Lithospheric Velocity Structure Along the Dead Sea Transform From the Joint Inversion of P- and S-Wave Receiver Functions and Dispersion Velocities

The Dead Sea Transform (DST) is a ~1000 km long fault system that separates the Arabian and African plates and links the active spreading center of the Red Sea with the continental collision zone in the Zagros mountains. Independent thermo-mechanical modeling had suggested that a mantle plume intruding from the south might have eroded the lithosphere East of the DST, but recent results from a number of temporary seismic deployments in the area have found little variation in lithospheric thickness to support it and proposed that such geodynamic processes might have operated on both sides of the DST. Those lithospheric thickness estimates have been obtained through the stack and migration of Sp conversions in S-receiver functions, which assumes a global background velocity model to calibrate the depth-scale that might not represent mantle structure under the DST accurately. In this study, we obtain lithospheric and sub-lithospheric S-velocity structure under several permanent broadband stations along the DST from the joint inversion of P- and S-wave receiver functions and tomographic surface-wave dispersion velocities. The joint inversion approach simultaneously models S-P times and Ps amplitudes in P-receiver functions, P-S times and Sp amplitudes in S-receiver functions, and fundamental-mode, Rayleigh-wave group velocities, providing local 1D models of S-velocity under individual recording stations. Our velocity models display interesting variations in crustal thickness along the DST, with values under 40 km in the southern portions and values well over 40 km more to the North, near Lebanon. The models also display S-velocity values in the lithospheric mantle that are generally slow, in the 4.3-4.4 km/s range, sometimes overlaying a relatively shallow asthenospheric low velocity channel, above 150 km depth.