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Seismic characteristics of central Brazil crust and upper mantle: A deep seismic refraction study

[1] A two‐dimensional model of the Brazilian central crust and upper mantle was obtained from the traveltime interpretation of deep seismic refraction data from the Porangatu and Cavalcante lines, each approximately 300 km long. When the lines were deployed, they overlapped by 50 km, forming an E‐W transect approximately 530 km long across the Tocantins Province and western São Francisco Craton. T
Authors
J.E. Soares, J. Berrocal, R.A. Fuck, Thomas Mooney, D.B.R. Ventura

Crustal structure and tectonics of the northern part of the Southern Granulite Terrane, India

Deep seismic reflection studies investigating the exposed Archean lower continental crust of the Southern Granulite Terrane, India, yield important constraints on the nature and evolution of the deep crust, including the formation and exhumation of granulites. Seismic reflection images along the Kuppam–Bhavani profile reveal a band of reflections that dip southward from 10.5 to 15.0 s two-way-time
Authors
V.V. Rao, K. Sain, P.R. Reddy, Walter D. Mooney

Crustal structure across the Altyn Tagh Range at the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and tectonic implications

We present new seismic refraction/wide-angle-reflection data across the Altyn Tagh Range and its adjacent basins. We find that the crustal velocity structure, and by inference, the composition of the crust changes abruptly beneath the Cherchen fault, i.e., ∼100 km north of the northern margin of the Tibetan plateau. North of the Cherchen fault, beneath the Tarim basin, a platform-type crust is evi
Authors
J. Zhao, Walter D. Mooney, X. Zhang, Z. Li, Z. Jin, N. Okaya

Simulation of active tectonic processes for a convecting mantle with moving continents

Numerical models are presented that simulate several active tectonic processes. These models include a continent that is thermally and mechanically coupled with viscous mantle flow. The assumption of rigid continents allows use of solid body equations to describe the continents' motion and to calculate their velocities. The starting point is a quasi-steady state model of mantle convection with tem
Authors
V. Trubitsyn, M. Kaban, Walter D. Mooney, C. Reigber, P. Schwintzer

Crustal structure of the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau from the Songpan-Ganzi terrane to the Ordos basin

The 1000-km-long Darlag–Lanzhou–Jingbian seismic refraction profile is located in the NE margin of the Tibetan plateau. This profile crosses the northern Songpan-Ganzi terrane, the Qinling-Qilian fold system, the Haiyuan arcuate tectonic region, and the stable Ordos basin. The P-wave and S-wave velocity structure and Poisson's ratios reveal many significant characteristics in the profile. The crus
Authors
M. Liu, Walter D. Mooney, S. Li, N. Okaya, Shane T. Detweiler

Crustal structure of mainland China from deep seismic sounding data

Since 1958, about ninety seismic refraction/wide angle reflection profiles, with a cumulative length of more than sixty thousand kilometers, have been completed in mainland China. We summarize the results in the form of (1) a new contour map of crustal thickness, (2) fourteen representative crustal seismic velocity–depth columns for various tectonic units, and, (3) a Pn velocity map. We found a no
Authors
S. Li, Walter D. Mooney, J. Fan

Explosion source strong ground motions in the Mississippi embayment

Two strong-motion arrays were deployed for the October 2002 Embayment Seismic Excitation Experiment to study the spatial variation of strong ground motions in the deep, unconsolidated sediments of the Mississippi embayment because there are no comparable strong-motion data from natural earthquakes in the area. Each linear array consisted of eight three-component K2 accelerographs spaced 15 m apart
Authors
C.A. Langston, P. Bodin, C. Powell, M. Withers, S. Horton, Walter D. Mooney

Blind comparisons of shear-wave velocities at closely-spaced sites in San Jose, California: Proceedings of a Workshop held at the US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, May 3, 2004

Shear-wave velocities within several hundred meters of Earth's surface are important in specifying earthquake ground motions for engineering design. Not only are the shearwave velocities used in classifying sites for use of modern building codes, but they are also used in site-specific studies of particularly significant structures. Many are the methods for estimating sub-surface shear-wave veloci

Past and future earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault

No abstract available.
Authors
Ray J. Weldon, Thomas E. Fumal, Glenn Biasi, Katherine M. Scharer