Upper Mantle Anisotropy Structures Beneath Eastern Tibet and Northeast Asia

Abstract:

Tibetan plateau and eastern Asia subduction zone are tectonic active regions. Understanding the evolution and dynamics process of the two regions is important for us to understand mantle dynamics. A lot of work has been done on the velocity structures beneath the two regions, and several tectonic models are proposed to explain their dynamic process. But due to the absence of the detailed upper mantle anisotropy structures, those models are still under debate. Fine upper mantle velocity and anisotropy structures can help us understand the dynamic process of the two regions. Waveform modeling of upper mantle triplication phases can provide a good vertical resolution of upper mantle velocity structures, but present methods for calculating synthetic seismograms cannot process anisotropic media. We develop a method based on the generalized reflection and transmission method (GRTM) to calculate synthetic seismograms for wave propagating in stratified VTI media, so we can waveform model upper mantle triplications propagating in anisotropic media. In this study, we waveform model the tangential and radial seismic triplication data recorded in Chinese digital seismic stations at a epicentral distance of 10-30 degree for one event occurring in middle Tibet and one event occurring in Japan, to constrain fine upper mantle velocity and anisotropy structures beneath eastern Tibet and northeast Asia. The result shows that beneath eastern Tibet, horizontal S wave velocity is larger than vertical S wave velocity in the upper mantle; beneath northeast Asia, horizontal S wave velocity is larger than vertical S wave velocity above the depth of 190 km, and is smaller than vertical S wave velocity below the depth of 190 km. We also build a mineral physics modeling method, which can calculate upper mantle anisotropy structures based on mantle temperatures, compositions and directions of mantle flow, and use this method to explore compositional and dynamic models that would explain the inferred seismic structures. The results suggest that beneath eastern Tibet, the water content is lower than 0.4 wt%, and there is vertical mantle flow beneath the lithospheric lid; beneath northeast Asia, the upper mantle is dominated by horizontal mantle flow.