Imaging and interpreting seismic heterogeneity in the North American lithosphere

Interpretation of seismic wavespeed anomalies inferred from global and continental-scale tomographic models is complicated by the competing effects of temperature and chemical composition. Understanding the origin of a seismic anomaly requires constraining multiple seismic parameters and quantifying how they are influenced by thermal and geochemical variations. In this Thesis I jointly interpret inverse modeling of seismic data and forward modeling of chemical and thermodynamic data in order to investigate the origins of seismic heterogeneity within the cratonic lithosphere. I present a joint inversion of body and surface wave travel-times to determine independent but mutually-constrained variations in V[subscript p] and V[subscript s] within the continental United States. From this, the V[subscript p] /V[subscript s] ratio may be determined, which is sensitive to compositional changes such as Fe - Mg substitution and Si enrichment.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Golos, Eva Marie.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert D. van der Hilst.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127140

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127140