Moho depth variation from teleseismic receiver functions
Speaker: Ching?Hsien Huang
Abstract
Receiver function (RF), one of the most efficient methods to detect the Moho depth, has been used in several areas all over the world. We use a lot of waveform data from telelseismic events recorded by station, and use receiver function stacking techniques to study the crustal and mantle structure in the study region.
The H-κ stacking method, one of the three receiver function stacking techniques, can provide a very good point measurement of crustal thickness beneath broadband stations and is not necessary to be sensitive to the crustal P velocity. The crustal thickness estimated only from the delay time of the Moho P-to-S converted phase trades off strongly with the crustal Vp/Vs ratio.
We use the H-κ stacking method to process the direct P-to-S converted phase and the later multiple phases (PpPs and PpSs+PsPs) to determine the crustal thickness and Vp/Vs ratio beneath each station. In these two papers, the result of the southern California revealed the crustal thickness range from 21 to 37 km with an average value of 29 km. In Alaska, the result revealed the crustal thickness range from 26.0 to 42.6 km with an average value of 33.8 km.
Reference
Ai, Y., Zhao, D., Gao, X. and Xu, W., 2005. The crust and upper mantle discontinuity structure beneath Alaska inferred from receiver functions, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 150, pp. 339–350
Zhu, L., Kanamori, H., 2000. Moho depth variation in southern California from teleseismic receiver functions. J. Geophys. Res. 105, 2969–2980.