A mantle plume below the Eifel volcanic fields, Germany

Abstract We present seismic images of the upper mantle below the Quaternary Eifel volcanic fields, Germany, determined by teleseismic travel time tomography. The data were measured at a dedicated network of more than 200 stations. Our results show a columnar low P-velocity anomaly in the upper mantle with a lateral contrast of up to 2%. The 100 km wide structure extends to at least 400 km depth and is equivalent to about 150–200 K excess temperature. This clear evidence for a plume below a region of comparatively minor volcanism suggests that deep mantle plumes could be more numerous than commonly assumed. They may often be associated with small volcanic fields or may have no volcanic surface expression at all.

[1]  E. Engdahl,et al.  Tomographic inversion of P and pP data for aspherical mantle structure below the northwest Pacific region , 1993 .

[2]  H. J. Lippolt Distribution of Volcanic Activity in Space and Time , 1983 .

[3]  U. Christensen,et al.  The excess temperature of plumes rising from the core‐mantle boundary , 1996 .

[4]  D. L. Anderson,et al.  Seismic velocities in mantle minerals and the mineralogy of the upper mantle , 1989 .

[5]  V. Lorenz,et al.  The Quaternary Eifel Volcanic Fields , 1983 .

[6]  R. Snieder,et al.  Correlation between shear wave upper mantle structure and tectonic surface expressions: Application to central and southern Germany , 1996 .

[7]  Walter H. F. Smith,et al.  New, improved version of generic mapping tools released , 1998 .

[8]  P. Dawson,et al.  Nonlinear teleseismic tomography at Long Valley Caldera, using three‐dimensional minimum travel time ray tracing , 1995 .

[9]  Ș.,et al.  Seismic Velocities in Mantle Minerals and the Mineralogy of the Upper Mantle , 2022 .

[10]  D. Yuen,et al.  Mantle plumes pinched in the transition zone , 2000 .

[11]  Goes,et al.  A Lower Mantle Source for Central European Volcanism. , 1999, Science.

[12]  K. Priestley,et al.  Mapping the Hawaiian plume conduit with converted seismic waves , 2000, Nature.

[13]  K. Fuchs,et al.  Upper mantle temperatures and lithosphere-asthenosphere system beneath the French Massif Central constrained by seismic, gravity, petrologic and thermal observations , 1997 .

[14]  E. Engdahl,et al.  Global teleseismic earthquake relocation with improved travel times and procedures for depth determination , 1998, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[15]  B. Kennett,et al.  Traveltimes for global earthquake location and phase identification , 1991 .

[16]  Klaus Stammler,et al.  SeismicHandler: programmable multichannel data handler for interactive and automatic processing of seismological analyses , 1993 .

[17]  S. Solomon,et al.  Seismic evidence for a lower-mantle origin of the Iceland plume , 1998, Nature.

[18]  K. Hoernle,et al.  Seismic and geochemical evidence for large-scale mantle upwelling beneath the eastern Atlantic and western and central Europe , 1995, Nature.

[19]  W. J. Morgan,et al.  Convection Plumes in the Lower Mantle , 1971, Nature.

[20]  R. White,et al.  Mantle plumes and flood basalts , 1995 .

[21]  S. Karato,et al.  Importance of anelasticity in the interpretation of seismic tomography , 1993 .

[22]  R. White Melt production rates in mantle plumes , 1993, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[23]  H. Zeyen,et al.  Joint Inversion of Teleseismic Delay Times and Gravity Anomaly Data for Regional Structures , 1997 .

[24]  E. R. Oxburgh,et al.  Helium and carbon isotope systematics in crustal fluids from the Eifel, the Rhine Graben and Black Forest, F.R.G. , 1992 .

[25]  D. Turcotte,et al.  How many plumes are there , 1999 .

[26]  S. Raikes,et al.  Large-Scale Mantle Heterogeneity Beneath the Rhenish Massif and Its Vicinity from Teleseismic P-Residuals Measurements , 1983 .

[27]  U. Christensen,et al.  The Teleseismic Tomography Experiment in the Eifel Region, Central Europe: Design and First Results , 2000 .

[28]  Klaus Regenauer-Lieb,et al.  Dilatant plasticity applied to Alpine collision: ductile void growth in the intraplate area beneath the Eifel volcanic field , 1998 .

[29]  J. Stets,et al.  Junge Tektonik im Rheinischen Schiefergebirge und ihre Quantifizierung , 1998 .

[30]  U. Christensen,et al.  The dynamical origin of Hawaiian volcanism , 1999 .

[31]  O. Anderson,et al.  High‐temperature elastic constant data on minerals relevant to geophysics , 1992 .

[32]  R. Duncan,et al.  Mantle Plumes, Movement of the European Plate, and Polar Wandering , 1972, Nature.

[33]  K. H. Wedepohl,et al.  Central European Cenozoic plume volcanism with OIB characteristics and indications of a lower mantle source , 1999 .