Ambient Noise Tomography beneath the Banda Basin reveals new insights into the Arc-Continent Collision Zone

The Banda Arc serves as a natural laboratory for continent-arc collision studies. We present a new 3D shear-wave velocity model from ambient noise tomography that captures the Banda Basin, the Banda Arc and the surrounding regions. Our velocity model reveals regions of high and low velocities at shallow depths that we relate to the oceanic basins and trapped continental fragments in the Banda Sea. We image shallow lithospheric evidence of the ocean-continent boundary marking the transition from ocean-arc subduction to continent-arc collision. The uppermost mantle structure beneath the Banda Sea is delineated by broad low velocities that we associate as the effect of the southeastward rollback of the Proto-Banda slab that caused the opening of the Banda Basin.