A re-assessment of focal depth distributions in southern Iran, the Tien Shan and northern India: do earthquakes really occur in the continental mantle?

We investigate the depth distribution of earthquakes within the continental lithosphere of southern Iran, the Tien Shan and northern India by using synthetic seismograms to analyse P and SH body waveforms. In the Zagros mountains of southern Iran, earthquakes are apparently restricted to the upper crust (depths of <20 km), whereas in the Tien Shan and northern India they occur throughout the thickness of the continental crust, to depths of ∼40–45 km. We find no convincing evidence for earthquakes in the continental mantle of these regions, in spite of previous suggestions to the contrary, and question whether seismicity in the continental mantle is important in any part of the world. In some regions, such as Iran, the Aegean, Tibet and California, seismicity is virtually restricted to the upper continental crust, whereas in others, including parts of East Africa, the Tien Shan and northern India, the lower crust is also seismically active, although usually less so than the upper crust. Such variations cannot reliably be demonstrated from published catalogue or bulletin locations, even from ones in which depth resolution is generally improved. In contrast to the oceanic mantle lithosphere, in which earthquakes certainly occur, the continental mantle lithosphere is, we suggest, virtually aseismic and may not be significantly stronger than the lower continental crust. These variations in continental seismogenic thickness are broadly correlated with variations in effective elastic thickness, suggesting that the strength of the continental lithosphere resides in the crust, and require some modification to prevalent views of lithosphere rheology.