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Hemispherical variations in seismic velocity at the top of the Earth's inner core

Author

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  • Fenglin Niu

    (Carnegie Institution of Washington)

  • Lianxing Wen

    (State University of New York at Stony Brook)

Abstract

Knowledge of the seismic velocity structure at the top of the Earth's inner core is important for deciphering the physical processes responsible for inner-core growth1,2,3. Previous global seismic studies4,5,6,7,8,9 have focused on structures found 100 km or deeper within the inner core, with results for the uppermost 100 km available for only isolated regions10,11,12. Here we present constraints on seismic velocity variations just beneath the inner-core boundary, determined from the difference in travel time between waves reflected at the inner-core boundary and those transmitted through the inner core. We found that these travel-time residuals—observed on both global seismograph stations and several regional seismic networks—are systematically larger, by about 0.8 s, for waves that sample the ‘eastern hemisphere’ of the inner core (40° E to 180° E) compared to those that sample the ‘western hemisphere’ (180° W to 40° E). These residuals show no correlation with the angle at which the waves traverse the inner core; this indicates that seismic anisotropy is not strong in this region and that the isotropic seismic velocity of the eastern hemisphere is about 0.8% higher than that of the western hemisphere.

Suggested Citation

  • Fenglin Niu & Lianxing Wen, 2001. "Hemispherical variations in seismic velocity at the top of the Earth's inner core," Nature, Nature, vol. 410(6832), pages 1081-1084, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6832:d:10.1038_35074073
    DOI: 10.1038/35074073
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    Cited by:

    1. Shichuan Sun & Yu He & Junyi Yang & Yufeng Lin & Jinfeng Li & Duck Young Kim & Heping Li & Ho-kwang Mao, 2023. "Superionic effect and anisotropic texture in Earth’s inner core driven by geomagnetic field," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Tinghong Zhou & John A. Tarduno & Francis Nimmo & Rory D. Cottrell & Richard K. Bono & Mauricio Ibanez-Mejia & Wentao Huang & Matt Hamilton & Kenneth Kodama & Aleksey V. Smirnov & Ben Crummins & Frank, 2022. "Early Cambrian renewal of the geodynamo and the origin of inner core structure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Baolong Zhang & Sidao Ni & Wenbo Wu & Zhichao Shen & Wenzhong Wang & Daoyuan Sun & Zhongqing Wu, 2023. "Small-scale layered structures at the inner core boundary," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

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