Evidence for ancient lithospheric deformation in the East European Craton based on mantle seismic anisotropy and crustal magnetics

International audienceWe present new shear-wave splitting measurements performed at 16 stations on the East European Craton, and discuss their implications in terms of upper-mantle anisotropy for this geophysically poorly-known region. Previous investigations of mantle anisotropy in Central Europe have shown fast directions aligning smoothly with the craton's margin and various suggestions have been proposed to explain their origin such as asthenospheric flow or lithospheric frozen-in deformation.;Here, we aim at investigating the continuation of this shear-wave splitting pattern further to the East, into the East European Craton For the craton, the interpretation appears to be less ambiguous than for central Europe since several arguments support lithospheric anisotropy in this region 1) The large-scale coherence within either of the four constituting blocks and the significant variations between the blocks on a small-scale, 2) the weak correlation with absolute plate motion vectors, and 3) the good correlation between anisotropy and crustal features, for which we use magnetic field alignments as a proxy. Rattler good correlation of these magnetic features with seismic fast orientations strongly supports the idea of vertically coherent deformation throughout upper mantle and crust. The observed splitting orientations thus reflect the last tectonic events of each block. frozen-in into the lithosphere for hundreds of millions of year

SplitLab: A shear-wave splitting environment in Matlab

International audienceWe present a graphical user interface to facilitate the processing of teleseismic shear-wave splitting observations. In contrast to a fully automated technique, we present a manual, per-event approach that maintains user control during the sequence of processing. The SplitLab environment is intended to undertake the repetitive processing steps while enabling the user to focus on quality control and eventually the interpretation of the results. Pre-processing modules of SplitLab create a database of events and link the corresponding seismogram files. The seismogram viewer tool uses this database to perform the measurement interactively. Post-processing of the combined results of such a project includes a viewer and export option. Our emphasis lies in the application to teleseismic shear-wave splitting analysis, but our code can be extended easily for other purposes. SplitLab can be downloaded at http://www.gm.univ-montp2.fr/splitting/

Seismic anisotropy beneath southern Iberia from SKS splitting

International audienceSeismic anisotropy of the south Iberian upper mantle is investigated using shear-wave splitting of SKS phases. We analyzed teleseismic events recorded by sixteen permanent broadband stations installed on the southern Iberian Peninsula and in northern Africa, and we determined fast polarization directions phi, and delay times delta t between fast and slow components. The area of investigation extends across two important geological structures in the Variscan Iberian Peninsula: the Variscan Iberian Massif in its center, and the Gibraltar arc in the Southeast, that represents the most westerly Alpine belt in the western Mediterranean. Shear-wave splitting measurements from stations in the Betic domain show homogeneous ENE-WSW fast directions nearly parallel to the trend of the mountain belt, and smooth spatial variations. Stations in the North, toward the southern part of the Variscan Iberian Massif show homogeneous fast directions however trending NS to NE-SW, different from those recorded in the Betic. These observations may reflect a post-Hercynian (Variscan) deformation of the Ossa-Morena zone, related to the main stages in the tectonic evolution of this part, namely transpressional stage, transtensional stage and shortening episode, or a deformation related to the posterior Alpine orogeny. Along the Gibraltar arc, we observe a smoothly varying phi trend changing from ENE-WSW in the Eastern Betics to NS in the area of Gibraltar and Ceuta, following more or less the general trend of the mountain belt around the Alboran Sea, and the coastline. Since a similar rotation is also visible in results from Pn anisotropy, this suggests that the anisotropy is vertically coherent starting from just below the Moho. Comparing the anisotropy pattern expected from various geodynamic models with the observed SKS splitting suggests that the anisotropy is best explained by a model of slab rollback, rather than by delamination models

Identifying global seismic anisotropy patterns by correlating shear-wave splitting and surface-wave data

International audienceWe compare a global compilation of shear-wave splitting measurements with azimuthal seismic anisotropy parameters inferred from surface-wave tomography. The currently available splitting dataset is taken from a novel comprehensive collection of available publications that is updated interactively online. The comparison between the two types of data is made by calculating predicted splitting parameters from the anisotropic tomography model. Comparing these predicted splitting parameters with the observed ones, we find a considerable correlation between the two datasets at global scale. This result is noteworthy, since such correlation did not seem to exist in previous studies. The spatial resolution associated with the two types of methods is rather different. While surface waves have good vertical resolution and poor lateral resolution of several hundreds of kilometers, SKS splitting measurements have good lateral, but poor vertical resolution. The correlation can be understood in light of recent propositions that anisotropy seen by SKS splitting constrains mostly the upper mantle, and therefore a similar depth region as surface waves. The correlation also confirms the generally good quality of the shear-wave measurements, as well as that of the anisotropic tomography model

Upper mantle anisotropy beneath Australia and Tahiti from P wave polarization: Implications for real-time earthquake location

International audienceWe report measurements of long-period P wave polarization (P pol) in Australia and Tahiti made by combining modeling of the polarization deviation and harmonic analysis. The analysis of the deviation of the horizontal polarization of the P wave as a function of event back azimuth may be used to obtain information about (1) sensor misorientation, (2) dipping discontinuities, (3) seismic anisotropy, and (4) velocity heterogeneities beneath a seismic station. The results from harmonic analysis and a grid search using Snell's law suggest the presence of a dipping seismic discontinuity beneath stations CTAO and CAN in Australia. These results are consistent with published receiver function studies for these stations. The P pol fast axis orientation is close to the N–S absolute plate motion direction at station TAU (Tasmania), which may be due to plate-motion-driven alignment of olivine crystals in the asthenosphere. Interestingly, measurements of SKS splitting at Tahiti (French Polynesia) show an apparent isotropy, whereas an inversion of P pol observations at PPTL seismic station located in Tahiti suggests the presence of two anisotropic layers. The fast axis azimuth is oriented E–W in the upper layer, and it is close to the NW–SE orientation in the lower layer. Since P pol orientations are used for real-time earthquake locations, especially in poorly instrumented areas such as the South Pacific, we show that the bias from anisotropy and sensor misorientation determined here can be corrected to improve the location accuracy, which yields fundamental data for rapid location necessary for effective tsunami warning

Arrival angles of teleseismic fundamental mode Rayleigh waves across the AlpArray

The dense AlpArray network allows studying seismic wave propagation with high spatial resolution. Here we introduce an array approach to measure arrival angles of teleseismic Rayleigh waves. The approach combines the advantages of phase correlation as in the two-station method with array beamforming to obtain the phase-velocity vector. 20 earthquakes from the first two years of the AlpArray project are selected, and spatial patterns of arrival-angle deviations across the AlpArray are shown in maps, depending on period and earthquake location. The cause of these intriguing spatial patterns is discussed. A simple wave-propagation modelling example using an isolated anomaly and a Gaussian beam solution suggests that much of the complexity can be explained as a result of wave interference after passing a structural anomaly along the wave paths. This indicates that arrival-angle information constitutes useful additional information on the Earth structure, beyond what is currently used in inversions

Null detection in shear-wave splitting measurements

Shear-wave splitting measurements are widely used to analyze orientations of anisotropy. We compare two different shear-wave splitting techniques, which are generally assumed to give similar results. Using a synthetic test, which covers the whole backazimuthal range, we find characteristic differences, however, in fast-axis and delay-time estimates near Null directions between the rotation correlation and the minimum energy method. We show how this difference can be used to identify Null measurements and to determine the quality of the result. This technique is then applied to teleseismic events recorded at station LVZ in northern Scandinavia, for which our method constrains the fast-axis azimuth to be 15° and the delay time 1.1 sec

Comparing crustal and mantle fabric from the North American craton using magnetics and seismic anisotropy

International audienceA central target in Earth sciences is the study of deformation at various depth levels within the Earth. Seismology has offered a remarkable tool for doing this via seismic anisotropy. It is however not always clear how to interpret those observations. A question of interest is to understand the relation between the deformation of the mantle and the crust, and in studying the relation between the two. Mantle deformation is expressed in seismic anisotropy. In this paper we seek an objective way of extracting information about crustal fabric as well, to be able to compare with seismic anisotropy. The magnetization of crustal rocks offers an attractive possibility for doing this. We thus explore the use of magnetic data, and we compare magnetic crustal fabric orientation with mantle fabric observations from seismic anisotropy. We apply our technique to the North American craton for which we have an excellent magnetic dataset, and we show that there is a clear relation between crustal and mantle fabric for the cratonic region. This has important implications for crustal formation, and for interpreting seismic anisotropy observations

Mantle structure under Gibraltar constrained by seismic waveform complexity

We study the Africa-Iberia plate boundary in the vicinity of Gibraltar. Numerous models have been proposed for that region throughout the last decades, proposing mechanisms that range widely from continental delamination, convective removal, to subduction of oceanic lithosphere. To better constrain upper-mantle structure under the region, we study waveforms of P-waves that traverse the Alboran Sea region between Spain and Morocco. These show dispersive behavior, which, together with early arrival times, confirms the presence of an anomalous upper mantle structure under the Alboran Sea. The dispersion is consistent with that expected from subducted lithosphere. Waveforms of body waves therefore provide a way to better constrain the elusive mantle structure and dynamics of the Alboran Sea regio

Seismic anisotropy in the asthenosphere beneath the Eifel region

We provide evidence for a plume-like upwelling beneath the Eifel hotspot, Western Germany, by using teleseismic shear-wave splitting to resolve the anisotropy associated with upwelling flow that is spreading laterally into the asthenosphere. The variation in fast-polarization azimuth we find across the Eifel hotspot is explained by a model of slowly upwelling material that is horizontally being deflected or sheared in a parabolic asthenospheric flow (PAF) pattern toward west-southwest, a direction that correlates with Eurasian absolute plate motion. We suggest that the lack of an age progression for Eifel volcanism, which is expected for a fixed-upwelling model, is a result of (1) sporadic volcanism due to a low excess plume temperature and/or varying crustal stresses that periodically relax and facilitate eruption, and (2) complex upwelling flow pathways and/or Late Tertiary changes in the slow Eurasian plate motion. The success of the PAF model in fitting the data is remarkable given the small number of parameters (four) and the consistency with the plate motion direction determined from geology and/or geodesy. This suggests that a predictable mantle-anisotropy pattern may exist also for other hotspots driven by plume-like upwellings, and that splitting can be a useful diagnostic to differentiate between plume-like and alternative sources for mantle hotspots