Sn. Luo et al., Evidence for a sharp lateral variation of velocity at the core-mantle boundary from multipathed PKPab, EARTH PLAN, 189(3-4), 2001, pp. 155-164
Rapid changes in differential travel times between the various PKP branches
have been attributed to strong lateral velocity variations at the base of
the mantle, Differential time PKPab-df residuals showing jumps of up to 2 s
for paths only 100 km apart have been reported. Such extreme changes in tr
avel times for signals with comparable wavelengths suggest ray bifurcation
with multipaths containing slow and fast contributions to PKPab. Here we re
port on some well-documented normal and multipathed PKPab phases along with
rapidly varying differential time residuals observed for Fiji events with
paths sampling the northern edge of the mid-Pacific large slow structure be
neath Hawaii. Systematic analyses of these data with two-dimensional models
suggest the presence of a ridge-shaped structure at the core-mantle bounda
ry containing abrupt reductions of P-wave velocity of up to 10%. This narro
w ultralow velocity zone (ULVZ) is located at the boundary between a large
scale low velocity and high velocity structure. corroborating recent dynami
c models which propose that ULVZs preferentially occur at the boundary betw
een hot and cold mantle domains and could be related to plume activity at H
awaii. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.