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Seismic anisotropy and mantle dynamics beneath Maitri Station in central Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica: new insights from shear wave splitting analysis of core-refracted and direct S-phases.

Sivaram K, Kumar VP, Srinivas D.

POLAR RESEARCH

http://dx.doi.org/10.33265/polar.v44.11414 

We investigate mantle dynamics beneath Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, using shear wave splitting of 12 teleseismic S phases and 38 core-refracted XKS phases recorded at Maitri (2013–2017). Average XKS splitting shows Φ = 62° and δt = 1.1 s, while S phases yield Φ = 50° and δt = 0.97 s. The NE–SW fast directions, parallel to regional geology and magnetic anomalies, indicate frozen lithospheric anisotropy linked to Gondwana breakup and agree with previous Antarctic studies.

Fig: The topography in the region of Maitri (MAI) Station in Schirmacher Oasis, DML, East Antarctica. Right Panel: The observations of the individual (blue) and mean (red) SWS results (Φ and δt), plotted over magnetic anomaly grids (Golynsky et al. 2018), at MAI for the XKS-phases. The nearby Russian station NOVO is also shown, along with places where data were collected. The absolute plate motion direction (shown as white arrow) is derived from HS3-NUVEL1-A model; the delay time δt (one second) is provided for reference.

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