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Hot mantle plumes, the thermo-chemical instabilities rising from Earth’s deep mantle, are believed to form large, round heads, followed by narrow tails. The impact of a plume onto the continental lithosphere causes uplift, rifting, and flood basalt volcanism. The resulting large igneous provinces (LIPs) are thought to be emplaced rapidly above the plume head as it arrives and spreads, as a circle, beneath the plate. However, LIP eruptions often span up to tens of millions of years in time and are scattered unevenly over areas a few thousand kilometres across, which is inconsistent with this conventional view. Here, we use seismic waveform tomography and obtain clear images of interconnected corridors of hot, partially molten rock beneath the areas of uplift and volcanism in the East Africa-Arabia region. The spatial continuity of the hot rock corridors and the temporal continuity of the volcanism since ~45 million years ago suggest that we are witnessing an extant, integral plume head that was morphed into a three-pointed star by the topography of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. Eruption ages and plate reconstructions indicate that the plume head spread south-to-north, and tomography shows it being currently fed by three upwellings beneath Kenya, Afar, and Levant. Star-shaped plume heads within thin-lithosphere valley systems can account for the enigmatic dispersed and protracted volcanism in LIPs and are, probably, an inherent feature of plume-continent interaction.

Physical 1D-average reference models of the Earth offer valuable summaries of the radial variations in rock properties and a reference for geophysical studies. PREM, in particular, has been used widely for >40 years and comprises Vp, Vs, density, radial anisotropy and attenuation profiles, while also fitting the Earth’s mass and moment of inertia. Many of PREM’s features have proven remarkably accurate, despite the limited amount of data used to construct it, but some features are inconsistent with now available data. Also, the upper mantle structure differs so much between Earth’s different tectonic environments that a global average is not quite representative of any of them. The recent growth in seismic station coverage yields very dense data sampling, globally and over different tectonic environments. Here, we use a large global dataset to construct ten 1D, multi-parameter, reference models of the upper mantle, for the globe and for 9 basic tectonic types: cratons; stable platforms; Phanerozoic continents with normal (46.5 km) crust; rifts and continental hotspots; old oceans; intermediate oceans; young oceans; backarcs.The dataset comprises Love and Rayleigh-wave phase velocities, measured using waveform inversion and all available data since 1990s; surface heat flow measurements; topography/bathymetry. With tomography-based tectonic regionalization, we identify areas within each tectonic environment and compute average dispersion curves in the 20-30 to 310 s period range, which constrain shear velocity and anisotropy in the entire upper mantle.We then use computational-petrology-based inversion to calculate 1D physical models for the globe and the 9 basic tectonic types. Our non-linear gradient search converges to true best-fitting models. The main unknowns in the inversion are the depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB); the geotherm from the LAB down to 400 km depth; radial anisotropy (0-800 km). The steady-state geotherm in the lithosphere is computed from the LAB depth and the radiogenic heat production and thermal conductivity profiles by solving the conductive heat transfer equation. Rock composition and the geotherm determine the density, seismic velocities and attenuation down to 400 km. Seismic velocities in the crust, transition zone (410-660 km) and shallow lower mantle can vary to fit the data. Density below 410 km and all parameters in the core and most of the lower mantle are from PREM. Like PREM, our reference models honour the Earth's mass and moment of inertia.Small phase-velocity errors and relative data-synthetic misfits (

The Canary and Madeira archipelagos are two hotspots in the Eastern Atlantic (27º to 33º N) that are close (430 km) to each other. Their volcanism is thought to be caused by distinct mantle upwellings. Recent high resolution regional P-wave and S-SKS wave tomography images of the Ibero-western Maghrebian region show subvertical low velocity anomalies under the Canaries, the Atlas ranges and the Gibraltar Arc extending across all the upper mantle to the surface. The anomaly below the Canary archipelago and the Atlas are rooted beneath the mantle transition zone (MTZ) and appear to be connected to a broad and strong low-velocity anomaly in the lower mantle. Beneath Madeira, the slow anomaly has a blob-like shape and is only observed down to ~ 300 km depth, suggesting differences in the development stages of the upwellings at the origin of the two hotspots.The globally observed 410 and 660 upper-mantle seismic discontinuities are primarily linked to mineral phase transitions in olivine and the study of their local depth variations constrains the intra-mantle heat and mass transfer processes. The presence of discontinuities that are not globally observed may indicate the presence of compositional heterogeneities. For example, a sharp discontinuity has been detected at a depth of around 300 km (named the X discontinuity) beneath several hotspots (including the Canaries one) that could prove that the dominant peridotitic mantle mantle is locally enriched in basalt compositions. Here, we investigate the fine structure of the upper mantle beneath the Canary and Madeira volcanic provinces by means of P-to-S conversions at mantle discontinuities from teleseismic events recorded at 42 seismic stations (24 in the Canaries and 18 in Madeira). We compute 1304 high quality receiver functions (984 in the Canaries and 320 in Madeira) and stack them in the relative time-slowness domain to identify discontinuities in the 200-800 km depth range. Receiver functions are computed in different frequency bands to investigate the sharpness of the observed discontinuities. From the analysis of stacked receiver functions, we obtain robust and clear converted phases from the globally detected 410 and 660 discontinuities beneath both volcanic provinces. However, a reflector at ~300 km depth is only observed beneath the Canaries. For the Canary’s dataset we also detect multiples (Ppds, where d is the discontinuity depth) from the reflector at 300 km and from the 410 discontinuity while for the Madeira’s one, we only detect multiples from the 410. This study allows for a detailed comparison between the two archipelagos. The analysis of arrival times and amplitude of detected phases helps constraining the depth, width, and velocity jump of the observed discontinuities. These parameters and their interpretation based on mineral physics will add new constraints to the understanding of the geodynamical context of the Canary Island and Madeira hotspots. This is a contribution to project SIGHT (SeIsmic and Geochemical constraints on the Madeira HoTspot; Ref. PTDC/CTA-GEF/30264/2017). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of FCT through project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL.

1D reference Earth models are widely used by the geoscience community and include global, regional and tectonic-type reference models. Seismic 1D profiles are used routinely as reference in imaging studies. Multi-parameter models can also include density, composition, attenuation, lithospheric thickness and other parameters, of interest in a broad range of studies. The recent growth in the number of seismic stations worldwide has yielded a dramatic increase in the global sampling of the Earth with seismic data and presents an opportunity for an improvement in the global and tectonic-type reference models. Concurrent developments in computational petrology have provided methods to constrain self-consistent multi-parameter Earth models with seismic and other data. Here, we use a large global dataset of Love and Rayleigh fundamental mode, phase-velocity measurements, performed with multimode waveform inversion using all available broadband data since the 1990s, and compute phase-velocity maps at densely spaced periods in a broad, 17-310 s period range. We then invert the phase velocity curves averaged globally and across 8 tectonic environments (4 continental: Archean cratons, stable platforms, recently active continents, and active rift zones; and 4 oceanic: old, intermediate and young oceans, and backarc regions) for 1D reference models of the upper mantle. For each tectonic type, a multi-parameter 1D model is computed in a petrological inversion, where the lithospheric thickness and temperature at the bottom of the lithosphere and in the underlying mantle are the inversion parameters, and steady-state conductive lithospheric geotherms are assumed. Lithospheric and asthenospheric compositions are taken from geochemical databases, and seismic velocities, densities and Q are computed from composition, temperature and pressure using computational petrology and thermodynamic databases. The models quantify the age dependence of the lithospheric thickness and temperature in continents and oceans. Radial anisotropy is also determined and shows notable variations with depth and with tectonic environments. For most tectonic types, the smooth, accurate observed phase velocity curves can be fit by the 1D models with a misfit under 0.1-0.2% of the phase velocity value. Additionally, we compute models with minimal complexity of seismic velocity structure, also fitting the data but without a sub-lithospheric low-velocity zone as in the thermal multi-parameter models. These purely seismic models, similar in appearance to ak135, do not correspond to realistic geotherms but provide useful reference for seismic imaging studies in different environments.

The Earth’s surface is constantly being recycled by plate tectonics. Subduction of oceanic lithosphere and delamination of continental lithosphere constitute the two most important mechanisms by which the Earth’s lithosphere is recycled into the mantle. Delamination or detachment in continental regions typically occurs below mountain belts due to a weight excess of overthickened lithospheric mantle, which detaches from overlying lighter crust, aided by the existence of weak layers within the continental lithosphere. Oceanic lithosphere is classically pictured as a rigid plate with a strong core that does not allow for delamination to occur. Here, we propose that active delamination of oceanic lithosphere occurs offshore Southwest Iberia. The process is assisted by the existence of a lithospheric serpentinized layer that allows the lower part of the lithosphere to decouple from the overlying crust. Tomography images reveal a sub-lithospheric high-velocity anomaly below this region, which we interpret as a delaminating block of old oceanic lithosphere. We present numerical models showing that for a geological setting mimicking offshore Southwest Iberia delamination of oceanic lithosphere is possible and may herald subduction initiation, which is a long-unsolved problem in the theory of plate tectonics. We further propose that such oceanic delamination is responsible for the highest-magnitude earthquakes in Europe, including the M8.5-8.7 Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and the M7.9 San Vincente earthquake of 1969. In particular, our numerical models, in combination with calculations on seismic potential, provide a solution for the instrumentally recorded 1969 event below the flat Horseshoe abyssal plain, away from mapped tectonics faults. Delamination of old oceanic lithosphere near passive margins constitutes a new class of subduction initiation mechanisms, with fundamental implications for the dynamics of the Wilson cycle.

International audience; Several seismic and numerical studies proposed that below, some hotspots upper-mantle plumelets rise from a thermal boundary layer below 660 km depth, fed by a deeper plume source. We recently found tomographic evidence of multiple upper-mantle upwellings, spaced by several 100 km, rising through the transition zone below the northern East African Rift. To better test this interpretation, we run 3-D numerical simulations of mantle convection for Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheologies, for both thermal instabilities rising from a lower boundary layer, and the destabilization of a thermal anomaly placed at the base of the box (700-800 km depth). The thermal structures are converted to seismic velocities using a thermodynamic approach. Resolution tests are then conducted for the same P and S data distribution and inversion parameters as our traveltime tomography. The Rayleigh Taylor models predict simultaneous plumelets in different stages of evolution rising from a hot layer located below the transition zone, resulting in seismic structure that looks more complex than the simple vertical cylinders that are often anticipated. From the wide selection of models tested, we find that the destabilization of a 200 degrees C, 100 km thick thermal anomaly with a non-Newtonian rheology, most closely matches the magnitude and the spatial and temporal distribution of the anomalies below the rift. Finally, we find that for reasonable upper-mantle viscosities, the synthetic plume structures are similar in scale and shape to the actual low-velocity anomalies, providing further support for the existence of upper-mantle plumelets below the northern East African Rift.

An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright (2001) American Geophysical Union., The Canary and Madeira provinces in the Central-East Atlantic Ocean are characterized by an irregular spatio-temporal distribution of volcanism along the hotspot tracks, and several alternative scenarios have been suggested to explain it. Here, we combine results from seismic tomography, shear-wave splitting and gravity along with plate reconstruction constraints to investigate the mantle structure and dynamics beneath those provinces. We find that the Central-East Atlantic Anomaly (CEAA), which rises from the core-mantle boundary and stalls in the topmost lower mantle, is the deep source of distinct upper-mantle upwellings beneath the region. The upwellings detach intermittently from the top of the CEAA and appear to be at different evolutionary stages. We argue that the accumulation of plume material in the topmost lower mantle can play a key role in governing the first-order spatio-temporal irregularities in the distribution of hotspot volcanism.

The Canary and Madeira provinces, located in the central-east Atlantic Ocean, are characterized by irregularly distributed hotspot tracks displaying large age differences and variable distances between volcanoes. For this reason, the geodynamic mechanism(s) that control the spatio-temporal patterns of volcanism are still unclear. Here, we use results from seismic tomography, shear-wave splitting, and gravity to show that the Central-East Atlantic Anomaly (CEAA), rising from the African large low-shear-velocity province and stalled in the topmost lower mantle, is the source of distinct upper-mantle diapirs feeding those provinces. The diapirs detach intermittently from the CEAA and seem to be at different evolutionary stages. Geochemistry data confirm the lower-mantle origin of the diapirs, and plate reconstructions constrain their temporal evolution. Our observations suggest that the accumulation of deep plume material in the topmost lower mantle can play a significant role in governing the spatio-temporal distribution of hotspot volcanism.This is a contribution to project SIGHT (Ref. PTDC/CTA-GEF/30264/2017). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support FCT through project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL.

Hot plumes rising from Earth’s deep mantle are thought to form broad plume heads beneath lithospheric plates. In continents, mantle plumes cause uplift, rifting and volcanism, often dispersed over surprisingly broad areas. Using seismic waveform tomography, we image a star-shaped, low-velocity anomaly centered at Afar and composed of three narrow branches: beneath East Africa, beneath the Gulf of Aden, and beneath the Red Sea and West Arabia, extending north to Levant. We interpret this anomaly as the seismic expression of interconnected corridors of hot, partially molten rock beneath the East Africa-Arabia region. The corridors underlie areas of uplift, rifting and volcanism and accommodate an integral, active plume head. Eruption ages and plate reconstructions indicate that it developed south-to-north, and tomography shows it being fed by three deep upwellings beneath Kenya, Afar and Levant. These results demonstrate the complex feedbacks between the continental-lithosphere heterogeneity and plume-head evolution. Star-shaped plume heads sprawling within thin-lithosphere valleys can account for the enigmatic dispersed volcanism in large igneous provinces and are likely to be a basic mechanism of plume-continent interaction.

22 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, supporting information https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggab005, We present PRISM3D, a 3-D reference seismic model of P- and S-wave velocities for Iberia and adjacent areas. PRISM3D results from the combination of the most up-to-date earth models available for the region. It extends horizontally from 15°W to 5°E in longitude, 34°N to 46°N in latitude and vertically from 3.5 km above to 200 km below sea level, and is modelled on a regular grid with 10 and 0.5 km of grid node spacing in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. It was designed using models inferred from local and teleseismic body-wave tomography, earthquake and ambient noise surface wave tomography, receiver function analysis and active source experiments. It includes two interfaces, namely the topography/bathymetry and the Mohorovičić (Moho) discontinuity. The Moho was modelled from previously published receiver function analysis and deep seismic sounding results. To that end we used a probabilistic surface reconstruction algorithm that allowed to extract the mean of the Moho depth surface along with its associated standard deviation, which provides a depth uncertainty estimate. The Moho depth model is in good agreement with previously published models, although it presents slightly sharper gardients in orogenic areas such as the Pyrenees or the Betic-Rif system. Crustal and mantle P- and S-wave wave speed grids were built separately on each side of the Moho depth surface by weighted average of existing models, thus allowing to realistically render the speed gradients across that interface. The associated weighted standard deviation was also calculated, which provides an uncertainty estimation on the average wave speed values at any point of the grid. At shallow depths (, This publication is supported by the FCT project SPIDER - Seismogenic processes in slowly deforming regions (PTDC/GEO-FIQ/2590/2014). The work presented is a contribution to FCT UIDB/50019/2020 IDL. P. Arroucau acknowledges support from Science Foundation Ireland (grant 13/CDA/2192) and from the Geological Survey of Ireland (grant 2016-PD-06). C. Civiero was supported by the Science Foundation Ireland, the Geological Survey of Ireland, and the Marine Institute (grants 13/CDA/2192 and 16/IA/4598). Figures were plotted using the GMT - Generic Mapping Tools software (Wessel & Smith 1998) and Python Matplotlib and Basemap packages. NonLinLoc was used for the forward computation of arrival times (Lomax et al. 2000). We also wish to thank Catarina Matos for the tests she performed on an early version of the model., With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI).

In typical subduction systems, plate convergence is subperpendicular to the trench. The Gibraltar Arc System is exceptional, with its narrow subduction arc oriented N-S and laterally “squeezed” by the NNW-SSE tectonic convergence between Nubia and Iberia. The extent to which the slab is still coupled to the surface and how it interacts actively with the surrounding mantle is a matter of ongoing debate. Here, we analyze new densely spaced GPS data, together with crustal and mantle observations, to better understand the slab kinematics, plate dynamics, and mantle flow. In light of previous and current research, we find that subduction below the Gibraltar Arc is currently in the middle of a disruption process, with parts of it already detached and others yet coupled to the surface. In particular, the slab seems to be detached to the north of the Gibraltar Strait, with a small portion still attached to the surface or in the process of detaching below the western Betics. South of Gibraltar, the slab is still coupled to the overriding plate, although the subduction seems to be very slow or stopped. Flow of mantle material around the detached portions of the slab causes most of the surface uplift and a positive residual topography anomaly. Our findings show that the interplay between slab dynamics, mantle flow, and plate convergence explains much of the observed residual topography, surface motion, seismicity, and mantle structure.

©2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Independent models of P wave and S wave velocity anomalies in the mantle derived from seismic tomography help to distinguish thermal signatures from those of partial melt, volatiles, and compositional variations. Here we use seismic data from SW Europe and NW Africa, spanning the region between the Pyrenees and the Canaries, in order to obtain a new S-SKS relative arrival-time tomographic model of the upper mantle below Iberia, Western Morocco, and the Canaries. Similar to previous P wave tomographic results, the S wave model provides evidence for (1) subvertical upper-mantle low-velocity structures below the Canaries, Atlas Ranges, and Gibraltar Arc, which are interpreted as mantle upwellings fed by a common lower-mantle source below the Canaries; and (2) two low-velocity anomalies below the eastern Rif and Betics that we interpret as the result of the interaction between quasi-toroidal mantle flow induced by the Gibraltar slab and the mantle upwelling behind it. The analysis of teleseismic P wave and S wave arrival-time residuals and the conversion of the low-velocity anomalies to temperature variations suggest that the upwellings in the upper mantle below the Canaries, Atlas Ranges, and Gibraltar Arc system may be solely thermal in nature, with temperature excesses in the range ~100–350 °C. Our results also indicate that local partial melting can be present at lithospheric depths, especially below the Atlas Ranges. The locations of thermal mantle upwellings are in good agreement with those of thinned lithosphere, moderate to high heat-flow measurements, and recent magmatic activity at the surface.

Mantle plumes and consequent plate extension have been invoked as the likely cause of East African Rift volcanism. However, the nature of mantle upwelling is debated, with proposed configurations ranging from a single broad plume connected to the large low-shear-velocity province beneath Southern Africa, the so-called African Superplume, to multiple lower-mantle sources along the rift. We present a new P-wave travel-time tomography model below the northern East-African, Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden rifts and surrounding areas. Data are from stations that span an area from Madagascar to Saudi Arabia. The aperture of the integrated data set allows us to image structures of 100 km length-scale down to depths of 700– 800 km beneath the study region. Our images provide evidence of two clusters of low-velocity structures consisting of features with diameter of 100–200 km that extend through the transition zone, the first beneath Afar and a second just west of the Main Ethiopian Rift, a region with off-rift volcanism. Considering seismic sensitivity to temperature, we interpret these features as upwellings with excess temperatures of 100 6 50 K. The scale of the upwellings is smaller than expected for lower mantle plume sources. This, together with the change in pattern of the low-velocity anomalies across the base of the transition zone, suggests that ponding or flow of deep-plume material below the transition zone may be spawning these upper mantle upwellings.

Upper-mantle upwellings are often invoked as the cause of Cenozoic volcanism in the Ibero-western Maghreb region. However, their nature, geometry and origin are unclear. This study takes advantage of dense seismic networks, which cover an area extending from the Pyrenees in the north to the Canaries in the south, to provide a new high-resolution P-wave velocity model of the upper-mantle and topmost lower-mantle structure. Our images show three subvertical upper-mantle upwellings below the Canaries, the Atlas Ranges and the Gibraltar Arc, which appear to be rooted beneath the upper-mantle transition zone (MTZ). Two other mantle upwellings beneath the eastern Rif and eastern Betics surround the Gibraltar subduction zone. We propose a new geodynamic model in which narrow upper-mantle upwellings below the Canaries, the Atlas Ranges and the Gibraltar Arc rise from a laterally-propagating layer of material below the MTZ, which in turn is fed by a common deep source below the Canaries. In the Gibraltar region, the deeply rooted upwelling interacts with the Gibraltar slab. Quasi-toroidal flow driven by slab rollback induces the hot mantle material to flow around the slab, creating the two low-velocity anomalies below the eastern Betics and eastern Rif. Our results suggest that the Central Atlantic plume is a likely source of hot mantle material for upper-mantle upwellings in the Ibero-western Maghreb region.