TY  - JOUR
A1  - Endrun, Brigitte
A1  - Lebedev, Sergei
A1  - Meier, Thomas
A1  - Tirel, Celine
A1  - Friederich, Wolfgang
T1  - Complex layered deformation within the Aegean crust and mantle revealed by seismic anisotropy
T2  - Nature geoscience
N2  - Continental lithosphere can undergo pervasive internal deformation, often distributed over broad zones near plate boundaries. However, because of the paucity of observational constraints on three-dimensional movement at depth, patterns of flow within the lithosphere remain uncertain. Endmember models for lithospheric flow invoke deformation localized on faults or deep shear zones or, alternatively, diffuse, viscous-fluid-like flow. Here we determine seismic Rayleigh-wave anisotropy in the crust and mantle of the Aegean region, an archetypal example of continental deformation. Our data reveal a complex, depth-dependent flow pattern within the extending lithosphere. Beneath the northern Aegean Sea, fast shear wave propagation is in a North-South direction within the mantle lithosphere, parallel to the extensional component of the current strain rate field. In the south-central Aegean, where deformation is weak at present, anisotropic fabric in the lower crust runs parallel to the direction of palaeo-extension in the Miocene. The close match of orientations of regional-scale anisotropic fabric and the directions of extension during the last significant episodes of deformation implies that at least a large part of the extension in the Aegean has been taken up by distributed viscous flow in the lower crust and lithospheric mantle.
Y1  - 2011
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/36988
SN  - 1752-0894
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
SP  - 203
EP  - 207
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - New York
ER  -