The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary in the Tien Shan-Karakoram

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Thelithosphere-asthenosphereboundaryintheTienShan-KarakoramregionfromSreceiverfunctions:Evidenceforcontinentalsubduction

P.Kumar,1,2X.Yuan,1R.Kind,1,3andG.Kosarev4Received22December2004;revised22February2005;accepted16March2005;published9April2005.[1]SignificantS-to-Pconvertedwaveenergyfromthecrust-mantleandlithosphere-asthenosphereboundaries(theMohoandtheLAB,respectively)hasbeenobservedintheTienShanandKarakoramorogenicbeltsandusedforthedeterminationofthethicknessofthecrustandthemantlelithosphere.TheMoholiesatdepthsof45–65kmintheTienShanandadjacentregionsanddeepensto$70kmdepthinPamirandKarakoram.Thethicknessofthelithospherevariesbetween90and120kmunderneaththeTienShanandincreasestoavalueof160kmbeneaththeTarimBasin.TothesouthoftheTarimBasinthelowerboundaryoftheAsianlithospherecanbeclearlyfollowedtoadepthof270kmbeneathcentralPamirandKarakoram,whiletheIndianlithosphereisobservedbeneaththeKarakoramdippingfrom130kmto170kmtowardsthenorth.Theobservationsindicateascenarioofcontinentalcollisionandsubduction,consistentwithseismicityandthesurfacewavetomographyresults.Citation:Kumar,P.,

X.Yuan,R.Kind,andG.Kosarev(2005),Thelithosphere-asthenosphereboundaryintheTienShan-KarakoramregionfromSreceiverfunctions:Evidenceforcontinentalsubduction,Geophys.Res.Lett.,32,L07305,doi:10.1029/2004GL022291.

1.Introduction[2]TheTienShanandKarakoramorogenicbelts,sep-aratedbytheTarimBasin,arelocatedatthewesternandnorthwesternedgeoftheIndo-Asiancollisionzone(Figure1).ThedynamicsoftheentireregionisdominatedbythecollisionoftheIndianandEurasiancontinentalplates,withaconvergencerateof$5cm/year[DeMetsetal.,1990].Theresultingdeformationisaccommodatedmostlybylithosphericthickeningandlateralextrusionandismani-festedatthesurfacebyanumberofeast-westtrendingthrustandstrike-slipfaults[MolnarandTapponnier,1975;Hamburgeretal.,1992;Matteetal.,1996;Robinsonetal.,2004].ThemajorthrustfaultssuchastheMainPamirThrust,theMainKarakoramThrust,theMainMantleThrustandtheMainBoundaryThrustaccommodatemostoftheIndo-Asiancollisionandcrustalshortening,whilethedex-tralKarakoramFaultandthesinistralAltynTaghFaultindicatethatlateralmaterialflowinasoutheastdirection

towardsTibetoccurred.Theregionhasintensiveseismicactivityfromashallowdepthdowntoamaximumdepthof350km.TheseismicitypatternshowsclearconcentrationsofshallowearthquakesalongtheMainPamirThrustandintermediate-depthearthquakesalonganarrowbandinPamirandHinduKush[Billingtonetal.,1977;Roeckeretal.,1980;BurtmanandMolnar,1993;Fanetal.,1994;Zhuetal.,1997].Theintermediate-depthseismiczoneiscom-posedoftwoseparatesegmentswithoppositedirections.InwesternPamirandHinduKushtheWadati-Benioffzonedipstothenorth,whileineasternPamirandKarakoramitdipstothesouthandsoutheast.Thedistinctseismicpatternleadstocontroversialinterpretationsofwhetheritresultsfromasinglecontortedslabortwoseparateslabsegmentswithoppositedirections.Seismictomographyhasshownhighandlowvelocityanomaliesassociatedwithgeologicalfeaturesandtheseismiczonesandseemtosupportthecontinentaloroceanicsubduction[Roecker,1982;Roeckeretal.,1993;Mellorsetal.,1995].However,theresolutionisnotsufficienttoresolvethedetailsofthesubductedslab.[3]Withtherapidlygrowingnumberofpermanentand

temporaryseismicstationsdeployedinthelastdecade,especiallyinTienShan,muchinformationaboutthelitho-sphericstructureshasbeenacquired.ThecrustalthicknesswasestimatedbyPandSreceiverfunctionstobe45–65kminTienShan[Kosarevetal.,1993;Oreshinetal.,2002;Vinniketal.,2004].FromthesouthernrimofTienShansouthwardtoTarimBasintheMohowasobservedtovaryfromdepthsof60–76kmto40–52km[Liuetal.,2000].AjumpoftheMohodepthwasfoundacrosstheAltynTaghFaultfrom60kminTarimBasinto80kminnorthwestTibet[Wittlingeretal.,2004].Thelithosphereisobservedtobe90–110kmthickbeneathTienShan[Oreshinetal.,2002].AlowvelocityzonewasfoundbeneaththeTienShaneastoftheTalasso-FerghanaFault,whichisattributedtotheexistenceofmantleplume[Vinniketal.,2004].[4]Thicknessofthelithosphereisoneofthemost

importantparameterstoaddresstheproblemsofplatetectonicprocesses.Unfortunately,seismicobservationsofthelithosphereisstillachallengingworkusingbodywaves.Mostobservationsaboutthelithosphericthicknesscomesofarfromlow-resolutionsurfacewavestudies.TherecentlydevelopedS-receiverfunctiontechniquecanbeusedtoidentifythelithosphere-asthenosphereboundary(LAB)[VinnikandFarra,2000;Lietal.,2004;P.Kumar,ThelithosphereoftheNW-AtlanticandtheIcelandplumetrack,submittedtoEarthandPlanetaryScienceLetters,2004].TheSreceiverfunctiontechniquelooksforS-to-Pcon-vertedwavesatseismicdiscontinuitiesbeneathstations.TheS-to-PconvertedwavesarriveatthestationearlierthanthedirectSwaves,whereasallthemultiplereverberationsappearlaterthantheSarrival.WiththisadvantagetheS