sea level control of stacked late quaternary coastal sequences central great barrier reef lithofacies analysis pollen assemblages and radiocarbon age dates of 20 stratigraphic drill holes are used to develop an evolutionary history for late quaternary sedimentation in two coastal embayments landward of the central great barrier reef different physiographic settings of the embayments result in two contrasting styles of sedimentary sequence a an exposed moderate energy beach barrier lagoon system wyvuri embayment and b a protected low energy muddy inlet fill sequence mutchero inlet despite sharp contrast in sequence style similar depositional cycles occur in both embayments in response to late quaternary sea level fluctuations including 1 a last interglacial highstand 2 m c 125 000 yr bp beach barrier wyvuri 2 an early to mid holocene 8000 6100 yr bp transgressive beach barrierlagoon wyvuri and estuarine infill mutchero and 3 mid holocene to present highstand beach barrier wyvuri and estuarine mutchero progradation preservation of such cycles in the stratigraphic record would produce a series of vertically stacked and offset linear barrier sands surrounded by lagoonal mud and fine grained shoreface sediment juxtaposed to muddy estuarine infills sea level elevations are well recorded by the upward transition from rhizaghoru dominated intertidal mangrove mud to freshwater swamp clearly identified by pollen analysis and by the basal contacts of beach barrier sediments which sharply overlie the upper shoreface transgressive sedimentation is interrupted in both embayments by a constructional beach barrier wyvuri and abbreviated progradation mutchero corresponding to a 5 m pause in relative sea level rise at c 6800 yr bp sea level control of fine scale coastal sedimentation patterns is beginning to be widely recognized and provides an accurate analogue for stacked ancient sequences

elevation changes and the great 1960 chilean earthquake support for aseismic slip we reanalyse the near field vertical displacement data for the great chilean earthquake of 1960 to provide constraints on the down dip slip distribution a recent study of free oscillation data confirms earlier proposals of a slow precursor comparable in size to the main shock we seek evidence for this event in the displacement data spatial coverage of the data is inadequate to allow determination of a unique fault model but inversions show that thrust slip must extend over a width of about 300 km and to a depth between 60 km and 85 km well below the seismogenic zone for interplate events we propose that this deeper slip is the source of the slow event our preferred class of solutions has moments ranging from 1 6 1023 n m to 2 5 1023 n m only 30 to 45 of the free oscillation value underestimation of the near trench displacements by 50 together with a seismic overestimation of moment by 30 due to tradeoff with rise time would result in satisfactory agreement

warm ocean is eroding west antarctic ice sheet 1 satellite radar measurements show that ice shelves in pine island bay have thinned by up to 5 5 m yr 1 over the past decade the pattern of shelf thinning mirrors that of their grounded tributaries the pine island thwaites and smith glaciers and ocean currents on average 0 5 c warmer than freezing appear to be the source the synchronised imbalance of the inland glaciers is the result of reduced lateral and basal tractions at their termini and the drawdown of grounded ice shows that antarctica is more sensitive to changing climates than was previously considered

rupture process of the 1983 japan sea akita oki earthquake using a waveform inversion method the rupture process of the 1983 japan sea earthquake mjma 7 7 is determined by applying waveform inversion of displacement type strong motion records based on the bayesian method the synthesis of the seismic motions from the main shock is made using the records from the two aftershocks mjma 7 1 and mjma 6 1 as empirical green s functions the main shock fault consists of two subfaults the aftershock m 6 1 occurring south of the main shock fault is used for the southern subfault empirical green s function and the aftershock m 7 1 occurring north of the main shock fault is used for the northern subfault in this synthesis it is not necessary to calculate propagation path and local site effects therefore the information about the source process can be extracted from the comparison between observed seismic motions and the synthetic ones without detailed information on the velocity structure along the whole path from the source to each station the inversion for the rupture process is attempted for both a line source model and an area source model in both models the main shock fault surface is divided into several elements whose sizes are determined from the scaling relations between the main shock and its aftershocks the slip displacement and the rupture starting time on each element are estimated as model parameters in the inversion a good convergence is obtained after about 10 iteration steps for the line source case and after 5 iteration steps for the area source case the results are summarized 1 the average rupture velocity is approximately 2 5 km sec for the southern subfault and 2 0 km sec for the northern subfault and 2 there is a large slip displacement near the rupture initiation point and the north edge of the fault thus there is considerable heterogeneity in rupture propagation and slip distribution over the fault plane

dynamic in stability of thwaites glacier west antarctica 1 thwaites glacier west antarctica has the potential to directly contribute 1 m to sea level and currently is losing mass and thinning rapidly here we report on regional results for the sea level response to ice sheet evolution searise experiments and investigate the impact of i spatial resolution within existing data sets ii grounding zone processes and iii till rheology on the dynamics of this outlet glacier in addition to the searise data sets we use detailed aerogeophysical and satellite data from thwaites glacier as input to a coupled ice stream ice shelf ocean plume model that includes oceanic influences across a several kilometers wide grounding zone suggested by new high resolution data our results indicate that the ice tongue provides limited stability and that while future atmospheric warming will likely add mass to the surface of the glacier strong ice stream stabilization on bedrock highs narrower than the length of the grounding zone may be ephemeral if circulating waters substantially reduce basal resistance and enhance melting beneath grounded ice within this zone however we find that stability is significantly enhanced by effectively plastic till beds accurate projections of future sea level change relies on correct understanding of the till rheology as well as local basal processes near the grounding line

a possible model for large preseismic slip on a deeper extension of a seismic rupture plane abstract i develop a numerical model for preseismic slip and episodic aseismic slip events slow earthquakes on a deeper extension of a seismogenic plate interface using a rate and state dependent friction law the deep preseismic slip and episodic slow slip were indicated by models based on geodetic observations though they cannot be explained by common rate and state dependent laws i investigate whether this incongruity can be removed by including use of additional known constraints on the frictional property the steady state friction on a model fault is taken to be velocity weakening at low velocities and velocity strengthening at high velocities the transition velocity from velocity weakening friction to velocity strengthening is assumed to be the seismic slip velocity at shallow seismic depths and decreases with depth at deeper parts simulation results for a 2d model of interplate earthquakes at a subduction zone are as follows 1 during an interseismic period between successive large earthquakes at shallow seismogenic depths some episodic aseismic slip events with durations of a few years occur on the plate interface just below the seismogenic depths 2 preseismic slip occurs at nearly the same location where the episodic aseismic slip events occur these may explain some characteristics of observed preseismic slip of the 1944 tonankai earthquake m 7 9 along the nankai trough central japan and episodic aseismic slip events in the same area

modelling of short interval silent slip events in deeper subduction interfaces considering the frictional properties at the unstable stable transition regime summary recent high resolution observations of crustal movements have revealed silent slip events sses with propagation velocities of around 10 15 km d 1 and with intervals of 3 14 months along the deeper parts of the cascadia and nankai subduction zones this study develops 2 d and 3 d models of these short interval sses considering the frictional behaviour that was confirmed experimentally by shimamoto for the unstable stable transition regime to represent this frictional behaviour a small cut off velocity to an evolution effect is introduced in a rate and state dependent friction law when the cut off velocity to the evolution effect is significantly smaller than that to a direct effect steady state friction exhibits velocity weakening at low slip velocities and velocity strengthening at high slip velocities at the deeper cascadia and nankai subduction interfaces the pore pressure is inferred to be high because of the dehydration of materials in the descending plate under conditions where the pore fluid pressure is nearly equal to the lithostatic pressure and the critical weakening displacement is very small short interval sses with propagation velocities and slip velocities of 4 8 km d 1 and 2 4 10 7 m s 1 respectively can be reproduced the propagation velocity of short interval sses is in proportion to the slip velocity the results also show that during the nucleation process of large earthquakes the occurrence of short interval sses becomes irregular because of the accelerated slips that occur at the bottom of the seismogenic zone our results suggest that monitoring of short interval sses might be useful for forecasting the main earthquakes

spatial and temporal evolution of coastal depositional systems and regional depositional process regimes campanian western interior seaway u s a abstract this paper provides a critical review and regional synthesis of late cretaceous shallow marine deposits along part of the western margin of the western interior seaway of north america which contains the most extensively documented outcrop based studies of siliciclastic coastal depositional systems in the world the results of this synthesis are presented in the form of paleogeographic maps covering present day new mexico utah colorado and wyoming usa for five timeslices in the campanian these maps are used to evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution of regional depositional process regimes along a large 1000 m stretch of coastline the evolution of regional depositional process regimes is linked to tectonic and paleoceanographic controls on the western interior seaway which enables the results of this synthesis to be applied to prediction of depositional process regimes in other less intensively studied basins six gross depositional environments have been mapped for each timeslice 1 alluvial to coastal plain sandstones 2 coastal plain coals mudstones and sandstones 3 shoreline sandstones 4 marine mudstones 5 gravity flow siltstones and sandstones and 6 marine marls and chalk shoreline sandstones in each timeslice are interpreted in further detail using documented evidence for the three principal classes of depositional process wave tidal and fluvial and published reconstructions of coastal morphology which is widely considered to reflect depositional process regime based on these interpretations shoreline sandstones are assigned to five categories of depositional process regime 1 regressive wave dominated shorefaces and delta fronts 2 regressive river dominated delta fronts 3 regressive mixed tide and wave influenced delta fronts 4 regressive tide dominated delta fronts and 5 transgressive barrier islands back barrier lagoons and estuaries the accuracy of and uncertainty in classification of depositional process regime are critically evaluated additionally stratal thickness and sediment routing pathways have been interpreted in order to assess the impact of tectonic and paleoceanographic controls on spatial and temporal changes in all of the evaluated shallow marine successions thin tide influenced intervals were deposited in back barrier and lagoon systems associated with net transgressive shorefaces and estuaries however it is notable that all preserved tide dominated and tide influenced regressive deltaic systems are located along the northern margin of the utah bight a tectonically related embayment that had a pronounced expression during the middle campanian the southern margin of the embayment and coastlines to the north are conspicuously more wave dominated which supports their exposure to a larger wave fetch in contrast the northern margin of the embayment was relatively wave protected it is concluded that tidal range was amplified due to resonance of the principal semidiurnal tide in the strongly embayed geometry of the middle campanian utah bight

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

the amurian plate motion and current plate kinematics in eastern asia we use global positioning system gps velocity data to model eastern asian plate kinematics out of 15 stations in korea russia china and japan studied here three sites considered to be on the stable interior of the hypothetical amurian plate showed eastward velocities as fast as 9 10 mm yr with respect to the eurasian plate they were stationary relative to each other to within 1 mm yr and these velocity vectors together with those of a few additional sites were used to accurately determine the instantaneous angular velocity euler vector of the amurian plate the predicted movement between the amurian and the north american plates is consistent with slip vectors along the eastern margin of the japan sea and sakhalin which reduces the necessity to postulate the existence of the okhotsk plate the euler vector of the amurian plate predicts left lateral movement along its boundary with the south china block consistent with neotectonic estimates of the displacement at the qinling fault possibly the southern boundary of the amurian plate the amurian plate offers a platform for models of interseismic strain buildup in southwest japan by the philippine sea plate subduction at the nankai trough slip vectors along the baikal rift the boundary between the amurian and the eurasian plates are largely inconsistent with the gps based euler vector suggesting an intrinsic difficulty in using earthquake slip vectors in continental rift zones for such studies

frictional properties of megathrust fault gouges at low sliding velocities new data on effects of normal stress and temperature abstract friction data used in modelling studies of subduction zone seismogenesis are often poorly representative of in situ conditions we investigated the influence of in situ effective stresses and temperatures on the frictional properties of simulated fault gouges prepared either from nankai odp material or illite shale at sliding velocities approaching those relevant for earthquake nucleation and sses biaxial double direct shear experiments were performed at room temperature normal stresses of 5 30 mpa and sliding velocities of 0 16 18 m s all materials exhibited velocity strengthening under these conditions along with an increase in the friction coefficient and slip hardening rate with increasing normal stress illite gouge showed increased velocity strengthening towards higher normal stresses the effect of temperature was investigated by means of ring shear experiments on illite gouge at 200 300 c an effective normal stress of 170 mpa a pore fluid pressure of 100 mpa and sliding velocities of 1 100 m s these experiments showed a transition from velocity strengthening to velocity weakening at 250 c our results provide a possible explanation for the updip seismogenic limit within subduction zone megathrusts and imply an enhanced tendency for earthquake nucleation and sses at low effective normal stresses

ductile fracture of fine grained plagioclase in the brittle plastic transition regime implication for earthquake source nucleation abstract crush zones along strain localized zones of plastic deformation were found in a small natural brittle plastic shear zone in the abukuma mountains ne japan the optical microstructures indicate that crush zones are developed where plastic deformation is strong scanning electron microscopy sem revealed the presence of microvoids which connect together to form intergranular fractures in fine grained plagioclase layers in strain localized zones with crush zones this suggests that the microvoids coalesce in the fine grained plagioclase layers allowed ductile fracture to form crush zones during plastic deformation transmission electron microscopy tem revealed that the dislocation densities of all grains in fine grained plagioclase layers in strain localized zones with crush zones are high while evidence for grain boundary migration and dynamic recrystallization is found away from crush zones during plastic deformation of plagioclase in the brittle plastic transition regime strong plastic deformation with insufficient recrystallization may have resulted in the nucleation of microvoids which link together to form intergranular fractures this process may be an important mechanism during earthquake source nucleation

correlated transient fluid pulsing and seismic tremor in the costa rica subduction zone continuous measurements of fluid flow were made over a six month period across the nicoya peninsula costa rica pacific convergent margin utilizing osmotically driven fluid flow meters designed to quantify both inflow and outflow rates on the order of 10 5 to 3 cm d significant transience in flow was observed through the surface of the forearc three periods of correlated flow signals were seen on the subduction forearc among three instruments located in the out of sequence thrust oost zone over along margin strike distances of 30 km amplitudes of ground velocity recorded on collocated ocean bottom seismometers obs increase during the three correlated flow events the seismic signal has frequency characteristics that resemble volcanic and non volcanic tremor we hypothesize that repeated plate boundary slow slip events potentially originating at the up dip limit of the seismogenic zone generate the observed signals within the toe of the forearc we propose a model in which the poro elastic stress strain field around a series of creep dislocations simultaneously forces flow through fracture networks in the forearc and oceanic basement rocks and induces diffuse flow through the shallow sediments the former generates the seismic tremor like noise recorded by the obss and the latter generates the flow transients recorded by the fluid flow meters we suggest that high sensitivity fluid flow meters can be utilized to detect transient tectonic strain events in offshore environments where traditional geodetic techniques lack resolution or are not possible d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

exploring for subtle traps with high resolution paleogeographic maps reklaw 1 interval eocene south texas with sufficient well control high resolution paleogeographic maps can be made using log curve shapes and sand body geometry to interpret depositional environments within genetic increments of strata high resolution paleogeographic maps depicting the depositional history of the reklaw 1 interval provide a basis for prospecting for subtle traps in the updip reklaw trend in south texas the reklaw 1 interval began with sand being carried southwestward by longshore currents to form the barrier bar that became atkinson field the hydrocarbons were trapped by the updip pinch out of barrier bar sand into lagoonal mud stratigraphic traps similar to atkinson field could be present along depositional strike if the sand in the field were part of an extensive barrier bar system after the barrier bar formed distributary mouth bars prograded seaward depositing the bar finger sands that became the hysaw and flax fields subtle structural traps could be present today where small up to the coast faults associated with the sample fault system cut the bar finger sands downdip from established production farther down paleoslope the distributary channels began to bifurcate and the distributary mouth bars coalesced to form a broad delta front sheet sand burnell hondo creek and runge west fields produce from this sheet sand at the unstable shelf margin a rapid rise in relative sea level terminated the reklaw 1 interval many of the oil and gas fields still to be discovered in the united states are in mature petroleum provinces where much of the remaining oil and gas probably resides in subtle traps high resolution paleogeographic maps are the key to finding these subtle traps

the cliff house sandstone san juan basin new mexico model for the stacking of transgressive barrier complexes abstract the upper cretaceous cliff house sandstone in the san juan basin new mexico is characterized by en echelon nw se elongated linear sandstone complexes representing successive phases of coastal sedimentation along the western margin of the cretaceous seaway detailed analysis of the lithofacies spatial facies relations and geometry of the stratigraphically highest cliff house sandstone complex in the southern part of the basin indicates a storm dominated tidal linear barrier island coast as the depositional environment the complex consists of four stacked sandstone bodies each body is bounded above and below by a sharp erosion surface offsets of the stacked sandstone bodies along the erosion surfaces mark minor transgressive and regressive shifts of the cliff house coast the cliff house sandstone is generally known as a transgressive sequence accumulation of barrier sands however took place during the regressive intervals in subsequent transgressive intervals part of the accumulated sediment was eroded and only topographicall low lying parts of the barrier e g shoreface tidal inlets and lagoonal sediment were preserved

episodic creep events on the san andreas fault caused by pore pressure variations recent seismic and geodetic observations indicate that interseismic creep rate varies in both time and space the spatial extent of creep pinpoints locked asperities while its temporary accelerations known as slow slip events may trigger earthquakes although the conditions promoting fault creep are well studied the mechanisms for initiating episodic slow slip events are enigmatic here we investigate surface deformation measured by radar interferometry along the central san andreas fault between 2003 and 2010 to constrain the temporal evolution of creep we show that slow slip events are ensembles of localized creep bursts that aseismically rupture isolated fault compartments using a rate and state friction model we show that effective normal stress is temporally variable on the fault and support this using seismic observations we propose that compaction driven elevated pore fluid pressure in hydraulically isolated fault zone and subsequent frictional dilation cause the observed slow slip episodes we further suggest that the 2004 mw6 parkfield earthquake might have been triggered by a slow slip event which increased the coulomb failure stress by up to 0 45 bar per year this implies that while creeping segments are suggested to act as seismic rupture barriers slow slip events on these zones might promote seismicity on adjacent locked segments

bed conditions of pine island glacier west antarctica although 90 of antarctica s discharge occurs via its fast flowing ice streams our ability to project future ice sheet response has been limited by poor observational constraints on the ice bed conditions used in numerical models to determine basal slip we have helped address this observational deficit by acquiring and analyzing a series of seismic reflection profiles to determine basal conditions beneath the main trunk and tributaries of pine island glacier pig west antarctica seismic profiles indicate large scale sedimentary deposits combined with seismic reflection images measured acoustic impedance values indicate relatively uniform bed conditions directly beneath the main trunk and tributaries comprising a widespread reworked sediment layer with a dilated sediment lid of minimum thickness 1 5 0 4 m beneath a slow moving intertributary region a discrete low porosity sediment layer of 7 3 m thickness is imaged despite considerable basal topography seismic observations indicate that a till layer at the ice base is ubiquitous beneath pig which requires a highly mobile sediment body to maintain an abundant supply these results are compatible with existing ice sheet models used to invert for basal shear stress existing basal conditions upstream will not inhibit further rapid retreat of pig if the high friction region currently restraining flow directly upstream of the grounding line is breached however small changes in the pressure regime at the bed as a result of stress reorganization following retreat may result in a less readily deformable bed and conditions which are less likely to maintain high ice flow rates

the mechanism of the 1983 japan sea earthquake as inferred from long period surface waves and tsunamis abstract the source process of the japan sea earthquake of may 26 1983 is studied by using the long period surface waves and tsunamis the moment tensor inversion of rayleigh waves which consider the lateral heterogeneity of the earth is developed and applied to the ida records of this event the moment tensor solution and first motion data indicate that the mechanism is dip slip and the seismic moment is 7 6 1027 dyne cm the fault is estimated to be 120 km in length 40 km in width and dips eastward with a dip angle of 30 from the aftershock distribution tsunami simulation for an actual topography is made to restrain the slip on the fault the aftershock area and the tsunami records suggest that the fault is divided into two segments the northern part strikes nnw and slips 4 m while the southern part strikes nne and slips 5 m the fault geometry the aspect ratio and the stress drop of this event are similar to those of the 1964 niigata earthquake but differ from those of the earthquakes in the pacific coast of japan

large earthquakes initiate by the acceleration of slips on the downward extensions of seismogenic faults abstract in order to examine the relationship between anomalous crustal deformations and subsequent large earthquakes we compiled and examined data on preseismic anomalous crustal deformations for two earthquakes that occurred in and around the japanese islands in recent years we found that the slip on a downward extension of a seismogenic fault accelerates before the main shock and that the average slip velocity is inversely proportional to the time remaining until the main shock occurs

evidence for aseismic deformation rate changes prior to earthquakes abstractfor ten earthquakes in nonmagmatic settings there are credible published accounts of pre earthquake deformation rate changes lasting hundreds of seconds to more than a decade although most m 7 5 earthquakes have occurred without detectable pre earthquake deformation the detection threshold for aseismic deformation remains high in that aseismic slip with moment equivalent to an m5 earthquake would in most although not all cases have been missed interseismic deformation rates vary without being followed by earthquakes and a strain rate change prior to the 1989 mw6 9 loma prieta california earthquake is shown to be similar in size to many other rate changes that have occurred since that time most examples of pre earthquake aseismic deformation lasting hundreds of seconds or more probably originate adjacent to or downdip of the seismic rupture plane rather than within the zone that undergoes seismic failure

episodic aseismic earthquake precursors shallow earthquakes are generally believed to be brittle fractures in a stressed medium with rupture velocity at a speed close to that for shear waves we know however that the earth allows failure over a wide range of timescales creep events occur on the san andreas fault system and for some earthquakes the high speed rupture is accompanied by a slower process1 5 here we report on episodic slow events which occurred before the japan sea earthquake of magnitude 7 7 on 26 may 1983 a sacks evertson borehole strain meter6 90 km from the earthquake recorded about 100 aseismic strain events in a five month period before and immediately following the earthquake none has been detected after the large aftershocks the observed signals are consistent with a precursory redistribution of stress through aseismic slip on a deep extension of the main shock fault plane such episodic aseismic events may provide a mechanism for relatively rapid stress concentration before earthquakes

thermobarometry of metamorphosed pseudotachylyte and associated mylonite constraints on dynamic co seismic rupture depth attending caledonian extension north norway abstract the exhumed post caledonian eidsfjord and fiskfjord extensional shear zones of northern norway exhibit evidence of coseismic rupture propagating into the ductile crust as evidenced by the presence of mylonitic and metamorphosed pseudotachylyte geothermobarometric calculations on garnet bearing mineral assemblages in mylonitic gneisses associated with mylonitic pseudotachylyte and in metamorphosed pseudotachylyte permit determination of the depth and ambient temperature of seismogenic low angle ductile extension average pressures from eidsfjord 570 115 mpa at ca 650 c and fiskfjord 1120 220 mpa at ca 650 c correspond to faulting depths of 21 4 km and 41 9 km respectively the fiskfjord results agree with previous thermobarometric calculations on mylonitic cpx grt bearing pseudotachylyte at fiskfjord the calculated depths are 5 25 km below the depth of the standard seismogenic zone these results demonstrate that low angle normal faults may cut through a large portion of continental crust this occurrence of mylonitic pseudotachylyte in an extensional crustal setting is most easily explained by dynamic downward rupture into the ductile regime and or unusually high shear stresses to account for coseismic rupture at such depths implying a direct connection with a seismogenic normal fault in the upper crust

fault structure wear mechanisms and rupture processes in pseudotachylyte generation abstract fault generated pseudotachylyte is found within both cataclastic and mylonitic host rocks suggesting that rapid catastrophic displacements have occurred at a variety of depths within paleoseismogenic zones pseudotachylyte bearing fault zones represent a composite of structural features associated with the process of earthquake rupture propagation and coseismic slip the development of multiple pseudotachylyte veins in fault linkages duplexes sidewall ripouts en echelon arrays and brittle zones suggests repeated rupturing during a series of characteristic earthquakes each earthquake as a coseismic slip event can be subdivided into initial rupture acceleration stable sliding and final deceleration stages these evolve through distinctive sequences of wear and deformation mechanisms that vary with sliding velocity duration of slip total displacement and the hydrodynamics of the developing fault zone slip is thought to proceed toward surface refinement and possible frictional melting following the propagation of leading shear fracture process zones the passage of the initial process zone of oblique fracturing would be followed by linkage to a throughgoing structure with asperity reduction through brecciation comminution and refined cataclastic flow for frictional melting in an abrasive wear dominant model at greater depths in the presence of mylonitic anisotropy slip would proceed through initial layer parallel surfaces and duplex linkages with rapid surface refinement through plastic smearing and laminar flow for frictional melting in an adhesive wear dominant model

postseismic deformation associated with the 1992 m ω 7 3 landers earthquake southern california following the 1992 m 7 3 landers earthquake a linear array of 10 geodetic monuments at roughly 5 km spacing was established across the emerson fault segment of the landers rupture the array trends perpendicular to the local strike of the fault segment and extends about 30 km on either side of it the array was surveyed by global positioning system 0 034 0 048 0 381 1 27 1 88 2 60 and 3 42 years after the landers earthquake to measure both the spatial and temporal character of the postearthquake relaxation the temporal behavior is described roughly by a short term decay time 84 23 days exponential relaxation superimposed upon an apparently linear trend because the linear trend represents motions much more rapid than the observed preseismic motions we attribute that trend to a slower decay time greater than 5 years postseismic relaxation the curvature of which cannot be resolved in the short run 3 4 years of postseismic data about 100 mm of right lateral displacement and 50 mm of fault normal displacement accumulated across the geodetic array in the 3 4 year interval covered by the postseismic surveys those displacements are attributed to postseismic right lateral slip in the depth interval 10 to 30 km on the downward extension of the rupture trace the right lateral slip amounted to about 1 m directly beneath the geodetic array and the fault normal displacement is apparently primarily a consequence of the curvature of the rupture these conclusions are based upon dislocation models fit to the observed deformation however no dislocation model was found with rms residuals as small as the expected observational error

a silent slip event on the deeper cascadia subduction interface continuous global positioning system sites in southwestern british columbia canada and northwestern washington state usa have been moving landward as a result of the locked state of the cascadia subduction fault offshore in the summer of 1999 a cluster of seven sites briefly reversed their direction of motion no seismicity was associated with this event the sudden displacements are best explained by 2 centimeters of aseismic slip over a 50 kilometer by 300 kilometer area on the subduction interface downdip from the seismogenic zone a rupture equivalent to an earthquake of moment magnitude 6 7 this provides evidence that slip of the hotter plastic part of the subduction interface and hence stress loading of the megathrust earthquake zone can occur in discrete pulses

postseismic deformation following the landers earthquake california 28 june 1992 accelerated strain followed the landers and big bear earthquakes returning to the normal rate only after a period of several months we observed this strain throughout most of southern california using the global positioning system gps three gps receivers operating continuously in fixed positions at pinyon flat jet propulsion laboratory pasadena and goldstone all recorded postseismic deformation in a relative sense in addition we established 16 sites where we deployed portable receivers occasionally over a period of about 6 months near the rupture zones of the earthquakes anomalous postseismic displacements ranged from 55 mm near the epicenter to a few millimeters far from the fault we modeled the displacements using dislocation theory as due to variable slip on the faults that were displaced at the times of the earthquakes the model suggests that the postseismic strain released the equivalent of about 15 of the seismic moment of the mainshock while the strain released from the upper 10 km is about the same as what can be explained by direct effects of aftershocks the major contribution of strain release comes from the lower layer below 10 km depth significant afterslip or viscous relaxation must have occurred below 10 km depth to explain the observed deformation more than 100 km from the fault one interpretation is that high stress on the margin of the co seismic rupture zone drives the rupture to extend itself into urbroken rock below and along the initial rupture zone

interpretation of topography and bed properties beneath thwaites glacier west antarctica using seismic reflection methods abstract thwaites glacier tg west antarctica is losing mass in response to oceanic forcing future evolution could lead to deglaciation of the marine basins of the west antarctic ice sheet depending on ongoing and future climate forcings but also on basal topography bathymetry basal properties and physical processes operating within the grounding zone hence it is important to know the distribution of bed types of tg s interior and grounding zone and to incorporate them accurately in models in order to improve estimates of retreat rates and stability here we estimate properties of the bed by determining its acoustic impedance from amplitude analysis of reflection seismic data we report on the results from two lines a longitudinal l line and a transverse n line on a central flowline of tg 100 km inland from the grounding zone the data show considerable spatial variability in bed forms and properties similar to results from a comparable survey farther inland notably we find the same pattern here of hard presumed bedrock material on the stoss side of bumps and soft presumed till on the lee side physical understanding indicates the basal flow law describing motion over different regions of tg s bed likely varies from nearly viscous over the bedrock regions to nearly plastic over till regions providing guidance for modeling

modeling the activity of short term slow slip events along deep subduction interfaces beneath shikoku southwest japan 1 we developed a model of short term slow slip events sses on the 3 d subduction interface beneath shikoku southwest japan considering a rate and state dependent friction law with a small cutoff velocity for the evolution effect we assume low effective normal stress and small critical displacement at the sse zone on the basis of the hypocentral distribution of low frequency tremors we set three sse generation segments a large segment beneath western shikoku and two smaller segments beneath central and eastern shikoku using this model we reproduce events beneath western shikoku with longer lengths in the along strike direction and with longer recurrence times compared with events beneath central and eastern shikoku the numerical results are consistent with observations in that the events at longer segments have longer recurrence intervals the activity of sses is determined by nonuniform frictional properties at the transition zone we also attempt to model the very low frequency vlf earthquakes that accompany short term sses on a 2 d thrust fault we consider a local patch in which the friction parameters are varied in the case that critical displacement is very small at the patch fast multiple slips occur at the patch in the case that the effective normal stress is high at the patch the patch acts as a barrier to sses when it ruptures however rapid slip occurs because the source time functions of these cases are somewhat different it would be possible in the future to assess if either case is an appropriate model for vlf earthquakes

basal conditions on rutford ice stream west antarctica from seismic observations a seismic reflection profile perpendicular to the ice flow direction has been acquired on rutford ice stream antarctica an interpretation of both the amplitude and phase of the seismic reflections from the ice bed interface has been made to investigate the properties of the sub ice material the interpretation assumes that acoustic impedance can be used to imply subglacial sediment porosity multiple reflections from the ice bed interface on a number of seismic wide angle lines allowed a calibration of the reflection coefficient at the bed this enabled the acoustic impedance of the bed material to be calculated from the seismic reflection data mean acoustic impedance in the different sections of the bed ranges from 2 70 106 kg m 2 s 1 to 4 31 106 kg m 2 s 1 almost three quarters of the ice stream bed at this site appears to be saturated deforming sediments the rest of the bed is probably also saturated sediments but they are not deforming to any significant degree ice flow could include a combination of subglacial deformation and basal sliding localized regions which support disproportionately high amounts of basal shear stress may also occur from the seismic data it is not possible to apportion relative amounts of restraint to these different processes there does not appear to be any correlation between the different sections identified on the ice stream bed with either satellite images or nearby surface velocity data a feature which is interpreted as a subglacial drumlin is seen on the seismic section

temporal variation of crustal deformation during the days preceding a thrust type great earthquake the 1944 tonankai earthquake of magnitude 8 1 japan the temporal variation in precursory ground tilt prior to the 1944 tonankai japan earthquake which is a great thrust type earthquake along the nankai trough is discussed using the analysis of data from repeated surveys along short distance leveling routes sato 1970 pointed out that an anomalous tilt occurred one day before the earthquake at kakegawa near the northern end of the focal region of the earthquake from the analysis of additional leveling data sato s result is re examined and the temporal change in the ground tilt is deduced for the period of about ten days beginning six days before the earthquake a remarkable precursory tilt started two or three days before the earthquake the direction of the precursory tilt was up towards the south uplift on the southern nankai trough side but the coseismic tilt was up towards the southeast perpendicular to the strike of the main thrust fault of the tonankai earthquake the postseismic tilt was probably opposite of the coseismic tilt the preseismic tilt is attributed to precursory slip on part of the main fault if similar precursory deformation occurs before a future earthquake expected to occur in the adjacent tokai region the deformation may help predict the time of the tokai earthquake

on the physical mechanism of silent slip events along the deeper part of the seismogenic zone 1 to investigate the mechanism of recently observed silent slip events we simulated earthquake preparation processes using the dieterich ruina rate and state dependent friction law to ensure realistic modeling of the unstable stable transition we considered small cut off velocity to an evolution effect in the friction law for the transition zone when the cut off velocity to the evolution effect is significantly smaller than that of a direct effect steady state friction behaves as velocity weakening at low slip velocity and velocity strengthening at high slip velocity this frictional behavior was experimentally and theoretically confirmed for the unstable stable transition zone the results of our numerical simulations show that silent slips of which velocity is higher than the velocity of relative plate motion eventually propagates horizontally along the unstable stable transition over a period of several years silent slip events can be interpreted as being caused by the transitional behavior of the fault constitutive law