Name
Seismic velocity structure near the eastern Denali Fault from probabilistic ambient noise tomography
Date & Time
Monday, May 27, 2024, 2:45 PM - 3:00 PM
Description

Yukon hosts significant natural resources that are important for Canada’s future, including critical minerals and energy. Geothermal resources are evidenced by a shallow lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, Curie depth, and seismogenic thickness of the crust. Tectonic deformation is accommodated by major crustal-scale faults, including the eastern Denali fault. Recent studies suggest these faults enhance fluid mobility locally, and improve geothermal resource viability. Yet, local studies of the structure and nature of the Denali fault are impeded by thick Quaternary sediment overburden. Here, we apply ambient noise tomography to study the shallow seismic velocity structure across the fault to improve understanding of the overburden thickness and bedrock properties. We measure Rayleigh wave dispersion from cross-correlations of 3-month seismic noise recordings for 33 sites near the community of Burwash Landing, Yukon, which is a site of potential geothermal development. We apply a probabilistic tomographic method to resolve maps of Rayleigh-wave group velocity over the area at independent periods between 0.1 and 3.5 seconds. This technique does not assume a spatial discretization and estimates associated uncertainties in group velocity while avoiding subjective regularization. We extract the dispersion values from the group velocity maps along a dense linear array of stations perpendicular to the Denali fault. These group velocity dispersion curves are inverted independently, and results are combined to form a pseudo-2D image of shallow velocity structure in this region. The results help to constrain the complex nature of the Denali fault and contribute to ongoing geothermal resource exploration and natural hazard assessment.

Location Name
Classroom - 1201
Full Address
Carleton University - Richcraft Hall
1125 Colonel By Dr
Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
Canada
Session Type
Breakout Session