statistical properties of armored gravel bed surfaces 1 roughness of successively developed armor layers in a large laboratory flume is analyzed considering gravel surfaces as two dimensional random fields of bed elevations statistically derived roughness parameters are evaluated from precise digital elevation models dems of bed surfaces and are discussed with respect to successive development of stable armor layers the key results relate to evolution of the probability distribution of bed elevations and its moments and structure functions of various orders with respect to armoring discharge our results suggest that statistical analysis of bed elevations is a helpful tool for defining roughness parameters quantifying armoring effects and identifying particle orientation flow direction and surface forming processes

reaction induced embrittlement of the lower continental crust field observations and geophysical data reveal a causal link between brittle seismic failure and eclogitization of the lower continental crust we present results from experimental deformation of plagioclase rich samples at eclogite facies conditions and quantify the link between rock rheology and the kinetics of the eclogitization reactions the deformation was ductile both in the absence of reaction and when the progress of eclogitization was fast compared to the imposed strain rate however when the reaction rate was relatively slow the breakdown of plagioclase into nanocrystalline reaction products triggered embrittlement highlighted by a high acoustic emission activity fluid induced plagioclase breakdown under eclogite facies conditions is an exothermic reaction accompanied by a negative change in solid volume this is similar to other mineral transformations that are known to trigger transformational faulting we demonstrate that mineral reactions lead to brittle deformation in situations where reaction rates are slow compared to the deformation rate

large values of hydraulic roughness in subglacial conduits during conduit enlargement implications for modeling conduit evolution hydraulic roughness accounts for energy dissipated as heat and should exert an important control on rates of subglacial conduit enlargement by melting few studies however have quantified how subglacial conduit roughness evolves over time or how that evolution affects models of conduit enlargement to address this knowledge gap we calculated values for two roughness parameters the darcy weisbach friction factor f and the manning roughness coefficient n using dye tracing data from a mapped subglacial conduit at rieperbreen svalbard values of f and n calculated from dye traces were compared with values of f and n calculated from commonly used relationships between surface roughness heights and conduit hydraulic diameters roughness values calculated from dye tracing ranged from 75 0 97 for f and from 0 68 0 09 s m 1 3 for n equations that calculate roughness parameters from surface roughness heights underpredicted values of f by as much as a factor of 326 and values of n by a factor of 17 relative to values obtained from the dye tracing study we argue these large underpredictions occur because relative roughness in subglacial conduits during the early stages of conduit enlargement exceeds the 5 range of relative roughness that can be used to directly relate values of f and n to flow depth and surface roughness heights simple conduit hydrological models presented here show how parameterization of roughness impacts models of conduit discharge and enlargement rate we used relationships between conduit relative roughness and values of f and n calculated from our dye tracing study to parameterize a model of conduit enlargement assuming a fixed hydraulic gradient of 0 01 and ignoring creep closure it took conduits 9 25 days to enlarge from a diameter of 0 44 m to 3 m which was 6 7 fold longer than using common roughness parameterizations copyright 2013 john wiley sons ltd

microstructural investigation of the interaction and interdependence of cataclastic and plastic mechanisms in feldspar crystals deformed in the semi brittle field abstract plagioclase feldspar an 50 single crystals from the hogarth range nsw australia have been deformed in the brittle to semi brittle regime at 500 800 c 90 300 mpa effective pressure and strain rate between 10 5 and 10 6 this gem quality feldspar is both macroscopically and microscopically devoid of any microstructure other than very rare growth twins so all microstructures produced by experimental deformation can be easily identified the specimens were deformed to failure which occurred at strains of

softening trigerred by eclogitization the first step toward exhumation during continental subduction direct observation of peak pressure deformation in exhumed subduction channels is difficult because little evidence of this deformation survives later syn exhumation deformation most ultrahigh pressure parageneses are found in continental derived metamorphic rocks making continental subduction the best context to observe peak pressure deformation whereas many studies have enlightened the main driving parameters of exhumation such as buoyancy forces low viscosity in the subduction channel overburden removal by erosion and normal faulting a basic question is seldom considered why is a tectonic unit disconnected from the descending lithosphere and why does it start its way towards the surface this event seminal to exhumation processes must involve some deformation and decoupling of the exhumed slice from the descending slab at peak pressure conditions or close to it our field observations in the bergen arc show that caledonian eclogitization and later amphibolitization of a granulitic terrane was achieved with a consistent component of simple shear compatible with the sense of the caledonian subduction thus the sequence of deformation preserved in the bergen arc documents the decoupling of subducted crustal material from the descending slab at the onset of exhumation this observation suggests that deformation in the subduction channel is largely controlled by kinematic boundary conditions i e underthrusting of the subducting slab in this context of simple shear metamorphic reactions assisted by fracturating fluid infiltration and ductile deformation lower the resistance of rocks and allow the localisation of shear zones and the decoupling of buoyant tectonic units from the subducting slab these tectonic units can then be incorporated into the channel circulation and start their upward travel

modelling distributed and channelized subglacial drainage the spacing of channels models are proposed for channelized and distributed flow of meltwater at the base of an ice sheet the volumes of both channel and distributed systems evolve according to a competition between processes that open drainage space e g sliding over bedrock melting of the ice and processes that close it e g viscous creep of the ice due to a positive effective pressure channels are generally predicted to have lower water pressure and therefore capture water from the surrounding regions of distributed flow there is a natural length scale associated with the distributed system that determines the width of the bed from which water can be drawn into a channel it is suggested that this determines the spacing between major channels and that this may be reflected in the spacing of eskers a more permeable distributed system results in more widely spaced and therefore larger channels calculations of the flow into the head of a channel reveal that there is a critical discharge necessary for it to form and provide a criterion for where channels can exist

kinematics of syneclogite deformation in the bergen arcs norway implications for exhumation mechanisms the northwestern part of holsnoy island in the bergen arcs norway consists of a granulite facies protolith partially transformed at depth in eclogite 700 c 19 kbars and amphibolite 650 c 8 10 kbars facies during the caledonian orogenesis eclogitized zones are mainly planar objects fractures with parallel reaction bands and cm to 100 m scale shear zones eclogitic zones are distributed in two sets of orientations and the associated deformation can be described as bookshelf tectonics the major shear zones strike around n120 and dip to the north and show consistent top to the ne shear sense throughout the area in the large scale kinematic frame of caledonian nw dipping slab eclogitic shear zones are interpreted as the way to detach crustal units from the subducting slab and to prevent their further sinking as the retrograde amphibolitic deformation pattern is similar to the eclogitic one the detached crustal units started their way up along these eclogitic shear zones radiometric ages of eclogitic and amphibolitic metamorphism and their comparison with the chronology of caledonian orogenesis show that the deformation recorded on holsnoy occurred in a convergent context the mechanism we propose can thus account for the first steps of exhumation during collision

cataclastic deformation of garnet a record of synseismic loading and postseismic creep abstract microstructural evidence for episodic deformation of the uppermost plastosphere related to failure of the schizosphere in major seismic events has been previously reported from the sesia zone western alps with inferred extraordinarily high stresses and strain rates for the early stages of creep during stress relaxation at temperatures of about 300 350 c in some of these rocks crystals of the high strength mineral garnet embedded in a quartz matrix are intensely fragmented detailed optical electron microprobe and scanning electron microscopic study combined with electron backscatter diffraction techniques suggests that fragmentation of garnet took place quasi instantaneously at very high peak stresses subsequent deformation during stress relaxation caused displacement of the garnet fragments by frictional sliding controlled by dislocation creep in the surrounding quartz matrix in a final stage after restoration of a near lithostatic pore fluid pressure the garnet fragments were pulled apart and the opening cracks were filled by quartz and feldspar precipitated from the pore fluid this record appears to be consistent with the proposed model of synseismic loading and postseismic creep and the related pore pressure changes

dehydration induced weakening and fault slip in gypsum implications for the faulting process at intermediate depth in subduction zones 1 high pressure fluids generated by metamorphic dehydration reactions can have profound effects on both rock strength and the stability of faults a decrease in effective pressure so produced could induce earthquakes at intermediate depth in the subducting slab either by embrittlement of an intact rock mass or by the reactivation of preexisting faults the purpose of this study was to experimentally investigate both processes using gypsum as an analog material constant strain rate relaxation and friction tests were performed on both intact cylindrical samples and saw cut aggregates both room temperature and dehydration conditions were investigated for comparison the maximum confining pressure and temperature were 50 mpa and 150 c respectively and the strain rate was varied between 1 5 10 6 and 1 5 10 5 s 1 this investigation shows that dehydrating gypsum is an excellent analog material for studies on reaction induced weakening however the lack of important brittle features like shear fractures and stress drops implies that intact gypsum aggregates do not show dehydration embrittlement in contrast this study demonstrates that depending on both the level of fault normal stress and the strain history dehydration induced unstable slip on preexisting faults is possible although some of the observations might be particular to gypsum the results also indicate that strong mechanical locking of the fault may continue to promote ductile flow unless new more favorably oriented faults are formed

nucleation of ductile shear zones on dilatant fractures small shear zones in granitic rocks of the sierra nevada california and near roses rosas northeast spain display features which indicate that dilatant fracturing preceded the localization of ductile shear deformation many zones have sharp nearly planar boundaries between their highly deformed interiors and the undeformed wall rock the roses shear zones narrow continuously to hairline fractures at their ends mineralized microcracks oriented parallel to the shear zones cluster near the zone boundaries and are interpreted as relicts of the earlier fracturing episode dynamic recrystallization of minerals filling these microcracks demonstrates that fracturing predated the ductile deformation gradients in ductile strain suggest that deformation spread laterally into the wall rocks after nucleation of the shear zones we suggest that cracks enhance the wall rock ductility by increasing local fluid fluxes thereby promoting chemical alteration and or hydrolytic weakening

the importance of pressurized subglacial water in separation and sliding at the glacier bed l effet de l eau sous glaciaire sous pression sur le processus de glissement est examine a partir d un parametre appele indice de decollement du lit qui exprime les contraintes perpendiculaires au lit et la pression d eau les donnees proviennent de trois glaciers de formes differentes une loi puissance du type de weertman avec un exposant voisin de 3 modifiee pour tenir compte de l effet de la pression des eaux sous glaciaires apparait comme etant la meilleure

breakup of the larsen b ice shelf triggered by chain reaction drainage of supraglacial lakes this research is supported by the u s national science foundation under grant geop ant 0944248 awarded to d r m and grants ant 0838811 and arc 0934534 awarded to o v s

structure and dynamics of a subglacial discharge plume in a greenlandic fjord discharge of surface derived meltwater at the submerged base of greenland s marine terminating glaciers creates subglacial discharge plumes that rise along the glacier ocean interface these plumes impact submarine melting calving and fjord circulation observations of plume properties and dynamics are challenging due to their proximity to the calving edge of glaciers therefore to date information on these plumes has been largely derived from models here we present temperature salinity and velocity data collected in a plume that surfaced at the edge of saqqarliup sermia a mid sized greenlandic glacier the plume is associated with a narrow core of rising waters approximately 20 m in diameter at the ice edge that spreads to a 200 m by 300 m plume pool as it reaches the surface before descending to its equilibrium depth volume flux estimates indicate that the plume is primarily driven by subglacial discharge and that this has been diluted in a ratio of 1 10 by the time the plume reaches the surface while highly uncertain meltwater fluxes are likely two orders of magnitude smaller than the subglacial discharge flux the overall plume characteristics agree with those predicted by theoretical plume models for a convection driven plume with limited influence from submarine melting this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

brittle precursors of plastic deformation in a granite an example from the mont blanc massif helvetic western alps abstract in the mont blanc helvetic massif granites record mesoscale alpine structures which include joints veins cataclastic to mylonitic shear zones and foliated granites a detailed structural analysis indicates that brittle deformation predates plastic strain joints never pass through and veins are offset by cataclastic shear zones and mylonites the mylonites progressively develop by plastic reactivation of cataclastic shear zones during greenschist facies metamorphic conditions plastic deformation is first localized in the brittle discontinuities and the fine grained matrix of cataclasites then it involves the granite within brittle shear zones and this is initially accomplished mainly by flow of reaction softened aggregates of sericite widely replacing the strain supporting magmatic plagioclase the brittle to plastic evolution has resulted in highly localized discontinuous plastic shear zones with high lateral continuity and these characteristics are derived from reactivation of and focusing along pre existing brittle discontinuities in addition mylonites may inherit high angles of intersection and may contain granite porphyroclasts these features may allow the inference of a precursor brittle deformation where the plastic overprint has completely erased the initial brittle fabrics

water worked gravel surfaces high order structure functions at the particle scale 1 high order structure functions are applied at the particle scale for studying water worked gravel surfaces measured at several field sites in new zealand the key findings relate to the shape of the two dimensional structure functions and their scaling behavior the data suggest that at scales comparable to d50 the topography of gravel surfaces is sensitive to the flow direction and exhibits multiscaling behavior we postulate based on our analysis and physical considerations that the high order structure functions may provide information on the orientation and direction of the flow that formed the surface

earthquakes in the deep continental crust insights from studies on exhumed high pressure rocks summary recent studies on two exhumed anorthositic and gabbroic high pressure complexes in the bergen arcs and western gneiss region of norway demonstrate that deeply subducted dry rocks in the lowermost continental crust may resist metamorphic re equilibration for geologically significant periods of time this persistent metastability exercised a profound control on the mechanical properties of these rocks as evidenced by abundant pseudo tachylyte veins cataclasites and fractures documenting eclogite facies seismic failure at depths exceeding 60 km in the thickened caledonian crust our observations indicate that the brittle seismogenic state of some lower crustal rocks and their propensity to remain metamorphically metastable despite prevailing conditions of t 600 800 c and p 1 5 to 2 0 gpa is largely controlled by

pulverized fault rocks and damage asymmetry along the arima takatsuki tectonic line japan abstract we present field and laboratory data on pulverized rocks at the hakusui kyo outcrop of the arima takatsuki tectonic line attl which is a dextral strike slip fault with 17 km displacement juxtaposing granite to the south against rhyolite to the north the majority of slip at the surface is localized to a clay rich gouge fault core 8 10 cm in width surrounded by a coarsening outwards fault breccias up to 3 m wide fault damage is highly asymmetric with respect to the slipping zone the granite south of the fault has a pulverized damage zone up to 200 m wide while the rhyolite to the north has only about 3 m wide non pulverized fault breccia the degree of pulverization in the granite decreases approximately logarithmically with normal distance from the slip zone the highly fractured pulverized rocks exhibit several distinct textural characteristics in thin section grains appear to be highly comminuted but the original grain shapes and margins are recognizable microfractures tend to be tensile in no preferred orientation grain fragments display little to no rotation and lack evidence of in situ shear consequently at macroscale the rocks appear to preserve original granitic textures despite being highly fractured and friable the observed pulverization and rock damage asymmetry are most consistent with generation mechanism involving ruptures on a bimaterial interface with statistically preferred propagation direction leading to damage primarily on the side with higher seismic velocity at depth this is supported by laboratory measurements of p wave ultrasonic velocities on intact samples which indicate that the granites have consistently higher velocity than the rhyolite with increasing confining pressure

deformation fabrics of natural blueschists and implications for seismic anisotropy in subducting oceanic crust abstract investigations of microstructures are crucial if we are to understand the seismic anisotropy of subducting oceanic crust and here we report on our systematic fabric analyses of glaucophane lawsonite and epidote in naturally deformed blueschists from the diablo range and franciscan complex in california and the hida mountains in japan glaucophanes in the analyzed samples consist of very fine grains that are well aligned along the foliation and have high aspect ratios and strong crystal preferred orientations cpos characterized by a 1 0 0 0 0 1 pattern these characteristics together with a bimodal distribution of grain sizes from some samples possibly indicate the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization for glaucophane although lawsonite and epidote display high aspect ratios and a strong cpo of 0 0 1 0 1 0 the occurrence of straight grain boundaries and euhedral crystals indicates that rigid body rotation was the dominant deformation mechanism the p wave av p and s wave av s seismic anisotropies of glaucophane av p 20 4 av s 11 5 and epidote av p 9 0 av s 8 0 are typical of the crust consequently the fastest propagation of p waves is parallel to the 0 0 1 maxima and the polarization of s waves parallel to the foliation can form a trench parallel seismic anisotropy owing to the slowest v s polarization being normal to the subducting slab the seismic anisotropy of lawsonite av p 9 6 av s 19 9 is characterized by the fast propagation of p waves subnormal to the lawsonite 0 0 1 maxima and polarization of s waves perpendicular to the foliation and lineation which can generate a trench normal anisotropy the av s of lawsonite blueschist 5 6 9 2 is weak compared with that of epidote blueschist 8 4 11 1 calculations of the thickness of the anisotropic layer indicate that glaucophane and lawsonite contribute to the trench parallel and trench normal seismic anisotropy beneath ne japan but not to that beneath the ryukyu arc our results demonstrate therefore that lawsonite has a strong influence on seismic velocities in the oceanic crust and that lawsonite might be the cause of complex anisotropic patterns in subduction zones

subglacial hydrology and ice stream margin locations fast flowing ice streams in west antarctica are separated from the nearly stagnant ice in the adjacent ridge by zones of highly localized deformation known as shear margins it is presently uncertain what mechanisms control the location of shear margins and possibly allow them to migrate in this paper we show how subglacial hydrological processes can select the shear margin location leading to a smooth transition from a slipping to a locked bed at the base of an ice stream our study uses a two dimensional thermomechanical model in a cross section perpendicular to the direction of flow we confirm that the intense straining at the shear margins can generate large temperate regions within the deforming ice assuming that the melt generated in the temperate ice collects in a drainage channel at the base of the margin we show that a channel locally decreases the pore pressure in the subglacial till therefore the basal shear strength just outside the channel assuming a coulomb plastic rheology can be substantially higher than that inferred under the majority of the stream results show that the additional basal resistance produced by the channel lowers the stress concentrated on the locked portion of the bed matching the model to surface velocity data we find that shear margins are stable when the slipping to locked bed transition occurs less than 500 m away from a channel operating at an effective pressure of 200 kpa and for a hydraulic transmissivity equivalent to a basal water film of order 0 2 mm thickness

nucleation and initial growth of a shear zone network within compositionally and structurally heterogeneous granitoids under amphibolite facies conditions abstract in the neves area the pre alpine intrusive protolith of the zentralgneise unit tauern window eastern alps is well preserved in a kilometric scale low strain domain without pervasive alpine deformation it is compositionally heterogeneous consisting predominantly of granodiorites with lesser leucocratic granites and different generations of lamprophyres and aplites the intrusive rocks are crosscut by fractures that were locally infiltrated by fluids and surrounded by alteration haloes incipient alpine amphibolite facies ductile deformation is strongly localized on these precursor fractures and on lithological planar heterogeneities resulting in the development of several different types of shear zones fractures without alteration haloes initially accommodate slip entirely on the fracture itself with increasing deformation a foliation is progressively developed in the adjacent host rock eventually producing a single heterogeneous ductile shear zone with the typical sigmoidal foliation pattern strong layers aplite dykes and bleached alteration haloes developed to either side of precursor fractures localize shear on their boundaries to produce characteristic paired shear zones shearing is more evenly distributed within weak layers lamprophyres and quartz veins with a marked discontinuity in shear strain against the adjacent little deformed granodiorite shear zone development was accompanied by the formation of new fractures and quartz rich veins in the host rock which in turn also localized shear magmatic contacts fractures and quartz veins are mostly steeply dipping and effectively span the complete range of strike orientations the kinematics of the overprinting strike slip shear zones was determined by the orientation of the initial discontinuities relative to the local principal compressive stress axis 1 here oriented ca 345 discontinuities of almost all orientations show shear reactivation even in the case of very low resolved shear stress indicating an overall viscous response of the system without a specific yield stress the geometry and kinematics of the shear zone network suggest that the overall deformation in low strain domains was close to coaxial during deformation along the shear zone network compatibility was maintained by fracturing with the development of new quartz veins and by distributed ductile deformation of the host rock especially within contractional domains of the shear network and at shear zone intersections deformation never propagates into the undeformed homogeneous granodiorite as discrete ductile shear zones but is limited by the original extent of the precursor discontinuities shear zone development in intact rock is always preceded by fracturing which localizes subsequent shear reactivation

deep fluid release in warm subduction zones from a breached slab seal abstract petrological models and seismic data from subduction zones with geotherms of 7 k km 1 or higher suggest that slabs in these systems dehydrate effectively in the forearc a large fluid flux is nevertheless released from these slabs at and beyond subarc depth suggesting that large amounts of h2o can remain slab bound to much greater depth than expected we propose that this is due to a transient sealing effect exerted by the subducting lower crust to test this concept the petrological and geochemical evolution of such gabbroic crust is investigated through a textural petrological and li chronometric analysis of eclogitized gabbros from an exhumed ultrahigh pressure terrane the samples record pristine transitions from dry rigid gabbro to hydrated eclogite and eclogite mylonite which occurred when these rocks resided at 90 110 km depth the observations characterize step by step the deformation and overstepped mineral reactions that following the influx of external fluids along a developing network of permeable shear zones lithium chronometry indicates that the gabbroic rocks were breached and permeated within a few weeks at a very specific depth within the 90 110 km interval depths where in warm subduction zones large fluid filled channel system emanate from the slab the data support a model in which fluids produced in the deserpentinizing slab mantle are trapped at high pore pressure beneath the slab moho and are ultimately released at subarc depth where the lower crust fails and develops highly permeable fluid vents the subducting lower crust thus may play an important role in regulating h2o and element budgets and controlling slab rheology in warm subduction zones

disappearing ink how pseudotachylytes are lost from the rock record abstract melt origin pseudotachylytes are the most widely accepted feature recording earthquake slip in the fault rock record however reports of pseudotachylytes are rare compared to the frequency and distribution of earthquakes in active faults suggesting melting occurs only under exceptional circumstances and therefore that pseudotachylytes are rarely formed in this paper we document the processes whereby pseudotachylytes are overprinted destroyed and otherwise removed from the rock record we present examples of recrystallized altered and cataclastically and crystal plastically deformed pseudotachylytes from a variety of ancient faults based on these observations we identify characteristics of pseudotachylytes that are resistant to change over geologic time and develop criteria to allow recognition of relict pseudotachylytes our results imply that pseudotachylytes are vastly under reported due to their vulnerability to destruction and the resulting difficulty in identification as a consequence the significance of frictional melting is underestimated the criteria we propose to distinguish relict pseudotachylytes can help to reconcile the observed frequency of earthquakes with the difficulty of demonstrating ancient seismic slip in the rock record

dislocation generation slip systems and dynamic recrystallization in experimentally deformed plagioclase single crystals abstract three samples of gem quality plagioclase crystals of an60 were experimentally deformed at 900 c 1 gpa confining pressure and strain rates of 7 5 8 7 10 7 s 1 the starting material is effectively dislocation free so that all observed defects were introduced during the experiments two samples were shortened normal to one of the principal slip planes 010 corresponding to a hard orientation and one sample was deformed with a schmid factor of 0 45 for the principal slip system 001 010 corresponding to a soft orientation several slip systems were activated in the soft sample dislocations of the 001 010 and 110 001 system are about equally abundant whereas 110 111 and 101 in 131 to 242 are less common in the soft sample plastic deformation is pervasive and deformation bands are abundant in the hard samples the plastic deformation is concentrated in rims along the sample boundaries deformation bands and shear fractures are common twinning occurs in close association with fracturing and the processes are clearly interrelated glissile dislocations of all observed slip systems are associated with fractures and deformation bands indicating that deformation bands and fractures are important sites of dislocation generation grain boundaries of tiny defect free grains in healed fracture zones have migrated subsequent to fracturing these grains represent former fragments of the fracture process and may act as nuclei for new grains during dynamic recrystallization nucleation via small fragments can explain a non host controlled orientation of recrystallized grains in plagioclase and possibly in other silicate materials which have been plastically deformed near the semi brittle to plastic transition

seasonal changes in the morphology of the subglacial drainage system haut glacier d arolla switzerland dye tracing techniques were used to investigate the glacier wide pattern of change in the englacial subglacial drainage system of haut glacier d arolla during the ablation seasons of 1990 and 1991 analysis of breakthrough curve characteristics indicate that over the course of a melt season a system of major channels developed by headward growth at the expense of a hydraulically inefficient distributed system by the end of the melt season this channel system extended at least 3 3 km from the snout of the 4 km long glacier and drained the bulk of supraglacially derived meltwater passing through the glacier the upper limit of the channel system closely followed the retreating snowline up glacier rates of headward channel growth reached c 65 m d 1 although these rates decreased in the upper 1 km of the glacier where snowline retreat exposed a patchy firn aquifer it appears that the removal of snow with its high albedo and significant water storage capacity from the glacier surface resulted in a dramatic increase in the volume of runoff into moulins and in the peakedness of daily runoff cycles this induced transient high water pressures within the distributed drainage system which caused it to evolve rapidly into a channelised system it is therefore likely that at a local scale channel growth occurred down glacier from moulins and that the overall up glacier directed pattern of channel formation was caused by the retreating snowline exposing new moulins and crevasses to inputs of ice derived meltwater damping of diurnal melt inputs by storage in the firm aquifer accounts for the slowing of channel growth in the upper glacier 1998 john wiley sons ltd

deformation mechanism maps for feldspar rocks abstract deformation mechanism maps for feldspar rocks were constructed based on recently published constitutive laws for dislocation and grain boundary diffusion creep of wet and dry plagioclase aggregates the maps display constant temperature contours in stress grain size space for strain rates ranging from 10 16 to 10 12 s 1 two fields of dominance of grain boundary diffusion controlled creep and dislocation creep are separated by a strongly grain size sensitive transition zone for wet rocks diffusion controlled creep dominates below a grain size of about 0 1 1 mm depending on temperature stress strain rate and feldspar composition plagioclase aggregates containing up to 0 3 wt water as often found in natural feldspars are more than 2 orders of magnitude weaker than dry rocks the strength of water bearing feldspar rocks is moderately dependent on composition and water fugacity for a grain size range of about 10 50 m commonly observed in natural ultramylonites the deformation maps predict that diffusion controlled creep is dominant at greenschist to granulite facies conditions low viscosity estimates of 10 18 10 19 pa s from modeling postseismic stress relaxation and channel flow of the continental lower crust can only be reconciled with laboratory experiments assuming dislocation creep at high temperatures 900 c or at lower temperatures diffusion creep of fine grained rocks possibly localized in abundant high strain shear zones for similar thermodynamic conditions and grain size lower crustal rocks are predicted to be less than order of magnitude weaker than upper mantle rocks

a tem study of disequilibrium plagioclase breakdown at high pressure the role of infiltrating fluid high pressure metamorphism 600 c 20 kbar of the allalin gabbro western alps resulted in the breakdown of plagioclase an63 to fine grained zoisite jadeite kyanite and quartz in rare cases this reaction failed to reach completion the resulting textures of partial reaction have been studied by transmission and analytical electron microscopy in localised regions of a plagioclase crystal where the extent of reaction is 10 only zoisite developed and the orientation relationship left 100 right text zo left 101 right text p1 1 and left 012 right text zo left 010 right text p1 1 is frequently present in regions where 10 50 of plagioclase has transformed the reaction plagioclase h2o zoisite kyanite quartz nasica 1al 1 pl has occurred the systematic orientation relationship between plagioclase and zoisite is absent at 50 transformation complete breakdown of plagioclase occurred in localized micron scale domains by the reaction plagioclase h2o zoisite jadeite kyanite quartz and the reaction products are variably orientated with respect to each other incomplete reaction together with the concentration of reaction products around cracks in original plagioclase grains suggests that extent of reaction was controlled primarily by the availability of h2o the textural observations are interpreted in terms of two possible disequilibrium reaction models 1 plagioclase persists metastably with its original igneous composition to a pressure 17 kbar at 600 c reaction to the equilibrium assemblage then develops adjacent to cracks in response to the presence of aqueous fluid at intracrystalline sites only partial reaction occurs because jadeite and sometimes kyanite and quartz fail to nucleate for kinetic reasons 2 localized regions of a plagioclase crystal partially equilibrate at several stages during the increase of pressure 9 17 kbar at 600 c possibly due to discrete episodes of fluid infiltration in both these models the extent of reaction may be limited by nasi caal interdiffusion in plagioclase

the role of deformation reaction interactions to localize strain in polymineralic rocks insights from experimentally deformed plagioclase pyroxene assemblages abstract in order to study the mutual effect of deformation and mineral reactions we have conducted shear experiments on fine grained plagioclase pyroxene assemblages in a griggs type solid medium deformation apparatus experiments were performed at a constant shear strain rate of 10 5 s 1 a confining pressure of 1 gpa and temperatures of 800 850 and 900 c while the peak stress of plagioclase orthopyroxene assemblages reaches values between those of the end member phases the strength of polymineralic materials strongly decreases after peak stress and reaches flow stresses that stabilize far below those of the weaker phase plagioclase this weakening correlates with the coeval development of high strain shear zones where new phases are preferentially produced including new pyroxene plagioclase and amphibole the reaction products mostly occur as intimately mixed phases within fine grained and interconnected shear bands together with different compositions with respect to the starting material this indicates that deformation significantly enhances the kinetics of mineral reactions which in turn strongly weaken the deforming sample here attributed to a switch to grain size sensitive diffusion creep through phase nucleation and grain size reduction such an interplay between deformation and mineral reactions may have strong implications for the initiation development and durability of shear zones in the lower crust

weakening and strain localization produced by syn deformational reaction of plagioclase there are many observations in naturally deformed rocks on the effects of mineral reactions on deformation but few experimental data in order to study the effects of chemical disequilibrium on deformation we have investigated the hydration reaction plagioclase h2o more albitic plagioclase zoisite kyanite quartz we utilized fine grained 2 6 m plagioclase aggregates of two compositions an54 and an60 both dried and with 0 1 0 4 wt h2o present in shear deformation experiments at two sets of conditions 900 c 1 0 gpa in the plagioclase stability field and 750 c 1 5 gpa in the zoisite stability field dry samples and those deformed in the plagioclase stability field underwent homogeneous shearing by dislocation creep but samples with 0 1 to 0 4 wt water deformed in the zoisite stability field showed extreme strain localization into very narrow 1 3 m shear bands after low shear strain in these samples the microstructures of reaction products in the matrix differ from those in the shear bands in the matrix large up to 400 m zoisite crystals grew in the direction of finite extension and relict plagioclase grains are surrounded by rims of recrystallized grains that are more albitic in the shear bands the reaction products albitic plagioclase zoisite white mica and traces of kyanite form polyphase aggregates of very fine grained 0 1 m dislocation free grains most of the sample strain after 2 has occurred within the shear bands within which the dominant deformation mechanism is inferred to be diffusion accommodated grain boundary sliding dagbs the switch from dislocation creep in dry samples deformed without reaction to dagbs in reacted samples is associated with a decrease in flow stress from 800 to 200 mpa these experiments demonstrate that heterogeneous nucleation driven in part by chemical disequilibrium can produce an extremely fine grained polyphase assemblage leading to a switch in deformation mechanism and significant weakening thus localization of deformation in polyphase rocks may occur on any pressure p temperature t path where the equilibrium composition of the constituent minerals changes

a mesoscale ocean feature study using synthetic aperture radar imagery in the labrador ice margin experiment 1989 four synthetic aperture radar sar images were collected during the labrador ice margin experiment limex in march 1989 to study mesoscale ocean features over the newfoundland shelf ice floe movement is detected by displacement in the first two images collected on consecutive days streamfunction maps of ocean currents are drawn using an objective method after direct wind driven components are removed the general flow pattern shows the inshore branch of the labrador current to be isolated from the seaward flow over the northern edge of the grand banks in agreement with the mean circulation detected in noaa satellite images for 3 years by the same method ice distribution in the sar images implies mesoscale features much richer than those in the objectively drawn flow field it is difficult to detect ice movement in the images with two day separation because no persistent ice feature is identified in the study area it is suggested during the ers 1 ice mission to take airborne sar images one day before or after a satellite pass for ocean current detection from ice floe movement

shear deformation and eclogite formation within granulite facies anorthosites of the bergen arcs western norway the anorthosites of the bergen arcs contain two distinct metamorphic mineral assemblages which are stable under different p t conditions a granulite facies assemblage which equilibrated at t 800 900 c p 10 kbar is defined by the minerals plagioclase al rich diopside cpx i garnet gnt i scapolite orthopyroxene dark brown hornblende this assemblage is linked by corona structures to a primary magmatic mineralogy where coexistence of olivine and plagioclase limits the maximum crystallization pressure of the anorthosites to 8 kbar at 1200 c the anorthosites are transected by a series of fine grained shear zones in which the granulite facies assemblage is replaced by an eclogite mineralogy defined by omphacite cpx ii jd40 50 garnet kyanite epidote clinozoisite phengite quartz amphibole with plagioclase sometimes remaining in the marginal parts mineral compositions indicate equilibration conditions for the eclogite paragenesis of t 700 800 c p 16 19 kbar a series of textural and mineralogical changes which can be observed as the strain increases into the shear zones demonstrates that the eclogite mineralogy is formed at the expense of the granulite facies minerals during the early stages of shear zone development the eclogite mineralogy defines a strong mylonitic fabric which again is truncated by centimetres thick secondary shear zones containing clasts of both granulite and eclogite minerals these latter fine grained ultramylonites may be connected to uplift of this deep seated complex the eclogite shear zones are highly oblique to the granulite structures indicating that the eclogite shear zones formed under a new stress regime rb sr dating shows that the granulite facies assemblage formed in sveconorwegian time or earlier while minerals from shear zones define ages around 400 ma indicating a caledonian formation of the eclogites this work demonstrates the critical role of deformation in triggering metamorphic reactions whether the shear stress also was important in stabilizing the eclogite assemblages is not clear from the available data

structural control of englacial conduits in the temperate matanuska glacier alaska usa fourteen englacial conduits were mapped within 2 km of the terminus of the temperate matanuska glacier alaska usa to ice depths of 65 m using speleological techniques detailed three dimensional maps of the conduits were made over 3 years to characterize conduit relationships with glacier structural features and to track conduit evolution through time all conduits consisted of single unbranching passages that followed fractures in the ice all conduits were either too constricted to continue or became water filled at their deepest explored point and were not able to be followed to the glacier bed conduit morphology varied systematically with the orientation of the glacier principal stresses allowing them to be categorized into two broad classes the first class of conduits were formed by hydrostatic crevasse penetration where a large supraglacial stream intersected longitudinal crevasses these conduits plunged toward the glacier bed at angles of 30 408 the second class of conduits formed where smaller streams sank into the glacier on shear crevasses many of these conduits changed direction dramatically where they intersected transverse crevasses at depth these results suggest that the conduits observed in this study formed along fractures and over their surveyed length were not affected by gradients in ice overburden pressure

roughness of a subglacial conduit under hansbreen svalbard hydraulic roughness exerts an important but poorly understood control on water pressure in subglacial conduits where relative roughness values are 5 here we report the first quantitative assessment of roughness heights and hydraulic diameters in a subglacial conduit we measured roughness heights in a 125 m long section of a subglacial conduit using structure from motion to produce a digital surface model and hand measurements of the b axis of rocks we found roughness heights from 0 07 to 0 22 m and cross sectional areas of 1 2 m 2 resulting in relative roughness of 3 12 and 5 for most locations a simple geometric model of varying conduit diameter shows that when the conduit is small relative roughness is 30 and has large variability our results suggest that parameterizations of conduit hydraulic roughness in subglacial hydrological models will remain challenging until hydraulic diameters exceed roughness heights by a factor of 20 or the conduit radius is 1 m for the roughness elements observed here

a servohydraulically controlled deformation apparatus for rock deformation under conditions of ultra high pressure metamorphism a deformation apparatus has been developed to study the mechanical behaviour of high pressure and ultra high pressure metamorphic rocks it is based on the conventional griggs design and the molten salt cell concept introduced by h e green ii both the axial loading and the confining pressure are servohydraulically controlled alternatively a self made multilayer pressure vessel or a commercial stripwound construction are used the pressure cell is improved with respect to systems described previously by the use of different salt mixtures with low eutectic temperatures by a mechanically stable arrangement of the thermocouples and by an optimization of the frictional characteristics of the axial loading system the apparatus has been successfully used in deformation experiments on cylindrical aragonite and coesite samples 3 to 4 mm in diameter and 6 to 10 mm in length at confining pressures up to 3 7 gpa and temperatures up to 1170 c

dynamic recrystallization of feldspar a mechanism for ductile shear zone formation feldspar aggregates experimentally deformed in the dislocation creep regime undergo dynamic recrystallization because recovery is difficult due to the limited climb of dislocations recrystallizing aggregates have a lower strength because of the cyclic production of small strain free grains and they develop a strong preferred orientation consistent with that observed in mylonites thus recrystallization accommodated dislocation creep may be responsible for the grain size reduction and strain softening that lead to the formation of many mylonites and ductile shear zones

influence of water fugacity and activation volume on the flow properties of fine grained anorthite aggregates 1 to specify quantitatively the effect of pressure and water weakening on the flow strength of feldspar we performed triaxial creep experiments in a gas deformation apparatus at temperatures of 1000 1150 c confining pressures of 100 450 mpa and axial stresses of 10 400 mpa resulting in strain rates of 6 10 7 to 3 10 3 s 1 dense samples with a grain size of 3 m were prepared by hot isostatic pressing of anorthite glass powder hydrous samples contain about 0 33 0 14 wt h2o and dry specimens 0 0005 0 02 wt h2o the estimated residual glass content of wet samples is 2 vol samples deformed by grain boundary diffusion controlled creep at low stresses and dislocation creep at stresses 150 mpa we estimate an activation volume of v 24 cm3mol 1 for anhydrous samples deforming in diffusion creep for wet samples deformed in hydrous conditions with varying buffers fixing oxygen fugacity the activation volume is about 38 cm3 mol 1 creep rate of hydrous anorthite aggregates depends on water fugacity raised to a power of r 1 0 0 3 suggesting hydrolysis of oxygen bonds considering the effect of activation volume and water fugacity on extrapolation of constitutive laws to conditions prevailing in the continental lower crust viscosities of hydrous feldspar aggregates increase by a factor of 3

radar mapping of isunnguata sermia greenland ice thickness estimates using advanced nadir sounding and tomographic radar processing techniques are compared and combined in a study of isunnguata sermia glacier greenland using an ensemble of operation icebridge flight lines spaced at 500m intervals and running approximately along the flow direction we find there is a statistically excellent comparison between subglacial terrains derived from two dimensional tomography and gridded nadir sounding analysis shows that tomographic data better capture short wavelength 1 2 km patterns in basal terrain but interpolated nadir sounding data yield more spatially extensive and continuous coverage across the glacier especially in deep subglacial troughs using derived surface and basal topography maps we find that driving stress and measured and modeled surface velocity comparisons indicate that basal sliding is an important component of the glacier motion but is also only weakly coupled to the detailed bed topography save for the deepest troughs as might be expected for this land terminating relatively slow moving glacier the subglacial and proglacial topography is similar suggesting the erosional processes acting on the modern glacier bed once helped sculpt the now exposed land

the control of precursor brittle fracture and fluid rock interaction on the development of single and paired ductile shear zones abstract ductile shear zones can occur as relatively isolated single structures as arrays or as characteristic paired zones in continuous glaciated exposures of metagranodiorites from the tauern window eastern alps the control of initial dilatant brittle fracture and associated fluid rock interaction on the geometry of subsequent ductile shear zones can be unequivocally established shearing occurred under amphibolite facies conditions fractures in weakly deformed metagranodiorites are often less than 1 mm thick but extend for tens of metres many are healed joints without shear offset others show minor mm cm discrete dextral offset such brittle faults commonly display a low angle en echelon arrangement with displacement transferred between discrete fracture segments by ductile compressive bridges the geometry of more strongly reactivated zones depends on the degree and heterogeneity of fluid rock interaction which is related to fluid infiltration and veining along the primary fractures with little fluid rock interaction reactivation produces single heterogeneous ductile shear zones centred on and immediately flanking the pre existing fracture with increased fluid rock interaction a bleached halo is developed symmetrically to either side of a central epidote quartz garnet calcite vein ductile shear zones commonly flank this bleached zone to develop a characteristic paired pattern strain is partitioned localizing in the central fracture vein and the flanking shear zones paired zones may anastomose in accordance with changes in the width of the central bleached zone but are always symmetrically spaced with regard to the central fracture vein with increasing deformation the ductile shear zones broaden into the adjacent metagranodiorite but not into the bleached zone which remains preserved as a low strain region paired shear zones can also develop to either side of aplite dykes examples of characteristic paired shear zones usually with a clear central vein are found in many areas ranging from greenschist to eclogite facies suggesting that the mechanism of their formation is quite general

high pressure metamorphism and deep crustal seismicity evidence from contemporaneous formation of pseudotachylytes and eclogite facies coronas the metamorphic complex of the western gneiss region wgr norway constitutes the root of the caledonian mountain belt and experienced temperatures of 700 800 c and pressures in excess of 20 kbar during peak metamorphism mafic bodies surrounded by strongly banded felsic gneisses commonly exhibit variable reequilibration to granulite and eclogite facies conditions and locally preserve igneous minerals and textures the krakeneset gabbro located on the island of vagsoy in the mixed hp uhp zone of the western wgr display evidence for extensive metastability through the entire prograde and retrograde p t histories eclogite constitutes less than a few percent of the total volume of the body and high pressure assemblages typically form thin coronas around magmatic phases or occur along localized zones of brittle deformation and fluid infiltration the gabbro displays pseudotachylyte vein networks that define subparallel brittle fault zones 50 cm wide transecting the gabbro body the pseudotachylytes contain m to mm scale amoeboid and dendrite like textures of garnet and plagioclase with inclusions of the eclogite facies minerals orthopyroxene omphacite amphibole and dolomite suggesting rapid disequilibrium growth of minerals during high pressure conditions textural and petrological evidence from pseudotachylytes and corona structures show that the growth of these unusual textures occurred shortly after pseudotachylyte crystallization by a process of rapid solid state alteration of a microcrystalline pseudotachylyte matrix the pseudotachylyte lined fault zones are in close spatial association with numerous amphibole carbonate filled hydrofractures with conspicuous fracture parallel alteration zones defined by hydrous eclogite facies assemblages these eclogite facies hydrofractures testify to the existence of high fluid pressures and to fluid infiltration following brittle failure during high grade metamorphic conditions geothermobarometric estimates ca t 650 700 c p 20 kbar and petrological data imply that hydrofracturing pseudotachylyte crystallization and the subsequent pseudotachylyte alteration process must have occurred during high pressure metamorphism our observations are suggestive of a deep crustal earthquake scenario where a high pressurized fluid phase plays a double role by causing both seismic failure through the embrittlement effect and facilitating eclogitization of the metastable anhydrous gabbro metamorphic reaction along hydrofractures and fault planes led to the development of eclogite facies foliation fabrics and illustrate the rheological change from brittle to plastic behavior associated with the gabbro to eclogite transition the formation of weak deep crustal shear zones following brittle failure represents an arrested initiation of the physical breakup and metamorphic reequilibration of the krakeneset gabbro during its residence deep in the former caledonian collision zone

structure from motion photogrammetry a low cost effective tool for geoscience applications abstract high resolution topographic surveying is traditionally associated with high capital and logistical costs so that data acquisition is often passed on to specialist third party organisations the high costs of data collection are for many applications in the earth sciences exacerbated by the remoteness and inaccessibility of many field sites rendering cheaper more portable surveying platforms i e terrestrial laser scanning or gps impractical this paper outlines a revolutionary low cost user friendly photogrammetric technique for obtaining high resolution datasets at a range of scales termed structure from motion sfm traditional softcopy photogrammetric methods require the 3 d location and pose of the camera s or the 3 d location of ground control points to be known to facilitate scene triangulation and reconstruction in contrast the sfm method solves the camera pose and scene geometry simultaneously and automatically using a highly redundant bundle adjustment based on matching features in multiple overlapping offset images a comprehensive introduction to the technique is presented followed by an outline of the methods used to create high resolution digital elevation models dems from extensive photosets obtained using a consumer grade digital camera as an initial appraisal of the technique an sfm derived dem is compared directly with a similar model obtained using terrestrial laser scanning this intercomparison reveals that decimetre scale vertical accuracy can be achieved using sfm even for sites with complex topography and a range of land covers example applications of sfm are presented for three contrasting landforms across a range of scales including an exposed rocky coastal cliff a breached moraine dam complex and a glacially sculpted bedrock ridge the sfm technique represents a major advancement in the field of photogrammetry for geoscience applications our results and experiences indicate sfm is an inexpensive effective and flexible approach to capturing complex topography

identifying deformed pseudotachylyte and its influence on the strength and evolution of a crustal shear zone at the base of the seismogenic zone abstract on a strand of the norumbega fault system a paleozoic subvertical seismogenic fault system in northeastern new england usa we document changes associated with the formation and deformation of pseudotachylyte to form ultramylonite phyllonite layers we consider how those textural and mineralogical changes affected the rheology of the layer and how significant volumes of pseudotachylyte over time may have weakened the shear zone the norumbega fault system is characterized by a number of mylonitic shear zones exhumed from depths of 10 15 km some of which preserve evidence for mutually overprinting pseudotachylyte and mylonite along one of these the sandhill corner shear zone all stages of the pseudotachylyte to ultramylonite phyllonite transformation are preserved from 1 primary pseudotachylyte structures to 2 initial mineral crystallization 3 grain coarsening and reactions and 4 viscous deformation our observations show that ultramylonite layers exhibit identifying features that when present together are distinctive of a pseudotachylyte origin using these features we estimate that 5 50 of the rock volume in the sandhill corner shear zone mean 30 locally 50 is deformed pseudotachylyte suggesting that deformed pseudotachylyte may be more prevalent than previously thought in faults exhumed from the base of the seismogenic zone the sandhill corner shear zone localized along the contact between two rheologically contrasting units mylonite fabric intensity and the occurrence of fresh and deformed pseudotachylyte increase with proximity to the contact and shear zone core indicating that seismic rupture also localized there a decrease in grain size promoting grain size sensitive creep and a progressively interconnected mica network associated with local basal slip within the deformed pseudotachylyte both worked to decrease the strength of those layers the formation of multiple generations of weak deformed pseudotachylyte layers at or near the lithologic contact may have played an important role in the spatiotemporal persistence of the shear zone core

faulting associated with the olivine to spinel transformation in mg2geo4 and its implications for deep focus earthquakes samples of metastable mg2geo4 olivine fail by faulting when loaded at temperatures where the incoherent nucleation and growth of spinel the stable phase just becomes possible at lower temperatures where the transformation is inhibited metastable olivine is ductile and strong while at higher temperatures where the transformation happens very quickly samples are ductile and weak microfaults that have just been created and have slipped very little contain only very fine grained spinel those that have slipped more contain a mixture of fine grained spinel and larger broken olivine fragments a new type of transformation microstructure that develops only under nonhydrostatic stress occurs in all specimens that failed the spinel nucleates on grain boundaries and on subgrain boundaries within olivine and grows as fine grained lens shaped bodies with a strong preferred orientation normal to maximum compression the correlation between the onset of transformation the new microstructure and the mechanical instability suggests a cause and effect relationship the grain size of the spinel within the microfaults suggests that these zones have superplastic properties in this case the instability should not be suppressed by increasing pressure as normal frictional processes are suppressed analogous conditions exist in down going slabs of lithosphere in the mantle and we postulate that the same mechanism that causes faulting in our samples operates in the mantle causing deep focus earthquakes

mechanisms of heat exchange between water and rock in karst conduits 1 previous studies motivated by understanding water quality have explored the mechanisms for heat transport and heat exchange in surface streams in karst aquifers temperature signals play an additional important role since they carry information about internal aquifer structures models for heat transport in karst conduits have previously been developed however these models make different sometimes contradictory assumptions additionally previous models of heat transport in karst conduits have not been validated using field data from conduits with known geometries here we use analytical solutions of heat transfer to examine the relative importance of heat exchange mechanisms and the validity of the assumptions made by previous models the relative importance of convection conduction and radiation is a function of time using a characteristic timescale we show that models neglecting rock conduction produce spurious results in realistic cases in contrast to the behavior of surface streams where conduction is often negligible conduction through the rock surrounding a conduit determines heat flux at timescales of weeks and longer in open channel conduits radiative heat flux can be significant in contrast convective heat exchange through the conduit air is often negligible using the rules derived from our analytical analysis we develop a numerical model for heat transport in a karst conduit our model compares favorably to thermal responses observed in two different karst settings a cave stream fed via autogenic recharge during a snowmelt event and an allogenically recharged cave stream that experiences continuous temperature fluctuations on many timescales

straightforward reconstruction of 3d surfaces and topography with a camera accuracy and geoscience application topographic measurements for detailed studies of processes such as erosion or mass movement are usually acquired by expensive laser scanners or rigorous photogrammetry here we test and use an alternative technique based on freely available computer vision software which allows general geoscientists to easily create accurate 3d models from field photographs taken with a consumer grade camera the approach integrates structure from motion sfm and multi view stereo mvs algorithms and in contrast to traditional photogrammetry techniques it requires little expertise and few control measurements and processing is automated to assess the precision of the results we compare sfm mvs models spanning spatial scales of centimeters a hand sample to kilometers the summit craters of piton de la fournaise volcano with data acquired from laser scanning and formal close range photogrammetry the relative precision ratio achieved by sfm mvs measurement precision observation distance is limited by the straightforward camera calibration model used in the software but generally exceeds 1 1000 i e centimeter level precision over measurement distances of 10s of meters we apply sfm mvs at an intermediate scale to determine erosion rates along a 50 m long coastal cliff seven surveys carried out over a year indicate an average retreat rate of 0 70 0 05 m a 1 sequential erosion maps at 0 05 m grid resolution highlight the spatio temporal variability in the retreat with semivariogram analysis indicating a correlation between volume loss and length scale compared with a laser scanner survey of the same site sfm mvs produced comparable data and reduced data collection time by 80

measurement of gravel bed topography evaluation study applying statistical roughness analysis abstractin this two part study experiments are conducted to evaluate available topography measurement techniques for gravel beds in a laboratory flume and to study their suitability for statistical roughness analysis the available instruments for this study include 1 an acoustic bed profiler 2 a hand held laser scanner and 3 two digital consumer cameras forming a stereophotogrammetric system and are employed to obtain digital elevation models dems of water worked gravel beds in the first part of the study the three measurement techniques are reviewed and their feasibilities for future grain scale roughness work assessed based on the obtained elevation datasets water worked gravel bed topographies are measured with all three available measurement techniques the analysis of the dems concentrates on using probability distribution functions pdfs and second order structure functions of bed elevations roughness coefficients are determined and used as a benchmark for comparison of the three

generation of intermediate depth earthquakes by self localizing thermal runaway the conditions leading to rock failure during intermediate depth earthquakes in subduction zones are not clear particularly in the absence of free fluid field observations and numerical simulations indicate that thermal weakening due to high temperature shear instabilities may trigger earthquakes under such circumstances intermediate depth 50 300 km earthquakes commonly occur along convergent plate margins but their causes remain unclear in the absence of pore fluid pressures that are sufficiently high to counter the confining pressure in such settings brittle failure is unlikely in such conditions the rocks could fail by the mechanism of progressively self localizing thermal runaway1 whereby ductile deformation in shear zones leads to heating thermal softening and weakening of rock1 2 3 here we test this hypothesis by focusing on fault veins of glassy rock pseudotachylyte formed by fast melting during a seismic event as well as associated ductile shear zones that occur in a precambrian terrane in norway our field observations suggest that the pseudotachylytes as well as shear zones have a single event deformation history and we also document mineralogical evidence for interaction of the rocks with external fluids using fully coupled thermal and viscoelastic models we demonstrate that the simultaneous occurrence of brittle and ductile deformation patterns observed in the field can be explained by self localizing thermal runaway at differential stresses lower than those required for brittle failure our results suggest that by perturbing rock properties weakening by hydration also plays a key role in shear zone formation and seismic failure however thermal runaway enables the rocks to fail in the absence of a free fluid phase

amphibolite facies pseudotachylytes in premosello metagabbro and felsic mylonites ivrea zone italy abstract pseudotachylytes solidified friction induced melts produced during seismic slip that formed under high temperature ambient conditions might retain information on earthquake mechanics beneath the brittle ductile elasto frictional viscous plastic transition in the crust thin sharply bounded pseudotachylytes and ultramylonites occur together inside the granulite facies premosello metagabbro and inside country felsic mylonites of the ivrea zone italian southern alps petrographic and microstructural data indicate that the studied pseudotachylytes and ultramylonites are coeval and developed under amphibolite facies 500 650 c metamorphic conditions the occurrence of foliated pseudotachylytes and of local remnants of cataclastic microstructures within ultramylonites suggests that pseudotachylytes might have represented planar heterogeneities for nucleation of ultramylonites the association of coeval pseudotachylyte and mylonites is interpreted as caused by cyclic stages of coseismic high strain rate transients related to downward propagation of seismic ruptures from the upper brittle crust followed by post seismic stress relaxation by ductile flow