Velocity structure in the South Yellow Sea basin based on first-arrival tomography of wide-angle seismic data and its geological implications

The South Yellow Sea basin is filled with Mesozoic-Cenozoic continental sediments overlying pre-Palaeozoic and Mesozoic-Palaeozoic marine sediments. Conventional multi-channel seismic data cannot describe the velocity structure of the marine residual basin in detail, leading to the lack of a deeper understanding of the distribution and lithology owing to strong energy shielding on the top interface of marine sediments. In this study, we present seismic tomography data from ocean bottom seismographs that describe the NEE-trending velocity distributions of the basin. The results indicate that strong velocity variations occur at shallow crustal levels. Horizontal velocity bodies show good correlation with surface geological features, and multi-layer features exist in the vertical velocity framework (depth: 0–10 km). The analyses of the velocity model, gravity data, magnetic data, multichannel seismic profiles, and drilling data showed that high-velocity anomalies (>6.5 km/s) of small (thickness: 1–2 km) and large (thickness: >5 km) scales were caused by igneous complexes in the multi-layer structure, which were active during the Palaeogene. Possible locations of good Mesozoic and Palaeozoic marine strata are limited to the Central Uplift and the western part of the Northern Depression along the wide-angle ocean bottom seismograph array. Following the Indosinian movement, a strong compression existed in the Northern Depression during the extensional phase that caused the formation of folds in the middle of the survey line. This study is useful for reconstructing the regional tectonic evolution and delineating the distribution of the marine residual basin in the South Yellow Sea basin.