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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Seismology
  • Seismology: Lithosphere and upper mantle
  • Tectonophysics: Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle—general

Abstract

Upper mantle discontinuity structure in the region of the Tonga Subduction Zone

Hersh J. Gilbert

Department of Geological Sciences, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO

Anne F. Sheehan

Department of Geological Sciences, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO

Douglas A. Wiens

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO

Kenneth G. Dueker

Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY

LeRoy M. Dorman

Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Univ. of California, San Diego, CA

John Hildebrand

Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Univ. of California, San Diego, CA

Spahr Webb

Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY

We study the mantle structure below the southwest Pacific in order to examine the geometry of the Tonga slab at depth and its interaction with the 410‐ and 660‐km discontinuities (hereafter called the 410 and the 660). We utilize data from stations of both the Lau Basin Ocean Bottom Seismogram experiment and island stations of the Southwest Pacific Seismic Experiment. The tectonic complexity of this region, containing both the Tonga subduction zone and the associated Lau back arc spreading center make it an ideal area to investigate the upper mantle discontinuities using a high resolution technique such as common conversion point stacking of receiver functions. We produce a high‐resolution image of the upper mantle near the Tonga subduction zone to show the interaction between the discontinuities and the subducting slab. Our results show the 410 uplifted by 30 km near the Tonga slab and the 660 depressed by 20 to 30 km as expected for thermally controlled olivine phase transitions.

Received 10 August 2000; accepted 30 January 2001; .

Citation: Gilbert, H. J., A. F. Sheehan, D. A. Wiens, K. G. Dueker, L. M. Dorman, J. Hildebrand, and S. Webb (2001), Upper mantle discontinuity structure in the region of the Tonga Subduction Zone, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(9), 1855–1858.

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