EurID: a regionalized 3-D seismological model of Europe

Abstract

This paper presents a 3-D regionalized model of the European crust and mantle velocity structure down to depths of approximately 300 km. The model is entirely based upon the existing geological and geophysical literature and it incorporates topographic and bathymetric features. The resulting model, which we call EurID (European I-Data set), consists of approximately 6400 1-D vertical structures having an average separation of about 100 km. EurID is compared quantitatively with EUR-S91, a recent S-wave velocity tomographic model obtained from body and surface wave waveform inversion [Zielhuis, A., Nolet, G., 1994. Shear-wave velocity variations in the upper mantle beneath central Europe, Geophys. J. Int., 117: 695–715]. It is found that the S-wave velocities in EurID and in EUR-S91 (Zielhuis and Nolet, 1994) do not differ by more than about 4% over most of the area. To validate EurID, surface wave dispersion analysis is performed along some selected paths. The fundamental mode group–velocity curves obtained using 1-D average models derived from EurID are found in good agreement with those determined from observations. Broadband waveform synthetics are also calculated along the same paths and compared with the observed time series. Overall, we believe that EurID is representative of our current knowledge of the crust/upper mantle structure beneath Europe and it can be used to model realistically ground motion for periods above 10 s within structurally homogeneous regions. The first digital version of this structure database is available for public use.