Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 19 April 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5567, pp. 485 - 489
DOI: 10.1126/science.1067319
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Review

Seismic Anisotropy: Tracing Plate Dynamics in the Mantle

Jeffrey Park, Vadim Levin

Elastic anisotropy is present where the speed of a seismic wave depends on its direction. In Earth's mantle, elastic anisotropy is induced by minerals that are preferentially oriented in a directional flow or deformation. Earthquakes generate two seismic wave types: compressional (P) and shear (S) waves, whose coupling in anisotropic rocks leads to scattering, birefringence, and waves with hybrid polarizations. This varied behavior is helping geophysicists explore rock textures within Earth's mantle and crust, map present-day upper-mantle convection, and study the formation of lithospheric plates and the accretion of continents in Earth history.

Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, Post Office Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Subduction rollback, slab breakoff, and induced strain in the uppermost mantle beneath Italy.
F. P. Lucente and L. Margheriti (2008)
Geology 36, 375-378
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Estimating Shear-Wave Splitting Parameters from Broadband Recordings in Japan: A Comparison of Three Methods.
M. D. Long and R. D. van der Hilst (2005)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 95, 1346-1358
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Automation of Shear-Wave Splitting Measurements using Cluster Analysis.
N. A. Teanby, J.-M. Kendall, and M. van der Baan (2004)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 94, 453-463
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Seismic Anisotropy and Global Geodynamics.
J.-P. Montagner and L. Guillot (2002)
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 51, 353-385
   Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)