The relative roles of inheritance and long-term passive margin lithospheric evolution on the modern structure and tectonic activity in the southeastern United States

Abstract

We perform inversions for the shear-wave velocity structure of the southeastern United States (SEUS) using Rayleigh-wave phase and amplitude data from the broadband stations of the South Eastern Suture of the Appalachian Margin Experiment (SESAME) and EarthScope Transportable Array (TA). Our tomographic images of shear-wave velocities in the upper mantle beneath the SEUS provide new constraints on the evolution of mantle lithosphere, both from the inheritance of structures from repeated Wilson cycles and from processes that have occurred while at a passive margin setting. Our images also allow us to correlate these structures to evidence of Eocene to recent tectonism observed at the surface. We find evidence for both inherited structures and more recently evolved structures, both of which bear some correlation to observations of ongoing tectonism. Our results suggest that lithospheric mantle continues to evolve while in a passive margin setting and that even relatively “stable” continental mantle lithosphere is subject to episodes of delamination, foundering, and erosion due to processes that are still not well understood. Our results provide structural constraints on the types of processes that may be ongoing and on possible explanations for the numerous observations of comparatively recent tectonic activity occurring along this passive margin setting.