The receiver structure beneath the China Digital Seismograph Network stations

Abstract

Abstract Six new crustal models for the region beneath the China Digital Seismograph Network stations are obtained by inversion and forward modeling broadband teleseismic P-wave receiver functions. The seismic phases modeled are primarily P-to-S conversions and reverberations generated at the two highest impedance interfaces: the Moho and the sediment-basement contact; these are the best-constrained features of the crustal models. Receiver functions from all of the stations show some indication of laterally varying structure, but relatively simple 1D models can represent the crustal structure beneath the three stations in northeast China and the two stations on the margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The station on the northern flank of the Tien Shan mountains is on a complex upper crustal structure that we represent with a 2D crustal model. Crustal velocity models and Moho depths from the receiver function analysis are compared with other compilations of Chinese crustal structure. These closely agree for the more uniform crustal region in northeastern China, but the differences are greater in southern and western China, where the crustal structure is more complex.