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North America metal mine and oil and gas targeting using seismic tomography at 550 km depth. AusIMM webinar part 8.

 

Figure 43. North America seismic tomography at 550 km depth with mines overlaid.

In this section 7 we  go exploring to 550 km depth using seismic tomography.

This is the deepest seismic tomography of North America I could find (Bedle and van der Lee, 2009).

The mines show no correlation with the colour contours of the tomography.

Once again, the only way to get geological targeting from these plans is to structurally enhance them.

Simple colour enhancing and refining the colour pattern seems to be the current geophysical method of viewing these plans but this does not produce structural geology. One needs to use structure recognition software to define the structural geology features already inherent in these plans to get any real useful data for exploration targeting at any scale.

In the previous section it is shown that we can get good structural geology and target right down to the individual mine location  in the Carlin/Bingham Canyon area, all from the same continental scale plan.

That’s incredible isn’t it? However we do the same process every time we use Landsat plans. These can be enhanced, and then re-enhanced, almost ad finitum, until we can see the rooftop air-conditioners on any house in Australia. That’s what I am doing with these plans!

Figure 44. North America enhanced seismic tomography at 550 km depth showing linear and ring structures.

This plan shows structural geology on the enhanced seismic tomography at 550 km depth.

It shows the high strain areas in black. The various linear and branching shear systems at this depth show clearly.

We should absolutely be right in the middle of the mobile mantle at this depth but there are still huge linear structures criss-crossing the whole area. The main linear systems appear to be WNW which is the earth-girdling Tethyn Spiral, recorded by Tim O’Driscoll in 1980, and the NNW linear structures which can be seen to traverse right through from the southern Pacific Ocean to northern Europe. They cut through the American continents at this depth. there is no evidence of any difference between the supposed continental and oceanic earth?

There is no mobile mantle at this depth.

Ring structures still show up fairly clearly. They can be seen much more clearly in the less enhanced image on the right. The yellow star at the centre is the Dakota Ring which is about 5,000 km diameter (see figure 46).

I want to see how the mines correlate with the dark areas. The hypothesis is that the dark areas represent areas of low  seismic reflectivity representing the main shear zones at this depth. That is where the mineralising pathways should be preferentially located.

Figure 45. North America enhanced seismic tomography at 550 km depth with mines overlaid.

As expected the mines quite closely follow the ring and linear structures. I say as expected because this has been the observation in Australia, Africa,  South America, China and Finland.

In the bottom-right inset the mines are following the lighter areas within the dark zones. This area is equivalent to the Utah ring at the surface. These Western US rings appear to shuffle around between the Nevada ring and the Utah ring but are still in the same general area. I’m not sure of their origin?

At this 500 km depth  in the Western US we are not only supposed to be in the Mobile Mantle but we are also in the middle of the Pacific Plate Subduction zone. So why do these ring structures and strong continent-crossing linears irrefutably exist?

Current Plate Tectonics theories suggest the crust has constantly been recycled from Earth’s formation and that 4 billion year old ring structures should not exist at this depth. This area should be ductile and not undergo brittle fracturing. As we can see this is not true!

Exploration targeting. In Australia we have found that discrete structures down at 300 km in the Yilgarn of Western Australia are good exploration targets for new surface mineral areas. Julimar discovery 70 km north of Perth is an example.

Is this the same in North America? Let’s have a quick look.

In NW Canada there is an 800 km diameter ring structure which has diamond mines all around the inside edge as can be seen in the top-right inset. The intersection of the rim of this ring and strong WNW linears are good exploration targeting criteria. Draw them on and go out and explore!

The exploration targeting lesson to be learnt from the 550 km depth seismic tomography is to explore the intersection of WNW and NE linears (any major linear really)  with the ring structures.

Figure 46. North America interpreted, enhanced seismic tomography at 550 km depth with mines overlaid.

In this figure the outside rim of the Dakota ring is observed. It is a 5,000 km diameter ring structure of a similar size to those seen in Africa and South America.

Figure 47. North America interpreted, enhanced seismic tomography at 550 km depth with mines overlaid with exploration targets.

Exploration Targeting. This plan is a first pass at defining exploration targets in North America using linear and ring/ring  intersections at 550 km depth.

The linears and rings are a conduit for heat and fluids, as we have seen in all of my webinars, and  that where they intersect should be optimal for mineralisation.

One could further refine these targets by following the linears right through to the surface. They are still very strong at this depth, and should be good mineralisation conduits from the core to the surface. The orange arcs are areas that I consider regional exploration targeting areas and the blue ellipses are more specific targets where the rings intersect.

Most of those these rings fall in the central section of the North American continent which is covered with out-wash from the Rockies and all the large river systems. However because the ring structures and linears tend to form antiform structures they would also be excellent for targeting oil and gas. So these would be my oil and gas targets in North America.  The same would apply to Mississippi Valley Type silver/lead/zinc mineralisation.

Figure 47a. North America 550 km seismic tomography exploration targeting.

The white areas are currently worked oil, gas and tight shale fields. The yellow exploration targets should be applicable for metal mines as well as oil and gas.

Check these areas out oil and gas people!

Figure 48. North America, South America and Africa interpreted, enhanced seismic tomography showing linears and diamond mines overlaid.

This plan shows that very similar structural features are associated with diamond occurrences at 550 km depth as seen on the previous Landsat, gravity and seismic tomography plans. The diamonds are associated mainly with WNW and NNE structures. And they are still associated with the Lake Superior ring and, as we have seen in the previous plan, with the NW ring and the WNW  linears. This suggests the structures are vertical.

This is exactly the same pattern seen for diamond mine occurrence in the African and South American continents. Why?

Question to answer; if the diamonds follow these two same linear structures all over the Earth what are the controlling earth structures that allow rings and linears at 300 to 550 km depth.

If, as is currently believed, there is a mobile mantle then the diamond mines (from 50 million – 2 billion years old) should be randomly scattered  all over the earth and the rings and linears should not line up under each other and under each continent. In fact there should be no system of rings and linears at all. But there is!

Our geological truths of the last 50 years need an overhaul!

I remember when Plate tectonics was first proposed in the 1950s and 60s, due to then new geological evidence, how the old guard opposed it.

Now that we have new irrefutable structural geology evidence that suggests elements of the Plate Tectonics hypothesis are incorrect I’m sure the same old guard will oppose again 🙂

Hey, but opposition and arguing is how good science progresses. Comments???

Use and update these exploration targeting plans and —

Happy Hunting

Bob Watchorn

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