Abstract
A fundamental problem of earthquake seismology is the occurrence of the upper mantle low-velocity channel. This study is intended to examine its existence in the upper mantle below the Northwestern Pacific on the basis of body-wave arrivals at a bottom-mounted hydrophone near Wake Island. A comparison of the observed travel times and the Jeffreys-Bullen travel times shows an extreme anomaly in the 21- to 33-degree range for both P and S waves. Assumed linear paths suggest a P-wave-channel upper boundary between 165 km and 185 km, and a lower boundary between 290 km and 542 km. Travel times for P and S waves indicate that the velocities in the channel remain constant at 8.1 km/sec and 4.65 km/sec respectively.