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Crustal structure beneath the Archean-Proterozoic terrain of north India from

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Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118

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Crustal structure beneath the Archean–Proterozoic terrain of north India

from receiver function modeling
T. Vijay Kumar a,⇑, S. Jagadeesh b, S.S. Rai b
a
School of Earth Sciences, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded 431 606, India
b
National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad 500 007, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The shear velocity structure of the north Indian crust comprising of the Archean cratons (Aravalli–Bund-
Received 4 October 2011 elkhand) and Proterozoic Vindhyan basin is modeled and compared with the eastern Dharwar craton as
Received in revised form 4 June 2012 well the global models for Archean and Proterozoic terrains. The velocity structure is deduced from joint
Accepted 24 June 2012
inversion of teleseismic receiver function time series and surface wave group velocity measurements. The
Available online 4 July 2012
north Indian Archean crust is a simple two layered: an average Vs  3.3 ± 0.1 km/s in the upper 10 km
increasing to 3.7 ± 0.1 km/s in the 26–28 km thick lower crust. This upper crustal velocity is significantly
Keywords:
less compared to those of either eastern Dharwar craton (3.5–3.6 km/s) or the global average. These
North Indian crust
Archean
results suggest presence of a highly silica rich upper crust and an intermediate composition of the lower
Proterozoic crust. The Moho is modeled at a depth of 36–38 km with thin transition (2 km) similar to those in east-
Vindhyan basin ern Dharwar craton. In contrast, the Proterozoic Vindhyan basin has significantly deeper Moho (44–
Bundelkhand 46 km) with a 4–10 km thick underplated layer (Vs P 4.0 km/s) at the base of the crust. The sedimentary
Receiver function layer thickness is 2–4 km. The results support the view that Proterozoic crust is thicker and underlain
by a mafic layer at its base in contrast to a thin Archean crust with near absence of the basal layer as
observed globally.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction phism, support of the topography in the Himalaya and southern

Tibet.
Composition, thickness and intra-crustal layering in continental Recent zircon dates suggest that both Aravalli and Bundelkhand
crust are important parameters to model the process responsible cratons have stabilized around the same time (2.5 b.y.) and might
for its formation. Most of the knowledge on the nature of Indian have evolved as a single crustal unit as they display similar charac-
crust is derived from seismological investigations pursued in its teristics geochemically (Mondal et al., 2002). The Aravallis are
southern part (Gaur and Priestley, 1997; Kumar et al., 2001; Rai bounded by the Ganges basin in the North and Great Boundary
et al., 2003; Gupta et al., 2003) with little information available Fault in the East, Cambay basin to the west and Narmada Son Val-
on the velocity structure of the north Indian terrains except ley to the South East. Unlike the Archean Dharwar craton of south
through the modeling of wide angle reflection seismic data in India, Aravallis are devoid of Banded Iron Formations. This is attrib-
Vindhyan basin (Kaila et al., 1989; Murty et al., 2004). We investi- uted to the silicic composition of the source (Mondal et al., 2002).
gate the geological terrains of north India (Fig. 1) comprising of the The Bundelkhand craton, approximately between 24.5 and 26.0 °N
Archean Aravalli–Bundelkhand cratons and the Proterozoic Vindh- and 77.8–80.5 °E, lies to the west of Great Boundary Fault and is
yan basin. Rocks of the Indian subcontinent are last seen in these bounded by Vindhyans from all directions except for the E-NE
terrains before they plunge in the Ganga basin, the Himalaya and where Indo-Gangetic sediments lay on the surface. Primary rock
the Tibet. Apart from constraining the nature of Archean and Pro- types include gneisses and granitoids. The gneisses of Bundelkhand
terozoic crust, their detailed velocity image (and hence composi- craton are trondhjemitic in nature which intrudes into older supra-
tion, thickness) is critical to understand several issues like: crustals consisting of amphibolite, quartzite and schist. Bundelk-
nature of the Indian lower crust prior to their under-thrusting be- hand gneisses have a restricted range of SiO2 (69.2–70.7 wt.%)
neath the Himalaya, heat source for higher Himalaya metamor- while the granitoids have large variation from 54–73% ibid.
Vindhyan basin is one of the largest Precambrian intra-cratonic
basins of India in space and time and is bounded by Narmada Son
Lineament (NSL) to the South and extends beneath the Indo-Gan-
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9440 517973; fax: +91 2462 229245.
getic plain towards North. Sedimentation in the basin initiated
E-mail address: [Link]@[Link] (T. Vijay Kumar).

1367-9120/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
[Link]
 Author's personal copy

T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118 109

(Gurgaon) and BRT (Bharatpur) are sited in the Aravalli craton,

and JHN (Jhansi) is on the Bundelkhand granites. The station
RWA (Rewa) is within the Vindhyan basin while SGR (Sagar) and
ALB (Allahabad) on its western and northern edge with same base-
ment continuing beneath them (Chakrabarti et al., 2007) (Fig. 1).

3. Methodology

The receiver function approach (Langston, 1979) was adopted to

extract the P to S converted phases and the corresponding multiples
from the Moho and intra–crustal layers (Fig. 2). Receiver function is
a time series computed from three component seismograms and
show the relative response of the earth’s structure near the receiver.
It is a composite of P-to-S converted waves that reverberate in the
structure beneath the receiver and is caused when a teleseismic P-
wave propagates through the velocity stratified earth. The con-
verted P-to-S energy is concentrated on the radial component in
the presence of a laterally homogeneous earth. The instrument re-
sponse is removed from the seismogram using the poles and zeros

Fig. 1. Station location and Geology map of the study area.

around 1.7 b.y. (Ray, 2006) and has a maximum thickness of up to

4–5 km (Kaila et al., 1989).
Velocity structure of the region is studied through a wide angle
seismic profile across Vindhayan basin and the NSL, and has been
interpreted using travel time and waveform methods (Kaila et al.,
1989; Murty et al., 2004). The results suggest two-layer Vindhyan
sediment with P-wave velocity 4.5 km/s (thickness 1.2 km)
followed by 3–4 km thick layer of velocity 5.4 km/s. Below the sed-
iment, crust has layering at depths of 8, 17 and 22 km with P-
velocities 6.5, 6.35 and 6.8 km/s and Moho mapped at 40 km
depth. The uppermost mantle P wave velocity is 7.8 km/s. How-
ever, in absence of any refraction measurements the Pn velocity re-
mains only suggestive.

2. Experimental details

To investigate the crustal structure, teleseismic waveforms re-

corded on six seismograph locations in the region deployed at var-
ied times during 2004–2007 are utilized. Each station was
equipped with a Guralp CMG3T/CMG3ESP broadband seismome-
ter, REFTEK 130 recorder and GPS for position location and accu-
rate time marking. The seismic data was acquired in continuous Fig. 2. Schematic representation of ray propagation and radial receiver functions
mode at 20 samples per second. Details of the operational period for a simple Earth model.
and location of stations is presented in Table 1. The stations GRG

Table 1
Station location and the operational details.

Station code Operation period Latitude Longitude Elevation (m) Sensor

SGR 03.11.04–10.10.05 23.88 78.73 507 3T-T362
JHN 30.10.04–27.05.06 25.51 78.55 248 3ESP-T3548
27.05.06–07.12.06 3T-T3D28
BRT 21.10.04–02.07.05 27.08 77.39 214 3T-T3D01
02.07.05–16.08.05 3ESP-T3540
GRG 08.02.05–27.06.05 28.31 76.94 286 3T-T3L09
14.10.05–01.06.08 3ESP-T3549
RWA 14.03.06–22.04.07 24.55 81.20 321 CMG3T-T3L12
ALB 05.09.05–22.04.07 25.45 81.40 93 CMG3T-T3D17
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110 T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118

Fig. 3a. Azimuthal distribution of receiver functions for stations GRG, BRT & JHN representing the Archean terrains (Bundelkhand and Aravalli). RFs are plotted at equal
distance.

of the seismograph then the source and path effects present in the are first extracted and then the smaller and less significant ones.
seismogram were minimized by deconvolving vertical component The iterations are repeated till an acceptable level of misfit is
of the seismogram from the radial component (Fig. 2). achieved. The quality of the receiver function is determined by
The computation of receiver function is a deterministic decon- the close match between the observed and the computed horizon-
volution problem that can be performed either in the frequency tal for the corresponding receiver function.
(Clayton and Wiggins, 1976) or in time domain and both the ap- In the process of receiver function computation a low pass
proaches give similar results for error free data. We follow here Gaussian filter is commonly used to clean the high frequency noise
the iterative deconvolution technique in time domain (Kikuchi and is represented by the relation G(x) = exp( x2/4a2). The fre-
and Kanamori, 1982) originally developed to estimate large-earth- quency content is controlled by the Gaussian filter–width parame-
quake source time functions and subsequently adapted to the re- ter ‘a’, for example the RF has frequency of 0.5 Hz for a = 1 and
ceiver function problem by Ligorría and Ammon (1999). We 0.8 Hz for a = 1.6. We now compute the shortest wave length
briefly describe the methodology. for shear wave passing through the crust with the S-wave velocity
The time domain approach uses the basic concept that receiver of 3.5 km/s in upper crust to 4.0 km/s above the Moho. For Gauss-
function when convolved with the vertical component of seismo- ian width a = 1, it varies between 7 and 8 km; while for a = 1.6 it is
gram would produce the horizontal component of seismogram. between 4.4 and 5.0 km. The resolution of layer thickness, there-
The basis of iterative time domain deconvolution method is least fore, for a = 1 and 1.6 is 2 and 1 km respectively.
square minimization of the difference between the observed hori- In the present study a Gaussian width of 1.0 was used, as the
zontal and a predicted signal generated by convolution of an iter- primary interest was in modeling the gross features of the crust
atively updated spike sequence with vertical component. Initially and also minimize the effect of scattering in the receiver function.
the vertical component is cross-correlated with radial component After visually analyzing waveforms for earthquakes of magnitude
to estimate the lag of the first and largest spike i.e. direct P in greater than 5.5, events with high S/N ratio were selected for fur-
the receiver function. Then this initial estimate of receiver function ther analysis. The dataset consists of 700 three component seis-
is convolved with the vertical component of seismogram to com- mograms with high S/N ratio from recorded teleseismic events in
pute horizontal component of seismogram. The receiver function the distances from 30–90° and checked for polarities of all three-
signal gets updated with an additional spike each iteration and component seismograms. The RF’s were computed through itera-
the mismatch between the computed and the observed horizontal tive time domain approach (Ligorría and Ammon, 1999). The recei-
seismogram gets reduced. Here the maximum amplitude spikes ver function with a goodness fit greater than 80% were used for
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T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118 111

Fig. 3b. Azimuthal distribution of receiver functions for stations ALB, RWA & SGR representing the Vindhyan basin. RFs are plotted at equal distance.

further modeling. These RFs for individual stations are plotted at The receiver functions and surface wave dataset is jointly in-
equi-distance interval with increasing azimuth (Figs. 3a and 3b) verted using damped least square algorithm. The inversion pro-
and time marked at 0 s, 5 s and 15 s. The stations sited on the Ar- duces smooth velocity model with minimum number of sharp
chean terrains (Fig. 3a) shows distinct Pms between 4–5 s and also velocity contrasts, smoothness is controlled by adjusting the
clear PpPms in all the three stations between 13 and 15 s. The PpSms damping parameter. The relative contribution of both data in resul-
is clearly observed at JHN between 18 and 20 s, while it is not very tant model is controlled by varying influence parameter. In the
clear for stations GRG and BRT. The stations sited on the Protero- present study a weightage of 85% to Receiver function and 15%
zoic terrain (Fig. 3b) show Pms between 5 and 6 s and the first mul- to the surface wave data is used. The surface wave data set is used
tiple from the Moho is weak in ALB and RWA while it is observed from Rayleigh wave group velocity tomography model of 1°  1°
between 16 and 18 s at SGR. grid from Mitra et al. (2006). The nearest grid node from the recei-
ver site is selected and its dispersion curve is used in joint inver-
sion. The grid nodes selected in the present study are within a
4. Velocity modeling distance of 20 km from the station. The receiver function stacks
are inverted simultaneously from different azimuth and delta to
The crustal velocity structure has been modeled following the produce an average velocity model at each station.
approach of joint inversion of receiver function and surface wave
dispersion data (Julià et al., 2000; Herrman et al., 2002). Receiver
functions are sensitive to shear wave velocity contrasts and has 4.1. Effect of signal frequency
no control on the absolute shear velocity. Surface wave dispersion
measurements on the contrary though having a lower resolution of To study the effect of frequency content in the receiver function
layer thickness due to longer period of data, are sensitive to the on the inferred model, we performed the inversion of receiver
vertical shear wave velocity averages. The two independent data function at JHN for the two Gaussian widths 1.0 and 1.6. The syn-
sets are complimentary in nature and their joint inversion would thetic RF corresponding to the inverted model fits well with within
to reduce the inherent non-uniqueness in the solution and provide ±1r bounds of the observed receiver function stack (Fig. 4). Both
better resolution. The vertical extent to which a receiver function the inversion results show Moho depth of 38–40 km and very sim-
samples depends on the time window considered. The lateral ex- ilar Vs values. These results suggest that the velocity model ob-
tent of the sampling by a receiver function is of the order of the tained for the two frequency bands are similar except in finer
depth of the deepest reflecting interface. details, without affecting the conclusions of the study.
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112 T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118

Fig. 4. RF-surface wave joint inversion result for station JHN at GW1.6. and GW1.0. The initial input velocity model (——) of half space with Vs 4.5 km/s and the output 1-D
shear velocity model (—) are shown in right panel. Synthetic Receiver function fit corresponding to the output model is shown in left panel within ±1r bounds of RF Stack.

5. Results The important features of RF and the simplified velocity model

associated with individual stations are presented below.
5.1. Shear velocity structure of Archean crust
5.1.1. Gurgaon (GRG)
The shear velocity variation with depth at individual stations on The receiver function at GRG shows a clear Ps phase and the
the Bundelkhand–Aravalli craton is derived in two steps. Firstly, a PpPms reverberated phase. The Ps converted phase is observed at
number of radial receiver function stacks with high S/N (central 4.8–4.9 s from the direct P arrival. However, the other reverberated
panel, Fig. 5) are jointly inverted with the surface wave group phase PpSms from Moho is not always clear and may be contami-
velocity measurements (right panel, Fig. 5). The inversion is carried nated by the mantle conversions or intra-crustal multiples. The
out using a simple half-space model where the Earth is parameter- crust beneath GRG is classified into 3 layers; upper crust of
ised as a stack of horizontal layers of constant thickness (2 km) and 10 km thickness comprising of a top 4 km thick low shear velocity
velocity (Vs = 4.5 km/s) shown in left panel of Fig. 5. Such model (Vs  2.87 km/s–3.1 km/s) comprising possibly of sedimentary
helps in ensuring that the final inversion result is independent of rocks followed by a 6 km thick layer with Vs of 3.45 km/s; mid
the apriori model. The resulting velocity model is presented in left crust of 10 km thickness and Vs  3.55 km/s; and a 14 km thick
panel of Fig. 5. lower crust of shear velocity of 3.70 km/s. A 2 km thick layer with
The inversion model presented in Fig. 5 is then simplified com- a Vs > 4.0 km/s is observed above the Moho. The crust at GRG is
bining adjoining layers of similar velocity in the sense that the 36 km thick.
effective time taken to travel through the layer is same. The recei-
ver function synthetic is generated for the smoothed model and 5.1.2. Bharatpur (BRT)
checked with the ±1r bounds of RF stack to verify its validity. The characteristic receiver function at BRT shows a Moho con-
The resulting simplified velocity model along with the original verted phase at 4.8–5.0 s and multiple phase PpPms at 14.5–
inversion model is shown in right panel of Fig. 6. Synthetic receiver 15.0 s. A positive arrival at 9 s is observed for the events from
function corresponding to the simplified velocity model is pre- south eastern and northern events corresponds possibly to a man-
sented in left panel of Fig. 6 along with the upper and lower bounds tle conversion as also suggested by Jagadeesh and Rai (2008). The
of observed receiver function stack to ascertain the validity of the simplified velocity model yields a 37 km thick crust. The crust be-
averaged smooth velocity model. neath BRT is characterized into two layers below a 1.0 km thick
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T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118 113

Fig. 5. RF-surface wave joint inversion result for stations on Aravalli–Bundelkhand craton. Receiver functions (central panel) and surface wave group velocity (right panel)
were inverted interms of 1-D shear velocity model (left panel) using a initial velocity model of half space with Vs 4.5 km/s (left panel).

sedimentary layer with Vs  3.15 km/s. The upper crust beneath thin 2 km layer with a shear velocity >4.0 km/s is observed above
the sedimentary layer is 8.0 km thick with Vs  3.35 km/s fol- Moho. The underlying mantle velocity is 4.32 km/s much lower
lowed by a 26 km thick lower crust with velocity of 3.7 km/s. A than the global average for Archean craton.
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114 T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118

Fig. 6. Right: simplified velocity model (. . .) generated from the inversion model (—) for the stations in Aravalli–Bundelkhand craton. Left panel (—) shows the synthetic RF
corresponding to the simplified model along with the ±1r bounds of RF stack.

5.1.3. Jhansi (JHN) shear velocity of 4.33 km/s. These are the first seismological
The receiver functions at this station show high S/N with all the (shear velocity) measurements of the Bundelkhand crust.
phases Pms, PpPms and PpSms clearly observed. The Moho conver-
sion is observed at 4.9 s and PpPms at 15.5–16.0 s and PpSms at 5.2. Seismic structure of Proterozoic Vindhyan Basin
around 20 s. The velocity model shows three intra-crustal layers:
upper crustal layer is 10 km thick with Vs  3.4 km/s and is possi- The procedure discussed above is adopted to create S-wave
bly linked to granite, followed by a 26 km thick lower crust with velocity structure beneath seismograph locations in the Vindhyan
velocity of 3.7 km/s. This suggests a more felsic composition of basin. Fig. 7 shows the receiver functions (central panel) and the
the lower crust. A 2 km thin layer of Vs  4.0 km/s is observed surface wave group velocity measurements (right panel) used to
above Moho. The crust is 38 km thick with underlying mantle compute the velocity variation with depth (left panel).
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T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118 115

Fig. 7. RF-surface wave joint inversion result for stations on Vindhyan basin. Receiver functions (central panel) and surface wave group velocity (right panel) were inverted
interms of 1-D shear velocity model (left panel) using a initial velocity model of half space with Vs 4.5 km/s (left panel).

A simplified velocity model was generated from the inversion 5.2.1. Allahabad (ALB)
model and plotted in Fig. 8 (right panel) along with the synthetic This station is sited on the periphery of the Vindhyan and the
RF and ±1r bounds of observed receiver function (Fig. 8 left panel). Ganga basin. The receiver function at ALB shows a Moho conver-
A detailed explanation of the seismic characteristics of the indi- sion at later than 5 s indicative of possibly a thicker crust. The
vidual stations is presented here below. PpPms phase at ALB is not very sharp. The velocity model suggests
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116 T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118

Fig. 8. Right: simplified velocity model (. . .) generated from the inversion model (—) for the stations in Proterozoic Vindhyan basin. Left panel (—) shows the synthetic RF
corresponding to the simplified model along with the ±1r bounds of RF stack.

thick crust with a gradational Moho from 36–46 km. The surface phase is not very clear. The joint inversion model for RWA suggest
layer has a low S-velocity 3.1 km/s with a thickness of 2 km fol- a four layered crust with 4 km thick top sedimentary layer with
lowed by a 16 km thick layer with a velocity of 3.2–3.5 km/s. The Vs  2.7 km/s followed a 8 km thick layer with Vs of 3.25 km/s.
lower crust at ALB is 18 km thick with a velocity of 3.8 km/s. A The lower crustal layer extends from 12 km depth to 38 km depth
10 km thick high velocity (P4.0 km/s) layer is modeled at the base with a shear velocity of 3.75 km/s. A 4 km thick lowermost crust
of the crust above Moho. The crustal thickness derived from joint with a velocity >4.0 km/s above Moho is modeled. Moho at RWA
inversion results is 46 km. is mapped at a depth of 42 km.

5.2.2. Rewa (RWA) 5.2.3. Sagar (SGR)

The station is sited on the limestone sequence of Vindhyans. Re- The receiver function at SGR located in the Vindhyan basin
ceiver function shows a clear Moho conversion phase between 5.1 shows the Moho converted (Pms) signature at 5.2 s and the corre-
and 5.2 s with PpPms at around 17.0–17.5 s. However, the PpSms sponding first multiple (PpPms) at 14.5–15.0 s. The joint inversion
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T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118 117

Fig. 9. Plot of shear velocity variation with depth for stations sited on (a) Archean craton and (b) Proterozoic basin. Also plotted are the velocity model for Dharwar craton and
global Precambrian crust.

crust with a shear wave velocity of 3.85 km/s. A layer of 8 km

thickness in the lowermost crust with a velocity in excess
4.0 km/s is observed. The crustal thickness at SGR is 44 km. The
Moho beneath SGR is a diffused boundary.

6. Characteristics of Archean and Proterozoic north Indian crust

The Archean crust in north-central India is represented by sta-

tions JHN, BRT and GRG while the Proterozoic Vindhyan basin by
stations SGR, RWA and ALB. The velocity variation with depth for
Archean terrain and the Proterozoic Vindhyan basin is presented
in Fig. 9a and b along with the Dharwar craton and the global
average.
The shear velocity model representing the global Precambrian
crust (Fig. 10) is computed from the compilation of global P wave
velocity model (Christensen and Mooney, 1995) using the average
Vp/Vs for the crust computed using crustal petrology model (Chris-
tensen, 1996). The velocity model for Dharwar craton is from Rai
et al. (2003).
The stations on Archean crust show similar crustal thickness
(36 ± 2 km) and shear velocity except for minor variation in the
upper 5 km. The average velocity in upper crust (5–10 km depth)
is 3.3 km/s followed by a 25 km thick layer of Vs  3.6–3.75 km/s.
Moho is a sharp boundary as evident from the presence of very thin
(1–2 km) layer of high velocity (Vs > 4.0 km/s) mafic cumulate at
Fig. 10. Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs as function of depth compiled from crustal petrology model. the base of the crust. Indian Archean crustal structure is compara-
ble with the global model in context of its crustal thickness and
velocity, except at mid crust depth.
result suggests a near surface 4 km thick sedimentary layer with The Proterozoic Vindhyan basin characterized by stations ALB,
shear velocity of 2.6–2.9 km/s underlain by 9 km thick layer with RWA and SGR exhibit thicker crust (44 ± 2 km) compared to the
a velocity of 3.35 km/s. This is followed by a 23 km thick lower average of 36 km beneath Archean terrain. The upper crust at
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118 T. Vijay Kumar et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 58 (2012) 108–118

these stations shows large variation in velocities and thicknesses FIP fellowship from the University Grants Commission, India, at the
primarily due to the presence of sedimentary layer. The mid crust National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, SJ was sup-
displays a velocity of 3.25–3.40 km/s followed by the lower crustal ported by a research fellowship from the CSIR, India.
of velocity 3.75–3.85 km/s. A thick mafic layer of 4–10 km is ob-
served in the lowermost crust beneath these stations with veloci- References
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