Premium
Mantle transition zone thinning beneath eastern Africa: Evidence for a whole‐mantle superplume structure
Author(s) -
Mulibo Gabriel D.,
Nyblade Andrew A.
Publication year - 2013
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/grl.50694
Subject(s) - transition zone , geology , mantle (geology) , core–mantle boundary , classification of discontinuities , geophysics , hotspot (geology) , seismology , petrology , mathematical analysis , mathematics
P to S conversions from the 410 and 660 km discontinuities observed in receiver function stacks reveal a mantle transition zone that is ~30–40 km thinner than the global average in a region ~200–400 km wide extending in a SW‐NE direction from central Zambia, across Tanzania and into Kenya. The thinning of the transition zone indicates a ~190–300 K thermal anomaly in the same location where seismic tomography models suggest that the lower mantle African superplume structure connects to thermally perturbed upper mantle beneath eastern Africa. This finding provides compelling evidence for the existence of a continuous thermal structure extending from the core‐mantle boundary to the surface associated with the African superplume.