Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Inferring The Oriented Elastic Tensor From Surface Wave Observations: Preliminary Application Across The Western United States, Jiayi Xie, Michael H. Ritzwoller, S. J. Brownlee, B. R. Hacker

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Radial and azimuthal anisotropy in seismic wave speeds have long been observed using surface waves and are believed to be controlled by deformation within the Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle. Although radial and azimuthal anisotropy reflect important aspects of anisotropic media, few studies have tried to interpret them jointly. We describe a method of inversion that interprets simultaneous observations of radial and azimuthal anisotropy under the assumption of a hexagonally symmetric elastic tensor with a tilted symmetry axis defined by dip and strike angles. We show that observations of radial anisotropy and the 2ψ component of azimuthal anisotropy for Rayleigh …