Rayleigh wave dispersion in Australia

Abstract

The “two-station approximation” method of Brune, Nafe and Oliver (1960) has been used to find Rayleigh-wave phase velocities over nine paths between Australian WWSSN stations. Some simple shear-velocity distributions for each path have also been found, by inversion of the phase-velocity data. The lack of uniqueness of solutions to this inversion problem is illustrated by the presence of several distinct but numerically equally-good solutions for each set of phase-velocity data. Solutions (i.e., shear-velocity distributions) expected to represent the crust-mantle system more faithfully have been selected from these. The values, obtained in this way for shear-velocity distributions in the Australian paths studied, have been compared, and show that there is little variation between different parts of the continent.