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When Western Gondwana broke apart into the South American and African continents ca.120 Ma ago, some of its cratons were broken apart as well. Following the isopycnic hypothesis, their long-term stability and often neutral to positive buoyancy can be explained by the counteracting effects of cooling (density increase) and iron depletion (density decrease). To separate these effects, we created the presented models following an iterative integrated approach using mainly seismic and gravity data. In the first step, seismic models of Depth to the Moho were created to allow correction of the gravity field and calculation of the residual topography. Second, based on mineral physics and S-wave tomography, we assessed temperature variations in the uppermost mantle and subtracted their effects from both residual gravity and topography. Afterwards, a joint inversion enables determination of potential compositional variations. Adapting the initially juvenile mantle composition leads to a change of thermal effects, thus the process was repeated iteratively until convergence. In result, we obtained self-consistent models of temperature, thermal and compositional density variations, and Mg, a measure of iron depletion. Our results show deep depleted cratonic roots under the Amazonas, São Francisco, Paranapanema (South America), West African, Northern to Central Congo and Zimbabwe Cratons (Africa). Depletion appears to be mostly absent in the Rio de la Plata Craton of South America and its proposed African counterpart, the Southern Congo Craton as well as the Kaapvaal Craton below 100 km depth and the Tanzania and Uganda Cratons.

We construct a new-generation 3D density model of the upper mantle of Asia and its surrounding areas based on a joint interpretation of several data sets. A recent model of the crust combining nearly all available seismic data is employed to calculate the impact of the crust on the gravity anomalies and observed topography and to estimate the residual mantle anomalies and residual topography. These fields are jointly inverted to calculate the density variations in the lithosphere and upper mantle down to 325 km. As an initial approximation, we estimate density variations using a seismic tomography model. Seismic velocity variations are converted into temperatures and then to density variations based on mineral physics constraints. In the Occam-type inversion, we fit both the residual mantle gravity anomalies and residual topography by finding deviations to the initial model. The obtained corrections improve the resolution of the initial model and reflect important features of the mantle structure that are not well resolved by the seismic tomography. The most significant negative corrections of the upper mantle density, found in the Siberian and East European cratons, can be associated with depleted mantle material. The most pronounced positive density anomalies are found beneath the Tarim and South Caspian basins, Barents Sea, and Bay of Bengal. We attribute these anomalies to eclogites in the uppermost mantle, which have substantially affected the evolution of the basins. Furthermore, the obtained results provide evidence for the presence of eclogites in the oceanic subducting mantle lithosphere.

We evaluate the effect of temperature variations on strength and effective elastic thickness (Te) of the lithosphere of the North American (NA) continent. To this purpose, we use two thermal models that are corrected for compositional variations and anelasticity effects in the upper mantle. These thermal models are obtained from a joint inversion of gravity data and two recent seismic tomography models (NA07 and SL2013sv). The crustal rheology was defined using NACr14, the most recent NA crustal model. This model specifies seismic velocities and thickness for a three-layer model of the crystalline crust. Strength in the lithosphere and in the crust has similar distributions, indicating that local geotherms play a dominant role in determining strength rather than crustal composition. A pronounced contrast is present in strength between cratonic and off-cratonic regions. Lithospheric strength in the off-cratonic regions is prevalently localized within the crust and Te shows low values (150 km). In contrast to previous results, our models indicate that Phanerozoic regions located close to the edge of the cratons, as the Appalachians, are characterized by low strength. We also find that locally weak zones exist within the cratons (e.g., beneath the intracratonic Illinois Basin and Midcontinent rift). Seismic tomography models NA07 and SL2013sv differ mainly in some peripheral parts of the cratons, as the Proterozoic Canadian Platform, the Grenville, and the western part of the Yavapai-Mazatzal province, where the integrated strength for the model NA07 is 10 times larger than in model SL2013sv due to a temperature difference (>200°C) in the uppermost mantle. The differences in Te between the two models are less pronounced. In both models, Proterozoic regions reactivated by Meso-Cenozoic tectonics (e.g., Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi Embayment) are characterized by a weak lithosphere due to the absence of the mechanically strong part of the mantle lithospheric layer. Intraplate earthquakes are distributed along the edges of the cratons, demonstrating that tectonic stress accumulates there, while the cores of the cratons remain undeformed. In both models, intraplate earthquakes occur in weak lithosphere (∼0.5 × 1013 Pa s, Te ∼ 15 km) or near the edges of strong cratonic blocks, characterized by pronounced contrasts of strength and Te. Key Points: We estimate strength and Te distribution of the North American continent Thermal more than compositional changes induce main strength and Te variations Seismicity is concentrated where large contrast of strength is estimated