Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
AAAS Store

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 27 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5517, pp. 713 - 716
DOI: 10.1126/science.1058763
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

A Complex Pattern of Mantle Flow in the Lau Backarc

Gideon P. Smith,1 Douglas A. Wiens,1 Karen M. Fischer,2 Leroy M. Dorman,3 Spahr C. Webb,4 John A. Hildebrand3

Shear-wave splitting analysis of local events recorded on land and on the ocean floor in the Tonga arc and Lau backarc indicate a complex pattern of azimuthal anisotropy that cannot be explained by mantle flow coupled to the downgoing plate. These observations suggest that the direction of mantle flow rotates from convergence-parallel in the Fiji plateau to north-south beneath the Lau basin and arc-parallel beneath the Tonga arc. These results correlate with helium isotopes that map mantle flow of the Samoan plume into the Lau basin through an opening tear in the Pacific plate.

1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, CB1169, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
2 Department of Geological Sciences, Box 1846, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
3 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0215, USA.
4 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Post Office Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Boninites and Adakites from the Northern Termination of the Tonga Trench: Implications for Adakite Petrogenesis.
T. J. Falloon, L. V. Danyushevsky, A. J. Crawford, S. Meffre, J. D. Woodhead, and S. H. Bloomer (2008)
J. Petrology 49, 697-715
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Subduction Zone Flow Field from Seismic Anisotropy: A Global View.
M. D. Long and P. G. Silver (2008)
Science 319, 315-318
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Remote Sensing of Hydrogen in Earth's Mantle.
S.-i. Karato (2006)
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 62, 343-375
   Full Text »    PDF »
Slab portal beneath the western Aleutians.
V. Levin, N. M. Shapiro, J. Park, and M. H. Ritzwoller (2005)
Geology 33, 253-256
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Insights into Magma Genesis at Convergent Margins from U-series Isotopes.
S. P. Turner, S. Turner, B. Bourdon, and J. Gill (2003)
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 52, 255-315
   Full Text »    PDF »
Intra-oceanic subduction systems: introduction.
P. T. Leat and R. D. Larter (2003)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 219, 1-17
   Abstract »    PDF »
Geodynamic setting of Izu-Bonin-Mariana boninites.
A. Deschamps and S. Lallemand (2003)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 219, 163-185
   Abstract »    PDF »
Back-arc spreading and mantle flow in the East Scotia Sea.
R. Livermore (2003)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 219, 315-331
   Abstract »    PDF »
Seismic Anisotropy: Tracing Plate Dynamics in the Mantle.
J. Park and V. Levin (2002)
Science 296, 485-489
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Mantle Flow Field Beneath Western North America.
P. G. Silver and W. E. Holt (2002)
Science 295, 1054-1057
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Water-Induced Fabric Transitions in Olivine.
H. Jung and S.-i. Karato (2001)
Science 293, 1460-1463
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products