Upper mantle and continental crust anisotropy in southeastern Mexico determined from shear-wave splitting measurements using local intraslab earthquakes

Abstract

Cocos intraslab earthquakes were used to make shear-wave splitting measurements to explore the factors that control seismic anisotropy and to study the mantle wedge flow patterns in southeastern Mexico, where the Cocos plate subducts beneath the North American plate. Cocos intraslab earthquakes reach depths of 250 km, making it possible to sample the mantle wedge. The Silver and Chan (1991) covariance method was used to measure the splitting parameters: the fast polarization direction (φ) and the delay time (δt). The measurements can be divided into three regions: (1) northwest and (2) southeast of the Tehuantepec Ridge extension (i.e., the subducted Tehuantepec Ridge within the Cocos slab) and (3) the region above the subhorizontal Cocos slab. (1) In the first region, northeast of the 100 km isodepth contour of the Cocos slab, the fast axes are trench-perpendicular. This can be explained assuming the development of A-type olivine fabric and the existence of 2-D corner flow driven by the downdip motion of the Cocos slab. Southwest of the 100 km isodepth contour, measurements show trench-parallel fast polarization directions that are also consistent with corner flow, albeit in a serpentinized mantle wedge. Right above the Tehuantepec Ridge extension (northeast of the 100 km isodepth contour of the subducting slab), a change in the fast polarization directions from trench-normal to trench-parallel while going from northwest to southeast is observed and signals a change in the mantle flow pattern possibly through a vertical tear in the Cocos slab. 3-D toroidal flow could drive subslab mantle material around this slab edge and into the mantle wedge. (2) In the second region, the measured fast polarization directions show a trench-parallel orientation that is interpreted to result from southeastward trench-parallel flow through a serpentinized mantle wedge tip and also through a mantle wedge core made up of A- or C-type olivine fabrics with their fast axes oriented parallel to the flow direction. Trench-perpendicular fast polarization directions are observed beneath the fore-arc region of the Central America Volcanic Arc, near Tacaná Volcano, and trench-parallel polarizations are observed beneath the arc. These orientations could be explained by assuming the presence of B-type olivine fabric in the mantle wedge tip, A- or C-type olivine fabric in the mantle wedge core, and trench-parallel flow, so that the orientations of the fast axes become perpendicular to the mantle flow direction beneath the fore-arc and parallel to it beneath the arc. Lastly, (3) in the third region, over the flat slab, the observed delay times (0.04–0.42 s) are consistent with crustal anisotropy magnitudes, and the fast polarization directions seem to be controlled by the orientations of fault systems and alignments in foliations. Therefore, crustal faults and folds seem to be the dominant factors controlling the observed anisotropy.