Search

The lithospheric velocity structure of the lower Indus basin has been evaluated through inversion of fundamental modes of both Love and Rayleigh wave group velocities from the broadband records of a seismic network maintained by the Institute of Seismological Research, Gujarat, India. We have considered three clusters of wave paths A, B, and C that mainly cross the lower Indus basin from south to north; the wave paths of A mainly cross the continental shelf, and the wave paths of B and C pass through the lower Indus basin. The measured group velocities correspond to periods of 5 to 90 s for Rayleigh waves, and 5 to 115 s for Love waves. These data sets resolve the structure of the lithosphere through a nonlinear inversion based on a genetic algorithm with a wide solution space. The mean and standard deviation (S.D.) of the 70 accepted solutions for each of these three clusters provide the 2D structure for the lower Indus basin from south to north. The sediment consists of two layers with total thickness from 5.7 to 6.6 km increasing northward. The crustal thickness also increases northward from 32.9 (cluster A) to 39.7 km (cluster C) in the lower Indus region. The S-wave velocity below the crust varies from 4.55 to 4.59 km/s, which is close to the corresponding velocity of 4.60 km/s of the Indian shield region to the east of the Aravalli range. The thicknesses of the lithosphere, as well as the velocities of the uppermost mantle of the lower Indus plain, are similar to that of the Indian shield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]