Upper Mantle Seismic Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains from Regional P- and S-wave Tomography


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Resource Abstract:
Abstract: Stretching ~3,500 km across Antarctica, with peak elevations up to 4,500 m, the Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-compressional mountain range on Earth and represent a tectonic boundary between the East Antarctica (EA) craton and the West Antarctic Rift System. The origin and uplift mechanism associated with the TAMs is controversial, and multiple models have been proposed. Seismic investigations of the TAMs' subsurface structure can provide key constraints to help evaluate these models, but previous studies have been primarily focused only on the central TAMs near Ross Island. Using data from the new 15-station Transantarctic Mountain Northern Network as well as data from several smaller networks, this study investigates the upper mantle velocity structure beneath a previously unexplored portion of the northern TAMs through regional body wave tomography. Relative travel-times were calculated for 11,182 P-wave and 8,285 S-wave arrivals from 790 and 581 Mw ≥ 5.5 events, respectively, using multi-channel cross correlation, and these data were then inverted for models of the upper mantle seismic structure. Resulting P- and S-wave tomography images reveal two focused low velocity anomalies beneath Ross Island (RI; δVP ≈ -2.0%; δVS ≈ -1.5% to -4.0%) and Terra Nova Bay (TNB; δVP ≈ -1.5% to -2.0%; δVS ≈ -1.0% to -4.0%) that extend to depths of ~200 and ~150 km, respectively. The RI and TNB slow anomalies also extend ~50-100 km laterally beneath the TAMs front and sharply abut fast velocities beneath the EA craton (δVP ≈ 0.5% to 2%; δVS ≈ 1.5% to 4.0%). A low velocity region (δVP ≈ -1.5%), centered at ~150 km depth beneath the Terror Rift (TR) and primarily constrained within the Victoria Land Basin, connects the RI and TNB anomalies. The focused low velocities are interpreted as regions of partial melt and buoyancy-driven upwelling, connected by a broad region of slow (presumably warm) upper mantle associated with Cenozoic extension along the TR. Dynamic topography estimates based on the imaged S-wave velocity perturbations are consistent with observed surface topography in the central and northern TAMs, thereby providing support for uplift models that advocate for thermal loading and a flexural origin for the mountain range.
Citation
Title  Upper Mantle Seismic Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains from Regional P- and S-wave Tomography
publication date 2017-04-06
cited responsible party - author
individual Name  Hansen, Samantha
organisation Name  University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, US
Contact information
Postal Address:
electronic Mail Address: shansen@geo.ua.edu
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://orcid.org/ORCID:0000-0001-7608-5715
protocol  ORCID
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) Data Center
No contact information provided.
Topic Category:   geoscientificInformation
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Resource language:   eng
Resource progress code:   Complete
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0]
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0]
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Classification  unclassified
Format
Format name
Format version  1
Resource extent
Extent description
Transantarctic Mountains
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  153.327
eastBoundLongitude  165.120012
northBoundLatitude  -73.032547
southBoundLatitude  -76.237352
Credits:
funderName:NSF:GEO:PLR:Antarctic Earth Sciences awardNumber:1148982 awardTitle:CAREER: Deciphering the Tectonic History of the Transantarctic Mountains and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin
point of contact - pointOfContact
individual Name  Hansen, Samantha
organisation Name  University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, US
Contact information
No address provided.
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://orcid.org/ORCID:0000-0001-7608-5715
protocol  ORCID
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name  Landing Page
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.15784/601017
protocol  WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function  information
Description  Link to DOI landing page or data facility landing page if no DOI is assigned.
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name  landing page
URL: http://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601017
protocol  WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
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Metadata Information

Metadata data stamp:  2018-05-17
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notes:  This metadata record was generated by an xslt transformation from a DataCite metadata record; The transform was created by Damian Ulbricht and Stephen M. Richard. 2017-11-15 these records include new IEDA keywords for geoportal facets Run on 2018-06-21T19:05:25-07:00
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organisation Name  Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance
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electronic Mail Address: web@usap-dc.org
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URL: http://www.usap-dc.org/static/imgs/header/usaplogo.png
link function  browseGraphic
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata hierarchy level name:  Dataset
Metadata language   eng
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19139 Geographic Information - Metadata - Implementation Specification
standard version:  2007
Metadata record identifier:  urn:ieda:metadataabout:10.15784-601017
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