Crustal Structure Beneath the Arabian Shield Based on the Receiver Function Method

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper has been carefully prepared. The authors have written clearly and the figures are very good. The scientific results are reliable. Congratulations to the authors.

 

Line

26-27   “The determination for the…”  Meaning of this sentence is not clear.

36        “crustal structure” (singular).

50        “Thus, a robust model…”    (the difference between “a” and “the” is difficult in English)

Figure 9.   There are also Vp/Vs values of 1.87 for non-volcanic stations, that is, for location

 where there should not be magma in the crust.

404        Vp/Vs values of 1.78 are normal, not high values. I compiled 14,000 receiver functions

and the average Vp/Vs is 1.78.

432      Vp/Vs of 1.79 is not high. It is quite common.

440      The authors write: “may indicate the existence of large magmatic sources in the crust

that affect the velocities.” Also: Line 478 they write about “a crustal reservoir.

 

The problem is that the authors do not quantify their model. How thick (km) should the partial melt layer to increase the Vp/Vs from 1.77 to 1.86? I understand that this estimation is uncertain. However, the authors emphasize this point without providing an actual model for the proposed thickness of the magma layer.

 

The citation to Brown, G.G. 1972 is incomplete. Where published?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript has 20 pages, 64 references, 12 figures, 1 table. The large basaltic lava fields in Arabian Plate, also called harrats, are studied with receiver-function method. The quality of the manuscript and figures is excellent. The structure and H (Moho) and k (velocity ratio) values are real and fit the seismological theory. The research is detail and shows overview of all available information on the crustal structures in the Arabian Plate, afterwards deconvolution of the waveform at the L-component from the Q-component, presents receiver function, with the theoretical arrival times of the three phases taken into consideration. The final result of averaging with predefined weights is shown. The maps with Vp/Vs ratio for selected stations with the

use of the H-k stacking are depicted.

 

Comments:

Affiliations, 3 Zip-code, address, Russia. 4 Zip-code, address, Russia

Line 27 is inside the abstract. The abstract body can not contain reference “tomography model by [1]”. Authors need to replace it with author’s name etc.

Line 60 upper case (subscript) for km² and line 434 km³

Subsection 2.1 please refer (citation) for the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) National Seismic Network and International Seismological Centre (ISC).

Figure 1 mentions H-k stacking. However, the readers do not know what is it. I suggest to change for “receiver-function method”.

Subsection 2.2. H-k stacking: I suggest to rename with a full title. Because I firstly decided, that it is f-k analysis (frequency-wavenumber). Or move line 211 “H represents the depth of the first-order interface and k” to the subsection start.

Figure 3. Excessive point at the end.

Line 220 vp – Upper case leter Vp.

Italiс text for the variables should be better (e.g. line 221 p – ray parameter, line 262, 321 wave phases like in line 273 or line 300)

Table 1. look carefully in guidelines: inside the table body there are no lines

Figure 12 limit.s. instead limits.

References:

I also suggest to refer

Manoj Mukhopadhyay, Basab Mukhopadhyay, Saad Mogren, Bijay Krishna Nandi, Elkhedr Ibrahim,

Regional significance of crustal and sub-crustal rheological heterogeneities beneath the Harrat Lunayyir and their continuity into the neighboring harrats, Western Saudi Arabia – Perspectives of the Afar plume activity,

Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 186, 2022, 104432, ISSN 1464-343X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2021.104432. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464343X21003332)

 

 

Stern, R.J., Johnson, P.R. (2019). Constraining the Opening of the Red Sea: Evidence from the Neoproterozoic Margins and Cenozoic Magmatism for a Volcanic Rifted Margin. In: Rasul, N., Stewart, I. (eds) Geological Setting, Palaeoenvironment and Archaeology of the Red Sea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99408-6_4

I see Dr. Tang dissertation, which is also very positively useful here Tang, Z. (2018). Multi-scale Inference of Lithospheric Seismic Structure in Saudi Arabia. KAUST Research Repository. https://doi.org/10.25781/KAUST-0G120

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf