Collaborative Research: The APPLE - Anisotropy and Physics of the Pacific Lithosphere Experiment

University Of California-San Diego Scripps Inst Of Oceanography, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is a combined controlled source electromagnetic and magnetotelluric study designed to resolve unambiguously the strike direction and depth extent of electrical anisotropy from the near-surface through the crust and upper mantle. The data collected will provide depth constraints on and alignment of the strain regime generated during the mid-ocean ridge crust formation, constraints on the extent an alignment of ductile flow during present day plate motion, depth of the thermal boundary layer that denotes the lithosphere, and insight into electrical conduction mechanisms in the mantle, particularly the proposal that hydrogen dissolved in olivine enhances conduction in the a-axis direction.