Southeastern Geophysical Society

Please join the Southeastern Geophysical Society on Thursday, January 14th @ 11:30-1:00 for our virtual monthly technical luncheon. This month's speaker will be Dr. Dominik Kardell of ExxonMobil who will present "The evolution of oceanic crust in the western South Atlantic: Insights from seismic velocities and hydrothermal models." Please see the Z... oom meeting details, presentation abstract, and speaker bio below. Please RSVP to reynoldsken29@gmail.com if you are planning to attend. To pay online for your luncheon, see paypal below: The evolution of oceanic crust in the western South Atlantic: Insights from seismic velocities and hydrothermal models The evolution of oceanic crust plays an integral role in global heat flow, geochemical cycles, and in shaping the environmental conditions harboring the crustal biosphere. Because oceanic crust is normally buried beneath several kilometers of water and encompasses a vast area of the Earths rigid surface, spatially extensive and coherent geophysical data are difficult to acquire in the oceanic domain. Consequently, our current understanding of the evolution of oceanic crust is based on partially conflicting compilations of data that are acquired at different scales and using different methods. Here I present geophysical constraints from an extensive seismic dataset that continuously covers 0-70 Ma crust in the western South Atlantic. Analysis of regional seismic velocity trends in the study area shows a continuous increase in basement velocity to crustal ages of at least 58 Ma. This trend indicates an evolution of upper crustal velocities that lasts significantly longer than measured or predicted by previous seismic studies. The results provide evidence for ongoing hydrothermal circulation in relatively old upper crust, which is consistent with global heat flow measurements. To further test this concept, I used full-waveform inversion (FWI) seismic velocity models to estimate detailed porosity and permeability distributions that constrain numerical models of ...Read More