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| Titel |
The mantle transition zone beneath Antarctica: Evidence for thermal upwellings and hydration |
| VerfasserIn |
Andrew Nyblade, Erica Emry, Samantha Hansen, Jordi Julià, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, Richard Aster, Douglas Wiens, Audrey Huerta, Terry Wilson |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2015
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 17 (2015) |
| Datensatznummer |
250101807
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2015-4928.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| West Antarctica has experienced abundant Cenozoic volcanism, and it is suspected that the region is influenced by upwelling thermal plumes from the lower mantle; however this has not yet been verified, because seismic tomography results are not well resolved at mantle transition zone (MTZ) depths. We use P-wave receiver functions (PRFs) from temporary and permanent arrays throughout Antarctica, including the Antarctic POLENET, TAMNET, TAMSEIS, and GAMSEIS arrays, to explore the characteristics of the MTZ beneath the continent. We obtained PRFs for earthquakes occurring at 30-90° with Mb>5.5 using a time-domain iterative deconvolution method filtered with a Gaussian-width of 0.5 and 1.0, corresponding to frequencies less than ~0.24 Hz and ~0.48 Hz, respectively. We combine P receiver functions as single-station and as common conversion point stacks and migrate them to depth using the ak135 1-d velocity model. Results from West Antarctica suggest that the thickness of the MTZ varies throughout the region with thinning beneath the Ruppert Coast of Marie Byrd Land and beneath the Bentley Subglacial Trench and Whitmore Mountains. Also, prominent negative peaks are detected above the transition zone beneath much of West Antarctica and may be evidence for water-induced partial melt above the MTZ. Preliminary results from single-station stacks for the mantle transition zone beneath East Antarctica suggests that one section of East Antarctica, off of the South Pole may have slightly thinned transition zone. Results are forthcoming from the mantle transition zone beneath Victoria Land and the Northern Transantarctics. We propose that the MTZ beneath parts of West Antarctica and possibly also beneath one region of East Antarctica, is hotter than average, possibly due to material upwelling from the lower mantle. Furthermore, we propose that the transition zone beneath much of West Antarctica is water-rich and that upward migration of hydrated material results in formation of a partial melt layer above the MTZ. |
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