No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary

Abstract The core‐mantle boundary (CMB) and the outermost core are dynamic and heterogeneous regions with time‐dependent flows. We examine two seismic raypaths, diffracted P and PKP precursors—both replete with scattering, with precisely repeating earthquakes. These earthquakes, occurring in the Sou...

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Main Authors: Ruoyan Wang, John E. Vidale, Wei Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-12-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112155
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author Ruoyan Wang
John E. Vidale
Wei Wang
author_facet Ruoyan Wang
John E. Vidale
Wei Wang
author_sort Ruoyan Wang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The core‐mantle boundary (CMB) and the outermost core are dynamic and heterogeneous regions with time‐dependent flows. We examine two seismic raypaths, diffracted P and PKP precursors—both replete with scattering, with precisely repeating earthquakes. These earthquakes, occurring in the South Sandwich Islands, were recorded on the Yellowknife array in Canada, the Alice Springs array in Australia, and the Eilson Array in United States for the past 30 years. In all the most resolved cases, five for diffracted P and 19 for PKP precursors, we observe 1–2 Hz scattered waves that exactly repeat within the resolution of our study for more than 10 s. Although the absence of observable changes is unsurprising, it imposes constraints on potential temporal variations near the CMB. This suggests that any dynamic processes in this region might either be too subtle to detect, even with high‐frequency waves, or occur on different timescales.
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institution Kabale University
issn 0094-8276
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publishDate 2024-12-01
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series Geophysical Research Letters
spelling doaj-art-11db5e11526f4766b4e9e46c212e828e2025-08-20T03:46:58ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072024-12-015123n/an/a10.1029/2024GL112155No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle BoundaryRuoyan Wang0John E. Vidale1Wei Wang2Department of Earth Sciences University of Southern California Los Angeles CA USADepartment of Earth Sciences University of Southern California Los Angeles CA USAKey Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics Institute of Geology and Geophysics Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaAbstract The core‐mantle boundary (CMB) and the outermost core are dynamic and heterogeneous regions with time‐dependent flows. We examine two seismic raypaths, diffracted P and PKP precursors—both replete with scattering, with precisely repeating earthquakes. These earthquakes, occurring in the South Sandwich Islands, were recorded on the Yellowknife array in Canada, the Alice Springs array in Australia, and the Eilson Array in United States for the past 30 years. In all the most resolved cases, five for diffracted P and 19 for PKP precursors, we observe 1–2 Hz scattered waves that exactly repeat within the resolution of our study for more than 10 s. Although the absence of observable changes is unsurprising, it imposes constraints on potential temporal variations near the CMB. This suggests that any dynamic processes in this region might either be too subtle to detect, even with high‐frequency waves, or occur on different timescales.https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112155seismologycoremantlebody waveseismic arrayrepeating earthquakes
spellingShingle Ruoyan Wang
John E. Vidale
Wei Wang
No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary
Geophysical Research Letters
seismology
core
mantle
body wave
seismic array
repeating earthquakes
title No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary
title_full No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary
title_fullStr No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary
title_full_unstemmed No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary
title_short No Temporal Change Seen in High‐Frequency Waves Scattered Near the Core‐Mantle Boundary
title_sort no temporal change seen in high frequency waves scattered near the core mantle boundary
topic seismology
core
mantle
body wave
seismic array
repeating earthquakes
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112155
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