J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339

DOI 10.1007/s10950-011-9226-y

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Upper-mantle S-velocity structure across the Zagros

collision zone resolved by nonlinear teleseismic
tomography
Forough Keshvari · Z. Hossein Shomali ·
Mohammad Tatar · Ayoub Kaviani

Received: 9 January 2010 / Accepted: 4 January 2011 / Published online: 21 January 2011
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Abstract Non-linear teleseismic S-phase tomog- Central Iran. These two upper-mantle domains
raphy across the Zagros collision zone in are separated by a sharp near-vertical transition
southwestern Iran is used to determine a whose surface expression coinciding with the
high-resolution image of the upper-mantle Main Zagros Thrust.
structure. The inversion was done using 41 high-
quality earthquakes recorded by 19 broad-band Keywords Body waves · Teleseismic
and medium-band stations along a 620 km long tomography · Upper-mantle structures ·
profile across the collision zone. Smearing from Zagros collision zone
strong crustal velocity anomalies into the upper-
mantle is suppressed by travel-time corrections
calculated based on a 3-D crustal model for the Abbreviations
study area. Our results show that the relatively old
and cold Arabian shield has a higher velocity (up MZT Main Zagros Thrust
to 6% faster, at depths between 70 and 300 km) SSZ Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone
than the younger lithosphere farther north in ZFTB Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt
UDMA Urumieh–Dokhtar Magmatic Arc

F. Keshvari (B) · Z. H. Shomali

Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, 1 Introduction
14155-6466, Tehran, Iran
e-mail: keshvari@ut.ac.ir
The tectonics of the Zagros region is primarily
Z. H. Shomali controlled by the opening and closing of the Neo-
Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Tethys Ocean and the subsequent collision of the
752 36, Uppsala, Sweden Arabian plate with Central Iran along the south-
ern margin of Eurasia. Continuous convergence
M. Tatar
International Institute of Earthquake Engineering of the Arabian plate and subduction of the Neo-
and Seismology, 19395-3913, Tehran, Iran Tethys Ocean as well as its marginal basins led
to the closure of the oceanic domain (accompa-
A. Kaviani
nied by calk-alkaline magmatism) from late Juras-
Institut für Geowissenschaften, Facheinheit
Geophysik, Goethe-Universität, Altenhöferallee 1, sic (Berberian and King 1981) to late Miocene
60438, Frankfurt, Germany (Jackson et al. 1995). The status of the collision
330 J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339

zone is assumed to be at a very early stage based

on a comparison between the crustal thickness
of the Zagros region and the Arabian Platform
(Hatzfeld et al. 2003). The present-day rate of
convergence is estimated to be in an order of
∼20 mm year−1 in the study area (Vernant et al.
2004).
Regional seismic wave tomography studies
beneath the Iranian–Turkish plateau (Hearn
and Ni 1994; Sandvol et al. 2001; Maggi and
Priestley 2005) revealed a low-velocity anomaly
in the uppermost mantle, indicating the presence
of a thin lithosphere and warm upper-mantle be-
neath the plateau (Maggi and Priestley 2005).
Based on an integrated study including gravity,
geoid, and topography data, Molinaro et al. (2005)
concluded that the lithospheric mantle thinning
beneath the Zagros collision zone is related to
recent slab break-off. Hafkenscheid et al. (2006)
suggested that slab break-off may have occurred
around 30 Ma beneath the northern Zagros su-
ture zone, and then slab tear may have spread to
the east and west. According to the results from
crustal receiver function studies beneath a profile
across the Zagros collision zone (which is called
the Zagros profile hereafter), Paul et al. (2006) Fig. 1 Tectonic sketch map of the study area. Stations used
in this study are plotted along the Zagros profile (solid line)
concluded that the Moho is situated at 45 ± 2 km
beneath the Zagros Mountains and 42 ± 2 km
beneath Central Iran with a significant crustal
thickening (with maximum depth of 69 km) be- of a low-velocity domain down to a depth of
neath the Sanandaj–Sirjan zone (SSZ, see Fig. 1). 200 km between the Arabian and Eurasian plates
This abrupt crustal thickening can be interpreted below Central Iran was obtained by Alinaghi et al.
as the result of under-thrusting the crust of (2007).
Zagros beneath Central Iran along the Main In this study, teleseismic tomography results
Zagros Thrust (MZT; Paul et al. 2006). Tele- based on S-phase inversion are presented. Forty-
seismic P-wave tomography and Rayleigh-wave one high-quality events recorded by a tempo-
dispersion measurements (Kaviani et al. 2007) rary network operated across the collision zone
have also contributed information on the upper- (see Section 3) were used to image the struc-
mantle velocity down to 250 km along the Zagros ture/transition of the upper-mantle (up to 460 km)
profile. Both P- and S-velocity models revealed below the profile. The data are inverted based
a relatively high-velocity region in the shallow on the ACH (Aki et al. 1977) algorithm. Ear-
upper-mantle beneath Zagros and a relatively thin lier studies indicated that crustal heterogeneities
low-velocity zone at about 80 km below MZT may degrade the structures resolved in the upper-
(Kaviani et al. 2007). Alinaghi et al. (2007) applied mantle (e.g., Shomali et al. 2002; Eken et al.
an inverse tomography method (earthquakes lo- 2007). Therefore, in order to enhance the upper-
cated in the study area but recorded by the seismic mantle structures, the teleseismic relative arrival-
stations outside of the area) to study the P- and time residuals (observed data) were corrected
S-phase velocity structure of the crust and upper- for crustal travel-time variations a priori to the
mantle beneath the Iranian plateau. The presence inversion.
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339
2 Tectonic setting
The Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt (ZFTB, see
Fig. 1), part of Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt,
is one of the youngest and most active con-
tinental collision zones on the Earth (Snyder
and Barazangi 1986). As depicted in Fig. 1,
three major tectonically parallel units across the
Zagros collision zone are recognized from south-
west to northeast: (1) The Zagros Fold and
Thrust Belt consists of a continuous sedimen-
tary sequence on a subsiding basement of the
northeastern margin of the Arabian continental
crust dating from late Precambrian to Mesozoic
(Berberian 1995). This belt zone was folded uni-
formly with a NW–SE trend and extends for
about 1500 km from the Taurus Mountains in
southeastern Turkey to the Minab fault in the
eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz in southern
Iran. (2) The Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone overthrusted
the ZFTB and includes late Paleozoic moderate
metamorphism (Berberian and King 1981), a nar-
row belt of strongly tectonized ophiolitic sequence
Fig. 2 The distribution of
earthquakes used in this
study. Earthquakes and
the Zagros profile are
shown by black circles
and solid line, respectively
331
along the MZT (Molinaro et al. 2005), and Meso-
zoic calc alkaline magmatic volcanism (Agard
et al. 2005). (3) Urumieh–Dokhtar Magmatic Arc
(UDMA), an Andean type magmatic arc that is
located in the northeastern side of the SSZ, has
experienced almost continuous volcanic activity
from late Eocene to Quaternary (Berberian and
King 1981) with a peak volcanic activity during
the Oligo-Miocene (Agard et al. 2005). Obducted
ophiolites are also observed along a belt between
the SSZ and UDMA zones (Molinaro et al. 2005).
The Main Zagros Thrust, located at the northeast-
ern boundary of the ZFTB, is widely interpreted
to be a manifestation of a suture between the
Central Iran and Arabian plate. Recent studies
suggest that the MZT may extend to Moho depths
(Agard et al. 2005; Paul et al. 2006).
3 Data preparation
A temporary passive seismic profile operated
since November 2000 to April 2001 extending
332
from Bushehr on the coast of Persian Gulf to
Posht-e-badam in the southwestern part of the
Central Iran. This profile was arranged by Inter-
national Institute of Earthquake Engineering and
Seismology, IIEES of Iran, and the Laboratoire
de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique of
France. The major axis of this profile has a
N47E trend, which is considered to be almost
perpendicular to the main tectonic units of the
Zagros collisional zone. The profile consisted of
66 stations, 11 broad-bands, 8 medium-bands,
and the remaining instruments were short-period.
The average station spacing was about 20 km
(for more information about the profile see Paul
et al. (2006) and Kaviani et al. (2007)). We used 41
teleseismic earthquakes with magnitudes greater
than 5.5 and epicentral distances between 30◦
and 90◦ (Fig. 2). The great circle paths of the
selected earthquakes are approximately in line
with respect to the major axis of the profile, thus
preventing possible complications arising from the
three-dimensionality of the Earth (e.g., Shomali
et al. 2002; Gao et al. 2004). The hypocenters of
the events were corrected according to the cata-
logue by Engdahl et al. (1998). The selected seis-
mograms were filtered to simulate a World Wide
Standardized Seismographic Network station with
a dominant period of 10 s (Oliver and Murphy
1971) and then rotated to radial and tangential
components. In the cases where one component
appeared to arrive slightly earlier, the earlier part
of the S-waveforms between these components
was picked by overlying a less-disturbed record as
the relative arrival-time (e.g., Shomali et al. 2006).
In an anisotropic medium, the S-phase would be
split into two orthogonal components which prop-
agate with different velocities. Therefore, using
the early part of S-waveform causes less possible
bias in the observed arrival-times (e.g., Shomali
et al. 2006). Arrival-time residuals were calculated
based on the IASP91 travel-time model (Kennett
and Engdahl 1991) and the associated means for
each event were then removed to produce relative
arrival-time residuals prior to the inversion. This
procedure is designed to minimize the influence of
anomalies in deeper mantle (Dueker et al. 1993;
Evans and Achauer 1993). Therefore, only the
upper parts of the incoming rays are inverted, and
inversion provides velocity perturbations relative
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339
to an unknown averaged Earth model (Aki et al.
1977), although the forward modeling was done
using a known velocity model.
The velocity perturbations caused by the man-
tle structure might be lower in size than the ve-
locity perturbations due to crustal heterogeneities.
However, using teleseismic P- and S-phases, it is
not possible to determine crustal velocity pertur-
bations in detail due to several factors, e.g., fre-
quency content of the data, large station spacing,
and lateral horizontal grid spacing (75 × 75 km, in
this study), normally used in the inversion. There-
fore, to produce an optimal inversion result for the
deeper part, it is desirable to minimize the possi-
ble contributions of crustal heterogeneities in the
upper-mantle structure. In other words, we should
reduce the effects caused by crustal structures on
relative arrival-time residuals prior to the inver-
sion. We thus used the global CRUST2.0 model
with a 2◦ × 2◦ resolution (Bassin et al. 2000) to
compute the S-velocity travel-time for each event
and seismic station pair based on a simplex-based
ray tracer algorithm (Steck and Prothero 1991).
These travel-times were then used to correct the
relative arrival-time residuals. A cross-section of
the crustal model (CRUST2.0) along the Zagros
profile used in this study is shown in Fig. 3. In
order to enhance the results obtained from the
inversion, some additional data corrections, such
as elevation correction and Earth curvature cor-
rection (based on the Earth Flattening Transfor-
mation of Shearer (1999)), were also carried out.
0
10
20
depth [km]
30
40
50
60
70
29 30 31 32 33
latitude [deg]
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
S velocity [km/s]
Fig. 3 A cross-section of crustal model for S-waves based
on CRUST2.0 model (Bassin et al. 2000) along the Zagros
profile
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339 333

4 Model parameterization and inversion method
Based on the average station spacing and the
dominant frequency content of the data, the Earth
volume beneath the seismic stations was divided
to a grid of nodes with constant grid spacing in the
horizontal direction of 75 km. The Earth volume
beneath the profile was further divided into 19
layers from the surface to a depth of 460 km,
in which the vertical grid spacing increased from
20 km at shallower depths to 50 km below 300 km
(Fig. 4). Because the ray coverage is highly uneven
along the profile, some nodes may be sampled by
a few (or no) seismic rays (fixed nodes), while
other nodes (floating nodes) may be crossed by
many seismic rays. The floating nodes are inverted
in the inversion (364 nodes), and the fixed nodes
are considered as fixed points during the inver-
sion. In other words, the velocity is only deter-
mined and updated during the iterations on the
floating nodes. Travel-times between neighboring
grid nodes were calculated using a linear interpo-
lation scheme (Steck and Prothero 1991).
A linearized ACH approach method (Aki et al.
1977) was performed iteratively to invert the rel-
ative arrival-time residuals in order to obtain the
S-phase perturbations in the upper-mantle struc-
ture based on a weighted damped least squares
approach (e.g., Shomali et al. 2002). During the
inversion, ray tracing was carried out using a
simplex-based ray tracer (Steck and Prothero
1991; Weiland et al. 1995) to calculate the min-
imum 3-D travel-time ray paths within the re-
gion. The singular value decomposition method
was also used to invert the linearized travel-time
equations. Data and model weighting matrices
as well as the damping factor were calculated a
priori before inversion and were applied to sta-
bilize the inversion process. The data-weighting
matrix is a diagonal matrix containing weights
applied to each perturbation during the phase
picking (e.g., Arlitt 1999) and model weighting
matrix represents a spatial smoothing operator.
Damping factor was determined based on the
damping curve to stabilize the inversion and
to control the outliers. At each iteration, the
linearized system was solved and travel-time de-
viations were calculated. The final velocity per-
turbations resulting from the inversion represent
the velocity residuals with respect to a background
model which remains unknown (Aki et al. 1977).
The optimal solution can be obtained normally

Fig. 4 a Horizontal grid

distribution overlaid on a a b
40o 0
colored relief map of floating node
Iran. The Zagros profile fixed node
floating layers
Caspian Sea -100
is also depicted by a black 38o station fixed layers
solid line. b Layers and
corresponding starting -200
velocity models (based on 36o

the IASP91 model) used -300

in the inversion. Only 34o
velocities of the floating
depth [km]

-400
nodes are estimated o
32
during the inversion
-500

o
30
-600

28o
Pe -700
rsi
an
26o Gu
lf -800
Oman Sea
24o -900
44o 46o 48o 50o 52o 54o 56o 58o 60o 62o 64o 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
velocity [km/s]
-8000 -6000 -4000 -2000 0 2000 4000
topography [m]
334 J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339

within four iterations when the model parameters a

8
cease to change significantly (e.g., Shomali et al.
2002). Damping factor (200 s2 %−2 ) and truncated 4

data [sec]
number of eigenvalues (500) used in the inversion 0
were determined based on various numbers of −4
synthetic tests for real ray geometry.
−8
b

elevation [m]
5 Inversion results 3000
2000
1000
The average observed relative arrival-time resid- 0
29 30 31 32 33
uals before inversion (black circles) and after the
latitude [deg]
fourth iteration (red dots) are shown in Fig. 5a. c
The data are corrected for both topography
(Fig. 5b) and crustal effects (Fig. 3). The mean rel- 33o
ative S-residuals, calculated for each station along
the profile, are shown in Fig. 5c. As illustrated in
Fig. 5a and c, a major trend is seen in the observed 32o
relative arrival-time data which is due to the ve-
locity variations in the upper-mantle. The relative M CIMC
ZT
residuals are characterized by negative (early) and 31o UD
positive (delayed) residuals in the southern and M
A
northern parts of the profile, respectively. Due to ZFTB SSZ
the near-vertical nature of incoming teleseismic 30 o

rays, the negative and positive residuals in the

southern and northern parts of the profile can thus −4 sec
be related to the relatively high- and low-velocity 29o +2 sec
structures in the upper mantle. +1 sec
The S-velocity deviations from the IASP91
51o 52o 53o 54o 55o 56o
background model along the Zagros profile per-
pendicular to the MZT (see Fig. 4) is shown in d SW MZT NE
0
Fig. 5d. The amount of variance reduction after ZFTB SSZ UDMA CIMC
the inversion is about 54.7%. The blue and red re-
gions represent areas corresponding to relatively 100
high- and low-velocity anomalies, which are sep-
arated by white stripes. The area between the
depth [km]

200

Fig. 5 a Average observed arrival-time data with their

standard deviations before inversion (black circles) and 300
after the fourth iteration (red dot) at each station along the
profile. b Elevation along the profile. c Means of relative
travel-time residuals for each station after corrections for
topography and crustal effects. Blue and red circles repre- 400
sent late and early arrivals, respectively. The scale for the
means of relative residuals is shown on the right corner of 29 30 31 32 33
the plot. d A cross-section of S-velocity perturbations ob- latitude [deg]
tained from the inversion (the location of the cross-section
is shown in Fig. 4). The green curve shows Moho depth
−6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6
based on Paul et al. (2006). The tectonically important
features are also depicted S velocity perturbation [%]
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339 335

o
two oblique black lines confines regions with high 34
crossing rays or well-resolved parts of the model.
According to the results presented in Fig. 5d, the 33
o

upper-mantle structures beneath the ZFTB and

the Central Iran micro-continent are character-
o
ized by relatively high- and low-velocity regions, 32
M
respectively. These two upper-mantle domains are ZT
CIMC
separated at latitude 30.5◦ N by a near-vertical o UD
31
transition correlated to the boundary between the M
A
Zagros and the SSZ along the MZT. There is also ZFTB SSZ
o
an indication for relatively high-velocity region 30
which exist at latitude in the range of 31 to 33◦
+1 sec
N and at depths deeper than 300 km. This area
29
o
−0.5 sec
is at the limit of resolution right at the edge of +0.1 sec
the well-resolved part of the model, although this
o
area has been correlated to a high S-wave velocity 28
o o o o o o o o
anomaly beneath the Central Iran resolved by 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57
other independent studies, e.g., Alinaghi et al. Fig. 6 Relative S-residuals with respect to the direction of
(2007). incoming seismic waves. Early and late arrivals are shown
by red and blue lines, respectively. The length of lines
represents the size of relative arrival-time residuals
6 Anisotropy characteristics

The upper-mantle anisotropy using shear wave
splitting of core phases (SKS) is investigated by
Kaviani et al. (2009) for seismic stations in Iran.
According to their results, no distinct shear wave
splitting is resolved beneath the Zagros or the
SSZ regions while the direction of the fast axis of
anisotropy beneath the Central Iran is determined
to be in the NW–SE orientation, which is perpen-
dicular to the major axis of the Zagros profile. In
Zagros and SSZ regions, a vertical fast axis due
to axial shortening or widening-thinning in a sub-
horizontal deformation zone may be a possible
reason for the apparent isotropy (Kaviani et al.
2009).
In order to study whether or not the result-
ing models are biased due to the presence of
anisotropy variations along the profile, we ana-
lyzed the data in a different form, as explained be-
low. The variations in the relative S-residuals with
respect to the direction of the incoming seismic
waves, after the corrections for crustal structure
and topography variations along the profile, are
shown in Fig. 6. According to the results, stations
in the southern part of the profile display no sig-
nificant azimuthal dependency. While some indi-
cations for azimuthal dependencies are observed
for S-phases in the middle and northern parts of
the profile, especially under the SSZ and UDMA
where the lithospheric structure is complex. In
principle, our data can not separate the effects
of velocity heterogeneity from those of possible
anisotropy and some of the observed velocity
differences may be due to anisotropy rather than
isotropic heterogeneity. Thus, the interpretation
of these images in terms of heterogeneties may
be incorrect, as some of the observed velocity
differences may be due to anisotropy rather than
isotropic heterogeneity.
7 Resolution study
An important part of a tomography investigation
is the resolution analysis in order to validate the
results and evaluate the reliability of the final im-
age including shape and amplitude of the features
resolved. Various synthetic tests using the real
ray geometry of the data were used to determine
whether or not the large-scale structures resolved
in the inversion are required by the data or are
artifacts of different regularization parameters.
Among these tests, two different synthetic tests
336 J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339

are presented below. In the first test, the synthetic
travel-time data corresponding to the final model
obtained in the inversion (Fig. 5d) were calcu-
lated for each event-station pair. In the second
test, we used a hypothetical test model contain-
ing relatively high- and low-velocity anomalies
of about ±6% amplitudes located at depths of
120 to 300 km. Synthetic data corresponding to
these models were generated using the real ray
geometry, and the inversion was carried out with
the same regularization parameters as for the real
data. Gaussian noise with a standard deviation
equal to 2.5 s was added to the synthetic data.
The amount of noise added to the data is calcu-
lated based on the observation error determined
in the phase-picking step. The corresponding re-
solved images at the fourth iteration are shown in
Fig. 7a and b. Based on the synthetic tests, it
can be judged that the major structures, especially
near-vertical transition between relatively high-
and low-velocity anomalies are well resolved by
the datasets. The amplitudes of the anomalies,
however, are not fully recovered due to various
regularization parameters including the damping
factor, spatial smoothing, etc.
Ray length analysis and ray geometry along the
profile are presented in Fig. 7c and d. Although
these analyses offer no proper assessments of the
resolution capabilities, they can still be helpful for
a better understanding of the well-resolved areas
of the final tomographic image. These two mea-
sures indicate poor resolution in the southern part

Fig. 7 a Recovered SW NE SW NE
synthetic model for the MZT MZT
final inversion results. 0
a ZFTB SSZ UDMA CIMC c ZFTB SSZ UDMA CIMC
b Recovered synthetic
model based on a
hypothetical synthetic 100
model including relative
depth [km]

positive and negative

200
anomalies (±6%) located
at depth 120 to 300 km.
The anomalies are plotted
300
as black dashed squares.
c Ray length distribution.
d Ray path distribution. 400
The green curve shows
Moho depth based on
Paul et al. (2006)
0 0
b d
100
200
depth [km]

200
+ -
300 400

400

600
29 30 31 32 33 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
latitude [deg] latitude [deg]

-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 0 50 100 150 200 250 300

S velocity perturbation [%] Ray length [km]
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339
of the profile, which is due to the limited number
of seismic rays approaching to the Zagros profile
from the south. According to these images (Fig. 7c
and d), it can be concluded that the resolution in
the central part of the profile is higher for upper
300 km of the model.
8 Discussion and conclusions
Despite the apparent correlation between lateral
variations in seismic velocity and surface tectonic
features, the cause of observed differences in
seismic velocity remains puzzling. Several factors,
such as temperature, composition, anisotropy,
presence of partial melt, and water content, may
contribute to the lateral velocity variations ob-
served in the upper-mantle (Goes et al. 2000).
A major part of the 3-D velocity variations in
the upper-mantle can probably be assigned to
variations in temperature (Goes et al. 2000).
Considering that the anelastic effects are neg-
ligible at lithospheric depths, a 100◦ C increase
in the temperature decreases the S-wave veloci-
ties by approximately—0.8% (e.g., Karato 1993;
Cammarano et al. 2003). However, the lateral ve-
locity changes of several percent over some tens of
kilometers across a sharp near-vertical boundary
extending to over 200 km depth, might need a rea-
son beyond temperature only. Lateral variations
in composition are an alternative and likely ex-
planation of the modeled velocity perturbations.
However, the effect of chemical composition for
the shallow mantle is often less than the level
that can be resolved by seismic tomography (Goes
et al. 2000).
An isotropic tomographic inversion was carried
out in this study. The information content of the
teleseismic data used is limited, and in general
the data can not separate the effects of velocity
heterogeneity from those of possible anisotropy.
In other words, any interpretation of these im-
ages in terms of velocity heterogeneities needs
to be treated with caution. Shear wave splitting
studies show a sudden transition in the anisotropy
pattern across the Zagros profile from an ap-
parent isotropy beneath the ZFTB and the SSZ
to a NW–SE fast axis beneath the Central Iran
(Kaviani et al. 2009). The azimuthal depen-
337
dency of seismic rays (Fig. 6) indicates no ma-
jor anisotropy beneath the ZFTB to a depth of
460 km. In the SSZ and Central Iran, however
an apparent effect resulting from anisotropy is
observed. We used the rays traveling close to
the vertical and in roughly along the same di-
rection and thus velocity and our inverted image
can be essentially correct even if the structure is
anisotropic (see Shomali et al. 2006). On the other
hand, the size of observed anomalies (±6%) leads
to the conclusion that anisotropy may not have
influenced the velocity changes significantly.
The lateral variations in the S-phase tomog-
raphy inversion (current study) are consistent
with ongoing P-phase inversion results (Hossein
Shomali, personal communication), and both re-
veal similar large-scale structures. The pattern
of anomalies in our S-phase model is dominated
by the presence of two relatively high- and low-
velocity structures beneath the ZFTB and Central
Iran, respectively. The final result of inversion
shows a significant velocity contrast over distances
of less than 100 km, in excess of 12% to a depth of
300 km. The boundary separating these two fea-
tures is identified by an abrupt sub-vertical transi-
tion extending downwards across the lithosphere
to a depth of about 300 km and consisted with the
MZT at the surface (Fig. 5d). As shown in Fig. 5d,
relatively high velocities beneath the Arabian
Shield in the southern part of the profile seem to
represent a thick lithosphere to a depth of at least
250 km. However, no (or a very thin) lithosphere
is determined beneath the Central Iran in the
northern part of the profile (Fig. 5d) probably due
to various regularization parameters including the
damping and model parameterization used in the
inversion.
The presence of a relatively low-velocity re-
gion beneath the Central Iran is well documented
in previous regional studies (e.g., Kadinsky-Cade
et al. 1981; Hearn and Ni 1994; Sandvol et al.
2001; Maggi and Priestley 2005) where low Pn
velocities and strong Sn phase attenuation are
shown beneath the Iranian plateau. The rela-
tively low-velocity anomaly beneath the Central
Iran may be interpreted to represent a region
with higher temperature by several hundred de-
grees than ZFTB region. Lithospheric dehydra-
tion and partial melt during the subduction of
338
the Neo-Tethys Oceanic slab and subsequent vol-
canism activities in the Urumieh–Dokhtar Mag-
matic Arc might be responsible for lithospheric
heating. However, the lateral extent of this ex-
tensive relatively low-velocity anomaly may not
be adequately explained by the volcanism only.
In this respect, slab detachment and upwelling of
the asthenospheric material into shallower man-
tle can be considered as another candidate to
explain the relatively low-velocity materials be-
neath the Central Iran. The idea of slab detach-
ment has been suggested by earlier studies in
which the presence of a high-velocity anomaly
in deeper mantle beneath the Central Iran was
observed (e.g., Bird 1978; Molinaro et al. 2005;
Hafkenscheid et al. 2006). Our S-model reveals
also a high-velocity feature beneath the Central
Iran, below 300 km at a latitude range of 31 to
33◦ N. This relatively high-velocity region is lo-
cated right at the edge of the well-resolved part
of the model. Our various synthetic tests indicate
that the area corresponding to this anomaly is
required to have relatively high-velocity perturba-
tions, which are higher relative to the neighboring
structures as high as it is allowed in the inver-
sion based on the damping and also regularization
parameters.
Acknowledgements We thank IIEES and LGIT to pro-
vide the data along the Zagros profile. Seismological data
used in this paper were retrieved from the data manage-
ment center of the French portable seismic instrument
pool hosted by LGIT (Grenoble University-CNRS), http://
bdsis.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/. We thank C. Péquegnat and
also Helle Pedersen (LGIT Grenoble) for their helps.
We would also like to thank the Associate Editor,
T. Braun, and two anonymous reviewers and also
J. Hassanzadeh (from California Institute of Technology)
for their constructive comments and useful suggestions.
References
Agard P, Omrani J, Jolivet L, Mouthereau F (2005)
Convergence history across Zagros (Iran): constraints
from collisional and earlier deformation. Int J Earth
Sci 94:401–419
Aki K, Christoffersson A, Husebye ES (1977) Determina-
tion of the three-dimensional seismic structure of the
lithosphere. J Geophys Res 82:277–296
Alinaghi A, Koulakov I, Thybo H (2007) Seismic tomo-
graphic imaging of P- and S-waves velocity perturba-
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339
tions in the upper-mantle beneath Iran. Geophys J Int
169:1089–1102
Arlitt R (1999) Teleseismic body wave tomography across
the Trans-European Suture Zone between Sweden
and Denmark. Dissertation, ETH, Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology Zürich
Bassin C, Laske G, Masters G (2000) The current lim-
its of resolution for surface wave tomography in
North America. EOS Trans Am Geophys Union
AGU81:897
Berberian M (1995) Master blind thrust faults hidden un-
der the Zagros folds: active basement tectonics and
surface morphotectonics. Tectonophys 241:193–224
Berberian M, King GCP (1981) Towards a paleogeography
and tectonic evolution of Iran. Can J Earth Sci 18:210–
265
Bird P (1978) Finite element modeling of the lithospheric
deformation: the Zagros collision orogeny. Tectono-
phys 50:307–336
Cammarano F, Goes S, Vacher P, Giardini D (2003) Infer-
ring upper-mantle temperatures from seismic veloci-
ties. Phys Earth Planet Inter 138:197–222
Dueker K, Humphreys E, Biasi G (1993) Teleseismic imag-
ing of the western United States upper-mantle struc-
ture using the simultaneous iterative reconstruction
technique. In: Iyer HM, Hirahara K (eds) Seismic to-
mography: theory and practice, 1st edn. Chapman and
Hall, London, pp 265–298
Eken T, Shomali ZH, Roberts RG, Bödvarsson R (2007)
Upper-mantle structure of the Baltic Shield below
the Swedish National Seismological Network (SNSN)
resolved by teleseismic tomography. Geophys J Int
169:617–630
Engdahl ER, Van der Hilst RD, Buland RP (1998) Global
teleseismic earthquake relocation with improved trav-
eltimes and procedures for depth determination. Bull
Seismol Soc Am 88:722–743
Evans J, Achauer U (1993) Teleseismic velocity tomogra-
phy using the ACH method: theory and application
to continental-scale studies. In: Iyer HM, Hirahara
K (eds) Seismic tomography: theory and practice, 1st
edn. Chapman and Hall, London, pp 319–360
Gao W, Grand SP, Baldridge WS, Wilson D, West M,
Ni JF, Aster R (2004) Upper mantle convection be-
neath the central Rio Grande rift imaged by P and
S wave tomography. J Geophys Res 109:B03305.
doi:10.1029/2003JB002743
Goes S, Govers R, Vacher P (2000) Shallow mantle tem-
peratures under Europe from P and S wave tomogra-
phy. J Geophys Res 105:11153–11169
Hafkenscheid E, Wortel MJR, Spakman W (2006) Sub-
duction history of the Tethyan region derived from
seismic tomography and tectonic reconstructions. J
Geophys Res. doi:10.1029/2005JB003791
Hatzfeld D, Tatar M, Priestley K, Ghafory-Ashtiany M
(2003) Seismological constraints on the crustal struc-
ture beneath the Zagros Mountain belt (Iran). Geo-
phys J Int 155:403–410
Hearn TM, Ni JF (1994) Pn velocities beneath continental
collision zones: the Turkish–Iranian Plateau. Geophys
J Int 117:273–283
J Seismol (2011) 15:329–339
Jackson J, Hains J, Holt W (1995) The accommodation
of Arabia–Eurasia plate. J Geophys Res 100:15205–
15219
Kadinsky-Cade K, Barazangi M, Oliver J, Isacks B (1981)
Lateral variations of high-frequency seismic wave
propagation at regional distances across the Turkish
and Iranian Plateaus. J Geophys Res 86:9377–9396
Karato SI (1993) Importance of anelasticity in the inter-
pretation of seismic tomography. Geophys Res Lett
20:1623–1626
Kaviani A, Paul A, Bourova E, Hatzfeld D, Pedersen H,
Mokhtari M (2007) A strong seismic velocity contrast
in the shallow mantle across the Zagros collision zone
(Iran). Geophys J Int 171:399–410
Kaviani A, Hatzfeld D, Paul A, Tatar M, Priestly K
(2009) Shear wave splitting, lithospheric anisotropy,
and mantle deformation beneath the Arabia–Eurasia
collision zone in Iran. Earth Planet Sci Lett 286:371–
378
Kennett BLN, Engdahl ER (1991) Traveltimes for global
earthquake location and phase identification. Geo-
phys J Int 105:429–465
Maggi A, Priestley K (2005) Surface waveform tomogra-
phy of the Turkish–Iranian plateau. Geophys J Int
160:1068–1080
Molinaro M, Zeyen H, Laurencin X (2005) Lithospheric
structure beneath the south-eastern Zagros Moun-
tains, Iran: recent slab break-off? Terra Nova 17:1–6
Oliver J, Murphy L (1971) WWNSS: seismology’s global
network of observing stations. Science 174:254–
261
Paul A, Kaviani A, Hatzfeld D, Vergne J, Mokhtari M
(2006) Seismological evidence for crustal-scale thrust-
339
ing in the Zagros mountain belt (Iran). Geophys J Int
166:227–237
Sandvol E, Al-Damegh K, Calvert A, Seber D, Barazangi
M, Mohamad R, Gök R, Türkelli N, Gürbüz C (2001)
Tomographic imaging of Lg and Sn propagation in the
Middle East. Pure Appl Geophys 158:1121–1163
Shearer PM (1999) Introduction to seismology. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge
Shomali ZH, Roberts RG, TOR Working Group (2002)
Non-linear body wave teleseismic tomography along
the TOR array. Geophys J Int 148:562–575
Shomali ZH, Roberts RG, Pedersen LB, TOR Work-
ing Group (2006) Lithospheric structure of the
Tornquist Zone resolved by nonlinear P and S teleseis-
mic tomography along the TOR array. Tectonophys
416:133–149
Snyder DB, Barazangi M (1986) Deep crustal structure
and flexure of the Arabian plate beneath the Zagros
collisional mountain belt as inferred from gravity ob-
servations. Tectonics 5:361–373
Steck LK, Prothero WA (1991) A 3-D raytracer for tele-
seismic body-wave arrival times. Bull Seismol Soc Am
81:1332–1339
Vernant P, Nilforoushan F, Hatzfeld D, Abassi MR, Vigny
C, Masson F, Nankali H, Martinod J, Ashtiani M,
Bayer R, Tavakoli F, Chéry J (2004) Present-day
crustal deformation and plate kinematics in the Mid-
dle East constrained by GPS measurements in Iran
and northern Oman. Geophys J Int 157:381–398
Weiland CM, Steck LK, Dawson PB, Korneev V (1995)
Nonlinear teleseismic tomography at Long Valley
caldera, using three-dimensional travel time ray trac-
ing. J Geophys Res 100:20379–20390