Upper mantle structure beneath the Hawaiian swell: Constraints from the ocean seismic network pilot experiment

Abstract

Data from two broadband, ocean‐bottom seismographic stations deployed ∼225 km southwest of Oahu, Hawaii during the Ocean Seismic Network Pilot Experiment provide constraints on upper mantle structure beneath the Hawaiian swell. Receiver functions show that the mantle transition zone is thinned by >50 km relative to reference model PA5, which, in the absence of compositional changes, implies excess temperatures of >350 K in the transition zone. The combination of the measurements reported here and the thickness variations reported by Li et al. [2000] imply that the transition zone is thinned by 30 ± 15 km over an along‐swell dimension of at least 700 km. At ∼80 km depth, P‐to‐S converted phases are identified from the Gutenberg discontinuity marking the lid of the oceanic low‐velocity zone and the base of the lithosphere. Shear‐wave splitting measurements imply that fast‐polarization azimuths are intermediate between the absolute plate‐motion vector and the fossil spreading direction; multi‐event stacked values of ø and δt are −80° and 1.5 s, respectively.