Constraining the characters of the upper mantle discontinuities beneath the NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau with a dense broadband seismic array

Based on observations from a dense broadband seismic array located along the northeastern (NE) margin of the Tibetan Plateau in southeastern Gansu Province,we use receiver functions (RFs) to pick the arrival times of P-to-S converted waves and bin the traces in different grids according to the piercing points of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities in the upper mantle.The depths of the two discontinuities are estimated by the ray tracing method with the IASP91 velocity model and a 3-D tomography model.The results indicate the following:(1) The arrival times of the P410s and P660s converted phases are delayed by approximately 1 s than those predicted by the IASP91 model.The mantle transition zone (MTZ) is thicker than that in the global model.(2) The synchronous lags in the P410s and P660s arrival times are consistent with low-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle,which are believed to result mainly from the eastward migration of materials beneath the NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau.(3) Combined with previous tomography results,the depression of the'660'discontinuity and the thickened MTZ are somewhat consistent with the big mantle wedge (BMW) model.However,due to data limitations,more studies are required to explore the BMW in the future.

Crust and upper mantle structure beneath Bohai Sea inferred from receiver function study

We analyzed teleseismic waveforms recorded by 36 stations near Bohai Sea region and obtained 2 248 high quality receiver functions.The crustal thickness (H) and average crustal vP/vS ratio (κ) as well as the Poisson's ratios beneath 34 stations were estimated using the H-κ stacking method.The results indicate that crustal thicknesses near the Liaoning province range from 30.0 to 35.5 km,and the corresponding vP/vS ratios vary from 1.72 to 1.89 which corresponds to Poisson's ratio with a range from 0.243 to 0.305.We also apply a common conversion point (CCP) stacking method of receiver function (RF) to image the upper mantle discontinuity structure beneath Bohai Sea region.Both the 410-km and the 660-km discontinuities (hereafter called the 410 and the 660) show clearly in the study region.The transition zone (TZ) thickness shows a different picture from the west to the east of the study region,which is a little bit thicker than that of the global average in the west of longitude 122°E,however,thinner in the east of longitude 122°E.We suggested that the dehydration of sinking slab into the lower mantle or a small-scale mantle plume from the lower mantle generated hot upwelling beneath this region.

Seismic Evidence for Plume and Subducting Slab in West Yunnan,Southwestern China

Western Yunnan is located within a gigantic Tethys orogenic zone between Gondwana and Laurasia.Magmatic activity records of the associated Wilson orogenic cycle show that the causes of plate spreading in the region might have been related to sub-mantle plume.Tectonics,geophysics, sedimentary strata,tectonic evolution of the lithosphere and other research results indicate that there is geological evidence for mantle plume magmatic activities in West Yunnan.Tomography also supports the idea that there is a subducting slab near the Red River fault and an upwelling mantle plume in West Yunnan.Here our research presents seismic evidence for upwelling mantle plume,which is a main cause leading to subducting slab in West Yunnan.The analysis is based on compressional-to-shear（P-to -S）converted seismic phases,recorded on seismograph stations in the Sichuan-Yunnan seismic network,and made a study on 410-km and 660-km discontinuities,as well as on three sections of CCP stacking.