Upper-mantle seismic anisotropy in the southwestern North Island, New Zealand: Implications for regional upper-mantle and slab deformation

We employed shear-wave splitting analysis on both teleseismic SKS and S waves, and S waves from deep (150–250 km) local earthquakes collected from a dense array with 43 temporary broadband seismic stations and nine long-term seismic stations centered at Mount Taranaki to characterize the upper-mantle dynamics in the southwestern North Island of New Zealand, in areas previously unexamined for shear-wave splitting. We observed predominantly trench-parallel fast polarizations and strikingly large delay times over 3 s from teleseismic analysis. In contrast, local S analysis yielded a sharp transition of fast-polarization from trench-parallel in the northeast to trench-normal in the southwest. Trench-parallel fast-polarization from teleseismic analysis may be attributed to sub-slab trench-parallel flow or to trench-parallel fractures in the subducting slab. More importantly, we attribute large delay times to deep upper-mantle (200–400 km depth) deformation, possibly associated with the dynamic interaction between the downgoing slab and the 410-km discontinuity or with the lithosphere delamination near the Taranaki-Ruapehu line. In contrast, the trench-parallel anisotropy from the local S waves in the northeast could be caused by fluid-bearing cracks in the crust of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and/or by trench-parallel fractures in the subducting slab resulting from outer rise bending. The abrupt change to trench-normal may be related to stress variations in the downgoing slab at different depths.