Effects of seismic anisotropy on P-velocity tomography of the Baltic Shield

We investigate possible effects of neglecting seismic anisotropy on standard isotropicP-velocity tomographic images of the upper mantle beneath the Baltic shield. Isotropic inversions of teleseismicP- andS-wave traveltimes exhibit alternating high- and low-velocity heterogeneities down to depths of over 400 km. Differences in tomographic inversions ofSV- andSH-wave traveltimes are distinct down to depths of about 200 km and are associated with anisotropy of the lithospheric mantle. Anisotropic structures of the upper mantle affect both thePandStraveltimes, shear-wave splitting as well as thePpolarization directions. Joint inversion for isotropic and anisotropic velocity perturbations is not feasible due to the limited 3-D ray coverage of available data. Therefore, we correct the input traveltimes for anisotropic contributions derived from independent analyses and then perform standard isotropic inversions. These corrections are derived either directly from directional deviations ofP-wave propagation or are calculated in anisotropic models retrieved by joint inversions of body-wave anisotropic parameters (P-residual spheres and shear-wave splitting). These anisotropic models are also used to fit backazimuth variations ofP-wave polarization directions. General features of tomographic images calculated from the original and the anisotropy-corrected data are similar. Amplitudes of the velocity perturbations decrease below ~200 km depth, that is in the sub-lithospheric mantle. In general, large-scale anisotropy related to the fabrics of the continental mantle lithosphere can contaminate tomographic images in some parts of models and should not be ignored.