Kaapvaal Project: Preliminary Seismic Observations and Analysis

Abstract

An array of fifty five portable broadband seismic stations was deployed in April/May 1997 along a NNE-SSW transect about 1800 km long by 600 km wide in southern Africa. The array extends in a swath from the Cape Fold Belt and Namaqua-Natal mobile belt in South Africa, through the Kaapvaal craton, across the Limpopo Belt, and into the cratons of Zimbabwe and Botswana. Seismic observations will continue for a period of two years: about half the stations will be redeployed at the end of the first year, for a total observing network of about 82 stations. The seismic program is part of a large-scale multidisciplinary research project undertaken jointly by Carnegie, MIT, and several southern African organizations to study the structure, composition, and evolution of the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe cratons and their relationship to adjacent mobile belts. The array of REFTEK/STS-2 seismograph systems is configured to image the crust and mantle beneath southern Africa at a resolution of better than 100 km. A major focus of the studies is the structure of the deep mantle keel of the southern Africa cratons and its relation to the surface geology, as well as the nature of the contact between the keel and the underlying mantle. We will show examples of seismic data (that are just coming on-line at the time of this writing) from the first few months of deployment. In addition, we will present preliminary results from body wave tomography, surface waveform and converted phase analysis, and measurements of regional shear wave velocity anisotropy.

Meeting Name

AGU Fall Meeting (1997: Dec. 1, San Francisco, CA)

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Lithosphere; Tomography; Africa

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1997 American Geophysical Union (AGU), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 1997

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