Shear velocity structure in the Aegean area obtained by inversion of Rayleigh waves

The purpose of this work is to derive a 3-D tomographic image of the shear wave velocity structure of the crust—uppermost mantle in the Aegean area using the group velocities of Rayleigh wave fundamental mode. The database consists of 185 regional earthquakes recorded at broad-band stations that were installed for a period of 6 month in the Aegean area within the framework of a large-scale experiment. In a previous work (Karagianni et al. 2002), an averaged group velocity has been determined using the method of frequency time analysis (FTAN) for each epicentre—station ray path and the data were used in order to determine the local group velocities for different periods over the area covered by the seismic ray paths. Taking into account additional resolution results obtained for the local group velocities, a grid of 0.5° was adopted for the Aegean area and a local dispersion curve was defined for each gridpoint. More than 80 local dispersion curves were finally inverted using a non-linear inversion approach, deriving the corresponding 1-D shear velocity models. The interpolation of these models resulted in a 3-D S-wave tomographic image of the crust and uppermost mantle in the broader Aegean area. As expected, as a result of the complex tectonic setting of the Aegean area, strong lateral variations of the S-wave velocities of the crust and uppermost mantle of the studied area are found. In the southern Aegean sea, as well as in a large part of the central Aegean sea a thin crust of approximately 20–22 km is observed, whereas the remaining Aegean sea area exhibits a crustal thickness less than 28–30 km. On the contrary, a crustal thickness of 40–46 km is observed in western Greece along the Hellenides mountain range, whereas in the eastern continental Greece the crust has a typical thickness of approximately 30–34 km. For shallow depths (