A joint inversion of regionalized phase and group velocities of fundamental
mode Rayleigh waves is performed by means of a simulated annealing scheme
which makes use of some thermodynamic analogies based on the Gibbs' distrib
ution. The correlations and the uncertainties on shear-wave velocities defi
ning the elastic model are estimated by using a procedure based on the same
thermodynamic analogies. As a relevant feature, the simulated annealing al
gorithm permits reducing the usual dependence of the solution on the someti
mes arbitrary starting model. A shortcoming linked to the use of this proce
dure for solving an inversion problem is the necessity of a previous empiri
cal determination of some parameters controlling the annealing process. Wit
h this aim, a simulation of a joint inversion of synthetic surface wave dis
persion data has been performed. After that, path-averaged velocity dispers
ion curves corresponding to a Hercynian area of the Iberian Peninsula have
been inverted to derive two possible crust and upper mantle elastic structu
res. Whereas, the first structure has been deduced by considering as unknow
n variables the shear velocities of the stratified Earth model, the second
has been obtained also including the respective layer thicknesses. Both str
uctures are compared with shear velocity and Q(beta) models derived by the
stochastic inversion procedure in previous studies and from the same Raylei
gh waves dataset. Finally, advantages and shortcomings of the inversion of
phase and group velocity data by means of simulated annealing are discussed
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