Ongoing oblique slip at the Pacific–North America plate boundary in the Salton Trough produced the Imperial Valley (California, USA), a seismically active area with deformation distributed across a complex network of exposed and buried faults. To better understand the shallow crustal structure in this region and the connectivity of faults and seismicity lineaments, we used data primarily from the Salton Seismic Imaging Project to construct a three-dimensional P-wave velocity model down to 8 km depth and a velocity profile to 15 km depth, both at 1 km grid spacing. A VP = 5.65–5.85 km/s layer of possibly metamorphosed sediments within, and crystalline basement outside, the valley is locally as thick as 5 km, but is thickest and deepest in fault zones and near seismicity lineaments, suggesting a causative relationship between the low velocities and faulting. Both seismicity lineaments and surface faults control the structural architecture of the western part of the larger wedge-shaped basin, where two deep subbasins are located. We estimate basement depths, and show that high velocities at shallow depths and possible basement highs characterize the geothermal areas.
S U M M A R YWe show that higher modes are an important component of high-frequency Rayleigh waves in the cross-correlations over sedimentary basins. The particle motions provide a good test for distinguishing and separating the fundamental from the first higher mode, with the fundamental mode having retrograde and the first higher mode having prograde motion in the 1-10 s period of interest. The basement depth controls the cut-off period of the first higher mode, which coincides with a rapid increase (over period) in the particle-motion ellipticity or H/V ratio of the fundamental mode. The strong higher mode we observed is not only due to the low-velocity sedimentary layer but also due to the noise sources with significant radial component such as the basin edge scattering. It is important to correctly identify the mode order when inverting the dispersion curves because misidentifying the higher mode as fundamental will lead to an anomalous high V SV velocity.
S U M M A R YA velocity (Vs) and structure model is derived for the Los Angeles Basin, California based on ambient-noise surface wave and receiver-function analysis, using data from a low-cost, short-duration, dense broad-band survey (LASSIE) deployed across the basin. The shear wave velocities show lateral variations at the Compton-Los Alamitos and the Whittier Faults. The basement beneath the Puente Hills-San Gabriel Valley shows an unusually high velocity (∼4.0 km s −1 ) and indicates the presence of schist. The structure of the model shows that the basin is a maximum of 8 km deep along the profile and that the Moho rises to a depth of 17 km under the basin. The basin has a stretch factor of 2.6 in the centre grading to 1.3 at the edges and is in approximate isostatic equilibrium.
We image the structure at the southern end of the Peruvian flat subduction zone, using receiver function and surface wave methods. The Nazca slab subducts to ~100 km depth and then remains flat for ~300 km distance before it resumes the dipping subduction. The flat slab closely follows the topography of the continental Moho above, indicating a strong suction force between the slab and the overriding plate. A high‐velocity mantle wedge exists above the initial half of the flat slab, and the velocity resumes to normal values before the slab steepens again, indicating the resumption of dehydration and ecologitization. Two prominent midcrust structures are revealed in the 70 km thick crust under the Central Andes: molten rocks beneath the Western Cordillera and the underthrusting Brazilian Shield beneath the Eastern Cordillera.
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