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Garnero et al. 1993
Garnero, E.J., Helmberger, D.V. and Grand, S.P. (1993). Constraining outermost core velocity with SmKS waves. Geophysical Research Letters 20: doi: 10.1029/93GL02823. issn: 0094-8276.

SmKS waves (m=2,3,4), seismic waves that travel as S-waves in the mantle, P-waves in the core, and reflect (m-1) times on the underside of the core-mantle boundary, are well-suited for constraining outermost core VP structure. This is due to closeness of the mantle paths and also the shallow depth range these waves travel in the outermost core. High quality digitized WWSSN and Canadian network recordings from a deep focus Java Sea event which sample the outer core beneath the northern Pacific, the Arctic, and northwestern North America (roughly 1/8th of the globe), are utilized as an example to show how the strength of SmKS waves to resolve outermost core structure. S3KS-S2KS and S4KS-S3KS differential travel times were measured and compared to those from reflectivity synthetics created from core models of past studies. Constraints and uncertainties in outer core structure using SmKS are discussed. For the event studied, the PREM core model, with possibly a small VP decrease in the outermost 50 km of the core, provides a good fit to the data. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Seismology, Body waves, Seismology, Structure of mantle and core, Tectonophysics, Core processes
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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