Crustal and upper mantle structure of the northwestern North Island, New Zealand, from seismic refraction data

The crustal and upper mantle structure of the northwestern North Island of New Zealand is derived from the results of a seismic refraction experiment; shots were fired at the ends and middle of a 575 km-long line extending from Lake Taupo to Cape Reinga. The principal finding from the experiment is that the crust is 25 ± 2 km thick, and is underlain by what is interpreted to be an upper mantle of seismic velocity 7.6 ± 0.1 km s⁻¹, that increases to 7.9 km s⁻¹ at a depth of about 45 km. Crustal seismic velocities vary between 5.3 and 6.36 km s⁻¹ with an average value of 6.04 km s⁻¹. There are close geophysical and geological similarities between the north-western North Island of New Zealand and the Basin and Range province of the western United States. In particular, the conditions of low upper-mantle seismic velocities, thin crust with respect to surface elevation, and high heat-flow (70–100 mW m⁻²) observed in these two areas can be ascribed to their respective positions behind an active convergent margin for about the past 20 Myr.     

Crustal underplating and its implications for subsidence and state of isostasy along the Ninetyeast Ridge hotspot trail

Recent seismic field work has revealed high lower-crustal velocities under Ninetyeast Ridge, Indian Ocean, indicating the presence of crustal underplating ( Grevemeyer et al . 2000 ). We used results from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) drill cores and cross-spectral analysis of gravity and bathymetric data to study the impact of the underplating body on the subsidence history and the mode of isostatic compensation along Ninetyeast Ridge. Compared with the adjacent Indian basin, the subsidence of Ninetyeast Ridge is profoundly anomalous. Within the first few millions of years after crustal emplacement the ridge subsided rapidly. Thereafter, however, subsidence slowed down significantly. The most reliable model of isostasy suggests loading of a thin elastic plate on and beneath the seafloor. Isostatic compensation of subsurface loading occurs at a depth of about 25 km, which is in reasonably good agreement with seismic constraints. Subsurface loading is inherently associated with buoyant forces acting on the lithosphere. The low subsidence may therefore be the superposition of cooling of the lithosphere and uplift due to buoyant material added at the base of the crust. A model including prolonged crustal growth in the form of subcrustal plutonism may account for all observations.     

Crustal structure of the French Guiana margin, West Equatorial Atlantic

Geophysical data from the Amazon Cone Experiment are used to determine the structure and evolution of the French Guiana and Northeast Brazil continental margin, and to better understand the origin and development of along-margin segmentation. A 427-km-long combined multichannel reflection and wide-angle refraction seismic profile acquired across the southern French Guiana margin is interpreted, where plate reconstructions suggest a rift-type setting.
The resulting model shows a crustal structure in which 35–37-km-thick pre-rift continental crust is thinned by a factor of 6.4 over a distance of ∼70  km associated with continental break-up and the initiation and establishment of seafloor spreading. The ocean–continent boundary is a transition zone up to 45  km in width, in which the two-layered oceanic-type crustal structure develops. Although relatively thin at 3.5–5.0  km, such thin oceanic crust appears characteristic of the margin as a whole.
There is no evidence of rift-related magmatism, either as seaward-dipping sequences in the reflection data or as a high velocity region in the lower crust in the P -wave velocity model, and as a such the margin is identified as non-volcanic in type. However, there is also no evidence of the rotated fault block and graben structures characteristic of rifted margins. Consequently, the thin oceanic crust, the rapidity of continental crustal thinning and the absence of characteristic rift-related structures leads to the conclusion that the southern French Guiana margin has instead developed in an oblique rift setting, in which transform motion also played a significant role in the evolution of the resulting crustal structure and along-margin segmentation in structural style.     

Crustal model of the Bransfield Rift, West Antarctica, from detailed OBS refraction experiments

The first detailed deep seismic refraction study in the Bransfield Strait, West Antarctica, using sensitive OBSs (ocean bottom seismographs) was carried out successfully during the Antarctic summer of 1990/1991. The experiment focused on the deep crustal structure beneath the axis of the Bransfield Rift. Seismic profile DSS-20 was located exactly in the Bransfield Trough, which is suspected to be a young rift system. Along the profile, five OBSs were deployed at spacings of 50-70 km. 51 shots were fired along the 310 km profile. This paper gives the first presentation of the results. A detailed model of the crustal structure was obtained by modelling the observed traveltimes and amplitudes using a 2-D ray-tracing technique. The uppermost (sedimentary?) cover, with velocities of 2.0-5.5 km s⁻¹, reaches a depth of up to 8 km. Below this, a complex with velocities of 6.4-6.8 km s⁻¹ is observed. The presence of a high-velocity body, with V _p= 7.3-7.7 km s⁻¹, was detected in the 14-32 km depth range in the central part of the profile. These inhomogeneities can be interpreted as a stage of back-arc spreading and stretching of the continental crust, coinciding with the Deception-Bridgeman volcanic line. Velocities of 8.1 km s⁻¹, characteristic of the Moho, are observed along the profile at a depth of 30-32 km.