SOUTH ATLANTIC SEISMOTECTONICS USING TELESEISMIC P-WAVE AND WATER REVERBERATIONS
Focal depth estimation; Water column reverberations; Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Oceanic transform faults are important tectonic structures that connect mid-ocean ridge segments and accommodate relative plate motion. In this context, focal depth (Z) is a key parameter for characterizing the seismogenic zone. However, in remote oceanic environments, source parameter estimates remain a challenge due to the sparse distribution of stations and simplified velocity models. In addition, the limited global teleseismic coverage complicates depth-phase identification, as well as by low signal-to-noise ratios, rupture duration, and focal depth itself. As an alternative, the methodology proposed by Huang et al. (2015) was implemented, which incorporates water-column reverberations to simultaneously determine Z and water layer thickness (H) in the St. Paul Transform System (Transform A), using stacked seismograms at teleseismic distances. Synthetic tests demonstrate stable performance, including under high noise levels, although ambiguities remais in shallow-water settings. The analyzed events (5.7-6.6 Mw) presented Z estimates ranging from 4.4 to 15.3 km, with shallower values than reported in global catalogs, while strike-slip focal mechanisms derived from catalog solutions reflect the dominant tectonic regime of the region. A decreasing trend in Z toward the St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago was also observed, suggesting structural heterogeneity along the system. H values (1.0-3.5 km) are consistent with regional bathymetry, although instability was observed in one of the cases related to overlapping reverberations. Thus, the results highlight the Z-H analysis as a robust approach for combined estimation of these parameters, emphasizing the sensitivity of the method to local structural complexity.