Deep seismic structures beneath India and South Atlantic

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Christine Thomas
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 187296645

Through this project we are planning to investigate three different regions in the deep Earth in order to better understand the dynamical, mineralogical, and evolutionary processes of the Earth's mantle. The three areas that will be investigated are i) the D" region beneath the Atlantic, where an edge of the large low velocity anomaly beneath Africa is located, ii) The mantle transition zone structure beneath India, in order to better understand phase transitions (and their kinetics) on either side and within a subduction region and iii) the detection of deep subducted lithosphere (Tethys ocean) below the transition zone beneath India. Through a deployment of 20 newly funded seismic stations (DFG Großgeräte program) as an extension to an already running seismic experiment that studies the Alboran Sea (PICASSO/Topo Iberia) a large dataset spanning over three years covering southern Spain and Morocco will become accessible. Through the large lateral and temporal extent of the experiment, it is possible to obtain a large amount of high-resolution images of deep Earth seismic structures. We will use high-resolution seismic array methods and combine those with modelling methods and results from geodynamics and mineral physics to further our knowledge on deep Earth structures and the processes that cause them.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Dr. Jörg Schmalzl