Short-period PKP phases and the anelastic mechanism of the inner core |
| |
| Authors: | Vernon F Cormier |
| |
| Institution: | Harvard University Department of Geological Sciences, Cambridge, MA 02138 U.S.A. |
| |
| Abstract: | Short-period seismograms are synthesized for PKP phases in anelastic Earth models. The synthetics were constructed using a synthetic technique valid at grazing incidence, a source-time function appropriate for deep-focus earthquakes, and an instrument response for either a short-period WWSSN or SRO seismograph. The agreement between predicted and observed amplitudes and spectral ratios requires neither a low-Qα zone at 0.2–2 Hz nor a low or negative P-velocity gradient at the bottom of the outer core. Thin low-Qα zones beneath the inner core boundary fit spectral ratio data that sample the upper 200 km of the inner core but fail to fit data that sample the lower inner core. Only a model having Qα?1?0.003, 0.004] at 0.2–2 Hz, nearly constant with depth in the inner core, satisfies all of the spectral ratio and amplitude data. The assumption of a bulk viscosity of 10-103 Pa s for the liquid phase of a partially molten inner core combined with the observation of low shear attenuation in the inner core at frequencies less than 0.005 Hz limit the physical parameters associated with two possible attenuation mechanisms: (1) fluid flow and viscous relaxation due to ellipsoidally shaped inclusions of melt, and (2) the solid-liquid phase transformation induced by the stress change during the passage of a seismic wave. Both mechanisms require an order of 0.1% partial melt to reproduce the observed Qα?1. In the outer core, the time constant of the mechanism of phase transformation is predicted to be 104–106 s. Confirmation of small shear attenuation in the inner core in the frequency band of seismic body waves would favor the mechanism of phase transformation. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
