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Effective elastic thickness of the Arabian plate: Weak shield versus strong platform
Author(s) -
Chen Bo,
Kaban Mikhail K.,
El Khrepy Sami,
AlArifi Nassir
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl063725
Subject(s) - geology , lithosphere , subduction , seismology , mantle (geology) , indian shield , plate tectonics , shield , rift , baltic shield , geophysics , convergent boundary , tectonics , craton , petrology , oceanic crust
The fan wavelet method has been employed to calculate high‐resolution maps of variations of the effective elastic thickness (EET) for the Arabian plate and surroundings. As the initial data, we use high‐resolution gravity field, topography, and recent models of sedimentary basins. The western part of the plate is generally characterized by low to midvalues of EET (10–30 km) while the eastern one by high values (50 km and more in the core). This finding confirms that the pronounced asymmetry of the plate is rather associated with fundamental structural differences of the lithosphere than with a forced tilt of the plate due to the rifting in the west‐southwest and subduction in the northeast. Therefore, the high topography in the western part of the plate is likely supported by relatively hot mantle that is also responsible for the decrease of EET. These results are generally in agreement with recent seismic tomography models.