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Tomographic imaging of subducted lithosphere below northwest Pacific island arcs

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Abstract

The seismic tomography problem does not have a unique solution, and published tomographic images have been equivocal with regard to the deep structure of subducting slabs. An improved tomographic method, using a more realistic background Earth model and surface-reflected as well as direct seismic phases, shows that slabs beneath the Japan and Izu Bonin island arcs are deflected at the boundary between upper and lower mantle, whereas those beneath the northern Kuril and Mariana arcs sink into the lower mantle.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Guust Nolet

    Present address: Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Rob van der Hist

  2. National Earthquake Information Center, US Geological Survey, DFC, Box 25046, Stop 967, Denver, Colorado, 80225, USA

    Robert Engdahl

  3. Department of Theoretical Geophysics, University of Utrecht, Budapestlaan 4, 3508, TA Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Wim Spakman & Guust Nolet

Authors
  1. Rob van der Hist
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  2. Robert Engdahl
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  3. Wim Spakman
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  4. Guust Nolet
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van der Hist, R., Engdahl, R., Spakman, W. et al. Tomographic imaging of subducted lithosphere below northwest Pacific island arcs. Nature 353, 37–43 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/353037a0

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