Seismic Stations Reveal Structure of Ancient Platform Beneath Central Russia
Russian scientists have obtained the first results from a new network of broadband seismic stations on the East European Platform. The data have revealed features of the structure of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle.
Researchers from the O. Yu. Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the M. A. Sadovsky Institute of Geosphere Dynamics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the N. P. Laverov Federal Center for Integrated Arctic Research of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences found that the boundary between the Earth’s crust and mantle lies at depths ranging from 43–44 to 48 kilometers in the areas studied. A mid-lithospheric discontinuity was also detected in the upper mantle, with its depth and thickness varying between sites.
The network has also improved the detection of weak earthquakes. Previously, such events were difficult to distinguish because the observation network was not dense enough.
The research findings have been published in the journal Seismological Research Letters.
