Date of Award
2011-01-01
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Geological Sciences
Advisor(s)
Diane I. Doser
Abstract
The work in this study is focused on two different areas, south-central Alaska and northern Mexico. In the first study area, I calculated dynamic stress drops for moderate sized earthquakes and performed receiver function analyses. The goal of the stress drop studies was to determine if events occurring within the more strongly coupled portion of the subducting slab have higher stress drops. My results shows that higher stress drops correspond to the locked and strongly coupled region in Prince William Sound, and lower stress drops are associated with the Cook Inlet region, a zone of relaxation of the plate interface. The receiver function analysis focused on data from an isolated broad band station on the Kenai Peninsula that may be located near the edge of the strongly coupled portion of the Yakutat microplate. The station recorded global teleseismic events of M>5.5 for a three different periods achieving a total recording of ~9 months. I used these data to determine the crustal structure from the P to S converted phases. The best match to data shows a thickness of 34 km and a Vp/Vs ratio of 1.45 just under the station, but, three other results from different directions obtained values of 28 km and 2.3 toward south of the station, 30 km and 1.98 southwest of the station, and 32 km and 1.63 eastward of the station. This would suggest the presence of a mantle wedge beneath the study area. In the second study area, northern Mexico, I obtained a crustal velocity model by means of the Joint Hypocenter Determination inversion technique using microseismicity and mining blasts in the region as sources. The final model shows the moho depth at 30 km and the upper-lower crust boundary at 21 km. The inclusion of a transition layer at 12 km allowed better adjustment than preliminary starting model of Harder and Keller. The new locations of the epicenters maintain the alignment to the Pitaycachi fault and the mining blasts clusters converge better to the mining locations.
Language
en
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
Copyright Date
2011
File Size
119 pages
File Format
application/pdf
Rights Holder
Oscar Mario Romero de la Cruz
Recommended Citation
Romero De La Cruz, Oscar Mario, "Seismological Studies In South-Central Alaska And Northern Mexico" (2011). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 2577.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/open_etd/2577