Abstract
The Urals are a major collision belt between two continental plates separated by island arcs: the East European plate and the Siberian plate. Their linear structure is preserved on a length of about 3000 km. A seismic array of 61 stations has been deployed during more than 3 months on a linear profile across the middle Urals, north of Ekaterinburg. P-wave travel-time residuals are inverted and provide a tomographic cross-section of the lithosphere on a 600-km-long profile across the Urals. An east-west asymmetry is observed both in the crust and in the lithosphere: the western limit between these two different lithospheres corresponds to the western front of the Uralian orogen from the surface to a depth greater than 100 km. Several crustal studies were performed by other teams along the same profile, and we compare our teleseismic cross-section to common-depth-point seismics, to deep seismic soundings and to a wide-angle-reflection fan profile. East of the main Uralian fault, the teleseismic inversion shows high-velocity bodies corresponding to well-known volcanic/mafic and ultramafic rocks in the Tagil syncline. These high-velocity bodies do not appear to be rooted in the lower crust. As a whole, the teleseismic tomogram comforts the Moho imbrication model proposed by Juhlin et al. (1995).
Published Version
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