control of pre rift lithospheric structure on the architecture and evolution of continental rifts insights from the main ethiopian rift east africa we investigate the along axis variations in architecture segmentation and evolution of the main ethiopian rift mer east africa and relate these characteristics to the regional geology lithospheric structure and surface processes we first illustrate significant along axis variations in basin architecture through analysis of simplified geological cross sections in different rift sectors we then integrate this information with a new analysis of ethiopian topography and hydrography to illustrate how rift architecture basin symmetry asymmetry is reflected in the margin topography and has been likely amplified by a positive feedback between tectonics flexural uplift and surface processes fluvial erosion unloading this analysis shows that 70 of the 500 km long mer is asymmetric with most of the asymmetric rift sectors being characterized by a master fault system on the eastern margin we finally relate rift architecture and segmentation to the regional geology and geophysical constraints on the lithosphere we provide strong evidence that rift architecture is controlled by the contrasting nature of the lithosphere beneath the homogeneous strong somalian plateau and the weaker more heterogeneous ethiopian plateau differences originating from the presence of pre rift zones of weakness on the ethiopian plateau and likely amplified by surface processes the data provided by this integrated analysis suggest that asymmetric rifts may directly progress to focused axial tectonic magmatic activity without transitioning into a symmetric rifting stage these observations have important implications for the asymmetry of continental rifts and conjugate passive margins worldwide

sediment subduction a probable key for seismicity and tectonics at active plate boundaries summary a model involving extensive occurrence of sediment subduction and viscous interaction of lithospheric plates at convergent zones is applied to derive simple relations between extremal values of seismic and global tectonic parameters the strength of mechanical coupling at the interface zone is defined as the maximum shear stress at the base of the over thrusting plate a test of these relations with the data set on great thrust earthquakes supports this model moreover it reveals independently of previous studies the main contrasting modes of subduction stress regimes continental island arc types and chilean mariana types an analysis of asperity categories in the framework of this model leads to the conclusion that the asperity type and probably the fault area of great earthquakes depends on the strength of coupling which in its turn is governed by global tectonics and the amount of subducted sediments the approach also yields a physically reasonable dependence of the seismic slip on the plate parameters which is in agreement with the data now available

high accuracy mantle convection simulation through modern numerical methods ii realistic models and problems computations have helped elucidate the dynamics of earth s mantle for several decades already the numerical methods that underlie these simulations have greatly evolved within this time span and today include dynamically changing and adaptively refined meshes sophisticated and efficient solvers and parallelization to large clusters of computers at the same time many of these methods discussed in detail in a previous paper in this series were developed and tested primarily using model problems that lack many of the complexities that are common to the realistic models our community wants to solve today with several years of experience solving complex and realistic models we here revisit some of the algorithm designs of the earlier paper and discuss the incorporation of more complex physics in particular we re consider time stepping and mesh refinement algorithms evaluate approaches to incorporate compressibility and discuss dealing with strongly varying material coefficients latent heat and how to track chemical compositions and heterogeneities taken together and implemented in a high performance massively parallel code the techniques discussed in this paper then allow for high resolution 3d compressible global mantle convection simulations with phase transitions strongly temperature dependent viscosity and realistic material properties based on mineral physics data

fluid and sediment dynamics of upper stage plane beds to understand more fully the fluid and sediment dynamics of upper stage plane beds laboratory experiments were conducted using mobile and fixed beds where turbulent motions of fluid and sediment were measured using laser anemometry bed elevation fluctuations on mobile upper stage plane beds reveal millimeter high bed waves vertical profiles of flow velocity mixing length and eddy viscosity diffusivity are represented well by the law of the wall for the mobile bed von karman s 0 33 and equivalent sand roughness to mean bed grain size varies from 9 to 17 because of the presence of bed load and low relief bed waves for fixed beds with no sediment transport 0 41 and equivalent sand roughness is equal to the mean bedgrain size the decrease in for mobile beds is related to the relative motion of grains and fluid mobile bed turbulence intensities are greater than those for sediment free fixed beds because of enhanced wake formation from the lee side of near bed grains and low relief bed waves sediment diffusivities es calculated in a similar way to fluid diffusivities e indicate that es e sediment diffusivities calculated using the equilibrium balance between upward diffusion and downward settling of sediment are similar to e in near bed regions y d 0 3 suggesting that larger more energetic turbulent eddies are responsible for sediment suspension higher in the flow

kinematics of the western africa eurasia plate boundary from focal mechanisms and gps data summary the western mediterranean displays a complex pattern of crustal deformation distributed along tectonically active belts developed in the framework of slow oblique plate convergence we used earthquake and global positioning system gps data to study the present day kinematics and tectonics of the africa eurasia plate boundary in this region crustal seismicity and focal mechanisms analysed in terms of seismic moment release and seismic deformation outline the geometry of major seismic belts and characterize their tectonics and kinematics continuous gps data have been analysed to determine euler vectors for the nubian and eurasian plates and to provide the global frame for a new mediterranean gps velocity field obtained by merging continuous and campaign observations collected in the 1991 2005 time span gps velocities and displacements predicted by the nubia eurasia rotation pole provide estimates of the deformation accommodated across the tectonically active belts the rather simple deformation occurring in the atlantic region characterized by extension about perpendicular to the middle atlantic and terceira ridges and right lateral motion along the gloria transform fault turns into a complex pattern of deformation occurring along broader seismic belts where continental lithosphere is involved our analysis reveals a more complex fragmentation of the plate boundary than previously proposed the roughly e w trending mainly compressive segments i e southwestern iberia northern algeria and southern tyrrhenian where plate convergence is largely accomodated across rather localized deformation zones and partially transferred northward to the adjacent domains i e the algero balearic and tyrrhenian basins are interrupted by regions of more distributed deformation i e the rif alboran betics tunisia libya and eastern sicily or limited seismicity i e the strait of sicily which are characterized by less homogeneous tectonics regimes mainly transcurrent to extensional in correspondence of the observed breaks tectonic structures with different orientation interfere and we find belts with only limited deformation i e the high and middle atlas the tunisian atlas and the offshore tunisia libya belt that extends from the plate boundary into the nubian plate along pre existing tectonic lineaments our analysis suggest that the sicilian pelagian domain is moving independently from nubia according to the presence of a right lateral and extensional decoupling zone corresponding to the tunisia libya and strait of sicily deformation zone despite the space variability of active tectonic regimes plate convergence still governs most of the seismotectonic and kinematic setting up to the central aeolian region in general local complexities derive from pre existing structural features inherited from the tectonic evolution of the mediterranean region on the contrary along calabria and the apennines the contribution of the subducted ionian oceanic lithosphere and the occurrence of microplates i e adria appear to substantially modify both tectonics and kinematics finally gps data across the gibraltar arc and the tyrrhenian calabria domain support the hypothesis that slab rollback in these regions is mostly slowed down or stopped

crustal velocity structure in italy from analysis of regional seismic waveforms abstract in this article we use regional seismic waveforms recorded by the recently installed istituto nazionale di geofisica e vulcanologia ingv national network and the mediterranean very broadband seismographic network mednet stations to develop 1d crustal velocity models for the italian peninsula about 55 000 p wave and 35 000 s wave arrival times from 4727 events are used to derive average seismic parameters in the crust and uppermost mantle we define four regions according to geological constraints and recent travel time tomography results based on the average seismic parameters we combine broadband seismic waveforms and travel times of regional phases to model crustal structures for the four regions by applying the genetic algorithm our results indicate smooth velocity gradients with a depth beneath the apennines and a deep moho beneath the central alps green s functions from the regionalized 1d velocity models are used to determine source depths and focal mechanisms for 37 events with a magnitude larger than 3 5 by a grid search technique our results show that normal and strike slip faulting source mechanisms dominate the apenninic belt and that most thrust faulting events occur in the adriatic sea and the outer margin of the northern apennines

controls on early rift geometry new perspectives from the bilila mtakataka fault malawi we use the 110 km long bilila mtakataka fault in the amagmatic southern east african rift malawi to investigate the controls on early rift geometry at the scale of a major border fault morphological variations along the 14 8 m high scarp define six 10 40 km long segments which are either foliation parallel or oblique to both foliation and the current regional extension direction as the scarp is neither consistently parallel to foliation nor well oriented for the current regional extension direction we suggest the segmented surface expression is related to the local reactivation of well oriented weak shallow fabrics above a broadly continuous structure at depth using a geometrical model the geometry of the best fitting subsurface structure is consistent with the local strain field from recent seismicity in conclusion within this early rift pre existing weaknesses only locally control border fault geometry at subsurface

the structure evolution and symmetry of the magma poor rifted margins of the north and central atlantic a synthesis abstract magma poor rifted margins consistently show extreme crustal thinning accompanied by normal faulting the serpentinization of the mantle beneath crust thinned to less than 8 2 km and the unroofing of a broad zone of mantle within the continent ocean transition accompanied by the development of detachment and other large offset faults these observations are the logical result of the progressive extension of cool lithosphere away from thermal anomalies such as plumes although the paucity of magmatism may be explained by depth dependent extension of the lithosphere and by pre depleted sub crustal lithosphere rifting above initially cool sub lithospheric mantle also may explain the subsidence deficit observed at some margins synrift subsidence is buffered by the simultaneous influx of warmer oceanic asthenosphere as it extends thins and cools ductile creeping layers in the mid and deep crust become progressively more brittle resulting in increased coupling between the upper and lower crust and eventually the embrittlement of the entire crust faults cutting from the surface across the moho bringing water into the mantle and causing its serpentinization increased coupling and the development of serpentine detachments predict the development of late stage asymmetry once the entire crust is brittle such detachments are imaged on some margins and inferred on others analysis of the crustal structure across conjugate margins shows that these are approximately symmetric until this late stage when they become markedly asymmetric similar analyses show that depth dependent stretching of the crust is insufficient to explain the discrepancy between the amount of the visible extension along faults and the amount of crustal thinning instead this extension discrepancy may be related to the complex evolution of brittle deformation through multiple phases and styles of faulting related to the changes in the rheological character and strength of the lithosphere as it is thinned complex polyphase faulting continues after complete crustal separation resulting in the exhumation of broad expanses of peridotitic basement the top of which is everywhere marked by an exhumed slip surface similar to the corrugated surface observed at mid ocean ridges the similarity in processes between mantle unroofing and seafloor spreading makes the distinction between the cot and true oceanic crust difficult and possibly moot

geologic structure and neotectonics of the north african continental margin south of sicily abstract marine geological and geophysical data together with drilling information indicate that the north african passive continental margin has been subjected to extension and wrenching after it collided with the northern part of sicily the area of the tripolitania basin jarrafa trough melita and medina bank and the ragusa malta plateau has formed part of a sinking passive margin since the dispersal of gondwanaland at about 180 my ago as observed from geohistory diagrams a record of rifting in a nw se direction accompanied by dextral shear along the southern troughs is observed in seismic reflection data the rifting started during the neocomian and lasted until the eocene when activity became minor a pre middle miocene period of northward subduction of oceanic crust is inferred from the geology in ne sicily uplift of the northern part of the african margin after collision in the middle miocene is seen in wells in southern sicily after the messinian a rift and dextral shear zone established itself across the african margin from the strait of sicily to the medina ridge in the lonian basin the zone is marked by up to 1 7 km deep grabens narrow active wrench faulted channels volcanic fissures and local uplifted keilhorsts such as malta this zone which varies in width from 100 to 35 km forms the southern boundary of a microplate which includes sicily we speculate that the present motion of this microplate is partly due to the eastward movement of the calabrian arc with the sicilian block over the last remaining oceanic lithosphere in the eastern mediterranean

the deep seismicity of the tyrrhenian sea summary l he study reappraises the deep seismicity of the tyrrhenian sea careful examination of the quality of reported hypocentres shows that the earthquakes define a zone dipping nw about 200 km along strike 50 km thick and reaching a depth of about 500 km the zone is slightly concave to the nw at a depth of 300 km but contrary to many previous reports is not tightly concave nor are there significant spatial gaps in the seismicity which is effectively continuous with depth seismicity is however concentrated in the depth interval 250 300 km where the dip of the seismic zone changes from 70 above 250 km to a more gentle dip of 45 at greater depths seven fault plane solutions are available for the largest earthquakes in this depth interval all of them consistent with a p axis down the dip of the seismic zone and all of them requiring movement on faults out of the plane of the subducting slab two deep earthquakes near naples lie well outside the main zone of activity for one of which a fault plane solution is available that has ap axis not aligned with the dip of the seismic zone the tightly concave slabgeometry favoured by other reports is supported mainly by the location of these events near naples which we think may represent deformation in a separate probably shallower dipping piece of subducted lithosphere the lack of shallow seismicity and particularly of thrust faulting earthquakes at the surface projection of the benioff zone suggests that active subduction has ceased estimates of the convergence rate responsible for subduction in the last 10 myr far exceed the present convergence rate of africa and eurasia suggesting that the subduction was related instead to the stretching and thinning of the crust in the tyrrhenian sea

on the dynamics of sediment suspension by residual reynolds stresses confirmation of bagnold s theory bagnold s dynamic theory for sediment suspension requires that the immersed weight of suspended grains over unit bed area is supported by an upward directed residual reynolds stress yy arising from asymmetrical shear turbulence the present paper presents an analysis of previously published turbulence data which confirms the existence of this residual stress and indicates its generation in the lowermost part of the buffer layer of turbulent shear flows the magnitude of yy is estimated as about 0 3 yx calculations from experimental data on suspended fine sand transport over upper phase beds reveals that yy is in approximate equilibrium with the weight stress due to the suspended load

cybertectonic earth and gaia s weak hand sedimentary geology sediment cycling and the earth system tectonics climate and sea level are dominant controls on the nature and distribution of sedimentary environments by inverse logic recognition of influences on sedimentation from the stratigraphic record as a result of perturbations in these variables leads to clarification of past environmental and structural change the succession of sedimentary environments in time and place is determined by a wider combination of variables namely sediment flux biological evolution atmosphere and water body productivity and chemistry the feedbacks and interrelationships between all variables cause the complexity seen in sedimentation processes over geological time the processes of global tectonics that cause widespread mountain belt and continental plateau uplift have produced numerous severe events during earth history these often random workings out of the plate tectonic cycle define the state of cybertectonic earth from cyber after the greek kubernan to steer or govern this has worked within a usually zonally arranged series of climatic belts and within the framework provided by biological evolution at certain times in the geological past a combination of factors arose as a response to continental uplift and have acted to cause certain earth surface conditions and variables notably mean global surface temperature atmospheric p co 2 p o 2 to have varied by very large amounts 2 10 compared with present values these large fluctuations such as those responsible for the neoproterozoic late palaeozoic and late tertiary glaciations lead one to doubt the reality of homeostatic control of surface conditions as proposed in lovelock9s gaia hypothesis the gaian kuberne0te0s steersman had a weak hand on the helm frequently unable to prevent vast areas of the globe experiencing rapid fluctuations in environmental conditions and inimical conditions to life for very long periods during neoproterozoic and phanerozoic times at the same time biogenic and abiogenic processes have proved capable of returning earth to states of mean stability although biogeochemical cycling models seem alarmingly ad hoc and largely untestable as scientific hypotheses in any true geological sense

extensional polarity change in continental rifts inferences from 3 d numerical modeling and observations abstract extensional basins often show along strike variability in terms of fault geometries basement structures subsidence and thermal evolution this is particularly pronounced when extension reactivates preexisting suture zones with opposing dip directions that is opposite polarities which creates wide strike slip transfer zones we have studied this extensional variability by means of thermomechanical lithospheric scale 3 d numerical modeling we conducted a series of experiments to model the extension of a thick lithosphere simulating a young orogenic area containing segmented suture zones inherited from former opposing subduction polarities implemented as rheologically weak inclined layers with opposite dips numerical experiments demonstrate that the initial subduction sutures are reactivated by two long lived lithospheric scale detachment faults which remain active until the onset of oceanic spreading the opposite polarity of these faults causes their migration toward each other by asymmetric mantle lithosphere extension and thermal accretion crustal kinematics shows the formation of extensional detachment faults and high offset listric normal faults these structures undergo gradual tilting during their footwall exhumation while the rheological weak suture layers are redistributed beneath the crust the results demonstrate an active interaction along the strike of the system between the two opposite dipping weak zones where fault segments mechanically interact during extension the maximum horizontal fault offset switches the apparent sense of shear in the separating strike slip transfer zone this kinematics explain the rapid change in the sense of shear in major strike slip transfer zones or transform faults such as observed during the extension of the pannonian back arc basin

settling velocities of natural sand grains in air settling velocities in air were measured for natural quartz sand grains selected to provide a range of grain diameters and shapes roundness and sphericity the measured settling velocities w m obtained in an 11 2 m long settling tube are significantly lower than the settling velocity w s of a sphere having the same weight the two are empirically related by the equation w m 1 10w s super 0 90 with r 2 0 84 although this departure of the settling velocities of natural grains from the settling rates of spheres is most likely due to grain shape effects no dependence could be found on shape measures such as the corey shape factor simple gibbs type empirical equations are also obtained for sand grains settling in air one equation for the settling of spheres and a second for the irregular natural sand grains modified journal abstract

shear zones as a result of intraplate tectonics in oceanic crust the example of the basal complex of fuerteventura canary islands ductile shear zones affecting igneous rocks pyroxenites syenites gabbros and carbonatites belonging to the basal complex of the island of fuerteventura are described here they develop typical mylonites with their cortege of structures and crystallographic fabrics an evolution from brittle to ductile conditions has been recognized and interpreted as being due to the ascent of alkaline magmas and related fluids and subsequent emplacement of weak rocks carbonatites syenites along the shear zones local metamorphic changes favour the ductile behaviour via a reaction enhanced softening mechanism the shear zones are arranged in a nearly orthorhombic pattern kinematic criteria suggest an extensional tectonic scenario with a bulk irrotational nonplane deformation the long axis of the finite deformation ellipsoid is e w and horizontal the available data allow us to establish this deformation as being from the late oligocene to the early miocene this is tentatively related to the plate tectonics evolution and mantle anomalies in the northwestern corner of the african plate

seismicity and tectonic deformation rate in soviet armenia implications for local earthquake hazard and evolution of adjacent regions the spitak armenia earthquake of december 7 1988 ms 6 7 mo 10 1018 nm was the largest this century in soviet transcaucasia in the northern part of the zone where the arabian and eurasian plates converge at 30 mm yr 1 field observations in its epicentral area and information from historical and recent earthquakes in and around armenia are used to determine shortening rates and hence to investigate how shortening is partitioned between the great caucasus armenia and other parts of soviet transcaucasia and eastern turkey and nw iran farther south this earthquake produced more than 20 km of surface faulting with up to 1 5 m reverse slip and 0 4 m right lateral slip on a fault with wnw strike and southward slip vector azimuth much of the local topography has formed by slip on faults with similar orientation there is no evidence of substantial recent folding elsewhere in armenia suggesting that shortening in armenia occurs mainly by slip on these faults shortening rate across armenia is 1 mm yr 1 at strain rate 2 10 16 s 1 with likely slip rate on each fault 0 2 mm yr 1 the local topography has formed in 1 myr shortening rate in the eastern great caucasus farther north can be estimated using quaternary uplift rate assuming uplift is caused by crustal thickening and occurs in isostatic equilibrium although quaternary uplift rates from 0 05 to 10 mm yr 1 have been previously suggested any rate above 1 mm yr 1 is too rapid to be explained by this process the remaining rates range from 0 05 to 0 2 mm yr 1 and imply 1 to 5 mm yr 1 local shortening rate suggesting overall shortening rate across the soviet part of the convergent zone is only 2 to 6 mm yr 1 historical seismicity suggests that at least 1 mm yr 1 of this shortening is coseismic most of the convergence between arabia and eurasia is thus taken up at present farther south in eastern turkey and nw iran along with probable substantial westward expulsion of crustal material and most of the topography and crustal thickness in the great caucasus probably already existed at least 10 myr ago

strain migration during multiphase extension observations from the northern north sea many rifts develop through multiphase extension it can be difficult however to determine how strain is distributed during reactivation because structural and stratigraphic evidence associated with earlier rifting is often deeply buried using 2 d and 3 d seismic reflection and borehole data from the northern north sea we examine the style magnitude and timing of reactivation of a preexisting permian triassic rift phase 1 fault array during a subsequent period of middle jurassic to early cretaceous rift phase 2 extension we show that rift phase 2 led to the formation of new n s striking faults close to the north viking graben but did not initially reactivate preexisting rift phase 1 structures on the horda platform we suggest that at the beginning of rift phase 2 strain was focused in a zone of thermally weakened lithosphere associated with the middle jurassic north sea thermal dome rather than reactivating extant faults diachronous reactivation of the permian triassic fault network eventually occurred with those faults located closer to the middle jurassic to early cretaceous rift axis reactivating earlier than those toward the eastern margin this diachroneity may have been related to flexural down bending as strain became focused within the north viking graben and or the shifting of the locus of rifting from the north sea to the proto north atlantic our study shows that the geometry and evolution of multiphase rifts is not only controlled by the orientation of the underlying fault network but also by the thermal and rheological evolution of the lithosphere and variations in the regional stress field

continental break up of the south china sea stalled by far field compression the outcome of decades of two dimensional modelling of lithosphere deformation under extension is that mechanical coupling between the continental crust and the underlying mantle controls how a continent breaks apart to form a new ocean however geological observations unequivocally show that continental break up propagates in the third dimension at rates that do not scale with the rate of opening here we perform three dimensional numerical simulations and compare them with observations from the south china sea to show that tectonic loading in the direction of propagation exerts a first order control on these propagation rates the simulations show that in the absence of compression in that direction continental break up propagates fast forming narrow continental margins independently of the coupling when compression is applied propagation stagnates forming v shaped oceanic basins and wide margins changes in out of plane loading therefore explain the alternation of fast propagation and relative stagnation these new dynamic constraints suggest that the west to east topographic gradient across the indochinese peninsula prevented continental break up propagation through the 1 000 km wide continental rift of the central and west basin of the south china sea until the direction of stretching changed 23 million years ago resulting in bypassing and acceleration of continental break up propagation tectonic loading in the direction of propagation exerts an important control on the propagation of continental break up according to three dimensional simulations of the south china sea

the role of asthenospheric flow during rift propagation and breakup continental rifting precedes the breakup of continents leading to the formation of passive margins and oceanic lithosphere although rifting dynamics is classically described in terms of either active rifting caused by active mantle upwelling or passive rifting caused by far field extensional stresses it was proposed that a transition from passive to active rifting can result from changes in buoyancy forces due to localized thinning of the lithosphere three dimensional numerical experiments of rifting near an euler pole allow the quantification of these buoyancy forces and show that gravitational stresses are strong enough not only to sustain rifting and drive axis parallel motion in the asthenosphere dome but also to promote along axis asthenospheric flow and to drive the propagation of the rift tip toward its rotation pole we show that gradients of gravitational potential energy due to the presence of the dome of asthenosphere induce time dependent phases of compressional and transcurrent stress regimes despite an overall divergent plate setting our experiments predict overdeepened bathymetry at the tip of the propagating rift as well as the variability of focal mechanisms of shallow seismic events similar to those observed in such a setting we also explain the episodes of basin inversion documented in many rifted continental margins

temporal clustering of paleoseismic events on the oued fodda fault algeria paleoseismic investigations of the oued fodda fault which underwent surface fault rupture during the algeria earthquake of october 10 1980 m s 7 3 indicate that the average recurrence interval based on the long term geologic slip rate past 100 ka is at least an order of magnitude longer than the intervals between recent surface faulting events which are determined by radiocarbon dating of faulted colluvial deposits exposed in trenches across the fault evidence from trenches excavated across the 1980 surface rupture indicates that there have been at least three and possibly four surface faulting events on the oued fodda fault during the past 1 5 ka including the 1980 earthquake the ages of the three most recent events are well constrained the most recent event occurred in 1980 a surface faulting event occurred before 320 220 c 14 yr b p radiocarbon years before 1950 and after 875 240 yr b p and another event occurred just prior to deposition of a layer containing charcoal dated at 875 250 yr b p i e about 900 yr ago the average interval between the three most recent surface faulting events on the oued fodda fault was about 450 yr the cumulative slip on the oued fodda fault was produced by relatively short episodes characterized by frequent displacements surface faulting events every few hundred years separated by long periods of quiescence lasting several thousands to tens of thousands of years

experimental evidence for mantle drag in the mediterranean 1 what forces control active deformation in the central mediterranean slab pull has long been debated but no other hypothesis has been generally accepted here we analyze the role of shear basal tractions by using a thin shell modeling technique we generated a large number of models that span different sets of boundary conditions from the literature we then explored acceptable ranges of model parameters we computed residuals between model predictions and several datasets of stress directions gps measurements and tectonic stress regimes that have been produced in recent studies and then compared the best models obtained in the presence of tractions with those obtained in the absence of tractions for all tested boundary conditions and all considered datasets our results show that the only successful models are those with significant basal shear traction exerted by eastward mantle flow

wind streaks on mars meteorological control of occurence and mode of formation abstract why do some craters on mars produce depositional wind streaks while others produce erosional ones there is no evidence to suggest that crater morphology or topography plays the determining role some craters can form either type of streak at different times of the martian year suggesting that the controlling factor is meteorological we propose that atmospheric stability is the determining factor a stable atmosphere should lead to blocking of the wind flow by crater rims producing wind shadows over distances comparable to those of observed bright streaks such conditions should prevail in a belt about the equator at the time of major dust storms as the atmosphere becomes more transparent following the end of the dust storms the rate of surface heating increases and the stability of the atmosphere is reduced under such conditions blocking is not expected flow over obstacles results in increased surface stress downwind conditions which encourage the formation of erosional dark streaks these ideas are shown to be consistent with the seasons at which erosional and depositional streaks are formed as well as with their distribution on the planet specifically the scheme explains why craters which have both erosional and depositional streaks occur only within a very restricted latitude belt

rotation narrowing and preferential reactivation of brittle structures during oblique rifting abstract occurrence of multiple faults populations with contrasting orientations in oblique continental rifts and passive margins has long sparked debate about relative timing of deformation events and tectonic interpretations here we use high resolution three dimensional thermo mechanical numerical modeling to characterize the evolution of the structural style associated with varying geometries of oblique rifting in a layered continental lithosphere automatic analysis of the distribution of active extensional shear zones at the surface of the model demonstrates a characteristic sequence of deformation phase 1 with initial localization of deformation and development of wide moderately oblique en echelon grabens limited by extensional shear zones oriented close to orthogonal to 3 trend subsequent widening of the grabens is accompanied by progressive rotation of the phase 1 extensional shear zones to an orientation sub orthogonal to the plate motion direction phase 2 is characterized by narrowing of active deformation resulting from thinning of the continental mantle lithosphere and development of a second generation of extensional shear zones during phase 2 deformation localizes both on plate motion direction orthogonal structures that reactivate rotated phase 1 shear zones and on new moderately oblique structures parallel to 2 finally phase 3 consists in the oblique rupture of the continental lithosphere and produces an oceanic domain where oblique ridge segments are linked with highly oblique accommodation zones we conclude that while new structures form and trend parallel to 2 in an oblique rift progressive rotation and long term slip along phase 1 structures promotes orthorhombic fault systems which accommodate upper crustal extension and control oblique passive margin architecture the distribution orientation and evolution of frictional plastic structures observed in our models consistent with documented fault populations in the main ethiopian rift and the gulf of aden conjugate passive margins both of which developed in moderately oblique extensional settings

dust transport and the question of desert loess formation although contemporary dust storms are frequent in arid and semi arid areas desert loess deposits are poorly developed much of the world s loess occurs in mid latitude areas which experienced glaciation during the pleistocene ocean core evidence indicates that dust transport from sub tropical deserts increased during cold stages of the pleistocene but loess formed only on certain desert margins for reasons which have not been fully explained this paper re examines the mechanisms of dust transport and deposition and the circumstances leading to the accumulation of thick loess typical loess is composed mainly of medium silt grains which are transported in short term suspension a few metres above the ground significant thicknesses of loess form only when dust is trapped within a limited area often relatively close to the source dust particles finer than 20 m are transported mainly in long term suspension over a greater height range and may be widely dispersed the availability of silt and the frequency magnitude and direction of dust transporting winds are important factors governing the potential for loess formation but the existence of a suitable dust trap is particularly important traps may be formed by topographic obstacles areas of moist ground or vegetated surfaces vegetation adjacent to glacial outwash plains and braided meltwater streams trapped dust in mid latitudes during the pleistocene dust blown during glacial periods from certain deserts notably in sinai soviet central asia and china accumulated as loess in neighbouring semi arid regions on the margins of other deserts loess formation was inhibited partly by the absence of vegetation traps during most of the holocene net dust deposition rates in all desert marginal areas have been too low for significant loess accumulation this is mainly due to a reduction in silt availability and a tendency towards landscape stability reported dust storm frequencies during the past 50 years over estimate the longer term holocene dust flux due to the effects of human activities much modern dust owes its origin to erosion of cultivated soils in semi arid areas and is finer than typical loess

the calabrian arc and the ionian sea in the dynamic evolution of the central mediterranean in the central mediterranean area it is possible to recognize three main realms the tyrrhenian sea the pelagian block and the ionian block these domains are limited by important fracture zones that are easily recognizable on land and offshore these fracture zones can be grouped into four main trends 1 the nw se trend which is characterized by dextral horizontal movements 2 the ne sw trend which is generally characterized by sinistral lateral horizontal movements 3 the e w trend which also shows dextral shear movements and 4 the n s trend which is characterized by normal faults only the tyrrhenian sea realm is characterized by a thinned crust of oceanic type and is connected to the apenninic chain by means of listric faults from a geophysical point of view the area shows a high heat flow which follows the main structural trends and positive gravimetric anomalies which are compatible with seismic refraction data and can be explained by the proposed model the pelagian block shows a continental crust about 20 km thick which progressively increases beneath the sicilian chain here an abrupt interruption with the tyrrhenian block takes place in the pelagian realm rifting processes developed according to the nw se and n s trend the n s trend characterizes the westernmost zone of the realm where volcanic processes and a relatively high heat flow can also be observed the ionian block is characterized by the following a thinned crust 17 20 km which increases 40 km towards the southern calabrian chain a thick sedimentary sequence high positive bouguer anomalies 300 mgal and very low heat flow 50 mw m 2 geophysical and structural analyses allowed us to evaluate the post tortonian evolution of the whole area under consideration this evolution resulted in continental crust formation according to a rigid plastic deformation model according to our model the ionian block can be considered as a domain characterized by a thinned continental crust and affected by intrusive material derived from the upper mantle furthermore this domain of probably jurassic age can be considered as a pelagic basin bordered by the pelagian block to the west and by the apulian block to the east northeast this basin according to its position with respect to the apenninic and sicilian chains has not been affected by tectogenesis and still represents a site of continuous sedimentation from a kinematic point of view the ionian realm can be linked with the pelagian block shifting towards the east northeast whereas it is limited towards the north by an e w fracture zone which regulates the opening of the tyrrhenian sea and the counterclockwise rotation of the apenninic chain according to the proposed model the opening of the tyrrhenian sea can be considered as a megaextension fracture which developed parallel to the maximum principal stress direction and evolved as a triangular shaped structural feature in preparing the model the authors have taken into account a large set of data collected both on land and offshore

the 1759 earthquake in the bekaa valley implications for earthquake hazard assessment in the eastern mediterranean region analysis of macroseismic data based on primary sources for large though infrequent historical earthquakes ms 6 5 that occurred along an approximately 350 km long segment of the northern part of the dead sea fault system primarily in lebanon and syria for the period 1100 1988 reveals the following 1 ten events occurred in three relatively short periods tens of years with repeat times of 200 350 years 2 the events most probably broke this north segment of the dead sea fault system possibly including the westernmost segment of the east anatolian fault system near the border between syria and turkey 3 the lack of such large events during the past 100 years should not be interpreted to minimize potential earthquake hazard in this region and 4 the ms 7 plus earthquake on november 25 1759 almost certainly produced surface faulting probably along the yammouneh fault in the bekaa valley and caused heavy destruction with great loss of life in numerous villages and towns including safad damascus beirut and baalbek this main event was preceded by a ms 6 plus foreshock on october 30 1759 in the southern part of the epicentral area of the main shock near the towns of safad and qunaitra which were almost totally destroyed with considerable loss of life

new criterion for sediment suspension and wind speed proxy in planetary atmospheres 1 sediment suspension is a common and important phenomenon in planetary atmospheres a widely used suspension criterion also a proxy boundary layer wind speed indicator was discredited by mars exploration rover mission results concerning sediment particle sizes in active surface bed forms parameterisation of a new dynamic suspension criterion based upon turbulent stress yields predicted suspension threshold conditions consistent with those inferred for earth and predicts no suspension of sand grade particles for recent martian wind velocities at 1m height estimated in the range 28 73 m s 1 results for venus imply suspension of very fine sand particles at low surface wind speeds

is the adriatic an african promontory seismicity patterns and fault plane solutions for the largest recent earthquakes in the adriatic region are used to test the hypothesis that the adriatic is a promontory of the african continental mass the horizontal projections of the slip vectors for the 24 best constrained focal mechanisms trend at a high angle to those predicted for the africa eurasia collision and so the adriatic cannot be thought of as a promontory of africa the slip vectors define an instantaneous pole of rotation that describes anticlockwise rotation of the adriatic relative to eurasia the adriatic is a stable continental block moving within the broad zone of deformation between africa and eurasia

continental rifting at pre existing lithospheric weaknesses continental rifting is the poorly understood thermomechanical process by which continents break up and new ocean basins form two dominant styles of continental rifting are recognized1 crevice style rifts are characterized by initial graben formation local uplift of the graben shoulders and little or no volcanism arch volcanic rifts exhibit an initial doming of the crust extensive volcanism and late stage graben formation the prevailing expla nation for the two styles is that crevice rifts form in response to regional horizontal stresses principally derived from the inter action of the lithospheric plates along their edges whereas arch volcanic rifts are thought to be the result of mantle convection currents which upwell directly beneath the rift axis2 we propose an alternative working model of continental rifting in which both styles initiate in response to regional horizontal stresses the different surface expressions of the two styles are explained in terms of differences in the mode of failure at different kinds of pre existing weaknesses in the continental lithosphere rather than differences in the nature of the driving forces involved

gps velocity and strain fields in sicily and southern calabria italy updated geodetic constraints on tectonic block interaction in the central mediterranean 1 we present an improved rendition of the geodetic velocity and strain fields in sicily and southern calabria obtained through the analysis of 18 years of gps observations from continuous and survey station networks the dense spatial coverage of geodetic data provides precise quantitative estimates of previously established first order active kinematic features including i a narrow east west elongated belt of contraction 1 1 5 mm yr extending offshore northern sicily from ustica to stromboli across the aeolian islands ii a narrow east west trending contractional belt located along the northern rim of the hyblean plateau in southern sicily with shortening at up to 4 4 mm yr iii right motion 3 6 mm yr on the aeolian tindari letojanni fault atlf system a main shear zone extending from the aeolian islands to the ionian coast of sicily with significant transpression and transtension partitioned between discrete sectors of the fault iv transtension 1 mm yr across the sicily channel between sicily and north africa we use geodetic observations coupled to geological constraints to better elucidate the interplay of crustal blocks revealed in the investigated area in particular we focus on the atlf which forms the primary boundary between the sicilian and calabrian blocks the atlf juxtaposes north south contraction between sicily and the tyrrhenian block with northwest southeast extension in northeastern sicily and calabria contraction between sicily and tyrrhenian blocks probably arises from the main europe nubia convergence although sicily has a component of lateral motion away from nubia we found that convergence is not restricted to the northern offshore as commonly believed but is widely accommodated between the frontal belt and the northern rim of the hyblean foreland in southern sicily geodetic data also indicate that active right shear on the atlf occurs to the southeast of the mapped fault array in northern sicily suggesting the fault cuts through till the ionian coast of the island the small geodetic divergence between the hyblean and apulian blocks rimming on both sides the calabria block and subjacent ionian slab coupled with marine geophysical evidences in the ionian sea lends credit to the proposed deep root of the atlf and to a fragmentation of the ionian domain

kinematic consistency between the dead sea fault zone and the neogene and quaternary left lateral faulting in se turkey a revised quantitative kinematic model has been determined for the dead sea fault zone dsfz and the left lateral fault zones in se turkey the relative motions of the african and arabian plates across the dsfz are represented by relative rotation about 31 1 n 26 7 e at 0 40 0 02 ma 1 the northern dsfz in syria and southern turkey is interpreted for the first time as a series of transpressional stepovers along which the left lateral slip rate is substantially less than the rate of relative plate motion because this slip is oblique to the plate motion the slip rate on the east anatolian fault zone eafz is estimated as 8 mm a 1 restoring its observed slip thus requires its age to be 4 ma the previous phase of deformation which involved slip on the malatya ovacik fault zone mofz before the eafz came into being is thus dated to 7 4 ma suggesting initiation of the north anatolian fault zone nafz at 7 ma not 5 ma as previously thought the total left lateral slip on the northern dsfz in southernmost turkey is estimated as at least 65 km partitioned with 45 km on the amanos fault 10 km on the east hatay fault and a further 10 km on the kirkpinar fault farther east much of this slip is inferred to have occurred during the miocene before the modern geometry of this plate boundary zone developed when it first formed the af ar plate boundary was relatively complex it initially reactivated preexisting structures in the palmyra foldbelt in syria and in the gaziantep region of southern turkey which were significantly misaligned relative to the plate motion requiring major components of shortening as well as left lateral slip the transition from this initial rather diffuse geometry to the present localised geometry of the dsfz across western syria occurred within the miocene the predicted rate of relative motion between the stable interiors of the turkish and african plates in the vicinity of their common boundary onshore of iskenderun gulf in southern turkey is estimated as westward at 9 mm a 1 however this promontory of the african plate is itself moving westward relative to the stable interior of this plate at 7 8 mm a 1 the rate of localised left lateral slip on the onshore part of this boundary the ne trending yakapinar goksun fault is thus estimated as only 2 mm a 1 this locality can also be regarded as within the distributed boundary zone between the turkish and arabian plates the estimated relative motion between these plates is at 8 7 mm a 1 towards the ssw partitioned between localised left lateral slip at 2 mm a 1 on the yakapinar goksun fault and at least 1 mm a 1 on the amanos fault and 2 5 mm a 1 on east hatay fault with at most distributed left lateral simple shear at 3 2 mm a 1 across the amanos mountains in between however the combined slip on left lateral faults east of the amanos mountains may be as high as 6 mm a 1 with slip at 1 7 mm a 1 on the amanos fault and at 4 3 mm a 1 on the east hatay fault and any active faults farther east this requires no more than 0 7 mm a 1 of distributed simple shear across the amanos mountains raising the possibility that this component of deformation may in fact be zero this small nonzero estimate possibly indicating a closure error arising from minor errors in predicted values of other relative motion vectors it is proposed that this boundary between the turkish and african plates first developed at the same time as the mofz and nafz but its original geometry involving left lateral slip on the karatas osmaniye fault has since become locked by the presence of relatively strong ophiolitic crust within this fault zone this quantitative kinematic model demonstrates for the first time how it is possible for the left lateral faulting accommodating the nnw sse relative motion between the arabian and african plates in nw syria to dovetail into the left lateral faulting accommodating the wsw ene relative motion between the turkish and arabian plates in se turkey

mean flow and turbulence structure over fixed two dimensional dunes implications for sediment transport and bedform stability detailed measurements of flow velocity and its turbulent fluctuation were obtained over fixed two dimensional dunes in a laboratory channel laser doppler anemometry was used to measure the downstream and vertical components of velocity at more than 1800 points over one dune wavelength the density of the sampling grid allowed construction of a unique set of contour maps for all mean flow and turbulence parameters which are assessed using higher moment measures and quadrant analysis these flow field maps illustrate that 1 the time averaged downstream and vertical velocities agree well with previous studies of quasi equilibrium flow over fixed and mobile bedforms and show a remarkable symmetry from crest to crest 2 the maximum root mean square rms of the downstream velocity values occur at and just downstream of flow reattachment and within the flow separation cell 3 the maximum vertical rms values occur within and above the zone of flow separation along the shear layer and this zone advects and diffuses downstream extending almost to the next crest 4 positive downstream skewness values occur within the separation cell whereas positive vertical skewness values are restricted to the shear layer 5 the highest reynolds stresses are located within the zone of flow separation and along the shear layer 6 high magnitude high frequency quadrant 2 events ejections are concentrated along the shear layer kelvin helmholtz instabilities and dominate the contribution to the local reynolds stress and 7 high magnitude high frequency quadrant 4 events occur bounding the separation zone near reattachment and close to the dune crest and are significant contributors to the local reynolds stress at each location these data demonstrate that the turbulence structure associated with dunes is controlled intrinsically by the formation magnitude and downstream extent of the flow separation zone and resultant shear layer furthermore the origin of dune related macroturbulence lies in the dynamics of the shear layer rather than classical turbulent boundary layer bursting the fluid dynamic distinction between dunes and ripples is reasoned to be linked to the velocity differential across the shear layer and hence the magnitude of the kelvin helmholtz instabilities which are both greater for dunes than ripples these instabilities control the local flow and turbulence structure and dictate the modes of sediment entrainment and their transport rates

dust streaks on mars global mapping and photometry of selected areas on mars are used to investigate the nature of bright and dark wind streaks that extend from topographic obstacles occurrence of both bright and dark streaks is strongly latitude dependent and is only weakly correlated with surface properties such as albedo and thermal inertia data on the colors albedos and phase behavior of streaks are consistent with models of bright streaks as mosaics of plains material and brighter redder dust less than 20 of the ground need be covered by the optically thick dust in the brightest parts of the streaks the amount of dust in optically thick layers could be as little as 10 3 g cm2 dark streaks can be interpreted as erosional windows in a patchy dust cover our model of dust deposition in optically thick patches is sedimentologically different from scenarios involving the deposition of ubiquitous optically thin layers it has the advantage that large amounts of dust can be deposited without affecting regional albedos

reactivation of intrabasement structures during rifting a case study from offshore southern norway abstract pre existing structures within crystalline basement may exert a significant influence over the evolution of rifts however the exact manner in which these structures reactivate and thus their degree of influence over the overlying rift is poorly understood using borehole constrained 2d and 3d seismic reflection data from offshore southern norway we identify and constrain the three dimensional geometry of a series of enigmatic intrabasement reflections through 1d waveform modelling and 3d mapping of these reflection packages we correlate them to the onshore caledonian thrust belt and devonian shear zones based on the seismic stratigraphic architecture of the post basement succession we identify several phases of reactivation of the intrabasement structures associated with multiple tectonic events reactivation preferentially occurs along relatively thick c 1 km relatively steeply dipping c 30 structures with three main styles of interactions observed between them and overlying faults i faults exploiting intrabasement weaknesses represented by intra shear zone mylonites ii faults that initiate within the hangingwall of the shear zones inheriting their orientation and merging with said structure at depth or iii faults that initiate independently from and cross cut intrabasement structures we demonstrate that large scale discrete shear zones act as a long lived structural template for fault initiation during multiple phases of rifting

aeolian saltation on mars at low wind speeds laboratory experiments indicate that the fluid threshold friction speed u tf required to initiate fully developed aeolian saltation is much higher on mars than on earth a discrepancy exists between mars climate models that do not predict winds this strong and observations that sand sized particles are indeed moving this paper describes how wind friction speeds well below u tf but above the impact threshold u ti required to sustain saltation can initiate sustained saltation on mars but at relatively low flux numerical experiments indicate that a sand grain on mars mobilized sporadically between u ti and u tf will develop over fetch lengths longer than generally available within low pressure wind tunnels trajectories capable of splashing grains that propagate saltation and collectively form a cluster of saltating grains that migrate downwind together the passage of a saltation cluster should leave behind a narrow zone of affected surface grains the cumulative effect of many clusters represents a low flux phenomenon that should produce slow changes to aeolian bedforms over periods in which winds remain close to u ti and never or rarely reach u tf field evidence from small impact ripples along rover traverses is consistent with effects of saltation at these low friction speeds without obvious evidence for events u tf the potential utility of this grain mobility process is that it can operate entirely at more common winds well below u tf and so help explain widespread sand movements observed on mars wherever evidence might be mostly absent for u tf being exceeded

the effect of bimineralic composition on extensional processes at lithospheric scale we investigate how lithospheric scale compositional heterogeneities affect kilometric scale deformation processes to this end we perform numerical experiments of lithospheric extension in which we vary the moho temperature and the mineralic composition of the mantle and the crust in both the crust and the mantle we use an explicit bimineralic composition by randomly distributing two mineral phases in the materials comparison of our models to simulations using an implicit bimineralic composite one average viscous flow laws for a two phase aggregate crust and mantle demonstrates that an explicit bimineralic composition assimilated to heterogeneities succeeds in explaining observations related to the formation of rifted margins such a 1 the absence of a sharp deformation zone at the brittle ductile transition bdt 2 the initiation of the rifting process as a wide delocalized rift system with multiple normal faults dipping in both directions 3 the development of anastomosing shear zones in the middle lower crust and the upper lithospheric mantle similar to the crustal scale anastomosing patterns observed in the field or in seismic data 4 the preservation of undeformed lenses of material leading to lithospheric scale boudinage structure and resulting in the formation of continental ribbons as observed along the iberian newfoundland margin

role of weak zone orientation in continental lithosphere extension 1 lithosphere extension and continental breakup axes are often sub parallel to orogenic belts and suture zones in an attempt to understand the relation between weak zone orientation and extension direction a 3 d numerical model is developed with which the following aspects are studied the relation between weak zone axis and axis of maximum crustal deformation the amount and distribution of crustal thinning and subsequent implications for rift a symmetry the results suggest that upon oblique extension rifts develop within the weak zone that individually cross the inherited structure while as a group they follow the weak trend this results in an alternating rift asymmetry the pattern of crustal thinning topography and thermal structure are not symmetric around the rift axes of the major rift zones and change along axis over such a rift this is a possible explanation for alternating asymmetric rift structures such as observed in the east african rift system

crustal velocity and strain rate fields in italy and surrounding regions new results from the analysis of permanent and non permanent gps networks summary we present a new geodetic velocity solution for italy and the surrounding areas obtained from an analysis of continuous and survey mode global positioning system observations collected between 1991 and 2002 we have combined local regional and global networks into a common reference frame velocity solution providing a new detailed picture of the regional scale deformation field in the central mediterranean our velocity estimates are computed with respect to a new stable eurasian reference frame constraining the kinematics of the greater african eurasian plate boundary system in the study area we provide strain rate values for the main seismotectonic districts which are in good agreement with the seismic deformation inferred from earthquake focal mechanisms the southern tyrrhenian area calabria the apennines the southeastern alps the southern dinarides and the albanides display deformation rates at the order of 20 30 nanostrain yr 1 the corsica sardinia block moves according to eurasian plate motions and there is no indication that the opening of the tyrrhenian is still active the pelagian and sicilian domains are separated by a northwest southeast discontinuity the sicily channel rifted area and marginally significant relative motion between the pelagian plateau and the african plate is also observed the southern tyrrhenian is affected by north south compression and accommodates up to 50 per cent of the africa eurasia relative plate motion whereas the calabrian arc exhibits 2 mm yr 1 northwest southeast extension the observed deformation pattern suggests the presence of a major approximately north south tectonic discontinuity separating the sicilian and calabrian domains an extensional boundary observed along peninsular italy coincides with the distribution of seismogenic faults along the axis of the apennines this boundary separates a tyrrhenian and an adriatic domain with diverging velocities orientated north nnw ward and northeastward respectively the apennines are extending perpendicularly to the chain axis at rates of less than 3 mm yr 1 and only in the outer northern apennines indications of active shortening are observed insignificant deformation is observed in the western po plain and the western alps while the central and eastern alps display north south shortening the eastern adriatic domain is shortening perpendicular to the dinaric front with strain rates increasing from north to south the locus of collision between the aegean balkan system and the adriatic and ionian domains is marked by the kephalonia fault system which accommodates up to 20 1 mm yr 1 of right lateral motion the deformation pattern observed in the peri adriatic domain is well described by a counter clockwise rotation of the adriatic microplate around a pole located in the western alps

closure of the africa eurasia north america plate motion circuit and tectonics of the gloria fault we examine the closure of the current plate motion circuit between the african north american and eurasian plates to test whether these plates are rigid and whether the gloria fault is an active transform fault we also investigate the possible existence of microplates that have been previously proposed to lie along these plate boundaries and compare the predicted direction of motion along the african eurasian plate boundary in the mediterranean with the direction of slip observed in earthquakes from marine geophysical data we obtain 13 transform fault azimuths and 40 3 m y average spreading rates 34 of which are determined from comparison of synthetic magnetic anomaly profiles to 140 observed profiles slip vectors from 32 earthquake focal mechanisms further describe plate motion detailed magnetic surveys north of iceland provide 11 rates in a region where prior plate motion models had few data magnetic profiles north of the azores triple junction record a rate of 24 mm yr 4 mm yr slower than used by prior models gloria and sea beam surveys accurately measure the azimuths of seven transform faults our plate motion model fits six of the seven within 2 two transform faults surveyed by gloria side scan sonar lie near famous area transform faults a and b and give azimuths 13 clockwise of them because recent studies show that short offset transforms such as transforms a and b are in many places oblique to the direction of plate motion we exclude azimuths from transforms with less than 35 km offset the best fitting and closure enforced vectors fit the data well except for a small systematic misfit to the slip vectors on right lateral slipping transforms slip vectors tend to be a few degrees clockwise of plate motion and mapped fault azimuths whereas on left lateral slipping transforms slip vectors tend to be a few degrees counterclockwise of plate motion and mapped fault azimuths we search the long eurasia north america boundary for evidence of an additional plate but find no systematic misfits to the data in particular if a spitsbergen plate exists and moves relative to eurasia its motion is less than 3 mm yr an africa eurasia euler vector determined by adding the eurasia north america and africa north america euler vectors is consistent with the gloria fault trend and with slip vectors from eastern azores gibraltar ridge focal mechanisms a small circle centered at the africa eurasia closure enforced pole fits the trace of the gloria fault the model in which closure was enforced predicts 4 mm yr slip across the azores gibraltar ridge and west northwest convergence near gibraltar 45 more oblique than suggested by a recent model based on compressive axes of focal mechanisms moreover our model predicts directions of plate motion that agree well with northwest trending slip vectors from thrust earthquakes between gibraltar and sicily because closure enforced vectors fit the data nearly as well as the best fitting vectors we conclude that the data are consistent with a rigid plate model and with the gloria fault being a transform fault

dynamics of continental rift propagation the end member modes abstract an important aspect of continental rifting is the progressive variation of deformation style along the rift axis during rift propagation in regions of rift propagation specifically transition zones from continental rifting to seafloor spreading it has been observed that contrasting styles of deformation along the axis of rift propagation are bounded by shear zones the focus of this numerical modeling study is to look at dynamic processes near the tip of a weak zone in continental lithosphere more specifically this study explores how modeled rift behavior depends on the value of rheological parameters of the crust a three dimensional finite element model is used to simulate lithosphere deformation in an extensional regime the chosen approach emphasizes understanding the tectonic forces involved in rift propagation dependent on plate strength two end member modes are distinguished the stalled rift phase is characterized by absence of rift propagation for a certain amount of time extension beyond the edge of the rift tip is no longer localized but occurs over a very wide zone which requires a buildup of shear stresses near the rift tip and significant intra plate deformation this stage represents a situation in which a rift meets a locked zone localized deformation changes to distributed deformation in the locked zone and the two different deformation styles are balanced by a shear zone oriented perpendicular to the trend in the alternative rift propagation mode rift propagation is a continuous process when the initial crust is weak the extension style does not change significantly along the rift axis and lengthening of the rift zone is not accompanied by a buildup of shear stresses model predictions address aspects of previously unexplained rift evolution in the laptev sea and its contrast with the tectonic evolution of for example the gulf of aden and woodlark basin

from continental rifting to seafloor spreading insight from 3d thermo mechanical modeling abstract continental rifting to seafloor spreading is a continuous process and rifting history influences the following spreading process however the complete process is scarcely simulated using 3d thermo mechanical coupled visco plastic numerical models we investigate the complete extension process and the inheritance of continental rifting in oceanic spreading our modeling results show that the initial continental lithosphere rheological coupling decoupling at the moho affects oceanic spreading in two manners 1 coupled model a strong lower crust mechanically couples upper crust and upper mantle lithosphere generates large lithospheric shear zones and fast rifting which promotes symmetric oceanic accretion i e oceanic crust growth and leads to a relatively straight oceanic ridge while 2 decoupled model a weak ductile lower crust mechanically decouples upper crust and upper mantle lithosphere generates separate crustal and mantle shear zones and favors asymmetric oceanic accretion involving development of active detachment faults with 3d features complex ridge geometries e g overlapping ridge segments and curved ridges are generated in the decoupled models two types of detachment faults termed continental and oceanic detachment faults are established in the coupled and decoupled models respectively continental detachment faults are generated through rotation of high angle normal faults during rifting and terminated by magmatism during continental breakup oceanic detachment faults form in oceanic crust in the late rifting early spreading stage and dominates asymmetric oceanic accretion the life cycle of oceanic detachment faults has been revealed in this study

geologic interpretation of the near infrared images of the surface taken by the venus monitoring camera venus express we analyze night time near infrared nir thermal emission images of the venus surface obtained with the 1 m channel of the venus monitoring camera onboard venus express comparison with the results of the magellan radar survey and the model nir images of the beta phoebe region show that the night time vmc images provide reliable information on spatial variations of the nir surface emission in this paper we consider if tessera terrain has the different nir emissivity and thus mineralogic composition in comparison to the surrounding basaltic plains this is done through the study of an area sw of beta regio where there is a massif of tessera terrain chimon mana tessera surrounded by supposedly basaltic plains our analysis showed that 1 m emissivity of tessera surface material is by 15 35 lower than that of relatively fresh supposedly basaltic lavas of plains and volcanic edifices this is consistent with hypothesis that the tessera material is not basaltic maybe felsic that is in agreement with the results of analyses of vex virtis and galileo nims data if the felsic nature of venusian tesserae will be confirmed in further studies this may have important implications on geochemical environments in early history of venus we have found that the surface materials of plains in the study area are very variegated in their 1 m emissivity which probably reflects variability of degree of their chemical weathering we have also found a possible decrease of the calculated emissivity at the top of tuulikki mons volcano which if real may be due to different more felsic composition of volcanic products on the volcano summit

factors controlling the mode of rift interaction in brittle ductile coupled systems a 3d numerical study 1 the way individual faults and rift segments link up is a fundamental aspect of lithosphere extension and continental break up little is known however about the factors that control the selection of the different modes of rift interaction observed in nature here we use state of the art large deformation 3d numerical models to examine the controls on the style and geometry of rift linkage between rift segments during extension of crustal brittle ductile coupled systems we focus on the effect of viscosity of the lower layer the offset between the rift basins and the amount of strain weakening on the efficiency of rift linkage and rift propagation and the style of extension the models predict three main modes of rift interaction 1 oblique to transform linking graben systems for small to moderate rift offset and low lower layer viscosity 2 propagating but non linking and overlapping primary grabens for larger offset and intermediate lower layer viscosity and 3 formation of multiple graben systems with inefficient rift propagation for high lower layer viscosity the transition between the linking mode 1 and non linking mode mode 2 is controlled by the trade off between the rift offset the strength of brittle ductile coupling and the amount of strain weakening the mode transition from overlapping non connecting rift segments mode 2 to distributed deformation mode 3 is mainly controlled by the viscosity of the lower layer and can be understood from minimum energy dissipation analysis arguments

focal mechanisms of the atlas earthquakes and tectonic implications the determination of the focal mechanisms of the strongest shocks in the atlas chain and the canary islands area reveals that the present day tectonics along this range is a compression reflected either by reverse or dextral strike slip faulting along the ene wsw trends all the solutions are consistent with 1 the other focal mechanism solutions determined further north in the azores gibraltar alboran rif and tell areas 2 the nnw to nw trending compression inferred from other methods such as neotectonics in situ stress field measurements and plate motions

a mechanism to thin the continental lithosphere at magma poor margins crustal thinning where continental plates break apart can be accomplished by a system of conjugate concave downward faults instead of multiple normal faults through exhumation of mid crustal and mantle material where continental plates break apart slip along multiple normal faults provides the required space for the earth s crust to thin and subside1 after initial rifting however the displacement on normal faults observed at the sea floor seems not to match the inferred extension2 here we show that crustal thinning can be accomplished in such extensional environments by a system of conjugate concave downward faults instead of multiple normal faults our model predicts that these concave faults accumulate large amounts of extension and form a very thin crust 10 km by exhumation of mid crustal and mantle material this transitional crust is capped by sub horizontal detachment surfaces over distances exceeding 100 km with little visible deformation our rift model is based on numerical experiments constrained by geological and geophysical observations from the alpine tethys and iberia newfoundland margins3 4 5 6 7 8 9 furthermore we suggest that the observed transition from broadly distributed and symmetric extension to localized and asymmetric rifting is directly controlled by the existence of a strong gabbroic lower crust the presence of such lower crustal gabbros is well constrained for the alpine tethys system4 9 initial decoupling of upper crustal deformation from lower crustal and mantle deformation by progressive weakening of the middle crust is an essential requirement to reproduce the observed rift evolution this is achieved in our models by the formation of weak ductile shear zones

long term crustal deformations in ne italy revealed by tilt strain gauges abstract tilt and strain gauge records are analysed to determine the long term variations in space and time of the strain field in the friuli area ne italy located at the eastern boundary of the adria plate for such long term variations a deep crustal origin is supposed spectral and cross correlation analyses show that the strain energy involving a large area is polarized in two main directions n20w and n70e the first one characterized by aperiodic or very long period undetectable by the present analysis variations the second one by a period of about 8 years the direction of the aperiodic motion n20w is normal to the alpine chain and parallel to the maximum horizontal compression acting in the alpine area whereas the direction of the 8 year period motion n70e is normal to the dinaric alps chain and coincident with the maximum horizontal compression acting on the eastern boundary of the adria plate in the balkans region to explain such results and particularly those related to the n70e direction slow travelling stress strain waves are hypothesized

dynamics of earthquake normal faulting two dimensional lattice particle model a 2d lattice particle model is used to simulate the dynamic rupture process of a normal fault the system equations for the particle motions are solved numerically by the finite difference method under a given block boundary condition the flexibility of the implementation of a 2d lattice particle model to simulate an earthquake dynamic process was demonstrated in previous modeling of a shallow angle thrust fault shi et al 1998 numerical results indicate that the particle motions displacement velocity and acceleration along the fault are discontinuous both in the fault parallel and fault normal directions with a localized slip rupture and localized fault separation in the vicinity of the fault outcrop the position at which the fault intersects with the free surface the particle velocity and acceleration increase rapidly both on the hanging wall and the footwall the particle motions on the hanging wall are larger than those on the footwall these motions are amplified as the fault scarp develops rupture breaks out at the surface with strong asymmetry between the hanging wall and the footwall along the free surface as the distance from the fault outcrop increases the particle velocity and acceleration decrease rapidly on the footwall and less rapidly on the hanging wall the asymmetrical particle motion results from the geometrical effect of the dip of the fault the free surface and the dynamic source rupture the combination of all of these effects causes a strong asymmetry in stress when the rupture pulse approaches the free surface the dynamically propagating rupture is characterized by a ramp slip time function accompanied with fault opening the slip pulse becomes sharper when the rupture approaches the free surface consequentially the hanging wall in the vicinity of the fault exhibits a large vibration which generates a strong surface wave propagating along the free surface away from the fault scarp on the hanging wall side this result is similar but significantly different from the numerical simulation of a normal fault with a moving double couple dislocation source benz and smith 1988 in addition the numerical result is qualitatively in agreement with recent foam rubber experiments brune and anooshehpoor 1999 and similar to results from a finite element simulation oglesby et al 1998 oglesby 1999 comparing with a 2d strike slip fault and thrust fault the particle motions in the vicinity of the normal fault on the free surface are smaller for a same size rupture pulse

spatio temporal evolution of strain accumulation derived from multi scale observations of late jurassic rifting in the northern north sea a critical test of models for lithospheric extension abstract we integrate observations of lithospheric extension over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales within the northern north sea basin and critically review the extent to which existing theories of lithospheric deformation can account for these observations data obtained through a prolonged period of hydrocarbon exploration and production has yielded a dense and diverse data set over the entire viking graben and its flanking platform areas these data show how syn rift accommodation within the basin varied in space and time with sub kilometer scale spatial resolution and a temporal resolution of 2 3 myr regional interpretations of 2d seismic reflection refraction and gravity data for this area have also been published and provide an image of total basin wide stretching for the entire crust these image data are combined with published strain rate inversion results obtained from tectonic subsidence patterns to constrain the spatio temporal evolution of strain accumulation throughout the lithosphere during the 40 myr 170 130 ma period of late jurassic extension across this basin for the first 25 30 myr strain localisation dominated basin development with strain rates at the eventual rift axis increasing while strain rates over the flanking areas declined as strain rates across the whole basin were consistently very low 16 s l thermally induced strength loss cannot explain this phenomenon the strain localisation is manifest in the near surface by a systematic migration of fault activity the pattern and timing of this migration are inconsistent with flexural bending stresses exerting an underlying control especially when estimates of flexural rigidity for this area are considered the best explanation for what is observed in this time period is a coupling between near surface strain localisation driven by brittle or plastic failure and the evolving thermal structure of the lithosphere we demonstrate this process using a continuum mechanics model for normal fault growth that incorporates the strain rate dependence of frictional strength observed in laboratory studies during the final 10 myr of basin formation strain accumulation was focused within the axis and strain rates declined rapidly replacement of weak crust by stronger mantle material plus crustal buoyancy forces can adequately explain this decline

relative tectonic activity assessment and kinematic analysis of the north bozgush fault zone nw iran abstract nw iran is among the most interesting and complex areas within arabian eurasia collision zone historical and instrumental earthquake records in this region indicate that active faults have the potential to produce serious seismic hazards in the future the north bozgush fault zone an anastomosing fault zone consists of several parallel and sub parallel faults which have developed in a right lateral strike slip system with a reverse component our structural analysis shows that faulting occurs along a strong dominant compressional strike slip regime and is predominantly related to nw se shortening along the zone this paper represents an analysis of the morphometric indices to depict the tectonic activity of the northern part of the bozgush mountains an area with a typical tectono morphology the result of the morphometric analysis shows that relative tectonic activity along the north bozgush fault zone decreases significantly from west to east measured uplift rates show that the uplift rate is higher than 0 5 mm yr in the western and central parts and decreases in the eastern part to between 0 5 and 0 05 mm yr the structural and morphometric data are indicative of the relation between the north bozgush fault zone and the tabriz fault zone during quaternary time

a critical revision of the seismicity of northern apulia adriatic microplate southern italy and implicationsfor the identification of seismogenic structures abstract northern apulia is an emerged portion of the adriatic microplate representing the foreland foredeep area of a stretch of the apennine chain in southern italy the interaction between the relatively rigid microplate and the contiguous more deformable domains is responsible for the intense seismicity affecting the chain area however strong sometimes even disastrous earthquakes have also hit northern apulia on several occasions the identification of the causative faults of such events is still unclear and different hypotheses have been reported in literature in order to provide guidelines and constraints in the search for these structures a comprehensive re examination and reprocessing of all the available seismic data has been carried out taking into consideration 1 the characteristics of historical events 2 the accurate relocation of events instrumentally recorded in the last 20 years 3 the determination of focal mechanisms and of the regional stress tensor the results obtained bring to light a distinction between the foreland and foredeep areas in the first region there is evidence of a regional stress combining nw compression and ne extension thus structures responsible for major earthquakes should be searched for among strike slip faults possibly with a slight transpressive character these structures could be either approximately n s oriented sinistral or e w dextral faults in the foredeep region there is a transition toward transtensive mechanisms with strikes similar to those of the previous zone or maybe also towards nw oriented normal faults more similar to those prevailing in the southern apennine chain in relation to a dominant ne extension this appears to be the effect of a reduction of the nw compression probably due to a decrease in efficiency of stress transmission along the more tectonised border of the adriatic microplate

insights into the effects of oblique extension on continental rift interaction from 3d analogue and numerical models abstract continental rifts often develop from linkage of distinct rift segments under varying degrees of extension obliquity these rift segments arise from rift initiation at non aligned crustal heterogeneities and need to interact to develop a full scale rift system here we test the effects of 1 oblique extension and 2 initial heterogeneity seed offset on continental rift interaction with the use of an improved analogue model set up x ray computer tomography ct techniques are used to analyse the 3d models through time and the results are compared with additional numerical models and natural examples the experimental results reveal that increasing extension obliquity strongly changes rift segment structures from wide rifts in orthogonal settings to narrower rifts with oblique internal structures under oblique extension conditions to narrow strike slip dominated systems towards the strike slip domain we also find that both decreasing seed offset and increasing extension obliquity promote hard linkage of rift segments through the formation of continuous rift boundary faults at the surface initial soft linkage through the formation of relay ramps is more likely when seed offset increases or extension is more orthogonal rather than linking at depth the rift boundary faults curve around each other at depth and merge towards the surface to form a continuous trough orthogonal extension promotes the formation of intra rift horsts which may provide hydrocarbon traps in nature

archaeoseismic record at the ancient roman city of baelo claudia cadiz south spain this study represents the first paleoseismic approach in spain in which archaeological remains are considered the ancient roman city of baelo claudia 1st 4th centuries ad located at the axial zone of the gibraltar strait cadiz south spain contains abundant disrupted architectural relics and ground collapses i e landsliding liquefacion probably related to historic earthquake damage of intensity ix x msk the archaeological stratigraphy of the city evidence two major episodes of abrupt city destruction bracketed in ad 40 60 and ad 350 395 separated by an intervening horizon of demolition for city rebuilding otherwise characteristic for many earthquake damaged archaeological sites in the mediterranean the second episode led the eventual city abandonment and it is evidenced by good examples of column collapse distortion failure and breakdown of house and city walls and pavement warping and disruptions documented during different archaeological excavations which can be catalogued as secondary coseismic effects main damaged relicts observable today are the set of pop up like arrays and warping developed in the ancient roman pavement their analysis indicate an anomalous westwards ground displacement oblique to the main gentle southward slope of the topography as also evidence failures collapses and breakdown of walls and columns suggesting that stress acted in a broad sw ne wsw ene orientation consistent whit the expectable motion along the largest ne sw strike slip faults of the zone which in turn can be catalogued as seismic sources of moderate events ca 5 mb major disruptions and city abandonment were hesitantly related to relatively far strong earthquakes occurred during the late 4th century ad in the mediterranean or western coast of iberia by menanteau et al menanteau l vanney j r zazo c 1983 belo ii belo et son environment detroit de gibraltar etude physique d un site antique pub casa de velazquez serie archeologie 4 ed broccard paris however this study indicates that the occurrence of close moderate earthquakes jointly with the unstable character of the ground at the zone site effect is a more reliable hypothesis to explain the observed deformations

influence of water fugacity and activation volume on the flow properties of fine grained anorthite aggregates 1 to specify quantitatively the effect of pressure and water weakening on the flow strength of feldspar we performed triaxial creep experiments in a gas deformation apparatus at temperatures of 1000 1150 c confining pressures of 100 450 mpa and axial stresses of 10 400 mpa resulting in strain rates of 6 10 7 to 3 10 3 s 1 dense samples with a grain size of 3 m were prepared by hot isostatic pressing of anorthite glass powder hydrous samples contain about 0 33 0 14 wt h2o and dry specimens 0 0005 0 02 wt h2o the estimated residual glass content of wet samples is 2 vol samples deformed by grain boundary diffusion controlled creep at low stresses and dislocation creep at stresses 150 mpa we estimate an activation volume of v 24 cm3mol 1 for anhydrous samples deforming in diffusion creep for wet samples deformed in hydrous conditions with varying buffers fixing oxygen fugacity the activation volume is about 38 cm3 mol 1 creep rate of hydrous anorthite aggregates depends on water fugacity raised to a power of r 1 0 0 3 suggesting hydrolysis of oxygen bonds considering the effect of activation volume and water fugacity on extrapolation of constitutive laws to conditions prevailing in the continental lower crust viscosities of hydrous feldspar aggregates increase by a factor of 3

along strike variations in rifted margin crustal architecture and lithosphere thinning between northern voring and lofoten margin segments off mid norway abstract an extensive geophysical and geological database is used to integrate observations and structural and stratigraphic modelling along the northern voring and lofoten margins off mid norway subsidence and fault analysis demonstrates depth dependent lithosphere stretching along both margin segments and the modelling concurs with an emergent or relatively shallow water emplacement environment for the breakup lavas along the northern voring margin however off lofoten subsidence modelling predicts 1500 m of bathymetric relief during breakup in contradiction to the view of subaerial volcanic emplacement environment off mid norway a distinct early eocene bathymetric gradient from voring to lofoten margin is suggested exhibiting depths in the order of 500 1000 m on the latter margin and thus an environment for submarine lava emplacement the water depth may even have reached 1250 m following breakup due to an initial rapid margin subsidence of the lofoten margin along a deep rooted low angle detachment fault the differences between northern voring and lofoten margin segments in pre and post breakup evolution are attributed to the bivrost lineament a transfer zone separating the two margin segments which appears as a major across margin boundary in terms of margin physiography and paleogeography differential sediment accommodation space crustal and lithosphere scale structure and breakup magmatism furthermore gravity inversion results appear to independently predict a significantly greater volcanic addition on the voring than on the lofoten margin

active folding in the algerian earthquake of 10 october 1980 a fold controlling the form of the local topography near el asnam algeria increased in amplitude at the time of the earthquake of 10 october 1980 the deformation occurred rapidly in an elastic brittle manner and not in the gradual ductile fashion in which folds are normally thought to develop

martian dust storms 1999 mars orbiter camera observations the mars orbiter camera on board the mars global surveyor from march 9 1999 ls 107 where ls is the areocentric longitude of the sun measured in degrees from mars northern spring equinox to december 31 1999 ls 274 has obtained 7 5 km pixel 1 daily global maps of the martian surface in two wavelength bands blue 400 450 nm and red 575 625 nm visual inspection of these maps during the 1999 dust storm season has resulted in the detection of 783 dust storms ranging in size from local 102 km2 to regional 1 6 106 km2 no global storms were observed the difference in the numbers of dust storms occurring in the two hemispheres north 343 south 440 was not statistically significant fifty percent of the regional size dust storms formed as a result of the merger of two or more smaller local storms the regional storms from ls 207 to ls 223 were observed to move from the northern hemisphere into the southern hemisphere between 30 w and 50 w longitude this cross equatorial transport of dust suggests the location of the low lying southward flowing branch of the hadley circulation observations show that dust storms occur in several regions on mars at the two polar cap edges at the base of high elevation regions in the northern hemisphere near the polar hood during northern fall and at mid latitudes in both hemispheres specific regions such as solis planum and hesperia which were regions of significant dust activity in the past showed almost no dust storm activity in 1999 suggesting that regional dust sources are variable over a 20 year time frame one region of exceptional activity not noted previously was the arcadia amazonis border however other regions such as near elysium mons acidalia chryse hellas noachis argyre cimmeria and sirenum again were active dust storm regions relative dust opacities were modeled for 117 red wavelength events and ranged from 0 54 diffuse haze to 2 13 concentrated local events from the dust opacities we estimated the north polar sedimentation rate to be 6 0 10 10 4 g cm 2 yr 1 a factor of 40 smaller than previous estimates from the two 1977 global dust storms pollack et al 1979 along with the global dust mass loading 2 6 4 0 10 4 g cm 2 and cross equatorial dust mass loading 3 6 10 4 g cm 2 the 1999 cross equatorial mass dust loading suggests that the southern hemisphere subtropical latitudes require at least 2 3 martian years to replenish their dust sources before global storms can form

crustal motion along the eurasia nubia plate boundary in the calabrian arc and sicily and active extension in the messina straits from gps measurements 1 we investigate crustal deformation along the eurasia nubia plate boundary in calabria and sicily revealed by the gps velocity field obtained by the combination of continuous site velocities with previous results from episodic campaigns we recognize two distinct crustal domains characterized by different motions and styles of deformation convergence in sicily is taken up by crustal shortening along the former tyrrhenian back arc passive margin in agreement with seismological data and geological evidence of recent cessation of deformation along the plio pleistocene subduction front the analysis of the gps data and the consistency between earthquake slip vectors and convergence direction suggest that eu nu convergence in sicily does not require intermediate crustal blocks significant eurasia 3 mm yr to nne and nubia fixed 5 mm yr to ese residual velocities in calabria suggest instead the presence of an intermediate crustal block which can be interpreted as a forearc sliver or as an independent ionian block according to the first hypothesis subduction is still active in the ionian wedge although we find no evidence for active back arc spreading in the tyrrhenian sea the n115 e oriented sicily calabria gps relative motion is consistent with the extension observed during the 1908 mw 7 1 messina earthquake we suggest that up to 3 mm yr 80 of this estimated relative motion between sicily and the calabrian arc may be taken up in the messina straits

seismicity source mechanisms and tectonics of the azores gibraltar plate boundary abstract a study and partial revision of the seismicity and source mechanisms of earthquakes are presented for the oceanic plate boundary of eurasia and africa from the azores islands to the strait of gibraltar focal mechanisms of 36 earthquakes wave form modelling of 4 and seismic moments and dimensions of 28 have been calculated these results indicate that the boundary is divided into three sections with different characteristics the azores the central section and the east section the azores section has high seismicity of moderate magnitude and a low slip rate 0 76 cm yr the predominant mechanism is normal or transform faulting with horizontal tensions on average in a n25 e direction in the central section large earthquakes occur with strike slip right lateral motion along faults in an e w direction there is a high slip rate 3 39 cm yr the east section is of more complex nature large earthquakes also occur but the predominant mechanism is reverse faulting with a horizontal pressure axis in the n30 w direction resulting in underthrusting of africa from the slip vectors the pole of rotation for the african plate is located at 28 2 n 21 1 w nearer to the boundary than previous locations close to the continent there is a continuation in the ocean crust of some structural features of the iberian peninsula

an experiment in systematic study of global seismicity centroid moment tensor solutions for 201 moderate and large earthquakes of 1981 data from the global digital seismograph network were used to obtain centroid moment tensor solutions using the method of dziewonski et al 1981 results were obtained for 201 earthquakes ranging in seismic moment from 7 1023 to 3 1027 dyne cm the wide dynamic range of the sro asro stations allows us to investigate using the same algorithm series of events among which the smallest and the largest may differ in moment by a factor as large as 1000 among the events studied is a particularly interesting series in january 1981 off the island of honshu the main shock was preceded by three foreshocks and followed by four aftershocks all falling within the range of our analysis there is an indication that the source mechanism changes with the size of the event statistical analysis of the results for all earthquakes reveals that the half duration of shallow and intermediate events is approximated by 1 6 10 8 m01 3 the shifts in origin time for deep focus earthquakes are indicative of the general complexity of these events which depends only weakly on the seismic moment the extreme departures from a double couple mechanism seem to depend both on the moment and on the focal depth while for shallow earthquakes these departures decrease from a maximum at about 1025 dyne cm with increasing moment the reverse appears to be true with respect to deep focus earthquakes shallow earthquakes north of new guinea and along the solomon islands show systematic and substantial departures from the double couple mechanism

seismic coupling and uncoupling at subduction zones seismic coupling has been used as a qualitative measure of the interaction between the two plates at subduction zones kanamori 1971 introduced seismic coupling after noting that the characteristic size of earthquakes varies systematically for the northern pacific subduction zones a quantitative global comparison of many subduction zones reveals a strong correlation of earthquake size with two other variables age of the subducting lithosphere and convergence rate the largest earthquakes occur in zones with young lithosphere and fast convergence rates while zones with old lithosphere and slow rates are relatively aseismic for large earthquakes results from a study of the rupture process of three great earthquakes indicate that maximum earthquake size is directly related to the asperity distribution on the fault plane asperities are strong regions that resist the motion between the two plates the zones with the largest earthquakes have very large asperities while the zones with smaller earthquakes have small scattered asperities this observation can be translated into a simple model of seismic coupling where the horizontal compressive stress between the two plates is proportional to the ratio of the summed asperity area to the total area of the contact surface while the variation in asperity size is used to establish a connection between earthquake size and tectonic stress it also implies that plate age and rate affect the asperity distribution plate age and rate can control asperity distribution directly by use of the horizontal compressive stress associated with the preferred trajectory i e the vertical and horizontal velocities of subducting slabs are determined by the plate age and convergence velocity indirect influences are many including oceanic plate topography and the amount of subducted sediments all subduction zones are apparently uncoupled below a depth of about 40 km and we propose that the basalt to eclogite phase change in the down going oceanic crust may be largely responsible this phase change should start at a depth of 30 35 km and could at least partially uncouple the plates by superplastic deformation throughout the oceanic crust during the phase change

effects of a temperature dependent rheology on large scale continental extension the influence of a temperature dependent rheology on large scale continental extension is investigated using a thin viscous sheet model a vertically averaged rheology is used that is consistent with laboratory experiments on power law creep of olivine and that depends exponentially on temperature the behavior of the model depends principally on two parameters the peclet number which describes the relative rates of advection and diffusion of heat and a dimensionless activation energy which controls the temperature dependence of the rheology numerical calculations of such a thin sheet subjected to an extensional boundary condition show the following results at short times following the beginning of extension deformation occurs with negligible change in temperature so that only small changes in lithospheric strength occur due to attenuation of the lithosphere and maximum rates of deformation are located close to the extensional boundary however after a certain time interval thermal diffusion results in lowered temperatures in the lithosphere strongly increasing lithospheric strength and slowing the rate of extension this critical time depends principally on the peclet number and is short compared with the thermal time constant of the lithosphere the changes in strength cause the locus of high extensional strain rates to shift with time from regions of high strain to regions of low strain results of the calculations are compared with observations from the aegean where maximum extensional strains are found in the south near crete but the largest present day extensional strain rates occur about 300 km further north the comparisons support the hypothesis that the observed separation of the loci of maximum strain and maximum present day strain rates in the aegean may be the consequence of changes in lithospheric strength arising from the temperature dependent mechanical properties of lithospheric materials

sediment suspension dynamics and a new criterion for the maintenance of turbulent suspensions the vertical component of the turbulent flow acceleration term is used to determine the net positive vertical force that may support a suspended sediment load a dimensionless criterion is proposed for the maintenance of suspension defined as the ratio of the maximum vertical turbulent stress to immersed weight of the suspended load above a unit bed area in order that a suspension be maintained where v is instantaneous vertical turbulent velocity and are solid and fluid densities respectively and m is the suspended load dry mass the criterion is dynamic being a ratio of stresses and is analogous in this respect to shields dimensionless stress criterion for the initiation of bedload motion the new criterion is successful in predicting the maintenance of steady state suspended sediment transport in open channel shear flow and deposition from non uniform particulate density flows of wall jet type

structural comparison of archetypal atlantic rifted margins a review of observations and concepts abstract in this study we compare three pairs of conjugate rifted margins that are often referred to as archetypes of rift systems despite numerous differences a remarkable first order structural similarity appears between the magma poor iberia newfoundland the magma rich mid norway east greenland and the sediment rich angola brazil rifted margins typical is the seaward arrangement of distinct domains proximal necking distal and outer that each present specific comparable structural characteristics our study also suggests that magma rich systems may go through a stage of hyper extension indicating that extreme crustal thinning does not preclude a magmatic breakup in this contribution we clarify the definition of a number of terms introduced recently in rifted margin studies we review the major features constitutive of these key referenced systems discuss their similarities and differences and examine how the related deformation modes develop in the life cycle of a rift that goes to seafloor spreading we conclude that the distinct domains observed in the margin architecture represent distinct stages in the evolution of rifted margin independently of their later evolution into magma poor or magma rich environments

surface faulting in the southern italian campania basilicata earthquake of 23 november 1980 the campania basilicata earthquake of 23 november 1980 was the largest ms 6 9 and most destructive earthquake that has occurred in this region of southern italy for over 100 years killing more than 3 000 people the consensus among seismologists geologists and earthquake engineers who have studied1 10 this event is in keeping with previous italian earthquakes that it did not produce faulting at the surface this has led to the establishment of a number of models2 3 11 13 requiring an unusual tectonic setting for the southern apennines however on a recent visit to the epicentral region of the earthquake may 1984 we discovered more than 10 km of surface faulting that is consistent with focal mechanisms for this event based on first motion polarities2 4 5 12 and long period waveform studies14 16 which show that it involved normal faulting with one nodal plane dipping at 60 towards the north east our observations of this the first well documented earthquake fault break to be reported in italy suggest that the deformation associated with earthquakes in the southern apennines takes place in the upper 10 15 km of the earth s crust on steep planar normal faults which break the surface as is widely observed in other areas of active extension outside italy

a genetic link between transform and hyper extended margins abstract the similarity between the geometry of the west african and south american coastlines is among one of the strongest natural observations supporting the plate tectonic paradigm however using classical plate tectonic approaches to model these conjugate transform margins results in a high degree of variability in palaeogeographic reconstructions using state of the art 3d coupled thermo mechanical numerical models we simulate for the first time crustal deformation at the onset of oceanisation along large offset oblique margins our models show that obliquity causes oceanic rift propagation to stall resulting in an apparent polyphased tectonic evolution and in some circumstances leads to the formation of hyper extended margins as a result conjugate margins located at the edge of future fracture zones are highly asymmetric from rifting to spreading with their lengths differing by a factor of 5 to 10 before the final phase of break up occurs accounting for this discrepancy should ameliorate future palaeogeographic reconstructions

present day kinematics of the plate boundary zone between africa and europe from the azores to the aegean anticlockwise rotation of africa relative to europe around an euler pole in the eastern atlantic causes plate convergence in the central mediterranean towards n20 w at rate considered a priori to be 5 10 mm yr 1 however previous summaries of the present day deformation sense in the central mediterranean are inconsistent with observations in southern italy recent investigations of italy and adjacent parts of north africa enable local deformation sense observed to be reconciled with sense predicted from relative plate motions suggested angular velocity of the african plate relative to europe is 0 07 myr 1 around a pole near 21 n 21 w this predicts 2 6 mm yr 1 maximum extension rate towards n64 e near the azores consistent with the minimum local accretion of new oceanic crust in the past few millions of years and 4 3 mm yr 1 plate convergence towards n20 w in the central mediterranean at 13 e further east the northern margin of the african plate can be regarded as the gargano seismic zone in the central adriatic sea the northern adriatic sea is a microplate rotating anticlockwise relative to europe at 0 3 myr 1 around a pole in northwestern italy causing northeastward shortening in yugoslavia and up to 4 mm yr 1 extension in central and northern italy the african plate is deforming internally in tunisia and northern libya extending obliquely in direction e10 s at rate up to 5 5 mm yr 1 the resultant velocity relative to europe in the ionian and southern adriatic seas 5 mm yr 1 towards n50 e explains the observed relative velocity across southern italy kinematic consistency requires present day shortening rate east of calabria associated with subduction on the tyrrhenian sea benioff zone and tyrrhenian sea extension rate to be both zero or equal to within 1 mm yr 1

sand waves echinocardium traces and their bathyal depositional setting monte torre palaeostrait plio pleistocene southern italy stacked cross sets up to 2 5 m thick produced by sand wave migration and meniscate trace fossils produced by echinocardium cordatum both considered in the literature as typical of shallow water marine depositional settings commonly occur in the bathyal plio pleistocene deposits of monte torre calabria southern italy the plio pleistocene sediments form two coarsening upward depositional sequences separated by an unconformity and by a palaeobathymetric gap of at least 300 m the lower sequence passes upwards from hemipelagic marls and thin bedded turbidites to thick bedded sandy turbidites then to sand wave deposits alternated with sandy turbidites and finally to base of slope megabreccias facies characteristics and relationships and the occurrence of deep sea faunal associations indicate deposition in the bathyal zone the facies of the upper sequence reflect a fan delta environment no deeper than a few tens of metres the depositional setting of the lower sequence where the sand wave deposits and meniscate trace fossils occur appears to have been a tectonically controlled seaway connecting the tyrrhenian and ionian seas this seaway became progressively narrower with time evolving into a strait the overall coarsening upward trend reflects the upward transition from a low to a high energy environment possibly caused by the tectonic narrowing of the seaway deposition and erosion from high concentration turbidity currents and from tidal bottom currents were important processes periods of tectonic activity producing first the uplift of the seaway margins and culminating with the uplift of the strait sequence itself are marked by scattered rockfall deposits the strait setting causing the development of powerful oxygenated bottom currents produced optimal conditions in the bathyal zone for the colonization of sandy bottoms by a single infaunal r selected species echinocardium sp

active upper crust deformation pattern along the southern edge of the tyrrhenian subduction zone ne sicily insights from a multidisciplinary approach abstract using a multidisciplinary dataset based on gravimetric seismic geodetic and geological observations we provide an improved picture of the shallow structure and dynamics of the southern edge of the tyrrhenian subduction zone with a local earthquake tomography we clearly identify two main crustal domains in the upper 15 km characterized by different p wave velocity values a high velocity domain comprising southeasternmost tyrrhenian sea ne sicily and messina straits and a low velocity domain comprising mt etna and eastern sicily the transition between the two domains shows a good spatial correspondence with a wider set of faults including the taormina fault system tfs and the aeolian tindari letojanni fault system atlfs two nearly se striking fault systems crossing northeastern sicily and ending on the ionian shoreline of sicily according to many investigators within this set of faults most of the deformation seismicity occurs along the northern and central segments of atlfs compared to low activity along tfs a lack of seismicity both recent and historical is observed in the southern sector of atlfs where however geodetic data reveal significant deformation our multidisciplinary dataset including offshore observations suggests the southeastward continuation of the atlfs into the ionian sea until joining with the faults cutting the ionian accretionary wedge described in the recent literature our findings imply the existence of a highly segmented crustal shear zone extending from the aeolian islands to the ionian abyssal plain that we believe plays the role of accommodating differential motion between the southern tyrrhenian unit and the western compressional domain of sicily the atlfs which is a main part of the inferred shear zone behaves similarly to what often observed at the edges of retreating subduction slabs where the overriding plate drifts with a highly non uniform transform motion along the lateral borders

stability and accuracy of free surface time integration in viscous flows abstract geodynamic simulations increasingly rely on models with a true free surface to investigate questions of dynamic topography tectonic deformation gravity perturbations and global mantle convection however implementations of free surface boundary conditions have proven challenging from a standpoint of accuracy robustness and stability in particular time integration of a free surface tends to suffer from a numerical instability that manifests as sloshing surface motions also known as the drunken sailor instability this instability severely limits stable timestep sizes to those much smaller than can be used in geodynamic simulations without a free surface several schemes have been proposed in the literature to deal with these instabilities here we analyze the problem of creeping viscous flow with a free surface and discuss the origin of these instabilities we demonstrate their cause and how existing stabilization schemes work to damp them out we also propose a new scheme for removing instabilities from free surface calculations it does not require modifications to the system matrix nor additional variables but is instead an explicit scheme based on nonstandard finite differences it relies on a single stabilization parameter which may be identified with the smallest relaxation timescale of the free surface finally we present numerical results to show the effectiveness of the new approach and discuss the free surface implementation in the open source community based mantle convection software aspect

chronology and development of the 1980 earthquake at el asnam algeria a postscript abstract radiocarbon dating has now confirmed the alluvial chronology that was used in assessing the extent of deformation during the 1980 el asnam earthquake it also supports the suggestion that earlier movements were related to a hypocentre further to the east