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AGU: Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth

 

Keywords

  • low-velocity oceanic crust
  • triple-trench junction
  • seismic tomography

Index Terms

  • Seismology: Oceanic crust
  • Seismology: Subduction zones
  • Seismology: Tomography
  • Tectonophysics: Plate boundary: general
Abstract
Cited By (9)
 

Abstract

Low-velocity oceanic crust at the top of the Philippine Sea and Pacific plates beneath the Kanto region, central Japan, imaged by seismic tomography

Makoto Matsubara

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Tsukuba, Japan

Hiroki Hayashi

Department of Geoscience, Interdisciplinary Faculty of Science and Engineering, Shimane University, Matsue, Japan

Kazushige Obara

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Tsukuba, Japan

Keiji Kasahara

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Tsukuba, Japan

We construct fine-scale three-dimensional P and S wave velocity structures beneath the Kanto region, central Japan, by seismic tomography with a spatial correlation of velocities. The Philippine Sea and Pacific plates subduct beneath the Eurasian plate in this area and are imaged with high velocities. Oceanic crust at the uppermost part of these subducting plates is a low-velocity layer. Low-velocity oceanic crust of the Philippine Sea plate subducts to a depth of approximately 80 km. There are also two low-velocity bodies with relatively high V P /V S ratios of 1.80–1.90 in the mantle wedge above the oceanic crust of the Philippine Sea plate. We speculate that the westernmost of these two low-velocity bodies consists of 20% partially serpentinized peridotite, continuous with gabbro in the oceanic crust of the uppermost Philippine Sea plate, while the eastern body is composed of 30% partially serpentinized peridotite. We trace the subducting oceanic crust of the Pacific plate to a depth of ∼120 km. The estimated V P /V S ratio of this layer is 1.85–1.90, which indicates a low probability of molten rock; the gabbroic oceanic crust may have been metamorphosed to garnet-granulite.

Received 6 February 2005; accepted 21 September 2005; published 14 December 2005.

Citation: Matsubara, M., H. Hayashi, K. Obara, and K. Kasahara (2005), Low-velocity oceanic crust at the top of the Philippine Sea and Pacific plates beneath the Kanto region, central Japan, imaged by seismic tomography, J. Geophys. Res., 110, B12304, doi:10.1029/2005JB003673.

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