Seismic structure of the extended continental crust in the Yamato Basin, Japan Sea, from ocean bottom seismometer survey

摘要

We present the result of a seismic experiment conducted using ocean bottom seismometers and an air-gun in the Yamato Basin, of the Japan Sea. The Japan Sea is one of the most well-studied back-arc basins in the western Pacific. The Japan Sea is believed to have been formed by back-arc opening. However, the timing and formation processes of the opening of individual basins in and around the Japan Sea are not clear. To reveal the crustal structure of the Yamato Basin it is important to consider the formation process of the Japan Sea. Therefore, we conducted a seismic survey and estimated the P-wave seismic velocity structure beneath the 170-km profile using a 2-D ray-tracing method. A layer with a P-wave velocity of 3.4-4.0 km/s underlies the sedimentary sections, which is thought to consist of a sill-and-sed-iment complex. The upper crust below the profile varies greatly in thickness. The thickness of the upper crust is 3.5 km in the thinnest part and 7 km in the thickest part. The thickness of the lower crust is approximately 8 km and is relatively constant over the profile. The total thickness of the crust is approximately 15 km including the sedimentary layer. The distribution of P-wave velocities and the thickness indicate that the crust in the Yamato Basin is neither a typical continental nor a typical oceanic crust. From the point of view of seismic velocity, the obtained structure is more similar to a continental crust than to an oceanic crust. The large lateral thickness variation in the upper crust and the uniform thickness of the lower crust suggest that the crust in the study area was formed by rifting/extension of continental crust during the opening of the Japan Sea. The margins of the continent or of island arcs can be divided into two types: volcanic rifted margins and non-volcanic rifted margins. Volcanic rifted margins are normally classified by the presence of a high-velocity body in the lower crust. At the volcanic rifted margin, the high-velocity body is formed in the lower crust. We did not observe such a high-velocity layer at depth on our profile. In contrast, the acoustic basement consists of a sill-and-sediment complex. Therefore, we infer that the study area was affected by volcanism during its formation. However, the magma-tism was not significantly massive.