Joint Inversion of Geoid Anomaly and Teleseismic P-Wave Delay Times: Modeling Density and Velocity Perturbations Beneath the Parana Magmatic Province

The Parana Magmatic Province (PMP) is one of the largest continental igneous provinces (LIP) on Earth. It is well dated at 133 Ma preceding the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean, but the causative geodynamic processes are still poorly understood. Although a low-velocity anomaly has been imaged by seismic tomography in the northeast region of the PMP and interpreted as a fossil conduct of a mantle plume that is related to the flood basalt eruptions, geochemical data indicate that such magmatism is caused by the melting of a heterogeneous and enriched lithospheric mantle with no deep plume participation.

Models of density perturbations in the upper mantle estimated from joint inversion of geoid anomalies and P-wave delay times will offer important constraints on mantle dynamics.

A new generation of accurate global geopotential models derived from satellite-missions (e.g. GRACE, GOCE) allows us to estimate density distribution within the Earth from geoid inversion. In order to obtain the residual geoid anomaly related to the density structure of the mantle, we use the EGM2008 model removing estimated geoid perturbations owing to variations in crustal structure (i.e., topographical masses, Moho depth, thickness of sediments and basalts).

Using a spherical-Earth approximation, the density model space is represented by a set of tesseroids and the velocity model is parameterized in nodes of a spherical grid where cubic B-splines are utilized as an interpolation function. To constrain the density inversion, we add more than 10,000 manually picked teleseismic P-wave delay times. During the inversion procedure, density and P-wave velocity are linked through the optimization of a constant linear factor correlating density and velocity perturbation. Such optimization will be performed using a probability density function (PDF) [Tarantola, 2005].

We will present the preliminary results of this joint inversion scheme and hypothesize on the geodynamic processes responsible for the flood basalt eruptions.