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Abstract Seismic noise has been widely used to image Earth's structure in the past decades as a powerful supplement to earthquake signals. Although the seismic noise field contains both surface‐wave and body‐wave components, most previous studies have focused on surface waves due to their large amplitudes. Here, we use array analyses to identify body‐wave noise traveling asPKPwaves. We find that by cross‐correlating the array‐stacked horizontal‐ and vertical‐component data in the time windows containing thePKPnoise signals, we extract a phase likely representingPKS‐PKP, the differential phase betweenPKSandPKP. This phase can potentially be used for shear‐wave‐splitting analysis. Our results also suggest that the sources of body‐wave noise are extremely heterogeneous in both space and time, which should be accounted for in future studies using body‐wave noise to image Earth structure.more » « less
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Abstract Lithospheric discontinuities, including the lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary (LAB) and the enigmatic mid‐lithospheric discontinuities (MLDs), hold important clues about the structure and evolution of tectonic plates. However, P‐ and S‐receiver‐function (PRF and SRF) techniques, two traditional techniques to image Earth's deep discontinuities, have some shortcomings in imaging lithosphere discontinuities. Here, we propose a new method using reflections generated by teleseismic S waves (hereafter S‐reflections) to image lithospheric discontinuities, which are less affected by multiple phases than PRFs and have better depth resolution than SRFs. We apply this method to the data collected by the Transportable Array and other regional seismic networks and obtain new high‐resolution images of the lithosphere below the contiguous US. Beneath the tectonically active Western US, we observe a negative polarity reflector (NPR) in the depth range of 60–110 km, with greatly varying amplitude and depth, which correlates with active tectonic processes. We interpret this feature as the LAB below the Western US. Beneath the tectonically stable Central and Eastern US, we observe two NPRs in the depth ranges of 60–100 km and 100–150 km, whose amplitude and depth also vary significantly, and which appear to correlate with past tectonic processes. We interpret these features as MLDs below the Central and Eastern US. Our results show reasonable agreement with results from PRFs, which have similar depth resolution, suggesting the possibility of joint inversion of S‐reflections and PRFs to constrain the properties of lithospheric discontinuities.more » « less
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Abstract Topside reverberations off mantle discontinuities are commonly observed at long periods, but their interpretation is complicated because they include both near‐source and near‐receiver reflections. We have developed a method to isolate the stationside reflectors in large data sets with many sources and receivers. Analysis of USArray transverse‐component data from 3,200 earthquakes, using directSas a reference phase, shows clear reflections off the 410‐ and 660‐km discontinuities, which can be used to map the depth and brightness of these features. Because our results are sensitive to the impedance contrast (velocity and density), they provide a useful complement to receiver‐function studies, which are primarily sensitive to theSvelocity jump alone. In addition, reflectors in our images are more spread out in time than in receiver functions, providing good depth resolution. Our images show strong discontinuities near 410 and 660 km across the entire USArray footprint, with intriguing reflectors at shallower depths in many regions. Overall, the discontinuities in the east appear simpler and more monotonous with a uniform transition zone thickness of 250 km compared to the western United States. In the west, we observe more complex discontinuity topography and small‐scale changes below the Great Basin and the Rocky Mountains, and a decrease in transition‐zone thickness along the western coast. We also observe a dipping reflector in the west that aligns with the top of the high‐velocity Farallon slab anomaly seen in some tomography models, but which also may be an artifact caused by near‐surface scattering of incomingSwaves.more » « less
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