Mantle flow beneath northwestern Venezuela: Seismic evidence for a deep origin of the Mérida Andes

We measured shear wave splitting from SKS data recorded by the national seismic network of Venezuela and a linear broadband PASSCAL/Rice seismic array across the Mérida Andes. The linear array was installed in the second phase of the passive seismic component of the BOLIVAR project to better understand the complicated regional tectonics in western Venezuela. Using the method proposed by Wolfe and Silver (1998), SKS waveforms from 2 to 36 earthquakes, mostly from the Tonga subduction zone, were selected for each of the 23 stations in the region in order to do splitting analysis. The fast polarization directions can be divided into 3 zones, all in agreement with local GPS data: The first zone comprises the stations north of the dextral strike-slip Oca-Ancon fault. These stations show the largest split times (1.6-3.2 s), oriented in a roughly EW direction, and are similar to splitting observations made further to the east along the strike slip plate boundary (Growdon et al., 2009). We attribute this to trench-parallel mantle flow that passes around the northwest corner of the subducting Caribbean plate and along the northern edge of South America as proposed by Russo and Silver (1994), forming an eastward flow beneath the southern Caribbean plate. Zone two is the Mérida Andes, with the right lateral Bocono fault in the center, where split orientations are at ~ N45°E, suggesting that the observed seismic anisotropy is likely caused by lithospheric deformation parallel to the Bocono fault. Zone three is east of the Bocono fault inside the Barinas-Apure Basin, where the measured split times are smaller (~ 0.8 s) with an EW fast direction that is consistent with those observed at the Guarico Basin, Maturin Basin and the Guayana Shield in the east, and are interpreted as orientation with the motion of the continent.

Research highlights► Seismic anisotropy was measured at recently deployed stations in Western Venezuela. ► Strong mantle flow induced seismic anisotropy was observed at the CAR-SA boundary. ► The subducting CAR plate may play an important role in directing/focusing the flow. ► Fast directions observed in the Barinas-Apure basin are consistent with APM of SA. ► Deformation in the lithosphere beneath Mérida Andes is vertically coherent.