Seismic evidence for a thermochemical mantle plume underplating the lithosphere of the Ontong Java Plateau

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Data. We collected seismic waveform data recorded by the OJP array for earthquakes with moment magnitudes (Mw) greater than 5.5 in the western Pacific

Ocean to analyse the upper mantle shear wave structure beneath the OJP. As these

data alone do not suffice for this purpose, we also collected seismic data recorded

on land and on the seafloor in the western Pacific Ocean (Supplementary Fig. 1).

These data are distributed by the Ocean Hemisphere network Project (OHP) and

the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management Center

(IRIS DMC), which were collected for earthquakes between 1990 and 2016. The

study region in the western Pacific Ocean is similar to that of another recent

study17 in which only seismic data from land stations were used. Here, we used

seafloor observation data recorded by BBOBSs as well as land data from a total of

161 stations, of which 115 are BBOBS stations (Supplementary Fig. 1). Vertical

component seismograms recorded on the seafloor are contaminated by tilt noise

caused by leaks of a high degree of noise in the horizontal components induced by

seafloor currents57 and compliance noise induced by the infragravity waves that are

also recorded by seafloor pressure data58. We removed this noise from the BBOBS

station data in the OJP array by applying a spectral transfer function between the

vertical and horizontal components and between the vertical and pressure components, respectively.

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Data availability

The tomography model (OJP-S-isse) used in this study is available in the Researchgate

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org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29857.94561/1) and in the supplementary data 1.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the captains and crews of the R/V MIRAI and R/V HAKUHO-MARU

of JAMSTEC for the installation and recovery cruises, respectively. Their devoted efforts

led to the success of the OJP array observation. We thank four reviewers for constructive

reviews that improved the manuscript. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for

Scientific Research (15H03720) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and

Grants for Operating Expenses of JAMSTEC and the University of Tokyo.

Author contributions

T.I. performed the seafloor observation, analysed the data, and wrote the manuscript.

D.S. organised the OJP Array seafloor observation and wrote the manuscript. A.I.S.

interpreted and wrote the section on the petrological results. H.S.H., H.S.U., and A.I.T.

performed the seafloor observations. Y.K. developed the code for noise reduction of the

seismological data. K.Y. developed the code for surface wave analysis. Y.I., S.T., M.O.,

T.T., and J.Y. organised and performed the island observations. All authors read and

approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material

available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00169-9.

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.I.

Peer review information Primary handling editor: Joe Aslin

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