Subducted lithosphere or 530 km discontinuity?

Bending stress and dissipation in subducted lithosphere

[1] Oceanic lithosphere undergoes permanent deformation during subduction once the stresses exceed the elastic limit. Departures from elastic behavior occur by brittle failure in the shallow lithosphere and by a combination of lowand high-temperature creep at greater depths. We combine laboratory-based rheological models with estimates of slab shape from earthquake hypocenters to quantify the b...

The seismic mid-lithosphere discontinuity

The Lehmann Discontinuity Due to Dehydration of Subducted Sediment

Recent high-pressure experiments have led to the conclusion that water release from subducted sediments lying under continents in subduction regions occurs at about 220 km depth. This dehydration reaction is in good agreement with the seismological signature of the discontinuity indicating that sediment dehydration causes the Lehmann discontinuity in

Dispersion of P waves in subducted lithosphere Evidence for an eclogite layer

Cold, subducted lithosphere has relatively fast seismic velocity which leads to early arrivals for some vent-station paths. The effect is very large for events in the Tonga-Kermadec ep seismic zone recorded at certain New Zealand stations. These particular arrivals are very high-frequency (3 Hz or greater) and sometimes r emble two distinct phases, the later arrival appearing at about the time ...

Seismic imaging of the Cocos plate subduction zone system in central Mexico

[1] Broadband data from the Meso-America Subduction Experiment (MASE) line in central Mexico were used to image the subducted Cocos plate and the overriding continental lithosphere beneath central Mexico using a generalized radon transform based migration. Our images provide insight into the process of subducting relatively young oceanic lithosphere and its complex geometry beneath continental ...