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Tomographic model of the Australian region from seismic full waveform inversion

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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Recent studies have demonstrated that understanding the lithospheric structure is crucial for resource exploration, as errors in model interpretation can lead to significant financial losses. Tomographic images play a key role in constructing lithospheric models. Previous seismic tomographic models were developed using sparse broad-band receiver coverage in Australia, limiting the resolution and reliability of these models. Additionally, the source datasets and associated error estimates are often unavailable, making it difficult to assess the accuracy and resolution power of the models. Therefore, there is a growing need for a fully verifiable lithospheric model of Australia that utilizes national-scale legacy data assimilation and the deployment of new seismic stations to ensure standardized and quality-controlled national data coverage. Geoscience Australia has committed to producing such a model using data from improved national station coverage and sharing all results and datasets involved in model building. A relatively uniform station coverage over the Australian landmass has been achieved with the addition of the currently operated 2-degree (~222 km) grid continental-scale Australian Passive Seismic Array Project  (AusArray) deployment, which includes stations installed in previously inaccessible regions. Full waveform inversion (FWI) was selected to create the Australian tomographic models. 

Our database combines records obtained across Australia and the surrounding region. It spans from 1997 to 2023. The dataset underwent a thorough quality check and records for 358 earthquakes registered at 660 seismic stations were extracted for further FWI imaging. Our tomographic image reveals well known subduction zones visible as high velocity belts around Australia showing the structure of ~100 km thickness. The Australian lithosphere in the west is of higher seismic velocity than the east, in general, in agreement with the most tomographic models published previously. However, our results exhibit significantly higher granularity than the previous studies. Adding further earthquakes with lower magnitudes and further AusArray data as it becomes available will continue to improve the model accuracy and resolution.

Presented at the 2024 Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG) Discover Symposium

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Tomographic model of the Australian region from seismic full waveform inversion
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/1567cb24-5e5a-4d3e-8798-1c67450357af
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/10/2024
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Tomographic model of the Australian region from seismic full waveform inversion". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/tomographic-model-of-the-australian-region-from-seismic-full-waveform-inversion