Correlation of a 410-km Discontinuity Low Velocity Layer with Velocity Tomograms Beneath the Colorado Plateau Using the RISTRA Array

Abstract

The transition zone water filter model (Nature 425(6953), 39–44; 2003) predicts that a hydrous partial melt layer is only actively produced in a region of upwelling mantle. We test the transition zone water filter model via stacking of P-to-S converted receiver functions by using the IRIS-PASSCAL RISTRA (Colorado Plateau/Rio Grande Rift Seismic Transect Experiment) array. Assuming the high velocity regions found at the northwest and southeast ends of the array at 350–440 km by teleseismic velocity tomograms e.g. Schmandt and Humphreys (Earth and Planetary Science Letters 297(3–4): 435–445; 2010) are cold and sinking vertically, the 410-km low velocity layer should be absent in these regions. The receiver function stacking profiles find the mean depths of the two primary discontinuities at 417 ± 7.1 km for the 410-km discontinuity and 667 ± 8.2 km for the 660-km discontinuity. The average arrival amplitudes with respect to Z component are 3.0% for the 410-km discontinuity, 2.8% for the 660-km discontinuity, and − 1.8% for the 410-km low velocity layer. The stacked Pds image show the 410-km low cabsent at ~ 350 to 390 km in the high velocity regions, but present in low velocity region. A correlation plot of sum of the 410-km low velocity arrival amplitudes and P-wave perturbation finds a positive linear relationship. Therefore, our findings provide seismic evidence for the transition zone water filter model at a small scale.