Rayleigh wave group velocity modeling using Simulated Annealing algorithm and gravity data inversion to estimate the variations of Moho depth, shear wave velocity and density structure of the crust and upper mantle in Makran region

In this study, Simulated Annealing algorithm is applied on Rayleigh wave group velocities to image the density variations and shear and compressional wave velocities structure of the crust and upper-mantle of Makran subduction zone. Based on previous studies, surface wave dispersion measurements are primarily sensitive to seismic shear wave velocities. However, it has been proved that the sensitivity to compressional wave velocity is significantly smaller than the sensitivity to shear wave velocity. Also the sensitivity function for the density is smaller than the one for the shear wave velocity. Therefore, shear wave velocity variations are mainly the model parameters in surface wave dispersion analysis. Simulated Annealing is a probabilistic technique for finding the global optimum of a given function. It is especially useful to approximate global optimization in a large search space. The Simulated Annealing method like the Monte-Carlo method, samples the whole model space and can avoid getting stuck in local minima.To evaluate calculation efficiency and effectiveness of Simulated Annealing algorithm, two noise-free and two noisy (10% of white Gaussian noise) synthetic data sets are firstly inverted. Then, a real data from Makran region is inverted to examine the applicability and robustness of the proposed approach on real surface wave data.
In next step, gravity data inversion was applied with a priori information based on surface wave analysis results to obtain Moho depth variations and crustal density structure. The reason for using gravity data set is that surface waves group velocity is sensitive to average velocity variations and has a good lateral sensitivity, whereas gravity anomaly is sensitive to depth variations of discontinuities and has a good vertical resolution.
Our results show that the Moho depth across the Makran subduction zone increases from the Oman seafloor and Makran forearc setting to the volcanic arc. Generally, the crust in the western Makran is thicker than the eastern part and the maximum crustal thickness in the Makran region reaches 46 to 48 km below the Taftan-Bazman volcanos. The Moho map clearly depicts the western edge of the Makran subduction zone, where the Minab fault (representing the eastern edge of the Hormuz Straits) marks the boundary between the thick continental crust of the Arabian plate and the thin oceanic crust of the Oman Sea. Our results show clearly that the high-velocity slab of the Arabian plate subducts northwards beneath the low-velocity overriding lithosphere of Lut block in the western Makran and Helmand block in the eastern Makran.