classification of huminite iccp system 1994 abstract in the new classification iccp system 1994 the maceral group huminite has been revised from the previous classification iccp 1971 int handbook coal petr suppl to 2nd ed to accommodate the nomenclature to changes in the other maceral groups especially the changes in the vitrinite classification iccp 1998 the new vitrinite classification iccp system 1994 fuel 77 349 358 the vitrinite and huminite systems have been correlated so that down to the level of sub maceral groups the two systems can be used in parallel at the level of macerals and for finer classifications the analyst now has according to the nature of the coal and the purpose of the analysis a choice of using either of the two classification systems for huminite and vitrinite this is in accordance with the new iso coal classification that covers low rank coals as well and allows for the simultaneous use of the huminite and vitrinite nomenclature for low rank coals

the procedure used to develop a coal char classification commission iii combustion working group of the international committee for coal and organic petrology abstract this paper describes an assessment of char classification system by the combustion working group in commission iii of the international committee for coal and organic petrology iccp the work of the group culminated in the production of a char atlas after a final round robin exercise this round robin involved 21 analysts and was an electronic exercise using digitally captured images of individual char particles rather than actual char blocks a software program featuring 170 char images was specifically designed to allow operators to identify each char based on a classification system with 9 individual char types tenuisphere crassisphere tenuinetwork crassinetwork mixed porous mixed dense fusinoid solid and mineroid the program electronically recorded all decisions as well as the time taken for each decision to be made from 170 chars 128 chars were identified by a majority 70 and these chars were then compiled in a char atlas that is now available for download www nottingham ac uk eczehl charatlas as would be expected all analysts appeared to become more confident in identifying chars during the exercise taking less time per image but with no clear evidence of improvement without exception analysts took longer to make an incorrect decision

petrography palynology and depositional environments of the early miocene oberdorf lignite seam styrian basin austria abstract an early miocene ottnangian lignite seam up to 36 m thick occurs in the oberdorf trough at the northwestern margin of the styrian basin it forms part of the fluvial koflach voitsberg formation petrographic and palynologic data together with ash yield and sulphur content of samples from two boreholes and two surface profiles have been used to study vertical and horizontal coal facies variations numerous partings and a high ash yield show that the lignite originated in a topogenous mire petrographic indices and palynological data suggest a wet forest swamp paleo environment a fluvial main parting with channel sediments at the eastern margin of the oberdorf trough and overbank sediments in its central part splits the lignite into a lower and an upper seam the lower seam consists of a lower high ash part with frequent splittings and a higher low ash part the upward decrease in number and thickness of silty clayey partings interpreted as crevasse splay deposits reflects the withdrawal of the fluvial sediment source coal composition is characterized by an upward increase in detro xylitic coal and in tissue preservation a good correlation between tissue preservation and percentages of taxodiaceae cupressaceae pollen suggests that this is mainly a result of an increasing contribution of decay resistant gymnosperms conifers the upper seam is also ash rich abundant inertinite at the eastern margin of the oberdorf trough is related to fire episodes inside or outside the mire main features of the upper seam in the central basin are an upward increase in tissue preservation and in percentages of taxodiaceae cupressaceae pollen high sulphur contents in the fresh water lignite are a result of a concentration of sulphate rich waters above the impermeable floors of the lower and upper seams carbonate rich surface waters from the graz palaeozoic and raasberg sequence raised the ph value and controlled sulphur and ash contents in those parts of the lower seam which are uninfluenced by the basal sulphur enrichment palynomorph spectra are dominated by taxodiaceae cupressaceae pollen and pollen from plants living in a mixed mesophytic forest pollen from aquatic and reed plants are rare the ratio between arctotertiary and paleotropic pollen is close to one and supports the early miocene age of the lignite the detected pollen spectra point to warm temperate subtropic and humid conditions

rheological evolution of the ocean crust a microstructural view rheological studies of the oceanic lithosphere have used direct observations of rocks and inferences based on thermal mechanical and experimental models modeling studies help to constrain an average crust and mantle rheology and the deep seated processes that control regional scale strength and stress field variations the smoothing of fine scale variations in such models can obscure many of the geological processes that influence strain localization and deformation partitioning in the ocean crust examination of deformation mechanisms and histories in ocean crust rocks provides a complementary approach to modeling examples of structures and deformation histories in diabases from deep sea drilling project ocean drilling program site 504b the hayes and atlantis fracture zones mid atlantic ridge and the troodos ophiolite cyprus are presented in conjunction with a synthesis of microstructural studies of the ocean crust over the last 25 years a survey of brittle quasi plastic and synmagmatic viscous deformation is used to demonstrate the influence of primary compositional and textural characteristics and variable magmatic and hydrothermal histories on deformation mechanisms and strain localization in the ocean crust geological evidence indicates that hydrothermal fluids strongly influence the nature of deformation and that effective stresses may be low due to fluid overpressures melt distribution will strongly influence strain localization at the base of the crust and synkinematic hydration during crystal plastic deformation plays a key role in the relative strengths of polyphase oceanic lithologies a schematic distribution of failure mechanisms in the ocean crust is used to discuss the controls on variations in lateral and vertical strength profiles and their possible relation to spreading rates although microstructural studies of ocean crust are still in their infancy they provide valuable constraints for rheological models and further insights to explain the distribution of seismicity at spreading centers and acoustic signatures

seismic source modeling seismic source modeling is taken to mean the modeling of seismograms to investigate kinematic properties of the earthquake source current trends such as the use of other data types e g geodetic measurements of coseismic deformation and the explicit consideration of source dynamics when modeling seismograms are beginning to blur this definition but i will adhere to it in this review i have divided seismic source modeling into teleseismic regional and near source modeling teleseismic modeling has the advantage of global coverage for earthquakes of magnitude 5 5 and larger but does not provide much more than point source parameters regional distance modeling has the advantage of a more rapid assessment of earthquake source properties but is complicated by relatively complex wave propagation the coverage is also limited to areas of broadband regional networks typically continental areas of developed countries near source modeling has the potential for detailed imaging of source properties but very few earthquakes occur in regions with sufficient instrumentation to allow this i have also included a section on historical earthquakes because of the additional issues that seismologists face in working with pre wwssn data and because of the important issues such as earthquake recurrence that require historical data in addition to reviewing the progress in seismic source modeling during the last four years i have also briefly reviewed some of the progress in understanding earthquake physics and hazards that has come about because of basic research in earthquake source modeling

friction of mineralogically controlled serpentinites and implications for fault weakness serpentines are common minerals in several major tectonic faults in a variety of geodynamic settings and have variable frictional strength and complex deformation processes here we present friction experiments carried out on a suite of serpentine samples that include veins of antigorite lizardite and fibrous serpentine chrysotile and polygonal serpentine together with massive samples of retrograde lizardite and chrysotile rich and prograde antigorite rich serpentinites these samples were characterized from the hand specimen down to the nanoscale to precisely constrain their mineralogical composition and are interpreted to represent typical fault rocks and host rocks in serpentine bearing shear zones respectively experiments were performed at effective normal stress from 5 to 120 mpa at temperatures of 25 c and 170 c and water saturated i e under the faulting conditions of the brittle upper lithosphere friction of antigorite samples either massive or vein is relatively high 0 53 retrograde massive serpentinites constituted primarily of lizardite and fibrous serpentines are frictionally weak 0 30 end members lizardite and fibrous serpentines are even weaker 0 15 0 19 and this weakness is unchanged at high temperature we document deformation of lizardite and fibrous serpentines occurring predominantly via mode ii cracking crystal fiber folding and frictional sliding which account for the observed mechanical weakness when combined with frictional reactivation analysis our data provide mechanical evidence for fault weakness inferred from earthquake dip distributions at oceanic outer rises and low angle normal faults beneath rifted continental margins and at slow ultraslow spreading mid ocean ridges

effects of simulated fault gouge on the sliding behavior of tennessee sandstone nonclay gouges stick slip has been considered to be a mechanism of shallow focus earthquakes along pre existing faults and thus laboratory studies relevant to stick slip may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms of the earthquakes and eventually to an effective prediction and or control of them this paper deals with the effects of various simulated gouges on the sliding behavior of rocks with special emphasis on how fault gouge alters potentially unstable behavior of a brittle rock about 150 specimens of tennessee sandstone with various simulated gouges along a 35 precut are deformed dry in a triaxial apparatus at room temperature with shortening rate of about 2 10 4cm s and at confining pressures to 300 mpa tennessee sandstone is a brittle and strong rock quartz cemented quartzose sandstone which consistently shows stick slip without simulated gouge at confining pressures above 30 40 mpa sliding behavior with a gouge layer depends markedly on the material used to simulate the gouge experimental results from monomineralic gouges show that mohs hardness of a mineral is a useful parameter to predict the general sliding behavior the most unstable sliding is associated with gouge composed of minerals with intermediate hardness dolomite anhydrite and calcite these gouges undergo the transition from stable sliding to stick slip at pressures of 50 80 mpa gouge composed of hard mineral such as quartz or feldspar behave more stably but stick slip occurs at pressures above 250 mpa only stable sliding is observed for gouge composed of soft minerals like halite although anhydrite gouge shows violent stick slip at 100 mpa pressure whereas only stable sliding occurs for quartz at the same pressure when they are mixed the behavior changes systematically with composition the inclusion of only 10 anhydrite permits stick slip and hence even a minor constituent mineral of fault gouge may alter the sliding mode for gouge composed of two distinct layers the more stabilizing member of the two dominates the behavior and the behavior is considerably different from that of homogeneously mixed gouge with the same bulk composition this suggests the significance of internal structures of natural fault zone in understanding the effects of fault zone materials on the fault motion the gouge composed of calcite or a mineral harder than calcite all show high and approximately the same ultimate frictional strength with an exception of fluorite the frictional strength is intermediate for fluorite galena and barite gouges and it is low for halite gouge

on the strength of oceanic fracture zones and their influence on the intraplate stress field we use the locations and source mechanisms of oceanic intraplate earthquakes to test the hypothesis that the strength of oceanic fracture zones is less than that of normal oceanic lithosphere if fracture zones are weaker than the surrounding lithosphere they should be sites of concentrated intraplate seismicity and the lithospheric stress field should be perturbed in their vicinity the 77 earthquakes selected for the study have well determined focal mechanisms and epicenters in regions where fracture zones are well mapped we have searched for dependence of faulting style fault orientation or principal stress direction on the distance from the nearest fracture zone if fracture zones were generally weaker than the surrounding lithosphere one of the principal horizontal stresses would be oriented nearly perpendicular to the fracture zone we find no evidence that principal stresses near fracture zones are oriented preferentially in this manner there is a slight tendency for earthquakes to occur near fracture zones and patterns of fault orientation and sense of slip support the view that differential cooling and horizontal contraction on fracture zones may contribute seismogenic stress these patterns are not demonstrable at high significance however if oceanic transform fault zones are weak relative to the surrounding lithosphere these results suggest that the strength of the fracture zones increases within a few million years after cessation of transform motion to levels comparable with that of normal oceanic lithosphere

the frictional behavior of lizardite and antigorite serpentinites experiments constitutive models and implications for natural faults laboratory studies of the frictional behavior of rocks can provide important information about the strength and sliding stability of natural faults we have conducted friction experiments on antigorite and lizardite serpentinites rocks common to both continental and oceanic crustal faults we conducted both velocity step tests and timed hold tests on bare surfaces and gouge layers of serpentinite at room temperature we find that the coefficient of friction of lizardite serpentinite is quite low 0 15 0 35 and could explain the apparent low stresses observed on crustal transform faults while that of antigorite serpentinite is comparable to other crustal rocks 0 50 0 85 the frictional behavior of both types of serpentinite is well described by a two mechanism model combining state variable dominated behavior at high slip velocities and flow dominated behavior at low velocities the two mechanism model is supported by data from velocity step tests and timed hold tests the low velocity behavior of serpentinite is strongly rate strengthening and should result in stable fault creep on natural faults containing either antigorite or lizardite serpentinite

on the initiation of subduction estimates of shear resistance associated with lithospheric thrusting and convergence represent lower bounds on the force necessary to promote trench formation three environments proposed as preferential sites of incipient subduction are investigated passive continental margins transform faults fracture zones and extinct ridges none of these are predicted to convert into subduction zones simply by the accumulation of local gravitational stresses subduction cannot initiate through the foundering of dense oceanic lithosphere immediately adjacent to passive continental margins the attempted subduction of buoyant material at a mature trench can result in large compressional forces in both subducting and overriding plates this is the only tectonic force sufficient to trigger the nucleation of a new subduction zone the ubiquitous distribution of transform faults and fracture zones combined with the common proximity of these features to mature subduction complexes suggests that they may represent the most likely sites of trench formation if they are even marginally weaker than normal oceanic lithosphere

the genesis of coal from the viewpoint of coal petrology abstract the genesis of the microscopic constituents of coal macerals and of maceral associations microlithotypes representing various coal facies is discussed in the light of recent advances that have been made in the study of coals and modern peats peat microscopy especially promoted the understanding of humification and biological gelification both of which are decisive for the genesis of huminites vitrinites in brown coals and hard coals respectively microbial activity during peatification has been documented by chemists microbiologists and petrologists and recently by electron microscopical observations in coals this activity leads to the incorporation of lipid substances into the humic matter and later influences the chemical physical and technological properties of vitrinites geochemical gelification transforms the huminites of brown coals into the vitrinites of bituminous coals and is probably caused by the onset of bitumen generation in coal in this process the hydrogel brown coal is transformed to the bitumogel bituminous coal coal as a source rock for oil has become an important research subject for coal petrologists and oil exploration the formation of more or less liquid bitumen and its later cracking to gaseous hydrocarbons leads to the coalification jumps of the macerals especially liptinites and vitrinites and to the generation of secondary macerals like exsudatinite bitumen and micrinite dead carbon bituminization in coal has been revealed by the use of fluorescence microscopy which also found the presence of new liptinite macerals bituminite fluorinite and exsudatinite and suggests a higher proportion of algal material in coals than was thought earlier the genesis of various types of inertinite macerals will probably become an increasingly important subject of research especially with regard to rank inertinites that seem to attain their high inertinitic reflectance initially during coalification besides the origin of macerals the origin of various coal facies in terms of maceral associations is considered in relation to the palaeogeographic depositional milieu the peat forming vegetation palaeoclimate water and nutrient supply acidity marine and calcareous influence and fire with examples from euramerican carboniferous coals gondwana coals and tertiary brown coals vegetation water and oxygen supply eh conditions are most important for the generation of coal facies vegetation has been reconstructed with the help of palaeobotany including palynology cuticular analysis and wood anatomy in brown coals and with the study of petrified permineralized peats preserved in coal balls the microscopical investigations of botanically recognizable plant remains isolated from coals or accompanying rocks has been especially informative however the results of palynological and cuticular analyses should be evaluated with caution considering the varying resistance of palynomorphs and cuticles and in the case of palynomorphs their possible extrapaludal origin microscopical studies of modern peats that were derived from different types of vegetation growing in different hydrological environments have been very helpful in interpreting coal facies especially in brown coals the much disputed origin of brown coal lithotypes is considered in detail for hard coals there seems to be agreement that coal layers rich in vitrites and liptinite poor clarite were deposited in wet forest swamps that microlayered liptinite rich clarites are sub aquatic humic muds and that inertinite rich durites represent oxidized peats the origin of liptinite rich durites is controversial either subaquatic muds or oxidized peats the latter perhaps from raised bogs a recent trend in the literature is the assumption that many if not all mineable coal seams have been deposited in raised bogs under ombrogenous oligotrophic conditions although raised bogs with a dense arborescent vegetation are known from borneo it seems not probable that most seams which were deposited in foredeeps or steadily sinking graben zones are of ombrogenous origin although a succession from relatively wet and eutrophic to relatively dry and oligotrophic conditions may be true for occasional seams but as in modern peats striking changes of coal facies are commonly caused by hydrological events e g inundations as a consequences of crevasses or of fires that burned the peat the origin of the inertinite rich gondwana coals is discussed in relation to their specific climatic conditions and a comparison with sub arctic peats is recommended coals influenced by marine and calcareous conditions are characterized by high contents of sulfur and pyrite as well as by hydrogen rich vitrinites with a relatively low reflectance and high fluorescence all due to a strong bacterial activity in peats of low acidity proposals for further research are made in the conclusions

rupture process of the 1987 superstition hills earthquake from the inversion of strong motion data a pair of significant earthquakes occurred on conjugate faults in the western imperial valley involving the through going superstition hills fault and the elmore ranch cross fault the first event was located on the elmore ranch fault m s 6 2 and the larger event on the superstition hills fault m s 6 6 the latter event is seen as a doublet teleseismically with the amplitudes in the ratio of 1 2 and delayed by about 8 sec this 8 sec delay is also seen in about a dozen strong motion records these strong motion records are used in a constrained least squares inversion scheme to determine the distribution of slip on a 2 d fault upon closer examination the first of the doublets was found to be itself complex requiring two episodes of slip thus the rupture model was allowed to have three separate subevents treated as separate ruptures with independent locations and start times the best fits were obtained when all three events initiated at the northwestern end of the fault near the intersection of the cross fault their respective delays are 2 1 and 8 6 sec relative to the first subevent and their moments are 0 4 0 9 and 3 5 10 25 dyne cm which is about half of that seen teleseismically this slip distribution suggests multi rupturing of a single asperity with stress drops of 60 200 and 15 bars respectively the first two subevents were confined to a small area around the epicenter while the third propagated 18 km southwestward compatible with the teleseismic and afterslip observations

implications of the mechanical and frictional behavior of serpentinite to seismogenic faulting the widespread occurrence of serpentinite along major strike slip seismogenic faults warrants systematic investigation to determine how its frictional characteristics may affect slip along the fault different locations along the motagua fault zone in guatemala were sampled to investigate the sliding mode as a function of composition and texture confining pressure and displacement rate air dried right circular cylinders 7 1 cm in length and 3 3 cm in diameter with a precut 35 to the cylinder and load axes were deformed at confining pressures up to 200 mpa room temperature and displacement rates of 10 4 and 10 7 cm s compositional analyses of specimens cored from five blocks of serpentinite that were tested show that the serpentinite can be divided into two groups one is a mesh textured serpentinite containing up to 70 serpentine mostly lizardite 11 enstatite phenocrysts 19 oxides and minor amounts of olivine and carbonate undifferentiated the other is a flare textured serpentinite containing up to 84 serpentinte mostly antigorite 10 oxides 6 magnesite and dolomite and almost no enstatite or olivine the flare serpentinite undergoes the transition from stable sliding to stick slip sliding at confining pressures as low as 10 mpa the mesh serpentinite results only in stable sliding up to confining pressures of 200 mpa and a displacement rate of 10 4 cm s at a displacement rate of 10 7 cm s only one of the three mesh blocks exhibits stick slip the shear stress required to initiate sliding for the flare textured serpentinites is given by 0 77 n for the mesh textured serpentinites at a displacement rate of 10 4 cm s it is given by 0 56 n and at a displacement rate of 10 7 cm s by 0 50 n differences in fracture strength between the five specimen blocks correlate with differences in frictional strength differences in the sliding behavior and in the deformation observed along the sliding surfaces can be related to the mineralogical components of each serpentinite type extensive deformation occurs in the mesh serpentinites as a result of hard oxide and enstatite indenters ploughing through a soft lizardite substrate lizardite lizardite contacts prevail and these deform by plastic flow the stick slip behavior in the flare textured serpentinites is explained by brittle failure of antigorite antigorite contacts the smaller grain size of the flare serpentinites relative to the mesh serpentinites may also contribute to the higher frictional strength of the flare serpentinites we discuss the implications of the antigorite rich flare textured serpentinite to seismogenic faulting in particular we consider the case of antigorite forming by shear heating induced progressive metamorphism of lizardite chrysotile serpentinites if serpentine dehydration temperatures are approached talc may form having a lower coefficient of friction than serpentine talc may act as a lubricant along the fault plane

effects of serpentinization on the lithospheric strength and the style of normal faulting at slow spreading ridges rock deformation experiments indicate that serpentinization can strongly influence the strength and tectonics of the oceanic lithosphere strength versus depth profiles calculated for conditions appropriate for slow spreading ridges indicate that the presence of serpentinite can reduce the integrated strength of the lithosphere by up to 30 results from flexural fault models indicate that if serpentinization is isolated to fault zones strain localization should be enhanced providing an explanation for the variations in the style of normal faulting along slow spreading ridge segments at segment centers where serpentinites are scarce deformation is accommodated on closely spaced faults with small throws at the segment ends where serpentinites are most abundant faults are widely spaced and have large throws q 1997 elsevier science b v

the origin of large or great thrust type earthquakes along subducting plate boundaries abstract seismicity deformation state of stress and abundance of fluids along subducting plate boundaries are reviewed and the origin of large or great thrust type earthquakes is discussed based on the recent experimental results on the slip behavior of halite and serpentine gouges shallow subducting plate boundaries above 20 25 km in depth are characterized by low seismicity low tectonic stress inter plate decoupling ductile deformation associated with the formation of metamorphic schistosity except at very shallow depths metamorphism suggesting solution processes on massive scale and presence of abundant h 2 o it is argued that these unique features are due to pressure solution processes to high fluid pressure to low strength and stable behavior of clayey sediments under wet environments and or to the deformation of soft unconsolidated sediments at very shallow depths the low seismicity in this zone is in marked contrast with major strike slip faults along which large earthquakes occur at depths shallower than 15 20 km it is emphasized that these unique features are expected only for restricted regions where there is constant supply of h 2 o due to progressive metamorphism or where fluids in the rocks are trapped and cannot escape to the surface large or great thrust type earthquakes in subduction zones initiate at depths of 30 50 km below the shallow decoupled zone in this focal depth range the supply of h 2 o during progressive metamorphism perhaps diminishes downwards the overriding and subducting plates are coupled and stick to each other during much of the inter seismic period and the resistance to slip or shear stress is presumably high it is suggested that these earthquakes begin to occur at a depth where the plate boundary zone becomes fairly dry deformation at these depths appears to be predominantly ductile so that the earthquakes cannot be regarded simply as a brittle phenomenon 1 creep instability i e instability associated with plastic deformation and 2 dehydration induced instability are the most likely mechanisms for initiating the earthquakes and both have some experimental support stick slip of halite gouge while undergoing ductile deformation primarily by intracrystalline gliding is described and discussed as a supporting evidence for 1 shear resistance of halite gouge increases with increasing confining pressure in stick slip regimes hence the observed stick slip may be a semi brittle phenomenon with respect to the pressure dependence of the shear resistance although the deformation texture cannot be distinguished from that formed by pressure insensitive flow serpentine gouge exhibits violent stick slip upon its decomposition under dry not wet environments supporting the mechanism 2 above exact mechanisms which lead to the unstable fault motion are poorly understood as yet but stick slip of both halite and serpentine gouges is recognized only when the slip rate dependence of friction is negative i e lower friction at faster slip rate consistent with the theoretical prediction of rice and ruina 1983 there is a possibility that the thrust type earthquakes can be explained essentially within the framework of fault constitutive laws developed by dieterich 1979 and ruina 1983

role of late jurassic intra oceanic structural inheritance in the alpine tectonic evolution of the monviso meta ophiolite complex western alps

how phyllosilicate mineral structure affects fault strength in mg rich fault systems the clay mineralogy of fault gouges has important implications for the frictional properties of faults often identified as a major factor contributing to profound fault weakness this work compares the frictional strength of a group of mg rich minerals common in the mg al si o compositional space talc saponite sepiolite and palygorskite by conducting triaxial frictional tests with water or argon as pore fluid the studied minerals are chemically similar but differ in their crystallographic structure results show that fibrous mg rich phyllosilicates are stronger than their planar equivalents frictional strength in this group of minerals is highly influenced by strength of the atomic bonds continuity of water layers within the crystals and interactions of mineral surfaces with water molecules all of which are dictated by crystal structure the formation and stability of the minerals studied are mainly controlled by small changes in pore fluid chemistry which can lead to significant differences in fault strength

the frictional behavior of serpentinite implications for aseismic creep on shallow crustal faults serpentine is common in many active faults and may be responsible for aseismic creep along segments of these faults to test this we have conducted a series of velocity stepping experiments to determine the frictional velocity dependence of serpentinite we slid initially bare rough surfaces of antigorite serpentinite at room temperature with velocities from 0 0032 to 10 0 m s 1 0 102 to 3 2 105 mm yr and normal stresses from 25 to 125 mpa we find that the velocity dependence of serpentinite undergoes a transition from velocity weakening at fast loading velocities to velocity strengthening at slow velocities and that this change is accompanied by other changes in the constitutive behavior these results suggest that serpentinite should not be the site of instability initiation during sliding at plate velocities but may permit propagation of unstable slip initiated elsewhere

the 2012 mw 8 6 wharton basin sequence a cascade of great earthquakes generated by near orthogonal young oceanic mantle faults we improve constraints on the slip distribution and geometry of faults involved in the complex multisegment mw 8 6 april 2012 wharton basin earthquake sequence by joint inversion of high rate gps data from the sumatran gps array sugar teleseismic observations source time functions from broadband surface waves and far field static gps displacements this sequence occurred under the indian ocean 400 km offshore sumatra the events are extraordinary for their unprecedented rupture of multiple cross faults deep slip large strike slip magnitude and potential role in the formation of a discrete plate boundary between the indian and australian plates the sugar recorded static displacements of up to 22 cm along with time varying arrivals from the complex faulting which indicate that the majority of moment release was on young wnw trending right lateral faults counter to initial expectations that an old lithospheric nne trending fracture zone played the primary role the new faults are optimally oriented to accommodate the present day stress field not only was the greatest moment released on the younger faults but it was these that sustained very deep slip and high stress drop 20 mpa the rupture may have extended to depths of up to 60 km suggesting that the oceanic lithosphere in the northern wharton basin may be cold and strong enough to sustain brittle failure at such depths alternatively the rupture may have occurred with an alternative weakening mechanism such as thermal runaway

waveform modeling of the november 1987 superstition hills earthquakes long period body wave data recorded at teleseismic distances and strong motion data at pasadena for the superstition hills earthquakes of 24 november 1987 are modeled to obtain the source parameters we will refer to the event that occurred at 0153 ut as eq1 and the event at 1316 ut as eq2 at all distances the first earthquake appears to be a simple left lateral strike slip event on a fault striking ne it is a relatively deep event with a source depth of 10 km it has a teleseismic moment of 2 7 10 25 dyne cm the second and more complex event was modeled in two ways by using eq1 as the green s function and by using a more traditional forward modeling technique to create synthetic seismograms the first method indicated that eq2 was a double event with both subevents similar but not identical to eq1 and separated by about 7 5 sec from the synthetic seismogram study we obtained a strike of 305 for the first subevent and 320 for the second both have dips of 80 and rakes of 175 the first subevent has a moment of 3 6 10 25 which is half that of the second we obtain depths of at least 6 km the teleseismic data indicate a preferred subevent separation of 30 km with the second almost due south of the first but the error bounds are substantial this would suggest that the subevents occurred on conjugate faults the strong motion data at pas however imply a much smaller source separation with the sources probably produced by asperities

petrographic characteristics of lignite gasification chars abstract the article presents the petrographic characteristics of lignite subjected to fluidized bed gasification and the residues after the process the gasifying agents were air oxygen and carbon dioxide the petrographic composition of the lignite is dominated by huminite group with 81 7 vol share the inertinite group is 3 6 vol while the liptinite group amounts to 7 0 vol the mineral matter in the tested samples is 7 7 vol the gasification temperature was in the range of 850 950 c therefore the study focused mainly on the pyrolysis of coal the dominant particles in the residues after the gasification process include inertoid 35 5 vol and crassinetwork 31 6 vol the total amount of char with different kinds of pores arising as a result of degassing tenuisphere crassisphere tenuinetwork crassinetwork and mixed porous is 52 3 vol of all components the macerals from inertinite group do not change form during the gasification process the particles with thicker walls crassinetwork and intertoids represent approximately 70 vol are dominant such char composition is related to the chemical structure of coal during gasification process the macerals from liptinite group such as resinite release carboxyl groups increased porosity and swelling a similar phenomenon is observed in the case of textinite macerals of low porosity mainly ulminite do not substantially increase their porosity and take the inertoid form mineroids represent about 8 vol of char but the mineral matter is also associated with coal particles taking into account the efficiency of gasification process it should be noted that only a small percentage

sequential deformation from serpentinite mylonite to metasomatic rocks along the sashu fault sw japan the deformation of serpentinites along the sashu fault saganoseki peninsula sw japan involved both mylonitization and brecciation the brecciation was accompanied by metasomatism and the metasomatized rocks record additional ductile deformation serpentinite mylonite is composed mainly of antigorite with minor magnetite and cr spinel foliation and lineation in this rock type are defined by the shape preferred orientation of antigorite and the alignment of fine grained magnetite and carbonate minerals the antigorite also shows a lattice preferred orientation lpo as measured with a universal stage with c axes oriented near perpendicular to the foliation and b axes oriented parallel to the lineation brecciation is concentrated in the reaction zone along the boundary between serpentinites and surrounding country rocks talc and chlorite schists developed in this zone as a result of associated metasomatism and deformation consequently they contain composite planar fabrics and drag folds the breccias themselves are composed of serpentinite fragments cut by veins of calcite and talc analyses of fluid inclusions in calcite from the breccia indicate that brecciation occurred at 200 300 c at depths of 3 8 11 8 km metasomatic reactions particularly the formation of talc contributed to weakening of this serpentinite bearing fault zone

serpentinized ultramafics and hydrothermal activity at the mid atlantic ridge crest near 15 n the initial occurrence of serpentinized ultramafic rocks at the nontransform intersection of a wall of a rift valley with the wall of a fracture zone is described from a site at the fifteen twenty fracture zone the ultramafics crop out in block faulted terrain on the upper portion of the eastern intersection between the rift valley and fracture zone walls in water depths between 2910 and 3300 m they comprise cumulate harzburgites pyroxenites iherzolites and wehrlites as well as gabbronorites olivine gabbronorites gabbropegmatites and alteration products including serpentinites bastite serpentinites and asbestos the ti zr y relations and relatively constant zr ti ratio in basalts recovered with the ultramafic rocks indicate a cogenetic relation from a common magmatic source that has undergone a late stage differentiation in the lower crust ongoing hydrothermal activity is indicated by chemical anomalies 3he mn in the near bottom water at the ultramafic outcrop the upwelling hydrothermal circulation apparently follows crust penetrating faults that may have controlled the diapiric ascent of the serpentinites and that continue to tap degassing magma and or mantle the observations presented indicate that ultramafic cumulates form beneath the rift valley adjacent to long offset 100 km ridge ridge transform faults where they are serpentinized by hydrothermal processes within the initial 1 106 years of generation of lithosphere at a slow spreading axis the corners formed by the intersections of the walls of a rift valley with both the transform rt corner and the nontransform rn corner portions of these fracture zones are principal loci of diapiric emplacement of serpentinized ultramafics

rupture process of the ms 6 6 superstition hills california earthquake determined from strong motion recordings application of tomographic source inversion abstract we analyze strong motion recordings of the m s 6 6 superstition hills earthquake to determine the timing location spatial extent and rupture velocity of the subevents that produced the bulk of the high frequency 0 5 to 4 hz seismic energy radiated by this shock the earthquake can be characterized by three principal subevents the largest ones occurring about 3 and 10 sec after initiation of rupture timing relationships between pulses on the seismograms indicate that the three subevents are located within 8 km of each other along the northern portion of the superstition hills fault the two largest subevents display different directivity effects we apply a tomographic source inversion to the integrated accelerograms to determine the slip acceleration on the fault as a function of time and distance based on a one dimensional fault model the azimuthal distribution of amplitudes for the second subevent can be largely explained by a rupture that propagated about 2 km to the southeast along the superstition hills fault at a velocity about equal to the p wave velocity an alternative model with rupture propagating to the northeast along a conjugate fault plane can also account for the observed directivity of this subevent but it is not supported by the aftershock distribution the third subevent ruptured to the southeast along an 8 km long portion of the superstition hills fault at about the shear wave velocity this rupture propagation caused the relatively large accelerations and velocities observed in strong motion records for stations southeast of the hypocenter the long time intervals between the subevents and their relative proximity to each other indicate a very slow component to the rupture development the southern half of the superstition hills fault did not generate significant high frequency strong ground motion although it showed substantial co seismic surface displacement the subevents are situated along the same northern portion of the fault where most of the aftershocks are located the locations of the subevents appear to be controlled by bends in the fault mapped at the surface and by changes in basement structure at depth

lateral extrusion in transpression zones the importance of boundary conditions the homogeneous transpression strain model formulated by sanderson and marchini journal of structural geology 6 449 458 1984 has proved to be a useful tool in the analysis of complex three dimensional deformation patterns however some of the boundary conditions introduced in the mathematical model may be unrealistic and unnecessarily restrictive in this paper a strain matrix for unconfined transpression and transtension is derived in which material is allowed to move not only vertically but also horizontally in and out of the deforming zone parallel to its length lateral extrusion three end member plane strain components are defined wrench simple shear pure shear in xy lateral stretch and pure shear in yz vertical stretch these biaxial strains can be viewed as the apices of a strain triangle for unconfined transpression or transtension the edges of the triangle correspond to triaxial pure shear non coaxial biaxial lateral extrusion and the triaxial confined transpressional or transtensional strain of sanderson and marchini during unconfined transpression the orientation and in particular the geometry k value of the finite strain ellipsoid depends upon not only the amount of shortening across the zone and the amount of strike slip parallel to the zone but also upon the ratio of vertical to lateral stretch this can present serious difficulties when attempting to use finite strains to infer the direction and magnitude of zone boundary displacements examples of transpression zones in which there is evidence of a component of lateral extrusion are described from sw cyprus and central scotland these examples illustrate that antithetic strike slip shearing is a kinematic requirement of laterally unconfined transpression implying that synchronous shear sense indicators may give opposite senses of movement in shear zones specific geometric and mechanical boundary conditions together with internal fault zone rheologies may favour the lateral extrusion of material kinematic partitioning can occur to form fault bounded domains in which end member biaxial and or non coaxial strains are developed analysis of such domains can give a clearer understanding of regional scale triaxial deformations these findings illustrate the importance of establishing displacement boundary conditions when qualitatively or quantitatively analysing crustal deformation zones

reply to arthur frankel s comment on rupture process of the 1987 superstition hills earthquake from the inversion of strong motion data we thank art frankel for his continuing interest in unraveling the details of the complicated source process of the 1987 superstition hills earthquake his insightful comments and subsequent modeling on our part has helped to resolve some of the differences between the rupture model presented in wald et al 1990 hereafter referred to as wea and that published by frankel and wennerberg 1989 hereafter f w

teleseismic source parameters and rupture characteristics of the 24 november 1987 superstition hills earthquake long period body waves from the 24 november 1987 superstition hills earthquake are studied to determine the focal mechanism and spatial extent of the seismic source the earthquake is a complex event consisting of two spatially distinct subevents with different focal mechanisms two consistent models of rupture are developed for both models the second subevent begins 8 sec after the initiation of the first subevent and the preferred centroid depth lies between 4 to 8 km model 1 consists of two point sources separated by 15 to 20 km along strike of the superstition hills fault model 2 consists of one point source and one line source with a rupture velocity of 2 5 km sec with moment release distributed along strike of the focal plane at a distance of 10 to 22 km from the epicenter these moment release patterns show that a significant amount of long period energy is radiated from the southern segment of the fault total moment release for both models is approximately 8 10 25 dyne cm both models also suggest a change of dip from near vertical near the epicenter to steeply southwesterly dipping along the southern segment of the fault the difference in rupture characteristics and fault dips seen teleseismically is also reflected in aftershock and afterslip data and crustal structure underlying the two fault segments the northern segment had more aftershocks and a smaller proportion of afterslip than the southern segment the boundary between the two segments lies at a step in the basement that separates a deeper metasedimentary basement to the south from a shallower crystalline basement to the north

comparison of the natural deformation of the state line serpentinite u s a with experimental studies abstract lizardite rich serpentinite dominantly underwent ductile deformation whereas antigorite rich serpentinite underwent brittle deformation during dextral strike slip shearing in the state line serpentinite pennsylvania piedmont metamorphic reactions within the shear zones constrain the temperature of deformation to between 350 and 500 c at 2 5 kbar pressure comparison with the temperature pressure limits determined by the experimental serpentinite deformation studies of raleigh and paterson 1965 indicates that the mechanical response should have been the opposite under these conditions antigorite should have been ductile and lizardite brittle the differences between the experimental and natural deformation responses is proposed to reflect the poor dependence of the mechanical response of serpentine to temperature and pressure as well as the presence or absence of fluid during deformation the shear zones in the state line serpentinite served as a fluid conduits during deformation the fluid drove retrograde reactions in the serpentinite and allowed it to undergo reaction enhanced ductility the experimental studies that concentrate on deformation during prograde metamorphism may not be completely applicable to retrograde shear zones

sorption of methane on lignite from polish deposits abstract coal samples from miocene lignite deposits ortholignite ece un 2002 in belchatow adamow konin and turow poland were analyzed to determine the relationships between coal properties and gas capacity investigations presented here addressed the occurrence of methane sorbet in lignite deposits within poland s largest penetrated lignite deposits e g belchatow adamow turow and konin lignite samples collected from surface mines were detritic coal with variable contents of xylites the highest level of xylites up to 25 vol was found in carbon samples taken from the belchatow deposit samples from other mines contained no more than 10 vol xylites petrographic compositions were dominated by huminite group macerals 73 88 vol with atrinite densinite and texto ulminite a porous form of ulminite inertinite groups were less important components 4 8 vol isotherms were determined for methane sorption at 298 k with test pressure ranges below 1 2 mpa at a pressure of 1 0 mpa the largest gas capacity of approximately 1 7 dm3 stp kg was found in the sample from belchatow this result may have been attributable to differences in the porosity of the samples the porosity of the sample from belchatow was twice as high as the porosities of the other coal samples this variation in porosity resulted from the lithologic and maceral composition of the coal sample that contained substantial quantities of porous textinite and texto ulminite the thermal sorption equation was used to determine the limiting values of isosteric enthalpy of sorption which suggested weak interactions between methane and the lignite matrix the residual gas capacity of the tested samples was also determined all samples exhibited a high residual methane bearing capacity which may not only cause methane to be released from coal at a pressure of 1 bar but also may pose a gas risk during mining operations

a tensile flexural model for the initiation of subduction we argue that subduction may be initiated at passive continental margins without shortening the lithosphere overcoming the lithosphere s high compressive strength requires special circumstances and these make it difficult to explain the nearly complete recycling of old sea floor instead we present a model that predicts tensile decoupling of the continental and oceanic lithosphere passive rifting and foundering of the seafloor beneath material welling up in the rift this occurs because the lithosphere in a new ocean basin establishes mechanical continuity with the continent at a depth comparable to mid ocean ridges later subsidence at the margin is therefore inhibited by flexure which implies shear stresses that promote fault slip and tensile stresses necessary to balance the component of the plate s weight directed down the margin slope we show that this tension can more than offset ridge push in our model an important additional tension arises from basal shear tractions resisting the plate s motion away from the mid ocean ridge although these tractions cannot be evaluated with confidence slip on a high angle fault decouples the oceanic and continental lithosphere when shear stresses arising from flexure and the applied tension exceed the lithosphere s shear strength under these loads a passive rift then forms allowing a mantle column to rise to the height of mid ocean ridges over 3 km above the old seafloor and flow onto the surface in a gravity current this load flexes the plate downwards which enhances the flow and lets the old oceanic lithosphere founder this model is consistent with the presence of oceanic material in continental forearcs and the youth of ophiolites when they are obducted as both might be explained by rifting a margin and underthrusting the juvenile crust formed there boninites in ophiolite complexes and tectonites at their bases show depleted and hydrated geochemistries consistent with the melting of rifted mantle lithosphere that receives volatiles from foundering oceanic crust

strengths of serpentinite gouges at elevated temperatures serpentinite has been proposed as a cause of both low strength and aseismic creep of fault zones to test these hypotheses we have measured the strength of chrysotile lizardite and antigorite rich serpentinite gouges under hydrothermal conditions with emphasis on chrysotile which has thus far received little attention at 25 c the coefficient of friction of chrysotile gouge is roughly 0 2 whereas the lizardite and antigorite rich gouges are at least twice as strong the very low room temperature strength of chrysotile is a consequence of its unusually high adsorbed water content when the adsorbed water is removed chrysotile is as strong as pure antigorite gouge at room temperature heating to 200 c causes the frictional strengths of all three gouges to increase limited data suggest that different polytypes of a given serpentine mineral have similar strengths thus deformation induced changes in polytype should not affect fault strength at 25 c the chrysotile gouge has a transition from velocity strengthening at low velocities to velocity weakening at high velocities consistent with previous studies at temperatures up to 200 c however chrysotile strength is essentially independent of velocity at low velocities overall chrysotile has a restricted range of velocity strengthening behavior that migrates to higher velocities with increasing temperature less information on velocity dependence is available for the lizardite and antigorite gouges but their behavior is consistent with that outlined for chrysotile the marked changes in velocity dependence and strength of chrysotile with heating underscore the hazards of using room temperature data to predict fault behavior at depth the velocity behavior at elevated temperatures does not rule out serpentinite as a cause of aseismic slip but in the presence of a hydrostatic fluid pressure gradient all varieties of serpentine are too strong to explain the apparent weakness of faults such as the san andreas

the hydrothermal plumbing of a serpentinite hosted detachment evidence from the west iberia non volcanic rifted continental margin this study documents the critical role of structurally induced fluid flow during the evolution of the footwall succession to a major low angle normal detachment fault drilled by the ocean drilling program leg 173 site 1068 beneath the southern iberia abyssal plain the fault zone comprises carbonate altered rodingitized and albitized metabasite rich sedimentary breccias and serpentinized mantle peridotites the brittle infrastructure of the detachment consists of mineralized high dilation breccias and meshes of mineralized extensional and shear veins that root into chlorite and serpentine cataclasite and gouge the fault rocks are underlain by cohesive serpentinite that shows kernel textures indicative of volume expansion accompanying serpentinization of peridotite the texture is disrupted and offset by small scale fractures and faults the distribution of serpentine polytypes carbonates fe ni alloys sulfides oxides and other silicate phases varies across the fault zone in patterns consistent with mineralization and replacement from solutions derived from two end member components seawater and ch4 bearing calcium hydroxide enriched hydrothermal solutions the latter form when heated seawater reacts with peridotite to form serpentinite at low water to rock ratios serpentine mineral chemistries indicate that fracture controlled serpentinite recrystallization and replacement occurred at various fo2 asio2 and ca2 conditions in places this also involved mild prograde thermal events the serpentinite also hosts tochilinite valleriite group minerals and aragonite both are interpreted as indicators of sea water incursions into the upper reaches of the detachment to account for the evidence of coeval hydrothermal mineralization and displacements across the detachment we relate hydrothermal discharge to the buffering of high pore fluid pressures by fault slip localized sources of high fluid pressures at depth are attributed to serpentinization of peridotite around the fault that promotes changes to solution mass density exothermic reactions and swelling pressures sealing of the fault between the serpentinization front and the top of the detachment results from hydrothermal mineralization alteration and serpentine gouges hydrothermal discharges from the detachment accompanying shear failure allow for variable mixing between the hydrothermal solutions and seawater and post slip convective draw down of seawater into the detachment it is suggested that the latter may have been limited in duration by ongoing mineralization leading to the restoration of the fault seal concomitant serpentinization around the detachment at depth provides scope for cyclic hydrothermal discharges and fault slip

strength of chrysotile serpentinite gouge under hydrothermal conditions can it explain a weak san andreas fault chrysotile bearing serpentinite is a constituent of the san andreas fault zone in central and northern california at room temperature chrysotile gouge has a very low coefficient of friction 0 2 raising the possibility that under hydrothermal conditions might be reduced sufficiently to 0 1 to explain the apparent weakness of the fault to test this hypothesis we measured the frictional strength of a pure chrysotile gouge at temperatures to 290 c and axial shortening velocities as low as 0 001 m s as temperature increases to 100 c the strength of the chrysotile gouge decreases slightly at low velocities but at temperatures 200 c it is substantially stronger and essentially independent of velocity at the lowest velocities tested we estimate that pure chrysotile gouge at hydrostatic fluid pressure and appropriate temperatures would have shear strength averaged over a depth of 14 km of 50 mpa thus on the sole basis of its strength chrysotile cannot be the cause of a weak san andreas fault however chrysotile may also contribute to low fault strength by forming mineral seals that promote the development of high fluid pressures

experimental sytectonic dehydration of serpentinite under conditions of controlled pore water pressure we have studied the mechanical behavior of serpentinite under conditions favouring dehydration to olivine talc water at temperatures ranging between 300 and 600 and at total pressures from 100 to 300 mpa constant stress stress relaxation and constant displacement rate testing techniques permitted a wide range of deformation rates and paths to be accessed effective confining pressure was held constant during the dehydration process by means of a controlled pore water pressure system stress supported by the samples was almost independent of deformation rate at temperatures below those required for the onset of the breakdown reaction at 500 and 600 c however the strength was linearly dependent on the inverse of the deformation rate and independent of effective confining pressure over the range investigated microstructural studies revealed that the weakening was associated with sliding in narrow shear zones containing ultrafine grained 0 1 m olivine produced in the breakdown reaction the enhanced deformability is interpreted in terms of flow of the olivine in these shear zones by diffusion accommodated grain boundary sliding these experimental results suggest that metamorphic transformations affect the deformability of rocks and demonstrate enhancement of deformability through the transient existence of fine grained reaction products the results may also be applicable to the mechanics of deformation processes in oceanic transform faults and give some indication of the degree of weakening that might be expected from grain size reduction by dynamic recrystallization in plastically deforming rocks

deformation mechanisms and rheology of serpentines in experiments and in nature microstructures in serpentine samples recovered from deformation experiments performed at high pressure 1 8 gpa high temperature 150 500 degrees c and laboratory strain rates 4 10 4 10 6 s 1 were studied using transmission electron microscopy on thin sections prepared by focused ion beam lizardite crystals deform by easy glide along the basal planes associated with microkink this mechanism is associated with a plastic strength of similar to 100mpa that defines the upper bound of lizardite strength in natural conditions antigorite crystals deform essentially by conjugated slip along 101 and 10 1 over bar planes observed in sections close to 010 this conjugate system results in an apparent global slip system akin to 100 001 in all samples delamination and comminution produce fine grained interconnected regions at grain boundaries because intracrystalline deformation mechanisms are insufficient to satisfy the von mises criterion the deformation laws of lizardite plastic flow and antigorite strain rate dependent differ because of their differing intracrystalline deformation mechanisms subgrain boundary geometry in natural samples and 100 001 crystal preferred orientations indicate the activation of slip systems similar to those observed in experimentally deformed samples suggesting that the strain rate dependent rheology of antigorite derived from experiments applies to subduction zone conditions delamination of antigorite crystals of a few tens to hundreds of nanometers is not observed in natural samples from subduction zones suggesting plastic deformation of serpentinites at natural low strain rates and stresses is likely accompanied by recrystallization through dissolution precipitation processes that act as a low temperature equivalent of dynamic recrystallization through diffusion at high temperature

dehydration reactions and micro nanostructures in experimentally deformed serpentinites high t torsion experiments on lizardite chrysotile serpentinites produced mineralogical and micro nanostructural changes with important implications in rheological properties high resolution tem showed that specimens underwent ductile by microkinking and 001 interlayer glide and brittle deformation by microfracturing together with dehydration and break down reactions lizardite is affected by polytypic disorder and microkinking kink axial planes at high angle with respect to 001 planes that were not present in the initial ordered 1t lizardite chrysotile fibres are deformed resulting in elliptical cross sections with strong loss of interlayer cohesion both lizardite and chrysotile break down to a fine intergrowth of olivine up to 200 nm talc up to 30 nm and poorly crystalline material lizardite out reaction preferentially occurs at kink axial planes representing sites of preferential strain and enhanced reactivity conversely chrysotile break down is a bulk process resulting in large healed olivine aggregates up to micrometric in size overall observations suggest that dehydration and break down reactions are more advanced in chrysotile than in lizardite

petrographic composition of polish lignite and its possible use in a fluidized bed gasification process abstract the main objectives of the study include the estimation of the proportion of lithotypes and macerals in lignite deposits and the determination of petrographic criteria for the assessment of quality and possible use of lignite in fluidized bed gasification process measures taken to meet the objectives included field research and laboratory studies the study included results from 293 samples of low rank coal from polish deposits the data used in the study included currently exploited abandoned and prospective lignite deposits lignite deposits were divided into seven regions a western b legnica c wielkopolska d konin e od belchatow f north and g radom polish lignite deposits include mainly humic coal with four basic lithotypes identified xylitic coal xylo detritic coal detro xylitic coal and detritic coal dominating lithotypes include detritic coal and xylo detritic coal fibrous xylites present only in minor amounts in polish lignite have a negative influence on coal gasification process grinding the highest content of fibrous xylites is observed in the konin region petrographic composition of coal was determined on the basis of maceral group and the sum of gelified macerals it has been found that the influence of macerals from the huminite group on fluidized bed gasification is significant the average content of this component in tested coal is 89 meanwhile average content of macerals from the liptinite group in polish coal is 8 while for macerals from the inertinite group it is 3 the content of mineral matter in lignite deposits is a highly variable parameter according to the proposed scheme in order to be suitable for fluidized bed gasification the maceral composition of the coal should contain at least 80 huminite while the sum of the macerals from the inertinite group and mineral matter should be less than 20 taking into account the whole region it should be noted that petrographic composition of lignite in almost all of the deposits allows its use in the process of fluidized bed gasification however limited usefulness in this process can be observed in some of the deposits containing bituminiferous lignite

flash weakening of serpentinite at near seismic slip rates 1 to investigate the processes responsible for dynamic frictional weakening in antigorite serpentinite we conducted single velocity and velocity stepping friction experiments at slip rates v from 0 01 to 0 4 m s 1 sliding displacements up to 40 mm and a normal stress of 5 mpa single velocity experiments demonstrate an approximately 1 v dependence of friction on velocity above a characteristic weakening velocity vw 0 1 m s 1 consistent with theoretical predictions for flash heating and subsequent weakening of asperities velocity stepping experiments impose stepwise increases in slip rate show stepwise weakening at slip rates above vw scanning electron microscopy of experimental fault surfaces reveals nanoparticle gouge textures at raised sites 10 m in diameter in tests that exhibit dramatic weakening furthermore x ray diffraction analyses of fault gouge from the sliding surface document the formation of significant talc in these tests indicating that weakening temperatures reached 500 c 700 c in contrast no talc is observed in samples for which v remained significantly below vw the observed value for vw is consistent with published microphysical models for flash weakening when independent constraints on the thermal stability and contact strength of antigorite are considered finally while serpentinite displays velocity strengthening behavior at plate tectonic slip rates our results indicate that seismic ruptures propagating into serpentinized regions in the shallow lithosphere may trigger seismicity or slow earthquakes after limited amounts of displacement

slip along the superstition hills fault associated with the 24 november 1987 superstition hills california earthquake surficial slip along the entire mapped length of the superstition hills fault in southern california occurred in association with the superstition hills earthquake m s 6 6 of 24 november 1987 we made repeated measurements of surface slip at 36 sites along the fault and occupied 64 sites at least once at our sites dextral slip was as high as 48 5 cm 1 day after the earthquake and 71 cm 2 months after the measurements show that slip during the period from hr to several hundred hr following the event is described by a simple power law of time extrapolation to t 1 min indicates that co seismic slippage ranged from 5 to 23 cm at 10 of our best recorded sites suggesting that finite co seismic slippage occurred along the length of the fault these extrapolations are supported by a measurement made at imler road 30 min after the shock measurements are complete through october 1988 at many sites the form of slip rate was decay changed from power law to a function of log time during the interval between 300 and 500 hr after the earthquake logarithmic slip rate decay in time was observed for a period of several yr after the parkfield borrego mountain and imperial valley earthquakes those measurements may have begun too late to resolve power law behavior at early times if current logarithmic behavior of the superstition hills fault persists right lateral slippage will approach 90 cm 10 yr after the rupture changes in the along fault displacement profile correlate well with geometric features including a fault bend and a major fault step moreover slip behavior appears to be correlated to the thickness of sedimentary cover along the fault also the northern half of the fault is bounded by a large block of continental crystalline basement the presence of this block may have contributed to the relatively uniform early slip behavior observed there

surface faulting along the superstition hills fault zone and nearby faults associated with the earthquakes of 24 november 1987 the m 6 2 elmore desert ranch earthquake of 24 november 1987 was associated spatially and probably temporally with left lateral surface rupture on many northeast trending faults in and near the superstition hills in western imperial valley three curving discontinuous principal zones of rupture among these breaks extended northeastward from near the superstition hills fault zone as far as 9 km the maximum observed surface slip 12 5 cm was on the northern of the three the elmore ranch fault at a point near the epicenter twelve hours after the elmore ranch earthquake the m 6 6 superstition hills earthquake occurred near the northwest end of the right lateral superstition hills fault zone surface rupture associated with the second event occurred along three strands of the zone here named north and south strands of the superstition hills fault and the wienert fault for 27 km southeastward from the epicenter in contrast to the left lateral faulting which remained unchanged throughout the period of investigation the right lateral movement on the superstition hills fault zone continued to increase with time a behavior that was similar to other recent historical surface ruptures on northwest trending faults in the imperial valley region we measured displacements over 339 days at as many as 296 sites along the superstition hills fault zone and repeated measurements at 49 sites provided sufficient data to fit with a simple power law data for each of the 49 sites were used to compute longitudinal displacement profiles for 1 day and to estimate the final displacement that measured slips will approach asymptotically several years after the earthquakes the maximum right lateral slip at 1 day was about 50 cm near the south central part of the north strand of superstition hills fault and the predicted maximum final displacement is probably about 112 cm at imler road near the center of the south strand of the superstition hills fault the overall distributions of right lateral displacement at 1 day and the estimated final slip are nearly symmetrical about the midpoint of the surface rupture the average estimated final right lateral slip for the superstition hills fault zone is about 54 cm the average left lateral slip for the conjugate faults trending northeastward is about 23 cm the southernmost ruptured member of the superstition hills fault zone newly named the wienert fault extends the known length of the zone by about 4 km the southern half of this fault south of new river expressed only vertical displacement on a sinuous trace the maximum vertical slip by the end of the observation period there was about 25 cm but its growth had not ceased photolineaments southeast of the end of new surface rupture suggest continuation of the superstition hills fault zone in farmland toward mexico

chemical evolution of miocene wood example from the belchatow brown coal deposit central poland abstract miocene conifer wood samples from the belchatow brown coal deposit in poland were studied in order to discuss a range of chemical variations that occur as a result of biochemical coalification petrographic analysis ultimate analysis electron microprobe technique and ftir spectroscopy were used in this study our data show several progressive trends in functional groups distribution that take place during the wood transformation from group 1 to group 4 such as an overall increase in aromaticity an increase in lignin cellulose ratio and an increase in oxygen functionalities other observations include an increase in aliphatic stretching and bending functionalities from groups 1 to 3 followed by a decrease in the wood of group 4 appearance of aliphatic out of plane bands in group 3 and increase in group 4 an increase in ch2 ch3 in group 4 compared to the other groups and decrease in o h groups in group 4 compared to other groups these observations together with other chemical and petrological observations indicate that the progressive elimination of cellulose and modification of lignin are dominant processes of the wood transformation

nondilatant brittle deformation of serpentinites implications for mohr coulomb theory and the strength of faults we conducted deformation experiments to investigate the strength deformation processes and nature of the brittle ductile transition of lizardite and antigorite serpentinites a transition from localized to distributed deformation occurs as confining pressure increases from 200 to 400 mpa at room temperature deformation in both brittle localized and ductile distributed regimes is accommodated by shear microcracks which form preferentially parallel to the 001 cleavage axial microcracks mode i are infrequently observed volumetric strain measurements demonstrate that brittle deformation is mostly nondilatant consistent with the shear dominated microcracking three observations indicate that deformation in the ductile regime is accommodated by cataclastic flow 1 a lack of evidence for crystal plastic deformation 2 a positive pressure dependence of the maximum differential stress and 3 abundant evidence for brittle microcracking the weakness of serpentinites relative to other brittle rocks is explained by a low fracture strength along the 001 cleavage combined with the low pressure dependence of strength the transition from brittle to ductile deformation occurs at the crossover between the strength of intact serpentinite and the friction law unique to each type of serpentinite rather than the more general byerlee s law if brittle deformation regimes are defined based on the mode of microcracking and on the occurrence of crystal plasticity serpentinites define an end member style of nondilatant brittle deformation this deformation style may result in extremely weak faults in nature and it may also strongly influence the tectonic evolution of the oceanic lithosphere where serpentinite is present

effect of pore fluid pressure on the frictional strength of antigorite serpentinite abstract triaxial deformation experiments on antigorite serpentinite show a systematic correlation between shear stress and effective normal stress over a wide range of pore pressures 50

fabric development in a fragment of tethyan oceanic lithosphere from the piemonte ophiolite nappe of the western alps valtournanche italy abstract south of the matterhorn the valtournanche cuts through alpine serpentinites metagabbros meta pillowbasalts and metasediments dismembered remnants of the jurassic tethyan oceanic crust reassembled in the piemonte ophiolite nappe this study deals with a serpentinized ultramafic to mafic layered complex stemming from a spreading ridge environment cumulus fabrics of various kinds can be read through antigorite pseudomorphs still allowing the detailed reconstruction of deep oceanic crust relics of igneous and metamorphic olivine prove crustal conditions during deformation fracturing of cumulus olivine was succeeded by plastic flow that activated low temperature slip systems concomitant recrystallization produced metaperidotite only along shear zones which are ascribed to subduction of the oceanic crust at the turning point from subduction to obduction a static metamorphic event resulted in recovery and grain growth of recrystallized olivine afterwards serpentinization of the complex took place still under static conditions deformation of the serpentinite led to a sequence of four phases involving non penetrative cleavage formation stretching and folding this deformation is structurally related to obduction of the complex although partly accompanied by subduction zone metamorphism final movements of the ophiolites were due to cataclastic thrusting forming subnappe boundaries

emplacement of serpentinites in the chohar gonbad gugher baft ophiolitic melange southeast iran examination of the mineral chemical petrologic and structural features the chohar gonbad gugher baft ophiolite melange located along the major baft and shahr e babak fault zones southeast iran represents remnants of neo tethyan oceanic lithosphere this melange contains blocks of harzburgite dunite lherzolite basalt and other ophiolite related lithologies tectonically mixed with and embedded in a serpentinite matrix field petrographic and geochemical data show that peridotites in this melange belong to the upper mantle they seem to have undergone up to 20 partial melting in a supra subduction zone setting based on their spinel cr values 0 21 0 53 chemical compositions and textures in the serpentinites indicate that they were partially hydrated during emplacement and further mobilized diapirically to the surface the different deformation stages occurred in an accretionary wedge environment petrographic evidence shows that the first serpentinization event produced mesh textured serpentinites formed under static conditions in an ocean floor environment nain baft ocean crust where the initial lizardite bastite and chrysotile veins formed plastic deformation occurred due to the subduction of nain baft oceanic lithospheric beneath the central iranian microcontinent with antigorite bearing flare textured serpentinites produced during progressive exhumation of the nain baft ophiolite melange the serpentinites were affected by ductile ductile brittle and brittle deformation respectively accretion and resultant diapirism are the most important processes in the emplacement of serpentinite which is a consequence of hydration of the ocean crust in this example late stage emplacement via thrusting occurred along the northern extent of the southern sanandaj sirjan zone s sz