Crustal Structure of the Caucasus
Abstract
The Greater Caucasus is a segment of the Alpine-Himalayan mountain belt that has undergone rapid uplift in the past 5 million years. Being one of the youngest mountain systems of the earth, it can be considered as the unique place to understand early stages of mountain building. Until recently this region has had a lack of reliable digital data that has required extending existing geophysical monitoring systems. Relatively low resolution seismic velocity models of this region show different lateral variability. The region has been largely unexplored in terms of the detailed uppermost mantle and crustal seismic structure.
Seismic network resolution in the Caucasus countries has been improved during past several years. National networks deployed new seismic stations and established good collaboration in exchanging online waveform data. Recently, the seismic networks in the region improved tremendously in the framework of the joint regional project "The Uplift and Seismic Structure of the Greater Caucasus" , supported by USA Department of Energy, IRIS Passcal and Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU). Scientific teams from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and USA (Michigan State University, Oregon State University, Missouri State University) jointly deployed 53 seismic stations in the region. Our seismic array has two components: (1) a grid of stations spanning the entire Caucasus and (2) two seismic transects consisting of stations spaced at distances of less than 10 km, that cross the Greater Caucasus. Our study addresses fundamental questions about the nature of continental deformation in this poorly understood region. Using data from new seismic stations in Georgia, we used receiver functions to estimate Moho depth and crustal properties. Teleseismic events between 30° and 90° with a magnitude greater than mb = 5.5 were extracted from the data and receiver functions were calculated for all stations to study lateral changes of crustal thickness of the study area.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.S51D0426G
- Keywords:
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- 7230 Seismicity and tectonics;
- SEISMOLOGY;
- 7260 Theory;
- SEISMOLOGY;
- 8010 Fractures and faults;
- STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY