S23D-2767
Local Earthquake Velocity and Attenuation Tomography of the Jalisco, Mexico Region
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
William David Watkins, University of Wisconsin Madison, Department of Geoscience, Madison, WI, United States, Clifford H Thurber, Univ Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States, Elizabeth R Abbott, Miami University Oxford, Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Oxford, OH, United States; GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Michael Brudzinski, Miami University, Oxford, OH, United States and Stephen P Grand, University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences, Austin, TX, United States
Abstract:
The states of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacan in western Mexico overlie the boundary of the subducting Rivera and Cocos plates, presenting an appealing target for seismological inquiry to better understand the resulting mantle flow and regional volcanism. The different dips between the subducting plates is thought to provide a mantle conduit that has contributed to the Colima Volcanic Complex, but there is considerable debate on the shallowness of the Rivera plate and width of the resulting conduit. With data from the Mapping the Rivera Subduction Zone (MARS) and Colima Deep Seismic Experiment (CODEX) networks, two temporary broadband arrays deployed in the region between 2006-2008, we invert for three-dimensional P- and S- wave velocity and later attenuation structure of the upper ~80 km of the crust and mantle in the Jalisco region. We improve upon previous tomography work by utilizing double-difference tomography, which enables the use of higher-accuracy differential times to sharpen the earthquake locations, and the inclusion of S-wave data. Current models that utilize only analyst-picked phase arrivals from 590 earthquakes yield P-wave high velocity anomalies that suggest a slab under the coastal regions at 15-25 km depth, and low velocity anomalies that may be related to Colima Volcano or other geologic features. Most of the S-wave model is poorly resolved. We will use a newly developed auto-picker to attempt to substantially increase the size of the S-wave dataset and to a lesser extent the P wave dataset, in order to densify ray coverage and improve model resolution. Additionally, we plan to employ the waveforms from this expanded dataset to compute a path attenuation operator for each arrival, which will then be used to invert for 3D P and S-wave attenuation models. The attenuation models combined with the velocity models will provide multiple constraints on physical properties of the crust in this region as well as those of specific geologic features.
