Long-wavelength topography and multi-scale velocity heterogeneites at
the core-mantle boundary
Abstract
The structure of the lowermost mantle and the core-mantle boundary (CMB)
has profound implications for Earth’s evolution and current-day
dynamics. Whilst tomographic studies of Vs show good agreement in the
lowermost mantle, consensus as to Vp and especially CMB radius has not
yet been reached. We perform a hierarchical Bayesian inversion for Vp in
the lowermost 300 km of the mantle and the radius of the core-mantle
boundary using differential travel time data. Concurrent with finding Vp
perturbations of 0.56% RMS amplitude that spatially agree with previous
studies in areas of low posterior variance, we find 4.5 km RMS amplitude
core-mantle boundary radius perturbations with a broadly north-south
hemispherical character, with spherical harmonic power evenly
distributed between degrees 1-3. These results suggest that CMB radial
processes are set by a longer scale process than the Vp perturbations.