links between marine and atmospheric processes oscillating on a millennial time scale a multi proxy study of the last 50 000 yr from the alboran sea western mediterranean sea abstract the large dataset obtained from the extensive study of images core md95 2043 recovered from the alboran sea western mediterranean shows the periodicities and phase relationships of oceanographic and atmospheric processes on a millennial time scale the 1470 yr cycle is the most significant with the exception of the records reflecting climatic or environmental changes on land which show statistically significant 3300 and 8000 frequency bands the investigation of these core records on a millennial scale resolution allows us to establish the evolution of oceanographic and atmospheric mechanisms that influenced the western mediterranean region in the course of the dansgaard oeschger cycles accordingly possible land sea interactions can be identified and situated in the context of the temporal succession of the different climatic processes for instance saharan dust supply from northern africa appears to lead high latitude climate changes suggesting that low latitude feedback processes were involved in forcing the millennial climatic variability in the westernmost mediterranean

broadband time domain modeling of earthquakes from friuli italy short period sp and long period lp seismograms written by the main shock and two principal aftershocks of the 1976 friuli italy earthquake sequence are modeled in the time domain using synthetic seismograms the main shock occurred on 6 may 1976 20h 00m m s 6 5 and both aftershocks on 15 september 1976 03h 15m m s 6 0 and 09h 21m m s 5 9 source models were determined initially by trial and error and then refined using a waveform inversion program two point sources of radiation are required to adequately model the aftershock short period records for the 09h 21m aftershock the model derived from short period records also produces good fits to the long period data the seismic moment of this earthquake is found to be 0 8 to 1 0 10 25 dyne cm the sp model for the 03h 15m aftershock on the other hand predicts long period synthetics which do not agree with the observations in particular the sp moment 0 37 10 25 dyne cm is about formula times smaller than the lp moment 1 10 25 dyne cm adding a long period component to the sp model considerably improves lp waveform and moment agreement in the case of the main shock a reasonable fit to the observed sp data is obtained using three point sources of radiation however lp synthetics computed using this model do not agree with the observations and the sp moment 0 65 10 25 dyne cm is a small fraction of the lp moment 3 to 5 10 25 dyne cm time function durations indicate that the individual events inferred from the sp records are radiated from patches of the fault having radii of 2 to 4 km and stress drops in the range 35 to 276 bars in comparison stress drops estimated from lp data are found to be 12 bars main shock and 24 bars 09h 21m aftershock these observations suggest that the short period instruments are sensitive to the high frequency radiation emitted from small high stress drop areas on the fault plane whereas the long period instruments record the overall motion during the earthquake

neotectonics of western india evidence from deformed quaternary fluvial sequences mahi river gujarat a quaternary fluvial sequence along the mahi river gujarat western india shows evidence for a discrete episode of normal faulting and related surface slumping four mapped nw striking faults have throws ranging from 1 m to over 3 m and have related growth folds in synchronous sediment units a slump sheet moved tens of metres northeastward down the 0 7 dip slope of one tilt block during displacement on its bounding fault the exposed part of the internally folded sheet is probably one side of a lobate slump mass several hundred metres in width fault activity began after deposition of a lower gravel which regional correlations suggest is about 300 ka old faulting ended just before deposition of an upper gravel sand complex dated by luminescence techniques in correlated sections at no younger than about 60 ka the mahi river section shows that neotectonic activity in peninsular india exemplified by the 1993 killari latur earthquake has a mid to late pleistocene component

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

coccolithophorid distribution in the ionian sea and its relationship to eastern mediterranean circulation during late fall to early winter 1997 subtropical latitude with a general high species diversity and a well defined depth distribution it is in fact possible to recognize an upper photic zone assemblage dominated by e huxleyi and characterized by higher concentration and species diversity and a lower photic zone where typically deep living species i e f profunda g flabellatus a re present these two zones are separated by a transition layer where species of both zones are represented and new ones appear such vertical distribution appears to be strictly related to the local hydrology with the zone boundaries rising and falling as a function of the location of the isotherms in particular the first significant occurrence of f profunda from surface to the deep photic zone corresponds with the start of the thermocline comparison of present plankton data with the surface sediment record although displaying a consistent pattern of species assemblage shows some differences in the presence and relative abundance of some species g oceanica this can be related to seasonal as well as interannual variations in the pattern and intensity of surface circulation in the investigated area index terms 4855 oceanography biological and chemical plankton 4815 oceanography biological and chemical ecosystems structure and dynamics keywords eastern mediterranean sea coccolithophorids ecology phytoplankton citation malinverno e p ziveri and c corselli coccolithophorid distribution in the ionian sea and its relationship to eastern mediterranean circulation during late fall to early winter 1997 j geophys res 108 c9 8115 doi 10 1029 2002jc001346 2003

deep lower crustal earthquakes in central india inferences from analysis of regional broadband data of the 1997 may 21 jabalpur earthquake summary the only instance of a confirmed deep lower crustal earthquake occurrence in the indian shield region has been that of the 1938 satpura earthquake m 6 3 of central india reportedly at a depth of about 40 km moment tensor inversion of regional broadband waveform data of the 1997 may 21 jabalpur earthquake mw 5 7 confirms yet another such earthquake at about 35 km depth in the central part of the narmada son lineament nsl zone the study is based on a refined velocity model obtained using a traveltime grid search method a reverse fault mechanism is obtained which for a palaeo rift valley zone indicates the possibility of reactivation of a pre existing fault under the influence of the ambient stress field due to the india eurasia plate collision forces the occurrence of earthquakes at lower crustal depths quite unusual for the indian shield region indicates a possible causative mechanism related to crust mantle interaction based on the close proximity of the two deep earthquakes and their disposition with respect to the local trend of the central part of the nsl we suggest a model of stress accumulation due to horizontally elongated or elliptical possibly serpentinized mafic intrusives in the lower crust to explain the occurrence of deep earthquakes in the heart of the indian shield

a mixed layer study of the formation of levantine intermediate water a mixed layer model is used to investigate the formation of levantine intermediate water liw over the eastern mediterranean the one dimensional model is initialized with climatological hydrography and integrated over the levantine basin with forcing by climatological surface fluxes realistic and repeated seasonal mixed layer cycles are obtained if the annual surface heat input and water loss are offset by a parameterized horizontal advection the model integrations show that liw is formed during winter in the mixed layer of the northwestern levantine the preferred formation region for liw is found through idealized experiments to be controlled by the preconditioning of the hydrography especially that of the cold cyclonic rhodes gyre rather than by the pattern of the climatological fluxes the annual mean formation rate of liw is estimated to be 1 0 sv using the climatological surface fluxes the magnitude of the annual surface fluxes alters the formation rate and modifies the formation region an additional annual heat flux reduces the formation rate of liw whereas an extra cooling enhances it as well as forming waters denser than liw in the center of the rhodes gyre

focal depths and mechanisms of shallow earthquakes in the himalayan tibetan region abstract the complexity of the himalayan tibetan lithospheric deformation is evident from widespread seismicity and diverse focal mechanism solutions here we investigate the focal depths and fault plane solutions of 97 moderate and shallow earthquakes in the himalayan tibetan region by modeling teleseismic p wave and its tailing surface reflections pp and sp earthquakes in central tibet are restricted to the upper crust and originate dominantly by strike slip faulting in agreement with the low p wave velocity layers in the lower crust and the strong s wave attenuation zones in the uppermost mantle in northern and southern tibet where the asian and indian plates descend beneath central tibet earthquakes appear to be distributed throughout the thickness of the crust and exhibit dominantly reverse faulting we incorporate well estimated focal depths of 127 additional earthquakes from previous studies to estimate the seismogenic thickness ts of the study region the resulting pattern of ts is found to be rather flat for central and northeastern tibet and highly variable along the strike of the himalayan foreland

historical seismicity of peninsular india abstract well documented historical earthquake data from 1340 to 1983 has been analyzed and reported in this work so as to understand the seismicity and associated phenomena of peninsular india it has been the belief among earth scientists that the peninsular shield is aseismic as the region attained stability long ago however the earthquake at koyna 10 december 1967 bhadrachalam 13 april 1969 broach 23 march 1970 hyderabad 30 june 1983 etc altered this concept and it has now widely accepted that seismic activity is still continuing on a mild scale as such a need has arisen to take into consideration historical as well as recent seismological data to study the seismic status of peninsular india using the well known frequency magnitude relation of gutenberg and richter 1954 an attempt has been made to derive a and b and the ratio a b the values as obtained for peninsular india are 4 4 0 85 and 5 17 which are typical of moderately active zones the world over recurrence periods of earthquake magnitude 6 75 and 7 0 are calculated to be 21 and 35 yr respectively further the historical seismicity correlates well with the protocontinents such as dharwar aravalli and singhbhum in the peninsular shield it is observed that seismicity in a broad sense is defined by the protocontinents with low intracontinental seismicity while the lineaments and rift valleys are from zones of moderate seismicity

source modeling of the hsingtai china earthquakes of march 1966 abstract the hsingtai china earthquakes of march 1966 were a series of destructive earthquakes associated with the shu lu graben five strong shocks of ms 6 occurred within a period of less than a month the largest of which was ms 7 2 body and surface waves over the period range from several to 100 s have been modeled for the four largest events using synthetic seismograms in the time domain and spectral analysis in the frequency domain data from ground deformation local geology regional seismic network and teleseismic joint epicenter determination have also been used to constrain the source model and the rupture process the fault mechanism of the hsingtai sequence was mainly strike slip with a small component of normal dip slip the strikes of the four largest shocks range from n26 to 30 e approximately along strike of the major faults of the shu lu graben and the aftershock distribution the source mechanisms can be explained with a nnw sse extensional stress and a nee sww compressional stress acting in the area the major shocks all had focal depths 10 km the four largest shocks in the sequence were characterized by a relatively simple and smooth dislocation time history the durations of the far field source time functions ranged from 3 5 to 5 s while the rise times were all 1 s the seismic moments of the four largest earthquakes ranged from 1 43 1025 to 1 51 1026 dyne cm 1 the fault sizes of the four events were very close assuming circular faults the diameters of the four events were determined to be between 10 and 14 km stress drops varied from 52 to 194 bars a trend of increasing stress drop with earthquake size was observed a survey of stress drop determinations for 15 major intraplate earthquakes shows that on the average the magnitude of stress drop of oceanic intraplate earthquakes and passive continental margin events is higher 200 to several hundred bars than that of continental intraplate earthquakes 100 bars or less

forcing of atlantic equatorial and subpolar millennial cycles by precession abundance cycles of the marine alga florisphaera profunda centered on a period of 7600 carbon 14 years 8400 calendar years are present in high resolution records from the equatorial atlantic spanning 0 to 45 000 years ago these cycles correlate with heinrich events 1 through 5 which document rapid changes in continental ice melting around the subpolar north atlantic these variations in f profunda are a direct response to modulation in zonal wind driven divergence produced by a precessional component of orbital variation during a time of reduced eccentricity modulation

late pleistocene carbonate stratigraphy on ontong java plateau in the western equatorial pacific abstract late pleistocene carbonate cycles on ontong java plateau are characterized by maxima during deglaciations deglacial preservation spikes and by minima during transitions from interglacial to glacial conditions ice growth dissolution spikes superimposed on these short period fluctuations there is a long term oscillation of carbonate contents with a period of nearly 400 ky the brunhes dissolution cycle dissolution related sand fraction profiles 63 m indicate that the lysocline was at a water depth of about 3 6 km during deglacial transitions and that it rose up to 2 6 km during the stages of ice growth a fluctuation of the lysocline by 1 km can account for more than half of the total amplitude of the observed carbonate cycles assuming a linear increase in carbonate dissolution rates with increasing water depth below the lysocline and a constant ccd a shoaling of the lysocline during ice buildup may result from downward transfer of metabolic co 2 from intermediate waters to greater depths in the water column enhanced carbonate dissolution below 2 6 km increases alkalinity in deep waters predisposing the system toward reducing atmospheric co 2 partial pressure during a subsequent period

buckle controlled seismogenic faulting in peninsular india as intraplate earthquakes are often not associated with major known faults their location as well as their timing is unpredictable in peninsular india the larger mx5 0 events occur mainly on reverse faults in a series of belts b400 km apart which are aligned roughly normal to the azimuth of convergence between the indian and eurasian plates the location of the belts is controlled largely by the buckling wavelength of the lithosphere and the seismogenic faults do not generate folding and sometimes result from it there is consequently no need to postulate the creation of regularly spaced normal faults in an antecedent extensional phase and the deformation is consistent with a plate driving force such as gravity glide which is unlikely to reverse its polarity and which creates structures that are influenced by plate geometry at the leading edge the thesis is potentially of value to seismic hazard mitigation as it identifies the zones that are most at risk r 2004 published by elsevier ltd

faulting mechanisms of the liyang china earthquakes of 1974 and 1979 from regional and teleseismic waveforms evidence of tectonic inversion under a fault bounded basin abstract the liyang earthquakes of 1974 and 1979 were two moderately sized but destructive events in eastern china the first shock m s 5 5 occurred on 22 april 1974 in a densely populated area and the second one m s 5 7 took place on 9 july 1979 near the same location the epicenters were located near the intersection of two faults and inside a late mesozoic to late tertiary sedimentary extensional basin in this article long period p and sh waveforms between 2 and 90 and short period teleseismic p waveforms were used to determine strike slip source mechanisms with large reverse faulting components that occurred for both events these mechanisms are significantly different from earlier determined solutions reached through p wave first motions which found strike slip and normal slip components for the two events the solution of the 1974 event obtained from this study strikes 126 dips 71 and slips 33 the focal depth seismic moment and stress drop are determined to be 12 km 8 4 10 23 dyne cm and 41 bars respectively the mechanism of the 1979 event strikes 41 dips 64 and slips 147 the focal depth seismic moment and stress drop are found to be 7 5 km 1 6 10 24 dyne cm and 152 bars respectively seismic data and local observations suggest that the 1974 event ruptured a wnw striking fault for the 1979 event the fault plane is difficult to resolve the observed oblique reverse faulting is relatively rare for major earthquakes in eastern china and probably represents a reactivated and inverted fault motion beneath a structural basin under the present day e w to ene wsw compressional stress field

periodic variation of stress field in the koyna warna reservoir triggered seismic zone inferred from focal mechanism studies abstract the koyna warna region in western india is globally recognized as the premier site of reservoir triggered seismicity rts associated with the koyna and warna reservoirs the region is characterized by continuous seismic activity observed since several decades including the world s largest triggered earthquake of m6 3 which occurred in koyna in 1967 while the role of reservoirs in triggering earthquakes has been widely discussed the actual tectonic mechanism controlling earthquake genesis in this region is hardly understood the koyna warna region is exclusively governed by earthquakes of strike slip and normal fault mechanism distinct from the thrust faulting seen in other active zones in the indian region in the present study a comprehensive catalog of 50 focal mechanism solutions of earthquakes that occurred during the last 45 years in the koyna warna region is developed both from previous literature and from moment tensor inversion studies by the authors using broadband data from a local seismic network operating since 2005 the seismicity and fault plane data have enabled precise delineation of trends of the major causative faults which are further accentuated using the double difference technique stress inversion of the focal mechanism data has provided the best fitting principal compressive and tensile stress field of the region which in conjunction with the deciphered fault zones provides a feasible model of seismogenesis in this region based on the observed temporal variation of faulting mechanism a model of alternating cycles of predominantly strike slip and normal faulting is proposed which is attributed to a periodic peaking and relaxation respectively of the horizontal compressive stress field in this region due to the indian plate collision with eurasia

phase relationship and surface water mass change in the northeast atlantic during marine isotope stage 11 mis 11 planktic foraminiferal census data faunal sea surface temperatures ssts and oxygen isotopic and lithic records from a site in the northeast atlantic were analyzed to study the interglacial dynamics of marine isotope stage mis 11 a period thought to closely resemble the holocene on the basis of orbital forcing interglacial conditions during mis 11 persisted for approximately 26 ka after the main deglacial meltwater processes ceased a 10 to 12 ka long transitional period marked by significant water mass circulation changes occurred before surface waters finally reached their thermal maximum this sst peak occurred between 400 and 397 ka inferred from the abundance of the most thermophilic foraminiferal species and was coincident with lowest sea level according to benthic isotope values the ensuing stepwise sst decrease characterizes the overall climate deterioration preceding the increase in global ice volume by 3 ka this cooling trend was followed by a more pronounced cold event that began at 388 ka and that terminated in the recurrence of icebergs at the site around 382 ka because the water mass configuration of early mis 11 evolved quite differently from that of the early holocene there is little evidence that mis 11 can serve as an appropriate analogue for a future holocene climate despite the similarity in some orbital parameters

a 20 m middle pleistocene sea level highstand bermuda and the bahamas due to partial collapse of antarctic ice marine deposits at 20 3 m on the tectonically stable coastlines of bermuda and the bahamas support the hypothesis of a partial collapse of the antarctic ice sheet during the middle pleistocene beach sediments fill a sea cave at 22 m in bermuda and horizontal fenestrae filled beds crop out on platforms at two sites as high as 21 m in eleuthera bahamas carbonate beach sands are bound by an early generation of isopachous fibrous cement that is characteristic of a phreatic marine environment amino acid racemization and tims thermal ionization mass spectrometry dates constrain the age of the deposits to between 390 and 550 ka while proxy evidence supports a correlation with oxygen isotope stage 11 this direct geologic evidence of a 20 decrease in polar ice during the middle pleistocene has important implications for the stability of ice sheets during warm interglaciations

shoaling of the eastern mediterranean pycnocline due to reduction of excess evaporation implications for sapropel formation a simple two layered model is applied to assess the relation between variations in the depth of the permanent pycnocline and changes in the excess of evaporation over freshwater input in the eastern mediterranean this study is performed to estimate the magnitude of the excess evaporation at times of sapropel formation in the eastern mediterranean pycnocline shoaling from a depth below the euphotic layer to a depth within that layer at times of sapropel formation has been inferred from the planktonic foraminiferal record by rohling and gieskes 1989 the model suggests that a decrease in the eastern mediterranean excess evaporation defined as evaporation minus total freshwater input by about 8 5 1011 m yr 1 would suffice to invoke shoaling of the pycnocline to a depth within the euphotic layer a consideration of the effects exerted by concomitant changes in the thermal balance suggests that the necessary decrease of excess evaporation may even be smaller than the above estimate

a procedure for modelling shallow dislocation sources summary expressions for displacements on the surface of a layered half space due to an arbitrary oriented shear dislocation are given in terms of generalized ray expansions useful approximations of these expressions for shallow events as recorded at teleseismic distances for realistic earth models are presented the results of this procedure are used to generate synthetic p sv and sh waveforms for various assumptions of stress drop

a preliminary assessment of internal deformation in the indian plate from gps measurements abstract the rate of convergence of the indian plate with respect to eurasia has been obtained using igs gps stations at hyderabad hyde and bangalore iisc in conjunction with a select set of other igs stations the rates obtained for hyde and iisc are 37 09 1 4 and 35 68 1 7 mm yr respectively the difference in the velocities of these two peninsular indian stations with respect to eurasia necessitated a fresh investigation into possible deformation between hyde and iisc separate processing of the baseline with ambiguity resolution suggests a differential motion of 5 01 0 6 mm yr between the two gps sites with hyde moving s68 e relative to iisc the available geological and geophysical data also suggest that this part of peninsular india is undergoing internal deformation

orbital and millennial antarctic climate variability over the past 800 000 years a high resolution deuterium profile is now available along the entire european project for ice coring in antarctica dome c ice core extending this climate record back to marine isotope stage 20 2 800 000 years ago experiments performed with an atmospheric general circulation model including water isotopes support its temperature interpretation we assessed the general correspondence between dansgaard oeschger events and their smoothed antarctic counterparts for this dome c record which reveals the presence of such features with similar amplitudes during previous glacial periods we suggest that the interplay between obliquity and precession accounts for the variable intensity of interglacial periods in ice core records

magnetotelluric studies in the central india tectonic zone implications for intraplate stress regimes and generation of shallow earthquakes abstract the central india tectonic zone citz dissects the indian peninsula into the northern and southern crustal blocks the citz has been a seismically active region since the precambrian whereas the relatively deep crustal earthquakes near the narmada faults in the eastern part of the citz have been well investigated the mechanisms for the shallow earthquakes in the western part remain unknown here we present results from a new magnetotelluric study to derive the crustal structure and to understand its implications our data show a thick and highly resistive 500 ohm m crust in the south of tapti river as against a less resistive one in the north these results in conjunction with heat flow values indicate that the crust below the southern part has stable continental cratonic signatures on the northern side of the tapti river we infer the ascent of basaltic magmas from the mantle into the shallow crust and crystallization into layered intrusions these mafic ultramafic bodies could be a potential cause for the shallow earthquakes in the western part of the citz the mafic ultramafic bodies below the crust of citz would locally modify the intraplate stresses which in turn would facilitate the occurrence of earthquakes due to reactivation of pre existing faults thus the large accumulation of strain energy in the deep crust beneath the region can be attributed to the presence of high stress bodies emplaced at depth during the deccan volcanic activity

a review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years this paper presents a review of astrobiochronological calibration of recent to late oligocene calcareous nannofossil datum events biohorizons included in the paper are those of the widely used standard nannofossil zonations of martini e 1971 standard tertiary and quaternary calcareous nannoplankton zonation in farinacci a ed proceedings of the second international conference on planktonic microfossils roma rome ed tecnosci vol 2 pp 739 785 and okada h and bukry d 1980 supplementary modification and introduction of code numbers to the low latitude coccolith biostratigraphy zonation bukry 1973 1975 marine micropaleontology 51 321 325 as well as supplementary biohorizons proposed in the literature the biohorizons have been selected on the basis of the unambiguous taxonomy of the index taxa and their biostratigraphic usefulness we emphasise the application of rigorous methodology in nannofossil studies which permits an evaluation of biohorizons in terms of reliability and calibrates their potential correlatability astrochronological age estimates rely on the geologic timescale developed by the ics in 2004 with some new calibrations included we provide an overview of the relative position of biohorizons versus the astronomically calibrated ages of magnetic reversals and reference isotope stratigraphies surprisingly there are still few high resolution quantitative biostratigraphic studies of astrochronologically tuned sections in spite of the central role of such studies in addressing fundamental problems such as the tempo and mode of plankton evolution

the 1984 southern yellow sea earthquake of eastern china source properties and seismotectonic implications for a stable continental area on 21 may 1984 a strong shock ms 6 3 mb 5 7 occurred in the southern yellow sea which shook the densely populated coastal area of eastern china about 1 min before the main shock a foreshock of mb 5 4 occurred because of interference from the foreshock no reliable p wave first motions or focal mechanisms have been obtained for the main shock from local seismic data in this paper long period teleseismic data have been used to investigate the source mechanism fault plane solutions determined from first motions as well as p and sh waveforms show a predominant strike slip motion with a small dip slip component on a steeply dipping plane the tectonic environment of this event supports the observation that margins of former rifts tend to be sites of midplate seismic source regions the yellow sea developed in a cratonic environment due to early cenozoic rifting the major graben faults strike nne ssw to ne sw and are intersected by second order faults trending wnw ese aftershock distribution suggests that the fault which generated the main shock probably strikes wnw ese the mechanism determined in this paper strikes 120 dips 88 and slips 28 this solution suggests that the earthquake ruptured along a secondary fault near the intersection of a more major nne ssw trending fault the epicentral area is subject to to an ene wsw compression and a nnw sse extension the seismic moment and focal depth are determined to be 1 09 1025 dyne cm and 12 4 km respectively relative hypocentral locations indicate that the focal depth of the foreshock is similar to that of the main shock and the hypocenter of the foreshock is located very close to the wnw ese striking nodal plane of the main shock mechanism and is about 20 km away from the main shock hypocenter source properties of the southern yellow sea earthquake have been compared with those of three major earthquakes of north china the stress drop of the yellow sea earthquake is determined to be about 42 bars this value is much lower than the stress drops computed for the 1966 hsingtai and the 1975 haicheng earthquakes of north china the southern yellow sea is characterized by short recurrence intervals while the hsingtai and haicheng areas have very long recurrence intervals the short recurrence intervals and low stress drop may reflect a lower material strength at the source region in the yellow sea

ocean surface water response to short term climate changes revealed by coccolithophores from the gulf of cadiz ne atlantic and alboran sea w mediterranean the response of coccolithophore assemblages to short term millennial and centennial climatic changes over the last 50 kyr is studied in core m39029 7 from the gulf of cadiz atlantic ocean and core md95 2043 from the alboran sea western mediterranean sea the nannoplankton data are compared with oxygen isotopes u37k sst and other biogeochemical and sedimentological proxies to obtain a new perspective of the paleoceanography and paleoecology of the area during these short term climatic changes coccolithophores indicate that heinrich events he were characterised by the presence of cold low salinity and turbid water masses on both sides of the strait of gibraltar high abundances of the lower photic zone lpz species florisphaera profunda in the gulf of cadiz synchronous with he are interpreted as being an evidence of upper water column stratification on the atlantic side these episodes coincided with input of terrigenous material especially during h2 surface waters during dansgaard oeschger do stadials were also cold and turbid while most of do interstadials were characterised by warm water flora the increase in small placoliths small gephyrocapsa and emiliania huxleyi 4 m which is considered here as a cold water indicator the sharp decrease in large specimens of e huxleyi related to the warming trend in the last deglaciation can be used as a biostratigraphic reference level that marks at least approximately the deglaciation and the beginning of the holocene peaks of f profunda are observed during termination 1 t1 in the alboran sea they are isochronous with the organic rich layer 1 recognised in the western mediterranean in this interval the water column of the region was stratified as a consequence of the global increase in the sea level following the deglaciation quantitative analyses of the coccolithophore assemblage allow us to interpret that coccolithophore production has been higher in the alboran sea than in the gulf of cadiz during the holocene

three dimensional modeling of intraplate stresses in the epicentral zone of the 21 may 1997 jabalpur earthquake of mw 5 8 central india abstract three dimensional intraplate stresses induced by topography and crustal density heterogeneities have been modeled for a region in central india latitude 21 26 n longitude 77 82 e that was affected by the 1927 son valley m w 6 4 and the 1997 jabalpur m w 5 8 earthquakes the modeled stresses show that these two events occurred in the zones of significant increase in gradients of the principal stress difference 1 3 contours the highest value of these differential stresses 90 mpa is obtained at 5 km depth beneath the epicentral zone of 1927 son valley earthquake whereas a value of 35 mpa is obtained at the focal depth 35 km of the 1997 jabalpur mainshock further depth sections of estimated differential stresses delineate a south dipping high stress body penetrating the whole crust probably a mafic intrusive intruded during the deccan volcanism episode beneath a zone bounded by narmada north fault in the north and narmada south fault in the south within which all aftershocks including mainshocks of the 1997 jabalpur and the 1927 son valley have occurred the modeled direction of principal stresses as well as inferred mode of faulting at 5 20 35 and 40 km depths correlates strongly with the long period 20 50 s centroid moment tensor solutions for the broadband recordings of the m w 5 8 jabalpur mainshock results suggest that estimated large intraplate stresses associated with an inferred mafic intrusive in the presence of high pore pressure resulted from the dehydration of the serpentinite minerals and deep brittle ductile transition may contribute to the failure of rock along the pre existing weak narmada south fault leading to the earthquakes in the deep crust it is proposed that the causal association of large intraplate stresses and the pre existing deep crustal faults would control the future locales of earthquakes in the narmada son lineament

quantitative analysis of quaternary nannoplankton in the subtropical northwestern pacific ocean abstract time progressive changes of nannoflora and biometry of coccoliths for the last 1 3 m y were investigated for a piston core recovered from the west mariana ridge the species compositions were quantitatively investigated under an electron microscope and six assemblages assemblages a through f were identified significant changes in relative abundances of various types of genus gephyrocapsa are the main cause for the stratigraphic change of the flora a dominant occurrence of gephyrocapsa protohuxleyi var a which can be identified only under an electron microscope was observed for the first time in a thin sequence which corresponds to the lowest part of the brunhes epoch 0 75 0 62 ma because of this characteristic occurrence assemblage d was further subdivided into three subassemblages the dominant occurrence of small gephyrocapsa which is well known in the small gephyrocapsa zone of the equatorial pacific ocean was not observed but the almost complete absence of medium to large gephyrocapsa during approximately 200k years of the middle pleistocene was confirmed a stratigraphically restricted occurrence of a large form of reticulogenestra was also confirmed by the biostratigraphic study under a light microscope and the last and first occurrences of the largest form reticulofenestra sp a 6 5 m were identified at 0 81 and 0 98 ma respectively in addition to these four events precise ages for another five well known evolutionary events were also calibrated these ages are generally in good agreement with previously reported ages from other world oceans and diachronism was not evident for most of these evolutionary events

cold climate during the closest stage 11 analog to recent millennia abstract the early part of marine isotopic stage 11 near 400 000 years ago provides the closest analog to holocene insolation levels of any interglaciation during the era of strong 100 000 year climatic cycles the ch 4 concentration measured in vostok ice fell to 450 ppb and co 2 values to 250 ppm these natural decreases contrast with the increases in recent millennia and support the early anthropogenic hypothesis of major gas emissions from late holocene farming during the same interval d values fell from typical interglacial to nearly glacial values indicating a major cooling in antarctica early in stage 11 other evidence suggests that new ice was accumulating during the closest insolation analog to the present day a major increase in 18 o atm at vostok a similar increase in marine 18 o values and re initiation of ice rafting in the nordic sea the evidence permits extended 20 000 year intervals of stage 11 interglacial warmth in the antarctic and north atlantic yet it also requires that this warmth ended and a new glacial era began when insolation was most similar to recent millennia the holocene co 2 anomaly was produced only in part by direct anthropogenic emissions over half of the anomaly resulted from the failure of co 2 values to fall as they had during previous interglaciations because of natural responses including a sea ice advance in the antarctic and ice sheet growth in the northern hemisphere

paleoceanography of the mid pleistocene the fossil record of the pleistocene calcareous nannoplankton indicates that during the mid pleistocene 0 93 1 25 my occurred an episode of overwhelming dominance of smallgephyrocapsa during this episode normally abundant large size specimens of this genus mainlygephyrocapsa oceanica were virtually excluded from the phytoplankton of tropical and subtropical oceans the best modern analog of this dominantly smallgephyrocapsa assemblage is the subpolaremiliania huxleyi assemblage which implies that nutrient content was significantly greater and water temperature was lower in the photic water column of the tropical oceans than they are today increased equatorial upwelling in the oceans on a scale much greater than today may explain the above pattern to achieve such broad equatorial upwelling there must be a source and a drive for cold dense water the arctic ocean which was probably seasonally free of ice during this interval of the mid pleistocene is capable of providing the requisite source as well as a drive for the inferred equatorial upwelling the energy balance of a predominantly ice free arctic ocean requires an approximately three to seven fold increase of hydrospheric heat transport from the north atlantic to the arctic ocean which dictates a corresponding or even greater increase in the volume of warm water entering the arctic ocean at the surface and cold dense water exiting at depth to the north atlantic such enhanced dense water formation in the arctic ocean could drive the intensified equatorial upwelling implied by the smallgephyrocapsa dominance interval if the above scenario is correct then the climate of the earth s northern hemisphere during the mid pleistocene may have been very different from the younger pleistocene climate one manifestation of this difference may be the mid pleistocene shift in climatic cycle periodicity from 40 ky to 100 ky another important aspect is that the enhanced greenhouse effect expected during the next century because of an increase of atmospheric co2 is thought to lead directly to melting of the arctic ocean ice cover and of the greenland ice sheet thus the greenhouse arctic ocean and its attendant ocean circulation would resemble the inferred mid pleistocene conditions

the last 100 000 years in the western mediterranean sea surface water and frontal dynamics as revealed by coccolithophores a quantitative analysis was carried out on coccolith assemblages from two pleistocene cores k1 and k10 from the western mediterranean the distribution of selected coccolithophore species provides new paleoclimatic and paleoceano graphic data a continuous sequence from the top of isotope stage 5 to the holocene was recorded the reversal in dominance between gephyrocapsa muellerae and emiliania huxleyi was dated in both cores at ca 73 ka at about 47 ka e huxleyi shows a regular increase whereas g muellerae progressively decreases in abundance during interglacial periods high concentrations of coccoliths are observed whereas in glacial times coccoliths are more diluted and the percentage of reworked forms increases as a consequence of the higher terrigenous input after taking careful account of the dilution factor we conclude that the production of coccolithophores was higher during warm periods maxima in coccolith concentrations coincide with highstand episodes probably as a result of the intensification of the atlantic flux into the mediterranean across the gibraltar strait this intensification could have produced an increase in nutrient content in the surface mediterranean waters during cold periods the western mediterranean front underwent a reduction in activity probably due to an increase in the saline and or thermal gradients between the superficial waters and intermediate waters in the liguro provencal basin

enso like forcing on oceanic primary production during the late pleistocene late pleistocene changes in oceanic primary productivity along the equator in the indian and pacific oceans are revealed by quantitative changes in nanoplankton communities preserved in nine deep sea cores we show that variations in equatorial productivity are primarily caused by glacial interglacial variability and by precession controlled changes in the east west thermocline slope of the indo pacific the precession controlled variations in productivity are linked to processes similar to the southern oscillation phenomenon and they precede changes in the oxygen isotopic ratio which indicates that they are not the result of ice sheet fluctuations the 30 000 year spectral peak in the tropical indo pacific ocean productivity records is also present in the antarctica atmospheric co2 record suggesting an important role for equatorial biological productivity in modifying atmospheric co2

globally increased pelagic carbonate production during the mid brunhes dissolution interval and the co2 paradox of mis 11 the mid brunhes dissolution interval mbdi represents a period of global carbonate dissolution lasting several hundred thousand years centred around marine isotope stage mis 11 here we report the effects of dissolution in odp core 982 taken from 1134 m in the north atlantic paradoxically records of atmospheric co2 from antarctic ice cores reveal no long term trend over the last 400 kyr and suggest that co2 during mis 11 was no higher than during the present interglacial we suggest that a global increase in pelagic carbonate production during this period possibly related to the proliferation of the gephyrocapsa coccolithophore could have altered marine carbonate chemistry in such a way as to drive increased dissolution under the constraints of steady state an increase in the production of carbonate in surface waters would cause a drawdown of global carbonate saturation and increase dissolution at the seafloor in order to reconcile the record of atmospheric co2 variability we suggest that an increase in the flux of organic matter from the surface to deep ocean associated with either a net increase in primary production or the enhanced ballasting effect provided by an increased flux of caco3 could have countered the effect of increased calcification on co2

late neogene paleoceanography of the eastern caribbean the gulf of mexico and the eastern equatorial pacific abstract calcareous nannofossil census data from the late neogene of the caribbean the gulf of mexico and the eastern equatorial pacific were subjected to a multifold analysis in order to extract the paleoceanographic history of the region a detailed nannofossil biostratigraphy is the basic time framework the paleoenvironmental signals are deduced from fluctuations of diversity dominance and equitability through time by clustering of assemblages through time and examining the composition of cluster groups by comparison of fluctuations in carbonate content and coarse fraction with time and by factor analysis of the assemblage these measures variously reflect surface water characteristics such as productivity bottom water characteristics such as corrosiveness dissolution and conditions of sedimentation such as dilution of the pelagic biogenic carbonate diversity dominance and equitability which are determined by surface water characteristics show similar trends often in considerable detail in the caribbean and the gulf of mexico from the late miocene through pleistocene broad but definite similarities exist in these measures between the caribbean gulf of mexico and the eastern equatorial pacific in the late miocene to mid pliocene but not in the late pliocene clustering groups assemblages in a broad biostratigraphic pattern corresponding approximately to a major assemblage zone the structure and composition of cluster groups indicate strong similarity between the caribbean and the gulf of mexico during the late miocene through pleistocene but only weak similarity of the caribbean and gulf of mexico to the eastern equatorial pacific and only during the early pliocene surface water productivity is generally similar at the three locations into the late pliocene but seemingly diverges in the eastern equatorial pacific after about 2 4 m y variations in dissolution intensity have generally similar trends in the late miocene and early pliocene in the caribbean and the gulf of mexico but the trends diverge in the late pliocene and are dissimilar in the pleistocene in the eastern equatorial pacific dissolution intensity increases with the inferred thermal subsidence of the crust variations in the calcium carbonate content of the sediment essentially pelagic carbonate follow different trends at the three sites which is attributable to different sedimentary histories at the sites tectonic plus eustatic sea level changes for the caribbean eustatic sea level changes alone for the gulf of mexico and dilution by biogenic silica plus dissolution for the eastern equatorial pacific the various measured and derived parameters indicate that as late as the mid pliocene approximately 3 8 m y a deep water connection existed between the pacific and the caribbean gulf of mexico a shallower seaway permitting exchange of surface water between the pacific and gulf of mexico seems to have existed into the late pliocene to between 3 0 to 2 2 m y and final closure probably coincided with the sea level draw down associated with the initial buildup of a northern hemisphere ice sheet during the late pliocene and early pleistocene surface productivity oscillates markedly but seemingly with different intensities in the caribbean and the gulf of mexico the most important floral change occurs in both basins at about 0 9 m y when the smallgephyrocapsa dominated high productivity nannoflora of the preceeding 0 3 m y was replaced abruptly by a moderate productivity flora this turnover marks a major change in ocean circulation towards a relatively warm stably stratified tropical surface ocean which seems to have been affected remarkably little by some of the intense late pleistocene high latitude climatic changes

source parameters of two rift associated intraplate earthquakes in peninsular india the bhadrachalam earthquake of april 13 1969 and the broach earthquake of march 23 1970 abstract the bhadrachalam earthquake of april 13 1969 and the broach earthquake of march 23 1970 are two major intraplate earthquakes associated with paleorift zones in the stable continental region of peninsular india these two events shook very large portions of the peninsula and casualties were reported for the broach earthquake ancient rifts have recently been identified as a major seismogenic tectonic feature for intraplate seismicity in stable continental regions p wave first motions and waveforms of long period teleseismic p and sh waves have been modeled to constrain the focal mechanisms and to determine the source parameters for the earthquakes previous investigators proposed multiple fault plane solutions for each of the events in this paper some of the early solutions are eliminated and the best source mechanism is derived for each earthquake for the bhadrachalam earthquake the focal mechanism determined is predominantly strike slip strike 245 dip 72 rake 358 the strike direction of the ne sw trending nodal plane is in good agreement with the trend of the observed isoseismals and is probably the fault plane the seismic moment is 4 59 1024 dyne cm and the moment magnitude mw is determined to be 5 7 the focal depth and the static stress drop are estimated to be 10 km and 17 bar respectively the strike slip motion represents a reactivated fault motion under the present day stress field for the broach earthquake the focal mechanism determined is reverse faulting with a strike slip component strike 273 dip 58 rake 130 the direction of the e w striking nodal plane is in good agreement with the mapped narmada fault dislocation direction of fissures and the trend of the isoseismals the seismic moment and moment magnitude are determined to be 1 39 1024 dyne cm and 5 4 respectivety the focal depth and the stress drop are estimated to be 11 km and 9 bar respectively the reverse motion of this event represents an inverted slip or tectonic inversion within a rift zone under the present day compressional stress field some rift associated earthquakes are characterized by large multiple shocks with significant strike slip motions the two indian earthquakes however occurred as regular main shock aftershock sequences and represent a different mode of strain release these two earthquakes also represent events with low stress drops and relatively long recurrence intervals the interpretation of this last observation is uncertain and needs more study in the future

earthquake depth distributions in central asia and their relations with lithosphere thickness shortening and extension this paper examines the relationship between seismogenic thickness lithosphere structure and rheology in central and northeastern asia we accurately determine earthquake depth distributions which reveal important rheological variations in the lower crust these variations exert a fundamental control on the active tectonics and the morphological evolution of the continents we consider 323 earthquakes across the tibetan plateau the tien shan and their forelands as well as the baikal rift ne siberia and the laptev sea and present the source parameters of 94 of these here for the first time these parameters have been determined through body wave inversion the identification of depth phases or the modelling of regional waveforms lower crustal earthquakes are found to be restricted to the forelands in areas undergoing shortening and to locations where rifting coincides with abrupt changes in lithosphere thickness such as the ne baikal rift and w laptev sea the lower crust in these areas is seismogenic at temperatures that may be as high as 600 c suggesting that it is anhydrous and is likely to have great long term strength lower crustal earthquakes are therefore a useful proxy indicating strong lithosphere in places that are too small in areal extent for this to be confirmed independently by estimating effective elastic thickness from gravity topography relations the variation in crustal rheology indicated by the distribution of lower crustal earthquakes has many implications ranging from the support of mountain belts and the formation of steep mountain fronts to the localization and orientation of rifting in combination these processes can also be responsible for the separation of the front of the thin skinned mountain belts from their hinterlands when continents separate

body waveforms and source parameters of some moderate sized earthquakes near north island new zealand p wave first motion and synthetic seismogram analysis of p and sh waveforms recorded at teleseismic distances on the wwssn are used to estimate source parameters of seven of the largest earthquakes 6 1 mb 6 3 that occurred in the vicinity of north island new zealand since 1965 the source parameters of three other mb 6 1 events determined outside of this study are included and considered in the final analysis four of the earthquakes occurred at shallow depths 20 km of which three were located within and to the north of north island two of the shallow events show strike slip and normal focal mechanisms with t axes oriented in a manner consistent with their location in an area of known back arc extension one of the shallow events occurred in northern south island and shows a reverse type mechanism indicating horizontal contraction of the crust in an easterly azimuth six events occurred at intermediate depths h 39 to 195 km of which five exhibit thrust mechanisms with t axes consistently oriented near vertical in the light of previously published plate tectonic models the near vertical orientation of t axes of the intermediate depth events may be used to infer that the southern kermadec plate boundary immediately north of north island is not strongly coupled and hence not likely capable of producing great earthquakes a similar inference cannot be made for the section of the hikurangi margin adjacent to north island since the intermediate depth events considered in this study lie to the north of this segment of the plate boundary

southern ocean pleistocene calcareous nannofossil events calibration with isotope and geomagnetic stratigraphies abstract several cores recovered from the northern belt of the southern ocean were analysed to study the pleistocene calcareous nannofossil records calcareous nannofossil events previously described in medium and low latitudes were identified and calibrated with the oxygen isotope and geomagnetic time scales although sedimentation rates hiatuses and degree of calcareous nannofossil preservation sometimes prevent the identification and or accurate calibration of some of these events a useful stratigraphic framework was obtained the possibility of using these calibrated events from high to low latitudes facilitates correlations and should facilitate isotope event identification in a region with low temperature where calcareous plankton stratigraphies are in general restricted in general pleistocene southern high latitude calcareous nannofossil events show synchronism with those observed in warm and temperate surficial waters small discrepancies in the assigned ages are sometimes related to low sampling resolution due to low sedimentation rates the first occurrence fo of emiliania huxleyi and the last occurrence lo of pseudoemiliania lacunosa are observed in marine isotope stages mis 8 and 12 respectively a reversal in abundance between gephyrocapsa muellerae and e huxleyi is observed close to the mis 4 5 boundary mis 6 is characterised by an increase in g muellerae and mis 7 features a dramatic decrease in the proportion of gephyrocapsa caribbeanica this latter species began to increase its proportions from the mis 13 14 boundary to mis13 showing diachronism between the different sites the lo of reticulofenestra asanoi is observed at mis 22 confirming this event as a global synchronous reference datum by contrast the fo of r asanoi occurs at mis 35 and is diachronous with the existing data from other oceanic regions a re entry of medium sized gephyrocapsa 3 5 m maximum diameters can be identified in some cores close to mis 25 although the low abundance of this taxon prevents an accurate calibration it may be concluded that this event is diachronous as compared with the existing low latitude data the lo of large morphotypes of gephyrocapsa is well correlated with mis 37 showing synchronism with other oceanic regions whereas the fo of this species is not well calibrated due to the absence of age control points

shear wave attenuation characteristics over the central india tectonic zone and its surroundings abstract the study area lies between latitude 18 26 n and longitude 73 83 e and mainly covers the central india tectonic zone citz the frequency dependent shear wave quality factor qs has been estimated over the citz and its surroundings using double spectral ratio dsr method we have considered 25 local earthquakes with magnitude ml varies from 3 0 to 4 7 recorded at 11 stations running under national seismic network the fast fourier transformed fft spectra were computed from the recorded waveform having time window from onset of s phase to 1 0 s and for a frequency band of 0 1 10 hz three different shear wave velocities i e 3 87 3 39 and 3 96 km s were obtained over the study area based on a pair of earthquakes recorded at a pair of stations the low qs values of 51 96 at 1 hz i e qs 51f0 49 qs 90f0 488 and qs 96f0 53 were found in the area covering the son narmada tapti sonata lineament citz eastern part of the satpura fold belt vindhyan and gondwana basins godavari and mahanadi grabens and southern part of gangetic plain intermediate qs values of the order of 204 277 i e qs 204f0 56 and qs 277f0 55 were noted in the cartonic areas namely bundelkhand dharwar bhandara and bastar while the higher qs values of 391 628 at 1 hz i e qs 391f0 49 qs 409f0 48 qs 417f0 48 qs 500f0 66 qs 585f0 65 and qs 628f0 69 were found in the eastern part of the sonata citz and the northeastern part of the satpura fold belt the low qs values might be attributing to the more heterogeneous sonata rift system low qs values further may presumably be associated with lower level of seismicity and apparently account for higher tectonic stress accumulation over long duration the long term accumulated stress is generally released through occasional triggering of moderate magnitude earthquakes in the sonata zone surrounding the sonata region the higher qs values possibly accounts for a more homogeneous subsurface structure along the sonata zone

pleistocene fluctuations in the northern benguela current system as revealed by coccolith assemblages late pleistocene coccolith data of odp site 1082 from the eastern south atlantic off namibia were analysed to document spatial and temporal changes in surface ocean circulation upwelling intensity and associated productivity the studied site is located on the continental slope close to prominent oceanographic features such as the coastal upwelling mixing area the openoceanic realm and the warm water regime of the angola current highest numbers of total coccoliths up to 30 10 9 coccoliths g 1 sediment were observed during relatively warm periods characterised bydecreased upwellingintensity these elevatednumbers ofcoccoliths are due to highersurface water temperatures anddocumentadomainprobablyinfluencedbylowernutrientconcentrationsinanareawhereoceanicandfilamentouswatermix in contrast low numbers of coccoliths during glacial periods probably characterise time intervals of enhanced upwelling accompanied byabroad filamentous mixing area coccoliths of the genusgephyrocapsaarethe most abundant taxain samples of site 1082 their occurrences are characterised by abrupt changes in the investigated time interval in addition calcidiscus leptoporus pseudoemilinia lacunosa and reticulofenestra asanoi contribute a common part of the assemblage coccoliths accountformorethanhalfofthecarbonate withpeakcontributionofupto 80 intheinterval560to280kawhengephyrocapsa caribbeanica is the major caco3 producer increased carbonate accumulation during this time interval point to an overall weakening of the coastal upwelling intensity accompanied by a reduction of the mixing zone influencing the site location during this event d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

some seismological and geometric features of intraplate earthquakes to understand the nature and cause of intraplate earthquakes we carried out a systematic search for common features associated with them various geological geophysical and seismic data were analyzed and geometric and seismic parameters were compared for 29 intraplate events m 4 5 occurring worldwide the results suggest that intraplate earthquakes occur by the reactivation of pre existing zones of weakness in a compressional stress regime which is generally oriented parallel to the absolute direction of plate motion two styles of faulting were observed for type a earthquakes observed in the eastern united states eastern china western europe and west africa deformation occurs by strike slip motion on steeply dipping faults type b events are usually associated with thrust or normal faulting and were observed in eastern canada fennoscandia australia and peninsular india focal depths did not explain the differences between type a and type b earthquakes rather the differences are due to the perturbation of a regional stress field by a local stress field the regional stress field for type a events is primarily due to ridge push forces the method of stress perturbation varied from region to region the earthquakes in the type b category were further divided into three subcategories type b1 occurring in eastern canada and fennoscandia type b2 occurring in australia peninsular india and central brazil and type b3 occurring in the gulf coast of the u s the inferred causes of the perturbing stresses are deglaciation intracontinental resistive forces resulting from the collision of plates and the deposition of a large thickness of sediments respectively type a events were found to be associated with intersecting faults and generally supported the intersection model of talwani 1988 and had analogs in plate boundary events

late quaternary nannofossil indicators of climate change in two deep sea cores associated with the leeuwin current off western australia the stratigraphic variations in nannoflora observed in the two deep sea cores recovered from the offshore western australia revealed a sequence of paleoceanographic changes for the last 250 kyr the dominance of small placolith taxa in the upper photic flora indicates continuous mild upwelling for the isotope stages 7 5 in this region the most important controlling factor for the abundance variation of florisphaera profunda in this region is considered to be the lower photic temperature rather than the stability of water column or the water turbidity the significant reduction in the abundance of f profunda combined with the stable in the northern core rs96gc21 and reduced in the southern core rs9 150 abundance of the small taxa suggest an intensified upwelling for the penultimate glaciation the sharp increase in f profunda abundance indicates a weakening of upwelling at the last interglacial climax lic offshore western australia after isotope stage 5 the existence of upwelling is not clear except in stage 2 when it was not strong enough to produce blooms of emiliania huxleyi among the subordinate taxa calcidiscus leptoporus calciosolenia murrayi neosphaera coccolithomorpha and oolithotus fragilis provide meaningful paleoceanographic signals supporting the conclusions of previous studies a weakening or cessation of leeuwin current for the glacial periods the shift of dominance from small gephyrocapsa mostly g ericsonii to small reticulofenestra mostly r parvula can be an useful datum event offshore western australia the reduced diversity of nannoflora during the interglacial periods can be explained by a lessened competition within nannoplankton community caused by particularly favorable conditions for the opportunists such as e huxleyi f profunda and small placoliths the variations in nannofossil abundance suggests an increased aeolian flux at the stages 6 and 2 offshore north west cape as well as at stage 6 offshore southwestern australia

seismogenesis in the stable continental interiors an appraisal based on two examples from india characteristics of two recent moderate earthquakes from india 1993 killari mw 6 1 and 1997 jabalpur mw 5 8 are presented in this paper to illustrate the influence of geologic and tectonic setting on the nature of seismicity in stable continental regions scrs the killari event which occurred in the middle of a cratonic region of low background seismicity long recurrence interval and poorly developed neotectonic features may be qualified as a common type of scr event this earthquake is also characterized by a shallow focal depth and a long sequence of aftershocks in contrast the jabalpur earthquake shows a spatial association with a well defined tectonic structure with significant background seismicity a remarkable feature of this earthquake is its deep focus not commonly observed in scr seismicity this event was associated with fewer aftershocks unlike most other scr earthquakes analogous events are found in other shield regions as well based on their general characteristics a broad classification of moderate scr earthquakes is attempted here two broad groups have been identified in this study 1 a set of deep focus earthquakes that are related to intracratonic paleorifts and 2 shallow focus earthquakes associated with discrete faults in the less deformed precambrian terrains a synthesis of earthquake data from different geologic environments will improve our understanding of the seismogenesis in the shield regions 1999 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

insolation cycles as a major control of equatorial indian ocean primary production analysis of a continuous sedimentary record taken in the maldives indicates that strong primary production fluctuations 70 to 390 grams of carbon per square meter per year have occurred in the equatorial indian ocean during the past 910 000 years the record of primary production is coherent and in phase with the february equatorial insolation whereas it shows diverse phase behavior with 18o depending on the orbital frequency eccentricity obliquity or precession examined these observations imply a direct control of productivity in the equatorial oceanic system by insolation in the equatorial indian ocean productivity is driven by the wind intensity of westerlies which is related to the southern oscillation therefore it is suggested that a precession forcing on the southern oscillation is responsible for the observed paleoproductivity dynamics

active faulting in apparently stable peninsular india rift inversion and a holocene age great earthquake on the tapti fault we present observations of active faulting within peninsular india far from the surrounding plate boundaries offset alluvial fan surfaces indicate one or more magnitude 7 6 8 4 thrust faulting earthquakes on the tapti fault maharashtra western india during the holocene the high ratio of fault displacement to length on the alluvial fan offsets implies high stress drop faulting as has been observed elsewhere in the peninsula the along strike extent of the fan offsets is similar to the thickness of the seismogenic layer suggesting a roughly equidimensional fault rupture the subsiding footwall of the fault is likely to have been responsible for altering the continental scale drainage pattern in central india and creating the large west flowing catchment of the tapti river a preexisting sedimentary basin in the uplifting hanging wall implies that the tapti fault was active as a normal fault during the mesozoic and has been reactivated as a thrust highlighting the role of preexisting structures in determining the rheology and deformation of the lithosphere the slip sense of faults and earthquakes in india suggests that deformation south of the ganges foreland basin is driven by the compressive force transmitted between india and the tibetan plateau the along strike continuation of faulting to the east of the holocene ruptures we have studied represents a significant seismic hazard in central india

a synthesis of the ionian sea hydrography circulation and water mass pathways during poem phase i abstract in this paper we revisit with a thorough in depth analysis the dataset collected in the hydrographic surveys of the international collaborative programme poem physical oceanography of the eastern mediterranean in the period 1986 1987 the work has two major objectives the first is to refine the dynamic picture of the ionian upper thermocline sub basin scale circulation rather less definitive than the dynamic picture of the levantine sea circulation the second is to identify the pathways of the major water masses of the basin not only in the near surface but also in the intermediate and deep layers to our knowledge this is the first work defining the pathways of the levantine intermediate water liw and of the adriatic deep water adw eastern mediterranean deep water emdw that characterize the intermediate and deep circulations the major novel results can be summarized as follows in the upper thermocline 1 the atlantic ionian stream ais jet entering the sicily straits bifurcates into two main branches at 37 n 17 e it advects the modified atlantic water maw into the ionian sea interior the first branch turning directly southward encloses an overall anticyclonic area comprising multiple centers around which the maw is advected 2 the second ais branch extends further into the northeastern ionian where it too turns southward before crossing the entire ionian sea meridionally advecting maw on its left side and ionian surface water isw on its right this branch of the jet is confined to the ionian margin and does not pass around the pelops gyre 3 a new water mass the lsw is formed in the levantine basin and enters the cretan passage then is first veered cyclonically south of crete by the cretan gyre and successively is entrained anticyclonically around the pelops gyre and then enters the aegean sea 4 a permanent cyclone located in the northeastern ionian determines the pathway of mixed adriatic surface water ionian surface water asw isw 5 a permanent cyclone is found in all the surveys near the tip of the italian boot this novel analysis of the liw pathways shows that 1 the major source of intermediate liw during the period 1986 1987 was actually in the levantine sea liw formed there entered the cretan passage was veered cyclonically by the cretan gyre south of crete and then entered the southern ionian sea the major liw pathway was westward directly to the sicilian straits 2 secondary important liw pathways were determined by the interior structures the strong pelops anticyclone was entraining liw around its periphery and was determining the liw northward pathway that closely followed the eastern greek coastline it was along this pathway that liw entered the otranto strait a further branch of liw was entrained and recirculated around the multiple ionian anticyclones ia of the western ionian sea 3 the cretan cyclone is a feature confined to the upper thermocline intermediate layer it disappears at 400 dbar while the pelops anticyclone is strongly barotropic below the upper 100 dbar and penetrates quite intense down to 800 dbar 4 a further completely novel result concerns the new water mass found in the deep layer that spreads on the 29 15 kg m3 isopycnal surface this water mass characterized by high salinity and high oxygen content is formed inside the aegean sea and is observed to spread out all around the cretan arc straits the final fully novel result is the demonstration of a second pathway for the adw exiting from the otranto strait that is transformed into emdw and occupies the abyssal layers of the ionian sea interior the traditional pathway for emdw is along the isobaths along the western side of italy but adw was observed to be exiting from the otranto strait in the eastern hellenic trench at 39 5 n both during poem on86 and poem as87 this second pathway for emdw follows isobath contours along the western side of greece the two emdw routes converge and merge between 36 n and 35 n so producing a deep layer of emdw that occupies uniformly the abyssal plain of the interior of the ionian sea

coccolithophores in surface sediments of the arabian sea in relation to environmental gradients in surface waters abstract one hundred surface sediment samples of the arabian sea indian ocean were investigated and relative abundances of coccoliths were compared to mean annual gradients of temperature salinity chlorophyll po4 and mixed layer depth total coccolith concentrations ranged from 42 106 g sediment in coastal areas to more than 19 000 106 g sediment in oceanic regions the general distribution does not seem to be dependent on coccolithophore productivity in surface waters alone but also on the diluting input of terrigenous material a total of 27 taxa were identified the main species dominating the assemblages were gephyrocapsa oceanica emiliania huxleyi and florisphaera profunda with a combined average abundance of more than 70 several species and species groups reflect with their distribution the environmental parameters of the overlying water masses and may be successfully used to improve palaeoclimatic reconstructions e g a f profunda exhibits a high similarity or even positive correlation to the mean annual mixed layer depth b calciosolenids can be described as coastal or shelf species while temperature and salinity gradients do not seem to be crucial for coccolithophores in this region the mean mixed layer depth as well as the po4 concentration representative for total nutrient availability may control in part the coccolithophore assemblages according to the results of a cluster analysis and the distribution pattern of all species it was possible to differentiate three main coccolithophore assemblages a g oceanica dominated assemblage mainly occurs in the northern part of the study area and can be described as high nutrient assemblage the second assemblage dominated by f profunda may be typical for oligotrophic and stable conditions in open ocean waters a third assemblage with high amounts of coastal species characterises coastal conditions on the shelves

comparison of glacial and interglacial conditions between the polar and subpolar north atlantic region over the last five climatic cycles a multiparameter based interpretation of sediment records from the northeast atlantic and the western nordic seas suggests that during the last 500 000 years only in marine isotopes stage mis 11 5e and 1 were there somewhat comparable interglacial boundary conditions in both regions i e strongly reduced occurrence of iceberg rafted debris ird and high carbonate bioproductivity although the northeast atlantic experienced such conditions during all peak interglaciations with the exception of mis 7 planktic foraminiferal 18o from this region would still indicate that significantly colder sea surface temperatures sst prevailed during mis 11 than during mis 9 5e and 1 this assumption is corroborated by a continuous input of ird into the western nordic seas during mis 11 implying a much steeper sst gradient between the polar and subpolar region and an overall reduced thermohaline activity in the polar latitudes the iceberg proxy also reveals that maximum ird discharge always happened during the final phase of glaciation and into early deglaciation terminations as these ird records from the two regions are characterized by a high time coherency it is concluded that short term variability is a persistent feature of the glacial climate system

body wave waveform constraints on the source parameters of the yangjiang china earthquake of july 25 1969 a devastating earthquake in a stable continental region on july 25 1969 anm s 5 9 earthquake shook the kwangtung province near yangjiang china casualties and extensive damage were reported in the epicentral area the yangjiang earthquake occurred within the passive margin located along china s southeast coast this stable continental setting is seismically one of the most quiet regions of china historic records indicate this earthquake to have been the first devastating one in the area a remarkable feature of this earthquake sequence is that its foreshocks and aftershocks are relatively small in terms of number and magnitude despite the relatively large main shock waveforms of long and short period teleseismicp and long period teleseismicsh waves have been modeled to estimate the source parameters for this earthquake the focal mechanism determined is predominately strike slip with a small normal component strike 263 dip 79 rake 194 and is in good agreement with observations in the epicentral area regarding dislocation direction of fissures distribution of aftershocks and isoseismals the average seismic moment is 5 15 1024 dyne cm and the focal depth is estimated to be 9 km the earthquake is characterized by a rather short source time function and a high stress drop of approximately 380 bars the observed pattern of the foreshock main shock aftershock sequence is interpreted in terms of the large stress drop associated with the main shock and the material properties at and near the source thep axis orientation lies roughly nw se and is consistent with the maximum compressive stress observed along the coast of southeast china this stress orientation is consistent with the nw subducting philippine sea plate and the se ward push from central china due to the convergence between indian and eurasian subcontinents

mode of strain release of three graben associated earthquakes the nature of graben associated earthquakes has been investigated through a study of three earthquake sequences using various seismological geophysical and geological data the three earthquake sequences are the hsingtai china earthquakes maximum magnitude ms 7 2 of march 1966 the nevada earthquakes maximum m 7 1 of 1954 and the new madrid earthquakes maximum ms 8 8 of 1811 1812 these earthquake sequences represent a unique mode of strain release away from plate margins and have bearings on earthquake hazard evaluation a number of similarities have been observed during these earthquake sequences for instance all the three sequences are characterized by large multiple shocks or swarms which last from several weeks to several months among the large multiple shocks in each sequence the largest one usually is not the first one migrations of epicenters were observed during the hsingtai and the new madrid earthquakes significant amount of strike slip motion was associated or inferred with all these three sequences in particular for the hsingtai earthquakes the swarm of multiple shock activities is probably due to induced instability or strong coupling and interactions among a series of adjacent faults in a heterogeneous graben the strike slip motion can be explained by a change or a rotation of stress orientation after the formation of a graben the graben events are similar to the earthquake swarms associated with spreading oceanic ridges but with significant differences available data indicate that the recurrence intervals for the three graben earthquake sequences studied are of the order of thousands of years

movement of oceanic fronts south of australia during the last 10 ka interpretation of calcareous nannoplankton in surface sediments from the southern ocean abstract preservation of calcareous nannoplankton in surface sediment samples from the southern ocean south of australia and adjacent to new zealand record a single assemblage the dominant species are emiliania huxleyi gephyrocapsa muellerae calcidiscus leptoporus helicosphaera carteri and coccolithus pelagicus the assemblage varies little in abundance and diversity with minor correlation to present day overlying surface water masses and oceanic fronts increase in abundance of h carteri and c pelagicus in the region of the subtropical front may reflect higher nutrients associated with this front the assemblage although altered by dissolution represents a warmer climatic interval than present day with the presence of preferentially dissolved warm water species preserved as far south as the polar front the presence of warm water species under sub antarctic waters at the polar front is interpreted as a relic population from the holocene climatic optimum of 10 8 ka the absence of coccoliths in sediments poleward of the polar front suggests an equatorward shift of this front following the climatic optimum resulting in increased productivity of siliceous phytoplankton associated with the colder waters and increased dissolution of coccoliths movement of the subtropical front for the same interval is not recorded in the preserved coccoliths the more heavily calcified form of e huxleyi which dominates the living assemblage north of the subtropical front is subject to dissolution in this region and is poorly preserved in the sediment assemblage

an improved method for determining the regional stress tensor using earthquake focal mechanism data application to the san fernando earthquake sequence the orientations of fault planes and slip directions indicated by a population of earthquake focal mechanisms can be used to determine best fit regional principal stress directions and r 2 1 3 1 a measure of relative stress magnitudes under the assumption of uniform stress in the source region this analysis allows for the possibility that failure occurs on preexisting zones of weakness of any orientation in the inversion we perform a grid search of stress models to find the one which requires the smallest total rotation of all the fault planes that is needed to match the observed and predicted slip directions the method allows for errors in orientations of both the fault planes and slip directions we have an objective means for identifying the more likely of the two possible fault planes from each focal mechanism relative to a given stress model thus we do not face the problem of ambiguity of nodal planes which plagues other analyses of this kind by using a grid search of stress models rather than a linearization scheme we are able to perform a realistic error analysis and thus establish confidence limits for the preferred regional stresses the method can be used to investigate possible stress inhomogeneities during earthquake sequences by analyzing subsets of the data population the technique has been applied to 76 events from the san fernando earthquake sequence for which we have found best fit stresses plunge and azimuth 1 7 187 2 27 281 3 62 84 and r 0 65 the average misfit between this stress model and all the data is about 8 and all but eight of the aftershocks have misfits of less than 20 these values are considerably less than the uncertainty of the focal mechanism determinations therefore significant stress inhomogeneities are not required by the data our analysis does not support the suggestion of a change in stresses during the aftershock sequence as proposed by others on the basis of an apparent change in focal mechanisms

tectonics and thermal structure of western satpura india abstract increased seismicity and occurrences of hot springs having surface temperature of 36 58 c are observed in the central part of india 74 81 e 20 25 n where the ne trending middle proterozoic aravalli mobile belt meets the ene trending satpura mobile belt earlier deep seismic sounding dss studies along thuadara sendhwa sindad profile in the area has showed mesozoic sediments up to around 4 km depth covered by deccan trap and the moho depth with a boundary velocity p n of 8 2 km s in the present study surface heat flow of 48 4 mw m 2 has been estimated based on p n velocity which agrees with the value of heat flow of 52 4 mw m 2 based on curie point isotherms estimates the calculated temperature depth profile shows temperature of 80 120 c at the basement which is equivalent to oil window temperature in mesozoic sediments and around 570 635 c at moho depth of 38 43 km and the thermal lithosphere is about 110 km thick which is comparatively higher than those of adjoining regions the present study reveals the brittle ductile transition zone at 14 41 km depth temperature around 250 600 c where earthquake nucleation takes place

on the mechanism and source parameters of the deep crustal jabalpur earthquake india of 1997 may 21 constraints from aftershocks and changes in static stress summary the 1997 may 21 jabalpur earthquake mb 6 0 occurred in the lower crust of the ene wswtrending narmada son palaeorift zone in central india known as the narmada son lineament nsl we correlate the aftershock distribution of this earthquake with the computed changes in static stress caused by slip on the earthquake rupture in order to constrain some of the source parameters of the main event we estimate that the downdip edge of the earthquake rupture extended up to a depth of about 38 km and that the majority of the aftershocks occurred due to unclamping in the hangingwall near the downdip edge of the rupture considering the intermediate to moderately high heat flow in the region we suggest that 1 high pore pressure in the lower crust which developed due to the dehydration of the serpentinite body during previous episodes of thermo tectonic processes 2 a lower frictional coefficient possibly arising due to fractured rocks at depth 3 a higher strain rate and 4 the favourable influence of n s compression due to the motion of the indian plate are responsible for the infrequent earthquakes in the lower crust of the nsl zone

calcareous nannofossil surface sediment assemblages from the sicily channel central mediterranean sea palaeoceanographic implications abstract quantitative analysis of 67 calcareous nannofossil assemblages from surface sediments recovered in a wide area across the sicily channel has been carried out in order to improve the interpretation of palaeontological data based on this planktonic group in a key area for mediterranean palaeoceanographic studies the investigation focused on three case studies that demonstrate the high potentiality of such a combined approach taking into account the recent distribution of taxa or groups of taxa on the sea floor and the palaeontological record the distribution of reworked specimens over the northern sicily channel sea floor validates the role of southern sicily as a source region for reworked nannofossils and the role of rivers as their carrier eustatic sea level fluctuations can be considered to be the main factor that influenced the abundance variations in sedimentary sequences of this area the distribution of florisphaera profunda can be explained in terms of topography positive correlation and mesoscale oceanographic circulation in particular its significant anti correlation to the amount of chlorophyll a deduced by satellite imagery validates the use of this species as a proxy for palaeoproductivity reconstructions finally high abundance values of g oceanica are confined to the westernmost part of the sicily channel coinciding with a water mass salinity minimum in particular abundances of up to about 10 were observed in the westernmost part of the african margin suggesting the importance of the atlantic tunisian current whose activity is more pronounced in winter the comparison of data of this species between 135 and 110 kyr bp inside and outside the channel led us to deduce that the physical transport in almost unmodified waters of atlantic origin might be the most important factor for its significant occurrence

occurrences of large magnitude earthquakes in the kachchh region gujarat western india tectonic implications abstract moderate to large damaging earthquakes in the peninsular part of the indian plate do not support the long standing belief of the seismic stability of this region the historical record shows that about 15 damaging earthquakes with magnitudes from 5 5 to 8 0 occurred in the indian peninsula most of these events were associated with the old rift systems our analysis of the 2001 bhuj earthquake and its 12 year aftershock sequence indicates a seismic zone bound by two linear trends nnw and nne that intersect an e w trending graben the bouguer gravity values near the epicentre of the bhuj earthquake are relatively low 2 mgal the gravity anomaly maps the distribution of earthquake epicentres and the crustal strain rate patterns indicate that the 2001 bhuj earthquake occurred along a fault within strain hardened mid crustal rocks the collision resistance between the indian plate and the eurasian plate along the himalayas and anticlockwise rotation of the indian plate provide the far field stresses that concentrate within a fault bounded block close to the western margin of the indian plate and is periodically released during earthquakes such as the 2001 m w 7 7 bhuj earthquake we propose that the moderate to large magnitude earthquakes in the deeper crust in this area occur along faults associated with old rift systems that are reactivated in a strain hardened environment

paleoenvironmental conditions at core kc01b ionian sea through mis 13 9 evidence from calcareous nannofossil assemblages quantitative analyses on calcareous nannofossil assemblages on high temporal resolution 600e800 years have been carried out from core kc01b in the ionian sea eastern mediterranean throughout marine isotope stage mis 13e9 between 500 and 300 ka this is an interval of considerable climate changes known as the mid brunhes event which includes mis 11 considered as a possible analogue for future interglacial conditions in the mediterranean core the interval is characterized by the dominance of gephyrocapsaspp as also known fromocean records calcareous nannofossil abundance fluctuations have been interpreted in terms of modification of sea surface primary productivity water stratification and temperature specifically the increase in abundance of gephyrocapsa caribbeanica and small gephyrocapsa coupled with decreases of florisphaera profunda syracosphaera spp and rhabdosphaera spp suggests enhanced primary productivity mixed surface waters during interglacial stages and at the terminations which can be interpreted in terms of interaction between climate changes and mesoscale oceanographic circulation on the other hand distributions of calciosolenia spp oolithotus spp and umbilicosphaera sibogae which are inphase with d 18 o curve showing higher abundances at the lighter values of the marine

scaling differences between large interplate and intraplate earthquakes a study of large intraplate earthquakes with well determined source parameters shows that these earthquakes obey a scaling law similar to large interplate earthquakes in which m 0 l 2 or u l where l is rupture length and u is slip in contrast to interplate earthquakes for which 1 10 5 for for the intraplate events 6 10 5 which implies that these earthquakes have stress drops about 6 times higher than interplate events this result is independent of focal mechanism type this implies that intraplate faults have a higher frictional strength than do plate boundaries and hence that faults are velocity or slip weakening in their behavior this factor may be important in producing the concentrated deformation that creates and maintains plate boundaries

antarctic temperature and global sea level closely coupled over the past five glacial cycles sea level has varied by over one hundred metres across glacial interglacial cycles over the past 520 000 years an extended sea level reconstruction shows a strong coupling between these sea level changes and antarctic surface temperatures over the past five glacial cycles

seismic moment assessment of earthquakes in stable continental regions ii historical seismicity summary this part i study in conjunction with part 11 develops a method to determine within specified uncertainty bounds the seismic moment and thus moment magnitude of all earthquakes of stable continental regions scr for which instrumental or intensity data exist its basis is polynomial regression analysis using a database of scr earthquakes with direct seismic moment determination the independent variables include modern teleseismic magnitudes and regional magnitudes part i and isoseismal areas or number of recording stations part 11 part i11 is an application of the methodology of parts i and i1 to several major historical earthquakes all data used in the regressions are assigned individual uncertainties estimated from the literature or from experience formal confidence limits 68 per cent or 95 per cent on both the regression formulas and the predicted seismic moment values are then possible via error propagation analysis the most complete development is for the teleseismic magnitudes m and mb for both the final regression for log m is a quadratic formula that closely emulates the relationship between amplitude magnitudes and log m expected from dislocation theory and source scaling arguments regressions are also derived for the regional magnitudes mlg and m because there are many scr events mainly pre 1964 that have no teleseismic magnitudes prediction uncertainties from teleseismic magnitudes in moment magnitude units are in the ao 18 0 28 range and from regional magnitudes in the ko 23 0 38 range over a wide magnitude band finally the methodology developed here is generic even though the database is specific application to plate boundary oceanic intraplate or active continental intraplate regions should be straightforward

abrupt climate events 500 000 to 340 000 years ago evidence from subpolar north atlantic sediments subpolar north atlantic proxy records document millennial scale climate variations 500 000 to 340 000 years ago the cycles have an approximately constant pacing that is similar to that documented for the last glacial cycle these findings suggest that such climate variations are inherent to the late pleistocene regardless of glacial state sea surface temperature during the warm peak of marine isotope stage 11 mis 11 varied by 0 5 to 1 c less than the 4 to 4 5 c estimated during times of ice growth and the 3 c estimated for glacial maxima coherent deep ocean circulation changes were associated with glacial oscillations in sea surface temperature

late quaternary caco3 production and preservation in the southern ocean implications for oceanic and atmospheric carbon cycling recent geochemical models invoke ocean alkalinity changes particularly in the surface southern ocean to explain glacial age pco2 reduction in such models alkalinity increases in glacial periods are driven by reductions in north atlantic deep water nadw supply which lead to increases in deep water nutrients and dissolution of carbonate sediments and to increased alkalinity of circumpolar deep water upwelling in the surface southern ocean we use cores from the southeast indian ridge and from the deep cape basin in the south atlantic to show that carbonate dissolution was enhanced during glacial stages in areas now bathed by circumpolar deep water this suggests that deep southern ocean carbonate ion concentrations were lower in glacial stages than in interglacials rather than higher as suggested by the polar alkalinity model broecker and peng 1989 our observations show that changes in southern ocean caco3 preservation are coherent with changes in the relative flux of nadw suggesting that southern ocean carbonate chemistry is closely linked to changes in deepwater circulation the pattern of enhanced dissolution in glacials is consistent with a reduction in the supply of nutrient depleted water nadw to the southern ocean and with an increase of nutrients in deep water masses carbonate mass accumulation rates on the southeast indian ridge 3200 3800 m and in relatively shallow cores 3000 m from the kerguelen plateau and the south pacific were significantly reduced during glacial stages by about 50 the reduced carbonate mass accumulation rates and enhanced dissolution during glacials may be partly due to decreases in caco3 corg flux ratios acting as another mechanism which would raise the alkalinity of southern ocean surface waters the polar alkalinity model assumes that the ratio of organic carbon to carbonate production on surface alkalinity is constant even if overall productivity in the southern ocean were held constant a decrease in the caco3 corg ratio would result in increased alkalinity and reduced pco2 in southern ocean surface waters during glacials this ecologically driven surface alkalinity change may enhance deepwater mediated changes in alkalinity and amplify rapid changes in pco2

revised tuning of ocean drilling program site 964 and kc01b mediterranean and implications for the δ18o tephra calcareous nannofossil and geomagnetic reversal chronologies of the past 1 1 myr 1 high resolution color reflectance records of kc01 and kc01b calabrian ridge ionian sea are presented and compared with a modified spliced high resolution color reflectance record of ocean drilling program odp site 964 this comparison revealed that kc01b is characterized by intensive deformation between 27 and 28 5 m piston depth and that some sapropels are tectonically reduced in thickness moreover the piston coring has caused considerable stretching in the top of kc01 and kc01b using a new splice of odp site 964 as guide previous astronomical tuned timescales of kc01b and odp site 964 were evaluated this evaluation resulted in a new sapropel based astronomical timescale for the last 1 1 myr the new timescale implies a much more uniform change in sedimentation rate for the ionian sea cores two prominent excursions to lighter values in the 18o record of the planktonic foraminiferal species globigerinoides ruber occur during marine isotopic stages 12 and 16 applying the new timescale these shifts correspond with maxima in obliquity and are punctuated by minima in the precession cycle they are absent in global ice volume records and are interpreted as reflecting a summer low salinity surface water lens that floats on top of extremely saline intermediate and deep waters at times of the very low sea levels during these glacial periods all biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic events found in kc01b and odp site 964 were re dated according to the new timescale and the ages of 33 tephra layers were reviewed the new ages for the calabrian ridge 2 and 3 magnetic events in the brunhes are concordant with minima in the global sint800 composite record derived from worldwide deep sea records of relative paleointensity and have been attributed to the big lost and la palma excursions respectively

surface water dynamics and phytoplankton communities during deposition of cyclic late messinian sapropel sequences in the western mediterranean abstract distinctive precession scale sapropel marl sequences of late messinian age are found in several outcrops bordering the western mediterranean to examine the roles of stratification and productivity in driving this cyclic sedimentation we performed a high resolution analysis of calcareous nannofossil assemblages through four orbital sequences composed of sapropel marl diatomite marl from the sorbas basin in southern spain this effort also involved a detailed comparison between calcareous nannofossil abundances and other micropaleontological sedimentological and geochemical proxies to further understand the behaviour of some taxa for this period fluctuations in the depth and gradient of the pycnocline and the distribution and remobilization of nutrients seem to be the main factors controlling the calcareous nannoplankton assemblages with temperature of secondary importance in the sapropels the warm oligotrophic genus sphenolithus and discoaster are abundant especially significant is the progressive increase towards the top of discoaster pentaradiatus indicator of severe oligotrophic deep pycnocline conditions at the top of the sapropels peaks in reticulofenestra rotaria are interpreted here as the result of an increase of surface water temperatures although decreasing salinity may also play a role small reticulofenestra 5 m are more frequent in diatomites even considering conditions of extreme mixing and eutrophication occurred in the basin umbilicosphaera jafari peaks just after diatomites replacing small reticulofenestra probably as a response to an increase in salinity and or nutrient limitation species such as coccolithus pelagicus and helicosphaera carteri are abundant at the top of the diatomites and in the overlying marls indicating relatively mesotrophic and cool water conditions this succession shows similar characteristics in the four studied cycles allowing us to interpret surface water dynamics in this region on orbital time scales the top of the sapropel represents a warm low salinity and well stratified episode under a situation of maximum insolation a well developed pycnocline and oligotrophic conditions moderate production of calcareous phytoplankton coinciding with anoxic conditions at the bottom enhance the preservation of organic matter and consequently generate a sapropel diatomites are deposited under a situation of unstable pycnocline that produce an increase in productivity in surface waters diatoms significantly deplete limiting nutrients and consequently calcareous nannofossils start to be dominant again in the water column as result of a progressive stabilization of the pycnocline

export production of coccolithophores in an upwelling region results from san pedro basin southern california borderlands a seven month long time series sediment trap project was carried out in san pedro basin southern california borderlands in order to evaluate the response of calcareous nannoplankton to seasonal hydrographic changes this region is periodically influenced by upwelling particularly during the spring and early summer the highest fluxes of both whole coccospheres and individual coccoliths occurred during winter january february a period when the fluxes of diatoms and planktic foraminifera were low the highest coccolithophore fluxes were recorded in the mid february with 860 106 coccoliths m 2 day 1 8 106 whole coccospheres m 2 day 1 and 80 mg of coccolith carbonate m 2 day 1 coccolith carbonate fluxes in january and february account for most of the total carbonate fluxes measured during this period the season of maximum coccolithophore production in this region winter is correlated with weak stratification of the upper water column low total primary production low nutrient contents and low temperatures emiliania huxleyi and florisphaera profunda are the two most abundant species in this region while e huxleyi displays no distinct seasonal changes in flux f profunda shows a clear preference for cold low nutrient water conditions and low light levels helicosphaera spp flux is positively correlated to the total coccosphere fluxes and is indicative of high coccolithophore productivity

present day coccolith fluxes recorded in central eastern mediterranean sediment traps and surface sediments two sediment traps were deployed in time series collection from november 1991 to august 1994 at 3000 and 3500 m respectively above and below the oxygenated sea water anoxic brine interface in the bannock basin central eastern mediterranean here the coccolithophore flux and its contribution to the carbonate particulate flux are presented for the 3000 m trap and compared with the record in eastern mediterranean surface sediments a marked seasonal variation is observed in the fluxes of total mass total coccoliths and whole coccospheres with flux maxima in late winter and spring the annual coccolith flux of 1 1010 coccoliths m 2 year 1 measured in the deep waters of bannock basin is much lower than published data from most other oceanographic settings even when corrected for the trap efficiency of 23 calculated from the 230th flux the biogenic and lithogenic fluxes are primarily controlled by coccolithophore production and saharan dust input respectively the calculated coccolith and coccosphere settling rates estimated from the comparison of maximum pigment concentration in the surface ocean and arrival of maximum flux at 3000 m water depth ranged from 17 to 25 m day 1 for coccoliths and 100 m day 1 for coccospheres at the study site carbonate dissolution is a minor process at both the trap depth and at the sea floor in both oxic and anoxic conditions and there is a high preservation of coccolith caco3 coccolithophores are the main contributor to the biogenic carbonate flux followed by thoracosphaerids emiliania huxleyi and florisphaera profunda followed by syracosphaera helicosphaera carteri and calcidiscus leptoporus are the dominant species in the sediment trap and surface sediments

degassing driven crystallisation in basalts abstract syn eruptive crystallisation can drastically increase magma viscosity with profound implications for conduit dynamics lava emplacement and volcanic hazards there is growing evidence that crystallisation is not only cooling driven but can also occur almost isothermally during decompression induced degassing on ascent from depth here we review field and experimental evidence for degassing driven crystallisation in a range of magma compositions we then present new results showing for the first time experimental evidence for this process in basaltic magma our experiments use simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry coupled with mass spectrometry tga dsc ms to monitor degassing patterns and thermal events during heating and cooling of porphyritic basaltic samples from mt etna italy the partly degassed samples which contained 0 39 0 81 wt total volatiles in the glass fraction were subjected to two cycles of heating from ambient to 1250 c on the first heating tga data show that 30 60 of the total volatiles degassed slowly at

distribution of coccoliths in surface sediments of the south eastern south atlantic ocean ecology preservation and carbonate contribution abstract recent coccoliths from 52 surface sediment samples recovered from the south eastern south atlantic were examined qualitatively and quantitatively in order to assess the controlling mechanisms for their distribution patterns such as ecological and preservational factors and their role as carbonate producers total coccolith abundances range from 0 2 to 39 9 coccoliths 109 g 1 sediment four assemblages can be delineated by their coccolith content characterising the northern benguela the middle to southern benguela the walvis ridge and the deeper water distinctions are based on multivariate ordination techniques applied on the relative abundances of the most abundant taxa emiliania huxleyi calcidiscus leptoporus gephyrocapsa spp coccolithus pelagicus and subtropical to tropical species the coccolith distribution seems to be temperature and nutrient controlled co varying with the seaward extension of the upwelling filament zone in the benguela a preservation index cex based on the differential dissolution behaviour of the delicate e huxleyi and gephyrocapsa ericsonii versus the robust c leptoporus is applied in order to detect the position of the coccolith lysocline although some samples were recognised as dissolution affected the distribution of the coccoliths in the surface sediments reflects the different oceanographic surface water conditions mass estimations of the coccolith carbonate reveal coccoliths to be only minor contributors to the carbonate preserved in the surface sediments the mean computed coccolith carbonate content is 17 wt equivalent to a mean contribution of 23 to the bulk carbonate

source parameters of the anjar earthquake of july 21 1956 india and its seismotectonic implications for the kutch rift basin abstract the kutch rift basin is a major seismic region in india characterized by a low earthquake occurrence rate but a very high maximum intensity the largest event in the region is the great kutch earthquake of 1819 estimated m w 7 8 however lacking instrumental data its exact source parameters are not well known the anjar or rann of kutch earthquake of july 21 1956 m w 6 0 took place very close to the 1819 kutch event and caused considerable damage and casualties our modeled waveforms of teleseismic p and sh waves and p wave first motions determine a reverse faulting mechanism strike 235 dip 46 5 and rake 85 as well as source parameters for the anjar earthquake a previous strike slip mechanism for this event has been eliminated on the basis of waveform constraints the two nodal planes of our solution both strike northeast sub parallel to the trend of the kutch rift very close to the trend of the isoseismals the seismic moment is 1 19 10 25 dyne cm the focal depth and the stress drop are 15 km and 162 bar respectively the anjar reverse fault may represent a reactivated normal fault undergoing tectonic inversion in the kutch rift zone under present day compressional stress two larger earthquakes adjacent to anjar but outside of the kutch rift are also found to be mainly reverse faulting with a minor strike slip component judging from available information the great kutch event of 1819 is most likely a reverse faulting event

coccolithophore export production in guaymas basin gulf of california response to climate forcing abstract the flux and taxonomic composition of coccolithophores has been determined for sediment trap samples collected over a two year period from guaymas basin central gulf of california the gulf of california is a subtropical marginal sea with exceptionally high rates of primary productivity the annual biogenic sediment fluxes are largely dominated by silica with diatoms as the major contributor to the opal flux for the july 1990 through november 1992 study period the total coccolithophore export production in guaymas varied in response to the strength of el nino southern oscillation enso coccolithophore production follows the general surface primary productivity pattern with relatively high fluxes from late fall to late winter and low production in the summer when the water column is highly stratified and nutrient depleted high fluxes of up to 10 9 coccoliths m 2 day 1 and 3 10 6 coccospheres m 2 day 1 indicate that coccolithophores are an important component of the phytoplankton population in guaymas basin the intensification of enso conditions during 1992 altered the typical hydrography of the gulf of california by increasing sst and reducing the strength of spring upwelling this is reflected in reduced opal and diatom fluxes during this period conversely these more oligotrophic conditions resulted in higher total coccolithophore fluxes during spring and summer 1992 gephyrocapsa oceanica is present in the gulf throughout the study period but is dominant during weak or non enso times emiliania huxleyi and to a lesser degree florisphaera profunda are abundant during strong enso periods two major coccolithophore signals are indicative of strong enso conditions and could be used as paleo enso indicators in the gulf of california a the switch in dominance between g oceanica and e huxleyi and b high abundances of the deep dwelling species f profunda the abundance of this latter species shows a strong inverse relationship with opal fluxes a comparison of the annual coccolith flux with coccolith accumulation rates in the surface sediments indicates that only about 10 20 of the coccolith export production is preserved in the anoxic sediments of guaymas basin this very low level of preservation is probably due to bacterial processes on the sea floor which cause acidification of the bottom waters at the sediment water interface coccolith accumulation rates are higher in surface sediments from the western coast of the central gulf suggesting both higher coccolithophore production and better preservation in this region probably associated with lower diatom production tintinnids which agglutinate coccoliths are strongly selective for both coccolith size and species

coccolithophore response to oceanographic changes in the equatorial atlantic during the last 200 000 years a deep sea core from the eastern equatorial atlantic meteor core 16772 1 21 s 11 58 w revealed strong primary productivity variations 70 230 gc m2 year based on the relative abundance of the deep living coccolithophore florisphaera profunda with productivity maxima following temperature minima during the last 200 000 years the response of the coccolithophore flora was investigated by relative and absolute abundance records of coccoliths the wind strength and the resulting equatorial upwelling intensity are thought to comprise the most important control of coccolith abundance and species composition which reflects the different abundance of coccolithophores living in the upper or lower photic zone relative abundances of the different species varies widely throughout the core although a wide range of species were present in the different samples three different taxa dominated the assemblage the lower photic zone species f profunda was the most abundant with a mean relative abundance of 49 4 throughout the core the upper photic zone flora were divided into three groups emiliania huxleyi together with small gephyrocapsa 3 m was the second most abundant species group mean 20 8 gephyrocapsa oceanica was the third most important species in the core and had a mean relative abundance of 16 8 all other species together represented a mean of 13 highest absolute abundance of coccoliths number gram sediment occurs in sediments deposited during periods of high sst mainly in warm isotope stages 1 and 5 the accumulation rates of coccoliths number cm2 ky show peaks in isotope stages 1 and 5 but also in some parts of cool isotope stages 4 and 6 high relative and absolute abundance of f profunda were found in warm isotope stages which suggests that a deep nutricline existed and that primary productivity was low absolute and relative abundance records of e huxleyi and small gephyrocapsa 3 m mainly showed higher values in sediments from warm periods the other upper photic zone coccolith species were generally more abundant during periods of low sst particularly in isotope stages 2 4 and 6 which were times of high primary productivity and a shallow nutricline this suggest that e huxleyi and small gephyrocapsa probably were able to live deeper in the water column than most other species during periods of low nutrient supply to the upper photic zone in summary the composition of the coccolith flora can be explained by the nutricline depth level with three different assemblages being recognized a deep photic zone assemblage consisting of f profunda a middle upper photic zone assemblage of e huxleyi and small gephyrocapsa and an upper photic zone assemblage consisting of all other species