Description: Variations in trench and forearc morphology, and lithospheric velocity structure are observed where the Louisville Ridge seamount chain subducts at the Tonga-Kermadec Trench. Subduction of these seamounts has affected arc and back-arc processes along the trench for the last 5 Myr. High subduction rates (80 mm/yr in the north, 55 mm/yr in the south), a fast southwards migrating collision zone (~180 km/myr), and the obliquity of the subducting plate and the seamount chain to the trench, make this an ideal location to study the effects of seamount subduction on lithospheric structure. The “before and after”ù subduction regions have been targeted by several large-scale geophysical projects in recent years; the most recent being the R/V Sonne cruise SO215 in 2011. The crust and upper mantle velocity structure observed in profiles along strike of the seamount chain and perpendicular to the trench from this study, are compared to a similar profile from SO195, recorded ~100 km to the north. The affects of the passage of the seamounts through the subduction system are indicated by velocity anomalies in the crust and mantle of the overriding plate. Preliminary results indicate that in the present collision zone, mantle velocities (Pn) are reduced by ~5%. Around 100 km to the north, where seamounts are inferred to have subducted ~1 Myr ago, a reduction of 7% in mantle P-wave velocity is observed. The width of the trench slope and elevation of the forearc also vary along strike. At the collision zone a 〉100 km wide collapse region of kilometre-scale block faults comprise the trench slope, while the forearc is elevated. The elevated forearc has a 5 km think upper crust with a Vp of 2.5-5.5 km/s and the collapse zone also has upper crustal velocities as low as 2.5 km/s. To the east in the Pacific Plate, lower P-wave velocities are also observed and attributed to serpentinization due to deep fracturing in the outer trench high. Large bending faults permeate the crust and the Osbourn Seamount, currently on the verge of subduction, is fractured stepwise down into the trench. Pn velocities in the hinge zone of the Pacific Plate are as low as 7.3 km/s indicating that fracturing and serpentinization may also extend to sub-crustal depths. Finally, trench-parallel variations in subduction zone velocity structure are used to infer the degree to which seamount subduction has altered the physical state of the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates both pre- and post subduction.

Description: Highlights • Deep seismic data reveal oceanic-like axial ridge beneath central Red Sea. • Axial high is similar to those of hotspot-affected spreading centres. • Bouguer anomalies predict low average density beneath axis. • This low density implies thickened crust and/or low mantle density. • Normal thickness predicted from Na8.0 implies recent transition from thinner crust. Abstract The Red Sea is an important example of a rifted continental shield proceeding to seafloor spreading. However, whether the crust in the central Red Sea is continental or oceanic has been controversial. Contributing to this debate, we assess the basement geometry using seismic reflection and potential field data. We find that the basement topography from seismically derived structure corrected for evaporite and other sediment loading has an axial high with a width of 70–100 km and a height of 0.8–1.6 km. Basement axial highs are commonly found at mid-ocean ridges affected by hotspots, where enhanced mantle melting results in thickened crust. We therefore interpret this axial high as oceanic-like, potentially produced by recently enhanced melting associated with the broader Afar mantle anomaly. We also find the Bouguer gravity anomalies are strongly correlated with basement reflection depths. The apparent density contrast necessary to explain the Bouguer anomaly varies from 220 kg m−3 to 580 kg m−3 with no trend with latitude. These values are too small to be caused primarily by the density contrast between evaporites and mantle across a crust of uniform thickness and density structure, further supporting a thickened crustal origin for the axial high. Complicating interpretation, only a normal to modestly thickened axial crust is predicted from fractionation-corrected sodium contents (Na8.0), and the basement reflection is rugged, more typical of ultra-slow spreading ridges that are not close to hotspots. We try to reconcile these observations with recent results from seismic tomography, which show modest mantle S-wave velocity anomalies under this part of the Red Sea.