Review ArticleConstraints on the Moho in Japan and Kamchatka

This review collects and systematizes in one place a variety of results which offer constraints on the depth and the nature of the Moho beneath the Kamchatka peninsula and the islands of Japan. We also include studies of the Izu-Bonin volcanic arc. All results have already been published separately in a variety of venues, and the primary goal of the present review is to describe them in the same language and in comparable terms.For both regions we include studies using artificial and natural seismic sources, such as refraction and reflection profiling, detection and interpretation of converted-mode body waves (receiver functions), surface wave dispersion studies (in Kamchatka) and tomographic imaging (in Japan). The amount of work done in Japan is significantly larger than in Kamchatka, and resulting constraints on the properties of the crust and the uppermost mantle are more detailed.Japan and Kamchatka display a number of similarities in their crustal structure, most notably the average crustal thickness in excess of 30 km (typical of continental regions), and the generally gradational nature of the crust-mantle transition where volcanic arcs are presently active.

► This is an invited contribution to the Book of Moho at 100. ► It covers history and results of studies of the crust-mantle transition in Japan and Kamchatka. ► Kamchatka and Japan are similar in their crust and upper mantle structure.