Testing the splitting intensity methodology to retrieve average, dipping, and depth dependent anisotropy from a complex subduction model

Seismic anisotropy measurements provide a lot of information on the deformation and structure of the Earth’s interior, in particular of the upper mantle. Conventional methods of measurement of anisotropy have their limitations, especially regarding depth resolution. Splitting intensity (SI) is a seismic observable, related to the amount of energy on the transverse component waveform and, to a first order, it is linearly related to the elastic perturbations of the medium through the 3-D sensitivity kernels, that can be therefore inverted, allowing a high-resolution image of the upper-mantle anisotropy. Starting from synthetic SKS waveforms, we first derived high-quality SKS splitting intensity measurements; then we used the splitting intensity data as input into tomographic inversion. This approach enables high‐resolution tomographic images of horizontal upper‐mantle anisotropy through recovering vertical and lateral changes in anisotropy and represents a propaedeutic step to the real cases of subduction settings. Additionally, this approach was able to detect regions of strong dipping anisotropy by allowing a 360° periodic dependence of the splitting vector. Single and thick layers of dipping angles between 30 and 60° are clearly represented with a high dt₂ value, while double layers or nearly vertical dips are more difficult to identify.