Anisotropy of the mantle inferred from observations of P to S converted waves

Summary. Seismic anisotropy has been previously studied at depths usually not exceeding 100 or 150 km. In this paper we present a method of analysis of seismic records which is very sensitive to azimuthal anisotropy and is applicable at almost any depth range. The idea of the method is to detect and analyse the SH -component of the waves, converted from P to S in the mantle. The procedure of record processing includes frequency filtering, axis rotation, transformation of the record to a standard form, stacking the standardized SH -component records of many seismic events, and the harmonic analysis of amplitude as a function of the direction of wave propagation. When applied to the long-period records of NORSAR the procedure detected a converted wave with the properties implying the possibility of its propagation in a transversely isotropic medium with a horizontal axis of symmetry . Our preferred model postulates anisotropy of ～ 1 per cent in a layer 50 km thick at the base of the upper mantle.