SeismicPvelocitystructureisdeterminedfortheupper500kmoftheinnercoreandlowermost200kmoftheoutercorefromdifferentialtraveltimesandamplituderatios.ResultsconfirmtheexistenceofagloballyuniformFregionofreducedPvelocitygradientinthelowermostoutercore,consistentwithironenrichmentneartheboundaryofasolidifyinginnercore.Pvelocityoftheinnercorebetweenthelongitudes45oEand180oE(quasi-EasternHemisphere)isgreaterthanorequaltothatofanAK135-Freferencemodelwhereasthatbetween180oWand45oE(quasi-WesternHemisphere)islessthanthatofthereferencemodel.Observationofthisheterogeneitytoadepthof550kmbelowtheinnercoreandtheexistenceoftransitionsratherthansharpboundariesbetweenquasi-hemispheresfavoreithernoorveryslowinnercoresuperrotationoroscillationswithrespecttothemantle.DegreeoneseismicheterogeneitymaybebestexplainedbyactiveinnercorefreezingbeneaththeequatorialIndianOceandominatingstructureinthequasi-EasternHemisphereandinnercoremeltingbeneathequatorialPacificdominatingstructureinthequasi-WesternHemisphere.Variationsinwaveformsalsosuggesttheexistenceofsmaller-scale(1to100km)heterogeneity.
