modification of continental lithosphere by tectonic processes a tomographic image of central north america the assembly of laurentia by precambrian accretion is also believed to have formed the underlying lithosphere accretionary signatures are detectable by seismic observations but subject to modification by later processes e g orogeny rifting and plumes we examine the archean superior province sp and environs using a set of teleseismic p wave arrivals from canadian and american instruments the resulting tomographic model has high resolution beneath the dakotas and minnesota provides a first look at the lithosphere beneath manitoba and sharpens previously documented features in ontario from the model and previous anisotropy observations we detect i a large high velocity feature beneath the western sp associated with elevated lithospheric anisotropy the high velocity feature does not match crustal boundaries notably its western edge lies approximately 200 km east of the contact with the proterozoic trans hudson orogen tho ii a low velocity channel shaped feature strikes northwest through minnesota and the dakotas associated with weakening anisotropy iii high velocities southwest of ii beneath the minnesota river valley terrane mrvt associated with low anisotropy we interpret i to be accretionary and contemporaneous with superior assembly similar velocity but weaker anisotropy of the mrvt is consistent with vertical tectonic mechanisms the inboard location of the tho contact may indicate modification of the superior root the low velocity channel has no obvious crustal expression but connects to an offset in the proterozoic mid continent rift mcr and may be rift related the mcr is not well imaged but will be examined via the temporary superior province rifting earthscope experiment in progress

s velocity variations beneath north america 1 we investigate s velocity variation in the upper mantle beneath north american to better understand the effects of data heterogeneity model parameterization and regularization to this end we analyzed and fit regional s and rayleigh wave trains generated by earthquakes around north america that occurred between the years 2000 through 2006 including waveforms from the transportable array stations of earthscope s usarray these new data were combined with constraints used for the 3 d s velocity model na04 in order to create a new model na07 another model was created from a suite of good fit models to provide a useful guide for model velocities and uncertainties by estimating ranges of probable velocity variations throughout the upper mantle we find that the southern and eastern edges of the north american craton appear to be defined by paleozoic orogens rather than proterozoic ones on average the archean portion of the craton is 200 km thick while the paleozoic part averages 175 km thick with an 80 m s lower s velocity the horizontal gradients in velocity are over 1 0 100 km at the western margin of the craton 0 5 100 km in the south and 1 100 km at the eastern margin

mesozoic plate motion history below the northeast pacific ocean from seismic images of the subducted farallon slab the high resolution seismic imaging of subducted oceanic slabs1 2 has become a powerful tool for reconstructing palaeogeography3 the images can now be interpreted quantitatively by comparison with models of the general circulation of the earth s mantle4 here we use a three dimensional spherical computer model of mantle convection5 6 to show that seismic images of the subducted farallon plate provide strong evidence for a mesozoic period of low angle subduction under north america such a period of low angle subduction has been invoked independently to explain rocky mountain uplift far inland from the plate boundary during the laramide orogeny7 the computer simulations also allow us to locate the largely unknown kula farallon spreading plate boundary the location of which is important for inferring the trajectories of suspect terrain across the pacific basin8

teleseismic lg of semipalatinsk and novaya zemlya nuclear explosions recorded by the grf grafenberg array comparison with regional lg brv and their potential for accurate yield estimation acomparison of regional and teleseismic log rms root mean square lgamplitude measurements have been made for 14 underground nuclear explosions from the east kazakh test site recorded both by the brv borovoye station in kazakhstan and the grf grafenberg array in germany the log rmslgamplitudes observed at the brv regional station at a distance of 690 km and at the teleseismic grf array at a distance exceeding 4700 km show very similar relative values standard deviation 0 048 magnitude units for underground explosions of different sizes at the shagan river test site this result as well as the comparison of brv rmslgmagnitudes which were calculated from the log rms amplitudes using an appropriate calibration with magnitude determinations forpwaves of global seismic networks standard deviation 0 054 magnitude units point to a high precision in estimating the relative source sizes of explosions from lg based single station data similar results were also obtained by other investigators patton 1988 ringdalet al 1992 usinglgdata from different stations at different distances

constraints on mantle anisotropy beneath precambrian north america from a transportable teleseismic experiment data from the apt89 transportable teleseismic experiment was examined to characterize the variations in shear wave splitting along a 1500 km traverse in north america see silver et al 1993 this issue three geologic terranes were sampled the western superior province of the canadian shield the trans hudson orogen and the wyoming craton the primary goal was to determine the extent to which the anisotropy was controlled by archean and proterozoic tectonic episodes of the large suite of teleseismic events recorded 5 were suitable for determining the fast polarization direction and delay time t from the phases sks and skks the resulting observations reveal two important features first the values of display good geologic coherence stations along the northern part of the array in the exposed shield reveal a consistent ene direction for that is generally parallel to exposed geologic structures within the part of the superior province buried beneath phanerozoic cover rotates to a ne sw azimuth as do geophysical indicators of geologic fabric moving onto the trans hudson changes abruptly to a more ew azimuth the stations within the wyoming craton suggest values with a more northerly direction although the waveforms from these stations are more complex second t which ranges between 0 40s and 1 75s shows systematic variations across the traverse the largest delay times approaching 2 s are found in a 250 km wide band from red lake ontario to the u s canada border t is reduced to about 1 s or less both north and south of this region for the stations with detectable splitting we find an inverse relationship between s isotropic station delays derived from the portable data set and t which is most easily explained by the anisotropy being primarily localized in the fast presumably lithospheric mantle the splitting observations overall suggest that mantle anisotropy along this traverse is dominated by precambrian fossil anisotropy that is preserved in the subcontinental lithosphere

application of network averaged teleseismic p wave spectra to seismic yield estimation of underground nuclear explosions a set of procedures is described for estimating network averaged teleseismic p wave spectra for underground nuclear explosions and for analytically inverting these spectra to obtain estimates of mb yield relations and individual yields for explosions at previously uncalibrated test sites these procedures are then applied to the analyses of explosions at the former soviet test sites at shagan river degelen mountain novaya zemlya and azgir as well as at the french sahara u s amchitka and chinese lop nor test sites it is demonstrated that the resulting seismic estimates of explosion yield and mb yield relations are remarkably consistent with a variety of other available information for a number of these test sites these results lead us to conclude that the network averaged teleseismic p wave spectra provide considerably more diagnostic information regarding the explosion seismic source than do the corresponding narrowband magnitude measures such asmb m andmb l g and therefore that they are to be preferred for applications to seismic yield estimation for explosions at previously uncalibrated test sites

geophysical investigations and crustal structure of the north american midcontinent rift system abstract geophysical investigations have had a prominent role in studying the 1100 ma midcontinent rift system because of limited surface exposures and deep drilling of the rift rocks gravity and magnetic anomaly data delineate the rift system its central volcanic filled graben and overlying and adjacent post rift sedimentary basins and the major faults of the system over its 2000 km length in central north america crustal seismic studies indicate a high velocity crust that is thickened to as much as 55 km along the rift deeply penetrating seismic reflection data obtained across the rift show that the crust was thinned to less than one half of its original thickness during rifting and the present crust has been thickened by addition of up to a total of 30 km of mantle derived volcanic rocks within grabens and clastic sediments deposited in overlying sag basins as well as by intrusions into the crust and crustal underplating these data also confirm the occurrence of a post rift regional compressional event that locally caused broad folding of the rift rocks and reactivation of the graben normal faults as high angle reverse faults with vertical throws of several kilometers geophysical data indicate that the rifting event had a profound effect on the entire vertical range of the crust and that structures and thus the tectonic evolution are similar along the entire length of the rift

the midcontinent rift in the lake superior region with emphasis on its geodynamic evolution abstract the midcontinent rift is a middle proterozoic continental rift which records about 15 m y of extension subsidence and voluminous volcanism in the period 1109 1094 ma in the central part of north america during that time the crust was nearly totally separated and as much as 25 km of subaerial basalts accumulated in a deep central depression following extension and volcanism a longer period of subsidence resulted in development of a post rift sedimentary basin in which as much a 8 km of fluvial and lacustrine clastic rocks were deposited partial inversion of the central depression occurred about 30 50 m y after extension to produce the current configuration of a central horst composed mostly of thick volcanic accumulations between shallower flanking basins

the ups and downs of north america evaluating the role of mantle dynamic topography since the mesozoic the driving force for transient vertical motions of earth s surface remains an outstanding question a main difficulty lies in the uncertain role of the underlying mantle especially during the geological past here i review previous studies on both observational constraints and physical mechanisms of north american topographic evolution since the mesozoic i first summarize the north american vertical motion history using proxies from structural geology geochronology sedimentary stratigraphy and geomorphology based on which i then discuss the published physical models overall there is a progressive consensus on the contribution of mantle dynamic topography due to buoyancy structures associated with the past subduction at the continental scale a largely west to east migrating deformation pattern suggests an eastward translation of mantle dynamic effects consistent with models involving an eastward subduction and sinking of former farallon slabs since the cretaceous among the existing models the inverse model based on an adjoint algorithm and time dependent data constraints provides the most extensive explanations for the temporal changes of north american topography since the mesozoic at regional scales debates still exist on the predicted surface subsidence and uplift within both the western and eastern united states where discrepancies are likely due to differences in model setup e g mantle dynamic properties and boundary conditions and the amount of time dependent observational constraints toward the development of the next generation predictive geodynamic models new research directions may include 1 development of enhanced data assimilation capabilities 2 exploration of multiscale and multiphysics processes and 3 cross disciplinary code coupling

the north american midcontinent rift beneath lake superior from glimpce seismic reflection profiling the midcontinent rift system is a 1 1 b y old structure extending from kansas through the lake superior region and into southern michigan the rift is filled with thick sequences of basaltic volcanic rocks and clastic sediments for most of its extent it is buried beneath paleozoic rocks but can be traced by its strong gravity and magnetic anomalies the rocks of the rift system are exposed only in the lake superior region and comprise the keweenawan supergroup much of the geology of the keweenawan is beneath lake superior and has only been inferred from potential field studies and seismic refraction studies and extrapolation from on shore geology seismic reflection surveys by the great lakes international multidisciplinary program on crustal evolution in 1986 imaged much of the deep structure of the rift beneath the lake in detail the reflection profiles across the rift reveal a deep asymmetrical central graben whose existence and magnitude was not previously documented they show that in addition to crustal sagging documented by previous investigations normal faulting played a major role in subsidence of the axial region of the rift a sequence of volcanic and sedimentary rocks in places greater than 30 km thick fills the graben thinner volcanic and sedimentary units lie on broad flanks of the rift outside of the graben near the axis the prerift crust is thinned to about one fourth of its original thickness apparently by a combination of low angle extensional faulting and ductile stretching or distributed shear the sense of asymmetry of the central graben changes along the trend of the rift documenting the segmented nature of the structure and suggesting the existence of accommodation zones between the segments the location of the accommodation zones is inferred from abrupt disruptions in the bouguer gravity signature of the rift uplift of the central graben occurred when the original graben bounding normal faults were reactivated as high angle reverse faults with throws of 5 km or more in places the midcontinent rift has some striking similarities to some younger passive continental margins we propose that it preserves a record of nearly complete continental separation which had it not been arrested would have created a middle proterozoic ocean basin

seismic structure of the central us crust and shallow upper mantle uniqueness of the reelfoot rift abstract using seismic surface waves recorded with earthscope s transportable array we apply surface wave imaging to determine 3d seismic velocity in the crust and uppermost mantle our images span several proterozoic and early cambrian rift zones mid continent rift rough creek graben rome trough birmingham trough southern oklahoma aulacogen and reelfoot rift while ancient rifts are generally associated with low crustal velocity because of the presence of thick sedimentary sequences the reelfoot rift is unique in its association with low mantle seismic velocity its mantle low velocity zone lvz is exceptionally pronounced and extends down to at least 200 km depth this lvz is of variable width being relatively narrow 50 km wide within the northern reelfoot rift which hosts the new madrid seismic zone nmsz we hypothesize that this mantle volume is weaker than its surroundings and that the reelfoot rift consequently has relatively low elastic plate thickness which would tend to concentrate tectonic stress within this zone no other intraplate ancient rift zone is known to be associated with such a deep mantle low velocity anomaly which suggests that the nmsz is more susceptible to external stress perturbations than other ancient rift zones

regional seismic recordings of the soviet nuclear explosion of the joint verification experiment during august and september 1988 the united states and the soviet union conducted a joint verification experiment in which each country was permitted to observe a nuclear explosion at the other country s test site using hydrodynamic means we have seismically recorded the soviet explosion at four stations at regional distances 750km and here report those observations the peak to peak particle motion in the p wave varied from 7 54 10 1 cm sec at 160 km to 1 02 10 2 cm sec at 740 km the average mb lg was 5 97 corresponding to a yield of 118 kt based on the nts mb lg yield relation of patton 1988 the average pn corner frequency of the soviet explosion was 4 hz with evidence of a second corner at about 0 7 hz both of these corners could be affected by spall near regional seismograms of the soviet jve explosion show a large arrival within the lg phase on the transverse component at all four sites this may correspond to tectonic release accompanying the explosion or to the effects of anisotropy on seismic wave propagation

the mesoproterozoic midcontinent rift system lake superior region usa abstract exposures in the lake superior region and associated geophysical evidence show that a 2000 km long rift system developed within the north american craton 1109 1087 ma the age span of most of the volcanic rocks this system is characterized by immense volumes of mafic igneous rocks mostly subaerial plateau basalts generated in two major pulses largely by a hot mantle plume a new ocean basin was nearly formed before rifting ceased perhaps due to the remote effect of the grenville continental collision to the east broad sagging subsidence combined with a system of axial half grabens separated along the length of the rift by accommodation zones provided conditions for the accumulation of as much as 20 km of volcanic rocks and as much as 10 km of post rift clastic sediments both along the rift axis and in basins flanking a central post volcanic horst pre rift mature quartzose sandstones imply little or no uplift prior to the onset of rift volcanism early post rift red bed sediments consist almost entirely of intrabasinally derived volcanic sediment deposited in alluvial fan to fluvial settings the exception is one gray to black carbon bearing lacustrine unit this early sedimentation phase was followed by broad crustal sagging and deposition of progressively more mature red bed fluvial sediments with an extra basinal provenance

comparison of seismic and hydrodynamic yield determinations for the soviet joint verification experiment of 1988 abstract seismic magnitudes determined from surface and body waves for the soviet underground nuclear explosion of september 14 1988 are used to calculate the yield of that event from previously derived calibration curves the yield obtained by combining the two seismic estimates is 113 kilotons which is very close to those obtained by hydrodynamic measurements made on site this comparison substantiates previous conclusions about the sizes of past soviet weapons tests and compliance with the threshold test ban treaty the factor of uncertainty in the combined seismic yield is 1 28 at the 68 and 1 62 at the 95 confidence levels demonstrating that accuracies considerably better than a factor of 2 can be obtained by combining seismic determinations of yield

growth stabilization and reactivation of proterozoic lithosphere in the southwestern united states growth of proterozoic continental lithosphere in the southwestern united states involved assembly of tectonostratigraphic terranes during several pulses of convergent tectonism ca 1 74 1 70 and 1 65 1 60 ga prograde metamorphism accompanied orogenic assembly and peak metamorphic conditions outlasted deformation regions now characterized by the highest metamorphic grades underwent slow isobaric cooling and were not uplifted until more than 200 m y after assembly regions of low metamorphic grade were not uplifted substantially after assembly we suggest that 1 relatively thin lithospheric fragments were assembled into isostatically stable normal thickness continental lithosphere 2 assembly did not erase lithospheric scale heterogeneities 3 the present juxtaposition of different crustal levels reflects differential uplift related to 1 4 1 1 ga tectonomagmatic activity and 4 the boundaries between different lithospheric blocks were repeatedly reactivated from precambrian through tertiary time

the penokean orogeny in the lake superior region abstract the penokean orogeny began at about 1880 ma when an oceanic arc now the pembine wausau terrane collided with the southern margin of the archean superior craton marking the end of a period of south directed subduction the docking of the buoyant craton to the arc resulted in a subduction jump to the south and development of back arc extension both in the initial arc and adjacent craton margin to the north a belt of volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits formed in the extending back arc rift within the arc synchronous extension and subsidence of the superior craton resulted in a broad shallow sea characterized by volcanic grabens menominee group in northern michigan the classic lake superior banded iron formations including those in the marquette gogebic mesabi and gunflint iron ranges formed in that sea the newly established subduction zone caused continued arc volcanism until about 1850 ma when a fragment of archean crust now the basement of the marshfield terrane arrived at the subduction zone the convergence of archean blocks of the superior and marshfield cratons resulted in the major contractional phase of the penokean orogeny rocks of the pembine wausau arc were thrust northward onto the superior craton causing subsidence of a foreland basin in which sedimentation began at about 1850 ma in the south baraga group rocks and 1835 ma in the north rove and virginia formations a thick succession of arc derived turbidites constitutes most of the foreland basin fill along with lesser volcanic rocks in the southern fold and thrust belt tectonic thickening resulted in high grade metamorphism of the sediments by 1830 ma at this same time a suite of post tectonic plutons intruded the deformed sedimentary sequence and accreted arc terranes marking the end of the penokean orogeny the penokean orogen was strongly overprinted by younger tectonic and thermal events some of which were previously ascribed to the penokean principal among these was a period of vertical faulting in the archean basement and overlying paleoproterozoic strata this deformation is now known to have post dated the terminal penokean plutons by at least several tens of millions of years evidence of the penokean orogen is now largely confined to the lake superior region comparisons with more recent orogens formed by similar plate tectonic processes implies that significant parts of a once more extensive penokean orogen have been removed or overprinted by younger tectonic events

structure and seasonal characteristics of the gaspe current ctd and current meter data from the northwestern gulf of st lawrence were analyzed to study the structure and variability of the gaspe current since the current is buoyancy driven its properties are strongly influenced by the seasonal variation of the freshwater discharge from the st lawrence estuary from june to november maximum speed decreases from 110 cm s 1 to 60 cm s 1 high vertical shears exist in the upper 40 m of the water column during the same period the width of the current decreases and the position of the current maximum shifts from near the shore to about 14 km from the shore these changes in the structure can be understood in terms of geostrophy and baroclinic deformation radius in the temperature salinity field the most prominent change from june to november is the continuing increase of surface salinity temperature change occurs mainly in the september november period when atmospheric cooling accelerates the effect of atmospheric cooling is also reflected in the density distribution with the result that in november currents in the upper 30 m are seaward in the entire section from sept iles to marthe de gaspe while in the summer months the currents are seaward in the southern part and westward in the northern part of the section momentum balance of the current system is also investigated it was found that east of pointe des monts geostrophic balance is maintained while west of pointe des monts the observations do not seem to be consistent with the assumption of geostrophy

closing of the midcontinent rift a far field effect of grenvillian compression the midcontinent rift formed in the laurentian supercontinent between 1109 and 1094 ma soon after rifting stresses changed from extensional to compressional and the central graben of the rift was partly inverted by thrusting on original extensional faults thrusting culminated at about 1060 ma but may have begun as early as 1080 ma on the southwest trending arm of the rift the crust was shortened about 30 km on the southeast trending arm strike slip motion was dominant the rift developed adjacent to the tectonically active grenville province and its rapid evolution from an extensional to a compressional feature at ca 1080 ma was coincident with renewal of northwest directed thrusting in the grenvllle probably caused by continent continent collision a zone of weak lithosphere created by rifting became the locus for deformation within the otherwise strong continental lithosphere stresses transmitted from the grenville province utilized this weak zone to close and invert the rift

gypsum a joint tomographic model of mantle density and seismic wave speeds 1 gypsum is a 3 d model of mantle shear wave s speeds compressional wave p speeds and density the model is developed through simultaneous inversion of seismic body wave travel times p and s and geodynamic observations while using realistic mineral physics parameters linking wave speeds and density geodynamic observations include the global free air gravity field divergence of the tectonic plates dynamic topography of the free surface and the flow induced excess ellipticity of the core mantle boundary gypsum is built with the philosophy that heterogeneity that most closely resembles thermal variations is the simplest possible solution models of the density field from earth s free oscillations have provided great insight into the density configuration of the mantle but are limited to very long wavelength solutions alternatively scaling higher resolution seismic images to obtain density anomalies generates density fields that do not satisfy geodynamic observations the current study provides a 3 d density model for the mantle that directly satisfies geodynamic and seismic observations through a joint seismic geodynamic inversion process notable density field observations include high density piles at the base of superplume structures supporting the general results of past normal mode studies however we find that these features are more localized and have lower amplitude than past studies would suggest when we consider both fast and slow seismic anomalies in gypsum we find that p and s wave speeds are strongly correlated throughout the mantle however we find a low correlation of fast s wave zones in the deep mantle 1500 km depth with the corresponding p wave anomalies suggesting a systematic divergence from simplified thermal effects in ancient subducted slab anomalies the cratonic lithosphere and d regions are shown to have strong compositional signatures however we argue that temperature variations are the primary cause of p wave speed s wave speed and density anomalies throughout most of the mantle

lithospheric fabric variations in central north america influence of rifting and archean tectonic styles 1 upper mantle fabric as detected by shear wave splitting measurements records lithospheric strain history that may be related to past tectonic events we present sks core refracted shear wave splitting measurements taken around the western great lakes north america the archean superior province sp and surroundings we analyze 40 sites in the usa and 5 in canada and outline a region of strong anisotropy corresponding to a high velocity zone in tomographic models which we dub the western superior mantle anomaly wsma and interpret to represent a preserved fabric from accretion of the sp to the southwest of the wsma we locate a region of rotated fast direction corresponding to a linear low velocity feature observed by tomography and which may represent a failed branch of the mid continent rift further south within the minnesota river valley terrane the split times drop to near zero suggesting isotropic lithosphere resulting from vertical diapiric rather than horizontal tectonic processes

deep crustal structure of the precambrian basement beneath northern lake michigan midcontinent north america a deep seismic reflection profile in northern lake michigan midcontinent north america provides a cross section of the crust across the 1850 ma penokean orogen in which an early proterozoic island arc complex was deformed between two converging archean continental masses the island arc crust is about 40 km thick and has a few kilometres of intensely reflective rocks near its base above which it is variably reflective to transparent the archean terranes have thicker crust as much as 50 km the lower 20 25 km of which is strongly reflective abrupt offsets of moho near terrane boundaries may have been preserved since accretion during the penokean orogeny

tectono stratigraphic evolution of the early proterozoic wisconsin magmatic terranes of the penokean orogen the early proterozoic penokean orogen developed along the southern margin of the archean superior craton the orogen consists of a northern deformed continental margin prism overlying an archean basement and a southern assemblage of oceanic arcs the wisconsin magmatic terranes the south dipping niagara fault suture zone separates the south facing continental margin from the accreted arc terranes the suture zone contains a dismembered ophiolite the wisconsin magmatic terranes consist of two terranes that are distinguished on the basis of lithology and structure the northern pembine wausau terrane contains a major succession of tholeiitic and calc alkaline volcanic rocks deposited in the interval 1860 1889 ma and a more restricted succession of calc alkaline volcanic rocks deposited about 1835 1845 ma granitoid rocks ranging in age from about 1870 to 1760 ma intrude the volcanic rocks the older succession was generated as island arcs and or closed back arc basins above the south dipping subducti

tectonic setting of the midcontinent rift system abstract the continental lithosphere which hosts the midcontinent rift mcr system comprises a crustal assemblage ranging in age from 3 6 to 1 5 ga the most voluminous igneous activity along the mcr occurred within late archean 2 7 ga crust presumably due to magmatism associated with a rising mantle plume two major arms of the rift extend to the southeast and the southwest where rifting magmatism and sedimentation were confined to a 2000 km long rift that cuts through the various crustal provinces ranging in age from 3 6 to 1 5 ga tensional reactivation of pre existing crustal discontinuities may have influenced the location of parts of the mcr however direct cause and effect are difficult to distinguish for want of sufficient exposures the most active phases of magmatism and rifting occurred between 1109 and 1087 ma a u pb age of 1097 ma for the southern end of the mcr shows that magmatic activity was synchronous throughout its length there is evidence of rifting and magmatism prior to 1109 ma but there is little evidence of magmatism after 1087 ma rifting may have effectively ceased by that time rifting may have ceased as a result of compressional forces being exerted on the foreland during the grenville collisional event spanning 1030 970 ma and compressional reactivation of normal faults may have resulted in partial inversion of the mcr chemical data and u pb and sm nd isotopic data for igneous rocks along the rift are similar to those for mcr rocks in the lake superior area which are best explained in terms of a mantle plume model however since the distal arms of the mcr were developed in proterozoic lithosphere and did not involve nearly as much magmatism as in the lake superior area mantle plume sources may not have been as important in formation of the distal magmas data from the buried arms are also consistent with the mafic magmas being derived by decompression melting of proterozoic lithosphere during rifting

age of volcanic rocks and syndepositional iron formations marquette range supergroup implications for the tectonic setting of paleoproterozoic iron formations of the lake superior region a rhyolite in the hemlock formation a mostly bimodal submarine volcanic deposit that is laterally correlative with the negaunee iron formation yields a sensitive high resolution ion microprobe shrimp u pb zircon age of 1874 9 ma but also contains inherited archean zircons as old as 3 8 ga this precise age determination for the classic paleoproterozoic stratigraphic sequence of northern michigan the marquette range supergroup mrs necessitates modification of previous depositional and tectonic models our new data indicate that the menominee group previously ascribed to continental rifting during early pre collision phases of the penokean orogenic cycle is coeval with arc related volcanic rocks now preserved as accreted terranes immediately to the south and is more aptly interpreted as a foredeep deposit we interpret these to be second order basins created by oblique subduction of the continental margin rather than basins formed on a rifting margin along with a recently reported age for the gunflint formation in ontario of 1878 2 ma our data suggest that an extensive foredeep in the western lake superior region was the locus of iron formation deposition during arc accretion from the south further we interpret the lower mrs chocolay group a glaciogenic and shallow marine succession that lies atop archean basement to be equivalent to the upper part of the huronian supergroup of ontario and to represent the original continental rifting and passive margin phase of the penokean cycle the upper mrs baraga group represents deeper marine basins dominated by turbidites and lesser volcanic rocks resulting from increased subsidence and continued collision a stitching pluton which cuts correlatives of the hemlock formation in a thrust sheet yielded a u pb zircon age of 1833 6 ma consistent with other post tectonic plutons in wisconsin and northern michigan indicating that penokean convergence lasted no longer than 40 million years

penokean tectonics along a promontory embayment margin in east central minnesota abstract recent geologic investigations in east central minnesota have utilized geophysical data test drilling and high resolution geochronologic dating to produce a significantly improved map of a poorly exposed part of the 1880 1830 ma penokean orogen these investigations have elucidated major changes in the structure of the orogen as compared to its counterparts in northern michigan and northwestern wisconsin foreland basin fold and thrust belt and magmatic terrane components that are recognized to the east extend into east central minnesota but they appear to be deflected southwards and truncated in proximity to archean rocks of the minnesota river valley mrv subprovince in contrast the interior of the mrv subprovince to the southwest shows little sign of penokean tectonism in addition the magmatic and metamorphic rocks of the internal zone of the orogen in east central minnesota are extensively invaded by ca 1785 1770 ma granitic rocks the east central minnesota batholith whereas post orogenic granites of this age occur sparingly to the east these differences in orogenic structure may be related to their location near the juncture of an embayment becker embayment and a promontory mrv promontory that formed the pre penokean continental margin in this scenario the mrv promontory which at the surface consists chiefly of high metamorphic grade mesoarchean gneisses would have formed competent high standing crust that resisted deformation and did not host significantly thick continental margin sequences in contrast the part of the becker embayment adjoining the promontory would have involved relatively weak low standing crust that favored deposition of continental margin sequences and during penokean collision would have accommodated tectonic loading of the cratonic margin through thin skinned deformation thrusting of thick embayment sequences and possibly a block of archean crust marshfield terrane onto the embayment margin may have produced a greatly thickened crust that subsequently promoted crustal melting and generation of the geon 17 granites preliminary gravity and magnetic model studies of the present day crust imply that rocks of the fold and thrust belt may sole out at 5 8 km depth whereas magmatic and high metamorphic grade rocks associated with the internal zone of the orogen could extend to mid crustal depths the tectonic model proposed here implies that a collision between an embayment and an impinging continental mass may enhance tectonic thickening and subsequent generation of post orogenic magmas this and other hypotheses regarding the penokean orogen need to be investigated further in the third dimension of depth which will require a comprehensive suite of geophysical studies

intra oceanic subduction shaped the assembly of cordilleran north america the western quarter of north america consists of accreted terranes crustal blocks added over the past 200 million years but the reason for this is unclear the widely accepted explanation posits that the oceanic farallon plate acted as a conveyor belt sweeping terranes into the continental margin while subducting under it here we show that this hypothesis which fails to explain many terrane complexities is also inconsistent with new tomographic images of lower mantle slabs and with their locations relative to plate reconstructions we offer a reinterpretation of north american palaeogeography and test it quantitatively collision events are clearly recorded by slab geometry and can be time calibrated and reconciled with plate reconstructions and surface geology the seas west of cretaceous north america must have resembled today s western pacific strung with island arcs all proto pacific plates initially subducted into almost stationary intra oceanic trenches and accumulated below as massive vertical slab walls above the slabs long lived volcanic archipelagos and subduction complexes grew crustal accretion occurred when north america overrode the archipelagos causing major episodes of cordilleran mountain building a new explanation for the origin of the accreted terranes that form the mountainous cordillera of western north america is proposed and tested stationary intra oceanic subduction deposited massive slab walls in the mantle and grew volcanic archipelagos at the surface which were overridden by and accreted to north america during cretaceous times the generally accepted account of how the geology of western north america developed involves the oceanic farallon plate acting as a conveyor belt sweeping crustal terranes onto the continental margin as it moves beneath the north american plate this model fails to explain many aspects of this accreted terrane and here karin sigloch and mitchell mihalynuk present an alternative model based on new tomographic images of lower mantle slabs and modelling of deep mantle structure in the region they propose that during the cretaceous period there were a series of island arcs west of north america beneath which proto pacific plates subducted into almost stationary trenches long lived volcanic archipelagos and subduction complexes grew above the slabs and then accreted onto north america as it overrode the archipelagos causing episodes of cordilleran mountain building

tectonic release from the soviet joint verification experiment the regional broadband seismic recordings of the soviet joint verification experiment underground nuclear explosion show evidence of tectonic release in the form of love waves at long periods and high frequency s sub m s phases on the transverse components the authors present the results of some simple forward modeling of this data in order to quantify both the moment and mechanism of the tectonic release using 10 20 second love wave amplitude and phase data they estimate the tectonic release moments to be 3 5 times 10 sup 15 n m for a north striking right lateral strike slip fault and 7 0 times 10 sup 15 n m for a northwest striking reverse fault using the results of these end member tectonic models the rayleigh waves can be satisfied with explosion moments of 1 7 times 10 sup 16 n m f 0 31 and 2 4 times 10 sup 16 n m f 0 44 respectively to resolve the ambiguity in tectonic mechanism the authors used the reflectivity method to generate synthetics and compare the relative amplitudes of the sh and sv parts of the s sub m s phase while the results favor the strike slip mechanism of tectonic release application of source inversion techniques to this data and other regional data will be needed to evaluate more realistic tectonic releasemore models involving for example oblique fault slip and dip less

three dimensional electrical resistivity of the north central usa from earthscope long period magnetotelluric data abstract we present initial results from three dimensional inversion of long period earthscope magnetotelluric mt transportable array data from 232 sites covering the north central us the study area covers the 1 1 ga mid continent rift mcr system which cuts across a series of archean and paleoproterozoic lithospheric blocks the western arm of the mcr is clearly evident in shallow depth sections with a narrow resistive core flanked by elongate conductive basins other prominent upper crustal features mapped include the moderately conductive michigan and illinois basins and extremely high conductivities in foreland basin rocks at the southern margin of the superior craton the most prominent conductive anomalies in an otherwise relatively resistive mid lower crust are two elongate east west oriented structures which are closely aligned with previously inferred continental sutures the first underlies the southern margin of the superior craton just north of the niagara fault nf and can be associated with the 1 85 ga penokean orogeny a second further south beneath iowa and western wisconsin lies just south of the spirit lake tectonic zone sltz and can be identified with yavapai accretion at 1 75 ga both of these conductive sutures are cleanly cut by the mcr which is otherwise not clearly evident in the deeper parts of the resistivity model the break in the anomalies is narrow comparable to the surface expression of the mcr indicating that rifting impacts on the entire crustal section were highly localized both suture related anomalies are imaged as extending into and perhaps through the lithosphere as dipping diffuse zones of reduced mantle resistivity sense of dip of these structures southward for the nf anomaly northward for sltz agrees with previously inferred models for subduction and accretion suggesting that a conductive phase most likely carbon has been thrust deep into the lower crust and uppermost mantle providing a marker of the three dimensional boundary between lithospheric blocks resistivities drop below 100 m below 200 km depth in rough agreement with the seismically determined lithosphere asthenosphere boundary lab there are modest lateral variations in this deep low resistivity layer but the reliability and significance of these are not yet clear

observed and predicted north american teleseismic delay times abstract using a newly developed cross correlation based computer tool we measured absolute delay times of teleseismic p and s waves recorded by about 2000 broadband seismic stations from earthscope s usarray previous passcal arrays and additional permanent networks in north america we estimate contributions to the delays from crustal structure using various prior crustal models and from event side heterogeneity using the delay time distribution itself we then subtract these contributions from our measurements and map the average delay at each station location we analyze these average delay times to investigate the structure of the north american mantle and formation of the north american continent mantle s delay times from stations west of the rocky mountains are 4 2 s larger than delay times from stations within the us portion of stable north america locally s delays at yellowstone are another 4 s larger than those west of rocky mountains decreasingly sharp delay time contrasts occur across the rocky mountains the appalachian mountains and on the southern edge of the north american craton respectively these delay time gradients of various steepness broadly coincide with surface geological boundaries but are offset to either side of these boundaries predictions of teleseismic s delays from twelve three dimensional tomographic mantle s velocity models agree generally with observed delay time patterns but underestimate the delays and advances to varying degrees tomographic models derived from different data than teleseismic arrival times predict similarly valid delays as models derived from teleseismic arrivals while overestimating the smoothness of delay time patterns to varying degrees we further utilize these tomographic models to predict and study the size and distribution of delay contributions from modeled heterogeneity in different depth ranges this study shows that the 80 240 km depth range is the dominant contributor to delay time contrasts and variance this depth range generally corresponds to asthenosphere in the western us and lithosphere in the central and eastern us the average depth to which the observed delays require the central us lithosphere to extend is likely shallower than 240 km and consistent with the seismic bottom of lithosphere imaged in seismic velocity models not derived from teleseismic delay times

proterozoic anorogenic magmatism and its orogenic connections there is a major belt of proterozoic so called anorogenic igneous rocks that extends from the baltic shield through southern greenland and eastern canada to southern usa all rocks are situated within a zone of 1 9 1 6 ga arc accretionary orogens that consist of juvenile mantle derived material especially accretionary prism sediments that provided the fertile source for abundant granitic crustal melts there were two main periods of formation of the anorogenic rocks 1 76 1 55 ga rocks are mainly rapakivi granites and rhyolites that formed about 60 200 ma after the last compressional events in the svecofennian ketilidian and penokean orogens the time lag being caused by the slow thermal relaxation of thickened lower crust that had commonly been depleted by the extraction of earlier granitic crustal melts 1 45 1 4 ga anorogenic rocks are mainly rhyolites and peraluminous granites in central southern usa and anorthosites in eastern canada that formed in the continental margin of the grenvillian ocean the subduction of which led to the grenville orogen these anorogenic igneous rocks formed in extensional regimes during the formation and breakup of a 1 5 ga supercontinent

comment on q for short period p waves is it frequency dependent by a douglas summary douglas 1992 has presented evidence based on deconvolution analyses of british array data recorded from explosions at the shagan river test site sts ussr and the nevada test site nts usa from which he has concluded that the source time dependence characteristics of explosions at these test sites is significantly different from that associated with the mueller murphy m m seismic source model the objective of this note is to demonstrate that the m m model is in fact consistent with a very large variety of short period p wave observations from explosions and to argue that the alternate source time function proposed by douglas 1992 is inconsistent with both theoretical and observational constraints on the explosion source process more specifically network averaged teleseismic p wave spectra corresponding to nts french sahara and sts explosions in granite are used to illustrate the fact that the m m source model can provide remarkably good descriptions of the observed amplitude levels and spectral shapes over the short period band extending from at least 0 5 to 2 5 hz as well as seismic estimates of explosion yield which agree very closely with corresponding yield estimates obtained from other independent sources

anatomy of regional phases and source characterization of the soviet joint verification experiment underground nuclear explosion broadband data from the nrdc deployment of stations in kazakhstan at karkaralinsk kkl and bayanual bay are subjected to detailed waveform modeling to understand the nature of regional wave propagation and to determine the nature of the explosion time function and sources of low and high frequency tectonic release minor modification of a crustal model inferred from dss studies in the region is very effective in explaining the arrival times amplitudes and waveshapes of the pn and pmp arrivals at both stations the sh wave data are remarkable however for showing a large high frequency arrival after the expected and observed arrival of sms from the explosion source these secondary s arrivals imply a secondary source 1 to a few kilometers to the south of the shot point shear waves from this source dominate the seismic data at high frequency but are minor at low frequency where shear waves and surface waves from the inferred relaxation of the explosion cavity dominate the wave field the secondary s wave source is inferred to represent explosion driven faulting with no net moment significant overshoot in the rdp is required to match the p wave data it is found that von seggern blandford and haskell source functions are incapable of producing the observed overshoot however the mueller murphy source model is very effective in matching the clear overshoot effects seen in the p waves spall effects are also considered but appear to be minor and serve to require even more overshoot in the rdp the excitation and dispersion of rayleigh waves in the period band of 1 to 10 sec is seen to be a sensitive but nonunique function of both vs and vp in the upper crustal layer high poisson ratios in this layer are needed to explain the rayleigh waveform

reinterpretation of paleoproterozoic accretionary boundaries of the north central united states based on a new aeromagnetic geologic compilation abstract the paleoproterozoic crust in the north central u s represents intact juvenile terranes accreted to the rifted archean superior craton a new tectonic province map based on the interpretation of a new aeromagnetic compilation published geologic maps and recent geochronologic data shows progressive accretion of juvenile arc terranes from ca 1900 1600 ma contrary to earlier models geon 18 penokean interval crust is primarily confined to a 2100 ma tectonic embayment of the rifted superior craton the newly defined spirit lake tectonic zone characterized by a sharp magnetic discontinuity that marks the southern limit of archean and penokean interval rocks is here interpreted to represent an eastern analog of the cheyenne belt suture zone in southern wyoming south of this boundary geon 17 yavapai interval rocks form the basement upon which 1750 ma rhyolite and succeeding quartzite sequences were deposited substantial portions of the penokean and yavapai terranes were subsequently deformed during the 1650 1630 ma mazatzal orogeny the northern boundary of the mazatzal terrane is obscured by abundant 1470 1430 ma anorogenic plutons that stitched the suture with the older yavapai terrane rocks these data reveal a progressive tectonic younging to the south as the laurentian craton grew southward and stabilized during the proterozoic late mesoproterozoic rift magmatism produced pronounced geophysical anomalies indicating strong but localized crustal modification in comparison to the western u s little tectonism has occurred here in the last 1 billion years providing a uniquely preserved record of the precambrian evolution of the continental u s lithosphere

seismic yield determination of soviet underground nuclear explosions at the shagan river test site summary a study of p and lg based source size estimators has been conducted for 101 presumed underground nuclear explosions at the shagan river test site near semipalatinsk ussr a systematic variation in the relative patterns across the test site has been observed when comparing the p wave estimators world wide mb and ulm and the lg based observations rms lg determined from norsar and grafenberg array recordings these variations correlate well with geological features determined from satellite imagery and suggest in particular that the northeast and southwest portions of the test site divided by the chinrau fault are characterized by distinct geophysical properties a difference in m p mlg bias of as much as 0 15 magnitude units exists between these two subareas available data indicate that the mlg observations are very consistent with published yields and suggest that the magnitude yield relationship for p wave based estimators can be significantly improved by introducing regional bias corrections we have determined such corrections for three subareas of the test site and used the corrected mh and ym observations in combination with the lg data in a weighted averaging scheme to arrive at yield estimates for all events in the database for the explosion of 1988 september 14 we obtain yield estimates from the three estimators ranging from 106 to 118 kt which is consistent with the independently derived estimates of 115 122 kt quoted by sykes ekstrom 1989 a further assessment of the validity of our results would require access to independently measured yields of additional explosions

new insights into the lithosphere beneath the superior province from rayleigh wave dispersion and receiver function analysis we study the azimuthally anisotropic upper mantle structure of the superior craton and grenville province in ontario canada using rayleigh wave phase velocity data in the period range 40 160 s 152 two station dispersion measurements are combined in a tomographic inversion that solves simultaneously for isotropic and anisotropic terms using a least squares technique we perform a series of tests to derive optimal regularization smoothing and damping and to assess the resolution of and trade offs between isotropic and anisotropic anomalies the tomographic inversion is able to resolve isotropic phase velocity anomalies on a scale of 200 300 km and to distinguish between different anisotropic regimes on a 500 km scale across the study region isotropic phase velocity anomalies in the tomographic model span a range of up to 2 per cent around a regional average which is similar to the canadian shield dispersion curve of brune dorman 1963 with phase velocities up to 3 per cent above global reference models the amplitude of azimuthal phase velocity anisotropy reaches a maximum of 1 2 per cent a clear east west division of the study area based on both isotropic phase velocity anomalies and azimuthal anisotropy is apparent in the western superior isotropic phase velocities are generally higher than the regional average anisotropy is observed at all periods with ene wsw to ne sw fast propagation directions at periods 120 s the anisotropy likely results from frozen lithospheric fabric aligned with tectonic boundaries whereas the anisotropy at longer periods is interpreted to arise from present day sublithospheric flow the fast directions from published sks measurements are close to the fast rayleigh wave propagation directions throughout the period range sampled and the large sks splitting times may be accounted for by this near coincidence of fast propagation directions across most of eastern ontario phase velocities are lower than the regional average fast propagation directions rotate from nw se at 40 130 s period to wnw ese at periods 140 160 s the results suggest a difference in fast propagation directions between the anisotropic fabric frozen into the lithosphere and the fabric due to current and recent sublithospheric flow the superior craton and grenville province are characterized by large scale structural variations that reflect the complex tectonic history of the region this study highlights differences between the characteristics of eastern and western ontario and indicates the occurrence of multiple layers of anisotropy in the subcratonic upper mantle

the radiogenic isotope characteristics of dikes and sills associated with the mesoproterozoic midcontinent rift near thunder bay ontario canada abstract new radiogenic isotope data are presented for intrusive rocks of the mesoproterozoic midcontinent rift from the north shore of lake superior these mafic rocks are amongst the older portions of the rift sequence and offer insights into the early development and evolution of the rift two sill suites are recognized within the study area an earlier spatially restricted ultramafic unit termed the riverdale sill and the predominant logan sills as well as three dike sets the north east trending pigeon river swarm the north west trending cloud river dikes and the mt mollie dike in addition an enigmatic extrusive unit termed the devon basalts is also present the logan sills are characterized by 87sr 86sri values of 0 7048 0 7119 with 143nd 144nd values from 0 512012 to 0 512187 whereas the riverdale sill is characterized by 87sr 86sri values ranging from 0 7037 to 0 7078 and 143nd 144nd of 0 511938 0 511984 both the cloud river and pigeon river dikes show a range of isotope data with the cloud river dikes having 87sr 86sri values ranging from 0 7042 to 0 7064 and 143nd 144nd values from 0 512222 to 0 512379 whereas the pigeon river dikes have 87sr 86sri values from 0 7041 to 0 7243 and 143nd 144nd from 0 511640 to 0 512383 the mt mollie dike is characterized by 87sr 86sri of 0 7041 0 7074 and 143nd 144nd values range from 0 512014 to 0 512371 the majority of samples are characterized by negative ndt which are interpreted to be the result of contamination of a plume related mantle source by older crustal material the lack of correlation with other indices of fractionation e g sio2 for the majority of samples implies interaction with subcontinental lithospheric mantle either through assimilation or melting of the mantle rather than contamination during emplacement however a small number of samples appear to have assimilated material during emplacement resulting in strongly negative ndt values the radiogenic isotope data are consistent with a suite of rocks that have undergone complex contamination histories requiring variable crustal residence times and assimilation of material both at depth in large magma chambers and during emplacement

p and s wave tomography of the mantle beneath the united states mantle seismic structure beneath the united states spanning from the active western plate margin to the passive eastern margin was imaged with teleseismic p and s wave traveltime tomography including usarray data up to may 2014 to mitigate artifacts from crustal structure 5 40 s rayleigh wave phase velocities were used to create a 3 d starting model major features of the final p and s models include two distinct low velocity anomalies at depths of 60 300 km beneath the central and northern appalachians and passive margin the central appalachian low velocity anomaly coincides with eocene basaltic magmatism and the northern anomaly is located along the cretaceous track of the great meteor hot spot at depths of 300 700 km beneath the central and eastern u s large high velocity anomalies are inferred to be remnants of the farallon slab that subducted prior to 40 ma during the laramide orogeny

the geochemistry geochronology and paleomagnetism of dikes and sills associated with the mesoproterozoic midcontinent rift near thunder bay ontario canada abstract the midcontinent rift mcr of north america comprises a series of basaltic sheets flows and intrusive rocks emplaced in the lake superior region during the mesoproterozoic the mafic rocks preserved on the northern flank of lake superior represent the older portions of the rift sequence and offer insights into the early development of the rift new geochronological geochemical and paleomagnetic data are presented for the dikes and sills located in and south of thunder bay ontario three sill suites are recognized within the study area an earlier spatially restricted ultramafic unit termed the riverdale sill the predominant logan sills and nipigon sills in the north of the study area in addition three dike sets are recognized the north east trending pigeon river swarm the north west trending cloud river dikes and the mt mollie dike the geochemical data demonstrate that the majority of sills south of thunder bay are of logan affinity and distinct from those of broadly similar age in the nipigon embayment to the north the pigeon river dikes that intrude the sills are geochemically coherent but distinct from the logan sills and could not be feeders to the sills the new age of 1109 2 4 2 ma for the cloud river dike and its r polarity are consistent with published magnetostratigraphy the mt mollie dike age 1109 3 6 3 ma indicates that it is not coeval with the spatially associated crystal lake gabbro as previously thought the complexity of the dike and sill suites on the northern flank of suggests that the early phases of rifting occurred in distinct and changing stress fields prior to the main extensional rifting preserved in younger rocks to the south the geochemistry and geochronology of the intrusions suggest a long lived and complex magmatic history for the midcontinent rift

the late archean record a puzzle in ca 35 pieces abstract the global archean record preserves ca 35 large cratonic fragments and a less well defined number of smaller slivers most archean cratons display rifted margins of proterozoic age and therefore are mere fragments of supercratons which are defined herein as large ancestral landmasses of archean age with a stabilized core that on break up spawned several independently drifting cratons the tectonic evolution of individual archean cratons such as the slave craton of north america or the kaapvaal craton of southern africa should therefore always be considered in the context of their ancestral supercratons this is particularly true for many of the smaller cratons which are too limited in size to preserve the complete tectonic systems that led to their formation these limitations not only apply to the crustal geology of archean cratons but also to their underlying lithospheric mantle keels if these keels are archean in age as their broad correlation with ancient surface rocks suggests they also are rifted and drifted remains of larger keels that initially formed below ancestral supercratons the study of archean cratons and their lithospheric keels should thus be global in scope in the search for late archean supercratons a craton like the slave with three to four rifted margins has a ca 10 maximum probability of correlating with any of the ca 35 remaining cratons around the globe assuming wholesale recycling of archean cratons has been limited since ca 2 0 ga alternatively if the original number of independently drifting cratons was significantly larger the probability of successful correlations is much less due to repeated cycles of break up and plate tectonic dispersal since ca 2 0 ga the probability of correlation is probably independent of present day proximity unless there is independent evidence that two neighbouring cratons were only separated by a narrow ocean nevertheless most previously proposed craton correlations rely erroneously on present day proximity implicitly extrapolating relatively recent paleogeography back to the archean considering the fundamental differences between some of the better known cratons such as the slave superior and kaapvaal it seems likely that these cratons originated from independent supercratons sclavia superia vaalbara with distinct amalgamation and break up histories this is contrary to widely held opinion based largely on an idealized view of the supercontinent cycle that all cratons shared a common history in a single late archean supercontinent in contrast to the superior and kaapvaal cratons which are radically different from the slave craton and each other the dharwar craton of peninsular india the zimbabwe craton of southern africa and the wyoming craton of north america all show significant similarities to the slave craton it thus seems likely that at least some of these were nearest neighbours to the slave craton in the ca 2 6 2 2 ga sclavia supercraton

shear wave splitting observations in the archean craton of western superior shear wave splitting observations in the archean superior province of the canadian shield show moderate to large delay times 1 1 2 1 s with azimuths suggesting upper mantle anisotropy is subparallel to the structural grain of the craton two regions with uniform anisotropy azimuth 62 7 and 87 3 are separated by a transitional zone showing strong dependence of observed azimuth on source direction suggesting that lateral structure is being observed no splitting was observed at stations near the coast of hudson bay continuing a pattern of weak splitting in surrounding proterozoic orogenic belts current absolute plate motion is consistent with the direction of anisotropy but would not explain the regional contrasts instead the anisotropy appears to be related to archean structure and tectonic history

crustal structure beneath the florida to edmonton broadband seismometer array 1 ps receiver functions were stacked to determine crustal thickness and vp vs ratios for the 28 stations of the florida to edmonton broadband seismometer array and 6 adjacent permanent stations roots of thickened crust exist beneath the paleozoic appalachian orogen and the proterozoic trans hudson orogen the ratios of surface elevation to root thickness are lower than observed in young active orogens as are average crustal root buoyancies determined from gravity data these results are consistent with global trends and may be explained by increased crustal root density due to metamorphism crustal thickening is also observed beneath the mid continent rift in iowa consistent with compressional inversion of the rift during the grenville orogeny

source characterization using simplified waveforms tests on earthquakes and nuclear explosions in xinjiang china abstract complete waveforms with periods longer than 30 sec recorded at teleseismic and regional distances are used to characterize the source of several earthquakes and underground nuclear explosions in the lop nor area xinjiang china propagation effects of earth9s heterogeneities on data for several auxiliary events with well constrained source mechanisms in the vicinity of the primary event are calibrated by frequency domain division of each pair of observed and synthetic waveforms with the synthetics being computed for a reference earth model the frequency dependent deconvolution filters obtained for the auxiliary events are interpolated to construct a predicted deconvolution filter which is convolved with observed waveforms for the primary event to remove the empirically determined propagation effects and to obtain simplified waveforms that are intrinsically well predicted by the reference earth model these waveforms are then inverted for the source mechanism and centroid time location and depth of the primary event the inversion yields a centroid depth of 13 km for the 7 september 1994 earthquake m b 5 1 significantly shallower than the 33 km depth reported previously from routine determinations the centroid depth of the 5 october 1993 nuclear explosion plus tectonic release is estimated at approximately 4 km while the depth of the 21 may 1992 explosion plus tectonic release is less well resolved and may be deeper than 5 km reflecting limited resolution of the passband used here with extension to shorter period energy the method holds promise for reliable source inversion for small events in a calibrated region

radiogenic isotope characteristics of the mesoproterozoic intrusive rocks of the nipigon embayment northwestern ontario the ca 1110 1120 ma diabase sills of the nipigon embayment represent the oldest phase of the midcontinent rift recognized to date the sills can be subdivided into five geochemically distinct suites nipigon mcintyre inspiration shillabeer and jackfish sm nd rb sr and pb pb isotope data for the sills can be used to evaluate the source regions and emplacement histories of these sills the endt values for all the sill suites are consis tently negative 0 5 to 6 6 but show coherent variations both within and between suites the negative endt values can be interpreted as the result of contamination of a plume related mantle source by older crustal material the initial strontium sri values 0 7032 0 7068 for the sills indicate that at least two distinct contaminants are required 1 a source with strongly negative endt and lower sri likely archean metasediment or granite and 2 one with elevated sri likely sedimentary rocks of the proterozoic sibley group the pb data for the nipigon and inspiration sills form distinct linear arrays consistent with variable contamination of a source comparable to that of other igneous suites of the midcontinent rift the radiogenic isotopes preserve a complex contamination history best interpreted as the result of 5 contamination by a variety of archean and proterozoic sources the ultramafic jackfish sill shows the least ev idence of contamination and is interpreted to have been emplaced along a crustal scale fault with little interaction with crustal material in contrast the other sill suites have undergone complex contamination histories requiring variable crustal residence times and assimilation of material both at depth in large magma chambers and during emplacement

rift structure beneath the michigan basin from cocorp profiling cocorp consortium for continental reflection profiling surveys across the mid michigan gravity anomaly near the mcclure sparks no 1 deep well delineate a thick layered sequence of relatively strong reflectors that define a structural trough within the precambrian beneath the michigan basin these deep reflections which correlate spatially with the mid michigan gravity and magnetic high are interpreted to be a pile of basaltic extrusive rocks intercalated with clastic rocks and correlative with keweenawan volcanics exposed in the lake superior region to the northwest a reflection poor zone between the base of the paleozoic as found in the deep well and the top of the deep layered sequence probably corresponds to the upper keweenawan clastic assemblage direct evidence of faulting within the inferred volcanic sequence is lacking although sharp flexures structural benches and dips of as much as 10 suggest subsidence controlled by fault block motions reflections from beneath the inferred volcanic pile are rare the deepest clear event being at about 18 km there is no unequivocal evidence on these sections to indicate whether precambrian structures were reactivated to affect the overlying paleozoic strata of the michigan basin proper although data quality may be insufficient to detect such effects

the 1 1 ga midcontinent rift system central north america sedimentology of two deep boreholes lake superior region abstract the midcontinent rift system mrs of central north america is a 1 1 ga 2500 km long structural feature that has been interpreted as a triple junction rift developed over a mantle plume as much as 20 km of subaerial lava flows mainly flood basalts are overlain by as much as 10 km of sedimentary rocks that are mostly continental fluvial red beds this rock sequence known as the keweenawan supergroup has been penetrated by a few deep boreholes in the search for petroleum in this paper two deep boreholes in the upper peninsula of michigan are described in detail for the first time both the amoco production 1 29r test herein referred to as the st amour well and the nearby hickey creek well drilled by cleveland cliffs mining services were 100 cored the former is 7238 ft 2410 m deep and the latter is 5345 ft 1780 m deep the entirety of the stratigraphic succession of the hickey creek core correlates very well with the upper portion of the st amour core as determined by core description and point counting of 43 thin sections selected out of 100 studied thin sections two lower paleozoic units and two keweenawan red bed units the jacobsville sandstone and the underlying freda sandstone are described the jacobsville is largely a feldspatholithic sandstone and the freda is largely a lithofeldspathic sandstone below the freda the remaining footage of the st amour core consists of a thick quartzose sandstone unit that overlies a heterogenous unit of intercalated red bed units of conglomerate sandstone siltstone and shale black shale individual basalt flows and a basal ignimbritic rhyolite this lower portion of the st amour core presents an enigma as it correlates very poorly with other key boreholes located to the west and southwest while a black shale sequence is similar to the petroleum bearing nonesuch formation farther west there is no conglomerate unit to correlate with the copper harbor conglomerate other key boreholes are distributed over a 1300 km distance along the better known southwest arm of the triple junction mrs and can be correlated rather well with the units that are exposed in the lake superior region however a definitive explanation of the anomalous deeper st amour stratigraphy is elusive and any explanation is tenuous a possible explanation for this anomalous stratigraphy may be the geographic proximity of the st amour borehole to the keweenawan hot spot mantle plume the suggested thermal force behind the development of the mrs similarly a drastic change in structural architecture may be explained by this geographic relationship thus within the locale of this rifting center complexities of expansion tectonics may well be responsible for igneous and sedimentary sequences that differ considerably from those found farther west along the rift arm

p wave teleseismic traveltime tomography of the north american midcontinent the remains of the 1 1 ga midcontinent rift mcr lie in the middle of the tectonically stable portion of north america previous and ongoing studies have imaged strong heterogeneity associated with the mcr in the crust but have not imaged such within the mantle it is unclear whether this is due to the absence of rift related mantle structures or these studies had insufficient resolution to image them to address this issue we measured 46 374 teleseismic p wave delay times from seismograms recorded by the usarray transportable array superior province rifting earthscope experiment and surrounding permanent stations we included these and 54 866 delay times from prior studies in our tomographic inversion we find that high velocity anomalies are widespread in our study area but there are also prominent low velocity anomalies two of these are coincident with high bouguer gravity anomalies associated with the mcr in iowa and the minnesota wisconsin border at 50 to 150 km depth extensive resolution testing shows that these anomalies could be the result of downward vertical smearing of relatively low velocities from rift related material that underplated the crust although we cannot exclude that the subcrustal mantle lithosphere beneath the mcr is anomalously enriched hydrated or warm other anomalies occur at syntaxes of the penokean orogen one with the superior province and marshfield terrane in southern minnesota and another with the yavapai and mazatzal terranes both at 100 to 250 km depth in the midmantle we image two linear high velocity anomalies interpreted as subducted fragments of the farallon and kula plates

monitoring nuclear test sites with geress abstract since the installation of the 25 element german experimental seismic system geress array in southeastern germany in 1990 36 presumed nuclear tests were recorded by this system 16 from nevada 12 from the tuamotu archipelago 7 from lop nor and 1 from novaya zemlya also a chemical calibration experiment at nevada test site npe was observed at the array in 1993 in addition two presumed nuclear events from nevada four from the tuamotu archipelago and six from eastern kazakhstan were recorded on temporary stations close to the geress array during the site survey 1988 to 1989 these latter 12 events were carefully included in this study to broaden the data set this has been done since the number of underground nuclear tests observable at the geress site is not expected to increase significantly in the future because most nuclear powers have adhered to a moratorium on nuclear testing in addition we also do not expect that peaceful nuclear explosions pne will be detonated in the future due to reasons of environmental hazard concentrating on nevada test site and the tuamotu archipelago a cross correlation method and a cluster analysis indicate subgroups of the data these empirical methods clearly discriminate presumed nuclear tests on the islands of mururoa and fangataufa in addition detection thresholds at geress were estimated based on bodywave magnitudes published by isc m b 4 3 for the nevada test site m b 3 9 for the tuamotu archipelago m b 4 6 for lop nor m b 4 3 for novaya zemlya and m b 4 4 for eastern kazakhstan clearly these path specific detection thresholds deviate substantially from those derived from global amplitude distance relations i e gutenberg richter this indicates that a network of seismic stations used for global monitoring purposes may need careful calibration

the midcontinent rift system one of the most prominent features on gravity and aeromagnetic maps of the united states is a series of major generally linear anomalies that extend from central kansas to lake superior and then turn southward into central michigan figures 1 2 this system of anomalies clearly reflects major geological features and as such it must represent a very significant episode in the history of the north american continental lithosphere the geologic features associated with these anomalies particularly axial basins filled with basalt and immature clastic rocks along with evidence of crustal extension indicate that the episode was probably one of incipient rifting