Caltech researchers at the Tectonics Observatory published a paper in the 4 May Geophysical Research Letters, reporting the detection, with unprecedented clarity, of a mantle plume in seismic images. The pioneering methods used by seismologists at Caltech and published in May have just been highlighted in the 24 June Science “News of the Week.”

Funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation helped support this research, through a grant to the Tectonics Observatory for use of the latest technologies and multi-disciplinary research methods to study the tectonic plate boundaries. Outcomes for this grant have included the creation of a Tectonics Observatory infrastructure, an increased pool of tectonics researchers, and improved tectonics data.

Links to abstracts:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/328/5986/1622-a

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2009GL042339.shtml