Azimuthal seismic anisotropy of the Iran plateau: Insights from ambient noise analysis

Abstract

The continental lithosphere of the Iran plateau is complicated by many tectonic processes that affected both the Arabian and Eurasian plates before and after their convergence. To investigate the deformation mechanisms of the crust and mantle lithosphere, we directly invert Rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion data (5–60 s) for a 3-D shear wave velocity and depth-dependent azimuthal anisotropy model using ambient noise tomography from the surface down to 100 km with data recorded in 84 seismic stations. The shear wave velocity maps reveal a reasonable match with geological domains and agree with those previously published. The projections of the fast axes of Rayleigh wave azimuthal anisotropy in the subcrustal lithosphere allowed us to divide the Iran plateau into two main regions: the Zagros Mountains and the rest of the country. Furthermore, the anisotropy pattern illustrates a prominent contrast between the NW and SE Zagros Mountains. In both the crust and subcrustal lithosphere, the NW Zagros shows relatively weak but coherent azimuthal anisotropy in the NE-SW direction (i.e., orogen-perpendicular orientation). We ascribe the orogen-perpendicular fast axis in NW Zagros to stress-induced anisotropy. However, in the SE Zagros, the north-northwest orientations of the fast axes are attributed to the N-S trending basement structures, which are inherited from the Pan-African construction phase. The azimuthal anisotropy pattern displays an overall NW-SE trend dominant over the rest of the country. This NW-SE direction can be explained by an NW-SE extension due to transpressional deformation beneath Central Iran resulting from the oblique indentation of the Arabian plate into Eurasia. Nevertheless, strike-parallel anisotropy directions along the western and central Alborz Mountains throughout the entire lithosphere may be related to pure shear deformation. The persistence of azimuthal anisotropy patterns in the crust and subcrustal lithosphere implies that the whole lithosphere deforms coherently in the NW Zagros, west Iran, the Alborz Mountains, and across the Lut block. However, strong contrasts between the crustal and subcrustal pattern of anisotropy observed in the SE Zagros as well as in north Central Iran suggest that in these regions, the crust and the underlying mantle lithosphere do not deform coherently. A strong correlation between the Rayleigh wave anisotropy directions at subcrustal depths and the anisotropy patterns estimated from the shear-wave core phases suggests that in many places over the plateau, the SKS directions may have been dominated by the deformation of the lithosphere.