S53B-2809
Hammering Yucca Flat, Part Two: Shear-Wave Velocity
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Tori S Finlay1,2, Robert E Abbott2, Hunter Anne Knox2, David G Tang3, Stephanie R. James4, Matthew M Haney5 and John Benjamin Hampshire II6, (1)Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA, United States, (2)Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, United States, (3)University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States, (4)University of Florida, Ft Walton Beach, FL, United States, (5)Alaska Volcano Observatory Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, (6)Self Employed, Torrance, CA, United States
Abstract:
In preparation for the next phase of the Source Physics Experiment (SPE), we conducted an active-source seismic survey of Yucca Flat, Nevada, on the Nevada National Security Site. Results from this survey will be used to inform the geologic models associated with the SPE project. For this study, we used a novel 13,000 kilogram weight-drop seismic source to interrogate an 18-km North-South transect of Yucca Flat. Source points were spaced every 200 meters and were recorded by 350 to 380 3-component 2-Hz geophones with variable spacings of 10, 20, and 100 meters. We utilized the Refraction-Microtremor (ReMi) technique to create multiple 1D dispersion curves, which were then inverted for shear-wave velocity profiles using the Dix inversion method (Tsai and Haney, 2015). Each of these 1D velocity models was subsequently stitched together to create a 2D profile over the survey area. The dispersion results indicate a general decrease in surface-wave phase velocity to the south. This result is supported by slower shear-wave velocity sediments and increasing basin depth towards the survey’s southern extent. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
