an outline of the plate tectonics of china china is principally a part of the eurasian plate but the margins of the indian and philippine sea plates are involved in the himalayas and in the coastal range of taiwan respectively within the eurasian plate the cathaysian paleoplate is separated from the angaraian paleoplate by the junggar hegen suture which contains paleozoic ophiolites and rare blueschists the three microplates of the cathaysian paleoplate consist of precambrian cratons and or phanerozoic accretionary fold belts these coalesced precambrian cratons record at least six stages of intense orogeny before cratonization the paleozoic to cenozoic accretionary fold belts of china can be correlated with similar events now found in west pacific andean and atlantic type active continental margins ophiolites occupying many of these tectonic zones provide evidence for the age and igneous history of oceanic crust formed during the paleozoic to cenozoic the presence of blueschist in some of these chinese sutures reveals evidence of large scale subduction and tectonic exhumation during consolidation of the eurasian plate cenozoic collision of the eurasian and indian plates produced deformation and uplift of the himalayas strongly influencing the tectonics of western china in contrast mesozoic tertiary evolution of eastern china is typical basin range geology similar to that of the western united states which included development of deep sedimentary basins along with calc alkaline plutonic and volcanic activity associated with crustal thinning and high heat flow the complicated tectonic evolution of china is greatly illuminated by the presence of ophiolites and blueschists in proterozoic to tertiary convergent boundaries these petrotectonic assemblages provide evidence of an extremely mobile history of plate movement in china

crustal velocity structure of the british isles a comparison of receiver functions and wide angle seismic data summary magmatic underplating at the base of the continental crust is thought to be an important consequence of mantle plume activity geochemical evidence supports the hypothesis of underplating beneath the british tertiary igneous province during palaeocene times a process that has been invoked to explain at least part of the observed pattern of cenozoic denudation and consequent offshore deposition this study uses receiver functions to independently test the results of modelling of four wide angle seismic lines across the british isles several of which indicate the presence of a lens of high velocity material at the base of the crust this lens has been interpreted as evidence of palaeogene magmatic underplating receiver functions were calculated for three permanent and two temporary three component broad band seismometers in order to detect p to s conversions from intracrustal velocity discontinuities high frequencies were preserved in the calculation of the receiver functions receiver functions were modelled using the delay times of the p to s converted arrivals only with constraints on the vp and vp vs structure imposed from controlled source data this pragmatic method of interpreting receiver function data agrees well with the results of applying an established inversion technique resulting crustal velocity models are broadly consistent with the velocity models from the wide angle lines showing evidence for a four layer crust with laterally varying moho depths of between 33 2 5 km beneath southwest ireland 32 2 5 km beneath northern and eastern ireland 31 2 km beneath the isle of man and 35 3 km beneath northern england while these velocity models are consistent with the presence of a lower crustal layer receiver functions are insensitive to the p wave velocity structure and so unfortunately they cannot be used to independently constrain the p wave velocity of the lower crust which is an important diagnostic of the presence of magmatic underplating

crustal deformation of the eastern tibetan plateau revealed by magnetotelluric imaging the ongoing collision of the indian and asian continents has created the himalaya and tibetan plateau through a range of deformation processes these include crustal thickening detachment of the lower lithosphere from the plate delamination and flow in a weakened lower crust 1 6 debate continues as to which of these processes are most significant 7 in eastern tibet large scale motion of the surface occurs but the nature of deformation at depth remains unresolved a large scale crustal flow channel has been proposed as an explanation for regional uplift in eastern tibet 6 8 9 but existing geophysical data 10 11 do not constrain the pattern of flow magnetotellurics uses naturally occurring electromagnetic waves to image the earth s subsurface here we present magnetotelluric data that image two major zones or channels of high electrical conductivity at a depth of 20 40 km the channels extend horizontally more than 800 km from the tibetan plateau into southwest china the electrical properties of the channels imply an elevated fluid content consistent with a weak crust 12 13 that permits flow on a geological timescale these findings support the hypothesis that crustal flow can occur in orogenic belts and contribute to uplift of plateaux our results reveal the previously unknown complexities of these patterns of crustal flow many previous studies of the indiaasia

surface wave tomography of the western united states from ambient seismic noise rayleigh and love wave phase velocity maps summary we present the results of rayleigh wave and love wave phase velocity tomography in the western united states using ambient seismic noise observed at over 250 broad band stations from the earthscope usarray transportable array and regional networks all available threecomponent time series for the 12 month span between 2005 november 1 and 2006 october 31 have been cross correlated to yield estimated empirical rayleigh and love wave green s functions the love wave signals were observed with higher average signal to noise ratio snr than rayleigh wave signals and hence cannot be fully explained by the scattering of rayleigh waves phase velocity dispersion curves for both rayleigh and love waves between 5 and 40 speriod were measured for each interstation path by applying frequency time analysis the average uncertainty and systematic bias of the measurements are estimated using a method based on analysing thousands of nearly linearly aligned station triplets we find that empirical green s functions can be estimated accurately from the negative time derivative of the symmetric component ambient noise cross correlation without explicit knowledge of the source distribution the average traveltime uncertainty is less than 1 s at periods shorter than 24 s we present rayleigh and love wave phase speed maps at periods of 8 12 16 and 20 s the maps show clear correlations with major geological structures and qualitative agreement with previous results based on rayleigh wave group speeds

seismic evidence for sharp lithosphere asthenosphere boundaries of oceanic plates the mobility of the lithosphere over a weaker asthenosphere constitutes the essential element of plate tectonics and thus the understanding of the processes at the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary lab is fundamental to understand how our planet works it is especially so for oceanic plates because their relatively simple creation and evolution should enable easy elucidation of the lab data from borehole broadband ocean bottom seismometers show that the lab beneath the pacific and philippine sea plates is sharp and age dependent the observed large shear wave velocity reduction at the lab requires a partially molten asthenosphere consisting of horizontal melt rich layers embedded in meltless mantle which accounts for the large viscosity contrast at the lab that facilitates horizontal plate motions

anisotropy of schists contribution of crustal anisotropy to active source seismic experiments and shear wave splitting observations we have made sets of five independent compressional and shear wave velocity measurements which with density allow us to completely characterize the transverse isotropy of samples from five metamorphic belts the haast schist terrane south island new zealand poultney slate chugach phyllite coldfoot schist and pelona schist united states these velocity measurements include compressional wave velocities for propagation parallel perpendicular and at 45 to the symmetry axis shear wave velocity for propagation and particle motion perpendicular to the symmetry axis and shear wave velocity for propagation parallel to the symmetry axis velocity measurements were made up to pressures of 1 gpa 35 km depth where microcracks are closed and anisotropy is due to preferred mineral orientation our samples exhibit compressional wave anisotropy of 9 20 as well as significant shear wave splitting metamorphic terranes that are anisotropic to ultrasonic waves may also be anisotropic at the scale of active and passive seismic experiments our data suggest that a significant thickness 10 20 km of appropriately oriented steeply dipping foliation schist in the crust could contribute as much as 45 of observed shear wave splitting our data set can also be used to model the effects of crustal anisotropy for active source seismic experiments in order to determine if the anisotropy of the terrane is significant and needs to be taken into account during processing and modeling of the data

intrinsic elasticity of a textured transversely isotropic muscovite aggregate comparisons to the seismic anisotropy of schists and shales 1 the anisotropic properties of phyllosilicate rocks are investigated through the modeling of the pore free intrinsic elasticity of a textured muscovite aggregate the elastic constants were calculated for textures as defined using orientation distribution functions odfs ranging from perfectly aligned to completely random the odfs were described using a gaussian distribution the width of which is controlled by the standard deviation of the orientations of the crystal c axis with respect to the sample foliation plane under the assumption that the sample has hexagonal transversely isotropic symmetry the values were obtained using the widely used voigt reuss hill averaging techniques as well as the geometric mean average gma the gma is more physically meaningful in that it requires that the elastic constants determined in either the stiffness or the compliance domains be invertible comparisons between these different averages indicate that strictly the voigt and reuss values do not necessarily provide the limiting bounds as is expected for the isotropic case despite this some characteristics of the elastic wave p wave anisotropy are only weakly dependent on the averaging procedure employed the calculated elastic constants are converted to the anisotropic and parameters in order to allow for comparison to existing measurements in the literature however these intrinsic results are not intended to provide a measure of the properties of phyllites per se but to provide a reference against which more sophisticated models that incorporate porosity layering and composition may be constructed

continental crust composition constrained by measurements of crustal poisson s ratio deciphering the geological evolution of the earth s continental crust requires knowledge of its bulk composition and global variability the main uncertainties are associated with the composition of the lower crust seismic measurements probe the elastic properties of the crust at depth from which composition can be inferred of particular note is poisson s ratio this elastic parameter can be determined uniquely from the ratio of p to s wave seismic velocity and provides a better diagnostic of crustal composition than either p or s wave velocity alone1 previous attempts to measure have been limited by difficulties in obtaining coincident p and s wave data sampling the entire crust2 here we report 76 new estimates of crustal spanning all of the continents except antarctica we find that on average increases with the age of the crust our results strongly support the presence of a mafic lower crust beneath cratons and suggest either a uniformitarian craton formation process involving delamination of the lower crust during continental collisions followed by magmatic underplating or a model in which crust formation processes have changed since the precambrian era

roles of quartz and mica in seismic anisotropy of mylonites summary observations of seismic anisotropy in continental crust are of primary importance to understanding deep crustal structure and dynamics while many crustal minerals are elastically anisotropic seismic studies commonly assume that only the most anisotropic minerals e g micas are responsible for the observed anisotropic signal while making the simplifying assumption that potential interaction of multiple mineral phases is insignificant this study explores the interference effects between mica and quartz on the calculated response of compressional and shear waves in high strain tectonites mylonites sample texture and mineralogy were evaluated via electron backscatter diffraction and the calculation of seismic response was carried out over a range of mica to quartz ratios both natural and synthetic crystallographic orientation data which mimic quartz and mica orientations under increasing temperature in high non coaxial strain settings were evaluated not surprisingly the results show that adding quartz to micaceous lithologies significantly reduces the magnitude of seismic anisotropy however the study also highlights the mutually destructive nature of this relationship and suggests a critical threshold proportion between the two phases across which the symmetry of the end member induced anisotropies becomes significantly altered a result that may have significant implications for studies interpreting crustal dynamics from seismic anisotropy

mica deformation fabrics and the seismic properties of the continental crust abstract seismic anisotropy originating within the continental crust is used to determine kinematic flow lines within active mountain belts and is widely attributed to regionally aligned mica however naturally deformed micaceous rocks commonly show composite e g s c fabrics it is necessary therefore to understand how both varying mica content and differing intensities of multiple foliations impact on seismic interpretations in terms of deformation fields an outcrop analogue for granitic mid crustal deformed zones is used here to calibrate the seismic response against both parameters seismic responses are modelled using crystallographic preferred orientations for polymineralic micaceous granitic gneisses measured using electron back scatter diffraction the sample results are generalised by modelling the effects of variations in modal composition and the relative importance of deformation fabrics of variable orientation so called rock and fabric recipes the maximum p and s anisotropy are calculated at 16 6 and 23 9 for single foliation gneisses but for mixed i e s c foliation gneisses these values reduce to 5 8 and 7 5 respectively furthermore mixtures of multiple foliations generate significant variations in the geometry of the seismic anisotropy this effect coupled with the geographical orientation of fabrics in nature can generate substantial variations in the orientation and magnitude of seismic anisotropy especially for shear waves as measured for the continental crust using existing receiver function and teleseismic near vertical incidence methods thus maps of seismic anisotropy varying with depth in deforming continents need not imply necessarily depth varying deformation kinematics and tectonic decoupling

structure of the crust beneath the southeastern tibetan plateau from teleseismic receiver functions abstract southeastern tibet marks the site of presumed clockwise rotation of the crust due to the india eurasian collision and abutment against the stable sichuan basin and south china block knowing the structure of the crust is a key to better understanding of crustal deformation and seismicity in this region here we analyze recordings of teleseismic earthquakes from 25 temporary broadband seismic stations and one permanent station using the receiver function method we find that the crustal thickness decreases gradually from the tibetan plateau proper to the sichuan basin and yangtze platform but that significant intra crustal heterogeneity exists on shorter lateral scales 0 30 are detected beneath the southeastern margin of tibet but in the sichuan basin and southeastern yangtze platform the values are close to the global average combined with high regional heat flow and independent evidence for mid crustal layers of high electric conductivity the large intra crustal s wave velocity reduction 12 19 and the intermediate to high average crustal poisson s ratios are consistent with partial melt in the crust beneath parts of southeastern tibet these results could be used in support of deformation models involving intra crustal flow with the caveat that significant lateral variation in location and strength of this flow may occur

radial seismic anisotropy as a constraint for upper mantle rheology abstract seismic shear waves that are polarized horizontally sh generally travel faster in the upper mantle than those that are polarized vertically sv and deformation of rocks under dislocation creep has been invoked to explain such radial anisotropy convective flow of the upper mantle may thus be constrained by modeling the textures that progressively form by lattice preferred orientation lpo of intrinsically anisotropic grains while azimuthal anisotropy has been studied in detail the radial kind has previously only been considered in semi quantitative models here we show that radial anisotropy averages as well as radial and azimuthal anomaly patterns can be explained to a large extent by mantle flow if lateral viscosity variations are taken into account we construct a geodynamic reference model which includes lpo formation based on mineral physics and flow computed using laboratory derived olivine rheology previously identified anomalous v sv regions beneath the east pacific rise and relatively fast v sh regions within the pacific basin at 150 km depth can be linked to mantle upwellings and shearing in the asthenosphere respectively continental anisotropy at shallow 50 km depth is under predicted and these deviations are in quantitative agreement with the expected signature of frozen in stochastically oriented anisotropy from past tectonic episodes we also consider two end member models of lpo formation for wet and dry conditions for the asthenosphere 150 km allowing for lateral variations in volatile content the residual signal can be much reduced and the inferred volatile patterns underneath the pacific appear related to plume activity in deeper layers 250 km anisotropy indicates that small scale convection disrupts plate scale shear underneath old oceanic lithosphere we suggest that studying deviations from comprehensive geodynamic reference models or residual anisotropy can provide new insights into the nature and dynamics of the asthenosphere

crustal fabric in the tibetan plateau based on waveform inversions for seismic anisotropy parameters 1 the tibetan plateau has the thickest continental crust on earth and fabrics within the crust that are anisotropic to seismic waves may provide clues to how it reached such extreme proportions and how it is currently deforming waveform modeling using a global minimization inversion technique applied to receiver functions computed from 11 stations spanning the north south length of the eastern plateau has yielded a suite of crustal models that include anisotropy these models suggest that the tibetan crust contains 4 14 anisotropy at different depths that is likely a result of both fossil fabrics and more recent deformation all models contain anisotropy in the surface layer and for most stations the alignment of the slow symmetry axis suggests a relationship with crustal fabrics associated with e w trending thrust faults or sutures middle to lower crustal anisotropy is present at most stations with a fast axis trending n s to nw se in the south nearly e w in the central plateau and n s to ne sw in the northern plateau this pattern appears consistent with recent ductile deformation due to both topographically induced flow and to boundary forces from subducting lithosphere at the northern and southern margins of the plateau the orientations of crustal anisotropy determined for most stations in this study are significantly different from shear wave splitting fast polarization directions implying distinct deformation in the crust and mantle

evidence for upper crustal anisotropy in the songpan ganze northeastern tibet terrane 1 the radial and transverse receiver functions obtained at several stations located on the songpan ganze terrane tibetan plateau are characterized by strong p to s conversions in the first 4 s after the direct p wave we show that the amplitude variations of these phases with back azimuth can be well explained by a simple model with one or two anisotropic layers the anisotropy we obtained is quite strong about 15 and might be related to the presence of highly deformed flyschs and schists in the first 25 km of the crust this study shows that anisotropy in the crust could be locally high and has to be taken into account when analyzing teleseismic data

a 3 d model of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the central and western us by joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion 1 rayleigh wave phase velocity maps from ambient noise and earthquake data are inverted jointly with receiver functions observed at 828 stations from the usarray transportable array west of 100 w longitude for data recorded in the years 2005 through 2010 to produce a 3 d model of shear wave speeds beneath the central and western us to a depth of 150 km eikonal tomography is applied to ambient noise data to produce about 300 000 rayleigh wave phase speed curves and helmholtz tomography is applied to data following 1550 ms 5 0 earthquakes so that rayleigh wave dispersion maps are constructed from 8 to 80 s period with associated uncertainties across the region harmonic stripping generates back azimuth independent receiver functions with uncertainty estimates for each of the stations a nonlinear bayesian monte carlo method is used to estimate a distribution of shear wave speed vs models beneath each station by jointly interpreting surface wave dispersion and receiver functions and their uncertainties the assimilation of receiver functions improves the vertical resolution of the model by reducing the range of estimated moho depths improving the determination of the shear velocity jump across moho and improving the resolution of the depth of anomalies in the uppermost mantle a great variety of geological and tectonic features are revealed in the 3 d model that form the basis for future detailed local to regional scale analysis and interpretation

crustal and upper mantle structure of northern tibet imaged with magnetotelluric data 1 magnetotelluric mt data were collected in northern tibet along the amdo to golmud highway during the 1995 and 1999 project indepth international deep profiling of tibet and the himalaya surveys broadband and long period mt data were collected and the te mode tm mode and vertical magnetic field data were inverted to yield a minimum structure two dimensional resistivity model the model obtained from inverting all responses simultaneously shows that a pervasive midcrustal conductor extends from the kunlun shan to the bangong nuijiang suture the vertically integrated conductivity conductance of this crustal layer is greatest in the northern qiangtang terrane at latitude 34 n the electrical resistivity of the upper mantle is constrained by the mt data to be in the range of 10 30 m across the songpan ganze and qiangtang terranes this is lower than would be expected if asian lithosphere underthrusts northern tibet as far as the qiangtang terrane the mt responses are more consistent with a model in which asian lithosphere extends as far south as the kunlun shan and the upper mantle beneath the songpan ganze and qiangtang terranes is sufficiently hot to contain a small fraction of interconnected partial melt

crustal shear wave velocity structure of the western united states inferred from ambient seismic noise and earthquake data 1 surface wave dispersion measurements from ambient seismic noise and array based measurements from teleseismic earthquakes observed with the earthscope usarray transportable array ta are inverted using a monte carlo method for a 3 d vs model of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the western united states the combination of data from these methods produces exceptionally broadband dispersion information from 6 to 100 s period which constrains shear wave velocity structures in the crust and uppermost mantle to a depth of more than 100 km the high lateral resolution produced by the ta network and the broadbandedness of the dispersion information motivate the question of the appropriate parameterization for a 3 d model particularly for the crustal part of the model we show that a relatively simple model in which vs increases monotonically with depth in the crust can fit the data well across more than 90 of the study region except in eight discrete areas where greater crustal complexity apparently exists the regions of greater crustal complexity are the olympic peninsula the mendocinotriple junction the yakima fold belt the southern cascadia back arc the great central valley of california the salton trough the snake river plain and the wasatch mountains we also show that a strong rayleigh love discrepancy exists across much of the western united states which can be resolved by introducing radial anisotropy in both the mantle and notably the crust we focus our analysis on demonstrating the existence of crustal radial anisotropy and primarily discuss the crustal part of the isotropic model that results from the radially anisotropic model by voigt averaging model uncertainties from the monte carlo inversion are used to identify robust isotropic features in the model the uppermost mantle beneath the western united states is principally composed of four large scale shear wave velocity features but lower crustal velocity structure exhibits far greater heterogeneity we argue that these lower crustal structures are predominantly caused by interactions with the uppermost mantle including the intrusion and underplating of mafic mantle materials and the thermal depression of wave speeds caused by conductive heating from the mantle upper and middle crustal wave speeds are generally correlated and notable anomalies are inferred to result from terrane accretion at the continental margin and volcanic intrusions

petrological constraints on seismic anisotropy the purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlations between anisotropic parameters for different orientations and mineralogies for realistic mineralogical and petrological models of the upper mantle such correlations make it possible to reduce the number of independent parameters required in seismic modelling of the upper mantle the variation with depth and with degree of random orientation is also investigated it is shown that the anisotropic combinations involved in an equivalent transversely isotropic medium azumithally averaged velocities with a vertical symmetry axis are strongly correlated but the combinations involved in azimuthal anisotropy are more weakly correlated comparison with available seismic data does not yet allow discrimination based on anisotropy between different petrological models it is shown that even if a proportion of random orientation is introduced it should be possible to achieve petrological discrimination from seismic data for some orientation configurations if the inverse problem is well posed i e takes account of the correlations between anisotropic parameters these correlations are incorporated in an inversion process to show that it is possible to explain the dataset used to derive the prem by alternative anisotropic models for the uppermost 220 km

elastic properties fabric and seismic anisotropy of amphibolites and their contribution to the lower crust reflectivity in this paper the elastic properties of amphibolites from the serie dei laghi and the ivrea zone southern alps n italy were investigated as a function of their mineralogical composition microfabric and density three orthogonal cores were cut parallel and normal to foliation and lineation from those bulk and grain density were measured and the interconnected porosity was calculated bulk density varies from 2 75 to 3 07 g cm 3 and calculated porosity ranges from 0 02 to 0 88 the same cores were also used to measure seismic velocity of ultrasonic waves at room temperature and at increasing confining pressure up to 300 mpa at high pressure the matrix properties are separated from the crack induced properties p wave velocity varies with respect to the direction of propagation the slowest direction is always normal to foliation and the fastest parallel to the mineral lineation the mineral lineation is typically defined by the elongation of amphibole crystals in which the fastest vp direction is parallel to the c axis that is also the elongation axis the vp ranges between 6 76 and 7 54 km s in the direction parallel to lineation and between 6 32 and 7 06 km s in the direction normal to foliation this defines a vp anisotropy of up to 14 whose shape varies from orthorhombic to axially symmetric either prolate or flattened it was observed that both vp and vp anisotropy increase with the amount of amphibole and decrease with the amount of plagioclase moreover the c axis distribution of amphiboles is responsible of the vp anisotropy intensity and shape in agreement with observations from previous studies the seismic properties calculated with the approach of mainprice 1990 using the fabric data the elastic constants and the modal composition gave results in good agreement with the measurements exposed rocks in the ivrea and serie dei laghi zones show that amphibolites are interlayered with metapelites on a scale from 1 to 100 m because of the very large acoustic impedance contrast 20 34 1 75 for amphibolites 17 16 0 4 for metapelites they represent a very reflective portion in the middle lower crust 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

radial anisotropy in the crust of se tibet and sw china from ambient noise interferometry 1 we use rayleigh and love wave green s functions estimated from ambient seismic noise to study crustal structure and radial anisotropy in the tectonically complex and seismically active region west of the sichuan basin and around the eastern himalaya syntaxis in agreement with previous studies low velocity zones are ubiquitous in the mid lower crust with substantial variations both laterally and vertically discrepancies between 3 ds hear velocity from either rayleigh vsv o r love vsh waves are examined both in view of non uniqueness of tomographic solutions and radial anisotropy low shear wave speed and radial anisotropy with vsh vsv are most prominent in mid lower crust in area northwest to the lijiang muli fault and around the red river and xiaojiang faults this anisotropy could be caused by sub horizontal mica fabric and its association with low velocity zones suggests mica alignment due to flow in deep crustal zones of relatively low mechanical strength citation huang h h yao andr d vanderhilst 2010 radialanisotropyinthecrust of se tibet and sw china from ambient noise interferometry geophys res lett 37 l21310 doi 10 1029 2010gl044981

partial melt in the upper middle crust of the northwest himalaya revealed by rayleigh wave dispersion article i nfo seismic shear wave velocities are sensitive to the partial melts that should be present in the himalayan orogen if low viscosity channel flow is active at the present day we analyzed regional earthquakes in the western himalaya and tibet recorded on 16 broadband seismometers deployed across the nw indian himalaya from the indian platform to the karakoram range we used a multiple filter technique to calculate the group velocity dispersion of fundamental mode rayleigh waves and then inverted the dispersion records to obtain separate one dimensional shear wave velocity models for five geologic provinces the tibetan plateau ladakh arc complex indus tsangpo suture zone tethyan himalaya and himalayan thrust belt our velocity models show a low velocity layer lvl with 7 17 velocity reduction centered at 30 km depth and apparently continuous from the tethyan himalaya to the tibetan plateau this lvl shows good spatial correspondence with observations of low resistivity from magnetotelluric studies along the same profile of the possible explanations for low velocity and low resistivity in the mid crust only the presence of melts or aqueous fluids or both satisfactorily explains both sets of observations elevated heat flow observed in the nw himalaya implies that if aqueous fluids are present in the mid crust then the mid crust is well above its solidus comparison of our results with laboratory measurements and theoretical models suggests 3 7 melt is present in a channel in the upper middle crust of the nw himalaya at the present day and the physical conditions to enable active channel flow may be present

a synoptic view of the distribution and connectivity of the mid crustal low velocity zone beneath tibet 1 based on 1 2 years of continuous observations of seismic ambient noise data obtained at more than 600 stations in and around tibet rayleigh wave phase velocity maps are constructed from 10 s to 60 s period a 3 d vsv model of the crust and uppermost mantle is derived from these maps the 3 d model exhibits significant apparently inter connected low shear velocity features across most of the tibetan middle crust at depths between 20 and 40 km these low velocity zones lvzs do not conform to surface faults and significantly are most prominent near the periphery of tibet the observations support the internal deformation model in which strain is dispersed in the deeper crust into broad ductile shear zones rather than being localized horizontally near the edges of rigid blocks the prominent lvzs are coincident with strong mid crustal radial anisotropy in western and central tibet and probably result at least partially from anisotropic minerals aligned by deformation which mitigates the need to invoke partial melt to explain the observations irrespective of their cause in partial melt or mineral alignment mid crustal lvzs reflect deformation and their amplification near the periphery of tibet provides new information about the mode of deformation across tibet

detection of widespread fluids in the tibetan crust by magnetotelluric studies magnetotelluric exploration has shown that the middle and lower crust is anomalously conductive across most of the north to south width of the tibetan plateau the integrated conductivity conductance of the tibetan crust ranges from 3000 to greater than 20 000 siemens in contrast stable continental regions typically exhibit conductances from 20 to 1000 siemens averaging 100 siemens such pervasively high conductance suggests that partial melt and or aqueous fluids are widespread within the tibetan crust in southern tibet the high conductivity layer is at a depth of 15 to 20 kilometers and is probably due to partial melt and aqueous fluids in the crust in northern tibet the conductive layer is at 30 to 40 kilometers and is due to partial melting zones of fluid may represent weaker areas that could accommodate deformation and lower crustal flow

complex and variable crustal and uppermost mantle seismic anisotropy in the western united states deformation in the crust and mantle measured using seismic anisotropy is poorly constrained in the western united states because of inconsistencies in the existing data a three dimensional model that reconciles these discrepancies reveals that seismic anisotropy in the crust correlates with different geological provinces but is unrelated to anisotropy in the underlying mantle

surface wave dispersion across tibet direct evidence for radial anisotropy in the crust recordings in western tibet of rayleigh and love waves at periods less than 70 s from aftershocks of the 2008 sichuan earthquake cannot be matched by an isotropic velocity model beneath tibet these intermediate period rayleigh and love waves require marked radial anisotropy in the middle crust of tibet with the vertically polarized s waves propagating more slowly than s waves with horizontal polarization the magnitude of anisotropy inferred using paths entirely within tibet is slightly greater than that obtained previously from a tomographic inversion of a dataset covering a larger region anisotropy in the middle crust likely reflects deformation of the middle crust and is consistent with the notion of mid crustal flow and thinning of the crust

rayleigh wave phase velocity maps of tibet and the surrounding regions from ambient seismic noise tomography ambient noise tomography is applied to the significant data resources now available across tibet and surrounding regions to produce rayleigh wave phase speed maps at periods between 6 and 50 s data resources include the permanent federation of digital seismographic networks five temporary u s program for array seismic studies of the continental lithosphere passcal experiments in and around tibet and chinese provincial networks surrounding tibet from 2003 to 2009 totaling 600 stations and 150 000 interstation paths with such a heterogeneous data set data quality control is of utmost importance we apply conservative data quality control criteria to accept between 5000 and 45 000 measurements as a function of period which produce a lateral resolution between 100 and 200 km across most of the tibetan plateau and adjacent regions to the east misfits to the accepted measurements among passcal stations and among chinese stations are similar with a standard deviation of 1 7 s which indicates that the final dispersion measurements from chinese and passcal stations are of similar quality phase velocities across the tibetan plateau are lower on average than those in the surrounding nonbasin regions phase velocities in northern tibet are lower than those in southern tibet perhaps implying different spatial and temporal variations in the way the high elevations of the plateau are created and maintained at short periods 20 s very high velocities are imaged in the tarim basin the ordos block and the sichuan basin these phase velocity dispersion maps provide information needed to construct a 3 d shear velocity model of the crust across the tibetan plateau and surrounding regions

automated detection extraction and measurement of regional surface waves our goal is to develop and test an effective method to detect identify extract and quantify surface wave signals for weak events observed at regional stations we describe an automated surface wave detector and extractor designed to work on weak surface wave signals across eurasia at intermediate periods 8 s 40 s the method is based on phase matched filters defined by the rayleigh wave group travel time predictions from the broadband group velocity maps presented by ritzwoller and levshin 1998 and ritzwoller et al 1998 and proceeds in three steps signal compression signal extraction or cleaning and measurement first the dispersed surface wave signals are compressed in time by applying an anti dispersion or phase matched filter defined from the group velocity maps we refer to this as the compressed signal second the surface wave is then extracted by filtering noise temporally isolated from the time compressed signal this filtered signal is then redispersed by applying the inverse of the phase matched filter finally we adaptively estimate spectral amplitude as well as group and phase velocity on the filtered signal the method is naturally used as a detector by allowing origin time to slide along the time axis we describe preliminary results of the application of this method to a set of nuclear explosions and earthquakes that occurred on or near the chinese lop nor test site from 1992 through 1996 and one explosion on the indian rajasthan test site that occurred in may of 1998

earthquake depth distributions in central asia and their relations with lithosphere thickness shortening and extension this paper examines the relationship between seismogenic thickness lithosphere structure and rheology in central and northeastern asia we accurately determine earthquake depth distributions which reveal important rheological variations in the lower crust these variations exert a fundamental control on the active tectonics and the morphological evolution of the continents we consider 323 earthquakes across the tibetan plateau the tien shan and their forelands as well as the baikal rift ne siberia and the laptev sea and present the source parameters of 94 of these here for the first time these parameters have been determined through body wave inversion the identification of depth phases or the modelling of regional waveforms lower crustal earthquakes are found to be restricted to the forelands in areas undergoing shortening and to locations where rifting coincides with abrupt changes in lithosphere thickness such as the ne baikal rift and w laptev sea the lower crust in these areas is seismogenic at temperatures that may be as high as 600 c suggesting that it is anhydrous and is likely to have great long term strength lower crustal earthquakes are therefore a useful proxy indicating strong lithosphere in places that are too small in areal extent for this to be confirmed independently by estimating effective elastic thickness from gravity topography relations the variation in crustal rheology indicated by the distribution of lower crustal earthquakes has many implications ranging from the support of mountain belts and the formation of steep mountain fronts to the localization and orientation of rifting in combination these processes can also be responsible for the separation of the front of the thin skinned mountain belts from their hinterlands when continents separate

seismic velocity anisotropy in mica rich rocks an inclusion model summary we calculated seismic wave velocity anisotropy caused by the preferred orientation of mica minerals by using the differential effective medium method dem spheroidal biotite crystals with their c axes coinciding with the symmetry axis of the spheroid are embedded in an isotropic matrix up to a volume ratio of 30 per cent all crystals are aligned with their c axes parallel to the symmetry axis of the effective homogeneous medium which shows transverse isotropy the effect of crystal shape on anisotropy was studied by changing the aspect ratio the ratio between the minor axis and the major axis of the spheroid from 0 01 flat spheroid to 1 sphere the s velocity anisotropy becomes large as the crystal shape becomes flat whereas the p velocity anisotropy shows only small changes with changes of the crystal shape in particular biotite generates large s wave anisotropy and the anisotropy becomes stronger as the aspect ratio of the biotite crystal becomes smaller when the volume ratio of the mica mineral is large the p wave phase velocity surface shows considerable deviation from the ellipse and the sv wave phase velocity surface forms a large bulge and crosses the sh wave phase velocity surface singularity in the plane including the symmetry axis these results show an interesting contrast when compared with the effect of crack or pore shape on seismic velocity anisotropy crack or pore shape affects the p velocity more than the s velocity we also calculated thomsen s anisotropic parameters e and as functions of the crystal aspect ratio and the mica volume ratio

a 3 d shear velocity model of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the united states from ambient seismic noise summary in an earlier study bensen et al measured surface wave dispersion curves from ambient noise using 203 stations across north america which resulted in rayleigh and love wave dispersion maps from 8 70 s period and 8 20 s period respectively we invert these maps in a two step procedure to determine a 3 d shear wave velocity model v s of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath much of the contiguous us the two steps are a linearized inversion for a best fitting model beneath each grid node followed by a monte carlo inversion to estimate model uncertainties in general a simple model parametrization is sufficient to achieve acceptable data fit but a rayleigh love discrepancy at periods from 10 to 20 s is observed in which simple isotropic models systematically misfit rayleigh and love waves in some regions crustal features observed in the model include sedimentary basins such as the anadarko green river williston basins as well as california s great valley and the mississippi embayment the east west velocity dichotomy between the stable eastern us and the tectonically deformed western us is shown to be abrupt in the crust and uppermost mantle but is not coincident in these regions crustal high velocity material tends to lap over the high velocities of the uppermost mantle the rayleigh love discrepancy between 10 and 20 s period is crustal in origin and is observed in a number of regions particularly in extensional provinces such as the basin and range it can be resolved by introducing radial anisotropy in the lower or middle crust with v sh v sh by about 1 per cent

palynological evidence for holocene environmental change in the changjiang yangtze river delta china abstract holocene vegetation changes in response to climate fluctuations and human impacts are reviewed on the basis of pollen analyses from borehole cores taken from the changjiang yangtze river delta china and other previously reported data during the earliest holocene 10 930 9000 cal yr bp the climate was warm and wet allowing thermophilous hardwoods to occupy mid and low elevations surrounding a palaeo changjiang estuary the climate became gradually cooler and cool tolerant conifers grasses and ferns became dominant until 7600 cal yr bp when the estuary became a delta a mid holocene climatic optimum occurred between 7600 and 4800 cal yr bp when evergreen and broadleaved deciduous trees flourished at mid and low elevations surrounding the delta front prodelta after this time climate became cooler again until 1340 cal yr bp during this period evergreen and broadleaved deciduous trees were replaced by conifers and grasses inhabiting the inter subtidal flat delta front this development of conifer grassland vegetation was shortly interrupted between 3860 and 3200 cal yr bp when thermophilous tree cover increased and open vegetation with scattered conifers was reduced since 1340 cal yr bp the vegetation has been similar to that at present under warm wet conditions human impacts are recognized by the first appearance of fagopyrum and a sudden increase in herb pollen at 4500 and 1340 cal yr bp respectively

seismic evidence for stepwise thickening of the crust across the ne tibetan plateau we performed a receiver function analysis on teleseismic data recorded along two 550 km long profiles crossing the northeastern tibetan plateau results from time to depth migration grid search vp vs determination and simulated annealing inversion of waveforms reveal that the crust thickens from 50 km near the northern edge of the plateau to 80 km south of the jinsha suture in the qiang tang block crustal thickening occurs in staircase fashion with steps located beneath the main reactivated sutures the vp vs ratio close to the global continental average does not suggest widespread partial melting but rather a more usual separation between an upper felsic and a lower mafic part within the northeastern tibetan crust

thinning and flow of tibetan crust constrained by seismic anisotropy intermediate period rayleigh and love waves propagating across tibet indicate marked radial anisotropy within the middle to lower crust consistent with a thinning of the middle crust by about 30 the anisotropy is largest in the western part of the plateau where moment tensors of earthquakes indicate active crustal thinning the preferred orientation of mica crystals resulting from the crustal thinning can account for the observed anisotropy the middle to lower crust of tibet appears to have thinned more than the upper crust consistent with deformation of a mechanically weak layer that flows as if confined to a channel

lithospheric and upper mantle structure of the northeastern tibetan plateau 1 we use receiver functions calculated for data collected by the indepth iv seismic array to image the three dimensional geometry of the crustal and upper mantle velocity discontinuities beneath northeastern tibet our results indicate an average crustal thickness of 65 to 70 km in northern tibet in addition we observe a 20 km moho offset beneath the northern margin of the kunlun mountains a 10 km moho offset across the jinsha river suture and gently northward dipping moho beneath the qaidam basin a region in the central qiangtang terrane with higher than normal crustal vp vs ratio of 1 83 can be the result of the eocene magmatic event in the qiangtang terrane we observe a significant lithospheric mantle discontinuity beneath the bangong nujiang suture at 80 km depth which dips 10 to the north reaching 120 km depth we interpret this feature as either a piece of lhasa terrane or remnant oceanic slab underthrust below northern tibet we detect a 20 km depression of the 660 km discontinuity in the mantle transition zone beneath the northern lhasa terrane in central tibet which suggests this phase transition has been influenced by a dense and or cold oceanic slab a modest 10 km depression of the 410 km discontinuity located beneath the northern qiangtang terrane may be the result of localized warm upwelling associated with small scale convection induced by the penetration of the sinking indian continental lithosphere into the transition zone beneath the central tibetan plateau

u pb geochronology and hf isotope geochemistry of detrital zircons from the zhongtiao complex constraints on the tectonic evolution of the trans north china orogen abstract the zhongtiao complex is located in the south segment of the trans north china orogen a continent continent collisional belt along which the discrete eastern and western blocks amalgamated to form the north china craton the complex consists of the neoarchean to paleoproterozoic granitoid plutons and low grade supracrustal rocks of which the latter are subdivided into the songjiashan jiangxian lower zhongtiao upper zhongtiao and danshanshi groups the songjiashan jiangxian and lower zhongtiao groups are composed of metaclastic rocks carbonates and metavolcanic rocks interpreted as the products of a back arc basin whereas the upper zhongtiao and danshanshi groups consist of metaconglomerates and metasandstones interpreted as molasses type siliciclastic rocks deposited in a retro arc foreland basin the u pb ages of detrital zircons from the songjiashan lower zhongtiao upper zhongtiao and danshanshi groups form four populations of 3600 3100 ma 2850 2750 ma 2630 2200 ma and 2150 1850 ma of which the population of 2630 2200 ma is the most dominant and its major sources are considered to be derived from the 2560 to 2300 ma granitoids and metavolcanics in the zhongtiao complex the source rocks of the subordinate 3600 3100 ma detrital zircons were probably derived from the paleo mesoarchean crust of the eastern block since similar aged rocks have not been found in the western block and the trans north china orogen whereas the 2850 2750 ma detrital zircons are interpreted to be derived from the 2850 to 2752 ma ttg gneisses and amphibolites in the adjacent taihua complex the age population of 2150 1850 ma is coincident with the ages of paleoproterozoic granitoids in the trans north china orogen the youngest detrital zircons in the songjiashan and lower zhongtiao groups constrain their maximum depositional ages at 2253 ma and 2168 ma respectively whereas the maximum depositional age of the overlying upper zhongtiao and danshanshi groups is defined at 1848 ma the late paleoproterozoic shift from a back arc basin to a retro arc foreland basin is consistent with the model that the collision between the eastern and western blocks to form the trans north china orogen occurred at 1 85 ga

3 d lithospheric structure beneath southern tibet from rayleigh wave tomography with a 2 d seismic array summary a 3 d shear wave velocity model has been established for the lithosphere of southern tibet through rayleigh wave tomography the teleseismic data are acquired from a 2 d seismic array selected out of the second phase of the hi climb project we first inverted for a 2 d phase velocity model using two plane wave tomography approach and then inverted for the 3 d shear wave velocity model with the 2 d phase velocity model and the map of crustal thickness derived from receiver functions the results reveal a pervasive low velocity anomaly in the middle crust of the lhasa block we interpret this low velocity anomaly as the presence of wholesale mid crustal channel flow prominent low velocity anomalies from the lower crust to the mantle lithosphere are observed along the north south trending rifts the tangra yum co rift and the pumqu xianza rift we propose a possible scenario for the formation of these rifts the entire lithosphere is involved in the early stage rifting while the late stage rifting is restricted in the upper crust in the non rift regions a slab like high velocity anomaly is traced beneath both the himalayas and lhasa block combining all the observations we suggest that the central part of southern tibet is currently underlain by the broken indian lower crust and mantle lithosphere

flin flon belt seismic anisotropy elastic symmetry heterogeneity and shear wave splitting laboratory measurements of compressional and shear wave velocities and shear wave splitting have been carried out on a set of upper greenschist lower amphibolite facies of metasediments and metavolcanics and plutonic rocks from two ductile shear zones in the flin flon belt ffb of the trans hudson orogen tho selected metamorphic rocks vary in composition from felsic to mafic test sites with outcrops of sheared metamorphic rocks were correlated with a series of inclined seismic reflectors possibly extending from the midcrust and intersecting a well mapped shear zone at the surface determination of the lithological and physical properties of highly deformed metamorphic rocks is essential for proper interpretation of the nature of observed seismic reflectors to investigate the anisotropic properties of the rocks compressional velocity was measured at confining pressure up to 300 mpa in three mutually orthogonal directions aligned with respect to visible textural features in addition on selected

high resolution rayleigh wave slowness tomography of central asia 1 we compute short period high resolution surface wave slowness maps for central asia using bayesian tomography we focus on the region between 69 and 108 e and 29 and 54 n and used seismograms from more than 1100 events using multiple filter and phase matched filter techniques we measured the dispersion characteristics of the signals between 6 and 30 s period these rayleigh wave group velocity dispersion curves were used to compute high resolution half degree cell size slowness tomographic maps because short periods are primarily sensitive to upper crustal structures the images display low velocities associated with the tarim junggar and qaidam basins relatively high velocities are associated with mountainous tectonic features such as the tian shan we validated our maps using dispersion curves from 640 events that were not used to construct the tomographic model the model predictions show a significant variance reduction at short and intermediate periods 6 15 s with respect to the prior model our model also shows 15 improvement in surface wave detection capability with respect to previous one dimensional models these high resolution short period tomography maps can help improve regional magnitude estimations for construction of mb ms discriminants moreover the short period surface wave tomographic results show unprecedented resolution that reveals greater geologic detail than has previously been achieved using surface waves and that give us insight into the shear velocity structure of the crust underlying this part of asia

determination of the crustal structure in southern tibet by dispersion and amplitude analysis of rayleigh waves summary surface waves recorded by the nine broad band stations of the indepth ii experiment are analysed to study the crustal structure of southern tibet their frequency range is between approximately 0 015 and 0 050 hz i e between 20 and 60 s period phase velocity dispersion curves are calculated for the regions north and south of the tsangpo suture using wiener filtering of fundamental mode rayleigh waves incident upon the array with different backazimuths the two dispersion curves are inverted to obtain the s wave crustal models north and south of the suture they show that a low velocity layer is present in the lower crust north but not south of the tsangpo suture to confirm these findings variations in the amplitudes of the rayleigh waves across the suture are interpreted by numerical simulation the strong amplitude variations at a 30 s period are reproduced using a model with a low velocity layer in the lower crust north of the suture a normal high velocity layer to the south and a sharp transition between these layers

heterogeneity and anisotropy of the lithosphere of se tibet from surface wave array tomography 1 understanding the geotectonic evolution of the southeastern tibetan plateau requires knowledge about the structure of the lithosphere using data from 77 broadband stations in sw china we invert rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion curves from ambient noise interferometry t 1 0 40 s and teleseismic surface waves t 2 0 150 s for 3 d heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy in the lithosphere to 150 km depth our surface wave array tomography reveals 1 deep crustal zones of anomalously low shear wave speed and 2 substantial variations with depth of the pattern of azimuthal anisotropy upper crustal azimuthal anisotropy reveals a curvilinear pattern around the eastern himalayan syntaxis with fast directions generally parallel to the main strike slip faults the mantle pattern of azimuthal anisotropy is different from that in the crust and varies from north to south the tomographically inferred 3 d variation in azimuthal anisotropy helps constrain the source region of shear wave splitting south of 26 n off the high plateau most of the observed splitting can be accounted for by upper mantle anisotropy but for stations on the plateau proper with thick crust crustal anisotropy cannot be ignored on long wavelengths the pattern of azimuthal anisotropy in the crust differs from that in the mantle this is easiest explained if deformation varies with depth the deep crustal zones of low shear wave speed and presumably mechanical strength may represent loci of ductile deformation but their lateral variation suggests that in se tibet localized crustal channel flow and motion along the major strike slip faults are both important

seismic evidence for widespread western us deep crustal deformation caused by extension morgan moschetti and colleagues use ambient noise tomography data from the western united states to show that strong radial seismic anisotropy exists in the deep crust confined mainly to the geological provinces that have undergone significant extension during the cenozoic era since about 65 million years ago the coincidence of crustal radial anisotropy with these extensional provinces supports the hypothesis that the deep crust within these regions has undergone widespread and relatively uniform strain in response to crustal thinning and extension here a method of seismic wave imaging known as ambient noise tomography is used to generate high resolution images of seismic wave speeds in the crust and uppermost mantle the observations reveal strong and uniform anisotropy where waves travel through rock at different speeds depending on direction in the deep crust in areas of the western united states that have undergone significant extension during the past 65 million years laboratory experiments have established that many of the materials comprising the earth are strongly anisotropic in terms of seismic wave speeds1 observations of azimuthal2 3 and radial4 5 anisotropy in the upper mantle are attributed to the lattice preferred orientation of olivine caused by the shear strains associated with deformation and provide some of the most direct evidence for deformation and flow within the earth s interior although observations of crustal radial anisotropy would improve our understanding of crustal deformation and flow patterns resulting from tectonic processes large scale observations have been limited to regions of particularly thick crust6 here we show that observations from ambient noise tomography in the western united states reveal strong deep middle to lower crustal radial anisotropy that is confined mainly to the geological provinces that have undergone significant extension during the cenozoic era since 65 myr ago 7 8 the coincidence of crustal radial anisotropy with the extensional provinces of the western united states suggests that the radial anisotropy results from the lattice preferred orientation of anisotropic crustal minerals caused by extensional deformation these observations also provide support for the hypothesis that the deep crust within these regions has undergone widespread and relatively uniform strain in response to crustal thinning and extension9 10 11

elastic wave propagation in anisotropic crustal material possessing arbitrary internal tilt summary geological causes of crustal anisotropy include regional fractures and cracks isotropic heterogeneity or layering and material composition and textural properties in addition shear or metamorphic foliations in fault zones or structural terranes can serve as proxies for intracrustal deformation in a manner analogous to the lattice preferred orientation of olivine produced by mantle shear the primary factor in the production of crustal anisotropy is the relative angle between a seismic wave and the dipping symmetry axes of crustal material as either change along the propagation ray path complex and heterogeneous crustal material is not necessarily oriented with vertical horizontal symmetry axes but is more normally tilted in accordance with structure calculation of the anisotropic response to material tilt for elastic seismic wave propagation requires rotation of the stiffness tensors describing the crustal material we examine the alteration of anisotropic stiffness tensors and provide rotation directional cosines based on geological measurements material tilt produces strong effects in examples of 2 d and 3 d finite difference synthetic seismograms that might otherwise be attributed to velocities or structure in other regions of the crust or mantle

crustal thicknesses and poisson s ratios in the eastern tibetan plateau and their tectonic implications 1 crustal thicknesses and poisson s ratios in the eastern tibetan plateau were estimated using the h k stacking method on teleseismic receiver functions the data came mainly from the regional seismic networks in 2006 2008 results show that the crust thickens from east to west with a thickness difference of 30 km a sharp change of crustal thickness from 41 5 to 52 5 km is observed across the longmen shan crustal thickness predictions based on the airy type isostasy are consistent with the estimations from h k stacking implying that the topography is approximately compensated the study area can be divided into three parts according to the poisson s ratios 1 the northern songpan garze terrane and the western qinling orogenic belt with low ratios 0 26 2 the southern songpan garze terrane the sanjiang fold system and the sichuan basin with high to intermediate ratios 0 27 0 30 and 3 the southwestern yangtze platform with low to intermediate ratios 0 27 joint interpretation of the low average vp values from deep seismic sounding profiles and the low vp vs ratios from receiver function analysis favors the presence of felsic crust rather than significant volumes of partial melts in the northern songpan garze terrane and the western qinling orogenic belt the junction of the longmen shan fault zone the xianshuihe fault zone and the anninghe fault zone has an ultrahigh poisson s ratio 0 30 which could be considered as an evidence of local partial melt we propose that the eastward movement of upper and middle crustal material in the southern songpan garze terrane is obstructed by the more rigid sichuan basin resulting in strain accumulation along the longmen shan fault zone

constraint of lattice preferred orientation lpo on vp anisotropy of amphibole rich rocks summary the vp anisotropies of two amphibole rich rocks and two biotite amphibole rich rocks were measured under high pressure conditions up to 1 0 gpa and calculated based on the physical properties and lattice preferred orientation lpo of amphibole and biotite the results of these studies clearly demonstrated the strong effects of the lpo of amphibole and biotite on vp anisotropies previous studies pointed out the importance of 001 of amphibole and 001 of biotite for vp anisotropy in addition to these axes and poles 100 of amphibole strongly affected the vp anisotropy of the sample rocks

ambient noise rayleigh wave tomography in western sichuan and eastern tibet abstract we perform rayleigh wave tomography in western sichuan and eastern tibet by applying the ambient noise method to broadband data recorded at 49 stations from the sichuan digital seismic network cross correlations of vertical component ambient noise data are computed in one hour segments and stacked over 7 months from june to december 2007 then rayleigh wave group dispersion curves from 6 to 48 s were measured using the multiple filter analysis method group velocity maps at periods from 8 to 44 s were inverted the resulting group velocity maps generally show good correlations with tectonic features the sichuan basin is clearly resolved with lower group velocities at the short periods 8 to 20 s due to thick sedimentary layers and a prominent low velocity zone exhibits in the middle crust beneath the eastern margin of the tibetan plateau the longmen shan thrust belt marks not only the rapid lateral velocity variation between the topographically high tibetan plateau and low elevation sichuan basin but also the transition from the thick crust beneath the tibetan plateau to the normal continental crust beneath the sichuan basin

crustal thickening and variations in architecture from the qaidam basin to the qang tang north central tibetan plateau from wide angle reflection seismology abstract wide angle reflection refraction profiles at crustal scale have been obtained along a 700 km transect of northeastern tibet from six shotpoints a combination of sampling by broadside fan recordings and in line profiling allows us to image increases in moho depth towards the centre of the plateau these occur with different styles across the two block boundaries between north kun lun bayan har and qang tang as shown also by the changes resolved in the internal architecture and layer velocities in the crust clear s waves are observed together with p waves they bring rare constraints on the composition of crustal units which reveals an abnormally felsic average composition for the whole crust and its lower half along the whole length of the transect across the north kun lun qaidam block variations of crustal thickness are detected with moho depth between 55 and 65 km and an inverse correlation with basement topography in the north of the bayan har block a strong heterogeneity in the middle of the 70 km thick crust is shown as suggested from synthetic seismograms modelling it may result from thin layer inclusion marking the northward tectonic superposition of the bayan har crust on the north kun lun crust as imaged by a fan profile the corresponding upper part could have been transported northwards to thicken also the upper crust of the present north kun lun block in the north of qang tang a model is obtained with a 75 km thick crust and a lower half of the crust with average velocities characteristic of felsic composition from bayan har to qang tang variations of deep architecture are documented across the jinsha suture and xianshuihe fault from recording in line and broadside to several shotpoints together with the felsic composition of the lower part of the crust a moho offset suggests the imbrication of the bayan har crust in the qang tang lithosphere between a south dipping moho above and a north dipping moho below a model of indentation of the qang tang by an originally thinner bayan har crust and lithosphere with part of the qang tang brought to greater depth would also be consistent also with the moho topography across the transition from the qang tang to bayan har as imaged by fan profile

crustal structure of northern and southern tibet from surface wave dispersion analysis 1 group and phase velocities of fundamental mode rayleigh waves in the period range of 10 to 70 s are obtained for southern and northern tibet significant variations in crustal velocity structure are found the group velocity minimum for tibet occurs at 33 s and the minimum is 0 12 km s lower for southern tibet than for northern tibet at periods greater than 50 s however group velocities are up to 0 2 km s faster in southern tibet the group and phase velocities are inverted for layered s wave models the dispersion observations in southern tibet can only be fit with a low velocity layer in the middle crust in contrast the velocity models for northern tibet do not require any lowvelocity zone in the crust the s wave velocity of the lower crust of southern tibet is 0 2 km s faster than the lower crust of northern tibet in southern tibet the sub moho velocity increases with a positive gradient that is similar to a shield while there is no velocity gradient beneath northern tibet the high velocity lower crust of southern tibet is consistent with the underthrusting of indian continental lithosphere the most plausible explanation of the mid crustal low velocity zone is the presence of crustal melt resulting from h2o saturated melting of the interplate shear zone between the underthrusting indian crust and overflowing asian crust the lack of a pronounced crustal low velocity zone in northern tibet is an indication of a relatively dry crust the low s wave velocity in the lower crust of northern tibet is interpreted to be due to a combination of compositional differences high temperatures presumably caused by a high mantle heat flux and possibly small amounts of partial melt combined with all available observations in tibet the new surface wave results are consistent with a hot and weak upper mantle beneath northern tibet index terms 7205 seismology continental crust 1242 7218 seismology lithosphere and upper mantle 7255 seismology surface waves and free oscillations 8102 tectonophysics continental contractional orogenic belts keywords tibet crustal velocity structure surface wave rayleigh waves continental collision

emplacement of the longmen shan thrust nappe belt along the eastern margin of the tibetan plateau abstract the topographic descent from the eastern margin of the tibetan plateau to the sichuan basin passes through the longmen shan thrust nappe belt which is sub divided by six nw dipping major listric thrusts with accompanying duplexes and imbricate fans into five large scale nappes each nappe has its own stratigraphic and deformational features in the inner longmen shan longmen mountains allochthonous nappe units have incorporated both mesoproterozoic basement and sinian neoproterozoic to triassic cover sequences as thick skinned horses whereas in the frontal longmen shan sinian cretaceous cover sediments have been stripped from the basement as thin skinned fold and thrust sheets including the extensively distributed klippen structures pre thrusting extension during devonian to middle late triassic times resulted in syn depositional normal faults structural inversion of these faults initiated the peng xian guan xian basement complex jiuding shan and tangwangzhai nappes during the early episode of the indosinian orogeny norian to rhaetian this was followed by episodic thrusting during latest triassic to early cretaceous times to develop the guan xian an xian and southeastern marginal nappes that have incorporated sediments from the neighbouring foreland basin into the frontal part of the thrust nappe belt during a late miocene reactivation of the pre existing thrusts differential thrusting occurred across the thrust nappe belt

midperiod rayleigh wave attenuation model for asia 1 we present an attenuation model for midperiod rayleigh waves in central asia and surrounding regions this model is defined by maps of attenuation coefficient across the region of study in the period band 14 24 s the model is constructed to characterize the regional variations in attenuation of seismic waves in the crust which are related to the tectonic history of the studied territory to calibrate the regional surface wave magnitude scale and to extend the teleseismic surface wave magnitude body wave magnitude ms mb discriminant to regional distances the construction of the model proceeds in three stages the first stage in model construction is the measurement of rayleigh wave spectral amplitudes we collected and processed waveform data for 200 earthquakes occurring from 2003 to 2006 inside and around eurasia and used records of about 135 broadband permanent and temporary stations this data set provided a sufficient number of spectral amplitude measurements between 14 and 24 s periods for the construction of two dimensional tomographic maps of attenuation coefficients at the second stage of the work the integral of attenuation coefficients along given paths is estimated using both inter station measurements and single station measurements corrected for source and receiver terms the third stage includes the refining of source parameters recalculation of attenuation coefficient integrals after this refinement grooming of resulting coefficients and multistage tomographic inversion of the data tomographic maps for the set of periods from 14 to 24 s which exhibit clear correlation with geology and tectonics of the territory under study were obtained validation of these maps using the inter station measurements confirms their accuracy in predicting the observations

group velocity tomography of the indo eurasian collision zone we present results of a rayleigh and love wave group velocity dispersion study of the indo eurasian collision zone group velocity dispersion curves are measured and combined to produce dispersion maps for 10 70 s period rayleigh waves from 4054 paths and for 15 70 s love waves from 1946 paths group velocity maps benefit from the inclusion of data recorded at a large number of stations within india an advantage over previous global studies this has the largest impact at short periods as a result of the improved path length distribution synthetic tests are used to estimate resolution which ranges from 3 to 5 on the continents for rayleigh wave maps and from 5 to 7 5 for love wave maps group velocities correspond well with known geological and tectonic features and show good correlation with sediment thickness at short periods the cratons of the indian shield can be distinguished in the short period and midperiod group velocities group velocities are slow across tibet until 70 s whereas the cratonic cores of the indian shield appear as a high velocity anomaly at 70 s dispersion curves extracted from the rayleigh wave group velocity maps are inverted for shear wave velocity as a function of depth for profiles across india and tibet the relationship between shear velocity contours and the moho indicated by receiver function studies has been used to obtain a first order estimate of crustal thickness across the collision zone results suggest a slow tibetan midcrust and low sub moho velocities beneath the central and northeastern tibetan plateau

3 d seismic velocities calculated from lattice preferred orientation and reflectivity of a lower crustal section examples of the val sesia section ivrea zone northern italy summary to quantify the seismic properties of lower crustal rocks and to better constrain the origin of the lower crustal seismic reflectivity we determined the complete 3 d seismic properties of a lower crustal section eight representative samples of the main lithologic and structural units outcropping in the val sesia ivrea zone were studied in detail the seismic velocities were calculated using the single crystal stiffness coefficients and the lattice preferred orientation lpo of each mineral in all samples the 21 stiffness coefficients characterizing the elastic behaviour of each rock are determined mafic and ultramafic rocks such as pyroxenite and pyroxenebearing gabbros display complex shear wave properties these rocks are weakly birefringent maximum 0 1 km s and it is difficult to find consistent relationships between the seismic properties and the rock structure on the other hand seismic properties of deformed felsic rocks are essentially controlled by mica they display strong s wave birefringence 0 3 km s and relatively high vp anisotropy 7 6 per cent amphibole also strongly influences the rock birefringence patterns for both kind of rocks the foliation is highly birefringent and the fast polarized shear wave is systematically oriented parallel to the foliation we show that the number of mineral phases in the rock strongly controls the anisotropy the seismic anisotropy has a complex role in the p wave reflectivity compared to the isotropic case anisotropy enhances the reflection coefficient for about 60 per cent of the possible lithological interfaces for 40 per cent of the interfaces the reflection coefficient is much lower when one considers the medium as anisotropic

midcrustal low velocity layer beneath the central himalaya and southern tibet revealed by ambient noise array tomography 1 ambient noise tomography has been becoming an important tool to image the shallow lithospheric structure of the earth using 2 months of ambient noise data from 20 stations of the himalayan nepal tibet seismic experiment we investigate the upper and middle crustal structure in the central himalaya and southern tibet about 120 interstation rayleigh wave empirical green s functions with sufficient signal to noise ratio are obtained and used for group velocity dispersion analysis in the period range 6 25 s using frequency time analysis technique the obtained dispersion data are then used to construct 2 d group velocity maps at the short periods from 9 to 15 s the distribution of rayleigh wave velocities delineates several distinct low and high velocity zones separated mainly by geological boundaries the high group velocity zone is located mainly around regions with plutonic rocks and the low group velocity zone is located around regions with sedimentary or metasedimentary rocks finally we invert for the shear velocity structure in the upper and middle crust along a n s trending cross section at the longitude 86 5 e we observe a clear low velocity layer in the middle crust about 10 25 km depth distributed on both sides of the indus yarlung suture zone the existence of this midcrustal low velocity zone suggests a mechanically weaker middle crust beneath the central himalaya and southern tibet which might decouple the upper crustal deformation from that of the lower crust in the tibetan himalayan orogenic processes

the nature and cause of polarization anomalies of surface waves crossing northern and central eurasia summary results of a pilot experiment preliminary to a systematic study of surface wave polarization across eurasia are presented long period fundamental rayleigh and love waves recorded by the broad band seismic stations kiv kislovodsk and obn obninsk of the iris ida network deployed in the former soviet union fsu were analysed from 14 events to the north east east and south east of these stations in search of particle motion anomalies using a technique called frequency time polarization analysis ftpan all anomalies indicate deviations of wave propagation paths to the north relative to the great circle paths polarization anomalies at obn are uniformly small 5 significant frequency dependent polarization anomalies 5 20 are found for rayleigh and love waves arriving at kiv from teleseismic events at a wide range of backazimuths 26 103 polarization measurements are repeatable both for a number of nearly degenerate events and for reciprocal paths and vary smoothly and continuously as epicentral location is moved consequently such measurements are robust and can provide useful structural information the systematics of the frequency dependence of the polarization anomalies as epicentral position is moved from north to south display sensitivity to structures at a number of length scales results from synthetic experiments using coupled normal mode and gaussian beam synthetics reveal that 1 recently constructed long wavelength aspherical models produce polarization anomalies that are significantly smaller 5 at kiv but of the same sign negative as the observed anomalies and 2 the frequency dependence of the observed anomalies must result from a combination of structures of differing wavelengths with scale lengths ranging from regional to global thus polarization measurements provide new information about currently unmodelled structures a model that fits the polarization anomalies observed at kiv includes a regional scale low velocity feature near to kiv in order to fit the large magnitude short period polarization anomalies and a smaller magnitude continent scale increase in upper mantle velocities and or the reduction of crustal thickness from south to north in central eurasia in order to fit the broad band longer period anomalies the small scale low velocity feature is a model of the sedimentary basin of the sub caspian depression we conclude that measurements of polarization anomalies can be obtained accurately that they are reproducible that they contain currently unmodelled information and that they should prove to be useful in combination with velocity and amplitude information in future tomographic inversions especially to help focus global scale models to regional wavelengths

crustal shear s velocity and poisson s ratio structure along the indepth iv profile in northeast tibet as derived from wide angle seismic data summary from the s wave data collected along a 270 km long profile spanning the kunlun mountains in ne tibet 14595 sg phase arrivals and 21 sms phase arrivals were utilized to derive a whole crustal s velocity model and together with a previously derived p velocity model a poisson s ratio model beneath the profile the final tomogram for the upper 10 15 km of the crust reveals the lower velocities associated with the predominantly neogene quaternary sediments of the qaidam basin to the north and the higher velocities associated with the predominantly palaeozoic and mesozoic upper crustal sequences of the songpan ganzi terrane and kunlun mountains to the south this study finds no evidence that the kunlun mountains are involved in large scale northward overriding of the qaidam basin along a shallow south dipping thrust the in the upper 10 15 km of the crust are often lower than 0 25 indicating a preponderance of quartz rich rocks in the upper crust beneath the profile below 10 15 km depth the remainder of the crust down to the moho has an average of 0 24 beneath the songpan ganzi terrane and kunlun mountains and 0 25 below the qaidam basin these low are similar to other low found along other profiles in the northeastern part of the plateau assuming an isotropic situation and no significant variation in between 10 15 km depth and the moho then the lower crust between 25 30 km depth below sea level and the moho with p velocities varying from 6 6 km s 1 at the top to around 6 9 km s 1 at the base and of 0 24 0 25 should comprise intermediate granulites in the upper part transitioning to granulite facies metapelites in the lower part as the pre cenozoic qaidam basin crust has probably not lost any of its lower crust during the present himalayan orogenic cycle in the cenozoic and only has a of 0 245 0 25 then it appears that the pre cenozoic qaidam basin crust involved in the collision is more felsic and thus weaker and more easily deformable than normal continental crust with a global average of 0 265 0 27 and the tarim and sichuan basin crusts this situation then probably facilitates the collision and promotes the formation of new high plateau crust at the ne margin of tibet south of the qaidam basin the crust of the songpan ganzi terrane and kunlun mountains has an even lower average crustal of 0 23 0 24 and is thus presumably even weaker and more easily deformable than the crust beneath the qaidam basin this then supports the hypothesis of karplus et al that the high tibetan plateau may be thickening northward into south qaidam as its weak thickened lower crust is injected beneath stronger qaidam crust

the structure of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath south china from ambient noise and earthquake tomography summary two years of continuous recordings of ambient seismic noise observed at 354 stations in south china from 2009 to 2010 are used to estimate rayleigh wave group and phase velocity maps from 6 to 40 s period these results are merged with rayleigh wave phase velocity maps from 25 to 70 s period derived from earthquakes in the same time frame eikonal tomography generates the dispersion maps which by monte carlo inversion are used to estimate a 3 d vsv model of the crust and upper mantle down to a depth of 150 km across all of south china with attendant uncertainties a clear image emerges of the west yangtze block a region of the western yangtze craton characterized by relatively thick crust 40 km overlying a seismic mantle lithosphere that extends to at least 150 km that may have been the nucleus for the formation of the yangtze craton in the archean and may present a present day obstacle to the eastward expansion of tibet the west yangtze block contrasts with the thinner crust 30 km and mantle lithosphere 70 80 km beneath the eastern yangtze craton and south china foldbelt these observed differences are consistent with processes associated with flat slab subduction in the mesozoic that may have eroded the lithosphere of the eastern yangtze craton and the south china foldbelt

crustal radial anisotropy across eastern tibet and the western yangtze craton 1 phase velocities across eastern tibet and surrounding regions are mapped using rayleigh 8 65 s and love 8 44 s wave ambient noise tomography based on data from more than 400 program for array seismic studies of the continental lithosphere and chinese earthquake array stations a bayesian monte carlo inversion method is applied to generate 3 d distributions of vsh and vsv in the crust and uppermost mantle from which radial anisotropy and isotropic vs are estimated each distribution is summarized with a mean and standard deviation but is also used to identify highly probable structural attributes which include 1 positive midcrustal radial anisotropy vsh vsv across eastern tibet spatial average 4 8 1 4 that terminates abruptly near the border of the high plateau 2 weaker 1 0 1 4 negative radial anisotropy vsh vsv in the shallow crust mostly in the songpan ganzi terrane 3 negative midcrustal anisotropy 2 8 0 9 in the longmenshan region 4 positive midcrustal radial anisotropy 5 4 1 4 beneath the sichuan basin and 5 low vs in the middle crust 3 427 0 050 km s of eastern tibet midcrustal vs 3 4 km s perhaps consistent with partial melt is highly probable only for three distinct regions the northern songpan ganzi the northern chuandian and part of the qiangtang terranes midcrustal anisotropy provides evidence for sheet silicates micas aligned by deformation with a shallowly dipping foliation plane beneath tibet and the sichuan basin and a steeply dipping or subvertical foliation plane in the longmenshan region near vertical cracks or faults are believed to cause the negative anisotropy in the shallow crust underlying tibet

seismic fracture anisotropy in the earth s crust an overview fluid filled fractures and microcracks are the most stress sensitive component of crustal rock and often determine the pathways and volume of crustal fluid movement if we are to comprehend the role of fractures and fluids in tectonic processes to formulate an accurate hypothesis for phenomena precursory to catastrophic seismic failure or to monitor hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoirs for the presence or absence of major fluid pathways we must understand how seismic waves interact with the fracture crack and microcrack structures within the rock mass a salient feature of fracture related rock structure is the effective seismic anisotropy of aligned fractures and microcracks with the advent of large volume digital seismic data sets it is feasible to use polarized shear waves to explore the anisotropic fracture properties of the crust crustal fracture structures which may be monitored by polarized shear waves range in dimensions from the 10 100 km scale of crustal stress orientation and preseismic stress buildup through the 100 1000 m scale of fluid reservoir structure and characterization and the 1 10 scale of mining and geoengineering rock strain monitoring to millimeter and micrometer or possibly smaller fluid filled inclusions determining the elastic response of the intact rock mass to focus developments in seismic anisotropic studies of crustal fracture phenomena the american geophysical union and the society of exploration geophysicists sponsored a chapman conference on seismic anisotropy in the earth s crust held may 31 to june 4 1988 at the lawrence berkeley laboratory of the university of california this was the third international workshop on seismic anisotropy 3iwsa nineteen conference papers are presented in this special section of the journal of geophysical research

amphibole and lower crustal seismic properties abstract measurements of seismic anisotropy frequently offer insights of the deformation kinematics in situ within the earth in the continental crust seismic anisotropy is commonly ascribed to regionally aligned lattice preferred orientation lpo of mica crystals however determinations of composition suggest that the deep continental crust contains rather little mica in this contribution the role of amphibole a far more plausible constituent especially for deep continental crust of basic composition is assessed a field analogue approach is adopted where the lpo are measured correlated with the strain state of the rocks and used to calculate the seismic properties the seismic properties may be up scaled through the specimen using the modal proportions of the constituent mineral phases to examine the role of composition in controlling the intensity of seismic anisotropy seismic properties are computed using an array of modal compositions so called rock recipes the case history comes from the central block of the lewisian of nw scotland where a regional basic dyke swarm the scourie dykes is locally deformed within amphibolite facies shear zones conditions that are representative of the deep crust shear strain profiles across a 100 m wide shear zone using deflected banding in the host gneisses yield values of 0

a review of shear wave splitting in the crack critical crust summary over the last 15 years it has become established that crack induced stress aligned shear wave splitting with azimuthal anisotropy is an inherent characteristic of almost all rocks in the crust this means that most in situ rocks are pervaded by fluid saturated microcracks and consequently are highly compliant the evolution of such stress aligned fluid saturated grain boundary cracks and pore throats in response to changing conditions can be calculated in some cases with great accuracy using anisotropic poro elasticity ape ape is tightly constrained with no free parameters yet dynamic modelling with ape currently matches a wide range of phenomena concerning anisotropy stress shear waves and cracks in particular ape has allowed the anisotropic response of a reservoir to injection to be calculated predicted with hindsight and the time and magnitude of an earthquake to be correctly stress forecast the reason for this calculability and predictability is that the microcracks in the crust are so closely spaced that they form critical systems this crack critical crust leads to a new style of geophysics that has profound implications for almost all aspects of pre fracturing deformation of the crust and for solid earth geophysics and geology we review past present and speculate about the future of shear wave splitting in the crack critical crust shear wave splitting is seen to be a dynamic measure of the deformation of the rock mass there is some good news and some bad news for conventional geophysics many accepted phenomena are no longer valid at high spatial and temporal resolution a major effect is that the detailed crack geometry changes with time and varies from place to place in response to very small previously negligible changes however at least in some circumstances the behaviour of the rock in the highly complex inhomogeneous earth may be calculated and the response predicted opening the way to possible control by feedback the need is to devise ways to exploit these new opportunities in the crack critical crust recent observations from the smsites project at husavik in northern iceland gathered while this review was being written display the extraordinarily sensitivity of in situ rock to small changes at great distances the effects are far too large to occur in a conventional elastic brittle crust and their presence confirms the highly compliant nature of the crack critical crust

uppermost mantle structure and its relation with seismic activity in the central tien shan 1 using arrival data from ghengis and kyrgyz network knet stations we determined the uppermost mantle structure of the central tien shan from pn tomography pn velocities in the north central tien shan are slower than normal for stable lithosphere they are very slow in the south central tien shan where a hot mantle previously has been postulated the pn velocity variation correlates well with seismicity most earthquakes are concentrated in the north central tien shan but almost no earthquakes in the south central tien shan even though both geologic and gps observations show active convergence there this correlation suggests a genetic relationship between seismicity and the state of lithospheric mantle specifically we propose that the very slow pn velocity beneath the south central tien shan is caused by high temperatures produced by heating from mantle upwelling and that this heat has conducted well up into the crust inducing a ductile rheology that prevents significant seismicity