the northeastern ohio earthquake of 31 january 1986 was it induced abstract on 31 january 1986 at 11 46 est an earthquake of m b 5 0 occurred about 40 km east of cleveland ohio and about 17 km south of the perry nuclear power plant the earthquake was felt over a broad area including 11 states the district of columbia and parts of ontario canada caused intensity vi vii at distances of 15 km and generated relatively high accelerations 0 18 g of short duration at the perry plant thirteen aftershocks were detected as of 15 april with six occurring within the first 8 days two of the aftershocks were felt magnitudes for the aftershocks ranged from about 0 5 to 2 5 focal depths for all of the earthquakes ranged from 2 to 6 km except for one small earthquake all of the aftershocks occurred in a very tight cluster with a north northeast orientation focal mechanisms of the aftershocks exhibit predominantly oblique right slip motion on nearly vertical nodal planes oriented n15 to 45 e with a nearly horizontal p axis north of east three deep waste disposal wells are currently operating within 15 km of the epicentral region and have been responsible for the injection of nearly 1 2 billion liters of fluid at pressures reaching 112 bars above ambient at a nominal depth of 1 8 km estimates of stress inferred from commercial hydrofracturing measurements suggest that the state of stress in northeastern ohio is close to the theoretical threshold for failure along favorably oriented preexisting fractures this implies that effective stress conditions near the bottom of the two most active wells may be at or near the critical level for incipient failure two and possibly three earthquakes have occurred within less than 5 km from the wells since 1983 the relative distance to the main shock epicenter and its aftershocks about 12 km the lack of large numbers of small earthquakes typical of many induced sequences the history of small to moderate earthquakes in the region prior to the initiation of injection and the attenuation of the pressure field with distance from the injection wells however all argue for a natural origin for the 1986 earthquakes in contrast the proximity to failure conditions at the bottom of the well and the probable spatial association of at least one earthquake suggest that triggering by well activities cannot be precluded

experimental determination of the compositional limits of immiscibility in the system cacl2h2oco2 at high temperatures and pressures using synthetic fluid inclusions abstract using the synthetic fluid inclusion method the temperature pressure and compositional limits of fluid immiscibility in the binary system cacl 2 h 2 o have been determined at 600 and 700 c at pressures between 1 and 2 kbar the limits of the immiscible regions were determined by observation of two different inclusion types in the samples and by measurements of the depression of ice melting temperatures the region of immiscibility in this system extends to much higher pressures than that of the nacl h 2 o system with similar compositional ranges a similar study was done on the cacl 2 h 2 o co 2 system at 500 600 and 700 c at pressures of 1 1 5 2 and 3 kbar in the ternary system the presence of two different inclusion types and the measurement of clathrate melting temperatures were used to delineate the compositional regions of immiscibility the presence of co 2 extends the regions of immiscibility shown in the binary system study to much higher pressures tie lines in the two phase regions were determined by measuring the homogenization temperatures of co 2 vapor and liquid phases and the volume ratios of inclusion bubble to total inclusion in vapor rich type inclusions the locations of these tie lines indicate that the cacl 2 is heavily partitioned towards the more liquid rich phase the experimental results show that with even relatively small amounts of a divalent salt such as cacl 2 immiscibility can exist to very high temperatures and pressures from these results immiscibility should be a very common phenomenon in geologic processes ranging from sedimentary to quite high grade metamorphic environments and that it should have a very important effect on reactions between hydrothermal fluids and rocks and the resulting mineral assemblages

synthetic fluid inclusions vii re equilibration of fluid inclusions in quartz during laboratory simulated metamorphic burial and uplift p t conditions inferred from fluid inclusions in metamorphic rocks often disagree with the values predicted from mineral equilibria calculations these observations suggest that inclusions formed during early stages of regional metamorphism continue to re equilibrate during burial and subsequent uplift in response to differential pressure p t conditions accompanying burial and uplift were experimentally simulated by initially forming pure h2o inclusions in quartz at elevated temperatures and pressures and then re equilibrating the inclusions in the presence of a 20 wt nacl solution such that final confining pressures ranged from 5 kbar above to 4 kbar below the initial internal pressure of the inclusions at the temperature of re equilibration in all samples re equilibrated at confining pressures below the internal pressure some inclusions were formed that had compositions of 20 wt nacl and densities in accord with the final p t conditions additionally some inclusions were observed to contain fluids of intermediate salinities between 0 and 20 wt nacl densities of these inclusions were also consistent with formation at the re equilibration p t conditions the remainder of the fluid inclusions observed in these samples contained pure h2o and their homogenization temperatures corresponded to densities intermediate between the initial and final p t conditions in short term experiments 7 days where the initial internal overpressure exceeded 1 kbar no inclusions were found that contained the original density and none were found to have totally re equilibrated instead most h2o inclusions re equilibrated until their internal pressures were between 750 and 1500 bars above the confining pressure regardless of the initial pressure differential in a long term experiment 52 days inclusions re equilibrated at a lower confining pressure than the initial internal pressure displayed homogenization temperatures corresponding to a range in final internal pressures between 0 kbar i e total re equilibration and 1 2 kbar above the confining pressure in experiments where the confining pressure during re equilibration exceeded the initial internal pressure densities of pure h2o inclusions increased to values intermediate between the initial and final p t conditions additionally these inclusions were generally surrounded by a three dimensional halo of smaller inclusions also of intermediate density resulting in a texture similar to that previously ascribed to decrepitation from internal overpressure in extreme cases where confining pressures were 4 5 kbar above the initial pressure the parent inclusion almost completely closed leaving only the three dimensional array of small 5 m inclusions the outline of which may be several times the volume of the original inclusion groups of such inclusions closely resemble textures commonly observed in medium to high grade metamorphic rocks inclusions containing 10 and 42 wt nacl solutions trapped at 600 c and 3 kbar were re equilibrated at 600 c and 1 kbar for 5 days in dry argon to evaluate the importance of h2o diffusion as a mechanism of lowering the inclusion bulk density salinities of re equilibrated inclusions obtained from freezing point depressions and halite dissolution temperatures indicate that original compositions were preserved density changes similar to those previously described were noted in these experiments in inclusions showing no visible microfractures therefore density variations observed in inclusions in this study re equilibrated under rapid deformation conditions are considered to result from a change in the inclusion volume without significant loss of contents by diffusion or leakage

vegetation and climate change fire regime shifts and volcanic disturbance in chiloe continental 43 s during the last 10 000 years abstract disentangling the roles of paleofires and explosive volcanism from climatic drivers of past vegetation change is a subject insufficiently addressed in the paleoecological literature the coastal region of the chiloe continental sector of northwestern patagonia is ideal in this regard considering its proximity to active eruptive centers and the possibility of establishing comparisons with more distal upwind sites where volcanic influence is minimal here we present a fine resolution pollen and macroscopic charcoal record from lago teo with the aim of documenting the local vegetation and climate history and assessing the role of disturbance regimes as drivers of vegetation change during the last 10 000 years the lago teo record shows a conspicuous warm dry interval between 7500 and 10 000 cal yrs bp followed by a cooling trend and increase in precipitation that has persisted until the present in agreement with previous studies in the region and interpretations of past southern westerly wind activity at multi millennial scales the presence of 26 tephras throughout the record allows examination of the relationship between explosive volcanism and vegetation change under contrasting climatic states of the holocene we found consistent statistically significant increases in tepualia stipularis after tephra deposition over the last 10 000 years in eucryphia caldcluvia between 7500 and 10 000 cal yrs bp and in hydrangea over the last 7500 years our results indicate a primary role of climate change as driver of long term vegetation change and as a modulator of vegetation responses to volcanic disturbance at multidecadal and centennial timescales

triggered earthquakes and deep well activities earthquakes can be triggered by any significant perturbation of the hydrologic regime in areas where potentially active faults are already close to failure the increased pore pressure resulting from fluid injection or alternatively the massive extraction of fluid or gas can induce sufficient stress and or strain changes that with time can lead to sudden catastrophic failure in a major earthquake injection induced earthquakes typically result from the reduction in frictional strength along preexisting nearby faults caused by the increased formation fluid pressure earthquakes associated with production appear to respond to more complex mechanisms of subsidence crustal unloading and poroelastic changes in response to applied strains induced by the massive withdrawal of subsurface material as each of these different types of triggered events can occur up to several years after well activities have begun or even several years after all well activities have stopped this suggests that the actual triggering process may be a very complex combination of effects particularly if both fluid extraction and injection have taken place locally to date more than thirty cases of earthquakes triggered by well activities can be documented throughout the united states and canada based on these case histories it is evident that owing to preexisting stress conditions in the upper crust certain areas tend to have higher probabilities of exhibiting such induced seismicity

abrupt vegetation changes during the last glacial to holocene transition in mid latitude south america a pollen record from the huelmo site ca 41 30 s shows that vegetation and climate changed at millennial time scales during the last glacial to holocene transition in the mid latitude region of western south america the record shows that a nothofagus parkland dominated the landscape between 16 400 and 14 600 14c yr bp along with magellanic moorland and cupressaceous conifers evergreen north patagonian rainforest taxa expanded in pulses at 14 200 and 13 000 14c yr bp following a prominent rise in nothofagus at 14 600 14c yr bp highly diverse closed canopy rainforests dominated the lowlands between 13 000 and 12 500 14c yr bp followed by the expansion of cold resistant podocarps and nothofagus at ca 12 500 and 11 500 14c yr bp local disturbance by fire favoured the expansion of shade intolerant opportunistic taxa between 10 900 and 10 200 14c yr bp subsequent warming pulses at 10 200 and 9100 14c yr bp led to the expansion of thermophilous summer drought resistant valdivian rainforest trees until 6900 14c yr bp our results suggest that cold and hyperhumid conditions characterised the final phase of the last glacial maximum lgm between 16 400 and 14 600 14c yr bp the last ice age termination commenced with a prominent warming event that led to a rapid expansion of north patagonian trees and the abrupt withdrawal of andean ice lobes from their lgm positon at ca 147 000 14c yr bp hyperhumid conditions prevailed between 16 400 and 13 000 14c yr bp what we term the extreme glacial mode of westerly activity this condition was brought about by a northward shift and or intensification of the southern westerlies the warmest driest conditions of the last glacial interglacial transition occurred between 9100 and 6900 14c yr bp during this period the westerlies shifted to an extreme interglacial mode of activity via a poleward migration of stormtracks our results indicate that a highly variable climatic interval lasting 5500 14c years separate the opposite extremes of vegetation and climate during the last glacial interglacial cycle i e the end of the lgm and the onset of the early holocene warm and dry period copyright 2003 john wiley sons ltd

high rate injection is associated with the increase in u s mid continent seismicity an unprecedented increase in earthquakes in the u s mid continent began in 2009 many of these earthquakes have been documented as induced by wastewater injection we examine the relationship between wastewater injection and u s mid continent seismicity using a newly assembled injection well database for the central and eastern united states we find that the entire increase in earthquake rate is associated with fluid injection wells high rate injection wells 300 000 barrels per month are much more likely to be associated with earthquakes than lower rate wells at the scale of our study a well s cumulative injected volume monthly wellhead pressure depth and proximity to crystalline basement do not strongly correlate with earthquake association managing injection rates may be a useful tool to minimize the likelihood of induced earthquakes

possible cause for an improbable earthquake the 1997 mw 4 9 southern alabama earthquake and hydrocarbon recovery circumstantial and physical evidence indicates that the 1997 mw 4 9 earthquake in southern alabama may have been related to hydrocarbon recovery epicenters of this earthquake and its aftershocks were located within a few kilometers of active oil and gas extraction wells and two pressurized injection wells main shock and aftershock focal depths 2 6 km are within a few kilometers of the injection and withdrawal depths strain accumulation at geologic rates sufficient to cause rupture at these shallow focal depths is not likely a paucity of prior seismicity is difficult to reconcile with the occurrence of an earthquake of mw 4 9 and a magnitude frequency relationship usually assumed for natural earthquakes the normal fault main shock mechanism is consistent with reactivation of preexisting faults in the regional tectonic stress field if the earthquake were purely tectonic however the question arises as to why it occurred on only the small fraction of a large regional fault system coinciding with active hydrocarbon recovery no obvious temporal correlation is apparent between the earthquakes and recovery activities although thus far little can be said quantitatively about the physical processes that may have caused the 1997 sequence a plausible explanation involves the poroelastic response of the crust to extraction of hydrocarbons

synthetic h2oco2 fluid inclusions in spontaneously nucleated forsterite enstatite and diopside hosts the method and applications abstract synthetic h2o co2 fluid inclusions have been produced in forsterite diopside and enstatite hosts during the spontaneous nucleation and growth of these phases at t 800 980 c and p 6100 7800 bars via the reactions 2 trem 18h 2 o 4 diopside 3 forsterite 5si oh 4 2h 2 o 1 trem 3h 2 o 2 diopside 3 enstatite si oh 4 2h 2 o 2 the inclusions are large 10 40 m abundant and commonly of regular shape making them ideal as standards for microthermometric and spectroscopic analyses the technique provides the opportunity to study fluid inclusion trapping mechanisms and their potential effect on inclusion chemistry the fluid inclusions exhibit a small degree of compositional scatter about the ambient composition deviations between the ambient and inclusion composition increase for experiments performed in the presence of low 3 8 c thermal gradients along the capsule length this observation suggests that compositional heterogeneities may develop in the absence of fluid convection in the capsule the effect on the inclusion composition however does not exceed 3 mol in xco2 for all inclusions studied the advantages of this technique are 1 it provides a means of producing fluid inclusions of known compositions in hosts other than quartz and 2 inclusion formation is relatively slow allowing ample time for the p t x fluid conditions of the run to equilibrate the disadvantages are that the small grains produced can be difficult to work with and the host producing reactions are viable over a relatively narrow range of p t x fluid conditions

fault activation by hydraulic fracturing in western canada hydraulic fracturing has been inferred to trigger the majority of injection induced earthquakes in western canada in contrast to the midwestern united states where massive saltwater disposal is the dominant triggering mechanism a template based earthquake catalog from a seismically active canadian shale play combined with comprehensive injection data during a 4 month interval shows that earthquakes are tightly clustered in space and time near hydraulic fracturing sites the largest event moment magnitude mw 3 9 occurred several weeks after injection along a fault that appears to extend from the injection zone into crystalline basement patterns of seismicity indicate that stress changes during operations can activate fault slip to an offset distance of 1 km whereas pressurization by hydraulic fracturing into a fault yields episodic seismicity that can persist for months

the link between volcanism and tectonics in the southern volcanic zone of the chilean andes a review abstract the nature of the interplay between tectonics and volcanism is a major question in continental margin tectonics the southern andes volcanic zone svz located at the obliquely convergent nazca south america plate margin between 33 s and 46 s offers a unique opportunity to address this question because of along strike changes in crustal thickness tectonic style and well constrained long term and short term kinematic history the complex interaction between tectonic and magmatic processes is evidenced by both the architecture and geochemical signature of volcanic systems main first order factors accounting for the along strike variations in the nature and composition of volcanism are crustal thickness and the existence of a major intra arc fault system the liquine ofqui fault zone lofz second order factors include the local nature of the volcanic arc basement two main categories of volcano tectonic associations have been identified according to the spatial distribution and internal organization of individual volcanoes and clusters of volcanoes with respect to both the overall strike of the volcanic arc and the first and second order active inactive basement faults kinematically coupled associations those that are directly related to the current dextral transpressional tectonic regime include ne trending volcanic alignments of stratovolcanoes and or monogenetic cones kinematically uncoupled associations in which coupling with the current regime is not required include stratovolcanoes built on top of ancient reverse and strike slip faults of the volcanic arc basement and monogenetic cones lying along master faults of the lofz whereas mostly primitive magmas are found in the first category more evolved terms can occur genetically associated with the second category we propose a simplified three dimensional model for the magma plumbing system along and across the svz that integrates kinematically coupled and kinematically uncoupled volcano tectonic associations within the framework of first and second order geological and structural constraints

palynology of the last interglacial glacial cycle in midlatitudes of southern chile abstract pollen and spores in stratigraphic sections located between 40 and 42 s range in age from the holocene through much of the llanquihue glaciation to the last interglaciation chronology of the stratigraphy derives from some 35 14c ages and the age relations of llanquihue drift and related deposits q mode rotated principal components analysis of four key pollen records covering the last interglacial glacial cycle resulted in four leading components nothofagus dombeyi type gramineae weinmannia fitzroya type and myrtaceae analysis emphasizes interaction between the first two components loadings of gramineae during the interglaciation are high unlike the holocene weinmannia fitzroya type loadings prominent in the holocene are negligible during the interglaciation n dombeyi type is the primary component during llanquihue glaciation it becomes modified by increases of gramineae sometime after 31 000 and before 14 000 yr b p and of myrtaceae later the myrtaceae with weinmannia fitzroya type also registers some activity around 42 000 yr b p fluctuations in the belt of westerly winds reflecting changing meteorological conditions in polar latitudes are suggested by these data with the belt located farther south than it is today interglacial climate was much drier and warmer than during the holocene more northerly displacement of the belt obtained when climate was colder during llanquihue glaciation evidence from comparable latitudes in the southern hemisphere points toward a synchrony of major climatic events indicating harmonious fluctuations in the position of the westerlies

climatic controls of holocene fire patterns in southern south america holocene fire climate vegetation linkages are mostly understood at individual sites by comparing charcoal and pollen records with other paleoenvironmental proxy and model simulations this scale of reconstruction often obscures detection of large scale patterns in past fire activity that are related to changes in regional climate and vegetation a network of 31 charcoal records from southern south america was examined to assess fire history along a transect from subtropic to subantarctic biomes the charcoal data indicate that fire activity was greater than present at ca 12 000 cal yr bp and increased further and was widespread at 9500 cal yr bp fire activity decreased and became more spatially variable by 6000 cal yr bp and this trend continued to present atmospheric circulation anomalies during recent high fire years show a southward shift in westerlies and paleoclimate model simulations and data syntheses suggest that such conditions may have prevailed for millennia in the early holocene when the pole to equator temperature gradients were weaker and annual temperatures were higher than present in response to orbital time scale insolation changes

climatic and disturbance influences on the temperate rainforests of northwestern patagonia 40 s since 14 500 cal yr bp abstract we present a detailed record from lago pichilafquen to unravel the vegetation climate and disturbance history of the lowlands of northwestern patagonia 40 s since 14 500 cal yr bp the presence of 30 tephras throughout the record attest for the proximity of the site to active volcanic centres and allows assessment of the role of volcanic disturbance on past vegetation and fire regime shifts we interpret alternations in dominance between north patagonian and valdivian rainforests driven by changes in temperature and precipitation of westerly origin at multi millennial and millennial timescales these trends were punctuated by centennial scale changes most of which were coeval with or immediately followed the deposition of tephras and or paleofires we identify departures of the local vegetation from the regional trend between 2400 and 7100 cal yr bp which we interpret as a response of rainforest vegetation and local fire regimes to the disturbance effect of tephra deposition near lago pichilafquen we also find that volcanic disturbance promoted consistent increases in eucryphia caldcluvia within 30 years and paleofires between 60 and 120 years following tephra deposition comparisons with palynological records having similar span time resolution and age control suggest that regional climate has played a central role on the establishment composition and maintenance of temperate rainforests this influence is overprinted by disturbance regimes at the local and landscape level driving divergences and heterogeneity especially at times of relatively weak climatic forcing

synthetic fluid inclusions in natural quartz i compositional types synthesized and applications to experimental geochemistry synthetic fluid inclusions having a wide range of geologically applicable compositions in the c o h s na k ca cl cu fe system have been formed by healing fractures in inclusion free natural quartz and by precipitating new quartz overgrowths on an original seed crystal inclusion types synthesized include 1 1 liquid rich pure h2o inclusions of primary and secondary origin 2 2 pure h2o inclusions with the critical density 3 3 liquid rich inclusions containing undersaturated aqueous solutions of nacl or kcl or cacl2 or mixtures of the three salts 4 4 h2o nacl inclusions containing halite daughter minerals 5 5 h2o nacl kcl inclusions containing halite and sylvite daughter minerals 6 6 h2o co2 inclusions of various compositions containing liquid h2o and either co2 vapor or co2 liquid or both at 25 c 7 7 h2o co2 nacl inclusions containing an aqueous phase liquid and vapor co2 and halite at 25 c 8 8 c o h inclusions containing liquid h2o a co2 ch4 liquid phase and graphite daughter minerals at 25 c 9 9 h2o nacl inclusions that contain a chalcopyrite daughter mineral and 10 10 inclusions representing trapping of the coexisting immiscible fluids in the h2o nacl h2o co2 nacl and na c o h systems the inclusions exhibit uniform phase ratios at room temperature and the temperatures of various phase changes within individual inclusions agree with those predicted from experimental and theoretical data indicating that the inclusion fluid has the same composition and density as the parent solution these miniature autoclaves thus may be used to study various problems related to fluid inclusion research to calibrate analytical equipment used to study natural inclusions and to study phase equilibria solubility and pvt relations of a variety of chemical systems

a past millennium maximum in postglacial activity from volcan chaiten southern chile volcan chaiten southern chile 43 s initiated an historically unprecedented eruption in a d 2008 surprising the local inhabitants chilean and argentine authorities and the geologic community available data at the time indicated an absence of explosive eruptions from this rhyolitic volcano since a large magnitude eruptive event dated at ca 10 500 yr b p we present lake sediment data from lago teo a small closed basin lake located in the immediate vicinity of both chaiten township and the volcano that spans the past 10 000 yr and contains 26 pyroclastic fallout deposits glass shard electron microprobe analyses revealed ten rhyolitic tephras indistinguishable in composition from the 2008 volcan chaiten eruption and ten others potentially derived from the michinmahuida volcanic complex among the rhyolites we detected three closely spaced tephras deposited between ca 9460 and 9680 yr b p followed by two thick tephras dated at ca 7700 and ca 5080 yr b p three other closely spaced tephras occur between ca 600 and 850 yr b p the most recent prehistoric event at ca 420 yr b p and a 3 cm thick tephra deposited during the 2008 event we calculate a median recurrence of 310 yr between eruptive events from all sources over the past 10 000 yr and 200 yr between volcan chaiten events over the past millennium our results not only challenge the notion of an 10 500 yr long quiescence for volcan chaiten activity but also suggest that the 2008 eruption was an overdue phenomenon in the context of its postglacial eruptive history illustrating the advantage and absolute necessity of utilizing lake sediment archives for developing continuous well dated time series inventories of explosive volcanic events

the november 2017 mw 5 5 pohang earthquake a possible case of induced seismicity in south korea the moment magnitude mw 5 5 earthquake that struck south korea in november 2017 was one of the largest and most damaging events in that country over the past century its proximity to an enhanced geothermal system site where high pressure hydraulic injection had been performed during the previous 2 years raises the possibility that this earthquake was anthropogenic we have combined seismological and geodetic analyses to characterize the mainshock and its largest aftershocks constrain the geometry of this seismic sequence and shed light on its causal factors according to our analysis it seems plausible that the occurrence of this earthquake was influenced by the aforementioned industrial activities finally we found that the earthquake transferred static stress to larger nearby faults potentially increasing the seismic hazard in the area

the 2016 mw5 1 fairview oklahoma earthquakes evidence for long range poroelastic triggering at 40 km from fluid disposal wells abstract wastewater disposal in the central u s is likely responsible for an unprecedented surge in earthquake activity much of this activity is thought to be driven by induced pore pressure changes and slip on pre stressed faults which requires a hydraulic connection between faults and injection wells however direct pressure effects and hydraulic connectivity are questionable for earthquakes located at large distances and depths from the injectors here we examine triggering mechanisms of induced earthquakes which occurred at more than 40 km from wastewater disposal wells in the greater fairview region northwest oklahoma employing numerical and semi analytical poroelastic models the region exhibited few earthquakes before 2013 when background seismicity started to accelerate rapidly culminating in the mw5 1 fairview earthquake in february 2016 injection rates in the 2 2 5 km deep arbuckle formation started to increase rapidly in 2012 about two years before the start of seismicity increase most of the injection activity was concentrated toward the northeast of the study region generating a relatively cohesive zone of pressure perturbations between 0 1 and 1 mpa much of the near injection seismicity was likely triggered by pressure effects and fault assisted pressure diffusion to seismogenic depth outside of the high pressure zone we observed two remarkably detached linear seismicity clusters which occurred at 20 to 50 km distance from the initial seismicity and 10 to 40 km from the nearest high rate injector semi analytical models reveal that poroelastically induced coulomb stress changes surpass pore pressure changes at these distances providing a plausible triggering mechanism in the far field of injection wells these results indicate that both pore pressures and poroelastic stresses can play a significant role in triggering deep and distant earthquakes by fluid injection and should be considered for seismic hazard assessment beyond the targeted reservoir

crustal deformation processes and the stability of the gutenberg richter relationship abstract global and regional surveys of earthquakes show that empirically determined b values of the gutenberg richter distribution are remarkably stable generally limited to values of 1 0 2 here i interpret observations from california new zealand and japan to suggest that the stability of the b value is a manifestation of a physical process specifically the tendency of crustal strains to organize along relatively discrete zones given a portion of the earth9s crust subject to a displacement field displacement is accommodated by a system of fault lengths that obey a power law distribution with continued displacement longer faults develop at the expense of shorter faults and take up an increasingly greater portion of the displacement budget shifts in regional displacement directions lead to reversals of these trends the changes in the ratio of long faults to short faults in a region is thus accompanied by changes in the relationship between fault length and fault slip rate because the recurrence of earthquakes on faults is a function of both fault length and fault slip rate the deformation process may result in a system of feedback that inhibits changes in the b value as fault populations change a corollary to the idea is that the magnitude frequency statistics of seismicity may be attributed to the same physical processes that are responsible for the development of plate tectonic boundaries and the gross spatial distribution of seismicity around the globe

the deglaciation of the americas during the last glacial termination this paper reviews current understanding of deglaciation in north central and south america from the last glacial maximum to the beginning of the holocene together with paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic data we compare and contrast the pace of deglaciation and the response of glaciers to major climate events during the global last glacial maximum glgm 26 5 19 ka average temperatures decreased 4 to 8 c in the americas but precipitation varied strongly throughout this large region many glaciers in north and central america achieved their maximum extent during the glgm whereas others advanced even farther during the subsequent heinrich stadial 1 hs 1 glaciers in the andes also expanded during the glgm but that advance was not the largest except on tierra del fuego hs 1 17 5 14 6 ka was a time of general glacier thickening and advance throughout most of north and central america and in the tropical andes however glaciers in the temperate and subpolar andes thinned and retreated during this period during the bolling allerod interstadial b a 14 6 12 9 ka glaciers retreated throughout north and central america and in some cases completely disappeared many glaciers advanced during the antarctic cold reversal acr 14 6 12 9 ka in the tropical andes and patagonia there were small advances of glaciers in north america central america and in northern

the liquine ofqui fault zone a long lived intra arc fault system in southern chile abstract plate reconstructions for the cenozoic document relatively steady right oblique subduction of the farallon nazca plate beneath the chilean continental margin the kinematic signature recorded along the intra arc liquine ofqui fault zone lofz a major feature of the southern andes may help to understand the way in which the nazca south america slip vector has been partitioned into strain and displacement along and across the continental margin the lofz consists of two nne trending right stepping straight lineaments a strike slip duplex at the right step and curved features which splay off the straight lineaments toward the northwest the lofz runs mostly through heterogeneously deformed cenozoic plutonic rock of the north patagonian batholith and patchy metamorphic wall rock early cenozoic volcano sedimentary rocks and dyke swarms found in close spatial association with the strike slip duplex are believed to have developed in strike slip related basins quaternary volcanoes are aligned parallel to the lofz both ductile and brittle kinematic indicators within centimeter to meter wide high strain zones document late cenozoic dextral shear deformation contrasting left lateral deformation recorded on older and wider mylonitic zones suggests that the lofz may be a long lived shear zone that accommodated continental scale deformation arising from the farallon nazca south america plate convergence a block rotation pattern as indicated by paleomagnetic data is consistent with the geometry and cenozoic kinematics of the lofz

tearing and breaking off of subducted slabs as the result of collision of the panama arc indenter with northwestern south america we present two regional lithospheric cross sections that illustrate eastward and southeastward dipping subducted slabs to depths of 315 km beneath the surface of colombia in northwestern south america these cross sectional interpretations are based on relocated earthquake hypocentral solutions models supported on gravity and magnetic regional data and coda q q c tomography the method of tomographic imaging based on spatial inversion of the coda wave has advantages of providing information on the lateral variations of the anelastic properties and thermal structure of the lithospheric system mapping of earthquake defined benioff zones combined with tomographic imaging reveals the presence of an 240 km long east west striking slab tear named here the caldas tear the proposed caldas tear separates a zone of shallow 20 30 dipping southeastward subduction in the area of colombia adjacent to panama and the caribbean sea which is not associated with subduction related volcanism from an area of steeper 30 40 dipping slab adjacent to the eastern pacific ocean that is associated with an active north south chain of active arc volcanoes we propose that the caldas slab tear separating these two distinct subducted slabs originally formed as the southern boundary of the panama indenter an extinct island arc that began subducting beneath northwestern south america about 12 ma the area south of the panama indenter is miocene oceanic crust of the nazca plate which subducts eastward beneath northwestern south america at normal angles and melts to form a north south trending active volcanic arc in addition to the formation of the caldas tear we propose that impedance of the thicker crustal area of the panama arc indenter over the past 12 ma may have led to down dip break off of previously subducted oceanic crust that is marked by an extremely concentrated and active earthquake swarm of intermediate depth earthquakes beneath east central colombia

induced seismicity associated with fluid injection into a deep well in youngstown ohio 1 over 109 small earthquakes mw 0 4 3 9 were detected during january 2011 to february 2012 in the youngstown ohio area where there were no known earthquakes in the past these shocks were close to a deep fluid injection well the 14 month seismicity included six felt earthquakes and culminated with a mw 3 9 shock on 31 december 2011 among the 109 shocks 12 events greater than mw 1 8 were detected by regional network and accurately relocated whereas 97 small earthquakes 0 4 mw 1 8 were detected by the waveform correlation detector accurately located earthquakes were along a subsurface fault trending ene wsw consistent with the focal mechanism of the main shock and occurred at depths 3 5 4 0 km in the precambrian basement we conclude that the recent earthquakes in youngstown ohio were induced by the fluid injection at a deep injection well due to increased pore pressure along the preexisting subsurface faults located close to the wellbore we found that the seismicity initiated at the eastern end of the subsurface fault close to the injection point and migrated toward the west away from the wellbore indicating that the expanding high fluid pressure front increased the pore pressure along its path and progressively triggered the earthquakes we observe that several periods of quiescence of seismicity follow the minima in injection volumes and pressure which may indicate that the earthquakes were directly caused by the pressure buildup and stopped when pressure dropped

changing fire regimes in the temperate rainforest region of southern chile over the last 16 000 yr abstract a high resolution macroscopic charcoal record from lago melli 42 46 s 73 33 w documents the occurrence of forest fires in the lowlands of isla grande de chiloe southern chile over the last 16 000 yr our data suggest that fire activity in this region was largely modulated by the position intensity of the southern westerlies at multi millennial time scales fire activity was infrequent or absent between 16 000 11 000 and 8500 7000 cal yr bp and was maximal between 11 000 8500 and 3000 0 cal yr bp a mosaic of valdivian north patagonian rainforest species started at 6000 cal yr bp along with a moderate increase in fire activity which intensified subsequently at 3000 cal yr bp the modern transition between these forest communities and the occurrence of fires are largely controlled by summer moisture stress and variability suggesting the onset of high frequency variability in summer precipitation regimes starting at 5500 cal yr bp because negative anomalies in summer precipitation in this region are teleconnected with modern el nino events we propose that the onset of el nino like variability at 5700 6200 cal yr bp led to a reshuffling of rainforest communities in the lowlands of isla grande de chiloe and an increase in fire activity

minimum magnitude of completeness in earthquake catalogs examples from alaska the western united states and japan we mapped the minimum magnitude of complete reporting m c for alaska the western united states and for the junec earthquake catalog of japan mc was estimated based on its departure from the linear frequency magnitude relation of the 250 closest earthquakes to grid nodes spaced 10 km apart in all catalogs studied mc was strongly heterogeneous in offshore areas the mc was typically one unit of magnitude higher than onshore on land also mc can vary by one order of magnitude over distance less than 50 km we recommend that seismicity studies that depend on complete sets of small earthquakes should be limited to areas with similar mc or the minimum magnitude for the analysis has to be raised to the highest com mon value of mc we believe that the data quality as reflected by the mc level should be used to define the spatial extent of seismicity studies where mc plays a role the method we use calculates the goodness of fit between a power law fit to the data and the observed frequency magnitude distribution as a function of a lower cutoff of the magnitude data mc is defined as the magnitude at which 90 of the data can be modeled by a power law fit mc in the 1990s is approximately 1 2 0 4 in most parts of california 1 8 0 4 in most of alaska aleutians and panhandle excluded and at a higher level in the junec catalog for japan various sources such as ex plosions and earthquake families beneath volcanoes can lead to distributions that cannot be fit well by power laws for the hokkaido region we demonstrate how neglecting the spatial variability of m c can lead to erroneous assumptions about deviations from self similarity of earthquake scaling

temperature and precipitation record in southern chile extended to 43 000 yr ago southern chile 41 56 s in the belt of westerly winds receives mostly heavy precipitation reaching 8 500 mm yr 1 near 50 s and decreasing northwards and southwards from this latitude to 1 500 mm mean january summer temperatures near sea level along the latitudinal gradient are 8 16 c refs 1 2 dense rain forest covers much of the region to 48 s south to cape horn magellanic moorland prevails and rain forest becomes limited modern pollen measured in surface samples reflects the distribution of plant species in the vegetation we have now applied regression equations relating present day pollen to temperature and precipitation to fossil pollen data at taiquemo to assess climatic conditions during the quaternary the results extend our previous record of the past 16 000 yr at alerce3 beyond the lateglacial to 43 000 yr bp for the 27 000 yr interval they show mean january temperatures of 10 12 c and mean annual precipitation centred around 1 000 mm except during the time span of 31 000 43 000 yr bp when amounts increased to 4 000 mm in general fluctuations correspond to the isotopic climatic reconstruction in antarctica4 and to changes inferred from pollen data at comparable latitudes in tasmania5 8 and new zealand9 10

b values of two tectonic parts in the circum pacific belt two different data sets have been applied to compute theb parameter of the magnitude frequency relation for two different areas in the circum pacific belt these areas are a south america middle america and mexico b all the remaining island arcs of the circum pacific belt starting from alaska and the aleutian islands and proceeding southeastwards the first data set spreads over 77 years while the second one covers a 90 year period in both cases the results clearly showed that theb values are lower in the first of the above mentioned areas while respectively higher in the second this is due to the tectonic conditions in these areas as estimated during the present work

changes in fire regimes since the last glacial maximum an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data fire activity has varied globally and continuously since the last glacial maximum lgm in response to long term changes in global climate and shorter term regional changes in climate vegetation and human land use we have synthesized sedimentary charcoal records of biomass burning since the lgm and present global maps showing changes in fire activity for time slices during the past 21 000 years as differences in charcoal accumulation values compared to pre industrial there is strong broad scale coherence in fire activity after the lgm but spatial heterogeneity in the signals increases thereafter in north america europe and southern south america charcoal records indicate less than present fire activity during the deglacial period from 21 000 to 11 000 cal yr bp in contrast the tropical latitudes of south america and africa show greater than present fire activity from 19 000 to 17 000 cal yr bp and most sites from indochina and australia show greater than present fire activity from 16 000 to 13 000 cal yr bp many sites indicate greater than present or near present activity during the holocene with the exception of eastern north america and eastern asia from 8 000 to 3 000 cal yr bp indonesia and australia from 11 000 to 4 000 cal yr bp and southern south america from 6 000 to 3 000 cal yr bp where fire activity was less than present regional coherence in the patterns of change in fire activity was evident throughout the post glacial period these complex patterns can largely be explained in terms of large scale climate controls modulated by local changes in vegetation and fuel load

isotopic evidence for hydrologic change related to the westerlies in sw patagonia chile during the last millennium abstract the southern hemisphere westerly winds influence the spatial distribution of precipitation in southern south america and play a significant role in the global carbon cycle yet little is known about how this important atmospheric circulation feature has varied in the past here we present a sediment core record of late holocene variability from lago guanaco a small closed basin lake located in torres del paine national park chilean patagonia the park is located in the core of the modern wind field and variations in the intensity of the atmospheric circulation directly influence the hydrology of this region we combine stable isotopic measurements of biogenic carbonate and bulk organic matter to identify two periods of increased evaporation between 900 550 and 400 50 calendar years before present cal yr bp the first interval is coincident with the medieval climate anomaly mca while the more recent period is broadly coincident with the timing of the little ice age lia during the lia interval we observe simultaneous monotonic increases in the 18 o of biogenic carbonate and nothofagus dombeyi type pollen which we interpret as indicative of significant changes in the intensity of the southern westerlies during the last millennium the isotopic and palynological variations in the guanaco record are coincident with geochemical variations found in an antarctic ice core record from siple dome suggesting that the signal preserved in lago guanaco is regional rather than local and that the lia intensification was accompanied by a poleward shift in the southern margin of the westerlies in addition we interpret four periods of increased lake productivity centered on 900 650 500 and 200 cal yr bp from simultaneous increases in the 13 c of bulk organic material and biogenic carbonate these increases in lake productivity are most likely tied to increases in summer temperatures

gas injection may have triggered earthquakes in the cogdell oil field texas between 1957 and 1982 water flooding was conducted to improve petroleum production in the cogdell oil field north of snyder tx and a contemporary analysis concluded this induced earthquakes that occurred between 1975 and 1982 the national earthquake information center detected no further activity between 1983 and 2005 but between 2006 and 2011 reported 18 earthquakes having magnitudes 3 and greater to investigate these earthquakes we analyzed data recorded by six temporary seismograph stations deployed by the usarray program and identified 93 well recorded earthquakes occurring between march 2009 and december 2010 relocation with a double difference method shows that most earthquakes occurred within several northeast southwest trending linear clusters with trends corresponding to nodal planes of regional focal mechanisms possibly indicating the presence of previously unidentified faults we have evaluated data concerning injection and extraction of oil water and gas in the cogdell field water injection cannot explain the 2006 2011 earthquakes especially as net volumes injection minus extraction are significantly less than in the 1957 1982 period however since 2004 significant volumes of gases including supercritical co2 have been injected into the cogdell field the timing of gas injection suggests it may have contributed to triggering the recent seismic activity if so this represents an instance where gas injection has triggered earthquakes having magnitudes 3 and larger further modeling studies may help evaluate recent assertions suggesting significant risks accompany large scale carbon capture and storage as a strategy for managing climate change

efforts to monitor and characterize the recent increasing seismicity in central oklahoma abstract the sharp increase in seismicity over a broad region of central oklahoma has raised concerns regarding the source of the activity and its potential hazard to local communities and energy industry infrastructure efforts to monitor and characterize the earthquake sequences in central oklahoma are reviewed since early 2010 numerous organizations have deployed temporary portable seismic stations in central oklahoma to record the evolving seismicity a multiple event relocation method is applied to produce a catalog of central oklahoma earthquakes from late 2009 into early 2015 regional moment tensor rmt source parameters were determined for the largest and best recorded earthquakes combining rmt results with relocated seismicity enabled determination of the length depth and style of faulting occurring on reactivated subsurface fault systems it was found that the majority of earthquakes occur on near vertical optimally oriented northeast southwest and northwest southeast strike slip fault

an earthquake like magnitude frequency distribution of slow slip in northern cascadia 1 major episodic tremor and slip ets events with mw 6 4 to 6 7 repeat every 15 2 months within the cascadia subduction zone under the olympic peninsula although these major ets events are observed to release strain smaller tremor swarms without detectable geodetic deformation are more frequent an automatic search from 2006 2009 reveals 20 000 five minute windows containing tremor which cluster in space and time into 96 tremor swarms the 93 inter ets tremor swarms account for 45 of the total duration of tremor detection during the last three ets cycles the number of tremor swarms n exceeding duration follow a power law distribution n 0 66 if duration is proportional to moment release the slip inferred from these swarms follows a standard gutenberg richter logarithmic frequency magnitude relation with the major ets events and smaller inter ets swarms lying on the same trend this relationship implies that 1 inter ets slip is fundamentally similar to the major events just smaller and more frequent and 2 despite fundamental differences in moment duration scaling the slow slip magnitude frequency distribution is the same as normal earthquakes with a b value of 1

seismicity related to the hydraulic stimulation of grt1 rittershoffen france the rittershoffen deep geothermal reservoir in northeastern france is well characterized and has been extensively studied by a multidisciplinary approach a hydraulic stimulation for the development of the geothermal reservoir was performed in june 2013 this injection of fluid led to seismic activity which was closely monitored by a dedicated set of seismic stations the seismic sequence started during the injection but showed an unusual long quiet period of 4 d after shut in before the occurrence of a second swarm of events here we take the opportunity of this well monitored activity to gain insight into the geomechanical factors favouring the development of induced earthquakes we apply a template matching approach and a relative relocation procedure to obtain a precise estimate of the geometries of the activated structures our approach shows that the induced events during the injection took place on two parallel planar structures it shows that details of the seismicity generally obtained from borehole seismic network are achievable from surface network when an appropriate analysis is performed the development of this induced seismicity is in good agreement with the known stress field and failure criterion proposed for the reservoir in particular the orientation of the activated structure associated focal mechanisms and the overpressure needed to initiate the seismic activity are all in line with the geomechanical model of the area the swarm of delayed events 4 d after shut in can be well explained by considering an aseismic slip on the imaged fault and the related static stress transfer we therefore suggest that the ability to monitor local slow aseismic movements at depth in conjunction with precise tracking of the seismicity is of primary importance to understand induced earthquake activity

fallout and distribution of volcanic ash over argentina following the may 2008 explosive eruption of chaiten chile 1 the major explosive eruption of chaiten volcano chile in may 2008 provided a rare opportunity to track the long range dispersal and deposition of fine volcanic ash the eruption followed 10 000 years of quiescence was the largest explosive eruption globally since hudson chile in 1991 and was the first explosive rhyolitic eruption since novarupta alaska in 1912 field examination of distal ashfall indicates that 1 6 1011 kg of ash dense rock equivalent volume of 0 07 km3 was deposited over 2 105 km2 of argentina during the first week of eruption the minimum eruption magnitude estimated from the mass of the tephra deposit is 4 2 several discrete ashfall units are identifiable from their distribution and grain size characteristics with more energetic phases showing a bimodal size distribution and evidence of cloud aggregation processes ash chemistry was uniform throughout the early stages of eruption and is consistent with magma storage prior to eruption at depths of 3 6 km deposition of ash over a continental region allowed the tracking of eruption development and demonstrates the potential complexity of tephra dispersal from a single eruption which in this case comprised several phases over a week long period of intense activity

deep injection and closely monitored induced seismicity at paradox valley colorado the u s bureau of reclamation s paradox valley unit pvu extracts aquifer brine from nine shallow wells along the dolores river paradox valley in southwestern colorado and after treating high pressure injects the brine 4 3 4 8 km below the surface pvu injects at rates between 800 and 1300 l min since 1991 pvu has emplaced over 4 106 m3 of fluid and induced more than 4000 surface recorded seismic events the events are recorded on the local 15 station paradox valley seismic network the induced seismicity at paradox separates into two distinct source zones a principle zone 95 of the events asymmetrically surrounding the injection well to a maximum radial distance of 3 km and a secondary ellipsoidal zone 2 5 km long and centered 8 km northwest of the injection well the expansion of these zones has stabilized since mid 1999 about three years after the onset of continuous injection within the principal zone hypocenters align in distinct linear patterns showing at depth stratigraphy and the local wray mesa fracture and fault system the primary faults of the wray mesa system are aseismic striking subparallel to the inferred maximum principal stress direction with one or more faults probably acting as fluid conduits to the secondary seismic zone individual seismic events in both zones do not discernibly correlate with short term injection parameters however a 0 5 km2 region immediately northwest of the injection well responds to long term large scale changes in injection rate and the surpassing of a threshold injection pressure focal mechanisms of the induced events are consistent with simple double couple strike slip moments and subhorizontal extension to the northeast in addition the fault planes are consistent with principal stress directions determined from borehole breakouts more than 99 9 of the pvu seismicity is below human detection m 2 5 however approximately 15 events have been felt locally with the largest being a magnitude m 4 3 because of the m 4 3 and two earlier felt m 3 5 events and injection economics pvu changed injection strategies three times since 1996 these changes reduced seismicity from 1100 events year to as low as 60 events year

the eastern foothills of the eastern cordillera of colombia an example of multiple factors controlling structural styles and active tectonics we decipher the geometry timing and kinematics of deformation of a region in the eastern foothills of the eastern cordillera of colombia we assess the influence of inherited structural fabrics changes in basin geometry erosional denudation and the characteristics of the tectonic stress field with respect to the evolution of the structural styles of the deformation front in the eastern cordillera detailed structural and geomorphic mapping of an area of 5000 km 2 analysis of seismic reflection profiles cross section balancing tectonic stress field indicators and new apatite fission track data are used to characterize the partitioning of late cenozoic deformation in the eastern foothills of the eastern cordillera of colombia during the late miocene pliocene in the eastern cordillera deformation migrated from inverted master normal faults to low elevation low amplitude structures in the foreland however this shift in the locus of deformation was not spatially uniform the deformation front is wider in a northern sector of the cordilleran foothills where sedimentary units are thicker and shortening is perpendicular to the structures this shortening direction is identical to the direction of the greatest horizontal stress s hmax as seen in borehole breakouts during the late miocene pliocene basement ranges are passively uplifted by younger more frontal thrusts the eastern foothills of the eastern cordillera thus reveal a complex combination of factors responsible for the structural styles and partitioning of active deformation in an inversion orogen over time the most important factor changes from the role of inherited structural fabrics to the geometries of basin fills

timing and structure of vegetation fire and climate changes on the pacific slope of northwestern patagonia since the last glacial termination abstract by virtue of its location in the southern mid latitudes northwestern patagonia 40 44 s offers the opportunity to unravel the mechanisms involved in the initiation and propagation of paleoclimate signals of hemispheric and global significance of particular importance is deciphering the evolution of the southern westerly winds sww considering their influence at continental zonal hemispheric and global scale here i present a multi decadal record from lago proschle a small closed basin lake located on the pacific slope of northwestern patagonia to examine the timing and structure of vegetation fire and climate change along a continuum since the onset of the last glacial termination t1 the record shows rapid glacier recession during t1 reaching the western andean foothills in 400 years or less nothofagus dominated forests established between 17 4 17 ka followed by closed canopy north patagonian rain forests nprf with shade tolerant thermophilous trees between 16 3 15 4 ka these changes suggest an abrupt warming trend and an increase in precipitation at 16 3 ka associated with a northward shift of the sww subsequent increases in cold tolerant hygrophilous trees between 15 4 12 8 ka imply a shift to cold more humid conditions during the antarctic cold reversal suggesting stronger sww influence this was followed by stand replacing fires brought by a sudden decline in summer precipitation at 12 8 ka associated with a millennial scale southward shift of the sww which was contemporaneous with the onset of the younger dryas dominance of thermophilous summer drought tolerant valdivian rainforest trees and high fire activity ensued between 10 3 7 8 ka suggesting peak warmth and overall decline in annual precipitation associated with weakening of the sww during the early holocene a multi millennial cooling and wetting trend started at 7 8 ka brought by stronger sww influence followed by recurrent centennial scale variations in temperature and precipitation starting at 6 4 ka deforestation fire and spread of non native herbs by chilean european settlers began during the late 18th century abrupt vegetation changes in the lago proschle record were driven by rapid climate changes over the last 17 400 years amplified in some instances by fire disturbance

characterization of induced seismicity patterns derived from internal structure in event clusters seismicity induced by co2 injection at decatur illinois occurs in distinct clusters and shows no obvious correlation with the proceeding pressure front we analyse some of these clusters in more depth by using a waveform cross correlation approach with this approach we can associate about 1400 events from two clusters with moment magnitudes between 1 1 and 1 7 with specific formations of much smaller vertical dimensions 10th of meters than the depth resolution of traveltime based event locations the differentiation of reservoir and basement events and the definition of sub clusters by waveform correlation rather than by location helps to better analyse the spatio temporal evolution of the events within a cluster in the decatur case this is characterized by event migration from the reservoir into the adjacent basement the spatial variation of brune stress drop and gutenberg b value exhibit signs of a fluid driven triggering mechanism at the cluster level revealing a punctual hydraulic connection between reservoir and basement most likely associated with basement faults cutting into the reservoir the observed clustering of seismicity can thus be explained by the lateral heterogeneity of permeability and crustal strength and is overall consistent with a pressure induced triggering mechanism hence proper long term risk mitigation for large scale fluid injection close to the basement requires prior mapping of small sub seismic basement connected faults

tephra stratigraphy and eruptive volume of the may 2008 chaiten eruption chile on may 1st 2008 mount chaiten southern chile interrupted a long period of quiescence generating a sequence of explosive eruptions and causing the evacuation of chaiten town located a few kilometers south of the volcano the activity was characterized by several explosive events each associated with plumes which reached up to about 19 km above sea level the products were dispersed across a wide area with the finest ash reaching the atlantic coast of argentina our field observations in the proximal medial area 3 25 km from the vent indicate that the may 2008 tephra deposit consists of numerous layers most of which can be correlated with individual eruptive events these layers vary from extremely fine grained ash to layers of lapilli and blocks composed of both juvenile and lithic material here we describe the stratigraphy and physical characteristics of the may 2008 deposits and propose a reconstruction of the timing of the may 2008 events the deposits are mainly associated with the three main explosive phases which occurred on 1st 2nd may 3rd 5th may and 6th may with an estimated bulk tephra volume of 0 5 1 0 km3 integration of both exponential and power law fitting for the 6th may event represented by a layer composed mainly of lithic lapilli and blocks 2 mm an isopleth map was compiled from which a 19 km plume height was determined which is in good agreement with satellite observations

the dallas fort worth earthquake sequence october 2008 through may 2009 this paper describes a sequence of small earthquakes m b 3 3 that occurred at the dallas fort worth airport texas between 30 october 2008 and 31 may 2009 analysis of records at regional station wmok identified more than 180 earthquakes in the sequence about 90 percent occurred in four clusters on 30 october 1 november 20 november 26 december and 15 17 may after the sequence began a six station temporary local network obtained high quality three component records for 11 earthquakes occurring between 20 november and 1 december analysis of these data demonstrated that all 11 earthquakes originated from a focus near 32 855 n 97 051 w with an estimated depth 4 4 km this location is less than 0 5 km from a well completed in august 2008 that extends to a depth of 4 2 km drilled to dispose of brines collected during flowback of hydraulic fracturing fluids associated with the production of natural gas brine disposal commenced at the well on 12 september 2008 seismograms and s p intervals for the earthquakes are similar though not identical and relative locations indicate they occurred along a north northeast south southwest trend with horizontal and vertical dimensions of 1 1 km and 0 2 km respectively this trend is approximately coincident with that of a mapped normal fault in the subsurface and consistent with the maximum horizontal in situ stress direction because of the absence of previous historical earthquakes the proximity of the brine disposal well and the similarity with other documented cases of induced seismicity it seems likely that fluid injection induced the 2008 2009 sequence

induced earthquake magnitudes are as large as statistically expected a major question for the hazard posed by injection induced seismicity is how large induced earthquakes can be are their maximum magnitudes determined by injection parameters or by tectonics deterministic limits on induced earthquake magnitudes have been proposed based on the size of the reservoir or the volume of fluid injected however if induced earthquakes occur on tectonic faults oriented favorably with respect to the tectonic stress field then they may be limited only by the regional tectonics and connectivity of the fault network in this study we show that the largest magnitudes observed at fluid injection sites are consistent with the sampling statistics of the gutenberg richter distribution for tectonic earthquakes assuming no upper magnitude bound the data pass three specific tests 1 the largest observed earthquake at each site scales with the log of the total number of induced earthquakes 2 the order of occurrence of the largest event is random within the induced sequence and 3 the injected volume controls the total number of earthquakes rather than the total seismic moment all three tests point to an injection control on earthquake nucleation but a tectonic control on earthquake magnitude given that the largest observed earthquakes are exactly as large as expected from the sampling statistics we should not conclude that these are the largest earthquakes possible instead the results imply that induced earthquake magnitudes should be treated with the same maximum magnitude bound that is currently used to treat seismic hazard from tectonic earthquakes

vegetation fire and climate change in central east isla grande de chiloe 43 s since the last glacial maximum northwestern patagonia abstract we present a detailed record from lago lepue to examine vegetation climate and fire regime changes since the last glacial maximum lgm in central east isla grande de chiloe 43 s northwestern patagonia precipitation in this region correlates with the intensity of the southern westerly winds sww allowing reconstruction of past sww behavior through precipitation sensitive sensors recession from the lgm glacier margins exposed the central east sector of isla grande de chiloe by 17 800 cal yr bp followed by the immediate colonization of pioneer cold resistant herbs shrubs and rapid establishment of closed canopy nothofagus forests by 17 000 cal yr bp broad leaved temperate rainforests have persisted since then with compositional changes driven by changes in temperature hydrologic balance and disturbance regimes we detect low lake levels and enhanced fire activity between 800 2000 4000 4300 8000 11 000 and 16 100 17 800 cal yr bp implying southward shifts and or weaker sww flow that alternated with cold humid phases with muted fire activity covariation in paleoclimate trends revealed by the lago lepue record with tropical and antarctic records since the lgm suggests that the sww have been a highly dynamic component of the climate system capable of linking climate changes from low and high southern latitudes during the last glacial termination and the current interglacial

the 17 may 2012 m4 8 earthquake near timpson east texas an event possibly triggered by fluid injection this study summarizes our investigation of the 17 may 2012 mw rmt4 8 earthquake near timpson texas the largest earthquake recorded historically in eastern texas to identify preshocks and aftershocks of the 17 may event we examined the arrivals recorded at nacogdoches natx 30 km from the 17 may epicenter at nearby usarray transportable array stations and at eight temporary stations deployed between 26 may 2012 and mid 2013 at natx we identified seven preshocks the earliest occurring in april 2008 reliably located aftershocks recorded by the temporary stations lie along a 6 km long nw se linear trend corresponding to a previously mapped basement fault that extends across the highest intensity mmi vii region of the 17 may main shock earthquakes in this sequence are relatively shallow with focal depths ranging from 1 6 to 4 6 km evidence supporting these depths include hypocentral locations of exceptionally well recorded aftershocks s p intervals at the nearest stations and comparisons of synthetics and observed seismograms within 3 km of the linear trend of aftershock activity there are two class ii injection disposal wells injecting at 1 9 km depth beginning in august 2006 and february 2007 with injection rates averaging 42 750 m3 mo and 15 600 m3 mo respectively several observations support the hypothesis that fluid injection triggered the timpson sequence well located epicenters are situated near a mapped basement fault and near high volume injection wells focal depths are at or below the depths of injection and the earliest preshock april 2008 occurred after the onset of injection in 2006

geological structure of the paradox valley region colorado and relationship to seismicity induced by deep well injection the bureau of reclamation reclamation operates a deep injection well at paradox valley in western colorado seismicity has been recorded since 1985 with more than 5900 likely induced earthquakes detected since injection operations began in 1991 making this project a unique and valuable case study in the long term development of injection induced seismicity likely induced earthquakes occur in a complex pattern with clusters separated by aseismic gaps of 2 km or more and have been observed up to 16 km from the injection well to evaluate how the subsurface geologic structure may control the occurrence of induced seismicity we compare the earthquake locations to a set of geologic models that reclamation commissioned prior to drilling the injection well our analysis indicates that many aspects of the observed seismicity pattern can be attributed to the complex geologic structure the earthquake depths and locations are generally consistent with the structural trends of the primary injection target formation within the uncertainty of the models and some of the mapped basement faults appear to serve as boundaries in the earthquake locations suggesting that they are barriers to flow additionally the majority of events follow the predicted fluid flow pattern which trends northwest southeast and wraps around paradox valley some features of the seismicity pattern such as the early onset of seismicity to the northwest of the injection well and the distinct clustering are not explained by the current geologic models and may be related to unmapped geologic features or local variations in the stress field

stratigraphy age and correlation of lepue tephra a widespread c 11 000 cal a bp marker horizon sourced from the chaiten sector of southern chile we describe the stratigraphy age and correlation of a prominent tephra marker named lepue tephra extensively distributed in north western patagonia lepue tephra is well dated at c 11 000 cal a bp from numerous lake and soil cover bed sequences and its recognition is useful for assessing the rate and timing of deglaciation as well as associated environmental changes in this region during the last glacial termination and early holocene lepue tephra has attributes typical of a complex and compositionally zoned phreatomagmatic eruptive while the initial rhyolitic phase can be readily distinguished from multiple eruptive products sourced from the adjacent volcan chaiten the main erupted end member is of basaltic andesitic bulk composition similar to younger tephras sourced from holocene monogenetic cones adjacent to the volcan michimahuida massif tmim lepue tephra can be correlated to an equivalent aged pyroclastic flow deposit amarillo ignimbrite prominently distributed in the south eastern sector of tmim the source vent for these co eruptive events is obscured by an extensive ice field and is currently unknown the widespread radially symmetrical distribution of lepue tephra centred on tmim cannot be attributed solely to volcanological considerations reduced southern hemisphere westerly wind influence interpreted from climate proxies at the time of eruption are also implicated

plate tectonic analysis of shallow seismicity apparent boundary width beta corner magnitude coupled lithosphere thickness and coupling in seven tectonic settings a new plate model is used to analyze the mean seismicities of seven types of plate boundary crb continental rift boundary ctf continental transform fault ccb continental convergent boundary osr oceanic spreading ridge otf oceanic transform fault ocb oceanic convergent boundary sub subduction zone we compare the platelike nonorogen regions of model pb2002 bird 2003 with the centroid moment tensor cmt catalog to select apparent boundary half widths and then assign 95 of shallow earthquakes to one of these settings a tapered gutenberg richter model of the frequency moment relation is fit to the subcatalog for each setting by maximum likelihood best fitting values range from 0 53 to 0 92 but all 95 confidence ranges are consistent with a common value of 0 61 0 66 to better determine some corner magnitudes we expand the subcatalogs by 1 inclusion of orogens and 2 inclusion of years 1900 1975 from the catalog of pacheco and sykes 1992 combining both earthquake statistics and the plate tectonic constraint on moment rate corner magnitudes include the following crb graphic 1 ctf graphic 2 ccb graphic 3 ocb graphic 4 and sub graphic 5 coupled lithosphere thicknesses are found to be the following crb graphic 6 ctf graphic 7 ccb graphic 8 osr graphic 9 for normal faulting and graphic 10 for strike slip otf graphic 11 and graphic 12 at low medium and high velocities ocb graphic 13 and sub graphic 14 in general high coupling of subduction and continental plate boundaries suggests that here all seismic gaps are dangerous unless proven to be creeping in general low coupling within oceanic lithosphere suggests a different model of isolated seismic fault patches surrounded by large seismic gaps that may be permanent online material global seismic subcatalogs of shallow earthquakes 1 embed inline graphic 1 gif 2 embed inline graphic 2 gif 3 embed inline graphic 3 gif 4 embed inline graphic 4 gif 5 embed inline graphic 5 gif 6 embed inline graphic 6 gif 7 embed inline graphic 7 gif 8 embed inline graphic 8 gif 9 embed inline graphic 9 gif 10 embed inline graphic 10 gif 11 embed inline graphic 11 gif 12 embed inline graphic 12 gif 13 embed inline graphic 13 gif 14 embed inline graphic 14 gif

universality of the seismic moment frequency relation we analyze the seismic moment frequency relation in various depth ranges and for different seismic regions using flinn engdahl s regionalization of global seismicity three earthquake lists of centroid moment tensor data have been used the harvard catalog the usgs catalog and the huang et al 1997 catalog of deep earthquakes the results confirm the universality of the values and the maximum moment for shallow earthquakes in continental regions as well as at and near continental boundaries moreover we show that although fluctuations in earthquake size distribution increase with depth the values for earthquakes in the depth range of 0 500 km exhibit no statistically significant regional variations the regional variations are significant only for deep events near the 660 km boundary for declustered shallow earthquake catalogs and deeper events we show that the worldwide values have the same value of 0 60 0 02 this finding suggests that the value is a universal constant we investigate the statistical correlations between the numbers of seismic events in different depth ranges and the correlation of the tectonic deformation rate and seismic activity the number of earthquakes above a certain threshold level per year the high level of these correlations suggests that seismic activity indicates tectonic deformation rate in subduction zones combined with the universality of the value this finding implies little if any variation in maximum earthquake seismic moment among various subduction zones if we assume that earthquakes of maximum size are similar in different depth ranges and the seismic efficiency coefficient is close to 100 for shallow seismicity then we can estimate for deeper earthquakes for intermediate earthquakes 5 and 1 for deep events these results may lead to new theoretical understanding of the earthquake process and better estimates of seismic hazard

synchronisation of sedimentary records using tephra a postglacial tephrochronological model for the chilean lake district abstract well characterised tephra horizons deposited in various sedimentary environments provide a means of synchronising sedimentary archives the use of tephra as a chronological tool is however still widely underutilised in southern chile and argentina in this study we develop a postglacial tephrochronological model for the chilean lake district ca 38 to 42 s by integrating terrestrial and lacustrine records tephra deposits preserved in lake sediments record discrete events even if they do not correspond to primary fallout by combining terrestrial with lacustrine records we obtain the most complete tephrostratigraphic record for the area to date we present glass geochemical and chronological data for key marker horizons that may be used to synchronise sedimentary archives used for palaeoenvironmental palaeoclimatological and palaeoseismological purposes most volcanoes in the studied segment of the southern volcanic zone between llaima and calbuco have produced at least one regional marker deposit resulting from a large explosive eruption magnitude 4 some of which now have a significantly improved age estimate e g the 10 5 ka llaima pumice eruption from llaima volcano others including several units from puyehue cordon caulle are newly described here we also find tephra related to the cha1 eruption from chaiten volcano in lake sediments up to 400 km north from source several clear marker horizons are now identified that should help refine age model reconstructions for various sedimentary archives our chronological model suggests three distinct phases of eruptive activity impacting the area with an early to mid holocene period of relative quiescence extending our tephrochronological framework further south into patagonia will allow a more detailed evaluation of the controls on the occurrence and magnitude of explosive eruptions throughout the postglacial

geodynamics of the northern andes subductions and intracontinental deformation colombia new regional seismological data acquired in colombia during 1993 to 1996 and tectonic field data from the eastern cordillera ec permit a reexamination of the complex geodynamics of northwestern south america the effect of the accretion of the baudo panama oceanic arc which began 12 myr ago is highlighted in connection with mountain building in the ec the istmina and ibague faults in the south and the santa marta bucaramanga fault to the northeast limit an e se moving continental wedge progressive indentation of the wedge is absorbed along reverse faults located in the foothills of the cordilleras northward of 5 n and transpressive deformation in the santander massif crustal seismicity in colombia is accurately correlated with active faults showing neotectonic morphological evidences intermediate seismicity allows to identify a n ne trending subduction segment beneath the ec which plunges toward the e se this subduction is interpreted as a remnant of the paleo caribbean plateau pcp as suggested by geological and tomographic profiles the pcp shows a low angle subduction northward of 5 2 n and is limited southward by a major e w transpressive shear zone normal oceanic subduction of the nazca plate np ends abruptly at the southern limit of the baudo range northward the np subducts beneath the choco block overlapping the southern part of the pcp cenozoic shortening in the ec estimated from a balanced section is 120 km stress analysis of fault slip data in the ec northward of 4 n indicates an e se orientation of 1 in agreement with the pcp subduction direction northward near bucaramanga two stress solutions were observed 1 a late andean n80 e compression and 2 an early andean nw se compression

an 18 000 year long eruptive record from volcan chaiten northwestern patagonia paleoenvironmental and hazard assessment implications abstract the 2008 eruption of volcan chaiten vcha in northwestern patagonia was the first explosive rhyolitic eruption to have occurred within a century and provided an unprecedented scientific opportunity to examine all facets of the eruption ranging from magma rheology ascent rates to ash fall effects on biota and infrastructure up to very recently it was thought that the latest eruption prior to the 2008 event occurred c 9750 cal a bp although a number of researchers have recognised additional eruptive products but their stratigraphy age and geochemical attributes have not been systematically described and or recorded in this study we provide a detailed examination of andic cover beds and tephra bearing lake sequences located both proximally and distally to vcha which record a series of hitherto unknown rhyolitic eruptive products and place all previous observations firmly within a coherent stratigraphic framework through major and trace element glass shard geochemistry we are able to confidently verify eruptive source a total of 20 discrete tephra beds are recognised with at least 10 having widespread areal distributions and or depositional imprints broadly comparable to or greater than the 2008 tephra event this record indicates that vcha has been continuously but intermittently active as far back as the end of the last glacial maximum c 18 000 cal a bp with two dominant genetically related magma types and an intermediary mixed type before this the eruptive record has been largely obscured and or erased by widespread andean piedmont glaciation however based on the tempo of vcha activity over the last c 18 000 years older vcha eruptives can be anticipated to occur as well as future hazardous explosive events the new eruptive inventory will ultimately be useful for correlating equivalent aged sequences and refining long term eruptive tempo as well as corresponding temporal changes in magmatic evolution

synthetic fluid inclusions in natural quartz ii application to pvt studies synthetic fluid inclusions have been used to determine volumetric properties of h2o and a 20 wt kcl solution from 300 700 c and 1 3 kb comparison of results obtained for h2o with previously published data indicates that the synthetic fluid inclusion technique provides pvt data that are within a few percent of those obtained from conventional pvt studies this technique thus provides a fast relatively simple means of determining pvt properties of many fluids of geologic interest

assessing whether the 2017 mw 5 4 pohang earthquake in south korea was an induced event the moment magnitude m w 5 4 pohang earthquake the most damaging event in south korea since instrumental seismic observation began in 1905 occurred beneath the pohang geothermal power plant in 2017 geological and geophysical data suggest that the pohang earthquake was induced by fluid from an enhanced geothermal system egs site which was injected directly into a near critically stressed subsurface fault zone the magnitude of the mainshock makes it the largest known induced earthquake at an egs site

an assessment of the accuracy of isochore location techniques for h2o co2 nacl fluids at granulite facies pressure temperature conditions abstract synthetic h 2 o co 2 nacl fluid inclusions with xco 2 compositions ranging from 0 10 0 51 and relative salinities r s wt nacl wt nacl wt h 2 o of 6 to 23 9 wt have been produced in spontaneously nucleated forsterite diopside and orthopyroxene hosts molar volumes of the fluids at the pressure and temperature of formation have been calculated using microthermometric data from the fluid inclusions these p v t data are used to compare the accuracy of published methods of isochore location for h 2 o co 2 nacl fluids at elevated pressures and temperatures the results of these analyses show that isochores calculated with the mrk equation of bowers and helgeson geochim cosmochim acta vol 47 1247 1275 1983 reproduce the trapping pressures and temperatures well for fluids with xco 2 0 3 and up to 23 9 wt nacl for a fluid with xco 2 0 49 and relative salinity of 15 however the agreement is poor for these fluid compositions the observed molar volume is larger than that predicted from the mrk equation of bowers and helgeson and if not corrected will give isochores that are too low in pressure for a given temperature the ideal geometric mixing model of brown and lamb geochim cosmochim acta vol 53 1209 1221 1989 provides less satisfactory results for the fluid compositions studied

seismic moment frequency relation for shallow earthquakes regional comparison we determine the parameter values for the seismic moment frequency relation using flinn engdahl s regionalization of global seismicity and the harvard centroid moment tensor data the earthquake size distribution is approximated by the gamma law a version of the gutenberg richter distribution with an exponential taper at the maximum moment there is no statistically significant variation of the fj value the analog of the b value for all seismic regions except for the midocean ridge systems for the latter regions fj 0 93 whereas for all other zones fj 0 63 the maximum moment mxg can be statistically evaluated only for subduction zones treated as a whole mxg 10 21 2 x 10 22 newton m which corresponds to the worldwide mxg value for other regions as well as for single subduction zones mxg is determined by comparing the number of events in each zone with the seismic moment rate calculated on the basis of the nuvel 1 model of plate motion for subduction zones we obtain the estimate of mxg which agrees with the statistical value giving evidence that most tectonic deformation is released by earthquakes we test the hypothesis that no statistically significant variation in mxg occurs in subduction and continent collision zones the hypothesis cannot be rejected with available data for the midocean ridges the mxg estimate cannot be unambiguously determined it is quite possible that the estimate is significantly biased because only a small part of tectonic deformation at the ridges is released by earthquakes these results have importance in evaluating seismic risk and may also lead to developing a physical theory for earthquake generation

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

evidencing the relationship between injected volume of water and maximum expected magnitude during the puerto gaitan colombia earthquake sequence from 2013 to 2015

hydraulic fracturing volume is associated with induced earthquake productivity in the duvernay play a sharp increase in the frequency of earthquakes near fox creek alberta began in december 2013 in response to hydraulic fracturing using a hydraulic fracturing database we explore relationships between injection parameters and seismicity response we show that induced earthquakes are associated with completions that used larger injection volumes 10 4 to 10 5 cubic meters and that seismic productivity scales linearly with injection volume injection pressure and rate have an insignificant association with seismic response further findings suggest that geological factors play a prominent role in seismic productivity as evidenced by spatial correlations together volume and geological factors account for 96 of the variability in the induced earthquake rate near fox creek this result is quantified by a seismogenic index modified frequency magnitude distribution providing a framework to forecast induced seismicity

seasonality of the enso related rainfall variability in central chile and associated circulation anomalies the seasonality of the enso rainfall relationship in central chile 308 418s and associated circulation anomalies are studied using correlation and compositing techniques during el nino episodes there is a tendency for the occurrence of above average precipitation between 308 and 358s in winter june july august jja and from 358 to 388s in late spring october november on while rainfall deficit is typically observed from around 388 to 418s during the following summer january february march jfm when el nino reaches its maximum development opposite rainfall anomalies are characteristic during la nina events this study confirms results from previous investigations indicating that enhanced blocking activity over the amundsen bellings hausen seas area in the southeastern se pacific during el nino is a key feature explaining the wet conditions in winter it is also shown that the same circulation anomaly explains the relatively wet conditions in late spring in the 358 388s region during el nino episodes furthermore the southward displacement from winter to late spring of the area with significant enso related rainfall anomalies seems associated with the seasonal migration of the boundary separating the region under the influence of the subtropical domain from the extratropical domain where the westerly regime and associated disturbances prevail blocking episodes in the se pacific during el nino seem to be part of a wave structure particularly intense during spring characterized by a sequence of positive and negative quasi barotropic height anomalies stretching southeastward from the equator toward the se pacific and back to the southwestern atlantic on the other hand anomalously dry conditions in winter and late spring during la nina are favored by long lasting and intense ridges at subtropical latitudes over the se pacific and south america resulting in a southward migration of the midlatitude storm tracks in summer a higher frequency of ridges in the southern tip of the south america during el nino episodes presumably contributes to reinforcement of the southern edge of the subtropical anticyclone in the se pacific which at this time of the year reaches its southernmost position resulting in the annual rainfall minimum on the other hand an increased frequency of cyclonic circulation anomalies crossing the southern tip of the continent is associated with relatively wet conditions in southern central chile particularly during la nina events