Visualization of active faults using geometric attributes of 3D GPR data: An example from the Alpine Fault Zone, New Zealand

McClymont, Alastair; Green, Alan G.; Streich, Rita; Horstmeyer, Heinrich; Tronicke, Jens; Nobes, David C.; Pettinga, Jarg R.; Campbell, Jocelyn K.; Langridge, Robert

doi:10.1190/1.2825408

Cited by 122 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Such gravels are either exposed at the surface or covered by a thin layer of undisturbed topsoil. GPR surveys at Calf Paddock reveal a narrow fault zone dipping steeply to the southeast at $80°t o a depth of $15 m [McClymont et al, 2008[McClymont et al, , 2009. Notable changes in GPR reflection geometry are observed across the main strand of the fault.…”

Section: Local Geologymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…(b) Sketch of the local geology in the vicinity of the study area adapted from Mabin [1983] and Nathan et al [2002]. penetrating radar (GPR) surveys [McClymont et al, 2008[McClymont et al, , 2009] delineate multiple fault strands in shallow Quaternary gravels, and a borehole and seismic refraction profiles [Garrick and Hatherton, 1974] provide limited constraints on fault geometry to basement depth. Detailed shallow geophysical imaging to the level of the basement and deeper has not previously been undertaken at Calf Paddock or elsewhere along the Alpine Fault.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ultrahigh‐resolution seismic reflection imaging of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand

et al. 2009

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[1] High-resolution seismic reflection surveys across active fault zones are capable of supplying key structural information required for assessments of seismic hazard and risk.We have recorded a 360 m long ultrahigh-resolution seismic reflection profile across the Alpine Fault in New Zealand. The Alpine Fault, a continental transform that juxtaposes major tectonic plates, is capable of generating large (M > 7.8) damaging earthquakes. Our seismic profile across a northern section of the fault targets fault zone structures in Holocene to late Pleistocene sediments and underlying Triassic and Paleozoic basement units from 3.5 to 150 m depth. Since ultrashallow seismic data are strongly influenced by near-surface heterogeneity and source-generated noise, an innovative processing sequence and nonstandard processing parameters are required to produce detailed information on the complex alluvial, glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine sediments and shallow to steep dipping fault-related features. We present high-quality images of structures and deformation within the fault zone that extend and complement interpretations based on shallow paleoseismic and ground-penetrating radar studies. Our images demonstrate that the Alpine Fault dips 75°-80°to the southeast through the Quaternary sediments, and there is evidence that it continues to dip steeply between the shallow basement units. We interpret characteristic curved basement surfaces on either side of the Alpine Fault and deformation in the footwall as consequences of normal drag generated by the reverse-slip components of displacement on the fault. The fault dip and apparent $35 m vertical offset of the late Pleistocene erosional basement surface across the Alpine Fault yield a provisional dip-slip rate of 2.0 ± 0.6 mm/yr. The more significant dextral-slip rate cannot be determined from our seismic profile.

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Section: Local Geologymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrahigh‐resolution seismic reflection imaging of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand

et al. 2009

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“…This formal equivalence suggests that processing and interpretation techniques developed for seismic data may be applied to GPR data, usually with minor adjustments. In the last years the application of attribute analysis for different GPR data interpretation has increased, with a continuous implementation of new or optimized algorithms (76)(77)(78). Examples of applications related to archaeology have also been reported (79)(80)(81)(82).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Roman military fortifications and the origin of Trieste, Italy

Bernardini

Vinci

Horvat

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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An interdisciplinary study of the archaeological landscape of the Trieste area (northeastern Italy), mainly based on airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR), ground penetrating radar (GPR), and archaeological surveys, has led to the discovery of an early Roman fortification system, composed of a big central camp (San Rocco) flanked by two minor forts. The most ancient archaeological findings, including a Greco–Italic amphora rim produced in Latium or Campania, provide a relative chronology for the first installation of the structures between the end of the third century B.C. and the first decades of the second century B.C. whereas other materials, such as Lamboglia 2 amphorae and a military footwear hobnail (type D of Alesia), indicate that they maintained a strategic role at least up to the mid first century B.C. According to archaeological data and literary sources, the sites were probably established in connection with the Roman conquest of the Istria peninsula in 178–177 B.C. They were in use, perhaps not continuously, at least until the foundation of Tergeste, the ancestor of Trieste, in the mid first century B.C. The San Rocco site, with its exceptional size and imposing fortifications, is the main known Roman evidence of the Trieste area during this phase and could correspond to the location of the first settlement of Tergeste preceding the colony foundation. This hypothesis would also be supported by literary sources that describe it as a phrourion (Strabo, V, 1, 9, C 215), a term used by ancient writers to designate the fortifications of the Roman army

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“…Conventional paleoseismological studies based on geomorphology, outcrops, and trenches [McCalpin, 1996;Yeats et al, 1996] and ground-penetrating radar mapping [Gross et al, 2004;McClymont et al, 2008aMcClymont et al, , 2008b are only of limited use in our study area because many of the potentially seismogenic structures are buried beneath thick sequences of very young sediments ( Figure 5). Accordingly, we have acquired high-resolution (2.5 m subsurface sampling) seismic reflection data along the four lines S1-S4 shown in Figures 2 and 5.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐resolution seismic images of potentially seismogenic structures beneath the northwest Canterbury Plains, New Zealand

Dorn¹,

Green²,

Jongens³

et al. 2010

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] The transpressional boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates in the central South Island of New Zealand comprises the Alpine Fault and a broad region of distributed strain concentrated in the Southern Alps but encompassing regions further to the east, including the northwest Canterbury Plains. Low to moderate levels of seismicity (e.g., 2 > M 5 events since 1974 and 2 > M 4.0 in 2009) and Holocene sediments offset or disrupted along rare exposed active fault segments are evidence for ongoing tectonism in the northwest plains, the surface topography of which is remarkably flat and even. Because the geology underlying the late Quaternary alluvial fan deposits that carpet most of the plains is not established, the detailed tectonic evolution of this region and the potential for larger earthquakes is only poorly understood. To address these issues, we have processed and interpreted high-resolution (2.5 m subsurface sampling interval) seismic data acquired along lines strategically located relative to extensive rock exposures to the north, west, and southwest and rare exposures to the east. Geological information provided by these rock exposures offer important constraints on the interpretation of the seismic data. The processed seismic reflection sections image a variably thick layer of generally undisturbed younger (i.e., < 24 ka) Quaternary alluvial sediments unconformably overlying an older (>59 ka) Quaternary sedimentary sequence that shows evidence of moderate faulting and folding during and subsequent to deposition. These Quaternary units are in unconformable contact with Late Cretaceous-Tertiary interbedded sedimentary and volcanic rocks that are highly faulted, folded, and tilted. The lowest imaged unit is largely reflection-free PermianTriassic basement rocks. Quaternary-age deformation has affected all the rocks underlying the younger alluvial sediments, and there is evidence for ongoing deformation. Eight primary and numerous secondary faults as well as a major anticlinal fold are revealed on the seismic sections. Folded sedimentary and volcanic units are observed in the hanging walls and footwalls of most faults. Five of the primary faults represent plausible extensions of mapped faults, three of which are active. The major anticlinal fold is the probable continuation of known active structure. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred on 4 September 2010 near the southeastern edge of our study area. This predominantly right-lateral strike-slip event and numerous aftershocks (ten with magnitudes ≥5 within one week of the main event) highlight the primary message of our paper: that the generally flat and topographically featureless Canterbury Plains is underlain by a network of active faults that have the potential to generate significant earthquakes.

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Visualization of active faults using geometric attributes of 3D GPR data: An example from the Alpine Fault Zone, New Zealand

Cited by 122 publications

References 51 publications

Ultrahigh‐resolution seismic reflection imaging of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand

Ultrahigh‐resolution seismic reflection imaging of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand

Early Roman military fortifications and the origin of Trieste, Italy

High‐resolution seismic images of potentially seismogenic structures beneath the northwest Canterbury Plains, New Zealand

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