A global shear velocity model of the upper mantle from fundamental and higher Rayleigh mode measurements

International audienceWe present DR2012, a global SV-wave tomographic model of the upper mantle. We use an extension of the automated waveform inversion approach of Debayle (1999) which improves our mapping of the transition zone with extraction of fundamental and higher-mode information. The new approach is fully automated and has been successfully used to match approximately 375,000 Rayleigh waveforms. For each seismogram, we obtain a path average shear velocity and quality factor model, and a set of fundamental and higher-mode dispersion and attenuation curves. We incorporate the resulting set of path average shear velocity models into a tomographic inversion. In the uppermost 200 km of the mantle, SV wave heterogeneities correlate with surface tectonics. The high velocity signature of cratons is slightly shallower (approximate to 200 km) than in other seismic models. Thicker continental roots are not required by our data, but can be produced by imposing a priori a smoother model in the vertical direction. Regions deeper than 200 km show no velocity contrasts larger than +/- 1\% at large scale, except for high velocity slabs within the transition zone. Comparisons with other seismic models show that current surface wave datasets allow to build consistent models up to degrees 40 in the upper 200 km of the mantle. The agreement is poorer in the transition zone and confined to low harmonic degrees (<= 10)

A global horizontal shear velocity model of the upper mantle from multimode Love wave measurements

Surface wave studies in the 1960s provided the first indication that the upper mantle was radially anisotropic. Resolving the anisotropic structure is important because it may yield information on deformation and flow patterns in the upper mantle. The existing radially anisotropic models are in poor agreement. Rayleigh waves have been studied extensively and recent models show general agreement. Less work has focused on Love waves and the models that do exist are less well-constrained than are Rayleigh wave models, suggesting it is the Love wave models that are responsible for the poor agreement in the radially anisotropic structure of the upper mantle. We have adapted the waveform inversion procedure of Debayle & Ricard to extract propagation information for the fundamental mode and up to the fifth overtone from Love waveforms in the 50–250 s period range. We have tomographically inverted these results for a mantle horizontal shear wave-speed model (βh(z)) to transition zone depths. We include azimuthal anisotropy (2θ and 4θ terms) in the tomography, but in this paper we discuss only the isotropic βh(z) structure. The data set is significantly larger, almost 500 000 Love waveforms, than previously published Love wave data sets and provides ∼17 000 000 constraints on the upper-mantle βh(z) structure. Sensitivity and resolution tests show that the horizontal resolution of the model is on the order of 800–1000 km to transition zone depths. The high wave-speed roots beneath the oldest parts of the continents appear to extend deeper for βh(z) than for βv(z) as in previous βh(z) models, but the resolution tests indicate that at least parts of these features could be artefacts. The low wave speeds beneath the mid-ocean ridges fade by ∼150 km depth except for the upper mantle beneath the East Pacific Rise which remains slow to ∼250 km depth. The resolution tests suggest that the low wave speeds at deeper depths beneath the East Pacific Rise are not solely due to vertical smearing of shallow, low wave speeds. Four prominent, low wave-speed features occur at transition zone depths—one aligned along the East African Rift, one centred south of the Indian peninsula, one located south of New Zealand and one in the south Pacific Ocean coinciding with the location of the South Pacific Superswell. The low wave-speed features south of New Zealand and south of the Indian peninsula correspond spatially with the two largest negative geoid lows on Earth

Inversion of massive surface wave data sets: Model construction and resolution assessment

International audience[1] A new scheme is proposed for the inversion of surface waves using a continuous formulation of the inverse problem and the least squares criterion. Like some earlier schemes a Gaussian a priori covariance function controls the horizontal degree of smoothing in the inverted model, which minimizes some artifacts observed with spherical harmonic parameterizations. Unlike earlier schemes the new approach incorporates some sophisticated geometrical algorithms which dramatically increase computational efficiency and render possible the inversion of several tens of thousands of seismograms in few hours on a typical workstation. The new algorithm is also highly suited to parallelization which makes practical the inversion of data sets with more than 50,000 ray paths. The constraint on structural and anisotropic parameters is assessed using a new geometric approach based on Voronoi diagrams, polygonal cells covering the Earth's surface. The size of the Voronoi cells is used to give an indication of the length scale of the structures that can be resolved, while their shape provides information on the variation of azimuthal resolution. The efficiency of the scheme is illustrated with realistic uneven ray path configurations. A preliminary global tomographic model has been built for SV wave heterogeneities and azimuthal variations through the inversion of 24,124 fundamental and higher-mode Rayleigh waveforms. Our results suggest that the use of relatively short paths (<10,000 km) in a global inversion should minimize multipathing, or focusing/defocusing effects and provide lateral resolution of a few hundred kilometers across the globe

An objective rationale for the choice of regularisation parameter with application to global multiple-frequency S-wave tomography

International audienceIn a linear ill-posed inverse problem, the regularisation parameter (damping) controls the balance between minimising both the residual data misfit and the model norm. Poor knowledge of data uncertainties often makes the selection of damping rather arbitrary. To go beyond that subjectivity, an objective rationale for the choice of damping is presented, which is based on the coherency of delay-time estimates in different frequency bands. Our method is tailored to the problem of global multiple-frequency tomography (MFT), using a data set of 287 078 S-wave delay times measured in five frequency bands (10, 15, 22, 34, and 51 s central periods). Whereas for each ray path the delay-time estimates should vary coherently from one period to the other, the noise most likely is not coherent. Thus, the lack of coherency of the information in different frequency bands is exploited, using an analogy with the cross-validation method, to identify models dominated by noise. In addition, a sharp change of behaviour of the model ℓ∞-norm, as the damping becomes lower than a threshold value, is interpreted as the signature of data noise starting to significantly pollute at least one model component. Models with damping larger than this threshold are diagnosed as being constructed with poor data exploitation. Finally, a preferred model is selected from the remaining range of permitted model solutions. This choice is quasi-objective in terms of model interpretation, as the selected model shows a high degree of similarity with almost all other permitted models (correlation superior to 98% up to spherical harmonic degree 80). The obtained tomographic model is displayed in the mid lower-mantle (660-1910 km depth), and is shown to be compatible with three other recent global shear-velocity models. A wider application of the presented rationale should permit us to converge towards more objective seismic imaging of Earth's mantle

Depth-variant azimuthal anisotropy in Tibet revealed by surface wave tomography

Azimuthal anisotropy derived from multimode Rayleigh wave tomography in China exhibits depth-dependent variations in Tibet, which can be explained as induced by the Cenozoic India-Eurasian collision. In west Tibet, the E-W fast polarization direction at depths <100 km is consistent with the accumulated shear strain in the Tibetan lithosphere, whereas the N-S fast direction at greater depths is aligned with Indian Plate motion. In northeast Tibet, depth-consistent NW-SE directions imply coupled deformation throughout the whole lithosphere, possibly also involving the underlying asthenosphere. Significant anisotropy at depths of 225 km in southeast Tibet reflects sublithospheric deformation induced by northward and eastward lithospheric subduction beneath the Himalaya and Burma, respectively. The multilayer anisotropic surface wave model can explain some features of SKS splitting measurements in Tibet, with differences probably attributable to the limited back azimuthal coverage of most SKS studies in Tibet and the limited horizontal resolution of the surface wave results

Impact of cellulose ethers on the cement paste microstructure

ISBN = 3-87264-022-4 7 pagesInternational audienceComplementary investigation tools (2D and 3D observations by optical microscopy and fast X-ray microtomography and then image analysis) were developed in order to examine the effects of cellulose ethers on the cement paste microstructure. The obtained results show that the presence of cellulose ether may induce an increase of both 50-250 µm-diameter air voids. The chemistry of the cellulose ethers appears as a main controlling factor of this porous media modification. In particular, cellulose ethers seems to play an important role on the air bubbles morphological characteristics, the content of air volume and the stabilisation of the porosity from the fresh cement paste to the hardened cement paste

Mantle upwellings and convective instabilities revealed by seismic tomography and helium isotope geochemistry beneath eastern Africa

International audienceThe relationship between intraplate volcanism and continental tectonics has been investigated for North and East Africa using a high resolution three-dimensional anisotropic tomographic model derived from seismic data of a French experiment ''Horn of Africa'' and existing broadband data. The joint inversion for seismic velocity and anisotropy of the upper 400 km of the mantle, and geochemical data reveals a complex interaction between mantle upwellings, and lithosphere. Two kinds of mantle upwellings can be distinguished: The first one, the Afar ''plume'' originates from deeper than 400 km and is characterized by enrichment in primordial 3 He and 3 He/ 4 He ratios higher than those along mid-ocean ridges (MOR). The second one, associated with other Cenozoic volcanic provinces (Darfur, Tibesti, Hoggar, Cameroon), with 3 He/ 4 He ratios similar to, or lower than MOR, is a consequence of shallower upwelling. The presumed asthenospheric convective instabilities are oriented in an east-west direction, resulting from interaction between south-north asthenospheric mantle flow, main plume head and topography on the base of lithosphere

The mantle transition zone as seen by global Pds phases: No clear evidence for a thin transition zone beneath hotspots

International audienceWe present a new global study of the transition zone from Pds converted waves at the 410- and 660-km discontinuities. Our observations extend previous global Pds studies with a larger data set, especially in oceanic regions where we have been able to measure Pds travel times, sampling the mantle transition zone (MTZ) beneath 26 hotspot locations. We find significant lateral variations of the MTZ thickness. Both the maximum variations (+/- 35 - 40 km) and the long-wavelength pattern are in overall agreement with previous SS precursors studies. The MTZ is generally thick beneath subduction zones, where the observed MTZ variations are consistent with thermal anomalies ranging between -100 degrees K and -300 degrees K. In Central and North America, we observe an NW - SE pattern of thick MTZ, which can be associated with the fossil Farallon subduction. We do not find clear evidence for a thin MTZ beneath hotspots. However, the 410- km discontinuity remains generally deepened after correcting our Pds travel times for the 3D heterogeneities located above the MTZ, and its topography variations can be explained by thermal anomalies between + 100 degrees K and +300 degrees K. The depth of the 660-km discontinuity may be less temperature sensitive in hot regions of the mantle, which is consistent with the effect of a phase transition from majorite garnet to perovskite at a depth of 660 km

Seismoacoustic coupling induced by the breakup of the 15 February 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor

International audienceOn 15 February 2013 around 03:20:00 UTC, the largest meteor reported since the 1908 Tunguska event was observed as a fireball traveling through the Earth's atmosphere, exploding in an air burst near the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The rarity of such an event provides a unique window on the physics of meteoroid collision. We report the fine seismic detection of Rayleigh waves produced by the coupling of ground motion with the incident shock wave at distances up to 4000 km from the event. Combining information from seismic beam-forming analysis, recon- structed trajectory from casual video records, and remote sensing, we identify the Rayleigh waves as being initiated by the shock wave produced by the main blast that occasioned damages and injuries in Chelyabinsk. From the Rayleigh wave observations, we report a magnitude Ms ~ 3.7 seismic source