Configuration of the Indian Moho beneath the NW Himalaya and Ladakh

Abstract

Teleseismic receiver function analysis of seismograms recorded on a ~700 km long profile of 17 broadband seismographs traversing the NW Himalaya shows a progressive northward deepening of the Indian Moho from ~40 km beneath Delhi south of the Himalayan foredeep to ~75 km beneath Taksha at the Karakoram Fault. Similar studies by Wittlinger et al. (2004) to the north of the Karakoram Fault show that the Moho continues to deepen to ~90 km beneath western Tibet before shallowing substantially to 50-60 km at the Altyn Tagh Fault. The continuity of the Indian Moho imaged in the receiver functions reported here, along with those of Wittlinger et al. (2004), suggest that in this part of the Himalayan orogen the Indian plate may penetrate as far as the Bangong Suture, and possibly as far north as the Altyn Tagh.