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Phase and Group velocities of the Falcón Basin

from Ambient Noise Correlation

Poster · June 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2425.7520

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 UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA

Phase and Group velocities of the Falcón Basin from Ambient Noise Correlation
Mariano S. Arnaiz-Rodríguez (1)*
Tatiana Auzaque (1)
Michael Schmitz (2)
(1) Departamento de Geofísica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Central de Venezuela
(2) Fundación Venezolana de Investigaciones Sismológicas
*E-mail: marianoarnaiz@gmail.com

Abstract Introduction
We study the upper crust of the Falcón Basin
The Falcón Basin (Figure 1), located in north-
(Northwestern Venezuela) with correlation of
12˚ western Venezuela, was formed as a backarc
ambient noise data. In this study, we use 7 seis-
basin, active from Late Eocene to Middle Mio-
mographs deployed in a linear pattern erpendic-
cene, when it was inverted by compressive
ular to the direction of the main structures in the XN.SRP1 stresses (Audemard, 1993). It is characterized
region. The Green functions were obtained from
by dextral strike-slip fault systems (the Oca–An-
phase matched cross-correlations and stacking XN.CCP2
cón fault system being the most prominent of
all the available time-series and for all possible Falcón Basin
them), the existence of basaltic intrusions along
stations pairs. Despite low signal to noise ratio
XN.MRP3 the axis of the basin and crustal thinning that oc-
in some stations we were able to measure
10˚ curred as the basin opened from Late Eocene to
Rayleigh wave group and phase from 10 s up to s
d e XN.CRP4 Late Oligocene (Muessig, 1984).
40 s. Within these period ranges, group veloci- n
A
ties range from 2.6 km/s to 3.5 km/s, while d a
é ri XN.RCP5 The present research is part of an ongoing mul-
phase velocities range from 3.0 km/s to 4.1 M
tidisciplinary effort to understand the dynamics
km/s. These values are in agreement with XN.PPP6
of the Mérida Andes, its adjacent basins, struc-
observations made in other continental basins
tures and terranes using different approaches
and reflect the granitic character of the upper
(GIAME project, Schmitz et al., 2013). It focuses
crust of the studied region. Further work is
8˚
XN.PNP7 upon Northwestern Venezuela with the purpose
needed in order to establish a way to use the Barinas-Apure
of estimating the dispersion velocity of surface
linear pattern of the stations to fully reconstruct Basin
waves using ambient noise tomography stan-
the crustal structure of the region.
dard
Theme: Seismic Interferometry, Monitoring of the −72˚ −70˚ −68˚
Earth’s Background Seismic Field, Seismic Tomogra- Figure 1: Topography and tectonic provinces of
phy and 3D Models for Earthquake Locations the study area and broadband stations used in

Method
10 20 30 40 50
Phase Velocity (km/s)

Selection of stations to be used 4

R R and download of the continuous Plot Group and
data from IRIS DMC Phase velocity
variations
Preprocess (Bensen et al. 2007) 3
Reconstruct velocity variations
- Decimate data to 5 Hz using regional Surface Wave To-
- Cut to 1 day length mography (Ditmar and
R R - Discard bad data Yanovskaya 1987)
- Remove instrument response 2
- Remove linear trend
- Remove mean Checkerboard test to estimate 4
- Spectral whitening the resolution of the data
Group Velocity (km/s)

(~40km)
Cross-Correlating the Signals
R - Select all stations pairs 3
R - Compute the phase matched
Compute Phase velocity and
Group velocity using
cross-correlations phase-matched FTAN technique
- Reject cross-correlations with
R R low SNR
(Levshin and Ritzwoller, 2001)

- Stack the remaining 2

cross-corrleations 10 20 30 40 50
Period (s)

Figure 3: Phase (top) and Group (bottom)

velocity curves estimated from the FTAN
Figure 2: Examples of cross-correlations with respect to sta- analysis. Circles represent the mean value
tion XN.CPP2. The Rayleigh wave arrivals (R) can be clear- at each period.

Results 0
0 1.00E-01 10

5 15

- Phase velocity values along the profile 10

3.25

range from 2.90 km/s to 3.7 km/s while 20 3.25

Period (s)

15

group velocity values along the profile range

25
from 2.50 km/s to 3.30 km/s (Figure 4).
20
10 s
20 s

These values are consistent with the conti- 25

30 s
3.5

40 s 30
nental character of the crust in the area. 30

35
35
- Both, group and phase velocities, show a 40

similar pattern where low values are found at 40

short periods (10 s – 15 s), while high values
45
11 10 9 8

are found at long periods (<30 s; Figure 4). Latitude

50

- Considering the sensitivity kernels and the 3.0 3.5

crustal structure in the region according to
Bezada et al. (2008), we are able to sample
Phase Velocity (km/s)
0 1.00E-01 2.00E-01

the crust from ~4 km up to ~30 km in depth. 0 10

This limits our observation to the upper crust 5

15
and the top of the lower crust (Figure 4). 10

15 20
- The vertical gradient is smooth for both
Period (s)

10 s
properties and there are no abrupt changes
20
20 s 3
25
30 s 2.75
in the horizontal gradient, therefore the faults 25
40 s
3

and basaltic intrusions found in the basin do 30 30

not significantly alter the propagation of the 35

surface waves at the studied periods. 40

35 3.2
5

- Along the profile, the smallest values are

45
40
11 10 9 8
found in to the northern corner of the profile 50

between 10 and 20 s. Latitude

Figure 4: Sensitivy kernerls (left) and dis-
persion profiles (right) for phase (top) and
2.5 3.0
group (bottom) velocities.
Group Velocity (km/s)

Preliminary Conclusions

From the results we can draw the following conclusions:

- Linear arrays of broadband stations can be used to estimate the variations of phase and group velocities along a profile.

- The upper continental crust in Northwestern Venezuela can be considered as relatively homogeneous at the resolution of this study.

- Faults and intrusions do not significantly affect the propagation of surface waves at periods from 10 s to 40 s.

- The existing data does not allow us to image deeper structures like the crustal thinning in the Falcón Basin.

References
Audemard, F.A. (1993), Neotectonique, sismotectonique et alea sismique du nord-ouest du Venezuela (systme de failles d’Oca–Ancón). Ph.D. Thesis. Universite Montpellier II, Montpellier, France, 369 pp.

Bensen, G.D., M.H. Ritzwoller M.H, M.P. Barmin, A.L. Levshin, F. Lin, M.P. Moschetti, N.M. Shapiro and Y. Yang (2007), Processing seismic ambient noise data to obtain reliable broad-band surface wave dispersion measurements, Geophys. J. Int. 169, 1239–1260.

Bezada, M. J., M. Schmitz, M. I. Jacome, J. Rodriguez, F. Audemard, and C. Izarra (2008), Crustal structure in the Falcon Basin area, northwestern Venezuela, from seismic and gravimetric evidence, J. Geodyn., 45(4–5), 191–200.

Ditmar, P.G. and T.B. Yanovskaya (1987), A generalization of the Backus-Gilbert method for estimation of lateral variations of surface wave velocity, Phys. Solid Earth, Izvestiya Acad. Sci. U.S.S.R., 23(6), 470–477.

Levshin, A.L., and M.H. Ritzwoller (2001), Automated detection, extraction, and measurement of regional surface waves, Pure Appl. Geophys., 158(8), 1531-1545.

Muessig, K. (1984), Structure and cenozoic tectonics of the Falcon basin, Venezuela and adjacent areas. In: Bonini, W.E. (Ed.), The Caribbean South American Plate Boundary and Regional Tectonics, vol. 162. Geol. Soc. Am. Mem., pp. 217–230.

Schmitz, M., F.A. Audemard, N. Orihuela, S. Klarica, E. Gil, A. Levander, F. Mazuera, and J. Avila (2013). Lithospheric scale model of Merida Andes, Venezuela (GIAME project). In: Agu-meeting of the Americas, Cancún, Abstract T23B-08.

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