Abstract
Heterogeneity of the composition and physical state of the rocks within the Earth is reflected in variations in seismic wave speeds at depth. This seismic heterogeneity can be observed in a number of different ways, each yielding a complementary perspective on the Earth’s bulk properties, structure, and dynamics. A surface-wave dispersion diagram, constructed from millions of fundamental-mode and higher mode dispersion measurements around the world, shows variability around global averages for all modes and all frequencies that are included in it, with the largest variations seen for the fundamental-mode phase and group velocities at short periods (less than 30 and 40 s, respectively) that sample the highly heterogeneous crust and uppermost mantle. Seismic tomography turns large sets of measurements into models of three-dimensional wave speed variations at depth. Global shear-wave speed models have been in agreement since 1990s regarding heterogeneity in the upper mantle at thousands-of-kilometres scales. The rapid recent increase in global data sampling facilitated an increase in the tomographic resolution, and a number of today’s models show close agreement in the upper 200 km of the mantle at much shorter, hundreds-of-kilometres scale lengths. Greater disagreements between different models remain in the mantle transition zone. Our new model SL2013sv , constrained by an unprecedentedly large new data set of multimode waveform fits, demonstrates increased resolution compared to other existing models for a variety of features; it captures regional-scale heterogeneity globally, within both the upper mantle and the crust. A global stack of shear-velocity profiles extracted from SL2013sv shows a monotonic decrease in the amplitude of wave speed variations with depth, mirrored by a decrease in RMS variations in SL2013sv and other current models, from largest in the top 150–200 km to much smaller below 250 km. Regionalization of SL2013sv by means of cluster analysis, with no a priori information, provides an accurate tectonic regionalization of the entire Earth. The three oceanic and three continental types that naturally come out of the clustering differ by the age of the deep lithosphere. The results give a new perspective on the “depth of tectonics”—the depths down to which shear speed profiles (and, by inference, geotherms) beneath oceanic and continental regions of different ages are different. Old oceanic plates are underlain by higher shear-wave speeds compared to young- and intermediate-age oceans down to 200 km depth. At 200–250 km, all type-average mantle profiles converge, except for the Archean craton profile that shows distinctly higher velocities down to 250–280 km depths.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adam JM-C, Lebedev S (2012) Azimuthal anisotropy beneath southern Africa from very broad-band surface-wave dispersion measurements. Geophys J Int 191(1):155–174
Aki K, Christoffersen A, Husebye ES (1977) Determination of the three-dimensional seismic structure of the lithosphere. J Geophys Res 82:(277–296)
Amaru ML (2006) Global travel time tomography with 3-D reference models. PhD thesis, Universiteit Utrech
Babuska V, Cara M (1991) Seismic anisotropy in the earth. Kluwer Academic Press, Boston
Bassin C, Laske G, Masters G (2000) The current limits of resolution for surface wave tomography in North America. EOS 81:F897
Becker TW, Boschi L (2002) A comparison of tomographic and geodynamic mantle models. Geochem Geophys Geosys 3
Bedle H, van der Lee S (2009) S velocity variations beneath North America. J Geophys Res 114(B7)
Bijwaard H, Spakman W, Engdahl ER (1998) Closing the gap between regional and global travel time tomography. J Geophys Res 103(B12):30055–30078
Boschi L, Ekström G (2002) New images of the Earths upper mantle from measurements of surface wave phase velocity anomalies. J Geophys Res 107(B4)
Bozdag E, Trampert J (2008) On crustal corrections in surface wave tomography. Geophys J Int 172:1066–1082
Burdick S, van der Hilst RD, Vernon FL, Martynov V, Cox T, Eakins J, Karasu G, Tylell J, Astiz L, Pavlis GL (2012) Model update March 2011: upper mantle heterogeneity beneath North America from traveltime tomography with global and USArray Transportable Array data. Seismol Res Lett 83(1):23–28
Chevrot S, Zhao L (2007) Multiscale finite-frequency Rayleigh wave tomography of the Kaapvaal craton. Geophys J Int 169:201–215
Dahlen FA, Tromp J (1998) Theoretical global seismology. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Darbyshire FA, Lebedev S (2009) Rayleigh wave phase-velocity heterogeneity and multilayered azimuthal anisotropy of the Superior Craton, Ontario. Geophys J Int 176:215–234
Debayle E, Ricard Y (2012) A global shear velocity model of the upper mantle from fundamental and higher Rayleigh mode measurements. J Geophys Res 117(B10):1–24
Debayle E, Kennett BLN, Priestley K (2005) Global azimuthal seismic anisotropy and the unique plate-motion deformation of Australia. Nature 433(7025):509–512
Deschamps F, Lebedev S, Meier T, Trampert J (2008) Stratified seismic anisotropy reveals past and present deformation beneath the East-central United States. Earth Planet Sci Lett 274(3–4):489–498
Dziewonski AM, Anderson DL (1981) Preliminary reference Earth model. Phys Earth Planet 25:297–356
Dziewónski AM, Hager B, O’Connell RJ (1977) Large-scale heterogeneities in the lower mantle. J Geophys Res 82:239–255
Ekström G (2011) A global model of Love and Rayleigh surface wave dispersion and anisotropy, 25–250 s. Geophys J Int 187:1668–1686
Endrun B, Lebedev S, Meier T, Tirel C, Friederich W (2011) Complex layered deformation within the Aegean crust and mantle revealed by seismic anisotropy. Nat Geosci 4(3):203–207
Engdahl ER, van der Hilst RD, Buland R (1998) Global teleseismic earthquake relocation with improved travel times and procedures for depth determination. B Seismo Soc Am 88(3):722–743
Ferreira AMG, Woodhouse JH, Visser K, Trampert J (2010) On the robustness of global radially anisotropic surface wave tomography. J Geophys Res 115(B4):1–16
Forsyth DW, Scheirer D, Webb S, The MELT Seismic Team (1998) Imaging the deep seismic structure beneath a mid-ocean ridge: the MELT experiment. Science 280(5367):1215–8
Frederiksen AW, Bostock MG, Cassidy JF (2001) S-wave velocity structure of the Canadian upper mantle. Phys Earth Planet 124:175–191
Grand SP (2002) Mantle shear-wave tomography and the fate of subducted slabs. Philos T R Soc Lond 360:2475–2491
Gu YJ, Dziewónski AM, Su W, Ekström G (2001) Models of the mantle shear velocity and discontinuities in the pattern of lateral heterogeneities. J Geophys Res 106(B6):11169–11199
Gu YJ, Dziewónski AM, Ekström G (2003) Simultaneous inversion for mantle shear velocity and topography of transition zone discontinuities. Geophys J Int 154:559–583
Gudmundsson O, Sambridge M (1998) A regionalized upper mantle (RUM) seismic model. J Geophys Res 103:7121–7136
Hafkenscheid E, Wortel MJR, Spakman W (2006) Subduction history of the Tethyan region derived from seismic tomography and tectonic reconstructions. J Geophys Res 111(B8):1–26
Houser C, Masters G, Shearer PM, Laske G (2008) Shear and compressional velocity models of the mantle from cluster analysis of long-period waveforms. Geophys J Int 174:195–212
Jordan TH (1981) Global tectonic regionalization for seismological data analysis. B Seismo Soc Am 71(4):1131–1141
Jordan TH, Paulson EM (2013) Convergence depths of tectonic regions from an ensemble of global tomographic models. J Geophys Res 118 (B8):4196−4225
Karason H, van der Hilst RD (2001) Improving global tomography models of P-wavespeed I: incorporation of differential times for refracted and diffracted core phases (PKP, Pdiff). J Geophys Res 106:6569–6587
Kennett BLN (1987) Observational and theoretical constraints on crustal and upper-mantle heterogeneity. Phys Earth Planet 47:319–332
Kennett BLN, Engdahl ER, Buland R (1995) Constraints on seismic velocities in the Earth from traveltimes. Geophys J Int 122(1):108–124
Kovach RL (1979) Seismic surface waves and crustal and upper mantle structure. Rev Geophys 1(16):1–13
Kustowski B, Dziewónski AM, Ekström G (2007) Nonlinear crustal corrections for normal-mode seismograms. B Seismo Soc Am 97(5):1756–1762
Kustowski B, Ekström G, Dziewónski AM (2008) Anisotropic shear-wave velocity structure of the Earth’s mantle: a global model. J Geophys Res 113(B6):1–23
Lebedev S, van der Hilst RD (2008) Global upper-mantle tomography with the automated multimode inversion of surface and S-wave forms. Geophys J Int 173:505–518
Lebedev S, Nolet G, Meier T, van der Hilst RD (2005) Automated multimode inversion of surface and S waveforms. Geophys J Int 162:951–964
Lebedev S, Adam J, Meier T (2013) Mapping the Moho with seismic surface waves: a review, resolution analysis, and recommended inversion strategies. Tectonophysics (Moho special edition)
Legendre CP, Meier T, Lebedev S, Friederich W, Viereck-Götte L (2012) A shear wave velocity model of the European upper mantle from automated inversion of seismic shear and surface waveforms. Geophys J Int 191:282–304
Lekić V, Romanowicz B (2011a) Inferring upper-mantle structure by full waveform tomography with the spectral element method. Geophys J Int 185(2):799–831
Lekić V, Romanowicz B (2011b) Tectonic regionalization without a priori information: a cluster analysis of upper mantle tomography. Earth Planet Sci Lett 308(1–2):151–160
Lekić V, Panning M, Romanowicz B (2010) A simple method for improving crustal corrections in waveform tomography. Geophys J Int 182:265–278
Li X-D, Romanowicz B (1996) Global mantle shear velocity model developed using nonlinear asymptotic coupling theory. J Geophys Res 101(B10):22245–22272
Li C, van der Hilst RD, Engdahl ER, Burdick S (2008) A new global model for P wave speed variations in Earth’s mantle. Geochem Geophys Geosys 9(5):Q05018
Marone F, Romanowicz B (2007) Non-linear crustal corrections in high-resolution regional waveform seismic tomography. Geophys J Int 170(1):460–467
Masters G, Johnson S, Laske G, Bolton H (1996) A shear-velocity model of the mantle. Philos T R Soc Lond 354(1711):1385–1411
Masters G, Laske G, Bolton H, Dziewónski AM (2000) The relative behavior of shear velocity, bulk sound speed, and compressional velocity in the mantle: implications for chemical and thermal structure, Earth’s deep interior: mineral physics and tomography from the atomic to the global scale, pp 63–87
Mégnin C, Romanowicz B (2000) The three-dimensional shear velocity structure of the mantle from the inversion of body, surface and higher-mode waveforms. Geophys J Int 143(3):709–728
Montagner J-P, Tanimoto T (1991) Global upper mantle tomography of seismic velocities and anisotropies. J Geophys Res 96(B12):20337–20351
Montelli R, Nolet G, Masters G, Dahlen FA, Hung S-H (2004) Global P and PP traveltime tomography: rays versus waves. Geophys J Int 158(2):637–654
Mooney WD, Laske G, Masters G (1998) Crust 5.1: a global crustal model at 5° × 5°. J Geophys Res 103(B1):727—747
Muller RD, Roest WR, Royer J-Y, Gahagan LM, Sclater JG (1997) Digital isochrons of the world’s ocean floor. J Geophys Res 102(B2):3211–3214
Nataf H, Ricard Y (1996) 3SMAC: an a priori tomographic model of the upper mantle based on geophysical modeling. Phys Earth Planet 9201(95)
Nettles M, Dziewónski AM (2008) Radially anisotropic shear velocity structure of the upper mantle globally and beneath North America. J Geophys Res 113(B2):1–27
Nolet G (1990) Partitioned waveform inversion and two-dimensional structure under the network of autonomously recording seismographs. J Geophys Res 95(B6):8499–8512
Nolet G (2008) A breviary of seismic tomography. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Nolet G, Grand SP, Kennett BLN (1994) Seismic heterogeneity in the upper mantle. J Geophys Res 99(B12):23753–23766
Obrebski M, Allen RM, Pollitz F, Hung S-H (2011) Lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction beneath the western United States from the joint inversion of body-wave traveltimes and surface-wave phase velocities. Geophys J Int 185(2):1003–1021
Panning MP, Romanowicz B (2006) A three-dimensional radially anisotropic model of shear velocity in the whole mantle. Geophys J Int 167(1):361–379
Panning MP, Lekić V, Romanowicz Ba (2010) Importance of crustal corrections in the development of a new global model of radial anisotropy. J Geophys Res 115(B12):B12325
Ritsema J, van Heijst HJ, Woodhouse JH (1999) Complex shear wave velocity structure imaged beneath Africa and Iceland. Science 286:1925–1928
Ritsema J, van Heijst HJ, Woodhouse JH (2004) Global transition zone tomography. J Geophys Res 109(B2)
Ritsema J, Deuss A, van Heijst HJ, Woodhouse JH (2011) S40RTS: a degree-40 shear-velocity model for the mantle from new Rayleigh wave dispersion, teleseismic traveltime and normal-mode splitting function measurements. Geophys J Int 184(3):1223–1236
Schaeffer AJ, Lebedev S (2013) Global shear speed structure of the upper mantle and transition zone. Geophys J Int 194(1):417–449
Shapiro NM, Ritzwoller MH (2002) Monte-Carlo inversion for a global shear-velocity model of the crust and upper mantle. Geophys J Int 151(1):88–105
Shen W, Ritzwoller MH, Schulte-Pelkum V (2013) A 3-D model of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the central and western US by joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion. J Geophys Res 118:1–15
Siebert L, Simkin T (2002) Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated catalog of holocene volcanoes and their eruptions
Sigloch K (2011) Mantle provinces under North America from multifrequency P wave tomography. Geochem Geophys Geosys 12(2):1–27
Simmons NA, Myers SC, Johannesson G, Matzel E (2012) LLNL-G3Dv3: Global P wave tomography model for improved regional and teleseismic travel time prediction. J Geophys Res 117(B10):1–28
Steinberger B (2000) Plumes in a convecting mantle: models and observations for individual hotspots. J Geophys Res 105(B5):11127–11152
Su W-J, Woodward R, Dziewónski AM (1992) Deep origin of mid-ocean-ridge seismic velocity anomalies. Nature 360:149–152
Su W-J, Woodward R, Dziewónski AM (1994) Degree 12 model of shear velocity heterogeneity in the mantle. J Geophys Res 99(B4):6945–6980
Tian Y, Zhou Y, Sigloch K, Nolet G, Laske G (2011) Structure of North American mantle constrained by simultaneous inversion of multiple-frequency SH, SS, and Love waves. J Geophys Res 116(B2):1–18
van der Lee S, Frederiksen AW (2005) Surface wave tomography applied to the North American upper mantle. In: Levander A, Nolet G (eds) Seismic earth: array analysis of broadband seismograms, vol 157, pp 67–80. AGU Geophysical Monograph Series, Washington, DC
Wang Z, Dahlen FA (1995) Spherical-spline parameterization of three-dimensional Earth models. Geophys Res Lett 22(22):3099–3102
Wessel P, Smith W (1995) New version of the generic mapping tools released. EOS 76:329
Woodhouse JH, Dziewónski AM (1984) Mapping the upper mantle: three-dimensional modeling of earth structure by inversion of seismic waveforms. J Geophys Res 89(B7):5953–5986
Wu RS, Flatte SM (1990) Transmission fluctuations across an array and heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle. Pure Appl Geophys 132:175–196
Zhang Y, Tanimoto T (1992) Ridges, hotspots and their interaction as observed in seismic velocity maps. Nature 355:45–49
Zhang Y, Tanimoto T (1993) High-resolution global upper mantle structure and plate tectonics. J Geophys Res 98(B6):9793–9823
Zhang X, Paulssen H, Lebedev S, Meier T (2009) 3D shear velocity structure beneath the Gulf of California from Rayleigh wave dispersion. Earth Planet Sci Lett 279(3–4):255–262
Zhou Y, Nolet G, Dahlen Fa, Laske G (2006) Global upper-mantle structure from finite-frequency surface-wave tomography. J Geophys Res 111(B4):1–24
Acknowledgments
Insightful comments by Li Zhao and Frédéric Deschamps have helped us to improve the manuscript. We thank the creators of the tomographic models compared in this study for making them available. Waveform data used for the construction of the model SL2013sv were obtained from the facilities of IRIS, ORFEUS, GFZ, and CNSN. We are grateful to the operators of the many networks used in this study. All figures were generated using Generic Mapping Tools (GMT; Wessel and Smith 1995). This work was supported by Science Foundation Ireland (Grant 09/RFP/GEO2550), with additional support by Science Foundation Ireland and the Marie-Curie Action COFUND (Grant Number 11/SIRG/E2174). Our tomographic model, SL2013sv, can be downloaded from http://www.dias.ie/~aschaeff/SL2013sv.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schaeffer, A.J., Lebedev, S. (2015). Global Heterogeneity of the Lithosphere and Underlying Mantle: A Seismological Appraisal Based on Multimode Surface-Wave Dispersion Analysis, Shear-Velocity Tomography, and Tectonic Regionalization. In: Khan, A., Deschamps, F. (eds) The Earth's Heterogeneous Mantle. Springer Geophysics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15627-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15627-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15626-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15627-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)