Reference earth models can be retrieved from either body waves or normal-mode eigenperiods. However, there is a large discrepancy between different reference earth models, which arises partly from the type of data set used in their construction and partly from differences in parametrization. Reference models derived from body-wave observations do not give access to density, attenuation factor and radial anisotropy. Conversely, reference models derived from normal modes cannot provide the correct locations for the depth of seismic discontinuities, nor the associated velocity jump. Eigenperiods derived from reference models constructed using body-wave data together with classifical attenuation models differ significantly from the observed eigenperiods.The body-wave and normal-mode approaches can be reconciled. The V ' and V, velocities given by body-wave models are considered as constraints, and an inversion is performed for parameters that cannot be extracted from body waves in the context of a radially anisotropic model, i.e. the density p, the quality factor Q, and the anisotropy parameters 5, (b and q. The influence of anelasticity is very large, although insufficient by itself to reconcile the two types of model. However, by including in the inversion procedure the density and the three anisotropic parameters, body-wave models can be brought into complete agreement with eigenperiod data. A number of reference models derived from body waves were tested and used as starting models: iasp91, sp6, and two new models ak303 and ak135. A number of robust features can be extracted from the inversions based on these different models. The quality factor Q,, is found to be much larger in the lower mantle than in previous models (e.g. prern). Anisotropy, in the form of transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis, is significant in the whole upper mantle, but very small in the lower mantle except in the lower transition zone (between the 660 km discontinuity and 1000 km depth) and in the D"-layer. Compared with prem there is an increase of density in the D"-layer and a decrease in the lower transition zone. The attenuation estimates have been derived using velocity dispersion information, but are in agreement with available direct measurements of normal-mode attenuation. Such attenuation data are still of limited quality, and the present results emphasize the need for improved attenuation measurements.

Summary We present an azimuthally anisotropic 3‐D shear‐wave speed model of the Australian upper mantle obtained from the dispersion of fundamental and higher modes of Rayleigh waves. We compare two tomographic techniques to map path‐average earth models into a 3‐D model for heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy. Method I uses a rectangular surface cell parametrization and depth basis functions that represent independently constrained estimates of radial earth structure. It performs an iterative inversion with norm damping and gradient regularization. Method II uses a direct inversion of individual depth layers constrained by Bayesian assumptions about the model covariance. We recall that Bayesian inversions and discrete regularization approaches are theoretically equivalent, and with a synthetic example we show that they can give similar results. The model we present here uses the discrete regularized inversion of independent path constraints of Method I, on an equal‐area grid. With the exception of westernmost Australia, we can retrieve structure on length scales of about 250 km laterally and 50 km in the radial direction, to within 0.8 per cent for the velocity, 20 per cent for the anisotropic magnitude and 20° for its direction. On length scales of 1000 km and longer, down to about 200 km, there is a good correlation between velocity heterogeneity and geologic age. At shorter length scales and at depths below 200 km, however, this relationship breaks down. The observed magnitude and direction of maximum anisotropy do not, in general, appear to be correlated to surface geology. The pattern of anisotropy appears to be rather complex in the upper 150 km, whereas a smoother pattern of fast axes is obtained at larger depth. If some of the deeper directions of anisotropy are aligned with the approximately N–S direction of absolute plate motion, this correspondence is not everywhere obvious, despite the fast (7 cm yr−1) northward motion of the Australian plate. More research is needed to interpret our observations in terms of continental deformation. Predictions of SKS splitting times and directions, an integrated measure of anisotropy, are poorly matched by observations of shear‐wave birefringence.

. Identifying global seismic anisotropy patterns by correlating shear-wave splitting and surface wave data. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Elsevier, 2009, 176 (3-4) This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.Page 1

Abstract. Seismic anisotropy is one of the most efficient geological and geodynamical tools for understanding the dynamics of the Earth. Upper mantle anisotropy is evident in seismic data sets for the last 30 years primarily from surface wave dispersion curves and body wave $K$ data. We demonstrate in this paper that surface wave and body wave derived anisotropy can be explained by the same anisotropic parameters (L• (7• (7•) in the simplest case of a horizontal fast sym-

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Seismological studies indicate that the inner core of Earth is anisotropic for compressional waves (P waves), and has low shear wave (S wave) velocity, and high seismic attenuation. Using an effective medium theory for composite materials, we show that the presence of a volume fraction of 3 to 10% liquid in the form of oblate spheroidal inclusions aligned in the equatorial plane between iron crystals is sufficient to explain the aforementioned seismic phenomena. Variation of S-wave velocity between the polar axis and equatorial plane is more sensitive to the addition of liquid than that of P waves. The liquid could arise from the presence of dendrites or a mixture of elements other than iron that exist in liquid form under inner-core conditions.

International audienceThe spectral element method, which provides an accurate solution of the elastodynamic problem in heterogeneous media, is implemented in a code, called RegSEM, to compute seismic wave propagation at the regional scale. By regional scale we here mean distances ranging from about 1 km (local scale) to 90 • (continental scale). The advantage of RegSEM resides in its ability to accurately take into account 3-D discontinuities such as the sediment-rock interface and the Moho. For this purpose, one version of the code handles local unstructured meshes and another version manages continental structured meshes. The wave equation can be solved in any velocity model, including anisotropy and intrinsic attenuation in the continental version. To validate the code, results from RegSEM are compared to analytical and semi-analytical solutions available in simple cases (e.g. explosion in PREM, plane wave in a hemispherical basin). In addition, realistic simulations of an earthquake in different tomographic models of Europe are performed. All these simulations show the great flexibility of the code and point out the large influence of the shallow layers on the propagation of seismic waves at the regional scale. RegSEM is written in Fortran 90 but it also contains a couple of C routines. It is an open-source software which runs on distributed memory architectures. It can give rise to interesting applications, such as testing regional tomographic models, developing tomography using either passive (i.e. noise correlations) or active (i.e. earthquakes) data, or improving our knowledge on effects linked with sedimentary basins

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