Compensation of swells and plateaus in the north Pacific: No direct evidence for mantle convection

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Abstract
At intermediate and long wavelengths the ratio of geoid height to topography is sensitive to the depth and mode of compensation. A low geoid/topography ratio (8 m/km) in conjunction with a poor correlation between geoid height and topography is evidence of mantle convection. After subtracting a reference geoid from the observed geoid, previous studies have found a regular pattern of geoid highs and lows with a characteristic wavelength of 3000–4000 km. Since these geoid highs and lows were poorly correlated with topography and resulted in very high geoid/topography ratios (10–20 m/km), they were believed to reflect the planform of mantle convection. We show that the regular pattern of geoid highs and lows is an artifact caused by truncating the reference geoid at spherical harmonic degree 10. Since the geoid spectrum is “red,” the residual geoid is dominated by degree 11. When the harmonics of the reference geoid are rolled off gradually, the regular pattern of geoid highs and lows disappears. In the Northeast Pacific, the new residual geoid reflects the lithosphere age offsets across the major fracture zones. In the Northwest Pacific, the residual geoid corresponds to isostatically compensated swells and plateaus. We have calculated the geoid/topography ratio for 10 swells and plateaus and have found a range of compensation depths. The highest geoidAopography ratio of 5.5 m/km occurs on the flanks of the Hawaiian Swell. Intermediate ratios occur in four areas, including the Midway Swell. These intermediate ratios reflect a linear combination of the decaying thermal swell and the increasing volume of Airy‐compensated seamounts. Low geoid/topography ratios occur over the remaining five areas (e.g., Emperor Seamounts), reflecting the absence of a thermal swell. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that the planform of mantle convection is evident in the geoid. We see only indirect evidence of thermal plumes reheating the lower lithosphere.

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