Joint analysis of GOCE gravity gradients data of gravitational potential and of gravity with seismological and geodynamic observations to infer mantle properties

• Published in: Geophysical journal international 2016-04, Vol.205 (1), p.257-283
• Main Authors: Greff-Lefftz, Marianne, Métivier, Laurent, Panet, Isabelle, Caron, Lambert, Pajot-Métivier, Gwendoline, Bouman, Johannes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Geophysics; Sciences of the Universe
• ISSN: 0956-540X; 1365-246X
• DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggw002

Joint analysis of the seismic velocities and geoid, gravity and gravity gradients are used to constrain the viscosity profile within the mantle as well as the lateral density variations. Recent ESA's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer measurements of the second-order derivatives of the Earth's gravity potential give new possibilities to determine these mantle properties. Using a simple mantle model and seismic tomography results, we investigate how the gravitational potential, the three components of the gravity vector and the gravity gradients can bring information on the radial viscosity profile and on the mantle mass anomalies. We start with lateral density variations in the Earth's mantle based either on slab history or deduced from seismic tomography. The main uncertainties are: for the latter case, the relationship between seismic velocity and density—the so-called density/velocity scaling factor—and for the former case, the variation with depth of the density contrast between the cold slabs and the surrounding mantle. We perform a Monte Carlo search for the viscosity and the density/velocity scaling factor profiles within the mantle, which allows to fit the observed geoid, gravity and gradients of gravity. We compute the posterior probability distribution of the unknown parameters, and find that the gravity gradients improve the estimate of the scaling factor within the upper mantle, because of their sensitivity to the masses within the upper mantle, whereas the geoid and the gravity better constrain the scaling factor in the lower mantle. In the upper mantle, it is less than 0.02 in the upper part and about 0.08–0.14 in the lower part, and it is significantly larger for depths greater than 1200 km (about 0.32–0.34). In any case, the density/velocity scaling factor between 670 and 1150 km depth is not well constrained. We show that the viscosity of the upper part of the mantle is strongly correlated with the viscosity of the lower part of the mantle and that the viscosity profile is characterized by a decrease in the lower part of the upper mantle (about 1020–2 × 1020 Pa s) and by an increase (about 1023–2 × 1023 Pa s) at the top of the lower mantle (between 670 and 1150 km). The viscosity of the mantle below 1150 km depth is well estimated in our Monte Carlo search and is about 1022–4 × 1022 Pa s.