Reflection and refraction seismic studies in the Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah

Seismic refraction and CDP reflection profiles were acquired across mud flats of the Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah, during the summer of 1983. a combination of weight drops, horizontal hammers, buried explosives, and explosives detonated in air (Poulter method) was used. A 6.4 km refraction and single‐fold reflection profile indicates the presence of a shallow depression (Donner Reed basin) eastb of Donner Reed pass in the Silver Island Mountains. A basin floor ramp of Paleozoic rocks dipping approximately 30 degrees east into the Crater Island graben is interpreted beneath a 4.6 km 12-fold CDP reflection profile obtained by the Poulter method. This ramp extends beneath at least 0.8 km of condolidated Neogene sediments and 0.8 km of younger (largely unconsolidated) sediments. Weight‐drop and horizontal‐hammer profiles for the critical refraction along the Silurian Laketown dolomite yield P-wave and S-wave velocity estimates of 5270 ± 100 and 2950±250m/s, respectively. The mud flats, with their laterally un...