ALBERT

Notes: Abstract —Seismic anisotropy is often neglected in seismic studies of the earth’s crust. Since anisotropy is a common property of many typically deep crustal rocks, its potential contribution to solving questions of the deep crust is evaluated. The anisotropic seismic velocities obtained from laboratory measurements can be verified by computations based on the elastic constants and on numerical data pertaining to the texture of rock-forming minerals. For typical lower crustal rocks the influence of layering is significantly less important than the influence of rock texture. Surprisingly, most natural lower crustal rocks show a hexagonal type of anisotropy. Maximum anisotropy is observed for rocks with a high content of aligned mica. It seems possible to distinguish between layered intrusives and metasediments on the basis of in situ measurements of anisotropy, which can thus be used to validate different scenarios of crustal evolution.

Notes: Abstract —Anisotropy in the subcontinental lithosphere becomes increasingly important, because it is observed in many seismic studies especially for P n -waves. Typical rocks of the uppermost mantle are peridotites, which predominantly exhibit a pronounced elastic anisotropy. This anisotropy is mainly caused by the anisotropic elastic properties and the lattice preferred orientation (here referred to as texture) of olivine. To evaluate the elastic anisotropy of peridotites from the subcontinental lithosphere, specimens of the Northern Hessian Depression (Germany) and the Balmuccia Ultramafic Massif (Northern Italy) have been used. They comprise four olivine texture types, which are characteristic for olivine textures observed worldwide. The bulk rock elastic properties have been calculated using olivine and orthopyroxene textures, their single-crystal elastic constants at ambient pressure/temperature conditions and their volume fraction. Clinopyroxene and spinel are assumed to be randomly distributed. The effect of four different orientations of the foliation within the uppermost mantle has been evaluated, since this orientation is usually unknown.¶Two of the olivine textures have a pronounced azimuthal dependence of compressional waves when a horizontal foliation within the uppermost mantle is presumed. These variations cause significant azimuthal variations of the P-wave reflections coefficients at the Moho. Primarily, we predict a significant azimuthal dependence of the critical points where the reflected amplitude increases from approximately 15% to 95%. Possibly, these azimuthal variations can be detected by seismic reflection measurements carried out at earth surface.¶The remaining two texture types only manifest a small directional dependence. When anisotropy of compressional waves is observed in seismic studies, these latter types can only be of subordinate importance. However, all of the peridotites investigated are able to explain the seismically observed azimuthal variations of compressional waves when a vertical foliation is proposed. This ambiguity can be substantially reduced when shear waves (S-waves) are considered. The directional distribution of S-wave velocities and of the S-wave splitting exhibits characteristic patterns for the different olivine texture types. This could be used to discriminate between different texture types and orientations of the foliation within the uppermost mantle. A fundamental requirement for a more comprehensive interpretation is the availability of detailed S-wave observations. The maximum S-wave splitting in the peridotites investigated coincides with the maximum of the faster (leading) S-wave. This may be of importance to detect S-wave splitting in future seismic studies.

Notes: Abstract —Studies of seismic anisotropy in situ can help to discriminate between different rock types for the lower crust. In this context we investigate the sensitivity of an iterative linearized 3-D travel-time inversion scheme for transversely isotropic media with respect to two types of systematic errors wrong velocities and interface topography of the hanging wall of the lower crust. The computations simulate realistic field conditions such as found for the Variscan crust at the Urach geothermal anomaly. The study focusses on the possible information content of split S M  S arrivals observed along two orthogonal expanding spread profiles. It ensues that an imperfect knowledge of the layer geometry is of minor importance compared to errors in the velocities of the hanging wall. In particular, upper crust anisotropy has to be considered carefully. Generally, the anisotropy of transversely polarized shear waves (SH waves) was recovered with higher accuracy than the anisotropy of vertically polarized shear waves (SV waves).

Notes: Abstract —The genesis of the laminated lower crust has been attributed to extensional processes leading to structural and textural ordering. This implies that the lower crust might be anisotropic. Laboratory measurements of lower crustal rock samples and xenolithes show evidence of anisotropy in these rocks due to oriented structure.¶In this paper we investigate the seismic shear-wave response of realistic anisotropic lower crustal models using the anisotropic reflectivity method. Our models are based on representative petrophysical data obtained from exposed lower crustal sections in Calabria (South Italy), Val Strona and Val Sesia (Ivrea Zone, Northern Italy). The models consist of stacks of anisotropic layers characterized by quantified elastic tensors derived from representative rock samples which provide alternating high and low velocity layers.¶The seismic signature of the data is comparable to seismic observations of in situ lower crust. For the models based on the Calabria and Val Strona sequences shear-wave splitting occurs for the Moho reflection at offsets beyond 70 km with travel-time delays up to 300 and 500 ms, respectively. The leading shear wave is predominantly horizontally polarized and followed by a predominantly vertically polarized shear wave. Contrastingly, the Val Sesia model shows no clear evidence of birefringence. Isotropic versus anisotropic modelling demonstrates that the shear-wave splitting is clearly related to the intrinsic anisotropy of the lower crustal rocks for the Val Strona sequence. No evidence of birefringence caused by thin layering is found.

Notes: Exposed crystalline basement of the Serre Mountains in Calabria presents a tilted block of a nearly complete section of the Hercynian continental lower crust (HCLC). In addition to petrological and structural data from surface mapping, and petrophysical data from the laboratory, a seismic reflection-refraction experiment was conducted in May 1990. This consisted of a 40 km long N-S profile crossing the HCLC and of four short transverse profiles, each recorded using 3-component receivers with an 80 m spacing and explosive sources.The reflectivity of the outcropping lower crustal units is lower than theoretically predicted from the observed compositional layering. A low-velocity zone, outcropping in the north, and dipping to the south, marks the contact between the HCLC and the underlying Alpine metamorphic units. Below this zone, the deeper crust appears well-structured by strong and continuous, discrete reflections down to 6.5–8 s t.w.t. (presumably the crust-mantle boundary at 19–24 km depth) with a dominant dip toward the south.Analysis of refracted-wave velocities reveals values systematically lower by up to 30% than laboratory data on rock samples or calculated data from modal analysis. This discrepancy can only partly be explained by the effect of microcracks (10%), the underestimation of the amount of leucosomes (2–5%) and the effect of seismic anisotropy (0–5%). The remaining discrepancy must be attributed to large scale alteration of the rocks due to Apennine tectogenetic events.