Seismic tomographic evidence for upwelling mantle plume in NE China

• Upwelling mantle plume beneath the Songliao basin and the Changbaishan.
• Volcanic activities in NE China.
• The lower crustal delamination contributing to the volcanism in NE China.

In this study, we collected teleseismic data recorded by permanent and mobile seismic stations and carried out a teleseismic P-wave tomographic study. The results reveal low velocity perturbation regions at the central part of NE China and specifically in the Songliao basin at different depths, which correspond to the location of a proposed upwelling mantle plume identified by receiver function in a recent study. Receiver function data show a predominantly mafic/ultra-mafic lower crust in the Songliao basin, in contrast to the predominantly felsic lower crust in the other regions. The vestige of upwelling mantle plume is well defined at the mantle transition region. Based on the above results, we suggest that the volcanism in NE China and the Songliao basin formation might be related to Mesozoic mantle plume beneath NE China. We also evaluate alternate models on lower crustal delamination contributing to the volcanism in NE China following collision and amalgamation between the Siberia craton and the North China–Mongolian block during late Jurassic and early Cretaceous.