ultracataclasite structure and friction processes of the punchbowl fault san andreas system california abstract the punchbowl fault is an exhumed 40 km displacement fault of the san andreas system in the devil s punchbowl the fault contains a continuous ultracataclasite layer along which the punchbowl formation sandstone and an igneous and metamorphic basement complex are juxtaposed the fabric of the ultracataclasite layer and surrounding rock indicate that nearly all of the fault displacement occurred in the layer by analogy with nearby active faults we assume that the punchbowl fault was seismogenic and that the ultracataclasite structure records the passage of numerous earthquake ruptures we have mapped the ultracataclasite layer at 1 1 and 1 10 to determine the mode of failure and to constrain the processes of seismic slip on the basis of color cohesion fracture and vein fabric and porphyroclast lithology two main types of ultracataclasite are distinguished in the layer an olive black ultracataclasite in contact with the basement and a dark yellowish brown ultracataclasite in contact with the sandstone the two are juxtaposed along a continuous contact that is often coincident with a single continuous nearly planar prominent fracture surface pfs that extends the length of the ultracataclasite layer in all exposures no significant mixing of the brown and black ultracataclasites occurred by offset on anastomosing shear surfaces that cut the contact or by mobilization and injection of one ultracataclasite into the other the ultracataclasites are cohesive throughout except for thin accumulations of less cohesive reworked ultracataclasite along the pfs structural relations suggest that 1 the black and brown ultracataclasite were derived from the basement and sandstone respectively 2 the black and brown ultracataclasites were juxtaposed along the pfs 3 the subsequent final several kilometers of slip on the punchbowl fault occurred along the pfs and 4 earthquake ruptures followed the pfs without significant branching or jumping to other locations in the ultracataclasite by comparison with rock friction experiments the slip localization along the pfs in the ultracataclasite implies rate weakening behavior with a critical slip distance similar to laboratory values and thus relatively small nucleation and breakdown dimensions for earthquake ruptures of the various mechanisms proposed to explain the low strength of the san andreas and to produce dynamic weakening of faults those that require or assume extreme localization of slip are most compatible with our observations

seismic guided waves trapped in the fault zone of the landers california earthquake of 1992 a mobile seismic array of seven stations was deployed at 11 sites along the fault trace of the m7 4 landers earthquake of june 28 1992 with a maximum offset of 1 km from the trace we found a distinct wave train with a relatively long period following the s waves that shows up only when both the stations and the events are close to the fault trace this wave train is interpreted as a seismic guided wave trapped in a low velocity fault zone to study the distribution of amplitude of the guided waves with distance from the fault trace and also their attenuation with travel distance along the fault zone we eliminated source and recording site effects by the coda normalization method the normalized amplitudes of guided waves show a spectral peak at 3 4 hz which decays sharply with distance from the fault trace spectral amplitudes at high frequencies 8 15 hz show an opposite trend increasing with distance from the fault trace the normalized amplitudes of guided waves at 3 4 hz also show a systematic decrease with hypocentral distance along the fault zone from which we infer an apparent q of 50 in order to confirm the existence of the guided waves a dense array of 31 stations was deployed at one of the 11 sites the resultant records revealed unequivocal evidence for the existence of guided waves associated with the fault zone by modeling the waveforms as s waves trapped in a low velocity waveguide sandwiched between two homogeneous half spaces with velocity vs 3 0 km s we infer a waveguide width of about 180 m a shear velocity of 2 0 2 2 km s and a q of 50 hypocenters of aftershocks with clear guided waves show a systematic distribution both laterally and with depth delineating the extent of the low velocity fault zone in three dimensions we find that the zone extends to a depth of at least 10 km this zone apparently continues to the south across the pinto mountain fault because guided waves are observed at stations north of the pinto mountain fault for earthquakes with epicenters south of it on the other hand the zone appears to be discontinuous at the fault bend located about 20 km north of the mainshock epicenter guided waves were observed for stations and epicenters which are located on the same sides of the fault bend but not for those on the opposite sides

structure and mechanical properties of faults in the north anatolian fault system from insar observations of coseismic deformation due to the 1999 izmit turkey earthquake 1 we study the structure and mechanical properties of faults in the north anatolian fault system by observing near fault deformation induced by the 1999 mw 7 4 izmit earthquake turkey we use interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar and global positioning system observations to analyze the coseismic surface deformation in the near field of the izmit rupture the overall observed coseismic deformation is consistent with deformation predicted by a dislocation model assuming a uniform elastic crust previous insar studies revealed small scale changes in the radar range across the nearby faults of the north anatolian fault system in particular the mudurnu valley and iznik faults e g wright et al 2001 we demonstrate that these anomalous range changes are consistent with an elastic response of compliant fault zones to the stress perturbation induced by the izmit earthquake we examine the spatial variations and mechanical properties of fault zones around the mudurnu valley and iznik faults using three dimensional finite element models in these models we include compliant fault zones having various geometries and elastic properties and apply stress changes deduced from a kinematic slip model of the izmit earthquake the best fitting models suggest that the inferred fault zones have a characteristic width of a few kilometers depth in excess of 10 km and reductions in the effective shear modulus of about a factor of 3 compared to the surrounding rocks the characteristic width of the best fitting fault zone models is consistent with field observations along the north anatolian fault system ambraseys 1970 our results are also in agreement with insar observations of small scale deformation on faults in the eastern california shear zone in response to the 1992 landers and 1999 hector mine earthquakes fialko et al 2002 fialko 2004 the inferred compliant fault zones likely represent intense damage and may be quite commonly associated with large crustal faults

interseismic strain accumulation and the earthquake potential on the southern san andreas fault system the southern section of the san andreas fault is the only part of the fault that hasn t ruptured in historic times for this reason it is believed to pose the largest seismic risk in california although whether tectonic stress is actually accumulating there is a topic of heated debate using data from radar interferometry satellites yuri fialko has produced a detailed map of surface deformation in the area that shows that elastic stress is accumulating at a fairly high rate during the past 300 years a displacement of 6 to 9 metres has built up this suggests that the southern san andreas fault is nearing the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle and that increased seismic activity of some kind can be expected the san andreas fault in california is a mature continental transform fault that accommodates a significant fraction of motion between the north american and pacific plates the two most recent great earthquakes on this fault ruptured its northern and central sections in 1906 and 1857 respectively the southern section of the fault however has not produced a great earthquake in historic times for at least 250 years assuming the average slip rate of a few centimetres per year typical of the rest of the san andreas fault the minimum amount of slip deficit accrued on the southern section is of the order of 7 10 metres comparable to the maximum co seismic offset ever documented on the fault1 2 here i present high resolution measurements of interseismic deformation across the southern san andreas fault system using a well populated catalogue of space borne synthetic aperture radar data the data reveal a nearly equal partitioning of deformation between the southern san andreas and san jacinto faults with a pronounced asymmetry in strain accumulation with respect to the geologically mapped fault traces the observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the san andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle

fracture surface energy of the punchbowl fault san andreas system the energetics of earthquake rupture slip weakening and rupture surface formation are poorly understood by measuring the energy associated with fracture damage along the punchbowl fault in the devil s punchbowl los angeles county park part of the san andreas system chester et al show that the fracture surface energy for rupture along a mature fault of this type accounts for only a small fraction of the energy released during large earthquakes as determined by seismologists this suggests that mechanisms such as melt lubrication and thermal pressurization are responsible for slip weakening fracture energy is a form of latent heat required to create an earthquake rupture surface and is related to parameters governing rupture propagation and processes of slip weakening1 2 3 fracture energy has been estimated from seismological and experimental rock deformation data4 5 6 7 8 yet its magnitude mechanisms of rupture surface formation and processes leading to slip weakening are not well defined8 9 10 here we quantify structural observations of the punchbowl fault a large displacement exhumed fault11 12 in the san andreas fault system and show that the energy required to create the fracture surface area in the fault is about 300 times greater than seismological estimates would predict for a single large earthquake if fracture energy is attributed entirely to the production of fracture surfaces then all of the fracture surface area in the punchbowl fault could have been produced by earthquake displacements totalling 1 km but this would only account for a small fraction of the total energy budget and therefore additional processes probably contributed to slip weakening during earthquake rupture

a shallow fault zone structure illuminated by trapped waves in the karadere duzce branch of the north anatolian fault western turkey summary we discuss the subsurface structure of the karadere duzce branch of the north anatolian fault based on analysis of a large seismic data set recorded by a local passcal network in the 6 months following the mw 7 4 1999 izmit earthquake seismograms observed at stations located in the immediate vicinity of the rupture zone show motion amplification and long period oscillations in both p and s wave trains that do not exist in nearby off fault stations examination of thousands of waveforms reveals that these characteristics are commonly generated by events that are well outside the fault zone the anomalous features in fault zone seismograms produced by events not necessarily in the fault may be referred to generally as fault zone related site effects the oscillatory shear wave trains after the direct s arrival in these seismograms are analysed as trapped waves propagating in a low velocity fault zone layer the time difference between the s arrival and trapped waves group does not grow systematically with increasing source receiver separation along the fault these observations imply that the trapping of seismic energy in the karadere duzce rupture zone is generated by a shallow fault zone layer traveltime analysis and synthetic waveform modelling indicate that the depth of the trapping structure is approximately 3 4 km the synthetic waveform modelling indicates further that the shallow trapping structure has effective waveguide properties consisting of thickness of the order of 100 m a velocity decrease relative to the surrounding rock of approximately 50 per cent and an s wave quality factor of 10 15 the results are supported by large 2 d and 3 d parameter space studies and are compatible with recent analyses of trapped waves in a number of other faults and rupture zones the inferred shallow trapping structure is likely to be a common structural element of fault zones and may correspond to the top part of a flower type structure the motion amplification associated with fault zone related site effects increases the seismic shaking hazard near fault zone structures the effect may be significant since the volume of sources capable of generating motion amplification in shallow trapping structures is large

the surface rupture and slip distribution of the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake m 7 4 north anatolian fault the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake occurred on the northern strand of the north anatolian fault zone the earthquake is associated with a 145 km long surface rupture that extends from southwest of duzce in the east to west of hersek delta in the west detailed mapping of the surface rupture shows that it consists of five segments separated by releasing step overs herein named the hersek karamursel golcuk izmit sapanca lake sapanca akyazi and karadere segments from west to east respectively the hersek segment which cuts the tip of a large delta plain in the western end of the rupture zone has an orientation of n80 the n70 80 e trending karamursel golcuk segment extends along the linear southern coasts of the izmit gulf between karamursel and golcuk and produced the 470 cm maximum displacement in golcuk the northwest southeast striking golcuk normal fault between the karamursel golcuk and izmit sapanca segments has 2 3 m maximum vertical displacement the maximum dextral offset along the izmit sapanca lake segment was measured to be about 3 5 m and its trend varies between n80 e and east west the sapanca akyazi segment trends n75 85 w and expresses a maximum displacement of 5 2 m the karadere segment trends n65 e and produced up to 1 5 m maximum displacement the karadere and sapanca akyazi segments form fan shape or splaying ruptures near their eastern ends where the displacement also diminished

probing the mechanical properties of seismically active crust with space geodesy study of the coseismic deformation due to the 1992 mw7 3 landers southern california earthquake 1 the coseismic deformation due to the 1992 m w 7 3 landers earthquake southern california is investigated using synthetic aperture radar sar and global positioning system gps measurements the ers 1 satellite data from the ascending and descending orbits are used to generate contiguous maps of three orthogonal components east north up of the coseismic surface displacement field the coseismic displacement field exhibits symmetries with respect to the rupture plane that are suggestive of a linear relationship between stress and strain in the crust interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar data show small scale deformation on nearby faults of the eastern california shear zone some of these faults in particular the calico rodman and pinto mountain faults were also subsequently strained by the 1999 m w 7 1 hector mine earthquake i test the hypothesis that the anomalous fault strain represents essentially an elastic response of kilometer scale compliant fault zones to stressing by nearby earthquakes fialko et al 2002 the coseismic stress perturbations due to the landers earthquake are computed using a slip model derived from inversions of the insar and gps data calculations are performed for both homogeneous and transversely isotropic half space models the compliant zone model that best explains the deformation on the calico and pinto mountain faults due to the hector mine earthquake successfully predicts the coseismic displacements on these faults induced by the landers earthquake deformation on the calico and pinto mountain faults implies about a factor of 2 reduction in the effective shear modulus within the similar to 2 km wide fault zones the depth extent of the low rigidity zones is poorly constrained but is likely in excess of a few kilometers the same type of structure is able to explain high gradients in the radar line of sight displacements observed on other faults adjacent to the landers rupture in particular the lenwood fault north of the soggy lake has likely experienced a few centimeters of left lateral motion across 1 km wide compliant fault zone having the rigidity reduction of more than a factor of 2 the inferred compliant fault zones are interpreted to be a result of extensive damage due to past earthquakes

deformation on nearby faults induced by the 1999 hector mine earthquake interferometric synthetic aperture radar observations of surface deformation due to the 1999 hector mine earthquake reveal motion on several nearby faults of the eastern california shear zone we document both vertical and horizontal displacements of several millimeters to several centimeters across kilometer wide zones centered on pre existing faults portions of some faults experienced retrograde that is opposite to their long term geologic slip motion during or shortly after the earthquake the observed deformation likely represents elastic response of compliant fault zones to the permanent co seismic stress changes the induced fault displacements imply decreases in the effective shear modulus within the kilometer wide fault zones indicating that the latter are mechanically distinct from the ambient crustal rocks

characterization of fault zones there are currently three major competing views on the essential geometrical mechanical and mathematical nature of faults the standard view is that faults are possibly segmented and heterogeneous euclidean zones in a continuum solid the continuum euclidean view is supported by seismic gravity and electromagnetic imaging studies by successful modeling of observed seismic radiation geodetic data and changes in seismicity patterns by detailed field studies of earthquake rupture zones and exhumed faults and by recent high resolution hypocenter distributions along several faults the second view focuses on granular aspects of fault structures and deformation fields the granular view is supported by observations of rock particles in fault zone gouge by studies of block rotations and the mosaic structure of the lithosphere which includes the overall geometry of plate tectonics by concentration of deformation signals along block boundaries by correlation of seismicity patterns on scales several times larger than those compatible with a continuum framework and by strongly heterogeneous wave propagation effects on the earth s surface the third view is that faults are fractal objects with rough surfaces and branching geometry the fractal view is supported by some statistical analysis of regional hypocenter locations by long range correlation of various measurements in geophysical boreholes by the fact that observed power law statistics of earthquakes are compatible with an underlying scale invariant geometrical structure by geometrical analysis of fault traces at the earth s surface and by measurements of joint and fault surfaces topography

creep response of the hayward fault to stress changes caused by the loma prieta earthquake in 1996 an 18 millimeter creep event the largest ever observed on the hayward fault occurred between surveys 63 days apart this event marked the end of a period of severely reduced creep on the southern part of the fault that began after the 1989 loma prieta california earthquake the reduction in creep was consistent with elastic models for earthquake induced static stress changes on the hayward fault these data suggest that creep observations can indicate regional stress changes of about 1 bar or less

triggered slip observations of the 17 august 1999 izmit turkey earthquake using radar interferometry we use synthetic aperture radar interferometry insar to map the displacement field of the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake which largely conforms to that predicted for an elastic upper crust we determine the earthquake source parameters and show that slip continues farther west than the mapped fault ruptures we also show that additional sub surface displacements occurred on parallel strands of the north anatolian fault zone we argue that this was caused by changes in static stress accompanying the mainshock or by the dynamic release of regional stresses

downwelling then upwelling again of the upwelled kuroshio water in the southern east china sea 1 as has been well known for several decades the subsurface kuroshio waters upwell onto the east china sea when the kuroshio impinges on the continental shelf northeast of taiwan based on hydrological and geochemical data our previous study demonstrated that the upwelled kuroshio waters downwell then upwell again northwest of taiwan in august a subsequent effort attributed this complex phenomenon to varying vorticity or the rossby number at the study area which encompasses two strong currents i e the kuroshio and the taiwan warm current moreover downwelling favorable winds coincided with the observation period this study demonstrates that the above phenomenon does not occur in the northern taiwan strait but appears to surface outside of the strait during all seasons in general downwelling of previously upwelled kuroshio waters from the east brings down waters from the surface explaining why the recipient bottom waters show a horizontal maximum temperature but a minimum salinity t and no3 no2 the downwelled waters subsequently upwell again since the recipient near surface waters arise from the depth there exists a horizontal minimum in temperature but a maximum salinity t and no3 no2 is found however whether wind patterns play a critical role in generating these vertical water movements remains unclear

particle size and energetics of gouge from earthquake rupture zones surprisingly considering the forces that we see at the surface not all the energy involved in an earthquake is transformed into ground motion much of it is consumed by frictional heating and rock pulverization an analysis of pulverized rock or gouge collected from the san andreas fault in california and from a rupture zone at 2 km depth in a south african gold mine contradicts the commonly held view that gouge surface energy is a negligible component of earthquake energy balance the analysis reveals unexpected diminutive particles in gouge samples indicating that pulverization not frictional heating is the major consumer of earthquake energy at depth this might explain the heat flow anomaly seen in the san andreas fault system and perhaps some other long standing puzzles in earthquake energetics grain size reduction and gouge formation are found to be ubiquitous in brittle faults at all scales1 2 3 4 and most slip along mature faults is observed to have been localized within gouge zones5 6 this fine grain gouge is thought to control earthquake instability3 6 7 8 and thus understanding its properties is central to an understanding of the earthquake process7 9 here we show that gouge from the san andreas fault california with 160 km slip and the rupture zone of a recent earthquake in a south african mine with only 0 4 m slip display similar characteristics in that ultrafine grains approach the nanometre scale gouge surface areas approach 80 m2 g 1 and grain size distribution is non fractal these observations challenge the common perception that gouge texture is fractal10 11 and that gouge surface energy is a negligible contributor to the earthquake energy budget3 9 12 we propose that the observed fine grain gouge is not related to quasi static cumulative slip but is instead formed by dynamic rock pulverization during the propagation of a single earthquake

westward propagation of the north anatolian fault into the northern aegean timing and kinematics we present new evidence for the propagation processes of the north anatolian fault folding in the dardanelles straits region allows us to document the timing of the deformation preceding and the finite displacement after the passage of the propagating tip of the fault the accuracy of the observations is due to interplay between deformation and the sea level changes in the mediterranean the well known messinian regression followed by the pliocene transgression the long term kinematics around the sea of marmara pull apart total displacement of about 85 km over the past 5 m y is similar to the present day kinematics deduced from space geodesy at a larger scale westward propagation of the north anatolian fault over nearly 2000 km in the past 10 m y appears to be associated with strain recovery suggesting that the continental lithosphere retains long term elasticity

distributed damage faulting and friction we present a formulation for mechanical modeling of geological processes in the seismogenic crust using damage rheology the seismogenic layer is treated as an elastic medium where distributed damage modifying the elastic stiffness evolves as a function of the deformation history the model damage rheology is based on thermodynamic principles and fundamental observations of rock deformation the theoretical analysis leads to a kinetic equation for damage evolution having two principal coefficients the first is a criterion for the transition between strength degradation and recovering healing and is related to friction the second is a rate coefficient of damage evolution which can have different values or functional forms for positive degradation and negative healing evolution we constrain these coefficients by fitting model predictions to laboratory data including coefficient of friction in sawcut setting intact strength in fracture experiments first yielding in faulting experiments under three dimensional strain onset and evolution of acoustic emission and dynamic instability the model damage rheology accounts for many realistic features of three dimensional deformation fields associated with an earthquake cycle these include aseismic deformation gradual strength degradation development of process zones and branching faults around high damage areas strain localization brittle failure and state dependent friction some properties of the model damage rheology e g cyclic stick slip behavior with possible accompanying creep are illustrated with simplified analytical results the developments of the paper provide an internally consistent framework for simulating long histories of crustal deformation and studying the coupled evolution of regional earthquakes and faults this is done in a follow up work

complex source process of the 17 august 1999 izmit turkey earthquake broadband teleseismic p wave data at epicentral distances of 30 90 are inverted to retrieve the complex source process of the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake a comparison of the waveforms of the mainshock with those of the aftershocks suggests a spatially complex rupture process having a duration of more than 45 sec inversion and modeling of broadband p waveforms are performed in this time window incorporating a priori field observations of coseismic displacements both single point and multiple point source representations are determined we found that the rupture process can be divided into at least three steps in the first step rupture initiated from the hypocenter and extended bilaterally along the e w striking fault with an almost pure right lateral strike slip motion the eastern portion of the rupture front passed through the sapanca lake and stopped around akyazi whereas the western portion stopped near hersek this step lasted for 22 23 sec releasing a total moment of 1 43 1020 n m the dislocation was concentrated briefly at two areas one near golcuk and the other between the sapanca lake and akyazi slip in these two areas was concentrated in the upper 10 km of the crust after 1 2 sec a second source started possibly initiating on an underwater fault west of hersek although its rupture lasted for almost 20 sec its moment release was very low just 0 17 1020 n m another 8 9 sec later the easternmost fault segment between akyazi and the area west of duzce was triggered with a rupture lasting for more than 15 sec producing little energy in the short period band with slip concentrated in a zone extending vertically 25 km to the surface and with a moment of 0 61 1020 n m manuscript received 22 september 2000

time dependent distributed afterslip on and deep below the izmit earthquake rupture surface deformation transients measured with the global positioning system during the 87 days between the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake and the 12 november 1999 duzce earthquake indicate rapidly decaying aseismic fault slip on and well below the coseismic rupture elastic model inversions for time dependent distributed fault slip using a network inversion filter approach show that afterslip was highest between and below the regions of maximum coseismic slip and propa gated downward to or even below the base of the crust maximum afterslip rates decayed from greater than 2 m yr immediately after the i zmit earthquake to about 1 2 m yr just prior to the duzce earthquake maximum afterslip occurred below the eastern karadere rupture segment and near the i zmit hypocenter afterslip in the upper 16 km decayed more rapidly than that below the seismogenic zone these observations are consistent with a phase of rapid aseismic fault slip concentrated near the base of the seismogenic zone continued loading from the rapid deep afterslip along the eastern rupture zone is a plausible mechanism that helped trigger the nearby mw 7 2 12 november duzce earthquake

coseismic and postseismic fault slip for the 17 august 1999 m 7 5 izmit turkey earthquake we use global positioning system gps observations and elastic half space models to estimate the distribution of coseismic and postseismic slip along the izmit earthquake rupture our results indicate that large coseismic slip reaching 5 7 meters is confined to the upper 10 kilometers of the crust correlates with structurally distinct fault segments and is relatively low near the hypocenter continued surface deformation during the first 75 days after the earthquake indicates an aseismic fault slip of as much as 0 43 meters on and below the coseismic rupture these observations are consistent with a transition from unstable episodic large earthquakes to stable fault creep sliding at the base of the seismogenic zone

the effect of elastic layering on inversions of gps data for coseismic slip and resulting stress changes strike slip earthquakes we investigate the effect of depth dependent elasticity on slip inversions and coseismic stress change estimates for large strike slip earthquakes using a series of hypothetical models and the 1999 izmit turkey earthquake as examples slip inversions are performed using both semianalytical and finite element solutions for surface displacements due to a shear dislocation in layered and uniform elastic earth models we find that incorporating realistic increases to shear modulus with depth in our inversions increases recovered centroid depth and seismic potency relative to uniform elastic half space models recovered seismic moment is up to 40 greater for models incorporating depth dependent than it is for uniform elastic half space models incorporating depth dependent also increases our estimate of the maximum slip depth for the izmit turkey earthquake to at least 20 km our estimates of coseismic stress change in the upper crust do not change significantly when we incorporate depth dependent elasticity in our inversions as long as slip at depth is tuned increased to match surface displacements coseismic differential stresses in the lower crust increase by up to a factor of 3 in the near field but further from the fault stresses from layered and uniform elastic models are approximately equal with increasing depth in the mantle the ratio of modeled differential stresses for the layered and uniform elastic models approaches the ratio of mantle values for these two models we conclude that models of postseismic viscoelastic relaxation following large strike slip earthquakes should incorporate depth dependent elasticity but that uniform elastic half space models are adequate to calculate coseismic coulomb stresses in the upper crust for most triggering studies

microfracturing damage and failure of brittle granites 1 the evolution of stress induced damage and the eventual brittle failure are experimentally analyzed for mount scott granite of oklahoma we quantify the damage intensity in two methods and directly compare model predictions and actual damage the 14 samples of the medium grain size granite were loaded triaxially at dry conditions room temperature and under 41 mpa confining pressure microfractures were mapped in five samples and the majority of them 80 belong to two groups tensile microfractures trending subparallel to the loading axis and shear microfractures trending 11 40 off the loading axis the tensile microfractures dominate the low stress stage and they remain intragranular with a stress increase the relative density of shear microfractures increases with increasing stresses and they formed elongated intergranular zones of coalescing microfractures we compared two independent values of damage intensity 1 the macroscopic experimentally measured reduction of the deformation modulus and 2 the expected reduction of this modulus calculated with several damage models for the density of the mapped microfractures our fracture density data best fit the model of noninteracting cracks of kachanov 1992

centroid moment tensor solutions for july september 1999 abstract centroid moment tensor cmt solutions are presented for 231 earthquakes that occurred during the third quarter of 1999 the solutions are obtained using corrections for aspherical earth structure represented by a whole mantle shear velocity model sh8 u4l8 of dziewonski and woodward dziewonski a m woodward r l 1992 acoustic imaging at the planetary scale in emert h harjes h p eds acoustical imaging plenum new york vol 19 pp 785 797 a model of anelastic attenuation of durek and ekstrom durek j j ekstrom g 1996 a radial model of anelasticity consistent with long period surface wave attenuation bull seismol soc am 86 144 158 is used to predict the decay of the waveforms

of basins plains and trenches systematics and distribution of solenogastres mollusca aplacophora in the northwest pacific abstract solenogastres mollusca aplacophora form a common part of the benthic malacofauna in the deep sea but their diversity in the northwest pacific is poorly understood in this study we analyze the systematics and distribution of solenogastres sampled during the kuril kamchatka biodiversity studies ii expedition to the hadal kuril kamchatka trench in the framework of previous expeditions to the shallow bathyal areas of the japanese coast the abyssal kuril basin in the sea of okhotsk and the open abyssal plain of the northwest pacific this unique dataset from adjacent regions extending from bathyal to hadal zones enables us to study bathymetric and geographic distribution ranges in this neglected deep sea clade for the first time our applied species delineation in these taxonomically challenging aplacophoran molluscs relies on an integrative approach combining scleritome characters with molecular analyses a first molecular phylogenetic study based on two mitochondrial markers reveals conflict with traditional systematics and suggests the need to revise at least two polyphyletic families and the polyphyletic order cavibelonia in total 192 specimens could be grouped within 60 candidate species which present a surprisingly rich abyssal fauna and includes the first representatives of solenogastres at hadal depths we found a high proportion of singletons and little faunal overlap between the investigated regions and depths suggesting that the diversity of the abyssal and hadal solenogastres is not entirely determined by source sink dynamics from the bathyal slope rather there is evidence for abyssal source populations supporting the presence of endemic abyssal and potentially even hadal species our molecular data reject the kuril kamchatka trench as an insurmountable barrier of dispersal for solenogastres with one species present at both sides of the trench remarkably one species from the kuril kamchatka trench shows a vertical distribution extending over more than 6 000 m overall our study more than doubles the global number of solenogaster species from abyssal depths provides first records of a unique hadal solenogaster fauna and delivers valuable insights into distribution ranges of these deep sea molluscs

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

the 17 august 1999 izmit earthquake on 17 august 1999 an earthquake of magnitude 7 4 shook northwestern turkey details on the earthquake9s characteristics and effects across northwestern turkey are provided and are put in the historical context of previous earthquakes in the region the earthquake was the seventh in a series of earthquakes migrating westwards along the north anatolian fault since 1939 information on historical earthquakes modeling and estimates of the slip rate along the fault indicate that the location and severity of the earthquake should not have come as a surprise

coseismic and early post seismic slip associated with the 1999 izmit earthquake turkey from sar interferometry and tectonic field observations summary we use combined tectonic field observations and sar data to determine an improved model of the slip associated with the 1999 izmit earthquake which ruptured the north anatolian fault at the eastern end of the sea of marmara the leading goal is to understand the main features of the coseismic and post seismic deformation which are captured together in the sar data to achieve this we make a critical analysis of the ers1 2 sar data which allows atmospheric effects to be identified and removed we also use detailed field mapping and measurements of the earthquake surface rupture dislocations in elastic half space and a forward modelling strategy allow us to obtain a slip model by steps a trial and error approach is combined with conventional inversion techniques to determine the slip in the different regions of the fault the sar data are well explained with three main zones of high slip along the fault releasing a total moment of 2 3 10 20 nm mw 7 6 which is higher than the seismological estimates 1 7 2 0 10 20 n m the inhomogeneous slip distribution correlates with fault segments identified at the surface the izmit rupture appears to have extended 30 km west of the hersek peninsula into the sea of marmara with slip tapering fro m2mt ozero the western end of the rupture is located 40 km sse from istanbul we show that some features seen near to mudurnu and gevye and previously interpreted as slip on secondary faults are explained mostly as atmospheric effects correlated with the topography using our approach and the available gps data we obtain a slip model that represents the coseismic slip alone which suggests that the moment release during the main shock was 1 9 10 20 nm mw 7 5 consistent with the seismological estimates we conclude that the sar data include the effects of 2 m of fast after slip during the month following the main shock within a zone of the fault located 12 24 km below the epicentral region near the hypocentre at a depth of 18 km the fault appears to have experienced dynamic slip of 1 m associated with the main shock followed by 2 m of rapidly decelerating post seismic shear during the following month we suggest that the distribution of heterogeneous slip and loading along the different fault segments may be important factors controlling the propagation of large earthquake ruptures along the north anatolian fault

gps and geologic estimates of the tectonic activity in the marmara sea region nw anatolia a dense network of 52 global positioning system gps sites is used to determine the velocity field and strain rate pattern at the western end of the north anatolian fault zone nafz in the marmara sea region nw anatolia based on four gps campaigns carried out biannually between 1990 and 1996 the detailed kinematic field of crustal motion is calculated the southernmost station shows an average rate of 22 3 mm yr oriented westward relative to istanbul eurasia this value is indicative of the dextral strike slip motion of nw anatolia relative to the black sea the gps velocity field reveals that the sites located on the thrace black sea block show negligible motion relative to istanbul the gps based deformation pattern of three sections crossing the westward prolongation of the nafz is compared with neotectonic data both the gps and the neotectonic data give clear evidence that most of the deformation occurs along a relatively narrow e w oriented zone this belt extends from the single fault trace of the nafz through the gulf of izmit the marmara sea the arkoy region and the gulf of saros into the north aegean trough nat in addition the cross sections show the increasing influence of the n s oriented extension in the aegean sea region from the comparison of the directions and rates of shear and normal strain deduced from gps data with geologic and seismic observations we conclude that the most active zone of dextral shear follows a line along mudurnu valley the northern marmara sea and the saros trough where it joins the nat

heightened odds of large earthquakes near istanbul an interaction based probability calculation we calculate the probability of strong shaking in istanbul an urban center of 10 million people from the description of earthquakes on the north anatolian fault system in the marmara sea during the past 500 years and test the resulting catalog against the frequency of damage in istanbul during the preceding millennium departing from current practice we include the time dependent effect of stress transferred by the 1999 moment magnitude m 7 4 izmit earthquake to faults nearer to istanbul we find a 62 15 probability one standard deviation of strong shaking during the next 30 years and 32 12 during the next decade