SNEP: Sierra Nevada EarthScope Project
We are undertaking a major deployment of digital seismograph systems from the EarthScope/USArray Flexible Array instrument pool to investigate the deep structure of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Eastern California. The scientific goals of this experiment include identifying the existence of high density crust and mantle material that may have recently foundered, or delaminated, from the overlying crustal material. This will constrain major hypotheses regarding the evolution of the continental lithosphere. If material has foundered, the constraints that we develop about the deep earth structure, through analysis of seismic waves and wave speeds, will be important information in the development of models to explain the physical and chemical consequences of this process. This is a collaborative project with the University of Arizona (George Zandt), the University of Colorado (Craig Jones), and Purdue University (Hersh Gilbert).
Publications
- I.D. Bastow, T.J. Owens, G. Zandt, C. Jones, H. Gilbert, and J. Julia. SKS splitting analyses from the Sierra Nevada EarthScope project: Insights into lithospheric foundering. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pages A1361+, 2006.
- A. Frassetto, I.D. Bastow, O. Hurd, G. Zandt, H.J. Gilbert, T.J. Owens, and C.H. Jones. Crustal anisotropy, deep crustal earthquakes, and the Moho hole beneath the west-central Sierra Nevada, California. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pages B2+, 2006.
- H. Gilbert, C. Jones, T. Owens, and G. Zandt. Observations of lithospheric foundering. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pages A1+, 2006.
- O. Hurd, A. Frassetto, G. Zandt, H. Gilbert, C. Jones, and T.J. Owens. Deep crustal earthquakes and repeating earthquakes in the West-Central Sierra Nevada, Western USA. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pages A1360+, 2006.
- K. Byerly, T.J. Owens, H. Crotwell, H. Gilbert, G. Zandt, and C.H. Jones. Bulk crustal properties of the Sierra Nevada. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pages A1358+, 2006.
- K. Byerly, J. Julia, T.J. Owens, H. Gilbert, G. Zandt, and C. Jones. Sierra Nevada Earthscope Project: Constraints on the Sierran seismic structure from regional waveform modelling. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, 2005.
- A. Thomas, C. Jones, H. Reeg, H. Gilbert, G. Zandt, and T. Owens. Teleseismic travel times, the Isabella anomaly, and the missing Moho, from the Sierra Nevada EarthScope experiment. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, 2005.
- S. Burdick, G. Zandt, H. Gilbert, C. Jones, and T. Owens. Moho structure of the central Sierra Nevada from an Earthscope flex array deployment. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, 2005.
- H. Gilbert, O. Hurd, C.H. Jones, T.J. Owens, and G. Zandt. Observations of deep intra-plate earthquakes along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, 2005.
- G. Zandt, H. Gilbert, T.J. Owens, M. Duceau, J. Saleeby, and C.H. Jones. Active foundering of a continental arc root beneath the southern Sierra Nevada in California. Nature, 43:41–46, 2004.