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IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy<br />

(S) - <strong>IASPEI</strong> - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's<br />

Interior<br />

JSS012 Oral Presentation 2199<br />

Stagnant slab: A review<br />

Dr. Yoshio Fukao<br />

IFREE JAMSTEC <strong>IASPEI</strong><br />

Masayuki Obayashi, Deep Slab Project Group<br />

Subducted slabs tend to be, in general, once horizontally flattened at various depths in a range roughly<br />

between 400 and 1000 km. We call a slab in this tendency stagnant slab. We review the recent progress<br />

in the related subjects. The stagnant slab image behind the Japanese arc is especially suitable to detail<br />

its fine structure by addition of a large amount of arrival time data from Chinese networks, by<br />

comparison of the broadband waveforms of P and S waves grazing the stagnant slab, and by spatially<br />

correlating the stagnant slab image to the 660-km depression revealed by analyses of near-station P to<br />

S conversions. Many of these studies support the simple idea of cold stagnant slab, which is also<br />

supported by the recent electromagnetic tomography delineating remarkably well the seismic images of<br />

the stagnant slab under south Europe as a low conductive body. Several attempts have been made to<br />

simulate numerically the characteristic configuration of the stagnant slab and the associated 660-km<br />

topography in the northwestern Pacific. The factors affecting the deep slab configuration are the trench<br />

retreat, Clapeyron slope of the 660, viscosity jump across the 660 and grain size-dependent softening of<br />

ringwoodite in the cold slab. Combination of these factors in reasonable ranges generates a variety of<br />

slab configuration, including horizontally deflected slab either above or below the 660. The recent high<br />

pressure experiments imply that the Clapeyron slope of the 660 depends on water content. This<br />

dependence, together with the tomographic map at 660 km depth and the undulation map of the 660,<br />

suggest that the stagnant slab behind the Izu-Bonin trench is not anomalously hydrous.<br />

Keywords: stagnant slab, transition zone, 660km discontinuity

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