Three-dimensional shear wave structure beneath the Phillippine Sea from land and ocean bottom broadband seismograms

Abstract

We obtained three-dimensional (3-D) shear wave speed structure beneath the Philippine Sea and the surrounding region from seismograms recorded by land-based and long-term broadband ocean bottom seismographic stations. The ocean bottom data gave us a better station coverage to obtain a higher spatial resolution (about 300-400 km) in the Philippine Sea than in previous studies. We employed a new technique of surface wave tomography, in which multimode phase speeds are measured and inverted for a 3-D shear wave speed structure by incorporating the effects of finite frequency and ray bending. There is a sharp speed contrast along the Izu-Bonin-Mariana trench, across which the Philippine Sea side has a significantly slower upper mantle than the Pacific Ocean side. In the upper 120 km, the shear wave speed structure is well correlated with the age of the provinces. At depths greater than 160 km, the pattern is dominated by fast anomalies of the subducted slabs of the Pacific plate and two slow anomalies to the south of the Daito ridge and in the southernmost part of the Philippine Sea. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.