IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v417y2002i6888d10.1038_417536a.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An inverted continental Moho and serpentinization of the forearc mantle

Author

Listed:
  • M. G. Bostock

    (The University of British Columbia)

  • R. D. Hyndman

    (Pacific Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada
    University of Victoria)

  • S. Rondenay

    (The University of British Columbia
    Brown University)

  • S. M. Peacock

    (Arizona State University)

Abstract

Volatiles that are transported by subducting lithospheric plates to depths greater than 100 km are thought to induce partial melting in the overlying mantle wedge, resulting in arc magmatism and the addition of significant quantities of material to the overlying lithosphere1. Asthenospheric flow and upwelling within the wedge produce increased lithospheric temperatures in this back-arc region, but the forearc mantle (in the corner of the wedge) is thought to be significantly cooler. Here we explore the structure of the mantle wedge in the southern Cascadia subduction zone using scattered teleseismic waves recorded on a dense portable array of broadband seismometers. We find very low shear-wave velocities in the cold forearc mantle indicated by the exceptional occurrence of an ‘inverted’ continental Moho, which reverts to normal polarity seaward of the Cascade arc. This observation provides compelling evidence for a highly hydrated and serpentinized forearc region2, consistent with thermal and petrological models of the forearc mantle wedge. This serpentinized material is thought to have low strength and may therefore control the down-dip rupture limit of great thrust earthquakes, as well as the nature of large-scale flow in the mantle wedge.

Suggested Citation

  • M. G. Bostock & R. D. Hyndman & S. Rondenay & S. M. Peacock, 2002. "An inverted continental Moho and serpentinization of the forearc mantle," Nature, Nature, vol. 417(6888), pages 536-538, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6888:d:10.1038_417536a
    DOI: 10.1038/417536a
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/417536a
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/417536a?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xin Wang & Ling Chen & Kelin Wang & Qi-Fu Chen & Zhongwen Zhan & Jianfeng Yang, 2024. "Seismic evidence for melt-rich lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath young slab at Cascadia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6888:d:10.1038_417536a. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.