Comprehensive Analyses of Receiver Function Data

Among several imaging techniques, the P-wave Receiver Functions (RF) have been demonstrated to be particularly resourceful for retrieving different physical properties of the Earth, and for resolving the depth structures at different scales. It has now become a largely used standard tool for studying the crust and upper mantle, while initially the RF were mostly employed for inferring the average Moho depth beneath single stations, due to the prominent signal given by the P-to-s converted Moho phase and its multiples on the Radial (R) component.

In this talk are shown several examples of increasing complexity to dig out the extensive information that can be extracted from RF data-sets. Examples include 1D shear-wave velocities profiles retrieved by the R-RF; 2D imaging by common-conversion-point sorting; the harmonic decomposition of the R+T (Transverse) signal as advanced analysis tool for the extraction of 3D features (as inclined discontinuities and anisotropic layers). The versatile nature of the technique is shown as well by the different degree of vertical resolution, as it can discriminate the shallow crust layering, as sedimentary basins structures, and to image structures within the mantle, as the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. Finally, increasing amount of available teleseismic data collected at closely spaced stations and advanced computing capabilities, allow 3D volume reconstructions that contribute to the foundation of evolutionary models of the elastic properties of the subsurface.