Pacific Upper Mantle Seismic Anisotropy from the Active-Source Seismic Component of the NoMelt Experiment

Abstract:

We will present a measurement of azimuthal seismic anisotropy of Pacific-plate upper mantle based on Pn travel times from the active-source seismic component of the NoMelt experiment. The NoMelt experiment was conducted in 2012 on ~70-m.y.-old lithosphere, in the center of the spreading segment between the Clarion and Clipperton fracture zones, with the goal of delineating the detailed seismic and electrical structure of “normal,” mature oceanic lithosphere. The seismic component of the experiment consisted of a 600x400 km array of 27 broad-band (BB) ocean bottom seismometers (OBS); 31 short period (SP) OBS, spaced at 20 km, deployed along the long axis of the array (the main transect), oriented along a plate-kinematic flow line; and 3 SP OBS deployed along a line normal to the main transect, at 50 km spacing, extending to 200 km southeast of the center of the main transect. The SP OBS array was deployed to record airgun shots fired by the R/V M.G. Langseth’s 36-element array. Airgun shots were fired along the two perpendicular lines and also along a semi-circular arc with a 75-km radius centered at the line intersection at the center of the main transect. Pn (upper mantle refraction) arrivals from shots fired along the semicircle and recorded by OBS within the semicircle’s arc span 180 degrees of azimuth and an offset range of ~40-150 km. Preliminary analyses of these Pn arrival travel times indicate an azimuthal dependence of P-wave speeds, which range from ~8.6 km/s to ~7.6 km/s. These preliminary results suggest a pattern of azimuthal wave-speed dependence that requires depth-dependent seismic anisotropy and/or a dipping mantle fabric, with the latter being more likely given the limited range of source/receiver offsets spanned by the Pn arrivals used in this analysis. We will present results that include these observations as well as Pn arrivals from a much more comprehensive set of source/receiver pairs from the NoMelt experiment.