The MAGIC Experiment: A Combined Seismic and Magnetotelluric Deployment to Investigate the Structure, Dynamics, and Evolution of the Central Appalachians

Abstract

Abstract The eastern margin of North America has undergone multiple episodes of orogenesis and rifting, yielding the surface geology and topography visible today. It is poorly known how the crust and mantle lithosphere have responded to these tectonic forces, and how geologic units preserved at the surface related to deeper structures. The eastern North American margin has undergone significant postrift evolution since the breakup of Pangea, as evidenced by the presence of young (Eocene) volcanic rocks in western Virginia and eastern West Virginia and by the apparently recent rejuvenation of Appalachian topography. The drivers of this postrift evolution, and the precise mechanisms through which relatively recent processes have modified the structure of the margin, remain poorly understood. The Mid-Atlantic Geophysical Integrative Collaboration (MAGIC) experiment, part of the EarthScope USArray Flexible Array, consisted of collocated, dense, linear arrays of broadband seismic and magnetotelluric (MT) stations (25–28 instruments of each type) across the central Appalachian Mountains, through the U.S. states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. The goals of the MAGIC deployment were to characterize the seismic and electrical conductivity structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath the central Appalachians using natural-source seismic and MT imaging methods. The MAGIC stations operated between 2013 and 2016, and the data are publicly available via the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management Center.