TY - JOUR
T1 - Mantle Transition Zone Receiver Functions for Bermuda
T2 - Automation, Quality Control, and Interpretation
AU - Burky, Alexander L.
AU - Irving, Jessica C.E.
AU - Simons, Frederik J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants EAR-1736046 and OCE-1917085, and by Princeton University. High-performance computing resources were provided by the Princeton Institute for Computational Science & Engineering (PICSciE). Thorough and constructive comments by two anonymous reviewers, and by the associate editor, helped us improve the manuscript significantly.
Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants EAR‐1736046 and OCE‐1917085, and by Princeton University. High‐performance computing resources were provided by the Princeton Institute for Computational Science & Engineering (PICSciE). Thorough and constructive comments by two anonymous reviewers, and by the associate editor, helped us improve the manuscript significantly.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - The origin of the Bermuda rise remains ambiguous, despite, or perhaps because of, the existence of sometimes incongruous seismic wave-speed and discontinuity models in the sub-Bermudian mantle. Hence, whether Bermuda is the surface manifestation of a mantle plume remains in question. Using the largest data set of seismic records from Bermuda to date, we estimate radial receiver functions at the Global Seismographic Network station BBSR in multiple frequency bands, using iterative time-domain deconvolution. Motivated by synthetic experiments using axisymmetric spectral-element forward waveform modeling, we devise a quality metric for our receiver functions to aid in the automation and reproduction of mantle transition zone discontinuity studies. We interpret the complex signals we observe by considering the mineralogical controls on mantle transition zone discontinuity structure, and conclude that our results are likely to be indicative of a thicker than average mantle transition zone. Our result is incompatible with the canonical model of a whole mantle plume in an olivine dominated mantle; however, considerations of phase transitions in the garnet system would allow us to reconcile our observations with the possible presence of a through-going hot thermal anomaly beneath Bermuda.
AB - The origin of the Bermuda rise remains ambiguous, despite, or perhaps because of, the existence of sometimes incongruous seismic wave-speed and discontinuity models in the sub-Bermudian mantle. Hence, whether Bermuda is the surface manifestation of a mantle plume remains in question. Using the largest data set of seismic records from Bermuda to date, we estimate radial receiver functions at the Global Seismographic Network station BBSR in multiple frequency bands, using iterative time-domain deconvolution. Motivated by synthetic experiments using axisymmetric spectral-element forward waveform modeling, we devise a quality metric for our receiver functions to aid in the automation and reproduction of mantle transition zone discontinuity studies. We interpret the complex signals we observe by considering the mineralogical controls on mantle transition zone discontinuity structure, and conclude that our results are likely to be indicative of a thicker than average mantle transition zone. Our result is incompatible with the canonical model of a whole mantle plume in an olivine dominated mantle; however, considerations of phase transitions in the garnet system would allow us to reconcile our observations with the possible presence of a through-going hot thermal anomaly beneath Bermuda.
KW - Bermuda
KW - automated quality control
KW - mantle plume
KW - mantle transition zone
KW - mineralogical phase transitions
KW - receiver functions
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U2 - 10.1029/2020JB020177
DO - 10.1029/2020JB020177
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85103898500
SN - 2169-9313
VL - 126
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
IS - 3
M1 - e2020JB020177
ER -