Li Juan, Tian Baofeng, Wang Weimin, Zhao Lianfeng, and Yao Zhenxing
Lateral variation in the sedimentary structure of west Bohai Bay basin inferred from P-multiple receiver functions
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (August 2007), 97(4):1355-1363

Abstract:
The widely distributed Cenozoic sediments in the Bohai Bay Basin give rise to noticeable modification of broadband teleseismic P waveforms. At one station in the west Bohai Bay Basin, the observed amplitude of tangential P-receiver functions is significantly above the noise level, and sedimentary reverberations (e.g., the P-type wave PpPp) remain one of the most prominent features in both the radial and tangential components. To investigate the lateral heterogeneity structure under this site, a 3D raytracing technique is used to compute the teleseismic P-wave response, and a fast simulated annealing algorithm is applied to the simultaneous inversion of radial receiver functions for different backazimuths. An upper crustal structure consisting of shallow dipping sedimentary layers with low seismic velocities and large Poisson's ratios is proposed to interpret the observed seismic data. The west-dipping interfaces we obtained are consistent with the north-northeast-south-southwest surface geology in North China, and Tertiary extensional fault structures may be responsible for the formation of dipping sedimentary layers.