Near‐vertical and intermediate offset seismic reflection data from west of the Whipple Mountains, SE California

Abstract

During a seismic reflection survey conducted by the California Consortium for Crustal Studies in the Basin and Range Province west of the Whipple Mountains, SE California, a piggyback experiment was carried out to collect intermediate offset data (12–31 km). These data were obtained by recording the Vibroseis energy with a second, passive recording array, deployed twice at fixed positions at opposite ends of the reflection lines. The reflection midpoints fall into a 3‐km‐wide and 15‐km‐long region in Vidal Valley, roughly parallel to a segment of one of the near‐vertical reflection profiles. This data set makes three unique contributions to the geophysical study of this region. (1) From forward modeling of the observed travel times using ray‐tracing techniques, a shallow layer with velocities ranging from 6.0 to 6.5 km/s was found. This layer dips to the south from 2‐km depth near the Whipple Mountains to a depth of 5‐km in Rice Valley. These depths correspond closely to the westward projection of the Whipple detachment fault, which is exposed 1 km east of the near‐vertical profiles in the Whipple Mountains. (2) On the near‐vertical profile, the reflections from the mylonitically deformed lower plate at upper crustal and mid crustal depths are seen to cease underneath a sedimentary basin in Vidal Valley. However, the piggyback data, which undershoot this basin, show that these reflections are continuous beneath the basin. Thus near‐surface energy transmission problems were responsible for the apparent lateral termination of the reflections on the near‐vertical reflection profile. (3) The areal distribution of the midpoints allows us to construct a quasi‐three‐dimensional image on perpendicular profiles; at the cross points we determined the true strike and dip of reflecting horizons. This analysis shows that the reflections from the mylonitically deformed lower plate dip to the southwest westward of the Whipple Mountains and dip to the south southward of the Turtle Mountains. The results of this study support the interpretation of crustal reflectivity in the near‐vertical reflection profiles to be related to the mid‐Tertiary episode of extension which produced the Whipple metamorphic core complex. This association geometrically suggests a more regionally distributed mechanism for crustal thinning as compared with single detachment fault models.