Seismic investigations of the Earth's lithosphere and asthenosphere in two unique convergent margin settings: The Carpathians, Romania, and U.S. Cordillera, Idaho-Oregon

Proposed mechanisms for the unusual seismicity ~100 km southeast of the contact between the Transylvanian Basin and the Eastern Carpathians in Romania have included tearing and rollback of a subducted slab of oceanic lithosphere and gravitational instability and delamination of continental lithosphere. We examined the upper mantle fabrics using shear wave splitting of SK(K)S phases recorded at four broadband seismic stations in the Transylvanian Basin. Our results indicate a regional NW-SE splitting trend, with measurements that reflect an abrupt change from this regional flow field in the vicinity of the Vrancea body to a NE-SW trend that is consistent with redirection of mantle flow. Crustal thickness measurements show 28-30 km in the western part of the Transylvanian Basin, 34-39 km at the contact with the Eastern Carpathians, and 40-45 km further east. These results, along with previous estimates, constrain the locus of the inferred Miocene suture between the southeastern-most portion of the Tisza-Dacia terrane and the East European Platform.;The second convergent margin system represented here is in the North American Cordillera in Idaho and Oregon, where subduction and accretion of exotic terranes have modified the western margin of North America. We used teleseismic receiver functions from 85 broadband stations to analyze the geometry of the Salmon River suture zone, the western Idaho shear zone, and the Grouse Creek-Farmington zone boundary. Results show a clear break in crustal thickness from ~28 km beneath the accreted terranes to 36 km east of the surface expression of the WISZ. A strong mid-crustal converter at ~20 km depth is consistent with tectonic wedging during accretion of the Blue Mountains terranes. An eastern Moho offset of ~6 km is consistent with the Archean Grouse Creek-Farmington zone boundary.;We used deep converted phases generated beneath the study area to image the mantle transition zone. We observe a continuous high amplitude P410s conversion at a depth of ~425 km. P520s and P660s are diffuse and yield poorly defined images of expected structural boundaries. Together the strong, deeper-than-expected P410s phase and diffuse P660s phase indicate the upper mantle beneath the study region has higher than average temperatures.