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Effect of Mantle Viscosity Structures on Simulations of Geoid Anomalies in the Ross Sea Area

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Abstract

The effect of mantle viscosity structures on numerical simulations of geoid anomalies in the Ross Sea is investigated. Four relatively new S-wave seismic tomography models, SEMUCB_WM1, TX2019slab, S40RTS, and SEISGLOB2, are applied to convert seismic wave velocity anomalies into density anomalies. These density anomalies constitute the buoyancy-driven terms in mantle convection equations used to numerically simulate geoid anomalies corresponding to structures with different upper-to-lower mantle viscosity ratios. When the simulated geoid anomalies fit the observations best globally, the correlation coefficients between the geoid anomalies in the Ross Sea and the observed values are 0.56, 0.57, 0.57, and 0.46, respectively, for the four tomographic models. The best fits between the simulated geoid anomalies and observations in the Ross Sea area were obtained for upper-to-lower mantle viscosity ratios of 1:35, 1:45, 1:30, and 1:30 using the SEMUCB_WM1, TX2019slab, S40RTS, and SEISGLOB2, respectively. Within the range of the mantle viscosity structures selected for the simulation experiment, as the viscosity of the lower mantle gradually increases from the value at which the numerical results best fit the observations to the maximum value, the correlation coefficient between the simulated geoid anomalies and observations decreases faster for the Ross Sea area than on the global scale. We speculate that the lower mantle below the Ross Sea area may contain materials with lower viscosity than those in other mantle regions at the same depth.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Global Seismology Research Group and IRIS (the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) for supporting the data of tomography models. We also thank the editors and the two reviewers for their valuable comments and advice.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 41874096, Jian Fang, 42192535, Jian Fang, State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics, S21L6401, Ronghua Cui, Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, 19-01-01, Ronghua Cui.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430077, China

    Ronghua Cui, Jian Fang & Yong Wang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Yong Wang

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  1. Ronghua Cui
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Correspondence to Jian Fang.

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Cui, R., Fang, J. & Wang, Y. Effect of Mantle Viscosity Structures on Simulations of Geoid Anomalies in the Ross Sea Area. Pure Appl. Geophys. 179, 2841–2850 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-022-03081-1

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