Three dimensional model of seismic velocity variation in the Earth's mantle

Abstract

Three dimensional velocity models for the earth's mantle were obtained satisfying P, S and some PcP and ScS travel time anomalies from deep focus earthquakes. A method of successive approximation was used to compute the uniform relative velocity perturbation over three dimensional blocks of size 10°×10° in longitude and latitude, and 500 km in thickness. Features of these velocity perturbations indicated that lateral heterogeneity is the most pronounced in the upper mantle and near the core‐mantle boundary. The upper mantle anomalies are correlated with surface tectonic features, but these are not correlated with deep mantle anomalies.