USArray Initiative

Abstract

Consider what our understanding of North American tectonics would be like if our best image of the continent's topography was as blurred as that in Figure 1. First-order features like the Cordillera are barely resolved, and the characteristic topography within provinces like the Basin and Range and Great Valley are obscured beyond recognition. Yet it is precisely such a fuzzy view of the lithosphere and deeper mantle that we currently bring to the four-dimensional problem of understanding the structure, evolution, and dynamics of the North American continent.

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