Continental extension in the Deep Galicia Basin from 3-D wide-angle seismic refraction methods

在这个为期两年的博士后研究奖学金项目中，该研究员将使用大型3-D广角地震数据集，包括2013年夏季收集的70个海底地震仪（OBS），调查大西洋西班牙近海深加利西亚盆地大陆分裂的历史和机制。研究结果将增进对大陆如何伸展和分裂的理解，从而创造新的海洋盆地，并在大陆后缘留下断裂边缘。该研究员由南安普顿大学主办，赞助科学家蒂姆·明舒尔（Tim Minshull）担任。莱斯大学的戴尔索耶也是赞助科学家。该项目涉及与美国、英国、德国、西班牙和葡萄牙的一个大型国际科学家小组的合作，这些科学家拥有广泛的多学科专业知识。其他更广泛的影响包括对本科生的教育培训，对研究生的指导计划，以及社区外展教育活动，以进一步教育公众有关裂谷和大陆分裂。该项目的目标是确定裂陷加利西亚边缘的完整三维结构和组成，包括断裂大陆块、薄壳和折返地幔，并了解形成这些结构的构造过程和演变。这些结构由地震反射三维框内的OBS网格覆盖，该框为64 km（E-W）× 20 km（N-S）。该项目建立在传统的2-D和3-D旅行时层析成像工作已经在进行中，通过使用3-D广角全波形反演，一个相对较新的技术，产生更高的分辨率P波速度模型。接下来将使用P波和S波折射检查上地幔地震各向异性。了解这种复杂的海洋构造环境需要结合应用广角和反射数据以及其他地质和地球物理方法。该项目的最后一个组成部分涉及使用被动OBS记录跟踪长须鲸在北大西洋的行为。

In this two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship project, the fellow will investigate the history and mechanisms of continental break up in the Deep Galicia Basin offshore Spain in the Atlantic Ocean using the large 3-D wide-angle seismic dataset featuring 70 ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) collected during summer 2013. Research results will improve understanding of how continents stretch and break apart, creating new ocean basins and leaving rifted margins at the trailing edge of continents. The fellow is hosted by the University of Southampton with sponsoring scientist Tim Minshull. Dale Sawyer, Rice University, also serves as a sponsoring scientist. The project involves collaboration with a large international group of scientists with extensive, multidisciplinary expertise in the USA, UK, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Additional broader impacts include educational training for undergraduates, mentoring plans for a graduate student, and community outreach education events to further educate the public about rifting and continental breakup. This award was supported with funding from the Office of International and Integrative Activities.The objectives of the project are to determine the full 3-D structure and composition of the rifted Galician margin including the faulted continental blocks, thinned crust, and exhumed mantle and to understand the tectonic processes and evolution that created those structures. These structures are covered by the OBS grid within the seismic reflection 3-D box, which is 64 km (E-W) by 20 km (N-S). This project builds on traditional 2-D and 3-D travel-time tomography work already underway by using 3-D wide-angle full waveform inversion, a relatively new technique that yields higher resolution P-wave velocity models. Next upper mantle seismic anisotropy will be examined using P- and S-wave refractions. Understanding this complex marine tectonic environment requires the combined application of wide-angle and reflection data, as well as other geological and geophysical methods. A final component of this project involves tracking fin whale behavior in the North Atlantic using passive OBS recordings.