P and S wave tomography of the mantle beneath the United States

• Published in: Geophysical research letters 2014-09, Vol.41 (18), p.6342-6349
• Main Authors: Schmandt, Brandon, Lin, Fan-Chi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anomalies; Cretaceous; Crustal structure; Eocene; Geological time; hot spot; Hot spots (geology); Laramide orogeny; Magma; Mantle; Orogeny; passive margin; Passive margins; Plate margins; Plate tectonics; Plates (structural members); Rayleigh waves; S waves; Seismology; Slabs; subduction; Subduction (geology); Three dimensional models; Tomography; Tracking; Travel time; Velocity; Wave phase; Wave velocity
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1002/2014GL061231

Mantle seismic structure beneath the United States spanning from the active western plate margin to the passive eastern margin was imaged with teleseismic P and S wave traveltime tomography including USArray data up to May 2014. To mitigate artifacts from crustal structure 5–40 s, Rayleigh wave phase velocities were used to create a 3‐D starting model. Major features of the final P and S models include two distinct low‐velocity anomalies at depths of ~60–300 km beneath the central and northern Appalachians and passive margin. The central Appalachian low‐velocity anomaly coincides with Eocene basaltic magmatism, and the northern anomaly is located along the Cretaceous track of the Great Meteor hot spot. At depths of ~300–700 km beneath the central and eastern U.S. large high‐velocity anomalies are inferred to be remnants of the Farallon slab that subducted prior to ~40 Ma during the Laramide orogeny. Key Points P wave and S wave mantle tomography spanning the contiguous U.S.Passive margin low‐velocity anomalies linked to Cenozoic and Mesozoic volcanismSome Laramide‐age slab fragments have yet to sink into the lower mantle