Models of density and mechanical Q-factor distributions according to new data on the nutations and free oscillations of the Earth: 1. Ambiguity in the inverse problem

Abstract

Ambiguity in the inverse problem of retrieval of the mechanical parameters of the Earth’s shell and core from the set of data on the velocities V p and V S , of longitudinal and transverse seismic body waves, the frequencies f i and quality factors Q i , of free oscillations, and the amplitudes and phases of forced nutation is considered. The numerical experiments show that the inverse problem of simultaneous retrieval of the density profile ρ in the mantle-liquid core system and the mechanical quality factor Q μ of the mantle (if the total mass M and the total mean moment of inertia I of the Earth, and V p and V S are constant at all depths) has most unstable solutions. An example of depth distributions of ρ and Q μ which are alternative to the well-known PREM model is given. In these distributions, the values of M and I and the velocities V p and V S at all depths for the period of oscillations T = 1 s exactly coincide with their counterparts yielded by PREM model (T = 1 s); however, the maximum deviations of the ρ and Q μ profiles from those in the PREM model are about 3% and 40%, respectively; the mass and the moment of inertia of the liquid core are smaller than those for the PREM model by 0.75% and 0.63%, respectively. In this model, the root mean square (rms) deviations of all the measured values of f i and Q i from their values predicted by theory are half to third the corresponding values in the PREM model; the values of Δ for natural frequencies of the fundamental tone and overtones of radial oscillations, the fundamental tones of torsional oscillations, and the fundamental tones of spheroidal oscillations, which are measured with the highest relative accuracy, are smaller by a factor of 30, 6.6, and 2 than those in the PREM model, respectively. Such a large ambiguity in the solution of the inverse problem indicates that the current models of the depth distribution of density have relatively low accuracy, and the models of the depth distribution of the mechanical Q in the mantle are extremely unreliable. It is shown that the ambiguity in the models of depth distribution of density considerably decreases after the new data on the amplitudes and phases of the forced nutation of the Earth are taken into account. Using the same data, one may also refine by several times the recent estimates of the creep function for the lower mantle within a wide interval of periods ranging from a second to a day.