melting on glaciers environmental controls examined with orbiting radar direct in situ measurements of glacier mass balance are expensive remote sensing would be an attractive alternative if remotely observable quantities could be interpreted in terms of mass gain or loss a system developed recently for the analysis of radarsat browse images is used here to explore temporal and environmental controls of melting on glaciers on axel heiberg island nunavut canada the browse images have an effective spatial resolution of 2 km are georeferenced to single pixel accuracy and number about 200 over the two study years 1998 and 1999 surface melting in the accumulation zone is readily recognized by the contrast between bright frozen firn which exhibits a microwave signal dominated by volume scattering from ice lenses and pipes and dark wet firn the signal from which is muted by either absorption or near specular reflection at the surface in the ablation zone radar images apart from showing the brief spring period of snowmelt contain little information about the intensity or even the fact of melting however in the accumulation zone there is a definite dependence of brightness on temperature at temperatures above freezing the hotter it is the darker is the appearance of the glacier this is most naturally and encouragingly interpreted as a relation between brightness and melting rate analysis of same day image pairs shows that as expected the terrain slope and the aspect influence the radar brightness strongly and must therefore be allowed for in future modelling of the hydrology of ablation on glaciers copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

topographic expressions of mantle dynamics in the mediterranean abstract the surface of the earth is the ever changing expression of the dynamic processes occurring at depth and at or above its surface however our ability to read landscapes in terms of their underlying tectonic or climatic forcing remains rudimentary during the last decade particular attention has been drawn to the deep dynamic contributions to topography related to the stresses that are produced at the base of the lithosphere by mantle convection and their relevance compared to the iso static component of topography here we use examples from the mediterranean and estimate residual and dynamic topography we then compare those with surface uplift from geology for specific regions to disentangle the dynamic from the static components considering the different topographic signatures of tectonic processes e g actual residual and dynamic topography as well as uplift rates jointly provides a powerful way to distinguish between the contributions of mantle crustal and surface processes such an approach might bring us closer to reading topographic expressions in terms of their geological cause

on the hellenic subduction zone and the geodynamic evolution of crete since the late middle miocene abstract in recent syntheses of the geodynamic evolution of the aegean area the hellenic subduction zone and in particular its initiation plays a central role two basic aspects of the recent comprehensive model put forward by le pichon angelier and co workers are a initiation of subduction along the hellenic arc is inferred to have taken place approximately 13 ma ago whereas several others have suggested approximately 5 ma and b migration of the trench system to the south southwest giving rise to an extensional regime in the back arc region which led to general subsidence and formation of the present day aegean sea new data on the structure of the upper mantle underneath the aegean area indicate that the former aspect requires modification the seismic velocity structure indicating a northward dipping slab down to a depth of at least 600 km and the depth distribution of earthquake hypocenters can not be reconciled with straightforward initiation of subduction approximately 13 ma ago estimates of about 5 ma for the time of initiation of the present subduction zone are even more difficult to reconcile assuming 400 km as an upper bound for the effect of stretching of the aegean sea and of other processes contributing to the separation of crete from the eurasian mainland we arrive at an age for the hellenic subduction zone of at least 26 ma as to aspect b geological data of crete lend strong support to the idea that on crete compressional tectonics is of much greater importance than current models imply combining geophysical and geological data we propose a modification of the tectonic evolution for the cretan segment of the hellenic arc whereas the basic process of extension caused by a migrating trench system roll back in a land locked basin remains a very useful and sound concept the tectonics of the margins of a region subject to stretching in this case crete may be more complicated than hitherto thought in our model the documented fragmentation of crete into several basins which started about 12 ma ago is not attributed to initiation of subduction but to inception of the roll back process compressional tectonics on crete is taken to be associated with deformation of the crust resulting from the overall tensional stress regime

seasonal climatic forcing of alpine glaciers revealed with orbital synthetic aperture radar the evolution of four dynamic radar glacier zones at the surface of an alpine icefield in british columbia is monitored using a time series of 35 first european remote sensing satellite ers 1 synthetic aperture radar sar images acquired from 1992 to 1994 these zones result from changing wetness and textural properties and appear to represent 1 cold snow with no liquid water present 2 an initial melt front with an upper boundary near the elevation of the 0 isotherm 3 metamorphosed rapidly melting first year snow with a rough or pitted surface and 4 bare ice this interpretation is aided by temperature and runoff data air photographs and field measurements of snowpack properties acquired simultaneously with two ers i sar scenes ice surface elevations derived from 1 50 000 topographic maps and simulations of radar backscatter from a geometric optics model of surface scattering meltwater production is affected by the development of zones 2 3 and 4 which form migrate up elevation and disappear each year between april and september

can the mass balance of a glacier be estimated from its equilibrium line altitude the possibility of replacing or supplementing direct measurements of mass balance by estimates calculated from equilibrium line altitude ela measurements is investigated by statistical analyses of data from 31 glaciers a linear relationship between mass balance and ela in terms of two parameters the effective balance gradient and the balanced budget ela is tested it is concluded that existing mass balance series can be usefully extrapolated by using ela data for additional years however accurate mass balance cannot be calculated for glaciers where no such measurements have been made because of the difficulties in prescribing the two model parameters with sufficient accuracy for example the effective balance gradient is of the order of 5 mm water m so that errors of only a few decametres in the estimation of the balanced budget ela can have a great effect upon calculations of mass balance

upper crust response to geodynamic processes beneath isparta angle sw turkey revealed by cmt solutions of earthquakes abstract the isparta angle is an important area of sw anatolia where extensions in all directions n s ne sw nw se and e w meet these extensions were determined by normal faulting structures as well as by shallow earthquakes all extensions except the e w one were attributed to the deviatoric stresses in relation to slab forces and or extrusion of anatolia the moment tensor inversion of 40 shallow earthquakes which occurred in the inner part of the isparta angle give focal mechanisms mostly indicating normal faulting inversion of all focal mechanisms of the earthquakes obtained from the moment tensor inversion yields normal faulting characterized by an approximately e w n268 e 3 axis the calculated stress ratio r is 0 6944 indicating a triaxial stress state commonly accepted geodynamic models for the eastern mediterranean region do not include plate boundary forces acting in the east or west direction our hypothesis is that the cause of the e w extension is the combined forces of gravitational potential energy and the hot asthenosphere upwelling through a tear fault in the subducted african plate between the hellenic and cyprus arcs beneath the isparta angle

lithospheric deformation during the early stages of continental collision numerical experiments and comparison with south island new zealand 1 the nature of lithospheric deformation during continental plate collision still remains unresolved while it has often been proposed that the mantle lithosphere is accommodated by distributed thickening of a viscous root an alternate hypothesis suggests that significant portions of convergent mantle lithosphere essentially undergo underthrusting or subduction to further consider this issue we model the thermochemical evolution of the lithosphere mantle system using arbitrary lagrangian eulerian finite element techniques we incorporate a mix of viscous thermally activated power law creep and plastic frictional coulomb with strain softening rheologies in the numerical experiments to treat disparate composition in the crust and mantle a range of rheological and mechanical parameters is explored to determine controls on the style of lithospheric deformation the models suggest that during the initial stages of plate collision the mantle lithosphere is characterized by plate like behavior and underthrusting subduction of the upper region in conjunction with distributed thickening and rayleigh taylor type viscous instability of the lower portion depending on the material rheology temperature regime and imposed convergence velocity the deforming mantle lithosphere demonstrates various combinations of these end member behavioral modes the modeling results are interpreted in the context of observed lithospheric deformation across south island new zealand a combined style of underthrusting and distributed thickening is consistent with the observed crustal structure in the young collisional orogen as well as seismic imaging of the geometry of the underlying lithosphere

the surface tectonics of mantle lithosphere delamination following ocean lithosphere subduction insights from physical scaled analogue experiments many postulated lithospheric removal events occur in regions with an earlier history of subduction but the relationship between the two processes has not been explored in this work we use physical scaled analogue experiments to investigate the evolution from ocean lithosphere subduction to collision and possible delamination of the mantle lithosphere from the crust we test how varying the magnitude of plate convergence alters the behavior of the subduction delamination model our experiments show that a retreating ocean proplate can evolve to continental mantle lithosphere delamination negative surface topography is supported at the delamination hinge and this migrates back with the peeling lithosphere with high plate convergence delamination is suppressed rather the crust and mantle lithosphere split at the collision zone in a form of flake tectonics as oncoming procrust is accreted on top of the retroplate and the promantle lithosphere subducts below localized high topography develops at this zone of crustal accretion and thickening the results suggest that delamination may be a continental continuation of plate retreat and that lithospheric removal is triggered by the transition from one process to another

evolution of retreating subduction boundaries formed during continental collision retreating subduction boundaries formed where the rate of subduction exceeds the rate of overall plate convergence appear to be commonly developed features within regions of early or incomplete continent continent collision they are characterized by regional extension within the overriding plate and at their leading edge by thin skinned arcuate thrust belts that are concave towards the overriding plate as is illustrated by examples from the mediterranean region the formation of retreating subduction boundaries is intimately related to the process of continental collision during the early stages of collision retreating subduction boundaries are commonly formed by lateral ejection from zones of crustal shortening along the main collision boundary retreating plate boundaries can also form before the main collision and the associated thrust belts emplaced as precollisional accretionary assemblages because the driving mechanism for retreating subduction boundaries appears to be gravity acting on a dense subducted slab slab pull subduction usually ceases when and only when thick buoyant continental crust enters the subduction zone thus differences in the evolution and duration of retreating subduction systems can be largely attributed to the size and configuration of the deep water regions available to be subducted in some cases retreating subduction boundaries may escape into the open ocean where they form nearly isolated local tectonic systems in these systems the rate of subduction is approximately compensated by the rate of upper plate extension and migration of the system across the oceanic region may be very rapid for example the horseshoe seamounts located about 800 km offshore in the eastern north atlantic may be the active expression of an east dipping westwardly migrating retreating subduction boundary that has evolved from the betic cordillera rif system active in miocene time and may now be progressing across the atlantic at approximately 50 mm yr an analogous situation may be represented by the scotia arc system a westward dipping retreating subduction system located between the south american and antarctic plates which may have escaped into the south atlantic ocean from a zone of crustal shortening in the andes and is now progressing across the atlantic at a rate of about 80 mm yr

the early cenozoic tectonic history of the southeast pacific abstract new marine geophysical data collected in the southeast pacific enable us to define better the early cenozoic tectonic history of the area and to interpret previously unexplained bathymetric features in terms of plate tectonic processes we have identified a major re organization in plate boundaries at anomaly 21 time when a large fragment was broken off the pacific plate and joined to the antarctic plate this interpretation is based on three pieces of evidence 1 a major ese trending feature the humboldt fracture zone marks the southern boundary of the farallon antarctic anomalies identified by weissel et al 1 2 a north south striking trough the hudson trough which represents the scar left by the pacific antarctic ridge when it rifted across old pacific crust 3 a sequence of north south striking magnetic lineations south of the humboldt fracture zone and east of the hudson trough is correlated to anomalies 27 to 22 and identified with pacific aluk spreading

segmented african lithosphere beneath the anatolian region inferred from teleseismic p wave tomography summary lithospheric deformation throughout anatolia a part of the alpine himalayan orogenic belt is controlled mainly by collision related tectonic escape of the anatolian plate and subduction roll back along the aegean subduction zone we study the deeper lithosphere and mantle structure of anatolia using teleseismic finite frequency p wave traveltime tomography we use data from several temporary and permanent seismic networks deployed in the region approximately 34 000 p wave relative traveltime residuals measured in multiple frequency bands are inverted using approximate finite frequency sensitivity kernels our tomograms reveal segmented fast seismic anomalies beneath anatolia that corresponds to the subducted portion of the african lithosphere along the cyprean and the aegean trenches we identify these anomalies as the subducted aegean and the cyprus slabs that are separated from each other by a gap as wide as 300 km beneath western anatolia this gap is occupied by slow velocity perturbations that we interpret as hot upwelling asthenosphere the eastern termination of the subducting african lithosphere is located near the transition from central anatolia to the eastern anatolian plateau or arabian eurasian collision front that is underlain by large volumes of hot underplating asthenosphere marked by slow velocity perturbations our tomograms also show fast velocity perturbations at shallow depths beneath northwestern anatolia that sharply terminates towards the south at the north anatolian fault zone nafz the associated velocity contrast across the nafz persists down to a depth of 100 150 km hence our study is the first to investigate and interpret the vertical extent of deformation along this nascent transform plate boundary overall the resolved upper mantle structure of anatolia is directly related with the geology and tectonic features observed at the surface of the anatolian plate and suggest that the segmented nature of the subducted african lithosphere plays an important role in the evolution of anatolia and distribution of its tectonic provinces

a flow law for dislocation creep of quartz aggregates determined with the molten salt cell we have used the molten salt cell to conduct an experimental study on the rheology of a natural quartzite containing 0 15 wt water co axial deformation experiments were conducted at constant piston displacement rates approximating constant strain rates at low strain the strengths of our natural quartzite measured in the molten salt cell are approximately half those measured at the same conditions in solid media because unlike solid confining media molten salt does not contribute to the strength of the sample it reduces the friction on the moving piston and it allows clear identification of the hit point we have limited the experimental conditions to those required for dislocation creep and have used only steady state flow stresses measured during climb accommodated dislocation creep to calculate the flow law parameters two flow laws were determined one for samples containing minor amounts of melt 1 2 and one for melt free samples in both cases the power law stress exponent n is 4 0 0 9 which is greater than that previously reported in flow laws for dislocation creep of quartz aggregates determined in solid media the activation energy q is 137 34 kj mol 1 for samples with melt and 223 56 kj mol 1 for those without within the range of previously determined values for quartz aggregates containing 0 1 wt water the pre exponential term a is 1 1 10 4 2 mpa ns 1 for samples without melt and 1 8 10 8 2 mpa ns 1 for those with melt the lower strengths measured in the molten salt cell indicate that previous piezometer relations for quartz experimentally determined in solid media are not correct extrapolation of the flow law for melt free aggregates to natural strain rates predicts higher strengths than most previous quartz flow laws however accurate extrapolation requires determining the dependence of flow stress on fh2o and or ah

near surface diagnostics of dripping or delaminating lithosphere 1 in various geological regions it has been postulated that the mantle lithosphere has been thinned or completely removed two of the primary removal mechanisms that have been put forward include 1 delamination a wholesale peeling away of a coherent block of the mantle lithosphere and 2 lithospheric dripping viscous rayleigh taylor instability of the mantle lithosphere using computational models we investigate several near surface observables to determine if these may be diagnostic of either often ambiguous removal mechanism surface topography associated with delamination has a broad region of uplift above the lithospheric gap and a localized and mobile zone of subsidence at the delaminating hinge with dripping lithosphere the topographic expression is symmetric and fixed above the downwelling delamination of mantle lithosphere is more efficient than dripping for thermal heating of the crust the onset is more rapid and the elevated temperatures persist longer the resultant crustal p t t paths show modest pressure variations and high temperature increases with large scale delamination or dripping delamination also causes contraction directly above the migrating hinge and distal extension dripping lithosphere induces superimposed contraction and extension above and symmetric about the viscous instability for all the observables if only a portion of the mantle lithosphere is removed by viscous instability delamination inherently removes all of the mantle lithosphere the differences between the two removal mechanisms are even more pronounced with only partial removal of the mantle lithosphere uppermost mantle lithosphere remains well coupled to the crust leading to lower surface temperature variations and broad zones of crustal deformation thickening

mantle lithosphere delamination driving plateau uplift and synconvergent extension in eastern anatolia eastern anatolia is the site of lithospheric thinning plateau uplift heating and synconvergent extension using numerical geodynamic experiments we test the hypothesis that these tectonic anomalies are all related and the consequence of delamination of the mantle lithosphere our findings indicate that delamination during plate convergence results in 2 km high plateau uplift the removal of mantle lithosphere induces distinct regions of contraction and thickening as well as extension and thinning of the crust the latter occurs even within a regime of plate shortening although it is muted with increasing plate convergence detachment of the delaminating slab results in minor surface topographic perturbation but only above the delamination hinge the plateau uplift and pattern of surface contraction and or extension are consistent with a topographic profile at 42 e and geologically interpreted zone of synconvergent extension at eastern anatolia

mass balance of white glacier axel heiberg island n w t canada 1960 91 white glacier is a valley glacier at 79 5 n with an area of 38 7 km 2 its mass balance has been measured over 32 years with a 3 year gap by standard techniques using the stratigraphic system with a stake density of the order of one stake per km 2 errors in stake mass balance are about 200 250 mm due largely to the local unrepresentativeness of measurements errors in the whole glacier mass balance b are of the same order as single slake errors however the lag 1 autocorrelation in the time series of b is effectively zero so it consists of independent random samples and the error in the long term balance normal b is noticeably less b is 100 48 mm the equilibrium line altitude ela averages 970 m with a range of 470 1400 m mass balance is well correlated with ela but detailed modelling shows that the equilibrium line is undetectable on visible band satellite images a reduced network of a few stakes could give acceptable but less accurate estimates of the mass balance as could estimates based on data from a weather station 120 km away there is no evidence of a trend in the mass balance of white glacier to detect a climatologically plausible trend will require a ten fold reduction of measurement error a conclusion which may well apply to most estimates of mass balance based on similar stake densities

tectonic evolution of the gediz graben field evidence for an episodic two stage extension in western turkey western turkey is one of the most spectacular regions of widespread active continental extension in the world the most prominent structures of this region are e w trending grabens e g gediz and buyuk menderes grabens and intervening horsts exposing the menderes massif this paper documents the result of a recent field campaign field geological mapping and structural analysis along the southern margin of the modern gediz graben of pliocene 5 ma age this work provides field evidence that the presently low angle ductile brittle detachment fault is cut and displaced by the high angle graben bounding normal faults with total displacement exceeding 2 0 km the evolution of the n s extension along the gediz graben occurred during two episodes each characterized by a distinct structural styles 1 rapid exhumation of menderes massif in the footwall of low angle normal fault core complex mode during the miocene 2 late stretching of crust producing e w grabens along high angle normal faults rift mode during pliocene quaternary times separated by a short time gap the later phase is characterized by the deposition of now nearly horizontal sediments of pliocene age in the hanging walls of the high angle normal faults and present day graben floor sediments the evolution of extension is at variance with orogenic collapse and or back arc extension followed by the combined effect of tectonic escape and subduction rollback processes along the aegean cyprean subduction zone consequently it is misleading to describe the miocene sediments exhumed on shoulders of the gediz graben as simple graben fill

seamount statistics in the pacific ocean we apply the wide beam sampling technique of jordan et al 1983 to approximately 157 000 km of wide beam profiles to obtain seamount population statistics for eight regions in the eastern and southern pacific ocean population statistics derived from wide beam echograms are compared with seamount counts from sea beam swaths and with counts from bathymetric maps we find that the average number of seamounts with summit heights h h is well approximated by the exponential frequency size distribution h oe h the exponential model for seamount sizes characterized by the single scale parameter 1 is found to be superior to a power law self similar model which has no intrinsic scale in describing the average distribution of pacific seamounts and it appears to be valid over a size spectrum spanning 5 orders of magnitude in abundance large scale regional variations in seamount populations are documented we observe significant differences in seamount densities across the murray fracture zone in the north pacific and the eltanin fracture zone system in the south pacific the eltanin discontinuity is equally evident on both sides of the pacific antarctic ridge in the south pacific regions symmetrically disposed about the ridge axis have very similar seamount densities despite the large difference between pacific plate and antarctic plate absolute velocities evidently any differences in the shear flows at the base of the pacific and antarctic plates do not affect seamount emplacement systematic variations in o and are observed as a function of lithospheric age with the number of large seamounts increasing more rapidly than small seamounts these observations have been used to develop a simple model for seamount production under the assumptions that 1 an exponential size frequency distribution is maintained 2 production is steady state and 3 most small seamounts are formed on or near the ridge axis the limited data available from this study appear to be consistent with the model but they are insufficient to provide a rigorous test of the assumptions or determine accurately the model parameters however the data from the south pacific indicate that the off axis production of large seamounts probably accounts for the majority of seamounts with summit heights greater than 1000 m

correlated shear and bulk moduli to 1400 km beneath the mediterranean region we present a new model for the shear and compressional wave velocity structure of the mediterranean plate boundary region the model is obtained by a combined inversion of s and p data where we solve in one single step for shear wave and bulk sound velocity variations the ratios between the types of seismic velocities inferred from the combined inversion constrain the origin of heterogeneity our model is dominated by fast anomalies from subducted oceanic lithosphere we found that only a slight amount of bulk sound velocity heterogeneity is required to explain the combined set of p and s data thus compressional wave velocity anomalies are dominated by shear modulus heterogeneity and the ratio between bulk sound and shear wave velocity heterogeneity suggests a predominantly thermal origin 2006 elsevier b v all rights reserved

origin and evolution of the thermal waters from the pamukkale geothermal field denizli basin sw anatolia turkey insights from hydrogeochemistry and geothermometry abstract the pamukkale geothermal field pgf of the denizli basin sw turkey is one of the most distinguished active geothermal fields known in the world the thermal waters from the pgf are subdivided into two groups group 1a ca hco3 and group 1b ca so4 types the cold waters are also classified into two groups group 2a ca hco3 and group 2b mg hco3 types the hydrogeochemical properties of the pgf thermal waters suggest interactions with the basal metamorphic rocks of the menderes massif tectonically overriding by the carbonate rocks of the lycian nappes and sedimentary rocks of the neogene formations the bedrock units are stratigraphically overlain by the neogene sedimentary units of the denizli group the thermal springs of the pgf are affected by several hydrothermal processes including mixing water rock interaction and input of mantle volatiles the thermal water plots of the pgf deviate from the full equilibrium line indicating a low water maturity and or mixing processes mixing models and na k mg ternary diagram suggest mixing between meteoric and thermal waters during the uprising of the deep originated fluids the water rock interaction leads saturation of calcite and induces travertine precipitation in the discharge area low tritium this study proposes a conceptual hydrogeological hydrogeochemical tectonic model for the pgf the thermal waters are derived from the infiltration of rainwater through fractures and faults in high recharge areas to the deep hot reservoir heating produced by the high geothermal gradient is interpreted in relation with the regional crustal thinning thermal waters upwell along wnw ese trending deep faults and fractures the pamukkale fault system that act as hydrothermal pathways favouring migration of a huge amount of co2 rich gas from deep geothermal reservoir the geochemical and isotopic data of the thermal waters and gas indicate that the degassing of both metamorphic co2 and mantle derived co2 occurs in the pgf helium isotope data indicate that mantle volatiles produce possibly an upwelling into asthenosphere and ascent along these tectonic discontinuities in this context the pgf is one of the best example of geothermal fields as an interaction of active magmatism in the actively extending crustal setting

mantle dynamics in the mediterranean the mediterranean offers a unique opportunity to study the driving forces of tectonic deformation within a complex mobile belt lithospheric dynamics are affected by slab rollback and collision of two large slowly moving plates forcing fragments of continental and oceanic lithosphere to interact this paper reviews the rich and growing set of constraints from geological reconstructions geodetic data and crustal and upper mantle heterogeneity imaged by structural seismology we proceed to discuss a conceptual and quantitative framework for the causes of surface deformation exploring existing and newly developed tectonic and numerical geodynamic models we illustrate the role of mantle convection on surface geology a coherent picture emerges which can be outlined by two almost symmetric upper mantle convection cells the downwellings are found in the center of the mediterranean and are associated with the descent of the tyrrhenian and the hellenic slabs during plate convergence these slabs migrated backward with respect to the eurasian upper plate inducing a return flow of the asthenosphere from the backarc regions towards the subduction zones this flow can be found at large distance from the subduction zones and is at present expressed in two upwellings beneath anatolia and eastern iberia this convection system provides an explanation for the general pattern of seismic anisotropy in the mediterranean first order anatolia and adria microplate kinematics and may contribute to the high elevation of scarcely deformed areas such as anatolia and eastern iberia more generally the mediterranean is an illustration of how upper mantle small scale convection leads to intraplate deformation and complex plate boundary reconfiguration at the westernmost terminus of the tethyan collision

the crustal structure of the eastern marmara region turkey by teleseismic receiver functions summary we study the crustal structure of eastern marmara region by applying the receiver function method to the data obtained from the 11 broad band stations that have been in operation since the 1999 earthquake the stacked single event receiver functions were modelled by an inversion algorithm based on a five layered crustal velocity model to reveal the firstorder shear velocity discontinuities with a minimum degree of trade off we observe crustal thickening from west 29 32 km to east 34 35 km along the north anatolian fault zone nafz but we observe no obvious crustal thickness variation from north to south while crossing the nafz the crust is thinnest beneath station ter 29 km located near the black sea coast in the west and thickest beneath station tar 35 km located inland in the southeast the average crustal thickness and s wave velocity for the whole regions are 31 2 km and 3 64 0 15 km s 1 respectively the eastern marmara region with its average crustal thickness high heat flow value 101 11 mw m 2 and with its remarkable extensional features seems to have a basin and range type characteristics but the higher average shear velocities 3 64 km s 1 and crustal thickening from 29 to 35 km towards the easternmost stations indicate that the crustal structure shows a transitional tectonic regime therefore we conclude that the eastern marmara region seems to be a transition zone between the marmara sea extensional domain and the continental anatolian inland region

shaping mobile belts by small scale convection claudio faccenna and thorsten becker compute global mantle flow based on a recent high resolution seismic tomography model to investigate the role of buoyancy driven and plate motion induced mantle circulation for the mediterranean they show that mantle flow provides an explanation for much of the observed dynamic topography and microplate motion in the region and conclude that vigorous small scale convection in the uppermost mantle may also hold the key for understanding other complex mobile belts such as those in the north american cordillera and the himalayan tibetan collision zone here global mantle flow is computed on the basis of recent high resolution seismic tomography to investigate the role of buoyancy driven and plate motion induced mantle circulation in the mediterranean region the findings show that mantle flow explains much of the observed dynamic topography and microplate motion in the region small scale convection in the uppermost mantle may also hold the key to understanding complex mobile belts elsewhere mobile belts are long lived deformation zones composed of an ensemble of crustal fragments distributed over hundreds of kilometres inside continental convergent margins1 2 the mediterranean represents a remarkable example of this tectonic setting3 the region hosts a diffuse boundary between the nubia and eurasia plates comprised of a mosaic of microplates that move and deform independently from the overall plate convergence4 surface expressions of mediterranean tectonics include deep subsiding backarc basins intraplate plateaux and uplifting orogenic belts although the kinematics of the area are now fairly well defined the dynamical origins of many of these active features are controversial and usually attributed to crustal and lithospheric interactions however the effects of mantle convection well established for continental interiors5 6 7 should be particularly relevant in a mobile belt and modelling may constrain important parameters such as slab coherence and lithospheric strength here we compute global mantle flow on the basis of recent high resolution seismic tomography to investigate the role of buoyancy driven and plate motion induced mantle circulation for the mediterranean we show that mantle flow provides an explanation for much of the observed dynamic topography and microplate motion in the region more generally vigorous small scale convection in the uppermost mantle may also underpin other complex mobile belts such as the north american cordillera or the himalayan tibetan collision zone

geodetic determination of the kinematics of central greece with respect to europe implications for eastern mediterranean tectonics we use a new satellite laser ranging global positioning system slr gps solution at seven sites in anatolia and aegea to obtain a better definition of the extrusion motion of the anatolian aegean block with respect to europe we show that this motion can be described in a first approximation by a counterclockwise rotation which transfers most of the motion of arabia to anatolia we combine 78 displacement vectors obtained at common points of two triangulation nets measured in central greece in 1895 and 1975 with the slr gps measurements to compute the velocity field over greece with respect to europe these measurements indicate that central greece is a zone of extension between the anatolian aegean counterclockwise rotation to the south and the northern greece clockwise rotation to the north this extension is principally localized within the gulf of corinth to the east but is distributed to the west we then extrapolate this velocity field to the whole aegea and western anatolia using recently published gps results as well as the slr results the narrow dextral north anatolian fault which limits the velocity field to the north progressively gives way to a much wider boundary zone where extension becomes dominant we show that the collision between the mediterranean ridge and africa began 3 6 ma and we describe the modifications that this collision has produced on the kinematic pattern both in aegea and on the mediterranean ridge

radial profile of mantle viscosity results from the joint inversion of convection and postglacial rebound observables we present new inferences of the radial profile of mantle viscosity that simultaneously fit long wavelength free air gravity harmonics associated with mantle convection and a large set of decay times estimated from the postglacial uplift of sites within previously glaciated regions hudson bay arctic canada and fennoscandia the relative sea level variation at these latter sites is constrained by age height pairs obtained by geological survey rather than the subjective trends which are commonly used in glacial isostatic adjustment gia studies our viscosity inferences are generated using two approaches first we adopt a relative viscosity profile which is known to provide a good fit to the free air gravity harmonics and determine an absolute scaling which yields a best fit to the gia decay time constraints second we perform an iterative nonlinear joint inversion of the two data sets in both cases our inferred profiles are characterized by a significant increase of viscosity 2 orders of magnitude with depth to values of 1022 pa s in the bottom half of the lower mantle the new viscosity profiles are shown to satisfy constraints based on the postglacial uplift of both fennoscandia the classic haskell 1935 number and hudson bay which have commonly been invoked to argue for an isoviscous mantle furthermore the models are used to predict a set of long wavelength signatures of the gia process these include predictions of gia induced variations in 1 the length of day over the late holocene period 2 the earth s precession constant and obliquity over the last 2 6 myr and 3 the present day zonal harmonics of the geopotential jl l 7 the predictions 1 and 3 bound the late holocene and ongoing mass flux between the large polar ice sheets greenland and antarctic and the global oceans to small values 0 4 mm yr equivalent eustatic sea level rise

collision driven slab breakoff magmatism in northwestern anatolia turkey abstract postcollisional eocene magmatism in northwestern anatolia produced two e w trending linear belts of plutons along and north of the izmir ankara erzincan suture zone iaesz whose geochemical features and age relations support a slab breakoff model for their petrogenetic oinevolution the suture zone granitoids szgs in the southern belt have ages around 54 48 ma are intrusive into blueschist rocks of the iaesz and are composed of diorite quartz diorite granodiorite and syenite the marmara granitoids mgs in the northern belt are slightly younger 48 35 ma intrusive into the paleozoic mesozoic crystalline basement rocks of the sakarya continent and composed of monzogranite granite and granodiorite both szgs and mgs have moderately to highly evolved medium to high k calc alkaline compositions and are predominantly metaluminous i type granitoids nd sr isotope systematics documentclass aastex usepackage amsbsy usepackage amsfonts usepackage amssymb usepackage bm usepacka

volcanic development of small oceanic central volcanoes on the flanks of the east pacific rise inferred from narrow beam echo sounder surveys abstract narrow beam bathymetric surveys of about 30 volcanoes on young crust of the cocos plate were collected in order to help determine the origin and evolution of oceanic central volcanoes the volcanoes are located on ocean crust 1 5 7 5 m y in age and range in size from to 600 km 3 these volcanoes differ greatly in shape development of linear features small scale morphologic characteristics and crater development we conclude that these large differences in morphologic characteristics are due to the complex interaction of many factors in their development such as conduit geometry magma ascent rates eruption rate history tectonic activity crater formation and filling and others elongation directions of individual volcanoes and clear linear bathymetric features near these volcanoes are among the lines of evidence that strongly suggest these volcanoes originate and evolve on and near oceanic fracture zones their origin and morphologic evolution is thus closely tied to the tectonic processes and thermal regimes at fractures we speculate that these volcanoes on fast spreading lithosphere are generated by episodic pulses of melt production beneath ridge crests in the vicinity of fracture zones petrologic evidence shows that these volcanoes cannot be fed from sub axial magma chambers beneath the east pacific rise instead they tap the same mantle source as the ridge crest at mantle depth

geochemical and temporal evolution of cenozoic magmatism in western turkey mantle response to collision slab break off and lithospheric tearing in an orogenic belt post collisional magmatism in western anatolia began in the eocene and has occurred in discrete pulses throughout the cenozoic as it propagated from north to south producing volcano plutonic associations with varying chemical compositions this apparent sw migration of magma tism and accompanying extension through time was a result of the thermally induced collapse of the western anatolian orogenic belt which formed during the collision of the sakarya and tauride anatolide continental blocks in the late paleocene the thermal input and melt sources for this prolonged magmatism were provided first by slab break off generated aesthenospheric flow then by lithospheric delamination related aesthenospheric flow followed by tectonic extension driven upward aesthenospheric flow the first magmatic episode is represented by eocene granitoid plutons and their extrusive carapace that are linearly distributed along the izmir ankara suture zone south of the marmara sea these suites show moderately evolved com positions enriched in incompatible elements similar to subduction zone influenced subalkaline magmas widespread oligo miocene volcanic and plutonic rocks with medium to high k calc alkaline compositions represent the next magmatic episode partial melting and assimilation fractional crystallization of enriched subcontinental lithospheric mantle derived magmas were important processes in the genesis and evolution of the parental magmas which experienced decreasing subduction influence and increasing crustal contamination during the evolution of the eocene and oligo miocene volcano plutonic rocks collision induced lithospheric slab break off provided an influx of aesthenospheric heat and melts that resulted in partial melting of the previously subduction metasomatized mantle lithosphere beneath the suture zone producing the eocene and oligo miocene igneous suites the following magmatic phase during the middle miocene 16 14 ma developed mildly alkaline bimodal volcanic rocks that show a decreasing amount of crustal contamination and subduction influence in time both melting of a subduc tion modified lithospheric mantle and aesthenospheric mantle derived melt contribution played a significant role in the generation of the magmas of these rocks this magmatic episode was attended by region wide extension that led to the formation of metamorphic core complexes and graben systems aesthenospheric upwelling caused by partial delamination of the lithospheric root beneath the western anatolian orogenic belt was likely responsible for the melt evolution of these mildly alkaline volcanics lithospheric delamination may have been caused by peeling off during slab rollback the last major phase of magmatism in the region starting c 12 ma is represented by late miocene to quaternary alkaline to super alkaline volcanic rocks that show oib like geochemical features with progressively more potassic compositions increasing toward south in time these rocks are spatially associated with major extensional fault systems that acted as natural conduits for the transport of uncontaminated alkaline magmas to the surface the melt source for this magmatic phase carried little or no subduction component and was pro duced by the decompressional melting of aesthenospheric mantle which flowed in beneath the atte nuated continental lithosphere in the aegean extensional province this time progressive evolution of cenozoic magmatism and extension in western anatolia has been strongly controlled by the interplay between regional plate tectonic events and the mantle dynamics and provides a realistic template for post collisional magmatism and crustal extension in many orogenic belts

abundances distribution and sizes of volcanoes in the pacific ocean and implications for the origin of non hotspot volcanoes abstract in this paper i present data on the abundances sizes and crustal age for all volcanoes volcanic islands and seamounts which appear on published bathymetric charts of the pacific ocean these new data shed light on the origin of non hotspot volcanoes and are important in combination with data on the chemical compositions of seamounts and volcanic islands for estimates of the bulk composition of ocean crust these data also provide firm constraints on off ridge oceanic volcanism models results of this study show that the size frequency distribution of pacific volcanoes is poisson like and that the smallest volcanoes are much more abundant than large ones this study shows clearly that the most abundant volcanoes on the earth are the submerged oceanic volcanoes which comprise 5 25 of the oceanic volcanic layer on pacific crust of eocene age and younger the abundance of volcanoes number of volcanoes per unit area increases monotonically with increasing age assuming steady state the production rate of new off ridge volcanoes number of volcanoes per unit area per unit time is inversely proportional to the square root of the lithosphere age 1 on crust older than eocene the number of volcanoes per unit area of crust decreases monotonically with increasing age however the total volume of lava represented by these edifices increases with increasing age size frequency distributions of volcanoes on swaths of successively older crust indicate that these abundance patterns are partly due to the effect of sediment burial of small edifices on old pacific crust as well as the effect of increased lithosphere thickness on seamount size these general patterns are not appreciably changed by omitting from consideration known hotspot volcanoes 2 and volcanoes built at fossil constructional plate margins 3

analysis of glaciers and geomorphology on svalbard using multitemporal ers 1 sar images the all weather capability makes synthetic aperture radar sar interesting with respect to glaciological studies in remote arctic areas the aim of this project was to investigate how the european remote sensing satellite ers sar backscatter from certain glaciological and geomorphological structures varied with time and find out at which time of the year a sar acquisition will give the best result when observing certain features five ers 1 sar images one from the winter and four from the summer were acquired over the northwestern part of svalbard norway ground measurements and observations were made at the same time as one of the summer sar acquisitions the ground data as well as meteorological recordings were used to analyze the sar backscatter changes in the multitemporal data set a zonation on the glaciers representing snow firn superimposed ice and glacier ice was detected in the winter image only the equilibrium line could also be derived from this sar image information on drainage patterns distribution of wet and dry snow areas and the occurrence of crevasses was derived from the summer images changes in snow cover distribution was identified in the summer images the form and position of ice cored moraines fossil beach ridges and river channels were identified in all images early summer images showed the highest potential for identification of landforms small scale landforms such as patterned ground and tundra polygons could not be identified

coeval plutonism and metamorphism in a latest oligocene metamorphic core complex in northwest turkey a metamorphic core complex of latest oligocene age crops out in the kazdag mountain range in northwest turkey the footwall of the core complex consists of gneiss amphibolite and marble metamorphosed at 5 1 kbar and 640 50 c the average muscovite and biotite rb sr ages from the gneisses are 19 ma and 22 ma respectively and imply high temperature metamorphism during latest oligocene times the hangingwall is made up of an unmetamorphosed lower tertiary oceanic accretionary melange with upper cretaceous eclogite lenses the hangingwall and footwall are separated by an extensional ductile shear zone two kilometres thick mylonites and underlying high grade metamorphic rocks show a n trending mineral lineation with the structural fabrics indicat ing down dip top to the north shear sense the shear zone the accretionary melange and the high grade metamorphic rocks are cut by an undeformed granitoid with a 21 ma rb sr biotite age analytically indistinguishable from the rb sr biotite ages in the surrounding footwall gneisses the estimated pressure of the metamorphism and that of the granitoid emplacement indicate that the high grade metamorphic rocks were rapidly exhumed at 24 ma from a depth of 14 km to 7 km by activity along the shear zone the subsequent exhumation of the metamorphic rocks to the surface occurred during pliocene quaternary times in a transpressive ridge between two overstepping fault segments of the north anatolian fault zone the high grade metamorphic rocks of the kazdag range are surrounded by voluminous calc alkaline volcanic and plutonic rocks of late oligocene early miocene age which formed above the northward dipping hellenic subduction zone the magmatic arc setting of the core complex and stratigraphic evidence for subdued topography in northwest turkey prior to the onset of extension suggest that the latest oligocene regional extension was primarily related to the roll back of the subduction zone rather than to the gravitational collapse

menderes massif western turkey structural metamorphic and magmatic evolution a synthesis the menderes massif covers large areas in western turkey the better understanding of its tectono metamorphic history would provide insight for the alpine evolution of western turkey and the entire eastern mediterranean region this paper summarizes the available literature on the metamorphic rocks of western turkey and that of the menderes massif with special reference and emphasis to the papers presented in the special issue

a method for separating antarctic postglacial rebound and ice mass balance using future icesat geoscience laser altimeter system gravity recovery and climate experiment and gps satellite data 5 3 and 19 9 mm yr 1 for postglacial rebound and ice mass trend respectively when smoothed over 250 km scales the largest source of error in the combined signals is the effect of the unknown time variable accumulation on the density of the ice column to estimate this contribution and so obtain better estimates of ice mass trend and postglacial rebound we add global positioning system gps measurements of vertical velocities as additional constraints using an empirical relation between the errors in postglacial rebound and ice mass trend that result from the unknown density variation within the ice column we are able to solve for all three unknowns in the problem ice mass trend postglacial rebound and the snow compaction trend the addition of a plausible distribution of gps measurements reduces the errors in estimates of postglacial rebound and ice mass trend to 3 4 and 15 9 mm yr 1 respectively index terms 1863 hydrology

a new crustal model of the anatolia aegean domain evidence for the dominant role of isostasy in the support of the anatolian plateau the engines of surface deformation in the anatolia aegean region are a matter of debate including the origin of the high elevations of the anatolian plateau recent publications based on geological and thermomechanical modelling emphasize the role of dynamic topography in the plateau uplift however quantitative estimates of the contribution of dynamic topography are affected by large uncertainties due to insufficient knowledge of the crustal structure in particular crustal thickness and density to reduce these uncertainties we provide a new accurate crustal thickness map of the anatolia aegean domain computed from a large volume of broadband seismic data in addition we display high resolution seismic sections of the internal structure of the crust in western and central anatolia density contrasts are derived from the same seismic data set and bouguer gravity anomaly computed from the egm2008 model our crustal thickness model is highly correlated with the topography suggesting that the anatolian plateau is close to isostatic equilibrium the average density difference between crust and upper mantle computed from our crustal model and bouguer gravity anomaly is low compared to the global average 0 315 10 3 kg m 3 the ratio of surface elevation to crustal thickness is lower than average 1 9 4 which also indicates a low density crust differences between isostatic topography and observed topography are overall small 500 m the east to west gradients of crustal thickness and topography changes are nearly constant in between the taurides and pontides at the northern and southern borders of anatolia the observed constant crustal thickness gradient may indicate a low viscosity lower crust supported by the thin mantle lithosphere evidenced by seismic tomography beneath the anatolian plateau we propose that viscous flow in the lower crust has smoothed out lateral changes in the crustal structure expected for such a heterogeneous collage of continental fragments this flow may originate from gravitational potential energy differences between eastern anatolia thick crust high elevations and the aegean sea thin crust low elevations suggesting that gravity plays an integral part in the westward escape of anatolia

why is the north america cordillera high hot backarcs thermal isostasy and mountain belts global mountain belts are commonly concluded to be a consequence of crustal thickening resulting from continental collision with high elevations supported by crustal roots however accumulating seismic structure data indicate that many mountain belts have no crustal root most of the north american cordillera has a 30 35 km crust in contrast to 40 45 km for the lower elevation craton and other stable areas it has been shown previously that most such mountain belts are in present or recent backarcs that are uniformly hot from thermal constraints we predict a uniform 1600 m elevation support of the cordillera by thermal expansion compared to stable areas over most of the cordillera relative to stable areas the elevations after correction for variable crustal thickness and density are in excellent agreement when subduction and shallow backarc convection stop the lithosphere may cool and the elevations of mountain belts subside over 300 m y

crustal structure variation in western turkey inferred from the receiver function analysis abstract we have used receiver function analysis employing teleseismic waveforms to investigate variations in crustal and upper mantle velocity structure beneath the western turkey the genetic algorithm is adopted to avoid the inherent non uniqueness problems of the inversion the total of 50 teleseismic waveforms recorded by 25 permanent stations is analyzed and the selected records of earthquakes distributed in three quadrants from each seismic station in the years from 2007 to 2008 are analyzed 2 d images of moho variation beneath the western turkey along two profiles are 700 and 300 km long and extended from the aegean sea coast to the central anatolia and southeastern anatolia respectively are estimated the depth migrated receiver function showed almost well resolved moho for the two profiles although the limited quantity of data is used to short periods the resolution and confidence level is not so bad for the one profile that extended from the aegean sea coast to central anatolia we obtain moho depths between 25 and 35 km on the other profile along the western coast the moho depths range from 20 and 30 km shear wave speed was found to vary between 3 3 km s and 3 7 km s in the lower crust and between 4 1 km s and 4 4 km s uppermost mantle we concluded that the moho depth is increasing from western anatolia to central anatolia considering inversion results and 2 d depth migrated receiver functions

reconciling the geological history of western turkey with plate circuits and mantle tomography abstract we place the geological history since cretaceous times in western turkey in a context of convergence subduction collision and slab break off to this end we compare the west anatolian geological history with amounts of africa europe convergence calculated from the atlantic plate circuit and the seismic tomography images of the west anatolian mantle structure western turkish geology reflects the convergence between the sakarya continent here treated as eurasia in the north and africa in the south with the anatolide tauride block atb between two strands of the neotethyan ocean convergence between the sakarya and the atb started at least 95 90 myr ago marked by ages of metamorphic soles of ophiolites that form the highest structural unit below sakarya these are underlain by high pressure low temperature metamorphic rocks of the tavsanli and afyon zones and the oren unit which in turn are underlain by the menderes massif derived from the atb underthrusting of the atb below sakarya was since 50 ma associated with high temperature metamorphism and widespread granitic magmatism thrusting in the menderes massif continued until 35 ma after which there is no record of accretion in western turkey plate circuits show that since 90 ma 1400 km of africa europe convergence occurred of which 700 km since 50 ma and 450 km since 35 ma seismic tomography shows that the african slab under western turkey is decoupled from the african plate this detached slab is a single coherent body representing the lithosphere consumed since 90 ma there was no subduction re initiation after slab break off atb collision with europe therefore did not immediately lead to slab break off but instead to delamination of subducting lithospheric mantle from accreting atb crust while staying attached to the african plate this led to asthenospheric inflow below the atb crust high temperature metamorphism and felsic magmatism slab break off in western turkey probably occurred 15 myr ago after which overriding plate compression and rotation accommodated ongoing africa europe convergence slab break off was accommodated along a vertical ne trending subduction transform edge propagator step fault zone accelerating southwestward slab retreat of the aegean slab the se aegean slab edge may have existed already since early miocene times or before but started to rapidly roll back along the southeastern aegean step in middle miocene times penetrating the aegean region in the pliocene

constraints on the evolution and vertical coherency of deformation in the northern aegean from a comparison of geodetic geologic and seismologic data abstract we study the 3 d strain evolution of the northern aegean and the vertical coherency of deformation we observe that finite strain orientations in the mantle inferred from published shear wave sks fast polarization orientations mid to upper crustal stretching lineations in metamorphic core complexes of mainly miocene age and the gradient in regional crustal thickness variations are subparallel to one another this correlation suggests that the miocene phase of extension is imprinted in the anisotropic fabric i e lattice preferred orientation lpo of the lithospheric mantle and that the orientation of finite strain due to extension is nearly constant with depth the lateral variation of published seismic delay times shows a correlation with laterally varying finite strain in the crust inferred from topography and crustal thickness estimates this correlation suggests that lateral variations in finite crustal and mantle strain are correlated and may point at a pure shear extension mechanism involving the entire lithosphere we also present a new strain rate model for the northern aegean based on global positioning system gps velocities and additional geological constraints no length change orientations calculated from the model near the north anatolian fault naf and north aegean trough are not consistent with anisotropy orientations at depth present day extension orientations are systematically and significantly more n s oriented than the stretching lineations and sks splitting orientations we conclude that the current shear dominated surface deformation pattern is not yet reflected by significant anisotropy in the lithosphere based on some simple calculations we postulate that the present day deformation pattern cannot be older than 4 ma which is consistent with independent arguments on the timing of the propagation of the north anatolian fault into the aegean domain

influence of sediment deposition on deep lithospheric tectonics 1 previous geodynamic models of continental collision show that the behavior of the lithosphere can be strongly influenced by the presence of surface erosion that said absent from these investigations are the effects of sediment deposition we quantitatively investigate this process using thermal mechanical numerical experiments of the coupled processes of tectonic deformation and crustal mass flux the models demonstrate that the inclusion of the effects of sediment deposition can change the style of deformation of the crust and consequently the evolution of the underlying deforming mantle lithosphere in the absence of sediment deposition the early stages of collision are accommodated by subduction of lower crust and mantle lithosphere along a discrete shear zone beneath the overriding plate following this initial stage of subduction the subducting lower crust and mantle lithosphere retreat from the collision zone permitting the sub lithospheric mantle to upwell and come into contact with the thickened upper crust when sediment deposition is imposed subduction like consumption of the subducting plate remains stable the presence of sediment deposition introduces a negative vy component in the overriding plate in the area adjacent to the collisional zone the negative vy component leads to a greater degree of coupling between the colliding continental plates and decoupling of the overriding upper crust and lower crust mantle lithosphere the results demonstrate the first quantitative insights into the feedback between surface deposition and tectonics

pliocene and quaternary regional uplift in western turkey the gediz river terrace staircase and the volcanism at kula abstract along the upper reaches of the gediz river in western turkey in the eastern part of the aegean extensional province the land surface has uplifted by 400 m since the middle pliocene this uplift is revealed by progressive gorge incision and its rate can be established because river terraces are capped by basalt flows that have been k ar and ar ar dated at present the local uplift rate is 0 2 mm a 1 uplift at this rate began around the start of the middle pleistocene following a span of time when the uplift was much slower this was itself preceded by an earlier uplift phase apparently in the late late pliocene and early early pleistocene when the uplift rate was comparable to the present the resulting regional uplift history resembles what is observed in other regions and is analogously interpreted as the isostatic response to changing rates of surface processes linked to global environmental change we suggest that this present phase of surface uplift amounting so far to 150 m is being caused by the nonsteady state thermal and isostatic response of the crust to erosion following an increase in erosion rates in the late early pleistocene most likely as a result of the first large northern hemisphere glaciation during oxygen isotope stage 22 at 870 ka we suggest that the earlier uplift phase responsible for the initial 250 m of uplift resulted from a similar increase in erosion rates caused by the deterioration in local climate at 3 1 ma this uplift thus has no direct relationship to the crustal extension occurring in western turkey the rate and sense of which are thought not to have changed significantly on this time scale our results thus suggest that the present often deeply incised landscape of western turkey has largely developed from the middle pleistocene onwards for reasons not directly related to the active normal faulting that is also occurring the local isostatic consequences of this active faulting are instead superimposed onto this background of regional surface uplift modelling of this surface uplift indicates that the effective viscosity of the lower continental crust beneath this part of turkey is of the order of 1019 pa s similar to a recent estimate for beneath central greece the lower uplift rates observed in western turkey compared with central greece result from the longer typical distances of fluvial sediment transport which cause weaker coupling by lower crustal flow between offshore depocentres and eroding onshore regions that provide the sediment source

surface erosion control on the evolution of the deep lithosphere russell n pysklywec geology v 34 no 4 pp 225 228 april 2006 1 figure 1 has been corrected and replaced by the author the corrected figure 1 is below figure 2 1 lookup doi 10 1130 g21963 1 2 pending yes

mantle dynamics isostasy and the support of high terrain dynamic topography is commonly understood to be deflection of the earth s surface that results from convection of the mantle because different authors use the words dynamic topography differently topography designated as dynamic may amount to only a few hundred meters or may exceed 2000 m for most regions however surface heights computed on the assumption that the lithospheric column is in isostatic equilibrium provide good approximations to observed topography the small free air gravity anomalies and still smaller isostatic anomalies 2000 m of dynamic topography moreover simple examples show that if flow induced stresses maintain a given density distribution then the resultant surface deflections can be smaller than those that would exist in isostatic equilibrium in light of confusion over the term dynamic topography we offer readers simple tools that we hope will enable them to diagnose the component of topography that results from flow induced stresses and to distinguish it from topography that is compensated isostatically

pn tomographic imaging of mantle lid velocity and anisotropy at the junction of the arabian eurasian and african plates an edited version of this paper was published by blackwell publishing in geophysical journal international copyright 2004 blackwell publishing see also http www blackwell synergy com doi abs 10 1111 j 1365 246x 2004 02355 x http atlas geo cornell edu middleeastnorthafrica publications al lazki2004 htm

evaluation of remote sensing techniques to measure decadal scale changes of hofsjokull ice cap iceland dynamic surficial changes and changes in the position of the firn line and the areal extent of hofsjokull ice cap iceland were studied through analysis of a time series 1973 98 of synthetic aperture radar sar and landsat data a digital elevation model of hofsjokull which was constructed using sar interferometry was used to plot the sar backscatter coefficient vs elevation and air temperature along transects across the ice cap seasonal and daily patterns are caused by freezing or thawing of the ice cap surface and abrupt changes in are noted when the air temperature ranges from 5 to 0 c late summer 1997 sar and reflectance landsat boundaries agree and appear to be coincident with the firn line and a sar boundary that can be seen in the january 1998 sar image in january 1994 through 1998 the elevation of this boundary on the ice cap was quite stable ranging from 1000 to 1300 m while the equilibrium line altitude as measured on the ground varied considerably thus the equilibrium line may be obscured by firn from previous years techniques are established to measure long term changes in the elevation of the firn line and changes in the position of the ice margin

dynamics and structural development of metamorphic core complexes the development of metamorphic core complexes mccs in a thickened continental lithosphere is studied using fully coupled thermomechanical numerical code accounting for elastic brittle ductile properties of constituent rocks for mccs to develop the middle lower crust and the sub moho mantle are required to be weak enough to flow laterally so as to simultaneously feed the exhuming dome and enable the moho to keep a flat geometry the conditions are satisfied with initial moho temperatures of 800 c or higher with crustal thicknesses of 45 km or greater and with initial effective viscosities lower than 1020 pa s and 1022 pa s in the lower crust and the underlying mantle respectively a compositional mainly density anomaly with the properties of granite is placed centrally in the crust to localize strain at the onset of deformation during a first stage of upper crust necking the deformation pattern is relatively symmetrical and dominated by graben formation in the upper crust when the first ductile layers reach the surface a second stage of dome amplification and widening occurs dome amplification is accommodated by horizontal flow in the ductile crust giving an early symmetrical pattern of conjugate shear zones with no obvious detachment zone the system then rapidly becomes asymmetric with the localization of a detachment zone along one dome limb further accommodating dome widening thus the exhumation process of a metamorphic dome results in the progressive development of a detachment zone depending on initial moho temperature the detachment zone can migrate in space or die out and be replaced by a new one with an opposite dip

lithospheric structure of the aegean obtained from p and s receiver functions combined p and s receiver functions from seismograms of teleseismic events recorded at 65 temporary and permanent stations in the aegean region are used to map the geometry of the subducted african and the overriding aegean plates we image the moho of the subducting african plate at depths ranging from 40 km beneath southern crete and the western peloponnesus to 160 km beneath the volcanic arc and 220 km beneath northern greece however the dip of the moho of the subducting african plate is shallower beneath the peloponnesus than beneath crete and rhodes and flattens out beneath the northern aegean observed p to s conversions at stations located in the forearc indicate a reversed velocity contrast at the moho boundary of the aegean plate whereas this boundary is observed as a normal velocity contrast by the s to p conversions our modeling suggests that the presence of a large amount of serpentinite more than 30 in the forearc mantle wedge which generally occurs in the subduction zones may be the reason for the reverse sign of the p to s conversion coefficient moho depths for the aegean plate show that the southern part of the aegean crustal thickness of 20 22 km has been strongly influenced by extension while the northern aegean sea which at present undergoes the highest crustal deformation shows a relatively thicker crust 25 28 km this may imply a recent initiation of the present kinematics in the aegean western greece crustal thickness of 32 40 km is unaffected by the recent extension but underwent crustal thickening during the hellenides mountains building event the depths of the aegean moho beneath the margin of the peloponnesus and crete 25 28 and 25 33 km respectively show that these areas are also likely to be affected by the aegean extension even though the cyclades crustal thickness of 26 30 km were not significantly involved in this episode the aegean lithosphere asthenosphere boundary lab mapped with s receiver functions is about 150 km deep beneath mainland greece whereas the lab of the subducted african plate dips from 100 km beneath crete and the southern aegean sea to about 225 km under the volcanic arc this implies a thickness of 60 65 km for the subducted african lithosphere suggesting that the aegean lithosphere was not significantly affected by the extensional process associated with the exhumation of metamorphic core complexes in the cyclades

investigations into the tectonic lineaments and thermal structure of kutahya denizli region western anatolia from using aeromagnetic gravity and seismological data abstract residual aeromagnetic map of western anatolia displays intense anomalies especially in the nw of the region curie point depth cpd map obtained from the residual aeromagnetic anomalies is indicative of larger area of shallow curie levels than previously defined two important shallow depth regions located at between kutahya and denizli are determined from cpd and thermal gradient tg map the intense aeromagnetic anomalies are located in the west of kutahya along the e w direction these anomalies are resulted from the metamorphic units of menderes massif the analytic signal as map produced from residual aeromagnetic data shows the e w trending geological bodies causing magnetic anomalies which become intense in the west and south of kutahya it is also observed from the as map that thermal structures or bodies are buried under the non magnetic surface geology the maxspot map derived from the location of the horizontal gradient of aeromagnetic anomalies can be well correlated with not only tectonic lineaments but also the distribution of earthquake data bouguer anomalies of the region can also be well correlated with the graben system and thus provide supportive information about the geothermal energy potential of the study area

the relationship between topography and gravity on earth and venus abstract the measurement of the admittance between the topography and the gravity of a planet as a function of wavelength provides important constraints on its interior processes a detailed discussion of the influence of noise on such measurements shows that at long wavelengths the admittance is best determined in the frequency domain using gravity as input and topography as output this procedure is used to estimate the admittance in the pacific and indian oceans the observed values are reduced by volcanism above plumes which produces a contribution to the long wavelength compensated topography when this effect is taken into account there is little evidence that the admittance is reduced by the presence of a low viscosity zone in the upper mantle a similar study of venus shows an excellent correlation between gravity g and topography h for wavelengths greater than 700 km with an admittance of about 50 mgal km 1 this value agrees well with that expected from numerical axisymmetric models of plumes and can be used to construct maps of residual topography by calculating h g 50 where h is in kilometers and g in milligals the power spectrum of the gravity field and its skewness with positive anomalies covering a smaller area but being larger than the negative ones are also in agreement with those of the numerical models of the major topographic features only aphrodite and ishtar terrae behave differently with a value of admittance of about one third of other large structures this difference requires their topography to be partly supported by variations in crustal thickness by analogy with similar structures on earth both are likely to be supported by volcanically thickened crust on top of rising plumes though the observed relationships do not rule out other models the behavior of the admittance at long wavelengths is important because it can constrain the thickness of the convecting layer at wavelengths of more than 3000 km the gravity data provides some evidence that the layer depth is about 1000 km over the center of beta and phoebe regiones there are short wavelength anomalies of residual topography produced by crust that is thinner than that elsewhere flanked by positive anomalies of thicker crust the regions of thin crust occur beneath rift zones this behavior can be explained if crust flows down the flanks of elevated regions above plumes and can generate coronae when the plume support disappears

anisotropic pn tomography of turkey and adjacent regions summary this study presents an analysis of pn traveltimes to determine lateral variations of velocity anisotropy of uppermost mantle and crustal thickness beneath turkey and adjacent regions from 1999 to 2010 more than 50 000 pn arrivals are compiled from 700 regional earthquakes and 832 stations of permanent and temporary networks operated in the study area we used a regularized least squares inversion to estimate the uppermost mantle parameters the results reveal features that correlate well with the geology and the active tectonics of the region overall thepnvelocitiesshowveryfast 8 4kms 1 andveryslow 8 3 km s 1 western black sea basin 8 3 km s 1 adriatic sea 8 3 km s 1 and zagros suture 8 3 km s 1 pn anisotropy has maximum amplitude of 0 6 km s 1 in the study area the largest and coherent anisotropic anomalies are observed in the western anatolia aegean sea and cyprian arc pn anisotropy in western anatolia aegean sea and greece correlate well with the present deformation of n s regional extension no clear correlation between anisotropy and the shear deformation along the north anatolian fault was observed the majority of the stations in central anatolia show small station residuals indicating the average crustal thickness of 35 2 km western anatolia and the aegean sea have crustal thicknesses between 28 2 and 33 2 km in greece the crustal thicknesses are increasing from 33 3 km from the western coast to a maximum of 48 3k m beneath dinarides hellenides the large crustal thicknesses are also observed along southern coast of anatolia 40 48 km

snowmelt on the greenland ice sheet as derived from passive microwave satellite data abstract the melt extent of the snow on the greenland ice sheet is of considerable importance to the ice sheet s mass and energy balance as well as arctic and global climates by comparing passive microwave satellite data to field observations variations in melt extent have been detected by establishing melt thresholds in the cross polarized gradient ratio xpgr the xpgr defined as the normalized difference between the 19 ghz horizontal channel and the 37 ghz vertical channel of the special sensor microwave imager ssm i exploits the different effects of snow wetness on different frequencies and polarizations and establishes a distinct melt signal using this xpgr melt signal seasonal and interannual variations in snowmelt extent of the ice sheet are studied the melt is found to be most extensive on the western side of the ice sheet and peaks in late july moreover there is a notable increasing trend in melt area between the years 1979 and 1991 of 4 4 per year which came to an abrupt halt in 1

crustal thickness variations in the aegean region and implications for the extension of continental crust 1 we installed 5 broadband and 45 short period temporary seismic stations distributed partly as a dense 100 km long n s linear array and partly as a regional network throughout the menderes massif of western turkey in order to study crust upper mantle structure and seismicity in this study we have combined teleseismic waveform data from these stations with data from several permanent seismic stations to determine crustal thickness variations in the aegean region receiver function studies at seven broadband stations using the h stacking method have yielded crustal thicknesses and vp vs ratios over a broad region of the aegean a more detailed crustal image was obtained in the central menderes massif where we applied common conversion point stacking to receiver functions obtained from the n s linear array the results show a general trend of westward crustal thinning from 36 km in central anatolia to 28 30 km in the central menderes massif to 25 km beneath the aegean sea the results also indicate that crustal thinning in the aegean is not uniform in the n s extensional direction the crust is thinner in the central menderes massif 28 30 km of crustal thicknesses and the cycladic massif 25 26 km than in surrounding regions where crustal thicknesses are 32 34 km the long lived elevated moho under the metamorphic core complexes suggests that the lower crust in the aegean region is at least 3 times more viscous than that in the basin and range province where the moho is much flatter

geodetic constraints on the tectonic evolution of the aegean region and strain accumulation along the hellenic subduction zone article i nfo we present evidence that gps velocity estimates of plate motions and fault slip rates agree to within uncertainties with geologic estimates during the most recent phase of the geologic evolution of the e mediterranean region post late miocene on this basis we use the gps differential velocities to estimate the timing of initiation of the principal structures in nw turkey the n aegean sea and central greece including the marmara sea the gulfs of evia goe and corinth goc and the kephalonia transform fault ktf we interpret these ages to indicate that the north anatolian fault propagated across the n aegean opening the goe and goc and initiating the ktf during the past 1 4 ma we further suggest that aegean extension that was earlier more distributed across the aegean basin became focused on this new fault system allowing the southern aegean and peloponnisos to translate sw with little internal deformation as observed today with gps this change in tectonic configuration may account for the clear geologic evidence for crustal thinning throughout the s aegean in apparent contradiction with low present day strain rates we further show that the low present day strain rate along the southern edge of the aegean micro plate requires substantial aseismic slip along the plate interface below crete consistent with the low level of historic subduction type earthquakes along this segment of the subduction zone

isostatic response of the australian lithosphere estimation of effective elastic thickness and anisotropy using multitaper spectral analysis gravity and topography provide important insights regarding the degree and mechanisms of isostatic compensation the azimuthally isotropic coherence function be tween the bouguer gravity anomaly and topography evolves from high to low for increasing wavenumber a diagnostic that can be predicted for a variety of lithospheric loading models and used in inversions for flexural rigidity thereof in this study we investigate the isostatic response of continental australia we consider the effects of directionally anisotropic plate strength on the coherelce the anisotropic coherence function is calculated for regions of australia that have distinctive geological and geophysical properties the coherence estimation is performed by the thomson multiple slepian taper spectral analysis method extended to two dimensional fields our analysis reveals the existence of flexural anisotropy in central australia indicative of a weaker n s direction of lower te this observation is consistent with the suggestion that the parallel faults in that area act to make the lithosphere weaker in the direction perpendicular to them it can also be related to the n s direction of maximum stress and possibly the presence of e w running zones weakened due to differential sediment burial rates we also demonstrate that the multitaper method has distinct advantages for computing the isotropic coherence function the ability to make many independent estimates of the isostatic response that are minimally affected by spectral leakage results in a coherence that is more robust than with modified periodogram methods particularly at low wavenumbers our analysis elucidates the reasons for discrepancies in previous estimates of effective elastic thickness te of the australian lithosphere in isotropic inversions for te we obtain values that are as much as a factor of 2 less than those obtained in standard inversions of the periodogram coherence using bouguer gravity and topography but greater than those obtained by inversions that utilize free air rather than bouguer gravity and ignore the presence of subsurface loads however owing to the low spectral power of the australian topography the uncertainty on any estimate of te is substantial

submarine central volcanoes on the nazca plate high resolution sonar observations abstract this paper describes observations of 214 submarine central volcanoes made with long range side scan sonar and narrow beam echosounder between peru and the east pacific rise they are all circular in plan with basal diameters ranging from less than 1 to over 10 km profiles of four volcanoes were obtained with the narrow beam echosounder and those of a further nine were inferred from their acoustic shadows all the profiles show steep mostly concave sides a distinct summit region could be identified on about two thirds of the volcanoes in just under half of these the volcano culminates in a simple crater but the rest have broad slightly convex summit plateaus with or without craters almost half of all the volcanoes have one or more craters summit plateaus are relatively more common on the larger volcanoes so that for central volcanoes with a basal diameter greater than 4 km the commonest morphology is a steep sided truncated cone with a slightly domed summit plateau in most cases this form must represent the mode of formation not the result of subsequent wave erosion it is suggested that this form is the result of relatively fluid lavas travelling outward on low slopes from a central vent but terminating in steeply dipping hyaloclastites and volcanic breccias the spatial distribution of volcanoes is very non random in the area studied the east pacific rise out to 6 5 ma has less than one volcano per 10 4 km 2 whereas a field hundreds of kilometers across with a peak density of over 60 per 10 4 km 2 was seen north of mendana fracture zone on 6 5 26 ma old crust

the evolution of craters and calderas on young seamounts insights from sea marc i and sea beam sonar surveys of a small seamount group near the axis of the east pacific rise at 10 n a northwest trending group of seamounts located just west of the east pacific rise epr axis has been mapped using high resolution sea marc i side scan sonar and sea beam multibeam bathymetry these seamounts have 9 13 km basal diameters and the shapes of the volcanos change from conical domes near the epr axis to truncated cones and larger elliptical truncated cones farther away from the rise axis the detailed resolution of constructional volcanic features on these seamounts and the progressive development of summit depressions craters to large complex calderas and summit plateaus suggest to us a succession of evolutionary stages through which seamounts grow our evolutionary scheme for constructing these volcanos calls for the development of satellite extrusive centers around the base of a growing seamount which serve to drain off magmas and precipitate summit collapse the creation of a summit depression on a seamount will structurally constrain the style of eruptive volcanism to be principally along ring fractures which localize vents around the margin of a crater or caldera the concentration and channelization of volcanic eruptions around the top of the volcano lead to a progradation of the summit area and the establishment of a summit plateau the steep sides of a seamount reflect growth of the summit area out over the upper flanks of the volcano caused by continued eruption of lavas around the margin of the caldera the steep constructional slopes are sites for vigorous mass wasting that shapes and modifies flank terrain as a seamount evolves the crestal topography is the product of many volcanic cycles characterized by filling and subsequent draining of the caldera and expansion of caldera area through progressive collapse and migration of primary magmatic conduits the final phase of volcanism may be a calderafilling episode that builds a rough conical mount over the summit plateau

basalt magma genesis and fractionation in collision and extension related provinces a comparison between eastern central and western anatolia experimental studies of synthetic and natural basalt systems suggest that conditions of magma genesis and fractionation depend fundamentally on mantle temperatures and lithospheric stress fields in general compressional settings are more conducive to polybaric fractionation than extensional settings and in this regard the anatolian magmatic province offers a natural laboratory for comparing near coeval basalt eruptions as a function of regional tectonics compressional collision related regimes dominating in eastern anatolia and extensional tectonics characterizing a western province related to aegean sea opening projection of plio quaternary basalt normative compositions from the western anatolia extensional province waep the central anatolian ova province caop and eastern anatolia compressional province eacp are projected onto ol ne cpx and pl cpx ol planes in the simplified basalt system ne cpx ol qz each showing distinctive liquid lines of descent waep basalts are mostly constrained by low pressure 0 5 gpa cotectics while caop and eacp compositions conform to moderate and or high pressure 0 8 3 0 gpa cotectics overall a quasi linear shift from moderate and or high pressure to low pressure equilibria matches the westward transgression from compressional east anatolia to the extensional west anatolian aegean region comparison of their respective primary mantle equilibrated magmas simulated by normalizing their compositions to mgo 15 wt mg 15 with parameterized anhydrous and h2o undersaturated experimental melts suggests they segregated from spinel to garnet lherzolite mantle facies at pressures between c 2 and 3 gpa c 70 100 km depth under h2o undersaturated conditions interpolated potential temperatures tp and lithospheric stretching factors range as follows 1 eastern anatolian basalts associated with the arabian foreland show tp varying between 1250 and 1400 c except for the karacalidag alkali basalts south of the bitlis zagros fracture zone for which tp ranges up to 1450 c for values of 1 2 1 8 tp values for central anatolia e g sivas range between 1300 and 1375 c except for karapinar egrikuyu and hasandag which show 1150 c and values of 1 3 1 4 for western anatolian basalts tp range mostly between 1250 and 1330 c except for a single value for canakkale of 1400 c and kula sample showing tp 1200 c and values of 1 3 2 0 variation of these conditions is as great or greater than that between provinces although there are clearly significant constraints on the inferred polybaric to low pressure isobaric fractionation regimes covariation of total feo tio2 la yb ce sm zr y and zr nb reflects small but significant differences in bulk composition and ambient melt fraction while the covariance of ce sm and sm yb is consistent with the segregation of primitive melts at the spinel to garnet lherzolite transition

convective support of long wavelength topography in the apennines italy two different free air gravity datasets from the apennines have been analysed in the frequency domain to investigate the mechanisms of support of topography at short wavelength 150 km shows that such topography is not supported by elastic stresses in the lithosphere but is dynamically supported by mantle convection the distribution of gravity anomalies and topography suggests that the mantle is rising beneath the main topographic bulge of the apennines and that this flow is maintained by buoyancy forces rather than being driven by movement of the subducted slab

effects of a low viscosity lower crust on topography and gravity at convergent mountain belts during gravitational instability of mantle lithosphere we examine the gravitational stability of a stratified structure consisting of a low density crust through which viscosity decreases exponentially over a denser mantle lithosphere of constant viscosity which in turn overlies an inviscid slightly less dense layer like the asthenosphere the most important aspect of the viscosity structure is the contrast in viscosity at the moho surface uplift above a mantle downwelling is greatest when the viscosity contrast at the moho is negligible the surface is depressed when the viscosity of the lowermost crust is much greater than mantle viscosity for a wide range of viscosity structures calculated gravity anomalies and in particular admittances ratios of the fourier transform of gravity to that of topography produced by rayleigh taylor instability differ markedly from those observed across convergent mountain belts in particular whereas values of calculated admittance are negative or very small observed admittances are consistently positive thus if downwelling of mantle lithosphere directly beneath mountain ranges plays an important role in the construction of mountain belts it cannot be the main process that induces crustal thickening

anomalous uplift of the apennines and subsidence of the adriatic the result of active mantle flow 1 we consider the potential for interpreted mantle flow to generate anomalous topography across the north central mediterranean a seismic tomography section was translated into the temperature domain and used as input into a series of 2d thermo mechanical numerical models of crust mantle deformation the generated dynamic topography signal was then compared with a derived residual topography that showed a distinct residual low across the adriatic sea and easternmost apennines and a residual high to the west of the apennine range and into the tyrrhenian sea a good spatial correlation was found between the modeled dynamic effects of inferred underlying mantle structure and the observed residual topography the results of this study suggest that underlying mantle structure may play a role in supporting the dynamic anomalous surface topography along the investigated profile and within the north central mediterranean

density and size distribution of seamounts in the eastern pacific inferred from wide beam sounding data theoretical expressions relating the distribution of apparent seamount heights per unit length of ship track to the distribution of actual seamount heights per unit area of seafloor are derived for both narrow beam and wide beam echo sounders the shapes of seamounts are approximated as truncated right circular cones of constant slope e height to radius ratio and flatness f i e a seamount of basal radius r has a height h r a flat top of radius fr and a slope angle of arctan e the set of all seamounts in a given physiographic province is assumed to be a poissonian ensemble specified by a function v r the average number of seamounts per unit area for which r r a simple choice for the size distribution of seamounts and one shown to be consistent with data in the eastern pacific is to specify that it decays exponentially with r v r vo exp r in the case of a profile of length l taken in water of depth d with a wide beam echo sounder half beam width the shallow slope deep water approximation e 1 e d yields that the expected number of seamounts with apparent heights h h is n h l 2 1 ed 2 fh lv0e h we apply this sampling theory to apparent height data measured from 44 020 km of wide beam profiles on pacific crust of post mesozoic age although the spatial distribution of seamounts in the eastern pacific is certainly not poissonian the abundance statistics do not involve spatial correlations and we show they are robust with respect to deviations from the poisson model provided the statistics are interpreted as averages over the area actually sampled by the track lines the observed falloff of apparent heights in the eastern pacific is very nearly exponential justifying our use of an exponential model of seamount size distribution the shape parameters are estimated from multibeam surveys of pacific seamounts an analysis of 30 features in the height range 200 4000 m yields 0 21 0 011 and f 0 21 0 028 using these parameters we obtain vo 4 0 1 1 10 9 m 2 and 6 3 0 8 10 4 m 1 these values imply that per 106 km2 in the eastern pacific there are 1600 400 seamounts with summit heights greater than 300 m and 200 60 greater than 1000 m integrated over the entire size distribution seamounts occupy about 6 of the seafloor area and constitute about 0 4 of the oceanic crustal volume our estimates of seamount abundance are appreciably greater than those of most other authors a discrepancy we attribute primarily to the sampling bias of previous studies which generally used uncorrected map counts this hypothesis is corroborated by a comparison of our statistics with map count data for seamounts of heights exceeding 2000 m compiled for the eastern central pacific from the scripps charts above 3000 m the map counts are consistent with the predictions of the exponential model but below this height they are biased to low values

coeval extension and compression in late mesozoic recent thin skinned extensional tectonics in central anatolia turkey abstract the central anatolian crust is composed of high grade metamorphic rocks covered by tertiary shallow marine to continental sedimentary rocks with a middle miocene recent volcanic activity in cappadocia after the late cretaceous closure of the tethyan ocean and following plate collision core complexes formed in nigde and kirsehir regions of central anatolia recent geophysical studies indicate the presence of low seismic velocity zones beneath central anatolia interpreted as regionally thinned and or hot mantle lithosphere or asthenospheric upwelling we present new structural data covering a 300 km wsw nne trending transect between konya and yozgat cities to suggest that central anatolian cenozoic tectonic regime is extensional and the narrow fold thrust zones once taken as evidence of crustal convergence resulted from gravitational movements curie point depths map of central anatolia shows a large scale diameter 140 km upwarping c 15 km of the regional crust we interpret as due to asthenospheric upwelling these considerations suggest that 1 the central anatolian crust deforms by extension transcurrent faults like the central anatolian fault zone accommodate the crustal stretching by transfer faulting 2 post late cretaceous crustal extension favored the placement of hot and low density asthenospheric material in cappadocia by processes that may be explained by rayleigh taylor instability phenomenon 3 in central anatolia large post eocene horizontal crustal displacements we estimate a minimum of 50 km are not achieved by crustal contraction as previously proposed but thin skin extensional tectonics and 4 tethyan suture lines need to be reviewed since their traces may be modified by later extensional displacements

moho crustal architecture and deep deformation under the north marmara trough from the seismarmara leg 1 offshore onshore reflection refraction survey abstract understanding further the nature and evolution at lithospheric scale of the sea of marmara on the north anatolian fault needs constraints on the deep crustal and moho spatial variation this has been probed here with offshore onshore and obs ocean bottom seismometer refraction seismics in addition to coincident mcs marine multichannel reflection seismic profiles over the whole north marmara trough the diverse strikes of mcs profiles in a dense grid allow to avoid misinterpretation of late echoes in the deep basin as moho reflections and attribute them to sidesweeps moho is instead positively identified from reversed observations of first arrival head and refracted waves at the top of the mantle obtained at large offset by land stations a significant and sharp reduction in its depth on the order of 5 km occurs beneath both the eastern and western rims of the north marmara trough with a more progressive crustal thinning from the south the wide angle reflections on obs and land stations document in addition to moho the top of a lower crustal reflective layer which is also sampled by mcs profiles and appears to follow moho topography the dense grid of mcs profiles along the southwestern margin of the north marmara trough reveals a dipping reflector through the upper crust with tilted basement blocks on top this low angle fault is suggested as a normal sense detachment extending in depth towards the reflective lower crust the upwarp of the moho and lower crustal layer towards the north marmara trough suggests that crustal thinning occurs mostly in the upper crustal part with lateral transport of the material towards wsw in the footwall of the detachment and possibly other features to the south in the motion of anatolia with respect to stable eurasia oblique to the north marmara trough thinning can be accommodated in an asymmetric partitioning of the displacement on several branching faults at lithospheric scale

geodynamic models of mature continental collision evolution of an orogen from lithospheric subduction to continental retreat delamination 1 the behavior of deep lithospheric processes in continental collision are frequently speculated on but poorly understood in this study we build on previous work to explore the styles of continental lithosphere deformation during mature collision where 1800 km of convergence has been accommodated by horizontal shortening we conducted a suite of numerical geodynamic experiments that test the sensitivity of mature continent collision to varying mantle lithosphere density mantle lithosphere yield stress lower crustal strength and to the presence of phase change related density changes in the lower crust i e eclogitization of mafic lower crust the models suggest that the early stages of collision are accommodated by subduction of lower crust and mantle lithosphere along a discrete shear zone beneath the overriding plate following this initial stage of subduction the subducting lower crust and mantle lithosphere can retreat from the collision zone permitting the sub lithospheric mantle to upwell and intrude the overriding plate as a result the lower crust and mantle lithosphere of the overriding plate delaminate from the overlying crust with local isostatic adjustment subduction and delamination driven crustal processes plateau like uplift occurs the sub crustal evolution also causes bands of syn convergent crustal extension to develop in models with a rheologically weaker lower crust surface crustal response to the deep lithosphere dynamics becomes more diffuse as an example the numerical experiments satisfy a number of surface observables of the himalayan tibetan orogen namely 1 the current general mantle lithosphere architecture as defined by seismic analyses 2 the long wavelength plateau uplift of the western tibetan plateau 3 the surface heat flow measurements in india the tethyan himalaya qiangtang and in qaidam basin and 4 the anomalous syn convergent extension in the southern portion of the orogen

global positioning system constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern mediterranean and caucasus we present and interpret global positioning system gps measurements of crustal motions for the period 1988 1997 at 189 sites extending east west from the caucasus mountains to the adriatic sea and north south from the southern edge of the eurasian plate to the northern edge of the african plate sites on the northern arabian platform move 18 2 mm yr at n25 5 w relative to eurasia less than the nuvel 1a circuit closure rate 25 1 mm yr at n21 7 w preliminary motion estimates 1994 1997 for stations located in egypt on the northeastern part of africa show northward motion at 5 6 2 mm yr also slower than nuvel ia estimates 10 1 mm yr at n2 4 e eastern turkey is characterized by distributed deformation while central turkey is characterized by coherent plate motion internal deformation of 2 mm yr involving westward displacement and counterclockwise rotation of the anatolian plate the anatolian plate is de coupled from eurasia along the right lateral strike slip north anatolian fault naf we derive a best fitting euler vector for anatolia eurasia motion of 30 7 0 8 n 32 6 0 4 e 1 2 0 1 myr the euler vector gives an upper bound for naf slip rate of 24 1 mm yr we determine a preliminary gps arabia anatolia euler vector of 32 9 1 2 n 40 3 1 1 e 0 8 0 2 myr and an upper bound on left lateral slip on the east anatolian fault eaf of 9 1 mm yr the central and southern aegean is characterized by coherent motion internal deformation of 2 mm yr toward the sw at 30 1 mm yr relative to eurasia stations in the se aegean deviate significantly from the overall motion of the southern aegean showing increasing velocities toward the trench and reaching 10 1 mm yr relative to the southern aegean as a whole

regional heat flow in western anatolia using silica temperature estimates from thermal springs regional trends of variation of heat flow in western anatolia have been outlined using the silica temperature estimator on thermal springs silica heat flow values from 187 springs have been calculated the data are corrected for local long term mean annual surface temperature a mean value of heat flow for the western part of anatolia of 107 45 mw m 2 has been obtained which is about 60 above the world average the silica heat flow data are compared with available conventional heat flow values for this region a general agreement is observed and new patterns are recognized a close association exists between areas of high silica heat flow values above 100 mw m 2 and areas of tertiary and younger volcanism high heat flow is also observed in palaeozoic units of the menderes massif which is under tensional stress the highest heat flow estimate of 247 mw m 2 is obtained near gediz 38 57 n 29 13 2 e this area is part of a seismically active region and is located near a middle eocene subduction zone which is an area of later collision tectonics the new heat flow data from western anatolia improve our knowledge of the thermal conditions within the crust this information is important for the analysis of various geophysical and geological phenomena including seismicity

from mantle to crust stretching the mediterranean abstract the origin of forces driving the deformation of the continental crust near subduction zones and especially in backarc regions is debated this work is based on a compilation of sks fast splitting directions that give an image of flow lines in the mantle around the mediterranean subduction zones and a comparison with stretching and shear directions in metamorphic core complexes that show the pattern of deformation at the scale of the middle and lower crusts we find that 1 the two sets of directions are parallel in the three main backarc regions namely the alboran sea the tyrrhenian sea and the aegean sea showing that the lithosphere deforms with the same direction of stretching in the crust and the mantle suggesting that 2 crustal deformation is mainly driven from below by slab retreat and 3 the lithospheric fabric is reset within a few millions of years in backarc environments

crustal structure beneath broad band seismic stations in the mediterranean region summary we have analysed receiver functions to derive simple models for crustal structure below 12 broad band seismological stations from the midsea project and 5 permanent broad band stations in the mediterranean region including northern africa to determine an accurate moho depth we have reduced the trade off between crustal velocities and discontinuity depth using a new grid search method which is an extension of recently published methods to determine crustal thickness in this method the best fitting synthetic receiver function containing both the direct conversion and the reverberated phases is identified on a model grid of varying moho depth and varying poisson s ratio the values we found for moho depth range from around 20 km for intra oceanic islands and extended continental margins to near 45 km in regions where the eurasian and african continents have collided more detailed waveform modelling shows that all receiver functions can be well fit using a 2 or 3 layer model containing a sedimentary layer and or a mid crustal discontinuity on comparing our results with moho maps inferred from interpolated reflection and refraction data we find that for some regions the agreement between our receiver function analysis and existing moho maps is very good while for other regions our observations deviate from the interpolated map values and extend beyond the geographic bounds of these maps

lithospheric age dependence of off ridge volcano production in the north pacific data for numbers of seamounts on north pacific ocean crust of different age indicate that the production rate of new off ridge seamounts volcanoes is proportional to the inverse of the square root of the age of the lithosphere this observation is consistent with several hypotheses which have been offered to explain the origin of off ridge oceanic volcanism and in combination with petrologic and paleomagnetic evidence for small oceanic volcanoes leads to a new self consistent model for off ridge volcanism in this model the production rate of off ridge volcanoes is controlled primarily by the availability of fracture zone conduit systems in the thickening lithosphere in contrast mantle plume or hotspot volcanoes may punch through the oceanic lithosphere decreasing production rate of off ridge volcanoes on old oceanic lithosphere may be associated with decreasing extent of partial melting of chemically and isotopically heterogeneous mantle material

gps constraints on continental deformation in the africa arabia eurasia continental collision zone and implications for the dynamics of plate interactions 1 the gps derived velocity field 1988 2005 for the zone of interaction of the arabian african nubian somalian and eurasian plates indicates counterclockwise rotation of a broad area of the earth s surface including the arabian plate adjacent parts of the zagros and central iran turkey and the aegean peloponnesus relative to eurasia at rates in the range of 20 30 mm yr this relatively rapid motion occurs within the framework of the slow moving 5 mm yr relative motions eurasian nubian and somalian plates the circulatory pattern of motion increases in rate toward the hellenic trench system we develop an elastic block model to constrain present day plate motions relative euler vectors regional deformation within the interplate zone and slip rates for major faults substantial areas of continental lithosphere within the region of plate interaction show coherent motion with internal deformations below 1 2 mm yr including central and eastern anatolia turkey the southwestern aegean peloponnesus the lesser caucasus and central iran geodetic slip rates for major block bounding structures are mostly comparable to geologic rates estimated for the most recent geological period 3 5 myr we find that the convergence of arabia with eurasia is accommodated in large part by lateral transport within the interior part of the collision zone and lithospheric shortening along the caucasus and zagros mountain belts around the periphery of the collision zone in addition we find that the principal boundary between the westerly moving anatolian plate and arabia east anatolian fault is presently characterized by pure left lateral strike slip with no fault normal convergence this implies that extrusion is not presently inducing westward motion of anatolia on the basis of the observed kinematics we hypothesize that deformation in the africa arabia eurasia collision zone is driven in large part by rollback of the subducting african lithosphere beneath the hellenic and cyprus trenches aided by slab pull on the southeastern side of the subducting arabian plate along the makran subduction zone we further suggest that the separation of arabia from africa is a response to plate motions induced by active subduction

mantle flow uplift of western anatolia and the aegean interpretations from geophysical analyses and geodynamic modeling 1 the western anatolian and aegean region demonstrates a complex geologic history of horizontal and vertical tectonics active normal faulting and exhumation zones indicate that western anatolia has experienced significant extension since the oligocene early miocene 30 ma our geophysical analyses demonstrate that the region is also uplifted relative to an elevation that would be expected given an isostatic response to the lithosphere structure namely topography residuals indicate a residual uplift of about 1500 m over 200 km sections of western anatolia and the aegean admittance functions between free air gravity and topography indicate that the regional topography is isostatically uncompensated and as it approaches 50 mgal km at the longest wavelengths the uncompensated topography is likely owing to an underlying mantle flow component using forward geodynamic modelling we consider an idealized section of western anatolian lithosphere based on tomographic inversions and examine the magnitude and pattern of surface topography to reconcile with the geophysical observables the models consistently show a plateau type uplift and horizontal extension through western anatolia with an amplitude and wavelength consistent with the residual topography calculations together the geophysical analyses and modelling provide independent quantitative evidence that the thin anatolian aegean lithosphere is being buoyed upwards by underlying mantle flow the mantle flow may be associated with active lithosphere delamination beneath the region a process that would also explain the ongoing crustal extension

an arbitrary lagrangian eulerian formulation for creeping flows and its application in tectonic models summary this paper presents and analyses numerical techniques developed to investigate viscoplastic stokes flows within a model of lithospheric deformation in particular the techniques are related to a subduction model of compressional orogens the driving mechanism in the model corresponds to the near rigid convergence and subduction of one mantle lithosphere beneath another in plane strain and this boundary condition forces flow in an overlying viscoplastic model crust the numerical techniques use the arbitrary eulerian lagrangian formulation in which flows with free surfaces and large deformation are computed on an evolving eulerian finite element grid that conforms to the material domain a regridding algorithm allows the associated lagrangian motion and fields to be followed and in addition coupled back to the eulerian calculation of the flow mass flux boundary conditions are used so that the effects of erosion and deposition by surface processes and mass loss by subduction can be included in the model calculation the evolving model crustal layer is flexurally compensated using a general elastic beam formulation the applicability of the numerical techniques to problems ranging from accretionary wedges to crustal and lithospheric scale deformation is discussed simple flows a linear viscous subduction model a whirl flow and a quasi convection model are used to show that the mass conservation regridding and surface tracking errors are small the broader applicability of the modelling techniques is reviewed

geochemical characteristics of anatolian basalts comment on neogene uplift and magmatism of anatolia insights from drainage analysis and basaltic geochemistry by mcnab et al

modeling the behavior of the continental mantle lithosphere during plate convergence in studying orogenic processes the mechanism of viscous rayleigh taylor type removal of gravitationally unstable lithosphere is often invoked to explain the behavior of the mantle lithosphere using numerical models we consider this mechanism and explore alternate styles of deep lithospheric deformation during tectonic convergence the numerical experiments incorporate a mix of viscous and plastic rheologies to model the mechanical evolution of the lithosphere asthenosphere system our results suggest that there are a number of deformational modes of the model mantle lithosphere 1 a dripping or rayleigh taylor type instability 2 an asymmetric underthrusting or subduction 3 symmetric ablative plate consumption 4 slab breakoff the failure and detachment of the strong lithosphere and 5 mixed modes with combinations of these processes the development of the modes is controlled by the rate of convergence associated with the background tectonic regime the density field and the rheology of the mantle lithosphere it is important to determine whether these modes occur in the earth beneath collisional orogens

insights from geodynamical modeling on possible fates of continental mantle lithosphere collision removal and overturn geodynamic modeling demonstrates various modes of behaviour of the tectonically active continental mantle lithosphere at continental collision mantle lithosphere below thickening crust can be accommodated by mixed subduction like consumption and viscous drip like instability depending on the material rheology temperature and convergence velocity late stage slab steepening dual sided and ablative consumption and breakoff can occur as the buoyant crust resists subduction removal of accreted crust by erosion can modify how even the deepest portions of the mantle lithosphere evolves during contraction when gravitational forcing rather than plate shortening dominates mantle lithosphere may be removed through viscous dripping like instability or delamination the removal induces crustal heating modified topography and deformation but distinctive styles of these develop depending on whether mantle lithosphere delaminates or drips with a modified density stratification postulated for the archean r

helium carbon relationships in geothermal fluids of western anatolia turkey abstract we investigate the helium carbon and oxygen hydrogen isotopic systematics and co2 3he ratios of 8 water and 6 gas samples collected from 12 geothermal fields in western anatolia turkey 3he 4he ratios of the samples r normalized to the atmospheric 3he 4he ratio ra 1 39 10 6 range from 0 27 to 1 67 and are significantly higher than the crustal production value of 0 05 fluids with relatively high r ra values are generally found in areas of significant heat potential kizildere and tuzla fields co2 3he ratios of the samples ranging from 1 6 109 to 2 3 1014 display significant variation and are mostly higher than values typical of an upper mantle source 2 109 the 13c co2 and 13c ch4 values of all fluids vary from 8 04 to 0 35 and 25 80 to 23 92 vs pdb respectively stable isotope values 18o d of the geothermal waters are conformable with the mediterranean meteoric water line and indicate a meteoric origin the temperatures calculated by gas geothermometry are significantly higher than estimates from chemical geothermometers implying that either equilibrium has not been attained for the isotope exchange reaction or that isotopic equilibration was disturbed due to gas additions en route to the surface evaluation of he co2 abundances indicates that hydrothermal degassing and calcite precipitation controlled probably by adiabatic cooling due to degassing significantly fractionate the elemental ratio co2 3he in geothermal waters such processes do not affect gas phase samples to anywhere near the same extent for the gas samples mixing between mantle and various crustal sources appears to be the main control on the observed he c systematics however crustal inputs dominate the co2 inventory considering that limestone is the main source of carbon 70 to 97 of the total carbon inventory the carbon flux from the crust is found to be at least 20 times that from the mantle as to the he inventory the mantle derived component is found to vary up to 21 of the total he content and is probably transferred to the crust by fluids degassed from deep mantle melts generated in association with the elevated geotherm and adiabatic melting accompanying current extension the range of 3he enthalpy ratios 0 000032 to 0 19 10 12 cm3 stp j of fluids in western anatolia is consistent with the release of both helium and heat from contemporary additions of mantle derived magmas to the crust the deep faults appear to have facilitated the deep circulation of the fluids and the transport of mantle volatiles and heat to the surface

sensitivity of mass balance of five swiss glaciers to temperature changes assessed by tuning a degree day model a degree day model is used to assess the sensitivity of the mass balance of five swiss glaciers to temperature changes the model uses temperature data extrapolated from nearby climate stations and is tuned by varying precipitation to make the model fit the observed distribution of mass balance with altitude once the model is tuned the effect of temperature change is simulated by recalculating the mass balance with the same parameters as before but with a temperature increase of 1 c throughout the year the largest mass balance changes involving increased ablation of 1 m w e a 1 c 1 occur at the snout with a progressively smaller increase with altitude the area averaged sensitivities for the five glaciers are 0 7 to 0 9 m w e a 1 c 1 if annual precipitation also increased by 20 it would partly offset the effect of the 1 c higher temperatures but could not compensate for it