Upper-mantle structure in southern Norway from beamforming of Rayleigh wave data presenting multipathing

A model for the upper mantle SV-wave velocity under southern Norway is obtained by depth inversion of the average phase velocity of the Rayleigh wave fundamental mode in the area. The average dispersion curve is obtained in the period range 22–200 s by beamforming of 190 Rayleigh waves recorded by the MAGNUS network, a temporary regional network of 41 broad-band stations. Resolution of the beamforming procedure is increased by deconvolving the original beams from the array response function using the Lucy–Richardson algorithm. In addition to an average phase velocity, beamforming gives us some information concerning the nature of the incoming wavefield. We detect deviations of the wave propagation direction from the great-circle paths which commonly reach 10° at a period of 25 s for the teleseismic events. The amplitude of the deviations decreases with increasing period and with decreasing epicentral distance, as expected. The phase velocity measured by beamforming does not show any correlation with the deviation from great circle path, suggesting that deviation does not bias phase velocity measurements. We detect also significant multipathing with characteristics that vary rapidly with frequency. The obtained SV-wave velocity profile clearly shows that southern Norway is underlain by a low-velocity zone in the upper mantle and does not have shield-like characteristics, despite its location in the Baltic shield. These findings support the hypothesis that the high topography of southern Norway is sustained by anomalous upper-mantle material.