TY - JOUR
T1 - CRUSTAL THICKNESS AND VP/VS VARIATIONS IN JORDAN INFERRED FROM TELESEISMIC P-RECEIVER FUNCTIONS
AU - Mahmoud, Wadah
AU - El-Isa, Zuhair
AU - Al-Antary, Tawfiq M.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2022-06-07
Acknowledgements: We thank The University of Jordan in Amman, the Jordanian Seismological Observatory Center (JSO) for their support, facilities, and data. We would like to extend our thanks to Prof. Martin Mai and Dr. Mohammed Youssof-computational earthquake seismology (CES) group at KAUST University for providing assistance in processing soft wares during visiting internship. Advice given by Dr. Bassam El-Eswed has been a great help in preparing this article.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Crustal structure of Jordan was previously studied using deep sounding refraction profiles which led to deducing average crustal structure and Vp/Vs ratios. Other attempts employed different geophysical methods were mainly focused on crustal structure along Dead-Sea Transform Fault which is the main tectonic element in this area. The present work elucidates detailed crustal structure of Jordan using P-wave receiver functions technique. The RF method is applied for the first time to teleseismic earthquakes data from 15 broadband permanent stations that are covering the whole of Jordan and along the Eastern side of Northern part of Arabian plate boundary. The results indicate varying Moho depths beneath selected stations near the main fault and to the east of it, and reveal a thick crust under northern stations (about 35 +/- 1 km) with Vp/Vs ratio of about 1.8. In the northeastern part of Jordan, three stations show deeper Moho depths with varying Vp/Vs ratios ranging from 1.76-1.79, they are situated in the area of basaltic extrusions that can be interpreted as more mafic crustal content in average. The thinnest crust of similar to 30.5 km occurs in the southern Dead-Sea basin along the Transform Fault and near the Gulf of Aqaba (similar to 30.4 km) with Vp/Vs ratios ranging from 1.83 to 1.79, respectively. The crust in Jordan is thickening toward north and northeast. Finally, a 3D topographic map of the Moho discontinuity was constructed.
AB - Crustal structure of Jordan was previously studied using deep sounding refraction profiles which led to deducing average crustal structure and Vp/Vs ratios. Other attempts employed different geophysical methods were mainly focused on crustal structure along Dead-Sea Transform Fault which is the main tectonic element in this area. The present work elucidates detailed crustal structure of Jordan using P-wave receiver functions technique. The RF method is applied for the first time to teleseismic earthquakes data from 15 broadband permanent stations that are covering the whole of Jordan and along the Eastern side of Northern part of Arabian plate boundary. The results indicate varying Moho depths beneath selected stations near the main fault and to the east of it, and reveal a thick crust under northern stations (about 35 +/- 1 km) with Vp/Vs ratio of about 1.8. In the northeastern part of Jordan, three stations show deeper Moho depths with varying Vp/Vs ratios ranging from 1.76-1.79, they are situated in the area of basaltic extrusions that can be interpreted as more mafic crustal content in average. The thinnest crust of similar to 30.5 km occurs in the southern Dead-Sea basin along the Transform Fault and near the Gulf of Aqaba (similar to 30.4 km) with Vp/Vs ratios ranging from 1.83 to 1.79, respectively. The crust in Jordan is thickening toward north and northeast. Finally, a 3D topographic map of the Moho discontinuity was constructed.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/678701
M3 - Article
SN - 1610-2304
VL - 30
SP - 3012
EP - 3023
JO - FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN
JF - FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN
IS - 3
ER -