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This paper presents the first continental‐scale study of the crust and upper mantle shear velocity (Vs) structure of Canada and adjacent regions using ambient noise tomography. Continuous waveform data recorded between 2003 and 2009 with 788 broadband seismograph stations in Canada and adjacent regions were used in the analysis. The higher primary frequency band of the ambient noise provides better resolution of crustal structures than previous tomographic models based on earthquake waveforms. Prominent low velocity anomalies are observed at shallow depths (<20 km) beneath the Gulf of St. Lawrence in east Canada, the sedimentary basins of west Canada, and the Cordillera. In contrast, the Canadian Shield exhibits high crustal velocities. We characterize the crust‐mantle transition in terms of not only its depth and velocity but also its sharpness, defined by its thickness and the amount of velocity increase. Considerable variations in the physical properties of the crust‐mantle transition are observed across Canada. Positive correlations between the crustal thickness, Moho velocity, and the thickness of the transition are evident throughout most of the craton except near Hudson Bay where the uppermost mantle Vs is relatively low. Prominent vertical Vs gradients are observed in the midcrust beneath the Cordillera and beneath most of the Canadian Shield. The midcrust velocity contrast beneath the Cordillera may correspond to a detachment zone associated with high temperatures immediately beneath, whereas the large midcrust velocity gradient beneath the Canadian Shield probably represents an ancient rheological boundary between the upper and lower crust.

Indonesia is repeatedly unsettled by severe volcano‐ and earthquake‐related disasters, which are geologically coupled to the 5–7 cm/a tectonic convergence of the Australian plate beneath the Sunda Plate. On Saturday, 26 May 2006, the southern coast of central Java was struck by an earthquake at 2254 UTC in the Sultanate Yogyakarta. Although the magnitude reached only Mw = 6.4, it left more than 6,000 fatalities and up to 1,000,000 homeless. The main disaster area was south of Mt. Merapi Volcano, located within a narrow topographic and structural depression along the Opak River. The earthquake disaster area within the depression is underlain by thick volcaniclastic deposits commonly derived in the form of lahars from Mt. Merapi Volcano, which had a major influence leading to the disaster. In order to more precisely understand this earthquake and its consequences, a 3‐month aftershock measurement campaign was performed from May to August 2006. We here present the first location results, which suggest that the Yogyakarta earthquake occurred at 10–20 km distance east of the disaster area, outside of the topographic depression. Using simple model calculations taking material heterogeneity into account we illustrate how soft volcaniclastic deposits may locally amplify ground shaking at distance. As the high degree of observed damage may have been augmented by the seismic response of the volcaniclastic Mt. Merapi deposits, this work implies that the volcano had an indirect effect on the level of earthquake destruction.

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