Mapping the mantle transition zone discontinuities across South-Central Europe using body waves from seismic noise correlations

Author(s)
Yang Lu, Stefan M. Schmid, Qing-Yu Wang, Götz Bokelmann
Abstract

We map the mantle transition zone (MTZ) discontinuities beneath South-Central Europe using P-wave reflection phases recovered from noise correlations. We analyze up to four years of seismic noise recordings from 900 broadband stations in the study area. By stacking noise correlations in selected summer months, we significantly improved the retrieval of typically low-amplitude body-wave reflection phases in the light of a quiet surface-wave environment and sufficient noise body-wave illumination from deep paths. We obtain reliable P-wave reflections associated with the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities in the period band of 4–10 s. These short-period reflections reveal clear lateral depth variations of the two discontinuities, indicating complex MTZ structure under the greater Alpine region. This provides new important constraints on present and past mantle dynamics, and it shows the strong potential of passive seismic imaging for studying deep-Earth discontinuities.

Organisation(s)
Department of Meteorology and Geophysics
External organisation(s)
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Journal
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Volume
624
ISSN
0012-821X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118457
Publication date
12-2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
105122 Seismic
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Geochemistry and Petrology, Geophysics, Space and Planetary Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/f99e3909-5cff-4688-9f1e-c376096d72b4