--> Abstract: Exploring the Basement Structure of the Continental Interior: Reprocessing and Analysis of COCORP and Industrial Seismic Reflection Profiles and a Plan for Project CRATON, by E. C. Hauser; #90954 (1995).

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Abstract: Exploring the Basement Structure of the Continental Interior: Reprocessing and Analysis of COCORP and Industrial Seismic Reflection Profiles and a Plan for Project CRATON

Ernest C. Hauser

COCORP, Lithoprobe, and other deep reflection profiles over the past several years have explored significant parts of the Cordillerian and Appalachian orogenic belts of North America, and have made important contributions to understanding crustal evolution and the architecture of these Phanerozoic orogens. However, despite the several deep seismic profiles also collected in the U.S. continental interior over many years, the structure and evolution of the crust beneath the widespread veneer of platform strata remains largely unknown. Some features of the midcontinent have locally been studied intently, such as the Midcontinent Rift System beneath Lake Superior as revealed on GLIMPCE profiles, and in Kansas and Michigan on COCORP and industrial profiles -- however, the base ent structures associated with accretion and stabilization of Precambrian continental crust, as well as the structural underpinnings of the several Phanerozoic intra-cratonic basins and their fundamental mechanisms of formation, remain a mystery. COCORP and Lithoprobe deep seismic profiles across the Trans-Hudson orogen and Williston Basin, as well as the GLIMPCE, COCORP, and Lithoprobe profiles across the Grenville Front, are a beginning, but the crustal structure beneath large areas remains unknown.

My reprocessing and analysis of COCORP and industrial seismic reflection data from the U.S. midcontinent shows that much additional information can be gleaned from these data. Not only can careful reprocessing of COCORP data with more modern methods reveal much greater detail of both the basement and shallow structures, but the industrial vibroseis data can be reprocessed using extended correlation methods to extract even deeper information. This effort, for example, already reveals Precambrian basement faults that were reactivated during late Paleozoic time, and which also may be associated with significant paleoearthquakes in the past 12,000 years. We see this effort as the beginning of a Project CRATON, a multi-discipline study of the U.S. continental interior.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90954©1995 AAPG Eastern Section, Schenectady, New York