Inversion of gravity and topography data for the crust thickness of China and its adjacent region

Introduction Since the middle of the century, gravitational isostasy has been a fundamental hypothesis for inverting the gravity data to find the crust thickness. Geophysicists have done a lot of researches on using gravity data to investigate the depth of Moho discontinuity. Since 1980, the International Lithosphere Program emphasized the importance of investigating the Moho depth variation. Thereafter a lot of results have been published in the world (Braitenberg et al, 2000; Kaban et al,…     

Insights into the Crustal Structure and Geodynamic Evolution of the Southern Granulite Terrain,India, from Isostatic Considerations

The Southern Granulite Terrain of India, formed through an ancient continental collision and uplift of the earth’s surface, was accompanied by thickening of the crust. Once the active tectonism ceased, the buoyancy of these deep crustal roots must have supported the Nilgiri and Palani-Cardamom hills. Here, the gravity field has been utilized to provide new constraints on how the force of buoyancy maintains the state of isostasy in the Southern Granulite Terrain. Isostatic calculations show that the seismically derived crustal thickness of 43–44 km in the Southern Granulite Terrain is on average 7–8 km more than that required to isostatically balance the present-day topography. This difference cannot be solely explained applying a constant shift in the mean sea level crustal thickness of 32 km. The isostatic analysis thus indicates that the current topography of the Southern Granulite Terrain is overcompensated, and about 1.0 km of the topographic load must have been eroded from this region without any isostatic readjustment. The observed gravity anomaly, an order of magnitude lower than that expected (−125 mGal), however, shows that there is no such overcompensation. Thermal perturbations up to Pan-African, present-day high mantle heat flow and low Te together negate the possible resistance of the lithosphere to rebound in response to erosional unloading. To isostatically compensate the crustal root, compatible to seismic Moho, a band of high density (2,930 kg m⁻³) in the lower crust and low density (3,210 kg m⁻³) in the lithospheric mantle below the Southern Granulite Terrain is needed. A relatively denser crust due to two distinct episodes of metamorphic phase transitions at 2.5 Ga and 550 Ma and highly mobilized upper mantle during Pan-African thermal perturbation reduced significantly the root buoyancy that kept the crust pulled downward in response to the eroded topography.     

Crustal thickness along the western Galápagos Spreading Center and the compensation of the Galápagos hotspot swell

Wide-angle refraction and multichannel reflection seismic data show that oceanic crust along the Galápagos Spreading Center (GSC) between 97°W and 91°25′W thickens by 2.3 km as the Galápagos plume is approached from the west. This crustal thickening can account for ∼52% of the 700 m amplitude of the Galápagos swell. After correcting for changes in crustal thickness, the residual mantle Bouguer gravity anomaly associated with the Galápagos swell shows a minimum of −25 mGal near 92°15′W, the area where the GSC is intersected by the Wolf-Darwin volcanic lineament (WDL). The remaining depth and gravity anomalies indicate an eastward reduction of mantle density, estimated to be most prominent above a compensation depth of 50-100 km. Melting calculations assuming adiabatic, passive mantle upwelling predict the observed crustal thickening to arise from a small increase in mantle potential temperature of ∼30°C. The associated thermal expansion and increase in melt depletion reduce mantle densities, but to a degree that is insufficient to explain the geophysical observations. The largest density anomalies appear at the intersection of the GSC and the WDL. Our results therefore require the existence of compositionally buoyant mantle beneath the GSC near the Galápagos plume. Possible origins of this excess buoyancy include melt retained in the mantle as well as mantle depleted by melting in the upwelling plume beneath the Galápagos Islands that is later transported to the GSC. Our estimate for the buoyancy flux of the Galápagos plume (700 kg s⁻¹) is lower than previous estimates, while the total crustal production rate of the Galápagos plume (5.5 m³s⁻¹) is comparable to that of the Icelandic and Hawaiian plumes.     

Topography of the Moho and Conrad discontinuities in the Kyushu district,Southwest Japan

The first P-arrival time data from local earthquakes are inverted for two-dimensional variation of the depths to the Conrad and Moho discontinuities in the Kyushu district, southwest Japan. At the same time, earthquake hypocenters and station corrections are determined from the data. The depths to the discontinuities are estimated by minimizing the travel time residuals of first P-arrival phases for 608 earthquakes observed at 57 seismic stations. In the land area of Kyushu, the Conrad and Moho discontinuities are located within the depth ranges of 16–18 and 34–40 km, respectively. The Conrad discontinuity is not as largely undulated as the Moho discontinuity. The depth to the Moho is deep along the east coast of Kyushu, and the deepest Moho is closely related to markedly low velocity of P wave. We regard the deepest Moho as reflecting the Kyushu–Palau ridge subducting beneath the Kyushu district, together with the Philippine Sea slab. In western Kyushu, the shallow Moho is spreading in the north–northeast–south–southwest direction in the Okinawa trough region. Based on the presence of low-velocity anomaly in three-dimensional velocity structure and seismogenic stress field of shallow crustal earthquakes, the shallow Moho is interpreted as being due to lower crustal erosion associated with a small-scale mantle upwelling in the Okinawa trough region. The velocity discontinuity undulation basically has insignificant effect on hypocenter determination of the local earthquakes, but the Moho topography makes changes in focal depths of some upper mantle earthquakes. The depth variation of the Moho discontinuity has a good correlation with the Bouguer gravity anomaly map; i.e., the shallow Moho of western Kyushu and the deep Moho of eastern Kyushu closely correlate with the positive and negative Bouguer gravity anomalies, respectively.     

DEEP STRUCTURE OF NORTHERN HENAN PROVINCE AND ADJACENT AREAS DERIVED FROM GRAVITY AND SEISMIC SOUNDING DATA IN RELATION TO DISTRIBUTION OF EARTHQUAKES

We conduct the wave field separation of the gravity field for northern Henan Province and adjacent areas by the wavelet multi-scale decomposition method, and obtain multi-order gravity wavelet details and regional gravity field information. Then the Parker density surface inversion is used to invert the Moho interface. Based on the analysis of wavelet details in different orders and results of three seismic sounding profiles available in this area, we attempt to reveal the deep crustal structure of the study area. Research results show that the crustal structure is dominated by uneven density distribution accompanied by uplifts and depressions in the region with obvious heterogeneities of the density in horizontal and vertical directions. The gravity field characteristics in the middle-upper crust correspond to the surface topography, the lower crust is dominated by the large-scale high-low gravity anomalies, and several major depression basins show the characteristics of low velocity and low density. At the same time, the depth of the Moho interface changes greatly, which forms the block structure pattern of the regional crustal thickness. Among these features, the area with relatively large variations of the Moho is located in the transition zone of the basin to the Taihang Mountains, or exactly the Moho mutation belt. The Moho interface of the basin area as a whole is dominated by the uplift intertwined with local variations, of which the least and largest depths are 31km and 37km, respectively. Due to the gravity isostasy, the crustal thickness is larger(about 41km)in the northwest of the Taihang Mountains, with less average crustal density. In the study area, earthquakes tend to occur around the transition zone with density changes where the Moho is locally convex. The seismogenic mechanism may be associated with upwelling of upper mantle materials, low-velocity and low-density structures in the middle-lower crust and connection of deep large faults. Moreover, the deep large faults play a controlling role in the distribution of regional earthquakes.     

Gravity anomaly, lithospheric structure and seismicity of Western Himalayan Syntaxis

A compiled gravity anomaly map of the Western Himalayan Syntaxis is analysed to understand the tectonics of the region around the epicentre of Kashmir earthquake of October 8, 2005 (Mw = 7.6). Isostatic gravity anomalies and effective elastic thickness (EET) of lithosphere are assessed from coherence analysis between Bouguer anomaly and topography. The isostatic residual gravity high and gravity low correspond to the two main seismic zones in this region, viz. Indus–Kohistan Seismic Zone (IKSZ) and Hindu Kush Seismic Zones (HKSZ), respectively, suggesting a connection between siesmicity and gravity anomalies. The gravity high originates from the high-density thrusted rocks along the syntaxial bend of the Main Boundary Thrust and coincides with the region of the crustal thrust earthquakes, including the Kashmir earthquake of 2005. The gravity low of HKSZ coincides with the region of intermediate–deep-focus earthquakes, where crustal rocks are underthrusting with a higher speed to create low density cold mantle. Comparable EET (∼55 km) to the focal depth of crustal earthquakes suggests that whole crust is seismogenic and brittle. An integrated lithospheric model along a profile provides the crustal structure of the boundary zones with crustal thickness of about 60 km under the Karakoram–Pamir regions and suggests continental subduction from either sides (Indian and Eurasian) leading to a complex compressional environment for large earthquakes.     

Crust and uppermost mantle structure of the Ailaoshan-Red River fault from receiver function analysis

S-wave velocity structure beneath the Ailaoshan-Red River fault was obtained from receiver functions by using teleseismic body wave records of broadband digital seismic stations. The average crustal thickness, Vp/Vs ratio and Poisson’s ratio were also estimated. The results indicate that the interface of crust and mantle beneath the Ailaoshan-Red River fault is not a sharp velocity discontinuity but a characteristic transition zone. The velocity increases relatively fast at the depth of Moho and then increases slowly in the uppermost mantle. The average crustal thickness across the fault is 36―37 km on the southwest side and 40―42 km on the northeast side, indicating that the fault cuts the crust. The relatively high Poisson’s ratio (0.26―0.28) of the crust implies a high content of mafic materials in the lower crust. Moreover, the lower crust with low velocity could be an ideal position for decoupling between the crust and upper mantle.     

THE DEPTH OF MOHO INTERFACE AND CRUSTAL THICKNESS IN SICHUAN-YUNNAN REGION,CHINA

By using moving average method to separate Bouguer gravity anomaly field in Sichuan-Yunnan region, we got the low-frequency Bouguer gravity anomaly field which reflects the undulating of Moho interface. The initial model is obtained after seismic model transformation and elevation correction. Then, we used Parker method to invert the low-frequency Bouguer gravity anomaly field to obtain the depth of Moho interface and crustal thickness in the area. The results show that the Qinghai-Tibet block in the northwest of the study area deepens and thickens from the edge to the interior, with the depth of Moho interface and the crust thickness of about 52~62km and 54~66km, respectively. The depth of Moho interface in Sichuan Basin is about 38~42km. In Sichuan-Yunnan block, the depth of Moho interface is about 42~62km from southeast to northwest. Beneath the West Yunnan block, west of the Red River fault zone, the Moho depth is about 34~52km from south to north. The Longmen Mountains and Red River fault zone are the gradient zone of the Moho depth change. Along the Red River fault zone, the depth difference of Moho interface is increasing gradually from north to south. No obvious uplift is found on the Moho interface of Panzhihua rift valley. The depth of Moho interface distribution in Sichuan and Yunnan is obviously restricted by the collision between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate and the lateral subduction of the Indo-China peninsula. The mean square error of the depth of Moho interface is less than 1.7km between the result of divisional density interface inversion and artificial seismic exploration. At the same time, we compared the integral with divisional inversion result. It shows that:in areas where there is obvious difference between the crust velocity and density structure in different tectonic blocks, the use of high resolution seismic exploration data as the constraints to the divisional density interface inversion can effectively improve the reliability of inversion results.     

Non‐linear stochastic inversion of gravity data via quantum‐behaved particle swarm optimisation: application to Eurasia–Arabia collision zone (Zagros,Iran)

Potential field data such as geoid and gravity anomalies are globally available and offer valuable information about the Earth's lithosphere especially in areas where seismic data coverage is sparse. For instance, non‐linear inversion of Bouguer anomalies could be used to estimate the crustal structures including variations of the crustal density and of the depth of the crust–mantle boundary, that is, Moho. However, due to non‐linearity of this inverse problem, classical inversion methods would fail whenever there is no reliable initial model. Swarm intelligence algorithms, such as particle swarm optimisation, are a promising alternative to classical inversion methods because the quality of their solutions does not depend on the initial model; they do not use the derivatives of the objective function, hence allowing the use of L₁ norm; and finally, they are global search methods, meaning, the problem could be non‐convex. In this paper, quantum‐behaved particle swarm, a probabilistic swarm intelligence‐like algorithm, is used to solve the non‐linear gravity inverse problem. The method is first successfully tested on a realistic synthetic crustal model with a linear vertical density gradient and lateral density and depth variations at the base of crust in the presence of white Gaussian noise. Then, it is applied to the EIGEN 6c4, a combined global gravity model, to estimate the depth to the base of the crust and the mean density contrast between the crust and the upper‐mantle lithosphere in the Eurasia–Arabia continental collision zone along a 400 km profile crossing the Zagros Mountains (Iran). The results agree well with previously published works including both seismic and potential field studies.     

Isostatic status in North China (1) Method and local compensation

Following Airy and Pratt principles, five kinds of local-compensation models are analysed and a rapid 3-D gravity formula is utilized to calculate isostatic anomalies for 66 models with different parameters. It is noted that isostatic gravity maps appear nearly identical in their main patterns and features. The optimum compensation model in North China is one of modified Airy models in which the different density distribution in the surface, upper crust and lower crust is taken into account and the standard crustal thickness is about 50km. The position of the complete compensation interface is located in the upper mantle. The North China platform as a whole is under sub-isostatic equilibrium status with an isostatic anomaly of about 18·10⁻⁵ m/s² on an average. The distribution of isostatic gravity anomaly shows an obvious blockwise pattern. Most positive anomaly areas occur over the eastern part, the Jiao-Liao Block, Mt. Yan block and northern margin of the Hebei-Shandong block, whereas a negative area occurs in the Shanxi graben. The comparison of models indicates that the Moho discontinuity is not suitable to be taken as a compensation interface, and the compensation effects in Airy model are better than that in Pratt model, which is consistent with the feature of dominant layered structure and less lateral inhomogeneity in crust. Some results about composite compensation, the basic characteristics of isostatic anomaly and deep stucture will be published later in the second part of this paper. Wang Bowen took part in some work in this paper.     

The variation of crustal thickness across the Swiss Alps based on gravity and explosion seismic data

Summary Recently determined gravity anomalies along the NW-SE oriented Swiss Geotraverse from Basel to Bellinzona are used in combination with seismic refraction data to deduce a crustal section across the Swiss Alps. Topographic, Bouguer, free air, isostatic and geological corrections were applied to the data. Geological features considered in the corrections are the Swiss Molasse basin filled with sediments and the Ivrea body of high-density material. The resultant Bouguer anomaly over the Gotthard massif is 130 mgal lower than the Bouguer anomaly at the northern end of the profile near Basel. The Alpine region is associated with negative isostatic anomalies down to –20 mgal. The crustal thickness is found to increase gradually from the northern end of the profile (thicknessH=30 km) towards the Helvetic nappes at the northern margin of the Alps (H=38 km) and more rapidly towards the Gotthard massif (H=50 km) and further south to Biasca down to a depth of 58 km. From Biasca southward the crustal thickness thins quite rapidly to reach a depth of 30 km at the southern end of the profile near Bellinzona. Thus the Alps have a distinct asymmetric crustal root whose maximum thickness is almost twice the average crustal thickness in Central Europe. With the Mohorovii-discontinuity deduced from seismic observations an average constant density contrast of –0.33 gcm^–3 is found between the lower crust and upper mantle underneath the Alps.Institut für Geophysik, ETH Zürich, Contribution No. 130.     

青藏高原东北缘岩石圈三维密度结构

综合重力观测资料和地震波走时资料反演了青藏高原东北缘岩石圈三维密度结构,并对该区岩石圈结构及动力学特征进行了讨论.首先利用收集到的P波近震和远震走时数据进行地震层析成像,得到研究区岩石圈三维P波速度结构.然后利用速度-密度经验关系式,将速度扰动转化为密度扰动建立研究区三维初始密度模型.最后利用分离的布格重力异常反演得到了岩石圈三维密度结构.反演结果表明:青藏高原东北缘地壳密度结构特征有利于地震孕育发生和地壳物质侧向流动;地壳内,密度异常等值线走向与地表断裂走向基本一致,进入地幔后,密度异常等值线走向发生了顺时针旋转,这表明青藏高原东北缘地壳和地幔具有不同的构造运动模式,暗示该区可能发生了壳幔解耦;80~100 km深度上,P波速度异常较密度异常明显偏低,推测该区可能发生了部分熔融或者岩石含水量的增加;印度板块俯冲和周围坚硬块体阻挡联合作用,使得青藏高原东北缘形成了强大的区域构造应力场,并导致深部软流圈热物质上涌,为该区壳幔解耦、部分熔融和P波速度降低创造了条件.     

Insight into the Crustal Structure of the Eastern Marmara Region, NW Turkey

In order to investigate crustal structure beneath the eastern Marmara region, a seismic refraction survey was conducted across the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) zone in north west Turkey. Two reversed profiles across two strands of the NAF zone were recorded in the Armutlu Highland where a tectonically active region was formed by different continents. We used land explosions in boreholes and quarry blasts as seismic sources. A reliable crustal velocity and depth model is obtained from the inversion of first arrival travel times. The velocity-depth model will improve the positioning of the earthquake activities in this active portion of the NAF. A high velocity anomaly (5.6–5.8 km s⁻¹) in the central highland of Armutlu block and the low velocity (4.90 km s⁻¹) pattern north of Iznik Lake are the two dominant features. The crustal thickness is about 26 ± 2 km in the north and increases to about 32 ± 2 km beneath the central Armutlu block in the south. P-wave velocities are about 3.95 km s⁻¹ to 4.70 km s⁻¹ for the depth range between about 1 km and 5 km in the upper crust. The eastern Marmara region has different units of upper crust with velocities varying with depth to almost 8 km. The high upper crust velocities are associated with Armutlu metamorphic rocks, while the low velocity anomalies are due to unconsolidated sedimentary sequences. The western side of Armutlu block has complex tectonics and is well known for geothermal sources. If these sources are continuous throughout the portions of the crust, it may be associated with a granitic intrusion and deformation along the NAF zone. That is, the geothermal sources associated with the low velocity may be due to the occurrence of widespread shear heating, even shear melting. The presence of shear melting may indicate the presence of crustal fluid imposed by two blocks of the NAF system.     

中国北部及其邻区地壳上地幔三维速度结构

本文利用中周期和长周期瑞利面波资料分别反演得到中国北部及其邻区的三维Ｓ波带度结构。结果表明，地壳中横向非均匀性非常明显，许多地区显示出构造活动的特征；上地幔速度结构的横向变化相对减小。研究区的地壳厚度从东向西逐渐增大，地壳平均速度分布的格局与地壳厚度分布大体一致。地壳厚度与地壳平均速度的空变带处与布格重力异常梯级带基本一致。从数据上看，地壳厚度远比地壳平均速度与布格重力异常的一致性程度高，因此可以     

Rheology of the lower crust beneath the northern part of North China: Inferences from lower crustal xenoliths from Hannuoba basalts, Hebei Province, China

Lower crustal xenoliths brought up rapidly by basaltic magma onto the earth surface may provide di-rect information on the lower crust. The main purpose of this research is to gain an insight into the rheology of the lower crust through the detailed study of lower crustal xenoliths collected from the Hannuoba basalt, North China. The lower crustal xenoliths in this area consist mainly of two pyroxene granulite, garnet granulite, and light-colored granulite, with a few exception of felsic granulite. The equilibration temperature and pressure of these xenoliths are estimated by using geothermometers and geobarometers suitable for lower crustal xenoliths. The obtained results show that the equilibration temperature of these xenoliths is within the range of 785―900℃, and the equilibrium pressure is within the range of 0.8―1.2 GPa, corresponding to a depth range of 28―42 km. These results have been used to modify the previously constructed lower crust-upper mantle geotherm for the studied area. The dif-ferential stress during the deformation process of the lower crustal xenoliths is estimated by using recrystallized grain-size paleo-piezometer to be in the range of 14―20 MPa. Comparing the available steady state flow laws for lower crustal rocks, it is confirmed that the flow law proposed by Wilks et al. in 1990 is applicable to the lower crustal xenoliths studied in this paper. The strain rate of the lower crust estimated by using this flow law is within the range of 10-13―10-11 s-1, higher than the strain rate of the upper mantle estimated previously for the studied area (10-17―10-13 s-1); the equivalent viscosity is estimated to be within the range of 1017―1019Pa·s, lower than that of the upper mantle (1019―1021 Pa·s). The constructed rheological profiles of the lower crust indicate that the differential stress shows no significant linear relation with depth, while the strain rate increases with depth and equivalent vis-cosity decrease with depth. The results support the viewpoint of weak lower continental crust.     

南北地震带南段地壳厚度重震联合最优化反演

重力反演方法是研究地壳结构和物性界面起伏的有效地球物理手段之一.本文收集了南北地震带南段67个已有的固定台站接收函数反演的Moho面深度结果,并使用基于EGM2008重力异常模型计算的布格重力异常,验证了本文提出的重震联合密度界面反演方法的有效性.利用接收函数对台站下方Moho面深度估计作为先验约束,定义了一类评价函数,通过对重力反演算法中尺度因子,平移因子和稳定性因子的最优选择,最小化重力反演结果与接收函数模型之间的差异.结果表明,本文提出的方法,可以有效地同化不同地球物理方法获得的反演模型,且通过重震联合反演可以改进由于对空间分布不均匀的接收函数结果插值可能而引起的误差.本文还通过引入Crust1.0的Moho面深度为初值,同时考虑地壳密度的横向不均匀分布,通过模型之间的联合反演有效改善了地球物理反演模型间的不一致性问题.本文反演得到的最优化Moho面深度模型与已知67个台站位置接收函数模型之间的标准差约1.9km,小于Crust1.0与接收函数结果模型之间标准差为3.73km的统计结果.本文研究结果对于同化重震反演结果、精化地壳密度界面模型,都具有十分重要的参考意义.     

Upper mantle P wave velocity structure of the northern part of China and Mongolia

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Global Crust-Mantle Density Contrast Estimated from EGM2008, DTM2008, CRUST2.0, and ICE-5G

We compute globally the consolidated crust-stripped gravity disturbances/anomalies. These refined gravity field quantities are obtained from the EGM2008 gravity data after applying the topographic and crust density contrasts stripping corrections computed using the global topography/bathymetry model DTM2006.0, the global continental ice-thickness data ICE-5G, and the global crustal model CRUST2.0. All crust components density contrasts are defined relative to the reference crustal density of 2,670 kg/m³. We demonstrate that the consolidated crust-stripped gravity data have the strongest correlation with the crustal thickness. Therefore, they are the most suitable gravity data type for the recovery of the Moho density interface by means of the gravimetric modelling or inversion. The consolidated crust-stripped gravity data and the CRUST2.0 crust-thickness data are used to estimate the global average value of the crust-mantle density contrast. This is done by minimising the correlation between these refined gravity and crust-thickness data by adding the crust-mantle density contrast to the original reference crustal density of 2,670?kg/m³. The estimated values of 485 kg/m³ (for the refined gravity disturbances) and 481?kg/m³ (for the refined gravity anomalies) very closely agree with the value of the crust-mantle density contrast of 480?kg/m³, which is adopted in the definition of the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM). This agreement is more likely due to the fact that our results of the gravimetric forward modelling are significantly constrained by the CRUST2.0 model density structure and crust-thickness data derived purely based on methods of seismic refraction.     

Deep tectonic setting of the 2008 Wenchuan <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>s</Subscript>8.0 earthquake in southwestern China

Teleseismic P-wave receiver functions at 20 broadband seismic stations in the Longmenshan fault zone (LMFZ) and its vicinity were extracted, and the crustal thickness and the P- and S-wave velocity ratio were calculated by use of the H-k stacking algorithm. With the results as constraints, the S-wave velocity structures beneath each station were determined by the inversion of receiver functions. The crustal structure of the Rear-range zone is similar to that of the Songpan-Garze Block, whereas the velocity structure of the Fore-range zone resembles that of Sichuan Basin, implying that the Central Principal Fault of LMFZ is the boundary between the eastern Tibetan Plateau and the Yangtze Block. Lower velocity zone exists in lower crust of the Songpan-Garze Block and the central-southern segment of the Rear-range zone, which facilitates the detachment of the material in upper and middle crust. Joint analysis of the receiver functions and the Bouguer gravity anomalies supports the thesis on the detachment-thrust mode of the LMFZ. A double-detachment pattern is suggested to the tectonic setting in the Songpan-Garze Block. The upper detachment occurs at the depth of 10-15 km, and represents a high-temperature ductile shear zone. There is a lower detachment at the depth of about 30 km, below which the lower crust flow exists in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Interpretation of the Bouguer gravity anomalies indicates that the Sichuan Basin is of higher density in upper and middle crust in comparison with that of the Songpan-Garze Block. The LMFZ with higher density is the result from the thrusting of the Songpan-Garze Block over the Sichuan Basin. In the lower crust, higher P velocity and higher density in the Sichuan Basin are related to more rigid material, while lower S velocity and lower density in the Songpan-Garze Block are related to the softened and weakened material. The higher density block beneath the Sichuan Basin obstructs the eastward flow of lower crustal material from the Tibetan Plateau, which is driven by the compression of northward movement of Indian Plate. The eastward movement of upper and middle crustal material is also obstructed by the rigid Yangtze Block, resulting in the stress concentrated and accumulated along the LMFZ. When the stress releases sharply, the Wenchuan M _s8.0 earthquake occurs. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40334041, 40774037) and Joint Foundation of Earthquake Science (Grant No. 1040062)     

Crustal structure in Dabieshan UHP metamorphic belt and its tectonic implication

IntroductionGeologistsfirstlyfoundcoesite-bearingecologitesattheendof1980'sandthenthemicrodiamond(Xu,elal,1992)inDabieshanarea.Theultra-highpressure(UHP)metamorphismandthegeodynamicprocessesofDabieorogenhaveattractedmanygeoscientists(Wang,etal,1989,O...