Q tomography of the upper mantle using three-component long-period waveforms

We present a degree-8 3-D Q model (QRLW8) of the upper mantle, derived from three-component surface waveform data in the period range 60-400 s. The inversion procedure involves two steps. In the first step, 3-D whole-mantle velocity models are derived separately for elastic SH (transverse component) and SV (vertical and longitudinal component) velocity models, using both surface and body waveforms and the non-linear asymptotic coupling theory (NACT) approach. In the second step, the surface waveforms thus aligned in phase are inverted to obtain a 3-D Q model in the depth range 80-670 km. Various stability tests are performed to assess the quality of the resulting Q model and, in particular, to assess possible contamination from focusing effects. We find that the 3-D patterns obtained are stable, but the amplitude of the lateral variations in Q is not well constrained, because large damping is necessary to extract the weak Q signal from data. The model obtained agrees with previous results in that a strong correlation of Q with tectonics is observed in the first 250 km of the upper mantle, with high attenuation under oceanic regions and low attenuation under continental shields. It is gradually replaced by a simpler pattern at larger depth. At the depths below 400 km, the Q distribution is generally dominated by two strong minima, one under the southern Pacific and one under Africa, yielding a strong degree-2 pattern. Most hotspots are located above regions of low Q at this depth. Ridges are shallow features in both velocity and Q models.