Crust and Upper Mantle Structure of Mars Determined from Surface Wave Analysis

The crust and upper mantle structure of Mars is determined in the depth range of 0 to 100 km, by means of dispersion analysis and its inversion, which is performed for the surface waves present in the traces of the seismic event: S1094b. From these traces, Love and Rayleigh waves are measured in the period range of 4 to 40 s. This dispersion was calculated with a combination of digital filtering techniques, and later was inverted to obtain both models: isotropic (from 0 to 100 km depth) and anisotropic (from 0 to 15 km depth), which were calculated considering the hypothesis of the surface wave propagation in slightly anisotropic media. The seismic anisotropy determined from 0 to 5 km depth (7% of S-velocity variation and ξ ~ 1.1) could be associated with the presence of sediments or lava-flow layering, and wide damage zones surrounding the long-term fault networks. For greater depths, the observed anisotropy (17% of S-velocity variation and ξ ~ 1.4) could be due to the possible presence of volcanic materials and/or the layering of lava flows. Another cause for this anisotropy could be the presence of layered intrusions due to a single or multiple impacts, which could cause internal layering within the crust. Finally, the Moho depth is determined at 50 km as a gradual transition from crust to mantle S-velocities, through an intermediate value (3.90 km/s) determined from 50 to 60 km-depth.