title: Evidence for partial melt in the crust beneath Mt. Paektu (Changbaishan), Democratic People's Republic of Korea and China.
abstract: Mt. Paektu (also known as Changbaishan) is an enigmatic volcano on the border between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China. Despite being responsible for one of the largest eruptions in history, comparatively little is known about its magmatic evolution, geochronology, or underlying structure. We present receiver function results from an unprecedented seismic deployment in the DPRK. These are the first estimates of the crustal structure on the DPRK side of the volcano and, indeed, for anywhere beneath the DPRK. The crust 60 km from the volcano has a thickness of 35 km and a bulk V P/V S of 1.76, similar to that of the Sino-Korean craton. The V P/V S ratio increases ~20 km from the volcano, rising to >1.87 directly beneath the volcano. This shows that a large region of the crust has been modified by magmatism associated with the volcanism. Such high values of V P/V S suggest that partial melt is present in the crust beneath Mt. Paektu. This region of melt represents a potential source for magmas erupted in the last few thousand years and may be associated with an episode of volcanic unrest observed between 2002 and 2005.
authors.affiliation: Earthquake Administration, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ri
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kyong-Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
authors.forename: James O S
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9194-8689
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.affiliation: Earthquake Administration, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chol-Nam
authors.affiliation: Earthquake Administration, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hyok
authors.affiliation: Earthquake Administration, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yong-Gun
authors.affiliation: Earthquake Administration, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Pak
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gil-Jong
authors.affiliation: Earthquake Administration, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ri
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chong-Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK.
authors.forename: Clive
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4506-7260
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oppenheimer
authors.affiliation: Environmental Education Media Project, Beijing 100025, China.
authors.forename: Kosima W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Kayla
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iacovino
authors.affiliation: Pyongyang International Information Centre of New Technology and Economy, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ryu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kum-Ran
mesh_terms: D056911:Democratic People's Republic of Korea; D004190:Disasters; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D018707:Volcanic Eruptions
keywords: Partial melt; Seismology; Volcano; crust; receiver function