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Locating seismic scatterers at the base of the mantle beneath eastern Tibet with PKIKP precursors

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  • Geophysics
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Clear PKIKP precursors were observed from the Lanzhou CTBTO seismic array. We measured their incident angles, arriving azimuths and differential travel times with respect to the PKIKP arrivals using array analysis techniques. These measurements allowed us to locate the scatterers that generated the observed precursors. We found that the scatterers are located in the lowermost mantle beneath eastern Tibet, which is featured by a high-velocity anomaly based on previous tomographic studies. The high velocity anomaly was interpreted as the slab remnants of the ancient Tethys subduction. We thus speculate that the observed scatterers are either related or induced by the subducted slab.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Computational Geodynamics, Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    XuZhang Shen & HuiLan Zhou

  2. Lanzhou Institute of Seismology, China Earthquake Administration, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    XuZhang Shen

  3. Lanzhou Base of Institute of Earthquake Prediction, China Earthquake Administration, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    XuZhang Shen

Authors
  1. XuZhang Shen
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  2. HuiLan Zhou
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Correspondence to XuZhang Shen.

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Shen, X., Zhou, H. Locating seismic scatterers at the base of the mantle beneath eastern Tibet with PKIKP precursors. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 723–729 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0382-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0382-1

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