mantle dynamics beneath the gibraltar arc western mediterranean from shear wave splitting measurements on a dense seismic array 1 controversial evolutionary models have been proposed for the gibraltar arc system a complex interaction zone between the eurasia and african plates here we derive new mantle anisotropic constraints from sks splitting measurements on a dense network of about 90 broad band stations deployed over south iberia and north morocco the inferred fast polarization directions fpd clearly show a spectacular rotation along the arc following the curvature of the rif betic chain while stations located at the south and south east edges show distinct patterns these results support geodynamical processes invoking a fast retreating slab rather than convective removal and delamination models the fpd variations along the gibraltar arc can be explained by fossil anisotropy acquired during the western mediterranean eocene subduction while changes to the south and south east of the rif betic chain could be the imprint of a flow episode around an alboran high velocity slab during its miocene fragmentation from the algerian slab

evolution of retreating subduction boundaries formed during continental collision retreating subduction boundaries formed where the rate of subduction exceeds the rate of overall plate convergence appear to be commonly developed features within regions of early or incomplete continent continent collision they are characterized by regional extension within the overriding plate and at their leading edge by thin skinned arcuate thrust belts that are concave towards the overriding plate as is illustrated by examples from the mediterranean region the formation of retreating subduction boundaries is intimately related to the process of continental collision during the early stages of collision retreating subduction boundaries are commonly formed by lateral ejection from zones of crustal shortening along the main collision boundary retreating plate boundaries can also form before the main collision and the associated thrust belts emplaced as precollisional accretionary assemblages because the driving mechanism for retreating subduction boundaries appears to be gravity acting on a dense subducted slab slab pull subduction usually ceases when and only when thick buoyant continental crust enters the subduction zone thus differences in the evolution and duration of retreating subduction systems can be largely attributed to the size and configuration of the deep water regions available to be subducted in some cases retreating subduction boundaries may escape into the open ocean where they form nearly isolated local tectonic systems in these systems the rate of subduction is approximately compensated by the rate of upper plate extension and migration of the system across the oceanic region may be very rapid for example the horseshoe seamounts located about 800 km offshore in the eastern north atlantic may be the active expression of an east dipping westwardly migrating retreating subduction boundary that has evolved from the betic cordillera rif system active in miocene time and may now be progressing across the atlantic at approximately 50 mm yr an analogous situation may be represented by the scotia arc system a westward dipping retreating subduction system located between the south american and antarctic plates which may have escaped into the south atlantic ocean from a zone of crustal shortening in the andes and is now progressing across the atlantic at a rate of about 80 mm yr

contrasting rupture processes during the april 11 2010 deep focus earthquake beneath granada spain abstract the mw 6 3 deep focus earthquake beneath granada spain in 2010 consisted of three resolvable sub events occurring within a time span of 5 s estimated sub event seismic moment partitioning is 12 7 and 81 respectively all sub events had similar focal mechanisms with a vertical and a near horizontal nodal plane and all occurred within 5 km of each other at a similar depth suggesting rupture on the near horizontal nodal plane however directivity analyses indicate that the first sub event ruptured unilaterally on the vertical plane its modeled rupture length of 9 km and stress drop of 2 mpa are typical of crustal earthquakes in contrast the following sub events show no clear directivity the third best resolved sub event had a hypocenter 2 km from the first and a focal mechanism indistinguishable from the first but it had a rupture dimension of 40 mpa this requires an ambient stress field significantly greater than the stress drop of the first sub event implying that the first sub event ruptured as a slip pulse with a transient weakening mechanism the large stress drops of the second and third sub events suggest a crack like rupture without fault healing and with nearly total stress drop fault zone melting and metastable olivine are viable mechanisms for these ruptures in contrast the rupture characteristics of the first sub event seem incompatible with most mechanisms currently under consideration for deep focus earthquakes

seismic evidence for accumulated oceanic crust above the 660 km discontinuity beneath southern africa 1 high pressure assemblages of subducted oceanic crust are denser than the normal upper mantle but less dense than the uppermost lower mantle thus subducted oceanic crust may accumulate at the base of the upper mantle direct observational evidence for this hypothesis however remains elusive we present an analysis of a negative polarity shear wave converted from compressional wave at a seismic discontinuity near 570 600 km depth beneath southern africa the negative polarity of the converted phase indicates a 2 2 0 2 s velocity decrease with depth at the seismic discontinuity this velocity reduction is associated however with a low velocity contrast at the 660 km discontinuity the exsolution of ca perovskite in former oceanic crust at depth greater than 600 km and the associated small volume fraction of ringwoodite are plausible explanations for the apparent paradox between the negative velocity discontinuity and the low velocity contrast at the 660 km discontinuity

geodynamic evolution of the lithosphere and upper mantle beneath the alboran region of the western mediterranean constraints from travel time tomography an edited version of this paper was published by the american geophysical union copyright 2000 agu see also http www agu org pubs crossref 2000 2000jb900024 shtml http atlas geo cornell edu morocco publications calvert2000 htm

upper mantle compressional velocity structure beneath the west mediterranean basin p waveforms of regional crustal earthquakes have been modeled to obtain an upper mantle compressional velocity model for the west mediterranean basin data come from long period stations of the world wide standardized seismograph network and broadband stations located in the iberian peninsula synthetic waveforms have first been computed for published velocity models corresponding to different tectonic provinces and obtained with analogous techniques a model that strongly improves the fits to the data is then derived the proposed model is characterized by a 100 km thick lid overlaying a not very pronounced low velocity zone and a 3 discontinuity at 368 km where an increase of the velocity gradient also occurs these features could be explained either as a deflection of the olivine to spinel phase transition regionally detected at about 395 km resulting from the lower temperature produced by the subduction of the african plate or as being due to the presence below 300 km depth of a layer of silicate melt producing a strong reflection from its bottom and a more usual depth for the olivine spinel transition in both cases the occurrence of relatively low velocities beneath 300 km is interpreted as being caused by the presence of melt associated with the northward dipping subduction of the african plate

do gravel bed river size distributions record channel network structure 1 bed load sediment particles supplied to channels by hillslopes are reduced in size by abrasion during downstream transport the branching structure of the channel network creates a distribution of downstream travel distances to a given reach of river and thus may strongly influence the grain size distribution of the long term bed load flux through that reach here we investigate this hypothesis using mass conservation and the sternberg exponential decay equation for particle abrasion to predict bed material variability at multiple scales for both natural and artificial drainage networks we assume that over a sufficiently long timescale no net deposition occurs and that grains less than 2 mm are swept away in suspension we find that abrasion during fluvial transport has a surprisingly small effect on the bed load sediment grain size distribution for the simple case of spatially uniform supply of poorly sorted hillslope sediments this occurs because at any point in the channel network local resupply offsets the size reduction of material transported from upstream thus river bed material may essentially mirror the coarse component of the size distribution of hillslope sediment supply furthermore there is a predictable distance downstream at which the bed load grain size distribution reaches a steady state in the absence of net deposition due to selective transport large scale variability in bed material such as downstream fining must then be due primarily to spatial gradients in hillslope sediment production and transport characteristics a second key finding is that average bed load flux will tend to stabilize at a constant value independent of upstream drainage area once the rate of silt production by bed load abrasion per unit travel distance is equal to the rate of coarse sediment supply per unit channel length q bed load flux equilibrates over a distance that scales with the inverse of the fining coefficient in the abrasion rate law and can be approximated simply as q 3 thus the efficiency of particle abrasion sets a fundamental length scale shorter for weaker rocks and longer for harder rocks which controls the expression in the river bed of variability in sediment supply we explore the role of the abrasion length scale in modulating the influence of sediment supply variability in a number of channel network contexts including individual tributary junctions a sequence of tributary inputs along a main stem channel and variable basin shapes and network architecture as expressed by the width function these findings highlight the need for both data and theory that can be used to predict the grain size distributions supplied to channels by hillslopes

new insights from seismic tomography on the complex geodynamic evolution of two adjacent domains gulf of cadiz and alboran sea 1 in this study we present a three dimensional p wave upper mantle tomography model of the southwest iberian margin and alboran sea based on teleseismic arrival times recorded by iberian and moroccan land stations and by a seafloor network deployed for 1 year in the gulf of cadiz area during the european commission integrated observations from near shore sources of tsunamis towards an early warning system ec nearest project the three dimensional model was computed down to 600 km depth the tomographic images exhibit significant velocity contrasts as large as 3 confirming the complex evolution of this plate boundary region prominent high velocity anomalies are found beneath betics alboran sea off shore southwest portugal and north portugal at sublithospheric depths the transition zones between high and low velocity anomalies in southwest and south iberia are associated to the contact of oceanic and continental lithosphere the fast structure below the alboran sea granada area depicts an l shaped body steeply dipping from the uppermost mantle to the transition zone where it becomes less curved this anomaly is consistent with the results of previous tomographic investigations and recent geophysical data such as stress distribution gps measurements of plate motion and anisotropy patterns in the atlantic domain under the horseshoe abyssal plain the main feature is a high velocity zone found at uppermost mantle depths this feature appears laterally separated from the positive anomaly recovered in the alboran domain by the interposition of low velocity zones which characterize the lithosphere beneath the southwest iberian peninsula margin suggesting that there is no continuity between the high velocity anomalies of the two domains west and east of the gibraltar strait

seismic anisotropy beneath southern iberia from sks splitting abstract seismic anisotropy of the south iberian upper mantle is investigated using shear wave splitting of sks phases we analyzed teleseismic events recorded by sixteen permanent broadband stations installed on the southern iberian peninsula and in northern africa and we determined fast polarization directions and delay times t between fast and slow components the area of investigation extends across two important geological structures in the variscan iberian peninsula the variscan iberian massif in its center and the gibraltar arc in the southeast that represents the most westerly alpine belt in the western mediterranean shear wave splitting measurements from stations in the betic domain show homogeneous ene wsw fast directions nearly parallel to the trend of the mountain belt and smooth spatial variations stations in the north toward the southern part of the variscan iberian massif show homogeneous fast directions however trending ns to ne sw different from those recorded in the betic these observations may reflect a post hercynian variscan deformation of the ossa morena zone related to the main stages in the tectonic evolution of this part namely transpressional stage transtensional stage and shortening episode or a deformation related to the posterior alpine orogeny along the gibraltar arc we observe a smoothly varying trend changing from ene wsw in the eastern betics to ns in the area of gibraltar and ceuta following more or less the general trend of the mountain belt around the alboran sea and the coastline since a similar rotation is also visible in results from pn anisotropy this suggests that the anisotropy is vertically coherent starting from just below the moho comparing the anisotropy pattern expected from various geodynamic models with the observed sks splitting suggests that the anisotropy is best explained by a model of slab rollback rather than by delamination models

mantle structure under gibraltar constrained by dispersion of body waves 1 westudytheafrica iberiaplateboundaryinthevicinity of gibraltar numerous models have been proposed for that region throughout the last decades proposing mechanisms that range widely from continental delamination convective removal to subduction of oceanic lithosphere to better constrain upper mantle structure under the region we study waveforms of p waves that traverse the alboran sea region between spain and morocco these show dispersive behavior which together with early arrival times confirms the presence of an anomalous upper mantle structure under the alboran sea the dispersion is consistent with that expected from subducted lithosphere waveforms of body waves therefore provide a way to better constrain the elusive mantle structure and dynamics of the alboran sea region citation bokelmann g and e maufroy 2007 mantle structure under gibraltar constrained by dispersion of body waves geophys res lett 34 l22305 doi 10 1029 2007gl030964

evidence for slab rollback in westernmost mediterranean from improved upper mantle imaging this work is funded by the picasso project nsf grant ear 0808939 the deployment and data processing for spanish stations was funded by consolider ingenio 2010 project topo iberia csd2006 00041 as well as alert es cgl2010 19803 c03 02

structure and sharpness of phase transitions and mantle discontinuities the structure of phase transitions expected from equilibrium thermodynamics is examined we show that in binary systems the shape of the coexistence region phase loop is controlled primarily by the partition coefficient k we derive a general and simple one parameter expression for the pressure dependence of the yield of the high pressure phase and show that this function can be highly nonlinear most of the transition occurs in a narrow interval near the boundary of the phase loop estimates of the effective width of binary phase transitions are less than half the total width of the coexistence region even for relatively mild partitioning k 1 4 we generalize these results to multiphase and multicomponent transitions we show that the presence of nontransforming phases can affect the width of the transition substantially we predict that the width of the olivine to wadsleyite transition in the presence of pyroxene and garnet is approximately half that of the binary phase loop at typical transition zone temperatures the estimated effective width of this transition in the mantle 4 8 km is marginally consistent with observations of high frequency 0 5 1 0 hz p wave reflections from the 410 km discontinuity we show that the effective width of the garnet to perovskite transition is sufficiently narrow to reflect s wave energy in the frequency range of scs reverberations 10 40 mhz and that this transition can account for the observed properties of the 710 km discontinuity

a ubiquitous low velocity layer at the base of the mantle transition zone global stacks of receiver functions clearly exhibit the upper mantle stratification besides the most prominent seismic discontinuities such as the moho and the 410 and 660 km discontinuities a negative discontinuity is detected at a depth of 600 km indicating a low velocity layer at the base of the mantle transition zone the slant slack technique helps to identify the primary conversions from the multiple reverberations presence of the negative 600 km discontinuity underneath both continent and ocean island stations where the crustal thickness significantly differs also precludes the possible cause of crustal reverberations we conclude that the negative 600 km discontinuity could be a global feature possibly resulted from accumulation of ancient subducted oceanic crust the x discontinuity at 300 km depth is also observed in our global stacks which can be explained by the coesite stishovite phase transformation

the 2010 granada spain deep earthquake the deep earthquake h 650 km that occurred on 11 april 2010 south of granada spain has been studied using the inversion of body waves at teleseismic and regional distances we have obtained a solution of dip slip motion on either a vertical plane or a nearly horizontal plane with the pressure axis dipping 45 to the east the horizontal plane is chosen as the rupture plane with rupture propagating from east to west on the basis of directivity effects at teleseismic distances and differences of the waveforms at regional distances the comparison of these results with the focal mechanisms of four other deep earthquakes that occurred in the same area shows similar rupture processes the origin of this deep seismic activity remains an open question tomographic studies have shown the existence of an anomalous body in this region that extends from 200 to 700 km depth the olivine spinel phase transitions or shear melting along horizontal planes inside of this body may be an explanation for the occurrence of these earthquakes

p wave tomography of the mantle under the alpine mediterranean area 1 we study the upper mantle p wave velocity structure below the euro mediterranean area down to 1000 km depth by seismic travel time tomography we invert summary residuals constructed with both regional and teleseismic first arrival data reported by the international seismological centre isc 1964 1995 introducing some alternative strategies in the travel time tomographic approach and a new scheme to correct teleseismic data for global mantle structure our high resolution model pm0 5 is parameterized with three dimensional 3 d linear splines on a grid of nodes with 0 5 spacing in both horizontal directions and 50 km vertical spacing we obtain about 26 root mean square rms reduction of residuals by inversion in addition to roughly 31 reduction after summary rays formation and selection sensitivity analyses are performed through several test inversions to explore the resolution characteristics of the model at different spatial scales the distribution of large scale fast anomalies suggests that two different stages of a convection process presently coexist in very close regions the mantle dynamics of western central europe is dominated by blockage of subducted slabs at the 660 km discontinuity and ponding of seismically fast material in the transition zone contrarily in the eastern mediterranean fast velocity material sinks into the lower mantle suggesting that the flow of the cold downwelling here is not blocked by the 660 km discontinuity on a smaller scale the existence of tears in the subducted slab lithospheric detachment all along both margins of the adriatic plate as proposed by some authors is not supported by our tomographic images

seismic imaging of transition zone discontinuities suggests hot mantle west of hawaii 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 to investigate pertinent thermal anomalies we imaged with inverse scattering of ss waves the depths to seismic discontinuities below the central pacific which we explain with olivine and garnet transitions in a pyrolitic mantle the presence of an 800 to 2000 kilometer wide thermal anomaly tmax 300 to 400 kelvin 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

seismic discontinuities and subduction zones abstract the seismic discontinuities at 410 and 660 km depth in the mantle are generally believed to be due to phase transformations in its major component olivine an increasing observational base of short period regional seismic network data supports this view here we analyse cross sections of discontinuity topography in the northwest pacific subduction zones to infer the thermal and chemical state of the mantle in a subduction environment most of the data is from the southern part of the izu bonin subduction zone penetration of the lower mantle by the steeply dipping subducting slab is clearly indicated by depression of the 660 km discontinuity elevation of the 410 km discontinuity in this region by up to 60 km implies a thermal anomaly of approximately 900 1000 c relative to the ambient mantle observation of the elevated 410 in the seismically active part of the slab indicates that the olivine wadsleyite phase transformation occurs under essentially equilibrium conditions there which argues against the transformational faulting hypothesis as the mechanism for deep earthquakes upgoing p wave reflections from the 410 km discontinuity indicate that it is sharp in the mantle far from subducting slabs reflection coefficient variability in and near slabs indicates either a chemical effect or the consequences of topographic focusing

the nature of the 660 kilometer discontinuity in earth s mantle from global seismic observations of pp precursors the 660 kilometer discontinuity which separates earth s upper and lower mantle has been detected routinely on a global scale in underside reflections of precursors to ss shear waves here we report observations of this discontinuity in many different regions using precursors to compressional pp waves the apparent absence of such precursors in previous studies had posed major problems for models of mantle composition we find a complicated structure showing single and double reflections ranging in depth from 640 to 720 kilometers that requires the existence of multiple phase transitions at the base of the transition zone the results are consistent with a pyrolite mantle composition

wet subduction versus cold subduction 1 in situ x ray diffraction study of post spinel transformation in hydrous peridotite 2 wt h2o indicates that the phase boundary is shifted to higher pressures by 0 6 gpa relative to anhydrous peridotite at 1473 k whereas it shows no obvious shift at high temperature around 1873 k a linear equation for the boundary is p gpa 0 002 t k 26 3 which is applicable for temperatures below 1800 k the present data shows that a significant part of the depressions seen in the 660 km seismic discontinuity may be affected by existence of water it is also well resolved that the olivine wadsleyite phase transformation corresponding to the 410 km seismic discontinuity is shifted to lower pressures by 1 2 gpa by the addition of water thus the topography of seismic discontinuities in the transition zone associated with slabs can be attributed not only to cold subduction but also wet subduction

seismic sources on the iberia african plate boundary and their tectonic implications the plate boundary between iberia and africa has been studied using data on seismicity and focal mechanisms the region has been divided into three areas a the gulf of cadiz b the betics alboran sea and northern morocco and c algeria seismicity shows a complex behavior large shallow earthquakes h 30 km occur in areas a and c and moderate shocks in area b intermediate depth activity 30 h 150 km is located in area b the depth earthquakes h 650 km are located to the south of granada moment rate slip velocity andhvalues have been estimated for shallow shocks and show similar characteristics for the gulf of cadiz and algeria and quite different ones for the central region focal mechanisms of 80 selected shallow earthquakes 8 mb 4 show thrust faulting in the gulf of cadiz and algeria with horizontal nnw sse compression and normal faulting in the alboran sea with e w extension focal mechanisms of 26 intermediate depth earthquakes in the alboran sea display vertical motions with a predominant plane trending e w solutions for very deep shocks correspond to vertical dip slip along n s trends frohlich diagrams and seismic moment tensors show different behavior in the gulf of cadiz betic alboran sea and northern morocco and northern algeria for shallow events the stress pattern of intermediate depth and very deep earthquakes has different directions vertical extension in the nw se direction for intermediate depth earthquakes and tension and pressure axes dipping about 45 o for very deep earthquakes regional stress pattern may result from the collision between the african plate and iberia with extension and subduction of lithospheric material in the alboran sea at intermediate depth the very deep seismicity may be correlated with older subduction processes

global scale analysis of the mantle pds phases a global scale analysis of travel times of the mantle pds phases converted from p to s from the discontinuity at a depth d beneath the receiver is presented most of the data are related to p 410 s and p 660 s recorded by the broadband stations of geoscope incorporated research institutions for seismology iris and other networks in order to provide a good global scale coverage published measurements at 37 stations are complemented by our measurements at 45 stations lateral resolution of our data is many times higher than that of ss and its precursors previously used for similar purposes but we have fewer data in the oceans lateral variations of travel times of the major pds phases are strongly correlated with the lateral p and s velocity variations in the uppermost mantle as revealed by tomographic studies the scaling coefficient between the teleseismic s and p residuals as found from the variations of travel times of the major pds phases is around 3 7 for north america and around 3 3 for the rest of the world almost all the differential travel times t p 660 s t p 410 s are in the range of 1 s relative to the average value of 24 0 s if the lateral variations of the velocities within the mantle transition zone mtz can be neglected the corresponding variations of thickness of the mtz are in the range of 10 km relative to the standard depth of 250 km and do not show significant correlation with either velocities in the upper mantle above the mtz or with the variations of thickness of the mtz as found in some recent studies of precursors to ss there is a weak but marginally significant positive correlation between the variations of thickness of the mtz inferred from our data and the s velocity variations in the mtz as given by su et al 1994 this correlation suggests that both variables contain temperature dependent components lateral variability of the mtz is also manifested by extreme weakness of p 410 s at several locations this may indicate either anomalous topography on 410 km discontinuity or strong broadening of the otherwise sharp discontinuity at some stations there are arrivals that can be interpreted as p 520 s this interpretation implies that the strengh and or sharpness of 520 km discontinuity as well as its depth are laterally variable in a broad range

seismic waves converted from velocity gradient anomalies in the earth s upper mantle summary modelling of elastic wave propagation in 1 d structures is frequently performed using reflectivity techniques in which the earth s velocity profile is approximated by stacks of homogeneous layers the complete reflection transmission r t response of a zone with arbitrary 1 d depth variation including both gradients and discontinuities in material properties can however be calculated using invariant embedding techniques results from earlier studies are here extended to derive exact expressions for r t matrices in arbitrary 1 d anisotropic media using a form of born approxi mation valid for thin scatterers and which does not assume small perturbations in material properties the r t matrices are solutions to a system of non linear ordinary differential equations of ricatti type and may be manipulated using standard r t matrix algebra in an equivalent description the wavefield within the heterogeneous zone is considered in terms of depth dependent contributions from up and downgoing waves propagating within the embedding reference medium this leads to efficient calculation of the internal wavefield using r t matrices of the heterogeneous stratification and portions thereof at minor additional expense mode conversion of teleseismic p and s phases from velocity gradients is examined by way of examples and comparison with three component data from broad band stations of the yellowknife seismic array the frequency dependence of such wave interactions depends on the differences in vertical slowness between incident and scattered modes it is shown that significant energy is converted from transition zones with extent l p 2 a broader interval than will generally produce intramode reflections a layer structure identified from ps conversions near 75 km depth below the slave craton is shown to be compatible with a 10 km thick gradient zone in which anisotropy increases from ambient levels to vp 5 per cent vs 2 5 per cent at a discontinuous upper boundary this characterization supports a previous interpretation as the upper strata of a former oceanic plate juxtaposed against overriding lithosphere during an ancient episode of shallow subduction

constraints on upper mantle discontinuities from observations of long period reflected and converted phases stacked images combining over 5 years of long period global digital seismograph network data reveal many phases associated with reflections and conversions from upper mantle discontinuities these images show travel time and amplitude relative to a reference phase which is aligned and normalized on all seismograms prior to stacking results obtained for p s ss and pp reference arrivals resolve numerous phases from discontinuities near 410 and 660 km while some of the stacks also show evidence for a weaker discontinuity near 520 km phases of particular interest include p and sh multiples resulting from topside reflections precursors to ss from underside reflections and p to sv converted phases these phases can be clearly seen both in the waveform stacks and in cross correlation analysis of individual seismograms travel times for these arrivals are converted to discontinuity depths relative to velocities in the preliminary reference earth model and empirical corrections are applied for the effects of lateral velocity variations in the upper mantle average apparent depths to the discontinuities for the different phases agree to within 3 km for the 410 km discontinuity to within 4 km for the 520 km discontinuity and to within 8 km for the 660 km discontinuity the best global averages are obtained from the ss precursor data which indicate discontinuities at 415 519 and 659 km discontinuity depths obtained from the p to sv converted phases at over 35 individual seismic stations exhibit variations of less than 20 km apparent depths to the 660 km discontinuity consistently show greater variability than depths to the 410 km discontinuity supporting recent laboratory results which indicate that the clapeyron slope for the 660 km discontinuity is significantly larger in magnitude than the slope for the 410 km discontinuity precursors to ss seen between 110 and 180 are particularly useful for mapping possible lateral variations in discontinuity depths since each arrival can be associated with a single underside reflection point apparent discontinuity depths computed from ss precursors for different tectonic regions agree to within about 5 km the ss precursors have especially good coverage near the subducting slabs in the northwest pacific analysis of apparent discontinuity depths in this area suggests the presence of a broad 1000 to 1500 km wide region near the slab in which the 660 km discontinuity is depressed by about 20 km measuring absolute amplitudes for these phases is difficult due to the large corrections required to compensate for the effects of incoherent stacking relative amplitude analysis suggests that the p and s wave impedance changes at 410 km are about 0 8 1 1 times the size of the changes at 660 km and that the contrasts at 520 km are between 0 3 and 0 6 of the changes at 410 km

chemical and stable isotope composition of recent hot water travertines and associated thermal waters from egerszalok hungary depositional facies and non equilibrium fractionation abstract combined petrographical mineralogical geochemical and stable isotope analyses were conducted on an actively forming egerszalok travertine mound to determine the factors that govern carbonate precipitation and thus influence the use of travertines in paleoclimate reconstruction stable isotope analyses of oxygen carbon and hydrogen demonstrate both biological and abiological factors to control travertine deposition processes of morphology related outgassing had major effects upon isotopic composition continuous co 2 degassing and temperature change of the thermal water between the spring orifice and distal parts of the system caused stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of the precipitating travertines to increase from 2 7 to 4 3 relative to v pdb and from 10 5 to 14 7 relative to v smow respectively the travertines at the spring orifice t 67 c are composed of almost pure calcite with a 13 c value of 2 7 relative to v pdb enabling classification as intermediate between thermometeogene and thermogene in lower temperature water away from the spring orifice various amounts of aragonite 5 35 with higher sr concentrations precipitate from solution this phenomenon is exceptional in hot spring carbonate deposits and could be explained by fast carbonate precipitation due to the morphology related outgassing oxygen and hydrogen isotope measurements of the thermal water confirmed evaporation to be causing limited kinetic isotope fractionation however 18 o values of the travertine do show isotope shifts away from the equilibrium fractionation curve which is most probably related to the rapid calcite precipitation and transportation along the flow path our data closely follow the temperature 18 o calcite water relationship observed for other travertine localities this is slightly displaced from the experimental curve and determines an empirical travertine curve our study shows that this shift may result in an approximately 8 c difference in paleotemperature calculations depending upon which fractionation curve is used

multiple transition zone seismic discontinuities and low velocity layers below western united states with p to s converted waves recorded at seismic stations of the us transportable array we image the fine structure of upper mantle and transition zone tz beneath the western us we map the topographies of seismic discontinuities by stacking data by common conversion points along profiles systematic depth and amplitude measurements are performed not only for the well known 410 and 660 interfaces but also for minor seismic discontinuities identified around 350 590 and 630 km depths the amplitude of conversion suggests shear wave velocity vs increase by 4 at the 410 and the 660 the observed 660 velocity contrast is smaller than expected from the 6 in iasp91 but consistent with a pyrolitic model of mantle composition the gorda plate subducted under northern california is tracked to the tz where it seems to flatten and induce uplift of the 410 under northern nevada maps of 410 660 amplitude topography reveal that the tz is anomalous beneath the geographical borders of washington oregon and idaho with i a thickened tz ii a sharp change in depth of the 660 iii a reduced 410 conversion amplitude in the north and iv a positive 630 discontinuity such anomalous structure might be inherited from the past history of plate subduction accretion a thinned tz under the yellowstone suggests higher than average temperatures perhaps due to a deep thermal plume both the 350 and the 590 negative discontinuities extend over very large areas they might be related either to an increased water content in the tz a significant amount of oceanic material accumulated through the past 100 my or both

studying the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities beneath spain and morocco through detection of p to s conversions this is a contribution of the projects consolider ingenio 2010 topoiberia csd2006 00041 topomed cgl2008 03474 e bte rifsis cgl2009 09727 cgl2012 31472 and p09 rnm 5100 l bonatto benefits from a ph d jaepredoc csic grant

messinian salinity crisis regulated by competing tectonics and erosion at the gibraltar arc the persistent shallow connection between the atlantic ocean and the mediterranean sea that caused the messinian salinity crisis may have been sustained by a balance between tectonic uplift and erosion due to inflow about six million years ago a series of geological factors drastically reduced the exchange of water between the atlantic ocean to the mediterranean sea through what is now the strait of gibraltar the resulting widespread salt precipitation in the mediterranean linked to a decrease in sea level of about 1 5 kilometres due to evaporation is known as the messinian salinity crisis the exact mechanism that caused the crisis remains uncertain here daniel garcia castellanos and antonio villasenor propose a competition between the obstruction of the gibraltar arc seaway by tectonic uplift and its erosional deepening by water inflow controlled by the resulting changes in sea level difference across the gibraltar arc as a possible mechanism for the crisis the messinian salinity crisis1 2 5 96 to 5 33 million years ago was caused by reduced water inflow from the atlantic ocean to the mediterranean sea resulting in widespread salt precipitation and a decrease in mediterranean sea level of about 1 5 kilometres due to evaporation3 the reduced connectivity between the atlantic and the mediterranean at the time of the salinity crisis is thought to have resulted from tectonic uplift of the gibraltar arc seaway and global sea level changes both of which control the inflow of water required to compensate for the hydrological deficit of the mediterranean1 4 however the different timescales on which tectonic uplift and changes in sea level occur are difficult to reconcile with the long duration of the shallow connection between the mediterranean and the atlantic5 needed to explain the large amount of salt precipitated here we use numerical modelling to show that seaway erosion caused by the atlantic inflow could sustain such a shallow connection between the atlantic and the mediterranean by counteracting tectonic uplift the erosion and uplift rates required are consistent with previous mountain erosion studies with the present altitude of marine sediments in the gibraltar arc6 7 and with geodynamic models suggesting a lithospheric slab tear underneath the region8 9 10 the moderate mediterranean sea level drawdown during the early stages of the messinian salinity crisis3 5 can be explained by an uplift of a few millimetres per year counteracted by similar rates of erosion due to atlantic inflow our findings suggest that the competition between uplift and erosion can result in harmonic coupling between erosion and the mediterranean sea level providing an alternative mechanism for the cyclicity observed in early salt precipitation deposits and calling into question previous ideas regarding the timing of the events that occurred during the messinian salinity crisis1

upper mantle seismic discontinuities and the thermal structure of subduction zones the precise depths at which seismic velocities change abruptly in the upper mantle are revealed by the analysis of data from hundreds of seismometers across the western united states the boundary near 410km depth is locally elevated that near 660 km depressed the depths of these boundaries which mark phase transitions provide an in situ thermometer in subduction zones the observed temperature contrasts require at least moderate thickening of the subducting slab near 660 km depth in addition a reflector near 210 km depth may mark the bottom of the aesthenosphere

upper mantle discontinuity topography from thermal and chemical heterogeneity using high resolution stacks of precursors to the seismic phase ss we investigated seismic discontinuities associated with mineralogical phase changes approximately 410 and 660 kilometers km deep within earth beneath south america and the surrounding oceans detailed maps of phase boundary topography revealed deep 410 and 660 km discontinuities in the down dip direction of subduction inconsistent with purely isochemical olivine phase transformation in response to lowered temperatures mechanisms invoking chemical heterogeneity within the mantle transition zone were explored to explain this feature in some regions multiple reflections from the discontinuities were detected consistent with partial melt near 410 km depth and or additional phase changes near 660 km depth thus the origin of upper mantle heterogeneity has both chemical and thermal contributions and is associated with deeply rooted tectonic processes

seismically deduced thermodynamics phase diagrams for the mantle transition zone abstract seismic discontinuities at 410 and 660 km depth are usually attributed to solid phase changes within the olivine component of the mantle the clapeyron slopes 410 and 660 i e the thermal dependence of the depths of reactions have been shown experimentally to be of opposite signs yet their values are not well constrained by laboratory measurements seismological observations have not been more precise due to the difficulty to separate the competing effects of background wave velocities and of temperature on the topography of discontinuities in this study we use conversion imaging of interfaces under western us we propose a new approach to derive a seismological estimate of the clapeyron slopes with respect to 410 for the major and minor phase changes of the transition zone we obtain 660 3 mpa k 1 for 410 3 mpa k 1 we construct seismic phase diagrams of the transition zone that can be directly compared with experimental phase diagrams we also apply a z transform to better constrain the clapeyron slopes of the minor phase changes although tenuous signals in seismic phase diagrams suggest that minor phase transitions both in the olivine and the non olivine component of the mantle have visible seismic expressions they can tentatively be described as follows the 410 is overlaid at low temperature by an interface corresponding to a decrease of velocity with depth and 3 mpa k 1 the 660 widens at high temperature and is preceded at low temperature by an interface the 620 with 7 mpa k 1 a 520 is suggested with 2 3 mpa k 1 these last two interfaces correspond to velocity increases with depth at last near 590 km depth an interface may be associated with a velocity reduction showing a weak dependence on temperature 0 mpa k 1

topography of the transition zone seismic discontinuities phase transformations in mantle mineralogies probably cause the transition zone seismic discontinuities nominally at 410 520 and 660 km depth thermodynamic principles govern phase transformations making them sensitive to changes in the mantle s ambient conditions through the thermodynamic response changes in temperature or composition shift the transformation to a different pressure creating topography on a level discontinuity with this use as an exploratory tool for the mantle in mind we review the basic seismological and phase equilibrium concepts underlying the detection and interpretation of the seismic wave arrivals associated with the transition zone discontinuities reviewing the evidence for and against the phase transition model we conclude that it is viable and describe how discontinuities have been and can be used to probe the physical and chemical state of the transition zone

seismic evidence for a global low velocity layer within the earth s upper mantle above the 410 km discontinuity in the upper mantle an intermittent layer characterized by low seismic wave velocities is thought to represent partial melting in areas of subduction or mantle plume activity seismic data now show that the low velocity layer extends globally with no affinity to a particular tectonic environment

the upper mantle transition zone beneath the ibero maghrebian region as seen by teleseismic pds phases abstract we investigate the upper mantle transition zone thickness beneath the ibero maghrebian region using teleseismic events recorded at 258 seismic stations from the iberarray of the spanish topoiberia project for this purpose the 410 km and 660 km depth discontinuities are mapped through the detection of p to s conversions in order to add consistency and robustness to the detections the final results are based on a joint analysis of receiver functions and two different cross correlation functionals discontinuity depths are determined using time corrections obtained from a 3 d velocity model this study presents the first high resolution topography maps for the 410 and 660 discontinuities which show lateral variations in the transition zone thickness beneath the study area the results are discussed to add new constraints on temperature and composition to seismic velocity anomalies observed in the transition zone beneath the controversial ibero maghrebian region we obtained a thickened transition zone beneath the alboran sea and the north balearic sea suggesting low transition zone temperatures and coinciding with the position of the high velocity anomalies in the tomographic images related to the betic alboran slab and the alpine tethys remnant slab respectively a dominantly thinned transition zone beneath the gulf of cadiz and its surroundings suggest high mantle temperatures we also found evidences of the presence of a low velocity layer atop the 410 discontinuity beneath the study area

testing oceanic subduction and convective removal models for the gibraltar arc seismological constraints from dispersion and anisotropy we discuss mantle structure and dynamics under the gibraltar arc for that region a large variety of geodynamic models has been proposed and there was up to recently no consensus on which of these models is the best one to describe the geodynamic situation of the region the key to distinguishing the different models probably lies in the upper mantle and we propose two specially adapted seismological techniques that help to distinguish each of the two models that are more frequently invoked these are on one hand the subduction rollback sr model and on the other continental delamination or convective removal cdcr the first technique that we use is based on observations of dispersed p wavetrains that are expected for certain ray directions observations made on the gibraltar arc suggest the presence of subducted oceanic lithosphere under the alboran sea the second technique is based on shear wave splitting of sks phases and it allows us to look for the radially oriented flow that must be present in the mantle beneath the alboran sea for a cdcr mechanism there are however no indications of any radial flow up to this point both approaches therefore suggest that subduction rollback is the best model to explain the complex geodynamic situation under the region

seismic discontinuities in the mediterranean mantle abstract layering in the upper and lower mantle across the mediterranean has been determined using p to s converted phases identified through receiver function analysis conversion of the receiver function s time axis to depth was based on local 1d s velocity models the 1d velocity model for each station was extracted from a three dimensional s velocity model for the mediterranean region eav03 enhanced with crustal structure derived from receiver function analysis under the mediterranean region we observed a mantle transition zone thickness of 261 10 km on average which agrees with a dominance of high velocities imaged in tomographic models at these depths a thick mantle transition zone 270 km was observed in regions with ongoing or past subduction eastern spain southern italy southern greece and the north western african coast conversions from the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities were clearly observed for most stations amplitudes of both discontinuities are anomalously large throughout the mediterranean region 4 9 and 5 7 respectively we observed significant conversions from the 520 km discontinuity the lower mantle showed strong lateral variations resulting in spatially incoherent converted phases from discontinuities near 860 km between 900 km and 1200 km and 1320 km depth

upper mantle converted waves beneath the nars array several registrations of teleseismic events on the nars array show a phase which can be identified as a p to s conversion at the 670 km discontinuity beneath western europe variations in the amplitude and arrival time of the so called ps phase are observed for different azimuths a single station multiple event stacking technique was applied to the data to determine the consistency of the phase the results are indicative of amplitude arrival time and slowness variations of the converted phase on a local scale these observations are most logically explained by a model with depth variations of the 670 km discontinuity of the order of 20 km over a distance of 200 km

tomographic images of the upper mantle below central europe and the mediterranean results from delay time tomography of the european mediterranean upper mantle are discussed and where possible interpreted in terms of geodynamic processes slab like positive velocity anomalies of which the locations correlate well with deeper seismicity are found beneath spain the tyrrhenian basin and the aegean these structures are interpreted as images of subducted slabs large aseismic regions with positive velocity anomalies are found beneath the western mediterranean italy the alps dinarides the pannonian basin northern greece and the aegean these anomalies can also be linked to subducted lithosphere from the anomaly patterns it is deduced that subduction occurred below the western mediterranean and along both sides of the adriatic micro plate beneath the dinarides and northern greece the velocity structures suggest detachment of the slab from the surface

evidence for active subduction beneath gibraltar we report on a marine seismic survey that images an active accretionary wedge west of gibraltar ramp thrusts offset the seafloor and sole out to an east dipping decollement indicating ongoing westward vergent tectonic shortening new traveltime tomographic re sults image a slab of oceanic lithosphere descending from the atlantic domain of the gulf of cadiz passing through intermediate depth 60 120 km seismicity beneath the west ernmost alboran sea and merging with a region of deep focus earthquakes 600 660 km below granada spain together these new data provide compelling evidence for an active east dipping subduction zone

receiver functions in northeast china implications for slab penetration into the lower mantle in northwest pacific subduction zone abstract seismic studies of the subducting lithosphere and the upper mantle discontinuities in the northwest pacific subduction zone beneath japan and northeast china have suggested contrary subduction scenarios there was little consensus on the issue whether the subducting slab penetrates the upper mantle discontinuities into the lower mantle or it is deflected atop of the 660 km discontinuity over several hundred kilometers we calculate receiver functions from a recent seismic broadband station network located in northeast china and find topographic variations of the upper mantle discontinuities a deeper than normal 660 km discontinuity is observed over an area of 400 km and it coincides with the stagnant slab imaged by seismic tomography the 660 km discontinuity is locally depressed by more than 35 km and the transition zone is thickened by more than 20 km in the east of the region where it encounters the slab these observations provide evidence of the slab accumulating in the mantle transition zone and locally penetrating into the lower mantle

water induced convection in the earth s mantle transition zone 1 water enters the earth s mantle by subduction of oceanic lithosphere most of this water immediately returns to the atmosphere through arc volcanism but a part of it is expected as deep as the mantle transition zone 410 660 km depth there slabs can be deflected and linger before sinking into the lower mantle because it lowers the density and viscosity of the transition zone minerals i e wadsleyite and ringwoodite water is likely to affect the dynamics of the transition zone mantle overlying stagnant slabs the consequences of water exchange between a floating slab and the transition zone are investigated in particular we focus on the possible onset of small scale convection despite the adverse thermal gradient i e mantle is cooled from below by the slab the competition between thermal and hydrous effects on the density and thus on the convective stability of the top layer of the slab is examined numerically including water dependent density and viscosity and temperature dependent water solubility for plausible initial water content in a slab 0 5 wt an episode of convection is likely to occur after a relatively short time delay 5 20 ma after the slab enters the transition zone however water induced rheological weakening is seen to be a controlling parameter for the onset time of convection moreover small scale convection above a stagnant slab greatly enhances the rate of slab dehydration small scale convection also facilitates heating of the slab which in itself may prolong the residence time of the slab in the transition zone

receiver function imaging of upper mantle complexity beneath the pacific northwest united states abstract small scale topographic variations on the upper mantle seismic discontinuities provide important constraints on the thermal influences of upwellings and downwellings in geodynamically complex regions subduction of the juan de fuca plate and other tectonic processes dominating the pacific northwest united states in the cenozoic involve massive thermal flux that likely result in an upper mantle that has strong 3 d temperature variations we address the interaction of such processes in the region using receiver functions to image the upper mantle seismic discontinuities at 410 and 660 km we utilized over 15 000 high quality receiver functions gathered from 294 teleseismic earthquakes recorded at 277 regional broadband seismic stations primarily those of the earthscope usarray transportable array we find the average depths of the discontinuities to be 412 km and 658 km respectively with no obvious 520 km discontinuity detected the peak to peak range is greater on the 410 than the 660 suggesting the possibility of more significant regional dynamic processes at upper mantle depths our results are not consistent with a mantle plume below central oregon in the high lava plains region our observation of a thinner transition zone beneath the western snake river plain region however is consistent with a regional increase in mantle temperatures perhaps due to either asthenospheric flow from beneath and around the southern edge of the juan de fuca plate or to vertical flow in the form of regional mantle upwelling related to the snake river plain yellowstone hotspot track further our results are not consistent with a simple subducting juan de fuca slab morphology but rather suggest similar levels of significant complexity in slab structure found by recent regional tomographic studies we find evidence for a thickened and therefore cooler mantle transition zone beneath the wallowa idaho batholith region consistent with tomographic models which suggest broad scale increased seismic velocities to transition zone depths we speculate that this region may be the location of mantle downwelling at larger scales than previously proposed