Three dimensional inner core anisotropy, lowermost mantle structure, and inner core rotation

Three-dimensional anisotropy of Earth's inner core and the lowermost mantle structures are studied from PKP waves.; Using a unique data set of PKP travel times at near antipodal distances, I examine the whole inner core anisotropy and the effect from lowermost mantle heterogeneities. The results show AB-DF residuals for polar paths are consistently larger than those of equatorial paths, and are mainly from DF residuals, thus confirmed AB-DF residuals are from inner core anisotropy. Assuming a uniform cylindrical anisotropy model, the average inner core anisotropy amplitude is ∼2.5%.; The equatorial PKP differential travel times, however, can be caused by the lowermost mantle structure. Compressional waves that sample the lowermost mantle west of Central America show a rapid change in travel times of up to 4 s over a distance of 300 km and a change in waveforms. The PKP differential travel times correlate remarkably well with predictions from S-wave tomography. Our modeling suggests a sharp transition in the lowermost mantle from a broad slow region to a broad fast region with a narrow zone of slowest anomaly next to the boundary beneath the Cocos and the Caribbean Plate. The structure may be the result of ponding of ancient subducted Farallon slabs situated near the edge of a thermal and chemical upwelling.; Depth and longitudinal dependence of the inner core anisotropy are also investigated. I adopt a pseudo-bending ray tracing method in spherical coordinates [koketsu1998] for PKP DF rays, and use B-spline interpolation in the inversion. Our results show clearly hemispherical and depth dependence of the inner core anisotropy, and suggest a distinct inner inner core (IIC), which is about half radius of the inner core. Further examination of this issue from the corrected residuals at near antipodal distances and from the residual changes vs. distance at equatorial directions show very consistent results, indicating the distinct anisotropy in the IIC is robust.; Finally, examinations of systematic earthquake mislocations from P wave double differences show that it couldn't explain the BC-DF time change over years, so the inner core rotation observation is valid.