A refraction/wide-angle reflection experiment is proposed to determine P- and S-wave velocity and anelastic attenuation of a deep section of Mississippi embayment sediments in the Mississippi River plain near Memphis, TN. The experiment will consist of detonating two 200lb buried explosive sources at the ends of a 3km linear array of 60 three-component, 5 Hz autonomous nodal seismometers. An additional strong motion gradiometer consisting of 16 MEMS three-component accelerometers will be deployed 50m from each explosion to record strong ground motions and analyze the source functions of each explosion. Small scale refraction and reflection profiles will also be collected at each source point to characterize the shallow source medium. We will collect a canonical, high signal-to-noise, densely sampled dataset of body and surface waves that will be modeled to determine both velocity and attenuation structure of the sedimentary column.
EarthScope Consortium operates the
NSF Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE)
and NSF Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE).
Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed
in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the
U.S. National Science Foundation.