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Science 21 August 1998:
Vol. 281. no. 5380, pp. 1170 - 1172
DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5380.1170
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Reports

Moho Offset Across the Northern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau

Lupei Zhu, * Donald V. Helmberger

Anomalous double-pulse teleseismic P-wave arrivals were observed at one station near the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The azimuthal dependence of the waveform distortion and its absence at nearby stations indicated that the distortion was produced by receiver-side crustal heterogeneity. Modeling of the three-component data revealed a 15- to 20-kilometer Moho offset that occurs over a narrow lateral range of less than 5 kilometers. This east-west-striking offset separates the thick Tibetan Plateau crust from the Qaidam Basin crust. Such a sharp crustal thickness change implies a weak Tibetan Plateau crust that thickens vertically in response to penetration by India from the south and to blockage caused by a strong Qaidam Basin crust to the north.

Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lupei{at}usc.edu. Present address: Southern California Earthquake Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Qaidam basin and its surrounding regions (Part 1): The southern Qilian Shan-Nan Shan thrust belt and northern Qaidam basin.
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Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Qaidam basin and its surrounding regions (Part 3): Structural geology, sedimentation, and regional tectonic reconstruction.
A. Yin, Y.-Q. Dang, M. Zhang, X.-H. Chen, and M. W. McRivette (2008)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 120, 847-876
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Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Qaidam basin and its surrounding regions (part 2): Wedge tectonics in southern Qaidam basin and the Eastern Kunlun Range.
A. Yin, Y. Dang, M. Zhang, M. W. McRivette, W. P. Burgess, and X. Chen (2007)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 433, 369-390
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Crustal thickness variation in south-central Alaska.
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S. L. Klemperer (2006)
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Approximate 3D Body-Wave Synthetics for Tomographic Models.
D. V. Helmberger and S. Ni (2005)
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The 2002 Denali Fault and 2001 Kunlun Fault Earthquakes: Complex Rupture Processes of Two Large Strike-Slip Events.
A. A. Ozacar and S. L. Beck (2004)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 94, S278-S292
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