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Complex layered deformation within the Aegean crust and mantle revealed by seismic anisotropy

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 203–207 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Continental lithosphere can undergo pervasive internal deformation, often distributed over broad zones near plate boundaries. However, because of the paucity of observational constraints on three-dimensional movement at depth, patterns of flow within the lithosphere remain uncertain. Endmember models for lithospheric flow invoke deformation localized on faults or deep shear zones or, alternatively, diffuse, viscous-fluid-like flow. Here we determine seismic Rayleigh-wave anisotropy in the crust and mantle of the Aegean region, an archetypal example of continental deformation. Our data reveal a complex, depth-dependent flow pattern within the extending lithosphere. Beneath the northern Aegean Sea, fast shear wave propagation is in a North–South direction within the mantle lithosphere, parallel to the extensional component of the current strain rate field. In the south-central Aegean, where deformation is weak at present, anisotropic fabric in the lower crust runs parallel to the direction of palaeo-extension in the Miocene. The close match of orientations of regional-scale anisotropic fabric and the directions of extension during the last significant episodes of deformation implies that at least a large part of the extension in the Aegean has been taken up by distributed viscous flow in the lower crust and lithospheric mantle.

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Figure 1: The study area and path coverage.
Figure 2: Anisotropic phase-velocity maps.
Figure 3: S-wave velocity variations with azimuth.
Figure 4: Azimuthal anisotropy in the lower crust and upper mantle of the Aegean Sea.

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Change history

  • 02 February 2011

    In the version of this Article originally published online, the label 'Lower crust' was missing from the top of Fig. 2b. This error has now been corrected in all versions of the text.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the German Research Foundation within Collaborative Research Centre SFB 526 ‘Rheology of the Earth’ and by Science Foundation Ireland (grant 08/RFP/GE01704). Earthquake data were provided by NOA, Greece (thanks to G. Stavrakakis), and GEOFON, GFZ Potsdam. We thank GIPP, GFZ Potsdam, for supplying seismic acquisition systems for CYCNET. The authors acknowledge D. Hatzfeld for contributing a digital version of his SKS data set, E. Sandvol for providing the results of the Pn tomography by Al-Latzki et al. (Supplementary Information), and T. Becker for stimulating discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24, 14476 Potsdam, Germany

    Brigitte Endrun

  2. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Geophysics Section, 5 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Sergei Lebedev & Céline Tirel

  3. Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Otto-Hahn-Platz 1, 24118 Kiel, Germany

    Thomas Meier

  4. Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany

    Wolfgang Friederich

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  1. Brigitte Endrun
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  4. Céline Tirel
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Contributions

B.E. performed measurements, computed and analysed seismic models, and wrote the first draft. S.L. and T.M. contributed software and revised the manuscript extensively. T.M. initiated the study. T.M. and W.F. secured primary funding for this work. C.T. contributed tectonics and geodynamics expertise and implemented Fig. 4; all authors contributed ideas and discussed the results and implications.

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Correspondence to Brigitte Endrun.

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Endrun, B., Lebedev, S., Meier, T. et al. Complex layered deformation within the Aegean crust and mantle revealed by seismic anisotropy. Nature Geosci 4, 203–207 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1065

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