Sedimentary basin investigation using receiver function: an East African Rift case study

Abstract

SUMMARY We apply receiver function (RF) methodology to map the geometry of a sedimentary basin along a ∼10-km-long profile of broadband seismometers that recorded continuously for approximately 3 months. For a subset of the stations, we apply the Neighbourhood Algorithm inversion scheme, to quantify the geometry of basin bounding fault directly beneath the stations. We compare our results with active reflection seismic data and with the lithostratigraphy from a well located along the profile. We find that the  P-to-s conversions from the sediments–basement interface (SBI), recorded in RF data sets together with information on intrabasin structures, are useful for obtaining high resolution images of the basin. The depth of the SBI derived from RF inversion is consistent (within ∼0.4 km) with the estimates from active reflection seismic and the well data. This study highlights that analysis of teleseismic waveforms can retrieve relevant information on the structure of a sedimentary basin.