Discovery of flat seismic reflections in the mantle beneath the young Juan de Fuca Plate

Yanfang Qin, Satish C. Singh (), Ingo Grevemeyer, Milena Marjanović and W. Roger Buck
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Yanfang Qin: Institut de Physique de Globe de Paris
Satish C. Singh: Institut de Physique de Globe de Paris
Ingo Grevemeyer: Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Milena Marjanović: Institut de Physique de Globe de Paris
W. Roger Buck: Columbia University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Crustal properties of young oceanic lithosphere have been examined extensively, but the nature of the mantle lithosphere underneath remains elusive. Using a novel wide-angle seismic imaging technique, here we show the presence of two sub-horizontal reflections at ∼11 and ∼14.5 km below the seafloor over the 0.51–2.67 Ma old Juan de Fuca Plate. We find that the observed reflectors originate from 300–600-m-thick layers, with an ∼7–8% drop in P-wave velocity. They could be explained either by the presence of partially molten sills or frozen gabbroic sills. If partially molten, the shallower sill would define the base of a thin lithosphere with the constant thickness (11 km), requiring the presence of a mantle thermal anomaly extending up to 2.67 Ma. In contrast, if these reflections were frozen melt sills, they would imply the presence of thick young oceanic lithosphere (20–25 km), and extremely heterogeneous upper mantle.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17946-3

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