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Geophysics and Remote Sensing

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Physical Geology of Shallow Magmatic Systems

Part of the book series: Advances in Volcanology ((VOLCAN))

Abstract

Igneous sheet intrusions such as sills, dikes, and laccoliths are abundant in volcanic basins. Mafic intrusions are characterized by highP-wave seismic velocities in the range from 5.0 to 7.0 km/s. Velocity aureoles with a thickness comparable to the sill intrusion are commonly identified on sonic log data above and below the intrusions. Sills as thin as 10 m may be detected by conventional seismic reflection data , whereas sills with a thickness above about 40 m are resolvable. Offset-dependent tuning of sill reflections is expected due to the high velocity of the intrusions. Deep sills are difficult to image by reflection methods but can be identified from wide-angle seismic data . Sill reflections are interpreted based on characteristic features such as their high amplitudes and saucer-shaped geometries. Sill complexes are further well-suited for 3D visualization techniques. Potential field and electromagnetic data may improve the reliability of the igneous intrusion interpretation; however such data have poor resolution if sills are buried below more than a few kilometers of sediments. Andesitic and felsic intrusions and laccoliths are less abundant than sills in volcanic basins, and few well-documented geophysical interpretation studies of such intrusions or dykes are published.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Audun Groth, Statoil, and VoxelVision for seismic visualization. Seismic data were kindly provided by TGS and EM data by EMGS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 223272.

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Correspondence to Sverre Planke .

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Planke, S., Svensen, H., Myklebust, R., Bannister, S., Manton, B., Lorenz, L. (2015). Geophysics and Remote Sensing. In: Breitkreuz, C., Rocchi, S. (eds) Physical Geology of Shallow Magmatic Systems. Advances in Volcanology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/11157_2014_6

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