[1] We combine a new, large data set of surface wave phase anomalies, long-period waveforms, and body wave travel times to construct a three-dimensional model of the anisotropic shear wave velocity in the Earth's mantle. Our modeling approach is improved and more comprehensive compared to our earlier studies and involves the development and implementation of a new spherically symmetric reference model, simultaneous inversion for velocity and anisotropy, as well as discontinuity topographies, and implementation of nonlinear crustal corrections for waveforms. A comparison of our new three-dimensional model, S362ANI, with two other models derived from comparable data sets but using different techniques reveals persistent features: (1) strong, ∼200-km-thick, high-velocity anomalies beneath cratons, likely representing the continental lithosphere, underlain by weaker, fast anomalies extending below 250 km, which may represent continental roots, (2) weak velocity heterogeneity between 250 and 400 km depths, (3) fast anomalies extending horizontally up to 2000-3000 km in the mantle transition zone beneath subduction zones, (4) lack of strong long-wavelength heterogeneity below 650 km suggesting inhibiting character of the upper mantle-lower mantle boundary, and (5) slow-velocity superplumes beneath the Pacific and Africa. The shear wave radial anisotropy is strongest at 120 km depth, in particular beneath the central Pacific. Lateral anisotropic variations appreciably improve the fit to data that are predominantly sensitive to the uppermost and lowermost mantle but not to the waveforms that control the transition zone and midmantle depths. Tradeoffs between lateral variations in velocity and anisotropy are negligible in the uppermost mantle but noticeable at the bottom of the mantle.

Anisotropic shear‐wave velocity structure of the Earth's mantle: A global model

How cratons-extremely stable continental areas of the Earth's crust-formed and remained largely unchanged for more than 2,500 million years is much debated. Recent studies of seismic-wave receiver function data have detected a structural boundary under continental cratons at depths too shallow to be consistent with the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, as inferred from seismic tomography and other geophysical studies. Here we show that changes in the direction of azimuthal anisotropy with depth reveal the presence of two distinct lithospheric layers throughout the stable part of the North American continent. The top layer is thick ( approximately 150 km) under the Archaean core and tapers out on the surrounding Palaeozoic borders. Its thickness variations follow those of a highly depleted layer inferred from thermo-barometric analysis of xenoliths. The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary is relatively flat (ranging from 180 to 240 km in depth), in agreement with the presence of a thermal conductive root that subsequently formed around the depleted chemical layer. Our findings tie together seismological, geochemical and geodynamical studies of the cratonic lithosphere in North America. They also suggest that the horizon detected in receiver function studies probably corresponds to the sharp mid-lithospheric boundary rather than to the more gradual lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary.

/pdf/lithospheric-layering-in-the-north-american-craton-12d1py7v6a.pdf

Lithospheric layering in the North American craton

[1] Unlike in the ocean basins where the shallow mantle eventually contributes to the destruction of the overlying crust, the shallow mantle beneath continents serves as a stiff, buoyant “root” whose presence may be essential to the long-term survival of continental crust at Earth's surface. These distinct roles for subcrustal mantle come about because the subcontinental mantle consists of a thick section of material left behind after extensive partial melt extraction, possibly from the wedge of mantle overlying a subducting oceanic plate. Melt removal causes the continental mantle to be cold and strong but also buoyant compared to oceanic mantle. These characteristics allow thick sections of cold mantle to persist beneath continental crust in some cases for over 3 billion years. If the continental mantle becomes gravitationally unstable, however, its detachment from the overlying crust can cause major episodes of intracontinental deformation and volcanism.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2004RG000156

Physical, chemical, and chronological characteristics of continental mantle

Plate tectonics and convection of the solid, rocky mantle are responsible for transporting heat out of Earth. However, the physics of plate tectonics is poorly understood; other planets do not exhibit it. Recent seismic evidence for convection and mixing throughout the mantle seems at odds with the chemical composition of erupted magmas requiring the presence of several chemically distinct reservoirs within the mantle. There has been rapid progress on these two problems, with the emergence of the first self-consistent models of plate tectonics and mantle convection, along with new geochemical models that may be consistent with seismic and dynamical constraints on mantle structure.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/288/5473/2002.full.pdf

Mantle Convection and Plate Tectonics: Toward an Integrated Physical and Chemical Theory

https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~pm8/PM_dwnld/Poudjom_Djomani_et_al_2001.pdf

The density structure of subcontinental lithosphere through time

Stability and dynamics of the continental tectosphere

https://dornsife.usc.edu/tools/mytools/PersonnelInfoSystem/DOC/Faculty/GEOL/publication_1003391_14502.pdf

The continental tectosphere and Earth's long-wavelength gravity field

Continental cratons overlie thick, high viscosity, thermal and chemical boundary layers, where the chemical boundary layers are less dense than they would be due to thermal effects alone, perhaps because they are depleted in basaltic constituents. If the continental tectosphere is the same age as the overlying Archaean curst, then the continental tectosphere must be able to survive for several billion years without undergoing a convective instability, despite being both cold and thick. Sine platforms and shields correlate only weakly with Earth's gravity and geoid anomalies, acceptable models of the continental tectosphere must also satisfy this gravity constraint. We investigate the long-term stability of the continental tectosphere by carrying out a number of numerical convection experiments within a two-dimensional Cartesian domain. We initiate our experiments with a tectosphere (thermal and chemical boundary layers) immersed in a region of uniform composition, temperature, and viscosity, and consider the effects on the stability of the tectosphere of (1) activation energy (used to define the temperature dependence of viscosity), (2) compositional buoyancy, and (3) linear or non-linear rheology. The large lateral thermal gradients required to match oceanic and tectosphere structures initiate the dominant instability, a “drip” which develps at the side of the tectosphere and moves to beneath its center. High activation energies and high background viscosities restrict the amount and rate of entrainment. Compositional buoyancy does not significantly change the flow pattern. Rather, compositional buoyancy slows the destruction process somewhat and reduces the stress within the tectosphere. With a non-Newtonian rheology, this reduction in stress helps to stiffen the tectosphere. In these experiments, dynamical systems that adequately model the present ocean-contient structures have activation energy E*≥180 kJ mole−1 —a value about one third the estimate of activation energy for olivine, E*≈520 kJ mole−1. Although for E*≈520 kJ mole−1, compositional buoyancy is not required for the tectosphere to survive, the joint application of longevity and gravity constraints allows us to reject all models not containing compositional buoyancy, and to predict that the ratio of compositional to thermal buoyancy within the continental tectosphere is approximately unity.

To estimate the average density contrast associated with the continental tectosphere, we separately project the degree 2–36 non-hydrostatic geoid and free-air gravity anomalies onto several tectonic regionalizations. Because both the regionalizations and the geoid have distinctly red spectra, we do not use conventional statistical analysis, which is based on the assumption of white spectra. Rather, we utilize, a Monte Carlo approach that incorporates the spectral properties of these fields. These simulations reveal that the undulations of Earth's geoid correlate with surface tectonics no better than they would were it randomly oriented with respect to the surface. However, our simulations indicate that free-air gravity anomalies correlate with surface tectonics better, than almost 98% of our trials in which the free-air gravity anomalies were randomly oriented with respect to Earth's surface. The average geoid anomaly, and free-air gravity anomaly over platforms and shields are significant at slightly better than the one-standard-deviation level: −11±8 m and −4±3 mgal, respectively. After removing from the geoid estimated contributions associated with (1) a simple model of the continental crust and oceanic lithosphere, (2) the lower mantle, (3) subducted slabs, and, (4) remnant glacial isostatic disequilibrium, we estimate a platform and shield signal of −8±4 m. We conclude that there is little contribution of platforms and shields to the gravity field, consistent with their, keels having small density contrasts. Using this estimate of the platform and shield signal, and previous estimates of upper-mantle shear-wave travel-time perturbations, we find that the average value of ϖln ρ/ϖln νs within the 140–440 km depth range is 0.04±0.02. A continental tectosphere with an isopycnic (equal-density) structure (ϖln ρ/ϖln νs=0) enforced by compositional variations is consistent with this result at the 2.0σ level. Without compositional buoyancy, the continental tectosphere would have an average ϖlnρ/ϖlnνs≈0.25, exceeding our estimate by 10σ.

Steven S. Shapiro

Papers

Stability and dynamics of the continental tectosphere

The continental tectosphere and Earth's long-wavelength gravity field

Stability and dynamics of the continental tectosphere

The continental tectosphere and Earth's long-wavelength gravity field