Preliminary study of the uppermantle P wave velocity structure beneath central Asia

The travel-times of multi-bounce P waves have been used to investigate the lateral heterogeneity of the uppermantle P wave velocity structure beneath north-west part of China and middle Asia. The synthetic seismograms of P and PP waves for seven large Chinese continental earthquakes were calculated by using the WKBJ method. The PP-P residuals, which reflect the P wave structure of the midpoints of the seismic rays, were calculated by using the WKBJ method, The results show that: the uppermantle wave structure beneath Russian platform in the middle Asia area, the Seytho-Turanian and the west Siberian platform is similar to that of Canadian shield; the uppermantle P wave velocity in the fold system of west China, the center Asia fold system in Russia, and Kazak fold system is lower than that of Canadian sheild. It seems that the velocity structure is related to the tectonic structure. The Chinese version of this paper appeared in the Chinese edition ofActa Seismologica Sinica,14, 479–484, 1992.