Moho, LAB and crustal velocities underneath central-eastern Greenland

Abstract:

Major parts of Greenland are covered with up to 3.4 km of ice. Due to logistical challenges connected to the ice only very sparse geophysical information is available. We present here results of the TopoGreenland project, which forms the first regional seismic experiment conducted on the Greenlandic ice shield. Our objective is to gain detailed information about the lithospheric structure and to connect it with topographic features, the recent substantial uplift and the earlier history of rifting and break-up in the region. We focus on a 200 km x 600 km large area in central-eastern Greenland, where 22 broadband seismometers were installed between June 2009 and May 2012. 10 of those were operating on the ice cap, 12 on bedrock. 16 of the stations were installed along a 600 km long profile at 70°N, from Scorsbysund to the centre of the ice cap. The remaining 6 stations covered a 200 km wide area north of this profile. In addition data from 6 permanent and long-term stations from the GLISN network were integrated. Here we present models from P- and S- receiver function (PRF, SRF) calculations and Rayleigh wave tomography. The RF calculations were used to map Moho and LAB depths and to have well constrained input parameters for the tomography. From the Rayleigh wave tomography we then obtain models for crustal shear-velocities. The PRF for the stations on the ice cap show multiples with very high amplitudes from within the ice, why we decided to derive Moho and LAB depths for those stations from SRF. The results will be compared with a seismic refraction profile acquired in the same region and then linked to topographic features like the uplift of the mountain chain in East Greenland.