HR: 1340h
AN: S33A-1076 [Abstracts]
TI: Multi-Band Images from CD-ROM: Paleo-Subduction and Modern Basalt Extraction Structures in the Southern
Rocky Mountains
AU: * Levander, A
EM: alan@rice.edu
AF: Earth Science, Rice University MS-126
6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005
United States
AU: Zelt, C A
EM: czelt@rice.edu
AF: Earth Science, Rice University MS-126
6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005
United States
AU: Magnani, M B
EM: beatrice@rice.edu
AF: Earth Science, Rice University MS-126
6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005
United States
AU: Dueker, K G
EM: dueker@uwyo.edu
AF: Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Dept. 3006
1000 University Ave.
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3006
United States
AU: Yuan, H
EM: yuan@uwyo.edu
AF: Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Dept. 3006
1000 University Ave.
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3006
United States
AB:
The CD-ROM (Continental Dynamics of the Rocky Mountains) seismic experiments targeted two Paleoproterozoic suture zones in
the western U.S. along a north-south study corridor that extends from central New Mexico to central Wyoming. Seismic
reflection, refraction, and teleseismic measurements were made across the Cheyenne Belt in southern Wyoming, and across the
Jemez Lineament in northern New Mexico. The Cheyenne Belt is a profound geologic boundary separating the Archean Wyoming
craton from island arc terranes accreted to the proto-continent in the Paleoproterozoic. The Jemez Lineament is a linear
trend of modern volcanics extending SW from southern Colorado to Arizona, and also coincides with the southern edge of the
suture between Yavapai and Mazatzal Paleoproterozoic island arc terranes. Karlstrom and Humphreys (1998) have speculated that
the ancient accretionary boundaries influence Cenozoic tectonism in the western U.S., noting the correlation of NE-SW low
velocity upper mantle tomography anomalies with geochemical boundaries and mapped suture zones in the Southern Rocky
Mountains.
At the Cheyenne Belt, the reflection, refraction, P and S tomograms, and pre-stack depth-migrated receiver function images
show crust and upper mantle subduction-collision structures that are inferred to have formed during Paleoproterozic island
arc collision with the southern margin of the Wyoming craton. Of particular note are a north dipping, high velocity (+3$%$
in P, +5$%$ in S), slab-like structure and a fragment of imbricated crust imaged with both the P and S tomography and the
depth-migrated receiver functions.
At the Jemez Lineament the reflection data image a bi-vergent orogen marking the Yavapai-Mazatzal suture in the crust.
Refraction data show that under the suture zone the crust thins; upper mantle velocity ($\sim$7.7-7.8 km/s) determined from
P{_${n}$ suggests that the upper mantle contains 1$%$ partial melt. In the same upper mantle region P and S tomograms show
large magnitude low velocity anomalies (-2.5$%$, -5$%$) that correspond to a series of moderately bright but complicated
upper mantle events that extend over a distance of $\sim$200 km and to depths of $\sim$100km in the receiver function
images. We have modeled this complex series of events using a stochastic description of the velocity field, and generated
finite-difference seismograms that match the observations. We interpret the upper mantle low velocity zone as the source
region for the recently erupted basaltic magmas found at the Jemez Lineament along the CD-ROM corridor. We speculate that
the paleo-suture zone left from continental accretion acts as a crustal conduit for basaltic magmas to pass through the
crust, form sills, and erupt.
DE: 7260 Theory and modeling
DE: 7294 Instruments and techniques
DE: 7203 Body wave propagation
DE: 7218 Lithosphere and upper mantle
DE: 3260 Inverse theory
SC: Seismology [S]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting