vp vs distribution in the northern taiwan area implications for the tectonic structures and rock property variations abstract the ratio of compressional wave velocity vp to shear wave velocity vs is often indicative of lithology and rock conditions in this study we determine the vp vs characteristics for the different tectonic features in northern taiwan and quantify the crack density and saturation by using the ob74 method the result shows that the highest vp vs values are located beneath the western foothills at depths between 4 and 21 km these vp vs highs are simultaneously characterized by low vp and low vs suggesting the presence of fluids the average crack density and saturation for each depth can reach as high as 25 and 91 at depths of 7 and 11 km respectively this distribution could be caused by the presence of less compacted sediments within the foreland basin and the progressive convergence of crustal faults with depth as the shallow portion of the foreland basin is highly fractured fluids could infiltrate into deeper parts to create a highly saturated environment however when the depth is deeper than 11 km the high crack density and saturation area migrate from the west to the east of the shanchiao fault this observation may indicate the presence of a preexisting syn rift basin buried at depth during the collision in the ilan plain the highest crack density and saturation are observed in its northeastern portion at a depth of 4 km with values of 17 1 and 60 3 respectively however slightly high saturation values spread throughout the plain at a depth of 15 km which may indicate a possible fluid conduit from a deep hot rock body to the surface and could be applied toward studies on geothermal fluid activity

poisson s ratio and porosity at coso geothermal area california high resolution three dimensional compressional and shear wave velocity models derived from microearthquake traveltimes are used to map the distribution of poisson s ratio and porosity at coso geothermal area inyo county california spatial resolution of the three dimensional poisson s ratio and porosity distributions is estimated to be 0 5 km horizontally and 0 8 km vertically model uncertainties 1 in the interior and 2 3 around the edge of the model are estimated by a jackknife method we use perturbations of r vp vs ratio and vp vs product to derive distributions of poisson s ratio and porosity which are then used to constrain and delineate possible zones of intense heat fracture accumulation and fluid saturation poisson s ratio at coso ranges from 0 15 to 0 35 with an average of 0 224 lower than the crustal average of 0 25 high poisson s ratios are more extensive in shallower depths 1 5 km while lower poisson s ratios are found in the deeper section 1 5 3 0 km of the target area two major features with low poisson s ratio are identified at geothermal production depth 1 3 km around stations s2 s6 and s1 s3 s4 the two low features are separated by a northwest southeast trending high belt with variable width of 1 3 km a high body is found around s2 and s6 and extends down in depth a circular low belt corresponding to the high belt is located around s2 s6 and is linked to a previously reported structure in vs tomography this low highly porous belt is probably a horizontal conduit reservoir of geothermal fluid a vertical low and high channel beneath triangle s1 s3 s4 corresponds to a high attenuation dome like feature we propose an upwell and spread magma intrusion model for the last major magmatism in the coso region the magmatic upwelling is centered in the s1 s3 s4 area the model predicts potential geothermal resources to the south and west of triangle s1 s3 s4 based on local faulting patterns

crustal heterogeneity in the 2007 noto hanto earthquake area and its geodynamical implications abstract to understand the genesis of the 25 march 2007 noto hanto earthquake mw 6 6 we determined high resolution 3 d seismic velocity vp and vs and poisson s ratio images in the epicenter area using 24 698 p wave and 22 927 s wave arrival times from 809 earthquakes and 265 sp depth phase data collected from seismograms of 162 earthquakes beneath the japan sea the sub oceanic events are relocated accurately by using p s and sp depth phase arrival time data jointly our results demonstrate that the seismic velocity vp and vs and poisson s ratio vary markedly in the source area in and around the main shock hypocenter low velocity and high anomalies are revealed which are apt for accumulation of differential strain to bring the brittle failure we infer that the zone with pronounced low velocity and high poisson s ratio beneath the source area reflects fluid related anomalies derived either from the dehydration of the subducting pacific slab or from permeation of sea water through deep seated active faults or both to the main shock hypocenter which in turn may have facilitated the rupture initiation of the main shock and its aftershock sequence by weakening the overlying seismogenic layer beneath the region our study reinforces the concept of fluid driven earthquakes in the peninsular regions elsewhere in the world

p wave anisotropic tomography of the nankai subduction zone in southwest japan 1 the active subduction of the young philippine sea phs plate and the old pacific plate has resulted in significant seismic heterogeneity and anisotropy in southwest sw japan in this work we determined a detailed 3 d p wave anisotropic tomography of the crust and upper mantle beneath sw japan using 540 000 p wave arrival times from 5 249 local earthquakes recorded by 1095 stations the phs slab is imaged clearly as a high velocity high v anomaly which exhibits considerable lateral variations significant low velocity low v anomalies are revealed above and below the phs slab the low v anomalies above the phs slab may reflect the upwelling flow in the mantle wedge and the phs slab dehydration and they form the source zone of the arc volcanoes in sw japan the low v zones under the phs slab may reflect the upwelling flow in the big mantle wedge above the pacific slab the anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle is complex in kyushu the p wave fast velocity direction fvd is generally trench normal in the mantle wedge under the back arc which is consistent with the corner flow driven by the phs slab subduction the fvd is trench parallel in the subducting phs slab under kyushu we think that the intraslab seismicity is a potential indicator to the slab anisotropy that is the phs slab with seismicity has kept its original fossil anisotropy formed at the mid ocean ridge while the aseismic phs slab has reproduced the anisotropy according to its current deformation

three dimensional structure of vp vs and vp vs beneath northeastern japan implications for arc magmatism and fluids we estimated both p v p and s wave velocity v s structures beneath northeastern japan by applying a tomographic method to 169 712 p and 103 993 s wave arrival time data from 4338 local events the average value of v p v s ratio is 1 69 in the upper crust 1 75 in the lower crust and 1 77 in the uppermost mantle these differences in v p v s ratio may mainly reflect the lithological variations with depth low v p low v s and high v p v s zones are extensively distributed along the volcanic front in the uppermost mantle and are downward to the back arc side in the mantle wedge here the low v p low v s and high v p v s values are interpreted because of partial melting materials which imply the presence of a vast amount of melt in the uppermost mantle in the lower crust low v p low v s and high v p v s zones are not continuously visible along the volcanic front but are confined to individual volcanic areas which suggests that melting of lower crustal materials occurs just beneath each active volcano in contrast the upper crust beneath active volcanoes exhibits low v p low v s and low v p v s these results suggest that the partial melting zones under northeastern japan spread out from the uppermost mantle along the volcanic front up to the midcrust right beneath active volcanoes the low v p low v s and low v p v s features in the upper crust suggest the existence of h 2 o rather than melt right beneath active volcanoes

3 d seismic structure of kii peninsula in southwest japan evidence for slab dehydration in the forearc abstract kii peninsula is located in the forearc region of southwest japan and has distinct structural and tectonic features characterized by high seismicity in the crust and the subducting philippine sea slab high surface heat flow high 3he 4he isotopic ratio and a local change in the geometry of the subducting slab we have tried to determine detailed 3 d p and s wave velocity structures of this region using a large number of high quality arrival time data recorded by dense seismic networks on the japan islands from the obtained seismic velocities we further estimated 3 d distributions of poisson ratio crack density saturation rate and porosity parameter in the study area our results show significant heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle wedge characterized by low seismic velocities high poisson ratio high values of crack density saturation rate and porosity these results suggest the existence of fluids in the crust and mantle wedge resulting from the dehydration of the subducting philippine sea slab which can explain the observed geophysical and geochemical features in kii peninsula

effect of pore geometry on vp vs from equilibrium geometry to crack seismic wave velocities of melt or aqueous fluid containing systems are studied over a wide range of pore shapes including oblate spheroids tubes cracks and an equilibrium geometry controlled by a dihedral angle the relative role of liquid compressibility and pore geometry on the v p v s velocity ratio is clarified the result clearly indicates that p and s velocity structures determined by seismic tomography can be used to verify whether interfacial energy controlled melt or fluid geometry equilibrium geometry is achieved relationships between the diverse models are clearly established by relating each model to the oblate spheroid model in terms of the equivalent aspect ratio as a function of the aspect ratio a significant effect of pore geometry on d in v s d in v p the ratio of the fractional changes in v s and v p is shown equilibrium geometry of the partially molten rocks characterized by a dihedral angle of 20 40 corresponds to an aspect ratio of 0 1 0 15 the value of d in v s d in v p expected for the texturally equilibrated partially molten rocks is shown to be 1 1 5 which is much smaller than that expected for cracks and dikes with an aspect ratio of 10 2 10 3 in the upper mantle low velocity regions the seismologically obtained value of d in v s d in v p is within this range beneath the bolivian andes 1 1 1 4 but is as high as 2 beneath iceland 1 7 2 3 and beneath northeastern japan 2 0 the former region can be regarded as a region where equilibrium geometry is achieved and the latter regions can be regarded as regions where dikes and veins typical of a system far from the textural equilibrium dominate

imaging of vp vs and poisson s ratio anomalies beneath kyushu southwest japan implications for volcanism and forearc mantle wedge serpentinization abstract we determine detailed 3 d vp and vs structures of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the kyushu island southwest japan using a large number of arrival times from local earthquakes from the obtained vp and vs models we further calculate poisson s ratio images beneath the study area by using this large data set we successfully image the 3 d seismic velocity and poisson s ratio structures beneath kyushu down to a depth of 150 km with a more reliable spatial resolution than previous studies our results show very clear low vp and low vs anomalies in the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the northern volcanoes such as abu kujyu and unzen low velocity anomalies are seen in the mantle beneath most other volcanoes in contrast there are no significant low velocity anomalies in the crust or in the upper mantle between aso and kirishima the subducting philippine sea slab is imaged generally as a high velocity anomaly down to a depth of 150 km with some patches of normal to low seismic wave velocities the poisson s ratio is almost normal beneath most volcanoes the crustal seismicity is distributed in both the high and low velocity zones but most distinctly in the low poisson s ratio zone a high poisson s ratio region is found in the forearc crustal wedge above the slab in the junction area with shikoku and honshu this high poisson s ratio could be caused by fluid filled cracks induced by dehydration from the philippine sea slab the poisson s ratio is normal to low in the forearc mantle in middle south kyushu this is consistent with the absence of low frequency tremors and may indicate that dehydration from the subducting crust is not vigorous in this region

the 1995 kobe earthquake seismic image of the source zone and its implications for the rupture nucleation in order to understand what may have triggered the 1995 kobe japan earthquake and how the rupture proceeded after initiation we determined high resolution three dimensional 3 d p and s wave velocity and poisson s ratio structures in the kobe epicentral area and relocated the aftershocks with the obtained 3 d velocity model we used 64 337 p and 49 200 s wave high quality arrival times from 3634 kobe aftershocks and local microearthquakes recorded by both permanent seismic networks and portable stations that were set up following the kobe mainshock significant velocity variations of up to 6 are revealed in the aftershock area we found that areas with high aftershock activity are generally associated with low poisson s ratio which may be the strong and competent parts of the fault zone and were apt to generate aftershocks the kobe mainshock hypocenter is located in a distinctive zone characterized by low p and s wave velocities and a high poisson s ratio this anomaly exists in the depth range of 16 to 21 km and extends 15 to 20 km laterally this anomaly may be due to a fluid filled fractured rock matrix that contributed to the initiation of the kobe earthquake our interpretation has been supported by many pieces of evidence from hydrological geochemical seismological and geophysical investigations conducted at the kobe earthquake region

seismic detection of the untransformed basaltic oceanic crust subducting into the mantle summary subcrustal earthquakes occur in a slab like zone beneath sw japan in association with the subduction of the philippine sea plate they generate a distinct pair of p and s later phases with anomalously low apparent velocities of about 7 and 4 km s 1 which cannot be explained by a laterally homogeneous velocity structure these later phases are observed for particular source receiver geometries the sources at depths shallower than 50 60 km and the receivers beneath which the subcrustal seismic zone comes in contact with the bottom of the continental crust we examined the nature of these later phases using two methods one is to determine two types of apparent velocities an event common apparent velocity and a station common apparent velocity which may be different from one another for a laterally inhomogeneous velocity structure the other is to trace seismic rays numerically for a laterally heterogeneous velocity model an extensive analysis using these two methods leads to a conclusion that the slab like seismic zone constitutes a low velocity channel in the uppermost mantle with p and s velocities comparable to those of the lower continental crust beneath sw japan the waves trapped within the low velocity channel escape from it through its contact with the continental moho and are observed as a distinct pair of later phases the head waves guided by the bottom boundary of the low velocity channel are observed as weak arrivals of initial phases the thickness 10 km and the velocities vp 7 km s 1 vs 4 km s 1 of the subcrustal seismic zone indicates that it is made up of the untransformed basaltic oceanic crust subducted with the underlying lithospheric mantle and that the transformation of basalt to eclogite does not take place in the subducting slab at least down to depths of 50 60 km we present laterally heterogeneous structural models of the crust and the uppermost mantle along two profiles in sw japan the models are characterized by an apparent thickening of the lower continental crust in particular regions due to a direct contact of the subducting oceanic crust to the continental moho such features are qualitatively consistent with the results of explosion seismology and with the bouguer anomaly pattern in the relevant regions the oceanic lithosphere with the untransformed light oceanic crust at its top might still be buoyant after subduction a factor which must be taken into account in considering the driving mechanisms of plate tectonics the slab geometry and the earthquake related tectonic process

seismic imaging of southwest japan using p and pmp data implications for arc magmatism and seismotectonics abstract to better understand the relationship between crustal heterogeneity and seismotectonics and arc magmatism we determined a detailed p wave velocity structure of the crust under a north south belt area in southwest japan by using the first arriving p waves and the reflected p waves from the moho discontinuity pmp from 60 crustal earthquakes recorded by 29 seismic stations our results revealed significant low velocity anomalies beneath the fault zone of the median tectonic line and the daisen volcano which suggest that daisen is potentially an active volcano in the lower crust we detected low velocity anomalies overlying the subducting philippine sea plate which may indicate the existence of fluids released by the slab dehydration the 1955 southern tokusima earthquake m 6 4 occurred between low and high high velocity zones the 2000 western tottori earthquake m 7 3 and other nearby strong earthquakes occurred around the daisen volcano which may be related to the upwelling magma and fluids

geographical distribution of 3he 4he ratios in japan implications for arc tectonics and incipient magmatism the 3he 4he and 4he 20ne ratios of 115 natural gas samples including various types of gases from volcanoes hot springs mineral springs water wells petroleum fields and natural gas fields were measured using a mass spectrometer the observed 3he 4he and 4he 20ne ratios range from 7 47 10 8 to 9 65 10 6 and from 0 26 to 1100 respectively the 3he 4he ratios reflect well the geotectonic structure of the japanese islands in northeastern ne japan there is a clear geographical difference in the 3he 4he ratios between the frontal arc forearc and volcanic arc back arc regions lower ratios were found in the trench side region and higher ratios in the back arc side this result suggests that the mantle derived helium in the volcanic arc region is associated with the diapiric uprise of a magma lower 3he 4he ratios in the frontal arc region may be due to radiogenic he produced by radioactive decay of u and th in the crustal and sedimentary rocks in southwestern sw japan there is no clear geographical contrast in the 3he 4he ratios some samples in the frontal arc region show quite high 3he 4he ratios the tendency of the 3he 4he ratios agrees with the distribution of terrestrial heat flow data and reflects geotectonic structures different from ne japan the high 3he 4he ratios observed in the frontal arc region in sw japan may be indicative of renewed or incipient magmatism due to a descending young and warm slab

the southern tyrrhenian subduction zone deep geometry magmatism and plio pleistocene evolution abstract we report on a high resolution vp vp vs and qp model of the southern tyrrhenian subduction zone obtained by the inversion of p and s wave arrival times and t values from intraslab seismicity the arcuate shape of the southern apennines calabrian arc sicilian maghrebides is perfectly mirrored by two rather continuous low and high vp bands lying beneath the belt system at ca 25 and 100 km respectively between 100 and 300 km two independent high vp slabs lie beneath the neapolitan region and the southern tyrrhenian sea separated by unperturbed mantle we suggest that the ca 150 km wide slab window beneath the southern apennines opened after a tear occurring within a composite subduction system formed by the apulian continental lithosphere and the ionian oceanic slab the abrupt slab rupture induced ultrafast southeastward retreat of the ionian slab and the 19 cm yr spreading of the back arc oceanic marsili basin between ca 2 1 and 1 6 ma ago the 25 km low vp zone beneath the arc denotes continental upper crustal rocks below the chain its striking continuity requires a unique orogenic wedge at 25 km depth below the southern apennines the calabrian arc and the sicilian maghrebides the alternative explanation would imply the ubiquitous occurrence of autochthonous lower plate rocks at 25 km depth i e a puzzling autochthonous continental calabria the ionian slab beneath calabria shows high vp high qp and low vp vs anomalies typical of old oceanic lithosphere intermediate depth seismicity is concentrated within its thin oceanic crust suggesting the occurrence of vigorous metamorphism the slab dehydration promotes the melting of the overlying mantle as testified by high vp vs and low qp anomalies between the slab and the aeolian magmatic arc

high 3he emanation and seismic swarms observed in a nonvolcanic forearc region the 3he 4he and 4he 20ne ratios of gases emergent in the southwestern part of japan have been measured by a mass spectrometer the geographical distribution pattern of the 3he 4he ratios in the kinki district a non volcanic forearc region where microseismic activity at shallow depths has continued over a long period of time is strikingly different from those found in the rest of the japanese islands including the shikoku district which lies next to kinki anomalously high 3he 4he ratios up to 9 69 10 6 are found in the kinki district all the observed phenomena high emanation of 3he of magmatic origin high temperature hot springs high terrestrial heat flow hypocentral distribution of microearthquakes a local irregularity in the dip direction of the subducting philippine sea plate and the presence of molten materials inferred from the characteristic phases of sxp and sxs reflected waves in microseismograms strongly suggest the presence of a shallow magma body beneath the area

tomographic evidence for the mantle upwelling beneath southwestern japan and its implications for arc magmatism abstract the seismotectonics and volcanotectonics of southwestern sw japan have been affected by the subduction of the old pacific and the young philippine sea slabs we have attempted to determine the three dimensional p and s wave velocity structures of the upper mantle in sw japan by using a large amount of high quality arrival time data recorded by the dense seismograph network on the japanese islands to understand the tectonic framework of sw japan our results show the existence of a large low velocity anomaly below the philippine sea slab in the chugoku and shikoku districts at least down to depths of 300 km we infer that the low velocity zone is an upwelling flow from depth two shallower low velocity zones derived from this low velocity zone are detected one is toward the quaternary volcanoes in the chugoku district and the other is toward the uppermost mantle beneath the kii peninsula the former suggests that the magma for the quaternary volcanoes in the chugoku district is attributable to the upwelling flow in the upper mantle this idea supports the geochemical and petrological observations that the erupted alkalic basalt in the chugoku district should have originated from a more primitive or enriched mantle the latter is responsible for the absence of a high velocity anomaly corresponding to the subducted philippine sea slab beneath the kii peninsula the philippine sea slab could have been more hydrated locally beneath the kii peninsula than that in the surrounding regions by the interaction with the mantle upwelling consequently dehydration reactions could be involved during the progressive metamorphism accompanied by intensive intraslab seismicity lowering the seismic velocity in the slab aqueous fluids thus released to the overriding plate might be a possible source of mantle type helium and trigger a long term swarm activity in the crust of the overriding plate our results indicate the importance of the heterogeneous structure below the philippine sea slab with regard to the tectonics of sw japan

an interpretation of wide angle compressional and shear wave data in southwest germany poisson s ratio and petrological implications shear wave velocity especially when used with compressional wave velocity is an important constraint on estimates of the composition and physical state of the continental lithosphere we present shear velocity s models derived from high quality s wave data along three profiles in southwest germany which combine with existing p wave velocity p models to give poisson s ratio in the crust and uppermost mantle we then construct a laterally varying petrological model of the crust by comparing our p and s models with published laboratory measured rock velocities in general poisson s ratio is 0 25 in the uppermost crust 0 22 0 23 in the mid crust but reaching a low of 0 15 in the black forest low p zone and varies laterally from 0 24 to 0 30 in the lower crust the average poisson s ratio of the whole crust is everywhere about 0 25 the laminated signature of the lower crust prominent on reflection and p wave refraction data is absent on the s wave refraction data implying a strong high low alternation of poisson s ratio in the lower crust this suggests that the lower crustal laminae represent mafic silicic compositional layering for example basic sills in an originally more quartz rich lower crust rather than alternating zones of high and low pore pressure there is no evidence for a shear wave low velocity zone lvz in the black forest mid crust despite the presence of a strong p wave lvz this suggests high quartz content and the presence of pore fluids at low not high pore pressure a clear p to s converted moho reflection pm s is visible on several shots indicating that the moho is at least locally a first order discontinuity no shear wave refractions from the upper mantle are present even where strong p wave refractions are observed possibly indicating an increase of poisson s ratio with depth in the upper mantle the petrological modeling indicates that the upper and middle crust are probably of granitic composition that the mid crustal low p zones have high quartz content and that the lower crust probably consists of granulites of laterally varying bulk composition from granodioritic to gabbroic the lower crust is more mafic in areas of high reflection density on seismic reflection profiles suggesting that the laminations are caused by mafic intrusions into the lower crust either prior to the variscan orogeny or during tertiary volcanic activity

effects of water and melt on seismic velocities and their application to characterization of seismic reflectors the effects of a silicate melt and water on seismic velocities are compared at relatively small fluid fraction less than 20 vol on the basis of a theoretical model of composite materials to show that the two fluids are clearly characterized by the velocity ratio vp vs for a silicate melt vp vs increases with increasing fluid fraction when a significant reflection is expected vp vs becomes much larger than 2 for water vp vs decreases as the fluid fraction increases to 10 vol then it increases but it remains similar to a solid state value about 1 8 unless the amount of water exceeds 15 vol this will be a good measure to distinguish between two candidates for seismic reflectors partially molten rocks and rocks containing free water if a reflector can be treated as a thin low velocity layer the velocity ratio in it can be estimated from the frequency dependence of reflection coefficient

seismic velocity structure of the crust beneath the japan islands abstract more than 13 000 arrival times of 562 local shallow earthquakes selected from the japan university network earthquake catalog are used to investigate the seismic velocity structure of the crust beneath the japan islands we simultaneously determined the hypocenter parameters p and s wave station corrections and depth distributions of the conrad and moho discontinuities beneath the whole of the japan islands by applying an inversion method the p and s wave station corrections show similar distribution patterns they are negative relatively late arrivals of seismic waves in hokkaido and positive relatively early arrivals of seismic waves in western japan in eastern honshu they are positive along the coast of the pacific ocean and negative in the land area and along the coast of the japan sea the conrad discontinuity is located at a depth range from 12 to 22 km in hokkaido the conrad is shallow in the eastern pan and becomes deep toward the west in ne honshu the conrad is deep beneath the land area and becomes shallow toward the surrounding seas in western japan the conrad is shallow in the northern part and becomes deep toward the south the moho is located in a depth range from 25 to 40 km in hokkaido the moho has the shape of a circular cone with a maximum depth of 36 km in most parts of the japan islands the moho is deep beneath the land area and becomes shallow toward the surrounding seas the moho is deepest up to 40 km beneath the central part of the chubu district

3he 4he ratio anomalies associated with the 1984 western nagano earthquake possibly induced by a diapiric magma a magnitude 6 8 earthquake occurred near ontake volcano in the western nagano prefecture of central honshu japan on september 14 1984 after the event 3he 4he ratios of bubbling gases in hot springs located less than 10 km from the newly formed fault were found to have increased significantly by up to 15 although the number of data is small considering that 3he can only be of magmatic origin we propose a model that the earthquake was triggered by an upward migration of 3he containing fluids associated with magma intrusion beneath the source region the proposed model is supported by the uplifting observed in the region since 1967 the continuation of seismic swarm activities in the area since 1976 an unprecedented eruption of ontake volcano in october 1978 and the existence of a small melted body in the lower crust beneath the present fault region

magnetotelluric imaging of the sw japan forearc a lost paleoland revealed abstract we investigated the crustal structure of the kii peninsula in the southwestern japan forearc using the magnetotelluric mt method we found two upper crustal anomalies 1 a sub horizontal conductive layer dipping northwest at depths of 5 10 km beneath the cretaceous accreted terrane 2 a resistive block at depths of 2 15 km beneath the tertiary accreted terrane the former is interpreted as a flysh unit the latter is consistent with the high velocity structure detected by refraction experiments and may be a lost continental fragment of the kuroshio paleoland such a continental fragment has been predicted by sedimentological studies but there had been no geophysical supporting evidence the mid crustal seismicity clusters near the bottom of the resistive body this suggests that the lost paleoland is beneath the current forearc we also found a conductive layer in the deep crust consistent with seismic reflectors at 15 25 km depth this implies trapped free water reflecting a geotherm of 400 c

evidence for the location and cause of large crustal earthquakes in japan large crustal earthquakes magnitude 5 7 8 0 depth 0 20 km during a period of 115 years from 1885 to 1999 in japan occurred in or around zones of low seismic velocity revealed by seismic tomography the low velocity zones may represent weak sections of the seismogenic crust the crustal weakening is considered to be closely related to the subduction of the oceanic pacific and philippine sea plates in this region along the volcanic front and in back arc areas the crustal weakening may be caused by active volcanoes and magma chambers in the forearc areas fluids are detected in the earthquake source zones which may have contributed to the crustal weakening and the rupture nucleation the fluids may be related to the dehydration of the subducting philippine sea slab these results indicate that large crustal earthquakes do not strike anywhere but only anomalous areas that may be detected with geophysical methods

crack density and saturation rate in the 1995 kobe earthquake region we have estimated the 3 d distribution of crack density parameter and saturation rate in the 1995 kobe earthquake region by applying a crack theory to values of seismic velocity and poisson s ratio obtained from seismic tomography our results show that and exhibit considerable heterogeneity higher and exist in the kobe fault zone in particular at the mainshock hypocenter high areas are generally consistent with high areas but high areas have a much wider distribution indicating that microcracks exist in more localized areas while fluids are permeating through wider areas in the crust a significant discrepancy between and exists beneath osaka bay where is low while is high is generally high beneath seas but low beneath land areas osaka bay and the present sea land distribution in southwest japan have existed for 2 millions years this period is long enough for the sea water to permeate down to the deep crust through the active faults that would have been ruptured during many earthquakes cycles

3 d crustal structure of the extensional granada basin in the convergent boundary between the eurasian and african plates three dimensional p and s wave velocity models of the crust under the granada basin in southern spain are obtained with a spatial resolution of 5 km in the horizontal direction and 2 to 4 km in depth we used a total of 15407 p and 13704 s wave high quality arrival times from 2889 local earthquakes recorded by both permanent seismic networks and portable stations deployed in the area the computed p and s wave velocities were used to obtain three dimensional distributions of poisson s ratio r and the porosity parameter vpvs the 3 d velocity images show strong lateral heterogeneities in the region significant velocity variations up to 7 in p and s velocities are revealed in the crust below the granada basin at shallow depth high velocity anomalies are generally associated with mesozoic basement while the low velocity anomalies are related to the neogene sedimentary rocks the south southeastern part of the granada basin exhibits high r values in the shallowest layers which may be associated with saturated and unconsolidated sediments in the same area vpvs is high outside the basin indicating low porosity of the mesozoic basement a low velocity zone at 18 km depth is found and interpreted as a weak ductile crust transition that is related to the cut off depth of the seismic activity in the lower crust at 34 km depth a clear slow vp and vs anomalous zone may indicate variations in lithology and or with the rigidity of the lower crust rocks d 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

deep structure of japan subduction zone as derived from local regional and teleseismic events we have determined a detailed three dimensional p wave velocity structure of the japan subduction zone to 500 km depth by inverting local regional and teleseismic data simultaneously we used 45 318 p wave arrivals from 1241 shallow and deep earthquakes which occurred in and around the japan islands the arrival times are recorded by the japan university seismic network which covers the entire japan islands densely and uniformly we also used 4211 travel time residuals from 100 teleseismic events which are read from seismograms recorded by seismic stations in northeastern japan in comparison with the previous results obtained from only local and regional events the present result for the area around the lower plate boundary and the mantle below the plate is determined more reliably because of the addition of 7035 data from 100 teleseismic events and 41 very deep earthquakes in the crust and uppermost mantle low velocity zones are clearly visible beneath active volcanoes in the mantle wedge the low velocity zones generally parallel with the slab and exist continuously to a depth of about 200 km which is consistent with the petrological geochemical and geodynamic studies we consider that the existence of volcanism related low velocity anomalies in the mantle wedge is a general seismological characteristic of subduction zones in light of all the available tomographic results for many subduction zones in the world the pacific slab beneath japan is imaged more clearly than in previous studies as a high velocity zone with a thickness of 80 90 km and a p wave velocity 4 6 higher than the normal mantle lower velocity anomalies are found in the mantle below the slab

crustal heterogeneity beneath southwest japan estimated from direct and moho reflected waves abstract in this study we have used later phases reflected at the moho discontinuity in addition to direct arrival time data to study the 3 d crustal velocity structure beneath southwest sw japan we have collected more than 6000 direct and moho reflected phases and used them to obtain p and s wave velocity structures in the study area our results revealed significant low velocity anomalies beneath the active and quaternary volcanoes in sw japan results obtained using each data set p pmp s and sms are generally consistent with each other and all showed low velocity anomalies beneath most of the active and quaternary volcanoes western kii peninsula and eastern shikoku ray path analysis showed that the data set we used has a good ray criss crossing that is sufficient to accurately locate the velocity anomalies in the study area in addition results of the checkerboard resolution test indicate that these structures are generally well recovered and that adding later phases could significantly improve the resolution scale of the obtained tomographic images in comparison with those from first arrivals alone

three dimensional p and s wave velocity structures beneath the japan islands obtained by high density seismic stations by seismic tomography abstract we construct fine scale 3d p and s wave velocity structures of the crust and upper mantle beneath the whole japan islands with a unified resolution where the pacific pac and philippine sea phs plates subduct beneath the eurasian eur plate we can detect the low velocity low v oceanic crust of the pac and phs plates at their uppermost part beneath almost all the japan islands the depth limit of the imaged oceanic crust varies with the regions high vp vs zones are widely distributed in the lower crust especially beneath the volcanic front and the high strain rate zones are located at the edge of the extremely high vp vs zone however vp vs at the top of the mantle wedge is not so high beneath northern japan we can image the high v subducting pac plate using the tomographic method without any assumption of velocity discontinuities we also imaged the heterogeneous structure in the pac plate such as the low v zone considered as the old seamount or the highly seismic zone within the double seismic zone where the seismic fault ruptured by the earthquake connects the upper and lower layer of the double seismic zone beneath central japan thrust type small repeating earthquakes occur at the boundary between the eur and phs plates and are located at the upper part of the low v layer that is considered to be the oceanic crust of the phs plate in addition to the low v oceanic crust the subducting high v pac plate is clearly imaged to depths of approximately 250 km and the subducting high v phs zone to depths of approximately 180 km is considered to be the phs plate beneath southwestern japan the iso depth lines of the moho discontinuity in the phs plate derived by the receiver function method divide the upper low v layer and lower high v layer of our model at depths of 30 50 km beneath kyushu the steeply subducting phs plate is clearly imaged to depths of approximately 250 km with high velocities the high vp vs zone is considered as the lower crust of the eur plate or the oceanic crust of the phs plate at depths of 25 35 km and the partially serpentinized mantle wedge of the eur plate at depths of 30 45 km beneath southwestern japan the deep low frequency nonvolcanic tremors occur at all parts of the high vp vs zone within the zone the seaward side and the landward side where the phs plate encounters the mantle wedge of the eur plate we prove that we can objectively obtain the fine scale 3d structure with simple constraints such as only 1d initial velocity model with no velocity discontinuity

tomography of the source area of the 1995 kobe earthquake evidence for fluids at the hypocenter seismic tomography revealed a low seismic velocity 5 and high poisson s ratio 6 anomaly covering about 300 square kilometers at the hypocenter of the 17 january 1995 magnitude 7 2 kobe earthquake in japan this anomaly may be due to an overpressurized fluid filled fractured rock matrix that contributed to the initiation of the kobe earthquake

the effect of porosity on the strength of quartz aggregates experimentally deformed in the dislocation creep regime abstract the presence of porosity results in significant although transient strengthening of quartz aggregates experimentally deformed in the dislocation creep regime experiments were conducted on four quartz aggregates with porosities of

crustal heterogeneity and seismotectonics of the region around beijing china abstract a detailed three dimensional 3 d p wave velocity model of the crust and uppermost mantle under the chinese capital beijing region is determined with a spatial resolution of 25 km in the horizontal direction and 4 17 km in depth we used 48 750 precise p wave arrival times from 2973 events of local crustal earthquakes controlled seismic explosions and quarry blasts these events were recorded by a new digital seismic network consisting of 101 seismic stations equipped with high sensitivity seismometers the data are analyzed by using a 3 d seismic tomography method our tomographic model provides new insights into the geological structure and tectonics of the region such as the lithological variations and large fault zones across the major geological terranes like the north china basin the taihangshan and the yanshan mountainous areas the velocity images of the upper crust reflect well the surface geological and topographic features in the north china basin the depression and uplift areas are imaged as slow and fast velocities respectively the taihangshan and yanshan mountainous regions are generally imaged as broad high velocity zones while the quaternary intermountain basins show up as small low velocity anomalies velocity changes are visible across some of the large fault zones large crustal earthquakes such as the 1976 tangshan earthquake m 7 8 and the 1679 sanhe earthquake m 8 0 generally occurred in high velocity areas in the upper to middle crust in the lower crust to the uppermost mantle under the source zones of the large earthquakes however low velocity and high conductivity anomalies exist which are considered to be associated with fluids the fluids in the lower crust may cause the weakening of the seismogenic layer in the upper and middle crust and thus contribute to the initiation of the large crustal earthquakes

v p v s and lithology published laboratory investigations suggest an association exists between the ratio of seismic compressional and shear wave velocities vp vs and sedimentary rock lithology comparisons of some theoretical models with these laboratory studies suggest that crack or pore geometry has a stronger effect on observed vp vs values than elastic constants of the minerals comprising the matrix further it can be inferred that the observed association between lithology and vp vs is a result of an association between lithology and distribution of pore and crack shapes direct observation of crack shapes for a variety of lithologies is a next step in strengthening these inferences the present study reviews the empirical relations between vp vs and lithology and examines two published theoretical models of cracked elastic media the models suggest that seismic velocities of sandstones may be controlled by cracks and pores with aspect ratios in the range of 10 1 to 1 dolomite in the range of 10 2 to 10 1 and dens

imaging the subducting slabs and mantle upwelling under the japan islands summary a high resolution p wave tomography of the crust and mantle down to 700 km depth beneath the japan islands is determined using a large number of high quality arrival time data from local earthquakes and teleseismic events simultaneously the tomography shows that the philippine sea slab is subducting aseismically down to 430 km depth under southwest japan though the seismicity within the slab ends at 180 km depth a low velocity low v zone in the mantle wedge under tohoku and kyushu is found to extend westward from the volcanic front to the backarc under the japan sea and east china sea significant low v anomalies are revealed in the deep portion of the mantle wedge 400 500 km depth above the pacific slab under southwest japan which may reflect hot mantle upwelling associated with fluids from the deep dehydration of the pacific slab low v anomalies appear at 420 700 km depths beneath the pacific slab under eastern japan which may reflect hot mantle upwelling associated with the deep subduction of the pacific slab and its collapsing down to the lower mantle

bootstrap inversion for vertical and lateral variations of the s wave structure and the υp υs ratio from shallow earthquakes in the rhinegraben seismic zone germany using s wave arrival times of 400 earthquakes in the southern rhinegraben 1 d and 3 d inversions for the shear s wave crustal structure of that region are performed these models are then combined with previously obtained 1 d and 3 d p wave models to compute vertical and lateral variations of the p s poisson s ratio such an independent p and s wave inversion approach circumvents many of the limitations of the classical wadati diagram method usually used for the determination of crustal p s ratios for the statistical evaluation of the 1 d models we have used a new monte carlo bootstrap resampling technique which has been found useful in many statistical estimation problems where the underlying statistics of the data is poorly known the 1 d bootstrap p s crustal models exhibit significant vertical variations whereas the upper sedimentary and crystalline layer of the crust is characterized by a significant increase of p s over the reference value p s in the upper and middle crust is lowered this correlates well with several findings from wadati diagrams for p s in other seismically active zones and might be explained through the gradual closing of saturated microcracks in that depth range however the p s reduction can also be interpreted in terms of a particular petrological composition such as orthoclase feldspar without the indispensable need for fluids a lowering of p gus is also observed for the lower crust which might reflect the strong lamination found here from previous deep seismic sounding experiments for the upper mantle a strong increase of p s is observed which is primarily triggered by a decrease of s and is best explained by an eclogite petrological assemblage for the 3 d s wave models significant reductions of more than 100 were obtained for the unexplained travel time residuals variations of p s in the upper and middle crust are mostly induced by changes in p rather than s for the upper crust slight decreases of p s are observed for the rhinegraben but increases are detected for the adjacent vosges and black forest areas in the middle crust the refraction seismic deduced reduction of p s under parts of the black forest can neither be corroborated nor rejected however because of some experimental ambiguity on the effects of petrological composition and interstitial pore fluids this does not rule out the presence of the latter in the lower crust a local reduction of p s is observed under the kaiserstuhl and graben black forest shoulder and has been explained in terms of a metamorphic dehydrating phase change of the hydrous amphibolite facies to the anhydrous granulite facies depending on the pore pressure of the dehydrated water and the fractional amount of interstitial co2 granulite facies metamorphism occurs in the 650 800 c temperature range temperatures at the upper end of this interval can be generated by the mechanism of accretionary magmatic underplating as it has been proposed for some extensional rift zones where asthenospheric upwelling as in the rhinegraben occurs

genetic waveform modeling for the crustal structure in northeast japan we propose a genetic algorithm ga search procedure for waveform modeling of local crustal earthquakes for optimal one dimensional 1 d crustal velocity model both waveforms and travel time data are used for the structure determination the use of travel times in model evaluation improves the waveform modeling performance in the sense of computation speed and accuracy we applied this method to broadband waveforms of a local crustal earthquake m 4 2 in northeast japan p wave velocities of the crustal model are found to be 4 95 0 30 5 9 0 02 and 6 51 0 20 km s for a surface layer upper crust and lower crust respectively the surface layer thickness and the conrad and moho depths are found to be 3 01 0 8 17 77 0 4 and 34 59 1 0 km respectively for epicentral distances 200 km our synthetic waveforms match the observed ones generally well early arrivals are mainly observed at stations near the pacific coast in the forearc area having a thinner crust in contrast delayed arrivals appear at stations near the volcanic front and back arc areas where low velocity anomalies exist due to the effect of the pacific slab dehydration and the hot upwelling flows in the mantle wedge in general our results agree well with the main tectonic setting of the study area which confirms the reliability of the proposed approach despite a 1 d velocity model is too simple to represent the complex crustal structure it is still required for the conventional routine analysis of seismology such as earthquake location and source parameter studies the current approach is considered as a step toward the genetic full waveform modeling for the 3 d velocity model estimation

seismological evidence for magmatic and hydrothermal structure in long valley caldera from local earthquake attenuation and velocity tomography we compare the results of six different tomographic inversions for the three dimensional seismic attenuation and velocity structure in long valley caldera california in order to constrain interpretations on the location and character of magmatic and geothermal structure in the caldera crust p and s wave amplitudes and arrival times obtained in previous studies from seismograms of local earthquakes recorded on vertical and three component seismographis were inverted for q sv 1 q sh 1 q s 1 q p 1 and v p v s in the upper 9 km of teh caldera crust detailed comparisons of the results of the inversions suggest significant locations of high temperatures and perhaps magma and hydrothermal zones in the caldera a region of low q s with locally variable q p and v p v s is imaged in the 7 9 km depth range beneath the resurgent dome overlying and adjacent to this anomaly are significant low q p and low v p v s anomalies as well as smaller zones of low q s and high v p v s together these suggest zones of high temperature magma below and adjacent to zones of supercritical hydrothermal fluids at 4 5 km depth along the southern rim of the caldera just east of mammoth mountain a significant anomaly with relatively low q p and relatively low v p v s is imaged and is interpreted as a supercritical hydrothermal zone poorly resolved relatively low q p and relatively high v p v s are seen at 4 5 km depth beneath the inyo craters suggesting possible high temperatures and perhaps magma because of lack of data in the individual inversions the resultant images have spatially variable error and resolution however by comparing multiple images of different seismic parameters we have improved our ability to determine the significance of an constrain interpretation of seismic structure anomalies

geology and mineralization at equity silver mine homoclinal upper jurassic to cretaceous inlier consisting of sedimentary pyroclastic and volcanic rocks plus intrusions overlain by younger unconformable andesitic to basaltic flows and flow breccias four stratigraphic conformable subdivisions termed the goosly sequence are recognized in the inlier a quartz monzonite stock with an approximate age of 58 m y and a gabbro monzonite complex with an approximate age of 49 m y intrude the goosly sequence copper silver antimony sulfides and sulfosalts with associated gold occur as tabular zones with attitudes grossly conformable to the goosly sequence sulfides were deposited as disseminations open space fracture fillings veins and crackle and breccia zones with an associated advanced argillic alteration suite potassium argon age dating indicates a main pulse of mineralization and hydrothermal alteration around 58 m y and a younger postmineral event at around 49 m y mining of the southern tail orebody commenced in april 1980 with a current mill feed rate of 5 400 metric tons day production to december 1982 totaled 4 3 million metric tons of ore grading 135 g metric ton ag 0 45 percent cu and 1 3 g metric ton au antimony and arsenic are leached from concentrate and recovered as by products the main zone orebody with reserves of 21 6 million metric tons grading 109 g metric ton ag 0 35 percent cu and 0 85 g metric ton au commenced production in late 1983 alteration and mineralization are compatible with an advanced argillic alteration possibly related to base leaching associated with fluid circulation at a high level in a developing porphyry system modified journal abstract

v p v s from mode converted p sv reflections p sv reflections are generated by a compressional wave source and result from p waves that are converted to shear sv waves upon reflection recording both the p and sv components yields compressional and shear data simultaneously verifying that the easily detected events really are p sv reflections is accomplished by noting the good correlation of surface cdp data with vertical seismic profile vsp reflections stacking velocities from p sv cdp gathers determine the vpvs product when source to receiver offset is less than the depth of the reflector but data from synthetic models show that p sv reflections are nonhyperbolic for shallow reflections or when source to receiver offset is too large shear velocity vs can be calculated from p sv reflections by one of two techniques comparison of stacked section p p and p sv reflection times or by using the p p and p sv stacking velocities unfortunately most p sv reflections on a p sv seismic section do not necessarily originate from exactly the same dep

tectonics of an arc arc junction an example from kyushu island at the junction of the southwest japan arc and the ryukyu arc abstract three distinctive geologic events occurred synchronously during the last 6 m y on kyushu island lying at the junction of the southwest japan arc and the ryukyu arc these events included 1 dextral fault displacement along a 100 km section of the median tectonic line 2 formation of a rectangular volcano tectonic depression 70 km long and 40 km wide and 3 approximately 30 of counterclockwise crustal rotation we propose an integrated tectonic model that explains these three tectonic features in terms of subduction of the philippine sea plate which resumed at around 6 ma after a halt of more than 5 m y oblique subduction of the philippine sea plate beneath the southwest japan arc detached a fore arc sliver that was displaced along a dextral fault the median tectonic line north of the nankai trough a volcano tectonic depression the hohi volcanic zone was formed by the pull apart structure on the western margin of the median tectonic line by contrast normal subduction of the philippine sea plate under the ryukyu arc caused back arc spreading observed as crustal extension in the northern okinawa trough the crustal extension caused the counterclockwise rotation for the northernmost ryukyu arc including southern kyushu