evolution of the eastern volcanic ridge of the canary islands based on new kar data the results of 64 new k ar age determinations together with 32 previously published ages show that after a period of erosion of the basal complex miocene volcanic activity started around 20 ma in fuerteventura and 15 ma in lanzarote forming a tabular succession of basaltic lavas and pyroclastics with a few salic dykes and plugs this series includes five separate volcanic edifices each one with its own eruptive history in fuerteventura several miocene eruptive cycles have been identified in the central edifice one around 20 17 ma followed by two others centred around 15 and 13 ma in the southern edifice the maximum of activity took place around 16 14 ma whereas in the northern one the main activity occurred between 14 and 12 ma in lanzarote a first cycle of activity took place in the southern edifice between 15 5 and 14 1 ma followed by another between 13 6 and 12 3 ma in the northern edifice three pulses occurred 10 2 8 3 6 6 5 3 and 3 9 3 8 ma an important temporal gap greater in fuerteventura than in lanzarote separates series i from the plio quaternary series ii iii and iv formed by multi vent basaltic emissions in fuerteventura the following eruptive cycles have been identified 5 2 9 2 4 1 8 1 7 0 8 0 4 and 0 1 ma in lanzarote the activity was fairly continuous from 2 7 ma to historic times with a maximum in the lower pleistocene eruptive rates in the series i edifices were on the average 0 1 0 01 km3 ka comparable but slightly smaller than in similar edifices in tenerife and la gomera but much lower than in gran canaria average post miocene eruptive rates were about 0 013 0 027 km3 ka in lanzarote and 0 003 0 007 km3 ka in fuerteventura all these volcanic edifices show a similar general sequence fissural eruptions erosion multi vent volcanism repeated at different periods in different parts of the eastern islands of the canaries the model of growth of the series i edifices is comparable to those in tenerife and la gomera long periods of activity sometimes greater than 6 m y with pulses separated by gaps however salic and intermediate differentiates frequent in tenerife and la gomera are very scarce in these islands the fuerteventura lanzarote ridge shows a decrease in volcanic activity with time and also a certain ssw nne polarity in the temporal development of volcanism

influence of cone morphology on dykes stromboli italy abstract the island of stromboli represents the emerged part of a 2 6 km high composite volcano elongated in a ne direction over the period 100 13 ka bp the morphological evolution of the volcano was characterised by a series of summit caldera collapses between major building phases from 13 ka bp onward a series of large lateral collapses occurred northwestwards in one sector of the cone the results of the field study of the total 94 dyke population is discussed in this paper they show that during the last 100 ka the majority of dykes were injected with a nnegssw to ene wsw strike along a ne sw weakness zone crossing the volcano summit this is interpreted as a volcanic rift the geometry of which is controlled by regional tectonic stresses dykes injected prior to 13 ka bp at lower altitudes are generally steeper than those injected at higher elevations after 13 ka bp dykes were injected along the ne sw weakness zone and parallel and close to the margins of the earliest sector collapse at dips of 20 80 inclined towards the collapse depression i suggest that this is linked to unbuttressing of the collapse depression or to seaward gravity instability of the depression infill deposits extensive emplacement of long dykes along the ne sw weakness zone occurred only when the volcano regained a conical shape some of the dykes emplaced close to the original surface of the cone bent to assume a dip direction parallel to the local slope i propose that this local change of dyke geometry can be explained by the direct influence of the free surface of the cone leading to a rotation of the least principal stress which assumes an orientation perpendicular to the slope

development of a subvolcanic structure by the interaction of liquid filled cracks abstract the interaction of liquid filled cracks may be an important process for magma accumulation and the development of subvolcanic structures the horizontal interaction was studied through the stress analyses around pressured cracks in various regional stress fields the vertical interaction was studied using gelatin experiments buoyaney driven cracks coalesce more easily than pressure cracks the theory of the three dimensional crack interaction was discussed there are two types of crack interaction the interaction between liquid filled cracks may cause coalescence of cracks the interaction between a liquid filled crack and a solid filled crack never causes coalescence the stress relaxation by ductile or brittle behavior or by the driving out of magma decreases the local stress field generated by the accumulation of magma filled cracks as the regional differential stress increases and the minimum compressive principal stress becomes tensile magma filled cracks become parallel to each other as the supply rate of magma filled cracks becomes relatively large or as the regional differential stress decreases and the minimum compressive stress increases the arrangement of magma filled cracks varies from an offset pattern to a radial one because the local compressive stress field cannot be decreased this process leads to the development of subparallel or radial dikes in two dimensions or a dike sheet complex in three dimensions a large magma chamber such as a sphere or a cylinder is not always necessary for the development of a basaltic volcano in case of the interaction between liquid filled cracks magma filled cracks coalesce easily into one large crack and diminish the local compressive stress field last the theory of the crack interaction is applied to developments of various volcanoes the fissure pattern of hekla volcano iceland is explained in terms of the variation of the stress relaxation the difference in fissure pattern between izu oshima and miyakejima volcanoes japan is interpreted by the variation of the differential stress the local stress balance including the stress relaxation is kept in the developments of etna volcano italy and kilauea volcano hawaii

magmatic evolution of a volcano studied by 230th 238u disequilibrium and trace elements systematics the etna case age determinations of several lava flows from etna through 230th 238u disequilibrium internal isochrons yield a precise chronology of the volcano s history for the last 200 000 years and emphasize the main episodes in the formation of this huge complex strato volcano study of 230th232th 0 initial ratios of lavas together with their trace element compositions yields a consistent model of magmatic evolution implying the existence for 200 000 years of a deep reservoir of alkalic magma periodically mixed with magmas of tholeiitic affinity these short periods of mixing appear to be related to the formation of the large calderas of etna in addition to these processes affecting the deep reservoir fractional crystallization also occurred in more superficial levels of the volcanic edifice thereby yielding several series of differentiation of relatively short duration as for its geochemistry etna s volcanism is of oceanic type but with its own characteristics and in a peculiar geodynamic context at the edge of the african plate

the role of partial melting in the 15 ma geochemical evolution of gran canaria a blob model for the canary hotspot the subaerial portion of gran canada canary islands was built by three cycles of volcanism a miocene cycle 8 5 15 ma a pliocene cycle 1 8 60 ma and a quaternary cycle 1 8 0 ma only the pliocene cycle is completely exposed on gran canaria the early stages of the miocene cycle are submarine and the quaternary cycle is still in its initial stages during the miocene sio2 saturation of the mafic volcanics decreased systematically from tholeiite to nephelinite for the pliocene cycle sio2 saturation increased and then decreased with decreasing age from nephelinite to tholeiite to nephelinite sio2 saturation increased from nephelinite to basanite and alkali basalt during the quaternary in each of these cycles increasing melt production rates sio2 saturation and concentrations of compatible elements and decreasing concentrations of some incompatible elements are consistent with increasing degrees of partial melting in the sequence melilite nephelinite to tholeiite the mafic volcanics from all three cycles were derived from co2 rich garnet lherzolite sources phlogopite ilmenite sulfide and a phase with high partition coefficients for the light rare earth elements lree u th pb nb and zr possibly zircon were residual during melting to form the miocene nephelinites through tholeiites phlogopite ilmenite and sulfide were residual in the source of the pliocene quaternary nephelinites through alkali basalts highly incompatible element ratios e g nb u pb ce k u nb pb ba rb zr hf la nb ba th rb nb k nb zr nb th nb th la and ba la exhibit extreme variations in many cases larger than those reported for all other ocean island basalts but these ratios correlate well with degree of melting survival of residual phases at higher degrees of melting during the miocene cycle and differences between major and trace element concentrations and melt production rates between the miocene and pliocene tholeiites suggest that the miocene source was more fertile than the pliocene quaternary source s we propose a blob model to explain the multi cycle evolution of canary volcanoes and the temporal variations in chemistry and melt production within cycles each cycle of volcanism represents decompression melting of a discrete blob of plume material small degree nephelinitic and basanitic melts are derived from the cooler margins of the blobs whereas the larger degree tholeiitic and alkali basaltic melts are derived from the hotter centers of the blobs the symmetrical sequence of mafic volcanism for a cycle from highly undersaturated to saturated to highly undersaturated compositions reflects melting of the blob during its ascent beneath an island in the sequence upper margin corelower margin volcanic hiatuses between cycles and within cycles represent periods when residual blob or cooler entrained shallow mantle material fill the melting zone beneath an island

crustal paleorheology of the southeastern canadian cordillera and its influence on the kinematics of jurassic convergence the kinematic evolution of the southeastern canadian cordillera 52 n 54 n during the jurassic is characterized by an eastward migration of the active boundary of convergence between north america and allochthonous terranes and by two reversals in regional structural vergence to investigate possible mechanical controls on the kinematics of convergence the thermal and geological structure of the jurassic continental margin at three stages in its history of shortening were palinspastically reconstructed and analyzed with the use of strength versus depth profiles the resulting models reproduce to a first order the observed distribution of brittle and ductile deformation and provide a mechanical basis for the localization and orientation of displacement zones during shortening of the continental margin the initial eastward migration of the active boundary of convergence between north america and allochthonous terranes from outboard of the continental margin sediment prism into the thick central part of the continental margin prism is attributed to thermal weakening of the continental margin lithosphere during obduction of the oceanic terrane the subsequent eastward migration of the convergence boundary into the inner part of the continental margin lithosphere is attributed to thermal weakening of the lithosphere during prograde regional metamorphism reversals in regional structural vergence accompanying each migration apparently occur because the push necessary to continue displacement on one displacement trajectory exceeds the failure strength of another displacement trajectory that dips in the opposite direction

dike propagation energy balance from deformation modeling and seismic release magma is transported in the crust mainly by dike intrusions in volcanic areas dikes can ascend towards the free surface and also move by lateral propagation eventually feeding flank eruptions understanding dike mechanics is a key to forecasting the expected propagation and associated hazard several studies have been conducted on dike mechanisms and propagation however a less in depth investigated aspect is the relation between measured dike induced deformation and the seismicity released during its propagation we individuated a simple equation that can be used as a proxy of the expected mechanical energy released by a propagating dike and is related to its average thickness for several intrusions around the world afar japan mt etna we correlate such mechanical energy to the seismic moment released by the induced earthquakes we obtain an empirical law that quantifies the expected seismic energy released before arrest the proposed approach may be helpful to predict the total seismic moment that will be released by an intrusion and thus to control the energy status during its propagation and the time of dike arrest

structure and emplacement of the nandurbar dhule mafic dyke swarm deccan traps and the tectonomagmatic evolution of flood basalts flood basalts such as the deccan traps of india represent huge typically fissure fed volcanic provinces we discuss the structural attributes and emplacement mechanics of a large linear tholeiitic dyke swarm exposed in the nandurbar dhule area of the deccan province the swarm contains 210 dykes of dolerite and basalt 1 km in length exposed over an area of 14 500 km2 the dykes intrude an exclusively basaltic lava pile largely composed of highly weathered and zeolitized compound pahoehoe flows the dykes range in length from 1 km to 79 km and in thickness from 3 to 62 m almost all dykes are vertical with the others nearly so they show a strong preferred orientation with a mean strike of n88 because they are not emplaced along faults or fractures they indicate the regional minimum horizontal compressive stress 3 to have been aligned n s during swarm emplacement the dykes have a negative power law length distribution but an irregular thickness distribution the latter is uncommon among the other dyke swarms described worldwide dyke length is not correlated with dyke width using the aspect ratios length thickness of several dykes we calculate magmatic overpressures required for dyke emplacement and depths to source magma chambers that are consistent with results of previous petrological and gravity modelling the anomalously high source depths calculated for a few dykes may be an artifact of underestimated aspect ratios due to incomplete along strike exposure however thermal erosion is a mechanism that can also explain this whereas several of the nandurbar dhule dykes may be vertically injected dykes from shallow magma chambers others particularly the long ones must have been formed by lateral injection from such chambers the larger dykes could well have fed substantial 1 000 km3 and quickly emplaced a few years flood basalt lava flows this work highlights some interesting and significant similarities and contrasts between the nandurbar dhule dyke swarm and regional tholeiitic dyke swarms in iceland sudan and elsewhere

what controls sheet intrusion in volcanoes structure and petrology of the stromboli sheet complex italy abstract a multidisciplinary study has been conducted on 109 intrusive sheets of stromboli the relation between sheet injection conditions with the magmatic and structural variations of the volcano and the parameters governing the preferential intrusion geometry inside the volcano in a time perspective have been determined during its subaerial activity the last 100 ka stromboli experienced periods of extrusive growth and sheet intrusions alternated to caldera and lateral collapses of the nw sciara del fuoco flank the sheet intrusions similar to the extrusive rocks span a large compositional range from calc alkaline to potassic through high k calc alkaline and shoshonitic series the most evolved compositions of the effusive rocks however have not been found as intrusions whereas some mafic and basic magmas of sheets were never erupted the repeated time change of location of the intrusions from strombolicchio to the ne sw trend passing trough the inferred paleostromboli summit cone and the southern flank could represent the expression of the shift of the magma chamber towards the southeast and the subsequent onset of a clear ne sw elongated magma chamber located along the main stromboli weakness zone the stromboli evolution in the last 100 ka has been characterized by the persistent n 10 55 e intrusion direction which reflects the influence of the edifice s state of stress on the magma feeding paths after 13 ka ago sheets mainly intruded along to the sector collapse scarps in a circum amphitheatre geometry which has been demonstrated to be influenced by the new cone morphostructure and not by different magma rheological characters

mechanics of emplacement and tectonic implications of the ramon dike systems israel a radial system comprising more than 200 basaltic and trachytic dikes and two minor systems of parallel dikes intruded the ramon area southern israel during the early cretaceous field relations between dikes and fractures in the radial system indicate that the dikes intruded self generated fractures and thus indicate the directions of the tectonic stresses other field observations indicate that the dikes propagated in subhorizontal directions up to distances of 15 km from their source our analysis of the emplacement mechanics of these dikes shows that the horizontal propagation is best explained by the density differences between the intruding magma and the host rocks the measured mean density for basement rocks at depths greater than 2 4 km is 2 55 0 07 g cm3 and it is 2 36 0 21 g cm3 for the sedimentary cover above for the magma to be propagating horizontally at its neutral buoyancy level requires a mean magma density of about 2 5 g cm3 the large distance of horizontal propagation requires a low viscous pressure drop below 0 1 mpa km within the dike and an overpressure of about 1 mpa in the magma chamber we computed stress trajectories using a two dimensional elastic model for a pressurized hole in a regional stress field and compared it to the ramon radial system the model reveals that the dikes originated at a central intrusion of about 3 km diameter and intruded under a predominantly radial state of stress with negligible regional stress field this period of weak tectonic stresses and intensive magmatism falls between the early mesozoic extensional regime and the late mesozoic cenozoic compressional regime in israel the calculated center of the radial system is offset from a large magnetic anomaly south of the ramon area suggesting a 3 km right lateral displacement along the ramon fault after the intrusion of the radial system

shear zones as a result of intraplate tectonics in oceanic crust the example of the basal complex of fuerteventura canary islands ductile shear zones affecting igneous rocks pyroxenites syenites gabbros and carbonatites belonging to the basal complex of the island of fuerteventura are described here they develop typical mylonites with their cortege of structures and crystallographic fabrics an evolution from brittle to ductile conditions has been recognized and interpreted as being due to the ascent of alkaline magmas and related fluids and subsequent emplacement of weak rocks carbonatites syenites along the shear zones local metamorphic changes favour the ductile behaviour via a reaction enhanced softening mechanism the shear zones are arranged in a nearly orthorhombic pattern kinematic criteria suggest an extensional tectonic scenario with a bulk irrotational nonplane deformation the long axis of the finite deformation ellipsoid is e w and horizontal the available data allow us to establish this deformation as being from the late oligocene to the early miocene this is tentatively related to the plate tectonics evolution and mantle anomalies in the northwestern corner of the african plate

effect of local and regional stress fields on sheet emplacement in west iceland abstract at the tertiary reykjadalur central volcano in west iceland there is a remarkable change in strike dip thickness and percentage of sheets at a distance of about 9 km from the centre of the volcano at distances of less than 9 km the sheets strike in several main directions their average arithmetic mean dip is 45 and the average thickness 1 m locally the sheets make up nearly 90 of the rock but in 1 1 5 km long profiles they are 5 8 7 9 one third of the sheets are porphyritic containing as much as 50 of plagioclase phenocrysts within and in the vicinity of the central volcano there is thus a clear swarm of inclined cone sheets at distances greater than 9 km the sheets suddenly dip much more steeply average 81 become thicker average 3 15 m strike parallel to the nearby volcanic zones and have all the characteristics of regional dyke swarms in 2 5 10 5 km long profiles these dykes are only 0 83 1 84 of the rock one fourth of the dykes are porphyritic but the percentage of plagioclase phenocrysts is normally less than 10 we interpret this abrupt change from a local swarm of inclined sheets to swarms of regional dykes as reflecting changes in the stress field we propose that a local stress field controlled the strike dip and partly thickness of the sheets to a distance of 9 km from the centre of the volcano this local stress field which is also thought to have given rise to the collapse caldera associated with the volcano is attributed to a crustal magma chamber at a shallow depth below the volcano this crustal magma chamber is regarded as the source of most of the inclined sheets the regional stress fields associated with the volcanic zones is thought to have controlled dyke emplacement at greater distances from the volcano we suggest that many of the regional dykes were injected from a deep seated magma reservoir located at boundary between the crust and upper mantle

volcanic evolution of the island of tenerife canary islands in the light of new k ar data new age determinations from tenerife together with those previously published 93 in all provide a fairly comprehensive picture of the volcanic evolution of the island the oldest volcanic series with ages starting in the late miocene are formed mainly by basalts with some trachytes and phonolites which appear in anaga teno and roque del conde massifs in anaga ne three volcanic cycles occurred one older than 6 5 ma a second one between 6 5 and 4 5 ma with a possible gap between 5 4 and 4 8 ma and a late cycle around 3 6 ma in teno nw after some undated units the activity took place between 6 7 and 4 5 ma with two main series separated by a possible pause between 6 2 and 5 6 ma in the zone of roque del conde s the ages are scattered between 11 6 and 3 5 ma between 3 3 and 1 9 ma the whole island underwent a period of volcanic quiescence and erosion the large canadas volcano made up of basalts trachytes and phonolites was built essentially between 1 9 and 0 2 ma to the ne of this central volcano linking it with anaga is a chain of basaltic emission centers with a peak of activity around 0 8 ma the canadas caldera had several collapse phases associated with large ignimbrite emissions there were at least an older phase more than 1 ma old on the western part of the volcano and a younger one less than 0 6 ma old in the eastern side the two large valleys of guimar and la orotava were formed by large landslides less than 0 8 ma ago and probably before 0 6 ma ago the present canadas caldera was formed by another landslide less than 0 2 ma ago this caldera was later filled by the huge teide volcano which has been active even in historic times during the same period a series of small volcanoes erupted at scattered locations throughout the island the average eruptive rate in tenerife was 0 3 km3 ka with relatively small variations for the different eruptive periods this island and la gomera represent a model of growth by discontinuous pulses of volcanic activity separated by gaps often coinciding with episodes of destruction of the edifices and sometimes extended for several million years the neighbouring gran canaria on the other hand had an initial rapid shield building phase during which more than 90 of the island was built and a series of smaller pulses at a much later period a comparison between these three central islands indicates that the previously postulated westward displacement in time of a gap in the volcanic activity is valid only as a first approximation several gaps are present on each island overlapping in time and not clearly supporting either of the models proposed to explain the evolution of the canaries

subaerial submarine evidence of structures feeding magma to stromboli volcano italy and relations with edifice flank failure and creep abstract structural field data including parameters of 109 sheets strike mostly n10 55 e average dip angle mostly 70 90 average thickness two peaks at 1 2 m and 4 2 m and of 14 eruptive fissures and vents as well as bathymetric and numerical data suggest that stromboli experienced the development of a volcanic rift zone across the cone summit with a tendency to widen towards the lower submarine flanks during the last 100 ka inside this rift zone intrusive sheets mostly strike ne and become more abundant more steeply dipping and thicker on approaching the rift axis this rift persistence reflects the edifice s state of stress with a nw se horizontal least principal stress on the magma intrusion paths after 13 ka ago sheets mainly intruded with a horseshoe shaped geometry in plan view along the boundaries of the northwestern unstable volcano flank where four main lateral collapses occurred during the last 13 ka they also intruded with a ne strike across the volcano summit and the northeastern volcano flank the horseshoe shaped geometry is influenced by the lateral creep of the volcano flank which provides space for intrusion along the transtensional boundaries of the unstable sector where thinner sheets were emplaced when the collapse depression was filled up by new deposits ne striking thicker dykes emplaced across the northwestern volcano flank indicating a rapid re establishment of regional tectonic forces across the cone unbuttressing due to the present sciara del fuoco depression and ongoing flank creeping can account for intrusions also inside the sciara del fuoco the latter in 2007

form and dimensions of dykes in eastern iceland abstract a study was made of about 700 dykes in eastern iceland the majority of these belong to three swarms about 73 dip within 10 of the vertical most strike between 10 and 40 ne the strike of the dykes within the southernmost swarm alftafjordur changes along its trace from almost n at the north end to nne ssw southward along the swarm the average thickness of the dykes is about 4 1 m and the thickness does not change notably along the alftafjordur swarm the thinner dykes tend to have smaller grains than the thicker dykes of five dykes followed laterally the longest is over 22 km the thickness of individual dykes changes irregularly along their length and the dyke is often offset where its thickness changes many dykes appear to be completely discontinuous but some parts are connected by veins where the dykes end in a vertical section most of them simply taper away only about 10 5 of the dykes occupy faults the mechanical and thermal effects of the dykes on the country rock are small many of the dykes appear to be non feeders i e dykes that never reached the surface to feed lava flows using the length width ratio the depth of origin of three dykes has been estimated the maximum depth of origin of these three dykes is 7 5 km 9 km and 10 km below the original surface

magnetic and thermal effects of dike intrusions in iceland oriented core samples were collected from 18 lava dike contacts in iceland in locations of low to moderate 100 c regional hydrothermal alteration alternating field demagnetization of these samples shows that they generally carry a strong and stable remanence magnetic directions in the lavas follow a simple pattern demonstrating that the remanence of the contact zone has only been reset within very short distances from the contact surface on average this distance may be only one tenth of the thickness of a typical dike 4 m other magnetic properties remanence intensity susceptibility curie point of the contact zone are affected to a lesser or a less regular degree than the remanence direction it is concluded that for the crustal depth of this study thermal conduction models do not apply to temperature anomalies set up by dike intrusions or fissure eruptions in iceland presumably because of rapid advection of groundwater into the active fissures these results also indicate that the magnetic anomalies observed over iceland are only to a small extent caused by dikes

reply to comment on dykes faults and paleostresses in the teno and anaga massifs of tenerife canary islands by j a rodriguez losada and a hernandez pacheco abstract we welcome the comment by rodriguez losada and hernandez pacheco hereafter lp and we are pleased that they have no objections to the conclusions of marinoni and gudmundsson 2000 hereafter mg the lp comment deals only with the anaga massif and mostly with 1 dykes supposed to be folded by post emplacement ductile deformation 2 tilting of the oldest part of the anaga succession 3 selection of profiles 4 the horizontal extension due to dykes and 5 the paleostress field of anaga we reply briefly to these points below

quantitative refinement of calibrated 14c distributions abstract a new method is presented for using known ordering or other relationships between 14c samples to reduce 14c dating uncertainty the order of sample formation is often known from for example stratigraphic superposition dendrochronology or crosscutting field relations constraints such as a minimum time between dates and limits from historical information are also readily included dendrochronologically calibrated calendric date histograms initially represent each date the method uses bayes theorem and the relational constraints to upweight date ranges in each date distribution consistent with the other date distributions and the constraints and downweight unlikely portions the reweighted date distributions retain all dating possibilities present in the initial calibrated date distributions but each date in the result now reflects the extra information such as ordering supplied through the constraints in addition one may add information incrementally and thus analyze systematically its effect on all the date distributions thus the method can be used to assess the consistency of the quantitative data at hand the bayesian approach also uses the empirical calibrated date distributions directly so information is not lost prematurely by summarized dates to a mean and variance or confidence intervals the approach is illustrated with data from two densely sampled paleoseismic sites on the san andreas fault in southern california an average reduction in 14 c date distribution variance of 59 is achieved using ordering information alone and 85 is achieved by also applying sedimentation rate constraints and historical information

deformation at stromboli volcano italy revealed by rock mechanics and structural geology abstract we approach the reconstruction of the recent structural evolution of stromboli volcano italy and the analysis of the interplay between tectonics gravity and volcanic deformation by tying together structural lithostratigraphic and rock mechanics data we establish that since 100 ka bp the edifice has faulted and jointed mainly along ne striking planes faults mostly dip to the nw with normal displacement taking also into account the presence of a nw trending regional least principal stress and of tectonic earthquake hypocenters inside the cone we suggest that this fracturing can be related to the transmission of tectonic forces from the basement to the cone dyking concentrated along a main ne trending weakness zone nez across the volcano summit resembling a volcanic rift whose geometry is governed by the tectonic field in the past 13 ka stromboli experienced a reorganisation of the strain field which was linked with the development of four sector collapses affecting the nw flank alternating with growth phases the tectonic strain field interplayed with dyking and fracturing related to unbuttressing along the collapse shoulders we propose that tectonics control the geometry of dykes inside the cone and that these in turn contribute to destabilise the cone flanks

the influence of loading by lavas on the siting of volcanic eruption vents on mt etna abstract until now it has been considered that the positioning of magma conduits dykes and eruption sites on mt etna is controlled by stresses set up by regional tectonism it is also likely that gravitational stresses have some influence on the subsurface path taken by etnean magmas prior to eruption an additional effect discussed here is based mainly on convincing field evidence gathered over a number of years it is proposed that fracturing of the surface and changes in the stress pattern due to loading by recent lava flows may strongly influence the siting of eruptions detailed field observations are presented showing that cracks and fumaroles have consistently appeared round the edges of recent lava flows and that these cracks are sometimes later used by erupting lavas eruption statistics indicate that since 1970 50 of new eruptive vents have appeared within 80 m of a recent flow edge and field measurements show that downward flexure is still occurring at the edges of lava flows more than sixteen years old simple theoretical modelling indicates that this effect is strongest at the surface with gravitational and regional tectonic control of eruption sites dominating at progressively deeper levels

semi automatic extraction and mapping of dyke swarms based on multi resolution remote sensing images applied to the dykes in the kuluketage region in the northeastern tarim block abstract the geometry and spatial distribution of mafic dyke swarms provide information about geodynamics however mapping large scale dyke swarms manually is a time consuming and expensive process here we present an efficient method to map dyke swarms semi automatically by using multi resolution remote sensing images this method is applied in the kuluketage region in the northeastern tarim block northwest china where mafic dykes of multiple trends are widely exposed and with the dominant nw trend being of probable neoproterozoic age the tracing of dykes including their orientation length thickness density and distribution is done by integrating 30 m multispectral landsat 8 and 2 m panchromatic corona kh 4b imagery the gramm schmidt spectral sharpening approach is used to generate color composite and fusion images with 2 m resolution the canny edge detector and hough transform are used to detect dyke edges combining the detection of dyke edges with arcgis the dyke orientation length density thickness and exposed area are measured the accuracy of the semi automatic method exceeds 75 in comparison with manual mapping of the dykes in the kuluketage region

miocene rifting of fuerteventura canary islands 1 the older geological units of the volcanic island of fuerteventura canary islands i e the so called basal complex and the lower part of the subaerial volcanic rocks show abundant structures indicative of a long lived period of miocene tectonic activity these structures include faults dike swarms kilometer scale folds tilted sequences and fissural and central volcanic edifices a detailed structural study based on geological mapping and the use of fault slip inversion techniques and statistical analysis of dike orientation has allowed the identification of three separated miocene deformation phases m d1 m d2 and m d3 the average extension directions determined for these phases are nw se nne ssw and ene wsw respectively a model of oceanic lithosphere rifting is proposed to account for this deformation history a buoyant anomalous sublithosphere mantle triggered the extension in the lithosphere beneath fuerteventura isolating it during the early and middle miocene from the plate scale collision regime predominant in the nw corner of the african plate

crustal strain near the big bend of the san andreas fault analysis of the los padres tehachapi trilateration networks california in the region of the los padres tehachapi geodetic network the san andreas fault saf changes its orientation by over 30 degree from n 40 degree w close to that predicted by plate motion for a transform boundary to n 73 degree w the strain orientation near the saf is consistent with right lateral shear along the fault with maximum shear rate of 0 38 plus minus 0 01 mu rad yr at n 63 degree w in contrast away from the saf the strain orientations on both sides of the fault are consistent with the plate motion direction with maximum shear rate of 0 19 plus minus 0 01 mu rad yr at n 44 degree w the strain rate does not drop off rapidly away from the fault and thus the area is fit by either a broad shear zone below the saf or a single fault with a relatively deep locking depth the fit to the line length data is poor for locking depth d less than 25 km for d of 25 km a buried slip rate of 30 plus minus 6 mm yr is estimated the authors also estimated buried slip for models that include the garlock and big pine faults in addition to the saf slip rates on other faults are poorly constrained bymore the los padres tehachapi network the best fitting garlock fault model had computed left lateral slip rate of 11 plus minus 2 mm yr below 10 km buried left lateral slip of 15 plus minus 6 mm yr on the big pine fault within the western transverse ranges provides significant reduction in line length residuals however deformation there may be more complicated than a single vertical fault a subhorizontal detachment on the southern side of the saf cannot be well constrained by these data the authors investigated the location of the saf and found that a vertical fault below the surface trace fits the data much better than either a dipping fault zone located south of the surface trace less

features of crustal structure under the canary islands abstract the data and interpretation of a seismic refraction project carried out in the canary islands in 1977 and 1979 are presented the moho is reached at about 15 km under fuerteventura gran canaria and tenerife whereas under lanzarote a value of 11 km has been found the velocity at the surface varies even within one island from 2 8 to 4 4 km s there are variations in the velocity of the main crustal layer under the volcanic deposits a continuous velocity depth function seems to be more appropriate for the island of tenerife contrary to fuerteventura lanzarote and gran canaria which seem to have a layered structure there is evidence for pronounced structural differences between lanzarote and fuerteventura the mantle velocity has a value of about 8 0 km s under the western islands whereas a very low value of 7 4 km s has been found under lanzarote and fuerteventura despite the clear structural differences between the islands our results leave little doubt about the oceanic character of all the islands the differences between the eastern and western group may be due to the islands being situated close to the african continental margin the seismic velocities under the volcanic deposits do not support the idea of a common basement for all the islands they rather suggest independent volcanic edifices finally a comparison of the structure of the crust under the canary islands with that under other volcanic islands reveals remarkable similarities

structure petrochemistry and evolution of a sheet swarm in an icelandic central volcano strike dip and thickness were measured for 504 sheets inclined sheets and dykes in the 4 6 ma old hafnarfjall central volcano in southwest iceland the average dip of sheets is 65 80 are less than 1 2 m thick and the thickness tends to decrease with decreasing dip in 0 5 km long traverses perpendicular to the average strike of sheets the percentage of sheets ranges from about 6 to 11 of 140 chemically analysed sheets most are quartz tholeiites a few are intermediate or acid the sheets are chemically more evolved than the host rock and were generated by a shallow crustal magma chamber at a mature stage of the central volcano whereas the host rock was generated earlier before the chamber was established trace element results suggest that the sheet magmas evolved by low pressure fractional crystallization as well as by mixing of primitive magmas and crustal melts a model is proposed where most of the sheets are generated by a growing shallow magma chamber as the chamber grows its shape changes and so does the local stress field associated with it because the sheets follow the stress trajectories of the local stress field the potential pathways of the sheets change with the growth of the chamber which may explain the common occurrence of cross cutting sheets from the evolved chemistry of the sheets as well as from the pattern of the stress trajectories it is concluded that the bulk of the sheets were injected from the upper part of the shallow magma chamber

integrating worldview 2 imagery and terrestrial lidar point clouds to extract dyke swarm geometry implications for magma emplacement mechanisms abstract dyke geometries are useful indicators of the palaeostress field during magma emplacement in this paper we present a multi scale extraction method of dyke geometries by integrating worldview 2 wv2 imagery and terrestrial light detection and ranging lidar data color composite and fusion wv2 images with 0 5 m resolution were generated by using the gramm schmidt spectral sharpening approach which facilitates the discrimination of dyke swarms and provides the ability to measure the orientation exposed length and thickness of dykes in sub horizontal topographic exposures a terrestrial laser scanning survey was performed on a sub vertical exposure of dykes to obtain lidar data with point spacing of 0 02 m at 30 m the lidar data were transformed to images for extracting dyke margins based on image segmentation then the dyke attitudes thicknesses and irregularity of dyke margins were measured according to the points on dyke margins this method was applied at sijiao island zhejiang china where late cretaceous mafic dyke swarms are widespread the results show that integrating wv2 imagery and terrestrial lidar improves the accuracy efficiency and objectivity in determining dyke geometries in two and three dimensions the ene striking dykes are dominant and intruded the host rock mainly granite with sub vertical dips based on the aspect ratios of the dykes the magmatic overpressure was estimated to be less than 11 5 mpa corresponding to a magma chamber within 6 6 km in the lithosphere

structure and emplacement of the coastal deccan tholeiitic dyke swarm in goa on the western indian rifted margin mafic dyke swarms when controlled by a regional stress field are emplaced perpendicular to the minimum principal compressive stress direction however mafic dyke swarms may also exploit pre existing structural fabric in their host rocks distinguishing between the two scenarios is important for correct geodynamic understanding of magmatic events continental flood basalt provinces such as the deccan traps of india represent huge fissure eruptions produced by swarms of mafic dykes the coastal dyke swarm of the deccan along the western indian rifted margin is one of its three major dyke swarms we present a field study of the goa dykes part of the coastal swarm the dykes are typical dolerites and basalts exposed in proterozoic age basement lava flows which these dykes may have once fed have been stripped away by erosion though exposed in the western ghats escarpment 100 km to the east the goa dyke swarm contains 60 dykes some of which form larger multiple injection dykes the dykes are short compared to typical kilometers or tens of kilometers long dykes in flood basalt provinces such as the deccan or iceland and range in length from 15 to 220 m and in thickness from 3 cm to 20 m most dykes are vertical and the others dip steeply in various directions their structural attributes and internal features such as vesicular zones and columnar jointing provide clues to the processes of magma flow and solidification in the dykes field measurements yield an average crustal dilation of 8 due to dyke emplacement calculations of magmatic overpressures and magma chamber depths generally yield unrealistic values owing to the low aspect ratios of the dykes based on comparisons between the dyke trends and the host rock joint trends we consider that a few of the goa dykes were emplaced along pre existing fractures but the orientations of the great majority of the dykes reflect contemporaneous stress fields based on crosscutting relationships we infer that the regional minimum horizontal compressive stress 3 changed over time from a e w orientation to a ne sw orientation and finally to a n s direction

the dyke swarm of mount calanna etna italy an example of the uppermost portion of a volcanic plumbing system a new multidisciplinary study combining geology petrography and geochemistry on the rocks of the isolated hill of mount calanna mount etna italy has provided evidence for the existence of a dyke swarm formed by more than 200 dykes distributed over an area of 0 7 km2 with an intensity of intrusion up to 40 all bodies are deeply altered and the geological and mesostructural surveying of 132 dykes revealed that they intruded in e w direction with an average dip of 60 the faults affecting the outcrop have in general an e w strike and dip of 55 these have all normal motion and have been interpreted as coeval with the dykes this interpretation contrasts with the previous hypothesis that considered mount calanna as a thrust resulting from compressive deformation resulting from the gravitational spreading of the volcanic edifice mount calanna is here interpreted as the uppermost portion of a vertically extensive magmatic plexus that fed the eruptive activity of one or more eruptive center s sited in the valle del bove area measurements of the apparent densities on 23 dykes and host rock samples give an average value of 2 420 kg m3 for the entire complex 15 lower than the density expected for hawaiitic magma placing an important constraint on the geophysical identification of similar structures considering that mount etna is not an old eroded edifice but an active and growing volcano the exposure of this subvolcanic structure can be regarded as exceptional its geometry and physical characteristics can be thus regarded as an interesting example of the present day shallow plumbing system of mount etna as well as of other basaltic volcanoes

stratigraphy of the bandas del sur formation an extracaldera record of quaternary phonolitic explosive eruptions from the las canadas edifice tenerife canary islands explosive volcanism has dominated the large phonolitic shield volcano of tenerife the las canadas edifice for the last 1 5 m y pyroclastic deposits of the bandas del sur formation are exposed along the southern flanks and record the last two of at least three long term cycles of caldera forming explosive eruptions each cycle began with flank fissure eruptions of alkali basalt lava followed by minor eruptions of basanite to phonotephrite lavas minor phonotephritic to phonolitic lava effusions also occurred on the flanks of the edifice during the latter stages of the second explosive cycle non welded plinian fall deposits and ignimbrites are the dominant explosive products preserved on the southern flanks of these a significant volume has been dispersed offshore many pyroclastic units of the second explosive cycle exhibit compositional zonation banded pumice occurs in most units of the third youngest explosive cycle and ignimbrites typically contain mixed phenocryst assemblages indicating the role of magma mixing mingling prior to eruption at least four major eruptions of the third cycle began with phreatomagmatic activity producing lithic poor accretionary lapilli bearing fallout and or surge deposits the repeated brief phase of phreatomagmatism at the onset of these eruptions is interpreted as reflecting an exhaustive water supply probably a small caldera lake that was periodically established during the third cycle accidental syenite becomes an increasingly important lithic clast type in ignimbrites up sequence and is interpreted as recording the progressive development of a plutonic complex beneath the summit caldera successive eruptions during each explosive cycle increased in volume with the largest eruption occurring at the end of the cycle more than ten major explosive eruptions vented moderately large volumes 1 ges 10 km 3 of phonolitic magma during the last two cycles culminating each explosive cycle was the emplacement of relatively large volume 5 10 km 3 ignimbrites with coarse vent derived lithic breccias interpreted to record a major phase of caldera collapse in the extracaldera record explosive cycles are separated by 0 2 m y periods of non explosive activity repose periods were characterized by erosion remobilization of pyroclastic deposits by discharge events and pedogenesis the current period of non explosive activity is characterized by the construction of the teide pico viejo stratovolcanic complex within the summit caldera this suggests that eruptive hiatuses in the extracaldera record may reflect effusive activity and stratovolcano or shield building phases within the summit caldera alternating effusive and explosive cycles have thus been important in the volcanic evolution of the las canadas edifice

dykes faults and palaeostresses in the teno and anaga massifs of tenerife canary islands abstract a structural field study was made of 578 sheet intrusions mostly dykes and 153 mostly normal faults dissecting the anaga and teno massifs where a complex volcanic succession of tertiary age the old basaltic series representing the shield building stage of tenerife canary islands crops out many of the intrusions mostly sub vertical mafic dykes are emplaced by multiple magma injections with cumulative thicknesses mostly less than 2 m dyke tips are exposed and preserved for 12 of the dykes three differently oriented sets of dykes exist in the anaga massif nnw sse nne ssw e w whereas there is only one main set in teno trending nnw sse dyke swarms and other structural features having similar orientations also exist in other canary islands a minimum value of the horizontal component of extension induced by dykes is computed using a step of 5 of azimuth accounting also for the dip of dykes the cumulative crustal dilation is at least 300 m 4 in anaga and 270 m 6 in teno the maximum extension peaks at n75 in anaga and n60 in teno indicating a general prevailing extension in direction ene wsw most of the measured faults are normal and strike nnw sse computation of palaeostresses from inversion of fault slip data sets suggests the existence of a polyphase brittle deformation due to an extensional stress field with the minimum compressive principal axes trending ne sw and wnw ese

importance of gravitational spreading in the tectonic and volcanic evolution of mount etna the interaction between gravity and thermal effects largely determines the structural and magmatic evolution of volcanic constructs at scales spanning several orders of magnitude from small cones to the oceanic crust1 3 although gravitational spreading is a direct consequence of this interaction and a fundamental process in volcano growth it is rarely recognized as such here we describe a striking example of this process at etna volcano in italy the volcano and its clay rich substratum are slowly spreading towards the east and south driven by gravity spreading produces extensional structures in the summit region and contpressional structures at the base of the volcano eastward movement of the volcanic edifice over a stationary magma supply may be the cause of an apparent westward migration of volcanic activity as gravitational spreading seems to control the location and magnitude of shallow seismicity and flank eruptions an appreciation of its effects could become an essential element of future volcanic hazard evaluation our model proposed here for etna may also be relevant to a reinterpretation of the geological history of a number of other volcanoes

location and orientation of eruptive fissures and feederdykes at mount etna influence of gravitational and regional tectonic stress regimes abstract lava extrusion from fissures on the flanks of the etna volcano is a common feature of recent activity as evidenced by the eruptions of 1971 1981 1983 and 1985 and was of similar importance during prehistoric times we propose here a model within which the location and orientations of the large majority of historic eruptive fissures on etna s flanks together with their feeder dykes are explained within the framework of a gravitational stress regime stress orientations within this regime are controlled largely by the gross morphology of the volcano but are significantly modified by local topographic anomalies we propose that the gravitational stress regime largely supercedes an earlier developed regional tectonic stress regime which still operates in the sub volcanic basement and may remain the dominant control of eruptive fissure and feeder dyke disposition at lower altitudes on the flanks the proposed model is supported by 1 detailed examination of fissure locations and orientations and the relationship between fissure azimuths and topography 2 precise horizontal distance measurement and vertical ground deformation studies of a recent eruption and 3 qualitative physical modelling experiments in which coloured water is injected into solidified gelatine solutions representing variously shaped volcanic constructs a cautious approach is advocated when extrapolating trends of spatially limited fissure segments for the purpose of locating potential sites of magma ascent and implications of the model for hazard analysis are outlined

experimental study of the interplay between magmatic rift intrusion and flank instability with application to the 2001 mount etna eruption mount etna volcano is subject to transient magmatic intrusions and flank movement the east flank of the edifice in particular is moving eastward and is dissected by the timpe fault system the relationship of this eastward motion with intrusions and tectonic fault motion however remains poorly constrained here we explore this relationship by using analogue experiments that are designed to simulate magmatic rift intrusion flank movement and fault activity before during and after a magmatic intrusion episode using particle image velocimetry allows for a precise temporal and spatial analysis of the development and activity of fault systems the results show that the occurrence of rift intrusion episodes has a direct effect on fault activity in such a situation fault activity may occur or may be hindered depending on the interplay of fault displacement and flank acceleration in response to dike intrusion our results demonstrate that a complex interplay may exist between an active tectonic fault system and magmatically induced flank instability episodes of magmatic intrusion change the intensity pattern of horizontal flank displacements and may hinder or activate associated faults we further compare our results with the gps data of the mount etna 2001 eruption and intrusion we find that syneruptive displacement rates at the timpe fault system have differed from the preeruptive or posteruptive periods which shows a good agreement of both the experimental and the gps data therefore understanding the flank instability and flank stability at mount etna requires consideration of both tectonic and magmatic forcing

crustal spreading due to dikes and faults in southwest iceland abstract a 30 km long profile extending from 3 million year old pleistocene rocks to the holocene rocks of the rift zone in southwest iceland is dissected by 443 dikes and 156 normal faults nearly all the dikes are basaltic with an average strike of n26 e which is subparallel to the trend of fractures in the nearby rift zone their average dip is 69 and average thickness 1 37 m both values much lower than averages for regional tertiary dike swarms in iceland many dikes are seen to change into sills the great majority of the faults are pure dip slip with an average throw of 10 2 m their average strike n37 e is different from the average strike of the dikes in this area and the fractures in the nearby rift zone their average dip is 75 2 which is somewhat steeper than in the tertiary areas but the dips are less in the interbedded sedimentary layers than in the lava flows growth faults are very rare in the area and most of the faults appear to have completed their growth in less than 10 000 years in subsections crustal dilation due to dikes is 0 4 3 7 that due to faults is 0 6 5 3 and that due to both dikes and faults is 1 04 6 44 in these subsections average fault spacing is one fault per 170 563 m spacing decreases toward the active rift zone it is concluded that in typical fissure swarms of the rift zone the dilation at the surface is almost entirely due to extensional fractures and gaping vertical normal faults in the depth range of a couple of hundred metres to perhaps 1 km the non vertical faults contribute most to the dilation at deeper crustal levels however dilation due to dikes becomes dominant

the effect of volcanic constructs on rift fault patterns volcanoes in rift situations often show distinctive hour glass fault patterns with increased fault throw as the volcano is approached we present analogue models that show that this is caused by an interaction of the regional stress field with that set up by the volcano mass for faults to be reorientated there must be a ductile layer below the volcano this can be hot crust at mid ocean ridges continental rifts or weak sedimentary strata increased volcano size or mass and lower brittle ductile ratios lead to increased fault curvature whereas an increased regional extension rate decreases the effect volcanoes on one side of a rift may capture it forming the axis of a new rift with curved or en echelon zones on either side by concentrating extension magma is more easily erupted so volcanoes may erupt more magma of less evolved composition a positive feedback between increased extension and magma eruption rate will lead to rift narrowing which can favor the formation of oceanic crust

geochronology of some canarian dike swarms contribution to the volcano tectonic evolution of the archipelago we present new conventional k ar and 39ar 40ar age data and geometric observations on dike swarms which intrude the islands of la gomera tenerife and fuerteventura canary archipelago the younger dated dikes of la gomera 5 4 5 2 ma were emplaced by a radial fissural structure independently superimposed on an older one dated between 10 5 and 7 0 ma the dated dike swarms of both the anaga and teno peninsula of tenerife are contemporaneous 5 8 3 6 ma while ages of 0 43 ma were measured on two dikes intruding the pedro gil ridge the dikes of the basal complex of fuerteventura give well defined 39ar 40ar plateaus when they are situated far away from basic and ultrabasic plutons and disturbed 39ar 40ar age spectra when they are situated in the vicinity of the plutons these disturbances are probably due to a thermal metamorphism the results of both the conventional k ar and 39ar 40ar stepwise heating methods show the existence of an important magmatic phase between 24 and 17 ma the dike swarms of the basal complex are partly contemporaneous with other dike systems intruding the basaltic series i of fuster et al 1968a this phase seems to correspond to the final stages of activity on the main nne ssw volcano tectonic axis following this a volcanic edifice was built on the nw part of jandia peninsula mainly between 15 4 and 14 2 ma the similarity of the ages obtained on dikes and lava flows shows the importance of fissural volcanism in these islands this study shows that dating of dike swarms reveals the existence of major eruptive phases an important part of the products of which have been eroded brief episodes of fissural volcanic activity sometimes probably as short as 200 000 years may be correlated with the migration of the lithosphere over a fixed hot spot the north south 3 5 ma old present and the nne ssw 24 17 ma old oriented dike swarms of la palma staudigel et al in prep and fuerteventura may represent the regional paleostress orientation plane 1 2 which affected the lithosphere during their intrusion although other phenomena may control the orientation of dikes these directions are concordant with the known contemporaneous nw african tectonics

crustal extension from exposed sheet intrusions review and method proposal abstract sheet intrusions are probably the most widespread magmatic features on earth they create a space for themselves by dilating the host rock the exposed sheet intrusions allow an estimate of a minimum value of the extension to which the crustal layers and the volcanic edifices are subject the correct evaluation of the contribution of sheet intrusions to the crustal extension is of great importance in various geologic settings the current methods used to evaluate the extension due to exposed sheet intrusions are reviewed in this paper the effect of the dip of sheet intrusions on the evaluation of horizontal crustal extension is analysed if the dip effect is neglected and the intrusions are sub vertical the error due to the dip effect in the extension evaluation is small if the intrusions are shallow dipping the error may be great and varies as a function of the dyke dip for dykes with dip range 45 65 the error due to neglecting the dip effect is 30 to 15 increasing discrepancies of more than 25 are produced on the computed dilation when the intrusions progressively dip less than 50 a simple method based on structural field measurements of exposed sheet intrusions and on trigonometric considerations is presented as an improvement of pre existing methods to estimate the horizontal component of the crustal extension using this method field data of 1154 dykes from different geodynamic contexts are analysed the horizontal component of extension is computed using dyke data from the tertiary massifs of lanzarote and tenerife and from the active stratovolcanoes of monte somma vesuvius and etna since the analysed dykes are steeply dipping the cumulative difference between the extension computed neglecting and taking into account the dip effect remains less than 10 for all the data sets the percentage difference is nearly constant and cumulatively higher for monte somma where the mean dip of the intrusions is smaller in lanzarote 237 dykes emplaced between 15 5 and 3 7 ma give a peak extension of 276 m in direction n135 and a time averaged minimum extension rate of 1 9 10 2 to 2 3 10 2 mm a 1 in tenerife an extension of 562 m is computed in the direction n65 from 563 dykes emplaced from 7 4 to 3 3 ma the time averaged minimum rate of extension for the tertiary massifs of tenerife ranges from 0 14 to 0 25 mm a 1 the peak extension computed for monte somma is 81 7 m in the direction n90 based on 96 exposed sheets very likely most of monte somma sheets intruded within 12 ka giving a time averaged minimum extension rate of 7 mm a 1 from 184 exposed dykes of etna a minimum extension rate of 6 2 mm a 1 is computed peak extension is 212 m in direction n35 the poor resolution of age constraints may affect deeply the reliability of the extension rates however from the examples presented it appears that the extension rates of pre erosional successions from intraplate volcanic islands can be smaller than those of active stratovolcanoes this may suggest a more active dynamics in the stratovolcanoes

compressional and extensional tectonics in an arc system example of the southern apennines abstract adopting the southern apennines as a case example we determine the relationships between extensional and compressional structures within an arc system based on tectonic analysis in the field we show that in addition to the well known occurrence of inner extensional structures during frontal accretion two other types of extensional structures are present in the southern apennines we classify the three types of extensional structures depending on their chronologies with the accretion of the thrust unit and we characterize them in terms of palaeostresses some normal faults of the mountain chain are old extensional structures formed in a foreland basin in the matese mountains such faults with offsets ranging several hundred metres are sealed by a late neogene thrust sheet these foredeep structures were created by extension trending almost perpendicular to the axis of the present day foreland basin other normal faults located closer to the tyrrhenian sea developed simultaneously with the pliocene quaternary accretion of thrust sheets at the front of the belt in the salerne graben a tyrrhenian basin structure extension occurred perpendicular to the compression that prevailed at the front of the mountain belt a stress gradient existed between the outer part of the arc with 1 trending ene wsw and the inner part with 2 trending ene wsw in the southern apennines middle pleistocene holocene normal faults post date all compression and thrusting the corresponding recent stress field ne sw extension results from uplift of the previously subsiding adriatic lithosphere we conclude that a given thrust unit of this nw se trending mountain chain may have successively undergone ne sw extension in the foreland basin ne sw compression during the accretion nw se extension in the back arc region and ne sw extension during the recent evolution of the prism the succession of these tectonic regimes has induced complex structures as commonly observed in an arc system

rifting recurrent landsliding and miocene structural reorganization on nw tenerife canary islands we studied mechanisms of structural destabilization of ocean island flanks by considering the linkage between volcano construction and volcano destruction exemplified by the composite teno shield volcano on tenerife canary islands during growth tenerife episodically experienced giant landslides genetically associated with rifting and preferentially located between two arms of a three armed rift system the deeply eroded late miocene teno massif allows insights into the rifting processes the failure mechanisms and related structures the semicircular geometry of palaeo scarps and fracture systems breccia deposits and the local dike swarm reconfigurations delineate two clear landslide scarp regions following an earlier collapse of the older los gigantes formation to the north the rocks around the scarp became fractured and intruded by dikes substantial lava infill and enduring dike emplacement increased the load on the weak scarp and forced the flank to creep again finally resulting in the collapse of the younger carrizales formation once more the changing stress field caused deformation of the nearby rocks a fracture belt formed around the scarp and dikes intruded into new concentric directions the outline size and direction of the second failed flank of teno very much resembles the first collapse we suggest structural clues concerning mechanisms of recurrent volcano flank failure verifying the concept that volcano flanks that have failed are prone to collapse again with similar dimensions

magma chambers modeled as cavities explain the formation of rift zone central volcanoes and their eruption and intrusion statistics the volcanic rift zone in iceland is characterized by elongate volcanic systems consisting of tension fractures normal faults and volcanic fissures where most of the volcanotectonic activity takes place most volcanic systems develop central volcanoes the formation of which is still poorly understood there is great difference in the eruption and intrusion statistics of the volcanic systems inside and outside the central volcanoes in the central volcanoes eruptions are frequent typically one every several hundred years of small volume normally less than 0 1 km3 and fed mainly by thin average thickness of 0 5 m inclined sheets outside central volcanoes the eruptions are rare typically one every several thousand years but of large volume typically more than 1 km3 and fed mainly by thick average thickness of 4 5 m subvertical dikes using the results of a boundary element study of magma chambers modeled as a cavities or holes in a semi infinite plate these empirical relations as well as the formation of specific central volcanoes in the volcanic systems can be explained once a cavity like magma chamber has formed its existence in the rift zone concentrates tensile stress this stress concentration causes the segment containing the magma chamber to rupture much more frequently than the other parts of the volcanic system which partly explains the formation of central volcanoes and their high eruption frequencies this concentration also gives rise to a local stress field that encourages injection of small volume sheets in all directions and at various dips from their source magma chamber the magma chamber acts as a trap for upward propagating dikes from mantle reservoirs and channels magma through inclined sheets toward a limited area at the surface where the central volcano gradually forms the inverse relationship between eruption frequency and eruption volume when the central volcano is compared with other parts of the volcanic system is also partly due to the trap like nature of the magma chamber the chamber is normally much smaller than its source mantle reservoir so that a single magma flow through a dike from the reservoir lasting perhaps many years may trigger tens of magma flows through sheets from the chamber many of which would reach the surface in the central volcano

evidence from the oman ophiolite for sudden stress changes during melt injection at oceanic spreading centres the system of dikes in the uppermost mantle below oceanic spreading centres bears witness to the processes involved in the supply of melt to the ridge such systems cannot be studied on currently active ridges but can be seen in ophiolites in particular the oman ophiolite allows us to examine segments of a fast spreading ridge1 here we present a statistical analysis of the orientation of intrusions in the uppermost mantle section of the oman ophiolite spreading centres which points to the existence of two systems dikes whose azimuth is parallel to the sheeted dikes which we thus consider as related to the extensional lithospheric stress field and sills roughly parallel to the moho2 branching contemporaneous dikes and sills are frequently observed we suggest that these relations can be explained by repeated sudden changes of the dominant stress field from lithospheric to asthenospheric such changes could result from the episodic relaxation of lithospheric stress in response to tension fracturing of the lithospheric lid related to sudden melt surges this episodic behaviour is recorded in the sheeted dike complex with each dike each about one metre wide representing one of these fractures

extension induced by volcanic loading in regional strike slip zones volcanoes and strike slip pull apart structures are commonly found together we use theoretical predictions and analogue modeling to evaluate the effect of volcanic loading in strike slip zones and the converse effect of regional strike slip faults on volcano structure theoretical predictions indicate that regional stress is reoriented by volcano loading to cause extension analogue models indicate that volcanoes in strike slip zones develop extensional pull apart structures a graben typically forms normal to the minimum regional stress axis 3 at a cone cones emplaced onto preexisting faults increase that fault9s tensional component if the substratum is weak enough to permit volcano spreading thrusts form normal to the maximum stress axis 1 a feedback situation can arise i e loading related extension allows more magma influx more eruption and thus increased loading this process can create large volcano tectonic depressions volcano structures may also be used as indicators of regional strike slip movements

final stages of the variscan orogeny at the southern iberian massif lateral extrusion and rotation of continental blocks 1 the southern part of the iberian massif contains one of the sutures of the european variscan belt several systems of faults and dikes appear as a result of a period of brittle deformation during the late stages of the variscan tectonic evolution of this zone a detailed analysis of these structures has been carried out in this work four successive deformation phases have been identified a first strike slip normal faulting stage a transcurrent stage a second strike slip normal faulting stage and finally a thrusting stage the age of these phases vary between around 310 ma and less than 270 ma the computed trajectories of the deformation axes show a progressive anticlockwise rotation of around 90 these data together with the results of previous geological and geophysical studies of this zone and of the variscan belt as a whole lead us to propose a model of tectonic evolution for the last stages of the variscan collision comparison with modern examples of collisional belts and with the results of analog experiments suggests that a promontory of the continental lithosphere of the downgoing plate indented against the active continental margin of the upper plate the indenter suffered an intense deformation in accordance with the predictions of some recent analog models simulating the indentation of a four layer continental lithosphere the variscan and late variscan brittle deformation episodes represent the waning stages of the variscan collision and not an independent tectonic event

tectonic evolution of the emergent part of a volcanic ocean island lanzarote canary islands abstract a reconstruction of the structural evolution of lanzarote confirms the existence of two principal stages of construction of the island separated by a main erosional event the first pre erosional is the shield stage miocene pliocene in age which is divided in three stratigraphic groups where different formations can be distinguished using unconformities mappable over the whole area of outcrop in the second post erosional stage developed during the quaternary nine stratigraphic levels are tentatively identified and are grouped in two phases of volcanic activity shields phase and pyroclastic cones phase data from 580 photogeologic lineaments as well as field data from 204 fault planes 195 with sense of movement 273 dykes and 45 volcanic alignments are presented the tectonic style of the deformations is brittle and polyphasic strike slip faults are dominant but normal and reverse faults are also present both the so called atlantic and african directions are well developed in trends of strike slip faults and volcanic indicators at least two deformation phases can be identified from the geometrical analysis of faults and from the stress tensor calculated using lineations on fault planes the reconstructed stress field responsible for the measured deformations changed orientation during the evolution of the island of lanzarote it is suggested that a permutation between principal stress axes 1 and 3 occurred subparallel to the length of the island between the pre erosional and post erosional stages

emergent littoral deposits in the eastern canary islands abstract k ar ages a abdel monem p d watkins and p w gast 1971 american journal of science 271 490 521 this paper and revised paleontological determinations j meco 1977 los strombus neogenos y cuatenarios del atlantico euroafricano las palmas ediciones del excmo cabildo insular de gran canaria show that quaternary r crofts 1967 quaternaria 9 247 260 g lecointre k j tinkler and g richards 1967 academy of natural science of philadelphia proceedings 119 325 344 littoral deposits on lanzarote and fuerteventura are early pliocene and late pleistocene early and middle pleistocene strand lines are not represented early pliocene littoral and marine deposits contain a characteristic fossil assemblage strombus coronatus nerita emiliana gryphaea virleti patella cf intermedia and rothpletzia rudista differences in elevation record differential post pliocene uplift of the coastal platforms on which they lie late pleistocene beach deposits at low elevations belong to two groups an older with strombus bubonius and a younger without differences in elevation of early pliocene littoral deposits are reflected by differences in elevation of late pleistocene beach deposits nearby

tomomorphometry of the somma vesuvius volcano italy 1 a tomomorphometric analysis of the somma vesuvius topography is presented this consists in extracting horizontal cross sections at different altitudes and in determining some morphometric parameters radius of the circle with a surface area equal to the cross section circularity ratio between the major and minor axis of the best fitting ellipse orientation of the ellipse major axis and the x y centroid the somma includes three portions the apron zone the flanks and the summit caldera boundary between 225 m and 525 m is 50 60 between 600 m and 775 m is 130 135 these are the preferred strike of the eruptive fissures affecting the northwestern somma flanks the faults affecting the whole edifice the nodal planes from local earthquakes the somma activity developed along a ne sw structural discontinuity whereas the post caldera activity concentrated along a nw se striking structure somma activity migrates from se to nw

extensional tectonics in the vicinity of a transform fault in north iceland at the junction between an oceanic transform fault and the adjacent ridge segments there is normally a curved fabric the trollaskagi peninsula is located just south of the junction between the kolbeinsey ridge and the tjornes fracture zone and offers a rare opportunity for studying the three dimensional tectonics of the associated curved fabric for the purpose of elucidating its infrastructure we measured the attitudes of tens of lava flows and several hundred dykes faults and mineral veins in 28 profiles in the northern half of the trollaskagi peninsula at sea level the general dip of the lava pile is 6 14 but in the northernmost part of the peninsula the dip is 10 36 with an average of 22 most dykes are basaltic and strike north or nne they are exceptional as regards thickness frequency of multiple dykes and crustal dilation the average thickness 5 9 m and a crustal dilation of 28 in a 4 5 km long profile are the highest figures reported from regional dyke swarms in iceland most faults are normal faults the curved fabric is limited to the northernmost part of the trollaskagi peninsula and consists of two main sets of fractures one set includes north and nne striking faults mineral veins and dykes the other set consists of nw striking oblique faults mineral veins and tilted lava flows a boundary element model indicates that the abnormal lava dip and the nw striking oblique extensional structures in the northernmost part of the peninsula are attributable to the stress field associated with the junction between the kolbeinsey ridge and the tjornes fracture zone

coherent intrusion complexes in large basaltic volcanoes a new structural model abstract highly concentrated coherent intrusion complexes consisting of thousands of small mafic intrusions occur in probably all major basaltic volcanoes and play an important role in volcano development magma excursions from the high level chamber travel laterally along a surface of neutral buoyancy at the margin of a complex and cause the complex to grow the limited distance however that narrow intrusions can propagate before becoming blocked causes complexes to be wedge like intrusive dike complexes underlie rift zones and asymmetric growth of the dike wedge causes rift zones of shield volcanoes to become non collinear and may initiate a third rift zone in the obtuse angle downbowing of stress trajectories across complexes causes dikes to be non vertical and results in axial subsidence intrusive sheet complexes form instead of dike complexes in volcanic systems that have a restricted ability to expand laterally and accommodate intrusions by expanding vertically instead downbowing of stress trajectories causes sheets to be non horizontal and this combined with subsidence increasing toward the thicker part of the sheet wedge produces the inward and inwardly increasing dip that characterizes cone sheet complexes this mechanism for cone sheets differs considerably from previously proposed mechanisms successive injections of sheets at the top of a sheet complex probably offers the most efficient means of powering a high intensity geothermal field such as the 5000 mw grimsvotn system in iceland it is inferred that similar mechanisms to those in major basaltic edifices operate in spreading ridges study of basaltic edifices has the potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of spreading ridges

a simple method for the determination of the dilation direction of intrusive sheets abstract it is shown that the occurrence of offsets of various orientations along the contacts of an intrusive sheet permits the rapid establishment of the net dilation direction for the sheet the application of the method to some dykes on arran shows that oblique opening of a fissure was sometimes accompanied by a vertical component of opening the technique provides a tool for the analysis of patterns of crustal displacement associated with dyke intrusion

volcanic and deformation history of the bodrum resurgent caldera system southwestern turkey abstract the volcanic rocks of the bodrum peninsula in sw turkey and ne of the hellenic arc outcrop over an area of 138 km 2 a monzonitic intrusion is exposed in the western part of the peninsula upper miocene volcanism is represented by high k hk andesitic andesitic lava flows and pillows sparse hk andesitic and dacitic lava domes and associated block and ash flows a hk andesitic ignimbrite sequence with two stratigraphic units is associated with the collapse of a complex caldera system breccias formed as a result of slumping of the caldera walls are observed inside the caldera post caldera activity is represented by hk andesitic hk basaltic andesitic lava flows domes and associated block and ash flows numerous dykes hk andesitic and shoshonitic in composition cut all volcanic units the structure of the bodrum caldera was investigated using spot image digital elevation model dem aerial photographs as well as field data the bodrum caldera is a ne sw elongated semi elliptical deeply eroded caldera with dimensions of 18 7 7 7 km it is partly submerged in the sw part the complex caldera system can be described in terms of two structural domains the collapse of the dagbelen domain is interpreted as a piston type subsidence while the karakaya domain represents a piecemeal collapse both domains exhibit two separate resurgence events the elongation of the caldera may be related to pre existing regional tectonic structures the caldera is also affected and cut by late stage faults related to regional extensional events moreover pre caldera volcanism is dispersed and cannot be related to a pre existing stratovolcano bodrum volcanism is therefore interpreted as a complex ignimbritic shield volcano

crustal deformation across and beyond the los angeles basin from geodetic measurements we combine 6 years of global positioning system gps data with 20 years of trilateration data and a century of triangulation taped distance and astronomic azimuth measurements to derive 66 interseismic station velocities in the greater los angeles region we interpolate the velocities to construct a regional strain rate map beyond the los angeles basin our results generally agree with the model proposed by the working group on california earthquake probabilities in 1995 important regional findings of this study are as follows 1 there is a significant n s convergence and e w extension about 0 22 and 0 17 0 05 strain yr respectively for the two components along the southern frontal fault system of the san gabriel mountains 2 the crustal deformation around the big bend of the san andreas fault saf cannot be explained solely by wrench style motion across the saf remaining motion could be part of a nw se extension which is the response to nfsw compression in the central transverse ranges region alternatively it could be caused by left lateral faulting on an oblique blind thrust beneath the san gabriel mountains 3 low strain rates axe found along the elsinore fault and newport inglewood 4 north south compression decreases from the raymond hill fault westward to the santa monica fault there is little east west extension along this fault system