the 1986 kalamata south peloponnesus earthquake detailed study of a normal fault evidences for east west extension in the hellenic arc tectonic and seismological data collected in the field following the september 13 1986 kalamata earthquake south peloponnesus are presented and analyzed to discuss the earthquake rupture process and the regional tectonics the event occurred on the kalamata normal fault whose trace was mapped with spot images and topographic and field observations this fault is part of an approximately nnw sse en echelon system cutting through the hellenic nappes the fault striking n15 e on the average with a dip of about 50 has a minimum cumulated quaternary throw of the order of 1 km the measured coseismic slip is 6 18 cm over a length of 6 km the main shock focal mechanism obtained from long period waveform modeling strike 201 10 20 dip 45 5 rake 283 10 25 represents almost pure east west extension and is in good agreement with tectonic observations the centroid depth is constrained to 5 3 km and the seismic moment to 7 0 2 5 1017 n m over 700 aftershocks located by a 16 station network installed after the earthquake for a period of 2 weeks define two clusters separated by a gap of aftershock activity from the surface to a depth of about 10 km the main cluster to the south defines a 45 west dipping plane which lies on the downward extension of the fault mapped at the surface focal mechanisms of aftershocks on this fault plane are homogeneous and represent e w extension as the main shock in contrast the majority of focal mechanisms in the uppermost part of the foot wall show more or less e w compression probably corresponding to postseismic stress release the northern cluster of aftershocks is very dense and located away from the surface rupture within a relay zone between the kalamata and the next en echelon faults to the nw the thouria faults there focal mechanisms represent extension from about n115 to n70 and n20 corresponding mostly to fault reactivation in an area where nonrigid deformations prevail the main shock probably initiated in this relay zone 3 4 s before the rupture front reached the main fault plane and released most of the energy there the rupture presumably propagating southward the focal mechanism of the kalamata earthquake and that of the april 27 1965 earthquake located to the northwest of crete as well as the regional active normal fault pattern imply that e w extension oblique to the hellenic arc is presently the dominant tectonic regime e w stretching occurs partly on reactivated nw se faults parallel to the hellenic structures but mostly on newly formed n s normal faults across those structures the latter faults are responsible for the apparent segmentation of the hellenic belt from southern peloponnesus to crete the existence of active e w extension in this region implies a recent change in the tectonic regime and consequently a change in boundary conditions at the subduction zone probably in response to the incoming margin of africa

strain distribution over the east mediterranean ridge a synthesis incorporating new sea beam data abstract we present the results of several multi narrow beam sea beam traverses of the mediterranean ridge on board r v jean charcot these results can be considered to be complementary in resolution and coverage to the previously published long range side scan sonar gloria results a characteristic of the mediterranean ridge is the presence over about half of its surface of an extensive fold system affecting the messinian and plio quaternary cover which is dissected by conjugate strike slip faults the resolution of sea beam was used to map the main characteristics of folding and faulting this analysis together with previously available data enables us to define the strain pattern over the mediterranean ridge we thus now have an overall view of the strain pattern from a marginal basin aegea through the hellenic trench and adjacent sea floor to the opposite continent the bottom of the hellenic trench is a boundary between an extensional domain to the north and a compressional one to the south the southern domain is strongly affected by the presence of the lybian promontary it is related to the formation of an accretionary ridge due to the inability of the upper 3 4 km of sediments to subduct this ridge is similar to the accretionary prism but it is much wider with respect to its height probably because of the existence of a decollement over a level of overpressure the hellenic trench then is in the situation of a fore arc basin its origin is due to the fact that the aegean continental slope is not vertical but rather has a small 4 dip as a result a sedimentary wedge symmetric but shorter than the main accretionary wedge develops over the buried portion of the slope it is characterized by landward thrusts such an origin probably applies to fore arc basins in general

seismicity normal faulting and the geomorphological development of the gulf of corinth greece the corinth earthquakes of february and march 1981 three major destructive earthquakes of m s 6 7 6 4 6 4 occurred in the eastern part of the gulf of corinth in february and march 1981 associated normal faulting was observed on both the north and the south sides of the gulf examination of teleseismic local seismic surface faulting and geomorpbological data suggests that the first and second of these shocks activated major north dipping normal faults these faults control the topography and bathymetry and are related to the recent uplift and subsidence of the coastline it is probable that the first earthquake occurred on a faultwhich outcrops underwater and the second on a fault which is visible on land it appears that the third shock activated an antithetic normal fault dipping southwards on the north side of the gulf and that the overall structure of the gulf of corinth graben is asymmetric the northern antithetic fault clearly demonstrates the geomorphological changes associated with developing young normal faulting in addition we suggest that observations of recent coastline movement provide a powerful tool for identifying major active fault systems and predicting their historical role in the paleogeography of an area

geometry and mechanism of faulting of the 1980 el asnam algeria earthquake from inversion of teleseismic body waves and comparison with field observations the el asnam earthquake of october 10 1980 ms 7 3 provided a wealth of geological and seismological data and is an ideal event for comparing geologically and seismologically derived models the event produced extensive surface faulting in addition to the main tectonic deformation which is clearly a thrust widespread secondary normal faulting was observed at the surface in the southwest region the surface break of a thrust fault could be traced for 24 km in the northeast part of the fault zone normal faults with throws of several meters were observed although no clear thrust type surface breaks were observed in this region geodetic measurements and aftershocks indicate that thrusting was nonetheless the main tectonic mode of deformation in this paper the rupture process of the el asnam earthquake is investigated by inversion of teleseismic p and sh waves the effort is concentrated on the late part of the waveforms which carries information about the faulting in the least understood north eastern segment of the fault zone during the earthquake rupture initiated at the southern terminus of the southwestern fault segment and propagated northward as indicated by the epicentral location and the observable azimuthal directivity of the body wave shapes and amplitudes the seismogenic faulting in the southwestern segment has a thrust mechanism with the following average parameters seismic moment 3 9 1019 n m depth 6 km strike 220 dip 46 and rake 72 the duration of rupture on this fault segment was approximately 10 s which together with the observed fault length of 24 km indicates a rupture velocity of 2 4 km s unconstrained inversions suggest normal faulting in the northeast part of the source region that began immediately following the arrival of the rupture to the northeast region the normal faulting mechanism is in agreement with that observed for the large surface fault scarps in this region guided by the evidence from aftershocks and geodetic measurements a solution with a thrust type mechanism was also sought using a priori constraints based on the field observations the observed strike and slip angle we obtain the following thrust source mechanism for the northeast segment seismic moment 3 6 1019 n m depth 6 km strike 230 dip 20 and rake 91 this solution requires that the thrusting in the northeast be initiated 10 s after the arrival of the rupture from the southwest suggesting that some time is required to overcome the geometric barrier marked by the abrupt change in the dip and azimuth inversions are nonunique with respect to the seismic moment associated with normal faulting the ambiguity being caused by the limited bandwidth of the observed body waves the moment estimated from the surface waves at periods about 300 s however favors thrust faulting to be dominant in the northeast region

earthquakes gravity and the origin of the bali basin an example of a nascent continental fold and thrust belt we infer from the bathymetry and gravity field and from the source mechanisms and depths of the eight largest earthquakes in the bali region that the bali basin is a downwarp in the crust of the sunda shelf produced and maintained by thrusting along the flores back arc thrust zone earthquake source mechanisms and focal depths are inferred from the inversion of long period p and sh waves for all events and short period p waves for two of the events centroidal depths that give the best fit to the seismograms range from 10 to 18 km but uncertainties in depth allow a range from 7 to 24 km the p wave nodal planes that dip south at 13 to 35 7 strike roughly parallel to the volcanic arc and are consistent with thrusting of crust of the bali basin beneath it the positions of the earthquakes with respect to crustal features inferred from seismic and gravity data suggest that the earthquakes occur in the basement along the western end of the flores thrust zone the slip direction for the back arc thrust zone inferred from the orientation of the earthquake slip vectors indicates that the thrusting in the bali basin is probably part of the overall plate convergence as it roughly coincides with the convergence direction between the sunda arc and the indian ocean plate summation of seismic moments of earthquakes between 1960 and 1985 suggests a minimum rate of convergence across the thrust zone of 4 2 mm a the presence of back arc thrusting suggests that some coupling between the indian ocean plate and the sunda arc occurs but mechanisms such as continental collision or a shallow subduction of the indian ocean plate probably can be ruled out the present tectonic setting and structure of the bali basin is comparable to the early forelands of the andes or western north america in that a fold and thrust belt is forming on the continental side of an arc trench system at which oceanic lithosphere is being subducted the bali basin is flanked by the tertiary java basin to the west and the oceanic flores basin to the east and thus provides an actualistic setting for the development of a fold and thrust belt in which structure and timing of deformation can change significantly along strike on the scale a few hundred kilometers

a model for tectonic rotations about a vertical axis abstract the rotation of a rigid ellipsoidal inclusion within a highly viscous fluid orientated so that two of the principal axes remain horizontal is used as a model for the rotation of crustal inclusions in wide zones of continental deformation this model is also applicable to other geological problems involving the rotation of inclusions in a matrix the pattern of behaviour in such a model is shown to be complex in general the rotation rate of the inclusion is a function of all components of the velocity field of the deforming medium and the horizontal aspect ratio of the inclusion however for a given velocity field this aspect ratio must exceed a critical value before the inclusion can rotate continuously inclusions with lower aspect ratios will rotate for a certain range of orientations in an opposite direction to the sense of shear in the deforming zone the possibility of the inclusion changing shape during rotation adds to the complexity of behaviour

source parameters for 11 earthquakes in the tien shan central asia determined by p and sh waveform inversion the tien shan mountain belt of central asia was formed in late paleozoic time and reactivated in tertiary time following the collision of india with eurasia more than 1500 km to the south to study the style and distribution of faulting occurring today in the tien shan we digitized long period world wide standard seismograph network p and sh waveforms of 11 of the largest tien shan earthquakes between 1965 and 1982 and then used a least squares inversion routine to constrain their fault plane solutions and depths four of the earthquakes occurred near the southern edge of the tien shan and two occurred in the intermontane fergana basin these earthquakes occurred at depths of 10 20 km and are associated with thrust faulting on east west to southwest northeast striking fault planes that dip moderately 35 55 the other five earthquakes in the northern tien shan were mostly deeper 15 44 km and the fault plane solutions of four of them are similar to the events farther south the exception an event on june 2 1973 probably occurred on a gently northward dipping east west striking fault plane all events occur within the basement at depths of 10 km or greater waveforms for earthquakes near the edges of the dzungarian fergana and kucha basins are fit best using velocity structures with thick sediment layers implying that sediments from these basins have been and are being underthrust beneath the neighboring mountains we examined only the relatively small mb 5 5 6 2 events after 1965 and did not study any of the largest events ms 8 that occurred in the tien shan earlier in this century still we can conclude that north south shortening is presently occurring in the tien shan with the formation of basement uplifts flanked by moderately dipping thrust faults the present day tectonics of the tien shan seem to be analogous to those of the rocky mountains in colorado wyoming and utah during the laramide orogeny in late cretaceous and early tertiary time

the 1983 borah peak idaho earthquake and its aftershocks abstract the 28 october 1983 borah peak idaho earthquake m s 7 3 occurred in an area of low historic seismicity within east central idaho along a segment of the lost river fault active during the holocene a dense network of portable short period seismographs up to 45 stations station spacings of 2 to 10 km was installed beginning several hours after the main shock and operated for 22 days in addition to records from the portable instrumentation data from permanent seismograph stations operating in idaho utah montana oregon washington and wyoming provide a good regional data base no foreshock activity above m c coda magnitude 2 0 was detected for the 2 month period preceding the main shock the epicenter of the main shock is 14 km south southwest of the end of the surface faulting this relationship suggests unilateral rupture propagating to the northwest the distribution of 421 aftershocks of m c 2 defines an epicentral pattern 75 km 10 km trending north northwest parallel to the surface rupture but displaced laterally southwest by 5 to 10 km aftershocks extend to depths of approximately 16 km and in the central and southeastern portion of the aftershock pattern define a zone dipping approximately 45 southwest that intersects the surface near the fault scarp the entire aftershock zone as observed during the first 3 weeks was active shortly after the main shock occurred fault plane solutions for 47 aftershocks show predominantly normal faulting with varying amounts of strike slip motion tension axis orientations indicate a dominant extension direction of nne ssw during the aftershock sequence there is considerable diversity among the aftershock focal mechanisms even along the central and southeast portions of the fault where the hypocenters appear to outline the main fault break we therefore interpret most of the aftershocks to represent complex fracturing on subsidiary structures adjacent to the main fault

fault plane solutions of earthquakes and active tectonics of the tibetan plateau and its margins summary fault plane solutions of earthquakes within and on the margins of the tibetan plateau show diverse styles of faulting and deformation with thrust faulting and crustal shortening normal to the margins of the plateau and with normal and strike slip faulting resulting in roughly east west crustal extension within the plateau the direction of overthrusting of the himalaya onto the indian shield is radially outward varying from southwest in the western himalaya to south southeast in the east assuming that the indian shield behaves rigidly this requires a west northwest divergence of western tibet from southeastern tibet at a rate of 18 9 mm yr 1 comparable with the rate of convergence at the himalaya fault plane solutions of earthquakes in the southern portion of the tibet plateau consistently show large components of normal faulting on roughly north striking planes and corroborate such extension within the high plateau where elevations exceed 5000 m normal and strike slip faulting occur so that an overall east southeast west northwest extension of the region at about 10 mm yr 1 is partitioned into roughly equal parts of crustal thinning and north northeast south southwest crustal shortening about 5 mm yr 1 in general strike slip faulting characterizes solutions for earthquakes within eastern tibet where mean elevations drop below 4500 5000 m but the orientations of the strike slip faults vary across the region in central tibet left lateral slip occurs on planes trending roughly northeast but for earthquakes farther east the orientations of that plane become progressively east west and then southeast this variation in orientation implies a rotation of material along curved left lateral shear zones thus the eastward extrusion of tibet appears to be facilitated not only by rapid left lateral shear but also by large clockwise rotations of the material in eastern tibet the rate of eastward extrusion of material in eastern tibet relative to the tarim basin to its north is roughly 30 40 mm yr 1 fault plane solutions of earthquakes in the northern and eastern margins of tibet show large components of thrust faulting with the p axes oriented radially outward from the plateau and approximately perpendicular to the regional topographic contours of the plateau the orientation of this crustal shortening is northeast southwest on the northeastern margin east west on the eastern margin and northwest southeast in the longmenshan on the southeastern margin thus at least some of the extrusion of eastern tibet out of india s northward path into asia is absorbed by crustal shortening on the margins of the plateau the variation from normal faulting in the high tibetan plateau where elevations exceed 5000 m to dominantly strike slip faulting farther east where elevations are lower and then to thrust faulting on the margins of the plateau where elevations drop below 3000 m surely results at least in part from a decrease in the value of the vertical stress the magnitude of the east west compressive stress need not vary across the plateau

first paleomagnetic results from mio pliocene series of the hellenic sedimentary arc abstract paleomagnetic measurements have been conducted on the mio pliocene series along the external sedimentary hellenic arc in order to detect the presence or absence of rotational deformations in different sections of the arc in the central eastern part of the arc crete and rhodes paleomagnetic directions are very closely aligned along the north south direction showing that this portion of the arc has not undergone significant rotation since at least 7 m y for crete and 4 m y for rhodes in the western and northwestern parts results from south peloponnesos zakinthos kephallinia and corfu indicate that this section of the arc has undergone a clockwise rotation detailed analysis of the data from the three ionian islands shows that their rotation began about 5 m y b p and has proceeded since then at roughly 5 m y giving a total amplitude of about 26 it is suggested that the beginning of this rotation is related to the lower pliocene compressive phase which most probably initiated the tectonic activity of the present day ionian margin

eustatic and tectonic controls upon quaternary coastal sedimentation in the corinth basin greece the late quaternary sedimentology and palaeogeography of the corinth isthmus in central greece is re interpreted a series of beach to shoreface sub sequences are seen each characteristically having an overall fining up character these occur within a coastal facies belt which has prograded to the west computer modelling illustrates the interaction of tectonic displacements and eustatic sea level variation as controls of facies patterns late pleistocene holocene facies geometries are predicted on the basis of published sea level data over that time interval on coastlines undergoing tectonic uplift such as the isthmus of corinth depositional patterns may be characterized by transgressive wedges these sub sequences merge basinwards below sea level minima each transgression relates to a major eustatic sea level peak such first order models are modified by variations in the rate of tectonic deformation the second control on relative sea level position modelled facies patterns are tested on the basis of new 230 th 234 u dates obtained from sclerac tinian corals of the corinth canal area dated sub sequence sediments correspond in age to late pleistocene eustatic highs and observed facies patterns correlate with the major late pleistocene holocene eustatic transgressions of c 100 ka periodicity episodes of intrabasinal normal faulting are isolated from a structural history otherwise dominated by uplift across the isthmus quantification of post depositional vertical tectonic displacements is achieved constraining the eustatic base level at the time of deposition of a dated horizon by reference to the global late quaternary sea level curve the original depositional level is then subtracted from the present outcrop level using available 230 th 234 u dates to establish syn depositional base levels minimum uplift rates of the order of 0 3 m ka 1 are calculated across the area averaged through the late pleistocene and holocene

seismotectonics and the earthquake frequency magnitude distribution in the aegean area summary a study of aegean seismotectonics and the resulting frequency magnitude distribution on a broad scale is undertaken using the tectonic model of le pichon angelier this implies a tectonic moment release rate due to the spreading of the aegean of 17 8 times 1018 n m 1 yr 1 over the past 13 ma if stretching is due mainly to a series of normal faults dipping at about 45 in a seismogenic crust 10 20 km deep the moment magnitude relation from an instrumental magnitude catalogue is log m0 a bm with a 10 970 0 294 b 1 206 in si units this is established from 50 events of magnitude ms 5 3 whose scalar seismic moments m0 have been evaluated in a homogeneous manner for the region by spectral analysis of surface waves at 30 60 s period by contrast published body wave analyses from waveform modelling at 20 s period and moment tensor analyses seem to produce seismic moments which are lower by a factor of two or so on average this moment magnitude relation implies a seismogenic moment release rate due to stretching in the aegean of 14 times 1018 n m 1 yr 1 during the time period 1918 81 and 17 times 1018 n m 1 yr 1 for the period 1964 81 within a factor of two or so uncertainty this implies that the energy release in the brittle crust due to aegean spreading is substantially seismic within the stated accuracy and is also relatively stationary even when compared with the tectonic moment release rates a similar comparison using the same tectonic model shows that the subducting slab is sinking beneath the hellenic arc almost completely aseismically and that processes such as near vertical slab pull and confined thermal expansion could explain most of the observed seismic energy release by internal deformation of the slab the frequency magnitude statistics for the area of active extension has a characteristic earthquake of magnitude 7ms corresponding approximately to fault depths of 10 14 km for an aspect ratio of 2 and a strain drop of 10 4 this is close to the observed seismogenic depth 10 20 km for well determined earthquakes in the aegean area

active tectonics of the north and central aegean sea summary in this paper we examine the connection between the westward motion of turkey relative to europe and the extension in and around the aegean sea the principal new data available since the last attempt to synthesize the tectonics of this region by mckenzie 1978 are much improved focal mechanisms of earthquakes constrained by p and sh body wave modelling as well as by first motions these mechanisms show that the faulting in the western part of the aegean region is mostly extensional in nature on normal faults with a nw to wnw strike and with slip vectors directed nnw to nne there is evidence from palaeomagnetism that this western region rotates clockwise relative to stable europe in the central and eastern aegean and in nw turkey distributed right lateral strike slip is more prevalent on faults trending ne to ene and with slip vectors directed ne palaeomagnetic data in this eastern region is more ambiguous but consistent with very small or no rotations in the northern part and possibly anticlockwise rotations relative to europe in the south the strike slip faulting that enters the central aegean from the east appears to end abruptly in the sw against the nw trending normal faults of greece the kinematics of the deformation is controlled by three factors the westward motion of turkey relative to europe the continental collision between nw greece albania and the apulia adriatic platform in the west and the presence of the hellenic subduction zone to the south as the right lateral slip on the north anatolian fault enters the aegean region it splays out becoming distributed on several parallel faults the continental shortening in nw greece and albania does not allow the rotation of the western margin of the region to be rapid enough to accommodate this distributed e w right lateral shear and thus leads to e w shortening in the northern aegean which is compensated by n s extension as the southern aegean margin can move easily over the hellenic subduction zone the dynamics of the system once initiated is self sustaining being driven by the high topography in eastern turkey and by the roll back of the subducted slab beneath the southern aegean the geometry of the deformation resembles the behaviour of a system of broken slats attached to margins that rotate in spite of its extreme simplicity a simple model of such broken slats is able to reproduce quantitatively most of the features of the instantaneous velocity field in the aegean region including the slip vectors and nature of the faulting in the eastern and western parts the senses and approximate rates of rotation the overall extensional velocity across the aegean and the distribution of strain rates as seen in the seismicity and topography or bathymetry and using geodetic measurements as part of this study we re examined the relation between the surface faulting and the focal parameters determined seismologically for the three large 1981 gulf of corinth earthquakes and reassessed the evidence for associating particular earthquakes in the sequence with observed surface faulting an important result is that in one of the events there is a resolvable discrepancy between the slip vector measured at the surface and that determined from the seismic body waves

the 1978 earthquake sequence near thessaloniki northern greece summary this paper presents a detailed study of teleseismically and locally recorded foreshocks and aftershocks of the 1978 thessaloniki earthquake sequence and discusses the relations between the locations and mechanisms of these shocks and the three dimensional geometry of faulting in the source region sixteen teleseismically recorded events were relocated using a relative relocation method and positioned geographically using the accurate locally determined location of the largest aftershock all these shocks had depths shallower than 15 km the spatial distribution of the foreshocks showed that the activity was initiated at the central part of the epicentral region progressed westwards and for about 20 days clustered in the region of the imminent mainshock no teleseismically recorded foreshock was located west of the mainshock location in less than 1 hr after the mainshock large aftershocks occurred west of it and in later stages spanned the entire western part of the epicentral region no teleseismically recorded aftershocks were located east of the mainshock locally recorded aftershocks were accurately located and provided a more detailed picture of the seismic deformation they occurred at depths between 3 and 12 km and in three distinct clusters separated by well defined gaps the largest foreshock on may 23 had a moment of 5 6 1024dyne cm and a mean displacement of 31cm the mainshock on june 20 had a moment of 5 2 1025dyne cm a strain drop of 4 0 10 5 static stress drop of 12 bar and a mean displacement of 64 cm these values are for one of the two possible interpretations of the aftershock distribution which suggests that the largest earthquakes of the sequence occurred on two different but adjacent fault segments the first event 1 on may 23 occurred along the central fault segment and was followed 28 days later by the second event 2 on june 20 along a western fault segment finally 61 days later another smaller earthquake event 3 occurred along another fault east of event 1

the tertiary geodynamical evolution of the aegean arc a paleomagnetic reconstruction abstract the paleomagnetic results obtained in the last 5 6 years from tertiary formations in the aegean domain indicate that the lower miocene arc was almost rectilinear with an e w trend and that its curvature has been acquired tectonically in two major phases during the middle miocene a first phase of deformation is characterized by rotations occurring at the two terminations of the arc clockwise in the west epirus anticlockwise in the east southeastern anatolia a second phase of rotation occurring in the last 5 ma about a pole situated in the southern adriatic sea has affected only the northwestern part the data also indicate that the antalya basin has not been involved in the geodynamical evolution of the arc so that the bey daglari represent its easternmost unit a more complex rotational pattern is observed in the internal zones the large rotations measured in evia 48 and skyros 26 probably occurred in the last 5 ma and result from rotation of fault bounded blocks in a shear zone connecting the north aegean trough to the external arc in the izmir region in the karaburun peninsula of western anatolia and in the island of lesbos significant counterclockwise clockwise or null rotations of coherent blocks have taken place during the neotectonic extensional regime furthermore the values of the inclination obtained from both sedimentary and volcanic oligo miocene formations are systematically shallower than expected on the basis of a geocentered dipole field this suggests that the entire studied area has undergone a northward drift of over 1000 km since the middle miocene

subsidence of the north aegean trough an alternative view the north aegean trough is a zone of deep water trending from northeast to southwest across the n aegean sea the western part of the trough the sporadhes basin contains a thick sequence of late cenozoic sediments le pichon et al 1984 suggested that the sporadhes basin coincides with a zone of extreme lithospheric stretching and that the crustal thickness is locally reduced to only 15 km we argue that the geophysical evidence cited by le pichon et al can be equally well explained by a crustal model involving a much smaller amount of local crustal thinning

regional state of stress and characteristic fault kinematics instabilities shown by aftershock sequences the aftershock sequences of the 1978 thessaloniki greece and 1980 campania lucania italia earthquakes as examples abstract usual analysis of fault kinematics in terms of stress supposes that the slip occurs in the direction of the shear stress resolved on the fault plane due to an homogeneous state of stress however as a block moves this yields perturbations of the static stress conditions the resulting displacement may produce interactions of blocks and may induce complex fault motions such as those demonstrated by the aftershock sequences of the thessaloniki and campania lucania earthquakes each of which shows a main group of focal mechanisms whose normal fault motions are modelled using a stress deviator tm in agreement both with the motion of the main seismic fault and with the regional stress pattern deduced from quarternary and recent faults it is therefore considered as representative of the mean state of stress acting in the epicentral area but two other families of fault motions are also demonstrated one shows reverse motions explained by a compressional stress deviator tc the other involving normal motions is explained by a tensional stress deviator te these deviators are not representative of the mean regional state of stress the compressional 1 axis of tc and the tensional 3 axis of te are roughly orthogonal to the 3 axis of the mean state of stress tm these tc and te deviators may be deduced from the mean state of stress tm by adding respectively td1 and td2 deviators to this latter this means that on each fault plane having a reverse c or a normal e motion this motion may be deduced from the normal kinematics m it should have occurred in the mean regional state of stress tm by adding local pushes d1 and d2 respectively the deviator td2 being nearly axisymmetric around a vertical 3 axis the local reverse pushes d1 are nearly dip slip and td2 having a high angle dipping 2 axis the local pushes d2 are essentially strike slip approximated solutions of these td1 and td2 deviators have been calculated by taking tm td1 tc and tm td2 te the mean state of stress tm being divided into two parts tv and ts which respectively produce the dip slip and essentially strike slip components of the stress resolved on the fault plane a first approximation of the data shows that td1 kv tv and td2 ks ts with kv and ks equal to 2 this approximation supposes that tm tc and te are coaxial and that td1 and td2 are respectively axisymmetric around the vertical 3 axis and planar in the horizontal plane actually the data give kv 2 and ks in the order of 4 5 it is suggested that the local reverse and strike slip pushes are induced by the reaction of the rocky body surrounding small blocks moving as a consequence of a motion on a major fault particularly as there are incompatibilities of motion of adjacent small blocks however data are not sufficient to demonstrate the mechanical and geometric conditions which control the observed different behaviors of the small seismic faults numerical simulations or experiments could probably precise these conditions whatever under certain conditions the stable solution m is replaced by kinematics instabilities e and c however it is usually observed that faults studied in the field in a simple way often yield a single stress deviator this is probably due to the nature of the measured striations which are often growth fibers and oblique stylolithes resulting from creep fault motions in this case incompatibilities of block motions are probably accommodated by a pressure dissolution phenomena therefore it is suggested that the bifurcation parameter which controls the occurrence of the characteristic instabilities possibly depends on a ratio of the deformation rate versus the pressure dissolution rate of the material a question remains unanswered are these instabilities scale invariant or is there a changeover in the behavior between minor and major faults

physical properties and state of the crust and upper mantle of the eastern mediterranean sea deduced from geophysical data abstract by evaluating the geophysical information available for the eastern mediterranean sea ems a crustal thickness map and some conclusions as to the nature of the crustal type were drawn it was found that the ionian abyssal plain is floored by an oceanic type of crust which is 14 km thick and covered by sediments of the order of 8 km thick the herodotus abyssal plain in the levantine sea is floored by a crust 22 km thick and covered by sediments ranging between 10 and 15 km thick the eastern mediterranean rise extending more or less continuously from the apulian plateau to rhodes and the south of the antalya basin is of a thickness ranging between 28 and 34 km the thickness of its sedimentary cover is of the order of 10 km the borders of the eastern mediterranean sea are built up of thick continental crust for example the hellenides of western greece range between 40 and 44 km thick and western turkey has a similar crustal thickness the crust of sicily also exceeds 40 km whereas the southern and eastern borders of the ems are approximately 30 32 km thick tectonically the northern border of the ems is built up of active continental margins defined by the calabrian hellenic and cyprus antalya arcs whereas the southern border represents a passive continental margin controlled mainly by subsidence and stretching to the east the dead sea megashear limits the area the deep basins of the eastern mediterranean sea are tectonically controlled by subsidence and partial stretching the mediterranean ridge or rise is still an area of dispute regarded by some authors as a subsiding continental fragment and separated from the hellenic arc by the hellenic trench whereas others consider it to be a zone of crustal shortening thickened mainly by thrusting both the western and southwestern borders of the mediterranean rise and the hellenides are controlled by compressional processes similar to those deforming the calabrian arc the stravo and pliny trenches to the east southeast border of the hellenic arc are partly affected by strike slip movements various plate tectonic models of the area have been proposed by several authors though the complexity of the deformation hardly permits reliable reconstructions the lack of reliable paleomagnetic information and the absence of linear magnetic anomalies do not favour the application of plate tectonic concepts vertical processes due to the uprising of lithothermal systems below the hellenic and calabrian arcs may also be regarded as the driving force controlling the present day deformation

first paleomagnetic results from neocene formations in evia skyros and the volos region and the deformation of central aegea paleomagnetic results from neogene volcanic and sedimentary formations in central aegea indicate that evia and skyros have undergone a 48 and 26 clockwise rotation respectively the volos region does not show any significant rotation in the last 3 ma the rotation of evia is about twice as large as the one measured from coeval formations in the external hellenic arc the results are interpreted in terms of a published model of distributed deformation by faulting which also provides an explanation for the significant differential rotation of evia and skyros

isotope geochemistry of recent magmatism in the aegean arc sr nd hf and o isotopic ratios in the lavas of milos and santorini geodynamic implications in this comparative study of variations in the isotopic compositions sr nd o and hf of the calc alkaline magmas of the largest two volcanoes milos and santorini of the aegean arc eastern mediterranean we demonstrate the complexity of the processes governing the evolution of the magmas on the scale both of the arc and of each volcano on santorini the crustal contamination processes have been limited effecting the magma gradually during its differentiation the most differentiated lavas rhyodacite and pumice are also the most contaminated on milos by contrast these processes are very extensive they are expressed in the143nd 144nd vs 87sr 86sr diagram as a continuous mixing curve between a mantle and a crustal end member pole defined by schists and metavolcanic rocks outcropping on these volcanoes in contrast with santorini the least differentiated lavas on milos are the most contaminated these isotopic singularities can be correlated with the geodynamic evolution of the aegean subduction zone consisting of alternating tectonic phases of distension and compression the genesis of rhyolitic magmas can be linked to the two phases of distension and the contamination of the calc alkaline mantle derived magmas with the intermediate compressive phase the isotopic characteristics of uncontaminated calc alkaline primitive magmas of milos and santorini are directly comparable to those of magmas generated in subduction zones for which a contribution of subducted sediments to partial melts from the mantle is suggested such as in the aleutian sunda and lesser antilles island arcs however in spite of the importance of the sediment pile in the eastern mediterranen oceanic crust 6 10 km the contribution of the subducted terrigenous materials remains of limited amplitude

neotectonics of the marmara sea region of turkey seismological investigations in western anatolia nw turkey have identified linear patterns of earthquake epicentres outlining a wedge shaped block in the area of the marmara sea this block shows different seismic characteristics from the rest of western anatolia and appears to act as a separate tectonic unit earthquake fault plane mechanisms show that the marmara block is being rotated and sheared in order to accommodate the right lateral motion of the north anatolian fault and the extensional tectonics of the southwestern anatolia investigations of the behaviour of seismic shear waves suggest that neotectonic stress aligns water filled microcracks throughout the upper brittle 10 20 km of the crust and that in situ stress directions can be monitored by analysis of shear waves recorded on three component instuments

active faulting and block rotations in the western transverse ranges california the geometry of faulting slip vectors of major earthquakes and results of very long baseline interferometry vbli are consistent with active clockwise rotation of crustal blocks in the western transverse ranges about vertical axes oblique left lateral thrust faults trending roughly east west across the western transverse ranges apparently separate long east west blocks of upper crust and the large components of lea lateral shear on east striking planes suggest that the blocks rotate with respect to the san andreas fault in the mojave region between the western transverse ranges and the mojave desert paleomagnetic declinations indicate some 35 and possibly 60 of clockwise rotation since about 10 ma and more importantly the relative velocity between the only two frequently measured vbli sites in the western transverse ranges is consistent with a rotation rate of 6 ma 3 ma during a 5 year period in the 1980s azimuths of slip vectors of major earthquakes are essentially orthogonal to the segment of the san andreas fault across the western mojave desert indicating that crustal shortening across the region is absorbed by crustal thickening and not by lateral translation extension of material parallel to that segment of the fault plate motions late quaternary offsets on the san andreas and san jacinto faults and geodetic measurements in the mojave region yield a calculated direction of relative motion between the san gabriel mountains and the pacific plate across the western transverse ranges that also is perpendicular to the san andreas fault in the mojave region rotation rates associated with simple mechanisms for applying essentially normal tractions to the lateral margins of blocks are not consistent with the observed geometry of faulting and with average rotation rates the rotation rate of 2 8 5 3 ma calculated assuming that the long east west blocks rotate in response to a uniform compression of a viscous substratum to the western transverse ranges however overlaps the range of observed average rotation rates thus the hypothesis that blocks of continental crust move as if carried passively by a substratum undergoing continuous deformation passes one test that can be made of it

normal faulting in the upper continental crust observations from regions of active extension abstract observations of present day normal faulting in regions of active continental extension may be helpful when interpreting the geological record in older extensional basins the most obvious manifestation of active extension is normal faulting in earthquakes earthquake foci are mostly confined to the upper seismogenic continental crust whose thickness imposes a scale on the observed deformation large earthquakes move faults with lengths similar or large compared with the thickness of the seismogenic layer large seismogenic normal faults on the continents appear to be restricted to a dip range of around 30 60 dips significantly gentler than 20 have not been observed in fault plane solutions of large earthquakes large seismographic normal faults are approximately planar in cross section and cut through the base of the upper seismogenic layer rotating about a horizontal axis as they move a reasonable estimate of the regional extension can often be made from the dip of the large normal faults and the tilt of the blocks they bound the domino model such faults are rarely continuous for more than 15 20 km but commonly change strike or step in an en echelon fashion this segmentation may occur on a scale controlled by the thickness of the seismogenic layer and is an important influence on sedimentation and drainage these observations are common to large seismogenic normal faults from a variety of tectonic settings and suggest that the kinematics of normal faulting may not be strongly influenced by the forces responsible for the extension which can vary widely in nature and magnitude small earthquakes which move faults that are small compared with the seismogenic layer thickness show no simple pattern and often can be interpreted as internal deformation of blocks bounded by large faults in some places the seismogenic basement faults do not reach the surface but are decoupled from the sedimentary cover by layers of weak lithology faults in the sedimentary cover may be strongly curved in cross section requiring their hangingwalls to deform internally estimating extension from such faults is not straightforward and requires a knowledge of the hangingwall deformation estimates made in this way are often very non unique and prone to large errors we postulate that the thickness of the seismogenic upper crust controls both the maximum length of large normal fault segments along strike and the maximum size of blocks that can rotate coherently about a horizontal axis

tectonics and sedimentation in the gulf of corinth and the zakynthos and kefallinia channels western greece abstract single channel seismic reflection profiling data are presented from the gulf of corinth and from the continental margin outside the gulf of patras different tectonic styles are exhibited in the two regions the gulf of corinth is occupied by a complex asymmetrical graben structure with major faults trending nearly perpendicular to the local tectonic zones of the internal hellenides the gulf is interpreted to have formed during the quaternary in response to approximately north south extensional stress the deep floor of the gulf is underlain by a sequence of turbidites up to 1 km thick affected by normal growth faulting that extends up to the sea floor the sea areas inside the ionian islands of zakynthos and kefallinia zakynthos and kefallinia channels occupy a broad structural depression that trends parallel to the local tectonic zones of the external hellenides and is situated on the continental side of the strophades continental margin rise the channels contain local nw se trending structural basins zakynthos and kefallinia basins whose geometry is controlled by reverse faults or thrusts with associated diapirism in triassic evaporites hydra bank is interpreted as a tilted fault block with a diapiric core and its faulted western margin can be traced into the zone of thrusting and diapirism in southeast kefallinia at the boundary between the ionian and pre apulian paxos zones of the external hellinides the zakynthos and kefallinia structural basins are filled with a variety of sediments including prodeltaic deposits in front of the modern delta complex of the acheloos river slumped masses and debris flow deposits and in the zakynthos basin occasional turbidites the boundary separating zones of extensional and compressional focal mechanisms for shallow earthquakes crosses the gulf of patras the inner part of which exhibits wnw ese trending graben tectonics apparently related to the gulf of corinth tectonic province onshore neotectonic studies around the gulf of patras are required in order to understand the nature and cause of the westward tectonic transition from wnw ese graben structures in the gulfs of corinth and patras to nw se oriented zones of subsidence with associated compressional tectonics and diapirism in the zakynthos and kefallinia channels

seismic evidence for conjugate slip and block rotation within the san andreas fault system southern california the pattern of seismicity in southern california indicates that much of the activity is presently occurring on secondary structures several of which are oriented nearly orthogonal to the strikes of the major through going faults slip along these secondary transverse features is predominantly left lateral and is consistent with the reactivation of conjugate faults by the current regional stress field near the intersection of the san jacinto and san andreas faults however these active left lateral faults appear to define a set of small crustal blocks which in conjunction with both normal and reverse faulting earthquakes suggests contemporary clockwise rotation as a result of regional right lateral shear other left lateral faults representing additional rotating block systems are identified in adjacent areas from geologic and seismologic data many of these structures predate the modern san andreas system and may control the pattern of strain accumulation in southern california geodetic and paleomagnetic evidence confirm that block rotation by strike slip faulting is nearly ubiquitous particularly in areas where shear is distributed and that it accommodates both short term elastic and long term nonelastic strain a rotating block model accounts for a number of structural styles characteristic of strike slip deformation in california including variable slip rates and alternating transtensional and transpressional features observed along strike of major wrench faults domains of evenly spaced antithetic faults that terminate against major fault boundaries continued development of bends in faults with large lateral displacements anomalous focal mechanisms and differential uplift in areas otherwise expected to experience extension and subsidence since block rotation requires a detachment surface at depth to permit rotational movement low angle structures like detachments of either local or regional extent may be involved in the contemporary strike slip deformation of southern california a block nature of the crust also implies that not only will strains be inhomogeneous and likely concentrated along edge bounding faults but that local stress orientations will largely be responding to local kinematic constraints of block rotation and fault interaction this behavior coupled with the presence of possible regional detachments accounts for some of the precursory changes observed at considerable distances prior to large earthquakes and the triggering of seismicity or slip on nearby faults or around adjacent block edges although fault displacements along secondary structures associated with block rotations remain small they may still influence the nucleation and the characteristic rupture length of large earthquakes a more complete description of what these structures are and how they interact may prove critical to any fundamental understanding of the earthquake process and any realistic assessment of the regional seismic hazard

the tectonic development of the hellenic arc and the sea of crete a synthesis abstract we use field analyses together with interpretation of aerial photographs orbital imagery and sea beam data to define more accurately the geometry of fault systems in the hellenic arc the tectonics of the area are dominated by extensional processes related to normal faulting we then use sea beam data previous oceanographic studies and extrapolation of field analyses on surrounding islands to describe the fault pattern of the cretan sea basin which is found consistent with the land fault pattern the mechanisms of the late neogene and quaternary deformation of the central and southern aegean region are analysed in terms of stress trajectories as revealed by field studies of fault populations we then examine the subsidence of the sea of crete in terms of a model of uniform stretching of the lithosphere the opening of the sea of crete was cylindrical and did not result in bending of crete this leads us to modify the southern portion of an earlier kinematic reconstruction of aegea in agreement with recent paleomagnetic results the implications of the opening of the sea of crete on the tectonic evolution of the straits to the west and east of crete are discussed finally the uplift of the outer arc is explained by underplating due to subduction

evidence of bias in estimations of earthquake size magnitudes of earthquakes determined using traditional methods show systematic deviations dependent on tectonic setting from accurate estimates of earthquake size magnitudes are overestimated for most of the continental earthquakes underestimated for mid oceanic ridges and differences of varying sign are obtained for subduction zones this is important in evaluating the seismic risk or consideration of effects such as the seismic versus aseismic strain release as seismic moments determined from magnitudes can be wrong by as much as a factor of four

the seismicity geomorphology and structural evolution of the corinth area of greece in the eastern gulf of corinth geological structure is closely reflected in the topography in the 1981 corinth earthquakes ground deformation accentuated existing geomorphological patterns we explore the relationship between seismicity and landforms in space and time the area examined extends beyond the epicentral region of the 1981 events and its evolution is traced over the last 40000 years to understand the relation between deep and superficial structures we discuss processes that occurred in the 1981 earthquakes and go on to propose that surface faulting appears only above linear faults at depth that move in earthquakes with magnitudes m s greater than six where faults at depth intersect or bend the faulting becomes distributed and prim ary faulting does not reach the surface here the surface manifestation of faulting at depth is surface folding and secondary faulting such regions are identified in maps of the eastern gulf of corinth evidence for the evolution of the fault systems is provided by eyewitness accounts of shoreline changes following the recent earthquakes historical and archaeological data pertaining to old sea levels and 14 c dates for molluscs collected from fossil shorelines the results of these studies broadly confirm an earlier view of j a jackson et al earth planet sci lett 57 377 397 1982 that motion has shifted from faulting south of the city of corinth to faulting in the perachora peninsula but the transfer is not complete areas lying between the two fault systems have moved up and down in historical and archaeological times indicating that both systems are still active the evidence for activity of the northern system points to a repeat time of 300 years for earthquakes com parable with those of 1981 the work discussed in this paper suggests that some of the features previously described as m arine terraces are fault controlled continental surfaces furtherm ore beach deposits at a num ber of different levels long regarded as successive shorelines are in fact contemporaneous the critical ages were obtained by radiocarbon dating of shell carbonate a technique which yields dependable results if applied to samples which have been carefully selected and pretreated palaeontological dating of the terraces in contrast is found to be misleading because the faunas are environm entally controlled and consequently diachronous

the structure of titan s atmosphere from cassini radio occultations occultations from the prime and equinox missions abstract we present the results of six soundings of the atmosphere of titan by the radio occultation technique using the cassini spacecraft currently in orbit around saturn these occultations occurred during four separate targeted titan encounters in both the prime and equinox missions of cassini over 3 years they cover a wide range of latitude from 75 s to 79 n split so that three soundings are in the northern hemisphere and three are in the southern hemisphere techniques and error analysis are similar to schinder et al 2011 the six temperature altitude profiles presented here are compared to those earlier results of special interest is the sudden cooling observed at altitudes of 80 100 km in the two high northern winter soundings at 74 n and 80 n where the temperature drops by about 10 k over the course of 20 km the northern profiles also exhibit a transition between the troposphere and stratosphere that is much more abrupt than in the south and the northern tropopause temperatures are much cooler

the geometrical evolution of normal fault systems abstract the purpose of this paper is to examine the kinematic behaviour of normal fault systems and see what general conditions govern their geometrical evolution we pay particular attention to seismological and surface data from regions of present day active normal faulting as the instantaneous three dimensional geometry at the time of fault movement is better known in active regions than in areas where the faults are now static most normal faults are concave upward or listric this shape can be produced by geometric constraints either because the faults reactivate curved thrusts or because they must be curved to accommodate rotations another effect which will produce curved faults is the variation of rheology with depth brittle failure at shallow depths produces less fault rotation than does distributed creep in the lower part of the crust an important geometric feature of normal faulting is the uplift of the footwall the amount of such uplift is related not only to the elastic properties of the lithosphere but also to the throw and dip of the fault a striking feature of active normal faults is that they occur in groups in which all the faults dip in the same direction this behaviour arises because the faults cannot intersect if they do one must cease to be active the rotation which such fault systems produce reduces the dip of the faults until a new steeply dipping fault is formed once a new fault cuts pre existing faults the earlier faults become locked and a new set of faults must propagate rapidly across the whole region involved many of these geometric constraints also apply to thrust faulting

a block model of distributed deformation by faulting it is clear from palaeomagnetic evidence that large and hitherto unexpected rotations about a vertical axis are common in regions of distributed continental deformation we propose a simple two dimensional model to illustrate how fault movement and block rotation within a zone of distributed deformation may be related to the relative motion of the rigid plates that bound the zone one surprizing feature of this model is that the component of strike slip motion on the faults within the deforming zone is in the opposite sense to the strike slip component across the zone as a whole thus slip vectors within the zone are not the same as that between the bounding rigid plates in contrast to deformation at oceanic plate boundaries examples of active fault geometries similar to those of our model can be seen in greece iran and the western usa

the relationship between strain rates crustal thickening palaeomagnetism finite strain and fault movements within a deforming zone the deformation of continental lithosphere generally does not occur on a single fault but is distributed over a zone up to a few hundred kilometers wide if the deformation rate is constant throughout the zone and if the velocity is continuous everywhere and does not change with time the deformation gradient tensor can be obtained analytically this tensor directly determines the amount of crustal thickening and is related in a complicated manner to the finite strain tensor the declination of remnant magnetization measured within the zone can also be rotated by the deformation because palaeomagnetic measurements are generally made on rigid blocks which have not been deformed there is no simple relationship between such rotations and the finite strain expressions for all these quantities are obtained in terms of the velocity gradients which are taken to be constant the history of western north america is used to illustrate the relationship between the present deformation by strike slip and thrust motions the rotations of the remnant magnetization vectors and the shape of accreted terranes at the surface distributed deformation is taken up by motion on faults which separate the zone into blocks the displacement rate on the faults their strike and the finite rotations of the blocks are all controlled by the velocity gradients analytic expressions relating these quantities are obtained a deforming zone containing normal faults which crosses central greece takes up both strike slip and extension and illustrates the relationship between the structures within and the motion across the zone a similar but more complicated zone in northeastern iran involves both strike slip and shortening

the caucasus an actual example of the initial stages of continental collision abstract a field study of the neotectonics of the georgian caucasus is combined with geophysical geodetic and geological information in order to obtain a mechanical model of actual deformation the analysis of satellite photos together with topographical and geological maps shows that the great caucasus is bisected by a nne trending sinistral strike slip fault zone the western great caucasus is thrusted to the south over the rioni basin while on the other hand its northern flank is a monocline that descends gently into the russian platform active volcanism is present from elbruz to kazbeg the eastern great caucasus is limited by thrusts to the north and to the south and intermediate structures are disposed in a fan like shape no recent volcanism is observed the eastern limit of the chain is a nnw trending dextral strike slip fault zone seismicity from a local network illustrates the activity of the thrusts and gives evidence for the strike slip faults microtectonic data confirm the recent activity and the sinistral character of the borjomi kazbeg strike slip fault the strike slip faults bordering the eastern caucasus may be seen as the limits of a plastic wedge in front of the arabian plate at an early stage of continental collision

active tectonics of the alpine himalayan belt between western turkey and pakistan summary over 80 new fault plane solutions combined with satellite imagery as well as both modern and historical observations of earthquake faulting are used to investigate the active tectonics of the middle east between western turkey and pakistan the deformation of the western part of this region is dominated by the movement of continental material laterally away from the lake van region in eastern turkey this movement helps to avoid crustal thickening in the van region and allows some of the shortening between arabia and eurasia to be taken up by the thrusting of continental material over oceanic type basement in the southern caspian mediterranean makran and black sea thus central turkey bounded by the north and east anatolian strike slip faults is moving west from the van region and overrides the eastern mediterranean at two intermediate depth seismic zones one extending between antalya bay and southern cyprus and the other further west in the hellenic trench the motion of northern iran eastwards from the van region is achieved mainly by a conjugate system of strike slip faults and leads to the low angle thrusting of iran over the southern caspian sea the seismicity of the caucasus shows predominantly shortening perpendicular to the regional strike but there is also some minor elongation along the strike of the belt as the causcasus overrides the caspian and black seas the deformation of the eastern part of this region is dominated by the shortening of iran against the stable borders of turkmenistan and afghanistan the north east direction of compression seen in zagros is also seen in north east iran and the kopet dag where the shortening is taken up by a combination of strike slip and thrust faulting large structural as well as palaeomagnetic rotations are likely to have occurred in ne iran as a result of this style of deformation north south strike slip faults in southern iran allow some movement of material away from the collision zone in ne iran towards the makran subduction zone where genuinely intermediate depth seismicity is seen within this broad deforming belt large areas such as central turkey nw iran azerbaijan central iran and the southern caspian appear to be almost aseismic and therefore to behave as relatively rigid blocks surrounded by active belts 200 300 km wide the motion of these blocks can usefully be described by poles of rotation the poles presented in this paper predict motions consistent with those observed and also predict the opening of the gulf of iskenderun ne of cyprus the change within the zagros mountains from strike slip faulting in the nw to intense thrusting in the se and the relatively feeble seismicity in se iran baluchistan this description also explains why the north south structures along the iran afghanistan border do not cut the east west ranges of the makran within the active belts surrounding the relatively aseismic blocks a continuum approach is needed for a description of the deformation even though motions at the surface may be concentrated on faults the evolution of fault systems within the active zones is controlled by geometric constraints such as the requirement that simultaneously active faults do not in general intersect many of the active processes discussed in this paper particularly large scale rotations and lateral movement along the regional strike are likely to have caused substantial complexities in older mountain belts and should be accounted for in any reconstructions of them

source parameters of seven large australian earthquakes determined by body waveform inversion summary we determine source mechanisms and centroid depths for the seven largest earthquakes in and near the australian continent in the past 20yr using teleseismic body waves six of the earthquakes were thrusts and one was strike slip all five earthquakes that occurred beneath the continent were shallower than 10 km the ranges of centroid depths are constrained to be 1 5 2 4 0 3 5 11 and 6 10km and indicate nearly pure thrust faulting the three shallowest events were associated with surface faulting while the published first motion solutions for these three events included large amounts of strike slip our thrust mechanisms are more consistent with displacements observed at the surface of the earth the range of possible centroid depths for a strike slip earthquake beneath the continental shelf off the northwest coast is 23 29 km and that for a thrust earthquake in oceanic lithosphere beneath the tasman sea is 22 26 km below sea level the pressure axis is consistently near horizontal and in the western half of the continent five earthquakes indicate that the azimuth of the maximum compressive stress is e ene azimuthal range of 66 91 on the basis of one earthquake we conclude that the p axis is oriented nnw beneath the tasman sea

a study of the 1980 summer seismic sequence in the magnesia region of central greece summary properties of the seismic sequence foreshocks and aftershocks of the 1980 july 9 m 6 5 earthquake in the magnesia region of central greece are investigated fault plane solutions of the three major shocks of the sequence distribution of epicentres geological data and field observations show that the seismic fault is a normal trending ene wsw and dipping sse evidence that its dip angle decreases with depth is presented the parameter b in the frequency magnitude relation was found equal to 0 84 for the foreshocks and equal to 1 28 for the aftershocks while the decay parameter p of the time distribution of the aftershock frequency was found equal to 0 72 the frequency of foreshocks which started on july 4 increased till july 6 but after that decreased till the occurrence of the main shock while their average magnitude decreased continuously between july 4 and 9 a striking similarity between the focal properties of shocks of this sequence and of shocks of two other sequences which occurred in 1978 and 1981 in the back arc aegean area is attributed to tensional forces acting in this area since the middle pleistocene

a continuum model of continental deformation above subduction zones application to the andes and the aegean large scale continental tectonics of back arc extensional and andean type compressional environments are investigated by using the thin viscous sheet model to calculate the deformation within continental lithosphere that is subjected to horizontal forces on its plate boundaries and to basal drag from the asthenospheric flow beneath the shear tractions acting on the base of a deformable lithosphere are derived from a corner flow model that assumes a rigid subducting plate and a deformable overlying plate because the calculated shear tractions and the deformation within the overlying plate are interdependent the corner flow and the thin viscous sheet models are solved simultaneously we use a perturbation method to obtain analytical solutions for the velocity and strain rate fields within the overlying continental lithosphere the solutions depend on the angle of subduction the dimensionless thickness of the lithosphere and the ratio of asthenospheric to lithospheric viscosities which governs the viscous coupling between the asthenosphere and the lithosphere calculations are compared with observations from the andes and the aegean our results explain some of the features of the deformation in these regions that have heretofore not been explained by other models our model predicts that in a compressional environment a broad region of uplifted topography will tend to develop above a more steeply dipping slab 30o rather than above a shallower slab 10o 15o this is in accord with observations in the various segments of the central andes for an extensional environment the model predicts that a zone of compression can develop near the trench and that extensional strain rate can increase with distance from the trench as is observed in the aegean we also estimate the effective viscosities of 102o pa s for the asthenosphere 2x 1021 pa s for the aegean lithosphere and 1022 pa s for the andean lithosphere

the terraces of corinth gerrce a detailed record of eustatic sea level variations during the last 500 000 years abstract between corinth and xylokastro 20 marine terraces reflect the interaction of the northern peloponnese uplift and the global eustatic sea level fluctuations during the last 500 000 years correlation of the terraces with oxygen isotope records in deep sea cores allowed accurate dating of these fossilized transgressive shorelines curves of altitude versus age have been plotted they show a regular decrease of the uplift rate and a frequent return of the sea level very close to the present day one not only during the interglacial periods 5 7 9 11 13 but also during glacial periods 3 1 3 3 6 8 the alternative would be to suppose very complicated and highly improbable vertical movements of the substratum to explain the regularity of the curves the rhythm of these high sea levels is around 20 30 ka since at least 330 000 years ago

geodetic determination of tectonic deformation in central greece from 1900 to 1988 the global positioning system has been used to measure the relative displacements of fifteen monuments in a hundred year old triangulation network spanning part of the aegean extensional basin these displacements reflect the tectonic deformation of the region over the past century showing more than one metre of north south extension across the network the crust in this region appears to contain a few slowly deforming blocks separated by more rapidly deforming zones

the neotectonics of the aegean an alternative view minor reverse faults in widely dispersed neogene outcrops in the central aegean have led several people to suggest that the regional extension which started in the lower pliocene or earlier was interrupted by short periods of compression the durations of these postulated compressional episodes are short compared to the time scale on which convective forces acting on the base of the lithosphere can change thus possible mechanisms for driving such motions are limited in this paper we offer alternative explanations for these observations and in particular show that these apparently compressional episodes are probably not regional in extent and may not be truly compressional in origin in some places they are more likely to be a consequence of the considerable rotation that is found in extensional terranes the plio quaternary paleogeography of the central aegean is satisfactorily explained by uplift in the footwall blocks of normal faults and does not require regional compression studies of the faulting associated with recent large earthquakes suggest that the sort of microtectonic analysis which is typically carried out on small faults in surficial sediments is more likely to reflect the internal deformation of blocks bounded by major fault structures than be a reliable indicator of regional stress patterns

testing fault models with numerical simulation example from central california abstract stress distribution in faulted areas is often calculated and used to assess the potential of regional seismic hazard yet the result of the calculation may strongly depend on the modeled fault configuration thus it is important to assess the accuracy of the assumed fault configuration for a specific faulted area two distinct tectonic models have been proposed for central california in one model a master detachment is assumed to be present below the seismogenic layer which connects the san andreas fault and the other faults in the system in another no basal detachment is assumed how significant are the different models in predicting seismic hazards in california to what extent are geodetic data useful in distinguishing these models in this paper we report the results from a 3d finite element analysis of stress and deformation in a crust containing a straight transform fault bordered by two thrust faults which is intended to simulate a segment of the san andreas fault system in central california significant results are 1 the different models predict notably different states of stresses thus notably different seismic potentials and 2 the differences in the predicted surface deformation between the two models are smaller than the current gps resolution

seismicity and associated strain of central greece between 1890 and 1988 summary we examined the seismicity of central greece between 1890 and 1988 using macroseismic and instrumental data to ask two questions 1 does the seismicity of this period reveal all the major tectonic structures that are known to be active and 2 what are the likely strains associated with the seismicity over this period many known active structures have been effectively aseismic for the last hundred years and even the inclusion of all known large events earlier than 1890 reveals no activity associated with the ne coast of evia gulf of argos or graben ne of mt parnassos it is clear that even 100 years data are inadequate for either a reasonable assessment of seismic risk or for a confident estimation of maximum magnitude however we are aware of no earthquakes in central greece during the last 200 yr that were larger than ms 7 0 it is probable that the maximum magnitude is restricted by the maximum length of fault segments which appears to be around 15 20 km the earthquakes of ms 5 8 during 1890 1988 can account for a n s displacement of around 45 70 cm with maximum and minimum estimates a factor of two greater and smaller than this across part of a 1890 1900 triangulation network in central greece that was resurveyed in 1988 the contribution of smaller events may increase this displacement by about 50 per cent this cumulative seismic displacement is similar to that estimated from the geodetic work about 100 cm but a detailed comparison of the two sets of observations will be reported elsewhere a re evaluation of all the important earthquakes of 1890 1988 in central greece is presented in the appendix which summarizes information of use to both earth scientists and engineers

earthquake mechanisms in the hellenic trench near crete summary in the hellenic trench south of crete convergence between the southern aegean sea and africa occurs at a rate of at least 60 mm yr 1 previously published first motion fault plane solutions show a variety of different fault orientations and types but are not well constrained furthermore the lack of reliable focal depths for these earthquakes has obscured any simple pattern of deformation that might exist nonetheless the mechanisms of these earthquakes have strongly influenced views of the tectonics in the hellenic trench we have improved estimates of the fault parameters and focal depths for 14 of these earthquakes using long period p and sh waveforms the earthquake mechanisms fall into four groups a normal faults with a n s strike in the over riding material above the subduction zone b low angle thrusts with an e w strike at a depth of about 40 km c high angle reverse faults with the same strike but shallower focal depths than b d events within the suducting lithosphere with approximately e w p axes the thrusting in groups b and c is probably the mechanism by which the sediments of the mediterranean sea underplate and uplift crete these events have slip vectors in the direction 025 12 which represents the convergence direction between crete and africa along the sw facing boundary of the hellenic trench one of the events in group d occurred beneath the mediterranean ridge and involved high angle reverse faulting with a wnw ese p axis almost perpendicular to the direction of shortening deduced from folds at the surface the mediterranean sea floor in this region appears to be in a state of e w compression for reasons that are not clear

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

length scales for continental deformation in convergent divergent and strike slip environments analytical and approximate solutions for a thin viscous sheet model the deformation of a thin viscous layer that has a moving boundary is investigated for comparison with zones of deformation in the continental lithosphere exact analytical solutions for the case of a newtonian fluid and approximate solutions for the case of fluid with power law rheology show that when the imposed velocity vector is normal to the boundary congressional or extensional regime the deformation field decays away from the boundary with a characteristic length scale 1 3 to 1 10 the wavelength of the imposed boundary velocity distribution for n between 1 and 10 where n is the stress strain exponent in the rheology in contrast when the imposed velocity vector is parallel to the boundary transcurrent regime the length scale of the deformation field is approximately 4 times smaller in each case these length scales decrease approximately as n the difference in length scales arises even in the absence of any buoyancy forces acting on thickened or thinned crust such forces would modify the ratio of length scales but not sufficiently to affect this result

active tectonics of the eastern sunda and banda arcs the tectonics of the eastern sunda and banda arcs of eastern indonesia are inferred from the centroid depths seismic moments and fault plane solutions of 63 large earthquakes that occurred between 1962 and 1984 source parameters are estimated by inverting long period teleseismic p and sh waves earthquakes show that the collision of the australian continent with the banda arc shortens the upper plate beneath the forearc and back arc basin over the broad area between the timor and seram troughs along the eastern end of the sunda arc and along the southern banda arc earthquakes reveal that the arc and forearc respond to collision by shortening in the direction of convergence by elongating in the direction perpendicular to convergence and by thrusting over the back arc basin shallow thrust and strike slip earthquakes beneath the banda basin the back arc basin demonstrate that deformation within the back arc accommodates some of the northward motion of the australian continent the rate of north south shortening of the entire upper plate at the longitude of timor calculated from the seismic moments of the earthquakes over the 22 year period is roughly 20 of the predicted convergence rate between australia and southeast asia strike slip faulting within the banda basin results also in eastward motion of the banda arc with respect to western indonesia and australia eastward extrusion of the banda arc results in thrusting at the aru trough earthquakes due to thrusting of the back arc basin beneath the volcanic arc are too shallow to corroborate that the arc s polarity has reversed although the wetar back arc thrust zone at present has a high seismic slip rate earthquakes and their mechanisms provide evidence that the lithosphere of the weber basin a 7500 m deep forearc basin rests on the subducting lithosphere without intervening asthenosphere so that the weber basin subsides in response to sinking of the subducting lithosphere closure of the banda basin is geometrically incompatible with the australian plate subducting simultaneously beneath both the timor and seram troughs instead the bird s head which subducts beneath seram is decoupled from the australian plate in western new guinea and probably moves west or southwest with respect to australia in the eastern indonesian example strike slip faulting plays a major role in the evolution of the collision zone and clearly demonstrates the complexity in three dimensions of continental accretion and mountain building by arc continent collision

complexity of rupture in large strike slip earthquakes in turkey complexity of rupture propagation has an important bearing on the state of stress along the earthquake fault plane and on the prediction of strong ground motion in the near field by studying far field body waveforms recorded by wwssn long period seismograms it has been possible to investigate the degree of complexity of several turkish earthquakes the results which are obtained by matching synthetic p waveforms to observed data indicate that the july 22 1967 mudurnu valley earthquake m s 7 1 is a complex event which can be explained by the superposition of elementary sources with variable amplitudes and source time sequence history in this regard it is very similar to the february 4 1976 guatemala earthquake m s 7 5 a comparison of these two events indicates that their source time series ranges from 5 to ca 20 s and regardless of the total moment of the earthquake the moment of the individual events is bounded at around 5 10 26 dyn cm the november 24 1976 e turkey earthquake m s 7 3 on the other hand has a complexity which cannot be explained by such a simple model in this respect it may be more similar to the tangshan china earthquake and as such may involve significant thrust normal or other complications to its faulting mechanism than the strike slip mechanism of the p wave first motion data the source time history for the 1967 mudurnu valley event is used to illustrate its significance in modeling strong ground motion in the near field the complex source time series of the 1967 event predicts greater amplitudes 2 5 larger in strong ground motion than a uniform model scaled to the same size for a station 20 km from the fault such complexity is clearly important in understanding what strong ground motion to expect in the near field of these and other continental strike slip faults such as the san andreas

a source study of the thessaloniki northern greece 1978 earthquake sequence summary the thessaloniki northern greece earthquake sequence appears to have occurred along faults forming a graben structure this graben situated in the border region between the serbomacedonian massif and the vardar zone is bounded to the south west by clearly exposed north west striking north east dipping normal faults relative hypocentre determinations fault plane solutions surface faulting and the aftershock distribution suggest that some of these faults have been reactivated during the 1978 earthquakes the source parameters of the mainshock mb 6 1 ms 6 4 were determined by computing body wave synthetic seismograms in the time domain and comparing them with the observed this modelling constrained the orientation of faulting determined by the p wave fault plane solution it also constrained the source depth to 6 mp 2 km similar depths were calculated by a relative relocation method for the other three large events of the sequence the dislocation time function required for the far field had a total duration of 9 mp 1 5 s the body wave moment was 5 2 mp 1 8 times 1025 dyne cm for a fault length of 35 km and a fault width of 17 km both estimated from the aftershock distribution the static stress drop was found to be 4 bar an accelerograph record of the mainshock shows two distinct events 3 4 s apart these two events were unresolved by the long period data in the far field but the unusually long duration of the mainshock time function suggests an overall slow energy release which probably occurred as a sequence of events close in space and time seismic energy released in this fashion can account for waveform complexities observed at some stations

strike slip fault geometry in turkey and its influence on earthquake activity the geometry of turkish strike slip faults has been reviewed and described from this data set it appears that fault geometry the distribution of discontinuities such as bends and stepovers along the main fault trace plays an important role in controlling the location of large earthquake rupture segments along the fault zones large earthquake ruptures generally do not propagate past individual stepovers that are wider than 5 km or bends that have angles greater than about 30 more important than the size of each discontinuity however is the total geometric pattern i e the distribution of adjacent bends and stepovers based not only on distance from one another but also on relative discontinuity size certain geometric patterns restraining single or double bends are particularly common and can be viewed as responsible for strain accumulation along portions of the fault zone fault geometry not only plays a role in the extent of earthquake rupture but also in characteristics of earthquake behavior for example large earthquake epicenters often occur near restraining bends or double bends furthermore aftershocks and swarm activity can often be associated with releasing areas areas along the strike slip fault that are undergoing a relatively large amount of extension

the aegean sea we summarize briefly the main features of a kinematic model of evolution of the aegean area since 13 ma the formation of the aegean sea by extensional tectonics is related to the subduction of the mediterranean floor below the hellenic arc we then make a quantitative estimate of vertical movements in the aegean area on the basis of geological data and demonstrate that the outer arc was built since the beginning of this episode of subduction by vertical uplift the easiest way to explain the uplift is by underplating finally we discuss briefly the dynamics of the subduction marginal sea formation processes in this continental collision framework

the evolution of the gulf of corinth greece an aftershock study of the 1981 earthquakes summary a preliminary study of the aftershocks of three earthquakes that occurred near to corinth greece in 1981 is combined with observations of the morphology and faulting to understand the evolution of the eastern gulf of corinth the well located aftershocks form a zone 60km long and 20km wide they do not lie on the main fault planes and are mostly located between the north dipping faulting on which the first two earthquakes occurred and the south dipping faulting associated with the third event a cluster of aftershocks also lies in the footwall of the eastern end of the south dipping fault of the third event morphologically it is observed that in the evolution of the eastern gulf of corinth antithetic faulting apparently predates the appearance of the main faulting at the surface this evolution can be explained by motion on a deep seated shallow angle aseismic normal fault a model based on such a fault also accounts for the aftershock distribution of the 1981 earthquakes

seismic strain rates in regions of distributed continental deformation we compare the rates and configurations of seismic deformation determined from moment tensor mechanisms of earthquakes in five continental regions with the rates and configurations expected if the seismicity reflected the relative plate motions in the regions the five regions the aegean iran california western new guinea and central asia are characterized by high levels of seismicity distributed over hundreds to thousands of kilometers from the accepted plate boundaries the earthquake mechanisms are compiled primarily from the catalog of centroid moment tensor solutions which is nearly complete over the interval 1977 1987 for earthquakes greater than ms 5 the thickness of the seismogenic layer in each region is constrained by the results of modeling broadband body wave phases and of previous earthquake studies in the aegean california and western new guinea the observed configurations of deformation agree with a simple model of distributed accommodation of relative plate motion in iran and central asia the moment tensors indicate that there is appreciable strain parallel to the strikes of the belts we augment our 10 year estimates of seismic deformation with the available historical moment and magnitude estimates for the five regions and find that moderate and large earthquakes account for between 25 and 70 of the deformation of the seismogenic layer