pacific interdecadal variability in this century s sea surface temperatures analysis of this century s sea surface temperatures over the pacific ocean reveals an interdecadal oscillation with a period of 15 20 years our results show that the well known 1976 77 climate regime shift is not unique but represents one of several phase transitions associated with this interdecadal oscillation also found around 1924 25 1941 42 and 1957 58 the oscillation s striking north south symmetry across the equator implies strong interactions between tropics and extratropics a mode with a period of approximately 70 years and an apparently different spatial pattern is also identified tentatively but has to be evaluated further using longer time series

characteristic variations of sea surface temperature with multiple time scales in the north pacific abstract temporal evolution and spectral structure of sea surface temperature sst anomalies in the north pacific over the last 37 years are investigated on the three characteristic time scales shorter than 24 months hf 24 60 months es and longer than 60 months dc the leading empirical orthogonal function eof for the dc time scale is characterized by a zonally elongated monopole centered at around 40 n 180 the leading eof for the hf time scale is somewhat similar to that for the dc time scale although there are two centers of action with the same polarity at the mid and western pacific the leading eof for the es time scale however exhibits a different pattern whose center of action at the mid pacific is located farther southeastward in the time evolution of the sst anomalies associated with the leading eof of the dc time scale several anomaly periods can be identified that last five years or longer the transition from a persistent period to another with the opposite polarity is gene

magnetic structural and geochronologic evidence bearing on volcanic sources and oligocene deformation of ash flow tuffs northeast nevada magnetic properties of mid tertiary volcanic rocks west of jiggs in northeast nevada were investigated for the purposes of interpreting igneous structural and tectonic processes in this part of the basin and range province anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams patterns reflect flow fabrics and suggest previously unknown sources for these ash flow tuffs paleomagnetic and structural evidence suggest counterclockwise relative rotation of the southern part of the area with respect to the north new stratigraphic chemical and k ar isotopic data support these interpretations dacite to rhyolite ash flow tuffs of the indian well formation were subdivided into two main units the lower and predominant tuff of jiggs 35 8 37 0 ma and the unconformably overlying but areally restricted tuff of hackwood 30 8 ma the jiggs unit has two polarities whereas the hackwood has only a reversed polarity remanence together these units with tilt correction define a pole 92 e 87 n dp 6 dm 8 for approximately 30 37 ma this pole is concordant with coeval north american reference poles indicating that this zone of approximately 30 km ns extent has not undergone significant vertical axis rotation relative to the north american reference andesite lavas of normal magnetic polarity and of 32 5 ma age characterize the diamond hills immediately to the south we interpret this region from both structural evidence and discordant paleomagnetic direction to have rotated approximately 25 counterclockwise relative to the indian well volcanic units to the north the apparent rotation of the diamond hills is possibly the result of drag on the left lateral garcia fault which limits the diamond hills on the southwest analysis of ams data suggests by patterns of the k1 axes two distinct sources for the jiggs unit a northern buried source and a central partially buried source lithologic evidence consistent with proximal vent facies is found near the latter source an unusual pattern in the ams k3 axes suggested as resulting from the tilt correction applied to initial dip is consistent with the interpreted flow directions tight age constraints can be placed on the deformation of the main ash flows of the jiggs unit in the 35 8 to 30 8 ma interval because the diamond hills unit is slightly younger and appears to have been affected by the same deformative episode as the jiggs the regional deformation affecting both units can be more narrowly confined to the 32 5 30 8 ma interval this deformation is inferred to coincide with the major early tertiary episode of crustal extension in this region of the basin and range

application of paleomagnetism to accretionary tectonics and structural geology the use of paleomagnetism to determine translations and rotations of geologic terranes has contributed to a better understanding of deformation within accretionary complexes shear zones and rifts in this report to the i u g g we review the progress resulting from paleomagnetic studies during the last four years in the cordillera of north america the appalachian orogen and the circum pacific region

maximal wavelet filter and its application to bidecadal oscillation over the northern hemisphere through the twentieth century based on a wavelet transform a new method referred to as maximal wavelet filter mwf is proposed to extract temporal structure changes of a climatic oscillation which varies its pattern corresponding to the changes of the oscillation period the mwf is a bandpass filter having a narrow pass band the central frequency of which temporally varies according to the periods of maximal wavelet amplitudes for a specific region mwf is applied to wintertime sea level pressures slps in the northern hemisphere from 1899 to 2000 to extract slp changes associated with the bidecadal oscillation bdo which distributes globally but has the strongest amplitudes in the north pacific in the pacific sector the bdo center of action captured by the mwf was located over alaska in the first few decades of the record and then moved southward to the central north pacific from 1920 to 1950 with maximal bdo amplitudes in the middle of the century the southward migration was accompanied by the previously reported increase of the oscillation period from 15 to 20 years on the other hand atlantic slp variations coherent with the pacific bdo had large amplitudes in midlatitudes high latitudes in the early late part of the twentieth century in association with these spatial structure changes the pattern of the recent bdo resembles the pattern of the arctic oscillation the analysis of the sea surface temperatures ssts gridded from the comprehensive ocean atmosphere data set coads and the newly digitized kobe collections suggests that bdo pattern in the ssts also shifted toward the south between the first and last few decades of the twentieth century furthermore covariability between the land air temperatures and aleutian low strength is observed through the twentieth century for alaska but only after 1940 for the midlatitudes of western north america and hawaii indicating that the bdo influence was limited to the high latitudes in the first few decades of the twentieth century in these regions consistent with the spatial structure changes in the slp field over the north pacific

paleomagnetic study of the eastern klamath terrane california and implications for the tectonic history of the klamath mountains province paleomagnetic study of permian through jurassic volcanic and sedimentary strata of the eastern klamath terrane has shown the remanent magnetization of many of these rocks to be prefolding and most likely primary similarities in magnetic declinations recorded by coeval strata over a broad area are consistent with the hypothesis that the terrane in general has behaved as a single rigid block paleomagnetic data indicate that the volcanic island arc represented by this terrane the nucleus of the province was facing toward the present southwest during late paleozoic time although its orientation during earlier periods is unknown whether the arc was separated from the north american craton by a small marginal basin or originated far offshore cannot be determined from paleomagnetic data the declination anomalies for both permian and triassic strata are similar average 106 12 so we infer that clockwise rotation of the late paleozoic arc did not begin until latest triassic or earliest jurassic time the arc may have completed its initial rotation with respect to stable north america by middle jurassic time after some retrograde motion the arc was again facing west by the late jurassic by which time some of the more westerly terranes of the province had become attached to the eastern klamath terrane the composite klamath mountains terranes continued to rotate until the final 60 of clockwise rotation was nearly complete by the early cretaceous coincidence of the waning stages of rotation at about 136 ma with the beginning of deposition of the basal great valley sequence onto the klamath basement probably represents the completion of accretion of the klamath mountains terranes to the north american continent nearly all the rotation occurred while the klamath mountains terranes were part of a converging oceanic plate with only about 20 of rotation in mid tertiary time during basin and range extension no data currently available show evidence for any significant latitudinal displacement of any klamath mountains terranes relative to cratonic north america

absolute velocity of north america during the mesozoic from paleomagnetic data we use paleomagnetic data to map mesozoic absolute motion of north america using paleomagnetic euler poles pep first we address two important questions 1 how much clockwise rotation has been experienced by crustal blocks within and adjacent to the colorado plateau 2 why is there disagreement between the apparent polar wander apw path constructed using poles from southwestern north america and the alternative path based on poles from eastern north america regarding 1 a 10 5j clockwise rotation of the colorado plateau about a pole located near 35jn 102jw seems to fit the evidence best regarding 2 it appears that some rock units from the appalachian region retain a hard overprint acquired during the midcretaceous when the geomagnetic field had constant normal polarity and apw was negligible we found three well defined small circle apw tracks 245 200 ma pep at 39 2jn 245 2je r 81 1j root mean square error rms 1 82j 200 160 ma 38 5jn 270 1je r 80 4j rms 1 06j 160 to f125 ma 45 1jn 48 5je r 60 7j rms 1 84j intersections of these tracks the cusps of gordon et al tectonics 3 1984 499 are located at 59 6jn 69 5je the 200 ma or j1 cusp and 48 9jn 144 0je the 160 ma or j2 cusp at these times the absolute velocity of north america appears to have changed abruptly north america absolute motion also changed abruptly at the beginning and end of the cretaceous apw stillstand currently dated at about 125 and 88 ma j geophys res 97 1992b 19651 during this interval the apw path degenerates into a single point implying rotation about an euler pole coincident with the spin axis using our pep and cusp locations we calculate the absolute motion of seven points on the north american continent our intention is to provide a chronological framework for the analysis of mesozoic tectonics clearly if apw is caused by plate motion abrupt changes in absolute motion should correlate with major tectonic events this follows because large accelerations reflect important changes in the balance of forces acting on the plate the most important of which are edge effects subduction terrane accretion etc some tectonic interpretations 1 the j1 cusp may be associated with the inception of rifting of north america away from land masses to the east the j2 cusp seems to mark the beginning of rapid spreading in the north atlantic 2 the j2 cusp signals the beginning of a period of rapid northwestward absolute motion of western north america motion of tectonostratigraphic terranes in the westernmost cordillera seems likely to have been directed toward the south during this interval 3 the interval f88 to f80 ma saw a rapid decrease in the paleolatitude of north america unless this represents a period of true polar wander terrane motion during this time should have been relatively northward d 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

quasi periodicity and global symmetries in interdecadal upper ocean temperature variability recent studies find interannual i e 3 to 7 year decadal i e 9 to 13 year and interdecadal i e 18 to 23 year periodicities and a trend dominating global sea surface temperature sst and sea level pressure slp variability over the past hundred years with the interdecadal signal dominating sub el nino southern oscillation enso frequencies we isolate interdecadal frequencies in sst and slp records by band passing with a window admitting 15 to 30 year periods from 1900 to 1989 the rms of interdecadal filtered sst and slp anomalies is largest in the extratropics and eastern boundaries first mode empirical orthogonal functions eofs explain about half the interdecadal variance in both variables with the tropical warm phase peaking near 1900 1920 1940 1960 and 1980 from 1955 to 1994 eof spatial patterns of interdecadal sst slp and 400m temperature t400 anomalies reveals global reflection symmetries about the equator and global translation symmetries between ocean basins with tropical and eastern ocean ssts warmer cooler than normal covarying with stronger weaker extratropical westerly winds cooler warmer ssts in western central subarctic and subantarctic frontal zones safzs stronger weaker subtropic and subarctic gyre circulations in north pacific and north atlantic oceans and warmer cooler basin and global average ssts of 0 1 c or so evolution of interdecadal variability from the tropical warm phase to the tropical cool phase is propagative also characterized by reflection and translation symmetries during the tropical warm phase cool sst anomalies along western central safzs are advected slowly eastward to the eastern boundaries and subsequently advected poleward and equatorward by the mean gyre circulation the latter conducting extratropical sst anomalies into the tropics a delayed action oscillation model is constructed that yields the quasiperiodicity of interdecadal variability in a manner consistent with these global symmetries in both pattern and evolution

cretaceous magnetizations in northwestern nevada and tectonic implications paleozoic and mesozoic arc related rocks of the black rock desert region of northwestern nevada have acquired a very stable postfolding secondary magnetization probably in late cretaceous time the remagnetization which appears to be of regional extent probably accompanied emplacement of granitic plutons in a northeast trending belt across northwestern nevada near the end of mesozoic time the region has experienced no appreciable tectonic rotation since that time

volcanic eruptions cool summers and famines in the northeastern part of japan abstract during the last 300 years most of the poor rice harvests caused by unusual cool summers and leading to famine conditions in the tohoku district the northeastern part of japan took place just after the great volcanic eruptions an analysis of instrumental observations in the past century on the kinkasan island indicates that though the standard deviation in the summer air temperature is 1 1 c for 1882 1985 the summer air temperature averages 1 3 0 5 c lower than normal during the summer following the great volcanic eruptions the mid latitudinal mean surface air temperature in the northern hemisphere decreased only about 0 2 c this result indicates that the summer air temperature in tohoku district tends to be particularly sensitive to such eruptions in all the cool summers a blocking high persisted over the ocean northeast of japan and impeded the northward movement of the raiu front the stagnating polar front during the early summer exceptionally cool summers occurred frequently w

cretaceous ocean floor in the amirante passage tectonic and oceanographic implications abstract core v34 76 obtained near the summit of a basement ridge in the axis of the amirante passage recovered in situ pelagic chalk of latest cretaceous age abathomphalus mayaroensis zone ca 66 ma this minimal age for the nne trending basement ridges places important constraints on the crustal age of the amirante passage region in the western indian ocean and indicates that the passage has provided a deep water connection between the mascarene and somali basins throughout the entire cenozoic

paleomagnetic results from the central sierra nevada constraints on reconstructions of the western united states paleomagnetic results from three plutons of the central sierra nevada limit the motion of the sierra nevada relative to the north american craton to 5 8 of poleward motion and 7 11 of clockwise rotation since about 90 ma the indicated rotation and translation are not significant at the 95 confidence level a new tectonic model is presented that is consistent with all available paleomagnetic data from the sierra nevada great valley klamaths oregon coast range cascades and western nevada the paleogeographic reconstructions of this model associate the displacement of major crustal blocks with basin and range extension starting at about 30 ma this model accounts for about 15 of clockwise rotation of the klamaths and southern cascades about 2 of clockwise rotation of the sierra nevada and great valley and 26 of clockwise rotation of the oregon coast range since 30 ma the model is consistent with 40 of clockwise rotation of the oregon coast range before 30 ma as proposed by magill and cox 1980 the amount of basin and range extension in this model at latitude 41 n is 225 km directed e w and at latitude 35 n is 245 km directed wsw ene

paleomagnetic evidence for motions of parts of the canadian cordillera abstract paleomagnetic evidence from major terranes of the western cordillera in canada referred to collectively as baja british columbia indicates that they have moved as a whole about 2300 km from the south and rotated 60 clockwise relative to north america in the late cretaceous and earliest tertiary 85 50 ma sometime between the early jurassic and the mid cretaceous 190 100 ma these same terranes moved south over 1000 km and underwent irregular but where well constrained counter clockwise rotations the terranes amongst themselves seem to have shared much the same paleolatitude during and since the late triassic although they may have undergone relative rotations in the later jurassic and early cretaceous these motions are now known to be broadly consistent with the motions of oceanic plates to the west as calculated by independent procedures and indicate that the terranes of the western cordillera were for part of their existence coupled to oceanic plates first to the farallon plate during the late jurassic and early cretaceous and then to the kula plate during the late cretaceous and early tertiary it was this change of allegiance from farallon to kula that caused first the southerly and then the northerly motion the paleomagnetic evidence despite claims to the contrary is consistent with geologically inferred displacements along major faults in the canadian cordillera when due account is taken of the age constraints on those motions

synfolding magnetization in the jurassic preuss sandstone wyoming idaho utah thrust belt the jurassic preuss sandstone exposed in five thrust plates of the wyoming idaho utah thrust belt carries directions of remanent magnetization that group most tightly after only partial unfolding field petrographic and rock magnetic evidence indicates that the carrier of this magnetization is detrital low ti titanomagnetite the detrital titanomagnetite was remagnetized at low temperatures 75 150 c probably completely during folding anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and petrographic observations indicate that the detrital titanomagnetite has been affected by tectonic strain we suggest that low temperature remagnetization of the detrital titanomagnetite was either a viscous partial thermoremanent magnetization the acquisition of which was enhanced by stress or a piezoremanent magnetization that involved stress induced movement of domain walls during intracrystalline strain or was a combination of the two mechanisms stress may promote remagnetization at temperatures much lower than predicted by current theoretical models other mechanisms such as acquisition of chemical remanent magnetization during folding deflection of a prefolding magnetization by internal strain or combination of components of magnetization with different direction cannot account for the geometry of magnetization in the preuss the locus of acquisition of synfolding magnetization in the preuss migrated in conjunction with deformation in the thrust belt a model is presented in which synfolding magnetization was acquired during cooling and folding as strata moved up thrust ramps a lack of reverse polarity directions remains a puzzling feature of the remanence the remanent direction is tentatively interpreted to reflect the predominant polarity state during its acquisition over an extended rather than a discrete time period during folding in late cretaceous and early tertiary periods of predominantly normal polarity

dispersed remnants of a northeast pacific fringing arc upper paleozoic terranes of permian mccloud faunal affinity western u s two fragmentary subparallel belts of terranes within the western north american cordillera contain upper paleozoic rocks and are characterized by contrasting lithotectonic assemblages and contrasting permian faunal affinity these two belts are a volcanic arc related successions of permian mccloud faunal affinity mccloud belt and b subduction related accretionary complexes of permian tethy an faunal affinity cache creek belt this paper supports the hypothesis that the fragmentary terranes of the mccloud belt once constituted parts of a northeast pacific fringing arc system and in constrast to some earlier interpretations concludes that the volcanic arc evolved above an eastward dipping subduction zone the absolute distance between this arc and western north america during the late paleozoic cannot be constrained however there is little evidence to suggest closure of a major 10 km ocean basin or protracted periods of westward dipping subduction parts of devonian to permian volcanic island arc sequences of the western u s cordillera are represented in the northern sierra eastern klamath bilk creek grindstone and chilliwack terranes these scattered volcanic arc remnants share several fundamental characteristics 1 the sequences were constructed across continental affinity basement assemblages 2 they underwent similar tectonic evolution during late paleozoic time such as coeval pulses in volcanism and related depositional histories 3 they contain early permian mccloud type fauna of distinctive biogeographic affinity 4 mccloud belt terranes are spatially and possibly genetically related to westward lying accretionary complexes of the cache creek belt which contain fragments of upper triassic blueschist and permian limestone blocks bearing tethyan permian fusulinids and corals based on the presence of distinctive early permian mccloud fauna the island arc remnants discussed in this paper are referred to as the mccloud belt the similarities between mccloud belt terranes suggest that they were once parts of a long lived late paleozoic volcanic arc complex the stratigraphy of these terranes records the tectonic evolution of the volcanic arc volcanism within the paleozoic arc began as early as the early devonian and was succeeded or accompanied by carbonate and epiclastic sedimentation during the middle and late devonian an influx of detritus derived from sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks during the late devonian and mississippian records the uplift and erosion of arc basement sequences an event that was at least locally accompanied by ongoing volcanism a pulse in volcanism during the pennsylvanian and coeval uplift led to the establishment of shallow marine and deltaic volcanogenic and carbonate sedimentation and locally subaerial exposure which persisted into the early early permian elsewhere during the early permian shallow water carbonate deposition was established with only minor influx of volcanogenic debris during the late permian and locally as early as late early permian a major pulse in volcanism occurred and is now represented by voluminous sequences of volcanogenic debris and lavas most of these sequences are overlain by upper triassic carbonate platformal sequences arc volcanism was recorded at least locally until the middle jurassic paleomagnetic data are used to constrain a schematic pre cretaceous reconstruction of these volcanic arc sequences and their associated subduction assemblages the inferred paleogeography of island arc sequences and the adjacent accretionary terranes suggests that volcanism occurred above an east dipping subduction zone with a long lived paleogeographic relation to north america the current structural position of these terranes is largely the result of mesozoic and locally younger deformation

structure and cycle of decadal variability of upper ocean temperature in the north pacific abstract yearly upper ocean in situ temperature anomaly data for the period 1961 90 are analyzed to reveal spatial structure and evolution of decadal variability in the north pacific ocean an eof analysis has been performed on individual temperature anomaly fields at upper ocean standard levels as well as simultaneously on the entire upper ocean data to depict the combined three dimensional structure in a coherent manner time evolution of anomaly fields is depicted by using a regression analysis the analyses detect the principal basin scale structure of decadal warm period dwp and decadal cold period dcp there is a well defined subsurface thermal anomaly pattern characterized by a prominent seesaw structure with opposite anomaly polarity between the midlatitude north pacific and the subtropical regions during a dwp a positive temperature anomaly is found in the central midlatitude upper ocean with the maximum at about 100 m depth this is accompanied by a corresponding negative anomaly in the

patterns of coherent decadal and interdecadal climate signals in the pacific basin during the 20th century two distinct low frequency fluctuations are suggested from a joint frequency domain analysis of the pacific ocean 30 s 60 n sea surface temperature sst and sea level pressure slp the lowest frequency signal reveals a spatially coherent interdecadal evolution in phase sst and slp anomalies are found along the subarctic frontal zone safz it is symmetric about the equator with tropical sst anomalies peaking near 15 latitudes in the eastern pacific the other low frequency signal reveals a spatially coherent decadal evolution it is primarily a low latitude phenomenon tropical sst anomalies peak in the central equatorial ocean with evidence of atmospheric teleconnections these interdecadal and decadal signals join the enso and quasi biennial signals in determining dominant patterns of pacific ocean natural climate variability relative phasing and location of the sst and slp anomalies for the decadal enso and the quasi biennial signals are similar to one another but significantly different from that of the interdecadal signal

paleomagnetism of the late permian early triassic koipato volcanics nevada implications for latitudinal displacement abstract we have obtained paleomagnetic directions for 11 basalt flows of the probable early triassic koipato volcanics from the south tobin range of western nevada the mean direction for these flows d 350 3 i 39 0 95 8 0 is discordant with respect to the apw path for north america a positive fold test a consistency of reversal test the shape and amount of between site dispersion and other considerations strongly suggest that the magnetization is pre folding and probably primary the most likely explanation for this discordance is southward transport and clockwise rotation of the sampling area the most probable amount of displacement and net rotation are 1400 km and 25 respectively these observations have considerable significance for the early mesozoic tectonics of the great basin

paleomagnetism and the motion of large and small plates the focus of paleomagnetic research during past decades has varied greatly the first generation in paleomagnetism might be defined as beginning with the pioneering studies aimed at discovering whether the geomagnetic field has been a reliable reference frame for measuring and timing continental displacements an enormous effort followed in the form of individual paleomagnetic studies of cratonic rocks culminating with the construction of apw apparent polar wander paths for the continents which could be used to test paleogeographic reconstructions coupled with parallel research in marine geophysics and geology the refined apwp which result from this effort have helped to develop a reasonable first order history of cenozoic mesozoic paleogeography for the major plates

preliminary paleomagnetic data from the jurassic humboldt lopolith west central nevada evidence for thrust belt rotation in the fencemaker allochthon layered and massive gabbros of the humboldt lopolith and extrusive equivalents in west central nevada yield well grouped paleomagnetic data on a site basis with corrections for attitudes of compositional layering in gabbros and flow contacts in lavas kcorr kin situ 5 5 the mean of 15 site means is d 307 i 21 95 9 k 17 while k ar data imply a late jurassic age we prefer an older probably early jurassic age for the lopolith and its magnetization based upon magnetization data and relations of these rocks with host strata compared with early jurassic expected directions the data reveal a discordancy in declination of 37 14 22 which implies a significant counterclockwise rotation of the lopolith local rotation of fence maker allochthon units most likely occurred when southeasterly directed thrust sheets obliquely contacted a generally north south trending shelf margin mesozoic deformation will be more accurately estimated with better age control and measurement of possible cenozoic crustal rotation

interdecadal variations in the alaska gyre abstract climatic dynamic topography variations in the alaska gyre during the period 1968 1990 are described with an objective analysis of more than 12000 std and xbt stations and coads wind stress data interannual dynamic height and sst variations were correlated and were consistent with recently described large scale climatic shifts in the north pacific the gyre was cantered more to the east circulation appeared stronger and sst was lower during the early to mid 1970s than during the 1980s the aleutian low np and pna indices intensified during the interim but the response did not appear as a gyre spinup instead the associated wind stress anomalies forced a slowly varying dynamic height anomaly across the eastern and northern part of the gyre through ekman convergence which had the effect of displacing the gyre s low somewhat to the wsw in the 1980s the wind curl spectrum was white and the slow oceanic response was modelled as stochastic forced climate variability with a simple first order m

kinematics of plate convergence deduced from mesozoic structures in the western cordillera mesozoic structures in the western cordillera of the united states yield important constraints for kinematic reconstruction of plate motions relative to north america structures in the mesozoic arc s of the northern sierra nevada and of northeastern oregon are remarkably uniform in timing style and with late cretaceous and or cenozoic rotations removed orientation rocks of both regions experienced three major episodes of contraction occurring in the triassic early jurassic the late jurassic and the early cretaceous cross folds were developed after the first two deformations but were not associated with significant shortening the three major deformations are nearly homoaxial and have shortening axes oriented subperpendicular ne sw to the regional trend of the arc system in the back arc region of the northwestern great basin deposition was continuous during the triassic and early jurassic and the region was shielded from tectonism in the arc to the west development of a regional fold thrust belt associated with major nw se shortening was initiated in the back arc region during the middle or late jurassic and continued through the early cretaceous corresponding deformation did not occur in the arc and the arc and back arc were decoupled by a major left lateral fault system that subparallelled the arc axis in the mid cretaceous approximately 100 m y b p regional compression in the back arc abruptly changed to ne sw and both the arc and back arc experienced major shortening development of homoaxial structures in the sierran arc is probably analogous to shortening in present day arc systems undergoing oblique subduction in which the shortening axis is parallel to the normal component of convergence thus the dominant structures in the sierran arc simply may be a reflection of the orientation of the trench and may not constrain the sense of obliquity of convergence strike slip faults and related compressional structures such as the back arc left lateral fault and associated fold thrust belt are probably the response to the strike slip component of convergence and indicate a period of left oblique subduction relative plate motions constrained by paleomagnetic data are in agreement with regional structures and indicate strong right lateral components of motion for the last 100 m y before 100 m y b p relative plate motions are inadequately constrained by paleomagnetic data and regional structures indicate a period of left oblique convergence from the middle or late jurassic to approximately 100 m y b p during the triassic and early jurassic the relative sense of convergence is equivocal and the possibility exists that continuous left oblique convergence occurred throughout the late paleozoic and early mesozoic until 100 m y b p based on the available data we cannot discount the possibility that a complex convergence history existed however with changes from right to left convergence in the middle or late jurassic and from left to right convergence in the mid cretaceous

paleomagnetic reconnaissance of early mesozoic carbonates from williston lake northeastern british columbia canada evidence for late mesozoic remagnetization three classic sections of middle and late triassic fossiliferous limestones cropping out around williston lake in british columbia canada were sampled for paleomagnetic study the objective was to test the suitability of these units for detailed magnetobiostratigraphic study with the aim of improving the reference triassic geomagnetic polarity time scale the williston lake characteristic magnetizations differ however from any triassic north america cratonic reference directions a satisfactory agreement is found instead with cretaceous early cenozoic north america cratonic reference directions the exclusive occurrence of normal polarity suggests that remagnetization likely occurred during the cretaceous long normal superchron remagnetizations may have been triggered by connate brines which moved along aquifers of porous sandstones and carbonates in the early stages of laramide folding resume trois sections fossiliferes classiques de calcaires trias moyen et tardif affleurant autour du lac williston en colombie britannique ont ete echantillonnees pour une etude paleomagnetique l objectif etait de s assurer de la pertinence de ces unites pour une etude magneto bio stratigraphique detaillee visant a ameliorer l echelle referentielle de temps de la polarite geomagnetique au trias les magnetisations caracteristiques du lac williston different toutefois de toute direction cratonique referentielle au trias en amerique du nord toutefois une correlation satisfaisante est etablie avec les directions cratoniques referentielles du cretace cenozoique precoce en amerique du nord l occurrence exclusive d une polarite normale suggere qu il y eut probablement une remagnetisation au cours du long superchron normal du cretace les remagnetisations peuvent avoir ete declenchees par des saumures connees qui se sont deplacees le long d aquiferes de gres et de carbonates poreux dans les premieres phases du plissement laramide

global scale modes of surface temperature variability on interannual to century timescales using 100 years of global temperature anomaly data we have performed a singular value decomposition of temperature variations in narrow frequency bands to isolate coherent spatio temporal modes of global climate variability statistical significance is determined from confidence limits obtained by monte carlo simulations secular variance is dominated by a globally coherent trend with nearly all grid points warming in phase at varying amplitude a smaller but significant share of the secular variance corresponds to a pattern dominated by warming and subsequent cooling in the high latitude north atlantic with a roughly centennial timescale spatial patterns associated with significant peaks in variance within a broad period range from 2 8 to 5 7 years exhibit characteristic el nino southern oscillation enso patterns a recent transition to a regime of higher enso frequency is suggested by our analysis an interdecadal mode in the 15 to 18 years period range appears to represent long term enso variability this mode has a sizeable projection onto global average temperature and accounts for much of the anomalous global warmth of the 1980s a quasi biennial mode centered near 2 2 years period and a mode centered at 7 to 8 years period both exhibit predominantly a north atlantic oscillation nao temperature pattern a potentially significant decadal mode centered on 11 to 12 years period also exhibits an nao temperature pattern and may be modulated by the century scale north atlantic variability

the arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields the leading empirical orthogonal function of the wintertime sea level pressure field is more strongly coupled to surface air temperature fluctuations over the eurasian continent than the north atlantic oscillation nao it resembles the nao in many respects but its primary center of action covers more of the arctic giving it a more zonally symmetric appearance coupled to strong fluctuations at the 50 hpa level on the intraseasonal interannual and interdecadal time scales this arctic oscillation ao can be interpreted as the surface signature of modulations in the strength of the polar vortex aloft it is proposed that the zonally asymmetric surface air temperature and mid tropospheric circulation anomalies observed in association with the ao may be secondary baroclinic features induced by the land sea contrasts the same modal structure is mirrored in the pronounced trends in winter and springtime surface air temperature sea level pressure and 50 hpa height over the past 30 years parts of eurasia have warmed by as much as several k sea level pressure over parts of the arctic has fallen by 4 hpa and the core of the lower stratospheric polar vortex has cooled by several k these trends can be interpreted as the development of a systematic bias in one of the atmosphere s dominant naturally occurring modes of variability

a lower crustal event in the northeastern mediterranean the 1998 adana earthquake mw 6 2 and its aftershocks we analyse the main and aftershocks of the june 27 1998 adana earthquake using data from the short period cilician seismograph network in order to investigate the seismotectonics of the northeastern mediterranean region the mainshock is found to have a pure left lateral strike slip mechanism strike 50 dip 85 rake 10 mo 3 63 1018 nm the inferred strike direction of 50 n closely aligns with the surface trend of the goksun fault zone gfz the depth and size of the mainshock and the distribution of the aftershocks indicate that the rupture nucleated within the lower crust and did not extend to shallower zones this seismicity pattern indicates that these events are associated with actively interacting african and anatolian lithospheres in a strike slip manner at depth thus we propose that the southern segment of the gfz belongs to the diffuse africa anatolia plate boundary and plays a major role in the plate kinematics of the northeastern mediterranean

paleomagnetic assessment of oroflexural deformation in west central nevada and significance for emplacement of allochthonous assemblages abrupt westerly deflections of north south trending facies boundaries the isopleth of 87sr 86sr 0 076 and arcuate structural trends of paleozoic mesozoic and cenozoic age in the west central basin and range province have been explained by 1 post early jurassic oroflexural folding and shear 2 the existence of a pre late jurassic resistant block along the western continental margin possibly representing late precambrian breakup and 3 regional flexure mina deflection prior to intrusion of late cretaceous plutons which crosscut flexure related structural trends paleomagnetic data gathered from late cretaceous plutons and remagnetized metasedimentary rocks along and north of the northern margin of the zone of east west structural trends are not in support of significant oroflexural folding and attending major clockwise rotation since late cretaceous time the data water canyon pluton d 1 i 57 95 4 k 9 n 132 gunmetal pluton d 354 i 60 95 6 k 21 n 29 east garfield hills pluton d 349 i 74 95 11 k 14 n 12 la panta pluton d 22 i 66 95 10 k 16 n 13 gillis canyon pluton d 354 i 50 95 4 k 20 n 50 and folded units of the excelsior mountains d 309 i 79 95 7 k 12 n 37 are dispersed from expected cretaceous directions for the mina deflection region but they do not conform to a model of major systematic regional clockwise rotation the generally small deflections of unit means from expected directions could be explained by irregular components of late cenozoic tilting and or rotation the paleomagnetic data do not deny the possibility of pre late cretaceous oroclinal bending nevertheless regional structural analysis complimented by the paleomagnetic results indicate that the mina deflection is in all likelihood a primary feature whose geometry reflects the late precambrian fragmentation of western north america structures related to the accretion of allochthonous assemblages between middle devonian and cretaceous time in this part of the cordillera also reflect the primary nature of this feature

enso like interdecadal variability in the pacific ocean as simulated in a coupled general circulation model spatial and temporal structures of interdecadal variability in the pacific ocean are investigated using results from an atmosphere ocean coupled general circulation model aogcm the model shows a basin wide spatial pattern of the principal sea surface temperature sst variability similar to the observed one both interdecadal and interannual temporal structures of the sst variability agree well between the observation and the aogcm on the other hand a slab ocean model coupled to the same atmospheric model as the aogcm fails to simulate the observed temporal structure therefore the timescale of the coupled variability is associated with dynamical processes in the ocean a distinct interdecadal mode of the coupled atmosphere upper ocean temperature variability is found in the aogcm with a spatiotemporal structure coherent with the sst variability the mode accompanies an el nino southern oscillation enso like spatial pattern of sst and the surface wind and behaves like a delayed oscillator in enso a wedge shaped anomaly pattern of the upper thermocline temperature is formed in the eastern pacific and its northern subtropical signal propagates westward enhanced by a subtropical wind forcing at the central basin arrival of the subtropical signal at the western pacific around 20 n switches the anomaly of subsurface temperature in the equatorial region through anomalous oceanic heat transport along the western boundary the travel time of the trans pacific signal in the subtropics appears to be responsible for the timescale of this mode the aogcm successfully simulated the second mode of sst with a major variation in the midlatitude north pacific as in the observed sst in the upper ocean heat content we found another distinct mode which is characterized by a midlatitude subtropics dipole pattern migrating around the north pacific subtropical gyre however the associated sst variation of this mode shows a poor correspondence in the dominant interdecadal modes for the observed sst

paleomagnetic evidence for the age and extent of middle tertiary counterclockwise rotation dixie valley region west central nevada paleomagnetic data obtained from oligocene to lower miocene igneous rocks and middle miocene basaltic rocks at fifteen localities from a region surrounding dixie valley in west central nevada indicate that parts of the area experienced counterclockwise vertical axis rotation and these data provide constraints on the extent and timing of rotation counterclockwise vertical axis rotation probably exceeding 30 is indicated for oligocene to lower miocene rocks in the central part of the study area calculated rotations increase with increasing age of the oligocene to lower miocene rocks indicating that vertical axis rotation was concurrent with ash flow deposition about 23 33 ma paleomagnetic data indicate that middle miocene basaltic rocks about 10 17 ma postdate significant counterclockwise vertical axis rotation although this interpretation is complicated because the rocks were erupted episodically in pulses that apparently were short lived with respect to geomagnetic secular variation counterclockwise rotation was related to a deformation event that predated development of the present basin and range physiography of the area the total amount of crustal rotation in tertiary time in the area is poorly known rotation estimates calculated from time averaged mean directions that incorporate data from a broad range of the oligocene to lower miocene units probably underestimate total tertiary rotation because the mean directions include data from units that postdate much of the rotation for example a rotation estimate for a composite sequence from the central part of the study area is 23 15 whereas estimates from older and younger halves of the sequence are 37 21 and 11 16 respectively paleomagnetic data indicate that oligocene to lower miocene rocks at some localities in the northern and southern parts of the study area e g the golconda canyon locality probably did not experience significant tertiary counterclockwise rotation although the paleomagnetic data alone are insufficient to fully define the geographic area subjected to tertiary counterclockwise rotation the data suggest that a discrete subregion was affected rather than the entire basin and range province