Seismic Studies of the Caspian Basin and Surrounding Regions,
Abstract
The crust and upper mantle structure of the south Caspian Basin and the Turkmenian Lowlands is enigmatic. From Soviet deep seismic sounding data collected in the 1960's, the crust appears to consists of two layers: a thick sedimentary section (15-25 km) with low P-wave velocity (3.5-4.0 km/s) overlying a 12-18 km thick basaltic lower crust. It has been suggested that this basaltic lower crust is 'oceanic-like' crust and that the south Caspian Basin represents a section of-relic ocean from a Paleozoic - Triassic ocean or a Mesozoic - Paleogene marginal sea. Improved knowledge of the crust and upper mantle velocity structure of the south Caspian Basin is important in a seismic verification context because of the anomalous effect it has on regional seismic waveforms. To investigate the crust and upper mantle structure of the south Caspian Basin, we have installed six three-component seismograph stations within the former Soviet Republics of Turkmenia and Azerbaijan. Our objective is to determine the velocity structure of this region using both body wave receiver function and surface wave modeling techniques. We present receiver function inversion results for four sites and fundamental mode Rayleigh wave observations for two great circle paths across this region.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 14, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADP204433
Entities
People
- Keith Priestley
- Stephen Mangino
Organizations
- University of Cambridge