Azimuthal anisotropy of Rayleigh-wave phase velocities in the east-central United States

Abstract

SUMMARY We explore the Rayleigh-wave phase velocity structure of the east-central US in a broad period range (10‐200 s). Using a recent implementation of the two-stations method, we first measure interstation dispersion curves of Rayleigh-wave phase velocities along 60 paths. We then invert our collection of dispersion curves for isotropic and azimuthally anisotropic (2� and 4� ) phase‐velocity maps. The inversion is performed by a damped, smoothed LSQR, and the output model is parametrized on a triangular grid of knots with a 140 km grid spacing. Using the isotropic component of the phase velocity maps to constrain regional variations in shear velocity and Moho-depth, we observe that over the upper-middle crust depth range (z 1 per cent), and the azimuth of the fast-propagation direction is uniform over the entire region and equal to 54 ◦ . Our results suggest that azimuthal anisotropy beneath the east-central US is vertically distributed in three distinct layers, with a different geodynamic origin for each of them.