ALBERT

Description: The Tor project makes use of teleseismic tomography across the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone and has now revealed significant variations in the deep lithosphere under northern Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden. Here we present the first interpretations of P-wave traveltime anomalies from the Tor project. The project utilised 120 seismographs placed in a rectangular array, the largest seismic antenna so far used in Europe, for half a year in the period 1996 - 1997. The present investigation establishes a 3D crustal/upper mantle model of the P-wave velocity based on existing data. A picture of the crustal influence on the seismic P-wave rays is established by ray tracing through the model. When this is subtracted from that observed by the Tor array, a picture of the influence of the lower lithosphere/asthenosphere system emerges. For several earthquakes it is shown that the observed P-wave traveltime anomalies of nearly 2 seconds can be divided almost equally between known crustal effects and lower lithosphere/asthenosphere differences. The transition appears gradual from most directions but for rays coming from the north-east direction the transition appears sharper. This means that the broad scale deep lithosphere transition is gradual with the sharpest discontinuity plane dipping down steeply in a north-easterly direction from the Sorgenfrei-Torquist Zone. Based on existing knowledge of the area we conclude that the transition from thin to thick lithosphere occurs within a short distance, and that the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary dips steeply down from the surface expression of the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone.