Jenny Jenkins

My current focus is on imaging strange and poorly understood features sitting on the core-mantle boundary of the Earth known as ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZs). ULVZs are small in size, 100s by 10s km, but show huge reductions in seismic wave speed compared to the rest of the mantle (10-50%). We currently have very little understanding about what these features are or what effect they have on the large scale convective mantle processes. My current work looks at developing new seismic imaging techniques to better map out the detailed shape and characteristics of ULVZs, with the aim of identifying their underlying cause.