A geological reconnaissance of the dellwood seamount area, northeast pacific ocean, and its relationship to plate tectonics

A marine seismic system for recording near-vertical incidence to wide-angle reflected waves and refracted waves with penetration from the ocean bottom to the upper mantle (deep seismic sounding or DSS) has been developed. Signals from six individual hydrophones suspended at 45 m depth from a 600 m cable trailed behind the receiving ship are recorded in digital form. Using charges ranging from 2.3 to 280 kg, two reversed DSS profiles were recorded in the region of Explorer ridge during 1974. A preliminary interpretation of the profiles based on first-arrival information in the range 4 to 80 km has been made.The reversed profile run across the ridge showed no anomalous effects as the ridge was crossed; the profile on Juan de Fuca plate, paralleling the ridge, exhibited traveltime branch offsets and delays. These have been interpreted as due to faulting with a vertical component of offset of about 4 km. The reversed upper mantle velocities are 7.85 and'7.30 km/s indirections perpendicular and parallel to the ridge. Anisotropy is proposed to explain these different velocities and gives a 7% anisotropic effect. The data require that 'layer 2' comprise at least two layers with velocities of 4.13 km/s and 5.25 km/s and individual depth extents ranging from 1 to 2 km. Compared with crustal sections from other ridge areas, the interpretation gives a thick 'layer 3' (up to 6 km) near the ridge crest. The sub-bottom thickness of the oceanic crust varies between 7 and 9 km, except in the faulted region, where the 7.30 km/s material is present less than 3 km from the bottom.

Preliminary interpretation of a marine deep seismic sounding survey in the region of Explorer ridge

Clowes¹,

Malecek²

1976

Crustal structure from a marine seismic survey off the west coast of Canada

Clowes¹,

Knize²

1979

A marine seismic system for recording near-vertical incidence to wide-angle reflected waves and refracted waves has been used to obtain detailed crustal structure off Canada's west coast. Profiles about 20 km in length were recorded in three regions: the Hudson '70 survey area near 51 °N, 133 °W; west of Queen Charlotte Sound; and in northern Cascadia basin, west of central Vancouver Island. In the first area, the interpretation was completely consistent with the Hudson '70 study, but more detail was provided for the upper crust. About 0.6 km of sediments with velocity 2.4 km/s overly layers 2A and 2B with velocities of 4.0 and 5.5 km/s and thicknesses of 1.1 and 1.5 km respectively. The oceanic layer has a velocity of 6.8 km/s. Off Queen Charlotte Sound, the sediments vary in thickness from 3–3.5 km and are divided into an upper sequence with low velocities (2.1 and 2.8 km/s) and a lower sequence with higher velocities (about 4.2 km/s). Basaltic basement beneath the sediments has a velocity of 5.85 km/s. The seismic data indicate that sediment deposition has been complex, possibly interspersed with thin basalt sills derived from a nearby spreading centre. On the basis of these and other data, Winona basin is proposed to extend northwestward as far as an imaginary line drawn landward from the trough between the Dellwood Knolls. In order to test this proposal and delineate in detail the total sedimentary section, high resolution reflection studies with greater than 2 s of subbottom penetration are required. In Cascadia basin, reflection and refraction interpretations gave consistent results. The entire sedimentary sequence has low velocity values (≤2.6 km/s) and is about 1.8 km thick. A thin layer (0.4–0.7 km) of basaltic basement with velocity ~5.1 km/s lies below the sediments, and in turn is underlain by a 2 km layer with velocity ~6.1 km/s. A near-vertical incidence profile recorded in this study and a stacked record section provided by an oil company show reflections to subbottom depths of ~4.5 km, corresponding to the top of layer 3. The latter is laterally variable and poorly defined. Reflections from within layer 2 are recorded and some may be related to flows of basalt during crustal formation.

The Dellwood knolls and their role in triple junction tectonics off northern Vancouver Island

Riddihough¹,

Currie²,

Hyndman³

1980

The Dellwood knolls are two small topographic features on the ocean floor off northern Vancouver Island. They have been proposed as a spreading centre connecting the Explorer ridge to the Queen Charlotte fault and the location of a triple junction between the Pacific, American, and Juan de Fuca plate systems.Detailed geophysical surveys and ocean-bottom seismometer deployments confirm that they are the site of active seismicity and recent volcanism. Modelling of the magnetic anomaly field shows that it is almost entirely produced by normally magnetized material, supporting geological evidence that the knolls are probably less than 1 Ma old. Although the two knolls are separated by a narrow valley with some downfaulting, they do not form a clearly linear spreading rift.Assessment of their role in the plate tectonics of the region suggests that spreading at the knolls was initiated around 1 Ma ago in crust now 4.5 Ma old as part of a complex, northwesterly ridge migration process at the northern end of the Explorer ridge. Reconstruction of this process, which involves asymmetric spreading and ridge jumping, provides an explanation for the creation of the associated Paul Revere and Winona ridges.