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Seismic Structure beneath EarthScope's USArray and the Origin of the Yellowstone Hotspot

UTIG Seminars

Seismic Structure beneath EarthScope's USArray
and the Origin of the Yellowstone Hotspot

By:
Brandon Schmandt
University of New Mexico

When:
Friday, 06 March, 2:00 p.m.
Where:
Seminar Conference Room, 10100 Burnet Road, Bldg 196-ROC, Austin, Texas 78758
Host:
Nick Hayman, UTIG

Click for a Live Broadcast.

image related to Dr. Schmandt's talk

Abstract
The seismic component of the EarthScope program includes >2500 broadband seismographs progressively deployed across the contiguous United States since 2005. The resulting data facilitate seismic imaging from the crust to deep within the mantle and are providing new insights into convective processes beneath North America such as the sinking and fragmentation of the Farallon slab and mantle upwelling beneath areas of intraplate volcanism such as the Yellowstone hotspot. Recent imaging indicates that the heat source for Yellowstone magmatism is rooted in the lower mantle and a buoyant plume is rising through a gap between fragments of the Farallon slab. A relatively local increase in broadband seismograph coverage near Yellowstone has also improved imaging of the crustal scale magmatic system, which shows two concentrated low-velocity anomalies thought to represent melt reservoirs in the shallow and deep crust.