Lateral variations of crustal seismic attenuation along the INDEPTH profiles in Tibet from Lg Q inversion

Abstract

Fourier spectra of crustal guided Lg waves are collected to study seismic attenuation, or Q, along the INDEPTH profiles. The 1 Hz Lg Q (Q0) values are measured between many pairs of two stations and input to a back projection algorithm to obtain laterally varying Q0 models. Along the INDEPTH III profile in central Tibet, the Q0 model consists of low and nearly constant values of ∼90. These low values are consistent with abnormally high temperature as well as partial melts in the crust. Along the INDEPTH II profile in southern Tibet the Q0 values increase southward. They are extremely low (∼60) over the northernmost segment but increase by a factor of 2 over a distance of ∼100 km between the Indus‐Yalong Suture and the Kangmar Dome. Farther south and into the high Himalayas, Q0 values are higher than 300. Regional Rayleigh waves observed along the northern INDEPTH II profile are used to infer a low‐velocity, low‐Q layer at midcrustal depths (between ∼15 and 30 km) in southern Tibet. The aqueous fluid trapped in the upper crust and a midcrust partial melting zone, associated with the underthrusting of the Indian lithosphere, are the likely causes of the high Lg attenuation in southern Tibet. Low Q, rather then a systematic Lg conversion along a dipping Moho, is the main cause of the previously observed Lg blockage over paths crossing the southern Tibetan boundary.