The P-wave velocity structure of the lithosphere of the North China CratonmResults from the Wendeng-Alxa Left Banner deep seismic sounding profile

For the first time on the Chinese mainland, long-range wide-angle seismic reflection/refraction profiling technology has been applied to seismic wave phases from different depths and with different attributes within the various blocks of the North China Craton to characterize the structure of the cr...

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Published in中国科学:地球科学英文版 no. 9; pp. 2053 - 2063
Main Author WANG ShuaiJun WANG FuYun ZHANG JianShi JIA ShiXu ZHANG ChengKe ZHAO JinRen LIU BaoFeng
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 2014
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Summary:For the first time on the Chinese mainland, long-range wide-angle seismic reflection/refraction profiling technology has been applied to seismic wave phases from different depths and with different attributes within the various blocks of the North China Craton to characterize the structure of the crust and upper mantle lithosphere. By comparative analysis of the seismic wave phase characteristics in each block across a 1500-km-long east-west profile, we have identified conventional Pg, Pci, PmP and Pn phases in the crust, made a clear contrast between PL1 and PL2 waves belonging to two groups of lithospheric-scale phases, and produced a model of crust-mantle velocity structures and tectonic characteristics after one- and two-dimensional calcula- tions and processing. The results show that the thickness of the crust and lithosphere gradually deepens from east to west along the profile. However, at the reflection/refraction interface, seismic waves in each group show obvious localized changes in each block. Also, the depth to the crystalline basement changes greatly, from as much as 7.8 km in the North China fault basin to only about 2 km beneath the Jiaodong Peninsula and Taihang-Ltlliang area. The Moho morphology as a whole ranges from shallow in the east to deep in the west, with the deepest point in the Ordos Block at 47 km; in contrast, the North China Plain Block is uplifting. The L1 interface of the lithosphere is observed only to the west of Taihang Mountains, at a relatively slowly changing depth of about 80 km. The L2 interface varies from 75 to 160 km and shows a sharp deepening to the west of Tai- hang Mountains, forming a mutation belt.
Bibliography:For the first time on the Chinese mainland, long-range wide-angle seismic reflection/refraction profiling technology has been applied to seismic wave phases from different depths and with different attributes within the various blocks of the North China Craton to characterize the structure of the crust and upper mantle lithosphere. By comparative analysis of the seismic wave phase characteristics in each block across a 1500-km-long east-west profile, we have identified conventional Pg, Pci, PmP and Pn phases in the crust, made a clear contrast between PL1 and PL2 waves belonging to two groups of lithospheric-scale phases, and produced a model of crust-mantle velocity structures and tectonic characteristics after one- and two-dimensional calcula- tions and processing. The results show that the thickness of the crust and lithosphere gradually deepens from east to west along the profile. However, at the reflection/refraction interface, seismic waves in each group show obvious localized changes in each block. Also, the depth to the crystalline basement changes greatly, from as much as 7.8 km in the North China fault basin to only about 2 km beneath the Jiaodong Peninsula and Taihang-Ltlliang area. The Moho morphology as a whole ranges from shallow in the east to deep in the west, with the deepest point in the Ordos Block at 47 km; in contrast, the North China Plain Block is uplifting. The L1 interface of the lithosphere is observed only to the west of Taihang Mountains, at a relatively slowly changing depth of about 80 km. The L2 interface varies from 75 to 160 km and shows a sharp deepening to the west of Tai- hang Mountains, forming a mutation belt.
11-5843/P
ISSN:1674-7313
1869-1897