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Joint inversion of high-frequency receiver functions and surface-wave dispersion; case study in the Parnaiba Basin of northeast Brazil

Thayane Victor, Jordi Julia, Nicholas J. White and Veronica Rodriguez-Tribaldos
Joint inversion of high-frequency receiver functions and surface-wave dispersion; case study in the Parnaiba Basin of northeast Brazil
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (May 2020) 110 (3): 1372-1386

Abstract

We assess the performance of the joint inversion of receiver functions (RF) and surface-wave dispersion in the characterization of the sedimentary package comprising the Parnaiba basin. This procedure is routinely utilized in passive-source crustal studies to retrieve S-wave velocity variations with depth, and has seldom been used with higher-frequency datasets to investigate fine sedimentary structure. The Parnaiba basin is a Paleozoic cratonic basin composed of five supersequences, accumulating approximately 3.5 km of sedimentary rocks interbedded by Late Cretaceous diabase sills. The dataset used for this research was acquired between 2015 and 2017 through deployment of 10 short-period and one broadband seismic stations distributed along an approximately 100-kilometer-long linear array in the center of the basin. The deployment was carried out under the Parnaiba Basin Analysis Project, a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary effort funded by BP Energy do Brasil. High-frequency RFs (f<4.8 Hz) were calculated from deconvolution of teleseismic P waveforms (30 degrees <Delta <90 degrees ) after rotation into the great-circle path, whereas high-frequency dispersion curves (0.25-2 Hz) were obtained through multiple filter analysis of empirical Green's functions developed from cross-correlation (ZZ component) and stacking (six months) of time-frequency-normalized ambient seismic noise recordings. S-wave velocity-depth profiles down to approximately 5 km depth were developed through an iterative, linearized joint inversion approach. Comparison to independent active-source seismic profiles overlapping with our passive-source seismic line reveals the inverted velocity models successfully retrieve sedimentary thickness (top of the Cambrian), sedimentary velocity structure, and depth to the Cenozoic sedimentary sequence. In addition, high-velocity zones at depths ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 km are observed in the inverted velocity-depth profiles, which are interpreted as due to the Late Cretaceous sills interbedding the basin's sedimentary rocks. The relative low cost of our approach makes it ideal for basic characterization of relatively unknown sedimentary basins.


ISSN: 0037-1106
EISSN: 1943-3573
Coden: BSSAAP
Serial Title: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
Serial Volume: 110
Serial Issue: 3
Title: Joint inversion of high-frequency receiver functions and surface-wave dispersion; case study in the Parnaiba Basin of northeast Brazil
Affiliation: Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Geodinamica e Geofisica, Natal, Brazil
Pages: 1372-1386
Published: 20200505
Text Language: English
Publisher: Seismological Society of America, Berkeley, CA, United States
References: 48
Accession Number: 2020-057889
Categories: Seismology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
S09°00'00" - S03°00'00", W48°00'00" - W42°00'00"
Secondary Affiliation: University of Cambridge, GBR, United KingdomLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, United States
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2020, American Geosciences Institute. Abstract, Copyright, Seismological Society of America. Reference includes data from GeoScienceWorld, Alexandria, VA, United States
Update Code: 2020
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