ScanArray — A Broadband Seismological Experiment in the Baltic Shield

• Published in: Seismological Research Letters
• Main Authors: Thybo, Hans, Bulut, Nevra, Grund, Michael, Mauerberger, Alexandra, Makushkina, Anna, Artemieva, Irina M., Balling, Niels, Gudmundsson, Olafur, Maupin, Valerie, Ottemøller, Lars, Ritter, Joachim, Tilmann, Frederik
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SSA (Seismological Society of America) 2021
• Subjects: North Cape; Norway
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52820/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52820/1/2021-ScanArray-SRL.pdf; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52820/2/2021-ScanArray-SRL_supplement.pdf; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/52820/13/SRL-D-21-00015_Final%2Bversion.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1785/0220210015

The ScanArray international collaborative program acquired broadband seismological data at 192 locations in the Baltic Shield during the period between 2012 and 2017. The main objective of the program is to provide seismological constraints on the structure of the lithospheric crust and mantle as well as the sublithospheric upper mantle. The new information will be applied to studies of how the lithospheric and deep structure affect observed fast topographic change and geological-tectonic evolution of the region. The program also provides new information on local seismicity, focal mechanisms, and seismic noise. The recordings are generally of very high quality and are used for analysis by various seismological methods, including P- and S-wave receiver functions for the crust and upper mantle, surface wave and ambient noise inversion for seismic velocity, body-wave P- and S-wave tomography for upper mantle velocity structure using ray and finite frequency methods, and shear-wave splitting measurements for obtaining bulk anisotropy of the upper and lowermost mantle. Here, we provide a short overview of the data acquisition and initial analysis of the new data, together with an example of integrated seismological results obtained by the project group along a representative ∼1800-km-long profile across most of the tectonic provinces in the Baltic Shield between Denmark and the North Cape. The first models support a subdivision of the Paleoproterozoic Svecofennian province into three domains, where the highest topography of the Scandes mountain range in Norway along the Atlantic Coast has developed solely in the southern and northern domains, whereas the topography is more subdued in the central domain.