EarthScope Project Research Articles

New Insights Into the Active Tectonics of the Northern Canadian Cordillera From an Enhanced Earthquake Catalog

AbstractSeismic activity in the Northern Canadian Cordillera is characterized by diffuse earthquakes that extend hundreds of km northwest from the Yakutat collision zone. We use 25 months of broadband seismic data from Mackenzie Mountain Earthscope Project (MMEP), USArray Transportable Array (TA), and permanent Canadian National Seismic Network stations to present a local earthquake catalog with high sensitivity to small regional events. Deep learning techniques are adopted for both seismic phase detection and association. Event relocations are performed to provide well constrained estimates of earthquake depth distributions. Clusters of seismicity spanning the upper crust are located in the central Richardson Mountains, along the Tintina fault, and in the northeast Selwyn Basin. These clusters suggest that the core of the Richardson Anticlinorium is tectonically active and that the Tintina fault is a locus for low levels of active deformation. We interpret seismicity in the northeast Selwyn Basin as primarily occurring in the hanging wall of the Plateau thrust fault and suggest that some combination of localized duplex structures and lithological strength contrasts both within the Selwyn Basin and between abutting Paleozoic shelf sequences may be responsible for seismicity in the Mackenzie Mountain foreland.

Mapping Motion Direction to Color in Ground-Motion Visualizations—A Tool with Potential Applications in Different Settings

Abstract The increase in seismometer density on a continental scale since the start of the EarthScope project has enabled the community to produce visualizations of the propagating wavefield from local and teleseismic events. Previous work has shown that these animations generate much interest yet have limitations and can be confusing to novices. Here, we present a new type of visualization in which the color, position, and size of the symbols representing each seismometer are time dependent and determined by the instantaneous proportion of motion in the Z, R, and T components. This color-mapping scheme has the advantage of automatically producing different colors for different wave types and results in vibrant animations. The color mapping is based on transforming the value of the envelopes of the filtered velocity traces to red–green–blue values and subsequently boosting the color saturation in the hue–saturation–value color space. Animations in map view and along great-circle paths have been produced and used in a formal classroom setting and have also been shared with the broader public through social media channels. In both formal and informal settings, the animations have succeeded in garnering attention and stimulating discussion.

Three-dimensional regularized inversion of magnetotelluric data with a minimum support gradient constraint

Regularization is an effective technique to obtain stable solutions for 3D magnetotelluric (MT) inversion. Smooth constraints are commonly used in traditional inversion algorithms. It is unsuitable if anomalies occur in block patterns. In some cases, it is necessary to obtain sharp boundaries. Some studies have proposed stabilizing functionals to obtain clear and sharp boundaries, such as minimum support (MS) and minimum gradient support (MGS) functionals; however, the optimal value of the focusing parameter should be selected to produce reliable inversion results. In this study, we expanded a new stabilizing functional that we called minimum support gradient (MSG) stabilizing functional as a stabilizer in 3D MT inversion. We developed a Gauss-Newton (GN) algorithm based on the edge-based finite-element method (FEM) to invert the MT data. In the inversion process, the forward modeling and the adjoint problem are solved by the Math Kernel Library (MKL) PARDISO parallel direct solver. we also parallelized the inversion program over frequencies by using Message Passing Interface (MPI) to further speed up the inversion process. Two synthetic models are tested to compare the inversion results for different stabilizing functionals. Compared to traditional smooth inversion, the MSG inversion can clearly distinguish the boundaries of the anomalies. The inverted resistive targets are closer to the true test model. Additionally, the MSG inversion results are stable and robust for a wide range of focusing parameter values, indicating that our method is effective and easy to implement. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to the long MT data from the USArray component of EarthScope project in the United States.

Recording the Aurora at Seismometers across Alaska

AbstractWe examine three continuously recording data sets related to the aurora: all-sky camera images, three-component magnetometer data, and vertical-component, broadband seismic data as part of the EarthScope project (2014 to present). Across Alaska there are six all-sky cameras, 13 magnetometers, and >200 seismometers. The all-sky images and magnetometers have the same objective, which is to monitor space weather and improve our understanding of auroral activity, including the influence on magnetic fields in the ground. These variations in the magnetic field are also visible on seismometers, to the extent that during an auroral event, the long-period (40–800 s) waves recorded by a seismometer are magnetic field variations, not true ground motion. Although this is a problem—one that can be rectified with magnetic shielding at each seismometer site—it is also an opportunity because the present seismic array in Alaska is much broader than the coverage by magnetometers and all-sky cameras. Here we focus on three aurora events and document a direct link between aurora images in the night sky and seismometer recordings on ground. Simultaneous recordings by magnetometers provide a critical link between the sky images and the seismometer recordings. We document qualitative correlations among sky, magnetic, and seismic data. The findings suggest that the signature of auroral activity is widespread across seismometers in Alaska, implying that the seismic array could be used to enhance the spatial resolution of the existing network of all-sky cameras and magnetometers. Future efforts to improve the multisensor seismic stations in Alaska, for the purpose of monitoring seismic and auroral activity, should consider installation of all-sky cameras, installation of magnetometers, and magnetic shielding of seismic sensors.

The Mackenzie Mountains EarthScope Project: Studying Active Deformation in the Northern North American Cordillera from Margin to Craton

Abstract The Mackenzie Mountains EarthScope Project—a collaboration between Colorado State University, the University of Alaska, Michigan State University, and Yukon College—deployed a roughly linear, 40-station broadband seismographic network. This network crossed the actively deforming Northern Canadian Cordillera and the Mackenzie Mountains in Yukon, Canada; it also extended into the Canadian Shield in Northwest Territories, Canada. The array was deployed between July 2016 and August 2018 (with four pilot stations installed in July 2015 and three extended stations operating through August 2019) coinciding with and complementing the deployment of the EarthScope Transportable Array to Alaska and western Canada. In this article, we present an overview of project scientific objectives, station configurations, and site conditions; discuss environmental challenges, including those that resulted in station downtime (e.g., spring flooding and encounters with bears); and suggest potential solutions to such subarctic challenges for the benefit of future deployments in comparable regions. We also include an initial characterization of seasonal and geographic variations in ambient seismic noise for the northwestern Canadian Cordillera.

Bear Encounters with Seismic Stations in Alaska and Northwestern Canada

ABSTRACTA typical seismic experiment involves installing 10–50 seismometers for 2–3 yr to record distant and local earthquakes, along with Earth’s ambient noise wavefield. The choice of the region is governed by scientific questions that may be addressed with newly recorded seismic data. In most experiments, not all stations record data for the full expected duration. Data loss may arise from defective equipment, improperly installed equipment, vandalism or theft, inadequate power sources, environmental disruptions (e.g., snow covering solar panels and causing power outage), and many other reasons. In remote regions of Alaska and northwestern Canada, bears are a particular threat to seismic stations. Here, we document three recent projects (Southern Alaska Lithosphere and Mantle Observation Network, Fault Locations and Alaska Tectonics from Seismicity, and Mackenzie Mountains EarthScope Project) in which bears were regular visitors to remote seismic stations. For these projects, there were documented bear encounters at 56 out of 88 remote stations and 6 out of 85 nonremote stations. Considering bear‐disrupted sites—such as dug‐up cables or outages—there were 29 cases at remote stations and one case at nonremote stations. We also compile bear encounters with permanent stations within the Alaska Seismic Network, as well as stations of the Alaska Transportable Array. For these two networks, the stations are designed with fiberglass huts that house and protect equipment. Data losses at these networks because of bears are minor (<5%), though evidence suggests they are regularly visited by bears, and data disruptions are exclusively at remote stations. The primary goal of this study is to formally document the impacts of bears on seismic stations in Alaska and northwestern Canada. We propose that the threat of damage from bears to a station increases with the remoteness of the site and the density of bears, and it decreases with the strength and security of materials used. We suggest that low‐power electric fences be considered for seismic stations—especially for temporary experiments—to protect the equipment and to protect the bears. With the goal of 100% data returns, future seismic experiments in remote regions of bear country should carefully consider the impacts of bears.

3‐D Inversion of the MT EarthScope Data, Collected Over the East Central United States

AbstractThe magnetotelluric (MT) data collected as a part of the EarthScope project provided a unique opportunity to study the conductivity structure of the deep interior of the North American continent. Besides the scientific value of the recovered subsurface models, the data also allowed inversion practitioners to test the robustness of their algorithms applied to regional long‐period data. In this paper, we present the results of MT inversion of a subset of the second footprint of the MT data collection covering the East Central United States. Our inversion algorithm implements simultaneous inversion of the full MT impedance data both for the 3‐D conductivity distribution and for the distortion matrix. The distortion matrix provides the means to account for the effect of the near‐surface geoelectrical inhomogeneities on the MT data. The long‐period data do not have the resolution for the small near‐surface conductivity anomalies, which makes an application of the distortion matrix especially appropriate. The determined conductivity model of the region agrees well with the known geologic and tectonic features of the East Central United States. The conductivity anomalies recovered by our inversion indicate a possible presence of the hot spot track in the area.

The Subduction Zone Observatory takes shape.

Depending on how you count, there are roughly a dozen subduction zones around the globe, regions where ocean crust is dragged down into Earth along plate boundaries, leading to large earthquakes and melting in the mantle that causes magma to burble up. Subduction zones not only pose a threat to humans, but also act as critical gears in the rock cycle, recycling crust into Earth's interior and pumping up new volcanic rock. Scientists are now cooking up a plan for a major new research program: the Subduction Zone Observatory (SZO). Just where the SZO will be located, what instruments it will include, and what it might cost will come into focus during a National Science Foundation (NSF)–sponsored workshop next week. But many think the observatory could be NSF's next major investment in earth science research, following the $200 million EarthScope project, which began in 2003.

Mantle below North American plate newly modeled

Dynamics of the Earth's mantle play an important role in processes that occur farther up toward the surface. For instance, although the eastern coast of the United States is considered a passive margin, convection in the upper mantle can result in activity in the crust. To get a better look at the mantle underneath the North American plate, Schmandt and Lin analyzed data collected by the EarthScope project, which installed a vast network of seismometers across the United States.

P-wave tomography of potential convective downwellings and their source regions, Sierra Nevada, California

Teleseismic P-wave tomography using the Sierra Nevada Earthscope Project (SNEP) deployment, older temporary deployments in the Sierra, and broadband stations from permanent and USArray Transportable Array (TA) stations was derived from starting models either lacking lateral variation (one dimensional [1-D]) or created from three-dimensional (3-D) surface-wave models. The use of multiple starting models permits examination of the robustness of different features while limiting the inherent ambiguities of teleseismic body-wave tomography. Our results confirm that mafic residuum of the Mesozoic Sierran batholith has been removed from the eastern Sierra north to at least 39°N. Low-wavespeed material near the Moho under the eastern Sierra is probably silicic lower crust and warm and possible melt-laden upper mantle. If the residuum remains in the upper mantle, there are three possible locations for it: a high-wavespeed (+∼5%) body extending down to ∼250 km near 36°N, 119.3°W termed the Isabella anomaly, an unusually high-wavespeed (to +10%) and shallow (top ∼40–50 km) anomaly at the south end of the Gorda slab near 40.5°N, 122.25°W termed the Redding anomaly, and a more ill-defined region of high wavespeeds in the crust to uppermost mantle (

Geoelectrical Structure of the Lithosphere and Asthenosphere beneath the Northwestern United States

We have inverted magneto telluric (MT) data collected in nine states of the northwestern United States as a part of the EarthScope project for 3D imaging of electrical resistivity to a depth of 500 km using recent advances in extremely largescale electromagnetic modeling and inversion. The results of our mega-cell 3D inversion reveal multi-scale geo electrical in homogeneities in the upper mantle, which are closely related to major known tectonic features. Our geoelectrical model clearly shows a resistive structure associated with the Juan de Fuca slab subducting beneath the northwestern United States, and the conductive zone of partially melted material above the subducting slab due to the release of fluids from the down going slab. We observe extensive areas of moderate-to-high conductive asthenosphere below 100 to 200 km. The geoelectrical model also shows a prominent conductive feature associated with the partially melted mantle plumelike layer of the Yellowstone hotspot. These results correlate reasonably well with P-wave and S-wave velocity models independently obtained from seismic tomography.

Imaging lithospheric foundering in the structure of the Sierra Nevada

Tomographic studies of the mantle of southern California (USA) commonly found evidence for seismically high speed material, known as the Isabella anomaly, extending from near the base of the crust of the southwestern Sierra Nevada foothills into the asthenosphere. This anomaly has been interpreted to mark downwelling lithospheric material that had been removed from the southern Sierra Nevada. Using data from the Sierra Nevada EarthScope Project (SNEP) array, we investigate the lithosphere of the Sierra Nevada and surrounding region to better understand the process by which batholiths form dense lithospheric roots that become unstable and founder. Inverting phase velocities of fundamental mode Rayleigh waves for shear wave speeds provides observations of the distribution of high and low wave-speed anomalies, which correspond to portions of the batholith that formed an intact lithospheric root, and where seismically slower shallow asthenosphere marks areas where lithosphere has been removed. Our results corroborate previous observations that the southern Sierra Nevada has thin crust underlain by shallow asthenosphere. High shear wave velocity (Vs) material in the mantle beneath the southwestern foothills marks the location of the Isabella anomaly, to the east of which is a region of low Vs mantle where asthenosphere has risen to replace the delaminating root. Farther north, near the latitude of Long Valley, low velocities at shallow depths beneath the high elevations of the eastern Sierra indicate the presence of asthenosphere close to the base of the crust. Thicker high-speed material, however, underlies the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada at this latitude and dips to the east where it extends to depths of ∼100 km or more, giving it the appearance of a portion of lithosphere that has detached from the east but remains attached to the west as it is currently peeling off. The structure of the Sierra Nevada changes near the latitude of Lake Tahoe, where thinner lithosphere extends between depths of 40 and 80 km, but does not reach greater depths. It appears that the lithospheric material of the Sierra Nevada from latitudes close to Lake Tahoe, and continuing to the north, is not being removed, indicating a change between the structure and evolution of the southern and northern Sierra Nevada.

Melt in the mantle beneath the amagmatic zone, southern Nevada

Surface wave tomography of the western United States reveals the presence of an unusually slow shear wave velocity anomaly beneath a region in the Basin and Range Province, sometimes termed the amagmatic zone, which is renowned for its lack of volcanic activity. We pre­sent a model of the three-dimensional shear wave velocity structure beneath the southwestern United States constructed from the inversion of fundamental mode Rayleigh wave dispersion. The abundance of data from the deployment of the USArray (a component of the EarthScope project) provides unprecedented resolution. There is an excellent correlation between the location of slow shear wave velocity anomalies and recent (younger than 1 Ma) volcanism. This correlation and the unusually low values of absolute shear velocity beneath the magmatic gap lead us to conclude that there is melt present beneath this region. Previous studies have proposed that the preservation of cold continental lithosphere beneath the magmatic gap accounted for the lack of volcanism; however, this hypothesis is inconsistent with anomalously slow shear wave velocities in the 50–100 km depth range. Perhaps the prevalence of low-angle normal faulting in this region has made it difficult for the melt to escape the mantle. Beneath an immediately adjacent region, the southwestern Nevada volcanic field, where volcanism was abundant 10–15 m.y. ago but has since waned, significantly higher shear velocities suggest that the melt has been extracted from the mantle.

Three-dimensional inversion of large-scale EarthScope magnetotelluric data based on the integral equation method: Geoelectrical imaging of the Yellowstone conductive mantle plume

[1] Interpretation of the EarthScope MT (magnetotelluric) data requires the development of a large-scale inversion method which can address two common problems of 3D MT inversion: computational time and memory requirements. We have developed an efficient method of 3D MT inversion based on an IE (integral equation) formulation of the MT forward modeling problem and a receiver footprint approach, implemented as a massively parallel algorithm. This method is applied to the MT data collected in the western United States as a part of the EarthScope project. As a result, we present one of the first 3D geoelectrical images of the upper mantle beneath Yellowstone revealed by this large-scale 3D inversion of the EarthScope MT data. These images show a highly conductive body associated with the tomographically imaged mantle plume-like layer of hot material rising from the upper mantle toward the Yellowstone volcano. The conductive body identified in these images is west-dipping in a similar way to a P-wave low-velocity body.

Large-scale three-dimensional inversion of EarthScope MT data using the integral equation method

In this paper we apply 3D inversion to MT data collected in the Northwestern United States as a part of the EarthScope project. By the end of 2009 MT data had been collected from 262 stations located throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and most of Montana and Wyoming. We used data from 139 MT stations in this analysis. We developed fully parallelized rigorous 3D MT inversion software based on the integral equation method with variable background conductivity. We also implemented a receiver footprint approach which considerably reduced the computational resources needed to invert the large volumes of data covering vast areas. The data set used in the inversion was obtained through the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The inversion domain was divided into 2.7 M cells. The inverted electrical conductivity distribution agrees reasonably well with geological features of the region.

Improved imaging with phase-weighted common conversion point stacks of receiver functions

SUMMARY Broad-band array studies frequently stack receiver functions to improve their signal-to-noise ratio while mapping structures in the crust and upper mantle. Noise may produce spurious secondary arrivals that obscure or mimic arrivals produced by P-to-S conversions at large contrasts in seismic impedance such as the Moho. We use a Hilbert transform to calculate phase-weights, which minimize the constructive stacking of erroneous signal in receiver function data sets. We outline this approach and demonstrate its application through synthetic data combined with different types of noise, a previously published example of signal-generated noise, and a large data set from the Sierra Nevada EarthScope Project. These examples show that phase-weighting reduces the presence of signal-generated noise in receiver functions and improves stacked data sets.

EMScope: A Continental Scale Magnetotelluric Observatory and Data Discovery Resource

EMScope, a component of the NSF Earthscope project, is installing a 70 km-spaced grid of long-period magnetotelluric stations across the USA. Rapid data quality control and generation of derived data products provides an accessible resource openly available without charge or restriction through the IRIS Data Management Center and EMScope data portals via a set of data discovery tools. These data are available typically within two weeks of acquisition. Initial 3-d inversion of such EMScope data from the US Pacific Northwest shows substantial coherence between crust and mantle electrical conductivity variations, the boundaries of major physiographic provinces, and seismically delineated features.

Thermal processes in the context of EarthScope

The EarthScope project is designed to elucidate the dynamics and evolution of the North American continent. To reach that goal, focused studies of the continental seismic structure, the strength of the lithosphere and modes of deformation, the patterns of stresses and strain, and the manner in which the lithosphere responds to excitation during earthquakes are all a high priority.The common factor linking these EarthScope centric issues is the thermal state of the lithosphere. Although not an explicit component of EarthScope in the sense of US Array, PBO or SAFOD, an understanding of the thermal structure and associated thermal processes plays a key role in interpreting the observations generated by the EarthScope infrastructure. In order to help guide EarthScope science to exploit most effectively the links among these observations, a workshop was held to bring together practitioners from the fields of seismology geodesy thermochronology and crustal deformation with researchers who focus on thermal processes. The goal was to define the high priority issues to be addressed through integration of thermal geophysics with Earth‐Scope science.