SEISMIC INHOMOGENEITIES IN THE UPPER CRUST OF THE ALDAN-STANOVOY SHIELD AND IN ITS TOTAL CRUST (PROFILE 3-DV)

Abstract

In accordance with the detailed first-arrival data, the near-surface part of the Earth’s crust consists of three layers. The upper discontinuous layer is represented by the Mesocenozoic deposits in local basins. The two inhomogenous layers decrease in thickness towards the north from 1.5 km to total thinning in the Stanovoy block and from 4 km in the Chulman basin to 1 km in the Aldan. It is implied that the nature of thinning lies in weathering and disintegration of crystalline rocks. Their underlying boundary at a depth of 1–4 km with a longitudinal wave velocity of 6.0–6.2 km/s can be assigned to the unchanged Early Precambrian basement surface.The deep seismic sounding data show that the two-layer crust thickness of the Stanovoy block reaches 40 km, and the three-layer crust in the Aldan block is as thick as 50 km. These blocks are separated by the vertical zone beneath the Stanovoy ridge with contrast inhomogeneities in the crust and step-like increase in the Moho depth beneath the Chulman basin.There was discovered an isostatic imbalance of the lithosphere, correlated with seismicity of the Chulman basin.