Mineral chemistry of spinel peridotite xenoliths from Baengnyeong Island, South Korea, and its implications for the paleogeotherm of the uppermost mantle

Abstract   The mantle-derived xenoliths entrained in the Pliocene basanite from Baengnyeong Island, South Korea, are spinel lherzolites and spinel harzburgites. The overall compositional range of the Baengnyeong xenoliths matches that of the post-Archean xenoliths of lithospheric mantle origin from eastern China, but without any compositional evidence for a refractory Archean mantle root. Mineral compositions of the xenoliths have been used to estimate the equilibrium temperatures and pressures, and to construct a paleogeothermal gradient of the source region. The xenolith-derived paleogeotherm is constrained from about 820°C at 7.3 kbar to 1000°C at 20.6 kbar. Like those from the post-Archean Chinese xenoliths of lithospheric mantle origin, the Baengnyeong geotherm is considerably elevated relative to the conductive models at the depth of the crust–mantle boundary, reflecting a thermal perturbation probably related to lithospheric thinning. There is no significant P / T difference between harzburgite and lherzolite, which suggests that the harzburgites are interlayered with lherzolites within the depth interval beneath Baengnyeong Island.     

Crust and upper mantle structure of the Ailao Shan-Red River fault zone and adjacent regions

Using arrival data of the body waves recorded by seismic stations, we reconstructed the velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and the northwestern continental margin of the South China Sea through a travel time tomography technique. The result revealed the apparent tectonic variation along the Ailao Shan-Red River fault zone and its adjacent regions. High velocities are observed in the upper and middle crust beneath the Ailao Shan-Red River fault zone and they reflect the character of the fast uplifting and cooling of the metamorphic belt after the ductile shearing of the fault zone, while low velocities in the lower crust and near the Moho imply a relatively active crust-mantle boundary beneath the fault zone. On the west of the fault zone, the large-scale low velocities in the uppermost mantle beneath western Yunnan prove the influence of the mantle heat flow on volcano, hot spring and magma activities, however, the upper mantle on the eas     

Passive Seismic Experiment Mosaic - A Pilot Study of Mantle Lithosphere Anisotropy of the Bohemian Massif

We present results of an array study of seismic anisotropy beneath the Bohemian Massif (BM) showing distinct lateral and directional variations of the fast shear-wave polarization and split-delay time consistent with variations in the P-residual spheres, in which directional means of relative residuals are subtracted. Our analysis of the S- and P-wave anisotropy suggests that the mantle lithosphere of the BM consists of at least three large domains with different orientation of the large-scale fabric separated by sutures cutting most likely the whole lithosphere. Boundaries of the units are characterised by a null or small shear-wave splitting, as well as by smaller values in the P-residual spheres. We present self-consistent 3D anisotropic models of the lithosphere domains of the BM resulting from joint inversion of anisotropic parameters searching for a 3D orientation of mantle fabric. While in the Saxothuringian and Sudetes parts of the BM the (a, c) foliations dip prevailingly to the N-NW, they dip to the S and SW in the southern and eastern parts of the Moldanubian.     

Upper mantle structure of the South American continent and neighboring oceans from surface wave tomography

We present a new three-dimensional SV-wave velocity model for the upper mantle beneath South America and the surrounding oceans, built from the waveform inversion of 5850 Rayleigh wave seismograms. The dense path coverage and the use of higher modes to supplement the fundamental mode of surface waves allow us to constrain seismic heterogeneities with horizontal wavelengths of a few hundred kilometres in the uppermost 400 km of the mantle.The large scale features of our tomographic model confirm previous results from global and regional tomographic studies (e.g. the depth extent of the high velocity cratonic roots down to about 200–250 km).Several new features are highlighted in our model. Down to 100 km depth, the high velocity lid beneath the Amazonian craton is separated in two parts associated with the Guyana and Guapore shields, suggesting that the rifting episode responsible for the formation of the Amazon basin has involved a significant part of the lithosphere. Along the Andean subduction belt, the structure of the high velocity anomaly associated with the sudbduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate reflects the along-strike variation in dip of the subducting plate. Slow velocities are observed down to about 100 km and 150 km at the intersection of the Carnegie and Chile ridges with the continent and are likely to represent the thermal anomalies associated with the subducted ridges. These lowered velocities might correspond to zones of weakness in the subducted plate and may have led to the formation of “slab windows” developed through unzipping of the subducted ridges; these windows might accommodate a transfer of asthenospheric mantle from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. From 150 to 250 km depth, the subducting Nazca plate is associated with high seismic velocities between 5°S and 37°S. We find high seismic velocities beneath the Paraná basin down to about 200 km depth, underlain by a low velocity anomaly in the depth range 200–400 km located beneath the Ponta Grossa arc at the southern tip of the basin. This high velocity anomaly is located southward of a narrow S-wave low velocity structure observed between 200 and 500–600 km depth in body wave studies, but irresolvable with our long period datasets. Both anomalies point to a model in which several, possibly diachronous, plumes have risen to the surface to generate the Paraná large igneous province (LIP).     

Deep Mechanical Background for the Cenozoic Volcanism in the Tibetan Plateau

INTRODUCTION Volcanoesaremostlyobservedinoceanicridges,hotspotsandcontinentalriftzones(Hongetal.,2003),andarerarelyobservedincontinentalinteri ors.However,sincethevolcanoeswithintheconti nentinteriorscannotbeattributedtotheplate/block marginprocess,theydr…