Pure path attenuation measurements of long-period Rayleigh waves across the Tibet Plateau

A method is presented to derive pure path attenuation coefficients of Rayleigh waves, in the period range 30–90 s, across the Tibet Plateau, using events located within Tibet and observed at teleseismic distances. This method uses data from 2 events and 2 stations simultaneously, these being aligned along a great circle path, and, for relatively small events, is practically free of errors due to inaccurate knowledge of the source radiation patterns.In spite of large standard errors due to the impossibility of separating effects of anclasticity from spurious effects on amplitudes such as scattering or multipathing, results seem to indicate an anelastic model of the crust and upper mantle compatible with shear velocity models derived independently, with a thick crust and in particular, a thick high Q lid and thin low Q zone consistent with a shield like upper mantle beneath Tibet.