Measurement of Rayleigh wave ellipticity and its application to the joint inversion of high-resolution S wave velocity structure beneath northeast China

We present a new 3-D S wave velocity model of the northeast (NE) China from the joint inversion of the Rayleigh wave ellipticity and phase velocity at 8-40 s periods. Rayleigh wave ellipticity, or Rayleigh wave Z/H (vertical to horizontal) amplitude ratio, is extracted from both earthquake (10-40 s) and ambient noise data (8-25 s) recorded by the NorthEast China Extended SeiSmic Array with 127 stations. The estimated Z/H ratios from earthquake and ambient noise data show good consistency within the overlapped periods. The observed Z/H ratio shows a good spatial correlation with surface geology and is systematically low within the basins. We jointly invert the measured Z/H ratio and phase velocity dispersion data to obtain a refined 3-D S wave velocity model beneath the NE China. At shallow depth, the 3-D model is featured by strong low-velocity anomalies that are spatially well correlated with the Songliao, Sanjiang, and Erlian basins. The low-velocity anomaly beneath the Songliao basin extends to ∼ 2-3 km deep in the south and ∼5-6 km in the north. At lower crustal depths, we find a significant low-velocity anomaly beneath the Great Xing'an range that extends to the upper mantle in the south. Overall, the deep structures of the 3-D model are consistent with previous models, but the shallow structures show a much better spatial correlation with tectonic terranes. The difference in sedimentary structure between the southern and northern Songliao basin is likely caused by a mantle upwelling associated with the Pacific subduction.