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Abstract: Oceanic plates subducted at trenches penetrate into the deep mantle, and encounter a structural boundary at a depth of 410km where olivine, the dominant element of mantle rocks, transforms into a higher density form wadsleyite. This transformation may be delayed within the coldest core of subducting plates (slabs) due to kinetic effects, and it has been suggested that metastable olivine may persist deeper than 410km. Using high density seismic array data in Japan, we show the direct image of the structure corresponding to this metastable olivine wedge (MOW) beneath southwest Japan. Numerical simulation of a subducting slab, including the kinetic effect of water (H2O) on the olivine–wadsleyite transformation, indicates that the presence of the imaged MOW requires an insignificant amount of water (less than 100wt. ppm) be present in the slab mantle, thus a deep dry cold slab. We infer that the transportation of water into the deep mantle occurs along the top surface of the subducting slab, but no significant amount within the slab itself. We also demonstrate that a numerical simulation including the kinetics of 660-km phase transformation can reconcile the observed deep depression of the 660-km discontinuity with a gentle Clapeyron slope. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

High frequency energy radiation of large earthquakes is a key to evaluating shaking damage and is an important source characteristic for understanding rupture dynamics. We developed a new inversion method, Image Deconvolution Back-Projection (IDBP) to retrieve high frequency energy radiation of seismic sources by linear inversion of observed images from a back-projection approach. The observed back-projection image for multiple sources is considered as a convolution of the image of the true radiated energy and the array response for a point source. The array response that spreads energy both in space and time is evaluated by using data of a smaller reference earthquake that can be assumed to be a point source. The synthetic test of the method shows that the spatial and temporal resolution of the source is much better than that for the conventional back-projection method. We applied this new method to the 2001 M w 7.8 Kunlun earthquake using data recorded by Hi-net in Japan. The new method resolves a sharp image of the high frequency energy radiation with a significant portion of supershear rupture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]