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| Constraints on rigid zones and other distinct layers at the top of the outer core using CMB underside reected PKKP waves |
| Fenglin Niu1, Cindi Kelly1, Jianping Huang1, 2 |
1 Department of Earth Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
2 School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266555, China |
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Abstract Clear PKKP, a P wave reflects off the core-mantle boundary on the core side, is recorded by the transcontinental USArray from two deep earthquakes occurred in South America and Tonga, and one intermediatedepth earthquake in the Hindu Kush region. We compare the PKKP waveforms with the direct P waves to investigate the fine structures near the core-mantle boundary, with a primary focus on the core side. We find no evidence for the existence of a sedimentary layer of lighter elements with a thickness above a few hundreds of meters beneath the reflection points of the two deep events, which are located at the Ninety-East Ridge and South Africa. On the other hand the PKKP wave duration of the Hindu Kush event is almost twice as long as that of the P wave, suggesting that multiple reflections may be occurring at the core-mantle boundary located beneath the Antarctic, which is located inside the so-called tangent cylinder of the outer core. The tangent cylinder is an imaginary cylindrical region suggested by geodynamics studies, which has different flow pattern and may have a higher concentration in lighter elements as compared to the rest of the outer core. One possible explanation of the elongated PKKP is a thin distinct layer with a thickness of a few kilometers at the top of the outer core, suggesting that precipitation of lighter elements may occur at the core-mantle boundary. Our data also indicate an extremely low QP of 312, approximately 40% of the PREM average (~780), within the large-scale low-velocity anomaly in the lowermost mantle beneath Pacific.
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Received: 24 October 2011
Published: 10 February 2012
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| Fund:the NSF grant EAR-078455 |
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Corresponding Authors:
Fenglin Niu
E-mail: niu@rice.edu
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