The intracrustal structure beneath the Owyhee Plateau, Oregon, from receiver function analysis
Abstract
The Owyhee Plateau straddles southeastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho, and northern Nevada, and is an isolated block of older, and less modified, continental lithosphere relative to bordering geologic terranes. Previous seismic studies have characterized the Owyhee Plateau as having thickened crust with low Poisson's ratio and high intracrustal S-wave velocities, and distinct, albeit thin, mantle lithosphere. Significant tectonomagmatic activity, including extension in the northern Great Basin, and intraplate volcanism is present on the margins of the Plateau, but very little volcanism takes place within the Plateau itself. The volcanism is expressed as two prominent age-progressive volcanic tracks, the Snake River Plains-Yellowstone and the High Lava Plains, both of which appear to have originated from near the Owyhee Plateau at approximately 12 Ma. Recent ambient noise tomography and scattered-wave imaging reveal the presence of irregular high velocity layering in the Owyhee mid-crust, but the extent and properties of this feature, and its role in the tectonic evolution of the Owyhee Plateau, remain elusive. In this study, we perform detailed single station Ps receiver function analysis to better constrain the discontinuity structures within the Owyhee crust. We use teleseismic waveform data recorded at 28 High Lava Plains seismic array and 12 USArray Transportable Array broadband stations from 2006 to 2009. Preliminary results show coherent signals of converted phase at ~20 km depth, indicating the presence of a positive velocity discontinuity, which may mark the upper bound of the high velocity layer imaged in previous studies. We consider and examine possible effects of seismic anisotropy on our results and are also conducting synthetic experiments to further constrain the properties of this feature.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.S21C2431H
- Keywords:
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- 7200 SEISMOLOGY;
- 7240 SEISMOLOGY Subduction zones;
- 8170 TECTONOPHYSICS Subduction zone processes;
- 7230 SEISMOLOGY Seismicity and tectonics