Joint tomographic inversion of crustal structure beneath the eastern Tibetan Plateau with ambient noise and gravity data

SUMMARY We have developed a joint tomographic inversion method with seismic surface wave dispersion and gravity data for obtaining more reliable crustal 3-D shear wave structures. We take the eikonal-based direct surface wave tomographic method and adaptive gravity modelling method in spherical coordinates in the inverse problem. Based on the empirical relations between seismic velocity and density parameters, our method combines surface wave dispersion curves (i.e. surface wave traveltimes at different periods) and Bouguer gravity anomaly data together to invert for 3-D shear wave velocity structures. In our method, off-great-circle propagation of the surface wave and the earth's curvature is considered in the forward modelling. Synthetic tests suggest that the joint tomographic method could improve the reliability and obtain more convincing results than individual seismic surface wave tomography. The gravity data can provide more constraints into the model resolution and help restore the crustal anomalies better. The inversion results in the eastern Tibetan Plateau and Sichuan basin indicate complex distributions of low-velocity zone in the mid-crust of the eastern Tibetan Plateau and a craton-like basement of the Sichuan basin, which supports the crust channel flow model. Although both the 3-D shear wave velocity model from joint inversion and the individual seismic surface wave inversion can fit the surface wave data almost equally well, the joint inversion model can better match the gravity data We also found that the 3-D model from joint inversion in this study shows similar structural characteristics with the surface wave tomographic model, which indicates the icing on the cake effects of gravity data.