The mobility of the lithosphere over a weaker asthenosphere constitutes the essential element of plate tectonics, and thus the understanding of the processes at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) is fundamental to understand how our planet works. It is especially so for oceanic plates because their relatively simple creation and evolution should enable easy elucidation of the LAB. Data from borehole broadband ocean bottom seismometers show that the LAB beneath the Pacific and Philippine Sea plates is sharp and age-dependent. The observed large shear wave velocity reduction at the LAB requires a partially molten asthenosphere consisting of horizontal melt-rich layers embedded in meltless mantle, which accounts for the large viscosity contrast at the LAB that facilitates horizontal plate motions.

[1] Seismic wave velocities of melt or aqueous fluid containing systems are studied over a wide range of pore shapes, including oblate spheroids, tubes, cracks, and an equilibrium geometry controlled by a dihedral angle. The relative role of liquid compressibility and pore geometry on the V P /V S velocity ratio is clarified. The result clearly indicates that P and S velocity structures determined by seismic tomography can be used to verify whether interfacial energy-controlled melt or fluid geometry (equilibrium geometry) is achieved. Relationships between the diverse models are clearly established by relating each model to the oblate spheroid model in terms of the equivalent aspect ratio. As a function of the aspect ratio, a significant effect of pore geometry on ''d ln V S /d ln V P '', the ratio of the fractional changes in V S and V P , is shown. Equilibrium geometry of the partially molten rocks, characterized by a dihedral angle of 20°-40°, corresponds to an aspect ratio of 0.1 -0.15. The value of d ln V S /d ln V P expected for the texturally equilibrated partially molten rocks is shown to be 1 -1.5, which is much smaller than that expected for cracks and dikes with an aspect ratio of <10 À2 -10 À3 . In the upper mantle low-velocity regions the seismologically obtained value of d ln V S /d ln V P is within this range beneath the Bolivian Andes (1.1 -1.4) but is as high as 2 beneath Iceland (1.7 -2.3) and beneath northeastern Japan (2.0). The former region can be regarded as a region where equilibrium geometry is achieved, and the latter regions can be regarded as regions where dikes and veins typical of a system far from the textural equilibrium dominate.INDEX TERMS: 5102 Physical Properties of Rocks: Acoustic properties; 5112 Physical Properties of Rocks: Microstructure; 5199 Physical Properties of Rocks: General or miscellaneous; 7218 Seismology: Lithosphere and upper mantle;

Elasticity, anelasticity, and viscosity of polycrystalline aggregates were measured at the near‐solidus temperatures ranging from below to above the solidus temperature (Tm). The result shows that the mechanical effects of the partial melting are twofold; changes just below the solidus temperature in the absence of melt and changes at the solidus temperature due to the onset of partial melting. As homologous temperature (T/Tm) increases from about 0.92 to 1, high‐frequency part of the attenuation spectrum significantly grows. Viscosity of the grain boundary diffusion creep is also reduced in this temperature range. These changes are caused by a solid‐state mechanism and have a large amplitude even for the samples which can generate very small amounts of melt at the solidus temperature. At the onset of melting, further increases in the elastic, anelastic, and viscous compliances occur. These changes are caused by the direct effects of the melt phase and are very small for the samples with very small melt fractions. Mechanical properties of a partially molten aggregate are determined by these twofold changes, and when melt fraction is small, the former changes are dominant. We performed a parameterization of the present experimental results and applied the obtained empirical formula to the seismic tomographic data in the upper mantle. The present model explains well the steep reduction of the seismic shear wave velocity in the oceanic lithosphere just below the solidus temperature.

[1] Viscous constitutive relations of partially molten rocks deforming in the regime of grain boundary (GB) diffusion creep are derived theoretically on the basis of microstructural processes at the grain scale. The viscous constitutive relation developed in this study is based on contiguity as an internal state variable, which enables us to take into account the detailed effects of grain-scale melt distribution observed in experiments. Compared to the elasticities derived previously for the same microstructural model, the viscosities are much more sensitive to the presence of melt and variations in contiguity. As explored in this series of three companion papers, this ''contiguity'' model predicts that a very small amount of melt (f < 0.01) significantly reduces the bulk and shear viscosities. Furthermore, a large anisotropy in viscosity is produced by anisotropy in contiguity, which occurs in deforming partially molten rocks. These results have important implications for deformation and melt extraction at small melt fractions, as well as for shear-induced melt segregation. The viscous and elastic constitutive relations derived in terms of contiguity bridge microscopic grain-scale and macroscopic continuum properties. These constitutive relations are essential for investigating melt migration dynamics in a forward sense on the basis of the basic equations of two-phase dynamics and in an inverse sense on the basis of seismological observations.