Possible orthopyroxene enrichment in the upper mantle below the Mississippi Embayment

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution tomography and numerical modeling to suggest that orthopyroxene enrichment, rather than temperature alone, explains the mantle velocity anomalies beneath the Mississippi Embayment, indicating complex mantle composition.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that orthopyroxene enrichment, not just temperature or water, accounts for observed seismic velocity anomalies in the upper mantle beneath the NMSZ.

Findings

Velocity anomalies are partly due to orthopyroxene enrichment.

Water content alone cannot explain the seismic anomalies.

Opx enrichment aligns with sub-solidus temperature conditions.

Abstract

A high-resolution tomography study for the mantle beneath the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), a major intraplate earthquake zone in the Central and Eastern US, reveals 3 - 5 % low Vp and Vs anomalies in the upper mantle in the depth range 100 to 250 km. When attributed only to temperature variations, such low velocities lead to temperatures higher than the olivine solidus, for which consistent observational support is lacking. Similar magnitudes of the Vp and Vs anomalies also suggest that temperature anomalies are unlikely to be the sole factor because Vs is more sensitive to temperature than Vp. In this study, we attribute the velocity anomalies to elevated water and orthopyroxene (Opx) contents as well as temperature variations. We then compute differential stresses using three-dimensional numerical models subjected to a loading similar to the regional stresses. The models assume a Maxwell viscoelastic crust and mantle with viscosities based on the temperature, water and Opx content converted from the tomography. We find that the presence of water allows for sub-solidus variations in temperature. However, any combination of water content and temperature anomalies fails to yield Vp and Vs anomalies of a similar magnitude. Thus, we consider Opx enrichment in place of water content.Our calculations show that reasonable Opx content and sub-solidus temperatures can explain both Vp and Vs anomalies. We speculate that the Opx enrichment could have been produced by fluids released from a stagnant piece of the Farallon slab imaged at around 670 km beneath the NMSZ