Mantle Transition Zone Discontinuities Beneath Alaska

Abstract:

The 410 and 660 km discontinuities (d410 and d660) beneath Alaska and adjacent areas are imaged by stacking radial receiver functions recorded by about 400 broadband seismic stations with up to 30 years of recording period, using the 1D IASP91 earth model. Significant and spatially systematic variations in the apparent depths of the d410 and d660 are observed. The mean apparent depth of d410 and d660 for the entire study area is 416±1.87 km and 664±1.83 km, respectively. The variations of the apparent depths of d410 and d660 result in a complex mantle transition zone (MTZ) structure. Central and south-central Alaska are characterized by a normal MTZ thickness, suggesting that the subducting Pacific slab does not thermally affect the upper MTZ. Beneath the Yakutat microplate, a complex MTZ structure is observed with an overall thin MTZ thickness, coinciding with a low velocity zone and thin lithospheric thickness revealed by previous seismic tomography and receiver function studies. Two large regions with hot MTZ are mapped beneath NNW and NNE Alaska with abnormal temperature ranges between +360 and +390 °K. Despite of the complexity of the MTZ structure beneath Alaska, the mean MTZ thickness for the entire Alaskan orocline is 247 ±2.76 km, suggesting normal MTZ temperature on average. For the majority of the areas, our study shows that lateral upper mantle velocity variations contribute the bulk of the observed apparent undulations of the MTZ discontinuities.