Modeling of Rayleigh wave dispersion in Iberia

Phase and group velocities of 15–70 s Rayleigh waves propagating across the Iberian Peninsula have been transformed into local dispersion curves by linear inversion of travel times. The procedure permits that the waveform dispersion to be obtained as a continuous period-dependent velocity function at grid points belonging to the area probed by the waves, thus providing phase- and group-velocity contour maps for several periods within the interval of interest. The regionalization process rests on a homogeneous initial data set in which the number of observations remains almost constant for all periods of reference. Damped least-squares inversion of the local dispersion curves for shear-wave velocity structure is performed to obtain depth-dependent S-wave velocity profiles at the grid points covering the model region. The reliability of the results should improve significantly owing to the use of phase and group velocities simultaneously. On this basis, we have built horizontal depth sections that give an updated view of the seismic velocity structure of the peninsula at lithospheric and upper mantle depths (20–200 km). After averaging all the pure-path S-wave velocities previously determined at each grid point, the velocity-depth models so obtained for major tectonic units allow the comparison between the Hercynian basement and other areas of Mesozoic folding and Tertiary basins.