Mapping the Hawaiian plume conduit with converted seismic waves

Details Mapping the Hawaiian plume conduit with converted seismic waves Mapping the Hawaiian plume conduit with converted seismic waves

Jun 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000natur.405..938l&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 405, Issue 6789, pp. 938-941 (2000).

Computer Science

53

Scientific paper

The volcanic edifice of the Hawaiian islands and seamounts, as well as the surrounding area of shallow sea floor known as the Hawaiian swell, are believed to result from the passage of the oceanic lithosphere over a mantle hotspot. Although geochemical and gravity observations indicate the existence of a mantle thermal plume beneath Hawaii, no direct seismic evidence for such a plume in the upper mantle has yet been found. Here we present an analysis of compressional-to-shear (P-to-S) converted seismic phases, recorded on seismograph stations on the Hawaiian islands, that indicate a zone of very low shear-wave velocity (< 4kms -1) starting at 130-140km depth beneath the central part of the island of Hawaii and extending deeper into the upper mantle. We also find that the upper-mantle transition zone (410-660km depth) appears to be thinned by up to 40-50km to the south-southwest of the island of Hawaii. We interpret these observations as localized effects of the Hawaiian plume conduit in the asthenosphere and mantle transition zone with excess temperature of ~300°C. Large variations in the transition-zone thickness suggest a lower-mantle origin of the Hawaiian plume similar to the Iceland plume, but our results indicate a 100°C higher temperature for the Hawaiian plume.

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