Study on the Anisotropic Structure beneath

the Southern Indian Plate

Utpal Kumar and Li Zhao
Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica

S
 Outline

S Anisotropy of Elastic Media: What? Why?

S Measuring Anisotropy Using Seismic Waves

S Shear-wave Anisotropy under HYB (India) Station

S Modeling Seismic Waves by Normal-mode Summation

S Future Work
 Anisotropy: What?

S The speed at which seismic waves travel changes with the

direction of propagation
Mantle Dynamics

Deformation in the Mantle

Elastic anisotropy in the Mantle

Olivine : primary constituent of the

upper mantle and is highly anisotropic.
 Anisotropy: Why?

S Heterogeneity : Material has directionality

in its structure.

Shape Preferred Orientation (SPO) Anisotropy

From Stein & Wysession, 2003

 Anisotropy: Why?

S Anisotropy can also occur for

homogeneous materials.

Lattice Preferred Orientation (LPO) Anisotropy

P & S velocities (km/s) in different

directions relative to the crystal
structure of olivine.
(from Stein & Wysession, 2003)
Anisotropy in the Earth: Alignment
of Anisotropic Minerals in Rocks
S The anisotropic mineral grains are randomly oriented, so seismic
waves have wavelength long enough to average out the anisotropic
effects leaving only weak anisotropy.

S Mineral grains can be aligned leading to significant anisotropy,

enough to be measured by long wavelength seismic waves.
Deviatoric stresses: Crystals are generally oriented
with their smallest widths in the direction of the
maximum compression.
Mantle flow: Minerals are aligned according to
the direction of flow (parallel or perpendicular)

Karato, 2003
Measure the Anisotropy: Shear-
wave Splitting

S Analogous to optical birefringence.

Analogous to Optical Birefringence

What is Shear-wave splitting ?

Long & Silver, 2009

How to measure the Shear-wave
splitting ??

S The Transverse Component Minimization Method :

Based upon the principle that a shear wave is that
passage through an anisotropic medium will result
in significant energy on the transverse component and an
elliptical particle motion.
S The Cross-Correlation Method : Based on the
principle that a shear wave is split into orthogonally
polarized fast and slow components with identical
pulse shapes.
 Transverse Component
Minimization Method

SKS SKKS Diagonostic

Plots for
Transverse
Component
Minimization
Method
(SplitLab
Radial and transverse
are dashed blue line and Sofware)
solid red line, Initial Particle
respectively. The motion (dashed
window used is shown blue line),
in gray. corrected particle
motion (solid red
line)
Cross-Correlation Method
 Null Measurements

S The case in which the shear wave is not significantly splitthat is,
there is little or no energy on the uncorrected transverse component and
the initial particle motion is linear or nearly so.

S Means No anisotropy or the initial polarization of the phase is

(nearly) parallel to either a fast or slow direction of symmetry.

S Quantification: Based on Wustefeld and Bokelmann, 2007

S 0<<0.2 and 37< <53, where is tRC/tSC and is

the difference between the fast axis estimate of the two methods.
Null Measurements

Barruol and Hoffman, 1999 Chen and Ozalaybey, 1998

This Study: SKS Splitting at HYB
 SKS Splitting at HYB Station

is 43 and 0.08

Null Measurement
 SKS Splitting at HYB Station

Vertical

Radial

Transverse
 SKS Aplitting at HYB Station

There is no fixed fast axis and

delay time measurements for
the SKS phase at the
measured backazimuths
 SKS Splitting at HYB Station

The measurements for the

SKS phase for the HYB is
null (Wustefeld and
Bokelmann, 2007).
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 50 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 50 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 50 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 50 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 50 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 350 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 350 km depth)
 Splitting of Direct S waves
(using events with hypocenter > 50 km depth)
 Seismic Wave Modeling by
Normal-mode Summation

S Principle: If the synthetic radial and observed radial is almost

same then it means that there is no lateral isotropic
heterogeneity. This means that the energy on transverse
component is probably due to anisotropy.

S Normal-Mode method gives the exact solution to the wave

equation for spherically symmetric Earth Model.

S Two types of modes exist: Spheroidal (P-SV system) and

Toroidal (SH system) modes.
Normal Modes: Toroidal Modes

Toroidal Mode
dispersion curve for ScS Mantle turning
Model AK135 up to waves SH Waves
130mHz.

Total number of modes:

68964

For clarity, we plot

only alternate branch
or overtone number.
Radial Functions of Toroidal Modes
Normal Modes: Spheroidal Modes

CMB Stoneley

Spheroidal Mode PKIKP

Mantle turning
dispersion curve for P-SV waves
Model AK135 up to
130mHz.

Total number of modes:

111911

For clarity, we plot

only alternate branch
or overtone number.
Radial Functions of Spheroidal Modes

CMB Stoneley
Radial Functions of Spheroidal Modes

ICB Stoneley
Synthesizing A Seismogram by
Normal-mode Summation
Synthesizing A Seismogram by
Normal-mode Summation
Comparison of Recorded and
Synthetic Seismograms

SKS Energy

Original Seismogram Synthetic Seismogram

Presence of lateral isotropic heterogeneity!
 Conclusions

S There is presence of anisotropy in the southern Indian

subcontinent but below station HYB, there is no detectable
anisotropy.

S Fast polarization direction

azimuth is almost
NE-SW.

Saikia et al., 2010

Future Work

1. SKS splittings
2. Full wave kernels
3. Multiscale inversion for
anisotropic structure
 Olivine Fabric Types

S A variety of olivine fabric types have been identified, including A-,

B-, C-, D-, and E-type fabrics.
S In A-type fabric (favored by modest stress and temperature), the
fast axes of individual olivine crystals tend to align in the direction
of shear; for horizontal mantle flow, this would imply that the
measured fast direction of azimuthal anisotropy should
correspond to the horizontal flow direction.
S In B-type fabric, which is favored by high stresses, low
temperatures, and some amount of water, changes this
relationship by 90.
 Olivine Fabric Types

S At high temperatures and low stresses, the dominant fabric

type is expected to change from A-type to E-type to C-type
with increasing water content.

S A-type or D-type fabric is expected to dominate in the

mantle lithosphere, while C-, E-, or A-type fabric likely
dominates in the asthenosphere. B-type fabric may be
present in the cold corner of the subduction mantle wedge,
where stresses are high and temperatures are low.
 Olivine Fabric Types

S For the case of horizontal flow in the upper mantle, all fabric
types except for B-type would produce fast directions of
azimuthal anisotropy that are parallel to the flow direction; for B-
type, the fast direction would be normal to the flow direction.

S For radial anisotropy, predictions for the same horizontal flow

scenario are as follows: A-, B-, and D-type would predict relatively
strong VSH > VSV anisotropy, while E-type would predict weak VSH
> VSV and C-type would predict VSV > VSH.