Compressional and shear wave velocities at high temperature and confining pressure in basalts from the Faeroe Islands

Abstract

Compressional ( V P ) and shear ( V S ) wave velocities and the dependent elastic constants have been determined by the pulse transmission technique to 6 kb confining pressure at room temperature and to 700° C at 6 kb confining pressure for eleven basalts from the Faeroe Islands. The Faeroe basalts investigated are tholeiitic, they clearly lie within the tholeiitic area, and display a pronounced trend of iron enrichment from rocks with an M/M + F ratio of 0.5 to rocks with an M/M + F ratio of about 0.25. The mean V P and V S for eleven specimens are 5.57 km/sec and 3.18 km/sec, respectively. Velocity—density relations for the basalts might be more appropriately described by non-linear solutions than by linear relations commonly used for basalts. In general, V P and V S remain unaffected by temperature up to 300° C. At higher temperature the changes in wave velocities are influenced by metamorphic processes and are, therefore, somewhat erratic. In zeolite-bearing specimens an abrupt velocity decrease around 350°C is observed, which correlates well with a drastic compaction of bulk volume. Additional experiments on cold-pressed zeolite powder clearly indicate that the sharp velocity decrease in the basalts is related to dehydration of zeolite minerals. Partial-melting processes, which occur within vesicules and pore-spaces at distinctly higher temperatures have no additional effect on wave velocity. Comparison with field data reveals that, without exception, the velocities at 0.5 kb confining pressure display the same range that has been commonly noted in refraction data for Layer 2. There are no significant differences in wave velocities and the pressure—temperature dependence in samples recovered from the upper, middle, and lower basalt series in the Faeroe Islands.