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Abstract The Hawaiian‐Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean has provided fundamental insights into hotspot generated intraplate volcanism and the long‐term strength of oceanic lithosphere. However, only a few seismic experiments to determine crustal and upper mantle structure have been carried out on the Hawaiian Ridge, and no deep imaging has ever been carried out along the Emperor seamounts. Here, we present the results of an active source seismic experiment using 29 Ocean‐Bottom Seismometers (OBS) carried out along a strike profile of the seamounts in the region of Jimmu and Suiko guyots. Joint reflection and refraction tomographic inversion of the OBS data show the upper crust is highly heterogeneous withPwave velocities <4–5 km s−1, which are attributed to extrusive lavas and clastics. In contrast, the lower crust is remarkably homogeneous with velocities of 6.5–7.2 km s−1, which we attribute to oceanic crust and mafic intrusions. Moho is identified by a strongPmParrival at offsets of 20–80 km, yielding depths of 13–16 km. The underlying mantle is generally homogeneous with velocities in the range 7.9–8.0 km s−1. The crust and mantle velocity structure has been verified by gravity modeling. While top of oceanic crust prior to volcano loading is not recognized as a seismic or gravity discontinuity, flexural modeling reveals a ∼5.0–5.5 km thick preexisting oceanic crust that is overlain by a ∼8 km thick volcanic edifice. Unlike at the Hawaiian Ridge, we find no evidence of magmatic underplating.
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Uppermost Mantle Velocity beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Transform Faults in the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean
ABSTRACT Seismic rays traveling just below the Moho provide insights into the thermal and compositional properties of the upper mantle and can be detected as Pn phases from regional earthquakes. Such phases are routinely identified in the continents, but in the oceans, detection of Pn phases is limited by a lack of long-term instrument deployments. We present estimates of upper-mantle velocity in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean from Pn arrivals beneath, and flanking, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and across several transform faults. We analyzed waveforms from 50 earthquakes with magnitude Mw>3.5, recorded over 12 months in 2012–2013 by five autonomous hydrophones and a broadband seismograph located on the St. Peter and St. Paul archipelago. The resulting catalog of 152 ray paths allows us to resolve spatial variations in upper-mantle velocities, which are consistent with estimates from nearby wide-angle seismic experiments. We find relatively high velocities near the St. Paul transform system (∼8.4 km s−1), compared with lower ridge-parallel velocities (∼7.7 km s−1). Hence, this method is able to resolve ridge-transform scale velocity variations. Ray paths in the lithosphere younger than 10 Ma have mean velocities of 7.9±0.5 km s−1, which is slightly lower than those sampled in the lithosphere older than 20 Ma (8.1 km±0.3 s−1). There is no apparent systematic relationship between velocity and ray azimuth, which could be due to a thickened lithosphere or complex mantle upwelling, although uncertainties in our velocity estimates may obscure such patterns. We also do not find any correlation between Pn velocity and shear-wave speeds from the global SL2013sv model at depths <150 km. Our results demonstrate that data from long-term deployments of autonomous hydrophones can be used to obtain rare and insightful estimates of uppermost mantle velocities over hundreds of kilometers in otherwise inaccessible parts of the deep oceans.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1839727
- PAR ID:
- 10210652
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
- ISSN:
- 0037-1106
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1785/0120200248
