the variation of temperature with time and hydrocarbon maturation in sedimentary basins formed by extension abstract when a sedimentary basin is formed by extension both the subsidence history and the temperature gradient can be calculated hence the time temperature history of any stratum can be obtained three types of behaviour occur the temperature of material which never reaches depths greater than about 4 km increases at all times the time temperature history of material which finally sinks to greater depths reaches a maximum during the subsidence history the time at which this maximum occurs decreases as the depth increases at greater depths the maximum temperature occurs at the time the basin is formed the time temperature history is then used to calculate lopatin s maturation index for each stratum as a function of time and the index plotted as a function of depth and time for different amounts of extension the maximum temperature at a given depth and hence lopatin s index is almost independent of the amount of extension when the age of the basin is greater than about 150 ma similar calculations taking account of sediment compaction show the same behaviour though the maturity of the material at a given depth is increased because both lopatin s index and its calibration are empirical it is important to develop new maturation indices based on individual molecular reactions whose activation energies can be determined in the laboratory

evolution of the lithosphere in the area of the rhine rift system the rhine rift system rrs forms part of the european cenozoic rift system ecris and transects the variscan orogen permo carboniferous troughs and late permian to mesozoic thermal sag basins crustal and lithospheric thicknesses range in the rrs area between 24 36 km and 50 120 km respectively we discuss processes controlling the transformation of the orogenically destabilised variscan lithosphere into an end mesozoic stabilised cratonic lithosphere as well as its renewed destabilisation during the cenozoic development of ecris by end westphalian times the major sutures of the variscan orogen were associated with 45 60 km deep crustal roots during the stephanian early permian regional exhumation of the variscides was controlled by their wrench deformation detachment of subducted lithospheric slabs asthenospheric upwelling and thermal thinning of the mantle lithosphere by late early permian times when asthenospheric temperatures returned to ambient levels lithospheric thicknesses ranged between 40 km and 80 km whilst the thickness of the crust was reduced to 28 35 km in response to its regional erosional and local tectonic unroofing and the interaction of mantle derived melts with its basal parts re equilibration of the lithosphere asthenosphere system governed the subsidence of late permian mesozoic thermal sag basins that covered much of the rrs area by end cretaceous times lithospheric thicknesses had increased to 100 120 km paleocene mantle plumes caused renewed thermal weakening of the lithosphere starting in the late eocene ecris evolved in the pyrenean and alpine foreland by passive rifting under a collision related north directed compressional stress field following end oligocene consolidation of the pyrenees west and northwest directed stresses originating in the alps controlled further development of ecris the rrs remained active until the present whilst the southern branch of ecris aborted in the early miocene extensional strain across ecris amounts to some 7 km plume related thermal thinning of the lithosphere underlies uplift of the rhenish massif and massif central lithospheric folding controlled uplift of the vosges black forest arch

landsliding and the evolution of normal fault bounded mountains much of the tectonic and climatic history in high relief regions such as the mountains of the western u s basin and range province is contained in the morphology of hillslopes drainage networks and other landforms that range in scale from 10 1 to 101km to understand how these landforms evolve we have developed a numerical landscape evolution model that combines a detailed tectonic displacement field with a set of physically based geomorphic rules bedrock landsliding long recognized as a significant geomorphic process in mountainous topography is for the first time explicitly included in the rule set in a series of numerical experiments we generate synthetic landscapes that closely resemble mountainous topography observed in the basin and range the production of realistic landscapes depends critically on the presence of bedrock landslides and landsliding yields rates of long term erosion that are comparable in magnitude to those of fluvial erosion the erosive efficiency of bedrock landsliding implies that hillslopes may respond very quickly to changes in local base level and that fluvial erosion is the rate limiting process in steady state experimental landscapes our experiments generate power law distributions of landslide sizes somewhat similar to both field and laboratory observations thus even a simple model of bedrock landsliding is capable of quantitatively reproducing mountainous topography and landslide distributions and represents a significant step forward in our understanding of the evolution of normal fault bounded ranges

high resolution fault displacement mapping from three dimensional seismic data evidence for dip linkage during fault growth abstract detailed mapping using high resolution three dimensional seismic data has revealed a number of sub horizontal anomalies in the distribution of vertical displacement throw on the planes of growth faults in the gulf of mexico recognition of these anomalies is highly sensitive to the interval at which the fault displacements are sampled because they represent local decreases in throw which are confined to small discrete parts of the fault planes the distribution of the anomalies is inconsistent with model displacement fields of quasi elliptical concentric contours and is therefore incompatible with models of fault growth by uniform slip distribution and radial tip line propagation an alternative model is proposed whereby the evolution of a fault plane is established by the propagation and linkage of precursor fault segments in the dip direction dip linkage overlap and linkage of fault tips in the dip direction results in relay structures that are sub parallel to fault strike and therefore displacement minima that are sub horizontal on normal and thrust faults however since they are orthogonal to the main slip direction on the fault these structures have a low preservation potential and are therefore unlikely to be well resolved on cross sectional seismic profiles

thermal effects of normal faulting during rifted basin formation 1 a finite difference model abstract a finite difference model is presented describing the thermal structure of a region undergoing fault controlled extension the model is two dimensional and time dependent we combine temperature changes resulting from conduction advection due to fault movements sediment blanketing and heat production cooling curves can be derived at chosen points in the area this study mainly investigates the effect of the extension rate on the thermal field which turns out to be very important 20 km of extension with extension rates of 0 2 2 0 and 20 mm yr yield maximum deviations in temperatures from the steady slate situation of 2 26 and 84 the sediment blanketing effect can even be reversed by variations in the sedimentation rates fast sedimentation leads to crustal cooling slow sedimentation to crustal heating the turning point value is lithology dependent and corresponds to 2 0 mm yr for shale 2 2 mm yr for clay and 1 4 mm yr for sand a sandstone will cause an increased cooling at both high and low velocities our modelling shows that footwall cooling during or immediately after a rifting event cannot be explained by the downwards movement of the adjacent relatively cold hanging wall consequently in areas where such a cooling is observed other cooling mechanisms must play an important role these can be phenomena like footwall uplift or the fading out of an older thermal anomaly

thermal effects of normal faulting during rifted basin formation 2 the lugano val grande normal fault and the role of pre existing thermal anomalies abstract we investigate the thermal consequences of rift related normal faulting and compare the results with a well studied natural example the lugano val grande normal fault southern alps only limited heating of the crust is caused by lithospheric thinning in the simple but realistic situation where heat conduction is substantially faster than heat advection no major thermal disturbance is associated with the downward movement of the hanging wall radiometric ages and fault rocks associated with the lugano val grande normal fault demonstrate that cooling rather than heating affected the crust during normal faulting this pattern is not compatible with such a simple numerical model and is explained by a waning thermal anomaly induced by a magmatic intrusion immediately preceding or overlapping with the first stages of normal faulting the magmatic body must have been emplaced at depths greater than 15 18 km and probably started to cool in the carnian i e few million years before the onset of normal faulting along the lugano val grande fault

thermal consequences of lithosphere extension over continental margins the initial stretching phase summary we compute the thermal evolution of a lithosphere submitted to stretching during a finite duration of time in order to discuss the initial stretching phase of future continental margins the numerical method developed can handle 2 d laterally variable stretching as well as sedimentation it is shown that lateral conduction is more important than vertical conduction over most continental margins during their formation by stretching a simple way to evaluate the relative importance of lateral and vertical conduction effects at the axis of the zone of rifting just prior to oceanization is proposed a simple way to evaluate the amplitude of the thermal uplift on the edges of the zone of rifting at the end of the stretching phase is also presented for small width zones of rifting 70 100 km lateral cooling becomes so large as to prevent large scale melting and presumably prevent the transition to oceanization the effect of highsedimentation rates 100 500 m myr 1 is to increase the surface temperature of the lithosphere and consequently significantly decrease the surface heat flow

fission track lengths in the apatite annealing zone and the interpretation of mixed ages abstract measurements of confined fission tracks in apatites from deep boreholes show that their mean length is reduced and the length distribution becomes progressively broader through the fission track annealing zone at subsurface temperatures of around 100 c and above the length distribution characteristically becomes very broad without a pronounced peak the lengths of the longest tracks remain essentially constant at all stages of natural annealing observed in the boreholes this pattern is similar to that found in laboratory annealing of spontaneous fission tracks in apatite from an outcrop sample of the same formation these observations show that confined track lengths can be used as important indicators of the type of thermal history that a sample has experienced in the temperature zone of increasing track stability the length distributions reported here provide a basis for interpretation of fission track ages that might otherwise be ambiguous an apatite age which results from a uniform slow cooling history will have a broad negatively skewed length distribution while a bimodal distribution provides clear evidence of a two stage history involving partial annealing by a discrete thermal event the apparent fission track age associated with a bimodal length distribution will be a mixed age intermediate between the original age and that of the later event

cenozoic postrift domal uplift of north atlantic margins an asthenospheric diapirism model postrift domal uplifts are a distinct feature of the northern north atlantic rifted margins uplifted regions southern norway finnmark svalbard northern united kingdom occur with a typical spacing of 900 km the amount of domal uplift is substantial 1 2 km thermochronological geomorphological and seismic stratigraphic data suggest a coincident neogene onset of uplift postdating north atlantic breakup and predating onset of glaciation the norwegian domes are characterized by strongly negative gravity anomalies and reduced mantle p wave and s wave velocities previous models for uplift around the north atlantic e g glacial erosion intraplate stresses secondary convection fail to explain the above characteristics we present an asthenospheric diapir model based on a rayleigh taylor instability wherein a hot icelandic asthenosphere layer meets cold cratonic lithosphere the generated asthenospheric diapirs and associated partial melting offer a viable explanation for updoming application of this model to the south norwegian dome succesfully explains most of the currently available data

geometry of propagating continental rifts reconstruction of past plate configurations through palinspastic restoration of continental margins1 4 requires a detailed knowledge of the geometries of horizontal continental extension extension is often restricted to discrete linear zones termed rifts5 6 and rift models that invoke propagating vertical dykes and cracks7 10 are useful for assessing the relative significance and timing of uplift subsidence and extension in the tectonic evolution of rift basins however many models do not adequately account for the observed asymmetry of rifts i describe here the general three dimensional character of young and aborted continental rifts which can be used to derive a structural model for the propagation of rifts in continental lithosphere the rifts become asymmetric as a consequence of the role played by low angle normal faults in the overall rift geometry

some comments on two layer extensional models for the evolution of sedimentary basins simple extensional models that involve listric faulting in the brittle upper crust and plastic flow in the lower lithosphere have been shown to account for the subsidence history of various continental sedimentary basins and continental shelves in this paper we present structural evidence that extension in the continental lithosphere during rifting is not uniform we review evidence that the rifting process in major intracratonic rift basins is spasmodic rather than continuous that extension and subsidence within the rift during a tectonic phase is generally accompanied by uplift and erosion of the rift flanks that subcrustal heat input during rifting occurs over an area much broader than the rift proper and that there may be broad regional uplift before and or during rifting to explain the uplift of the flanks during rifting and their postrift subsidence we invoke two mechanisms subcrustal thinning by extension below the flanks and tilted major normal faults in the crust between graben and flanks the uplift and erosion of the flanks due to tilted faults probably do not significantly affect estimates of extension from subsidence analysis but uplift due to both sources can in certain cases be incorrectly attributed to regional uplift or doming we present a simplified analysis of the two layer extensional model for the elementary case in which extension is instantaneous and the crust is thinned by a different amount from the subcrustal lithosphere we provide a simple graphical method of data analysis to obtain the parameters that describe thinning of the crust and lithosphere during extension from the subsidence history application of this method to the central part of the pattani trough in the intracratonic gulf of thailand shows that extension and thinning of the lithosphere of a factor of 2 since late eocene can account for much of the subsidence history and the present day heat flow our analysis suggests that thinning of the crust in this area is 20 greater than thinning of the whole lithosphere assuming that none of the lithosphere is removed from the region of extension during rifting we show by simple geometric examples that a process of nonuniform extension implies that much greater thicknesses of sediment can be deposited in the center of a young basin than in the case of uniform extension of both crust and subcrustal lithosphere such an extensional process produces significant uplift of the flanks of the rift and as a result of erosion of the uplifted areas the effective cross sectional area of the basin can be increased by as much as 10 20 depending on the rate of erosion compared to the area that would have been created by a process of uniform extension finally we show that it may ultimately be possible to compute erosion rates from seismic cross sections of basins

pressure temperature time paths of regional metamorphism i heat transfer during the evolution of regions of thickened continental crust the development of regional metamorphism in areas of thickened continental crust is investigated in terms of the major controls on regional scale thermal regimes these are the total radiogenic heat supply within the thickened crust the supply of heat from the mantle the thermal conductivity of the medium and the length and time scales of erosion of the continental crust the orogenic episode is regarded as consisting of a relatively rapid phase of crustal thickening during which little temperature change occurs in individual rocks followed by a lengthier phase of erosion at the end of which the crust is at its original thickness the principal features of pressure temperature time ptt paths followed by rocks in this environment are a period of thermal relaxation during which the temperature rises towards the higher geotherm that would be supported by the thickened crust followed by a period of cooling as the rock approaches the cold land surface the temperature increase that occurs is governed by the degree of thickening of the crust its conductivity and the time that elapses before the rock is exhumed sufficiently to be affected by the proximity of the cold upper boundary for much of the parameter range considered the heating phase encompasses a considerable portion of the exhumation decompression part of the ptt path in addition to the detailed calculation of ptt paths we present an idealized model of the thickening and exhumation process which may be used to make simple calculations of the amount of heating to be expected during a given thickening and exhumation episode and of the depth at which a rock will start to cool on its ascent path an important feature of these ptt paths is that most of them lie within 50 c of the maximum temperature attained for one third or more of the total duration of their burial and uplift and for a geologically plausible range of erosion rates the rocks do not begin to cool until they have completed 20 to 40 per cent of the total uplift they experience considerable melting of the continental crust is a likely consequence of thickening of crust with an average continental geotherm a companion paper discusses these results in the context of attempts to use metamorphic petrology data to give information on tectonic processes 1984 oxford university press

late pleistocene holocene slip rate of the zhangye thrust qilian shan china and implications for the active growth of the northeastern tibetan plateau 1 we derive a slip rate for a thrust at the central qilian shan mountain front by combining structural investigations satellite imagery topographic profiling luminescence dating and 10be exposure dating the seismically active zhangye thrust transects late pleistocene alluvial fan deposits and forms a prominent north facing scarp the fault consists of two segments that differ in orientation scarp height and age a series of loess covered terraces records the uplift history of the western thrust segment loess accumulation on all terraces started at 8 5 1 5 kyr and postdates terrace formation gravels from the highest terrace yielded a 10be exposure age of 90 11 kyr which dates the onset of faulting with a displacement of 55 60 m derived from fault scarp profiles this yields a vertical slip rate of 0 64 0 08 mm yr 1 along the eastern thrust segment three 10be ages from the uplifted alluvial fan constrain that faulting started at 31 5 kyr together with a displacement of 25 30 m this leads to a vertical faulting rate of 0 88 0 16 mm yr 1 a dip estimate of 40 to 60 for the fault plane combined with lower and upper limits of 0 6 and 0 9 mm yr 1 for the vertical slip rate gives minimum and maximum horizontal shortening rates of 0 4 and 1 1 mm yr 1 across the zhangye thrust our results are consistent with geologic and gps constraints which suggest that nne directed shortening across the northeastern tibetan plateau is distributed on several active faults with a total shortening rate of 4 to 10 mm yr 1

total tectonic subsidence a parameter for distinguishing crust type at the u s atlantic continental margin total tectonic subsidence tts is the difference between the prerifting continental crust elevation and the present sediment unloaded basement depth in a sedimentary basin tts is calculated using observations of bathymetry and basement depth and assumptions about sediment density and the loading response of the lithosphere i use the extensional model for sedimentary basin formation to interpret the tts of a passive continental margin that model predicts that the tts on an old margin should define the major crust type boundaries and indicate the lateral distribution of extension within the extended continental crust tts analysis of the u s atlantic continental margin indicates that the boundary between extended continental and oceanic crusts lies along the east coast magnetic anomaly ecma to the north of the blake spur fracture zone bsfz and along the blake escarpment to the south there is no tts anomaly associated with the blake spur magnetic anomaly which seems to be underlain by normal oceanic crust the ecma appears to be associated with a tts minimum but i attribute that to artificially shallow estimates of depth to magnetic basement under the ecma tts estimates of extended continental crust thickness agree well with gravity models except where the problem with magnetic basement depth estimates interferes the amount of crust extension prior to seafloor spreading varies along the strike of the margin the most abrupt change is at the bsfz across the bsfz the amount of extension varies by 160 km but the volume of continental material does not vary the extension variation may be caused by lateral changes in the gross rheology of the continental lithosphere in the case of the bsfz it would be the suture of more ductile pre late paleozoic african craton with more brittle north american craton that could cause the abrupt change

role of climate changes for wind gap formation in a young actively growing mountain range wind gaps in actively growing mountain ranges are unique geomorphological features testifying to the competition between tectonics and fluvial incision although it is clear that these landforms reflect the defeat of rivers during sustained rock uplift the role of climate changes in their formation has never been explored here we use a coupled tectonics landscape evolution model to show that temporal changes in precipitation rate exert an important control on wind gap formation in models with a constant precipitation rate rivers flowing across a growing range are either defeated at an early stage or they abandon their valleys very late if at all if precipitation varies wind gaps form mostly 100 200 ka after a transition to drier conditions because of sediment aggradation upstream of the range our results suggest that the pliocene quaternary aridification of central asia contributed to wind gap formation in active mountain ranges in the foreland of northeastern tibet this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

how sediment promotes narrow rifting application to the gulf of california 1 if the gravitational stress changes related to crustal thinning are large enough to affect the mode of extension then sedimentation should also affect that mode we propose that the weight of sediments reduces the difference in crustal buoyancy forces caused by local crustal thinning allowing a rift to extend more easily in a narrow rift mode we examine the effect of deposition of large amounts of nonlocally derived sediment on extensional style using two dimensional regional scale numerical experiments of extending thick continental crust with varied initial thermal conditions geometries rheological parameters and sedimentation properties depending on initial model conditions the onset of rifting in thick continental crust occurs in the narrow rifting wide rifting or core complex mode with continued extension all cases eventually transition to a narrow rifting mode for a system in wide rift mode moderate to fast sedimentation shortens the time needed to transition to a narrow rift in the gulf of california changes in extensional style correlate with sediment thickness with an earlier transition to narrow rifting in the north versus the south we compare our model results to the extensional history of the gulf of california where sediments may have caused the northern and north central domain of the gulf delfin tiburon and guaymas segments to transition to narrow rifting before the south central domains alarcon segment

the growth of fault bounded tilt blocks a series of uniformly tilted fault bounded blocks is a common feature in actively extending regions such as the basin and range province if the tilted blocks were produced by rigid domino style rotation one would predict large voids at either end of a series of these blocks using tilt data and a simple flexural calculation we suggest that much of the apparent rigid behavior could also be produced by internal block deformation in our model of normal fault growth isostatic elastic uplift of the footwall is coupled with hanging wall downdrop within the region between faults resulting in the appearance of a tilted rigid block we present tilt data sampled at varying distances from several block defining faults within the northeast basin and range province tilt measurements between a series of 30 km spaced block defining faults are found to be uniform while tilts between more widely spaced faults exhibit a pattern of tilt that diminishes to zero in less than 30 km using a simple flexural calculation for internal block deformation we show that for this region the patterns of tilt are consistent with a flexural length scale of 8 12 km and deflections of 2 4 km these estimates are compatible with both the lower limit to seismicity and basin depth determined from earthquake and seismic reflection studies

bargen continuous gps data across the eastern basin and range province and implications for fault system dynamics we collected data from a transect of continuous global positioning system gps sites across the eastern basin and range province at latitude 39 n from 1997 2000 intersite velocities define a region 350 km wide of broadly distributed strain accumulation at 10 nstr yr 1 on the western margin of the region site egan 10 km north of ely nevada moved at a rate of 3 9 0 2 mm yr 1 to the west relative to site cast which is on the colorado plateau velocities of most sites to the west of ely moved at an average rate of 3 mm yr 1 relative to cast defining an area across central nevada that does not appear to be extending significantly the late quaternary geological velocity field derived using seismic reflection and neotectonic data indicates a maximum velocity of egan with respect to the colorado plateau of 4 mm yr 1 also distributed relatively evenly across the region the geodetic and late quaternary geological velocity fields therefore are consistent but strain release on the sevier desert detachment and the wasatch fault appears to have been anomalously high in the holocene previous models suggesting horizontal displacement rates in the eastern basin and range near 3 mm yr 1 which focused mainly along the wasatch zone and intermountain seismic belt may overestimate the holocene wasatch rate by at least 50 per cent and the quaternary rate by nearly an order of magnitude while ignoring potentially major seismogenic faults further to the west

migration of activity within normal fault systems examples from the quaternary of mainland greece abstract we examine five areas of mainland greece where active extension occurs on sub parallel systems of normal faults and where geomorphological and stratigraphic evidence indicates that the faulting has migrated basinwards into the original hanging walls in several cases within the late quaternary by comparing fault slip rates estimated from geomorphological data with current extension rates known from geodetic measurements it appears that the newest faults can account for effectively all the present day motions fault migration of this sort is easy to recognize in young systems close to sea level because vertical movements of footwalls and hanging walls are obvious and reveal which faults are currently most active but is less easy to confirm away from reliable reference levels or in older terrains with poorer time resolution it is probably more common than is appreciated and has a profound effect on syn rift sedimentation and erosion patterns fault migration is probably an inevitable consequence of the interplay between stresses generated by the fault related topography and the ultimate strength of major faults it is likely to be further encouraged in places where lower crustal flow or rotations about a vertical axis are important however it is not clear why migration should preferentially occur into the hanging walls as observed in central greece

rapid regolith formation over volcanic bedrock and implications for landscape evolution abstract the ability to quantify how fast weathering profiles develop is crucial to assessing soil resource depletion and quantifying how landscapes evolve over millennia uranium series isotopes can be used to determine the age of the weathering front throughout a profile and to infer estimates of regolith production rates because the abundance of u series isotopes in a weathering profile is a function of chemical weathering and time this technique is applied to a weathering profile in puerto rico developed over a volcaniclastic bedrock u series isotope compositions are modelled revealing that it takes 40 60 kyr to develop an 18 m thick profile this is used to estimate an average regolith production rate of 334 46 mm kyr this value is higher by a factor of up to 30 when compared to production rates estimated for weathering profiles developed over granitic or shale lithologies this quantitatively underpins the lithological control on rates of regolith production in a neighbouring watershed but over a granitic bedrock production rates are only 30 40 mm kyr moreover by comparing these results to a compilation of soil erosion rates it is clear that landscapes are controlled by the balance or imbalance between regolith production and erosion soil mantled landscapes are the result of a relative balance between production and erosion whereas in cratonic areas thicker weathering profiles are generated because erosion fails to match regolith production rates

the denudation history of the onshore continental margin of se brazil inferred from apatite fission track data a suite of 68 new apatite fission track analysis results from the onshore rift margin in southeast brazil are presented some of the results reflect resetting related to the eruption of the parana continental flood basalt 130 ma and four others are directly related to late cretaceous magmatism 80 ma the majority of the results were obtained from precambrian basement rocks and sediments from the parana basin the fission track ages broadly increase inland from 60 90 ma on the coastal plain to 300 ma in the continental hinterland the track length distributions show a characteristic trend being negatively skewed at the coast and showing increasing bimodality inland except for the oldest samples which are more unimodal these trends do not reflect rift related heating and resetting but are the result of protracted denudation since the opening of the south atlantic the results are consistent with more than 3 km of exhumation on the coastal plain but little more than 1 km in the hinterland the topographic morphology in the northern region of the study area is complex and is clearly influenced by structure and bedrock lithology for the region further south model calculations of the isostatic response to the denudation suggest that isostatic rebound makes a minor contribution to the long wavelength topography unless the flexural rigidity is more than 1025 n m in this case the initial elevation of the rift margin would need to be 2 5 km in order to accommodate the amount of denudation inferred from the fission track data however it is possible that the effective flexural rigidity varies across the margin becoming greater in the continental interior alternatively the broad scale wavelength topography may be the result of magmatic underplating related to the parana continental flood basalt event if so estimates of the volume of magma generated would need to be revised upward by as much as a factor of 5

time and temperature in petroleum formation application of lopatin s method to petroleum exploration n v lopatin in the soviet union has developed a method for taking both time and temperature into account as factors in thermal maturation of kerogen lopatin s time temperature index of maturity tti values correlate with the thermal regimes corresponding to generation and preservation of hydrocarbons because such information is potentially of great interest for oil exploration a calibration and evaluation have been made of lopatin s method within the limitations of the data presently available the following statements can be made 1 the rate of the chemical reactions involved in thermal maturation of organic material appears to double with every 10 c 18 f rise in temperature 2 threshold values of lopatin s time temperature index of maturity tti are 15 onset of oil generation 75 peak oil generation 160 end oil generation 500 40 oil preservation deadline 1 000 50 oil preservation deadline 1 500 wet gas preservation deadline 65 000 dry gas preservation deadline 3 tti values calculated from lopatin reconstructions consistently agree with other maturation parameters commonly used by petroleum geochemists potential applications of lopatin s method for oil exploration include timing of oil generation calculation of volume of hydrocarbons generated within a basin and determination of economic deadlines

neoarchaean metamorphic evolution of the yilgarn craton a record of subduction accretion extension and lithospheric delamination abstract the greater part of the metamorphic record of the yilgarn craton formed during a protracted middle neoarchaean orogenic cycle spanning from about 2750 to 2620 ma at least six distinct metamorphic events are defined by parageneses in different tectono stratigraphic settings this review characterizes the middle neoarchaean metamorphic response of the entire craton using large databases rock descriptions from 60 000 sites in government databases and 1040 pt determinations from all sources are used to construct metamorphic map patterns for each of these metamorphic events p t paths and timing of each metamorphic event are characterized using petrology and the well constrained pt determinations from this study n 287 combined with metamorphic age determinations from all sources n 114 the spatial patterns and metamorphic conditions of each event provides critical constraints on tectonic settings and changes in tectonics over 130 million years the record of metamorphism in conjunction with stratigraphic kinematic and magmatic constraints shows that the neoarchaean craton evolved from an accretionary crustal growth phase ma and m1 to thermal reworking of the crust during massive influx of granitic intrusions m2 and lithospheric extension after the termination of subduction m3 these events were followed by lithospheric delamination resulting in a craton wide diffusion delayed thermal pulse that coincided with renewed contraction m4 m1 metamorphism at 2748 19 2727 8 and 2706 10 ma experienced high p moderate t hairpin clockwise p t paths during burial of magmatic arc margins during terrane accretion events m2 regional contact type metamorphism at 2671 6 ma tracked low p moderate t clockwise p t paths in back arc settings during voluminous felsic magmatism related to shallow subduction m3 metamorphism at 2656 5 ma experienced low p moderate t anticlockwise p t paths in post volcanic rift basins formed during lithospheric extension m4 metamorphic peaks at 2644 4 and 2629 7 ma experienced low p high t clockwise p t paths during regional scale thermal pulses resulting from lower crust and mantle lithosphere delamination at 2665 2668 ma

footwall topographic development during continental extension 1 we examine the progressive development of footwall topography associated with a set of active normal faults in the northeastern basin and range province of the western united states fault length and displacement increase monotonically from northeast to southwest in the study area allowing us to track both variations in footwall morphology with increasing displacement and along strike changes in morphology on a single fault we show that patterns of catchment area footwall relief and catchment outlet spacing vary predictably and are related to the growth of the range bounding normal fault array in this semiarid region full parsing of footwall drainage area and removal of antecedent topography do not occur until fault arrays grow beyond two crustal scale segments multiple segment faults with lengths of up to 150 km have footwall relief that is limited to 1000 m in the center of the footwall and that decays to zero at the fault tips over a length scale of 15 km we hypothesize that this relatively uniform footwall relief is erosionally limited and reflects the efficacy of surface processes in removing footwall material in the center of the footwall if the fault array grows by relatively steady propagation of the tips we suggest that the 15 km length scale required to reach uniform relief is related to a timescale of relief generation by the fault tip propagation rate while such propagation rates are poorly known an average rate of 10 mm yr 1 would imply footwall relief generation over a timescale of 1 myr

spatial variations in catchment averaged denudation rates from normal fault footwalls we test the spatial correspondence between rock uplift in active normal fault footwalls in the western usa and catchment averaged denudation rates from cosmogenic radionuclide crn analysis we find that denudation rates vary along strike depending on the fault length and displacement for the 18 km long sweetwater fault foot wall relief is largely inherited from the prefaulting topography and denudation rates are only partly reflective of fault displacement for the 130 km long wassuk fault all inherited topography has been removed by erosion in response to fault displacement denudation rates however show little along strike consistency and no correlation with catchment size or morphology we argue that in the early stages of fault growth crn derived denudation rates reflect inherited prefaulting relief with an overprint of fault controlled erosion in later stages of fault growth rates are decoupled from fault displacement through the impact of stochastic landsliding events and longer term measures of denudation such as low temperature thermochronometry that integrate over multiple earthquakes may provide a better record of spatial variations in rock uplift

a quantitative analysis of lithospheric subsidence due to thinning by simple shear kinematic simple shear models have recently been used to provide qualitative explanations for tectonic features in the basin and range province of the southwestern united states and on passive margins in this paper a general kinematic simple shear model is presented explicit expressions for the subsidence and stretching factors across a simple shear zone are derived for two important cases the first case is one in which simple shear rifting occurs along a major fault that cuts through the whole lithosphere in the second case simple shear thinning takes place in a brittle zone overlying a regional ductile zone that is undergoing pure shear thinning in these cases the subsidence and stretching factors both have characteristic distributions across the stretched region which can indicate the dominant mode of rifting it is also shown that simple shear rifting under the assumption of local isostatic compensation cannot lead to the production of uplifted metamorphic core complexes unless some additional

a rheological weak zone intensified by post rift thermal relaxation as a possible origin of simple shear deformation associated with reactivation of rifting abstract rheological heterogeneity brought about by the grain size refinement associated with the spinel plagioclase lherzolite reaction is discussed in the context of post rift thermal relaxation in continental rifts and passive margins above a critical temperature the effect of grain size refinement is not sufficient to obtain significant rheological heterogeneity a critical time scale for thermal relaxation defined as a period when the temperature at the boundary of a reduced grain size segment falls below the critical temperature is evaluated in this study it is found that a segmental rheological weak zone with a significant strength contrast can develop if the following conditions are satisfied 1 a substantial grain size reduction associated with spinel plagioclase lherzolite reaction occurs during an earlier extensional event and 2 a successive extensional event occurs after the critical time scale for thermal relaxation a few tens of million years the development of such rheologically weak zones may contribute to simple shear deformation in rift related sedimentary basins developed by multi rifting events

a deep seismic reflection profile across the northern north sea the viking graben is a major mesozoic rift basin in the northern north sea1 seismic refraction data2 gravity surveys3 and theoretical modelling4 have led to the general acceptance of an extensional tectonic origin for the viking graben involving an early mesozoic phase of extension and fault controlled subsidence followed by a more regional thermal contraction subsidence the early success of the birps deep seismic reflection profiling5 and the results from cocorp6 led to the planning and acquisition during 1983 of a deep seismic line recorded to 15 s twt two way time across the north viking graben the aims of the present study were to provide constraints on the geometry of the viking graben and its extensional faults to provide data on the geometry of crustal thinning beneath the graben and to provide an insight into the relation between the shallow extensional features of the sedimentary basin and the deep crustal thinning here we present a specific interpretation of this seismic profile further details will be given elsewhere7

on the evolution of rifted continental margins comparison of models and observations for the nova scotian margin summary a model for the formation and evolution of rifted continental margins based on lithospheric extension during rifting and its thermal and mechanical consequences is proposed model predictions are then compared with geological and geophysical observations from a transect of the 185 ma old rifted margin off nova scotia through the scotian basin three kinematic models of the rifting process are discussed these are 1 the uniform extension model in which the amount of extension is uniform with depth but varies with position across the margin 2 the uniform extension and melt segregation model which has similar properties but also provides an explanation for the properties of the extended continental crust and its transition to oceanic crust by postulating that basaltic melt segregates from the asthenosphere and migrates to the crust and 3 the depth dependent extension model in which the first order consequences of rapidly changing rheological properties with depth in the lithosphere are included by decoupling the lithosphere into two zones with depth each of which undergoes differing amounts of extension these rift models predict the form of crustal and lithospheric thinning subsidence and temperature change once the amount of extension has been determined this is estimated from seismic measurements of present crustal thickness on the assumption that the crust had a uniform thickness equal to that currently measured in the adjacent continental region before rifting occurred rifting is also considered to occur instantaneously a time stepping thermo mechanical model is used to predict the cooling of rifted margin additional thermal contraction subsidence and its amplification by water and sediment loading thermal aspects are calculated using a finite difference model of time dependent conductive heat transport whereas regional isostatic response to loading is calculated by a finite element model the models are coupled because the temperature distribution is used to define a rheological lithosphere an elastic region with thickness that varies in time and space as the model evolves for flexural calculations in the mechanical model secondary coupling occurs through perturbations to the temperature field by sedimentary thermal blanketing and advection of heat during isostatic adjustment the model predictions of 1 sedimentary basin stratigraphy 2 moho position 3 free air gravity anomaly 4 age depth relations for deep exploratory wells and 5 subsidence and temperature histories agree well with observations from the scotian basin additional effects due to sedimentary and crustal radiogenic heat production lateral heat transport and the possible existence of a near surface brittle listric faulted region created during rifting are also considered it is concluded that a model in which rifting occurred by depth dependent extension and which includes a finite thickness for the rheological lithosphere radiogenic heat production in the sediments and crust and a brittle listric faulted crustal layer affords an accurate description of the first order processes that occur during rifting and evolution of this margin

the basin and range province origin and tectonic significance the basin and range province is a vast arid tract of regionally corrugated angular topography of high relief in the western cordillera it is characterized by evenly spaced parallel mountain ranges and intervening desert basins fig ure la the range flanks are marked by poorly sorted gravel aprons that slope smoothly basinward interrupted here and there by low fault scarps that paral lel the range front faults and by alluvial fans at the mouths of canyons draining the ranges thermal springs located at or near range bounding faults attest to vigorous hydrothermal circulation within zones of fracture porosity created and maintained by faulting in the southern part of the province especially in southeastern california and southwestern arizona range fronts have been worn back by erosion leaving a thin veneer of gravel on an erosion cut bedrock surface that slopes gently outward the range bounding faults of these mountain blocks are buried at the outer edge of such pediments often at considerble distances from the erosional remnants of the ranges themselves the american physiographer n m fenneman 1928 1931 named the basin and range province and defined its general boundaries as thus circum scribed the province includes some 800 000 km2 of area in eight western states later students pardee 1950 lawrence 1976 reynolds 1979 eaton 1979b have observed that many of the fundamental geological and geo physical characteristics of the province are found well beyond the boundaries drawn by fenneman which were based on physiography alone as a tec tonophysical entity its areal extent is greater than 1 million km2 more than 10 of the area of the united states figure 1 fenneman 1931 subdivided the province into five physiographic sections the largest of which is the great basin see figure 1b it is not as its name implies a single regional depression with a common topographic center but is characterized instead by isolated networks of interior drainage divisible into

the role of climate driven chemical weathering on soil production climate plays an important role in controlling rates of weathering and weathered regolith production regolith production functions however seldom take climate parameters into account based on a climate dependent weathered regolith production model at low denudation rates relative regolith thicknesses are less sensitive to changes in precipitation rates while at high denudation rates small changes in climatic parameters can result in complete stripping of hillslopes this pattern is compounded by the long residence times and system response times associated with low denudation rates and vice versa as others have shown the transition between regolith mantled and bedrock slopes is dependent on the ratio of denudation to production here we further suggest that this is itself a function of precipitation rate and temperature we suggest that climatic parameters can be easily incorporated into existing soil production models and that such additions improve the predictive power of soil production models

flexural uplift of rift flanks due to mechanical unloading of the lithosphere during extension we suggest that the uplift of rift flanks results from mechanical unloading of the lithosphere during extension and consequent isostatic rebound this mechanism is presented as an alternative to explanations for rift flank uplift involving thermal or dynamic processes and magmatic thickening of the crust our hypothesis is based on two critical concepts first the lithosphere retains finite mechanical strength or flexural rigidity during extension second isostatic rebound uplift of the lithosphere follows when the kinematics of extension produces a surface topographic depression that is deeper than the level to which the surface of the extended lithosphere would subside assuming local isostatic compensation we develop and analyze two kinematic models for instantaneous extension of the lithosphere to show that flexural rebound is a viable explanation for the uplift of rift flanks we first investigate the isostatic consequences of finite simple slip on an initially planar dipping normal fault cutting the entire lithosphere when the lithosphere retains flexural rigidity during extension the topography resulting from this model resembles a half graben and the footwall rift flank is flexurally uplifted this simple normal faulting model explains free air gravity anomalies and topography observed at rift flanks in oceanic lithosphere such as broken ridge in the eastern indian ocean the caroline ridges sorol trough in the western equatorial pacific and the coriolis trough behind the new hebrides island arc we then investigate a general kinematic model for lithospheric extension where simple slip on a surface of arbitrary shape is accompanied by pure shear extension in the upper and lower plates when the simple slip component is not zero or the distribution of pure shear in the upper and lower plates is not identical the surface of slip can be regarded as a detachment by simplification our general model accounts for pure shear extension of the lithosphere that is uniform with depth in this case detachments have no meaning in the geologic sense however the kinematics of depth independent pure shear may nevertheless be described in terms of a surface which we term a kinematic reference surface at some depth in the lithosphere we speculate that the depth of this surface may be rheologically controlled the magnitude of rift flank uplift by flexure depends critically on the depth of this reference surface in contrast if local isostasy is assumed when the lithosphere undergoes a given amount of depth independent pure shear the resulting topography will be the same regardless of how the kinematics of that extension are formulated the basin and rift flank topography and free air gravity anomaly over young continental rifts such as the rhine graben can be satisfied using our general extensional model with a small amount 5 km of extension along a listric shaped detachment soling into the crust mantle boundary because the flexural rebound mechanism explains the observed topography and gravity anomaly over both oceanic and continental extensional domains we suggest that rheological differences between the two lithospheric types may not be important in their overall response to extension

development of the late proterozoic to mid paleozoic intracratonic amadeus basin in central australia a key to understanding tectonic forces in plate interiors the intracratonic amadeus basin in central australia is a complex composite basin covering 17 000 km with at least nine distinct episodes of evolution between 900 and 300 ma these have been identified in neighboring central australian basins and are characterized by intervals of renewed subsidence followed by intervals of erosion and changes in basin shape several unconformities separating the tectonostratigraphic sequences represent periods of mild regional uplifts and correlate with major episodes of compressive tectonism at the evolving margin of the early australian plate in the absence of direct geological evidence for thermal events in the amadeus basin after the initial period of subsidence ended possibly at about 800 ma the correlations found between events in the amadeus basin those in the neighboring interconnected basins and tectonic events at the continental or plate margins emphasize that regional horizontal stress fields contribute significantly to primary basin forming mechanisms this suggests that stresses generated at continental or plate margins may propagate to the plate interior with the lithosphere acting as a stress guide throughout the history of the amadeus basin both periods when compressional stresses were dominant and when extensional tectonics controlled subsidence can be identified there were also transitional periods when neither compression nor extension dominated so that other processes masked the effects of weak horizontal stresses the most recent compressional thrust belt concentrated at the northern margin between 300 and 400 ma and has partly obscured the record of earlier basin shape and size

the breakup sequence and associated lithospheric breakup surface their significance in the context of rifted continental margins west iberia and newfoundland margins north atlantic regional 2d seismic reflection profiles and borehole data are used to characterise the syn to post rift transition in the shallow offshore porto basin and in deep offshore regions of west iberia and newfoundland east canada the interpreted data highlight the development of a regional stratigraphic surface at the time of complete lithospheric breakup between west iberia and newfoundland this surface usually called breakup unconformity is renamed in this work as lithospheric breakup surface lbs on the basis that 1 it is not always developed as an unconformity and 2 all lithosphere is involved on the breakup process not only the continental crust depositional changes occur across the lbs in association with late aptian lithospheric breakup which is marked by the deposition of a breakup sequence bs rather than a single stratigraphic surface stratigraphic correlations between strata in shallow and deeper parts of the two margins lead us to propose the breakup sequence bs as representing the transitional period between lithospheric breakup and the establishment of thermal relaxation as the main process controlling subsidence on divergent continental margins the results in this work are important for other continental margins as they demonstrate that during lithospheric breakup significant quantities of sediment bypassed the inner proximal margins of west iberia and newfoundland on their way to the outer proximal margin in addition the interpreted data show that complete lithospheric breakup between conjugate margins is recorded by similar tectono stratigraphic events in iberia and newfoundland these events are associated with reservoir successions in sediment overfilled basins and with carbon rich strata black shales in sediment starved basins

calculation of organic maturation levels for offshore eastern canada implications for general application of lopatin s method recorded maximum bottom hole temperatures may vary significantly from true formation temperatures because of the effects of drilling fluid circulation a theoretical temperature correction technique was applied to log heading data to compute 191 static temperatures for 64 wells on the scotian shelf a linear regression performed on 140 computed temperatures produced an average geothermal gradient of 2 66 c 100 m correlation coefficient 0 97 a geothermal gradient map constructed from the corrected data shows that areas of thicker sediment accumulation are marked by high geothermal gradients e g abenaki sable subbasins whereas areas of shallow basement coincide with low gradients e g lahave platform canso ridge it is proposed that the major control on the distribution of scotian shelf geothermal gradients is the thermal conductivity of the sediments radiogenic heat production within the sediments and subsurface fluid movement probably contribute to a lesser extent within the basins higher

slip on normal faults induced by surface processes after the cessation of regional extension insights from three dimensional numerical modelling abstract in regions of active extension normal faulting generates topography that is continuously modified by erosion sediment transport and deposition as shown by previous numerical models with full coupling between tectonics and surface processes the redistribution of mass at the earth s surface accelerates the rate of faulting by affecting the stress state of the crust it remains unknown however how fault slip evolves as a result of ongoing surface processes if regional extension as the main driver of faulting ceases here we use three dimensional finite element modelling to show that surface processes acting on normal fault bounded mountain ranges may sustain fault slip for millions of years even after regional extension has stopped the models consist of two successive phases during the first phase the normal fault accumulates displacement owing to an extensional boundary condition while erosion and sediment deposition are active on the model surface at the beginning of the second phase extension of the model is stopped while the surface processes remain active the results show that in most models normal faulting continues during the second phase at rates of 20 to 70 m ma for more than 1 ma in some experiments normal slip is maintained for 3 ma whereas in other models a short phase of normal faulting is followed by slow reverse slip the maximum amount of normal slip in different experiments reaches up to 90 m during the second model phase if erosion is intensified by increasing the diffusion constant by a factor of 5 the fault accumulates the additional normal slip at a faster rate i e during a shorter time period in contrast a five fold variation of the fluvial erosion constant does not significantly affect the fault slip evolution variations of the fault dip and length have a similar effect on the duration of the phase with additional normal slip as variations of the diffusion constant the fault slip evolution is correlated with the temporal evolution of the erosion and sedimentation rates which decrease more or less gradually after the end of extension ultimately the fault slip behaviour is controlled by the evolution of the differential stress which varies through time due to the redistribution of mass on the model surface that is induced by erosion sediment transport and deposition our results imply that individual normal faults may remain active even if regional extension ceases because surface processes continue to modify the fault generated topography

effects of finite rifting times on the development of sedimentary basins abstract most thermo mechanical models for the development of sedimentary basins have assumed that the rifting responsible for the formation of the basin occurred instantaneously and have examined the post rift development of the basin this assumption greatly simplifies the mathematical treatment but is not in accord with what is found in nature where 10 to 50 m y rifting events commonly accompany the formation of sedimentary basins and continental margins the effects of a finite rifting time on the development of sedimentary basins are examined using an analytic technique which allows an arbitrary rifting history in both time and space and which considers the effects of both vertical and horizontal heat transfer this technique allows the thermal structure of the lithosphere to be calculated throughout the rifting event and thus permits the subsidence history and surface heat flow of the developing basin to be traced the effect of a finite duration extension event is that heat is lost during rifting increasing the syn rift subsidence at the expense of the post rift lateral heat flow which was not included in previous studies of the effect of finite rifting times has a significant effect on the subsidence history distribution of sediments and thermal history in particular the post rift subsidence is decreased by more than 25 for a 20 m y rifting event and by more than 10 15 for a rifting event as short as 10 m y this will significantly decrease the subsidence rates in the post rift stage and implies that inferences concerning the structure development and thermal history of the basin derived from using curves to interpret backstripped subsidence can be greatly in error variations in syn rift sediment accumulation and lithospheric thermal structure at the end of rifting resulting from different rifting histories can interact with other factors such as the flexural response of the lithosphere to sediment loading to affect the final width of the basin the total amount of sediments that accumulate and the basin stratigraphy

role of tectonic denudation in warping and uplift of low angle normal faults large displacement on a low angle normal fault results in isostatic uplift of the lower plate in response to tectonic denudation simple models of the denudation process predict warping of the lower plate into a broad antiform or antiform synform pair with axes perpendicular to the direction of extension the amount of warping is strongly influenced by initial fault geometry surface topography the amount of extension and the distribution of extension within the upper plate late stage processes that augment antiform growth include one sided denudation of the antiform reverse faulting due to concave upward flexure and wholesale detachment and reverse drag folding of the antiform antiformal uplifts now exhumed by erosion form mountain ranges in the southwestern united states where conditions were favorable for warping during mid tertiary crustal extension four major structural domains are apparent in transects across these uplifts and adjacent areas 1 unextended area 2 synformal upper plate 3 antiformal uplift and 4 wedge shaped upper plate each domain is separated from adjacent domains by the traces of a master low angle normal fault

long term controls on soil organic carbon with depth and time a case study from the cowlitz river chronosequence wa usa abstract over timescales of soil development millennia the capacity of soils to stabilize soil organic carbon soc is linked to soil development through changes in soil mineralogy and other soil properties in this study an extensive dataset of soil profile chemistry and mineralogy is compiled from the cowlitz river chronosequence crc wa usa the crc soils range in age from 0 25 to 1200 kyr spanning a developmental gradient encompassing clear changes in soil mineralogy chemistry and surface area comparison of these and other metrics of soil development with soc properties reveal several relationships that may be diagnostic of the long term coupling of soil development and c cycling specifically soc content was significantly correlated with sodium pyrophosphate extractable metals emphasizing the relevance of organo metal complexes in volcanic soils the depth distributions of organo metals and other secondary weathering products including the kaolin and short range order sro minerals support the so called binary composition of volcanic soils the formation of organo metal complexes limits the accumulation of secondary minerals in shallow soils whereas in deep soils with lower soc content secondary minerals accumulate in the crc soils secondary minerals formed in deep soils below 50 cm including smectite allophane fe oxides and dominated by the kaolin mineral halloysite the abundance of halloysite was significantly correlated with bulk soil surface area and 14 c content a proxy for the mean age of soc implying enhanced stability of c in deep soils allophane an sro mineral commonly associated with soc storage was not correlated with soc content or 14 c values in crc soils we propose conceptual framework to describe these observations based on a general understanding of pedogenesis in volcanic soils where soc cycling is coupled with soil development through the formation of and fate of organo metal or other mobile weathering products this framework highlights interactions between soc and soil development which may be applicable to other soils where organic inputs interact with the products of chemical weathering

slip acceleration on normal faults due to erosion and sedimentation results from a new three dimensional numerical model coupling tectonics and landscape evolution abstract although it is well accepted that mass redistribution on earth s surface due to erosion and sedimentation affects the rate of crustal deformation the influence of surface processes on the slip behaviour of individual faults remains poorly understood here we use the new tool casqus which combines landscape evolution modelling with three dimensional tectonic models to investigate how erosion and sediment deposition affect fault behaviour in extensional tectonic regimes a systematic set of experiments with models consisting of an isostatically responding elastic upper crust containing a single normal fault shows that the slip accumulation on the fault is accelerated by erosion and sedimentation depending on fault geometry extension rate and parameters controlling erosion and sediment deposition the slip rate of the normal fault is up to 15 higher when surface processes are taken into account the slip acceleration can be explained by an increase in the differential stress caused by erosion of the fault footwall and sedimentation in the hanging wall which alter the faulting induced flexure of the crust we observe a similar slip rate increase in a more complex model of a growing horst bounded by three faults of different length our results show that a positive feedback exists between surface processes and tectonics and imply that geologically derived fault slip rates that integrate over several earthquake cycles may contain a contribution from surface processes

three dimensional numerical modeling of slip rate variations on normal and thrust fault arrays during ice cap growth and melting 1 changes in the volumes of ice caps considerably alter the stress state of the lithosphere by generating a transient signal that is added to the tectonic background stress field these stress field changes in turn affect crustal deformation and in particular the slip behavior of existing faults here we use three dimensional finite element models to investigate how arrays of normal and thrust faults near a growing and subsequently melting ice cap are influenced in their slip evolution the results show that regardless of fault dip both types of faults experience a decrease in their slip rate during ice cap advance and an increase in their slip rate during ice cap retreat if they are located beneath the ice cap in contrast faults outside the ice cap that are loaded on their footwall or hanging wall only show the opposite pattern their slip rate increases during glacial loading and decreases during subsequent unloading if the load is located along strike of the fault that is at one of its tips the slip behavior of normal and thrust faults is different the normal fault shows a slip rate increase during unloading the thrust fault during loading our results explain the location and timing of deglaciation induced paleoearthquakes in scandinavia and the contrasting slip histories reported from normal faults in the basin and range province which are located at different positions relative to the former yellowstone ice cap more generally our findings imply that a uniform slip behavior of faults in formerly glaciated regions should not be expected

on a tectonic mechanism for regional sealevel variations abstract no satisfactory tectonic explanations have yet been offered for the apparent sealevel fluctuations of about 1 cm 1000 years and a magnitude of up to a few hundred meters that have been proposed by vail et al 1 we propose a mechanism that does appear to be able to explain these changes if horizontal stresses of the order of a few kilobars occur in the lithosphere and if changes in these stress fields occur on geological time scales the proposed model is one of an interaction between these stresses and the deflections of the lithosphere caused by sedimentary loading apparent sealevel changes of up to 100 m can be produced at the flanks of the sedimentary basins by this interaction the mechanism is most effective for young margins that are subject to rapid sediment loading by its nature the tectonic model can explain contemporaneous fluctuations in apparent sealevel in neighbouring depositional environments in principle it implies the possibility of regional correlations in different basinal settings

detachment faulting and the evolution of passive continental margins major detachment faults play a key role in the lithospheric extension process in the basin and range province and may also be important in other continental extension terranes such detachment faulting leads to an inherent asymmetry of extensional structure and of uplift subsidence patterns detachment models developed for the formation of metamorphic core complexes can also be applied to the formation of passive continental margins we therefore suggest the existence of upper plate and lower plate passive margins these give rise to a complementary asymmetry of opposing margins after continental breakup transfer faults offset marginal features and allow margins to switch from upper plate to lower plate characteristics along strike

postrift history of the eastern central atlantic passive margin insights from the saharan region of south morocco the passive margin of south morocco is a low elevated passive margin it constitutes one of the oldest margins of the atlantic ocean with an early jurassic breakup and little geological data are available concerning its postrift reactivation so far we investigated the postrift thermal history of the onshore part of the margin with low temperature thermochronology on apatite crystals fission track and u th sm he ages we obtained are significantly younger than the breakup 190 ma fission track ages range from 107 8 to 175 16 ma with mean track lengths from 10 7 0 3 to 12 5 0 2 m u th sm he ages range from 14 1 to 185 15 ma using inverse modeling of low temperature thermochronological data we demonstrate that the south moroccan continental margin underwent a complex postrift history with at least two burial and exhumation phases the first exhumation event occurred during late jurassic early cretaceous and we attribute this to mantle dynamics rather than to intrinsic rifting related processes such as flexural rebound the second event from late cretaceous to early paleogene might record the onset of africa europe convergence we show a remarkably common behavior of the whole moroccan passive margin during its early postrift evolution the present day differences result from a segmentation of the margin domains due to the africa europe convergence finally we propose that varying retained strengths during rifting and also the specific crustal lithospheric geometry of stretching explain the difference between the topographical expressions on the continental african margin compared to its american counterpart

silicon isotopes record dissolution and re precipitation of pedogenic clay minerals in a podzolic soil chronosequence by providing the largest part of the reactive surface area of soils secondary minerals play a major role in terrestrial biogeochemical processes the understanding of the mechanisms governing neo trans formation of pedogenic clay minerals in soils is therefore of the utmost importance to learn how soils evolve and impact the chemistry of elements in terrestrial environments soil forming processes governing the evolution of secondary aluminosilicates in podzols are however still not fully understood the evolution of silicon si isotope signature in the clay fraction of a podzolic soil chronosequence can provide new insight into these processes enabling to trace the source of si in secondary aluminosilicates during podzol forming processes characterized by the mobilization transport and precipitation of carbon metals and si the si isotope compositions in the clay fraction comprised of primary and secondary minerals document an increasing light 28 si enrichment and depletion with soil age respectively in illuvial b horizons and eluvial e horizon the mass balance approach demonstrates that secondary minerals in the topsoil eluvial e horizons are isotopically heavier with 30 si values increasing from 0 39 to 0 64 in c a 200years while secondary minerals in the illuvial bhs horizon are isotopically lighter 30 si 2 31 compared to the original unweathered secondary minerals in bc horizon 30 si 1 40 the evolution of si isotope signatures is explained by the dissolution of pedogenic clay minerals in the topsoil which is a source of light 28 si for the re precipitation of new clay minerals in the subsoil this provides consistent evidence that in strong weathering environment such as encountered in podzols si released from secondary minerals is partially used to form tertiary clay minerals over very short time scales ca 300years our dataset demonstrates the usefulness to measure si isotope signatures in the clay fraction to discern clay mineral changes e g neoformation versus solid state transformation during soil evolution this offers new opportunity to better understand clay mineral genesis under environmental changes and the short term impact of the dissolution and re precipitation of pedogenic clay minerals on soil fertility soil carbon budget and elemental cycles in soil plant systems 2014 elsevier b v

the position of continental flood basalts in rift zones and its bearing on models of rifting abstract two models of rifting pure shear and simple shear are at present being widely discussed in this paper attention is drawn to the fact that continental flood basalts cfb associated with rifts usually display a strong asymmetry relative to the rift axis the karroo the parana and the deccan basalts as well as the ethiopian flood basalts and the basalts of the arabian shield are concentrated mainly on one side of the respective rifts structural data indicate that the eruptions occurred on the upper plates if the low angle simple shear model of wernicke 1985 is accepted it is suggested that the asymmetry of eruptions is caused by the asymmetric position of the asthenopheic rise predicted by this model the low angle detachment may serve as a conduit for magmatic fluid this fits well with data on the existence of large magmatic reservoirs of cfb at subcrustal or crustal levels and explains why eruptions are concentrated in the rift and on one of its shoulders while being restricted on the other this asymmetry of volcanism supports models of continental rifting associated with low angle simple shear detachment

variations in heat flow across the goban spur and galicia bank continental margins we present the results of 44 new heat flow stations which were taken in 1984 and 1989 in profiles across the goban spur and galicia bank continental margins nw atlantic ocean simple extensional models indicate that the heat flow across both these early cretaceous rifted margins should increase from values of 45 50 mw m2 over oceanic crust to 65 80 mw m2 on the continents the rate of this increase should help to constrain the mechanism simple versus pure shear by which the upper more radiogenic continental crust is thinned measurements across goban spur increase from values of 40 45 mw m2 over oceanic crust to 50 55 mw m2 near the continental shelf they follow the predicted trend for pure shear rifting but only if the value of upper crustal radiogenic heating is low 1 2 mu w m3 otherwise they would require the upper crust to thin more rapidly than the total crustal thickness as with a lower plate simple shear margin measurements across galicia bank show a very different pattern with similar values over oceanic crust but much lower values 30 35 mw m2 nearer land this is difficult to reconcile with any simple single rifting event but is more compatible with an origin as a pure shear or lower plate rather than upper plate margin we also note that oceanic values of heat flow require asthenospheric temperatures 100 degrees c lower than normal for both margins this indicates that the triple junction in existence between these margin segments during the breakup of iberia europe and north america was not the site of a major mantle plume

heterogeneous stretching simple shear and basin development abstract the models of basin development which involve either homogeneous stretching of the whole lithosphere or displacement on a lithospheric scale shear zone are but two end members of a range of possible extensional models the homogeneous extension model thins the lower lithosphere beneath the thinned upper crust and superimposes a thermal subsidence basin on the earlier fault bounded basin the shear zone model offsets the zone of lower lithospheric stretching and thermal subsidence it is more likely that the zones of upper and lower lithospheric stretching will be heterogeneous and patchy but will often overlap in plan view this will produce localised uplift and subsequent thermal subsidence within the faulted basin and may explain many of the anomalies between the various stretching estimates made using different structural stratigraphic and geophysical techniques the model which combines heterogeneous lithospheric stretching and associated simple shear may explain 1 variations in dip of the major detachment zones in the large basins 2 variations in types of strain on or beneath the detachment zones 3 regional uplift of part of a basin to erode the earlier fault blocks and 4 the development of volcanism in basins with only low values of upper crustal extension the zone of stretched lower crust and lithospheric mantle may lie beneath the centre of the zone of upper crustal stretching or to one side it may be linked to the upper crustal zone by faults which dip consistently in one direction or by extensional systems which change their dominant dip direction with depth pulling out the mid crust as one or more wedges possible examples are discussed from the basin and range province and northwest european continental shelf

quantitative modeling of thermal history at extensional terrains involving lithospheric detachments constraints from apatite fission track analysis afta abstract models of major detachment faults or zones penetrating the entire continental lithosphere have proven remarkably successful in accounting for the often complex structure across several conjugate passive margins and across extending continental terrains inherent in lithospheric detachment fault ldf models is a complementary asymmetry in the structural evolution at margin pairs during and following active extension ldf models also require that opposing margins exhibit complementary asymmetry in their heating history their modeling shows that significantly different thermal histories on opposing margins will be recorded by fission tracks in grains of apatite within basement rocks and overlying sediments apatite fission track analysis provides constraints on the magnitude and timing of the thermal perturbation related to extension and also on the geometry of the detachment fault using quantified ldf models which include instantaneous rifting and planar low angle detachment faulting they show that fission track parameters age and length are a sensitive indicator of upper and lower plate behavior examples from australia s southeast highlands southern margin and antarctica are consistent with ldf models model results show that relatively hotter and uplifted upper plate terrains are characterized by significantly lower apparent fission track ages and different length distributions than their lower plate counterpart in addition fission trackmore parameters can be used to assess the maturation history and hydrocarbon potential in sedimented regions of upper and lower plate terrain pairs less

thermal evolution of rifted continental margins new evidence from fission tracks in basement apatites from southeastern australia the palaeozoic granitic basement of southeastern australia shows a regular pattern of apatite fission track ages which is dominated by a rapid decrease in apparent age towards the rifted continental margin apparent ages away from the margin vary between about 230 and 360 myr but drop sharply to minimum values of around 80 myr near the coast just south of the sydney basin and 150 175 myr elsewhere along the coast fission track length information allows the age pattern to be interpreted as the result of partial to complete resetting of the older ages by a widespread thermal event at about 80 100 myr this event accompanied the rift phase of passive margin development and peaked just before the onset of sea floor spreading in the adjacent tasman sea the zone of reduced apatite ages is deeply embayed around the gippsland basin supporting the suggestion that it originated as a cretaceous failed arm of the tasman rift system the thermal event has affected apatites up to about 130 km from the margin and has produced a characteristic set of bimodal track length distributions in apatites with partially reset ages the bimodality gradually disappears towards the oldest apatite ages which have negatively skewed unimodal distributions the youngest apatites also tend towards unimodal length distributions indicating that thermal annealing of pre existing tracks in these samples went almost to completion maximum temperatures reached in samples presently exposed in the coastal area were thus probably about 110 120 c thermal activity was accompanied by considerable uplift across the region followed by gradual erosion to expose the present land surface post breakup erosion was generally greater towards the new coastline with near coastal samples being previously buried a probable 1 5 2 5 km

normal faulting driven by denudational isostatic rebound fluvial piracy in the guadix baza basin southeast spain promoted erosion of a high volume of sediments during the late quaternary after the former internal drainage of this basin changed to external due to headward erosion by the guadalquivir river as a response to load release this basin underwent uplift which in turn enhanced fluvial incision and erosional processes differential erosion within the guadix baza basin resulted in dissimilar isostatic rebound we numerically model the lithospheric response to sediment unloading and show a total rising of 15 m in the guadix subbasin compared to 2 m in the baza subbasin this differential uplift is likely to have been accommodated along the baza normal fault which has been active throughout the quaternary modeling results suggest that 13 of the total quaternary fault throw directly arises from the differential isostatic readjustment between subbasins this example is one of the first estimates of fault slip partitioning between tectonic and isostatic effects due to unloading driven by river incision

a dynamic model of extension in the baltimore canyon trough region a dynamic model of extension in the baltimore canyon trough region of the central north atlantic indicates that rifting proceeded in two stages and was controlled by laterally offset preexisting weaknesses within the middle crust and upper mantle beneath the appalachian orogen the crustal weakness is hypothesized to result from thin skinned thrust faulting in the appalachian foreland and the upper mantle weakness results from crustal thickening beneath the appalachian hinterland during the early stages of rifting 225 185 ma the loci of extension in the crust and mantle lie within the respective preweakened regions and are connected by a shear zone in the lower crust in a manner similar to whole lithosphere simple shear extension and thinning of the upper crust at this time results in the formation of late triassic early jurassic rift basins in the appalachian piedmont and in the development of a horizontal pressure gradient which drives widespread ductile flow in the lower crust the pressure gradient may also have influenced magma transport moving melt generated beneath the eastern baltimore canyon trough into the more westerly triassic basin province during the late stages of rifting 185 175 ma extension in the crust shifts to a position overlying the preexisting upper mantle weakness as a result of thermal weakening by the upwelling asthenosphere in this region the loci of extension in the crust and mantle are then coincident and the style of rifting becomes similar to whole lithosphere pure shear the shift in the locus of crustal extension is accompanied by the cessation of subsidence and volcanism in the triassic basins the onset of rapid subsidence in the baltimore canyon trough and the formation of a basement hinge zone separating the highly thinned crust beneath the baltimore canyon trough from moderately thinned crust beneath the triassic basin province extension becomes increasingly focused beneath the eastern edge of the baltimore canyon trough until the onset of seafloor spreading approximately 50 m y after rifting began the resulting conjugate margins are asymmetric with most of the region encompassing the triassic basins stranded on the north american plate

uniform sense normal simple shear of the continental lithosphere geophysical studies suggest that the thin crust characteristic of the basin and range province extends eastward beneath the west margin of the colorado plateau and rocky mountain regions in arizona and utah zones perhaps over 100 km wide may be defined bounded on the west by the east limit of upper crustal normal faults that account for more that 10 extension and on the east by the east limit of thinning beneath the colorado plateau a discrepancy exists within these zones between the negligible extension measurable in the upper crust and the substantial extension apparent from crustal thinning assuming the discrepant zone crust was as thick as or thicker than the colorado plateau rocky mountain crust prior to extensional tectonism if various theories appealing to crustal erosion are dismissed mass balance problems evident in the discrepant zones are most easily resolved by down to the east normal simple shear of the crust moving lower and middle crustal rocks that initially were within the zones up and to the west to where they now are locally exposed in the basin and range province west of the discrepant zones in both arizona and utah east directed extensional allochthons with large displacement are exposed these geophysical and geological observations complement one another if it is accepted that the entire crust in both arizona and utah failed during extension on gently east dipping east directed low angle normal faults and shear zones over a region several hundred kilometres wide large scale uniform sense normal simple shear of the crust suggests the entire lithosphere may do the same such a hypothesis predicts major lithospheric thinning without crustal thinning will occur in plateau areas in the direction of crustal shear in the case of the arizona utah and red sea extensional systems and possibly the death valley extensional terrain a broad topographic arch typically 1500 2000 m higher than the extended terrain is present suggesting lithospheric thinning in areas predicted by the hypothesis

stability of organic carbon accumulating in spartina alterniflora dominated salt marshes of the mid atlantic u s abstract organic carbon sequestration in salt marsh soils is a function of factors that influence both spatial variability and chemical stability of accumulating carbon refractory carbon slowly decomposed may be the most important in terms of long term sequestration and is widely referred to in models of carbon storage however little information exists about the quantity and variability of refractory carbon accumulation in marshes in this study total c t labile c l and refractory c r organic carbon accumulation rates were measured for spartina alterniflora dominated marshes representing different geomorphological settings with a range of vertical accretion rates three 50 cm long cores were collected in each of three marshes in barnegat bay and three marshes in delaware estuary usa rates of c accumulation were calculated using cesium 137 dating and the relative stability of soil organic carbon was quantified using acid hydrolysis c t accumulation ranged over fourfold among marshes from 72 to 346 g m 2 yr 1 c t and c l accumulation increased with increasing mineral sediment accumulation while c r accumulation was uniform across cores averaging 78 5 g m 2 yr 1 similar rates of c r accumulation across marsh areas with different accretion and mineral sediment accumulation rates was associated with a decline in the c r c l density ratio as mineral volume increased our results suggest that carbon accumulation is higher in salt marshes with higher mineral sedimentation due primarily to the burial of labile carbon and that there is a limit on the rate of chemically recalcitrant carbon accumulation in marsh soils

along strike variations of the slip direction on normal faults insights from three dimensional finite element models normal faults in nature exhibit a systematic variation of the slip direction along strike with pure dip slip at their centres that changes gradually to oblique slip near their tips here we evaluate the variation of the slip direction along normal faults by three dimensional finite element modelling the model results reveal a nearly linear increase of the strike slip component over two thirds of the distance from the fault centre to its tips which results in an increasing obliqueness of the slip vector along strike excluding the fault tips the relationship between lateral slip and fault length can be approximated by a power law function which shows that the strike slip component is proportional to the dip slip and to the fault dip the development of the sinistral and dextral slip components is caused by the orientation of the minimum principal stress which is deflected toward the fault centre in both footwall and hanging wall a comparison with two faults in the central apennines italy shows good agreement between modelled and measured slip vectors the occurrence of converging slip patterns implies that caution is advised when inferring oblique extension regional stress trajectories and palaeostress fields from slip vectors measured away from the fault centre

thermochronologic evidence of major tectonic denudation associated with detachment faulting northern ruby mountains east humboldt range nevada fission track ft thermochronology studies on igneous and metamorphic rocks from the ruby mountains east humboldt range metamorphic core complex provide important constraints on the timing and nature of major mid tertiary extension in northeast nevada rocks from within the ruby east humboldt detachment brittle ductile normal sense shear zone were analyzed the dominant lithology studied was variably mylonitic mafic orthogneiss nonmylonitic amphibolite from the top of the structurally lower migmatitic core and porphyritic biotite granodiorite from the oligocene circa 36 ma harrison pass pluton were also studied ft ages on apatite zircon and sphene except one 18 4 ma apatite from the basal portion of the detachment zone are concordant and range in age from 26 5 ma to 23 6 ma all ages overlap at 1 between 25 4 ma and 23 4 ma these data suggest that rocks of the upper and middle portions of the detachment zone cooled rapidly from temperatures above 285 c sphene closure temperature to below 70 c lower temperature limit of track stability in apatite near the beginning of the miocene minimum cooling rate of 40 c ma the length distribution of confined fission tracks in apatites from these exhumed middle crustal rocks is strikingly similar to those of rocks known to have cooled rapidly fish canyon ash flow tuff the lower part of the detachment zone as well as the underlying migmatitic core also cooled through sphene and zircon closure temperatures during this time interval but apparently only cooled to a temperature within the zone of partial annealing of apatite 70 130 c residence of these rocks in this zone led to a partial retention of fission tracks thus resulting in a reduced age confined track length distributions from apatite provide independent evidence of very rapid cooling but also indicate that the rocks of the lower detachment zone experienced a more protracted cooling history remained hotter longer than structurally higher levels of the zone ft data firmly establish the lower limit on the timing of mylonitization during detachment faulting in this area as 23 4 ma rapid cooling of the region is considered to reflect large scale tectonic denudation intracrustal thinning the vertical complement to crustal extension rocks originating in the middle crust 10 15 km were quickly brought near the surface along the ruby east humboldt detachment fault brittle ductile simple shear zone and juxtaposed against brittlely extended rocks deformed under upper crustal conditions

soil carbon storage controlled by interactions between geochemistry and climate rising temperature can increase soil organic matter decomposition and co2 emissions in a 4 000 km north south transect in chile and antarctica soil geochemistry which can be modified by climate is the dominant direct control of carbon storage soils are an important site of carbon storage1 climate is generally regarded as one of the primary controls over soil organic carbon1 2 but there is still uncertainty about the direction and magnitude of carbon responses to climate change here we show that geochemistry too is an important controlling factor for soil carbon storage we measured a range of soil and climate variables at 24 sites along a 4 000 km long north south transect of natural grassland and shrubland in chile and the antarctic peninsula which spans a broad range of climatic and geochemical conditions we find that soils with high carbon content are characterized by substantial adsorption of carbon compounds onto mineral soil and low rates of respiration per unit of soil carbon and vice versa for soils with low carbon content precipitation and temperature were only secondary predictors for carbon storage respiration residence time and stabilization mechanisms correlations between climatic variables and carbon variables decreased significantly after removing relationships with geochemical predictors we conclude that the interactions of climatic and geochemical factors control soil organic carbon storage and turnover and must be considered for robust prediction of current and future soil carbon storage

metamorphic core complexes of cordilleran type in the cyclades aegean sea greece the islands of ios and naxos in the cycladic archipelago greece contain elongate domes over which a pervasive north to north northeast stretching lineation is warped these islands may be metamorphic core complexes of cordilleran type involving middle crustal rocks drawn upward and outward from underneath the sedimentary basins now 100 km to the south from ca 25 ma onward during uplift the crystalline rocks now exposed on the islands were deformed noncoaxially in the deeper levels of a major shallow dipping ductile shear zone this shear zone may have connected with low angle normal faults in its upper levels because it is probable that its later history involved the metamorphic complexes being dragged out from under a stretching and fracturing upper plate composed mainly of unmetamorphosed sedimentary and ophiolite suite rocks this model can be extended to explain the exhumation of the high pressure low temperature metamorphic rocks on crete which with the cyclades forms a distended paired metamorphic belt separated by an active sedimentary basin

landscape evolution at the margin of the basin and range streams erode new basins in extensional mountain ranges where tectonic asymmetry facilitates divide migration ranges in the northern basin and range of the united states form a space for time series that illustrates stream incision and divide migration following footwall uplift accelerating basin growth and changes in the amount and direction of volume loss during basin expansion stream erosion exceeds hillslope retreat which elevates summit plateaus

transform margins development controls and petroleum systems an introduction this paper provides an overview of the existing knowledge of transform margins including their dynamic development kinematic development structural architecture and thermal regime together with the factors controlling these this systematic knowledge is used for describing predictive models of various petroleum system concept elements such as source rock seal rock and reservoir rock distribution expulsion timing trapping style and timing and migration patterns the paper then introduces individual contributions to this volume and their focus supplementary material location table and map of specific transform examples structural elements of the romanche transform margin and glossary of terms used in this article is available at https doi org 10 6084 m9 figshare c 3276407 gold open access this article is published under the terms of the cc by 3 0 license this volume shows dynamic linkage between new transform margin research and increasing transform margin exploration it offers a critical set of predictive tools via an understanding of the mechanisms involved in the development of play concept elements at transform margins and their controlling factors our introduction to this volume reviews the current knowledge of the transform margins focusing on their dynamic development kinematic development structural architecture thermal regimes and petroleum systems the last part of this paper introduces the contributions to this volume

a stretching model for the oslo rift abstract data on the tectonic and magmatic activity crustal thickness seismic velocity and gravity have been integrated to constrain a stretching model for the late carboniferous early permian oslo rift the crustal structure and numerical modelling of temperature and melt generation during rifting suggest that the oslo rift in skagerrak developed in response to crustal stretching with a factor between 1 4 and 1 6 however upper crustal extension by faulting accounts for a stretching factor of only 1 1 1 2 thermal expansion of the lithosphere due to an increased asthenospheric potential temperature the intrusion of melted mantle material into the lower crust and probably a lowering of the erosional base by a fall in sea level all contributed to the erosion of 2 4 km of lower palaeozoic pre rift sediments over large areas the lateral extent of the thermal anomaly reached far beyond the oslo and skagerrak grabens

crustal structure from three dimensional gravity modeling of a metamorphic core complex a model for uplift santa catalina rincon mountains arizona gravity modeling shows that the observed fluctuations in gravity over the catalina rincon metamorphic core complex of southeastern arizona are caused primarily by shallow crustal density contrasts the wilderness suite granites the probable source of a 20 mgal low over the central part of the core complex may extend to depths of 7 12 km below the surface seismic refraction information is consistent with the existence of a deep crustal root under the catalina rincon core complex we hypothesize that the voluminous wilderness suite granites are related to a crustal thickening event that built the root in early tertiary time modeling of flexural isostatic uplift resulting from an excess crustal root predicts two episodes of uplift for the catalina rincon metamorphic core complex 1 low relief flexural uplift in the middle tertiary and 2 complete uplift precipitated by high angle basin and range faulting at 10 15 ma the uplift and exposure of core complexes therefore can be an isostatically driven process that occurs in regions of locally thickened crust

escarpment evolution on high elevation rifted margins insights derived from a surface processes model that combines diffusion advection and reaction experiments with a surface processes model of large scale 1 1000 km long term 1 100 m y erosional denudation are used to establish the controls on the evolution of a model escarpment that is related to the rifting of a continent the model describes changes in topographic form as a result of simultaneous short and long range mass transport representing hillslope diffusive processes and fluvial transport advection respectively fluvial entrainment is modeled as a first order kinetic reaction which reflects the credibility of the substrate and therefore the fluvial system is not necessarily carrying at capacity one dimensional and planform models demonstrate that the principal controls on the evolution of an initially steep model escarpment are 1 antecedent topography drainage 2 the timescale or equivalently a length scale in the fluvial entrainment reaction 3 the flexural response of the lithosphere to denudation and 4 the relative efficiencies of the short and long range transport processes when rainfall and substrate lithology are uniform a significant amount of discharge draining over the escarpment top causes it to degrade only when the top of the model escarpment coincides with a drainage divide can escarpment retreat occur for these conditions an additional requirement for retreat of a model escarpment without decline is a long reaction time scale for fluvial entrainment this corresponds to a substrate that is hard to detach by fluvial erosion and therefore to fluvial erosion that is not transport limited continuous backtilting of an escarpment due to flexural isostatic uplift in response to denudational unloading helps maintain the scarp top as a divide it is essential if the escarpment gradient is to be preserved during retreat in a uniform lithology low flexural rigidities promote steep and slowly retreating escarpments for given rainfall and substrate conditions the morphology of a retreating model escarpment is determined by the ratio of the short range diffusive and long range advective transport efficiencies a low ratio which is interpreted to correspond to a relatively arid climate and weathering limited conditions promotes steep sharp topped escarpments with straight main slopes and escarpment retreat occurs over a wide range of height scales a high ratio interpreted to correspond to a more humid temperate climate produces a convex upper slope and concave lower slope morphology and only major escarpments are predicted to preserve a high scarp gradient lithological contrasts in the model produce more complex morphologies and predict the formation of scarps crowned by an erosionally resistant caprock however resistant caprocks are not an essential requirement for model scarps to retreat we conclude that the inferred controls and model behavior are both consistent with the present day morphology of rifted continental margins and with modern conceptual models of landscape evolution

geomorphology of active faulting and seismic hazard assessment new tools and future challenges by witold zuchiewicz and jerzy zasadni 2012 intended for this volume young tectonics of the outer western carpathians in the light of some morphometric indices in this paper we test the applicability of some morphometric indices commonly used in tectonic geomorphological studies to the area of the outer western carpathians representing an alpine fold and thrust belt this belt was shaped largely in miocene times and shows traces of pliocene quaternary tectonic activity consisting mainly in some remnant folding and faulting this is indicated by scarce examples of faulting within quaternary strata numerous cases of clast fracturing owing to palaeoearthquakes of relatively large magnitudes as well as warping and tilting of pleistocene and holocene strath terraces analysis of selected morphometric indices valley floor width valley height ratio riverbed gradients stream length gradient index basin elongation ratios and others conducted for the entire region and some chosen test areas in the westernmost part of the outer western ac c ep te d m an u sc r ip t accepted manuscript 24 carpathians proved their usefulness in detecting zones showing tendencies to young surface uplift however in the case of the stream length gradient index sl hack s index a word of caution should be added since the index is extremely sensitive to lithologic contrasts in the bedrock and its applicability to young tectonic analysis of fold and thrust belts appears to be strongly limited dr andrzej piotrowski apiot pgi gov pl szczecinie panstwowy instytut geologiczny szczecin poland and dr klaus reicherter rwth aachen university germany

an alternative model for the growth of faults conventional growth models suggest that faults become larger due to systematic increases in both maximum displacement and length we propose an alternative growth model where fault lengths are near constant from an early stage and growth is achieved mainly by increase in cumulative displacement the model reconciles the scaling properties of faults and earthquakes and predicts a progressive increase in fault displacement to length ratios as a fault system matures this growth scheme is directly applicable to reactivated fault systems in which fault lengths were inherited from underlying structure and established rapidly the model may also apply to some non reactivated fault systems near constant fault lengths during subsequent growth are attributed to retardation of lateral propagation by interaction between fault tips the model is validated using kinematic constraints from growth strata which are displaced by a system of reactivated normal faults in the timor sea nw australia

thermal and isostatic consequences of simple shear extension of the continental lithosphere abstract quantitative results are presented for a model involving large scale simple shear of continental lithosphere the locally compensated finite element model includes the effects of sedimentation radiogenic heat production in the crust and sediments and finite rates of extension flexural effects during firting are examined using a simple shear model with a uniform initial elastic thickness the locally compensated model predicts that a breakup unconformity develops on the upper plate when extension occurs at typical plate tectonic velocities subsidence occurs as the upper and lower lithospheric plates separate extension creates the potential for large accumulations of sediment 20 km most of which is syn rift if sedimentation keeps pace with subsidence the effect of flexure is to modify the shape of the detachment surface and the uplift patterns on the flanks of the upper and lower plate sedimentary basins a model which incorporates flexure predicts significant uplift of the lower plate as it is unloaded by the upper plate during extension the wernicke simple shear model can be distinguished from its opposite end member the mckenzie pure shear model by the predicted asymmetry in thermal evolution higher predicted heat flux within the upper plate uplift subsidence histories and stratigraphic development of the upper and lower plates

direct evidence of the feedback between climate and weathering long term climate moderation is commonly attributed to chemical weathering the higher the temperature and precipitation the faster the weathering rate weathering releases divalent cations to the

modelling soil genesis in calcareous loess abstract the soilgen1 model was developed to simulate soil development in calcareous loess at holocene 15 000 bp present temporal extent we used the leachc model as a core and added process formulations to describe the effect of vegetation and soil macrofauna on various soil properties a limited calibration was done on the calcite solubility constant by comparing decarbonization rates in various leaching climates with values predicted by the metamodel of egli and fitze egli m and fitze p 2001 quantitative aspects of carbonate leaching of soils with differing ages and climates catena 46 35 62 soil profiles of c and ph after 15 000 years compared well with measurements in a belgian loess profile that was never under agriculture taking the composition of the c horizon as uniform parent material scenarios with and without agriculture with varying degrees of bioturbation and for documented holocene climatic and vegetation evolutions in belgium and hungary were simulated and compared results show a clear effect of bioturbation on soil development especially in the continental climate evolution of hungary indicators for the possible occurrence of clay migration and disturbance of lateglacial morphology were calculated and these also show the importance of bioturbation

displacement rates of normal faults previous estimates of displacement rates on individual faults have been limited to neotectonic faults and averaged over time intervals of about 200 kyr or less1 2 3 4 5 these estimates have been highly variable which has led to a belief that longer term displacement rates on individual faults are likely to be variable as well here we report estimates of long term normal fault displacement rates averaged over time intervals ranging from 1 to 40 myr and based on observed decreases in displacement of progressively younger horizons intersected by syn sedimentary faults we find that displacement rates are remarkably stable over these longer time periods and within a given fault system the rates are strongly dependent on the relative size of the fault as measured by cumulative vertical displacement taken together these results indicate that faults become large relative to nearby faults by having higher displacement rates even when small rather than as a consequence of having been active for longer our analyses also show that high regional strain rates tend to be accommodated by high fault displacement rates rather than high fault densities

late miocene ductile extension and detachment faulting mykonos greece the geometry and style of structural relations at map to microscopic scale on mykonos cyclades aegean sea greece suggests ductile extension and detachment faulting during the late miocene this island is dominated by granitic rocks that have a well developed shallowly dipping mylonitic foliation and a northeast southwest trending mineral elongation lineation kinematic indicators in these rocks exhibit a top to the northeast down dip sense of shear textural relations suggest that conditions during mylonitic deformation were greenschist to amphibolite facies and published k ar geochronology suggests a late miocene age for this deformation event mylonitic rocks lie in the footwall of a low angle fault and fault striae parallel to the elongation lineation suggest kinematic coordination between mylonitic deformation and movement along the fault translation along the fault juxtaposes younger tilted sedimentary rocks of low metamorphic grade upon the once deeper mylonitic rocks the style and geometry of deformational fabrics and map relations on this island are strikingly similar to those observed in metamorphic core complexes of the western united states

the origin of large local uplift in extensional regions large localized uplift is commonly observed in continental regions undergoing extension these observations can be modelled by planar high angle normal faulting of an elastic upper crust overlying an inviscid lower crust isostasy provides the necessary driving force the model quantifies the role of flexural rigidity density variations in the crust and erosion and deposition of sediment

growth of faults by accumulation of seismic slip the accommodation of large strains in the upper crust is largely achieved by the accumulation of displacement on faults observation shows that as a fault accumulates displacement it grows in size i e its surface area and its length increase here we address the question for an increase in the amount of displacement on a fault by how much would the length of the fault change it is argued by cowie and scholz 1992a that the displacement on a fault is linearly related to the length of the fault this simple result is expanded upon in this paper by assuming that a fault accumulates displacement by repeated earthquakes two different approaches are presented the first approach considers the balance that must be achieved between the energy available for deformation and the work involved in creating new fault surface area as the fault grows the available energy is provided by changes in strain energy when the fault slips the second approach is to construct a geometrical model for fault growth using the scaling relationship between the slip during a single earthquake and the length of the rupture the total displacement on a fault is the sum of the slips contributed by many earthquakes the usefulness of these two approaches is that the growth of a fault over geologic time can be described by parameters that can be obtained from earthquake and fault data the models presented here predict that 1 the maximum amount a fault can grow in a single earthquake that ruptures the entire fault is of the order of 1 of its previous length and 2 the work of faulting may account for 10 of the total energy available during an earthquake the energy lost from the system is accounted for by work done against friction and seismic radiation consequences of fault growth for the segmentation and thus seismogenic potential of a fault over geologic time are discussed using predictions of the theory

active tectonics of the aegean region the aegean sea and its surrounding regions comprise one of the most rapidly deforming parts of the alpine himalayan mountain belt though the deformation of the belt as a whole is related to thc northward move ment of africa arabia and india relative to eurasia the tectonics of the aegean region itself is dominated by strike slip and extensional motions the actively deforming part of the aegean region is not large about 700 x 700 km2 compared with that in asia yet it has had an influence on our views of continental tectonics disproportionate to its size and comparable perhaps only to tibet fundamental contributions from the aegean have been made to many topics including