long term atmospheric deposition as the source of nitrate and other salts in the atacama desert chile new evidence from mass independent oxygen isotopic compositions abstract isotopic analysis of nitrate and sulfate minerals from the nitrate ore fields of the atacama desert in northern chile has shown anomalous 17 o enrichments in both minerals 17 o values of 14 21 in nitrate and 0 4 to 4 in sulfate are the most positive found in terrestrial minerals to date modeling of atmospheric processes indicates that the 17 o signatures are the result of photochemical reactions in the troposphere and stratosphere we conclude that the bulk of the nitrate sulfate and other soluble salts in some parts of the atacama desert must be the result of atmospheric deposition of particles produced by gas to particle conversion with minor but varying amounts from sea spray and local terrestrial sources flux calculations indicate that the major salt deposits could have accumulated from atmospheric deposition in a period of 200 000 to 2 0 m years during hyper arid conditions similar to those currently found in the atacama desert correlations between 17 o and 18 o in nitrate salts from the atacama desert and mojave desert california indicate varying fractions of microbial and photochemical end member sources the photochemical nitrate isotope signature is well preserved in the driest surficial environments that are almost lifeless whereas the microbial nitrate isotope signature becomes dominant rapidly with increasing moisture biologic activity and nitrogen cycling these isotopic signatures have important implications for paleoclimate astrobiology and n cycling studies

earthquakes faulting and stress in the los angeles basin since 1920 fourteen moderate sized m l 4 9 6 4 earthquakes have been reported in the los angeles basin these events are associated with both mappable surficial faults and concealed faults beneath the basin sediments to determine the style of faulting and state of stress in the basin single event focal mechanisms for 244 earthquakes of m 2 5 that have occurred during 1977 1989 have been calculated fifty nine percent of the events are strike slip and are mostly located near two of the major northwest striking right lateral strike slip faults in the basin the newport inglewood fault and the palos verdes fault the 1988 pasadena and the 1988 upland earthquakes showed left lateral strike slip on northeast striking faults numerous small earthquakes in the eastern part of the basin show left lateral strike slip faulting and form a northeast trend near yorba linda thirty two percent of the events have reverse mechanisms and are distributed along two broad zones the first the elysian park fold and thrust belt coincides with anticlines along the eastern and northern flank of the los angeles basin extending into santa monica bay the second the torrance wilmington fold and thrust belt coincides with anticlines mapped on the southwest flank of the basin and extends from offshore newport beach to the northwest into santa monica bay oblique faulting that could be inferred by the merging of strike slip and compressional tectonics does not occur in the basin instead the coexistence of zones of thrusting and large strike slip faults in the basin suggests that the thrust and strike slip movements are mostly decoupled a few normal faulting mechanisms appear to be related to faulting orthogonal to the axes of plunging anticlines the trend of the maximum horizontal stress varies from n1 w to n31 e across the basin and consistently forms high angles with the fold axes the stress field that exists along the flanks of the basin has a vertical minimum stress axis this stress field and ongoing folding and thrusting suggest that tectonic deformation is concentrated along the flanks of the deep central basin today the deformation of the basin consists of uplift and crustal thickening and lateral block movement to accommodate the north south compression across the basin

equifinality of basal ice facies from an antarctic cold based glacier threedebris bearingicefacieswererecognizedatthebaseofsuessglacier a cold basedglacierdamminga lakeintaylorvalley southvictoria land antarctica these faciesaretermed amber ice solidfacies and basal stratifiedfacies thispaper uses stable isotope composition dd and d 18 o gas content and gas composition co 2 o2 and n2 to develop an understanding of the processes responsible for the formation of these facies the basal iceischaracterizedbya strikingdifferencein icepropertiesbetweentheinnermostend of a 25m long tunnel dug 200m upstream fromthe glacier front and the front itself at the glacier front co isotopic data plot along a well defined freezing slope s 5 6 whereas insidethetunnel the isotopic data offset fromthefreezing slope and fromthe local meteoric water line which has a slope of 8 2 co 2 concentrations rise from a minimum of about 1000ppmv inthetunnelto about 220000ppmvatthe front takentogether these character istics strongly suggest an increasing contribution of liquidwater inthe formation of basal ice towards the glacier terminus we therefore conclude that visually similar basal ice facies can have differentorigins

radar signatures beneath a surface topographic lineation near the outlet of kamb ice stream and engelhardt ice ridge west antarctica visible and infrared satellite images reveal numerous lineations on the siple coast region of west antarctica we used 5 mhz ice penetrating radar to probe the interior and the bed of the ice sheet beneath a lineation at the boundary between engelhardt ice ridge and flat ice terrain to the south of the kamb ice stream kis outlet results show curved reflectors that emerge from the bed beneath 600 m thick ice the tops of the reflectors extend about 100 m into the ice above the bed where they become almost horizontal apparent reflectivity of the horizontal section is about 20 db less than that of the bed we conclude that the likely cause of such strong reflection is sea water that was accreted into basal crevasses when the flat ice terrain was floating internal layers are warped downward just downslope from the basal reflectors it is thought that the downwarping was caused by localized basal melting in the past the spatial pattern of downwarping suggests that localized basal melting was stronger on the north side than on the south side of kis apparently ice ocean interactions on the two sides of kis were different

waveforms and spectra of preshocks and aftershocks of the 1979 imperial valley california earthquake evidence for fault heterogeneity we have compared digitally recorded waveforms of m l 2 0 2 8 earthquakes that occurred in two small areas along the imperial fault before and after it broke in the ml 6 6 imperial valley earthquake on october 15 1979 eight preshocks 1977 1979 from a 4 by 1 km area centered 4 km se of the mainshock epicenter have strikingly similar waveforms over the entire record length 30 s with an average peak cross correlation between seismograms of 0 74 the seismograms are well correlated at frequencies up to at least 4 hz this implies similar source mechanisms and hypocenters within of the 4 hz wavelengths i e 200 400 m five aftershocks from the same area show an average peak cross correlation between seismograms of only 0 23 any associated changes in mechanism must be small because they are not reflected in the first motion data analysis of frequency content of these events using bandpass filtering techniques showed no systematic temporal changes in spectral shape ten preshocks and 24 aftershocks from a 1 by 2 km source area centered along the fault 16 km nw of the mainshock epicenter were also studied first motion data suggest that all of the aftershocks and a swarm of six preshocks on december 7 9 1978 were associated with the main fault but that four earlier preshocks were not the six preshocks on december 7 9 1978 were tightly clustered as evidenced by the strong similarity of the waveforms most peak cross correlations 0 6 during this swarm the 8 to 16 hz spectral amplitude increased relative to the 1 to 2 hz spectral amplitude over the whole record length by about a factor of 3 suggesting a systematic increase in stress drop groups of like events are also present among the aftershocks in this data set the average peak correlation for pairs of aftershocks 0 43 is almost the same as that for pairs of preshocks 0 45 if all 10 preshocks are included however several sources appear to have been active simultaneously during the aftershock period so that no more than two to three consecutive aftershocks have maximum cross correlations 0 6 the highly localized sources characterized by waveform similarity may represent fault asperities or clusters of asperities our observations are consistent with a decrease in the number of these asperities as the weaker ones fail under increasing stress during the intervals between large earthquakes

evolving geographic patterns of cenozoic magmatism in the north american cordillera the temporal and spatial association of magmatism and metamorphic core complexes four maps are presented here that show the location and extent of magmatic fields between eastern alaska and northern mexico during the successive time intervals of 55 40 40 25 25 10 and 10 0 ma and four others show the distribution of metamorphic core complexes during the same cenozoic time intervals the maps are based on u s geological survey and canadian cordilleran data bases contining about 6000 isotopic dates and extensive literature review for nearly 60 ma the development of metamorphic core complexes has coincided with the locus of a really extensive and voluminous intermediate composition magmatic fields the association is suggestive of a close link between magmatism and core complex formation namely that magma directly and indirectly lowers the strength of the crust magmatism thus controls the location and timing of core complex formation the stresses responsible may be inherited from mesozoic crustal thickening locally created by uplift and magmatic thickening of the crust and imposed by the global pattern of plate motions and driving forces since the miocene rates of magmatism extension and core complex formation have declined the modern basin and range province is not a suitable model for the situation that existed during major magmatic culminations the singular event of early miocene time the merging of two large magmatic fields extinguishing the laramide magmatic gap explains several disconnected observations the hyperextension episode of the colorado river corridor rapid reorientation of stress patterns across much of western north america and subsequent rapid tectonic movements in california magma triggered breakup of western north america lithosphere coincided with development of the san andreas transform system thermal destruction of the laramide magmatic gap created a california microplate about 22 ma ago that moved rapidly away from north america thus two plate tectonic processes thermal destruction of the lithosphere bridge and northward growth of a transform system interacted to produce miocene and later tectonic patterns and events

earthquake relative location based on waveform similarity abstract knowledge of the precise location of aftershocks is a tool used to obtain a detailed image of the geometry of some characteristics of focal regions in the case of sparse arrays of stations the use of secondary phases such as s waves may provide strong constraints on the spatial coordinates of the solutions we present a hypocenter estimation method based on the determination of s p times these times are measured using a cross correlation function of the main shock of the sequence to the aftershocks for all digital stations of the network the main advantage of the proposed method is that the s onset is measured precisely on the vertical component we test the accuracy of this procedure using data from explosions in which all locations are known explosion and stations we conclude with the application of the method to a sequence of more than one hundred events recorded in june 1989 in palenciana cordoba spain and recorded on a sparse network of digital stations use of this method drastically reduces the errors in the final location the similarity of waveforms provides a check on the location accuracy a final record section of the seismograms is constructed and interpretation of secondary phases further validates the accuracy of the results

oxygen isotope studies of achondrites abstract oxygen isotope abundances provide a powerful tool for recognizing genetic relationships among meteorites among the differentiated achondrites three isotopic groups are recognized l snc mars 2 earth and moon and 3 hed howardites eucrites diogenites the hed group also contains the mesosiderites main group pallasites and silicates from iiiab irons the angrites may be marginally resolvable from the hed group within each of these groups internal geologic processes give rise to isotopic variations along a slope 1 2 fractionation line as is well known for terrestrial materials variations of 17o from one planet to another are inherited from the inhomogeneities in the solar nebula as illustrated by the isotopic compositions of chondrites and their constituents among the undifferentiated achondrites five isotopic groups are found 1 aubrites 2 winonaites and iab iiicd irons 3 brachinites 4 acapulcoites and lodranites and 5 ureilites the isotopic compositions of aubrites coincide with the earth and moon and also with the enstatite chondrites these bodies apparently were derived from a common reservoir the isotopic composition of which was established at the chondrule scale by nebular processes isotopic similarities between chondrites and achondrites are seen only for the following instances 1 enstatite chondrites and aubrites 2 h chondrites and he irons and 3 l or ll chondrites and iva irons the isotopic data also support the following genetic associations 1 winonaites and iab iiicd irons 2 acapulcoites and lodranites and 3 ureilites and dark inclusions of c3 chondrites an attempt to reconcile the whole planet isotopic compositions of earth mars and the eucrite parent body with mixing models of their chemical compositions failed it is not possible to satisfy both the chemical and isotopic compositions of the terrestrial planets using known primitive solar system components

basal ice accretion and debris entrainment within the coastal ice margin law dome antarctica basal ice stratigraphy in coastal ice cliffs at the law dome margin has revealed the basal accretion of clean and debris bearing ice marine congelation ice and granular marine ice inland of the margin co isotopic analysis of 18 o and d isotopes together with solute chemistry were applied to determine the modes of accretion and debris entrainment

formation processes of basal ice at hamna glacier soya coast east antarctica inferred by detailed co isotopic analyses debris laden basal ice is exposed along an ice cliff near hamna glacier soya coast east antarctica the basal ice is about 6 8 m thick and shows conspicuous stratigraphic features the upper 5 5 m consists of alternating layers of bubble free and bubbly ice values of the bubble free ice layers are enriched by 2 4 1 0 standard deviation for 18 o compared to values of neighboring bubbly ice layers above and slopes of 18 o vs d are close to 8 such layers are suggested to have been formed by refreezing of meltwater in an open system in contrast part of the bubbly ice layers shows neutral profiles for stable isotopes suggesting that these ice masses are undisturbed ice sheet ice which was not affected by melting and freezing the massive alternating layers are thus considered to have been formed by folding of refrozen and non melted layers the lower 1 3 m consists predominantly of bubble free massive ice the profile of co isotopic values shows a change of about 3 0 o for 18 o at the interface between bubble free and bubbly ice since the isotopic change occurred over a wider thickness than the upper 5 5 m the basal ice is suggested to have been formed by refreezing of meltwater on a larger scale than the upper 5 5 m

evidence for two zones of debris entrainment beneath the greenland ice sheet investigation of the ice debris and stable isotope characteristics of basal ice exposed at the margin of the greenland ice sheet provides a means of testing and refining models of ice sheet erosion and deposition the basal ice exposed at the ice sheet margin gives evidence of the processes operating at the bed at different locations which can be used to constrain theoretical models predicting varying basal conditions1 2 improved understanding of the effects of isotope fractionation in hydrogen and oxygen caused by freezing processes at the bed which modify the isotope characteristics of the basal ice layers enables us to report evidence of two separate zones of debris entrainment beneath the ice sheet

improving local earthquake locations using the l1 norm and waveform cross correlation application to the whittier narrows california aftershock sequence experiments with different earthquake location methods applied to aftershocks of the october 1 1987 whittier narrows earthquake in california ml 5 9 suggest that local event locations can be greatly improved through the use of the l1 norm station corrections and waveform cross correlation the whittier narrows sequence is a compact cluster of over 500 events at 12 to 18 km depth located within the dense station coverage of the southern california seismic network scsn a telemetered network of several hundred short period seismographs scsn travel time picks and waveforms obtained through the southern california earthquake center are examined for 589 earthquakes between 1981 and 1994 in the vicinity of the mainshock using a smoothed version of the standard southern california velocity model and the existing travel time picks improved location accuracy is obtained through use of the l1 norm rather than the conventional least squares l2 norm approach presumably due to the more robust response of the former to outliers in the data a large additional improvement results from the use of station terms to account for three dimensional velocity structure outside of the event cluster to achieve greater location accuracy waveforms for these events are resampled and low pass filtered and the p and s wave cross correlation functions are computed at each station for every event pair for those events with similar waveforms differential times may be obtained from the cross correlation functions these times are then combined with the travel time picks to invert for an adjusted set of picks that are more consistent than the original picks and include seismograms that were originally unpicked locations obtained from the adjusted picks show a further improvement in accuracy location uncertainties are estimated using a bootstrap technique in which events are relocated many times for sets of picks in which the travel time residuals at the best fitting location are used to randomly perturb each pick improvements in location accuracy are indicated by the reduced scatter in the residuals smaller estimated location errors and the increased tendency of the locations to cluster along well defined fault planes median standard errors for the final inversion are 150 m in horizontal location and 230 m in vertical location although the relative locations within localized clusters of similar events are better constrained seismicity cross sections resolve the shallow dipping fault plane associated with the mainshock and a steeply dipping fault plane associated with a ml 5 3 aftershock these fault planes appear to cross and activity began on the secondary fault plane prior to the large aftershock

weertman regelation multiple refreezing events and the isotopic evolution of the basal ice layer a simple model is developed to s imulate the isotopic fractionation which accompanies weertman regelation at the bed of temperate based glaciers the fractionation equations of jouzel and souchez 1 982 are applied to multiple refreezing events over measured glacier bed profiles and mass balance is maintained as the basal ice and meltwater produced at one bedrock hummock enter the next s imulation results indicate that undeformed regelation ice layers are on the order of millimetres to centimetres thick often being completely melted at the stoss face of certain hummocks and exceptionally reaching a thickness in excess of 1 0 cm neither the internal morphology nor the isotopic composition of these layers is constant but both vary down glacier in accordance with bedrock configuration a glacier wide fractionation process is identified whereby heavy isotopes are preferentially removed fro m the basal meltwater film and incorporated into the basal ice this process might go some way to explaining the anomalously light isotopic composition measured in base flow waters leaving some glaciers vertical isotope profiles through undeformed basal ice layers are reconstructed and show that significant isotopic excursions can occur at a scale of millimeteres while the range of isotopic compositions within such m ulti layered regelation ice is greater than that which would occur in ice produced by a single refreezing event in circumstances where the regelation system is disrupted by removal of film waters into a network of linked cavities i t is found that the remaining basal ice may be significantly enriched in heavy isotopes relative to the composition of the initial mass inputs to the system heavy isotope enrichment of this m agnitude and consideration of the thickness of the basal ice layers concerned may explain the absence of recorded basal ice samples heavy enough to h ave been formed in equilibrium with subglacial precipitates sampled at one of the sites glacier de tsanfleuron and reported in an earlier paper

deep fault plane geometry inferred from multiplet relative relocation beneath the south flank of kilauea dense microearthquake swarms occur in the upper south flank of kilauea providing multiplets composed of hundreds of events the similarity of their waveforms and the quality of the data have been sufficient to provide accurate relative relocations of their hypocenters a simple and efficient method has been developed which allowed the relative relocation of more than 250 events with an average precision of about 50 m horizontally and 75 m vertically relocation of these events greatly improves the definition of the seismic image of the fault that generates them indeed relative relocations define a plane dipping about 6 northward although corresponding absolute locations are widely dispersed in the swarm a composite focal mechanism built from events providing a correct spatial sampling of the multiplet also gives a well constrained northward dip of about 5 to the near horizontal plane this technique thus collapses the clouds of hypocenters of single event locations to a plane coinciding with the slip plane revealed by previous focal mechanism studies we cannot conclude that all south flank earthquakes collapse to a single plane there may locally be several planes perhaps with different dips and depths throughout the south flank volume the 6 northward dipping plane we found is too steep to represent the overall flexure of the oceanic crust under the load of the island of hawaii this plane is probably an important feature that characterizes the basal slip layer below the upper south flank of kilauea volcano differences in seismicity rate and surface deformations between the upper and lower south flank could be related to the geometry of this deep fault plane the present work illustrates how high precision relative relocations of similar events in dense swarms combined with the analysis of geodetic measurements can help to describe deep fault plane geometry systematic selection and extensive relative relocation of similar earthquakes could be attempted in other well instrumented highly seismic areas to provide reliable basic information especially useful for understanding of earthquake generation processes

monitoring velocity variations in the crust using earthquake doublets an application to the calaveras fault california we present a technique that greatly improves the precision in measuring temporal variations of crustal velocities using an earthquake doublet or pair of microearthquakes that have nearly identical waveforms and the same hypocenter and magnitude but occur on different dates we compute differences in arrival times between seismograms recorded at the same station in the freqency domain by cross correlation of short windows of signal a moving window analysis of the entire seismograms including the coda gives t the difference in arrival times versus running time along the seismogram the time resolution of the method is an order of magnitude better than the digitization interval the t technique is illustrated with a pair of microearthquakes m 1 7 and 2 0 that occurred before and after the coyote lake california earthquake m 5 9 of august 6 1979 and on the same segment of the calaveras fault that ruptured during the earthquake the coda wave arrivals for some stations are progressively delayed for the second earthquake in the doublet so that its seismogram appears as a stretched version of the earlier event we interpret this systematic variation in t along the coda as a change in the average s velocity in the upper crust in the time interval between the two doublets s wave velocities appear to have decreased by 0 2 in an oblong region 5 10 km in radius at the south end of the aftershock zone

the 1994 northridge earthquake sequence in california seismological and tectonic aspects the m w 6 7 northridge earthquake occurred on january 17 1994 beneath the san fernando valley two seismicity clusters located 25 km to the south and 35 km to the north northwest preceded the mainshock by 7 days and 16 hours respectively the mainshock hypocenter was relatively deep at 19 km depth in the lower crust it had a thrust faulting focal mechanism with a rake of 100 on a fault plane dipping 35 to the south southwest and striking n75 w because the mainshock did not rupture the surface its association with surficial geological features remains difficult to resolve nonetheless its occurrence reemphasized the seismic hazard of concealed faults associated with the contractional deformation of the transverse ranges the northridge earthquake is part of the temporal increase in earthquake activity in the los angeles area since 1970 the mainshock was followed by an energetic aftershock sequence eight aftershocks of m 5 0 and 48 aftershocks of 4 m 5 occurred between january 17 and september 30 1994 the aftershocks extend over most of the western san fernando valley and santa susana mountains they form a diffuse spatial distribution around the mainshock rupture plane illuminating a previously unmapped thrust ramp extending from 7 10 km depth into the lower crust to a depth of 23 km no flattening of the aftershock distribution is observed near its bottom at shallow depths above 7 10 km the thrust ramp is topped by a dense distribution of aftershock hypocenters bounded by some of the surficial faults the dip of the ramp increases from east to west the west side of the aftershock zoae is characterized by a dense steeply dipping and north northeast striking planar cluster of aftershocks that exhibited mostly thrust faulting these events coincided with the gillibrand canyon lateral ramp along the east side of the aftershock zone the aftershocks also exhibited primarily thrust faulting focal mechanisms the focal mechanisms of the aftershocks were dominated by thrust faulting in the large aftershocks with some strike slip and normal faulting in the smaller aftershocks the 1971 san fernando and the 1994 northridge earthquakes ruptured partially abutting fault surfaces on opposite sides of a ridge both earthquakes accommodated north south contractional deformation of the transverse ranges the two earthquakes differ primarily in the dip direction of the faults and the depth of faulting the 1971 north northeast trend of left lateral faulting chatsworth trend was not activated in 1994

two facies interpretation of the basal layer of the greenland ice sheet contributes to a unified model of basal ice formation two exposures of basal ice in alaska and greenland which have previously provided the basis for contrasting models of basal ice development are in fact directly comparable reinterpretation of previous field descriptions combined with new structural and sedimentological data from west greenland facilitates a simple unification of previous models of basal ice development and a common terminology for the field description of basal ice sequences the stratigraphy of the basal ice sequence at any site indicates the subglacial conditions and processes operating up glacier of that site presented here are interpretations of the major sequence types

glaciohydraulic supercooling a freeze on mechanism to create stratified debris rich basal ice ii theory simple theory supports field observations lawson and others 1998 that subglacial water flow out of overdeepenings can cause accretion of layered debris bearing ice to the bases of glaciers the large meltwater flux into a temperate glacier at the onset of summer melting can cause rapid water flow through expanded basal cavities or other flow paths if that flow ascends a sufficiently steep slope out of an overdeepening the water will supercool as the pressure melting point rises and basal ice accretion will occur diurnal occasional or annual fluctuations in water discharge will cause variations in accretion rate debris content of accreted ice or subsequent diagenesis producing layers under appropriate conditions net accretion of debris bearing basal ice will allow debris fluxes that are significant in the glacier sediment budget

sulfate oxygen 17 anomaly in an oligocene ash bed in mid north america was it the dry fogs 1 the oxygen and sulfur isotope compositions of sulfate particularly the oxygen 17 anomaly provide clues to the origin of sulfate we report a variable oxygen 17 anomaly for water and acid leached sulfate from an oligocene volcanic ash bed in the northern high plains u s a we find no sulfate o 17 anomaly however in freshly collected ashes from recent eruptions around the world the oligocene paleoclimatic and sedimentary evidence argues against a hyperarid condition in the high plains thus a long term background atmospheric sulfate accumulation is less likely the origin combining sulfur isotope data we suggest that the anomalous sulfate was associated with volcanic eruptions in the west but was not directly carried by ash falls extreme dry fog sulfate haze events resulting from tropospheric oxidation of volcanic sulfur gases might provide a viable explanation for the sulfates in the ash bed that carry the oxygen 17 anomaly

source processes of three aftershocks of the 1983 goodnow new york earthquake high resolution images of small symmetric ruptures broadband large dynamic range geos data from four aftershocks m l 2 to 3 of the 1983 goodnow new york earthquake recorded at hard rock sites 2 to 7 km away from the epicentral area are used to study rupture processes of three larger events with an m l 1 6 event as the green s function event we analyze the spectra and spectral ratios of ground velocity at frequencies up to 100 hz and conclude that 1 there are resolvable p wave f max 51 and 57 hz at two sites 2 there is abundant information on sources of larger events up to frequencies of 50 to 60 hz and 3 there is an unstable nonlinear instrument resonance at about 90 hz we analyze the artifacts of low pass filters in the deconvolved rupture process including the limited time resolution and biases in the rise time measurement some extensions of the empirical green s function egf method are proposed to reduce these artifacts and to precisely estimate the relative locations of events that are close both in time and in space applying the egf method to three aftershocks we find that these events have ruptures that are simple crack like characterized by small fault radii 70 to 120 m and static stress drops that vary depending on the size of the events between about 5 to 16 bars we also find that two of the events with origin times differing by 0 60 sec are separated by 190 110 meters assuming a causal relationship between the two would result in a slow propagation velocity 0 05 0 03 time of the local shear wave velocity we therefore interpret the corresponding ruptures as being distinct the area between the rupturing patches having a characteristic length much smaller than those of the rupturing patches comparison of the results of this study with those obtained for the goodnow main shock and microearthquakes in california and hawaii suggests that the stress drops of the goodnow aftershocks decrease considerably by up to a factor of 25 or more from those estimated for the main shock even after the estimated large uncertainty in the latter estimates is considered this decrease is similar to those reported for the nahanni earthquakes m b 5 0 to 6 5 in northwest territories and for the north palm springs earthquake m l 5 9 sequence in california the stress drops of the simple crack like microearthquakes are significantly variable by factors between 3 and 27 within the single source areas the median of stress drops of the intraplate goodnow aftershocks is lower by factors of 2 to 4 than the medians calculated for the other interplate microearthquake sequences

changes in static stress on southern california faults after the 1992 landers earthquake the magnitude 7 5 landers earthquake of 28 june 1992 was the largest earthquake to strike california in 40 years the slip that occurs in such an earthquake would be expected to induce large changes in the static stress on neighbouring faults these changes in stress should in turn affect the likelihood of future earthquakes stress changes that load faults towards failure have been cited as the cause of small1 5 moderate6 and large7 earthquakes conversely those that relax neighbouring faults have been related to a decrease in seismicity5 here we use an elastic half space model8 to estimate the stress changes produced by the landers earthquake on selected southern california faults including the san andreas we find that the estimated stress changes are consistent with the triggering of four out of the five aftershocks with magnitude greater than 4 5 and that the largest changes 1 10 bar occurring on part of the san bernardino segment of the san andreas fault may have decreased the time to the next magnitude 8 earthquake by about 14 years

multiple oxygen and sulfur isotopic analyses on water soluble sulfate in bulk atmospheric deposition from the southwestern united states 1 sulfate is a major component of bulk atmospheric deposition including dust aerosol fog and rain we analyzed sulfur and oxygen isotopic compositions of water soluble sulfate from 40 sites where year round dust traps collect bulk atmospheric deposition in the southwestern united states average sulfur and oxygen isotopic compositions 34s and 18o are 5 8 1 4 cdt and 11 2 1 9 smow n 47 respectively samples have an oxygen 17 anomaly 17o with an average value of 1 0 0 6 except for a weak positive correlation between 18o and 17o values r2 0 4 no correlation exists for 18o versus 34s 17o versus 34s or any of the three isotopic compositions versus elevation of the sample site exceptional positive 17o values up to 4 23 are found in samples from sites in the vicinity of large cities or major highways and near zero 17o values are found in samples close to dry lakes comparison of isotopic values of dust trap sulfate and desert varnish sulfate from the region reveals that varnish sulfate has average isotopic values that are 4 8 lower for 18o 2 1 higher for 34s and 0 3 lower for 17o than those of the present day bulk deposition sulfate although other factors could cause the disparity this observation suggests a possibility that varnish sulfate may have recorded a long term atmospheric sulfate deposition during the holocene or pleistocene as well as the differences between sulfur and oxygen isotopic compositions of the preindustrial bulk deposition sulfate and those of the industrial era

katabatic wind influence on meltwater supply to fuel glacier substrate interactions at the grounding line terra nova bay east antarctica the co isotopic composition both in d and in 18o of interbedded debris rich and clear ice layers thought to have been formed at the grounding line of hells gate ice shelf indicates freezing by a double diffusion effect between continental meltwater and sea water within a subglacial sediment a source of meltwater is required to sustain the process since the temperature of the bed is below the freshwater melting point the most likely source is a surficially frozen meltwater lake rock outcrops kept mostly snow free by the action of katabatic winds absorb solar radiation so local production of liquid water becomes possible in an area with year round subfreezing air temperature conditions the meltwater accumulated in a marginal lake can eventually reach the subglacial substratum near a pinning point where the ice is relatively thin and fractured

broadband modeling of local earthquakes three component broadband waveforms of two small earthquakes near upland california recorded on the pasadena broadband high dynamic range instrument were modeled to obtain useful green s functions for this path and to examine the sensitivity of the synthetic seismograms to perturbations of the crustal model we assumed that the source of each event was both simple and known as determined from the caltech usgs array first motions a trapezoidal time function was chosen to fit the width of the direct s wave generalized rays reflectivity and finite difference techniques were used to compute the synthetic seismograms we found that a simple layer over a half space model is an adequate approximation of the upper crust along this profile in particular the waveforms are controlled by a relatively slow 4 km thick surficial layer 4 5km s 1 2 6 km s 1 over a faster layer 5 9 km s 1 3 5 km s 1 the relative amplitudes of direct and multiple s indicate that the main shock occurred at a depth of 6 km while the aftershock occurred at a depth of 8 to 9 km sensitivity analyses indicate that for distances less than 50 km and for periods longer than 1 sec the synthetic seismograms are not very sensitive to perturbations of the deep crustal structure analysis of upper crustal model perturbations revealed that the surficial layer is between 3 to 5 km thick in addition the contact between this layer and the underlying material can be smoothed with a 2 km wide velocity gradient without adversely affecting the fit to the data two dimensional finite difference calculations show that a ridge structure beneath the recorder acts as a lowpass filter the lower frequency phases are largely unaffected other two dimensional models with ridges between the source and receiver clearly did not fit the data synthetic seismograms computed for the best fitting model were used to estimate a long period moment of 6 2 1022 dyne cm ml 4 6 and 1 1022 dyne cm ml 3 7 with identical triangular source time durations of 0 3 sec assuming the same fault dimension of 0 4 km from standard scaling laws stress drop estimates of 410 and 70 bars are obtained for the two events respectively generally we found that it is possible to reproduce local waveforms at frequencies up to 1 hz without a complete knowledge of fine structural detail resulting green s functions can be useful in studying historic events and in simulations of large events from a given source region

quantifying sulfate components and their variations in soils of the mcmurdo dry valleys antarctica 1 many soils of the mcmurdo dry valleys mdv antarctica being old hyperarid and frigid have accumulated abundant atmospheric salts over the last several million years this salt repository offers an opportunity to study atmospheric chemistry past and present the origin and transport of ions in soils the weathering activity of soils and postdepositional soil leaching processes within this unique environment in particular soil sulfate in the mdv is known to have multiple origins but the precise proportions of different sulfate components remain elusive here we test a hypothesis that soil sulfate in the mdv is a predictable mixture of three major components sea salt sulfate non sea salt sulfate and background sulfate derived from weathering and volcanic sources that to a large extent varies as a function of elevation and distance from the coast by measuring sulfate s three stable isotope parameters i e 17o 18o and 34s plus estimating independently the end member stable isotope parameters for the three components on the basis of published reports and our measured data we solve explicitly the mixing proportion for each component using a set of three simultaneous linear equations the results from four spatially representative soil profiles show that the sum of such calculated proportions for the three components is very close to unity in most samples suggesting that a simple three component mixing model is a good representation of the soil sulfate budget while significant uncertainties still exist in the isotope compositions of different sulfate end members these data provide important initial constraints on sulfate diversity as well as its spatial and vertical distribution in the mdv

an elusive blind thrust fault beneath metropolitan los angeles seismic reflection profiles petroleum wells and relocated earthquakes reveal the presence of an active blind thrust fault beneath metropolitan los angeles a segment of this fault likely caused the 1987 whittier narrows magnitude 6 0 earthquake mapped sizes of other fault segments suggest that the system is capable of much larger magnitude 6 5 to 7 and more destructive earthquakes

evidence for large earthquakes in metropolitan los angeles the sierra madre fault along the southern flank of the san gabriel mountains in the los angeles region has failed in magnitude 7 2 to 7 6 events at least twice in the past 15 000 years restoration of slip on the fault indicated a minimum of about 4 0 meters of slip from the most recent earthquake and suggests a total cumulative slip of about 10 5 meters for the past two prehistoric earthquakes large surface displacements and strong ground motions resulting from greater than magnitude 7 earthquakes within the los angeles region are not yet considered in most seismic hazard and risk assessments

evidence from sulfate mass independent oxygen isotopic compositions of dramatic changes in atmospheric oxidation following massive volcanic eruptions 1 oxygen isotopic ratio measurements 17o and 18o of background and volcanic sulfate preserved in south pole snow and ice were used to investigate the impact on the oxidation state of the atmosphere by explosive volcanic eruptions by comparing different paleovolcanic events we observe a difference in the so2 oxidation pathway between moderate tens of teragrams tg of so2 and massive hundreds of tg eruptions both isotopic data and numerical simulations suggest the shutdown of stratospheric oh chemistry and the opening of unaccounted oxidation channels for so2 such as the reaction with o 3p atoms when hundreds of tg of so2 are injected into the stratosphere it is very likely that oxidation rates and pathways and concentrations of most traces gases are also dramatically affected with potentially important implications for climate forcing

evidence of past migration of the ice divide between the shirase and soya drainage basins derived from chemical characteristics of the marginal ice in the soya drainage basin east antarctica ice originating near the inland ice divide of the ice sheet can reappear as marginal ice at the surface near the ice terminal in the ablation area we have analyzed d 18 o values and ion concentrations of the skallen skarvsnes and hamna terminal ice sections located along the estuary line in the soya drainage basin east antarctica the data suggest that the upper part of the skallen terminal ice section could have originated from inland precipitation on the shirase drainage basin during marine isotope stage mis 5e while the upper part of skarvsnes and hamna terminal ice sections could have originated from inland precipitation on the soya drainage basin we calculate past elevation maps for the antarctic ice sheet using the three dimensional model sicopolis this model suggests that the upstream portion of the soya drainage basin during the glacial period mis 2 3 or 4 was located to the northeast of its present location a flow history is proposed wherein ice from the inland shirase drainage area flowed over the present ice divide line from the shirase to the soya drainage basin during the glacial period the ice in the soya drainage basin then flowed to the marginal part of the sheet after the ice divide had assumed its present position

ice core evidence for the thickness and character of clear facies basal ice at glacier de tsanfleuron switzerland five ice cores have been retrieved from a transect close to the terminus of glacier de tsanfleuron switzerland the cores extend from the ice surface to the glacier bed and are 3 5 44 8 m long stratigraphic logging based on bubble size and density reveals the presence of a highly metamorphosed basal ice layer about 10 m thick from which all traces of bubble rich ice have been removed this bubble poor ice which corresponds closely with clear facies ice observed in cavities beneath numerous temperate based glaciers contrasts with the overlying bubble rich or bubble foliated englacial ice and the underlying debris rich and bubble free dispersed facies basal ice down core patterns in major ion composition stable isotope composition and total gas content and composition are generally consistent with formation of clear facies ice by deformation related metamorphism of bubbly englacial ice in addition isotopic data suggest that storage of downward percolating meltwaters occurs close to the upper surface of the clear facies ice layer perhaps reflecting a local variation in ice permeability across the transition from englacial to clear facies ice enrichment in crustally derived ionic species is noted in the lowermost decimetres of the debris free clear facies ice that immediately overlies debris rich dispersed facies basal ice this ionic enrichment in debris free ice is interpreted in terms of active inter granular meltwater flow within some decimetres of the glacier bed

on the isotopic composition in δd and δ18o of water and ice during freezing experiments on progressive unidirectional freezing are coi1 ducted to determine rhe evol ution in 00 and 51 bo of successive water samples and ice layers ta ken during the course of freezing r es ults indicate t hal lhi s evoluti on takes pl ace in a bd bibo diagram a long a strai ght line wi th a characteri sti c slope this slope different from that due to the precip itation effec t gives a finger print of the occurrence of a freezing or of a melt ing refreez ing process in the stud ied reservoir residual water was sampled at the beginning of the experiment after 40 80 85 90 and 95 of the material had frozen when the freezing process was complete the ice core was recovered and sectioned the samples covered the freezing ranges from 0 to 10 10 to 20 20 to 50 50 to 60 60 to 70 70 to 80

paleomagnetism of cretaceous pacific seamounts revisited the paleomagnetism of cretaceous pacific seamounts is reexamined herein techniques for nonuniform magnetic modeling are applied to determine paleomagnetic pole positions and their associated confidence limits modeling techniques are presented for reconstruction of both uniform and nonuniform components of the seamount magnetization the uniform component yields an estimate of the paleomagnetic pole position and the nonuniform component accounts for irregularities in the seamount magnetization a seminorm minimization approach constructs maximally uniform magnetizations and is used to represent seamount interiors a statistical modeling approach constructs random nonuniform magnetizations and is used to determine the confidence limits associated with each pole position mean paleopoles are calculated for groups of seamounts including their associated error bounds the mean paleopole for seven reliably dated upper cretaceous seamounts is located close to the position predicted by pacific hotspot relative motion the paleopole for five seamounts with cretaceous minimum dates is located west of the hotspotpredicted apparent polar wander path and may represent a lower cretaceous or upper jurassic pole

sulfate oxygen 17 anomalies in desert varnishes rock varnishes are ubiquitous in arid regions on earth and are believed to be commonly present on mars here we report high water soluble sulfate and nitrate contents in desert varnishes from the death valley region of southwestern u s a and that sulfate in varnishes possess 17o 18o ratios that do not fall on terrestrial mass dependent fractionation line sulfate from wet and dry atmospheric deposition is probably the source of the 17o anomalies the anomalies are only moderately lower than that of aerosol sulfates collected from the greater los angeles area indicating probably more than half of the sulfate in desert varnish is supplied by atmospheric deposition this finding suggests that earth surface environments are constantly accumulating 17o anomalous sulfate from the atmosphere arid and stable conditions facilitate the preservation of these atmospheric signatures this finding also indicates that different 17o 18o ratios found in different components in the martian meteorites may result from atmospheric chemical processes

complex faulting deduced from broadband modeling of the 28 february 1990 upland earthquake ml 5 2 the 1990 upland earthquake was one of the first sizable local events to be recorded broadband at pasadena where the green s functions appropriate for the path are known from a previous study the synthetics developed in modeling the 1988 upland sequence were available for use in rapid assessment of the activity first motion studies from the caltech usgs array data gave two solutions for the 1990 main shock based on the choice of regional velocity models although these focal mechanisms differ by less than 5 in strike and 20 rake it proved possible to further constrain the solution using these derived green s functions and a three component waveform inversion scheme we obtain from long period waves a fault plane solution of 216 77 5 0 m 0 2 5 10 24 dyne cm depth 6 km and a source duration of 1 2 sec for which the orientation and source depth are in good agreement with the first motion results of hauksson and jones 1991 comparisons of the broadband displacement records with the high pass wood anderson simulations suggests the 1990 earthquake was a complicated event with a strong asperity at depth double point source models indicate that about 30 per cent of the moment was released from a 9 km deep asperity following the initial source by 0 0 to 0 5 sec our best fitting distributed fault model indicates that the timing of our point source results is feasible assuming a reasonable rupture velocity the rupture initiated at a depth of about 6 km and propagated downward on a 3 5 by 3 5 km length by width fault both the inversion of long period waves and the distributed fault modeling indicate that the main shock did not rupture the entire depth extent of the fault defined by the aftershock zone a relatively small asperity about 1 0 km 2 with a greater than 1 kbar stress drop controls the short period wood anderson waveforms this asperity appears to be located in a region where seismicity shows a bend in the fault plane

constraints on temporal variations in velocity near anza california from analysis of similar event pairs similar earthquake pairs recorded by the anza seismic network in southern california are used as repeatable sources to place an upper limit on temporal changes in seismic velocity which occurred in the vicinity of the anza seismic gap in the last 9 yr relative arrival times for each pair of events are found using a cross correlation method and relative locations are calculated to verify that the pairs have nearly identical hypocenters the time separation between events in these pairs varies from less than a day to almost 7 yr the long term changes in seismic travel times as measured from the pairs with the longest time separation are not significantly greater than the noise level estimated from the short time separation event pairs almost all p wave paths show less than 0 06 0 007 sec change in travel time and all s wave paths have less than 0 03 0 004 sec change sensitivity tests place an upper bound on travel time changes that could be compensated by hypocenter mislocation at 0 2 there is no evidence that localized stress accumulation causes measurable changes in seismic velocity in the anza region

clustering and periodic recurrence of microearthquakes on the san andreas fault at parkfield california the san andreas fault at parkfield california apparently late in an interval between repeating magnitude 6 earthquakes is yielding to tectonic loading partly by seismic slip concentrated in a relatively sparse distribution of small clusters 20 meter radius of microearthquakes within these clusters which account for 63 of the earthquakes in a 1987 92 study interval virtually identical small earthquakes occurred with a regularity that can be described by the statistical model used previously in forecasting large characteristic earthquakes sympathetic occurrence of microearthquakes in nearby clusters was observed within a range of about 200 meters at communication speeds of 10 to 100 centimeters per second the rate of earthquake occurrence particularly at depth increased significantly during the study period but the fraction of earthquakes that were cluster members decreased

deformation structures and an alteration zone linked to deposition of volcanogenic sulphate in an ancient playa oligocene of nebraska usa historic sulphur rich volcanic eruptions have altered global climate for as much as five years and much larger events are known from the geologic record at scotts bluff nebraska early oligocene strata of the lower arikaree group contain a tephra bed with abundant calcite pseudomorphs after gypsum previous work has shown sulphate from the pseudomorphs in this tephra bears a high 17 o anomaly indicative of oxidation of sulphur gases by ozone or hydrogen peroxide in the atmosphere possible sources of the tephra were caldera eruptions at about 28 ma in the san juan volcanic field of southwestern colorado 500 km sw of the study site and the eastern great basin 1000 km wsw the present sedimentological study shows that tephra and volcanogenic sulphate were deposited and preserved within a small surfacedischarging playa that developed on the irregular upper surface of aeolian siltstones of the subjacent white river group sulphate solutions including perhaps sulphuric acid percolated downward within the vadose zone dissolving early formed smectite cement within underlying volcaniclastic sandstones reddening these rocks along an irregular alteration front preserved fine scale stratification within the sandstones precludes the possibility that reddening took place during pedogenesis displacive growth of gypsum at the playa centre folded tephra beds and forced tephra into underlying sandstones forming elongate cones the large mass fraction of gypsum now replaced by calcite in the playa sediments suggests a huge long distance delivery of sulphate aerosols some of the sulphate and tephra may have come from the same eruption or the fine grained tephra may simply have aided preservation of dry fog sulphate derived from an unrelated effusive eruption of lava

anomalous 17o compositions in massive sulphate deposits on the earth the variation of 18o that results from nearly all physical biological and chemical processes on the earth is approximately twice as large as the variation of 17o this so called mass dependent fractionation is well documented in terrestrial minerals1 2 evidence for mass independent fractionation 17o 17o 0 52 18o where deviation from this tight relationship occurs has so far been found only in meteoritic material and a few terrestrial atmospheric substances3 in the rock record it is thought that oxygen isotopes have followed a mass dependent relationship for at least the past 3 7 billion years ref 4 and no exception to this has been encountered for terrestrial solids5 here however we report oxygen isotope values of two massive sulphate mineral deposits which formed in surface environments on the earth but show large isotopic anomalies 17o up to 4 6 these massive sulphate deposits are gypcretes from the central namib desert and the sulphate bearing miocene volcanic ash beds in north america the source of this isotope anomaly might be related to sulphur oxidation reactions in the atmosphere and therefore enable tracing of such oxidation these findings also support the possibility of a chemical origin of variable isotope anomalies on other planets such as mars6

water in snc meteorites evidence for a martian hydrosphere the shergotty nakhla chassigny snc meteorites purportedly of martian origin contain 0 04 to 0 4 percent water by weight oxygen isotopic analysis can be used to determine whether this water is extraterrestrial or terrestrial such analysis reveals that a portion of the water is extraterrestrial and furthermore was not in oxygen isotopic equilibrium with the host rock lack of equilibrium between water and host rock implies that the lithosphere and hydrosphere of the snc parent body formed two distinct oxygen isotopic reservoirs if mars was the parent body the maintenance of two distinct reservoirs may result from the absence of plate tectonics on the planet

oxygen isotopic homogeneity of the earth new evidence abstract the two oxygen isotope ratios 18 o 16 o and 17 o 16 o were analyzed in precambrian 3 5 gy and modern cherts and in mantle derived lavas all samples exhibit oxygen isotopic compositions consistent with mass dependent isotopic fractionation from a single reservoir and thus suggest that 3 5 gy ago the earth was already a well mixed body these results would therefore not support models of ocean accretion by cometary impact later than 3 7 0 1 gy new measurements on lunar rocks confirm oxygen isotopic homogeneity of the earth moon system and thus suggests that the internal mixing of the two bodies pre dates their accretion the recent giant impact model used to explain how the moon was formed is also compatible with our results

the 3 december 1988 pasadena california earthquake evidence for strike slip motion on the raymond fault the pasadena earthquake m l 4 9 occurred on 3 december 1988 at a depth of 16 km the hypocenters of the earthquake and its aftershocks define a east northeast striking steeply northwest dipping surface that projects up to the active surficial trace of the raymond fault one of the nodal planes of the focal mechanism of the earthquake parallels the raymond fault with left lateral strike slip movement on that plane and is consistent with geomorphic and paleoseismic evidence that the raymond fault is dominantly a left lateral strike slip fault the existence of a component of sinistral slip along the raymond fault had been suspected prior to the earthquake but the northward dip of the fault and the prominent scarp along the western portion of its trace had led most workers to conclude that slip along the fault was dominantly reverse

space geodetic measurement of crustal deformation in central and southern california 1984 1992 we estimate the velocity field in central and southern california using global positioning system gps observations from 1986 to 1992 and very long baseline interferometry vlbi observations from 1984 to 1991 our core network includes 12 gps sites spaced approximately 50 km apart mostly in the western transverse ranges and the coastal borderlands the precision and accuracy of the relative horizontal velocities estimated for these core stations are adequately described by a 95 confidence ellipse with a semiminor axis of approximately 2 mm yr oriented roughly north south and a semimajor axis of approximately 3 mm yr oriented east west

high precision relative locations of earthquakes at mount st helens washington several earthquake sequences have occurred at mount st helens as clusters of shallow events with nearly identical waveforms multiplets we present a technique that allows the relative relocation of events within a multiplet to at least an order of magnitude higher precision than is typically possible with traditional techniques a multiplet is studied in pairs of events called doublets each doublet is made up of a reference event and one other event from the multiplet the cross spectrum of a short window beginning just before the p arrival is used to compute differences in arrival times between seismograms from the same station for each doublet these time differences computed with a precision of 1 2 ms are then used to locate each earthquake relative to the reference event engineering explosions with well known locations are used to test the relocation technique explosions can be relocated with accuracy better than 20 m for events within 250 m of the reference explosion the relocation technique is applied to earthquakes preceding the september 10 1984 and the may june 1985 dome building eruptions of mount st helens forty events that occurred during a 12 hour period in september 1984 are located in a volume approximately 30 m in diameter beneath the lava dome the earthquakes following the extrusion do not occur in multiplets and appear to be distributed over a much larger volume in the may june 1985 eruption we recognize three multiplet sets that took place successively in time the multiplets are interpreted as repeated failure or slip within a relatively small volume due to high strain rates around the magma supply conduit

escape tectonics in the los angeles metropolitan region and implications for seismic risk recent damaging earthquakes in california including the 1971 san fernando1 1983 coalinga2 1987 whittier narrows3 and 1994 northridge4 events have drawn attention to thrust faults as both potentially hazardous seismic sources and as a mechanism for accommodating shortening in many regions of southern california consequently many geological studies5 6 have concluded that thrust faults in southern california pose the greatest seismic hazard and also account for most of the estimated 5 7 mm yr 1 of contraction across the greater los angeles metropolitan area7 8 indicated by global positioning system geodetic measurements9 our study demonstrates however that less than 50 of the geodetically observed contraction is accommodated on the principal thrust systems across the los angeles region we integrate the most recent geological geodetic and seismological data to assess the spatial distribution of strain across the los angeles metropolitan region we then demonstrate that a significant component of seismic moment release and shortening in this region is accommodated by east west crustal escape extrusion along known strike slip and oblique slip faults

source inversion of the 1988 upland california earthquake determination of a fault plane for a small event abstract we examined short period p waves to investigate if waveform data could be used to determine which of two nodal planes was the actual fault plane for a small m l 4 6 earthquake near upland california we removed path and site complications by choosing a small aftershock m l 2 7 as an empirical green function the main shock p waves were deconvolved by using the empirical green function to produce simple far field displacement pulses we used a least squares method to invert these pulses for the slip distribution on a finite fault both nodal planes strike 125 dip 85 and strike 221 dip 40 of the first motion focal mechanism were tested at various rupture velocities the southwest trending fault plane consistently gave better fitting solutions than the southeast trending plane we determined a moment of 4 2 10 22 dyne cm the rupture velocity and thus the source area could not be well resolved but if we assume a reasonable rupture velocity of 0 87 times the shear wave velocity we obtain a source area of 0 97 km 2 and a stress drop of 38 bars choice of a southwest trending fault plane is consistent with the trend of the nearby portion of the transverse ranges frontal fault zone and indicates left lateral motion this method provides a way to determine the fault plane for small earthquakes that have no surface rupture and no obvious trend in aftershock locations

sulfate in modern playa settings and in ash beds in hyperarid deserts implication for the origin of 17o anomalous sulfate in an oligocene ash bed abstract a large amount of calcite pseudomorphs after gypsum were discovered in a volcanic ash bed and its underlying sand siltstone in the gering formation late oligocene northwestern ne usa the highly positive 17o anomalies in the residual sulfate indicate that the sulfate could only have come from the oxidation of sulfur gases by ozone in the atmosphere we previously proposed that it was most likely the result of an extreme tropospheric sulfate haze dry fog event that was associated with volcanic eruptions in the west to test the dry fog hypothesis we examine here two alternative scenarios that also involve atmospheric sulfate deposition but do not imply a dramatic volcanic and dry fog source 1 is it possible that some playas in arid or semiarid regions accumulate the type of atmospheric sulfate deposits as we see in the mid gering bed by the inflow of surface water or groundwater 2 could a period of hyperaridity and stability during the late oligocene have caused a significant accumulation of atmospheric background sulfate onto the mid gering ash bed surface sulfates from a variety of playa settings were collected and measured for their 17o anomalies the sulfate isotope both o and s and concentration profiles of two volcanic ash beds that are currently exposed in the central atacama desert chile and in taylor valley of the antarctica dry valleys were studied along with their sedimentary features these two ash beds were chosen for comparison because of their significant levels of atmospheric sulfate accumulated during prolonged and hyperarid climatic conditions results showed no or minimal 17o anomalies in any of the playa sulfate samples from around the world and none of the parameters in the mid gering ash profile matches those in either of the two volcanic ash profiles in modern hyperarid settings conclusion the observed 17o anomalous gypsum deposit in the mid gering ash bed is most likely the result of a series of extreme dry fogs that resulted in an intense pulse of atmospheric sulfate deposition to a semiarid playa setting

basal debris entrainment and transport in glaciers of southwestern bylot island canadian arctic abstract glaciers on southwestern bylot island in the canadian arctic flow from an alpine setting in high grade crystalline archean terrane on to coastal lowlands underlain by clastic sedimentary

precise relocations and stress change calculations for the upland earthquake sequence in southern california we relocate earthquakes that occurred near the 1988 ml 4 7 and the 1990 ml 5 5 upland california earthquakes to map the fault geometry of the poorly defined san jose fault and to test the static stress triggering hypothesis for this sequence we adopt the l1 norm waveform cross correlation method of shearer 1997 to obtain precise relocations for 1573 events between 1981 and 1997 in the upland area to limit computation time we only perform waveform cross correlation on 60 of the nearest neighbors of each relocated event our final relocations show two linear features the first is imaged by the locations of the initial month of aftershocks of the 1988 upland earthquake which delineate a fault with a dip angle of 45 between 7 and 9 km depth consistent with the mainshock focal mechanism the second linear feature is a plane dipping at about 74 from 2 to 9 km depth which is illuminated by both the 1988 and 1990 upland sequences in agreement with the inferred location of the san jose fault at depth however below 9 km the event locations become more diffuse giving rise to two different interpretations of the fate of the san jose fault at depth one possibility is that the fault shallows at depth consistent with our relocations but not with the focal mechanism of a ml 4 7 deep aftershock alternatively the fault may be offset at depth by the more shallow dipping fault strand broken during the 1988 earthquake using these inferred fault geometries we compute stress changes resulting from slip during the mainshocks to test whether the relocated aftershocks are consistent with the hypothesis that more aftershocks occur where the change in static coulomb failure stress is positive on faults optimally oriented for failure this requires an extension of previous models of changes in the failure stress to three dimensions and arbitrary fault orientation we find that patterns of change in coulomb failure stress differ little between the different fault geometries all are nearly symmetric about the fault and so do not match the aftershock distribution in which most of the off fault events occur to one side of the fault plane

caliche as a geological repository for atmospheric sulfate 1 recent studies demonstrate that important information on sulfur source oxidation pathway transport pattern and reaction kinetics of atmospheric oxidation of sulfur gases can be uncovered by measuring multiple isotope compositions of the oxidation product secondary atmospheric sulfate sas sas from earth s distant past however is rarely preserved in the rock records because of its high solubility and small quantity we report here from the measurement of 47 modern and fossil caliche samples that caliches contain variable amounts of carbonate associated sulfate cas and the 17o values of the cas range from 0 12 to 2 32 with most values higher than the background value of 0 05 for seawater sulfate indicating the presence of an sas component derived from the oxidation of sulfur gases by atmospheric ozone or related oxidants this study demonstrates that caliche a pedogenic carbonate common in the geologic record could serve as a repository for ancient sas

glaciohydraulic supercooling a freeze on mechanism to create stratified debris rich basal ice i field evidence debris laden ice accretes to the base of matanuska glacier alaska u s a from water that supercools while flowing in a distributed drainage system up the adverse slope of an overdeepening frazil ice grows in the water column and forms aggregates while other ice grows on the glacier sole or on substrate materials sediment is trapped by this growing ice forming stratified debris laden basal ice growth rates of 0 1 m a 1 of debris rich basal ice are possible the large sediment fluxes that this mechanism allows may have implications for interpretation of the widespread deposits from ice that flowed through other overdeepenings including heinrich events and the till sheets south of the laurentian great lakes

a mechanism of basal ice layer formation involving major ice fabric changes an opportunity to analyse the mechanism for the formation of a basal ice layer was provided by glacier de tsanfleuron in the swiss alps this glacier has some lateral subglacial cavities in which a basal ice layer forms on the bedrock floor and is subsequently incorporated at the base of the glacier petrographic and crystallographic analyses of the different types of ice have provided a means of investigating the successive stages of the process these analyses show major structural changes which provide field confirmation of the deformation mechanisms studied by several authors in laboratory experiments

rupture geometry from high precision relative hypocentre locations of microearthquake clusters summary in 1987 two microearthquake sequences with a duration of about a week each and consisting of 37 and 46 events respectively occurred in the upper crust below the jura mountains of northern switzerland the seismograms within each sequence exhibit a high degree of similarity indicating tight clustering of hypocentres and similar focal mechanisms using a cross correlation technique applied to the seismograms in the time domain together with a new least squares adjustment procedure it was possible to determine relative hypocentre locations of the earthquakes in each cluster with a precision of a few tens of metres the results show that hypocentres of events with the same focal mechanism lie on a plane which coincides exactly with one of the nodal planes of the fault plane solution and that consequently swarm like sequences of similar earthquakes are due to repeated slip on the same fault in one case slip occurred as right lateral motion on a steeply dipping plane striking in wnw ese direction whereas the other case corresponds to left lateral slip on two almost vertical planes striking roughly n s in 1988 an additional earthquake triplet occurred on a wnw ese oriented normal fault nearby all three mechanisms are consistent with a general nnw sse oriented direction of maximum crustal shortening and a corresponding wsw ene oriented extension repeated slip on the same fault is indicative of a large degree of heterogeneity and of short term temporal variability of both frictional resistance and stress distribution on the fault an explanation for the occurrence of such swarm like seismic activity in terms of barriers or asperities would require that shear stress on the unbroken patches increase from one event to the next since however the overall shear stress would be expected to decrease as a consequence of the stress released in each event a more plausible mechanism involves pore pressure fluctuations caused by fluids under suprahydrostatic pressures migrating upward through pre existing zones of weakness in the crust

mass independent isotope effects in archean 2 5 to 3 8 ga sedimentary sulfides determined by ion microprobe analysis we report sulfur isotope anomalies with 33 s the deviation from a mass dependent fractionation line for the three isotope system 34 s 32 s vs 33 s 32 s ranging up to 2 within individual archean sedimentary sulfides from a variety of localities our measurements which are made in situ by multicollector secondary ion mass spectrometry unequivocally corroborate prior bulk measurements of mass independent fractionations mif in sulfur and provide additional evidence for an anoxic atmosphere on the earth before 2 ga this technique also offers new opportunities for exploring ancient sulfur metabolisms preserved in the rock record the presence of mif sulfur in sulfides from a 3 8 ga fe rich quartzite from akilia island west greenland is consistent with a marine sedimentary origin for this rock copyright 2003 elsevier science ltd

oxygen isotopes in glacier river water austre okstindbreen okstindan norway there is no discernible river discharge from austre okstindbreen norway in winter any water formed by basal melting is likely to be stored in isolated cavities or sediments at the bed in summer a baseflow component of discharge relatively depleted of 18 o is diluted by water more enriched in 18 o glacier ice meltwater with a high 18 o value passes rapidly through channelized systems and emerges in the glacier river within a few hours headward extension of the systems in late summer may tap water stored within the glacier since the previous summer s close down stored water also is released during early melt season events when the low capacity drainage systems cannot accommodate inputs the high 18 o value indicates that the probable source of the released water is glacier ice or low altitude snowfall stratigraphic variations of 18 o values resulting from changing weather conditions characterize the accumulating winter snowpack during the melt season the mean 18 o value of the residual pack rises the water leaving it depleted of 18 o passes slowly through the glacier smoothing out variations of supply 18 o values of rain vary between and within events and their effect on glacier river 18 o values is unpredictable

the oxygen cycle of the terrestrial planets insights into the processing and history of oxygen in surface environments physical and chemical processes that operate at low temperature in earth s surface environments and in other planetary settings have left an indelible record of the evolution and interactions of planetary surface and near surface reservoirs this chapter reviews the chemistry of oxygen elemental and isotopic in lunar planetary and earth surface reservoirs the discussion begins with a brief review of the relative abundances of oxygen isotopes in planetary materials including lunar samples the snc martian meteorites and components that are inferred to come from martian surface pools this is followed by a brief largely historical account of the development of oxygen isotope geochemistry in earth surface materials the discussion then transitions using an earth systems perspective into an overview of developments in oxygen isotope geochemistry of atmospheric compounds this treatment includes recent studies that 1 use high precision measurements of 17 o and 18 o to characterize atmospheric oxygen 2 apply information about isotopically substituted species isotopologs for characterizing the position dependent isotopic fractionations of some oxygen bearing atmospheric species and 3 investigate non mass dependent isotopic fractionations in ozone and other atmospheric species the discussion then examines the evidence and models that point to change in the oxygen cycle and oxidation chemistry in earth surface environments over the course of geologic time we use the subdivisions of the earth systems the hydrosphere geosphere and biosphere as a basis for examining these changes this record is explored in the context of hypotheses and data that relate to the nature of the changes and transformations in the oxidation state of these different components of the earth s surface environments we conclude with a brief accounting of areas of research where scientifi c inquiry is presently very active

locating oceanic earthquakes the influence of regional models and location criteria summary earthquakes in oceanic areas are normally located using traveltime tables which are representative of continental paths since most seismic stations lie on continents it should therefore be possible to improve such locations by employing a set of traveltimes more appropriate to paths from oceanic events to continental stations a comparison has therefore been made between locations for a number of oceanic events using the recent iasp91 global traveltimes and the times for the pac91 model derived from observations of events in the pacific although there were often significant differences in the location estimates for the two models these were often no larger than the shifts induced by changing the misfit criterion used for determining the location for events in purely oceanic regions such as tonga and the marianas with little nearby continent the results from the pac91 model either provided a significantly better fit to the data or produced depth estimates in close accord with independent constraints e g centroid moment tensor locations in these cases the use of a specific set of oceanic traveltimes can be recommended however for marginal zones and island arcs the situation is less clear and it is probably best to employ the global traveltime set with the use of additional phases to improve depth estimates

subaerial salt extrusions in iran as analogues of ice sheets streams and glaciers abstract ice h20 and salt halite nacl share many physical properties and resemble each other in hand specimens and subaerial gravity driven flows however while most significant bodies of ice accumulate in cold highlands and gravity spread where and soon after they form most significant bodies of salt accumulate in tropical marine basins and have to be buried by 1 km of other rocks before they flow buried salt is driven by differential loading into various categories of piercing structures known as diapirs many diapirs extrude onto the surface as sheets of allochthonous out of place salt thousands of sheets of allochthonous salt have been interpreted in over 35 basins worldwide in the last 25 years mainly in the toes of passive continental margins and in orogenic belts where some are 103 km2 in area most former salt sheets are now submarine or subsurface but several active examples are beautifully exposed in iran these were compared to ice glaciers soon after they were introduced to western science a comparison that has been neglected since here we update this analogy and use modern understanding of flowing ice and salt to examine the similarities and differences that might be mutually beneficial to both fields of study as well as to extraterrestrial scientists the profiles internal structures and fabrics in flowing bodies of ice and salt are sensitive gauges of the histories of their budgets of supply and loss however whereas snow merely compacts where it accumulates salt sheets are fed from below by already deformed salt when salt diapirs first emerge on land they extrude domes that mature to the profiles of viscous fountains that often feed glacier like flows known as namakiers after locally exhausting their deep source layers salt fountains spread to the profiles of viscous droplets normal for ice caps ice typically deforms at 80 usually 90 of its absolute melting temperature while most salt deforms at

stable isotopes in the basal silty ice preserved in the greenland ice sheet at summit environmental implications modelling ice sheet behaviour in the context of climatic changes depends on initial and boundary conditions which can be better defined by studying the composition of basal ice this study deals with basal ice reached by deep drilling at summit in central greenland grip core the isotopic composition of this ice indicates that ice formed at the ground surface in the absence of the ice sheet largely contributed to its formation the basal silty ice is a remnant of a growing stage of the ice sheet possibly the original build up

freezing rate effects on the physical characteristics of basal ice formed by net adfreezing a number of theoretical and empirical studies have indicated that many individual characteristics of ice formed by processes of net basal adfreezing may be sensitive to the rate of propagation of the freezing front through the reservoir concerned the effects of freezing rate on the the stable isotope chemistry and crystallography of ice in addition to the disposition and character of included debris and gas are reported unidirectional freezing through a cylindrical reservoir containing various water sediment mixtures has been conducted in the laboratory and the resulting cores analysed for debris and gas disposition and ice crystal size and fabric the data lend support to inferences drawn from studies concerned with specific ice properties and an idealized suite of characteristics is developed which may be diagnostic of basal ice formed by net adfreezing

petrography and composition of martian regolith breccia meteorite northwest africa 7475 the northwest africa nwa 7475 meteorite is one of the several stones of paired regolith breccias from mars based on petrography oxygen isotope mineral compositions and bulk rock compositions its inventory of lithic clasts is dominated by vitrophyre impact melts that were emplaced while they were still molten other clast types include crystallized impact melt rocks evolved plutonic rocks possible basalts contact metamorphosed rocks and siltstones impact spherules and vitrophyre shards record airborne transport and accreted dust rims were sintered on most clasts presumably during residence in an ejecta plume the clast assemblage records at least three impact events one that formed an impact melt sheet on mars 4 4 ga ago a second that assembled nwa 7475 from impactites associated with the impact melt sheet at 1 7 1 4 ga and a third that launched nwa 7475 from mars 5 ma ago mildly shocked pyroxene and plagioclase constrain shock metamorphic conditions during launch to 5 and 15 gpa the mild postshock heating that resulted from these shock pressures would have been insufficient to sterilize this water bearing lithology during launch magnetite maghemite and pyrite are likely products of secondary alteration on mars textural relationships suggest that calcium carbonate and goethite are probably of terrestrial origin yet trace element chemistry indicates relatively low terrestrial alteration comparison of mars odyssey gamma ray spectrometer data with the fe and th abundances of nwa 7475 points to a provenance in the ancient southern highlands of mars gratteri crater with an age of 5 ma and an apparent diameter of 6 9 km marks one possible launch site of nwa 7475

equilibrium oxygen and hydrogen isotope fractionation between ice and water we have performed high precision measurements of the isotope fractionation factors between ice and water ice was grown from a stirred water mass on a cooling plate the freezing velocity was varied keeping the stirring rate of the water constant so that the equilibrium fractionation factors could be determined by extrap olating to zero freezing velocity the resulting values are a d h 1 0212 0 0004 non equilibrium freezing of lake and sea ice is briefly discussed as well as the significance of our results for the deuterium excess in polar precipitation

planetesimal sulfate and aqueous alteration in cm and ci carbonaceous chondrites water soluble sulfate salts extracted from six cm chondrites have oxygen isotope compositions that are consistent with an extraterrestrial origin the 17 o of sulfate are correlated with previously reported whole rock 18 o and with an index of meteorite alteration and may display a correlation with the date of the fall the enrichments and depletions for 17 o of water soluble sulfate from the cm chondrites relative to the terrestrial mass dependent fractionation line are consistent with sulfate formation in a rock dominated asteroidal environment and from aqueous fluids that had undergone relatively low amounts of oxygen isotope exchange and little reaction with anhydrous components of the meteorites it is unresolved how the oxidation of sulfide to sulfate can be reconciled with the inferred low oxidation state during the extraterrestrial alteration process oxygen isotope data for two ci chondrites orgueil and ivuna as well as the ungrouped c2 chondrite essebi are indistinguishable from sulfate of terrestrial origin and may be terrestrial weathering products consistent with previous assertions our oxygen isotope data however can not rule out a preterrestrial origin either copyright 2005 elsevier ltd

the 1987 whittier narrows earthquake sequence in los angeles southern california seismological and tectonic analysis the october 1 1987 whittier narrows earthquake m l 5 9 was located at 34 2 96 n 118 4 86 w at a depth of 14 6 0 5 km in the northeastern los angeles basin the focal mechanism of the mainshock derived from first motion polarities shows pure thrust motion on west striking nodal planes with dips of 25 5 and 65 5 respectively the aftershocks define an approximately circular surface that dips gently to the north centered at the hypocenter of the mainshock with a diameter of 4 6 km hence the spatial distribution of the mainshock and aftershocks as well as the focal mechanisms of the mainshock indicate that the causative fault was a 25 north dipping thrust fault striking west and is confined to depths from 10 to 16 km although most of the 59 aftershock focal mechanisms presented here document a complex sequence of faulting they are consistent with deformation of the hanging wall caused by the thrust faulting observed in the mainshock a cluster of reverse faulting events on north striking planes occurred within hours after the mainshock 2 km to the west of the mainshock the largest aftershock m l 5 3 occurred on october 4 and showed mostly right lateral faulting on the same north northwest striking plane within the hanging wall similarly several left lateral focal mechanisms are observed near the eastern edge of the mainshock rupture the earthquake and calibration blast arrival time data were inverted to obtain two refined crustal velocity models and a set of station delays when relocating the blast using the new models and delays the absolute hypocentral location bias is less than 0 5 km the mainshock was followed by nearly 500 locatable aftershocks which is a small number of aftershocks for this magnitude mainshock the decay rate of aftershock occurrences with time was fast while the b value was low 0 67 0 05 for a los angeles basin sequence

role of biological soil crusts in affecting soil evolution and salt geochemistry in hyper arid atacama desert chile abstract eight soil profiles either barren or covered with biological soil crusts bscs were sampled at multiple depths in a remote valley in the atacama desert chile to explore the impact of bscs on soil evolution and salt geochemistry bsc sites had thicker soil profiles compared to non bsc sites which could be a result of past geological processes and also partially accounted for by the establishment of bscs that can help limit erosion and promote significant soil accumulation the greater abundances of fine particles below bscs could essentially be attributed to the ability of bscs to trap more fine grains the generally higher salt ion inventories but smaller salt ion concentrations in soil profiles beneath bscs were probably due to that bscs can promote the retention of salt ions and insoluble dust simultaneously but the latter to a greater extent nitrate oxygen isotopes indicated the predominant existence of atmospheric nitrate in the soils suggesting biological processes of bscs may not significantly impact the ion accumulation or distribution in the underlying soils a mechanism of consistent soil accumulation via the retention of atmospheric deposition and occasional interruption of subsurface collapsing due to erosion processes was proposed to explain the development of soil profiles and different landscape features as well as the role of bscs in soil evolution in this study area the soil ages were estimated to be around 440 ky based on the proposed soil accumulation mechanism

debris entrainment at the ice bedrock interface in sub freezing temperature conditions terre adelie antarctica the debris rich ice from the bottom 6 m of the 82 m deep caroline coastal antarctic record of last interglacial natural environment ice core reaching bedrock and from five 2 m long surface cores at moraine prudhomme in terre adelie antarctica is described and compared to debris laden ice from the core drilling site d10 isotopic total gas content co2 concentration and sem investigations of embedded particles together with ice textures and fabrics rule our pressure melting regelation around bed obstacles or freezing on as possible mechanisms for the debris entrainment at the ice bedrock interface it is suggested that the debris entrapment by purely mechanical means e g shearing is an efficient process in forming basal ice layers bil at sub freezing temperatures from authors

different sulfate sources and their post depositional migration in atacama soils abstract sulfate is one of the major salts accumulated in the hyperarid atacama desert chile its origin has been attributed to local weathering volcanic source sea salt and atmosphere deposition previous studies concluded that atmospheric sulfate is present in the desert but this term was poorly defined in terms of chemical origin and its contribution to the total sulfate budget in soil is debated the contribution of each potential sulfate source is expected to vary geographically due to different source locations efforts to quantify the contribution from each source have been hampered by the lack of well defined isotopic compositions for its end members in this study we discard the vague term of atmospheric sulfate by recognizing two major sulfate sources on the basis of their formation pathways primary and secondary sulfate primary sulfate including those from rock weathering sea salt and volcanic ash leachates do not have an 17o anomaly secondary sulfate derived from the oxidation of reduced sulfur gases biological or volcanic emissions by atmospheric ozone or hydrogen peroxide however has an 17o anomaly we developed a method to extract water soluble anions sequentially or entirely from bulk soil samples and analyzed the sulfate concentrations and 17o anomalies for four geographically representative soil profiles in the central atacama desert 23 s to 25 5 s we found that sequential sulfate extractions on the same soil sample produce sulfate with decreasing 17o values except for a positive bulge at 20 to 50 cm in depth there is a general increase in the 17o value for total sulfate with soil depth for all the four soil profiles that we examined these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that secondary sulfates 17o anomalous sulfates are more soluble and thus preferentially leached in liquid water than primary sulfate the finding also warns that incomplete sulfate extraction from sulfate rich soils yields unpredictable results we infer a 17o value of 4 6 for secondary sulfate based on data from partial sulfate extraction experiments total contribution of secondary sulfate in the central atacama desert is estimated to range from 9 to 24 with the highest percentage in the central depression

oxygen cycle of the martian atmosphere regolith system δ17o of secondary phases in nakhla and lafayette oxygen isotope fractionations among silicates carbonates and sulfate from nakhla and lafayette can be used to resolve how multiple oxygen isotope reservoirs formed and evolved on mars and to gain insight into the environment and processes that led to the formation of the snc carbonates and other secondary minerals carbonates and sulfate from nakhla and lafayette carry an imprint of atmospheric chemistry analogous to that documented on earth but reflect an inhospitable environment where ozone hydrogen peroxide and odd oxygen compounds transferred their signature of atmospheric oxygen isotope fractionations to water ice and minerals that formed in the regolith at low temperature such an environment would not be conducive to the preservation of easily oxidized organic compounds its existence provides an abiotic isotopic benchmark biotic processes should produce isotopic fractionations that lie on a coherent mass fractionation line and not the mass independent fractionation relationships observed in the present study

oxygen 17 excesses of the central namib gypcretes spatial distribution abstract we present here sulfate oxygen isotopic data 72 samples with both 18o and 17o systematically collected from the central namib desert surface soils from two shore inland west east transects exhibit a gradual increase in the sulfate oxygen 17 excess 17o 17o 0 52 18o until at ca 70 km inland where no continuous gypcrete deposit is observed further east inland the oxygen isotopic compositions for water soluble sulfates extracted from soils and gypcretes range from 8 3 to 13 3 and 0 06 to 1 11 for 18o and 17o respectively the lateral pattern is similar to what has been seen in the cold deserts of the antarctic dry valleys however unlike the dry valleys no discernible correlation is found between 18o and 17o or between the depth of soil horizon and 17o in the namib possible explanations include a relatively smaller component of dimethylsulfide dms derived sulfate in the total gypsum deposits and or more active surface processes e g flooding and leaching in the central namib desert than in the antarctic cold deserts although current state of knowledge is insufficient to delineate quantitatively the sulfate contributions from different sources and reactions the measurement of sulfate 17o does identify an unmistakable atmospheric sulfate component and provides additional independent information regarding sources and reactions

the role of playas in pedogenic gypsum crust formation in the central namib desert a theoretical model the formation of namibia s extensive pedogenic gypsum crusts caso4 2h2o is interpreted in a new light it is suggested that gypsum primarily precipitates at isolated points of evaporitic concentration such as inland playas and that deflation of evaporitic rich gypsum dust from these playas contributes to the formation of pedogenic gypsum duricrusts on the coastal gravel plains of the namib desert surrounding these playas this study establishes the nature extent and distribution of playas in the central namib desert and provides evidence for playa gypsum deflation and gravel plain deposition remote sensing shows the distribution of playas captures ongoing deflation and provides evidence of gypsum deflation it is proposed that following primary marine aerosol deposition both inland playas and coastal sabkhas generate gypsum which through the process of playa deflation and gravel plain redeposition contributes to the extensive pedogenic crusts found in the namib desert region copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

the 1988 and 1990 upland earthquakes left lateral faulting adjacent to the central transverse ranges two earthquakes m l 4 6 and m l 5 2 occurred at almost the same location in upland southern california in june 1988 and february 1990 and had similar strike slip focal mechanisms with left lateral motion on a northeast striking plane the focal mechanisms and aftershock locations showed that the causative fault was the san jose fault an 18 km long concealed fault that splays west southwest from the frontal fault of the central transverse ranges left lateral strike slip faults adjacent to the frontal faults may play an important role in the deformation of the transverse ranges and the los angeles basin as suggested by these upland earthquakes the left lateral strike slip 1988 m l 4 9 pasadena earthquake on the raymond fault 30 km to the west of upland and scattered background seismicity along other active left lateral faults these faults may transfer slip away from part of the frontal fault toward the south alternatively these faults could represent secondary faulting related to the termination of the northwest striking right lateral strike slip faults to the south of the range front the 1988 and 1990 upland earthquakes ruptured abutting or possibly overlapping segments of the san jose fault the edges of the overlapping aftershock zones which are sharply defined together with background seismicity outline a 14 km long aseismic segment of the san jose fault the 1988 mainshock originated at 9 5 km depth and caused aftershocks between 5 and 12 km in contrast the 1990 mainshock focus occurred at the top of its aftershock zone at 5 km and caused aftershocks down to 13 km depth these deep aftershocks tapered off within 2 weeks the rate of occurrence of aftershocks in magnitude time space was the same for both sequences the state of stress reflected in the focal mechanisms of the aftershocks is identical to that determined from background activity and did not change with time during the aftershock sequence the constant stress state suggests that the 1988 and 1990 events did not completely release all the stored slip on that segment of the fault the presence of 14 km of unbroken fault the abrupt temporal termination of deep aftershocks and the constant stress state all suggest that a future moderate sized earthquake m l 6 0 6 5 on the san jose fault is possible with a rupture length of at least 14 km and possibly 18 km