High-resolution teleseismic body wave tomography beneath SE-Romania - II. Imaging of a slab detachment scenario

Abstract

Non-linear teleseismic bodywave tomography with data of the 1999 CALIXTO field experiment (Carpathian Arc Lithosphere X-Tomography) in Romania provides high-resolution imaging of the upper-mantle structure. In this paper, we present the relative P-wave velocity distribution of the lithosphere/asthenosphere system. Smearing from strong crustal velocity anomalies into the upper mantle is successfully suppressed by traveltime corrections with an a priori 3-D regional crustal velocity model (see Martin et al. 2005, herein referenced as paper 1). Our high-resolution image shows a high-velocity body beneath Vrancea and the Moesian platform with a NE-SW orientation between 70 and 200 km depth. Beneath 200 km a change in the orientation from NE-SW to N-S can be observed. The body reaches a maximum depth of about 350–370 km. The velocity perturbation is maximal between 110 and 150 km depth (5.2–5.8 per cent) and almost constant for depths beneath 200 km (3.2–3.8 per cent). As most authors of previous studies agree on Miocene subduction along the arc followed by soft continental collision we interpret the high-velocity body as the subducted, yet not fully detached slab. The NE-part of the slab appears to be mechanically coupled to the Moesian lithosphere and hosts the intermediate depth seismicity. In contrast the aseismic SW-part is interpreted as decoupled from the overlying lithosphere and torn off from the underlying lithospheric material beneath 200 km depth. Low velocity anomalies NW of the slab above 110 km depth are interpreted as a shallow asthenospheric upwelling. Further low-velocity anomalies are in agreement with a lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary at 110–150 km depth below the Moesian platform and deeper than 200 km under the East European platform (EEP). The tomographic images support models proposing slab rollback during subduction/collision, followed by slab steepening and lithospheric delamination. The different degrees of mechanical coupling of the slab to the overlying lithosphere allow to understand the loci of seismicity as volumes of stress concentration. Independent on the specifics of data interpretation our high-resolution image is a novel contribution to understand the process of ongoing lithospheric detachment associated with strong intermediate-depth seismicity in SE-Romania.