dike fault interaction during the 2004 dallol intrusion at the northern edge of the erta ale ridge afar ethiopia received 17 july 2012 revised 29 august 2012 accepted 4 september 2012 published 12 october 2012 1 during continental rifting the interaction between faulting and magmatic intrusions is not well understood using insar and seismicity we show that a 0 06 km 3 dike was intruded along the dallol segment ethiopia and was accompanied by a mw 5 5 earthquake and associated fault slip along the western flank of the rift the intrusion was fed by a previously unidentified magma chamber under dallol the total seismic moment release was 2 3 10 17 nm 10 of the geodetic moment this is a higher proportion than during the 2005 2009 dabbahu rifting episode which ranged between 1 4 of the geodetic moment a larger component of faulting occurs at dallol than at dabbahu segment a feature we interpret to be related to the proximity 10 km of the dallol segment to the rift margin where welldeveloped faults facilitate slip citation nobile a c pagli d keir t j wright a ayele j ruch and v acocella 2012 dike fault interaction during the 2004 dallol intrusion at the northern edge of the erta ale ridge afar ethiopia geophys res lett 39 l19305 doi 10 1029 2012gl053152

lateral extrusion of lower crust from under high topography in the isostatic limit where there is isostasy the rocks of the lower continental crust are subject to an effective lateral pressure gradient equal to the gradient of topographic load whether compensation is in crustal roots or in the mantle the result is a poiseuille flow planar channel flow in the weak lower crust which removes crust from under mountains and smooths and levels the topography assuming cubic power law creep the flux of crust is proportional to the third power of the topographic gradient to the usual arrhenius term to the tenth power of the absolute temperature of the lower crust and to the negative fifth power of the geothermal gradient the result is that any initial condition with an isolated high tends eventually toward a state where the topography is pancake shaped with a flat central plateau and steeper flanks spreading outward when adjacent pancakes merge most of the relief is eliminated flow may either roughen or smooth the moho depending on whether there are lateral density contrasts in the mantle lithosphere or not although it is difficult to find analytic solutions for this evolution it is easily simulated numerically using various published flow laws for plausible lower crustal rocks lateral extrusion is shown to be insignificant under the oceans marginally significant under shields and platforms important under elevated plains and dominant beneath high plateaus and or hot delaminated regions in particular the basin and range province of the western united states cannot maintain short wavelength 100 km moho relief of more than 1 km for times greater than 10 20 m y at most if the tibetan plateau of china has been delaminated as recently suggested then it may flatten even faster reducing 100 km wavelength topographic features to 200 m relief in no more than 0 03 0 13 m y and leaving only features with wavelengths over 400 km at the present therefore the lower crust of tibet may resemble a hydraulic reservoir as previously suggested because the flatness of the moho is self maintained in these regions information on past tectonics is continually lost and the present moho shape cannot be used to balance cross sections for times in the past the flatness of the moho today is not a constraint on the mechanisms of extension or shortening in these regions nor is it evidence for underplating by intrusions it also follows that very intense and inhomogeneous dilational strains may have occurred locally as in the metamorphic core complexes of the basin and range province

ground deformation near gada ale volcano afar observed by radar interferometry radar interferometric measurements of ground surface displacement using ers data show a change in radar range corresponding to up to 12 cm of subsidence near gada ale volcano in northern afar ethiopia that occurred between june 1993 and may 1996 this is the area of lowest topography within the danakil depression 126 m geodetic inverse modeling and geological evidence suggest a volcanic origin of the observed deformation it was probably caused by a combined process of magma withdrawal from a larger reservoir and normal faulting there is no evidence of subaerial eruption this is the only identifiable deformation event during june 1993 october 1997 in the 80 km long erta ale volcanic range indicating surprising inactivity elsewhere in the range

magnetostratigraphic and rock magnetic study of the neogene upper yaha section kuche depression tarim basin implications to formation of the xiyu conglomerate formation nw china 1 magnetostratigraphic study of 251 horizons through the younger yaha succession in the kuche depression of the tarim basin nw china lying beneath a massive regionally extensive xiyu conglomerate formation identifies nine reversed and eight normal polarity chrons correlating with the geomagnetic polarity time scale to show that deposition spanned the interval 5 3 to 1 7 ma sedimentation rates fell episodically from 49 to 24 cm kyr as neotectonic deformation in the southern tian shan thrust belt became focused on two major anticlines with the northern qiulitage anticline being initiated at 5 5 ma and developing a northern hinged limb that embraces the basal part of the studied section rock magnetic parameters show multiple signatures of lithologic change deformation burial diagenesis and climate with the latter identifying an early pliocene warm humid interval followed by cooling and desertification after 2 6 ma diachronous commencement of xiyu conglomerate deposition ranged from mid miocene in the north of the southern flank of the tian shan to pleistocene in the south advancing as a clastic wedge derived from the uplifted range front to the north this southward progradation was not climatically controlled although climatic effects may have modulated deposition during the pleistocene uplift in the tian shan at 16 15 ma correlates with rapid increase in sedimentation rate and episodic increases occurred subsequently until the initiation of the qiulitage anticline reduced rates since 5 0 ma contrast with increases more commonly recorded in foreland basins and have been controlled by accelerated growth of this regional structure counterbalancing uplift of the mountain front to the north

surface deformation and lower crustal flow in eastern tibet field observations and satellite geodesy indicate that little crustal shortening has occurred along the central to southern margin of the eastern tibetan plateau since about 4 million years ago instead central eastern tibet has been nearly stationary relative to southeastern china southeastern tibet has rotated clockwise without major crustal shortening and the crust along portions of the eastern plateau margin has been extended modeling suggests that these phenomena are the result of continental convergence where the lower crust is so weak that upper crustal deformation is decoupled from the motion of the underlying mantle this model also predicts east west extension on the high plateau without convective removal of tibetan lithosphere and without eastward movement of the crust east of the plateau

anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility of eocene and miocene sediments in the qaidam basin northwest china implication for cenozoic tectonic transition and depocenter migration the cenozoic evolution of the qaidam basin especially its paleostress field can provide a better understanding of the dynamistic process of the northern tibetan plateau under certain conditions anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams holds great potential for investigating early tectonic events even where macroscopic and microscopic evidence of deformation is invisible a basin scale ams study of the middle to late eocene xiaganchaigou formation and the early to middle miocene xiayoushashan formation from seven locations was conducted covering most outcrops of these two formations within the qaidam basin in the western qaidam basin principal stress directions inferred from ams ellipsoids consist with those inferred from fold axial traces while at eboliang and in the northern qaidam basin most principal stress directions reflected by ams ellipsoids are different from those reflected by fold axial traces two epochs of compressive strain have been identified an early n s strain no later than oligocene and a late ne sw strain since miocene the early n s compression is more intense in the northern qaidam basin than that in the western qaidam basin while the late ne sw compression which dominates the modern nw se trending fold axial traces is more intense in the western qaidam basin than that in the northern qaidam basin the stress transfer provides a reasonable explanation for the southeastward migration of the deposition center in the qaidam basin during cenozoic moreover the appearance of e component compression may be in close relationship with the beginning of the left lateral strike slip kunlun fault or the eastward channel flow to the south of the kunlun fault

insar observations of the 1995 fogo cape verde eruption implications for the effects of collapse events upon island volcanoes 1 fogo volcano cape verde islands erupted in april 1995 after 43 years of dormancy about 46 106 m3 of lava erupted during 7 5 weeks from vents on the sw flank of pico do fogo into cha das caldeiras interferograms obtained from 1993 1998 ers sar data show ground deformation due to the feeder dike but lack evidence for any volcano wide deformation related to volume changes of a shallow magma reservoir this suggests that fogo is fed from a relatively deep mantle lithospheric source 16 5 km depth consistent with petrological data this supports the concept that cha das caldeiras is the fill of a collapse scar created by a giant landslide and not a collapse caldera overlying a central shallow magma chamber the disturbance of the magmatic system by giant landslides may explain why some oceanic island volcanoes with high magma supply rates currently lack well developed shallow reservoirs

anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility of the jingou river section implications for late cenozoic uplift of the tian shan better constraints on the uplift history of tian shan will increase our understanding of both mountain building processes and deformation patterns related to the india asian collision anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams holds great potential to track variations in tectonic strain which is ultimately responsible for mountain uplift here we present an ams record spanning the interval of 28 4 ma from the fluviolucastrine jingou river section in the tian shan foreland rock magnetic measurements show that the ams are dominated by antiferromagnetic hematite and some paramagnetic minerals both of which have a crystallographic preferred orientation and therefore the ams sequence may be applied to reconstruct tectonic strain although the principal minimum k min direction is nearly perpendicular to the bedding plane indicative of a predominantly sedimentary fabric for the section the tightly grouped principal maximum k max parallel to the fold axis suggests that the section was subject to an embryonic deformation at least since the late oligocene the k max direction is most likely associated with the n s strain caused by the india asian collision during the intervals of 23 3 20 0 ma and 16 5 14 0 ma the strain markedly increased as evidenced by more tightly grouped k max directions and k min largely distributed within a clear n s girdle these two intervals are accompanied by changes in sedimentary facies higher energy conditions and doubled sedimentation rates and are interpreted as the periods when the tian shan experienced significant uplift a conceptual model is tentatively proposed to reconcile various timings for the tian shan uplift

decomposition location and persistence of seismic signals recovered from continuous tremor at erta ale ethiopia abstract subband decomposition and reconstruction sdr provides a quantitative semi automated rapid means of analyzing volcanic tremor which can recover signals that dominate different parts of the frequency spectrum while preserving polarization and phase here applied to data from a two week experiment at erta ale in nov dec 2003 we demonstrate that the sdr method can identify signals corresponding to source processes active in several different physical regions of the erta ale caldera different recovered signals suggest that the continuous tremor at erta ale is a composite of several seismic sources including conduit resonance bubble bursting phenomena and degassing at fumaroles these signals are seen throughout the 2003 experiment suggesting that several competing source models of volcanic tremor can produce signals at the same volcanic conduit system simultaneously

present day deformation of the qaidam basin with implications for intra continental tectonics abstract the qaidam basin is a plateau of low relief about 3 km in elevation and covering a large area of 1 2 105 km2 physiographically the basin marks a transitional region between the northeastern tibetan plateau 5 0 5 km in elevation and the surrounding low lying areas the northeastern and southwestern edges of the basin are bounded by the qilian shan nan shan and qimantag eastern kunlun shan mountain belts respectively at present the entire region is under northeast southwest compression based on a synthesis of recent geological and geophysical results we propose that each flanking mountain belt consists of a sequence of crustal nappes originating from ramp thrusts at mid crustal levels 15 km deep over a distance range of 700 km these two broad fold and thrust belts operating in tandem and with some uniform shortening in the intervening qaidam basin successively raised the surface elevation from below 2 km to 5 km at depth the crust is correspondingly thickened from 40 km beneath the foreland of the qilian shan to approximately 55 km under the interior of the qaidam basin and then to nearly 70 km beneath tibet in contrast to the himalayan front where earthquake faulting occurs down to a depth of 50 km in the foreland but the zone of active thrust faulting is less than 200 km in width plateau building in the qaidam region illustrates how a wide orogen is developing along northeastern tibet in the interior of eurasia

displacement and timing of left lateral faulting in the kunlun fault zone northern tibet inferred from geologic and geomorphic features abstract the e w to wnw ese striking kunlun fault zone extending about 1600 km is one of the large strike slip faults in the northern tibet china as a major strike slip fault it plays an important role on the extrusion of tibet plateau in accommodating northeastward shortening caused by the india asia convergence however the time of initiation left lateral faulting of the kunlun fault zone is still largely debated ranging from the middle to late triassic 240 200 ma to early quaternary 2 ma we document displaced basement rocks and geomorphic features along the kunlun fault zone based on tectono geomorphic interpretation of satellite remote sensing images and field geologic and geomorphic observations our results show that the largest cumulative offset of basement rocks is likely to be 100 20 km meanwhile a series of pull apart basins kusai xiugou and tuosu lake basins and pressure ridges east deshuiwai and maji snow mountains each 45 70 km long and 8 12 km wide are developed along the kunlun fault zone which resulted from long term tectono geomorphic growth since the late miocene or early pliocene geologic evidence indicates that the kunlun fault zone had a long term slip rate of ca 10 mm yr during the late quaternary this slip rate is similar to that shown by present day gps measurements thus we estimate that the kunlun fault zone probably began left lateral faulting at 10 2 ma based on a total displacement of 100 20 km and assuming a constant long term slip rate of ca 10 mm yr for several millions of years and this timing constraint on initiation of left lateral faulting of the kunlun fault zone is consistent with widespread tectonic deformation which occurred in the tibetan plateau

magnetostratigraphy of the dahonggou section northern qaidam basin and its bearing on cenozoic tectonic evolution of the qilian shan and altyn tagh fault article i nfo the timing of uplift of the tibet plateau has a central role in the development of tectonic models for the tibet plateau and cenozoic global climate change a detailed magnetostratigraphic study of the dahonggou section northern qaidam basin reveal that the section spans from 34 to 8 5 ma and the ages of the shang ganchaigou xia youshashan and shang youshashan formations are from 34 to 22 20 ma 22 20 to 13 ma and 13 to 8 5 ma respectively variations in lithofacies sedimentation rate and magnetic susceptibility k suggest that the southern qilian shan was tectonically inactive and didn t respond to the rapid slip on the altyn tagh fault at 30 ma in contrast the similar sedimentary records in the dahonggou section the xishuigou section along the altyn tagh fault and even more localities along much of the qilian range front imply that the qilian shan and the altyn tagh fault were synchronously tectonically active at about 12 ma the lower k between 12 ma and 8 5 ma in the sediments of the dahonggou section is interpreted to be due to long distanced oxidation and sorting which cause not only that magnetite was oxidated to hematite but also that magnetic minerals are enriched in fine grained sediments and coarse grained sediments bear few magnetic mineral

uniform permian 40ar 39ar detrital mica ages in the eastern qaidam basin nw china where is the source new single grain 40ar 39ar detrital white mica ages from the lulehe section at the eastern qaidam basin yield uniform permian ages between 250 3 and 279 3 ma throughout the whole cenozoic sequence this is inconsistent with the present hinterland which is composed of early palaeozoic metamorphic units with subordinate early palaeozoic and few permian granites the new data indicate that permian tectonic units are likely more widespread at the north eastern margin of the tibetan plateau as known at present particularly within the qilian mountains the preferred explanation is that the qaidam block represents a rigid indenter which indented during late tertiary times into early palaeozoic orogenic units this is consistent with recent findings of a nw trending sinistral permian ductile shear zone and a dextral nw trending tertiary fault system close to the north eastern margin of the qaidam basin

magnetostratigraphy of the suerkuli basin indicates pliocene 3 2 ma activity of the middle altyn tagh fault northern tibetan plateau abstract the left lateral strike slip altyn tagh fault atf forming the northern boundary of the tibetan plateau accommodates parts of the overall convergence between the colliding indian and eurasian plates precise dating of the atf activity is essential for understanding possible mechanisms of tibetan plateau deformation and uplift here we report a magnetostratigraphic study of the suerkuli basin deposits recording depositional changes during the atf activity field investigations reveal a remarkable and widespread change in depositional environment in the suerkuli basin i e a transformation from low energy lacustrine deposits grayish green mud siltstone and brown mud siltstone into high energy alluviul fan deposits poorly sorted gray pebble and cobble conglomerates detailed magnetostratigraphy of the 390 m thick daban section at the southeastern margin of the suerkuli basin 38 43 09 n 90 58 84 e shows that this change in depositional facies occurred at 3 2 ma accompanied by a remarkable increase in sediment accumulation rate we attribute this depositional change to the piocene tectonic activity of the middle atf although the contribution of the pliocene global climate deterioration cannot be excluded

two stage evolution model for the altyn tagh fault china the northeastern extension of the altyn tagh fault china beyond the apparently truncated qilian shan has been controversial since the recognition of this large left slip fault we propose that the altyn tagh fault may have been contiguous with the east northeast to northeast trending currently inactive but apparently active during the cenozoic alxa east mongolia fault the latter truncated the beishan orogen to the northwest and the inner mongolia orogen to the southeast the beishan orogen can be correlated with the inner mongolia orogen on the basis of the recognition of three offset petrotectonic units and two offset sutures this correlation requires 400 50 km of left lateral offset along the alxa east mongolia fault identical to the slip along the northern segment of the altyn tagh fault inferred by p molnar and p tapponnier we suggest a two stage model for fault evolution during the first stage 400 km of displacement separated the inner mongolia orogen from the originally contiguous beishan orogen along a continuous altyn tagh alxa east mongolia fault during the second stage the alxa east mongolia fault became inactive and additional offset along the altyn tagh fault has been mainly accommodated by shortening of the qilian shan and the qaidam basin we infer that the first stage of movement along the altyn tagh alxa east mongolia fault system may have begun around oligocene time the region transformed to the second stage of fault movement ca 13 16 ma probably because of thinning of the lithospheric mantle beneath northern tibet the proposed model suggests that the derbur fault in northernmost china and beyond is an extension of the alxa east mongolia fault and has a history of strike slip movement the nearly 400 km of offset on the alxa east mongolia fault may have been accommodated mainly by subduction in the sea of okhotsk

tectonic implications of the 1989 afar earthquake sequence in august 1989 a sequence of m b 5 6 normal faulting earthquakes occurred in the area between the ghoubbet asal manda inakir and manda haroro abhe bad rifts in central afar relocation of the events suggest they occurred on major faults in the dobi graben located midway between the principal rift zones the earthquakes are evidence that extensional strain is still occurring in the area the bookshelf tectonic model for central and southern afar proposed by tapponnier et al 1990 is modified to account for ongoing extension in the area between the principal rifts as well as distributed shear

seismicity and subsidence following the 2011 nabro eruption eritrea insights into the plumbing system of an off rift volcano nabro volcano situated to the east of the afar rift zone erupted on 12 june 2011 eruptions at such off rift volcanoes are infrequent and consequently the plumbing systems are poorly understood we present posteruption synthetic aperture radar sar images from the terrasar x satellite and posteruption continuous seismic activity from a local seismic array interferometric analysis of sar data reveals a circular 12 km wide signal subsiding at 200 mm yr we inverted for the best fit mogi source finding a 4 1 107 m3 yr volume decrease at 7 1 km depth between 31 august and 7 october 2011 we located 658 and relocated 456 earthquakes with local magnitudes between 0 4 and 4 5 seismicity beneath the se edge of nabro at 11 km depth is likely associated with high strain rates from deep magma flow into the modeled reservoir this suggests that magma is supplied through a narrow conduit and then stored at 7 km depth we interpret seismicity at 4 6 km depth as brittle fracturing above the inferred magma reservoir focal mechanisms delineate a thrust fault striking ne sw and dipping 45 to the se across the caldera floor we propose that the crustal response is to slip on this fault which crosscuts the caldera rather than to deform on ring faults the ne sw fault plane is not associated with measurable surface deformation indicating that it does not contribute much to the caldera deformation we show that subsidence of the caldera is controlled by magma chamber processes rather than fault slip

regional and local tectonics at erta ale caldera afar ethiopia erta ale volcano lies along the on shore red sea rift northern afar ethiopia separating the nubia and danakil plates erta ale has a nnwesse elongated caldera with a subvertical rim scarp hosting a lava lake structural field work was aimed at defining the deformation pattern around the caldera the caldera consists of along rim and across rim structures resulting from local and regional maximum extension wneesw stress fields respectively these structures cross cut each other at high angles suggesting that the two stress fields remain distinct each prevailing during rifting or caldera collapse the local along rim extensional fractures are gravity driven structures that formed due to the retreat of the caldera wall after collapse and are confined to the region of caldera subsidence the across rim structures are mainly located to the n and s of the caldera where they form rift zones each accommodating a similar amount of extension w6 3 m but displaying different trends and extension directions analogue models of interacting fractures are consistent with the southern rift being representative of the regional fault kinematics while the northern rift is a local perturbation resulting from the interaction between two right stepping rift segments along the erta ale range 2006 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

the influence of deformation mechanisms on magnetic fabrics in weakly deformed rocks abstract magnetic fabrics of weakly deformed rocks are not simply correlated with the principal finite strain directions depositional magnetic fabrics persist at 30 shortening where the rocks are deformed by particulate flow grain boundary sliding rocks with a spaced stylolitic cleavage believed to be formed by pressure solution and shortened by 20 50 have maximum susceptibility parallel to the intersection of cleavage and bedding this type of magnetic fabric is attributed to the interference of a depositional magnetic fabric between cleavage surfaces with a tectonic magnetic fabric in the cleavage surfaces

cenozoic ostracoda and palaeoenvironments of the northeastern tarim basin western china abstract the paleogene rocks of the northeastern tarim basin in western china are composed mainly of reddish gypsum bearing coarse grained sediments and fossils are rare within these clastic facies however since the onset of the himalayan orogeny in the miocene continuous uplift of the tianshan mountains resulted in the rapid subsidence and appearance of a shallow lake environment as a result of this ostracods are widespread in the late cenozoic rocks of the tarim basin the brackish water ostracod cyprideis thrived from the mid to late miocene gypsum bearing sand and mud sediments were also deposited widely in the shallow brackish water lake environments this situation is similar to that of the qaidam basin which lies to the south of the altun mountains from the pliocene onwards the rates of subsidence and sedimentation increased the resulting regression of the lake led to disappearance of ostracods from a large part of the basin to the north of the kuqa depression the tianshan mountains underwent continuous uplift during the late himalayan orogeny as a result the quaternary lake deposits have a much greater extent than those of the pliocene and extend even further southward than those of the miocene consequently the brackish water ostracod cyprideis became dominant again during the quaternary from the end of the early pleistocene to present in this area an abundant and high diversity fauna of fresh to brackish water ostracods appeared alongside abundant cyprideis this situation is similar to that of the southern qaidam basin to the north of kunlun mountains the quaternary assemblages mainly consist of cyprideis torosa candoniella lactea candona neglecta candona arcina cypridopsis vidua limnocythere inopinata cypris subglobosa ilyocypris gibba ilyocypris biplicata eucypris inflata candoniella albicans darwinula sp and stenocypris sp under the extremely arid climate in the tarim basin freshwater originated mainly from snow melt this suggests that the tianshan mountains to the north were uplifted rapidly to above the snow line during the last million years the evolution of the ostracod assemblages indicates that the late himalayan orogeny not only controlled the deposition of biota assemblages but also took an important role in the hydrocarbon accumulation and migration

bookshelf faulting and horizontal block rotations between overlapping rifts in southern afar lateral slip on initially rift parallel normal faults may be a particularly efficient mechanism to accomodate strain between overlapping oceanic rifts it occurs in southern afar where clockwise block rotations result from distributed dextral shear between the overlapping ghoubbet asal manda inakir and manda hararo abhe bad rifts faulting observed during the 1969 serdo earthquakes and on spot images is consistent with the shear being taken up by left lateral slip on steep nw se striking faults which formed as normal faults before extensional strain became localized in the two rifts this bookshelf faulting accounts quantitatively for the 14 5 7 5 rotation documented by paleomagnetism in the 1 8 0 4 ma old afar stratoid basalts given the 17 5 5 mm yr rate of separation between arabia and somalia

cenozoic deformation history of the qaidam basin nw china results from cross section restoration and implications for qinghai tibet plateau tectonics abstract the deformation and uplifting history of the qinghai tibet plateau is a controversial issue and so far there has been insufficient evidence for interpretation investigations of the cenozoic deformation in the northeastern edge of this plateau may provide some relevant information in this paper the cenozoic deformation history of the qaidam basin has been studied based on results from the balanced cross section restoration of six geological sections they indicate that 1 the qaidam basin has been undergoing continuous shortening since the beginning of cenozoic with two relatively fast shortening phases the first during 42 8 40 5 ma and the second during 2 8 ma present 2 the shortening rate of the qaidam basin reached its maximum value since 2 8 ma and approximately 32 of the average total cenozoic shortening took place in this period and 3 the shortening of all sections reached approximately 50 of their respective total shortening by miocene the cenozoic deformation history of the qaidam basin shows good synchroneity with uplifting history of the qinghai tibet plateau it is therefore proposed that the deformation and uplifting in the south and north edges of the qinghai tibet plateau was almost synchronous with the altyn tagh fault formed at the beginning of india asia collision accordingly it is postulated that since the india asia collision at the beginning of cenozoic the indian plate moved northward continuously with two relatively fast phases the first during 42 8 40 5 ma and the second during 2 8 ma present approximately 50 of the total cenozoic northward displacement of the indian plate of the total amount of crustal shortening and uplifting of the qinghai tibet plateau and of the total cenozoic strike slip displacement of the altyn tagh fault were probably reached by the early miocene moreover another 30 40 might have taken place during 2 8 ma present the periods during 42 8 40 5 ma and during 2 8 ma present may also be the two fast phases for crustal shortening and uplifting of the qinghai tibet plateau and strike slip displacement of the altyn tagh fault

sedimentary characteristics and types of hydrocarbon source rocks in the tertiary semiarid to arid lake basins of northwest china abstract the climate in tertiary times was semiarid to arid in northwest china the basic characteristics of the tertiary lakes in this area are as follows the lakes were formed and evolved in a single cycle from oligocene to miocene times all the lake basins subsided permanently and formed stable depressions the lakes expanded and contracted considerably with the lake surface area changing every few ten to hundred thousand of years as a result of short term cyclical variations in climate the different rise and subsidence of lake basins and mountains around the lakes resulted in the migration of the depressions and depocenters with time consequently the areas with the thickest hydrocarbon source rockes were also change two periods of evaporite formation of saline lake facies in the tertiary strata took place due to the arid climate producing saline lake sulphate facies the salinity of the lakes and the content of lacustrine carbonate rocks are high carbonate sediments are controlled by both the salinity and the depth of the water body the salinity increases from the margin to the center of the lakes as do the water depth and the content of carbonate rocks it is proposed that the lacustrine carbonate rocks could also be source rocks for oil and gas and that there are two types of lacustrine carbonate hydrocarbon source rocks

radar interferometry and its application to changes in the earth s surface geophysical applications of radar interferometry to measure changes in the earth s surface have exploded in the early 1990s this new geodetic technique calculates the interference pattern caused by the difference in phase between two images acquired by a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar at two distinct times the resulting interferogram is a contour map of the change in distance between the ground and the radar instrument these maps provide an unsurpassed spatial sampling density 100 pixels km 2 a competitive precision 1 cm and a useful observation cadence 1 pass month 1 they record movements in the crust perturbations in the atmosphere dielectric modifications in the soil and relief in the topography they are also sensitive to technical effects such as relative variations in the radar s trajectory or variations in its frequency standard we describe how all these phenomena contribute to an interferogram then a practical summary explains the techniques for calculating and manipulating interferograms from various radar instruments including the four satellites currently in orbit ers 1 ers 2 jers 1 and radarsat the next chapter suggests some guidelines for interpreting an interferogram as a geophysical measurement respecting the limits of the technique assessing its uncertainty recognizing artifacts and discriminating different types of signal we then review the geophysical applications published to date most of which study deformation related to earthquakes volcanoes and glaciers using ers 1 data we also show examples of monitoring natural hazards and environmental alterations related to landslides subsidence and agriculture in addition we consider subtler geophysical signals such as postseismic relaxation tidal loading of coastal areas and interseismic strain accumulation we conclude with our perspectives on the future of radar interferometry the objective of the review is for the reader to develop the physical understanding necessary to calculate an interferogram and the geophysical intuition necessary to interpret it

crustal channel flows 1 numerical models with applications to the tectonics of the himalayan tibetan orogen 1 plane strain thermal mechanical numerical models are used to examine the development of midcrustal channel flows in large hot orogens in the models radioactive self heating reduces the viscosity of tectonically thickened crust and increases its susceptibility to large scale horizontal flow channels can be exhumed and exposed by denudation focused on the high relief transition between plateau and foreland we interpret the himalaya to have evolved in this manner channel flows are poorly developed if the channel has a ductile rheology based on wet quartz flow laws and well developed if there is an additional reduction in viscosity to 1019 pa s this reduction occurs from 700 c to 750 c in the models and is attributed to a small percentage of in situ partial melt melt weakening model ht1 provides an internally consistent explanation for the tectonic evolution of many features of the himalayan tibetan orogenic system erosional exhumation exposes the migmatitic channel equivalent to the greater himalayan sequence ghs between coeval normal and thrust sense ductile shear zones corresponding to the south tibetan detachment and the main central thrust systems outward flow of unstable upper crust rotates these shears to low dip angles in the model both the ghs and the lesser himalayan sequence are derived from indian crust with the latter from much farther south similar models exhibit a range of tectonic styles including the formation of domes resembling north himalayan gneiss domes model results are relatively insensitive to channel heterogeneities and to variations in the behavior of the mantle lithosphere beneath the model plateau

cenozoic tectonic evolution of the qaidam basin and its surrounding regions part 3 structural geology sedimentation and regional tectonic reconstruction the qaidam basin is the largest topographic depression inside the tibetan plateau because of its central position understanding the tectonic origin of the qaidam basin has important implications for unraveling the formation mechanism and growth history of the tibetan plateau in order to achieve this goal we analyzed regional seismic reflection profiles across the basin and a series of thickness distribution patterns of cenozoic strata at different time slices the first order structure of the basin is a broad cenozoic synclinorium which has an amplitude ranging from 16 km in the west to 48 in the west to 15 s 1 to 1 3 10 17 s 1 the eastward decrease in upper crustal shortening requires a progressive shift in crustal thickening mechanisms across qaidam basin from dominantly upper crustal shortening in the west to dominantly lower crustal shortening in the east although sedimentation began synchronously at 65 50 ma across the entire basin the initiation ages of the southern and northern basin bounding structures are significantly different deformation started at 65 50 ma in the north and at 29 24 ma in the south this information and the existing inference that the uplift of the eastern kunlun range south of qaidam basin began after 30 20 ma imply that the paleogene 65 24 ma qaidam and hoh xil basins on both sides of the eastern kunlun range may have been parts of a single topographic depression 500 km wide in the north south direction between the qilian shan and fenghuo shan thrust belts in the north and south the development of this large paleogene basin in central tibet and its subsequent destruction and partitioning by the neogene uplift of the eastern kunlun range requires a highly irregular sequence of deformation possibly controlled by preexist ing weakness in the tibetan lithosphere

tectonic and sedimentary evolution of basins in the northeast of qinghai tibet plateau and their implication for the northward growth of the plateau the northeast of the qinghai tibet plateau from the hoh xil basin to the hexi corridor basin demonstrates a basin ridge geomorphy that is the result of the long term uplift of the qinghai tibet plateau the geological evolution of the qinghai tibet plateau is recorded in its associated basins from the cenozoic sedimentary filling pattern in the hoh xil qaidam and jiuquan basins we find that the evolution of these basins is similar they began as strike slip basins evolved into foreland basins and then to intermontane basins foreland basins are the direct result of orogenic activity in the northeast of qinghai tibet plateau and can be documented to have formed over the following time periods 49 23 ma for the hoh xil foreland basin 46 2 45 ma for the qaidam foreland basin and 29 5 0 ma for the jiuquan foreland basin this northward migration in the timing of foreland basin development suggests that the northeastern part of tibet grew at least in part by accretion of cenozoic sedimentary basins to its northern margin

cenozoic multiple phase tectonic evolution of the northern tibetan plateau constraints from sedimentary records from qaidam basin hexi corridor and subei basin northwest china an integrated research of sedimentology stratigraphy and provenance analysis on eleven sedimentary sections from the qaidam basin hexi corridor and subei basin representing 36 km cenozoic strata provides a detailed record of the northern tibetan plateau growth since the early eocene sections are divided into three groups based on age geological similarities and geographical locations group one includes three early eocene late miocene sections from the northern qaidam basin group two contains four sections along the altyn tagh fault atf which preserve a complete stratigraphic record from the oligocene to late miocene group three contains the four youngest sections investigated from the northeastern qaidam basin and hexi corridor which preserve a record since the middle miocene to quaternary together the sections reveal a multiple phase tectonic history of the northern tibetan plateau the punctuated history can be divided into four phases 1 the eocene lulehe formation from the northern qaidam basin is interpreted as a synorogenic conglomerate deposited by high gradient depositional systems strong unimodal paleocurrent towards the southwest coarse lithology and distinct recognizable clast types constrain the sediment source within the north qaidam and south qilian terranes indicating activity on inferred thrust faults within the north qaidam and south qilian terranes in response to the initial india eurasia collision the activity on these thrust faults continued through the late eocene 2 the early oligocene conglomerate from group two formed in response to the sinistral transpression related to motion on the atf suggesting inception of substantial slip on the atf in the early oligocene in order to accommodate the continuing indentation of india into eurasia 3 oligocene early miocene fine grained fluvio lacustrine sediments from groups one and two formed as the result of development of internal drainage systems in the qaidam basin in response to the large amplitude slip motion on the atf paleocurrents collected from the oligocene early miocene strata of group one are northwest directed pointing towards the atf consistent with the pre existing subsurface data showing the shift of depocenter from along north qaidam and south qilian terranes toward the atf 4 all eleven sections preserve a post early miocene upward coarsening sequence consistent with the extensive crustal shortening and topographic growth across the northern tibetan plateau

seismic characteristics of variable convection at erta ʻale lava lake ethiopia abstract the active summit lava lake of erta ale volcano ethiopia offers a unique opportunity to study magma convection in february 2002 we collected a multiparametric set of seismic thermal and video data these data indicate that the lake cycled between periods characterized by low 0 01 0 08 m s 1 and high 0 1 0 4 m s 1 convection rates typically lasting tens to hundreds of minutes three seismometers placed around the active crater recorded continuous tremor with a dominant frequency of 2 hz and energy at frequencies from 0 8 to 12 hz here we characterize the seismic signature of each regime by its spectral content wavefield polarization and tremor source location for both regimes the wavefield is mostly rectilinear azimuths and incidence angles are consistent with p waves originating in one of two locations the north edge of the active lava lake or a region 100 150 m ene of the lava lake because both regimes are dominated by a low frequency rectilinearly polarized wavefield we investigate the source location using a method that solves for location and isotropic source power by a weighted least squares amplitude based inversion of seismic data we find that tremor source regions are unique to each convective regime although some location overlap exists when tremor is located in short time windows wavefield composition suggests that the convective phases may share a common source process but their differing locations indicate that either the source region is non stationary or a second source skews the location during the high convective phase tremor polarization and location suggests that the low frequency tremor is caused by bubble coalescence and bursting in a conduit whose surface is the lava lake the higher frequency signal associated with the high convective regime is associated with a scattered more complex wavefield superimposed on the low frequency background tremor caused by bubble bursting and cracking of cooled crust at the lava lake surface

40ar 39ar ages of detrital white mica constrain the cenozoic development of the intracontinental qaidam basin china ar 39 ar dating of detrital white mica from cenozoic sediments from the nonmarine qaidam basin in western china yields several age groups these include 1 ca 350 450 ma 2 220 280 ma subordinate clusters with 3 122 140 ma and 4 a minor group ca 500 ma ages between 350 and 450 ma are the most common and dominating in the analyzed samples detrital mica in the western qaidam basin can be of a northern altyn mountains and or a southern qimantagh kunlun mountains provenance the main age group of 350 450 ma is well known from intrusions in the altyn mountains whereas the young ages 120 126 ma have been found within shear zones along the central kunlun and altyn tagh faults however hinterland sectors beyond the altyn tagh and central kunlun faults must be considered as potential source areas because the imbalance between the amount of basin fi ll to eroded basement material requires additional sources early paleozoic ages ca 500 ma have been documented so far only in the hongliugou suture zone north of the altyn tagh fault this suggests late or slow continuous uplift of the southern altyn range and because of sinistral slip along the altyn tagh fault further units of the same age are now exposed farther westward the age group of 220 280 ma has been documented only from the northern basin margin this age group may indicate recycling from triassic jurassic cover sequences of the altyn mountains or provenance from permian triassic granite bodies that possibly originated in the qilian mountains

tectonic history of the altyn tagh fault system in northern tibet inferred from cenozoic sedimentation the active left slip altyn tagh fault defines the northern edge of the tibetan plateau to determine its deformation history we conducted integrated research on cenozoic stratigraphic sections in the southern part of the tarim basin fission track ages of detrital apatites existing biostratigraphic data and magnetostratigraphic analysis were used to establish chronostratigraphy whereas composition of sandstone and coarse clastic sedimentary rocks was used to determine the unroofing history of the source region much of the detrital grains in our measured sections can be correlated with uplifted sides of major thrusts or transpressional faults implying a temporal link between sedimentation and deformation the results of our studies together with existing stratigraphic data from the qaidam basin and the hexi corridor suggest that crustal thickening in northern tibet began prior to 46 ma for the western kunlun shan thrust belt at ca 49 ma for the qimen tagh and north qaidam thrust systems bounding the north and south margins of the qaidam basin and prior to ca 33 ma for the nan shan thrust belt these ages suggest that deformation front reached northern tibet only 10 5 m y after the initial collision of india with asia at 65 55 ma because the aforementioned thrust systems are either termination structures or branching faults of the altyn tagh left slip system the altyn tagh fault must have been active since ca 49 ma the altyn tagh range between the tarim basin and the altyn tagh fault has been a long lived topographic high since at least the early oligocene or possibly late eocene this range has shed sediments into both the tarim and qaidam basins while being offset by the altyn tagh fault its continuous motion has made the range act as a sliding door which eventually closed the outlets of westward flowing drainages in the qaidam basin this process has caused large amounts of oligocene miocene sediments to be trapped in the qaidam basin the estimated total slip of 470 70 km and the initiation age of 49 ma yield an average slip rate along the altyn tagh fault of 9 2 mm yr remarkably similar to the rates determined by gps global positioning system surveys this result implies that geologic deformation rates are steady state over millions of years during continental collision

high resolution magnetostratigraphy of the neogene huaitoutala section in the eastern qaidam basin on the ne tibetan plateau qinghai province china and its implication on tectonic uplift of the ne tibetan plateau abstract the closed inland qaidam basin in the ne tibetan plateau contains possibly the world s thickest 12 000 m continuous sequence of cenozoic fluviolacustrine sedimentary rocks this sequence contains considerable information on the history of tibetan uplift and associated climatic change however work within qaidam basin has been held back by a paucity of precise time constraints on this sequence here we report on a detailed paleomagnetic study of the well exposed 4570 m huaitoutala section along the keluke anticline in the northeastern qaidam basin where three distinct faunas were recovered and identified from the middle miocene through pliocene constrained by these faunal ages the observed thirty three pairs of normal and reversed polarity zones can be readily correlated with chrons 2n 5br of the gpts this study assigns the age of the section to the interval between ca 15 7 ma to 1 8 ma in addition the widely used stratigraphic units the xia youshashan shang youshashan the shizigou and qigequan formations were formed at 15 3 ma 15 3 8 1 ma 8 1 2 5 ma and

magnetostratigraphy of cenozoic deposits in the western qaidam basin and its implication for the surface uplift of the northeastern margin of the tibetan plateau abstract thick cenozoic deposits in the northwestern qaidam basin record erosion of the altyn tagh and high terrain west of that basin and presumably the concurrent growth of the northeastern tibetan plateau a detailed magnetostratigraphic study of the huatugou section northwestern qaidam basin reveals that this section spans the period from 30 to 11 ma magnetostratigraphic and sedimentological studies indicate that the accumulation rate abruptly increased near 15 ma the acceleration in sedimentation rate suggests enhanced tectonic deformation in the qaidam basin since 15 ma that may have begun simultaneously with accelerated deformation along the altyn tagh kunlun and haiyuan faults which contributed to the growth history of the qaidam basin and its surroundings since 15 ma

paleoclimatic implications of magnetic susceptibility in late pliocene quaternary sediments from deep drilling core sg 1 in the western qaidam basin ne tibetan plateau 1 lake sediments are important archives of paleoclimate change and erosion history a 938 5 m long core sg 1 of lacustrine sediments dated at 2 77 ma to 0 1 ma was obtained from the western qaidam basin in the northeastern tibetan plateau consisting of dark grayish mudstone and grayish siltstone intercalated with salts and fine sandstones in the upper part magnetic susceptibility data combined with detailed rock magnetic properties were analyzed for revealing the significance of ferro i magnetic concentration for past changes of climate and erosion mass specific susceptibility shows a striking cyclic and long term variation samples with high values are dominated by magnetite and maghemite with pseudo single domain properties in contrast samples with low values contain maghemite from single domain to multidomain and additionally a significant fraction of hematite the driving mechanism of variation can be explained by three alternative models 1 different source regions with alternations of wind and cryoclastic erosion in a wider hinterland dry cold climate and surface runoff erosion from a narrower area more humid climate and 2 and 3 low temperature oxidation occurring either in the lake sediments dry climate or in the catchment area during weathering more humid climate trends of match with changes in sedimention rates and are roughly synchronous with the deep sea 18o record on a glacial interglacial timescale therefore the concentration of magnetic minerals in the western qaidam basin sediments is likely controlled by both tectonic influence and paleoenvironmental changes but can be best interpreted by alternations and trends of dry cold and more humid periods due to asian drying and global cooling

propagation of rifting along the arabia somalia plate boundary the gulfs of aden and tadjoura the localization and propagation of rifting between arabia and somalia are investigated by assessing the deformation geometry and kinematics at different scales between the eastern gulf of aden and the gulf of tadjoura using bathymetric magnetic seismological and structural evidence large scale southwestward propagation of the aden ridge markedly oblique to the arabia somalia relative motion vector began about 30 myr ago between the error and sharbithat ridges it was an episodic process with stages of rapid propagation mostly at rates 10 cm yr interrupted by million year pauses on transverse discontinuities coinciding with rheological boundaries between different crustal provinces of the arabia somalia plate the longest pause was at the shukra el sheik discontinuity 45 e where the ridge tip stalled for 13 myr between 17 and 4 ma west of that discontinuity rifting and spreading took place at an azimuth n25 10 e and rate 1 2 0 3 cm yr different from those of the global arabia somalia motion vector n39 1 73 cm yr implying an additional component of movement n65 10 e 0 7 0 2 cm yr due to rotation of the danakil microplate at shukra el sheik the typical oceanic ridge gives way to a narrow wsw trending axial trough resembling a large fissure across a shallow shelf this trough is composed of about eight rift segments which result from normal faulting and fissuring along n110 n130 e trends all the segments step to the left southwestward mostly through oblique transfer zones with en echelon normal faults only two segments show clear significant overlap there is one clear transform the maskali fault between the obock and tadjoura segments the latter segment which encroaches onland is composed of two parallel subrifts iboli ambabbo that propagated northwestward and formed in succession the most recent southwestern subrift ambabbo represents the current tip of the aden ridge we propose a mechanical model in which the large scale propagation of the ridge followed a wsw trending zone of maximum tensile stress while the small scale propagation of its nw trending segments was dictated by the orientation of that stress oblique propagation was a consequence of passive lithospheric necking of the arabia somalia plate along its narrow section in map view between socotra and the kink of the red sea ethiopian rift above the afar plume individual ridge segments oriented roughly perpendicular to plate motion like lithospheric cracks were forced to jump southward because of confinement within the necking zone self sustaining plate scale necking may explain why the aden ridge did not connect with the red sea through bab el mandeb but continued straight into afar

sensing the ups and downs of las vegas insar reveals structural control of land subsidence and aquifer system deformation land subsidence in las vegas nevada united states between april 1992 and december 1997 was measured using spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar the detailed deformation maps clearly show that the spatial extent of subsidence is controlled by geologic structures faults and sediment composition clay thickness the maximum detected subsidence during the 5 75 yr period is 19 cm comparison with leveling data indicates that the subsidence rates declined during the past decade as a result of rising ground water levels brought about by a net reduction in ground water extraction temporal analysis also detects seasonal subsidence and uplift patterns which provide information about the elastic and inelastic properties of the aquifer system and their spatial variability

magnetostratigraphy of deep drilling core sg 1 in the western qaidam basin ne tibetan plateau and its tectonic implications abstract the qaidam basin is the largest intermontane basin of the northeastern tibetan plateau and contains a continuous cenozoic sequence of lacustrine sediments a 1000 m deep drilling sg 1 with an average core recovery of 95 was carried out in the depocenter of the chahansilatu playa sub depression in the western qaidam basin aimed to obtain a high resolution record of the paleoenvironmental evolution and the erosion history stepwise alternating field and thermal demagnetization together with rock magnetic results revealed a stable remanent magnetization for most samples carried by magnetite the polarity sequence consisted of 16 normal and 15 reverse zones which can be correlated with chrons 1n to 2an of the global geomagnetic polarity time scale magnetostratigraphic results date the entire core sg 1 at 2 77 ma to 0 1 ma and yielded sediment accumulation rate sar ranging from 26 1 cm ka to 51 5 cm ka maximum sars occurred within the intervals of 2 6 2 2 ma and after 0 8 ma indicating two episodes of erosion which we relate to pulse tectonic uplift of the ne tibetan plateau with subsequent global cooling

new paleomagnetic constraints on central asian kinematics displacement along the altyn tagh fault and rotation of the qaidam basin received 23 july 2001 revised 9 january 2002 accepted 26 february 2002 published 5 october 2002 1 in order to better understand the tectonic evolution of central asia under the influence of the india asia collision we carried out a paleomagnetic study of 1500 cores from 106 sites along the altyn tagh fault in the qaidam and tarim basins and on the tibetan plateau samples were mainly collected from jurassic to neogene siltstones and sandstones in most cases stepwise thermal demagnetization unblocks low and high temperature components carried by magnetite and hematite low temperature components are north and down directed and lie close to the recent geomagnetic field high temperature components from 10 of 13 age locality groups pass fold and or reversal tests and likely represent primary remanent magnetizations the ten overall mean directions display a complex pattern of vertical axis block rotations that are compatible with a tectonic model of clockwise rotation of the qaidam basin and concomitant left lateral slip on the altyn tagh fault two of the ten localities are rotated significantly counterclockwise they lie adjacent to the altyn tagh fault zone consistent with the idea that left lateral strike slip motion occurred along it the age of counterclockwise rotation near the eastern extremity of the fault was dated as younger than 19 ma three widely spread areas within the qaidam basin exhibit similar and significant clockwise rotations on the order of 20 with respect to the north china block tarim and eurasia the mean of the three values is thought to represent the total rotation of qaidam because the youngest rocks displaying clockwise rotations are oligocene the main phase of qaidam basin rotation and hence shear on the altyn tagh fault took place after or near the end of the oligocene 24 ma upper neogene strata located on the qaidam basin are not significantly rotated thus tectonic deformation acting since the upper neogene 5 ma is not resolvable by paleomagnetic methods given a 20 5 clockwise rotation of the qaidam basin with respect to the tarim basin the maximum left lateral displacement on the altyn tagh fault since 24 ma is 500 130 km index terms 1525 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism paleomagnetism applied to tectonics regional global 1527 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism paleomagnetism applied to geologic processes 8105 tectonophysics continental margins and sedimentary basins

continuous deformation of the tibetan plateau from global positioning system data global positioning system velocities from 553 control points within the tibetan plateau and on its margins show that the present day tectonics in the plateau is best described as deformation of a continuous medium at least when averaged over distances of 100 km deformation occurs throughout the plateau interior by ese wnw extension and slightly slower nne ssw shortening relative to eurasia material within the plateau interior moves roughly eastward with speeds that increase toward the east and then flows southward around the eastern end of the himalaya crustal thickening on the northeast ern and eastern margins of the plateau occurs over a zone 400 km wide and cannot be the result of elastic strain on a single major thrust fault shortening there accommodates much of india s penetration into eurasia a description in terms of movements of rigid blocks with elastic strain associated with slip on faults between them cannot match the velocity field

hydrofracturing stress measurements in the iceland research drilling project drill hole at reydarfjordur iceland two independent suites of hydrofracturing stress measurements were conducted in the top 600 m of the iceland research drilling project deep hole at reydarfjordur east iceland as indicated by the continuously extracted drill core the tested section consists of tertiary subaerial tholeiitic lava flows cut by many basaltic dikes the density of the basalt was used to estimate the vertical stress v in megapascals at depth d in meters v 0 027d in the 33 to 270 m depth range the horizontal principal stresses hmax and hmin as calculated from hydrofracturing results increase gradually with depth but at a lower rate than the vertical stress hmin 2 1 0 016d hmax 3 3 0 016d in the 300 to 550 m depth range a major perturbation occurs with both horizontal stress magnitudes rapidly rising between 300 and 400 m and then uniformly decreasing between 400 and 550 m to a level apparently predictable by the relationships obtained in the top 270 m conditions favoring normal faulting v hmax hmin were established in the 540 to 580 m range and are conjectured to persist at greater depths since the vertical stress gradient is higher than that of hmax and hmin this would be in accord with the predominant fault type in east iceland the relative low horizontal stress values and the small difference between them are supportive of ocean floor spreading theories and contradict near surface high compressive stresses previously determined by hast 1973 in east iceland the large increase in horizontal stress in the range of 300 to 500 m depth is not understood a correlation appears to exist between the zone of almost unintruded thick lava flows 200 500 m and that of high stresses an intuitive model suggesting locked in stresses in this zone is proposed the hydrofracturing determined overall mean direction of hmax is n50 e while a more selective sampling of results yields n40 e the measured stress directions appear to be reasonably compatible with the local structure such as dike direction nne and lava dip wsw significantly hmax direction is subparallel to the n20 e trend of the nearest fissure swarms in the axial rift zone this almost coincidence of directions like the measured stress magnitudes is also in agreement with the model of spreading lithospheric plates being pulled apart

reliability of magnetic fabric of weakly deformed mudrocks as a palaeostress indicator in compressive settings abstract in this work we compare the results of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams with palaeostress analysis at local scale the ams data refer to 14 sites from weakly deformed mudrocks lower and middle miocene lacustrine sediments from two areas of the internal part of the ebro foreland basin the bardenas reales and monegros areas nine sites display a magnetic fabric related to a subtle tectonic overprint showing a roughly e w magnetic lineation whereas the rest of sites most of them located at the monegros area show a sedimentary fabric without a well defined magnetic lineation palaeostress data result from fault populations and joint sets exposed in the limestone beds interbedded with the mudrocks at the nearest possible outcrop from the ams site the origin of the magnetic lineation is related to a n s compression coeval with the earliest diagenesis of the studied sediments prior to consolidation the comparison between magnetic fabric and palaeostress data demonstrates the coaxiality between the ams and palaeostress ellipsoids both at local and regional scales thereby validating the reliability of ams as palaeostress indicator in compressive settings

shallow axial magma chamber at the slow spreading erta ale ridge thermal models predict that spreading velocity at mid ocean rifts should influence the geometry of the underlying magma chamber insar data from the slow spreading ethiopian rift identify a shallow elongated magma chamber a feature usually associated with fast spreading rifts beneath the erta ale segment implying that spreading velocity may not be so important after all

eastward migration of the qaidam basin and its implications for cenozoic evolution of the altyn tagh fault and associated river systems the qaidam basin is the largest cenozoic intermontane basin within the tibetan plateau bounded by the qilian shan range to the north the east kunlun range to the south the altyn tagh range to the west and the ela shan range to the east its deposits consist of nonmarine sedimentary rocks with a maximum thickness exceeding 13 400 m modern sedimentation mainly takes place along the marginal areas of the basin where alluvial fans are formed along a series of rivers that originate from the surrounding mountains nevertheless drilling sedimentary and seismic data reveal that the depocenter of the basin during much of cenozoic time was not developed as foreland basins of the qilian shan belt to the north and the east kunlun belt to the south but instead the depocenter was in the center of the western part of the basin and had a northwest southeast trend that shifted eastward 380 km during oligocene to quaternary time this indicates that most of the basin sediments were not derived from the surrounding mountain ranges the results of the fi ssion track age dating reveal that the rapid uplift of the yousha shan anticline bounding the depocenter to the southwest initiated at ca 31 ma indicating that the southeastward shift of the depocenter began at that time yielding a migration rate for the depocenter of 10 2 mm yr the northwestern margin of the depocenter of the qaidam basin lies to the east of the westward prolongation of the qaidam basin the tula trough a 300 km long narrow trough fl anked by the altyn tagh range along the altyn tagh strikeslip fault on the north and the east kunlun thrust belt on the south the sedimentary and deformational evidence from this region indicates that the tula trough was formed as a syncline along which a paleoriver fl owed to the east into the qaidam basin to the southwest this river valley merges with the trace of the altyn tagh fault the latter and its westward continuation are interpreted to have extended to the northern margin of the pamir folded belt north of the western syntaxis of the himalaya we propose that most of the sediments within the depocenter of the qaidam basin were transported from the northern margin of the pamir folded belt along a progressively lengthening 2000 kmlong longitudinal river that developed along the left lateral altyn tagh fault and its western continuation as the eastward extrusion of the tibetan plateau took place in oligocene time both the crustal uplift and continuous southeastward aggradations of the sediments carried by the paleo kunlun river are interpreted to be the cause for southeastward migration of the depocenter of the qaidam basin the longitudinal river disappeared in late cenozoic time 2 4 ma due to stream capture and climate change

paleomagnetism of miocene sediments from the turfan basin northwest china no significant vertical axis rotation during neotectonic compression within the tian shan range central asia abstract paleomagnetic results are reported from 377 samples of miocene red sediments in the turfan basin of east tian shan northwest china thermal demagnetization for most specimens isolates a low temperature component that groups around the present geomagnetic field a high temperature characteristic component is isolated from four localities and interpreted as primary remanent magnetization from apparent pre folding origin and positive reversal test as for previous results obtained from tertiary rocks in central asia the magnetic inclination is significantly shallower than the reference field computed from the eurasian apw path at 10 and 20 ma magnetic susceptibility measured in 324 specimens exhibits low anisotropy of less than 1 05 for 80 of the sample the low anisotropy degrees ams shape and orientations suggest that the studied rocks are unlikely to have undergone significant strain during compaction or tectonism we argue that the shallow inclination is likely to result from an initially shallow detrital remanent magnetization comparison of the paleomagnetic declination from eurasia north china and tarim suggests that the turfan basin has been subjected to little or no vertical axis rotation since the miocene together with paleomagnetic declinations on both sides of the talas ferghana fault we propose that the tian shan to the east of the talas ferghana fault has remained relatively stationary with respect to adjacent blocks since the miocene

implications of longeval lava lakes for geomorphological and plutonic processes at erta ale volcano afar erta ale volcano sited within the afar triangle of ethiopia is one of the least visited of perennially active subaerial volcanoes satellite images recorded over the past thirty years illustrate the sustained activity of the volcano and complement the few brief periods of field observation we consider that erta ale s lava lakes have probably persisted for 90 years placing them among the longest lived yet recorded despite sustained surface heat fluxes of 100 400 mw the net surface growth rate integrated over the interval 1968 1995 was only 10 kg s 1 we speculate that this minimal lava discharge cannot be used to infer a low magma supply rate to the volcano since heat losses from die lava lakes inhibit eruption by increasing magma density this implies growth of the underlying crust by formation of dikes and sills containing cumulates accommodated and possibly promoted by regional extension and intrusion loading open vent degassing and rift kinematics are clearly reflected in erta ale s morphology which is characterised by very gentle 3 slopes and a summit caldera

cenozoic qaidam basin china a stronger tectonic inversed extensional rifted basin qaidam basin is a composite sedimentary basin developed on typical continental crust it comprises a jurassic foreland basin and a cenozoic extensional basin the geologic history of the cenozoic qaidam basin can be divided into two megastages on the basis of stratigraphy and structure the first megastage from latest cretaceous to oligocene consisted of two periods of rifting due to upwelling of the hot upper mantle this is demonstrated by two tectono sequences formed by the rifting the synrifting magmatic thermal activity and the control of protobasin development by syndepositional faults the second megastage comprises three tectono sequences that developed in the miocene and pliocene and was a period of structural inversion that consisted of compressive downwarping and reverse faulting this tectonic inversion may be ascribed to the long distance propagation of compressive stress caused by the collisions of the indian and eurasian plates the thick sequence of primary oil source rocks was deposited in the major rifted depression and the restricted drainage graben of the rifted protobasin during the tectonic inversion megastage they were subject to deep burial and prolonged heating a major and a minor oil generating basin have developed the tectonic inversion processes produced several structural features that may contain potential hydrocarbon reservoirs and traps

the role of base level watershed attribute and sediment accumulation in the landscape and tectonic evolution of the circum tibetan plateau basin and orogen system abstract the india asia collision produces the outstanding circum tibetan plateau basin and orogen system in this study we systemically analyze and discuss the relationship between isostasy base level and sedimentary process in the landscape and tectonic evolution of the circum tibetan plateau basin and orogen system considering of isostatic effects the basin filling processes can individually lead to the subsidence of the sedimentary floor bringing numerous geological implications on the conditions of ideal geological models and isostatic equilibrium the sedimentary surface of the exorheic basins with strong hydrodynamic condition is constrained by sea level through the river longitudinal profile and crustal thinning processes of the non flexural exorheic basins can be sculpted by sedimentary records when the source supply keeps sufficient long term and large scale rising and dropping of the sea level can influence the subsidence rate of the extensional exorheic basins on the other hand the endorheic basins are of individual base levels and isostatic effects of the sedimentary loading can lead to the uplift of the sedimentary surface in this situation the uplift process of the endorheic basins can be estimated by sedimentary records regional reorganization of river watersheds can lead to a series of geological impacts such as the changing of base level the redistribution of loose deposits beginning or end of depositional discontinuity and fluctuation of the sedimentary floor thus the geological implications for the changing of the sedimentary rates and the depositional discontinuity should be carefully identified in the landscape and tectonic evolution of the circum tibetan plateau basin and orogen system

concentration of crustal displacement along a weak altyn tagh fault evidence from paleomagnetism of the northern tibetan plateau 1 like many regional structures in the northern tibetan plateau the tula syncline changes strike by 40 from nw se to nearly ew as it approaches the altyn tagh fault from the south to test whether this strike curvature is due to oroclinal bending we analyzed paleomagnetic samples from 109 sites collected from late jurassic to paleogene red sedimentary strata of the tula syncline fold and reversal tests suggest a primary origin for the characteristic remanent magnetization from nine sites in the eastern half and 41 sites in the western half of the syncline the observed 13 3 8 8 declination difference between the two halves of the tula syncline is far less than the 40 difference predicted for oroclinal bending instead the arc shape of the syncline is an original configuration produced by transport above an arcuate thrust ramp along with paleomagnetic data from the northern qaidam basin these results from the tula syncline indicate that crustal displacement between the tarim basin and the northern tibetan plateau is accommodated by strike slip motion on the altyn tagh fault rather than distributed shear within the northern tibetan plateau

magnetostratigraphic study of the kuche depression tarim basin and cenozoic uplift of the tian shan range western china abstract magnetostratigraphic and rock magnetic results from 1006 horizons in paleogene and neogene sediments between the upper kumugeliemu formation and the base of the kuche formation within the kuche depression of the tarim basin nw china are used to evaluate postcollisional uplift and deformation in the tian shan range characteristic remanences with both normal and reversed polarity were isolated by thermal demagnetization generally between 300 and 690 c and a composite magnetostratigraphy is constructed from data at 969 accepted levels correlating with polarity chrons c12n to c3r dated between 31 0 and 5 5 ma on the ck95 geomagnetic polarity time scale observed height dependent changes of rock magnetic parameters km and ams ellipsoid parameters indicate that these sediments were influenced by weak deformation with the succession accumulated before 15 ma recording the effects of compressive deformation this finding together with two substantial increases in accumulation rate at 16 17 and 7 ma define a framework for cenozoic uplift and deformation of the tian shan range we argue that thrusting in the south of the range was probably initiated at 20 ma and followed by rapid uplift at 16 17 ma on the assumption that sediment accumulation in western china was still predominately tectonically controlled at 7 ma another later pulse of rapid uplift with a much larger regional influence is also recognized in the tian shan the kuche depression was subjected to two postcollisional phases of rotational deformation with clockwise rotation prior to 12 ma 1 36 ma succeeded by counterclockwise rotation at 1 64 ma after 12 ma and possibly continuing to the present day this rotational deformation is not temporally related to the history of basin formation resolved from the magnetostratigraphy and may be linked to block interactions with adjoining terranes

paleomagnetism indicates no neogene rotation of the qaidam basin in northern tibet during indo asian collision paleomagnetic data were obtained from tertiary red sedimentary rocks at two locations separated by several hundred kilometers within the qaidam basin in the east central part of the basin 30 sites from the lower pliocene youshashan formation yielded characteristic remanent magnetization chrm directions with intermediate unblocking temperatures 100 600 8c chrm with high unblocking temperatures to 680 8c was isolated from 14 sites in the same area chrm directions were obtained from six sites within the oligocene lower gancaigou formation characteristic magnetization was also determined from 16 sites within the lower gancaigou formation exposed in the e bo liang range of the north central qaidam basin when compared with equivalentage expected directions for eurasia the mean paleomagnetic directions indicate no neogene vertical axis rotation of the qaidam basin or the altyn tagh fault the qaidam basin may act as an indentor translating without rotation toward the north china block and driving clockwise vertical axis rotations by differential shortening within the nan shan fold and thrust belt

magnetostratigraphy of paleogene sediments from northern qaidam basin china implications for tectonic uplift and block rotation in northern tibetan plateau abstract we have carried out a detailed magnetostratigraphic study of tertiary sediments in the northern margin of the qaidam basin northern tibetan plateau a total of 400 paleomagnetic samples with an interval of about 2 m were collected from the shanggancaigou and xiagancaigou formations in the hongsanhan section stepwise thermal demagnetization was used to isolate the magnetic components in these samples a higher temperature component htc was separated between 300 and 680 c from most of samples positive fold and reversal tests suggest a primary origin for the htc a magnetic polarity sequence is established and then compared with the geomagnetic polarity time scale ostracoda assemblages and also a fission track age from an adjacent section suggest a tertiary age of the shanggancaigou and xiagancaigou formations in the hongsanhan area the magnetozones in the xiagancaigou formation may correspond to subchrons c16n c18 ranging from 40 to 35 5 ma mid eocene and the shanggancaikou formation to subchrons c8 2n c15 age from 35 5 to 26 5 ma late eocene to late mid oligocene the accumulation of sandy conglomerate and conglomerate layers on top of the shanggancaikou formation and an abrupt increase in sedimentation rates are probably resulted from the main uplift of the north qaidam at about 30 ma when compared with coeval directions expected from eurasia the mean declinations indicate a slight vertical axis rotation of the northern qaidam basin since the mid eocene sinistral shear strain may be concentrated on the altyn tagh fault atf

two stage evolution of the altyn tagh fault during the cenozoic new insight from provenance analysis of a geological section in nw qaidam basin nw china introductionthe 1600 km long active altyn taghfault atf de nes the northern edgeof the tibetan plateau links thewestern kunlun eastern kunlun andqilian orogenic belts fig 1a and gures prominently in constrainingthe timing mechanism and stress dis sipation of the tibetan uplift e g yinand harrison 2000 tapponnier etal 2001 cowgill et al 2003 aspectof its cenozoic evolution has beenattracting hot debate zhou and gra ham 1996 yue and liou 1999 yinet al 2002 liu et al 2007 and akey issue is the initiation of left slipmovement on the fault which wasconsidered to occur i during lateeocene early oligocene evidenced bythermochronology in the altynmountain chen et al 2001 andsedimentology adjacent to the fault meng et al 2001 yue et al 2001 ritts et al 2004 or ii since middlemiocene through structural analysisin the qaidam basin yuan et al 2008 wang et al 2010 apatite s sion track result along the atf wanet al 2001 chen et al 2002 andcomprehensive analysis of the north ern tibetan plateau burch el et al 1989 wang 1997 meyer et al 1998 yin et al 2002 argued a much earlierinitiation age 49 ma of the westernand central segments of the atf butwith questionable proofs ritts et al 2004 two factors probably lead tothis uncertainty i the atf is toolarge to allow us to nd an appropri ate proxy deciphering accurately itsevolution and ii most extant studiesshare a bias that the atf has beenalways a left slip fault during thecenozoic which we regard as a mis understanding in this paper provenance analysis has beenproved e ective on revealing theuplifting history of mountains andevolution of major faults e g lindseyet al 2007 miao et al 2008 linet al 2009 marsaglia et al 2010 the qaidam basin is the largest sed imentary basin inside the tibetan pla teau and accumulated thick terrestrialsediments during the cenozoic rieseret al 2006 making itself an idealplace for deciphering the uplift andpropagation of the plateau yin et al 2007 2008 as it is bounded by theatf to the northwest fig 1b itssedimentation has possibly been tiedto the development of this large scaleintracontinentalfault fewworkshavebeen done on this subject due to thetough geographic conditions in thispaper we investigated a geologicalsection spanning eocene pliocene inthe nw qaidam basin and analysedin detail provenance of the sediments we link the result to cenozoic evolu tion of the atf and try to illustrate together with some other evidences that the atf was used to be a basalshear zone before its initiation of left slip since middle miocene which rec onciles the two contrasting viewpointson the cenozoic initiation of the atfabovementioned geological settingthe study section is seated at thesouthern side of the atf and incisesthe western limb of the nw trendingganchaigou anticline bounded to thenorth by a north directed reversefault a branch fault of the atf fig 1c the cenozoic strata are wellexposed in the section including thexiaganchaigou xg shangganchai gou sg xiayoushashan xy shangyoushashan sy and shizigou szg formations in an ascendingorder the xg formation consists of redmudstone siltstone and sandstoneattaining bed thickness of 0 2 1 m interbedded with conglomerate andpebble sandstone layers 10 20 cmthick figs 2 and 3a the stratumeven comprises more than 100 mthick calcareous mudstones in theupper part in the drillhole chaishen 3 about 6 km east of the sectionabstract

current plate motions across the red sea summary a new objective method is used to estimate precisely 64 rates of seafloor spreading since chron 2a 3 2 ma from all the red sea magnetic profiles available from 15 9 to 26 n the fastest spreading rate 16 mm yr 1 occurs near 18 n whereas the slowest rate 10 mm yr 1 occurs at 25 5 n and is consistent with the rate predicted from arabia nubia data to the south the standard deviation of the spreading rates is 0 8 mm yr 1 much smaller than the median standard deviation of 4 mm yr 1 previously assigned to spreading rates in the global plate motion model nuvel 1 demets et al 1990 the fit to the spreading rates as well as the locations of earthquakes in and near the red sea indicate that spreading south of approximately 17 7 n is less than the full rate of spreading between the arabian and nubian plates the red sea spreading centre is instead usefully interpreted as the boundary between the arabian plate and a danakil microplate that includes the subaerial danakil block and a larger oceanic portion of lithosphere despite the absence of reliable azimuths of transform faults in the red sea all components of the angular velocity of arabia relative to nubia are usefully constrained from just the 45 relevant spreading rates the new compact 95 per cent confidence region of the angular velocity excludes prior estimates based on only four and two spreading rates by chase 1978 and jestin et al 1994 respectively 19 spreading rates in the southern red sea are used to estimate the angular velocity between the danakil microplate and arabia an approach based on singular value decomposition shows that without slip vectors only two of the three components of the angular velocity of the danakil microplate relative to arabia or nubia are usefully constrained but that all three components are usefully constrained if one earthquake slip vector is included

evaluating magnetic lineations ams in deformed rocks magnetic lineation in rocks is given by a cluster of the principal axes of maximum susceptibility kmax of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams tensor in deformed rocks magnetic lineations are generally considered to be the result of either bedding and cleavage intersection or they parallel the tectonic extension direction in high strain zones our ams determinations based on a variety of samples that were taken from mudstones slates and schists from the pyrenees and appalachians show that strain is not the only factor controlling the development of magnetic lineation we find that the development and extent to which the magnetic lineation parallels the tectonic extension direction depends on both the original ams tensor which in turn depends on the lithology and the deformation intensity rocks having a weak pre deformational fabric will develop magnetic lineations that more readily will track the tectonic extension

structure and dynamics of surface uplift induced by incremental sill emplacement shallow level sill emplacement can uplift earth s surface via forced folding providing insight into the location and size of potential volcanic eruptions linking the structure and dynamics of ground deformation to sill intrusion is thus critical in volcanic hazard assessment this is challenging however because 1 active intrusions cannot be directly observed meaning that we rely on transient host rock deformation patterns to model their structure and 2 where ancient sill fold structure can be observed magmatism and deformation has long since ceased to address this problem we combine structural and dynamic analyses of the alu dome ethiopia a 3 5 km long 346 m high elliptical dome of outward dipping tilted lava flows cross cut by a series of normal faults vents distributed around alu feed lava flows of different ages that radiate out from or deflect around its periphery these observations coupled with the absence of bounding faults or a central vent imply that alu is not a horst or a volcano as previously thought but is instead a forced fold interferometric synthetic aperture radar data captured a dynamic growth phase of alu during a nearby eruption in a d 2008 with periods of uplift and subsidence previously attributed to intrusion of a tabular sill at 1 km depth to localize volcanism beyond its periphery we contend that alu is the first forced fold to be recognized to be developing above an incrementally emplaced saucer shaped sill as opposed to a tabular sill or laccolith

paleomagnetism indicates no neogene vertical axis rotations of the northeastern tibetan plateau 1 paleomagnetic data were obtained from 108 paleomagnetic sites collected in cretaceous to tertiary red beds from seven localities distributed in three general regions adjacent to the altyn tagh fault at the northern edge of the tibetan plateau in the hexi corridor 12 sites in oligocene strata at yaoquanzi 39 97 n 97 68 e yield a mean paleomagnetic direction i 33 0 d 8 6 95 6 0 with concordant declination and 36 sites in early cretaceous mudstones of the longshou shan 39 09 n 100 50 e provide a concordant paleomagnetic direction i 53 4 d 6 8 95 3 8 across the nan shan fold thrust belt miocene paleomagnetic directions from 39 sites distributed among four localities have a concordant mean declination i 40 6 d 7 2 95 5 8 in the altyn tagh range 21 sites in oligocene strata at xorkoli 38 93 n 91 43 e yield a paleomagnetic direction with concordant declination i 49 7 d 5 0 95 5 4 these results combined with existing regional paleomagnetic data indicate that 1 the hexi corridor along with the north china block has not undergone tectonic vertical axis rotation since at least early cretaceous time and is separated from the xining lanzhou basin and eastern tibet by an important post early cretaceous tectonic boundary 2 the nan shan fold thrust belt and the qaidam basin have not experienced wholesale vertical axis rotation during neogene time and 3 absence of vertical axis rotations in areas adjacent to the altyn tagh fault indicates that sinistral shear strain between the tarim basin and the northern tibetan plateau is concentrated on the fault these results are consistent with asian tectonic models that combine distributed lithospheric deformation and thickening with narrow and weak shear zones

january 30 1997 eruptive event on kilauea volcano hawaii as monitored by continuous gps a continuous global positioning system gps network on kilauea volcano captured the most recent fissure eruption in kilauea s east rift zone erz in unprecedented spatial and temporal detail the short eruption drained the lava pond at pueu oeo leading to a two month long pause in its on going eruption models of the gps data indicate that the intrusion s bottom edge extended to only 2 4 km continuous gps data reveal rift opening 8 hours prior to the eruption absence of precursory summit inflation rules out magma storage overpressurization as the eruption s cause we infer that stresses in the shallow rift created by the continued deep rift dilation and slip on the south flank decollement caused the rift intrusion

transformation of displacement between strike slip and crustal shortening in the northern margin of the tibetan plateau evidence from decadal gps measurements and late quaternary slip rates on faults abstract studies of late quaternary geological slip rates and the gps decadal slip rates along the major strike slip faults in the northern margin of the tibetan plateau show that slip rates remain relatively constant along the middle sections of each fault and decrease rapidly toward the ends our recent studies suggest that the slip rates are low

paleomagnetism of eocene and miocene sediments from the qaidam basin implication for no integral rotation since the eocene and a rigid qaidam block the qaidam basin is the largest topographic depression inside the tibetan plateau and it is a key factor to understanding the cenozoic evolution of the northern tibetan plateau paleomagnetic data was obtained from the middle to late eocene xiaganchaigou formation and the early to middle miocene xiayoushashan formation from seven localities the paleomagnetic results indicate that the qaidam basin has not undergone obvious basin scale vertical axis rotation with respect to the eurasia plate since the eocene local clockwise rotation took place only at a few special locations along the northern margin of the qaidam basin the uniform paleomagnetic results at different localities support that the qaidam basin is a relatively rigid block regional paleomagnetic and geodetic observations also suggest that crust south of the kunlun fault moves eastward faster than crust north of the kunlun fault

cenozoic tectonic evolution of qaidam basin and its surrounding regions part 1 the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and northern qaidam basin cenozoic qaidam basin the largest active intermountain basin inside tibet figures importantly in the debates on the history and mechanism of tibetan plateau formation during the cenozoic indo asian collision to determine when and how the basin was developed we conducted detailed geologic mapping and analyses of a dense network of seismic reflection profiles from the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and northern qaidam basin our geologic observations provide new constraints on the timing and magnitude of cenozoic crustal thickening in northern tibet specifically our work shows that the southernmost part of the qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and contractional structures along the northern margin of qaidam basin were initiated in the paleocene early eocene 65 50 ma during or immediately after the onset of the indo asian collision this finding implies that stress was transferred rapidly through tibetan lithosphere to northern tibet from the indo asian convergent front located 1000 km to the south the development of the thrust system in northern qaidam basin was driven by motion on the altyn tagh fault as indicated by its eastward propagation away from the altyn tagh fault the eastward lengthening of the thrust system was spatially and temporally associated with eastward expansion of qaidam basin suggesting thrust loading was the main control on the basin formation and evolution the dominant structure in northern qaidam basin is a southwest tapering triangle zone which started to develop since the paleocene and early eocene 65 50 ma and was associated with deposition of an overlying southwest thickening growth strata sequence recognition of the triangle zone and its longevity in northern qaidam basin explains a long puzzling observation that cenozoic depocenters have been located consistently along the central axis of the basin this basin configuration is opposite to the prediction of classic foreland basin models that require the thickest part of foreland sediments deposited along basin edges against basin bounding thrusts restoration of balanced cross sections across the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and northern qaidam basin suggests that cenozoic shortening strain is highly inhomogeneous varying from 20 to 60 both vertically in a single section and from section to section across the thrust belt the spatially variable strain helps explain the conflicting paleomagnetic results indicating different amounts of cenozoic rotations in different parts of qaidam basin the observed crustal shortening strain also implies that no lower crustal injection or thermal events in the mantle are needed to explain the current elevation 3000 3500 m and crustal thickness 45 50 km of northern qaidam basin and the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt instead thrusting involving continental crystalline basement has been the main mechanism of plateau construction across northern qaidam basin and the southern qilian shan nan shan region

magnetic fabrics and petrofabrics their orientation distributions and anisotropies abstract magnetic fabric and other petrofabric anisotropies may be described by second rank tensors represented by ellipsoids for a homogeneous petrofabric that is adequately sampled a stereoplot of the orientation distribution of the tensors principal axes maximum intermediate and minimum should show three orthogonal concentrations the concentrations form some combination of shapes from circular clusters through partial girdles to full girdles the concentrations elliptical eccentricities are constrained by the symmetry of the sample orientation distribution i e l l s l s etc as well as the individual sample anisotropies the mean orientations of principal axes must be orthogonal just as with individual sample tensors this requires tensor statistics for their calculation jelinek 1978 furthermore elliptical confidence cones for the means should parallel principal planes preserving overall orthorhombic symmetry however in practice sub orthorhombic symmetry may arise from unrepresentative sampling but it may also be a useful indicator of multiple or heterogeneous petrofabrics in the case of magnetic fabrics the wide range in average susceptibility values and variation in magnetic mineralogy permit small numbers of high susceptibility samples to deflect the orientation of the tensor mean away from the majority of samples normalizing the samples by their bulk susceptibility overcomes this but the orientation of high susceptibility outliers may signify an event or subfabric of importance that we should not discard therefore stereoplots of both normalized and non normalized orientation distributions should be compared preferably also identifying the outliers it is important to distinguish the shape of the orientation distribution ellipsoid from the shape of the individual magnetic fabric ellipsoids the qualitative l s nomenclature is best replaced by tj where tj 1 oblate tj 1 prolate jelinek 1981 invariably the orientation distribution is described by an ellipsoid whose shape is more spherical than that of the individual sample anisotropy ellipsoids because the latter have scattered orientations furthermore the shape of the orientation distribution ellipsoid need bear no relation to the shape of individual sample ellipsoid anisotropies the concepts are illustrated with 1119 measurements of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams from seven areas and with 188 measurements of anisotropy of anhysteretic remanence aarm from two areas

fracture controlled permeability of ultramafic basement aquifers inferences from the koniambo massif new caledonia abstract we study the relationship between fracture distribution and permeability in weathered peridotites exposed to tropical climate using the data from the koniambo massif new caledonia south pacific the vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity is obtained from packer tests performed on four 200 m deep boreholes a positive correlation is observed between the cumulated width of weathered fractures and the hydraulic conductivity in a given depth interval therefore a two scale model of weathered fractures is developed with small fractures 5 m radius deduced from outcrop data and large fractures 50 m radius from a remote sensing analysis hydraulic conductivity is 10 5 m s in the fractures and 10 8 m s in the matrix permeability fields are computed for the synthetic fractures network models either from flow along the three axes of a periodic cube or from injection through a slit then results are compared to packer tests and show that when both sets of large and small fractures are included the proposed model reproduces reasonably in situ measured data analytical formulae are proposed for computing an approximate permeability from field data the decrease of hydraulic conductivity with depth is also discussed we show that the proposed model for peridotites aquifers is similar to the one currently admitted for granitic rock aquifers it relies on weathering of a pre existing serpentine bearing fractures network which controls permeability in the weathering profile itself but also deeper in the fresh and non weathered rock the proposed conceptual model allows deriving quantitative estimate of hydraulic conductivity from field data which are of primary interest for managing the groundwater resource of peridotite aquifers particularly where mining operations impact groundwater flow