iSIMM Looks Beneath Basalt for Both Industry and University Research

• Main Authors: Philip Christie, Andrew Langridge, Robert White, Zoë Lunnon, Alan W. Roberts
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Faroe Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.452.812; http://www.spgindia.org/conference/5thconf_hyd04/23812.PDF

ABSTRACT: The integrated Seismic Imaging and Modelling of Margins (iSIMM) project is a joint industry-university research project seeking to characterise magmatic ocean margins and to develop new models for their evolution. In summer 2002, seismic data were acquired successfully over two such margins: the Hatton-Rockall margin and the margin to the northeast of the Faroe Islands, using a combination of towed streamers and Ocean-Bottom Seismometers (OBS). This paper focuses on the profile acquired over the Faroe margin, where a 385 km profile was acquired by Cambridge University with OBS and by WesternGeco with three single-sensor streamers, each using a source array tuned for low frequencies. Both techniques seek to image beneath the basalt cover and, through their integration, to develop a structural model from the seabed to the Moho. This will constrain new theoretical models which address the development of rifted continental margins, including the effects of dynamic support by mantle plumes and the production and intrusion of igneous melt.