Upper Mantle Structure Beneath the Contiguous US Resolved With Array Observations of SKS Multipathing and Slowness Vector Perturbations

Abstract

AbstractContinent‐scale observations of seismic phenomena have provided multi‐scale constraints of the Earth's interior. Of those analyzed, array‐based observations of slowness vector properties (backazimuth and horizontal slowness) and multipathing have yet to be made on a continental scale. Slowness vector measurements give inferences on mantle heterogeneity properties such as velocity perturbation and velocity gradient strength and quantify their effect on the wavefield. Multipathing is a consequence of waves interacting with strong velocity gradients resulting in two arrivals with different slowness vector properties and times. The mantle structure beneath the contiguous Unites States has been thoroughly analyzed by previous seismic studies and is data‐rich, making it an excellent testing ground to both analyze mantle structure with our approach and compare with other imaging techniques. We apply an automated array‐analysis technique to an SKS data set to create the first continent‐scale data set of multipathing and slowness vector measurements. We analyze the divergence of the slowness vector deviation field to highlight seismically slow and fast regions. Our results resolve several slow mantle anomalies beneath Yellowstone, the Appalachian mountains and fast anomalies throughout the mantle. Many of the anomalies cause multipathing in frequency bands 0.15–0.30 and 0.20–0.40 Hz which suggests velocity transitions over at most 500 km exist. Comparing our observations to synthetics created from tomography models, we find model NA13 (Bedle et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GC009674) fits our data best but differences still remain. We therefore suggest slowness vector measurements should be used as an additional constraint in tomographic inversions and will lead to better resolved models of the mantle.