Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Tehran, Iran

2 Geo Forschungs Zentrum, Potsdam, Germany

3 Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

4 Geophysics Department, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Science, Zanjan, Iran

Abstract

We compute p receiver functions (RF) to investigate the crustal thickness and Vp/Vs ratio beneath the northwest of Iran and map out the lateral variation of Moho depth under this region. We selected data from teleseismic events (Mb≥5.5, 30˚>r  > 95˚) recorded since 2000 to present at 8 three component short period stations from Tabriz teleseismic network. RF method is now a well-known tool for studying crustal thickness when such a complete data set is available. As the p-to-s conversion points at the Moho is laterally close to the stations, the Moho depth estimation is less affected by lateral velocity variations and thus provides a good point measurement. First of all, we calculated RFs for each station and then the Moho depth will be estimated only from the delay time of the Moho p-to-s conversion phases. Then we used an H-Vp/Vs stacking algorithm (Zhu & Kanamori ,2000 ) to estimate crustal thickness and Vp/Vs ratio under each station from P-to-S converted waves in receiver functions. The best value for H and Vp/Vs ratio is found when the three phases (Ps and crustal multiples) are stacked coherently. The average Moho depth is approximately 48 km and varies from 38.51 to 53.51 km. Deeper and shallower Moho is found under the western and eastern stations beneath SHB and SRB stations respectively. The northwest Iran's crust has an average Vp/Vs ratio of 1.76, with higher ratio of 1.820.03 in Tabriz station and lower ratio of 1.73 0.03 in Azarshahr station.

Keywords

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