J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249

DOI 10.1007/s10950-017-9701-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Study of crustal structure and geological implications

of southwestern margin of Northeast India
Sowrav Saikia & Santanu Baruah & Sumer Chopra &
Upendra K. Singh & Bibhuti Gogoi &
Himanata B. Gohain

Received: 17 March 2017 / Accepted: 7 September 2017 / Published online: 4 October 2017
# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017

Abstract It is noticed that few geophysical studies have
been carried out to decipher the crustal structure of
southwestern part of the Northeast India comprising of
Tripura fold belt and Bengal basin as compared to the
Shillong plateau and the Brahmaputra basin. This region
has a long history of seismicity that is still continuing.
We have determined first-order crustal features in terms
of Moho depths (H) and average VP/VS ratios (κ) using
H-κ stacking technique. The inversion of receiver func-
tions data yields near surface thick sedimentary layer in
the Bengal basin, which is nearly absent in the Shillong
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-017-9701-1) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
S. Saikia (*)
National Center for Seismology (under MoES), Lodi Road,
New Delhi, India
e-mail: ssowrav@gmail.com
S. Baruah
CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat,
Assam, India
S. Chopra
Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar, Guzarat, India
U. K. Singh
Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines),
Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India
B. Gogoi
Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam, India
H. B. Gohain
Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam, India
plateau and Tripura fold belt. Our result suggests that the
crust is thicker (38–45 km) in the Tripura fold belt
region with higher shear-wave velocity in the lower
crust than the Shillong plateau. The distribution of VP/
VS ratio indicates heterogeneity throughout the whole
region. While low to medium value of Poisson’s ratio
(1.69–1.75) indicates the presence of felsic crust in the
Shillong plateau of the extended Indian Archean crust.
The medium to high values of VP/VS ratio (> 1.780) in
the Bengal basin and the Tripura fold belt region repre-
sent mafic crust during the formation of the Bengal delta
and the Tripura fold belt creation in the Precambrian to
the Permian age. The depth of the sediments in the
Bengal basin is up to 8 km on its eastern margin, which
get shallower toward its northeastern and southeastern
margins.
Keywords Receiver function . Moho . Poisson’s ratio .
Sedimentation
1 Introduction
The north-eastern region (NER) of India is one of the
most seismically active regions of the Indian subconti-
nent that comprised of complex geological terrains with
age ranging from Archean to young Quaternary (Evans
1964; Chen and Molnar 1990; Nandy 1991). The tec-
tonics and the crustal structure of the NER is complicat-
ed due to the north-south convergence along the
Himalaya belt since Eocene and folding along the
Indo-Myanmar region since early Tertiary. This region
230
has experienced two great earthquakes, the Shillong
earthquake (12 June 1897, Mw 8.1) and the Assam
earthquake (15 August 1950, Mw 8.5), and nearly 35
large earthquakes (Mw ≥ 7.0) since early documentation
of earthquakes since 1897. The Assam earthquake is
considered as the manifestation of the India-Asia con-
vergence (Seeber et al. 1981; Khatri and Tyagi 1983),
while Shillong earthquake is argued as an intraplate
earthquake due to pop-up mechanism described by
Bilham and England (2001). The southwest part of the
NER is no exception and seismically very active and has
experienced two big earthquakes: Cachar earthquake
(10 January 1869, 7.5 Mw) and Srimangal earthquake
(8 July 1918, Mw 7.5) (Nandy 1991; Kayal 2008).
Recently, Manipur earthquake of Mw 6.8 on 2 January
2016, which was located in between the Bengal basin
and the Indo-Burmese ranges, caused destruction at
many places of the NER (Gahalaut et al. 2016; Singh
et al. 2016) (Fig. 1a). Tripura fold belt (south zone) is the
convergence tailing margin between the Indian plate and
the Burmese plate. This region has a long history of
large earthquakes that had occurred, with implication of
reoccurrence and can produce a large event in the com-
ing years too, enough to causes widespread seismic
hazard. In view of the high seismic hazard in this region,
it is important to understand the velocity structure be-
neath the region and how it might respond to seismic
waves, if a large earthquake strikes the region. This will
be useful for estimation of site response and carrying out
ground-motion simulations studies.
Different geophysical techniques, such as controlled
source seismology, gravity, magnetotelluric, and deep
seismic soundings, are generally used to study the crust
and the upper mantle structure that provides estimates of
the crustal thickness and compressional velocity (VP).
These studies are expensive, require logistic support,
and involve detailed data analysis and extensive model-
ing of both travel times and amplitudes of crustal body
waves. Single-station techniques, based on the analysis
of receiver functions overcome most of these difficul-
ties. They allow the utilization of high-quality broad-
band seismograms and offer very good lateral resolu-
tion. The theoretical aspect of the receiver function (RF)
is mainly based on the detection of seismic phases
converted at first-order seismic discontinuities to deter-
mine efficiently the location and properties of litholo-
gies present in the underlying structure. Only some
gross estimates of the P-wave and S-wave velocities of
the crust and the upper mantle are determined, which are
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
limited to the Shillong plateau (SP) and the
Brahmaputra basin (BrB) (Kayal and De 1987; Kayal
and Zhao 1998; Mitra et al. 2005; Bhattacharya et al.
2008).
However, few geophysical studies have been carried
out in the southwestern part of the NER comprising of
the Tripura fold belt (TFB) and Bengal basin (BeB) in
comparison to the SP and the BrB. Hence, a detailed
study to determine the velocity structure of the region is
much needed. In this work, crustal structure beneath 10
seismic stations located on varied geological provinces
like SP, BrB, BeB, and TFB is determined. This study is
an attempt to fill the gap by estimating first-order crustal
features along with the average VP/VS and Poisson’s
ratios. Additionally, sediment thicknesses beneath these
stations are constrained using first few seconds of RFs.
The thickness of sediments beneath BrB and BeB is
very important from the seismic hazard point of view
as these sediments play a vital role in modifying the
ground motions. They may amplify or de-amplify the
ground motions and increase the duration of strong
ground motions. The thickness of the sediments and
the shear-wave velocities may help in estimating the site
response in these regions.
2 Geological and tectonic setting
Our study region comprises of four different geo-
tectonic settings: BrB, SP, BeB, and TFB extending a
region of 5° × 6° (Fig. 1a). The Brahmaputra valley, also
known as the Assam shelf region, is a vast alluvial plain
sandwiched between the Eastern Himalaya in the north
and the Shillong plateau and the Indo-Myanmar mobile
belt in the south. The BrB borders the SP to its south-
west margin, with the basement gently inclined toward
the northeast and the southeast. The Precambrian base-
ment is overlain by 4–6-km-thick succession of Tertiary
strata culminating with alluvium deposits at the top
(Evans 1932; Handique and Dutta 1980; Saikia et al.
2017). The SP is considered as the eastern extension of
the Indian shield (Evans 1964; Crawford 1974;
Desikachar 1974). This plateau is considered to be a
result of the upliftment by two opposing tectonic forces,
one southward from the Himalayas and the other north-
westward from the Naga Hills (Evans 1964). The seis-
mically active SP is bounded by the Himalayan arc
along with the E-W trending Brahmaputra fault to the
north and by the Dauki fault to the south. The Dhubri
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
Fig. 1 a Regional map showing major tectonic features of south-
western part of Northeast India (first map). The black triangles
represent seismograph stations used in this study along with sta-
tion codes in capital cases. On the right-hand site, regional earth-
quakes with Mw ≥ 4 (depth ≤ 40 km) between 12 July 1897 and 31
December 2009 are shown spatially (after Baruah et al. 2013). The
major tectonic features in the regions are drawn as Main Central
Thrust (MCT), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), Main Frontal
Thrust (MFT), Dauki Fault (Da. F), Drapsi Thrust (DrT), Dhubri
Fault (DhF), Dudhnoi Fault (DuF), Sylhet Fault (SyF), Naga Thust
231
(NT), Kopili Lineament, Mishmi Thrust (MiT), Compressed Mizo
Fault (CMF), Kaladan Fault (KaF), Tripura fold belt (Tri F Belt).
On the right-hand site, the seismicity of the region above magni-
tude 4.0 is drawn after 1897 Great Shillong earthquake. Some
significant earthquakes are referred in the text. b The azimuthal
projection centered on our study region showing distribution of
events by red star marks used in this study that recorded over the
period of May 2011 to December 2012. Peripheral circles mark
epicentral distance of 30°, 60°, and 90° from the center
232
fault lies toward the western side, while the eastern side
of the plateau is bordered by the Indo-Myanmar mobile
belt and the NW-SE trending Kopili fracture zone (Kayal
et al. 2006). The SP is mostly composed of the
Proterozoic meta-sedimentary rocks of the Shillong
group and the basement gneissic complex. The rocks of
the Shillong group are present in a 240-km-long NE-SW
trending intracratonic basin. These rocks have undergone
greenschist facies metamorphism and rest unconform-
ably over a varied assembly of rock types, which includes
sillimanite gneiss, granite gneiss, banded iron formation,
amphibolite, and granulites that together constitutes the
basement gneissic complex. ultramafic igneous rocks
usually have intrusions occur as concordant and discor-
dant bodies within the Shillong group of rocks and are
referred to as Khasi greenstones. The granitic intrusions
occur extensively as discordant plutons that cross-cut the
Shillong group of rocks and basement gneissic complex.
The BeB is a large composite basin located immedi-
ate south of the SP. The Bengal basin is the world’s
largest deltaic basin which is situated in between the
Indian shield and the NER. The BeB is composed of a
group of alternating uplifts and depressions, and the
thickness of the sedimentary cover reaches up to
16 km (Murphy 1988) on its southern and eastern part,
and can reach maximum depth of 22 km in the central
part of the Bengal delta (Alam et al. 2003). The Dauki
fault separates the basin from the adjacent SP. The basin
is bordered by the Indo-Myanmar mobile belt and TFB
to the east, the Indian shield to the west, and the Bay of
Bengal of the Indian Ocean to the south. The deposition
of the sediments in the BeB commenced at the begin-
ning of the Late Cretaceous when the Indian subconti-
nent was separated from the Antarctic block. The depo-
sition of the sediments continued till Oligocene as the
Indian subcontinent drifted in a north-north-westerly
direction toward the Eurasian landmass. In the earliest
Miocene, the deposition of clearly orogenic sediments
commenced, which is continuing till date. The BeB is
tectonically divided into two broad domains: the BIndian
platform^ (or continental shelf) region to the west and
northwest, which is underlain by the Precambrian con-
tinental crust of the Indian shield, and the other is the
deeper part of the basin to the east and the south, which
is underlain by the young oceanic crust. These two
structural domains are separated by a remarkable tec-
tonic feature known as the Bhinge zone.^ This tectonic
feature is of ~ 500 km long and width varies from 25 to
100 km. This hinge zone may be considered as the
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
boundary between the continental crust and the oceanic
crust (Zhahid and Uddin 2005). The eastern margin of
the BeB consists of some parts of the NER. This part of
the Northeast India is close to the Sylhet Trough, where
thick sedimentation is piled up to 7 km due to the Mio-
Pliocene uplift of the Chittagong–Tripura fold belt and
the Himalayas (Alam et al. 2003).
The TFB located southeastern margin of the BeB and
merges into the Indo-Myanmar mobile belt farther east.
This belt consists of a large number of elongated N-S
trending folds (Alam 1989). The faulting and the thrust-
ing are common in these folds, and the intensity of
folding gradually increases from the west to the east,
across the fold belt. The dominant mechanism respon-
sible for the generation of these folds is believed to be
the east-west-directed compressional stresses induced
by the oblique subduction of the Indian plate beneath
the Burmese plate.
The tectonic stress pattern of this NER part has been
analyzed extensively by Kayal et al. (2006) and
Angelier and Baruah (2009). It is found that this region
has a significant variation in the tectonic stress pattern.
Baruah et al. (2015) shows that the SP is dominated by
the north-northwest compressive stress pattern.
However, Angelier and Baruah (2009) reported an over-
all compressive stress in the SP in the north-northeast-
south-southwest. Baruah et al. (2013, 2015) also report-
ed that the tectonic stress regime of the western part of
the SP is dominated by the north-northwest compres-
sional stress, and the eastern part by the east-northeast
compressive stress. The upper Assam valley shows a
north-northeast-south-southwest compression which is
an indication of the existence of earthquakes with strike-
slip component in this zone. The north-northeast com-
pressive stress is also found to be dominant in the BeB
area (Baruah et al. 2013). The stress tensor inversion
results of the BeB, TFB, and Assam valley are also
validated by the numerical simulation results of Islam
et al. (2011). It is believed that that the northeast-
southwest compression in the intraplate zone is the
result of the north-south convergence at the Himalayan
collision zone and the east-west compression at the
Indo-Burma subduction zone.
3 Data and methodology
We obtained ten three component broadband seismo-
graph stations data operated by the India Meteorological
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249 233

Department (IMD), North East Institute of Science
and Technology (NEIST), and the Indian Institute
of Geomagnetism (IIG) during the period of 2011–
2013. Out of these ten stations, eight are operated
by IMD and the rest by NEIST and IIG. All of
these stations are time synchronized with GPS
receivers; station parameters are given in Table 1.
The earthquakes with magnitude (Mb) larger than
5.5 and epicentral distance with foci lies in be-
tween 30° to 90° were used in our analysis with a
reasonably well azimuthal coverage, although large
seismicity of the circum-Pacific belt and the con-
junction part of the Eurasian and the Arabian
plates with reference to the study area (Fig. 1b).
These dataset collected some 135 earthquakes for
our study region with clear P-onset, satisfying our
requirement. The IIG-operated station (IIGS) is
equipped with CMG-3T sensor having natural pe-
riod of 240 s while the IMD stations were
equipped with REFTEK 151A sensors with natural
period of 120 s. The seismograph stations operated
by the IMD recorded ground motion continuously
at a rate of 40 samples per second (sps) while
other stations recorded at 100 sps. All the
seismograms are decimated to 20 sps. The basic
analysis like filtering, phase picking, rotation, and
cutting of seismogram are performed in SAC
(Seismic Analytic Code) software (Goldstein
et al. 2003). We keep the data length limited to
180-s duration and cut the data 60 s before the P-
wave arrival and 120 s after the P-wave arrival.
3.1 Receiver function
The receiver function method has been widely used, and
nowadays, it is a routine tool to study the crust and upper
mantle structure beneath a seismic station (Owens 1987;
Langston 1989; Cassidy 1992; Ligorria and Ammon
1999). This technique draws from a source equalized
teleseismic wave, in which source, propagation path
effect, and instrument effects are eliminated by
deconvolving the vertical component from the rotated
horizontal (radial/tangential) component. Here, we fol-
low the iterative deconvolution process of Ligorria and

Table 1 Station location with their tectonic unit, the number of from Ammon’s 1D inversion technique, Moho depth (NA) by
receiver functions, tectonic domains, Moho depth (ZK) derived neighborhood algorithm technique, Poisson's ratio, sedimentary
from Zhu-Kanamori stacking algorithm, Moho depth (A) derived thickness, and category for Z-K analysis

Sr. Station Location [lat Tectonic Number Moho Moho Moho VP/VS (ZK) Poisson Sedimentary Quality
no. codes (°N)/long domain of depth depth depth ratio (σ) depth (km) of ZK
(°E)/elevation events (ZK) (km) (A) (NA) analysis
(m)] (km) (km)

1 AGAR
23.889/ Bengal basin 42 37.5 ± 1.5 36.0 37 1.92 ± 0.010 0.314 6.0 A
91.246/18
2 AIZW 23.738/ Tripura fold 30 42.0 ± 1.0 40.9 42 1.88 ± 0.010 0.303 1.5 A
92.690/969 belt
3 BELON 23.248/ Bengal basin 78 38.0 ± 1.5 39.5 34.5 1.85 ± 0.015 0.294 7.0 B
91.447/20 (??)
4 DHUB 26.020/ Brahmaputra 80 37.0 ± 0.5 38.5 37.5 1.72 ± 0.005 0.245 2.0a A
89.995/33 valley
5 GUWA 26.193/ Brahmaputra 132 37.0 ± 0.5 37.6 36.5 1.73 ± 0.005 0.249 0.5a A
91.691/88 valley
6 MND 25.924/ Brahmaputra 6 36.0 ± 1.0 38.9 38 1.66 ± 0.015 0.215 1.0a B
90.676/40 valley
7 SAIHA 22.500/ Tripura fold 34 42.5 ± 1.5 42.0 41 1.850.015 0.294 0.4 B
93.000/729 belt
8 IIGS 24.240/ Shillong 80 36.0 ± 1.0 34.4 35 1.70 ± 0.005 0.235 0.5a A
91.530/ plateau
1600
9 SILC 24.781/ Bengal basin 48 38.5 ± 2.0 39.9 39 1.66 ± .0.015 0.215 7.5 C
92.803/018
10 TURA 25.517/ Shillong 23 38.0 ± 1.0 38.5 37 1.78 ± 0.005 0.269 0.5a A
90.224/406 plateau
a
Values of sedimentary thickness adopted from Saikia et al. (2017)
234
Ammon (1999) using water level stabilization (Clayton
and Wiggins 1976).
DR ðωÞD*Z ðωÞ
ERðωÞ ¼ GðωÞ
ϕðωÞ
 the three phases, respectively. The s(H, k) reaches a
where ϕðωÞ ¼ max DZ ðωÞD*Z ðωÞ; c  maxfDZ ðωÞ D*Z
 2
 maxima, when all three phases are stacked coherently.
ðωÞg and GðωÞ ¼ exp −G4aðω2:Þ
Here, ER(ω) is the radial receiver function in the
frequency domain, DR(ω) and DZ(ω) are the radial and
vertical components of the ground motion. BC^ is the
water level parameter, which allows the minimum am-
plitude in the denominator to avoid numerical instabil-
ities in the deconvolution process and use for compen-
sate the amplitude loss due to the water level, and a is
the width of the Gaussian filter and σ2 is the constant
noise variance or the magnitude of data noise (Di Bona
 2

1998). The Gaussian-type low-pass filter exp −G4aðω2 Þ is
added to eliminate high-frequency noise. The water
level constant Bcσ 2 ^ is utilized to stabilize the
deconvolution. The water level parameter, c = 0.001
and the Gaussian filter constant a = 3.0, which corre-
sponds approximately to a gain of 0.1 at 1 Hz is used in
the deconvolution process. The method of determining
and inverting receiver functions in this study follows
linearized inversion process of Ammon et al. (1990).
3.2 H-k stacking technique
The Moho reverberated Ps phase and its multiples PpPs
and PsSs + PsPs have wealth of information of average
crustal properties like Moho depth and VP/VS ratio. Zhu
and Kanamori (2000) extended this information by in-
troducing a grid search over Moho depth (H) and VP/VS
ratio (k), called H-k stacking, transforming time domain
receiver function into H-k domain. This algorithm stacks
the amplitudes of the receiver functions at the predicted
arrival time for the Moho conversion (Ps) and its mul-
tiples (PpPs and PsSs + PsPs) to find the crustal thick-
nesses (H) and the VP/VS ratios for an average crustal P
wave velocity. This method sums up the weighted am-
plitude of the Moho reverberated phases of receiver
functions at the predicted arrival times for different pairs
of crustal thickness (H) and VP/VS ratio.
sðH; k Þ ¼ w1 rðt 1 Þ þ w2 rðt 2 Þ−w3 rðt 3 Þ ð1Þ
Here, r(t) is the radial receiver functions and wi is the
weighting factors associated with the amplitudes of the
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
Ps (t1), PpPs (t2), and PpSs + PsPs (t3) phases, respec-
tively. The best estimate for the H and k for an individual
station is obtained from the maximum summation (Eq.
1) of the stack of the amplitudes of the converted phases.
We have used weighting factors of 0.7, 0.2, and 0.1 for
The average VP is used for each site is derived from the
previous studies across the region (Kayal and De 1987;
Parvez et al. 2003; Bhattacharya et al. 2008), and the ray
parameter is calculated from the event depth and the
epicentral distance. The standard bootstrap technique is
used to estimate the uncertainty in the H and the VP/VS
ratios. We carried out 100 bootstrap replications with
resample dataset, selected randomly from the each
dataset.
We classified stations into three categories depending
on the reliability of the derived crustal properties
(Table 1). The first category corresponds to stations for
which the Ps and PpPs phases are clearly detectable in
the radial receiver function traces and a clear contouring
in the VP/VS-H figure is observed (category A). The
second category corresponds to stations having multiple
maxima in the VP/VS-H figure (category B). The third
category (category C) corresponds to the stations with
complex or non-detectable phases or small number of
events to determine VP/VS-H. The VP/VS ratios are
varied in the range of 1.5 to 2.0 with an increment of
0.001. The time to depth conversion is selected within
the range of 10–60 km with an increment of 1 km. Since
there is only a single maximum in the H-k contour map
for a reasonable range of values, Baverage^ values of H
and k for the crust can be determined.
The ratio between the P-wave and the S-wave veloc-
ities (VP/VS) offers important information on the phys-
ical properties of the continental crust. The mineralogy
or the crustal composition of the rocks is closely corre-
lated with the VP/VS ratios, or proportional quantity
Poisson’s ratio Bσ.^ The laboratory experiments suggest
that the VP/VS ratio is little affected by the change in the
pressure or the temperature (Christensen 1996). The
relative presence of the quartz (VP/VS ~ 1.49) and the
plagioclase (VP/VS ~ 1.87) affects the VP/VS ratio of the
common igneous rocks or their metamorphosed equiv-
alents. The increase of the plagioclase content or de-
crease in the quartz content can increase the VP/VS ratio
of a rock. Experimentally, it is observed that VP/VS ratio
increases from 1.71 for the granitic rocks, 1.78 for the
diorite, and 1.87 for the gabbro (Tarkov and Vavakin
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
1982). The mafic/ultramafic igneous rocks usually have
high VP/VS ratios because they usually contain gabbro
and peridotite or dunite, which originated from the
magmatic differentiation. Moreover, partial melt also
has an important effect on the VP/VS ratio; it significant-
ly increases with an increasing fluid fraction. Within the
upper crust, VP/VS ratio or proportionally Poisson’s
ratio is sensitive to the fractures and the pore fluids in
the crust, especially in the fault structures. The high
value for the VP/VS ratio signifies fractured rocks with
abundant cracks and pores; and the low VP/VS means
rock is relatively intact and of high strength (Zandt and
Ammon 1995; Owens and Zandt 1997; Wang et al.
2010; Saikia et al. 2016).
3.3 Inversion of receiver function
3.3.1 Forward modeling of receiver function
The H-k inversion procedure is quite useful and effec-
tive method for determining the crustal thickness under-
neath a seismic station for simple crustal structures.
While for region, covered with the soft soil or the loose
sediments, the velocity of the basement rock is high and
the energy of direct P-wave is very weak due to the
reverberations of rays at the sediment-basement
boundary and other phases resulting in complex RF
trace. The shape of the RF traces gets affected
prominently with the thickness of the sedimentary
column. Owens and Crosson (1988) analyzed the ener-
gy of the direct P phase of the RF and the delayed P
phase observed due to the shallow structures from the
base of the low velocity layer. For some stations in our
study region, the teleseismic waves are strongly affected
by thick sedimentary layers and the first arrivals are
obviously later than the predicted P arrival. For such
kind of scenarios, we carried out a series of forward
modeling experiments to ensure the relation of the first P
peak with the thickness of the sedimentary column (Fig.
S1). The forward modeling indicates that the delay of
the first arrival with respect to the direct P-wave will
increase with the increase in the sediment thickness.
These examples served as a benchmark for one-way
implementation of the teleseismic wave propagation
with the aim of validating the polarity of phase, ampli-
tude and the depth of different layers, discontinuities.
We choose P and S velocities for the uppermost layer
and maintain the same P-to-S velocity (VP/VS) through-
out the crust. The discontinuities and their velocity
235
jumps are reflected on the timing, strength of the ampli-
tudes and polarity of the phases. We performed first
synthetic test for a simple 1D model with single uniform
layer of 40-km crustal thickness with typical crustal
properties (VP ~ 6.5 km/s, VS ~ 3.5 km/s, and ρ
~ 2.8 kg/m3) overlying a mantle-like half space (VP
~ 8.4 km/s, VS ~ 3.5 km/s, and ρ ~ 3.8 kg/m3). In
addition to the uniform standard model, we performed
intensive tests to visualize the waveform to obtain reli-
able crustal parameters beneath sedimentary basins by
varying subsurface layer thickness, S-wave velocity,
and density of the individual layers. Each individual
model has a total vertical extent of 80 km, and the
vertical spacing of the inversion parameters are varied
within a 5-km layer that is 500 m near the subsurface. To
minimize the visual trade-off between the crustal thick-
ness of the crust and the amplitude of different phases,
we carried out waveform fits of the synthetic receiver
functions with the observed receiver functions that in-
cluded phases converted at the base of the crust along
with the reverberated phases in different layers of the
crustal column.
3.3.2 Ammon’s 1D inversion
The RFs can be inverted to obtain shear-wave velocity
structures beneath a seismic station by minimizing the
difference between the observed and the synthetic re-
ceiver functions (Ammon 1991). The available a priori
information is helpful in constraining the velocity struc-
ture beneath the station. For simplicity, we assumed an
isotropic seismic structure of the crust and the upper
mantle composed of flat interfaces. The plane wave
theoretical seismograms are computed (Haskell’s
1962) for an angle of incidence averaged over all the
epicentral distances of the recorded RFs. The inversion
method is a nonlinear scheme (Ligorria and Ammon
1999), which requires an initial velocity depth profile,
and then iteratively improved by a sequence of relatively
thin layers with a gradual increase or decrease of the
velocities.
Using the Moho depth information obtained from the
H-k grid search method along with the information
about the intracrustal discontinuities and the sedimenta-
ry layers provided by the synthetic seismograms, we
constrain simple initial models for the layered crustal
structure. Additional discontinuities are added if the
remaining peaks in the RF indicate additional P-to-S
converted phases (Kennett 1983). We have tested
236
different basement depths (0.5, 1.0, 4.0, and 6.0 km)
using the velocity variations and kept the crustal thick-
ness around 40 km (Fig. S1). The synthetic receiver
function show how sensitive the arrival time of the P-
to-S conversion to the bottom the basement surface.
These models are then optimized by a combined RF
inversion using Ammon (1991) inversion scheme in a
trial and error process to provide the best fit. In all the
cases, we obtained three- or a four-layer model with
clear velocity contrasts.
The thickness of the upper crust (defined by shear-
wave velocity < 3.5 km/s) ranges from 5 to 10 km,
whereas the thickness of the upper crust in the BeB
and TFB (defined by shear-wave velocity < 3.5 km/s)
ranges from 12 to 20 km. A mid-crustal low-velocity
layer is observed beneath stations AGAR, SILC, and
BELO in the southeastern part of the SP. The low-
velocity layer has a thickness of ~ 10 km, which is
constrained by the negative phase arrivals at 2–3 s.
The presence of the low-velocity subsurface crust in
the shear-wave velocity profiles improves the fit of the
RFs.
3.3.3 Neighborhood inversion
The problems with different inversion schemes arise due
to nonuniqueness and nonlinearity (Ammon et al.
1990). It is well known that the velocity models obtain-
ed from the inversion of receiver functions are non-
unique, due to significant trade-off between the
velocity and the depth to an interface. Ammon et al.
(1990) inferred that linearized inversion techniques suf-
fer from a strong dependence on the starting solution or
the initial model. In order to overcome this problem
other inversion methods have been used, such as simu-
lated annealing (Zhao et al. 1996), genetic algorithm
(Shibutani et al. 1996), grid search (Sandvol et al.
1998), and neighborhood algorithm (NA). These inver-
sion processes are also suitable for regions where there
was no previous geophysical investigation or lack of a
priori information. The NA inversion process is pro-
posed by Sambridge (1999) is a fully nonlinear deriva-
tive free direct search method assisted by the geometri-
cal constructs of Voronoi cells or nearest neighbor re-
gions around the model samples are used to obtain
optimized best model. This method incorporates the
Monte Carlo search technique with the properties of
Vornoi geometry to search an ensemble of the best fitted
models. The inversion scheme starts with a number of
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
samples randomly distributed in the entire model space.
At each iteration, the entire parameter space is divided
into a set of voroni cells, defined as the nearest neighbor
L2-norm. In the parameter space, Ni models are gener-
ated first, and then, a forward modeling is performed for
the each model and the misfit function is generated.
Consequently, the neighborhoods of the best M models
are resampled using a Gibbs sampler within each cell,
generating BM^ new models (Sambridge 1999, 2001).
The misfits obtained from each sampled point and those
few with the lowest misfits are retained for the next
iteration. The process is then continued until we reach
an optimal solution.
4 Results
4.1 Crustal thickness and VP/VS ratio
The data quality for all the sites is excellent, and we got
sufficient number of receiver function traces with clear
positive peak in the range of 4.0–6.0 s representing the
Moho Pms phase. These ten stations are located on four
different tectonic regimes: Brahmaputra valley, Shillong
plateau, Bengal basin, and Tripura fold belt region. In
view of this, we can expect RFs to be influenced by site-
specific heterogeneities in the underlying crust and the
upper mantle. We also inspected variations in both the
radial and transverse RFs. Indication of significant en-
ergy on transverse components may reflect the seismic
anisotropy (Cassidy 1992), dipping structure (Langston
1979), or other near receiver scattering effect, which we
observed in our study region and formerly discussed by
Singh et al. (2016).
The data quality from the IIGS station is one of the
best in this study. A good number of teleseismic events
(80 events) are obtained from all the back azimuths.
Strong similarities are observed between the radial RFs
for different back azimuths, with a clear positive phase
at 4.1 ± 0.2 s, observed behind the direct P phase
(Fig. 2a). We interpret this phase as the converted Ps
phase resulting from the Moho discontinuity. This Ps
phase arrival has a constant arrival time for most of the
back azimuths up to 130° back azimuth. Although after
130° back azimuth, a strong Ps phase arrives slightly
and is delayed by 0.1–0.2 s up to 360° back azimuth.
Such changes in the times of radial Ps phase may
indicate presence of a dipping structure (Cassidy 1992;
Levin and Park 1997). We also observed clear multiples
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
Fig. 2 a Individual back azimuth gathers of radial (R) and tangential (T) receiver functions for the station IIGS showing clear converted
waves at Mohorovicic discontinuity nearly at 5.0 s. b Back azimuthal gathers of radial and tangential receiver functions for SILC station
of positive polarity of PpPs (~ 14.0 s) multiple and
negative polarity (~ 18.0 s) at the IIGS station.
Large shear velocity contrasts is observed across the
sediment-basement contact giving rise to a strong phase
in the receiver function at delay times ~ 1.0–2.0 s (Van
Van der Meijde and van der Giardini 2003; Zheng et al.
2005; Harmon et al. 2007). Similar findings were doc-
umented by many authors in the Indian subcontinent
such as Srinivas et al. (2011) in Indo-Gangetic Plain,
Hetenyi et al. (2006) in Siwalik Himalaya region,
Chopra et al. (2014) in Gujarat region, and Saikia et al.
(2017) in Brahmaputra valley region. The RF traces
from the seismic stations located in the BeB exhibits
similar features at all the back azimuths arriving events.
Figure 2b represents the RFs for the SILC station locat-
ed in the BeB. The converted phase from the sediment-
basement boundary is observed at 1.5 s delay time for all
the azimuths at SILC. This delay phase indicates a
negative velocity contrasts for an incident wave field
below the basement. We observed some negative polar-
ity phase between 2.0 and 4.0 s. The converted phase
from the Moho discontinuity is clearly observed at
~ 5.0-s delay time. We also observed similar
237
characteristics in RF traces for nearby stations AGAR
and BELO (Fig. 3). It can be seen from the synthetic
tests that the addition of a sedimentary layer obscure all
the phases up to the Moho multiples and the shape of the
first 5.0 s of the RFs is mainly controlled by the sedi-
mentary layer. From the RF traces of all other stations
(Fig. 3), we found that the variation in the crustal struc-
ture is prominent before Moho converted Ps phase as
seen by the variations in the polarity of the phases.
Some stations show prominent reverberating phases
in the receiver functions, which helps us to estimate
crustal thickness and average VP/VS very profoundly
(Fig. 4a, Table 1). The SP and its nearby region in Khasi
hills (TURA station) is characterized by crustal depth
centered at ~ 35 km with VP/VS values between 1.70
and 1.74. For the stations in the BeB, the average crustal
thickness is ~ 39.0 km and the VP/VS ratio, above 1.78.
These values are significantly larger than the global
average values of 34 km and 1.75 for the continental
crust (Zandt and Ammon 1995; He et al. 2013). The
AIZW, SILC, and BELON stations in the BeB are
associated with high VP/VS values of 1.80–1.90, sug-
gesting dominance of mafic to ultra-mafic composition
238 J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249

Fig. 3 The radial receiver functions with respect to back azimuth for each station of our study region

in the lower crust. In our observation, we found thickest
crust (H = ~ 41–43 km) and highest VP/VS ratio
(k = ~ 1.81) for the stations AIZ, SAIHA, and BELO
stations, which are located in the Tripura fold belt.
In order to get a complete understanding of the
Poisson’s ratio distribution and its characteristics, we
subdivided our regions into two zones: low-value and
high-value zones (Fig. 4b). At DHUB, GUWA, and
MND in the lower Brahmaputra valley, we observed
low to medium Poisson’s ratio values, whereas at sta-
tions TURA and IIGS located in the SP, the Poisson’s
ratio are less than 0.26 and they are in lower-value zone.
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249 239

Fig. 4 a Contour plots to find out crustal thicknesses BH^ and VP/ contour. Station names and the optimal parameters are indicated
VS ratios for IIGS, DHUB, IIGS, and SILC stations. Phase stack- at the top right corner of each panel. b Poisson’s ratio (PR or σ)
ing amplitudes of radial RFs to determine H-VP/VS ratio of 95% contour map for our study region
confidence interval contours is shown on small white color
240
Toward south of the SP, along the BeB and TFB for the
seismic stations SILC, AGAR, BELO, and AIZW, the
Poisson’s ratio values exceeds 0.28 and they are in
higher-value zone.
4.2 Sedimentary thickness
The first 5.0 s of the RFs is controlled by the subsurface
sedimentary covers. The presence of the low-velocity
subsurface crust improves the fit of the stacked RFs.
Figure 5 depicts the best-fitting shear-wave velocity
structure from the neighborhood inversion process. We
also adopt NA technique in longer duration stacked RF
waveform and the inversion take care of all multiples
like sediment-basement transition, intracrustal layers,
and Moho discontinuity, but when we looked for short
stacked RF waveform (first 5.0 s stacked data), it also
shows more similar upper crustal velocity structure in a
good resolution of S-velocity layers (Fig. S2)
The stations AGAR, BELO, and SILC, located on
the eastern margin of BeB, have very thick sheet of
sedimentary cover on its subsurface. The AGAR station
has subsurface velocity of around 1.4 km/s, which grad-
ually increases to 3.1 km/s at 6.0-km depth. The multi-
layer sedimentary column shows that the sedimentation
is developed at different time periods. The station
BELO, located just south of the AGAR station, is an-
other station located on the eastern margin of the BeB.
The subsurface S-wave velocity for BELO station is
nearly 1.2 km/s, which instantly increases to 2.5 km/s
at 1.0-km depth. Afterward, the S-wave velocity is
uniform and reaches 3.2 km/s at 8.0-km depth, which
can be interpreted as depth of the basement. Another
station SILC, located on the northeast corner of the BeB,
has prominent two-layered sedimentary column extend-
ed up to 7-km depth. The subsurface S-velocity for the
SILC station is around 1.1 km/s, which instantly rises to
2.8 km/s within 1-km depth. The S-wave velocity de-
creases to 2.1 km/s at 6-km depth, which increases to
3.2 km/s and reach the basement depth at 7 km. On the
southwest to the BeB or southern margin of the NER,
we derived first 10 km S-velocity structure for two
stations, AIZW and SAIH, located on the TFB region.
We found that the near surface velocity for AIZW
station is around 2.6 km/s, which increases to 3.1 km/s
at 1.5-km depth. The station SAIH is located on the
southern margin of the Northeast India. The near surface
velocity for SAIH is around 2.6 km/s which instantly
increases to 3.1 km/s within 0.5 km. The sedimentary
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
structure of the BrB and the SP is broadly described in
Saikia et al. (2017), and they inferred that the sedimen-
tary thickness of the lower part of the Brahmaputra basin
is around 0.5 to 2.0 km (GUWA and DHUB stations,
Table 1), while in the SP, the sedimentary thickness
(IIGS and TURA stations, Table 1) can reach up to
0.5 km.
4.3 Moho depths and crustal structure
The lateral rolling of the Moho plays an important role
in the seismic wave propagation. It impacts the earth-
quake damage of the ground facilities. Therefore, the
study of the Moho undulation beneath this southwestern
part of the NER is helpful to understand the crustal
structure, rock properties, and the tectonic evolution.
Here, we show the inversion of two sample stations,
IIGS and SILC stations. The individual RFs are stacked
by unit standard deviation bounds. The stacked RFs are
inverted by minimizing the difference between the ob-
served and the model generated receiver function, si-
multaneously constraining the model smoothness. The
velocity models that produced synthetic RFs falling
within ± 1 SD bounds are shown for the station IIGS
(Fig. 6a). One of the best-fitted models is selected and
thin layers with nearly the same velocities are aligned to
a single velocity layer to get the main features of the
structure on right most panel of Fig. 6a. The simplified
model is again used to constraint velocity model in a
repeated manner until the strong and primary peaks
(direct P, Ps, PpPs, etc.) are modeled to avoid the com-
plexities in the final model. The matching of the syn-
thetic seismogram and the stacked seismogram is drawn
along with the best-fitting model is shown in the lower
panel (Fig. 6a). The resolution of the method is around
0.2–0.4 km/s for the S-velocity and 1–5 km for the depth
(Cassidy 1992). Another station south of the IIGS sta-
tion, SILC, has pronounced sedimentary subsurface
cover that is strongly observed in the S-wave velocity
structure (Fig. 6b).
We observed low subsurface S-wave velocity
~ 1.5 km/s at SILC and BELO stations, and 2.1 km/s
at AGAR station which are located on the eastern mar-
gin of the BeB. This subsurface low velocity sedimen-
tary column extends up to ~ 8-km depth. We found a
low-velocity layer in the mid-crust of the AGAR station.
The S-velocity drops down to 2.7 km/s at 15–21-km
depth range. Afterward, the S-velocity gradually in-
creases up to Moho, which is at ~ 38-km depth with
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249 241

Fig. 5 The upper crustal structure up to 15 km map the sedimentary-basin configuration of easternmost margin of some stations located
mainly in Bengal basin (SILC, AGAR, BELO) and Tripura fold belt (AIZ, SAIHA) in our study region
242
Fig. 6 a Velocity modeling for IIGS station is shown from left to
right. The inverted velocity models are shown on the top left; on
the top right panel, the best-fitting simplified model is shown, and
in the lower panel, comparison between the observed and synthetic
the S-wave velocity of 4.1 km/s. Similar to AGAR
station, we observed subsurface low S-wave velocity
of 1.5 km/s at BELO station. The S-velocity increases
to 3.0 km/s at 5-km depth, which increases to 3.5 km/s at
8-km depth. A low-velocity layer, nearly ~ 8 km thick, is
observed at 12–20-km depth with an average S-wave
velocity around 1.8 km/s. Afterward, the velocity grad-
ually increases up to Moho at ~ 38-km depth, where S-
wave velocity reaches to 4.6 km/s. Similarly, low sub-
surface S-velocity ~ 1.5 km/s is observed at SILC station
at ~ 10 km, which extends up to 25 km. These reduc-
tions in the S-wave velocity correspond to a strong
negative polarity phase observed at around ~ 2.5 s in
all the RF traces for SILC and BELO stations. This low
velocity anomaly could possibly be due to the oceanic
plate of the Bay of Bengal, subducted beneath the con-
tinental Indian plate. The Moho at the SILC station is
observed at ~ 39-km depth.
The station DHUB is the northernmost station in our
study region, located in the Brahmaputra valley. It has a
subsurface S-wave velocity of 2.7 km/s with 0.5-km
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
radial functions (red and blue lines, respectively) along with ± 1
SD bound of observed receiver functions is shown in gray-shaded
region. b Shear velocity modeling for the SILC station. The figure
description is the same as in a
sediment thickness, and the velocity reaches to
3.45 km/s at the basement. The velocity sharply rises
to 4.0 km/s at 5–8-km depth and again decreases to
3.2 km/s at15-km depth. The lower crust has a gradual
transition of S-wave velocity. The Moho discontinuity is
observed at ~ 38-km depth where velocity is ~ 4.8 km/s.
The stations GUWA and MND are located near the
DHUB station, located on the same lithology as of
Brahmaputra basin, which yields similar kind of shear-
wave velocity structure, except a higher velocity layer at
the subsurface of MND station; the velocity structures of
both GUWA and the DHUB are nearly the same having
the crustal thickness of ~ 35 km.
We have two stations on the SP, IIGS and TURA
stations. The crust beneath the SP is thinned by 3–4 km,
relative to the immediate surroundings of BrB and BeB.
A layer of high velocity in the upper crust is observed at
IIGS (Shillong station) at around 4–8 km beneath the
SP, where S-wave velocity of 4.5 km/s is observed as
compared to the subsurface velocity of 2.9 km/s. The
crustal structure of the SP is uniform for all the
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
azimuths. After 8-km depth, S-velocity drops down to
3.7 km/s, which gradually increase to 4.2 km/s at ~ 28-
km depth. The high S-wave velocity lower crust is 8 km
thick, where Moho is observed at ~ 36-km depth.
The stations SAIHA and AIZW located on the TFB
region have high subsurface velocities ~ 3.0–3.6 km/s
representing extended Naga-Hills orogeny crust on the
western margin of the Indo-Myanmar subduction arc. A
mid-crustal low velocity layer is present at ~ 10–20 -km
depth (< 3.4 km/s) that is constrained in the RFs that
shows negative polarity phase at ~ 3.0 s in the radial
RFs. The shear-wave velocity profile for both the sta-
tions is otherwise complex due to the heterogeneous
crustal structure near the Bengal basin, Bay of Bengal,
and the Indo-Myanmar subduction arc. We observed
high velocity uniform lower crust for AGAR, AIZW,
and BELO (VS ~ 3.8–4.2 km/s) stations, which repre-
sent oceanic lower crust in nature that is associated with
the Bengal basin. Our results are in good agreement with
Mitra et al. (2008). They inferred an oceanic lower crust
beneath the highly thick sediments of Bengal basin. The
Moho discontinuity is observed pronouncedly for both
the BeB and the TFB at nearly 38 and 42 km,
respectively.
5 Discussion and conclusion
The first 5 s show anomalous signature in RF traces on
the stations located in basins, such as delayed P phase
and the presence of secondary multiples, just after the
direct P phase, which results due to P-to-S conversion
from the sedimentary-basement configuration. Further,
we can use these phases to determine the depth of the
sediments and the shear-wave velocity. In the lower BrB
and the BeB, the average shear-wave velocity ranges
from 1.5 to 2.8–3.0 km/s with sediment thickness vary-
ing between 0.5 and 6–8 km is observed. In the upper
crustal part of the SP, no sedimentary formations are
observed, while for other stations like SILC, MND, and
AGAR, pronounced sedimentary formations at the top
most layers are observed (Fig. 5). The world’s largest
delta has one of the thickest piles of sediments and has
enormous population living on weak infrastructure.
These sediments may amplify the ground motions and
may cause large destruction during moderate to great
earthquakes. During 1918 Srimangal earthquake, inten-
sity X in this epicentral region of BeB region, intensity
243
VIII–IX for the AGAR and BELO sites, and intensity
VI–VII were observed for sites on TFB (Nandy 1991).
As expected, many of the major crustal features
observed in the inversion are visible at all the ten sites.
It has been observed that significant variations in am-
plitude and arrival times of Moho Pms and other con-
verted phases exhibits at the IIGS station with respect to
back azimuth, which suggests that there may be pres-
ence of dipping structures or anisotropic medium
(Zheng et al. 2005; Linkimer et al. 2010). The highly
seismically active Dauki fault lies in the south of the SP.
Any 3D structural heterogeneity related to the depth
seismicity might be analyzed by clustered back azimuth
events groups. The input for the inversion is stacked RF
trace from three different back azimuth arriving events
(NE BAZ-30°–85°, SE BAZ 110°–140°, south BAZ
165°–184°). The numbers of events from each of above
back azimuth groups are quite enough, more than ten
events from each group (Fig. 7). In particular, there
exists a high-velocity layer in nearly every model be-
tween depths of 2.0 and 8.0 km at two stations beneath
the SP. Here, we have not observed any anomalous
feature like low-velocity zone or high-velocity zone in
the midcrust or in the lower crust from the different back
azimuth dataset. From the modeling of the RF, from
both the Ammon’s linearized inversion technique and
the neighborhood algorithm, we observed that the mid
and lower crusts of the Shillong station (IIGS) is uni-
form and Moho is the pronounced discontinuity for
every back azimuth group, reaching S-wave velocity
of 4.3 km/s at the boundary (Fig. 7). Our findings are
quite similar to the findings of Mitra et al. (2005) and
may conclude that the seismic activity of the SP is due to
the complex localized fault system comprising of the
Dauki fault, Dapsi thrust, Dhuburi fault, Barapani shear
zone, etc., but not from the northeast subduction of the
BeB in the SP. Rather, seismicity in the BeB and on the
Dauki fault is overthrusting of the SP over the BeB from
the north, depressing the Sylhet basin (Johnson and
NurAlam 1991). From the profile, running north to
south and passing through SP, we observed that the
Moho is thinned by 3–4 km as compared to the BeB
and the BrB. The average topography height of the
plateau is around 1.5–1.8 km. The upliftment of this
plateau can be attributed to the infilled of relatively
high-density mantle materials, possibly caused by the
compression melting from the lithospheric depths.
Different studies constrained the crustal structure of
the northeast, mostly SP and its associated region with
244
Fig. 7 Inversions by NA process for IIGS station in three different
azimuth groups of events (northeast azimuth, southeast azimuth,
southwest azimuth). In the left-hand panel showing inversion for
each azimuth group, the gray-shaded region represents all searched
models in NA inversion. The convergent yellow and green models
with gray-shaded region represents best 1000 model with the color
being logarithmically proportional to model number. In the color
the help of various geophysical and seismic surveys like
gravity study (Verma and Mukhopadhyay 1977), RF
study (Kumar et al. 2004; Mitra et al. 2005; Singh
et al. 2016), seismic tomography study (Kayal and
Zhao 1998; Bhattacharya et al. 2008), magnetotelluric
study (Gokarn et al. 2008), etc. The Moho depth (H) and
VP/VS (k) ratio were estimated at some of the sites
located in BrB and SP. For GUWA, SHL, and AGAR
sites, H = 36.1 ± 0.3 km, k = 1.705 ± 0.015;
H = 35.0 ± 0.2 km, k = 1.700 ± 0.010 (Kumar et al.
2004; Mitra et al. 2005); and H = 38.0 ± 0.8 km,
k = 1.878 ± 0.026, respectively (Mitra et al. 2008).
The crustal thickness H increases by about 5 km from
the SP to the Brahmaputra valley. This observation is
consistent with the estimates from the gravity study by
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
scale, from yellow to green represents increase in data fit. The red
color represents the best-fit model corresponding to waveform
matching of the right-hand panel while the pink model on left-
hand side represents the VP/VS ratio. The right panel matching of
observed (black) and synthetic (clue colored) receiver functions
with lowest misfit
Verma and Mukhopadhyay (1977). The isostatic
Bouguer gravity anomaly map by Verma and
Mukhopadhyay (1977) illustrates high gravity anomaly
(− 50 to 100 mGal) in between the BeB and the SP. They
conclude that the large positive isostatic anomaly indi-
cates excess mass or high density material (high velocity
layer) in the plateau, elevated from the upper mantle due
to the volcanic activity during the formation of the
plateau tectonics. The predominantly negative values
over the Brahmaputra valley and the BeB (minimum
value of − 250 mGal) signify the influence of low-
density sediments overlying the Assam valley and the
BeB. They inferred that the SP is itself isostatically
uncompensated. They proposed that the gravity high
observed in the SP may not be entirely attributed to
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
the absence of sedimentary overburden but due to a
high-density layer emplaced in the crust beneath the SP.
The geological evolution of the Earth’s continental
crust requires knowledge of its bulk chemical composi-
tion and its variation globally (Zandt and Ammon
1995). The Average VP/VS values or proportional quan-
tity Poisson’s ratio values are often used in petrological
studies to derive the crustal composition (Chevrot and
van der Hilst 2000). The values of the bulk crustal VP/
VS ratios are slightly less than that of the lower crustal
VP/VS ratio (by ~ 0.2) (Christensen 1996; Nair et al.
2006; Niu and James 2002; Zandt and Ammon 1995).
These Poisson ratio values derived from VP/VS are not
unique, as derived from searching from most energetic
stack of the Moho Pms phase and other reverberated
phases reflected from Moho assuming the crust is a
homogeneous layer.
Here, we observe that Poisson ratios, derived from
VP/VS, are low to intermediate in Shillong plateau and
Brahmaputra valley, which characterize the crust is
felsic to intermediate in composition, while eastern
flank of Bengal basin and Tripura fold belt has high
Poisson ratio that signifies mafic nature of the crust. The
low to average VP/VS (0.170–0.175) or Poisson ratio
(0.235–0.269) values from the Shillong plateau region
suggests that no anomalous structure (low-velocity layer
or high-velocity layer) is present in the mid and lower
crust of SP. The Poisson ratio of 0.269 obtained for the
TURA station is almost the same as the continental
crustal average of 0.265 (Christensen and Mooney
1995). A slightly lower value of 0.235 has been obtained
for the IIGS station suggesting bulk felsic crust. Overall,
the data obtained from the Shillong plateau indicate a
felsic to intermediate crust for this terrain. From the
three stations of the Brahmaputra valley, viz., DHUB,
GUWA, and MND, we obtained Poisson ratios of 0.245,
0.249, and 0.215, respectively. The data obtained from
two stations, DHUB and GUWA, indicate felsic crust.
On the other hand, the Poisson ratio obtained for the
MND station is comparatively lower which suggests
highly felsic nature of the crust. So, H-k analysis of data
obtained from the Brahmaputra valley stations indicates
bulk felsic composition.
The three stations of the Bengal basin, viz., AGAR,
SILC, and BELON, have higher Poisson ratios of 0.315,
0.215 (category C), and 0.294, respectively, suggesting
that the crust beneath the BeB is mafic in composition.
We have found from the first 15-km upper crust S-wave
velocity structure (Fig. 5), that the eastern corner of the
245
BeB can extend up to 10 km, and we also observed
mafic crust of high density material (high S velocity) in
the lower crust which indicates the young oceanic crust
of the Indian plate underneath the sedimentary strata.
However, the Poisson ratio obtained for AGAR sta-
tion (0.315) is slightly higher in comparison to the major
oceanic crustal constituents, i.e., basalt (0.294), diabase
(0.279), and gabbro (0.295) at 600 MPa (Christensen
1996). The higher value obtained for the AGAR station
may be due to the presence of thick marine sediments
and high pore fluid pressure or due to the occurrence of
partial melting in the crust (Xu et al. 2007). In our
scenario, it is unlikely that the crustal melting is occur-
ring in the crust beneath AGAR as the Indian plate is
subducting beneath the Burmese plate. The probable
occurrence of the crustal melting would be farther east
of BeB. We have found that the sedimentary thickness at
these three stations can reach up to 8 km and all of them
have high S-wave velocity in the lower crust, which
indicates the young oceanic crust of the Indian plate
underneath the sedimentary strata. Hence, the higher
Poisson ratio obtained from the BeB is due to the
presence of thick marine sediments accompanied by
high pore fluid pressure. The two stations of the
Tripura fold belt, viz., AIZW and SAIHA, have
Poisson ratios of 0.303 and 0.294, respectively. These
values are indicative of a mafic crust which is the young
oceanic crust of the Indian plate.
The Poisson’s ratio regionalization is well correlated
with the outcrop rocks (Fig. 4b). In two low Poisson’s
ratio zones (SP and BrB), granite-, quartz-, and mica-
rich mylonites are seen on the surface and the rocks are
relatively intact. The previous studies indicated that the
BeB and TFB are active tectonic belts in the course of
formation and development from east to west (Rao and
Kalpana 2005; Angelier and Baruah 2009; Baruah et al.
2013). Therefore, the rocks in this belt may be more
fractured, giving rise to a high Poisson’s ratio. The result
is basically consistent with that of Singh et al. (2016)
from the broadband data of the BeB of the Bangladesh
region, indicating that the H-k method is robust and
efficient.
Figure 8 shows the depth sections of the S-wave
velocity profile obtained from the least-square inversion
of the RFs of all the sites. From the above results, we
found that the Moho structure extends in the direction of
NNW to SSE (Fig. 9). The first domain is of northern-
most Brahmaputra basin comprising of DHUB-GUWA-
MND station in our analysis. The average crustal
246
Fig. 8 Simplified crustal models for all seismic stations used our
study region. The inverted velocity models clearly illustrate the
Moho undulation, sedimentary formation, and difference in
thickness varies from 37 to 39 km in lower Brahmaputra
valley. The second region is the SP sampled by TURA
and IIGS stations, where the average crustal thickness
decreases to 34–36 km as compared to an average
crustal thickness of 38 km of the lower Brahmaputra
valley. Some small-scale variations are seen within the
Fig. 9 Cross section of our results from NW to SE along our study region represents the crustal structure, and the bottom panel represents
average crustal VP/VS
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
intracrustal velocity structure. The arrow mark represents the
Moho discontinuity for each station
SP as the Moho depth of TURA and IIGS are 37.0 and
35.0 km, respectively. These small-scale variations may
be due to the geologic setting of the uplifts in the SP
region. Our result is consistent with the previous study
done by Mitra et al. (2005) and the tomographic studies
carried out by Bhattacharya et al. (2008). They inferred
J Seismol (2018) 22:229–249
that the thin crust of the SP and the deep crust of the
Himalayan foredeep and the Brahmaputra valley are
associated with a flexure of the down going Indian plate
beneath the Himalayas. The third regime is located
southwest of the SP on the down-faulted northeastern
part of the BeB. The stations SILC, AGAR, and BELO
stations are located on the BeB tectonics. Here, the
crustal thickness increases from 37 to 40 km. The fourth
segment is the southernmost region extending from the
TFB region. The crustal thickness is high and increases
rapidly from 39 km in the BeB to 40–43 km in the fold
belt region. This line is parallel to the strike of the
Arakon-Yoma range along the TFB. The general trend
of the Moho depths in this region is that it is thicker in
the TFB region than the SP and the BeB region. These
results agree well in general with the findings from the
seismic sounding and gravity studies by Verma and
Mukhopadhyay (1977).
Following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
1. The sediments piled to 7–8 km in the eastern flank
of the Bengal basin of the Northeast India part. A
mid-crustal low velocity zone (LVZ) is observed at
AGAR station located in the northeastern part of the
Bengal basin. The thickness of the sedimentary
strata decreases sharply toward the SP in the north
and TFB in the south.
2. The crustal thickness increases from the SP to the
TFB, where it attains maximum thickness of about
43 km.
3. The Poisson’s ratio beneath the SP is low (σ = 0.23)
compared to other continental regions, while in the
Bengal basin, the crust has high Poisson’s ratio. In
TFB, medium to high Poisson ratio is observed. The
crustal composition consists of mainly meta-
sedimentary and silicic intrusive rocks, with mafic
or ultramafic components.
4. To the southwestern side of the Northeast India, we
observed a high crustal velocity layer with mafic
composition, which signify that the sedimentary
overburden took place above the oceanic crust after
the collision between the Indian plate and the
Eurasian plate.
Acknowledgements We sincerely appreciate the technical per-
sons of National Centre for Seismology in maintaining and data
archival of all the Broadband stations used in this present study.
The GMT software package by Wessel and Smith (1998) was used
for drafted the figures. First author gratefully acknowledged the
247
two anonymous reviewers who gave helpful reviews to improve
the manuscript.
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