Signature of slab fragmentation and dynamic interaction between slabs
and the mantle transition zone in northeast Asia
Abstract
Slab subduction imaged by seismic tomography implies extensive mantle
convection and circulation in the Earth’s interior. Widespread
subduction of the western Pacific plate beneath the eastern Eurasian
plate has left peculiar geochemical and geophysical signatures in the
upper mantle of East Asia, which allow to investigate the extent of
thermochemical interactions between the subducting plates and the
surrounding mantle. Here we provide refined images of the stagnant
Pacific slab and the mantle transition zone beneath northeast Asia. We
applied teleseismic traveltime tomography and 3-D body-wave waveform
modeling by using high-quality datasets from dense seismic arrays
including in the Korean Peninsula and southwestern Japan, and found a
clear signature of fragmentation of the stagnant Pacific slab. We imaged
a localized low-velocity anomaly with high Vp/Vs ratio at 410-km depth
above the slab gap, which was interpreted to be partial melting. The
segmented Pacific slab reflects a rapid change in boundaries between the
Pacific plate, Eurasian plate, and Philippine Sea plate during the Early
to mid-Miocene. The slab fragmentation likely has facilitated localized
mantle convection in the upper mantle and the mantle transition zone
around the slab segments. Our images provide evidence of dynamic
interplay between the evolving plate configurations, subducting slabs,
and the surrounding mantle.