Measurements of Mantle Wave Velocities and Inversion for Lateral Heterogeneity and Anisotropy - 1. Analysis of Great Circle Phase Velocities

Long-period (100–330 s) fundamental-mode Love and Rayleigh waves have been processed to measure the great circle phase velocities for about 200 and 250 paths, respectively. The observations are inverted for regionalized phase velocities and for an even-order harmonic expansion of the lateral velocity heterogeneity. The regionalized inversions achieve a maximum variance reduction of about 65% and 85% for the Love and the Rayleigh wave data, respectively. The l_max = 2 inversions give a maximum variance reduction of about 60% and 90% for Love and Rayleigh waves, respectively. The l_max = 8 inversion does not make a large improvement in the fit. The Love wave phase velocities have more power in l = 4 and 6, relative to l = 2, than the Rayleigh waves. For both Love and Rayleigh wave data the sectoral component dominates the l = 2 harmonics, and this component is stable if we increase l_max from 2 to 6. Heat flow also has strong sectoral components (lm = 22), which are approximately in phase with those of the phase velocities. The l = 2 harmonics of the nonhydrostatic geoid are dominated by large zonal (lm = 20) and moderate sectoral components. The sectoral components are in phase with those of the phase velocities. The sectoral pattern of heat flow and phase velocity is controlled by high heat flow-low velocity of the East Pacific Rise and western North America, which is reinforced by low velocities in the antipodal region (Red Sea-Gulf of Aden-East African Rift). By contrast the geoid l = 2 pattern is dominated by geoid highs over the western Pacific subduction zones. A spherical harmonic expansion of regionalized phase velocities shows that they have l = 2 variations similar to those of the l_max = 2 nonregionalized inversions. This means that the regionalization approach is appropriate as a first step for studying lateral heterogeneity of the earth. However, the great circle phase velocities are not sufficient by themselves to uniquely locate the lateral heterogeneity. The same is true for free oscillation data. Regions of convergence have the interesting property of being slow for short-period waves and fast, faster than shields, for long-period waves

Measurements of mantle wave velocities and inversion for lateral heterogeneity and anisotropy - II. Analysis by the single-station method

Phase and group velocities of G_2, G_3, R_2 and R_3 (100-330_s) are measured by the single-station method and are inverted to give a spherical harmonic representation of the velocity lateral variation. Approximately 200 paths have been studied. The results are presented for degrees and orders up to 6. The even harmonics of the phase velocity representation are consistent with those obtained from great circle phase velocities (Paper I). The odd harmonics are less constrained and generally have larger standard deviations than the even harmonics. To suppress the poorly determined harmonics in the velocity contour maps we construct a filter which is derived from an inverse problem formulation. The filter reduces the amplitudes of regional variations, but does not change the overall pattern. The patterns of the regional variations are generally consistent with those obtained by regionalized inversion of great circle data (Paper I). The velocity maps show significant differences within oceans and continents. An analysis is made of correlations of surface wave velocities with heat flow and the non-hydrostatic geoid. The slownesses correlate well with heat flow for l = 1-6. The correlation peaks at l = 2 and 5. The geoid has an anticorrelation with the slownesses at l = 2 and 3, and a positive correlation from l = 4 to 6

Anisotropy and shear-velocity heterogeneities in the upper mantle

Long-period surface waves are used to map lateral heterogeneities of velocity and anisotropy in the upper mantle. The dispersion curves are expanded in spherical harmonics up to degree 6 and inverted to find the depth structure. The data are corrected for the effect of surface layers and both Love and Rayleigh waves are used. Shear wave velocity and shear polarization anisotropy can be resolved down to a depth of about 450 km. The shear wave velocity distribution to 200 km depth correlates with surface tectonics, except in a few anomalous regions. Below that depth the correlation vanishes. Cold subducted material shows up weakly at 350 km as fast S-wave anomalies. In the transition region a large scale pattern appears with fast mantle in the South-Atlantic. S-anisotropy at 200 km can resolve uprising or downwelling currents under some ridges and subduction zones. The Pacific shows a NW-SE fabric

Measurements of mantle wave velocities and inversion for lateral heterogeneities and anisotropy: 3. Inversion

Lateral heterogeneity in the earth's upper mantle is investigated by inverting dispersion curves of long-period surface waves (100–330 s). Models for seven different tectonic regions are derived by inversion of regionalized great circle phase velocity measurements from our previous studies. We also obtain a representation of upper mantle heterogeneities with no a priori regionalization from the inversion of the degree 6 spherical harmonic expansion of phase and group velocities. The data are from the observation of about 200 paths for Love waves and 250 paths for Rayleigh waves. For both the regionalized and the spherical harmonic inversions, corrections are applied to take into account lateral variations in crustal thickness and other shallow parameters. These corrections are found to be important, especially at low spherical harmonic order the “trench region” and fast velocities down to 250 km under shields. Below 200 km under the oceans, both S velocity and S anisotropy support a model of small-scale convection in which cold blobs detach from the bottom of the lithosphere when its age is large enough. The spherical harmonic models clearly demonstrate (a posteriori) the relation between surface tectonics and S velocity heterogeneities in the first 250 km: all shields are fast; most ridges are slow; below 300 km, a belt of fast mantle follows the Pacific subduction zones. However, at greater depths, large-scale heterogeneities that seem to bear no relationship to surface tectonics are observed. The most prominent feature at 450 km is a fast-velocity region under the South Atlantic Ocean. Smaller-scale heterogeneities that are not related to surface tectonics are also mapped at shallower depths: an anomalously slow region centered in the south central Pacific is possibly linked to intense hot spot activity; a very fast region southeast of South America may be related to subduction of old Pacific plate. Between 200 and 400 km, a belt of SV>SH anisotropy follows part of the ridge and subduction systems, indicating vertical mantle flow in these regions. The spherical harmonic results open new horizons for the understanding of convection in the mantle. Perspectives for the improvement of the models presented are discussed

Worldwide distribution of group velocity of mantle Rayleigh waves as determined by spherical harmonic inversion

We have determined the worldwide distribution of group velocity of mantle Rayleigh waves for periods between 100 and 300 sec without assuming any regionalization. Group slowness 1/u(θ, φ) is expressed by spherical harmonics, and the coefficients, up to angular order 7, have been determined from travel times of Rayleigh waves by a least-squares method. From these, u(θ, φ) has been synthesized. Since we cannot obtain information about the odd terms of the expansion from one circuit measurements around the world, we have used group velocities of mainly R_2 and R_3. The overall pattern of u(θ, φ) for periods between 100 and 200 sec is consistent with results of previous pure-path and regional studies. Group velocities for tectonically active regions are low, and those of the shields and the northwestern Pacific are high