The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary in the North-West Atlantic region

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: Kumar, P., Kind, R., Hanka, W., Wylegalla, K., Reigber, C., Yuan, X., Wölbern, I., Schwintzer, P., Fleming, K., Dahl-Jensen, T., Larsen, T., Schweitzer, J., Priestley, K., Gudmundsson, O., Wolf, D.
• Other Authors: 1.2 Global Geomonitoring and Gravity Field, 1.0 Geodesy and Remote Sensing, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum, Gravity Field and Gravimetry -2009, Geoengineering Centres, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum, 1.0 Geodesy and Remote Sensing, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: 550 - Earth sciences; Greenland; Jan Mayen; Iceland; North Atlantic; North West Atlantic
• Online Access: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_232855

A detailed knowledge of the thickness of the lithosphere in the north Atlantic is an important parameter for understanding plate tectonics in that region. We achieve this goal with as yet unprecedented detail using the seismic technique of S-receiver functions. Clear positive signals from the crust-mantle boundary and negative signals from a mantle discontinuity beneath Greenland, Iceland and Jan Mayen are observed. According to seismological practice, we call the negative phase the lithosphere-ashenosphere boundary (LAB). The seismic lithosphere under most of the Iceland and large parts of central Greenland is about 80 km thick. This depth in Iceland is in disagreement with estimates of the thickness of the elastic lithosphere (10-20 km) found from postglacial rebound data. In the region of flood basalts in eastern Greenland, which overlies the proposed Iceland plume track, the lithosphere is only 70 km thick, about 10 km less than in Iceland which is located directly above the proposed plume. At the western Greenland coast, the lithosphere.