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W. J. Lutter

Publications and source records attributed to W. J. Lutter.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

A seismic refraction survey of the Imperial Valley Region, California

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted an extensive seismic refraction survey in the Imperial Valley region of California in 1979. The Imperial Valley is located in the Salton Trough, an active rift between the Pacific and North American plates. Forty shots fired at seven shot points were recorded by 100 portable seismic instruments at typical spacing of 0.5–1 km. More than 1300 recording locations were occupied, and more than 3000 usable seismograms were obtained. We analyzed five profiles using a standard ray‐tracing program, constructed a contour map of reduced travel times from our most widely recorded shot point, and modeled an existing gravity profile across the Salton Trough. Results are itemized: (1) All models have in common a sedimentary layer ( V p = 1.8–5.0 km/s), a “transition zone” ( V p = 5.0–5.65 km/s), a basement ( V p = 5.65 km/s in the Imperial Valley, 5.9 km/s on the bordering mesas), and subbasement ( V p = 7.2 km/s). (2) The sedimentary layer ranges in thickness along the axis of the Salton Trough from 3.7 km (Salton Sea) to 4.8 km (U.S.‐Mexican border). On the bordering mesas it is quite variable in thickness. (3) The “transition” zone is about 1 km thick in most places. In the Imperial Valley there are no marked velocity discontinuities in this zone between the sedimentary layer and basement. On the bordering mesas, however, there is a discontinuity at the top of this zone. (4) There are apparently two types of basement. On the bordering mesas, basement is crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks. In the Imperial Valley, basement is mostly lower‐greenshist‐facies sedimentary rocks, based primarily on the smooth transition in character from sediment to basement arrivals, the low value of basement velocity, and the fact that deep (4 km) wells in the valley penetrate only the upper part of the known Cenozoic stratigraphic column for the Salton Trough. (5) The subbasement, or intermediate crustal layer, ranges in depth along the axis of the Salton Trough from 16 km (Salton Sea) to 10 km (U.S.‐Mexican border). Gravity modeling requires that this layer deepen and/or pinch out beneath the bordering mesas and mountain ranges. Based on its high velocity and the presence of intrusive basaltic rocks in the sedimentary section in the Imperial Valley, the subbasement is thought to be a mafic intrusive complex similar to oceanic middle crust. (6) Several structures are seen that affect basement, transition zone, and deeper parts of the sedimentary layer. They include a scarp along the Imperial fault, as much as 1 km down to the northeast, and a scarp passing roughly along the topographic boundary between the Imperial Valley and the bordering mesa to the west, as much as 3½ km down to the east. We interpret the latter scarp to be the suture, or rift boundary, between the older crystalline basement on the mesa and the younger metasedimentary basement in the Imperial Valley. (7) On a contour map of reduced travel time from our most widely recorded shot point, subtle patches of early arrivals among otherwise late arrivals in the central Imperial Valley correlate well with known geothermal resource areas having reservoir temperatures of more than 150°C. Apparently the Salton Trough is a location where new crust is being generated. As the rift opens, mafic intrusive rocks fill it from below as sedimentary rocks fill it from above. Rifting and intrusion produce high heat flow that metamorphoses the sedimentary rocks to shallow depth (metasedimentary basement in the Imperial Valley) and thus consolidates the new crust.

California↗
USGS2011

Images of crust beneath southern California will aid study of earthquakes and their effects

The Whittier Narrows earthquake of 1987 and the Northridge earthquake of 1991 highlighted the earthquake hazards associated with buried faults in the Los Angeles region. A more thorough knowledge of the subsurface structure of southern California is needed to reveal these and other buried faults and to aid us in understanding how the earthquake-producing machinery works in this region.

California↗
USGS2003

Fault systems of the 1971 San Fernando and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, southern California: Relocated aftershocks and seismic images from LARSE II

We have constructed a composite image of the fault systems of the M 6.7 San Fernando (1971) and Northridge (1994), California, earthquakes, using industry reflection and oil test well data in the upper few kilometers of the crust, relocated aftershocks in the seismogenic crust, and LARSE II (Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment, Phase II) reflection data in the middle and lower crust. In this image, the San Fernando fault system appears to consist of a decollement that extends 50 km northward at a dip of ???25?? from near the surface at the Northridge Hills fault, in the northern San Fernando Valley, to the San Andreas fault in the middle to lower crust. It follows a prominent aseismic reflective zone below and northward of the main-shock hypocenter. Interpreted upward splays off this decollement include the Mission Hills and San Gabriel faults and the two main rupture planes of the San Fernando earthquake, which appear to divide the hanging wall into shingle- or wedge-like blocks. In contrast, the fault system for the Northridge earthquake appears simple, at least east of the LARSE II transect, consisting of a fault that extends 20 km southward at a dip of ???33?? from ???7 km depth beneath the Santa Susana Mountains, where it abuts the interpreted San Fernando decollement, to ???20 km depth beneath the Santa Monica Mountains. It follows a weak aseismic reflective zone below and southward of the mainshock hypocenter. The middle crustal reflective zone along the interpreted San Fernando decollement appears similar to a reflective zone imaged beneath the San Gabriel Mountains along the LARSE I transect, to the east, in that it appears to connect major reverse or thrust faults in the Los Angeles region to the San Andreas fault. However, it differs in having a moderate versus a gentle dip and in containing no mid-crustal bright reflections.

Geology↗
USGS2001

Seismic mapping of shallow fault zones in the San Gabriel Mountains from the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment, southern California

During the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE), a reflection/refraction survey was conducted along a profile (line 1) extending from Seal Beach, California, northeastward to the Mojave Desert and crossing the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley basins and San Gabriel Mountains. In most shot gathers from the southern and central San Gabriel Mountains, clear secondary arrivals are seen that merge, or appear to merge, with first arrivals at three locations, including the location of the Vincent thrust fault, an exposed late Mesozoic/early Cenozoic megathrust. These secondary arrivals are interpretable as reflections in the shallow crust (<5 km depth) from a concave-upward interface that projects to the surface in the north near the Vincent thrust fault, is offset in its central part at the San Gabriel fault (an old branch of the San Andreas fault), and terminates in the south at 1 to 2 km depth at the southern mountain front. The velocity structure above and below this interface strongly suggests it is the Vincent thrust fault: intermediate velocities (6.2 km/s), consistent with mylonites overlying the Vincent thrust fault, are observed above it; lower velocities (5.8 km/s), consistent with the Pelona Schist underlying the Vincent thrust fault, are observed below it. Problems arise, however, in attempting to match this reflector to the exposed Vincent thrust fault, which is seen in outcrops east of line 1. The Vincent thrust fault is shallower than the reflector in most places. An unmapped structure (steep fault, monocline, or thrust fault) is required between line 1 and the outcrops that either drops the Vincent thrust fault down to the depths of the reflector or repeats the Vincent thrust fault beneath line 1 in the footwall of another thrust fault. An alternative interpretation of the reflector is a deep greenstone horizon within the Pelona Schist, although this alternative is not favored by the velocity structure. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.

California↗
USGS1997

Deep seismic structure and tectonics of northern Alaska: Crustal-scale duplexing with deformation extending into the upper mantle

Seismic reflection and refraction and laboratory velocity data collected along a transect of northern Alaska (including the east edge of the Koyukuk basin, the Brooks Range, and the North Slope) yield a composite picture of the crustal and upper mantle structure of this Mesozoic and Cenozoic compressional orogen. The following observations are made: (1) Northern Alaska is underlain by nested tectonic wedges, most with northward vergence (i.e., with their tips pointed north). (2) High reflectivity throughout the crust above a basal decollement, which deepens southward from about 10 km depth beneath the northern front of the Brooks Range to about 30 km depth beneath the southern Brooks Range, is interpreted as structural complexity due to the presence of these tectonic wedges, or duplexes. (3) Low reflectivity throughout the crust below the decollement is interpreted as minimal deformation, which appears to involve chiefly bending of a relatively rigid plate consisting of the parautochthonous North Slope crust and a 10- to 15-km-thick section of mantle material. (4) This plate is interpreted as a southward verging tectonic wedge, with its tip in the lower crust or at the Moho beneath the southern Brooks Range. In this interpretation the middle and upper crust, or all of the crust, is detached in the southern Brooks Range by the tectonic wedge, or indentor: as a result, crust is uplifted and deformed above the wedge, and mantle is depressed and underthrust beneath this wedge. (5) Underthrusting has juxtaposed mantle of two different origins (and seismic velocities), giving rise to a prominent sub-Moho reflector.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1995

Seismic images of the Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska, reveal crustal- scale duplexing

An integrated set of seismic reflection and refraction data collected across the Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska, in 1990, has yielded a composite image of this Mesozoic and Cenozoic fold-and-thrust belt that reveals duplexing to lower-crustal depths. Interpretations from this image are as follows. (1) Many terranes and subterranes that were amalgamated in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous extend no deeper than the upper crust (3–10 km). (2) In contrast, crustal duplexing, extending to nearly 30 km depth above a south-dipping basal decollement, has produced latest Cretaceous to Cenozoic antiforms, including the Doonerak antiform in the central Brooks Range and anticlinoria near the northern range front. (3) The duplexing occurs in basement rocks of the North Slope subterrane, which core the antiforms. (4) North-dipping structures in the middle crust of the Yukon-Koyukuk basin and southern Brooks Range may postdate Mesozoic terrane amalgamation and predate or coincide with the duplexing. (5) The thickest crust, 50 km, occurs beneath the north-central Brooks Range, north of the root zone of the basal decollement. The position of the thickest crust may indicate that either the duplexed crust above the decollement was thrust onto and depressed the plate beneath the North Slope or the protracted tectonic history of the Brooks Range has left structures not simply explainable in terms of a single collisional event.

Geology↗
USGS1994

Seismic images of the Brooks Range fold and thrust belt, Arctic Alaska, from an integrated seismic reflection/refraction experiment

We describe results of an integrated seismic reflection/refraction experiment across the Brooks Range and flanking geologic provinces in Arctic Alaska. The seismic acquisition was unusual in that reflection and refraction data were collected simultaneously with a 700 channel seismograph system deployed numerous times along a 315 km profile. Shot records show continuous Moho reflections from 0–180 km offset, as well as numerous upper- and mid-crustal wide-angle events. Single and low-fold near-vertical incidence common midpoint (CMP) reflection images show complex upper- and middle-crustal structure across the range from the unmetamorphosed Endicott Mountains allochthon (EMA) in the north, to the metamorphic belts in the south. Lower-crustal and Moho reflections are visible across the entire reflection profile. Travel-time inversion of PmP arrivals shows that the Moho, at 33 km depth beneath the North Slope foothills, deepens abruptly beneath the EMA to a maximum of 46 km, and then shallows southward to 35 km at the southern edge of the range. Two zones of upper- and middle-crustal reflections underlie the northern Brooks Range above ~ 12–15 km depth. The upper zone, interpreted as the base of the EMA, lies at a maximum depth of 6 km and extends over 50 km from the range front to the north central Brooks Range where the base of the EMA outcrops above the metasedimentary rocks exposed in the Doonerak window. We interpret the base of the lower zone, at ~ 12 km depth, to be from carbonate rocks above the master detachment upon which the Brooks Range formed. The seismic data suggest that the master detachment is connected to the faults in the EMA by several ramps. In the highly metamorphosed terranes south of the Doonerak window, the CMP section shows numerous south-dipping events which we interpret as a crustal scale duplex involving the Doonerak window rocks. The basal detachment reflections can be traced approximately 100 km, and dip southward from about 10–12 km near the range front, to 14–18 km beneath the Doonerak window, to 26–28 km beneath the metamorphic belts in the central Brooks Range. The section documents middle- and lower-crustal involvement in the formation of the Brooks Range.

Alaska↗
USGS1983

Deep structure of northern Mississippi embayment

In September 1980, the U. S. Geological Survey conducted a seismic refraction investigation of the northern Mississippi Embayment. During the investigation, 34 shots from nine shotpoints were recorded along a series of profiles. The profiles were parallel to and across an inferred Precambrian rift zone which is outlined by a series of magnetic anomalies and covers an area at least 200 km (125 mi) long and 70 km (45 mi) wide. The paper presents an interpretation of the survey results. The tectonic model proposed to explain the origin of the embayment velocity structure includes a late Precambrian mantle plume that intruded the lower crust of the northern embayment, causing uplift (and/or crustal stretching) and subsequent rifting of the axial area. This was followed by erosion, subsidence, and subsequent deposition of sediments in the resulting trough.

Northern Mississippi embayment↗