Geology topics

J.A. Hole

Publications and source records attributed to J.A. Hole.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2007

Structure of the California Coast Ranges and San Andreas Fault at SAFOD from seismic waveform inversion and reflection imaging

[1] A seismic reflection and refraction survey across the San Andreas Fault (SAF) near Parkfield provides a detailed characterization of crustal structure across the location of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). Steep-dip prestack migration and frequency domain acoustic waveform tomography were applied to obtain highly resolved images of the upper 5 km of the crust for 15 km on either side of the SAF. The resulting velocity model constrains the top of the Salinian granite with great detail. Steep-dip reflection seismic images show several strong-amplitude vertical reflectors in the uppermost crust near SAFOD that define an ∼2-km-wide zone comprising the main SAF and two or more local faults. Another prominent subvertical reflector at 2–4 km depth ∼9 km to the northeast of the SAF marks the boundary between the Franciscan terrane and the Great Valley Sequence. A deep seismic section of low resolution shows several reflectors in the Salinian crust west of the SAF. Two horizontal reflectors around 10 km depth correlate with strains of seismicity observed along-strike of the SAF. They represent midcrustal shear zones partially decoupling the ductile lower crust from the brittle upper crust. The deepest reflections from ∼25 km depth are interpreted as crust-mantle boundary.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

USGS2001

Steep-dip seismic imaging of the shallow San Andreas Fault near Parkfield

Seismic reflection and refraction images illuminate the San Andreas Fault to a depth of 1 kilometer. The prestack depth-migrated reflection image contains near-vertical reflections aligned with the active fault trace. The fault is vertical in the upper 0.5 kilometer, then dips about 70° to the southwest to at least 1 kilometer subsurface. This dip reconciles the difference between the computed locations of earthquakes and the surface fault trace. The seismic velocity cross section shows strong lateral variations. Relatively low velocity (10 to 30%), high electrical conductivity, and low density indicate a 1-kilometer-wide vertical wedge of porous sediment or fractured rock immediately southwest of the active fault trace.

California↗

USGS1998

Wide-angle seismic constraints on the evolution of the deep San Andreas plate boundary by Mendocino triple junction migration

Recent, wide-angle seismic observations that constrain the existence and structure of a mafic layer in the lower crust place strong constraints on the evolution of the San Andreas plate boundary system in northern and central California. Northward migration of the Mendocino Triple Junction and the subducted Juan de Fuca lithospheric slab creates a gap under the continent in the new strike-slip system. This gap must be filled by either asthenospheric upwelling or a northward migrating slab attached to the Pacific plate. Both processes emplace a mafic layer, either magmatic underplating or oceanic crust, beneath the California Coast Ranges. A slab of oceanic lithosphere attached to the Pacific plate is inconsistent with the seismic observation that the strike-slip faults cut through the mafic layer to the mantle, detaching the layer from the Pacific plate. The layer could only be attached to the Pacific plate if large vertical offsets and other complex structures observed beneath several strike-slip faults are original oceanic structures that are not caused by the faults. Otherwise, if oceanic slabs exist beneath California, they do not migrate north to fill the growing slab gap. The extreme heat pulse created by asthenospheric upwelling is inconsistent with several constraints from the seismic data, including a shallower depth to the slab gap than is predicted by heat flow models, seismic velocity and structure that are inconsistent with melting or metamorphism of the overlying silicic crust, and a high seismic velocity in the upper mantle. Yet either the Pacific slab model or the asthenospheric upwelling model must be correct. While the mafic material in the lower crust could have been emplaced prior to triple junction migration, the deeper slab gap must still be filled. A preexisting mafic layer does not reduce the inconsistencies of the Pacific slab model. Such material could, however, compensate for the decrease in mafic magma that would be produced if asthenospheric upwelling occurred at a lower temperature. These low temperatures, however, may be inconsistent with asthenospheric rheology.

California, Oregon↗

USGS1996

Crustal structure of the Colorado Plateau, Arizona: Application of new long-offset seismic data analysis techniques

The Colorado Plateau is a large crustal block in the southwestern United States that has been raised intact nearly 2 km above sea level since Cretaceous marine sediments were deposited on its surface. Controversy exists concerning the thickness of the plateau crust and the source of its buoyancy. Interpretations of seismic data collected on the plateau vary as to whether the crust is closer to 40 or 50 km thick. A thick crust could support the observed topography of the Colorado Plateau isostatically, while a thinner crust would indicate the presence of an underlying low-density mantle. This paper reports results on long-offset seismic data collected during the 1989 segment of the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific to Arizona Crustal Experiment that extended from the Transition Zone into the Colorado Plateau in northwest Arizona. We apply two new methods to analyze long-offset data that employ finite difference travel time calculations: (1) a first-arrival time inverter to find upper crustal velocity structure and (2) a forward-modeling technique that allows the direct use of the inverted upper crustal solution in modeling secondary reflected arrivals. We find that the crustal thickness increases from 30 km beneath the metamorphic core complexes in the southern Basin and Range province to about 42 km beneath the northern Transition Zone and southern Colorado Plateau margin. We observe some crustal thinning (to ∼37 km thick) and slightly higher lower crustal velocities farther inboard; beneath the Kaibab uplift on the north rim of the Grand Canyon the crust thickens to a maximum of 48 km. We observe a nonuniform crustal thickness beneath the Colorado Plateau that varies by ∼15% and corresponds approximately to variations in topography with the thickest crust underlying the highest elevations. Crustal compositions (as inferred from seismic velocities) appear to be the same beneath the Colorado Plateau as those in the Basin and Range province to the southwest, implying that the plateau crust represents an unextended version of the Basin and Range. Some of the variability in crustal structure appears to correspond to preserved lithospheric discontinuities that date back to the Proterozoic Era.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

USGS1996

Three-dimensional P and S wave velocity structure of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska

The three‐dimensional P and S wave structure of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, and the underlying crust to depths of 7–8 km is determined from 6219 P wave and 4008 S wave first‐arrival times recorded by a 30‐station seismograph network deployed on and around the volcano. First‐arrival times are calculated using a finite‐difference technique, which allows for flexible parameterization of the slowness model and easy inclusion of topography and source‐receiver geometry. The three‐dimensional P wave velocity structure and hypocenters are determined simultaneously, while the three‐dimensional S wave velocity model is determined using the relocated seismicity and an initial S wave velocity model derived from the P wave velocity model assuming an average Vp / Vs ratio of 1.78. Convergence is steady with approximately 73% and 52% reduction in P and S wave arrival time RMS, respectively, after 10 iterations. The most prominent feature observed in the three‐dimensional velocity models derived for both P and S waves is a relative low‐velocity, near‐vertical, pipelike structure approximately 1 km in diameter that extends from 1 to 6 km beneath sea level. This feature aligns axially with the bulk of seismicity and is interpreted as a highly fractured and altered zone encompassing a magma conduit. The velocity structure beneath the north flank of the volcano between depths of 1 and 6 km is characterized by large lateral velocity variations. High velocities within this region are interpreted as remnant dikes and sills and low velocities as regions along which magma migrates. No large low‐velocity body suggestive of a magma chamber is resolved in the upper 7–8 km of the crust.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

USGS1996

Crustal structure of a transform plate boundary: San Francisco Bay and the central California continental margin

Wide-angle seismic data collected during the Bay Area Seismic Imaging Experiment provide new glimpses of the deep structure of the San Francisco Bay Area Block and across the offshore continental margin. San Francisco Bay is underlain by a veneer (<300 m) of sediments, beneath which P wave velocities increase rapidly from 5.2 km/s to 6.0 km/s at 7 km depth, consistent with rocks of the Franciscan subduction assemblage. The base of the Franciscan at-15-18 km depth is marked by a strong wide-angle reflector, beneath which lies an 8- to 10-km-thick lower crust with an average velocity of 6.75??0.15 km/s. The lower crust of the Bay Area Block may be oceanic in origin, but its structure and reflectivity indicate that it has been modified by shearing and/or magmatic intrusion. Wide-angle reflections define two layers within the lower crust, with velocities of 6.4-6.6 km/s and 6.9-7.3 km/s. Prominent subhorizontal reflectivity observed at near-vertical incidence resides principally in the lowermost layer, the top of which corresponds to the "6-s reflector" of Brocher et al. [1994]. Rheological modeling suggests that the lower crust beneath the 6-s reflector is the weakest part of the lithosphere; the horizontal shear zone suggested by Furlong et al. [1989] to link the San Andreas and Hayward/Calaveras fault systems may actually be a broad zone of shear deformation occupying the lowermost crust. A transect across the continental margin from the paleotrench to the Hayward fault shows a deep crustal structure that is more complex than previously realized. Strong lateral variability in seismic velocity and wide-angle reflectivity suggests that crustal composition changes across major transcurrent fault systems. Pacific oceanic crust extends 40-50 km landward of the paleotrench but, contrary to prior models, probably does not continue beneath the Salinian Block, a Cretaceous arc complex that lies west of the San Andreas fault in the Bay Area. The thickness (10 km) and high lower-crustal velocity of Pacific oceanic crust suggest that it was underplated by magmatism associated with the nearby Pioneer seamount. The Salinian Block consists of a 15-km-thick layer of velocity 6.0-6.2 km/s overlying a 5-km-thick, high-velocity (7.0 km/s) lower crust that may be oceanic crust, Cretaceous arc-derived lower crust, or a magmatically underplated layer. The strong structural variability across the margin attests to the activity of strike-slip faulting prior to and during development of the transcurrent Pacific/North American plate boundary around 29 Ma. Copyright 1996 by the American Geophysical Union.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

USGS1994

Seismic evidence for a lower-crustal detachment beneath San Francisco Bay, California

Results from the San Francisco Bay area seismic imaging experiment (BASIX) reveal the presence of a prominent lower crustal reflector at a depth of ∼15 kilometers beneath San Francisco and San Pablo bays. Velocity analyses indicate that this reflector marks the base of Franciscan assemblage rocks and the top of a mafic lower crust. Because this compositional contrast would imply a strong rheological contrast, this interface may correspond to a lower crustal detachment surface. If so, it may represent a subhorizontal segment of the North America and Pacific plate boundary proposed by earlier thermo-mechanical and geological models.

California↗