Solid Earth
Solid Earth
SE
Articles | Volume 6, issue 2
Articles | Volume 6, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-669-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-669-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Articles | Volume 6, issue 2
Research article
 | 
10 Jun 2015
Research article |  | 10 Jun 2015

Subduction or delamination beneath the Apennines? Evidence from regional tomography

I. Koulakov, A. Jakovlev, I. Zabelina, F. Roure, S. Cloetingh, S. El Khrepy, and N. Al-Arifi

Abstract. In this study we present a new regional tomography model of the upper mantle beneath Italy and the surrounding area derived from the inversion of travel times of P and S waves from the updated International Seismological Centre (ISC) catalogue. Beneath Italy, we identify a high-velocity anomaly which has the appearance of a long, narrow "sausage" with a steeply dipping part down to a depth of 400 km and then expanding horizontally over approximately 400 km. Rather than to interpret it as a remnant of the former Tethyan oceanic slab, we consider that it is made up of the infra continental lithospheric mantle of Adria, which is progressively delaminated, whereas its overlying crust becomes progressively accreted into the Apenninic tectonic wedge.

How to cite. Koulakov, I., Jakovlev, A., Zabelina, I., Roure, F., Cloetingh, S., El Khrepy, S., and Al-Arifi, N.: Subduction or delamination beneath the Apennines? Evidence from regional tomography, Solid Earth, 6, 669–679, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-669-2015, 2015.
Received: 24 Dec 2014 – Discussion started: 24 Feb 2015 – Revised: 07 May 2015 – Accepted: 18 May 2015 – Published: 10 Jun 2015
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Short summary
A new regional seismic tomography model of the upper mantle beneath Italy is presented. Here we identify a high-velocity anomaly, identifiable as a long, narrow sausage-shaped body with a steeply dipping part down to a depth of 400km and then expanding horizontally over ~400km. We propose that it could be made up of infra continental lithospheric mantle of Adria, which is progressively delaminated, whereas its overlying crust becomes progressively accreted into the Apenninic tectonic wedge.
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