Rayleigh wave group velocity dispersion tomography of West Africa using regional earthquakes and ambient seismic noise

Abstract

West Africa could teach us much about the early tectonic history of Earth, but current seismic models of the regional crustal and lithospheric structure lack the resolution required to answer all but the most basic research questions. We have improved the resolution of group velocity maps of the West African Craton by complementing the uneven path distribution of earthquake-generated surface waves with surface waves reconstructed from ambient noise cross-correlations. Our joint dataset provides good spatial coverage of group velocity measurements from 20- to 100-s period, enabling us to reduce artifacts in our group velocity maps and improve their resolution. Our maps correlate well with regional geological features. At short periods, they highlight differences in crustal thickness, recent tectonic activity, and thick sediments. At long periods, we found lower velocities due to hot, thin lithosphere under the Pan-African mobile belt and faster velocities due to cold, thick lithosphere under the Man-Leo and Reguibat shields. Our higher resolution maps advance us a step towards revealing the detailed lithospheric structure and tectonic processes of West Africa.