an automated time window selection algorithm for seismic tomography we present flexwin an open source algorithm for the automated selection of time windows on pairs of observed and synthetic seismograms the algorithm was designed specifically to accommodate synthetic seismograms produced from 3 d wavefield simulations which capture complex phases that do not necessarily exist in 1 d simulations or traditional traveltime curves relying on signal processing tools and several user tuned parameters the algorithm is able to include these new phases and to maximize the number of measurements made on each seismic record while avoiding seismic noise our motivation is to use the algorithm for iterative tomographic inversions in which the synthetic seismograms change from one iteration to the next hence automation is needed to handle the volume of measurements and to allow for an increasing number of windows at each model iteration the algorithm is sufficiently flexible to be adapted to many tomographic applications and seismological scenarios including those based on synthetics generated from 1 d models we illustrate the algorithm using data sets from three distinct regions the entire globe the japan subduction zone and southern california

extracting time domain green s function estimates from ambient seismic noise 1 it has been demonstrated experimentally and theoretically that an estimate of the green s function between two seismic stations can be obtained from the time derivative of the long time average cross correlation of ambient noise between these two stations this tdgf estimate from just the noise field includes all tensor components of the green s function and these green s function estimates can be used to infer earth structure we have computed cross correlations using 1 to 30 continuous days of ambient noise recorded by over 150 broadband seismic stations located in southern california the data processing yielded thousands of cross correlation pairs for receiver separations from 4 500 km which clearly exhibit coherent broadband propagating dispersive wavetrains across frequency band 0 1 2 hz

crustal deformation of the eastern tibetan plateau revealed by magnetotelluric imaging the ongoing collision of the indian and asian continents has created the himalaya and tibetan plateau through a range of deformation processes these include crustal thickening detachment of the lower lithosphere from the plate delamination and flow in a weakened lower crust 1 6 debate continues as to which of these processes are most significant 7 in eastern tibet large scale motion of the surface occurs but the nature of deformation at depth remains unresolved a large scale crustal flow channel has been proposed as an explanation for regional uplift in eastern tibet 6 8 9 but existing geophysical data 10 11 do not constrain the pattern of flow magnetotellurics uses naturally occurring electromagnetic waves to image the earth s subsurface here we present magnetotelluric data that image two major zones or channels of high electrical conductivity at a depth of 20 40 km the channels extend horizontally more than 800 km from the tibetan plateau into southwest china the electrical properties of the channels imply an elevated fluid content consistent with a weak crust 12 13 that permits flow on a geological timescale these findings support the hypothesis that crustal flow can occur in orogenic belts and contribute to uplift of plateaux our results reveal the previously unknown complexities of these patterns of crustal flow many previous studies of the indiaasia

trace fossils and substrates of the terminal proterozoic cambrian transition implications for the record of early bilaterians and sediment mixing the trace fossil record is important in determining the timing of the appearance of bilaterian animals a conservative estimate puts this time at 555 million years ago the preservational potential of traces made close to the sediment water interface is crucial to detecting early benthic activity our studies on earliest cambrian sediments suggest that shallow tiers were preserved to a greater extent than typical for most of the phanerozoic which can be attributed both directly and indirectly to the low levels of sediment mixing the low levels of sediment mixing meant that thin event beds were preserved the shallow depth of sediment mixing also meant that muddy sediments were firm close to the sediment water interface increasing the likelihood of recording shallow tier trace fossils in muddy sediments overall trace fossils can provide a sound record of the onset of bilaterian benthic activity

late precambrian pennatulids sea pens from the eastern yangtze gorge china paracharnia gen nov abstract pennatulids preserved as membranous carbonised compressions from the shibantan member dengying formation sinian system in the eastern yangtze gorge hubei province represent the first genuine discovery of the late precambrian ediacara type metazoan remains in china the specimens were initially referred to charnia ford 1958 and described as c dengyingensis by ding and chen in 1981 a re examination of the type material and comparing it with other late precambrian frond like forms particularly those from the ediacara assemblage of south australia and from the charnwood assemblage of england indicate that this chinese species represents a distinct genus paracharnia gen nov its characteristic polyp leaves individually free standing on distinct leaf stalks along the lateral sides of the median stem resemble those of many living sea pens represented by pennatula and contribute a significant feature to the precambrian charniidae glaessner 1979 its close association with abundant macroscopic algal remains of vendotaenia sp and its proximity to the overlying basal cambrian small shelly fossil assemblages in the same succession emphasise its palaeontological and biostratigraphic significance

evidence for mechanically coupled lithosphere in central asia and resulting implications the recent dramatic increase in seismic anisotropy and surface global positioning system gps data for central asia permits a comprehensive examination of the mantle s role in mountain building a joint analysis of 178 shear wave splitting and 2000 gps observations using a new technique reveals that the crust and lithospheric mantle deform coherently arguing for crust mantle mechanical coupling during deformation the observed spatial variations in anisotropy refl ect the large scale pattern of lithospheric deformation as well as a change in deformational style from simple shear on the tibetan plateau transitioning to pure shear in surrounding regions

early cambrian ocean anoxia in south china the cause of the most marked changes in the evolution of life which define the first order stratigraphic boundary between the precambrian and the phanerozoic eon remains enigmatic and a highly topical subject of debate a global ocean anoxic event triggered by large scale hydrogen sulphide h 2 s release to surface waters has been suggested by wille et al on the basis of two data sets from south china and oman to explain the fundamental biological changes across the precambrian cambrian pc c boundary here we report a new precise shrimp u pb zircon age of 532 3 0 7 million years myr ago fig 1 for a volcanic ash bed in the critical unit that reflects the ocean anoxic event the lowermost black shale sequence of the niutitang formation in the guizhou province south china this age is significantly younger than the precise pc c boundary age of 542 0 0 3 myr ago approximately 10 myr younger than the extinction of the ediacaran fauna and thus challenging the view of a major ocean anoxic event having been responsible for the major changes in the direction of evolution at the pc c boundary

using magnetic resonance imaging and petrographic techniques to understand the textural attributes and porosity distribution in macaronichnus burrowed sandstone abstract magnetic resonance images are paired with petrographic data to evaluate the textural characteristics of rocks dominated by macaronichnus segregatis a trace fossil that is commonly associated with rocks deposited in shallow marginal marine sedimentary environments mri techniques used revealed the three dimensional geometry of the trace fossil burrows are typically horizontal and in plan view range between straight sinuous meandering and spiral geometries changes in burrow morphology may be related to population density and patchy resource distribution the pairing of mri and petrographic data helped map the distribution of porosity in the burrowed rock because mri images represent complex composites of nuclear spin density and mr relaxation times each of which is related to pore size stronger mr signals must be calibrated to known porous zones by integrating petrographic data with mr data the complex distribution of porosity and its relationship to the matrix show that this fabric represents a dual porosity permeability system and may affect the resource reservoir or aquifer quality of similarly burrowed sedimentary rocks future research should elaborate upon the porosity permeability model for this and similar fabrics

assemblage palaeoecology of the ediacara biota the unabridged edition fossils of the ediacara biota offer our earliest insight into diverse macroscopic life on this planet in particular given the diversity and range of exquisite soft bodied preservation the potential for unraveling aspects of the paleobiology and paleoecology is great clearly however there can be a taphonomic overprint that dictates how complete the assemblage is new diversity data including richness and evenness from south australia is compared to previously published data from newfoundland and the white sea and is within the range of values for both modern and phanerozoic assemblages however missing from our current understanding of ediacaran ecosystems is a full description and interpretation of the many problematica structures and organic surfaces

adjoint tomography of the southern california crust using an inversion strategy based on adjoint methods we developed a three dimensional seismological model of the southern california crust the resulting model involved 16 tomographic iterations which required 6800 wavefield simulations and a total of 0 8 million central processing unit hours the new crustal model reveals strong heterogeneity including local changes of 30 with respect to the initial three dimensional model provided by the southern california earthquake center the model illuminates shallow features such as sedimentary basins and compositional contrasts across faults it also reveals crustal features at depth that aid in the tectonic reconstruction of southern california such as subduction captured oceanic crustal fragments the new model enables more realistic and accurate assessments of seismic hazard

structure of the crust beneath the southeastern tibetan plateau from teleseismic receiver functions abstract southeastern tibet marks the site of presumed clockwise rotation of the crust due to the india eurasian collision and abutment against the stable sichuan basin and south china block knowing the structure of the crust is a key to better understanding of crustal deformation and seismicity in this region here we analyze recordings of teleseismic earthquakes from 25 temporary broadband seismic stations and one permanent station using the receiver function method we find that the crustal thickness decreases gradually from the tibetan plateau proper to the sichuan basin and yangtze platform but that significant intra crustal heterogeneity exists on shorter lateral scales 0 30 are detected beneath the southeastern margin of tibet but in the sichuan basin and southeastern yangtze platform the values are close to the global average combined with high regional heat flow and independent evidence for mid crustal layers of high electric conductivity the large intra crustal s wave velocity reduction 12 19 and the intermediate to high average crustal poisson s ratios are consistent with partial melt in the crust beneath parts of southeastern tibet these results could be used in support of deformation models involving intra crustal flow with the caveat that significant lateral variation in location and strength of this flow may occur

migration velocity analysis in factorized vti media one of the main challenges in anisotropic velocity analysis and imaging is simultaneous estimation of velocity gradients and anisotropic parameters from reflection data approximating the subsurface by a factorized vti transversely isotropic with a vertical symmetry axis medium provides a convenient way of building vertically and laterally heterogeneous anisotropic models for prestack depthmigration the algorithm for p wave migration velocity analysis mva introduced here is designed for models composed of factorized vti layers or blocks with constant vertical and lateral gradients in the vertical velocity vp0 the anisotropic mva method is implemented as an iterative two step procedure that includes prestack depth migration imaging step followed by an update of the medium parameters velocity analysis step the residual moveout of the migrated events which is minimized during the parameter updates is described by a nonhyperbolic equation whose coefficients are determined by 2d semblance scanning

wave equation migration velocity analysis i theory we present a migration velocity analysis mva method based on wavefield extrapolation similarly to conventional mva our method aims at iteratively improving the quality of the migrated image as measured by the flatness of angle domain common image gathers adcigs over the aperture angle axis however instead of inverting the depth errors measured in adcigs using ray based tomography we invert image perturbations using a linearized wave equation operator this operator relates perturbations of the migrated image to perturbations of the migration velocity we use prestack stolt residual migration to define the image perturbations that maximize the focusing and flatness of adcigs our linearized operator relates slowness perturbations to image perturbations based on a truncation of the born scattering series to the first order term to avoid divergence of the inversion procedure when the velocity perturbations are too large for born linearization of the wave equation we do not invert directly the image perturbations obtained by residual migration but a linearized version of the image perturbations the linearized image perturbations are computed by a linearized prestack residual migration operator applied to the background image we use numerical examples to illustrate how the backprojection of the linearized image perturbations i e the gradient of our objective function is well behaved even in cases when backprojection of the original image perturbations would mislead the inversion and take it in the wrong direction we demonstrate with simple synthetic examples that our method converges even when the initial velocity model is far from correct in a companion paper we illustrate the full potential of our method for estimating velocity anomalies under complex salt bodies

ichnofabric analysis of the shallow marine nukhul formation miocene suez rift egypt implications for depositional processes and sequence stratigraphic evolution abstract the shallow marine early syn rift miocene nukhul formation suez rift egypt is highly bioturbated and allows relationships between changes in trace fossils and ichnofabrics within a shallow marine depositional system to be documented and placed in a high resolution sequence stratigraphic framework seven ichnofabrics are present in a succession of interfingering calcareous mudstones and calcarenites forming coarsening up units of up to 30 m thick bounded by marine flooding surfaces the units grade upwards from a basal mudstone package with bed parallel concretions and a planolites chondrites ichnofabric offshore through a coarsening up succession of alternating calcarenites and mudstones with thalassinoides mottled sediment offshore transition ophiomorpha irregulaire lower shoreface ophiomorpha nodosa thalassinoides lower middle shoreface thalassinoides taenidium middle shoreface and o nodosa upper shoreface ichnofabrics gastrochaenolites hardground ichnofabric is separate as it is not genetically related to the other ichnofabrics ichnofabric development is primarily controlled by depositional environment e g bottom water oxygenation sediment type food abundance and energy level which control substrate colonisation sedimentation rate marine flooding surfaces are generally well cemented and marked by distinctive epifaunal and infaunal colonisation and can be traced out from proximal to distal settings over distances of 5 km the epifaunal colonisation in proximal settings consists of abundant oysters and corals with the substrate below marine flooding surfaces containing abundant thalassinoides and ophiomorpha isp abundance and diversity of epifauna and trace fossils and burrow size decreases distally into the basin in the most distal settings epifaunal colonisation is absent and only planolites and chondrites colonise the basinal mudstone marine flooding surfaces in the most distal settings are poorly cemented but are marked by carbonate concretions 10 15 cm below the surface

a new modular palaeopascichnid fossil curviacus ediacaranus new genus and species from the ediacaran dengying formation in the yangtze gorges area of south china non biomineralizing ediacaran macrofossils are rare in carbonate facies but they offer valuable information about their three dimensional internal anatomy and can broaden our view about their taphonomy and palaeoecology in this study we report a new ediacaran fossil curviacus ediacaranus new genus and species from bituminous limestone of the shibantan member of the dengying formation in the yangtze gorges area of south china curviacus is reconstructed as a benthic modular organism consisting of serially arranged and crescent shaped chambers the chambers are confined by chamber walls that are replicated by calcispars and are filled by micritic sediments such modular body construction is broadly similar to the co occurring yangtziramulus zhangii and other ediacaran modular fossils such as palaeopascichnus the preservation style of curviacus is similar to yangtziramulus although the phylogenetic affinities of both genera remain unresolved the new fossil adds to the diversity of ediacaran modular organisms

anisotropic migration velocity analysis application to a data set from west africa although it is widely recognized that anisotropy can have a significant influence on the focusing and positioning of migrated reflection events conventional depth imaging methods still operate with isotropic velocity fields here we present an application of a 2d migration velocity analysis mva algorithm designed for factorized v x z vti transversely isotropic with a vertical symmetry axis media to an offshore data set from west africa by approximating the subsurface with factorized vti blocks it is possible to decouple the spatial variations in the vertical velocity from the anisotropic parameters with minimal a priori information since our method accounts for lateral velocity variation it produces more accurate estimates of the anisotropic parameters than those previously obtained with time domain techniques the values of the anellipticity parameter found for the massive shales exceed 0 2 which confirms that ignoring anisotropy in the study area can lead to substantial imaging distortions such as mis stacking and mispositioning of dipping events while some of these distortions can be removed by using anisotropic time processing further marked improvement in image quality is achieved by prestack depth migration with the estimated factorized vti model in particular many fault planes including antithetic faults in the shallow part of the section are better focused by the anisotropic depth migration algorithm and appear more continuous anisotropic depth migration facilitates structural interpretation by eliminating false dips at the bottom of the section and improving the images of a number of gently dipping features one of the main difficulties in anisotropic mva is the need to use a priori information for constraining the vertical velocity in this case study we successfully reconstructed the time depth curve from reflection data by assuming that the vertical velocity is a continuous function of depth and estimating the vertical and lateral velocity gradients in each factorized block if the subsurface contains strong boundaries with jumps in velocity knowledge of the vertical velocity at a single point in a layer is sufficient for our algorithm to determine all relevant layer parameters

low wave speed zones in the crust beneath se tibet revealed by ambient noise adjoint tomography we present a refined 3d crustal model beneath se tibet from ambient noise adjoint tomography different from ray theory based tomography adjoint tomography in this study incorporates a spectral element method sem and takes empirical green s functions egfs of rayleigh waves from ambient noise interferometry as the direct observation the frequency dependent traveltime misfits between sem synthetic green s functions and egfs are minimized with a preconditioned conjugate gradient method meanwhile the 3d model gets improved iteratively utilizing 3d finite frequency kernels the new model shows 3 6 shear wave speed increasing beneath the western sichuan basin scb depth 15 km and the central chuan dian block cdb and 6 12 shear wave speed reduction in the mid lower crust beneath the northern and the southern cdb the inferred spatial pattern of low wave speed zones consistent with possible partial melt suggests more complex and disconnected geometry than the pervasive narrow zone from the channel flow models

radial anisotropy in the crust of se tibet and sw china from ambient noise interferometry 1 we use rayleigh and love wave green s functions estimated from ambient seismic noise to study crustal structure and radial anisotropy in the tectonically complex and seismically active region west of the sichuan basin and around the eastern himalaya syntaxis in agreement with previous studies low velocity zones are ubiquitous in the mid lower crust with substantial variations both laterally and vertically discrepancies between 3 ds hear velocity from either rayleigh vsv o r love vsh waves are examined both in view of non uniqueness of tomographic solutions and radial anisotropy low shear wave speed and radial anisotropy with vsh vsv are most prominent in mid lower crust in area northwest to the lijiang muli fault and around the red river and xiaojiang faults this anisotropy could be caused by sub horizontal mica fabric and its association with low velocity zones suggests mica alignment due to flow in deep crustal zones of relatively low mechanical strength citation huang h h yao andr d vanderhilst 2010 radialanisotropyinthecrust of se tibet and sw china from ambient noise interferometry geophys res lett 37 l21310 doi 10 1029 2010gl044981

simulations of ground motion in the los angeles basin based upon the spectral element method we use the spectral element method to simulate ground motion generated by two recent and well recorded small earthquakes in the los angeles basin simulations are performed using a new sedimentary basin model that is constrained by hundreds of petroleum industry well logs and more than 20 000 km of seismic reflection profiles the numerical simulations account for 3d variations of seismic wave speeds and density topography and bathymetry and attenuation simulations for the 9 september 2001 m w 4 2 hollywood earthquake and the 3 september 2002 m w 4 2 yorba linda earthquake demonstrate that the combination of a detailed sedimentary basin model and an accurate numerical technique facilitates the simulation of ground motion at periods of 2 sec and longer inside the basin model and 6 sec and longer in the regional model peak ground displacement velocity and acceleration maps illustrate that significant amplification occurs in the basin

partial melt in the upper middle crust of the northwest himalaya revealed by rayleigh wave dispersion article i nfo seismic shear wave velocities are sensitive to the partial melts that should be present in the himalayan orogen if low viscosity channel flow is active at the present day we analyzed regional earthquakes in the western himalaya and tibet recorded on 16 broadband seismometers deployed across the nw indian himalaya from the indian platform to the karakoram range we used a multiple filter technique to calculate the group velocity dispersion of fundamental mode rayleigh waves and then inverted the dispersion records to obtain separate one dimensional shear wave velocity models for five geologic provinces the tibetan plateau ladakh arc complex indus tsangpo suture zone tethyan himalaya and himalayan thrust belt our velocity models show a low velocity layer lvl with 7 17 velocity reduction centered at 30 km depth and apparently continuous from the tethyan himalaya to the tibetan plateau this lvl shows good spatial correspondence with observations of low resistivity from magnetotelluric studies along the same profile of the possible explanations for low velocity and low resistivity in the mid crust only the presence of melts or aqueous fluids or both satisfactorily explains both sets of observations elevated heat flow observed in the nw himalaya implies that if aqueous fluids are present in the mid crust then the mid crust is well above its solidus comparison of our results with laboratory measurements and theoretical models suggests 3 7 melt is present in a channel in the upper middle crust of the nw himalaya at the present day and the physical conditions to enable active channel flow may be present

the stratigraphic complexity of the middle ediacaran carbon isotopic record in the yangtze gorges area south china and its implications for the age and chemostratigraphic significance of the shuram excursion abstract the middle ediacaran shuram excursion represents the most pronounced negative carbon isotopic shift in earth history and has been considered as evidence for a profound disturbance to the global carbon cycle and proposed as a key chemostratigraphic marker for ediacaran stratigraphic subdivision and global correlation previous study has revealed a pronounced negative 13c shift en3 in the upper doushantuo formation of south china which has been interpreted as an equivalent of the shuram excursion detailed 13c investigation of multiple sections of the ediacaran doushantuo formation around the huangling anticline western hubei province south china indicates that the 13c variation in the upper doushantuo formation is more complex than previously reported in the western region of the huangling anticline a moderately positive 13c excursion here termed the diaoyapo positive excursion bisects two strongly negative 13c excursions here termed the jiuqunao negative excursion and the younger miaohe negative excursion with a 551 ma ash bed capping the miaohe negative excursion in the central region there is only one negative 13c excursion whereas in the eastern region the negative 13c excursion is absent the variable stratigraphic expression of these 13c excursions is most parsimoniously interpreted as reflecting local facies variation diagenesis and or a cryptic unconformity the more complete but more complex 13c chemostratigraphic record in the western region of huangling anticline implies that depending on how this record is correlated with the shuram excursion the latter may be significantly older than 551 ma if it does represent a global chemostratigraphic marker

orbisiana linearis from the early ediacaran lantian formation of south china and its taphonomic and ecological implications abstract orbisiana is an ediacaran fossil characterized by linearly arranged circular or cylindrical units the genus was first described from the late ediacaran redkino series in the moscow syncline of russia where it is preserved as pyritic molds in siltstone here we report orbisiana linearis originally described as seirisphaera lineare from black shale of the early ediacaran lantian formation in south china unlike the type species o simplex o linearis is preserved as carbonaceous compressions on the bedding surface with rare specimens preserved three dimensionally allowing morphological characterization using x ray microct techniques morphological paleoecological and taphonomic analysis suggests that o linearis was a chain like modular organism characterized by uniserially arranged millimeter sized and tangentially contacting circular or cylindrical units ontogenetic growth of o linearis was likely achieved through both accretionary addition of new modules and inflational expansion of existing units and it appears that inflational growth was determinate although its phylogenetic affinity remains uncertain o linearis was likely a procumbent epibenthic or semi endobenthic organism that lived on the seawater sediment interface or partly buried in sediments o linearis in the lantian formation was preserved in situ although some specimens are disarticulated and many are tectonically deformed orbisiana joins a growing list of ediacaran genera that have a remarkable range of stratigraphic environmental ecological and taphonomic distribution

trace fossil preservation and the early evolution of animals abstract the trace fossil record is an important element in discussions of the timing of appearance of bilaterian animals a conservative approach does not extend this record beyond about 560 555 ma crucial to the utility of trace fossils in detecting early benthic activity is the preservational potential of traces made close to the sediment water interface our studies on the earliest cambrian sediments suggest that shallow tiers were preserved to a greater extent than typical for most of the phanerozoic this can be attributed both directly and indirectly to the low levels of sediment mixing the low levels of sediment mixing meant that thin event beds were preserved the shallow depth of sediment mixing also meant that muddy sediments were firm close to the sediment water interface increasing the likelihood of recording shallow tier trace fossils in muddy sediments preservation of surficial trace fossils in this type of setting remains problematic but the above factors suggest that also these can be expected to have left a reasonable record overall the trace fossil record can be expected to provide a sound record of the onset of bilaterian benthic activity the lack of convincing trace fossils significantly before the cambrian supports models of late appearance of macroscopic benthic bilaterians

the origin of decoupled carbonate and organic carbon isotope signatures in the early cambrian ca 542 520 ma yangtze platform abstract the early cambrian ca 542 520 ma strata in south china record two prominent negative carbonate carbon isotope 13ccarb excursions of early nemakit daldynian n d and early tommotian ages across each of these excursions carbonate and organic carbon isotopes 13ccarb and 13corg are strongly decoupled regional correlation across a shelf to basin transect shows lateral heterogeneity of 13corg during the early middle n d but more homogenized 13corg values across the basin during the late n d and tommotian the temporal and lateral variations in 13corg suggest that decoupled 13ccarb and 13corg across the n d 13ccarb excursion were possibly caused by diagenetic alteration of organic matter and or amplification of detrital organic carbon isotope signature in low toc carbonates in contrast decoupled 13ccarb and 13corg of the upper n d and tommotian were likely resulted from chemoautotrophic methanotrophic biomass contribution to toc in organic rich black shale and carbonates the decoupled 13ccarb 13corg pattern from the lower n d strata ca 542 ma shows striking similarities with those from the basal ca 635 ma and upper ca 551 ma doushantuo formation in all three cases decoupled 13ccarb 13corg are seen in organic poor carbonates toc 0 1 and coupled 13ccarb 13corg occur in organic rich black shale and carbonates at the end of the negative 13ccarb excursion these similarities suggest that the shift from decoupled to coupled 13ccarb 13corg has no causal link with the terminal oxidation of a large oceanic doc reservoir given the pervasive anoxia euxinia in ediacaran early cambrian oceans local doc rich environments may have been common but a large oceanic doc reservoir capable of buffering the 13c of marine organic matter requires independent evidence

beyond the stony veil reconstructing the earth s earliest large animal traces via computed tomography x ray imaging abstract trace fossils are superb lines of evidence for examining the ancient biologic world because they offer an opportunity to infer behavioral ecology of organisms however traces can be difficult to parse from their matrix which leads to the loss of important morphological and behavioral data this is especially true for the earliest marine animal traces from the ediacaran period 635 541 ma which are usually small

surface wave array tomography in se tibet from ambient seismic noise and two station analysis i phase velocity maps summary empirical green s functions egfs between pairs of seismographs can be estimated from the time derivative of the long time cross correlation of ambient seismic noise these egfs reveal velocity dispersion at relatively short periods which can be used to resolve structures in the crust and uppermost mantle better than with traditional surface wave tomography we combine rayleigh wave dispersion estimates from egfs and from traditional two station ts analysis into a new approach to surface wave array tomography with data from dense receiver arrays we illustrate the methodology with continuous broad band recordings from a temporary seismographic network on the southeastern part of the tibetan plateau in sichuan and yunnan provinces sw china the egfs are robust under temporal changes in regional seismicity and the use of either ambient noise approximated by records without signal from events with magnitude mb 5 or 4 or surface wave coda produces similar results the egfs do not strongly depend on the presence of large earthquakes but they are not reciprocal for stations aligned in the n s direction this directionality reflects the paucity of seismicity to the north of the array using a far field representation of the surface wave green s function and an image transformation technique we infer from the egfs the rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion in the period band from 10 30 s a classical ts approach is used to determine rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion between 20 120 s together they constrain phase velocity variations for t 10 120 s which can be used to study the structure from the crust to the upper mantle beneath se tibet short and intermediate period 10 80 s phase velocities are prominently low suggesting that the crust and upper mantle beneath se tibet is characterized by slow shear wave propagation

trace fossil evidence for ediacaran bilaterian animals with complex behaviors abstract distinguishing ediacaran trace fossils from tubular body fossils can be a challenge and several ediacaran fossils previously interpreted as animal traces have been shown to be tubular body fossils nonetheless true ediacaran trace fossils are present but they are relatively few and morphologically simple dominated by horizontal trails and shallow burrows such simple morphologies have been taken as evidence for a modest behavioral complexity and limited geobiological impact of animal bioturbators before the cambrian explosion here we report three types of trace fossils horizontal tunnels surface tracks trails and vertical traces from the latest ediacaran dengying formation 551 541 ma in the yangtze gorges area of south china cross cutting tunnels and the presence of scratch marks indicate that these traces are unlikely tubular body fossils instead these three types of traces likely represent animal activities related to under mat feeding epibenthic locomotion and temporary dwelling respectively we show that these three types of traces were constructed by the same bilaterian animals that had moderately complex interactions with microbial mats to exploit nutrients and o 2 resources these animals heralded a new age in ecosystem engineering animal sediment interaction and biogeochemical cycling

stable carbon isotopes of sedimentary kerogens and carbonaceous macrofossils from the ediacaran miaohe member in south china implications for stratigraphic correlation and sources of sedimentary organic carbon abstract ediacaran stratigraphic correlation depends on the integration of paleontological and 13ccarb data however these data often come from different lithologies e g shales vs carbonates making it difficult to directly link biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic markers ediacaran successions in south china consist of mixed carbonates and shales offering an opportunity for integrated biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic investigations black shales of the ediacaran miaohe member in the yangtze gorges area contain macroalgae and ediacara type macrofossils both preserved as carbonaceous compressions the miaohe member has been traditionally regarded as an equivalent to member iv of the uppermost doushantuo formation that records part of the shuram negative 13ccarb excursion in south china thus the miaohe member may have the potential to clarify the stratigraphic relationship between ediacara type fossils and the shuram excursion recently however the miaohe member has been partially correlated with the shibantan member of the dengying formation the a correlation or partially with member iv the z correlation these correlations have different implications for the relationship between the miaohe member and the shuram excursion here we test these two correlations using 13c data of sedimentary kerogen or total organic carbon 13corgtoc taking advantage of the distinct 13corgtoc values between the shibantan member and member iv our data show that 13corgtoc of the miaohe member is more similar to that of member iv than to shibantan member providing tentative support for the z correlation in addition we also analyzed 13corg of individual carbonaceous compression fossils 13corgtaxon which have lower carbon isotope values than toc the data suggest that oxygenic photosynthesizers e g macroalgae cyanobacteria and eukaryotic phytoplankton were not the only contributors to sedimentary toc methylotrophs photoautotrophs and chemoautotrophs living in anoxic waters or at the oxycline may have fixed recycled co2 derived from organic carbon remineralization thus contributing a significant amount of 13c depleted organic carbon to sedimentary kerogen in the miaohe member

kinematics and dynamics of the southeastern margin of the tibetan plateau summary on the southeastern margin of the tibetan plateau lies a large region which seismicity and gps data show to be actively deforming this paper describes the active faulting in the region and how it relates to the velocity field observed with gps in places the velocity field is accommodated by rotations about vertical axes and most or all of the strain at the surface in the region appears to be released seismically gps velocities are then compared to velocities calculated using a model for deformation driven by gravitational driving forces using rheologies estimated from experimentally derived mineral flow laws the model provides velocities that are in good agreement with observed gps velocities it is not possible to uniquely determine the rheology or flow velocity at depth and there are two forms of model solution which match the observed horizontal surface velocities in one of these vertical planes deform by pure shear and in the other vertical gradients of horizontal velocity are present within the crust two distinct regions of normal faulting earthquakes are present in the region and have mechanisms which are most easily explained by gravity driven deformation

taphonomic study of ediacaran organic walled fossils confirms the importance of clay minerals and pyrite in burgess shale type preservation burgess shale type bst macrofossils and organic walled microfossils are preserved as carbonaceous compressions and may share similar taphonomic processes previous taphonomic investigations of carbonaceous compressions have primarily focused on the microchemistry of cambrian bst fossils but comparative data from organic walled microfossils were not available to address these issues we analyzed two organic walled taxa from the yangtze gorges area of the south china block chuaria an acritarch and vendotaenia a ribbon shaped fossil their abundance offers the opportunity for destructive microanalysis including petrography electron microscopy and elemental mapping on both bedding planes and in cross sections our data suggest that chuaria preservation is remarkably similar to bst fossils in that its vesicle walls are closely associated with clay minerals in addition like many bst macrofossils chuaria and vendotaenia are also closely associated with pyrite chuaria vesicles are often filled with framboidal pyrite and vendotaenia fossils are associated with sulfate partly derived from pyrite oxidation the comparative taphonomy of chuaria and vendotaenia and bst macrofossils indicates that the preservation of organic walled acritarchs may be aided by clay and pyrite mineralization and that these abundant microfossils may serve as proxies for uncovering in more detail the taphonomic histories of bst preservation

analysis of image gathers in factorized vti media because events in image gathers generated after prestack depth migration are sensitive to the velocity field they are often used in migration velocity analysis for isotropic media here we present an analytic and numerical study of p wave image gathers in transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis vti and establish the conditions for flattening such events and positioning them at the true reflector depth application of the weak anisotropy approximation leads to concise expressions for reflections in image gathers from homogeneous and factorized v z media in terms of the vti parameters and the vertical velocity gradient kz flattening events in image gathers for any reflector dip requires accurate values of the zero dip nmo velocity at the surface vnmo z 0 the gradient kz and the anellipticity coefficient for a fixed error in vnmo and kz the magnitude of residual moveout of events in image gathers decreases with dip while the moveout caused by an error in initially incr

angle domain common image gathers for migration velocity analysis by wavefield continuation imaging we analyze the kinematic properties of offset domain common image gathers cigs and angle domain cigs adcigs computed by wavefield continuation migration our results are valid regardless of whether the cigs were obtained by using the correct migration velocity they thus can be used as a theoretical basis for developing migration velocity analysis mva methods that exploit the velocity information contained in adcigs we demonstrate that in an adcig cube the image point lies on the normal to the apparent reflector dip that passes through the point where the source ray intersects the receiver ray the image point position on the normal depends on the velocity error when the velocity is correct the image point coincides with the point where the source ray intersects the receiver ray starting from this geometric result we derive an analytical expression for the expected movements of the image points in adcigs as functions of the traveltime perturbation caused by velocity errors by applying this ana

interactions between ediacaran animals and microbial mats insights from lamonte trevallis a new trace fossil from the dengying formation of south china abstract a new ichnogenus and ichnospecies lamonte trevallis is formally described from the shibantan member limestone of the upper ediacaran dengying formation yangtze gorges area south china it is characterized by horizontal tunnels connected with short vertical burrows and surface trails the horizontal burrows are elliptical or bilobed in transverse cross section preserved in full relief and filled with carbonate intraclasts micrites as well as calcite and silica cements they occur exclusively in silty crinkled and microlaminated layers that are interpreted as amalgamated cyanobacterial microbial mats no burrows have been found in intraclastic layers adjacent to the microlaminated layers the vertical traces are filled with the same material as the burrows but they typically project through the crinkled microlaminae and are exposed on the bedding surface the surface tracks are always preserved in negative epirelief or positive hyporelief and consist of two parallel series of either sharp scratch marks or small knobs the burrow infill has 18ocarb and 13ccarb values distinct from but intermediate between microlaminated and intraclastic layers consistent with petrographic observation that burrow infill consists of a mixture of early carbonate cements intraclasts and micrites bedding plane bioturbation intensity 20 40 measured as percentage of bedding plane area covered by l trevallis traces is comparable to similar measurements in pre trilobite cambrian carbonates the exclusive occurrence of l trevallis within microbial mats may have both taphonomic and ecological significance these mats may have provided firm substrates and localized geochemical conditions that contributed to the structural integrity of the burrows and they may have also facilitated early diagenetic cementation of burrow infill thus facilitating burrow preservation the close association of these burrows with microbial mats implies that the trace producers actively mined cyanobacterial mats to exploit oxygen or nutrient resources the trace makers of l trevallis were better able to utilize the resources around them than many other ediacaran trace makers and provide an ichnological record of a flourishing benthic ecology in late ediacaran oceans at the dawn of the agronomic revolution

three dimensional microct analysis of the ediacara fossil pteridinium simplex sheds new light on its ecology and phylogenetic affinity abstract ediacara fossils often exhibit enigmatic taphonomy that complicates morphological characterization and ecological and phylogenetic interpretation such is the case with pteridinium simplex from the late ediacaran aar member in southern namibia p simplex is often preserved as three dimensional 3d casts and molds in coarse grained quartzites making detailed morphological characterization difficult in addition p simplex is often transported distorted and embedded in gutter fills or channel deposits further obscuring its morphologies by utilizing microfocus x ray computed tomography microct techniques we are able to trace individual specimens and their vanes in order to digitally restore the 3d morphology of this enigmatic fossil our analysis shows that p simplex has a very flexible integument that can be bent folded twisted stretched and torn indicating a certain degree of elasticity in the analyzed specimens we find no evidence for vane identity change or penetrative growth that were previously used as evidence to support a fully endobenthic lifestyle of p simplex instead evidence is consistent with the traditional interpretation of a semi endobenthic or epibenthic lifestyle this interpretation needs to be further tested through microct analysis of p simplex specimens preserved in situ rather than transported ones the elastic integument of p simplex is inconsistent with a phylogenetic affinity with xenophyophore protists instead its physical property is consistent with the presence of collagen chitin and cellulose an inference that would provide constraints on the phylogenetic affinity of p simplex

3d angle domain common image gathers for migration velocity analysis angle domain common image gathers adcigs are an essential tool for migration velocity analysis mva we present a method for computing adcigs in 3d from the results of wavefield continuation migration the proposed methodology can be applied before or after the imaging step in a migration procedure when computed before imaging 3d adcigs are functions of the offset ray parameters we derive the geometric relationship that links the offset ray parameters to the aperture angle and the reflection azimuth when computed after imaging 3d adcigs are directly produced as functions of and the mapping of the offset ray parameters into the angles depends on both the local dips and the local interval velocity therefore the transformation of adcigs computed before imaging into adcigs that are functions of the actual angles is difficult in complex structure by contrast the computation of adcigs after imaging is efficient and accurate even in the presence of complex structure and a heterogeneous velocity function on the other hand the estimation of the offset ray parameters is less sensitive to velocity errors than the estimation of the angles when adcigs that are functions of the offset ray parameters are adequate for the application of interest e g ray based tomography the computation of adcigs before imaging might be preferable errors in the migration velocity cause the image point in the angle domain to shift along the normal to the apparent geological dip by assuming stationary rays i e small velocity errors we derive a quantitative relationship between this normal shift and the traveltime perturbation caused by velocity errors this relationship can be directly used in an mva procedure to invert depth errors measured from adcigs into migration velocity updates in this paper we use it to derive an approximate 3d residual moveout rmo function for measuring inconsistencies between the migrated images at different and we tested the accuracy of our kinematic analysis on a 3d synthetic data set with steeply dipping reflectors and a vertically varying propagation velocity the tests confirm the accuracy of our analysis and illustrate the limitations of the straight ray approximation underlying our derivation of the 3d rmo function

protracted development of bioturbation through the early palaeozoic era mobile organisms first appeared in the fossil record prior to the precambrian cambrian transition sediment textures indicate that the degree of sediment mixing by animal activity remained low for 120 million years following the transition

full azimuth subsurface angle domain wavefield decomposition and imaging part i directional and reflection image gathers we present a new subsurface angle domain seismic imaging systemforgeneratingandextractinghigh resolutioninformation about subsurface angle dependent reflectivity the system enables geophysicists to use all recorded seismic data in a continuousfashiondirectlyinthesubsurfacelocalangledomainlad resulting in two complementary full azimuth common imageangle gather systems directional and reflection the complete setofinformationfrombothtypesofanglegathersleadstoaccurate high resolution reliable velocity model determination and reservoir characterization the directional angle decomposition enables the implementation of specular and diffraction imaging in real 3d isotropic anisotropic geological models leading to simultaneous emphasis on continuous structural surfaces and discontinuous objects such as faults and small scale fractures structural attributes at each subsurface point e g dip azimuth andcontinuity canbederiveddirectlyfromthedirectionalangle gathers the reflection angle gathers display reflectivity as a function of the opening angle and opening azimuth these gathers are most meaningful in the vicinity of actual local reflecting surfaces wherethereflectionanglesaremeasuredwithrespectto the derived background specular direction the reflection angle gathers are used for automatic picking of full azimuth angle domainresidualmoveoutsrmowhich togetherwiththederived background orientations of the subsurface reflection horizons provide a complete set of input data to isotropic anisotropic tomography the full azimuth angle dependent amplitude variations are used for reliable and accurate amplitude versus angle andazimuthavazanalysisandreservoircharacterization the proposed system is most effective for imaging and analysis below complex structures such as subsalt and subbasalt high velocity carbonate rocks shallow low velocity gas pockets and others in addition it enables accurate azimuthal anisotropic imaging and analysis providing optimal solutions for fracture detectionandreservoircharacterization

the geological evolution of the tibetan plateau the geological evolution of the tibetan plateau is best viewed in a context broader than the india eurasia collision zone after collision about 50 million years ago crust was shortened in western and central tibet while large fragments of lithosphere moved from the collision zone toward areas of trench rollback in the western pacific and indonesia cessation of rapid pacific trench migration 15 to 20 million years ago coincided with a slowing of fragment extrusion beyond the plateau and probably contributed to the onset of rapid surface uplift and crustal thickening in eastern tibet the latter appear to result from rapid eastward flow of the deep crust probably within crustal channels imaged seismically beneath eastern tibet these events mark a transition to the modern structural system that currently accommodates deformation within tibet

heterogeneity and anisotropy of the lithosphere of se tibet from surface wave array tomography 1 understanding the geotectonic evolution of the southeastern tibetan plateau requires knowledge about the structure of the lithosphere using data from 77 broadband stations in sw china we invert rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion curves from ambient noise interferometry t 1 0 40 s and teleseismic surface waves t 2 0 150 s for 3 d heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy in the lithosphere to 150 km depth our surface wave array tomography reveals 1 deep crustal zones of anomalously low shear wave speed and 2 substantial variations with depth of the pattern of azimuthal anisotropy upper crustal azimuthal anisotropy reveals a curvilinear pattern around the eastern himalayan syntaxis with fast directions generally parallel to the main strike slip faults the mantle pattern of azimuthal anisotropy is different from that in the crust and varies from north to south the tomographically inferred 3 d variation in azimuthal anisotropy helps constrain the source region of shear wave splitting south of 26 n off the high plateau most of the observed splitting can be accounted for by upper mantle anisotropy but for stations on the plateau proper with thick crust crustal anisotropy cannot be ignored on long wavelengths the pattern of azimuthal anisotropy in the crust differs from that in the mantle this is easiest explained if deformation varies with depth the deep crustal zones of low shear wave speed and presumably mechanical strength may represent loci of ductile deformation but their lateral variation suggests that in se tibet localized crustal channel flow and motion along the major strike slip faults are both important

geodynamics of the southeastern tibetan plateau from seismic anisotropy and geodesy ongoing plate convergence between india and eurasia provides a natural laboratory for studying the dynamics of continental collision a fi rst order process in the evolution of continents regional climate and natural hazards in southeastern tibet the fast directions of seismic anisotropy determined using shear wave splitting analysis correlate with the surfi cial geology including major sutures and shear zones and with the surface strain derived from the global positioning system velocity fi eld these observations are consistent with a clockwise rotation of material around the eastern himalayan syntaxis and suggest coherent distributed lithospheric deformation beneath much of southeastern tibet at the southeastern edge of the tibetan plateau we observe a sharp transition in mantle anisotropy with a change in fast directions to a consistent e w direction and a clockwise rotation of the surface velocity surface strain fi eld and fault network toward burma around the eastern himalayan syntaxis the coincidence between structural crustal features surface strain and mantle anisotropy suggests that the deformation in the lithosphere is mechanically coupled across the crust mantle interface and that the lower crust is suffi ciently strong to transmit stress at the southeastern margin of the plateau in yunnan province a change in orientation between mantle anisotropy and surface strain suggests a change in the relationship between crustal and mantle deformation lateral variations in boundary conditions and rheological properties of the lithosphere play an important role in the geodynamic evolution of the himalayan orogen and tibetan plateau and require the development of three dimensional models that incorporate lateral heterogeneity

precambrian cambrian trace fossils from the yangtze platform south china and the early evolution of bilaterian lifestyles abstract siliciclastic carbonaceous and phosphoritic shallow marine sediments from several neoproterozoic ediacaran and precambrian cambrian pc c boundary sections on the yangtze platform south china contain remarkable trace fossil assemblages the present paper provides a general overview on the distribution and the possible palaeobiological and palaeoenvironmental significance of these trace fossil assemblages from selected pc c boundary sections on the passive yangtze platform margins comparative investigations of the typology of neoproterozoic ediacaran ichnofaunas as well as of the related sedimentary environments accompanying the ichnoassemblages demonstrate in general correspondence with other studies worldwide that the neoproterozoic ichnofaunas are mainly composed of slightly curved to straight and unbranched horizontal traces which are usually related to the occurrence of shallow marine softgrounds sealed by microbial mats rare traces show ichnomorphological patterns that indicate developments toward a more effective horizontal exploitation of the feeding ground during the late neoproterozoic and earliest cambrian the majority of these traces appear to represent undermat miners with simple feeding strategies during the earliest phanerozoic early meishucunian stage equivalent to the nemakit daldynian stage of siberia the oxic shallow water environments along the ancient continental passive margins of the yangtze platform were populated by large as yet unknown arthropods which produced rusophycus type trace fossils the late precambrian to early phanerozoic sediments of the yangtze platform generally provide excellently preserved trace fossil records which together with the presence of index fossils ssf from the nemakit daldynian stage provide a more detailed insight into the development of pc c palaeoenvironments and the evolution of lifestyles among early bilaterian metazoans a preliminary comparison of the neoproterozic biotas occurring on the yangtze platform and in other time equivalent ediacaran habitats demonstrates general similarities but also some striking differences probably due to palaeoenvironmental variations the data presented here from south china are critically discussed in the light of current palichnological approaches and theories

geobiology of a palaeoecosystem with ediacara type fossils the shibantan member dengying formation south china abstract despite the importance of palaeoecosystems with ediacara type fossils for the early evolution of metazoans only little is known about the interplay of geological and biological processes in these environments the reason is that sedimentary structures biogenic structures and bio geochemical signatures e g hydrocarbon biomarkers are commonly not well preserved due to the predominance of volcanic and siliciclastic lithologies the shibantan member dengying formation south china is one of only few carbonate settings with ediacara type organisms worldwide and its lithology promises an excellent preservation of sedimentary facies and bio geochemical signatures here we provide the first comprehensive geobiological characterisation of the shibantan member in order to reconstruct the interplay between sedimentary and bio geochemical processes and to assess the microbial activities in the palaeoecosystem with ediacara type fossils facies analyses revealed that carbonate and organic matter were autochthonously formed by bio geochemical processes linked to microbial mats however the material was frequently reworked and re deposited within the same setting i e para autochthonous as evidenced by small scale hummocky cross stratification erosional contacts lenticular bedding and load casts negative ce anomalies ce ce and low v cr ratios demonstrate that molecular o 2 was present in the water column whereas characteristic ni co v v ni and v sc ratios suggest the contemporaneous presence of sub to anoxic water taken together these observations imply a temporarily stratified water body frequently mixed and ventilated by storms 13 c enrichments in the shibantan carbonates 13 c 3 29 to 3 98 vpdb together with 13 c depletions of syngenetic n alkanes cleaved from the extraction residue using catalytic hydropyrolysis hypy 13 c 31 7 to 36 3 vpdb could indicate a significant withdrawal of 12 c by primary producers that thrived within the mats at the same time sulphurised biomarkers in the bitumen and hypy pyrolysate hint at organic matter decomposition and concomitant sulphide production by sulphate reducing bacteria when oxygen was available at the sediment water interface due to mixing by storms sulphide oxidising bacteria were possibly temporarily favoured the results demonstrated that palaeoenvironmental conditions dynamically changed through a complex interplay of biogenic and abiogenic processes

angle domain common image gathers from anisotropic migration i present a general methodology for computing angle domain common image gathers adcigs in conjunction with anisotropic wavefield continuation migration the method is based on transforming the prestack image from the subsurface offset domain to the angle domain using slant stacks the processing sequence is the same as that for computing adcigs for the isotropic case though the interpretation of the relationship between the slopes measured in the prestack image and the aperture angles is more complex i demonstrate that the slopes measured by performing slant stacks along the subsurface offset axis of the prestack image provide a good approximation of the phase aperture angles and they are exactly equal to the phase aperture angles for flat reflectors in vertical transversly isotropic vti media in the general case of dipping reflectors the angles computed using slant stacks can be easily corrected by applying the relationships that i present in this paper and the accurate aperture angles can be determined as a function of the reflector dip and anisotropic slowness at the reflector i derive these relationships from both plane wave and ray viewpoints this theoretical development links the kinematics in adcigs with migration velocity errors i apply the proposed method to compute adcigs from the prestack image obtained by anisotropic migration of a 2d line recorded in the gulf of mexico i analyze the error introduced by neglecting the difference between the true phase aperture angle and the angle computed through slant stacks showing that at least for this data set these errors are negligible and can be safely ignored in contrast group aperture angles can be quite different from phase aperture angles thus ignoring the distinction between these two angles can be detrimental to practical applications

a tale of three taphonomic modes the ediacaran fossil flabellophyton preserved in limestone black shale and sandstone abstract ediacaran macrofossils are typically preserved in three taphonomic modes casts molds in siliciclastic rocks casts molds in carbonate rocks and carbonaceous compressions in black shales only a few taxa are known to be preserved in more than one of these taphonomic modes flabellophyton is a genus that has been previously reported from lower ediacaran black shale of the lantian formation 635 551 ma in south china and upper ediacaran sandstone of the ediacara member 560 550 ma in south australia here we report flabellophyton from upper ediacaran limestone of the shibantan member of the dengying formation 551 539 ma in south china making flabellophyton the only genus that occurs in all three taphonomic modes we also provide a systematic description of flabellophyton based on material from the lantian and dengying formations in south china recognizing three morphospecies f lantianense f typicum sp nov and f obesum sp nov flabellophyton is reconstructed as an erect epibenthic marine organism attached to sandy carbonate and muddy substrates its phylogenetic affinity remains ambiguous though it was historically interpreted as an algal fossil the wide environmental and stratigraphic distribution of flabellophyton allow comparative taphonomic and paleoecological analysis taphonomic analysis of flabellophyton indicates that multiple taphonomic pathways can facilitate the preservation of ediacaran macrofossils as a window into ediacaran paleoecology flabellophyton and other ediacaran fossils played a crucial role in the construction of epibenthic communities in ediacaran oceans and helps to understand the ecological migration and evolutionary expansion from deeper to shallower oceans during the ediacaran period

residual moveout in anisotropic angle domain common image gathers i develop the fundamental concepts for quantitatively relating perturbations in anisotropic parameters to the corresponding reflector movements in angle domain common image gathers adcigs after anisotropic wavefield continuation migration the proposed theory potentially enables the application of residual moveout rmo analysis of adcigs to velocity estimation in realistic anisotropic conditions i demonstrate that linearization of the relationship between anisotropic velocity parameters and reflector movements can be derived by assuming stationary raypaths this assumption leads to a fairly simple analytical derivation i then apply the general method to the particular case of rmo analysis of reflections from flat reflectors in a vertical transverse isotropic vti medium this analysis yields expressions to predict rmo curves in migrated adcigs these rmo expressions are functions of both the phase aperture angle and the group aperture angle several numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy of the rmo curves predicted by my kinematic analysis the synthetic examples also show that approximating the group angles with the phase angles in the application of the rmo expressions may lead to substantial errors for events reflected at wide aperture angles the results obtained by migrating a 2d line extracted from a gulf of mexico 3d data set confirm the accuracy of the proposed method the rmo curves predicted by the theory match the rmo function observed in the adcigs computed from the real data

when the worm turned concordance of early cambrian ichnofabric and trace fossil record in siliciclastic rocks of south australia studies of sedimentary fabrics and trace fossils across the precambrian cambrian interval in south australia demonstrate that the appearance of treptichnus pedum which defines the base of the cambrian also marks the initial development of preservable infaunal activity there is a significant shift in the amount and nature of bioturbation at this time these results support the broad scale utility of t pedum as the indicator of the base of the cambrian

reply to comment on trace fossil evidence for ediacaran bilaterian animals with complex behaviors precambrian res 224 2013 690 701 state key laboratory of paleobiology and stratigraphy nanjing institute of geology and paleontology chinese academy of sciences nanjing 210008 china department of geosciences virginia polytechnic institute and state university blacksburg va 24061 usa hunan institute of geological survey changsha hunan 410116 china department of geological sciences university of missouri columbia mo 65211 usa

crustal radial anisotropy across eastern tibet and the western yangtze craton 1 phase velocities across eastern tibet and surrounding regions are mapped using rayleigh 8 65 s and love 8 44 s wave ambient noise tomography based on data from more than 400 program for array seismic studies of the continental lithosphere and chinese earthquake array stations a bayesian monte carlo inversion method is applied to generate 3 d distributions of vsh and vsv in the crust and uppermost mantle from which radial anisotropy and isotropic vs are estimated each distribution is summarized with a mean and standard deviation but is also used to identify highly probable structural attributes which include 1 positive midcrustal radial anisotropy vsh vsv across eastern tibet spatial average 4 8 1 4 that terminates abruptly near the border of the high plateau 2 weaker 1 0 1 4 negative radial anisotropy vsh vsv in the shallow crust mostly in the songpan ganzi terrane 3 negative midcrustal anisotropy 2 8 0 9 in the longmenshan region 4 positive midcrustal radial anisotropy 5 4 1 4 beneath the sichuan basin and 5 low vs in the middle crust 3 427 0 050 km s of eastern tibet midcrustal vs 3 4 km s perhaps consistent with partial melt is highly probable only for three distinct regions the northern songpan ganzi the northern chuandian and part of the qiangtang terranes midcrustal anisotropy provides evidence for sheet silicates micas aligned by deformation with a shallowly dipping foliation plane beneath tibet and the sichuan basin and a steeply dipping or subvertical foliation plane in the longmenshan region near vertical cracks or faults are believed to cause the negative anisotropy in the shallow crust underlying tibet

structure of the upper mantle and transition zone beneath southeast asia from traveltime tomography 1 tomographic images of the mantle beneath east asia were obtained from the inversion of traveltime data from global and regional seismograph networks and from temporary arrays on and around the tibetan plateau our results are consistent with previous studies but the unprecedented resolution of mantle heterogeneity provides new insight into the large scale tectonic framework of the continental india asia collision in the western part of the study region and subduction of the oceanic lithosphere in the east in the realm of continental collision west of 100 e a relatively slow p wave speed characterizes the upper mantle beneath much of the tibetan plateau but the wave speed is high beneath cratonic india the southern and western part of the tibetan plateau hindu kush and the tian shan in the subduction realm east of 110 e the main structures are i pronounced low wave speed anomalies at a depth of between 100 and 400 km beneath asia s southeastern seaboard and the back arc regions of ongoing subduction ii narrow fast anomalies in the upper mantle beneath major subduction zones and iii widespread fast anomalies at a depth of 500 700 km beneath the sea of japan the northern part of the philippine sea plate and southeastern china if the latter anomalies represent stagnant slabs their fragmented nature and large lateral extent suggest that they are produced by different episodes of subduction beneath western pacific island arcs along the old se margin of asia or during the mesozoic collision of cratonic units in southeast asia attribution to ancient subduction systems implies that slab fragments can reside in the transition zone for at least several tens of millions of years shallow slow anomalies beneath the red river fault region connect to deep anomalies beneath the south china fold belt and south china sea suggesting a causal relationship between the evolution of the continental lithosphere of sw china and deeper mantle processes between the collision and the subduction realms tomography reveals high wave speed continental roots beneath the western part of the north china craton ordos block and the south china or yangtze craton sichuan basin to a depth of 300 km

a synoptic view of the distribution and connectivity of the mid crustal low velocity zone beneath tibet 1 based on 1 2 years of continuous observations of seismic ambient noise data obtained at more than 600 stations in and around tibet rayleigh wave phase velocity maps are constructed from 10 s to 60 s period a 3 d vsv model of the crust and uppermost mantle is derived from these maps the 3 d model exhibits significant apparently inter connected low shear velocity features across most of the tibetan middle crust at depths between 20 and 40 km these low velocity zones lvzs do not conform to surface faults and significantly are most prominent near the periphery of tibet the observations support the internal deformation model in which strain is dispersed in the deeper crust into broad ductile shear zones rather than being localized horizontally near the edges of rigid blocks the prominent lvzs are coincident with strong mid crustal radial anisotropy in western and central tibet and probably result at least partially from anisotropic minerals aligned by deformation which mitigates the need to invoke partial melt to explain the observations irrespective of their cause in partial melt or mineral alignment mid crustal lvzs reflect deformation and their amplification near the periphery of tibet provides new information about the mode of deformation across tibet