late quaternary deformation of the toppenish ridge uplift in south central washington mapping of quaternary sedimentary rocks and miocene basalts on toppenish ridge a fold in south central washington reveals a 32 km long zone of nearly 100 surface ruptures the ruptures indicate renewed movement on miocene structures in latest quaternary time the ruptures probably formed in response to regional compressive stress between 500 and 13 000 yr ago these ruptures are interpreted to represent the most recent surface deformation in central washington

spatial distribution of focal mechanisms for interplate and intraplate earthquakes associated with the subducting pacific plate beneath the northeastern japan arc a triple planed deep seismic zone the northeastern japan arc is located in one of the most seismically active subduction zones in the world in this study we relocated hypocenters and determined focal mechanisms of small earthquakes m 5 beneath the arc in order to investigate in detail the stress distribution in and around the descending oceanic plate in the hypocenter relocation we adopted a source region station correction method in which station corrections vary with hypocenter locations we have developed a new focal mechanism determination technique named master solution method which is analogous to the master event method in hypocenter determination we applied the method to p and sh wave amplitude data to obtain 1106 focal mechanism solutions from the new mechanism solutions and relocated hypocenters we found that there occur both low angle thrust fault lt type and downdip compression dc type earthquakes at depths from 40 to 70 km near the aseismic front the dc type events are underlying the lt type events almost all the earthquake clusters are composed of lt type events the western limit of the region where lt type events have occurred is subparallel to the trench axis although it undulates considerably it delineates the westernend of the active region of interplate seismicity furthermore we found that normal fault nf type events also occur at depths from 70 km in the upper plane of the double planed deep seismic zone which is characterized mainly by dc type event these nf type events are distributed only in a thin uppermost portion of the slab close to the plate boundary below these in the lower plane are downdip extension de type events this result indicates that the deep seismic zone in the northeastern japan arc is not double planed but triple planed even beneath the land area which cannot be explained by any simple models

uranium series dating of pedogenic silica and carbonate crater flat nevada a 230th 234u 238u dating study on pedogenic silica carbonate clast rinds and matrix laminae from alluvium in crater flat nevada was conducted using small sample thermal ionization mass spectrometry tims analyses on a large suite of samples though the 232th content of these soils is not particularly low mostly 0 1 9 ppm the high u content of the silica component mostly 4 26 ppm makes them particularly suitable for 230th u dating on single 10 to 200 mg totally digested samples using tims we observed that 1 both micro within rind and macro stratigraphic mappable deposit order of the 230th u ages were preserved in all cases 2 back calculated initial 234u 238u fall in a restricted range typically 1 67 0 19 so that 234u 238u ages with errors of about 100 kyr 2 could be reliably determined for the oldest 400 to 1000 ka rinds and 3 though 13 of the samples were 350 ka only three showed evidence for an open system history even though the sensitivity of such old samples to isotopic disruption is very high an attempt to use leach residue techniques to separate pedogenic from detrital u and th failed yielding corrupt 230th u ages we conclude that 230th u ages determined from totally dissolved multiple sub mm size subsamples provide more reliable estimates of soil chronology than methods employing larger samples chemical enhancement of 238u 232th or isochrons

an elastic plate model for interseismic deformation in subduction zones geodetic observations of interseismic surface deformation in the vicinity of subduction zones are frequently interpreted using simple kinematic elastic dislocation models edm in this theoretical study we develop a kinematic edm that simulates plate subduction over the interseismic period the elastic subducting plate model espm having only 2 more degrees of freedom than the well established back slip model bsm an elastic plate thickness and the fraction of flexural stresses due to bending at the trench that are released continuously unlike the bsm in which steady state deformation in both plates is assumed to be negligible the espm includes deformation in the subducting and overriding plates owing to plate thickness while still preserving the correct sense of convergence velocity between the subducting and overriding plates as well as zero net steady state vertical offset between the two plates when integrated over many seismic cycles the espm links elastic plate flexure processes to interseismic deformation and helps clarify under what conditions the bsm is appropriate for fitting interseismic geodetic data at convergent margins we show that the espm is identical to the bsm in the limiting case of zero plate thickness thereby providing an alternative motivation for the bsm the espm also provides a consistent convention for applying the bsm to any megathrust interface geometry even in the case of nonnegligible plate thickness the deformation field predicted by the espm reduces to that of the bsm if stresses related to plate flexure at the trench are released either continuously and completely at shallow depths during the interseismic period or deep in the subduction zone below 100 km however if at least a portion of these stresses are not continuously released in the shallow portion of the subduction zone via seismic or aseismic events then the predicted surface velocities of these two models can differ significantly at horizontal distances from the trench equivalent to a few times the effective interseismic locking depth

structure of the lesser antilles subduction forearc and backstop from 3d seismic refraction tomography in 2007 the sismantilles ii experiment was conducted to constrain structure and seismicity in the central lesser antilles subduction zone the seismic refraction data recorded by a network of 27 obss over an area of 65 km 95 km provide new insights on the crustal structure of the forearc offshore martinique and dominica islands the tomographic inversion of first arrival travel times provides a 3d p wave velocity model down to 15 km basement velocity gradients depict that the forearc is made up of two distinct units a high velocity gradient domain named the inner forearc in comparison to a lower velocity gradient domain located further trenchward named the outer forearc whereas the inner forearc appears as a rigid block uplifted and possibly tilted as a whole to the south short wavelength deformations of the outer forearc basement are observed beneath a 3 to 6 km thick sedimentary pile in relation with the subduction of the tiburon ridge and associated seafloor reliefs north offshore dominica island the outer forearc is 70 km wide it extends as far as 180 km to the east of the volcanic front where it acts as a backstop on which the accretionary wedge developed its width decreases strongly to the south to terminate offshore martinique where the inner forearc acts as the backstop the inner forearc is likely the extension at depth of themesozoicmagmatic crust outcropping to the north in la desirade island and along the scarp of the karukera spur the outer forearc could be either the eastern prolongation of the inner forearc but the crust was thinned and fractured during the past tectonic history of the area or by recent subduction processes or an oceanic terrane more recently accreted to the island arc

geologic studies of the columbia plateau part ii upper miocene basalt distribution reflecting source locations tectonism and drainage history in the clearwater embayment idaho the clearwater embayment of western idaho represents the easternmost encroachment of columbia river basalt against the western side of the rocky mountains several new units of the columbia river basalt group have been identified in the embayment and the distribution of these and other previously recognized flows reflects 1 the location of vents feeder dikes and source areas from which the flows were erupted 2 tectonic events during the eruptive episode and 3 the development of erosional channels that were filled subsequently by successive flows the lewiston and stites basins were filled by wanapum and saddle mountains flows erupted in the north fork of the clearwater river area flows poured into the stites basin from surrounding plateau surfaces but they spread into the lewiston basin after advancing down ancestral clearwater river canyons as an ancestral clearwater river would lose its canyon to an invading flow water would spill onto the low lying areas of the lewiston basin and deposit sediment this event was repeated several times and resulted in a sequence of alternating flows and intercalated sediment in the lewiston basin

localization of the gravity field and the signature of glacial rebound the negative free air gravity anomaly centred on hudson bay canada shows a remarkable correlation with the location of the laurentide ice sheet suggesting that this gravity anomaly is the result of incomplete post glacial rebound this region however is also underlain by higher than average mantle seismic velocities suggesting that the gravity low might result instead from dynamic topography associated with convective downwellings here we analyse the global gravity field as a simultaneous function of geographic location and spectral content we find that the hudson bay gravity low is unique with anomalously high amplitude in the spectral band where the power from the laurentide ice load is greatest and the relaxation times predicted for viable models of viscous relaxation are longest we estimate that about half of the hudson bay gravity anomaly is the result of incomplete post glacial rebound and derive a mantle viscosity model that explains both this gravity signature and the characteristic uplift rates for the central laurentide and fennoscandian regions this model has a jump in viscosity at 670 km depth comparable to that in dynamic models of the geoid highs over subducted slabs but lacks a low viscosity asthenosphere consistent with a higher viscosity in the upper mantle beneath shields than in oceanic regions

fold evolution matrices and axial surface analysis of fault bend folds application to the medina anticline eastern cordillera colombia the medina anticline is a fault bend fold located in the hanging wall of the aguaclara fault along the southeastern thrust front of the eastern cordillera of colombia a petroleum province with giant fields we employ a modified technique of axial surface analysis using fold evolution matrices which helps define the subsurface geometry and thereby provides important constraints on trap geometry modeling of hydrocarbon migration pathways and prediction of reservoir quality

submergence and uplift associated with the giant 1833 sumatran subduction earthquake evidence from coral microatolls the giant sumatran subduction earthquake of 1833 appears as a large emergence event in fossil coral microatolls on the reefs of sumatra s outer arc ridge stratigraphic analysis of these and living microatolls nearby allow us to estimate that 1833 emergence increased trenchward from about 1 to 2 m this pattern and magnitude of uplift are consistent with about 13 m of slip on the subduction interface and suggest a magnitude mw of 8 8 9 2 for the earthquake the fossil microatolls also record rapid submergence in the decades prior to the earthquake with rates increasing trenchward from 5 to 11 mm yr living microatolls show similar rates and a similar pattern the fossil microatolls also record at least two less extensive emergence events in the decades prior to 1833 these observations show that coral microatolls can be useful paleoseismic and paleogeodetic instruments in convergent tectonic environments

current block motions and strain accumulation on active faults in the caribbean the caribbean plate and its boundaries with north and south america marked by subduction and large intra arc strike slip faults are a natural laboratory for the study of strain partitioning and interseismic plate coupling in relation to large earthquakes here we use most of the available campaign and continuous gps measurements in the caribbean to derive a regional velocity field expressed in a consistent reference frame we use this velocity field as input to a kinematic model where surface velocities results from the rotation of rigid blocks bounded by locked faults accumulating interseismic strain while allowing for partial locking along the lesser antilles puerto rico and hispaniola subduction we test various block geometries guided by previous regional kinematic models and geological information on active faults our findings refine a number of previously established results in particular slip rates on the strike slip faults systems bounding the caribbean plate to the north and south and the kinematics of the gonave microplate our much improved gps velocity field in the lesser antilles compared to previous studies does not require the existence of a distinct northern lesser antilles block and excludes more than 3 mm yr of strain accumulation on the lesser antilles puerto rico subduction plate interface which appears essentially uncoupled the transition from a coupled to an uncoupled subduction coincides with a transition in the long term geological behavior of the caribbean plate margin from compressional hispaniola to extensional puerto rico and lesser antilles a characteristics shared with several other subduction systems

mid pacific microatolls record sea level stability over the past 5000 yr there has been geographical variation in sea level since rapid postglacial melting of polar ice ceased similar to 6 k y ago reflecting isostatic adjustments of earth and ocean surfaces to past and ongoing redistribution of ice and water loads a new data set of over 100 fossil microatolls from christmas kiritimati island provides a holocene sea level record of unparalleled continuity living reef flat corals grow up to a low tide level adjacent fossil microatolls long lived porites corals up to several meters in diameter occur at similar elevations 0 1 m and extensive fossil microatolls in the island interior are at consistent elevations within each population collectively they comprise an almost continuous sequence spanning the past 5 k y indicating that locally sea level has been within 0 25 m of its present position and precluding global sea level oscillations of one or more meters inferred from less stable locations or using other sea level indicators this mid pacific atoll is tectonically stable and far from former ice sheets the precisely surveyed and radiometrically dated microatolls indicate that sea level has not experienced significant oscillations in accordance with geophysical modeling which implies that the eustatic contribution from past ice melt and the isostatic adjustment of the ocean floor to loading largely cancel each other at this site

microatolls and recent sea level change on coral atolls microatolls are colonies of corals commonly porties which are dead on top but living around their perimeter and are found in intertidal environments on coral atolls they can grow to several metres in diameter their upward growth is constrained by sea level through prolonged exposure at the lowest spring tides1 2 and their dead upper surfaces have been limited by past sea levels they act as natural recorders of sea level which is of particular significance for coral atolls thought to be susceptible to inundation and erosion if sea level rises in response to global warming x radiographs of vertical slices through microatolls from the maldives and cocos keeling islands indian ocean and kiribati pacific ocean record sea level fluctuations over the past few decades there is a high degree of reproducibility between adjacent corals although on cocos we noted geographical variation in the pattern of change around the atoll the majority of microatolls sampled on these atolls record a slight fall in sea level over the past ten years

coral microatolls from the central pacific record late holocene el nino microatolls are discoid corals that have grown laterally because vertical growth is constrained by exposure at lowest tides we demonstrate that a modern reef flat porites microatoll from christmas kiritimati island preserves an oxygen isotope record of substantial sea surface temperature variations related to el nino southern oscillation enso we also show that a late holocene fossil microatoll from the centre of the island contains interannual oxygen isotope variations over an approximate 20 year period three pronounced negative isotope anomalies attributed to warm el nino events are superimposed on an annual cycle el nino events similar to those seen in recent decades appear to have been a feature of mid pacific climate in the late holocene analysis of further microatolls offers a source of pre instrumental el nino tropical climate data it may be possible to extend the nino c proxy to indicate intensity and frequency of enso over the past three millennia

interplate coupling beneath ne japan inferred from three dimensional displacement field 1 the northeastern japan arc is located in a typical subduction zone and is a seismically active region where large interplate earthquakes have occurred repeatedly the nationwide gps network has made it possible to investigate the crustal deformation in unprecedented detail however vertical displacements are less accurate than the horizontal ones and have not been used to constrain interplate coupling models in this study gps carrier phase data are analyzed in order to estimate three components of site displacements the result indicates uplift along the japan sea coast and subsidence along the pacific ocean coast using the vertical site velocities together with the horizontal ones as the data for a geodetic inversion method a new model of interplate coupling is constructed to explain both the horizontal and vertical velocities for the interseismic period from 1997 to 2001 the model demonstrates strong coupling in the area off miyagi and in the area off aomori through the area off tokachi including the areas of asperities the downdip limit of the locked fault zone on the plate boundary has been estimated seismologically to be at a depth of 50 60 km in northeastern japan and the distribution of slip deficits derived in this study indicates that the transition zone extends down to a depth of about 100 km

magma production and growth of the lava dome of the soufriere hills volcano montserrat west indies november 1995 to december 1997 from november 1995 to december 1997 a total volume of 246 106 dre m of andesite magma erupted partitioned into 93 106 m of the dome 125 106 m of pyroclastic flow deposits and 28 106 m of explosive ejecta in the first 11 weeks magma discharge rate was low 0 5 m s from february 1996 to may 1997 discharge rates have averaged 2 1 m s but have fluctuated significantly and have increased with time three pulses lasting a few months can be recognised with discharge rates reaching 3 to 8 m s short term pulsations in growth lasting a few days reach discharge rates of over 10 m s and there are periods of days to a few weeks when dome growth is 0 5 m s discharge rate increased from may 1997 with an average rate of 7 5 m s to december 1997 the observations indicate an open magmatic system

interpreting the geologic map expression of contractional fault related fold terminations lateral oblique ramps versus displacement gradients abstract fault related folds in contractional settings do not extend indefinitely but rather commonly terminate as plunging anticlines near the tips of the genetically related fault geologists often attribute the formation of such terminations to loss of slip on the underlying fault i e a displacement gradient to changes in fault geometry in which the fault laterally changes stratigraphic position along strike i e a lateral oblique ramp or to some combination of these mechanisms discerning between these formative mechanisms solely through the interpretation of the geologic map expression of the termination can be difficult because of the subjective nature of the criteria used e g lateral oblique ramps often are interpreted at terminations where folds plunge at steep angles where hanging wall cutoff lines trend at high angles to fault strike where stratigraphic contacts trend at high angles to fault strike etc we created pseudo three dimensional model terminations of individual fault related folds using both displacement gradients and lateral oblique ramps to determine if unique characteristics in their map expressions exist we show that map patterns of folds produced by a displacement gradient along a thrust fault of constant geometry are similar to map patterns of folds produced by constant slip on a thrust fault with a lateral oblique ramp specifically our modeling results suggest that 1 simple fault bend folds that plunge less than 20 and simple fault propagation folds that plunge less than 50 at their terminations can be created by both displacement gradients and lateral oblique ramps angles greater than these values suggest that a lateral oblique ramp may be involved in forming the termination 2 hanging wall cutoff lines at terminations that trend at angles less than about 35 to fault strike for simple fault bend and fault propagation folds also may be produced by both displacement gradients and lateral oblique ramps higher angles likely indicate the presence of a lateral oblique ramp at the termination 3 the angle at which stratigraphic contacts trend to the fault strike cannot be used to uniquely identify displacement gradients or lateral oblique ramps for simple fault related folds 4 stratigraphic separation diagrams can indicate the presence of ramps in the thrust sheet but do not uniquely differentiate between frontal ramps with displacement gradients and lateral oblique ramps and 5 actual changes in fault orientation after topographic influences have been taken into account by definition indicate a lateral oblique ramp in reality most natural fault related fold terminations probably share components of both displacement gradients and lateral oblique ramps with each structure possessing contributions from each mechanism

historical seismicity of the southeastern caribbean and tectonic implications we have relocated the twenty eight largest magnitude 4 3 ms 7 3 historical 1922 1963 earthquakes of the southeastern caribbean we also present new focal mechanisms for seven of these events the relocations are based on reported issp ands arrival times that we analyzed using generalized linear inversion techniques the new focal mechanisms were constrained by first motionp polarities as reported by the iss and as picked by us where records were available and by the polarities and ratios ofsh andssh andsv andssv arrivals that we determined from seismograms the results of the relocations are commensurate with the distribution of seismicity observed in the recent era hypocenters are shallow and intermediate in depth 0 200 km and the events occur almost exclusively in areas known to be currently seismic the frequent seismic activity in the vicinity of the paria peninsula venezuela is clearly a persistent feature of the regional earthquake pattern intermediate depth earthquakes indicative of subduction beneath the caribbean plate occur here and along the lesser antilles arc the grenadines seismic gap is confirmed as an area of low seismic moment release throughout the historical era trinidad and the eastern gulf of paria were also largely quiescent

earthquake supercycles inferred from sea level changes recorded in the corals of west sumatra records of relative sea level change extracted from corals of the mentawai islands sumatra imply that this 700 kilometer long section of the sunda megathrust has generated broadly similar sequences of great earthquakes about every two centuries for at least the past 700 years the moment magnitude 8 4 earthquake of september 2007 represents the first in a series of large partial failures of the mentawai section that will probably be completed within the next several decades

new empirical relationships among magnitude rupture length rupture width rupture area and surface displacement source parameters for historical earthquakes worldwide are compiled to develop a series of empirical relationships among moment magnitude m surface rupture length subsurface rupture length downdip rupture width rupture area and maximum and average displacement per event the resulting data base is a significant update of previous compilations and includes the additional source parameters of seismic moment moment magnitude subsurface rupture length downdip rupture width and average surface displacement each source parameter is classified as reliable or unreliable based on our evaluation of the accuracy of individual values only the reliable source parameters are used in the final analyses in comparing source parameters we note the following trends 1 generally the length of rupture at the surface is equal to 75 of the subsurface rupture length however the ratio of surface rupture length to subsurface rupture length increases with magnitude 2 the average surface displacement per event is about one half the maximum surface displacement per event and 3 the average subsurface displacement on the fault plane is less than the maximum surface displacement but more than the average surface displacement thus for most earthquakes in this data base slip on the fault plane at seismogenic depths is manifested by similar displacements at the surface log linear regressions between earthquake magnitude and surface rupture length subsurface rupture length and rupture area are especially well correlated showing standard deviations of 0 25 to 0 35 magnitude units most relationships are not statistically different at a 95 significance level as a function of the style of faulting thus we consider the regressions for all slip types to be appropriate for most applications regressions between magnitude and displacement magnitude and rupture width and between displacement and rupture length are less well correlated and have larger standard deviation than regressions between magnitude and length or area the large number of data points in most of these regressions and their statistical stability suggest that they are unlikely to change significantly in response to additional data separating the data according to extensional and compressional tectonic environments neither provides statistically different results nor improves the statistical significance of the regressions regressions for cases in which earthquake magnitude is either the independent or the dependent parameter can be used to estimate maximum earthquake magnitudes both for surface faults and for subsurface seismic sources such as blind faults and to estimate the expected surface displacement along a fault for a given size earthquake

the schwartzwalder uranium deposit ii age of uranium mineralization and lead isotope constraints on genesis u pb isotope analyses of ores from the schwartzwalder uranium mine colorado show that these ores have high amounts of initial common pb and that the initial pb was both variable and relatively radiogenic in its pb isotope ratios 206 pb 204 pb 26 30 as a result the only useful approach to dating these ores is with u pb isochrons and even so some means of dealing with the variable initial pb isotope ratios is required because the common pb in these ores was apparently derived from sources of similar age and th u the observed 208 pb 204 pb of these th free ores can be used either to identify sample suites with similar initial pb isotope ratios or to normalize for the variable initial pb isotope ratios the resulting u pb isochrons indicate an age of mineralization for both illinois vein and titan vein ores of 69 3 or 1 1 m y suggesting that the deposit was formed during the earliest stages of laramide uplift and under at least 3 km of phanerozoic cover the initial pb isotope systematics of the ores show that the metals in the schwartzwalder ores were derived from source s of 1 730 or 130 m y age with a th u of 2 2 or 0 2 and 238 u 204 pb of 30 to 60 these restrictions on the source s of the metals rule out the possibility that the deposit could have been formed by remobilization of a proterozoic uranium deposit and both the 69 3 m y age of the ores and their initial pb isotope ratios preclude any contribution of metals to the deposit by younger volcanics such as those in the denver formation

interseismic plate coupling and strain partitioning in the northeastern caribbean summary the northeastern caribbean provides a natural laboratory to investigate strain partitioning its causes and its consequences on the stress regime and tectonic evolution of a subduction plate boundary here we use gps and earthquake slip vector data to produce a present day kinematic model that accounts for secular block rotation and elastic strain accumulation with variable interplate coupling on active faults we confirm that the oblique convergence between caribbean and north america in hispaniola is partitioned between plate boundary parallel motion on the septentrional and enriquillo faults in the overriding plate and plateboundary normal motion at the plate interface on the northern hispaniola fault to the east the caribbean north america plate motion is accommodated by oblique slip on the faults bounding the puerto rico block to the north puerto rico subduction and to the south muertos thrust with no evidence for partitioning the spatial correlation between interplate coupling strain partitioning and the subduction of buoyant oceanic asperities suggests that the latter enhance the transfer of interplate shear stresses to the overriding plate facilitating strike slip faulting in the overriding plate the model slip rate deficit together with the dates of large historical earthquakes indicates the potential for a large m w7 5 or greater earthquake on the septentrional fault in the dominican republic similarly the enriquillo fault in haiti is currently capable of a m w7 2 earthquake if the entire elastic strain accumulated since the last major earthquake was released in a single event today the model results show that the puerto rico lesser antilles subduction thrust is only partially coupled meaning that the plate interface is accumulating elastic strain at rates slower than the total plate motion this does not preclude the existence of isolated locked patches accumulating elastic strain to be released in future earthquakes but whose location and geometry are not resolvable with the present data distribution slip deficit on faults from this study are used in a companion paper to calculate interseismic stress loading and together with stress changes due to historical earthquakes derive the recent stress evolution in the ne caribbean

time varying interseismic strain rates and similar seismic ruptures on the nias simeulue patch of the sunda megathrust fossil coral microatolls from fringing reefs above the great m w 8 6 megathrust rupture of 2005 record uplift during the historically reported great earthquake of 1861 such evidence spans nearly the entire 400 km strike length of the 2005 rupture which was previously shown to be bounded by two persistent barriers to seismic rupture moreover at sites where we have constrained the 1861 uplift amplitude it is comparable to uplift in 2005 thus the 1861 and 2005 ruptures appear to be similar in both extent and magnitude at one site an uplift around ad 1422 also appears to mimic the amount of uplift in 2005 the high degree of similarity among certain ruptures of this nias simeulue section of the sunda megathrust contrasts with the substantial disparities amongst ruptures along other sections of the sumatran portion of the sunda megathrust at a site on the northwestern tip of nias reefs also rose during an earthquake in ad 1843 known historically for its damaging tsunami along the eastern coast of the island the coral microatolls also record interseismic vertical deformation at annual to decadal resolution spanning decades to more than a century before each earthquake the corals demonstrate significant changes over time in the rates of interseismic deformation on southern simeulue interseismic subsidence rates were low between 1740 and 1820 but abruptly increased by a factor of 4 10 two to four decades before the 1861 rupture this may indicate that full coupling or deep locking of the megathrust began only a few decades before the great earthquake in the banyak islands near the pivot line separating coseismic uplift from subsidence in 2005 ongoing interseismic subsidence switched to steady uplift from 1966 until 1981 suggesting a 15 year long slow slip event with slip velocities at more than 120 of the plate convergence rate

land motion estimates from gps at tide gauges a geophysical evaluation summary space geodesy applications have mainly been limited to horizontal deformations due to a number of restrictions on the vertical component accuracy monitoring vertical land motion is nonetheless of crucial interest in observations of long term sea level change or postglacial rebound measurements here we present a global vertical velocity field obtained with more than 200 permanent gps stations most of them colocated with tide gauges tgs we used a state of the art homogeneous processing strategy to ensure that the reference frame was stable throughout the observation period of almost 10 yr we associate realistic uncertainties to our vertical rates taking into account the time correlation noise in the time series the results are compared with two independent geophysical vertical velocity fields 1 vertical velocity estimates using long term tg records and 2 postglacial model predictions from the ice 5g vm2 adjustment the quantitative agreement of the gps vertical velocities with the internal estimates of vertical displacements using the tg record is very good with a mean difference of 0 13 1 64 mm yr 1 on more than 100 sites for 84 per cent of the gps stations considered the vertical velocity is confirmed by the tg estimate to within 2 mm yr 1 the overall agreement with the glacial isostatic adjustment gia model is good with discrepancy patterns related either to a local misfit of the model or to active tectonics for 72 per cent of the sites considered the predictions of the gia model agree with the gps results to within two standard deviations most of the gps velocities showing discrepancies with respect to the predictions of the gia model are however consistent with previously published space geodesy results we in turn confirm the value of 1 8 0 5 mm yr 1 for the 20th century average global sea level rise and conclude that gps is now a robust tool for vertical land motion monitoring which is accurate at least at 1 mm yr 1

neotectonics remote sensing and erosion cut of ore controlling structures of the mnogovershinnoe gold silver deposit khabarovsk krai russian far east abstract the mnogovershinnoe epithermal gold silver deposit is located on the northern part of the east sikhote alin magmatic belt of northeast russia this deposit is related to the intrusion of a large multiphase paleogene bekchiul granitoid pluton the research area underwent several episodes of intrusion magmatism volcanism and isostatic uplifting because of its location at the junction point of large tectonic structures of asia the integration of in situ observations geological mapping data analysis of the landsat 8 images and digital elevation data provides insights into the meso cenozoic evolution of the bekchiul magmatic center events in the neogene quaternary were sufficiently restored by detecting areas with anomalous differences from the base level surfaces for the second and third order streams and numerical modeling the anomalous values of the base levels difference far exceed the amplitude of sea level regression during the neo pleistocene the proposed methodological approach considered isostatic uplifting and sustaining activity as guiding factors in the development of the bekchiul volcano plutonic center

seismic activity offshore martinique and dominica islands central lesser antilles subduction zone from temporary onshore and offshore seismic networks this work focuses on the analysis of a unique set of seismological data recorded by two temporary networks of seismometers deployed onshore and offshore in the central lesser antilles island arc from martinique to guadeloupe islands during the whole recording period extending from january to the end of august 2007 more than 1300 local seismic events were detected in this area a subset of 769 earthquakes was located precisely by using hypoellipse we also computed focal mechanisms using p wave polarities of the best azimuthally constrained earthquakes we detected earthquakes beneath the caribbean forearc and in the atlantic oceanic plate as well at depth seismicity delineates the wadati benioff zone down to 170 km depth the main seismic activity is concentrated in the lower crust and in the mantle wedge close to the island arc beneath an inner forearc domain in comparison to an outer forearc domain where little seismicity is observed we propose that the difference of the seismicity beneath the inner and the outer forearc is related to a difference of crustal structure between the inner forearc interpreted as a dense thick and rigid crustal block and the lighter and more flexible outer forearc seismicity is enhanced beneath the inner forearc because it likely increases the vertical stress applied to the subducting plate

missoula flood dynamics and magnitudes inferred from sedimentology of slack water deposits on the columbia plateau washington sedimentological study of late wisconsin missoula flood slack water sediments deposited along the columbia and tucannon rivers in southern washington reveals important aspects of flood dynamics most flood facies were deposited by energetic flood surges velocities 6 m sec entering protected areas along the flood tract or flowing up and then directly out of tributary valleys true still water facies are less voluminous and restricted to elevations below 230 m high flood stages attended the initial arrival of the flood wave and were not associated with subsequent hydraulic ponding upslope from channel constrictions among 186 flood beds studied in 12 sections 57 have bioturbated tops and about half of these bioturbated beds are separated from overlying flood beds by nonflood sediments a single graded flood bed was deposited at most sites during most floods sequences in which 2 9 graded beds were deposited during a single flood are restricted to low elevations these sequences imply complex multi peaked hydrographs in which the first flood surge was generally the largest and subsequent surges were attenuated by water already present in slack water areas slack water sediment stratigraphy suggests a wide range of flood discharges and volumes of 40 documented late wisconsin floods that inundated the pasco basin only about 20 crossed the palouse snake divide floods younger than the set s tephras from mount st helens were generally smaller than earlier floods of late wisconsin age although most still crossed the palouse snake divide these late floods primarily traversed the cheney palouse scabland because stratigraphy of slack water sediment along the columbia river implies that the largest flood volumes did not enter the pasco basin by way of the columbia river

geomorphic criteria to determine direction of lateral propagation of reverse faulting and folding fault related folds develop above active faults and as these faults propagate laterally so do the folds they produce geomorphic criteria useful in evaluating rates and direction of lateral propagation of active folds in the direction of propagation are 1 decrease in drainage density and degree of dissection 2 decrease in elevation of wind gaps 3 decrease in relief of the topographic profile along the crest 4 development of characteristic drainage patterns 5 deformation of progressively younger deposits or landforms and 6 decrease in rotation and inclination of forelimb all these criteria are consistent with lateral propagation but do not prove it the presence of more than one wind or water gap formed by the same stream however is strong evidence of lateral propagation rates of lateral propagation of folding may be several times the rate of uplift and fault slip lateral propagation of anticlinal folds allows for a new explanation of how drainage may develop across active fold belts development of drainage across an active fold belt is probably a function of relatively long structurally controlled drainage diversion parallel to fold axes and development of relatively short antecedent stream reaches around the nose plunge panel of a fold water and or wind gaps form as uplift drainage diversion and stream capture associated with fold growth continue

drowning of the mississippi delta due to insufficient sediment supply and global sea level rise global sea level rise reduced sediment supply and subsidence threaten the stability of the mississippi delta calculations of riverine sediment load and storage indicate that 10 000 13 500 km2 of the delta could be submerged by ad 2100

late quaternary deformation saddle mountains anticline south central washington grabens and beheaded streams above a subjacent thrust fault illuminate late quaternary deformation on the north limb of the saddle mountains anticline yakima fold belt washington geologic mapping and trenches excavated across a scarp on the north flank of a 13 km long graben and a 5 m high scarp north of the graben confirm that deformation is related to coseismic slip on the underlying saddle mountains fault graben development began ca 100 ka and continued into the holocene at least 6 5 m of vertical displacement in a ca 20 40 ka paleosol yields minimum normal fault slip rates of 0 16 0 33 mm yr assuming that normal slip in the hanging wall above the daylighting fault tip is related to primary reverse slip on the fault resolution of throw on the 30 dipping saddle mountains fault yields minimum slip of 13 m and minimum slip rates of 0 33 0 65 mm yr 2 3 9 4 times greater than slip rates used in a recent seismic hazard analysis for the hanford reservation

sea level change glacial rebound and mantle viscosity fornorthern europe northwestern europe remains a key region for testing models of glacial isostasy because of the good geological record of crustal response to the glacial unloading since the time of the last glacial maximum models for this rebound and associated sea level change require a detailed knowledge of the ice sheet geometry including the ice thickness through time existing ice sheet reconstructions are strongly model dependent and inversions of sea level data for the mantle response may be a function of the model assumptions thus inverse solutions for the sea level data are sought that include both ice and earth model parameters as unknowns sea level data from fennoscandia the north sea the british isles and the atlantic and english channel coasts have been evaluated and incorporated into the solutions the starting ice sheet for fennoscandia is based on a reconstruction of a model by denton hughes 1981 that is characterized by quasi parabolic cross sections and symmetry about the load centre both global northwestern europe as a whole and regional subsets of the data solutions have been made for earth model parameters and ice height scaling parameters the key results are as follows 1 the response of the upper mantle to the changing ice and water loads is spatially relatively homogenous across scandinavia the north sea and the british isles 2 this response can be adequately modelled by an effective elastic lithosphere of thickness 65 85 km and by an effective upper mantle viscosity from the base of the lithosphere to the 670 km depth seismic discontinuity of about 3 4 1020 pa s the effective lower mantle viscosity is at least an order of magnitude greater 3 the ice thickness over scandinavia at the time of maximum glaciation was only about 2000 m much less than the 3400 m assumed in the denton hughes model 4 the ice profiles are asymmetric about the centre of the ice sheet with those over the western part being consistent with quasi parabolic functions whereas the ice heights over the eastern and southern regions increase much more slowly with distance inwards from the ice margin

upper crustal structure beneath the columbia river basalt group washington gravity interpretation controlled by borehole and seismic studies a three dimensional gravity model based on deep borehole stratigraphy densities from borehole gravimetry and crustal structure from deep seismic and electrical surveys puts limits on sub basalt crustal structure in the northwest quadrant of the columbia plateau washington the gravity model indicates that the miocene columbia river basalt group crbg overlies a broad basin filled with sedimentary rocks that reach thicknesses in excess of 5 km thickest sub basalt sedimentary rocks are beneath the late cenozoic yakima basin analysis of residual gravity shows that the eocene chiwaukum graben does not continue beneath the crbg and that sub basalt sedimentary rocks are not thrust into the cores of the basalt anticlines in the yakima fold belt a gravity high that trends north south in the center of the crbg is probably caused by a broad basement ridge marked by thinner sedimentary rocks beneath the columbia river basalts the western edge of the north south basement high is traced at the surface by the hog ranch naneum ridge a major crustal feature the olympic wallowa lineament is expressed in the gravity field the lineament crosses the north south basement high but does not offset it suggesting that any strike slip motion on the lineament preceded development of the north south basement high an alternative interpretation of the north south gravity high based on a previous seismic study relates it to a high density structure in the crystalline basement perhaps associated with a failed continental rift

microatoll record for large century scale sea level fluctuations in the mid holocene coral microatolls have been long used as precise indicators of past sea level but their use for precise definition of detailed sea level fluctuations is still rare here we report twelve high precision thermal ionization mass spectrometric th 230 ages for twelve rims of five mid holocene microatolls from all emerged reef terrace at leizhou peninsula northern south china sea this is a tectonically stable area enabling lis to reconstruct both the timing and trajectory of local sea level fluctuations accurately the elevations of these microatoll rims and cores were accurately determined relative to the surface of modern livin microatolls at the same site the results indicate that the sea level during the period of 7050 6600 yr bp years before ad 1950 was about 171 to 219 cm above the present with at least four cycles of fluctuations over this 450 yr interval sea level fluctuated by 20 40 cm on century scales crown copyright c 2009 published by university of washington all rights reserved

the huntzinger flow evidence of surface mixing of the columbia river basalt and its petrogenetic implications variation in chemical composition within flows of the columbia river basalt group crbg is typically small but one flow the huntzinger flow exhibits a large intraflow compositional range the composition varies both vertically and laterally but mass balance calculations for both major minor oxides and trace elements show that the variation can be explained by simple binary mixing between two end members these end member compositions are identical to two saddle mountains basalt flows the basalt of lapwai wilbur creek member and the asotin member primary intraflow features of the huntzinger flow are highly variable which is atypical for most crbg flows in addition to common features such as a scoriaceous flow top an entablature and a colonnade the flow exhibits evidence of invasion into sediments pillow hyaloclastic zones ophimottling and veins ophimottling and veins can be directly related to compositional variations veins occur in zones of mixing between the two end members and ophimottling is confined to zones dominated by the asotin composition the huntzinger flow is dominated by clinopyroxene and plagioclase with lesser amounts of olivine and variable amounts of glass the mineralogies of the two end member compositions are similar to those of the asotin and lapwai flows from the clear water embayment the intermediate compositions of the huntzinger flow contain characteristics of both flows suggesting mixing of the two the compositional variation indicates that mixing increases from the eastern part of the pasco basin where the asotin composition occurs in the center of the flow and is surrounded by lapwai to the western side where there is almost complete mixing of the lapwai and asotin this pattern is analogous to that produced when two flows mix by free turbulent flow from a free jet based upon this analogy a flow emplacement model is proposed in which the basalt of lapwai is initially emplaced in the pasco basin and prior to solidification is invaded by and mixed with the asotin lava this model places several petrogenetic constraints on this interval of the saddle mountains basalt the close spatial and temporal association of the asotin member and basalt of lapwai with yet a third flow the wahluke flow wilbur creek member allows the rate of eruption to be estimated and constrains the rate of magma recharge to a storage chamber the role of crustal contamination can also be evaluated from this model the conditions required for surface mixing suggest that this may not have been a unique occurrence and that other crbg flows may be composite flows resulting from mixing

seismicity and seismic gap in the lesser antilles arc and earthquake hazard in guadeloupe summary a seismic study of the lesser antilles arc has been carried out first for the period 1950 1978 for which we can use local seismic networks to draw maps of instrumental seismicity then for the period 1530 1950 for which we have catalogues of felt earthquakes the striking feature of the spatial distribution of foci is the cluster of epicentres in the northern half of the arc all large earthquakes m 7 5 are located north of 14 latitude seismicity cross sections through the arc show a variable dipping subduction zone along the arc the deep seismic zone is steeper in the centre of the arc than on the extremity the time space diagram for historical seismicity and the evidence of a seismic gap at the east of guadeloupe lead us to consider the northern half arc as a likely site for a large earthquake in the near future the seismic slip rate calculated from all major earthquakes since 1530 is of much greater value than that obtained from recent plate tectonic models suggesting that the recurrence rate of earthquakes is more than many hundreds of years with a possible aseismic creep

facies architecture of a continental below wave base volcaniclastic basin the ohanapecosh formation ancestral cascades arc washington usa the 800 m thick oligocene ohanapecosh formation records voluminous sedimentation of volcanic clasts in the ancestral cascades arc washington state usa most volcaniclastic beds are dominated by angular pumice clasts and fiamme of andesitic composition now entirely devitrified and altered all beds are laterally continuous and have uniform thickness fine sandstone and mudstone beds have features typical of deposits from low density turbidity currents and suspension settling erosion surfaces cross beds and evidence of bi directional oscillatory currents i e wave ripples and swaley and hummocky cross stratification are almost entirely absent we infer that the setting was subaqueous and below wave base the abundance of angular pumice clasts crystals and dense volcanic clasts and the extreme thickness of several facies suggest they were derived from magmatic volatile driven explosive eruptions the extremely thick beds are ungraded or weakly graded and lack evidence of hot emplacement suggesting deposition from subaqueous water supported high concentration volcaniclastic density currents some of the thickest beds contain coarse rounded dense clasts at their base and are interbedded with accretionary lapilli bearing mudstone these beds are interpreted to be deposits from subaqueous density currents fed by subaerial pyroclastic flows that crossed the shoreline shallow basaltic intrusions and mafic volcanic breccia composed of scoria lapilli indicate the presence of intra basinal scoria cones that may have been partly subaerial the range in facies in the ohanapecosh formation is typical of below wave base continental lacustrine basins that form in proximity to active volcanic arcs and includes eruption fed and resedimented facies extreme instantaneous aggradation rates are related directly to explosive eruptions and sediment pathways reflect the locations of active volcanoes in contrast to conventional sedimentation processes acting in non volcanic environments

effect of isostatic rebound on modelled ice volume variations during the last 200 kyr deformation of the lithosphere under an ice load can be approximated using the hypothesis of local damped isostasy this simple formulation has been systematically compared with a three dimensional model of the crust mantle system for simple ice load scenarios with a period in the range 20 100 kyr the comparison enables us to introduce the concepts of effective upper mantle density and effective relaxation time into the isostatic model for the response of the earth to the ice sheets these parameters depend on the earth model considered ice sheet size and the period of the load cycle the local damped isostasy model has been implemented in the louvain la neuve climate model to assess the impact of isostasy on continental ice volume variations for the last 200 kyr results suggest that isostasy acts as a negative feedback for ice volume during the glaciation process and acts as a positive feedback during the deglaciation moreover taking isostasy into account is necessary to simulate variations in northern hemisphere ice volume during isotopic stage 3 lastly the use of effective mantle density and effective relaxation time improves the model performance regarding specmap reconstructions c 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

source parameters of the great sumatran megathrust earthquakes of 1797 and 1833 inferred from coral microatolls large uplifts and tilts occurred on the sumatran outer arc islands between 0 5 and 3 3 s during great historical earthquakes in 1797 and 1833 as judged from relative sea level changes recorded by annually banded coral heads coral data for these two earthquakes are most complete along a 160 km length of the mentawai islands between 3 2 and 2 s uplift there was as great as 0 8 m in 1797 and 2 8 m in 1833 uplift in 1797 extended 370 km between 3 2 and 0 5 s the pattern and magnitude of uplift imply megathrust ruptures corresponding to moment magnitudes m w in the range 8 5 to 8 7 the region of uplift in 1833 ranges from 2 to at least 3 2 s and judging from historical reports of shaking and tsunamis perhaps as far as 5 s the patterns and magnitude of uplift and tilt in 1833 are similar to those experienced farther north between 0 5 and 3 n during the giant nias simeulue megathrust earthquake of 2005 the outer arc islands rose as much as 3 m and tilted toward the mainland elastic dislocation forward modeling of the coral data yields megathrust ruptures with moment magnitudes ranging from 8 6 to 8 9 sparse accounts at padang along the mainland west coast at latitude 1 s imply tsunami runups of at least 5 m in 1797 and 3 4 m in 1833 tsunamis simulated from the pattern of coral uplift are roughly consistent with these reports the tsunami modeling further indicates that the indian ocean tsunamis of both 1797 and 1833 unlike that of 2004 were directed mainly south of the indian subcontinent between about 0 7 and 2 1 s the lack of vintage 1797 and 1833 coral heads in the intertidal zone demonstrates that interseismic submergence has now nearly equals coseismic emergence that accompanied those earthquakes the interseismic strains accumulated along this reach of the megathrust have thus approached or exceeded the levels relieved in 1797 and 1833

sea level and coral atolls late holocene emergence in the indian ocean the cocos keeling islands in the eastern indian ocean were visited by charles darwin who described geomorphological evidence that he considered supported his subsidence theory of coral reef development however several other accounts of the reef islands have questioned darwin9s interpretation and have suggested that a conglomerate platform that underlies most of the reef islands may indicate recent emergence of the atoll radiocarbon ages on corals from this conglomerate platform reported here indicate that it formed in the late holocene fossil in situ microatolls above present upper coral growth limits the elevation of associated beachrock and the morphological similarity of the conglomerate platform to the present reef flat deposits indicate a late holocene sea level above the present relative to the atoll the atoll has undergone at least 0 5 m of emergence since about 3000 yr b p this represents the first radiometrically dated evidence of holocene emergence from islands in the eastern or central indian ocean

paleogeodetic records of seismic and aseismic subduction from central sumatran microatolls indonesia we utilize coral microatolls in western sumatra to document vertical deformation associated with subduction microatolls are very sensitive to fluctuations in sea level and thus act as natural tide gauges they record not only the magnitude of vertical deformation associated with earthquakes paleoseismic data but also continuously track the long term aseismic deformation that occurs during the intervals between earthquakes paleogeodetic data this paper focuses on the twentieth century paleogeodetic history of the equatorial region our coral paleogeodetic record of the 1935 event reveals a classical example of deformations produced by seismic rupture of a shallow subduction interface the site closest to the trench rose 90 cm whereas sites further east sank by as much as 35 cm our model reproduces these paleogeodetic data with a 2 3 m slip event on the interface 88 to 125 km from the trench axis our coral paleogeodetic data reveal slow submergence during the decades before and after the event in the areas of coseismic emergence likewise interseismic emergence occurred before and after the 1935 event in areas of coseismic submergence among the interesting phenomenon we have discovered in the coral record is evidence of a large aseismic slip or silent event in 1962 27 years after the 1935 event paleogeodetic deformation rates in the decades before after and between the 1935 and 1962 events have varied both temporally and spatially during the 25 years following the 1935 event submergence rates were dramatically greater than in prior decades during the past four decades however rates have been lower than in the preceding decades but are still higher than they were prior to 1935 these paleogeodetic records enable us to model the kinematics of the subduction interface throughout the twentieth century

u th dating living and young fossil corals from the central tropical pacific this study evaluates the accuracy of u th dates for young 6 a few thousand years old reef corals both living and fossil and explores strategies for refining those dates the high precision of the u th method 0 1 2 for dating young corals is well established earlier studies have demonstrated the method s accuracy for select samples of known age however these studies have focused on typical samples that have extremely low 232 th concentrations tens of pg g here we study the dating systematics of young corals that have low but significant amounts of 232 th up to 1000 pg g indicating the presence of small fractions of non radiogenic 230 th i e 230 th not generated by in situ u decay we report u th ages for living and subaerially exposed fossil corals from palmyra island located in the central tropical pacific that range from 50 to 700 yr old the palmyra corals contain varying amounts of 232 th and small fractions of associated non radiogenic 230 th uncertainty associated with the correction for non radiogenic 230 th can lead to significant errors in u th dates we have characterized non radiogenic 230 th 232 th values 230 th 232 th nr a s a means of minimizing this source of error we calculate 230 th 232 th nr values ranging from 0 to 2u10 35 for the palmyra living corals by comparing measured u th dates to absolute dates for the living coral whose chronology is well established for the fossil corals we employ three different approaches to arrive at 230 th 232 th nr estimates first we compare measured u th dates to absolute dates in samples from a young fossil coral that overlaps the living coral next we use the firm relative dating constraints imposed by five overlapping fossil corals from the 14th 15th centuries to calculate 230 th 232 th nr values finally we attempt to anchor the 14th 15th century floating coral chronology to an absolute chronology by correlating the climate signals in the coral records to those in absolutely dated climate proxy records all lines of evidence point to a range of 230 th 232 th nr for fossil corals that overlaps the range determined for the living coral suggesting that most of the thorium is primary or is added while the coral is still alive our work also demonstrates the utility of multiple 230 th 232 th nr estimates most importantly we demonstrate a method by which accurate 0 5 yr u th based chronologies can be obtained for young fossil corals with significant 232 th concentrations

differential uplift and tilt of pleistocene reef platforms and quaternary slip rate on the morne piton normal fault guadeloupe french west indies 1 the guadeloupe islands are cut by normal faults that accommodate oblique convergence between the north american and caribbean plates such faults are responsible for part of the shallow seismicity and have produced m 5 damaging earthquakes to better assess the seismic hazard in guadeloupe we quantify the slip rate on one of the largest fault morne piton this roughly e w fault crosses the island of marie galante and uplifts a flight of reef terraces from geomorphic analysis we mapped three main terraces new u th datings show that they formed during the latest interglacials 120 and 240 kyr ago correlation with specmap isotopic records implies that the marie galante plateau emerged during the 330 ka highstand topographic profiles show that the terraces and the plateau are deformed by faulting elastic modeling of their shape constrains the geometry of the fault 70 80 dip 5 km depth and its slip rate 0 5 0 2 mm yr given its length 50 km depth and slip rate this fault might produce maximum m 6 5 earthquakes with a recurrence time of 1400 to 3300 years or more likely smaller events such as the m 5 5 16 may 1851 and 3 august 1992 shocks that might recur every 400 to 1000 years we also show that all the islands and terraces are tilted westward perpendicularly to the trench la desirade closest to the trench is uplifted by 276 m whereas subsidence 70 m is observed 10 km east of the volcanic arc this tilt probably resulted from a transient deformation episode at the subduction interface that predated the late pleistocene

crustal deformation and fault slip during the seismic cycle in the north chile subduction zone from gps and insar observations summary the different phases of the earthquake cycle can produce measurable deformation of the earth s surface this work is aimed at describing the evolution of that deformation in space and time as well as the distribution of causal slip on the fault at depth we have applied gps and synthetic aperture radar sar interferometry insar techniques to northern chile where fast plate convergence rates are associated with large subduction earthquakes and extensive crustal deformation the region of northern chile between 18 s and 23 s is one of the most important seismic gaps in the world with no rupture having occurred since 1877 in 1995 the mw 8 1 antofagasta earthquake ruptured the subduction interface over a length of 180 km in the region immediately to the south of this 450 km long gap the coseismic deformation associated with this event has been documented previously here we use gps position time series for 40 benchmarks measured between 1996 and 2000 and ers sar interferograms for the interval between 1995 and 1999 to map both the post seismic deformation following the 1995 event and the ongoing interseismic deformation in the adjacent gap region in the seismic gap the interseismic velocities of 20 30 mm yr 1 to the east with respect to south america are mapped both the gps and the insar measurements can be modelled with 100 per cent coupling of the thrust interface of the subduction to a depth of 35 km with a transition zone extending down to 55 km depth the slip rate in that zone increases linearly from zero to the plate convergence rate south of the gap the interferometric map shows interseismic deformation superimposed with deformation following the 1995 earthquake and covering the same area as the coseismic deformation some 40 per cent of this deformation is related to seismic activity in the 3 3 yr following the 1995 event in particular slip during a mw 7 1 earthquake in 1998 however most of the signal 60 per cent corresponds to post seismic deformation resulting from widespread aseismic slip in the subduction interface the afterslip appears to have occurred down dip in the transition zone at 35 55 km depth and to have propagated laterally northwards at 25 45 km depth under the mejillones peninsula which is a prominent geomorphological feature at the boundary between the 1877 and 1995 rupture zones we propose a simple slip model for the seismic cycle associated with the antofagasta earthquake where the transition zone alternates between aseismic shear and seismic slip

stratigraphy and petrogenesis of the grande ronde basalt from the deep canyon country of washington oregon and idaho deep canyons cut by the snake salmon grande ronde and imnaha rivers near the point where washington oregon and idaho join expose 800 m of grande ronde basalt flows the grande ronde basalt erupted 16 5 to 14 5 m y b p makes up 85 vol of the columbia river basalt group an area enclosing 1 000 km 2 of the deep canyon country dominated by this basalt was mapped and samples from 16 measured sections in the grande ronde basalt were analyzed for major minor and trace elements three magnetostratigraphic units r 1 n 1 and r 2 were helpful in mapping the area using physically distinct flows the magnetostratigraphic units and certain chemical variations a detailed flow by flow stratigraphy was developed and the lateral extent of many individual flows was traced the number of flows and thickness of each stratigraphic unit decrease from west to east these tholeiitic flows are fine grained and aphyric clinopyroxene and plagioclase are the predominant minerals but olivine orthopyroxene pigeonite and accessory minerals are minor but important phases the flows are primarily of the low mg chemical type with lesser amounts of the high mg chemical type a cyclical trend in the over all major and trace element chemistry through the stratigraphic section is dominated by a ca rich clinopyroxene chemistry rare earth elements show significant light over heavy enrichment but overall patterns remain similar from flow to flow a small negative eu anomaly is present in many flows three models employing fractional crystallization schemes and one combining fractional crystallization and partial melting were tested using least squares modeling a petrogenetic model is proposed wherein partial melting of a heterogeneous clinopyroxene dominated mantle supplied magma that ascended to the crust was temporarily stored and recurrently erupted during storage new basaltic melt with slightly different isotopic and trace element abundances was added and mixed into the liquid that remained after previous eruptions orthopyroxene plagioclase and to a lesser extent olivine fractionated from these temporarily stored liquids upon eruption clinopyroxene and plagioclase with accessory minerals crystallized at the surface

timing and magnitude of recent accelerated sea level rise north carolina united states we provide records of relative sea level since a d 1500 from two salt marshes in north carolina to complement existing tide gauge records and to determine when recent rates of accelerated sea level rise commenced reconstructions were developed using foraminifera based transfer functions and composite chronologies which were validated against regional twentieth century tide gauge records the measured rate of relative sea level rise in north carolina during the twentieth century was 3 0 3 3 mm a consisting of a background rate of 1 mm a plus an abrupt increase of 2 2 mm a which began between a d 1879 and 1915 this acceleration is broadly synchronous with other studies from the atlantic coast the magnitude of the acceleration at both sites is larger than at sites farther north along the u s and canadian atlantic coast and may be indicative of a latitudinal trend

rupture and variable coupling behavior of the mentawai segment of the sunda megathrust during the supercycle culmination of 1797 to 1833 we refer to periods of subduction strain accumulation beneath the mentawai islands sumatra as supercycles because each culminates in a series of partial ruptures of the megathrust in its final decades the finale of the previous supercycle comprised two giant earthquakes in 1797 and 1833 and whatever happened in between this behavior between two great ruptures has implications for how the megathrust will behave between its more recent partial failure during the m w 8 4 earthquake of 2007 and subsequent large ruptures we synthesize previously published coral microatoll records and a large new coral data set to constrain not only these two giant ruptures but also the intervening interseismic megathrust behavior we present detailed maps of coseismic uplift during the two earthquakes and of interseismic deformation during the periods 1755 1833 and 1950 2000 as well as models of the corresponding slip and coupling on the underlying megathrust the large magnitudes we derive m w 8 6 8 8 for 1797 and m w 8 8 8 9 for 1833 confirm that the 2007 earthquakes released only a fraction of the moment released during the previous rupture sequence whereas megathrust behavior leading up to the 1797 and 2007 earthquakes was similar and comparatively simple behavior between 1797 and 1833 was markedly different and more complex several patches of the megathrust became weakly coupled following the 1797 earthquake we conclude that while major earthquakes generally do not involve rupture of the entire mentawai segment they may significantly change the state of coupling on the megathrust for decades to follow influencing the progression of subsequent ruptures

long distance longitudinal transport of gravel across the cordilleran thrust belt of montana and idaho two newly identified middle eocene paleovalleys 100 km long preserved on top of the southwest montana reentrant of the cordilleran fold and thrust belt indicate long lived longitudinal flow across the thrust belt and resolve a long standing debate about the source of the voluminous quartzite debris in the upper cretaceous to lower tertiary divide harebell and pinyon conglomerates of montana idaho and wyoming geologic mapping stratigraphic provenance and geochronologic studies revealed that eocene volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the paleovalleys are as thick as 2 km onlap preexisting bedrock and interfinger with well rounded conglomerate derived from formations exposed only to the west the middle eocene paleovalleys are the youngest expression of a major paleoriver system that transported sediment toward the foreland during the sevier orogeny an eocene subcrop map shows that the headwaters of the eocene paleovalleys coincided with structural culminations in the thrust belt that supplied sediment to the divide conglomerate of the upper cretaceous to lower tertiary beaverhead group ultimately the lemhi pass and hawley creek paleovalleys provided several thousand cubic kilometers of quartzite debris to the pinyon and harebell conglomerates of northwest wyoming 200 350 km away and formed the northwest half of a giant longitudinal drainage system sevier contraction not the rising idaho batholith first uplifted vast culminations beneath the headwaters of this river system

recent geodetic unrest at santorini caldera greece 1 after approximately 60 years of seismic quiescence within santorini caldera in january 2011 the volcano reawakened with a significant seismic swarm and rapidly expanding radial deformation the deformation is imaged by a dense network of 19 survey and 5 continuous gps stations showing that as of 21 january 2012 the volcano has extended laterally from a point inside the northern segment of the caldera by about 140 mm and is expanding at 180 mm yr a series of spherical source models show the source is not migrating significantly but remains about 4 km depth and has expanded by 14 million m3since inflation began a distributed sill model is also tested which shows a possible n s elongation of the volumetric source while observations of the current deformation sequence are unprecedented at santorini it is not certain that an eruption is imminent as other similar calderas have experienced comparable activity without eruption

preceding coseismic and postseismic slips of the 2011 tohoku earthquake japan 1 we estimated the spatial and temporal evolution of the preceding aseismic slip from january 2003 to january 2011 the coseismic slip of the tohoku earthquake and the postseismic slip after the earthquake based on global positioning system gps data time dependent analysis indicates aseismic slip offshore of miyagi and fukushima prefectures from 2004 associated with a series of subduction earthquakes that overlap the aseismic slip area these preceding aseismic and coseismic slip areas are centered between the centers of the coseismic and afterslip areas of the tohoku earthquake offshore of miyagi prefecture while they overlap the coseismic and afterslip areas of the tohoku earthquake off fukushima prefecture the timing of moment magnitude nine mw9 class earthquakes appears to be controlled by multiple preceding slip events smaller earthquakes and their afterslip the preceding aseismic and coseismic slip decreased the coupling rate off the tohoku coast suggesting the possibility that the preceding slip represented a precursive stage of the tohoku earthquake the afterslip of the tohoku earthquake occurred in an area where the coseismic slip was not large complementing the large coseismic slip zone the afterslip along iwate miyagi extends up to 80 km in depth and is currently the sole mechanism of strain release in this depth range the source region of the anticipated miyagi oki earthquake shows small postseismic slip after the tohoku earthquake reflecting the energy release at the time of the earthquake aftershock activity is roughly governed by an afterslip process

two hundred thirty years of relative sea level changes due to climate and megathrust tectonics recorded in coral microatolls of martinique french west indies we sampled six coral microatolls that recorded the relative sea level changes over the last 230 years east of martinique on fringing reefs in protected bays the microatolls are cup shaped which is characteristic of corals that have been experiencing submergence x ray analysis of coral slices and reconstructions of the highest level of survival hls curves show that they have submerged at rates of a few millimeters per year their morphology reveals changes in submergence rate around 1829 11 1895 and 1950 tide gauges available in the region indicate a regional sea level rise at a constant mean rate of 1 1 0 8 mm yr which contrasts with our coral record implying additional tectonic subsidence comparing our coral morphology with that of synthetic corals generated with matlab by using the key west tide gauge record florida we show that their growth was controlled by tectonics and that a sudden relative sea level increase drowned them around 1950 simple elastic models show that this sudden submergence probably occurred during the 21 may 1946 earthquake which ruptured the plate interface in front of martinique in the mantle wedge in an area of sustained seismic activity the 1839 m8 earthquake probably occurred in the same area long term subsidence of microatolls indicates that this deep portion of the megathrust is probably locked down to 60 km depth during the interseismic period our oldest coral recorded a long lasting period 50 years of stable relative sea level after the 1839 earthquake indicating that transient interseismic strain rate variations may occur in the lesser antilles

overview of the eruption of soufriere hills volcano montserrat 18 july 1995 to december 1997 the onset of phreatic volcanic activity at the soufriere hills volcano montserrat on 18 july 1995 followed a three year period of heightened volcano seismic activity beneath the island phreatic explosions gave way to continuous eruption of juvenile andesitic magma in the form of a lava dome on or around 15 november 1995 magma production rate has varied leading to changes in eruptive style an explosive eruption on 17 september 1996 followed a period of enhanced dome growth and large scale gravitational collapses from its eastern flank increasing dome volume led to stressing and overtopping of the confining crater walls to the southwest north and west during early 1997 sustained high magma production rate since june 1997 has led to three periods of major gravitational dome collapses followed by vulcanian explosive eruptions dome growth re started immediately after the cessation of the latest of these explosive phases in october 1997 and continues as of december 1997

coral evidence for earthquake recurrence and an a d 1390 1455 cluster at the south end of the 2004 aceh andaman rupture coral records of relative sea level change provide a history of vertical interseismic and coseismic deformation along the coast of northern simeulue island sumatra and reveal details about earthquakes in the 10th and 14th 15th centuries a d along the southern end of the december 2004 m w 9 2 sunda megathrust rupture over a 56 year period between a d 1390 and 1455 northern simeulue experienced a cluster of megathrust ruptures associated with total uplift that was considerably more than in 2004 uplifted corals at two sites constrain the first event of the cluster to a d 1393 3 and 1394 2 2 a smaller but well substantiated uplift occurred in northern simeulue in 1430 3 an inferred third uplift in a d 1450 3 killed all corals on the reef flats of northern simeulue the amount of uplift during this third event though confirmed only to have exceeded 28 and 41 cm at two sites probably surpassed the 100 and 44 cm that occurred respectively at those sites in 2004 and it was likely more than in 2004 over all of northern simeulue the evidence for past earthquake clustering combined with the inference of considerably greater uplift in a d 1390 1455 than in 2004 suggests that strain may still be stored along the southernmost part of the 2004 rupture interseismic subsidence rates recorded by northern simeulue coral microatolls have varied by up to a factor of 4 at some sites from one earthquake cycle to another

high precision provenance determination using detrital zircon ages and petrography of quaternary sands on the eastern snake river plain idaho the big lost trough is an upper pliocene to holocene sedimentary basin containing volcanic sills in the northeastern snake river plain idaho the basin receives sediment primarily from basin and range fluvial systems of the big lost river little lost river and birch creek the big lost trough contains a 200 m thick succession of lacustrine fluvial eolian and playa sediments recording high frequency quaternary climatic fluctuations interbedded with basalt flows alternating deposition of clay rich lacustrine sediments and sandy fluvial and eolian sediments in the central part of the basin was in response to the interaction of fluvial and eolian systems with pleistocene lake terreton the source areas for modern sands from the fluvial systems can be differentiated by using both petrography and u pb age spectra from detrital zircon populations provenance data from subsurface sands indicate that the big lost trough was supplied with sand largely deposited by the big lost river with local redeposition by eolian processes similar to the modern depositional system provenance and stratigraphic data suggest that during pleistocene wet climate cycles the center of the basin was dominated by lacustrine sedimentation during dry climate cycles the base level dropped the big lost river prograded across the basin and the eolianmore system became active at least seven climate oscillations are recorded in strata deposited between approximately 140 and approximately 1250 ka less

a dislocation model of strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone are attributed to stick slip on the main thrust zone and steady aseismic slip on the remainder of the plate interface this process can be described as a superposition of steady state subduction and a repetitive cycle of slip on the main thrust zone consisting of steady normal slip at the plate convergence rate plus occasional thrust events that recover the accumulated normal slip because steady state subduction does not contribute to the deformation at the free surface deformation observed there is completely equivalent to that produced by the slip cycle alone the response to that slip is simply the response of a particular earth model to embedded dislocations for a purely elastic earth model the deformation cycle consists of a coseismic offset followed by a linear in time recovery to the initial value during the interval between earthquakes for an elastic viscoelastic earth model elastic lithosphere over a viscoelastic asthenosphere the postearthquake recovery is not linear in time records of local uplift as a function of time indicate that the long term postseimic recovery is approximately linear suggesting that elastic earth models are adequate to describe the deformation cycle however the deformation predicted for amore simple elastic half space earth does not reproduce the deformation observed along the subduction zones in japna at all well if stick slip is restricted to the main thrust zone as recognized earlier by shimazaki seno and kato the uplift profiles could be explained if stick slips were postulated to extend along the plate interface beyond the main thrust zone to a depth of perhaps 100 km but independent evidence suggests that stick slip at such depths if unlikely less

variation of downdip limit of the seismogenic zone near the japanese islands implications for the serpentinization mechanism of the forearc mantle wedge abstract it has been proposed that the downdip limit of interplate thrust type earthquakes in subduction zones dlt is determined either by the brittle ductile transition around 350 450 c of the crustal material at the plate interface or the moho of the forearc of the upper plate the latter is due to possible serpentinization of the forearc mantle wedge above the subducting plate which makes the thrust zone slide in a stable manner i examine this criterion in subduction zones near japan where the pacific and philippine sea plates are subducting i show that in most of n honshu where the old pacific plate is subducting and in kanto and s kyushu where the izu bonin and kyushu palau ridges of the philippine sea plate are subducting the dlt is located at a depth of 60 70 km which is deeper than the moho of the upper plate this shows that the criterion does not hold and the mantle wedge is not likely to be serpentinized in these regions in contrast in the region off iwate in n honshu and in bonin where the old pacific plate is subducting the dlt is located at a depth of 20 30 km around the moho of the upper plate suggesting that the mantle wedge is serpentinized in these regions in sw japan where the young shikoku basin is subducting the dlt is around 30 km in depth which coincides with the moho but also with the 350 c temperature at the plate interface although seismic tomography indicates that the mantle wedge is serpentinized the dlt here does not help to examine the criterion assuming that hydration of the mantle wedge is conducted through hydro fracturing by water released from the dehydrating subducted crust i propose that the stress state of the wedge would determine the extent of serpentinization of the mantle wedge in the reverse fault type stress regime of n honshu kanto and s kyushu hydro fracturing is not favored and fractures in the thrust zone associated with repeated interplate earthquakes provide conduits for water to flow in the updip direction resulting in no serpentinization of the mantle wedge no serpentinization of the mantle wedge in turn causes interplate earthquakes in contrast in the normal fault type stress regime of the region off iwate and bonin and the strike slip fault type stress regime of sw japan hydro fracturing is favored resulting in serpentinization of the mantle wedge the frictional property at the thrust zone is governed by stable sliding resulting in no interplate earthquakes deeper than the moho thus the stress regime of the mantle wedge would determine bifurcation whether it is serpentinized or not and then the depth of dlt

deformation and slip along the sunda megathrust in the great 2005 nias simeulue earthquake seismic rupture produced spectacular tectonic deformation above a 400 kilometer strip of the sunda megathrust offshore northern sumatra in march 2005 measurements from coral microatolls and global positioning system stations reveal trench parallel belts of uplift up to 3 meters high on the outer arc islands above the rupture and a 1 meter deep subsidence trough farther from the trench surface deformation reflects more than 11 meters of fault slip under the islands and a pronounced lessening of slip trenchward a saddle in megathrust slip separates the northwestern edge of the 2005 rupture from the great 2004 sumatra andaman rupture the southeastern edge abuts a predominantly aseismic section of the megathrust near the equator

interseismic deformation above the sunda megathrust recorded in coral microatolls of the mentawai islands west sumatra past half century vary from 2 to 14 mm yr 1 and increase southwestward toward the subduction trench the pattern is consistent with rates of subsidence measured by a sparse network of continuously recording global positioning system cgps stations and with locking of a 400 km long section of the underlying subduction megathrust between about 1s and 4s this record of subsidence and tilting extending nearly a century into the past implies that the region is advancing toward the occurrence of another giant earthquake however evidence of episodic rather than steady subsidence reflects a behavior that is more complex than simple elastic strain accumulation and relief most prominent of these episodes is an extensive emergence subsidence couplet in about 1962 which may be the result of rapid aseismic slip on the megathrust between the islands and the trench lower subsidence rates recorded by the corals since about 1985 may reflect failure on many small patches within the locked section of the megathrust

modern vertical deformation above the sumatran subduction zone paleogeodetic insights from coral microatolls coral microatolls from the coast and outer arc islands of western sumatra retain a stratigraphic and morphologic record of relative sea level change which is due in large part to vertical tectonic deformation above the sumatran subduction zone low water levels whose fluctuations produce measurable changes in coral morphology limit the upward growth of the microatolls annual rings derived from seasonal variations in coral density serve as an internal chronometer of coral growth the microatolls act as natural long term tide gauges recording sea level variations on time scales of decades field observations and stratigraphic analysis of seven microatolls five from the outer arc islands and two from the mainland coast indicate that the mentawai islands have been submerging at rates of 4 10 mm yr over the last four or five decades while the mainland has remained relatively stable the presence of fossil microatolls up to several thousand years old in the intertidal zone indicates that little permanent vertical deformation has occurred over that time thus most of the strain accumulated in the past few decades represents interseismic deformation that is recovered during earthquakes elastic dislocation models using these submergence data suggest that elastic strain is being accumulated in the interseismic period and that the subduction zone in this region is fully coupled

analysis of partially emerged corals and reef terraces in the central vanuatu arc comparison of contemporary coseismic and nonseismic with quaternary vertical movements in the central vanuatu arc living and recently deceased reef corals act as natural tide gauges which have allowed us to map vertical tectonic deformation patterns as corals grow the density of the aragonite coral skeletons varies on an annual cycle producing annual growth bands similar to tree rings using coral growth bands we can determine the year coral surfaces died due to emergence we interpret four major coral emergence events as coseismic uplifts that occurred near the epicenters and times of large shallow earthquakes on january 5 1946 ms 7 3 august 11 1965 ms 7 5 october 27 1971 ms 7 1 and december 29 1973 ms 7 5 the 1965 and 1973 events caused maximum uplifts of 120 and 60 cm respectively in the frontal arc also related to these events are uplifts of 10 cm and 6 cm in the back arc on pentecost and maewo islands which lie east of the volcanic chain and the primary forearc zones of uplift and subsidence similar secondary zones of uplift occurred with the great 1960 chile and 1964 alaska earthquakes the amplitude of these secondary uplifts is significantly larger than that predicted by models having a single fault in an elastic half space however the amount of secondary uplift is comparable to that predicted if the fault occurs in a plate of constant thickness overlying a viscoelastic half space at various places in 1957 1969 1970 1977 and 1978 1981 there was about 5 10 cm of emergence not associated with major earthquakes which may indicate nonseismic tectonic uplift however oceanographically lowered sea levels as in el ninos may have determined the times when corals died and recorded these events nevertheless the accumulation of emergence its persistence the limited geographic extent of each event and occurrence in areas of rapid holocene uplift suggest that the causes of the uplifts are tectonic these events suggest that in some areas a third or more of the total accumulated uplift in central vanuatu takes place as aseismic motion however in some areas we find only coseismic emergence in central vanuatu contemporary coseismic vertical deformation holocene uplift and topography have remarkably similar patterns this suggests that the mechanisms and processes causing vertical deformation have varied little over the last 106years apparently the topography structure and seismotectonics are controlled by the subduction of the d entrecasteaux ridge a major bathymetric feature underthrusting this part of the arc the influence of this ridge may have been especially extensive because it migrates very slowly along the arc trend and thus it interacts for a long time with a single portion of the arc system our previous studies of reef terraces indicated the existence of at least four seismotectonic arc segments or blocks along the santo malekula interval of the arc and our present results further support this conclusion each block has uplifted at different times by different amounts at different rates and tilted in a different direction boundaries between the north santo and the south santo segment and between the north malekula and the south malekula segment correlate with the north and south flanks of the d entrecasteaux ridge as does the absence of a physiographic trench west of santo

u pb zircon and titanite systematics of the fish canyon tuff an assessment of high precision u pb geochronology and its application to young volcanic rocks a large data set of single and multi grain zircon and titanite analyses from a sample of the oligocene fish canyon tuff fct a voluminous ash flow from the san juan mountains of colorado and widely used 40ar 39ar geochronological standard has been used to evaluate the influence of various sources of analytical and geological uncertainty on the calculated age of this tuff by the isotope dilution u pb zircon method twenty three single zircon grains and seven small multi grain fractions of the fct yield an inverse variance weighted mean 206pb 238u date of 28 402 0 023 ma 2 mswd 0 93 and a slightly older weighted mean 207pb 235u date of 28 529 0 030 ma mswd 0 74 which are insensitive to common pb corrections initial 230th disequilibria calculated from a newly measured th u 2 2 for fct pumice shards indicate th deficiency for these zircons its correction brings the weighted mean 206pb 238u date to 28 478 0 024 mswd 0 97 minimizing the discordance of the fct zircon analyses these calculations culminate in concordia ages ludwig 1998 for the crystallization of the fct zircons of 28 476 0 029 ma mswd 1 50 without propagating decay constant errors or 28 498 0 035 ma mswd 1 03 with propagated decay constant errors these results are in close agreement with a previous single grain 206pb 238u zircon date of 28 41 0 05 ma for the fct oberli et al 1990 however they do not corroborate the discordia lower intercept date of 27 52 0 09 put forth by lanphere and baadsgard 2001 the 28 476 0 064 ma concordia age for fct zircons including systematic decay constant errors and uncertainty in pb u tracer calibration is substantially older than all published 40ar 39ar sanidine ages which range from 27 5 to 28 05 ma lanphere and baadsgaard 1997 renne et al 1998 a lengthy period 400 k y of zircon residence in the magma chamber before eruption is commonly called upon to explain the age discrepancy however fct titanite which may remain open to pb diffusive exchange until quenching upon eruption yield a minimum 230th disequilibrium corrected weighted mean 206pb 238u age of 28 395 0 049 ma 0 078 with tracer uncertainty weakening residence time arguments and supporting recent calls for re evaluation of the 40k decay constant and the accepted ages for commonly used 40ar 39ar mineral standards the fct zircon concordia age also provides an empirical constraint on the decay constants of the u isotopes indicating the relative accuracy of the currently accepted decay constants to within the original counting statistic errors of jaffey et al 1971

uplift and subsidence associated with the great aceh andaman earthquake of 2004 rupture of the sunda megathrust on 26 december 2004 produced broad regions of uplift and subsidence we define the pivot line separating these regions as a first step in defining the lateral extent and the downdip limit of rupture during that great m w 9 2 earthquake in the region of the andaman and nicobar islands we rely exclusively on the interpretation of satellite imagery and a tidal model at the southern limit of the great rupture we rely principally on field measurements of emerged coral microatolls uplift extends from the middle of simeulue island sumatra at 2 5 n to preparis island myanmar burma at 14 9 n thus the rupture is 1600 km long the distance from the pivot line to the trench varies appreciably the northern and western andaman islands rose whereas the southern and eastern portion of the islands subsided the nicobar islands and the west coast of aceh province sumatra subsided tilt at the southern end of the rupture is steep the distance from 1 5 m of uplift to the pivot line is just 60 km our method of using satellite imagery to recognize changes in elevation relative to sea surface height and of using a tidal model to place quantitative bounds on coseismic uplift or subsidence is a novel approach that can be adapted to other forms of remote sensing and can be applied to other subduction zones in tropical regions

rates of sea level change over the past century in a geocentric reference frame 1 the results from a carefully implemented gps analysis using a strategy adapted to determine accurate vertical station velocities are presented the stochastic properties of our globally distributed gps position time series were inferred allowing the computation of reliable velocity uncertainties most uncertainties were several times smaller than the 1 3 mm yr global sea level change and hence the vertical velocities could be applied to correct the long tide gauge records for land motion the sea level trends obtained in the itrf2005 reference frame are more consistent than in the itrf2000 or corrected for glacial isostatic adjustment gia model predictions both on the global and the regional scale leading to a reconciled global rate of geocentric sea level rise of 1 61 0 19mm yr over the past century in good agreement with the most recent estimates

the saddle mountains the evolution of an anticline in the yakima fold belt the saddle mountains uplift is an asymmetrical north vergent anticline with a length of about 110 km it varies from an open to tight fold and is divided into six segments based upon differences in geometry flows of the columbia river basalt group intercalated sedimentary deposits of the ellensburg formation and suprabasalt sediments thin over the uplift and thicken into the synclines variations in thickness are used to determine the timing of deformation and age of major and minor structures the close correlation of growth rate of the folds with rate of magma supply of the columbia river basalt group suggests that the yakima fold belt resulted from the same tectonic processes that produced eruption of the columbia river basalt modified journal abstract

steady rotation of the cascade arc displacement of the miocene cascade volcanic arc northwestern north america from the active arc is in the same sense and at nearly the same rate as the present clockwise block motions calculated from gps velocities in a north american reference frame migration of the ancestral arc over the past 16 m y can be explained by clockwise rotation of upper plate blocks at 1 0 m y over a linear melting source moving westward 1 4 5 km m y due to slab rollback block motion and slab rollback are in opposite directions in the northern arc but both are westerly in the southern extensional arc where rollback may be enhanced by proximity to the edge of the juan de fuca slab similarities between post 16 ma arc migration paleomagnetic rotation and modern gps block motions indicate that the secular block motions from decadal gps can be used to calculate long term strain rates and earthquake hazards northwest directed basin and range extension of 140 km is predicted behind the southern arc since 16 ma and 70 km of shortening is predicted in the northern arc the gps rotation poles overlie a high velocity slab of the siletzia terrane dangling into the mantle beneath idaho united states which may provide an anchor for the rotations

a comparison of different ways of dealing with isostasy examples from modelling the antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial cycle the bedrock isostatic response exerts a strong control on ice sheet dynamics and is therefore always taken into account in ice sheet models this paperreviews the various methods normally used in the ice sheet modeling community to deal with the bedrock response and compares these with a moresophisticated full earth model each of these bedrock treatments five in total are coupled with a three dimensional thermomechanical ice sheet model underthe same forcing conditions to simulate the antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial cycle the outputs of the simulations are compared on the basis of thetime dependent behavior for the total ice volume and the mean bedrock elevation during the cycle and of the present rate of uplift over antarctica thiscomparison confirms the necessity of accounting for the elastic bending of the lithosphere in order to yield realistic bedrock patterns it furthermoredemonstrates the deficiencies inherent to the diffusion equation in modeling the complex deformation within the mantle nevertheless when characteristicparameters are varied within their range of uncertainty differences within one single method are often of the same order as those between the variousmethods this overview finally tries to point out the main advantages and drawbacks of each of these methods and to determine which one is mostappropriate depending on the specific modeling requirements

stratigraphic classification of ancient lakes balancing tectonic and climatic controls lakes and lake deposits present two fundamental paradoxes 1 modern lakes are vastly complicated but the rock records of lakes are relatively simple extensive observations reveal three distinct facies associations of common and widespread occurrence these are referred to here as fluvial lacustrine fluctuating profundal and evaporative facies associations 2 most explanations of modern and ancient lakes attribute their nature to climate but neither modern lake parameters lake size depth and salinity nor the character of ancient lake strata thickness extent lithology correlate with measured or inferred climatic humidity we propose that it is the relative balance of rates of potential accommodation mostly tectonic with sediment water fill mostly a function of climate that controls lake occurrence distribution and character lake basins may be termed overfilled balanced fill or underfilled depending on the balance between these rates we conclude that climate and tectonics exert coequal influence on lake deposits at both mesoscales 1 m to hundreds of meters and macroscales hundreds to thousands of meters

seismic evidence for broken oceanic crust in the 2004 sumatra earthquake epicentral region the 2004 sumatra earthquake was one of the largest events to occur in a subduction zone in the past 50 years seismic reflection data for this subduction zone reveal thrust faults cutting across the entire oceanic crust this observation coupled with the hypocentres of aftershocks suggests that the megathrust the interface between the indo australian plate and the sunda plate currently lies in the oceanic mantle

a high resolution model of the 100 ka ice age cycle significant improvements to the representation of climate forcing and mass balance response in a coupled two dimensional global energy balance climate model ebm and vertically integrated ice sheet model ism have led to the prediction of an ice volume chronology for the most recent ice age cycle of the northern hemisphere that is close to that inferred from the geological record most significant is that full glacial termination is delivered by the model without the need for new physical ingredients in addition a relatively close match is achieved between the last glacial maximum lgm model ice topography and that of the recently described ice 4g reconstruction these results suggest that large scale climate system reorganization is not required to explain the main variations of the north american na ice sheets over the last glacial cycle lack of sea ice and marine ice dynamics in the model leaves the situation over the eurasian ea sector much more uncertain the incorporation of a gravitationally self consistent description of the glacial isostatic adjustment process demonstrates that the na and ea bedrock responses can be adequately represented by simpler damped relaxation models with characteristic time scales of 3 5ka and 5 ka respectively these relaxation times agree with those independently inferred on the basis of postglacial relative sea level histories

megathrust earthquakes can nucleate in the forearc mantle evidence from the 2004 sumatra event current models predict that the seismogenic zone along subduction thrusts where the largest earthquakes nucleate and propagate does not extend to the forearc mantle below the crust of the upper plate stable sliding conditions have been shown to prevail there particularly along several circum pacific margins that underwent great megathrust earthquakes mw 8 5 during the twentieth century based on geophysical investigation we show that the great 2004 sumatra andaman earthquake mw 9 9 3 contradicts these models not only did it propagate downdip along the interface between the forearc mantle and the subducting plate but it actually nucleated along this reportedly aseismic part of the interplate contact petrological models can therefore underestimate the downdip extent of rupture zones to be expected in megathrust earthquakes and need to be revised to account for this observation albeit unusual

an ancient shallow slip event on the mentawai segment of the sunda megathrust sumatra the outer arc islands of western sumatra rise during great megathrust earthquakes due to large slip on the underlying megathrust in contrast the islands subsided up to a few centimeters during the recent tsunamigenic earthquake of october 2010 due to slip far updip near the trench coral microatolls on one of the islands recorded a much larger subsidence at least 35 cm during an event in approximately a d 1314 we calculate a suite of slip models slightly deeper and or larger than the 2010 event that are consistent with this large amount of subsidence sea level records from older coral microatolls suggest that these events occur at least once every millennium but likely far less frequently than their great downdip neighbors the revelation that shallow slip events are important contributors to the seismic cycle of the mentawai segment further complicates our understanding of this subduction megathrust and our assessment of the region s exposure to seismic and tsunami hazards

persistent termini of 2004 and 2005 like ruptures of the sunda megathrust to gain insight into the longevity of subduction zone segmentation we use coral microatolls to examine an 1100 year record of large earthquakes across the boundary of the great 2004 and 2005 sunda megathrust ruptures simeulue a 100 km long island off the west coast of northern sumatra indonesia straddles this boundary northern simeulue was uplifted in the 2004 earthquake whereas southern simeulue rose in 2005 northern simeulue corals reveal that predecessors of the 2004 earthquake occurred in the 10th century ad in ad 1394 2 and in ad 1450 3 corals from southern simeulue indicate that none of the major uplifts inferred on northern simeulue in the past 1100 years extended to southern simeulue the two largest uplifts recognized at a south central simeulue site around ad 1422 and in 2005 involved little or no uplift of northern simeulue the distribution of uplift and strong shaking during a historical earthquake in 1861 suggests the 1861 rupture area was also restricted to south of central simeulue as in 2005 the strikingly different histories of the two adjacent patches demonstrate that this boundary has persisted as an impediment to rupture through at least seven earthquakes in the past 1100 years this implies that the rupture lengths and hence sizes of at least some future great earthquakes and tsunamis can be forecast these microatolls also provide insight into megathrust behavior between earthquakes revealing sudden and substantial changes in interseismic strain accumulation rates

arc parallel extension and localization of volcanic complexes in guadeloupe lesser antilles 1 subduction of atlantic seafloor under the caribbean plate causes shallow earthquakes within the lesser antilles volcanic arc such earthquakes above the subduction interface show strike slip or normal fault plane solutions the latter with e w striking nodal planes to better assess seismic hazard and the coupling between volcanism and tectonics we investigated faulting related to overriding plate deformation in the guadeloupe archipelago using aerial photographs satellite spot images and topographic maps 1 25000 scale we mapped active and middle to late pleistocene fissures and normal fault systems that cut the uplifted coral platforms grande terre and marie galante and the volcanic rocks of basse terre the available marine geophysical data show that the faults extend offshore to bound submarine rifts the e w striking 1500 m deep v shaped marie galante rift separates the two islands of marie galante and grande terre normal faults in the north of grande terre appear to mark the similarly v shaped western termination of the 5000 m deep n 50e to n130 e striking desirade graben three shallow m 5 5 earthquakes 6 may 1851 29 april 1897 3 august 1992 appear to have ruptured segments of the marie galante rift boundary faults the young la grande decouverte volcanic complex of basse terre including the 1440 a d soufriere dome lies within the western termination of the marie galante rift the ancient volcanic shoulders of the rift buttress the active dome to the north and south which may explain why major prehistoric sector collapses and pyroclastic avalanches have been directed southwestward into the caribbean sea or southeastward into the atlantic ocean the marie galante rift is typical of other troughs transverse to the northeastern edge of the caribbean plate we interpret such troughs which are roughly orthogonal to the arc to result from slip partitioning and extension perpendicular to plate convergence that they disappear southward implies that they result from interaction between the caribbean and north american plates