Deep Structure of the Fold-and-Thrust Belt in the Tenpoku Area, Northern Hokkaido Island, Japan, Revealed by Reprocessing of Seismic Reflection Data From the 1990 MITI Geophysical Explorations.

The Tenpoku area, the northern part of Hokkaido island, Japan, is believed to have hydrocarbon potential in the thick Cretaceous-Tertiary sediments. Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI, present Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) and some private companies have conducted many geological and geophysical explorations and test drillings in this area. These surveys have revealed that some anticlines (e.g. Horonobe and Toyotomi anticlines) and faults (e.g. Ohmagari and Horonobe faults) exist in the mountainous area and that a large sedimentary basin extends from the west of the mountainous area to the Japan Sea. The area shows a fold-and-thrust belt structure of west vergence. There is an active Sarobetsu flexural zone in the eastern end of the sedimentary basin. The flexural zone is believed to have become active since the middle Pliocene. In this way, overall geological structure down to around 5km in depth is well known, while there is few information about the deeper part. Japan National Oil Corporation (present Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)) conducted seismic reflection surveys in this area in 1990 on consignment from MITI. Part of the seismic reflection data was acquired by using dynamite and has long two-way traveltime of 18sec. As the seismic data may provide us deeper information on this fold-and-thrust belt, we tried to reprocess the data with permission by JOGMEC. As a result, we found that two low-angle east-dipping thrusts extend to around 10km in depth, which are related to the Ohmagari fault and Sarobetsu flexural zone. Beneath these thrusts, some other east-dipping thrusts also exist which may be related to micro-earthquake activity of this area.