Traces of the crustal units and the upper-mantle structure in the southwestern part of the East European Craton

Abstract. The presented study is a part of the passive seismic experiment PASSEQ 2006–2008, which took place around the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ) from May 2006 to June 2008. The data set of 4195 manually picked arrivals of teleseismic P waves of 101 earthquakes (EQs) recorded in the seismic stations deployed to the east of the TESZ was inverted using the non-linear teleseismic tomography algorithm TELINV. Two 3-D crustal models were used to estimate the crustal travel time (TT) corrections. As a result, we obtain a model of P-wave velocity variations in the upper mantle beneath the TESZ and the East European Craton (EEC). In the study area beneath the craton, we observe up to 3% higher and beneath the TESZ about 2–3% lower seismic velocities compared to the IASP91 velocity model. We find the seismic lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) beneath the TESZ at a depth of about 180 km, while we observe no seismic LAB beneath the EEC. The inversion results obtained with the real and the synthetic data sets indicate a ramp shape of the LAB in the northern TESZ, where we observe values of seismic velocities close to those of the craton down to about 150 km. The lithosphere thickness in the EEC increases going from the TESZ to the NE from about 180 km beneath Poland to 300 km or more beneath Lithuania. Moreover, in western Lithuania we find an indication of an upper-mantle dome. In our results, the crustal units are not well resolved. There are no clear indications of the features in the upper mantle which could be related to the crustal units in the study area. On the other hand, at a depth of 120–150 km we indicate a trace of a boundary of proposed palaeosubduction zone between the East Lithuanian Domain (EL) and the West Lithuanian Granulite Domain (WLG). Also, in our results, we may have identified two anorogenic granitoid plutons.