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Craig M. Jarchow

Publications and source records attributed to Craig M. Jarchow.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

Seismic evidence for active magmatic underplating beneath the Basin and Range Province, western United States

Near-vertical and wide-angle seismic reflection data provide evidence for the presence of a magma body at the base of the crust beneath Buena Vista Valley in northwestern Nevada. The seismic response of this hypothesized magma body is characterized by high-amplitude, near-vertical P wave reflections and a comparably strong P -to- S converted phase. The magma body, referred to here as the Buena Vista Magma Body, is probably a single sill with thickness no greater than 200 m and length no greater than 1.8 km. The melt fraction in the sill is undoubtedly greater than 20–30%, and probably exceeds 50%. Melt composition is unconstrained. Although the age of the Buena Vista Magma Body is difficult to determine precisely, it is probably no older than 500,000 years. This suggests that magmatism in the Basin and Range Province is an ongoing process, despite the relative paucity of volcanic rocks erupted at the surface during the last 6 m.y.

Nevada, Idaho↗
USGS1994

Large-explosive source, wide-recording aperture, seismic profiling on the Columbia Plateau, Washington

Clear subsurface seismic images have been obtained at low cost on the Columbia Plateau, Washington. The Columbia Plateau is perhaps the most notorious of all 'bad-data' areas because large impedance contrasts in surface flood basalts severely degrade the seismic wavefield. This degradation was mitigated in this study via a large-explosive source, wide-recording aperture shooting method.The shooting method emphasizes the wide-angle portion of the wavefield, where Fermat's principle guarantees reverberation will not interfere with the seismic manifestations of crucial geologic interfaces. The basalt diving wave, normally discarded in standard common midpoint (CMP) seismic profiling, can be used to image basalt velocity structure via traveltime inversion. Maximum depth-penetration of the diving wave tightly constrains basalt-sediment interface depth. An arrival observed only at shot-receiver offsets greater than 15 km can be used to determine the velocity and geometry of basement via simultaneous inversion.The results from this study suggest that previous geologic hypotheses and hydrocarbon play concepts for the Columbia Plateau may have been in error.

Geophysics↗
USGS1994

An image of the Columbia Plateau from inversion of high‐resolution seismic data

We use a method of traveltime inversion of high‐resolution seismic data to provide the first reliable images of internal details of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG), the subsurface basalt/sediment interface, and the deeper sediment/basement interface. Velocity structure within the basalts, delineated on the order of 1 km horizontally and 0.2 km vertically, is constrained to within ±0.1 km/s for most of the seismic profile. Over 5000 observed traveltimes fit our model with an rms error of 0.018 s. The maximum depth of penetration of the basalt diving waves (truncated by underlying low‐velocity sediments) provides a reliable estimate of the depth to the base of the basalt, which agrees with well‐log measurements to within 0.05 km (165 ft). We use image blurring, calculated from the resolution matrix, to estimate the aspect ratio of imaged velocity anomaly widths to true widths for velocity features within the basalt. From our calculations of image blurring, we interpret low velocity zones (LVZ) within the basalts at Boylston Mountain and the Whiskey Dick anticline to have widths of 4.5 and 3 km, respectively, within the upper 1.5 km of the model. At greater depth, the widths of these imaged LVZs thin to approximately 2 km or less. We interpret these linear, subparallel, low‐velocity zones imaged adjacent to anticlines of the Yakima Fold Belt to be brecciated fault zones. These fault zones dip to the south at angles between 15 to 45 degrees.

Geophysics↗