Three-dimensional imaging of steeply dipping structure near the San Andreas fault, Parkfield, California

Abstract

Shot gathers from the Parkfield, California, deep crustal seismic reflection line, recorded in 1977 by COCORP, reveal coherent events having horizontal to reverse moveouts. These events were migrated using a multioffset three-dimensional Kirchhoff summation method. This method is a ray-equation back projection inversion of the acoustic wave field, which is valid under the Born, WKBJ, and far-field assumptions. Migration of full-wave acoustic synthetics, having the same limitations in geometric coverage as the COCORP survey, demonstrates the utility of the imaging process. The images obtained from back projection of the survey data suggest that the Gold Hill fault carries ultramafic rocks from the surface to 3 km depth at a dip greater than 45 degrees, where it joins the San Andreas fault, which may cut through more homogeneous materials at shallow depths. To the southwest, a 2 km Tertiary sedimentary section appears to terminate against a near-vertical fault. The zone between this fault and the San Andreas may be floored at 3 km by flat-lying ultramafics. Lateral velocity inhomogeneities are not accounted for in the migration but, in this case, do not seriously hinder the reconstruction of reflectors.