propagation characteristics of lg across the tibetan plateau abstract we present the results of a study on the propagation of lg within the tibetan plateau we analyze over 1200 seismograms for lg propagation from 185 local and regional earthquakes recorded at distances from 150 to 2000 km 52 of which are located within the tibetan plateau although the propagation of lg has been observed across most of asia lg has not been observed for paths crossing the tibetan plateau we analyze paths that cross the plateau boundaries and paths contained entirely within the tibetan plateau lg is generated within the tibetan plateau and can propagate to epicentral distances of at least 600 km for events located outside of the tibetan plateau lg is either absent or severely diminished for paths that cross both the himalayan and kunlun ranges confirming that the margins of the plateau weaken lg transmission based on the observations from our qualitative analysis we invert lg amplitudes for event station paths that are confined to the tibetan plateau to estimate the quality factor q the inversion yields a frequency dependent q function q f 366 37 f 0 45 0 06 0 5 f 16 h z similar observations in other areas indicate that frequency dependent apparent q within the tibetan plateau is well below that expected for a typical continental interior instead it has a frequency dependence that is characteristic of a tectonically active region

test ban treaty verification with regional data a review this paper summarizes the use of regional 30 seismic data in a test ban context for detecting locating identifying and determining the yield of underground nuclear explosions in many areas of the world eastern north america africa eastern ussr lg is the largest amplitude wave recorded on standard seismograph systems and thus is the most appropriate phase for monitoring small magnitude events excellent location capability for near regional events has been demonstrated at the norwegian small aperture array noress using lg and p waves lg and other regional phases may contain information on source depth but such information has not been exploited to date fifteen classes of regional discriminants have been identified including 1 1 first motion 2 2 ms mb 3 3 p2 p1 ratio 4 4 excitation of short period sh waves 5 5 lg rg amplitude ratios 6 6 pn lg pg lg and pmax lg amplitude ratios 7 7 lg group velocity and energy ratios in lg 8 8 excitation of sn 9 9 third moment of frequency 10 10 generation of higher mode surface waves 11 11 peak amplitudes of love and rayleigh waves and long period surface wave energy density 12 12 prevailing period of long period love waves 13 13 spectral ratio long period s waves to rayleigh waves 14 14 spectral ratio long period love waves to rayleigh waves 15 15 frequency of the peak spectral amplitudes and spectral ratios in pn pg s and lg each of these proposed discriminants has with differing degrees of success separated some explosions from some earthquakes however most have been tested only on limited data usually from one geographic region and only one or two recording stations no systematic analyses have been done to determine the best individual discriminant or combination of them preliminary evaluation of the use of lg for yield determination suggests that regional waves hold promise in this application theoretical studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of propagation characteristics of regional waves but further studies are required emphasizing modeling for realistic anisotropic sources the major conclusion of this study is that a systematic and comparative evaluation of all the proposed regional discriminants is now required utilizing a common data base derived from all present day test sites this evaluation would suggest the optimal discrimination procedure using regional waves and would also define areas of needed research without such an integrated evaluation it is still possible to speculate using existing results on the most promising regional discriminants

an inversion of lg wave attenuation and site response in the north china region a joint inversion method for determining the lg wave attenuation along the propagation path and site response based on seismic spectral ratios was developed and applied to invert the lg wave attenuation and site response in the north china region is related to the quality factor q by f uq where u is the velocity waveform data of 200 earthquakes during 2006 2008 with m l 1 7 5 5 in the area of 38 41 n 114 120 e were selected for this study more than 1500 three component records chosen from 81 stations on the basis of the signal to noise ratio were used in the inversion the waveform data were processed in the frequency range of 1 6 hz with an interval of 0 2 hz the results indicate that there is remarkable heterogeneity in lg wave attenuation in the study area we divided the area into four regions according to the lg wave propagation paths lower values are found in the tectonic mountain region higher values occur in the tectonic basin region and moderate values are found for the propagation paths passing through both the mountain and basin regions on the vertical component was found to be frequency dependent and in the form graphic 1 and graphic 2 for propagation paths in the mountain and basin regions respectively and graphic 3 and graphic 4 for paths passing through both mountain and basin regions with seismic ray direction from the mountain to the basin and vise versa respectively the absolute quality factor q ranges from 125 to 306 the response of rock sites is smooth and flat and less than five at low frequency while that for soil sites is higher than for rock sites for soil sites the amplification of low frequency waves is higher than that for high frequency waves for both site response and attenuation no significant differences were observed between different components online material source parameters of the studied earthquakes 1 embed inline graphic 1 gif 2 embed inline graphic 2 gif 3 embed inline graphic 3 gif 4 embed inline graphic 4 gif

the complete synthesis of seismic crustal phases at regional distances using a new method to evaluate green s functions for elastic layered media we compute complete synthetic seismograms at regional distances for an earthquake in the earth crust we choose as source parameters the ones inferred for an earthquake in central france and compare the computed seismograms to the ones recorded at several short period stations of the french seismic network the major features of the records including complexity and duration are well reproduced by the synthetics lg waves which are the prominant phase are shown to be guided waves made up of sh and sv waves incident on the moho at angles of incidence more grazing than the critical angle and multiply reflected within the crust the length of the computed lg wave coda extends between group velocities of 3 5 and 2 8 km s and is in good agreement with the data

on regional s the character of regional s wave trains is quite complex and consists of two major elements sn waves which principally travel in the upper mantle and lg waves guided in the earth s crust the effect of lateral heterogeneity is to modify the signals for these phases compared with the predictions for horizontally stratified models however complete synthetic seismogram calculations for simple stratified crustal models for a suite of distances out to 950 km including both sn and lg provide a range of insights into the nature of the s wave train in particular late picks of sn arrivals are likely to arise because the actual s onset has been missed in the p coda and a higher amplitude surface multiple phase with an extra crustal delay has been picked instead such a effect was first recognized by lapwood 1955 in a study of the iss readings for a sequence of japanese events recorded at regional distances but has usually not been taken into consideration in studies using regional networks lateral heterogeneity along the propagation path has the effect of inducing interconversion between sn and lg energy and thus alters the character of the s wave train the lower attenuation for s in the uppermost mantle compared with the crust frequently leaves sn as the most prominent phase at ranges greater than 1000 km long range propagation of high frequency lg requires a relatively undisturbed crust

lg wave propagation in a laterally varying crust and the distribution of the apparent quality factor in central france the aim of this study is to evaluate the sensitix ity of lg waves to lateral changes of the earth s structure considering a simple model of uplift of the moho numerical simulations show that the geometrical attenuation of lg is not much affected by a smooth anomaly of the moho depth on the other hand the passing of the lg wave through the region of the moho uplift results in a clear deterioration of the wave shapes which confirms the occurrence of mode conversions the presence of an overlying sedimentary basin causes a local amplification of lg above the basin itself and the appearance behind the basin of a secondary surface wave guided in the sediments the effect of the basin on the lg wave is found to be reasonably taken into account by applying a local amplification function to the data we use a data set consisting of records of lg phases in france to test the conclusions of our numerical study the mapping of the apparent quality factor computed from lg at different frequencies confirms the interpretation of the strong attenuation of s waves around i hz in terms of scattering and shows the weak sensitivity of the amplitude of lg to smooth changes in the depth of the moho

timing of tibetan uplift constrained by analysis of volcanic rocks the tibetan plateau has had a central role in the development of recent models for the mechanics of mountain belts1 2 and cenozoic global climate change3 the present elevation and extensional deformation of the plateau probably result from uplift owing to convective thinning of the underlying lithospheric mantle1 2 an age for the uplift would provide a valuable constraint on these models but because recently proposed indicators of uplift are all climate dependent they are equivocal possibly reflecting global cooling rather than regional uplift4 here we present new geochemical data on post mid miocene lavas from the plateau which show that the lavas were derived from the lithospheric mantle simple thermal arguments indicate that the generation of such magmas also necessitates thinning of the lithospheric mantle thus volcanism is coincident with uplift providing a climate independent means of dating the onset of uplift dating by the laser 40ar 39ar technique places the beginning of this volcanism and therefore the time of uplift of the tibetan plateau at 13 myr ago

observations of regional phase propagation across the tibetan plateau we present observations of regional phase velocity and propagation characteristics using data recorded during a 1 year deployment of broadband digital seismic stations across the central tibetan plateau along the qinghai tibet highway from golmud to lhasa previous seismological studies within this region have had to rely on earthquakes recorded almost exclusively at stations outside of the plateau we have the opportunity to study numerous source receiver paths confined entirely within the tibetan plateau our analysis concentrates on travel time amplitude and frequency content measurements of the pg pn and sn phases pn can be clearly picked for all observed paths and propagates at an average velocity of 8 16 0 07 km s within the tibetan plateau sn however shows dramatic variations in propagation efficiency across the tibetan plateau that is strongly dependent on frequency we observe that sn rapidly decreases in frequency and amplitude as it passes through the northern portion of the plateau we show that in general sn propagation efficiency decreases with increasing frequency content we use 122 events from outside of the plateau and 61 from within to refine the boundaries of a region of inefficient high frequency sn propagation specifically we show that a larger portion of the northern tibetan plateau attenuates sn energy than was previously suggested in the southern plateau where high frequency sn is observed we computed an average velocity of 4 59 0 18 km s we also observed that the pn velocity within this region of inefficient high frequency sn propagation is nearly 4 slower than the pn velocity computed for paths restricted to the southern plateau and that the crust is about 10 km thinner than in the south the coincident locations of inefficient sn propagation and slow pn velocity is commonly observed in regions of active tectonics our results add constraints to the velocity structure of the lithosphere beneath the tibetan plateau and require first order lateral variations in the uppermost mantle structure despite the relatively uniform topography of the plateau

application of regional phase amplitude tomography to seismic verification we have applied tomographic techniques to amplitude data to quantify regional phase path effects for use in source discrimination studies tomography complements interpolation kriging methods by extending our ability to apply path corrections into regions devoid of calibration events as well as raising levels of confidence in the corrections because of their more physical basis our tomography technique solves for resolvable combinations of attenuation source generation site and spreading terms first difference regularization is used to remove singularities and reduce noise effects in initial tests the technique was applied to a data set of 1488 1 0 hz p g l g amplitude ratios from 13 stations for paths inside a 30 by 40 box covering western china and surrounding regions tomography reduced variance 60 relative to the power law distance correction traditionally applied to amplitude ratios relative p g l g attenuation varied with geologic region with low values in tibet intermediate values in basins and high values for platforms and older crust spatial patterns were consistent with previous path effect studies in asia especially local earthquake coda q relative spreading was consistent with expected values for p g and l g relative site terms were similar to one another yet some tradeoff with attenuation was evident tomography residuals followed systematic trends with distance which may result from the evolution from direct to coda phases focusing model tradeoff or data windowing effects examination of the residuals using a kriging interpolator showed coherent geographical variations indicating unmodeled path effects the residual patterns often follow geological boundaries which could result from attenuating zones or minor blockages that are too thin to be resolved or that have anisotropic effect on regional phases these results will guide efforts to reparameterize tomography models to more effectively represent regional wave attenuation and blockage the interpolated residuals also can be combined with predictions of the tomographic model to account for path effects in discrimination studies on a station by station basis

continental growth of northwest china the northwest corner of china is the most interior part of central asia and includes parts of the siberian tarim and kazakhstan plates where the junggar and tarim basins are separated by the east west trending tianshan range a preliminary terrane map divides the area into thirteen separate areas which are classified into four types l continental 2 oceanic crust 3 island arc 4 composite the boundaries for these terranes are faults that have been previously defined either by geologic mapping or holocene activity passive consolidation of the southern margin of paleo asia is marked by accretion and subduction of the paleo tethys oceanic basins and by development of volcanic arcs paleomagnetic data indicate that the major plates and associated smaller terranes did not reach final consolidation until the permian or later the stratigraphic record reveals development of intracontinental basins in the late carboniferous followed by the pan asian thermal event that gave rise to widespread intrusion of a type granites of late paleozoic age the frontal collision of india along the southern border of asia in the paleocene reactivated nearly all of the older major strike slip and thrust faults formed during the late paleozoic consolidation of paleo asia the complex nature of the continental growth of central asia has produced and destroyed many varieties of sutures and reconstruction of the original plate and terrane configurations therefore is enigmatic

pn velocities beneath continental collision zones the turkish iranian plateau summary tomographic imaging of the uppermost mantle velocity in the middle east shows normal pn velocities 8 0 8 2 kms beneath the black sea and the southern caspian sea in contrast low pn velocities 7 9 km s i are found beneath the aegean sea and much of the turkish iranian plateau a region of exceptionally low pn velocities c7 6 km s beneath the lesser caucasus mountains and along the turkish iranian border coincides with a region of high sn attenuation and extensive neogene volcanism all these features suggest that near solidus conditions exist within the uppermost mantle beneath the turkish iranian plateau such conditions may result either from the decompression melting associated with upwelling convection cells or by the infiltration of water released from subducted lithosphere into the mantle above the presence of a partially melted uppermost mantle weakens the lithosphere beneath the turkish iranian plateau thus allowing it to become the locus of deformation in the arabian eurasian collision zone

correlation of lg amplitude ratios from peaceful nuclear explosions to crustal structure in northern eurasia because the lg phase is strongly affected by the variations of crustal structure in some areas understanding these factors is important for nuclear test monitoring this study examines the effects of regional tectonic structure on lg propagation by using the peaceful nuclear explosion pne profiles in russia the logarithms of lg sn and lg pcoda pne amplitude ratios within the 0 5 to 3 hz frequency band are measured and correlated with the regional crustal structures both ratios are found to decrease within the areas with thick low velocity sedimentary cover and across tectonic boundaries with abrupt variations of crustal thickness for the offset derivatives of both the logarithmic ratios a linear relationship to the slopes of the moho and the vertical travel times within the sedimentary cover is determined a strong negative slope is observed along both crustal thinning and crustal thickening segments and a positive slope follows the negative slope across a crustal thickening segment therefore crustal thinning appears to affect the lg propagation stronger than crustal thickening which could be due to focusing lg energy within the crustal wave guide the log amplitude regression provided in this article could be useful for predicting lg behavior in areas where amplitude measurements are not available

implications of crustal property variations for models of tibetan plateau evolution shear coupled teleseismic p waves sampling the interior of the tibetan plateau provide evidence of systematic variations in crustal structure the crust thins by up to 20 km from south to north with a concomitant increase in poisson s ratio from normal values in the south to unusually high values in the north this suggests that the crust of the northern plateau is partially melted due to high temperatures these changes imply spatial and perhaps temporal variations in the way the elevation of the high plateau is created and maintained

propagation characteristics of short period sn and lg in the middle east abstract we present propagation characteristics of the short period regional seismic phases sn and lg for the middle east digital waveform data from the iranian long period array ilpa and the global seismic network gsn stations abkt alibek turkmenistan anto ankara turkey keg kottamya egypt and kiv kislovodsk georgia were used in this study three component rotated seismograms were bandpass filtered 0 5 to 5 0 hz and examined for the presence and strength amplitude of sn and lg relative to the pn and pg phases the short period sn and lg waveforms show great variability sn propagates efficiently for paths crossing the mediterranean black and caspian seas as well as for paths passing north of the greater caucasus alborz and kopet dag mountains generally sn is not observed or propagates inefficiently for paths with segments beneath the turkish plateau and northern iranian plateau consistent with a previous study by kadinsky cade et al 1981 this study finds that the zone of inefficient sn propagation coincides with a zone of low pn velocities pn tomography lg is consistently not observed for paths crossing the mediterranean black and caspian seas lg propagates efficiently for paths crossing the northern arabian shield generally lg propagates efficiently for paths contained within the turkish iranian plateau paths in the middle east greater than about 2000 km consistently show no or little lg energy the correspondence of zones of inefficient sn propagation and low pn velocities suggests that high temperatures and partial melt lie at shallow depths in the upper mantle beneath the turkish plateau and northern iranian plateau the presence of water presumably due to subduction of hydrated oceanic crust lowers the solidus temperature and enhances partial melt lg is blocked by oceanic crustal structures as well as by structural and topographic variations associated with tectonic boundaries

regional wave propagation in china and its surrounding regions a comprehensive study of the gross characteristics of high frequency seismic wave propagation in china and its surrounding regions was accomplished to learn more about how regional geology affects high frequency phases amplitudes of the regional seismic waves sn and lg relative to p coda were used to map lateral variations of shear wave attenuation in the crust and upper mantle over 7000 digital seismograms from 13 broadband stations of the chinese digital seismic network and global seismic network in the frequency range 0 5 to 5 0 hz were visually examined propagation efficiencies of sn and lg were qualitatively analyzed by ranking their amplitudes relative to the p wave coda efficient sn propagation is observed in the tien shan tarim platform southern tibet yangzi paraplatform and sino korean platform we have confirmed results of previous studies by finding a lack of sn transmission in north central tibet the ryukyu and japan arcs burma and the baikal rift an important observation which has not been previously reported is that sn does not propagate across mongolia the elimination of sn and the occurrence of recent volcanism in north central tibet and mongolia suggest that there is partial melt in the uppermost mantle beneath those regions high frequency lg waves propagate efficiently for most of china indochina and mongolia lg signals are attenuated within central tibet as well as along its southern boundary crustal structure variations along with an anomalously low q crust are primarily responsible for weakened lg amplitudes in tibet propagation paths across oceanic crust in the sea of japan and the andaman sea show blockage of the lg phase as well this investigation has relevance to comprehensive test ban treaty monitoring by showing where certain regional phases will or will not propagate efficiently

strong lg attenuation in the tibetan plateau the widespread existence of strong lg attenuation in the tibetan plateau is further demonstrated by analysis of lg spectra on many paths within the plateau and quantitative estimates of the lg attenuation from low frequency lg signals for new localized path geometries strong path length dependent shifts of the lg spectra to lower corner frequencies with increasing distance are observed across the plateau consistent with a low regional average 1 hz lg attenuation value q 0 of about 125 there are clearly lateral variations within the plateau found in this and other recent studies with localized areas having q 0 values of 60 90 low enough to eliminate high frequency lg energy over path lengths of just several hundred kilometers while some localized areas may have higher q 0 values of up to 147 or higher a q 0 value of 103 is found in south central tibet compatible with recent work by others for higher frequencies on very localized scales and values from 83 to 147 are found in eastern tibet the lowest q 0 estimates found in tibet tend to be in areas for which there is evidence of volcanism and or partial melting within the crust however the strong regional attenuation may have a contribution from scattering by small scale crustal heterogeneity the strong lg attenuation in tibet gives a new constraint for understanding the tectonic development of the plateau and presents challenges to seismic monitoring of the region for possible clandestine nuclear tests

koroglu caldera mid west anatolia turkey volcanological and magmatological evolution abstract the koroglu caldera is a result of the eruption of seydiler ignimbrites which have been emplaced in two sequences known as lower seydiler ls and upper seydiler us the koroglu caldera measures 13 km 18 km contains a resurgent dome in the center and produced low aspect ratio ignimbrites which have been transported up to 50 km away from the source the ignimbrites show argillaceous weathering which decreases from the bottom towards the top of the deposits such a transition from ignimbrites to reworked tuffs indicates the development of a lacustrine environment over the ignimbrites spot image analysis shows that tectonic activity continued after the caldera collapse two main trends of tectonic elements ne sw and nw se have been distinguished the latter being the younger a nw se striking fault was used by lamprophyric magmas which were extruded into the post ignimbrite lacustrine deposits the lava flows and dikes trachybasalte trachyandesite also occur along the ring fractures of the caldera the dikes are composed of olivine phlogopite cr diopside salite k feldspar ba feldspar hyalophane the lava flows contain scarce cognate inclusions

1 hz lg q tomography in central asia we have applied tomographic techniques to a data set of over 1700 regional distance lg amplitudes from 12 stations for paths inside a 30 by 40 region of central asia our purpose is to create high resolution path correction maps for use in regional distance source discrimination and magnitude determination as well as to study lg propagation characteristics in one of the most heterogeneous portions of the earth for 1 0 hz data tomography reduced variance 33 relative to a best fit uniform q model lgq varied with geologic region with low values in tibet the tien shan and the pamir range q 200 to 400 intermediate values in basins such as the tarim q 500 and high values for platforms and older crust q 800 the relatively efficient propagation across the tarim differs from the poor propagation that is generally observed across sedimentary basins

variations in regional phase propagation in the area around japan the high level of seismicity and dense network of short period stations in japan allows a detailed characterization of regional phase propagation there are substantial differences depending on the location of the source and stations despite the structural complexity lg is clearly seen in many parts of japan lg is particularly well developed in the western part of the main island honshu and will propagates through some volcanic zones with loss of high frequency components there are also zones of lg blockage in northeastern honshu and for subduction zone events with significant oceanic paths for which the mantle phases pn and sn are particularly clear the oceanic region in the sea of japan blocks lg propagation paths for events in mainland asia at many stations but there are clear lg propagation corridors through korea to stations in the west kyushu western honshu and in the north into hokkaido the lg phase carries substantial energy for large events and the differences in efficiency of propagation influences the intensity of ground shaking thus the 1995 hyogo ken nanbu kobe earthquake shows intensity contours extended to the west in the region of efficient lg wave propagation the rg phase and the fundamental mode of love waves are very significant for the shallow 2000 tottori ken seibu event and the effect of the combination of lg with these slightly lower frequency surface waves would help to explain the discrepancy between the japan meteoro logical agency magnitude from regional stations mj 7 3 and the moment magnitude from distant observations m w 6 6

bayesian lg attenuation tomography applied to eastern asia bayesian attenuation tomography tarantola 1987 is being used to refine existing lg attenuation models in eastern asia the advantages of a bayesian approach to tomography are that large scale and high resolution tomographic models available from other well accepted studies can be used as prior background models the resulting refined tomographic model will blend into these prior background models moreover the uncertainties are well established in a bayesian framework we assume a general linear gaussian least squares model where the covariance matrix is partitioned into data and prior model components uncertain data are naturally down weighted and model components with small errors will be subject to little change amplitude tomography provides only an approximation to the propagation effects a seismic wave may experience for example phase blockage can occur over relatively short distances in the absence of any anelastic effects station centric kriged amplitude correction surfaces on top of the tomographic models may assist in identifying blocked paths because a signal to noise criterion is used to select amplitudes for the inversion the data are left censored and the resulting q 0 models will be biased high we examine the utility of a maximum likelihood data augmentation method to the left censored data problem schafer 1997 in this case we can only measure an upper bound to measured amplitudes on the basis of prephase noise data augmentation is used to impute the missing data values with their conditional expectation based on the relationship of amplitudes with other completely observed variables we have initially chosen a bivariate gaussian model for filling in missing amplitudes based on the relationship between amplitude and prephase noise we apply the technique to eastern asia for lg signals at 1 hz using data from 1651 earthquakes recorded at 12 stations tomographic patterns correlate well with those expected from geophysical considerations e g high attenuation in tibet and low attenuation up into the stable regions of kazakhstan many of the large cratonic basins surrounding the tibet plateau e g tarim junggar show reduced attenuation consistent with the hypothesis that they represent regions of stronger lithosphere data augmentation tends to increase attenuation in tibet particularly western tibet and the cratonic basins to the north of but not to the east of tibet in addition the resulting models are much smoother than models that do not account for censoring

crust and upper mantle structure beneath western china from p wave travel time tomography 1 three dimensional velocity images of the crust and upper mantle beneath western china are obtained through seismic tomography by using p wave arrival times of local regional and teleseismic events recorded in chinese and kyrgyzstan seismic networks at shallow depths most mountain belts and tectonically elevated areas are imaged as higher velocities relative to adjacent sediment filled basins and foreland depressions with lower velocities at mid lower crust depths the kyrgyz tian shan is underlain by lower velocity material and a distinct low velocity zone in the south north direction is observed between the eastern and western parts of the chinese tian shan the moho of the southern tarim basin has a greater depth over 50 km in front of the western kun lun compared to the northern and western tarim basin lateral heterogeneity within the upper mantle is apparent at depths from 71 to 571 km the uppermost mantle beneath the kyrgyz tian shan altay qi lian and eastern kun lun is characterized by low velocity material that is probably related to the upwelling of hot mantle the lithospheric thickness varies from 120 to 170 km beneath the chinese tian shan and northern tibetan plateau to 200 250 km beneath the tarim basin deep coupling pattern of the chinese tian shan with adjacent provinces can be classified into the embedding detaching and sinking and underthrusting of lithospheric roots in addition the lithosphere of the northern edge of the tibetan plateau seems to be thickened in contrast to the central part of the northern plateau north dipping low velocities exist in the upper mantle between the tibetan plateau and provinces to its north which might indicate mantle flow from the tibetan plateau toward surrounding areas but it has been blocked by the thick tarim lithosphere

contrasts in regional seismic wave propagation to station wmq in central asia summary the varying character of regional seismic phase propagation in central asia is well illustrated by the character of the seismograms at the urumqi station wmq in xinjiang china three different classes of behaviour are seen for propagation across the relatively stable platforms to the north along the tien shan chain and across the tarim basin from tibet these paths demonstrate the influences of the variation in crustal structure on the regional phases particularly the tibetan plateau and its north and south boundaries but also the influence of the pamirs on propagation along the tien shan as an interference phase lg is sensitive to changes in crustal structure and can be used to study crustal heterogeneity lg can propagate along the tien shan chain trapped by the gradients in structure on either side but with a progressive loss in amplitude and frequency however once the northern boundary of tibet is crossed the high frequencies in the lg train are lost and there is little recognizable arrival the amplitude ratios of the different crustal phases pn sn and lg can be used to characterize the behaviour and the different classes of propagation can be further separated when account is made of the frequency content in the lg window the influence of the transitions in crustal structure at the northern edge of the tibetan plateau on propagation to wmq is investigated using numerical modelling with the pseudospectral method for models of crustal variations this demonstrates how the crustal pinch at the northern boundary operates to modify the fairly efficient propagation inside tibet with substantial transfer of energy into the mantle

attenuation of coda waves in southern tibet the alternation characteristics of the crust in the southernmost tibetan plateau are determined from analysis of s wave coda recorded at a temporary broadband station deployed during the 1994 indepth ii experiment a method for determining qc is developed which utilizes the coda spectrogram observed at a single station the average s wave coda quality factor for this continent continent collision zone is qc f 160 69 f f0 1 11 0 19 1 f f0 4 where f0 1hz the results are consistent with other measurements of qc f in continental collisional environments which typically exhibit low values of qc f at 1 hz and a strong dependence on frequency in particular the attenuation characteristics obtained for the arabian eurasian continental collisional boundary in western turkey are quite similar to the results reported here for the southern tibetan plateau

a preliminary study of regional seismic discrimination in central asia with emphasis on western china abstract in support of a comprehensive test ban treaty we have started to evaluate regional seismic event discrimination capabilities for central asia emphasizing western china we have measured noise and signal levels of over 260 earthquakes and 26 underground nuclear explosions recorded at the broadband digital station wmq in western china and over 120 earthquakes and five nuclear explosions at station aak in kyrgyzstan the explosions are from the kazakh test site kts and lop nor china the earthquakes are mostly from northwest china event magnitudes measured as either m b or m l range between 2 5 and 6 5 and maximum event station distance is about 1700 km we formed phase spectral cross spectral short period long period and long period ratios to test many possible event discriminants all ratios were corrected for distance effects before forming ratio versus magnitude discrimination plots the most consistent discriminants for separating earthquakes from explosions are p s phase ratios for frequencies above 3 to 4 hz p wave f 1 hz to rayleigh wave 0 03 hz f p s ratios separation between earthquakes and explosions increases with frequency and for the p r ratios separation increases with increasing p frequency the p 3 to 6 hz s 0 75 to 1 5 hz cross spectral ratios also separate earthquakes and explosions these cross spectral ratios may prove quite useful because due to weak high frequency l g signals from explosions the high frequency p l g ratio sometimes cannot be evaluated but the p 3 to 6 hz l g 0 75 to 1 5 hz can be evaluated successfully p spectral ratios 3 to 6 hz 0 75 to 1 5 hz also separate earthquakes and explosions but not quite as consistently as the p s ratios however p spectral ratios may prove useful in cases where path effects block or highly attenuate s n and l g waves rendering the p s ratios unavailable in contrast to nevada test site nts events the l g 3 to 6 hz 0 75 to 1 5 hz spectral ratio does not separate earthquakes and nuclear explosions in central asia this observation may be a source effect as asian explosions are thought to be detonated in highly lithified rocks below the water table while most of the smaller m b for station aak the short period spectral and cross spectral ratios identify a few earthquakes not recorded at wmq from the north pamir region that plot with the lop nor explosions the waveforms from these earthquakes lack surface waves and a distinct l g phase these events which we interpret as having occurred in a subducted slab do separate from the explosions on high frequency f 4 hz p s discrimination plots for station wmq long period r l rayleigh wave love wave ratios separate kts explosions and asian earthquakes however r l ratios fail to identify the large lop nor explosions recorded at station aak because the love waves are as large as the rayleigh waves suggesting that strong tectonic release occurs with these explosions because we have examined only one path at a single station for these explosions source radiation pattern may be influencing this observation

asymmetric upwarp of the asthenosphere beneath the baikal rift zone siberia in the summer of 1991 we installed 27 seismic stations about lake baikal siberia aimed at obtaining accurately timed digital seismic data to investigate the deep structure and geodynamics of the baikal rift zone and adjacent regions sixty six teleseismic events with high signal to noise ratio were recorded travel time and q analysis of teleseisms characterize an upwarp of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary under baikal theoretical arrival times were calculated by using the international association of seismology and physics of the earth s interior 1991 earth model and travel time residuals were found by subtracting computed arrival times from observed ones a three dimensional downward projection inversion method is used to invert the p wave velocity structure with constraints from deep seismic sounding data our results suggest that 1 the lithosphere asthenosphere transition upwarps beneath the rift zone 2 the upwarp has an asymmetric shape 3 the velocity contrast is 4 9 in the asthenosphere 4 the density contrast is 0 6 and 5 the p wave attenuation contrast t is 0 1 s

lateral variations of high frequency seismic wave propagation at regional distances across the turkish and iranian plateaus in this study we investigate crustal and uppermost mantle physical properties that characterize some of the continental plateaus of the middle east this is done as part of a larger effort to map and compare high frequency wave propagation at regional distances across the earth s continental plateaus thousands of short period wwssn seismograms recorded at stations located in the middle east and produced by earthquakes with epicentral distances less than about 20 were examined visually in an effort to study lateral variations of high frequency 0 5 2 hz seismic wave propagation across this area particularly to the north of the zone of continental collision between the africa arabian and eurasian plates variations of frequencies and amplitudes of sn and lg relative to p are examined and mapped throughout the region and this work is supplemented by a study of velocities of pn sn and lg sn amplitude variations are very striking in this area an important observation of this study is that sn propagates efficiently beneath a major part of the turkish and iranian plateaus sn is strongly attenuated however in the northernmost portion of the plateaus south of the black and caspian seas and in an area between the two seas these regions are characterized in general by active tectonism including volcanism faulting and folding however this active tectonism is not restricted to the areas of high sn attenuation but appears to extend beneath other parts of the iranian and turkish plateaus patterns of lateral variations in the propagation of lg are not as consistent as those for sn lg propagates efficiently across turkey iran and adjacent regions but the lg waves that cross the turkish and iranian plateaus are weak and have relatively long predominant periods of about 2 5 s the lg phase is not observed when the path of propagation crosses the southern caspian and the black seas consistent with the evidence of oceanic type crustal structure beneath these seas lg is also not observed from subcrustal events located in the hindu kush region the velocity of pn beneath most of the plateau areas and particularly in the regions of sn attenuation ranges between 8 0 and 8 2 km s velocities for sn and lg throughout the middle east are about 4 5 and 3 4 km s respectively it is possible to interpret the efficient sn propagation and the relatively normal uppermost mantle p and s velocities beneath a major part of the turkish iranian plateau as indicating a partial underthrusting of the arabian continental plate beneath the iranian and turkish continental blocks alternatively the mapped regions of efficient sn propagation and high sn attenuation may result from a differential cooling of a past thermal anomaly in this case the isostatic compensation of the plateaus could be due to an anomalously hot uppermost mantle that developed behind the mid to upper tertiary subduction zone s in this region and to a subsequent crustal shortening after the collision of the arabian and eurasian plates our results cannot uniquely confirm the validity of the above proposed models

high frequency seismic wave propagation beneath the indian shield himalayan arc tibetan plateau and surrounding regions high uppermost mantle velocities and efficient sn propagation beneath tibet summary this paper reports the regional propagation characteristics of high frequhcy p p s and l waves 0 5 to 2hz and p pg and s velocities for several regions in central asia tibet and india an important result is that s waves propagate efficiently in the uppermost mantle beneath most of the tibetan plateau also s transmission in tibet is not affected by crossing many physiographic and tectonic boundaries such as the indus tsangpo suture these observations are similar to observations of s propagation in stable continental and shield regions efficient s propagation is also observed across the stable tarim basin along the tien shan and himalayan mountains and across the indian shield s is strongly attenuated across the northern tibetan plateau chang thang terrane such strong attenuation suggests the existence of a low q zone in the uppermost mantle beneath that region this interpretation is supported by recent geological observations of widespread quaternary to recent basaltic volcanism in the chang thang terrane l propagates efficiently across the tarim basin the indian shield and along the strike of the himalayan mountains l is also observed although less pronounced for paths crossing large portions of the complicated structures of tien shan karakoram and pamir l is not observed for paths crossing the tibetan plateau the southern boundary of the region of inefficient l propagation in tibet lies in the vicinity of the indus tsangpo suture zone the lack of l can be attributed to attenuation within the tibetan crust however other possibilities including scattering by structural discontinuities at the margins of tibet are equally plausible pg and s are the most prominent features on most short period wwssn seismograms at epicentral distances less than about 4 apparent pg velocity determined for the area of the himalayan mountains is 6 0 0 2 km s l apparent velocities of p and s waves that have at least 50 per cent of their paths in the uppermost mantle beneath the tibetan plateau are 8 42 it 0 10 and 4 73 f 0 06 km s respectively these velocities are quite similar to those determined for the himalayan mountains p 8 45 f 0 08 km s i s 4 74 0 05 km s and the indian shield p 8 40 0 08 km s s 4 69 k 0 04 km s p