Remnants of the amalgamation of the east and west Cathaysia blocks revealed by a short-period dense nodal array

The Cathaysia block located at the southeast South China block (SCB) is considered formed by the amalgamation of the east and west Cathaysia blocks along the Gaoyao–Huilai and Zhenghe–Dapu deep faults (here referred as GHF and ZDF, respectively). Although the extension of the ZDF to the northeast, which represents the amalgamation of the two sub-blocks has been confirmed, the development of the GHF to the southwest remains to be verified. To better constrain the detailed deep structure beneath the southwest Cathaysia, which hold great significance for revealing the evolution of the SCB, a linear seismic array with 331 nodal geophones was deployed across the Sanshui basin (SSB). Combining with the regional 10 permanent stations (PA), we obtained two profiles with teleseismic P-wave receiver function stacking. The most obvious feature in our results is the ascending Moho towards the coastal area, which is consistent with the passive margin continental and extensional tectonic setting. The stacking profile from the dense nodal array (DNA) shows that the Moho is offset beneath the transition zone of the Nanling orogeny and SSB. We deduce that this offset may be casued by the deep extension of the GHF, which represents the remnants of the amalgamation of the Cathaysia block. From the other evidences, we infer that the widespread and early erupted felsic magmas in the SSB may have resulted from lithospheric materials that were squeezed out to the surface. The relative higher Bouguer gravity and heat flow support the consolidation of magmas and the residual warm state in the shallow crustal scale beneath the SSB. The sporadic basaltic magmas in the middle SSB may have a close relation to deep extension of the GHF, which serves as a channel for upwelling hot materials.