Layered anisotropy within the crust and lithospheric mantle beneath the Sea of Japan

Continental rifting during the Oligocene to mid-Miocene caused the opening of the Sea of Japan and the separation between the Japanese Islands and the Eurasian Plate. The tectonic evolution in the Sea of Japan is important for understanding the evolution of back-arc regions in active convergent margins. Here, we use data from the seismic stations surrounding the Sea of Japan to map the Rayleigh-wave azimuthal anisotropy in the crust and lithospheric mantle beneath the Sea of Japan. We explore the variations of Rayleigh-wave phase-velocity beneath the Sea of Japan in a broad period range (30-80 s). Rayleigh-wave dispersion curves are measured by the two-station technique for a total of 231 interstation paths using vertical-component broad-band waveforms at 22 seismic stations around the Sea of Japan from 1411 global earthquakes. The resulting maps of Rayleigh-wave phase velocity and azimuthal anisotropy allow the examination of azimuthal anisotropy at specific periods. They exhibit several regions with different isotropic and anisotropic patterns: the Japan Basin displays fast velocities at shorter periods (30 and 40 s) with NNE-SSW anisotropy, whereas at 60 s and longer, the velocities become slow even if the anisotropy remains NE-SW; the East China Sea shows fast velocities at all periods (30-80 s) with constant NW-SE anisotropy. Trench-normal anisotropy beneath the Japanese Islands is found at short periods (30-40 s) and become trench-parallel at periods of 60 s and longer. Overall, our model resolves two layers of anisotropy, the shallowest and deepest layers being potentially related to frozen deformation due to recent geodynamic events, and asthenospheric flow, respectively.