Teleseismic P wave tomography of South Island, New Zealand upper mantle: Evidence of subduction of Pacific lithosphere since 45 Ma

A P wave speed tomogram produced from teleseismic travel time measurements made on and offshore the South Island of New Zealand shows a nearly vertical zone with wave speeds that are 4.5% higher than the background average reaching to depths of approximately 450 km under the northwestern region of the island. This structure is consistent with oblique west-southwest subduction of Pacific lithosphere since about 45 Ma, when subduction beneath the region began. The high-speed zone reaches about 200–300 km below the depths of the deepest intermediate-depth earthquakes (subcrustal to ~200 km) and therefore suggests that ~200–300 km of slab below them is required to produce sufficient weight to induce the intermediate-depth seismicity. In the southwestern South Island, high P wave speeds indicate subduction of the Australian plate at the Puysegur Trench to approximately 200 km depth. A band with speeds ~2–3.5% lower than the background average is found along the east coast of the South Island to depths of ~150–200 km and underlies Miocene or younger volcanism; these low speeds are consistent with thinned lithosphere. A core of high speeds under the Southern Alps associated with a convergent margin and mountain building imaged in previous investigations is not well resolved in this study. This could suggest that such high speeds are limited in both width and depth and not resolvable by our data.