Seismic velocities and composition of the Canadian crust

• Main Author: Postlethwaite, Benjamin
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2014
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/46687

It has been suggested that processes driving crustal formation in the Archean and Proterozoic were dissimilar and produced crusts with unique bulk properties and average thicknesses. The calibration of models based on evolving mantle fractionation or mantle convection style require accurate estimates of the geological and geophysical properties of crustal provinces to better constrain the details of crustal formation. Fifteen years of publicly accessible teleseismic data from all available Canadian seismic stations are binned in horizontal slowness and deconvolved into receiver functions. We apply a stacking method to retrieve estimates of the bulk crustal velocity ratio V P /V S and thickness H from these data under the assumption of locally 1-D structure. We also investigate modifications to this approach that can allow discrimination of V S and V P under certain conditions. Bootstrap error analysis is performed for each station dataset and subsets of these measurements are compared with results for matching stations from previous studies. Analysis of results in conjunction with additional velocity estimates from active source seismic studies and a seismic property database affords improved constraints on bulk geological composition of the Canadian landmass that are used to evaluate competing models of crustal formation.