Structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Australia from Rayleigh- and Love-wave observations

Fundamental and first higher modes of the Rayleigh- and Love-wave group velocities along seven paths in Australia were jointly inverted by a controlled Monte Carlo procedure to obtain regional shear-wave velocity structures of the crust and upper mantle. Our data support the results of Gonez and Cleary which show an S-wave low velocity zone centred near 110 km depth in eastern Australia. However, the thickness-velocity contrast of the low velocity zone is significantly smaller. The crustal models for eastern Australia are characterized by upper crusts which are both thicker and have lower velocities than those in western Australia and have a less sharp crust-upper mantle boundary. The S-wave velocities for the upper mantle appear to be similar (～ 4.55 km s^?1) throughout the continent, with no obvious dependence on the age of cratonization or crustal thickness.