Pn Tomography of the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Plates: Constraints on
Mantle Deformation and Hydration in Young Oceanic Lithosphere
Abstract
Tomographic analysis of Pn arrivals times—the guided P-wave
propagating within the lithospheric mantle—is ideal for studying the
structure of the uppermost mantle. While plate-scale seismic images of
Pn wave speeds are common beneath the continents, similar scale studies
have not been possible within ocean basins due to the sparsity of
seismic stations. The Cascadia Initiative (CI) dataset provides the
first opportunity to image spatial variations in lithospheric structure
across an entire oceanic plate. We measure 2,862 Pn arrivals from local
earthquakes recorded by the CI array. Our dataset provides complete
coverage of both the Juan de Fuca (JdF) and deforming Gorda plates. We
invert the measured arrival times for 3D variations in anisotropic
P-wave velocity and hypocentral parameters. Despite surficial evidence
of extensive active faulting, the velocity structure of the Gorda
uppermost mantle is remarkably consistent with predictions from a
conductive cooling model (attached figure). Limited deformation at
mantle depths is supported by seismic anisotropy measurements that show
the fast-direction of P-wave propagation rotates in concert with the
magnetic anomaly lineations. This rotation may be explained by local
plate kinematics without internal deformation and hydration of the
shallow mantle. In contrast to Gorda, the seismic velocity structure of
the JdF plate does not exhibit a clear age dependence. Three pronounced
mantle low-velocity zones are found along the southern edge of the JdF
plate near the termini of large pseudofaults that contributed to the
formation of the Blanco Transform fault. We attribute these velocity
reductions to mantle alteration by seawater. We note that within the
interior of the JdF plate pseudofaults do not appear as uniformly slow
features in our seismic images. Beneath the central and northern JdF
plate, P-wave speeds are ~7.7 km/s out to
~4-5 Myr before abruptly increasing to
~7.9 km/s. Curiously, this transition occurs near the
onset of mantle downwelling inferred from teleseismic body wave
tomography and attenuation suggesting that mantle flow dynamics may
influence the structure of young oceanic lithosphere. Lastly, we note
that our results do not suggest a relationship between the structure of
the uppermost slab mantle and segmentation of the Cascadia megathrust.