3D imaging of the Earth's lithosphere using noise from ocean waves

Yingjie Yang; Jun Xie; Kaifeng Zhao

doi:10.1071/ASEG2016ab202

25th International Conference and Exhibition – Interpreting the Past, Discovering the Future

ISSN: 2202-0586
E-ISSN:

oa 3D imaging of the Earth's lithosphere using noise from ocean waves
Authors Yingjie Yang^a, Jun Xie^b and Kaifeng Zhao^b
View Affiliations Hide Affiliations

^a ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems and GEMOC ARC National Key CentreEarth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, , Australia, [email protected] ^b ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems and GEMOC ARC National Key CentreEarth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, , Australia
Publisher: Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
Source: ASEG Extended Abstracts, Volume 2016, Issue 25th International Conference and Exhibition – Interpreting the Past, Discovering the Future, Dec 2016, p. 1 - 5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/ASEG2016ab202
- Published online: 01 Dec 2016

Abstract

The lithosphere is the rigid outer shell of the Earth, composed of the crust and the rigid uppermost mantle. The lateral variation of lithosphere is believed to be closely related to the foci of intraplate earthquakes and volcanism, the location of large ore deposits and diamond-bearing kimberlites, and the formation of oil/gas-bearing sedimentary basins. Understanding the fine-scale structure of the lithosphere is therefore one of the most fundamental tasks in Earth sciences, and has important implications for society in terms of economic prosperity and hazard mitigation.

Seismic tomography is the main technique available to image the subsurface structure of the Earth across a range of scales. Conventional seismic tomography exploits the seismic waves emitted by earthquakes. However, because most large earthquakes occur at plate boundaries and most continents, including Australia, are not seismically active, earthquake-based tomography suffers from uneven distributions of earthquakes and has difficulties in deciphering fine-scale structures of the Earth in seismically quiet continents.

In the past decade, the advent of ambient noise tomography (ANT) has revolutionized seismic tomography because it can overcome the limitations of conventional earthquake surface wave tomography. This technique uses diffuse background seismic energy, mostly comes from the interaction of ocean waves with the crust. Empirical Green's functions of surface waves passing between a pair of stations are extracted by cross-correlating continuous time series of ambient noise. Within a regional seismic array, all inter-station measurements of surface-wave dispersion can be measured and tomography can be performed to image the underling lithospheric structure. In this study, we demonstrate the applications of broadband ANT in mapping fine-scale lithosphere structures around the world using continuous seismic data.

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1071/ASEG2016ab202

2016-12-01

2026-01-18

From This Site

/content/journals/10.1071/ASEG2016ab202

dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword

-contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution

10

5

Full text loading...

References

Afonso, J.C., Fullea, J., Griffin, W.L., Yang, Y., Jones, A.G., Connolly, J.A.D., O'Reilly, S.Y. (2013a). 3D multi-observable probabilistic inversion for the compositional and thermal structure of the lithosphere and upper mantle. I: a priori petrological information and geophysical observables. J. Geophys. Res., 118, 2586- 2617, doi:10.1002/jgrb.50124.
Afonso, J.C., Fullea, J., Yang, Y., Connolly, J.A.D., Jones, A.G. (2013b). 3D multi-observable probabilistic inversion for the compositional and thermal structure of the lithosphere and upper mantle. II: General methodology and resolution analysis. J. Geophys. Res., 118, 1650-1676, doi:10.1002/jgrb.50123.
Afonso, J. C., S. Zlotnik, and M. Fernandez (2008), Effects of compositional and rheological stratifications on small-scale convection under the oceans: Implications for the thickness of oceanic lithosphere and seafloor flattening, Geophysical Research Letters, 35(20).
Bensen, G.D., M.H. Ritzwoller, M.P. Barmin, A.L. Levshin, F. Lin, M.P. Moschetti, N.M. Shapiro, and Y. Yang, 2007. Processing seismic ambient noise data to obtain reliable broad-band surface wave dispersion measurements, Geophys. J. Int., 169, 12391260.
Karato, S.-i. (2012), On the origin of the asthenosphere, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 321-322, 95-103.
Kawakatsu, H., P. Kumar, Y. Takei, M. Shinohara, T. Kanazawa, E. Araki, and K. Suyehiro (2009), Seismic Evidence for Sharp Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundaries of Oceanic Plates, Science, 324(5926), 499-502.
Naif, S., K. Key, S. Constable, and R. L. Evans (2013), Melt-rich channel observed at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, Nature, 495(7441), 356-359.
Nishida, K., J.-P. Montagner, and H. Kawakatsu (2009), Global Surface Wave Tomography Using Seismic Hum, Science, 326(5949), 112-112.
Olugboji, T. M., S. Karato, and J. Park (2013), Structures of the oceanic lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary: Mineral-physics modeling and seismological signatures, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14(4), 880-901.
Rychert, C. A., and P. M. Shearer (2011), Imaging the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath the Pacific using SS waveform modeling, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 116(B7), n/a-n/a.
Shapiro, N. M., and M. Campillo (2004), Emergence of broadband Rayleigh waves from correlations of the ambient seismic noise, Geophysical Research Letters, 31(7), n/a-n/a.
Shapiro, N.M., M. Campillo, L. Stehly and M.H. Ritzwoller, 2005. High resolution surface wave tomography from ambient seismic noise, Science, 307, 1615-1618.
Tarantola, A., and B. Valette (1982), Generalized nonlinear inverse problems solved using the least squares criterion, Reviews of Geophysics, 20(2), 219-232.
Yang, Y., Application of teleseismic long-period surface waves from ambient noise in regional surface wave tomography: a case study in western USA, Geophysical Journal International 198 (3), 1644-1652, 2014.

/content/journals/10.1071/ASEG2016ab202

Article Type: Research Article

Keyword(s): ambient noise; Lithosphere; surface wave; tomography

Most Cited This Month Most Cited RSS feed

- Inversion of data from electrical imaging surveys in water-covered areas
  
  Authors M. H. Loke and J. W. Lane
- Inversion of Magnetic Data from Remanent and Induced Sources
  
  Authors Robert G. Elllis, Barrry de Wet and Ian N. Macleod
- A comparison of smooth and blocky inversion methods in 2-D electrical imaging surveys
  
  Authors M. H. Loke, Ian Acworth and Torleif Dahlin
- Designing matched bandpass and azimuthal filters for the separation of potential-field anomalies by source region and source type
  
  Authors Jeffrey D. Phillips
- Bad Colour Maps Hide Big Features and Create False Anomalies
  
  Authors Peter Kovesi
- Practical 3D EM inversion – the P223F software suite
  
  Authors Art Raiche, Fred Sugeng and Glenn Wilson
- Estimating Noise Levels in AEM Data
  
  Authors Andy Green and Richard Lane
- Target delineation using Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry data
  
  Authors Colm A. Murphy and James Brewster
- Transdimensional Monte Carlo Inversion of AEM Data
  
  Authors Ross C Brodie and Malcolm Sambridge
- The geotech VTEM time domain helicopter em system
  
  Authors Ken Witherly, Richard Irvine and Edward Morrison
More Less

oa 3D imaging of the Earth's lithosphere using noise from ocean waves

Abstract

Most Read This Month

Most Cited This Month Most Cited RSS feed