UCLA

It is strongly debated whether the interface between the lithosphere and underlying as- thenosphere is a temperature-dependent rheological transition, as expected in a thermal convection system, or additionally affected by the presence of melts and/or fluids. Pre- vious surface wave studies of Pacific oceanic lithosphere have found that shear velocity and azimuthal anisotropy vary with seafloor crustal age as expected for a thermal control; however radial anisotropy does not. Various thermo-mechanical models have been pro- posed to explain this disparate behaviour. Nonetheless, it is unclear how robust the surface wave constraints are, and this is what we test in this study. We apply a Bayesian model space search approach to three published Pacific surface-wave dispersion datasets, two phase-velocity and one combined phase- and group-velocity set, and determine various proxies for the depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) and their uncer- tainties based on the velocity and radial anisotropy model distributions obtained. In their overall character and pattern with age, the velocity models from different datasets are consistent with each other, although they differ in their values of LAB depths. Uncertainties are substantial (as much as 20 km on LAB depths) and the addition of group-velocity data does not reduce them. Radial anisotropy structures differ even in pattern and display no obvious age dependence. However, given the uncertainties, we cannot exclude that radial anisotropy, azimuthal anisotropy, and velocity models actually reflect compatible, age-dependent, LAB depth estimates. The velocity LAB trends are most like those ex- pected for half-space cooling, because velocity differences persist at old ages, below the depth of common plate cooling models. Any direct signature of sub-ridge melt would be too small-scale to be resolved by these data. However, the velocity-increasing effects of dehydration and depletion due to melting below the ridge could explain why LAB proxy depths tend to a minimum of ∼60 km below young ocean floor.