Electromagnetic detection of a 410-km-deep melt layer in the southwestern United States

Daniel A. Toffelmier and James A. Tyburczy ()
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Daniel A. Toffelmier: School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1404, USA
James A. Tyburczy: School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1404, USA

Nature, 2007, vol. 447, issue 7147, 991-994

Abstract: Filter tips In 2003, David Bercovici and Shun-ichiro Karato proposed a controversial model for explaining the differentiation of the Earth's mantle. Their 'water filter' model involves a layer containing melt sitting above the mantle's 410-km depth seismic discontinuity, however the geophysical detection of this layer has proven difficult. Daniel Toffelmier and James Tyburczy attack this problem by combining regional magnetic depth sounding data with estimates of the electrical conductivity of minerals incorporating hydrogen at upper-mantle and transition-zone conditions. They find that a 5–30 km thick melt layer at 410-km depth is consistent with data from the southwestern United States (Tucson), but that the other regional data sets they examined did not require such a melt layer to be present. So perhaps the hypothesized transition-zone water filter occurs regionally, but is not a global feature.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05922

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