active tectonics and quaternary basin formation along the vienna basin transform fault abstract the vienna basin transform fault is an active fault system extending over a distance of some 300 km from the eastern alps through the vienna basin into the west carpathians active sinistral movement is indicated by moderate seismic activity in a ne striking zone paralleling the fault focal plane solutions and recent stress measurements by analogy to the miocene kinematics we propose that the sinistral strike slip fault terminates in the carpathians where horizontal offset is transformed into thin skinned thrust type deformation hypocenter depths mostly well above 12 km are in line with the inferred thin skinned style of deformation with active faults restricted to the overthrust alpine carpathian units mapping of active fault segments in the vienna basin using subcrop data thickness maps of quaternary deposits seismological data and geomorphological features seen in the digital elevation model shows that virtually all active faults are reactivated miocene structures in the southern part of the basin active faulting defines a small scale pull apart structure with an actively subsiding quaternary basin which is filled with up to 140 m fluvial gravel sand and paleosoils for this basin quaternary sinistral displacement was quantified by adopting a geometrical model for thin skinned extensional strike slip duplexes accordingly 1 5 2 km sinistral slip accumulated during deposition of the basin fill in the last 400 ky corresponding to a slip rate of 1 6 2 5 mm y results are in good agreement with published gps data indicating 2 mm slip per year a second group of quaternary basins is related to listric normal faulting rollover and crestal collapse of the reactivated normal faults at the nw basin margin rollover also resulted in tilting and dissecting late pleistocene river terraces of the danube

the tertiary dynamics of the northern eastern alps austria changing palaeostresses in a collisional plate boundary abstract six tertiary deviatoric palaeostress tensor groups from 165 stations in the calcareous alps describe the upper crustal dynamics of the leading edge of the adriatic plate during protracted continental collision with the european lower plate palaeostress changes are correlated to the kinematic evolution of the plate boundary and to independently derived plate kinematic data of the alpine carpathian pannonian area each palaeostress direction is defined by 32 to 89 individual tensors which constrain 1 late eocene to oligocene nw directed compression during thrusting and dextral shearing on wnw striking faults nw directed compression along the northern margin of the adriatic plate is correlated to its n directed translation combined with a counterclockwise rotation 2a late eocene to early miocene n directed compression during n directed thrusting of penninic and helvetic units and the molasse 2b early to middle miocene n directed strike slip compression during the onset of eastward lateral extrusion the change from nw to n directed compression is interpreted to result from strain partitioning at the periadriatic fault which has formed the new adriatic plate boundary since the oligocene dextral shearing on this fault accommodated continued anticlockwise rotation and decoupled the northern eastern alps from the rotational component n directed compression in the calcareous alps paralleled the n directed translation of the adriatic plate 3 middle miocene ne directed compression of thrust and strike slip type during lateral extrusion ne directed compression in the calcareous alps resulted from the drag of the eastward extruding central eastern alps sinistral shear stress was transmitted across the ene trending salzach ennstal fault ne oriented 1 axes include 45 with the e w striking zone of distributed sinistral shear in the calcareous alps 4 middle miocene e directed extension associated with orogen parallel normal faulting of the central eastern alps e directed extension paralleled the direction of mass transfer towards the pannonian basin during lateral extrusion normal faulting was induced by reduced lateral confinement due to removal of material east of the alps on the large scale eastward motion was enabled by the e directed retreat of the eastern carpathian subduction zone 5 late miocene e directed compression orogen parallel compression obstructed lateral extrusion the stress change from extension to e directed compression was caused by the end of subduction retreat in the eastern carpathians due to dynamic changes in the subduction zone 6 n directed extension late to post miocene extension paralleled recent topographic slopes in the foothill of the eastern alps palaeostresses changes correspond to distinct phases in the kinematic evolution of the northern eastern alps and to the systematic formation and reactivation of major fault zones wnw striking faults changed deformation styles from dextral shear to dextral transpression reverse faulting and finally to sinistral shear the early to middle miocene salzach ennstal fault which formed the northern boundary of the extruded central eastern alps changed from sinistral transpression to sinistral shear sinistral transtension and finally to dextral shear

the cenozoic lower rhine basin rifting sedimentation and cyclic stratigraphy in the cenozoic the lower rhine basin formed as a rift at the southeastern terminus of the dutch german central graben while the rhenish massif was uplifted the study focusses on the marginal marine and fluvial fill of the lower rhine basin a basin model is developed support for this study was given by extensive industry outcrop and well data by new stratigraphical and sedimentological observations the ingression and subsequent regression of the cenozoic north sea is analysed using the concept of base level cyclicity as the geohistory of the basin was complex a subsidence curve is constructed furthermore an attempt is made to trace the simultaneous uplift of the rhenish massif

alteration of a basaltic glass in an argillaceous medium the salagou dike of the lodeve permian basin france analogy with an underground nuclear waste repository abstract volcanic basaltic glasses are commonly considered to be very suitable natural analogs of vitrified waste packages intended for geological disposal the studied basaltic glass of the salagou dike lodeve basin france intruded into a permian argillaceous formation about 1 4 ma ago provides a means of assessing the long term behavior of nuclear waste glass in an argillaceous repository concept this study is based on combining chemical mineralogical and isotopic investigations the occurrence of a palagonite film no more than 1 2 mm thick characterizes the basaltic glass alteration in contact with the argillaceous host rock the chemical and structural properties of the palagonite suggest constant volume alteration the alteration rates estimated from palagonite thickness and age of the glass are comparable to those measured on natural glasses altered in nonargillaceous media the occurrence of the studied argillaceous material in contact with the basaltic glass did not result in long term alteration kinetics significantly different from those measured in simple glass water systems mineralogical chemical and isotopic data obtained on the basaltic and argillaceous components suggest that an aqueous fluid flowed primarily at the glass argillite interface and did not propagate in the argillaceous host rock beyond 5 cm from the basaltic dike the elements released by alteration of the basaltic glass notably strontium did not diffuse into the surrounding clay this conclusion is important from the perspective of a natural analog for a deep geological repository for nuclear waste and highlights the major role of the structural properties of the clayey barrier

present day stress field and deformation in eastern austria we analysed fault plane solutions and borehole breakouts in the eastern part of the eastern alps and found a heterogeneous stress field which we interpret as a transition zone of three different stress provinces the western european stress province with nw to nnw sh orientation and mainly strike slip faulting regime the adriatic stress province with a radial stress pattern and thrust faulting to strike slip faulting regime and the dinaric pannonian stress province with ne sh orientation and strike slip faulting regime the western pannonian basin seems to be a part of the transition zone with wnw to nw sh orientation a stress regime stimulating strike slip faulting prevails in the eastern alps the south bohemian basement spur as a major tectonic structure with a high rheological contrast to surrounding units has a strong influence on the stress field and exhibits the highest seismicity at its tip due to stress concentration from a constructed vertical stress orientation profile we found stress decoupling of the northern calcareous alps from the underlying european foreland both the molasse and the flysch helvetic zone are considered as candidates for decoupling horizons due to stress orientation observations and due to their rheological behaviour from seismological and rheological data we suggest a horizontal stress decoupling across the eastern alps caused by a weakened central alpine lithosphere

mapping seismic anisotropy of the lithospheric mantle beneath the northern and eastern bohemian massif central europe abstract we evaluate 3d body wave anisotropic parameters shear wave splitting fast s polarizations and delay times of the split slow shear waves and directional terms of relative p wave residuals from data of passive seismic experiment bohema ii 2004 2005 data from 34 temporary stations increased substantial density of observations in the bohemain massif bm and allowed us to scan in detail the upper mantle structure of its northern and eastern parts for the first time we delimit domains of the mantle lithosphere in this part of the bm and infer 3d self consistent models of their fabrics by a joint inversion of the body wave anisotropic parameters fabrics of the northern and north eastern parts of the bm are approximated best by peridotite aggregates with the a c foliations dipping approximately to the n and ne respectively whereas a model with the westerly dipping a lineation fits best the fabric of the south eastern domain the saxothuringian fabric nw of the eger rift extends to the east across the elbe fault zone and continues along this zone to the southeast beneath the cretaceous basin the south eastward continuation of the elbe fault zone seems to be related to the boundary between two different fabrics of the northern and southern brunovistulian domains below the moravo silesian zone this study shows an underthrusting of the brunovistulian micro plate beneath the eastern rim of the bm and indicates that its northern and southern fragments might have originally belonged to baltica and to gondwana respectively according to a zone of distinctly decreased anisotropic signals the brunovistulian micro plate extends at least about 100 km westward beneath the moldanubian with these new findings we update the domain like mantle structure of the bm and compare the results with inferences from the upper mantle velocity tomography and depth changes of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary retrieved in a detailed model from relative residuals and from the receiver functions inferences on anisotropic structure beneath the permanent observatories included in different experiments are stable and are validated by the bohema ii experiment

controls on clastic sequence geometries in a shallow marine transtensional basin the bohemian cretaceous basin czech republic the bohemian cretaceous basin combines features of a shallow water mostly 100 m epicontinental seaway formed during a global transgression with those of a tectonically active transtensional setting the basin formed under a greenhouse climate and was affected by strong axial currents dense well log coverage combined with locally high quality exposures and biostratigraphic control make it possible to examine in three dimensions the geometries of genetic sequences and interpret their controlling variables sand dominated deltas formed sequences at several spatial scales that reflect nested transgressive regressive cycles with durations ranging from tens of thousands of years to millions of years progradation directions and distances thicknesses and internal geometry of the individual sequences were controlled primarily by intrabasinal faulting basin scale changes in subsidence rate eustatic fluctuations and localized bathymetric changes due to successive filling of the basin along strike change in sediment input from different parts of the source area and a short lived uplift of a secondary clastic source provided additional controls on the sequence geometry efficient hypopycnal transport combined with redeposition of fine clastics in shallow water promoted development of steep slopes of sand dominated deltas while preventing downlap of muddy clinoforms most of the suspended load became deposited downcurrent in subhorizontal or gently dipping bottomsets long term accommodation rates were low during the early to middle turonian with minor intrabasinal faulting but became accelerated in the late turonian and early coniacian this acceleration was caused at least partly by increased subsidence rate accompanied by structural partitioning of the depocentre and partly compensated by increased sediment input indicating increased uplift rates in the western sudetic island source area this event probably reflected an increase in the regional strain rate in central europe the succession of two major flooding events in the early turonian and late early coniacian separated by a low accommodation interval in the middle turonian shows a close similarity to published estimates of long term eustatic curves however the eustatic component of accommodation rate in the bohemian late turonian and coniacian is difficult to separate from accelerated subsidence in several cases evidence for short term 100 kyr scale forced regressions independent of basinal structural activity suggests small scale eustatic falls at rates which as presently understood cannot be explained other than by a glacio eustatic mechanism

evolution of the pannonian basin system 1 tectonics the carpathian arc formed during cretaceous to miocene time by continental collision between europe and smaller continental fragments following southward and westward subduction of ocean floor during the last stages of thrusting in the outer carpathians a set of discrete basins formed behind the carpathian loop these basins are regions of middle to late miocene extension and are connected to each other and to areas of coeval shortening in the outer carpathian thrust belt by a system of strike slip faults sinistral northeast trending and dextral northwest trending sets of conjugate shears reflect overall east west extension of the intra carpathian region during middle to late miocene time palinspastic reconstruction of the basins indicates about 100 50 km of east west extension across the intra carpathian region during this time we interpret the vienna basin which is superimposed partly on the flysch nappes of the outer west carpathians as the result of thin skinned extensional tectonics above a shallow detachment surface within the crust extension of upper crustal rocks above this detachment was probably accomodated by thrusting of the outermost nappes of the west carpathians over the european platform extension of basins farther inside the carpathian loop probably involved rocks at deeper crustal levels and within the upper mantle the most internally situated basins formed by extensional processes that involved the entire lithosphere thus the depth to which extension occurred seems to be closely related to the proximity of each basin to the active thrust front in the carpathians this can be related to the geometry of the subduction zone extension within the intra carpathian basins began first in the northernmost basins and migrated southward and eastward over a ten million year period palinspastic reconstruction of the basins at three different times during the miocene 17 5 16 5 and 13 0 ma predicts eastward migration of the zone of thrusting and shortening within the carpathian mountains to accomodate the synchronous eastward and southward migration of areas of extension from these reconstructions about 120 60 km of east west shortening is predicted across the outer east carpathians from about 17 5 ma until present both predictions are in good agreement with the timing and magnitude of shortening in the carpathian thrust belt as determined directly from rocks within the belt from this we infer a close relationship for middle to late miocene extension of the intra carpathian region and middle to late miocene crustal shortening within the outer carpathians during middle and late miocene time deformation of the pannonian fragment was dominated by extensional and wrench tectonics except along a narrow zone in the outer carpathian thrust belt middle and late miocene thrusting in the carpathians is interpreted as the result of simple shear caused by relative motion between europe and the overriding pannonian fragment at the subduction boundary rather than of regional compression of lithospheric rocks at depth the initiation of extensional tectonics within the intra carpathian region in middle miocene time can be related to reorganization of major fragment boundaries of the eastern european alpine system

a model for a continental accretionary wedge developed by oblique collision the ne bohemian massif structural and metamorphic investigations of the northeastern margin of the bohemian massif indicate three main sequential devonian carboniferous tectonic events 1 devonian rifting 2 early carboniferous oblique underthrusting and formation of a continental accretionary wedge 3 eduction of the wedge and late carboniferous transpression devonian rifting of the brunia microcontinent resulted in the formation of two crustal scale boudins associated with the development of two syn rift devonian basins this extensional template strongly influenced the nature of the ensuing variscan contractional deformation early carboniferous 350 330 ma progressive highly oblique underthrusting of the two crustal boudins beneath the lugian terrane to the west generated syn deformational barrovian metamorphism and the formation of a continental accretionary wedge the wedge was further compressed by continued underthrusting of brunia which resulted in the successive vertical extrusion eduction of an upper and lower allochthon derived from the more deeply underthrust crustal boudin the eduction was terminated by a late carboniferous 330 310 ma transpressional event resulting from continued plate convergence release of mantle derived magma during late stage eduction thermally softened the transpressional zones in the more external parts of the wedge the resultant differential displacements gave rise to extensional unroofing of the internal part of the wedge

the heidelberg basin upper rhine graben germany a unique archive of quaternary sediments in central europe abstract the heidelberg basin in the german part of the northern upper rhine graben hosts one of the thickest successions of plio pleistocene sediments in central europe from reflection seismic surveys and new research boreholes it is known that pleistocene sediments amount to more than 500 m thickness the basin sediments originated both from local source areas i e the highlands along the graben shoulders and from regional source areas i e the alps although temporal hiatuses probably exist the deposits are expected to be more or less complete because this part of the upper rhine graben has undergone continuous subsidence in the past currently the heidelberg basin is under investigation by a scientific drilling project new cored boreholes have been realized at three different locations spaced 15 km from each other this concept provides complementing information and enables a detailed characterization of the predominantly fluvial deposits the project aims to develop a stratigraphic reference profile of the quaternary for this region north of the alps to understand how the sedimentation was controlled by tectonics and past climate change and to derive proxy data of environmental changes the new core material demonstrates that the heidelberg basin would be a possible key location for quaternary stratigraphy in central europe information about pleistocene periods of cold and warm climate is found within this one sediment succession in superposition the temporal resolution of the sediment succession is high due to its mid continental location it links northern and southern europe as well as western and eastern europe based on a detailed analysis of the new drill cores a new lithostratigraphy for the northern part of the upper rhine graben is developed in a first step with the mannheim formation the ludwigshafen formation the viernheim formation and the iffezheim formation four new lithostratigraphic units of the northern upper rhine graben are officially introduced furthermore a new debate about identification of basal quaternary arises from the new research boreholes whereas during the last decades petrological markers were used to define basal quaternary i e the first deposition of alpine sediments or carbonate content this definition fails in the depocentre of the basin several rock physical properties e g the natural gamma radiation and the magnetic susceptibilities reveal significant changes at the basal quaternary the driving forces of these changes have to be studied in more detail in the future

glacio seismotectonics ice sheets crustal deformation and seismicity abstract the last decade has witnessed a significant growth in our understanding of the past and continuing effects of ice sheets and glaciers on contemporary crustal deformation and seismicity this growth has been driven largely by the emergence of postglacial rebound models pgm constrained by new field observations that incorporate increasingly realistic rheological mechanical and glacial parameters in this paper we highlight some of these recent field based investigations and new pgms and examine their implications for understanding crustal deformation and seismicity during glaciation and following deglaciation the emerging glacial rebound models outlined in the paper support the view that both tectonic stresses and glacial rebound stresses are needed to explain the distribution and style of contemporary earthquake activity in former glaciated shields of eastern canada and fennoscandia however many of these models neglect important parameters such as topography lateral variations in lithospheric strength and tectonic strain built up during glaciation in glaciated mountainous terrains glacial erosion may directly modulate tectonic deformation by resetting the orogenic topography and thereby providing an additional compensatory uplift mechanism such effects are likely to be important both in tectonically active orogens and in the mountainous regions of glaciated shields in general the short term response to ice fluctuations is similar to the earth s response to fluctuations in water reservoirs with the subsequent increase or decrease in seismicity which depends on the pre existing stress state when the ice fluctuations occur on the spatial scale and magnitude of the late pleistocene glaciation and deglaciation however the viscoelastic response of the earth especially the mantle causes significant changes in crustal deformation and earthquake activity that is spatially extensive and temporally complex the regions of greatest ice thickness and the regions marginal to the late pleistocene ice sheets indicate the most dramatic evidence of earthquake faulting the mantle response to these large ice mass fluctuations and the change in mass between the oceans and land caused and continues to cause measureable crustal deformation at hundreds of kilometres from the ice margins for both tectonically active and cratonic regions palaeoseismic investigations of late pleistocene and holocene faults are an important tool in evaluating earthquake hazard the predicted response of the earth over this time however is very dependent on the model assumed for most regions far more carefully designed field observations are needed to constrain the existing rheological and ice models

neotectonic development of drainage networks in the east sudeten mountains and monitoring of recent fault displacements czech republic abstract this paper presents results of morphotectonic research carried out in order to determine the neotectonic development of the drainage network in the ne spur of the bohemian massif central europe the area studied comprises the north eastern sector of the rychlebske mts belonging to the sudeten mountains and the adjacent part of the ulovska hilly land in the sudetic foreland czech republic analysis of drainage network characteristics such as cross sections erosion rate longitudinal river profiles stream length gradient index sl and investigation of alluvial fans terraces was performed using detailed geomorphological mapping and field examination and dem data moreover a reconstructed neotectonic evolution was compared with present day fault movements obtained by fault monitoring using the tm71 deformeter the deformeter was installed directly across faults in two karst caves in the study area within the nw se striking sudetic marginal fault smf zone this zone is one of the morphologically most prominent neotectonic structures in central europe separating the sudeten mountains from the sudetic foreland morphotectonic research reveals that segments of enhanced erosion correspond well with increased sl indices changes in valley cross sections and anomalies in the longitudinal profiles the beginnings of the stretches of increased headward erosion rejuvenated erosional phase are concentrated at the foot of marginal slopes of the mountainous sector of the study area which supports the hypothesis that uplift of the mountainous sector is still expressed in its relief alluvial fans terraces of three levels recognized in the adjacent ulovska hilly land are of middle to late pleistocene age saalian 1 240 280 ka saalian 2 130 180 ka and weichselian 10 80 ka respectively they postdate the retreat of the last continental ice sheet which reached the study area in elsterian 2 400 460 ka their relative heights above the river channel are greater than terrace levels of the same age along the main nysa klodzka river the height differences attain 20 m at the highest level 1 at least 8 m at level 2 and up to 2 3 m at level 3 these discrepancies imply post saalian 1 uplift of the ulovska hilly land relative to the topographically lower nysa klodzka valley monitoring of present day tectonic movements in the studied area revealed slow micro displacements hundredths to tenths of millimetres per year the displacements have an aseismic character and the vertical component always prevails over the horizontal one the inferred compressive stress comes generally from the southern sector which would imply dextral transpression in the studied portion of the smf where the northern part is thrusting over the southern one the trend of these present day movements corresponds well with uplift of the studied area north of the smf which is also indicated by analysis of the drainage network it is concluded that in areas of low tectonic activity the detailed study of individual characteristics of the drainage network particularly their spatial relationships as well as monitoring of fault micro displacements can reveal rates and kinematics of ongoing tectonism

ongoing tectonic reactivation of the outer carpathians and its impact on the foreland results of borehole breakout measurements in poland abstract the direction of present day maximum horizontal compression shmax tectonic stress was interpreted for 62 wells in poland using the method of borehole breakout analysis of 4 arm and 6 arm dipmeter logs the study area covers complex tectonic junction of the carpathian orogen and its foreland which comprises the east european craton eec divided by the teisseyre tornquist zone ttz from the palaeozoic platform of western poland for this area frequent deviation of the shmax direction from nw se characteristic for the atlantic ridge push has been interpreted in terms of the alcapa tectonic push in the upper silesian segment of the polish outer carpathians poc nne ssw oriented shmax in the accretionary wedge differs significantly from nnw sse shmax in the autochthonous basement the above discrepancy points to uncoupled type of the suture in this segment of the poc in this scenario the alcapa push involves the nappes and is compensated in the top of the basement which is expressed by systematic shmax rotations in the accretionary wedge of the eastern malopolska segment shmax follows the trend perpendicular to the strike of nappes it is in general agreement with nne ssw oriented shmax in the autochthonous basement that also parallels the alcapa push direction similarity in stress orientation between these structural levels implies coupled suture zone in this segment of the poc further to the north alcapa push is transmitted into the foreland plate where it causes n s orientation of shmax as determined for sedimentary cover of the eec within the baltic portion of the eec further shmax rotation towards the intermediate nnw sse position suggests balance between the alcapa push and the ridge push components within the ttz common shmax rotations from n s to nw se indicate structurally controlled accommodation of the alcapa push in the palaeozoic platform of western poland mesozoic complex of the fore sudetic monocline reveals nne ssw directed shmax that differs from nw se oriented shmax in the variscan accretionary wedge here mechanical decoupling along zechstein evaporates is likely presented set of breakout data from poland shows that recent compressive reactivation of the carpathians exerts strong impact on the stress field of the foreland plate at a distance of 700 km from the suture due to this effect the fore carpathian stress domain within the north european stress province can be discriminated

short scale variations of tectonic regimes in the western european stress province north of the alps and pyrenees the data of the european part of the world stress map wsm are used to study the western european stress province north of the alps and pyrenees the study area is characterised by an almost homogeneous n 145 degrees e orientation of the maximum horizont

tectonic implications of the gps velocity field in the northern adriatic region 1 continuous and episodic gps observations between 1991 and 2004 show that adria moves independently of both stable eurasia and nubia adria moves nne at 3 4 5 mm yr increasing from n to s relative to eurasia and may be fragmenting along the gargano dubrovnik seismic zone the observed 2 3 mm yr of n s adria eurasia convergence is taken up by contraction across a narrow 70 km zone in the eastern alps and concomitant extrusion of the alpine north pannonian unit the adria central dinarides boundary is a broader collisional zone with intense 1 1 5 mm yr shortening near shore and 2 mm yr spread across the dinarides the remaining 1 2 mm yr motion e of the alps and ne of the dinarides is absorbed by the inverted contracting pannonian basin leaving no significant deformation above 0 5 mm yr in the western and northern carpathians and european platform

new terrestrial heat flow map of europe after regional paleoclimatic correction application heat flow variations with depth in europe can be explained by a model of surface temperature changes 10 c new heat flow map of europe is based on updated database of uncorrected heat flow values to which paleoclimatic correction is applied across the continent correction is depth dependent due to a diffusive thermal transfer of the surface temperature forcing of which glacial interglacial history has the largest impact it is obvious that large part of the uncorrected heat flow values in the existing heat flow databases from wells as shallow as few hundreds of meters is underestimated this explains some very low uncorrected heat flow values 20 30 mw m2 in the shields and shallow basin areas of the craton also heat flow values in other areas including orogenic belts are likely underestimated based on the uncorrected and corrected heat flow maps using 5 km 5 km grid we have calculated average heat flow values uncorrected heat flow 56 0 mw m2 sd 20 3 mw m2 vs corrected heat flow 63 2 mw m2 sd 19 6 m wm2 and heat loss for the continental part total heat loss is 928 e09 w for the uncorrected values versus corrected 1050 e09 w

timescales for migration of atmospherically derived sulphate through an alpine subalpine watershed loch vale colorado sulphur 35 a cosmogenically produced radioisotope with a short half life 87 days was measured in snowpack during 1993 1997 and at four locations within the loch vale watershed during 1995 1997 the four sites include the two main drainages in the watershed andrews creek and icy brook a small south facing catchment flowing into andrews creek andrews spring 1 and a similar north facing catchment flowing out of a scree field into icy brook spring 19 concentrations ranged from a high of almost 50 mbq l for a sample from spring 19 in june 1996 to a concentration near the detection limit for a sample from andrews creek in april 1997 sulphur 35 concentrations were normalized to sulphate as mbq mg so4 2 and were decay corrected to a julian day of 90 april 1 for each year snowpack had the highest 35s concentration with an average concentration of 53 mbq mg so4 2 concentrations in the streams were much lower even when corrected for decay relative to jd 90 the large 35s concentrations found in spring 19 were the result of increases in concentration due to sublimation and or evapotranspiration and were lower than snowpack when normalized to sulphate using 35s concentrations found in snowpack as of jd 90 as a beginning concentration the fraction of sulphate in streamflow that was derived from atmospheric deposition within the prior water year was estimated for icy brook and andrews creek the fraction of the sulphate in streamflow derived from that year s snowpack and precipitation was low prior to the beginning of the main spring melt reached a maximum during the period of maximum flow and decreased as the summer progressed a calculation of the seasonal flux indicated that about 40 of the sulphate that flowed out of the watershed was derived from atmospheric sulphate deposited during the previous year this suggests that more than half of the sulphate deposited in the watershed by atmospheric processes during the previous year was removed during the following summer thus sulphate retention in alpine watersheds like loch vale is very limited and changes in sulphate deposition should be quickly reflected in stream chemistry

the nysa morava zone an active tectonic domain with late cenozoic sedimentary grabens in the western carpathians foreland ne bohemian massif we give an interpretive review of the geological evolution of the nysa morava zone nmz a late cenozoic tectonically active region of the ne bohemian massif located at its contact with the western carpathians orogenic front this crustal domain delimited by generally nw se striking fault system is characterised by oligo miocene and plio pleistocene volcanic activity regionally anomalous weak historical and present day seismicity and increased co2 flux the nmz hosts several elongated mostly nw se trending graben like sedimentary basins upper morava basin system which are filled by more than 300 m thick succession of clastic fluvial lacustrine sediments of pliocene quaternary age based on geometric relations basin architecture coincidence of seismicity with co2 escape and sparse focal mechanism data a model is proposed which explains this active domain as a transfer zone developed between major wnw ese and nw se faults in a right lateral transpressional setting it is suggested that slow horizontal slip at these faults resulted in local permutations of the largest and medium stress directions and formation of transtensional crustal domains in the nmz moreover relation of the nmz to the alpine carpathian system and sedimentary grabens in its foreland is discussed the absence of paleogene and lower miocene deposits suggests that subsidence in the nmz was commenced later than in the european cenozoic rift system ecris which is in agreement with later thrusting in western carpathians at 17 ma the quantitative contrasts to the ecris in terms of faulting and subsidence rates are explained by the absence of lithospheric crustal thinning in the nmz

imaging a mantle plume beneath the french massif central abstract teleseismic tomography is now widely recognised as a very powerful tool for studying the velocity structure of the lithosphere asthenosphere system on both local and regional scales a prime objective is to identify velocity perturbations and to constrain their location and intensity here we use the arrival times of p waves from teleseismic events recorded by a dense network of mobile and permanent stations within the french massif central to derive a 3d p velocity model for an area of 425 km 300 km combined with knowledge of the basement geology of the area and the timing and geochemical characteristics of tertiary quaternary volcanic activity we consider that the velocity model provides unequivocal evidence for the ascent of a thermally and chemically anomalous mantle plume beneath the massif central during tertiary times our model is consistent with regional bouger gravity anomalies documented patterns of neogene recent uplift and deformation fabrics within lithosphere derived mantle xenoliths exhumed by the volcanics

brunovistulian terrane bohemian massif central europe from late proterozoic to late paleozoic a review the brunovistulian terrane represents a microcontinent of enigmatic proterozoic provenance that was located at the southern margin of baltica in the early paleozoic during the variscan orogeny it represented the lower plate at the southern margin of laurussia involved in the collision with the armorican terrane assemblage in this respect it resembles the avalonian terrane in the west and the istanbul zone in the east there is a growing evidence about the presence of a devonian back arc at the margin of the brunovistulian terrane the early variscan phase was characterized by the formation of devonian extensional basins with the within plate volcanic activity and formation of narrow segments of oceanic crust the oldest visean flysch of the rheic rhenohercynian remnant basin protivanov andelska hora and horni benesov formations forms the highest allochthonous units and contains together with slices of silurian bohemian facies clastic micas from early paleozoic crystalline rocks that are presumably derived from terranes of armorican affinity although provenance from an active brunovistulian margin cannot be fully excluded either the development of the moravo silesian late paleozoic basin was terminated by coal bearing paralic and limnic sediments the progressive carboniferous stacking of nappes and their impingement on the laurussian foreland led to crustal thickening and shortening and a number of distinct deformational and folding events the postorogenic extension led to the formation of the terminal carboniferous early permian boskovice graben located in the eastern part of the brunovistulian terrane in front of the crystalline nappes the highest allochthonous westernmost flysch units locally with the basal slices of the devonian and silurian rocks thrusted over the silesicum in the nw part of the brunovistulian terrane may share a similar tectonic position with the giessen harz nappes the silesicum represents the outermost margin of the brunovistulian terrane with many features in common with the northern phyllite zone at the avalonia armorica interface in germany

focal mechanisms of micro earthquakes in the dobra voda seismoactive area in the male karpaty mts little carpathians slovakia abstract we have analyzed 44 micro earthquakes with magnitudes between 1 2 and 3 4 which occurred in the dobra voda area slovakia in the period 2001 2009 the epicentres of the micro earthquakes form a cluster elongated in the ene wsw direction this direction coincides with the orientation of the main fault systems in the area dobra voda and brezova faults the depths of the hypocentres vary from 1 km to 14 km three different methods were used to calculate the focal mechanisms a a method using the polarities of pg and pn waves b the p wave amplitude inversion of moment tensors and c the waveform inversion of moment tensors the majority of the analyzed micro earthquakes have a left lateral strike slip focal mechanism with weak normal or reverse components the full moment tensors comprise significant non double couple non dc components the non dc components are partly numerical errors of the inversion but might be also of a physical origin the most accurate values of the non dc components are obtained from the p wave amplitude inversion for this inversion the isotropic component iso and the compensated linear vector dipole component clvd are mostly positive and well correlated this might indicate tensile faulting adopting the model of tensile faulting we estimated the mean ratio of p to s wave velocities in the focal area from the values of iso and clvd vp vs 1 5 1 6 the three different datasets of the focal mechanisms have been inverted for the present day tectonic stress in the dobra voda area the slip shear stress component criterion was applied in the stress inversion the results of the three inversions are well consistent and point to a high reliability and good accuracy of the inverted stress the orientations of the principal stresses are azimuth plunge 1 210 220 5 25 2 70 105 55 75 and 3 305 315 15 25 and the shape ratio is r 0 45 0 60 the azimuth is measured clockwise from the north and the plunge downwards from the horizontal plane the retrieved maximum compression lies along the belt of the male karpaty mts the local tectonic stress reflects complex tectonic conditions in the area the presence of tensile faulting might point to an extensional stress regime in the area

the elbe fault system in north central europe a basement controlled zone of crustal weakness abstract the elbe fault system efs is a wnw striking zone extending from the southeastern north sea to southwestern poland along the present southern margin of the north german basin and the northern margin of the sudetes mountains although details are still under debate geological and geophysical data reveal that upper crustal deformation along the elbe fault system has taken place repeatedly since late carboniferous times with changing kinematic activity in response to variation in the stress regime in late carboniferous to early permian times the elbe fault system was part of a post variscan wrench fault system and acted as the southern boundary fault during the formation of the permian basins along the trans european suture zone sensu geol mag 134 5 1997 585 the teisseyre tornquist zone ttz most probably provided the northern counterpart in a pull apart scenario at that time further strain localisation took place during late mesozoic transtension when local shear within the elbe fault system caused subsidence and basin formation along and parallel to the fault system the most intense deformation took place along the system during late cretaceous early cenozoic time when the elbe fault system responded to regional compression with up to 4 km of uplift and formation of internal flexural highs compressional deformation continued during early cenozoic time and actually may be ongoing the upper crust of the elbe fault system which itself reacted in a more or less ductile fashion is underlain by a lower crust characterised by low p wave velocities low densities and a weak rheology structural seismic and gravimetric data as well as rheology models support the assumption that a weak stress sensitive zone in the lower crust is the reason for the high mobility of the area and repeated strain localisation along the elbe fault system