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Castle & van der Hilst 2003
Castle, J.C. and van der Hilst, R.D. (2003). Using ScP precursors to search for mantle structures beneath 1800 km depth. Geophysical Research Letters 30: doi: 10.1029/2002GL016023. issn: 0094-8276.

If either two stratified geochemical reservoirs or a mineralogical phase change in perovskite exist in the mantle, the boundary between the geochemical layers or mineralogical phases may lie at a depth between 1800 km and the core-mantle boundary (CMB). We searched for the ScP precursors (S-to-P reflections) that would be generated at the boundary by stacking hundreds of short-period, vertical component teleseismic waveforms from the dense Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). PNSN recorded clean ScP phases and saved the P to ScP time window for four earthquakes. We estimate our detection threshold to be impedance contrast >4%. None of the data show evidence of sharp structure between 1800 km and the CMB, suggesting that a sharp seismic discontinuity does not exist between 1800 km and the CMB under the Gulf of Alaska and Mexico: any discontinuity would need to be diffuse, have large topography, or have a small impedance change. While not conclusive, this observation is consistent with an Earth model lacking a global boundary separating geochemical reservoirs and lacking a phase change in this depth range.

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Abstract

Keywords
Seismology, Body wave propagation, Seismology, Core and mantle, Tectonophysics, Dynamics, convection currents and mantle plumes, Tectonophysics, Earth's interior--composition and state
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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