Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

"We investigate mantle seismic azimuthal anisotropy and deformation beneath the Arabian Plate and adjacent areas using data from 182 broadband seismic stations which include 157 stations managed by the Saudi Geological Survey. A total of about 4000 pairs of shear wave splitting parameters are obtained using the transverse minimization technique. The individual XKS (including PKS, SKS, and SKKS) splitting measurements were manually checked to ensure the quality. The well-defined parameters show dominantly N-S fast orientations at the majority of the stations, and NW-SE fast orientations along the Zagras Mountain front. No clear systematic variations of the splitting parameters as a function of back azimuth are detected, suggesting that a single layer of anisotropy with a horizontal axis of symmetry is adequate to interpret the shear wave splitting measurements. Large splitting times are observed beneath the Arabian Platform and the Red Sea areas as well as in the western region of Arabian Peninsula. Since lithospheric thickness beneath both the Arabian Platform and the Red sea areas is less than 80 km, significant contribution from lithosphere is unlikely. We propose that the observed seismic anisotropy is mainly originated from olivine lattice preferred orientation developed by simple shear between the lithosphere and asthenosphere associated with the northward (relative to the underlain asthenosphere) subduction of the Arabian Plate over the past 150 Ma"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Liu, Kelly H.

Committee Member(s)

Gao, Stephen S.
Anderson, Neil L. (Neil Lennart), 1954-
Flori, Ralph E.
Mogren, Saad

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Geology and Geophysics

Sponsor(s)

National Science Foundation (U.S. )

Comments

The study was partially supported by the United States National Science Foundation under Awards 1830644, 1460516, and 1009946.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2018

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • A uniform database of shear wave splitting measurements for the Arabian plate
  • Seismic anisotropy and mantle dynamics beneath the Arabian plate

Pagination

xi, 97 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2018 Saleh Ismail Hassan Qaysi, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11436

Electronic OCLC #

1084473554

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