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SHIPS images the Georgia Basin north of the San Juan Islands

SHIPS scientists have written a series of papers presenting their
new images of the geometry and thickness of the Georgia Basin,
which underlies Georgia Strait north of the San Juan Islands.

The first of these papers, by Zelt et al. (2001), revealed that the
Georgia Basin thickens southeastward toward the San Juan
Islands. The basin reaches a thickness of several km (using the
6 km/s isocontour as a proxy for the top of basement rocks).

Basement rocks lie along the surface in the San Juan Islands, so
these SHIPS results imply that there must be a large structural
boundary, possibly a large crustal fault, at the southeastern
end of the Georgia Basin, along the northern end of the San
Juan Islands.