Post-Subduction Tectonics of Sabah, Northern Borneo, Inferred From Surface Wave Tomography
Publication Date
2022Journal Title
Geophysical Research Letters
ISSN
0094-8276
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Volume
49
Issue
3
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Greenfield, T., Gilligan, A., Pilia, S., Cornwell, D., Tongkul, F., Widiyantoro, S., & Rawlinson, N. (2022). Post-Subduction Tectonics of Sabah, Northern Borneo, Inferred From Surface Wave Tomography. Geophysical Research Letters, 49 (3) https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096117
Abstract
Abstract: We use two‐plane‐wave tomography with a dense network of seismic stations across Sabah, northern Borneo, to image the shear wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle. Our model is used to estimate crustal thickness and the depth of the lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary (LAB) beneath the region. Calculated crustal thickness ranges between 25 and 55 km and suggests extension in a NW‐SE direction, presumably due to back‐arc processes associated with subduction of the Celebes Sea. We estimate the β‐factor to be 1.3–2, well below the initiation of seafloor spreading. The LAB is, on average, at a depth of 100 km, which is inconsistent with models that ascribe Neogene uplift to wholescale removal of the mantle lithosphere. Instead, beneath a region of Plio‐Pleistocene volcanism in the southeast, we image a region 50–100 km across where the lithosphere has thinned to <50 km, supporting recent suggestions of lower lithospheric removal through a Rayleigh‐Taylor instability.
Keywords
Solid Earth, EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICS, Gravity methods, GEOCHEMISTRY, Subduction zone processes, GEODESY AND GRAVITY, Transient deformation, Tectonic deformation, Time variable gravity, Gravity anomalies and Earth structure, Satellite geodesy: results, Seismic cycle related deformations, HYDROLOGY, Estimation and forecasting, INFORMATICS, Forecasting, IONOSPHERE, MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS, MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS, MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS, Prediction, Probabilistic forecasting, MINERALOGY AND PETROLOGY, OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL, Ocean predictability and prediction, NATURAL HAZARDS, Monitoring, forecasting, prediction, POLICY SCIENCES, RADIO SCIENCE, Interferometry, Ionospheric physics, Tomography and imaging, SEISMOLOGY, Subduction zones, Tomography, Continental crust, Earthquake dynamics, Earthquake source observations, Earthquake interaction, forecasting, and prediction, Seismicity and tectonics, SPACE WEATHER, Policy, TECTONOPHYSICS, VOLCANOLOGY, Research Letter, surface wave tomography, Sabah, post‐subduction, lithospheric structure, Borneo, LAB
Sponsorship
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R013500/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (790203)
Identifiers
grl63688, 2021gl096117
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096117
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333647
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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