocities in the mantle, when integrated with high-resolution tomographic models and geologic information, can be used to detect active mantle flows in complex plate boundary areas, providing new insights on the impact of mantle processes on the topography of mountain belts. Here we use a densely spaced array of temporary broadband seismic stations to analyze the seismic anisotropy pattern of the western Alpine region, at the boundary between the Alpine and Apenninic slabs. Our results are supportive of a polyphase development of anisotropic mantle fabrics, possibly starting from the Jurassic to present. Geophysical data presented in this work, and geologic evidence taken from the literature, indicate that: (i) fossil fabrics formed during Tethyan rifting may be still preserved within the Alpine and Apenninic slabs; (ii) mantle deformation during Apenninic slab rollback is not compensated by a complete toroidal flow around the northern tip of the retreating slab; (iii) the previously observed continuous trend of anisotropy fast axes near-parallel to the western Alpine arc is confirmed. We observe that this arc-parallel trend of fast axes is located in correspondence to a low velocity anomaly in the European upper mantle, beneath regions of the Western and Ligurian Alps showing the highest uplift rates. We propose that the progressive rollback of the Apenninic slab, in the absence of a counterclockwise toroidal flow at its northern tip, induced a suction effect at the scale of the supraslab mantle. The resulting mantle flow pattern was characterized by an asthenospheric counterflow at the rear of the unbroken Western Alps slab and around its southern tip, and by an asthenospheric upwelling, mirrored by low P wave velocities, that would have favored the topographic uplift of the Alpine belt from the Mont Blanc to the Mediterranean sea.

Constraints on the shear speed, crust thickness and residual topography of western Tibet from surface wave tomography and virtual deep seismic sounding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matchette-Downes, H.; van der Hilst, R. D.; Priestley, K. F.

2017-12-01

We have estimated the thickness of the crust in western Tibet by measuring the time delays between the direct S and the SsPmp seismic phases. We find that the thickness of the crust increases from around 50 km beneath the Tethyan Himalayas to around 80 km beneath the Lhasa block, and then decreases to around 70 km beneath the Qiangtang terrane.This method, virtual deep seismic sounding (VDSS), also yields robust estimates of the contribution of crust buoyancy to elevation. By subtracting the predicted elevation from the real topography, we find there is no observable deviation from hydrostatic topography beneath the Tethyan Himalaya, but there is negative residual topography of 1.5 to 2.0 km beneath the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes. It is also known that the interior of the Plateau is isostatically compensated, as it has small free air gravity anomalies.Additionally, we have estimated the 3D shear speed structure of the crust and upper mantle. This model is derived from maps of the fundamental mode Rayleigh wave phase speed dispersion in the period range from 20 to 140 s, obtained from a standard two-plane-wave inversion constrained with receiver functions and group speeds from ambient noise. The observations agree with previous observations of a low-wavespeed zone in the mid-crust and a gradual Moho. Furthermore, the long-period Rayleigh waves detect a high-wavespeed upper mantle.Together, the observations of high upper mantle wavespeeds, negative residual topography, and small free air gravity anomalies support the hypothesis that cold, dense Indian lithosphere has underthrust the Plateau in this region. However, in the presentation we also consider contributions to residual topography from plate flexure, lower crustal flow, or deeper mantle flow (dynamic topography).

Shear Wave Velocities in the Pampean Flat Slab Region from Rayleigh Wave Tomography: Implications for Crustal Composition and Upper Mantle Hydration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porter, R. C.; Gilbert, H. J.; Zandt, G.; Beck, S. L.; Warren, L. M.; Calkins, J. A.; Alvarado, P. M.; Anderson, M. L.

2011-12-01

The Pampean flat slab region, located in Chile and western Argentina between 29° and 34° S, is characterized by the subducting Nazca plate assuming a sub-horizontal geometry for ~300 km laterally before resuming a more "normal" angle of subduction. The onset of flat slab subduction is associated with the cessation of regional arc related volcanism and the migration of deformation inboard from the high Andes into the thin-skinned Precordillera and thick-skinned Sierras Pampeanas. Developing a better understanding of this region's geology is of particular importance, as it is an ideal area to study flat slab subduction and serves as a modern analogue to Laramide flat slab subduction in the western US. To study the crustal and mantle structure in the region, we combine ambient noise tomography and ballistic surface wave tomography to produce a regional 3D shear wave velocity model that encompasses flat slab subduction in the north and normal subduction geometry in the south, allowing for a comparison of the two. Results from this work show that shear velocities within the upper crust are largely determined by composition, with sedimentary basins and areas with active volcanism exhibiting slower velocities than basement cored uplifts and other bedrock exposures. Though surface waves are not particularly sensitive to the depth of sharp velocity contrasts, we observe an eastward increase in shear velocity at depth that correlates with an eastward decrease in crustal thickness. In both the slab and overlying mantle, we observe significant variations in shear wave velocity. North of 32° S, where flat slab subduction is occurring, the Nazca plate contains low-velocity zones (LVZs) beneath the high Andes and Precordillera that are not present in the east beneath the Sierras Pampeanas. An opposite transition is observed in the overlying mantle, which changes from fast in the west to slow in the east. Both of these observations are consistent with an initially hydrated slab dehydrating and releasing water into the overlying mantle. Within this region we also observe a LVZ immediately above the slab as the subduction angle steepens. This zone potentially represents asthenosphere or hydrated lithospheric mantle. South of 32° S, where subduction is occurring at a more normal angle, the slab is visible as a high-velocity body with a low-velocity mantle wedge present beneath the arc and back arc. The variations in slab and upper mantle shear velocities are consistent with a hydrated flat slab and the presence of a LVZ above the flat slab as it steepens suggests that water is being transported to a significant depth or that an asthenospheric wedge is present between the slab and cratonic lithosphere.

Upper mantle and transition zone structure beneath Ethiopia: Regional evidence for the African Superplume

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benoit, M. H.; Nyblade, A. A.; Pasyanos, M.; Owens, T. J.

2005-12-01

Throughout much of the Cenozoic, Ethiopia has undergone extensive tectonism, including rifting, volcanism and uplift, and the origin of this tectonism remains enigmatic. While the cause of the tectonism has often been attributed to one or more mantle plumes, recent global tomographic studies suggest that the African Superplume, a broad, through-going mantle upwelling, may be related to the tectonism. To further understand the origin of the tectonism in Ethiopia, we employ a variety of methods, including an S wave travel time body wave tomography, receiver function analysis of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities, and surface wave tomography. Using data from the Ethiopia Broadband Seismic Experiment [2000-2002], we computed new S wave models of the upper mantle seismic velocity structure from 150 - 400 km depth. The S wave model revealed an elongated low wave speed region that is deep (> 300 km) and wide (> 500 km). The location of the low wave speed anomaly aligns with the Afar Depression and Main Ethiopian Rift in the uppermost mantle, but the center of the anomaly shifts to the west with depth. Results from receiver function stacking of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities show a shallow 660 beneath most of Ethiopia, implying that the low wave speed anomaly found in the S wave model likely extends to at least 660 km depth. This result suggests that the low velocity anomaly may be related to the African Superplume. A group velocity surface wave tomographic study of East Africa was also computed using data from permanent and temporary stations from Africa and Arabia. Results of this study reveal low Sn velocities beneath much of the region, and suggest that low elevations found in the region between the Ethiopian and East African Plateaus likely reflect an isostatic response to crustal thinning. If the crust in this region had not been thinned by approximately 10 - 15 km, then it is likely that the high elevation of the Ethiopian and East African Plateaus would be continuous and that these plateaus would not be viewed as separate, distinct regions of uplift. This finding further suggests that a large scale, buoyant feature, such as the African Superplume, exists in the mantle beneath the Ethiopia and East African Plateaus that contributes to the uplift of the region.

Mantle structure beneath eastern Africa: Evidence for a through going-mantle anomaly and its implications for the origin of Cenozoic tectonism in eastern Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulibo, G.; Tugume, F.; Julia, J.

2012-12-01

In this study, teleseismic earthquakes recorded on over 60 temporary AfricaArray seismic stations deployed in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia between 2007 and 2011 are used to invert P and S travel time residuals, together with travel time residuals from previous deployments, for a 3D image of mantle wave speeds and for examining relief on transition zone discontinuities using receiver function stacks. Tomographic images reveal a low wave speed anomaly (LWA) that dips to the SW beneath northern Zambia, extending to a depth of at least 900 km. The anomaly appears to be continuous across the transition zone, extending into the lower mantle. Receiver function stacks reveal an average transition zone thickness (TZT) across a wide region extending from central Zambia to the NE through Tanzania and into Kenya, which is ~30-40 km thinner than the global average. These results are not easily explained by models for the origin of the Cenozoic tectonism in eastern Africa that invoke a plume head or small scale convection either by edge flow or passive stretching of the lithosphere. However, the depth extent of the LWA coincident with a thin transition zone is consistent with a model invoking a through-going mantle anomaly beneath eastern Africa that links anomalous upper mantle to the African Superplume anomaly in the lower mantle beneath southern Africa. This finding indicates that geodynamic processes deep in the lower mantle are influencing surface dynamics across the Afro-Arabian rift system.

Crust and Upper Mantle Structure of Antarctica from Rayleigh Wave Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiens, D. A.; Heeszel, D. S.; Sun, X.; Chaput, J. A.; Aster, R. C.; Nyblade, A.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Wilson, T. J.; Huerta, A. D.

2012-12-01

We combine data from three temporary arrays of seismometers (AGAP/GAMSEIS 2007-2010, ANET/POLENET 2007-2012, TAMSEIS 2001-2003) deployed across Antarctica, along with permanent stations in the region, to produce a large scale shear velocity model of the continent extending from the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM) in East Antarctica, across the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) and West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) to Marie Byrd Land (MBL) in West Antarctica. Our combined dataset consists of Rayleigh wave phase and amplitude measurements from 112 stations across the study region. We first invert for 2-D Rayleigh wave phase velocities using the two-plane wave method. These results are then inverted for shear velocity structure using crustal thicknesses derived from ambient noise tomography and teleseismic receiver functions. We refine our shear velocity model by performing a Monte Carlo simulation that explores the tradeoff between crustal thickness and upper mantle seismic velocities. The resulting model is higher resolution than previous studies (~150 km resolution length) and highlights significant differences in crustal and uppermost mantle structure between East and West Antarctica in greater detail than previously possible. East Antarctica is underlain by thick crust (reaching ~55 km beneath the GSM) and fast, cratonic lithosphere. West Antarctica is defined by thinner crust and slow upper mantle velocities indicative of its more recent tectonic activity. The observed boundary in crustal thickness closely follows the TAM front. MBL is underlain by a thicker lithosphere than that observed beneath the WARS, but slow mantle velocities persist to depths greater than 200 km, indicating a 'deep seated' (i.e. deeper than the deepest resolvable features of our model) thermal source for volcanism in the region. The slowest seismic velocities at shallow depths are observed in the Terror Rift region of the Ross Sea along an arc following the TAM front, where the most recent extension has occurred, and in another region of active volcanism. The Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains are underlain by relatively thick crust and an intermediate thickness lithosphere, consistent with its hypothesized origin as a remnant Precambrian crustal block. We also produce upper mantle viscosity models for the study region using a temperature-dependent rheology, assuming that mantle seismic anomalies are dominated by temperature variations. Initial results closely correlate with the velocity model, with viscosities beneath West Antarctica inferred to be orders of magnitude lower than beneath East Antarctica. These viscosity results have important implications for our understanding of glacial isostatic adjustment, which is of particular interest in producing models of past and future changes in the Antarctic Ice Sheets.

The rapid cooling of the Nansha Block, southern South China Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, M.; Zhang, J.

2017-12-01

Since the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic, the Nansha Block has experienced a series of tectonic process and separated from South China continent to the south. As an exotic micro-continental, Nansha Block has an obvious different lithospheric rheology property from surrounding region. The lithosphere and mantle dynamic and rheology are mainly controlled by temperature. Therefore, we calculated the 3D temperature field and geothermal gradient of Nansha Block's upper mantle by using the S-wave velocity structure from surface wave tomography. The results show that the depth where temperature of 1300° as the lithospheric thickness is in close correspondence with the top of the seismic low velocity zone. The temperature of the upper mantle in Nansha Block is significantly lower than that of surrounding. It implies that Nansha Block experienced a rapid cooling event. We propose that the rapid cooling can be partly attributed to three reasons: 1) Nansha Block is a relatively stable block with no interior geothermal activity. 2) No external heat source to provide energy. 3) Abnormal mantle convection under Nansha Block accelerated the cooling.

Velocity variations and uncertainty from transdimensional P-wave tomography of North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burdick, Scott; Lekić, Vedran

2017-05-01

High-resolution models of seismic velocity variations constructed using body-wave tomography inform the study of the origin, fate and thermochemical state of mantle domains. In order to reliably relate these variations to material properties including temperature, composition and volatile content, we must accurately retrieve both the patterns and amplitudes of variations and quantify the uncertainty associated with the estimates of each. For these reasons, we image the mantle beneath North America with P-wave traveltimes from USArray using a novel method for 3-D probabilistic body-wave tomography. The method uses a Transdimensional Hierarchical Bayesian framework with a reversible-jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm in order to generate an ensemble of possible velocity models. We analyse this ensemble solution to obtain the posterior probability distribution of velocities, thereby yielding error bars and enabling rigorous hypothesis testing. Overall, we determine that the average uncertainty (1σ) of compressional wave velocity estimates beneath North America is ∼0.25 per cent dVP/VP, increasing with proximity to complex structure and decreasing with depth. The addition of USArray data reduces the uncertainty beneath the Eastern US by over 50 per cent in the upper mantle and 25-40 per cent below the transition zone and ∼30 per cent throughout the mantle beneath the Western US. In the absence of damping and smoothing, we recover amplitudes of variations 10-80 per cent higher than a standard inversion approach. Accounting for differences in data coverage, we infer that the length scale of heterogeneity is ∼50 per cent longer at shallow depths beneath the continental platform than beneath tectonically active regions. We illustrate the model trade-off analysis for the Cascadia slab and the New Madrid Seismic Zone, where we find that smearing due to the limitations of the illumination is relatively minor.

Short-scale Heterogeneity in the Lowermost Mantle Revealed Through Partition Modeling of Seismic Body Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, M. K.; Tkalcic, H.; Bodin, T.

2012-04-01

The existence of both chemical and thermal heterogeneities on a variety of scales in the lowermost mantle has been invoked to explain various types of seismological observations and the Earth's dynamics. Understanding the size and magnitude of these heterogeneities is important in the context of whole mantle dynamics. However, due to inaccurate approximation of data noise and the inadequate definition of the misfit function in the optimization framework, the size of heterogeneities has not been well constrained in present tomographic models of the lowermost mantle. Moreover, we need to be able to clearly see through the core-mantle boundary to properly understand the Earth's core. For example, in order to investigate anisotropy in the inner core, it is important to quantify the contribution to seismic travel times from the Earth's mantle. Furthermore, it is impossible to reconstruct the topography of the Earth's core without a full understanding of mantle heterogeneities. In addition, P-wave velocity maps of the lowermost mantle are rare in comparison to S-wave maps, yet both are needed to properly understand the physical and chemical state of the lowermost mantle. Here we use a Partition Modeling approach, in which trans-dimensional and hierarchical sampling methods are used to solve the above problems. The advantage of such an inversion method is that the number of model parameters, the size of the velocity cells, and the data noise are treated as unknowns in the problem. In this sense, the approach lets us consider the issue of model parameterization as part of the inversion process. A large ensemble of models is averaged to produce a final solution complete with uncertainty estimates. We map the P-wave velocity structure of the lowermost mantle from a dataset of hand-picked PKPab-df, PKPbc-df, and PcP-P differential travel times. We focus on covering gaps in spatial sampling of the lowermost mantle from PKPab-df and PcP-P of previous studies. Travel time residuals from these different datasets are individually and simultaneously inverted for a map of the P-wave velocity field parameterized in terms of Voronoi cells of variable shapes and number. Our results suggest that much smaller scale structure exists in the lowermost mantle than is predicted by previous seismic studies. The data justifies a scale-length of between 5 and 10 degrees (300 to 600 km) for the P-wave velocity perturbations in the 300 km of the lowermost mantle.

Estimation of Water Within the Lithospheric Mantle of Central Tibet from Petrological-Geophysical Investigations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vozar, J.; Fullea, J.; Jones, A. G.

2013-12-01

Investigations of the lithosphere and sub-lithospheric upper mantle by integrated petrological-geophysical modeling of magnetotelluric (MT) and seismic surface-wave data, which are differently sensitive to temperature and composition, allows us to reduce the uncertainties associated with modeling these two data sets independently, as commonly undertaken. We use selected INDEPTH MT data, which have appropriate dimensionality and large penetration depths, across central Tibet for 1D modeling. Our deep resistivity models from the data can be classified into two different and distinct groups: (i) the Lhasa Terrane and (ii) the Qiangtang Terrane. For the Lhasa Terrane group, the models show the existence of upper mantle conductive layer localized at depths of 200 km, whereas for the Qiangtang Terrane, this conductive layer is shallower at depths of 120 km. We perform the integrated geophysical-petrological modeling of the MT and surface-wave data using the software package LitMod. The program facilitates definition of realistic temperature and pressure distributions within the upper mantle for given thermal structure and oxide chemistry in the CFMAS system. This allows us to define a bulk geoelectric and seismic model of the upper mantle based on laboratory and xenolith data for the most relevant mantle minerals, and to compute synthetic geophysical observables. Our results suggest an 80-120 km-thick, dry lithosphere in the central part of the Qiangtang Terrane. In contrast, in the central Lhasa Terrane the predicted MT responses are too resistive for a dry lithosphere regardless its thickness; according to seismic and topography data the expected lithospheric thickness is about 200 km. The presence of small amounts of water significantly decreases the electrical resistivity of mantle rocks and is required to fit the MT responses. We test the hypothesis of small amounts of water (ppm scale) in the nominally anhydrous minerals of the lithospheric mantle. Such a small amount of water dramatically affects the resistivity but has no influence on the seismic velocities (and therefore, the calculated surface wave's dispersion curves are unaffected too). Three different proton conduction models for olivine conductivity (1 - Wang et al., 2006; 2 - Yoshino et al., 2009; 3 -Jones et al., 2012) and two water partition coefficients are tested. The presence of water in lithospheric mantle is decreased from 170 km to the LAB depth at 200 km. If we move this water-presentbottom boundary to shallower depth, the lithospheric mantle becomes too resistive. Our results favour a moderately wet (<0.01 wt%) mantle above the underthrusted Indian lithosphere, probably as a result of the dehydration processes. The presence of percolating water-rich fluids has the additional effect of lowering the solidus, and therefore facilitating partial melting in the warm lower crust of Lhasa.

Improved P-wave Tomography of the Lowermost Mantle and Consequences for Mantle and Core Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tkalcic, H.; Young, M. K.; Muir, J. B.

2014-12-01

The core mantle boundary (CMB) separates the liquid iron core from the slowly-convecting solid mantle. The ~300 km thick barrier above the boundary has proven to be far more than a simple dividing layer; rather it is a complex region with a range of proposed phenomena such as thermal and compositional heterogeneity, partial melting and anisotropy. Characterizing the heterogeneity in the lowermost mantle through seismic tomography will prove crucial to accurately understanding key geodynamical processes within our planet, not just in the mantle above, but also a possible "mapping" onto the inner core boundary (ICB) through a thermochemical convection in the outer core, which in turn might control the growth of the inner core (e.g. Aubert et al., 2008; Gubbins et al., 2011). Here we obtain high-resolution compressional wave (P-wave) velocity images and uncertainty estimates for the lowermost mantle using travel time data collected by waveform cross-correlation. Strikingly, independent datasets of seismic phases that "see" the lowermost mantle in a different way yield similar P-wave velocity distributions at lower harmonic degrees. We also consider the effect of CMB topography. The images obtained are void of explicit model parameterization and regularization (through transdimensional Bayesian tomography) and contain features on multiple spatial scales. Subsequent spectral analyses reveal a power of heterogeneity three times larger than previous estimates. The P-wave tomograms of the lowermost mantle contain the harmonic degree 2-structure, similar to tomographic images derived from S-wave data (e.g. Ritsema et al. 2011), but with additional higher harmonic degrees (notably, 3-7). In other words, the heterogeneity size is uniformly distributed between about 500 and 6000 km. Inter alia, the resulting heterogeneity spectrum provides a bridge between the long-wavelength features of most global models and the very short-scale dimensions of scatterers mapped in independent studies. We argue that the new images of P-wave velocity in the lowermost mantle, void of explicit parameterization and damping, improve the imaging resolution and provide realistic boundary conditions at the CMB (due to a high sensitivity to heat flux) with important consequences for Earth dynamics.

Subduction of the Indian lithosphere beneath Tibet and deformation of the Tibetan crust and mantle, imaged with broad-band surface waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agius, Matthew R.; Lebedev, Sergei

2013-04-01

Seismic deployments over the last two decades have produced dense broadband data coverage across the Tibetan Plateau. Yet, the lithospheric dynamics of Tibet remains enigmatic, with even its basic features debated and with very different end-member models still advocated today. Most body-wave tomographic models do not resolve any high-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle beneath central and northern Tibet, which motivated the inference that the Indian lithosphere may sink into deep mantle beneath the Himalayas in the south, with parts of it possibly extruded laterally eastward. In contrast, surface-wave tomographic models all show pronounced high-velocity anomalies beneath much of Tibet at depths around 200 km. Uncertainties over the shapes and amplitudes of the anomalies, however, contribute to the uncertainty of their interpretations, ranging from the subduction of India or Asia to the extreme viscous thickening of the Tibetan lithosphere. Within the lithosphere itself, a low-viscosity layer in the mid-lower crust is evidenced by many observations. It is still unclear, however, whether this layer accommodates a large-scale channel flow (which may have uplifted eastern Tibet, according to one model) or if, instead, deformation within it is similar to that observed at the surface. Broad-band surface waves provide resolving power from the upper crust down to the asthenosphere, for both the isotropic-average shear-wave speeds (characterising the composition and thermal state of the lithosphere) and the radial and azimuthal shear-wave anisotropy (indicative, in an actively deforming region, of the current and recent flow). We measured highly accurate Love- and Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity curves in broad period ranges (up to 5-200 s) for a few tens of pairs and groups of stations across Tibet, combining, in each case, hundreds to thousands of inter-station measurements made with cross-correlation and waveform-inversion methods. Robust shear-velocity profiles were then determined by extensive series of non-linear inversions, designed to constrain the depth-dependent ranges of isotropic-average shear speeds and radial anisotropy consistent with the data. Temperature anomalies in the upper mantle were estimated from shear-velocity using pre-computed petro-physical relationships. Azimuthal anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle was determined by surface-wave tomography and, also, by sub-array analysis targeting the anisotropy amplitude. Our results show that the prominent high-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle are most consistent with the presence of subducted Indian lithosphere beneath much of Tibet. The large estimated thermal anomalies within the high-velocity features match those to be expected within subducted India. The morphology of India's subduction beneath Tibet is complex and shows pronounced west-east variations. Beneath eastern and northeastern Tibet, in particular, the subducted Indian lithosphere appears to have subducted, at a shallow angle, hundreds of km NNE-wards. Azimuthal anisotropy beneath Tibet is distributed in multiple layers with different fast-propagations directions, which accounts for the complexity of published shear-wave splitting observations. The fast directions within the mid-lower crust are parallel to the extensional components of the current strain rate field at the surface, consistent with similar deformation through the entire ­crust, rather than channel flow. Anisotropy within the asthenosphere beneath northeastern Tibet (sandwiched between the Tibetan lithosphere above and the subducted Indian lithosphere below) indicates SSW-NNE flow, parallel to the direction of motion of the Indian Plate, including its subducted leading edge.

Calculation of Source and Structure Parameters at Regional and Teleseismic Distances

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-04-13

Vedder. Am.. 67. 1029-1050, 1977. Geology of the Los Angeles Basin area, California-An Introduc- Langston. C. A.. Structure under Mount Rainier , Washington...Assistant Professor of Geophysics. David H. Eggler, Professor of Petrology , Chair of Graduate Program in Geosciences. ’)7 We approve the thesis of Rotert... petrologic , and tectonic models of this region. Data from other areas indicate that upper mantle P-wave velocities and structure correlate with surface

Vertical coherence in mantle heterogeneity from global seismic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boschi, L.; Becker, T. W.

2011-10-01

The vertical coherence of mantle structure is of importance for a range of dynamic issues including convective mass transport and the geochemical evolution of Earth. Here, we use seismic data to infer the most likely depth ranges of strong, global changes in the horizontal pattern of mantle heterogeneity. We apply our algorithm to a comprehensive set of measurements, including various shear- and compressional-wave delay times and Love- and Rayleigh-wave fundamental mode and overtone dispersion, so that tomography resolution is as high as possible at all mantle depths. We find that vertical coherence is minimum at ∼100 km and ∼800 km depths, corresponding to the base of the lithosphere and the transition between upper and lower mantle, respectively. The D″ layer is visible, but not as prominent as the shallower features. The rest of the lower mantle is, essentially, vertically coherent. These findings are consistent with slab stagnation at depths around, and perhaps below, the 660-km phase transition, and inconsistent with global, chemically distinct, mid-mantle layering.

Upper Mantle Seismic Structure for NE Tibet From Multiscale Tomography Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, B.; Liu, Q.; Chen, J.

2013-12-01

In the real seismic experiments, the spatial sampling of rays inside the studied volume is basically nonuniform because of the unequispaced distribution of the seismic stations as well as the earthquake events. The conventional seismic tomography schemes adopt fixed size of cells or grid spacing while the actual resolution varies. As a result, either the phantom velocity anomalies may be aroused in regions that are poorly illuminated by the seismic rays, or the best detailed velocity model is unable to be extracted from those with fine ray coverage. We present an adaptive wavelet parameterization solution for three-dimensional traveltime seismic tomography problem and apply it to the study of the tectonics in the Northeast Tibet region. Different from the traditional parameterization schemes, we discretize the velocity model in terms of the Haar wavelets and the parameters are adjusted adaptively based on both the density and the azimuthal coverage of rays. Therefore, the fine grids are used in regions with the good data coverage, whereas the poorly resolved areas are represented by the coarse grids. Using the traveltime data recorded by the portable seismic array and the regional seismic network in the northeastern Tibet area, we investigate the P wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle. Our results show that the structure of the crust and upper mantle in the northeastern Tibet region manifests a strong laterally inhomogeneity, which appears not only in the adjacent areas between the different blocks, but also within each block. The velocity of the crust and upper mantle is highly different between the northeastern Tibet and the Ordos plateau. Of these two regions, the former possesses a low-velocity feature while the latter is referred to a high-velocity pattern. Between the northeastern Tibet and the Ordos plateau, there is a transition zone of about 200km wide, which is associated with an extremely complex velocity structure in crust and upper mantle.

Multiple mantle upwellings in the transition zone beneath the northern East-African Rift system from relative P-wave travel-time tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Civiero, Chiara; Hammond, James O. S.; Goes, Saskia; Fishwick, Stewart; Ahmed, Abdulhakim; Ayele, Atalay; Doubre, Cecile; Goitom, Berhe; Keir, Derek; Kendall, J.-Michael; Leroy, Sylvie; Ogubazghi, Ghebrebrhan; Rümpker, Georg; Stuart, Graham W.

2015-09-01

Mantle plumes and consequent plate extension have been invoked as the likely cause of East African Rift volcanism. However, the nature of mantle upwelling is debated, with proposed configurations ranging from a single broad plume connected to the large low-shear-velocity province beneath Southern Africa, the so-called African Superplume, to multiple lower-mantle sources along the rift. We present a new P-wave travel-time tomography model below the northern East-African, Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden rifts and surrounding areas. Data are from stations that span an area from Madagascar to Saudi Arabia. The aperture of the integrated data set allows us to image structures of ˜100 km length-scale down to depths of 700-800 km beneath the study region. Our images provide evidence of two clusters of low-velocity structures consisting of features with diameter of 100-200 km that extend through the transition zone, the first beneath Afar and a second just west of the Main Ethiopian Rift, a region with off-rift volcanism. Considering seismic sensitivity to temperature, we interpret these features as upwellings with excess temperatures of 100 ± 50 K. The scale of the upwellings is smaller than expected for lower mantle plume sources. This, together with the change in pattern of the low-velocity anomalies across the base of the transition zone, suggests that ponding or flow of deep-plume material below the transition zone may be spawning these upper mantle upwellings. This article was corrected on 28 SEP 2015. See the end of the full text for details.

Crustal and upper-mantle structure of South China from Rayleigh wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shan, B.; Xiong, X.; Zhao, K. F.; Xie, Z. J.; Zheng, Y.; Zhou, L.

2017-03-01

In this study, we image the crust and upper-mantle seismic velocity structures in South China using teleseismic Rayleigh waves recorded at 354 stations from the Chinese provincial networks (CEArray). We process Rayleigh wave data from 1087 teleseismic events and construct phase velocity maps at periods of 40-150 s. By combining dispersion curves at 6-70 s from Zhou et al. and at 40-150 s from the teleseismic surface wave tomography of this study, we construct a 3-D shear velocity model of the crust and upper mantle of South China. Distinct seismic structures are revealed from the eastern part of South China (including the South China Fold System and the eastern Yangtze Craton) to the western Yangtze Craton. The South China Fold System and eastern Yangtze Craton are characterized by lower velocities and shallow lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (∼90 km), which are similar to the lithospheric thermal and seismic velocity structures of the North China basin. These observations may imply that the lithospheric destruction and thinning occurred not only beneath the North China Craton, but also beneath the eastern part of South China. The western Yangtze Craton, including the Sichuan Basin and Jiangnan Orogen, is underlain by a thicker and colder lithosphere with high velocities. The contrast of the lithosphere structure between the western Yangtze Craton and other parts of South China indicates that the lithospheric destruction and thinning of the east and southeast parts of South China may terminate at the boundary of the Jiangnan Orogen.

P-wave velocity structure beneath the northern Antarctic Peninsula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Y.; Kim, K.; Jin, Y.

2010-12-01

We have imaged tomographically the tree-dimensional velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath the northern Antarctic Peninsula using teleseismic P waves. The data came from the seven land stations of the Seismic Experiment in Patagonia and Antarctica (SEPA) campaigned during 1997-1999, a permanent IRIS/GSN station (PMSA), and 3 seismic stations installed at scientific bases, Esperanza (ESPZ), Jubany (JUBA), and King Sejong (KSJ), in South Shetland Islands. All of the seismic stations are located in coast area, and the signal to noise ratios (SNR) are very low. The P-wave model was inverted from 95 earthquakes resulting in 347 ray paths with P- and PKP-wave arrivals. The inverted model shows a strong low velocity anmaly beneath the Bransfield Strait, and a fast anomaly beneath the South Shetland Islands. The low velocity anomaly beneath the Bransfield might be due to a back arc extension, and the fast velocity anomaly beneath the South Shetland Islands could indicates the cold subducted slab.

Elastic Wave Velocity Measurements on Mantle Peridotite at High Pressure and Temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistler, G. W.; Ishikawa, M.; Li, B.

2002-12-01

With the success of conducting ultrasonic measurements at high pressure and high temperature in large volume high pressure apparatus with in-situ measurement of the sample length by X-ray imaging, it is now possible to measure elastic wave velocities on aggregate samples with candidate compositions of the mantle to the conditions of the Earth's transition zone in the laboratory. These data can be directly compared with seismic data to distinguish the compositional models in debate. In this work, we carried out velocity measurements on natural peridotite KLB-1 at the conditions of the Earth's upper mantle. Fine powered sample of natural KLB-1 was used as starting material. Specimens for ultrasonic measurements were hot-pressed and equilibrated at various pressure and temperature conditions along geotherm up to the transition zone. The recovered samples were characterized with density measurement, X-ray diffraction and microprobe analysis. Bench top P and S wave velocities of KLB-1 sample sintered at 3-4 GPa and 1400 degree centigrade showed a very good agreement with the VRH average of pyrolite. High pressure and high temperature measurements was conducted up to 7 GPa and 800 degree centigrade using ultrasonic interferometric method in a DIA-type high pressure apparatus in conjunction with X-ray diffraction and X-ray imaging. The utilization of X-ray imaging technique provides direct measurements of sample lengths at high pressure and high temperature, ensuring a precise determination of velocities. The results of P and S wave velocities at high pressure and high temperature as well as their comparison with calculated pyrolite model will be presented.

Three-Dimensional Shear Wave Velocity Structure of the Peru Flat Slab Subduction Segment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knezevic Antonijevic, S.; Wagner, L. S.; Beck, S. L.; Zandt, G.; Long, M. D.

2012-12-01

Recent studies focused on flat slab subduction segments in central Chile (L. S. Wagner, 2006) and Alaska (B. R. Hacker and G. A. Aber, 2012) suggest significant differences in seismic velocity structures, and hence, composition in the mantle wedge between flat and normal "steep" subducting slabs. Instead of finding the low velocities and high Vp/Vs ratios common in normal subduction zones, these studies find low Vp, high Vs, and very low Vp/Vs above flat slabs. This may indicate the presence of dry, cold material in the mantle wedge. In order to investigate the seismic velocities of the upper mantle above the Peruvian flat segment, we have inverted for 2D Rayleigh wave phase velocity maps using data from the currently deployed 40 station PULSE seismic network and some adjacent stations from the CAUGHT seismic network. We then used the sensitivity of surface waves to shear wave velocity structure with depth to develop a 3D shear wave velocity model. This model will allow us to determine the nature of the mantle lithosphere above the flat slab, and how this may have influenced the development of local topography. For example, dry conditions (high Vs velocities) above the flat slab would imply greater strength of this material, possibly making it capable of causing further inland overthrusting, while wet conditions (low Vs) would imply weaker material. This could provide some insight into the ongoing debate over whether the Fitzcarrald arch (along the northern most flank of the Altiplano) could be a topographical response to the subducted Nazca ridge hundred kilometers away from the trench (N. Espurt, 2012, P. Baby, 2005, V. A. Ramos, 2012) or not (J. Martinod, 2005, M. Wipf, 2008, T. Gerya, 2008).

Seismic signature of crustal magma and fluid from deep seismic sounding data across Tengchong volcanic area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Z. M.; Zhang, Z. Z.; Wang, C. Y.; Klemperer, S. L.

2012-04-01

The weakened lithosphere around eastern syntax of Tibet plateau has been revealed by the Average Pn and Sn velocities, the 3D upper mantle velocity variations of P wave and S wave, and the iimaging results of magnetotelluric data. Tengchong volcanic area is neighboring to core of eastern syntax and famous for its springs, volcanic-geothermal activities and remarkable seismicity in mainland China. To probe the deep environment for the Tengchong volcanic-geothermal activity a deep seismic sounding (DSS) project was carried out across the this area in 1999. In this paper the seismic signature of crustal magma and fluid is explored from the DSS data with the seismic attribute fusion (SAF) technique, hence four possible positions for magma generation together with some locations for porous and fractured fluid beneath the Tengchong volcanic area were disclosed from the final fusion image of multi seismic attributes. The adopted attributes include the Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs results derived from a new inversion method based on the No-Ray-Tomography technique, and the migrated instantaneous attributes of central frequency, bandwidth and high frequency energy of pressure wave. Moreover, the back-projected ones which are mainly consisted by the attenuation factor Qp , the delay-time of shear wave splitting, and the amplitude ratio between S wave and P wave + S wave were also considered in this fusion process. Our fusion image indicates such a mechanism for the surface springs: a large amount of heat and the fluid released by the crystallization of magma were transmitted upward into the fluid-filled rock, and the fluid upwells along some pipeline since the high pressure in deep, thus the widespread springs of Tengchong volcanic area were developed. Moreover, the fusion image, regional volcanic and geothermal activities, and the seismicity suggest that the main risk of volcanic eruption was concentrated to the south of Tengchong city, especially around the shot point (SP) Tuantian. There are typical tectonic and deep origin mechanisms for the moderate-strong earthquakes nearby SP Tuantian, and precaution should be added on this area in case of the potential earthquake. Our fusion image also clearly revealed that there exist two remarkable positions on the Moho discontinuity through which the heat from the upper mantle was transmitted upward, and this is attributed to the widely distributed hot material within the crust and upper mantle. We acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Land and Resources of China (SinoProbe-02-02), and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 41074033 and No. 40830315). Key Words: Seismic Signature, Magma, Tengchong Volcanic Area, Deep Seismic Sounding, Seismic Attribute Fusion Li, Chang, van der Hilst, D., Meltzer, A.S., Engdahl, E.R., 2008. Subduction of the Indian lithosphere beneath the Tibetan Plateau and Burma. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 274. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.07.016. Lebedev, S., van der Hilst, R.D., 2008. Global upper-mantle tomography with the automated multi-mode surface and S waveforms. Geophys. J. Int. 173 (2), 505-518. Wang C.Y. and Huangfu G.. 2004. Crustal structure in Tengchong Volcano-Geothermal Area, western Yunnan, China. Tectonophysics, 380: 69-87.

Shear Wave Structure in the Lithosphere of Texas from Ambient Noise Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Y.; Li, A.

2014-12-01

Texas contains several distinct tectonic provinces, the Laurentia craton, the Ouachita belt, and the Gulf coastal plain. Although numerous geophysical experiments have been conducted in Texas for petroleum exploration, the lithosphere structure of Texas has not been well studied. We present here the Texas-wide shear wave structure using seismic ambient noise data recorded at 87 stations from the Transportable Array of the USArray between March 2010 and February 2011. Rayleigh wave phase velocities between pairs of stations are obtained by cross-correlating long ambient noise sequences and are used to develop phase velocity maps from 6 to 40 s. These measured phase velocities are used to construct 1-D and 3-D shear wave velocity models, which consist of four crust layers and one upper mantle layer. Shear wave velocity maps reveal a close correlation with major geological features. From the surface to 25 km depth, Positive anomalies coincide with the Laurentia craton, and negative anomalies coincide with the continental margin. The boundary of positive-negative anomaly perfectly matches the Ouachita belt. The Llano Uplift is imaged as the highest velocity through the mid-crust because the igneous rock forming the uplift has faster seismic velocity than the normal continental crust. Similarly, three small high-velocity areas exist beneath the Waco Uplift, Devils River Uplift, and Benton Uplift, even though surface geological traces are absent in these areas. The lowest velocity at the shallow crust appears in northeastern and southeastern Texas separated by the San Marcos Arch, correlating with thick sediment layers. An exceptional low velocity is imaged in southernmost Texas in the lower crust and upper mantle, probably caused by subducted wet oceanic crust before the rifting in the Gulf of Mexico. In the uppermost mantle, positive shear wave anomalies extend southeastward from the Ouachita belt to the Gulf coast, likely evidencing the subducted oceanic lithosphere during the Ouachita orogeny. This observation need be further tested using long period surface wave dispersions from earthquakes, which help to improve model resolution in the upper mantle.

Stratification of earth's outermost core inferred from SmKS array data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaneshima, Satoshi; Matsuzawa, Takanori

2015-12-01

S mKS arrivals recorded by large-scale broadband seismometer arrays are analyzed to investigate the depth profile of P wave speed ( V p ) in the outermost core. The V p structure of the upper 700 km of the outer core has been determined using S mKS waves of Fiji-Tonga events recorded at stations in Europe. According to a recent outer core model (KHOMC), the V p value is 0.45 % slower at the core mantle boundary (CMB) than produced by the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM), and the slow anomaly gradually diminishes to insignificant values at ˜300 km below the CMB. In this study, after verifying these KHOMC features, we show that the differential travel times measured for S mKS waves that are recorded by other large-scale arrays sampling laterally different regions are well matched by KHOMC. We also show that KHOMC precisely fits the observed relative slowness values between S2KS, S3KS, and S4KS (S mKS waves with m= 2, 3, and 4). Based on these observations, we conclude that S mKS predominantly reflect the outer core structure. Then we evaluate biases of secondary importance which may be caused by mantle heterogeneity. The KHOMC V p profile can be characterized by a significant difference in the radial V p gradient between the shallower 300 km and the deeper part of the upper 700 km of the core. The shallower part has a V p gradient of -0.0018 s -1, which is steeper by 0.0001 s -1 when compared to the deeper core presented by PREM. The steeper V p gradient anomaly of the uppermost core corresponds to a radial variation in the pressure derivative of the bulk modulus, K '= d K/ d P. The K ' value is 3.7, which is larger by about 0.2 than that of the deeper core. The radial variation in K ' is too large to have a purely thermal origin, according to recent ab initio calculations on liquid iron alloys, and thus requires a thick and compositionally stratified layering at the outermost outer core.

Determining Crust and Upper Mantle Structure by Bayesian Joint Inversion of Receiver Functions and Surface Wave Dispersion at a Single Station: Preparation for Data from the InSight Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, M.; Panning, M. P.; Lekic, V.; Gao, C.

2017-12-01

The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission will deploy a geophysical station on Mars in 2018. Using seismology to explore the interior structure of the Mars is one of the main targets, and as part of the mission, we will use 3-component seismic data to constrain the crust and upper mantle structure including P and S wave velocities and densities underneath the station. We will apply a reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm in the transdimensional hierarchical Bayesian inversion framework, in which the number of parameters in the model space and the noise level of the observed data are also treated as unknowns in the inversion process. Bayesian based methods produce an ensemble of models which can be analyzed to quantify uncertainties and trade-offs of the model parameters. In order to get better resolution, we will simultaneously invert three different types of seismic data: receiver functions, surface wave dispersion (SWD), and ZH ratios. Because the InSight mission will only deliver a single seismic station to Mars, and both the source location and the interior structure will be unknown, we will jointly invert the ray parameter in our approach. In preparation for this work, we first verify our approach by using a set of synthetic data. We find that SWD can constrain the absolute value of velocities while receiver functions constrain the discontinuities. By joint inversion, the velocity structure in the crust and upper mantle is well recovered. Then, we apply our approach to real data from an earth-based seismic station BFO located in Black Forest Observatory in Germany, as already used in a demonstration study for single station location methods. From the comparison of the results, our hierarchical treatment shows its advantage over the conventional method in which the noise level of observed data is fixed as a prior.

Subsurface images of the Eastern Rift, Africa, from the joint inversion of body waves, surface waves and gravity: investigating the role of fluids in early-stage continental rifting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roecker, S.; Ebinger, C.; Tiberi, C.; Mulibo, G.; Ferdinand-Wambura, R.; Mtelela, K.; Kianji, G.; Muzuka, A.; Gautier, S.; Albaric, J.; Peyrat, S.

2017-08-01

The Eastern Rift System (ERS) of northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, where a cratonic lithosphere is in the early stages of rifting, offers an ideal venue for investigating the roles of magma and other fluids in such an environment. To illuminate these roles, we jointly invert arrival times of locally recorded P and S body waves, phase delays of ambient noise generated Rayleigh waves and Bouguer anomalies from gravity observations to generate a 3-D image of P and S wave speeds in the upper 25 km of the crust. While joint inversion of gravity and arrival times requires a relationship between density and wave speeds, the improvement in resolution obtained by the combination of these disparate data sets serves to further constrain models, and reduce uncertainties. The most significant features in the 3-D model are (1) P and S wave speeds that are 10-15 per cent lower beneath the rift zone than in the surrounding regions, (2) a relatively high wave speed tabular feature located along the western edge of the Natron and Manyara rifts, and (3) low (∼1.71) values of Vp/Vs throughout the upper crust, with the lowest ratios along the boundaries of the rift zones. The low P and S wave speeds at mid-crustal levels beneath the rift valley are an expected consequence of active volcanism, and the tabular, high-wave speed feature is interpreted to be an uplifted footwall at the western edge of the rift. Given the high levels of CO2 outgassing observed at the surface along border fault zones, and the sensitivity of Vp/Vs to pore-fluid compressibility, we infer that the low Vp/Vs values in and around the rift zone are caused by the volcanic plumbing in the upper crust being suffused by a gaseous CO2 froth on top of a deeper, crystalline mush. The repository for molten rock is likely located in the lower crust and upper mantle, where the Vp/Vs ratios are significantly higher.

Upper mantle heterogeneity: Comparisons of regions south of Australia with Philippine Basin

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

The nature of mass anomalies that occur beneath the regions of negative residual depth anomalies were identified. Residual geoid anomalies with negative residual depth anomalies are identified in the Philippine Basin (negative) and in the region south of Australia (positive and negative). In the latter region the geoid anomalies are eastward and the depth anomaly is northeast. It is suggested that the negative depth anomaly and the compensating mass excess in the uppermost mantle developed in the Eocene as the lithosphere of the west Philippine basin formed. Heating of the deeper upper mantle which causes slow surface wave velocities and negative gravity and geoid anomalies may be a younger phenomenon which is still in progress.

Mantle transition zone structure and upper mantle S velocity variations beneath Ethiopia: Evidence for a broad, deep-seated thermal anomaly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benoit, Margaret H.; Nyblade, Andrew A.; Owens, Thomas J.; Stuart, Graham

2006-11-01

Ethiopia has been subjected to widespread Cenozoic volcanism, rifting, and uplift associated with the Afar hot spot. The hot spot tectonism has been attributed to one or more thermal upwellings in the mantle, for example, starting thermal plumes and superplumes. We investigate the origin of the hot spot by imaging the S wave velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath Ethiopia using travel time tomography and by examining relief on transition zone discontinuities using receiver function stacks. The tomographic images reveal an elongated low-velocity region that is wide (>500 km) and extends deep into the upper mantle (>400 km). The anomaly is aligned with the Afar Depression and Main Ethiopian Rift in the uppermost mantle, but its center shifts westward with depth. The 410 km discontinuity is not well imaged, but the 660 km discontinuity is shallower than normal by ˜20-30 km beneath most of Ethiopia, but it is at a normal depth beneath Djibouti and the northwestern edge of the Ethiopian Plateau. The tomographic results combined with a shallow 660 km discontinuity indicate that upper mantle temperatures are elevated by ˜300 K and that the thermal anomaly is broad (>500 km wide) and extends to depths ≥660 km. The dimensions of the thermal anomaly are not consistent with a starting thermal plume but are consistent with a flux of excess heat coming from the lower mantle. Such a broad thermal upwelling could be part of the African Superplume found in the lower mantle beneath southern Africa.

Anisotropy in the Australasian upper mantle from Love and Rayleigh waveform inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Debayle, Eric; Kennett, B. L. N.

2000-12-01

Records of both Rayleigh and Love waves have been analyzed to determine the pattern of anisotropy in the Australasian region. The approach is based on a two-stage inversion. Starting from a smooth PREM model with transverse isotropy about a vertical symmetry axis, the first step is an inversion of the waveforms of surface waves to produce path specific one-dimensional (1-D) upper mantle models. Under the assumption that the 1-D models represent averages along the paths, the results from 1584 Love and Rayleigh wave seismograms are combined in a tomographic inversion to provide a representation of three-dimensional structure for wavespeed heterogeneities and anisotropy. Polarization anisotropy with SH faster than SV is retrieved in the upper 200-250 km of the mantle for most of Precambrian Australia. In this depth interval, significant lateral variations in the level of polarization anisotropy are present. Locally, the anisotropy can be large, reaching an extreme value of 9% that is difficult to reconcile with current mineralogical models. However, the discrepancy may be explained in part by the presence of strong lateral heterogeneities along the path, or by effects introduced by the simplifying assumption of transverse isotropy for each path. The consistency between the location of polarization and azimuthal anisotropy in depth suggests that both observations share a common origin. The observation of polarization anisotropy down to at least 200 km supports a two-layered anisotropic model as constrained by the azimuthal anisotropy of SV waves. In the upper layer, 150 km thick, anisotropy would be related to past deformation frozen in the lithosphere while in the lower layer, anisotropy would reflect present day deformation due to plate motion.

Crustal and uppermost mantle S-wave velocity below the East European Craton in northern Poland from the inversion of ambient-noise records

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lepore, Simone; Polkowski, Marcin; Grad, Marek

2018-02-01

The P-wave velocities (V p) within the East European Craton in Poland are well known through several seismic experiments which permitted to build a high-resolution 3D model down to 60 km depth. However, these seismic data do not provide sufficient information about the S-wave velocities (V s). For this reason, this paper presents the values of lithospheric V s and P-wave-to-S-wave velocity ratios (V p/V s) calculated from the ambient noise recorded during 2014 at "13 BB star" seismic array (13 stations, 78 midpoints) located in northern Poland. The 3D V p model in the area of the array consists of six sedimentary layers having total thickness within 3-7 km and V p in the range 1.85.3 km/s, a three-layer crystalline crust of total thickness 40 km and V p within 6.15-7.15 km/s, and the uppermost mantle, where V p is about 8.25 km/s. The V s and V p/V s values are calculated by the inversion of the surface-wave dispersion curves extracted from the noise cross correlation between all the station pairs. Due to the strong velocity differences among the layers, several modes are recognized in the 0.021 Hz frequency band: therefore, multimodal Monte Carlo inversions are applied. The calculated V s and V p/V s values in the sedimentary cover range within 0.992.66 km/s and 1.751.97 as expected. In the upper crust, the V s value (3.48 ± 0.10 km/s) is very low compared to the starting value of 3.75 ± 0.10 km/s. Consequently, the V p/V s value is very large (1.81 ± 0.03). To explain that the calculated values are compared with the ones for other old cratonic areas.

Upper mantle seismic anisotropy beneath the West Antarctic Rift System and surrounding region from shear wave splitting analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Accardo, Natalie J.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Hernandez, Stephen; Aster, Richard C.; Nyblade, Andrew; Huerta, Audrey; Anandakrishnan, Sridhar; Wilson, Terry; Heeszel, David S.; Dalziel, Ian W. D.

2014-07-01

We constrain azimuthal anisotropy in the West Antarctic upper mantle using shear wave splitting parameters obtained from teleseismic SKS, SKKS and PKS phases recorded at 37 broad-band seismometres deployed by the POLENET/ANET project. We use an eigenvalue technique to linearize the rotated and shifted shear wave horizontal particle motions and determine the fast direction and delay time for each arrival. High-quality measurements are stacked to determine the best fitting splitting parameters for each station. Overall, fast anisotropic directions are oriented at large angles to the direction of Antarctic absolute plate motion in both hotspot and no-net-rotation frameworks, showing that the anisotropy does not result from shear due to plate motion over the mantle. Further, the West Antarctic directions are substantially different from those of East Antarctica, indicating that anisotropy across the continent reflects multiple mantle regimes. We suggest that the observed anisotropy along the central Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) and adjacent West Antarctic Rift System (WARS), one of the largest zones of extended continental crust on Earth, results from asthenospheric mantle strain associated with the final pulse of western WARS extension in the late Miocene. Strong and consistent anisotropy throughout the WARS indicate fast axes subparallel to the inferred extension direction, a result unlike reports from the East African rift system and rifts within the Basin and Range, which show much greater variation. We contend that ductile shearing rather than magmatic intrusion may have been the controlling mechanism for accumulation and retention of such coherent, widespread anisotropic fabric. Splitting beneath the Marie Byrd Land Dome (MBL) is weaker than that observed elsewhere within the WARS, but shows a consistent fast direction, possibly representative of anisotropy that has been `frozen-in' to remnant thicker lithosphere. Fast directions observed inland from the Amundsen Sea appear to be radial to the dome and may indicate radial horizontal mantle flow associated with an MBL plume head and low upper mantle velocities in this region, or alternatively to lithospheric features associated with the complex Cenozoic tectonics at the far-eastern end of the WARS.

Structure of the North Anatolian Fault Zone from the Auto-Correlation of Ambient Seismic Noise Recorded at a Dense Seismometer Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, D. G.; Rost, S.; Houseman, G.

2015-12-01

In recent years the technique of cross-correlating the ambient seismic noise wavefield at two seismometers to reconstruct empirical Green's Functions for the determination of Earth structure has been a powerful tool to study the Earth's interior without earthquake or man-made sources. However, far less attention has been paid to using auto-correlations of seismic noise to reveal body wave reflections from interfaces in the subsurface. In principle, the Green's functions thus derived should be comparable to the Earth's impulse response to a co-located source and receiver. We use data from a dense seismic array (Dense Array for Northern Anatolia - DANA) deployed across the northern branch of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) in the region of the 1999 magnitude 7.6 Izmit earthquake in western Turkey. The NAFZ is a major strike-slip system that extends ~1200 km across northern Turkey and continues to pose a high level of seismic hazard, in particular to the mega-city of Istanbul. We construct reflection images for the entire crust and upper mantle over the ~35 km by 70 km footprint of the 70-station DANA array. Using auto-correlations of vertical and horizontal components of ground motion, both P- and S-wave velocity information can be retrieved from the wavefield to constrain crustal structure further to established methods. We show that clear P-wave reflections from the crust-mantle boundary (Moho) can be retrieved using the autocorrelation technique, indicating topography on the Moho on horizontal scales of less than 10 km. Offsets in crustal structure can be identified that seem to be correlated with the surface expression of the fault zone in the region. The combined analysis of auto-correlations using vertical and horizontal components will lead to further insight into the fault zone structure throughout the crust and upper mantle.

Improved Nazca slab structure from teleseismic P-wave tomography along the Andean margin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Portner, D. E.; Beck, S. L.; Scire, A. C.; Zandt, G.

2017-12-01

South America marks the longest continuous ocean-continent subduction zone. As such, there is significant along-strike variability in the subducting Nazca slab structure and the tectonics of the South American margin. Most notably two gaps in the otherwise continuous volcanic arc are correlated with regions of flat slab subduction, indicating that the structure of the Nazca slab plays a controlling role in South American tectonics. Traditionally in subduction zones, our knowledge of slab structure is defined by Wadati-Benioff zone earthquakes. While this method allows for the determination of large-scale variations in Nazca slab structure such as regions of flat slab subduction, a scarcity of intermediate-depth earthquakes hinders our ability to observe the smaller-scale structural variations in the slab that may be critical to our understanding of the geologic record. We use an updated, larger dataset for finite-frequency teleseismic P-wave tomography including relative arrival times from >700 seismic stations along the Andean margin to image the detailed Nazca slab structure throughout the upper mantle and uppermost lower mantle between latitudes 5°S and 45°S. Our results show prominent variations in slab character along the margin. Slab dip varies significantly, from sub-vertical inboard of the Peruvian flat slab segment to 30° dip south of the Pampean flat slab, while the slab's velocity anomaly amplitude changes dramatically near the Pampean flat slab region. High slab velocities north of the Pampean region relative to the south indicate variable slab thermal structures that correspond roughly with the locations of deep (>500 km depth) earthquakes that also occur exclusively north of the Pampean region. Additionally, a wider regional footprint increases our sampling of the upper-lower mantle boundary, improving constraints on the slab's interaction with the 660 km discontinuity along strike. We see that the Nazca slab appears to penetrate into the lower mantle along the majority of the margin.

Flow in the Deep Mantle from Seisimc Anisotropy: Progress and Prospects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Long, M. D.

2017-12-01

Observations of seismic anisotropy, or the directional dependence of seismic wavespeeds, provide one some of the most direct constraints on the pattern of flow in the Earth's mantle. In particular, as our understanding of crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) of olivine aggregates under a range of deformation conditions has improved, our ability to exploit observations of upper mantle anisotropy has led to fundamental discoveries about the patterns of flow in the upper mantle and the drivers of that flow. It has been a challenge, however, to develop a similar framework for understanding flow in the deep mantle (transition zone, uppermost lower mantle, and lowermost mantle), even though there is convincing observational evidence for seismic anisotropy at these depths. Recent progress on the observational front has allowed for an increasingly detailed view of mid-mantle anisotropy (transition zone and uppermost lower mantle), particularly in subduction systems, which may eventually lead to a better understanding of mid-mantle deformation and the dynamics of slab interaction with the surrounding mid-mantle. New approaches to the observation and modeling of lowermost mantle anisotropy, in combination with constraints from mineral physics, are progressing towards interpretive frameworks that allow for the discrimination of different mantle flow geometries in different regions of D". In particular, observational strategies that involve the use of multiple types of body wave phases sampled over a range of propagation azimuths enable detailed forward modeling approaches that can discriminate between different mechanisms for D" anisotropy (e.g., CPO of post-perovskite, bridgmanite, or ferropericlase, or shape preferred orientation of partial melt) and identify plausible anisotropic orientations. We have recently begun to move towards a full waveform modeling approach in this work, which allows for a more accurate simulation for seismic wave propagation. Ongoing improvements in seismic observational strategies, experimental and computational mineral physics, and geodynamic modeling approaches are leading to new avenues for understanding flow in the deep mantle through the study of seismic anisotropy.

Crust and Upper Mantle Structure from Joint Inversion of Body Wave and Gravity Data (Postprint). Annual Report 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-10

Basin, China , the crust and subduction zone beneath western Colombia, and a thermally active region within Utah in the central United States...Burlacu, R., Rowe, C., and Y. Yang (2009). Joint geophysical imaging of the geothermal sites in the Utah area using seismic body waves, surface waves and

Relationship of D'' structure with the velocity variations near the inner-core boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Sheng-Nian; Ni, Sidao; Helmberger, Don

2002-06-01

Variations in regional differential times between PKiKP (i) and PKIKP (I) have been attributed to hemispheric P-velocity variations of about 1% in the upper 100 km of the inner core (referred to as HIC). The top of the inner core appears relatively fast beneath Asia where D'' is also fast. An alternative interpretation could be the lateral variation in P velocity at the lowermost outer core (HOC) producing the same differential times. To resolve this issue, we introduce the diffracted PKP phase near the B caustic (Bdiff) in the range of 139-145° epicenter distances, and the corresponding differential times between Bdiff and PKiKP and PKIKP as observed on broadband arrays. Due to the long-wavelength nature of Bdiff, we scaled the S-wave tomography model with k values (k ≡ dlnVs/dlnVp) to obtain large-scale P-wave velocity structure in the lower mantle as proposed by earlier studies. Waveform synthetics of Bdiff constructed with small k's predict complex waveforms not commonly observed, confirming the validity of large scaling factor k. With P-velocity in lower mantle constrained at large scale, the extra travel-time constraint imposed by Bdiff helps to resolve the HOC-HIC issue. Our preliminary results suggest k > 2 for the lowermost mantle and support HIC hypothesis. An important implication is that there appears to be a relationship of D'' velocity structures with the structures near the inner core boundary via core dynamics.

Lithospheric structure of the Western Alps as seen by full-waveform inversion of CIFALPS teleseismic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beller, Stephen; Monteiller, Vadim; Operto, Stéphane; Nolet, Guust; Paul, Anne; Zhao, Liang

2017-04-01

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) is a powerful but constitutionally intensive technique that aims to recover 3D multiparameter images of the subsurface by minimising the waveform difference between the full recorded and modelled seismograms. This method has recently been adapted and successfully applied in lithospheric settings by tackling teleseismic waveform modelling with hybrid methods. For each event, a global scale simulation is performed once and for all to store the wavefield solutions on the edges of the lithospheric target. Then, for each modelling involved in the FWI process, these global scale solutions are injected within the lithospheric medium from the boundaries. We present the results of the application of teleseismic FWI to the data acquired by the CIFALPS experiment that was conducted in the Western Alps to gain new insights its lithospheric structure and geodynamic evolution of the alpine range. Nine teleseismic events were inverted to infer 3D models of density, P-wave velocity and S-wave velocity of the crust and the upper-mantle down to 200 km depth. Our models show clear evidences of continental subduction during the alpine orogeny. They outline a dipping European Moho down to 75 km depth and finely delineate the geometry of the Ivrea body at the suture between European and Adriatic plates. Deeper, in the mantle a slow S-wave velocity anomaly might indicate the location of the European slab detachment. Overall, FWI models give access to new seismic images that fill the resolution gap between smooth tomographic model and sharp receiver function images of the lithosphere and enable integrated interpretations of crustal and upper-mantle structures.

Seismic scatterers in the mid-lower mantle beneath Tonga-Fiji

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaneshima, Satoshi

2018-01-01

We analyze deep and intermediate-depth earthquakes at the Tonga-Fiji region in order to reveal the distribution of scattering objects in the mid-lower mantle. By array processing waveform data recorded at regional seismograph stations in the US, Alaska, and Japan, we investigate S-to-P scattering waves in the P coda, which arise from kilometer-scale chemically distinct objects in the mid-lower mantle beneath Tonga-Fiji. With ten scatterers previously reported by the author included, twenty-three mid-lower mantle scatterers have been detected below 900 km depth, while scatterers deeper than 1900 km have not been identified. Strong mid-lower mantle S-to-P scattering most frequently occurs at the scatterers located within a depth range between 1400 km and 1600 km. The number of scatterers decreases below 1600 km depth, and the deeper objects tend to be weaker. The scatterer distribution may reflect diminishing elastic anomalies of basaltic rocks with depth relative to the surrounding mantle rocks, which mineral physics has predicted to occur. The predominant occurrence of strong S-to-P scattering waves within a narrow depth range may reflect significant reduction of rigidity due to the ferro-elastic transformation of stishovite in basaltic rocks. Very large signals associated with mid-mantle scatterers are observed only for a small portion of the entire earthquake-array pairs. Such infrequent observations of large scattering signals, combined with quite large event-to-event differences in the scattering intensity for each scatterer, suggest both that the strong arrivals approximately represent ray theoretical S-to-P converted waves at objects with a plane geometry. The plane portions of the strong scatterers may often dip steeply, with the size exceeding 100 km. For a few strong scatterers, the range of receivers showing clear scattered waves varies substantially from earthquake-array pair to pair. Some of the scatterers are also observed at different arrays that have significantly different directions of incident waves to the scatterers. Furthermore, weak but coherent P-to-P scattered waves as well as S-to-P waves are observed for a few of the scatterers. These observations indicate that the locally plane scatterers also possess substantial topography.

Anticorrelated seismic velocity anomalies from post-perovskite in the lowermost mantle

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hutko, Alexander R.; Lay, T.; Revenaugh, Justin; Garnero, E.J.

2008-01-01

Earth's lowermost mantle has thermal, chemical, and mineralogical complexities that require precise seismological characterization. Stacking, migration, and modeling of over 10,000 P and S waves that traverse the deep mantle under the Cocos plate resolve structures above the core-mantle boundary. A small -0.07 ?? 0.15% decrease of P wave velocity (Vp) is accompanied by a 1.5 ?? 0.5% increase in S wave velocity (Vs) near a depth of 2570 km. Bulk-sound velocity [Vb = (V p2 - 4/3Vs2)1/2] decreases by -1.0 ?? 0.5% at this depth. Transition of the primary lower-mantle mineral, (Mg1-x-y FexAly)(Si,Al) O3 perovskite, to denser post-perovskite is expected to have a negligible effect on the bulk modulus while increasing the shear modulus by ???6%, resulting in local anticorrelation of Vb and Vs anomalies; this behavior explains the data well.

Shock wave compression of iron-silicate garnet.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Graham, E. K.; Ahrens, T. J.

1973-01-01

Shock wave compression data to over 650 kb are presented for single-crystal almandine garnet. The data indicate the initiation of a phase transformation near 200 kb. Total transition to the high-pressure polymorph occurs at approximately 300 kb. The elastic properties of the high-pressure phase are calculated from the metastable Hugoniot data by using the linear shock velocity-particle velocity relationships. The overall results obtained strongly suggest that upper mantle minerals are likely to occur in the ilmenite structure over a substantial part of the lower mantle.

Rayleigh Wave Phase Velocity in the Upper Mantle Beneath the Indian Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godfrey, K. E.; Dalton, C. A.; Ritsema, J.

2016-12-01

Most of what is currently understood about the seismic properties of oceanic upper mantle is based on either global studies or regional studies of the upper mantle beneath the Pacific Ocean. However, global seismic models and geochemical studies of mid-ocean ridge basalts indicate differences in the properties of the upper mantle beneath the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Though the Indian Ocean is not as well studied seismically, it is host to a number of geologically interesting features including 16,000 km of mid-ocean ridge with a range of spreading rates from 14 mm/yr along the Southwest Indian Ridge to 55-75 mm/yr along the Southeast Indian Ridge. The Indian Ocean also contains multiple volcanic hotspots, the Australian-Antarctic Discordance, and a low geoid anomaly south of India, and it overlies a portion of a large low-shear-velocity province. We are using Rayleigh waves to construct a high-resolution seismic velocity model of the Indian Ocean upper mantle. We utilize a global dataset of phase delays measured at 20 periods, between 37 and 375 seconds; the dataset includes between 700 and 20,000 that traverse our study region exclusively, with a larger number of paths at shorter periods. We explore variations in phase velocity using two separate approaches. One, we allow phase velocity to vary only as a function of seafloor age. Two, we perform a damped least-squares inversion to solve for 2-D phase velocity maps at each period. Preliminary results indicate low velocities along the Southeast Indian Ridge and Central Indian Ridge, but the expected low velocities are less apparent along the slow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge. We observe a region of fast velocities extending from Antarctica northward between the Kerguelen and Crozet hotspots, and lower than expected velocities beneath the Reunion hotspot. Additionally, we find low velocities associated with a region of extinct seafloor spreading in the Wharton basin.

Mapping the upper mantle beneath North American continent with joint inversion of surface-wave phase and amplitude

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshizawa, K.; Hamada, K.

2017-12-01

A new 3-D S-wave model of the North American upper mantle is constructed from a large number of inter-station phase and amplitude measurements of surface waves. A fully nonlinear waveform fitting method by Hamada and Yoshizawa (2015, GJI) is applied to USArray for measuring inter-station phase speeds and amplitude ratios of the fundamental-mode Rayleigh and Love waves. We employed the seismic events from 2007 - 2014 with Mw 6.0 or greater, and collected a large-number of inter-station phase speed data (about 130,000 for Rayleigh and 85,000 for Love waves) and amplitude ratio data (about 75,000 for Rayleigh waves) in a period range from 30 to 130 s for fundamental-mode surface waves. Typical inter-station distances are mostly in a range between 300 and 800 km, which can be of help in enhancing the lateral resolution of a regional tomography model. We first invert Rayleigh-wave phase speeds and amplitudes simultaneously for phase speed maps as well as local amplification factors at receiver locations. The isotropic 3-D S-wave model constructed from these phase speed maps incorporating both phase and amplitude data exhibits better recovery of the strength of velocity perturbations. In particular, local tectonic features characterized by strong velocity gradients, such as Rio Grande Rift, Colorado Plateau and New Madrid Seismic Zone, are more enhanced than conventional models derived from phase information only. The results indicate that surface-wave amplitude, which is sensitive to the second derivative of phase speeds, can be of great help in retrieving small-scale heterogeneity in the upper mantle. We also obtain a radial anisotropy model from the simultaneous inversions of Rayleigh and Love waves (without amplitude information). The model has shown faster SH wave speed anomalies than SV above the depth of 100 km, particularly in tectonically active regions in the western and central U.S., representing the effects of current and former tectonic processes on anisotropic properties in the continental lithosphere.

Mapping the Moho with seismic surface waves: Sensitivity, resolution, and recommended inversion strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lebedev, Sergei; Adam, Joanne; Meier, Thomas

2013-04-01

Seismic surface waves have been used to study the Earth's crust since the early days of modern seismology. In the last decade, surface-wave crustal imaging has been rejuvenated by the emergence of new, array techniques (ambient-noise and teleseismic interferometry). The strong sensitivity of both Rayleigh and Love waves to the Moho is evident from a mere visual inspection of their dispersion curves or waveforms. Yet, strong trade-offs between the Moho depth and crustal and mantle structure in surface-wave inversions have prompted doubts regarding their capacity to resolve the Moho. Although the Moho depth has been an inversion parameter in numerous surface-wave studies, the resolution of Moho properties yielded by a surface-wave inversion is still somewhat uncertain and controversial. We use model-space mapping in order to elucidate surface waves' sensitivity to the Moho depth and the resolution of their inversion for it. If seismic wavespeeds within the crust and upper mantle are known, then Moho-depth variations of a few kilometres produce large (over 1 per cent) perturbations in phase velocities. However, in inversions of surface-wave data with no a priori information (wavespeeds not known), strong Moho-depth/shear-speed trade-offs will mask about 90 per cent of the Moho-depth signal, with remaining phase-velocity perturbations 0.1-0.2 per cent only. In order to resolve the Moho with surface waves alone, errors in the data must thus be small (up to 0.2 per cent for resolving continental Moho). If the errors are larger, Moho-depth resolution is not warranted and depends on error distribution with period, with errors that persist over broad period ranges particularly damaging. An effective strategy for the inversion of surface-wave data alone for the Moho depth is to, first, constrain the crustal and upper-mantle structure by inversion in a broad period range and then determine the Moho depth in inversion in a narrow period range most sensitive to it, with the first-step results used as reference. We illustrate this strategy with an application to data from the Kaapvaal Craton. Prior information on crustal and mantle structure reduces the trade-offs and thus enables resolving the Moho depth with noisier data; such information should be sought and used whenever available (as has been done, explicitly or implicitly, in many previous studies). Joint analysis or inversion of surface-wave and other data (receiver functions, topography, gravity) can reduce uncertainties further and facilitate Moho mapping. Alone or as a part of multi-disciplinary datasets, surface-wave data offer unique sensitivity to the crustal and upper-mantle structure and are becoming increasingly important in the seismic imaging of the crust and the Moho. Reference Lebedev, S., J. Adam, T. Meier. Mapping the Moho with seismic surface waves: A review, resolution analysis, and recommended inversion strategies. Tectonophysics, "Moho" special issue, 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.12.030, 2013.

Seismic characteristics of central Brazil crust and upper mantle: A deep seismic refraction study

USGS Publications Warehouse

Soares, J.E.; Berrocal, J.; Fuck, R.A.; Mooney, W.D.; Ventura, D.B.R.

2006-01-01

A two-dimensional model of the Brazilian central crust and upper mantle was obtained from the traveltime interpretation of deep seismic refraction data from the Porangatu and Cavalcante lines, each approximately 300 km long. When the lines were deployed, they overlapped by 50 km, forming an E-W transect approximately 530 km long across the Tocantins Province and western Sa??o Francisco Craton. The Tocantins Province formed during the Neoproterozoic when the Sa??o Francisco, the Paranapanema, and the Amazon cratons collided, following the subduction of the former Goia??s ocean basin. Average crustal VP and VP/VS ratios, Moho topography, and lateral discontinuities within crustal layers suggest that the crust beneath central Brazil can be associated with major geological domains recognized at the surface. The Moho is an irregular interface, between 36 and 44 km deep, that shows evidences of first-order tectonic structures. The 8.05 and 8.23 km s-1 P wave velocities identify the upper mantle beneath the Porangatu and Cavalcante lines, respectively. The observed seismic features allow for the identification of (1) the crust has largely felsic composition in the studied region, (2) the absence of the mafic-ultramafic root beneath the Goia??s magmatic arc, and (3) block tectonics in the foreland fold-and-thrust belt of the northern Brasi??lia Belt during the Neoproterozoic. Seismic data also suggested that the Bouguer gravimetric discontinuities are mainly compensated by differences in mass distribution within the lithospheric mantle. Finally, the Goia??s-Tocantins seismic belt can be interpreted as a natural seismic alignment related to the Neoproterozoic mantle domain. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

An IODP proposal to drill the Godzilla Megamullion as a step to Mohole

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohara, Y.; Michibayashi, K.; Dick, H. J. B.; Snow, J. E.; Ono, S.

2017-12-01

The year 2017 represents the 60th anniversary of the "original" project Mohole, which was coined by Walter Munk in 1957. Although the project Mohole has not yet been realized, the hard-rock community is now striving hard to understand the upper mantle in a variety of ways. Firstly, the present-day project Mohole, M2M (Moho-to-Mantle) project, will move forward in this September, conducting multi-channel seismic profiling off Hawaii as a site survey. Oman Drilling Project has started last December, and the drilled cores are being described aboard D/V Chikyu from July, this year. Furthermore, the forearc M2M proposal to drill the Bonin Trench forearc mantle was submitted to IODP in April 2016. Being a part of these efforts, we are preparing an IODP proposal to drill the Godzilla Megamullion, the largest known oceanic core complex on the Earth, located in the Parece Vela Basin in the Philippine Sea. A significant fraction of the ocean floor is created in backarc basins, while there have been no single long core of backarc basin lower ocean crust, from which to understand the likely differences in magmatic evolution and crustal structure in this key setting. The opportunity to explore the formation of the backarc basin lower crust and upper mantle is, therefore, an important contribution to understanding the ocean basins. At the same time, a better understanding of the architecture of backarc basin lower crust and upper mantle will greatly aid in the interpretation of the results of ophiolite study, since much of our understanding of the architecture of oceanic lower crust and upper mantle comes from ophiolites, most of which are thought to have at least some arc and/or backarc component. The Godzilla Megamullion is unique in its huge size as well as its development in a backarc basin, a rare tectonic window to study backarc basin lithosphere. The Godzilla Megamullion is prepared for full drilling proposal, with complete bathymetric data, multiple bottom samplings, and multi-channel seismic profilings as well as P-wave velocity structures. We will propose substantial riserless drilling at Godzilla Megamullion that will provide an excellent opportunity to understand backarc basin lower crust and upper mantle. In this contribution, we will make use of this opportunity to share the general scheme of the proposal with the community.

S-Wave Velocity Models Under the Saudi Arabian Portable Broadband Deployment: Evidence for Lithospheric Erosion Beneath the Arabian Shield

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Julià, J.; Ammon, C. J.; Herrmann, R. B.

2002-12-01

Models of crustal evolution strongly rely on our knowledge on the mineralogical composition of subsurface rocks, as well as pressure and temperature conditions. Direct sampling of subsurface rocks is often not possible, so that constraints have to be placed from indirect estimates of rock properties. Detailed seismic imaging of subsurface rocks has the potential for providing such constraints, and probe the extent at depth of surface geologic observations. In this study, we provide detailed S-wave velocity profiles for the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the Saudi Arabian Portable Broadband Deployment stations. Seismic velocities have been estimated from the joint inversion of receiver functions and fundamental mode group velocities. Receiver functions are sensitive to S-wave velocity contrasts and vertical travel times, and surface-wave dispersion is sensitive to vertical S-wave velocity averages, so that their combination bridge resolution gaps associated with each individual data set. Our resulting models correlate well with surface geology observations in the Arabian Shield and characterize its terranes at depth: the Asir terrane consists of a 10-km thick upper crust of 3.3~km/s overlying a lower crust with shear-wave velocities of 3.7-3.8 km/s; the Afif terrane is made of a 20-km thick upper crust with average velocity of 3.6 km/s and a lower crust with a shear-velocity of about 3.8~km/s; the Nabitah mobile belt has a gradational, 15-km thick upper crust up to 3.6 km/s overlying a gradational lower crust with velocities up to 4.0 km/s. The crust-mantle transition is sharper in terranes of continental affinity and more gradational beneath terranes of oceanic affinity. In the uppermost mantle, our models suggest a thin lid between up to 50-60 km depth overlying a low velocity zone beneath station TAIF, located close to a region of upwelling mantle material. Temperatures in the lid are estimated to be about 1000 C, which are in good agreement with independent xenolith data, and suggest that the lithosphere could be eroded to a thickness as little as 50~km under this station.

Joint Inversion of Phase and Amplitude Data of Surface Waves for North American Upper Mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamada, K.; Yoshizawa, K.

2015-12-01

For the reconstruction of the laterally heterogeneous upper-mantle structure using surface waves, we generally use phase delay information of seismograms, which represents the average phase velocity perturbation along a ray path, while the amplitude information has been rarely used in the velocity mapping. Amplitude anomalies of surface waves contain a variety of information such as anelastic attenuation, elastic focusing/defocusing, geometrical spreading, and receiver effects. The effects of elastic focusing/defocusing are dependent on the second derivative of phase velocity across the ray path, and thus, are sensitive to shorter-wavelength structure than the conventional phase data. Therefore, suitably-corrected amplitude data of surface waves can be useful for improving the lateral resolution of phase velocity models. In this study, we collect a large-number of inter-station phase velocity and amplitude ratio data for fundamental-mode surface waves with a non-linear waveform fitting between two stations of USArray. The measured inter-station phase velocity and amplitude ratios are then inverted simultaneously for phase velocity maps and local amplification factor at receiver locations in North America. The synthetic experiments suggest that, while the phase velocity maps derived from phase data only reflect large-scale tectonic features, those from phase and amplitude data tend to exhibit better recovery of the strength of velocity perturbations, which emphasizes local-scale tectonic features with larger lateral velocity gradients; e.g., slow anomalies in Snake River Plain and Rio Grande Rift, where significant local amplification due to elastic focusing are observed. Also, the spatial distribution of receiver amplification factor shows a clear correlation with the velocity structure. Our results indicate that inter-station amplitude-ratio data can be of help in reconstructing shorter-wavelength structures of the upper mantle.

Length-scales of Slab-induced Asthenospheric Deformation from Geodynamic Modeling, Mantle Deformation Fabric, and Synthetic Shear Wave Splitting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jadamec, M. A.; MacDougall, J.; Fischer, K. M.

2017-12-01

The viscosity structure of the Earth's interior is critically important, because it places a first order constraint on plate motion and mantle flow rates. Geodynamic models using a composite viscosity based on experimentally derived flow laws for olivine aggregates show that lateral viscosity variations emerge in the upper mantle due to the subduction dynamics. However, the length-scale of this transition is still not well understood. Two-dimensional numerical models of subduction are presented that investigate the effect of initial slab dip, maximum yield stress (slab strength), and viscosity formulation (Newtonian versus composite) on the emergent lateral viscosity variations in the upper-mantle and magnitude of slab-driven mantle flow velocity. Significant viscosity reductions occur in regions of large flow velocity gradients due to the weakening effect of the dislocation creep deformation mechanism. The dynamic reductions in asthenospheric viscosity (less than 1018 Pa s) occur within approximately 500 km from driving force of the slab, with peak flow velocities occurring in models with a lower yield stress (weaker slab) and higher stress exponent. This leads to a sharper definition of the rheological base of the lithosphere and implies lateral variability in tractions along the base of the lithosphere. As the dislocation creep mechanism also leads to mantle deformation fabric, we then examine the spatial variation in the LPO development in the asthenosphere and calculate synthetic shear wave splitting. The models show that olivine LPO fabric in the asthenosphere generally increases in alignment strength with increased proximity to the slab, but can be transient and spatially variable on small length scales. The vertical flow fields surrounding the slab tip can produce shear-wave splitting variations with back-azimuth that deviate from the predictions of uniform trench-normal anisotropy, a result that bears on the interpretation of complexity in shear-wave splitting observed in real subduction zones.

­­New Finite-Frequency Teleseismic P-wave Tomography of the Anatolian Sub-continent and the Fate of the Subducted Cyprean Slab

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Portner, D. E.; Biryol, C. B.; Delph, J. R.; Beck, S. L.; Zandt, G.; Özacar, A.; Sandvol, E. A.; Turkelli, N.

2016-12-01

The eastern Mediterranean region is characterized by active subduction of Tethyan lithosphere beneath the Anatolian sub-continent at the Aegean and Cyprean trenches. The subduction system is historically characterized by slab roll-back, detachment, and slab settling in the mantle transition zone. Prior mantle tomography studies reveal segmentation of the subducted Tethyan lithosphere, which is thought to have a strong control on surface volcanism and uplift across Anatolia. However, tomographic resolution, particularly in central Anatolia, has been limited, thus making detailed delineations of the subducted slab segments difficult. To improve resolution, we combine two years of seismic data from the recent Continental Dynamics - Central Anatolia Tectonics (CD-CAT) seismic deployment and Turkey's national seismic network ( 33,000 residuals) to 33,000 travel time residuals from Biryol et al. (2011, GJI) in a new finite-frequency teleseismic P-wave tomographic inversion. Our new images reveal with detail a complicated geometry of fast velocity anomalies associated with subducted Tethyan lithosphere. At shallow depths, slow velocities separate the fast anomalies connected to the Aegean and Cyprean trenches. The fast anomaly connected to the Cyprean trench has an arcuate shape in map view, following the trace of the Central Taurus Mountains. This anomaly is separated from a high-amplitude block to the north that appears to dip sub-vertically throughout the upper mantle (200-660 km depth). Other blocks of fast material that may represent subducted Tethyan lithosphere appear down-dip of the vertical block. Additionally, our images indicate that some of the fast velocity anomalies previously seen to flatten in the mantle transition zone may continue into the lower mantle. Thus, our new images provide a more detailed picture of the fate of the Cyprean slab and suggest that some of the fast anomalies associated with the slab continue into the lower mantle, bringing to question the traditional view of a slab graveyard in the mantle transition zone in this region.

Robustness of Global Radial Anisotropy Models of the Upper Mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xing, Z.; Beghein, C.; Yuan, K.

2014-12-01

Radial anisotropy provides important constraints on mantle deformation. While its presence is well accepted in the uppermost mantle, large discrepancies remain among existing models, even at depths well sampled by seismic data, and its presence at greater depths is highly uncertain. Surface wave phase velocity dispersion measurements are routinely used to constrain lateral variations in mantle S-wave velocity (dlnVS) and radial anisotropy (ξ=VSH2/VSV2). Here, we employed the fundamental and higher mode surface wave phase velocity maps of Visser et al. (2008) that have unprecedented sensitivity to structure down to 800-1000km depth, and we adopted a probabilistic forward modeling approach, the Neighbourhood Algorithm, to quantify posterior model uncertainties and parameter trade-offs. We investigated the effect of prior crustal corrections on 3-D ξ and dlnVS models. To avoid mapping crustal structure onto mantle heterogeneities, it is indeed important to accurately account for 3-D crustal anomalies and variations in Moho depth. One approach is to solve the non-linear problem and simultaneously constrain Moho depth and mantle anomalies (Visser et al., 2008). Another approach, taken here, is to calculate non-linear crustal corrections with an a priori crustal model, which are then applied to the phase velocity maps before inverting the remaining signal for mantle structure. In this work, we also determined laterally varying sensitivity kernels to account for lateral changes in the crust. We compare models obtained using CRUST2.0 (Bassin et al., 2000) and the new CRUST1.0 (Laske et al., 2012) models, which mostly differ under continents. Our preliminary results show strong differences (ΔdlnVS>2%) between the two models in continental dlnVS for the upper 150-200km, and strong changes in x amplitudes in the top 200km (Δξ>2%). Some of the differences in ξ persist down to the transition zone, in particular beneath central Asia and South America. Despite these discrepancies, inferences on the depth of continental roots (~200-250km) based on either the extent of the dlnVS>0 anomalies or the depth at which ξ changes sign remain independent of the crustal model employed. We also note that VSV>VSH dominates the deep upper mantle except in central Pacific, which is characterized by VSH>VSV down to the transition zone.

Redox state of recycled crustal lithologies in the convective upper mantle constrained using oceanic basalt CO2-trace element systematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eguchi, J.; Dasgupta, R.

2017-12-01

Investigating the redox state of the convective upper mantle remains challenging as there is no way of retrieving samples from this part of the planet. Current views of mantle redox are based on Fe3+/∑Fe of minerals in mantle xenoliths and thermodynamic calculations of fO2 [1]. However, deep xenoliths are only recoverable from continental lithospheric mantle, which may have different fO2s than the convective oceanic upper mantle [1]. To gain insight on the fO2 of the deep parts of the oceanic upper mantle, we probe CO2-trace element systematics of basalts that have been argued to receive contributions from subducted crustal lithologies that typically melt deeper than peridotite. Because CO2 contents of silicate melts at graphite saturation vary with fO2 [2], we suggest CO2-trace element systematics of oceanic basalts which sample deep heterogeneities may provide clues about the fO2 of the convecting mantle containing embedded heterogeneities. We developed a new model to predict CO2 contents in nominally anhydrous silicate melts from graphite- to fluid-saturation over a range of P (0.05- 5 GPa), T (950-1600 °C), and composition (foidite-rhyolite). We use the model to calculate CO2 content as a function of fO2 for partial melts of lithologies that vary in composition from rhyolitic sediment melt to silica-poor basaltic melt of pyroxenites. We then use modeled CO2 contents in mixing calculations with partial melts of depleted mantle to constrain the fO2 required for partial melts of heterogeneities to deliver sufficient CO2 to explain CO2-trace element systematics of natural basalts. As an example, Pitcairn basalts, which show evidence of a subducted crustal component [3] require mixing of 40% of partial melts of a garnet pyroxenite at ΔFMQ -1.75 at 3 GPa. Mixing with a more silicic composition such as partial melts of a MORB-eclogite cannot deliver enough CO2 at graphite saturation, so in this scenario fO2 must be above the EMOG/D buffer at 4 GPa. Results suggest convecting upper mantle may be more oxidized than continental lithospheric mantle, and fO2 profiles of continental lithospheric mantle may not be applicable to convective upper mantle.[1] Frost, D, McCammon, C. 2008. An Rev E & P Sci. (36) p.389-420; [2] Holloway, J, et al. 1992. Eu J. Min. (4) p. 105-114; [3] Woodhead, J, Devey C. 1993. EPSL. (116) p. 81-99.

Lithospheric Structure of Antarctica and Implications for Geological and Cryospheric Evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiens, Douglas; Heeszel, David; Sun, Xinlei; Lloyd, Andrew; Nyblade, Andrew; Anandakrishnan, Sridhar; Aster, Richard; Chaput, Julien; Huerta, Audrey; Hansen, Samantha; Wilson, Terry

2013-04-01

Recent broadband seismic deployments, including the AGAP/GAMSEIS array of 24 broadband seismographs over the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM) in East Antarctica and the POLENET/ANET deployment of 33 seismographs across much of West Antarctica, reveal the detailed crust and upper mantle structure of Antarctica for the first time. The seismographs operate year-around even in the coldest parts of Antarctica, due to novel insulated boxes, power systems, and modified instrumentation developed in collaboration with the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center. We analyze the data using several different techniques to develop high-resolution models of Antarctic seismic structure. We use Rayleigh wave phase velocities at periods of 20-180 s determined using a modified two-plane wave decomposition of teleseismic Rayleigh waves to invert for the three dimensional shear velocity structure. In addition, Rayleigh wave group and phase velocities obtained by ambient seismic noise correlation methods provide constraints at shorter periods and shallower depths. Receiver functions provide precise estimates of crustal structure beneath the stations, and P and S wave tomography provides models of upper mantle structure down to ~ 500 km depth along transects of greater seismic station density. The new seismic results show that the high elevations of the GSM are supported by thick crust (~ 55 km), and are underlain by thick Precambrian continental lithosphere that initially formed during Archean to mid-Proterozoic times. The absence of lithospheric thermal anomalies suggests that the mountains were formed by a compressional orogeny during the Paleozoic, thus providing a locus for ice sheet nucleation throughout a long period of geological time. Within West Antarctica, the crust and lithosphere are extremely thin near the Transantarctic Mountain Front and topographic lows such as the Bentley Trench and Byrd Basin, which represent currently inactive Cenozoic rift systems. Slow seismic velocities beneath Marie Byrd Land at asthenospheric depths suggest a major thermal anomaly, possibly due to a mantle plume. Volcanic earthquakes detected in this region indicate the presence of currently active magma systems. The results suggest large lateral changes in parameters needed for glaciological models, including lithospheric thickness, mantle viscosity, and heat flow. Extremely high heat flow is predicted for much of West Antarctica, consistent with recent results from the WAIS ice drilling. Using the seismic results to estimate mantle viscosity, we find several orders of magnitude difference in viscosity between East and West Antarctica, with lowest viscosities found beneath Marie Byrd Land and the West Antarctic Rift System. Realistic glacial isostatic adjustment models must take these large lateral variations into account.

P-wave tomography of Northeast Asia: Constraints on the western Pacific plate subduction and mantle dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Jincheng; Tian, You; Liu, Cai; Zhao, Dapeng; Feng, Xuan; Zhu, Hongxiang

2018-01-01

A high-resolution model of 3-D P-wave velocity structure beneath Northeast Asia and adjacent regions is determined by using 244,180 arrival times of 14,163 local and regional earthquakes and 319,857 relative travel-time residuals of 9988 teleseismic events recorded at ∼2100 seismic stations in the study region. Our tomographic results reveal the subducting Pacific slab clearly as a prominent high-velocity anomaly from the Japan Trench to the North-South Gravity lineament (NSGL) in East China. The NSGL is roughly coincident with the western edge of the stagnant Pacific slab in the mantle transition zone (MTZ). The subducting Pacific slab has partly sunk into the lower mantle beneath Northeast China, but under the Sino-Korean Craton the slab lies horizontally in the MTZ. The NSGL, as an important tectonic line in Mainland China, is marked by sharp differences in the surface topography, gravity anomaly, crustal and lithospheric thickness and mantle seismic velocity from the east to the west. These features of the NSGL and large-scale hot and wet upwelling in the big mantle wedge (BMW) in the east of the NSGL are all related to the subduction processes of the Western Pacific plate. The Changbai intraplate volcanic group is underlain by a striking low-velocity anomaly from the upper MTZ and the BMW up to the surface, and deep earthquakes (410-650 km depths) occur actively in the subducting Pacific slab to the east of the Changbai volcano. We propose that the Changbai volcanic group is caused by upwelling of hot and wet asthenospheric materials and active convection in the BMW. The formation of other volcanic groups in the east of the NSGL is also associated with the subduction-driven corner flow in the BMW.

Shear wave velocities in the upper mantle of the Western Alps: new constraints using array analysis of seismic surface waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyu, Chao; Pedersen, Helle A.; Paul, Anne; Zhao, Liang; Solarino, Stefano

2017-07-01

It remains challenging to obtain absolute shear wave velocities of heterogeneities of small lateral extension in the uppermost mantle. This study presents a cross-section of Vs across the strongly heterogeneous 3-D structure of the western European Alps, based on array analysis of data from 92 broad-band seismic stations from the CIFALPS experiment and from permanent networks in France and Italy. Half of the stations were located along a dense sublinear array. Using a combination of these stations and off-profile stations, fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves were calculated using a combined frequency-time beamforming approach. We calculated dispersion curves for seven arrays of approximately 100 km aperture and 14 arrays of approximately 50 km aperture, the latter with the aim of obtaining a 2-D vertical cross-section of Vs beneath the western Alps. The dispersion curves were inverted for Vs(z), with crustal interfaces imposed from a previous receiver function study. The array approach proved feasible, as Vs(z) from independent arrays vary smoothly across the profile length. Results from the seven large arrays show that the shear velocity of the upper mantle beneath the European plate is overall low compared to AK135 with the lowest velocities in the internal part of the western Alps, and higher velocities east of the Alps beneath the Po plain. The 2-D Vs model is coherent with (i) a ∼100 km thick eastward-dipping European lithosphere west of the Alps, (ii) very high velocities beneath the Po plain, coherent with the presence of the Alpine (European) slab and (iii) a narrow low-velocity anomaly beneath the core of the western Alps (from the Briançonnais to the Dora Maira massif), and approximately colocated with a similar anomaly observed in a recent teleseismic P-wave tomography. This intriguing anomaly is also supported by traveltime variations of subvertically propagating body waves from two teleseismic events that are approximately located on the profile great circle.

A Global Upper-Mantle Tomographic Model of Shear Attenuation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karaoglu, H.; Romanowicz, B. A.

2016-12-01

Mapping anelastic 3D structure within the earth's mantle is key to understanding present day mantle dynamics, as it provides complementary constraints to those obtained from elastic structure, with the potential to distinguish between thermal and compositional heterogeneity. For this, we need to measure seismic wave amplitudes, which are sensitive to both elastic (through focusing and scattering) and anelastic structure. The elastic effects are less pronounced at long periods, so previous global upper-mantle attenuation models are based on teleseismic surface wave data, sometimes including overtones. In these studies, elastic effects are considered either indirectly, by eliminating data strongly contaminated by them (e.g. Romanowicz, 1995; Gung and Romanowicz, 2004), or by correcting for elastic focusing effects using an approximate linear approach (Dalton et al., 2008). Additionally, in these studies, the elastic structure is held fixed when inverting for intrinsic attenuation . The importance of (1) having a good starting elastic model, (2) accurate modeling of the seismic wavefield and (3) joint inversion for elastic and anelastic structure, becomes more evident as the targeted resolution level increases. Also, velocity dispersion effects due to anelasticity need to be taken into account. Here, we employ a hybrid full waveform inversion method, inverting jointly for global elastic and anelastic upper mantle structure, starting from the latest global 3D shear velocity model built by our group (French and Romanowicz, 2014), using the spectral element method for the forward waveform modeling (Capdeville et al., 2003), and normal-mode perturbation theory (NACT - Li and Romanowicz, 1995) for kernel computations. We present a 3D upper-mantle anelastic model built by using three component fundamental and overtone surface waveforms down to 60 s as well as long period body waveforms down to 30 s. We also include source and site effects to first order as frequency independent scalar factors. The robustness of the inversion method is assessed through synthetic and resolution tests. We discuss salient features of the resulting anelastic model and in particular the well-resolved strong correlation with tectonics observed in the first 200 km of the mantle.

The crust and uppermost mantle structure in Southern Peru from ambient noise and earthquake surface wave analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Y.; Clayton, R. W.

2012-12-01

We determine the Vs structure to a depth of 140 km of Southern Peru, where the subducted Nazca slab changes from normal to flat subduction. The data are from a box-like array that is approximately 300 km on a side, and with 150 stations in total. The structure is inverted from surface wave dispersion curves measured between 5 s to 23 s period from ambient noise cross-correlations, and between 25 s to 69 s from earthquake two-plane-wave analysis. From the map views of different depths, we observe that: (1) The forearc region is characterized by shallow crustal thickness and higher crustal velocity compared with the backarc. (2) The upper-crust velocity in the backarc above normal subduction (3.0-3.2 km/s) is lower compared with that above flat subduction region (3.2-3.4 km/s). The low velocity coincides with the deep sediments above the Altiplano plateau. (3) The transition from the normal to flat subduction is characterized by a comparatively lower upper-mid crust velocity (3.2-3.4 km/s). The lower velocity zone also coincides with the highest topography (>4700 m) in the study area. (4) The mantle wedge velocity above the flat subduction (4.6-4.9 km/s) is higher than the surrounding mantle and the mantle above the normal subduction region (4.3-4.5 km/s). We deduce that the upper-mid crust above the transition of the slab geometry is probably more felsic, which can be due to the old volcanic activity during the normal-flat transition, and thus can more easily accommodate the crustal shortening. The lack of present volcanism above the flat subduction, however, could be explained by the high velocity anomaly related to the flat slab. It may indicate a cold environment, and thus the lack of mantle melting.

Velocity Structure Determination Through Seismic Waveform Modeling and Time Deviations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savage, B.; Zhu, L.; Tan, Y.; Helmberger, D. V.

2001-12-01

Through the use of seismic waveforms recorded by TriNet, a dataset of earthquake focal mechanisms and deviations (time shifts) relative to a standard model facilitates the investigation of the crust and uppermost mantle of southern California. The CAP method of focal mechanism determination, in use by TriNet on a routine basis, provides time shifts for surface waves and Pnl arrivals independently relative to the reference model. These shifts serve as initial data for calibration of local and regional seismic paths. Time shifts from the CAP method are derived by splitting the Pnl section of the waveform, the first arriving Pn to just before the arrival of the S wave, from the much slower surface waves then cross-correlating the data with synthetic waveforms computed from a standard model. Surface waves interact with the entire crust, but the upper crust causes the greatest effect. Whereas, Pnl arrivals sample the deeper crust, upper mantle, and source region. This natural division separates the upper from lower crust for regional calibration and structural modeling and allows 3-D velocity maps to be created using the resulting time shifts. Further examination of Pnl and other arrivals which interact with the Moho illuminate the complex nature of this boundary. Initial attempts at using the first 10 seconds of the Pnl section to determine upper most mantle structure have proven insightful. Two large earthquakes north of southern California in Nevada and Mammoth Lakes, CA allow the creation of record sections from 200 to 600 km. As the paths swing from east to west across southern California, simple 1-D models turn into complex structure, dramatically changing the waveform character. Using finite difference models to explain the structure, we determine that a low velocity zone is present at the base of the crust and extends to 100 km in depth. Velocity variations of 5 percent of the mantle in combination with steeply sloping edges produces complex waveform variations. Characteristics of this complex propagation appear from the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the west, to Death Valley in the east. The structure does not cross the Garlock fault to the south, but we are unsure of the structures northern extent.

Detailed study of upper mantle anisotropy in the upper mantle of eastern North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, X.; Levin, V. L.; Li, Y.

2016-12-01

We collected observations of core-refracted shear waves on a 1300 km long array crossing the eastern part of the North American continent from James Bay to the Fundy Basin. We combine data from the Earthscope Transportable Array, Canadian and US permanent observatories, and the recently completed Earthscope FlexArray QMIII.Past studies found ample evidence for directional dependence (anisotropy) of seismic wave speed in the upper mantle of this region. However, to date the lateral spacing of seismic observatories made direct comparisons between anisotropic structure and tectonic divisions evident on the surface challenging. With instruments spacing 50 km, and less near major tectonic boundaries such as the Grenville Front and the Appalachian Front, we can discriminate between gradual changes in anisotropic properties due to asthenospheric flow variations, and abrupt and localized changes likely to arise from juxtaposition of distinct lithospheric blocks.To insure lateral consistency of measurements we selected core-refracted shear waves that were observed over the entire length of our array. Also, since directional dependence of splitting parameters is a well recognized signature of vertical changes in anisotropic properties we examine observations from different directions, and look for systematic changes.Most locations show evidence for some degree of splitting in observed shear waves. Delays between fast and slow components estimated using rotation-correlation method range from 0.3 to 1.5 s. At most sites delay values vary considerably between individual phases measured. Fast polarizations are predominantly NE-SW, which agrees with numerous past studies of the region. Systematic directional dependence of fast polarization is seen at all sites we studied. Furthermore, the values of fast polarization appear to be similar along the entire array for individual events but vary from event to event. Both of these observations are consistent with the previously proposed notion of layered anisotropy in the upper mantle of the North American continent. We find localized changes in splitting parameters at the Grenville Front. The Appalachian Front, or the internal divisions of the Appalachian Orogen do not have obvious changes in splitting parameters associated with them.

Structure and seismicity of the upper mantle using deployments of broadband seismographs in Antarctica and the Mariana Islands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barklage, Mitchell

We determine shear wave splitting parameters of teleseismic SKS and SKKS phases recorded at 43 broadband seismometers deployed in South Victoria Land as part of the Transantarctic Mountains seismic experiment (TAMSEIS) from 2000-2003. We use an eigenvalue technique to linearize the rotated and shifted shear wave particle motions and determine the best splitting parameters. The data show a fairly consistent fast direction of azimuthal anisotropy oriented approximately N60°E with splitting times of about 1 second. Based on a previous study of the azimuthal variations of Rayleigh wave phase velocities which show a similar fast direction, we suggest the anisotropy is localized in the uppermost mantle, with a best estimate of 3% anisotropy in a layer of about 150 km thickness. We suggest that the observed anisotropy near the Ross Sea coast, a region underlain by thin lithosphere, results either from upper mantle flow related to Cenozoic Ross Sea extension or to edge-driven convection associated with a sharp change in lithospheric thickness between East and West Antarctica. Both hypotheses are consistent with the more E-W fast axis orientation for stations on Ross Island and along the coast, sub-parallel to the extension direction and the lithospheric boundary. Anisotropy in East Antarctica, which is underlain by cold thick continental lithosphere, must be localized within the lithospheric upper mantle and reflect a relict tectonic fabric from past deformation events. Fast axes for the most remote stations in the Vostok Highlands are rotated by 20° and are parallel to splitting measurements at South Pole. These observations seem to delineate a distinct domain of lithospheric fabric, which may represent the extension of the Darling Mobile Belt or Pinjarra Orogen into the interior of East Antarctica. Seismic tomography imaging provides an opportunity to constrain mantle wedge processes associated with subduction, volatile transport, arc volcanism, and back-arc spreading. We investigate seismic velocity structure of the upper mantle across the Central Mariana subduction system using data from the 2003-2004 Mariana Subduction Factory Imaging Experiment. This 11-month experiment consisted of 20 broadband seismic stations deployed on islands and 58 semi-broadband ocean bottom seismographs deployed across the forearc, island arc, and back-arc spreading center. We determine Vp and Vp/Vs structure on a three dimensional grid using over 25,000 local travel time observations as well as over 2000 teleseismic arrival times determined by waveform cross correlation. The mantle wedge is characterized by a region of low velocity and high Vp/Vs beneath the forearc, an inclined zone of low velocity underlying the volcanic front, and a broad region of low velocity beneath the back-arc spreading center. The slow velocity anomalies are strongest at roughly 20-30 km depth in the forearc, 60-70 km depth beneath the volcanic arc, and 20-30 km beneath the back-arc spreading center. The slow velocity anomalies beneath the arc and back-arc appear as separate and distinct features in our images, with a small channel of connectivity occurring at approximately 75 km depth. The subducting Pacific plate is characterized by high seismic velocities. An exception occurs in the forearc beneath the big blue seamount and at the top of the slab at roughly 80 km depth where slow velocities are observed. We interpret the forearc anomalies to represent a region of large scale serpentinization of the mantle whereas the arc and back-arc anomalies represent regions of high temperature with a small amount of increased water content and/or melt and constrain the source regions in the mantle for arc and back-arc lavas. We investigate the double seismic zone (dsz) beneath the Central Mariana Arc using data from a land-sea array of 58 ocean bottom seismographs and 20 land seismographs deployed during 2003-2004. Nearly 600 well-recorded earthquakes were located using a P and S wave arrival times and a double difference relocation technique. The double seismic zone is well imaged from the forearc region to a depth of nearly 200 km. The width of the dsz is approximately 30 km at shallow depths and gradually becomes narrower with depth until it is now longer resolvable at depths greater than 180-200 km. Focal mechanisms determined from P and S wave polarities and amplitudes indicate that events from 70-150 km depth show along strike extension, whereas events greater than 150 km show downdip extension. Both the upper and lower zones of the dsz show similar focal mechanisms, demonstrating that the dsz is not caused by bending or unbending stresses. Along-strike tension may result from stresses related to the increasing curvature of the Mariana slab over the past few million years, as indicated by plate reconstructions. Downdip extension may result from slab pull forces consistent with the strong density anomaly of an old, cold plate relative to the surrounding mantle.

Earthquake focal parameters and lithospheric structure of the anatolian plateau from complete regional waveform modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rodgers, A

2000-12-28

This is an informal report on preliminary efforts to investigate earthquake focal mechanisms and earth structure in the Anatolian (Turkish) Plateau. Seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle and earthquake focal parameters for event in the Anatolian Plateau are estimated from complete regional waveforms. Focal mechanisms, depths and seismic moments of moderately large crustal events are inferred from long-period (40-100 seconds) waveforms and compared with focal parameters derived from global teleseismic data. Using shorter periods (10-100 seconds) we estimate the shear and compressional velocity structure of the crust and uppermost mantle. Results are broadly consistent with previous studiesmore » and imply relatively little crustal thickening beneath the central Anatolian Plateau. Crustal thickness is about 35 km in western Anatolia and greater than 40 km in eastern Anatolia, however the long regional paths require considerable averaging and limit resolution. Crustal velocities are lower than typical continental averages, and even lower than typical active orogens. The mantle P-wave velocity was fixed to 7.9 km/s, in accord with tomographic models. A high sub-Moho Poisson's Ratio of 0.29 was required to fit the Sn-Pn differential times. This is suggestive of high sub-Moho temperatures, high shear wave attenuation and possibly partial melt. The combination of relatively thin crust in a region of high topography and high mantle temperatures suggests that the mantle plays a substantial role in maintaining the elevation.« less

P-wave tomography of the western United States: Insight into the Yellowstone hotspot and the Juan de Fuca slab

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, You; Zhao, Dapeng

2012-06-01

We used 190,947 high-quality P-wave arrival times from 8421 local earthquakes and 1,098,022 precise travel-time residuals from 6470 teleseismic events recorded by the EarthScope/USArray transportable array to determine a detailed three-dimensional P-wave velocity model of the crust and mantle down to 1000 km depth under the western United States (US). Our tomography revealed strong heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle under the western US. Prominent high-velocity anomalies are imaged beneath Idaho Batholith, central Colorado Plateau, Cascadian subduction zone, stable North American Craton, Transverse Ranges, and Southern Sierra Nevada. Prominent low-velocity anomalies are imaged at depths of 0-200 km beneath Snake River Plain, which may represent a small-scale convection beneath the western US. The low-velocity structure deviates variably from a narrow vertical plume conduit extending down to ˜1000 km depth, suggesting that the Yellowstone hotspot may have a lower-mantle origin. The Juan de Fuca slab is imaged as a dipping high-velocity anomaly under the western US. The slab geometry and its subducted depth vary in the north-south direction. In the southern parts the slab may have subducted down to >600 km depth. A "slab hole" is revealed beneath Oregon, which shows up as a low-velocity anomaly at depths of ˜100 to 300 km. The formation of the slab hole may be related to the Newberry magmatism. The removal of flat subducted Farallon slab may have triggered the vigorous magmatism in the Basin and Range and southern part of Rocky Mountains and also resulted in the uplift of the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains.

Seismic Constraints on the Mantle Viscosity Structure beneath Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiens, Douglas; Heeszel, David; Aster, Richard; Nyblade, Andrew; Wilson, Terry

2015-04-01

Lateral variations in upper mantle viscosity structure can have first order effects on glacial isostatic adjustment. These variations are expected to be particularly large for the Antarctic continent because of the stark geological contrast between ancient cratonic and recent tectonically active terrains in East and West Antarctica, respectively. A large misfit between observed and predicted GPS rates for West Antarctica probably results in part from the use of a laterally uniform viscosity structure. Although not linked by a simple relationship, mantle seismic velocities can provide important constraints on mantle viscosity structure, as they are both largely controlled by temperature and water content. Recent higher resolution seismic models for the Antarctic mantle, derived from data acquired by new seismic stations deployed in the AGAP/GAMSEIS and ANET/POLENET projects, offer the opportunity to use the seismic velocity structure to place new constraints on the viscosity of the Antarctic upper mantle. We use an Antarctic shear wave velocity model derived from array analysis of Rayleigh wave phase velocities [Heeszel et al, in prep] and examine a variety of methodologies for relating seismic, thermal and rheological parameters to compute a suite of viscosity models for the Antarctic mantle. A wide variety of viscosity structures can be derived using various assumptions, but they share several robust common elements. There is a viscosity contrast of at least two orders of magnitude between East and West Antarctica at depths of 80-250 km, reflecting the boundary between cold cratonic lithosphere in East Antarctica and warm upper mantle in West Antarctica. The region beneath the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mtns and extending to the Pensacola Mtns. shows intermediate viscosity between the extremes of East and West Antarctica. There are also significant variations between different parts of West Antarctica, with the lowest viscosity occurring beneath the Marie Byrd Land (MBL). The MBL Dome and adjacent coastal areas show extremely low viscosity (~1018Pa-s) for most parameterizations, suggesting that low mantle viscosity may produce a very rapid response to ice mass loss in this region.

Crustal shear wave velocity and radial anisotropy beneath the Rio Grande rift from ambient noise tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Yuanyuan V.; Li, Aibing

2015-02-01

Shear wave velocity and radial anisotropy beneath New Mexico are obtained from ambient seismic noise tomography using data from the Transportable Array. Besides the distinct seismic structure imaged across the Rio Grande rift from the Colorado Plateau to the Great Plains, both velocity and anisotropy models also reveal significant variations along the rift. The rift at Albuquerque is characterized by remarkably low velocity in the shallow crust, high velocity and strong positive anisotropy in the middle and lower crust, and low velocity in the upper mantle. These observations can be interpreted as magma accumulation in the shallow crust and significant mafic underplating in the lower crust with abundant melt supply from the hot mantle. We propose that the Albuquerque region has recently been experiencing the most vigorous extensional deformation in the rift. Positive anisotropy with Vsh > Vsv appears in the central and southern rifts with a stronger anisotropy beneath younger volcanoes, reflecting layering of magma intrusion due to past and recent rifting activities. The low velocities in the uppermost mantle are observed under high-elevation places, the Jemez Lineament, northern rift, and east rift boundary, implying that the buoyancy of hot mantle largely compensates the local high topography. Low mantle velocities appear at the boundary of the southern rift, corresponding to the large lithosphere thickness change, instead of the rift center, consistent with the prediction from the small-scale, edge-driven mantle convection model. We conclude that the edge-driven upper mantle convection is probably the dominant mechanism for the recent and current rifting and uplift in the Rio Grande rift.

Tectonic evolution and mantle structure of the Caribbean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Benthem, Steven; Govers, Rob; Spakman, Wim; Wortel, Rinus

2013-06-01

investigate whether predictions of mantle structure from tectonic reconstructions are in agreement with a detailed tomographic image of seismic P wave velocity structure under the Caribbean region. In the upper mantle, positive seismic anomalies are imaged under the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico. These anomalies are interpreted as remnants of Atlantic lithosphere subduction and confirm tectonic reconstructions that suggest at least 1100 km of convergence at the Lesser Antilles island arc during the past 45 Myr. The imaged Lesser Antilles slab consists of a northern and southern anomaly, separated by a low-velocity anomaly across most of the upper mantle, which we interpret as the subducted North America-South America plate boundary. The southern edge of the imaged Lesser Antilles slab agrees with vertical tearing of South America lithosphere. The northern Lesser Antilles slab is continuous with the Puerto Rico slab along the northeastern plate boundary. This results in an amphitheater-shaped slab, and it is interpreted as westward subducting North America lithosphere that remained attached to the surface along the northeastern boundary of the Caribbean plate. At the Muertos Trough, however, material is imaged until a depth of only 100 km, suggesting a small amount of subduction. The location and length of the imaged South Caribbean slab agrees with proposed subduction of Caribbean lithosphere under the northern South America plate. An anomaly related to proposed Oligocene subduction at the Nicaragua rise is absent in the tomographic model. Beneath Panama, a subduction window exists across the upper mantle, which is related to the cessation of subduction of the Nazca plate under Panama since 9.5 Ma and possibly the preceding subduction of the extinct Cocos-Nazca spreading center. In the lower mantle, two large anomaly patterns are imaged. The westernmost anomaly agrees with the subduction of Farallon lithosphere. The second lower mantle anomaly is found east of the Farallon anomaly and is interpreted as a remnant of the late Mesozoic subduction of North and South America oceanic lithosphere at the Greater Antilles, Aves ridge, and Leeward Antilles. The imaged mantle structure does not allow us to discriminate between an "Intra-Americas origin" and a "Pacific origin" of the Caribbean plate.

Tectonic evolution and mantle structure of the Caribbean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benthem, Steven; Govers, Rob; Spakman, Wim; Wortel, Rinus

2013-06-01

investigate whether predictions of mantle structure from tectonic reconstructions are in agreement with a detailed tomographic image of seismic P wave velocity structure under the Caribbean region. In the upper mantle, positive seismic anomalies are imaged under the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico. These anomalies are interpreted as remnants of Atlantic lithosphere subduction and confirm tectonic reconstructions that suggest at least 1100 km of convergence at the Lesser Antilles island arc during the past ~45 Myr. The imaged Lesser Antilles slab consists of a northern and southern anomaly, separated by a low-velocity anomaly across most of the upper mantle, which we interpret as the subducted North America-South America plate boundary. The southern edge of the imaged Lesser Antilles slab agrees with vertical tearing of South America lithosphere. The northern Lesser Antilles slab is continuous with the Puerto Rico slab along the northeastern plate boundary. This results in an amphitheater-shaped slab, and it is interpreted as westward subducting North America lithosphere that remained attached to the surface along the northeastern boundary of the Caribbean plate. At the Muertos Trough, however, material is imaged until a depth of only 100 km, suggesting a small amount of subduction. The location and length of the imaged South Caribbean slab agrees with proposed subduction of Caribbean lithosphere under the northern South America plate. An anomaly related to proposed Oligocene subduction at the Nicaragua rise is absent in the tomographic model. Beneath Panama, a subduction window exists across the upper mantle, which is related to the cessation of subduction of the Nazca plate under Panama since 9.5 Ma and possibly the preceding subduction of the extinct Cocos-Nazca spreading center. In the lower mantle, two large anomaly patterns are imaged. The westernmost anomaly agrees with the subduction of Farallon lithosphere. The second lower mantle anomaly is found east of the Farallon anomaly and is interpreted as a remnant of the late Mesozoic subduction of North and South America oceanic lithosphere at the Greater Antilles, Aves ridge, and Leeward Antilles. The imaged mantle structure does not allow us to discriminate between an "Intra-Americas origin" and a "Pacific origin" of the Caribbean plate.

Multiple mantle upwellings through the transition zone beneath the Afar Depression?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, J. O.; Kendall, J. M.; Stuart, G. W.; Thompson, D. A.; Ebinger, C. J.; Keir, D.; Ayele, A.; Goitom, B.; Ogubazghi, G.

2012-12-01

Previous seismic studies using regional deployments of sensors in East-Africa show that low seismic velocities underlie Africa, but their resolution is limited to the top 200-300km of the Earth. Thus, the connection between the low velocities in the uppermost mantle and those imaged in global studies in the lower mantle is unclear. We have combined new data from Afar, Ethiopia with 7 other regional experiments and global network stations across Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Yemen, to produce high-resolution models of upper mantle P- and S-wave velocities to the base of the transition zone. Relative travel time tomographic inversions show that within the transition zone two focussed sharp-sided low velocity regions exist: one beneath the Western Ethiopian plateau outside the rift valley, and the other beneath the Afar depression. Estimates of transition zone thickness suggest that this is unlikely to be an artefact of mantle discontinuity topography as a transition zone of normal thickness underlies the majority of Afar and surrounding regions. However, a low velocity layer is evident directly above the 410 discontinuity, co-incident with some of the lowest seismic velocities suggesting that smearing of a strong low velocity layer of limited depth extent may contribute to the tomographic models in north-east Afar. The combination of seismic constraints suggests that small low temperature (<50K) upwellings may rise from a broader low velocity plume-like feature in the lower mantle. This interpretation is supported by numerical and analogue experiments that suggest the 660km phase change and viscosity jump may impede flow from the lower to upper mantle creating a thermal boundary layer at the base of the transition zone. This allows smaller, secondary upwellings to initiate and rise to the surface. These, combined with possible evidence of melt above the 410 discontinuity can explain the seismic velocity models. Our images of secondary upwellings suggest that there is no evidence for a plume in the classical sense (i.e. a narrow conduit). Instead, we propose that secondary upwellings rise from the base of the transition zone and connect with the northeast flowing African superswell in the upper mantle.

Initial tsunami signals in the lithosphere-ocean-atmosphere medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Novik, O.; Ershov, S.; Mikhaylovskaya, I.

Satellite and ground based instrumentations for monitoring of dynamical processes under the Ocean floor 3 4 of the Earth surface and resulting catastrophic events should be adapted to unknown physical nature of transformation of the oceanic lithosphere s energy of seismogenic deformations into measurable acoustic electromagnetic EM temperature and hydrodynamic tsunami waves To describe the initial up to a tsunami wave far from a shore stage of this transformation and to understand mechanism of EM signals arising above the Ocean during seismic activation we formulate a nonlinear mathematical model of seismo-hydro-EM geophysical field interaction in the lithosphere-Ocean-atmosphere medium from the upper mantle under the Ocean up to the ionosphere domain D The model is based on the theory of elasticity electrodynamics fluid dynamics thermodynamics and geophysical data On the basis of this model and its mathematical investigation we calculate generation and propagation of different see above waves in the basin of a model marginal sea the data on the central part of the Sea of Japan were used At the moment t 0 the dynamic interaction process is supposed to be caused by weak may be precursory sub-vertical elastic displacements with the amplitude duration and main frequency of the order of a few cm sec and tenth of Hz respectively at the depth of 37 km under the sea level i e in the upper mantle Other seismic excitations may be considered as well The lithosphere EM signal is generated in the upper mantle conductive

Seismic anisotropy beneath the southern Ordos block and the Qinling-Dabie orogen, China: Eastward Tibetan asthenospheric flow around the southern Ordos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Yong; Chen, Yongshun John

2016-12-01

SKS wave splitting analysis is performed to estimate the seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle using teleseismic data recorded by a temporary seismic array of 180 stations called SOSArray deployed in the southern Ordos block and the Qinling-Dabie orogen. The most important finding is that large delay times with NW-SE fast polarization directions in the northeastern Tibet are continuous across the boundary into the southwestern part of the Ordos block, where the SKS wave splitting results are significantly different from those in the rest of the Ordos block. Based on our SKS wave splitting results in addition to the results from previous studies, we propose an asthenospheric flow model for the eastward extrusion of the Tibetan upper mantle. The model consists of two corner flows around the southwestern corner and the southeastern corner of the Ordos block and the eastward flow along the Weihe graben and the Qinling-Dabie orogen for the escaping Tibetan upper mantle. Finally, the clockwise turning flow of the asthenosphere around the southwestern corner of Ordos block has currently extended laterally into the interior of the Ordos block, suggesting that the thick cold lithospheric root of the southwestern Ordos block there is currently being replaced with hot Tibetan asthenosphere at depths, that is, we observed an on-going process of thermal erosion of a cratonic lithosphere by lateral hot asthenospheric flow.

Upper Mantle Discontinuity Structure Beneath the Western Atlantic Ocean and Eastern North America from SS Precursors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmerr, N. C.; Beghein, C.; Kostic, D.; Baldridge, A. M.; West, J. D.; Nittler, L. R.; Bull, A. L.; Montesi, L.; Byrne, P. K.; Hummer, D. R.; Plescia, J. B.; Elkins-Tanton, L. T.; Lekic, V.; Schmidt, B. E.; Elkins, L. J.; Cooper, C. M.; ten Kate, I. L.; Van Hinsbergen, D. J. J.; Parai, R.; Glass, J. B.; Ni, J.; Fuji, N.; McCubbin, F. M.; Michalski, J. R.; Zhao, C.; Arevalo, R. D., Jr.; Koelemeijer, P.; Courtier, A. M.; Dalton, H.; Waszek, L.; Bahamonde, J.; Schmerr, B.; Gilpin, N.; Rosenshein, E.; Mach, K.; Ostrach, L. R.; Caracas, R.; Craddock, R. A.; Moore-Driskell, M. M.; Du Frane, W. L.; Kellogg, L. H.

2015-12-01

Seismic discontinuities within the mantle arise from a wide range of mechanisms, including changes in mineralogy, major element composition, melt content, volatile abundance, anisotropy, or a combination of the above. In particular, the depth and sharpness of upper mantle discontinuities at 410 and 660 km depth are attributed to solid-state phase changes sensitive to both mantle temperature and composition, where regions of thermal heterogeneity produce topography and chemical heterogeneity changes the impedance contrast across the discontinuity. Seismic mapping of this topography and sharpness thus provides constraint on the thermal and compositional state of the mantle. The EarthScope USArray is providing unprecedented access to a wide variety of new regions previously undersampled by the SS precursors. This includes the boundary between the oceanic plate in the western Atlantic Ocean and continental margin of eastern North America. Here we use a seismic array approach to image the depth, sharpness, and topography of the upper mantle discontinuities, as well as other possible upper mantle reflectors beneath this region. This array approach utilizes seismic waves that reflect off the underside of a mantle discontinuity and arrive several hundred seconds prior to the SS seismic phase as precursory energy. In this study, we collected high-quality broadband data SS precursors data from shallow focus (< 30 km deep), mid-Atlantic ridge earthquakes recorded by USArray seismometers in Alaska. We generated 4th root vespagrams to enhance the SS precursors and determine how they sample the mantle. Our data show detection of localized structure on the discontinuity boundaries as well as additional horizons, such as the X-discontinuity and a potential reflection from a discontinuity near the depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. These structures are related to the transition from predominantly old ocean lithosphere to underlying continental lithosphere, as while deeper reflectors are associated with the subduction of the ancient Farallon slab. A comparison of the depth of upper mantle discontinuities to changes in seismic velocity and anisotropy will further quantify the relationship to mantle flow, compositional layering, and phases changes.

Mantle Flow in the Western United States Constrained by Seismic Anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niday, W.; Humphreys, E.

2017-12-01

Shear wave splitting, caused by the lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of olivine crystals under shear deformation, provide a useful constraint on numerical models of mantle flow. Although it is sometimes assumed that shear wave splitting fast directions correspond with mantle flow directions, this is only true in simple shear flows that do not vary strongly with space or time. Observed shear wave splitting in the western United States is complex and inconsistent with simple shear driven by North American and Pacific plate motion, suggesting that the effects of time-dependent subduction history and spatial heterogeneity are important. Liu and Stegman (2011) reproduce the pattern of fast seismic anomalies below the western US from Farallon subduction history, and Chaparro and Stegman (2017) reproduce the circular anisotropy field below the Great Basin. We extend this to consider anisotropic structure outside the Great Basin and evaluate the density and viscosity of seismic anomalies such as slabs and Yellowstone. We use the mantle convection code ASPECT to simulate 3D buoyancy-driven flow in the mantle below the western US, and predict LPO using the modeled flow fields. We present results from a suite of models varying the sub-lithospheric structures of the western US and constraints on density and viscosity variations in the upper mantle.

The depth range of azimuthal anisotropy beneath Southern California via analyses of long-period Rayleigh-waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsang, Stephanie Doris

The motion of the mantle beneath the tectonic plates is still unknown. Mantle shears associated with flow generate anisotropy. In order to investigate the anisotropic properties within the Earth to a range of depths within the crust and upper mantle (and perhaps beyond), long-period Rayleigh waves (periods of 51:282 ≤ T ≤ 333:33 seconds) are used in this study. One model suggests that the fast axis orientation, arising from the preferential alignment of olivine crystal grains in the upper mantle, coincides with the direction of absolute plate motion of the North-American plate. Other models suggest it is aligned with the direction of relative plate motion of the Pacific and North-American plates. A third suggests that an eastward mantle flow occurs beneath the North-American plate. There is also controversy as to the depth to which anisotropy is generated. In this thesis, the Rayleigh-wave phase velocities' dependence on a seismic event's back-azimuth angle is explored within the Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN). Because surface wave velocities vary depending on the range of depth into the Earth sampled by each period, an observed deviation of the resulting phase velocity calculations for a wide range of back-azimuth angles, (6° to 349°) with respect to a reference dispersion curve of the area, provides information on the anisotropy of the subsurface structure. Further work on the fast-axis orientation and its tectonic implications is carried out here. I find that the 2 directions 270° = 90° and 290° = 110° are possible fast-axes orientations. I also find that the amplitude of azimuthal anisotropy is insufficient to explain birefringence of S-body waves, also known as SKS splitting, suggesting that it occurs much deeper than previously thought, perhaps all the way to the transition zone. Future work might involve array analysis of Love-wave components using the beamforming approach. This approach should prove effective in yielding further insight into the heterogeneity of the subsurface structure beneath Southern California.

Mantle Flow Across the Baikal Rift Constrained With Integrated Seismic Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lebedev, S.; Meier, T.; van der Hilst, R. D.

2005-12-01

The Baikal Rift is located at the boundary of the stable Siberian Craton and deforming central Mongolia. The origin of the late Cenozoic rifting and volcanism are debated, as is the mantle flow beneath the rift zone. Here we combine new evidence from azimuthally-anisotropic upper-mantle tomography and from a radially-anisotropic inversion of interstation surface-wave dispersion curves with previously published shear-wave-splitting measurements of azimuthal anisotropy across the rift (Gao et al. 1994). While our tomographic model maps isotropic and anisotropic shear-velocity heterogeneity globally, the inversion of interstation phase-velocity measurements produces a single, radially-anisotropic, shear-velocity profile that averages from the rift to 500 km SE of it. The precision and the broad band (8-340 s) of the Rayleigh and Love wave curves ensures high accuracy of the profile. Tomography and shear-wave splitting both give a NW-SE fast direction (perpendicular to the rift) in the vicinity of the rift, changing towards W-E a few hundred kilometers from it. Previously, this has been interpreted as evidence for mantle flow similar to that beneath mid-ocean ridges, with deeper vertical flow directly beneath the rift also proposed. Our radially anisotropic profile, however, shows that while strong anisotropy with SH waves faster than SV waves is present in the thin lithosphere and upper asthenosphere beneath and SE of the rift, no anisotropy is required below 110 km. The tomographic model shows thick cratonic lithosphere north of the rift. These observations suggest that instead of a flow diverging from the rift axis in NW and SE directions, the most likely pattern is the asthenospheric flow in SE direction from beneath the Siberian lithosphere and across the rift. Possible driving forces of the flow are large-scale lithospheric deformation in East Asia and the draining of asthenosphere at W-Pacific subduction zones; a plume beneath the Siberian craton also cannot be ruled out. As shown for the model of subcontinental asthenospheric flow by Morgan and Morgan (2005), this mantle flow pattern can explain not only the rifting but also the basaltic volcanism observed in the Lake Baikal region.

Imaging the Western Iberia Seismic Structure from the Crust to the Upper Mantle from Ambient Noise Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silveira, Graça; Kiselev, Sergey; Stutzmann, Eleonore; Schimmel, Martin; Haned, Abderrahmane; Dias, Nuno; Morais, Iolanda; Custódio, Susana

2015-04-01

Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) is now widely used to image the subsurface seismic structure, with a resolution mainly dependent on the seismic network coverage. Most of these studies are limited to Rayleigh waves for periods shorter than 40/45 s and, as a consequence, they can image only the crust or, at most, the uppermost mantle. Recently, some studies successfully showed that this analysis could be extended to longer periods, thus allowing a deeper probing. In this work we present the combination of two complementary datasets. The first was obtained from the analysis of ambient noise in the period range 5-50 sec, for Western Iberia, using a dense temporary seismic network that operated between 2010 and 2012. The second one was computed for a global study, in the period range 30-250 sec, from analysis of 150 stations of the global networks GEOSCOPE and GSN. In both datasets, the Empirical Green Functions are computed by phase cross-correlation. The ambient noise phase cross-correlations are stacked using the time-frequency domain phase weighted stack (Schimmel et al. 2011, Geoph. J. Int., 184, 494-506). A bootstrap approach is used to measure the group velocities between pairs of stations and to estimate the corresponding error. We observed a good agreement between the dispersion measurements on both short period and long period datasets for most of the grid nodes. They are then inverted to obtain the 3D S-wave model from the crust to the upper mantle, using a bayesian approach. A simulated annealing method is applied, in which the number of splines that describes the model is adapted within the inversion. We compare the S-wave velocity model at some selected profiles with the S-wave velocity models gathered from Ps and Sp receiver functions joint inversion. Both results, issued from ambient noise tomography and body wave's analysis for the crust and upper mantle are consistent. This work is supported by project AQUAREL (PTDC/CTEGIX/116819/2010) and is a contribution to project QuakeLoc-PT (PTDC/GEO-FIQ/3522/2012).

SKS Anisotropy Measurements in Mid-Plate South America: a Test of Subduction-Induced Upper Mantle Flow and the Effect of Cratonic Keels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assumpcao, M.; Melo, B. C.

2017-12-01

Shear-wave splitting from core-refracted (SKS) waves indicates the amount and orientation of seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle, and is used to infer past and present mantle dynamics and continental evolution. Previous SKS studies in South America concentrated mainly in the Andes and in SE Brazil. Although effects of frozen anisotropy in the lithospheric mantle were suggested in some parts of SE Brazil, the main contribution to the orientation of the fast polarization directions have been attributed to asthenospheric flow around cratonic keels, especially around the São Francisco craton in eastern Brazil (Assumpção et al., 2006,2011). We added extra SKS splitting measurements in the area of the Pantanal and Paraná-Chaco basins (FAPESP-funded "3-Basins" Project). Results from 47 new stations will be presented, both from the temporary deployments and from the Brazilian permanent net. This data set partly fills the gap in SKS measurements between the Andes and SE Brazil, providing a more complete and robust anisotropy map of the S. American stable platform. On average, over most of the mid-continent, the fast polarization orientation tends to be close to the absolute plate motion given by the hotspot reference frame HS3-NUVEL-1A. Nevertheless, the new and previously published fast polarizations results suggest mantle flow around the Amazon and São Francisco cratons. A comparison with recent modeling of upper mantle flow induced by the Nazca plate subduction (Hu et al., 2017) shows good agreement with the predictions of mantle flow around the Amazon craton. Further south, however, especially in the Pantanal Basin, the observed SKS fast orientations are ENE-WSW, deviating from the general ESE-WNW predicted orientations. We propose that the observed ENE-WSW orientation may be due to flow around a possible cratonic nucleus beneath the northern part of the Paraná Basin ("Paranapanema block"). This cratonic block (inferred from geological observations) is also seen in regional surface-wave tomography. Large delay times at the Pantanal Basin may indicate a stronger asthenospheric channel, a more coherent flow, or a thicker asthenosphere. Similarly, small delay times beneath the northern Paraná Basin may indicate thinner anisotropic asthenosphere in that region, similar to the observations in the Amazon craton.

Microstructures, composition, and seismic properties of the Ontong Java Plateau mantle root

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tommasi, Andréa.; Ishikawa, Akira

2014-11-01

To study how an impacting plume modifies the mantle lithosphere, we analyzed the microstructures and crystal preferred orientations (CPO) of 29 peridotites and 37 pyroxenites that sample the mantle root of the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) from 60 to 120 km depth. The peridotites show a strong compositional variability, but homogeneous coarse granular to tabular microstructures, except for those equilibrated at the shallowest and deepest depths, which are porphyroclastic. All peridotites have clear olivine CPO, with dominant fiber-[010] patterns. Low intragranular misorientations and straight grain boundaries in olivine suggest that, above 100 km depth, annealing often followed deformation. Calculated density and P wave velocities of the peridotites decrease weakly with depth. S wave velocities decrease faster, resulting in increasing Vp/Vs ratio with depth. Calculated densities and seismic velocity profiles are consistent with those estimated for normal mantle compositions under a cold oceanic geotherm. Enrichment in pyroxenites may further increase seismic velocities. The calculated seismic properties cannot therefore explain the low S waves velocities predicted by Rayleigh wave tomography and ScS data in the mantle beneath the OJP. Calculated P and S waves anisotropy is variable (2-12%). It is higher on average in the deeper section of the lithosphere. Because olivine has dominantly [010]-fiber CPO patterns, if foliations are horizontal, vertically propagating S waves and Rayleigh waves will sample very weak anisotropy in the OJP mantle lithosphere. Moreover, if the orientation of the lineation changes with depth, the anisotropy-induced contrast in seismic properties might produce an intralithospheric reflector marking the stratification of the OJP mantle root.

Crustal and uppermost mantle structure and deformation in east-central China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, H.; Yang, X.; Ouyang, L.; Li, J.

2017-12-01

We conduct a non-linear joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave dispersions to obtain the crustal and upper mantle velocity structure in east-central China. In the meanwhile, the lithosphere and upper mantle deformation beneath east-central China is also evaluated with teleseismic shear wave splitting measurements. The resulting velocity model reveals that to the east of the North-South Gravity Lineament, the crust and the lithosphere are significantly thinned. Furthermore, three extensive crustal/lithospheric thinning sub-regions are clearly identified within the study area. This indicates that the modification of the crust and lithosphere in central-eastern China is non-uniform due to the heterogeneity of the lithospheric strength. Extensive crustal and lithospheric thinning could occur in some weak zones such as the basin-range junction belts and large faults. The structure beneath the Dabie orogenic belt is complex due to the collision between the North and South China Blocks during the Late Paleozoic-Triassic. The Dabie orogenic belt is generally delineated by a thick crust with a mid-crust low-velocity zone and a two-directional convergence in the lithospheric scale. Obvious velocity contrast exhibits in the crust and upper mantle at both sides of the Tanlu fault, which suggests the deep penetration of this lithospheric-scale fault. Most of our splitting measurements show nearly E-W trending fast polarization direction which is slightly deviating from the direction of plate motion. The similar present-day lithosphere structure and upper mantle deformation may imply that the eastern NCC and the eastern SCB were dominated by a common dynamic process after late Mesozoic, i.e., the westward subduction of Pacific plate and the retreat of the subduction plate. The westward subduction of the Philippine plate and the long-range effects of the collision between the Indian plate and Eurasia plate during Cenozoic may have also contributed to the present velocity structure and stress environment of eastern China.

Large-scale shear velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath Africa and surrounding regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legendre, Cédric; Meier, Thomas; Lebedev, Sergei; Friederich, Wolfgang; Egelados Working Group

2010-05-01

The automated multimode waveform inversion technique developed by Lebedev et al. (2005) was applied to available data of broadband stations in Africa and surrounding regions. It performs a fitting of the complete waveform starting from the S-wave onset to the surface wave. Assuming the location and focal mechanism of a considered earthquake as known, the first basic step is to consider each available seismogram separately and to find the velocity perturbations that can explain the filtered seismogram best. In a second step, each velocity perturbations serves as a linear constraint in an inversion for a 3D S-wave velocity model of the upper mantle. We collected data for the years from 1990 to 2006 from all permanent stations for which data were available via the data centers of ORFEUS, GEOFON and IRIS, and from others that build the Virtual European Seismological Network (VEBSN) as well as all available African stations. Just recently we were also able to add the data recorded by the temporary broadband EGELADOS network in the southern Aegean. This represents a huge dataset with all available stations in Africa and surroundings regions. The resulting models exhibit an overwhelming structural detail in relation to the size of the region considered in the inversion. They are to our knowledge the most detailed models of shear wave velocity currently available for the African upper mantle and surroundings. Most prominent features are an extremely sharp demarcation of the Dead Sea Rift System. Narrow high velocity regions follow the Hellenic arc and the Ionian trench toward the north. Low velocity zones are found at depths around 150 km in the Middle East region. The hotspots in North Africa are also clearly imaged.

Progress and challenges in global mantle attenuation tomography (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romanowicz, B. A.

2009-12-01

Global anelastic tomography has lagged behind elastic tomography, because of the difficulty to separate elastic and anelastic effects accumulated in the amplitudes of seismic waves as they propagate long distances through the heterogeneous mantle. Specifically, amplitudes are very sensitive to scattering and lateral gradients in elastic structure. Until now, these gradients - or the short wavelength features of elastic models - have not been tightly enough constrained due to a combination of (1) use of approximate wave propagation theories; (2) necessary damping due to incomplete coverage and bandwidth. Different schemes have been designed to circumvent these shortcomings in attenuation tomography, which limit resolution to long wavelengths and introduce large uncertainties in the estimation of the strength of lateral variations in attenuation. We review the robust information on anelastic structure available so far from first and second generation global upper mantle models. We discuss improvements that can be expected with, in particular, the availability of accurate numerical schemes for wave propagation in a 3D elastic earth, as well as the associated challenges, and prospects for unraveling the 3D attenuation structure of the lower mantle.

Teleseismic Array Studies of Earth's Core-Mantle Boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandrakis, Catherine

2011-12-01

The core mantle boundary (CMB) is an inaccessible and complex region, knowledge of which is vital to our understanding of many Earth processes. Above it is the heterogeneous lower-mantle. Below the boundary is the outer-core, composed of liquid iron, and/or nickel and some lighter elements. Elucidation of how these two distinct layers interact may enable researchers to better understand the geodynamo, global tectonics, and overall Earth history. One parameter that can be used to study structure and limit potential chemical compositions is seismic-wave velocity. Current global-velocity models have significant uncertainties in the 200 km above and below the CMB. In this thesis, these regions are studied using three methods. The upper outer core is studied using two seismic array methods. First, a modified vespa, or slant-stack method is applied to seismic observations at broadband seismic arrays, and at large, dense groups of broadband seismic stations dubbed 'virtual' arrays. Observations of core-refracted teleseismic waves, such as SmKS, are used to extract relative arrivaltimes. As with previous studies, lower -mantle heterogeneities influence the extracted arrivaltimes, giving significant scatter. To remove raypath effects, a new method was developed, called Empirical Transfer Functions (ETFs). When applied to SmKS waves, this method effectively isolates arrivaltime perturbations caused by outer core velocities. By removing raypath effects, the signals can be stacked further reducing scatter. The results of this work were published as a new 1D outer-core model, called AE09. This model describes a well-mixed outer core. Two array methods are used to detect lower mantle heterogeneities, in particular Ultra-Low Velocity Zones (ULVZs). The ETF method and beam forming are used to isolate a weak P-wave that diffracts along the CMB. While neither the ETF method nor beam forming could adequately image the low-amplitude phase, beam forms of two events indicate precursors to the SKS and SKKS phase, which may be ULVZ indicators. Finally, cross-correlated observed and modelled beams indicate a tendency towards a ULVZ-like lower mantle in the study region.

A Regional Seismic Travel Time Model for North America

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-09-01

velocity at the Moho, the mantle velocity gradient, and the average crustal velocity. After tomography across Eurasia, rigorous tests find that Pn...velocity gradient, and the average crustal velocity. After tomography across Eurasia rigorous tests find that Pn travel time residuals are reduced...and S-wave velocity in the crustal layers and in the upper mantle. A good prior model is essential because the RSTT tomography inversion is invariably

Cratonic roots under North America are shifted by basal drag: new evidence from gravity and geodynamic modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaban, M. K.; Petrunin, A.; Mooney, W. D.

2013-12-01

The impact of basal drag on the long-lived cratonic roots has been debated since the discovering of plate tectonics. Previously, evidence for a shifted mantle structure under North America was postulated from a comparison of the surface expression of the Great Meteor hotspot track versus its location at 200 km depth as inferred from seismic tomography (Eaton and Frederiksen, 2007). We present new results that are based on the integrative modeling of gravity and seismic data. The starting point is the residual gravity anomaly and residual topography, which are computed by removing of the crustal effect and of the effect of temperature variations in the upper mantle from the observed fields (Mooney and Kaban, 2010). After the temperature correction both residual fields chiefly reflect compositional density heterogeneity of the upper mantle. The residual gravity and topography are jointly inverted to determine the 3D density structure of the upper mantle. The inversion technique accounts for the fact that although these parameters are controlled by the same factors, the effect depends on depth and wavelength. Therefore, we can resolve the vertical distribution of density more reliable than by interpreting only one parameter. We found a strong negative anomaly under the North American craton, as expected for a depleted mantle. However, starting from a depth of about 200 km the depleted root is shifted west-southwest. The maximal shift reaches about 1000 km at a depth of 300 km. The direction agrees with the North American plate movement and with the anisotropy pattern in the upper mantle (e.g. Bokelmann, 2002). The results of the gravity modeling are confirmed by geodynamic modeling. The mantle flow is estimated from the density and temperature distribution derived from seismic tomography models. A 3D viscosity model is supplemented with weak boundaries based on an integrated model of plate boundary deformations. The calculated plate velocities are in a good agreement with the GPS-based models. We found a vertical gradient of the horizontal mantle flow velocity under the North American craton that relates to shear stresses deforming the cratonic root. The lateral velocity within the lowermost part of the lithosphere is about 2 mm/y faster than the overlying plate velocity. If we extrapolate this value to the past, the observed shift of the cratonic root could be achieved in about 500 Ma. Bokelmann GHR, (2002) Convection-driven motion of the North American craton: Evidence from P-wave anisotropy, Geoph. J. Int., 148, 278-287. Eaton DW and Frederiksen A, (2007) Seismic evidence for convection-driven motion of the North American plate, Nature 446, 428-431. Mooney WD, Kaban, MK., (2010). The North American Upper Mantle: Density, Composition, and Evolution, J. Geophys. Res., 115, B12424.

Shear wave velocity structure of the Anatolian Plate and surrounding regions using Ambient Noise Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delph, J. R.; Beck, S. L.; Zandt, G.; Biryol, C. B.; Ward, K. M.

2013-12-01

The Anatolian Plate consists of various lithospheric terranes amalgamated during the closure of the Tethys Ocean, and is currently extruding to the west in response to a combination of the collision of the Arabian plate in the east and the roll back of the Aegean subduction zone in the west. We used Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) at periods <= 40s to investigate the crust and uppermost mantle structure of the Anatolian Plate. We computed a total of 13,779 unique cross-correlations using one sample-per-second vertical component broadband seismic data from 215 stations from 8 different networks over a period of 7 years to compute fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave dispersion curves following the method of Benson et al. (2007). We then inverted the dispersion data to calculate phase velocity maps for 11 periods from 8 s - 40 s throughout Anatolia and the Aegean regions (Barmin et al. 2001). Using smoothed Moho values derived from Vanacore et al. (2013) in our starting models, we inverted our dispersion curves using a linear least-squares iterative inversion scheme (Herrmann & Ammon 2004) to produce a 3-D shear-wave velocity model of the crust and uppermost mantle throughout Anatolia and the Aegean. We find a good correlation between our seismic shear wave velocities and paleostructures (suture zones) and modern deformation (basin formation and fault deformation). The most prominent crustal velocity contrasts occur across intercontinental sutures zones, resulting from the juxtaposition of the compositionally different basements of the amalgamated terranes. At shallow depths, seismic velocity contrasts correspond closely with surficial features. The Thrace, Cankiri and Tuz Golu basins, and accretionary complexes related to the closure of the Neotethys are characterized by slow shear wave velocities, while the Menderes and Kirsehir Massifs, Pontides, and Istanbul Zone are characterized by fast velocities. We find that the East Anatolia Plateau has slow shear-wave velocities, as expected due to high heat flow and active volcanism. The Tuz Golu fault has a visible seismic signal down to ~15 km below sea level, and the eastern Inner-Tauride Suture corresponding to the Central Anatolian Fault Zone may extend into the mantle. The Isparta Angle separates the actively extending portion of western Anatolia from the plateau regions in the east, and the largest anomaly (slow velocities) extending into the upper mantle is observed under the western flank of the Isparta Angle, corresponding to the Fethiye-Burdur fault zone. We attribute these slow shear-wave velocities to the effects of complex deformations within the crust as a result of the interactions of the African and Anatolian Plates. In the upper mantle, slow shear-wave velocities are consistent with a slab tear along a STEP fault corresponding to the extensions of the Pliny and Strabo Transform faults, allowing asthenosphere to rise to very shallow depths. The upper mantle beneath the Taurides exhibits very slow shear-wave velocities, in agreement with possible delamination or slab-breakoff (Cosentino et al. 2012) causing rapid uplift in the last 8 million years.

An intraslab earthquake (M7.1) along a buried hydrated fault in the Pacific plate, triggered by the 2011 M9 Tohoku earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakajima, J.; Hasegawa, A.; Kita, S.

2011-12-01

A M9.0 megathrust earthquake, the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, occurred on 11 March 2011 on the plate boundary east off northeastern (NE) Japan. After this great earthquake, seismicity has been activated in the Pacific plate as well as along its upper surface, and a large earthquake (M7.1) occurred on April 7 in the Pacific slab at a depth of 66 km, located near the down-dip limit of the large interplate slip of the M9 event. Here we perform travel-time tomography to reveal heterogeneous seismic velocity structures around the focal area of the 2011 M7.1 intraslab event, and discuss the occurrence of the 2011 M7.1 event in terms of dehydration embrittlement hypothesis. We applied the double-difference tomography method (Zhang and Thurber, 2003) to large number of arrival-time data obtained at a nation-wide seismograph network in Japan. Arrival-time data were produced from 8911 earthquakes and 188 stations, and comprised 247,504 P waves and 196,057 S waves, with differential data of 1,608,230 for P waves and 1,114,068 for S waves. Grid intervals were set at 10-20 km in the along-arc direction, 5-10 km perpendicular to the arc, and 5-10 km in the vertical direction The final results were obtained after eight iterations, which reduced the travel-time residual from 0.17 s to 0.11 s for P waves, and from 0.33 s to 0.19 s for S waves. The results show a low-velocity zone around the focal area of the M7.1 event, and that the aftershock activity is limited to the upper 15 km of the oceanic mantle. The lateral extent of the low-velocity zone is comparable to the distribution of aftershocks, suggesting a concentration of fluids in the aftershock area. The angle between the aftershock alignment and the dip of the slab surface is estimated to be ~60°, which is consistent with the dip of an oceanward-dipping normal fault observed at the outer-trench slope. These observations suggest that the M7.1 intraslab event occurred as a result of reactivation of a buried hydrated fault that formed prior to subduction. The upper ~15 km of the oceanic mantle may be locally hydrated by bending-related tensional faulting at the outer-trench slope.

One billion year-old Mid-continent Rift leaves virtually no clues in the mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bollmann, T. A.; Frederiksen, A. W.; van der Lee, S.; Wolin, E.; Revenaugh, J.; Wiens, D.; Darbyshire, F. A.; Aleqabi, G. I.; Wysession, M. E.; Stein, S.; Jurdy, D. M.

2017-12-01

We measured the relative arrival times of more than forty-six thousand teleseismic P waves recorded by seismic stations of Earthscope's Superior Province Rifting Earthscope Experiment (SPREE) and combined them with a similar amount of such measurements from other seismic stations in the larger region. SPREE recorded seismic waves for two and a half years around the prominent, one billion year-old Mid-continent Rift structure. The curvilinear Mid-continent Rift (MR) is distinguished by voluminous one billion year-old lava flows, which produce a prominent gravity high along the MR. As for other seismic waves, these lava flows along with their underplated counterpart, slightly slow down the measured teleseismic P waves, on average, compared to P waves that did not traverse structures beneath the Mid-continent Rift. However, the variance in the P wave arrival times in these two groups is nearly ten times higher than their average difference. In a seismic-tomographic inversion, we mapped all measured arrival times into structures deep beneath the crust, in the Earth's mantle. Beneath the crust we generally find relatively high P velocities, indicating relatively cool and undeformable mantle structures. However, the uppermost mantle beneath the MR shows several patches of slightly decreased P velocities. These patches are coincident with where the gravity anomalies peak, in Iowa and along the northern Minnesota/Wisconsin border. We will report on the likelihood that these anomalies are indeed a remaining mantle-lithospheric signature of the MR or whether these patches indirectly reflect the presence of the lava flows and their underplated counterparts at the crust-mantle interface. Other structures of interest and of varying depth extent in our tomographic image locate at 1) the intersection of the Superior Craton with the Penokean Province and the Marshfield Terrane west of the MR in southern Minnesota, 2) the intersection of the Penokean, Yavapai, and Mazatzal Terranes along the eastern edge of the Michigan arm of the MR, and 3) beneath Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior. Our tomographic image also reveals an intricate distribution of deep high-velocity anomalies, including in the lower mantle, potentially related to Mesozoic subduction of the Kula and/or Farallon Plates.

Primordial helium entrained by the hottest mantle plumes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, M. G.; Konter, J. G.; Becker, T. W.

2017-02-01

Helium isotopes provide an important tool for tracing early-Earth, primordial reservoirs that have survived in the planet’s interior. Volcanic hotspot lavas, like those erupted at Hawaii and Iceland, can host rare, high 3He/4He isotopic ratios (up to 50 times the present atmospheric ratio, Ra) compared to the lower 3He/4He ratios identified in mid-ocean-ridge basalts that form by melting the upper mantle (about 8Ra; ref. 5). A long-standing hypothesis maintains that the high-3He/4He domain resides in the deep mantle, beneath the upper mantle sampled by mid-ocean-ridge basalts, and that buoyantly upwelling plumes from the deep mantle transport high-3He/4He material to the shallow mantle beneath plume-fed hotspots. One problem with this hypothesis is that, while some hotspots have 3He/4He values ranging from low to high, other hotspots exhibit only low 3He/4He ratios. Here we show that, among hotspots suggested to overlie mantle plumes, those with the highest maximum 3He/4He ratios have high hotspot buoyancy fluxes and overlie regions with seismic low-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle, unlike plume-fed hotspots with only low maximum 3He/4He ratios. We interpret the relationships between 3He/4He values, hotspot buoyancy flux, and upper-mantle shear wave velocity to mean that hot plumes—which exhibit seismic low-velocity anomalies at depths of 200 kilometres—are more buoyant and entrain both high-3He/4He and low-3He/4He material. In contrast, cooler, less buoyant plumes do not entrain this high-3He/4He material. This can be explained if the high-3He/4He domain is denser than low-3He/4He mantle components hosted in plumes, and if high-3He/4He material is entrained from the deep mantle only by the hottest, most buoyant plumes. Such a dense, deep-mantle high-3He/4He domain could remain isolated from the convecting mantle, which may help to explain the preservation of early Hadean (>4.5 billion years ago) geochemical anomalies in lavas sampling this reservoir.

Tsunami process: From upper mantle to atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ershov, S.; Mikhaylovskaya, I.; Novik, O.

Earthquakes in near sea regions and/or tsunamis are manifestations of powerful geodynamic processes beneath the Ocean floor (75 % of the Earth' surface). An effective monitoring of these large-scale processes is not possible without satellites as well as without understanding of physical nature of signals accompanying these processes, e.g. connection between parameters of a seismic excitation in ocean lithosphere and electromagnetic (EM) signals in atmosphere. Basing on the theory of elasticity, electrodynamics, fluid dynamics and geophysical data we formulate a nonlinear mathematical model of generation and propagation of seismo-EM signals in the basin of a marginal sea including transfer of seismic and EM energy from upper mantle to hydrosphere and EM emission into atmosphere up to ionosphere domain D. For a model basin approximately similar to the central part of the Sea of Japan, we calculate signals caused by moderate elastic displacements (EDs): the ampl of a few cm, the main freq. 0.01-10 Hz and duration up to 10 sec (by runs with different acceptable data) which are supposed to be arising at the moment t=0 at the bottom of the upper mantle layer M. The EM signal appears near the bottom of the conductive (0.02 S/m) layer M and reaches for the sea bottom by t=3.5 sec with the ampl. Of 50 pT. This signal propagate in sea water (4 S/m) rather slowly and seems to be "frozen": its front is located near the sea bottom and is replicating the bottom's configuration up to the moment (t=5.2 sec) of the seismic P wave (from M) arrival at the sea bottom. The EM field is generated in seismically disturbed sea water in presence of the geomagnetic field" a specific structure of a seismo-hydrodynamic flow, a spatial break of the diffusive magnetic field, joining of its contours, and other details of the seismo-hydro-EM tsunami process are shown to clear out the out the physical nature of its signals. By the moderate EDs (above), the magnetic signal (freq. 0.01-10 Hz, i.e. the same as the EDs' freq.) is of order of a few hundreds of pT at the ocean-atmosphere interface and of order of a few tens of hydrodynamic wave's amplitude far from the shore is too small (20 cm) and EM observations are needed to discover this threatening wave. The computed signals' characteristics are of orders observed. The recommendations for the EM monitoring (at a sea bottom, surface, and atmosphere) of seismic excitations in ocean lithosphere and tsunamis are given.

Global-scale Joint Body and Surface Wave Tomography with Vertical Transverse Isotropy for Seismic Monitoring Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simmons, Nathan; Myers, Steve

2017-04-01

We continue to develop more advanced models of Earth's global seismic structure with specific focus on improving predictive capabilities for future seismic events. Our most recent version of the model combines high-quality P and S wave body wave travel times and surface-wave group and phase velocities into a joint (simultaneous) inversion process to tomographically image Earth's crust and mantle. The new model adds anisotropy (known as vertical transverse isotropy) to the model, which is necessitated by the addition of surface waves to the tomographic data set. Like previous versions of the model the new model consists of 59 surfaces and 1.6 million model nodes from the surface to the core-mantle boundary, overlaying a 1-D outer and inner core model. The model architecture is aspherical and we directly incorporate Earth's expected hydrostatic shape (ellipticity and mantle stretching). We also explicitly honor surface undulations including the Moho, several internal crustal units, and the upper mantle transition zone undulations as predicated by previous studies. The explicit Earth model design allows for accurate travel time computation using our unique 3-D ray tracing algorithms, capable of 3-D ray tracing more than 20 distinct seismic phases including crustal, regional, teleseismic, and core phases. Thus, we can now incorporate certain secondary (and sometimes exotic) phases into source location determination and other analyses. New work on model uncertainty quantification assesses the error covariance of the model, which when completed will enable calculation of path-specific estimates of uncertainty for travel times computed using our previous model (LLNL-G3D-JPS) which is available to the monitoring and broader research community and we encourage external evaluation and validation. This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Seismic anisotropies of the Songshugou peridotites (Qinling orogen, central China) and their seismic implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Yi; Jung, Haemyeong; Song, Shuguang

2018-01-01

Though extensively studied, the roles of olivine crystal preferred orientations (CPOs or fabrics) in affecting the seismic anisotropies in the Earth's upper mantle are rather complicated and still not fully known. In this study, we attempted to address this issue by analyzing the seismic anisotropies [e.g., P-wave anisotropy (AVp), S-wave polarization anisotropy (AVs), radial anisotropy (ξ), and Rayleigh wave anisotropy (G)] of the Songshugou peridotites (dunite dominated) in the Qinling orogen in central China, based on our previously reported olivine CPOs. The seismic anisotropy patterns of olivine aggregates in our studied samples are well consistent with the prediction for their olivine CPO types; and the magnitude of seismic anisotropies shows a striking positive correlation with equilibrium pressure and temperature (P-T) conditions. Significant reductions of seismic anisotropies (AVp, max. AVs, and G) are observed in porphyroclastic dunite compared to coarse- and fine-grained dunites, as the results of olivine CPO transition (from A-/D-type in coarse-grained dunite, through AG-type-like in porphyroclastic dunite, to B-type-like in fine-grained dunite) and strength variation (weakening: A-/D-type → AG-type-like; strengthening: AG-type-like → B-type-like) during dynamic recrystallization. The transition of olivine CPOs from A-/D-type to B-/AG-type-like in the forearc mantle may weaken the seismic anisotropies and deviate the fast velocity direction and the fast S-wave polarization direction from trench-perpendicular to trench-oblique direction with the cooling and aging of forearc mantle. Depending on the size and distribution of the peridotite body such as the Songshugou peridotites, B- and AG-type-like olivine CPOs can be an additional (despite minor) local contributor to the orogen-parallel fast velocity direction and fast shear-wave polarization direction in the orogenic crust such as in the Songshugou area in Qinling orogen.

Waveform inversion of mantle Love waves: The born seismogram approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tanimoto, T.

1983-01-01

Normal mode theory, extended to the slightly laterally heterogeneous Earth by the first-order Born approximation, is applied to the waveform inversion of mantle Love waves (200-500 sec) for the Earth's lateral heterogeneity at l=2 and a spherically symmetric anelasticity (Q sub mu) structure. The data are from the Global Digital Seismograph Network (GDSN). The l=2 pattern is very similar to the results of other studies that used either different methods, such as phase velocity measurements and multiplet location measurements, or a different data set, such as mantle Rayleigh waves from different instruments. The results are carefully analyzed for variance reduction and are most naturally explained by heterogeneity in the upper 420 km. Because of the poor resolution of the data set for the deep interior, however, a fairly large heterogeneity in the transition zones, of the order of up to 3.5% in shear wave velocity, is allowed. It is noteworthy that Love waves of this period range can not constrain the structure below 420 km and thus any model presented by similar studies below this depth are likely to be constrained by Rayleigh waves (spheroidal modes) only.

Waveform inversion of mantle Love waves - The Born seismogram approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tanimoto, T.

1984-01-01

Normal mode theory, extended to the slightly laterally heterogeneous earth by the first-order Born approximation, is applied to the waveform inversion of mantle Love waves (200-500 sec) for the earth's lateral heterogeneity at l = 2 and a spherically symmetric anelasticity (Q sub mu) structure. The data are from the Global Digital Seismograph Network (GDSN). The l = 2 pattern is very similar to the results of other studies that used either different methods, such as phase velocity measurements and multiplet location measurements, or a different data set, such as mantle Rayleigh waves from different instruments. The results are carefully analyzed for variance reduction and are most naturally explained by heterogeneity in the upper 420 km. Because of the poor resolution of the data set for the deep interior, however, a fairly large heterogeneity in the transition zones, of the order of up to 3.5 percent in shear wave velocity, is allowed. It is noteworthy that Love waves of this period range can not constrain the structure below 420 km and thus any model presented by similar studies below this depth are likely to be constrained by Rayleigh waves (spheroidal modes) only.

Local earthquake tomography of the Jalisco, Mexico region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watkins, W. David; Thurber, Clifford H.; Abbott, Elizabeth R.; Brudzinski, Michael R.

2018-01-01

The states of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán in western Mexico overlie the boundary of the subducting Rivera and Cocos plates, presenting an ideal target for seismological inquiry to better understand the resulting mantle flow and regional volcanism. The different dips between the two subducting plates are thought to provide a mantle conduit that has contributed to the Colima Volcanic Complex (CVC), but there is considerable debate on the depth of the Rivera plate and width of the resulting conduit. With data from the Mapping the Rivera Subduction Zone (MARS) and Colima Deep Seismic Experiment (CODEX) networks, two temporary broadband arrays deployed in the region between 2006 and 2008, we inverted for three-dimensional P- and S-wave velocity as well as Vp/Vs structure of the upper 70 km of the crust and mantle in the Jalisco region. Using a newly-developed automatic P- and S-wave picker, we increased P picks by 74% and S picks by more than a factor of four compared to a database of manual picks for the 803 earthquakes used in the inversion. Additional relocated earthquakes extending to the trench are consistent with previous interpretations of the Rivera and Cocos plate interfaces. Areas of high Vp/Vs above both subducting slabs suggest the presence of fluids resulting from dehydration of subducted material. Extensive crustal seismicity occurs near these anomalies. A zone of high Vp/Vs is also present under the CVC. We also compare the results of different methods for obtaining Vp/Vs: a direct inversion for Vp/Vs from S minus P times versus simply dividing the Vp model by the Vs model. We find direct inversions of S minus P times to be more reliable.

Seismic Evidence of Imprints of Malani and Deccan Volcanism in Northwestern India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohan, G.; Mangalampally, R. K.; Ahmad, F.

2017-12-01

The evolution of the Neoproterozoic (750 Ma) Malani igneous province(MIP), the site of the largest felsic magmatism in India is debatable with theories supporting extensional tectonics, mantle plume or subduction processes. The MIP that lies to the west of the Proterozoic Aravalli mountain range and east of the Late Mesozoic-Teritary Barmer-Sanchor rift systems, hosts acidic volcanics in an area of 0.5 million sq.km in northwestern India. In this study, the crustal and upper mantle structure beneath the MIP is investigated through a deployment of 12 broadband seismographs in phases, at 18 locations during a period of five years from 2011-2016. The P wave receiver function(RF) analysis was carried out to image the crust and the 410 km and 660 km mantle transition zone discontinuities. About 1500 teleseismic waveforms with signal to noise ratios > 2.5 are utilized. The RFs at most stations are marked by strong conversions from the base of the sediments and the Moho. The crustal thickness estimated through the Neighbourhood algorithm approach, ranges from 35 to 42km. The crustal Poisson's ratio ranges from 0.26 - 0.29. The crustal thickness and Poisson's ratio are observed to increase from west to east viz., from the rift zone to the mountain belt. A significant finding is the presence of a 5-10km thick mid-crustal low velocity zone with a reduced shear velocity of 3.0-3.2km/s. The Ps conversions from the 410km and 660km mantle discontinuities are delayed by about 1sec with respect to the timings predicted by the IASP91 standard earth model. The observed delays are attributed to the reduction in velocity due to compositional/thermal perturbations in the uppermost upper mantle above the 410km discontinuity. The presence of alkaline complexes in MIP which are of pre-Deccan age (68 Ma) led us to surmise that the low velocity anomalies observed in the upper mantle might be linked to the mantle source associated with the 65 Ma Deccan volcanism which erupted further south of MIP. It is likely that the mantle source may have overprinted or obliterated the mantle signatures of the Neoproterozoic tectonic event. However, the intracrustal low velocities overlying an underplated crust in MIP are interpreted to be the compositional imprints of the felsic magma associated with the bimodel Malani volcanism.

Tectonic evolution and mantle structure of the Caribbean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Benthem, Steven; Govers, Rob; Spakman, Wim; Wortel, Rinus

2013-04-01

In the broad context of investigating the relationship between deep structure & processes and surface expressions, we study the Caribbean plate and underlying mantle. We investigate whether predictions of mantle structure from tectonic reconstructions are in agreement with a detailed tomographic image of seismic P-wave velocity structure under the Caribbean region. In the upper mantle, positive seismic anomalies are imaged under the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico. These anomalies are interpreted as remnants of Atlantic lithosphere subduction and confirm tectonic reconstructions that suggest at least 1100 km of convergence at the Lesser Antilles island arc during the past ~45 Myr. The imaged Lesser-Antilles slab consists of a northern and southern anomaly, separated by a low velocity anomaly across most of the upper mantle, which we interpret as the subducted North-South America plate boundary. The southern edge of the imaged Lesser Antilles slab agrees with vertical tearing of South America lithosphere. The northern Lesser Antilles slab is continuous with the Puerto Rico slab along the northeastern plate boundary. This results in an amphitheater-shaped slab and it is interpreted as westward subducting North America lithosphere that remained attached to the surface along the northern boundary. At the Muertos Trough, however, material is imaged until a depth of only 100 km, suggesting a small amount of subduction. The location and length of the imaged South Caribbean slab agrees with proposed subduction of Caribbean lithosphere under the northern South America plate. An anomaly related to proposed Oligocene subduction at the Nicaragua rise is absent in the tomographic model. Beneath Panama, a subduction window exists across the upper mantle, which is related to the cessation of subduction of the Nazca plate under Panama since 9.5 Ma and possibly the preceding subduction of the extinct Cocos-Nazca spreading center. In the lower mantle two large anomaly patterns are imaged. The westernmost anomaly agrees with the subduction of Farallon lithosphere. The second lower mantle anomaly is found east of the Farallon anomaly and is interpreted as a remnant of the late Mesozoic subduction of North and South America oceanic lithosphere at the Greater Antilles, Aves ridge and Leeward Antilles. The imaged mantle structure does not allow us to discriminate between an 'Intra-Americas' origin and a 'Pacific origin' of the Caribbean plate.

Multiresolution imaging of mantle reflectivity structure using SS and P'P' precursors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, Ryan; Gu, Yu J.

2013-10-01

Knowledge of the mantle reflectivity structure is highly dependent on our ability to efficiently extract, and properly interpret, small seismic arrivals. Among the various data types and techniques, long-period SS/PP precursors and high-frequency receiver functions are routinely utilized to increase the confidence of the recovered mantle stratifications at distinct spatial scales. However, low resolution and a complex Fresnel zone are glaring weaknesses of SS precursors, while over-reliance on receiver distribution is a formidable challenge for the analysis of converted waves from oceanic regions. A promising high frequency alternative to receiver functions is P'P' precursors, which are capable of resolving mantle structures at vertical and lateral resolution of ˜5 and ˜200 km, respectively, owing to their spectral content, shallow angle of incidence and near-symmetric Fresnel zones. This study presents a novel processing method for both SS (or PP) and P'P' precursors based on deconvolution, stacking, Radon transform and depth migration. A suite of synthetic tests is performed to quantify the fidelity and stability of this method under different data conditions. Our multiresolution survey of the mantle at targeted areas near Nazca-South America subduction zone reveal both olivine and garnet related transitions at depths below 400 km. We attribute a depressed 660 to thermal variations, whereas compositional variations atop the upper-mantle transition zone are needed to explain the diminished or highly complex reflected/scattered signals from the 410 km discontinuity. We also observe prominent P'P' reflections within the transition zone, and the anomalous amplitudes near the plate boundary zone indicate a sharp (˜10 km thick) transition that likely resonates with the frequency content of P'P' precursors. The migration of SS precursors in this study shows no evidence of split 660 reflections, but potential majorite-ilmenite (590-640 km) and ilmenite-perovskite transitions (740-750 km) are identified based on similarly processed high-frequency P'P' precursors. Additional findings of severely scattered energy in the lithosphere and distinct lower mantle reflections at ˜800 km could be potentially important but require further verifications. Overall, our improved imaging methods and the strong sensitivity of P'P' precursors to the existence, depth, sharpness and strength of reflective structures offer significant future promise for the understanding of mantle mineralogy and dynamics.

A simple approach to the joint inversion of seismic body and surface waves applied to the southwest U.S.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

West, Michael; Gao, Wei; Grand, Stephen

2004-08-01

Body and surface wave tomography have complementary strengths when applied to regional-scale studies of the upper mantle. We present a straight-forward technique for their joint inversion which hinges on treating surface waves as horizontally-propagating rays with deep sensitivity kernels. This formulation allows surface wave phase or group measurements to be integrated directly into existing body wave tomography inversions with modest effort. We apply the joint inversion to a synthetic case and to data from the RISTRA project in the southwest U.S. The data variance reductions demonstrate that the joint inversion produces a better fit to the combined dataset, not merely a compromise. For large arrays, this method offers an improvement over augmenting body wave tomography with a one-dimensional model. The joint inversion combines the absolute velocity of a surface wave model with the high resolution afforded by body waves-both qualities that are required to understand regional-scale mantle phenomena.

Low crustal velocities and mantle lithospheric variations in southern Tibet from regional Pnl waveforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodgers, Arthur J.; Schwartz, Susan Y.

We report low average crustal P-wave velocities (5.9-6.1 km/s, Poisson's ratio 0.23-0.27, thickness 68-76 km) in southern Tibet from modelling regional Pnl waveforms recorded by the 1991-1992 Tibetan Plateau Experiment. We also find that the mantle lithosphere beneath the Indus-Tsangpo Suture and the Lhasa Terrane is shield-like (Pn velocity 8.20-8.25 km/s, lid thickness 80-140 km, positive velocity gradient 0.0015-0.0025 s-1). Analysis of relative Pn travel time residuals requires a decrease in the mantle velocities beneath the northern Lhasa Terrane, the Banggong-Nujiang Suture and the southern Qiangtang Terrane. Tectonic and petrologic considerations suggest that low bulk crustal velocities could result from a thick (50-60 km) felsic upper crust with vertically limited and laterally pervasive partial melt. These results are consistent with underthrusting of Indian Shield lithosphere beneath the Tibetan Plateau to at least the central Lhasa Terrane.

Global Transition Zone Anisotropy and Consequences for Mantle Flow and Earth's Deep Water Cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beghein, C.; Yuan, K.

2011-12-01

The transition zone has long been at the center of the debate between multi- and single-layered convection models that directly relate to heat transport and chemical mixing throughout the mantle. It has also been suggested that the transition zone is a reservoir that collects water transported by subduction of the lithosphere into the mantle. Since water lowers mantle minerals density and viscosity, thereby modifying their rheology and melting behavior, it likely affects global mantle dynamics and the history of plate tectonics. Constraining mantle flow is therefore important for our understanding of Earth's thermochemical evolution and deep water cycle. Because it can result from deformation by dislocation creep during convection, seismic anisotropy can help us model mantle flow. It is relatively well constrained in the uppermost mantle, but its presence in the transition zone is still debated. Its detection below 250 km depth has been challenging to date because of the poor vertical resolution of commonly used datasets. In this study, we used global Love wave overtone phase velocity maps, which are sensitive to structure down to much larger depths than fundamental modes alone, and have greater depth resolution than shear wave-splitting data. This enabled us to obtain a first 3-D model of azimuthal anisotropy for the upper 800km of the mantle. We inverted the 2Ψ terms of anisotropic phase velocity maps [Visser, et al., 2008] for the first five Love wave overtones between 35s and 174s period. The resulting model shows that the average anisotropy amplitude for vertically polarized shear waves displays two main stable peaks: one in the uppermost mantle and, most remarkably, one in the lower transition zone. F-tests showed that the presence of 2Ψ anisotropy in the transition zone is required to improve the third, fourth, and fifth overtones fit. Because of parameter trade-offs, however, we cannot exclude that the anisotropy is located in the upper transition zone as well. Azimuthal anisotropy in the transition zone could result from tilted laminated structures, or from the LPO of wadsleyite and hydrous ringwoodite. Anhydrous ringwoodite is mostly isotropic, but it becomes more anisotropic in the presence of water [Kavner, 2003]. The presence of significant seismic anisotropy in the lower transition zone may thus indicate the presence of OH--bearing minerals. This would be consistent with the observed high solubility of water in ringwoodite and wadsleyite, and the hypothesis that the transition zone is a water reservoir. In addition, at most locations the fast azimuth of propagation for Vsv forms approximately a 90° angle in the transition zone with the fast direction found at shallower depths. Assuming that LPO causes the anisotropy and that seismic fast directions are a proxy for flow direction in the transition zone, this angle change combined with mineral physics data could help us infer mantle convective pattern. The robustness of this feature is, however, currently difficult to assess as Love wave overtones are unable to reliably constrain 2Ψ anisotropy at shallow depths. The inclusion of Rayleigh wave fundamental mode data in future work will help resolve that issue.

Sound velocity of MgSiO 3 perovskite to Mbar pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murakami, Motohiko; Sinogeikin, Stanislav V.; Hellwig, Holger; Bass, Jay D.; Li, Jie

2007-04-01

Brillouin scattering measurements of the aggregate shear wave velocities in MgSiO 3 perovskite were conducted at high pressure conditions relevant to the Earth's lowermost mantle, approaching 1 Mbar. Infrared laser annealing of samples in a diamond anvil cell allowed us to obtain high quality Brillouin spectra and to drastically extend the upper limit of pressure for Brillouin measurements. We found that the pressure derivative of the shear modulus (d G / d P = G') of MgSiO 3 perovskite is 1.56 ± 0.04, which is distinctly lower than that of previous lower-pressure experiments below 9 GPa. Extrapolation of the high-pressure shear velocities of perovskite to ambient pressure, are in excellent agreement with earlier room pressure Brillouin measurements. The shear modulus, shear velocity and longitudinal velocity at ambient pressure were determined to be G0 = 172.9(15) GPa, VS = 6.49(3) and VP = 10.85(3) km/sec. The mineralogical model that provides a best fit to global seismological 1-D velocity profiles is one that contains 85-90 vol% perovskite in the lower mantle. The results of this study are the first to demonstrate that the elastic wave velocities for a near-adiabatic lower mantle with a bulk composition dominated by magnesium silicate perovskite are consistent with the average lower mantle seismic velocity structure. The large pressure range over which acoustic measurements of MgSiO 3 perovskite performed in this study has thus allowed us to put tighter constraints on compositional models of the Earth's lower mantle.

Seismic Velocity Structure and Depth-Dependence of Anisotropy in the Red Sea and Arabian Shield from Surface Wave Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hansen, S; Gaherty, J; Schwartz, S

2007-07-25

We investigate the lithospheric and upper mantle structure as well as the depth-dependence of anisotropy along the Red Sea and beneath the Arabian Peninsula using receiver function constraints and phase velocities of surface waves traversing two transects of stations from the Saudi Arabian National Digital Seismic Network. Frequency-dependent phase delays of fundamental-mode Love and Rayleigh waves, measured using a cross-correlation procedure, require very slow shear velocities and the presence of anisotropy throughout the upper mantle. Linearized inversion of these data produce path-averaged 1D radially anisotropic models with about 4% anisotropy in the lithosphere, increasing to about 4.8% anisotropy across themore » lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB). Models with reasonable crustal velocities in which the mantle lithosphere is isotropic cannot satisfy the data. The lithospheric lid, which ranges in thickness from about 70 km near the Red Sea coast to about 90 km beneath the Arabian Shield, is underlain by a pronounced low-velocity zone with shear velocities as low as 4.1 km/s. Forward models, which are constructed from previously determined shear-wave splitting estimates, can reconcile surface and body wave observations of anisotropy. The low shear velocity values are similar to many other continental rift and oceanic ridge environments. These low velocities combined with the sharp velocity contrast across the LAB may indicate the presence of partial melt beneath Arabia. The anisotropic signature primarily reflects a combination of plate- and density-driven flow associated with active rifting processes in the Red Sea.« less

Closing the gap between regional and global travel time tomography

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bijwaard, H.; Spakman, W.; Engdahl, E.R.

1998-01-01

Recent global travel time tomography studies by Zhou [1996] and van der Hilst et al. [1997] have been performed with cell parameterizations of the order of those frequently used in regional tomography studies (i.e., with cell sizes of 1??-2??). These new global models constitute a considerable improvement over previous results that were obtained with rather coarse parameterizations (5?? cells). The inferred structures are, however, of larger scale than is usually obtained in regional models, and it is not clear where and if individual cells are actually resolved. This study aims at resolving lateral heterogeneity on scales as small as 0.6?? in the upper mantle and 1.2??-3?? in the lower mantle. This allows for the adequate mapping of expected small-scale structures induced by, for example, lithosphere subduction, deep mantle upwellings, and mid-ocean ridges. There are three major contributions that allow for this advancement. First, we employ an irregular grid of nonoverlapping cells adapted to the heterogeneous sampling of the Earth's mantle by seismic waves [Spakman and Bijwaard, 1998]. Second, we exploit the global data set of Engdahl et al. [1998], which is a reprocessed version of the global data set of the International Seismological Centre. Their reprocessing included hypocenter redetermination and phase reidentification. Finally, we combine all data used (P, pP, and pwP phases) into nearly 5 million ray bundles with a limited spatial extent such that averaging over large mantle volumes is prevented while the signal-to-noise ratio is improved. In the approximate solution of the huge inverse problem we obtain a variance reduction of 57.1%. Synthetic sensitivity tests indicate horizontal resolution on the scale of the smallest cells (0.6?? or 1.2??) in the shallow parts of subduction zones decreasing to approximately 2??-3?? resolution in well-sampled regions in the lower mantle. Vertical resolution can be worse (up to several hundreds of kilometers) in subduction zones with rays predominantly pointing along dip. Important features of the solution are as follows: 100-200 km thick high-velocity slabs beneath all major subduction zones, sometimes flattening in the transition zone and sometimes directly penetrating into the lower mantle; large high-velocity anomalies in the lower mantle that have been attributed to subduction of the Tethys ocean and the Farallon plate; and low-velocity anomalies continuing across the 660 km discontinuity to hotspots at the surface under Iceland, east Africa, the Canary Islands, Yellowstone, and the Society Islands. Our findings corroborate that the 660 km boundary may resist but not prevent (present day) large-scale mass transfer from upper to lower mantle or vice versa. This observation confirms the results of previous, global mantle studies that employed coarser parameterizations. Copyright 1998 by the American Geophysical Union.

Slab Penetration vs. Slab Stagnation: Mantle Reflectors as an Indicator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okeler, A.; Gu, Y. J.; Schultz, R.; Contenti, S. M.

2011-12-01

Subducting oceanic lithosphere along convergent margins may stagnate near the base of the upper mantle or penetrate into the lower mantle. These dynamic processes cause extensive thermal and compositional variations, which can be observed in terms of impedance contrast (reflectivity) and topography of mantle transition zone (MTZ) discontinuities, i.e., 410- and 660-km discontinuities. In this study, we utilize ~ 15000 surface-reflected shear waves (SS) and their precursory arrivals (S410S and S660S) to analyze subduction related deformations on mantle reflectivity structure. We apply pre-stack, time-to-depth migration technique to SS precursors, and move weak underside reflections using PREM-predicted travel-time curves. Common Mid-point gathers are formed to investigate structure under the western Pacific, south America, and Mediterranean convergent boundaries. In general, mantle reflectivity structures are consistent with previous seismic tomography models. In regions of slab penetration (e.g., southern Kurile arc, Aegean Sea), our results show 1) a substantial decrease in S660S amplitude, and 2) strong lower mantle reflector(s) at ~ 900 km depth. These reflective structures are supported by zones of high P and S velocities extending into the lower mantle. Our 1-D synthetic simulations suggest that the decreasing S660S amplitudes are, at least partially, associated with shear wave defocusing due to changes in reflector depth (by ±20 km) within averaging bin. Assuming a ~500 km wide averaging area, a dipping reflector with 6-8 % slope can reduce the amplitude of a SS precursor by ~50%. On the other hand, broad depressions with strong impedance contrast at the base of the MTZ characterize the regions of slab stagnation, such as beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea and northeastern China. For the latter region, substantial topography on the 660-km discontinuity west of the Wadati-Benioff zone suggests that the stagnant part of the Pacific plate across Honshu arc is not nearly as flat as previously suggested.

Deep Roots of Cratons From Surface-wave Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cara, M.; Debayle, E.; Lévêque, J. J.

Thanks to the application of multimode waveform inversion techniques to various sets of surface wave seismograms recorded on global networks of broad-band seismome- ters, either permanent (IRIS, Geoscope) or temporary (PASSCAL, INSU), unprece- dented lateral- and depth-resolution can be achieved in upper-mantle surface-wave tomography. With a depth-resolution around 50 km and a lateral resolution around 250 km in the upper mantle, Sv velocity models beneath Australia, South-America, Eurasia and East-Africa show fast velocity anomalies associated with shield generally confined to the uppermost 200 km of the mantle. We show on cross-sections taken across different continents that there is no evidence so far for "thermal and/or com- positional" lithospheric roots extending deeper than 300 km in the continental regions we have investigated. In addition, surface wave azimuthal anisotropy can be used as an indicator of the me- chanical thickness of the lithosphere when a clear change in the pattern of anisotropic directions is observed with depth. The fast moving Australian plate shows the clear- est example of such a change occuring at relatively shallow depths (150 km) within the high seismic velocity lid. This suggests that seismic anisotropy defines a "me- chanical" lithosphere that does not coincide with the "thermal and/or compositional" lithosphere probably imaged by velocity anomalies. However, beneath other slowly moving plates, such a change in pattern is less clear and there is a tendency of seismic anisotropy to disappear at the bottom of the lid.

Fine-scale structure of the mid-mantle characterised by global stacks of PP precursors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bentham, H. L. M.; Rost, S.; Thorne, M. S.

2017-08-01

Subduction zones are likely a major source of compositional heterogeneities in the mantle, which may preserve a record of the subduction history and mantle convection processes. The fine-scale structure associated with mantle heterogeneities can be studied using the scattered seismic wavefield that arrives as coda to or as energy preceding many body wave arrivals. In this study we analyse precursors to PP by creating stacks recorded at globally distributed stations. We create stacks aligned on the PP arrival in 5° distance bins (with range 70-120°) from 600 earthquakes recorded at 193 stations stacking a total of 7320 seismic records. As the energy trailing the direct P arrival, the P coda, interferes with the PP precursors, we suppress the P coda by subtracting a best fitting exponential curve to this energy. The resultant stacks show that PP precursors related to scattering from heterogeneities in the mantle are present for all distances. Lateral variations are explored by producing two regional stacks across the Atlantic and Pacific hemispheres, but we find only negligible differences in the precursory signature between these two regions. The similarity of these two regions suggests that well mixed subducted material can survive at upper and mid-mantle depth. To describe the scattered wavefield in the mantle, we compare the global stacks to synthetic seismograms generated using a Monte Carlo phonon scattering technique. We propose a best-fitting layered heterogeneity model, BRT2017, characterised by a three layer mantle with a background heterogeneity strength (ɛ = 0.8%) and a depth-interval of increased heterogeneity strength (ɛ = 1%) between 1000 km and 1800 km. The scalelength of heterogeneity is found to be 8 km throughout the mantle. Since mantle heterogeneity of 8 km scale may be linked to subducted oceanic crust, the detection of increased heterogeneity at mid-mantle depths could be associated with stalled slabs due to increases in viscosity, supporting recent observations of mantle viscosity increases due to the iron spin transition at depths of ∼1000 km.

Does Late Miocene Exhumation Along the Western Slope of the Colorado Rockies Reflect Differential Rock Uplift?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenberg, R. H.; Kirby, E.; Aslan, A.; Karlstrom, K. E.; Heizler, M. T.; Kelley, S. A.; Piotraschke, R. E.; Furlong, K. P.

2011-12-01

It is increasingly recognized that dynamic effects associated with changes in mantle flow and buoyancy can influence the evolution of surface topography. In the Rocky Mountain province of the western United States, recent seismic deployments reveal intriguing correlations between anomalies in the velocity structure of the upper mantle and regions of high topography. Here, we investigate whether regional correlations between upper-mantle structure and topography are associated with the history of Late Cenozoic fluvial incision and exhumation. Major tributaries of the upper Colorado River, including the Gunnison and Dolores Rivers, which drain high topography in central and western Colorado overlie upper mantle with slow seismic wave velocities; these drainages exhibit relatively steep longitudinal profiles (normalized for differences in drainage area and discharge) and are associated with ~1000-1500 m of incision over the past 10 Ma. In contrast, tributaries of the Green River that drain the western slope in northern Colorado (White, Yampa, and Little Snake Rivers) overlie mantle of progressively higher seismic wave velocities. River profiles in northern Colorado are two to three times less steep along reaches with comparable bedrock lithologies. New Ar39/Ar40 ages on ~11 Ma basalt flows capping the Tertiary Brown's Park Formation in northern Colorado indicate that the magnitude of exhumation along these profiles ranges from ~400 - 600 m over this time interval. The correspondence of steep river profiles in regions of greater incision implies that the fluvial systems are dynamically adjusting to an external forcing. New constraints on the exhumation history of the upper Colorado River from apatite fission track ages in boreholes near Rifle, Colorado are best explained by an onset of exhumation at ca. 8-10 Ma. Thus, relative base level fall associated with development of Grand Canyon (ca. 6-5 Ma) does not explain the regional onset of incision along the western slope of the Rockies. Additionally, new cosmogenic burial ages from fan-terrace complexes near Rifle, Colorado show that Colorado River incision occurred at similar rates over both 10 Ma and 2 Ma timescales. Fluvial incision in response to relative base level fall or to changes in regional climate cannot easily explain the history of differential incision along the western slope. Given the correspondence of steep channels, large magnitude incision and regions of low seismic velocity mantle, we suggest that differential rock uplift, driven, in part, by differences in the buoyancy and/or convective flow of the mantle beneath western Colorado is the likely driver for Neogene incision.

Adjoint tomography of Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, H.; Bozdag, E.; Peter, D. B.; Tromp, J.

2010-12-01

We use spectral-element and adjoint methods to image crustal and upper mantle heterogeneity in Europe. The study area involves the convergent boundaries of the Eurasian, African and Arabian plates and the divergent boundary between the Eurasian and North American plates, making the tectonic structure of this region complex. Our goal is to iteratively fit observed seismograms and improve crustal and upper mantle images by taking advantage of 3D forward and inverse modeling techniques. We use data from 200 earthquakes with magnitudes between 5 and 6 recorded by 262 stations provided by ORFEUS. Crustal model Crust2.0 combined with mantle model S362ANI comprise the initial 3D model. Before the iterative adjoint inversion, we determine earthquake source parameters in the initial 3D model by using 3D Green functions and their Fréchet derivatives with respect to the source parameters (i.e., centroid moment tensor and location). The updated catalog is used in the subsequent structural inversion. Since we concentrate on upper mantle structures which involve anisotropy, transversely isotropic (frequency-dependent) traveltime sensitivity kernels are used in the iterative inversion. Taking advantage of the adjoint method, we use as many measurements as can obtain based on comparisons between observed and synthetic seismograms. FLEXWIN (Maggi et al., 2009) is used to automatically select measurement windows which are analyzed based on a multitaper technique. The bandpass ranges from 15 second to 150 second. Long-period surface waves and short-period body waves are combined in source relocations and structural inversions. A statistical assessments of traveltime anomalies and logarithmic waveform differences is used to characterize the inverted sources and structure.

Crustal and upper mantle S-wave velocity structures across the Taiwan Strait from ambient seismic noise and teleseismic Rayleigh wave analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Y.; Yao, H.; Wu, F. T.; Liang, W.; Huang, B.; Lin, C.; Wen, K.

2013-12-01

Although orogeny seems to have stopped in western Taiwan large and small earthquakes do occur in the Taiwan Strait. Limited studies have focused on this region before and were barely within reach for comprehensive projects like TAICRUST and TAIGER for logistical reasons; thus, the overall crustal structures of the Taiwan Strait remain unknown. Time domain empirical Green's function (TDEGF) from ambient seismic noise to determine crustal velocity structure allows us to study an area using station pairs on its periphery. This research aims to resolve 1-D average crustal and upper mantle S-wave velocity (Vs) structures alone paths of several broadband station-pairs across the Taiwan Strait; 5-120 s Rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion data derived by combining TDEGF and traditional surface wave two-station method (TS). The average Vs structures show significant differences in the upper 15 km as expected. In general, the highest Vs are observed in the coastal area of Mainland China and the lowest Vs appear along the southwest offshore of the Taiwan Island; they differ by about 0.6-1.1 km/s. For different parts of the Strait, the Vs are lower in the middle by about 0.1-0.2 km/s relative to those in the northern and southern parts. The overall crustal thickness is approximately 30 km, much thinner and less variable than under the Taiwan Island.

Velocity structure around the 410 km discontinuity beneath the East China Sea based on the waveform modeling method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, W.; Cui, Q.; Gao, Y.; Wei, R.; Zhou, Y.; Yu, J.

2017-12-01

The 410 km discontinuity is the upper boundary of the mantle transition zone. Seismic detections on the structure and morphology of the 410 km discontinuity are helpful to understand the compositions of the Earth's interior and the relevant geodynamics. In this paper, we select the broadband P waveforms of an intermediate earthquake that occurred in the Ryukyu subduction zone and retrieved from the China Digital Seismograph Network, and study the fine velocity structure around the 410 km discontinuity by matching the observed triplicated waveforms with the theoretical ones. Our results reveal that (1) the 410 km discontinuity beneath the East China Sea is mostly a sharp boundary with a small-scale uplift of 8-15 km and a gradient boundary up to 20 km in the most southern part, and (2) there exist a low velocity layer atop the 410 km discontinuity with the thickness of 50-62 km and P-wave velocity decrease of 0.5%-1.5%, and (3) a high velocity anomaly with P-wave decrease of 1.0%-3.0% below 440 km. Combining with the previous topographic results in this area, we speculate that the high velocity anomaly is relevant to the stagnancy of the western Pacific slab in the mantle transition zone, the decomposition of phase E in the slab results in the increase of water content, which would cause the uplift of the 410 km discontinuity, and the low velocity layer atop the discontinuity should be related to the partial melting of the mantle peridotite induced by the dehydration of the hydrous minerals.

Upper Mantle Seismic Anisotropy Beneath West Antarctica from Shear Wave Splitting Analysis of POLENET/ANET Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Accardo, N.; Wiens, D. A.; Hernandez, S.; Aster, R. C.; Nyblade, A.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Huerta, A. D.; Wilson, T. J.

2011-12-01

We constrain azimuthal anisotropy in the Antarctic upper mantle using shear wave splitting parameters obtained from teleseismic SKS, SKKS, and PKS phases recorded at 30 broad-band seismometers deployed in West Antarctica, and the Transantarctic Mountains as a part of POLENET/ANET. The first seismometers were deployed in late 2007 and additional seismometers were deployed in 2008 and 2009. The seismometers generally operate year-round using solar power, insulated boxes, and either rechargeable AGM or primary lithium batteries. We used an eigenvalue technique to linearize the rotated and shifted shear wave particle motions and determine the best splitting parameters. Robust windows around the individual phases were chosen using the Teanby cluster-analysis algorithm. We visually inspected all results and assigned a quality rating based on factors including signal-to-noise ratios, particle motions, and error contours. The best results for each station were then stacked to get an average splitting direction and delay time. The delay times range from 0.33 to 1.33 s, but generally average about 1 s. We conclude that the splitting results from anisotropy in the upper mantle, since the large splitting times cannot be accumulated in the relatively thin crust (20-30 km) of the region. Overall, fast directions in West Antarctica are at large angles to the direction of Antarctic absolute plate motion in either hotspot or no-net rotation frameworks, showing that the anisotropic fabric does not result from shear associated with the motion of Antarctica over the mantle. The West Antarctic fast directions are also much different than those found in East Antarctica by previous studies. We suggest that the East Antarctic splitting results from anisotropy frozen into the cold cratonic continental lithosphere, whereas West Antarctic splitting is related to Cenozoic tectonism. Stations within the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS), a region of Cenozoic extension, show fast directions subparallel to the inferred WARS extension direction. Stations located in the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains (EWM) show fast directions parallel to those found within WARS. Furthermore, results from WARS and from EWM all show relatively large splitting times of 0.6 - 1.33 s. These results suggest upper mantle anisotropy that results from mantle flow and deformation related to the extensional deformation of the region. Two stations were installed in the Pensacola Mountains which are located grid-north of the EWM. The results from this region deviate from the dominant fast orientation seen in WARS but appear to be approximately perpendicular to the strike of the mountain range. Stations in Marie Byrd Land (MBL) show inconsistent fast directions and a wide range of delay times (0.3 - 0.9 s), perhaps as a result of complex mantle fabric related to a possible MBL hotspot.

Shear wave velocity, seismic attenuation, and thermal structure of the continental upper mantle

USGS Publications Warehouse

Artemieva, I.M.; Billien, M.; Leveque, J.-J.; Mooney, W.D.

2004-01-01

Seismic velocity and attenuation anomalies in the mantle are commonly interpreted in terms of temperature variations on the basis of laboratory studies of elastic and anelastic properties of rocks. In order to evaluate the relative contributions of thermal and non-thermal effects on anomalies of attenuation of seismic shear waves, QS-1, and seismic velocity, VS, we compare global maps of the thermal structure of the continental upper mantle with global QS-1 and Vs maps as determined from Rayleigh waves at periods between 40 and 150 S. We limit the comparison to three continental mantle depths (50, 100 and 150 km), where model resolution is relatively high. The available data set does not indicate that, at a global scale, seismic anomalies in the upper mantle are controlled solely by temperature variations. Continental maps have correlation coefficients of <0.56 between VS and T and of <0.47 between QS and T at any depth. Such low correlation coefficients can partially be attributed to modelling arrefacts; however, they also suggest that not all of the VS and QS anomalies in the continental upper mantle can be explained by T variations. Global maps show that, by the sign of the anomaly, VS and QS usually inversely correlate with lithospheric temperatures: most cratonic regions show high VS and QS and low T, while most active regions have seismic and thermal anomalies of the opposite sign. The strongest inverse correlation is found at a depth of 100 km, where the attenuation model is best resolved. Significantly, at this depth, the contours of near-zero QS anomalies approximately correspond to the 1000 ??C isotherm, in agreement with laboratory measurements that show a pronounced increase in seismic attenuation in upper mantle rocks at 1000-1100 ??C. East-west profiles of VS, QS and T where continental data coverage is best (50??N latitude for North America and 60??N latitude for Eurasia) further demonstrate that temperature plays a dominant, but non-unique, role in determining the value of lithospheric VS and QS. At 100 km depth, where the resolution of seismic models is the highest, we compare observed seismic VS and QS with theoretical VST and QST values, respectively, that are calculated solely from temperature anomalies and constrained by experimental data on temperature dependencies of velocity and attenuation. This comparison shows that temperature variations alone are sufficient to explain seismic VS and QS in ca 50 per cent of continental regions. We hypothesize that compositional anomalies resulting from Fe depletion can explain the misfit between seismic and theoretical VS in cratonic lithosphere. In regions of active tectonics, temperature effects alone cannot explain seismic VS and QS in the lithosphere. It is likely that partial melts and/or fluids may affect seismic parameters in these regions. This study demonstrates that lithospheric temperature plays the dominant role in controlling VS and QS anomalies, but other physical parameters, such as compositional variations, fluids, partial melting and scattering, may also play a significant role in determining VS and QS variations in the continental mantle. ?? 2004 RAS.

Experimental evidence supporting a global melt layer at the base of the Earth's upper mantle.

PubMed

Freitas, D; Manthilake, G; Schiavi, F; Chantel, J; Bolfan-Casanova, N; Bouhifd, M A; Andrault, D

2017-12-19

The low-velocity layer (LVL) atop the 410-km discontinuity has been widely attributed to dehydration melting. In this study, we experimentally reproduced the wadsleyite-to-olivine phase transformation in the upwelling mantle across the 410-km discontinuity and investigated in situ the sound wave velocity during partial melting of hydrous peridotite. Our seismic velocity model indicates that the globally observed negative Vs anomaly (-4%) can be explained by a 0.7% melt fraction in peridotite at the base of the upper mantle. The produced melt is richer in FeO (~33 wt.%) and H 2 O (~16.5 wt.%) and its density is determined to be 3.56-3.74 g cm -3 . The water content of this gravitationally stable melt in the LVL corresponds to a total water content in the mantle transition zone of 0.22 ± 0.02 wt.%. Such values agree with estimations based on magneto-telluric observations.

Crystal structure, equation of state, and elasticity of phase H (MgSiO4H2) at Earth's lower mantle pressures.

PubMed

Tsuchiya, Jun; Mookherjee, Mainak

2015-10-23

Dense hydrous magnesium silicate (DHMS) phases play a crucial role in transporting water in to the Earth's interior. A newly discovered DHMS, phase H (MgSiO4H2), is stable at Earth's lower mantle, i.e., at pressures greater than 30 GPa. Here we report the crystal structure and elasticity of phase H and its evolution upon compression. Using first principles simulations, we have explored the relative energetics of the candidate crystal structures with ordered and disordered configurations of magnesium and silicon atoms in the octahedral sites. At conditions relevant to Earth's lower mantle, it is likely that phase H is able to incorporate a significant amount of aluminum, which may enhance the thermodynamic stability of phase H. The sound wave velocities of phase H are ~2-4% smaller than those of isostructural δ-AlOOH. The shear wave impedance contrast due to the transformation of phase D to a mixture of phase H and stishovite at pressures relevant to the upper part of the lower mantle could partly explain the geophysical observations. The calculated elastic wave velocities and anisotropies indicate that phase H can be a source of significant seismic anisotropy in the lower mantle.

Teleseismic P-wave Attenuation beneath the Eastern Tibetan Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, S. S.; Peng, Y.; Liu, K. H.

2017-12-01

Numerous laboratory, theoretical, and observational studies have demonstrated that the teleseismic body-wave attenuation factor (or t*), which is quantified by the travel time over the quality factor Q, can provide robust constraints on the thermal and physical state of the crust and upper mantle, and thus is ideal for investigating crustal and mantle dynamics in tectonically active areas such as the Eastern Tibetan Plateau, where pervasively distributed lower crustal flow has been regarded as a mechanism for its shortening and uplift. For this study, broadband seismic data recorded by 256 stations are used to compute the t* relative to a station in the Sichuan Basin. We have developed a set of procedures to reliably measure the P-wave t* values using the spectral ratio method through manually adjusting the time window and visually determining the quality of the measurements. Anomalously high t* values are found beneath active orogenic zones such as Qinling and Longmenshan, with magnitude of about 0.4 s. The Longmenshan block shows the most significant and spatially-consistent high t* measurements, probably caused by the accumulation of a thick and partially melted lower crustal layer. This high attenuation zone continues toward the south to the Songpan-Ganzi terrane to the south, but with a greatly reduced magnitude, suggesting a thinner low-viscosity lower crustal layer. The observations provided independent constraints on the spatial distribution and thickness of the proposed system of lower crustal flow.

Effects of upper mantle heterogeneities on the lithospheric stress field and dynamic topography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osei Tutu, Anthony; Steinberger, Bernhard; Sobolev, Stephan V.; Rogozhina, Irina; Popov, Anton A.

2018-05-01

The orientation and tectonic regime of the observed crustal/lithospheric stress field contribute to our knowledge of different deformation processes occurring within the Earth's crust and lithosphere. In this study, we analyze the influence of the thermal and density structure of the upper mantle on the lithospheric stress field and topography. We use a 3-D lithosphere-asthenosphere numerical model with power-law rheology, coupled to a spectral mantle flow code at 300 km depth. Our results are validated against the World Stress Map 2016 (WSM2016) and the observation-based residual topography. We derive the upper mantle thermal structure from either a heat flow model combined with a seafloor age model (TM1) or a global S-wave velocity model (TM2). We show that lateral density heterogeneities in the upper 300 km have a limited influence on the modeled horizontal stress field as opposed to the resulting dynamic topography that appears more sensitive to such heterogeneities. The modeled stress field directions, using only the mantle heterogeneities below 300 km, are not perturbed much when the effects of lithosphere and crust above 300 km are added. In contrast, modeled stress magnitudes and dynamic topography are to a greater extent controlled by the upper mantle density structure. After correction for the chemical depletion of continents, the TM2 model leads to a much better fit with the observed residual topography giving a good correlation of 0.51 in continents, but this correction leads to no significant improvement of the fit between the WSM2016 and the resulting lithosphere stresses. In continental regions with abundant heat flow data, TM1 results in relatively small angular misfits. For example, in western Europe the misfit between the modeled and observation-based stress is 18.3°. Our findings emphasize that the relative contributions coming from shallow and deep mantle dynamic forces are quite different for the lithospheric stress field and dynamic topography.

Seismic velocity structure of the crust and shallow mantle of the Central and Eastern United States by seismic surface wave imaging

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, Fred; Mooney, Walter D.

2016-01-01

Seismic surface waves from the Transportable Array of EarthScope's USArray are used to estimate phase velocity structure of 18 to 125 s Rayleigh waves, then inverted to obtain three-dimensional crust and upper mantle structure of the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS) down to ∼200 km. The obtained lithosphere structure confirms previously imaged CEUS features, e.g., the low seismic-velocity signature of the Cambrian Reelfoot Rift and the very low velocity at >150 km depth below an Eocene volcanic center in northwestern Virginia. New features include high-velocity mantle stretching from the Archean Superior Craton well into the Proterozoic terranes and deep low-velocity zones in central Texas (associated with the late Cretaceous Travis and Uvalde volcanic fields) and beneath the South Georgia Rift (which contains Jurassic basalts). Hot spot tracks may be associated with several imaged low-velocity zones, particularly those close to the former rifted Laurentia margin.

Magma-assisted rifting in Ethiopia.

PubMed

Kendall, J-M; Stuart, G W; Ebinger, C J; Bastow, I D; Keir, D

2005-01-13

The rifting of continents and evolution of ocean basins is a fundamental component of plate tectonics, yet the process of continental break-up remains controversial. Plate driving forces have been estimated to be as much as an order of magnitude smaller than those required to rupture thick continental lithosphere. However, Buck has proposed that lithospheric heating by mantle upwelling and related magma production could promote lithospheric rupture at much lower stresses. Such models of mechanical versus magma-assisted extension can be tested, because they predict different temporal and spatial patterns of crustal and upper-mantle structure. Changes in plate deformation produce strain-enhanced crystal alignment and increased melt production within the upper mantle, both of which can cause seismic anisotropy. The Northern Ethiopian Rift is an ideal place to test break-up models because it formed in cratonic lithosphere with minor far-field plate stresses. Here we present evidence of seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle of this rift zone using observations of shear-wave splitting. Our observations, together with recent geological data, indicate a strong component of melt-induced anisotropy with only minor crustal stretching, supporting the magma-assisted rifting model in this area of initially cold, thick continental lithosphere.

Experimental Deformation of Olivine Crystals at Mantle P and T: Evidences for a Pressure-Induced Slip Transition and Implications for Upper-Mantle Seismic Anisotropy and Low Viscosity Zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raterron, P.; Chen, J.; Geenen, T.; Girard, J.

2009-04-01

Recent developments in high-pressure deformation devices coupled with synchrotron radiation allow investigating the rheology of mantle minerals and aggregates at the extreme pressure (P) and temperature (T) of their natural occurrence in the Earth. This is particularly true in the case of olivine, which rheology has been recently investigated in the Deformation-DIA apparatus (D-DIA, see Wang et al., 2003, Rev. Scientific Instr., 74, 3002) at upper-mantle P and T conditions. Olivine deforms by dislocation creep in the shallow upper-mantle, as revealed by the seismic velocity anisotropy observed in this region. The attenuation of seismic anisotropy at depth greater than 200 km is interpreted as a pressure-induced change in olivine main deformation mechanism. It was first attributed to a transition from dislocation creep to diffusion creep (Karato and Wu, 1993, Science, 260, 771). This interpretation has been challenged by deformation data obtained at high pressure (P > 3 GPa) in the dislocation creep regime (Couvy et al., 2004, EJM, 16, 877; Raterron et al., 2007, Am. Miner., 92, 1436; Raterron et al., 2009, PEPI, 72, 74), which support a second interpretation: a transition in olivine dominant dislocation slip, from [100] slip at low P to [001] slip at high P (e.g., Mainprice et al., 2005, Nature, 433, 731). Such a P -induced [100]/[001] slip transition is also supported by recent theoretical studies based on first-principle calculations of olivine dislocation slips (Durinck et al., 2005, PCM, 32, 646; Durinck et al., 2007, Eur. J. Mineral., 19, 631). In order to further constrain the effect of pressure on olivine slip system activities, deformation experiments were carried out in poor water condition at P > 5 GPa and T =1400˚ C, on pure forsterite (Fo100) and San Carlos olivine crystals, using the D-DIA at the X17B2 beamline of the NSLS (Upton, NY, USA). Crystals were oriented in order to active either [100] slip alone or [001] slip alone in (010) plane, or both [100](001) and [001](100) systems together. Constant applied stress < 300 MPa and specimen strain rates were monitored in situ using time-resolved X-ray diffraction and radiography, respectively. Run products were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in order to verify the actual activation of the tested dislocation slip systems. The obtained data were compared with rheological data previously obtained at comparable T and conditions, but at room P (Darot and Gueguen, 1981, JGR, 86, 6219; Bai et al., 1991, JGR, 96, 2441), resulting in creep power laws which quantify the effect of P on olivine rheology. The new data confirm the occurrence of a P -induced [100]/[001] slip transition, and suggest that [001](010) system dominates olivine deformation in the deep upper mantle. Extrapolation of the obtained rheological laws to natural condition along upper-mantle geotherms, shows that the [100] / [001] slip transition should occur in the Earth at ~ 200 km depth, thus can explain the attenuation of seismic anisotropy in the deep upper mantle. The obtained rheological laws were also integrated into a straightforward olivine aggregate model, then extrapolated to mantle condition using a 2-D geodynamic modeling application (Van den Berg et al., 1993, Geophys. J. International, 115, 62), which is the simplest approach to investigate upper-mantle steady-state deformation. In the application, the velocity of the lower boundary (the transition-zone boundary at 410-km depth) was set to 0, while that at the Earth's surface was set to 2 cm/year. Results from this modeling suggest that the combine activity of [100] and [001] slips in olivine aggregates may significantly decrease mantle viscosity below the oceanic lithosphere, thus, may contribute to the low viscosity zone (LVZ) required in plate tectonics to decouple rigid plates from the more ductile asthenophere underneath.

Magmatic arc structure around Mount Rainier, WA, from the joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obrebski, Mathias; Abers, Geoffrey A.; Foster, Anna

2015-01-01

The deep magmatic processes in volcanic arcs are often poorly understood. We analyze the shear wave velocity (VS) distribution in the crust and uppermost mantle below Mount Rainier, in the Cascades arc, resolving the main velocity contrasts based on converted phases within P coda via source normalization or receiver function (RF) analysis. To alleviate the trade-off between depth and velocity, we use long period phase velocities (25-100 s) obtained from earthquake surface waves, and at shorter period (7-21 s) we use seismic noise cross correlograms. We use a transdimensional Bayesian scheme to explore the model space (VS in each layer, number of interfaces and their respective depths, level of noise on data). We apply this tool to 15 broadband stations from permanent and Earthscope temporary stations. Most results fall into two groups with distinctive properties. Stations east of the arc (Group I) have comparatively slower middle-to-lower crust (VS = 3.4-3.8 km/s at 25 km depth), a sharp Moho and faster uppermost mantle (VS = 4.2-4.4 km/s). Stations in the arc (Group II) have a faster lower crust (VS = 3.7-4 km/s) overlying a slower uppermost mantle (VS = 4.0-4.3 km/s), yielding a weak Moho. Lower crustal velocities east of the arc (Group I) most likely represent ancient subduction mélanges mapped nearby. The lower crust for Group II ranges from intermediate to felsic. We propose that intermediate-felsic to felsic rocks represent the prearc basement, while intermediate composition indicates the mushy andesitic crustal magmatic system plus solidified intrusion along the volcanic conduits. We interpret the slow upper mantle as partial melt.

Composition of uppermost mantle beneath the Northern Fennoscandia - numerical modeling and petrological interpretation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Virshylo, Ivan; Kozlovskaya, Elena; Prodaivoda, George; Silvennoinen, Hanna

2013-04-01

Studying of the uppermost mantle beneath the northern Fennoscandia is based on the data of the POLENET/LAPNET passive seismic array. Firstly, arrivals of P-waves of teleseismic events were inverted into P-wave velocity model using non-linear tomography (Silvennoinen et al., in preparation). The second stage was numerical petrological interpretation of referred above velocity model. This study presents estimation of mineralogical composition of the uppermost mantle as a result of numerical modeling. There are many studies concerning calculation of seismic velocities for polymineral media under high pressure and temperature conditions (Afonso, Fernàndez, Ranalli, Griffin, & Connolly, 2008; Fullea et al., 2009; Hacker, 2004; Xu, Lithgow-Bertelloni, Stixrude, & Ritsema, 2008). The elastic properties under high pressure and temperature (PT) conditions were modelled using the expanded Hook's law - Duhamel-Neumann equation, which allows computation of thermoelastic strains. Furthermore, we used a matrix model with multi-component inclusions that has no any restrictions on shape, orientation or concentration of inclusions. Stochastic method of conditional moment with computation scheme of Mori-Tanaka (Prodaivoda, Khoroshun, Nazarenko, & Vyzhva, 2000) is applied instead of traditional Voigt-Reuss-Hill and Hashin-Shtrikman equations. We developed software for both forward and inverse problem calculation. Inverse algorithm uses methods of global non-linear optimization. We prefer a "model-based" approach for ill-posed problem, which means that the problem is solved using geological and geophysical constraints for each parameter of a priori and final models. Additionally, we are checking at least several different hypothesis explaining how it is possible to get the solution with good fit to the observed data. If the a priori model is close to the real medium, the nearest solution would be found by the inversion. Otherwise, the global optimization is searching inside the restricted volume in the multi-dimensional parameter space. In order to constrain concentration of minerals we used equilibrium of mineral associations for selected P-T condition obtained by free Gibbs energy minimization (c.f. Stixrude & Lithgow-Bertelloni, 2005). We also considered the mineralogical composition of upper mantle xenoliths, although the representativeness of xenoliths in Precambrian rocks could be treated with care, if one tries to describe the modern mantle. As a first step, we estimated 1D model of mineralogical composition in the depth range of 35-350 km using the IASP91 reference model (Kennett & Engdahl, 1991). Both the P- and S- wave velocities were used for inversion, in order to improve the reliability of the model. More comprehensive result could be obtained if density distribution is involved. In our study we used the 1D PEMC density model (Dziewonski, Hales & Lapwood, 1975) as it is the most adequate for the continental lithosphere. The 1D modeling showed that the garnet lherzolite model (forsterite, fayalite, enstatite, ferrosilite, diopside, jadeite, pyrope) can be considered as a basic one. The end-members of olivine and orthopyroxene solutions were included with the aim of Fe/Mg ratio estimation. Testing with modified models including hedenbergite, harzburgite spinel, etc. showed that these minerals have no significant influence on bulk elastic properties. Selected set of minerals allows modelling the most species of peridote-pyroxenite associations known from xenoliths investigations (Kukkonen, Kuusisto, Lehtonen, & Peltonen, 2008; Lehtonen, O'Brien, Peltonen, Johanson, & Pakkanen, 2004). However, there exist also a number of evidences for mantle eclogite xenoliths from the region under study and its surrounding (Lehtonen et al., 2004; Peltonen, Kinnunen, & Huhma, 2002). That is why we also made modelling for garnet-clinopyroxene model of eclogite. The volumetric mineral compositions obtained were transformed into weight concentration of rock-forming oxides using stoichiometric formulas. The results indicate significant variation of Fe and Mg oxides concentration in the uppermost mantle. The Mg/Fe ratio could be different from the results of previous studies (Griffin et al., 2003; Svetov & Smolkin, 2003), but it is in agreement with the geophysical models considered in our study. At the same time the SiO2 concentration is close to the chemical composition of xenoliths from the Fennoscandia, including Kola Peninsula and Central Finland (Beard, Downes, Mason, & Vetrin, 2007; Kukkonen et al., 2008; Lehtonen et al., 2004). Brief conclusions from our study could be formulated as follows: 1) Modelling confirms potential significant lateral inhomogeneity of mineral composition of the uppermost mantle of northern Fennoscandian Shield. 2) Lherzolitic composition of the mantle lithosphere generally explains seismic velocities obtained by teleseismic tomography in northern Fennoscandian Shield. It could be used as a primary a priori model for interpretation. But potential presence of eclogites cannot be rejected, at least for some parts of studied area. 3) The future study needs to include more precise evaluation of temperature and density in the upper mantle using gravity and heat flow data. Afonso, J. C., Fernàndez, M., Ranalli, G., Griffin, W. L., & Connolly, J. a. D. (2008). Integrated geophysical-petrological modeling of the lithosphere and sublithospheric upper mantle: Methodology and applications. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 9(5). doi:10.1029/2007GC001834 Beard, a. D., Downes, H., Mason, P. R. D., & Vetrin, V. R. (2007). Depletion and enrichment processes in the lithospheric mantle beneath the Kola Peninsula (Russia): Evidence from spinel lherzolite and wehrlite xenoliths. Lithos, 94(1-4), 1-24. doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2006.02.002 Dziewonski, A.M., A.L. Hales, & E.R. Lapwood. (1975) Parametrically simple earth models consistent with geophysical data Phys. Earth Plan. Int. 10:12. Fullea, J., Afonso, J. C., Connolly, J. A. D., Fernàndez, M., García-Castellanos, D., & Zeyen, H. (2009). LitMod3D: An interactive 3-D software to model the thermal, compositional, density, seismological, and rheological structure of the lithosphere and sublithospheric upper mantle. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 10(8), 1-21. doi:10.1029/2009GC002391 Griffin, W. ., O'Reilly, S. ., Abe, N., Aulbach, S., Davies, R. ., Pearson, N. ., Doyle, B. ., et al. (2003). The origin and evolution of Archean lithospheric mantle. Precambrian Research, 127(1-3), 19-41. doi:10.1016/S0301-9268(03)00180-3 Hacker, B. R. (2004). Subduction Factory 3: An Excel worksheet and macro for calculating the densities, seismic wave speeds, and H 2 O contents of minerals and rocks at pressure and temperature. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 5(1), 1-7. doi:10.1029/2003GC000614 Kennett B.L.N. & Engdahl E.R. (1991) Travel times for global earthquake location and phase association. Geophysical Journal International, 105:429-465. Kukkonen, I., Kuusisto, M., Lehtonen, M., & Peltonen, P. (2008). Delamination of eclogitized lower crust: Control on the crust-mantle boundary in the central Fennoscandian shield. Tectonophysics, 457(3-4), 111-127. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2008.04.029 Lehtonen, M. L., O'Brien, H. E., Peltonen, P., Johanson, B. S., & Pakkanen, L. K. (2004). Layered mantle at the Karelian Craton margin: P - T of mantle xenocrysts and xenoliths from the Kaavi - Kuopio kimberlites , Finland. Lithos, 77, 593-608. doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2004.04.026 Peltonen, P., Kinnunen, K. A., & Huhma, H. (2002). Petrology of two diamondiferous eclogite xenoliths from the Lahtojoki kimberlite pipe , eastern Finland. Lithos, 63, 151-164. Prodaivoda, G. T., Khoroshun, L. P., Nazarenko, L. V, & Vyzhva, S. A. (2000). Mathematical modeling of the azimuthal anisotropy in thermoelasic properties of the oceanic upper mantle. IzvestiyaPhysics of the Solid Earth, 36(5), 394-405. Stixrude, L., & Lithgow-Bertelloni, C. (2005). Thermodynamics of mantle minerals - I. Physical properties. Geophysical Journal International, 162(2), 610-632. Retrieved from http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/8891/ Svetov, S. A., & Smolkin, V. F. (2003). Model P - T Conditions of High-Magnesia Magma Generation in the Precambrian of the Fennoscandian Shield. Geochemistry International, 41(8), 799-811. Xu, W., Lithgow-Bertelloni, C., Stixrude, L., & Ritsema, J. (2008). The effect of bulk composition and temperature on mantle seismic structure. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 275(1-2), 70-79. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.08.012

Geometry of the Arabia-Somalia Plate Boundary into Afar: Preliminary Results from the Seismic Profile Across the Asal Rift (Djibouti)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vergne, J.; Doubre, C.; Mohamed, K.; Tiberi, C.; Leroy, S.; Maggi, A.

2010-12-01

In the Afar Depression, the Asal-Ghoubbet Rift in Djibouti is a young segment on land at the propagating tip of the Aden Ridge. This segment represents an ideal laboratory to observe the mechanisms of extension and the structural evolutions involved, from the continental break-up to the first stage of oceanic spreading. However, we lack first order information about the crustal and upper mantle structure in this region, which for example prevent detailed numerical modeling of the deformations observed at the surface from GPS or InSAR. Moreover the current permanent network is not well suited to precisely constrain the ratio of seismic/aseismic deformation and to characterize the active deformation and the rifting dynamics. Since November 2009 we have maintained a temporary network of 25 seismic stations deployed along a 150 km-long profile. Because we expect rapid variations of the lithospheric structure across the 10 km-wide central part of the rift, we gradually decreased the inter-stations spacing to less than 1 km in the middle section of the profile. In order to obtain a continuous image of the plate boundary, from the topographic surface to the upper mantle, several techniques and methods will be applied: P and S wave receiver functions, tomographies based on body waves, surface waves and seismic noise correlation, anisotropy, and finally a gravity-seismic joint inversion. We present some preliminary results deduced from the receiver functions applied to the data acquired during the first months of the experiment. We migrate several sets of receiver functions computed in various frequency bands to resolve both mantle interfaces and fine scale structures within the thin crust in the center of the rift. These first images confirm a rapid variation of the Moho depth on both sides of the rift and a very complex lithospheric structure in the central section with several low velocity zones within the top 50km that might correspond to magma lenses.

Application of Effective Medium Theory to the Three-Dimensional Heterogeneity of Mantle Anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, X.; Jordan, T. H.

2015-12-01

A self-consistent theory for the effective elastic parameters of stochastic media with small-scale 3D heterogeneities has been developed using a 2nd-order Born approximation to the scattered wavefield (T. H. Jordan, GJI, in press). Here we apply the theory to assess how small-scale variations in the local anisotropy of the upper mantle affect seismic wave propagation. We formulate a anisotropic model in which the local elastic properties are specified by a constant stiffness tensor with hexagonal symmetry of arbitrary orientation. This orientation is guided by a Gaussian random vector field with transversely isotropic (TI) statistics. If the outer scale of the statistical variability is small compared to a wavelength, then the effective seismic velocities are TI and depend on two parameters, a horizontal-to-vertical orientation ratio ξ and a horizontal-to-vertical aspect ratio, η. If ξ = 1, the symmetry axis is isotropically distributed; if ξ < 1, it is vertical biased (bipolar distribution), and if ξ > 1, it is horizontally biased (girdle distribution). If η = 1, the heterogeneity is geometrically isotropic; as η à∞, the medium becomes a horizontal stochastic laminate; as η à0, the medium becomes a vertical stochastic bundle. Using stiffness tensors constrained by laboratory measurements of mantle xenoliths, we explore the dependence of the effective P and S velocities on ξ and η. The effective velocities are strongly controlled by the orientation ratio ξ; e.g., if the hexagonal symmetry axis of the local anisotropy is the fast direction of propagation, then vPH > vPV and vSH > vSV for ξ > 1. A more surprising result is the 2nd-order insensitivity of the velocities to the heterogeneity aspect ratio η. Consequently, the geometrical anisotropy of upper-mantle heterogeneity significantly enhances seismic-wave anisotropy only through local variations in the Voigt-averaged velocities, which depend primarily on rock composition and not deformation history.

Seismic Tomography of the South Carpathian System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stuart, G. W.; Ren, Y.; Dando, B. D.; Houseman, G.; Ionescu, C.; Hegedus, E.; Radovanovic, S.; South Carpathian Project Working Group

2010-12-01

The South Carpathian Mountain Range is an enigmatic system, which includes one of the most seismically active regions in Europe today. That region, Vrancea in the SE Carpathians, is well studied and its deep structure may be geologically unique, but the mantle structures beneath the western part of the South Carpathian Range are not well resolved by previous tomographic studies. The South Carpathian Project (SCP) is a major temporary deployment (2009-2011) of seismic broadband systems extending across the eastern Pannonian Basin and the South Carpathian Mountains. In this project we aim to map the upper mantle structure in central Europe with the objective of testing geodynamic models of the process that produced extension in the Pannonian, synchronous with convergence and uplift in the Carpathians. Here, we describe initial results of finite-frequency tomography using body waves to image the mantle of the region. We have selected teleseismic earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5.9, which occurred between 2005 and 2010. The data were recorded on 57 temporary stations deployed in the South Carpathian Project, 56 temporary stations deployed in the earlier Carpathian Basins Project (CBP), and 41 permanent broadband stations. The differential travel times are measured in high, intermediate and low frequencies (0.5-2.0 Hz, 0.1-0.5 Hz and 0.03-0.1 Hz for both P-wave, 0.1-0.5 Hz, 0.05-0.1 Hz and 0.02-0.05 Hz for S-wave), and are inverted to produce P and S-wave velocity maps at different depths in the mantle. An extensive zone of high seismic velocities is located in the Mantle Transition zone beneath the Pannonian Basin, and is related to down-welling associated with an earlier phase of continental convergence in the Pannonian region. These results will be used in conjunction with 3D geodynamical modelling to help understand the geological evolution of this region. SCP working group: G. Houseman, G. Stuart, Y. Ren, B. Dando, P. Lorinczi, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK; E. Hegedus, A. Kovács, I. Török, I. László, R. Csabafi, Eötvös Loránd Geophysical Institute, Budapest, Hungary; C. Ionescu, M. Radulian, V. Raileanu, D. Tataru, B. Zaharia, F. Borleanu, C. Neagoe, G. Gainariu, National Institute of Earth Physics, Bucharest, Romania; S. Radovanovic, V. Kovacevic, D. Valcic, S. Petrovic-Cacic, G. Krunic, Seismological Survey of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia; A. Brisbourne, D. Hawthorn, V. Lane, SEIS-UK, Leicester University, UK.

A review of the regional geophysics of the Arizona Transition Zone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hendricks, J. D.; Plescia, J. B.

1991-01-01

A review of existing geophysical information and new data presented in this special section indicate that major changes in crustal properties between the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau occur in, or directly adjacent to, the region defined as the Arizona Transition Zone. Although this region was designated on a physiographic basis, studies indicate that it is also the geophysical transition between adjoining provinces. The Transition Zone displays anomalous crustal and upper mantle seismic properties, shallow Curie isotherms, high heat flow, and steep down-to-the-plateau Bouguer gravity gradients. Seismic and gravity studies suggest that the change in crustal thickness, from thin crust in the Basin and Range to thick crust in the Colorado Plateau, may occur as a series of steps rather than a planar surface. Anomalous P wave velocities, high heat flow, shallow Curie isotherms, and results of gravity modeling suggest that the upper mantle is heterogeneous in this region. A relatively shallow asthenosphere beneath the Basin and Range and Transition Zone contrasted with a thick lithosphere beneath the Colorado Plateau would be one explanation that would satisfy these geophysical observations.

Seismic structure of the central US crust and upper mantle: Uniqueness of the Reelfoot Rift

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, Fred; Mooney, Walter D.

2014-01-01

Using seismic surface waves recorded with Earthscope's Transportable Array, we apply surface wave imaging to determine 3D seismic velocity in the crust and uppermost mantle. Our images span several Proterozoic and early Cambrian rift zones (Mid-Continent Rift, Rough Creek Graben—Rome trough, Birmingham trough, Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, and Reelfoot Rift). While ancient rifts are generally associated with low crustal velocity because of the presence of thick sedimentary sequences, the Reelfoot Rift is unique in its association with low mantle seismic velocity. Its mantle low-velocity zone (LVZ) is exceptionally pronounced and extends down to at least 200 km depth. This LVZ is of variable width, being relatively narrow (∼50km">∼50km wide) within the northern Reelfoot Rift, which hosts the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). We hypothesize that this mantle volume is weaker than its surroundings and that the Reelfoot Rift consequently has relatively low elastic plate thickness, which would tend to concentrate tectonic stress within this zone. No other intraplate ancient rift zone is known to be associated with such a deep mantle low-velocity anomaly, which suggests that the NMSZ is more susceptible to external stress perturbations than other ancient rift zones.

Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary depth inferred from global surface wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burgos, G.; Montagner, J.-P.; Beucler, E.; Trampert, J.; Ritzwoller, M. H.; Capdeville, Y.; Shapiro, N. M.

2012-04-01

The coupling between the rigid lithosphere and the weaker underlying asthenosphere is a key point of Plate Tectonics and Mantle dynamics. The characterization of the properties of the Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary (LAB) is essential for understanding the Upper Mantle. Recent studies, using receiver functions for example, provide local constraints. In this study a global view by surface wave tomography is given. A large amount of data from different groups (Harvard, Boulder, Utrecht, Paris) has been collected. There are more than 100,000 phase and group velocities measurements on the fundamental mode of Rayleigh and Love waves. This global scale dataset in the period range 15s-200s, enables us to investigate the LAB with an approximative lateral resolution of 500km. The regionalization of the path-averaged velocities is performed to extract isotropic and azimuthally anisotropic terms of local velocities. We derive our own crustal model (taking account of topography-bathymetry, sediments and crustal thickness) by a MonteCarlo inversion with the shorter periods of the data. A forward estimation of the LAB properties on a global map is provided. We choose a low parametrization (isotropic Vs layers) of the Upper Mantle adjusted with the larger periods of the data by MonteCarlo inversion. Then we present a new tomographic model obtained by inverting the larger periods of phase velocities in the least square sense, including isotropic Vs velocity, radial anisotropy and azimuthal anisotropy. Different proxies for the LAB are builded from this 3D Upper Mantle model, such as the strongest negative Sv velocity gradient or the variation of azimuthal anisotropy fast axis. LAB determination seems consistent in oceanic regions in all of the proxies, presenting a good correlation with ocean floor ages. While the estimated depths beneath continents still unclear depending on the type of parametrizations compared to receiver functions or heat flux studies.

Proxies of Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary from global surface wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burgos, G.; Montagner, J.; Beucler, E.; Trampert, J.; Ritzwoller, M. H.; Capdeville, Y.; Shapiro, N. M.

2011-12-01

The coupling between rigid lithosphere and the weaker underlying asthenosphere is a key point of Plate Tectonics and Mantle dynamics. The characterization of the properties of the Lithosphere/Asthenosphere Boundary (LAB) is essential for understanding the Upper Mantle. Recent studies, using receiver functions for example, provide local constraints. In this study a global view by surface wave tomography is given. A large amount of data from different groups (Harvard, Boulder, Utrecht, Paris) has been collected. There are more than 100,000 phase and group velocities measurements on the fundamental mode of Rayleigh and Love waves. This global scale dataset in the period range 15s-200s, enables us to investigate the LAB with an approximative lateral resolution of 500km. The regionalization of the path-averaged velocities is performed to extract isotropic and azimuthally anisotropic terms of local velocities. We derive our own crustal model (taking account of topography-bathymetry, sediments and crustal thickness) by a MonteCarlo inversion with the shorter periods of the data. A forward estimation of the LAB properties on a global map is provided. We choose a low parametrization (isotropic Vs layers) of the Upper Mantle ajusted with the larger periods of the data by MonteCarlo inversion. Then we present a new tomographic model obtained by inverting the larger periods of phase velocities in the least square sense, including isotropic Vs velocity, radial anisotropy and azimuthal anisotropy. Different proxies for the LAB are builded from this 3D Upper Mantle model, such as the strongest negative Sv velocity gradient or the variation of azimuthal anisotropy fast axis. LAB determination seems consistent in oceanic regions in all of the proxies, presenting a good correlation with ocean floor ages. While the estimated depths beneath continents still unclear depending on the type of parametrizations compared to receiver functions or heat flux studies.

The initiation of segmented buoyancy-driven melting during continental breakup

PubMed Central

Gallacher, Ryan J.; Keir, Derek; Harmon, Nicholas; Stuart, Graham; Leroy, Sylvie; Hammond, James O. S.; Kendall, J-Michael; Ayele, Atalay; Goitom, Berhe; Ogubazghi, Ghebrebrhan; Ahmed, Abdulhakim

2016-01-01

Melting of the mantle during continental breakup leads to magmatic intrusion and volcanism, yet our understanding of the location and dominant mechanisms of melt generation in rifting environments is impeded by a paucity of direct observations of mantle melting. It is unclear when during the rifting process the segmented nature of magma supply typical of seafloor spreading initiates. Here, we use Rayleigh-wave tomography to construct a high-resolution absolute three-dimensional shear-wave velocity model of the upper 250 km beneath the Afar triple junction, imaging the mantle response during progressive continental breakup. Our model suggests melt production is highest and melting depths deepest early during continental breakup. Elevated melt production during continental rifting is likely due to localized thinning and melt focusing when the rift is narrow. In addition, we interpret segmented zones of melt supply beneath the rift, suggesting that buoyancy-driven active upwelling of the mantle initiates early during continental rifting. PMID:27752044

A 3-D shear velocity model of the southern North America and the Caribbean plates from ambient noise and earthquake tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaite, B.; Villaseñor, A.; Iglesias, A.; Herraiz, M.; Jiménez-Munt, I.

2014-10-01

We use group velocities from earthquake tomography together with group and phase velocities from ambient noise tomography (ANT) of Rayleigh-waves to invert for the 3-D shear-wave velocity structure (5-70 km) of the Caribbean (CAR) and southern North American (NAM) plates. The lithospheric model proposed offers a complete image of the crust and uppermost-mantle with imprints of the tectonic evolution. One of the most striking features inferred is the main role of the Ouachita-Marathon-Sonora orogeny front on the crustal seismic structure of NAM plate. A new imaged feature is the low crustal velocities along USA-Mexico border. The model also shows a break of the E-W mantle velocity dichotomy of the NAM and CAR plates beneath the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Yucatan Block. High upper-mantle velocities along the Mesoamerican Subduction Zone coincide with inactive volcanic areas while the lowest velocities correspond to active volcanic arcs and thin lithospheric mantle regions.

A 3-D shear velocity model of the southern North American and Caribbean plates from ambient noise and earthquake tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaite, B.; Villaseñor, A.; Iglesias, A.; Herraiz, M.; Jiménez-Munt, I.

2015-02-01

We use group velocities from earthquake tomography together with group and phase velocities from ambient noise tomography (ANT) of Rayleigh waves to invert for the 3-D shear-wave velocity structure (5-70 km) of the Caribbean (CAR) and southern North American (NAM) plates. The lithospheric model proposed offers a complete image of the crust and uppermost-mantle with imprints of the tectonic evolution. One of the most striking features inferred is the main role of the Ouachita-Marathon-Sonora orogeny front on the crustal seismic structure of the NAM plate. A new imaged feature is the low crustal velocities along the USA-Mexico border. The model also shows a break of the east-west mantle velocity dichotomy of the NAM and CAR plates beneath the Isthmus of the Tehuantepec and the Yucatan Block. High upper-mantle velocities along the Mesoamerican Subduction Zone coincide with inactive volcanic areas while the lowest velocities correspond to active volcanic arcs and thin lithospheric mantle regions.

Lateral heterogeneity and azimuthal anistropy of the upper mantle: Love and Rayleigh waves 100-250 sec

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tanimoto, T.; Anderson, D. L.

1983-01-01

The lateral heterogeneity and apparent anisotropy of the upper mantle are studied by measuring Rayleigh and Love wave phase velocities in the period range 100-250 sec. Spherical harmonic descriptions of the lateral heterogeneity are obtained for order and degree up to 1=m=10. Slow regions are evident at the East Pacific rise, northeast Africa, Tibet, Tasman sea, southwestern North America and triple junctions in the Northern Atlantic and Indian oceans. Fast regions occur in Australia, western Pacific and the eastern Atlantic. Details which are not evident in previous studies include two fast regions in the central Pacific and the subduction zone in the Scotia Arc region. Inversion for azimuthal dependence showed (1) little correlation between the fast phase velocity directions and the plate motion vector in plate interiors, but (2) correlation of the fast direction with the perpendicular direction to trenches and ridges. Phase velocity is high when waves propagate perpendicular to these structures. Severe tradeoffs exist between heterogeneity and azimuthal dependence because of the yet unsatisfactory path coverage.

Lateral heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy of the upper mantle - Love and Rayleigh waves 100-250 sec

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tanimoto, T.; Anderson, D. L.

1985-01-01

The lateral heterogeneity and apparent anisotropy of the upper mantle are studied by measuring Rayleigh and Love wave phase velocities in the period range 100-250 sec. Spherical harmonic descriptions of the lateral heterogeneity are obtained for order and degree up to 1=m=10. Slow regions are evident at the East Pacific rise, northeast Africa, Tibet, Tasman sea, southwestern North America and triple junctions in the Northern Atlantic and Indian oceans. Fast regions occur in Australia, western Pacific and the eastern Atlantic. Details which are not evident in previous studies include two fast regions in the central Pacific and the subduction zone in the Scotia Arc region. Inversion for azimuthal dependence showed (1) little correlation between the fast phase velocity directions and the plate motion vector in plate interiors, but (2) correlation of the fast direction with the perpendicular direction to trenches and ridges. Phase velocity is high when waves propagate perpendicular to these structures. Severe tradeoffs exist between heterogeneity and azimuthal dependence because of the yet unsatisfactory path coverage.

Crustal tomography of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake area in West Japan using P and PmP data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Haibo; Zhao, Dapeng; Huang, Zhouchuan; Xu, Mingjie; Wang, Liangshu; Nishizono, Yukihisa; Inakura, Hirohito

2018-05-01

A high-resolution model of three-dimensional (3-D) P-wave velocity (Vp) tomography of the crust in the source area of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (M 7.3) in West Japan is determined using a large number of arrival times of first P-waves and reflected P-waves from the Moho discontinuity (PmP). The PmP data are collected from original seismograms of the Kumamoto aftershocks and other local crustal events in Kyushu. Detailed resolution tests show that the addition of the PmP data can significantly improve the resolution of the crustal tomography, especially that of the lower crust. Our results show that significant low-velocity (low-V) anomalies exist in the entire crust beneath the active arc volcanoes, which may reflect the pathway of arc magmas. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake occurred at the edge of a small low-V zone in the upper crust. A significant low-V anomaly is revealed in the lower crust beneath the source zone, which may reflect the arc magma and fluids ascending from the mantle wedge. These results suggest that the rupture nucleation of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake was affected by fluids and arc magma.

Seismic anisotropy beneath the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions revealed by shear-wave splitting analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, S. S.; Kong, F.; Wu, J.; Liu, L.; Liu, K. H.

2017-12-01

Seismic azimuthal anisotropy is measured at 83 stations situated at the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions based on shear-wave splitting analyses. A total of 1701 individual pairs of splitting parameters (fast polarization orientations and splitting delay times) are obtained using the PKS, SKKS, and SKS phases. The splitting parameters from 21 stations exhibit systematic back-azimuthal variations with a 90° periodicity, which is consistent with a two-layer anisotropy model. The resulting upper-layer splitting parameters computed based on a grid-search algorithm are comparable with crustal anisotropy measurements obtained independently based on the sinusoidal moveout of P-to-S conversions from the Moho. The fast orientations of the upper layer anisotropy, which is mostly parallel with major shear zones, are associated with crustal fabrics with a vertical foliation plane. The lower layer anisotropy and the station averaged splitting parameters at stations with azimuthally invariant splitting parameters can be adequately explained by the differential movement between the lithosphere and asthenosphere. The NW-SE fast orientations obtained in the northern part of the study area probably reflect the southeastward extruded mantle flow from central Tibet. In contrast, the NE-SW to E-W fast orientations observed in the southern part of the study area are most likely related to the northeastward to eastward mantle flow induced by the subduction of the Burma microplate.

Crustal and upper mantle investigations of the Caribbean-South American plate boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bezada, Maximiliano J.

The evolution of the Caribbean --- South America plate boundary has been a matter of vigorous debate for decades and many questions remain unresolved. In this work, and in the framework of the BOLIVAR project, we shed light on some aspects of the present state and the tectonic history of the margin by using different types of geophysical data sets and techniques. An analysis of controlled-source traveltime data collected along a boundary-normal profile at ˜65°W was used to build a 2D P-wave velocity model. The model shows that the Caribbean Large Igenous Province is present offshore eastern Venezuela and confirms the uniformity of the velocity structure along the Leeward Antilles volcanic belt. In contrast with neighboring profiles, at this longitude we see no change in velocity structure or crustal thickness across the San Sebastian - El Pilar fault system. A 2D gravity modeling methodology that uses seismically derived initial density models was developed as part of this research. The application of this new method to four of the BOLIVAR boundary-normal profiles suggests that the uppermost mantle is denser under the South American continental crust and the island arc terranes than under the Caribbean oceanic crust. Crustal rocks of the island arc and extended island arc terranes of the Leeward Antilles have a relatively low density, given their P-wave velocity. This may be caused by low iron content, relative to average magmatic arc rocks. Finally, an analysis of teleseismic traveltimes with frequency-dependent kernels produced a 3D P-wave velocity perturbation model. The model shows the structure of the mantle lithosphere under the study area and clearly images the subduction of the Atlantic slab and associated partial removal of the lower lithosphere under northern South America. We also image the subduction of a section of the Caribbean plate under South America with an east-southeast direction. Both the Atlantic and Caribbean subducting slabs penetrate the mantle transition zone, affecting the topography of the 410-km and 660-km discontinuities.

Big mantle wedge, anisotropy, slabs and earthquakes beneath the Japan Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Dapeng

2017-09-01

The Japan Sea is a part of the western Pacific trench-arc-backarc system and has a complex bathymetry and intense seismic activities in the crust and upper mantle. Local seismic tomography revealed strong lateral heterogeneities in the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the eastern margin of the Japan Sea, which was determined using P and S wave arrival times of suboceanic earthquakes relocated precisely with sP depth phases. Ambient-noise tomography revealed a thin crust and a thin lithosphere beneath the Japan Sea and significant low-velocity (low-V) anomalies in the shallow mantle beneath the western and eastern margins of the Japan Sea. Observations with ocean-bottom seismometers and electromagnetometers revealed low-V and high-conductivity anomalies at depths of 200-300 km in the big mantle wedge (BMW) above the subducting Pacific slab, and the anomalies are connected with the low-V zone in the normal mantle wedge beneath NE Japan, suggesting that both shallow and deep slab dehydrations occur and contribute to the arc and back-arc magmatism. The Pacific slab has a simple geometry beneath the Japan Sea, and earthquakes occur actively in the slab down to a depth of ∼600 km beneath the NE Asian margin. Teleseismic P and S wave tomography has revealed that the Philippine Sea plate has subducted aseismically down to the mantle transition zone (MTZ, 410-660 km) depths beneath the southern Japan Sea and the Tsushima Strait, and a slab window is revealed within the aseismic Philippine Sea slab. Seismic anisotropy tomography revealed a NW-SE fast-velocity direction in the BMW, which reflects corner flows induced by the fast deep subduction of the Pacific slab. Large deep earthquakes (M > 7.0; depth > 500 km) occur frequently beneath the Japan Sea western margin, which may be related to the formation of the Changbai and Ulleung intraplate volcanoes. A metastable olivine wedge is revealed within the cold core of the Pacific slab at the MTZ depth, which may be related to the deep seismicity. However, many of these results are still preliminary, due to the lack of seismic stations in the Japan Sea. The key to resolving these critical geoscientific issues is seismic instrumentation in the Japan Sea, for which international cooperation of geoscience communities in the East Asian countries is necessary.

Radial anisotropy of the North American upper mantle based on adjoint tomography with USArray

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Hejun; Komatitsch, Dimitri; Tromp, Jeroen

2017-10-01

We use seismic data from USArray to image the upper mantle underneath the United States based on a so-called `adjoint tomography', an iterative full waveform inversion technique. The inversion uses data from 180 regional earthquakes recorded by 4516 seismographic stations, resulting in 586 185 frequency-dependent measurements. Three-component short-period body waves and long-period surface waves are combined to simultaneously constrain deep and shallow structures. The transversely isotropic model US22 is the result of 22 pre-conditioned conjugate-gradient iterations. Approximate Hessian maps and point-spread function tests demonstrate good illumination of the study region and limited trade-offs among different model parameters. We observe a distinct wave-speed contrast between the stable eastern US and the tectonically active western US. This boundary is well correlated with the Rocky Mountain Front. Stable cratonic regions are characterized by fast anomalies down to 250-300 km, reflecting the thickness of the North American lithosphere. Several fast anomalies are observed beneath the North American lithosphere, suggesting the possibility of lithospheric delamination. Slow wave-speed channels are imaged beneath the lithosphere, which might indicate weak asthenosphere. Beneath the mantle transition zone of the central US, an elongated north-south fast anomaly is observed, which might be the ancient subducted Farallon slab. The tectonically active western US is dominated by prominent slow anomalies with magnitudes greater than -6 per cent down to approximately 250 km. No continuous lower to upper mantle upwellings are observed beneath Yellowstone. In addition, our results confirm previously observed differences between oceans and continents in the anisotropic parameter ξ = (βh/βv)2. A slow wave-speed channel with ξ > 1 is imaged beneath the eastern Pacific at depths from 100 to 200 km, reflecting horizontal shear within the asthenosphere. Underneath continental areas, regions with ξ > 1 are imaged at shallower depths around 100 km. They are characterized by fast shear wave speeds, suggesting different origins of anisotropy underneath oceans and continents. The wave speed and anisotropic signatures of the western Atlantic are similar to continental areas in comparison with the eastern Pacific. Furthermore, we observe regions with ξ < 1 beneath the tectonically active western US at depths between 300 and 400 km, which might reflect vertical flows induced by subduction of the Farallon and Juan de Fuca Plates. Comparing US22 with several previous tomographic models, we observe relatively good correlations for long-wavelength features. However, there are still large discrepancies for small-scale features.

CRUST 5.1: A global crustal model at 5° x 5°

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mooney, Walter D.; Laske, Gabi; Masters, T. Guy

1998-01-01

We present a new global model for the Earth's crust based on seismic refraction data published in the period 1948–1995 and a detailed compilation of ice and sediment thickness. An extensive compilation of seismic refraction measurements has been used to determine the crustal structure on continents and their margins. Oceanic crust is modeled with both a standard model for normal oceanic crust, and variants for nonstandard regions, such as oceanic plateaus. Our model (CRUST 5.1) consists of 2592 5° × 5° tiles in which the crust and uppermost mantle are described by eight layers: (1) ice, (2) water, (3) soft sediments, (4) hard sediments, (5) crystalline upper, (6) middle, (7) lower crust, and (8) uppermost mantle. Topography and bathymetry are adopted from a standard database (ETOPO-5). Compressional wave velocity in each layer is based on field measurements, and shear wave velocity and density are estimated using recently published empirical Vp- Vs and Vp-density relationships. The crustal model differs from previous models in that (1) the thickness and seismic/density structure of sedimentary basins is accounted for more completely, (2) the velocity structure of unmeasured regions is estimated using statistical averages that are based on a significantly larger database of crustal structure, (3) the compressional wave, shear wave, and density structure have been explicitly specified using newly available constraints from field and laboratory studies. Thus this global crustal model is based on substantially more data than previous models and differs from them in many important respects. A new map of the thickness of the Earth's crust is presented, and we illustrate the application of this model by using it to provide the crustal correction for surface wave phase velocity maps. Love waves at 40 s are dominantly sensitive to crustal structure, and there is a very close correspondence between observed phase velocities at this period and those predicted by CRUST 5.1. We find that the application of crustal corrections to long-period (167 s) Rayleigh waves significantly increases the variance in the phase velocity maps and strengthens the upper mantle velocity anomalies beneath stable continental regions. A simple calculation of crustal isostacy indicates significant lateral variations in upper mantle density. The model CRUST 5.1 provides a complete description of the physical properties of the Earth's crust at a scale of 5° × 5° and can be used for a wide range of seismological and nonseismological problems.

Seismic anisotropy of the crust and upper mantle in central Tibetan Plateau revealed by shear-wave splitting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, C.; Tian, X.; Xu, T.; Liang, X.; Chen, Y.; Teng, J.

2017-12-01

Seismic anisotropy that results from deformation of the materials in the Earth is essentially important for understanding the deformation styles at different depths. In the central Tibetan Plateau the shear wave splitting measurements of local S-wave, Pms and SKS phases were calculated applying the broadband seismic data of SANDWICH array, and the anisotropy features of the crust and upper mantle were displayed. SKS splitting results show that the study area is strongly anisotropic as a whole. The average splitting parameters are 65.2°/1.28 s, and there are 17 stations existing individual splitting results larger than 2.0 s. The southeastern part is weakly anisotropic with average splitting parameters 61.0°/0.64 s. Applying spatial coherence technique the optimal depth of the source of anisotropy is 130 160 km, located in the asthenosphere. The subducting Indian plate advancing in NE direction and rigid blocks such as Qaidam basin obstructing in the north cause NEE direction asthenospheric flow which produces the anisotropy. The weak anisotropy of southeastern part is corresponding to the low velocity anomalies in the upper mantle, which may be attributed to local upwelling of asthenosphere from the slab tearing region. The crust media also make contribution to the strong anisotropy. S-wave splitting results which reflect upper crust anisotropy show that the average parameters of three stations in western part are 60.4°/1.53 ms/km, and those of two stations in eastern part are 10.9°/4.64 ms/km. The principle compressive stress controlled by structures varies from NE in the west to nearly NS in the east. Under the assumption that the thickness of upper crust is 20 km, the delay time of upper crust is smaller than 0.1 s. Whole crust anisotropy is obtained by calculating receiver functions and fitting the variation of arrival times of Pms phases with the backazimuths. The fast directions are NE-EW direction with average value 76.4°, nearly consistent with SKS fast directions, and the average delay time is about 0.5 s. The source of crust anisotropy mainly comes from middle-lower crust, which is possibly related to middle-lower crust flow.

Seismically imaging the Afar plume

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, J. O.; Kendall, J. M.; Bastow, I. D.; Stuart, G. W.; Keir, D.; Ayele, A.; Ogubazghi, G.; Ebinger, C. J.; Belachew, M.

2011-12-01

Plume related flood basalt volcanism in Ethiopia has long been cited to have instigated continental breakup in northeast Africa. However, to date seismic images of the mantle beneath the region have not produced conclusive evidence of a plume-like structure. As a result the nature and even existence of a plume in the region and its role in rift initiation and continental rupture are debated. Previous seismic studies using regional deployments of sensors in East-Africa show that low seismic velocities underlie northeast Africa, but their resolution is limited to the top 200-300km of the Earth. Thus, the connection between the low velocities in the uppermost mantle and those imaged in global studies in the lower mantle is unclear. We have combined new data from Afar, Ethiopia with 6 other regional experiments and global network stations across Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Yemen, to produce high-resolution models of upper mantle P- and S- wave velocities to the base of the transition zone. Relative travel time tomographic inversions show that the top 100km is dominated by focussed low velocity zones, likely associated with melt in the lithosphere/uppermost asthenosphere. Below these depths a broad SW-NE oriented sheet like upwelling extends down to the top of the transition zone. Within the transition zone two focussed sharp-sided low velocity regions exist: one beneath the Western Ethiopian plateau outside the rift valley, and the other beneath the Afar depression. The nature of the transition zone anomalies suggests that small upwellings may rise from a broader low velocity plume-like feature in the lower mantle. This interpretation is supported by numerical and analogue experiments that suggest the 660km phase change and viscosity jump may impede flow from the lower to upper mantle creating a thermal boundary layer at the base of the transition zone. This allows smaller, secondary upwellings to initiate and rise to the surface. Our images of secondary upwellings suggest that there is no evidence for a plume in the classical sense (i.e. a narrow conduit). Instead, we propose that secondary upwellings rise from the base of the transition zone and connect in the upper mantle. This coupled with measurements of seismic anisotropy suggest that mantle material flows northeast towards Arabia, and may be responsible for the dramatic dynamic topography observed in northeast Africa and western Arabia.

The thermal regimes of the upper mantle beneath Precambrian and Phanerozoic structures up to the thermobarometry data of mantle xenoliths

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glebovitsky, V. A.; Nikitina, L. P.; Khiltova, V. Ya.; Ovchinnikov, N. O.

2004-05-01

The thermal state of the upper mantle beneath tectonic structures of various ages and types (Archaean cratons, Early Proterozoic accretionary and collisional orogens, and Phanerozoic structures) is characterized by geotherms and by thermal gradients (TG) derived from data on the P- T conditions of mineral equilibria in garnet and garnet-spinel peridotite xenoliths from kimberlites (East Siberia, Northeastern Europe, India, Central Africa, North America, and Canada) and alkali basalts (Southeastern Siberia, Mongolia, southeastern China, southeastern Australia, Central Africa, South America, and the Solomon and Hawaiian islands). The use of the same garnet-orthopyroxene thermobarometer (Theophrastus Contributions to Advanced Studies in Geology. 3: Capricious Earth: Models and Modelling of Geologic Processes and Objects 2000 44) for all xenoliths allowed us to avoid discrepancies in estimation of the P- T conditions, which may be a result of the mismatch between different thermometers and barometers, and to compare the thermal regimes in the mantle in various regions. Thus, it was established that (1) mantle geotherms and geothermal gradients, obtained from the estimation of P- T equilibrium conditions of deep xenoliths, correspond to the age of crust tectonic structures and respectively to the time of lithosphere stabilization; it can be suggested that the ancient structures of the upper mantle were preserved within continental roots; (2) thermal regimes under continental mantle between the Archaean cratons and Palaeoproterozoic belts are different today; (3) the continental mantle under Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic belts is characterized by significantly higher values of geothermal gradient compared to the mantle under Early Precambrian structures; (4) lithosphere dynamics seems to change at the boundary between Early and Mezo-Neoproterozoic and Precambrian and Phanerozoic.

Constraints on a plume in the mid-mantle beneath the Iceland region from seismic array data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pritchard, M.J.; Foulger, G.R.; Julian, B.R.; Fyen, J.

2000-01-01

Teleseismic P waves passing through low-wave-speed bodies in the mantle are refracted, causing anomalies in their propagation directions that can be measured by seismometer arrays. Waves from earthquakes in the eastern Pacific and western North America arriving at the NORSAR array in Norway and at seismic stations in Scotland pass beneath the Iceland region at depths of ~ 1000-2000 km. Waves arriving at NORSAR have anomalous arrival azimuths consistent with a low-wave-speed body at a depth of ~ 1500 km beneath the Iceland-Faeroe ridge with a maximum diameter of ~ 250 km and a maximum wave-speed contrast of ~ 1.5 per cent. This agrees well with whole-mantle tomography results, which image a low-wave-speed body at this location with a diameter of ~ 500 km and a wave-speed anomaly of ~ 0.5 per cent, bearing in mind that whole-mantle tomography, because of its limited resolution, broadens and weakens small anomalies. The observations cannot resolve the location of the body, and the anomaly could be caused in whole or in part by larger bodies farther away, for example by a body imaged beneath Greenland by whole-mantle tomography.

Detachments of the subducted Indian continental lithosphere based on 3D finite-frequency tomographic images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, X.; Tian, X.; Wang, M.

2017-12-01

Indian plate collided with Eurasian plate at 60 Ma and there are about 3000 km crustal shortening since the continental-continental collision. At least one third of the total amount of crustal shortening between Indian and Eurasian plates could not be accounted by thickened Tibetan crust and surface erosion. It will need a combination of possible transfer of lower crust to the mantle by eclogitization and lateral extrusion. Based on the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary images beneath the Tibetan plateau, there is also at least the same amount deficit for lithospheric mantle subducted into upper/lower mantle or lateral extrusion with the crust. We have to recover a detailed Indian continental lithosphere image beneath the plateau in order to explain this deficit of mass budget. Combining the new teleseismic body waves recorded by SANDWICH passive seismic array with waveforms from several previous temporary seismic arrays, we carried out finite-frequency tomographic inversions to image three-dimensional velocity structures beneath southern and central Tibetan plateau to examine the possible image of subducted Indian lithosphere in the Tibetan upper mantle. We have recovered a continuous high velocity body in upper mantle and piece-wised high velocity anomalies in the mantle transition zone. Based on their geometry and relative locations, we interpreted these high velocity anomalies as the subducted and detached Indian lithosphere at different episodes of the plateau evolution. Detachments of the subducted Indian lithosphere should have a crucial impact on the volcanism activities and uplift history of the plateau.

Three-dimensional Distribution of Azimuthal and Radial Anisotropy in the Japan Subduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishise, M.; Kawakatsu, H.; Shiomi, K.

2014-12-01

Seismic anisotropy has close relationships with past and present tectonic and dynamic processes. Therefore, detailed description of seismic anisotropy of subduction zones provides important information for our understanding of the subduction system. The most common method of detecting anisotropy is the S-wave splitting measurement. However, conventional S-wave splitting analysis is not an appropriate way to investigate anisotropy in the mantle and slab because the technique has no vertical resolution. Thus, we have improved common traveltime tomography to estimate three-dimensional anisotropic structures of P-wave, assuming that the modeling space is composed of weakly anisotropic medium with a hexagonal symmetry about a horizontal axis (Ishise & Oda, 2005, JGR; Ishise & Oda, 2008, PEPI). Recently, we extended the anisotropic tomography for P-wave radial anisotropy with vertical hexagonal symmetry axis (Ishise & Kawakatsu, 2012 JpGU). In this study, we expand the study area of our previous regional analyses of P-wave azimuthal and radial anisotropic tomography (Ishise & Oda, 2005; Ishise & Kawakatsu, 2012, JpGU; Ishise et al., 2012, SSJ) using Hi-net arrival time data and examine the subduction system around the Japan islands, where two trenches with different strike directions and plate junction are included. Here are some of the remarkable results associated with the PAC slab and mantle structure. (1) N-S-trending fast axis of P-wave anisotropy is dominant in the PAC slab. (2) the mantle wedge shows trench-normal anisotropy across the trench-trench junction. (3) horizontal velocity (PH) tends to be faster than vertical velocity (PV) in the slab. (4) PV tends to be faster than PH in the mantle wedge. The characteristics of the obtained azimuthal and radial anisotropy of the PAC slab and the mantle wedge qualitatively consistent with heterogeneous plate models (e.g., Furumura & Kennet, 2005) and numerical simulations of mantle flow (Morishige & Honda, 2011; 2013). In addition, the azimuthal anisotropy in the PAC slab that we obtained is subparallel to that in the PAC plate before subducting (e.g., Shimamura et al., 1983). Therefore, we suggest that the slab anisotropy is "frozen anisotropy", which is attributed to the episode before subduction, and mantle wedge anisotropy reflects present dynamics.

Quasi-Love phases between Tonga and Hawaii: Observations, simulations, and explanations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, Vadim; Park, Jeffrey

1998-10-01

Seismograms of some shallow Tonga earthquakes observed at Hawaii contain SV-polarized phases in the Love wave time window, most prominently on the vertical component. Given the geometry of the observations (Δ ≈ 40-45°), such phases may be explained either as body waves or as mode-converted surface waves. Detailed synthetic seismogram modeling of representative events reveals several instances where the body wave explanation is inadequate, even when plausible uncertainties in the source mechanism are taken into account. The observed, SV-polarized phase can instead be generated through Love-Rayleigh scattering, which requires laterally varying seismic anisotropy along the Tonga-Hawaii path. Trial-and-error forward modeling with simple structures based on the transversely isotropic mid-Pacific velocity model PA5 of Gaherty et al [1996] obtains velocity structure that yields synthetic seismograms matching the observations. This model, while non unique, suggests first-order constraints on the lateral variation in anisotropic properties, and associated mantle flow, along the Tonga-Hawaii path. By examining trade-offs in model parameters, we conclude that robust features of the model are: (1) a transition from radial to mixed radial and azimuthal anisotropy 3°-5° from Hawaii; (2) the NW-SE alignment of the axis of azimuthal anisotropy; (3) higher degree of P anisotropy relative to S anisotropy; and (4) the presence of azimuthal anisotropy within upper 200-250 km of the mantle. Taken together, these features imply a disruption of mantle fabric by the processes forming Hawaii-Emperor volcanic system. A model with anisotropic gradients in both the lithospheric lid and shallow asthenosphere is the simplest extension of our starting model. However, an equivalent data fit can be obtained if the azimuthal-anisotropy gradients are restricted to line beneath the high-velocity "lid" of model PA5, so that mantle hot spot flow need not penetrate the lithospheric lid.

Slab anisotropy from subduction zone guided waves in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, K. H.; Tseng, Y. L.; Hu, J. C.

2014-12-01

Frozen-in anisotropic structure in the oceanic lithosphere and faulting/hydration in the upper layer of the slab are expected to play an important role in anisotropic signature of the subducted slab. Over the past several decades, despite the advances in characterizing anisotropy using shear wave splitting method and its developments, the character of slab anisotropy remains poorly understood. In this study we investigate the slab anisotropy using subduction zone guided waves characterized by long path length in the slab. In the southernmost Ryukyu subduction zone, seismic waves from events deeper than 100 km offshore northern Taiwan reveal wave guide behavior: (1) a low-frequency (< 1 Hz) first arrival recognized on vertical and radial components but not transverse component (2) large, sustained high-frequency (3-10 Hz) signal in P and S wave trains. The depth dependent high-frequency content (3-10Hz) confirms the association with a waveguide effect in the subducting slab rather than localized site amplification effects. Using the selected subduction zone guided wave events, we further analyzed the shear wave splitting for intermediate-depth earthquakes in different frequency bands, to provide the statistically meaningful shear wave splitting parameters. We determine shear wave splitting parameters from the 34 PSP guided events that are deeper than 100 km with ray path traveling along the subducted slab. From shear wave splitting analysis, the slab and crust effects reveal consistent polarization pattern of fast directions of EN-WS and delay time of 0.13 - 0.27 sec. This implies that slab anisotropy is stronger than the crust effect (<0.1 s) but weaker than the mantle wedge and sub-slab mantle effect (0.3-1.3 s) in Taiwan.

The Evolution of Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis of Tibetan Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, S.; Wu, T.; Li, M.; Zhang, Y.; Hua, Y.; Zhang, B.

2017-12-01

Indian plate has been colliding with Eurasian plate since 50Ma years ago, resulting in the Tethys extinction, crust shortening and Tibetan plateau uplift. But it is still a debate how the Tibetan Plateau material escaped. This study tries to invert the distributions of dispersion phase velocity and anisotropy in Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis (EHS) based on the seismic data. We focused on the seven sub-blocks around EHS region. Sub-block "EHS" represents EHS corner with high velocity anomalies, significantly compressed in the axle and strike directions. Sub-blocks "LSD", "QTB" and "SP-GZB" are located at its northern areas with compressions also, and connected with low-velocity anomalies in both crustal and upper mantle rocks. Sub-block "ICB" is located at its southern area with low velocity anomaly, and connected with Tengchong volcano. Sub-blocks "SYDB" and "YZB" are located at its eastern areas with high velocity anomalies in both crustal and upper mantle rocks. Our results demonstrated that significant azimuthal anisotropy of crust (t£30s) and upper mantle (30s£t£60s). Crustal anisotropy indicates the orogenic belt matched well with the direction of fast propagation, and upper mantle anisotropy represents the lattic-preferred orientation (LPO) of mantle minerals (e.g. olivine and basalt), indicating the features of subducting Indian plate. Besides, Red River fault is a dextral strike fault, controlling the crustal and mantle migration. There is a narrow zone to be the channel flow of Tibetan crustal materials escaping toward Yunnan area. The evolution of EHS seems constrained by gravity isostatic mechanism. Keywords: Tibetan Plateau; Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis; Red River fault; crustal flow; surface wave; anisotropy

Evolution and hydration of the Juan de Fuca crust and uppermost mantle: a plate-scale seismic investigation from ridge to trench

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carbotte, S. M.; Canales, J.; Carton, H. D.; Nedimovic, M. R.; Han, S.; Marjanovic, M.; Gibson, J. C.; Janiszewski, H. A.; Horning, G.; Delescluse, M.; Watremez, L.; Farkas, A.; Biescas Gorriz, B.; Bornstein, G.; Childress, L. B.; Parker, B.

2012-12-01

The evolution of oceanic lithosphere involves incorporation of water into the physical and chemical structure of the crust and shallow mantle through fluid circulation, which initiates at the mid-ocean ridge and continues on the ridge flanks long after crustal formation. At subduction zones, water stored and transported with the descending plate is gradually released at depth, strongly influencing subduction zone processes. Cascadia is a young-lithosphere end member of the global subduction system where relatively little hydration of the downgoing Juan de Fuca (JdF) plate is expected due to its young age and presumed warm thermal state. However, numerous observations support the abundant presence of water within the subduction zone, suggesting that the JdF plate is significantly hydrated prior to subduction. Knowledge of the state of hydration of the JdF plate is limited, with few constraints on crustal and upper mantle structure. During the Cascadia Ridge-to-Trench experiment conducted in June-July 2012 over 4000 km of active source seismic data were acquired as part of a study of the evolution and state of hydration of the crust and shallow mantle of the JdF plate prior to subduction at the Cascadia margin. Coincident long-streamer (8 km) multi-channel seismic (MCS) and wide-angle ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) data were acquired in a two-ship program with the R/V Langseth (MGL1211), and R/V Oceanus (OC1206A). Our survey included two ridge-perpendicular transects across the full width of the JdF plate, a long trench-parallel line ~10 km seaward of the Cascadia deformation front, as well as three fan lines to study mantle anisotropy. The plate transects were chosen to provide reference sections of JdF plate evolution over the maximum range of JdF plate ages (8-9 Ma), offshore two contrasting regions of the Cascadia Subduction zone, and provide the first continuous ridge-to-trench images acquired at any oceanic plate. The trench-parallel line was designed to characterize variations in plate structure and hydration linked to JdF plate segmentation for over 450 km along the margin. Shipboard brute stacks of the MCS data reveal evidence for reactivation of abyssal hill faulting in the plate interior far from the trench. Ridgeward-dipping lower crustal reflectors are observed, similar to those observed in mature Pacific crust elsewhere, as well as conjugate reflectivity near the deformation front along the Oregon transect. Bright intracrustal reflectivity is also observed along the trench-parallel transect with marked changes in reflectivity along the Oregon and Washington margins. Initial inspection of the OBS record sections indicate good quality data with the expected oceanic crustal and upper mantle P-wave arrivals: Ps and Pg refractions through sedimentary and igneous layers, respectively, PmP wide-angle reflections from the crust-mantle transition zone, and Pn upper mantle refractions. The Pg-PmP-Pn triplication is typically observed at 40-50 km source-receiver offsets. Pn characteristics show evidence for upper mantle azimuthal anisotropic propagation: along the plate transects Pn is typically weaker and difficult to observe beyond ~80 km offsets, while along the trench-parallel transect Pn arrivals have higher amplitude and are easily observed up to source-receiver offsets of 160-180 km. An overview on the Cascadia Ridge to Trench data acquisition program and preliminary results will be presented.

Deep structure of Medicine Lake volcano, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ritter, J.R.R.; Evans, J.R.

1997-01-01

Medicine Lake volcano (MLV) in northeastern California is the largest-volume volcano in the Cascade Range. The upper-crustal structure of this Quaternary shield volcano is well known from previous geological and geophysical investigations. In 1981, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a teleseismic tomography experiment on MLV to explore its deeper structure. The images we present, calculated using a modern form of the ACH-inversion method, reveal that there is presently no hint of a large (> 100 km3), hot magma reservoir in the crust. The compressional-wave velocity perturbations show that directly beneath MLV's caldera there is a zone of increased seismic velocity. The perturbation amplitude is +10% in the upper crust, +5% in the lower crust, and +3% in the lithospheric mantle. This positive seismic velocity anomaly presumably is caused by mostly subsolidus gabbroic intrusive rocks in the crust. Heat and melt removal are suggested as the cause in the upper mantle beneath MLV, inferred from petro-physical modeling. The increased seismic velocity appears to be nearly continuous to 120 km depth and is a hint that the original melts come at least partly from the lower lithospheric mantle. Our second major finding is that the upper mantle southeast of MLV is characterized by relatively slow seismic velocities (-1%) compared to the northwest side. This anomaly is interpreted to result from the elevated temperatures under the northwest Basin and Range Province.

Lithospheric instability and the source of the Cameroon Volcanic Line: Evidence from Rayleigh wave phase velocity tomography

DOE PAGES

Adams, Aubreya N.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Nyblade, Andrew A.; ...

2015-03-24

The Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL) is a 1800 km long volcanic chain, extending SW-NE from the Gulf of Guinea into Central Africa, that lacks the typical age progression exhibited by hot spot-related volcanic tracks. Our study investigates the upper mantle seismic structure beneath the CVL and surrounding regions to constrain the origin of volcanic lines that are poorly described by the classic plume model. Rayleigh wave phase velocities are measured at periods from 20 to 182 s following the two-plane wave methodology, using data from the Cameroon Seismic Experiment, which consists of 32 broadband stations deployed between 2005 and 2007.more » These phase velocities are then inverted to build a model of shear wave velocity structure in the upper mantle beneath the CVL. Our results show that phase velocities beneath the CVL are reduced at all periods, with average velocities beneath the CVL deviating more than –2% from the regional average and +4% beneath the Congo Craton. This distinction is observed for all periods but is less pronounced for the longest periods measured. Inversion for shear wave velocity structure indicates a tabular low velocity anomaly directly beneath the CVL at depths of 50 to at least 200 km and a sharp vertical boundary with faster velocities beneath the Congo Craton. Finally, these observations demonstrate widespread infiltration or erosion of the continental lithosphere beneath the CVL, most likely caused by mantle upwelling associated with edge-flow convection driven by the Congo Craton or by lithospheric instabilities that develop due to the nearby edge of the African continent.« less

P-wave anisotropic velocity tomography beneath the Japan islands: Large-scale images and details in the Kanto district

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishise, M.; Koketsu, K.; Miyake, H.; Oda, H.

2006-12-01

The Japan islands arc is located in the convergence zone of the North American (NA), Amurian (AM), Pacific (PAC) and Philippine Sea (PHS) plates, and its parts are exposed to various tectonic settings. For example, at the Kanto district in its central part, these four plates directly interact with each, so that disastrous future earthquakes are expected along the plate boundaries and within the inland areas. In order to understand this sort of complex tectonic setting, it is necessary to know the seismological structure in various perspectives. We investigate the seismic velocity structure beneath the Japan islands in view of P-wave anisotropy. We improved a hitherto-known P-wave tomography technique so that the 3-D structure of isotropic and anisotropic velocities and earthquake hypocenter locations are determined from P-wave arrival times of local earthquakes [Ishise and Oda, 2005]. In the tomography technique, P-wave anisotropy is assumed to hold hexagonal symmetry with horizontal symmetry axis. The P-wave arrival times used in this study are complied in the Japan University Network Earthquake Catalog. The results obtained are summarized as follows; (1) the upper crust anisotropy is governed by the present-day stress field arising from the interaction between the plates surrounding the Japan islands arc, (2) the mantle anisotropy is caused by the present-day mantle flow induced by slab subduction and continental plate motion, (3) the old PAC slab keeps its original slab anisotropy which was captured when the plate was formed, while the youngest part of the PHS slab has lost the original anisotropy during its subduction and has gained new anisotropy which is controlled by the present-day stress field. We also carried out a further study on high-resolution seismic tomography for understanding the specific characteristics of the Kanto district. We mostly focused on the elucidation of the dual subduction formed by the PHS and PAC slabs using seismological data compiled by the Natural Research Institute for Earth Science and Japan Meteorological Agency. This will lead to more accurate source modeling of future plate- boundary earthquakes.

Seismic anisotropy of the Archean crust in the Minnesota River Valley, Superior Province

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferré, Eric C.; Gébelin, Aude; Conder, James A.; Christensen, Nik; Wood, Justin D.; Teyssier, Christian

2014-03-01

The Minnesota River Valley (MRV) subprovince is a well-exposed example of late Archean lithosphere. Its high-grade gneisses display a subhorizontal layering, most likely extending down to the crust-mantle boundary. The strong linear fabric of the gneisses results from high-temperature plastic flow during collage-related contraction. Seismic anisotropies measured up to 1 GPa in the laboratory, and seismic anisotropies calculated through forward-modeling indicate ΔVP ~5-6% and ΔVS ~3%. The MRV crust exhibits a strong macroscopic layering and foliation, and relatively strong seismic anisotropies at the hand specimen scale. Yet the horizontal attitude of these structures precludes any substantial contribution of the MRV crust to shear wave splitting for vertically propagating shear waves such as SKS. The origin of the regionally low seismic anisotropy must lie in the upper mantle. A horizontally layered mantle underneath the United States interior could provide an explanation for the observed low SWS.

Teleseismic P-wave tomography of the Sunda-Banda Arc subduction zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, C. W.; Miller, M. S.; Widiyantoro, S.; Supendi, P.; O'Driscoll, L.; Roosmawati, N.; Porritt, R.

2017-12-01

The Sunda-Banda Arc is the site of multiple ongoing tectonic deformation processes and is perhaps the best example of the transition from subduction of oceanic lithosphere to an active arc-continent collision. Investigating the mantle structure that has resulted from the collision of continental Australia, as well as the concurrent phenomena of continental subduction, slab-rollback, lithospheric tearing, and subduction polarity reversal is possible through seismic tomography. While both regional scale and global tomographic models have previously been constructed to study the tectonics this region, here we use 250 seismic stations that span the length of this convergent margin to invert for P-wave velocity perturbations in the upper mantle. We combine data from a temporary deployment of 30 broadband instruments as part of the NSF-funded Banda Arc Project, along with data from permanent broadband stations maintained by the Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia (BMKG) to image mantle structure, in particular the subducted Indo-Australian plate. The BMKG dataset spans 2009-2017 and includes >200 broadband seismometers. The Banda Arc array (network YS) adds coverage and resolution to southeastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste, where few permanent seismometers are located but the Australian continent-Banda Arc collision is most advanced. The preliminary model was computed using 50,000 teleseismic P-wave travel-time residuals and 3D finite frequency sensitivity kernels. Results from the inversion of the combined dataset are presented as well as resolution tests to assess the quality of the model. The velocity model shows an arcuate Sunda-Banda slab with morphological changes along strike that correlate with the tectonic collision. The model also features the double-sided Molucca Sea slab and regions of high velocity below the bottom of the transition zone. The resolution added by the targeted USC deployment is clear when comparing models that use only BMKG data to models that incorporate the YS network as well.

Seismic Anisotropy And Upper Mantle Structure In Se Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heintz, M.; Vauchez, A.; Assumpcao, M.; Egydio-Silva, M.

We present preliminary shear wave splitting measurements performed in south-east Brazil in a quite complex region, from a geological point of view. Seismic anisotropy is the result of a preferred orientation of anisotropic minerals (olivine) in the upper mantle, due to deformation. Splitting parameters Ø (direction of the fastest S wave) are compared to large-scale tectonic structures of the area, in order to infer to which extent the deformations in the upper mantle and in the crust are mechanically coupled. The field of study is a region of 1000 by 1000 km, along the Atlantic coast from São Paulo to 500 km north of Rio de Janeiro. This region is made up of large scale geological units as the southern termination of the São Francisco craton, from archean age, surrounded by two neoproterozoic belts (the Ribeira belt to the east and the Brasilia belt to the west), and the Parana basin, which is a vast flood basalt region. Teleseisms used were acquired by 39 seismological stations well distributed in the region of interest. The results highlight the fact that the orientations of the polarization plane of the fast split shear wave vary a lot in this region, and measurements could be splitted into 5 groups : directions are parallel to the NE-SW trending of the Ribeira belt, some are parallel to the NW-SE trending of the Brasilia belt, in the NE-SW direction of the Transbrasiliano lineament, parallel to the absolute plate maotion (APM) that is EW in this region, or turning around a cylindrical low velocity anomaly imaged in the Parana basin and supposed to be the fossil plume head conduit of the Tristan da Cunha plume head.

Seismic anisotropy of the lithosphere/asthenosphere system beneath the Rwenzori region of the Albertine Rift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Homuth, B.; Löbl, U.; Batte, A. G.; Link, K.; Kasereka, C. M.; Rümpker, G.

2016-09-01

Shear-wave splitting measurements from local and teleseismic earthquakes are used to investigate the seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle beneath the Rwenzori region of the East African Rift system. At most stations, shear-wave splitting parameters obtained from individual earthquakes exhibit only minor variations with backazimuth. We therefore employ a joint inversion of SKS waveforms to derive hypothetical one-layer parameters. The corresponding fast polarizations are generally rift parallel and the average delay time is about 1 s. Shear phases from local events within the crust are characterized by an average delay time of 0.04 s. Delay times from local mantle earthquakes are in the range of 0.2 s. This observation suggests that the dominant source region for seismic anisotropy beneath the rift is located within the mantle. We use finite-frequency waveform modeling to test different models of anisotropy within the lithosphere/asthenosphere system of the rift. The results show that the rift-parallel fast polarizations are consistent with horizontal transverse isotropy (HTI anisotropy) caused by rift-parallel magmatic intrusions or lenses located within the lithospheric mantle—as it would be expected during the early stages of continental rifting. Furthermore, the short-scale spatial variations in the fast polarizations observed in the southern part of the study area can be explained by effects due to sedimentary basins of low isotropic velocity in combination with a shift in the orientation of anisotropic fabrics in the upper mantle. A uniform anisotropic layer in relation to large-scale asthenospheric mantle flow is less consistent with the observed splitting parameters.

Flow, melt and fossil seismic anisotropy beneath Ethiopia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, James; Kendall, J.-Michael; Wookey, James; Stuart, Graham; Keir, Derek; Ayele, Atalay

2014-05-01

Ethiopia is a region where continental rifting gives way to oceanic spreading. Yet the role that pre-existing lithospheric structure, melt, mantle flow or active upwellings may play in this process is debated. Measurements of seismic anisotropy are often used to attempt to understand the contribution that these mechanisms may play. In this study we use new data in Afar, Ethiopia along with legacy data across Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen to obtain estimates of mantle anisotropy using SKS-wave splitting. We show that two layers of anisotropy exist, and use shear-wave splitting tomography to invert for these. We show that fossil anisotropy with fast directions oriented northeast-southwest may be preserved in the lithosphere away from the rift. Beneath the Main Ethiopian Rift and parts of Afar, anisotropy due aligned melt due to sharp changes in lithospheric thickness dominate the shear-wave splitting signal in the mantle. Beneath Afar, away from lithospheric topography, melt pockets associated with the crustal magma storage dominate the signal and little anisotropy is seen in the uppermost mantle suggesting melt retains no preferential alignment, possibly due to a lack of mantle lithosphere. These results show the important role melt plays in weakening the lithosphere and imply that as rifting evolves passive upwelling sustains extension. A dominant northeast-southwest anisotropic fast direction is observed in a deeper layer across all of Ethiopia. This suggests that a conduit like plume is absent beneath Afar today, rather a broad flow from the southwest dominates in the upper mantle.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adams, Aubreya N.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Nyblade, Andrew A.

The Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL) is a 1800 km long volcanic chain, extending SW-NE from the Gulf of Guinea into Central Africa, that lacks the typical age progression exhibited by hot spot-related volcanic tracks. Our study investigates the upper mantle seismic structure beneath the CVL and surrounding regions to constrain the origin of volcanic lines that are poorly described by the classic plume model. Rayleigh wave phase velocities are measured at periods from 20 to 182 s following the two-plane wave methodology, using data from the Cameroon Seismic Experiment, which consists of 32 broadband stations deployed between 2005 and 2007.more » These phase velocities are then inverted to build a model of shear wave velocity structure in the upper mantle beneath the CVL. Our results show that phase velocities beneath the CVL are reduced at all periods, with average velocities beneath the CVL deviating more than –2% from the regional average and +4% beneath the Congo Craton. This distinction is observed for all periods but is less pronounced for the longest periods measured. Inversion for shear wave velocity structure indicates a tabular low velocity anomaly directly beneath the CVL at depths of 50 to at least 200 km and a sharp vertical boundary with faster velocities beneath the Congo Craton. Finally, these observations demonstrate widespread infiltration or erosion of the continental lithosphere beneath the CVL, most likely caused by mantle upwelling associated with edge-flow convection driven by the Congo Craton or by lithospheric instabilities that develop due to the nearby edge of the African continent.« less

Mantle transition zone beneath central-eastern Greenland: Possible evidence for a deep tectosphere from receiver functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kraft, Helene Anja; Vinnik, Lev; Thybo, Hans

2018-03-01

We investigate the mantle of central-eastern Greenland by using recordings with data from 24 local broad-band seismograph stations. We apply P wave receiver function technique and evaluate the difference in the arrival times of seismic phases that are formed by P to SV mode conversion at the 410-km and 660-km seismic discontinuities. These boundaries mark the top and bottom of the mantle transition zone (MTZ). The difference in the arrival time of the phases from the 410-km and 660-km discontinuities is sensitive to the thickness of the MTZ and relatively insensitive to volumetric velocity anomalies above the 410-km discontinuity. Near the east coast of Greenland in the region of the Skaergaard basalt intrusions we find two regions where the differential time is reduced by more than 2 s. The 410-km discontinuity in these regions is depressed by more than 20 km. The depression may be explained by a temperature elevation of 150 °C. We hypothesize that the basaltic intrusions and the temperature anomalies at a depth of 400 km are, at least partly, effects of the passage of Greenland over the Iceland hotspot at about 55 Ma. This explanation is consistent with the concept of tectosphere and implies that the upper mantle to a depth of 400 km translates coherently with the Greenland plate.

Tracking Crust-Mantle Recycling through Superdeep Diamonds and their Mineral Inclusions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walter, Michael; Bulanova, Galina; Smith, Chris; Thomson, Andrew; Kohn, Simon; Burnham, Antony

2013-04-01

Sublithospheric, or 'superdeep' diamonds, originate in the deep upper mantle, transition zone, and at least as deep as the shallow lower mantle. When diamonds crystallize in the mantle from fluids or melts they occasionally entrap coexisting mineral phases. Because of their great physical resiliency, diamonds can potentially preserve information over long distance- and time-scales, revealing important information about the petrologic, tectonic and geodynamic environment in which the diamonds grew and were transported. Superdeep diamonds and their inclusions have proven especially powerful for probing processes related to subduction of slabs into the deep mantle [1-3]. In contrast to lithospheric diamonds that are effectively frozen-in geodynamically, mineral inclusions in superdeep diamonds often record hundreds of kilometers of uplift in the convecting mantle from their original depth of origin [3-5]. The phase equilibria of unmixing of original deep mantle phases such as Ca- and Mg-perovskite, NAL-phase, CF-phase, CAS-phase, and majorite provide a means to establish amounts of uplift. The few available age constraints indicate superdeep diamond growth from the Proterozoic to the Cretaceous, and further dating can potentially lead to constraining mantle upwelling rates [4]. Here we will provide several examples showing how superdeep diamonds and their inclusions record processes of subduction and slab foundering, and ultimately recycling of slab material from the transition zone and lower mantle into the shallow upper mantle. 1. Harte, B., Mineralogical Magazine, 2010. 74: p. 189-215. 2. Tappert, R., et al., Geology, 2005. 33: p. 565-568. 3. Walter, M.J., et al., Science, 2011. 333: p. 54-57. 4. Bulanova, G.P., et al., Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 2010. 160: p. 489-510. 5. Harte, B. and N. Cayzer, Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 2007.

Seismic imaging beneath southwest Africa based on finite-frequency body wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Youssof, Mohammad; Yuan, Xiaohui; Tilmann, Frederik; Heit, Benjamin; Weber, Michael; Jokat, Wilfried; Geissler, Wolfram; Laske, Gabi

2016-04-01

We present a seismic model of southwest Africa from teleseismic tomographic inversion of the P- and S- wave data recorded by an amphibious temporary seismic network. The area of study is located at the intersection of the Walvis Ridge with the continental margin of northern Namibia, and extends into the Congo craton. Utilizing 3D finite-frequency sensitivity kernels, we invert traveltime residuals of the teleseismic body waves to image seismic structures in the upper mantle. To test the robustness of our tomographic imaging, we employed various resolution assessments that allow us to inspect the extent of smearing effects and to evaluate the optimum regularization weights (i.e., damping and smoothness). These tests include applying different (ir)regular parameterizations, classical checkerboard and anomaly tests and squeezing modeling. Furthermore, we performed different kinds of weighing schemes for the traveltime dataset. These schemes account for balancing between the picks data amount with their corresponding events directions. Our assessment procedure involves also a detailed investigation of the effect of the crustal correction on the final velocity image, which strongly influenced the image resolution for the mantle structures. Our model can resolve horizontal structures of 1° x 1° below the array down to 300-350 km depth. The resulting model is mainly dominated by the difference in the oceanic and continental mantle lithosphere beneath the study area, with second-order features related to their respective internal structures. The fast lithospheric keel of the Congo Craton reaches a depth of ~250 km. The orogenic Damara Belt and continental flood basalt areas are characterized by low velocity perturbations down to a depth of ~150 km, indicating a normal fertile mantle. High velocities in the oceanic lithosphere beneath the Walvis Ridge appear to show signatures of chemical depletion. A pronounced anomaly of fast velocity is imaged underneath continental NW Namibia and is separated from the high velocity anomaly of the Congo Craton. We interpret this positive perturbation as depleted mantle materials. The depletion event is most probably related to the emplacement of the Parana-Etendeka flood basalts at about 132 Ma triggered by a mantle plume, which has left traces on the Walvis Ridge as well.

A Preliminary Look at the Crust and Upper Mantle of North Africa Using Libyan Seismic Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pasyanos, M

2005-08-05

In recent years, LLNL has been developing methods to jointly invert both surface wave dispersion data and teleseismic receiver functions. The technique holds great promise in accurately estimating seismic structure, including important tectonic parameters such as basin thickness, crustal thickness, upper mantle velocity, etc. We proposed applying this method to some recently available data from several Libyan stations, as we believe the technique has not been applied to any stations in Libya. The technique holds the promise of improving our understanding of the crust and upper mantle in Libya and North Africa. We recently requested seismic data from stations GHARmore » (Gharyan) and MARJ (Al Marj) in Libya for about 20 events. The events were large events at regional distances suitable for making dispersion measurements. An example of waveforms recorded at the two stations from an earthquake in Italy is shown in Figure 1. The paths traverse the Ionian Sea. Notice the slow short period group velocities of the surface waves across the Mediterranean, particularly to the easternmost station MARJ. However, because of data availability, signal-to-noise ratio, etc. we were unable to make measurements for every one of these events at both stations. Figure 2 shows a map of paths for 20 sec Rayleigh waves in the eastern Mediterranean region. Paths measured at the two Libyan stations are shown in green. Rayleigh wave dispersion measurements at 20 sec period are sensitive to velocities in the upper 20 km or so, and reveal sediment thickness, crustal velocity, and crustal thickness. Tomographic inversions reveal the sharp group velocity contrast between regions with deep sedimentary basins and those without. Figure 3, the result of an inversion made before adding the new dispersion measurements, shows slow group velocities in the Black Sea, Adriatic Sea, and Eastern Mediterranean. In general, these features correspond well with the sediment thickness model from Laske, shown in Figure 4. Details in and around the Sirt (Sirte) Basin in northern Libya, however, are poorly defined.« less

Deformation of Tibetan Crust and Mantle and the Uplift of the Plateau: Insights from Broadband Surface Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agius, M. R.; Lebedev, S.

2013-12-01

Seismic deployments over the last two decades have produced dense broadband data coverage across the Tibetan Plateau. Yet, the lithospheric dynamics of Tibet is still debated, with very different end-member models advocated to this day. Uncertainties over the anomalies in seismic tomography models contribute to the uncertainty of their interpretations, ranging from the subduction of India as far as northern Tibet to subduction of Asia there and to extreme viscous thickening of the entire Tibetan lithosphere. Within the lithosphere itself, a low-viscosity layer in the mid-lower crust is evidenced by many observations. It is still unclear, however, whether this layer accommodates a large-scale channel flow (which may have uplifted northern and eastern Tibet, according to one model) or if, instead, deformation within it is similar to that observed at the surface (which implies different uplift mechanisms). Broad-band surface waves provide resolving power from the upper crust down to the asthenosphere, for both isotropic-average shear-wave speeds (proxies for composition and temperature) and the radial and azimuthal shear-wave anisotropy (indicative of the patterns of deformation and flow). We measured highly accurate Love- and Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity curves in broad period ranges (up to 5-200 s) for a few tens of pairs and groups of stations across Tibet, combining, in each case, hundreds to thousands of inter-station measurements, made with cross-correlation and waveform-inversion methods. Robust shear-velocity profiles were then determined by series of non-linear inversions, yielding depth-dependent ranges of shear speeds and radial anisotropy consistent with the data. Temperature anomalies in the upper mantle were estimated from shear-velocity ones using accurate petro-physical relationships. Azimuthal anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle was determined by surface-wave tomography and, also, by sub-array analysis targeting the anisotropy amplitude. Our results show that the prominent high-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle are most consistent with the presence of subducted Indian lithosphere beneath large portions of Tibet. Estimated thermal anomalies within the high-velocity features match those expected for subducted India. The morphology of India's subduction beneath Tibet is complex and shows pronounced west-east variations. Beneath eastern and northeastern Tibet, in particular, the subducted Indian lithosphere appears to have subducted, at a shallow angle, hundreds of km NNE-wards. Azimuthal anisotropy beneath Tibet is distributed in multiple layers with different fast-propagations directions, which accounts for the complexity of published shear-wave splitting observations. The fast directions within the mid-lower crust are parallel to the extensional components of the current strain rate field at the surface, consistent with similar deformation through the entire crust, rather than channel flow. Anisotropy within the asthenosphere beneath northeastern Tibet (sandwiched between the Tibetan lithosphere above and the subducted Indian lithosphere below) indicates SSW-NNE flow, parallel to the direction of motion of the Indian Plate, including its subducted leading edge.

New constraints on the 3D shear wave velocity structure of the upper mantle underneath Southern Scandinavia revealed from non-linear tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wawerzinek, B.; Ritter, J. R. R.; Roy, C.

2013-08-01

We analyse travel times of shear waves, which were recorded at the MAGNUS network, to determine the 3D shear wave velocity (vS) structure underneath Southern Scandinavia. The travel time residuals are corrected for the known crustal structure of Southern Norway and weighted to account for data quality and pick uncertainties. The resulting residual pattern of subvertically incident waves is very uniform and simple. It shows delayed arrivals underneath Southern Norway compared to fast arrivals underneath the Oslo Graben and the Baltic Shield. The 3D upper mantle vS structure underneath the station network is determined by performing non-linear travel time tomography. As expected from the residual pattern the resulting tomographic model shows a simple and continuous vS perturbation pattern: a negative vS anomaly is visible underneath Southern Norway relative to the Baltic Shield in the east with a contrast of up to 4% vS and a sharp W-E dipping transition zone. Reconstruction tests reveal besides vertical smearing a good lateral reconstruction of the dipping vS transition zone and suggest that a deep-seated anomaly at 330-410 km depth is real and not an inversion artefact. The upper part of the reduced vS anomaly underneath Southern Norway (down to 250 km depth) might be due to an increase in lithospheric thickness from the Caledonian Southern Scandes in the west towards the Proterozoic Baltic Shield in Sweden in the east. The deeper-seated negative vS anomaly (330-410 km depth) could be caused by a temperature anomaly possibly combined with effects due to fluids or hydrous minerals. The determined simple 3D vS structure underneath Southern Scandinavia indicates that mantle processes might influence and contribute to a Neogene uplift of Southern Norway.

Investigating seismic anisotropy beneath the Reykjanes Ridge using models of mantle flow, crystallographic evolution, and surface wave propagation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallego, A.; Ito, G.; Dunn, R. A.

2013-08-01

Surface wave studies of the Reykjanes Ridge (RR) and the Iceland hotspot have imaged an unusual and enigmatic pattern of two zones of negative radial anisotropy on each side of the RR. We test previously posed and new hypotheses for the origin of this anisotropy, by considering lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of olivine A-type fabric in simple models with 1-D, layered structures, as well as in 2-D and 3-D geodynamic models with mantle flow and LPO evolution. Synthetic phase velocities of Love and Rayleigh waves traveling parallel to the ridge axis are produced and then inverted to mimic the previous seismic studies. Results of 1-D models show that strong negative radial anisotropy can be produced when olivine a axes are preferentially aligned not only vertically but also subhorizontally in the plane of wave propagation. Geodynamic models show that negative anisotropy on the sides of the RR can occur when plate spreading impels a corner flow, and in turn a subvertical alignment of olivine a axes, on the sides of the ridge axis. Mantle dehydration must be invoked to form a viscous upper layer that minimizes the disturbance of the corner flow by the Iceland mantle plume. While the results are promising, important discrepancies still exist between the observed seismic structure and the predictions of this model, as well as models of a variety of types of mantle flow associated with plume-ridge interaction. Thus, other factors that influence seismic anisotropy, but not considered in this study, such as power-law rheology, water, melt, or time-dependent mantle flow, are probably important beneath the Reykjanes Ridge.

Seismic images of the transition zone: is Hawaiian volcanism produced by a secondary plume from the top of the lower mantle?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Q.; van der Hilst, R. D.; Shim, S.; De Hoop, M. V.

2011-12-01

The Hawaiian hotspot is often attributed to hot material rising from depth in the mantle, but efforts to detect a thermal plume seismically have been inconclusive. Most tomographic models reveal anomalously low wavespeeds beneath Hawaii, but the depth extent of this structure is not well known. S or P data used in traveltime inversions are associated with steep rays to distant sources, which degrades depth resolution, and surface wave dispersion does not have sufficient sensitivity at the depths of interest. To investigate pertinent thermal anomalies we mapped depth variations of upper mantle discontinuities using precursors of the surface-reflected SS wave. Instead of stacking the data over geographical bins, which leads to averaging of topography and hence loss of spatial resolution, we used a generalized Radon transform (GRT) to detect and map localized elasticity contrasts in the transition zone (Cao et al., PEPI, 2010). We apply the GRT to produce 3D image volumes beneath a large area of the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii and the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain (Cao et al., Science, 2011). The 3D image volumes reveal laterally continuous interfaces near 410 and 660 km depths, that is, the traditional boundaries of the transition zone, but also suggest (perhaps intermittent) scatter horizons near 300-350, 520-550, and 800-1000 km depth. The upper mantle appears generally hot beneath Hawaii, but the most conspicuous topographic (and probably thermal) anomalies are found west of Hawaii. The GRT images reveal a 800 km wide uplift of the 660 discontinuity just west of Hawaii, but there is no evidence for a corresponding localized depression of the 410 discontinuity. This expression of the 410 and 660 km topographies is consistent with some existed geodynamical modeling results, in which a deep-rooted mantle plume impinging on the transition zone, creating a broad pond of hot material underneath endothermic phase change at 660 km depth, and with secondary plumes stemming from this hot pool of materials and rising in the upper mantle to create the present-day hotspot at Earth's surface. West of the upwarp that we interpret as the elevated post-spinel the main interface deepens to nearly 700 km depth. Given this position, it is unlikely that this deep structure is due to low temperatures. Instead, it would be consistent with slightly elevated temperatures (compared to transition temperature of post-spinel) and transitions in the garnet phase. This interpretation, if correct, implies that the area of ponded hot material is at least 2,000 km wide. The presence of an 800- to 2,000-kilometer-wide thermal anomaly deep in the transition zone west of Hawaii suggests that hot material does not rise from the lower mantle through a narrow vertical plume but accumulates near the base of the transition zone before being entrained in flow toward Hawaii and, perhaps, other islands. This implies that geochemical trends in Hawaiian lavas cannot constrain lower mantle domains directly. This type of flow may be a better explanation of bathymetric features in the Pacific (including other seamount chains) than the canonical deep mantle plumes.

Global shear speed structure of the upper mantle and transition zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaeffer, A. J.; Lebedev, S.

2013-07-01

The rapid expansion of broad-band seismic networks over the last decade has paved the way for a new generation of global tomographic models. Significantly improved resolution of global upper-mantle and crustal structure can now be achieved, provided that structural information is extracted effectively from both surface and body waves and that the effects of errors in the data are controlled and minimized. Here, we present a new global, vertically polarized shear speed model that yields considerable improvements in resolution, compared to previous ones, for a variety of features in the upper mantle and crust. The model, SL2013sv, is constrained by an unprecedentedly large set of waveform fits (˜3/4 of a million broad-band seismograms), computed in seismogram-dependent frequency bands, up to a maximum period range of 11-450 s. Automated multimode inversion of surface and S-wave forms was used to extract a set of linear equations with uncorrelated uncertainties from each seismogram. The equations described perturbations in elastic structure within approximate sensitivity volumes between sources and receivers. Going beyond ray theory, we calculated the phase of every mode at every frequency and its derivative with respect to S- and P-velocity perturbations by integration over a sensitivity area in a 3-D reference model; the (normally small) perturbations of the 3-D model required to fit the waveforms were then linearized using these accurate derivatives. The equations yielded by the waveform inversion of all the seismograms were simultaneously inverted for a 3-D model of shear and compressional speeds and azimuthal anisotropy within the crust and upper mantle. Elaborate outlier analysis was used to control the propagation of errors in the data (source parameters, timing at the stations, etc.). The selection of only the most mutually consistent equations exploited the data redundancy provided by our data set and strongly reduced the effect of the errors, increasing the resolution of the imaging. Our new shear speed model is parametrized on a triangular grid with a ˜280 km spacing. In well-sampled continental domains, lateral resolution approaches or exceeds that of regional-scale studies. The close match of known surface expressions of deep structure with the distribution of anomalies in the model provides a useful benchmark. In oceanic regions, spreading ridges are very well resolved, with narrow anomalies in the shallow mantle closely confined near the ridge axis, and those deeper, down to 100-120 km, showing variability in their width and location with respect to the ridge. Major subduction zones worldwide are well captured, extending from shallow depths down to the transition zone. The large size of our waveform fit data set also provides a strong statistical foundation to re-examine the validity field of the JWKB approximation and surface wave ray theory. Our analysis shows that the approximations are likely to be valid within certain time-frequency portions of most seismograms with high signal-to-noise ratios, and these portions can be identified using a set of consistent criteria that we apply in the course of waveform fitting.

Along-arc variation in water distribution in the upper mantle beneath Kyushu, Japan, as derived from receiver function analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abe, Y.; Ohkura, T.; Hirahara, K.; Shibutani, T.

2013-12-01

The Kyushu district, Japan, under which the Philippine Sea (PHS) plate is subducting in a WNW direction, has several active volcanoes. On the volcanic front in Kyushu, a 110 km long gap in volcanism exists in the central part of Kyushu and volcanic rocks with various degrees of contamination by slab-derived fluid are distributed. To reveal the causes of the gap in volcanism and the chemical properties of volcanic rocks and to understand the process of magma genesis and water transportation, we should reveal along-arc variation in water distribution beneath Kyushu. We investigated the seismic velocity discontinuities in the upper mantle beneath Kyushu, with seismic waveform data from 65 stations of Hi-net, which are established by National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, and 55 stations of the J-array, which are established by Japan Meteorological Agency, Kyushu University, Kagoshima University and Kyoto University. We used receiver function analyses developed especially for discontinuities with high dipping angles (Abe et al., 2011, GJI). We obtained the geometry and velocity contrasts of the continental Moho, the oceanic Moho, and the upper boundary of the PHS slab. From the geometry of these discontinuities and contrast in S wave velocities, we interpreted that the oceanic crust of the PHS slab has a low S wave velocity and is hydrated to a depth of 70 km beneath south Kyushu, to a depth of 80-90 km beneath central Kyushu, and to a depth of no more than 50 km beneath north Kyushu. We also interpreted that the fore-arc mantle beneath central Kyushu has a low velocity region (Vs < 3.2 km/s) that can contain hydrated materials and free aqueous fluid. Such a low velocity fore-arc mantle does not exist beneath north and south Kyushu. Beneath north Kyushu, the oceanic crust does not appear to convey much water in the mantle wedge. Beneath south Kyushu, water dehydrated from the slab could move to the back-arc side and cause arc volcanism, while it could move to the fore-arc side and cause a gap in volcanism and hydration of the fore-arc mantle materials.

Seismic anisotropy of western Mexico and northeastern Tibet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leon-Soto, Gerardo

In this dissertation, characteristics of upper mantle anisotropy, using shear wave splitting techniques, for two distinct tectonic provinces are presented. In the first part, in western Mexico, the Rivera and Cocos plates subduct beneath the North America plate constituting a young subduction setting where plate fragmentation and capture is occurring today. We characterize the upper mantle anisotropy from SKS and local S phases from the data collected by the MARS experiment (MApping the Rivera Subduction zone) and by two stations of the Mexican Servicio Sismologico National. SKS shear-wave splitting parameters indicate that the fast directions of the split SKS waves for the stations that lie on the central and southern Jalisco block are approximately trench normal. Fast polarizations of these phases also follow the convergence direction between the Rivera Plate and Jalisco block with respect to the North America plate. S-wave splitting from slab events show a small averaged delay time of about 0.2 sec for the upper 60 km of the crust and mantle. Therefore, the main source of anisotropy must reside on the entrained mantle below the young and thin Rivera Plate. Trench-oblique fast SKS split directions are observed in the western edge of the Rivera Plate and western parts of the Cocos slab. The curved pattern of fast SKS split directions in the western Jalisco block and the Rivera-Cocos gap indicate 3-D toroidal mantle flow, around the northwestern edge of the Rivera slab and Rivera- Cocos gap. This behavior profoundly affects finite strain field in the northwestern edge of the Rivera slab and the mantle wedge. The shear wave splitting results support the idea that the Rivera and Cocos plates not only moved in a down-dip direction but also have recently rolled back towards the trench and the Colima rift is intimately related to the tearing between the Rivera and Cocos plates. In the second study, the tectonic enviroment of the northeastern Tibetan plateau is considered. Shear wave splitting measurements using teleseismic SKS and SKKS phases recorded by the ASCENT (A Seismic Collaborative Experiment in Northeastern Tibet) and INDEPTH-IV (International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya, Phase IV) experiments reveal significant anisotropy in north-eastern Tibet with a large delay time of up 2.2 sec, indicating that anisotropy exists in both the lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle. The coherence between fast polarization directions of split core phases and the left-lateral slip on eastern-striking, southeastern-striking and southern-striking faults in eastern Tibet as well as the surface velocity calculated from GPS data support the idea that left-lateral shear strain is the predominant cause of the orientation of the upper mantle petrofabrics. The left-lateral motion can be best understood as a manifestation of north-striking right-lateral simple shear exerted by the eastern edge of the underthrusting Indian plate as it penetrates into Eurasia, as well as the bending of the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis (EHS) by the foundering Burma-Andaman-Sumatra slab. Two plausible competing models are proposed for the flow of asthenosphere. In the first, the deforming lithosphere gliding over the passive asthenosphere induces flow of the asthenosphere. In the second, the asthenosphere beneath northeastern Tibet is flowing eastward in an asthenosphere channel that lies between the Ordos plateau and Sichuan basin, and around the EHS as it is being compressed between the advancing Indian continental lithosphere and the thick Tarim and Qaidam lithospheres to the north. Delay times from stations in the EHS have a maximum of 1.3 sec suggesting that although most anisotropy is residing in the lithosphere, some may be associated with flow of the asthenosphere. The retreating Burma slab induces flow that is toroidal and located exclusively around the northern edge of the slab. The curved fast directions of split shear waves for stations in the EHS are consistent with the toroidal flow pattern as well as the rotational deformation of the overlying lithosphere. It is suggested that the foundering Burma plate may also play an important role in bending the EHS in the late Cenozoic time.

Three-dimensional velocity structure of crust and upper mantle in southwestern China and its tectonic implications

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, Chun-Yong; Chan, W.W.; Mooney, W.D.

2003-01-01

Using P and S arrival times from 4625 local and regional earthquakes recorded at 174 seismic stations and associated geophysical investigations, this paper presents a three-dimensional crustal and upper mantle velocity structure of southwestern China (21??-34??N, 97??-105??E). Southwestern China lies in the transition zone between the uplifted Tibetan plateau to the west and the Yangtze continental platform to the east. In the upper crust a positive velocity anomaly exists in the Sichuan Basin, whereas a large-scale negative velocity anomaly exists in the western Sichuan Plateau, consistent with the upper crustal structure under the southern Tibetan plateau. The boundary between these two anomaly zones is the Longmen Shan Fault. The negative velocity anomalies at 50-km depth in the Tengchong volcanic area and the Panxi tectonic zone appear to be associated with temperature and composition variations in the upper mantle. The Red River Fault is the boundary between the positive and negative velocity anomalies at 50-km depth. The overall features of the crustal and the upper mantle structures in southwestern China are a low average velocity, large crustal thickness variations, the existence of a high-conductivity layer in the crust or/and upper mantle, and a high heat flow value. All these features are closely related to the collision between the Indian and the Asian plates.

Finite-Frequency Simulations of Core-Reflected Seismic Waves to Assess Models of General Lower Mantle Anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowacki, A.; Walker, A. M.; Wookey, J.; Kendall, J.

2012-12-01

The core-mantle boundary (CMB) region is the site of the largest change in properties in the Earth. Moreover, the lowermost mantle above it (known as D″) shows the largest lateral variations in seismic velocity and strength of seismic anisotropy below the upper mantle. It is therefore vital to be able to accurately forward model candidate structures in the lowermost mantle with realistic sensitivity to structure and at the same frequencies at which observations are made. We use the spectral finite-element method to produce synthetic seismograms of ScS waves traversing a model of D″ anisotropy derived from mineralogical texture calculations and show that the seismic discontinuity atop the lowermost mantle varies in character laterally purely as a function of the strength and orientation of anisotropy. The lowermost mantle is widely anisotropic, shown by numerous shear wave splitting studies using waves of dominant frequency ~0.2-1 Hz. Whilst methods exist to model the finite-frequency seismic response of the lowermost mantle, most make the problem computationally efficient by imposing a certain symmetry to the problem, and of those which do not, almost none allow for completely general elasticity. Where low frequencies are simulated to reduce computational cost, it is uncertain whether waves of that frequency have comparable sensitivity to D″ structure as those observed at shorter periods. Currently, therefore, these computational limitations precludes the ability to interpret our observations fully. We present recent developments in taking a general approach to forward-modelling waves in D″. We use a modified version of SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, which uses the spectral finite-element method to model seismic wave propagation in a fully generally-elastic (i.e., 3D-varying, arbitrarily anisotropic) Earth. The calculations are computationally challenging: to approach the frequency of the observations, up to 10,000 processor cores and up to 2 TB of memory are needed. The synthetic seismograms can be directly compared to observations of shear wave splitting or other seismic phenomena and utilise all information from the waveform to accurately interpret D″ structures and elasticity. Using a recent model of mineralogical texture in the lowermost mantle (imposing no symmetry on the type on anisotropy), we model ScS waves traversing D″ in various regions. In this case, no lateral variations in average isotropic velocity exist, though the orientation and strength of anisotropy changes over a range of lengthscales (spherical harmonic degrees ≤128). We note a change in the amplitude (sometimes 0) and polarity (positive to negative) of arrivals which are reflected from the top of D″ (an arrival known as SdS) at ~300 km above the core-mantle boundary, even though no lateral variation exists between the isotropic overlying lower mantle and the anisotropic lowermost mantle. Supported by previous studies, this shows that changes only in anisotropy could be responsible for observed variations in SdS across the globe. Our approach can potentially be used to further model general elasticity at short wavelengths in any region in the Earth.

Observations of explosion generated PcP spectra at near-normal incidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niazi, Mansour; McLaughlin, Keith L.

1987-10-01

Short period recordings of PcP at the SRO station ANTO have been observed at epicentral distance of 13.5° from presumed underground explosions in western Kazahk, USSR. The core reflections are narrow band (0.6 to 2.4 Hz), short duration (3 sec) signals. Comparison of these near normally incident reflections to P waveforms observed at greater distances reveals that the PcP spectra are peaked with respect to the more representative P-wave spectra. The 1.2 Hz spectral peak is also observed for PcP waves recorded at 50 degrees. Corrections for frequency independent mantle Q attnuation models only increase the high frequency deficiency of the PcP spectra at frequencies above 1.2 Hz. A plausible explanation calls for finer structural features of core-mantle boundary (CMB) than hitherto suggested. The influence of small scale lateral heterogeneities, however, cannot be completely ruled out. (Mantle-core boundary, near normal PcP reflection.)

Seafloor age dependence of Rayleigh wave phase velocities in the Indian Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godfrey, Karen E.; Dalton, Colleen A.; Ritsema, Jeroen

2017-05-01

Variations in the phase velocity of fundamental-mode Rayleigh waves across the Indian Ocean are determined using two inversion approaches. First, variations in phase velocity as a function of seafloor age are estimated using a pure-path age-dependent inversion method. Second, a two-dimensional parameterization is used to solve for phase velocity within 1.25° × 1.25° grid cells. Rayleigh wave travel time delays have been measured between periods of 38 and 200 s. The number of measurements in the study area ranges between 4139 paths at a period of 200 s and 22,272 paths at a period of 40 s. At periods < 100 s, the phase velocity variations are strongly controlled by seafloor age and shown to be consistent with temperature variations predicted by the half-space-cooling model for a mantle potential temperature of 1400°C. The inferred thermal structure beneath the Indian Ocean is most similar to the structure of the Pacific upper mantle, where phase velocities can also be explained by a half-space-cooling model. The thermal structure is not consistent with that of the Atlantic upper mantle, which is best fit by a plate-cooling model and requires a thin plate. Removing age-dependent phase velocity from the 2-D maps of the Indian Ocean highlights anomalously high velocities at the Rodriguez Triple Junction and the Australian-Antarctic Discordance and anomalously low velocities immediately to the west of the Central Indian Ridge.

Long Indian Slab in the Mantle Transition Zone Under Eastern Tibet: Evidence from Teleseismic Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, J.; Zhao, D.; Zha, X.

2014-12-01

We present a new 3-D P-wave velocity model of the upper mantle under eastern Tibet determined from 113,831 high-quality teleseismic arrival-time data. Our data are hand-picked from seismograms of 784 teleseismic events (30o-90o) with magnitudes of 5.2 or greater. These events were recorded by 21 portable seismic stations deployed in Yunnan during April 2010 to July 2011 and 259 permanent stations of Chinese provincial seismic networks during September 2008 to December 2011 in the study region. Our results provide new insights into the mantle structure and dynamics of eastern Tibet. High-velocity (high-V) anomalies are revealed down to 200 km depth under stable cratonic regions, such as Sichuan basin, Ordos and Alashan blocks. Prominent low-velocity (low-V) anomalies are revealed in the upper mantle under the Kunlun-Qinling fold zone, Songpan-Ganzi, Qiangtang, Lahsa, and Chuan-Dian diamond blocks, suggesting that the eastward moving low-V materials are obstructed by Sichuan basin, Ordos and Alashan blocks, and they could be extruded through the Qinling fold zone and the Chuan-Dian block to eastern China. In addition, the extent and thickness of these low-V anomalies are well correlated with the surface topography, suggesting that uplift of eastern Tibet is closely related to the low-V anomalies which may reflect hot materials and have strong buoyancy. In the mantle transition zone, broad high-V anomalies are visible from the Burma arc northward to the Kunlun fault and eastward to the Xiaojiang fault, which extend for a total of approximately 700 km. The high-V anomalies are connected upward to the Wadati-Benioff seismic zone beneath the Burma arc. These results suggest that the Indian slab has subducted horizontally for a long distance in the mantle transition zone after it descended into the mantle, and its deep dehydration has contributed to forming the low-V anomalies in the big mantle wedge above the slab. Our present results shed new light on the formation and evolution of the Tibetan plateau.

A First Layered Crustal Velocity Model for the Western Solomon Islands: Inversion of Measured Group Velocity of Surface Waves using Ambient Noise Cross-Correlation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ku, C. S.; Kuo, Y. T.; Chao, W. A.; You, S. H.; Huang, B. S.; Chen, Y. G.; Taylor, F. W.; Yih-Min, W.

2017-12-01

Two earthquakes, MW 8.1 in 2007 and MW 7.1 in 2010, hit the Western Province of Solomon Islands and caused extensive damage, but motivated us to set up the first seismic network in this area. During the first phase, eight broadband seismic stations (BBS) were installed around the rupture zone of 2007 earthquake. With one-year seismic records, we cross-correlated the vertical component of ambient noise recorded in our BBS and calculated Rayleigh-wave group velocity dispersion curves on inter-station paths. The genetic algorithm to invert one-dimensional crustal velocity model is applied by fitting the averaged dispersion curves. The one-dimensional crustal velocity model is constituted by two layers and one half-space, representing the upper crust, lower crust, and uppermost mantle respectively. The resulted thickness values of the upper and lower crust are 6.4 and 14.2 km, respectively. Shear-wave velocities (VS) of the upper crust, lower crust, and uppermost mantle are 2.53, 3.57 and 4.23 km/s with the VP/VS ratios of 1.737, 1.742 and 1.759, respectively. This first layered crustal velocity model can be used as a preliminary reference to further study seismic sources such as earthquake activity and tectonic tremor.

Dry Juan de Fuca slab revealed by quantification of water entering Cascadia subduction zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canales, J. P.; Carbotte, S. M.; Nedimovic, M. R.; Carton, H. D.

2017-12-01

Water is carried by subducting slabs as a pore fluid and in structurally bound minerals, yet no comprehensive quantification of water content and how it is stored and distributed at depth within incoming plates exists for any segment of the global subduction system. Here we use controlled-source seismic data collected in 2012 as part of the Ridge-to-Trench seismic experiment to quantify the amount of pore and structurally bound water in the Juan de Fuca plate entering the Cascadia subduction zone. We use wide-angle OBS seismic data along a 400-km-long margin-parallel profile 10-15 km seaward from the Cascadia deformation front to obtain P-wave tomography models of the sediments, crust, and uppermost mantle, and effective medium theory combined with a stochastic description of crustal properties (e.g., temperature, alteration assemblages, porosity, pore aspect ratio), to analyze the pore fluid and structurally bound water reservoirs in the sediments, crust and lithospheric mantle, and their variations along the Cascadia margin. Our results demonstrate that the Juan de Fuca lower crust and mantle are much drier than at any other subducting plate, with most of the water stored in the sediments and upper crust. Previously documented, variable but limited bend faulting along the margin, which correlates with degree of plate locking, limits slab access to water, and a warm thermal structure resulting from a thick sediment cover and young plate age prevents significant serpentinization of the mantle. Our results have important implications for a number of subduction processes at Cascadia, such as: (1) the dryness of the lower crust and mantle indicates that fluids that facilitate episodic tremor and slip must be sourced from the subducted upper crust; (2) decompression rather than hydrous melting must dominate arc magmatism in northern-central Cascadia; and (3) dry subducted lower crust and mantle can explain the low levels of intermediate-depth seismicity in the Juan de Fuca slab.

Inference of viscosity jump at 670 km depth and lower mantle viscosity structure from GIA observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakada, Masao; Okuno, Jun'ichi; Irie, Yoshiya

2018-03-01

A viscosity model with an exponential profile described by temperature (T) and pressure (P) distributions and constant activation energy (E_{{{um}}}^{{*}} for the upper mantle and E_{{{lm}}}^* for the lower mantle) and volume (V_{{{um}}}^{{*}} and V_{{{lm}}}^*) is employed in inferring the viscosity structure of the Earth's mantle from observations of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). We first construct standard viscosity models with an average upper-mantle viscosity ({\\bar{η }_{{{um}}}}) of 2 × 1020 Pa s, a typical value for the oceanic upper-mantle viscosity, satisfying the observationally derived three GIA-related observables, GIA-induced rate of change of the degree-two zonal harmonic of the geopotential, {\\dot{J}_2}, and differential relative sea level (RSL) changes for the Last Glacial Maximum sea levels at Barbados and Bonaparte Gulf in Australia and for RSL changes at 6 kyr BP for Karumba and Halifax Bay in Australia. Standard viscosity models inferred from three GIA-related observables are characterized by a viscosity of ˜1023 Pa s in the deep mantle for an assumed viscosity at 670 km depth, ηlm(670), of (1 - 50) × 1021 Pa s. Postglacial RSL changes at Southport, Bermuda and Everglades in the intermediate region of the North American ice sheet, largely dependent on its gross melting history, have a crucial potential for inference of a viscosity jump at 670 km depth. The analyses of these RSL changes based on the viscosity models with {\\bar{η }_{{{um}}}} ≥ 2 × 1020 Pa s and lower-mantle viscosity structures for the standard models yield permissible {\\bar{η }_{{{um}}}} and ηlm (670) values, although there is a trade-off between the viscosity and ice history models. Our preferred {\\bar{η }_{{{um}}}} and ηlm (670) values are ˜(7 - 9) × 1020 and ˜1022 Pa s, respectively, and the {\\bar{η }_{{{um}}}} is higher than that for the typical value of oceanic upper mantle, which may reflect a moderate laterally heterogeneous upper-mantle viscosity. The mantle viscosity structure adopted in this study depends on temperature distribution and activation energy and volume, and it is difficult to discuss the impact of each quantity on the inferred lower-mantle viscosity model. We conclude that models of smooth depth variation in the lower-mantle viscosity following η ( z ) ∝ {{ exp}}[ {( {E_{{{lm}}}^* + P( z )V_{{{lm}}}^*} )/{{R}}T( z )} ] with constant E_{{{lm}}}^* and V_{{{lm}}}^* are consistent with the GIA observations.

Transdimensional inversion of scattered body waves for 1D S-wave velocity structure - Application to the Tengchong volcanic area, Southwestern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Mengkui; Zhang, Shuangxi; Bodin, Thomas; Lin, Xu; Wu, Tengfei

2018-06-01

Inversion of receiver functions is commonly used to recover the S-wave velocity structure beneath seismic stations. Traditional approaches are based on deconvolved waveforms, where the horizontal component of P-wave seismograms is deconvolved by the vertical component. Deconvolution of noisy seismograms is a numerically unstable process that needs to be stabilized by regularization parameters. This biases noise statistics, making it difficult to estimate uncertainties in observed receiver functions for Bayesian inference. This study proposes a method to directly invert observed radial waveforms and to better account for data noise in a Bayesian formulation. We illustrate its feasibility with two synthetic tests having different types of noises added to seismograms. Then, a real site application is performed to obtain the 1-D S-wave velocity structure beneath a seismic station located in the Tengchong volcanic area, Southwestern China. Surface wave dispersion measurements spanning periods from 8 to 65 s are jointly inverted with P waveforms. The results show a complex S-wave velocity structure, as two low velocity zones are observed in the crust and uppermost mantle, suggesting the existence of magma chambers, or zones of partial melt. The upper magma chambers may be the heart source that cause the thermal activity on the surface.

Seismic crustal structure of the Limpopo mobile belt, Zimbabwe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stuart, G. W.; Zengeni, T. G.

1987-12-01

A 145 km N-S seismic traverse was deployed to determine the crustal structure of the Limpopo mobile belt in southern Zimbabwe and the nature of its northern boundary with the Zimbabwean craton. Rockbursts from South African gold mines to the south and regional seismicity from the Kariba-South Zambia belt to the north were used as seismic sources. P-wave relative teleseismic residuals were also measured to assess whether any velocity contrast between the craton and the mobile belt extended into the upper mantle. Interpretation of reduced travel times from the local Buchwa iron-ore mine blasts, which were broadside to the traverse, revealed an upper crustal interface in the Limpopo mobile belt at a depth of 5.8 ± 0.6 km, dividing material with a velocity of about 5.8 km/s from that of about 6.4 km/s. On the craton, arrivals from the same source showed a 4.4 ± 0.5 km thick 5.5 km/s layer overlying crust of about velocity 6.5 km/s. P-wave arrivals from the regional seismicity were used to construct a crustal cross-section. Absolute crustal thickness was tentatively estimated from the identification of a Moho reflection on the mine blast recordings. To the south of Rutenga, the crust thins from around 34 km to 29 km in association with a positive gravity anomaly centred over the late-Karoo Nuanetsi Igneous Province and Karoo Tuli Syncline. North of Rutenga to the boundary with the Zimbabwean craton, the crust is about 34 km thick. The craton boundary was found to be a steeply southerly dipping zone associated with high-velocity material, which could either be deep-seated greenstones or mafic material associated with the margin in the region studied. This zone divides cratonic crust, which was found to be about 40 km thick, from that typical of the mobile belt and implies a step in the Moho of around 6 km. Analysis of relative teleseismic residuals showed that the velocity contrasts are not confined to the crust but extend into the uppermost upper mantle with the cratonic lithosphere being about 4% faster than that of the Limpopo mobile belt. The resolution of the technique is such that it is difficult to ascertain whether these differences are features of Precambrian evolution or are due to reactivation of the upper mantle during Karoo igneous and tectonic activity.

Constraints on Average Radial Anisotropy in the Lower Mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trampert, J.; De Wit, R. W. L.; Kaeufl, P.; Valentine, A. P.

2014-12-01

Quantifying uncertainties in seismological models is challenging, yet ideally quality assessment is an integral part of the inverse method. We invert centre frequencies for spheroidal and toroidal modes for three parameters of average radial anisotropy, density and P- and S-wave velocities in the lower mantle. We adopt a Bayesian machine learning approach to extract the information on the earth model that is available in the normal mode data. The method is flexible and allows us to infer probability density functions (pdfs), which provide a quantitative description of our knowledge of the individual earth model parameters. The parameters describing shear- and P-wave anisotropy show little deviations from isotropy, but the intermediate parameter η carries robust information on negative anisotropy of ~1% below 1900 km depth. The mass density in the deep mantle (below 1900 km) shows clear positive deviations from existing models. Other parameters (P- and shear-wave velocities) are close to PREM. Our results require that the average mantle is about 150K colder than commonly assumed adiabats and consist of a mixture of about 60% perovskite and 40% ferropericlase containing 10-15% iron. The anisotropy favours a specific orientation of the two minerals. This observation has important consequences for the nature of mantle flow.

Tomography images of the Alpine roots and surrounding upper mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plomerova, Jaroslava; Babuska, Vladislav

2017-04-01

Teleseismic body-wave tomography represents powerful tool to study regional velocity structure of the upper mantle and to image velocity anomalies, such as subducted lithosphere plates in collisional zones. In this contribution, we recapitulate 3D models of the upper mantle beneath the Alps, which developed at a collision zone of the Eurasian and African plates. Seismic tomography studies indicate a leading role of the rigid mantle lithosphere that functioned as a major stress guide during the plate collisions. Interactions of the European lithosphere with several micro-plates in the south resulted in an arcuate shape of this mountain range on the surface and in a complicated geometry of the Alpine subductions in the mantle. Early models with one bended lithosphere root have been replaced with more advanced models showing two separate lithosphere roots beneath the Western and Eastern Alps (Babuska et al., Tectonophysics 1990; Lippitsch et al., JGR 2003). The standard isotropic velocity tomography, based on pre-AlpArray data (the currently performed passive seismic experiment in the Alps and surroundings) images the south-eastward dipping curved slab of the Eurasian lithosphere in the Western Alps. On the contrary, beneath the Eastern Alps the results indicate a very steep northward dipping root that resulted from the collision of the European plate with the Adriatic microplate. Dando et al. (2011) interpret high-velocity heterogeneities at the bottom of their regional tomographic model as a graveyard of old subducted lithospheres. High density of stations, large amount of rays and dense ray-coverage of the volume studied are not the only essential pre-requisites for reliable tomography results. A compromise between the amount of pre-processed data and the high-quality of the tomography input (travel-time residuals) is of the high importance as well. For the first time, the existence of two separate roots beneath the Alps has been revealed from carefully pre-processed, mostly the ISC-bulletin data (Babuska et al., Tectonophysics 1990). Calculated relative travel-time residuals have been assigned to source clusters and filtered relative to the residual mean of each cluster of events. We expect that future 3D studies of the mantle velocities and mantle fabrics with the use of body-wave anisotropic parameters from the AlpArray data will shed a new light on tectonic development of the complex Alpine region and its surroundings.

Using Receiver Functions to Image the Montana Crust and Upper Mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sirianni, R. T.; Russo, R. M.

2008-12-01

We determined receiver functions (RFs) at six permanent Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) stations to examine crust and upper mantle structure of the Wyoming craton (WC) and Medicine Hat block (MHB). The Deep Probe & SAREX projects (Henstock et al., 1998; Clowes et al., 2002; Gorman et al., 2002) used active source seismics to model a high velocity crustal layer (the so-called 7x layer) beneath the WC. This layer exhibits P wave velocities that are high for lower continental crust (~7+ km/s) and extends from 30-55 km below the surface. Interpretations of the active source data indicate that this layer may represent wide scale crustal underplating of the WC, implying post-Archean craton modification with implications for Laurentia assembly. We used 43 earthquakes from a wide azimuthal distribution recorded at the Montana ANSS stations; high signal-to-noise ratios of 25 of these RFs were acceptable for further analysis. Receiver functions constrain crustal velocity structure beneath a seismometer by using P-to-S wave conversions at sharp velocity contrast boundaries. Preliminary results for seismic stations DGMT, EGMT, and LAO, located to the east of the Deep Probe and SAREX seismic line on the Wyoming craton/Medicine Hat block show the influence of sedimentary cover and a strong Ps phase at approximately four seconds after P. At BOZ and MSO, located in the Rocky mountains, the sedimentary cover signal previously noted is absent, and instead we observe a sharp Ps phase at about four and a half seconds after P. RFs at station RLMT (on the WC) are highly anomalous, probably reflecting complex conversions from two differently oriented dipping layers. We will use the RFs to produce suites of acceptable structural models to test for the presence and lateral extent of the 7x layer and other structural features of the Rocky Mountains-craton transition.

High resolution P-wave velocity structure beneath Northeastern Tibet from multiscale seismic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, B.; Gao, X.; Chen, J.; Liu, Q.; Li, S.

2016-12-01

The continuing collision of the northward advancing Indian continent with the Eurasia results in the high elevations and thickened Tibetan Plateau. Numerous geologic and geophysical studies engaged in the mechanics of the Tibetan Plateau deformation and uplift. Many seismic experiments were deployed in south and central Tibet, such as INDEPTH and Hi-climb, but very few in northeastern Tibet. Between 2013 and 2015, The China Seismic Array-experiment operated 670 broadband seismic stations with an average station spacing of 35km. This seismic array located in northeastern Tibet and covered the Qilian Mountains, Qaidam Basin, and part of Songpan-Ganzi, Gobi-Alashan, Yangzi, and Ordos. A new multiscale seismic traveltime tomography technique with sparsity constrains were used to map the upper mantle P-wave velocity structure beneath northeastern Tibet. The seismic tomography algorithm employs sparsity constrains on the wavelet representation velocity model via the L1-norm regularization. This algorithm can efficiently deal with the uneven-sampled volume, and give multiscale images of the model. Our preliminary results can be summarized as follows: 1) in the upper mantle down to 200km, significate low-velocity anomalies exist beneath the northeastern Tibet, and slight high-velocity anomalies beneath the Qaidam basin; 2) under Gobi-Alashan, Yangzi, and Ordos, high-velocity anomalies appear to extend to a depth of 250km, this high-velocity may correspond to the lithosphere; 3) there exist relative high-velocity anomalies at depth of 250km-350km underneath north Tibet, which suggests lithospheric delamination; 4) the strong velocity contrast between north Tibet and Yangzi, Gabi-Alashan is visible down to 200km, which implies the north Tibet boundary.

Teleseismic traveltime tomography of Jeju Island, South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, J.; Rhie, J.; Kim, S.; Lee, S. H.

2017-12-01

Jeju Island is the largest volcanic island in South Korea, which lies off the south coast of the Korean Peninsula. It is well known that the volcanism started in the Early Pleistocene (c. 1.7 Ma) and subsequent eruptions during Late Pleistocene to Holocene formed the bulk of the island with a number of small cones. However, the origin of magma and detailed mechanism of eruptions have not been fully understood yet. To address these issues, we applied teleseismic travel time tomography to image the underlying crust and upper mantle of the island. We carefully analyzed 185 teleseismic earthquakes (5.5 < Mw < 7.9) that occurred between Oct. 2013 and Nov. 2015. Broadband waveforms recorded by 23 seismic stations covering the whole island were used to measure travel time residuals of P and S waves using semi-automated adaptive stacking technique. The residuals are mapped as three-dimensional perturbations of velocity using iterative non-linear tomographic process with a subspace inversion technique and the fast marching method for grid based eikonal solver. We used AK135 global reference model as a starting velocity model for tomography inversion. The resulting P wave tomographic images exhibit relatively low velocity anomaly in the upper mantle, which extends to depths of nearly 60 km under the summit of the island, Mt. Halla. The anomaly is likely related to a relatively high-temperature magmatic body, which might be associated to the volcanism lasted until late Cenozoic. To better constrain possible compositions of the anomalies and the existence of melt fractions, we will continue to examine perturbation of Vp/Vs ratios and discuss the evolution of the volcanic island.

Extraction of weak PcP phases using the slant-stacklet transform - II: constraints on lateral variations of structure near the core-mantle boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ventosa, Sergi; Romanowicz, Barbara

2015-11-01

Resolving the topography of the core-mantle boundary (CMB) and the structure and composition of the D″ region is key to improving our understanding of the interaction between the Earth's mantle and core. Observations of traveltimes and amplitudes of short-period teleseismic body waves sensitive to lowermost mantle provide essential constraints on the properties of this region. Major challenges are low signal-to-noise ratio of the target phases and interference with other mantle phases. In a previous paper (Part I), we introduced the slant-stacklet transform to enhance the signal of the core-reflected (PcP) phase and to isolate it from stronger signals in the coda of the P wave. Then we minimized a linear misfit between P and PcP waveforms to improve the quality of PcP-P traveltime difference measurements as compared to standard cross-correlation methods. This method significantly increases the quantity and the quality of PcP-P traveltime observations available for the modelling of structure near the CMB. Here we illustrate our approach in a series of regional studies of the CMB and D″ using PcP-P observations with unprecedented resolution from high-quality dense arrays located in North America and Japan for events with magnitude Mw>5.4 and distances up to 80°. In this process, we carefully analyse various sources of errors and show that mantle heterogeneity is the most significant. We find and correct bias due to mantle heterogeneities that is as large as 1 s in traveltime, comparable to the largest lateral PcP-P traveltime variations observed. We illustrate the importance of accurate mantle corrections and the need for higher resolution mantle models for future studies. After optimal mantle corrections, the main signal left is relatively long wavelength in the regions sampled, except at the border of the Pacific large-low shear velocity province (LLSVP). We detect the northwest border of the Pacific LLSVP in the western Pacific from array observations in Japan, and observe higher than average P velocities, or depressed CMB, in Central America, and slightly lower than average P velocities under Alaska/western Canada.

Absorption band Q model for the Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, D. L.; Given, J. W.

1981-01-01

Attenuation in solids and liquids, as measured by the quality factor Q, is typically frequency dependent. In seismology, however, Q is usually assumed to be independent of frequency. Body wave, surface wave, and normal mode data are used to place constraints on the frequency dependence of Q in the mantle. Specific features of the absorption band model are: low-Q in the seismic band at both the top and the base of the mantle, low-Q for long-period body waves in the outer core, an inner core Q sub s that increases with period, and low Q sub p/Q sub s at short periods in the middle mantle.

Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity maps and three-dimensional shear velocity structure of the western US from local non-plane surface wave tomography

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, F.F.; Snoke, J. Arthur

2010-01-01

We utilize two-and-three-quarter years of vertical-component recordings made by the Transportable Array (TA) component of Earthscope to constrain three-dimensional (3-D) seismic shear wave velocity structure in the upper 200 km of the western United States. Single-taper spectral estimation is used to compile measurements of complex spectral amplitudes from 44 317 seismograms generated by 123 teleseismic events. In the first step employed to determine the Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity structure, we implement a new tomographic method, which is simpler and more robust than scattering-based methods (e.g. multi-plane surface wave tomography). The TA is effectively implemented as a large number of local arrays by defining a horizontal Gaussian smoothing distance that weights observations near a given target point. The complex spectral-amplitude measurements are interpreted with the spherical Helmholtz equation using local observations about a succession of target points, resulting in Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity maps at periods over the range of 18–125 s. The derived maps depend on the form of local fits to the Helmholtz equation, which generally involve the nonplane-wave solutions of Friederich et al. In a second step, the phase-velocity maps are used to derive 3-D shear velocity structure. The 3-D velocity images confirm details witnessed in prior body-wave and surface-wave studies and reveal new structures, including a deep (>100 km deep) high-velocity lineament, of width ∼200 km, stretching from the southern Great Valley to northern Utah that may be a relic of plate subduction or, alternatively, either a remnant of the Mojave Precambrian Province or a mantle downwelling. Mantle seismic velocity is highly correlated with heat flow, Holocene volcanism, elastic plate thickness and seismicity. This suggests that shallow mantle structure provides the heat source for associated magmatism, as well as thinning of the thermal lithosphere, leading to relatively high stress concentration. Our images also confirm the presence of high-velocity mantle at 100 km depth beneath areas of suspected mantle delamination (southern Sierra Nevada; Grande Ronde uplift), low velocity mantle underlying active rift zones, and high velocity mantle associated with the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. Structure established during the Proterozoic appears to exert a lasting influence on subsequent volcanism and tectonism up to the Present.

Lowermost mantle anisotropy and deformation along the boundary of the African LLSVP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynner, Colton; Long, Maureen D.

2014-05-01

Shear wave splitting of SK(K)S phases is often used to examine upper mantle anisotropy. In specific cases, however, splitting of these phases may reflect anisotropy in the lowermost mantle. Here we present SKS and SKKS splitting measurements for 233 event-station pairs at 34 seismic stations that sample D″ beneath Africa. Of these, 36 pairs show significantly different splitting between the two phases, which likely reflects a contribution from lowermost mantle anisotropy. The vast majority of discrepant pairs sample the boundary of the African large low shear velocity province (LLSVP), which dominates the lower mantle structure beneath this region. In general, we observe little or no splitting of phases that have passed through the LLSVP itself and significant splitting for phases that have sampled the boundary of the LLSVP. We infer that the D″ region just outside the LLSVP boundary is strongly deformed, while its interior remains undeformed (or weakly deformed).

The feasibility of inverting for flow in the lowermost mantle (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowacki, A.; Walpole, J.; Wookey, J. M.; Walker, A.; Forte, A. M.; Masters, G.; Kendall, J. M.

2013-12-01

At the core-mantle boundary (CMB), the largest change in physical properties occurs within the Earth. Furthermore, up to a few hundred kilometres above the CMB--the region known as D″--the largest lateral variations in seismic wave speed are observed outside the upper mantle. Observations of shear wave splitting in D″ shows that these variations are dependent not only on position, but also wave propagation direction and polarisation; that is, strong seismic anisotropy is a pervasive feature of D″, just as in the upper mantle (UM). Similarly to the UM, it is frequently argued that alignment of anisotropic minerals due to flow is the cause of this. Were this the case, this anisotropy could be used to retrieve the recent strain history of the lowermost mantle. Recent modelling of mineral alignment in D″ [1,2] has shown that quite simple models of mantle flow do not produce simple anisotropy, hence one must make use of the most information about the type and orientation of anisotropy possible. Global inversion for radial anisotropy permits complete coverage of the CMB but so far has relied on core-diffracted waves (Sdiff) which are challenging to accurately interpret [3]. The assumption of radial anisotropy may also be too restrictive [4]. Shear wave splitting studies do not impose any assumed type of anisotropy but have been traditionally limited in their geographical scope. We present the results of a consistent analysis of core-reflected shear waves (ScS) for shear wave splitting, producing near-global coverage [5] of D″. Over 12,000 individual measurements are made, from ~470 events. Along well-studied paths such as beneath the Caribbean, our results agree excellently with previous work. Elsewhere, a full range of fast orientations are observed, indicating that simple SV-SH comparisons may not accurately reflect the elasticity present. We compare these results to candidate models of D″ anisotropy assuming a simple flow model derived from geophysical observables. A number of different mechanisms (different slip systems causing alignment of MgSiO3-perovskite, -post-perovskite or MgO) are possible, hence we compute the expected seismic response for several. To accurately recover the wave field, no constraints on symmetry or type of anisotropy are possible, so we make use of the spectral element method. It is necessary to model wave propagation at the correct frequencies (~0.2 Hz), so computations must be performed on thousands of CPUs, using TBs of memory. We use a modified version of SPECFEM3D_GLOBE which does not require disk I/O, removing the main computational bottleneck. This suite of results allows us to contemplate the challenges to be faced in recovering dynamics from measurements of seismic anisotropy in the lowermost mantle. While robustly testing competing models of flow and deformation is within reach, direct inversion is still very much a work in progress. [1] Walker et al. (2011) Geochem., Geophys., Geosys., 12:Q10006. [2] Wenk et al. (2011) Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 306:33-45. [3] Maupin (1994) Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 87:1-32. [4] Nowacki et al. (2010) Nature, 467:1091-1095. [5] Houser et al. (2008) Geophys. J. Int., 174:195-212.

High-resolution 3D seismic model of the crustal and uppermost mantle structure in Poland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grad, Marek; Polkowski, Marcin; Ostaficzuk, Stanisław R.

2016-01-01

In the area of Poland a contact between the Precambrian and Phanerozoic Europe and the Carpathians has a complicated structure and a complex P-wave velocity of the sedimentary cover, crystalline crust, Moho depth and the uppermost mantle. The geometry of the uppermost several kilometers of sediments is relatively well recognized from over 100,000 boreholes. The vertical seismic profiling (VSP) from 1188 boreholes provided detailed velocity data for regional tectonic units and for stratigraphic successions from Permian to the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits. These data, however, do not provide information about the velocity and basement depth in the central part of the Trans-European suture zone (TESZ) and in the Carpathians. So, the data set is supplemented by 2D velocity models from 32 deep seismic sounding refraction profiles which also provide information about the crust and uppermost mantle. Together with the results of other methods: vertical seismic profiling, magnetotelluric, allow for the creation of a detailed, high-resolution 3D model for the entire Earth's crust and the uppermost mantle down to a depth of 60 km. The thinnest sedimentary cover in the Mazury-Belarus anteclise is only 0.3 to 1 km thick, which increases to 7 to 8 km along the East European Craton (EEC) margin, and 9 to 12 km in the TESZ. The Variscan domain is characterized by a 1-4 km thick sedimentary cover, while the Carpathians are characterized by very thick sedimentary layers, up to about 20 km. The crystalline crust is differentiated and has a layered structure. The crust beneath the West European Platform (WEP; Variscan domain) is characterized by P-wave velocities of 5.8-6.6 km/s. The upper and middle crusts beneath the EEC are characterized by velocities of 6.1-6.6 km/s, and are underlain by a high velocity lower crust with a velocity of about 7 km/s. A general decrease in velocity is observed from the older to the younger tectonic domains. The TESZ is associated with a steep dip in the Moho depth, from 30-35 km in the Paleozoic Platform to 42-52 km in the Precambrian craton. The new model confirms the Moho depth derived from previous compilations. In the TESZ the lower crust has a very high seismic velocity (> 7.0 km/s) which correlates to the high P-wave velocity (about 8.4 km/s) in the uppermost mantle beneath the Polish Basin. The Cratonic area is generally characterized by high P-wave velocities (> 8.2 km/s), while the Phanerozoic area is characterized by velocities of ~ 8.0 km/s. In the TESZ very high velocities of 8.3-8.4 km/s are observed, and the southwestern limitation of this area coincides with a high velocity lower crust, and could be continued to the NW toward the Elbe line. The influence of the structure for teleseismic tomography time residuals of seismic waves traveling through the 3D seismic model was analyzed. Lithological candidates for the crust and uppermost mantle of the EEC and WEP were suggested by comparison to laboratory data. The presented 3D seismic model may make more reliable studies on global dynamics, and geotectonic correlations, particularly for sedimentary basins in the Polish Lowlands, the napped flysch sediment series in the Carpathians, the basement shape, the southwestern edge of the EEC, a high-velocity lower crust and the high-velocity uppermost mantle in the TESZ. Finally, the new 3D velocity model of the crust shows a heterogeneous structure and offers a starting point for the numerical modeling of deeper structures by allowing for a correction of the crustal effects in studies of the mantle heterogeneities.

A Detailed 3D Seismic Velocity Structure of the Subducting Pacific Slab Beneath Hokkaido, Tohoku and Kanto, Japan, by Double-Difference Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsuji, Y.; Nakajima, J.; Kita, S.; Okada, T.; Matsuzawa, T.; Hasegawa, A.

2007-12-01

Three-dimensional heterogeneous structure beneath northeastern (NE) Japan has been investigated by previous studies and an inclined seismic low-velocity zone is imaged in the mantle wedge sub-parallel to the down-dip direction of the subducting slab (Zhao et al., 1992, Nakajima et al., 2001). However, the heterogeneous structure within the slab has not been well studied even though it is very important to understand the whole process of water transportation from the slab to the surface. Here we show a detailed 3D seismic velocity structure within the subducted Pacific slab around Japan and propose a water-transportation path from the slab to the mantle wedge. In this study, we estimated 3D velocity structure within the Pacific slab by the double-difference tomography (Zhang and Thurber, 2003). We divided the study area, from Hokkaido to Kanto, into 6 areas due to the limitation of memory and computation time. In each area, arrival-time data of 7,500-17,000 events recorded at 70-170 stations were used in the analysis. The total number of absolute travel-time data was about 140,000-312,000 for P wave and 123,000-268,000 for S wave, and differential data were about 736,000-1,920,000 for P wave and 644,000-1,488,000 for S wave. Horizontal and vertical grid separations are 10-25 km and 6.5 km, respectively. RMS residuals of travel times for P wave decreased from 0.23s to 0.09s and for S wave from 0.35s to 0.13s. The obtained results are as follows: (1) a remarkable low-Vs zone exists in the uppermost part of the subducting slab, (2) it extends down to a depth of about 80 km, (3) the termination of this low-Vs zone almost corresponds to the "seismic belt" recently detected in the upper plane of the double seismic zone (Kita et al.,2006; Hasegawa et al., 2007), (4) at depths deeper than 80 km, a low-Vs and high-Vp/Vs zone is apparently distributed in the mantle wedge, immediately above the slab crust. We consider that these features reflect water-transportation processes from the slab to the mantle wedge. A low- Vs zone in the uppermost part of the subducting slab corresponds to the hydrous oceanic crust since its absolute velocity is about 4.0 km/s, comparable to that expected for the oceanic crust (Hacker et al., 2003). Dehydration reactions occur in the oceanic crust as temperature and pressure increase, and a relatively large amount of water is released at depths of about 80-100 km. The water generated by dehydration reactions could migrate upward and react peridotite at the base of the mantle wedge, forming a thin-serpentine layer there. Then, the layer is dragged by the subducting slab to deeper depths (e.g. Iwamori, 1998). Such water-transportation processes from the slab to the mantle wedge are partly constrained by a recent receiver function analysis (Kawakatsu and Watada, 2007). We further found an along-arc variation of the termination depth of the low-velocity oceanic crust, suggesting the along-arc variation in the amount of fluids released from the slab.

Constraints on lateral variations in upper mantle viscosity from Lake Bonneville shorelines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Austermann, Jacqueline; Chen, Christine; Lau, Harriet C. P.

2017-04-01

Lake Bonneville is an extinct pluvial lake that formed and catastrophically drained at the onset of the last deglaciation (˜ 20 - 18ka). With a volume of just over 10 000 km3 this lake was comparable in size to present-day Lake Michigan. During its existence the excess load of water stored in Lake Bonneville depressed the crust and upper mantle. After the drainage of the lake this area rebounded by up to 75 m, which is recorded in the paleoshorelines around the lake periphery and on islands within the lake. The rebound pattern has been used to infer the lithospheric thickness and upper mantle viscosity structure of the area (e.g. Bill et al., 1994). In agreement with the tectonic history of the Basin and Range area, the deformed shorelines point to a thin lithosphere (< 30km) and low upper mantle viscosity (˜ 1019 Pa s). This differs from the upper mantle viscosity inferred from post-glacial data in cratonic regions (e.g., Hudson Bay, Fennoscandia), which is one to two orders of magnitude larger (˜ 5 × 1020 Pa s). Direct constraints on the lateral variability of mantle viscosity are invaluable but in order to utilize such constraints it is important to consider the sensitivity range of different observations before comparing the inferred viscosities. In this study we revisit the earlier inversions of shoreline elevations for mantle and lithospheric structure with an updated dataset of paleoshoreline elevations by Chen and Maloof (2017). We construct depth-dependent sensitivity kernels for the lake rebound and compare them to kernels associated with the rebound from glacial ice sheets over Canada and Scandinavia. This comparison along with the inferred viscosities allows us to evaluate the degree to which lateral viscosity variations are required. We additionally compare our results to estimates of lateral viscosity variations based on perturbations in seismic shear wave speed in the respective areas in order to assess the consistency of our results with independent data. The paleoshorelines of Lake Bonneville have been deflected by not only rebound post-drainage, but also the longer-term subsidence of the Laurentide peripheral bulge. The lake was located on the distal flank of the peripheral bulge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and after its collapse the peripheral bulge subsided leading to an additional northeast trending tilt in shoreline elevations. We show that the degree of tilt is not only sensitive to shallow mantle structure but has also sensitivity in the upper half of the lower mantle, in contrast to the lake rebound pattern. We independently invert the degree of tilt for mantle viscosity and examine its trade-off with uncertainties in the ice history.

Tomographic imaging of the effects of Peruvian flat slab subduction on the Nazca slab and surrounding mantle under central and southern Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scire, A. C.; Zandt, G.; Beck, S. L.; Bishop, B.; Biryol, C. B.; Wagner, L. S.; Long, M. D.; Minaya, E.; Tavera, H.

2014-12-01

The modern central Peruvian Andes are dominated by a laterally extensive region of flat slab subduction. The Peruvian flat slab extends for ~1500 km along the strike of the Andes, correlating with the subduction of the Nazca Ridge in the south and the theorized Inca Plateau in the north. We have used data from the CAUGHT and PULSE experiments for finite frequency teleseismic P- and S-wave tomography to image the Nazca slab in the upper mantle below 95 km depth under central Peru between 10°S and 18°S as well as the surrounding mantle. Since the slab inboard of the subducting Nazca Ridge is mostly aseismic, our results provide important constraints on the geometry of the subducting Nazca slab in this region. Our images of the Nazca slab suggest that steepening of the slab inboard of the subducting Nazca Ridge locally occurs ~100 km further inland than was indicated in previous studies. The region where we have imaged the steepening of the Nazca slab inboard of the Nazca Ridge correlates with the location of the Fitzcarrald Arch, a long wavelength upper plate topographic feature which has been suggested to be a consequence of ridge subduction. When the slab steepens inboard of the flat slab region, it does so at a very steep (~70°) angle. The transition from the Peruvian flat slab to the more normally dipping slab south of 16°S below Bolivia is characterized by an abrupt bending of the slab anomaly in the mantle in response to the shift from flat to normal subduction. The slab anomaly appears to be intact south of the Nazca Ridge with no evidence for tearing of the slab in response to the abrupt change in slab dip. A potential tear in the slab is inferred from an observed offset in the slab anomaly north of the Nazca Ridge extending subparallel to the ridge axis between 130 and 300 km depth. A high amplitude (-5-6%) slow S-wave velocity anomaly is observed below the projection of the Nazca Ridge. This anomaly appears to be laterally confined to the mantle directly below projection of the Nazca Ridge but descends to ~300 km depth in the mantle. This sub-slab slow anomaly may correlate with vertical mantle flow induced by movement of material through the inferred tear in the slab north of the Nazca Ridge or alternately may represent a long-lived feature of the sub-slab mantle possibly associated with the development of the Nazca Ridge at the Easter Island hot spot.

The P and S wave velocity structure of the mantle beneath eastern Africa and the African superplume anomaly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulibo, Gabriel D.; Nyblade, Andrew A.

2013-08-01

P and S relative arrival time residuals from teleseismic earthquakes recorded on over 60 temporary AfricaArray broadband seismic stations deployed in Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia between 2007 and 2011 have been inverted, together with relative arrival time residuals from earthquakes recorded by previous deployments, for a tomographic image of mantle wave speed variations extending to a depth of 1200 km beneath eastern Africa. The image shows a low-wave speed anomaly (LWA) well developed at shallow depths (100-200 km) beneath the Eastern and Western branches of the Cenozoic East African rift system and northwestern Zambia, and a fast wave speed anomaly at depths ≤ 350 km beneath the central and northern parts of the East African Plateau and the eastern and central parts of Zambia. At depths ≥350 km the LWA is most prominent under the central and southern parts of the East African Plateau and dips to the southwest beneath northern Zambia, extending to a depth of at least 900 km. The amplitude of the LWA is consistent with a ˜150-300 K thermal perturbation, and its depth extent indicates that the African superplume, originally identified as a lower mantle anomaly, is likely a whole mantle structure. A superplume extending from the core-mantle boundary to the surface implies an origin for the Cenozoic extension, volcanism, and plateau uplift in eastern Africa rooted in the dynamics of the lower mantle.

Study on 3-D velocity structure of crust and upper mantle in Sichuan-yunnan region, China

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, C.; Mooney, W.D.; Wang, X.; Wu, J.; Lou, H.; Wang, F.

2002-01-01

Based on the first arrival P and S data of 4 625 regional earthquakes recorded at 174 stations dispersed in the Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces, the 3-D velocity structure of crust and upper mantle in the region is determined, incorporating with previous deep geophysical data. In the upper crust, a positive anomaly velocity zone exists in the Sichuan basin, whereas a negative anomaly velocity zone exists in the western Sichuan plateau. The boundary between the positive and negative anomaly zones is the Longmenshan fault zone. The images of lower crust and upper mantle in the Longmenshan fault, Xianshuihe fault, Honghe fault and others appear the characteristic of tectonic boundary, indicating that the faults litely penetrate the Moho discontinuity. The negative velocity anomalies at the depth of 50 km in the Tengchong volcanic area and the Panxi tectonic zone appear to be associated with the temperature and composition variations in the upper mantle. The overall features of the crustal and the upper mantle structures in the Sichuan-Yunnan region are the lower average velocity in both crust and uppermost mantle, the large crustal thickness variations, and the existence of high conductivity layer in the crust or/and upper mantle, and higher geothermal value. All these features are closely related to the collision between the Indian and the Asian plates. The crustal velocity in the Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block generally shows normal.value or positive anomaly, while the negative anomaly exists in the area along the large strike-slip faults as the block boundary. It is conducive to the crustal block side-pressing out along the faults. In the major seismic zones, the seismicity is relative to the negative anomaly velocity. Most strong earthquakes occurred in the upper-mid crust with positive anomaly or normal velocity, where the negative anomaly zone generally exists below.

Shear waves in lithosphere studies on the territory of the U.S.S.R.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alekseev, A. S.; Egorkin, A. V.; Pavlenkova, N. I.

1988-11-01

Thousands of kilometers of DSS profiles were compiled with three-component stations in the U.S.S.R. The results showed that the usual shots in holes or water basins normally create not only P-waves but shear waves as well. The most favourable condition for their generation is the presence of a sharp seismic boundary near the source, for example, the basement surface. The S-wave field, as a rule, contains all the types of reflected and refracted waves that are found in the P-field. The difference is in lower frequencies (they are lower by one third), somewhat higher intensity, and greater variability of amplitudes of shear waves. When recording the S-waves, the major information is obtained from the velocity relation VP/ VS = γ with depth and laterally. It reveals that three major factors are affecting this relation: the degree of rock fissuring, the composition of rocks and the temperatures at depth. Reduction of fissuring with depth i.e. with greater distances from the source, results in an overall drop of γ. As the composition of the uppermost crust changes (the Urals), γ increases in blocks composed of basic rocks. This value shows little changes on the Baltic and Ukrainian shields. On the Siberian platform, γ first increases with depth from 1.71 up to 1.76, probably, due to the dilatancy effect, and then it decreases to values less than 1.7 in the lower crust and upper mantle. In Western Siberia γ grows with depth reaching 1.79 in the lower crust; it is somewhat reduced in the mantle but still above 1.7. This can be ascribed apparently to a higher temperature regime of the lower crust in Western Siberia. In many regions a splitting of the shear waves of different polarization is observed due to velocity anisotropy. This was found for the first (refracted) waves in the Urals and for reflected waves from the M-boundary on the Siberian platform. In both cases anisotropy is associated with the crust. On the Ukrainian and Baltic shields the difference in the velocities of SH and SV-waves was not recorded.

The Origin and Mantle Dynamics of Quaternary Intraplate Volcanism in Northeast China From Joint Inversion of Surface Wave and Body Wave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Zhen; Wang, Kai; Yang, Yingjie; Tang, Youcai; John Chen, Y.; Hung, Shu-Huei

2018-03-01

We present a 3-D model of NE China by joint inversion of body and surface waves. The joint inversion significantly improves the resolution at shallow depths compared with body wave tomography alone and provides seismic evidence for the origin of Quaternary volcanism in NE China. Our model reveals that the mantle upwelling beneath the Changbaishan volcano originates from the transition zone and extends up to 60 km, and spreads at the base of the lithosphere with the upwelling head 5 times wider than the raising tail in the lower upper mantle. However, low velocities beneath the Halaha and Abaga volcanoes in the Xingmeng belt are confined to depths shallower than 150 km, suggesting that magmatism in the Xingmeng belt is more likely caused by localized asthenospheric upwelling at shallow depths rather than from the common deep source. A small-scale sublithospheric mantle convection may control the spatial and temporal distribution of Quaternary magmatism in NE China; that is, the upwelling beneath the Changbaishan volcano triggers the downwelling beneath the southern Songliao basin, where the high velocity imaged extends to 300 km. The downwelling may further induce localized upwelling in the surrounding areas, such as the Halaha and Abaga volcanoes. Thanks to the joint constraints from both surface and body waves, we can estimate the dimension of the convection cell. The convection cell is located between 42°N and 45°N, spreads around 500 km in the W-E direction measured from the distance between centers of downwelling and upwelling, and extends to 300 km vertically.

3D modeling of magnetotelluric data unraveling the tectonic setting and sources of magmatism in the northeastern corner of Borborema Province, NE Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padilha, A. L.; Vitorello, I.; Padua, M. B.; Batista, J. C.; Fuck, R. A.

2017-12-01

The Borborema Province in northeast Brazil is a complex orogenic system formed by crustal blocks of different ages, origin and evolution amalgamated during the West Gondwana convergence in late Neoproterozoic-early Phanerozoic Brasiliano Orogeny. We discuss here new magnetotelluric (MT) data collected along four linear profiles crisscrossing the northeastern corner of the province to assess its deep electrical resistivity structure. Dimensionality analysis showed that a 3D electrical structure predominates in the subsurface and thus the data were modeled by a 3D MT data inversion scheme. The modeling revealed several subvertical discontinuities, with significant lateral contrast in the overall geoelectric structure, down to upper mantle depths. A major conductivity anomaly is registered in the crust beneath Neoproterozoic supracrustal rocks (Serido Group) and this anomaly deepens to upper mantle depths in the northwest direction below a zone of Paleoproterozoic plutons (Caico Complex). It has been suggested that the Serido Group was originally initiated as a sedimentary basin developed upon a Paleoproterozoic basement during a Neoproterozoic extension event related to a collisional foredeep of a south-dipping subduction slab, contrary to our northwest-dipping conductivity vergence. In case of the Caico Complex, because of the petrogenesis of its orthogneisses that indicates partial melting of a metasomatically enriched spinel-to garnet-bearing lherzolite with adakitic features, we also propose a subduction zone environment for its original magmatism. Considering the tenuous evidence indicating that this conductive anomaly could extend down into the upper mantle in the same region where teleseismic tomography register an attenuation of P waves, it can be concluded that this zone could also be the source of the metasomatic fluids and minerals observed along north-south Mesozoic volcanic plugs and flows of alkaline rocks and alkali basalts (Macau-Queimadas belt). In contrast to the general pattern in several parts of the province exhibiting a multitude of resistive and conductive zones marking the crust and upper mantle, an elongated resistive cratonic-like keel in the WSW-ENE direction is observed along the southeastern side of the study area.

Evidence for strong lateral seismic velocity variation in the lower crust and upper mantle beneath the California margin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lai, Voon; Graves, Robert; Wei, Shengji; Helmberger, Don

2017-01-01

Regional seismograms from earthquakes in Northern California show a systematic difference in arrival times across Southern California where long period (30–50 seconds) SH waves arrive up to 15 seconds earlier at stations near the coast compared with sites towards the east at similar epicentral distances. We attribute this time difference to heterogeneity of the velocity structure at the crust-mantle interface beneath the California margin. To model these observations, we propose a fast seismic layer, with thickness growing westward from the San Andreas along with a thicker and slower continental crust to the east. Synthetics generated from such a model are able to match the observed timing of SH waveforms better than existing 3D models. The presence of a strong upper mantle buttressed against a weaker crust has a major influence in how the boundary between the Pacific plate and North American plate deforms and may explain the observed asymmetric strain rate across the boundary.

Finite-Frequency Seismic Imaging of Upper-Mantle Velocity Structures Beneath the South China Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qu, P.; Chen, Y. J.; Yu, Y.

2017-12-01

South China Continent is major formed from the Paleo-South China plate. The continent has experienced complicated tectonic history after Neoproterozoic. Previous studies suggested some possible model for the collision between South China Continent and North China Continent. Body wave tomography and surface wave tomography are widely used to inverse upper mantle velocity structure. In our study, finite frequency tomography were carried on to get explanation more correctly. We gathered nearly 60000 pieces of teleseismic event records by 166 broad band seismic stations with Mw > 5.5. Here sensitive kernel of ak135 velocity structure was calculated, which is based on Born approximation, and then we applied multi-channel cross-correlation to pick arrival time difference under 3 frequency band. Combining with crust thickness correct from receiver function, we solve the inversion matrix by LSQR method, and get accurate upper mantle structure of P, S velocity. For more accurate results, we apply a method to calculate Vp/Vs ratio, to help to verify the velocity anomaly. The result in this research shows: 1. A strong velocity anomaly exists in the northern of South China Continent, in an area 31°N between 112°-118°E. The anomaly is about . We suggest that, this anomaly is related to the collision from North China Continent. It implies the collision underthrusted to southward. 2. A clearly slow velocity anomaly exists in the northern of Cathaysia block. This low velocity anomaly exist on the boundary of Yangtz block and Cathysian block, it is related to the left over of block collision in early phanerozoic. 3. We recognized some little velocity anomaly exit in the research area. Comparing these velocity anomaly with U-Pb zircon ages, we suggest complicated orogenesis in Phanerozoic is the cause of the formation of these little anomaly. The result in our study support the collision model, which shows the underthrust direction is southward, on the south of Qinling-Dabie Orogen. The anomaly mass is larger than the composite orogenic in Yangtze block.

Sublithospheric flows in the mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trifonov, V. G.; Sokolov, S. Yu.

2017-11-01

The estimated rates of upper mantle sublithospheric flows in the Hawaii-Emperor Range and Ethiopia-Arabia-Caucasus systems are reported. In the Hawaii-Emperor Range system, calculation is based on motion of the asthenospheric flow and the plate moved by it over the branch of the Central Pacific plume. The travel rate has been determined based on the position of variably aged volcanoes (up to 76 Ma) with respect to the active Kilauea Volcano. As for the Ethiopia-Arabia-Caucasus system, the age of volcanic eruptions (55-2.8 Ma) has been used to estimate the asthenospheric flow from the Ethiopian-Afar superplume in the northern bearing lines. Both systems are characterized by variations in a rate of the upper mantle flows in different epochs from 4 to 12 cm/yr, about 8 cm/yr on average. Analysis of the global seismic tomographic data has made it possible to reveal rock volumes with higher seismic wave velocities under ancient cratons; rocks reach a depth of more than 2000 km and are interpreted as detached fragments of the thickened continental lithosphere. Such volumes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were submerged at an average velocity of 0.9-1.0 cm/yr along with its opening. The estimated rates of the mantle flows clarify the deformation properties of the mantle and regulate the numerical models of mantle convection.

Finite frequency P-wave traveltime measurements on ocean bottom seismometers and hydrophones in the western Indian Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsekhmistrenko, Maria; Sigloch, Karin; Hosseini, Kasra; Barruol, Guilhem

2016-04-01

From 2011 to 2014, the RHUM-RUM project (Reunion Hotspot Upper Mantle - Reunions Unterer Mantel) instrumented a 2000x2000km2 area of Indian Ocean seafloor, islands and Madagascar with broadband seismometers and hydrophones. The central component was a 13-month deployment of 57 German and French Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) in 2300-5600 m depth. This was supplemented by 2-3 year deployments of 37 island stations on Reunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues, the southern Seychelles, the Iles Eparses and southern Madagascar. Two partner projects contributed another 30+ stations on Madagascar. Our ultimate objective is multifrequency waveform tomography of the entire mantle column beneath the Reunion hotspot. Ideally we would use all passbands that efficiently transmit body waves but this meets practical limits in the noise characteristics of ocean-bottom recordings in particular. Here we present the preliminary data set of frequency-dependent P-wave traveltime measurements on seismometers and hydrophones, obtained by cross-correlation of observed with predicted waveforms. The latter are synthesized from fully numerical Green's functions and carefully estimated, broadband source time functions. More than 200 teleseismic events during the 13-month long deployment yielded usable P-waveform measurements. We present our methods and discuss data yield and quality of ocean-bottom versus land seismometers, and of OBS versus broadband hydrophones. Above and below the microseismic noise band, data yields are higher than within it, especially for OBS. The 48 German OBS, equipped with Guralp 60 s sensors, were afflicted by relatively high self-noise compared to the 9 French instruments equipped with Nanometrics Trillium 240 s sensors. The HighTechInc (model HTI-01 and HTI-04-PCA/ULF) hydrophones (100 s corner period) functioned particularly reliably but their waveforms are relatively more challenging to model due to reverberations in the water column. We obtain ~15000 combined cross-correlations measurements that should be usable in multifrequency P-wave tomography, in passbands between 30 s and 2.7 s dominant period.

Shear wave reflectivity imaging of the Nazca-South America subduction zone: Stagnant slab in the mantle transition zone?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Contenti, Sean; Gu, Yu Jeffrey; Ökeler, Ahmet; Sacchi, Mauricio D.

2012-01-01

In this study we utilize over 5000 SS waveforms to investigate the high-resolution mantle reflectivity structure down to 1200 km beneath the South American convergent margin. Our results indicate that the dynamics of the Nazca subduction are more complex than previously suggested. The 410- and 660-km seismic discontinuities beneath the Pacific Ocean and Amazonian Shield exhibit limited lateral depth variations, but their depths vary substantially in the vicinity of the subducting Nazca plate. The reflection amplitude of the 410-km discontinuity is greatly diminished in a ˜1300-km wide region in the back-arc of the subducting plate, which is likely associated with a compositional heterogeneity on top of the upper mantle transition zone. The underlying 660-km discontinuity is strongly depressed, showing localized depth and amplitude variations both within and to the east of the Wadati-Benioff zone. The width of this anomalous zone (˜1000 km) far exceeds that of the high-velocity slab structure and suggesting significant slab deformation within the transition zone. The shape of the 660-km discontinuity and the presence of lower mantle reflectivity imply both stagnation and penetration are possible as the descending Nazca slab impinges upon the base of the upper mantle.

Crustal structure of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica: Implications for its tectonic evolution from a geophysical dataset.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalberg, Thomas; Gohl, Karsten

2013-04-01

The Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica is a centrepiece in understanding the history of the New Zealand - Antarctica breakup. This region plays a key role in plate kinematic reconstruction of the southern Pacific from the collision of the Hikurangi Plateau with the Gondwana subduction margin to the evolution of the West Antarctic Rift System. During two RV Polarstern cruises in 2006 and 2010, a large geophysical dataset was collected consisting of seismic refraction and reflection profiles, shipborne gravity and helicopter magnetic measurements. The data provide constraints on the crustal architecture, the structural evolution and the tectonic block formation during and after the Cretaceous continental breakup. We present two continental rise-to-shelf P-wave velocity models which were derived from forward travel-time modelling of ocean bottom hydrophone recordings which provide an insight into the crustal and upper mantle architecture beneath the Amundsen Sea Embayment for the first time. The sedimentary sequences and the basement were constrained by seismic reflection data. A 2-D density-depth model supports and complements the P-wave modelling. Observed P-wave velocities show 10 to 14 km thick crust of the continental rise and up to 28 km thick crust beneath the middle and inner shelf. The crust of the continental rise is characterized by a small gradient in thickness. Including horst and graben structures this can be associated with wide-mode rifting. A high velocity zone with velocities ranging between 7.1 and 7.6 km/s indicate magmatic underplating of variable thickness along the entire transect. We classify this margin as one of volcanic type rather than magma poor because of the high-velocity zone and seaward dipping reflectors observed from the seismic reflection data. We discuss the possibility of a serpentinized upper mantle caused by seawater penetration at the Marie Byrd Seamounts. The crustal structure, distinct zones in potential field anomalies indicate several phases of fully developed and failed rift systems and a possible branch of the West Antarctic Rift System in the Amundsen Sea Embayment.

High velocity anomaly beneath the Deccan volcanic province: Evidence from seismic tomography

USGS Publications Warehouse

Iyer, H.M.; Gaur, V.K.; Rai, S.S.; Ramesh, D.S.; Rao, C.V.R.; Srinagesh, D.; Suryaprakasam, K.

1989-01-01

Analysis of teleseismic P-wave residuals observed at 15 seismograph stations operated in the Deccan volcanic province (DVP) in west central India points to the existence of a large, deep anomalous region in the upper mantle where the velocity is a few per cent higher than in the surrounding region. The seismic stations were operated in three deployments together with a reference station on precambrian granite at Hyderabad and another common station at Poona. The first group of stations lay along a west-northwesterly profile from Hyderabad through Poona to Bhatsa. The second group roughly formed an L-shaped profile from Poona to Hyderabad through Dharwar and Hospet. The third group of stations lay along a northwesterly profile from Hyderabad to Dhule through Aurangabad and Latur. Relative residuals computed with respect to Hyderabad at all the stations showed two basic features: a large almost linear variation from approximately +1s for teleseisms from the north to-1s for those from the southeast at the western stations, and persistance of the pattern with diminishing magnitudes towards the east. Preliminary ray-plotting and three-dimensional inversion of the P-wave residual data delineate the presence of a 600 km long approximately N-S trending anomalous region of high velocity (1-4% contrast) from a depth of about 100 km in the upper mantle encompassing almost the whole width of the DVP. Inversion of P-wave relative residuals reveal the existence of two prominent features beneath the DVP. The first is a thick high velocity zone (1-4% faster) extending from a depth of about 100 km directly beneath most of the DVP. The second feature is a prominent low velocity region which coincides with the westernmost part of the DVP. A possible explanation for the observed coherent high velocity anomaly is that it forms the root of the lithosphere which coherently translates with the continents during plate motions, an architecture characteristic of precambrian shields. The low velocity zone appears to be related to the rift systems (anomaly 28, 65 Ma) which provided the channel for the outpouring of Deccan basalts at the close of the Cretaceous period. ?? 1989 Indian Academy of Sciences.

Application of normal mode theory to seismic source and structure problems: Seismic investigations of upper mantle lateral heterogeneity. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Okal, E. A.

1978-01-01

The theory of the normal modes of the earth is investigated and used to build synthetic seismograms in order to solve source and structural problems. A study is made of the physical properties of spheroidal modes leading to a rational classification. Two problems addressed are the observability of deep isotropic seismic sources and the investigation of the physical properties of the earth in the neighborhood of the Core-Mantle boundary, using SH waves diffracted at the core's surface. Data sets of seismic body and surface waves are used in a search for possible deep lateral heterogeneities in the mantle. In both cases, it is found that seismic data do not require structural differences between oceans and continents to extend deeper than 250 km. In general, differences between oceans and continents are found to be on the same order of magnitude as the intrinsic lateral heterogeneity in the oceanic plate brought about by the aging of the oceanic lithosphere.

Seismic evidence for widespread serpentinized forearc upper mantle along the Cascadia margin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brocher, T.M.; Parsons, T.; Trehu, A.M.; Snelson, C.M.; Fisher, M.A.

2003-01-01

Petrologic models suggest that dehydration and metamorphism of subducting slabs release water that serpentinizes the overlying forearc mantle. To test these models, we use the results of controlled-source seismic surveys and earthquake tomography to map the upper mantle along the Cascadia margin forearc. We find anomalously low upper-mantle velocities and/or weak wide-angle reflections from the top of the upper mantle in a narrow region along the margin, compatible with recent teleseismic studies and indicative of a serpentinized upper mantle. The existence of a hydrated forearc upper-mantle wedge in Cascadia has important geological and geophysical implications. For example, shearing within the upper mantle, inferred from seismic reflectivity and consistent with its serpentinite rheology, may occur during aseismic slow slip events on the megathrust. In addition, progressive dehydration of the hydrated mantle wedge south of the Mendocino triple junction may enhance the effects of a slap gap during the evolution of the California margin.

Velocity structure of the mantle transition zone beneath the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Guohui; Bai, Ling; Zhou, Yuanze; Wang, Xiaoran; Cui, Qinghui

2017-11-01

P-wave triplications related to the 410 km discontinuity (the 410) were clearly observed from the vertical component seismograms of three intermediate-depth earthquakes that occurred in the Indo-Burma Subduction Zone (IBSZ) and were recorded by the Chinese Digital Seismic Network (CDSN). By matching the observed P-wave triplications with synthetics through a grid search, we obtained the best-fit models for four azimuthal profiles (I-IV from north to south) to constrain the P-wave velocity structure near the 410 beneath the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). A ubiquitous low-velocity layer (LVL) resides atop the mantle transition zone (MTZ). The LVL is 25 to 40 km thick, with a P-wave velocity decrement ranging from approximately - 5.3% to - 3.6% related to the standard Earth model IASP91. An abrupt transition in the velocity decrement of the LVL was observed between profiles II and III. We postulate that the mantle structure beneath the southeastern margin of the TP is primarily controlled by the southeastern extrusion of the TP to the north combined with the eastward subduction of the Indian plate to the south, but not affected by the Emeishan mantle plume. We attribute the LVL to the partial melting induced by water and/or other volatiles released from the subducted Indian plate and the stagnant Pacific plate, but not from the upwelling or the remnants of the Emeishan mantle plume. A high-velocity anomaly ranging from approximately 1.0% to 1.5% was also detected at a depth of 542 to 600 km, providing additional evidence for the remnants of the subducted Pacific plate within the MTZ.

Structure of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system in the vicinity of the Tristan da Cunha hot spot as seen by surface waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonadio, Raffaele; Geissler, Wolfram H.; Ravenna, Matteo; Lebedev, Sergei; Celli, Nicolas L.; Jokat, Wilfried; Jegen, Marion; Sens-Schönfelder, Christoph; Baba, Kiyoshi

2017-04-01

Tristan da Cunha is a volcanic island located above a hotspot in the South Atlantic. The deep mantle plume origin of the hotspot volcanism at the island is supported by anomalous geochemical data (Rohde et al., 2013 [1]) and global seismological evidences (French and Romanovicz, 2015 [2]). However, until recently, due to lack of local geophysical data in the South Atlantic and especially around Tristan da Cunha, the existence of a plume has not yet been confirmed. Therefore, an Ocean Bottom Seismometer experiment was carried out in 2012 and 2013 in the vicinity of the archipelago, with the aim of obtaining geophysical data that may help to get some more detailed insights into the structure of the upper mantle, possibly confirming the existence of a plume. In this work we study the shear wave velocity structure of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system beneath the Island. Rayleigh surface wave phase velocity dispersion curves have been obtained using a recent powerful implementation of the inter-station cross-correlation method (Meier et al., 2004 [3]; Soomro et al., 2016 [4]). The measured dispersion curves are used to invert for the 1D shear wave velocity structure beneath the study area and to obtain phase velocity tomographic maps. Our results show a pronounced low shear wave velocity anomaly between 70 and 120 km depth beneath the area; the lid shows high velocity, suggesting a cold, depleted and dehydrated shallow lithosphere, while the deeper lithosphere shows a velocity structure similar to young or rejuvenated Pacific oceanic lithosphere (Laske et al., 2011 [5]; Goes et al., 2012 [6]). Below the base of the lithosphere, shear wave velocities appear to be low, suggesting thermal effects and partial melting (as confirmed by petrological data). Decreasing velocities within the lithosphere south-westward reflect probably a thermal imprint of an underlying mantle plume. References [1] J.K. Rohde, P. van den Bogaard, K. Hoernle, F. Hauff, R. Werner, Evidence for an age progression along the Tristan-Gough volcanic track from new 40Ar/ 39Ar ages on phenocryst phases, Tectonophysics, Volume 604, p. 60-71 (2013). [2] S. French and B. Romanowicz, Broad plumes rooted at the base of the Earth's mantle beneath major hotspots, Nature, 525(7567), 95-99 (2015). [3] T. Meier, K. Dietrich, B. Stockhert and H. Harjes, One-dimensional models of shear wave velocity for the eastern Mediterranean obtained from the inversion of Rayleigh wave phase velocities and tectonic implications, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 249(3), 415-424 (2004). [4] R.A. Soomro, C. Weidle, L. Cristiano, S. Lebedev, T. Meier and PASSEQ Working Group, Phase velocities of Rayleigh and Love waves in central and northern Europe from automated, broad-band, interstation measurements, Geophys. J. Int. (2016) 204, 517-534. [5] G. Laske, A. Markee, J.A. Orcutt, C.J. Wolfe, J.A. Collins and S.C. Solomon, R.S. Detrick, D. Bercovici and E.H. Hauri, Asymmetric shallow mantle structure beneath the Hawaiian Swell-evidence from Rayleigh waves recorded by the PLUME network, Geophys. J. Int. (2011) 187, 1725-1742. [6] S. Goes, J. Armitage, N. Harmon, H. Smith and R. Huismans, Low seismic velocities below mid-ocean ridges: Attenuation versus melt retention, Journal of geophysical research, Vol. 117, B12403, (2012).

A Study of the Free Oscillations of the Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

MacDonald, Gordon J. F.; Ness, Norman F.

1961-01-01

Published observations on the toroidal oscillations of the earth are critically reviewed. A supplementary analysis of the record obtained by the Lamont strain seismometer is presented. Eleven toroidal modes are identified, and it is concluded that the periods are known to within 1 per cent. A perturbation scheme involving the ratio of the angular velocity of the earth to the resonant frequency is used in calculating the effects due to the rotation of the earth on the resonant frequency. The free oscillations are viewed as a superposition of traveling waves. In a nonrotating system two traveling waves combine to produce a stationary standing wave. In a rotating system, the rotation distinguishes between waves that travel in the direction of rotation and those that travel in the opposite direction. Rotation removes a degeneracy and results in a splitting of a spectral peak of order l into 2 times l plus 1 peaks. The fractional displacement in frequency for the lowest-order toroidal oscillations is 1/206 and of the same order as the Q of the peak, so that splitting will probably not be observed in the toroidal oscillations. Viewed locally, rotation causes a particle to precess about a direction parallel to the axis of rotation. This precession will cause a variation of amplitude with time if the motion is recorded by an instrument with an anisotropic response function. Care is therefore needed in studying the time decay of a given spectral peak. Rotation also couples the normal coordinates so that a motion that is initially purely horizontal will develop a vertical component. It is expected that vertical seismometers should record particle motion with the toroidal frequencies. The perturbations of the toroidal oscillations due to core-mantle interaction are treated in detail. An exact expression is obtained for the rate of energy dissipated by a finitely conducting plate oscillating across a magnetic field. The energy dissipated at the core-mantle boundary due to viscous and hydromagnetic coupling is shown to be insignificant as compared with the energy dissipated within the mantle. The toroidal magnetic field leaking into the lower mantle combines with the dipole field, resulting in a stress on the mantle, tending to stiffen the lower boundary. The stress is of sufficient magnitude to produce a displacement toward higher frequency in the lower-order toroidal oscillations. Observations on the (sub 0) T (sub 2) oscillations lead to an estimate of the toroidal magnetic field in the lower mantle. A calculation of elastic energy in the low-order oscillations suggests a value of 10 (sup 18) ergs per cycles per hour for the energy density at low frequencies in the Chilean earthquake. Each mode of oscillation has a characteristic radial distribution of elastic energy associated with it. This distribution determines which parts of the earth contribute most heavily in determining a particular resonant frequency. The distribution of energy for the lower 17 modes for a homogeneous and a Gutenberg model earth is calculated. The resonant frequencies for models of the earth based on the Gutenberg and Lehmann distribution of elastic properties are presented. It is shown that the Gutenberg model earth fits the observations more closely than the Lehmann model and that a slight alteration of the Gutenberg model gives a significantly better fit to the observations. The alteration involves a lower shear-wave velocity in the lower mantle while the Gutenberg velocity distribution is maintained in the upper mantle. Various studies of the earth's oscillations coupled with surface-wave investigations substantiate Gutenberg's hypothesis of a layer of low velocity in the upper mantle. The physical conditions required for the formation of a region of low velocity are examined in detail. The results confirm Birch's earlier statement that a temperature gradient in excess of 6 degrees to 7 degrees per kilometer is needed to produce a decrease in velocity. The low-velocity layer does not require that the temperature approach or exceed the melting temperature. If tile upper mantle is homogeneous, the region of lower velocity should commence at the base of the crust and extend to 150 kilometers under the oceans and about 100 kilometers under continental regions. The distribution of thermal conductivity and radioactivity consistent with the low-velocity layer is also considered.

Inversion for Double-Layer Anisotropy in the Mantle Beneath the Middle America and Izu-Bonin Subduction Zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuo, B. Y.

2017-12-01

We measured shear wave splitting for the intraslab events in the Middle America and Izu-Bonin subduction zones recorded at Pacific stations to infer the anisotropic structure in the subslab mantle. The receiver-side anisotropy is accounted for by considering both azimuthal anisotropy determined by SKS splitting and radial anisotropy given in global tomographic model, although the latter does not change the overall pattern of subslab anisotropy. By removing the anisotropy effects from both receiver and source sides, the initial polarization directions (p) of the shear waves used were recovered, most of which are in reasonable agreement with that predicted form the CMT solutions. For both subduction zones, the polarization-splitting plots strongly suggest the presence of two layers of anisotropy. To constrain the two-layer model, we perform inversions which minimize the misfit in both the splitting parameters and p. In the MASZ, the best model contains an upper layer with the fast direction in parallel with the absolute plate motion of the Cocos plate and a lower layer 40-60 degree clockwise from the APM. The delay times are 1.5 and 1.9 s respectively. The interference of the double layer produced dts in excess of 3 s at a certain range of p. The SKS splitting were also inverted for a two-layer model, yielding similar splitting characters and the clockwise rotation. We are investigating why this rotation takes place and how this observation is related to the dynamics of the asthenosphere.

Seismicity and structure of Nazca Plate subduction zone in southern Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, H.; Kim, Y.; Clayton, R. W.; Thurber, C. H.

2016-12-01

We define subducting plate geometries in the Nazca subduction zone by (re)locating intra-slab earthquakes in southern Peru (2-18°S) and taking previously published converted phase analysis results, to clarify the slab geometry and inferred relationships to the seismicity. We also provide both P- and S-wave velocities of the subducting Nazca Plate and mantle wedge portions close to the slab using double-difference tomography (Zhang and Thurber, 2003) to understand upper plate volcanism and subduction process. A total of 492 regional earthquakes from August 2008 to February 2013 recorded from the dense seismic array (PeruSE, 2013) are selected for the relocation and tomography. The relocated seismicity shows a smooth contortion in the slab-dip transition zone for 400 km between the shallow (25°)-to-flat dipping interface in the north and 40°-dipping interface in the south. We find a significant slab-dip difference (up to 10°) between our results and previously published slab models along the profile region sampling the normal-dip slab at depth (>100 km). Robust features in both P- and S-wave tomography inversions are dipping low-velocity slabs down to 100 km transitioning to higher-velocities at 100-140 km in both flat slab and dipping slab regions. Differences in the velocities of the mantle wedge between the two regions may indicate different hydration states in the wedge.

Crustal and uppermost mantle S-wave velocity structure beneath the Japanese islands from seismic ambient noise tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Zhi; Gao, Xing; Shi, Heng; Wang, Weiming

2013-04-01

In this study, the crustal and uppermost mantle shear wave velocities beneath the Japanese islands have been determined by inversion from seismic ambient noise tomography using data recorded at 75 Full Range Seismograph Network of Japan broad-band seismic stations, which are uniformly distributed across the Japanese islands. By cross-correlating 2 yr of vertical component seismic ambient noise recordings, we are able to extract Rayleigh wave empirical Green's functions, which are subsequently used to measure phase velocity dispersion in the period band of 6-50 s. The dispersion data are then inverted to yield 2-D tomographic phase velocity maps and 3-D shear wave velocity models. Our results show that the velocity variations at short periods (˜10 s), or in the uppermost crust, correlate well with the major known surface geological and tectonic features. In particular, the distribution of low-velocity anomalies shows good spatial correlation with active faults, volcanoes and terrains of sediment exposure, whereas the high-velocity anomalies are mainly associated with the mountain ranges. We also observe that large upper crustal earthquakes (5.0 ≤ M ≤ 8.0, depth ≤ 25 km) mainly occurred in low-velocity anomalies or along the boundary between low- and high-velocity anomalies, suggesting that large upper crustal earthquakes do not strike randomly or uniformly; rather they are inclined to nucleate within or adjacent to low-velocity areas.

Trench-parallel variations in Pacific and Indo-Australian crustal velocity structure due to Louisville Ridge seamount subduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stratford, W. R.; Knight, T. P.; Peirce, C.; Watts, A. B.; Grevemeyer, I.; Paulatto, M.; Bassett, D.; Hunter, J.; Kalnins, L. M.

2012-12-01

Variations in trench and forearc morphology, and lithospheric velocity structure are observed where the Louisville Ridge seamount chain subducts at the Tonga-Kermadec Trench. Subduction of these seamounts has affected arc and back-arc processes along the trench for the last 5 Myr. High subduction rates (80 mm/yr in the north, 55 mm/yr in the south), a fast southwards migrating collision zone (~180 km/myr), and the obliquity of the subducting plate and the seamount chain to the trench, make this an ideal location to study the effects of seamount subduction on lithospheric structure. The "before and after" subduction regions have been targeted by several large-scale geophysical projects in recent years; the most recent being the R/V Sonne cruise SO215 in 2011. The crust and upper mantle velocity structure observed in profiles along strike of the seamount chain and perpendicular to the trench from this study, are compared to a similar profile from SO195, recorded ~100 km to the north. The affects of the passage of the seamounts through the subduction system are indicated by velocity anomalies in the crust and mantle of the overriding plate. Preliminary results indicate that in the present collision zone, mantle velocities (Pn) are reduced by ~5%. Around 100 km to the north, where seamounts are inferred to have subducted ~1 Myr ago, a reduction of 7% in mantle P-wave velocity is observed. The width of the trench slope and elevation of the forearc also vary along strike. At the collision zone a >100 km wide collapse region of kilometre-scale block faults comprise the trench slope, while the forearc is elevated. The elevated forearc has a 5 km think upper crust with a Vp of 2.5-5.5 km/s and the collapse zone also has upper crustal velocities as low as 2.5 km/s. To the east in the Pacific Plate, lower P-wave velocities are also observed and attributed to serpentinization due to deep fracturing in the outer trench high. Large bending faults permeate the crust and the Osbourn Seamount, currently on the verge of subduction, is fractured stepwise down into the trench. Pn velocities in the hinge zone of the Pacific Plate are as low as 7.3 km/s indicating that fracturing and serpentinization may also extend to sub-crustal depths. Finally, trench-parallel variations in subduction zone velocity structure are used to infer the degree to which seamount subduction has altered the physical state of the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates both pre- and post subduction.

Episodic magmatism and serpentinized mantle exhumation at an ultraslow-spreading centre

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grevemeyer, Ingo; Hayman, Nicholas W.; Peirce, Christine; Schwardt, Michaela; Van Avendonk, Harm J. A.; Dannowski, Anke; Papenberg, Cord

2018-06-01

Mid-ocean ridges spreading at ultraslow rates of less than 20 mm yr-1 can exhume serpentinized mantle to the seafloor, or they can produce magmatic crust. However, seismic imaging of ultraslow-spreading centres has not been able to resolve the abundance of serpentinized mantle exhumation, and instead supports 2 to 5 km of crust. Most seismic crustal thickness estimates reflect the depth at which the 7.1 km s-1 P-wave velocity is exceeded. Yet, the true nature of the oceanic lithosphere is more reliably deduced using the P- to S-wave velocity (Vp/Vs) ratio. Here we report on seismic data acquired along off-axis profiles of older oceanic lithosphere at the ultraslow-spreading Mid-Cayman Spreading Centre. We suggest that high Vp/Vs ratios greater than 1.9 and continuously increasing P-wave velocity, changing from 4 km s-1 at the seafloor to greater than 7.4 km s-1 at 2 to 4 km depth, indicate highly serpentinized peridotite exhumed to the seafloor. Elsewhere, either magmatic crust or serpentinized mantle deformed and uplifted at oceanic core complexes underlies areas of high bathymetry. The Cayman Trough therefore provides a window into mid-ocean ridge dynamics that switch between magma-rich and magma-poor oceanic crustal accretion, including exhumation of serpentinized mantle covering about 25% of the seafloor in this region.

2-dimensional triplicated waveform modeling of the mantle transition zone beneath Northeast Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lai, Y.; Chen, L.; Wang, T.

2017-12-01

The Mantle Transition Zone (MTZ) of Northeast Asia has long been investigated by geoscientists for its critical importance where the subducted Pacific slab is stagnant above the 660km discontinuity, accompanied by complicated mantle processes. Taking advantages of the frequent occurrent deep earthquakes in subduction zone and dense seismic arrays in Northeast China, we successfully constructed the fine-scale P and SH velocity structure of a narrow azimuthal fan area based on 2-Dimensional (2D) triplicated waveform modeling for three deep close earthquakes, in which the triplicated waveforms are very sensitive to MTZ velocity structure in general, particularly the morphology of the stagnant slab in Northeast Asia. In our 2D triplication study, for the first time, we show a quite consistent feature of a high velocity layer for both Vp and Vs with the thickness of 140km and the length of 1200km just atop the 660km discontinuity, the western edge of the stagnant slab intersect with the North-South Gravity Lineament in China and has the subducting age of 30 Ma. Compared with a quite normal Vp, the Shear wave velocity reduction of -0.5% in the slab and -2.5% in the upper MTZ is required to reconcile the SH waves featured by the broad BOD. The high Vp/Vs ratio beneath Northeast Asia may imply a water-rich MTZ with the H2O content of 0.1-0.3 wt%. Particularly, a low velocity anomaly of about 150km wide was detected in the overall high-velocity stagnant slab by both P and SH triplicated waveform modeling, with the velocity anomaly value of -1% and -3%, respectively. The gap/window in the stagnant slab may provide a passage for hot deeper mantle materials to penetrate through the thick slab and feed the surface Changbaishan volcano. We also speculate that the existence of such a gap can be the manifestation of the original heterogeneity in the subducted slab and will further exacerbatethe impending gravitational instability and speed up mantle avalanche.

Uppermost mantle structure beneath eastern China and its surroundings from Pn and Sn tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Weijia; Kennett, B. L. N.

2016-04-01

The Pn and Sn residuals from regional events provide strong constraints on the structure and lithological characteristics of the uppermost mantle beneath eastern China and its surroundings. With the dense Chinese Digital Seismic Network in eastern China, separate Pn and Sn tomographic inversions have been exploited to obtain P and S velocities at a resolution of 2° × 2° or better. The patterns of P velocities are quite consistent with the S velocities at depth of 50 and 60 km, but the amplitude of P wave speed anomalies are a little larger than those of S wave speed. The low P wave speed, high S wave speed, and low Vp/Vs ratio beneath the northern part of Ordos Basin are related to upwelling hot material. Abrupt changes in material properties are indicated from the rapid variations in the Vp/Vs ratio.

Seismic Structure of India from Regional Waveform Matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaur, V.; Maggi, A.; Priestley, K.; Rai, S.

2003-12-01

We use a neighborhood adaptive grid search procedure and reflectivity synthetics to model regional distance range (500-2000~km) seismograms recorded in India and to determine the variation in the crust and uppermost mantle structure across the subcontinent. The portions of the regional waveform which are most influenced by the crust and uppermost mantle structure are the 10-100~s period Pnl and fundamental mode surface waves. We use the adaptive grid search algorithm to match both portions of the seismogram simultaneously. This procedure results in a family of 1-D path average crust and upper mantle velocity and attenuation models whose propagation characteristics closely match those of the real Earth. Our data set currently consist of ˜20 seismograms whose propagation paths are primarily confined to the Ganges Basin in north India and the East Dharwar Craton of south India. The East Dharwar Craton has a simple and uniform structure consisting of a 36+/-2 km thick two layer crust, and an uppermost mantle with a sub-Moho velocity of 4.5~km/s. The structure of northern India is more complicated, with pronounced low velocities in the upper crustal layer due to the large sediment thicknesses in the Ganges basin.

Lithospheric Structure across the Alaskan Cordillera from Surface Waves and Receiver Functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, K. M.; Lin, F. C.

2017-12-01

The long awaited Transportable Array (TA) deployment in Alaska and western Canada is nearing its final deployment stage. With only one more deployment season, most of the TA station locations have been occupied and begun providing data. These TA stations combined with upgraded existing locations have provided enough high-quality data to begin investigating the crustal and upper mantle structure across the entire Alaskan Cordillera. From a tectonic standpoint, many interesting questions remain unanswered. For example, how does the transition from oceanic-oceanic subduction to continental-oceanic normal subduction to continental-oceanic "flat-slab" subduction to strike-slip conservative plate motion affect the deformation/uplift of the overriding plate and mantle geodynamic characteristics? How does the long and completed terrene accretion process partition stress/strain in the crust? On more local scales, are there any significant mid-crustal magmatic systems as observed in other sections of the American Cordillera, and if so, what is there role in uplift and crustal deformation? Our approach to investigating these questions is though surface wave imaging from ambient noise and earthquake generated sources along with Rayleigh wave ellipticity paired with Ps receiver functions. Our preliminary tomography results agree with previous studies but expand the spatial coverage showing additional detail. Our ellipticity results show a heterogeneous but spatially consistent anisotropic shallow crust. Although the complete TA data set has not yet been collected, we have jointly inverted surface waves with receiver functions for a 3-D shear-wave velocity model across the entire Alaskan Cordillera. Key features of our velocity model include a high-velocity feature in the upper mantle associated with the subducting Pacific plate that extends north of the seismicity used to contour the geometry of the slab and mid-crustal low-velocity zones associated with the active volcanics in the Wrangell mountains and along the Aleutian arc.

Bayesian inference of Earth's radial seismic structure from body-wave traveltimes using neural networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Wit, Ralph W. L.; Valentine, Andrew P.; Trampert, Jeannot

2013-10-01

How do body-wave traveltimes constrain the Earth's radial (1-D) seismic structure? Existing 1-D seismological models underpin 3-D seismic tomography and earthquake location algorithms. It is therefore crucial to assess the quality of such 1-D models, yet quantifying uncertainties in seismological models is challenging and thus often ignored. Ideally, quality assessment should be an integral part of the inverse method. Our aim in this study is twofold: (i) we show how to solve a general Bayesian non-linear inverse problem and quantify model uncertainties, and (ii) we investigate the constraint on spherically symmetric P-wave velocity (VP) structure provided by body-wave traveltimes from the EHB bulletin (phases Pn, P, PP and PKP). Our approach is based on artificial neural networks, which are very common in pattern recognition problems and can be used to approximate an arbitrary function. We use a Mixture Density Network to obtain 1-D marginal posterior probability density functions (pdfs), which provide a quantitative description of our knowledge on the individual Earth parameters. No linearization or model damping is required, which allows us to infer a model which is constrained purely by the data. We present 1-D marginal posterior pdfs for the 22 VP parameters and seven discontinuity depths in our model. P-wave velocities in the inner core, outer core and lower mantle are resolved well, with standard deviations of ˜0.2 to 1 per cent with respect to the mean of the posterior pdfs. The maximum likelihoods of VP are in general similar to the corresponding ak135 values, which lie within one or two standard deviations from the posterior means, thus providing an independent validation of ak135 in this part of the radial model. Conversely, the data contain little or no information on P-wave velocity in the D'' layer, the upper mantle and the homogeneous crustal layers. Further, the data do not constrain the depth of the discontinuities in our model. Using additional phases available in the ISC bulletin, such as PcP, PKKP and the converted phases SP and ScP, may enhance the resolvability of these parameters. Finally, we show how the method can be extended to obtain a posterior pdf for a multidimensional model space. This enables us to investigate correlations between model parameters.

Numerical Mantle Convection Models of Crustal Formation in an Oceanic Environment in the Early Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Thienen, P.; van den Berg, A. P.; Vlaar, N. J.

2001-12-01

The generation of basaltic crust in the early Earth by partial melting of mantle rocks, subject to investigation in this study, is thought to be a first step in the creation of proto-continents (consisting largely of felsic material), since partial melting of basaltic material was probably an important source for these more evolved rocks. In the early Archean the earth's upper mantle may have been hotter than today by as much as several hundred degrees centigrade. As a consequence, partial melting in shallow convective upwellings would have produced a layering of basaltic crust and underlying depleted (lherzolitic-harzburgitic) mantle peridotite which is much thicker than found under modern day oceanic ridges. When a basaltic crustal layer becomes sufficiently thick, a phase transition to eclogite may occur in the lower parts, which would cause delamination of this dense crustal layer and recycling of dense eclogite into the upper mantle. This recycling mechanism may have contributed significantly to the early cooling of the earth during the Archean (Vlaar et al., 1994). The delamination mechanism which limits the build-up of a thick basaltic crustal layer is switched off after sufficient cooling of the upper mantle has taken place. We present results of numerical modelling experiments of mantle convection including pressure release partial melting. The model includes a simple approximate melt segregation mechanism and basalt to eclogite phase transition, to account for the dynamic accumulation and recycling of the crust in an upper mantle subject to secular cooling. Finite element methods are used to solve for the viscous flow field and the temperature field, and lagrangian particle tracers are used to represent the evolving composition due to partial melting and accumulation of the basaltic crust. We find that this mechanism creates a basaltic crust of several tens of kilometers thickness in several hundreds of million years. This is accompanied by a cooling of some hundred degrees centigrade. Vlaar, N.J., P.E. van Keken and A.P. van den Berg (1994), Cooling of the Earth in the Archaean: consequences of pressure-release melting in a hotter mantle, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol 121, pp. 1-18

Rayleigh and S wave tomography constraints on subduction termination and lithospheric foundering in central California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jiang, Chengxin; Schmandt, Brandon; Hansen, Steven M.; Dougherty, Sara L.; Clayton, Robert W.; Farrell, Jamie; Lin, Fan-Chi

2018-01-01

The crust and upper mantle structure of central California have been modified by subduction termination, growth of the San Andreas plate boundary fault system, and small-scale upper mantle convection since the early Miocene. Here we investigate the contributions of these processes to the creation of the Isabella Anomaly, which is a high seismic velocity volume in the upper mantle. There are two types of hypotheses for its origin. One is that it is the foundered mafic lower crust and mantle lithosphere of the southern Sierra Nevada batholith. The alternative suggests that it is a fossil slab connected to the Monterey microplate. A dense broadband seismic transect was deployed from the coast to the western Sierra Nevada to fill in the least sampled areas above the Isabella Anomaly, and regional-scale Rayleigh and S wave tomography are used to evaluate the two hypotheses. New shear velocity (Vs) tomography images a high-velocity anomaly beneath coastal California that is sub-horizontal at depths of ∼40–80 km. East of the San Andreas Fault a continuous extension of the high-velocity anomaly dips east and is located beneath the Sierra Nevada at ∼150–200 km depth. The western position of the Isabella Anomaly in the uppermost mantle is inconsistent with earlier interpretations that the Isabella Anomaly is connected to actively foundering foothills lower crust. Based on the new Vs images, we interpret that the Isabella Anomaly is not the dense destabilized root of the Sierra Nevada, but rather a remnant of Miocene subduction termination that is translating north beneath the central San Andreas Fault. Our results support the occurrence of localized lithospheric foundering beneath the high elevation eastern Sierra Nevada, where we find a lower crustal low Vs layer consistent with a small amount of partial melt. The high elevations relative to crust thickness and lower crustal low Vs zone are consistent with geological inferences that lithospheric foundering drove uplift and a ∼3–4 Ma pulse of basaltic magmatism.

Rayleigh and S wave tomography constraints on subduction termination and lithospheric foundering in central California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Chengxin; Schmandt, Brandon; Hansen, Steven M.; Dougherty, Sara L.; Clayton, Robert W.; Farrell, Jamie; Lin, Fan-Chi

2018-04-01

The crust and upper mantle structure of central California have been modified by subduction termination, growth of the San Andreas plate boundary fault system, and small-scale upper mantle convection since the early Miocene. Here we investigate the contributions of these processes to the creation of the Isabella Anomaly, which is a high seismic velocity volume in the upper mantle. There are two types of hypotheses for its origin. One is that it is the foundered mafic lower crust and mantle lithosphere of the southern Sierra Nevada batholith. The alternative suggests that it is a fossil slab connected to the Monterey microplate. A dense broadband seismic transect was deployed from the coast to the western Sierra Nevada to fill in the least sampled areas above the Isabella Anomaly, and regional-scale Rayleigh and S wave tomography are used to evaluate the two hypotheses. New shear velocity (Vs) tomography images a high-velocity anomaly beneath coastal California that is sub-horizontal at depths of ∼40-80 km. East of the San Andreas Fault a continuous extension of the high-velocity anomaly dips east and is located beneath the Sierra Nevada at ∼150-200 km depth. The western position of the Isabella Anomaly in the uppermost mantle is inconsistent with earlier interpretations that the Isabella Anomaly is connected to actively foundering foothills lower crust. Based on the new Vs images, we interpret that the Isabella Anomaly is not the dense destabilized root of the Sierra Nevada, but rather a remnant of Miocene subduction termination that is translating north beneath the central San Andreas Fault. Our results support the occurrence of localized lithospheric foundering beneath the high elevation eastern Sierra Nevada, where we find a lower crustal low Vs layer consistent with a small amount of partial melt. The high elevations relative to crust thickness and lower crustal low Vs zone are consistent with geological inferences that lithospheric foundering drove uplift and a ∼3-4 Ma pulse of basaltic magmatism.

Large-scale trench-perpendicular mantle flow beneath northern Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reiss, M. C.; Rumpker, G.; Woelbern, I.

2017-12-01

We investigate the anisotropic properties of the forearc region of the central Andean margin by analyzing shear-wave splitting from teleseismic and local earthquakes from the Nazca slab. The data stems from the Integrated Plate boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC) located in northern Chile, covering an approximately 120 km wide coastal strip between 17°-25° S with an average station spacing of 60 km. With partly over ten years of data, this data set is uniquely suited to address the long-standing debate about the mantle flow field at the South American margin and in particular whether the flow field beneath the slab is parallel or perpendicular to the trench. Our measurements yield two distinct anisotropic layers. The teleseismic measurements show a change of fast polarizations directions from North to South along the trench ranging from parallel to subparallel to the absolute plate motion and, given the geometry of absolute plate motion and strike of the trench, mostly perpendicular to the trench. Shear-wave splitting from local earthquakes shows fast polarizations roughly aligned trench-parallel but exhibit short-scale variations which are indicative of a relatively shallow source. Comparisons between fast polarization directions and the strike of the local fault systems yield a good agreement. We use forward modelling to test the influence of the upper layer on the teleseismic measurements. We show that the observed variations of teleseismic measurements along the trench are caused by the anisotropy in the upper layer. Accordingly, the mantle layer is best characterized by an anisotropic fast axes parallel to the absolute plate motion which is roughly trench-perpendicular. This anisotropy is likely caused by a combination of crystallographic preferred orientation of the mantle mineral olivine as fossilized anisotropy in the slab and entrained flow beneath the slab. We interpret the upper anisotropic layer to be confined to the crust of the overriding continental plate. This is explained by the shape-preferred orientation of micro-cracks in relation to local fault zones which are oriented parallel the overall strike of the Andean range. Our results do not provide any evidence for a significant contribution of trench-parallel mantle flow beneath the subducting slab to the measurements.

Teleseismic tomography for imaging Earth's upper mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aktas, Kadircan

Teleseismic tomography is an important imaging tool in earthquake seismology, used to characterize lithospheric structure beneath a region of interest. In this study I investigate three different tomographic techniques applied to real and synthetic teleseismic data, with the aim of imaging the velocity structure of the upper mantle. First, by applying well established traveltime tomographic techniques to teleseismic data from southern Ontario, I obtained high-resolution images of the upper mantle beneath the lower Great Lakes. Two salient features of the 3D models are: (1) a patchy, NNW-trending low-velocity region, and (2) a linear, NE-striking high-velocity anomaly. I interpret the high-velocity anomaly as a possible relict slab associated with ca. 1.25 Ga subduction, whereas the low-velocity anomaly is interpreted as a zone of alteration and metasomatism associated with the ascent of magmas that produced the Late Cretaceous Monteregian plutons. The next part of the thesis is concerned with adaptation of existing full-waveform tomographic techniques for application to teleseismic body-wave observations. The method used here is intended to be complementary to traveltime tomography, and to take advantage of efficient frequency-domain methodologies that have been developed for inverting large controlled-source datasets. Existing full-waveform acoustic modelling and inversion codes have been modified to handle plane waves impinging from the base of the lithospheric model at a known incidence angle. A processing protocol has been developed to prepare teleseismic observations for the inversion algorithm. To assess the validity of the acoustic approximation, the processing procedure and modelling-inversion algorithm were tested using synthetic seismograms computed using an elastic Kirchhoff integral method. These tests were performed to evaluate the ability of the frequency-domain full-waveform inversion algorithm to recover topographic variations of the Moho under a variety of realistic scenarios. Results show that frequency-domain full-waveform tomography is generally successful in recovering both sharp and discontinuous features. Thirdly, I developed a new method for creating an initial background velocity model for the inversion algorithm, which is sufficiently close to the true model so that convergence is likely to be achieved. I adapted a method named Deformable Layer Tomography (DLT), which adjusts interfaces between layers rather than velocities within cells. I applied this method to a simple model comprising a single uniform crustal layer and a constant-velocity mantle, separated by an irregular Moho interface. A series of tests was performed to evaluate the sensitivity of the DLT algorithm; the results show that my algorithm produces useful results within a realistic range of incident-wave obliquity, incidence angle and signal-to-noise level. Keywords. Teleseismic tomography, full waveform tomography, deformable layer tomography, lower Great Lakes, crust and upper mantle.

The lithosphere architecture and geodynamic of the Middle and Lower Yangtze metallogenic belt in eastern China: constraints from integrated geophysical data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lü, Qingtian; Shi, Danian; Jiang, Guoming; Dong, Shuwen

2014-05-01

The lithosphere structure and deep processes are keys to understanding mineral system and ore-forming processes. Lithosphere-scale process could create big footprints or signatures which can be observed by geophysics methods. SinoProbe has conducted an integrated deep exploration across middle and lower reaches of Yangtze Metallogenic Belt (YMB) in Eastern China, these included broadband seismic, reflection seismic, wide-angle reflection and magnetotellurics survey. Seismic reflection profiles and MT survey were also performed in Luzong, Tongling and Ningwu ore districts to construct 3D geological model. The resulting geophysical data provides new information which help to better understanding the lithosphere structure, geodynamic, deformation and heat and mass transportation that lead to the formation of the Metallogenic Belt. The major results are: (1) Lower velocity body at the top of upper mantle and a SE dipping high velocity body were imaged by teleseismic tomography beneath YMB; (2) Shear wave splitting results show NE parallel fast-wave polarization direction which parallel with tectonic lineament; (3) The reflection seismic data support the crustal-detachment model, the lower and upper crust was detached during contraction deformation near Tanlu fault and Ningwu volcanic basin; (4) Broadband and reflection seismic confirm the shallow Moho beneath YMB; (5) Strong correlation of lower crust reflectivity with magmatism; (6) The lower crust below Luzong Volcanics shows obvious reflective anisotropy both at the crust-mantle transition and the brittle-ductile transition in the crust. All these features suggest that introcontinental subduction, lithosphere delamination, mantle sources magmatic underplating, and MASH process are responsible for the formation of this Mesozoic metallogenic belt. Acknowledgment: We acknowledge the financial support of SinoProbe by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Land and Resources, P. R. China, under Grant sinoprobe-03, and financial support by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 40930418

Structure of the Upper Mantle and Mantle Transition Zone in Central Mongolia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, Z.; Meltzer, A.; Stachnik, J.; Fischer, K. M.; Russo, R. M.; Munkhuu, U.; Baasanbat, T.

2016-12-01

Located between two major Archean cratons, the Siberian Craton to the north and the Tarim and Sino-Korean Cratons to the south, the lithosphere of Central Mongolia was constructed over an extended period of orogenesis associated with the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. Archean to Early Proterozoic basement was modified by accreted subduction complexes during the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic and basalt magmatism in the Cenozoic. Central and western Mongolia constitute a significant portion of the greater Mongolian plateau, an approximately 2.6 million km2area of Central Asia with an average elevation of 1500 meters. The high topography of the Mongolian Plateau has been attributed to far-field effects of India-Asia convergence, Pacific plate subduction, mantle plume activity, convective mantle flow, and magmatic underplating. The origin and persistence of continental plateaus through time provides insight into the evolution of continents and interactions between mantle dynamics and surface processes. As part of a larger interdisciplinary project to understand the origin of high topography in continental interiors we deployed 112 seismic broadband stations in central Mongolia as three separate subarrays in two separate mobilizations over a four year period (2012-2016). The stations extend from the Hovsgol rift in northern Mongolia, through the Hangay Dome, and into the Gobi Altai in southern Mongolia. We use S wave Receiver functions (SRF) to examine the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary and P wave Receiver functions (PRF) to investigate the mantle transition zone (MTZ). Preliminary SRF results from the subarray in the Hangay show lithospheric thinning and E-W variation. The LAB beneath the Hangay is 100km. It gradually thins to 90 km at the western end of the central Hangay and thins more abruptly to 80km at the eastern end of the central Hangay. These results are in agreement with results from joint inversion of receiver functions and surface waves and teleseismic tomography. PRF exhibit a clear Ps arrival from the 410-km discontinuity but a weak Ps phase converted from 660-km discontinuity in both station and CCP stacks. The 410-km Ps arrival is gradually delayed from south to north corresponding to a depth change of 20km. Several stations with visible 660-km Ps suggest a 10-30 km thinning within the MTZ.

Crust And Upper Mantle Structure Of The Bengal Basin And Bay Of Bengal From Surface Wave Group Velocity Dispersion Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhali, K. K.; Majhi, S.; Mitra, S.; Priestley, K.

2007-12-01

Fundamental mode Rayleigh and Love wave group velocity dispersion for paths crossing the Bay of Bengal have been calculated for earthquakes in the Indo-Burman arc and the Andaman-Sumatra subduction zone recorded at seismographs in the eastern part of Peninsula India and Sri Lanka. The ray-path coverage in this study provides a better spatial sampling than any previous studies of the region. The individual dispersion curves range from 12 to 70~s and have been clustered in four spatial groups to form average dispersion curves representative of the Bengal basin, northern, central and southern Bay of Bengal. These average dispersion curves for Rayleigh and Love waves are jointly inverted to obtain shear wave velocity structure of the lithosphere. The higher frequencies/shorter periods (12--30~s) used in the inversion constrains the sediment shear wave speed and thickness while the longer periods provide information of the upper mantle structure. The results show a remarkable increase in the sediments thickness along the Bengal Fan from south to north ranging from 6 km, around the southern tip of India, to 23 km beneath the Bengal basin. The shear wave velocity models reveal a sediment saturation beyond 7-10 km of burial leading to metamorphism and eventual increase in velocity to continent like material with depth. The average crustal thickness (loose sediments overlying consolidated sediments followed by metasediments and oceanic crust) is anomalously continental (~20-36 km) rather than being simply oceanic crust overlain by sediments. The average shear wave velocity is about 3.5-3.8 km/s which is more representative of continental crusts. Finally the low velocity zone in the uppermost mantle is possibly an effect of the expected increase in temperature due to blanketing of the fan sediments over the Bay of Bengal crust. The misfits to parts of the dispersion data using a 1D isotropic model provides an indication of the presence of polarization anisotropy in the lithosphere and sets a good starting point for modeling the anisotropic structure.

Crust and uppermost-mantle structure of Greenland and the Northwest Atlantic from Rayleigh wave group velocity tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darbyshire, Fiona A.; Dahl-Jensen, Trine; Larsen, Tine B.; Voss, Peter H.; Joyal, Guillaume

2018-03-01

The Greenland landmass preserves ˜4 billion years of tectonic history, but much of the continent is inaccessible to geological study due to the extensive inland ice cap. We map out, for the first time, the 3-D crustal structure of Greenland and the NW Atlantic ocean, using Rayleigh wave anisotropic group velocity tomography, in the period range 10-80 s, from regional earthquakes and the ongoing GLATIS/GLISN seismograph networks. 1-D inversion gives a pseudo-3-D model of shear wave velocity structure to depths of ˜100 km with a horizontal resolution of ˜200 km. Crustal thickness across mainland Greenland ranges from ˜25 km to over 50 km, and the velocity structure shows considerable heterogeneity. The large sedimentary basins on the continental shelf are clearly visible as low velocities in the upper ˜5-15 km. Within the upper continental basement, velocities are systematically lower in northern Greenland than in the south, and exhibit a broadly NW-SE trend. The thinning of the crust at the continental margins is also clearly imaged. Upper-mantle velocities show a clear distinction between typical fast cratonic lithosphere (Vs ≥4.6 km s-1) beneath Greenland and its NE margin and anomalously slow oceanic mantle (Vs ˜4.3-4.4 km s-1) beneath the NW Atlantic. We do not observe any sign of pervasive lithospheric modification across Greenland in the regions associated with the presumed Iceland hotspot track, though the average crustal velocity in this region is higher than that of areas to the north and south. Crustal anisotropy beneath Greenland is strong and complex, likely reflecting numerous episodes of tectonic deformation. Beneath the North Atlantic and Baffin Bay, the dominant anisotropy directions are perpendicular to the active and extinct spreading centres. Anisotropy in the subcontinental lithosphere is weaker than that of the crust, but still significant, consistent with cratonic lithosphere worldwide.

Anisotropic structure of the African upper mantle from Rayleigh and Love wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sebai, Amal; Stutzmann, Eléonore; Montagner, Jean-Paul; Sicilia, Déborah; Beucler, Eric

2006-04-01

The geodynamics of the mantle below Africa is not well understood and anisotropy tomography can provide new insight into the coupling between the African plate and the underlying mantle convection. In order to study the anisotropic structure of the upper mantle beneath Africa, we have measured phase velocities of 2900 Rayleigh and 1050 Love waves using the roller-coaster algorithm [Beucler, E., Stutzmann, E., Montagner, J.-P., 2003. Surface-wave higher mode phase velocity measurments, using a roller-coaster type algorithm. Geophys. J. Int. 155 (1), 289-307]. These phase velocities have been inverted to obtain a new tomographic model that gives access to isotropic S V-wave velocity perturbations, azimuthal and radial anisotropies. Isotropic S V-wave velocity maps have a lateral resolution of 500 km. Anisotropy parameters have a lateral resolution of 1000 km which is uniform over Africa for azimuthal anisotropy but decreases at the West and South of Africa for radial anisotropy. At shallow depth, azimuthal anisotropy varies over horizontal distances much smaller than the continent scale. At 280 km depth, azimuthal anisotropy is roughly N-S, except in the Afar area, which might indicate differential motion between the African plate and the underlying mantle. The three cratons of West Africa, Congo and Kalahari are associated with fast velocities and transverse anisotropy that decrease very gradually down to 300 km depth. On the other hand, we observe a significant change in the direction and amplitude of azimuthal anisotropy at about 180 km depth, which could be the signature of the root of these cratons. The Tanzania craton is a shallower structure than the other African cratons and the slow velocities (-2%) observed on the maps at 180 and 280 km depth could be the signature of hot material such as a plume head below the craton. This slow velocity anomaly extends toward the Afar and azimuthal anisotropy fast directions are N-S at 180 km depth, indicating a possible interaction between the Tanzania small plume and the Afar. The Afar plume is associated with a very slow velocity anomaly (-6%) which extens below the Red sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Ethiopian rift at 80 km depth. The Afar plume can be observed down to our deepest depth (300 km) and is associated with radial anisotropy smaller than elsewhere in Africa, suggesting active upwelling. Azimuthal anisotropy directions change with increasing depth, being N-S below the Red sea and Gulf of Aden at 80 km depth and E-W to NE-SW at 180 km depth. The Afar plume is not connected with the smaller hotspots of Central Africa, which are associated either with shallow slow velocities for Mt Cameroon or with no particular velocity anomaly and N-S azimuthal anisotropy for the hotspots of Tibesti, Darfur and Hoggar. A shallow origin for these hotspots is in agreement with their normal 3He/4He ratio and with their location in a region that had been weakened by the rifting of West and Central Africa.

Evolution of the Upper Lithosphere in the ENAM Area from 3-D Wide-Angle Seismic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuck, B.; Van Avendonk, H. J.

2016-12-01

Located offshore North Carolina, the ENAM study area contains the geologic record of the transition from continental rifting to seafloor spreading. In this study we analyze 2-D and 3-D marine wide-angle seismic data from the ENAM experiment with the goal of understanding the interaction between mantle melts and extension in the lithosphere during continental breakup. It is often assumed that magnetic anomalies are associated with continental breakup magmatism. These magnetic anomalies are formed when mantle melts penetrate thinned continental lithosphere leaving basalt flows on the surface. The typical magnetic anomalies of this system are the East Coast Magnetic Anomaly (ECMA) and the West African Coastal Magnetic Anomaly (WACMA). However, there also exists the Blake Spur Magnetic Anomaly (BSMA) which lies 200 km eastward of the ECMA. The BSMA has no mirror counterpart on the African side if rifting was symmetric in nature. This leads us to formulate two alternative hypotheses: 1) Oceanic crust exists between the ECMA and BSMA, or 2) The ECMA and BSMA form a wide volcanic margin. The first hypothesis would suggest the BSMA represents a sliver of West-African crust that was later transferred to the Atlantic plate by a mid-ocean ridge jump eastward. The second hypothesis would suggest asymmetric rifting accompanied by magmatism off North Carolina. Analysis of ENAM seismic refraction data will give insight into how the ECMA and BSMA are related to structure of the crust and mantle. We construct seismic velocity models (P and S-wave) along ENAM lines parallel and perpendicular to the margin to help determine the seismic anisotropy of the study area. Based on a preliminary analysis of the data, the seismic compressional velocity is 8% higher parallel to the margin and suggests the BSMA represents rifted continental lithosphere formed from mantle melt percolation which created a shape-preferred orientation of crystals in the upper mantle.

Shear wave splitting hints at dynamical features of mantle convection: a global study of homogeneously processed source and receiver side upper mantle anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walpole, J.; Wookey, J. M.; Masters, G.; Kendall, J. M.

2013-12-01

The asthenosphere is embroiled in the process of mantle convection. Its viscous properties allow it to flow around sinking slabs and deep cratonic roots as it is displaced by intruding material and dragged around by the moving layer above. As the asthenosphere flows it develops a crystalline fabric with anisotropic crystals preferentially aligned in the direction of flow. Meanwhile, the lithosphere above deforms as it is squeezed and stretched by underlying tectonic processes, enabling anisotropic fabrics to develop and become fossilised in the rigid rock and to persist over vast spans of geological time. As a shear wave passes through an anisotropic medium it splits into two orthogonally polarised quasi shear waves that propagate at different velocities (this phenomenon is known as shear wave splitting). By analysing the polarisation and the delay time of many split waves that have passed through a region it is possible to constrain the anisotropy of the medium in that region. This anisotropy is the key to revealing the deformation history of the deep Earth. In this study we present measurements of shear wave splitting recorded on S, SKS, and SKKS waves from earthquakes recorded at stations from the IRIS DMC catalogue (1976-2010). We have used a cluster analysis phase picking technique [1] to pick hundreds of thousands of high signal to noise waveforms on long period data. These picks are used to feed the broadband data into an automated processing workflow that recovers shear wave splitting parameters [2,3]. The workflow includes a new method for making source and receiver corrections, whereby the stacked error surfaces are used as input to correction rather than a single set of parameters, this propagates uncertainty information into the final measurement. Using SKS, SKKS, and source corrected S, we recover good measurements of anisotropy beneath 1,569 stations. Using receiver corrected S we recover good measurements of anisotropy beneath 470 events. We compare our results to a large compilation of previous regional studies and find good agreement. Our results are compared with upper mantle anisotropy recovered from surface waves, and other seismic observables such as wave speed tomography. The comparison with tomography beneath the USA is particularly interesting; here we observe the vivid toroidal swirl beneath Nevada branching off along the Snake River Plateau in excellent agreement with tomographic images at 150 km depth. We compare our results to absolute plate motion vectors to see how well drag from the plate can explain the development of anisotropic fabric; and to a more sophisticated asthenospheric flow model which takes into account the effect of mantle density heterogeneities [4]. Finally, we investigate patterns in the source side anisotropy, globally we detect a fabric with a fast shear wave polarisation parallel to the strike of subducting slabs, however, in several regions interesting deviations are found. [1] Houser et al. (2008) Geophys. J. Int. (2008) 174, 195-212. [2] Teanby et al. (2004). Bulletin Of The Seismological Society Of America, 94(2), 453-463. [3] Wuestefeld et al. (2010). Geophysical Prospecting, 58(5), 753-771. [4] Conrad & Behn (2010). Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 11.

The spatial sensitivity of Sp converted waves-kernels and their applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mancinelli, N. J.; Fischer, K. M.

2017-12-01

We have developed a framework for improved imaging of strong lateral variations in crust and upper mantle seismic discontinuity structure using teleseismic S-to-P (Sp) scattered waves. In our framework, we rapidly compute scattered wave sensitivities to velocity perturbations in a one-dimensional background model using ray-theoretical methods to account for timing, scattering, and geometrical spreading effects. The kernels accurately describe the amplitude and phase information of a scattered waveform, which we confirm by benchmarking against kernels derived from numerical solutions of the wave equation. The kernels demonstrate that the amplitude of an Sp converted wave at a given time is sensitive to structure along a quasi-hyperbolic curve, such that structure far from the direct ray path can influence the measurements. We use synthetic datasets to explore two potential applications of the scattered wave sensitivity kernels. First, we back-project scattered energy back to its origin using the kernel adjoint operator. This approach successfully images mantle interfaces at depths of 120-180 km with up to 20 km of vertical relief over lateral distances of 100 km (i.e., undulations with a maximal 20% grade) when station spacing is 10 km. Adjacent measurements sum coherently at nodes where gradients in seismic properties occur, and destructively interfere at nodes lacking gradients. In cases where the station spacing is greater than 10 km, the destructive interference can be incomplete, and smearing along the isochrons can occur. We demonstrate, however, that model smoothing can dampen these artifacts. This method is relatively fast, and accurately retrieves the positions of the interfaces, but it generally does not retrieve the strength of the velocity perturbations. Therefore, in our second approach, we attempt to invert directly for velocity perturbations from our reference model using an iterative conjugate-directions scheme.

Upper mantle shear wave velocity structure beneath northern Victoria Land, Antarctica: Volcanism and uplift in the northern Transantarctic Mountains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graw, Jordan H.; Adams, Aubreya N.; Hansen, Samantha E.; Wiens, Douglas A.; Hackworth, Lauren; Park, Yongcheol

2016-09-01

The Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-compressional mountain range on Earth, and while a variety of uplift mechanisms have been proposed, the origin of the TAMs is still a matter of great debate. Most previous seismic investigations of the TAMs have focused on a central portion of the mountain range, near Ross Island, providing little along-strike constraint on the upper mantle structure, which is needed to better assess competing uplift models. Using data recorded by the recently deployed Transantarctic Mountains Northern Network, as well as data from the Transantarctic Mountains Seismic Experiment and from five stations operated by the Korea Polar Research Institute, we investigate the upper mantle structure beneath a previously unexplored portion of the mountain range. Rayleigh wave phase velocities are calculated using a two-plane wave approximation and are inverted for shear wave velocity structure. Our model shows a low velocity zone (LVZ; ∼4.24 km s-1) at ∼160 km depth offshore and adjacent to Mt. Melbourne. This LVZ extends inland and vertically upwards, with more lateral coverage above ∼100 km depth beneath the northern TAMs and Victoria Land. A prominent LVZ (∼4.16-4.24 km s-1) also exists at ∼150 km depth beneath Ross Island, which agrees with previous results in the TAMs near the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and relatively slow velocities (∼4.24-4.32 km s-1) along the Terror Rift connect the low velocity anomalies. We propose that the LVZs reflect rift-related decompression melting and provide thermally buoyant support for the TAMs uplift, consistent with proposed flexural models. We also suggest that heating, and hence uplift, along the mountain front is not uniform and that the shallower LVZ beneath northern Victoria Land provides greater thermal support, leading to higher bedrock topography in the northern TAMs. Young (0-15 Ma) volcanic rocks associated with the Hallett and the Erebus Volcanic Provinces are situated directly above the imaged LVZs, suggesting that these anomalies are also the source of Cenozoic volcanic rocks throughout the study area.

Crust-mantle Coupling Seismogenic Mechanism in Sichuan-Yunnan Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiang, H.; Pei, L. S.; Yuan, Z. W.; Dong, L. S.

2016-12-01

The intracrustal weak zone controls strength of interaction between crust and mantle, restricts coupling relationship between lithospheric layers, and also affects mode of interaction between blocks. This effect can be analyzed in terms of comparing deformation and stress in different depth. The paper is based on GPS time series data that provided by 81 base stations from 1999 to 2015 to compute velocity field. Combining previous SKS shear wave splitting data, we analyze deformation characteristics of horizontal direction. The lithospheric bottom mantle convection stress field of the Sichuan-Yunnan region is calculated using 11 36 spherical harmonic coefficients of gravity model EGM2008. Meanwhile the focal mechanism of 1131 earthquakes that occurred from 2000 to now in Sichuan-Yunnan region is collected and organized. Through the above systematic research, this article argues that uneven development of the stress is the key of strain energy accumulation. And vertical coupling relationship of different layers greatly influences interaction of blocks. There is stress delamination in blocks which exist the intracrustal weak zone, stress of edge area changes significantly in horizontal and vertical directions, and seismic risk of crust above the weak layer is higher. We choose 81 stations from research area ,download the coordinate time series and use the monadic linear regression analysis to obtain the stations' average speed as shown in figure 1(a).the continuous variation of the velocity vector diagram.When in the process of communication, SKS wave divided into polarization direction and anisotropy of the parallel to the axis of symmetry fast slow wave and vertical wave through anisotropic medium. Fast wave polarization direction is considered to be the mantle peridotite in the crystal lattice advantage under the local stress direction, reflect the deformation of the upper mantle; Time delay of torsion wave reflect the characterization of anisotropic layer thickness and strength. This paper collected Wang Chunyong etc. [1], Chang Lijun provided in [2], such as literature research of 130 stations in the area of SKS shear wave splitting parameters (as shown in figure 1 (b)). From picture 1(c), Northwest Yunnan block and Lhasa block GPS crustal deformation direction are consistent.

Receiver Functions From Regional and Near-Teleseismic P Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, J.; Levin, V.

2001-05-01

P waves from regional-distance earthquakes are complex and reverberatory, as would be expected from a combination of head waves, post-critical crustal reflections and shallow-incident P from the upper mantle. Although developed to analyze steeply-incident teleseismic P waves, receiver function analysis can also retrieve information about crustal structure from regional and near-teleseismic P. Using a new method to estimate receiver functions, based on multiple-taper spectral analysis, regional-distance RFs for GSN stations RAYN and ANTO show broad agreement with teleseismic RFs. At RAYN the moveout of the Moho-converted Ps phase, relative to direct P, follows well the predictions of the IASP91 earth model. The Moho-converted Ps phase shows complexity associated with the transition-zone triplication near Δ =20o and constant delay (zero moveout) as Δ -> 0, consistent with conversion from Pn. Similar behavior is seen for ANTO for events that arrive from the west. For eastern backazimuths the ANTO RFs show features whose moveout is negative as Δ -> 0. This moveout is poorly fit by reverberations in flat layers or by direct scattering from a dipping interface, but is consistent with a topographic scatterer 20--30 km eastward of the ANTO site. Regional receiver functions may therefore be useful in judging whether teleseismic RFs at a particular station are suitable candidates for a 1-D velocity structure inversion. Synthetic seismograms of regional P phases, computed with a locked-mode reflectivity approach, confirm broad features of the RAYN and ANTO regional receiver functions.

Geophysical Investigation of Upper Mantle Anomalies of the Australian-Antarctic Ridge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, S. H.; Choi, H.; Kim, S. S.; Lin, J.

2017-12-01

Australian-Antarctic Ridge (AAR) is situated between the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (PAR) and Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR), extending eastward from the Australian-Antarctic Discordance (AAD). Much of the AAR has been remained uncharted until 2011 because of its remoteness and harsh weather conditions. Since 2011, four multidisciplinary expeditions initiated by the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) have surveyed the little-explored eastern ends of the AAR and investigated the tectonics, geochemistry, and hydrothermal activity of this intermediate spreading system. Recent isotope studies using the new basalt samples from the AAR have led to the new hypothesis of the Southern Ocean mantle domain (SOM), which may have originated from the super-plume activity associated with the Gondwana break-up. In this study, we characterize the geophysics of the Southern Ocean mantle using the newly acquired shipboard bathymetry and available geophysical datasets. First, we computed residual mantle Bouguer gravity anomalies (RMBA), gravity-derived crustal thickness, and residual topography along the AAR in order to obtain a geological proxy for regional variations in magma supply. The results of these analyses revealed that the southern flank of the AAR is associated with shallower seafloor, more negative RMBA, thicker crust, and/or less dense mantle in comparison to the conjugate northern flank. Furthermore, this north-south asymmetry becomes more prominent toward the central ridge segments of the AAR. Interestingly, the along-axis depths of the entire AAR are significantly shallower than the neighboring ridge systems and the global ridges of intermediate spreading rates. Such shallow depths are also correlated with regional negative geoid anomalies. Furthermore, recent mantle tomography models consistently showed that the upper mantle (< 250 km) below the AAR has low S-wave velocities, suggesting that it may be hotter than the nearby ridges. Such regional-scale anomalies of the upper mantle beneath the AAR may thus be manifested as shallow axial depths and prominent negative gravity anomalies. Here we present exploratory geophysical data analyses of the AAR to estimate the spatial variation of the Southern Ocean mantle.

Three-dimensional crust and mantle structure of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ellsworth, W.L.; Koyanagi, R.Y.

1977-11-10

Teleseismic P wave arrival times recorded by a dense network of seismograph stations located on Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, are inverted to determine lateral variation in crust and upper mantle structure to a depth of 70 km. The crustal structure is dominated by relatively high velocities within the central summit complex and along the two radial rift zones compared with the nonrift flank of the volcano. Both the mean crustal velocity contrast between summit and nonrift flank and the distribution of velocities agree well with results from crustal refraction studies. Comparison of the velocity structure with Bouguer gravity anomalies over themore » volcano through a simple physical model also gives excellent agreement. Mantle structure appears to be more homogeneous than crustal structure. The root mean square velocity variation for the mantle averages only 1.5%, whereas variation within the crust exceeds 4%. The summit of Kilauea is underlain by normal velocity (8.1 km/s) material within the uppermost mantle (12--25 km), suggesting that large magma storage reservoirs are not present at this level and that the passageways from deeper sources must be quite narrow. No evidence is found for substantial volumes of partially molten rock (5%) within the mantle to depths of at least 40 km. Below about 30 km, low-velocity zones (1--2%) underlie the summits of Kilauea and nearby Mauna Loa and extend south of Kilauea into a broad offshore zone. Correlation of volcanic tremor source locations and persistent zones of mantle earthquakes with low-velocity mantle between 27.5- and 42.5-km depth suggests that a laterally extensive conduit system feeds magma to the volcanic summits from sources either at comparable depth or deeper within the mantle. The center of contemporary magmatic production and/or upwelling from deeper in the mantle appears to extend well to the south of the active volcanic summits, suggesting that the Hawaiian Island chain is actively extending to the southeast.« less

History and evolution of Subduction in the Precambrium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, R.; Gerya, T.

2013-12-01

Plate tectonics is a global self-organising process driven by negative buoyancy at thermal boundary layers. Phanerozoic plate tectonics with its typical subduction and orogeny is relatively well understood and can be traced back in the geological records of the continents. Interpretations of geological, petrological and geochemical observations from Proterozoic and Archean orogenic belts however (e.g. Brown, 2006), suggest a different tectonic regime in the Precambrian. Due to higher radioactive heat production the Precambrian lithosphere shows lower internal strength and is strongly weakened by percolating melts. The fundamental difference between Precambrian and Phanerozoic subduction is therefore the upper-mantle temperature, which determines the strength of the upper mantle (Brun, 2002) and the further subduction history. 3D petrological-thermomechanical numerical modelling experiments of oceanic subduction at an active plate at different upper-mantle temperatures show these different subduction regimes. For upper-mantle temperatures < 175 K above the present day value a subduction style appears which is close to present day subduction but with more frequent slab break-off. At upper-mantle temperatures 175 - 250 K above present day values steep subduction changes to shallow underplating and buckling. For upper-mantle temperatures > 250 K above the present day value no subduction occurs any more. The whole lithosphere starts to delaminate and drip-off. But the subduction style is not only a function of upper-mantle temperature but also strongly depends on the thickness of the subducting plate. If thinner present day oceanic plates are used in the Precambrian models, no shallow underplating is observed but steep subduction can be found up to an upper-mantle temperature of 200 K above present day values. Increasing oceanic plate thickness introduces a transition from steep to flat subduction at lower temperatures of around 150 K. Thicker oceanic plates in the Precambrium also agree with results from earlier studies, e.g. Abbott (1994). References: Abbott, D., Drury, R., Smith, W.H.F., 1994. Flat to steep transition in subduction style. Geology 22, 937-940. Brown, M., 2006. Duality of thermal regimes is the distinctive characteristic of plate tectonics since the neoarchean. Geology 34, 961-964. Brun, J.P., 2002. Deformation of the continental lithosphere: Insights from brittle-ductile models. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 200, 355-370. Subduction depends strongly on upper-mantle temperature. (a) Modern subduction with present day temperature gradients in upper-mantle and lithosphere. (b) Increase of temperature by 100 K at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) leads to melting and drip-off of the of the slab-tip. (c) A temperature increase of 200 K leads to buckling of the subducting slab and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities not only at the slab-tip but the whole LAB. At this stage subduction is no longer possible as the slab melts or breaks before it can be subducted into the mantle.

Anisotropy in subduction zones: Insights from new source side S wave splitting measurements from India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, Sunil K.; Kumar, M. Ravi; Davuluri, Srinagesh

2017-08-01

This study presents 106 splitting and 40 null measurements of source side anisotropy in subduction zones, utilizing direct S waves registered at two stations sited on the Indian continent, which show null shear wave splitting measurements for SKS phases. Our results suggest that trench-parallel anisotropy is dominant beneath the Philippines, Mariana, Izu-Bonin, and edge of the Java slab, while plate motion-parallel anisotropy is observed beneath the Solomon, Aegean, Japan, and Java slabs. Results from Kuril and Aleutian regions reveal trench-oblique anisotropy. We chose to interpret these observations primarily in terms of mantle flow beneath a subduction zone. While the two-dimensional (2-D) slab entrained flow model offers a simple explanation for trench-normal fast polarization azimuths (FPA), the trench-parallel FPA can be reconciled by extension due to slab rollback. The model that invokes age of the subducting lithosphere can explain anisotropy in the subslab, derived from rays recorded at the updip stations. However, when downdip stations are used, contributions from the slab and supraslab need to be considered. In Japan, anisotropy in the subslab mantle shallower than 300 km might be associated with trench-parallel mantle flow resulting in the alignment of FPA in the same direction. Anisotropy in the deeper part, above the transition zone, is probably associated with 2-D flow resulting in trench-normal FPA. Anisotropy in the Mariana Trench might be associated with trench-parallel mantle flow in the supraslab region, with similar deformation in the upper mantle and the transition zone.

Mantle rare gas relative abundances in a steady-state mass transport model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Porcelli, D.; Wasserburg, G. J.

1994-01-01

A model for He and Xe was presented previously which incorporates mass transfer of rare gases from an undegassed lower mantle (P) and the atmosphere into a degassed upper mantle (D). We extend the model to include Ne and Ar. Model constraints on rare gas relative abundances within P are derived. Discussions of terrestrial volatile acquisition have focused on the rare gas abundance pattern of the atmosphere relative to meteoritic components, and the pattern of rare gases still trapped in the Ear,th is important in identifying volatile capture and loss processes operating during Earth formation. The assumptions and principles of the model are discussed in Wasserburg and Porcelli (this volume). For P, the concentrations in P of the decay/nuclear products 4 He, 21 Ne, 40 Ar, and 136 Xe can be calculated from the concentrations of the parent elements U, Th, K, and Pu. The total concentration of the daughter element in P is proportional to the isotopic shifts in P. For Ar, ((40)Ar/(36)Ar)p - ((40)Ar/(36)Ar)o =Delta (exp 40) p= 40 Cp/(exp 36)C where(i)C(sub j) the concentration of isotope i in j. In D, isotope compositions are the result of mixing rare gases from P, decay/nuclear products generated in the upper mantle, and subducted rare gases (for Ar and Xe).

Lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction beneath the western United States from the joint inversion of body-wave traveltimes and surface-wave phase velocities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Obrebski, M.; Allen, R.M.; Pollitz, F.; Hung, S.-H.

2011-01-01

The relation between the complex geological history of the western margin of the North American plate and the processes in the mantle is still not fully documented and understood. Several pre-USArray local seismic studies showed how the characteristics of key geological features such as the Colorado Plateau and the Yellowstone Snake River Plains are linked to their deep mantle structure. Recent body-wave models based on the deployment of the high density, large aperture USArray have provided far more details on the mantle structure while surface-wave tomography (ballistic waves and noise correlations) informs us on the shallow structure. Here we combine constraints from these two data sets to image and study the link between the geology of the western United States, the shallow structure of the Earth and the convective processes in mantle. Our multiphase DNA10-S model provides new constraints on the extent of the Archean lithosphere imaged as a large, deeply rooted fast body that encompasses the stable Great Plains and a large portion of the Northern and Central Rocky Mountains. Widespread slow anomalies are found in the lower crust and upper mantle, suggesting that low-density rocks isostatically sustain part of the high topography of the western United States. The Yellowstone anomaly is imaged as a large slow body rising from the lower mantle, intruding the overlying lithosphere and controlling locally the seismicity and the topography. The large E-W extent of the USArray used in this study allows imaging the 'slab graveyard', a sequence of Farallon fragments aligned with the currently subducting Juan de Fuca Slab, north of the Mendocino Triple Junction. The lithospheric root of the Colorado Plateau has apparently been weakened and partly removed through dripping. The distribution of the slower regions around the Colorado Plateau and other rigid blocks follows closely the trend of Cenozoic volcanic fields and ancient lithospheric sutures, suggesting that the later exert a control on the locus of magmato-tectonic activity today. The DNA velocity models are available for download and slicing at http://dna.berkeley.edu. ?? 2011 The Authors Geophysical Journal International ?? 2011 RAS.

Lithospheric structure beneath Eastern Africa from joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dugda, Mulugeta Tuji

Crust and upper mantle structure beneath eastern Africa has been investigated using receiver functions and surface wave dispersion measurements to understand the impact of the hotspot tectonism found there on the lithospheric structure of the region. In the first part of this thesis, I applied H-kappa stacking of receiver functions, and a joint inversion of receiver functions and Rayleigh wave group velocities to determine the crustal parameters under Djibouti. The two methods give consistent results. The crust beneath the GEOSCOPE station ATD has a thickness of 23+/-1.5 km and a Poisson's ratio of 0.31+/-0.02. Previous studies give crustal thickness beneath Djibouti to be between 8 and 10 km. I found it necessary to reinterprete refraction profiles for Djibouti from a previous study. The crustal structure obtained for ATD is similar to adjacent crustal structure in many other parts of central and eastern Afar. The high Poisson's ratio and Vp throughout most of the crust indicate a mafic composition, suggesting that the crust in Afar consists predominantly of new igneous rock emplaced during the late synrift stage where extension is accommodated within magmatic segments by diking. In the second part of this thesis, the seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Ethiopia and Djibouti has been investigated by jointly inverting receiver functions and Rayleigh wave group velocities to obtain new constraints on the thermal structure of the lithosphere. Crustal structure from the joint inversion for Ethiopia and Djibouti is similar to previously published models. Beneath the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) and Afar, the lithospheric mantle has a maximum shear wave velocity of 4.1-4.2 km/s and extends to a depth of at most 50 km. In comparison to the lithosphere away from the East African Rift System in Tanzania, where the lid extends to depths of ˜100-125 km and has a maximum shear velocity of 4.6 km/s, the mantle lithosphere under the Ethiopian Plateau appears to have been thinned by ˜30-50 km and the maximum shear wave velocity reduced by ˜0.3 km/s. Results from a 1D conductive thermal model suggest that the shear velocity structure of the lithosphere beneath the Ethiopian Plateau can be explained by a plume model, if a plume rapidly thinned the lithosphere by ˜30--50 km at the time of the flood basalt volcanism (c. 30 Ma), and if warm plume material has remained beneath the lithosphere since then. About 45-65% of the 1-1.5 km of plateau uplift in Ethiopia can be attributed to the thermally perturbed lithospheric structure. In the final part of this thesis, the shear-wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Kenya has been obtained from a joint inversion of receiver functions, and Rayleigh wave group and phase velocities. The crustal structure from the joint inversion is consistent with crustal structure published previously by different authors. The lithospheric mantle beneath the East African Plateau in Kenya is similar to the lithosphere under the East African Plateau in Tanzania. Beneath the Kenya Rift, the lithosphere extends to a depth of at most ˜75 km. The lithosphere under the Kenya Plateau is not perturbed when compared to the highly perturbed lithosphere beneath the Ethiopian Plateau. On the other hand, the lithosphere under the Kenya Rift is perturbed as compared to the Kenya Plateau or the rest of the East African Plateau, but is not as perturbed as the lithosphere beneath the Main Ethiopian Rift or the Afar. Although Kenya and Ethiopia have similar uplift and rifting histories, they have different volcanic histories. Much of Ethiopia has been affected by the Afar Flood Basalt volcanism, which may be the cause of this difference in lithospheric structure between these two regions.

Slab and Plume Morphology in the Transition Zone and Below: a Comparison of Images From Recent P and S Velocity Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salmi, L. M.; French, S. W.; Romanowicz, B. A.

2014-12-01

Resolving subduction zones in the shallow upper mantle using global shear velocity tomography has long been a challenge, likely due to the rather narrow signature of the slabs down to ~400 km depth compared to the wavelength of fundamental mode and overtone surface waves, on which resolution of Vs at these depths often relies. On the other hand, models based on P wave travel times exhibit higher resolution in subduction zone regions, owing to both the higher frequencies of the P waves as well as an optimal illumination geometry. Conversely, the global Vs models typically have better resolution near the CMB, because of constraints provided by Sdiff and multiple ScS phases. Here we compare the morphology of subducted slabs throughout the mantle, as imaged by both a recent Vp model (GAP_P4, Fukao and Obayashi, 2013) and a new Vs model (SEMUCB-WM1, French and Romanowicz, GJI, in revision). The latter model was developed by inverting body (to 32s) and fundamental and overtone surface (to 60s) waveforms, with the forward seismic wavefield computed using the spectral element method. While the S velocity model is still "fuzzier" than the Vp model, it tracks the behavior of slabs trapped in the transition zone, and those ponding around 1000 km depth. We quantify the high correlation of the region of fast Vp and Vs anomalies, and thus derive a robust estimate of the R=dlnVs/dlnVp ratio as a function of depth in regions of faster than average velocity. We compare these results with estimates obtained with other combinations of available P and S models, as well as theoretical values from mineral physical calculations. Estimating R in slow velocity regions is more difficult, as resolution varies more among models. Here we compare slow velocity images in SEMUCB-WM1 with those of other recent Vs and Vp models and attempt to estimate R in those regions as well. Interestingly, we note that, in the SEMUCB-WM1 model, some of the columnar, lower than average velocity regions "rising" from the CMB through the lower mantle appear to be deflected horizontally at ~1000 km depth. This observation suggests that whatever mechanism causes the resistance to downward flow in subduction zones at this depth may also affect upwellings.

The mantle transition zone beneath the Afar Depression and adjacent regions: implications for mantle plumes and hydration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, C. A.; Gao, S. S.; Liu, K. H.; Yu, Y.

2016-06-01

The Afar Depression and its adjacent areas are underlain by an upper mantle marked by some of the world's largest negative velocity anomalies, which are frequently attributed to the thermal influences of a lower-mantle plume. In spite of numerous studies, however, the existence of a plume beneath the area remains enigmatic, partially due to inadequate quantities of broad-band seismic data and the limited vertical resolution at the mantle transition zone (MTZ) depth of the techniques employed by previous investigations. In this study, we use an unprecedented quantity (over 14 500) of P-to-S receiver functions (RFs) recorded by 139 stations from 12 networks to image the 410 and 660 km discontinuities and map the spatial variation of the thickness of the MTZ. Non-linear stacking of the RFs under a 1-D velocity model shows robust P-to-S conversions from both discontinuities, and their apparent depths indicate the presence of an upper-mantle low-velocity zone beneath the entire study area. The Afar Depression and the northern Main Ethiopian Rift are characterized by an apparent 40-60 km depression of both MTZ discontinuities and a normal MTZ thickness. The simplest and most probable interpretation of these observations is that the apparent depressions are solely caused by velocity perturbations in the upper mantle and not by deeper processes causing temperature or hydration anomalies within the MTZ. Thickening of the MTZ on the order of 15 km beneath the southern Arabian Plate, southern Red Sea and western Gulf of Aden, which comprise the southward extension of the Afro-Arabian Dome, could reflect long-term hydration of the MTZ. A 20 km thinning of the MTZ beneath the western Ethiopian Plateau is observed and interpreted as evidence for a possible mantle plume stem originating from the lower mantle.

Upper mantle fluids evolution, diamond formation, and mantle metasomatism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, F.; Sverjensky, D. A.

2017-12-01

During mantle metasomatism, fluid-rock interactions in the mantle modify wall-rock compositions. Previous studies usually either investigated mineral compositions in xenoliths and xenocrysts brought up by magmas, or examined fluid compositions preserved in fluid inclusions in diamonds. However, a key study of Panda diamonds analysed both mineral and fluid inclusions in the diamonds [1] which we used to develop a quantitative characterization of mantle metasomatic processes. In the present study, we used an extended Deep Earth Water model [2] to simulate fluid-rock interactions at upper mantle conditions, and examine the fluids and mineral assemblages together simultaneously. Three types of end-member fluids in the Panda diamond fluid inclusions include saline, rich in Na+K+Cl; silicic, rich in Si+Al; and carbonatitic, rich in Ca+Mg+Fe [1, 3]. We used the carbonatitic end-member to represent fluid from a subducting slab reacting with an excess of peridotite + some saline fluid in the host environment. During simultaneous fluid mixing and reaction with the host rock, the logfO2 increased by about 1.6 units, and the pH increased by 0.7 units. The final minerals were olivine, garnet and diamond. The Mg# of olivine decreased from 0.92 to 0.85. Garnet precipitated at an early stage, and its Mg# also decreased with reaction progress, in agreement with the solid inclusions in the Panda diamonds. Phlogopite precipitated as an intermediate mineral and then disappeared. The aqueous Ca, Mg, Fe, Si and Al concentrations all increased, while Na, K, and Cl concentrations decreased during the reaction, consistent with trends in the fluid inclusion compositions. Our study demonstrates that fluids coming from subducting slabs could trigger mantle metasomatism, influence the compositions of sub-lithospherc cratonic mantle, precipitate diamonds, and change the oxygen fugacity and pH of the upper mantle fluids. [1] Tomlinson et al. EPSL (2006); [2] Sverjensky, DA et al., GCA (2014), Huang, F, Ph. D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University, (2017); [3] Shirey et al., Rev. Mineral. Geochem. (2013)

Seismic evidence for rotating mantle flow around subducting slab edge associated with oceanic microplate capture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mosher, Stephen G.; Audet, Pascal; L'Heureux, Ivan

2014-07-01

Tectonic plate reorganization at a subduction zone edge is a fundamental process that controls oceanic plate fragmentation and capture. However, the various factors responsible for these processes remain elusive. We characterize seismic anisotropy of the upper mantle in the Explorer region at the northern limit of the Cascadia subduction zone from teleseismic shear wave splitting measurements. Our results show that the mantle flow field beneath the Explorer slab is rotating anticlockwise from the convergence-parallel motion between the Juan de Fuca and the North America plates, re-aligning itself with the transcurrent motion between the Pacific and North America plates. We propose that oceanic microplate fragmentation is driven by slab stretching, thus reorganizing the mantle flow around the slab edge and further contributing to slab weakening and increase in buoyancy, eventually leading to cessation of subduction and microplate capture.

Regional difference in small-scale heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle in Japan derived by the analysis of high-frequency P-wave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takemura, S.; Furumura, T.

2010-12-01

In order to understand distribution properties of small-scale heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle structure, we analyze three-component seismograms recorded by Hi-net in Japan. We examined relative strength of the P-wave in the transverse (T) component and its change as a function of frequency and propagation distances, which is strongly relating to the strength of seismic wave scattering in the lithosphere. We analyzed 53,220 Hi-net record from 310 shallow (h<30km) crustal earthquakes with MJMA =2.0-5.3. The three-component seismograms are firstly applied by band-pass filter with pass band frequency of f=1-2, 2-4, 4-8, 8-16, 16-32 Hz and then the Hilbert transform is used to synthesize envelope of each component. Then, the energy partition (EP) of P wave in the T component relative to total P-wave energy is evaluated around the P wave in 3-sec time window. The estimated EP value is almost constant 0.2 in high-frequencies (8-16 Hz) at shorter distance, while it is 0.07 in low-frequencies (1-2 Hz). We found clearly frequency-change property of EP value. But at larger distance over 150 km, EP values gradually increase with increasing distance. In high-frequencies (8-16, 16-32 Hz), especially EP values asymptotically reach from 0.2 to 0.33, equi-partitioning of P-wave energy into three components. This may because Pn-phase dominates in larger hypocentral distances. In order to examine difference in the EP in each area of Japan which would be relating to the strength of crustal heterogeneities in each area we divided the area of Japan into three regions, fore-arc side of Tohoku, back-arc side of Tohoku and Chugoku-Shikoku area. The difference in EP value in each area is clearly found in the high-frequency (4-8 Hz) band, where larger EP (0.2) was obtained at back-arc side of Tohoku relative to smaller EP (0.1) at fore-arc side of Tohoku and Chugoku-Shikoku. This is consistent with the results of Carcole and Sato (2009) who estimated the strength of crustal heterogeneities based on the multi lapse time-window analysis. In order to clarify the cause of such regional difference of EP, we conduct 3-D FDM simulations using stochastic random media. The model covers a zone 204.8 km by 204.8 km by 64.0 km descretized with 0.1 km in horizontal direction and 0.05 km in vertical direction. The small-scale heterogeneity in the lithosphere is constructed by velocity fluctuation from average velocity. The fluctuation is characterized by von Karman-type ACF with the correlation length a, the rms value e and decay order k. We assume average background velocities of P-wave and S-wave are VP = 5.8 km and VS = 3.36 km, respectively. We employ an explosive point source into the model. The FDM simulations were conducted on the Earth Simulator at JAMSTEC. We conducted a number of FDM simulation using different model parameters of stochastic random media for different e (= 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.09) and fixed a and k (a = 5km, k = 0.5). The simulation results confirm EP value increases linearly with increasing e. We also found that larger EP obtained in the back-arc side of Tohoku can be explained by 4% larger e relative to those of other regions.

Lowermost mantle anisotropy near the eastern edge of the Pacific LLSVP: constraints from SKS-SKKS splitting intensity measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Jie; Long, Maureen D.; Creasy, Neala; Wagner, Lara; Beck, Susan; Zandt, George; Tavera, Hernando; Minaya, Estela

2017-08-01

Seismic anisotropy has been documented in many portions of the lowermost mantle, with particularly strong anisotropy thought to be present along the edges of large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs). The region surrounding the Pacific LLSVP, however, has not yet been studied extensively in terms of its anisotropic structure. In this study, we use seismic data from southern Peru, northern Bolivia and Easter Island to probe lowermost mantle anisotropy beneath the eastern Pacific Ocean, mostly relying on data from the Peru Lithosphere and Slab Experiment and Central Andean Uplift and Geodynamics of High Topography experiments. Differential shear wave splitting measurements from phases that have similar ray paths in the upper mantle but different ray paths in the lowermost mantle, such as SKS and SKKS, are used to constrain anisotropy in D″. We measured splitting for 215 same station-event SKS-SKKS pairs that sample the eastern Pacific LLSVP at the base of the mantle. We used measurements of splitting intensity(SI), a measure of the amount of energy on the transverse component, to objectively and quantitatively analyse any discrepancies between SKS and SKKS phases. While the overall splitting signal is dominated by the upper-mantle anisotropy, a minority of SKS-SKKS pairs (∼10 per cent) exhibit strongly discrepant splitting between the phases (i.e. the waveforms require a difference in SI of at least 0.4), indicating a likely contribution from lowermost mantle anisotropy. In order to enhance lower mantle signals, we also stacked waveforms within individual subregions and applied a waveform differencing technique to isolate the signal from the lowermost mantle. Our stacking procedure yields evidence for substantial splitting due to lowermost mantle anisotropy only for a specific region that likely straddles the edge of Pacific LLSVP. Our observations are consistent with the localization of deformation and anisotropy near the eastern boundary of the Pacific LLSVP, similar to previous observations for the African LLSVP.

On Lateral Viscosity Contrast in the Mantle and the Rheology of Low-Frequency Geodynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivins, Erik R.; Sammis, Charles G.

1995-01-01

Mantle-wide heterogeneity is largely controlled by deeply penetrating thermal convective currents. These thermal currents are likely to produce significant lateral variation in rheology, and this can profoundly influence overall material behaviour. How thermally related lateral viscosity variations impact models of glacio-isostatic and tidal deformation is largely unknown. An important step towards model improvement is to quantify, or bound, the actual viscosity variations that characterize the mantle. Simple scaling of viscosity to shear-wave velocity fluctuations yields map-views of long- wavelength viscosity variation. These give a general quantitative description and aid in estimating the depth dependence of rheological heterogeneity throughout the mantle. The upper mantle is probably characterized by two to four orders of magnitude variation (peak-to-peak). Discrepant time-scales for rebounding Holocene shorelines of Hudson Bay and southern Iceland are consistent with this characterization. Results are given in terms of a local average viscosity ratio, (Delta)eta(bar)(sub i), of volumetric concentration, phi(sub i). For the upper mantle deeper than 340 km the following reasonable limits are estimated for (delta)eta(bar) approx. equal 10(exp -2): 0.01 less than or equal to phi less than or equal to 0.15. A spectrum of ratios (Delta)eta(bar)(sub i) less than 0.1 at concentration level eta(sub i) approx. equal 10(exp -6) - 10(exp -1) in the lower mantle implies a spectrum of shorter time-scale deformational response modes for second-degree spherical harmonic deformations of the Earth. Although highly uncertain, this spectrum of spatial variation allows a purely Maxwellian viscoelastic rheology simultaneously to explain all solid tidal dispersion phenomena and long-term rebound-related mantle viscosity. Composite theory of multiphase viscoelastic media is used to demonstrate this effect.

Tomography of the upper mantle beneath the African/Iberian collision zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonnin, Mickael; Nolet, Guust; Thomas, Christine; Villaseñor, Antonio; Gallart, Josep; Levander, Alan

2013-04-01

In this study we take advantage of the dense broadband-station networks available in western Mediterranean region (IberArray, PICASSO and MOROCCO-MUENSTER networks) to develop a high-resolution 3D tomographic P velocity model of the upper mantle beneath the African/Iberian collision zone. This model is based on teleseismic arrival times recorded between 2008 and 2012 for which cross-correlation delays are measured with a new technique in different frequency bands centered between 0.03 and 1.0 Hz, and interpreted using multiple frequency tomography. Such a tomography is required to scrutinize the nature and extent of the thermal anomalies inferred beneath Northern Africa, especially in the Atlas ranges region and associated to sparse volcanic activities. Tomography is notably needed to help in determining the hypothetical connection between those hot anomalies and the Canary Island hotspot as proposed by geochemistry studies. It also provides new insights on the geometry of the subducting slab previously inferred from tomography, GPS measurements or shear-wave splitting patterns beneath the Alboran Sea and the Betic ranges and is indispensable for deciphering the complex geodynamic history of the Western Mediterranean region. We shall present the overall statistics of the delays, their geographical distribution, as well as the first inversion results.

Differentiating flow, melt, or fossil seismic anisotropy beneath Ethiopia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, J. O. S.; Kendall, J.-M.; Wookey, J.; Stuart, G. W.; Keir, D.; Ayele, A.

2014-05-01

Ethiopia is a region where continental rifting gives way to oceanic spreading. Yet the role that pre-existing lithospheric structure, melt, mantle flow, or active upwellings may play in this process is debated. Measurements of seismic anisotropy are often used to attempt to understand the contribution that these mechanisms may play. In this study, we use new data in Afar, Ethiopia along with legacy data across Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Yemen to obtain estimates of mantle anisotropy using SKS-wave splitting. We show that two layers of anisotropy exist, and we directly invert for these. We show that fossil anisotropy with fast directions oriented northeast-southwest may be preserved in the lithosphere away from the rift. Beneath the Main Ethiopian Rift and parts of Afar, anisotropy due to shear segregated melt along sharp changes in lithospheric thickness dominates the shear-wave splitting signal in the mantle. Beneath Afar, away from regions with significant lithospheric topography, melt pockets associated with the crustal and uppermost mantle magma storage dominate the signal in localized regions. In general, little anisotropy is seen in the uppermost mantle beneath Afar suggesting melt retains no preferential alignment. These results show the important role melt plays in weakening the lithosphere and imply that as rifting evolves passive upwelling sustains extension. A dominant northeast-southwest anisotropic fast direction is observed in a deeper layer across all of Ethiopia. This suggests that a conduit like plume is lacking beneath Afar today, rather a broad flow from the southwest dominates flow in the upper mantle.

Lithospheric-Mantle Structure of the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa, Derived From Thermodynamically Self-Consistent Modelling of Seismic Surface-Wave and S-wave Receiver Function, Heat-flow, Elevation, Xenolith and Magnetotelluric Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muller, M. R.; Fullea, J.; Jones, A. G.; Adam, J.; Lebedev, S.; Piana Agostinetti, N.

2012-12-01

Results from recent geophysical and mantle-xenolith geochemistry studies of the Kaapvaal Craton appear, at times, to provide disparate views of the physical, chemical and thermal structure of the lithosphere. Models from our recent SAMTEX magnetotelluric (MT) surveys across the Kaapvaal Craton indicate a resistive, 220-240 km thick lithosphere for the central core of the craton. One published S-wave receiver function (SRF) study and other surface-wave studies suggest a thinner lithosphere characterised by a ~160 km thick high-velocity "lid" underlain by a low-velocity zone (LVZ) of between 65-150 km in thickness. Other seismic studies suggest that the (high-velocity) lithosphere is thicker, in excess of 220 km. Mantle xenolith pressure-temperature arrays from Mesozoic kimberlites require that the base of the "thermal" lithosphere (i.e., the depth above which a conductive geotherm is maintained) is at least 220 km deep, to account for mantle geotherms in the range 35-38 mWm-2. Richly diamondiferous kimberlites across the Kaapvaal Craton require a lithospheric thickness substantially greater than 160 km - the depth of the top of the diamond stability field. In this paper we use the recently developed LitMod software code to derive, thermodynamically consistently, a range of 1-D seismic velocity, density, electrical resistivity and temperature models from layered geochemical models of the lithosphere based on mantle xenolith compositions. In our work, the "petrological" lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (pLAB) (i.e., the top of the fertile asthenospheric-mantle) and the "thermal" LAB (tLAB as defined above) are coincident. Lithospheric-mantle models are found simultaneously satisfying all geophysical observables: new surface-wave dispersion data, published SRFs, MT responses, surface elevation and heat-flow. Our results show: 1. All lithospheric-mantle models are characterised by a seismic LVZ with a minimum velocity at the depth of the petrological/thermal LAB. The top of the LVZ does not correspond with the LAB. 2. Thin (~160 km-thick) lithospheric-mantle models are consistent with surface elevation and heat-flow observations only for unreasonably low average crustal heat production values (~0.4 μWm-3). However, such models are inconsistent both with the surface-wave dispersion data and youngest (Group I) palaeo-geotherms defined by xenolith P-T arrays. 3. A three-layered geochemical model (consistent with mantle xenoliths), with lithospheric thickness in excess of 220 km, is required to match all geophysical constraints. 4. The chemical transition from a depleted harzburgitic composition (above) to a refertilised high-T lherzolitic composition (below) at 160 km depth produces a sharp onset of the seismic LVZ and a sharp increase in density. Synthetic SRFs will assess whether this chemical transition may account for the reported S-to-P conversion event at 160 km depth. However, in this this instance the SRF conversion event would not represent the petrological/thermal LAB.

Crustal Footprint of the Hainan Plume beneath Southeast China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, H.; Chen, F.; Leng, W.; Zhang, H.

2016-12-01

A hotspot track is an age-progressive line of volcanos that is connected to a hotspot that may have resulted from interactions between the lithosphere and a deep-seated mantle plume [Campbell and Griffiths, 1990; Richards et al., 1989]. Although global and regional seismic tomography results have revealed the presence of a mantle plume beneath Hainan Island [Lebedev et al., 2003; Lei et al., 2009; Huang, 2014], there is little evidence for a hotspot track associated with the Hainan plume. Here, a joint inversion of seismology and gravity data was performed with the receiver function method, and the results show that a linear corridor of seismic velocity anomalies at the base of the crust is located northeast of Hainan Island beneath southeast China. Geodynamic modeling demonstrates that this corridor could have formed by the interactions between a mantle plume and the continental lithosphere with a weak lower crust. Volcanic age distributions further suggest that this track likely formed in the Cenozoic, which constrains the average plate velocities of the South China Block during the Cenozoic to 2-6 cm/yr to the northeast. These results provide an independent reference frame for the motion history of the Eurasia plate in the Cenozoic. References 1. Campbell I H, Griffiths R W. Implications of mantle plume structure for the evolution of flood basalts [J]. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1990, 99(1): 79-93. 2. Richards M A, Duncan R A, Courtillot V E. Flood basalts and hot-spot tracks: plume heads and tails [J]. Science, 1989, 246(4926): 103-107. 3. Lebedev S, Nolet G. Upper mantle beneath Southeast Asia from S velocity tomography [J]. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (1978-2012), 2003, 108(B1). 4. Lei J, Zhao D, Steinberger B, et al. New seismic constraints on the upper mantle structure of the Hainan plume [J]. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 2009, 173(1): 33-50. 5. Huang J. P-and S-wave tomography of the Hainan and surrounding regions: Insight into the Hainan plume [J]. Tectonophysics, 2014, 633: 176-192.

A kinematic model for the late Cenozoic development of southern California crust and upper mantle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Humphreys, Eugene D.; Hager, Bradford H.

1990-01-01

A model is developed for the young and ongoing kinematic deformation of the southern California crust and upper mantle. The kinematic model qualitatively explains both the overall seismic structure of the upper mantle and much of the known geological history of the late Cenozoic as consequences of ongoing convection beneath southern California. In this model, the high-velocity upper-mantle anomaly of the Transverse ranges is created through the convergence and sinking of the entire thickness of subcrustal lihtosphere, and the low-velocity upper-mantle anomaly beneath the Salton Trough region is attributed to high temperatures and 1-4 percent partial melt related to adiabatic decompression during mantle upwelling.

The signal of mantle anisotropy in the coupling of normal modes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beghein, Caroline; Resovsky, Joseph; van der Hilst, Robert D.

2008-12-01

We investigate whether the coupling of normal mode (NM) multiplets can help us constrain mantle anisotropy. We first derive explicit expressions of the generalized structure coefficients of coupled modes in terms of elastic coefficients, including the Love parameters describing radial anisotropy and the parameters describing azimuthal anisotropy (Jc, Js, Kc, Ks, Mc, Ms, Bc, Bs, Gc, Gs, Ec, Es, Hc, Hs, Dc and Ds). We detail the selection rules that describe which modes can couple together and which elastic parameters govern their coupling. We then focus on modes of type 0Sl - 0Tl+1 and determine whether they can be used to constrain mantle anisotropy. We show that they are sensitive to six elastic parameters describing azimuthal anisotropy, in addition to the two shear-wave elastic parameters L and N (i.e. VSV and VSH). We find that neither isotropic nor radially anisotropic mantle models can fully explain the observed degree two signal. We show that the NM signal that remains after correction for the effect of the crust and mantle radial anisotropy can be explained by the presence of azimuthal anisotropy in the upper mantle. Although the data favour locating azimuthal anisotropy below 400km, its depth extent and distribution is still not well constrained by the data. Consideration of NM coupling can thus help constrain azimuthal anisotropy in the mantle, but joint analyses with surface-wave phase velocities is needed to reduce the parameter trade-offs and improve our constraints on the individual elastic parameters and the depth location of the azimuthal anisotropy.

Plateau subduction, intraslab seismicity and the Denali Volcanic Gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bostock, M. G.; Chuang, L. Y.; Wech, A.; Plourde, A. P.

2017-12-01

Tectonic tremors in Alaska (USA) are associated with subduction of the Yakutat plateau, but their origins are unclear due to lack of depth constraints. We have processed tremor recordings to extract low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs), and generated a set of six LFE waveform templates via iterative network matched filtering and stacking. The timing of impulsive P (compressional) wave and S (shear) wave arrivals on template waveforms places LFEs at 40-58 km depth, near the upper envelope of intraslab seismicity and immediately updip of increased levels of intraslab seismicity. S waves at near-epicentral distances display polarities consistent with shear slip on the plate boundary. We compare characteristics of LFEs, seismicity, and tectonic structures in central Alaska with those in warm subduction zones, and propose a new model for the region's unusual intraslab seismicity and the enigmatic Denali volcanic gap (i.e., an area of no volcanism where expected). We argue that fluids in the Yakutat plate are confined to its upper crust, and that shallow subduction leads to hydromechanical conditions at the slab interface in central Alaska akin to those in warm subduction zones where similar LFEs and tremor occur. These conditions lead to fluid expulsion at shallow depths, explaining strike-parallel alignment of tremor occurrence with the Denali volcanic gap. Moreover, the lack of double seismic zone and restriction of deep intraslab seismicity to a persistent low-velocity zone are simple consequences of anhydrous conditions prevailing in the lower crust and upper mantle of the Yakutat plate.

Plateau subduction, intraslab seismicity, and the Denali (Alaska) volcanic gap

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chuang, Lindsay Yuling; Bostock, Michael; Wech, Aaron; Plourde, Alexandre

2018-01-01

Tectonic tremors in Alaska (USA) are associated with subduction of the Yakutat plateau, but their origins are unclear due to lack of depth constraints. We have processed tremor recordings to extract low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs), and generated a set of six LFE waveform templates via iterative network matched filtering and stacking. The timing of impulsive P (compressional) wave and S (shear) wave arrivals on template waveforms places LFEs at 40–58 km depth, near the upper envelope of intraslab seismicity and immediately updip of increased levels of intraslab seismicity. S waves at near-epicentral distances display polarities consistent with shear slip on the plate boundary. We compare characteristics of LFEs, seismicity, and tectonic structures in central Alaska with those in warm subduction zones, and propose a new model for the region’s unusual intraslab seismicity and the enigmatic Denali volcanic gap (i.e., an area of no volcanism where expected). We argue that fluids in the Yakutat plate are confined to its upper crust, and that shallow subduction leads to hydromechanical conditions at the slab interface in central Alaska akin to those in warm subduction zones where similar LFEs and tremor occur. These conditions lead to fluid expulsion at shallow depths, explaining strike-parallel alignment of tremor occurrence with the Denali volcanic gap. Moreover, the lack of double seismic zone and restriction of deep intraslab seismicity to a persistent low-velocity zone are simple consequences of anhydrous conditions prevailing in the lower crust and upper mantle of the Yakutat plate.

Lunar Seismology: the Internal Structure of the Moon. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goins, N. R.

1978-01-01

The direct P and S wave arrival times are the primary data set that can be measured on the seismograms of natural lunar seismic events. Polarization filtering techniques allow the enhancement of secondary body wave arrivals and record curves to identify the secondary phases and deduce structural information. Finally, shear wave amplitude vs. distance curves yield information on the location and magnitude of seismic velocity gradients in the interior. The results of these analyses show that the moon appears to have a two-layer crust at all four seismic stations: a 20 km upper crust that seems to be constant at all sites and a lower crust that is 40 km thick at stations 12 and 14 (mare), 55 + or - 10 km at station 16 (highland), and tentatively either 40 km or 70 km at station 15. The lower mantle extends from 480 km to at least 1100 km depth which is the maximum depth of penetration of all but a few seismic waves used as data. No definitive evidence for or against a lunar core exists.

Full seismic waveform tomography for upper-mantle structure in the Australasian region using adjoint methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fichtner, Andreas; Kennett, Brian L. N.; Igel, Heiner; Bunge, Hans-Peter

2009-12-01

We present a full seismic waveform tomography for upper-mantle structure in the Australasian region. Our method is based on spectral-element simulations of seismic wave propagation in 3-D heterogeneous earth models. The accurate solution of the forward problem ensures that waveform misfits are solely due to as yet undiscovered Earth structure and imprecise source descriptions, thus leading to more realistic tomographic images and source parameter estimates. To reduce the computational costs, we implement a long-wavelength equivalent crustal model. We quantify differences between the observed and the synthetic waveforms using time-frequency (TF) misfits. Their principal advantages are the separation of phase and amplitude misfits, the exploitation of complete waveform information and a quasi-linear relation to 3-D Earth structure. Fréchet kernels for the TF misfits are computed via the adjoint method. We propose a simple data compression scheme and an accuracy-adaptive time integration of the wavefields that allows us to reduce the storage requirements of the adjoint method by almost two orders of magnitude. To minimize the waveform phase misfit, we implement a pre-conditioned conjugate gradient algorithm. Amplitude information is incorporated indirectly by a restricted line search. This ensures that the cumulative envelope misfit does not increase during the inversion. An efficient pre-conditioner is found empirically through numerical experiments. It prevents the concentration of structural heterogeneity near the sources and receivers. We apply our waveform tomographic method to ~1000 high-quality vertical-component seismograms, recorded in the Australasian region between 1993 and 2008. The waveforms comprise fundamental- and higher-mode surface and long-period S body waves in the period range from 50 to 200 s. To improve the convergence of the algorithm, we implement a 3-D initial model that contains the long-wavelength features of the Australasian region. Resolution tests indicate that our algorithm converges after around 10 iterations and that both long- and short-wavelength features in the uppermost mantle are well resolved. There is evidence for effects related to the non-linearity in the inversion procedure. After 11 iterations we fit the data waveforms acceptably well; with no significant further improvements to be expected. During the inversion the total fitted seismogram length increases by 46 per cent, providing a clear indication of the efficiency and consistency of the iterative optimization algorithm. The resulting SV-wave velocity model reveals structural features of the Australasian upper mantle with great detail. We confirm the existence of a pronounced low-velocity band along the eastern margin of the continent that can be clearly distinguished against Precambrian Australia and the microcontinental Lord Howe Rise. The transition from Precambrian to Phanerozoic Australia (the Tasman Line) appears to be sharp down to at least 200 km depth. It mostly occurs further east of where it is inferred from gravity and magnetic anomalies. Also clearly visible are the Archean and Proterozoic cratons, the northward continuation of the continent and anomalously low S-wave velocities in the upper mantle in central Australia. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first application of non-linear full seismic waveform tomography to a continental-scale problem.

Tomographic Imaging of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and Juan de Fuca Plate System: Improved Methods Eliminate Artifacts and Reveal New Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bodmer, M.; Toomey, D. R.; Hooft, E. E. E.; Bezada, M.; Schmandt, B.; Byrnes, J. S.

2017-12-01

Amphibious studies of subduction zones promise advances in understanding links between incoming plate structure, the subducting slab, and the upper mantle beneath the slab. However, joint onshore/offshore imaging is challenging due to contrasts between continental and oceanic structure. We present P-wave teleseismic tomography results for the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) that utilize existing western US datasets, amphibious seismic data from the Cascadia Initiative, and tomographic algorithms that permit 3D starting models, nonlinear ray tracing, and finite frequency kernels. Relative delay times show systematic onshore/offshore trends, which we attribute to structure in the upper 50 km. Shore-crossing CSZ seismic refraction models predict relative delays >1s, with equal contributions from elevation and crustal thickness. We use synthetic data to test methods of accounting for such shallow structure. Synthetic tests using only station static terms produce margin-wide, sub-slab low-velocity artifacts. Using a more realistic a priori 3D model for the upper 50 km better reproduces known input structures. To invert the observed delays, we use data-constrained starting models of the CSZ. Our preferred models utilize regional surface wave studies to construct a starting model, directly account for elevation, and use 3D nonlinear ray tracing. We image well-documented CSZ features, including the subducted slab down to 350 km, along strike slab variations below 150 km, and deep slab fragmentation. Inclusion of offshore data improves resolution of the sub-slab mantle, where we resolve localized low-velocity anomalies near the edges of the CSZ (beneath the Klamath and Olympic mountains). Our new imaging and resolution tests indicate that previously reported margin-wide, sub-slab low-velocity asthenospheric anomalies are an imaging artifact. Offshore, we observe low-velocity anomalies beneath the Gorda plate consistent with regional deformation and broad upwelling resulting from plate stagnation. At the Juan de Fuca Ridge we observe asymmetric low-velocity anomalies consistent with dynamic upwelling. Our results agree with recent offshore tomography studies using S wave data; however, differences in the recovered relative amplitudes are likely due to anisotropy, which we are exploring.

Implication of Broadband Dispersion Measurements in Constraining Upper Mantle Velocity Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuponiyi, A.; Kao, H.; Cassidy, J. F.; Darbyshire, F. A.; Dosso, S. E.; Gosselin, J. M.; Spence, G.

2017-12-01

Dispersion measurements from earthquake (EQ) data are traditionally inverted to obtain 1-D shear-wave velocity models, which provide information on deep earth structures. However, in many cases, EQ-derived dispersion measurements lack short-period information, which theoretically should provide details of shallow structures. We show that in at least some cases short-period information, such as can be obtained from ambient seismic noise (ASN) processing, must be combined with EQ dispersion measurements to properly constrain deeper (e.g. upper-mantle) structures. To verify this, synthetic dispersion data are generated using hypothetical velocity models under four scenarios: EQ only (with and without deep low-velocity layers) and combined EQ and ASN data (with and without deep low-velocity layers). The now "broadband" dispersion data are inverted using a trans-dimensional Bayesian framework with the aim of recovering the initial velocity models and assessing uncertainties. Our results show that the deep low-velocity layer could only be recovered from the inversion of the combined ASN-EQ dispersion measurements. Given this result, we proceed to describe a method for obtaining reliable broadband dispersion measurements from both ASN and EQ and show examples for real data. The implication of this study in the characterization of lithospheric and upper mantle structures, such as the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary (LAB), is also discussed.

Development of diapiric structures in the upper mantle due to phase transitions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, M.; Yuen, D. A.; Zhao, W.; Honda, S.

1991-01-01

Solid-state phase transition in time-dependent mantle convection can induce diapiric flows in the upper mantle. When a deep mantle plume rises toward phase boundaries in the upper mantle, the changes in the local thermal buoyancy, local heat capacity, and latent heat associated with the phase change at a depth of 670 kilometers tend to pinch off the plume head from the feeding stem and form a diapir. This mechanism may explain episodic hot spot volcanism. The nature of the multiple phase boundaries at the boundary between the upper and lower mantle may control the fate of deep mantle plumes, allowing hot plumes to go through and retarding the tepid ones.

Developing a Crustal and Upper Mantle Velocity Model for the Brazilian Northeast

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Julia, J.; Nascimento, R.

2013-05-01

Development of 3D models for the earth's crust and upper mantle is important for accurately predicting travel times for regional phases and to improve seismic event location. The Brazilian Northeast is a tectonically active area within stable South America and displays one of the highest levels of seismicity in Brazil, with earthquake swarms containing events up to mb 5.2. Since 2011, seismic activity is routinely monitored through the Rede Sismográfica do Nordeste (RSisNE), a permanent network supported by the national oil company PETROBRAS and consisting of 15 broadband stations with an average spacing of ~200 km. Accurate event locations are required to correctly characterize and identify seismogenic areas in the region and assess seismic hazard. Yet, no 3D model of crustal thickness and crustal and upper mantle velocity variation exists. The first step in developing such models is to refine crustal thickness and depths to major seismic velocity boundaries in the crust and improve on seismic velocity estimates for the upper mantle and crustal layers. We present recent results in crustal and uppermost mantle structure in NE Brazil that will contribute to the development of a 3D model of velocity variation. Our approach has consisted of: (i) computing receiver functions to obtain point estimates of crustal thickness and Vp/Vs ratio and (ii) jointly inverting receiver functions and surface-wave dispersion velocities from an independent tomography study to obtain S-velocity profiles at each station. This approach has been used at all the broadband stations of the monitoring network plus 15 temporary, short-period stations that reduced the inter-station spacing to ~100 km. We expect our contributions will provide the basis to produce full 3D velocity models for the Brazilian Northeast and help determine accurate locations for seismic events in the region.

Anelastic Mantle Structure beneath the Northern Philippine Sea from Phase Pair Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shito, A.; Shibutani, T.

2001-12-01

Anelasticity of the mantle provides important constraints on its dynamics, in complement to elasticity, however, studies of lateral variation in attenuation are few, especially at short periods. In this study, we determine the body wave attenuation structure of the mantle beneath the northern part of the Philippine Sea. Elastic tomography studies [e.g. van der Hilst et al., 1991; Fukao et al., 1992] show a stagnant Pacific lithosphere just above the 660 km discontinuity in this region. This stagnation was caused by the trench retreat due to the back arc spreading during the past 17 - 30 Ma [Seno et al., 1993; van der Hilst, 1995; Shito and Shibutani, 2001]. Anelastic properties of the mantle and lithosphere may play important roles in the interaction of the slab and mantle of this area. To study the attenuation structure, we examine the difference of the observed attenuation between P and S waves. The S-P phase pair method measures δ t* using the differential spectral decay between S and P waves arriving at the same station, assuming a constant Qα }/Q{β over the frequency band of 0.5 to 1.25 Hz. We use 20 earthquakes in the Izu-Bonin slab which were recorded at 43 broad-band stations of the J-array and FREESIA networks in Japan. About 700 phase pairs are used to invert for the 2-D attenuation structure. The resultant preliminary Q model shows the local variations of attenuation in the subduction zone. The slab is imaged as a low attenuation area (Qα > 1000), while Qα values in the range of 100 - 350 are found in the mantle wedge.

Interaction Between Downwelling Flow and the Laterally-Varying Thickness of the North American Lithosphere Inferred from Seismic Anisotropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behn, M. D.; Conrad, C. P.; Silver, P. G.

2005-12-01

Shear flow in the asthenosphere tends to align olivine crystals in the direction of shear, producing a seismically anisotropic asthenosphere that can be detected using a number of seismic techniques (e.g., shear-wave splitting (SWS) and surface waves). In the ocean basins, where the asthenosphere has a relatively uniform thickness and lithospheric anisotropy appears to be small, observed azimuthal anisotropy is well fit by asthenospheric shear flow in global flow models driven by a combination of plate motions and mantle density heterogeneity. In contrast, beneath the continents both the lithospheric ceiling and asthenospheric thickness may vary considerably across cratonic regions and ocean-continent boundaries. To examine the influence of a continental lithosphere with variable thickness on predictions of continental seismic anisotropy, we impose lateral variations in lithospheric viscosity in global models of mantle flow driven by plate motions and mantle density heterogeneity. For the North American continent, the Farallon slab descends beneath a deep cratonic root, producing downwelling flow in the upper mantle and convergent flow beneath the cratonic lithosphere. We evaluate both the orientation of the predicted azimuthal anisotropy and the depth dependence of radial anisotropy for this downwelling flow and find that the inclusion of a strong continental root provides an improved fit to observed SWS observations beneath the North American craton. Thus, we hypothesize that at least some continental anisotropy is associated with sub-lithospheric viscous shear, although fossil anisotropy in the lithospheric layer may also contribute significantly. Although we do not observe significant variations in the direction of predicted anisotropy with depth, we do find that the inclusion of deep continental roots pushes the depth of the anisotropy layer deeper into the upper mantle. We test several different models of laterally-varying lithosphere and asthenosphere viscosity. These models can be used to separate the contributions of asthenospheric flow and lithospheric fossil fabric in observations of continental anisotropy.

Origin and Evolution of the Yellowstone Hotspot from Seismic-GPS Imaging and Geodynamic Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, R. B.; Jordan, M.; Puskas, C. M.; Farrell, J.; Waite, G. P.

2006-12-01

The Yellowstone hotspot resulted from interaction of a mantle plume with the overriding North America plate. This feature and related processes have influenced a large part of the western U.S., producing the 16 Ma Yellowstone-Snake River Plain-Newberry silicic-basalt volcanic field (YSRPN). We integrate results from a multi-institution experiment that deployed 80 seismic stations and 160 campaign and 21 permanent GPS stations for 1999-2003. Crust and mantle velocity models were derived from inversion of teleseismic and local earthquake data. Kinematic and dynamic models were derived from inversion of GPS velocities constrained by stresses associated the topography and the +15 m geoid anomaly. Tomography revealed a P- and S-wave low-velocity body at depths of 8-16 km beneath the caldera that is interpreted as partial melt of 8-15% that feeds the youthful Yellowstone volcanic field. Volume changes in the magma chamber are responsible for GPS-measured episodes of uplift and subsidence of the caldera at decadal scales with average rates of ~20 mm/yr but much higher short-term rates of up to 80 mm/yr. An upper-mantle low-velocity body was imaged by inverting teleseismic data constrained by the geoid structure, crustal structure, and the upper mantle discontinuities. This low P and S velocity body extends from 80 km to ~250 km directly beneath Yellowstone and then continues to 650 km with unexpected tilt to the west at ~60°. The tilt is consistent with the ascent of the buoyant magma entrained in eastward return-flow of the upper mantle. We estimate this body has an excess temperature from 85K to 120K, depending on the water content and with up to 1.5% melt. Using the inclined plume-geometry and plate motion history, we extrapolate the Yellowstone mantle source southwestward ~800 km as a plume-head in oceanic lithosphere centered beneath the Columbia Plateau basalt field at 16 Ma. Magma ascent was truncated there by the passage of thicker continental lithosphere over the plume beginning at 12 Ma, reducing the rate of large-scale volcanic eruptions in the YSRP. The decapitated plume head beneath Oregon underwent mantle return flow above the subducting Juan de Fuca plate and was responsible for the NW transgressive magmatism of the Newberry system. We then model the overall kinematics of the western U.S. from GPS data as SW motion for the YSRP, ~2 mm/yr, rotating into E-W motion in the Basin-Range, with a cumulative rate of ~4 mm/yr, and rotating to the northwest at rates of up to ~5 mm/yr in the Pacific Northwest, totaling ~10 mm/yr. Geodynamic models employing the GPS data and geometry of the crust-mantle structure suggests that southwest motion of the YSRP is dominated by stresses produced by the high potential energy of the Yellowstone hotspot while westward motion of the Basin-Range is driven by stress differences associated with the high topography of the Rocky Mountains.

Source Stacking for Numerical Wavefield Computations - Application to Global Scale Seismic Mantle Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacLean, L. S.; Romanowicz, B. A.; French, S.

2015-12-01

Seismic wavefield computations using the Spectral Element Method are now regularly used to recover tomographic images of the upper mantle and crust at the local, regional, and global scales (e.g. Fichtner et al., GJI, 2009; Tape et al., Science 2010; Lekic and Romanowicz, GJI, 2011; French and Romanowicz, GJI, 2014). However, the heaviness of the computations remains a challenge, and contributes to limiting the resolution of the produced images. Using source stacking, as suggested by Capdeville et al. (GJI,2005), can considerably speed up the process by reducing the wavefield computations to only one per each set of N sources. This method was demonstrated through synthetic tests on low frequency datasets, and therefore should work for global mantle tomography. However, the large amplitudes of surface waves dominates the stacked seismograms and these cases can no longer be separated by windowing in the time domain. We have developed a processing approach that helps address this issue and demonstrate its usefulness through a series of synthetic tests performed at long periods (T >60 s) on toy upper mantle models. The summed synthetics are computed using the CSEM code (Capdeville et al., 2002). As for the inverse part of the procedure, we use a quasi-Newton method, computing Frechet derivatives and Hessian using normal mode perturbation theory.

Rayleigh and Love Wave Phase Velocities in the Northern Gulf Coast of the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, A.; Yao, Y.

2017-12-01

The last major tectonic event in the northern Gulf Coast of the United States is Mesozoic continental rifting that formed the Gulf of Mexico. This area also experienced igneous activity and local uplifts during Cretaceous. To investigate lithosphere evolution associated with the rifting and igneous activity, we construct Rayleigh and Love wave phase velocity models at the periods of 6 s to 125 s in the northern Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama including the eastern Ouachita and southern Appalachian orogeny. The phase velocities are derived from ambient noise and earthquake data recorded at the 120 USArray Transportable Array stations. At periods below 20 s, phase velocity maps are characterized by significant low velocities in the Interior Salt Basin and Gulf Coast Basin, reflecting the effects of thick sediments. The northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas are imaged as a low velocity anomaly in Rayleigh wave models but a high velocity anomaly of Love wave at the periods of 14 s to 30 s, indicating strong lower crust extension to the Ouachita front. High velocity is present in the Mississippi Valley Graben from period 20 s to 35 s, probably reflecting a thin crust or high-velocity lower crust. At longer periods, low velocities are along the Mississippi River to the Gulf Coast Basin, and high velocity anomaly mainly locates in the Black Warrior Basin between the Ouachita Belt and Appalachian Orogeny. The magnitude of anomalies in Love wave images is much smaller than that in Rayleigh wave models, which is probably due to radial anisotropy in the upper mantle. A 3-D anisotropic shear velocity model will be developed from the phase velocities and will provide more details for the crust and upper mantle structure beneath the northern Gulf of Mexico continental margin.

A Surface Wave Dispersion Study of the Middle East and North Africa for Monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pasyanos, M. E.; Walter, W. R.; Hazler, S. E.

- We present results from a large-scale study of surface-wave group velocity dispersion across the Middle East, North Africa, southern Eurasia and the Mediterranean. Our database for the region is populated with seismic data from regional events recorded at permanent and portable broadband, three-component digital stations. We have measured the group velocity using a multiple narrow-band filter on deconvolved displacement data. Overall, we have examined more than 13,500 seismograms and made good quality dispersion measurements for 6817 Rayleigh- and 3806 Love-wave paths. We use a conjugate gradient method to perform a group-velocity tomography. Our current results include both Love- and Rayleigh-wave inversions across the region for periods from 10 to 60 seconds. Our findings indicate that short-period structure is sensitive to slow velocities associated with large sedimentary features such as the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. We find our long-period Rayleigh-wave inversion is sensitive to crustal thickness, such as fast velocities under the oceans and slow along the relatively thick Zagros Mts. and Turkish-Iranian Plateau. We also find slow upper mantle velocities along known rift systems. Accurate group velocity maps can be used to construct phase-matched filters along any given path. The filters can improve weak surface wave signals by compressing the dispersed signal. The signals can then be used to calculate regionally determined MS measurements, which we hope can be used to extend the threshold of mb:MS discriminants down to lower magnitude levels. Other applications include using the group velocities in the creation of a suitable background model for forming station calibration maps, and using the group velocities to model the velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle.

Mantle structure: The message from scattered seismic waves (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helffrich, G. R.; Kaneshima, S.

2009-12-01

When Francis Birch named the Transition Zone, the deep mantle became a dull place. It was homogeneous material simply becoming denser as pressure increased with depth. No more respect was accorded to it by geochemists than by geophysicists. For geochemists, the deep mantle was simply a dark box in which chemical components were held until needed for delicate flavoring of various sorts of rock cocktails. It deserves more respect. Though it may be dregs, the part of the mantle in contact with the core is rich in seismologically annoying structural detail. This might be written off as an observational quirk due to a mendacious Earth or investigative incompetence, except that more of the lower mantle is grudgingly revealing structure as well. The structural details are fine-scale, at characteristic sizes of around one to one hundred kilometers. The details are emerging from studies of scattered seismic waves. These are unscheduled arrivals in the timetable following an earthquake. They don't arise in a uniform or even a layered Earth. Rather, they originate from the wave field's interactions with sub-wavelength roughness in Earth structure. A lot of data is needed to be sure those arrivals are real and repeatable, but networks of hundreds of seismometers such as the ones in existence in Asia, Europe and North America can provide or have provided the necessary redundancy for confident detection. The results of studies of S-to-P and P-to-P scattering to date show that some lower mantle heterogeneity is associated with present subduction. Some is also found at sites of past subduction, but it is difficult to generalize to all heterogeneity. Scattering strength varies with depth: the shallowest lower mantle is rougher than the deeper parts. The peak scattering strength is around 1600 km deep in the mantle, followed by a slow decline. The roughness clusters, too, with individual groups separated by around 100 km. Individual clusters appear to have particular fabrics that influence their scattering characteristics. Because the km- to 100 km-length scales are present in oceanic plates in their layer thicknesses and plate thickness, these features strongly suggest that the scattered waves emanate from solid material injected into the lower mantle by subduction. They also suggest that the deep mantle is not strongly layered in viscosity or density because scattering strength depth profiles do not change abruptly. A real puzzle is the material identity of the heterogeneity. Seismic wavespeeds must change by more than 5% within a kilometer. Clearly, this is no thermal signal, but compositional differences that extreme in mantle mineralogies require extreme variations in silica or a very broad pressure-dependent phase transition to change properties that significantly. Only about 2% of the lower mantle volume has been explored to date. Much of the mantle away from subduction zones will never be visible. Different methods will be needed to see all of the mantle's structure details, even using scattering.

Topography Estimation of the Core Mantle Boundary with ScS Reverberations and Diffraction Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hein, B. E.; Nakata, N.

2017-12-01

In this study, we use the propagation of global seismic waves to study the Core Mantle Boundary (CMB). We focus on the use of S-wave reflections at the CMB (ScS reverberations) and outer-core diffracted waves. It is difficult imaging the CMB with the ScS wave because the complexity of the structure in the near surface ( 50 km); the complex structure degrades the signal-to-noise ratio of of the ScS. To avoid estimating the structure in the crust, we rely on the concept of seismic interferometry to extract wave propagation through mantle, but not through the crust. Our approach is compute the deconvolution between the ScS (and its reverberation) and direct S waves generated by intermediate to deep earthquakes (>50 km depth). Through this deconvolution, we have the ability to filter out the direct S wave and retrieve the wave field propagating from only the hypocenter to the outer core, but not between the hypocenter to the receiver. After the deconvolution, we can isolate the CMB reflected waves from the complicated wave phenomena because of the near-surface structure. Utilizing intermediate and deep earthquakes is key since we can suppress the near-surface effect from the surface to the hypocenter of the earthquakes. The variation of such waves (e.g., travel-time perturbation and/or wavefield decorrelation) at different receivers and earthquakes provides the information of the topography of the CMB. In order to get a more detailed image of the topography of the CMB we use diffracted seismic waves such as Pdiff , Sdiff, and P'P'. By using two intermediate to deep earthquakes on a great circle path with a station we can extract the wave propagation between the two earthquakes to simplify the waveform, similar to how it is preformed using the ScS wave. We generate more illumination of the CMB by using diffracted waves rather than only using ScS reverberations. The accurate topography of CMB obtained by these deconvolution analyses may provide new insight of the dynamics of the Earth such as heat flow at the CMB and through the mantle.

Depth variations of P-wave azimuthal anisotropy beneath East Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, W.; Zhao, D.; Xu, J.

2017-12-01

We present a new P-wave anisotropic tomographic model beneath East Asia by inverting a total of 1,488,531 P wave arrival-time data recorded by the regional seismic networks in East Asia and temporary seismic arrays deployed on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results provide important new insights into the subducting Indian, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates and mantle dynamics in East Asia. Our tomographic images show that the northern limit of the subducting Indian plate has reached the Jinsha River suture in eastern Tibet. A striking variation of P-wave azimuthal anisotropy is revealed in the Indian lithosphere: the fast velocity direction (FVD) is NE-SW beneath the Indian continent, whereas the FVD is arc parallel beneath the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, which may reflect re-orientation of minerals due to lithospheric extension, in response to the India-Eurasia collision. The FVD in the subducting Philippine Sea plate beneath the Ryukyu arc is NE-SW(trench parallel), which is consistent with the spreading direction of the West Philippine Basin during its initial opening stage, suggesting that it may reflect the fossil anisotropy. A circular pattern of FVDs is revealed around the Philippine Sea slab beneath SE China. We suggest that it reflects asthenospheric strain caused by toroidal mantle flow around the edge of the subducting slab. We find a striking variation of the FVD with depth in the subducting Pacific slab beneath the Northeast Japan arc. It may be caused by slab dehydration that changed elastic properties of the slab with depth. The FVD in the mantle wedge beneath the Northeast Japan and Ryukyu arcs is trench normal, which reflects subduction-induced convection. Beneath the Kuril and Izu-Bonin arcs where oblique subduction occurs, the FVD in the mantle wedge is nearly normal to the moving direction of the downgoing Pacific plate, suggesting that the oblique subduction together with the complex slab morphology have disturbed the mantle flow.

On seismic resolution of lateral heterogeneity in the Earth's outermost core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garnero, Edward J.; Helmberger, Donald V.

1995-03-01

Issues concerning resolution of seismically determined outermost core properties are presented with an example from three earthquakes in the Fiji-Tonga region. Travel time behavior of the commonly used family of S mKS waves, which travel as S in the mantle, P in the core, reflecting m - 1 times at the underside of the core-mantle boundary (CMB), are analyzed over a large distance range (125-165°). Data having wavepaths through an area of known D″ heterogeneity (±2%) exhibit systematic anomalies in S mKS differential times. Two-dimensional wave propagation experiments demonstrate how large-scale lower-mantle velocity perturbations can explain long-wavelength behavior of such anomalous S mKS times, though heterogeneity on smaller scales may be responsible for the observed scatter about these trends. If lower-mantle heterogeneity is not properly accounted for in deriving a core model, misfit of the mantle model maps directly into core structure. The existence of outermost core heterogeneity is difficult to resolve at present, owing to uncertainties in global lower-mantle structure. Resolving a one-dimensional chemically stratified outermost core also remains difficult, owing to the same uncertainties. Inclusion of the slowly accruing broadband data should help in this regard. Restricting study to higher multiples of S mKS ( m = 2, 3, 4) can help reduce the effect of mantle heterogeneity, because of the closeness of the mantle legs of the wavepaths. S mKS waves are ideal in providing additional information on the details of lower-mantle heterogeneity.

Spectral-element global waveform tomography: A second-generation upper-mantle model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

French, S. W.; Lekic, V.; Romanowicz, B. A.

2012-12-01

The SEMum model of Lekic and Romanowicz (2011a) was the first global upper-mantle VS model obtained using whole-waveform inversion with spectral element (SEM: Komatitsch and Vilotte, 1998) forward modeling of time domain three component waveforms. SEMum exhibits stronger amplitudes of heterogeneity in the upper 200km of the mantle compared to previous global models - particularly with respect to low-velocity anomalies. To make SEM-based waveform inversion tractable at global scales, SEMum was developed using: (1) a version of SEM coupled to 1D mode computation in the earth's core (C-SEM, Capdeville et al., 2003); (2) asymptotic normal-mode sensitivity kernels, incorporating multiple forward scattering and finite-frequency effects in the great-circle plane (NACT: Li and Romanowicz, 1995); and (3) a smooth anisotropic crustal layer of uniform 60km thickness, designed to match global surface-wave dispersion while reducing the cost of time integration in the SEM. The use of asymptotic kernels reduced the number of SEM computations considerably (≥ 3x) relative to purely numerical approaches (e.g. Tarantola, 1984), while remaining sufficiently accurate at the periods of interest (down to 60s). However, while the choice of a 60km crustal-layer thickness is justifiable in the continents, it can complicate interpretation of shallow oceanic upper-mantle structure. We here present an update to the SEMum model, designed primarily to address these concerns. The resulting model, SEMum2, was derived using a crustal layer that again fits global surface-wave dispersion, but with a more geologically consistent laterally varying thickness: approximately honoring Crust2.0 (Bassin, et al., 2000) Moho depth in the continents, while saturating at 30km in the oceans. We demonstrate that this approach does not bias our upper mantle model, which is constrained not only by fundamental mode surface waves, but also by overtone waveforms. We have also improved our data-selection and assimilation scheme, more readily allowing for additional and higher-quality data to be incorporated into our inversion as the model improves. Further, we have been able to refine the parameterization of the isotropic component of our model, previously limited by our ability to solve the large dense linear system that governs model updates (Tarantola and Valette, 1982). The construction of SEMum2 involved 3 additional inversion iterations away from SEMum. Overall, the combined effect of these improvements confirms and validates the general structure of the original SEMum. Model amplitudes remain an impressive feature in SEMum2, wherein peak-to-peak variation in VS can exceed 15% in close lateral juxtaposition. Further, many intriguing structures present in SEMum are now imaged with improved resolution in the updated model. In particular, the geographic extents of the anomalous oceanic cluster identified by Lekic and Romanowicz (2011b) are consistent with our findings and now allow us to further identify alternating bands of lower and higher velocities in the 200-300km depth range beneath the Pacific basin, with a characteristic spacing of ˜2000km normal to absolute plate motion. Possible dynamic interpretation of these and other features in the ocean basins is explored in a companion presentation (Romanowicz et al., this meeting).

Imaging 3D crustal and upper mantle structures of the Northeast China using local and teleseismic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, J.

2017-12-01

Northeast China is located in the composite part of Paleo Asia ocean and Pacific ocean Domain, it undergone multi-stage tectonism and has complicated geological structure. In this region, two major geologic and geophysical boundaries are distinct, the NNE-trending North South Gravity Lineament (NSGL) and Tanlu fault. With respect to North China Craton (NCC), Northeast China is more closely adjacent to the subduction zone of Pacific slab. Along the eastern boundary of Northeast China, the subducting Pacific plate approaches depths of 600 km, many deep earthquakes occurred here. This region becomes an ideal place to investigate deep structure related to deep subduction, deep earthquakes as well as intraplate volcanism. In this study, we determined high-resolution three dimensional P- and S-wave velocity models of the crust and upper mantle to 800 km depth by jointly inverting arrival times from local events and relative residuals from teleseismic events. Our results show that main velocity anomalies exhibited block feature and are generally oriented in NE to NNE direction, which is consistent with regional tectonic direction. The NSGL is characterized by a high-velocity (high-V) anomaly belt with a width of approximately 100 km, and the high-V anomaly extents to the bottom of upper mantle or mantle transition zone. The songliao basin, which is located between NSGL and Tanlu fault tectonic boundaries, obvious low-velocity anomaly extends to about depth of 200 km(. Under the Great Xing'an Range on the west side of NSGL, the low velocity extend to the lithosphere. Our results also show that most of deep earthquakes all occurred in deep subduction zone with high-velocity anomaly. Further, we also observed that extensive low velocity exists above deep-earthquakes zones, this result suggests that deep subduction of the Pacific slab maybe affect overlying lithosphere, resulting in the state of molten, semi-molten or high water.This research is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (91114204) and National Key R&D Plan (2017YFC0601406)

A sharp and flat section of the core-mantle boundary

USGS Publications Warehouse

Vidale, J.E.; Benz, H.M.

1992-01-01

THE transition zone between the Earth's core and mantle plays an important role as a boundary layer for mantle and core convection1. This zone conducts a large amount of heat from the core to the mantle, and contains at least one thermal boundary layer2,3; the proximity of reactive silicates and molten iron leads to the possibility of zones of intermediate composition4. Here we investigate one region of the core-mantle boundary using seismic waves that are converted from shear to compressional waves by reflection at the boundary. The use of this phase (known as ScP), the large number of receiving stations, and the large aperture of our array all provide higher resolution than has previously been possible5-7. For the 350-km-long section of the core-mantle boundary under the northeast Pacific sampled by the reflections, the local boundary topography has an amplitude of less than 500 m, no sharp radial gradients exist in the 400 km above the boundary, and the mantle-lo-core transition occurs over less than 1 km. The simplicity of the structure near and above the core-mantle boundary argues against chemical heterogeneity at the base of the mantle in this location.