GD3.1

The Madeira and Canary archipelagos, located in the eastern North Atlantic, are two of many examples of hotspot surface expressions, but a better understanding of the crust and upper mantle structure beneath these regions is needed to investigate their structure in more detail. With the study of seismic anisotropy, it is possible to assess the rheology and structure of asthenosphere and lithosphere that can reflect a combination of mantle and crustal contributions.

Here, as part of the SIGHT project (SeIsmic and Geochemical constraints on the Madeira HoTspot), we present the first detailed study of seismic anisotropy beneath both archipelagos, using data collected from over 60 local three-component seismic land stations. Basing our observations on both teleseismic SKS and local S splitting, we are able to distinguish between multiple layers of anisotropy. We observe significant changes in delay time and fast shear-wave orientation patterns on short length-scales on the order of tens of kilometres beneath the western Canary Islands and Madeira Island. In contrast, the eastern Canary Islands and Porto Santo the pattern is much more uniform. The detected delay time increase and more complex orientation patterns beneath the western Canary Islands and Madeira can be attributed to mantle flow disturbed and diverted on small-length scales by a strong vertical component. This is a clear indication of the existence of a plume at each of those archipelagos, nowadays exerting a strong influence on the western and younger islands. We therefore conclude that a plume-like feature beneath Madeira exists in a similar way to the Canary Island hotspot and that regional mantle flow models for the region should be reassessed.

This is a contribution to project SIGHT (Ref. PTDC/CTA-GEF/30264/2017). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support FCT through project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL.

How to cite: Schlaphorst, D., Silveira, G., Mata, J., Krüger, F., Dahm, T., and Ferreira, A.: Similarities between the Madeira and Canary Hotspots Revealed by Seismic Anisotropy from Teleseismic and Local Shear-Wave Splitting with the SIGHT Project, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10797, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10797, 2021.

The Canary and Madeira provinces, located in the central-east Atlantic Ocean, are characterized by irregularly distributed hotspot tracks displaying large age differences and variable distances between volcanoes. For this reason, the geodynamic mechanism(s) that control the spatio-temporal patterns of volcanism are still unclear. Here, we use results from seismic tomography, shear-wave splitting, and gravity to show that the Central-East Atlantic Anomaly (CEAA), rising from the African large low-shear-velocity province and stalled in the topmost lower mantle, is the source of distinct upper-mantle diapirs feeding those provinces. The diapirs detach intermittently from the CEAA and seem to be at different evolutionary stages. Geochemistry data confirm the lower-mantle origin of the diapirs, and plate reconstructions constrain their temporal evolution. Our observations suggest that the accumulation of deep plume material in the topmost lower mantle can play a significant role in governing the spatio-temporal distribution of hotspot volcanism.

This is a contribution to project SIGHT (Ref. PTDC/CTA-GEF/30264/2017). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support FCT through project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL.

How to cite: Custódio, S., Civiero, C., Mata, J., Silveira, G., Neres, M., and Schlaphorst, D.: The Central-East Atlantic Anomaly: its role in the genesis of the Canary and Madeira volcanic provinces, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-14677, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14677, 2021.

Shear-wave splitting observations of SKS and SKKS phases have been used widely to map azimuthal anisotropy, and to constrain the dominant mechanism of upper mantle deformation. As the interpretation is often ambiguous, it is useful to consider additional information, e.g. based on the non-vertical incidence of core-phases. Depending on the lattice-preferred orientation of anisotropic minerals, this condition leads to a variation of splitting parameters with azimuth and enables a differentiation between various types of olivine deformation. As the fabric of olivine-rich rocks in the upper mantle relates to certain ambient conditions, it is of key importance to further define it. In this study, we predict the azimuthal variation of splitting parameters for A-, C-, and E-type olivine, and match them with observations from the High Lava Plains, Northwestern Basin and Range, and Western Yellowstone Snake River Plain. This can help to constrain the amount of water in the upper mantle beneath an area, known for a consistent, mainly E-W fast orientation, and increased splitting delay in the back-arc of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Comparing expected and observed variations renders a C-type olivine mechanism unlikely; a differentiation between A- and E-type olivine remains more difficult though. However, the agreement of the amplitude of azimuthal variation of the fast orientation, and the potential to explain larger splitting values, suggest the occurrence of E-type olivine and the presence of a hydrated upper mantle. Along with a discrepancy to predict delay times from azimuthal surface wave anisotropy, deeper sources could further affect shear-wave splitting observations.

How to cite: Löberich, E., Long, M. D., Wagner, L. S., Qorbani, E., and Bokelmann, G.: Constraints on olivine deformation mechanisms from SKS shear-wave splitting beneath the High Lava Plains, Northwestern Basin and Range and Western Yellowstone Snake River Plain, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-4590, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4590, 2021.

While the receiver function technique has been successfully applied to high-resolution imaging of sharp discontinuities within and across the lithosphere, it has been shown, however, that it suffers from severe limitations when applied to seafloor seismic recordings. This is because the water and sediment layer could strongly influence the receiver function traces, making detection and interpretation of crust and mantle layering difficult. This effect is often referred to as the singing phenomena in marine environments. Here, we show how one can silence this singing effect. We demonstrate, using analytical and synthetic waveform modeling, that this singing effect can be reversed using dereverberation filters tuned to match the elastic property of each layer. We apply the filter approach to high-quality earthquake records collected from the NoMelt seismic array deployed on normal, mature (~70 Ma) Pacific seafloor. An appropriate filter designed using the elastic properties of the underlying sediments, and obtained from prior studies, greatly improves the detection of Ps conversions generated from the moho (~8.6 km) and from a sharp discontinuity (<~ 5 km) across the lithosphere-asthenosphere transition (~72 km). Sensitivity tests show that the filter is robust to small errors in the sediment properties. Our analysis suggests that appropriately filtering out the sediment reverberations from ocean seismic data could make inferences on subsurface structure more robust. We expect that this study will enable high-resolution receiver function imaging of the base of the oceanic plate across a growing fleet of ocean bottom seismic arrays being deployed in the global oceans.

How to cite: Zhang, Z. and Olugboji, T.: The Signature and Elimination of Sediment Reverberations on Submarine Receiver Functions: Imaging the Lithosphere of a Normal Ocean, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3157, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3157, 2021.

The Kola region of the Russian Arctic is located in the northeast of the Baltic Shield and is widely known for its unique geology in regards to the presence of massive Paleozoic intrusions. Multidisciplinary researches have been carried out to provide a comprehensive reconstruction of Khibiny and Lovozero plutons’ formation and their structure models The main source of geochronological data comes from isotope analysis of the arrays’ rocks. The amount of research focuses on the deep structure beneath the Khibiny pluton is scarce. To investigate velocity structure of the investigated region we used receiver function technique. Essence of the method is to analyze P-S (PRF) and S-P (SRF) converted waves form seismic boundaries along with their multiples. For the given research we used seismograms of the teleseismic events recorded by the Apatity (APA) and Lovozero (LVZ) broadband seismic stations since 2000. We selected 220 and 232 individual PRF;147 and 122 individual SRF for LVZ and APA station respectively. As both LVZ and APA are located relatively close to each other, we combined all 452 PRF to get a robust estimation of delay times of P410s and P660s phases. Our estimations of P410s and P660s phases are 43.6 and 67.6 sec respectively. Delay time between these phases is 24 sec that is close to “standard” according to the IASP91 model. The individual times of each phase are slightly less than predicted by IASP91 (by 0.4 sec) and could indicate an increase of velocities in the upper mantle, but it is not unusual for cratonic regions. Joint inversion of PRF and SRF was used to restore velocity sections for the depth up to 300 km. All models have shown a gradient increase in velocities in the earth's crust and sharp crust-mantle boundary at depth of 40 ± 1 km with a velocity jump from 3.9 to 4.4 km/s. The most prominent feature of the upper mantle structure is the presence of the low-velocity zone at a depth from 90 to 140 km. One of the possible explanation of this discontinuity could be the presence of deep fluids and the high porosity of this zone. This study was partially supported by the RFBR grant 18-05-70082 and the SRW theme No. АААА-А19-119022090015-6.

How to cite: Goev, A.: Lithosphere velocity structure of the Khibiny and Lovozero plutons (Eastern part of the Baltic shield) from receiver functions, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9201, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9201, 2021.

In this study, we show results from ambient noise tomography at the KTB drilling site, Germany. The Continental Deep Drilling Project, or ‘Kontinentales Tiefbohrprogramm der Bundesrepublik Deutschland’ (KTB) is at the northwestern edge of the Bohemian Massif and is located on the Variscan belt of Europe. During the KTB project crustal rocks have been drilled down to 9 km depth and several active seismic studies have been performed in the surrounding. The KTB area therefore presents an ideal test area for testing and verifying the potential resolution of passive seismic techniques. The aim of this study is to present a new shear-wave velocity model of the area while comparing the results to the previous velocity models and hints for anisotropy depicted by former passive and active seismological studies. We use a unique data set composed of two years of continuous data recorded at nine 3-component temporary stations installed from July 2012 to July 2014 located on top and vicinity of the drilling site. Moreover, we included a number of permanent stations in the region in order to improve the path coverage and density. We present here a new velocity model of the upper crust of the area, which shows velocity variations at short scales that correlate well with geology in the region.

How to cite: Qorbani, E., Bianchi, I., Kolínský, P., Zigone, D., and Bokelmann, G.: Upper crustal structure at the KTB drilling site from ambient noise tomography, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9817, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9817, 2021.

Study of the contact zone between the inner and outer core represents considerable interest for understanding of properties, structures and dynamic of the Earth's core. One of the sources of the data about the processes proceeding in the top part of the inner core is the seismic wave PKIIKP once reflected from an undersize inner core boundary. Amplitudes of these waves are sensitive to the shear velocity in the top part of the inner core and are small. Therefore their identification at a single seismic station is not reliable without application of additional methods of analysis. Significant in this regard is the discussion about the source (in inner core or in mantle) of anomalous arrivals detected at the TAM station in North Africa [1,2] in the time range of PKIIKP phase.

To estimate influence of model parameters (S and P seismic velocity) on the characteristics of PKIIKP wave (amplitude and travel time) we calculated sensitivity kernels for upper mantle and inner core for dominant period 1.2 s, azimuth step 0.2 degrees and radius step 20 km by using DSM Kernel Suite algorithm. It was revealed that PKIIKP amplitude is more sensitivities to mantle heterogeneities than to inner core ones. For reducing the effects of the overlying structures we suppose to use а joint analysis PKIIKP and pPKIIKP waves. With this approach, an incorrect identification of the PKIIKP wave is most likely excluded. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach on the example of processing the seismogram of the 11.02.2015 earthquake reсorded at the GZH station in China at a distance of 179.4 degrees.

1. Wang W., Song X. Analyses of anomalous amplitudes of antipodal PKIIKP waves, EaPP. 2019. V. 3. P. 212-217. doi: 10.26464/epp2019023

2. Tsuboi S., Butler R. Inner core differential rotation inferred from antipodal seismic observations, PEPI, 2020. V.301. 106451.

How to cite: Usoltseva, O. and Ovtchinnikov, V.: On the reliability of PKIIKP phase identification at a single station, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6554, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6554, 2021.