Conductivity discontinuities in the upper mantle beneath a stable craton

A. Schultz*, R. D. Kurtz, A. D. Chave, A. G. Jones

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

126 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present evidence for approximate collocation of seismic and electrical transitions in the upper mantle. More than two years of very long period magnetotelluric (MT) data were recorded at a lakebottom observatory in the central Canadian Shield. After processing to contend with non‐stationary source effects, and removal of galvanic distortion, the underlying structure is 1D for periods of one hour to four days. The response was extended to periods of 100 days by appending Geomagnetic Depth Sounding data to the MT curves. Minimum structure linearised inversion, nonlinear extremal inversion, and a new genetic algorithm for nonlinear hypothesis testing, reveal discrete jumps in conductivity at depths near the major upper mantle seismic discontinuities. The jumps occur over limited depth ranges.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2941-2944
Number of pages4
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume20
Issue number24
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1993
Externally publishedYes

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