Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 146 (2004) 87–100 Seismic heterogeneity in the mantle—strong shear wave signature of slabs from joint tomography

The primary source of information on heterogeneity within the Earth comes from seismic tomography. A powerful tool for examining the character of heterogeneity comes from the comparison of images of bulk-sound and shear wavespeed extracted in a single inversion, since this isolates the dependencies on the elastic moduli. However, particularly in such multi-parameter inversions there are many hidden facets which can have a strong influence on the results, such as the weightings between parameters and in the misfit functions. Joint inversion with restricted data sets giving comparable cover for P and S waves provides useful checks on more inclusive studies, and can provide relatively high resolution in some areas. The relative behaviour of bulk-sound and shear wavespeed can provide a useful guide to the definition of heterogeneity regimes. For subduction zones a large part of the tomographic signal comes from S wavespeed variations. In the upper mantle and transition there can be significant bulk-sound speed contributions for younger slabs, and in stagnant slabs associated with slab roll-back. For subducted oceanic lithosphere older than about 90 Ma shear wavespeed variations nearly always are dominant and so the P wave images are controlled by shear modulus variations. The narrow segments of fast wavespeeds in the depth range 900–1500 km in the lower mantle are dominated by S variations, with very little bulk-sound contribution. Deep in the mantle there are many fast features without obvious association with subduction in the last 100 Ma, which suggests long-lived preservation of components of the geodynamic cycle