Application of 2-D travel-time inversion of seismic refraction data to the mid-continent rift beneath Lake Superior

Abstract

The inversion technique of Nowack and Lutter (1988a) and Lutter et al. (1990) has been applied to first arrival seismic refraction data collected along Line A of the 1986 Lake Superior GLIMPCE experiment, permitting comparison of the inversion image with an independently derived forward model (Trehu et al., 1991; Shay and Trehu, in press). For this study, the inversion method was expanded to allow variable grid spacing for the bicubic spline parameterization of velocity. The variable grid spacing improved model delineation and data fit by permitting model parameters to be clustered at features of interest. Over 800 first-arrival travel-times were fit with a final RMS error of 0.045 s. The inversion model images a low velocity central graben and smaller flanking half-grabens of the Midcontinent Rift, and higher velocity regions (+0.5 to +0.75 km/s) associated with the Isle Royale and Keweenaw faults, which bound the central graben. Although the forward modeling interpretation gives finer details associated with the near surface expression of the two faults because of the inclusion of secondary reflections and refractions that were not included in the inversion, the inversion model reproduces the primary features of the forward model.