Abstract
The Eastern Indian Ocean is a tectonically and geodynamically active region that has experienced deformations due to rifting, uplifting, and plume activity. The earlier Rayleigh wave studies in the East Indian Ocean were mainly focused on the structure of the Bay of Bengal, Ninety East Ridge, and Broken Ridge. The structure of other region of the East Indian Ocean is not much explored. In the present study, Rayleigh wave dispersion analysis is performed to observe the signatures of upper mantle deformation in terms of shear wave velocity of the East Indian Ocean using global search method. The fundamental mode Rayleigh wave group velocities are estimated between 15 and 100 s using the multiple filter technique. The group velocities of the raypaths that traverse the same region are clustered (E1–E8) to get an average dispersion curve. Using a genetic algorithm, each cluster's group velocities are inverted for shear velocity structure. The observed dispersion curve of E6, E7, and E8 indicates the lower group velocities between 35 and 100 s relative to E1, E2, E3, E4, and E5, with an average variation of about 0.07–0.18 km/s. The crustal thickness obtained in the study region is ~ 26 km and is due to the increased thickness of the lower crust (9.1–12.4 km) having Vs 3.95–4.04 km/s. The theoretical Vs have been calculated for serpentinite rock at uppermost lithospheric conditions and found to be similar to the Vs of the lower crust in the present study. Hence, it is assumed that unusual crustal thickness is due to the progressive development of the upper lithosphere formation (Ultramafic rock) into material (serpentinite rock) with crustal-like shear velocity or moderately lower than sub-Moho shears velocity. The undeformed lithosphere is evidenced by the high-velocity (Vs 4.62–4.77 km/s) layer beneath the Moho, whose thickness ranges from 41.3 to 51.6 km. The high-velocity lithosphere is followed by a low-velocity zone that extends up to 160 km; however, the variation in Vs (4.57–4.31 km/s) indicates that the low-velocity zone is deformed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Code availability (software application or custom code)
No specific code was developed for this work. We have cited the literature on the algorithm.
References
Au D, Clowes RM (1984) Shear-wave velocity structure of the oceanic lithosphere from ocean bottom seismometer studies. Geophys J Int 77(1):105–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1984.tb01927.x
Basu AR, Weaver KL, Sengupta S (2001) December. A plume head and tail in the Bengal basin and Bay of Bengal: Rajmahal and Sylhet Traps with surrounding alkalic volcanism and the Ninety East Ridge. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2001:V12A-0950. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001AGUFM.V12A0950B
Bhattacharya SN (1976) Extension of the Thomson—Haskell method to non-homogeneous spherical layers. Geophys J Int 47(3):411–444. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1976.tb07095.x
Bhattacharya SN (1983) Higher order accuracy in multiple filter technique. Bull Seismol Soc Am 73(5):1395–1406
Bhattacharya SN (2009) Computation of surface-wave velocities in a nongravitating elastic spherical Earth using an exact flattening transformation. Bull Seismol Soc Am 99(6):3525–3528
Bowin C (1973) Origin of the Ninety East Ridge from studies near the equator. J Geophys Res 78(26):6029–6043. https://doi.org/10.1029/JB078i026p06029
Brocher TM (2005) Empirical relations between elastic wavespeeds and density in the Earth’s crust. Bull Seismol Soc Am 95(6):2081–2092
Brune JN, Singh DD (1986) Continent-like crustal thickness beneath the Bay of Bengal sediments. Bull Seismol Soc Am 76(1):191–203
Chatterjee S, Goswami A, Scotese CR (2013) The longest voyage: tectonic, magmatic, and paleoclimatic evolution of the Indian plate during its northward flight from Gondwana to Asia. Gondwana Res 23(1):238–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2012.07.001
Chen X (1993) A systematic and efficient method of computing normal modes for multilayered half-space. Geophys J Int 115(2):391–409. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1993.tb01194.x
Christensen NI (1966) Elasticity of ultrabasic rocks. J Geophys Res 71(24):5921–5931. https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ071i024p05921
Coudurier-Curveur A, Karakaş Ç, Singh S et al (2020) Is there a nascent plate boundary in the northern Indian Ocean? Geophys Res Lett 47(7):e2020GL087362. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087362
Delescluse M, Montési LGJ, Chamot Rooke N (2008) Fault reactivation and selective abandonment in the oceanic lithosphere. Geophys Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035066
Dewandel B, Boudier F, Kern H, Warsi W, Mainprice D (2003) Seismic wave velocity and anisotropy of serpentinized peridotite in the Oman ophiolite. Tectonophysics 370(1–4):77–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-1951(03)00178-1
Dziewonski A, Bloch S, Landisman M (1969) A technique for the analysis of transient seismic signals. Bull Seismol Soc Am 59(1):427–444. https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0590010427
Ekström G (2011) A global model of Love and Rayleigh surface wave dispersion and anisotropy, 25–250 s. Geophys J Int 187(3):1668–1686. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2011.05225.x
Fang H, Van Der Hilst RD, Maarten V, Kothari K, Gupta S, Dokmanić I (2020) Parsimonious seismic tomography with Poisson Voronoi projections: methodology and validation. Seismol Res Lett 91(1):343–355
Fletcher JB, Erdem J (2017) Shear-wave velocity model from Rayleigh wave group velocities centered on the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. Pure Appl Geophys 174(10):3825–3839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1587-x
Francis TJ, Raitt RW (1967) Seismic refraction measurements in the southern Indian Ocean. J Geophys Res 72(12):3015–3304. https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ072i012p03015
Hananto N, Boudarine A, Carton H et al (2018) Evidence of pervasive trans-tensional deformation in the northwestern Wharton Basin in the 2012 earthquakes rupture area. Earth Planet Sci Lett 502:174–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.09.007
Herrmann RB (1973) Some aspects of band-pass filtering of surface waves. Bull Seismol Soc Am 63(2):663–671. https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0630020663
Herrmann RB, Ammon CJ (2002) Computer programs in seismology: surface waves, receiver functions and crustal structure. St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO
Husen S, Kissling E, Deichmann N, Wiemer S, Giardini D, Baer M (2003) Probabilistic earthquake location in complex three-dimensional velocity models: application to Switzerland. J Geophys Res. https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JB001778
Jacob J, Dyment J, Yatheesh V (2014) Revisiting the structure, age, and evolution of the Wharton Basin to better understand subduction under Indonesia. J Geophys Res 119(1):169–190. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JB010285
Jöns N, Bach W (2016) Serpentinization. In: Harff J, Meschede M, Petersen S, Thiede J (eds) Encyclopedia of marine geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_119
Karner GD, Driscoll NW, Peirce J (1991) Gravity and magnetic signature of broken ridge, southeast Indian Ocean. In: Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results , vol 121, pp 681–695
Kissling E (1995) Velest User’s Guide. Internal Report. Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, p 26
Krishna KS, Abraham H, Sager WW et al (2012) Tectonics of the Ninety East Ridge derived from spreading records in adjacent oceanic basins and age constraints of the ridge. J Geophys Res 117:B04101. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JB008805
Kumar A, Mukhopadhyay S, Kumar N, Baidya PR (2018) Lateral variation in crustal and mantle structure in Bay of Bengal based on surface wave data. J Geodyn 113:32–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jog.2017.11.006
Lamadrid HM, Rimstidt JD, Schwarzenbach EM et al (2017) Effect of water activity on rates of serpentinization of olivine. Nat Commun 8(1):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16107
Lévěque JJ, Debayle E, Maupin V (1998) Anisotropy in the Indian Ocean upper mantle from Rayleigh-and Love-waveform inversion. Geophys J Int 133(3):529–540. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-246X.1998.00504.x
Levshin A, Ratnikova L, Berger J (1992) Peculiarities of surface-wave propagation across central Eurasia. Bull Seismol Soc Am 82(6):2464–2493. https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0820062464
Luco JE, Apsel RJ (1983) On the Green’s functions for a layered half-space Part I. Bull Seismol Soc Am 73(4):909–929. https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0730040909
Luo Y, Lin J, Zhou, Z (2018) Evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean basin since 120 Ma: influence of Kerguelen hotspot in oceanic crust accretion. In: AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2018:V23L-0214. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AGUFM.V23L0214L
Maneno R, Santosa BJ (2019) 3d seismic velocity structure imaging beneath Flores region using local earthquake tomography. J Phys Conf Ser 1245(1):012012
Manglik A (2002) Shear wave velocity structure of the upper mantle under the NW Indian Ocean. J Geodyn 34(5):615–625. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-3707(02)00033-9
Matrullo E, De Matteis R, Satriano C, Amoroso O, Zollo A (2013) An improved 1-D seismic velocity model for seismological studies in the Campania–Lucania region (Southern Italy). Geophys J Int 195(1):460–473
Mazzullo A, Stutzmann E, Montagner JP et al (2017) Anisotropic tomography around La Réunion island from Rayleigh waves. J Geophys Res 122(11):9132–9148. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014354
Miller BL, Goldberg DE (1995) Genetic algorithms, tournament selection, and the effects of noise. Complex Syst 9(3):193–212
Mitra S, Priestley K, Acton C, Gaur VK (2011) Anomalous surface wave dispersion and the enigma of “continental-like” structure for the Bay of Bengal. J Asian Earth Sci 42(6):1243–1255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.07.008
Molnar P, Tapponnier P (1975) Cenozoic tectonics of Asia: effects of a continental collision. Science 189(4201):419–426. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.189.4201.419
Moncayo E, Tchegliakova N, Montes L (2012) Pre-stack seismic inversion based on a genetic algorithm: a case from the Llanos Basin (Colombia) in the absence of well information. CT&F Cienc Tecnol Futuro 4(5):5–20
Montagner JP, Jobert N (1988) Vectorial tomography—ii. Application to the Indian Ocean. Geophys J Int 94(2):309–344. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1988.tb05904.x
Mutter JC, Hegarty KA, Cande SC, Weissel JK (1985) Breakup between Australia and Antarctica: a brief review in the light of new data. Tectonophysics 114(1–4):255–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1951(85)90016-2
O’Hanley DS, Chernosky JV, Wicks FJ (1989) The stability of lizardite and chrysotile. Can Mineral 27(3):483–493
O’Neill C, Müller D, Steinberger B (2005) On the uncertainties in hot spot reconstructions and the significance of moving hot spot reference frames. Geochem Geophys Geosyst 6(4):Q04003. https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GC000784
Panza GF, Pontevivo A (2004) The Calabrian Arc: a detailed structural model of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system. Rend Accad Naz Sci XL Mem Sci Fis Natur 28:51–88
Parker PB (1999) Genetic algorithms and their use in geophysical problems. University of California, Berkeley
Pasyanos ME, Masters TG, Laske G, Ma Z (2014) LITHO1.0: an updated crust and lithospheric model of the Earth. J Geophys Res 119(3):2153–2173. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JB010626
Phinney RA (1961) Leaking modes in the crustal waveguide: 1. The oceanic PL wave. J Geophys Res 66(5):1445–1469. https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ066i005p01445
Pollitz FF, Stein RS, Sevilgen V, Bürgmann R (2012) The 11 April 2012 east Indian Ocean earthquake triggered large aftershocks worldwide. Nature 490(7419):250–253. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11504
Preiner M, Xavier JC, Sousa FL et al (2018) Serpentinization: connecting geochemistry, ancient metabolism and industrial hydrogenation. Life 8(4):41. https://doi.org/10.3390/life8040041
Qin Y, Singh SC (2015) Seismic evidence of a two-layer lithospheric deformation in the Indian Ocean. Nat Commun 6(1):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9298
Quintero R, Kissling E (2001) An improved P-wave velocity reference model for Costa Rica. Geofís Int 40(1):3–19
Ramillien G (2001) Genetic algorithms for geophysical parameter inversion from altimeter data. Geophys J Int 147(2):393–402. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0956-540x.2001.01543.x
Rao GS, Radhakrishna M, Sreejith KM et al (2016) Lithosphere structure and upper mantle characteristics below the Bay of Bengal. Geophys J Int 206(1):675–695. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggw162
Rathnayake S, Tenzer R, Eshagh M, Pitoňák M (2019) Gravity maps of the lithospheric structure beneath the Indian Ocean. Surv Geophys 40(5):1055–1093. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-019-09564-6
Reeves C, De Wit M (2000) Making ends meet in Gondwana: retracing the transforms of the Indian Ocean and reconnecting continental shear zones. Terra Nova 12(6):272–280. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3121.2000.00309.x
Sambridge M (1999) Geophysical inversion with a neighbourhood algorithm—I. Searching a parameter space. Geophys J Int 138(2):479–494. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-246X.1999.00876.x
Sambridge M, Drijkoningen G (1992) Genetic algorithms in seismic waveform inversion. Geophys J Int 109(2):323–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1992.tb00100.x
Scotese CR, Gahagan LM, Larson RL (1988) Plate tectonic reconstructions of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic ocean basins. Tectonophysics 155(1–4):27–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1951(88)90259-4
Sen MK, Stoffa PL (1992) Rapid sampling of model space using genetic algorithms: examples from seismic waveform inversion. Geophys J Int 108(1):281–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1992.tb00857.x
Sharma J, Kumar MR, Roy KS, Roy PNS (2018) Seismic imprints of plume lithosphere interaction beneath the northwestern Deccan Volcanic Province. J Geophys Res 123(12):10–831. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB015947
Sharma J, Kumar MR, Roy KS et al (2021) Low-velocity zones and negative radial anisotropy beneath the plume perturbed Northwestern Deccan Volcanic Province. J Geophys Res 126(2):e2020JB020295. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB020295
Singh DD (1988) Quasi-continental oceanic structure beneath the Arabian Fan sediments from observed surface-wave dispersion studies. Bull Seismol Soc Am 78(4):1510–1521. https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0780041510
Singh DD (2005) Rayleigh-wave group-velocity studies beneath the Indian Ocean. Bull Seismol Soc Am 95(2):502–511. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120000296
Singh SC, Carton H, Chauhan AS et al (2011) Extremely thin crust in the Indian Ocean possibly resulting from Plume—Ridge Interaction. Geophys J Int 184(1):29–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04823.x
Souriau A (1981) The upper mantle beneath Ninetyeast Ridge and Broken Ridge, Indian Ocean, from surface waves. Geophys J Int 67(2):359–374. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1981.tb02755.x
Storey M, Saunders AD, Tarney J et al (1989) Contamination of Indian Ocean asthenosphere by the Kerguelen-Heard mantle plume. Nature 338(6216):574–576. https://doi.org/10.1038/338574a0
Thurber C, Ritsema J (2007) Theory and observations-seismic tomography and inverse methods. Seismology and the Structure of the Earth 1:323–360
Tselentis GA, Serpetsidaki A, Martakis N, Sokos E, Paraskevopoulos P, Kapotas S (2007) Local high-resolution passive seismic tomography and Kohonen neural networks—application at the Rio-Antirio Strait, central Greece. Geophysics 72(4):B93–B106
Van Orman J, Cochran JR, Weissel JK, Jestin F (1995) Distribution of shortening between the Indian and Australian plates in the central Indian Ocean. Earth Planet Sci Lett 133(1–2):35–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(95)00061-G
Wamba MD, Montagner JP, Romanowicz B, Barruol G (2021) Multi-mode waveform tomography of the Indian Ocean Upper and mid-mantle around the réunion hotspot. J Geophys Res 126(8):e2020JB021490. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB021490
Yogi IBS, Widodo (2017) Time domain electromagnetic 1D inversion using genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization. AIP Conf Proc 1861:030014. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4990901
Acknowledgements
The first author expresses his sincere thanks to Dr. Sumer Chopra (DG), Institute of Seismological Research, for allowing him to carry out part of the research at his facility. The first author expresses his sincere thanks to Prof. M. Ravi Kumar, Prof. R. Hermann, Prof. S.N. Bhattacharya and Dr. K.N.D. Prasad for their valuable suggestions and help. The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance from the University Grants Commission through the Moulna Azad National Fellowship, New Delhi.
Funding
No funding availed for this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The first author processed the data, determined the Rayleigh wave group velocity, inverted the data for shear velocity structure, wrote the initial draft of the manuscript and finalized the final manuscript. The second author provided the inversion code, assisted the first author in data inversion, provided guidance to the first author, edited the manuscript and finalized the final manuscript. The third author was involved in providing guidance to the first author and involved in the manuscript draft preparation and finalization. Fourth author involved in the manuscript draft preparation. This work has been done as a part of the Ph.D. of the first author, Haseeb Rehman.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest/competing interest.
Ethics approval
It is declared that we have followed the ethics and integrity in carrying out this work. We approve here to bound by the COPE guidelines.
Consent to participate (include appropriate statements)
We declare our consent to participate in the review process abide by the guidelines of COPE.
Consent for publication
We declare our consent for publication within the guidelines of COPE.
Additional information
Edited by Dr. Rafał Czarny (ASSOCIATE EDITOR) / Prof. Gabriela Fernández Viejo (CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF).
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Rehman, H., Sharma, J., Subrahmanyam, M. et al. Shear wave velocity structure beneath the eastern Indian Ocean from Rayleigh wave dispersion measurements. Acta Geophys. 71, 1187–1201 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-023-01045-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-023-01045-0