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Crustal Structure Beneath the Indo-Burma Ranges from the Teleseismic Receiver Function and Its Implications for Dehydration of the Subducting Indian Slab

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Abstract

In this study, the crustal shear velocity structure beneath the Indo-Burma Ranges (IBR) is estimated using inversion modeling of the receiver functions computed at seismic stations operated during 2011–2018. The inversion results describe significant variations in the shear-wave velocity (Vs), velocity ratio (Vp/Vs) and crustal thickness in and around the IBR. The Moho deepens from 41 km in the west to 70 km in the east of the IBR. It is also observed that most of the earthquakes are confined to the crust in the west of the Indo-Burma arc, whilst the east of the IBR is associated with sub-crustal earthquakes, supporting the fact that the Indian plate is dipping beneath the Burma Plate. The dip angle of the Moho in the north of the IBR is smaller (7.8º) than that in its south (9.5º). We found that an average crustal Vs of 3.5 km/s for the highest value of the Vp/Vs ratio (> 1.8) was prevalent at all the stations in the IBR, associated with mafic prehnite-pumpellyite facies basalt and hydroxyl zeolite facies basalt, which suggests that the subducting Indian slab beneath the Myanmar microplate in and around the IBR is under a state of dehydration, where intra-slab earthquakes at varying depths (> 50 km) occur. This observation is highly consistent with the earlier 3-D tomographic results obtained independently.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the Editor-in-Chief, Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that improved the manuscript. The authors are also thankful to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), New Delhi, and IRIS-DMC for providing data for this study. APS and OPM gratefully acknowledge the Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), New Delhi, for all necessary support to carry out this research. DB, APS and KB gratefully acknowledge the support from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi, India, vide sanctioned No. EMR/2017/000715. KB gratefully acknowledges the financial support by SERB, India (Project No. MTR/2019/001260), and Academic Research Funding from IISER Kolkata. Seismic Analysis Code (SAC) and Generic Mapping Tools are used in this study to perform analysis and plotting the results. Authors are grateful to Charles Ammon and Melcolm Sambridge for making their receiver function calculation and inversion modeling code available.

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  1. Department of Physics, Diphu Government College, Diphu, Karbi Anglong, Assam, 782462, India

    Dipok K. Bora

  2. Government Model College, Deithor, Karbi Anglong, Assam, 782480, India

    Dipok K. Bora

  3. National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, 110003, India

    A. P. Singh & O. P. Mishra

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India

    Kajaljyoti Borah & Aakash Anand

  5. Center for Climate and Environmental Studies, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741246, India

    Kajaljyoti Borah

  6. Department of Physics, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, 784028, India

    Rajib Biswas

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Bora, D.K., Singh, A.P., Borah, K. et al. Crustal Structure Beneath the Indo-Burma Ranges from the Teleseismic Receiver Function and Its Implications for Dehydration of the Subducting Indian Slab. Pure Appl. Geophys. 179, 197–216 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-021-02897-7

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