Mantle transition zone variations beneath the Ethiopian Rift and Afar: Chemical heterogeneity within a hot mantle?

Details Mantle transition zone variations beneath the Ethiopian Rift and Afar: Chemical heterogeneity within a hot mantle? Mantle transition zone variations beneath the Ethiopian Rift and Afar: Chemical heterogeneity within a hot mantle?

Aug 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011georl..3816308c&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 38, Issue 16, CiteID L16308

Physics

Seismology: Mantle (1212, 1213, 8124), Tectonophysics: Continental Tectonics: Extensional (0905), Tectonophysics: Earth'S Interior: Composition And State (1212, 7207, 7208, 8105), Tectonophysics: Hotspots, Large Igneous Provinces, And Flood Basalt Volcanism, Geographic Location: Africa

Scientific paper

The mantle transition zone (MTZ) structure beneath the Ethiopian Rift and Afar is mapped using receiver functions. The 410 discontinuity is flat and regionally depressed by 30-40 km, most likely due to a hot (≥+250 °C) and slow (average δVS > 3 %) upper mantle. The 660 discontinuity is shown to have variations in depth (665-705 km) over short length scales (<200 km). This results in a MTZ with a ‘normal’ average thickness of 244 km, (i.e., within error of the observed global average). However, local thickness variations (<230 km to >260 km) indicate possible compositional/chemical heterogeneities and elevated ambient temperatures near the base of the MTZ. These observations provide evidence for a link between the low velocity anomalies of the Ethiopian upper mantle and the African Superplume in the lower mantle.

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