Boundary-layer mantle flow under the Dead Sea transform fault inferred from seismic anisotropy

Georg Rümpker (), Trond Ryberg, Günter Bock and Desert Seismology Group
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Georg Rümpker: 1GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
Trond Ryberg: 1GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
Günter Bock: 1GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
Desert Seismology Group: 1GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam

Nature, 2003, vol. 425, issue 6957, 497-501

Abstract: Abstract Lithospheric-scale transform faults play an important role in the dynamics of global plate motion. Near-surface deformation fields for such faults are relatively well documented by satellite geodesy, strain measurements and earthquake source studies1,2, and deeper crustal structure has been imaged by seismic profiling3. Relatively little is known, however, about deformation taking place in the subcrustal lithosphere—that is, the width and depth of the region associated with the deformation, the transition between deformed and undeformed lithosphere and the interaction between lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle flow at the plate boundary. Here we present evidence for a narrow, approximately 20-km-wide, subcrustal anisotropic zone of fault-parallel mineral alignment beneath the Dead Sea transform, obtained from an inversion of shear-wave splitting observations along a dense receiver profile. The geometry of this zone and the contrast between distinct anisotropic domains suggest subhorizontal mantle flow within a vertical boundary layer that extends through the entire lithosphere and accommodates the transform motion between the African and Arabian plates within this relatively narrow zone.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1038/nature01982

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