Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

"The earth's crust and upper mantle have been continually modified by tectonic processes such as rifting, earthquake activity. In this dissertation, shear wave splitting and receiver function techniques were employed to study the extent of crustal and upper mantle modifications beneath the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) and the Midcontinent Rift (MCR). Shear wave splitting analysis in the MCR reveals the presence of fossilised anisotropy along the rift axis...In the NMSZ, anticipated rift-parallel fast directions associated with vertical magmatic dikes or along-rift flow, rift-orthogonal fast directions from small-scale convection, or reduction in splitting times as a result of vertical asthenospheric flow are not observed, suggesting that the NMSZ is a shallow feature. Shear-wave splitting parameters for the NMSZ suggest complex anisotropy which fit well with a double layer model with the lower layer fixed at APM direction"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Gao, Stephen S.
Atekwana, Estella A.

Committee Member(s)

Hogan, John Patrick
Mickus, Kevin
Rogers, J. David

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Geology and Geophysics

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2009

Pagination

xii, 132 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-131).

Geographic Coverage

Earth
Keweenawan Rift
New Madrid Seismic Zone

Rights

© 2009 Moikwathai Moidaki, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Anisotropy
Shear waves

Thesis Number

T 9517

Print OCLC #

503558841

Electronic OCLC #

319622107

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