Tact refraction/wide-angle reflection profiling of the Yukon-Tanana uplands, east-central, Alaska
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geophysics Dept.
- Purdue Univ., Lafayette, IN (United States). Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Two Trans-Alaska Crustal Transect (TACT) seismic refraction studies, sampling the crust beneath the Yukon-Tanana terrane (YTT) and the terranes along its northwestern boundary in east-central Alaska, are interpreted using both forward and inverse modeling techniques. These studies reveal a thin (c. 30 km), reflective middle to lower crust beneath the southern YTT and the terranes to its northwest. Beneath the southern profile, the Fairbanks South profile, the YTT is interpreted to be quartz-rich and to result from tectonic underplating. Beneath the northern profile, the Fairbanks North profile, the refraction data reveal a crustal velocity structure that is divided into three upper crustal, and two or three middle to lower crustal domains. The upper crustal domains are delineated by two vertical, low-velocity zones that contain or are bounded by interpreted strands of the Tintina fault system. This interpretation suggests that after initial thin-skinned amalgamation of the various terranes caught between the Yukon-Tanana and Ruby terranes, this region experienced thick-skinned tectonic reorganization. These two studies indicate that both thin-skinned amalgamation and thick-skinned tectonic reorganization played important roles in the development of the Alaskan lithosphere.
- OSTI ID:
- 5343184
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:5; Conference: 89. annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section and the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Reno, NV (United States), 19-21 May 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Electrical conductivity and carbon in metamorphic rocks of the Yukon-Tanana Terrane, Alaska
1984 Results of trans-Alaska crustal transect in Chugach Mountains and Copper River Basin, Alaska