mid cretaceous sequence stratigraphy and sedimentary cyclicity in the western paris basin abstract cenomanian and turonian depositional patterns of the western paris basin are interpreted in terms of sequence stratigraphy a system tract analysis of the epicontinental normandie basin with pelagic chalks and of the maine platform covered by clastics provides evidence for relative changes in coastal onlap various minor uncomformities are related to these changes of sea level the four global cycles uza or zc 2 2 2 5 of haq et al 1987 1988 are recognised while an additional one is proposed for the geslinianum zone in addition periodic rhythmic cycles are commonly registered within the chalk expressed by the repitition of various facies enhanced both by biosedimentary processes and diagenetic alteration these elementary climatic cycles allow accurate lithostratigraphic correlations during this period when the sea level peaked on the tectonically passive border of the armorican block the paris basin appears to record a detailed set of events which can be correlated with those in the atlantic boreal and tethyan provinces

the pre quaternary history of fire abstract although evidence for land vegetation comes from the silurian and maybe even earlier the first record of fossil charcoal fusain is from the late devonian for this period there are only one or two isolated records not until the early carboniferous is there a record of extensive charcoal deposits mainly preserved in near shore clastic sediments which provide evidence of significant and widespread wildfires by the late carboniferous charcoal was common or abundant in a wide range of facies including tropical wetland peats wildfire played an important role in shaping the environment at this time the latest palaeozoic and early mesozoic records of charcoal are fewer whereas important deposits of late mesozoic age are found worldwide the occurrence of charcoal at the cretaceous tertiary boundary has been highlighted as evidence for a global fire following a meteorite impact but this interpretation is questionable charcoal has been widely reported from tertiary sediments and its appearance in the quaternary and recent is not solely as a result of human impact through the past 400 million years there have been major changes in atmospheric oxygen levels that affected fire intensity and frequency fire systems thus have a long history and their impact on shaping the environment is assessed

a critical re examination of the petrology of the no 5 block coal in eastern kentucky with special attention to the origin of inertinite macerals in the splint lithotypes abstract the pennsylvanian no 5 block coal bed in eastern kentucky is one of several coals considered to be among the splint coals of the central appalachians the coals are generally noted for their inertinite rich dull lithotypes petrographic aspects of the lithologies reveal both fire derived and degradation derived inertinites in the assemblages fire is not an exclusive contributor to the origin to inertinite macerals there are many other biological factors such as the actions and interactions of fungi bacteria and insects which must be considered in the alteration of plant materials to form inertinite macerals fungi physically and chemically alter plant tissues to form macerals with a distinct morphology and chemistry different than those formed from fire and other abiological processes insects as secondary sources of wood degradation within a mire are responsible for physical such as boreholes from wood consuming insects and chemical alteration of plants degradation observed in macrinite may be boreholes from wood consuming insects such as mites some inertinite macerals in particular macrinite may be the result of inert fecal pellet conglomerates preserved in the mire overall macerals of the same name can form from multiple and complex biological and abiological processes

revisiting coos bay oregon a re examination of funginite huminite relationships in eocene subbituminous coals coal petrography has advanced significantly since reinhardt theissen and james schopf pioneered the use of thin sections to examine coals from coos bay oregon and to many coal petrographers the nomenclature used in that study is irrelevant the schopf 1947 study was a ground breaking examination of maceral relationships that need to be part of the working vocabulary of modern petrographers to support this a re examination of the coos bay thin section collection was undertaken using modern nomenclature for low rank coals under reflected light this particular collection was chosen in part because of the abundance of fungal material reported by schopf fungal material in coal and its association with huminite vitrinite macerals provides important information about the decompositional history of the coal and allows coal dominated by oxic processes to be differentiated from coal dominated by anoxic processes in the coos bay samples predominantly oxic intervals contain well preserved fungi including spores sclerotia and hyphae while anoxic intervals contain no fungi

a wave tank experiment on the erosional mechanism at a cliff base a laboratory experiment using a two dimensional wave tank was designed to investigate the mechanism of erosion at a cliff base by waves armed with rock fragments the experiment was performed under constant wave conditions by systematically changing the amount of beach sand at the foot of steep model cliffs of the same slope and strength cliff erosion occurred when the beach material at the cliff beach junction was moved by waves turbulence created by bores rushing up on the beach mobilized the sand and exerted a mechanical shearing force on the cliff face using the sand as an abrasive the analysis of results indicated that the effect of the abrasive doubled when the cliff beach junction was located above still water level swl as compared to when it was below swl the assailing force of the sediment laden water masses was proportional to the square of the bore speed immediately in front of the cliff face the factor of proportionality is related to the quantity of beach sand entrapped in the turbulent fluid

identifying the behavioural characteristics of clay cliffs using intensive monitoring and geotechnical numerical modelling abstract coastal monitoring is routinely undertaken to provide an archival record of cliff line movement that can be used in the development and validation of predictive coast retreat and evolution models however coastal monitoring is often purely quantitative in nature and financial necessity requires deployment over extensive coastal sections as a result for local site conditions in particular only limited geomorphological data are available or included during the development of such predictive models this has resulted in many current models incorporating a simplistic or generalised representation of cliff behaviour an approach that progressively loses local credibility when deployed over extensive heterogeneous coastlines this study addresses this situation at a site of extreme coastline retreat holderness uk through the application of intensive monitoring of six representative cliff sections nested within a general geomorphological appraisal of the wider coastline as a whole the data from these surveys have been used to validate a finite difference based geotechnical modelling assessment of clay cliff stability once validated the geotechnical model was used to simulate a range of scenarios that were sufficient to represent the range of topographic hydrogeological geological and littoral conditions exhibited throughout the region our assessment identified that the cliff retreat occurs through the combined influence of direct marine erosion of the cliff with shallow structurally controlled failures or substantial mass failures critically the predisposition to any one of these failure mechanisms arises principally as a result of initial cliff height the results of the numerical modelling have been combined into an empirical slope model that derives the rate of landslide induced retreat that would arise from mass failures under various future scenarios results of this study can be used in the selection and development of retreat models at coastlines of similar physiographic setting to that found at holderness the results represent a key step in linking material deformation properties to the processes of cliff change and the subsequent range of landforms found on clay cliffs as such the results could also be used more generally to illustrate the likely cliff behaviour of other soft rock coastlines

disrupted coal and carbonate facies within two pennsylvanian cyclothems southern illinois basin united states two cyclothems contain an unusual suite of disrupted fabrics this study9s interdisciplinary integration of coal maceral and sedimentological information offers significant new interpretations of coal limestone interchange both depositionally and diagenetically disrupted fabrics within the herrin coal and providence limestone are interpreted as representing previously undocumented interactive processes between coals and limestones the herrin coal contains brecciated beds that are the result of marine transgression over a coastal plain mire representing high energy conditions at the swamp beach interface this interface has rarely been documented in detail peat is inherently unstable prior to its conversion to coal and we document this by interpreting conglomeratic beds in overlying strata differential compaction of herrin peats generated subaqueous debris flows in the overlying providence limestone this mechanism for syndiagenetic and early diagenetic sediment deformation has not been previously recognized in addition near surface and surface processes produced other disrupted fabrics in the providence limestone such as in situ mosaic breccias nodular fabrics and calcrete horizons this study also documents that stratigraphically adjacent alkaline carbonate sediments were further altered by undersaturated acidic pore waters derived from compacting peats during early diagenesis our interdisciplinary approach to distinguishing and interpreting all of these disrupted fabrics led to a new appraisal of the importance of depositional and postdepositional interactions between coal and limestone the presence of mire deposits can have a significant influence on the thickness distribution and fabrics in overlying strata in cyclothems climatic and eustatic changes may control overall depositional patterns but peat compaction may determine certain facies

terrestrial laser scanning of rock slope instabilities this manuscript presents a review on the application of a remote sensing technique terrestrial laser scanning tls to a well known topic rock slope characterization and monitoring although the number of publications on the use of tls in rock slope studies has rapidly increased in the last 5 10 years little effort has been made to review the key developments establish a code of best practice and unify future research approaches the acquisition of dense 3d terrain information with high accuracy high data acquisition speed and increasingly efficient post processing workflows is helping to better quantify key parameters of rock slope instabilities across spatial and temporal scales ranging from cubic decimetres to millions of cubic metres and from hours to years respectively key insights into the use of tls in rock slope investigations include a the capability of remotely obtaining the orientation of slope discontinuities which constitutes a great step forward in rock mechanics b the possibility to monitor rock slopes which allows not only the accurate quantification of rockfall rates across wide areas but also the spatio temporal modelling of rock slope deformation with an unprecedented level of detail studying rock slopes using tls presents a series of key challenges from accounting for the fractal character of rock surface to detecting the precursory deformation that may help in the future prediction of rock failures further investigation on the development of new algorithms for point cloud filtering segmentation feature extraction deformation tracking and change detection will significantly improve our understanding on how rock slopes behave and evolve perspectives include the use of new 3d sensing devices and the adaptation of techniques and methods recently developed in other disciplines as robotics and 3d computer vision to rock slope instabilities research

petrology and palynology of the middle pennsylvanian leatherwood coal bed eastern kentucky indications for depositional environments abstract the eastern kentucky coal field is located in the central portion of the appalachian basin the pennsylvanian breathitt formation in this region is characterized by numerous sequences of bituminous coal bearing sedimentary rocks these coals have distinct maceral compositions due to variations in depositional environments coal characterization is an important method for determining conditions that influenced peat accumulation and overall depositional settings of mires this study focuses on the characterization of the maceral composition of the middle pennsylvanian age leatherwood coal bed it utilizes petrographical palynological and geochemical analyses to describe specific depositional environments and associated peat accumulation conditions petrographic analyses indicate that these coals have relatively high liptinite and varying inertinite content along with trace amounts of mineral matter vitrinite mainly in the form of collotelinite is the most dominant maceral group geochemical data reveals low ash and sulfur content ancillary palynological data shows the palynomorph assemblage to be dominated by tree fern and large lycopod tree spores with lesser amounts of small lycopod tree small fern and cordaites and calamites spores the petrographic geochemical and palynological data indicate that both domed ombrotrophic and planar rheotrophic mire conditions with limited local detrital influx contributed to the formation of the leatherwood coal

marine and subaerial controls of coastal chalk cliff erosion in normandy france based on a 7 year laser scanner monitoring abstract between october 2010 and november 2017 surveys using terrestrial laser scanning tls were carried out every 4 5 months to monitor erosion on three chalk cliff faces with close structural characteristics in normandy the two dieppe sites are abandoned cliffs while the varengeville sur mer site is an active one the uniqueness of this paper is the comparison between these cliff sections and the significance of marine and or subaerial controls in erosion beyond the quantification of annual retreat rates which on the active cliff are currently 36 times greater than on the abandoned cliffs this paper highlights the fundamental efficacy of marine controls in the current cliff erosion and the removal of falls analyses of modalities of retreat and profile evolution according to a naturalistic approach subaerial processes appear to have a less erosive action than marine ones because the studied abandoned cliffs show low erosion dynamics and have maintained a subvertical profile despite continentalization for between 30 to more than 120 years

observations on the nature and origin of fusain abstract evidence for a wildfire origin of fusain is examined charcoal produced by natural fires and artificial charring resembles fossil fusain both in physical size and shape and in optical reflectance artificially charred leaves and naturally burnt wood are illustrated using the sem reflectance studies on modern charcoals suggest that much semifusinite may be produced by pyrolysis the ecological implications of a wildfire origin of fusain are discussed and it is concluded that fires have been a feature of terrestrial ecosystems from at least the late devonian

decadal scale coastal cliff retreat in southern and central california abstract airborne lidar data collected in 1998 and 2009 2010 were used to measure coastal cliff erosion and retreat between the mexico california border and bodega head california cliff erosion was detected along 44 of the 595 km of shoreline evaluated while the remaining cliffs were relatively stable the mean cliff top retreat rate was 0 12 m yr while mean retreat averaged over the entire cliff face was 0 04 m yr the maximum cliff top and face retreat rates were 4 2 and 3 8 m yr respectively historical 1930s to 1998 and recent retreat rates were significantly inversely correlated for areas with large historical or recent cliff retreat such that locations with elevated historical retreat had low levels of recent retreat and locations with elevated recent retreat were preceded by low rates of historical retreat the strength of this inverse correlation increased with cliff change magnitudes up to r2 of 0 91 for cliff top retreat rates 2 9 m yr mean recent retreat rates were 52 83 lower than mean historical retreat rates although beaches can protect cliffs against wave driven erosion cliffs fronted by beaches retreated 49 more than cliffs without beaches on average unarmored cliff faces retreated 0 05 m yr between 1998 and 2009 2010 about three times faster than artificially armored cliffs alongshore metrics of wave cliff impact precipitation and cliff hardness were generally not well correlated with recent cliff changes a cliff hazard metric is used to detect cliff steepening and areas prone to future cliff top failures

erosional processes in the hard rock coastal cliffs at staithes north yorkshire the processes of change on near vertical coastal cliffs have been quantified using terrestrial photogrammetry and laser scanning the approach allows discrete rockfall geometry to be measured and source located in three dimensions this paper presents the analysis of an inventory of over 100000 discrete rockfalls recorded from the liassic coast at staithes north yorkshire uk where a rock face area of over 16000 m 2 has been monitored over a 20 month period the data obtained on three dimensional scar geometry and source position give an insight into rockfall characteristics from a range of rock types cliff heights and geometries multiple failure mechanisms such as overhang collapse constant spalling fragmentation and large scale coherent rockfalls have been observed and related to rock type controlled processes on the rock face the spatially referenced rockfall scar data are used to assess the influence of environmental controls on variable rock mass properties such as rock type structure and cliff geometry analysis of rockfall magnitude frequency reveals notable similarities between coastal rockfalls and inventories from non coastal environments the resolution of the monitoring data allows quantification of rockfalls down to volumes of 1 25 x 10 4 m 3 to be consistently sampled and measured this complete magnitude frequency relationship suggests that rather than evolving exclusively through isolated sporadic losses coastal cliff geomorphology reflects interconnected processes in which each rockfall is part of a continuum of change to the rock face further detailed assessment of the rock face reveals the control of the pre failure morphology on subsequent failure patterns for example the quantity of rock protrusion from the cliff is positively correlated with subsequent failure volume the continuum of activity and the controls on failure identified within these data suggest that the episodic behaviour of coastal cliffs previously assumed may have been overstated by coarser resolution monitoring data the findings improve our understanding of the evolution of coastal cliffs and highlight areas for further research into both cliff processes and the character of rock slope failures in general

coastline retreat via progressive failure of rocky coastal cliffs despite much research on the myriad processes that erode rocky coastal cliffs accurately predicting the nature location and timing of coastline retreat remains challenging and is confounded by the apparently episodic nature of cliff failure the dominant drivers of coastal erosion marine and subaerial forcing are anticipated to increase in the future so understanding their present and combined efficacy is fundamental to improving predictions of coastline retreat we captured change using repeat laser scanning across 2 7 104 m2 of near vertical rock cliffs on the uk north sea coast over 7 yr to determine the controls on the rates patterns and mechanisms of erosion for the first time we document that progressive upward propagation of failure dictates the mode and defines the rate at which marine erosion of the toe can accrue retreat of coastline above this is a failure mechanism not conventionally considered in cliff stability models propagation of instability and failure operates at these sites at 10 yr time scales and is moderated by local rock mass strength and the time dependence of rock fracture we suggest that once initiated failure propagation can operate ostensibly independently to external environmental forcing and so may not be tightly coupled to prevailing subaerial and oceanographic conditions our observations apply to coasts of both uniform and complex lithology where failure geometry is defined by rock mass strength and structure and not intact rock strength alone and where retreat occurs via any mode other than full cliff collapse

some chemical structural features of coals of differing maceral distributions and stratigraphy six north american bituminous coals four carboniferous and two cretaceous and eight maceral concentrates from carboniferous british seams have been heated with tetralin and hydrogen to 400 c the hexane soluble parts of the products were separated by column chromatography and the fractions were then analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry in all cases the aromatic hydrocarbon fraction was a very complex mixture containing a number of alkylated biphenyls diphenylmethanes and ethanes and polycyclic compounds however single ioncchromatography m z 142 showed that in addition to these the products from five of the six american coals contained homologous series of long chain n alkylnapththalenes with alkyl groups extending to c16 in other fractions from the american coals homologous series of n alkylfurans and alkylphenols were found to be major components as also were many alkylcyclohexenones related to isophorone extensive homologous series of n alkyl aromatics were not detected in products from any of six vitrinites from british seams though series of n and iso alkylphenols were found in the products from two sporinite concentrates a number of polycyclic ketones apparently related to sterols were found in the products from the british vitrinites but not from any american coals reasons for what appear to be systematic structural differences between the american and british coals are discussed differences in stratigraphy are noted and it seems not impossible that differences in source vegetation are significant

displacement across the cholame segment of the san andreas fault between 1855 and 1893 from cadastral surveys changes since 1855 in reported section line lengths and positions of survey monuments that span the san andreas fault saf were used to measure displacement interpreted to be from the 1857 fort tejon earthquake in south central california in 1855 1856 james e freeman established township and range lines across the saf between rancho cholame and the northern carrizo plain at least 26 1 mile sections lines spanned the saf in the area between present day california highways 46 and 58 each section line was marked by monuments at the midpoint and endpoints section lines across portions of the saf were resurveyed in 1893 by j m gore we projected changes in line length onto the fault zone to measure displacement the measurements indicate right lateral displacement of 16 2 6 0 m across the fault zone the resulting tectonic displacement exceeds the maximum reported geomorphic offsets 6 7 m attributed to the 1857 earthquake along the cholame segment although we recognize great uncertainties in the accuracy of our small historical data set we tentatively conclude that total displacement in the 1857 earthquake along the saf over this 2 km wide aperture was significantly greater than the 3 to 6 m slip previously reported for the cholame segment from narrower aperture geomorphic and trenching studies these differences may be compatible if slip along the fault increases down dip rapidly from 3 6 m at the surface to 20 m within several hundred meters of the surface our inference of high slip along this portion of the cholame segment in 1857 is at odds with most rupture models of the central saf and suggests that geomorphic offsets may not represent total displacement across the fault zone

1855 and 1991 surveys of the san andreas fault implications for fault mechanics two monuments from an 1855 cadastral survey that span the san andreas fault in the carrizo plain have been right laterally displaced 11 0 2 5 m by the 1857 fort tejon earthquake and associated seismicity and afterslip this measurement confirms that at least 9 5 0 5 m of slip occurred along the main fault trace as suggested by measurements of offset channels near wallace creek the slip varied by 2 to 3 m along a 2 6 km section of the main fault trace using radiocarbon dates of the penultimate large earthquake and measurements of slip from the 1857 earthquake we calculate an apparent slip rate for the last complete earthquake cycle that is at least 25 lower than the late holocene slip rate on the main fault trace comparison of short term broad aperture strain accumulation rates with the narrow aperture late holocene slip rate indicates that the fault behaves nearly elastically over a time scale of several earthquake cycles therefore slip in future earthquakes should compensate the slip rate deficit from the 1857 earthquake

on the fundamental difference between coal rank and coal type abstract this article addresses the fundamental difference between coal rank and coal type while theoretically settled long ago as being different aspects of coal systems science the two concepts are still often confounded in recent years this has resulted in the publication of several works stating that coal type changes with coal rank coal type refers solely to coals depositional origin and the maceral mineral admixture resulting from that origin coal types typically fall in to two categories humic coals developed from peat and sapropelic coals developed from organic mud either type may be allocthonous or autochthonous and within types further refinement of depositional environment can be made coal rank refers to the changes in geochemistry and resultant changes in reflectance caused by increasing thermal maturity of the coal thus it provides an overprint of maturity on existing coal types with proper techniques such as use of crossed polars and etching maceral forms can be differentiated even at high ranks and the original coal type determined

paleoecology of the fire clay coal bed in a portion of the eastern kentucky coal field vertically continuous increment samples of the fire clay coal bed mid middle pennsylvanian late westphalian b collected from a portion of the central appalachian basin were studied palynologically petrographically and geochemically in order to partially reconstruct the paleoecology and processes associated with peat formation in the ancient fire clay paleomire results indicate that four compositional groups can be identified they are 1 a lycospora vitrinite dominant group characterized by high percentages of lycospora and vitrinite macerals and generally low but variable ash yields and sulfur contents 2 a mixed palynoflora high vitrinite group that petrographically is similar to group 1 except that it contains a more diverse palynoflora 3 a mixed palynoflora moderate low vitrinite group characterized by various admixtures of lycopsid fern and calamite miospores increased percentages of liptinite and inertinite macerals and low ash yields and sulfur contents and 4 a mixed palynoflora high ash yield group characterized by high percentages of small lycopsid fern and occasionally calamite and cordaite miospores high liptinite and inertinite contents high ash yields and moderate to high sulfur contents the fire clay coal bed contains a distinctive flint clay parting of probable volcanic origin that naturally divides the bed into two benches these two benches upper and lower are highly disparte in occurrence appearance and composition in the study area the lower bench generally is thin 0 5 m laterally discontinuous and mainly composed of dull mainly durain coal lithotypes ash yields typically are high sulfur contents generally are moderate to high compositional group 4 the mixed palynoflora high ash yield group defines all of the increments examined from the lower bench in contrast the upper bench is thick 0 75 m laterally continous and mainly comprised of bright mainly clarain coal lithotypes overall ash yields and sulfur contents for this bench are generally low although vertical variation is apparent all of the compositional groups occur in the upper bench in some columns notably those that are thick and uninterrupted by clastic partings groups 1 and 4 often occupy basal coal layers and groups 2 and 3 occur in higher layers other columns especially those taken in areas of thin 0 5 m fire clay coal are dominated by groups 1 and 4

ragged edge of the herrin no 11 coal western kentucky abstract the herrin no 11 coal in western kentucky is normally a bright banded high vitrinite high sulfur coal three sites have been found where the coal deviates from the expected appearance in union county a site known only from a literature description the upper two thirds of the coal was described as a cannel in ohio county a thin truncated section of the herrin coal has a greater abundance of liptinite and inertinite rich microlithotypes towards the top of the seam the various microlithotypes were frequently found in brecciated assemblages in hopkins county the herrin coal was found to be largely a coarse breccia of oxidized macerals cemented by calcite a marine limestone was present as a parting within the coal each occurrence represents the edge of the coal the sites varied in the energy of the environment and perhaps also in proximity to marine waters

petrography and geochemistry of oligocene bituminous coal from the jiu valley petrosani basin southern carpathian mountains romania abstract belt samples of oligocene chattian bituminous coal from 10 underground mines located in the jiu valley hunedoara county petrosani basin romania have been examined and analyzed for proximate and ultimate analysis major minor and trace element chemistry organic petrography and vitrinite reflectance the mineral chemistry and mode of occurrence of trace elements also have been investigated using sem and electron microprobe techniques twenty coal beds occur in the jiu valley and most of the samples are from bed no 3 the most productive bed of the dilja uricani formation of oligocene age the petrosani basin oriented sw ne is 48 km long 10 km wide at the eastern part and 2 km wide at the western part the coal mines are distributed along the center of the valley generally following the jiu de vest river reflectance measurements indicate that the rank of the coals ranges from high volatile b to high volatile a bituminous overall rank decreases from the southwest to the northeast in bed no 3 r max varies from 0 75 in the northeast to 0 93 in the southwest although most oligocene coals in romania and adjacent countries are lignite in rank the jiu valley bituminous coals have been affected by regional metamorphism and attending hydrothermal fluids related to the alpine orogenic event the coals are all dominated by vitrinite resinite and funginite are important minor macerals in most of the coals pyrite and carbonate generally dominate the mineral assemblages with carbonate more abundant in the northwest siderite occurs as nodules and masses within the macerals generally vitrinite dolomite and calcite occur as fracture fillings plant cell fillings and in other authigenic forms late stage fracture fillings are siderite dolomite calcite and ankerite in one instance two populations of siderite 35 and 45 wt feo plus ankerite fill a large fracture late stage pyrite framboid alteration is ni and cu bearing with ni rich pyrite hydrated ni fe sulfate chalcopyrite and rare pentlandite and clausthalite some of the mines sampled in 2001 have been closed as romania has undergone severe economic and environmental reforms in preparation for its 2007 entry into the european union eu romania s continued efforts to adapt to a market economy within the environmental and economic constraints of the eu make this collection of data valuable as the eventual fate of the other mines in jiu valley is unknown

slip budget and potential for a m7 earthquake in central california the slip rate budget of the san andreas fault saf in central california which is approximately 33 mm yr is accounted for by a change in the slip release mechanism along the fault in the nw section of the fault between bear valley and monarch peak creep apparently accounts for the slip budget with the seismicity contributing negligibly the section at parkfield marks the transition from a creeping to a locked fault trace since the m8 1857 earthquake five m6 earthquakes have occurred but have not completely accounted for the slip budget southeast of parkfield the saf has been locked since 1857 from cholame to bitterwater valley this section now lags the deep slip by the amount of slip released in 1857 consequently faulting in this section could occur at the time of the next parkfield earthquake if this earthquake releases the slip deficit accumulated in the transition zone and in the locked zone the earthquake will have a moment magnitude m7 2

retreat rates modalities and agents responsible for erosion along the coastal chalk cliffs of upper normandy the contribution of terrestrial laser scanning in order to follow all the changes affecting the coastal chalk cliff face in upper normandy and improve knowledge about cliff erosion repeated terrestrial laser scanning tls surveys were carried out frequently between 2010 and 2013 every 4 5 months they were conducted at two sites with similar lithostratigraphic characteristics but different exposures to marine actions the former being an abandoned cliff and the latter an active cliff they provide a quantification of the production of debris with centimeter precision from 0 01 to 0 04 m these surveys provided three major outcomes 1 cliff retreat rates were measured at high spatial resolution with retreat values unsurprisingly 3 4 times higher for an active cliff than for an abandoned cliff this result highlights that marine actions should be seen as not only a transport agent but also a particularly effective erosion agent 2 a significant proportion of debris fall production about 25 in the total active cliff retreat was identified and 3 one of the modalities of retreat was visualized as the creation of a basal notch which propagates instability towards the upper part of the cliff face later this instability generates rock falls coming from the whole cliff face

notes on the origin of inertinite macerals in coals funginite associations with cutinite and suberinite abstract the association of fungus with plant leaves and roots is ubiquitous while many of these occurrences are considered to be pathogenic mycorrhizzal fungal associations with roots are essential for plant growth despite the common knowledge of such relationships in plant science with a few exceptions the fungus leaf root stem association as the macerals funginite cutinite and suberinite in coals has not been extensively studied in this work examples of funginite associations with cutinite and suberinite are discussed

collapse at the eastern eiger flank in the swiss alps on 13 june 2006 parts of the eastern flank of the eiger peak in the swiss alps collapsed leading to a major rock fall the unstable spur on this flank is made up of several blocks that move relative to one another instability was initiated by a block at the rear that acted as a wedge and triggered motion of the other blocks landslides are a significant natural hazard in mountainous regions1 and are often triggered by external factors such as earthquakes rainfall permafrost melting or retreat of glaciers2 a large landslide occurred in the swiss alps on 13 july 2006 when portions of an immense rock spur on the eastern flank of the eiger peak3 collapsed here we use field observations and terrestrial laser scanning data to record and quantify the relative motion along the various blocks of rock that form this spur the data show that during the year of observation the blocks moved relative to one another by up to tens of metres along fractures that can be related to pre existing planes of weakness rates of motion and deformation were high throughout july 2006 particularly in the northern part of the spur that partially collapsed on 13 july the rates decreased considerably during the subsequent months although a slight increase was noted in june and july 2007 these observations are consistent with instability of the spur initiated by subsidence of a single block at the rear which acted as a wedge and disintegrated over time owing to loss of lateral confinement

petrology mineralogy and geochemistry of the ge rich coal from the wulantuga ge ore deposit inner mongolia china new data and genetic implications abstract the early cretaceous wulantuga high ge coal deposit in inner mongolia is one of the major coal hosted ge deposits in china this paper reports new data on the petrological mineralogical and geochemical compositions of 13 bench samples of the high ge no 6 coal from the wulantuga deposit and provides new insight into the origin and modes of occurrence of the minerals and elements present the no 6 coal has a low rank ro max 0 45 and is a low ash coal 8 77 the total content of inertinite 52 5 vol on average in most coal benches is higher than that of huminite 46 8 vol on average the dominant huminite maceral is textinite averages 43 9 and the dominant inertinite macerals are mainly fusinite averages 33 and semifusinite 12 5 along with trace portions of intertodetrinite secretinite funginite and macrinite fungus seen as the maceral funginite played a role in the development of degraded maceral forms in the wulantuga coals funginite is present in samples examined in this study but is not easily extracted during palynological studies recovered fungal taxa are saprophytes indicating woody decomposition prior to incorporation in the mire palynology revealed a sparse flora that is consistent with the early cretaceous age minerals in the coal include quartz kaolinite illite and or illite smectite gypsum pyrite and traces of rutile and anatase a varying proportion of bassanite was observed in the low temperature ashes ltas bassanite in the ltas was derived both from the dehydration of gypsum in the raw coals and from the interaction between organically associated ca and s during the low temperature ashing in addition to a proportion of detrital quartz fine grained and cell filling quartz of authigenic origin is also present pyrite is of syngenetic origin and derived from sulfate rich hydrothermal fluids compared to common chinese and world low rank coals the no 6 coal is enriched in be 25 7 g g f 336 g g ge 274 g g as 499 g g sb 240 g g cs 5 29 g g w 115 g g hg 3 165 g g and tl 3 15 g g germanium in the coal is organically associated and its enrichment is attributed to hydrothermal fluids from the adjacent granitoids beryllium is probably associated with ca and mn bearing carbonate minerals and to a lesser extent with clay minerals rather than with organic matter fluorine largely occurs in clay minerals kaolinite and illite the elevated concentrations of tl hg as and sb are mainly distributed in pyrite and were derived from the same hydrothermal source the high w in the coal occurs in both the organic matter and the authigenic quartz illite is the major carrier of cs in the coal the accumulation of rare earth elements ree in the coals had a polygenetic and multistage nature including two syngenetic stages early hydrothermal and terrigenous and one diagenetic late hydrothermal stage the ree distribution patterns of the early hydrothermal and terrigenous stages were characterized by the enrichment of medium ree m type ree and light ree l type ree respectively a h type ree distribution pattern hree enrichment occurred in the late diagenetic hydrothermal stage the high ge wulantuga coals are also abnormally enriched in precious metals gold pt and pd in the coals calculated from their concentrations in the ltas are 3 5 25 8

paradise and herrin lost marginal depositional settings of the herrin and paradise coals western kentucky coalfield abstract this is the fourth installment in a series of papers on the asturian westphalian d disrupted mire margins termed the ragged edge in previous papers and limestone distributions in the herrin baker coal interval in the western kentucky extension of the illinois basin new data indicating in situ peat development and marine influence collected from the first in mine exposure of this interval are presented borehole data from the region are examined in the context of ragged edge exposures and a carbonate platform depositional model for this portion of the illinois basin is presented this shows that deposition of the sequence was influenced both by the underlying sediments and by a marine transgression the former influence is seen in variations in coal and limestone thickness over sandstone filled channels versus over shale bayfill deposits the latter is marked by the progressive upwards loss of coal benches i e the bottom bench of both coals is the most extensive and the herrin coal is more extensive than the overlying paradise coal and by marine partings in both coals further the brecciated margins seen in both coal seams are similar to brecciated peats encountered along the everglades margins of southwest florida overall coal distributions are similar to both those along the everglades margins and those along a transect from the belize coast to ambergis caye

notes on the origin of inertinite macerals in coals observations on the importance of fungi in the origin of macrinite macrinite is a generally rare inertinite maceral often incorporating remnants and fragments of other macerals including vitrinite liptinite and other inertinite the associated inertinites include multiple forms of funginite funginite is also commonly found in association with vitrinite of slightly elevated reflectance and with degraded varieties of vitrinite together with the highly degraded macrinite the latter two associations are here inferred to be part of a continuum of fungal and microbial degradation of peat in any case the origin of some macrinite is potentially distinct from that of inertinite generated by fire

macrinite forms in pennsylvanian coals abstract fungi are not as evident in pennsylvanian coals as in younger mesozoic or cenozoic coals however macerals formed through the interaction of fungi with woody and herbaceous precursors do occur one example of this is in some forms of the maceral macrinite this study analyzes macrinite forms from geographically distinct pennsylvanian coals the macrinite observed in this study is characterized by the presence of inclusions of other detrital macerals indicative of ingestion and excretion similar to that documented in macrinite of younger coals this suggests that while not all ecologic niches in the pennsylvanian were filled in the same manner as in younger settings similar processes implying similar types of interactions between fungi bacteria and fauna were producing similar products

postseismic strain following the 1989 loma prieta earthquake from gps and leveling measurements postseismic deformation in the 5 years following the 1989 loma prieta earthquake has been measured with the global positioning system and precise leveling postearthquake velocities at distances greater than 20 km from the coseismic rupture are not significantly different from those observed in the 20 years prior to the earthquake however velocities at stations within 20 km of the rupture exceed preearthquake rates and exhibit unanticipated contraction normal to the strike of the san andreas fault system a combination of forward modeling and nonlinear optimization suggests that the observed postseismic deformations were caused by aseismic oblique reverse slip averaging 2 9 cm yr on the san andreas fault and or the loma prieta rupture zone and 2 4 cm yr reverse slip along a buried fault within the foothills thrust belt the best fitting sources of postseismic deformation are all located at depths of less than 15 km we find no evidence for accelerated flow or shear below the loma prieta rupture in the first 5 years following the earthquake the inferred postseismic slip is likely to have been caused by the coseismic stress change updip of the 1989 rupture

mississippian serpukhovian chesterian stage coals from the fluorspar district crittenden and caldwell counties kentucky petrological and palynological compositions and their indications for peat producing ecosystems abstract serpukhovian stage chesterian stage in north american nomenclature coals in western kentucky are among the few occurrences of mississippian coals in eastern north america thus they provide a rare view of early carboniferous peat producing ecosystems petrographically the coals are dominated by telovitrinites among the inertinite macerals coprolitic macrinite provides evidence of arthropods fungal degraded wood cutinite has an association with epiphyllous fungus owing to the relatively high spore contributions from arborescent lycopsids the coals bear a palynologic resemblance to the pennsylvanian langsettian through asturian westphalian coals preserved in the nearby western kentucky coalfield the maceral assemblages however show a greater similarity to the upper pennsylvanian stephanian coals in western kentucky with 66 67 total vitrinite and about 29 total inertinite dominated by fusinite semifusinite both as volume percent mineral fee basis the mississippian coals have significantly lower vitrinite percentages than the westphalian coals the petrographic similarity is not paralleled by a floristic similarity as the stephanian flora was marked by the absence of arborescent lycopsids overall the amount of inertinites and the degradation suggested by a number of the inertinite forms suggests that not unexpectedly decay and degradation was an important contributor to the mississippian coals as with any coals the mississippian coals represent a story of preservation more than that of degradation and destruction with degraded and poorly preserved fusinite and semifusinite coprolitic macrinite and remnants of fungi being the ghosts of the destruction of the biomass

an investigation of wulantuga coal cretaceous inner mongolia macerals paleopathology of faunal and fungal invasions into wood and the recognizable clues for their activity coal macerals are the product of a complex series of decompositional and preservational pathways from living woody and herbaceous tissues to the variety of forms seen in coal the cretaceous wulantuga coal inner mongolia china offers an opportunity to observe a number of maceral forms resulting from these disparate pathways assemblages of coprolites within fusinite strongly suggest an origin related to arthropod ingestion and consequent in situ emplacement of the macrinitic coprolites within the damaged wood structure followed by combustion of the whole to achieve the observed reflectance

further examination of the ragged edge of the herrin coal bed webster county western kentucky coal field abstract the herrin western kentucky no 11 coal bed in the dixon 7 1 2 min quadrangle webster county kentucky displays another manifestation of the thinning margin of the coal bed previous studies in adjacent hopkins county have demonstrated that the coal is brecciated as the margin is approached the brecciated coal is not always thin 1 5 m of brecciated inertinite rich coal was previously described to the southeast of the present study area in general the brecciated coals are considerably thinner than the 1 5 2 m thick normal herrin coal both cores studied are thin 22 6 and 33 cm and display petrographic characteristics different from thicker herrin coals the cores described in the present study show some signs of brecciation in certain cases the fragmented macerals are cemented by exsudatinite multiple generations of pyrite mineralization were noted in one core with total sulfur exceeding 13 in the upper 8 48 cm lithotype overall the cores investigated in this study along with examples from previous studies illustrate the progression of the herrin coal from its absence either through nondeposition or erosion through thin brecciated coals to mineable coals no other economic coal in western kentucky shows as many examples of the depositional edge as does the herrin all of the examples studied are from cores emphasizing the need to study more than just the thick mineable coals if the total extent of the coal body is to be understood

ftir spectroscopy and reflectance of modern charcoals and fungal decayed woods implications for studies of inertinite in coals the chemical and physical characteristics of laboratory produced charcoals natural charcoals fungal decayed woods and inertinite from a variety of western canadian coals have been investigated using ftir and standard petrologic techniques our studies confirm and extend earlier work in showing that almost all inertinite macerals can be attributed to wildfire in peat swamps and that variation in the petrological characteristics of inertinite are a product of temperature duration of heating and the nature of the initial plant material the relationships between reflectance and temperature as well as heating duration of charcoal formation are established as a reference for the examination of inertinite and the probable temperature of inertinite precursor fossil charcoal formation in paleo wildfire fungi do not directly contribute to the formation of charcoal and inertinite apart from the fungal bodies themselves funginite sclerotia and hyphae and perhaps by increasing the extent of shrinkage and cracking increasing surface area of the plant materials and thus susceptibility to charring evidence of fungal activity progressively decreases with increasing degree of charing in response to duration of heating or increased charing temperature the reflectance values and ftir spectral characteristics of inertinites in western canadian coal suggest that most inertinite formed by wildfires at temperatures over 400 c the great abundance of semifusinite in western canadian coal may reflect frequent but short duration wildfires in precursor peat swamps

cost effective erosion monitoring of coastal cliffs abstract structure from motion with multi view stereo sfm mvs methods hold the potential for monitoring and quantifying cliff erosion to levels of accuracy and precision which rival terrestrial laser scanning tls and at a fraction of the cost we benchmark repeat sfm mvs against tls for quantifying rock fall frequency volume and cliff face erosion rates for a 1 km section of coastal cliffs where cliff top infrastructure is threatened by erosion first we address a major unknown in these techniques the number and configuration of control points surveys demonstrate that a sparse configuration along the cliff base and top at spacing equivalent to the cliff height provides suitable accuracy at acceptable logistic time and expense second we show that sfm mvs models match equivalent tls data to within 0 04 m and that the correlation between intersecting tls and sfm derived rock fall volumes improves markedly above a detection threshold of 0 07 m3 rock falls below this size threshold account for 77 7 of detected rock falls but only 1 9 of the calculated annual eroded volume annual erosion rates for the 1 km cliff face as calculated by repeat tls and sfm differencing are 0 6 10 2 m a 1 and 0 7 10 2 m a 1 respectively kilometre scale patterns of cliff erosion are dominated by localised zones of high magnitude episodic failure that are over an order of magnitude greater than background rates the ability of non specialist engineers geologists geomorphologists and managers to rapidly capture high quality accurate erosion data in a cost effective manner through repeat sfm mvs has significant potential to inform coastal managers and decision makers to further empower coastal authorities and communities policy frameworks must be developed to incorporate and interpret these data

rocky coast geomorphology and erosional processes a case study along the murgia coastline south of bari apulia se italy many sites along the apulian coast se italy are composed of weathered and fractured carbonate rocks affected by intense erosion and the development of slope instabilities here coastal morphology was mostly produced by quaternary tectonics the severe and selective action of modern erosion by sea waves and locally was strongly conditioned by human influences in addition due to the carbonate nature of rock masses the role exerted by karst processes has to be considered this paper provides a critical review of the common eroding processes and factors affecting coastal morphology in a typical mediterranean coastal carbonate environment a stretch of the murgia coastline south of bari between san vito and polignano a mare made up of cliffs and shore platforms interrupted by small pocket beaches was considered for qualitative and quantitative assessment of shoreline recession the coastal stretch was monitored by means of field surveys between 1997 and 2003 furthermore a comparison of vertical aerial photographs covering the period 1966 1997 scales 1 33 000 1 10 000 and 1 5000 topographic maps scales 1 5000 year 1987 1 2000 year 1982 and archival terrestrial photographs taken since the 1930s was also employed in some zones characterised by a gently sloping shore platform a significant shoreline retreat was calculated at about 20 m in the last 100 years 0 2 myr 1 which was caused above all by human activity here in fact the presence of small ancient coastal quarries

three dimensional excavation and recent rupture history along the cholame segment of the san andreas fault a paleoseismic study conducted along the cholame segment of the san andreas fault provides evidence for three earthquakes and the amount of lateral offset for the most recent event 1857 fort tejon earthquake excavations at the las yeguas ly4 site include five fault perpendicular two parallel and several hand dug trenches abruptly truncated sand and silt layers that are not correlative across the fault zone constrain the timing of the penultimate event l2 between cal a d 1030 1300 and 1390 1460 vertical offset shearing and fracturing of silty sand and gravel units that overlie l2 and historical artifacts that bracket the timing of the mre l1 provide evidence that the most recent ground rupturing event l1 occurred between cal a d 1390 1460 and 1865 l1 is likely the 1857 fort tejon earthquake tectonic silt filled fractures that dissect historic gray tan silt and sand suggest a ground shaking or a triggered slip event l0 which occurred after l1 three dimensional excavation of an alluvial fan edge unit 4 indicates that 3 0 0 70 m of near fault brittle slip occurred during the 1857 earthquake at this site

coastal cliff monitoring and analysis of mass wasting processes with the application of terrestrial laser scanning a case study of rugen germany abstract an active landslide affecting a composite sea cliff section of the island of rugen germany was investigated and monitored using terrestrial laser scanning biannual surveys were performed from 2006 to 2011 high resolution scans were used to delineate landslide extensions monitor the spatial and temporal changes and evaluate the processes of mass wasting along the cliff section between may 2006 and may 2011 the multi temporal analysis documents a strong landward progression of the landslide that resulted in an increase in the planimetric area by 32 in the same period 9365 m 3 of soil volume has been removed primarily due to rainfall triggered surface runoff erosion and the resulting slumping this volume loss correlates with the preferential erosion of weak and unconsolidated sediments building up the major part of the cliff face this produced a maximum cliff top retreat of 17 32 m with an average retreat rate of 3 46 m yr 1 the quantification of the mass wasting processes and cliff top retreat demonstrates the substantial effect of local cliff lithology on slope stability and supports a prognosis of the near future development of the landslide furthermore the absence of local wave attack indicators or human activity highlights the major role of subaerial processes in the erosion of the sea cliff these results can be transferred to cliff locations in the urbanised cliff top area nearby that currently suffer similar cliff erosion processes and episodic events of large cliff top retreats the study therefore provides reliable data for the local authorities in charge of hazard assessment and planning and implementation of adaptive countermeasures

lignin land plants and fungi biological evolution affecting phanerozoic oxygen balance as dominance shifted from lycopsids and pteridophytes in the paleozoic to gymnosperms in the mesozoic to angiosperms in the tertiary plant architecture became more sparing in its use of lignin lignin degrading organisms were rare or absent in the paleozoic but diverse and abundant in the tertiary thus the terrigenous organic carbon cycle has quickened over time the fraction of terrestrial primary production preserved in coals and kerogens has declined and terrestrial production has been able to increase over time without concomitant rises in atmospheric o sub 2

petrology and palynology of the no 5 block coal bed northeastern kentucky abstract the upper middle pennsylvanian middle westphalian d equivalent no 5 block coal bed eastern kentucky coal field of the central appalachian basin is a low sulfur compliance coal resource dominantly comprised of dull inertinite rich lithotypes ash yields tend to be highly variable in the no 5 block as does bed thickness and frequency of bed splitting this study describes the petrographic palynologic and geochemical characteristics of the no 5 block coal bed and reports on some temporal and spatial trends among these parameters in eastern northeastern kentucky petrographically the no 5 block coal is predominated by dull often high ash lithotypes with inertinite contents commonly exceeding 30 mmf the coal thins to the north northwest where it tends to be higher in vitrinite and sulfur content representatives of large and small lycopsids and ferns both tree like and small varieties dominate the no 5 block coal bed palynoflora calamite spores and cordaite pollen also occur but are less abundant small lycopsid densosporites spp and related crassicingulate genera and tree fern e g punctatisporites minutus laevigatosporites globosus spore taxa are most abundant in dull lithotypes bright lithotypes contain higher percentages of arboreous lycopsid spores lycospora spp regionally the no 5 block coal contains abundant torispora securis a tree fern spore specially adapted for desiccation prevention this along with overall high percentages of inertinite macerals suggest that peat accumulation may have taken place in a seasonally dry paleoclimate the no 5 block coal bed thickens rather dramatically in a nw se direction as does the frequency of coal bed splitting this phenomenon appears to be related to increased accomodation space in the southeastern portion of the study area perhaps via penecontemporaneous growth faulting maceral and palynomorph variations within the bed correspond with these changes thin coal along the northwestern margin tends to be vetrinite rich and contains abundant lycospora perhaps reflecting relatively stable peat forming conditions thicker coal to the southeast contains more inertinite high ash coal layers and inorganic partings spore floras contain more small lycopsid and tree fern components and are temporally variable perhaps indicating a more unstable peat forming environment

evaluating the extent to which wildfire history can be interpreted from inertinite distribution in coal pillars an example from the late permian kuznetsk basin russia abstract inertinite charcoal distributions in two randomly sampled in situ coal pillars seams 78 and 88 from the late permian kuznetsk basin siberia were analysed using petrographic techniques to determine palaeowildfire histories fire occurrence type and return interval in situ coal pillars are judged to be essential for this type of research as they retain information on the original inertinite distribution and maceral clast size ranges which can never be obtained from the crushed coals typically used for petrographic analysis the seams represent an ombrotrophic mire seam 78 and mire with mire lake seam 88 depositional settings but both environments show the same pattern of fire history charcoal is present in all lithotype units in both pillars both pillars contain episodic charcoal horizons representing local surface fires within the peat forming environment interspersed with frequent regional background fire events as shown by small scattered inertinite this paper presents an approach to calculating fire return intervals fri in these coal pillars by removing the thickness of less compactable charcoal horizons before calculating original duration of peat formation this is achieved by using a range of peat accumulation rates and peat to coal compaction ratios resultant mean fri ranges from 7 years extremes 0 5 to 143 years for a lithotype unit containing 4 horizons to 70 years extremes 5 to 1550 years for a lithotype unit with 2 horizons the mid range values both suggest shorter fire return intervals than seen in modern peat forming environments

reassessment of the evidence for primary fusinite and degradofusinite abstract insight into the origin of fusinite was gained using late carboniferous polished coal balls permineralized peat from the new castle coal bed alabama u s a the union coal bed lancashire england and the calhoun coal bed illinois u s a two types of fusinite were studied primary fusinite fusinite formed without undergoing charring or oxidation and degradofusinite fusinite formed due to decay or degradation evidence for primary fusinite in vascular plants previously relied on color in coal ball thin sections for maceral identification color is shown to be an unreliable guide to maceral identity in coal ball thin sections other evidence for primary fusinite from vascular plants is scant abundant fungi with vitrinitic reflectivity were found in coal balls whereas none with fusinitic reflectivity were found although genuine fungal sclerotinite does exist the occurrence of fungal sclerotinite does not prove that fungal sclerotinite is primary fusinite but only that fungi can be fusinitized both lycopod periderm with fungal decay features and coprolites have vitrinitic reflectivity in coal balls these tissues should have had fusinitic reflectivity if decay or degradation results in fusinitization these results therefore cast doubt on the existence of degradofusinite charcoal and decayed tissues show features that may allow them to be distinguished in some cases in charcoal the secondary cell walls of adjacent cells together with the middle lamellae are usually fused into a single homogeneous unit in decayed tissues the middle lamellae is preferentially decayed which can result in the separation of adjacent cells some prominent illustrations of degradofusinite show fusion of the cell walls of adjacent cells indicating an origin by charring this indicates that presently accepted criteria for recognizing degradofusinite are inadequate even if degradofusinite does exist some evidence for degradofusinite does exist but the key illustration as published teichmuller 1950 1989 does not demonstrate the existence of degradofusinite

beach and sea cliff dynamics as a driver of long term rocky coastline evolution and stability we investigate rocky coastline evolution over millennial time scales using exploratory analytical and numerical models based on interactions between beaches and sea cliffs in the models wave driven sea cliff retreat is a nonlinear function of beach width where cliff retreat is maximized by sediment abrasion and minimized by either a lack of beach sediment or too much sediment which prevents waves from reaching the sea cliff as sea cliffs retreat beach sediment is produced and distributed alongshore by wave driven sediment transport and local beach widths determine future cliff retreat rates numerical experiments indicate that through such interactions rocky coastlines can reach an equilibrium configuration where headlands and embayments remain stable through time even in the absence of alongshore variations in sea cliff lithology furthermore the equilibrium coastline configuration or the alongshore proportion of rocky headland to cliff backed pocket beach can be predicted analytically initial tests suggest that predictions match well qualitatively with actual landscapes

coal petrology and the origin of coal macerals a way ahead the development of coal petrology and the establishment of a nomenclatural system have proved of major use both for the industrial utilization of coal and for the development of a broad understanding of coal formation and diagenesis the development over the past 30 years however of nomenclature that includes aspects of plant origin and process is a retrograde step e g pyrofusinite degradofusinite and funginite equally problematic is the use of prescriptive formulae to indicate coal origins this paper reviews some of the problems involved with coal petrology as it is usually practiced in addition new advances in organic geochemical techniques have led to a fuller understanding of the relationship of plants and coal macerals recent research on the origin of coal macerals is presented and there is a discussion of the problems and challenges facing coal petrologists a holistic approach to studies of the origin of coal and coal macerals which includes not only petrographic but also chemical and biological studies is advocated d 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

high resolution topography derived offsets along the 1857 fort tejon earthquake rupture trace san andreas fault the great fort tejon earthquake of 1857 with an 350 km long surface rupture was the most recent major earthquake along the south central san andreas fault saf prior reconstruction of its surface slip distribution and reconstruction of preceding earthquakes along the 1857 rupture trace have contributed to formulation of the characteristic earthquake cem and uniform slip models usm for earthquake recurrence that find wide application in seismic hazard assessment and earthquake forecasting we used the high resolution b4 light detection and ranging lidar topographic data set sufficient for depiction of meter scale tectonic landforms to reevaluate the distribution of surface displacement along the 1857 rupture trace we present 450 offset measurements with displacements below 60 m increasing observation density relative to previous studies by a factor of 2 our results show that the 1857 earthquake had overall an average displacement below 3 5 m with 4 6 m released along the northwestern half of the rupture its along fault slip distribution is smooth at 10 km length scales at 28 less than prior estimates assuming a 10 km rupture depth and a 30 gpa shear modulus reconstruction of pre 1857 earthquakes is impeded by an exponential decrease in observation density with increasing displacement amount offset observation density soon reaches a level where only tentative and nonunique reconstructions are permitted the results of this study question prior surface slipreconstructions of pre 1857 rupture s that were based on a distinctly lower number of offset observations challenging the applicability of the aforementioned earthquake recurrence models to explain saf rupture behavior online material catalog of offset measurements along the 1857 surface rupture trace as well as an annotated map 1 embed inline graphic 1 gif

geochemistry of the blue gem coal bed knox county kentucky abstract the blue gem coal bed middle pennsylvanian westphalian b breathitt formation has low ash with some sample sites having less than 1 ash and low sulfur contents through parts of knox county kentucky most collection sites exhibit similar vertical elemental trends in ash geochemistry the relatively high ash 1 ash lower part of the bed displays enrichment in tio2 zr cr v and ni co zn rb and mn show enrichment at some sites a low ash 1 ash and a relative enrichment in sio2 k2o and rb and a relative decrease in cu ni co ba and mn when compared to the middle part of the bed principal components analysis indicates that the samples with an ash content 0 63 1 0 show associations for ni cu cr and co samples with between 1 01 2 0 ash display strong element associations that suggest increased clastic sediment contributions tio2 zr k2o rb sio2 the low ash content and the upwards decrease in trace concentrations both suggest that the blue gem peat swamp was ombrotrophic through at least a part of its geologic history

bolsovian pennsylvanian tropical peat depositional environments the example of the ruhr basin germany abstract a set of 11 bolsovian coal seams from the german ruhr coal basin were analyzed in profiles for their organic geochemical and petrographic composition aiming at the reconstruction of depositional environments mainly in terms of water supply and redox conditions for this purpose established maceral indices and a i ratio were employed the seams show the same basic depositional pathways of terrestrialisation and paludification as reported for duckmantian coal seams from the same basin the presence of coals formed as ombrotrophic peat indicates that climate was still wet enough for the formation of domed bogs until the upper bolsovian although the typical densosporite facies does not occur within the uppermost third of the analyzed succession very high ts values for seam parsifal ii indicate the influence of marine waters at the peat stage a marine ingression event was not reported before for this stratigraphical level within the ruhr basin data also reveal some variability in vitrinite reflectance 0 65 0 74 within a given coal seam which cannot be due to thermal maturation for seams with decreased vrr values a correlation with high liptinite contents was found rock eval hi values do not show any strong variation with depths in the recorded maturity interval tmax values vary between 418 c and 444 c showing dependence on both thermal maturity and liptinite content decreasing contents of inertinite macerals throughout the pennsylvanian in the ruhr basin suggest climatic changes during that time span

coal seams of the walbrzych formation intrasudetic basin poland inferences on changing depositional environment abstract the petrological composition of coal seams of the walbrzych fm was studied and depositional conditions were reconstructed on the basis of both coal and clastic sediment analysis coal of this formation is of medium to low volatile bituminous rank vitrinite reflectance r o max ranges from 0 8 to 2 0 and volatile matter content from 29 to 16 the coal seams of the walbrzych formation contain mainly banded coal bright and dull lithotypes occur sporadically the amount of banded and banded dull coals increases towards the top of the formation at the expense of banded bright coal consequently vitrinite and vitrite content tends to decrease upwards peat deposition in the lower part of the walbrzych formation occurred predominantly in a telmatic forest zone the mires were located between interdistributary channels on a delta plain and they were probably ombrotrophic in the upper part of the walbrzych formation swamps were the primary sites of peat deposition abandoned channels were favoured as peat deposition sites for seams where increases in seam thickness are associated with increases in coarse clastic content below seams continuous peat deposition in overbank zones is postulated for seams wherein decreases in seam thickness are associated with increases in coarse clastic content where no relationship between seam thickness and coarse clastic content beneath the seam exists the swamp may have encroached into overbank and channel zones rapidly changes in the environment of peat deposition may be related to tectonic activity along the basin margins during the namurian

reconstruction of a channel offset in 1857 by the san andreas fault near cholame california abstract the u s geological survey has formally forecast the next moderate m 6 parkfield earthquake for 1988 5 yr sieh and jahns 1984 forecast that a m 7 earthquake is likely to accompany the next parkfield earthquake the latter forecast rests on interpretation of 3 to 4 m of 1857 slip on eight gullies near cholame and slip loading rate of 3 5 cm yr since 1857 but lienkaemper 1987 interprets 1857 slip here as 4 to 8 m these eight gullies yield larger slip when one includes slip on secondary faults at three gullies and one picks gully centerlines judging the post 1857 alteration differently at five sites our goal in this paper is to show our interpretation of slip on one gully deemed the least ambiguous of these eight as they appear in large scale 1966 aerial photographs we interpret slip as 2 m larger at this key site suggesting a much lower likelihood of the next parkfield earthquake triggering a larger cholame earthquake our detailed studies of many sites showing 1857 slip are continuing and will be published later using 1966 aerial photos we infer the shape of this key gully before fault offset by eliminating effects of later natural and artificial processes of alteration on 1986 photos right lateral offset seems 3 5 0 5 m but on 1966 photos we measure 5 7 0 7 m differencing precise 1966 and 1986 topographic maps shows that little incision occurred but soil deposited up to a 1 m thickness on the left bank probably drifted downslope from agricultural disking in the adjacent field this soil deposit forced the channel bottom 2 m away from the left bank upstream from fault only causing offset in 1986 to appear 2 m smaller than in 1966 this 2 m alteration presumably occurred before sieh 1978 interpreted 3 3 m slip here

patterns of precursory rockfall prior to slope failure in this paper we examine data generated using high resolution three dimensional laser scanning monitoring of coastal rock cliffs these data are used to identify spatial and temporal patterns in rockfall activity behavior prior to slope failure analysis of the data suggests that given sufficient measurement precision precursory behavior here manifest as the rate of rockfall activity prior to failure can be detected measured and monitored environmental conditions appear to have a diminishing influence on the occurrence of increasingly large slope failures the monitoring data implies a time dependent sequence in the occurrence of smaller rockfalls in the period leading to the largest failures recorded this behavior is attributed to the mechanisms of strain accumulation in the rock mass resulting from brittle failure of the slope the implication is that combining these data with models of failure mechanisms may allow failure time to be forecast from wide area monitoring of precursory behavior these findings have implications for the management of potentially unstable slopes the understanding of slope failure mechanisms and the generation of a new type of slope failure warning systems

a 300 to 550 year history of slip on the imperial fault near the u s mexico border missing slip at the imperial fault bottleneck subsurface investigation of the imperial fault zone approximately 50 60 m south of the u s mexico international border in mexicali valley reveals that only the 1940 imperial valley earthquake m l 7 1 has produced significant surface slip in the past 300 years the 1940 earthquake produced about 5 m of slip in this vicinity as indicated by an offset tree line we excavated a buried channel adjacent to these trees and determined that it is also offset 5 m these data indicate that at least the upper meter of sediments has only been displaced by the 1940 event one other slip event of undetermined magnitude is recorded within the lacustrine highstand deposits of the last lake about 300 years ago there is no evidence of earlier faulting events in sediments that possibly may correlate to the penultimate lake approximately 550 years b p below an unconformity 4000 year old deltaic deposits are intensely faulted by previous slip along the imperial fault these data suggest that the slip rate on the imperial fault for the past 300 550 years is only about 15 20 mm yr substantially less than that expected from geodetic measurements and regional structural models this in turn suggests that either slip is accommodated by other faults in the border region or that strain release on the imperial fault is characterized by episodic clustered behavior

the unsteady nature of sea cliff retreat due to mechanical abrasion failure and comminution feedbacks sea cliff retreat is often linked to large waves heavy precipitation and seismic events but the specific operative mechanics have not been well constrained in particular what is the role of mechanical abrasion by beach sediments in cliff platform evolution and how does it relate to the episodic nature of cliff retreat observed at certain locations here we present a simple numerical model of sea cliff retreat that incorporates mechanical abrasion of a basal notch threshold controlled failure of the cantilevered block and a feedback mechanism wherein retreat is dependent on the rate of sediment comminution within the surf zone using shore platform and cliff characteristics found in two coastal settings the central california coast and the english north sea coast the model produces retreat rates comparable to those observed via field measurements the highest retreat rates coincide with the steepest shore platforms and increasing wave height steeper platforms promote wave access to the cliff toe and correspondingly the receding cliff face produces additional accommodation space for the platform beach preserving the erosive efficacy of the beach sediments when exposed to energetic wave forcing the slope of the inner platform segment controls retreat rates for concave platforms whereas the slope of the outer platform segment exerts greater control for convex platforms platform beaches approached a long term dynamic equilibrium on the concave profiles leading to more consistent and steady retreat platform beaches were ephemeral on convex profiles mirroring observed sand wave ord migration on the holderness coast uk these findings agree with previous field observations and support mechanical abrasion as a viable cause of temporal heterogeneity in cliff retreat rate for both coastlines

detection and spatial prediction of rockfalls by means of terrestrial laser scanner monitoring abstract a rock face affected by small rockfalls has been monitored using a ground based remote sensing apparatus terrestrial laser scanner tls the pilot study area corresponds to the main scarp of the 1881 puigcercos landslide pallars jussa catalonia spain four datasets of the slope were acquired from september 2007 to july 2008 in an ongoing project the geomorphological evolution of the rock face in terms of volume and frequency of rockfall was studied by the comparison of sequential datasets in addition to the detection of past events this study deals with the spatial prediction of rockfalls through the detection of pre failure deformation as a precursory indicator the high resolution and accuracy and the maximum range of the tls offer interesting prospects for both spatial location and prediction of rockfall

comparison of short term seacliff retreat measurement methods in del mar california article i nfo seacliff retreat has been variously characterized as the recession rate of the cliff top of the cliff base and as the bulk recession rate based on volumetric changes of the entire cliff face here these measures of retreat are compared using nine semi annual airborne lidar light detection and ranging surveys of southern california seacliffs changes in the cliff base location where the steeply sloping cliff face intersects the beach include cliff retreat owing to basal erosion but also reflect changes in beach sand level and basal talus deposits averaged over the 2 5 km alongshore study span the cliff base actually prograded seaward about 12 cm during the 4 year study cliff top change was dominated by few relatively large several meters localized retreats cliff face changes that include failures and deposits anywhere on the cliff profile had a relatively small mean magnitude compared to cliff top changes and were more widely distributed alongshore however the similar alongshore averaged cumulative cliff top and net bulk cliff face end point retreat 14 and 19 cm respectively suggest that mean cumulative cliff top retreat can potentially be a viable surrogate for mean net cumulative cliff wide erosion and vice versa over relatively short time periods cliff face erosion occurred repeatedly at some locations confirming the presence of seacliff erosion hot spots during the study period

charcoal reflectance as a proxy for the emplacement temperature of pyroclastic flow deposits hot pyroclastic flow deposits often entomb and preserve vegetation as charcoal when studied in polished section this charcoal is highly reflective novel data from experimentally charred woods demonstrate that reflectance increases with both temperature and time at temperatures above 250 c reflectance rises rapidly for the first hour effectively stabilizing after 4 h for temperatures below 400 c however for higher temperatures reflectance only stabilizes after 24 h charcoalified woods from block and ash flow deposits generated by the soufriere hills volcano in montserrat have yielded interpreted deposit temperatures based on reflectance data of 325 525 c these temperatures compare favorably with directly measured data 365 640 c from the same deposits indicating that charcoal reflectance is useful as a temperature proxy for ancient pyroclastic flow deposits particularly where magnetic or mineral data are absent for this purpose however caution should be exercised as only a minimum temperature can be inferred where the heating duration of the deposit is unknown unlike magnetic or mineral data temperature data from charcoalified woods can be obtained from reworked deposits providing a valuable means of validating observations made about the style of eruption of volcanoes in ancient settings

spatial and temporal distribution of slip for the 1992 landers california earthquake we have determined a source rupture model for the 1992 landers earthquake m w 7 2 compatible with multiple data sets spanning a frequency range from zero to 0 5 hz geodetic survey displacements near field and regional strong motions broadband teleseismic waveforms and surface offset measurements have been used explicitly to constrain both the spatial and temporal slip variations along the model fault surface our fault parameterization involves a variable slip multiple segment finite fault model which treats the diverse data sets in a self consistent manner allowing them to be inverted both independently and in unison the high quality data available for the landers earthquake provide an unprecedented opportunity for direct comparison of rupture models determined from independent data sets that sample both a wide frequency range and a diverse spatial station orientation with respect to the earthquake slip and radiation pattern in all models consistent features include the following 1 similar overall dislocation patterns and amplitudes with seismic moments of 7 to 8 10 26 dyne cm seismic potency of 2 3 to 2 7 km 3 2 very heterogeneous unilateral strike slip distributed over a fault length of 65 km and over a width of at least 15 km though slip is limited to shallower regions in some areas 3 a total rupture duration of 24 sec and an average rupture velocity of 2 7 km sec and 4 substantial variations of slip with depth relative to measured surface offsets the extended rupture length and duration of the landers earthquake also allowed imaging of the propagating rupture front with better resolution than for those of prior shorter duration strike slip events our imaging allows visualization of the rupture evolution including local differences in slip durations and variations in rupture velocity rupture velocity decreases markedly at shallow depths as well as near regions of slip transfer from one fault segment to the next as rupture propagates northwestward along the multiply segmented fault length the rupture front slows as it reaches the northern limit of the johnson valley landers faults where slip is transferred to the southern homestead valley fault an abrupt acceleration is apparent following the transfer this process is repeated and is more pronounced as slip is again passed from the northern homestead valley fault to the emerson fault although the largest surface offsets were observed at the northern end of the rupture our modeling indicates that substantial rupture was also relatively shallow less than 10 km in this region

macrinite and funginite forms in cretaceous menefee formation anthracite cerrillos coalfield new mexico abstract inertinite macerals in the anthracite rank campanian menefee formation coal from the cerrillos coalfield santa fe county new mexico show a range of forms consistent with forms found in lower rank mesozoic and younger coals in particular funginite is recognized in these anthracites as is macrinite and fusinite formed following microbial degradation the macrinite in the menefee coal has forms that are consistent with fungal and or bacterial degradation of wood followed by the ingestion of the latter material by insects or other animals the regurgitation or excretion of the partially digested material and the coprophagous recycling of the latter product

postseismic relaxation theory on the spherical earth abstract postseismic displacements and strains observed at the earth9s surface can be explained through the relaxation of a viscoelastic asthenosphere underlying a purely elastic crust a theory is presented for modeling the effects of postseismic relaxation on a spherically symmetric earth for an earthquake point source located in the upper elastic layer the displacement field is decomposed into its toroidal and spheroidal components a linear maxwell rheology in the viscoelastic layers is assumed enabling the use of the correspondence principle for the solutions of the equations of static equilibrium displacement and strain fields are then calculated using normal mode summation computational results are presented for two simple earthquake sources a strike slip fault and a uniaxial thrust fault the patterns of postseismic displacements and strains are found to depend strongly on both the earth model and earthquake source geometry in particular the elastic plate thickness asthenosphere thickness fault type and fault length each play a major role in determining the spatial pattern of postseismic relaxation effects asthenospheric viscosity controls the temporal pattern of relaxation

fault behavior and characteristic earthquakes examples from the wasatch and san andreas fault zones paleoseismological data for the wasatch and san andreas fault zones have led to the formulation of the characteristic earthquake model which postulates that individual faults and fault segments tend to generate essentially same size or characteristic earthquakes having a relatively narrow range of magnitudes near the maximum analysis of scarp derived colluvium in trench exposures across the wasatch fault provides estimates of the timing and displacement associated with individual surface faulting earthquakes at all of the sites studied the displacement per event has been consistently large measured values range from 1 6 to 2 6 m and the average is about 2 m on the basis of variability in the timing of individual events as well as changes in scarp morphology and fault geometry six major segments are recognized along the wasatch fault on the basis of the most likely number of surface faulting events 18 that have occurred on segments of the wasatch fault zone during the past 8000 years an average recurrence interval of 400 666 years with a preferred average of 444 years is calculated for the entire zone geologic data on the distribution of slip associated with prehistoric earthquakes and slip rates along the south central segment of the san andreas fault suggest that the m 8 1857 earthquake is a characteristic earthquake for this segment comparisons of earthquake recurrence relationships on both the wasatch and san andreas faults based on historical seismicity data and geologic data show that a linear constant b value extrapolation of the cumulative recurrence curve from the smaller magnitudes leads to gross underestimates of the frequency of occurrence of the large or characteristic earthquakes only by assuming a low b value in the moderate magnitude range can the seismicity data on small earthquakes be reconciled with geologic data on large earthquakes the characteristic earthquake appears to be a fundamental aspect of the behavior of the wasatch and san andreas faults and may apply to many other faults as well

statistical and empirical analyses of the triggers of coastal chalk cliff failure the triggering factors of rock falls remain unknown due to a lack of exhaustive regular and accurate surveys based on an inventory of 331 rock falls collected weekly between 2002 and 2009 from veules les roses to le treport upper normandy the relationships between coastal chalk cliff rock falls dates and geomorphological features and external factors commonly agreed as triggering rainfall temperature variations tide and wind are studied the combination of multivariate statistical and empirical analyses indicates that 1 cold and dry weather and high rainfall and high wind are the conditions most likely to trigger rock falls 2 the main triggering factors of rock falls are effective rainfall for rock falls mostly between 200 and 1400 m3 or larger than 10 000 m3 and coming from the whole cliff face freeze thaw cycles especially for rock falls smaller than 200 m3 and coming from the foot and top of the cliff face and marine roughness rock falls mainly smaller than 200 m3 and coming from the cliff foot however the contribution of each factor to triggering is difficult to determine because of combinations of factors 85 of 331 cases relays of processes and hysteresis phenomena in view of these first results it is still presumptuous to predict the location and time of triggering of rock falls however the statistical and naturalistic approaches adopted and the observations made in this study are from an original database and constitute a real starting point for the prediction and prevention of the hazard of coastal chalk cliff rock falls in upper normandy copyright 2015 john wiley sons ltd

coprolites within marattiaceous fern stems psaronius magnificus from the upper pennsylvanian of the appalachian basin u s a abstract tree fern stems are described from the late pennsylvanian of athens county ohio in which the ground tissue has been replaced by coprolites these are oval 450 m in maximum diameter and consist of finely ground plant material they probably represent faecal pellets of small arthropods and provide further evidence of animal plant interactions in the late palaeozoic

slip along the san andreas fault associated with the great 1857 earthquake historical records indicate that several meters of lateral slip along the san andreas fault accompanied the great 1857 earthquake in central and southern california these records together with dendrochronological evidence suggest that the rupture occurred along 360 to 400 km of the fault including several tens of kilometers of the currently creeping reach in central california geomorphic expressions of late holocene right lateral offsets are abundant along the 1857 rupture along 300 kilometers of the 1857 rupture between cholame and wrightwood the youngest discernible offset ranges from 3 to 9 1 2 meters dormancy of the fault since 1857 almost certainly indicates that this latest offset was created in 1857 fault slip apparently associated with the 1857 earthquake varies in a broadly systematic way along the trace of the fault it is relatively uniform along each of several long segments but changes rather abruptly in value between these segments this nonuniform displacement pattern may imply that some segments of the fault rupture more frequently or experience a slower long term slip rate than others the 1857 offsets indicate a seismic moment m o between 5 3 and 8 7 10 27 dyne cm assuming a 10 to 15 km depth of rupture and relatively uniform slip as a function of depth a comparison with the rupture length average slip value and tectonic setting of the california earthquake of 1906 m s 8 1 4 indicates a value of m 8 1 4 for the 1857 event

petrographic geochemical and mycological aspects of miocene coals from the novaky and handlova mining districts slovakia abstract fungi have once again become a topic of interest to coal scientists in their roles as agents of maceral formation recent works have demonstrated that fungi occur in association with woody remains resins and cuticles in coalified materials of a variety of ages in addition to coal balls and compression impression fossils where they are already well known these forms however have only been viewed as cross sections along a polished plane assigning the fungi to family much less determining which fungi they represent is very difficult in this orientation fungal identifications are necessary to the continuance of this research into the origin of coal macerals because of the need to know if macrinite begins to form prior to incorporation into the peat which could be demonstrated by its association with symbiotic and parasitic rather than saprophytic fungi this study examines the fungal remains recovered from eight coal samples from miocene age coals in the novaky and handlova mining districts of slovakia with the aim of making this distinction these samples were collected in slovakia as part of the us geological survey s world coal quality inventory program and provided to the authors the samples were processed using the o keefe technique for subbituminous coals and mounted for observation in transmitted light forms were identified using published works and consultation with a modern mycologist forms recovered through palynologic processing were compared to and correlated with forms seen in cross section under reflected light

the nature and influence of fire in carboniferous ecosystems fusain occurs widely in carboniferous coals and sediments it is now recognised to represent charcoal and be the product of wildfire the occurrence of fire is partly constrained by atmospheric oxygen levels availability and nature of fuel and by aspects of climate rainfall and seasonability in particular the majority of fires in the carboniferous were probably started by lightning strikes or by volcanic activity experiments on the charring of modern plants has shown that the reflectance of charcoal and hence fusain is directly related to temperature of formation different fire types may yield fusain assemblages of differing reflectance spectrums but it may be significant that many modern charcoal assemblages yield only semifusinites as seen by reflectance microscopy the significance of these findings is assessed in relation to the use of fusinites and semifusinites as depositional indicators as interpreted from coal petrology fires may have a dramatic effect on ecosystems not only causing changes in vegetational succession but also severe erosion can occur following a major fire which can be traced in depositional systems in this paper we document three major carboniferous sedimentary systems affected by fire clastic sedimentary systems using extensive fusain deposits in mid lower carboniferous near shore sediments in donegal ireland volcanic systems using late early carboniferous volcaniclastic sequences in the midland valley of scotland and coal and coal bearing sequences in the upper carboniferous westphalian b of the pennine basin england in the later settings the influence of fire in peat formation and succession is assessed in addition data on the vegetational composition of charcoal assemblages is considered it is concluded that fire plays a major role in many carboniferous ecosystems

high resolution spatial rupture pattern of a multiphase flower structure rex hills nevada new insights on scarp evolution in complex topography based on 3 d laser scanning fault scarps represent the most obvious expression of tectonic activity at the earth9s surface studies on scarp morphology place constraints on fault kinematics and scarp degradation processes and were often based on geomorphic dating techniques fault scarps exposed in areas of simple topography facilitate data acquisition and interpretation whereas little work had been done where fault scarps are superimposed on complex dissected topography fault scarps developed in complex topography are commonly observed along flower structures and at tips of strike slip faults such structures are important elements for evaluating the evolution and linking of strike slip fault systems and appear to be scale independent from several meters to hundreds of kilometers we examined the detailed meter to hundred meter scale structure and surface expression of a flank of one fault scarp bounded pressure ridge rex hills flower structure by combining field mapping with high resolution digital elevation model dem analysis based on terrestrial laser scanning we generated a detailed dem and extracted high resolution topographic cross sections which enabled us to identify fault scarps and to determine their relative ages and geometry our study site is located on the transpressional left bend between the pahrump and amargosa segments of the dextral stateline fault system the topography is characterized by alternating valleys and ridges each 100 m long relief of 4 m we observed the following the southern rex hills slope exhibits three fault scarps related to three reverse fault branches the basal scarp scarp 1 is most continuous and exhibits five segments the upper two scarps scarps 2 and 3 are less continuous furthermore fault scarps exposed on ridge crests are more numerous up to four to five scarps and smaller 5 m high valleys often exhibit single large 10 m high smoothed scarps to easily detect differences between the scarps we evaluated the height and slope angle of the scarps using topographic cross sections our analysis indicates that scarp shape is influenced by fault dip lithology and degradation processes resulting in large scatter and broad overlap in scarp height slope angle space the analysis further indicates that scarp degradation is stronger in the valleys and that the preservation potential of small individual fault scarps is therefore greater on the ridge crests we compared our fault scarp data with published calibrated data yielding an age of 2 ka for the rex hills scarps consistent with an earlier finding this suggests that the scarp shape mainly reflects progressive degradation since the most recent surface rupture our approach of analyzing high resolution topographic data of closely spaced fault scarps is promising especially when combined with subsurface data as well as geochronological and paleoseismic data and it provides a basic scheme for analyzing scarp populations in a complex topographic region despite the absence of subsurface data our approach allowed the study of complex high resolution fault scarp morphologies across a flower structure for the first time

the diversification of paleozoic fire systems and fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen concentration by comparing silurian through end permian 250 million years myr charcoal abundance with contemporaneous macroecological changes in vegetation and climate we aim to demonstrate that long term variations in fire occurrence and fire system diversification are related to fluctuations in late paleozoic atmospheric oxygen concentration charcoal a proxy for fire occurs in the fossil record from the late silurian 420 myr to the present its presence at any interval in the fossil record is already taken to constrain atmospheric oxygen within the range of 13 to 35 the fire window herein we observe that as predicted atmospheric oxygen levels rise from 13 in the late devonian to 30 in the late permian so too fires progressively occur in an increasing diversity of ecosystems sequentially data of note include the occurrence of charcoal in the late silurian early devonian indicating the burning of a diminutive dominantly rhyniophytoid vegetation an apparent paucity of charcoal in the middle to late devonian that coincides with a predicted atmospheric oxygen low and the subsequent diversification of fire systems throughout the remainder of the late paleozoic first fires become widespread during the early mississippian they then become commonplace in mire systems in the middle mississippian in the pennsylvanian they are first recorded in upland settings and finally based on coal petrology become extremely important in many permian mire settings these trends conform well to changes in atmospheric oxygen concentration as predicted by modeling and indicate oxygen levels are a significant control on long term fire occurrence

characterization of landslide ground surface kinematics from terrestrial laser scanning and strain field computation assessment and mitigation of the risk induced by landslide activation need an appropriate phenomenon investigation to obtain useful information about the failure processes the first step is the complete kinematics characterization of the landslide ground surface by evaluating the involved displacement and deformation patterns a dense displacement field can be obtained from comparison of a series of multi temporal observations performed by means of terrestrial laser scanning subsequently the strain field can be computed from displacement vectors in this paper a modified least square technique is employed to compute the strain on the nodes of a regular grid 2d approach or on the points of a digital terrain model 3d approach such a computation takes into account the displacements their spatial distribution as well as the measurement and modelling errors a scale factor is introduced in order to emphasize the contributions of the experimental points on the basis of their distance from each computation point and to recognize possible scale depending behaviours this method has been implemented in matlab and applied on two landslides located in the northeastern italian alps lamosano and perarolo di cadore the experiments show that different kinematics can be recognized and the presence and influence of eventual discontinuities can be revealed

deducing paleoearthquake timing and recurrence from paleoseismic data part i evaluation of new bayesian markov chain monte carlo simulation methods applied to excavations with continuous peat growth determining the timing of paleoearthquakes is a central goal of paleoseismology and serves as an important input to seismic hazard evaluations herein we develop a bayesian statistical method for refining the ages of strata and earthquakes and calculating the recurrence of earthquakes based on data from paleoseismic excavations our work extends previous paleoseismic bayesian modeling by simultaneously calculating the joint posterior probability density of recurrence intervals earthquake ages and layer ages to estimate this joint posterior density we employed the metropolis hastings markov chain monte carlo mcmc sampling method we used the wrightwood paleoseismic excavation site as a test bed for our method by comparing the results derived from our simulation to those of previous studies we found that for stratigraphic order constraints our results agreed well with previously used methods however when peat growth was used to constrain the minimum time that separates layers from one another a systematic aging of strata in the lower portion of the stratigraphic column resulted inspection of our results indicated that rather than representing a minimum time that separates layers peat growth instead determined the strata s ages exactly when a constant peat growth rate was prescribed using this information we developed a new method of improving layer age earthquake age and recurrence interval estimates at sites where peat bearing layers are present this method generally produces layer age estimates with less variance than previous methods and requires that both proximal stratigraphic constraints and trench wide constraints be obeyed the benchmarking of the mcmc simulation results shows that simulation provides an effective and efficient way of improving estimates of layer ages earthquake ages and recurrence intervals

splint coals of the central appalachians petrographic and geochemical facies of the peach orchard no 3 split coal bed southern magoffin county kentucky the bolsovian middle pennsylvanian peach orchard coal bed is one of the splint coals of the central appalachians splint coal is a name for the dull inertinite rich lithologies typical of coals of the region the no 3 split was sampled at five locations in magoffin county kentucky and analyzed for petrography and major and minor elements the no 3 split coals contain semifusinite rich lithologies up to 48 mineral free basis in one case the nature of the semifusinite varies with position in the coal bed containing more mineral matter of detrital origin in the uppermost durain the maceral assemblage of these terminal durains is dominated by detrital fusinite and semifusinite suggesting reworking of the maceral assemblage coincident with the deposition of the detrital minerals however a durain in the middle of the coal bed while lithologically similar to the uppermost durains has a degraded macrinite rich texture the inertinite macerals in the middle durain have less distinct edges than semifusinites in the uppermost terminal durains suggesting degradation as a possible path to inertinite formation the uppermost durain has higher ash and semifusinite contents at the eastern sites than at the western sites the difference in the microscopic petrology indicates that megascopic petrology alone can be a deceptive indicator of depositional environments and that close attention must be paid to the individual macerals and their implications for the depositional setting especially within the inertinite group

inferring segment strength contrasts and boundaries along low friction faults using surface offset data with an example from the cholame carrizo segment boundary along the san andreas fault southern california rupture segmentation arises from changes in fault geometry and strength we use boundary element models of frictionless strike slip fault segments to quantify how fault geometry and strength change earthquake surface offset distributions using these relationships between fault geometry strength and surface offsets we can infer fault strength from the surface offsets in cases where the fault geometry can be independently constrained this article includes normalized plots of the surface offset distribution expected from rupture along low friction fault segments with strength contrasts of 1 4 1 3 1 2 1 2 3 and 4 for a range of fault segment geometries these plots may be used with offset data to constrain the strength of two coplanar adjacent fault segments this analysis is applied to the cholame and carrizo segments of the san andreas fault the available surface offset data suggest that the offset increases where the fault deepens in addition the observed offset gradient at the segment boundary requires a 2 3 1 4 strength ratio of the cholame to the carrizo segment

petrological geochemical and mineralogical compositions of the low ge coals from the shengli coalfield china a comparative study with ge rich coals and a formation model for coal hosted ge ore deposit abstract to better understand the formation mechanism of coal hosted ge ore deposits this paper reports on the petrological mineralogical and geochemical compositions of the low ge coals in the shengli coalfield inner mongolia china using optical microscopy field emission scanning electron microscopy x ray fluorescence x ray diffraction and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry the samples in the present study closely neighbor the previously reported wulantuga coal hosted ge ore deposit both no 6 coal in comparison with the wulantuga ge rich coals the low ge coals of the shengli field display higher moisture 27 59 on average and lower pyritic sulfur contents 0 53 both the low ge and ge rich coals are generally high in inertinite and have varying but relatively low huminite contents preservation of fecal pellets as macrinite is notable in both the low ge and ge rich coals and the position of the fecal pellets appears to be within tunnels or chambers within the wood quartz kaolinite pyrite and gypsum are the major crystalline phases identified in most of the ge rich and low ge coals but the low ge coals contain significantly less pyrite and are more abundant in non mineral ca and mg ca oxalate of authigenic origin is observed generally occurring as cell fillings in the low ge coals otherwise mineral free organic matter in the low ge coals would be expected to have an inherent ash yield of around 6 derived from the inorganic elements mainly non mineral ca and mg that occur either in the organic matter or as dissolved ions in the pore water and form the sulfate species in low temperature oxygen plasma ash residues the highly elevated trace elements including be ge as sb w hg and tl that occur in the ge rich coals of the wulantuga deposit are significantly depleted in the low ge coals lateral migration of ge w and as hg sb tl rich solutions through the original peat swamp for the wulantuga ge ore deposit has led to significant enrichment of ge on the margin of the coal basin but decreasing ge concentrations toward to the inner part of the basin such a migration direction is different to those in the previously reported for the hydrothermal solutions in the lincang yunnan of china and spetzugli russian far east ge ore deposits where the solutions migrated vertically from granite to peat along faults and led to a dome shaped ge distribution in the relevant coal seam

evidence of multiple late bashkirian to early moscovian pennsylvanian fire events preserved in contemporaneous cave fills abstract during a low sea level stand and wet climate phase at the end of the mississippian lower palaeozoic limestones at the northern edge of the illinois basin were karstified the caves and fissures that formed were infilled subsequently with clastic sediments of pennsylvanian age late bashkirian early moscovian atokan duckmantian bolsovian westphalian b c the earliest infills comprise organic rich almost coaly sediments while sands silts and fine clays were deposited subsequently the sediments are fossiliferous and contain abundant plant fragments most notably cordaitalean and conifer remains many of the plants and megaspores are uncompressed and have undergone minimal thermal alteration charcoal occurs throughout the sedimentary infills but is most abundant in the later deposits where conifer remains predominate these conifers are currently amongst the oldest known from north america the presence of cordaitalean remains in the earliest coaly infills is supported by the detection of specific fernane derivatives the lipid extract of the cave fill sequence contains polyaromatic hydrocarbons pahs such as pyrene chrysene benzo ghi perylene and coronene which distribution further attests to the importance of wildfire in preserving the plant remains

spatiotemporal extension of the euramerican psaronius component community to the late permian of cathaysia in situ coprolites in a p housuoensis stem from yunnan province southwest china abstract we report well preserved coprolites in the ground tissue of the permineralized stem of psaronius housuoensis d rozario et al from the upper permian deposits of yunnan province southwest china the distinctive coprolites are circular to oval in shape ranging on average from 944 1190 m to 1065 1120 m and contain histologically identifiable tracheids parenchyma gum sac cells spores and fungal remains several lines of evidence indicate that this association was detritivorous represented a pith boring and was made by a diplopod or more likely an insect this discovery extends the temporal duration of the food web of psaronius plant arthropod associations from the late middle pennsylvanian to now the late permian and extends the biogeographic range from the equatorial wetlands of the illinois northern appalachian and german erzgebirge basins of euramerica to now the south china block of cathaysia the psaronius arthropod fungi component community is spatiotemporally the most persistent of documented paleozoic associations in the fossil record

dogtails versus rainbows synthetic earthquake rupture models as an aid in interpreting geological data geologists have been collecting for decades information from historical and paleoearthquakes that could contribute to the formulation of a big picture of the earthquake engine observations of large earthquake ruptures unfortunately are always going to be spotty in space and time so the extent to which geological information succeeds in contributing to a grander view of earthquakes is going to be borne not only by the quantity and quality of data collected but also by the means by which it is interpreted this article tries to understand geological data more fully through carefully tailored computer simulations of fault ruptures dogtails and rainbows are two types of fault rupture terminations that can be recognized in the field and can be interpreted through these models rainbows are concave down ruptures that indicate complete stress drop and characteristic slip rainbow terminations usually coincide with fault ends or strong segment boundaries dogtails are concave up ruptures that indicate incomplete stress drop and noncharacteristic slip dogtail terminations can happen anywhere along a fault or fault segment the surface slip pattern of the magnitude 6 6 1979 imperial valley california earthquake shows both dogtail and rainbow terminations the rainbow confirms the presence of a strong fault segment boundary 6 km north of the international border that had been suggested by sieh 1996 the dogtail implies that the displacement observed in 1979 is not characteristic by combining paleoseismic information with the surface slip patterns from this event and the magnitude 7 1 1940 imperial valley earthquake i develop a quantitative imperial fault model with northern central and southern segments possessing 50 110 and 50 bar strength respectively both the 1940 and 1979 events caused 1 m amplitude dogtailed ruptures of the northern segment however characteristic slip of the segment is more likely to be about 3 m to illustrate the full spectrum of potential rupture modes models were run forward in time to generate a 2000 year rupture encyclopedia even with well constrained segmentation and strengths modest changes in two friction law parameters produce several plausible histories further discrimination awaits analysis of the extensive paleoseismic record that geologists believe exists in the shore deposits of the intermittent lakes of the salton trough

the repetition of large earthquake ruptures abstract this survey of well documented repeated fault rupture confirms that some faults have exhibited a characteristic behavior during repeated large earthquakes that is the magnitude distribution and style of slip on the fault has repeated during two or more consecutive events in two cases faults exhibit slip functions that vary little from earthquake to earthquake in one other well documented case however fault lengths contrast markedly for two consecutive ruptures but the amount of offset at individual sites was similar adjacent individual patches 10 km or more in length failed singly during one event and in tandem during the other more complex cases of repetition may also represent the failure of several distinct patches the faults of the 1992 landers earthquake provide an instructive example of such complexity together these examples suggest that large earthquakes commonly result from the failure of one or more patches each characterized by a slip function that is roughly invariant through consecutive earthquake cycles the persistence of these slip patches through two or more large earthquakes indicates that some quasi invariant physical property controls the pattern and magnitude of slip these data seem incompatible with theoretical models that produce slip distributions that are highly variable in consecutive large events