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Science 5 December 1980:
Vol. 210. no. 4474, pp. 1088 - 1094
DOI: 10.1126/science.210.4474.1088
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Articles

Seismic Models of the Root of the Sierra Nevada

L. C. Pakiser 1 and James N. Brune 2

1 Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225
2 Professor of geophysics, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093

Seismic waves generated by earthquakes or explosions show a delay in travel times as they propagate across the Sierra Nevada from all directions except that of the Nevada test site. Early arriving waves from the test site can be explained if they emerge through a rock layer with high seismic velocity from the sharp eastern edge of the Sierran root. Such a layer could be formed by the subducted ophiolite slab that crops out in the western Sierra Nevada foothills. A synthesis of all seismic data indicates that the Sierran root projects downward into the mantle to a depth of about 55 kilometers beneath the high Sierra.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
MMI Attenuation and Historical Earthquakes in the Basin and Range Province of Western North America.
W. H. Bakun (2006)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 96, 2206-2220
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Pliocene Potassic Magmas from the Kings River Region, Sierra Nevada, California: Evidence for Melting of a Subduction-Modified Mantle.
S. N. Feldstein and R. A. Lange (1999)
J. Petrology 40, 1301-1320
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
An earthquake-explosion reversed refraction line in the Peninsular Ranges of southern California and Baja California Norte.
F. ALEJANDRO NAVA and J. N. BRUNE (1982)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 72, 1195-1206
   Abstract »    PDF »
Reinterpretation by ray tracing of a transverse refraction seismic profile through the California Sierra Nevada, part I.
B. A. BOLT and R. GUTDEUTSCH (1982)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 72, 889-900
   Abstract »    PDF »
Crustal structure in the northwestern foothills of the Sierra Nevada from seismic refraction experiments.
M. A. SPIETH, D. P. HILL, and R. J. GELLER (1981)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 71, 1075-1087
   Abstract »    PDF »


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