Transition zone structure under a stationary hot spot: Cape Verde

We report on a two-year seismic deployment in the Cape Verde Islands, one goal of which was to study the upper mantle to determine its structure under a hot spot that is stationary in the hot spot reference frame. We find from analysis of P-to-S receiver functions estimated from broadband seismic recordings that, within uncertainty, the time separation between the 410 and 660 km discontinuities is normal compared to radial earth models. Thus, to exist, even stationary hot spots do not require vertical thermal anomalies from deep melting sources anchored in the lower mantle or at the core–mantle boundary or their anomalies are narrower than ∼ 250 km in the upper mantle.