Attenuation tomography of the earth's mantle: A review of current status

Resolving the lateral variations of attenuation in the deep mantle by tomog raphic methods holds potential for constraining its thermal structure and d ynamics. It is a challenging subject which has been addressed by only a few studies until now. We here review the main motivations behind pursuing thi s challenge, the difficult issues involved in separating effects of anelast ic attenuation from scattering and focusing due to propagation in 3-D elast ic structure and finally discuss the current status of global attenuation t omography.