Crustal structure beneath and surrounding the Appalachian Basin region of Eastern North America imaged by joint inversion of P wave receiver functions and surface wave dispersion measurements

Abstract

SUMMARY To evaluate the plate flexure model for the formation of the Appalachian Basin, we investigate the extent to which crustal structure beneath and surrounding the basin was modified by the Palaeozoic orogenic events that created the basin. We jointly invert receiver functions and surface wave dispersion measurements to obtain 1-D crustal Vs profiles for 261 seismic stations located within and around the basin. The average crustal thickness for the region is 44 km, and the crust gradually thins to the east, consistent with previous studies. Four areas of anomalous crust are identified with respect to the eastward thinning of the crust. An area of thick crust is found along the Grenville Front on the western side of the Appalachian Basin where the crust thickens by ∼5–10 km. Moho depths of up to 54 km in this region likely result from suture-thickening. The crust is thinner beneath the Neoproterozoic Scranton rift by ∼5–7 km, coincident with a ∼40 mGal Bouguer gravity high. Across the Neoproterozoic Rome Trough, the crust thins by ∼4–5 km, coincident with a ∼10 mGal Bouguer gravity high. Density models for these rifts show that the rift-related crustal thinning is sufficient to explain the gravity anomalies. The Vs models obtained for stations in the rifts indicate little, if any, mafic layering in the mid-crust and only a modest amount of mafic layering in the lower crust. In the northwestern portion of the Appalachian Basin in northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania within the Elzevir block, another area of anomalously thick crust (50–52 km) is found. This region is not associated with any known tectonic structures or boundaries or a gravity anomaly. The lower ∼5–10 km of the crust in this region is characterized by high (>3.9 km s−1) shear wave velocities and thus appears to be mafic. The origin of anomalous crustal structure in all four areas is best attributed to Precambrian tectonic events that predate the formation of the Appalachian Basin, indicating that the crystalline crust beneath and surrounding the basin was not significantly affected by the Palaeozoic basin-forming orogenic events, a finding which supports the use of plate flexure models for understanding basin formation.