The deep thermal structure of the lithosphere in the northwestern South China Sea and its control on the shallow tectonics

Wang, Xiaofang; Huang, Haibo; Xu, H.; Ren, Ziqiang; Zhang, Jiazheng; Zhao, Zhongxian

doi:10.1007/s11430-020-9726-2

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…3 ). Assuming a typical anisotropy strength of 4% in the upper mantle [ 42 ], a lithospheric mantle of ∼40-km thickness in the NW sub-basin [ 43 ] may result in a splitting time of ∼0.35 s [ 32 ]. For the SW sub-basin, which has a lithosphere as thin as ∼20 km [ 44 ], the contribution to the splitting time is ∼0.15 s. Therefore, the expected splitting times for both sub-basins are significantly smaller than the observed values, suggesting that the observed NNW–SSE oriented anisotropy is mostly from the sub-lithospheric mantle.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…S8 ) driven by the Indian–Eurasian collision as discussed below. Third, if APM-induced anisotropy is the main source, the ocean–continental transitional zone where an abrupt change of lithosphere thickness is present [ 43 ] may modulate mantle flow and result in a fast orientation that is parallel to the edge of the NW sub-basin [ 16 , 47 ]. Such variation in the individual fast orientations was not observed in this study (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mantle flow underneath the South China Sea revealed by seismic anisotropy

Kong

Gao

et al. 2023

National Science Review

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It has long been established that plastic flow in the asthenosphere interacts constantly with the overlying lithosphere and plays a pivotal role in controlling the occurrence of geohazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Unfortunately, accurately characterizing the direction and lateral extents of the mantle flow field is notoriously difficult, especially in oceanic areas where deployment of ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) is expensive and thus rare. In this study, by applying shear wave splitting analyses to a dataset recorded by an OBS array that we deployed between mid-2019 and mid-2020 in the South China Sea (SCS), we show that the dominant mantle flow field has a NNW-SSE orientation, which can be attributed to mantle flow extruded from the Tibetan Plateau by the ongoing Indian-Eurasian collision. In addition, the results suggest that E-W oriented flow fields observed in South China and the Indochina Peninsula do not extend to the central SCS.

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