4.0 Article

Structure of young East Pacific Rise lithosphere from ambient noise correlation analysis of fundamental- and higher-mode Scholte-Rayleigh waves

Journal

COMPTES RENDUS GEOSCIENCE
Volume 343, Issue 8-9, Pages 571-583

Publisher

ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.crte.2011.04.004

Keywords

East Pacific Rise; Lithosphere; Oceanic Uppermost Mantle; Low-velocity zone; Ambient noise; Fundamental; and higher-mode Scholte-Rayleigh waves

Funding

  1. US National Science Foundation [OCE-0242117]
  2. W.M. Keck Foundation
  3. Shell at MIT on passive seismic imaging
  4. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UCSD
  5. Division Of Ocean Sciences
  6. Directorate For Geosciences [1232725] Funding Source: National Science Foundation

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Inter-station Green's functions estimated from ambient noise studies have been widely used to investigate crustal structure. However, most studies are restricted to continental areas and use fundamental-mode surface waves only. In this study, we recover inter-station surface (Scholte-Rayleigh) wave empirical Green's function (EGFs) of both the fundamental- and the first-higher mode using one year of continuous seismic noise records on the vertical component from 28 ocean bottom seismographs deployed in the Quebrada/Discovery/Gofar transform faults region on the East Pacific Rise. The average phase-velocity dispersion of the fundamental mode (period band 2-30 s) and the first-higher mode (period band 3-7 s) from all EGFs are used to invert for the 1-D average, shear-velocity structure in the crust and uppermost mantle using a model-space search algorithm. The preferred shear-velocity models reveal low velocities (4.29 km/s) between Moho and 25 km depth below sea-surface, suggesting the absence of a fast uppermost mantle lid in this young (0-2 Myr) oceanic region. An even more pronounced low-velocity zone, with shear velocities similar to 3.85 km/s, appears at a depth between 25-40 km below sea-surface. Along with previous results, our study indicates that the shear velocity in the uppermost oceanic mantle increases with increasing seafloor age, consistent with age-related lithospheric cooling. (C) 2011 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

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