Developing Regionalized Models of Lithospheric Thickness and Velocity Structure Across Eurasia and the Middle East from Jointly Inverting P-Wave and S-Wave Receiver Functions with Rayleigh Wave Group and Phase Velocities
Abstract
The main goal of this project is to develop regionalized models of lithospheric velocity structure for a wide variety of tectonic regions throughout Eurasia and the Middle East. We expect the regionalized models will improve the ability of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) labs to predict travel times for local and regional phases, such as Pg, Pn, Sn and Lg, as well as travel times for body waves at upper-mantle triplication distances in both seismic and aseismic regions. The models have been developed following a two-step approach: (i) first one-dimensional (1D) velocity models for select broadband stations are obtained by jointly inverting P- and S-wave receiver functions and fundamental-mode group and phase dispersion velocities, and (ii) regionalized velocity models are then constructed by combining the 1D joint inversion models within each tectonic region and validated through regional waveform modeling. The velocity models thus obtained will also help inform and strengthen ongoing and future efforts within the NNSA labs to develop 3D velocity models for Eurasia and the Middle East, and will assist in obtaining model-based predictions where no empirical data are available and for improving locations from sparse networks. During the first year of this project, we have developed 1D velocity models for 54 locations in Europe and 10 locations in the Middle East. Receiver functions were computed from teleseismic P- and S-waveforms recorded at open broadband stations and archived at the Data Management Center of the Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology (IRIS-DMS), while dispersion velocities were obtained from an independent surface-wave tomography study for Eurasia and North Africa. Due to a combination of short recording time-windows and inefficient recording of teleseismic S-waves, some locations in Western Europe did not yield reliable S-wave receiver function estimates.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA569409
Entities
People
- Andrew A. Nyblade
- Arthur J. Rodgers
- Eric Matzel
- Jordi Julia
Organizations
- Pennsylvania State University