Relative travel time delays of teleseismic P and
S waves, recorded during the Mantle Electromagnetic and
Tomography (MELT) Experiment, have been inverted tomographically
for upper-mantle structure beneath the southern East Pacific Rise. A
broad zone of low seismic velocities extends beneath the rise to depths
of about 200 kilometers and is centered to the west of the spreading center. The magnitudes of the P and S wave
anomalies require the presence of retained mantle melt; the melt
fraction near the rise exceeds the fraction 300 kilometers off axis by
as little as 1%. Seismic anisotropy, induced by mantle flow, is
evident in the P wave delays at near-vertical incidence and
is consistent with a half-width of mantle upwelling of about 100 km.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
drt@newberry.uoregon.edu