T. A. Cox

Model Update May 2016: Upper‐Mantle Heterogeneity beneath North America from Travel‐Time Tomography with Global and USArray Data

ABSTRACT P ‐wave travel‐time residuals from USArray helped improve the scale and consistency with which the mantle beneath North America is resolved. Beginning in 2008, we published a series of P ‐wave velocity models based on a global ray theoretical inversion of USArray and global catalog data. Here, we present the final model update, MITP_USA_2016MAY, which includes the complete set of travel‐time residuals from USArray Transportable Array (TA) in the contiguous United States. In this model, the area of high resolution extends to the eastern margin of the continent, allowing us to better estimate the location and extent of slow features in Central Virginia and New England. An increasing number of data from the TA in Alaska also allows us to recover the structure of subducting Pacific plate and Yakutat terrane. In addition to highlighting new features in the final model, we visualize and discuss the improvements to the model due to the addition of USArray data through time.