Jessica Spratt

A simple method for deriving the uniform field MT responses in auroral zones

Source field effects in magnetotelluric data acquired at high geomagnetic latitudes can result in erroneous interpretations of Earth conductivity structure deep within the mantle. This paper describes a simple technique most appropriate for a region that is dominantly one-dimensional (1-D) and uses the vertical magnetic field variations for identifying intervals of likely low contamination by non-uniform sources. Times are chosen when the variations stay within prescribed limits defined on the basis of a histogram of the variations for the whole recording interval. An example is given showing application of the method for data from a site under the auroral oval at a time when solar activity was at its lowest for the last solar cycle. A model derived from the responses obtained by processing all available data implies a decrease in resistivity at about 350 km to about 100 Ω.m. In contrast, the model obtained from low activity interval responses shows a less rapid decrease in resistivity, without a change at around the 410 km phase boundary. The responses obtained from all data can be explained by the influence of a source with an average wavelength of 3,000 km.

Magnetotelluric investigations of the lithosphere beneath the central Rae craton, mainland Nunavut, Canada

New magnetotelluric soundings at 64 locations throughout the central Rae craton on mainland Nunavut constrain 2-D resistivity models of the crust and lithospheric mantle beneath three regional transects. Responses determined from colocated broadband and long-period magnetotelluric recording instruments enabled resistivity imaging to depths of > 300 km. Strike analysis and distortion decomposition on all data reveal a regional trend of 45–53°, but locally the geoelectric strike angle varies laterally and with depth. The 2-D models reveal a resistive upper crust to depths of 15–35 km that is underlain by a conductive layer that appears to be discontinuous at or near major mapped geological boundaries. Surface projections of the conductive layer coincide with areas of high grade, Archean metasedimentary rocks. Tectonic burial of these rocks and thickening of the crust occurred during the Paleoproterozoic Arrowsmith (2.3 Ga) and Trans-Hudson orogenies (1.85 Ga). Overall, the uppermost mantle of the Rae craton shows resistivity values that range from ~3000 Ω m in the northeast (beneath Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula) to ~10,000 Ω m beneath the central Rae craton, to >50,000 Ω m in the south near the Hearne Domain. Near-vertical zones of reduced resistivity are identified within the uppermost mantle lithosphere that may be related to areas affected by mantle melt or metasomatism associated with emplacement of Hudsonian granites. A regional decrease in resistivities to values of ~500 Ω m at depths of 180–220 km, increasing to 300 km near the southern margin of the Rae craton, is interpreted as the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary.