Travel time and attenuation tomography in West Bohemia/Vogtland

• Main Author: Mousavi, Seyedesima
• Other Authors: Universität Leipzig, Fakultät für Physik und Geowissenschaften
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig 2016
• Subjects: Vogtland; Tomographie; Inversion; Erdbebenschwärme; Tomography; Earthquake Swarms; ddc:550
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-217644; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-217644; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/21764/SeyedesimaMOUSAVI.pdf

The region of West Bohemia/Vogtland in the Czech–German border area is well known for the repeated occurrence of earthquake swarms, CO2 emanations and mofette fields. To deepen the understanding of these phenomena local earthquake tomography of the Vp and Vp/Vs structure and attenuation tomography are carried out in this study. In comparison with previous investigations the travel time tomography revealed more details of the near-surface geology, potential fluid pathways and features around and below the swarm focal zone. In the uppermost crust, for the first time the Cheb basin and the Bublák/Hartoušov mofette fields were imaged as distinct anomalies of Vp and Vp/Vs. The well-pronounced low-Vp anomaly of the Cheb basin is not continuing into the Eger rift indicating a particular role of the basin within the rift system. A steep channel of increased Vp/Vs is interpreted as the pathway for fluids ascending from the earthquake swarm focal zone up to the Bublák/Hartoušov mofette fields. As a new feature, a mid-crustal body of high Vp and increased Vp/Vs is revealed just below and north of the earthquake swarm focal zone. It may represent a solidified intrusive body which emplaced prior or during the formation of the rift system. The enhanced fluid flow into the focal zone and triggering of earthquakes could be driven by the presence of the intrusive body if cooling is not fully completed. The assumed intrusive structure is considered as a heterogeneity leading to higher stress particularly at the junction of the rift system with the basin and prominent fault structures. This may additionally contribute to the triggering of earthquakes. The three-dimensional (3-D) P-wave attenuation (Qp) model for West Bohemia is the first of its kind. Path-averaged attenuation t * is calculated from amplitude spectra of time windows around the P-wave arrivals of local earthquakes. Average value or Qp for stations close to Nový Kostel are very low (< 150) compared to that of stations located further away from the focal zone (increases up to 500 within 80 km distance). The SIMUL2000 tomography scheme is used to invert the t * for P-wave attenuation perturbation. Analysis of resolution shows that the model is wellresolved in the vicinity of earthquake swarm hypocenters. The prominent features of the model are located around Nový Kostel focal zone and its northern vicinity. Beneath Nový Kostel a vertically stretched (down to depth of 11 km) and a highly attenuating body is observed. This might be due to fracturing and high density of cracks inside the weak earthquake swarm zone in conjunction with presence of free gas/fluid. Further north of Nový Kostel two high attenuating body are located at depths between 2 to 8 km which can represents trapped laterally distributed fluids. The eastern anomaly shows a good correlation with the fluid accumulation area which was suggested in 9HR seismic profile.