Lithospheric deformation in the Canadian Appalachians: evidence from shear wave splitting

Gilligan, Amy; Bastow, Ian D.; Watson, Emma; Darbyshire, Fiona A.; Levin, Vadim; Menke, William; Lane, Victoria; Hawthorn, David; Boyce, Alistair; Liddell, Mitchell V. et Petrescu, Laura (2016). « Lithospheric deformation in the Canadian Appalachians: evidence from shear wave splitting ». Geophysical Journal International, 206(2), pp. 1273-1280.

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Résumé

Plate-scale deformation is expected to impart seismic anisotropic fabrics on the lithosphere. Determination of the fast shear wave orientation (φ) and the delay time between the fast and slow split shear waves (δt) via SKS splitting can help place spatial and temporal constraints on lithospheric deformation. The Canadian Appalachians experienced multiple episodes of deformation during the Phanerozoic: accretionary collisions during the Palaeozoic prior to the collision between Laurentia and Gondwana, and rifting related to the Mesozoic opening of the North Atlantic. However, the extent to which extensional events have overprinted older orogenic trends is uncertain. We address this issue through measurements of seismic anisotropy beneath the Canadian Appalachians, computing shear wave splitting parameters (φ, δt) for new and existing seismic stations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Average δt values of 1.2 s, relatively short length scale (≥100 km) splitting parameter variations, and a lack of correlation with absolute plate motion direction and mantle flow models, demonstrate that fossil lithospheric anisotropic fabrics dominate our results. Most fast directions parallel Appalachian orogenic trends observed at the surface, while δt values point towards coherent deformation of the crust and mantle lithosphere. Mesozoic rifting had minimal impact on our study area, except locally within the Bay of Fundy and in southern Nova Scotia, where fast directions are subparallel to the opening direction of Mesozoic rifting; associated δt values of >1 s require an anisotropic layer that spans both the crust and mantle, meaning the formation of the Bay of Fundy was not merely a thin-skinned tectonic event.

Type:	Article de revue scientifique
Informations complémentaires:	Copyright: The Authors 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Mots-clés ou Sujets:	Body waves, Seismic anisotropy, Continental tectonics, compressional, Continental tectonics: extensional, North America
Unité d'appartenance:	Centres institutionnels > Centre de recherche en géochimie et géodynamique (GEOTOP) Faculté des sciences > Département des sciences de la Terre et de l'atmosphère
Déposé par:	Fiona Ann Darbyshire
Date de dépôt:	27 sept. 2016 14:54
Dernière modification:	17 oct. 2017 07:58
Adresse URL :	http://archipel.uqam.ca/id/eprint/8917

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