Imaging the North Bishop Block with Ambient Noise and Converted Phases Observed through Fiber-Optic Seismology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v5i1.1175Keywords:
surface wave imaging, converted phase, fiber-optic seismologyAbstract
Located in eastern California, Owens Valley is a rift basin in the western Basin and Range Province, bounded by the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains. While the basin has been the site of extensive geologic study, most interpretations of the subsurface structure depend on non-unique interpretation of gravity data. Under these constraints, past researchers have inferred the presence of the North Bishop Block, a block slumped from the White Mountains, roughly 100 square kilometers in area. A section of optical fiber near the town of Bishop, CA, in Owens Valley has been converted to a seismic array, and records apparent Ps converted phases above the proposed location of the North Bishop Block. We assume that the Ps phase is produced by the slumped block and jointly invert for a velocity structure through ambient noise cross-correlation and from the observed Ps phases, advancing the use of converted phases in fiber-optic seismic data. We replicate the proposed depth of the North Bishop Block and observe a deeper phase-converting interface to the south. We interpret this interface as an unmapped slumped block, located at roughly 1 kilometer depth. This result has important implications for the tectonic history and subsurface hydrology of Bishop, CA.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Eli Bird, James Atterholt, Ettore Biondi, Yan Yang, Zhongwen Zhan
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National Science Foundation
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Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
