Understanding Extension Within a Convergent Orogen: Initial Results From the Carpathian Basins Seismic Project

The Carpathian Basins Project (CBP) aims to understand the origin of Miocene-age extensional basins, of which the Pannonian Basin is the largest, within the arc of the Alpine-Carpathian Mountain Ranges - a compressional structure. Analysis of the subsidence history of the Pannonian Basin shows that its mantle lithosphere has undergone a much greater degree of extension than the overlying crust. We describe the results of a temporary seismic deployment to test competing theories of how the continental lithosphere evolved in the region. We deployed a 46-element seismic network, 450 km x 80 km, oriented in a NW-SE direction, crossing the Vienna and western Pannonian Basins in Austria, Hungary and Serbia. The network ran for 14 months from early May 2006. The stations were broadband to 30s and spaced at ~30 km along 3 parallel lines, which are 40 km apart. The principal object of this network is to use P and S-wave teleseismic tomography to image the upper mantle. P- wave residuals from sources perpendicular to the tectonic grain show a ~1s variation across the Mid-Hungarian High in to the Pannonian Basin. This delay cannot be explained by sedimentary or crustal thickness variations, which are well-controlled by boreholes, deep seismic soundings and our own receiver function analyses. We must infer significant lithospheric thinning and anomalously low asthenospheric velocities underlying the Pannonian Basin to explain our observations. These travel time delays are accompanied by a dramatic change in the orientation of SKS splitting measurements from E-W to NW-SE across the Mid-Hungarian High. We have also installed a more broadly distributed regional broadband array of 10 instruments (broadband to 120 sec) for 2 years from September 2005, spaced at ~100km within Hungary, Croatia and Serbia to augment the data available from permanent broadband networks in central Europe. Preliminary interstation surface wave dispersion results from across the Pannonian Basin imply lithospheric thicknesses of the order of 60km.