Where Can Seismic Anisotropy Be Detected in the Earth’s Mantle? In Boundary Layers...

Abstract

—During the last 30 years, considerable evidence of seismic anisotropy has accumulated demonstrating that it is present at all scales, but not in all depth ranges. We detail which conditions are necessary to detect large-scale seismic anisotropy. Firstly, minerals must display a strong anisotropy at the microscopic scale, and/or the medium must be finely layered. Secondly, the relative orientations of symmetry axes in the different crystals must not counteract in destroying the intrinsic anisotropy of each mineral, and there must be efficient mechanisms of orientation of minerals and aggregates. Finally, the strain field must be coherent at large scale in order to preserve long wavelength anisotropy. Part of shallow anisotropy can be related to the past strain field (frozen-in anisotropy), however the deep anisotropy is due to the present strain field. All these conditions are fulfilled only in boundary layers of convective mantle.¶We review in this paper, the seismic data sets which provide insight into the location at depth of large-scale anisotropy from the D"-layer up to the lithosphere. In addition to the well-documented seismic anisotropy in the lithosphere and asthenosphere, there is new evidence of seismic anisotropy in the upper (400–660 km) and lower (660–900 km) transition zones and in the D"-layer. Nonetheless the bulk of the lower mantle seems close to isotropy. If we assume the hypothesis that seismic anisotropy is associated with boundary layers in convective systems, these observations strongly suggest that the transition zone is a boundary layer which makes the pasage of matter between the upper and the lower mantle difficult. However, this general statement does not rule out flow circulation between the upper and lower mantles. Finally, the geophysical, mineral physics and geological applications are briefly reviewed. An intercomparison between surface wave anisotropy and body-wave anisotropy data sets is presented. We discuss the scientific potential of seismic anisotropy and how it makes it possible to gain more insight into continental root, deformation and geodynamics processes.