Deciphering lake and maar geometries from seismic refraction and reflection surveys in Laguna Potrok Aike (southern Patagonia, Argentina)


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Catalina.Gebhardt [ at ] awi.de

Abstract

Laguna Potrok Aike is a bowl-shaped maar lake in southern Patagonia, Argentina, with a present mean diameter of ~3.5km and a maximum water depth of ~100m. Seismic surveys were carried out between 2003 and 2005 in order to get a deeper knowledge on the lake sediments and the deeper basin geometries. A raytracing model of the Laguna Potrok Aike basin was calculated based on refraction data while sparker data were additionally used to identify the crater-wall discordance and thus the upper outer shape of the maar structure. The combined data sets show a rather steep funnel-shaped structure embedded in the surrounding Santa Cruz Formation that resembles other well-known maar structures. The infill consists of up to 370m lacustrine sediments underlain by probably volcanoclastic sediments of unknown thickness. The lacustrine sediments show a subdivision into two sub-units: (a) the upper with seismic velocities between 1500 and 1800ms-1, interpreted as unconsolidated muds, and (b) the lower with higher seismic velocities of up to 2350ms-1, interpreted as lacustrine sediments intercalated with mass transport deposits of different lithology and/or coarser-grained sediments. The postulated volcanoclastic layer has acoustic velocities of >2400ms-1. The lake sediments were recently drilled within the PASADO project in the framework of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP). Cores penetrated through lacustrine unconsolidated sediments down to a depth of ~100m below lake floor. This minimal thickness for the unconsolidated and low-velocity lithologies is in good agreement with our raytracing model. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.



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ISI/Scopus peer-reviewed
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Published
Eprint ID
22110
DOI https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2010.12.019

Cite as
Gebhardt, A. , De Batist, M. , Niessen, F. , Anselmetti, F. , Ariztegui, D. , Haberzettl, T. , Kopsch, C. , Ohlendorf, C. and Zolitschka, B. (2011): Deciphering lake and maar geometries from seismic refraction and reflection surveys in Laguna Potrok Aike (southern Patagonia, Argentina) , Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 201 (1-4), pp. 357-363 . doi: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2010.12.019


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