Seismic reflection profiles across the Puente Hills fault zone, Los Angeles, California

This data release contains seismic reflection profiles acquired across the Puente Hills fault zone, Los Angeles, California. The data are high-resolution seismic reflection profiles acquired with mini-sosie (earth tamper), sledgehammer and truck-mounted mini-vibrators. Results are described in the paper:

Anthonissen, C.J., L.A. Leon, F.D. Wolfe, J. Don, J.F. Dolan, J.H. Shaw, T.L. Pratt, E.J. Rhodes, T.M. Rittenour, and A. Ivester (2026). Structural evolution and slip rate variations through time of the Puente-Hills blind-thrust beneath Los Angeles: Implications for seismic hazard and folding kinematics, Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth.

The first two profiles, along Carfax Avenue in Los Angeles, were acquired in the year 2000 using an earth tamper (mini-sosie) for the larger profile, and a sledgehammer for the higher-resolution profile. A 60-channel geophone spread was used for both profiles, as described in the "acquisition parameters" files in the directories for each line. The data are used in the above paper, but were originally described in Leon et al. (2007) which contains a map of where the profiles were acquired and images of the resulting seismic sections.

The third profile was acquired in 2007 on a service road along the west side of the San Gabriel River in Los Angeles. The profile is being published for the first time in the Anthonissen et al. (2026) paper referenced above. The profile was collected with a mini-vibrator seismic source using parameters described in the "acquisition_parameters" files in the directory.

A standard seismic reflection processing sequence was followed for all of the profiles (Yilmaz, 1986), which included bandpass filter, deconvolution, velocity analysis and normal moveout correction, common-midpoint stack, residual statics computation and application, post-stack f-k migration, and depth conversion.

Directories:
The directories for each profile contain the shot records in segy format, with the geometry in the headers, as well as the final stacked seismic sections also in segy format. Also included are files named "stack" that show the processing sequence in the Seismic Unix processing package SU; Stockwell, 1999), but the parameters that were used are easily read from those files if another processing system is used to reprocess the data.

The original, hand-written observers notes are included in each directory for archival purposes, and the files "source_receiver_coordinates" and "acquisition_parameters" in each directory summarize the information on the observers' notes. The data were collected by Thomas Pratt, U.S. Geological Survey, as part of a collaboration with James Dolan (University of Southern California) and John Shaw (Harvard University) and their students.

Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

References:

Leon, L. A., S. A. Christofferson, J. F. Dolan, J. H. Shaw, and T. L. Pratt (2007). Earthquake-by-earthquake fold growth above the Puente Hills blind thrust fault, Los Angeles, California: Implications for fold kinematics and seismic hazard, Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth, 112(B3), B03S03, doi:10.1029/2006JB004461.
 
Stockwell, J. W. (1999). The CWP/SU: Seismic Un∗x package, Computers and Geosciences, 25(4), 415-419, doi: 10.1016/S0098-3004(98)00145-9.

Yilmaz, O. (2001). Seismic Data Processing, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Tulsa, OK, 2065 p., doi: 10.1190/1.9781560801580.