Collaborative Research: Lithospheric Foundering Beneath the Sierra Nevada

我们正在进行EarthScope/USArray Flexible Array仪器池的数字地震仪系统的重大部署，以调查加州东部内华达山脉的深层结构。40个地震仪将在30个月内以两种方式部署。第一个部署是一个二维阵列，站间距约为25公里。该阵列将嵌入到EarthScope/USArray“可移动阵列”中。在部署期间，可移动阵列在加州和内华达州的广大地区之间的间距为70公里，这将对区域地球结构提供限制。他们实验的科学目标包括确定高密度地壳和地幔物质的存在，这些物质可能是最近从上覆的地壳物质中沉没或分层的。这将限制关于大陆岩石圈演化的主要假设。如果物质已经沉没，他们通过对地震波和波速的分析得出的关于地球深部结构的约束，将是开发模型来解释这一过程的物理和化学后果的重要信息。

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. Forty seismographs will be deployed in two configurations over a 30 month period. The first deployment is a two-dimensional array with about 25km station spacing. This array will be embedded with in the EarthScope/USArray "Transportable Array" footprint. The 70km spacing of the transportable array over a broad area of California and Nevada during their deployment will provide constrains on the regional earth structure. The scientific goals of their 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 they 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.