pre and post collisional depositional history in the upper and middle bengal fan and evaluation of deepwater reservoir potential along the northeast continental margin of india abstract the bengal fan is the largest submarine fan in the world that has formed as a result of high sediment transport from the himalaya by the ganga brahmaputra river system the himalaya was formed as a result of the collision between the eurasian and indian plates the initiation of this collision known as soft collision occurred around 59 ma whereas the major collision known as hard collision took place around 15 ma ago prior to the collision sediments into the bay of bengal were derived from the northwest by relatively smaller river system like mahanadi godavari the switching of river systems with time was not distinct but gradational in the post collision period the sediment input from the nw was masked in most instances because of rapid sediment supply from the himalaya to the north pre collisional sediment dispersal pattern from the nw was largely affected by pre existing basement high known as 85 e ridge this ridge was submerged during the post collisional period post collisional sediments are commonly referred to as the bengal fan sediments and show huge accumulation along the shelf and beyond high resolution 2d seismic data acquired along a corridor covering the upper middle and distal parts of the present day active bengal fan system indicates that the fan has prograded southward with time because of continuously increasing sediment supply and has therefore masked the effect of eustacy the present day geometry of the fan shows a single active canyon and an associated single active fan the active channel shows typical meandering pattern that shifts laterally with time the seismic facies analysis indicates that both the pre and post collision basin has significant hydrocarbon potential the thermogenic model is best suited for modeling source rock maturity in the pre collision basin whereas both biogenic and thermogenic models best explain source rock maturity in the post collision younger bengal fan the wedge out against the 85 e ridge is considered to be one of the important play types for hydrocarbon exploration in the deeper part of the basin on the other hand the channel levee complexes and frontal splay basin floor fan are the possible target areas for petroleum exploration in relatively younger bengal fan deposits

a sand rich submarine fan in the lower mesozoic mineral king caldera complex sierra nevada california abstract a turbidite sequence in the lower mesozoic mineral king roof pendant southern sierra nevada california is interpreted to be a small submarine fan informally named the bullfrog fan which formed in a continental arc setting abundant sand sized sediment was supplied to the fan by rapid downslope reworking of rhyolitic pyroclastic debris from a silicic volcanic source that lay to the southeast in an area now occupied by younger plutons the bullfrog fan accumulated in a segment of an epicontinental silicic volcanic are in which caldera subsidence structures have been identified the bullfrog fan is a 480 m thick progradational sequence bed thickness average grain size and abundance of channelized mass flow deposits all increase toward the southeast where the most proximal part of the fan and the inferred source area have been intruded by a large cretaceous granitic pluton the bullfrog fan prograded onto starved basin plain sediments consisting of very thin bedded and laminated silt and pyritic mud fan fringe and lobe fringe deposits compose only the basal tenth of the section resulting in abrupt lateral pinch out of fan sandstones into starved basin plain deposits the overlying outer fan depositional lobes compose over one third of the section have high sandstone to shale ratios and commonly lack fine grained interlobe deposits suggesting that depo itionally the lobes laterally interfinger and are vertically stacked these are overlain by midfan sandstones with abundant channel deposits that form over half of the bullfrog fan the midfan deposits consist of a lower sequence of lobe apical channel cycles and an upper sequence of braided channel cycles each lobe apical channel cycle is characterized by an unchannelized upward coarsening and thickening sequence overlain by a channelized upward fining and thinning sequence channelized deposits form about 40 percent of the lobe apical channel cycles and each cycle records the extension of a channel over the depositional lobe that it fed pebbly sandstones characterize both the lobe apical channels and the braided channel cycles and interchannel material is rare pebbly mudstone debr s flow deposits are locally interstratified with the braided channel deposits and overlie the midfan in a nearly continuous sheet less than 8 m thick the debris flows locally pass upward into laminated and rippled shallow marine siltstones coquinites limestones and cross bedded sandstones bearing late triassic megafossils although faulting has obscured this contact in most areas nonetheless the shallow marine sedimentary rocks apparently directly overlie midfan deposits with no inner fan or slope deposits intervening without sufficient clay sized sediment highly mobile turbidity currents capable of depositing basin plain fan fringe lobe fringe and interchannel turbidites apparently could not develop instead high density turbidity currents and fluidized flows deposited sandand pebble sized pyroclastic debris on smooth and channeled lobes that filled a relatively shallow basin within a submarine caldera complex

timing of intraplate deformation northeastern indian ocean abstract seismic stratigraphy and dsdp and odp drilling have demonstrated that two unconformities of early eocene and latest miocene age can be traced over much of the northeastern indian ocean the eocene event was a major hiatus in sedimentation following collision of india with asia and was the time of termination of deposition of a continental rise off the east side of india and the initiation of proximal bengal fan deposition the miocene event was the onset of north south compression in the indian plate during rapid uplift in tibet and the himalayas

on the role of coastal troughs in the circulation of warm circumpolar deep water on antarctic shelves abstractoceanic exchanges across the continental shelves of antarctica play an important role in biological systems and the mass balance of ice sheets the focus of this study is on the mechanisms responsible for the circulation of warm circumpolar deep water cdw within troughs running perpendicular to the continental shelf this is examined using process oriented numerical experiments with an eddy resolving 1 km 3d ocean model that includes a static and thermodynamically active ice shelf three mechanisms that create a significant onshore flow within the trough are identified 1 a deep onshore flow driven by the melt of the ice shelf 2 interaction between the longshore mean flow and the trough and 3 interaction between a rossby wave along the shelf break and the trough in each case the onshore flow is sufficient to maintain the warm temperatures underneath the ice shelf and basal melt rates of o 1 m yr 1 the third mechanism in particular reproduces several features revealed by moorings from m

the response of ice shelf basal melting to variations in ocean temperature abstract a three dimensional ocean general circulation model is used to study the response of idealized ice shelves to a series of ocean warming scenarios the model predicts that the total ice shelf basal melt increases quadratically as the ocean offshore of the ice front warms this occurs because the melt rate is proportional to the product of ocean flow speed and temperature in the mixed layer directly beneath the ice shelf both of which are found to increase linearly with ocean warming the behavior of this complex primitive equation model can be described surprisingly well with recourse to an idealized reduced system of equations and it is shown that this system supports a melt rate response to warming that is generally quadratic in nature this study confirms and unifies several previous examinations of the relation between melt rate and ocean temperature but disagrees with other results particularly the claim that a single melt rate sensitivity to warming is universally valid the hypothesized

the submarine delta of the ganges brahmaputra cyclone dominated sedimentation patterns the ganges brahmaputra belongs to the world s largest rivers in terms of sediment discharge but little is known yet about the processes controlling sediment distribution on the shelf and the documentation of these processes in large and small scale sedimentary structures for this study the submarine delta of the river system was investigated by high resolution seismic reflection profiles and piston and gravity coring logged physical properties of the cores were combined with visual core description grain size analysis and radiography sedimentation rates were estimated by 210pb and 137cs gamma spectrometry and cross checked with evaluation of seismic profiles the data reveal that the broad delta topset 20 m waterdepth is formed by a thick layer of sand silt highest sedimentation rates about 10 cm a 1 occur at the centre of clinoform delta foreset beds where about 20 of the total riverine sediment load is deposited and thus cause an annual progradation of the subaqueous delta front by about 15 m the foreset beds consist of graded sand silt layers which are thought to be deposited by sediment laden flows generated during the surge of tropical cyclones tempestites interbedded with silty clay layers the head of a canyon the swatch of no ground that deeply incises into the shelf forms a sediment trap along the westward cyclonic transport path where sedimentation rate increases to about 50 cm a 1 episodically earthquakes or storms destabilize especially the rapidly accumulated foreset beds in the eastern delta creating up to 8 m thick mass flows on the outer shelf in water depth beyond 80 m no holocene sediment is deposited

seismic remote sensing for the earthquake source process and near source strong shaking a case study of the october 16 1999 hector mine earthquake a new methodology to automatically determine the earthquake source process and near source strong ground motions using regional and local distance data was used to study the october 16 1999 hector mine earthquake mw7 1 broadband displacement data were inverted for the seismic moment tensor and to resolve the fault plane ambiguity independent of aftershock location and surface faulting information the identified nnw striking fault plane was used to invert for the distribution of fault slip over a planar surface the slip model was used to predict near fault peak ground velocity which was found to agree well with the trinet shakemap and also with near fault observations that were not available at the time of the initial analysis our method if automated is capable of providing near source strong ground motion information within 30 minutes of the earthquake origin time even in cases where there are few near fault recording instruments

origin of the rajmahal traps and the 85 e ridge preliminary reconstructions of the trace of the crozet hotspot the 85 e ridge is a buried aseismic ridge approximately parallel to and west of the ninetyeast ridge in the northeastern indian ocean it was previously shown to be of probable volcanic origin emplaced on very young oceanic crust but no satisfactory model of emplacement of the rocks was offered we propose a model of origin of the rajmahal traps of northeastern india the 85 e ridge and afanasy nikitin seamount as the trace of the hotspot that now lies beneath the crozet islands in the southern indian ocean this reconstruction places the kerguelen hotspot which formed the ninetyeast ridge at the triple junction between greater india australia and antarctica before the breakup of eastern gondwana

ice ocean processes over the continental shelf of the southern weddell sea antarctica a review 1 interactions between the southern ocean and the weddell sea ice shelves are important both to the antarctic ice sheet and to the production of globally significant water masses here we review the interaction between the filchner ronne ice shelf and the shelf sea in which it floats the continental shelf processes leading to the production of weddell sea deep and bottom waters from the original off shelf source waters are discussed and a new view is offered of the initial production of high salinity shelf water data from ship based measurements at the ice front from glaciological methods and from measurements made within the sub ice shelf cavity itself are used to describe the pattern of flows beneath the ice shelf we also consider the variability observed within the cavity from tidal to interannual time scales and finish with a discussion of future research priorities in the region

dynamics of advection driven upwelling over a shelf break submarine canyon 1 the response over a submarine canyon to a several day upwelling event can be separated into three phases an initial transient response a later much longer steady advection driven response and a final relaxation phase for the advection driven phase over realistically steep deep and narrow canyons with near uniform flow and stratification at rim depth we have derived scale estimates for four key quantities observations from 5 real world canyon studies and 3 laboratory studies are used to validate the scaling and estimate the scalar constant for each scale based on 4 geometric parameters of the canyon the background stratification the coriolis parameter and the incoming current we can estimate 1 the depth of upwelling in the canyon to within 15 m 2 the deep vorticity to within 15 and 3 the presence absence of a rim depth eddy can be determined based on laboratory data 4 the total upwelling flux can also be estimated the scaling analysis shows the importance of a rossby number based on the radius of curvature of isobaths at the upstream mouth of the canyon this rossby number determines the ability of the flow to cross the canyon isobaths and generate the pressure gradient that drives upwelling in the canyon other important scales are a rossby number based on the length of the canyon which measures the ability of the flow to lift isopycnals and a burger number based on the width of the canyon that determines the likelihood of an eddy at rim depth generally long canyons with sharply turning upstream isobaths strong incoming flow small coriolis parameter and weak stratification have the strongest upwelling response

rapid source mechanism determination of large mw 5 earthquakes in the western united states inversion of complete long period ground motions is used for rapid determination of source mechanisms of mw 5 earthquakes in the western united states the first few minutes of ground motions on local and regional distance waveforms are inverted for point source centroid moment tensors waveforms recorded at regional distances 300 1500 km can be adequately modeled at periods longer than 50 s using the laterally homogeneous prem model dziewonski and anderson 1981 at closer distances 300 km waves with periods as short as 35 s can be analyzed using prem best double couple focal mechanisms for 18 recent large western u s earthquakes compare very well with those obtained by other methods our procedure interfaced with automated data retrieval and source location methods is a viable tool for reliable determination of seismic moment and fault mechanism within 30 minutes after an earthquake

crustal evolution and sedimentation history of the bay of bengal since the cretaceous multichannel seismic reflection gravity magnetic and bathymetric investigations were made along five latitudinal profiles from the eastern shelf of india to the andaman shelf and four nw se profiles in the western basin off madras seismics on three latitudinal profiles in the bay of bengal the trend of the fracture zones the locations of the magnetic chron 34 and the cretaceous magnetic quiet zone suggest that greater india separated from antarctica after a period of transform motion in the early cretaceous that is about polarity chron m0 120 ma and drifted northwestward negative gravity anomalies are associated with basement rises including the 85 e ridge between the continental margin of india and the ninetyeast ridge magnetic reversals and northward trend of the 85 e ridge support a hotspot origin of the ridge and its emplacement most likely after the cretaceous quiet period juxtaposition of high amplitude hyperbolic reflections down faulted continental blocks buried under thick sediments and associated gravity and magnetic anomalies mark the boundary between continental and oceanic rocks at the foot of continental slope about 80 km seaward of the present continental shelf edge eight seismic sequences as thick as 8 5 km overlie the early cretaceous oceanic basement and include four unconformities lower eocene upper oligocene upper miocene and upper pleistocene which have been correlated to the major geologic tectonic events we also interpret the late cretaceous early tertiary features on the eastern flank of the buried 85 e ridge as carbonate reefs the observation of steep subduction of older cold indian plate beneath the burmese plate near the andaman islands suggests the sunda arc in this region as low to intermediate stress subduction zone

the source scanning algorithm mapping the distribution of seismic sources in time and space summary we introduce a new method which we call the source scanning algorithm ssa for imaging the distribution of seismic sources in both time and space using trial locations and origin times the method calculates the brightness function by summing the absolute amplitudes observed at all stations at their respective predicted arrival times the spatial and temporal distribution of sources is then identified by a systematic search throughout the model space and time for the maximum brightness the greatest advantages of this method are that 1 it exploits waveform information both arrival times and relative amplitudes without the need to calculate highfrequency synthetic seismograms and 2 it requires neither pre assembled phase picking data nor any a priori assumptions about the source geometry a series of tests using synthetic data have shown that this method is robust and can faithfully recover the input source configuration to within 1 grid interval finally we demonstrate the value of the algorithm by locating a typical tremor event with emergent waveforms that occurred during the recent episodic tremor and slip ets sequence in the northern cascadia subduction zone

structure and evolution of the afanasy nikitin seamount buried hills and 85 e ridge in the northeastern indian ocean abstract geophysical data of the afanasy nikitin seamount ans partly buried hills and 85 e ridge in the northeastern indian ocean were studied together with published seismic refraction results to understand genesis and evolution of the structures the ans joins the 85 e ridge through isolated buried hills and intervening subsurface structures and together they form a linear ridge system the gravity signature of the ridge system changes from negative to positive towards south of 5 n which seems to coincide with termination thinning of pre collision continental sediments in the bay of bengal thick pile of bengal fan sediments had great impact on underneath pre collision sediments as well as on basement rocks the process resulted in attaining higher velocities up to 6 6 and 7 1 km s respectively gravity model studies suggest that structures of the ridge system are compensated in different modes the ans is underlain by an 8 km thick deep crustal body of magmatic rocks while beneath other structures oceanic crust is down flexed up to 2 5 km the presence of metasediments more dense than volcanic rocks and flexure of the lithosphere would explain the negative gravity anomaly over the 85 e ridge whereas lack of metasediments and magmatic rocks at depth would explain the compensated positive anomaly over the ans the width of the 85 e ridge the wavelength 190 km and amplitude 2 5 km of the flexed oceanic crust and the intersection of the ridge with the mesozoic fracture zones suggest that the ridge was formed in intraplate position when the lithosphere underneath was approximately 35 myr old initial emplacement of the ans was coeval with the formation of oceanic lithosphere at 80 73 ma the hotspot forming the 85 e ridge had reactivated the ans during the paleocene and brought it to the sea surface then it underwent erosion and subsidence processes the deformation activity had converged the north and south parts of the ans at late miocene and again at late pleistocene and northward buried hills at early pliocene

a tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collisions between india eurasia and intra oceanic arcs of the central eastern tethys abstract despite several decades of investigations inferences on the timing and nature of collisions along the mesozoic cenozoic eurasian margin remain controversial we assimilate geological and geophysical evidence into a plate tectonic model for the india eurasia collision that includes continuously closing topological plate polygons constructed from a time dependent network of evolving plate boundaries with synthetic plates constructed for now subducted ocean floor including back arc basins that formed on the southern eurasian margin our model is regionally constrained and self consistent incorporating geophysical data from abyssal plains offshore west australia and east antarctica including jurassic age data from offshore northwest australia limiting much of northern greater india to a 1000 km long indenter originally reaching to the wallaby zenith fracture zone southern eurasia and southeast asia are riddled with dismembered oceanic arcs indicating long lived tethyan intra oceanic subduction this intra oceanic subduction system was well established from cretaceous time in the india eurasia convergence zone in the neotethys which was consumed during greater india s northward trajectory towards eurasia from the early cretaceous fragments of obducted oceanic crust within the yarlung tsangpo suture zone between india and eurasia predominantly date to the late jurassic or mid cretaceous barremian aptian the various ophiolites along strike and a hiatus in subduction related magmatism during the tithonian aptian suggest that there was at least one generation of intra oceanic arc formation whose plate boundary configuration remains uncertain paleomagnetic and magmatic studies suggest that the intra oceanic arc was at equatorial latitudes during the early cretaceous before subduction resumed further north beneath the eurasian margin lhasa terrane with another hiatus in subduction related magmatism along southern lhasa during 80 65 ma possibly as the back arc spreading centre approached the active andean style margin in our model greater india collided with the tethyan intra oceanic arc in paleocene eocene time finally closing the tethyan seaway from mid late eocene time which is consistent with the age of the youngest marine deposits found between india and eurasia geological evidence from the collision zone indicates an age of initial arc continent collision by 52 ma followed by the soft initial continent continent collision between india and eurasia by 44 2 ma this timing is supported by marine geophysical data where the spreading centres in the indian ocean record a drastic decline in seafloor spreading rates and changes in spreading directions first at 52 ma followed by another reorganisation at 43 ma the abandonment of spreading in the wharton basin and the onset of extrusion tectonics in asia by 36 ma are likely indicators of hard complete continent collision and highlight the multi stage collisional history of this margin our continuously evolving network of mid ocean ridge and subduction zone geometries and divergence convergence vectors through time provide a basis for future refinements to assimilate new data and or test alternative tectonic scenarios

on the characteristics of circumpolar deep water intrusions to the west antarctic peninsula continental shelf 1 hydrographic and current velocity observations collected from march 2001 to february 2003 on the west antarctic peninsula shelf as part of the southern ocean global ecosystems dynamics program are used to characterize intrusions of upper circumpolar deep water ucdw and lower circumpolar deep water lcdw onto the shelf and marguerite bay ucdw is found on the middle and outer shelf along marguerite trough which connects the shelf break to marguerite bay and at another location farther south ucdw intrudes in the form of frequent four per month and small horizontal scales 4 km warm eddy like structures with maximum vertical scales of a few hundred meters however no evidence of ucdw intrusions was found in marguerite bay lcdw was found in several deep depressions connected to the shelf break including marguerite trough forming a tongue of relatively dense water 95 m thick on average that reaches into marguerite bay through marguerite trough a steady advective diffusive balance for the lcdw intrusion is used to make an estimation of the average upwelling rate and diffusivity in the deep layer within marguerite trough which suggest the lcdw layer is renewed approximately every six weeks

oceanic heat transport onto the amundsen sea shelf through a submarine glacial trough glaciers which drain the west antarctic ice sheet wais into the amundsen sea are accelerating and thinning rapidly these observations have been attributed to the regional oceanography whereby heat contained within circumpolar deep water cdw drives the basal melting of floating glaciers on the basis of new data we calculate that 2 8 terra watts 1012 of oceanic heat flow onto the continental shelf and toward the glaciers via a submarine glacial trough this is enough to account for most of the basal melting in the entire region suggesting the ocean is supplying an excess of heat toward the antarctic continent

water mass properties and circulation on the west antarctic peninsula continental shelf in austral fall and winter 2001 abstract hydrographic measurements made during the us southern ocean global ocean ecosystem dynamics cruises which took place from april to june and july to september 2001 provide a description of changes in water mass distributions and circulation patterns in the marguerite bay region of the west antarctic peninsula continental shelf that result from seasonal variability and offshore forcing by the southern boundary of the antarctic circumpolar current acc the primary seasonal change in water mass properties is the reduction in antarctic surface water and replacement by a thick winter water layer the primary effect of the acc is to pump warm 1 5 c salty 34 65 34 7 and nutrient rich circumpolar deep water cdw onto the continental shelf below 200 m at specific sites that correspond to bathymetric features such as marguerite trough the cdw intruded onto the continental shelf moved across shelf and entered marguerite bay this flow pattern was observed during both cruises suggesting that onshelf intrusions of cdw are a regular occurrence on this shelf the number of cdw intrusions observed suggests that 4 6 events can occur in a year regions where cdw intrusions occur are characterized by surface waters that are above freezing in winter diffusive heat fluxes based on estimated diffusivities are insufficient for the observed rate of temperature decay of cdw intrusions localized bathymetrically controlled vertical mixing is suggested as the primary heat transfer mechanism the hydrographic and acoustic doppler current profiler measurements show a southwesterly flowing coastal current along adelaide island that enters the north side of marguerite bay and exits around alexander island this current which may result from seasonal coastal buoyancy forcing was present in fall and winter but was better developed in fall this current may be part of a larger cyclonic gyre that overlies the northern part of the area surveyed during the two cruises

cross shelf exchange in a model of the ross sea circulation and biogeochemistry abstract transport of warm nutrient rich circumpolar deep water cdw onto antarctic continental shelves and coastal seas has important effects on physical and biological processes the present study investigates the locations of this transport and its dynamics in the ross sea with a high resolution three dimensional numerical model the model circulation is forced by daily wind stress along with heat and salt fluxes calculated from atmospheric climatologies by bulk formulae all surface fluxes are modified by an imposed climatological ice cover waters under the ross ice shelf are not included explicitly but their effect on temperature and salinity is imposed in a buffer zone at the southern end of the model domain a simple nutrient uptake is calculated based on the climatological chlorophyll distribution and monod uptake kinetics model circulation is strongly affected by bottom topography due to weak stratification and agrees with schematics of the general flow and long term current measurements except near the southern boundary the sea surface temperature is similar to satellite estimates except that the warmest simulated temperatures are slightly higher than observations there is a significant correlation between the curvature of the shelf break and the transport across the shelf break a momentum term balance shows that momentum advection helps to force flow across the shelf break in specific locations due to the curvature of the bathymetry that is the isobaths curve in front of the flow for the model to create a strong intrusion of cdw onto the shelf it appears two mechanisms are necessary first cdw is driven onto the shelf at least partially due to momentum advection and the curvature of the shelf break then the general circulation on the shelf takes the cdw into the interior

identifying the rupture plane of the 2001 nisqually washington earthquake the 2001 nisqually earthquake occurred within the subducting juan de fuca plate previous seismic and geodetic studies could not confidently identify its actual fault plane from the two nodal planes in this study we apply the recently developed source scanning algorithm to local seismic waveforms and show unambiguously that the steeply east dipping plane is the rupture plane the rupture began near the bottom of the subducting crust and propagated downward into the subducting uppermost mantle if intraslab earthquakes are assumed to be due to dehydration embrittlement the source dimension is unlikely to grow any larger because the warm thermal state of the subducting juan de fuca plate limits dehydration to a shallow depth below the slab surface numerical modeling of the thermal structure indicates that dehydration embrittlement can only take place in the top 10 km of the subducting mantle implying that the maximum size of an intraslab earthquake in northern cascadia would be m w 7 or less

a late miocene early pliocene biogenic silica crash in the andaman sea and bay of bengal abstract variations in the mass accumulation rate of biogenic silica bsi in continental margin sediments can be used to reconstruct relative changes in productivity through time in these settings in the northern bay of bengal a lack of long sedimentary records has historically precluded this type of reconstruction the acquisition of 21 new long sedimentary records during the 2006 indian national gas hydrate program nghp expedition 01 has made it possible for the first time to reconstruct paleoproductivity in this important region of the world that is dominated by intense changes in the geological and biological fluxes largely driven by tectonic and climate related mechanisms in the research presented here fluctuations in the mass accumulation rate of biogenic opal during the past 9 4 myrs are reconstructed using continental margin sediment cores from the andaman sea site nghp 01 17a and the northern bay of bengal site nghp 01 19 within these records a biogenic silica crash is recorded at 6 ma and is consistent with previous geotectonic geochemical and paleontological studies of the southern indian ocean and pacific ocean that suggest connectivity and thus exchange of nutrient rich water masses between the eastern tropical indian ocean and western tropical pacific ocean was diminished as a result of the tectonic restriction of the northerly sector of the indonesian throughflow itf the biogenic silica crash at sites 17 and 19 is consistent with a decrease in surface water productivity that may have been driven by the reduction of nutrient rich pacific waters delivered to the andaman sea and bay of bengal via the northerly route of the itf following the bsi crash at 6 ma subsequent recovery of the bsi mass accumulation rates at sites 17 and 19 occurred and was perhaps renewed by an enhanced supply of nutrient rich freshwater from the nearby irrawaddy and mahanadi rivers which could have occurred during a documented increase in the intensity of the indian monsoon at 5 ma although recovery is noted at both core locations biogenic silica mass accumulation rates did not fully recover in the andaman sea this could be explained by the restricted nature of the andaman basin and its more distal location from a major source of nutrient rich freshwater

an early india asia contact paleomagnetic constraints from ninetyeast ridge odp leg 121 new paleomagnetic results from sedimentary rock and basement of the ninetyeast ridge ocean drilling program leg 121 sites 756 758 detail the northward movement of the indian plate for the past 80 m y analysis of the combined paleolatitude age profile indicates a distinct reduction in india9s northward movement rate at 55 ma interpreted as completion of suturing of greater india and asia india9s northward motion slowed from 18 19 5 cm yr to 4 5 cm yr for the location of site 758 comparison of this profile with paleomagnetic data from the wider himalayan region indicates that initial contact between northwestern greater india and southern asia was already established by cretaceous tertiary time this supports a possible causal link between the india asia convergence and the deccan traps extrusion

cyclones and tides as feeders of a submarine canyon off bangladesh extremely high annual sedimentation rates of about 50 cm yr at the head of the submarine canyon swatch of no ground which connects the submarine delta of the ganges brahmaputra to the bengal deep sea fan were estimated by 210 pb and 137 cs gamma spectrometry the sediment in the canyon at 228 m water depth consists of graded sand and silt layers and laminated mud the sand and silt layers are assumed to have been deposited by tropical cyclones whereas the intercalated laminated mud is thought to have been deposited by daily variations of tidal currents the graded layers correlate well with the historical record of cyclones and allow an annual fine tuning the rapid infill of the canyon head is caused by trapping of suspended sediment that has been mobilized by storms and tides on the delta topset the sediment is stored only temporarily in the canyon head slides slumps and earthquakes occasionally remove and transfer it by turbidity currents to the deep sea fan the focusing effect of the canyon and the subsequent stepwise export of sediment probably combined with erosion of the canyon floor explain the long term regional stability of this canyon and probably other shelf canyons

sedimentation rates from calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminifera biostratigraphy in the andaman sea northern bay of bengal and eastern arabian sea abstract in this study we determined calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminifera events in sediments recovered during the 2006 indian national gas hydrate program nghp expedition 01 selected bioevents permitted the assignment of orbitally calibrated ages derivative sedimentation rate estimates and identification of sedimentary discontinuities in the andaman sea at hole nghp 01 17a a late miocene to recent record was recovered but with a significant hiatus during the latest miocene and pliocene sedimentation rates here vary from 50 m myr during the pleistocene to 130 m myr for the late miocene in the northern bay of bengal at hole nghp 01 19a the base of the cored record also reaches the late miocene and extends to recent but the same hiatus missing the pliocene is present at this hole a the early pleistocene at hole nghp 1 19a shows sensible variation in sedimentation rates ranging between 130 m myr and 10 m myr during the last 0 5 ma for the late miocene the sedimentation rate was ca 50 m myr in the western bay of bengal at hole nghp 01 10b d calcareous nannofossils were sparse and only foraminifera datums are available the base of the section is latest early pliocene to late pliocene and the majority of the record is considered younger than late pliocene due to the scarcity of calcareous nannofossils and the few foraminifera datums sedimentation rates were not determined here however hole nghp 01 16a in the same region recorded the highest occurrence of pseudoemiliania lacunosa an event that confirms a pleistocene age allowing us to estimate a sedimentation rate between 110 m myr and 450 m myr along the western peninsular indian margin at hole nghp 01 01a a continuous record from the holocene to the early oligocene indicates sedimentation rates of ca 25 m myr until the middle miocene and a sensible reduction downward reaching 4 m myr in the early miocene to the early oligocene no hiatuses were observed the large changes in sedimentation rates observed in these cores reflect long timescale changes in the environment likely induced by changes in the strength of the indian monsoon system

source inversion of the 1988 upland california earthquake determination of a fault plane for a small event abstract we examined short period p waves to investigate if waveform data could be used to determine which of two nodal planes was the actual fault plane for a small m l 4 6 earthquake near upland california we removed path and site complications by choosing a small aftershock m l 2 7 as an empirical green function the main shock p waves were deconvolved by using the empirical green function to produce simple far field displacement pulses we used a least squares method to invert these pulses for the slip distribution on a finite fault both nodal planes strike 125 dip 85 and strike 221 dip 40 of the first motion focal mechanism were tested at various rupture velocities the southwest trending fault plane consistently gave better fitting solutions than the southeast trending plane we determined a moment of 4 2 10 22 dyne cm the rupture velocity and thus the source area could not be well resolved but if we assume a reasonable rupture velocity of 0 87 times the shear wave velocity we obtain a source area of 0 97 km 2 and a stress drop of 38 bars choice of a southwest trending fault plane is consistent with the trend of the nearby portion of the transverse ranges frontal fault zone and indicates left lateral motion this method provides a way to determine the fault plane for small earthquakes that have no surface rupture and no obvious trend in aftershock locations

recent dramatic thinning of largest west antarctic ice stream triggered by oceans a growing body of observational data suggests that pine island glacier pig is changing on decadal or shorter timescales these changes may have far reaching consequences for the future of the west antarctic ice sheet wais and global sea levels because of pig s role as the ice sheet s primary drainage portal we test the hypothesis that these changes are triggered by the adjoining ocean specifically we employ an advanced numerical ice flow model to simulate the effects of perturbations at the grounding line on pig s dynamics the speed at which these changes are propagated upstream implies a tight coupling between ice sheet interior and surrounding ocean

influence of sea ice cover and icebergs on circulation and water mass formation in a numerical circulation model of the ross sea antarctica 1 satellite imagery shows that there was substantial variability in the sea ice extent in the ross sea during 2001 2003 much of this variability is thought to be due to several large icebergs that moved through the area during that period the effects of these changes in sea ice on circulation and water mass distributions are investigated with a numerical general circulation model it would be difficult to simulate the highly variable sea ice from 2001 to 2003 with a dynamic sea ice model since much of the variability was due to the floating icebergs here sea ice concentration is specified from satellite observations to examine the effects of changes in sea ice due to iceberg c 19 simulations were performed using either climatological ice concentrations or the observed ice for that period the heat balance around the ross sea polynya rsp shows that the dominant term in the surface heat budget is the net exchange with the atmosphere but advection of oceanic warm water is also important the area average annual basal melt rate beneath the ross ice shelf is reduced by 12 in the observed sea ice simulation the observed sea ice simulation also creates more high salinity shelf water another simulation was performed with observed sea ice and a fixed iceberg representing b 15a there is reduced advection of warm surface water during summer from the rsp into mcmurdo sound due to b 15a but a much stronger reduction is due to the late opening of the rsp in early 2003 because of c 19

observations beneath pine island glacier in west antarctica and implications for its retreat thinning ice in west antarctica is currently contributing about 10 of the observed rise in global sea level observations obtained from an autonomous underwater vehicle operating beneath pine island glacier west antarctica reveal that the glacier was recently grounded on a transverse ridge in the sea floor but now warm sea water flows through the widening gap above the ridge thinning ice in west antarctica resulting from acceleration in the flow of outlet glaciers is at present contributing about 10 of the observed rise in global sea level1 pine island glacier in particular has shown nearly continuous acceleration2 3 and thinning4 5 throughout the short observational record the floating ice shelf that forms where the glacier reaches the coast has been thinning rapidly6 driven by changes in ocean heat transport beneath it as a result the line that separates grounded and floating ice has retreated inland7 these events have been postulated as the cause for the inland thinning and acceleration8 9 here we report evidence gathered by an autonomous underwater vehicle operating beneath the ice shelf that pine island glacier was recently grounded on a transverse ridge in the sea floor warm sea water now flows through a widening gap above the submarine ridge rapidly melting the thick ice of the newly formed upstream half of the ice shelf the present evolution of pine island glacier is thus part of a longer term trend that has moved the downstream limit of grounded ice inland by 30 km into water that is 300 m deeper than over the ridge crest the pace and ultimate extent of such potentially unstable retreat10 are central to the debate over the possibility of widespread ice sheet collapse triggered by climate change11 12

two years of oceanic observations below the fimbul ice shelf antarctica 1 the mechanisms by which heat is delivered to antarctic ice shelves are a major source of uncertainty when assessing the response of the antarctic ice sheet to climate change direct observations of the ice shelf ocean interaction are extremely scarce and in many regions melt rates from ice shelf ocean models are not constrained by measurements our two years of data 2010 and 2011 from three oceanic moorings below the fimbul ice shelf in the eastern weddell sea show cold cavity waters with average temperatures of less than 0 1 c above the surface freezing point this suggests low basal melt rates consistent with remote sensing based steady state mass balance estimates for this sector of the antarctic coast oceanic heat for basal melting is found to be supplied by two sources of warm water entering below the ice i eddy like bursts of modified warm deep water that access the cavity at depth for eight months of the record and ii fresh surface water that flushes parts of the ice base with temperatures above freezing during late summer and fall this interplay of processes implies that basal melting at the fimbul ice shelf cannot simply be parameterized by coastal deep ocean temperatures but instead appears directly linked to both solar forcing at the surface as well as to the dynamics of the coastal current system

rapid identification of earthquake rupture plane using source scanning algorithm summary accurate identification of an earthquake s rupture plane is critical in many aspects ranging from scientific such as seismology and plate tectonics to societal such as emergency rescue planning we modify the recently developed source scanning algorithm ssa to rapidly image the rupture pattern of an earthquake using waveform data recorded at local and regional distances the method calculates the brightness function of a grid point by summing the observed amplitudes of the p wave envelopes at the corresponding predicted arrival times at all stations the composite image consisting of brightness functions of all grid points within a prescribed source volume and time interval illuminates the locations on the rupture plane where significant seismic energy is emitted synthetic tests indicate that the proposed method is robust even under the presence of hypocentral mislocation and origin time errors application of this method to the 2003 san simeon and 2004 parkfield earthquakes both occurred in central california clearly identifies the nw se striking planes as the actual rupture planes a conclusion consistent with all available evidences limited azimuthal distribution of seismic stations will not severely affect the identification result making this method ideal for offshore earthquake studies because the proposed method is able to identify the rupture plane using seismic waveform data only it is perfectly suited for near real time operation and may enable routine report of earthquake rupture planes by local seismic networks in the future

delineating complex spatiotemporal distribution of earthquake aftershocks an improved source scanning algorithm summary conventional earthquake location methods depend critically on the correct identification of seismic phases and their arrival times from seismograms accurate phase picking is particularly difficult for aftershocks that occur closely in time and space mostly because of the ambiguity of correlating the same phase at different stations in this study we introduce an improved source scanning algorithm issa for the purpose of delineating the complex distribution of aftershocks without time consuming and labour intensive phase picking procedures the improvements include the application of a ground motion analyser to separate p and s waves the automatic adjustment of time windows for brightness calculation based on the scanning resolution and a modified brightness function to combine constraints from multiple phases synthetic experiments simulating a challenging scenario are conducted to demonstrate the robustness of the issa the method is applied to a field data set selected from the ocean bottom seismograph records of an offshore aftershock sequence southwest of taiwan although visual inspection of the seismograms is ambiguous our issa analysis clearly delineates two events that can best explain the observed waveform pattern

architecture and depositional pattern of the quaternary deep sea fan of the amazon abstract the quaternary deep sea fan of the amazon is composed of four superimposed lens shaped channel levee complexes covering most of the fan surface and controlled by allocyclic processes high amplitude sea level variations of recent glacial cycles induced river fed turbiditic currents that discharged directly into the submarine canyon during low sea level in contrast individual channel levee systems and associated terminal lobes are governed by two distinct autocyclic processes 1 an initial phase of avulsion and adjustment with unconfined sand deposition high amplitude reflection packets and 2 down fan progressive aggradation progradation of a graded channel levee lobe system when a new equilibrium profile is reached during the latter phase the system acts as a particularly efficient sand cleaning and separating factory that is responsible for the high reservoir potential of such turbidites

sediment volume and mass beneath the bay of bengal rates of sediment accumulation and the amount of sedimentary fill in depocenters lying downstream of erosion in the himalayas and tibet can provide some insight into tectonics and geological history the objective of this paper is to put on record the best estimates which are possible with existing data of the volume and mass of sediments sedimentary rock and metasedimentary rock beneath the sea floor of the bay of bengal the sedimentary section in the bay of bengal is divided into two parts 1 eocene through holocene sediments and sedimentary rocks which post date the initial india asia collision volume 12 5 106 km3 mass 2 88 1016 t this is most of the bengal fan including its eastern lobe the nicobar fan plus some of the outer bengal delta 2 early cretaceous through paleocene pre collision sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks volume 4 36 106 km3 mass 1 13 to 1 18 1016 t these are interpreted as continental rise and pelagic deposits

delineating the rupture planes of an earthquake doublet using source scanning algorithm application to the 2005 march 3 ilan doublet northeast taiwan summary correct identification of the fault plane s associated with an earthquake doublet is a very challenging problem because the pair of events often occurs in close space and time with almost the same magnitude most long period waveforms of an earthquake doublet are severely tangled and thus unsuitable for conventional waveform inversion methods in this study we try to resolve this issue by utilizing the recently developed source scanning algorithm ssa the ssa systematically searches the model space for seismic sources whose times and locations are most compatible with the observed arrivals of large amplitudes on seismograms the identification of a seismic source is based on the brightness function which is defined as the summation of the normalized waveform amplitudes at the predicted arrival times at all stations by illuminating the spatiotemporal distribution of asperities during an earthquake s source process we are able to constrain the orientation of the rupture propagation that in turn leads to the identification of the fault plane a series of synthetic experiments are performed to test ssa s resolution under various scenarios including different directions of rupture propagation imperfect station coverage and short origin time difference between the two events of a doublet because only short period records are needed in the analysis the proposed method is best suited for an earthquake doublet with a short time gap between the two events using the 2005 ilan doublet the origin time difference is only 70 s that occurred in northeast taiwan as an example we show that the trace of the brightest spots moves towards the west and infer the e w striking plane to be the actual fault plane

a great earthquake doublet and seismic stress transfer cycle in the central kuril islands temporal variations of the frictional resistance on subduction zone plate boundary faults associated with the stick slip cycle of large interplate earthquakes are thought to modulate the stress regime and earthquake activity within the subducting oceanic plate here we report on two great earthquakes that occurred near the kuril islands which shed light on this process and demonstrate the enhanced seismic hazard accompanying triggered faulting on 15 november 2006 an event of moment magnitude 8 3 ruptured the shallow dipping plate boundary along which the pacific plate descends beneath the central kuril arc the thrust ruptured a seismic gap that previously had uncertain seismogenic potential although the earlier occurrence of outer rise compressional events had suggested the presence of frictional resistance within minutes of this large underthrusting event intraplate extensional earthquakes commenced in the outer rise region seaward of the kuril trench and on 13 january 2007 an event of moment magnitude 8 1 ruptured a normal fault extending through the upper portion of the pacific plate producing one of the largest recorded shallow extensional earthquakes this energetic earthquake sequence demonstrates the stress transfer process within the subducting lithosphere and the distinct rupture characteristics of these great earthquakes illuminate differences in seismogenic properties and seismic hazard of such interplate and intraplate faults

an earthquake doublet in ometepec guerrero mexico on june 7 1982 an earthquake doublet occurred in a gap near ometepec guerrero mexico which had been given a high seismic potential the two earthquakes first event m s 6 9 m b 6 0 16 3 n 98 4 w d 25 km second event m s 7 0 m b 6 3 16 4 n 98 5 w d 8 km of the doublet occurred within five hours of each other we determine the source parameters of these events by inverting surface wave data at a period of 256 s the results are for the first event strike 116 dip 77 slip 88 and seismic moment of 2 8 10 26 dyne cm and for the second event strike 116 dip 78 slip 89 and seismic moment of 2 8 10 26 dyne cm modeling of long period p waves suggests that the first event has a depth of 20 km and is represented by a single trapezoidal source time function with an effective duration of 6 s the second event is best modeled by two sources at depths of 15 and 10 km the combined effective source duration time for the two sources is about 10 s the ratio of the seismic moment obtained from body waves to that from surface waves is 0 5 for the first event and 1 for the second adding the seismic moment of the two events and considering the first week aftershock area 3200 km 2 the stress drop is 4 bars these results suggest that the first event that involved a deeper asperity caused an incremental stress change large enough to trigger the second event if the two events of the doublet broke distinct areas of the subduction zone the coseismic slip is 0 58 m and accounts for about 25 of the total plate motion between the cocos plate and the north america plate accumulated since the last large earthquake in the region other doublets similar to the ometepec doublet have occurred along the middle america trench during the past 70 years a regional distribution of comparable size asperities may be responsible for this relatively frequent occurrence of doublets and for the simplicity of earthquakes in the region the high convergence rate which produces rapid strain accumulation and short recurrence intervals for large earthquakes and the smooth sea floor subducted along the middle america trench may contribute to the homogeneous distribution of comparable size asperities we found a relation log t 1 3 log m 0 t is the average recurrence time and m 0 is the average seismic moment for large earthquakes along the subduction zone in the guerrero oaxaca region where the convergence rate and the properties of the subducted plate are considered relatively uniform a simple asperity model predicts this relation

structure and origin of the 85 e ridge the submerged 85 e ridge in the bay of bengal trends approximately n s between 19 n and 6 n latitudes off the southeast coast of sri lanka it takes an arcuate shape and seems to terminate with the northward extension of the afanasy nikitin seamounts situated around 2 s latitude the ridge is characterized by positive magnetic 100 400 nt and negative free air gravity 60 mgal anomalies with variable widths of 100 180 km magnetic model studies revealed that the rocks of the 85 e ridge are magnetized with reversed polarity the well defined geophysical anomalies and lack of magnetic polarity reversals together with the deep burial nature of the ridge may not favor a hotspot origin two alternative processes for the ridge emplacement have been suggested ridge emplacement may be 1 due to shearing of the lithosphere caused by stretching and compressional forces associated at the time of major plate reorganization immediately after the evolution of the early cretaceous crust in the bay of bengal more precisely at m0 isochron or during the middle albian reversals within the cretaceous long normal polarity k t superchron epoch when the earth s magnetic polarity changed from normal to reversed polarity and or 2 due to sagging followed by deformation produced by the buckling instability of the oceanic plate caused by horizontal compressional forces on the passive continental margin however more marine geophysical data are required to support the postulated coincidence of the ridge with a reversed polarity magnetic anomaly and their associated model further the rajmahal traps normally polarized and the 85 e ridge reversely polarized appear to be associated with two different episodes of eruption that might have been triggered by the kerguelen mantle plume the 85 e ridge seems to extend into the onshore west bengal basin as a subsurface ridge and merges with the reported nne ssw trending zone of strong geophysical anomalies east of rajmahal traps up to 25 n latitude

worldwide doublets of large shallow earthquakes abstract we investigated all the pairs of mw 7 5 shallow earthquakes in the harvard catalog that occurred at a centroid distance of less than 100 km we showed that most of these pairs have similar focal mechanisms because these earthquakes generally should have focal regions in excess of 100 km diameter their rupture zones apparently intersect for all these pairs the time interval is significantly less than the time span needed for plate motion to accumulate the strain released by the first event these observations conflict strongly with quasi periodic recurrence models on which the seismic gap hypothesis is based power law recurrence fits these earthquake ob servations much better introduction many models used to forecast long term seismic hazard are based on the quasi periodic or seismic cycle hypothesis of large earthquake occurrence this hypothesis assumes that the probability of a large earthquake is low after signifi cant release of seismic energy and that danger increases only when tectonic plate motion accumulates strain sufficient for a new strong event several models have been formulated to apply this idea to long term earthquake prediction mccann

regional stress field of the indian plate we have calculated the regional stress field in the indian plate implementing dependence of slab pull and ridge push on the age of the oceanic lithosphere in the finite element procedure the high level of the calculated stress field order of a few kbar and the dominance of compression in the plate are consequences of the unique dynamic situation of the present day indian plate the calculated stress field explains the concentration of intraplate deformation in the region of the ninetyeast ridge and yields insight into the variations in stress directions in the australian continent

continued evolution of jakobshavn isbrae following its rapid speedup 1 several new data sets reveal that thinning and speedup of jakobshavn isbrae continue following its recent rapid increase in speed as its floating ice tongue disintegrated the present speedup rate of 5 a 1 over much of the fast moving region appears to be a diffusive response to the initial much larger speedup near the front there is strong seasonality in speed over much of the fast flowing main trunk that shows a good inverse correlation with the seasonally varying length of a short typically 6 km floating ice tongue this modulation of speed with ice front position supports the hypothesis that the major speedup was caused by loss of the larger floating ice tongue from 1998 to 2003 analysis of image time series suggests that the transient winter ice tongue is formed when sea ice bonds glacier ice in the fjord to produce a nearly rigid mass that almost entirely suppresses calving major calving only resumes in late winter when much of this ice clears from the fjord the collapse of the ice tongue in the late 1990s followed almost immediately after a sharp decline in winter sea ice concentration in disko bay this decline may have extended the length of the calving season for several consecutive years leading to the ice tongue s collapse

an overview of the sedimentary geology of the bengal basin in relation to the regional tectonic framework and basin fill history abstract the bengal basin in the northeastern part of indian subcontinent between the indian shield and indo burman ranges comprises three geo tectonic provinces 1 the stable shelf 2 the central deep basin extending from the sylhet trough in the northeast towards the hatia trough in the south and 3 the chittagong tripura fold belt due to location of the basin at the juncture of three interacting plates viz the indian burma and tibetan eurasian plates the basin fill history of these geo tectonic provinces varied considerably precambrian metasediments and permian carboniferous rocks have been encountered only in drill holes in the stable shelf province after precambrian peneplanation of the indian shield sedimentation in the bengal basin started in isolated graben controlled basins on the basement with the breakup of gondwanaland in the jurassic and cretaceous and northward movement of the indian plate the basin started downwarping in the early cretaceous and sedimentation started on the stable shelf and deep basin and since then sedimentation has been continuous for most of the basin subsidence of the basin can be attributed to differential adjustments of the crust collision with the various elements of south asia and uplift of the eastern himalayas and the indo burman ranges movements along several well established faults were initiated following the breakup of gondwanaland and during downwarping in the cretaceous by eocene because of a major marine transgression the stable shelf came under a carbonate regime whereas the deep basinal area was dominated by deep water sedimentation a major switch in sedimentation pattern over the bengal basin occurred during the middle eocene to early miocene as a result of collision of india with the burma and tibetan blocks the influx of clastic sediment into the basin from the himalayas to the north and the indo burman ranges to the east rapidly increased at this time and this was followed by an increase in the rate of subsidence of the basin at this stage deep marine sedimentation dominated in the deep basinal part while deep to shallow marine conditions prevailed in the eastern part of the basin by middle miocene with continuing collision events between the plates and uplift in the himalayas and indo burman ranges a huge influx of clastic sediments came into the basin from the northeast and east throughout the miocene the depositional settings continued to vary from deep marine in the basin to shallow and coastal marine in the marginal parts of the basin from pliocene onwards large amounts of sediment were filling the bengal basin from the west and northwest and major delta building processes continued to develop the present day delta morphology since the cretaceous architecture of the bengal basin has been changing due to the collision pattern and movements of the major plates in the region however three notable changes in basin configuration can be recognized that occurred during early eocene middle miocene and plio pleistocene times when both the paleogeographic settings and source areas changed the present basin configuration with the ganges brahmaputra delta system on the north and the bengal deep sea fan on the south was established during the later part of pliocene and pleistocene and delta progradation since then has been strongly affected by orogeny in the eastern himalayas pleistocene glacial activities in the north accompanied sea level changes in the bay of bengal

sedimentology stratigraphy and architecture of the nicobar fan bengal nicobar fan system indian ocean results from international ocean discovery program expedition 362 drill sites in the southern bay of bengal at 3 degrees n 91 degrees e international ocean discovery program expedition 362 have sampled for the first time a complete section of the nicobar fan an

transition from oblique subduction to collision earthquakes in the southernmost ryukyu arc taiwan region tectonic characteristics of the region between taiwan and the southernmost ryukyu arc are inferred from a detailed analysis of local seismicity and source parameters of 62 recent earthquakes of 5 5 mb 6 6 five major seismogenic structures can be delineated the collision seismic zone csz the interface seismic zone isz the wadati benioff seismic zone wbsz the lateral compression seismic zone lcsz and the okinawa seismic zone osz in the csz located along the east coast of taiwan and offshore earthquake focal mechanisms show horizontal p axes distributed in two directions 287 10 and 333 16 possibly reflecting a strain partition associated with the relative plate convergence between the eurasia plate and the philippine sea plate the corresponding seismic strain tensor indicates a maximum compressive strain rate of 1 2 10 7 yr 1 along 293 and a comparable extension in vertical direction presumably resulted from plate collision in the region the geometry of the isz which is distorted significantly at its westernmost end can be approximated by a north dipping plane that is gradually pushed northward with increasing dip the seismogenic portion of the interface spans a short depth range from 10 km to 35 km a clear pattern of earthquake slip partition is observed the average slip vector residual is as large as 35 seismic strain patterns within the subducted philippine sea slab show predominantly downdip extension between 80 and 120 km and downdip compression at 270 km different from the pattern of strain segmentation observed for the rest of the ryukyu arc where the northern and southern portions are dominated by downdip extension and compression respectively owing to the large convergence obliquity the slab is descending at a rate significantly slower near taiwan than in the southern ryukyu thus we interpret the appearance of downdip extension within the subducted lithosphere as a combined result of oblique subduction and the slab s negative buoyancy a number of thrust or oblique strike slip earthquakes between isz and wbsz show a consistent pattern of lateral compression with p axes oriented roughly parallel to the local strike of the trench arc system they are probably due to the compressive strain originated from the collision and transmitted laterally within the lithosphere shallow normal faulting earthquakes show successive rotation of t axes from approximately n s in the okinawa trough to approximately e w in northeast taiwan possibly as a result of interaction between the extension from the opening of the okinawa trough and the compression from collision one normal event january 18 1991 mb 5 9 occurred in the central range with t axis roughly parallel to the structural trend of taiwan implying that the nature of the orogeny in taiwan has changed from thin skinned deformation to lithospheric collision involving the whole crust and uppermost mantle

cross shelf and out of bay transport driven by an open ocean current abstractthis paper studies the interaction of an antarctic circumpolar current acc like wind driven channel flow with a continental slope and a flat bottomed bay shaped shelf near the channel s southern boundary interaction between the model acc and the topography in the second layer induces local changes of the potential vorticity pv flux which further causes the formation of a first layer pv front near the base of the topography located between the acc and the first layer slope the newly formed pv front is constantly perturbed by the acc and in turn forces the first layer slope with its own variability in an intermittent but persistent way the volume transport of the slope water across the first layer slope edge is mostly directly driven by eddies and meanders of the new front and its magnitude is similar to the maximum ekman transport in the channel near the bay s opening the effect of the topographic waves excited by offshore variability dominates the cross isobath exchange and induces a

large earthquake doublets and fault plane heterogeneity in the northern solomon islands subduction zone in the solomon islands and new britain subduction zones the largest earthquakes commonly occur as pairs with small separation in time space and magnitude this doublet behavior has been attributed to a pattern of fault plane heterogeneity consisting of closely spaced asperities such that the failure of one asperity triggers slip in adjacent asperities we analyzed body waves of the january 31 1974 m w 7 3 february 1 1974 m w 7 4 july 20 1975 14 37 m w 7 6 and july 20 1975 19 45 m w 7 3 doublet events using an iterative multiple station inversion technique to determine the spatio temporal distribution of seismic moment release associated with these events although the 1974 doublet has smaller body wave moments than the 1975 events their source histories are more complicated lasting over 40 seconds and consisting of several subevents located near the epicentral regions the second 1975 event is well modeled by a simple point source initiating at a depth of 15 km and rupturing an approximate 20 km region about the epicenter the source history of the first 1975 event reveals a westerly propagating rupture extending about 50 km from its hypocenter at a depth of 25 km the asperities of the 1975 events are of comparable size and do not overlap one another consistent with the asperity triggering hypothesis the relatively large source areas and small seismic moments of the 1974 doublet events indicate failure of weaker portions of the fault plane in their epicentral regions variations in the roughness of the bathymetry of the subducting plate accompanying subduction of the woodlark rise may be responsible for changes in the mechanical properties of the plate interface

a model study of circumpolar deep water on the west antarctic peninsula and ross sea continental shelves abstract transport of relatively warm nutrient rich circumpolar deep water cdw onto continental shelves around antarctica has important effects on physical and biological processes however the characteristics of the cdw along the shelf break as well as what happens to it once it has been advected onto the continental shelf differ spatially in the present study high resolution 4 5 km regional models of the ross sea and the west antarctic peninsula coastal ocean are used to compare differences in cdw transport the models compared very well with observations from both regions examining the fluxes not only of heat but also of a simulated dye representing cdw shows that in both cases cdw crosses the shelf break in specific locations primarily determined by the bathymetry but eventually floods much of the shelf the frequency of intrusions in marguerite trough was ca 2 3 per month similar to recent mooring observations a significant correlation between the along shelf break wind stress and the cross shelf break dye flux through marguerite trough was observed suggesting that intrusions are at least partially related to short duration wind events the primary difference between the cdw intrusions on the ross and west antarctic peninsula shelves is that there is more vigorous mixing of the cdw with the surface waters in the ross sea especially in the west where high salinity shelf water is created the models show that the cdw moving across the antarctic peninsula continental shelf towards the base of the ice shelves not only is warmer initially and travels a shorter distance than that advected towards the base of the ross ice shelf but it is also subjected to less vertical mixing with surface waters which conserves the heat available to be advected under the ice shelves this difference in vertical mixing also likely leads to differences in the supply of nutrients from the cdw into the upper water column and thus modulates the impacts on surface biogeochemical processes