No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The fan wavelet method has been employed to calculate high‐resolution maps of variations of the effective elastic thickness (EET) for the Arabian plate and surroundings. As the initial data, we use high‐resolution gravity field, topography, and recent models of sedimentary basins. The western part of the plate is generally characterized by low to midvalues of EET (10–30 km) while the eastern one by high values (50 km and more in the core). This finding confirms that the pronounced asymmetry of the plate is rather associated with fundamental structural differences of the lithosphere than with a forced tilt of the plate due to the rifting in the west‐southwest and subduction in the northeast. Therefore, the high topography in the western part of the plate is likely supported by relatively hot mantle that is also responsible for the decrease of EET. These results are generally in agreement with recent seismic tomography models.

We use the improved Parker‐Oldenburg's formulas that include a reference depth into the exponential term and employ the Gauss‐fast Fourier transform method to determine Moho depth beneath the Tibetan Plateau. The synthetic models demonstrate that the improved Parker's formula has high accuracy with the maximum absolute error less than 0.25 mGal compared to the analytical solution. Two inversion parameters, that is, the reference depth and the density contrast, are essential for the Moho estimation based on the gravity field, and they need to be determined in advance to obtain correct results. Therefore, the Moho estimates derived from existing seismic studies are used to reduce the nonuniqueness of the gravity inversion and to determine these parameters by searching for the maximum correlation between the gravity‐inverted and seismic‐derived Moho depths. Another critical issue is to remove beforehand the gravity effects of other factors, which affect the observed gravity field besides Moho variations. In addition to the topography, the gravity effects of the sedimentary layer and crystalline crust are removed based on existing crustal models, while the upper mantle impact is determined based on the seismic tomography model. The inversion results show that the Moho structure under the Tibetan plateau is very complex with the depths varying from about 30–40 km in the surrounding basins (e.g., Ganges basin, Sichuan basin, and Tarim basin) to 60–80 km within the plateau. This considerable difference up to 40 km on the Moho depth reveals the substantial uplift and thickening of the crust in the Tibetan Plateau. Furthermore, two visible “Moho depression belts” are observed within the plateau with the maximum Moho deepening along the Indus‐Tsangpo Suture and along the northern margin of Tibet bounding the Tarim basin with the relatively shallow Moho in central Tibet between them. The southern “belt” is likely formed in compressional environment, where the Indian plate underthrusts northward beneath the Tibetan Plateau, while the northern one could be formed by the southward underthrust of the Asian lithosphere beneath Tibet.