Rayleigh wave phase velocity and azimuthal anisotropy of the middle-southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault zone and adjacent regions from ambient noise tomography

The middle-southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault zone and its adjacent area is located in the joint zone of the North China craton and Yangtze craton. It is a natural test ground for studying the problems of intracontinental collision, continental convergence and growth, geodynamics and lithospheric deformation. Although early research involved the central-south section of the Tan-Lu fault zone and its neighboring areas, it is difficult to carry out a detailed discussion on the S-wave velocity and azimuthal anisotropy in the middle and south section of the Tan-Lu fault zone and its adjacent areas, due to different research purposes and objects, the limitation in selecting research scope or the lack of resolution. To obtain more detailed crust-mantle velocity structure and azimuthal anisotropy distribution characteristics in the study area, this paper uses waveform data recorded by 261 fixed wideband seismic stations in the middle-southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault zone and its adjacent zone for two consecutive years. The phase velocity dispersion curve of Rayleigh surface wave with 5~50s period was extracted by time-frequency analysis. Then, the study area was divided into 0.25°×0.25°grids, and the two-dimensional Rayleigh phase velocity and azimuthal anisotropy distribution image in the area was retrieved using the Tarantola method. The phase velocity and azimuthal anisotropy distribution images of 6 representative periods were analyzed. These images reveal the lateral heterogeneity of the crust-mantle velocity structure and spatial differences in azimuthal anisotropy in the middle-southern segment of the Tan-Lu Fault and its adjacent areas. The results show that the distribution characteristics of phase velocity have a good correspondence with geological tectonic units. In the shallow part of the earth's crust, the basins covered by thick unconsolidated sedimentary layers and the bedrock exposed orogenic belts show low and high velocity anomalies, respectively. With the increase of the period(15~20s), the influence of the shallow sedimentary layer is weakened, and the high-speed anomaly appears in some plain areas such as the Hehuai Basin and Subei Basin. The distribution of phase velocity in the lower crust and upper mantle(25~30s)is affected by the thickness of the crust, which is inversely related to the burial depth of Moho surface. For example, the Dabie orogenic belt with a thickness of 40km changes from a short period high-speed to a low-speed distribution. Due to the differences in the tectonic environment of each geological structural unit in the study area, the azimuthal anisotropy of Rayleigh waves has obvious spatial differences. In general, the strength of anisotropy increases with increasing period(depth), and the direction of fast wave is more regular and followable. Based on the consistent distribution of low velocity and azimuthal anisotropy from the shallow crust to the lithospheric mantle in the Subei Basin, we believe that there may be a strong crust-mantle coupling phenomenon. The results obtained by different seismic anisotropy observation methods are different manifestations of anisotropy. However, due to the one-sided and low-resolution problems of single observation method, it is necessary to carry out joint inversion or comprehensive multiple observation methods. © 2020, Editorial Office of Seismology and Geology. All right reserved.