Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2021 Program

Amy Amatya ’21
GEOSCIENCES
Certificate in Environmental Studies
CLIMATE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
THESIS TITLE
Receiver Function
Analysis of the Mantle
Transition Zone Beneath
Cape Verde
ADVISER
Frederik Simons,
Professor of
Geosciences
The Cape Verde Islands are a hotspot believed
to be fed by a mantle plume that is stationary
relative to the overlying plate. Characterization
of the mantle transition zone underlying Cape
Verde offers an opportunity for improving our
understanding of hotspot formation and mantle
dynamics. However, the region is seismically
understudied and under-sampled, hence models
have remained under-constrained. Seismic data
recorded on noisy island stations are highly
variable in quality. My study aimed to shed light
on the structure and formation of Cape Verde’s
hotspot through a receiver function analysis of
the region’s mantle transition zone. I tested the
applicability of a previously developed signalfiltering
and receiver function-generating toolkit.
My analysis produced evidence of depressed
410- and 660-kilometer discontinuities, in line
with the work of Helffrich, et al. (2010). This
challenges previous findings of a thin transition
zone beneath Cape Verde, calling for an alternate
explanation of the thermal source of the island’s
hotspot.
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