3-D velocity structure of the gulf of Izmir (Western Turkey) by using traveltime tomography

Abstract

The Gulf of İzmir and its surroundings in western Anatolia are under the influence of active continental extension characterized by crustal thinning, intense seismic activity, the high heat flows associated with volcanism, and geothermal activity. These features make this region attractive for both geothermal and hydrocarbon exploration activities. The study area and surroundings are well investigated in terms of the crustal-scale tomography studies however there are only a few moderate-scale tomography studies exist aiming to understand its velocity structure and stratigraphical architecture, even though there are basins with proven hydrocarbon and geothermal sources across western Anatolia. Structural and stratigraphical interpretations from previous studies are performed on the 2-D time-migrated seismic sections, which are far from depth environment illustration and reliable velocity information. These conventional velocity estimation methods are based on the Dix inversion in which a flat-layered earth model with no lateral velocity variation and small source-receiver offset values are assumed. However, the study area is way more complex than these assumptions. Therefore, the inversion of traveltimes of the reflected events in seismic data is adopted as a velocity estimation method. In this study, the first 3-D Neogene velocity-depth model of the Gulf of İzmir is obtained by using traveltime tomography. Pre-processing steps such as trace edit, muting out unwanted signals, filtering undesired frequency content, and gaining to remove the effects of wavefront divergence are applied to the raw shot gathers to be able to delineate reflection events on the pre-stack data and make the picking phase more accurately by removing the excessive background noise. This more pickable dataset contains 401352 seismic trace recordings from eleven multi-channel seismic lines collected in the NNW-SSE oriented outer Gulf of İzmir between offshore Foça and Karaburun. The resulting grids of traveltimes were then correlated with each other at the tie-points. Additionally, the conventionally processed data was re-interpreted in detail. Three main seismic stratigraphic units (SSU1-SSU3) were interpreted on the time sections. Three subunits (SSU1a, b and c) are also distinguished within the SSU1 seismic unit. These units are bounded above and/or below by the five horizons (H1-H5). Two unconformity surfaces between Upper Miocene-Pliocene and Pliocene-Quaternary sediments are marked. For the 3-D tomography analysis, the initial velocity for the water column is set to 1500 m/s. The velocity constraints for the following layers are chosen as follows: 1500-1780 m/ for SSU1a, 1500-2000 m/s for SSU1b, 1500-2400 m/s for SSU1c, and 1500-2800 m/s for SSU2 based on the conventional velocity analysis conducted by the previous studies. The initial depth values for the reflectors H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5 are chosen as 100, 150, 300, 550, and 900 m, respectively. The principle of minimum time that uses the analytical solution of Snell's law through an iterative procedure is used to compute the synthetic traveltimes and ray paths within a model. The velocity fields between horizons and the depth of the horizons are updated sequentially. An iterative optimization method called the Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Technique (SIRT) is used to update the velocity fields by traveltime inversion. The principle of minimum dispersion of the estimated reflection points is used to update the depth and shape of the interfaces. The final tomographic inversion is carried out by using staggered grids. This final high-resolution tomographic image has provided 3-D stratigraphical architecture and velocity distribution of the Gulf of İzmir in the depth domain. Five seismic stratigraphic units/subunits (SSU3, SSU2, SSU1a, SSU1b, and SSU1c) are traced along the study area. These seismic units and unit boundaries are calibrated by the Foça-1 well (drilled by Turkish Petroleum) on the Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PreSDM) section of Line-25. As a result of this calibration, the acoustic basement is associated with SSU3 consisting of tuffs, sandstones, limestones, and volcanics of the Lower-Middle Miocene Yuntdağ Volcanics. They terminate onto the north-dipping horizon H5 along the southern side of the basin, which displays highly variable topography with several depressions and high. It is marked as a major unconformity separating Miocene and older rocks from the Pliocene-Quaternary younger deposits with a depth of ~200 m in the southern sector and deepens to ~900 m in the mid-central sector constituting a basin. Then, it rises to 420 m forming ridges offshore both Foça and Karaburun Peninsula between 15 to 20 km in the central sector. These volcanic ridges bound the basin, unlike the rest of the western Anatolian grabens bounded by normal faults. The depth of the horizon H5 increases considerably in the northern part of the basin, ranging from 900 m (western flank) to 1400 m (eastern flank). The basin deposits have accumulated asymmetrically across the study area following the northwest dipping Miocene-Pliocene unconformity surface (H5). It consists of two asymmetric depressions developed in the northeastern and mid-central sectors. The thickest depocenter is in the northeast (up to ~1400 m) and thinning through the mid-central sector (~850 m) and southern (~140 m) sector, respectively. SSU2 lies on top of the acoustic basement and corresponds to the sandstones, limestones, volcanics, and shales of the Bozköy Formation and the limestones of the Ularca Formation, dating from the Late Miocene to the Pliocene. The deposition of this unit is mostly concentrated on the northeastern and the mid-central sector of the basin, where acoustic basement highs create small depressions. SSU2 comprises a 20-70 m sediment thickness in the SE offshore Uzun Island. The local depression zone in the mid-central part of the basin has ~580 m thickness, whereas SSU2 has ~40 m and ~260 m thicknesses in the eastern and the western flank of the central sector. SSU2 is rapidly thickening in the northern sector. The maximum thickness of ~790 m appears in the eastern flank of the northern sector, whereas thickness gradually decreases westward up to 20 m. SSU2 is separated from the overlying unit SSU1 by the horizon H4. This boundary defines the base of the Quaternary. The depth of H4 ranges from ~200 m to 480 m from southeast to northwest. Then, it dramatically deepens to ~860 m in the northern sector (through the outer gulf). It constitutes a small basin with a depth of ~520 m at the mid-central sector around Foça. H4 is overlaid by the Plio-Quaternary sediments. From Pliocene to Quaternary (SSU1), the depression in the mid-central sector shifted gradually towards the eastern flank of the central sector (~440 m) while the depression in the northeastern sector expanded northwestwardly (~620 m). These two depression areas are separated by the ridges of horizon H4 that mimics the basement high rising in the east-west direction. By contrast, the total thickness of the Plio-Quaternary sedimentary succession is thinning abruptly up to ~180 m towards the western flank of the southern and central sector of the basin following the rising basement. SSU1 comprises three seismic subunits (SSU1c, SSU1b, and SSU1a). The inclination of the subunits decreases from north to south and from bottom to top. A member of the Bayramiç Formation, SSU1c, is deposited on top of the SSU2, which is dated as Quaternary consisting of conglomerates at the base overlain by sandstones and shales above. The thickness of SSU1c is 20 m in the southern termination of the basin and gradually increases northwardly up to ~280 m. Above that, two other members of the Bayramiç Formation lie named SSU1b and SSU1a, separated by horizons H3 and H2. SSU1b also consists of a similar sequence of conglomerates, sandstones, and shales. The thickness of the SSU1b varies between ~100-300 m. SSU1b accumulates up to ~280 m in the eastern flank of the central sector, where the underlying horizon deepens. Horizon H2 represents the upper surface of the seismic unit SSU1b. SSU1a consists of Quaternary sandstones. It has a 40 m thickness in the southern sector, ~60 m in the central sector, and ~140 m in the northern sector. Finally, H1 is located on top of seismic unit SSU1a and represents the seafloor. The seafloor is smoothly deepened from south to north from ~45 m to ~125 m. The strike-slip faulting with generally compressional character (Karaburun Fault Zone and Urla Fault Zone) is the main reason for the recent deformation of both basement morphology and overlying sedimentary succession. Overall, the Gulf of İzmir is quite different than the surrounding grabens (such as Gediz and Bakırçay grabens) in terms of structural and stratigraphical configurations. Our results also provide the first 3-D velocity model reconstructed from the reflected arrivals of the sedimentary sequence boundaries for the whole outer Gulf of İzmir. The model is presented in a set of horizontal depth slices at different depths and vertical cross-sections displaying velocity variations through the study area. The significant low-velocity zones (LVZs) (1650Vp 1850 m/s) are seen in the horizontal depth slices and vertical cross-sections in the eastern flank down to ~500 m and along the northwestern part of the basin down to ~1 km. Another feature observed in the vertical sections is the presence of high-velocity zones (HVZs) (2150Vp 2350 m/s) between low-velocity zones in the mid-central and north-central sectors of the basin. This observation are supported by the P-wave velocity perturbation that defines the velocity deviations from the initial velocity obtained using the tomography results. The velocity variation seen in the eastern flank of the study area overlaps a lenticular structure that presents on both the time migrated and PreSDM section within the Bayramiç Formation. It has ~500 m length and ~90 m width and bounded by steeply dipping faults on either side. Amplitude anomalies appear to be present at both the upper and lower surfaces of the structure. AVO (amplitude versus offset) analysis, modeling, and seismic attributes showed the presence of possible Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators (DHIs) from the top and base reflectors of the established lenticular-shaped structure interpreted as bright and flat spots, respectively. Our observations suggest the presence of a reservoir within the Quaternary-aged Bayramiç Formation, which consists of conglomerates, sandstones, and shales. It is sealed by shales of the Bayramiç Formation and bounded by an unconformity at the base together with the strike-slip faults on both sides. Therefore, it is concluded that this trap is a structural-stratigraphic. The bounding strike-slip faults allow the migration of hydrocarbons from greater depths into the local reservoir. The presence of another LVZ on top of the reservoir along the strike-slip faults indicates the leakage breaching up to the seafloor. The fault-controlled LVZs in the Plio-Quaternary sediments of the Gulf of İzmir is interpreted as the indication of gas/fluid flow and heat transfer from a deeper source to the shallow surface. The depth information provided by this thesis will further increase our understanding of the link between 3-D stratigraphic architecture and the dominant tectonic forces, and it provides a solid foundation for future numerical simulation studies on the possible fluid/heat transport mechanisms. The P-wave velocity characteristics provided in this thesis will be used to detect the vertical and lateral velocity variations, which can be further used to discover possible dramatic lateral and vertical velocity variations indicating the links between faults (tectonic), fluid escape, gas occurrences (hydrothermal processes) and discuss potential geohazard risk beneath the Gulf of İzmir.