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Crustal velocity structure off SW Taiwan in the northernmost South China Sea imaged from TAIGER OBS and MCS data

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Abstract

During TAiwan Integrated GEodynamics Research of 2009, we investigated data from thirty-seven ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) and three multi-channel seismic (MCS) profiles across the deformation front in the northernmost South China Sea (SCS) off SW Taiwan. Initial velocity-interface models were built from horizon velocity analysis and pre-stack depth migration of MCS data. Subsequently, we used refracted, head-wave and reflected arrivals from OBS data to forward model and then invert the velocity-interface structures layer-by-layer. Based on OBS velocity models west of the deformation front, possible Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, revealed by large variation of the lateral velocity (3.1–4.8 km/s) and the thickness (5.0–10.0 km), below the rift-onset unconformity and above the continental crust extended southward to the NW limit of the continent–ocean boundary (COB). The interpreted Mesozoic sedimentary rocks NW of the COB and the oceanic layer 2 SE of the COB imaged from OBS and gravity data were incorporated into the overriding wedge below the deformation front because the transitional crust subducted beneath the overriding wedge of the southern Taiwan. East of the deformation front, the thickness of the overriding wedge (1.7–5.0 km/s) from the sea floor to the décollement decreases toward the WSW direction from 20.0 km off SW Taiwan to 8.0 km at the deformation front. In particular, near a turn in the orientation of the deformation front, the crustal thickness (7.0–12.0 km) is abruptly thinner and the free-air (−20 to 10 mGal) and Bouguer (30–50 mGal) gravity anomalies are relatively low due to plate warping from an ongoing transition from subduction to collision. West of the deformation front, intra-crustal interfaces dipping landward were observed owing to subduction of the extended continent toward the deformation front. However, the intra-crustal interface near the turn in the orientation of the deformation front dipping seaward caused by the transition from subduction to collision. SE of the COB, the oceanic crust, with a crustal thickness of about 10.0–17.0 km, was thickened due to late magmatic underplating or partially serpentinized mantle after SCS seafloor spreading. The thick oceanic crust may have subducted beneath the overriding wedge observed from the low anomalies of the free-air (−50 to −20 mGal) and Bouguer (40–80 mGal) gravities across the deformation front.

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Acknowledgments

Seismic surveys of this work conducted by the TAIGER team of NTOU, NTU, NCU, CGS, UTIG and IFREMER are acknowledged. We appreciate Dr. Kirk McIntosh and Dr. Harm J.A. Van Avendonk for providing us the velocity profiles of EW9505-33 and MGL0906-01 to determine the COB and the southern limit of the Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. Furthermore, the velocity data along these two profiles are used to build the pseudo-3D model off SW Taiwan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Geosciences, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, ROC

    Jia-Ming Deng, Tan K. Wang, Ben Jhong Yang & Chao-Shing Lee

  2. Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

    Char-Shine Liu

  3. Central Geological Survey, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

    Song-Chuen Chen

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  1. Jia-Ming Deng
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  2. Tan K. Wang
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  3. Ben Jhong Yang
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  4. Chao-Shing Lee
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  5. Char-Shine Liu
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  6. Song-Chuen Chen
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Correspondence to Tan K. Wang.

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Deng, JM., Wang, T.K., Yang, B.J. et al. Crustal velocity structure off SW Taiwan in the northernmost South China Sea imaged from TAIGER OBS and MCS data. Mar Geophys Res 33, 327–349 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-013-9166-8

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