Description: A seismic refraction profile recorded along the geologic strike of the Chugach Mountains in southern Alaska shows three upper crustal high-velocity layers (6.9, 7.2, and 7.6 km/s) and a unique pattern of strongly focussed echelon arrivals to a distance of 225 km. The group velocity of the ensemble of echelon arrivals is 6.4 km/s. Modeling of this profile with the reflectivity method reveals that the echelon pattern is due to peg-leg multiples generated from with a low-velocity zone between the second and third upper crustal high-velocity layers. The third high-velocity layer (7.6 km/s) is underlain at 18 km depth by a pronounced low-velocity zone that produces a seismic shadow wherein zone peg-leg multiples are seen as echelon arrivals. The interpretation of these echelon arrivals as multiples supersedes an earlier interpretation which attributed them to successive primary reflections arising from alternating high- and low-velocity layers. Synthetic seismogram modeling indicates that a low-velocity zone with transitional upper and lower boundaries generates peg-leg multiples as effectively as one with sharp boundaries. No PmP or Pn arrivals from the subducting oceanic Moho at 30 km depth beneath the western part of the line are observed on the long-offset (90-225 km) data. This may be due to a lower crustal waveguide whose top is the high-velocity (7.6 km/s) layer and whose base is the Moho. A deep (~54 km) reflector is not affected by the waveguide and has been identified in the data. Although peg-leg multiples have been interpreted on some long-range refraction profiles that sound to upper mantle depths, the Chugach Mountains profile is one of the few crustal refraction profiles where peg-leg multiples are clearly observed. This study indicates that multiple and converted phases may be more important in seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profiles than previously recognized.

Description: During a seismic reflection survey conducted by the California Consortium for Crustal Studies in the Basin and Range Province west of the Whipple Mountains, SE California, a piggyback experiment was carried out to collect intermediate offset data (12–31 km). These data were obtained by recording the Vibroseis energy with a second, passive recording array, deployed twice at fixed positions at opposite ends of the reflection lines. The reflection midpoints fall into a 3-km-wide and 15-km-long region in Vidal Valley, roughly parallel to a segment of one of the near-vertical reflection profiles. This data set makes three unique contributions to the geophysical study of this region. (1) From forward modeling of the observed travel times using ray-tracing techniques, a shallow layer with velocities ranging from 6.0 to 6.5 km/s was found. This layer dips to the south from 2-km depth near the Whipple Mountains to a depth of 5-km in Rice Valley. These depths correspond closely to the westward projection of the Whipple detachment fault, which is exposed 1 km east of the near-vertical profiles in the Whipple Mountains. (2) On the near-vertical profile, the reflections from the mylonitically deformed lower plate at upper crustal and mid crustal depths are seen to cease underneath a sedimentary basin in Vidal Valley. However, the piggyback data, which undershoot this basin, show that these reflections are continuous beneath the basin. Thus near-surface energy transmission problems were responsible for the apparent lateral termination of the reflections on the near-vertical reflection profile. (3) The areal distribution of the midpoints allows us to construct a quasi-three-dimensional image on perpendicular profiles; at the cross points we determined the true strike and dip of reflecting horizons. This analysis shows that the reflections from the mylonitically deformed lower plate dip to the southwest westward of the Whipple Mountains and dip to the south southward of the Turtle Mountains. The results of this study support the interpretation of crustal reflectivity in the near-vertical reflection profiles to be related to the mid-Tertiary episode of extension which produced the Whipple metamorphic core complex. This association geometrically suggests a more regionally distributed mechanism for crustal thinning as compared with single detachment fault models.