Crustal investigations in the Southern Puna plateau by receiver functions from the Puna delamination (PUDEL Project) Seismic array in the Central Andes

HEIT,B .YUAN, X KUMAR, P, KIND, R, KAY, S M, SANDVOL, E A, ALONSO, R, COIRA, B, COMTE, D, BROWN, L D

San Francisco, California

Congreso; American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010; 2010

American Geophysical Union

We present the first receiver function results using the data form our passive seismic array in the southern Puna plateau between 25°S to 28°S latitude in Argentina and Chile. The experiment has been jointly conducted by German, US, Argentine and Chilean scientists and was designed to improve our understanding of the evolution of the Central Andean plateau in an area with little geophysical data available. The aim of this multinational scientific effort is to address fundamental questions on the processes that form, modify and destroy continental lithosphere and control lithospheric dynamics along Andean-type continental margins. We present here some preliminary results form P and S receiver functions that enables us to address fundamental questions about the role of crustal and mantle lithospheric delamination in the evolution of this plateau and the continental crust in this region. Some stations show clear Moho phases that will help us to improve our knowledge of the seismic structure and thickness of the continental crust and the lithospheric mantle beneath the southern Puna plateau. As a collaborative project, our network has been designed to use other standard broadband seismological methods besides receiver function involving surface wave tomography, tomographic travel time inversion, and shear wave splitting analysis.