An Idaho-Nevada-California Refraction Experiment: Utilizing Large Mine Blasts For Long-range Profiles

Utilizing commercial mine blasts and local earthquakes, as well as a dense array of portable seismographs, we have achieved high-resolution crustal refraction profiles across northern Nevada and the central Sierra Nevada Mountains. Using a dense spacing of 411 portable seismographs and 4.5 Hz geophones, the instruments were able to record events ranging from large mine blasts, small local earthquakes (approximately magnitude 2), as well as two larger earthquakes (magnitudes 2.8 and 3.8). Our instruments sensed blast first arrivals out to a distance of approximately 400 km. We have obtained 99% data recovery and clear refractions across the Sierra Nevada and the northern Great Basin regions.