a scaling law for slow earthquakes with the availability of the global positioning system and other technical advances a growing number of unusual earthquake phenomena occurring at relatively long periods have been recognized they include deep episodic tremor low frequency earthquakes slow slip events and silent earthquakes based on data chiefly from western japan ide et al report that these slow seismic events follow a unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes a diverse array of unusual earthquake phenomena occurring at relatively long periods slow events follow a unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes indicating that they comprise a new earthquake category recently a series of unusual earthquake phenomena have been discovered including deep episodic tremor1 low frequency earthquakes2 very low frequency earthquakes3 slow slip events4 and silent earthquakes5 6 7 8 9 each of these has been demonstrated to arise from shear slip just as do regular earthquakes but with longer characteristic durations and radiating much less seismic energy here we show that these slow events follow a simple unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes we find that their seismic moment is proportional to the characteristic duration and their moment rate function is constant with a spectral high frequency decay of f 1 this scaling and spectral behaviour demonstrates that they can be thought of as different manifestations of the same phenomena and that they comprise a new earthquake category the observed scale dependence of rupture velocity for these events can be explained by either a constant low stress drop model or a diffusional constant slip model this new scaling law unifies a diverse class of slow seismic events and may lead to a better understanding of the plate subduction process and large earthquake generation

geometrical effects and low attenuation resonance of volcanic fluid inclusions for the source mechanism of long period earthquakes 1 we formulate the resonances of three simple geometrical inclusions a plane a cylinder and a sphere and find several clues to distinguishing the shape of volcanic fluid systems and their relevance to the observation of long period earthquakes the series of eigenfrequencies for a cylindrical and a spherical inclusion have shifts of 4 and 2 respectively in their higher modes from the eigenfrequencies of a planar inclusion the ratios between the higher and fundamental characteristic frequencies can be indicators of the geometry of volcanic fluid inclusions furthermore the eigenattenuation factor of a planar inclusion is a constant value that is determined uniquely by the impedance contrast between the fluid and the surrounding elastic medium and is independent of mode in marked contrast cylindrical and spherical inclusions have smaller or greater eigenattenuation factors particularly in lower modes under certain conditions of p wave velocity contrast and poisson s ratio of the surrounding elastic medium lower modes have less than 0 1 times the attenuation factor of higher modes we name these low attenuation modes lams lams are physically related to the conversion of volumetric changes to shear deformation of the surrounding elastic medium and the radiation of shear waves from the curved boundaries some monotonic waveforms of long period earthquakes can be interpreted by the excitation of these lams crack modes are also simply formulated by the resonance of a rectangular inclusion and also become lams whose attenuation factors are related to the aspect ratio of the crack

the detection of low magnitude seismic events using array based waveform correlation summary it has long been accepted that occurrences of a known signal are most effectively detected by cross correlating the incoming data stream with a waveform template such matched signal detectors have received very little attention in the field of detection seismology because there are relatively few instances in which the form of an anticipated seismic signal is known a priori repeating events in highly confined geographical regions have been observed to produce very similar waveforms and good signals from events at a given site can be exploited to detect subsequent co located events at lower magnitudes than would be possible using traditional power detectors even greater improvement in signal detectability can be achieved using seismic arrays running correlation coefficients from single sensors can be stacked over an array or network to result in a network correlation coefficient displaying a significant array gain if two events are co located the time separating the corresponding patterns in the wave train as indicated by the cross correlation function is identical for all seismic stations and this property means that the correlation coefficient traces are coherent even when the waveforms are not we illustrate the power of array based waveform correlation using the 1997 august 16 kara sea event the weak event that occurred 4 hr after the main event was barely detected using an sta lta detector on the spits array but is readily detected by signal matching on a single channel the main event was also recorded by the far more distant norsar array but no conventional detection can be made for the second event a clear detection is however made when the correlation coefficient traces are beamformed over all sensors of the array we estimate the reduction in detection threshold of a test signal on a regional seismic array using waveform correlation by scaling down a master signal and immersing it into seismic noise we show that for this case waveform correlation using a single channel detects signals of approximately 0 7 orders of magnitude lower than is possible using an sta lta detector on the array beam waveform matching on the full array provides an additional improvement of approximately 0 4 magnitude units we describe a case study in which small seismic events at the barentsburg coal mine on spitsbergen were detected using the signals from a major rockburst as master waveforms many spurious triggers occurred in this study whereby short sections of signal exhibited coincidental similarity with unrelated incoming wave fronts we demonstrate how such false alarms can almost always be identified and screened out automatically by performing frequency wavenumber analysis upon the set of individual correlation coefficient traces

mechanism of deep low frequency earthquakes further evidence that deep non volcanic tremor is generated by shear slip on the plate interface 1 we study the mechanism of low frequency earthquakes lfes in the nankai trough in western shikoku japan precise locations have previously suggested that they represent shear slip on the plate boundary in this paper we examine the mechanism of these events due to the low signal to noise ratio we analyze stacked lfe waveforms and compare them with the waveforms of nearby earthquakes of known mechanism within the subducting philippine sea plate analysis of both the focal mechanism using p wave first motions and the moment tensor using s waveforms indicates that lfes represent shear slip on a low angle thrust fault dipping to the northwest namely the plate interface together with reports that deep tremor consists of a swarm of lfes our results suggest that deep tremor is generated directly by shear slip on the plate interface and as such represents a seismic signature of the accompanying slow slip events

does the arc accretion model adequately explain the paleoproterozoic evolution of southern laurentia an expanded interpretation comment and reply reply we were delighted to learn that karlstrom et al 2007 1 had written a comment on our recent article in geology one of our major purposes was to stir debate on the origin of the extensive paleoproterozoic crust of the southwestern united states this reply is intended not so much as a point by

variety and spatial heterogeneity of tectonic tremor worldwide 1 deep tectonic tremor occurs at various sites worldwide and the source characteristics are heterogeneous even at small scales in this study tremor sources were determined using data sets of seismic waveforms from various locations some of which are not well recognized as being a site of tremor activity the regions of interest are subduction zones at nankai and kyushu japan cascadia in western north america mexico southern chile and new zealand tremor locations are consistent with the geometry of subducting plates and tremor depth tends to be shallower where younger plate is subducting tremor duration shows a negative correlation with tidal sensitivity as reported previously in western shikoku in the nankai subduction zone the duration is also related to the width of the tremor zone in the dip direction of the subducting plate linear structures resembling striations are observed in hypocenter distributions in western shikoku and in the probability of short term migration direction these spatial heterogeneities in tremor activity may be controlled by the heterogeneous frictional properties of the downgoing slab due to long term plate subduction thereby providing information on the maturity of the plate interface

deep low frequency microearthquakes in or around seismic low velocity zones beneath active volcanoes in northeastern japan abstract precise hypocenter relocations have been made for shallow intraplate microearthquakes beneath northeastern japan by applying source region station corrections the relocated hypocenter distribution shows that most of the events are confined to the upper 15 km of the crust which forms the brittle seismogenic zone in this volcanic arc it also shows that exceptionally deep microearthquakes well below the base of the seismic aseismic boundary occur at twelve locations of northeastern japan they occur in the lowermost crust or in the uppermost mantle where rheological properties of rocks are presumed to be in the ductile regime all the 153 events presently detected in the lowermost crust or in the uppermost mantle have anomalously low predominant frequencies 1 5 5 hz both for p and s waves in contrast to those 8 20 hz of normal shallow events in the brittle seismogenic zone the magnitudes of these events are small m 2 2 moreover all of these events are located beneath active volcanoes and or near p wave low velocity zones in the uppermost mantle the proximity of these events to the active volcanoes and other anomalous features suggest that these deep low frequency events are generated by magmatic activity of mantle diapirs in the uppermost mantle

proterozoic history and crustal evolution in southwestern colorado insight from u pb and sm nd data abstract new u pb age constraints and sm nd isotope data further establish the timing of magmatic and tectonic events from 1 8 to 1 4 ga in southwestern colorado and give insight into the interaction of crust and mantle systems during the assembly and evolution of orogenic belts along the southern margin of laurentia proterozoic orogenic events in the needle mountains led to crustal assembly thickening and tectonic reworking that was punctuated by periods of relative crustal stability pre 1 75 ga arc successions in southwestern colorado were produced and assembled into juvenile crust in an orogenic period that culminated in regional deformation and metamorphism that accompanied intrusion of synorogenic plutonic rocks from 1 73 to 1 71 ga emplacement of post orogenic plutonic rocks at 1 70 ga was followed by uplift and erosion and the deposition and deformation of siliciclastic sedimentary sequences paleoproterozoic crust underwent local melting and thermal metamorphism during invasion of felsic to mafic magmas at 1 43 ga that coincided with a pulse of intracratonic deformation invasion and melting of first cycle 1 8 1 7 ga crust at 1 71 and 1 43 ga involved heat and volatiles from mantle melts that were a catalyst for crustal melting and magmatic recycling sm nd isotopic signatures of 1 8 1 4 ga volcanic and plutonic rocks in southwestern colorado lend evidence to the emplacement of melts from depleted mantle and juvenile crust in the production continental crust with minor if any contamination by crust older than 1 8 ga the proterozoic magmatic record in southwestern colorado is consistent with continental growth by the addition of juvenile crust extracted from the mantle followed by periodic intracrustal growth during orogenic pulses in which mantle magmas underplate and melt the crust with consequent thickening

non recognition of continental tholeiites using the ti y zr diagram continental tholeiites cannot be identified using the ti y zr diagram two hundred and thirteen analyses from 16 localities representing 7 continental tholeiitic provinces all plot outside the within plate basalt field of this diagram

precise hypocenter distribution of deep low frequency earthquakes and its relationship to the local geometry of the subducting plate in the nankai subduction zone japan 1 we determine the precise hypocenter distribution of deep low frequency earthquakes lfes in the nankai subduction zone and compare it with the local geometry of the subducting philippine sea plate we apply a new hypocenter determination method utilizing the summed cross correlation coefficient over many stations termed a network correlation coefficient ncc to 112 lfes in the western shikoku and 1566 lfes in the whole nankai subduction zone while the catalog depths are widely distributed in some regions the relocated hypocenters in every region construct a plane surface several km above the oceanic moho interface and quite consistent with the geometry of the oceanic moho this result strongly supports the hypothesis that lfes in the nankai subduction zone occur on the subducting plate boundary and are directly generated by shear slips if lfes are indeed direct indicators of the locations of the plate interface they might be useful to investigate the minute structure of the plate interface the thin distributions of lfes indicate that the interface between the subducting and the overriding plates is a distinct very thin boundary and not a distributed shear zone

complex evolution of transient slip derived from precise tremor locations in western shikoku japan transient slip events which occur more slowly than traditional earthquakes are increasingly being recognized as important components of strain release on faults and may substantially impact the earthquake cycle surface based geodetic instruments provide estimates of the overall slip distribution in larger transients but are unable to capture the detailed evolution of such slip either in time or in space accompanying some of these slip transients is a relatively weak extended duration seismic signal known as nonvolcanic tremor which has recently been shown to be generated by a sequence of shear failures occurring as part of the slip event by precisely locating the tremor we can track some features of slip evolution with unprecedented resolution here we analyze two weeklong episodes of tremor and slow slip in western shikoku japan we find that these slip transients do not evolve in a smooth and steady fashion but contain numerous subevents of smaller size and shorter duration in addition to along strike migration rates of 10 km d observed previously much faster migration also occurs usually in the slab dip direction at rates of 25 150 km h over distances of up to 20 km we observe such migration episodes in both the updip and downdip directions these episodes may be most common on certain portions of the plate boundary that generate strong tremor in intermittent bursts the surrounding regions of the fault may slip more continuously driving these stronger patches to repeated failures tremor activity has a strong tidal periodicity possibly reflecting the modulation of slow slip velocity by tidal stresses

non volcanic tremor resulting from the combined effect of earth tides and slow slip events swarms of non volcanic tremor in southeastern japan are associated with slow slip events and tend to occur with a periodicity of 12 or 24 h this periodicity can be reproduced by a combination of stresses due to earth tides and transient stress changes caused by slow slip events non volcanic tremors may therefore be useful for understanding stress relaxation at the subduction zone interface slow slip events1 are accompanied by swarms of non volcanic tremor2 3 along the subduction zone of the philippine sea plate in southwest japan the swarms often occur with a periodicity of about 12 or 24 h refs 4 5 these episodic events are considered to be a manifestation of stress relaxation at the subducting plate interface1 6 7 here we analyse seismic data to record the locations and durations of non volcanic tremor swarms that occurred in may 2005 and february 2006 we evaluate the magnitude of stress changes produced by slow slip events as well as the effective normal stress on the plate interface where slow slip events occur we find that the observed periodicity in tremor occurrence originates from a combined effect of the periodic stress due to earth tides and the transient stress due to slow slip events our calculations show that non volcanic tremor is sensitive to stress change this phenomenon can therefore be effective in monitoring the process of stress relaxation at subducting plate interfaces

a slow thrust slip event following the two 1996 hyuganada earthquakes beneath the bungo channel southwest japan we report a slow thrust slip event that occurred beneath the bungo channel region southwestern japan on oct and dec 1996 two hyuganada earthquakes both mw 6 7 followed by afterslips occurred in addition a crustal movement characterized by an extremely slow rise was observed around the bungo channel about 200 km north from the epicenters and continued for about 300 days long assuming a slow slip on the plate boundary we estimate its duration and surface displacements from gps time series data by curve fitting and then determine the fault slip distribution we found that a slow slip without any earthquakes continued for nearly one year and released the seismic moment comparable to that of the hyuganada earthquakes occurrence of the slow thrust slip event suggests that this kind of event may be a characteristic mode of stress release at a transition region of interplate coupling

tectonic volcanic and semi volcanic deep low frequency earthquakes in western japan abstract in western japan relatively small m the present paper characterizes the seismicity of the three types of lfes in five regions based on a more complete catalog thanks to automated event detection and precise relocation using waveform correlation the results show that isolated intraplate lfes are more similar to volcanic lfes than to tectonic lfes the volcanic and isolated intraplate lfes are insensitive to tidal stress are characterized by power law magnitude frequency statistics such as the gutenberg richter relation and are distributed mainly in small vertical clusters while the tectonic lfes are modulated by tidal stress are limited in size and are distributed along the plate boundary hence we propose that isolated intraplate lfes should be named semi volcanic lfes since tectonic lfes and volcanic lfes are thought to be related to the fluid existence and fluid movements respectively isolated intraplate semi volcanic lfes may be related to crustal fluid movements in the source area

an early proterozoic volcanic arc succession in southeastern wyoming the green mountain formation of early proterozoic age in the sierra madre range of southeastern wyoming comprises a bimodal mafic and felsic volcanic assemblage the rocks which are chiefly breccias agglomerates flows and volcaniclastic sediments represent both subaerial and submarine eruptions and in part were redeposited in fluvial and nearshore marine environments volcanic rocks are clearly calc alkaline in character and share a large number of geochemical features in common with continental margin arcs or evolved oceanic arc systems the low mg numbers and ni contents of the basalts require 30 40 olivine fractional crystallization and the high contents of the most incompatible elements high la sm n ratios and low zr nb ratios require an undepleted or enriched mantle source geochemical data are consistent with an origin for the felsic volcanics and associated encampment river granodiorite by shallow fractional crystallization of calc alkaline basalt in a tectonic setting similar to modern ar

basinal and shelf sedimentation in relation to the archaean proterozoic boundary abstract in most countries the archaean proterozoic boundary has been designated as an unconformity between the oldest shelf type quartz arenites and a basement consisting of greenstone belts intruded by granitic rocks or high grade gneisses the quartz arenites have been characterized as shallow water shelf deposits and sediments in the greenstone belts as resedimented basinal wackes of volcanogenic origin radiometric ages for rocks of the canadian shield led to initial designation of the archaean proterozoic boundary as thus defined at about 2 5 ga subsequent age determinations have clearly established that a number of quartz arenites originally assigned to the proterozoic are 2 7 2 94 ga old e g witwatersrand and pongola supergroups of south africa to accommodate these old quartz arenites some have suggested that the arch aean proterozoic boundary should be regarded as diachronous embracing a span of time about equivalent to that of the phanerozoic however quartz arenites also are abundant in 3 2 3 5 ga old greenstone belts and high grade metamorphic terranes of south africa western australia and the u s a likewise large regions of basinal volcanogenic sediments occur in post 2 5 ga terranes this greatly expands the diachroneity of geological units that were initially regarded as either uniquely archaean or proterozoic we therefore recommend that chronometric and chronostratigraphic sense be retained for the archaean proterozoic boundary divested of the requirement for all quartz arenites to be proterozoic according to this analysis of the precambrian record shelf sediments have increased in abundance relative to basinal sediments through time but at different rates in different areas this change is attributable to progressive cratonization of shield areas a process that was strongly diachronous on a worldwide scale

deep volcanic tremor and magma ascent mechanism under kilauea hawaii deep harmonic tremor originating at depths around 40 km under kilauea was studied using records accumulated since 1962 at the hawaii volcano observatory of the u s geological survey the deep source of the tremor was determined by onset times and confirmed by the relative amplitude across the island wide network of seismometers the period of tremor was conclusively shown to be determined by the source effect and not by the path or station site effect because the period would change considerably in time but maintained uniformity across the seismic net during the tremor episode the tremor appeared to be primarily composed of p waves we interpret the observed period and amplitude in terms of the stationary crack model of aki et al 1977 and find that the seismic moment rates for deep tremors are considerably larger than those for shallow tremors suggesting more vigorous transport for the former we propose a kinematic source model which may be more appropriate for deep tremor according to this model a measurable quantity called reduced displacement is directly proportional to the rate of magma flow a systematic search for deep tremor episodes was made for the period from 1962 through 1979 and the amplitude period and duration of the tremor were tabulated we then constructed a cumulative reduced displacement plot over the 18 year period the result shows a generally steady process which does not seem to be significantly affected by major eruptions and large earthquakes near the surface the total magma flow estimated from the reduced displacement is however one order of magnitude smaller than that estimated by swanson 1972 it may be that most channels transport magma aseismically and only those with strong barriers generate tremor

early proterozoic oceanic crust in the northern colorado front range implications for crustal growth and initiation of basement faults 1 early proterozoic oceanic crust exposed in a shear zone in the northern colorado front range provides insight into the tectonic evolution of the colorado province tectonically intermingled mylonitic amphibolite locally pillowed metagabbro clinopyroxenite metachert and melange are preserved within the buckhorn creek shear zone west of fort collins whole rock geochemical data support formation of the igneous protoliths in an oceanic environment major and trace element data overlap samples from modern oceanic ridges and are distinct from modern arc trends metagabbros and clinopyroxenites preserve a subhorizontal lineation defined by igneous pyroxenes core and mantle microstructures indicate initial deformation at temperatures 900 c secondary amphiboles define both subhorizontal and subvertical lineations kinematic analysis indicates that the rocks experienced e w strike slip deformation prior to and during amphibolite facies metamorphism followed by n s shortening 40ar 39ar data from secondary hornblende yield age steps as old as 1 9 ga based on the chemical data and kinematic evidence for strike slip deformation we propose that the buckhorn creek rocks originated at an oceanic ridge transform intersection the high t pyroxene fabrics formed during ocean floor deformation prior to 1 7 ga regional deformation of the colorado province the buckhorn creek fragment likely represents original oceanic basement for 1 8 1 7 ga arc magmatism and sedimentation that ultimately formed the colorado province continental crust reactivation of original oceanic fracture zones may be responsible for the network of regularly spaced northeast trending shear zones in colorado once formed subvertical transform faults are likely to survive the transition from oceanic to continental crust and persist as long lived crustal discontinuities

a proterozoic volcano plutonic terrane gunnison and salida areas colorado early proterozoic supracrustal rocks near gunnison and salida colorado include tholeiitic basalt dacite to rhyolite and intercalated sedimentary rocks these were intruded by essentially synchronous gabbroic sheets folded and intruded by major plutons ranging from quartz diorite to granite preservation of primary volcanic and sedimentary features is good to excellent sedimentary rocks in the gunnison area are mostly turbidite wackes whereas near salida they are mostly near source volcaniclastic rocks u pb age measurements on zircons indicate that the earliest bimodal volcanic rocks erupted between 1770 and 1760 m y ago and were intruded by granitic plutons between 1760 and 1750 m y ago renewed bimodal volcanism occurred between 1740 and 1730 m y ago and was followed by a period of deformation producing two fold sets before 1725 m y ago when the first of a series of younger plutons was emplaced the compositions and features of the sedimentary rocks and their association with volcanics are con

geochemistry nd and sr isotopes and u pb zircon ages of granitoid and metasedimentary xenoliths from the navajo volcanic field four corners area southwestern united states abstract proterozoic granitoid xenoliths from the navajo volcanic field nvf in the southwestern united states range in composition from tonalite diorite to granite with the latter greatly dominating there is no apparent relationship between chemical or isotopic composition and age geographic location or degree of alteration or deformation of the xenoliths two of the major ages of proterozoic plutonism recognized in the southwest 1 75 1 70 yavapai and 1 45 1 41 ga anorogenic are represented by the nvf xenoliths in some instances within a single diatreme we did not find any xenoliths in the 1 65 1 62 ma mazatzal range the xenoliths are dominantly i types and both nd and sr isotopes and trace element distributions indicate juvenile arc sources approximately 1 8 ga the granite magmas may have been produced by either vapor absent partial melting or fractional crystallization of a tonalite parent juvenile sources must have been available for melting in each of the three periods of magma production and hence some juvenile 1 8 ga crust in this region must have escaped melting in the first two episodes of magmatism and deformation metasedimentary xenoliths are chiefly biotite sillimanite schists garnet biotite schists and garnet paragneisses these three groups are strikingly similar in chemical and isotopic composition suggesting similar graywacke pelite protoliths the schists appear to be limited to the far northern part of the volcanic field consistent with a possible crustal boundary in the basement compositional and thermobarometric results suggest that the biotite schist xenoliths are not restites but that the paragneisses may be mixtures of melt and restite sedimentary protoliths may have been deposited in a forearc basin and later tectonically transported to the deep crust during one or more arc continent collisions in the late paleoproterozoic

split philippine sea plate beneath japan 1 the shape of the philippine sea plate subducting beneath western japan is a crucial factor in understanding earthquakes and volcanic activity we propose that the subducted plate was split along an extinct ridge due to an abrupt change of subduction direction followed by elastic deformation of the plate and an accumulation of stress near the ridge this shape is consistent with receiver function images the distribution of deep tremor sources the seismicity and focal mechanisms of intraplate earthquakes and the distribution of anomalous ratios of helium isotopes in ground water the movement history of the plate can explain active tectonics in western japan in the last 2 4 ma the location history of the volcanic front and the tear control where fluids ascend in the crust and these fluids are responsible for the generation of large earthquakes and volcanoes

a monochromatic earthquake suggesting deep seated magmatic activity beneath the izu ooshima volcano japan after a quiescence of 12 years the izu ooshima volcano located about 30 km east of the izu peninsula in central japan erupted on november 15 1986 on august 27 1985 about 1 year before the eruption a peculiar earthquake of magnitude 2 7 took place near the moho boundary just beneath the izu ooshima volcano where seismic activity is otherwise absent analysis of digital data obtained by the telemetered seismic network of the national research center for disaster prevention reveals the following distinctive features of the seismic waves 1 the main part of the wave train is composed of s waves and a small p phase precedes it 2 the spectral density has a sharp peak at 1 0 hz which is independent of the epicentral distance azimuth and time indicating a monochromatic spectrum at the source 3 ground motion for the initial part of the s wave is polarized in the n s direction at almost all the stations the amplitude ratios of s to p waves and the polarization pattern of s waves suggest that a traction force caused by magma flow is a more probable source than a double couple mechanism free oscillation of the magma reservoir or opening of a tensile crack we propose a traction force model for this earthquake in which magma flow through a conduit produces unidirectional viscous force on the conduit walls the observations imply a n s force direction and a maximum force of about 2 8 1010 n the pressure difference between the ends of the conduit is estimated as 6 1 107 pa 610 bar under the assumption of conduit dimensions of 2 km 1 km the monochromatic nature of the source spectrum is difficult to account for by the free oscillation of a magma reservoir we tentatively suggest the intermittent opening of a barrier in the conduit as a plausible mechanism of the periodic oscillation

triggered tectonic tremor in various types of fault systems of japan following the 2012 mw8 6 sumatra earthquake tectonic tremor an extremely stress sensitive seismic phenomenon occurring in the brittle ductile transition section of a fault is associated with the shearing mechanism of slow slip observations of triggered tremor can facilitate the evaluation of the existence of background ambient tremor and slow slip events this paper presents widespread triggered tremor sources in japan initiated by the surface waves of the 2012 mw8 6 sumatra earthquake on strike slip and thrust faults in the deep volcanic low frequency earthquake active area in the shallow tectonic tremor and very low frequency earthquake active regions and in the subduction zone in most regions the amplitudes of triggered tremor are generally logarithmically proportional to the dynamic stress caused by various triggering earthquakes our observations suggest that triggered tremor in the newly discovered sources is the result of a more rapid rate of background ambient tremor and evidence has suggested the existence of ambient tremor in some regions

striations duration migration and tidal response in deep tremor deep tremor in subduction zones is thought to be caused by small repeating shear slip events on the plate interface with significant slow components it occurs at a depth of about 30 kilometres and provides valuable information on deep plate motion and shallow stress accumulation on the fault plane of megathrust earthquakes tremor has been suggested to repeat at a regular interval migrate at various velocities and be modulated by tidal stress here i show that some time invariant interface property controls tremor behaviour using precise location of tremor sources with event duration in western shikoku in the nankai subduction zone japan in areas where tremor duration is short tremor is more strongly affected by tidal stress and migration is inhibited where tremor lasts longer diffusive migration occurs with a constant diffusivity of 10 4 m 2 s 1 the control property may be the ratio of brittle to ductile areas perhaps determined by the influence of mantle wedge serpentinization on the plate interface the spatial variation of the controlling property seems to be characterized by striations in tremor source distribution which follows either the current or previous plate subduction directions this suggests that the striations and corresponding interface properties are formed through the subduction of inhomogeneous structure such as seamounts for periods as long as ten million years

refining the early history of the mojave yavapai boundary zone rifting versus arc accretion as mechanisms for paleoproterozoic crustal growth in southwestern laurentia abstractthree outstanding questions regarding paleoproterozoic crustal growth and assembly in southwestern laurentia are 1 the mechanisms of crustal growth back arc rifting and associated juvenile magmatism vs accretion of juvenile arcs 2 the nature and significance of pre yavapai orogeny 1 70 ga deformation and 3 how the isotopically mixed boundary zone between the mojave and yavapai paleoproterozoic crustal provinces formed supracrustal successions associated with the mojave yavapai boundary zone in northwestern arizona are dominated by 1730 ma bimodal metavolcanic sequences and compositionally siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks with minor ultramafic rocks chert and carbonate this lithologic assemblage requires juvenile mafic volcanism in a basin that also received abundant quartz rich i e continental detritus a pre d1 first deformational event back arc rift setting for northwestern arizona best explains the observed supracrustal assemblage plutonic rocks that intrude the s

dissipative intraplate faulting during the 2016 mw 6 2 tottori japan earthquake the 2016 m w 6 2 tottori earthquake occurred on 21 october 2016 and produced thousands of aftershocks here we analyze high resolution relocated seismicity together with source properties of the mainshock to better understand the rupture process and energy budget we use a matched filter algorithm to detect and precisely locate 10 000 previously unidentified aftershocks which delineate a network of sharp subparallel lineations exhibiting significant branching and segmentation seismicity below 8 km depth forms highly localized fault structures subparallel to the mainshock strike shallow seismicity near the main rupture plane forms more diffuse clusters and lineations that often are at a high angle in map view to the mainshock strike an empirical green s function technique is used to derive apparent source time functions for the mainshock which show a large amplitude pulse 2 4 s long we invert the apparent source time functions for a slip distribution and observe a 16 km 2 patch with average slip 3 2 m 93 of the seismic moment is below 8 km depth which is approximately the depth below which the seismicity becomes very localized these observations suggest that the mainshock rupture area was entirely within the lower half of the seismogenic zone the radiated seismic energy is estimated to be 5 7 10 13 j while the static stress drop is estimated to be 18 27 mpa these values yield a radiation efficiency of 5 7 which indicates that the tottori mainshock was extremely dissipative we conclude that this inefficiency in energy radiation is likely a product of the immature intraplate environment and the underlying geometric complexity

early proterozoic assembly of tectonostratigraphic terranes in southwestern north america a 500 km wide early proterozoic orogenic belt in arizona and adjacent areas is divided into lithotectonic blocks by northeast and north trending shear zones structural and u pb zircon studies suggest that these blocks may have experienced different tectonic histories prior to their juxtaposition by thrust and strike slip movements on shear zones a northwestern province here called the yavapai province is composed of at least five tectonic blocks and was assembled at about 1700 ma a southeastern province here called the mazatzal province is composed of at least three blocks and was assembled and juxtaposed with the northwestern province during the mazatzal orogeny between 1695 and 1630 ma the diversity of seemingly incompatible 1700 ma tectonic regimes now in close proximity to each other and the absence of systematic cross strike changes in age and character of deformation plutonism and metamorphism suggest a model whereby the orogenic belt developed and north america grew by assembly of d

early proterozoic bimodal volcanic rocks in central colorado u s a part ii geochemistry petrogenesis and tectonic setting abstract the early proterozoic supracrustal rocks of the salida area of central colorado consist of strongly bimodal sequences of volcanogenic rocks the mafic rocks basalts basaltic volcaniclastics and related gabbro sheets are distinctly tholeiitic display a strong iron enrichment trend and typically contain less than 50 sio 2 the felsites are rhyolites to dacites and contain more than 70 sio 2 major and trace element modeling show that the mafic rocks underwent two stages of crystal fractionation the first involving olivine and plagioclase the second involving plagioclase and clinopyroxene fractionation occurred within individual injections as they rose toward the surface rather than in a single magma chamber at depth field relations and major element data support the derivation of the felsic rocks from a magma generated by anatexis of sialic crust however the low sr and high heavy ree concentrations in these rocks are not compatible with a partial melting model and suggest that the felsic volcanic rocks could have been derived by extensive fractional crystallization of the mafic magma normalized trace element abundances and trace element ratios of the mafic rocks are most like continental flood basalts such as the columbia river basalts they also display some similarity to immature back arc basin tholeiites developed on continental crust such as those of the sarmiento complex the felsic rocks have strong chemical affinities to within plate rhyolites rather than calc alkaline rhyolites from orogenic areas the chemical data as well as the petrographic stratigraphic and regional field data all indicate that the early proterozoic supracrustal rocks of the salida area developed along a continental margin probably within an immature back arc basin underlain by sialic crust remnants of the arc system of similar age may lie to the south in northern new mexico and southwestern colorado

the influence of sediment recycling and basement composition on evolution of mudrock chemistry in the southwestern united states this paper reports systematic changes in mudrock composition through time on a single con tinental cmstal block the changes reflect both sediment recycling processes and changes through time in the composition of crystalline material being added to the sedimentary system and are related to tectonic evolution as the block matures from a series of accreted arc terranes to a stable craton the major and trace element distributions reflect different aspects of the provenance of the mudrocks in this study major elements record sediment recycling processes as well as changing proportions of sedi mentary and first cycle source rocks with the exceptions of kzo which tends to increase and sioz and a o3 which show no trend most major oxides tend to decline in relative abundance in younger mud rocks patterns shown by the index of compositional variability fe03 kro naao cao mgo mno tiojialro and by k20 a1203 indicate that the major oxide trends are due to decreasing proportions of nonclay silicate minerals and a concomitant increase in the proportion of clay minerals probably due to decreasing input of first cycle detritus coupled with recycling of sedimentary material excursions from progressive trends marked by increases in mgo k20 and cao reflect episodes of large scale input of nonclay first cycle minerals from crystalline source rocks due to large scale basement uplift the chemistry of low solubility trace elements in contrast is not sensitive to recycling effects and reflects the composition of first cycle input incompatible elements are progressively enriched relative to compatible elements in younger mudrocks and values for chondrite normalised rare earth elements also increase in addition the eu anomaly becomes systematically more negative in younger samples these trends cmnot be explained by diagenetic or weathering processes and therefore indicate that the proportion of fnc tionated granitic first cycle detritus being added to the sedimentary system becomes greater with time these results confirm the importance of tectonic setting in controlling mudrock chemistry and also demonstrate that there is a dynamic relationship between the tectonic evolution of a continental block and the composition of its sedimentary mantle

cooling magma model for deep volcanic long period earthquakes deep long period events dlp events or deep low frequency earthquakes deep lfes are deep earthquakes that radiate low frequency seismic waves while tectonic deep lfes on plate boundaries are thought to be slip events there have only been a limited number of studies on the physical mechanism of volcanic dlp events around the moho crust mantle boundary beneath volcanoes one reasonable mechanism capable of producing their initial fractures is the effect of thermal stresses since ascending magma diapirs tend to stagnate near the moho where the vertical gradient of density is high we suggest that cooling magma may play an important role in volcanic dlp event occurrence assuming an initial thermal perturbation of 400 c within a tabular magma of half width 41 m or a cylindrical magma of 74 m radius thermal strain rates within the intruded magma are higher than tectonic strain rates of 10 14 s 1 and produce a total strain of 2 10 4 shear brittle fractures generated by the thermal strains can produce a compensated linear vector dipole mechanism as observed and potentially also explain the harmonic seismic waveforms from an excited resonance in our model we predict correlation between the particular shape of the cluster and the orientation of focal mechanisms which is partly supported by observations of aso and ide 2014 to assess the generality of our cooling magma model as a cause for volcanic dlp events additional work on relocations and focal mechanisms is essential and would be important to understanding the physical processes causing volcanic dlp events

an earthquake like magnitude frequency distribution of slow slip in northern cascadia 1 major episodic tremor and slip ets events with mw 6 4 to 6 7 repeat every 15 2 months within the cascadia subduction zone under the olympic peninsula although these major ets events are observed to release strain smaller tremor swarms without detectable geodetic deformation are more frequent an automatic search from 2006 2009 reveals 20 000 five minute windows containing tremor which cluster in space and time into 96 tremor swarms the 93 inter ets tremor swarms account for 45 of the total duration of tremor detection during the last three ets cycles the number of tremor swarms n exceeding duration follow a power law distribution n 0 66 if duration is proportional to moment release the slip inferred from these swarms follows a standard gutenberg richter logarithmic frequency magnitude relation with the major ets events and smaller inter ets swarms lying on the same trend this relationship implies that 1 inter ets slip is fundamentally similar to the major events just smaller and more frequent and 2 despite fundamental differences in moment duration scaling the slow slip magnitude frequency distribution is the same as normal earthquakes with a b value of 1

seismically active subcrustal magma source of the klyuchevskoy volcano in kamchatka russia klyuchevskoy volcano in kamchatka russia is unique in the island arc systems of earth in having nearly continuous seismic activity beneath it at depths in excess of 20 km seismograms from these deep earthquakes carry an unmistakable signature of their tectonic nature we use p to s compressional to shear converted teleseismic waves to constrain the depth of the crust mantle transition beneath klyuchevskoy at 25 km and to delineate a deeper seismic boundary at 50 km earthquakes directly beneath klyuchevskoy have hypocentral depths of 25 35 km s p delays in records of these earthquakes are always larger than delay times of p tos converted waves originating at the crust mantle transition and traversing nearly identical paths thus deep seismic activity under klyuchevskoy is definitely beneath the crust mantle transition compositions of the klyuchevskoy parental melts inferred from melt inclusions and the most primitive lava interpreted using a barometer based on si activity in melts saturated with orthopyroxene olivine show that klyuchevskoy parental melts form at pressures within the range of 13 9 2 kbar at depths of 46 7 km together the estimates of melting depths the locations of seismic velocity features and the occurrence of tectonic earthquakes all point to the existence of a subcrustal volume beneath klyuchevskoy volcano where processes of magma accumulation are vigorous enough to promote brittle failure in mantle rock

volcanic like low frequency earthquakes beneath osaka bay in the absence of a volcano 1 among the many deep low frequency earthquakes lfes recently discovered worldwide lfes beneath osaka bay western japan are especially unusual their waveforms are monochromatic resembling those of some volcanic lfes but there are no active volcanoes around the area is close to but clearly distinct from a belt of tectonic lfes and is near the site of a large inland earthquake the 1995 kobe earthquake to characterize the activity of these lfes we present an extensive catalog constructed using a matched filter analysis on continuous seismic records with template lfes determined by the japan meteorological agency the relocated catalog of 1378 events over a period of 5 years shows spatially concentrated activity in two volumetric zones with several active periods including successive tremor like events the magnitude frequency statistics satisfy the gutenberg richter law with a b value of 2 unlike tectonic lfes which are highly sensitive to tidal stress the lfes beneath osaka bay show no spectral peak in activity at tidal periods and the overall pattern of the spectrum is similar to that of volcanic lfes beneath sakurajima japan these findings suggest that the osaka bay lfes are almost same as volcanic lfes in origin or at least related to fluid upwelling from the mantle

seismological and mineralogical constraints on the inner core fabric 1 under the assumption of lattice preferred orientation of iron hcp crystals the seismic anisotropy of the inner core is related to single crystal elastic properties by a fabric model this model is able to explain a new seismological constraint the constant behaviour of the ratio k of two anisotropy coefficients despite radial and lateral variations of the anisotropy level in the inner core the relevance of the theoretical calculations of iron single crystal elastic properties at inner core conditions are tested by a comparison between seismic estimates and computed values of this ratio k taking into account the error bar of the seismic estimate iron hcp structures presenting fast and slow c axis could fit the data equally well

slow earthquakes coincident with episodic tremors and slow slip events we report on the very low frequency earthquakes occurring in the transition zone of the subducting plate interface along the nankai subduction zone in southwest japan seismic waves generated by very low frequency earthquakes with seismic moment magnitudes of 3 1 to 3 5 predominantly show a long period of about 20 seconds the seismicity of very low frequency earthquakes accompanies and migrates with the activity of deep low frequency tremors and slow slip events the coincidence of these three phenomena improves the detection and characterization of slow earthquakes which are thought to increase the stress on updip megathrust earthquake rupture zones

crustal evolution of southern laurentia during the paleoproterozoic insights from zircon hf isotopic studies of ca 1 75 ga rocks in central colorado lu hf depleted mantle model tdm ages obtained by analysis of zircons previously dated by u pb methods demonstrate that ca 1 75 ga bimodal paleoproterozoic rocks in the gunnison salida region of central colorado and by extension in much of the southwestern u s were formed by partial melting of preexisting crustal rocks the ages of which mostly ages greater than 2 0 ga indicate that range from 1 83 to 1 87 ga some calculated lu hf tdm even older crust was probably involved consistent with the limited presence of ca 2 5 ga xenocrystic zircons in some rocks these results suggest that rocks related to the trans hudson and penokean orogens are cryptically present much farther to the south than previously believed coupled with the bimodality of the volcanic suite in central colorado and indeed in much of the southwestern u s these results indicate that in contrast to current juvenile arc accretion models melting of older crust related to extensional tectonics played an important role in the genesis of many magmatic rocks between 1 6 and 1 8 ga

an autocorrelation method to detect low frequency earthquakes within tremor 1 recent studies have shown that deep tremor in the nankai trough under western shikoku consists of a swarm of low frequency earthquakes lfes that occur as slow shear slip on the down dip extension of the primary seismogenic zone of the plate interface the similarity of tremor in other locations suggests a similar mechanism but the absence of cataloged low frequency earthquakes prevents a similar analysis in this study we develop a method for identifying lfes within tremor the method employs a matched filter algorithm similar to the technique used to infer that tremor in parts of shikoku is comprised of lfes however in this case we do not assume the origin times or locations of any lfes a priori we search for lfes using the running autocorrelation of tremor waveforms for 6 hi net stations in the vicinity of the tremor source time lags showing strong similarity in the autocorrelation represent either repeats or near repeats of lfes within the tremor we test the method on an hour of hi net recordings of tremor and demonstrates that it extracts both known and previously unidentified lfes once identified we cross correlate waveforms to measure relative arrival times and locate the lfes the results are able to explain most of the tremor as a swarm of lfes and the locations of newly identified events appear to fill a gap in the spatial distribution of known lfes this method should allow us to extend the analysis of shelly et al 2007a to parts of the nankai trough in shikoku that have sparse lfe coverage and may also allow us to extend our analysis to other regions that experience deep tremor but where lfes have not yet been identified

age provenance and tectonic setting of paleoproterozoic quartzite successions in the southwestern united states new field studies combined with u pb zircon geochronology constrain the ages of deposition and sedimentary provenance of paleoproterozoic quartzite successions exposed in the southwestern united states orthoquartzites were deposited in short lived basins at two times ca 1 70 and 1 65 ga during crustal assembly of southern laurentia the more voluminous ca 1 70 ga successions occur in southern colorado northern new mexico and central arizona and are interpreted here to be time correlative though not necessarily deposited in the same basins detrital zircon from quartzites and metaconglomerates exposed in southern colorado and northern new mexico is characterized by a single population with a relatively narrow range of ages 1 80 1 70 ga and minimal archean input 5 of grains analyzed peak detrital zircon ages 1 76 1 70 ga vary slightly from location to location and mimic the age of underlying basement unimodal detrital populations suggest local sources and a first cycle origin of the orthoquartzites within a short time interval 1 70 1 68 ga during unroofing of local underlying basement the maximum age of quartzite exposed at blue ridge colorado is constrained by the 1705 1698 ma coarse grained granitoid basement on which quartzite was deposited unconformably the minimum age of ortega formation quartzite new mexico is constrained by ca 1680 1670 ma metamorphic monazite overgrowths these dates agree with direct ages on the lower mazatzal group arizona and suggest that orthoquartzite deposition occurred over a wide region during and soon after the ca 1 70 ga yavapai orogeny regional structural arguments and the thrust style of quartzite deformation suggest that the metasedimentary successions were deformed during the ca 1 66 1 60 ga mazatzal orogeny thus making them important time markers separating the yavapai and mazatzal orogenic events our model for syntectonic deposition involves extensional basin development followed by thrust closure possibly due to opening and closing of slab rollback basins related to outboard subduction the first cycle origin of orthoquartzites near the end of the arc collisions of the yavapai orogeny seems to contrast sharply with their extreme compositional maturity this can be explained in terms of protracted extreme diagenesis and or special environmental influences that enhanced chemical weathering but were unique to the transitional atmosphere and ocean chemistry of the proterozoic similarities among quartzites exposed throughout the southwestern united states and along the laurentian margin suggest that they represent a widespread regional and perhaps global episode of sedimentation involving a distinctive syntectonic setting and unique climatic conditions a combination that might make these units a signature lithology for paleoproterozoic time

focal mechanisms of deep low frequency earthquakes in eastern shimane in western japan 1 deep low frequency earthquakes lfes are small earthquakes m 2 that occur at depths of 10 45 km with seismic wave radiation mainly in the frequency range of 2 8 hz lfes in western japan are categorized into tectonic lfes in the nankai subduction zone volcanic lfes beneath active volcanoes and semi volcanic lfes that occur far from active volcanoes but are otherwise similar to volcanic lfes while tectonic lfes are considered to reflect shear slip on a plate boundary the mechanisms of volcanic and semi volcanic lfes remain unclear we have determined the mechanisms of 38 semi volcanic lfes in eastern shimane which is the site of the most frequent semi volcanic lfe activity in japan for each event velocity seismograms at five stations were inverted into a focal mechanism and moment rate function by a combined grid search and linear inversion analysis synthetic waveforms were calculated for a one dimensional structure and the local site amplification effects were corrected using body waves from deep earthquakes the estimated moment rate function was found to often oscillate between positive and negative values which are unlike those of regular earthquakes the focal mechanisms for many lfes are dominated by a compensated linear vector dipole with symmetry axes parallel to the lineation formed by the hypocenter distribution and the direction of the minimum principal axis of regional stress

does the arc accretion model adequately explain the paleoproterozoic evolution of southern laurentia an expanded interpretation a common model for the paleoproterozoic crustal evolution of southern laurentia involves southerly accretion of successively younger island arcs from 1780 to 1650 ma this model may be oversimplified however for although andesite and basaltic andesite major components of modern island arcs occur they are relatively rare and large volumes of rocks are dominantly bimodal metavolcanic assemblages and related granitoids ophiolites occur but they are also rare and only one accretionary melange has been described inherited zircons and common pb and nd isotopic data indicate involvement of older crust in ca 1750 ma rocks of the mojave province of southeastern california and western arizona and the bimodal assemblages of central colorado these data suggest that the bimodal volcanic rocks were derived from pre existing continental crust likely of ca 1850 ma trans hudson penokean age during extension and partial melting associated with the development of transpressional crustal scale shear zones the occurrence of the 1840 1 ma elves chasm pluton in the grand canyon demonstrates that rocks of trans hudson penokean age are present in southwestern laurentia

precursory swarms of long period events at redoubt volcano 1989 1990 alaska their origin and use as a forecasting tool abstract during the eruption of redoubt volcano from december 1989 through april 1990 the alaska volcano observatory issued advance warnings of several tephra eruptions based on changes in seismic activity related to the occurrence of precursory swarms of long period lp seismic events dominant period of about 0 5 s the initial eruption on december 14 occurred after 23 years of quiescence and was heralded by a 23 hour swarm of lp events that ended abruptly with the eruption after a series of vent clearing explosions over the next few days dome growth began on december 21 another swarm with lp events similar to those of the first began on the 26th and ended in a major tephra eruption on january 2 eruptions continued over the next two weeks and then ceased until february 15 when a large eruption initiated a long phase of repetitive dome building and dome destroying episodes that continued into april warnings were issued before the major events on december 14 and january 2 but as the eruptive sequence continued after january 2 the energy of the swarms decreased and forecasting became more difficult a significant but less intense swarm preceded the february 15 eruption which was not forecast this eruption destroyed the only seismograph on the volcanic edifice and stymied forecasting until march 4 when the first of three new stations was installed within 3 km of the active vent from march 4 to the end of the sequence on april 21 there were eight eruptions six of which were preceded by detectable swarms of lp events although weak these swarms provided the basis for warnings issued before the eruptions on march 23 and april 6 the initial swarm on december 13 had the following features 1 short duration 23 hours 2 a rapidly accelerating rate of seismic energy release over the first 18 hours of the swarm followed by a decline of activity during the 5 hours preceding the eruption 3 a magnitude range from 0 4 to 1 6 4 nearly identical lp signatures with a dominant period near 0 5 s 5 dilatational first motions everywhere and 6 a stationary source location at a depth of 1 4 km beneath the crater this occurrence of long period events suggests a model involving the interaction of magma with groundwater in which magmatic gases steam and water drive a fixed conduit at a stationary point throughout the swarm the initiation of that sequence of events is analogous to the failure of a pressure relief valve connecting a lower supercharged magma dominated reservoir to a shallow hydrothermal system a three dimensional model of a vibrating fluid filled crack recently developed by chouet is found to be compatible with the seismic data and yields the following parameters for the lp source crack length 280 380 m crack width 140 190 m crack thickness 0 05 0 20 m crack stiffness 100 200 sound speed of fluid 0 8 1 3 km s compressional wave speed of rock 5 1 km s density ratio of fluid to rock 0 4 and ratio of bulk modulus of fluid to rigidity of rock 0 03 0 07 the fluid filled crack is excited intermittently by an impulsive pressure drop that varies in magnitude within the range of 0 4 to 40 bar such disturbance appears to be consistent with a triggering mechanism associated with choked flow conditions in the crack

sheeting and dyking emplacement of the gunnison annular complex sw colorado abstract emplacement of the proterozoic gunnison annular complex colorado involved brittle failure and both subhorizontal sheeting and steeply dipping dyking the annular complex consists of a central diorite body 1730 ma surrounded by a ring of metamorphosed supracrustal rocks in turn ringed by tonalite and granodiorite 1721 ma the older central diorite was emplaced as sills parallel to bedding prior to regional deformation of the gunnison volcanic arc 1730 1710 m y ago this central body was deformed during regional shortening into an upright bowl with inward dipping walls the surrounding country rocks were folded and locally transposed against the central body forming an arcuate foliation conforming roughly to the shape of the body this foliation and bedding acted as mechanical planes of weakness which localized the syn deformational emplacement of the outer ring intrusions as multiple magma sheets parallel to steeply dipping bedding and foliation portions of the outer rings were also injected along concentric inward dipping shear fractures generated under high magma pressure a process similar to cone sheet emplacement in volcanic ring dyke complexes multiple mechanisms were therefore involved in the emplacement of this sheeted annular plutonic complex which otherwise superficially resembles a subvolcanic ring dyke complex

tomography of the source area of the 1995 kobe earthquake evidence for fluids at the hypocenter seismic tomography revealed a low seismic velocity 5 and high poisson s ratio 6 anomaly covering about 300 square kilometers at the hypocenter of the 17 january 1995 magnitude 7 2 kobe earthquake in japan this anomaly may be due to an overpressurized fluid filled fractured rock matrix that contributed to the initiation of the kobe earthquake

low frequency continuous tremor around the moho discontinuity away from volcanoes in the southwest japan 1 recent enhancement of seismic networks in the japan islands revealed occurrence of low frequency continuous tremors of a beltlike distribution in the southwest japan where the subducting philippine sea plate reaches depths of 30 40 km source depth of the tremor is estimated by selecting tremor segments with relatively clear p wave onsets the source region of the tremor is assumed to correspond to lowermost parts of crust close to a triple boundary of the crust mantle wedge and the subducting slab the long duration of the phenomenon indicates existence of fluid relating to the generation of the tremor the most probable fluid is considered to be water produced by dehydration process of chlorite and amphibole in the slab on the basis of data from high pressure and temperature experiments the northern border of the beltlike distribution is possibly rimmed by the edge of the mantle wedge because serpentine formation absorbs fluid water

geochemistry of the dubois greenstone succession an early proterozoic bimodal volcanic association in west central colorado abstract the dubois greenstone succession an early proterozoic supracrustal succession in west central colorado is composed of fine grained felsic volcaniclastic sediments ash flow tuffs and tholeiitic flows sills and dikes the volcanic rocks comprise a bimodal suite of tholeiite and rhyolite the tholeiites are divided into two groups group i exhibiting nearly flat ree patterns 20 30 chondrites and group ii with light ree enriched patterns 40 70 chondrites these groups can be produced by two stage melting of an undepleted or enriched garnet lherzolite source in which garnet remains in the residue of only the first melting stage which produces group ii magmas the felsic magmas can be produced by partial melting of a high grade gneiss in the lower crust in which zircon is entrained in the magma the dubois greenstone succession appears to have formed by felsic and mafic subaqueous eruptions in which some ash flows upon entering water underwent phreatomagmatic explosions giving rise to detritus which formed the volcaniclastic sediments although tectonic setting cannot be assigned to the succession with a high degree of confidence an immature back arc basin developed on sialic crust in consistent with most data

using systematically characterized low frequency earthquakes as a fault probe in guerrero mexico studies of low frequency earthquakes lfes have focused on detecting events within previously identified tectonic tremor however the principal lfe detection tools of matched filter searches are intrinsically incapable of detecting events that have not already been characterized previously as a template event in this study we therefore focus on generating the largest number possible of lfe templates by uniformly applying a recently developed lfe template detection method to a 2 5 yearlong data set in guerrero mexico using each of the detected templates in a matched filter search we then form event families that each represents a single source we finally develop simple empirical statistics to select the event families that represent lfes our resulting catalog contains 1120 unique lfe sources and a total of 1 849 486 detected lfes over the 2 5 yearlong data set the locations of the lfe sources are then divided into subcatalogs based on their distance from the subduction trench considering each lfe as a small unit of slip along the subduction interface we observe discrete episodes of lfe activity in the region associated with large slow slip events this is in direct contrast to the near continuous activity observed 35 km farther downdip within the previously identified lfe tremor sweet spot

earthquake doublet in an active shear zone southwest japan constraints from geophysical and geochemical findings abstract in 1997 the kagoshima earthquake doublet consisting of two closely associated mw 6 strike slip events five km and 48 days apart has occurred in southwest japan the location is where an e w trending discontinuity along 32 n latitude on southern kyushu island is clearly defined in gps velocities indicating the presence of a highly active left lateral shear zone however there have not been any obvious indications of active faulting at the surface prior to the earthquake doublet which could be associated with this shear zone three dimensional inversion of magnetotelluric sounding data obtained in the source region of the earthquake doublet reveals a near vertical conductive zone with a width of 20 km extending down to the base of the crust and perhaps into the upper mantle toward the okinawa trough the prominent conductor corresponds to the western part of the active shear zone elevated 3 he 4 he ratios in groundwaters sampled from hot spring and drinking water wells suggest the emission of mantle derived helium from the seismic source region the geophysical and geochemical observations are significant indications that the invasion of mantle fluids into the crust driven by upwelling asthenosphere from the okinawa trough triggers the notable left lateral shearing in the zone in the present day subduction system in addition the existence of aqueous fluids in and below the seismogenic layer could change the strength of the zones and alter the local stress regime resulting in the occurrence of the 1997 earthquake doublet

determination of constitutive relations of fault slip based on seismic wave analysis constitutive laws define the boundary conditions on fault plane and govern many aspects of earthquake failure although several constitutive laws have been formulated based on laboratory rock experiments and applied to theoretical studies in various fields no actual relation during a natural earthquake has been determined the 1995 kobe earthquake is suitable for detailed kinematic analysis and this enables the first evaluation of constitutive relations for a natural earthquake in this study we determine spatiotemporal slip distribution on an assumed fault plane of the 1995 kobe earthquake by waveform inversion and then solve elastodynamic equations using a finite difference method to determine the stress distribution and constitutive relations on the fault plane an inversion method based on bayes theorem is employed to obtain a spatiotemporal slip distribution and enables us to ensure the objective uniqueness of the solution with numerous parameters and smoothing constraints this slip distribution is then used as part of the boundary condition in the finite difference calculation the time histories of slip and shear stress obtained then provide a constitutive relation at each point on the fault plane they show slip weakening relations almost everywhere on the fault plane while slip rate dependency is not clear the slip weakening behavior has a clear depth dependency indicating that the slip weakening rate d du is smaller in the shallow crust than that in the deep crust this may be associated with the paucity of shallow seismicity observed in the source region of this earthquake as reported for many mature fault systems

deep structure of the northeastern japan arc and its relationship to seismic and volcanic activity evidence for possible deep seated magmatic activity beneath northeastern japan can be obtained from seismic observations tomographic inversions of p wave velocity data show low velocity zones distributed in the crust and upper mantle beneath active volcanoes in or around these zones anomalously low frequency micro earthquakes perhaps caused by magmatic activity are found at depths of 25 40 km distinct s wave reflectors corresponding to the upper surfaces of magma bodies are found at depths of 10 18 km large crustal earthquakes also occur around the low velocity zones these observations reveal the distribution of magma reservoirs at depths and elucidate its relation with shallow seismicity beneath volcanic arcs

fertile granites of precambrian rare element pegmatite fields is geochemistry controlled by tectonic setting or source lithologies abstract a total of twenty fertile granites and their rare element pegmatite aureoles was examined to correlate their tectonic position relative to the preceding orogenic event with their geochemical signature namely li rb cs be ga sn nb ta y ree sc ti zr be th u f nyf the range of t time difference between metamorphism and or deformation and granite intrusion is 20 to 465 ma for the examined cases there is some tendency toward syn to late orogenic origin of lct s as opposed to post to anorogenic timing of nyf s but the correlation is poor compared to the previously accepted stereotype similarly both metaluminous and peraluminous fertile granites are about equally spread among syn late and anorogenic environments lct systems are largely associated with peraluminous granites whereas all metaluminous to peralkaline plutons bear the nyf signature tectonic control on geochemistry of granite pegmatite suites is poor and secondary to the fundamental influence of the source lithologies yielding granitic melts the lct type suites are derived from undepleted upper crustal lithologies suffering their first anatectic event which mobilizes the most volatile components into low temperature low percentage melts supracrustal sequences as well as ortho and para lithologies of their basement serve as protoliths with variable degrees of involvement the nyf type suites whose plutons have the geochemical signature of a granites may be derived by melting of depleted lower crustal sources residual after preceding anatectic events or possibly by melting of juvenile lithologies with short crustal residence differentiation from mantle derived magmas is highly improbable volatile extraction of nyf elements from the mantle and their pre enrichment in protoliths or melts seems to be required the few mixed systems with variable expressions of a nyf lct signature are derived basically as nyf suites but contaminated by the lct elements from undepleted upper crust via several possible mechanisms

u pb studies of zircon cores and overgrowths and monazite implications for age and petrogenesis of the northeastern idaho batholith u pb isotopic studies of zircons many containing xenocrystic cores with euhedral overgrowths and monazite from igneous rocks and metasedimentary inclusions of the northeastern idaho batholith yield linear arrays on concordia diagrams we interpret these as mixing lines between an old component cores and a young component overgrowths and zircons without cores the lower intercept of such arrays with concordia may yield the minimum age of the rocks if the overgrowths and zircons without cores are discordant or the crystallization age if they are concordant monazites yield apparently concordant ages either equal or less than the lower intercept zircon ages the samples studied yield lower intercept ages ranging from 73 5 pm 6 m y foliated quartz diorite to 46 5 pm 1 m y feldspar megacryst granite ages obtained are consistent with crosscutting relations observed in the field upper intercepts yield ages of 1700 to 2349 m y these are interpreted to indicate the mean age of xenocrystic zir

depth of the moho discontinuity beneath the japanese islands estimated by traveltime analysis 1 the crustal structure beneath the japanese islands including depth distributions of the conrad and moho discontinuities was estimated using a tomographic inversion of regional body wave arrival times depth distributions of the bottom of the surface layer the conrad and the moho were modeled with two dimensional b spline functions while velocity distributions in layers were expressed by three dimensional b spline functions the depth of the discontinuities and the velocity in the layers were estimated simultaneously by the least squares method the velocity structure was sequentially estimated from shallower parts to deeper parts to avoid correlation between them this sequential analysis provided improved depth resolution the deepest region of the moho discontinuity was located in central honshu reaching about 40 km the moho discontinuity was generally deep in the central part of the islands whereas it was relatively shallow in the kanto southwestern chubu and chugoku districts in honshu and in northern kyushu some of the shallow moho regions would be related to graben formation due to tensile tectonic stress since the miocene the results were compared with those of seismic refraction surveys and receiver function analyses and it was found that the obtained model was consistent with many of these studies

low frequency earthquakes observed in close vicinity of repeating earthquakes in the brittle upper crust of hakodate hokkaido northern japan we conducted a detailed investigation of an earthquake cluster distributed from the lower crust to the upper crust beneath hakodate hokkaido which included both low frequency earthquakes lfes a

detailed fault structure of the 2000 western tottori japan earthquake sequence we investigate the faulting process of the aftershock region of the 2000 western tottori earthquake m w 6 6 by combining aftershock hypocenters and moment tensor solutions aftershock locations were precisely determined by the double difference method using p and s phase arrival data of the japan meteorological agency unified catalog by combining the relocated hypocenters and moment tensor solutions of aftershocks by broadband waveform inversion of freesia f net we successfully resolved very detailed fault structures activated by the mainshock the estimated fault model resolves 15 individual fault segments that are consistent with both aftershock distribution and focal mechanism solutions rupture in the mainshock was principally confined to the three fault elements in the southern half of the zone which is also where the earliest aftershocks concentrate with time the northern part of the zone becomes activated which is also reflected in the postseismic deformation field from the stress tensor analysis of aftershock focal mechanisms we found a rather uniform stress field in the aftershock region although fault strikes were scattered the maximum stress direction is n107 e which is consistent with the tectonic stress field in this region in the northern part of the fault where no slip occurred during the mainshock but postseismic slip was observed the maximum stress direction of n130 e was possible as an alternative solution of stress tensor inversion

spatiotemporal distribution of low frequency earthquakes in southwest japan evidence for fluid migration and magmatic activity abstract low frequency earthquakes lfes in the lower crust and uppermost mantle are widely observed in southwest japan and they occur not only along the subducting philippine sea phs slab interface but also beneath active arc volcanoes the volcanic lfes are still not well understood because of their limited quantities and less reliable hypocenter locations in this work seismic tomography is used to determine detailed three dimensional 3 d p and s wave velocity vp and vs models of the crust and upper mantle beneath southwest japan and then the obtained 3 d vp and vs models are used to relocate the volcanic lfes precisely the results show that the volcanic lfes can be classified into two types pipe like and swarm like lfes and both of them are located in or around zones of low velocity and high poisson s ratio anomalies in the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the active volcanoes the pipe like lfes may be related to the fluid migration from the lower crust or the uppermost mantle whereas the swarm like lfes may be related to local magmatic activities or small magma chambers the number of lfes sometimes increases sharply before or after a nearby large crustal earthquake which may cause cracks and fluid migration the spatiotemporal distribution of the lfes may indicate the track of migrating fluids as compared with the tectonic lfes along the phs slab interface the volcanic lfes are more sensitive to fluid migration and local magmatic activities high pore pressures play an important role in triggering both types of lfes in southwest japan

geochemistry and petrogenesis of early proterozoic amphibolites west central colorado u s a abstract early proterozoic supracrustal rocks exposed in west central colorado include amphibolites intimately associated with felsic volcanics and associated volcaniclastic sediments three successions are recognized the dubois succession 1770 1760 ma is comprised chiefly of amphibolites and felsic volcanics the amphibolites exhibit low concentrations of light ree and hfse and are broadly similar in composition to tholeiites from immature island arcs and in some respects to nmorb the cochetopa succession 1745 1730 ma includes large amounts of felsic volcanics and volcaniclastic sediments together with amphibolites that exhibit variable but slight incompatible element enrichment similar to basalts from evolved island arc systems and associated back arc basins the black canyon succession is coeval with the cochetopa succession and is comprised chiefly of volcaniclastic sediments with minor amphibolite these amphibolites exhibit significant incompatible element enrichment similar to basalts from continental margin arc systems geochemical modeling indicates that the amphibolites evolved by closed system fractional crystallization of depleted for the dubois succession to variably enriched parental basalts for the cochetopa and black canyon successions chiefly at shallow depths incompatible element distributions in the amphibolites indicate that mantle sources changed with time from relatively depleted 1770 1760 ma to variable but slightly enriched 1745 1730 ma a provisional model calls upon the dubois succession forming in an island arc system followed by collision with the archean wyoming province at 1750 ma the cochetopa succession was deposited in an intra arc basin developed within a new continental margin arc and the black canyon succession formed in a back arc basin associated with this arc