Exciting news! We're transitioning to the Statewide California Earthquake Center. Our new website is under construction, but we'll continue using this website for SCEC business in the meantime. We're also archiving the Southern Center site to preserve its rich history. A new and improved platform is coming soon!

SKS Splitting Beneath Southern California

Hong Liu, Paul M. Davis, & Steve Gao

Published 1995, SCEC Contribution #182

Measurements of SKS phase splitting were obtained from nineteen seismic stations in southern California. The fast polarization directions are 53° at the southern end of the Great Valley, 82±8° in the western Transverse Ranges and northern Peninsular Ranges, 95±4° in Mojave Desert, and 70° on San Clemente Island. The splitting time ranges from 0.8 to 1.8 seconds, which is consistent with an anisotropic layer of 100 to 200 km thick for 4% anisotropy.

Citation
Liu, H., Davis, P. M., & Gao, S. (1995). SKS Splitting Beneath Southern California. Geophysical Research Letters, 22(7), 767-770.