Hersh Gilbert

Crustal structure and signatures of recent tectonism as influenced by ancient terranes in the western United States

The amalgamation of crustal blocks that composes the western cordillera of North America has a long history of deformation across a broad zone. Investigations spanning a range of scales in the region have sought to unravel details of its structure and evolution. By sampling the entire western portion of the United States, the deployment of the Transportable Array component of the EarthScope USArray provides broadband seismic data to study crustal structure across much of this deforming region. Receiver functions recorded across the western United States provide insight into the thickness of the crust and how it varies between tectonic provinces. The thickness of the crust varies from 50 km beneath the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. Distinct crustal structures characterize the Basin and Range, Snake River Plain, the Sierra Nevada, and the active Cascade volcanic arc, suggesting that the recent tectonic processes that affected the region have shaped the crustal structure. In addition, characteristics of the crust appear to relate to the boundaries of, and structures within, the terranes that formed North America. Patterns of crustal thickness across an expansive region presented here allow for the crustal response to specific tectonic processes to be determined while still imaging small-scale structures that can be more difficult to identify in a continental-scale study. This provides a context for previous and future detailed studies to understand how observed crustal structures relate to the evolution of western North America.

Structure of the Sierra Nevada from receiver functions and implications for lithospheric foundering

Receiver functions sampling the Sierra Nevada batholith and adjacent regions exhibit significant variations in the structure of the crust and upper mantle. Crustal Vp/Vs values are lower in the core of the batholith and higher in the northern Sierra Nevada, portions of the Basin and Range, and near young volcanic fields in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley. P- to S-wave conversions from the Moho vary from high amplitude and shallow (>25% of the direct P-arrival amplitude, 25–35 km depth) along the eastern Sierra Nevada to low amplitude and deep (

Seismic migration processing of P-SV converted phases for mantle discontinuity structure beneath the Snake River Plain, western United States

We experiment with backprojection migration processing of teleseismic receiver functions from the Snake River Plain (SRP) broadband seismic experiment. Previous analyses of data from this experiment have used a common midpoint (CMP) stacking approach, a method widely applied for analysis of P-SV converted phases (receiver functions) to obtain high-resolution imaging of upper mantle discontinuities. The CMP technique assumes that all P-SV conversions are produced by flat-lying structures and may not properly image dipping, curved, or laterally discontinuous interfaces. In this paper we adopt a backprojection migration scheme to solve for an array of point scatterers that best produces the large suite of observed receiver functions. We first perform synthetic experiments that illustrate the potential improvement of migration processing over CMP stacks. Application of the migration processing to the SRP data set shows most of the major features as in the original CMP work, but with a weaker 410-km discontinuity and a more intermittent discontinuity at 250 km apparent depth. Random resampling tests are also performed to assess the robustness of subtle features in our discontinuity images. These tests show that a 20-km elevation of the 660-km discontinuity directly beneath the Snake River Plain is robust, but that the variations in 410-km discontinuity topography that we observe are not stable upon resampling. “Bright spots” near 250 km apparent depth are robust upon resampling, but interpretation of these features is complicated by possible sidelobe artifacts from topside Moho reverberations.

P-wave tomography of potential convective downwellings and their source regions, Sierra Nevada, California

Teleseismic P-wave tomography using the Sierra Nevada Earthscope Project (SNEP) deployment, older temporary deployments in the Sierra, and broadband stations from permanent and USArray Transportable Array (TA) stations was derived from starting models either lacking lateral variation (one dimensional [1-D]) or created from three-dimensional (3-D) surface-wave models. The use of multiple starting models permits examination of the robustness of different features while limiting the inherent ambiguities of teleseismic body-wave tomography. Our results confirm that mafic residuum of the Mesozoic Sierran batholith has been removed from the eastern Sierra north to at least 39°N. Low-wavespeed material near the Moho under the eastern Sierra is probably silicic lower crust and warm and possible melt-laden upper mantle. If the residuum remains in the upper mantle, there are three possible locations for it: a high-wavespeed (+∼5%) body extending down to ∼250 km near 36°N, 119.3°W termed the Isabella anomaly, an unusually high-wavespeed (to +10%) and shallow (top ∼40–50 km) anomaly at the south end of the Gorda slab near 40.5°N, 122.25°W termed the Redding anomaly, and a more ill-defined region of high wavespeeds in the crust to uppermost mantle (

Imaging lithospheric foundering in the structure of the Sierra Nevada

Tomographic studies of the mantle of southern California (USA) commonly found evidence for seismically high speed material, known as the Isabella anomaly, extending from near the base of the crust of the southwestern Sierra Nevada foothills into the asthenosphere. This anomaly has been interpreted to mark downwelling lithospheric material that had been removed from the southern Sierra Nevada. Using data from the Sierra Nevada EarthScope Project (SNEP) array, we investigate the lithosphere of the Sierra Nevada and surrounding region to better understand the process by which batholiths form dense lithospheric roots that become unstable and founder. Inverting phase velocities of fundamental mode Rayleigh waves for shear wave speeds provides observations of the distribution of high and low wave-speed anomalies, which correspond to portions of the batholith that formed an intact lithospheric root, and where seismically slower shallow asthenosphere marks areas where lithosphere has been removed. Our results corroborate previous observations that the southern Sierra Nevada has thin crust underlain by shallow asthenosphere. High shear wave velocity (Vs) material in the mantle beneath the southwestern foothills marks the location of the Isabella anomaly, to the east of which is a region of low Vs mantle where asthenosphere has risen to replace the delaminating root. Farther north, near the latitude of Long Valley, low velocities at shallow depths beneath the high elevations of the eastern Sierra indicate the presence of asthenosphere close to the base of the crust. Thicker high-speed material, however, underlies the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada at this latitude and dips to the east where it extends to depths of ∼100 km or more, giving it the appearance of a portion of lithosphere that has detached from the east but remains attached to the west as it is currently peeling off. The structure of the Sierra Nevada changes near the latitude of Lake Tahoe, where thinner lithosphere extends between depths of 40 and 80 km, but does not reach greater depths. It appears that the lithospheric material of the Sierra Nevada from latitudes close to Lake Tahoe, and continuing to the north, is not being removed, indicating a change between the structure and evolution of the southern and northern Sierra Nevada.

Imaging Sierra Nevada lithospheric sinking

The sinking of dense mantle lithosphere farther into the mantle is an often invoked but still poorly understood process in continental development. Such events have been inferred to cause uplift and extensional deformation in areas around the world and back billions of years. Samples of garnet-rich mantle lithosphere from under the Sierra Nevada were brought up in basaltic eruptions from before 80 million years ago to approximately 8 million years ago but are absent from volcanics after about 3.5 million years ago [Ducea and Saleeby, 1998]. Granitic batholiths like the Sierra Nevada evolve from more quartz poor melts and thus have roots of mafic (quartz-poor) residuum that remain under the batholith. This residuum, metamorphosed to a dense garnet-rich rock, apparently sinks together with part of the mantle lithosphere below it at one or more locations beneath the Great Valley.

Estimating a Continuous Moho Surface for the California Unified Velocity Model

Online material : Simple Matlab script to plot Moho profiles; continuous Moho surface; data points used to estimate the Moho surface. The Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho) is a globally identifiable boundary between the crust and the uppermost mantle (Dziewonski and Anderson, 1981). It is detected using seismic techniques, such as reflected energy from local earthquakes (e.g., Richards-Dinger and Shearer, 1997) or active-source experiments (e.g., Christeson et al. , 2010) or from crustal reverberations of waves from distant earthquakes (e.g., Burdick and Langston, 1977; Zhu and Kanamori, 2000). Locally, the Moho surface may exhibit complexity in terms of both the magnitude and length scale of its variations in depth; furthermore, the impedance contrast across the Moho may also vary in terms of both the magnitude and length scales (Fig. 1). Body waves and surface waves from both teleseismic and local earthquakes, as well as seismic waves from active-source experiments, may be sensitive to the variations in the Moho. These seismic waves can be used within tomographic inversions to improve the characterization of Earth’s structure in the transition from crust to upper mantle. The Moho surface constitutes an integral part of any Earth model, from regional to global scales. The objective of this paper is to estimate a detailed Moho surface, from all available data, for onshore and offshore California; currently, no such map exists. Our motivation is to obtain a continuous, smooth surface that can be implemented within 3D structural models that are used for simulations of seismic-wave propagation (e.g., Komatitsch et al. , 2004; Tape, Liu, et al. , 2009), such as the California Community Velocity Model (CVM-H) of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC; Suss and Shaw, 2003; Plesch et al. , 2011). We first document the available datasets for estimating the Moho surface in California …

Crustal structure across the central Alaska Range: Anatomy of a Mesozoic collisional zone

A first-order process in the growth of continents is the collision and accretion of terranes against continental margins. Collision leads to the formation of a suture zone between the accreted terrane and the former continental margin. New insights on the suturing process are observed from two receiver function transects across the Mesozoic Alaska Range suture zone. Three distinct crustal sections are identified from observations of crustal thickness, intracrustal discontinuities, and Vp/Vs: a northern section with ∼27 km thick crust of felsic to intermediate composition, a central section that is ∼37 km thick that exhibits intracrustal discontinuities and has felsic to intermediate composition, and a southern section that is ∼30 km thick and has a more mafic composition. We interpret these sections to correspond with the former continental margin (Yukon composite terrane), the suture zone proper, and the allochthonous oceanic terrane (Wrangellia composite terrane). The boundary between the Yukon composite terrane and the suture zone appears to be a subhorizontal discontinuity that accommodated underthrusting of crust from the suture zone beneath the former continental margin. The boundary between the suture zone and the Wrangellia composite terrane, in contrast, appears to be a relatively discrete, vertical boundary. The observed variability in the crust across the Alaska Range suture zone is likely controlled by the differing compositions of the terranes involved, which influences how each section responds to precollisional, syncollisional, and postcollisional deformation.

Shear velocity structure beneath the central United States: Implications for the origin of the Illinois Basin and intraplate seismicity

We present new estimates of lithospheric shear velocities for the intraplate seismic zones and the Illinois Basin in the US midcontinent by analyzing teleseismic Rayleigh waves. We find that relatively high crustal shear velocities (VS) characterize the southern Illinois Basin, while relatively low crustal velocities characterize the middle and lower crust of the central and northern Illinois Basin. The observed high crustal velocities may correspond to high-density mafic intrusions emplaced into the crust during the development of the Reelfoot Rift, which may have contributed to the subsidence of the Illinois Basin. The low crustal VS beneath the central and northern basin follow the La Salle deformation belt. We also observe relatively low velocities in the mantle beneath the New Madrid seismic zone where VS decreases by about 7% compared to those outside of the rift. The low VS in the upper mantle also extends beneath the Wabash Valley and Ste. Genevieve seismic zones. Testing expected VS reductions based on plausible thermal heterogeneities for the midcontinent indicates that the 7% velocity reduction would not result from elevated temperatures alone. Instead this scale of anomaly requires a contribution from some combination of increased iron and water content. Both rifting and interaction with a mantle plume could introduce these compositional heterogeneities. Similar orientations for the NE-SW low-velocity zone and the Reelfoot Rift suggest a rift origin to the reduced velocities. The low VS upper mantle represents a weak region and the intraplate seismic zones would correspond to concentrated crustal deformation above weak mantle. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Seismic images of crustal variations beneath the East Anatolian Plateau (Turkey) from teleseismic receiver functions

Abstract We used teleseismic P-wave receiver functions recorded by the Eastern Turkey Seismic Experiment to determine the crustal structure across an active continent–continent collision zone. Moho depth and Vp/Vs variations in the region are mapped by incorporating crustal multiples and later two-dimsional (2-D) seismic profiles are produced using a common conversion point technique with our crustal Vp/Vs estimates. Moho depths do not correlate with surface topography and reveal a relatively thin crust consistent with the high plateau being supported by hot asthenosphere near the base of the crust. Under the Arabian plate, the crust is thinnest (c. 35 km) and exhibits high Vp/Vs (≥1.8) associated with mafic compositions. In the east, the crust gradually becomes thicker towards the north and exceeds 45 km in the northeastern side whereas in the west, the crust thickens sharply near the Bitlis suture and displays pronounced Moho topography within the Anatolian plate that suggests the presence of multiple fragments. Vp/Vs variations show an anomalously high Vp/Vs corridor (≥1.85) along the North Anatolian Fault and near the youngest volcanic units (c. 3 Ma) and support the presence of partial melt. This corridor is spatially limited from both north and south by low Vp/Vs regions implying a change in crustal composition. Near the Bitlis suture, a layered Vp/Vs model points to the source of low Vp/Vs in the lower crust that may be rich in quartz. Furthermore, the seismic profiles indicate a prominent low velocity zone in the lower crust across a large area beneath the plateau that may act as a decoupling zone between the crust and upper mantle.