Variations of the crustal thickness in the Betic-Rif domain and their foreland regions, by P-Receiver Functions

To image the crustal structure of the Betic-Rif Range and the surrounding area we perform a P-receiver function study (PRF). We calculate PRFs at 110 broadband stations located in South Iberia Peninsula and North Morocco to obtain thickness and average Vp/Vs ratio for the Crust. The Crustal thickness values show strong lateral variations throughout the region. Crustal thicknesses vary between ~19 km and ~46 km. The Betic and Rif ranges are underlined by a thickened crust with crustal thicknesses between ~35 km and ~46 km, reaching the highest values in the contact between the Alboran Domain and External Zones. Southeast Iberia and Northeast Morocco are affected by significant crustal thinning, with crustal thicknesses ranging from ~19 km to ~30 km, with the shallowest Moho along the Mediterranean coast. The transition from thick to thin crust is coincident with the faults system of the Trans-Alboran Shear Zone. Toward the North, the Iberian Massif is an homogeneous domain of average 30-31 km crustal thickness and flat Moho discontinuity with low average Vp/Vs ratios ~1.72. Further south an extended domain, which includes the Atlas domain and its foreland regions, presents crustal thickness of 27-34km. Vp/Vs ratios in north Morocco show normal values of ~1.75 for most stations except for the Atlas domain, where several stations present low Vp/Vs ratios around 1.71. The obtained PRFs are migrated to depth building cross-section images to delineate the crustal mantle discontinuity (Moho) along the study area. In the migrated images, we include altogether ~11.200 PFRs to follow the Moho discontinuity from the Iberian Massif, in the North, along the Gribraltar arc towards the Moroccan Massif in the South. These images show how, in the North, the Iberian crust underthrust the Alboran domain along their contact with the observation of a slab, from the western limit until the 3°W longitude, reaching the maximum depth of ~70 km under the coast coincide with the intermediate-depth seismicity. The migrated images reveal that the transition between thick and thin crust is very sharp in Northern Morocco with change of crustal thickness of _10-15 km, while this transition is gentler in Southern Spain through the presence of dipping Moho.