Geophysical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

The project Retreating-trench, extension, and accretion tectonics, RETREAT, is a multidisciplinary study of the Northern Apennines (earth.geology.yale.edu/RETREAT/), funded by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and the Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences (GAAV). The main goal of RETREAT is to develop a self-consistent dynamic model of syn-convergent extension, using the Northern Apennines as a natural laboratory. In the context of this project a passive seismological experiment was deployed in the fall of 2003 for a period of three years. RETREAT seismologists aim to develop a comprehensive understanding of the deep structure beneath the Northern Apennines, with particular attention on inferring likely patterns of mantle flow. Specific objectives of the project are the crustal and lithospheric thicknesses, the location and geometry of the Adriatic slab, and the distribution of seismic anisotropy laterally and vertically in the lithosphere and asthenosphere. The project is collecting teleseismic and regional earthquake data for 3 years. This contribution describes the RETREAT seismic deployment and reports on key results from the first year of the deployment. We confirm some prior findings regarding the seismic structure of Central Italy, but our observations also highlight the complexity of the Northern Apennines subduction system.

Jeffreys-Bullen (absolute) and relative P-wave travel-time residuals were analyzed over Italy and its surrounding using P arrival times from the ISC bulletins supplemented by the data from local observatories. We analyzed the travel-time station corrections by two independent methods to obtain information on lateral variations of the velocity structure over the area and a view of possible upper mantle anisotropy. In the first method, the station corrections are computed as a constant and two cosine terms with appropriate phase shifts. Besides a static term, the second method allows us to study the relative residuals in dependence both on azimuths and incidence angles and thus to investigate their spatial variations and to map lateral variations of anisotropic structure of the subcrustal lithosphere. The high and low-velocity directions inferred from the spatial distribution of the relative residuals as well as the high- and low-velocity upper mantle heterogeneities reflect the geodynamic development of the region, governed by the collision between the African and Eurasian plates