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Abstract

The Eifel is the youngest volcanic area of Central Europe. The last eruption occurred approximately 11000 years ago. Little is known about the deep origin and the mechanism responsible for the Eifel volcanic activity. Earthquake activity indicates that the Eifel is one of the most geodynamically active areas of Central Europe. In this work the receiver function method is used to investigate the upper mantle structure beneath the Eifel. Data from 96 teleseismic events (mb > 5.2) that were recorded by both permanent stations and a temporary network of 33 broadband and 129 short period stations had been analyzed. The temporary network was operating from November 1997 till June 1998 and covered an area of approximately 400x250 km^2 centered on the Eifel volcanic fields. The receiver function analysis reveals a clear image of the Moho and the mantle discontinuities at 410 km and 660 km depth. Average Moho depth is approximately 30 km and it shows little variation over the extent of the network. The observed variations of converted waveforms are possibly caused by lateral variations in crustal structure, which could not resolved by it receiver functions}. Inversions of data and migrated it receiver functions} from stations of the central Eifel array suggest that a low velocity zone is present at about 60 to 90 km depth in the western Eifel region. There are also indications for a high velocity zone around 200 km depth, perhaps caused by dehydration of the rising plume material. The results suggest that P-to-S conversions from the 410-km discontinuity arrive later than in the IASP91 reference model. The migrated data show a depression of the 410 km discontinuity of about 20 km, which correspond to an increase of temperature of about 140° Celsius. The 660 km discontinuity seems to be unaffected. This indicates that no mantel material rises up from directly below the 660 km discontinuity in the Eifel region or the Eifel-Plume has its origin within the transition zone.