Continental crust under compression: A seismic refraction study of South Island Geophysical Transect I, South Island, New Zealand

Abstract

The 1996 South Island Geophysical Transect (SIGHT) active source seismic survey was designed to show the style of lithospheric thickening due to late Cenozoic oblique convergence across the Australian-Pacific plate boundary in New Zealand. As part of this study, two seismic refraction lines were shot across central South Island and offshore extensions of the continental crust in the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean. We present the data and a 603 km long seismic velocity profile of the crust and uppermost mantle along one of these seismic transects. A tomographic inversion of 62,563 travel times from crustal and upper mantle refractions and wide-angle reflections resulted in a model with a two-layer crust. Upper crustal velocities were between 5.9 and 6.3 km/s, and lower crustal velocities were between 6.5 and 7.0 km/s. Continental compression has locally reduced the seismic velocities in the Pacific plate crust by 0.2-0.3 km/s, a possible effect of high strain and fluids in the crust. The thickening of the crust from 28 km at the east coast of South Island to 37 km beneath the Southern Alps can account for about 25% of the 80-110 km shortening of Pacific plate crust, while the rest must be accounted for by rapid erosion of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks on the west side of the orogen. In our model the lower crust forms a continuous 2-6 km thick layer beneath central South Island. The asymmetric topography of the Southern Alps is reflected in the crustal root which has a steeper flank at the west coast. This observation is consistent with westward underthrusting of Pacific lower lithosphere beneath South Island that has been suggested in earlier studies. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.