tsunami history of an oregon coastal lake reveals a 4600 yr record of great earthquakes on the cascadia subduction zone bradley lake on the southern oregon coastal plain records local tsunamis and seismic shaking on the cascadia subduction zone over the last 7000 yr thirteen marine incursions delivered landward thinning sheets of sand to the lake from nearshore beach and dune environments to the west following each incursion a slug of marine water near the bottom of the freshwater lake instigated a few year to several decade period of a brackish 4 salinity lake four additional disturbances without marine incursions destabilized sideslopes and bottom sediment producing a suspension deposit that blanketed the lake bottom considering the magnitude and duration of the disturbances necessary to produce bradley lake s marine incursions a local tsunami generated by a great earthquake on the cascadia subduction zone is the only accountable mechanism extreme ocean levels must have been at least 5 8 m above sea level and the cumulative duration of each marine incursion must have been at least 10 min disturbances without marine incursions require seismic shaking as well over the 4600 yr period when bradley lake was an optimum tsunami recorder tsunamis from cascadia plate boundary earthquakes came in clusters between 4600 and 2800 cal yr b p tsunamis occurred at the average frequency of 3 4 every 1000 yr then starting 2800 cal yr b p there was a 930 1260 yr interval with no tsunamis that gap was followed by a 1000 yr period with 4 tsunamis in the last millennium a 670 750 yr gap preceded the a d 1700 earthquake and tsunami the a d 1700 earthquake may be the fi rst of a new cluster of plate boundary earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis local tsunamis entered bradley lake an average of every 390 yr whereas the portion of the cascadia plate boundary that underlies bradley lake ruptured in a great earthquake less frequently about once every 500 yr therefore the entire length of the subduction zone does not rupture in every earthquake and bradley lake has recorded earthquakes caused by rupture along the entire length of the cascadia plate boundary as well as earthquakes caused by rupture of shorter segments of the boundary the tsunami record from bradley lake indicates that at times most recently 1700 yr b p overlapping or adjoining segments of the cascadia plate boundary ruptured within decades of each other

provenance of glacial marine conglomerates in the permian lagar formation of southern tibet evidence for affinity of the lhasa terrane with australia abstract paleogeographic reconstructions of the lhasa terrane of the southern tibetan plateau are uncertain in paleozoic and investigating the paleogeographic location of the terrane via the current geographical configuration is difficult however gravels contained within glacial sediments offer an opportunity to solve this problem the lagar formation in the central lhasa sub terrane contains glacial marine deposits that incorporate gravel clasts composed of granitoids sandstone quartzite limestone and rhyolite these diamictites were derived from continental glaciation and were deposited mainly near a grounding line or ice front in littoral neritic to neritic environments we present new zircon u pb isotopic and whole rock geochemical data for the tonalitic conglomerates of the lagar formation the results indicate that the tonalites crystallized during the paleoproterozoic 1 76 ga and show a geochemical affinity with i type granite the tonalites typically have negative eu anomalies eu 0 31 0 37 high concentrations of rare earth elements depletion in high field strength elements enrichment in th marked positive zircon ehf t values 6 46 14 68 end t values of 1 24 to 1 76 and tdm2 ages of 2 37 2 13 ga all of these data indicate that the tonalites were produced by the partial melting of modified mafic crust or underplate in a subduction related environment on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of all 1 8 1 7 ga magmatism in east gondwana we propose that the most likely provenance of the tonalitic conglomerates is southern arunta and mt isa in northern australia therefore the central lhasa sub terrane may have been located near australia during the paleozoic

supply and removal of sediment in a landslide dominated mountain belt central range taiwan abstract a strong coupling between hillslope and valley systems is often inferred for mountain landscapes dominated by bedrock landsliding we reveal the nature of this link using data sets on landsliding and sediment transport from two montane catchments draining the eastern central range of taiwan here the magnitude frequency distribution of landslides can be modeled by a robust power law but this scale invariance is not mirrored in the sediment discharge at the mountain front instead downstream sediment loads reflect a complex response to both sediment supply and ambient hydraulic conditions the rivers do not transport significant amounts of sediment unless it is provided by hillslope mass wasting in the catchment removal of landslide debris is a function of the transport capacity of the stream at the site of entry thus there is a dual supply and transport control on sediment loads in bedrock floored streams over a monitoring period of 25 yr the bulk of the sediment leaving the mountain bel

assessment of sediment delivery from successive erosion on stream coupled hillslopes via a time series of topographic surveys in the central high mountain range of taiwan abstract landslides play an important role in the evolution of mountain topography and are a major source of sediment in tectonically active mountain belts for the active orogeny of taiwan erosion rates have been assessed by various methods the discrepancies observed between erosion rates integrated over modern and quaternary time scales may result from various effects related to surface processes more process oriented research on the spatio temporal distribution of hillslope processes and coupling relationships with the fluvial system is needed to reconcile the temporally heterogeneous data in the future this paper assesses and describes the processes of subsequent erosion on hillslopes via a time series of topographic surveys of hillslopes after the initial failure in order to better understand the temporal and spatial variability of landslide erosion sediment fluxes and storage of landslide sediment within channels the results demonstrate that hillslope channel coupling is controlled by the relative frequency of erosive flooding events and the magnitude of rainfall driven hillslope processes the latter is assumed to be disproportionately high on larger failures in periods with less rainfall mass wasting may only affect part of the total failure s area volumes of eroded sediment from gullies on the landslide scar may be as high as the volume estimated for the initial failure the geometry of the sliding masses eroded after the initial failure appears to be uniform and their depths average 6 1 2 2 m

sediment yield and erosion rate estimation in the mountain catchments of the camastra artificial reservoir southern italy a comparison between different empirical methods abstract the sedimentary budget assessment is an important topic for the scientific and social community because it is crucial to understand the dynamics of orogenic belts and cope with a number of practical problems such as soil conservation and sediment accumulation in reservoir sediment yield or denudation rate estimates in southern central italy are generally obtained either by applying simple empirical relationships based on the statistical regression between the geomorphic parameters of the drainage network and the suspended sediment yield measured at the drainage basins outlets or by using qualitative quantitative sediment delivery ratio or erosion models in this work we carry out a study of catchment dynamics and a sedimentary yield computation of several mountain catchments of the central western sector of the basilicata region southern italy which are located upstream of an artificial reservoir the sediment yield and erosion rate have been computed through both an indirect assessment of the suspended sediment yield based on the tu index mean annual suspension sediment yield and the application of the rusle and usped empirical methods the results obtained have been compared with the historical data of sediment accumulation measured in the artificial reservoir of the camastra dam where a detailed evaluation of the volumes of historical i e about 40 years sediment storage was collected the collected dataset represents a basic tool both for the investigation of the morpho dynamics of a typical mountain catchment of the mediterranean area and the evaluation of sediment budget related to fluvial and hillslope processes the 38 year long record of the sediment storage in the camastra artificial reservoir located at the outlet of the studied mountain catchments permits the validation of empirical relationships based on the geomorphic and climatic parameters of the drainage basin among the three different methods of sediment yield evaluation tu index rusle and usped the tu index showed the best prediction ability although usped erosion model also furnished a good estimation as also confirmed by other works the indirect estimation of sediment yield based on ciccacci s empirical relationships can represent a good proxy of short term denudation rates in the mediterranean areas with geological and geomorphological features similar to the study area but the use of empirical models with increasing complexity such as the usped erosion model can help to explore the spatial distribution of the sediment yield sectors of the drainage basin the erosion hot spots and the role of landslides in sediment mobilization and hillslope channel connectivity processes

interaction between dynamics and cloud microphysics in orographic precipitation enhancement a high resolution modeling study of two north alpine heavy precipitation events abstract interactions of atmospheric dynamics and cloud microphysics with the alpine orography are investigated for two north alpine heavy precipitation cases 20 22 may 1999 and 22 23 august 2005 both cases were related to a deep cyclone propagating slowly eastward along the alps advecting moist air of mediterranean origin toward the northern side of the alps a validation against high resolution rain gauge data reveals that the average model bias is below 15 in the region of interest but there is a tendency to systematically underestimate very heavy precipitation a scale decomposition of the discrepancies between model and observations reveals that errors on the meso scale contribute at least as much to the total model error as discrepancies on the meso scale on the scale of single mountain ridges and valleys the formation of precipitation maxima at valley locations is investigated with particular emphasis on a region in which a valley receives systematically more precipitation than the adj

slope distributions threshold hillslopes and steady state topography digital elevation models of two steady state mountain ranges the olympic mountains om and oregon coast range ocr are used to examine relationships between slope distributions the development of threshold hillslopes and steady state topography plots of drainage area versus slope for these mountain ranges exhibit substantial scatter that complicates comparison of range form to analytical theories and landscape evolution models contour plots of the density of such data reveal an attractor at the scale of the transition from hillslope processes to channel processes and log bin averaging reveals trends that parallel predictions of steady state erosion laws but with different rate laws for five distinct process domains hillslopes valley heads and colluvial bedrock and alluvial valley segments slope histograms computed for 100 km2 areas defined by a 10 10 km grid throughout the om exhibit approximately normal or exponential distributions in areas of active rock uplift and depositional topography respectively local slope distributions in the ocr also tend to be normally distributed but some are left skewed in areas with gentler slopes mean slopes determined both over the above referenced grid and a 10 km diam moving window are relatively invariant in the core of the om in spite of strong contrasts in bedrock erodibility and gradients in long term rock uplift rates in contrast the mean slopes in the ocr parallel latitudinal gradients in rock uplift rates and bedrock erodibility hence the slope distributions in the om and ocr reflect distinct relationships between development of threshold bedrock and soil mantled hillslopes and steady state topography

orogeny and orography the effects of erosion on the structure of mountain belts a numerical model of the coupled processes of tectonic deformation and surface erosion in convergent orogens is developed to investigate the nature of the interaction between these processes crustal deformation is calculated by a two dimensional finite element model of deformation in response to subduction and accretion of continental crust erosion operates on the uplifted surface of this model through fluvial incision which is taken to be proportional to stream power the relative importance of the tectonic and erosion processes is given by a dimensionless erosion number relating convergence velocity rock erodibility and precipitation rate this number determines the time required for a system to reach steady state and the final topographic shape and size of a mountain belt fundamental characteristics of the model orogens include asymmetric topography with shallower slopes facing the subducting plate and an asymmetric pattern of exhumation with the deepest levels of exhumation opposite to subduction these characteristics are modified when the regional climate exhibits a dominant wind direction and orographically enhanced precipitation on one side of the mountain belt the two possible cases are dominant wind in the direction of motion of the subducting plate and dominant wind direction in the opposite direction of the subducting plate velocity models of the former case predict a broad zone of exhumation with maximum exhumation in the orogen interior models of the latter case predict a focused zone of exhumation at the margin of the orogen and at high erosion number a reversal in the topographic asymmetry natural examples of these two cases are presented the southern alps of new zealand exhibits the climate and exhumation asymmetry characteristic of wind in the direction opposite to motion of the subducting plate the asymmetry of topography suggests that erosion is not efficient enough to have reversed the topographic asymmetry the contrasting example of dominant wind in the direction of subduction motion is provided by the olympic mountains of washington state in this case exhumation of deep levels of the cascadia accretionary wedge shows a broad domal pattern consistent with the observed orographic precipitation

tectonic and climatic controls of denudation rates in active orogens the san bernardino mountains california abstract the relative importance of climatic and tectonic factors in driving rates of denudation in mountain ranges has long been debated with both precipitation and rates of crustal uplift cited as first order controls in a variety of different mountainous settings few studies however have explicitly considered the influence of climatic and tectonic processes on denudation rates during the early stages of orogenesis using basin wide denudation rates derived from in situ cosmogenic 10 be and published modern precipitation rate data the significance of rainfall and snowfall on rates of denudation is evaluated for the san bernardino mountains california denudation rates vary between 52 mm ka 1 in the arid northern regions of the mountains and 2700 mm ka 1 in the more humid southern sector we select three basins where the influence of precipitation on denudation rates can be isolated from the effects of crustal uplift and find that there is no apparent relationship between denudation rates and precipitation denudation rates differ more than five fold on the opposing slopes of mill creek a valley bisected by a major splay of the san andreas fault and we propose that this denudation rate disparity can be best explained by variations in uplift rates across the fault the results suggest that crustal uplift is the mechanism that underpins the 50 fold variability in denudation rates we have measured in the san bernardino mountains but that this must be facilitated by sufficient precipitation to remove valley fill deposits

local relief and the height of mount olympus a three dimensional assessment of the net volume of rock differentially eroded from below mountain tops to form valleys yields a range wide constraint on feedback between valley development and the height of mountain peaks the superelevation of mountain peaks potentially attributable to differential removal of material from below peaks in the olympic mountains washington was constrained by fitting a smoothed surface to the highest elevation points on a 30 m grid digital elevation model of the range high elevation areas separate into two primary areas one centred on mount olympus in the core of the range and the other at the eastern end of the range the largest valleys and hence areas with the greatest volume of differentially eroded material surround mount olympus in contrast the highest mean elevations concentrate in the eastern end of the range calculation of the isostatic rebound at mount olympus attributable to valley development ranges from 500 to 750 m 21 to 32 per cent of its height for a 5 to 10 km effective elastic thickness of the crust comparison of cross range trends in mean and maximum elevation reveals that this calculated rebound for mount olympus corresponds well with its superelevation above the general cross range trend in mean elevation it therefore appears that the location of the highest peak in the olympics is controlled by the deep valleys excavated in the centre of the range copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

on steady states in mountain belts the dynamic system of tectonics and erosion contains important feedback mechanisms such that orogenic systems tend toward a steady state this concept is often invoked but the nature of the steady state is commonly not specified we identify four types of steady state that characterize the orogenic system and illustrate these cases by using numerical model results and natural examples these types are 1 flux steady state 2 topographic steady state 3 thermal steady state and 4 exhumational steady state they refer to the erosional flux the topography the subsurface temperature field and the spatial pattern of cooling ages respectively models suggest that the topography will reach a steady mean form at the scale of an orogenic belt but perfect topographic steady state is unlikely to be achieved at shorter length scales thermal steady state is a precondition for exhumational steady state and in the case of temperature dependent deformation topographic steady state exhumational steady state is characterized by reset age zones spatially nested according to closure temperature as illustrated in natural systems from new zealand the cascadia accretionary margin and taiwan

influence of the pacific decadal oscillation el nino southern oscillation and solar forcing on climate and primary productivity changes in the northeast pacific evidence of 11 year schwabe solar sunspot cycles el nino southern oscillation enso and the pacific decadal oscillation pdo were detected in an annual record of diatomaceous laminated sediments from anoxic effingham inlet vancouver island british columbia radiometric dating and counting of annual varves dates the sediments from ad 1947e1993 intact sediment slabs were x rayed for sediment structure lamina thickness and composition based on gray scale and subsamples were examined for diatom abundances and for grain size wavelet analysis reveals the presence of w2e3 w4 5 w 7a ndw9e12 year cycles in the diatom record and an w11e13 year record in the sedimentary varve thickness record these cycle lengths suggest that both enso and the sunspot cycle had an influence on primary productivity and sedimentation patterns sediment grain size could not be correlated to the sunspot cycle although a peak in the grain size data centered around the mid1970s may be related to the 1976e1977 pacific climate shift which occurred when the pdo index shifted from negative cool conditions to positive warm conditions additional evidence of the pdo regime shift is found in wavelet and cross wavelet results for skeletonema costatum a weakly silicified variant of s costatum annual precipitation and april to june precipitation higher spring april may values of the north pacific high pressure index during sunspot minima suggest that during this time increased cloud cover and concomitant suppression of the aleutian low al pressure system led to strengthened coastal upwelling and enhanced diatom production earlier in the year these results suggest that the 11 year solar cycle amplified by cloud cover and upwelling changes as well as enso exert significant influence on marine primary productivity in the northeast pacific the expression of these cyclic phenomena in the sedimentary record were in turn modulated by the phase of pdo as indicated by the change in period of enso and suppression of the solar signal in the record after the 1976e1977 regime shift

new kinematic models for pacific north america motion from 3 ma to present i evidence for steady motion and biases in the nuvel 1a model we use velocities derived from 2 4 5 years of continuous gps observations at 21 sites on the pacific and north american plates along with a subset of the nuvel 1a data to examine the steadiness of pacific north america motion since 3 16 ma the transfer of baja california to the pacific plate and the magnitude of biases in the nuvel 1a estimate of pacific north america motion we find that pacific north america motion has remained steady since 3 16 ma but at rates significantly faster than predicted by nuvel 1a in the vicinity of baja california our gps derived model and recent seafloor spreading rates in the southern gulf of california both indicate that the nuvel 1a model underestimates pacific north america rates by 4 2 mm yr 1 steady pacific north america motion since 3 16 myr and increasing seafloor spreading rates since 3 58 myr in the gulf of california imply that pacific north america motion was partitioned between seafloor spreading in the gulf of california and decelerating slip along faults in or offshore from the baja peninsula

the little red hill seismic experimental study topographic effects on ground motion at a bedrock dominated mountain edifice the kinematic response of a bedrock dominated mountain edifice to seismic shaking near lake coleridge in the southern alps of new zealand was examined a small elongated and bedrock dominated mountain ridge little red hill was equipped with a seismic array seven earss instruments mark l 4 3d seismometers were installed along the ridge crest the flank and at the base of the 210 m high 500 m wide and 800 m long mountain edifice from february to july 2006 seismic records of local and regional earthquakes were used to provide information on amplification and deamplification effects as well as on the frequency response at different parts on the edifice the ground motion records were analyzed using three different methods comparisons of peak ground accelerations power spectral density analysis and standard spectral ratio analysis time and frequency domain analyses show that site amplification is concentrated along the elongated crest of the edifice where amplifications of up to 1100 were measured relative to the motion at the flat base the field experiment also highlighted the extreme variations in amplification with regard to closely located sites but at contrasting topographic locations theoretical calculations and frequency analyses of field data indicate a maximum response along the ridge crest of little red hill for frequencies of about 5 hz which correlate to wavelengths approximately equal to the half width or height of the edifice the consequence of amplification effects on the stability and degradation of rock masses can be seen areas showing high amplification effects overlap with the spatial distribution of seismically generated block fields at little red hill it is concluded that topography geometry and distance to the seismic source play key roles in causing amplification effects of seismic ground motion and supporting dilation and degradation of rock mass across bedrock dominated mountain edifices

analysis of hillslope erosion rates using dated colluvial deposits hollows are sites of long term deposition of colluvium and contain a valuable record of the timing and rates of hillslope erosion a model is presented that uses measured depositional rates of colluvium in hollows to calculate transport rates of colluvium and bedrock lowering rates on the surrounding slopes this model has been applied to eight dated colluvial deposits in the clearwater river basin of western washington the calculated average transport rate is about 34 cm 3 cm yr and the calculated average bedrock lowering rate is about 0 04 mm yr equivalent to an average sediment yield of 90 t km 2 yr for the holocene there is significant variability in erosion rates between sites which may be due to local lithologic variations although the average values are similar to an independent estimate of modern erosion rates for this area multiple stratigraphic levels have been dated in five deposits and document that the deposits are cumulative and that deposition has been active through the

precipitation landsliding and erosion across the olympic mountains washington state usa abstract in the olympic mountains of washington state landsliding is the primary surface process by which bedrock and hillslope regolith are delivered to river networks however the relative importance of large earthquakes versus high magnitude precipitation events to the total volume of landslide material transported to valley bottoms remains unknown in part due to the absence of large historical earthquakes to test the hypothesis that erosion is linked to precipitation approximately 1000 landslides were mapped from google earth imagery between 1990 and 2015 along a 15 km wide 85 km long 1250 km2 swath across the range the volume of hillslope material moved by each slide was calculated using previously published area volume scaling relationships and the spatial distribution of landslide volume was compared to mean annual precipitation data acquired from the prism climate group for the period 1981 2010 statistical analysis reveals a significant correlation r 0 55 p

a tsunami about 1000 years ago in puget sound washington water surged from puget sound sometime between 1000 and 1100 years ago overrunning tidal marshes and mantling them with centimeters of sand one overrun site is 10 kilometers northwest of downtown seattle another is on whidbey island some 30 kilometers farther north neither site has been widely mantled with sand at any other time in the past 2000 years deposition of the sand coincided to the year or less with abrupt probably tectonic subsidence at the seattle site and with landsliding into nearby lake washington these findings show that a tsunami was generated in puget sound and they tend to confirm that a large shallow earthquake occurred in the seattle area about 1000 years ago

bedrock incision rock uplift and threshold hillslopes in the northwestern himalayas the topography of tectonically active mountain ranges reflects a poorly understood competition between bedrock uplift and erosion dating of abandoned river cut surfaces in the northwestern himalayas reveals that the indus river incises through the bedrock at extremely high rates 2 12 mm yr 1 in the surrounding mountains the average angles of hillslopes are steep and essentially independent of erosion rate suggesting control by a common threshold process in this rapidly deforming region an equilibrium is maintained between bedrock uplift and river incision with landsliding allowing hillslopes to adjust efficiently to rapid river down cutting

controls on the patterns of topography and erosion rate in a critical orogen 1 we solve for the steady state patterns of erosion rate and topography in a critical wedge to understand the mutual adjustment of tectonics erosion and topography in the absence and presence of spatial variations in precipitation rate we consider steady state systems in which tectonics favors a critical topographic form assumed to be the mean elevation across the range and in which surface erosion by rivers and hillslopes operates on a two dimensional landscape we find that 1 a nonuniform critical topographic form implies a nonuniform pattern of ridge valley relief and hence a nonuniform pattern of erosion rate and 2 when the system is forced by local variations in precipitation rate maintenance of the critical topographic form requires a local response of rock uplift that greatly dampens changes in topography we apply these concepts to the western side of the olympic mountains of washington state where mean elevation ridge valley relief and precipitation rates increase from the coast to the topographic crest of the range we find that the main control on the erosion rate pattern is the pattern in mean elevation and the amount of precipitation in contrast the pattern of precipitation is only a minor control as a whole our work demonstrates an approach for developing the theoretical context that is necessary for interpreting spatial associations between patterns in topography precipitation and erosion in natural orogens

extensive early and middle wisconsin glaciation on the western olympic peninsula washington and the variability of pacific moisture delivery to the northwestern united states abstract large glaciers descended western valleys of the olympic mountains six times during the last wisconsin glaciation terminating in the pacific coastal lowlands the glaciers constructed extensive landforms and thick stratigraphic sequences which commonly contain wood and other organic detritus the organic material coupled with stratigraphic data provides a detailed radiocarbon chronology of late pleistocene ice margin fluctuations the early wisconsin lyman rapids advance which terminated prior to ca 54 000 14c yr b p represented the most extensive ice cover subsequent glacier expansions included the hoh oxbow 1 advance which commenced between ca 42 000 and 35 000 14c yr b p the hoh oxbow 2 advance ca 30 800 to 26 300 14c yr b p the hoh oxbow 3 advance ca 22 000 19 300 14c yr b p the twin creeks 1 advance 19 100 18 300 14c yr b p and the subsequent undated twin creeks 2 advance the hoh oxbow 2 advance represents the greatest ice extent of the last 50 000 yr with the glacier extending 22 km further downvalley than during the twin creeks 1 advance which is correlative with the global last glacial maximum local pollen data indicate intensified summer cooling during successive stadial events because ice extent was diminished during colder stadial events precipitation not summer temperature influenced the magnitude of glaciation most strongly regional aridity independently documented by extensive pollen evidence limited ice extent during the last glacial maximum the timing of glacier advances suggests causal links with north atlantic bond cycles and heinrich events

coseismic landslides reveal near surface rock strength in a high relief tectonically active setting we present quantitative estimates of near surface rock strength relevant to landscape evolution and landslide hazard assessment for 15 geologic map units of the longmen shan china strength estimates are derived from a novel method that inverts earthquake peak ground acceleration models and coseismic landslide inventories to obtain material properties and landslide thickness aggregate rock strength is determined by prescribing a friction angle of 30 and solving for effective cohesion effective cohesion ranges are from 70 kpa to 107 kpa for 15 geologic map units and are approximately an order of magnitude less than typical laboratory measurements probably because laboratory tests on hand sized specimens do not incorporate the effects of heterogeneity and fracturing that likely control near surface strength at the hillslope scale we find that strength among the geologic map units studied varies by less than a factor of two however increased weakening of units with proximity to the range front where precipitation and active fault density are the greatest suggests that climatic and tectonic factors overwhelm lithologic differences in rock strength in this high relief tectonically active setting

sediment flux from a mountain belt derived by landslide mapping in humid uplands landsliding is the dominant mass wasting process in the western southern alps of new zealand landslides are scale invariant and have a power law magnitude frequency distribution independent studies from other regions suggest that this is a general property of landsliding this observation is of critical importance to the evaluation of the impact of events of different length scales over different time intervals on landscape evolution it is particularly useful when estimating regional geomorphic rates because it constrains the frequency and overall significance of extreme events which cannot otherwise be evaluated by integrating the complete response of the system we estimate the regional denudation rate due to landsliding to be 9 4 mm yr 1 sediment discharge from the western southern alps is dominated by landslide derived material

great earthquakes of variable magnitude at the cascadia subduction zone comparison of histories of great earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis at eight coastal sites suggests plate boundary ruptures of varying length implying great earthquakes of variable magnitude at the cascadia subduction zone inference of rupture length relies on degree of overlap on radiocarbon age ranges for earthquakes and tsunamis and relative amounts of coseismic subsidence and heights of tsunamis written records of a tsunami in japan provide the most conclusive evidence for rupture of much of the plate boundary during the earthquake of 26 january 1700 cascadia stratigraphic evidence dating from about 1600 cal yr b p similar to that for the 1700 earthquake implies a similarly long rupture with substantial subsidence and a high tsunami correlations are consistent with other long ruptures about 1350 cal yr b p 2500 cal yr b p 3400 cal yr b p 3800 cal yr b p 4400 cal yr b p and 4900 cal yr b p a rupture about 700 1100 cal yr b p was limited to the northern and central parts of the subduction zone and a northern rupture about 2900 cal yr b p may have been similarly limited times of probable short ruptures in southern cascadia include about 1100 cal yr b p 1700 cal yr b p 3200 cal yr b p 4200 cal yr b p 4600 cal yr b p and 4700 cal yr b p rupture patterns suggest that the plate boundary in northern cascadia usually breaks in long ruptures during the greatest earthquakes ruptures in southernmost cascadia vary in length and recurrence intervals more than ruptures in northern cascadia

landslides triggered by the 23 november 2000 rainfall event in the imperia province western liguria italy from mid october to 22 november 2000 the western liguria region of italy experienced prolonged and intense rainfall with cumulative values exceeding 1000 mm in 45 days the severe rainfall sequence ended on november 23 with a high intensity storm that dumped more than 180 mm of rain in 24 h the high intensity event caused flooding and triggered more than 1000 soils slips and debris flows and a few large complex landslides slope failures caused three fatalities and severe damage to roads private homes and agriculture large 1 13 000 and very large 1 5000 scale colour aerial photographs were taken 45 days after the event over the areas most affected by the landslides through the interpretation of the 334 photographs covering an area of 500 km2 we prepared a landslide inventory map that shows 1204 landslides for a total landslide area of 1 6 km2 we identified the rainfall conditions that triggered landslides in the armea valley using cumulative and continuous rainfall data combined with detailed information on the time of landslide occurrence landslide activity initiated 8 to 10 h after the beginning of the storm and the most abundant activity occurred in response to rainfall intensities of 8 to 10 mm per hour for the ceriana municipality an area where the landslides were numerous in november 2000 we also collected information about a historical event that occurred on 8 11 december 1910 and triggered abundant landslides resulting in severe economic damage a comparison of the damage caused by the historical and the recent landslide events indicated that damage caused by the 1910 historical event was more diffused but less costly than the damage caused by the 2000 event

mass wasting triggered by the 2008 wenchuan earthquake is greater than orogenic growth shallow earthquakes lead to the uplift of mountain ranges but also trigger landslides that remove mass an analysis of the 2008 wenshuan earthquake suggests that more material was removed from the orogen by widespread landslides than was added by coseismic uplift

estimating accumulation rates and physical properties of sediment behind a dam englebright lake yuba river northern california 1 studies of reservoir sedimentation are vital to understanding scientific and management issues related to watershed sediment budgets depositional processes reservoir operations and dam decommissioning here we quantify the mass organic content and grain size distribution of a reservoir deposit in northern california by two methods of extrapolating measurements of sediment physical properties from cores to the entire volume of impounded material englebright dam completed in 1940 is located on the yuba river in the sierra nevada foothills a research program is underway to assess the feasibility of introducing wild anadromous fish species to the river upstream of the dam possible management scenarios include removing or lowering the dam which could cause downstream transport of stored sediment in 2001 the volume of sediments deposited behind englebright dam occupied 25 5 of the original reservoir capacity the physical properties of this deposit were calculated using data from a coring campaign that sampled the entire reservoir sediment thickness 6 32 m at six locations in the downstream 3 4 of the reservoir as a result the sediment in the downstream part of the reservoir is well characterized but in the coarse upstream part of the reservoir only surficial sediments were sampled so calculations there are more uncertain extrapolation from one dimensional vertical sections of sediment sampled in cores to entire three dimensional volumes of the reservoir deposit is accomplished via two methods using assumptions of variable and constant layer thickness overall the two extrapolation methods yield nearly identical estimates of the mass of the reservoir deposit of 26 106 metric tons t of material of which 64 7 68 5 is sand and gravel over the 61 year reservoir history this corresponds to a maximum basin wide sediment yield of 340 t km2 yr assuming no contribution from upstream parts of the watershed impounded by other dams the uncertainties and limitations of the estimates of overall sediment quantities are discussed implications for watershed management and future reservoir sedimentation studies are also presented

surface uplift uplift of rocks and exhumation of rocks uplift of the surface of mountain belts requires forces that are comparable in magnitude to those associated with plate motion and therefore determination of rates of surface uplift could provide important information on the dynamics of mountain ranges rates of uplift of the surfaces of mountain ranges have not however been quantified sufficiently well that they provide useful constraints on those processes many reports off surface uplift in mountain ranges are based on mistaking exhumation of rocks or uplift of rocks for surface uplift and provide no information whatsoever on the rates of surface uplift

formation of gypsum and bassanite by cation exchange reactions in the absence of free liquid h2o implications for mars 1 smectites and hydrated mg sulfate minerals have been identified in close association at various locations on the martian surface the hydration states of sulfates and smectites are dependent on temperature and relative humidity rh and therefore these minerals have the potential to affect cycling and bioavailability of h2o on mars we have conducted x ray powder diffraction experiments to investigate cycling of h2o within mixtures of ca bearing smectites and hydrated mg sulfate minerals under conditions of varying rh similar to those that exist at or just beneath the martian surface our experiments show that under conditions of varying rh cation exchange reactions occur between these two potential components of the martian regolith producing gypsum caso4 2h2o and bassanite caso4 0 5h2o in the absence of free liquid h2o cation exchange reactions were accompanied by significant loss of porosity warping of the sample surface and in some cases volume expansion the formation of ca sulfate minerals in these experiments provides evidence for the development of thin films of h2o at mineral surfaces and suggests that similar processes may operate at the arid surface of mars humidity driven cation exchange reactions between smectites and hydrated mg sulfate minerals may therefore play a role in shaping the present day martian surface and could have provided a transient source of h2o and nutrients e g major and trace elements and possibly organic micro macronutrients for putative microorganisms

earthquake triggered increase in sediment delivery from an active mountain belt in tectonically active mountain belts earthquake triggered landslides deliver large amounts of sediment to rivers we quantify the geomorphic impact of the 1999 mw 7 6 chi chi earthquake in taiwan which triggered 20 000 landslides coseismic weakening of substrate material caused increased landsliding during subsequent typhoons most coseismic landslides remained confined to hillslopes downslope transport of sediment into the channel network occurred during later storms the sequential processes have led to a factor of four increase in unit sediment concentration in rivers draining the epicentral area and increased the magnitude and frequency of hyperpycnal sediment delivery to the ocean four years after the earthquake rates of hillslope mass wasting remain elevated in the epicentral area

high pressure metamorphism and uplift of the olympic subduction complex the discovery of the critical assemblage lawsonite quartz calcite indicates that a significant part of the cenozoic olympic subduction complex of northwestern washington state formed by underplating at a depth of about 11 km the deep structural level exposed in this area is attributed to the presence of a 10 km high arch in the underlying juan de fuca plate we postulate that this arch was formed when the southern cordilleran coastline swung westward as a result of middle miocene to recent extension in the basin and range province

how rivers react to large earthquakes evidence from central taiwan earthquakes and bedrock river incision are fundamental processes in the evolution of tectonically active landscapes yet little work has focused on understanding how a bedrock river responds to a single large earthquake data from the 1999 m w 7 6 chi chi earthquake in central taiwan show dramatic differences in river response that depend on the proximity to the rupture zone near the fault scarp vertical ground deformation intensifi es river incision on a time scale of years to decades while distal to the fault landslides induced by the earthquake mantle bedrock on the river bed with sediment impeding incision for decades to centuries as the material is evacuated this surprising spatial and temporal variability in bedrock incision caused by earthquakes has implications for the paleoseismic interpretation of bedrock terraces and for the evolution of tectonically active landscapes

the role of landslides in mountain range evolution abstract we review the role of landslides in current concepts of the topographic development of mountain ranges we find that many studies in this field address basin or orogen scale competition between rock uplift and fluvial bedrock erosion hillslopes in general and bedrock landslides in particular are often assumed to respond rapidly to incision and development of the fluvial drainage network this leads to a one sided view of the geomorphic coupling between hillslopes and rivers that emphasizes the fluvial control of hillslopes but ignores the alternative view that landslides can affect the fluvial network there is growing evidence that landslides are a dominant source of sediment in mountain belts and that they exert a direct geomorphic control on fluvial processes landslides can influence the river network in a variety of ways from determining basin area and drainage divide positions to setting streamwise variations in sediment load and calibre the geomorphic legacy of large landslides on hillslope and channel morphologies may persist for up to 104 yr adding considerable variability to fluvial erosion and sedimentation patterns over these timescales we identify a number of questions for future research and conclude that a better understanding and quantification of the geomorphic feedbacks between landslides and river channels builds an important link between short term 105 yr landscape evolution models

time and size of a giant earthquake in cascadia inferred from japanese tsunami records of january 1700 geological evidence shows that great earthquakes have occurred in the recent prehistoric past in the cascadia subduction zone off the pacific coast of north america the most recent event or series of events is dated at about 300 years ago1 4 but the precise date and magnitude have not been determined geological investigations have not been able to distinguish a single giant earthquake from a series of great earthquakes occurring over a timespan of a decade or two4 although this information is important for the assessment of future hazard5 we have found several tsunami records in japan from ad 1700 with no indication of a local cause historical earthquake records and palaeoseismic evidence indicate the absence of a large earthquake in 1700 in south america alaska or kamchatka leaving cascadia as the most likely source of this tsunami the estimated time of the earthquake is the evening about 21 00 local time of 26 january 1700 the magnitude is estimated as 9 from the tsunami heights in which case the earthquake ruptured the entire length of the cascadia subduction zone2 these estimates are consistent with native american legends that an earthquake occurred on a winter night6

patterns and controls of sediment production transfer and yield in the illgraben quantification of the volumes of sediment removed by rock slope failure and debris flows and identification of their coupling and controls are pertinent to understanding mountain basin sediment yield and landscape evolution this study captures a multi decadal period of hillslope erosion and channel change following an extreme rock avalanche in 1961 in the illgraben a catchment prone to debris flows in the swiss alps we analyzed photogrammetrically derived datasets of hillslope and channel erosion and deposition along with climatic and seismic variables for a 43 year period from 1963 to 2005 based on these analyses we identify and discuss 1 patterns of hillslope production channel transfer and catchment sediment yield 2 their dominant interactions with climatic and seismic variables and 3 the nature of hillslope channel coupling and implications for sediment yield and landscape evolution in this mountain basin our results show an increase in the mean hillslope erosion rate in the 1980s from 0 24 0 01 m yr 1 to 0 42 0 03 m yr 1 that coincided with a significant increase in air temperature and decrease in snow cover depth and duration which we presume led to an increase in the exposure of the slopes to thermal weathering processes the combination of highly fractured slopes close to the threshold angle for failure and multiple potential triggering mechanisms means that it is difficult to identify an individual control on slope failure on the other hand the rate of channel change was strongly related to variables influencing runoff a period of particularly high channel erosion rate of 0 74 0 02 m yr 1 1992 1998 coincided with an increase in the frequency and magnitude of intense rainfall events hillslope erosion exceeded channel erosion on average indicative of a downslope directed coupling relationship between hillslope and channel and demonstrating the first order control of rock slope failure on catchment sediment yield and landscape evolution

the climatology of small scale orographic precipitation over the olympic mountains patterns and processes the climatology of small scale patterns of mountain precipitation is poorly constrained yet important for applications ranging from natural hazard assessment to understanding the geologic evolution of mountain ranges synthesizing four rainy seasons of high resolution precipitation observations and mesoscale model output from the penn state ncar mm5 reveals a persistent small scale pattern of precipitation over the 10 km wide 800 m high ridges and valleys of the western olympic mountains washington state usa this pattern is characterized by a 50 70 excess accumulation over the ridge crests relative to the adjacent valleys in the annual mean while the model shows excellent skill in simulating these patterns at seasonal time scales major errors exist for individual storms investigation of a range of storm events has revealed the following mechanism for the climatological pattern regions of enhanced condensation of cloud water are produced by ascent in stable flow over the windward slopes of major ridges synoptically generated precipitation grows by collection within these clouds leading to enhanced precipitation which is advected by the prevailing winds instances of atypical patterns of precipitation suggest that under certain conditions during periods with a low freezing level or convective cells fundamental changes in small scale patterns may occur however case studies and composite analysis suggest that departures from the pattern of ridge top enhancement are rare the basic patterns and processes appear robust to changes in temperature winds and background rainfall rates copyright 2008 royal meteorological society

balancing cross sections with kinematic constraints the dolomites northern italy balancing of structural cross sections is often hindered by a limited database or tectonic complications in such cases kinematic constraints may help to better constrain the construction of a cross section and its extrapolation to depth the kinematic implications of a known structure generally at the surface have to be considered for the unknown structure and for the internal consistency of a cross section a key point is the quantification of shortening of the known structure the extrapolation of this parameter allows balancing in an approximate way emphasizing major structures while minor structures are either neglected or treated in a simplified way with this approach a quick overview can be achieved on how much leeway for interpretation exists critical points for testing various working hypotheses become more evident and the trial and error effort during the construction of a balanced section is considerably shortened still the implications the observed structures have on the deeper crustal levels can be assessed this concept is applied to a section across the italian dolomites a brittle fold and thrust belt lacking reflection seismic data so far and thus with a poorly known deep structure still active south vergent alpine thrusting is oriented approximately perpendicular to previous dinaric thrusting the ramp flat style is dominant due to rheological constrasts within the stratigraphic sequence thanks to kinematic balancing based on surface data three alpine thrust systems could be identified each defining a thrust sheet with its particular basement unit and its sedimentary part superposition of the two more external basement units led to the presently observed high elevation of the triassic sequence in the dolomites shortening since late miocene times amounts to more than 50 km retrodeformation of alpine thrusting is a key for better understanding the previous dinaric structures and kinematics