Geophysical Constraints on the Relationship Between Seamount Subduction, Slow Slip, and Tremor at the North Hikurangi Subduction Zone, New Zealand

Abstract We use a prestack depth migration reflection image and magnetic anomaly data across the northern Hikurangi subduction zone, New Zealand, to constrain plate boundary structure and geometry of a subducting seamount in a region of shallow slow slip and recent International Ocean Discovery Prog...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Daniel H. N. Barker, Stuart Henrys, Fabio Caratori Tontini, Philip M. Barnes, Dan Bassett, Erin Todd, Laura Wallace
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-12-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080259
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Summary:Abstract We use a prestack depth migration reflection image and magnetic anomaly data across the northern Hikurangi subduction zone, New Zealand, to constrain plate boundary structure and geometry of a subducting seamount in a region of shallow slow slip and recent International Ocean Discovery Program drilling. Our 3‐D model reveals the subducting seamount as a SW‐NE striking, lozenge‐shaped ridge approximately 40 km long and 15 km wide, with relief up to 2.5 km. This seamount broadly correlates with a 20‐km‐wide gap separating two patches of large (>10 cm) slow slip and the locus of tectonic tremor associated with the September–October 2014 Gisborne slow slip event. Largest slow slip magnitudes occurred where the décollement is underlain by a 3.0‐km‐thick zone of highly reflective subducting sediments. Wave speeds within this zone are 7% lower than adjacent and overlying strata, supporting the view that high fluid pressures within subducting sediments may facilitate shallow slow slip along the north Hikurangi margin.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007