Abstract
Crustal structure beneath the major tectonic domains comprising northeast India is investigated using receiver function analyses of teleseismic earthquakes recorded at 19 new broadband seismic stations, combined with Moho depth and Poisson’s ratio information from 14 previous studies. Velocity structure inverted from receiver functions are combined with results from H–k stacking and validated using forward modeling of gravity data. The Shillong Plateau in the western Brahmaputra River Valley, later representing the Himalayan foredeep, is inferred to have a thin (33–35 km) felsic crust. A dome-shaped, 5-km-thick high-velocity layer in the upper crust likely accounts for positive Bouguer anomaly over the plateau. The Upper Assam basin in the eastern Brahmaputra River Valley is marked by pronounced gravity low, high Poisson’s ratio, and a pair of low- and high-velocity layers in the crust. This narrow segment demarcates the crust of oceanic affinity extending from the Indo-Burmese Wedge. Further to the south of Dauki fault, under the ~ 10-km-thick wedge, a two-layered crust comprising 5–15-km-thick delta sediments overlying a ~ 20-km-thick basement of oceanic affinity extends from Bay of Bengal to the Churachandrapur-Mao Fault, where the deep basement subducts upon collision with the Burmese micro-plate. East of the collision boundary, the overriding Burmese micro-plate having a thin crust of ~ 30 km, including ~ 15-km-thick low-velocity sediments, is imaged beneath Central Myanmar Basin. The findings shed new light on the tectonic reactivation of the different domains of northeast India upon collision with the Himalaya to the north and Burmese micro-plate to the east.
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Data availability
Teleseismic earthquakes used in the present study are obtained from the national data bank of the National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. The data can be obtained on written request to The Director, NCS, (director-ncs@gov.in). The timing and other parameters of teleseismic earthquakes used here for receiver function analysis were extracted from C-PDE catalogue of US Geological Survey (http://neic.usgs.gov). Supplementary section includes a few key synthetic receiver functions simulated for the region-specific velocity structure, e.g., sedimentary basin, sharp velocity interfaces and/or low-velocity layers sandwiched between high-velocity markers, which help to characterize the variety of RFs registered in the present study.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences for his kind encouragement and support for seismological monitoring and research. The present work was initiated when one of us (B.R.A.) was serving as a Consultant to the Division of Seismology, MoES. He places on record his gratitude to the present and previous Secretary, MoES as well as to the Director of the National Centre for Seismology for facilitating close interactions with several experienced staff and young research scholars. Authors acknowledge with thanks the informal discussions with Vineet Gahalaut and Devajit Hazarika, which provided deep insights into several aspects of active tectonics, geodynamics of northeast India as well as intricacies involved in the Receiver Function technique. The authors duly applaud the constructive comments of both reviewers, which have helped them to summarize the results coherently. Sukanta Roy, Head of the Borehole Geophysical Research Laboratory, MoES, and Devajit Hazarika, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, read the manuscript critically and made many useful revisions in language and presentation, which are gratefully acknowledged. The authors extend their heartfelt appreciation to the Chief Editor, Ulrich Ritter and Topic Editor, Alexander Cruden, for his diligent assessment of the scope of the manuscript and several fruitful suggestions for improvement. Their constructive suggestions, aimed at clarifying ambiguities and enhancing the overall presentation of the original manuscript, are acknowledged with gratitude.
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Arora, B.R., Prajapati, S.K., Saikia, S. et al. Crustal structure of Northeast India as evidenced by receiver function imaging: tectonic and geodynamic implications. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-024-02393-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-024-02393-y