Please cite this article in press as: Fullea, J., et al., Perturbing effects of sub-lithospheric mass anomalies in GOCE gravity gradient and other gravity data modelling: Application to the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition zone. Int. J. Appl. Earth Observ. Geoinf. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2014.02.003 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model JAG-849; No. of Pages 16 International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation jo ur nal home page: www.elsevier.com/locate/jag Perturbing effects of sub-lithospheric mass anomalies in GOCE gravity gradient and other gravity data modelling: Application to the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition zone J. Fullea a,∗ , J. Rodríguez-González a,c , M. Charco a , Z. Martinec b , A. Negredo a,c , A. Villase ˜ nor d a Institute of Geosciences, (CSIC, UCM), ES-28040 Madrid, Spain b Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 5 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland c Departamento de Geofísica y Meteorología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, E-28040 Madrid, Spain d Institute of Earth Sciences “Jaume Almera”, ICTJA-CSIC, ES-08028 Barcelona, Spain a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) GOCE gravity gradients Geophysical-petrological modeling Subduction Alboran Basin Seismic tomography a b s t r a c t The GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) mission, launched on March 2009, included a new type of satellite instrument, an on-board three-axis gradiometer able to measure the Earth’s gravity gradients at the satellite height (255 km). The potential of this new type of measurement and its derived products (i.e., global gravity field models), together with other land-based geophysi- cal observables (Bouguer and geoid anomalies), to image sub-lithospheric thermal and compositional anomalies is evaluated in this study. We focus on the Atlantic-Mediterranean Transition Region (AMTR), the diffuse, transpressive contact between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. The present-day litho- spheric structure in the area is characterized by a wide band of active deformation, large lateral variations in the lithosphere and the presence of a positive seismic-velocity anomaly in the uppermost mantle beneath the Betics and the westernmost Alboran Basin-Gibraltar Arc. Here, the perturbing effects of deep, sub-lithospheric density anomalies in GOCE gravity gradients and other land-based geophysical data are assessed, and its impact in lithospheric-scale geophysical-petrological modeling within a ther- modynamically consistent framework analyzed. Some of the gravity gradients computed at the satellite altitude are rather sensitive to the presence of even a relatively small sub-lithospheric cold slab, like the one observed in the AMTR, showing the potential of the new GOCE data to map upper mantle anomalies. Lithospheric models ignoring the AMTR sub-lithospheric heterogeneities could be significantly biased. In particular, extreme changes of 4–6 km and 60–70 km in the crustal and lithospheric thickness, respec- tively, are required to include sub-lithospheric mantle contributions to land-based and satellite gravity data. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) mission was launched on March 2009 with the main aim of improving our knowledge about the global Earth’s gravity field (e.g., Drinkwater et al., 2003; Rummel et al., 2002; Visser et al., 2002). GOCE-derived gravity field models or products are based on three different processing approaches (Pail et al., 2011) and are novel in that they include gravity gradients, a completely new type of satellite measurement (Bouman et al., 2011). This new data ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 91 394 46 34. E-mail addresses: j.fullea@igeo.ucm-csic.es, javfurchu@gmail.com (J. Fullea). set, based on measurements made by an on-board three-axis gra- diometer, has an accuracy of 10 cm and 3 mGal for geoid and gravity anomalies respectively, with a global resolution of around 90 km (degree and order 220) (Pail et al., 2013). A number of studies have exploited the capabilities of the new GOCE data in constraining the Earth’s crust and oceans (e.g., Álvarez et al., 2012; Bingham et al., 2011; Hirt et al., 2012; Köther et al., 2012; Mariani et al., 2013). However, the potential of GOCE data in mapping the upper mantle structure has received comparatively less attention. In this work we investigate the perturbing effects of deep mass anomalies in gravity potential field data modeling and, therefore, the sensitivity of recent GOCE products (specifically, global gravity models) to sub-lithospheric scale mantle structures. In particular, we are interested in how much a purely lithospheric model (i.e., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2014.02.003 0303-2434/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.