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Basement-involved faults and deep structures in the West Philippine Basin: constrains from gravity field

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Abstract

To reveal the basement-involved faults and deep structures of the West Philippine Basin (WPB), the gravitational responses caused by these faults are observed and analyzed based on the latest spherical gravity model: WGM2012 Model. By mapping the free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies, several main faults and some other linear structures are located and observed in the WPB. Then, by conducting a 2D discrete multi-scale wavelet decomposition, the Bouguer anomalies are decomposed into the first- to eighth-order detail and approximation fields (the first- to eighth-order Details and Approximations). The first- to third-order Details reflect detailed and localized geological information of the crust at different depths, and of which the higher-order reflects gravity field of the deeper depth. The first- to fourth-order Approximations represent the regional gravity fields at different depths of the crust, respectively. The fourth-order Approximation represents the regional gravity fluctuation caused by the density inhomogeneity of Moho interface. Therefore, taking the fourth-order Approximation as input, and adopting Parker-Oldenburg interactive inversion, We calculated the depth of Moho interface in the WPB. Results show that the Moho interface depth in the WPB ranges approximately from 8 to 12 km, indicating that there is typical oceanic crust in the basin. In the Urdaneta Plateau and the Benham Rise, the Moho interface depths are about 14 and 16 km, respectively, which provides a piece of evidence to support that the Banham Rise could be a transitional crust caused by a large igneous province. The second-order vertical derivative and the horizontal derivatives in direction 0° and 90° are computed based on the data of the third-order Detail, and most of the basement-involved faults and structures in the WPB, such as the Central Basin Fault Zone, the Gagua Ridge, the Luzon-Okinawa Fault Zone, and the Mindanao Fault Zone are interpreted by the gravity derivatives.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was provided by the NSFC projects (Grants U1606401, 41502185, 41502321, 41402172, and 41325009). This work was also supported financially by the National Programme on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction, SOA (No. GASI-GEOGE-01) and Taishan Scholar Program and Aoshan Elite Scientist Plan to Prof. Sanzhong Li. We would like to thank all the students in our workgroup, and all the people who provided us with invaluable help. We also thank Guest Editor, Prof. Weiwei Ding, the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, which helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, No. 238, Songling Road, Qingdao, Shandong Province, 266100, China

    Gang Wang, Suhua Jiang, Sanzhong Li, Huixuan Zhang, Jianping Lei, Song Gao & Feiyu Zhao

  2. Key Lab of Submarine Geosciences and Prospecting Techniques, Ministry of Education, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Gang Wang, Suhua Jiang, Sanzhong Li, Huixuan Zhang, Jianping Lei, Song Gao & Feiyu Zhao

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  1. Gang Wang
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  2. Suhua Jiang
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  3. Sanzhong Li
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Correspondence to Suhua Jiang.

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Wang, G., Jiang, S., Li, S. et al. Basement-involved faults and deep structures in the West Philippine Basin: constrains from gravity field. Mar Geophys Res 38, 149–167 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-017-9310-y

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