the permo triassic transition in spitsbergen δ13corg chemostratigraphy fe and s geochemistry facies fauna and trace fossils new 13 c org analyses of two boundary sections between the late permian kapp starostin formation and the early triassic vardebukta formation of western spitsbergen confirm field evidence that their contact is a conformable one thus contrary to previous reports some spitsbergen sections contain a complete record of the environmental and faunal changes during the crisis interval of the end permian mass extinction no environmental deterioration is recorded in the late permian until near the end of the terminal changxingian stage whereupon the abundant siliceous sponge fauna of the kapp starostin formation disappears along with the deep burrowing fauna responsible for the zoophycus trace fossil a low diversity dysaerobic trace fossil assemblage is briefly developed before a transition to finely laminated pyritic facies immediately beneath the permo triassic boundary analysis of the s c ratios from the laminated strata suggests that free h 2 s was present in the water column euxinic conditions even in relatively nearshore settings subject to storm sandstone deposition the mass extinction crisis in spitsbergen is therefore coincident with the extensive development of oxygen poor conditions in the water column and compares closely both in timing and nature with the crisis seen in lower latitude tethyan settings however the subsequent aftermath and recovery in the boreal sections of spitsbergen was more rapid than in tethys thus a shoreface sandstone body within the dienerian stage contains an appreciable diversity of fauna by the standards of the early triassic including bryozoans calcareous algae and deep infaunal bivalves that suggests the marine ecosystem recovery began earliest in higher palaeolatitudes

late paleozoic glacial episodes in gondwanaland reflected in transgressive regressive depositional sequences in euramerica the late paleozoic glaciation of gondwanaland comprised two short episodes in the famennian i and visean ii confined to brazil and adjacent northwest africa and a long episode that started in the namurian iiia of eastern australia and bolivia argentina expanded to cover much of gondwanaland in the stephanian asselian iiib and collapsed in the early sakmarian iiic dropstones in eastern australia indicate that small ice centers lingered to the kazanian across the belt of low latitudes north of gondwanaland short ranging fossils in widespread shallow marine and paralic deposits indicate synchronous deposition of transgressive regressive sequences in different parts of euramerica these sequences correlate with glacial events in gondwanaland at three levels a four major regressions in euramerica in the famennian 1 visean 2 namurian 3 stephanian 4 and the tastubian transgression that preceded the sterlitamakian regression 5 also recorded in gondwanaland correlate with glacial episodes i ii and iiia iiib and iiic b the time interval of cyclothemic deposition in euramerica brigantian or latest visean to sterlitamakian correlates with that of glacial episode iii and c the dominant period of the euramerican cyclothems as estimated from the middle and late pennsylvanian deposits of the mid continent of north america and of the thickest known gondwanaland glacigenic sediment the earliest permian lyons group of western australia is 0 4 ma equivalent in turn to the long orbital eccentricity period of the quaternary ice age and the dominant period of fluctuation of the late miocene antarctic ice cap the three levels of correlations confirm wanless and shepard9s 1936 hypothesis that the late paleozoic cyclothems are controlled largely by sea level fluctuations related to the gondwanaland glaciation

permanent deformation caused by subduction earthquakes in northern chile earth s crust is thought to eventually rebound following an earthquake so that deformation is not permanent field analysis in the atacama desert northern chile however identifies numerous large cracks in the crust implying that the crust here has been permanently deformed by thousands of earthquakes that have occurred over the past million years

surface cracks record long term seismic segmentation of the andean margin understanding the long term patterns of great earthquake rupture along a subduction zone provides a framework for assessing modern seismic hazard however evidence that can be used to infer the size and location of past earthquakes is typically erased by erosion after a few thousand years meter scale cracks that cut the surface of coastal areas in northern chile and southern peru preserve a record of earthquakes spanning several hundred thousand years owing to the hyperarid climate of the region these cracks have been observed to form during and or shortly after strong subduction earthquakes are preserved for long time periods throughout the atacama desert demonstrate evidence for multiple episodes of reactivation and show changes in orientation over spatial scales similar to the size of earthquake segments our observations and models show that crack orientations are consistent with dynamic and static stress fi elds generated by recent earthquakes while localized structural and topographic processes infl uence some cracks the strong preferred orientation over large regions indicates that cracks are primarily formed by plate boundary scale stresses namely repeated earthquakes we invert the crack based strain data for slip along the well known iquique seismic gap segment of the margin and fi nd consistency with gravity anomaly based inferences of long term earthquake slip patterns as well as the magnitude and location of the november 2007 tocopilla earthquake we suggest that the meter scale cracks can be used to map characteristic earthquake rupture segments that persist over many seismic cycles which encourages future study of cracks and other small scale structures to better constrain the persistence of asperities in other arid tectonically active regions

progressive environmental deterioration in northwestern pangea leading to the latest permian extinction stratigraphic records from northwestern pangea provide unique insight into global processes that occurred during the latest permian extinction lpe we examined a detailed geochemical record of the festningen section spitsbergen a stepwise extinction is noted as starting with 1 loss of carbonate shelly macrofauna followed by 2 loss of siliceous sponges in conjunction with an abrupt change in ichnofabrics as well as dramatic change in the terrestrial environment and 3 final loss of all trace fossils we interpret loss of carbonate producers as related to shoaling of the lysocline in higher latitudes in relationship to building atmospheric co 2 the loss of siliceous sponges is coincident with the global lpe event and is related to onset of high loading rates of toxic metals hg as co that we suggest are derived from siberian trap eruptions the final extinction stage is coincident with redox sensitive trace metal and other proxy data that suggest onset of anoxia after the other extinction events these results show a remarkable record of progressive environmental deterioration in northwestern pangea during the extinction crises

northern europe climate variations during late holocene evidence from marine skagerrak abstract granulometric and stable oxygen isotope analyses of four sediment cores from two high accumulation areas in the skagerrak ne north sea were carried out in order to reconstruct climate fluctuations and to evaluate climate impact during the upper holocene extremely high sedimentation rates especially in the eastern skagerrak are explained by increased current activity which is responsible for the transport and deposition of high quantities of suspension load during periods of stormy zonal atmospheric circulation patterns these were most frequent during colder periods while warmer phases are characterized by calmer meridional to zonal atmospheric circulation patterns while the subatlantic climate deterioration and the subboreal climate optimum left only indistinct traces in the sediments the roman climate optimum and a colder period between ca 400 and 700 ad are well documented the following medieval warm period is characterized by a clear temperature increase of the waterbody in connection with less frequent advances of atlantic water masses into the skagerak deep and a decrease in bottom current strength a mode of sedimentation prevails similar to that of recent summer conditions suggesting short and mild winters during that period the onset of the little ice age around 1350 ad however shows an intensified bottom current circulation most probably due to amplifying westerly winds and a decrease in water temperatures in connection with more frequent advances of higher saline atlantic waters the little ice age can be divided into 3 phases a stormy zonal onset a calm meridional maximum and a stormy zonal end the stormy phases are characterized by a sedimentation mode similar to that of recent winter conditions while the little ice age maximum shows conditions comparable to exceptional cold modern winters from 1900 ad at the onset of the modern climate optimum the winter type sedimentation decreases and conditions change again to a level comparable to the medieval warm period

major features and forcing of high latitude northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation using a 110 000 year long glaciochemical series the greenland ice sheet project 2 glaciochemical series sodium potassium ammonium calcium magnesium sulfate nitrate and chloride provides a unique view of the chemistry of the atmosphere and the history of atmospheric circulation over both the high latitudes and mid low latitudes of the northern hemisphere interpretation of this record reveals a diverse array of environmental signatures that include the documentation of anthropogenically derived pollutants volcanic and biomass burning events storminess over marine surfaces continental aridity and biogenic source strength plus information related to the controls on both high and low frequency climate events of the last 110 000 years climate forcings investigated include changes in insolation of the order of the major orbital cycles that control the long term behavior of atmospheric circulation patterns through changes in ice volume sea level events such as the heinrich events massive discharges of icebergs first identified in the marine record that are found to operate on a 6100 year cycle due largely to the lagged response of ice sheets to changes in insolation and consequent glacier dynamics and rapid climate change events massive reorganizations of atmospheric circulation that are demonstrated to operate on 1450 year cycles changes in insolation and associated positive feedbacks related to ice sheets may assist in explaining favorable time periods and controls on the amplitude of massive rapid climate change events explanation for the exact timing and global synchroneity of these events is however more complicated preliminary evidence points to possible solar variability climate associations for these events and perhaps others that are embedded in our ice core derived atmospheric circulation records

persistent solar influence on north atlantic climate during the holocene surface winds and surface ocean hydrography in the subpolar north atlantic appear to have been influenced by variations in solar output through the entire holocene the evidence comes from a close correlation between inferred changes in production rates of the cosmogenic nuclides carbon 14 and beryllium 10 and centennial to millennial time scale changes in proxies of drift ice measured in deep sea sediment cores a solar forcing mechanism therefore may underlie at least the holocene segment of the north atlantic9s 1500 year cycle the surface hydrographic changes may have affected production of north atlantic deep water potentially providing an additional mechanism for amplifying the solar signals and transmitting them globally

crack formation on top of propagating reverse faults of the chuculay fault system northern chile insights from field data and numerical modelling abstract reverse faults in northern chile have formed 20 300 m high scarps that contain open fractures which occur in a zone of 20 1600 m wide two dimensional numerical models were used to explore the geometrical and mechanical parameters needed to produce extension within a bulk contractional regime all of the mechanical models show the same structure as the field a concentration of cracks predominantly at the top rather than on the forelimbs of the scarps in the field case extension begins as soon as a discrete scarp forms with progressive shortening the scarp height increases producing a broadening of the zone in extension the numerical models show that this broadening stabilizes when a maximum in the scarp height is reached to produce concentration of the extension on top of the scarps the reverse fault needs to be weak 10 the models suggest that distribution of this extensional zone depends on the cross sectional geometry of the fault and on the location of the detachment at depth the main mechanism that produces extension on the top of the reverse scarp is stretching of the topographic surface by folding of the hanging wall at the tip of the fault zone

nature and tectonic significance of co seismic structures associated with the mw 8 8 maule earthquake central southern chile forearc abstract the mw 8 8 maule earthquake on february 27 2010 affected the central southern chilean forearc of the central andes here we show the results of field investigations of surface deformation associated with this major earthquake observations were carried out within three weeks after the seismic event mostly in the central and northern part of the forearc overlying the rupture zone we provide a detailed field record of co seismic surface deformation and examine its implications on active andean tectonics surface rupture consisted primarily of extensional cracks push up structures fissures with minor lateral displacements and a few but impressive extensional geometries similar to those observed in analogical modeling of rift systems a major group of nw wnw striking fractures representing co seismic extensional deformation is found at all localities these appear to be spatially correlated to long lived basement fault zones the nw striking normal focal mechanism of the mw 6 9 aftershock occurred on march 11 demonstrates that the basement faults were reactivated by the mw 8 8 maule earthquake the co seismic surface ruptures show patterns of distributed deformation similar to those observed in mapped basement involved structures we propose that co seismic reactivation of basement structures play a fundamental role in stress release in the upper plate during large subduction earthquakes the fundamental mechanism that promotes stress relaxation is largely driven by elastic rebound of the upper plate located right above the main rupture zone

isotopic evidence for the source of ca and s in soil gypsum anhydrite and calcite in the atacama desert chile abstract the origin of pedogenic salts in the atacama desert has long been debated possible salt sources include in situ weathering at the soil site local sources such as aerosols from the adjacent pacific ocean or salt encrusted playas salars and extra local atmospheric dust to identify the origin of ca and s in atacama soil salts we determined 34 s and 87 sr 86 sr values of soil gypsum anhydrite and 87 sr 86 sr values of soil calcite along three east west trending transects our results demonstrate the strong influence of marine aerosols on soil gypsum anhydrite development in areas where marine fog penetrates inland results from an east west transect located along a breach in the coastal cordillera show that most soils within 90 km of the coast and below 1300 m in elevation are influenced by marine aerosols and that soils within 50 km and below 800 m in elevation receive 50 of ca and s from marine aerosols 34 s values 14 and 87 sr 86 sr values 0 7083 in areas where the coastal cordillera is 1200 m in elevation however coastal fog cannot penetrate inland and the contribution of marine aerosols to soils is greatly reduced most pedogenic salts from inland soils have 34 s values between 5 0 to 8 0 and 87 sr 86 sr ratios between 0 7070 and 0 7076 these values are similar to average 34 s and 87 sr 86 sr values of salts from local streams lakes and salars 5 4 2 34 s and 0 70749 0 00045 87 sr 86 sr in the andes and atacama suggesting extensive eolian reworking of salar salts onto the surrounding landscape ultimately salar salts are precipitated from evaporated ground water which has acquired its dissolved solutes from water rock interactions both high and low temperature along flowpaths from recharge areas in the andes therefore the main source for ca and s in gypsum anhydrite in non coastal soils is indirect and involves bedrock alteration not surficially on the hyperarid landscape but in the subsurface by ground water followed by eolian redistribution of ground water derived salar salts to soils the spatial distribution of high grade nitrate deposits appears to correspond with areas that receive the lowest fluxes of local marine and salar salt supporting arguments for tropospheric nitrogen as the main source for soil nitrate

ultra shallow marine anoxia in an early triassic shallow marine clastic ramp spitsbergen and the suppression of benthic radiation lower triassic marine strata in spitsbergen accumulated on a mid to high latitude ramp in which high energy foreshore and shoreface facies passed offshore into sheet sandstones of probable hyperpycnite origin more distal facies include siltstones shales and dolomitic limestones carbon isotope chemostratigraphy comparison allows improved age dating of the boreal sections and shows a significant hiatus in the upper spathian two major deepening events in earliest griesbachian and late smithian time are separated by shallowing upwards trends that culminated in the dienerian and spathian substages the redox record revealed by changes in bioturbation palaeoecology pyrite framboid content and trace metal concentrations shows anoxic phases alternating with intervals of better ventilation only dienerian early smithian time witnessed persistent oxygenation that was sufficient to support a diverse benthic community the most intensely anoxic usually euxinic conditions are best developed in offshore settings but at times euxinia also developed in upper offshore settings where it is even recorded in hyperpycnite and storm origin sandstone beds an extraordinary facet of spitsbergen s record the euxinic phases do not track relative water depth changes for example the continuous shallowing upwards from the griesbachian to lower dienerian was witness to several euxinic phases separated by intervals of more oxic bioturbated sediments it is likely that the euxinia was controlled by climatic oscillations rather than intra basinal factors it remains to be seen if all the anoxic phases found in spitsbergen are seen elsewhere although the wide spread of anoxic facies in the smithian spathian boundary interval is clearly a global event

aeolian sediment in raised bog deposits halland sw sweden a new proxy record of holocene winter storminess variation in southern scandinavia cores of peat taken from two raised bogs in the near coastal part of halland sw sweden were examined for their content of wind transported clastic material the boarps mosse core has a length of 262 cm and covers the last 2850 years age model based on three radiocarbon dates while the hyltemossen core has a length of 347 cm and records the last 7000 years age model based on eight radiocarbon dates the peat contains aeolian quartz silt and sand from trace amount to more than 10 weight of the dry peat sample and the grain size composition of the minerogenic sediment indicates that the material is composed of both far travelled dust and local wind eroded silt and sand grains larger than 0 2mm are present in many intervals and probably record niveo aeolian transport in connection with severe snowstorms a systematic count of quartz grains between 0 2 0 35mm and larger than 0 35mm was carried out to determine variations in aeolian sand influx asi and winter wind climate with time the boarps m

coseismic extension from surface cracks reopened by the 2014 pisagua northern chile earthquake sequence the a d 2014 pisagua earthquake sequence reactivated ancient surface cracks along the entire rupture length in the northern chilean forearc these subtle brittle strain features that are 50 km above the subduction zone interface in the hyperarid atacama desert record deformation from the single earthquake sequence in this study we document how ancient cracks formed during thousands of plate boundary earthquake cycles were reopened during the 2014 earthquake sequence we show that crack orientations along the rupture length reflect deformation from the m w 8 1 mainshock and from an m w 7 7 aftershock 100 km to the south as documented by displacements calculated from continuous geodetic observations we suggest that cracks form during the passage of surface waves and repeated opening and closing enhance crack aperture the orientation and opening of the oldest cracks in the forearc are indicative of the modal or most common rupture area of major megathrust earthquakes in the region while the long term preservation of cracks may be limited to northern chile similar features likely form during strong earthquakes at other subduction zones and represent permanent forearc deformation

slip distribution of the 2014 mw 8 1 pisagua northern chile earthquake sequence estimated from coseismic fore arc surface cracks the 2014 mw 8 1 iquique pisagua chile earthquake sequence ruptured a segment of the nazca south america subduction zone that last hosted a great earthquake in 1877 the sequence opened 3 700 surface cracks in the fore arc of decameter scale length and millimeter to centimeter scale aperture we use the strikes of measured cracks inferred to be perpendicular to coseismically applied tension to estimate the slip distribution of the mainshock and largest aftershock the slip estimates are compatible with those based on seismic geodetic and tsunami data indicating that geologic observations can also place quantitative constraints on rupture properties the earthquake sequence ruptured between two asperities inferred from a regional scale distribution of surface cracks interpreted to represent a modal or most common rupture scenario for the northern chile subduction zone we suggest that past events including the 1877 earthquake broke the 2014 pisagua source area together with adjacent sections in a through going rupture

itrax description and evaluation of a new multi function x ray core scanner a new automated multi function core scanning instrument named itrax has been developed that records optical radiographic and elemental variations from sediment half cores up to 1 8 m long at a resolution as fine as 200 m an intense micro x ray beam focused through a flat capillary waveguide is used to irradiate samples to enable both x radiography and x ray fluorescence xrf analysis data are acquired incrementally by advancing a split core via a programmable stepped motor drive through the flat rectangular section x ray beam traditional xrf determination of element composition in sediments provides high quality data but it takes a considerable time and normally consumes gram quantities of material that is often only available in limited quantities the itrax core scanner non destructively collects optical and x radiographic images and provides high resolution elemental profiles that are invaluable for guiding sample selection for further destructive detailed sampling this paper presents a description of the construction characteristics and capabilities of the itrax system high resolution itrax data obtained from sediment cores are also presented and compared with results from traditional wavelength dispersive xrf analysis at lower resolution finally some recent technical developments linked to the second generation itrax are presented

a shift towards wetter and windier conditions in southern sweden around the prominent solar minimum 2750 cal a bp a variety of palaeoclimatic records show a shift towards cooler wetter and windier conditions in europe around 2800 cal a bp the shift broadly coincides with an increase of the atmospheric c 14 concentration suggesting a connection between solar activity variations and climate change here we investigate a peat record from undarsmosse in southern sweden in a previous study based on a low resolution chronology this record showed increased aeolian sand influx and sphagnum spore content around 2800 cal a bp indicating high storm activity and wetter conditions we applied the c 14 wiggle match dating technique on the same record to construct a robust chronology to evaluate the temporal relationship to solar forcing in addition we performed plant macrofossil analysis to determine local vegetation changes based on the new chronology a shift to a sphagnum dominated bog representing wetter conditions and the onset of a period with increased storminess occurred around 2700 cal a bp these changes are within age model uncertainties synchronous with climatic changes inferred from other sites in europe suggesting a shift in the larger scale atmospheric circulation possibly triggered by decreased solar activity less

earthquake induced chains of geologic hazards patterns mechanisms and impacts large earthquakes initiate chains of surface processes that last much longer than the brief moments of strong shaking most moderate and large magnitude earthquakes trigger landslides ranging from small failures in the soil cover to massive devastating rock avalanches some landslides dam rivers and impound lakes which can collapse days to centuries later and flood mountain valleys for hundreds of kilometers downstream landslide deposits on slopes can remobilize during heavy rainfall and evolve into debris flows cracks and fractures can form and widen on mountain crests and flanks promoting increased frequency of landslides that lasts for decades more gradual impacts involve the flushing of excess debris downstream by rivers which can generate bank erosion and floodplain accretion as well as channel avulsions that affect flooding frequency settlements ecosystems and infrastructure ultimately earthquake sequences and their geomorphic consequences alter mountain landscapes over both human and geologic time scales two recent events have attracted intense research into earthquake induced landslides and their consequences the magnitude m 7 6 chi chi taiwan earthquake of 1999 and the m 7 9 wenchuan china earthquake of 2008 using data and insights from these and several other earthquakes we analyze how such events initiate processes that change mountain landscapes highlight research gaps and suggest pathways toward a more complete understanding of the seismic effects on the earth s surface

reconstructed centennial variability of late holocene storminess from cors fochno wales uk future anthropogenic climate forcing is forecast to increase storm intensity and frequency over northern europe due to a northward shift of the storm tracks and a positive north atlantic oscillation however understanding the significance of such a change is difficult because the natural variability of storminess beyond the range of instrumental data is poorly known here we present a decadal resolution record of storminess covering the late holocene based on a 4 m long core taken from the peat bog of cors fochno in mid wales uk storminess is indicated by variations in the minerogenic content as well as bromine deposited from sea spray twelve episodes of enhanced storm activity are identified during the last 4 5 cal ka bp although the age model gives some uncertainty in the timings it appears that storminess increased at the onset and close of north atlantic cold events associated with oceanic changes with reduced storm activity at their peak cors fochno is strongly influenced by westerly moving storms so it is suggested that the patterns were due to variations in the intensity of westerly airflow and atmospheric circulation during times when the latitudinal temperature gradient was steepened

ancient copper and lead pollution records from a raised bog complex in central wales uk this paper presents records of metal deposition as preserved by a peatland which has accumulated in the lowland coastal zone at borth near aberystwyth ceredigion mid wales u k the research objective was to explore the origins and history of metal mining and or metallurgy by reconstructing a geochemical record of copper lead and zinc pollution for the last four millennia two cores were extracted from borth bog one from the raised ombrotrophic part of the bog and another from a minerotrophic part of borth bog close to the ancient copper workings at llancynfelin although peat stratigraphy and nutrient status have influenced the geochemical record the results suggest that an early phase of copper and lead pollution occurred at llancynfelin whilst lead enrichment occurred in the peat core taken close to the centre of borth bog during the bronze age and the roman occupation therefore the origins of copper and lead mining and metallurgy possibly extend back to the bronze age in central wales no record of historical pollution exists at either site the results of this study also provide further evidence that lead and copper are immobile in ombrotrophic peat and that pollution records can be elucidated from minerotrophic peat zinc however may have suffered from post depositional mobility

post glacial sedimentary evolution of a microtidal estuary dyfi estuary west wales u k abstract the dyfi estuary is a microtidal estuary located on the shores of cardigan bay on the west coast of wales the inundation of the post glacial sea level rise has produced transgressive muddy or silly late glacial and post glacial unconsolidated sediments in the pre existing valley these sediments are complicated by sea level fluctuations and changes in tidal range modern facies distribution patterns and sedimentary characteristics extensive core data and chronostratigraphic cross sections provide a detailed history of the post glacial sedimentary evolution of the dyfi estuary the post glacial estuarine evolution of the dyfi estuary has been subdivided into four phases phase 1 15 000 10 000 yr bp shallow water high energy fluvially dominated facies phase 2 10 000 6 000 yr bp deep water low energy estuarine dominated facies phase 3 6 000 3 500 yr bp shallow water high energy tidally dominated facies phase 4 3 500 yr bp present shallow water low energy estuarine salt marshes dominated facies

persistent positive north atlantic oscillation mode dominated the medieval climate anomaly the medieval climate anomaly mca was the most recent pre industrial era warm interval of european climate yet its driving mechanisms remain uncertain we present here a 947 year long multidecadal north atlantic oscillation nao reconstruction and find a persistent positive nao during the mca supplementary reconstructions based on climate model results and proxy data indicate a clear shift to weaker nao conditions into the little ice age lia globally distributed proxy data suggest that this nao shift is one aspect of a global mca lia climate transition that probably was coupled to prevailing la nina like conditions amplified by an intensified atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the mca

the geodetic signature of the earthquake cycle at subduction zones model constraints on the deep processes recent megathrust events in tohoku japan maule chile and sumatra indonesia were well recorded much has been learned about the dominant physical processes in megathrust zones partial locking of the plate interface detailed coseismic slip relocking afterslip viscoelastic mantle relaxation and interseismic loading these and older observations show complex spatial and temporal patterns in crustal deformation and displacement and significant differences among different margins a key question is whether these differences reflect variations in the underlying processes like differences in locking or the margin geometry or whether they are a consequence of the stage in the earthquake cycle of the margin quantitative models can connect these plate boundary processes to surficial and far field observations we use relatively simple cyclic geodynamic models to isolate the first order geodetic signature of the megathrust cycle coseismic and subsequent slip on the subduction interface is dynamically and consistently driven a review of global preseismic coseismic and postseismic geodetic observations and of their fit to the model predictions indicates that similar physical processes are active at different margins most of the observed variability between the individual margins appears to be controlled by their different stages in the earthquake cycle the modeling results also provide a possible explanation for observations of tensile faulting aftershocks and tensile cracking of the overriding plate which are puzzling in the context of convergence compression from the inversion of our synthetic gnss velocities we find that geodetic observations may incorrectly suggest weak locking of some margins for example the west aleutian margin

stress evolution during the megathrust earthquake cycle and its role in triggering extensional deformation in subduction zones abstract great moment magnitude mw 8 0 and larger subduction megathrust earthquakes are commonly followed by increased rates of normal faulting seismicity extensional activity within the subducting slab is amplified when megathrust slip propagates close to the trench and forearc extension is triggered by the largest magnitude mw 8 5 and larger events to better understand these observations we develop an earthquake cycle model with a realistic slab geometry and stresses that are in balance with plate interface slip and bulk viscous relaxation the modeled stresses represent perturbations to the long term background tectonic stress field the steady state inter seismic earthquake cycle stresses are compressive and their magnitudes depend on the interface locking configuration from 25 mpa for a fully locked seismogenic zone to 5 mpa for discrete asperities on an otherwise unlocked plate interface the co seismic slip and corresponding co seismic stress changes are similar in these models independent of the locking configuration the co seismic stress change magnitudes are up to 5 mpa this implies that the earthquake cycle stresses after the mainshock would still be compressive in the case of a continuous seismogenic zone but would be widely reset to zero in the case of discrete asperities models with co seismic slip confined to shallow depths produce tensional stress changes in the slab and the forearc near the trench whereas events rupturing the base of the seismogenic zone produce tensional stress changes limited to region immediately surrounding the rupture the locations of normal faulting aftershocks generally correlate well with the tensional co seismic stress changes greater than 1 mpa following the mainshock rapid afterslip occurring down dip of the megathrust rupture expands the region of relative extension but reduces its magnitude and does not promote additional normal faulting events bulk viscous relaxation does little to the state of stress in the elastic parts of the model continued plate convergence across a re locked interface returns the system to the pre earthquake state of compression

gradual unlocking of plate boundary controlled initiation of the 2014 iquique earthquake a long foreshock series unlocked the south american plate boundary until eventually initiating the m 8 1 iquique chile earthquake two groups publishing in this issue of nature analyse the seismic context of the iquique earthquake that occurred off the coast of northern chile on 1 april 2014 in a seismic zone that had been quiescent since a significant event in 1877 gavin hayes et al identify areas of remaining or elevated earthquake hazard along the megathrust fault in the region and conclude that the 2014 iquique event was not the earthquake that had been anticipated given that significant sections of the northern chile subduction zone have not ruptured in almost 150 years they suggest that it is likely that future megathrust earthquakes will occur south and potentially north of the 2014 iquique sequence bernd schurr et al show that the april 2014 earthquake broke a central fraction of the northern chile seismic gap the last major segment of the south american plate boundary that had yet to rupture in the past century from july 2013 up to the april earthquake they identify three seismic clusters along this part of the plate boundary each lasting a few weeks with earthquakes of increasing peak magnitudes they conclude that these seismic clusters and their slip transients reflect a gradual weakening of the central part of the seismic gap that was instrumental in initiating the final failure on 1 april 2014 northern chile was struck by a magnitude 8 1 earthquake following a protracted series of foreshocks the integrated plate boundary observatory chile monitored the entire sequence of events providing unprecedented resolution of the build up to the main event and its rupture evolution here we show that the iquique earthquake broke a central fraction of the so called northern chile seismic gap the last major segment of the south american plate boundary that had not ruptured in the past century1 2 since july 2013 three seismic clusters each lasting a few weeks hit this part of the plate boundary with earthquakes of increasing peak magnitudes starting with the second cluster geodetic observations show surface displacements that can be associated with slip on the plate interface these seismic clusters and their slip transients occupied a part of the plate interface that was transitional between a fully locked and a creeping portion leading up to this earthquake the b value of the foreshocks gradually decreased during the years before the earthquake reversing its trend a few days before the iquique earthquake the mainshock finally nucleated at the northern end of the foreshock area which skirted a locked patch and ruptured mainly downdip towards higher locking peak slip was attained immediately downdip of the foreshock region and at the margin of the locked patch we conclude that gradual weakening of the central part of the seismic gap accentuated by the foreshock activity in a zone of intermediate seismic coupling was instrumental in causing final failure distinguishing the iquique earthquake from most great earthquakes finally only one third of the gap was broken and the remaining locked segments now pose a significant increased seismic hazard with the potential to host an earthquake with a magnitude of 8 5

stratigraphic sedimentology of tertiary cool water limestones se australia abstract mid tertiary limestones exposed as sea cliffs along the coast of victoria southeastern australia accumulated on the inner part of a cool water distally steepened ramp or open shelf all sediments are bioclastic dominated by particles of bryozoans echinoderms benthic foraminifers brachiopods and molluscs shallow grainy facies also contain coralline algae quartz and glauconite while deep muddy facies include ahermatypic corals ostracodes sponge spicules planktic foraminifers and terrigenous clays the fundamental depositional unit is a meter scale subtidal cycle or rhythm shallow shelf cycles are shallowing upward cross bedded or burrowed grainstone capped by a marine cemented hardground or quartz granule lag while mid shelf cycles are upward coarsening and thickening proximal to distal tempestites such cycles are interpreted to form by eustatically driven climatically controlled oscillations in abrasion wave base and swell wave base deep shelf rhythms are interbedded bryozoan marl and calcareous clay thought to be generated by climatically influenced fluctuations in carbonate productivity and terrigenous dilution lowstand systems tracts are depositional or erosional sequence boundaries are complex multigeneration mostly submarine surfaces condensed cycle boundaries that can be traced offshore into multiple omission surfaces and conformable contacts basinward facies shifts result in deposition of condensed lowstand wedges of stacked shallowing upward grainstone cycles transgressive systems tracts are thick bryozoan marl calcareous clay rhythms associated with facies backstepping and abrupt deepening such rhythmites typically grade stratigraphically upward into tempestite cycles highstand systems tracts are highly progradational wedge shaped rock bodies of shallowing upward grainy cycles these limestones provide the critical link of stratigraphy between modern cool water carbonate shelf deposits and the older mesozoic and paleozoic record of similar sediments

mixed siliciclastic and carbonate sediments a proposed first order textural and compositional classification sediments that are composed of mixtures of siliciclastic and carbonate material occur in both the modern and the ancient to date there is no commonly used classification of this type of sediment a descriptive first order classification system is proposed here that is applicable to most mixed sediments and their lithified equivalents the sediments are composed of four components 1 siliciclastic sand sand sized quartz feldspar etc 2 mud mixtures of silt and clay 3 allochems carbonate grains such as peloids ooids bioclasts and intraclasts 20 m in size and carbonate mud or micrite 20 m in size these components define a tetrahedra whose subdivision produces eight general classes of mixed sediment the name of a class reflects both the dominant grain type and the most abundant antithetic component for example a rock that contains greater than 50 siliciclastic material of which most is sand sized and subordinate allochems is termed an allochemic sandstone other rock names include micritic sandstone allochemic and micritic mudstone sandy or muddy allochem limestone and sandy or muddy micrite prefixes and adjectives can be added to these terms to include dolomitic sediments conglomeratic textures and biogenic constituents

trench parallel shortening in the northern chilean forearc tectonic and climatic implications in the central andes the frictional coupling between south america and the subducting nazca plate occurs beneath the coastal cordillera of northern chile one of the most distinctive characteristics of the coastal cordillera is a suite of ew topographic scarps located between 19 and 21 6 s latitude these scarps are associated with predominantly south dipping reverse faults that have almost pure dip slip and produce shortening parallel to the plate boundary limited geochronology as well as more regional studies indicate that the scarps formed during the late miocene and early pliocene though some show activity extending into the quaternary in several areas the scarps dammed local drainages producing internally drained basins that accumulated evaporites this relationship indicates that the coastal cordillera was probably moister during the late miocene and pliocene than it is today and also indicates that the coastal cordillera has been significantly uplifted or that the coastal escarpment of northern chile has advanced significantly eastward since the pliocene the limited latitudinal extent of the ew scarps and their location symmetrically about the axis of topographic and wadati benioff zone symmetry suggest that they owe their origin to the concave seaward shape of the continental margin due to prior formation of the bolivian orocline

magnitude and frequency of extra tropical north atlantic cyclones a chronology from cliff top storm deposits cliff top storm deposits ctsds are known to occur on cliffs at elevations of up to 50 m above sea level at exposed sites on the deep water coasts of the british isles eye witness accounts and time series field mapping of ctsds demonstrate their formation over the historical period and their continued modification during major storms with ctsds burying a range of modern human derived debris older deposits show surface lichen growth and weathering effects that relate to the relative age of ctsds over longer time spans buried sand and peat deposits provide dates on phases of ctsd emplacement and mobilisation and so provide an indication of the frequency and timing of the most severe storms two adjacent sites in shetland provide a combination of 14c dates on peat buried beneath storm deposited boulders 14c dates on marine shells buried inside ctsd boulder ridges and optically stimulated luminescence osl ages on sands intercalated with storm derived boulders although the precision is low this evidence identifies phases of exceptional storm activity spanning approximately 400 550 700 1050 1300 1900 and since 1950 ad by the very nature of cliff top erosion and deposition these records are fragmentary yet the timeline of major storms recorded in the shetland cliffs matches fairly well with the more general record of storminess in the north atlantic derived from the sea salt record in the gisp2 ice core as such ctsds represent an overlooked archive of storm sedimentation with the potential to elucidate local storm chronologies as well as informing debate surrounding the palaeo tempestology and impact of major cyclones and hurricanes

solar cycle effects on modes of low frequency circulation variability 1 modes of low frequency variability in the 500 hpa heights in the northern hemisphere are investigated separately by means of rotated principal component analysis for low moderate and high solar activity the study is based on monthly values from 54 extended winter seasons december to march 1950 2003 the modes identified correspond well with the patterns described in the comprehensive studies of the low frequency circulation variability all the modes exhibit variations in their spatial extent position of action centers and intensity in response to the solar activity two of the modes disappear under a particular phase of the solar cycle the east pacific pattern is absent under solar minima whereas the tropical north american pattern disappears under solar maxima under the high solar activity the north atlantic oscillation nao tends to split into two modes one of which resembles the original nao shifted to the west while the other consists of a wave train centered over the mediterranean and reaching to central asia under a high solar activity zonal modes tend to be more intensive whereas the meridionally oriented modes tend to be less active a general tendency is that under solar maxima the modes are more zonal their teleconnections span longer distances and their action centers occupy larger areas the one point correlation maps for the action centers of the modes indicate that the changes in the appearance of the modes can be attributed to two major mechanisms 1 autocorrelation structures change between different phases of the solar cycle and 2 the weight intensity of the autocorrelation structures with which they operate is changing which results in geographical shifts of the modes

active faulting in northern chile ramp stacking and lateral decoupling along a subduction plate boundary two large features parallel to the coastline of northern chile have long been suspected to be the sites of young or active deformation 1 the 700 km long coastal scarp with average height above sea level of about 1000 m 2 the atacama fault zone that stretches linearly for about 1100 km at an average distance of 30 50 km from the coastline new field observations combined with extensive analysis of aerial photographs demonstrate that both the coastal scarp and the atacama fault are zones of quaternary and current fault activity little degraded surface breaks observed in the field indicate that these fault zones have recently generated large earthquakes m 7 8 normal fault offsets observed in marine terraces in the coastal scarp at mejillones peninsula require tectonic extension roughly orthogonal to the compressional plate boundary strike slip offsets of drainage observed along the salar del carmen and cerro moreno faults atacama fault system imply left lateral displacements nearly parallel to the plate boundary the left lateral movement observed along the atacama fault zone may be a local consequence of e w extension along the coastal scarp but if also found everywhere along strike left lateral decoupling along the atacama fault zone would be in contradiction with the right lateral component of nazca south america motion predicted by models of present plate kinematics clockwise rotation with left lateral slicing of the andean orogen south of the arica bend is one way to resolve this contradiction the coastal scarp and the atacama fault zone are the most prominent features with clear traces of activity within the leading edge of continental south america the great length and parallelism of these features with the subduction zone suggest that they may interact with the subduction interface at depth we interpret the coastal scarp to be a west dipping normal fault or flexure and propose that it is located over an east dipping ramp stack at the subduction interface the similar flexure at the western edge of the altiplano may have the same origin ramp stacking along the subduction zone a mechanism disregarded so far may be an important thickening process in the andes and perhaps the basic cause of the uplift of the altiplano

late palaeozoic evolution of the north atlantic margin of pangea abstract eleven palaeogeographic maps spanning the earliest carboniferous tournaisian to late permian kazanian have been constructed for the northern north atlantic based on available onshore and offshore data each palaeogeographic map corresponds to an epoch i e 4 17 ma there are no reconstructions of the serpukhovian and tatarian and the kungurian ufimian are treated as one the palaeogeographic reconstructions outline a change in the overall depositional environment of the barents sea north greenland area from huge humid flood plains in the early carboniferous over shallow warm seas in the mid carboniferous to mid permian to cooler and possibly deeper marine environments in the late permian in east greenland non marine conditions occurred during the entire carboniferous and following a prolonged early permian hiatus warm water carbonates were deposited during the late permian the changes reflect large scale shifts in palaeoclimatic and subsidence patterns related to the northward drift of the area and ongoing rifting in the region

permian ice volume and palaeoclimate history oxygen isotope proxies revisited abstract a high resolution oxygen isotope record based on 356 measurements of conodont apatite from several low latitudinal sections in south china usa and iran was composed in order to unravel permian palaeotemperature and ice volume history the conodont apatite 18 o record is compared to published brachiopod calcite 18 o records brachiopods and conodonts from different palaeocontinents show significantly different 18 o values suggesting differences in local climatic conditions e g evaporation precipitation ratio as a consequence secular changes in palaeotemperature and oxygen isotope composition of permian sea water cannot be reconstructed from records combined from different areas but have to be based on records from a specific area oxygen isotope analyses of different conodont taxa suggest that streptognathodus and hindeodus lived in near surface seawater and recorded surface water temperature whereas the habitat of gondolellid genera was variable depending on sea level with both near surface and deeper waters as potential life habitat the oxygen isotope record measured on conodonts from south china exhibits relative high values between 22 and 23 vsmow during the glaciated early permian translating into warm seawater temperature between 26 and 30 c assuming that the late palaeozoic ice volumes were comparable to the pleistocene glacial maxima in contrast to the earlier view that the late palaeozoic ice age lpia terminated in the late sakmarian the south china conodont apatite oxygen isotope record suggests waning of the ice sheets in the kungurian ice melting is indicated by a pronounced decrease in 18 o of 2 vsmow which is interpreted as reflecting the combined effect of climatic warming and glacial ice melting significant temperature fluctuations 4 c warming succeeded by 6 to 8 c cooling are observed during the guadalupian lopingian transition interpreted as combined climate changes induced by emeishan volcanism and changes in habitat depth of gondolellid conodonts oxygen isotope values increase to 22 vsmow in the changhsingian which suggests climate cooling and clarkina moving to deeper waters because of the changhsingian sea level rise across the permian triassic boundary 18 o values decrease from 22 to 19 vsmow parallel to the significant negative carbon isotope excursion and the eruption of the siberian traps the latter is pointing to a cause effect relationship as a consequence of the massive release of volcanic greenhouse gases derived from the siberian volcanism and related processes

pervasive cracking of the northern chilean coastal cordillera new evidence for forearc extension despite convergence across the strongly coupled seismogenic interface between the south american and nazca plates the dominant neotectonic signature in the forearc of northern chile is arc normal extension we have used 1 m resolution ikonos satellite imagery to map nearly 37 000 cracks over an area of 500 km2 near the salar grande 21 s these features which are best preserved in a ubiquitous gypcrete surface layer have both nontectonic and tectonic origins however their strong preferred orientation perpendicular to the plate convergence vector suggests that the majority owe their formation to approximate east west extension associated with plate boundary processes such as interseismic loading coseismic and postseismic strain and long term instability resulting from subduction erosion similar structures were formed during or shortly after the 1995 mw 8 0 earthquake near the city of antofagasta south of salar grande and in conjunction with the 2001 mw 8 2 8 4 arequipa peru event cracks such as these may form in other forearcs but remain largely unexposed because of vegetative cover or marked fluvial erosion factors that are absent in northern chile as a result of its hyperarid climate

co seismic slip from the 1995 july 30 mw 8 1 antofagasta chile earthquake as constrained by insar and gps observations summary we analyse radar interferometric and gps observations of the displacement field from the 1995 july 30 mw 8 1 antofagasta chile earthquake and invert for the distribution of slip along the co seismic fault plane using a fixed fault geometry we compare the use of singular value decomposition and constrained linear inversion to invert for the slip distribution and find that the latter approach is better resolved and more physically reasonable separate inversions using only gps data only insar data from descending orbits and insar data from both ascending and descending orbits without the gps data illustrate the complimentary nature of gps and the presently available insar data the gps data resolve slip near gps benchmarks well while the insar provides greater spatial sampling the combination of ascending and descending insar data contributes greatly to the ability of insar to resolve the slip model thereby emphasizing the need to acquire this data for future earthquakes the rake distribution of slip and seismic moment of our preferred model are generally consistent with previous seismic and geodetic inversions although significant differences do exist gps data projected in the radar line of sight los and corresponding insar pixels have a root mean square rms difference of about 3 cm comparison of our predictions of vertical displacement and observed uplift from corraline algae have an rms of 10 cm our inversion and previous results reveal that the location of slip might be influenced by the 1987 mw 7 5 event our analysis further reveals that the 1995 slip distribution was affected by a 1988 mw 7 2 event and might have influenced a 1998 mw 7 0 earthquake that occurred downdip of the 1995 rupture our slip inversion reveals a potential change in mechanism in the southern portion of the rupture consistent with seismic results predictions of the satellite los displacement from a seismic inversion and a joint seismic gps inversion do not compare favourably with the insar observations

a mid permian chert event widespread deposition of biogenic siliceous sediments in coastal island arc and oceanic basins abstract radiolarian and conodont of permian siliceous rocks from twenty three areas in teh the circum pacific and mediterranean regions reveal a widespread permian chert event during the middle leonardian to wordian radiolarian and or sponge spicule rich siliceous sediments accumulated beneath high productivity zones in coastal island arc and oceanic basins most of these deposits now crop out in fault bounded accreted terranes biogenic siliceous sediments did not accumulate in terranes lying beneath infertile waters including the marine sequences in terranes of northern and central alaska the permian chert event is coeval with major phosphorite deposition along the western margin of pangea phosphoria formation and related deposits a well known analogue for this event is middle miocene deposition of biogenic siliceous sediments beneath high productivity zones in many parts of the pacific and concurrent deposition of phosphatic as well as siliceous sediments in basins along the coast of california interrelated factors associated with both the miocene and permian depositional events include plate reorientations small sea level rises and cool polar waters

variability of the north atlantic oscillation over the past 5 200 years the north atlantic oscillation influences climate in the arctic region and northern europe reconstructions of circulation patterns associated with the north atlantic oscillation from a 5 200 year long lake sediment record suggest that the atmospheric circulation responded to significant transitions in northern hemisphere climate

holocene periodicity in north atlantic climate and deep ocean flow south of iceland climate fluctuations during the past millennium are relatively well documented1 on a longer timescale there is growing evidence of millennial scale variability of holocene climate at periodicities of 2 500 and 950 years possibly caused by changes in solar flux 2 3 and 1 500 years maybe related to an internal oscillation of the climate system 4 5 6 but the involvement of deep water masses in these holocene climate changes has yet to be established here we use sediment grain size data from the iceland basin to reconstruct past changes in the speed of deep water flow the study site is under the influence of iceland scotland overflow water isow the flow of which is an important component of the thermohaline circulation that modulates european climate flow changes coincide with some known climate events the little ice age and the mediaeval warm period and extend over the entire holocene epoch with aquasi periodicity of 1 500 years the grain size data indicate afaster isow flow when the climate of northern europe is warmer however a second mode of operation is observed in the early holocene when warm climate intervals are associated with slower isow flow at that time the melting remnant of land based glacial age ice may have provided a sufficient source of fresh water to the ocean to reduce isow flow south of iceland

reconnaissance of historic post ad 1000 high energy deposits along the atlantic coasts of southwest britain ireland and brittany france abstract sand and gravel deposits from the atlantic coasts of southwest britain brittany and western ireland are identified as potential indicators of historic post ad 1000 ocean sourced high energy events such as storm surges and tsunami this is an important historic period as it includes the climatic perturbations of the medieval warm period and the little ice age and also seismogenic events such as the lisbon tsunami of 1755 ten new sites are identified from various coastal settings and dated using eight new radiocarbon dates alongside previously published data generally sites do not appear to record multiple high energy events suggesting that either only the most extreme and or recent events are registered a number of radiocarbon dates from marine shell yield modern ages when corrected for the marine reservoir effect rather than necessarily indicating recent deposition this may reflect a poor understanding of terrestrial carbon input into coastal and estuarine waters and the practice of applying broad regional r values at the local scale two groupings of radiocarbon dates are recognised a medieval group and a post medieval group which might reflect events within known climatic perturbations and or tsunami occurrences these events may include the lucia flood of 1287 the all saint s day flood of 1570 the 1607 flood the great storm of 1703 and the lisbon tsunami some older pre ad 1000 deposits indicate the potential to construct frequency magnitude records of high energy events throughout the holocene data presented here support the view that salt marshes within the bristol channel and severn estuary were completely eroded away early in the 17th century

atmospheric circulation variability in the north atlantic european area since the mid seventeenth century based on monthly mean sea level pressure grids objectively reconstructed by luterbacher et al variations of dynamical modes of the atmospheric circulation for january and july are described by novel indices for running 31 year periods between 1659 and 1999 these indices reflect the continuous evolution of the atmospheric circulation not only with regard to frequency changes of major dynamical modes but also in terms of internal changes within each mode concerning both dynamic vorticity intensity and climatic properties central european temperature and precipitation during occurrence of each mode respectively results indicate the great importance of within mode variations the zonal circulation mode in january varying in frequency with long term cycles primarily changed its dynamic and climatic properties towards higher indices during the transition from the little ice age to modern conditions between 1800 and 1930 within the russian high mode of january a change in preference from easterly to westerly patterns above central europe occurred around 1850 for july a striking frequency maximum of the westerly mode at the end of the eighteenth century coincided with a period of marked summer warmth in central europe due to negative positive deviations in vorticity temperature during occurrence of this mode the long term evolution in july indicates a general increase of anticyclonic conditions strengthening during the last 50 years towards a unique phenomenon within the last centuries the strong increase in the winter time westerly circulation during the last decades however does not appear extraordinary in view of the low frequency variations of this mode

coccolith evidence for instabilities in surface circulation south of iceland during holocene times abstract the coccolith based micropaleontological investigation of an exceptionally thick deep sea holocene sediment core was conducted in order to document the pattern and timing of surface circulation changes south of iceland over the gardar contour drift during the last 12 000 years fluctuations in bulk carbonate content at the core location are primarily driven by the coccolith fraction the observed overall correlation between bottom flow speed as given by the sortable silt mean size index and the bulk coccolith concentration abundance g dry sediment suggests that the accumulation of this fine carbonate fraction is as a first order controlled by processes of sediment redistribution by bottom current the down core variations in coccolith assemblage structure species indicate that changes in properties of surface waters south of iceland occurred as two distinct steps at ca 11 2 and 6 ka the onset of north atlantic drift water influence over the gardar drift after 11 2 ka was associated with excess export flux of coccolith carbonate in the vicinity of an active frontal system the period from 10 to 6 ka saw the progressive warming of the study area which culminated between 6 and 7 ka cooling of the surface waters after 6 ka as indicated changes in the relative abundances of the dominant coccolith species took place in two phases the present hydrological regime being only established after a last cooling step between 3 5 and 2 8 ka these long term reorganisations of the surface hydrology are interpreted as the response of the north atlantic to the combined force of the solar insolation and the waning laurentide ice sheet millennial scale perturbations of the surface hydrology are documented by changes in accumulation of the species emiliania huxleyi these successive decreases in the export fluxes of e huxleyi exhibit a distinct millennial pacing in phase with previously recorded holocene advection of cool ice bearing waters from the greenland iceland seas to the british islands from a clear analogy with the most recent extreme variation in global ocean climate we argue that mechanisms responsible for these observed millennial scale perturbations might be found in long term modulations of the atmospheric processes associated with the north atlantic oscillation nao

marine ingressions into the middle late permian saline lake of the southern permian basin rotliegend northern germany possibly linked to sea level highstands in the arctic rift system abstract a huge saline lake existed in the southern permian basin spb of northwest europe during late wordian to early wuchiapingian more than 2500 m thick continental siliciclastics and evaporites of the upper rotliegend ii were deposited before the marine zechstein transgression flooded the basin marine deposition took place in the arctic rift system between east greenland and the fennoscandian shield at that time interval sediments of the foldvik creek group reflect relative sea level fluctuations short termed pre zechstein ingressions from the boreal realm into the spb are known by the marine lamellibranch liebea reichei however sedimentological analysis of different saline lake horizons show that the marine influenced saline lake horizon does not differ lithologically from other saline lake claystone layers in the rotliegend succession the 87 sr 86 sr ratios of anhydrite 0 7089 0 7100 reflect deposition in a continental setting in contrast to this s isotopic values more than 11 7 cdt reflect marine pre zechstein ingressions into the spb in the middle niendorf and munster members s isotopic values of anhydrite can be used as an indicator for marine influence in the spb the pre zechstein ingressions superimpose the climatic triggered lake level fluctuations of the rotliegend saline lake two marine ingressions can be integrated into a set of regularly recurring abnormities in the depositional evolution these important evolutionary steps the saline lake formation the garlstorf ingression the p ameland and bahnsen lake level highstands the niendorf ingression and the zechstein transgression show a periodicity of more or less 1 ma one million year cyclicity is also known from deposits of the arctic rift system in east greenland wegener halvo and ravnefjeld formations a correlation of the upper rotliegend ii deposits with the succession of east greenland is proposed based on the assumption that the marine ingressions as well as the exceptionally intensive saline lake expansions could be linked to sea level highstands in the arctic rift system the result is the first correlation of upper rotliegend ii deposits with marine strata

3d seismic analysis of an upper palaeozoic carbonate succession of the eastern finnmark platform area norwegian barents sea abstract this paper presents 3d seismic data to enhance our understanding of the seismic stratigraphy and buildup developments of the finnmark platform we focus on carbonate buildup distributions and platform geometry in space and upper palaeozoic time multi attribute analysis neural network techniques and the use of inverted impedance data reveal seismic anomalies that can be linked with significant geological geometries such as buildups subtle prograding clinoforms karstified surfaces or platform breaks the seismic expressions show a platform development mainly driven by climatic changes and differential subsidence seismic data indicate the first progradation of a low angle warm water carbonate ramp during mid carboniferous times a gradual change from a low angle mixed carbonate ramp to a more restricted carbonate shelf with a marked break and slope occurs during upper carboniferous lower permian gipsdalen group large buildups on the platform are identified both as individual mounds and unique continuous complexes e g network of polygonal ridges as well as a 30 km long barrier complex multi attribute analysis reveals a distinct karst event on top of the gipsdalen group climatic cooling during the lower permian bjarmeland group resulted in an even more restricted platform as seen in the seismic data with developments of 200 m high bryozoan mounds in deeper waters of the platform slope further cooling during mid permian tempelfjorden group resulted in a major chert event with development of a series of spiculitic chert mounds

sand mass accumulation rate as a proxy for wind regimes in the sw barents sea during the past 3 ka aeolian sand mass accumulation rates were determined in a coastal mire complex on the north norwegian island soroya this measure of aeolian activity is used as a proxy for past storm intensity in the sw barents sea region at least until the seventeenth century when human activities began to obscure the natural signal aeolian erosion started to increase in the sixth century and consistently high values are recorded from the eleventh century onwards periods of relatively increased aeolian activity can be seen 1200 800 bc 550 150 bc ad 500 850 ad 1000 1400 and ad 1700 2000 increased aeolian activity here indicates a higher frequency of east tracking storm systems at 70 n potential causes for such conditions are increased advection of atlantic water and intensification and or northward displacement of the main winter storm tracks normally associated with moist westerlies and positive nao conditions other noteworthy climatic events are 1 a short but severe wet spell is recorded in the late tenth

a 1400 year high resolution record of atmospheric circulation over the north atlantic and asia major ion series developed from new subannual scale sampling of an ice core from central greenland are calibrated with instrumental series of atmospheric sea level pressure recording major marine icelandic low and terrestrial siberian high atmospheric circulation systems to provide proxy records of atmospheric circulation over the past 1400 years examination of the proxy records reveals major changes in behaviour of these systems c ad 1400 multidecadal and centennial scale periodic components characterization of mean sea level pressure anomaly fields during the little ice age and the mediaeval warm period the potential role of solar forcing coupled ocean atmosphere associations and a perspective within which the characteristics of instrumental era climate can be assessed

mid to late holocene coastal dune event stratigraphy for the north coast of northern ireland an event stratigraphy of dune stability instability phases has been reconstructed using 22 radiocarbon and 13 luminescence dates for six dunefields along the north coast of northern ireland there is no evidence for dune development prior to 7000 cal years bp during the early holocene rapid rise in rsl and only limited evidence for sand accumulation in association with the rsl maximum dunefield dates correspond to either the subsequent regressive phase or later the gradual transgressive phase of rsl history in the mid and late holocene at these times accommodation space for dune development and sediment supply were maximized episodes of climatic deterioration particularly at 3100 2400 cal years bp and 650 50 cal years bp the little ice age were marked by widespread dune instability a similar coincidence in timing has been recorded for dune systems elsewhere in northwestern europe and is generally attributed to an increased frequency of storms and storm surges associated with the climat

sequence stratigraphy basin morphology and sea level history for the permian kapp starostin formation of svalbard norway based on seven measured sections from svalbard the marine strata of the permian kapp starostin formation are arranged into seven transgressive regressive sequences tr1 tr7 of c 4 5 ma average duration each bound by a maximum regressive surface facies including heterozoan dominated limestones spiculitic cherts sandstones siltstones and shales record deposition within inner middle and outer shelf areas the lowermost sequence tr1 comprises most of the basal voringen member which records a transgression across the gipshuken formation following a hiatus of unknown duration temperate to cold storm dominated facies established in inner to middle shelf areas between the latest artinskian and kungurian prolonged deepening during sequences tr2 and tr3 was succeeded by a long term shallowing upward trend that lasted until the latest permian tr4 tr7 a major depocentre existed in central and western spitsbergen while to the north dickson land remained a shallow platform leading to a shallow homoclinal ramp in ne spitsbergen and nordaustlandet the middle permian extinction late capitanian is recorded near the base of tr6 in deeper parts of the basin only elsewhere this sequence is not recorded likewise the youngest sequence tr7 extending to the upper formational contact of latest permian age is found only in the basin depocentre comparison with age equivalent strata in the sverdrup basin of canada reveals a remarkably similar depositional history with for example two third order sea level cycles recorded in the late permian of both regions in keeping with the global record sequence stratigraphy may therefore be a powerful correlative tool for onshore and offshore permian deposits across nw pangaea

from decades to epochs spanning the gap between geodesy and structural geology of active mountain belts geodetic data from the global navigation satellite system gnss and from satellite interferometric radar insar are revolutionizing how we look at instantaneous tectonic deformation but the significance for long term finite strain in orogenic belts is less clear we review two different ways of analyzing geodetic data velocity gradient fields from which one can extract strain dilatation and rotation rate and elastic block modeling which assumes that deformation is not continuous but occurs primarily on networks of interconnected faults separating quasi rigid blocks these methods are complementary velocity gradients are purely kinematic and yield information about regional deformation the calculation does not take into account either faults or rigid blocks but where gnss data are dense enough active fault zones and stable blocks emerge naturally in the solution block modeling integrates known structural geometry with idealized earthquake cycle models to predict slip rates on active faults future technological advances should overcome many of today s uncertainties and provide rich new data to mine by providing denser more uniform and temporally continuous observations

mercury anomalies associated with three extinction events capitanian crisis latest permian extinction and the smithian spathian extinction in nw pangea strata of permian early triassic age that include a record of three major extinction events capitanian crisis latest permian extinction and the smithian spathian extinction were examined at the festningen section spitsbergen over the c 12 ma record examined mercury in the sediments shows relatively constant background values of 0 005 0 010 g g 1 however there are notable spikes in hg concentration over an order of magnitude above background associated with the three extinctions the hg total organic carbon toc ratio shows similar large spikes indicating that they represent a true increase in hg loading to the environment we argue that these represent hg loading events associated with enhanced hg emissions from large igneous province lip events that are synchronous with the extinctions the hg anomalies are consistent across the nw margin of pangea indicating that widespread mercury loading occurred while this provides utility as a chemostratigraphic marker the hg spikes may also indicate loading of toxic metals to the environment a contributing cause to the mass extinction events

7200 years of rhone river flooding activity in lake le bourget france a high resolution sediment record of nw alps hydrology magnetic susceptibility ms was measured with high resolution 5 mm on a 9 m long 14c dated core from lake le bourget savoie france spanning the last 7200 years the strong correlation r 0 85 of the ms with the silicate borne suite of elements si al fe mg k and anti correlation with the carbonate content r 0 87 allows it to be used as a proxy for the fluctuations of the abundance of riverborne clastic fraction versus authigenic carbonates in sediment as the rhone is the only river bringing a significant amount of silicate minerals to the coring site the ms downstream is interpreted as a proxy of the rhone suspended load discharge in lake le bourget this is confirmed over the last 3000 years by the good match with the evolution of hydrological activity of the rhone as it is known through geomorphological studies of well dated archaeological sites over the last 7200 years the record is consistent with the regional record of lake water level fluctuations while the intensity of the ms

invited review paper neogene to quaternary tectonics of the coastal cordillera northern chile abstract the extreme aridity of the northern chilean coastal cordillera enables the complete preservation of permanent deformation related to the coupling between nazca and south america the region between antofagasta and arica is characterized by four types of late cenozoic structures ew striking reverse faults ns striking normal faults sparse wnw and nnw striking right lateral strike slip faults and unimodal and bimodal populations of surface cracks the ew reverse faults occur only between 19 and 21 40 s latitude and have been active since at least 6 ma to present a march 2007 earthquake demonstrates that this deformation can occur during the interseismic phase of the plate boundary seismic cycle the ns normal faults are most abundant near antofagasta and mejillones and diminish in significance northward several of these faults in both the antofagasta and the salar grande area have been reactivated as reverse faults causing minor topographic inversion we suggest that normal faults move during both interseismic and coseismic deformation and are fundamentally very weak surface cracks are ubiquitous throughout the region and form by both non tectonic and tectonic mechanisms a significant proportion forms during coseismic deformation and thus may be used to identify long lived rupture segments on the plate boundary overall forearc deformation is very slow with permanent strain rates of 1 5 nstrain year and fault slip rates less than 0 5 mm year

a chronology of paleozoic sea level changes sea levels have been determined for most of the paleozoic era 542 to 251 million years ago but an integrated history of sea levels has remained unrealized we reconstructed a history of sea level fluctuations for the entire paleozoic by using stratigraphic sections from pericratonic and cratonic basins evaluation of the timing and amplitude of individual sea level events reveals that the magnitude of change is the most problematic to estimate accurately the long term sea level shows a gradual rise through the cambrian reaching a zenith in the late ordovician then a short lived but prominent withdrawal in response to hirnantian glaciation subsequent but decreasingly substantial eustatic highs occurred in the mid silurian near the middle late devonian boundary and in the latest carboniferous eustatic lows are recorded in the early devonian near the mississippian pennsylvanian boundary and in the late permian one hundred and seventy two eustatic events are documented for the paleozoic varying in magnitude from a few tens of meters to 125 meters

the iquique earthquake sequence of april 2014 bayesian modeling accounting for prediction uncertainty the subduction zone in northern chile is a well identified seismic gap that last ruptured in 1877 on 1 april 2014 this region was struck by a large earthquake following a two week long series of foreshocks this study combines a wide range of observations including geodetic tsunami and seismic data to produce a reliable kinematic slip model of the mw 8 1 main shock and a static slip model of the mw 7 7 aftershock we use a novel bayesian modeling approach that accounts for uncertainty in the green s functions both static and dynamic while avoiding nonphysical regularization the results reveal a sharp slip zone more compact than previously thought located downdip of the foreshock sequence and updip of high frequency sources inferred by back projection analysis both the main shock and the mw 7 7 aftershock did not rupture to the trench and left most of the seismic gap unbroken leaving the possibility of a future large earthquake in the region

late holocene effective precipitation variations in the maritime regions of south west scandinavia at present the climate in south west scandinavia is predominantly controlled by westerlies carrying moist atlantic air which forms a main source of precipitation in all seasons past variations in the ratio between precipitation and evaporation effective precipitation from terrestrial sites however may indicate changes in the degree of maritime influence palaeoclimatic archives in this region are thus ideally situated to study past changes in atmospheric circulation patterns in this study multi proxy comparisons of records from three peat bogs and two lakes are used to reconstruct regional scale variations of effective precipitation in south west sweden during the late holocene the total aeolian sediment influx into two peat bogs is used as a proxy for storm activity the frequency of storm phases increases strongly after ca 2500 cal yrs bp dry conditions occur on a regional scale around 4800 4400 2000 1700 1300 1000 700 500 and 300 100 cal yrs bp in addition a comparison to winter precipitation reconstructed from four norwegian glaciers shows similar variations during the past ca 2000 years this indicates that the climate in both regions was controlled by large scale atmospheric circulation dynamics of the north atlantic region the strong variability of effective precipitation and storm activity after ca 2500 cal yrs bp indicates a highly variable climate

complexity of holocene climate as reconstructed from a greenland ice core glaciochemical time series developed from summit greenland indicate that the chemical composition of the atmosphere was dynamic during the holocene epoch concentrations of sea salt and terrestrial dusts increased in summit snow during the periods 0 to 600 2400 to 3100 5000 to 6100 7800 to 8800 and more than 11 300 years ago the most recent increase and also the most abrupt coincides with the little ice age these changes imply that either the north polar vortex expanded or the meridional air flow intensified during these periods and that temperatures in the mid to high northern latitudes were potentially the coldest since the younger dryas event

growth and demise of permian biogenic chert along northwest pangea evidence for end permian collapse of thermohaline circulation abstract the permian chert event pce was a 30 ma long episode of unusual chert accumulation along the northwest margin of pangea and possibly worldwide the onset of the pce occurred at about the sakmarian artinskian boundary in the sverdrup basin canadian arctic where it coincides with a maximum flooding event the ending of high frequency high amplitude shelf cyclicity the onset of massive biogenic chert deposition in deep water distal areas and a long term shift from warm to cool water carbonate sedimentation in shallow water proximal areas a similar and coeval shift is observed from the barents sea to the northwestern usa a landward and southward expansion of silica factories occurred during the middle and late permian at which time warm water carbonate producers disappeared completely from the northwest margin of pangea biotically impoverished and increasingly narrow cold water carbonate factories characterised by non cemented bioclasts of sponges bryozoans echinoderms and brachiopods were then progressively replaced by silica factories by late permian time little carbonate sediments accumulated in the barents sea and in the sverdrup basin where the deep to shallow water sedimentary spectrum was occupied by siliceous sponge spicules by that time biogenic silica sedimentation was common throughout the world silica factories collapsed in the late permian abruptly bringing the pce to an end in northwest pangea the end permian collapse of the pce was associated with a major transgression and with a return to much warmer oceanic and continental climatic conditions chert deposition resumed in the distal oceanic areas during the early middle triassic anisian after a 8 10 ma interruption early triassic chert gap the conditions necessary for the onset expansion and zenith of the pce were provided by the thermohaline circulation of nutrient rich cold waters along the northwestern and western margin of pangea and possibly throughout the world oceans these conditions provided an efficient transportation mechanism that constantly replenished the supply of silica in the area created a nutrient and oxygen rich environment favouring siliceous biogenic productivity established cold sea floor conditions hindering silica dissolution while increasing calcium carbonate solubility and provided conditions adverse to organic and inorganic carbonate production the northwest margin of pangea was for nearly 30 ma bathed by cold waters presumably derived from the seasonal melting of northern sea ice the assumed engine for thermohaline circulation this process started near the sakmarian artinskian boundary intensified throughout middle and late permian time and ceased suddenly in latest permian time it led to oceanic conditions much colder than normally expected from the palaeolatitudes and the influence of cold northerly derived water was felt as far south southern nevada the demise of silica factories was caused by the rapid breakdown of these conditions and the establishment of a much warmer marine environment accompanied by sluggish circulation and perhaps a reduced input of dissolved silica to the ocean complete thawing of northern sea ice would have ended thermohaline circulation and led to warm and sluggish oceanic conditions inimical to the production accumulation and preservation of biogenic silica

the evolution of holocene coastal dunefields jutland denmark a record of climate change over the past 5000 years coastal dunefields have developed on the west coast of jutland in denmark over the past 5000 years the dunefields are situated in a temperate climate zone with frequent high energy wind events dunefield development was characterized by repeated periods of transgressive dune formation punctuated by periods of dune stabilization and soil formation the chronology of dunefield evolution is based on accelerator mass spectrometry ams radiocarbon dating of peaty palaeosols 24 samples and optically stimulated luminescence osl dating of aeolian sand deposits 19 samples these dates indicate that the completeness of the stratigraphic record varies considerably but that the timing of aeolian activity events was identical in the dunefields examined here initiation of aeolian activity occurred around 2200 bc 800 bc ad 100 ad 1050 1200 and between ad 1550 and 1650 proxy climate data from bogs in southwestern sweden suggest that these periods of dunefield activity were initiated during wet cool summers most likely these climatic situations were associated with a more frequent passage of cyclones across denmark in the summer seasons increased storminess causing aeolian sand movement and dune formation the continued removal of vegetation in jutland between 4000 bc and ad 1850 allowed the aeolian sand when first activated to move more and more easily across the coastal plains the final phase of aeolian sand movement between ad 1550 1650 and 1900 had catastrophic implications for many coastal inhabitants in the region c 2008 elsevier b v all rights reserved less

an abrupt extinction in the middle permian capitanian of the boreal realm spitsbergen and its link to anoxia and acidification the controversial capitanian middle permian 262 ma extinction event is only known from equatorial latitudes and consequently its global extent is poorly resolved we demonstrate that there were two severe extinctions amongst brachiopods in northern boreal latitudes spitsbergen in the middle to late permian separated by a recovery phase new age dating of the spitsbergen strata belonging to the kapp starostin formation using strontium isotopes and d 13 c trends and comparison with better dated sections in greenland suggests that the first crisis occurred in the capitanian this age assignment indicates that this middle permian extinction is manifested at higher latitudes redox proxies pyrite framboids and trace metals show that the boreal crisis coincided with an intensification of oxygen depletion implicating anoxia in the extinction scenario the widespread and near total loss of carbonates across the boreal realm also suggests a role for acidification in the crisis the recovery interval saw the appearance of new brachiopod and bivalve taxa alongside survivors and an increased mollusk dominance resulting in an assemblage reminiscent of younger mesozoic assemblages the subsequent end permian mass extinction terminated this late permian radiation

megathrust and accretionary wedge properties and behaviour in the makran subduction zone this work forms part of the nerc and esrc funded project earthquakes without frontiers and was partially supported by the nerc large grant looking inside the continents from space cp is funded by an nerc studentship the facilities of iris data services and specifically the iris data management center were used for access to waveforms related metadata and or derived products used in this study iris data services are funded through the seismological facilities for the advancement of geoscience and earthscope sage proposal of the national science foundation under cooperative agreement ear 1261681

millennial to century scale variability in gulf of mexico holocene climate records of the intertropical convergence zone itcz related to orbital forcing the d 18 o of the surface dwelling planktic foraminifer globigerinoides ruber show negative excursions between 14 and 10 2 ka radiocarbon years that reflect influx of meltwater into the western gom during melting of the laurentide ice sheet the relative abundance of the planktic foraminifer globigerinoides sacculifer is related to transport of caribbean water into the gom maximum transport of caribbean surface waters and moisture into the gom associated with a northward migration of the average position of the itcz occurs between about 6 5 and 4 5 ka in addition abundance variations of g sacculifer show century scale variability throughout most of the holocene the gom record is consistent with records from other areas suggesting that century scale variability is a pervasive feature of holocene climate the frequency of several cycles in the climate records is similar to cycles identified in proxy records of solar variability indicating that at least some of the century scale climate variability during the holocene is due to external solar forcing index terms 4267 oceanography general paleoceanography 9604 information related to geologic time cenozoic 3030 marine geology and geophysics micropaleontology

millennial scale variability in atlantic water advection to the nordic seas derived from holocene coccolith concentration records abstract abundance patterns of coccolith species in two holocene marine cores retrieved off norway and northern iceland are indicative of millennial scale modulations in the flow of the main norwegian atlantic current and secondary north iceland irminger current branches of the north atlantic drift to the nordic seas long term trends in coccolith abundance changes reflect major holocene steps in atlantic water transfer to the nordic seas at orbital scale with important constraints on the convective activity of the nordic seas that leads to the formation of the precursor water mass of north atlantic deep water millennial scale holocene episodes of increased advection of atlantic waters off norway are associated with enhanced winter precipitation over scandinavia increased sea salt fluxes over greenland and strengthened wind over iceland thereby suggesting a common atmospheric forcing the location and intensity of the westerlies and the associated changes in mid to high latitude pressure gradients our biotic data indicate an opposite pattern of atlantic water inflow at suborbital scale between the western denmark and eastern iceland scotland straits of the northern atlantic throughout the holocene this as supported by present observational and simulated data further highlights the role of atmospheric oscillations in the recent history of the north atlantic nordic seas water mass exchanges across the greenland scotland ridge such atmospheric processes are thought to explain the observed coupling between periods of excess export of arctic sea ice to the nordic seas and intervals of maximum inflow of atlantic water to the norwegian sea throughout the last 11 000 years

mid holocene emergence of a low frequency millennial oscillation in western mediterranean climate implications for past dynamics of the north atlantic atmospheric westerlies the nature and tempo of holocene climate variability is examined in the record of forest vegetation from western mediterranean marine core md95 2043 episodes of forest decline occurred at 10 1 9 2 8 3 7 4 5 4 4 5 and 3 7 2 9 cal ka bp and between 1 9 cal ka bp and the top of the record 1 3 cal ka bp wavelet analysis confirms a 900 yr periodicity prior to and during the early holocene and the dominance of a 1750 yr periodicity after 6 cal ka bp the 900 yr periodicity has counterparts in numerous north atlantic and northern hemisphere palaeoclimate records and in solar irradiance proxies 14c and 10be and may relate to a sun climate connection during the early holocene comparisons between the md95 2043 forest record and strategically located records from morocco iceland norway and israel suggest that the 1750 yr mid to late holocene oscillation reflects shifts between a prevailing strong and weak state of the zonal flow with impacts similar to the positive and negative modes of th

gradual onset of anoxia across the permian triassic boundary in svalbard norway the permian triassic extinction event is considered to be the most devastating environmental crisis of the phanerozoic with many coinciding factors involved the role of marine anoxia during the extinction is still poorly understood in this study a boreal permian triassic boundary ptb section from svalbard norway has been investigated with the aim of better understanding the timing and nature of local marine anoxia onset and extinction events across the ptb the section comprises the kapp starostin and vikinghogda formations 13corg values indicate the ptb is located within the lower part of the vikinghogda formation lag deposits at the top of the kapp starostin formation indicate a marine hiatus and ensuing transgression during the late permian shortly before the extinction event implying concurrence of major ecological changes and sea level rise pyrite framboid size distributions and total organic carbon toc were used to evaluate bottom water oxygen conditions and show that changes in bottom water redox conditions and extinction are clearly linked oxic to dysoxic bottom water conditions prevailed during deposition of kapp starostin formation sediments and changed to anoxic to euxinic conditions above the formation boundary the onset of anoxia is not abrupt but rather shows a gradual increase within the kapp starostin formation during the late permian the tipping point where bottom waters reach a long term state of anoxia to euxinia coincides with the final extinction event though changes in biotic assemblages at the top of the kapp starostin formation indicate a marine ecosystem crisis prior to this oxygen depletion in the boreal region as seen in our study section and correlating to greenland and arctic canada seems to be consistently more severe than in lower latitude settings

a depositional and sequence stratigraphic model for cold water spiculitic strata based on the kapp starostin formation permian of spitsbergen and equivalent deposits from the barents sea this article summarizes the lithostratigraphy of two sections through the kapp starostin formation on spitsbergen having contrasting distal and proximal depositional settings these outcrop sections are compared with an approximately age equivalent spiculitic unit penetrated in two exploration wells 800 km to the southeast on the finnmark platform eight main facies associations comprise these strata including limestones matrix rich matrix poor and mudstone siliciclastics shale and sandstone spiculite dark tight and light colored porous and phosphatized surfaces a sequence stratigraphic model is proposed wherein siliciclastic limestone intervals represent lowstands of relative sea level and the spiculites are mainly highstand deposits based on this model seven depositional cycles sequences are recognized in the distal high accommodation locality on spitsbergen akseloya four in the proximal locality dickson land and two on the finnmark platform a speculative model for correlation between these localities is presented wherein lateral amalgamation of sequences due to landward pinch out of some lowstand intervals results in recognition of fewer sequences in areas of lower accommodation on both dickson land and the finnmark platform an upward change in spiculite lithology from dark tight to light porous is shown and dickson land also shows an upward change in siliciclastic lithology from shale to glauconitic sandstone these changes record a long term shoaling trend approaching the permian triassic boundary this model provides a basis for interpreting the basin scale begin page 2062 distribution of lithofacies and predicting the occurrence of porous zones representing potential hydrocarbon reservoirs

the magnitude of late paleozoic glacioeustatic fluctuations a synthesis a comprehensive literature review shows that the magnitude of eustatic fluctuations varied throughout the carboniferous and permian and that at least eight distinct phases can be recognized facies juxtapositions in carbonate successions and erosional relief in clastic successions indicate that glacioeustatic fluctuations of 20 25 m and occasionally as much as 60 m took place throughout the early mississippian tournaisian a widely recognized glacial period middle mississippian mid chadian through holkerian shallow marine carbonate and clastic successions indicate that eustatic fluctuations were 10 25 m a decrease that matches well with the paucity of coeval glacial deposits late visean asbian through mid brigantian glacioeustatic fluctuations of 10 50 m record the initial phases of ice accumulation in advance of the widespread mid carboniferous glacial event the latest mississippian earliest pennsylvanian mid brigantian through langsettian was a time of widespread glaciation and strata of this age commonly exhibit evidence of glacioeustatic fluctuations of as much as 40 100 m although middle pennsylvanian duckmantian through asturian glacial deposits are present in eastern australia paleovalley depths suggest that coeval glacioeustatic fluctuations were less than 40 m glacioeustatic fluctuations of as much as 100 120 m have been widely reported from late pennsylvanian earliest permian stephanian through mid sakmarian successions in north america an increase that corresponds to the growth of large ice sheets across much of gondwana and the accumulation of ice in the northern hemisphere incision and facies juxtaposition in early middle permian mid sakmarian through kungurian successions in eastern australia indicate that glacioeustatic fluctuations of 30 70 m occurred during the waning stages of major glaciation erosional relief in paleoequatorial carbonates and the presence of coeval glacial deposits in australia suggests that eustatic fluctuations of 10 60 m occurred during the final stages of glaciation in the middle to late permian roadian through capitanian but the modest size of most of these fluctuations makes it difficult to isolate the glacioeustatic signature this review demonstrates that far field cyclic successions record changing glacial conditions in gondwana that the magnitude of glacioeustatic fluctuations was directly related to the volume of glacial ice that carboniferous permian glacioeustasy was more variable than previously recognized and that generalizations from short temporal intervals are probably not representative of the late paleozoic ice age as a whole although any attempt to quantify the magnitude of ancient eustatic changes is based on caveats and assumptions this review incorporates the results of over 100 published papers on the topic in an attempt to minimize the errors inherent in any one study

multi proxy analyses of a peat bog on isla de los estados easternmost tierra del fuego a unique record of the variable southern hemisphere westerlies since the last deglaciation we have analyzed an almost 14 000 year old peat sequence on the island of isla de los estados 55 degrees s 64 degrees w east of tierra del fuego in the core of the southern hemisphere westerlies a multitude of methods have been used high resolution c 14 dating detailed lithologic descriptions including humification degree loss on ignition magnetic susceptibility bulk density pollen and spore analysis and determination of aeolian sand influx by combining proxies for wind and precipitation we have been able to reconstruct how the westerlies have varied over time in the atlantic sector of the southern ocean it shows that this westerly wind belt was most intense at the onset of the record 13 600 13 200 cal bp coinciding with the mid to late part of the antarctic cold reversal followed by a gradual decline at 12 200 cal bp the westerlies seem to have shifted to a position south of tierra del fuego and this phase the calmest and driest period on the island throughout the sequence ended at 10 000 cal bp when the westerlies moved equatorward again since then the westerlies have been present but with a variable impact on the 55 degrees s latitude of the atlantic mostly conditions have been fairly similar to today but occasionally with a wider or narrower and or weaker or stronger wind belt at 7200 cal bp wind intensity began to increase and between 4500 and 3500 cal bp these southern latitudes experienced a distinct wind and precipitation maximum both in terms of perseverance and intensity our results show a both wide and strong wind belt with possible niveo aeolian activity in tierra del fuego in winter and possibly creating milder summers around the antarctic peninsula in the later part of the holocene expansion contraction phases of the wind belt especially in winter seem to have been a common phenomenon c 2012 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

upper plate reverse fault reactivation and the unclamping of the megathrust during the 2014 northern chile earthquake sequence after 137 years without a great earthquake the mw 8 1 pisagua event of 1 april 2014 occurred in the central portion of the southern peru northern chile subduction zone this megathrust earthquake was preceded by more than 2 weeks of foreshock activity migrating 3 5 km day toward the mainshock hypocenter this foreshock sequence was triggered by an mw 6 7 earthquake on a reverse fault in the upper plate that strikes at a high angle to the trench similar to well documented reverse faults onshore these margin oblique reverse faults accommodate north south shortening resulting from subduction across a plate boundary that is curved in map view reverse slip on the crustal fault unclamped the subduction interface precipitating the subsequent megathrust foreshock activity that culminated in the great pisagua earthquake the combination of crustal reverse faults and a curved subduction margin also occurs in cascadia and northeastern japan indicating that there are two additional localities where great megathrust earthquakes may be triggered by upper plate fault activity

an integrated geochemical and palynological study of human impacts soil erosion and storminess from southern greenland since c ad 1000 abstract an integrated pollen analytical and geochemical study is presented from qinngua kangilleq southwest greenland this site was formerly one of the largest farms in the eastern settlement of norse greenland the study is the first to determine what link if any exists between norse landnam early settlement vegetation change soil erosion climate change and peat geochemistry the data suggest that fluxes in lithogenic elements supplied to a peat column by terrestrial sources and atmospheric deposition were coupled to the pattern of local norse settlement beginning cal ad 1020 a severe phase of soil erosion is indicated which is coincident with the landnam horizon this may represent proxy evidence for the stripping of turf for the construction of turf and stone buildings at the farm radiocarbon dates suggest the presence of a hiatus in the sediment column spanning cal ad 1380 1950 following the recommencement of sediment accumulation the geochemical data indicate a critical change in site conditions which may be consistent with the well known change in northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation that started between c ad 1400 and 1420 bromine br and chlorine cl concentrations are demonstrably higher in the sediments dating to the 20th century relative to the pre 15th century deposits rising halogen concentrations at qinngua appear to be correlated with increased levels of na sea salt sodium precipitation in the gisp2 ice core which earlier studies have interpreted as indicative of increased north atlantic storminess

fracture characterization in upper permian carbonates in spitsbergen a workflow from digital outcrop to geo model abstract carbonates represent major hydrocarbon reservoirs but often exhibit highly heterogeneous reservoir properties outcrop analogues provide important insights into how parameters such as porosity permeability and natural fractures vary as such outcrops can bridge the scale gap between spatially extensive but poor resolution seismic data and 1d high resolution well data however traditional geological fieldwork typically gathers insufficient data to construct robust geological models in this study we have specifically set out to gather key data sets that enable the construction of a geology driven model we illustrate this workflow using the exceptionally well exposed carbonate dominated outcrops of the kapp starostin formation in central spitsbergen arctic norway we fully utilize emerging technologies notably geo referenced digital outcrop models doms to be able to gather quantitative sedimentological structural data from otherwise inaccessible cliffs doms generated from digital photos are used directly for automatic and manual mapping of fractures the digital data are complemented with traditional fieldwork sedimentological logging scanlines structural characterization in order to strengthen the dataset the geo modelling involves traditional facies and petrophysical modelling of the 12 identified facies along with outcrop based discrete fracture modelling finally the static geo model is upscaled and its applications are discussed the presented workflow uses carbonate outcrops of the kapp starostin formation as input but is highly applicable for other studies where outcrops can be utilized as direct input to constrain a geological model