Measurement of Rayleigh wave ellipticity and its application to the joint inversion of high-resolution S wave velocity structure beneath northeast China

We present a new 3-D S wave velocity model of the northeast (NE) China from the joint inversion of the Rayleigh wave ellipticity and phase velocity at 8–40 s periods. Rayleigh wave ellipticity, or Rayleigh wave Z/H (vertical to horizontal) amplitude ratio, is extracted from both earthquake (10–40 s) and ambient noise data (8–25 s) recorded by the NorthEast China Extended SeiSmic Array with 127 stations. The estimated Z/H ratios from earthquake and ambient noise data show good consistency within the overlapped periods. The observed Z/H ratio shows a good spatial correlation with surface geology and is systematically low within the basins. We jointly invert the measured Z/H ratio and phase velocity dispersion data to obtain a refined 3-D S wave velocity model beneath the NE China. At shallow depth, the 3-D model is featured by strong low-velocity anomalies that are spatially well correlated with the Songliao, Sanjiang, and Erlian basins. The low-velocity anomaly beneath the Songliao basin extends to ~ 2–3 km deep in the south and ~5–6 km in the north. At lower crustal depths, we find a significant low-velocity anomaly beneath the Great Xing'an range that extends to the upper mantle in the south. Overall, the deep structures of the 3-D model are consistent with previous models, but the shallow structures show a much better spatial correlation with tectonic terranes. The difference in sedimentary structure between the southern and northern Songliao basin is likely caused by a mantle upwelling associated with the Pacific subduction.17 page(s