S-wave Relative Travel Time Tomography for East Asia

Abstract

We performed seismic imaging based on relative S-wave travel times to examine S-wave velocity of upper mantle structure beneath East Asia. We used teleseismic events recorded at 129 broadband stations of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), and National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). Relative travel time residuals were obtained by a multi-channel cross-correlation method designed to automatically determine accurate relative phase arrival times. The resulting images show high-velocity anomalies along plate boundaries around the Japanese islands region. These anomalies may indicate subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea plates. On the other hand, a low-velocity anomaly is revealed beneath east of the Korean peninsula down to around 300 km depth, which is thought to be related to the formation of the Ulleung basin and the Ulleung island. Low-velocity anomalies revealed beneath the Jeju island may imply that the formation and volcanism of the Jeju island have been caused by magmatic sources from the deep mantle.