University of Washington seismic data taken during ROSE phase 1 have been used to study the structure of the East Pacific Rise in the vicinity of 12¿N. Off axis but within 50 km of the axis we find that the oceanic crust can be modeled with a rapid change in velocity in the top 2.5 km, a zone of low but uniform velocity gradient from 2.5 to about 5.5 km and a transitional zone about 1 km thick to mantle material. There is also evidence for substantial anisotropy in mantle velocity gradients, with a positive velocity gradient in the spreading direction and a negative velocity gradient parallel to the rise. Under the rise axis the data allow at most a very narrow zone of low velocity (less than about 2 km wide) in the crust.