investigation of upper mantle discontinuity structure beneath the central pacific using ss precursors 1 using a high quality broadband seismic data set of precursors to the phase ss we investigate the structure of upper mantle discontinuities beneath the central pacific including the hawaiian hot spot we image structure by stacking over 4000 records into geographic bins retaining periods down to 5 s we consider the effects of correcting for four separate tomographic models of mantle heterogeneity excluding data at distances containing phases that potentially interfere with precursors we find evidence for peak to peak topography of 15 20 km on the 670 km discontinuity and 7 28 km of topography on the 400 km discontinuity weak reflections are detected from discontinuities near 220 and 520 km depth the average transition zone thickness beneath our region is approximately 242 3 km very similar to previous estimates of the global average lateral transition zone thinning and thickening weakly correlate with reduced and increased transition zone shear velocity respectively consistent with a thermal origin to topographical variations on the discontinuities within our study region the transition zone beneath hawaii and to the east of the line island chain is thinned by up to 20 km in a province spanning nearly 1000 km suggesting an excess mantle temperature of 200 k in the oldest crustal regions of our study area 100 ma the 400 km discontinuity is relatively shallow and the transition zone is relatively thick 250 255 km a possible explanation for this pattern includes small scale convection in the upper mantle bringing colder material into the transition zone

constraints on seismic anisotropy in the mantle transition zone from long period ss precursors the mantle transition zone mtz of earth is demarcated by solid to solid phase changes of the mineral olivine that produce seismic discontinuities at 410 and 660 km depths mineral physics experiments predict that wadsleyite can have strong single crystal anisotropy at the pressure and temperature conditions of the mtz thus significant seismic anisotropy is possible in the upper mtz where lattice preferred orientation of wadsleyite is produced by mantle flow here we use a body wave method ss precursors to study the topography change and seismic anisotropy near the mtz discontinuities we stack the data to explore the azimuthal dependence of travel times and amplitudes of ss precursors and constrain the azimuthal anisotropy in the mtz beneath the central pacific we find evidence for 4 anisotropy with a se fast direction in the upper mantle and no significant anisotropy in the mtz in subduction zones we observe 4 anisotropy with a trench parallel fast direction in the upper mantle and 3 anisotropy with a trench perpendicular fast direction in the mtz the transition of fast directions indicates that the lattice preferred orientation of wadsleyite induced by mtz flow is organized separately from the flow in the upper mantle global azimuthal stacking reveals 1 azimuthal anisotropy in the upper mantle but negligible anisotropy 1 in the mtz finally we correct for the upper mantle and mtz anisotropy structures to obtain a new mtz topography model the anisotropy correction produces 3 km difference and therefore has minor overall effects on global mtz topography

mantle flow in subduction systems the subslab flow field and implications for mantle dynamics 1 the character of the mantle flow field in subduction zones remains poorly understood despite its importance for our understanding of subduction dynamics in particular little attention has been paid to mantle flow beneath subducting slabs in order to identify processes that make first order contributions to the global pattern of subslab mantle flow we have compiled shear wave splitting measurements from subduction zones worldwide from previously published studies and estimated average splitting parameters for the subslab region globally the subslab region is overwhelmingly dominated by trench parallel fast splitting directions we tested for relationships between splitting delay time a measure of the strength of anisotropy and parameters that are indicators of tectonic processes such as trench migration velocity convergence velocity and obliquity age of subducting lithosphere and slab dip curvature seismicity and thickness we used several different plate motion models to describe plate and trench motions and evaluated the differences among the models we find that only one parameter namely the trench migration velocity in a pacific hot spot reference frame appears to correlate well with the strength of the subslab splitting signal this finding supports a model in which the mantle beneath subducting slabs is dominated by three dimensional flow induced by trench migration we explore several implications of our model for various aspects of mantle dynamics including the choice of a suitable reference frame s for mantle flow the existence of a thin decoupling zone between slabs and the subslab mantle and consequences for mass transfer between the upper and lower mantle

five key lessons gained from induced seismicity monitoring in western canada abstract in response to induced seismicity observed in western canada existing public networks have been densified and a number of private networks have been deployed to closely monitor induced earthquakes associated with oil and gas operations in the region over the past three years we generated an unprecedented volume of seismic data from monitoring induced seismicity for some of the most active operators in western canada this rich data set can be used to understand preexisting geologic structures the activation mechanisms and probabilities and seismological attributes of the resultant ground motions acknowledging that the primary goal of private networks is assisting operators in making operational decisions these insights can play key roles in improving the accuracy of event magnitudes ground motion predictions and hazard estimates which successively can be used for developing effective risk management strategies

upper and mid mantle anisotropy beneath the tonga slab measurements of source side splitting in s waves fromevents within the tonga slab reveal anisotropy in the upperand mid mantle beneath the slab we observed splitting forevents originating at both upper mantle and transition zonedepths anisotropic fast directions are trench parallel orsub parallel for both upper mantle and transition zoneevents delaytimes dt decreasewithdepthforuppermantleevents the source of anisotropy for the upper mantle eventsis likely in the sub slab mantle and is likely indicative oftrench parallel flow due to slab rollback the source ofanisotropy for the deeper earthquakes is more difficult toconstrain but the pattern of splitting measurements arguesfor an uppermost lower mantle anisotropic source and slabinduced deformation may be responsible for this anisotropyas well additional constraints from mineral physics studiesare necessary to interpret the mid mantle anisotropy signalin terms of geodynamical processes

the ml scale in southern california measurements 9 941 of peak amplitudes on wood anderson instruments or simulated wood anderson instruments in the southern california seismographic network for 972 earthquakes primarily located in southern california were studied with the aim of determining a new distance correction curve for use in determining the local magnitude m l events in the mammoth lakes area were found to give an unusual attenuation pattern and were excluded from the analysis as were readings from any one earthquake at distances beyond the first occurrence of amplitudes less than 0 3 mm the remaining 7 355 amplitudes from 814 earthquakes yielded the following equation for m l distance correction log a 0 log a 0 1 110log r 100 0 00189 r 100 3 0 where r is hypocentral distance in kilometers a new set of station corrections was also determined from the analysis the standard deviation of the m l residuals obtained by using this curve and the station corrections was 0 21 the data used to derive the equation came from earthquakes with hypocentral distances ranging from about 10 to 700 km and focal depths down to 20 km with most depths less than 10 km the log a 0 values from this equation are similar to the standard values listed in richter 1958 for 50 200 km the effect at close distances is consistent with that found in several other studies and is simply due to a difference in the observed 1 r geometrical spreading for body waves and the 1 r 2 spreading assumed by gutenberg and richter in the construction of the log a 0 table m l s computed from our curve and those reported in the caltech catalog show a systematic dependence on magnitude small earthquakes have larger magnitudes than in the catalog and large earthquakes have smaller magnitudes by as much as 0 6 units to a large extent these systematic differences are due to the nonuniform distribution of data in magnitude distance space small earthquakes are preferentially recorded at close distances relative to large earthquakes for large earthquakes however the difference in the two magnitudes is not solely due to the new correction for attenuation magnitudes computed using richter s log a 0 curve are also low relative to the catalog values the differences in that case may be due to subjective judgment on the part of those determining the catalog magnitudes the use of data other than the caltech wood anderson seismographs the use of different station corrections or the use of teleseismic magnitude determinations whatever their cause the departures at large magnitude may explain a 1 0 0 7 proportionality found by luco 1982 between m l s determined from real wood anderson records and those from records synthesized from strong motion instruments if it were not for the biases in reported magnitudes luco s finding would imply a magnitude dependent shape in the attenuation curves we studied residuals in three magnitude classes 2 0 m l 3 5 3 5 m l 5 5 and 5 5 m l 7 0 and found no support for such a magnitude dependence based on our results we propose that local magnitude scales be defined such that m l 3 correspond to 10 mm of motion on a wood anderson instrument at 17 km hypocentral distance rather than 1 mm of motion at 100 km this is consistent with the original definition of magnitude in southern california and will allow more meaningful comparison of earthquakes in regions having very different attenuation of waves within the first 100 km

fault activation by hydraulic fracturing in western canada hydraulic fracturing has been inferred to trigger the majority of injection induced earthquakes in western canada in contrast to the midwestern united states where massive saltwater disposal is the dominant triggering mechanism a template based earthquake catalog from a seismically active canadian shale play combined with comprehensive injection data during a 4 month interval shows that earthquakes are tightly clustered in space and time near hydraulic fracturing sites the largest event moment magnitude mw 3 9 occurred several weeks after injection along a fault that appears to extend from the injection zone into crystalline basement patterns of seismicity indicate that stress changes during operations can activate fault slip to an offset distance of 1 km whereas pressurization by hydraulic fracturing into a fault yields episodic seismicity that can persist for months

mantle layering from scs reverberations 2 the transition zone this is the second paper in a four part sequence that examines the nature of mantle layering using the scsn phases and internal reflections observed within the reverberative interval of sh polarized seismograms mantle reflectivity profiles for 18 seismic corridors sampling portions of indonesia australia and the western and central pacific are constructed from low frequency 25 mhz scs reverberations i e scsn type phases reflected once from internal mantle discontinuities modeling the reflectivity profiles using synthetic seismograms yields precise path specific estimates of the travel times to the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities and their reflection coefficients the data are consistent with an olivine dominated model of the transition zone marked by two major phase transitions having average apparent depths of 414 2 km and 660 2 km and impedance contrasts of 0 046 0 010 and 0 072 0 010 respectively the interpath variations observed in the reverberation travel times imply that the topography on the two discontinuities is of the order of 20 km peak to peak and is negatively correlated consistent with an endothermic transition at 660 km whose clapeyron slope magnitude is comparable to that of the 410 km exothermic transition in the case of the 660 km discontinuity we have been able to supplement these long wavelength 1500 5000 km observations with an estimate of intrapath topography inferred from the frequency dependence of the 660 km reflection coefficient which gives peak to peak variations less than 40 km on scale lengths of 500 1500 km for the 660 km discontinuity the observed topography is significantly less than the dynamic topography expected for a simple compositional interface in regions of subduction however we do observed an intriguing negative correlation between the apparent depth and the reflection coefficient of the 660 km discontinuity which may involve small compositional variations plausible explanations for this correlation include heating of an initially cool chemical boundary layer gravitationally trapped above an endothermic phase transition loss of reflected energy due to local curvature or roughness of the reflector and or extreme topography occurring on a small compositional component to the discontinuity 40 of the total impedance contrast by stripping the 410 km and 660 km peaks from the composite path reflectivity profile we identify three minor reflectors at mean depths of 520 710 and 900 km the shallowest may mark the phase spinel phase transition the 710 km discontinuity can be attributed to the ilmenite gamet perovskite phase transition although changes in perovskite symmetry can potentially provide explanations for both the 710 km and 900 km features

structure and sharpness of phase transitions and mantle discontinuities the structure of phase transitions expected from equilibrium thermodynamics is examined we show that in binary systems the shape of the coexistence region phase loop is controlled primarily by the partition coefficient k we derive a general and simple one parameter expression for the pressure dependence of the yield of the high pressure phase and show that this function can be highly nonlinear most of the transition occurs in a narrow interval near the boundary of the phase loop estimates of the effective width of binary phase transitions are less than half the total width of the coexistence region even for relatively mild partitioning k 1 4 we generalize these results to multiphase and multicomponent transitions we show that the presence of nontransforming phases can affect the width of the transition substantially we predict that the width of the olivine to wadsleyite transition in the presence of pyroxene and garnet is approximately half that of the binary phase loop at typical transition zone temperatures the estimated effective width of this transition in the mantle 4 8 km is marginally consistent with observations of high frequency 0 5 1 0 hz p wave reflections from the 410 km discontinuity we show that the effective width of the garnet to perovskite transition is sufficiently narrow to reflect s wave energy in the frequency range of scs reverberations 10 40 mhz and that this transition can account for the observed properties of the 710 km discontinuity

global azimuthal anisotropy in the transition zone surface wave dispersion measurements for love wave overtones carry evidence of azimuthal anisotropy in the transition zone of earth s mantle 400 to 660 kilometers deep a backus gilbert inversion of anisotropic phase velocity maps with resolution kernels mainly sensitive to the transition zone shows a robust long wavelength azimuthally anisotropic velocity structure this observation puts new constraints on the mineralogy and dynamics of the transition zone because this anisotropy may result from aligned minerals tilted laminated structures or even organized pockets of fluid inclusions

simultaneous inversion for mantle shear velocity and topography of transition zone discontinuities summary until now modelling of three dimensional 3 d velocity variations in the mantle and topography of the transition zone discontinuities have been considered separately velocity models were obtained assuming that the radii of the discontinuities are constant then the travel time data sensitive to the topography such as the ss precursors were corrected for the effect of 3 d seismic structure and inverted for depth variations of a discontinuity such a procedure is unsatisfactory as it may introduce artefacts that could significantly affect the topographic results the opposite trade off is less likely to introduce conceptually important changes in the velocity distribution but should also be considered in this study we bring together the same set of s velocity sensitive data as used by gu et al and combine it with a large set of differential travel times of ss s400s s s670s and direct measurements of s400s s670s we formulate the inverse problem in terms of the volumetric 3 d and topographic 2 d perturbations for both the 400 and 670 km discontinuities the best fitting model of the joint inversion significantly improves the variance reduction of ss s400s and ss s670s residuals the velocity distribution in the resulting model topos362d1 is very similar to that in model s362d1 with correlation coefficients 0 9 throughout the mantle which indicates that lateral variations of discontinuity depths have only minor influence on global modelling of velocity important changes however have been made to the topography of the 400 and 670 km discontinuities with respect to those obtained earlier assuming an existing velocity model the overall undulation of the 400 km discontinuity is considerably less than that reported by earlier global studies in topos362d1 its maximum variation does not exceed 12 km the strong degree 1 component before the joint inversion has decreased such that the correlation between the velocities above the discontinuity and the shape of the discontinuity itself has substantially diminished spatially this result means a significant diminution in the strength of the earlier reported depression of the 400 km discontinuity under the pacific the power spectrum of the topography of the 670 km discontinuity has been enriched in long wavelength component especially in degree 2 the range of depth variations is 18 km and its shape correlates well with the radially averaged velocity perturbations in the transition zone at wavelengths greater than 1000 km there is little correlation between the depth perturbations of the 400 and 670 km discontinuities the topography of the 400 km discontinuity does not appear to be strongly influenced by thermal structures potentially associated with subduction processes and plumes this implies that thermal influence on the olivine to phase transformation may not fully account for the observed depth variations dynamical effects and potential variations in composition may be important near the top of the transition zone

ss wave sensitivity to upper mantle structure implications for the mapping of transition zone discontinuity topographies 1 studies of the depths of the upper mantle discontinuities have relied on the differential travel times between the ss wave and its precursors we examine the effect of velocity heterogeneities on these differential travel time data ray theory which is used to correct these data for the effect of velocity heterogeneities is shown to be inaccurate if the characteristic heterogeneity length scales are similar to those seen in regional models or if the station is near the ss wave radiation nodal plane

single crystal elasticity of diopside to 14 gpa by brillouin scattering the single crystal elastic moduli cij of diopside have been measured up to 14 gpa using brillouin spectroscopy from which the aggregate compressional and shear velocities adiabatic bulk modulus shear modulus and their pressure derivatives were obtained a least squares fit of the velocity pressure data to third order finite strain equation yields k

shear wave splitting in refracted waves returned from the upper mantle transition zone beneath northern australia the broadband recording site at warramunga wra in the northern territory of australia provides good coverage of seismic wave propagation through the upper mantle for sources in the earthquake belt through indonesia and new guinea waves recorded on the radial v and tangential sh components are of comparable quality because the hard rock recording site minimizes the influence of coupling to p on the radial component refracted waves from the upper mantle transition zone show a clear advance of h wave arrivals compared with v eleven polarization analyses of waves returned from the transition zone yield an average time shift of 2 3 s with the fast direction scattered about the transverse direction nine polarization measurements of waves returned from the top of the lower mantle yield an average time shift of 1 7 s again with the fast direction near the transverse no appreciable time differences are observed between the radial and transverse polarizations for paths refracted within the lithospheric lid because the observations of shear wave splitting in waves passing through the low velocity zone he transition zone and the top of the lower mantle are not coherent in their absolute polarization the cause cannot lie in azimuthal anisotropy at shallow depths under the wra station the most plausible exphnation is transverse isotropy in shear within the low velocity zone under the unusually thick mantle lid under australia a possible contribution may come from anisotroly in olivine at the top of the upper mantle transition zone transverse isotropy in the 200 kin thick layer below the lithosphere down to the transition zone with a 1 faster shear wave speeds for horizontal polarization compared with vertical polarization will explain the splitting data for this asthenospheric region the level of anisotropy is quite reasonable and the polarization is consistent with lateral flow the geometry of the available paths for waves propagating within the mmltle lid inot sufficient to place constraints on the anisotropic properties of this heterogeneous a nd low loss region

slab dynamics in the transition zone abstract seismic images of horizontal slab segments in across or below the transition zone invoke scenarios in which slabs are laid down in the mantle through progressive trench retreat however observations of subduction characteristics do not exhibit a clear correlation between trench retreat and slab dip in the transition zone instead analysis of a range of subduction characteristics demonstrates that while transition zone slabs include slabs of many ages and subduction velocities with both retreating and advancing trench motion they also have several enigmatic characteristics such as faster sinking rates and a larger range in slab dip than slabs that extend to either shallower or deeper depths comparison of subduction characteristics with several analytical and numerical models of subduction dynamics suggests that many of the possible mechanisms for trapping slabs in the transition zone e g positive buoyancy sources viscous resistance slab weakening are only viable if the slab is already shallow dipping two scenarios for the formation of stagnant slabs are proposed 1 trench retreat prior to slabs entering the transition zone or caused by the negative buoyancy forces associated with the wadsleyite and ringwoodite phase transitions and 2 slow lateral migration of slabs in stable subduction zones

a map of topography on the 410 km discontinuity from pp precursors we derive a new map of global topography on the 410 km discontinuity from observations of precursors to pp obtained by stacking almost 25 000 long period seismograms the inferred 410 topography exhibits average peak to peak amplitude of about 30 km has a strong degree one component and is highly correlated with previous results obtained from ss precursors flanagan and shearer 1998 spatial variations in 410 topography appear unrelated to ocean continent differences suggesting that continental roots are not a significant factor in observed global temperature variations at 410 km depth

sensitivity of ss precursors to topography on the upper mantle 660 km discontinuity the sensitivity of ss precursors to the presence of topography on the 660 km discontinuity is addressed using an axisymmetric finite difference approximation to the sh wave propagation in the earth mantle numerical experiments are lead to quantify the bias in both wavelength and amplitude committed in estimating depth information on the upper mantle discontinuities from ray inversion of sds arrival times it is further shown that long period s660s arrival times do not provide information on the deepening of the 660 in presence of a velocity increase expected as the thermal signature of a subducting slab

an analysis of ss precursors using spectral element method seismograms summary the traveltimes of underside shear wave reflections i e ss precursors are widely used data for mapping the topography of mantle discontinuities in the upper mantle here we examine the accuracy of ray theory in estimating the contribution of shear velocity heterogeneity in the mantle to ss s400s ss s670s and s400s s670s traveltimes we analyse stacks of spectral element method waveforms computed for 34 shallow earthquakes and 16 020 globally distributed virtual seismometers the waveforms are computed for three versions of shear velocity model s20rts with variable strengths of the volumetric shear velocity perturbations within the layered structure of the preliminary reference earth model we find that ray theoretical corrections account for only 50 per cent of the traveltime variation due to large scale velocity heterogeneity for current tomographic models as represented by s20rts this translates into unpredictable long and short wavelength errors in maps of mantle discontinuity depths of about 5 km this amounts to roughly 10 per cent of published variations in mantle discontinuity depths however relative errors will be significantly larger if ray theoretical traveltime corrections are based on forthcoming models of shear velocity with much stronger heterogeneity at the smallest scales

inferring upper mantle structure by full waveform tomography with the spectral element method summary mapping the elastic and anelastic structure of the earth s mantle is crucial for understanding the temperature composition and dynamics of our planet in the past quarter century global tomography based on ray theory and first order perturbation methods has imaged long wavelength elastic velocity heterogeneities of the earth s mantle however the approximate techniques upon which global tomographers have traditionally relied become inadequate when dealing with crustal structure as well as short wavelength or large amplitude mantle heterogeneity the spectral element method on the other hand permits accurate calculation of wave propagation through highly heterogeneous structures and is computationally economical when coupled with a normal mode solution and applied to a restricted region of the earth such as the upper mantle sem importantly sem allows a dramatic improvement in accounting for the effects of crustal structure here we develop and apply a new hybrid method of tomography which allows us to leverage the accuracy of sem to model fundamental and higher mode long period 60 s waveforms we then present the first global model of upper mantle velocity and radial anisotropy developed using sem our model semum confirms that the long wavelength mantle structure imaged using approximate semi analytic techniques is robust and representative of the earth s true structure furthermore it reveals structures in the upper mantle that were not clearly seen in previous global tomographic models we show that semum favourably compares to and rivals the resolving power of continental scale studies this new hybrid approach to tomography can be applied to a larger and higher frequency data set in order to gain new insights into the structure of the lower mantle and more robustly map seismic structure at the regional and smaller scales

constraining seismic velocity and density for the mantle transition zone with reflected and transmitted waveforms we examine stacks of several seismic phases having different sensitivities to mantle transition zone structure when analyzed separately underside p and s reflections pdp and sds are suggestive of very different structures despite similar raypaths and data coverage by stacking the radial component of pdp rather than the vertical pdp we show that this difference does not result from interference from other more steeply inclined phases such as pkp and ppdpdiff in general stacks of p to s converted phases pds appear to lack evidence of a 520 km discontinuity when examined without other phases when these phases and stacked topside p reflections ppdp are analyzed jointly using a nonlinear inversion method consistent but nonunique seismological models emerge these models show that a discontinuity at 653 km depth has smaller contrasts in density and velocity than found in most previous studies a sub 660 gradient can account for the majority of this difference a 1 6 0 5 p velocity contrast and a 2 2 0 3 density contrast at 518 km depth without a s velocity contrast can explain the lack of a p520s together with robust pp520p and s520s phases for models parameterized with a finite thickness for each discontinuity the 410 km discontinuity is consistently 3 times thicker than the 660 km discontinuity

three dimensional variations in love and rayleigh wave azimuthal anisotropy for the upper 800 km of the mantle we present a new mantle model yb14shani of azimuthal anisotropy for horizontally polarized shear waves sh in parallel with our previously published vertically polarized shear wave sv anisotropy model yb13svani yb14shani was obtained from higher mode love wave phase velocity maps with sensitivity to anisotropy down to 1200 km depth sh anisotropy is present down to the mantle transition zone mtz with an average amplitude of 2 in the upper 250 km and 1 in the mtz consistent with yb13svani changes in sv and sh anisotropy were found at the top of the mtz where olivine transforms into wadsleyite which might indicate that mtz anisotropy is due to the lattice preferred orientation of anisotropic material beneath oceanic plates sv fast axes become subparallel to the absolute plate motion apm at a depth that marks the location of a thermally controlled lithosphere asthenosphere boundary lab in contrast sh anisotropy does not systematically depend on ocean age moreover while upper mantle sv anisotropy is anomalously high in the middle of the pacific as seen in radial anisotropy models sh anisotropy amplitude remains close to the average for other oceans based on the depth at which sv fast axes and the apm direction begin to align we also found that the average thickness of cratonic roots is 250 km consistent with yuan and romanowicz 2010 for north america here we add new constraints on the nature of the cratonic lab and show that it is characterized by changes in both sv and sh anisotropy 2014 american geophysical union all rights reserved

synthetic waveform modelling of ss precursors from anisotropic upper mantle discontinuities ss precursors are a powerful tool for interrogating upper mantle discontinuity structure some of these discontinuities may be defined fully or partially by a variation in anisotropy with depth therefore a careful evaluation of ss precursor waveform predictions from anisotropic discontinuities is required here we perform synthetic waveform modelling to evaluate the potential for using ss precursors to constrain anisotropic discontinuities we investigate ss precursor amplitudes from models with azimuthally anisotropic discontinuities with assumed hexagonal symmetry we demonstrate that ss precursor polarity variations are robust across a wide range of earthquake source polarizations for our anisotropic models while polarity variations are not unique among all potential two layer models with anisotropic discontinuities other observables such as the relative arrival time of the precursor and tectonic settings may be used to constrain anisotropic structure we discuss implications for previous imaging of upper mantle discontinuities that may be anisotropic such as the lehmann discontinuity and discontinuities in depth range of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary beneath the pacific

determination of amplitude and duration magnitudes and site residuals from short period seismographs in northern california abstract equations for determining amplitude magnitude mx and duration magnitude mf that employ all calibrated instruments in the usgs short period telemetered seismic network in northern california ncsn were developed and tested against a set of 1276 earthquakes from 1986 to 1990 that were analyzed on the caltech usgs processing system cusp the expressions for decay of amplitude and record duration in these equations are functions of distance alone sensitivity corrections for both mx and mf are simply the logarithms of the ratios of the magnification of the reference instrument to that of the instrument actually used component corrections were chosen so as to minimize the dependence of instrument site residuals on instrument component mf site residuals were found to be closely linked to mx site residuals in a manner that suggests both depend primarily on site amplification both mx and mf site residuals vary systematically with bedrock lithology older well consolidated rocks produce negative residuals smaller amplitudes and shorter durations and younger unconsolidated rocks produce positive residuals larger amplitudes and longer durations average station magnitude residuals are virtually independent of distance from the epicenter to at least 800 km and mx mf averaged over 0 5 unit magnitude intervals is less than 0 05 from m 0 5 to m 5 5 comparison of mx and mbk m l uc berkeley for 293 events in both the cusp data set and the berkeley catalog shows that calculated mx s are marginally larger than the corresponding mbk s mx mbk averages about 0 04 the characteristics of the standard wood anderson seismograph employed to calculate mx are free period 0 8 sec damping constant 0 8 and static magnification 2080

sound velocities and elastic properties of fe bearing wadsleyite and ringwoodite the sound velocities and single crystal elastic moduli of phase wadsleyite and phase ringwoodite of mg fe 2sio4 with fe fe mg ratios of 0 075 and 0 09 respectively have been determined at ambient conditions by brillouin spectroscopy both compressional and shear wave aggregate velocities decrease with increasing fe content in both phases but the magnitude of this decrease is different for the two phases the adiabatic bulk modulus ks of fe bearing mg2sio4 ks 170 2 gpa is indistinguishable from that of the mg end member within experimental uncertainty whereas ks of mg fe 2sio4 increases rapidly with increasing iron content the shear moduli of both phases decrease with increasing fe content our measurements indicate that the velocity and impedance contrasts between olivine and mg fe 2sio4 are independent of fe content for mg rich compositions but the contrast for the mg fe 2sio4 transition increases significantly with increasing fe content the new data support a previous estimate of 40 10 for the olivine content of the upper mantle and suggest that less than 50 mg fe 2sio4 is sufficient to account for the observed impedance contrasts at depths of both 410 km and 520 km unless the effect of fe on elastic properties is accounted for it is difficult to account for both the 410 and 520 km discontinuities with a single olivine content

constraints on upper mantle discontinuities from observations of long period reflected and converted phases stacked images combining over 5 years of long period global digital seismograph network data reveal many phases associated with reflections and conversions from upper mantle discontinuities these images show travel time and amplitude relative to a reference phase which is aligned and normalized on all seismograms prior to stacking results obtained for p s ss and pp reference arrivals resolve numerous phases from discontinuities near 410 and 660 km while some of the stacks also show evidence for a weaker discontinuity near 520 km phases of particular interest include p and sh multiples resulting from topside reflections precursors to ss from underside reflections and p to sv converted phases these phases can be clearly seen both in the waveform stacks and in cross correlation analysis of individual seismograms travel times for these arrivals are converted to discontinuity depths relative to velocities in the preliminary reference earth model and empirical corrections are applied for the effects of lateral velocity variations in the upper mantle average apparent depths to the discontinuities for the different phases agree to within 3 km for the 410 km discontinuity to within 4 km for the 520 km discontinuity and to within 8 km for the 660 km discontinuity the best global averages are obtained from the ss precursor data which indicate discontinuities at 415 519 and 659 km discontinuity depths obtained from the p to sv converted phases at over 35 individual seismic stations exhibit variations of less than 20 km apparent depths to the 660 km discontinuity consistently show greater variability than depths to the 410 km discontinuity supporting recent laboratory results which indicate that the clapeyron slope for the 660 km discontinuity is significantly larger in magnitude than the slope for the 410 km discontinuity precursors to ss seen between 110 and 180 are particularly useful for mapping possible lateral variations in discontinuity depths since each arrival can be associated with a single underside reflection point apparent discontinuity depths computed from ss precursors for different tectonic regions agree to within about 5 km the ss precursors have especially good coverage near the subducting slabs in the northwest pacific analysis of apparent discontinuity depths in this area suggests the presence of a broad 1000 to 1500 km wide region near the slab in which the 660 km discontinuity is depressed by about 20 km measuring absolute amplitudes for these phases is difficult due to the large corrections required to compensate for the effects of incoherent stacking relative amplitude analysis suggests that the p and s wave impedance changes at 410 km are about 0 8 1 1 times the size of the changes at 660 km and that the contrasts at 520 km are between 0 3 and 0 6 of the changes at 410 km

single crystal elasticity of ringwoodite to high pressures and high temperatures implications for 520 km seismic discontinuity abstract the single crystal elastic moduli of spinel structured mg 0 91 fe 0 09 2 sio 4 ringwoodite were measured to 16 gpa at room temperature and to 923 k at ambient pressure by brillouin spectroscopy a third order finite strain equation of state yields pressure derivatives of 4 1 2 and 1 3 1 for the adiabatic bulk modulus k s and shear modulus respectively the pressure derivatives of aggregate elastic moduli for all three polymorphs and of mg fe 2 sio 4 in the mg rich end are equal within the mutual experimental uncertainties with k s p t 4 1 4 3 and p t 1 3 1 4 a linear decrease of the elastic moduli and sound velocities with temperature adequately describes the data the temperature derivatives of k s and are 0 021 and 0 016 gpa k respectively an extrapolation of our data to transition zone pressures and temperatures indicates that the shear and compressional impedance contrasts associated with mg fe 2 sio 4 mg fe 2 sio 4 transition are sufficient to produce a visible discontinuity at 520 km depth even with only a moderate 30 50 amount of olivine moreover the partitioning of fe between mg fe 2 sio 4 and mg fe 2 sio 4 and majoritic garnet will produce a relatively sharp seismic discontinuity in the order of 10 15 km even when the latent heat of reaction is taken into account the visibility of the discontinuity in regional and global studies could be inhibited by large topography that would accompany any local variations in temperature or fe content the high v p contrasts observed in some localities are difficult to explain by the transition and are suggestive of a chemical boundary this is consistent with chemical heterogeneity in the transition zone probably related to subduction one of the possible explanations for high velocity contrasts near 520 km is a buried moho a boundary between garnetite former oceanic crust and mg fe 2 sio 4 enriched former peridotite layers

topography of the 410 km discontinuity from pp and ss precursors a number of previous studies have confirmed the global existence of a transition zone discontinuity at 410 km depth by aligning large numbers of long period seismograms on a surface reflection phase before stacking discussion of ss and pp precursors from the 410 km discontinuity termed p410p and s410s has largely focused on the long wavelength topography of this discontinuity recent models suggest that the precursor derived topography of the 410 km discontinuity is dominated by low degree spherical harmonics however there remain some discrepancies as to the details of the topography and its relation to mantle processes here we present a new model for 410 topography which is constrained using both p410p and s410s measurements and examine the relationship between our observations of 410 topography and seismic velocity anomalies in the transition zone we find a moderate negative correlation between discontinuity topography and transition zone seismic velocity anomalies at very low spherical harmonic degrees this is consistent with the expected relationships between the position of the olivine phase boundary seismic velocity anomalies and mantle temperatures however when shorter wavelengths are included the relationship becomes more complex in smaller regions beneath northeast asia and the western pacific we observe positive correlations between seismic velocities and discontinuity topography which we interpret as evidence for the effects of chemical heterogeneities on seismic velocities and the 410 km discontinuity our results suggest there is a long wavelength temperature pattern in the mantle however at shorter wavelengths the influence of chemical heterogeneities becomes visible in seismic velocity anomalies and mantle discontinuity topography this separation of the spectra for thermal and chemical heterogeneities suggests that short wavelength chemical heterogeneities can survive in convecting mantle

global de correlation of the topography of transition zone discontinuities analysis of long period shear wave underside reflections from upper mantle discontinuities shows the shape of the 410 km discontinuity to be neither globally nor locally correlated with that of the 660 km discontinuity the long wavelength pattern of 410 topography is dominated by degree 1 spherical harmonics and has a reasonable correlation with the seismic velocity perturbations in the mantle above it the global topography of 660 dominated by degree 2 spherical harmonics is strongly correlated with shear wave velocity variations in the transition zone the poor correlation between the observed topography of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities is inconsistent with a simple model of large scale whole mantle flow thus implying a more complex pattern which includes at least temporary accumulation of subducted material in the transition zone ringwood and irifune nature 331 1988 131 136 tackley et al nature 361 1993 699 704 the modest seismic discontinuity at 520 km is well observed when the reflections are under mid age oceans but is not observed when they are under continental shields interpretation of this observation in terms of olivine depletion in the deep continental mantle indicates the possible existence of continent ocean chemical heterogeneity at depths exceeding 500 km

upper mantle discontinuity topography from thermal and chemical heterogeneity using high resolution stacks of precursors to the seismic phase ss we investigated seismic discontinuities associated with mineralogical phase changes approximately 410 and 660 kilometers km deep within earth beneath south america and the surrounding oceans detailed maps of phase boundary topography revealed deep 410 and 660 km discontinuities in the down dip direction of subduction inconsistent with purely isochemical olivine phase transformation in response to lowered temperatures mechanisms invoking chemical heterogeneity within the mantle transition zone were explored to explain this feature in some regions multiple reflections from the discontinuities were detected consistent with partial melt near 410 km depth and or additional phase changes near 660 km depth thus the origin of upper mantle heterogeneity has both chemical and thermal contributions and is associated with deeply rooted tectonic processes

pressure sensitivity of olivine slip systems and seismic anisotropy of earth s upper mantle the mineral olivine dominates the composition of the earth s upper mantle and hence controls its mechanical behaviour and seismic anisotropy experiments at high temperature and moderate pressure and extensive data on naturally deformed mantle rocks have led to the conclusion that olivine at upper mantle conditions deforms essentially by dislocation creep with dominant 100 slip the resulting crystal preferred orientation has been used extensively to explain the strong seismic anisotropy observed down to 250 km depth the rapid decrease of anisotropy below this depth has been interpreted as marking the transition from dislocation to diffusion creep in the upper mantle but new high pressure experiments suggest that dislocation creep also dominates in the lower part of the upper mantle but with a different slip direction here we show that this high pressure dislocation creep produces crystal preferred orientations resulting in extremely low seismic anisotropy consistent with seismological observations below 250 km depth these results raise new questions about the mechanical state of the lower part of the upper mantle and its coupling with layers both above and below

seismic anisotropy in the mantle transition zone induced by shear deformation of wadsleyite abstract mantle flow in the earth s mantle transition zone between 410 and 660 km depth plays a key role to understand the nature of mantle convection which can be mapped by observed seismic anisotropy combined with crystallographic preferred orientations of mantle minerals although wadsleyite is the most important mineral to cause seismic anisotropy observed in the mantle transition zone there have been limited experimental data on its crystallographic preferred orientation because of experimental limitations we experimentally evaluated the preferred orientation of wadsleyite developed by shear deformation at pressure temperature conditions of the mantle transition zone 17 6 gpa and 1800 1900 k using a deformation dia apparatus the deformation experiments reveal that the 0 0 1 axis and the 0 1 0 plane of wadsleyite tend to be subparallel to the shear direction and the shear plane during deformation respectively these results demonstrate that polarization seismic anisotropy velocity contrast between horizontally polarized and vertically polarized s waves vsh vsv observed in the mantle transition zone might be attributed to the preferred orientation of wadsleyite caused by horizontal mantle flow

mantle flow in subduction systems the mantle wedge flow field and implications for wedge processes 1 the mantle wedge above subducting slabs is associated with many important processes including the transport of melt and volatiles our understanding of mantle wedge dynamics is incomplete as the mantle flow field above subducting slabs remains poorly understood because seismic anisotropy is a consequence of deformation measurements of shear wave splitting can constrain the geometry of mantle flow in order to identify processes that make first order contributions to the pattern of wedge flow we have compiled a data set of local s splitting measurements from mantle wedges worldwide there is a large amount of variability in splitting parameters with average delay times ranging from 0 1 to 0 3 s up to 1 0 1 5 s and large variations in fast directions we tested for relationships between splitting parameters and a variety of parameters related to subduction processes we also explicitly tested the predictions made by 10 different models that have been proposed to explain splitting patterns in the mantle wedge we find that no simple model can explain all of the trends observed in the global data set mantle wedge flow is likely controlled by a combination of downdip motion of the slab trench migration ambient mantle flow small scale convection proximity to slab edges and slab morphology with the relative contributions of these in any given subduction system controlled by the subduction kinematics and mantle rheology there is also a likely contribution from b type olivine and or serpentinite fabric in many subduction zones governed by the local thermal structure and volatile distribution

joint inversion for global isotropic and radially anisotropic mantle structure including crustal thickness perturbations we present a new global whole mantle model of isotropic and radially anisotropic s velocity structure sglobe rani based on 43 000 000 surface wave and 420 000 body wave travel time measurements which is expanded in spherical harmonic basis functions up to degree 35 we incorporate crustal thickness perturbations as model parameters in the inversions to properly consider crustal effects and suppress the leakage of crustal structure into mantle structure this is possible since we utilize short period group velocity data with a period range down to 16 s which are strongly sensitive to the crust the isotropic s velocity model shares common features with previous global s velocity models and shows excellent consistency with several high resolution upper mantle models our anisotropic model also agrees well with previous regional studies anomalous features in our anisotropic model are faster sv velocity anomalies along subduction zones at transition zone depths and faster sh velocity beneath slabs in the lower mantle the derived crustal thickness perturbations also bring potentially important information about the crustal thickness beneath oceanic crusts which has been difficult to constrain due to poor access compared with continental crusts

seismic anisotropy changes across upper mantle phase transitions the mantle transition zone is believed to play an important role in the thermochemical evolution of our planet and in its deep water cycle constraining mantle flow at these depths can help elucidate its nature and better understand mantle dynamics and the history of plate tectonics seismic anisotropy i e the directional dependence of seismic wave velocity provides us with the most direct constraints on mantle deformation its detection below 250 km depth is challenging and it is often assumed that the deep upper mantle is seismically isotropic due to a change in mantle deformation mechanism here we present a global model of azimuthal anisotropy for the top 1000 km of the mantle we used a dataset composed of fundamental and higher mode rayleigh wave phase velocity maps which provides resolution of azimuthal anisotropy to much greater depths than in previous studies our model unravels the presence of significant anisotropy in the transition zone challenging common views of mantle deformation mechanisms and reveals a striking correlation between changes in anisotropy amplitudes and in the fast direction of wave propagation where upper mantle phase transitions occur the newly found relation between anisotropy changes and phase transformations gives new insight on the nature of the mtz and suggests that the anisotropy originates from the lattice preferred orientation of anisotropic material while the interpretation of our results in terms of mantle deformation is not straightforward due to many possible scenarios possible explanations for our findings include recrystallization during phase transformations or changes in the slip system across the mtz boundaries which in turn could be explained by changes in the water content of mantle material consistent with the idea that the transition zone acts as a water filter 2013

slab1 0 a three dimensional model of global subduction zone geometries 1 we describe and present a new model of global subduction zone geometries called slab1 0 an extension of previous efforts to constrain the two dimensional non planar geometry of subduction zones around the focus of large earthquakes slab1 0 describes the detailed non planar three dimensional geometry of approximately 85 of subduction zones worldwide while the model focuses on the detailed form of each slab from their trenches through the seismogenic zone where it combines data sets from active source and passive seismology it also continues to the limits of their seismic extent in the upper mid mantle providing a uniform approach to the definition of the entire seismically active slab geometry examples are shown for two well constrained global locations models for many other regions are available and can be freely downloaded in several formats from our new slab1 0 website http on doi gov d9arbs we describe improvements in our two dimensional geometry constraint inversion including the use of average active source seismic data profiles in the shallow trench regions where data are otherwise lacking derived from the interpolation between other active source seismic data along strike in the same subduction zone we include several analyses of the uncertainty and robustness of our three dimensional interpolation methods in addition we use the filtered subduction related earthquake data sets compiled to build slab1 0 in a reassessment of previous analyses of the deep limit of the thrust interface seismogenic zone for all subduction zones included in our global model thus far concluding that the width of these seismogenic zones is on average 30 larger than previous studies have suggested

strain induced seismic anisotropy of wadsleyite polycrystals and flow patterns in the mantle transition zone 1 we use forward models based on recent high pressure experimental data on mantle minerals to predict the seismic anisotropy produced by plastic strain of orthorhombic wadsleyite the dominant mineral in the upper transition zone these models predict a weak seismic anisotropy for a polycrystal of pyrolitic composition 60 wadsleyite 40 garnet at transition zone conditions 2 for p and 1 for s waves for a shear strain of 1 both p and s wave anisotropy patterns show an orthorhombic symmetry p waves propagate faster at low angle to the shear direction and slower at high angle to the shear plane s wave anisotropy is characterized by faster propagation of waves polarized at low angle to the shear direction horizontal shearing results therefore in higher velocities for horizontally propagating p waves ph and horizontally polarized s waves sh as well as in weak azimuthal variation of sv and sh velocities on the other hand vertical flow leads to higher velocities for vertically propagating p waves pv and vertically polarized s waves sv and to a weak azimuthal variation of sv velocity but to a roughly constant sh velocity analysis of global observations of seismic anisotropy in the transition zone in the light of these models supports dominant horizontal flow in the uppermost transition zone in agreement with predictions of geodynamical models that explicitly introduce phase transitions

upper mantle low anisotropy channels below the pacific plate a new 3d anisotropic model has been obtained at a global scale by using a massive dataset of seismic surface waves though seismic heterogeneities are usually interpreted in terms of heterogeneous temperature field a large part of lateral variations are also induced by seismic anisotropy of upper mantle minerals new insight into convection processes can be gained by taking seismic anisotropy into account in the inversion procedure the model is best resolved in the pacific plate the largest and the most active tectonic plate superimposed on the large scale radial parameter and azimuthal anisotropy of vsv velocity within and below the lithosphere correlated with present or past pacific plate motions are smaller scale 1000 km lateral variations of anisotropy not predicted by plate tectonics channels of low anisotropy down to a depth of 200 km hereafter referred to as lac are observed and are the best resolved anomalies one east west channel between easter island and the tonga kermadec subduction zones observed on both radial and azimuthal anisotropies and a second one only observed on azimuthal anisotropy extending from the south west pacific up to south east hawaii and passing through the polynesia hotspot group for plate older than about 40 ma these features provide strong constraints on the decoupling between the plate and asthenosphere they are presumably related to cracking within the pacific plate and or to secondary convection below the rigid lithosphere predicted by numerical and analog experiments the existence and location of these lacs might be related to the current active volcanoes and hotspots possibly plumes in the central pacific lacs which are dividing the pacific plate into smaller units might indicate a future reorganization of plates with ridge migrations in the pacific ocean

seismic anisotropy in the mantle transition zone beneath fiji tonga 1 we demonstrate a rare unequivocal case of anisotropy in the transition zone tz evident from many horizontal polarized shear waves sh that arrive up to 3 s earlier than vertical polarized shear waves sv the anisotropic region correlates with deep earthquakes away from the active subduction zone and known boundaries of lateral heterogeneities in compression and shear wave speeds we interpret the anisotropy as strong fabric associated with a large petrologic anomaly in the core of remnant lithosphere which is buoyant and stagnates in the tz fast subduction of cold slab actually favors such a configuration so slab penetration into the lower mantle does not uniformly occur

the role of recrystallization in the preferred orientation of olivine abstract the effects of recrystallization on the preferred orientation in olivine have been studied the recrystallization mechanisms studied include grain growth the deformation induced grain boundary migration digbm and subgrain rotation sgr grain boundary migration is involved in the first two but not in sgr significant preferred orientation was found only in the latter two where dislocations are involved the combined microstructural and fabric preferred orientation observations indicate that the grain boundary migration produces strong preferred orientation when the driving force is the dislocation energy but not when the grain boundary energy is the driving force the nature of preferred orientation due to dislocation related recrystallization digbm or sgr was found to depend on the mechanism of recrystallization the digbm produces preferred orientation in which the low dislocation density grains with unfavourable orientation for easy slip dominate thereby significantly altering the preferred orientation formed by dislocation glide in contrast sgr does not essentially alter the deformation fabric and therefore the fabric associated with sgr recrystallization is related to the geometry of flow the present results demonstrate that the existence of seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle is strong evidence for the dislocation mechanism s of deformation and suggest that care must be exercised in applying the results of laboratory fabric studies made for a particular mechanism of recrystallization to the earth s interior where the dominant mechanism s of dynamic recrystallization can be different

a local magnitude relation for earthquakes in the western canada sedimentary basin a local magnitude m l relation for the western canada sedimentary basin wcsb is developed using a rich ground motion dataset compiled from local and regional networks in the area the assessment of amplitude decay with distance suggests that joining direct waves with postcritical reflections from moho discontinuity modifies the attenuation pattern in the 100 200 km distance range the m l distance correction is parameterized using a trilinear function that accounts for the observed attenuation attributes regression of ground motion amplitudes results in the following distance correction model log a for earthquakes in wcsb graphic 1 in which r is the hypocentral distance km the standard m l relations fail to capture the rates and shape of amplitude attenuation in the region resulting in overestimated magnitudes by 0 3 0 6 units the overestimation is larger for local networks due to the increased discrepancy between standard m l relations and actual attenuation properties at close distances the derived relationship results in unbiased m l magnitude estimates in wcsb over a wide distance range 2 600 km which ensures consistent magnitude estimates from local and regional networks 1 embed inline graphic 1 gif

mantle anisotropy beneath northwest pacific subduction zones to assess the location strength and orientation of seismic anisotropy in the southern kuril japan and izu bonin subduction zones we analyzed shear wave splitting in local s phases and teleseismic sks phases fast directions from these phases are roughly parallel to the direction of absolute pacific plate motion wnw in izu bonin roughly parallel to the strike of the trench nne in central honshu and roughly n in the southern kuril back arc in the vicinity of sakhalin island assuming that the orientation and strength of anisotropy does not vary with depth modeling of splitting times from local s and teleseismic phases recorded at sakhalin island requires that the maximum depth of anisotropy lies between 480 km and 950 km in contrast splitting times for local s phases from events in izu bonin rule out anisotropy in the transition zone all the data are consistent with a model in which the lower transition zone 520 660 km and lower mantle are largely isotropic and in which anisotropy occurs intermittently in the upper transition zone 410 520 km possibly due to preferred orientation of spinel assuming that splitting in the upper mantle is produced by preferred orientation of olivine the observed fast directions indicate that the geometry of back arc strain varies systematically between subduction zones the relationship of fast directions and plate motions suggests that the subducting slab exerts significant control on back arc flow but that flow correlated with upper plate deformation must also exist

elasticity of mg2sio4 ringwoodite at mantle conditions abstract the themoelastic properties of mg2sio4 ringwoodite at mantle pressure and temperature conditions are reported based on ab initio molecular dynamic simulations a third order birch murnaghan equation at a reference temperature of 2000 k is defined by k0 138 gpa k 0 5 2 and v0 2000 k 560 3 a3 the gr neisen parameter is determined to be v 0 v v0 298 k q with 0 1 22 and q 1 44 5 with v0 298 k 524 56 a3 the thermal expansion is determined to be 0 v v 0 298 k t in which 0 2 74 10 5 k 1 and t 5 2 1 the bulk modulus is temperature independent at constant volume while the shear moduli vary with temperature at constant volume elastic anisotropy decreases with both pressure and temperature becoming isotropic by the bottom of the upper mantle

single crystal elasticity of β mg2sio4 to the pressure of the 410 km seismic discontinuity in the earth s mantle the complete set of elastic stiffness coefficients of a single crystal of mg2sio4 in the modified spinel wadsleyite structure are reported at eight pressures from ambient to 14 gigapascals gpa all moduli vary linearly with pressure within the resolution of the data third order birch murnaghan equation fits to aggregate elastic moduli yield values of 170 2 gpa and 4 3 0 2 for the adiabatic bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative and 115 2 gpa and 1 4 0 2 for the shear modulus and its pressure derivative these data together with previous results for mg2sio4 enable us to make the first in situ determination of the velocity increase due to the transition at the pressure 13 8 gpa of the 410 km discontinuity the room temperature velocity increase at the transition pressure is 9 8 for compressional waves and 12 4 for shear waves

on the relationship between azimuthal anisotropy from shear wave splitting and surface wave tomography 1 seismic anisotropy provides essential constraints on mantle dynamics and continental evolution one particular question concerns the depth distribution and coherence of azimuthal anisotropy which is key for understanding force transmission between the lithosphere and asthenosphere here we reevaluate the degree of coherence between the predicted shear wave splitting derived from tomographic models of azimuthal anisotropy and that from actual observations of splitting significant differences between the two types of models have been reported and such discrepancies may be due to differences in averaging properties or due to approximations used in previous comparisons we find that elaborate full waveform methods to estimate splitting from tomography yield generally similar results to the more common simplified approaches this validates previous comparisons and structural inversions however full waveform methods may be required for regional studies and they allow exploiting the back azimuthal variations in splitting that are expected for depth variable anisotropy applying our analysis to a global set ofskssplitting measurements and two recent surface wave models of upper mantle azimuthal anisotropy we show that the measures of anisotropy inferred from the two types of data are in substantial agreement provided that the splitting data is spatially averaged so as to bring it to the scale of long wavelength tomographic models and reduce spatial aliasing observed and tomography predicted delay times are significantly correlated and global angular misfits between predicted and actual splits are relatively low regional anisotropy complexity notwithstanding our findings imply that splitting and tomography yield a consistent signal that can be used for geodynamic interpretation

global variability of transition zone thickness 1 we analyze recordings from more than 3000 shallow earthquakes and measure s410s s660s differential travel times on a global scale these differential times are obtained using a novel cross correlation technique that eliminates effects associated with a priori assumptions of crustal thickness and velocity variations above the upper mantle transition zone our measurements show absolute perturbations up to 8 s from the global average 242 km which imply transition zone thickness variations of 20 km on a length scale of 2000 km the transition zone under major subduction zones e g the western pacific and south america is significantly thicker than the global average this could be associated with large scale depressions of the 660 km discontinuity due to the accumulation of cold oceanic lithosphere at the base of the upper mantle a narrow transition zone is observed under the central pacific and northern atlantic oceans we also observe a modest anticorrelation between s410s s660s times and the delay times of shear waves predicted using s12 wm13 su et al 1994 in the transition zone which suggests considerable thermal influence on the large scale topography of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities the lack of a stronger anticorrelation suggests that 1 compositional heterogeneities may be present and 2 a significant fraction of thermal anomalies near the transition zone do not extend through the transition zone and influence both the 410 and the 660 km discontinuities a regional analysis shows that the transition zone is on average 6 8 km thicker under continents than under oceans this implies a temperature difference of 50 70 c however we do not observe a clear correlation between thickness and the age of the crust

toward a generalized plate motion reference frame an absolute plate motion apm model is required to address issues such as the thermochemical evolution of earth s mantle all apm models have to rely on indirect inferences including those based on hot spots and seismic anisotropy each with their own set of uncertainties here we explore a seafloor spreading aligned reference frame we show that this reference frame fits azimuthal seismic anisotropy in the uppermost mantle very well the corresponding euler pole is close to those of hot spot reference frames ridge motion minimizing models and geodynamic estimates of net rotation and predicts clear trench motion patterns we conclude that a net rotation pole guided by the spreading aligned model at 64 e 61 s with moderate rotation of 0 2 0 3 myr could indeed represent a standard comprehensive reference frame for present day plate motions with respect to the deep mantle

slant stack velocity analysis of shot point 16 from the 1986 passcal ouachita experiment a x p slant stack algorithm is applied to shot point 16 of the 1986 passcal ouachita experiment to determine the optimal me dimensional velocity structure several enhancements to a standard slant stack algorithm are used to image a one dimensional velocity fimction from the shot point gathered data because only postcritical reflections and refractions are needed to image a velocity function significant muting of precritical energy is perfonned which reduces the effect of noise in calculating the stack for data sets with long offsets scaling the data by a factor equal to or greater than offset distance compensates for the effects of geometrical spreading and attenuation this enhances imaging of the deeper regions of the velocity model and balances amplitudes across the shot point gather finally ray parameter depth images can have difficulty imaging higher velocities since for higher velocities a small change in ray parameter results in a large increment in velocity this problem is overcome by slant stacking in equal increments of velocity instead of ray parameter the enhanced slant stack algorithm is applied to shot point 16 of the 1986 passcal ouachita data set which sufficienfiy satisfies the assumption of lateral homogeneity based on previous studies of the region other velocity models are found to be consistent with the envelope of velocity fimcfion imaged by the slant stack method maximum amplitudes on the x p image are used as a constraint to delineate a more detailed velocity model a seven layer velocity model is derived for shot point 16 which is found to be similar to those of others who have studied the area the top three layers are sedhnents associated with the gulf coastal plain followed by a thick layer derived from sedimentation associated with the closing of the proto gulf of mexico and the associated ouachita orogeny the determination of a more detailed velocity function from the envelope suggests somewhat higher velocities in the lower crustal layer than previous studies however given the one dimensional assumptions of the method as well as the signal to noise ratio of the data the velocity envelope is the most important constraint on the velocity models and tectonic interpretation provided by this analysis

how to relate body wave and surface wave anisotropy seismic anisotropy is one of the most efficient geological and geodynamical tools for understanding the dynamics of the earth upper mantle anisotropy is evident in seismic data sets for the last 30 years primarily from surface wave dispersion curves and body wave sks data we demonstrate in this paper that surface wave and body wave derived anisotropy can be explained by the same anisotropic parameters l gc gs in the simplest case of a horizontal fast symmetry axis one application of this method is to display the sks delay time and the corresponding azimuth which can be derived from surface wave global with a lateral resolution of around 2000 km and regional lateral resolution of 350 km anisotropy tomography a global scale comparison is disappointing since there are only a few areas where both data types are correctly retrieved at the same spatial scale same lateral resolution the anisotropy is well resolved in oceanic basins from surface waves whereas most measurements of sks splitting are available below continents however there is a good agreement between surface wave and body wave anisotropy in regions where large scale processes primarily tectonic are taking place such as the western united states and in central asia in particular we show that at high frequency 1hz the observed sks delay time and azimuth depend on the order in which s waves propagate through the layers a comparison between synthetic and observed sks phases in central asia highlights the varying sensitivity of sks waves at depth we can obtain a good correlation between synthetic and observed sks by considering anisotropy only between 80 and 200 km depth in the tomographic model rather than in the entire upper mantle however it is more difficult to explain the discrepancy between synthetic and observed sks under the eastern united states where a large scale coherent sks anisotropy is present such results call for more sophisticated sks waveform modeling and for enhanced lateral resolution in anisotropic tomographic models