Seismic Evidence for Crustal Magmatic Intrusion Beneath the Southern Part of the Eastern North American Margin

Abstract

The southern portion of the eastern North American margin (SENAM) is an archetypical volcanic passive margin formed during Mesozoic rifting. How past magmatic events affect the evolution of the SENAM remains an open question of fundamental importance. To better understand this question, here we construct a high-resolution 3-D crustal velocity model from the oceanic side to the continental interior with a combination of multimodal dispersion inversion and full-waveform ambient noise tomography. Our new model reveals an oceanic-continental transitional crust over a short horizonal distance of 100–150 km across the SENAM, with a local-scale lower-than-surrounding velocity anomaly directly beneath the transitional crust. Furthermore, the new model shows three intra-crustal higher-than-average velocity anomalies beneath the SENAM continent. We suggest that the magmatism assisted the Mesozoic rifting process to form the narrow ocean-continent transitional crust along the coastline. The underplating of magma beneath the transitional crust led to a reduction of seismic velocity of the uppermost mantle. In addition, it is probable that the emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province caused widespread magmatic intrusions within the continental crust of the SENAM, which were later solidified into intra-crustal high-velocity plutons. Our findings provide new insights into crustal modification history at the passive margin.