TY - JOUR
T1 - Mantle Dynamics of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
T2 - Constraints From P-Wave Anisotropic Tomography
AU - Wei, Wei
AU - Zhao, Dapeng
AU - Wei, Feixiang
AU - Bai, Xiang
AU - Xu, Jiandong
N1 - Funding Information:
). Maureen Long (the Editor), Xiaobo He, and Manuele Faccenda provided thoughtful comments and suggestions that have improved this paper. We thank the International Seismological Center for providing the high‐quality EHB data sets used in this study ( http://www.isc.ac.uk/ehbbulletin/ ). The authors are grateful to J.O.S. Hammond, Jianke Fan, Zhiteng Yu, Zewei Wang, Yuanyuan Hua, and Tao Gou for thoughtful discussions. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41604042), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1500401), and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant 19H01996). Most figures were made using the Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel et al.,
Funding Information:
We thank the International Seismological Center for providing the high-quality EHB data sets used in this study (http://www.isc.ac.uk/ehbbulletin/). The authors are grateful to J.O.S. Hammond, Jianke Fan, Zhiteng Yu, Zewei Wang, Yuanyuan Hua, and Tao Gou for thoughtful discussions. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41604042), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1500401), and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant 19H01996). Most figures were made using the Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel et al.,). Maureen Long (the Editor), Xiaobo He, and Manuele Faccenda provided thoughtful comments and suggestions that have improved this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - High-resolution images of P-wave anisotropic tomography beneath the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are determined by inverting a large number of high-quality P-wave arrival times. Our results clearly show along-strike variations of subducting slabs in the Hellenic subduction zone. At least three high-velocity anomalies are imaged beneath and behind the north Hellenides, which are associated with the subducting Hellenic slab at different stages, while in regions further south, a single slab is revealed that has subducted down to a depth of ~1,100 km. The slab feature is not prominent in the Cyprus subduction zone, but a fine-scale high-velocity structure is revealed beneath the central Anatolia, which may reflect the detached Cyprus slab. Trench-parallel fast-velocity directions occur in the forearc mantle wedge of the Hellenic subduction zone, which may reflect mantle flow induced by slab curvature. In the backarc north Aegean and westernmost Anatolia, dominant NNE-SSW to N-S fast-velocity directions exist in the shallow mantle, which accord well with the extensional direction of present deformation at the surface, suggesting a vertically coherent deformation in the lithosphere. Our results reveal a large-scale mantle flow beneath western Arabia, which is possibly related to the Zagros and Caucasus orogens and westward motion of the Anatolia lithosphere. The Arabian lithospheric plate is thinner beneath the Zagros than that under the Mesopotamian Foredeep, suggesting that a large portion of the crust was scrapped off from the subducted Arabian lithosphere during the Zagros orogen.
AB - High-resolution images of P-wave anisotropic tomography beneath the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are determined by inverting a large number of high-quality P-wave arrival times. Our results clearly show along-strike variations of subducting slabs in the Hellenic subduction zone. At least three high-velocity anomalies are imaged beneath and behind the north Hellenides, which are associated with the subducting Hellenic slab at different stages, while in regions further south, a single slab is revealed that has subducted down to a depth of ~1,100 km. The slab feature is not prominent in the Cyprus subduction zone, but a fine-scale high-velocity structure is revealed beneath the central Anatolia, which may reflect the detached Cyprus slab. Trench-parallel fast-velocity directions occur in the forearc mantle wedge of the Hellenic subduction zone, which may reflect mantle flow induced by slab curvature. In the backarc north Aegean and westernmost Anatolia, dominant NNE-SSW to N-S fast-velocity directions exist in the shallow mantle, which accord well with the extensional direction of present deformation at the surface, suggesting a vertically coherent deformation in the lithosphere. Our results reveal a large-scale mantle flow beneath western Arabia, which is possibly related to the Zagros and Caucasus orogens and westward motion of the Anatolia lithosphere. The Arabian lithospheric plate is thinner beneath the Zagros than that under the Mesopotamian Foredeep, suggesting that a large portion of the crust was scrapped off from the subducted Arabian lithosphere during the Zagros orogen.
KW - Hellenic subduction zone
KW - P-wave anisotropy
KW - mantle flow
KW - seismic tomography
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U2 - 10.1029/2019GC008512
DO - 10.1029/2019GC008512
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85074322102
VL - 20
SP - 4505
EP - 4530
JO - Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
JF - Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
SN - 1525-2027
IS - 10
ER -