Geology topics

Bernd Milkereit

Publications and source records attributed to Bernd Milkereit.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2012

Imaging the midcontinent rift beneath Lake Superior using large aperture seismic data

We present a detailed velocity model across the 1.1 billion year old Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) in central Lake Superior. The model was derived primarily from onshore-offshore large-aperture seismic and gravity data. High velocities obtained within a highly reflective half-graben that was imaged on coincident seismic reflection data demonstrate the dominantly mafic composition of the graben fill and constrain its total thickness to be at least 30km. Strong wide-angle reflections are observed from the lower crust and Moho, indicating that the crust is thickest (55–60km) beneath the axis of the graben. The total crustal thickness decreases rapidly to about 40 km beneath the south shore of the lake and decreases more gradually to the north. Above the Moho is a high-velocity lower crust interpreted to result from syn-rift basaltic intrusion into and/or underplating beneath the Archean lower crust. The lower crust is thickest beneath the axis of the main rift half-graben. A second region of thick lower crust is found approximately 100km north of the axis of the rift beneath a smaller half graben that is interpreted to reflect an earlier stage of rifting. The crustal model presented here resembles recent models of some passive continental margins and is in marked contrast to many models of both active and extinct Phanerozoic continental rift zones. It demonstrates that the Moho is a dynamic feature, since the pre-rift Moho is probably within or above the high-velocity lower crust, whereas the post-rift Moho is defined as the base of this layer. In the absence of major tectonic activity, however, the Moho is very stable, since the large, abrupt variations in crustal thickness beneath the MRS have been preserved for at least a billion years.

Lake Superior↗

USGS2010

The North American Midcontinent rift beneath Lake Superior from GLIMPCE seismic reflection profiling

The Midcontinent rift system is a 1.1-b.y.-old structure extending from Kansas, through the Lake Superior region, and into southern Michigan. The rift is filled with thick sequences of basaltic volcanic rocks and clastic sediments. For most of its extent it is buried beneath Paleozoic rocks but can be traced by its strong gravity and magnetic anomalies. The rocks of the rift system are exposed only in the Lake Superior region and comprise the Keweenawan Supergroup. Much of the geology of the Keweenawan is beneath Lake Superior and has only been inferred from potential field studies and seismic refraction studies and extrapolation from on-shore geology. Seismic reflection surveys by the Great Lakes International Multidisciplinary Program on Crustal Evolution in 1986 imaged much of the deep structure of the rift beneath the lake in detail. The reflection profiles across the rift reveal a deep, asymmetrical central graben whose existence and magnitude was not previously documented. They show that, in addition to crustal sagging documented by previous investigations, normal faulting played a major role in subsidence of the axial region of the rift. A sequence of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, in places greater than 30 km thick, fills the graben. Thinner volcanic and sedimentary units lie on broad flanks of the rift outside of the graben. Near the axis, the prerift crust is thinned to about one fourth of its original thickness, apparently by a combination of low-angle extensional faulting and ductile stretching or distributed shear. The sense of asymmetry of the central graben changes along the trend of the rift, documenting the segmented nature of the structure and suggesting the existence of accommodation zones between the segments. The location of the accommodation zones is inferred from abrupt disruptions in the Bouguer gravity signature of the rift. Uplift of the central graben occurred when the original graben-bounding normal faults were reactivated as high-angle reverse faults with throws of 5 km or more in places. The Midcontinent rift has some striking similarities to some younger passive continental margins. We propose that it preserves a record of nearly complete continental separation which, had it not been arrested, would have created a Middle Proterozoic ocean basin.

Lake Superior↗

USGS1994

Seismic images of a tectonic subdivision of the Greenville Orogen beneath lakes Ontario and Erie

New seismic data from marine air-gun and Vibroseis profiles in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie provide images of subhorizontal Phanerozoic sediments underlain by a remarkable series of easterly dipping reflections that extends from the crystalline basement to the lower crust. These reflections are interpreted as structural features of crustal-scale subdivisions within the Grenville Orogen. Broadly deformed, imbricated, and overlapping thrust sheets within the western Central Metasedimentary Belt are succeeded to the west by a complex zone of easterly dipping, apparent thrust faults that are interpreted as a southwest subsurface extension of the boundary zone between the Central Metasedimentary Belt and the Central Gneiss Belt. The interpreted Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary zone has a characteristic magnetic anomaly that provides a link from the adjacent ends of lakes Ontario and Erie to structures exposed 150&ensp;km to the north. Less reflective, west-dipping events are interpreted as structures within the eastern Central Gneiss Belt. The seismic interpretation augments current tectonic models that suggest the exposed ductile structures formed at depth as a result of crustal shortening along northwest-verging thrust faults. Relatively shallow reflections across the boundary region suggest local, Late Proterozoic extensional troughs containing post-Grenville sediments, preserved possibly as a result of pre-Paleozoic reactivation of basement structures.

Lake Erie, Lake Ontario↗

USGS1994

Deep structure beneath Lake Ontario: Crustal-scale Grenville subdivisions

Lake Ontario marine seismic data reveal major Grenville crustal subdivisions beneath central and southern Lake Ontario separated by interpreted shear zones that extend to the lower crust. A shear zone bounded transition between the Elzevir and Frontenac terranes exposed north of Lake Ontario is linked to a seismically defined shear zone beneath central Lake Ontario by prominent aeromagnetic and gravity anomalies, easterly dipping wide-angle reflections, and fractures in Paleozoic strata. We suggest the central Lake Ontario zone represents crustal-scale deformation along an Elzevir–Frontenac boundary zone that extends from outcrop to the south shore of Lake Ontario.Seismic images from Lake Ontario and the exposed western Central Metasedimentary Belt are dominated by crustal-scale shear zones and reflection geometries featuring arcuate reflections truncated at their bases by apparent east-dipping linear reflections. The images show that zones analogous to the interpreted Grenville Front Tectonic Zone are also present within the Central Metasedimentary Belt and support models of northwest-directed crustal shortening for Grenvillian deep crustal deformation beneath most of southeastern Ontario.A Precambrian basement high, the Iroquoian high, is defined by a thinning of generally horizontal Paleozoic strata over a crestal area above the basement shear zone beneath central Lake Ontario. The Iroquoian high helps explain the peninsular extension into Lake Ontario forming Prince Edward County, the occurrence of Precambrian inlier outcrops in Prince Edward County, and Paleozoic fractures forming the Clarendon–Linden structure in New York.

Lake Ontario↗

USGS1992

Seismic images of a Grenvillian terrane boundary

A series of gently dipping reflection zones extending to mid-crustal depths is recorded by seismic data from Lakes Ontario and Erie. These prominent reflection zones define a broad complex of southeast-dipping ductile thrust faults in the interior of the Grenville orogen. One major reflection zone provides the first image of a proposed Grenvillian suture—the listric boundary zone between allochthonous terranes of the Central Gneiss and Central Metasedimentary belts. Curvilinear bands of reflections that may represent "ramp folds" and "ramp anticlines" that originally formed in a deep crustal-scale duplex abut several faults. Vertical stacking of some curvilinear features suggests coeval or later out-of-sequence faulting of imbricated and folded thrust sheets. Grenvillian structure reflections are overlain by a thin, wedge-shaped package of shallow-dipping reflections that probably originates from sediments deposited in a local half graben developed during a period of post-Grenville extension. This is the first seismic evidence for such extension in this region, which could have occurred during terminal collapse of the Grenville orogen, or could have marked the beginning of pre-Appalachian continental rifting.

Lake Erie, Lake Ontario↗

USGS1990

Pre- and poststack migration of GLIMPCE reflection data

GLIMPCE deep Seismic reflection profiles across the Midcontinent Rift System beneath Lake Superior reveal a central asymmetric rift with an enormous thickness of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. True amplitude cmp-processing, poststack and prestack migration and forward modelling are used to improve images of steeply dipping faults, unconformities and other discontinuities in the deep Seismic data. With prestack migration important steeply dipping structural features of the Lake Superior data set are revealed for the first time. Improved images of high-angle normal faults, later reactivated as reverse faults, provide key structural information for understanding the evolution of the rift system. Results illustrate that structural interpretations of complex deep reflection records, such as those recorded by GLIMPCE, should always be based on migrated data. Furthermore, depth-migrated sections provide useful starting models for forward velocity modelling of seismic data.

Lake Superior↗

USGS1987

A geologic interpretation of seismic-refraction results in northeastern California

In 1981, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a seismic-refraction experiment in northeastern California designed to study the Klamath Mountains, Cascade Range, Modoc Plateau, and Basin and Range provinces. Key profiles include 135-km-long, north-south lines in the Klamath Mountains and Modoc Plateau provinces and a 260-km-long, east-west line crossing all of the provinces. The seismic-velocity models for the Klamath and Modoc lines are comparatively homogeneous laterally but are quite different from each other. The Klamath model is finely layered from the surface to at least 14-km depth, consisting of a series of high-velocity layers (6.1–6.7 km/s), ranging in thickness from 1 to 4 km, with alternating positive and negative velocity gradients. A layer with an unreversed velocity of 7.0 km/s extends from 14 km to an unknown depth. The Modoc model, in contrast, is relatively thickly layered and has lower velocities than does the Klamath model at all depths down to 25 km. An upper layer, 4.5 km thick, of low-velocity material (2.1–4.4 km/s) overlies a basement with a considerably higher velocity (6.2 km/s). Velocity increases slowly with depth, with a small velocity step (to 6.4 km/s) at 11 km and a 7.0-km/s layer beginning at 25-km depth. Moho is probably 38–45 km deep under the Modoc Plateau, but its depth is unknown under the Klamath Mountains. A combined velocity-density model for the east-west line consists of a western part similar in configuration to the Klamath velocity model, an eastern part similar to the Modoc velocity model, and laterally changing velocity-density structure in between, in the Cascade Range. Beneath its upper layer, the velocity model for the Modoc Plateau is similar to that determined by other researchers for the adjacent Sierra Nevada. The velocity model is unlike those for rift areas, to which the Modoc Plateau has been compared by some authors. We theorize that beneath a veneer of volcanic and sedimentary rocks (the upper layer), the Modoc Plateau is underlain by a basement of granitic and metamorphic rocks that, like rocks in the Sierra Nevada, are the roots of one or more magmatic arcs. The fine layering in the Klamath seismic-velocity model is consistent with the geologic structure of the Klamath Mountains, characterized by imbricate thrusting of oceanic rock layers of various compositions and ages. Independent modeling of aeromagnetic data indicates that the base of the Trinity ultramafic sheet, the second major rock layer down in the structural sequence, corresponds to a velocity step to 6.7 km/s at 7-km depth in our model. The 6.7-km/s layer beneath the Trinity ultramafic sheet apparently corresponds to rocks of the central metamorphic belt, which are mafic schists. Rock units structurally deeper than rocks of the central metamorphic belt can be correlated with velocity layers below the 6.7-km/s layer, but with less certainty. In the model for the east-west line, the region of laterally changing velocity structure beneath the Cascade Range includes a 10-km step down to the east in the top of the 7.0-km/s layer. This region of lateral velocity change we interpret to be a fault, fold, or intrusive contact (or some combination of the three) between the stack of oceanic rock layers that underlie the Klamath Mountains and the buried roots of magmatic arcs inferred to underlie the Modoc Plateau. Magmas forming the modern Cascade Range arc apparently rise through this region.

GSA Bulletin↗

USGS1985

Inversion of seismic refraction data in planar dipping structure

A new method is presented for the direct inversion of seismic refraction data in dipping planar structure. Three recording geometries, each consisting of two common-shot profiles, are considered: reversed, split, and roll-along profiles. Inversion is achieved via slant stacking the common-shot wavefield to obtain a delay time—slowness (tau— p ) wavefield. The tau— p curves from two shotpoints describing the critical raypath of refracted and post-critically reflected arrivals are automatically picked using coherency measurements and the two curves are jointly used to calculate velocity and dip of isovelocity lines iteratively, thereby obtaining the final two-dimensional velocity model. This procedure has been successfully applied to synthetic seismograms calculated for a dipping structure and to field data from central California. The results indicate that direct inversion of closely-spaced refraction/wide-aperture reflection data can practically be achieved in laterally inhomogeneous structures.

Geophysical Journal International↗