Broad Band Array Study in South Africa

The PASSCAL telemetered bb array was deployed near Kimberley, SA, as part of the larger Southern Africa Seismic Experiment, itself a part of the Kaapvaal Project. The region around Kimberley is in the diamondiferous heart of the Kaapvall craton, a region which has been undisturbed since stabilization around 2.7 Ga. The array was designed to obtain high res images of the crust and upper mantle beneath the Kaapvaal craton to complement the more regional seismic studies of the broader southern Africa array. The array was comprised of 31 REFTEK/STS2 broadband instruments covering an area of approx. 60x40 km. The stations sampled continuously at 40 samples per sec and 1 samples per sec and the data transmitted to a central recording facility at the Dairy Farm, the De Beers geology headquarters in Kimberley. Data were transmitted in near real time via internet to IGPP at UCSD and to Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C..