The three-dimensional shear velocity structure of lithosphere in the southern Baikal rift system and its surroundings

The three-dimensional shear velocity lithospheric structure at depths from 0 to 70 km beneath the southern Baikal rift system and its surroundings has been imaged by inversion of P-to-SV receiver functions from 46 digital stations operated in two teleseismic international projects in southern Siberia and Mongolia. The receiver functions were determined from teleseismic P waveforms and inverted to obtain depth dependences of S velocities at each station which were related to tectonic structures. The computed vertical and horizontal sections of the 3D shear velocity model imaged a transition from relatively thin crust of the southern Siberian craton to thicker crust in the folded area south and southeast of Lake Baikal, with a local zone of thin crust right underneath the South Baikal basin. The velocity structure beneath the Baikal rift, the mountains of Transbaikalia, Mongolia, and the southern craton margin includes several low-velocity zones at different depths in the crust. Some of these zones may record seismic anisotropy associated with mylonite alignment along large thrusts.