Crustal imaging and characterization of active faults with a large-N nodal deployment - Application to the Chaînons Béarnais region (western Pyrenees foothills, France)

Abstract

Understanding the driving forces and nature of intraplate seismicity remains a major unsolved problem in seismology. In the western Pyrénées, seismicity is concentrated in a narrow region that follows the boundary between the Axial Zone and the North Pyrenean Zone. Despite the presence of a permanent network in the region, the geometry of active faults, and their relationship with crustal structures, remain elusive, owing to significant earthquake location uncertainties. Here, we exploit data recorded by a large-N nodal array deployed in the Chaînons Béarnais region during four weeks of 2022 in order to image crustal structures and characterize active faults. We automatically detected and picked P and S waves with PhaseNet, resulting in a catalog of over 500 events, half of which are located beneath the temporary deployment. Tomographic images obtained from the inversion of P and S arrival times provide detailed insight into the geometry of folds and thrusts in the sedimentary cover, as well as the presence of a main fault in the basement which dips northward with an angle of 65° (Chaînons Béarnais normal fault). Seismicity relocation within the 3D model obtained by tomography shows that earthquakes are concentrated along this main active fault, extending from the top of the basement to a depth of approximately 16 km. These results demonstrate that passive imaging approaches can offer cost-effective alternatives to traditional controlled source imaging for seismotectonic studies and natural resource exploration in regions with active seismicity.