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• January 17, 2017

Suzuki et al. (2016) have conducted waveform inversion to infer the three-dimensional (3-D) S-velocity structure in the lowermost 400 km of the mantle (the D'' region) beneath the Northern Pacific region. The 3-D S-velocity model obtained in this study shows prominent features of velocity anomalies. The high-velocity anomalies are interpreted as remnants of slab material where the bridgmanite to Mg-post-perovskite phase transition may have occurred within the slab; the low-velocity ones are interpreted as large amounts of hot and less dense materials beneath the cold Kula or Pacific slab remnants just above the CMB which ascend and form a passive plume upwelling at the edge of the slab remnants.