Receiver function analysis to study the crustal structure of Northern Nepal and Tibetan plateau

Mohan Pant, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

The teleseismic P-waveform receiver function analysis is a commonly used technique in earthquake seismology to study the crustal structure beneath a broadband seismic station. To understand the structure of the Northern Nepal and Tibetan plateau different studies have used the receiver function method to estimate the Moho depth and Vp/Vs ratio. The value suggested was ~ 30 km in the south and the ~ 75 km in the north. Other studies have used teleseismic body wave data to perform the travel time residuals to model the lithosphere structure. In our study, we analyzed data from 261 seismic stations to establish relationship between thickness and P- to S-wave velocity ratio, each of which is stacked for a given station to identify a best-fit estimate for Moho depth and Vp/Vs ratio in different region. The result of our study shows that southern part of Nepal has lower Moho depth of 35 km beneath station H0060 and increases up to 73 along North direction. The Poisson’s ratio varies from south to north along the elevation goes on increasing, but at some regions of Tibet we found very high value of Vp/Vs ratio which suggests the presence of aqueous fluid/partial melt in the crust. In particular stations WT05, WT11, and WT13 in the Kunlun region of Tibet shows very high value of the Vp/Vs, which support our suggestion.

Subject Area

Geophysics

Recommended Citation

Pant, Mohan, "Receiver function analysis to study the crustal structure of Northern Nepal and Tibetan plateau" (2015). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1591984.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1591984

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