Caveats on tomographic images

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Gillian R. Foulger
  • Giuliano F. Panza
  • Irina Artemieva
  • Ian D. Bastow
  • Fabio Cammarano
  • John R. Evans
  • Warren B. Hamilton
  • Bruce R. Julian
  • Michele Lustrino
  • Hans Thybo
  • Tatiana B. Yanovskaya
Geological and geodynamic models of the mantle often rely
on joint interpretations of published seismic tomography
images and petrological/geochemical data. This approach
tends to neglect the fundamental limitations of, and uncertainties
in, seismic tomography results. These limitations and
uncertainties involve theory, correcting for the crust, the lack
of rays throughout much of the mantle, the difficulty in
obtaining the true strength of anomalies, choice of what
background model to subtract to reveal anomalies, and what
cross-sections to select for publication. The aim of this review
is to provide a relatively non-technical summary of the most
important of these problems, collected together in a single
paper, and presented in a form accessible to non-seismologists.
Appreciation of these issues is essential if final geodynamic
models are to be robust, and required by the scientific
observations.
Original languageEnglish
JournalTerra Nova
Volume25
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)259-281
Number of pages23
ISSN0954-4879
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2013

ID: 49248737