PS RECEIVER FUNCTIONS AND VP/VS ANALYSIS OF THE TEXAS GULF COAST PLAIN AND LLANO UPLIFT
The Vp/Vs ratio cross-section CCP stack produced from the Ps receiver functions revealed a number of significant features. The sediment-basement contact was the strongest horizon these images. The Moho appears at depths of 30-40 km across most of the profile but the Moho phase beneath the Balcones faults (BF) appears to be missing or may have a negative polarization. There was a positive anomaly beneath the Balcones escarpment at 20 km depth, which we interpret as a mid-crustal horizon rather than the Moho. Low Vp/Vs ratios beneath the Moho, at depths of 30-50 km, at the southernmost part of the image are suggestive of an iron depleted region that is typical of a “rift pillow”, which would have been emplaced during rifting that opened the Gulf of Mexico. The base of this body is also imaged in the CCP stack of RFs. A broadly negative region in the mantle directly outboard of the Balcones escarpment may indicate mantle flow resulting from sediment loading, and is a possible mechanism for the Llano Uplift and erosion of the Moho beneath the BF. There appears to be a wedge shape split in the Moho phase inboard of the BF beneath the Llano uplift. This may to be Ouachita material, possibly delaminated from the colliding terrain or under-plating associated with emplacements during Late-Cretaceous volcanism.