The Yangtze fault zone is a typical tectonic regime transition zone of the eastern China. Tectonically, it is characterized by alternated rifts and uplifts and “several crystalline basements with one sediment cover”. Abundant metal metallogenic deposits are developed. Improvement of the velocity model and basement structure will benefit our understanding and knowledge about the regional tectonics. Large volume airgun sources have been broadly applied to seismic surveys due to significant advantages. For instance, they are environmentally friendly, use lower frequencies, and are repeatable. Several seismic and geological research institutions, such as China Earthquake Administration, carried out a three-dimensional comprehensive sounding using the large volume airgun as the seismic source which was fired at the channel of the Yangtze River in 2015. The source-receiver geometry of this seismic experiment covered the whole Anhui Province which locates at the Middle-Lower Yangtze River. The densest observational area is in the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Metallogenic Belt which is a narrow area along the Yangtze River and consists of the Luzong, Tongling, Ningwu, and Anqing-Guichi ore deposits. The Tanlu fault zone, a giant strike-slip fault of more than 2 000km long, passes through the northwestern margin of this area. Geophysical studies have demonstrated copious geological evidences for the Yangtze fault zone, which is approximately 450km long and crosses central China, extending to the eastern coastal area. The present fault and fold systems are the consequences of the repeated tectonic events since the Mesozoic. We collected and analyzed the seismic data of 20 fixed airgun shot points, then utilized tomography, time term method and head wave traveltime inversion based on ray tracing techniques to model the upper crustal velocity and crystalline basement structure of the Anqing-Maanshan segment beneath the Yangtze fault zone. The profile along the Yangtze River consists of 100 PDS-2 seismometers with a spacing of 2km. We applied the linear and phase weighted stack methods to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the weak seismic phases from the airgun source. According to the comparison between the linear and phase weighted stack results, the phase weighted stack method significantly improves the quality of the stacked data. We applied the band-pass filter to the stacked data to improve the onset of the first arrival, then picked up the seismic phases and assessed the errors of the picked traveltime. The comprehensive results reveal that the upper crust velocity structure and crystalline basement images show a tectonic feature of alternating rifts and uplifts. The upper crust of the Huaining Basin is the thickest area along the Yangtze River. The basement of the Huaining Basin is around 4.5km and there are Mesozoic lacustrine sedimentary layers whose thickness is about 2km. The crystalline basement depth of the Luzong Basin is 4.1km and the consolidated basin shows clear depression basin shape. This feature of the Luzong Basin reveals that it experienced extensional depression. There is a high-velocity zone beneath the crystalline basement of the Luzong Basin, and the velocity is higher than other areas along the Yangtze River. This high velocity zone shows an arc shape, which agrees with the Paleozoic reflection images by the seismic reflection survey. The profile crosses the Yangtze River in Tongling area and there are obvious velocity differences between the two sides of the Yangtze River. The velocity differences show that the Yangtze faults cut the crystalline basement in Tongling. The upper crust velocity structure of the Tongling area shows clear uplift features and its crystalline basement depth is about 2.2km, which agrees with the arc-reflection structures of the upper crust from the seismic reflection data. This uplift image reveals that the upper crust of the Tongling area has experienced extrusion deformations. The consistency of the seismic reflection imaging results with the near surface geology demonstrates that the large volume air-gun source is applicable to land-based seismic survey.

The Red River Fault in western Yunnan is one of the longest strike-slip faults in China and has a high seismic potential. To investigate its complicated structure, a near-NS directed 300km long wide-angle reflection/refraction seismic profile was laid out from Yunxian to Ninglang, across the Red River Fault. The 2-D velocity structure model along the profile was obtained through 1-D and 2-D analysis and fitting the observed data with combination of first-arrival traveltime tomography and forward modeling. The results indicate:In the crust, the average P-wave velocity is 6.2~6.3km/s and basically shows a positive gradient structure, but there are some low velocity anomalies at different area in upper and lower crust. Regarding the crust boundary, a relative large lateral variation exists in the depth of Moho, which goes deeper from south to north, ranging from 45km to as deep as 54km; compared to other typical continental crust, the study area demonstrates a striking thickening. It should be mentioned that the crustal thickening is mainly observed in the lower crust, while the upper and middle crust possess nearly constant thickness. We observed strong seismic velocity contrast across the Red River Fault, which emphasizes the role of the fault as an important tectonic boundary between Yangtze paraplatform and Sanjiang geosynclinal system. Along the profile, the Moho depth has no remarkable variation when crossing the Red River Fault. Combining with other study results on nearby area, it proves that there is notable heterogeneity between different parts of the Red River Fault.

In this paper the crustal velocity structure is obtained along Yushu earthquake zone, using wide angle reflection and refraction data. The results reveal strong vertical and lateral heterogeneities in the crust, as well as the basic characteristics of the crustal velocity structure and the tectonics along the seismic sounding profile. Results show that crustal velocity structure is featured with significant regional heterogeneity both in the longitudinal and lateral directions. The crust is of layered structure, and the crystalline basement interface undulates greatly beneath the study area, which is about 8 km in thickness beneath Yushu and gradually thins northwards to 2.5 km beneath the Stake 400.0 km at Wenquan. There are good correlations of the depressions and uplifts on basement interface with different tectonic units. The crust gradually thins towards both south and north direction to a thickness of 62 km from 72 km beneath Nangqian and Yushu. There exist big undulations in 2D velocity contours and the interfaces in the crust between Stakes 200.0～400.0km, and there is presence of an arc-shaped depression in the Moho beneath the Yushu area.

DSS data of Bohai Bay profile was processed in August 2011 and the result obtained in this paper and the results of other profiles,which cross this profile,were interpreted comprehensively in this paper. The DSS data were calculated and interpreted synthetically using 1-D and 2-D processing techniques in order to find out the basic features of 2-D velocity structures,spatial distribution of faults,geological structure of shallow and deep crust in the southwest margin of Bohai Bay and adjacent areas. The result shows that obvious layered structure appears along the profile,and the crustal velocity structures in different regions have obvious heterogeneity in the lateral and vertical directions. The crystalline basement near the Bohai Bay is gradually thinning southwestwards,and beneath the 220km Stake,the depth of G interface is 7.4km. The thickness of the middle layer varies greatly,with the change range up to 4.0km. The crustal depth varies relatively moderately,with a change range of about 2.0km. The Moho deepens gradually from coastal area to the inland along the southwest direction.