Imaging and regional distribution of basalt flows in the Faeroe-Shetland Basin

• Published in: Geophysical Prospecting Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 215 - 231
• Main Authors: White, Robert S., Smallwood, John R., Fliedner, Moritz M., Boslaugh, Brian, Maresh, Jenny, Fruehn, Juergen
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.05.2003; Blackwell
• Subjects: Applied geophysics; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Internal geophysics; Faeroe Islands; waves; basement; models; maps; velocity structure; thickness; ray tracing; basalt flows; velocity; Atlantic Ocean Islands; amplitude; depth; migration; travel time; waveforms; energy
• ISSN: 0016-8025; 1365-2478
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2478.2003.00364.x

ABSTRACT We demonstrate that the use of long‐offset seismic data allows wide‐angle reflections and diving waves to be recorded, and that these can be used in conjunction with prestack depth migrations to constrain and to image the base of the basalt flows and the underlying structure in the Faeroe‐Shetland Basin. Crustal velocity models are built first by inverting the traveltimes of the recorded reflections and diving waves using ray‐tracing methods. Finer details of the velocity structure can then be refined by analysis of the amplitudes and waveforms of the arrivals. We show that prestack depth migration of selected wide‐angle arrivals of known origin, such as the base‐basalt reflection, using the crustal velocity model, allows us to build a composite image of the structure down to the pre‐rift basement. This has the advantage that the wide‐angle first‐arriving energy must be primary, and not from one of the many multiples or mode‐converted phases that plague near‐offset seismic data. This allows us to ‘tag’ these primary arrivals with confidence and then to identify the same arrivals on higher‐resolution prestack migrations that include data from all offsets. Examples are drawn from the Faeroe‐Shetland Basin, with a series of regional maps of the entire area showing the basalt depths and the thickness of the basalt flows and underlying sediment down to the top of the pre‐rift basement. The maps show how the basalts thin to the southeast away from their presumed source west of the present Faeroe Islands, and also show the extent to which the structure of the pre‐rift basement controls the considerable variations in sediment thickness between the basement and the cap formed by the overlying basalt flows.