Mapping Crust and Upper Mantle Structure Beneath Southern Eurasia
Abstract
In this study of lateral variations in compressional velocity in the uppermost mantle underneath the Tibetan plateau, 353 Pn travel times were collected for 44 Tibetan earthquakes at 46 seismic stations. The inverse method and procedures in this study differ from previous Pn tomography studies in that corrections were applied to the biases caused by (1) event mislocation by ISC, (2) mantle velocity gradient, and (3) large-scale variations in crustal thicknesses. Main results to date are: (1) the average P velocity value for the uppermost mantle in Tibet is 7.93+/-0.17 km/s; (2) the average P velocity gradient in the upper 150 km of the mantle is 3.1 x 10(exp-3)1/s; (3) the 2D P velocity image of the region includes a low velocity zone in the north central Tibet, and two high velocity zones in the western and eastern flanks of Tibet; and (4) in much of the area inside Tibet, the crustal thickness exceeds 70 km. Another important finding of this study is that event relocation (see the bias 1) plays a very important role in reliably retrieving the detailed lateral variations in 2D P velocity image. Corrections to biases 2 and 3, seem to have a greater effect on the average of the velocity image, causing over-estimations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 31, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA278529
Entities
People
- Donald V. Helmberger
Organizations
- California Institute of Technology