This research is to study the continental collision between India and Eurasia which, because of the enormous scales involved, provides one of the best opportunities for investigating seismogenic continental tectonics in a wide variety of environments. Most of the data to be used are the under-utilized seismic records of the former Soviet Union in cooperation with a Russian research group at Institute of the Physics of the Earth headed by Dr. Vinnik. Objectives of the study are 1) to investigate the nature of the phase transitions in the mantle beneath different parts of Asia and determine their relationships to regional tectonics, 2) to investigate buoyancy forces in the generation of the Tien Shan by means of earthquake source parameters, 3) to investigate the nature of the upper mantle beneath the Caucuses, Baikal region, and Tibet through the analysis of S and SS phases, 4) to investigate the structure of the crust and upper mantle in the Altai region through travel-time tomography and receiver-function analysis, and 5) to investigate Kurile- Kamchatka subducting slab structure. This research is a component of the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program.
