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Evidence For Small-Scale Mantle Convection In The Upper Mantle Beneath The Baikal Rift Zone, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Paul M. Davis, Philip D. Slack, Yuliy A. Zorin, Valentina V. Mordvinova, Vladimir M. Kozhevnikov

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inversion of teleseismic P wave travel time residuals collected along a 1280-km-long profile traversing the Baikal rift zone (BRZ) reveals the existence of an upwarped lithosphere/asthenosphere interface, which causes a travel time delay of about 1 s at the rift axis ("central high"). An area with early arrivals relative to the stable Siberian platform of up to 0.5 s is observed on each side of the rift, about 200 km from the rift axis ("flank lows"). While the location of the central high is approximately fixed in the vicinity of the rift axis, those of the flank lows vary as …