STRUCTURE OF THE CRUST AND UPPER MANTLE ACROSS NORTHERN CONNECTICUT: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE SEISCONN EXPERIMENT

The bedrock geology of Connecticut expresses the juxtaposition of a variety of terranes, of both continental and volcanic arc affinity and from across the Laurentian and peri-Gondwanan realms, that were brought together via subduction and terrane accretion during Appalachian orogenesis. Later Mesozoic rifting modified (and was likely influenced by) these pre-existing structures and formed the Hartford Rift Basin in the central portion of the state. This region therefore represents a unique opportunity to study a range of fundamental tectonic processes within a compact area that can be efficiently sampled with a modest number of seismic stations. The Seismic Experiment for Imaging Structure beneath Connecticut (SEISConn) is an ongoing deployment of 15 broadband seismic stations in a dense linear array across northern Connecticut. We aim to understand how past tectonic episodes of have affected the present-day structure of the crust and mantle lithosphere, as well as how the lithosphere was deformed during episodes of subduction, terrane accretion, and rifting. Here we present initial results from SEISConn that constrain the structure and deformation of the crust and lithospheric mantle using a variety of imaging techniques, including Ps and Sp receiver functions, ambient noise tomography, and SKS splitting analysis. Future work will focus on the testing of specific hypotheses for the tectonic evolution of southern New England derived from geologic observations.