Abstract
Deep earthquakes in the lower continental lithosphere - the lower crust
and uppermost mantle - are frequently too poorly located in depth to be
definitively labelled as having occurred above or below the Mohorovičić
discontinuity (Moho; base of the crust). Our Sn/Lg methodology utilizes
two regional seismic waves to determine the depth of an earthquake
relative to the Moho: Sn and Lg waves, which are phases that propagate
through reflections in the mantle lid and the crust, respectively.
Therefore, an analysis of Sn and Lg waves can provide a robust
understanding of an earthquake’s depth relative to the Moho. We present
our Sn/Lg analysis through reduced-velocity record sections, which show
Sn and Lg energy in the waveform, allowing measurements of RMS
amplitudes, and maps of ray-paths and Sn/Lg amplitude ratios which allow
us to visualize the propagation of Sn and Lg in all directions. We
demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by applying it to a well-known
upper-mantle earthquake in Wyoming and a shallow earthquake with a
similar epicenter. We then use our method to study other
deep-crustal/upper-mantle earthquakes in North America. A cluster of
earthquakes with reported depths from 10–50 km ± ~10
km, spans the border between Alberta, Canada and Montana, U.S.A. where
the crustal thickness increases from ~30 km in the SW to
~45km in the NE. For an earthquake occurring in the
crust-mantle transition zone, the dipping Moho should tend to block Sn
(decrease the Sn/Lg ratio) in the direction of crustal thickening, and
tend to block Lg (increase the Sn/Lg ratio) in the direction of crustal
thinning. We studied seven earthquakes of magnitude>2.5. A
m=2.7 earthquake, previously reported (USGS PDE) to be at 50±10 km where
CRUST 1.0 shows a 49 km Moho depth, and a m=3.5 reported at 38 km depth
above a nominal 43 km Moho, both show much stronger Sn/Lg ratios than
earthquakes with nearby epicenters at nominal dots of 15 and 21 km.
Hence the “50-km” and the “38-km” earthquakes must occur in the
upper mantle, or so close to the upper mantle as to preferentially
excite Sn. The better-recorded of these earthquakes also shows clear
evidence of Sn enhancement along azimuths into regions of thinner crust.