Imaging an active, blind thrust fault along the front of hte Avawatz Mountains (California)

We plan to collect a seismic reflection profile in the northern Avawatz Mountains that cross the frontal, blind thrust fault. Combining PASSCAL instruments with our own, we will use 108 channels (40 hz phones) in a 'modified' rolling spread configuration to acquire 600 - 800 meters of seismic data. We will use a Betsy gun source. From prior experience in the area (Noble Hills, 8 km to the northwest), we anticipate imaging to a depth of 500 - 1000 meters. Based on surface geology, we anticipate that to be sufficient to image the upper part of the blind thrust fault. We have already conducted preliminary geologic investigations and confirmed the accessibility of the site. The seismic reflection data should help constrain the geometry of the fault, and the growing fold geometry is constrained with surface geological measurements from bedrock and deformed gravel beds. This work is funded by the University of Missouri Research Board, and constitutes part of the M.S. thesis research of an MU graduate student.