Crustal structure of the western Yamato Basin, Japan Sea, revealed from seismic survey

Abstract:

The Yamato Basin is the second largest basin of the Japan Sea. This basin is important to clarify its formation process. Some studies of crustal structure had been carried out in the Yamato Basin (e.g. Ludwig et al., 1975; Katao, 1988; Hirata et al., 1989; Sato et al., 2006). However, the relationship between formation process and crustal structure is not very clear, because the amount of seismic exploration data is very limited. In addition, since there is ODP Leg 127 site 797 (Tamaki et al., 1990) directly beneath our seismic survey line, we contributed to the study on the formation of the Yamato Basin by examining the relation between the ODP results and our results. During July–August 2014, we conducted a multi-channel seismic (MCS) survey and ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) survey to study the crustal structure of the western Yamato Basin.

We present an outline of the data acquisition and results of the data processing and preliminary interpretations from this study. As a result of our study, the crust, which is about 12 km thick, is thicker than standard oceanic crust (e.g., Spudich and Orcutt, 1980; White et al., 1992) revealed from P-wave velocity structure by OBS survey. A clear reflector estimated to be the Moho can be identified by MCS profiles. The characteristics of the sedimentary layer are common within the survey area. For example, a strong coherent reflector that is estimated to be an opal-A/opal-CT BSR (bottom simulating reflector) (Kuramoto et al., 1992) was confirmed in the sediment of all survey lines. On the other hand, a coherent reflector in the crust was confirmed in some lines. It is identified as this reflector corresponding with the deformation structure in the sediment and basement.