Constraining the characters of the upper mantle discontinuities beneath the NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau with a dense broadband seismic array

Abstract

Based on observations from a dense broadband seismic array located along the northeastern (NE) margin of the Tibetan Plateau in southeastern Gansu Province, we use receiver functions (RFs) to pick the arrival times of P-to-S converted waves and bin the traces in different grids according to the piercing points of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities in the upper mantle. The depths of the two discontinuities are estimated by the ray tracing method with the IASP91 velocity model and a 3-D tomography model. The results indicate the following: (1) The arrival times of the P410s and P660s converted phases are delayed by approximately 1 s than those predicted by the IASP91 model. The mantle transition zone (MTZ) is thicker than that in the global model. (2) The synchronous lags in the P410s and P660s arrival times are consistent with low-velocity anomalies in the upper mantle, which are believed to result mainly from the eastward migration of materials beneath the NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau. (3) Combined with previous tomography results, the depression of the ‘660’ discontinuity and the thickened MTZ are somewhat consistent with the big mantle wedge (BMW) model. However, due to data limitations, more studies are required to explore the BMW in the future.