Three-dimensional radial anisotropic structure of the North American upper mantle from inversion of surface waveform data

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

28

Broadband, Seismic Anisotropy, Surface Waves, Tomography, Upper Mantle, Waveform Analysis

Scientific paper

Seismic anisotropy provides insight into palaeo and recent deformation processes and, therefore, mantle dynamics. In a first step towards a model for the North American upper mantle with anisotropy characterized by a symmetry axis of arbitrary orientation, aimed at filling the gap between global tomography and SKS splitting studies, we inverted long period waveform data simultaneously for perturbations in the isotropic S-velocity structure and the anisotropic parameter , in the framework of normal mode asymptotic coupling theory (NACT). The resulting 2-D broad-band sensitivity kernels allow us to exploit the information contained in long period seismograms for fundamental and higher mode surface waves at the same time. To ensure high quality of the retrieved regional upper-mantle structure, accurate crustal corrections are essential. Here, we follow an approach which goes beyond the linear perturbation approximation and split the correction into a linear and non-linear part. The inverted data set consists of more than 40000 high quality three component fundamental and overtone surface waveforms, recorded at broad-band seismic stations in North America from teleseismic events and provides a fairly homogeneous path and azimuthal coverage. The isotropic part of our tomographic model shares the large-scale features of previous regional studies for North America. We confirm the pronounced difference in the isotropic velocity structure between the western active tectonic region and the central/eastern stable shield, as well as the presence of subducted material (Juan de Fuca and Farallon Plate) at transition zone depths. The new regional 3-D radial anisotropic model indicates the presence of two distinct anisotropic layers beneath the cratonic part of the North American continent: a deep asthenospheric layer, consistent with present day mantle flow, and a shallower lithospheric layer, possibly a record of ancient tectonic events.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Three-dimensional radial anisotropic structure of the North American upper mantle from inversion of surface waveform data does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Three-dimensional radial anisotropic structure of the North American upper mantle from inversion of surface waveform data, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Three-dimensional radial anisotropic structure of the North American upper mantle from inversion of surface waveform data will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1068670

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.