Seismic velocities and anisotropy of core samples from the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling borehole in the Sulu UHP terrane, eastern China

Abstract

A detailed study of seismic properties (P and S wave velocities, hysteresis, anisotropy and shear wave splitting) has been carried out on a unique suite of deep borehole core samples from the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling (CCSD) project, which penetrated 5158 m into the Sulu ultrahigh‐pressure (UHP) metamorphic terrane (China). Seismic velocities of the deep core samples are more and less sensitive to pressure in the low pressure (<200–300 MPa) nonlinear and high pressure (>200–300 MPa) linear regimes, respectively, than samples from the surface. The comparison suggests that the high pressure data from the core samples are much more reliable for extrapolation to deeper crust than the data from surface analogs that have been subjected to long histories of weathering and alteration along intergranular and transgranular cracks. The significant increases in the pressure sensitivity of seismic velocities for the core samples in the nonlinear regime indicate that drilling‐induced and stress‐relief microcracks with small aspect ratios are fresh and clean without secondary mineral in‐fillings, and are thus easy to close completely under the applied hydrostatic pressure conditions of the laboratory. The data also elucidate that the velocity‐pressure data can successfully provide important hints about the preferred orientation of microcracks that causes P wave velocity anisotropy and shear wave splitting in cracked rocks, and that the effect of compression on the Vp/Vsratios is negligible for crack‐free compacted rocks. The seismic velocities of equivalent isotropic (fabric‐free) and crack‐free crystalline aggregates calculated from room pressure single crystal elastic constants using the Voigt average are in good agreement with the laboratory data at ∼200 MPa. Comparison of the seismic reflection image from the vicinity of the borehole with the normal‐incidence reflection coefficient profile computed from the laboratory‐measured velocities and densities infers that the seismic reflections originate from mafic (eclogite and retrograde eclogite) or ultramafic units within dominantly felsic rocks.