loading page

Cratonic Earthquakes in the Crust-Mantle Transition, Western Canada
  • Brian Chen,
  • Simon Klemperer
Brian Chen
Stanford University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Simon Klemperer
Stanford University
Author Profile

Abstract

Deep earthquakes in the lower continental lithosphere - the lower crust and uppermost mantle - are frequently too poorly located in depth to be definitively labelled as having occurred above or below the Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho; base of the crust). Our Sn/Lg methodology utilizes two regional seismic waves to determine the depth of an earthquake relative to the Moho: Sn and Lg waves, which are phases that propagate through reflections in the mantle lid and the crust, respectively. Therefore, an analysis of Sn and Lg waves can provide a robust understanding of an earthquake’s depth relative to the Moho. We present our Sn/Lg analysis through reduced-velocity record sections, which show Sn and Lg energy in the waveform, allowing measurements of RMS amplitudes, and maps of ray-paths and Sn/Lg amplitude ratios which allow us to visualize the propagation of Sn and Lg in all directions. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by applying it to a well-known upper-mantle earthquake in Wyoming and a shallow earthquake with a similar epicenter. We then use our method to study other deep-crustal/upper-mantle earthquakes in North America. A cluster of earthquakes with reported depths from 10–50 km ± ~10 km, spans the border between Alberta, Canada and Montana, U.S.A. where the crustal thickness increases from ~30 km in the SW to ~45km in the NE. For an earthquake occurring in the crust-mantle transition zone, the dipping Moho should tend to block Sn (decrease the Sn/Lg ratio) in the direction of crustal thickening, and tend to block Lg (increase the Sn/Lg ratio) in the direction of crustal thinning. We studied seven earthquakes of magnitude>2.5. A m=2.7 earthquake, previously reported (USGS PDE) to be at 50±10 km where CRUST 1.0 shows a 49 km Moho depth, and a m=3.5 reported at 38 km depth above a nominal 43 km Moho, both show much stronger Sn/Lg ratios than earthquakes with nearby epicenters at nominal dots of 15 and 21 km. Hence the “50-km” and the “38-km” earthquakes must occur in the upper mantle, or so close to the upper mantle as to preferentially excite Sn. The better-recorded of these earthquakes also shows clear evidence of Sn enhancement along azimuths into regions of thinner crust.