On the Origin of the Hawaiian Swell: Lithosphere and Asthenosphere Seismic Structure From Rayleigh Wave Dispersion

In this study, we revisit the shear-wave velocity structure of the lithosphere and asthenosphere surrounding the Hawaiian hotspot and Hawaiian swell using Rayleigh wave data spanning periods of 20–125 s from the PLUME project. A primary goal of this investigation is to probe the origin of the Hawaiian swell and the mechanism that elevates the topography, providing insights into mantle dynamics beneath hotspot swells. In the shear velocity model, the 30–70 km depth range is largely featureless with weak and local anomalies, indicating that the elevation of the Hawaiian swell cannot be attributed to upper lithospheric reheating or replacement. In contrast, at 80–150 km depth, a pronounced region of anomalously low velocities is well-resolved, with the lowest velocities found beneath the Hawaii-Maui-Molokai part of the island chain. Minimum shear velocities are approximately 4.0 km/s at 100–120 km depth, which is an ∼8%-10% velocity decrease relative to the surrounding velocities away from the swell. This pattern suggests that hot, buoyant mantle from deeper plume sources laterally spread out near the top of the normal oceanic asthenosphere. We find that the low-velocity pattern in the asthenosphere exhibits a strong correlation with the overall shape of the Hawaiian swell topography. Assuming that density anomalies are proportional to shear velocity anomalies, we demonstrate that the anomalous elevation of the swell can be explained by the uplift of a 30-km-thick elastic plate loaded from below by this buoyant, low-seismic-velocity layer in the asthenosphere.