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Science 27 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5517, pp. 713 - 716
DOI: 10.1126/science.1058763
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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.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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The Subduction Zone Flow Field from Seismic Anisotropy: A Global View.
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Slab portal beneath the western Aleutians.
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Insights into Magma Genesis at Convergent Margins from U-series Isotopes.
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Geodynamic setting of Izu-Bonin-Mariana boninites.
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Back-arc spreading and mantle flow in the East Scotia Sea.
R. Livermore (2003)
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Seismic Anisotropy: Tracing Plate Dynamics in the Mantle.
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The Mantle Flow Field Beneath Western North America.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)