New insights into the structural elements of the upper mantle beneath the contiguous United States fromS-to-Pconverted seismic waves

Abstract

SUMMARYThe S-receiver function (SRF) technique is an effective tool to study seismic discontinuities in the upper mantle such as the mid-lithospheric discontinuity (MLD) and the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB). This technique uses deconvolution and aligns traces along the maximum of the deconvolved SV signal. Both of these steps lead to acausal signals, which may cause interference with real signals from below the Moho. Here we go back to the origin of the SRF method and process S-to-P converted waves using S-onset times as the reference time and waveform summation without any filter like deconvolution or bandpass. We apply this ‘causal’ SRF (C-SRF) method to data of the USArray and obtain partially different results in comparison with previous studies using the traditional acausal SRF method. The new method does not confirm the existence of an MLD beneath large regions of the cratonic US. The shallow LAB in the western US is, however, confirmed with the new method. The elimination of the MLD signal below much of the cratonic US reveals lower amplitude but highly significant phases that previously had been overwhelmed by the apparent MLD signals. Along the northern part of the area with data coverage we see relics of Archean or younger northwest directed low-angle subduction below the entire Superior Craton. In the cratonic part of the US we see indications of the cratonic LAB near 200 km depth. In the Gulf Coast of the southern US, we image relics of southeast directed shallow subduction, likely of mid-Palaeozoic age.