GEOTHERMAL and STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS of MAGNETIC Anomalies OBSERVED OVER the SOUTHERN OREGON CASCADE MOUNTAINS and ADJOINING BASIN and RANGE PROVINCE
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF WILLIAM HENRY MCLAIN for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in GEOPHYSICS presented on JULY 21, 1981 Title: GEOTHERMAL AND STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF MAGNETIC ANOMALIES OBSERVED OVER THE SOUTHERN OREGON CASCADE MOUNTAINS AND ADJOINING BASIN AND RANGE PROVINCE Redacted for privacy Abstract approved: Richard W. Couch To assist in the assessment of the geothermal potential ofsouth- central Oregon and to aid in the understanding of the tectonicmode of transition between the Basin and Range province and theCascade Mountains province, personnel from the Geophysics Group in theSchool of Oceanography at Oregon State University conducted adetailed aero- magnetic survey extending from 42°OO' to 43°OO'N latitudeand 121000T to 122°45'W longitude. Spectral analysis of the aeromagnetic anomalies provided source- depth and depth-to-bottom calculations for south-centralOregon. The magnetic source-bottom depths were interpreted asCurie-point isotherm depths. Several regions with elevated Curie-point isothermdepths were mapped: (1) the Crater Lske area, (2) the Mount McLaughlin - Kiamath Lake area, and (3) the Sprague River Valley.The elevated Curie-point isotherm depths within these areas, asshallow as 4 to 6 km below sea level in the Mount McLoughlin - Klamath Lake areaand 5 to 7 kmbelow sea level in the Crater Lake area and theSprague River Valley, imply vertical temperature gradients in excess of70 °C/km and heat-flow values greater than 120mW/rn2 assuming a Curie-point temperature of 580 °C. A N40°W anomaly trend, observed on the totalfield magnetic intensity map and low-pass filtered anomaly maps, suggeststhe emplacement of volcanic intrusions occurred along apreviously umnapped fracture zone associated with Mount Mazama. This prcposed fracture zone parallels the Mount McLoughlin fracture zoneand exhibits a similar magnetic expression. Fracture zones, that may include normal faults, were also mapped at thenorthern and southern ends of Klamath Lake. The structural relationship between theKiamath Graben and the Cascades Graben remains unclear. A moving-window technique, that usesPoisson's relation, when applied to the first vertical derivative of gravitydata and mag- netic intensity data reduced to the pole in thevicinity of Pelican Butte, yielded magnetization-to-density contrastratios of - .02 to .02 cgs. However, the misalignment of gravityand magnetic anom- alies over Pelican Butte due to anundersampling of the gravity field casts doubt in these numbers. Geothermal and Structural Implications of Magnetic nomalies Observed over the Southern Oregon Cascade Mountains and Adjoining Basin and Range Province by William Henry McLain A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Completed on July 2.1, 1981 Commencement June 1982 APPROVED: Redacted for privacy Associate PrOfessor of in charge of major Redacted for privacy Dean of School of Oceanography Redacted for privacy Dean of Graduate Date Thesis is presented21 July 1981 Typed by Bill McLain for William Henry NcLain ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am gratefully indebted to Dr. Richard Couch, my advisor and major professor, for providing me the opportunity to study Geophysics in the Great State of Oregon. Furthermore, his comments, suggestions, and advice were always appreciated. Mike Gemperle, Jeb Bowers, Steve Pitts, Gerry Conriard, Mike Saunders, and Willie Nelson helped collect the data. Special thanks go to pilot Mike Saunders of Mary's Peak Aviation. Also, thanks to Rich, Jess, Dwayne, Bill, Echo, friends of Small Wonder, and patrons of the Hungry Hunter for providing much needed entertainment near the end of the long field season. I also wish to thank Gerry Connard for help with hardwareand software problems, for useful discussions concerning spectral analysis, and for adapting Rob Clayton's FFT algorithm to the Eclipse computer system. Fellow graduate student Cindy Veen offered constructive criticism when needed while my roommate of four years, Brian Jonasson, had to deal with my sometimes strange hours. They were true friends during these years of self-denial. Josie Peper, Steve Troseth, and Paula Pitts drafted thefigures. To say their time and effort were greatly appreciatedis an under- statement. The data collection and reduction was funded by the Department of Energy through the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries under contract number DEFCO7-79--ID--12044. The data analysis was funded by the U. S. Geologic Survey Extramural Geothermal Research Program under grant number 14-.08-000l-G-698. This thesis is dedicated to the parents and grandparents of William Henry ?IcLain III. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 GEOLOGY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTH-CENTRAL OREGON 5 TOTAL FIELD MAGNETIC ANOMALY IfAP 13 LOW-PASS FILTERED MAPS 27 MAGNETIC SOURCE-DEPTH DETERMINATIONS USING SPECTRAL ANALYSIS 32 CURIE-POINT ISOTHERM DEPTH DETERMINATIONS FROM SPECTRAL ANALYSIS 50 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF REGIONAL STRUCTURE AND CURIE-POINT ISOTHERM DEPTHS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL OREGON 72 MOVING-WINDOW APPLICATION OF POISSON'S RELATION APPLIED TO THE PELICAN BUTTE AREA 82 PRCIS 88 REFERENCES 89 APPENDICES A. PREVIOUS GEOPHYSICAL WORK 96 B. THE SOUTH-CENTRAL OREGON AEROMAGNETIC SURVEY 100 Data Collection 100 The Navigation System 101 Airborne Magnetic Measurements 103 The Base Station 103 Data Processing 104 Processing of Aircraft Data 106 Processing of Base Station Data 106 Production of Total Field Aero- magnetic Anomaly Map 106 Spectral Analysis of the Aero- magnetic Data 111 C. TECHNIQUES OF ANALYSIS OF THE SOUTH-CENTRAL OREGON AERONAGNETIC DATA 113 Two-Dimensional Fourier Transform 115 Mean Depth-to-Source Calculations from the Energy Spectrum 117 Mean Depth-to-Bottom Calculations from the Energy Spectrum 119 Filter Operations in the Frequency Domain 124 Rotation-to-the-Pole 124 Upward Continuation 125 Low-Pass Filter 125 First Vertical Derivative 126 D. DOCUMENTATION AND LISTINGS OF USEFUL COMPUTER PROGRAMS 127 Fast Fourier Transformation Algorithm 127 FORKOVR 127 FORKBAK 128 FORK2D 128 FORK 129 CIN 129 COUT 129 Moving-Window Technique Using Poisson's Relation 137 DERIV 137 POISSON 138 Three-Dimensional Modelling: MPRISM and GPRISM 145 NPRISM 145 GPRISM 146 LIST OF FIGURES Fgire Page 1 Generalized geology of the Pacific Northwest. 2 2 Topographic map of south-central Oregon. 6 3 Flight lines of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic survey. 14 4 Total field aeromagnetic anomaly map of south-central Oregon. 15 5 Correlation of magnetic anomalies and topographic features and location of anomaly trends within south-central Oregon. 18 6 Low-pass filteredaeromagnetic anomaly map of south- central Oregon -15 km wavelength cutoff. 28 7 Low-pass filteredaeromagnetic anomaly map of south- central Oregon -35 km wavelength cutoff. 29 35 8 Boundaries of the512 x 512 grid. 9 Radially averagedspectrum of the south-central Oregon aeromagneticdata. 36 10 Radially averagedspectrum of the northwest portion of the south-centralOregon aeromagnetic data. 38 11 Radially averaged spectrum of the north portion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 39 12 Radially averaged spectrum of the northeastportion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 40 13 Radially averaged spectrum of the west portion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 41 14 Radially averaged spectrum of the central portion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 42 15 Radially averaged spectrum of the east portionof 43 the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 4 Figure 16 Radially averaged spectrum of the southwest portion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 44 17 Radially averaged spectrum of the south portion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 45 18 Radially averaged spectrum of the southeast portion of the south-central Oregon aeromagnetic data. 46 19 Calculation of minimum Curie-point depths for (a) the southeast and west portions, (b) the north and north- east portions, and (c) various areas where 128 x 128 subgrids did not exhibit spectral peaks of the south- central Oregon survey area. 56 20 Calculation of Curie-point depths for the south- central Oregon survey area. 57 21 Calculation of Curie-point depths for (a) the central and northwest and (b) the southeast portions of the south-central Oregon survey area. 58 22 Calculation of Curie-point depths for (a) the south and (b) the east portions of the south-central Oregon survey area. 60 23 Representative radially averaged spectrum for the Crater Lake area. 62 24 Calculation of Curie-point depths for (a) the Sprague River Valley and (b) the Crater Lake area. 63 25 Representative radially averaged spectrum for the Mount McLoughlin - Kiamath Lake area. 64 26 Calculation of Curie-point depths for the Mount McLoughlin - Klamath Lake area. 65 27 Representative radially averaged spectrum for the Sprague River Valley. 67 28 Map of south-central Oregon showing regional struc- tural interpretation of the aeromagnetic data. 73 29 Map summarizing Curie-point isotherm depth cal- culations in south-central Oregon from spectral analysis of magnetic anomalies. 75 Figure Page 30 Anomaly and regression coefficient maps of the Pelican Butte region associated with a moving- window application of Poisson's relation. 86 Appendix Figure 31 Histogram of magnetic values recorded at the Kiamath Falls base station. 105 B2 Histogram of crossing errors for the south- central Oregon aeromagnetic survey. 109 Cl Effect of large source-depth variations on calculated mean source