Global Seismic Imaging of the Lithosphere Asthenosphere Boundary

Abstract:

The lithosphere asthenosphere boundary (LAB) beneath oceans separates rigid, conductively cooling plates from the underlying warm ductile convecting mantle, characterized by low seismic wave velocities and high attenuation. The depth and nature of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary is fundamental to our understanding of plate tectonics and mantle convection. Although conductive cooling models establish that oceanic lithosphere cools, thickens and subsides as it ages, this simple realization of the tectonic plates is not well understood. The depth, sharpness, composition and defining mechanism of the LAB remains elusive. Although oceanic lithosphere constitutes the bulk of the tectonic plates, precisely imaging the LAB has proved challenging. Here we use SS precursors from 25 years of seismic data to image and globally map the depth of the LAB across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The result represents a vast improvement in lateral coverage of discontinuities in comparison to previous results. The depth of the discontinuity varies from 25 to 130 km within an error of ±5 km. We observe a general trend of increasing discontinuity depth with plate age, although some old oceanic lithosphere has shallower discontinuities. Overall, the results are suggestive of two distinct mantle layers.