a scaling law for slow earthquakes with the availability of the global positioning system and other technical advances a growing number of unusual earthquake phenomena occurring at relatively long periods have been recognized they include deep episodic tremor low frequency earthquakes slow slip events and silent earthquakes based on data chiefly from western japan ide et al report that these slow seismic events follow a unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes a diverse array of unusual earthquake phenomena occurring at relatively long periods slow events follow a unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes indicating that they comprise a new earthquake category recently a series of unusual earthquake phenomena have been discovered including deep episodic tremor1 low frequency earthquakes2 very low frequency earthquakes3 slow slip events4 and silent earthquakes5 6 7 8 9 each of these has been demonstrated to arise from shear slip just as do regular earthquakes but with longer characteristic durations and radiating much less seismic energy here we show that these slow events follow a simple unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes we find that their seismic moment is proportional to the characteristic duration and their moment rate function is constant with a spectral high frequency decay of f 1 this scaling and spectral behaviour demonstrates that they can be thought of as different manifestations of the same phenomena and that they comprise a new earthquake category the observed scale dependence of rupture velocity for these events can be explained by either a constant low stress drop model or a diffusional constant slip model this new scaling law unifies a diverse class of slow seismic events and may lead to a better understanding of the plate subduction process and large earthquake generation

paragenesis of sodic pyroxene bearing quartz schists implications for the p t history of the sanbagawa belt sodic pyroxene jadeite content x jd 0 1 0 3 occurs locally as small inclusions within albite porphyroblasts and in the matrix of hematite bearing quartz schists in the sanbagawa sambagawa metamorphic belt central shikoku japan the sodic pyroxene bearing samples are characteristically free from chlorite and their typical mineral assemblage is sodic pyroxene subcalcic or sodic amphibole phengitic mica albite quartz hematite titanite epidote spessartine rich garnet occurs in mn rich samples sodic pyroxene in epidote bearing samples tends to be poorer in acmite content average x acm 0 26 0 50 than that in the epidote free samples x acm 0 45 0 47 x jd shows no systematic relationship to metamorphic grade and is different among the three sampling regions saruta gawa asemi gawa and bessi besshi the average x jd of the saruta gawa samples 0 21 0 29 is higher than that of the asemi gawa 0 13 0 17 and bessi 0 14 0 23 the p t conditions of the asemi gawa and bessi regions are estimated at 5 5 6 5 kbar 360 c in the chlorite zone 7 8 5 kbar 440 15 c in the garnet zone and 8 9 5 kbar 520 25 c in the albite biotite zone metamorphic pressure of the saruta gawa region is systematically 1 1 5 kbar higher than that of the asemi gawa and bessi regions and materials of the saruta gawa region have been subducted to a level 3 5 km deeper than materials that underwent metamorphism at equivalent temperatures and are now exposed in the asemi gawa and bessi regions pressure slightly increases toward the north structurally high levels through the sanbagawa belt of central shikoku two types of zonal structure were observed in relatively coarse grained sodic pyroxenes in the matrix one type is characterized by increasing x jd from core to rim the other type by decreasing x jd from core to rim both types of zoned pyroxenes show an increase in x fe 2 fe2 fe2 mg from core to rim the first type of zoning was observed in a sample from the chlorite zone of lowest grade whereas the latter occurs in the garnet and albite biotite zones of higher grade the contrast in zonal structure implies that dp dt during prograde metamorphism decreased with increasing metamorphic grade and may have been negative in some samples from the higher grade zones the estimated dp dt of the prograde stage of the chlorite zone is 3 2 kbar 100 c and that of the garnet and albite biotite zones is 1 8 to 0 9 kbar 100 c the variation of dp dt at shallow and deep levels of a subduction system probably reflects the difference of heating duration and or change in thermal gradient of the subduction zone by continuous cooling of the surrounding mantle

pumpellyites and coexisting minerals in different low grade metamorphic facies of liguria italy pumpellyite from four phase assemblages pumpellyite epidote prehnite chlorite pumpellyite epidote actinolite chlorite pumpellyite epidote na amphibole chlorite together with common excess phases considered to be low variance in a cao mgo feo al2o3 fe2o3 na2o sio2 h2o system have been examined in areas which underwent metamorphism in the prehnite pumpellyite pumpellyite actinolite and low temperature blueschist facies respectively the analysed mineral assemblages are compared for nearly constant basaltic chemical composition at varying metamorphic grade and for varying chemical composition basic intermediate acidic at constant metamorphic conditions low temperature blueschist facies in the studied mineral assemblages coexisting phases approached near chemical equilibrium at constant basaltic bulk rock composition the mgo content of pumpellyite increases and the xfe3 of both pumpellyite and epidote decreases with increasing metamorphic grade the fe3 being preferentially concentrated in epidote both pumpellyite and epidote compositions vary with the bulk rock composition at isofacial conditions pumpellyite becomes progressively enriched in fe and depleted in mg from basic to intermediate and acidic bulk rock compositions the compositional comparison of pumpellyites from high variance 1 3 phases assemblages in various bulk rock compositions basic intermediate acidic rocks greywackes gabbros shows that the compositional fields of both pumpellyite and epidote are wide and variable broadly overlapping the compositional effects observed at varying metamorphic grade in low variance assemblages the intrinsic stability of both fe and al rich pumpellyites extends across the complete range of the considered metamorphic conditions element partitioning between coexisting phases is the main control on the mineral composition at different p t conditions

dynamic modeling of slow slip coupled with tremor 1 we theoretically study the generation mechanism of slow slip in a dynamical framework assuming a fault in a fluid saturated thermoporoelastic medium the fluid flow is taken into consideration dynamic slip is assumed to create pores and cause shear heating on the fault key parameters in the modeling are su and su the nondimensional parameter su represents the relative dominance of the effect of pore creation on the fluid pressure change over that of shear heating while su is associated with the dominance of fluid flow effect over the effect of shear heating our calculation shows that we have to assume su 1 and relatively small values for su to simulate rupture speed that is negligibly small compared to the shear wave velocity although this was also found in our former paper our new finding here is the simulation of slow slip coupled with tremor we find that frozen slip is reactivated sporadically because the fluid inflow triggered by the pore creation elevates the fluid pressure on the fault the slip reactivation actually occurs if su is smaller than a threshold such sporadic reactivation of slips can be a model for slow slip coupled with tremor we also show that the moment evolution curves are categorized into two separate groups when su 0 1 one of them represents slow slips while the other represents ordinary earthquakes

tremor genic slow slip regions may be deeper and warmer and may slip slower than non tremor genic regions slow slip events sses are observed worldwide and often coincide with tectonic tremor notable examples of sses lacking observed tectonic tremor however occur beneath k lauea volcano hawaii the boso peninsula japan near san juan bautista on the san andreas fault california and recently in central ecuador these sses are similar to other worldwide sses in many ways e g size or duration but lack the concurrent tectonic tremor observed elsewhere instead they trigger swarms of regular earthquakes we investigate the physical conditions that may distinguish these non tremor genic sses from those associated with tectonic tremor including slip velocity pressure temperature fluids and fault asperities although we cannot eliminate the possibility that tectonic tremor may be obscured in highly attenuating regions slip velocities of sses at k lauea volcano 10 6 m s and boso peninsula 10 7 m s are among the fastest sses worldwide k lauea volcano the boso peninsula and central ecuador are also among the shallowest sses worldwide and thus have lower confining pressures and cooler temperatures in their respective slow slip zones fluids also likely contribute to tremor generation and no corresponding zone of high vp vs has been noted at k lauea or boso we suggest that the relatively faster slip velocities at k lauea volcano and the boso peninsula result from specific physical conditions that may also be responsible for triggering swarms of regular earthquakes adjacent to the slow slip while different conditions produce slower sse velocities elsewhere and trigger tectonic tremor

shallow subduction tectonics in the raukumara peninsula new zealand as illuminated by earthquake focal mechanisms the raukumara peninsula affords an excellent opportunity to study the subduction process as subduction of the buoyant hikurangi plateau on the pacific plate has resulted in exposure of the forearc above the shallow part of the subduction thrust here we report on the focal mechanisms of 117 earthquakes of m l 2 4 4 9 and shallower than 80 km recorded during a 5 month deployment of 36 portable seismographs on the peninsula mechanisms have been constrained using both first motion polarity data and amplitudes of seismogram envelopes downdip tensional strain predominates in the subducted plate with taxes of events in both the upper and lower planes of the dipping seismic zone generally paralleling the local dip of the zone trenchward extensional strain is seen in the uppermost part of the overlying australian plate in line with geodetic and geological results this can be related to extension and gravity sliding of surficial rocks due to uplift of the raukumara range resulting from underplating of subducted sediment there is a marked change in earthquake mechanisms along strike in the lower part of the overlying plate and at the plate interface a concentration of low angle thrust events at the plate interface in the northeastern half of the peninsula suggests that the plate interface is less coupled there than to the southwest this along strike change in plate coupling corresponds closely to a change in the crustal structure of the overlying plate and also to a change in tectonic rotation domain determined paleomagnetically

episodic slow slip events accompanied by non volcanic tremors in southwest japan subduction zone 1 episodic slow slip events have been recognized by means of tilt changes in the western shikoku area southwest japan the crustal tilt deformation was observed repeatedly with a recurrence interval of approximately six months coincident with the occurrences of major non volcanic deep tremor activities in this area observed tilt changes can be explained by slow slip events occurring around the source area of tremors in each episode the source of the slow slip event and tremor migrate simultaneously the spatial and temporal coincidence of tremors and slow slip events indicates that they both may be coupling phenomena reflecting the stress accumulation process at the subducting plate

nonvolcanic tremor observed in the mexican subduction zone nonvolcanic tremor nvt activity is revealed as episodes of higher spectral amplitude at 1 8 hz in daily spectrograms from the continuous seismological records in guerrero mexico the analyzed data cover a period of 2001 2007 when in 2001 2002 a large slow slip event sse had occurred in the guerrero oaxaca region and then a new large sse occurred in 2006 the tremor burst is dominated by s waves more than 100 strong nvt bursts were recorded in the narrow band of 40 150 km 2 to the south of iguala city and parallel to the coastline depths of nvt hypocenters are mostly scattered in the continental crust between 5 and 40 km depth tremor activity is higher during the 2001 2002 and 2006 sse compared with that for the quiet period of 2003 2005 while resistivity pattern in guerrero does not correlate directly with the nvt distribution gravity and magnetic anomaly modeling favors a hypothesis that the nvt is apparently related to the dehydration and serpentinization processes

megathrust earthquake swarms indicate frictional changes which delimit large earthquake ruptures abstract using a recently constructed catalog of megathrust earthquake swarms we present results that illustrate how fault slip for m w 8 5 earthquakes with a publicly available finite fault rupture model is delimited along strike by swarm regions we further investigate this relationship for all m w 7 5 subduction zone megathrust earthquakes that have occurred over the last 40 years by estimating the rupture area from early aftershocks this extended comparison shows only 2 out of 42 earthquakes propagate through regions of the megathrust that have documented recurring earthquake swarm activity while about 40 17 out of 42 are terminate on at least one side near regions with swarm activity in japan chile sumatra and alaska earthquake swarms correlate with regions of the plate interface that exhibit low interseismic strain accumulation this suggests earthquake swarms are associated with reduced plate coupling and possibly aseismic moment release however earthquakes in chile and alaska ruptured through regions of weak coupling that do not show swarm activity we propose instead that stress heterogeneity on the megathrust can best explain why large earthquake ruptures terminate in swarm regions but not in regions with weak coupling alone earthquake swarms appear to be a proxy for along strike segmentation of subduction megathrusts at least on the time scale of one seismic cycle

metamorphic evolution of the susunai metabasites in southern sakhalin russian republic the susunai complex of southeast sakhalin represents a subduction related accretionary complex of pelitic and basic rocks two stages of metamorphism are recognized 1 a local low p t event characterized by si poor calcic amphiboles 2 a regional high p t event characterized by pumpellyite actinolite epidote sodic amphibole sodic pyroxene stilpnomelane and aragonite the major mineral assemblages of the high p t susunai metabasites contain pumpellyite epidote actinolite chlorite epidote actinolite chlorite epidote na amphibole na pyroxene chlorite haematite the na amphibole is commonly magnesioriebeckite the na pyroxene is jadeite poor aegirine to aegirine augite application of empirically and experimentally based thermobarometers suggests peak conditions of t 250 300c p 4 7 6 kbar textural relationships in susunai metabasite samples and a petrogenetic grid calculated for the fe3 rich basaltic system suggest that pressure and temperature increased during prograde metamorphism

a large silent earthquake in the guerrero seismic gap mexico 1 geodetic measurements from a network of permanent gps stations along the pacific coast of mexico reveal a large silent earthquake along the segment of the cocos north american plate interface identified as the guerrero seismic gap the event began in october of 2001 and lasted for 6 7 months average slip of 10 cm produced measurable displacements over an area of 550 250 km2 the equivalent moment magnitude of the event was mw 7 5 recognition of this and previous slow event here indicate that the seismogenic portion of the plate interface is not loading steadily as hitherto believed but is rather partitioning the stress buildup with episodic as opposed to steady state or periodic slip downdip of the seismogenic zone this process increases the stress at the base of the seismogenic zone bringing it closer to failure these results call for a reassessment of the seismic potential of guerrero and other seismic gaps in mexico

very low frequency earthquakes within accretionary prisms are very low stress drop earthquakes 1 we report characteristic p wave spectra and stress drops of very low frequency vlf earthquakes that occurred within the accretionary prism along the nankai trough southwestern japan although many vlf earthquakes showed no distinct phases on a raw seismogram a few showed slightly distinct phases the arrival times of some phases were consistent with the calculated p wave arrival times the corner frequencies of the vlf earthquakes were calculated using the stacked p wave spectra assuming an omega square spectrum stress drops were very low i e in the range of 0 1 10 kpa which corresponds to 0 1 1 of those of ordinary earthquakes such extremely low stress drops of the vlf earthquakes suggest that the fault strength within the accretionary prism may have weakened due to the existence of a fluid within the thrust fault system of the accretionary prism

interplate coupling in the kanto district central japan and the boso peninsula silent earthquake in may 1996 i studied crustal deformation in the kanto district central japan based on continuous gps data horizontal as well as vertical displacement rate demonstrate significant interaction between the landward kanto block and the philippine sea plate although the subduction effect of the pacific plate is not apparent it is reasonable to consider the entire kanto district is displaced westward due to the interaction with the pacific plate the gps velocity data were inverted to estimate the slip deficit distribution on the sagami trough subduction zone the result delineates a strongly coupled region on the plate interface part of which corresponds to the 1923 kanto earthquake the strongly coupled region is located shallower than 20 km in addition the plate interaction is laterally heterogeneous even in the same depth range implying thermal structure is not the only factor controlling interplate coupling the gps data also detected a silent earthquake event on the interface of the philippine sea slab east of the boso peninsula in the middle of may 1996 the silent rupture propagated over a 50 km 50 km wide area during about a week the maximum slip was approximately 50 mm and the released seismic moment was 4 7 1018nm mw 6 4 there was a small seismicity triggered by this silent event the silent slip was located in the peripheral of the strongly coupled area suggesting that frictional properties and or stress conditions are inhomogeneous on the plate boundary interface

blueschist facies metamorphism shear heating and p t t paths in subduction shear zones the low temperatures recorded by blueschist facies metamorphic rocks place upper bounds on the magnitude of shear stresses in subduction zones at depths of 15 50 km in this paper steady state and transient pressure temperature time p t t paths followed by subducted material are calculated using analytical expressions presented by molnar and england 1990 supplemented by two dimensional numerical calculations in the absence of shear heating calculated steady state p t t paths are very cold intersecting 1 gpa 10 kbar at t 200 c for a wide range of subduction parameters for the case of constant shear stress in the subduction shear zone and typical thermal parameters steady state p t t paths intersect the blueschist facies for 10 60 mpa and 0 100 mpa for convergence rates of 10 and 3 cm yr 1 respectively blueschist facies metamorphism will not occur in rapid subduction zones if shear stresses exceed 60 mpa for the case of shear stress increasing linearly with depth steady state p t t paths intersect the blueschist facies when 1 9 p and 0 14 p for convergence rates of 10 and 3 cm yr 1 respectively subduction zone shear stresses may be considerably lower and possibly zero if blueschist terrains represent material metamorphosed during the early stages of subduction first 5 10 m y while the thermal structure is still evolving or if maximum temperatures in blueschist terrains are achieved during exhumation subduction zone shear stresses of several tens of mpa at 35 km depth or a few percent of lithostatic pressure are consistent with a steady state model of franciscan metamorphism a progressive underplating model for the formation of the pelona schist inverted metamorphic gradient and surface heat flow measurements in the ne japan subduction zone

water transportation from the subducting slab into the mantle transition zone using a recently developed petrogenetic grid for morb h2o we propose a new model for the transportation of water from the subducting slab into the mantle transition zone depending on the geothermal gradient two contrasting water transportation mechanisms operate at depth in a subduction zone if the geothermal gradient is low lawsonite carries h2o into mantle depths of 300 km with further subduction down to the mantle transition depth approximately 400 km lawsonite is no longer stable and thereafter h2o is once migrated upward to the mantle wedge then again carried down to the transition zone due to the induced convection at this depth hydrous phase olivine is stable and plays a role as a huge water reservoir in contrast if the geothermal gradient is high the subducted slab may melt at 700 900 c at depths shallower than 80 km to form felsic melt into which water is dissolved in this case h2o cannot be transported into the mantle below 80 km between these two endmember mechanisms two intermediate types are present in the high pressure intermediate type the hydrous phase a plays an important role to carry water into the mantle transition zone water liberated by the lawsonite consuming continuous reaction moves upward to form hydrous phase a in the hanging wall which transports water into deeper mantle this is due to a unique character of the reaction because phase a can become stable through the hydration reaction of olivine in the case of low pressure intermediate type the presence of a dry mantle wedge below 100 km acts as a barrier to prevent h2o from entering into deeper mantle 2006 published by elsevier b v on behalf of international association for gondwana research

palaeomagnetism geochronology and geochemistry of the palaeoproterozoic rabbit creek and powder river dyke swarms implications for wyoming in supercraton superia it is likely that archaean cratons of laurentia had different palaeogeographic histories prior to their amalgamation new palaeomagnetic geochronological and geochemical evidence supports a reconstruction of the wyoming craton adjacent to the southern margin of the superior craton at 2 16 ga before rifting c 2 1 2 0 ga and eventual reamalgamation after the hudsonian orogeny c 1 8 ga u pb ages tims on baddeleyite from five dykes yield two groups of ages at c 2164 and 2155 ma the younger group of ages defines the rabbit creek swarm at 2161 2152 ma and precisely dates its palaeomagnetic pole two large and differentiated dykes 100 m in the bighorn and wind river uplifts are geographically related to the rabbit creek swarm but have slightly different orientations and yield slightly older ages at 2171 2157 ma these dykes may be parts of a single intrusion the great dyke of wyoming that spans over 200 km between uplifts possibly representing a different magmatic event this older event does not have enough distinct intrusions to provide a correctly averaged palaeomagnetic pole but correlates with magmatism in the superior craton and has a palaeomagnetic remanence comparable to the rabbit creek dykes with minor tilt corrections the palaeomagnetic data from the rabbit creek swarm and powder river south pass dykes support a reconstruction of the southeastern wyoming craton against the southern superior craton this fit juxtaposes the palaeoproterozoic huronian and snowy pass supergroups along two passive margins that experienced a prolonged period of mafic magmatism 100 myr and rift basin development although there are slight geochemical variations across the rabbit creek swarm all dykes fit into two distinct groups that are independently dated and internally consistent

detecting aseismic strain transients from seismicity data 1 aseismic deformation transients such as fluid flow magma migration and slow slip can trigger changes in seismicity rate we present a method that can detect these seismicity rate variations and utilize these anomalies to constrain the underlying variations in stressing rate because ordinary aftershock sequences often obscure changes in the background seismicity caused by aseismic processes we combine the stochastic epidemic type aftershock sequence model that describes aftershock sequences well and the physically based rate and state dependent friction seismicity model into a single seismicity rate model that models both aftershock activity and changes in background seismicity rate we implement this model into a data assimilation algorithm that inverts seismicity catalogs to estimate space time variations in stressing rate we evaluate the method using a synthetic catalog and then apply it to a catalog of m 1 5 events that occurred in the salton trough from 1990 to 2009 we validate our stressing rate estimates by comparing them to estimates from a geodetically derived slip model for a large creep event on the obsidian buttes fault the results demonstrate that our approach can identify large aseismic deformation transients in a multidecade long earthquake catalog and roughly constrain the absolute magnitude of the stressing rate transients our method can therefore provide a way to detect aseismic transients in regions where geodetic resolution in space or time is poor

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

spatial and temporal evolution of stress and slip rate during the 2000 tokai slow earthquake 1 we investigate an ongoing silent thrust event in the tokai seismic gap along the suruga nankai trough central japan prior to the event continuous gps data from april 1996 to the end of 1999 show that this region displaced 2 cm yr to the northwest relative to the landward plate the gps time series show an abrupt change in rate in mid june 2000 that continues as of mid 2005 we model this transient deformation which we refer to as the tokai slow thrust slip event as caused by slip on the interface between the philippine sea and amurian plates the spatial and temporal distribution of slip rate is estimated with kalman filter based inversion methods our inversions reveal two slow subevents the first initiated in late june 2000 slightly before the miyake jima eruption the locus of slip then propagated southeast in the second half of 2000 with maximum slip rates of about 15 cm yr through 2001 a second locus of slip initiated to the northeast in early 2001 the depth of the slip zone is about 25 km which may correspond to the transition zone from a seismogenic to a freely sliding zone the cumulative moment magnitude of the slow slip event up to november 2002 is mw 6 8 we calculate shear stress changes on the plate interface from the slip histories stress change as a function of slip rate shows trajectories similar to that inferred for high speed ruptures however the maximum velocity is 8 orders of magnitude less than in normal earthquakes

non volcanic tremor associated with the march 2010 gisborne slow slip event at the hikurangi subduction margin new zealand 1 non volcanic tremor accompanies slow slip events at most circum pacific subduction zones previously the hikurangi subduction margin new zealand and the boso peninsula of japan have been noted as exceptions where slow slip which occurs at shallow depth compared to other subduction zones does not generate seismic tremor the lack of tremor observations raises questions whether tremor and slow slip are manifestations of the same process and whether different temperature and pressure conditions influence the physical mechanism of tremor production analysis of seismic data during the march 2010 gisborne slow slip event new zealand reveals that this slow slip event at the northern hikurangi margin is accompanied by tremor with distinctive characteristics compared to local microearthquakes both the gisborne area of new zealand and the boso peninsula of japan are underlain by thick accumulations of sedimentary rocks that likely inhibit the observation of low amplitude tremor due to high attenuation discovery of tremor in new zealand suggests that tremor may always accompany slow slip and that its apparent absence at the boso peninsula the hikurangi margin prior to this study and any future regions discovered to experience slow slip without concurrent tremor may be the effect of highly attenuating sediments

kinking of the subducting slab by escalator normal faulting beneath the north island of new zealand seismic reflection imaging shows a marked shallow kink at 12 km depth in the pacific plate beneath the central north island new zealand that coincides with 1 a decrease in the amplitude of the plate boundary reflection 2 the locus of prominent landward dipping splay thrust faults in the overlying plate and 3 the onset of seismogenesis on the subduction interface and within the subducted plate we propose that the sharp change in the dip of the plate interface is indicative of the downdip transition from stable to unstable slip regimes earthquake focal mechanisms suggest the kinking is accomplished through simple shear on reactivated normal faults in the crust of the subducted plate akin to the down stepping motion of an escalator the geological record of uplift in the overlying plate indicates the escalator has been operating for the last 7 m y

the stability of ca na pyroxene in low grade metabasites of high pressure intermediate facies series minor metamorphic ca na pyroxene occurs as minute crystals and as thin rims around primary augites in metabasites intermediate between the prehnite pumpellyite pp and pumpellyite actinolite pa facies in the sanbagawa belt shikoku japan their compositions vary systematically with mineral paragenesis from augite to acmite with a constant jadeite component of about 20 molvo the ca na pyroxenes in the pumpellyite bearing assemblages contain a very low acmite component acaaugssjd2s which increases through ac25aug55jd2s in the alkali amphibole bearing and ac66augzsjdrs in the hematite bearing assemblages finally attaining an aegirine composition ac65aug1sjd25 in the magnetite bearing assemblages they are distinguished from relict igneous augites chemically by very low opx and tio2 contents and morphologically by fibrous crystal habit the pyroxene bearing metabasites contain assemblages of chlorite pyroxene pumpellyite epidote actinolite alkali amphibole stilpnomelane hematite and magnetite which are incompatible with the higher grade and widely developed pumpellyiteactinolite facies assemblage epidote chlorite xr 0 50 actinolite pumpellyite the reaction augite chlorite pumpellyite actinolite h2o has been suggested for such a transition the stability relations of augite chlorite pumpellyite were analyzed from comparative mineral parageneses in low grade metabasites from new caledonia new zealand and the appalachians the assemblage may have a wedge shaped p t space bounded against the high tpumpellyite actinolite facies by the above reaction and against the low t prehnite pumpellyite facies by the reaction prehnite actinolite augite chlorite with probable negative slope from the mineral parageneses in the metabasites of the sanbagawa belt and elsewhere it is concluded that the ca na pyroxenes occur within a restricted p t space between the prehnite pumpellyite and pumpellyite actinolite facies

low pressure and low temperature k bearing kosmochloric diopside from the osayama serpentinite melange sw japan kosmochloric diopside with high k content up to 0 56 wt 0 026 k atom per formula unit was discovered from the osayama serpentinite melange in the chugoku mountains sw japan k bearing clinopyroxene fills microcracks 5 150 m in wide together with uvarovite within albite vein of a tremolite rock compositions of analyzed clinopyroxene consist mainly ofkosmochlor augite 92 98 mol ko 1 9 3 8 aug 5 6 7 6 components and minor amounts of jadeite 0 6 mol aegirine 0 5 mol ca tschermak 0 3 mol and k kosmochlor 0 2 mol although the k content in clinopyroxene is also variable and heterogeneous even in a single vein clinopyroxene with higher k content occurs in ko rich part higher magnification secondary electron images confirmed that exsolution and inclusion are essentially absent in the analyzed clinopyroxenes the good negative correlation between cr na k and ca mg fe 2 indicates the cr incorporation into the octahedral site furthermore k correlates with na and cr indicating a simultaneous enrichment of k for na and cr during pyroxene growth textual relations and parageneses and compositions of minerals suggest that the k cpx precipitated together with uvarovite in brittle microcracks directly from a ca and cr rich hydrothermal fluid at approximately p 4 gpa environment permits to host relatively large k cation into the clinopyroxene structure our finding indicates that the incorporation of k into the kosmochlor diopside series solid solution with at least 0 2 cr cation p f u is possible even at low p conditions

triggered creep as a possible mechanism for delayed dynamic triggering of tremor and earthquakes the passage of radiating seismic waves generates transient stresses in the earth s crust that can trigger slip on faults far away from the original earthquake source the triggered fault slip is detectable in the form of earthquakes 1 3 and seismic tremor 4 7 however the significance of these triggered events remains controversial 8 9 in part because they often occur with some delay long after the triggering stress has passed here we scrutinize the location and timing of tremor on the san andreas fault between 2001 and 2010 in relation to distant earthquakes we observe tremor on the san andreas fault that is initiated by passing seismic waves yet migrates along the fault at a much slower velocity than the radiating seismic waves we suggest that the migrating tremor records triggered slow slip of the san andreas fault as a propagating creep event we find that the triggered tremor and fault creep can be initiated by distant earthquakes as small as magnitude 5 4 and can persist for several days after the seismic waves have passed our observations of prolonged tremor activity provide a clear example of the delayed dynamic triggering of seismic events fault creep has been shown to trigger earthquakes 10 12 and we therefore suggest that the dynamic

a three dimensional image of shallow subduction crustal structure of the raukumara peninsula new zealand summary earthquake arrival time data from a 36 station deployment of portable seismographs on the raukumara peninsula have been used to determine the 3 d vp and vp vs structure of this region of shallow subduction a series of inversions have been performed starting with an inversion for 1 d structure then 2 d and finally 3 d this procedure ensures a smooth regional model in places of low resolution the subducted plate is imaged as a northwest dipping feature with vp consistently greater than 8 5 km s 1 in the uppermost mantle of the plate structure in the overlying plate changes significantly along strike in the northeast there is an extensive low velocity zone in the lower crust underlying the most rapidly rising part of the raukumara range it is bounded on its arcward side by an upwarp of high velocity a viable explanation for the low velocity zone is that it represents an accumulation of underplated subducted sediment while serpentinization of the uppermost mantle may be responsible for the adjacent high velocity region the low velocity zone decreases and the adjacent high velocity region is less extensive in the southwest this change is interpreted to be related to a change in the thickness of the crust of the overlying plate in the northeast the crust is thinner and subducted sediment ponds against relatively strong uppermost mantle while in the southwest the crust is thicker and the relatively weak lower crust allows sediment subduction to greater depths a narrow zone of high vp vs parallels the shallow part of the plate interface this suggests elevated fluid pressures with the distribution of earthquakes about this zone further suggesting that these pressures may be close to lithostatic the plate interface at 20 km depth beneath the raukumara peninsula may thus be a closed system for fluid flow similar to that

short term slow slip and correlated tremor episodes in the tokai region central japan 1 we observe the related phenomenon of short term slow slip event sse and low frequency nonvolcanic tremor on the deeper extension of the 1944 tonankai and the anticipated tokai earthquake rupture areas central japan japan nation wide seismometer and tiltmeter array nied hi net has recorded these correlated episodes of sse and tremor known as episodic tremor and slip ets in 2004 and 2005 the events are located on two areas in the tokai region one is near the shima peninsula and the other is around the aichi area both episodes have a typical duration of 2 3 days and released seismic moment corresponding to mw 6 0 moreover these episodes repeatedly occur with a recurrence interval of about six months in both areas this evidence suggests that the coincidence between the sse and the tremor is a characteristic behavior in the whole tremor belt like zone in the nankai trough subduction zone

possible relationship between nonvolcanic tremor and the 1998 2001 slow slip event south central alaska 1 we document the occurrence of nonvolcanic tremor nvt in south central alaska for 3 months of each year between 1999 and 2001 to provide a first order attempt to understand the relationship between nvt and a large slow slip event that occurred over a 2 to 3 year period between 1998 and 2001 the majority of the nvt signals observed after the onset of the slow slip event are bursts lasting between 10 and 15 min with frequencies ranging from 1 to 6 hz by the summer of 2001 the quantity of nvt has decreased dramatically from the previous summers and episodes rarely last up to 10 min the decrease in nvt activity in the summer of 2001 is coincident with the end of the slow slip event there is a clear spatial correlation between the observed nvt and the slow slip event with most of the nvt events located on the downdip edge of the region of highest slip depth estimates range widely over the region with approximately half concentrated near the interpreted north america yakutat pacific plate interface and the remainder located above the plate interface however owing to inadequate station coverage and poor knowledge of the local structure determining accurate depths is difficult and thus the relationship between the nvt and the plate interface is problematic this is the first study giving evidence that the relationship between slow slip events and nvt seen in cascadia and southwest japan may also exist in alaska

imaging of the early acceleration phase of the 2013 2014 boso slow slip event we analyze gps and seismic data to examine the spatiotemporal evolution of a slow slip event sse near boso peninsula central japan from december 2013 to january 2014 the evolution of this sse and its associated seismicity is divided into two distinct phases slip initially accelerated slowly with low slip rates low propagation speeds and no accompanying seismicity during the early phase and then accelerated more rapidly with higher slip rates a higher propagation speed and local earthquake swarm activity during the later phase the seismicity was highly correlated in space and time with slip rate suggesting that the swarm activity was triggered by stress loading due to the slow slip the transition from the slow to faster phase shares some similarities with the nucleation of megathrust earthquakes inferred from foreshock activities suggesting that sses may provide insights into the nucleation of large earthquakes

slow slip on the northern hikurangi subduction interface new zealand 1 in october 2002 a surface displacement episode of 20 30 mm magnitude was observed over a 10 day period on two continuous global positioning system gps instruments near gisborne north island new zealand we interpret this to result from slow slip on the northern hikurangi subduction interface using ten years of regional campaign gps 1995 2004 and recent continuous gps data we estimate the recurrence interval for similar events to be 2 3 yrs in november 2004 a similar slow slip event occurred within this recurrence period the 2002 event can be modeled by 18 cm of slow slip near the down dip end of the seismogenic zone on the subduction interface offshore of gisborne the campaign gps data show that the 2002 slow slip event had little effect on regional strain patterns

tectonic tremor along the northern hikurangi margin new zealand between 2010 and 2015 we present the first comprehensive tectonic tremor catalog for the northern hikurangi margin obtained from the systematic analysis of data from the new zealand seismic network between 2010 and 2015 the recent densification of this array along the northern hikurangi margin has allowed for the detection and location of tectonic tremor associated with 20 out of 26 identified transients in the continuous gps record along the east coast of the raukumara peninsula eighteen of these transients have never been reported in the literature and are likely to be slow slip events with magnitudes smaller than those previously studied we also investigate the spatiotemporal relationships between shallow offshore slow slip tectonic tremor and earthquakes for the duration of the study period

hunt for slow slip events along the sumatran subduction zone in a decade of continuous gps data 10 pages 4 figures supporting information http dx doi org 10 1002 2015jb012503 this work is earth observatory of singapore paper number 104

dynamic triggering of small local earthquakes in the central himalaya we present the first observation of remote dynamic triggering of local micro earthquakes in central himalaya caused by the teleseismic waves from the 2007 m8 5 sumatra earthquake that occurs 4 500 km away we find small local earthquakes in the kumaon garhwal himalaya triggered by teleseismic long period surface waves interestingly an elevated level of seismicity persists for a week or so after the arrival of the teleseismic waves the teleseismic waves impart 9 kpa of peak dynamic stresses suggesting that the himalayan faults in this area are sensitive to small stress changes this heightened and protracted seismicity indicates that the transient dynamic stresses may have triggered a secondary process such as slow slip that may be responsible for the persistence of this earthquake sequence the region is thought to be close to a large damaging earthquake in the near future rajendran rajendran 2005 this study provides improved constraints on the factors controlling the earthquake cycle

integration of transient strain events with models of plate coupling and areas of great earthquakes in southwest japan we model the crustal deformation caused by two long term subduction slip transients in southwest japan which we refer to as the 2000 2004 tokai and the 2002 2004 bungo channel slow slip events sses we use re analysed geonet position time series and a kalman filter based network inversion method to image the spatiotemporal slip variation of the two events on the plate interface during the period of 1998 2004 67 and 2000 2005 both events are found to have complex slip histories with multiple subevents in addition to a newly identified slip subevent in 2002 2003 we find that the major event in the bungo channel sse initiated in early 2003 beneath the northeastern corner of the region and expanded southwestward in contrast to the slip characteristics suggested by other studies the re analysed gps data in the tokai region shows a renewed slip activity for the tokai sse in early 2003 2004 at a similar location as in the period of 2001 2002 the equivalent m w for both the tokai and bungo channel sses are about 7 0 our results show that the tokai sse appears to start before the miyaki kozu seismovolcanic event integrating plate coupling and sses shows that the transient slip zones are located in a region between the locked zones and the epicentres of the low frequency earthquakes lfes at least part of the interseismic slip deficit is released by episodic sses beneath the bungo channel region we find excellent temporal correspondence between transient slip and adjacent lfes for both sse suggesting that they are closely related and possibly reflect that long term slow slip may modulate the occurrence of lfes

earthquakes triggered by slow slip at the plate interface in the hikurangi subduction zone new zealand 1 an earthquake swarm in the crust of the subducted plate in the southern hikurangi subduction zone in aprilmay 2004 was most likely triggered by slow slip at the plate interface directly downdip during the previous year double difference relocation indicates that the swarm represents incremental slip on adjacent patches of the same fault a subsequent ml 5 5 earthquake in january 2005 occurred on a separate deeper fault sub parallel to that of the 2004 swarm but separated from it by about 1 km this suggests a rapid decrease in mechanical damage in the slab with depth below the plate interface the normal faulting observed in both earthquake sequences represents unbending of the subducted plate such unbending may be diagnostic of deformation on the deeper edge of a strongly coupled region of the plate interface resulting from adjacent slow slip citation reyners m and s bannister 2007 earthquakes triggered by slow slip at the plate interface in the hikurangi subduction zone new zealand geophys res lett 34 l14305 doi 10 1029 2007gl030511

the 2006 aseismic slow slip event in guerrero mexico new results from gps 1 crustal deformation measurements from guerrero mexico were made with continuous gps instrumentation this network spans 75 km along the coast and a 275 km transect from the coast to mexico city which is perpendicular to the middle america trench a large aseismic slip transient occurred from april to december 2006 yielding horizontal displacements of nearly 6 cm in the direction opposite to that recorded interseismically this transient slip episode closely follows a series of m5 deep intraplate events that occurred in the northwestern portion of the guerrero region both horizontal and vertical displacements are inverted for the guerrero gps network to determine slip along the subduction interface using a simple fault model that accommodates changes in the subduction zone geometry it is found that slip is concentrated on interior fault patches and propagated to the southeast this slip event has a minimum equivalent mw of 7 5

a mixed seismic aseismic stress release episode in the andean subduction zone in subduction zones stress is released by earthquakes and transient aseismic slip the latter falls into two categories slow slip and afterslip slow slip events emerge spontaneously during the interseismic phase and show a progressive acceleration of slip with a negligible contribution of synchronous tremors or microseismicity to the energy or moment release1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 in contrast afterslip occurs immediately after large and moderate earthquakes decelerates over time and releases between 20 and 400 of the moment released by the preceding earthquake13 14 15 16 17 18 here we use seismic and gps data to identify transient aseismic slip that does not fit into either of these categories we document a seismic aseismic slip sequence which occurred at shallow depths along a weakly coupled part of the andean subduction zone19 in northern peru and lasted seven months the sequence generated several moderate earthquakes that together account for about 25 of the total moment released during the full sequence equivalent to magnitude 6 7 transient slip immediately followed two of the earthquakes with slip slowing at a logarithmic rate considered separately the moment released by transient slip following the second earthquake was more than 1 000 of the moment released during the earthquake itself a value incompatible with classical models of afterslip synchronous seismic swarms and aseismic slip may therefore define a stress release process that is distinct from slow slip events and afterslip

diverse slow slip behavior at the hikurangi subduction margin new zealand 1 the installation of a continuous gps cgps network in new zealand since 2002 has enabled the discovery of 15 slow slip events at the hikurangi subduction margin our analysis and interpretation of the cgps data reveal a marked diversity in characteristics of slow slip events sses in the north island with durations varying from 6 days to 1 5 years equivalent moment release between mw 6 3 7 2 and recurrence intervals of repeating sses on the order of 2 years to more than 5 years the duration and magnitude characteristics of hikurangi sses appear to be related to the depth where they occur the deepest longest duration and largest sses occur at the southern hikurangi margin near the downdip limit of deep down to 40 km depth strong interseismic coupling the shallowest shortest duration smallest and most frequent sses occur at the northern and central hikurangi margin near the downdip limit of unusually shallow 10 15 km depth interseismic coupling the direction of slip on the interface in the hikurangi sses is consistent with slip partitioning at the hikurangi subduction margin we also show that moment accumulation rates on the interface for the time periods between sses are 40 higher than for the period of more than a decade averaging through the sses indicating that sses compose a major portion of the overall moment release budget of the hikurangi subduction interface

kilauea slow slip events identification source inversions and relation to seismicity 1 several slow slip events beneath the south flank ofkilauea volcano hawaii have been inferred from transient displacements in daily gps positions to search for smaller events that may be close to the noise level in the gps time series we compare displacement fields on kilauea s south flank with displacement patterns in previously identified slow slip events matching displacement patterns are found for several new candidate events although displacements are much smaller than previously identified events one of the candidates 29 may 2000 is coincident with a microearthquake swarm as are all of the previously identified slow slip events the microearthquakes follow the onset of slow slip implying that they are triggered by stress changes during slip the new slow slip event brings the total number of events on kilauea between 1997 and 2007 to eight the smallest having m w 5 3 and the largest having m w 6 0 while the recurrence time between the four largest events is 2 11 0 01 years the repeat time for all eight events is 0 9 0 6 years we invert for the fault geometry and distribution of slip during the slow slip events the optimal source depths of 5 km assuming uniform slip dislocations in an elastic half space are considerably shallower than the accompanying swarm earthquakes 6 5 8 5 km which would place the earthquakes in a zone of decreased coulomb stress inversions including the effects of topography and layered elastic structure in the forward models favor depths comparable to microearthquake depths such that the earthquakes are located in a region of increased coulomb stress we also invert for time dependent fault slip directly from the 30 s gps phase observations constraining the source to the optimal uniform slip geometry on the basis of these inversions the larger events last between 1 5 2 2 days the data are unable to resolve migration of slip along the fault the temporal pattern of accompanying microearthquakes is consistent with the fault slip history assuming a seismicity rate theory based on rate and state friction making the swarm earthquakes coshocks and aftershocks of the slow slip events

seismic velocity changes strain rate and non volcanic tremors during the 2009 2010 slow slip event in guerrero mexico summary we use ambient noise cross correlations to monitor small but reliable changes in seismic velocities and to analyse non volcanic tremor nvt intensities during the slow slip event sse that occurred in 2009 and 2010 in guerrero we test the sensitivity of the seismic velocity to strain variations in absence of strong motions the 2009 2010 sse presents a complex slip sequence with two subevents occurring in two different portions of the fault from a seismic array of 59 seismometers installed in small antennas we detect a velocity drop with maximum amplitude at the time of thefirst subevent we analyse the velocity change at different period bands and observe that the velocity perturbation associated with the sse maximizes for periods longer than 12 s then a linearized inversion of the velocity change measured at different period bands is applied in order to determine the depth of the portion of the crust affected by this perturbation no velocity change in the first 10km is detected below the velocity perturbation increases with depth affecting the middle and lower crust finally we compute the transient deformation produced by the sse in an elastic model using the slip evolution recovered from the inversion of continuous gps the comparison between the velocity changes and the deformation suggests that the velocity change is correlated with the strain rate rather than with the strain this result is similar to what was observed during the 2006 sse in the same region and suggests a non linear behaviour of the crust the velocity changes can be interpreted together with other observables such as nvts during the 2009 2010 sse we measure nvt activity using continuous seismic records filtered between 2 and 8 hz we observe a correlation between velocity changes for period band greater than 14 s and tremor activity whereas no correlation exists between velocity changes and seismic noise energy measured at long periods these observations suggest that both seismic velocity change and nvt can be used as indication of transient deformation at depth

gps constraints on 34 slow slip events within the cascadia subduction zone 1997 2005 1 refinements to gps analyses in which we factor geodetic time series to better estimate both reference frames and transient deformation resolve 34 slow slip events located throughout the cascadia subduction zone from 1997 through 2005 timing of transient onset is determined with wavelet transformation of geodetic time series thirty continuous stations are included in this study ranging from northern california to southwestern british columbia our improvements in analysis better resolve the largest creep events and also identify many smaller events at 48 5 n latitude a 14 month average recurrence interval has been observed over eight events since 1997 farther north along vancouver island a host of smaller events with a distinct 14 month periodicity also occurs in southern washington state some of the largest transient displacements are observed but lack any obvious periodicity in their recurrence along central oregon an 18 month recurrence is evident while in northern california an 11 month periodicity continues through 2005 we invert gps offsets of the 12 best recorded events for thrust slip along the plate interface using a cross validation scheme to derive optimal smoothing parameters these 12 events have equivalent moment magnitudes between 6 3 and 6 8 and have 2 3 cm of slip unlike other subduction zones no long duration events are observed and cumulative surface deformation is consistently less than 0 6 cm the many newly resolved smaller transient events in cascadia show that slow slip events occur frequently with gps best capturing only the largest events it is likely that slow slip events occur more frequently at levels not detectable with gps

a large slow slip event and the depth of the seismogenic zone in the south central alaska subduction zone abstract we modeled crustal deformation before during and after a slow slip event sse on the plate interface in southern alaska we divided the gps time series into three time periods before 1998 1998 to 2001 and 2001 2002 the first and last periods represent the steady deformation while the middle period represents the sse we found a stationary zone of 100 slip deficit in the shallow part of the seismogenic zone to depths of 25 30 km which we identify with the main asperity that ruptured in 1964 earthquake the sse occurs downdip of the asperity on a section that accumulated some slip deficit during the steady time periods during the sse 20 000 sq km of the plate interface slipped 10 cm for a cumulative moment magnitude of m w 7 2 the area of the sse did not have a significant slip in the 1964 earthquake compared to the slip of the main asperity we propose that between earthquakes this zone fails repeatedly in sses and remains at relatively low shear stress compared to the main asperity up dip of it

microseismicity but no tremor accompanying slow slip in the hikurangi subduction zone new zealand abstract geodetically detected episodes of slow slip appear in several subduction zones to be accompanied by bursts of low frequency coherent noise known as seismic tremor but whether a single physical process governs this association or even whether slow slip is invariably accompanied by tremor remains unresolved detailed analysis of broadband seismic data spanning a slow slip episode in the hikurangi subduction zone new zealand reveals that slow slip was accompanied by distinct reverse faulting microearthquakes rather than tremor the timing location and faulting style of these earthquakes are consistent with stress triggering down dip of the slow slip patch either on the subduction interface or just below it these results indicate that tremor is not ubiquitous during subduction zone slow slip and that slow slip in subduction zone environments is capable of triggering high frequency earthquakes near the base of the locked subduction thrust in this and other locations hawaii boso peninsula where slow slip is accompanied by triggered microseismicity the estimated upper extent of the slow slip is shallower less than 20 km than in those locations from which tremor has been reported this suggests that ambient temperature or pressure dependent factors govern the character of the seismic response to slow slip on subduction thrusts and other large faults with rheological or lithological conditions at shallow depths triggering high frequency microearthquakes and those at greater depths triggering seismic tremor

the boso slow slip events in 2007 and 2011 as a driving process for the accompanying earthquake swarm near the boso peninsula central japan slow slip events sses accompanied by earthquake swarms repeatedly occur every 4 to 7 years we apply a network inversion filter to tilt change and global navigation satellite systems displacement data simultaneously in order to obtain the spatiotemporal slip evolution of the boso peninsula sses in 2007 and 2011 slip initiates on the eastern offshore area in both of the events and propagates to the northwestward in 2007 whereas the 2011 slip propagates to the west these slip propagations correlate well both spatially and temporally with the migration of the accompanying seismicity this indicates that the boso slow slip is a major driving process for earthquake swarm activities and that monitoring of interplate slip has the potential to be used in assessing the possibility of an earthquake in near real time

archean ocean floor metamorphism in the north pole area pilbara craton western australia abstract archean greenstones ca 3 49 3 46 ga in the north pole dome pilbara craton western australia have undergone prograde metamorphism from prehnite pumpellyite facies to greenschist amphibolite facies observations of 3000 thin sections shows that a metamorphic aureole was restricted to within a few kilometers of the contact with the 3459 ma north pole monzogranite three types of alteration were observed carbonate silicic and chlorite types the distribution of the three types of alteration suggests that secondary chemical migration of elements occurred in the whole area but that some samples were unaffected by this alteration the southern north pole area is outside of the contact metamorphic aureole and is composed of five units from north unit i to south unit v dipping south about 30 70 metamorphism of the north pole greenstones corresponds to the low pressure type which is broadly comparable to that inferred for ocean floor metamorphism prehnite pumpellyite pp transitional tr and greenschist gs facies prograde metamorphic zones occur from structural top to bottom within each of units metamorphic grade increases downward through the units and metamorphic isograds never cut unit boundaries

slow earthquakes coincident with episodic tremors and slow slip events we report on the very low frequency earthquakes occurring in the transition zone of the subducting plate interface along the nankai subduction zone in southwest japan seismic waves generated by very low frequency earthquakes with seismic moment magnitudes of 3 1 to 3 5 predominantly show a long period of about 20 seconds the seismicity of very low frequency earthquakes accompanies and migrates with the activity of deep low frequency tremors and slow slip events the coincidence of these three phenomena improves the detection and characterization of slow earthquakes which are thought to increase the stress on updip megathrust earthquake rupture zones

slow slip events and the 2016 te araroa mw 7 1 earthquake interaction northern hikurangi subduction new zealand following a sequence of three slow slip events sses on the northern hikurangi margin between june 2015 and august 2016 a mw 7 1 earthquake struck 30 km offshore of the east cape region in the north island of new zealand on the 2nd september 2016 nz local time the earthquake was also followed by a transient deformation event sse or afterslip northeast of the north island closer to the earthquake source area we use data from new zealand s continuous global positioning system cgps networks to invert for the sse slip distribution and evolution on the hikurangi subduction interface our slip inversion results show an increasing amplitude of the slow slip towards the te araroa earthquake foreshock and mainshock area suggesting a possible triggering of the mw 7 1 earthquake by the later stage of the slow slip sequence we also show that the transient deformation following the te araroa earthquake ruptured a portion of the hikurangi trench northeast of the north island further north than any previously observed hikurangi margin sses our slip inversion and the coulomb stress calculation suggest that this transient may have been induced as a response to the increase in the static coulomb stress change downdip of the rupture plane on the megathrust these observations show the importance of considering the interaction between slow slip events seismic and aseismic events not only on the same megathrust interface but also on faults within the surrounding crust

earthquakes triggered by silent slip events on kīlauea volcano hawaii silent earthquakes or slow slip events happen so slowly that they cannot be detected by conventional seismographs but now the availability of gps data means that they can be followed in detail segall et al report on a series of small earthquakes on k lauea volcano hawaii the earthquakes at depths of 7 to 8 km appear to be triggered by otherwise silent slow slips though small triggered earthquakes of this type can be used to help quantify the increased hazard due to slow slip events slow slip events or silent earthquakes have recently been discovered in a number of subduction zones including the nankai trough1 2 3 in japan cascadia4 5 and guerrero6 in mexico but the depths of these events have been difficult to determine from surface deformation measurements although it is assumed that these silent earthquakes are located along the plate megathrust this has not been proved slow slip in some subduction zones is associated with non volcanic tremor7 8 but tremor is difficult to locate and may be distributed over a broad depth range9 except for some events on the san andreas fault10 slow slip events have not yet been associated with high frequency earthquakes which are easily located here we report on swarms of high frequency earthquakes that accompany otherwise silent slips on k lauea volcano hawaii for the most energetic event in january 2005 the slow slip began before the increase in seismicity the temporal evolution of earthquakes is well explained by increased stressing caused by slow slip implying that the earthquakes are triggered the earthquakes located at depths of 7 8 km constrain the slow slip to be at comparable depths because they must fall in zones of positive coulomb stress change triggered earthquakes accompanying slow slip events elsewhere might go undetected if background seismicity rates are low detection of such events would help constrain the depth of slow slip and could lead to a method for quantifying the increased hazard during slow slip events because triggered events have the potential to grow into destructive earthquakes

parageneses and compositions of amphiboles from franciscan jadeite glaucophane type facies series metabasites at cazadero california sodic amphiboles are common in franciscan type ii and type iii metabasites from cazadero california they occur as 1 vein fillings 2 overgrowths on relict augites 3 discrete tiny crystals in the groundmass and 4 composite crystals with metamorphic ca na pyroxenes in low grade rocks they become coarse grained and show strong preferred orientation in schistose high grade rocks in the lowest grade only riebeckite to crossite appears with increasing grade sodic amphibole becomes first enriched in glaucophane component later coexists with actinolite and finally at even higher grade becomes winchite actinolite first appears in foliated blueschists of the upper pumpellyite zone it occurs 1 interlayered on a millimetre scale with glaucophane prisms and 2 as segments of composite amphibole crystals actinolite is considered to be in equilibrium with other high pressure phases on the basis of its restricted occurrence in higher grade rocks textural and compositional characteristics and fe mg distribution coefficient between actinolite and chlorite detailed analyses delineate a compositional gap for coexisting sodic and calcic amphiboles at the highest grade winchite appears at the expense of the actinolite glaucophane pair compositional characteristics of franciscan amphiboles from ward creek are compared with those of other high p t facies series the amphibole trend in terms of major components is very sensitive to the metamorphic field gradient na amphibole appears at lower grade than actinolite along the higher p t facies series e g franciscan and new caledonia whereas reverse relations occur in the lower p t facies series e g sanbagawa and new zealand available data also indicate that at low temperature conditions such as those of the blueschist and pumpellyite actinolite facies large compositional gaps exist between ca and na amphiboles and between actinolite and hornblende whereas at higher temperatures such as in the epidote amphibolite greenschist and eclogite facies the gaps become very restricted common occurrence of both sodic and calcic amphiboles and ca na pyroxene together with albite quartz in the ward creek metabasites and their compositional trends are characteristic of the jadeite glaucophane type facies series in new caledonia blueschists ca na pyroxenes are also common na amphiboles do not appear alone at low grade in metabasites instead na amphiboles coexist with ca amphiboles throughout the progressive sequence however for metabasites of the intermediate pressure facies series such as those of the sanbagawa belt japan and south island new zealand ca na pyroxene and glaucophane are not common sodic amphiboles are restricted to crossite and riebeckite in composition and clinopyroxenes to acmite and sodic augite and occur only in fe2o3 rich metabasites the glaucophane component of na amphibole systematically decreases from ward creek new caledonia through sanbagawa to new zealand this relation is consistent with estimated pressure decrease employing the geobarometer of maruyama et al 1986 similarly the decrease in tschermakite content and increase in nam4 of ca amphiboles from new zealand through sanbagawa to new caledonia is consistent with the geobarometry of brown 1977b therefore the difference in compositional trends of amphiboles can be used as a guide for p t detail within the metamorphic facies series

characteristic silent earthquakes in the eastern part of the boso peninsula central japan 1 analysis of global positioning system gps data shows transient crustal deformation in the boso peninsula central japan for about fifty days from october 2002 the southeastward horizontal displacements detected suggest the occurrence of interplate aseismic slip between the philippine sea plate and the north american plate six years after a similar event in 1996 we estimate an area of aseismic slip with moment magnitude mw 6 6 centered off the boso peninsula adjacent to associated seismic activity slip evolution of the 2002 aeismic slip started on october 4 and migrated from north to south for about ten days followed by gradual subsidence and restarting of slip which lasted until december 2 propagating more southward similarities in focal area and slip process between the 1996 and the 2002 events suggest the boso aseismic slips as characteristic silent earthquakes together with the repetitive occurrence of seismic swarm in a similar region every six to seven years a more tightly coupled southern area that did not release enough energy in the 1996 event may have caused the differences in magnitude central slip area and duration between the 1996 and the 2002 events if the hypothesized recurrence interval for strain accumulation is true based on swarm seismicity

isotopic evidence for channeled fluid flow in low grade metamorphosed jurassic accretionary complex in the northern chichibu belt western shikoku japan the low grade metamorphosed jurassic accretionary complex of the northern chichibu belt hijikawa area western shikoku is divided into two units the hijikawa and kanogawa units that are separated by an out of sequence thrust oost the ozu kawabegawa fault the kanogawa unit south of the ozu kawabegawa fault consists mainly of sandstone shale broken formation of alternating sandstone and shale greenstone chert and pelitic melange while the hijikawa unit is characterized by a stack of subunits separated by small scale thrusts the subunits are mainly made up of basic pelitic and psammitic semischists schistose pelitic melange and chert petrological and mineralogical constraints suggest peak metamorphic conditions of 204 247 c at 1 3 kbar in the kanogawa unit and 228 289 c at 3 5 6 kbar in the hijikawa unit quartz and quartz calcite veins are widely developed in the study area especially in the hijikawa unit regional variations in stable isotopic data show that the 18oquartz and 18ocalcite values in veins tend to increase towards the ozu kawabegawa fault the 18owhole rock values are remarkably high in some subunits close to oosts within the hijikawa unit oxygen isotopic compositions from vein quartz indicate that a higher 18o fluid migrated upward from depth along the ozu kawabegawa fault within the accretionary prism during prehnite pumpellyite facies metamorphism the fluid source is inferred to be pelitic rocks at higher temperatures and greater depths within the accretionary prism

slow slip events and seismic tremor at circum pacific subduction zones 1 it has been known for a long time that slip accompanying earthquakes accounts for only a fraction of plate tectonic displacements however only recently has a fuller spectrum of strain release processes including normal slow and silent earthquakes or slow slip events and continuous and episodic slip been observed and generated by numerical simulations of the earthquake cycle despite a profusion of observations and modeling studies the physical mechanism of slow slip events remains elusive the concurrence of seismic tremor with slow slip episodes in cascadia and southwestern japan provides insight into the process of slow slip a perceived similarity between subduction zone and volcanic tremor has led to suggestions that slow slip involves fluid migration on or near the plate interface alternatively evidence is accumulating to support the notion that tremor results from shear failure during slow slip global observations of the location spatial extent magnitude duration slip rate and periodicity of these aseismic slip transients indicate significant variation that may be exploited to better understand their generation most slow slip events occur just downdip of the seismogenic zone consistent with rate and state dependent frictional modeling that requires unstable to stable transitional properties for slow slip generation at a few convergent margins the occurrence of slow slip events within the seismogenic zone makes it highly likely that transitions in frictional properties exist there and are the loci of slow slip nucleation slow slip events perturb the surrounding stress field and may either increase or relieve stress on a fault bringing it closer to or farther from earthquake failure respectively this paper presents a review of slow slip events and related seismic tremor observed at plate boundaries worldwide with a focus on circum pacific subduction zones trends in global observations of slow slip events suggest that 1 slow slip is a common phenomena observed at almost all subduction zones with instrumentation capable of recording it 2 different frictional properties likely control fast versus slow slip 3 the depth range of slow slip may be related to the thermal properties of the plate interface and 4 the equivalent seismic moment of slow slip events is proportional to their duration mo different from the mo 3 scaling observed for earthquakes

inhomogeneous crustal structure beneath northern miyagi prefecture northeastern japan imaged by coda envelope inversion implication for fluid distribution 1 three dimensional 3 d distribution of scattering coefficients in the crust beneath northern miyagi prefecture of northeastern japan is estimated using an envelope inversion method in order to investigate the short wavelength inhomogeneous structure that cannot be imaged by conventional travel time tomography the inversion revealed two large scattering coefficient zones lszs which are distributed beneath active volcanoes and around the mainshock fault of the 1962 m 6 5 northern miyagi earthquake these lszs merge in the lower crust and the characteristic distribution correlates well with the previously reported seismic low velocity zones which are perhaps caused by fluids we inferred that fluids are supplied from the lower crust to the upper crust along the lszs resulting in inhomogeneous structures such as localized distribution of fluid filled cracks it is expected that this distribution of fluids will cause strain and stress accumulation affecting seismic activity in this region index terms 7205 seismology continental crust 1242 7218 seismology lithosphere and upper mantle 7230 seismology seismicity and seismotectonics 8180 tectonophysics tomography citation asano y k obara j nakajima and a hasegawa 2004 inhomogeneous crustal structure beneath northern miyagi prefecture northeastern japan imaged by coda envelope inversion implication for fluid distribution geophys res lett 31 l24615 doi 10 1029 2004gl021261

a newly discovered high pressure terrane in eastern hokkaido japan the upper jurassic nikoro greenstone complex of eastern hokkaido suffered high pressure intermediate type metamorphism characteristic minerals include lawsonite aragonite sodic pyroxene of the aegirinejadeite series winchite sodic amphibole of the glaucophane riebeckite series pumpellyite epidote and actinolite high pressure metamorphism of the nikoro greenstone complex is related to subduction of the kula plate toward the palaeo okhotsk land during cretaceous time

a large slow slip event on the central hikurangi subduction interface beneath the manawatu region north island new zealand 1 we present continuous gps observations of a surface deformation episode in the manawatu region of the north island new zealand lasting 18 months from january 2004 to june 2005 we invert vertical and horizontal displacements of gps sites during the event for slow slip on the hikurangi subduction thrust we find that up to 350 mm of slip occurred on the thrust in the transition zone between strong interseismic coupling and aseismic creep if the entire slip in the manawatu slow slip event had occurred instantaneously it would have resulted in an mw 7 0 earthquake given the large amount of slip we expect that the recurrence interval for similar slow slip events may be ten years or more

spatial temporal patterns of seismic tremors in northern cascadia 1 we study in detail the two consecutive episodic tremor and slip ets events that occurred in the northern cascadia subduction zone during 2003 and 2004 for both sequences the newly developed source scanning algorithm ssa is applied to seismic waveform data from a dense regional seismograph array to determine the precise locations and origin times of seismic tremors in map view the majority of the tremors occurred in a limited band bounded approximately by the surface projections of the 30 km and 50 km depth contours of the plate interface the horizontal migration of tremor occurrence is from southeast to northwest with an average speed of 5 km d in cross section tremors in both sequences span a depth range of over 40 km across the interface with the majority occurring in the overriding continental crust in particular 50 55 of them are located within 2 5 km from the strong seismic reflector bands above the plate interface the lack of vertical migration implies that a slow diffusion process in the vertical direction cannot be responsible for tremor occurrences the source spectra of tremors clearly lack high frequency content 5 hz relative to local earthquakes we propose two possible models to explain the relationship between slip and tremors the first one regards ets tremors as the manifestation of hydroseismogenic processes in response to the temporal strain variation associated with the episodic slip along the lower portion of the plate interface downdip from the locked zone in the second model tremors and slip are associated with the same process along the same structure in a distributed deformation zone across the plate interface neither model can be dismissed conclusively at this stage

low grade metamorphism of the mikabu and northern chichibu belts in central shikoku sw japan implications for the areal extent of the sanbagawa low grade metamorphism in central shikoku sw japan the mikabu belt is bounded to the north by the sanbagawa belt and to the south by the northern n chichibu belt the n chichibu belt can be further subdivided into northern and southern parts there is no apparent difference in the overall geology structure or fossil and radiometric ages between the mikabu belt and the northern part of the n chichibu belt greenstones from the mikabu belt and the northern part of the n chichibu belt show evidence for similar low grade metamorphism and include the following mineral assemblages with albite chlorite in excess metamorphic aragonite sodic pyroxene quartz epidote actinolite pumpellyite glaucophane pumpellyite quartz and lawsonite not with actinolite or glaucophane these similarities suggest that the mikabu belt and the northern part of the n chichibu belt belong to the same geological unit the mb nnc complex the mineral assemblages also indicate that the mb nnc complex belongs to a different metamorphic facies from the low grade part of the sanbagawa belt that is the former represents lower temperature higher pressure conditions than the latter structural and petrological continuity between the mb nnc complex and sanbagawa belt has not yet been confirmed but both have similar radiometric ages it is therefore most likely that the mb nnc complex and sanbagawa belt belong to the same subduction complex and were metamorphosed under similar but distinct conditions these two units were juxtaposed during exhumation in contrast the southern part of the n chichibu belt is distinct in lithology and structure and includes no mineral assemblages diagnostic of the mb nnc complex and the sanbagawa belt thus the southern part of the n chichibu belt may represent a different geological unit from the mb nnc complex and sanbagawa belt

deep tremor in new zealand triggered by the 2010 mw8 8 chile earthquake 1 deep non volcanic tremor nvt is usually associated with episodic slow slip events new zealand is one notable exception where numerous slow slip events have been identified yet nvt has remained undetected here we present the first known case of triggered nvt at new zealand s hikurangi subduction margin following the mw8 8 chilean earthquake of february 27 2010 we identify coherent high frequency tremor signals that are in phase with and modulated by the passing rayleigh waves this is consistent with the surface wave triggering potential for strike normal incidence on a low angle thrust fault after constraining the tremor depth on the plate interface we locate the tremor source within 20 km of the source area of episodic slow slip the tremor location is also near the edge of a region with high seismic attenuation that marks the boundary between dehydrated subducted slab and inferred hydrated underplated sediment we speculate that reduced interface friction and high fluid pressures provided by fluid rich underplated sediment facilitates the tremor generation

temporal and spatial occurrence of deep non volcanic tremor from washington to northern california 1 regional network data reveal deep non volcanic tremor occurs in five independent sections along the u s section of the cascadia subduction zone with different recurrence intervals sizeable tremor episodes occur during periods with no measurable geodetic deformation as well as coincident with episodic slow slip events and the displacement amplitudes of the tremor with and without geodetic deformation are similar the tremor depths cover a wide range that does not coincide directly with the subducting slab interface the tremor can migrate bi directionally from the point of initiation and more than one spatially distinct tremor source can be active at a given time these results indicate that the tremor is not directly related to the slow slip event instead we suggest that the tremor is related to the presence and movement of fluids at depth which can explain the locations and episodic occurrence as well as the seismic signal characteristics themselves namely the limited frequency content small size emergent onsets and prolonged durations with and without geodetic deformation

slow slip and frictional transition at low temperature at the hikurangi subduction zone temperature changes with depth do not appear to be a primary control for either slow slip or fault locking processes at the hikurangi margin north island new zealand both slow slip events and the geodetically observed transition from fault locking to free slip at depth occur at temperatures as low as 100 c shallow portions of faults exhibit brittle stick slip behaviour that gives way to more stable sliding with increasing depth limiting the depths to which earthquake inducing slip can occur the increase of temperature with depth is often assumed to transform friction in the fault from velocity weakening unstable to velocity strengthening stable and to change conditions from brittle to ductile1 2 3 4 5 a temperature of 350 c has been suggested to mark the base of the frictionally unstable portion of the fault which becomes free slipping at depth where temperatures rise above 450 c refs 2 4 6 here we show that both slow slip events and the geodetically observed transition from fault locking to free slip at the hikurangi subduction zone east of the north island new zealand occur at temperatures as low as 100 c suggesting that temperature is not a primary control on either slow slip or fault locking processes at the hikurangi margin although globally shallow slow slip events are rare five out of seven events observed so far at the hikurangi margin are less than 15 km deep

clinopyroxene a mineral telescoped through the processes of blueschist facies metamorphism textural evolution and compositional variation of clinopyroxenes in ward creek metabasites are described pyroxenes change with increasing grade from finegrained aggregates through fan shaped medium grained prisms to blocky coarse crystals characteristic features of metamorphic pyroxenes include 1 the occurrence of coexisting pyroxene pairs the compositions of which are used to delineate compositional gaps 2 the existence of large compositional variations of pyroxenes within a single specimen which record a considerable span of p and or t for crystallization and 3 the development of compositional trends in single specimens and in three metamorphic zones which are progressive in nature the first formed clinopyroxene jd20aug65ac15 in the lower lawsonite zone mimics the composition of relict igneous augite it changes continuously with increasing grade at nearly constant low xjd content towards acmite at a composition around jd20aug30ac50 the trend turns towards jadeite and intersects a solvus to form two coexisting clinopyroxenes in the middle lawsonite zone at higher grade the compositional gap becomes restricted towards the jadeite omphacite join and clinopyroxene increases in xjd toward jadeite a reversed compositional trend occurs at higher grade clinopyroxenes decrease in jadeite component at nearly constant aug ac ratio of 50 50 and finally become omphacite in the uppermost pumpellyite and epidote zones the na ca pyroxenes close to the binary join jd ac occur in the lawsonite and pumpellyite zones ranging from xjd 1 0 0 30 together with ab and qz the ubiquitous occurrence of aragonite at temperature estimates of 170 240 c by taylor coleman 1968 for these zones does not support the low temperature extrapolation of the jd ab qz curve by holland 1980 the estimated metamorphic field gradient indicates an inflection point at 7 kbar 200 c below this blueschist facies metamorphism proceeded under dominant pressure increase from 4 to 7 kbar at nearly constant temperature about 150 200 c whereas at higher grade recrystallization above the inflection point the metamorphic temperature increased from 200 to 350 c at nearly constant pressure about 7 8 kbar such an inflection point suggests the depth of underplating of either seamounts or accretionary packages in a subduction zone

the geodynamic evolution of the alpine orogen in the cyclades aegean sea greece insights from diverse origins and modes of emplacement of ultramafic rocks

a constitutive law for rate of earthquake production and its application to earthquake clustering seismicity is modeled as a sequence of earthquake nucleation events in which the distribution of initial conditions over the population of nucleation sources and stress ing history control the timing of earthquakes the model is implemented using solutions for nucleation of unstable fault slip on faults with experimentally derived rate and state dependent fault properties this yields a general state variable constitutive formulation for rate of earthquake production resulting from an applied stressing history to illustrate and test the model some characteristics of seismicity following a stress step have been explored it is proposed that various features of earthquake clustering arise from sensi tivity of nucleation times to the stress changes induced by prior earthquakes the model gives the characteristic omori aftershock decay law and interprets aftershock parameters in terms of stress change and stressing rate earthquake data appear to support a model prediction that aftershock duration defined as the time for rates to return to the back ground seismicity rate is proportional to mainshock recurrence time observed spatial and temporal clustering of earthquake pairs arises as a consequence of the spatial depen dence of stress changes of the first event of the pair and stress sensitive time dependent nucleation applications of the constitutive formulation are not restricted to the simple stress step models investigated here it may be applied to stressing histories of arbitrary complexity the apparent success at modeling clustering phenomena suggests the possibil ity of using the formulation to estimate short to intermediate term earthquake probabil ities following occurrence of other earthquakes and for inversion of temporal variations of earthquake rates for changes in driving stress

earthquake swarms and slow slip on a sliver fault in the mexican subduction zone the mexican subduction zone is an ideal location for studying subduction processes due to the short trench to coast distances that bring broad portions of the seismogenic and transition zones of the plate interface inland using a recently generated seismicity catalog from a local network in oaxaca we identified 20 swarms of earthquakes m

accreted oceanic materials in japan abstract the phanerozoic circum pacific orogenic belts contain numerous ocean derived materials accreted through plate converging processes japanese islands in particular display various kinds of oceanic materials of different origins including fragments of seamounts oceanic reef limestone morb like rocks and oceanic mantle and pelagic sediments the compilation of these rocks in many subduction complexes of late permian to the present led to following conclusions accretion processes work effectively only for materials primarily composing the upper portion of subducting oceanic crust i e layer 1 and layer 2 many fragments of seamount with alkali basalt 600 hot spot seamount 26 oceanic reef limestone 291 morb like basalt 200 and numerous cherts more than 1000 are recognized as ancient oceanic materials accreted to the japanese islands however gabbros and mantle materials of layer 3 and lower parts of the oceanic lithosphere scarcely occur in subduction accretion complexes except for a few examples of back arc basin or fore arc origin accretion occurs episodically in southwest japan oceanic materials were accreted intermittently in 1 a end permian 2 b middle late jurassic 3 c late cretaceous times 4 d at ca 50 ma and 5 e in miocene times while in northeast japan and hokkaido this occurred in b middle late jurassic c late cretaceous and f early cretaceous times in contrast to the general belief on accretion of younger oceanic plates the majority of japanese subduction accretion complexes were formed during the subduction of plates up to 160 ma old the accretionary events in end permian and middle late jurassic times coincide with northward collision of ancient island arcs oceanic rises or seamount chains of hot spot origin with the asian continent accretion relevant to subduction of older plates may be controlled by the collision subduction process of these topographic reliefs on an oceanic plate in addition the chronological coincidence with the continent collision amalgamation between the sino korean and siberian platforms and between the sino korean and yangtze blocks also implies collision induced voluminous supply of elastics from back arc regions and its contribution to the formation of huge accretionary complexes accreted fragments of ancient seamounts are much smaller than the average size of modern seamounts this implies that most parts of a colliding seamount are not accreted but subducted together with the underlying oceanic crust to much deeper levels with respect to the metamorphic grades for japanese subduction complexes oceanic materials have less than 1 vol in the zeolite facies 15 20 in the prehnite pumpellyite metagraywacke facies and ca 30 in the greenschist glaucophane schist facies and albite epidote amphibolite fades this relationship indicates that the major process for landward accretion of oceanic materials is not off scraping or sedimentary mixing at the trench but underplating subcretion at much deeper levels of a subduction zone

spatial and temporal variations in the age structure of arctic sea ice 1 spatial and temporal variations in the age structure of arctic sea ice are investigated using a new reverse chronology algorithm that tracks ice covered pixels to their location and date of origin based on ice motion and concentration data the beaufort gyre tends to harbor the oldest 10 years old sea ice in the western arctic while direct ice advection pathways toward the transpolar drift stream maintain relatively young 5 years ice in the eastern arctic persistent net losses 4 2 yr 1 in extent of ice 10 years old 10 year age class were observed during 1989 2003 since the mid 1990s losses to the 10 year age class lacked compensation by recruitment due to a prior depletion of all mature 6 10 year age classes survival of the 1994 and 1996 1998 sea ice generations reestablished most mature age classes and thereby the potential to increase extent of the 10 year age class during the mid 2000s

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

late cretaceous blueschist facies metamorphism in southern thrace turkey and its geodynamic implications a blueschist facies tectonic sliver 9 km long and 1 km wide crops out within the miocene clastic rocks bounded by the strands of the north anatolian fault zone in southern thrace nw turkey two types of blueschist facies rock assemblages occur in the sliver i a serpentinite body with numerous dykes of incipient blueschist facies metadiabase ii a well foliated and thoroughly recrystallized rock assemblage consisting of blueschist marble and metachert both are partially enveloped by an upper eocene wildflysch which includes olistoliths of serpentinite metadiabase upper cretaceous and palaeogene pelagic limestone upper eocene reefal limestone radiolarian chert quartzite and minor greenschist field relations in combination with the bore core data suggest that the tectonic sliver forms a positive flower structure within the miocene clastic rocks in a transpressional strike slip setting and represents an uplifted part of the pre eocene basement the blueschists are represented by lawsonite glaucophane bearing assemblages equilibrated at 270 310 c and 0 8 gpa the metadiabase dykes in the serpentinite on the other hand are represented by pumpellyite glaucophane lawsonite assemblages that most probably equilibrated below 290 c and at 0 75 gpa one metadiabase olistolith in the upper eocene flysch sequence contains the mineral assemblage epidote pumpellyite glaucophane recording p t conditions of 290 350 c and 0 65 0 78 gpa indicative of slightly lower depths and different thermal setting timing of the blueschist facies metamorphism is constrained to c 86 ma coniacian santonian by rb sr phengite whole rock and incremental 40 ar 39 ar phengite dating on blueschists the activity of the strike slip fault post dates the blueschist facies metamorphism and exhumation and is only responsible for the present outcrop pattern and post miocene exhumation 2 km the high p t metamorphic rocks of southern thrace and the biga peninsula are located to the southeast of the circum rhodope belt and indicate late cretaceous subduction and accretion under the northern continent i e the rhodope massif enveloped by the circum rhodope belt the late cretaceous is therefore a time of continued accretionary growth of this continental domain