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Title: Joint inversion of seismic and gravity data for imaging seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath Utah, United States

Journal Article · · Tectonophysics
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). School of Earth and Space Sciences, Lab. of Seismology and Physics of Earth's Interior
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We present a method for using any combination of body waves travel time measurements, surface wave dispersion observations, and gravity data to simultaneously invert for three-dimensional P- and S-wave velocity models. The simultaneous use of disparate data types takes advantage of the differing sensitivities of each data type, resulting in a comprehensive and higher resolution three-dimensional geophysical model. In a case study for Utah, we combine body waves first arrivals mainly from the USArray Transportable Array, Rayleigh wave group and phase velocity dispersion, and Bouguer gravity anomalies to invert for crustal and upper mantle structure of the region. Results show clear delineations, visible in both P- and S-wave velocities, between the three main tectonic provinces in the region. Without the inclusion of the surface wave and gravity constraints, the delineations would be less clear, particularly for S-wave velocities. Indeed, checkerboard tests confirm that the inclusion of the additional datasets dramatically improves S-wave velocity recovery, with more subtle improvements to P-wave velocity recovery, demonstrating the strength of the method in successfully recovering seismic velocity structure from multiple types of constraints.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; AC05-00OR22725; 41474039; AC52-06NA25396/LA12-SignalPropagation-NDD2Ab
OSTI ID:
1371669
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1394249; OSTI ID: 1550448
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-28451
Journal Information:
Tectonophysics, Vol. 718; ISSN 0040-1951
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A global reference model of the lithosphere and upper mantle from joint inversion and analysis of multiple data sets journal March 2019

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Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
Seismic tomography
Crustal structure
Western United States
Body waves
surface waves
Gravity anomalies