Crust and upper mantle P wave velocity structure beneath Valles Caldera, New Mexico: Results from the Jemez teleseismic tomography experiment

Abstract

New results are presented from the teleseismic component of the Jemez Tomography Experiment conducted across Valles caldera in northern New Mexico. We invert 4872 relative P wave arrival times recorded on 50 portable stations to determine velocity structure to depths of 40 km. The three principle features of our model for Valles caldera are: (1) near‐surface low velocities of −17% beneath the Toledo embayment and the Valle Grande, (2) midcrustal low velocities of −23% in an ellipsoidal volume underneath the northwest quadrant of the caldera, and (3) a broad zone of low velocities (−15%) in the lower crust or upper mantle. Crust shallower than 20 km is generally fast to the northwest of the caldera and slow to the southeast. Near‐surface low velocities are interpreted as thick deposits of Bandelier tuff and postcaldera volcaniclastic rocks. Lateral variation in the thickness of these deposits supports increased caldera collapse to the southeast, beneath the Valle Grande. We interpret the midcrustal low‐velocity zone to contain a minimum melt fraction of 10%. While we cannot rule out the possibility that this zone is the remnant 1.2 Ma Bandelier magma chamber, the eruption history and geochemistry of the volcanic rocks erupted in Valles caldera following the Bandelier tuff make it more likely that magma results from a new pulse of intrusion, indicating that melt flux into the upper crust beneath Valles caldera continues. The low‐velocity zone near the crust‐mantle boundary is consistent with either partial melt in the lower crust or mafic rocks without partial melt in the upper mantle. In either case, this low‐velocity anomaly indicates that underplating by mantle‐derived melts has occurred.