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Whole-mantle tomography of Southeast Asia: New insight into plumes and slabs
  • Genti Toyokuni,
  • Dapeng Zhao,
  • Kenkichi Kurata
Genti Toyokuni
Tohoku University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Dapeng Zhao
Tohoku University
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Kenkichi Kurata
Tohoku University
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Abstract

We present detailed 3-D images of whole mantle P-wave velocity structure beneath Southeast Asia and surrounding regions. The results are obtained by applying an updated global tomographic method to invert ~8 million P, pP, PP, PcP, and Pdiff arrival times from 23,587 earthquakes recorded at 14,136 stations distributed all over the world. Our tomographic model reveals a continuous, thin low-velocity (low-V) zone from the surface to the core-mantle boundary beneath the Hainan hotspot, which may reflect the Hainan plume that exists in the whole mantle. Beneath the Australian slab that has subducted into the lower mantle, a strong low-V anomaly is detected, which may reflect subslab hot mantle upwelling (SHMU) due to return flow of the slab subduction. Our model also shows the distinct shape of subducted slabs in the upper mantle and slab remnants in the lower mantle. In particular, a hole in the subducting Australian slab is revealed at depths of 280–430 km beneath eastern Java. The low-V anomaly in the mantle wedge above the Australian slab is connected with the SHMU through the slab hole, suggesting that mixture of the island arc magma and the SHMU may have caused huge eruptions of the Tambora and Rinjani volcanoes in eastern Java.