Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

"Subduction of tectonic plates is one of the most important tectonic processes, yet many aspects of subduction zone geodynamics remain unsolved and poorly understood, such as the depth extent of the subducted slab and its geometry. The Alaska subduction zone, which is associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North America plate, has a complex tectonic setting and carries a series of subduction episodes, and represents an excellent target to study such plate tectonic processes. Previous seismological studies in Alaska have proposed different depth estimations and geometry for the subducted slab. The Mantle transition zone discontinuities of the 410km and the 660 km provide independent constraints on the depth extent of the subducted slabs. We conducted a receiver function study to map the topography of the 410 km and the 660 km discontinuities beneath Alaska and its adjacent areas by taking advantage of the teleseismic data from the new USArray deployment in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Stacking over 75,000 high-quality radial receiver functions recorded in Alaska with more than 40 years of recording period, the topographies of the 410 km and 660 km are mapped. The depths of both d410 and d660 show systematic spatial variations, the mean depth of d410 and d660 are within 6 km and 6 km from the global average, respectively. The mean MTZ thickness of the entire study area is within -2 km from the global average of 250 km, suggesting normal MTZ conditions on average. Central and south-central Alaska are characterized by a larger than normal MTZ thickness, suggesting that the subducting Pacific slab is thermally interacted with the MTZ. This study shows that lateral upper mantle velocity variations contribute the bulk of the observed apparent undulations of the MTZ discontinuities"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Gao, Stephen S.br>Liu, Kelly H.

Committee Member(s)

Rogers, J. David
Ge, Mao Chen
Eckert, Andreas

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Geology and Geophysics

Sponsor(s)

Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq
National Science Foundation (U.S.)

Comments

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant EAR-1460516.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Summer 2017

Pagination

ix, 143 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references (pages 138-142).

Geographic Coverage

Alaska

Rights

© 2017 Haider Hassan Faraj Dahm, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11161

Electronic OCLC #

1003043417

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