Anomalous shear wave delays and surface wave velocities at Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming
To investigate the effects of a geothermal area on the propagation of intermediate-period (1--30 s) teleseismic body waves and surface waves, a specially designed portable seismograph system was operated in Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming. Travel time residuals, relative to a station outside the caldera, of up to 2 s for compressional phases are in agreement with short-period residuals for P phases measured by other investigators. Travel time delays for shear arrivals in the intermediate-period band range from 2 to 9 s and decrease with increasing dT/d..delta... Measured Rayleigh wave phase velocities are extremely low, ranging from 3.2 km/s at 27-s period to 2.0 km/s at 7-s period; the estimated uncertainty associated with these values is 15%. We propose a model for compressional and shear velocities and Poisson's ratio beneath the Yellowstone caldera which fits the teleseismic body and surface wave data: it consists of a highly anomalous crust with an average shear velocity of 3.0 km/s overlying an upper mantle with average velocity of 4.1 km/s. The high average value of Poisson's ratio in the crust (0.34) suggests the presence of fluids there; Poisson's ratio in the mantle between 40 and approximately 200 km is more nearly normal (0.29) than in the crust. A discrepancy between normal values of Poisson's ratio in the crust calculated from short-period data and high values calculated from teleseismic data can be resolved by postulating a viscoelastic crustal model with frequency-dependent shear velocity and attenuation.
- Research Organization:
- Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
- OSTI ID:
- 6807612
- Journal Information:
- J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Vol. 87:B4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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