Shear wave splitting observations from the Indian shield

Abstract

Measurements of shear wave splitting of the waveforms of SKS, SKKS phases recorded at all WWSSN stations (1977–1988) in the Indian shield located on diverse geotectonic units are used to retrieve the anisotropic properties of the sub-Continental lithosphere beneath these regions. The azimuth of fast polarization direction (FPD) ‘α’ and delay time ‘δt’ of the split shear waves with their uncertainties are estimated. Events well distributed in azimuth yield tightly constrained average splitting parameters of α, δt that are roughly:KOD (ENE. 0.50s); HYB (NNE, 145s); POO (N-S, 0.9s); NDI (NE, 0.95s). No consistent anisotropic direction was found at SHL, though the phenomenon of shear wave splitting was clearly observed. In order to test the utility of analog data to document such secondary effects and to authenticate our digitizing procedures, results from GEOSCOPE digital data at HYB were compared with analog data results from the same location. Presence of detectable anisotropy at all the stations is explained either in terms of past and present deformations by tectonic episodes or by plate motion related strain which forms the two end member models in interpreting the observed azimuthal anisotropy. Knowledge of surface geology and maximum horizontal compressive stress (MHS) orientations are invoked to constrain the most plausible hypothesis that explains the observed anisotropic signatures at each of these locations.