The Study area
The study area is located in central coastal British Columbia. The study area was defined to accommodate:
1. A fjord path that can accommodate the seismic ship Langseth and provide a near 3D seismic view of the coastal batholith. The largest channels, Dean-Burke and Douglass, were obvious targets as they are also widely spaced;
2. An area that has significantly different crustal exposure of the batholith- the northern transect (Douglass) exposes mid-crustal rocks, whereas the southern one (Dean-Burke) is characterized by shallow plutonic rocks;
3. A representative section of the great magmatic arc, with exposures of some of the largest individual plutons in any Cordilleran btholith.
The strategy is to conduct geologic studies and deploy passive seismic instruments in and around the defined target area, whereas the active seismic component will be conducted on a predetermined path constrained by the large fjords and available inland roads. The maps below show: (1) the location of the study area in the regional context of the northern Cordillera, (2) a simplified geologic map of the study area, (3) a map showing the location of seismic instruments deployed by the Dueker-Zandt group in 2005, and (4) a map of the proposed active seismic experiment. Click on each figure to see a larger version.
Figure 1.
Figure 2
Figure 3.
Figure 4