Abstract. A number of different geodynamic models have been proposed to explain the extension that occurred during the Miocene in the Alboran Sea region of the westernMediterranean despite the continued convergence and shortening of northern Africa and southern Iberia. In an effort to provide additional geophysical constraints on these models, we performed a local, regional, and teleseismic tomographic travel time inversion for the lithospheric and upper mantle velocity structure and earthquake locations beneath the Alboran region in an area of 800 x 800 km 2. We picked P and S arrival times from digital

Abstract:Geophysical evidence is presented for an episode of active delamination of a piece of continental lithosphere. Observations of earthquake hypocentre locations, seismic wave velocities and attenuation, Bouguer gravity, seismic reflection, and drill hole data are combined with surface geology to infer the presence of a high-velocity, seismically active, rigid body in the upper mantle beneath the Alboran Sea and surrounding Betic and Rif mountain belts of the western Mediterranean region. This upper-mantle body, inferred to be the delaminating continental lithosphere, is overlain by a low-velocity, aseismic and strongly attenuating uppermost mantle, inferred to be the asthenospheric material replacing the delaminating lithosphere.

The crustal structure of the Anatolian plateau in Eastern Turkey is investigated using receiver functions obtained from the teleseismic recordings of a 29 broadband PASSCAL temporary network, i.e., the Eastern Turkey Seismic Experiment [ETSE]. The S‐wave velocity structure was estimated from the stacked receiver functions by performing a 6‐plane layered grid search scheme in order to model the first order features in the receiver functions with minimum trade‐off. We found no significant crustal root beneath the western portion of the network, but there is some evidence of crustal thickening in the northern portion of the network. We found an average crustal thickness of 45 km and an average crustal shear velocity of 3.7 km/s for the entire eastern Anatolian plateau. Within the Anatolian plateau we found evidence of a prominent low velocity zone where the crust thickness is approximately 46 km. These results suggests that the 2 km high topography across the Anatolian plateau is dynamically supported because most of the plateau appears to be isostatically under‐compensated. Also, there appears to be a region of thin crust at the easternmost edge of the Anatolian plateau that may be a relic from the accretion of island arcs to the Eurasian plate.

Abstract:A grid search is used to estimate average crustal thickness and shear wave velocity structure beneath 12 three-component broadband seismic stations in the Middle East, North Africa, and nearby regions. The crustal thickness in these regions is found to vary from a minimum of 8.0 +/-1.5 km in East Africa (Afar) region to possibly a maximum of 64 +/-4.8 km in the lesser Caucasus. Stations located within the stable African platform indicate a crustal thickness of about 40 km. Teleseismic three-component waveform data produced by 165 earthquakes are used to create receiver function stacks for each station. Using a grid search, we have solved for the optimal and most simple shear velocity models beneath all 12 stations. Unlike other techniques (linearized least squares or forward modeling), the grid search methodology guarantees that we solve for the global minimum within our defined model parameter space. Using the grid search, we also qualitatively estimate the least number of layers required to model the observed receiver functions' major seismic phases (e.g., PSMoho). A jackknife error estimation method is used to test the stability of our receiver function inversions for all 12 stations in the region that had recorded a sufficient number of high-quality broadband teleseismic waveforms. Five of the 12 estimates of crustal thickness are consistent with what is known of crustal structure from prior geophysical work. Furthermore, the remaining seven estimates of crustal structure are in regions for which previously there were few or no data about crustal thickness.

SUMMARY The interaction of the Arabian plate with the Eurasian plate has played a major role in building the young mountain belts along the Zagros–Bitlis continent–continent collision zone. Arabia's northward motion is considered to be the primary driving force behind the present‐day westerly escape of the Anatolian plate along the North and East Anatolian fault zones as well as the formation of the Turkish and the Iranian plateaux. In this study we mapped Pn‐wave velocity and anisotropy structures at the junction of the Arabian, Eurasian and African plates in order to elucidate the upper‐mantle dynamics in this region. Pn is a wave that propagates within the mantle lid of the lithosphere and is often used to infer the rheology and fabric of the mantle lithosphere. Applying strict selection criteria, we used arrival times of 166 000 Pn phases to invert for velocity and anisotropy in the region. Using a least‐squares tomographic code, these data were analysed to solve simultaneously for both velocity and azimuthal anisotropy in the mantle lithosphere. We found that most of the continental regions in our study area are underlain by low Pn velocity structures. Broad‐scale (∼500 km) zones of low (<8 km s−1) Pn velocity anomalies underlie the Anatolian plate, the Anatolian plateau, the Caucasus region, northwestern Iran and northwestern Arabia, and smaller scale (∼200 km), very low (<7.8 km s−1) Pn velocity zones underlie southern Syria, the Lesser Caucasus, the Isparta Angle, central Turkey and the northern Aegean Sea. The broad‐scale low‐velocity regions are interpreted to be hot and unstable mantle lid zones, whereas very low Pn velocity zones are interpreted to be regions of no mantle lid. The low and very low Pn velocity zones in eastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and the Caucasus region may be associated with the latest stage of intense volcanism that has been active since the Late Miocene. The low Pn velocity zones beneath the Anatolian plate, eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran may in part be a result of the subducted Tethyan oceanic lithosphere beneath Eurasia. We also found a major low‐velocity zone beneath northwestern Arabia and the Dead Sea fault system. We interpret this anomaly to be a possible extension of the hot and anomalous upper mantle of the Red Sea and East Africa rift system. High Pn velocities (8.1–8.4 km s−1) are observed to underlie the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the central and eastern Arabian plate. Observed Pn anisotropy showed a higher degree of lateral variation than did the Pn velocity structure. Although the Pn anisotropy varies even in a given tectonic region, in eastern Anatolia very low Pn velocity and Pn anisotropy structures appear to be coherent.