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Abstract

The TOR project investigates the lithosphere–asthenosphere structure under the Tornquist Zone between Denmark and Sweden. Around 150 seismic stations (108 short-period, 28 broadband and 14 other permanent stations) were employed in a rectangular array along a 900 km long by 100 km wide strip across the Tornquist Zone from July 1996 to August 1997. The results obtained based on a non-linear teleseismic tomography algorithm reveal significant P-velocity variations (up to 5 per cent) along the TOR array from northern Germany to southern Sweden. Distinct lithospheric blocks are also recognized in the inversion results. Two inverse methods (singular value decomposition and a quadratic programming method) were implemented in order to investigate whether or not the lithospheric blocks and major boundaries in the inversion are required by the data or are artefacts of the inversion. According to the results, the lithosphere under northern Germany is thin but reaches to intermediate thicknesses of about 120 km in the Tornquist Zone area. Farther north in the Baltic Shield, more than 200 km of continental lithosphere is recognized in the model. Abrupt lateral P-velocity changes (maximum 5 per cent) are seen at both the southern and northern sides of the Tornquist Zone.