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Estimation of the Crustal Bulk Properties Beneath Mainland Portugal from P-Wave Teleseismic Receiver Functions

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Abstract

In this work, we present results from teleseismic P-wave receiver functions (PRFs) obtained in Portugal, Western Iberia. A dense seismic station deployment conducted between 2010 and 2012, in the scope of the WILAS project and covering the entire country, allowed the most spatially extensive probing on the bulk crustal seismic properties of Portugal up to date. The application of the H–κ stacking algorithm to the PRFs enabled us to estimate the crustal thickness (H) and the average crustal ratio of the P- and S-waves velocities V p/V s (κ) for the region. Observations of Moho conversions indicate that this interface is relatively smooth with the crustal thickness ranging between 24 and 34 km, with an average of 30 km. The highest V p/V s values are found on the Mesozoic–Cenozoic crust beneath the western and southern coastal domain of Portugal, whereas the lowest values correspond to Palaeozoic crust underlying the remaining part of the subject area. An average V p/V s is found to be 1.72, ranging 1.63–1.86 across the study area, indicating a predominantly felsic composition. Overall, we systematically observe a decrease of V p/V s with increasing crustal thickness. Taken as a whole, our results indicate a clear distinction between the geological zones of the Variscan Iberian Massif in Portugal, the overall shape of the anomalies conditioned by the shape of the Ibero-Armorican Arc, and associated Late Paleozoic suture zones, and the Meso-Cenozoic basin associated with Atlantic rifting stages. Thickened crust (30–34 km) across the studied region may be inherited from continental collision during the Paleozoic Variscan orogeny. An anomalous crustal thinning to around 28 km is observed beneath the central part of the Central Iberian Zone and the eastern part of South Portuguese Zone.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT/Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia), under research projects WILAS—West Iberia Lithosphere and Asthenosphere Structure (PTDC/CTE704GIX/097946/2008) and AQUAREL—Accurate QUAntification of Regional Earthquakes and Earth structure: appLication to Western Iberia (PTDC/CTE-GIX/116819/2010). This is a contribution to PEST-OE/CTE/LA0019/2013-2014—IDL. Permanent broadband stations running in Portugal are owned and/or operated by Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (PM), GEOFON (GE), Instituto Superior Técnico (IP), Instituto Dom Luiz (LX), Centro de Geofísica da Universidade de Coimbra (SS), and Centro de Geofísica da Universidade de Évora (WM). The temporary WILAS deployment used instrumentation from the Geophysical Instrument Pool of GFZ Potsdam (GIPP), and was registered under FDSN network code 8A. Data for networks LX, GE, IP, SS and WM can be obtained from international data centers such as IRIS, ORFEUS or GEOFON. Data for network 8A will be openly available at GEOFON after June 2016. The main figures were produced using the software package GMT (Wessel and Smith 1998) and the data processing was performed using the Seismic Handler software (Stammler 1993).

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  1. Instituto Dom Luiz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Edifício C1, Piso 1, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Süleyman Dündar, Graça Silveira & Luís Matias

  2. Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa- ISEL, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1959-007, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nuno A. Dias & Graça Silveira

  3. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Rainer Kind

  4. Institute of Physics of the Earth, B. Grouzinskaya 10, 123995, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Lev Vinnik

  5. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Cidade Universitária, Rua do Matão, São Paulo, 1226, Brazil

    Marcelo Bianchi

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  1. Süleyman Dündar
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Dündar, S., Dias, N.A., Silveira, G. et al. Estimation of the Crustal Bulk Properties Beneath Mainland Portugal from P-Wave Teleseismic Receiver Functions. Pure Appl. Geophys. 173, 1949–1970 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-016-1257-4

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