mechanics of low stress forearcs nankai and cascadia the nankai and cascadia subduction zones have low stress forearcs where the margin normal horizontal compressive stress is similar to or less than the vertical stress except in the accretionary prisms in the absence of active back arc spreading the forearc margin normal stress is controlled mainly by the total shear force along the subduction fault or the plate coupling force and the gravitational force the plate coupling force creates compression and the gravitational force in the presence of margin topography creates lateral tension we give a simple expression that relates the forearc stress to topography and average fault strength with the latter represented by an effective coefficient of friction we also use a finite element model of two converging plates in frictional contact to model the forearc stresses the analyses indicate that a low stress forearc requires not only the subduction fault to be very weak but also the mechanically coupled fault area to be narrow in the downdip direction and shallow in depth for nankai and cascadia where the coupled fault areas are narrow and shallow because of the young and hot subducting plates is about 0 05 or less and in any case less than 0 09 the low fault strength is probably not a unique property of low stress forearcs since the same low values combined with wider and deeper coupled areas can be shown to create large margin normal compression in addition there does not seem to be any relation between subduction earthquake magnitudes and plate coupling forces great earthquakes occur at subduction zones having low stress forearcs such as nankai and cascadia

splay fault activity revealed by aftershocks of the 2010 mw 8 8 maule earthquake central chile splay faults large thrust faults emerging from the plate boundary to the seafloor in subduction zones are considered to enhance tsunami generation by transferring slip from the very shallow dip of the megathrust onto steeper faults thus increasing vertical displacement of the seafloor these structures are predominantly found offshore and are therefore difficult to detect in seismicity studies as most seismometer stations are located onshore the mw moment magnitude 8 8 maule earthquake on 27 february 2010 affected 500 km of the central chilean margin in response to this event a network of 30 ocean bottom seismometers was deployed for a 3 month period north of the main shock where the highest coseismic slip rates were detected and combined with land station data providing onshore as well as offshore coverage of the northern part of the rupture area the aftershock seismicity in the northern part of the survey area reveals for the first time a well resolved seismically active splay fault in the submarine forearc application of critical taper theory analysis suggests that in the northernmost part of the rupture zone coseismic slip likely propagated along the splay fault and not the subduction thrust fault while in the southern part it propagated along the subduction thrust fault and not the splay fault the possibility of splay faults being activated in some segments of the rupture zone but not others should be considered when modeling slip distributions

sources of non glacial loess size quartz silt and the origins of desert loess abstract descriptions of peridesertic loess deposits and possible non glacial origins for silt size quartz are reviewed including direct release from weathered bedrock results from salt and frost weathering experiments are presented and methods by which sufficient energy can be imparted to sand size grains to release silt size fragments are identified these fragments may then be entrained by aeolian or fluvial action results from fluvial comminution experiments indicate that high energy mixed sediment fluvial systems may be very effective in generating quartz silt purely aeolian attrition is also seen as a major source of silt size and finer material results from aeolian abrasion experiments performed using crushed quartz sand are complemented by trials using sands from deeply weathered granite and pannonian sands from hungary field and laboratory observations are therefore seen to argue for the existence of deposits that can be classified as desert loess

coesite and pure pyrope in high grade blueschists of the western alps a first record and some consequences a pyrope quartzite originally described by vialon 1966 from the dora maira massif was resampled and reinvestigated garnet up to 25 cm in size phengite kyanite talc and rutile are in textural equilibrium in an undeformed matrix of polygonal quartz the garnet is a pyrope almandine solid solution with 90 to 98 mol mg end member it contains inclusions of coesite which has partially inverted to quartz resulting in a typical radial cracking of the host garnet around the inclusions several lines of evidence show that coesite crystallised under nearly static pressure conditions and that the whole matrix has once been coesite

kinematic models of dewatering accretionary prisms steady state two dimensional analytical solutions are derived for sediment velocity and rate of fluid expulsion in a thickening accretionary prism with smooth upper and lower surfaces two different kinematic assumptions lead to two similar sets of solutions in one case the sediment flow lines are assumed to diverge uniformly landward in the other case the horizontal velocity of any given sediment column is assumed uniform by further assuming zero horizontal darcy velocity in the prism expressions can be obtained for the approximate vertical fluid velocity and pore fluid pressure fields results from applying these solutions to the cascadia accretionary prism off vancouver island show the importance of modeling the effects of lateral as well as vertical porosity variation on the hydrogeology of the prism these solutions provide a means to estimate fluid flow and pore pressure distribution for prisms with realistic geometry the rate of fluid expulsion can also be incorporated into numerical models as the fluid source term

chemistry and microstructures of clay particles in smectite rich shelf sediments south shetland islands antarctica the clay mineralogy of a holocene sediment core from the shelf of livingston island south shetland islands antarctica has been investigated by x ray diffraction xrd lattice imaging bulk chemical analysis of fine clay fractions and analytical transmission electron microscopy atem the clay minerals identified by xrd of 2 m fraction are smectite 63 chlorite 25 and illite 12 with little downcore variation lattice imaging of clay particles has confirmed the presence of interstratified illite smectite and interstratified chlorite smectite atem of ca saturated samples showed that the smectitic clay particles are rich in k fe and mg k in the smectitic particles is mostly present as a fixed cation in the interlayer confirming the presence of interstratified illite a comparison of the mineralogy of the bedrock soils in the probable source area and the core sediment strongly supports the view that the clay minerals must have originated by glacial erosion physical weathering and reworking of hydrothermally altered volcanic bedrock and tephra of the south shetland islands

convergence rate across the nepal himalaya and interseismic coupling on the main himalayan thrust implications for seismic hazard we document geodetic strain across the nepal himalaya using gps times series from 30 stations in nepal and southern tibet in addition to previously published campaign gps points and leveling data and determine the pattern of interseismic coupling on the main himalayan thrust fault mht the noise on the daily gps positions is modeled as a combination of white and colored noise in order to infer secular velocities at the stations with consistent uncertainties we then locate the pole of rotation of the indian plate in the itrf 2005 reference frame at longitude 1 34 3 31 latitude 51 4 0 3 with an angular velocity of 0 5029 0 0072 myr the pattern of coupling on the mht is computed on a fault dipping 10 to the north and whose strike roughly follows the arcuate shape of the himalaya the model indicates that the mht is locked from the surface to a distance of approximately 100 km down dip corresponding to a depth of 15 to 20 km in map view the transition zone between the locked portion of the mht and the portion which is creeping at the long term slip rate seems to be at the most a few tens of kilometers wide and coincides with the belt of midcrustal microseismicity underneath the himalaya according to a previous study based on thermokinematic modeling of thermochronological and thermobarometric data this transition seems to happen in a zone where the temperature reaches 350 c the convergence between india and south tibet proceeds at a rate of 17 8 0 5 mm yr in central and eastern nepal and 20 5 1 mm yr in western nepal the moment deficit due to locking of the mht in the interseismic period accrues at a rate of 6 6 0 4 10 19 nm yr on the mht underneath nepal for comparison the moment released by the seismicity over the past 500 years including 14 m w 7 earthquakes with moment magnitudes up to 8 5 amounts to only 0 9 10 19 nm yr indicating a large deficit of seismic slip over that period or very infrequent large slow slip events no large slow slip event has been observed however over the 20 years covered by geodetic measurements in the nepal himalaya we discuss the magnitude and return period of m 8 earthquakes required to balance the long term slip budget on the mht

shear stresses on megathrusts implications for mountain building behind subduction zones 1 shear stresses on a subduction megathrust play an important role in determining the forces available for mountain building adjacent to a subduction zone in this study the temperatures and shear stresses on megathrusts in 11 subduction zones around the pacific rim hikurangi tonga izu ogasawara western nankai northeastern japan aleutians western alaska cascadia northern chile southern chile and se asia northern sumatra have been determined the main constraint is that vertical normal stresses beneath the highlands behind the subduction zone are nearly equal to horizontal normal stresses in the plane of a trench or arc normal section for a typical brittle and ductile megathrust rheology frictional shear stress gz for depth z and ductile shear stress a exp b rt at temperature t where a b are rheological parameters treated as constants rheological constants common to all the megathrusts crust mantle b are determined by simultaneously solving for the force balance in the overlying wedge and megathrust thermal structure using a simplex minimization algorithm taking account of the induced mantle corner flow at depth 65 15 km 2 and constant radiogenic heating 0 65 0 3 w m 3 2 throughout the crust the a constants are solved individually for each subduction zone assuming that the maximum depth of interplate slip earthquakes marks the brittle ductile transition the best fit solution shows two groupings of megathrusts with most subduction zones having a low mean shear stress in the range 7 15 mpa crust 0 032 0 006 mantle 0 019 0 004 and unable to support elevations 2 5 km for a typical frictional sliding coefficient 0 5 the low effective coefficients of friction suggest high pore fluid pressures at 95 lithostatic pressure tonga and northern chile require higher shear stresses with crust 0 095 0 024 mantle 0 026 0 007 suggesting slightly lower pore fluid pressures at 81 lithostatic ductile shear in the crust is poorly resolved but in the mantle appears to show a strong power law dependency with b 36 18 kj mol 1 amantle values are sensitive to the precise value of b but are in the range 1 20 kpa the power law exponent n for mantle flow is poorly constrained but is likely to be large n 4 the brittle ductile transition in the crust occurs at temperatures in the range 370 c 512 c usually close to the base of the crust and in the mantle at much lower temperatures 180 c 300 c possibly reflecting a marked change in pore fluid pressure or quasi ductile and subfrictional properties in subduction zones where the subducted slab is older than 50 ma a significant proportion of the integrated shear force on the megathrust is taken up where it cuts the mantle and temperatures are 300 c in much younger subduction zones the stress transmission is confined mainly to the crust the shear stresses particularly in the crust may be kept low by some sort of lubricant such as abundant water rich trench fill which lowers the frictional sliding coefficient or effective viscosity and or raises pore fluid pressure the unusual high stress subduction zone in northern chile lacks significant trench fill and may be poorly lubricated with a mean shear stress 37 mpa required to support elevations 4 km in the high andes however where the crust is thin in sediment starved and poorly lubricated subduction zones such as tonga the mean shear stress will still be low sediment may lubricate megathrusts accommodating underthrusting of continental crust such as in the himalayas or eastern central andes which have a low mean shear stress 15 mpa

protracted continental collisions argue for continental plates driven by basal traction abstract in plate tectonic theory collision between two continents should quickly terminate because of continental buoyancy if convergence is to continue it should do so at a new subduction zone where oceanic crust can be consumed the protracted continental collisions in the alps zagros and himalayas which have continued to deform continental crust since the early or middle cenozoic are therefore anomalies in standard plate tectonic theory it is commonly held that plates are driven by slab pull but this does not account for the continuing tethyan collisions where the descending slab has detached from the subducting continent these protracted continental collisions are better explained by horizontal traction of the mantle on the base of deep continental roots dragging the northern and southern continents together along a tethyan axis of mantle convergence continental undertow thus resolves the collision anomaly in plate tectonics

scavenging of pollutant acid substances by asian mineral dust particles 1 uptakes of sulfate and nitrate onto asian dust particles during transport from the asian continent to the pacific ocean were analyzed by using a single particle time of flight mass spectrometer observation was conducted at tsukuba in japan in the springtime of 2004 sulfate rich dust particles made their largest contribution during the dust event in the middle of april 2004 as a result of detailed analysis including backward trajectory calculations it was confirmed that sulfate components originating from coal combustion in the continent were internally mixed with dust particles even in the downstream of the outflow far from the continental coastline significant contribution of asian dust to sulfate was observed asian dust plays critical roles as the carrier of sulfate over the pacific ocean

loess stratigraphy in central china abstract loess sequences in central china provide a detailed record of climate changes during the last 2 5 million years at least 44 major shifts from glacial to interglacial conditions occurred during this time in china prolonged loess deposition lasting more than 40 millennia occurred eleven times with only four of these intervals in brunhes chron the climate oscillations took place with increased frequency between 2 4 and 0 5 ma compared to the last half million years major shifts toward cooler and drier climates occurred at about 2 4 ma 1 2 ma and 0 5 ma while less pronounced shifts are dated to 1 65 ma 0 8 ma and 0 2 ma three of the last four reversals of the earth s magnetic field whose lithostratigraphic position has been detail are recorded in a glacial deposit the low field magnetic susceptibility of loess and soils which reflects the concentration of ultrafine magnetite is related to the degree of pedogenesis and serves as a proxy measure of climate the accumulation rate of the magnetite was fairly constant throughout the last 1 2 million years and can serve as a measure of time susceptibility records from localities near xifeng and luochuan located 160 km apart are compared and used to define informal lithostratigraphic units in the loess plateau of china

making the material the formation of silt sized primary mineral particles for loess deposits abstract in 1911 e e free wrote it may be well to point out that there are really two problems of the loess a problem of the origin of material and a problem of deposition the problem of the origin of material has been relatively neglected in comparison to problems of deposition of the formation of deposits and latterly in comparison to studies of loess stratigraphy if we are to understand the true nature of loess this fascinating material we need to be aware of all the significant events in the processing of the particles which form a deposit a large amount of silt sized primary mineral material has to be produced to make a loess deposit loess is a quaternary phenomenon and we see the entire process being completed in quaternary times some powerful quaternary forces are able to produce very large amounts of granular material glacial grinding vigorously supported by smalley 1966a provides an obvious source for some loess material but the vast deposits of north china and central asia have no obvious glacial connection however they are adjacent to high asia a region of vast tectonic activity and an enormous release of terrestrial energy in the last several million years high asia is a large producer of loess silt much of which finds its way south to make the ganges delta but large amounts are moved north and east to make huge loess deposits africa presents a problem recent work e g coude gaussen 1987 suggests that there is a region of peri saharan loess but earlier observations e g penck indicate quite clearly that the sahara region is free of loess rathjens 1928 in his study of tripolitania indicated the presence of loess like deposits and described their nature but he did point out that 90 of the granular material was greater than 100 pm in diameter which would remove it from a strict loess definition on the soil taxonomy map of africa there is a belt of soil d3 which could include considerable loess deposits it stretches from the matmata loess in tunisia across northern libya to the western part of the egyptian coastal region if d3 contains loess this points to a genuine desert loess particle producing mechanism operating in the sahara

revealing the deep structure and rupture plane of the 2010 maule chile earthquake mw 8 8 using wide angle seismic data the 27 february 2010 maule earthquake mw 8 8 ruptured 400 km of the nazca south america plate boundary and caused hundreds of fatalities and billions of dollars in material losses here we present constraints on the fore arc structure and subduction zone of the rupture area derived from seismic refraction and wide angle data the results show a wedge shaped body 40 km wide with typical sedimentary velocities interpreted as a frontal accretionary prism fap landward of the imaged fap the velocity model shows an abrupt velocity contrast suggesting a lithological change which is interpreted as the contact between the fap and the paleo accretionary prism backstop the backstop location is coincident with the seaward limit of the aftershocks defining the updip limit of the co seismic rupture and seismogenic zone furthermore the seaward limit of the aftershocks coincides with the location of the shelf break in the entire earthquake rupture area 33 s 38 5 s which is interpreted as the location of the backstop along the margin published seismic profiles at the northern and southern limit of the rupture area also show the presence of a strong horizontal velocity gradient seismic backstop at a distance of 30 km from the deformation front the seismic wide angle reflections from the top of the subducting oceanic crust constrain the location of the plate boundary offshore dipping at 10 the projection of the epicenter of the maule earthquake onto our derived interplate boundary yielded a hypocenter around 20 km depth this implies that this earthquake nucleated somewhere in the middle of the seismogenic zone neither at its updip nor at its downdip limit

provenance of loess material and formation of loess deposits on the chinese loess plateau abstract results of a multiple isotopic chemical and mineralogical analysis of loess from the three northwestern inland basins the junggar basin the tarim basin and the qaidam basin and the loess plateau region of china are summarized they suggest a qualification of the conventional views that the three northwestern basins were the important source areas of the loess plateau and that the sand deserts were the primary single source of the chinese loess it is argued that the gobi stony desert in southern mongolia and the adjoining gobi and sand deserts the badain jaran desert tengger desert ulan buh desert hobq desert and mu us desert in china rather than the three inland basins are the dominant source areas of the loess plateau however although these gobi and sand deserts are regarded as the main source regions they serve as dust and silt holding areas rather than dominant producers the mountain processes including glacial grinding frost weathering salt weathering tectonic processes and some fluvial comminution in the gobi altay mts hangayn mts and the qilian mts have played an important role in producing the vast amounts of loess sized material for forming the loess plateau

splay fault slip during the mw 8 8 2010 maule chile earthquake splay faults are thrusts that emerge from the plate boundaries of subduction zones such structures have been mapped at several convergent margins and their activity commonly ascribed to large megathrust earthquakes however the behavior of splay faults during the earthquake cycle is poorly constrained because typically these structures are located offshore and are difficult to access here we use geologic mapping combined with space and land geodesy as well as offshore sonar data to document surface fault ruptures and coastal uplift at isla santa maria in south central chile 37 s caused by the 27 february 2010 maule earthquake m w 8 8 during the earthquake the island was tilted parallel to the margin and normal faults ruptured the surface and adjacent ocean bottom we associate tilt and crestal normal faulting with growth of an anticline above a blind reverse fault rooted in the nazca south america plate boundary which slipped during the maule earthquake the splay fault system has formed in an area of reduced coseismic plate boundary slip suggesting that anelastic deformation in the upper plate may have restrained the 2010 megathrust rupture surface fault breaks were accompanied by prominent discharge of fluids our field observations support the notion that splay faulting may frequently complement and influence the rupture of subduction zone earthquakes

stress orientations in subduction zones and the strength of subduction megathrust faults subduction zone megathrust faults produce most of the world s largest earthquakes although the physical properties of these faults are difficult to observe directly their frictional strength can be estimated indirectly by constraining the orientations of the stresses that act on them a global investigation of stress orientations in subduction zones finds that the maximum compressive stress axis plunges systematically trenchward consistently making an angle of 45 to 60 with respect to the subduction megathrust fault these angles indicate that the megathrust fault is not substantially weaker than its surroundings together with several other lines of evidence this implies that subduction zone megathrusts are weak faults in a low stress environment the deforming outer accretionary wedge may decouple the stress state along the megathrust from the constraints of the free surface

initiation and development of the pennine basal thrust swiss alps a structural and geochronological study of an exhumed megathrust abstract the pennine basal thrust pbt is an exhumed megathrust developed during continental collision from late eocene to miocene to trace its evolution five samples with indications for up to three microstructurally diachronous white mica generations were investigated by laser in situ and step heating 40 ar 39 ar dating three deformation related crystallization ages can be distinguished 1 d 1 characterized in the pbt hanging wall by an s 1 foliation defined by white mica chloritoid began at or before 38 0 ma 2 d 2 formed a pervasive s 2 cleavage and synchronous white mica rich veins dated at 27 ma 3 d 3 produced an s 3 crenulation cleavage and chlorite white mica veins dated at 23 ma older ages of 96 ma footwall and 115 ma hanging wall are interpreted as minimum ages for the detrital component finally discrete faulting produced fault gouge with an illite k ar age of 19 ma a simplified back restored reconstruction provides a tectonic context for the dated structures in this framework d 1 occurred during middle to late eocene tectonic accretion after late eocene initiation of continental collision d 2 reflects oligocene top to nw shearing with both in and out of sequence thrusting d 3 then developed from 23 to 19 ma during the progressive deactivation of the pbt

toward understanding tectonic control on the mw 8 8 2010 maule chile earthquake the maule earthquake of 27th february 2010 m w 8 8 affected similar to 500 km of the nazca south america plate boundary in south central chile producing spectacular crustal deformation here we present a detailed estimate of static coseismic surface offsets as measured by survey and continuous gps both in near and far field regions earthquake slip along the megathrust has been inferred from a joint inversion of our new data together with published gps insar and land level changes data using green s functions generated by a spherical finite element model with realistic subduction zone geometry the combination of the data sets provided a good resolution indicating that most of the slip was well resolved coseismic slip was concentrated north of the epicenter with up to 16 m of slip whereas to the south it reached over 10 m within two minor patches a comparison of coseismic slip with the slip deficit accumulated since the last great earthquake in 1835 suggests that the 2010 event closed a mature seismic gap slip deficit distribution shows an apparent local overshoot that highlight cycle to cycle variability which has to be taken into account when anticipating future events from interseismic observations rupture propagation was obviously not affected by bathymetric features of the incoming plate instead splay faults in the upper plate seem to have limited rupture propagation in the updip and along strike directions additionally we found that along strike gradients in slip are spatially correlated with geometrical inflections of the megathrust our study suggests that persistent tectonic features may control strain accumulation and release along subduction megathrusts c 2012 elsevier b v all rights reserved

provenance of the north pacific sediments and process of source material transport as derived from rb sr isotopic systematics abstract rb sr isotopic systematics of 111 samples of sediments in nine cores from the north pacific of quaternary and pliocene ages have been investigated they provide information on the provenance the process of particle transport and temporal variation in the flux of source material the rb sr isotopic systematics of the core sediments show well correlated pseudo isochrons the pseudo isochrons reflect the mixing of two types of material i e the asian continental material with high 87 rb 86 sr ratios 4 5 6 5 and high 87 sr 86 sr ratios 0 723 0 727 and the volcanic material with low 87 rb 86 sr ratios and low 87 sr 86 sr ratios from island arc volcanics such as the izu ogasawara mariana and the japanese islands and oceanic islands such as the hawaiian islands 0 0 2 0 0 703 0 708 the clearness of the pseudo isochrons implies that the rb sr isotopic composition of the weathering products derived from the asian continental crust is extremely homogenized the fine fraction a few m with a high 87 rb 86 sr ratio 5 0 6 5 is widely transported into the north pacific by the middle latitude westerlies and contributes largely to pelagic sediments the coarser fraction with a lower 87 rb 86 sr ratio

aftershock seismicity of the 27 february 2010 mw 8 8 maule earthquake rupture zone on 27 february 2010 the mw 8 8 maule earthquake in central chile ruptured a seismic gap where significant strain had accumulated since 1835 shortly after the mainshock a dense network of temporary seismic stations was installed along the whole rupture zone in order to capture the aftershock activity here we present the aftershock distribution and first motion polarity focal mechanisms based on automatic detection algorithms and picking engines by processing the seismic data between 15 march and 30 september 2010 from stations from iris ipgp gfz and university of liverpool we determined 20 205 hypocentres with magnitudes mw between 1 and 5 5 seismic activity occurs in six groups 1 normal faulting outer rise events 2 a shallow group of plate interface seismicity apparent at 25 35 km depth and 50 120 km distance to the trench with some variations between profiles along strike the aftershocks occur largely within the zone of coseismic slip but extend 50 km further north and with predominantly shallowly dipping thrust mechanisms along dip the events are either within the zone of coseismic slip or downdip from it depending on the coseismic slip model used 3 a third band of seismicity is observed further downdip at 40 50 km depth and further inland at 150 160 km trench perpendicular distance with mostly shallow dipping 28 thrust focal mechanisms indicating rupture of the plate interface significantly downdip of the coseismic rupture and presumably above the intersection of the continental moho with the plate interface 4 a deep group of intermediate depth events between 80 and 120 km depth is present north of 36 s within the maule segment a large portion of events during the inter seismic phase originated from this depth range 5 the magmatic arc exhibits a small amount of crustal seismicity but does not appear to show significantly enhanced activity after the mw 8 8 maule 2010 earthquake 6 pronounced crustal aftershock activity with mainly normal faulting mechanisms is found in the region of pichilemu 34 5 s these crustal events occur in a 30 km wide region with sharp inclined boundaries and oriented oblique to the trench the best located events describe a plane dipping to the southwest consistent with one of the focal planes of the large normal faulting aftershock mw 6 9 on 11 march 2010

the contemporary physical and chemical flux of aeolian dust a synthesis of direct measurements of dust deposition abstract the deposition of aeolian or windblown dust is widely recognized as an important physical and chemical flux to ecosystems dust deposition adds exogenous mineral and organic material to terrestrial surfaces and can be important for the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients there have been many studies that characterize the physical and chemical composition of dust however few studies have synthesized these observations in order to examine patterns geochemical fluxes we have compiled observations of dust deposition rates particle size distributions psd mineralogy and bulk elemental and organic chemistry the rates of dust deposition observed across the globe vary from almost 0 to greater than 450 g m 2 yr 1 sites receiving dust deposition can be partitioned into broad categories based on there distance from dust source regions when compared to global dust models our results suggest some models may underestimate dust deposition rates at the regional and local scales the distance from the source region that dust is deposited also influences the particle size distributions mineralogy and chemical composition of dust however more consistent dust sampling and geochemical analyses are needed to better constrain these spatial patterns on average the concentrations of most major elements si al fe mg ca k in aeolian dust tend to be similar 20 to the composition of the upper continental crust ucc but there is substantial variability from sample to sample in contrast some elements tend to be depleted na or enriched ti in dust likely as a result of soil weathering processes prior to dust emissions trace elements especially heavy metals are consistently enriched in dust relative to the ucc ecologically important nutrients such as n and p are also present in dust deposition the geochemical flux attributable to dust deposition can be substantial in ecosystems located proximal to dust source regions we calculate estimates of elemental flux rates based on the average chemical composition of aeolian dust and varying rates of deposition these estimated flux rates are useful as a rough gauge of the degree to which dust deposition may influence biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and should be utilized to better constrain deposition estimates of global dust models

miocene paleotopography of the central alps abstract reconstructing surface elevation surface uplift and relief histories is fundamental to understanding the growth of mountain ranges to explore their topographic limits and relate these to the interplay between geodynamic and earth surface processes here we aim to quantify miocene paleoelevation of the central european alps through stable isotope paleoaltimetry the novelty of our approach which renders our analysis less sensitive to past climate change is that stable isotope proxies of identical age are analyzed from both the high internal parts of the alpine orogen and the adjacent foreland basin whereas the foreland basin was at or near sea level and traces the combined effects of upstream changes in rainfall amount and composition the high alpine site additionally records the effect of elevation on stable isotopes in precipitation we compare hydrogen isotopic ratios d in mica and chlorite that interacted with meteoric water along the simplon detachment a major normal fault that developed at high elevations with meteoric water compositions deduced from carbonate bearing paleosols of the north alpine foreland basin d values of muscovite 126 and chlorite 135 from the brittle hanging wall and of recrystallized muscovite 108 and biotite 140 from adjacent footwall mylonites provide unequivocal evidence for localized syntectonic meteoric water interaction along the simplon detachment detailed 40 ar 39 ar and fission track geochronology constrains the timing of isotopic exchange to ca 14 5 ma when the footwall mylonites passed through the ductile to brittle transition age equivalent oxygen isotope ratios 18 o measured within pedogenic carbonate from north alpine foreland paleosols that developed near miocene sea level serve as our low elevation point of reference 18 o values in these paleosols dated with ca 100 ka precision vary between 19 and 25 smow with average values of 20 at ca 14 5 ma using the relative differences between meteoric water compositions in the foreland basin and the high alpine simplon detachment our isotope data are consistent with a mid miocene minimum average elevation difference of 2350 700 500 m for the simplon region our results indicate that miocene alpine elevations were at least comparable to those of today and are likely to have acted as an important barrier to atlantic derived moisture transport into central europe and eurasia since that time

accretionary prisms in subduction earthquake cycles the theory of dynamic coulomb wedge 1 we expand the theory of critically tapered coulomb wedge for accretionary prisms by considering stress changes in subduction earthquake cycles building on the coulomb plasticity of the classical theory we assume an elastic perfectly coulomb plastic rheology and derive exact stress solutions for stable and critical wedges the new theory postulates that the actively deforming most seaward part of an accretionary prism the outer wedge overlies the updip velocity strengthening part of the subduction fault and the less deformed inner wedge overlies the velocity weakening part the seismogenic zone during great earthquakes the outer wedge is pushed into a compressively critical state with an increase in basal and internal stresses and pore fluid pressure after the earthquake the outer wedge returns to a stable state the outer wedge geometry is controlled by the peak stress of the updip velocity strengthening part of the subduction fault achieved in largest earthquakes the inner wedge generally stays in the stable regime throughout earthquake cycles acting as an apparent backstop and providing a stable environment for the formation of forearc basins the new theory has important implications for the studies of the updip limit of the seismogenic zone the evolution of accretionary prisms and forearc basins activation of splay faults and tsunami generation evolution of the fluid regime and mechanics of frontal prisms at margins dominated by tectonic erosion

rotation and exhumation of a thrust plane apatite fission track data from the glarus thrust switzerland apatite fission track ages and track length measurements are presented from 22 samples from the glarus alps eastern switzerland where maximum temperatures of 100 to 350 c along an alpine thrust plane were reached during late tertiary metamorphism with the exception of the northernmost sample apatite ages are fully reset and range between 5 and 12 ma apatite fission track data along a vertical profile and a horizontal profile indicate that isothermal planes were oriented parallel to the glarus thrust plane and that the thrust plane cooled below a mean apatite fission track closure temperature of 110 c at 9 ma the metamorphic pattern and fission track data indicate a south dipping thrust plane during the times of peak metamorphic conditions postmetamorphic thrusting over a distance of 10 km and gradational exhumation of the plane to a horizontal position at ca 9 ma ongoing rotation of the plane is reflected by the present dip of about 7 nnw

noncohesive critical coulomb wedges an exact solution active fold and thrust belts or submarine accretionary complexes can be modeled as critically tapered wedges of material on the verge of coulomb failure everywhere overlying a basal decollement where frictional sliding is occurring ignoring cohesion the four strength parameters needed to describe a critical coulomb wedge are its internal and basal coefficients of friction and b and its internal and basal hubbert rubey fluid pressure ratios and b an exact relation between surface slope and basal dip of a noncohesive critical wedge with uniform properties is derived the state of stress within such a wedge has the same orientation everywhere and is constant if is and vice versa a coefficient of internal friction 1 1 is consistent with the known surface slope basal dip and pore fluid pressures in the active fold and thrust belt of western taiwan assuming that byerlee s law b 0 85 is valid on the base the wide variety of tectonic styles observed to occur along convergent margins including subduction erosion active accretion subduction without accretion and even extension and normal faulting may be controlled by relatively small spatial or temporal variations in either b or b

determination of the pore fluid pressure ratio at seismogenic megathrusts in subduction zones implications for strength of asperities and andean type mountain building 1 we construct the differential stress profile across the fore arc in a subduction zone from the force balance between the shear stress at seismogenic megathrust and the lithostatic pressure we assume that is written by 1 n where is the pore fluid pressure ratio is the coefficient of static friction and n is the normal stress given a density structure of the fore arc wedge we determine by comparing calculated fore arc stresses with observed ones as 0 95 0 98 in shikoku miyagi peru north chile and south chile and 0 90 0 93 in south vancouver island and washington the parameter averaged over the seismogenic megathrust is of the order of 10 mpa stress drops of great earthquakes in these zones occupy 14 87 and not a constant fraction of they on the other hand increase linearly with 1 we propose a simple fault model in which the area of asperities as a fraction of the total fault area is proportional to 1 variation of fractional area of asperities thus may explain the observed correlation and the regional variation of assuming that the differential stress at summit of the andean mountains is zero not at the coast as observed at present we determine to be 0 84 in north chile in the mountain building stage such a smaller value of along with 0 9 in subduction zones would suggest that variation of controls the tectonic style of the earth

asian dustfall in the st elias mountains yukon canada in april 2001 a major atmospheric dustfall event occurred in the st elias mountains yukon territory canada field samples were collected and analyzed for particle size mineralogy chemical composition and sr nd and pb isotopes dusts found above 3000 m had their source in the gobi desert region of northern china and inner mongolia and were transported to the yukon following a series of major dust storms that took place in early april dusts found below 3000 m had local yukon or mixed source s the asian dusts had a modal volume diameter of 4 m typical of far traveled mineral aerosols however larger 10 m particles were also found at 5000 m suggesting a very rapid trans pacific transport in the mid troposphere we estimate that the april 2001 event deposited from 5500 to 6335 tons of dust over an area of 21 000 km2 in the southwestern yukon most of which probably fell within a week our findings are consistent with instrumental observations and model simulations of the april 2001 event while the dust cloud was reportedly mixed with volatile pollutants from asia we found no evidence of metal pollution associated with the dustfall in the yukon our findings contribute to clarify the dynamics and the geochemical impact of asian dust long range transport events and to better estimate eolian fluxes of dustborne elements e g fe to the ocean associated with such events they may also assist in identifying past asian dust events in ice cores drilled from the st elias mountains icefields to develop a long term record of their frequency magnitude and source s

megathrust friction determined from mechanical analysis of the forearc in the maule earthquake area the seismogenic potential of a given fault depends essentially on its frictional properties and on the mechanical properties of the medium determining the spatio temporal variations of frictional properties is therefore a key issue in seismotectonics this study aims to characterize the friction on the south america megathrust in the 2010 mw 8 8 maule earthquake area from mechanical analysis of the forearc structure and morphology based on the critical taper theory we first show that the rupture area of the maule earthquake also shown to be locked in the interseismic period coincides with the stable part of the wedge in the surrounding area the wedge is critical a finding consistent with various evidence for active deformation there this is in particular true for the arauco peninsula area which seems to have arrested the maule earthquake s rupture to the south this observation lends support to the view that the seismic rupture is inhibited when propagating beneath a critical area the geometry of the critical portion of the wedge suggests a standard internal friction int 0 7 0 13 and a hydrostatic pore pressure within the wedge the effective friction beneath the critical outer wedge is estimated to be eff b 0 27 0 03 this could be related to intrinsically low friction minerals clay or high pore pressure along the megathrust we next use the limit analysis approach to constrain the variation of the effective friction along the megathrust based on the location and geometry of internal faulting within the forearc a low effective friction is found within the rupture area eff b 0 14 to explain the reactivation of thrust fault such as the santa maria updip of the coseismic rupture or the activation of normal splay faults downdip of the rupture area the low effective friction found there could reflect strong dynamic weakening

changes in mineralogy of loess paleosol sections across the chinese loess plateau quantitative mineralogical analysis of bulk samples and single particles was carried out on three loess sections of different local climate settings on the chinese loess plateau clp mineralogy geochemistry and single particle petrography of loess and paleosols are relatively uniform over the clp however in detail there are mineralogical changes related to eolian process and chemical weathering particle size sorting eastward from western sources led to an eastward increase of the total phyllosilicate contents enriched in fine illitic clay minerals after deposition detrital minerals susceptible to chemical weathering were sequentially altered in a progressive fashion with increasing precipitation in the order of calcite dolomite biotite illite chlorite amphibole and plagioclase the weathering of biotite chlorite and illite resulted in a significant increase of expandable phyllosilicate contents the sequential weathering of the minerals is reflected chemically in the decrease of na and mg and the increase of iron oxidation mineralogy of the chinese loess at individual sites reflects the effects of size fractionation during eolian transportation and progressive sequential weathering along the climatic gradient and it is essential to consider both effects when using mineralogical and dependent chemical data in the paleoclimatic reconstruction of the clp

constraining the strength of megathrusts from fault geometries and application to the alpine collision zone abstract using coulomb wedge solutions we show that the effective strength of megathrusts b can be determined from the geometry of out of sequence thrusts cutting through an accretionary or orogenic wedge the method is first tested on central chilean margin for which it yields a frictional strength of b 0 053 0 043 0 024 the inferred value agrees well with previous strength estimates and with the tectonic response of the central chilean wedge to 2010 m w 8 8 maule earthquake we then use the approach to constrain the strength of the collision megathrust of the central european alps 30 20 million years ago we find that the collision megathrust had a strength of b 0 065 0 035 0 026 which is similarly low than the strength of subduction megathrusts the result is integrated into a static force balance model to examine potential implications of a weak megathrust for the alpine orogeny the model results suggest that the alpine megathrust supported a mean maximum elevation of 2 000 m and that growth of the wedge up to this elevation supported a switch from contractional to extensional tectonics in the interior of the alps around 20 ma finally using the example of the himalayas we show how the strength of megathrusts may be also derived from the geometry of crustal ramps which provides a valuable alternative if details on out of sequence thrusts are missing

stress buildup in the himalaya the seismic cycle on a major fault involves long periods of elastic strain and stress accumulation driven by aseismic ductile deformation at depth ultimately released by sudden fault slip events coseismic slip distributions are generally heterogeneous with most of the energy being released in the rupture of asperities since on the long term the fault s walls generally do not accumulate any significant permanent deformation interseismic deformation might be heterogeneous revealing zones of focused stress buildup the pattern of current deformation along the himalayan arc which is known to produce recurring devastating earthquakes and where several seismic gaps have long been recognized might accordingly show significant lateral variations providing a possible explanation for the uneven microseismic activity along the himalayan arc by contrast the geodetic measurements show a rather uniform pattern of interseismic strain oriented consistently with long term geological deformation as indicated from stretching lineation we show that the geodetic data and seismicity distribution are reconciled from a model in which microseismicity is interpreted as driven by stress buildup increase in the interseismic period the uneven seismicity pattern is shown to reflect the impact of the topography on the stress field indicating low deviatoric stresses 35 mpa and a low friction 0 3 on the main himalayan thrust arc normal thrusting along the himalayan front and east west extension in southern tibet are quantitatively reconciled by the model

hydrogeology and mechanics of subduction zone forearcs fluid flow and pore pressure at subduction zones fluid flow pore pressure and tectonic processes are tightly interconnected excess pore pressure is driven by tectonic loading and fluids released by mineral dehydration and it has profound effects on fault and earthquake mechanics through its control on effective stress the egress of these overpressured fluids which is in part governed by the presence of permeable fault zones is a primary mechanism of volatile and solute transport to the oceans recent field measurements new constraints gained from laboratory studies and numerical modeling efforts have led to a greatly improved understanding of these coupled processes here we summarize the current state of knowledge of fluid flow and pore pressure in subduction forearcs and focus on recent advances that have quantified permeability architecture fluxes the nature and timing of transience and pressure distribution thus providing new insights into the connections between fluid metamorphic mechanical and fault slip proc

coastal deformation and great subduction earthquakes isla santa maria chile 37 s isla santa maria at the active margin of south central chile is the result of earthquake related uplift and deformation in the forearc since at least late pleistocene time field mapping dating of key depositional horizons and analysis of seismic refl ection profi les reveal ongoing deformation in this sector of the chilean forearc the 30 km 2 island is located 12 km above the interplate seismogenic zone and 75 km landward of the trench it is situated near the southern termination of the concepcion earthquake rupture segment where charles darwin measured 3 m of coseismic uplift during a m 8 megathrust earthquake in 1835 permanent postearthquake deformation from this earthquake and an earlier event in 1751 is registered by emerged landward tilted abrasion surfaces uplift at 2 m k y and tilting at 0 025 k y of the island have been fairly constant throughout the late quaternary and have resulted in emergence of the island above sea level 31 k y ago the island is composed of a late pleistocene upper tilted surface with two asymmetric tilt domains and holocene lowlands characterized by uplifted and tilted strandlines industry offshore seismic refl ection profi les covering an area of 1800 km 2 and crustal seismicity reveal active reversefault cored anticlines surrounding isla santa maria the principal fault apparently roots in the plate interface thrust these reverse faults in the upper plate result from inversion of late cretaceous to early pliocene normal faults and rift structure of the arauco forearc basin positive inversion of these inherited structures started between 3 6 and 2 5 ma and resulted in continuous shortening rates of 0 8 mm yr the seismic refl ection profi les show that the asymmetric tilt domains and progressive syntectonic sedimentation are linked to the position of the island in the forelimbs of two converging anticlines whereas their backlimbs have been removed by cliff retreat the 2 m uplift contour of the 1835 earthquake is parallel to the strike of active faults and antiforms in the arauco concepcion region the close relation among the asymmetric uplift and tilt of the island modern deformation patterns and reverse faults rooted in the plate interface suggests that slip on the plate interface thrust infl uences localizes and segments surface deformation during large interplate earthquakes furthermore the link between positive inversion of pre existing structures uplift and tilt patterns in the forearc emphasizes the importance of inherited structural fabrics in guiding plate boundary deformation

contemporary geochemical composition and flux of aeolian dust to the san juan mountains colorado united states 1 dust deposition in the rocky mountains may be an important biogeochemical flux from upwind ecosystems seasonal winter spring dust mass fluxes to the san juan mountains during the period from 2004 to 2008 ranged from 5 to 10 g m 2 with individual deposition events reaching as high as 2 g m 2 dust deposited in the san juan mountains was primarily composed of silt and clay sized particles indicating a regional source area the concentrations of most major and minor elements in this dust were similar to or less than average upper continental crustal concentrations whereas trace element concentrations were often enriched in particular dust collected from the san juan mountain snowpack was characterized by enrichments of heavy metals including as cu cd mo pb and zn the mineral composition of dust partially explained dust geochemistry however based on results of a sequential leaching procedure it appeared that trace element enrichments were associated with the organic and not the mineral fraction of dust our observations show that the dust derived fluxes of several nutrients and trace metals are substantial and because many elements are deposited in a mobile form could be important controls of vegetation soil or surface water chemistry the flux measurements reported here are useful benchmarks for the characterization of ecosystem biogeochemical cycling in the rocky mountains

neogene lateral extension during convergence in the central alps evidence from interrelated faulting and backfolding around the simplonpass switzerland abstract the simplon fault zone occurs at the western end of the lepontine metamorphic dome in the central alps and represents a major low angle 25 dip normal fault associated with wsw ene directed lateral extension movement began in the early miocene and continued until at least 3 ma accumulating a total vertical throw of around 10 km corresponding to 24 km displacement parallel to the fault this displacement is partitioned between a broad zone of ductile mylonites in the footwall and a more discrete cataclastic detachment fault the simplon line in the central region simplon village to zwischbergen some 3 km of the total vertical displacement is accommodated by the discrete cataclastic zone due to the higher exposed structural level the importance of the cataclastic component increases towards the northwest in the northern steep belt around the simplonpass retrograde greenschist facies mylonite formation and younger cataclastic faulting associated with lateral extension occurred contemporaneously with sse vergent large scale backfolding representing nnw sse shortening and crustal thickening the combined effect was an overall shortening across the orogen accommodated by an extension parallel to the orogen allowing lateral escape of continental material normal faulting and the resultant lateral escape was not just superficial it extended to depths of at least 15 km and probably to depths exceeding 25 km the overall geometry and kinematics of the simplon fault zone and in particular the interplay between folding and faulting is very similar to that described from the metamorphic core complexes and detachment faults of the cordillera of the southwestern usa within the central alps extension was associated with rapid exhumation of the lepontine metamorphic dome as evidenced by very rapid cooling rates determined from mineral ages in the footwall similar to the cenozoic tectonics of the himalayas and tibet orogen parallel extension in the mountain belt may have been promoted by an overall reduction in the horizontal compressive stress in this direction more limited extension of the same age and orientation is known from a large area of the european foreland greater extension in the mountain belt compared with the foreland was accommodated by major strike slip transfer fault systems and was linked to coeval overthrusting of the lowlands towards the southwest in the external southwestern alps of haute provence france coeval folding and orogen parallel extension such as at the simplonpass were developed in a dextral transpressive regime due to oblique wnw ese convergence across the alps during the neogene

thermal history of the central gotthard and aar massifs european alps evidence for steady state long term exhumation 1 quantifying long term exhumation rates is a prerequisite for understanding the geodynamic evolution of orogens and their exogenic and endogenic driving forces here we reconstruct the exhumation history of the central aar and gotthard external crystalline massifs in the european alps using apatite and zircon fission track and apatite u th he data age elevation relationships and time temperature paths derived from thermal history modeling are interpreted to reflect nearly constant exhumation of 0 5 km ma since 14 ma a slightly accelerated rate 0 7 km ma occurred from 16 to 14 ma and again from 10 to 7 ma faster exhumation between 16 and 14 ma is most likely linked to indentation of the adriatic wedge and related thrusting along the alpine sole thrust which in turn caused uplift and exhumation in the external crystalline massifs the data suggest nearly steady moderate exhumation rates since 14 ma regardless of major exogenic and endogenic forces such as a change to wetter climate conditions around 5 ma or orogen perpendicular extension initiated in pliocene times recent uplift and denudation rates interpreted to be the result of climate fluctuations and associated increase in erosional efficiency are nearly twice this 0 5 km ma paleoexhumation rate

solution mass transfer deformation adjacent to the glarus thrust with implications for the tectonic evolution of the alpine wedge in eastern switzerland abstract we have studied aspects of absolute finite strain of sandstones and the deformation history above and below the glarus thrust in eastern switzerland the dominant deformation mechanism is solution mass transfer smt which resulted in the formation of a semi penetrative cleavage our analysis indicates that the verrucano and melser sandstones which lie above the thrust were deformed coaxially with pronounced contraction in a subvertical z direction and minor extension in a subhorizontal x direction trending at 200 most of the contraction in z was balanced by mass loss volume strains averaging 36 below the glarus thrust sandstones of the north helvetic flysch have smaller principal strains but similar volume strains deformation there was also approximately coaxial the x direction is horizontal and trends 160 which is different by 40 from the x direction in the hanging wall the hanging wall of the glarus thrust verrucano and melser sandstones was deformed first after it was accreted deep beneath the alpine wedge continued northward advance of the wedge accomplished in part by motion on the glarus thrust allowed the wedge to override and accrete the north helvetic flysch which then started to form an smt cleavage the difference in x directions may reflect a change in transport direction but this conclusion is difficult to accept since extension was minor and was accommodated by coaxial flattening and not simple shear our work indicates that mass loss volume strains were important in sandstones of the helvetic nappes the missing mass cannot be accounted for at the local scale and appears to have been transported beyond the helvetic zone

andean growth and the deceleration of south american subduction time evolution of a coupled orogen subduction system article i nfo present day orography at the andean margin is a result of isostasy tectonic accretion and erosional processes the resulting excess mass of the andes gives rise to frictional stresses on the seismogenic plate interface that resist the sinking of the subducting slab into the upper mantle thus subduction rates should be sensitive to the time dependent dynamics of a back arc orogen as well as erosional or accretional processes that affect orogen growth here we develop a two dimensional coupled orogen slab model that allows for the prediction of orogen size and plate motion in response to both tectonic and erosional forcing we find that the frictional force exerted by the orogen on the subducting slab grows quadratically with orogen width and that the frictional resistance typically balances 10 50 of the slab pull force the time evolution of the coupled orogen subduction zone system is largely controlled by the rate of orogen growth which is controlled by the rate of convergence and the erosivity of the climate state in the case of the andean margin our models show that miocene aridification leads to reduced erosion increased orogen growth greater frictional resistance to subduction and ultimately to a 50 reduction in the convergence rate between the nazca and south american plates

the accretion of foreland basin sediments during early stages of continental collision in the european alps and similarities to accretionary wedge tectonics we present structural observations from foreland basin sediments that were incorporated into the orogenic wedge of the central european alps during early stages of continental collision our analysis focuses on the prograde evolution and considers the full history of the sediments ranging from their deposition in the basin to deep burial and metamorphism at temperatures of 320 c the tectonic evolution is matched with constraints on the diagenetic alteration of the sediments for this purpose we calculate the temperatures and depths of sediment compaction and illitization as well as the associated fluid liberation the data set highlights that the tectonic incorporation of the sediments into the orogenic wedge was strongly controlled by their diagenetic state earliest deformation took place during imbrication and frontal accretion of unconsolidated and fluid saturated sediments ductile folding of the sediments occurred already at this stage and was assisted by particulate flow with the progressive consolidation of the sediments the elastic strength increased which resulted in an overall embrittlement this rheological change is recorded by the onset of out of sequence thrusting brittle faulting and the formation of massive quartz calcite veins which took place in the approximate temperature range of the seismogenic zone i e 150 350 c moreover widespread pressure solution resulted in the formation of a penetrative cleavage and records slow but long lasting deformation at low background strain rates in summary the prograde tectonic evolution of the frontal alpine wedge exhibits many similarities with the structural and mechanical evolution of accretionary wedges at active subduction zones

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

locking of the chile subduction zone controlled by fluid pressure before the 2010 earthquake large subduction zone earthquakes are thought to occur where the down going and overriding tectonic plates are strongly locked analysis of geodetic and seismic data collected in the decade before the 2010 chile earthquake shows that variations in pore fluid pressure correlate with the degree of plate interface locking and may therefore control earthquake rupture

large scale subduction of continental crust implied by india asia mass balance calculation continental crust is buoyant compared with its oceanic counterpart and resists subduction into the mantle when two continents collide the mass balance for the continental crust is therefore assumed to be maintained here we use estimates of pre collisional crustal thickness and convergence history derived from plate kinematic models to calculate the crustal mass balance in the india asia collisional system using the current best estimates for the timing of the diachronous onset of collision between india and eurasia we find that about 50 of the pre collisional continental crustal mass cannot be accounted for in the crustal reservoir preserved at earth s surface today represented by the mass preserved in the thickened crust that makes up the himalaya tibet and much of adjacent asia as well as southeast asian tectonic escape and exported eroded sediments this implies large scale subduction of continental crust during the collision with a mass equivalent to about 15 of the total oceanic crustal subduction flux since 56 million years ago we suggest that similar contamination of the mantle by direct input of radiogenic continental crustal materials during past continent continent collisions is reflected in some ocean crust and ocean island basalt geochemistry the subduction of continental crust may therefore contribute significantly to the evolution of mantle geochemistry buoyant continental crust is thought to resist subduction calculation of the crustal mass balance during the collision between india and eurasia indicates that about 50 of pre collisional continental crust has been subducted into the mantle

characterizing the main himalayan thrust in the garhwal himalaya india with receiver function ccp stacking abstract we use common conversion point ccp stacking of ps receiver functions to image the crustal structure and moho of the garhwal himalaya of india our seismic array of 21 broadband seismometers spanned the himalayan thrust wedge at 79 80 e between the main frontal thrust and the south tibet detachment in 2005 2006 our ccp image shows the main himalayan thrust mht the detachment at the base of the himalayan thrust wedge with a flat ramp flat geometry seismic impedance contrasts inferred from geologic cross sections in garhwal imply a negative impedance contrast velocity decreasing downward for the upper flat located beneath the lower himalaya and a positive impedance contrast velocity increasing downward for the ramp located beneath the surface trace of the munsiari thrust or mct i at the lower flat located beneath the higher himalaya spatially coincident measurements of very high electrical conductivities require the presence of free fluids and we infer a negative impedance contrast on the mht caused by ponding of these fluids beneath the detachment our seismic image indicates that the upper flat of the mht is 10 km below sea level and dips north at 2 connecting to a mid crustal ramp which is 10 km high and dips at 16 the lower flat is 20 25 km below sea level and dips at 4 the main central thrust mct appears as a negative impedance contrast dipping at 16 the moho is nearly horizontal at 35 45 km depth beneath the sub himalaya and lower himalaya deepening to 50 km or more beneath the higher himalaya this depth is 10 25 km shallower than in the nw indian himalaya and 5 10 km shallower than in central nepal requiring significant along strike variations in crustal thickness the observed thickness of subducted indian crust in garwhal is 20 28 km

global variations of stress drop for moderate to large earthquakes 1 we investigate the global variation of earthquake stress drops using spectra of about 2000 events of mb 5 5 between 1990 and 2007 we use an iterative least squares method to isolate source displacement spectra from travel path and receiver contributions based on a convolutional model the observed p wave source spectra are corrected with a globally averaged empirical correction spectrum and estimates of near source attenuation assuming a brune type source model we estimate corner frequencies and compute stress drops stress drop estimates for individual earthquakes range from about 0 3 to 50 mpa but the median stress drop of about 4 mpa does not vary with moment implying earthquake self similarity over the mw 5 2 to 8 3 range of our data a comparison of our results with previous studies confirms this observation over most of the instrumentally observable magnitude range while the absolute values of our estimated stress drops depend upon the assumed source model we identify relative regional variations of stress drop that are robust with respect to the processing parameters and modeling assumptions which includes an inherent assumption of constant rupture velocity we find a dependence of median stress drop on focal mechanism with a factor of 3 5 times higher stress drops for strike slip earthquakes and also find a factor of 2 times higher stress drops for intraplate earthquakes compared to interplate earthquakes

asian provenance of glacial dust stage 2 in the greenland ice sheet project 2 ice core summit greenland samples of dust from the greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core summit greenland dated within marine isotope stage 2 between 23 340 and 26 180 calendar years b p around the time of the coldest local last glacial temperatures have been analyzed to determine their provenance to accomplish this we have compared them with approximately coeval aeolian sediments mostly loesses sampled in possible source areas psas from around the northern hemisphere the 5 m grain size fraction of these samples was analyzed on the basis that it corresponds to the atmospheric dust component of that time and locale which was sufficiently fine grained to be transported over long distances on the basis of comparison of the clay mineralogy and sr nd and pb isotope composition with ice dust and psas and assuming that we have sampled the most important psas we have determined that the probable source area of these gisp2 dusts was in eastern asia the dust was not derived from either the midcontinental united states or the sahara two more proximal areas that have been suggested as potential sources based on atmospheric circulation modeling except for a brief period during an interstadial when dust transport was exceptionally low for glacial times and had a mineralogical composition indicative of a slightly more southern provenance the source area of the dust did not change significantly during times of variably higher fluxes of dust with larger mean grain size or lower fluxes of dust with smaller mean grain size this includes the high dust period that correlates with the heinrich 2 period of major iceberg discharge into the north atlantic variable wind strengths must therefore be invoked to account for these abrupt and significant changes in dust flux and grain size

temperatures heat flux and frictional stress near major thrust faults we examine the two dimensional advective and conductive transport of heat in a region of thrust faulting both simple theoretical considerations and numerical experiments show that the steady state temperatures near the fault are reduced by a divisor s 1 b z vsin below what they would be with the same heat sources but in the absence of advection in this expression z is the depth to the fault v is the slip rate is the component of the dip of the fault in the direction of underthrusting is thermal diffusivity and b is a dimensionless factor that is essentially equal to one for most forms of heating initial changes in temperatures near the fault are given by t z t t z 0 12vsin t z 0 z these simple formulae are successful because of the neglible influence of lateral conduction of heat at least for slip rates of a few mm yr or more two time constants govern the transition from the initial change in temperature to steady state t1 u v where u is the distance along the fault in the direction of underthrusting from the surface to the depth in question and t2 z 2 2 where z is the depth to the fault when elapsed times exceed the sum of these two time constants temperatures differ from their steady state values by only about 10 percent the numerical experiments indicate that the simple formulae are sufficiently accurate that sophisticiated numerical modeling of temperatures in specific regions is unwarranted putain an application of these simple formulae to measurements of conductive heat flow at island arcs implies that shear stresses at island arcs approach 100 mpa and are greater than 30 mpa calculations of temperatures appropriate for the himalaya suggest that shear stresses of 100 mpa on the main central thrust probably are required to account for the tertiary granites of the region if melting took place after slip began on the thrust similarly the cut off in seismicity at a depth of about 15 km in the himalaya if due to temperatures exceeding 350 to 450 c implies a deviatoric stress close to 100 mpa

estimates of stress drop and crustal tectonic stress from the 27 february 2010 maule chile earthquake implications for fault strength 1 the great 27 february 2010 mw 8 8 earthquake off the coast of southern chile ruptured a 600 km length of subduction zone in this paper we make two independent estimates of shear stress in the crust in the region of the chile earthquake first we use a coseismic slip model constrained by geodetic observations from interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar and gps to derive a spatially variable estimate of the change in static shear stress along the ruptured fault second we use a static force balance model to constrain the crustal shear stress required to simultaneously support observed fore arc topography and the stress orientation indicated by the earthquake focal mechanism this includes the derivation of a semianalytic solution for the stress field exerted by surface and moho topography loading the crust we find that the deviatoric stress exerted by topography is minimized in the limit when the crust is considered an incompressible elastic solid with a poisson ratio of 0 5 and is independent of young s modulus this places a strict lower bound on the critical stress state maintained by the crust supporting plastically deformed accretionary wedge topography we estimate the coseismic shear stress change from the maule event ranged from 6 mpa stress increase to 17 mpa stress drop with a maximum depth averaged crustal shear stress drop of 4 mpa we separately estimate that the plate driving forces acting in the region regardless of their exact mechanism must contribute at least 27 mpa trench perpendicular compression and 15 mpa trench parallel compression this corresponds to a depth averaged shear stress of at least 7 mpa the comparable magnitude of these two independent shear stress estimates is consistent with the interpretation that the section of the megathrust fault ruptured in the maule earthquake is weak with the seismic cycle relieving much of the total sustained shear stress in the crust

lava flow thermal analysis using three infrared bands of remote sensing imagery a study case from mount etna 2001 eruption abstract infrared remotely sensed data can be used to estimate heat flux and thermal features of active volcanoes the model proposed by crisp and baloga crisp j baloga s 1990 a model for lava flows with two thermal components journal of geophysical research 95 1255 1270 for active lava flows considers the thermal flux a function of the fractional area of two thermally distinct radiant surfaces the larger surface area corresponds to the cooler crust of the flow the smaller one to fractures in the crust in this model the crust temperature t c the temperature of the cracks t h and the fractional area of the hottest component f h represent the three unknowns to work out the simultaneous solution of the planck equation dual band technique for two distinct shortwave infrared swir bands allows to estimate any two of the parameters t c t h f h if the third is assumed dozier j 1981 a method for satellite identification of surface temperature fields of subpixel resolution remote sensing environment 11 221 229 the airborne sensor mivis was flown on mount etna during the july august 2001 eruption this hyperspectral imaging spectrometer offers 72 bands in the swir range and 10 bands in thermal infrared tir region of the spectrum which can be used to solve the dual band system without any assumptions therefore we can combine three spectral mivis bands to obtain simultaneous solutions for the three unknowns here the procedure for solving such a system is presented it is then demonstrated that a tir channel is required to better pinpoint solutions to the 2 components model finally the spatial and statistical characteristic of the resultant mivis derived temperature and flux distributions are introduced and statistics for each hot spot investigated

strength of stick slip and creeping subduction megathrusts from heat flow observations subduction faults called megathrusts can generate large and hazardous earthquakes the mode of slip and seismicity of a megathrust is controlled by the structural complexity of the fault zone however the relative strength of a megathrust based on the mode of slip is far from clear the fault strength affects surface heat flow by frictional heating during slip we model heat flow data for a number of subduction zones to determine the fault strength we find that smooth megathrusts that produce great earthquakes tend to be weaker and therefore dissipate less heat than geometrically rough megathrusts that slip mainly by creeping

conditions for a crustal block to be sheared off from the subducted continental lithosphere what is an essential factor to cause features associated with collision 1 crustal blocks are detached from the subducting lithosphere at various depths i call such phenomena shearing off and investigate the mechanical conditions for shearing off to occur in the continental lithosphere the buoyancy of the crustal block does not work selectively as a driving force until it has been sheared off and i suppose that shearing off occurs when the shear traction at the thrust whose maximum value is calculated from the strength along the thrust overcomes the strength of the boundary faults of the block and determine the depth of the leading edge of the subducted crustal block when shearing off occurs the temperatures of the slab and at its surface are calculated by the steady state formula of molnar and england 1990 as a function of the surface heat flow dip angle and convergence velocity of the subducted continental plate as the shear stress and temperature at the ductile part of the thrust zone are consistent with the flow law the shear stress at the brittle part is a strong function of the pore fluid pressure ratio i show that shearing off of an upper crustal block is possible only for a small value of such as 0 4 when the surface heat flow value is 70 mw m2 i suggest that the essential factor to cause shallow offscraping of crustal blocks in collision zones is not a buoyancy of the continental crust but a low value of which would result from a little amount of dehydration from the subducted continental plate

active shortening within the himalayan orogenic wedge implied by the 2015 gorkha earthquake the himalaya grow as the indian plate is thrust beneath tibet analysis of surface deformation caused by the 2015 gorkha earthquake suggests slip on smaller scale faults at the foot of the high himalaya help build earth s highest peaks

probing the transition between seismically coupled and decoupled segments along an ancient subduction interface the transition zone at the downdip end of seismic coupling along subduction interfaces is often the site of megathrust earthquake nucleation and concentrated postseismic afterslip as well as the focus site of episodic tremor and slip features exhumed remnants of the former alpine subduction zone found in the swiss alps allow analyzing fluid and deformation processes near the transition zone region 30 40 km paleodepth the dent blanche thrust dbt is a lower blueschist facies shear zone interpreted as a fossilized subduction interface where granitic mylonites overlie a metamorphosed accretionary wedge we report field observations from the dbt region where multiple several tens of meters thick foliated cataclastic networks are interlayered within the basal dbt mylonites petrological results and microstructural observations indicate that the various cataclasis events took place at near peak metamorphic conditions 400 500 c 1 1 1 3 gpa during subduction of the tethyan seafloor in eocene times 42 48 ma some of these networks exhibit mutual crosscutting relationships between mylonites foliated cataclasites and vein systems indicating mutual overprinting between brittle deformation and ductile creep whole rock chemical compositions in situ 40ar 39ar age data of recrystallized phengite and sr isotopic signatures reveal that dbt rocks also underwent multiple hydrofracturing and metasomatic events via the infiltration of fluids mainly derived from the oceanic metasediments underneath the dbt from the rock fabrics we infer strain rate fluctuations of several orders of magnitude beyond subduction strain rates 10 12 s 1 accompanied by fluctuation of supralithostatic and quasi lithostatic fluid pressures 1 0 95 dbt brittle plastic deformation switches highlight the diversity of deformation processes and fluid rock interactions in the transition zone region of the subduction interface

size dependence of iron solubility of asian mineral dust particles 1 asian mineral dust was sampled at hokkaido northern japan in spring 2004 and 2006 iron solubility of the bulk aerosol the size segregated aerosol 0 45 4 7 m we suggest that an iron solubility of around 0 4 is typical for asian mineral dust of large particles transported to hokkaido in the high nutrient low chlorophyll region of the western subarctic north pacific near the asian continent where the mineral dust deposition is dominated by large particles the iron solubility of the mineral dust entering the ocean is around 0 4

bulk and single particle mineralogy of asian dust and a comparison with its source soils 1 the mineralogical properties of asian dust have been examined in detail and the results have been compared with the chinese source soils using high resolution scanning electron microscopy transmission electron microscopy x ray diffraction and chemical analysis mineralogical classification of asian dust particles showed that the most common single particles were clay aggregates 48 that were often mixed with nanosized calcite followed by particles of quartz 22 plagioclase 11 coarse calcite 6 k feldspar 5 muscovite chlorite kaolinite amphibole gypsum fe and ti oxides which were either partly or entirely attached with clay size mineral grains the clay minerals in asian dust were mostly illite and interstratified illite smectite the average mineral composition of the bulk dust samples by x ray diffraction was quartz 28 plagioclase 11 k feldspar 8 calcite 8 illite 19 interstratified illite smectite 22 chlorite 2 smectite 1 and kaolinite 1 in the silty soils from the source regions the clay minerals and nanosized pedogenic calcite aggregated and covered silt size minerals while the sands were mostly composed of quartz and feldspars and were lined with clay minerals the mineralogy of asian dust was similar to that of the silty soil from the loess plateau but the total phyllosilicate content increased from desert sands 7 silty soil 23 to asian dust 45 fining eastward the optical properties of asian dust and its interaction with atmospheric gases and cloud are probably affected by the clay rich mineral composition the aggregation and attachment of the clay minerals on the coarser minerals and the nanosized calcite

splay fault triggering by great subduction earthquakes inferred from finite element models we have investigated the influence that megathrust earthquake slip has on the activation of splay faults using a 2 d finite element method fem taking into account the effects of gravity and variations in the frictional strength properties of splay faults we simulated both landward dipping and seaward dipping splay fault geometries and imposed depth variable slip distributions of subduction events our results indicate that the two types of splay fault exhibit a similar behavior with variations in frictional properties along the faults affecting only the seismic magnitude the triggering process is controlled by a critical depth megathrust slip concentrated at depths shallower than the critical depth will favor normal displacement while megathrust slip concentrated at depths deeper than the critical depth is likely to result in reverse motion our results thus provide a useful tool for predicting the activation of secondary faults and may have direct implications for tsunami hazard research

nanofiber calcite in asian dust and its atmospheric roles 1 calcite is the most important mineral in asian dust and it reacts with atmospheric gases during its long range transport mineralogical and chemical analyses of asian dust and source soils showed two types of calcite that differ greatly in morphology and origin i micron sized irregular particles derived from the erosion of bedrock and ii nanosized fibers that were chemically precipitated in soils in asian dust aerosol particles these nanofibers were internally mixed with clay minerals often coating quartz and feldspar grains together with clay minerals nanofiber bearing aerosol particles were more abundant than the coarser calcite particles the nanofibers reacted to form sulfate coatings on minerals providing a significant contribution to the optical chemical and hygroscopic modifications of asian dust due to their enhanced reactivity asian dust is basically a mineral aerosol and its mineralogical diversity needs to be characterized before a proper estimation of its climatic geochemical and ecological roles and provenance

three dimensional geometry and tectonostratigraphy of the pennine zone central alps switzerland and northern italy abstract continental collision during alpine orogenesis entailed a polyphase deformation history d1 d5 in the pennine zone of the central alps the regional tectonostratigraphy was basically developed during d1 and d2 characterised by isoclinal typically north closing recumbent anticlines separated by pinched in synclines on the scale of tens of kilometres later deformation phases d3 and d4 warped the stack into wavy to open folds exhumation of this zone resulted locally in later vertical shortening and folding of already steep fabrics d5 three dimensional models of the nappe pile were constructed based on geostatistical assessment of the regional foliation field and considering the abundant structural field data these models indicate the existence of five principal tectonostratigraphic levels developed during d1 and thus equivalent to nappe units s str the gotthard the leventina antigorio the maggia simano and probably the monte leone as well as the composite lepontine series lebendun soja and adula cima lunga levels all these tectonic units formed part of the passive continental margin of europe prior to the onset of the alpine orogenesis individual isoclinal post nappe folds reflect relative displacements on the order of 40 km or more the most prominent d2 post nappe structure is the wandfluhhorn fold structurally equivalent to the northern closure of the leventina lucomagno antiform the lebendun and monte leone folds are of similar magnitudes and also affect the whole nappe pile whereas the smaller mogno and molare synforms only refold the maggia simano nappe internally principal d3 and d4 structures are the tight mergoscia synform directly north of the insubric fault between bellinzona and locarno southern steep belt the maggia steep zone forming the steep western limb of the campo tencia synform and subdividing the lepontine dome into the simplon and ticino subdomes the chiera synform steepening the dominant foliation in the north northern steep belt and the vanzone and claro antiforms steepening the dominant foliation in the south southern steep belt the current geometry of the northern and southern steep belts reflects an interplay between d4 and d3 involving both fold interference and reactivation tightening

megathrust shear force controls mountain height at convergent plate margins the shear force along convergent plate boundary faults megathrusts determines the height of mountain ranges that can be mechanically sustained1 4 however whether the true height of mountain ranges corresponds to this tectonically supported elevation is debated4 7 in particular climate dependent erosional processes are often assumed to exert a first order control on mountain height5 12 although this assumption has remained difficult to validate12 here we constrain the shear force along active megathrusts using their rheological properties and then determine the tectonically supported elevation using a force balance model we show that the height of mountain ranges around the globe matches this elevation irrespective of climatic conditions and the rate of erosion this finding indicates that mountain ranges are close to force equilibrium and that their height is primarily controlled by the megathrust shear force we conclude that temporal variations in mountain height reflect long term changes in the force balance but are not indicative of a direct climate control on mountain elevation

mineralogical composition of african dust delivered by red rains over northeastern spain the african dust deposition mineralogy source regions and influence on rain chemistry were analyzed for a site in the montseny mountains catalonia northeastern spain for the period august 1 1983 through august 1 1994 dust deposition was highly variable two events collected on november 9 11 1984 and march 22 25 1991 accounted for 62 of the total dust input in the 38 red rain events recorded in the period the average annual dust deposition was 5 3 g m 2 se 2 6 three source regions in the african continent were identified with back trajectory analysis 1 western sahara 2 moroccan atlas and 3 central algeria events from the moroccan atlas predominated in terms of number of events amount of rainfall and dust deposition the meteorological situations during red rains were identified western sahara events occurred principally with a depression at high latitudes 50 n forming a trough in the north atlantic moroccan atlas events occurred with a depression in front of portugal and events from central algeria were associated with a depression over spain or north africa by order of abundance median of n 13 the minerals identified in the dust by x ray diffraction were as follows illite quartz smectite palygorskite kaolinite calcite dolomite feldspars differences in mineralogy between source regions were significant for smectite kaolinite quartz and dolomite smectite and kaolinite content was highest in the algerian events while quartz and dolomite content was lowest events from the moroccan atlas had the lowest smectite and kaolinite the red rain soluble chemistry was clearly influenced by the dissolution of calcite high alkalinity calcium concentration and basic ph and by marine components high na cl arid mg 2 concentrations because of the very alkaline character of red rains they had a strong weight on the annual mean ph of rainwater this was reflected by the significant relationship r 0 71 p 0 01 between the percentage of annual precipitation as red rain and annual mean precipitation ph red rains provided 25 45 of the annual dissolved input of the major ions in precipitation and 34 of the calcium required for holm oak quercus ilex l forest growth at the study site

inferences on sediment strength and fault friction from structures at the aleutian trench the structural relations of conjugate thrust faults and the master decollement imaged in a research level processed multichannel seismic reflection record across the eastern aleutian trench allow quantitative estimates of the sediment strength and friction across thrust boundaries of the subduction zone these estimates are derived from geometric relations between faults and from the overall geometry of accreted prisms they suggest the presence of high pore fluid pressures that result in low levels of friction along a master decollement and on the main bounding thrust faults in the accreted sediment therefore coupling in the immediate trench area apparently does not contribute significantly to the generation of horizontal compression upslope