crustal structure and surface zonation of the canadian appalachians implications of deep seismic reflection data in 1986 1181 km of marine seismic reflection data was collected to 18 20 s of two way traveltime in the gulf of st lawrence area the seismic profiles sample all major surface tectono stratigraphic zones of the canadian appalachians they complement the 1984 deep reflection survey northeast of newfoundland together the seismic profiles reveal the regional three dimensional geometry of the orogen three lower crustal blocks are distinguished on the seismic data they are referred to as the grenville central and avalon blocks from west to east the grenville block is wedge shaped in section and its subsurface edge follows the form of the appalachian structural front the grenville block abuts the central block at mid crustal to mantle depths the avalon block meets the central block at a steep junction that penetrates the entire crust consistent differences in the seismic character of the moho help identify boundaries of the deep crustal blocks the moho signature varies from uniform over extended di

strain partitioning and progressive deformation history in a transpressive belt northern appalachians abstract syntectonic fibres within rocks of the gaspetrough a mid paleozoic slate belt within part of the acadian orogen of the canadian appalachians record the complex structural evolution of a transpressive belt the fibres occur around pyrite framboids and can be divided into five segments which record four distinct structural stages all four structural stages are related to a single progressive deformation since fibre segments can be traced continuously from the first segments to the last fibre growth patterns within the gaspetrough clearly indicate that folding occurred during coaxial deformation during the first three structural stages these structural stages are 1 layer parallel shortening 2 combined flattening and rigid body rotation and 3 cleavage development strain associated with vertical extension during these three stages accounts for approximately 50 shortening within the slate belt during the last structural stage deformation resulting from regional simple shear continued to affect the entire slate belt as local flattening within cleavage planes produced horizontal extension and brought about further tightening of folds strain recorded by the horizontal fibre increments produced during simple shear accounts for 25 shortening in this part of the appalachians oblique convergence during the acadian orogeny was partitioned in time between strike slip and reverse faulting convergence was accommodated by folding flattening and reverse faulting during the first part of the deformation and later on by flattening and dextral transcurrent faulting

geophysical studies of the structure of the appalachian orogen in the atlantic borderlands of canada results of 6000 km of crustal seismic profiling are presented with gravity and aeromagnetic maps for the appalachian orogen in eastern canada wide angle seismic surveys show that the central mobile belt of the orogen has a thinner crust than its margins high velocity lower crust attributed to underplating is found below the former laurentian continental margin in newfoundland and below the magdalen basin potential field data are used to trace the surface zones of the orogen from the northeast newfoundland shelf to cape breton but extrapolation to new brunswick and quebec is unclear because of late paleozoic basin development the central mobile belt of the orogen is only a few tens of kilometres wide in southwest newfoundland and cape breton but broadens substantially to around 200 km elsewhere reflection images show a strong deep crustal fabric that runs along the orogen with a margin that crosses into the avalon zone in southern newfoundland but coincides with the avalon gander zone boundary el

site amplification in the los angeles basin from three dimensional modeling of ground motion it is well established that sedimentary basins can significantly amplify earthquake ground motion however the amplification at any given site can vary with earthquake location to account for basin response in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis therefore we need to know the average amplification and intrinsic variability standard deviation at each site given all earthquakes of concern in the region due to a dearth of empirical ground motion observations theoretical simu lations constitute our best hope of addressing this issue here 0 0 5 hz finite difference finite fault simulations are used to estimate the three dimensional 3d response of the los angeles basin to nine different earthquake scenarios amplifi cation is quantified as the peak velocity obtained from the 3d simulation divided by that predicted using a regional one dimensional 1d crustal model average ampli fication factors are up to a factor of 4 with the values from individual scenarios typically differing by as much as a factor of 2 5 the average amplification correlates with basin depth with values near unity at sites above sediments with thickness less than 2 km and up to factors near 6 above the deepest 9 km and steepest dipping parts of the basin there is also some indication that amplification factors are greater for events located farther from the basin edge if the 3d amplification factors are divided by the 1d vertical sh wave amplification below each site they are lowered by up to a factor of 1 7 the duration of shaking in the 3d model is found to be longer by up to more than 60 seconds relative to the 1d basin response the simu lation of the 1994 northridge earthquake reproduces recorded 0 0 5 hz particle velocities relatively well in particular at near source stations the synthetic and observed peak velocities agree within a factor of two and the log standard deviation of the residuals is 0 36 this is a reduction of 54 and 51 compared to the values obtained for the regional 1d model and a 1d model defined by the velocity and density profile below a site in the middle of the basin dow respectively this result suggests that long period ground motion estimation can be improved consid erably by including the 3d basin structure however there are uncertainties con cerning accuracy of the basin model model resolution the omission of material with shear velocities lower than 1 km s and the fact that only nine scenarios have been considered therefore the amplification factors reported here should be used with caution until they can be further tested against observations however the results do serve as a guide to what should be expected particularly with respect to increased amplification factors at sites located above the deeper parts of the basin

strong shaking in los angeles expected from southern san andreas earthquake 1 the southernmost san andreas fault has a high probability of rupturing in a large greater than magnitude 7 5 earthquake sometime during the next few decades new simulations show that the chain of sedimentary basins between san bernardino and downtown los angeles form an effective waveguide that channels love waves along the southern edge of the san bernardino and san gabriel mountains earthquake scenarios with northward rupture in which the guided wave is efficiently excited produce unusually high long period ground motions over much of the greater los angeles region including intense localized amplitude modulations arising from variations in waveguide cross section

geochemical and isotopic nd o data from ordovician felsic plutonic and volcanic rocks of the miramichi highlands petrogenetic and metallogenic implications for the bathurst mining camp middle ordovician felsic magmatism contemporaneous with bathurst camp pb zn volcanogenic massive sulphide vms deposits consists of strongly altered volcanic to subvolcanic rocks belonging to the tetagouche group and relativelyunaltered granitoid plutons which are divided into northern central and southern groups within the miramichi highlands calc alkalic felsic volcanic rocks and northern plus central plutons have epsilonnd t values ranging from 8 2 to 1 9 and 4 0 to 0 3 respectively they exhibit within plate type volcanic and transitional i to a type granite geochemical characteristics granitoid rock delta18o values range from 8 0 to 10 1 published granitoid rock pb isotopic compositions overlapunpublished galena data from bathurst vms deposits field geochemical and isotopic evidence indicate that these volcanicand granitoids rocks are consanguineous and mainly derived from proterozoic orolder infracrustal sources alkalic felsic volcanic rocks and associated alkaline basaltic rock

devonian extension in northwestern newfoundland 40ar 39ar and u pb data from the ming s bight area baie verte peninsula abstract the ming s bight group of northwestern newfoundland an outlier of humber zone continental margin rocks is entirely surrounded by ophiolitic rocks of the dunnage zone structures in the ming s bight group and adjacent units record three main phases of deformation the earliest structures relate to silurian sinistral transpression previously documented in the region two later phases of extensional deformation produced a series of dextral oblique normal shear zones and faults that now separate the ming s bight group in the footwall from ophiolitic and granitoid rocks in the hangingwall 40ar 39ar and u pb data constrain the times of oblique normal shear and cooling metagabbro in the point rousse ophiolite complex which lies in the hangingwall preserves disturbed ordovician hornblende 40ar 39ar ages whereas adjacent shear zones record devonian ages hornblendes in pacquet harbour group amphibolites within extensional shear zones mainly record 40ar 39ar ages of 390 380 ma synkinematic titanite

regional seismic characteristics of the 9 october 2006 north korean nuclear test we investigate the regional seismic signature of the 9 october 2006 north korean nuclear test broadband regional data for the nuclear test and a group of earthquakes close to the test site were obtained between december 2000 and no vember 2006 epicentral distances from the stations to the test site are between 371 and 1153 km we first use these regional events to calibrate the lg wave magnitude in the network then the network is used to calculate mblg 3 93 for the north ko rean nuclear explosion using a modified fully coupled magnitude yield relation the yield of the north korean nuclear test is estimated to be 0 48 kt because of large uncertainties in the source depth the estimate is preliminary the p s type spectral ratios pg lg pn lg and pn sn are calculated for the nuclear explosion and a group of earthquakes close to the test site at frequencies above 2 hz the network averaged p s spectral ratios clearly separate the 9 october 2006 explosion from the regional earthquakes our result indicates that a single blast explosion in the north korea re gion shows different seismic characteristics from an earthquake any well coupled single blast explosion detonated in this region with yield similar to that for the north korean nuclear test has a large probability of being identified by a regional seismic network such as the one adopted in this study

reconstruction of taconian and acadian paleostress regimes in the quebec and northern new brunswick appalachians a numerical analysis of fault populations was applied in the quebec and northern new brunswick appalachians to characterize paleostress fields attributed to the taconian and acadian orogenies the first brittle deformation documented in the external domain of the humber zone is associated with the thin skinned tectonics of the taconian orogen the taconian brittle deformation characterized by north south to ne sw reverse conjugated brittle faults evolved under a pure shear compressional regime vertical 3 axes with 1 axes oriented ese wnw the ene wsw dextral and nw se sinistral faults that are observed in the st lawrence lowlands are also attributed to taconian compression the first brittle deformation recognized in the dunnage zone and the gaspe belt is attributed to an ese wnw compression during the acadian orogeny in the dunnage zone of southern quebec the acadian paleostress axes are similar to the directions of 1 axes and to the pure shear compressional regime computed for the silurian and devonian rocks of the gaspe belt in the gaspe peninsula the acadian stresses are oriented ese wnw and are mechanically compatible with transpressional regimes reverse brittle faults and pure shear stress are identified along regional and secondary sets of ne sw brittle faults whereas a strike slip stress regime is reconstructed along major east west faults in the humber zone of the quebec appalachians a second compression is identified it is characterized by conjugate ene wsw dextral and nw se sinistral strike slip faults that crosscut taconian thrust faults this late deformation event is attributed to a distal expression of the acadian orogeny

a 3 d model of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the central and western us by joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion 1 rayleigh wave phase velocity maps from ambient noise and earthquake data are inverted jointly with receiver functions observed at 828 stations from the usarray transportable array west of 100 w longitude for data recorded in the years 2005 through 2010 to produce a 3 d model of shear wave speeds beneath the central and western us to a depth of 150 km eikonal tomography is applied to ambient noise data to produce about 300 000 rayleigh wave phase speed curves and helmholtz tomography is applied to data following 1550 ms 5 0 earthquakes so that rayleigh wave dispersion maps are constructed from 8 to 80 s period with associated uncertainties across the region harmonic stripping generates back azimuth independent receiver functions with uncertainty estimates for each of the stations a nonlinear bayesian monte carlo method is used to estimate a distribution of shear wave speed vs models beneath each station by jointly interpreting surface wave dispersion and receiver functions and their uncertainties the assimilation of receiver functions improves the vertical resolution of the model by reducing the range of estimated moho depths improving the determination of the shear velocity jump across moho and improving the resolution of the depth of anomalies in the uppermost mantle a great variety of geological and tectonic features are revealed in the 3 d model that form the basis for future detailed local to regional scale analysis and interpretation

early silurian orogenic andesites from the central quebec appalachians the pointe aux trembles formation is a deep to shallow water volcaniclastic apron with massive lava flows deposited in early silurian time the apron deposits extend laterally to a deep water accu

nature and evolution of the eastern margin of lapetus geochemical and isotopic constraints from siluro devonian granitoid plutons in the new brunswick appalachians in the gander zone ordovician to devonian metaluminous to slightly peraluminous plutons with within plate affinities intrude a lower paleozoic metasedimentary package during the siluro devonian end t and 18o values of the metasedimentary rocks would have been about 7 to 8 and 10 to 14 respectively granitoid end t values range from 0 3 to 4 2 18o values lie between 6 6 and 10 4 and published pb isotopic compositions are radiogenic 207pb 204pb 15 65 end t values of associated silurian gabbros are somewhat positive 1 2 to 2 3 some plutons exhibit evidence for comingling with this mafic component potential source materials include enriched mantle supracrustal and infracrustal sources although some constraints can be put on the first two sources the nature of infracrustal material is difficult to evaluate heterogeneous data obtained from silurian plutons can be explained by crust mantle mixing if some plutons contain a significant mantle component then mesoproterozoic o

paleogeography and tectono sedimentary history at the margin of laurentia during silurian to earliest devonian time the gaspe belt quebec the silurian lower devonian sequence of the gaspe belt at the laurentia margin south of the quebec reentrant and st lawrence promontory was deposited during the period between the two main orogenies that created the northern appalachians the late ordovician taconian and the middle devonian acadian orogenies although this sequence is traditionally considered to have been deposited during a period of quiescence between both orogenies significant tectonic activity attributed to the salinic disturbance began during late llandoverian telychian time and persisted until the acadian orogeny this tectonic activity has profoundly influenced the composition and distribution of the silurian earliest devonian sedimentary facies the shelf and shelf edge history at the laurentia margin along the quebec reentrant st lawrence promontory is summarized according to four broad phases phase 1 is a llandoverian wenlockian regressive phase r1 related to post taconian successor basin filling that culminated with extensive carbonate platform development phase 2 is a late wenlockian ludlovian transgressive phase t1 phase 3 corresponds to a later ludlovian pridolian second regressive phase r2 phases 2 and 3 were accompanied by extensional tectonics that produced shelf faulting and block tilting on top of which block reefs and reef complexes settled and built a reef tract all the way along the gaspe temiscouata shelf phase 4 is an early devonian phase of accelerated subsidence transgression t2 affecting the northwestern part of the segment quebec reentrant area while the southeastern part st lawrence promontory area was already uplifted due to the ongoing collision between laurentia and the western margin of gondwana related terranes to the south composition and distribution of sedimentary facies were controlled by the interaction of tectonics sediment influx and sea level fluctuations construction of a post taconian pre acadian palinspastic map to plot facies has proven to be basic to obtaining a realistic picture of the paleogeography of the shelf and shelf edge of the gaspe temiscouata segment at the margin of the laurentia craton during the silurian earliest devonian time interval

a 40ar 39ar study of oceanic and continental deformation processes during an oblique collision taconian orogeny in the quebec reentrant of the canadian appalachians received 7 december 2006 revised 9 january 2008 accepted 10 march 2008 published 1 july 2008 1 two phases of penetrative deformation are documented in the taconian hinterland of the appalachian orogen in the gaspepeninsula d1 is associated with the obduction of the mont albert ophiolite onto the paleozoic laurentian margin whereas d2 corresponds to later transport of allochthons across the margin in the metamorphic sole s1 is a se dipping mylonitic fabric with a downdip lineation in underlying metabasalts d1 is characterized by nw overturned and recumbent folds and a subhorizontal s1 schistosity with an ene trending orogen parallel lineation d2 is characterized by a s2 steeply dipping penetrative axial planar crenulation cleavage and ne trending f2 folds the intraoceanic thrusting of ophiolite is dated at 465 ma early d1 whereas emplacement of ophiolite andsubsequentdeformationofthemarginwasrecorded by isotopic signatures between 459 and 456 ma late d1 d2 is dated at 448 ma throughout the hinterland taconian transpressive deformation is related to an oblique collision within the quebec reentrant of the canadian appalachians during the ordovician citation malo m g ruffet a pincivy and a tremblay 2008 a 40 ar 39 ar study of oceanic and continental deformation processes during an oblique collision taconian orogeny in the quebec reentrant of the canadian appalachians tectonics 27 tc4001 doi 10 1029 2006tc002094

on the robustness of global radially anisotropic surface wave tomography a number of recent global tomographic studies have modeled three dimensional variations in the parameters of radial anisotropy as yet there is limited agreement among such studies suggesting significant uncertainties in the models which could lead to divergent geodynamical interpretations in this study we assess the robustness of lateral variations in radial anisotropy globally in the upper mantle and in the transition zone to determine the extent to which anisotropic parameters are constrained by a data set of over 10 000 000 fundamental and higher mode surface wave dispersion measurements we carry out inversions for isotropic and radially anisotropic shear wave velocity systematically changing regularization and using three different crustal models to remove the effects of the crust on the data using crustal corrections from different crustal models has an impact on the data fit comparable or larger than that obtained by including lateral variations of radial anisotropy in the modeling moreover the use of crustal corrections from different a priori crustal models may lead to different images of radial anisotropy suggesting divergent geodynamical interpretations this work suggests that the three dimensional determination of global radial anisotropy in the earth s mantle using surface wave dispersion data is still an ongoing experiment

deformation path partitioning within a transpressive shear zone marble cove newfoundland detailed study of the structures in marble cove newfoundland indicates that they formed during a single transpressional event during which deformation was partitioned between dominantly strike slip and dominantly dip slip domains marble cove exhibits steeply dipping foliations steeply to shallowly plunging stretching lineations greenschist facies mineral assemblages and abundant quartz veins within the broad domain where stretching lineations plunge steeply sense of shear indicators and asymmetry of quartz c axis distributions in mylonitized quartz veins indicate dominantly reverse motion with a component of dextral shear adjacent greenschists exhibit orthorhombic symmetry and apparently accommodated pure shear the abrupt transition to a narrow high strain domain of shallowly plunging stretching lineations is accommodated by a rheologically distinct serpentinite body shear bands in this domain indicate dextral strike slip movement with a reverse component smaller conjugate shear bands are evident in thin section indicating a component of pure shear sense of shear indicators and asymmetry of c axis distributions in mylonitized quartz veins also record dextral strike slip and reverse shear with a component of pure shear crenulations and asymmetric folds in foliation overprint all other fabrics in marble cove and record a final phase of reverse shear with a dextral component with partitioning of this kind structures recording strike slip movement may be limited in areal extent and therefore less likely to be exposed than structures recording dip slip motion such partitioning within transpressional shear zones may therefore impede recognition of strike parallel motions within orogenic belts

silurian extension in the upper connecticut valley united states and the origin of middle paleozoic basins in the quebec embayment pre silurian strata of the bronson hill arch bha in the upper connecticut valley nh vt are host to the latest ludlow comerford intrusive suite consisting east to west of a mafic dike swarm with sheeted dikes and an intrusive complex the rocks are mostly mafic but with compositions ranging from gabbro to leucocratic tonalite the suite is truncated on the west by the monroe fault a late acadian thrust that carries rocks of the bha westward over silurian devonian strata of the connecticut valley gaspetrough cvgt dikes intrude folded strata with a pre intrusion metamorphic fabric taconian but they experienced acadian deforma tion twenty fractions of zircon and baddeleyite from three sample sites of gabbro diorite spanning nearly 40 km yield a weighted 207 pb 206 pb age of 419 1m a greenschist facies dikes sampled over a strike distance of 35 km were tholeiitic basalts formed by partial melting of asthenospheric mantle with little or no influence from mantle or crustal lithosphere the dike chemistry is similar to mid ocean ridge within plate and back arc basin basalts parent magmas originated in the astheno sphere and were erupted through severely thinned lithosphere adjacent to the cvgt extensive middle paleozoic basins in the internides of the appalachian orogen are restricted to the quebec embayment of the laurentian rifted margin and include the cvgt and the central maine trough cmt separated from the bha by a silurian tectonic hinge the ne trending comerford intrusions parallel the cvgt cmt and the tectonic hinge and indicate nw se extension during post taconian convergence the irregular margins of composite laurentia and avalon permitted continued colli sion in newfoundland st lawrence promontory and coeval extension in the quebec embayment extension may be related to hinge retreat of the northwest directed brunswick subduction complex and rise of the asthenosphere following slab break off an alternative hypothesis is that the basins originated as pull apart basins between northwest trending left stepping sinistral strike slip faults along the southern flanks of the new york and st lawrence promontories

global models of surface wave attenuation 1 a large data set of fundamental mode rayleigh wave amplitudes is analyzed to derive global models of surface wave attenuation 1 q the data set consists of measurements of rayleigh wave amplitude anomalies in the period range 50 250 s for 347 earthquakes observed at 179 seismic stations the amplitude anomalies are considered to depend on four factors intrinsic attenuation along the ray path elastic focusing effects along the ray path a source factor accounting for uncertainties in the strength of excitation and a receiver factor accounting for uncertainties in the response at the station the amplitude data are inverted simultaneously for global maps of attenuation expanded in spherical harmonics up to degree 12 global maps of phase velocity expanded to degree 20 and source and receiver correction factors all four variable types are shown to be important in explaining the amplitude anomalies a data set of phase delay measurements provides additional constraints on velocity structure the maps of attenuation obtained by simultaneous inversion for elastic and anelastic models contain important features that are not robustly imaged when the effect of focusing on wave amplitude is ignored these include high attenuation along western north america and along the east pacific rise and other ridge systems and low attenuation associated with stable continental interiors the global attenuation maps exhibit a strong correlation with phase velocity maps corrected for the effect of the crust particularly for periods 200 s the correlation suggests that the variability in both q and velocity in the shallow upper mantle is primarily thermal in origin

record of late mississippian tectonics in the new perce group visean of eastern gaspesie quebec visean clastic units and structures at the northwest margin of the upper paleozoic maritimes basin provide information on tectonic events that are only poorly recorded in more central parts of the basin these continental units are time equivalent to marine sediments of the windsor group of nova scotia they are herein assigned to the new perce group which includes the la coulee and bonaventure formations as well as a new unit the cap d espoir for mation the latter unit unconformably underlies the bonaventure formation in a small but thick sub basin of the ristigouche basin in eastern quebec it is characterized by a succession of sandstone and mudstone rhythmites that contrast with the coarse alluvial fan deposits of the overlying bonaventure formation the cap d espoir formation was sourced from a broad area of subdued topography occupied by the visean la coulee formation and underlying units erosional remnants of the la coulee formation are unconformably overlain by the bonaventure formation in marginal parts of the ristigouche basin whereas these units are separated by the cap d espoir formation in more central areas of the basin the la coulee and cap d espoir formations underwent tilting and erosion during a normal faulting event that preceded deposition of the fault controlled bonaventure formation this series of events is interpreted to represent different steps in the reactivation of a pre carboniferous dextral strike slip system in response to northwest southeast compression during the visean in gaspesie resume des unites clastiques viseennes et leurs structures intrinseques dans la marge nord ouest du bassin des mari times paleozoique superieur illustrent des evenements tectoniques qui ne sont que pauvrement enregistres dans les parties plus centrales du bassin ces unites continentales sont chronologiquement equivalentes aux sediments marins du groupe de windsor en nouvelle ecosse elles sont ici assignees au nouveau groupe de perce lequel inclut les forma tions de la coulee et de bonaventure ainsi qu une nouvelle unite la formation de cap d espoir cette derniere est re couverte en discordance par la formation de bonaventure a l interieur d un petit mais relativement epais sous bassin du bassin de ristigouche dans l est du quebec elle est caracterisee par une succession de depots rythmiques de gres et de mudstone qui contraste avec les depots grossiers de cones alluviaux de la formation de bonaventure sus jacente la formation de cap d espoir est le produit de l erosion d une region source de grande etendue et a faible gradient topo graphique laquelle etait occupee par la formation de la coulee et les unites qui lui sont sous jacentes les reliques d erosion de la formation de la coulee sont recouvertes de facon discordante par la formation de bonaventure dans les parties marginales du bassin de ristigouche alors que ces unites sont separees par la formation de cap d espoir dans les parties plus centrales du bassin les formations de la coulee et de cap d espoir ont ete basculees et partiel lement erodees a l interieur d un evenement de fracturation ayant precede le depot de la formation de bonaventure dont les facies ont ete controles par des escarpements de failles cette serie d evenements est consideree comme etant le resultat de differentes etapes dans la reactivation d un systeme de coulissage dextre pre carbonifere en reponse a des contraintes orientees nw se durant le viseen en gaspesie

late neoproterozoic to permian tectonic evolution of the quebec appalachians canada abstract due to the unique location of the quebec appalachians in a re entrant of the paleo north american margin and to the fact that the area largely escaped late paleozoic deformation this segment of the orogen preserves evidence of the early orogenic stages that are partly obscured elsewhere despite diachronicity both along and across strike of the orogen five tectonic events of regional significance are recognized 1 the earliest event is mainly recorded by neoproterozoic to early ordovician normal faults associated with extension of the laurentian craton and the establishment of a passive continental margin 2 the second event the ordovician taconian orogeny is marked by foreland directed deformation and corresponds to the principal deformational and metamorphic events recorded by the laurentian margin 3 the third event early salinic is early silurian it is restricted to the southern part of the quebec appalachians and consists of hinterland se directed thrusts folds and retrograde metamorphism 4 the fourth event late salinic is recorded by regional scale late silurian to early devonian normal or transtensional faults and is associated with the formation of the connecticut valley gaspe trough and 5 the last event the devonian acadian orogeny affects with variable intensity all the pre carboniferous lithologies this tectonic synthesis implies that the subdivision of the peri laurentian oceanic tracts proposed in other segments of the appalachians should be applied with caution in quebec and that the structural style the number of oceanic domains and possibly the vergence of subduction change along the strike of the orogen in particular the similarities of the thetford mines and boil mountain ophiolitic complexes and sedimentary covers and the lack of evidence for a major intervening suture are consistent with the maximum allochtony hypothesis i e the assumption that the southern quebec ophiolites are rooted east of the chain lake massif a geodynamic model involving the taconian obduction of a large ophiolitic nappe s the docking of a peri gondwanan gander medial new england terrane in early salinic the formation of large sedimentary basins connecticut valley gaspe and merrimack troughs due to trench rollback and or delamination during the late salinic event and collision at the outer margin of composite laurentia during the acadian orogeny can account for the protracted structural and metamorphic history of the quebec appalachians

post taconian shortening inversion and strike slip in the stephenville area western newfoundland appalachians deformed terrigenous and carbonate sedimentary rocks representing the early paleozoic laurentian continental margin form a series of elongate fault bounded blocks that plunge north beneath the humber arm allochthon in the stephenville area west newfoundland appalachians the continental shelf succession was folded and thrust faulted after emplacement of the humber arm allochthon in the west of the area table mountain is cut by a pop up structure bounded by downward converging reverse faults structures at the east margin of table mountain indicate both dextral and reverse slip the phillips brook structure farther east contains multiple fault bounded carbonate slices one slice carried by the west blanche brook fault is thrust over the humber arm allochthon the western edge of the indian head massif consisting of grenville basement is also a thrust contact these reverse faults and thrusts which cut the carbonate succession and postdate emplacement of the humber arm allochthon are in turn

acadian strike slip tectonics in the gaspe region quebec appalachians at the southern margin of the cambro ordovician humber zone in the quebec appalachians on gaspe peninsula three structural units of middle ordovician to middle devonian cover rocks of the gaspe belt are in large part bounded by long straight longitudinal faults in one of these units the aroostook perce anticlinorium several structural features which can be ascribed to acadian deformation are controlled by three subparallel dextral strike slip longitudinal faults grande riviere grand pabos and riviere garin these faults follow bands of intense deformation contrasting with the mildly to moderately deformed intervals that separate them most of the structural features observed rotated oblique folds and cleavage subsidiary riedel and tension faults and offsets of markers can be integrated in a model of strike slip tectonics that operated in ductile brittle conditions a late increment of deformation in the form of conjugate cleavages and minor faults is restricted to the bands of high strain an anticlockwise transection of the synfolding cleavage in relation to the oblique hinges may be a feature of the rotational deformation the combined dextral strike slip that can be measured within the three major longitudinal fault zones amounts to 138 km to which can be added 17 km of ductile movement in the intervals for a total of 155 km

age and composition of the ruisseau isabelle melange along the shickshock sud fault zone constraints on the timing of melanges formation in the gaspe appalachians melanges are common in the humber and dunnage zones of the quebec appalachians humber zone melanges are spatially associated with taconian nappes and believed to be of tectonic origin dunnage zone melanges are interpreted as relicts of an ordovician accretionary prism the ruisseau isabelle melange rim in the gaspe ap palachians was first interpreted as a dunnage zone melange because of its tectonic position along the baie verte brompton line and lithological components such as dark mudstone blocks of ultramafic rocks and greenish chromite bearing sandstone the rim comprises sedimentary rock assemblages composite shale black shale and chromite bearing sandstone assemblages an exotic block a pebbly mudstone assemblage and slivers of serpentinized peridotite and metamorphic tectonite most melanges of the dunnage zone in the quebec appalachians contain partly similar rocks but their age is not well constrained recent work on the rim and cap chat melange of the humber zone and new fossil finds in the rim rock assemblages allow us to conclude that previous distinction between melanges of the dunnage and humber zones on the basis of rock type associations is not valid according to the age of the rim rock assemblages melanges in the northern gaspe appalachians continued forming after the mid caradocian later than the dunnage zone melanges of southern gaspe appalachians the juxtaposition and structural features of the rim rock assemblages result from repeated faulting along the shickshock sud fault from late ordovi cian to middle devonian

the akato tagh bend along the altyn tagh fault nw tibet 1 cenozoic structure smoothing by vertical axis rotation and the effect of topographic stresses on borderland faulting

brittle faulting in the canadian appalachians and the interpretation of reflection seismic data abstract brittle faults in the canadian appalachians mostly late devonian or younger in age are divided into two groups on the basis of their movement vectors a strike slip group and a dip slip group the two groups are subdivided on the basis of orientation and sense of movement they are interpreted in terms of palaeozoic transpression and mesozoic extension during atlantic opening the palaeozoic faults comprise strike slip and reverse faults which were active in devono carboniferous times mesozoic strike slip faults are interpreted as transfer faults and they are coupled with normal faults many of which developed by reactivation of earlier reverse faults or steeply dipping surfaces including bedding and earlier foliations together these mesozoic faults comprise an adequate mechanism for crustal extension perpendicular to the orogen evidence for listric normal faults is rare in the older rocks of the orogen and it is suggested that this is due to the adequacy of the deformation mechanisms afforded by the pre existing planes of weakness the data presented demonstrate clearly that geological structures are commonly repeated at all scales from outcrop to regional following this principle prominent shallowly dipping reflectors imaged in the lithoprobe east seismic profiles are interpreted as large scale representatives of the palaeozoic reverse faults seen in outcrop that were reactivated as normal faults during atlantic opening it is suggested that reverse faulting is to be expected as a deformation mechanism in general in the late stages of a collisional orogen we draw attention to the importance of the mesozoic faults in modifying the attitude of earlier surfaces such a bedding foliations and faults

late silurian early devonian rifting during dextral transpression in the southern gaspe peninsula quebec petrogenesis of volcanic rocks the upper silurian lower devonian volcanic rocks in the southern gaspe peninsula of the quebec appalachians crop out at the northeast end of the connecticut valley gaspe synclinorium these shallow marine and subaerial sequences reach a thickness of up to at least 2000 m and comprise two groups 1 the late silurian volcanic rocks which are mainly transitional alkalic tholeiitic basalts with steeply sloping ree patterns 2 the early devonian volcanic rocks which include a significant proportion of intermediate rocks in addition to tholeiitic basalts compared with the silurian rocks the devonian basalts have lower abundances of strongly incompatible trace elements such as ba th ta nb and light ree and relatively flat heavy ree patterns basalts of both groups display negative nb and ta anomalies relative to th and la although the basalts of both sequences were derived from lithospheric mantle the silurian basalts were generated from garnet peridotite at 80 km depth while the devonian ba

three dimensional simulation of a magnitude 7 75 earthquake on the san andreas fault simulation of 2 minutes of long period ground motion in the los angeles area with the use of a three dimensional finite difference method on a parallel supercomputer provides an estimate of the seismic hazard from a magnitude 7 75 earthquake along the 170 kilometer section of the san andreas fault between tejon pass and san bernardino maximum ground velocities are predicted to occur near the fault 2 5 meters per second and in the los angeles basin 1 4 meters per second where large amplitude surface waves prolong shaking for more than 60 seconds simulated spectral amplitudes for some regions within the los angeles basin are up to 10 times larger than those at sites outside the basin at similar distances from the san andreas fault

regional observations of the second north korean nuclear test on 2009 may 25 summary the suspicious seismic event that occurred in the northern korean peninsula on 2009 may 25 was declared to be the second underground nuclear test nk2nd by north korea we investigated the characteristics of nk2nd using seismic signals recorded at regional distance stations in south korea and china the pn lg ratios of nk2nd definitely discriminate this event from two nearby natural earthquakes at frequencies above 4 hz full moment tensor inversion of full waveform data shows that nk2nd had a very large isotropic component pure isotropic moment tensor inversion also resulted in good recovery of observed waveforms with clear indication that nk2nd was explosive in origin the moment magnitude mw from the full moment tensor inversion was estimated to be 4 5 and network averaged values of 4 6 and 3 6 were calculated for rms mb lg and ms vmax respectively although mb ms signature has been considered one of the most reliable discriminants for separating explosions and earthquakes this signature showed poor discrimination in the case of nk2nd the pn lg ratios and moment tensor inversion give more reliable evidence than does the mb ms for classifying the suspicious event in the northern korean peninsula as a possible explosion the characteristics of nk2nd are also quite similar to those of the first north korean nuclear test on 2006 october 9

gaspe belt subsurface geometry in the northern quebec appalachians as revealed by an integrated geophysical and geological study 1 potential field mapping abstract together recent gravity and high resolution aeromagnetic datasets are used to qualitatively investigate the upper and middle crustal geometry of the middle paleozoic gaspe belt in the northern appalachians long wavelength potential field anomalies define two sub basins that are divided by northeast trending gravity highs for each sub basins gravity lows correlate with the youngest rock units maps that highlight anomalies associated with near surface features at the expense of those related to deeper sources provide an important supplement to the spatially discrete observations derived from bedrock mapping analysis of such maps indicates that the sub basins are characterized by different structural patterns and that faults trending obliquely compared to the main structural grain have been previously underestimated the geometry of the gaspe belt as revealed by this integrated geophysical and geological study bears similarities with orogens exhibiting lateral extrusion this geometry is interpreted as the result of a heterogeneous strain regime in front of an indenter corresponding to the early paleozoic gander dunnage crustal block the indentation tectonic model is supported by 1 the various strike and kinematic of faults that suggest a strongly heterogeneous strain regime 2 the greater geological complexity and the occurrence of faults with a significant thrust component in front of the indenter 3 the predominance of dextral strike slip faults in the eastern gaspe peninsula that result in lateral material transport away from the indenter 4 the location of abundant devonian magmatic dykes sills and stocks in a fault bounded zone that experienced local extension 5 the occurrence of block rotation

vertical and fold axis parallel extension within a slate belt in a transpressive setting northern appalachians abstract an incremental and finite strain study of a mid paleozoic slate belt in a transpressive setting in gaspe canadian appalachians has been undertaken using syntectonic fibers from pyrite type pressure shadows regionally strain estimates are quite consistent and reflect only slightly higher strain in the central part of the anticlinorial structure defining the slate belt extensions of up to 160 vertically and 110 parallel to the fold axis were recorded in the slate belt combined with an estimated overall regional shortening of 80 the fibers first rotated toward the final position of the cleavage within a vertical section normal to the cleavage and then rotated from a vertical to a horizontal orientation this change in fiber orientation observed in cleavage parallel sections indicates an abrupt change in the incremental stretching direction from sub vertical to sub horizontal fold axis parallel the vertical extension is related to folding and cleavage development during coaxial flattening the horizontal extension reflects the strain imposed on the rocks during regional simple shear which produced strike slip faulting and further tightening of the folds folding cleavage development fold axis parallel extension and faulting are all related to oblique convergence during the middle devonian acadian orogeny in this part of the canadian appalachians and clearly indicate an overall transition from a pure shortening deformation to a simple shear dominant deformation in an overall transpressive setting

automated detection extraction and measurement of regional surface waves our goal is to develop and test an effective method to detect identify extract and quantify surface wave signals for weak events observed at regional stations we describe an automated surface wave detector and extractor designed to work on weak surface wave signals across eurasia at intermediate periods 8 s 40 s the method is based on phase matched filters defined by the rayleigh wave group travel time predictions from the broadband group velocity maps presented by ritzwoller and levshin 1998 and ritzwoller et al 1998 and proceeds in three steps signal compression signal extraction or cleaning and measurement first the dispersed surface wave signals are compressed in time by applying an anti dispersion or phase matched filter defined from the group velocity maps we refer to this as the compressed signal second the surface wave is then extracted by filtering noise temporally isolated from the time compressed signal this filtered signal is then redispersed by applying the inverse of the phase matched filter finally we adaptively estimate spectral amplitude as well as group and phase velocity on the filtered signal the method is naturally used as a detector by allowing origin time to slide along the time axis we describe preliminary results of the application of this method to a set of nuclear explosions and earthquakes that occurred on or near the chinese lop nor test site from 1992 through 1996 and one explosion on the indian rajasthan test site that occurred in may of 1998

late devonian palinspastic reconstruction of the avalon meguma terrane boundary implications for terrane accretion and basin development in the appalachian orogen abstract a late devonian early carboniferous palinspastic reconstruction of atlantic canada restoring subsequent motion along the avalon meguma terrane boundary and other major faults facilitates re examination of the spatial distribution of important accretionary and post accretionary events in the northern appalachian orogen the reconstruction suggests a genetic relationship between 415 and 360 ma tectonothermal activity in both these terranes and the collision between laurentia and gondwana in a zone of anomalously intense shortening opposite the st lawrence promontory in the appalachian orogen erosional products of this collision are an order of magnitude greater than the thin ca 1 km veneer of latest devonian early carboniferous clastic rocks that were deposited in intermontane basins across the orogen this missing detritus may be found in the thick deposits of the catskill clastic wedge in the central appalachians

regional metamorphism of the appalachian humber zone of gaspe peninsula 40ar 39ar evidence for crustal thickening during the taconian orogeny geochronological studies on the timing of deformation and metamorphism along the laurentian margin have shown that the ages of metamorphic events change along strike within the newfoundland southern quebec segment of the canadian appalachians the gaspe peninsula is located at mid point of the two extremities of this segment new single grain laser 40ar 39ar plateau ages solely reflect latest middle late ordovician metamorphism samples taken within the internal humber zone in the shickshock group rocks yield 40ar 39ar muscovite and hornblende ages ranging from 457 to 454 ma samples from the amphibolite du diable the metamorphic sole of the mont albert ophiolite yield 40ar 39ar muscovite and hornblende ages ranging from 459 to 457 ma ordovician ages of the internal humber zone are consistent with 40ar 39ar ages from southern quebec and are interpreted as the result of the emplacement onto the margin of both the ophiolite and its metamorphic sole

ordovician arc collision and foredeep evolution in the gaspe peninsula quebec the taconic orogeny in canada and its bearing on the grampian orogeny in scotland the middle to upper ordovician deslandes cloridorme and garin formations in the eastern gaspe peninsula quebec are some of the most extensively exposed foredeep successions along the northern appalachian portion of the taconic caledonian orogen their depositional and biostratigraphic frameworks n gracilis to c spiniferus zones approximate correlatives to the n gracilis to d clingani british zones indicate that foredeep evolution spanned c 10 ma and was essentially synchronous with the convergence and accretion of the popelogan arc to the laurentian margin during the caradoc c 458 449 ma these results when combined with metamorphic and radiometric age data synthesized from across the laurentian segments of the northern appalachian and northwestern ireland taconic caledonian orogen further substantiate that orogenesis consisted of several short lived c 10 20 ma deformational episodes confined to arenig through ashgill time c 485 440 ma this indicates that the total duration of orogeny as recorded by arc magmatism metamorphism and laurentian foredeep development spanned no more than c 45 ma in that the scottish caledonides are a consanguineous part of this orogen their tectonostratigraphic evolution i e grampian orogeny should be similar accordingly the results detailed above are geodynamically compatible with and thereby support tectonic models that define the grampian orogeny in scotland as a mostly early to mid ordovician c 480 460 ma tectonic episode of short rather than long duration

paleogeography of the matapedia basin in the gaspe appalachians initiation of the gaspe belt successor basin the matapedia basin consists of the uppermost ordovician lowermost silurian deep water fine grained carbonate siliciclastic rocks of the honorat garin formation and matapedia groups pabos and white head formations the lower rock assemblage of the gaspe belt in the gaspe appalachians paleogeographic maps of eight time slices from the caradocian to the llandoverian are presented to better understand the tectonosedimentary evolution of the matapedia basin deposition evolved from siliciclastic garin fm to argillaceous limestones pabos fm to limestones white head fm the overall change from terrigenous garin fm to limestone facies white head fm reflects a change in the source area paleocurrent directions and composition of sandstones indicate an orogenic source area to the south for the garin formation which is believed to be the inliers of the humber and dunnage zones in the southern gaspe and new brunswick appalachians lime muds deposited by turbidity currents coming from the nor

development of inverted metamorphic gradient in the internal domain of the taconian belt gaspe peninsula the mont logan nappe is part of the taconian internal domain of the quebec appalachians and is entirely made up of synrift to passive margin elastics and volcanics of the shickshock group rocks o

alleghanian deformation in the eastern gaspe peninsula of quebec canada juxtaposition of the mississippian risti gouche and cannes de roches basins which are subbasins of the composite late paleozoic maritimes basin occurred through dextral movement along the north west striking percefault system in the east ern gaspepeninsula of quebec the north west striking faults are truncated by small north northwest striking dextral strike slip faults which probably developed as region al stress gradually rotated clockwise from north northwest south southeast to north east southwest this study provides the first evidence in eastern quebec for significant post acadian block displacement other than normal faulting and indicates that al leghanian deformation extended much far ther north than previously thought iden tification of these structures formed during the alleghanian orogeny but more than 1000 km away from areas of peak allegh anian metamorphism in the southeastern united states underlines the far reaching effects of continental collisions it also casts doubt on the age attribution of brittle strike slip faults elsewhere in the gaspe peninsula away from mississippian expo sures such brittle faults were previously associated with late stages of the acadian orogeny but could in fact be considerably younger

a reevaluation of the position of the baie verte brompton line in the quebec appalachians the influence of middle devonian strike slip faulting in gaspe peninsula the baie verte brompton line bbl the surface expression of the taconian suture in the canadian appalachian orogen extends from southern quebec to the northeast end of newfoundland in the que

lens effect in santa monica we used finite difference simulations of 10 hz p sv and sh waves to estimate the contribution from the deep basin structure to the large ground motion amplification in santa monica california observed for seismic waves incident from the north our simulations of a 17 km deep northridge aftershock with epicenter 30 km north of santa monica show that focusing at the lens shaped boundary of the sediments can only account for less than half the amplification observed in the area that was heavily damaged during the 1994 m 6 7 northridge earthquake the focusing in the simulations caused amplification of up to 1 6 times in a zone 0 65 2 4 km south of the santa monica fault and de amplification at sites just south of the fault where some of the largest amplification is observed in the data

adjoint analysis of the source and path sensitivities of basin guided waves summary simulations of earthquake rupture on the southern san andreas fault saf reveal large amplifications in the san gabriel and los angeles basins sgb and lab apparently associated with long range path effects geometrically similar excitation patterns can be recognized repeatedly in different saf simulations e g love wave like energy with predominant period around 4 s channelled southwestwardly from the sgb into lab yet the amplitudes with which these distinctive wavefield patterns are excited change depending upon source details slip distribution direction and velocity of rupture we describe a method for rapid calculation of the sensitivity of such predicted wavefield features to perturbations of the source kinematics using a time reversed adjoint wavefield simulation the calculations are analogous to those done in adjoint tomography and the same time reversed calculation also yields path sensitivity kernels that give further insight into the excitation mechanism for rupture on the southernmost 300 km of saf lab excitation is greatest for slip concentrated between the northern coachella valley and the transverse ranges propagating to the ne and with rupture velocities between 3250 and 3500 m s 1 along that fault segment that is within or slightly above the velocity range between rayleigh and s velocities that is energetically precluded in the limit of a sharp rupture front highlighting the potential value of imposing physical constraints such as from spontaneous rupture models on source parametrizations lab excitation is weak for rupture to the sw and for ruptures in either direction located north of the transverse transverse ranges whereas ventura basin vtb is preferentially excited by ne ruptures situated north of the transverse ranges path kernels show that lab excitation is mediated by surface waves deflected by the velocity contrast along the southern margin of the transverse ranges having most of their energy in basement rock until they impinge on the eastern edge of sgb through which they are then funnelled into lab vtb amplification is enhanced by a similar waveguide effect

stratigraphy depositional setting and diagenetic history of the saint jules formation upper devonian or mississippian a newly identified post acadian red clastic unit in the southern gaspe peninsula quebec the saint jules formation a post acadian continental clastic unit previously mapped as part of the bonaventure formation pre namurian unit was recently identified in the southern gaspe peninsula of quebec the saint jules formation in the study area is confined to a small post sedimentary graben the unit is characterized by fault controlled oxidized and poorly sorted detritus that underwent short transportation by fluvial processes the saint jules formation is locally overlain by a massive groundwater calcrete several metres in thickness which is tenta tively correlated with the calcretization event that has affected the base of the la coulee formation grey clastics pre namurian unit the calcrete has developed within the karstified upper beds of the saint jules formation which brings new insights into the potential hosts of such calcretes and on the potential stratigraphic confusion that such diagenetic overprints can create partial erosion of both the la coulee and saint jules clastic rocks as well as the mas sive groundwater calcretes occurred prior to deposition of the bonaventure formation like the la coulee and bonaventure formations the saint jules is undated but unconformably overlies acadian structures middle devonian and predates mabou group units namurian

geometric effects of global lateral heterogeneity on long period surface wave propagation long period rayleigh waves from iranian earthquakes have large amplitude asymmetries between minor arc and major arc arrivals e g r 2 and r 3 at digital stations in the azimuth range n20 w to n60 e these asymmetries are as large as a factor of 2 at a period of 256 s and persist to periods greater than 300 s in some cases the entire rayleigh wave group arrival spanning periods from 100 to 300 s is either uniformly enhanced in amplitude or diminished to such a degree that the group arrival appears to be missing the amplitude anomalies are generally not accompanied by significant phase anomalies the irregular azimuthal distribution of the amplitude asymmetries and their occurrence for events with different focal mechanisms and epicentral separations of several hundred kilometers preclude an explanation of these observations by source complexity events in the mediterranean and nepal do not produce similar amplitude asymmetries at the same stations the anomalies are thus most likely due to focusing and defocusing propagation effects as a preliminary investigation of the effects of lateral heterogeneity of upper mantle velocity structure on long period surface wave amplitudes surface wave ray tracing calculations are performed using recently proposed global phase velocity distributions dramatic deviations from great circle paths are predicted for long propagation paths e g r 3 the particular spatial distribution of lateral velocity gradients around a given source location determines whether substantial amplitude asymmetries will be observed between minor arc and major arc arrivals and whether these will persist for sequential great circle orbits the 200 s period amplitude asymmetry observed at kip for the iranian source region r 2 4 r 3 is well predicted by the ray tracing results the absence of this anomaly for the other source regions is also predicted other observed anomalies are not all well predicted but it is clear that geometric effects can contribute significantly to the observed variations of rayleigh and love wave amplitudes this is the probable explanation for the instability of q estimates made from surface waves other source regions producing large surface wave amplitude anomalies include japan and southeastern alaska

structural evolution and tectonic significance of the eastern highlands shear zone in cape breton island the canadian appalachians the eastern highlands shear zone in cape breton island of the canadian appalachians is characterized by an amphibolite facies deformation zone over 5 km wide overprinted by a greenschist facies mylonite zone about 1 km wide deformation zones in both metamorphic grades dip steeply to the southeast with movement direction pitching steeply to the southwest and shear sense indicators indicate the same sense of shear that is an east over west dip slip movement with minor sinistral strike slip component deformation in both conditions is constrained to the late silurian to early devonian mainly late silurian it is suggested that the greenschist facies deformation represents the last stage of a single episode of deformation that occurred initially under amphibolite facies conditions the west vergent shearing along the shear zone is antithetic to the westward subduction that led to the silurian continent continent collision which is interpreted by tectonic wedging in this part of the canadian appalachians

book review the techniques of modern structural geology volume 2 folds and fractures john g ramsay and martin i huber academic press london 1987 xi 309 398 pp price stg17 50 us 34 50 paperback

anelastic earth structure from the coherency of the ambient seismic field 1 cross correlation of the ambient seismic field is now routinely used to measure seismic wave travel times however relatively little attention has been paid to other information that could be extracted from these signals in this paper we demonstrate the relationship between the spatial coherency of the ambient field and the elastodynamic green s function in both time and frequency domains through measurement of the frequency domain coherency as a function of distance we sequentially recover phase velocities and attenuation coefficients from these measurements we generate 1 d shear wave velocity and attenuation models for southern california the ambient field measurements of attenuation and the exceptional path coverage that results from the many possible interstation measurements allow us to extend q estimates over a range of frequencies that has previously been difficult to analyze using earthquake data measurements from paths that cross major sedimentary basins show both lower wave speeds and lower quality factors than other paths as expected our results indicate that there is a wealth of information available in the spatial coherency of the ambient seismic field

palinspastic restoration of a post taconian successor basin deformed within a transpressive regime northern appalachians restoration of transpressional orogens requires a three dimensional analysis of the strain state in order to take into account both the pure shear and simple shear components of the deformation and assess their relative contribution throughout the deformation history restoration of the post taconian successor basin the gaspe belt located within the external part of the acadian orogen in the canadian appalachians was performed by using a step by step method based on the successive removal of strain increments the pure shear component contributed 70 of the total strain during the first stages of the deformation whereas the simple shear component contributed 30 of the total strain during the last stages three retrodeformation steps are defined starting with restoration of the last deformation stage and working back to the first deformation stage the first step is to restore slip along acadian strike slip faults the second step is to restore shortening related to the horizontal extension during the acadian regional simple shear event finally the third step is to restore vertical extension related to the pure shear event by removing slip along the reverse faults unfolding and removing internal strain associated with cleavage development retrodeformation of the simple shear component of the transpressive deformation during the first two steps is performed on a horizontal view of the gaspe belt basin which contains the horizontal extension direction and which is perpendicular to the acadian nw se directed compression likewise restoration of the pure shear component is performed in vertical sections which contain the vertical extension and which are perpendicular to the acadian nw se directed compression the palinspastic map presented here is a much more appropriate base map for the basin and allows for a more realistic paleogeographic interpretation of the gaspe belt

carbonate sedimentation in an extensional tectonic regime the lower devonian upper gaspe limestones quebec appalachians carbonate sedimentation occurred over most of eastern gaspe peninsula in early devonian time the resulting succession known as the upper gaspe limestones is a 500 1800 m thick unit outcropping in the connecticut valley gaspe synclinorium detailed stratigraphic and sedimentologic work allows recognition of important thickness and lithofacies variations in a north south oriented transect in the eastern part of the peninsula variations are spatially associated with acadian middle devonian dextral strike slip faults three lithotectonic domains are proposed and interpreted they are from north to south 1 a proximal outer shelf 2 a distal gently sloping outer shelf and 3 a slope or slope toe field mapping and reinterpretation of seismic profiles from this area have shown that the faults bounding the three domains are reactivated normal listric faults early devonian vertical movement along these faults caused accelerated subsidence of the central and southern segments of the sedimentary ba

midperiod rayleigh wave attenuation model for asia 1 we present an attenuation model for midperiod rayleigh waves in central asia and surrounding regions this model is defined by maps of attenuation coefficient across the region of study in the period band 14 24 s the model is constructed to characterize the regional variations in attenuation of seismic waves in the crust which are related to the tectonic history of the studied territory to calibrate the regional surface wave magnitude scale and to extend the teleseismic surface wave magnitude body wave magnitude ms mb discriminant to regional distances the construction of the model proceeds in three stages the first stage in model construction is the measurement of rayleigh wave spectral amplitudes we collected and processed waveform data for 200 earthquakes occurring from 2003 to 2006 inside and around eurasia and used records of about 135 broadband permanent and temporary stations this data set provided a sufficient number of spectral amplitude measurements between 14 and 24 s periods for the construction of two dimensional tomographic maps of attenuation coefficients at the second stage of the work the integral of attenuation coefficients along given paths is estimated using both inter station measurements and single station measurements corrected for source and receiver terms the third stage includes the refining of source parameters recalculation of attenuation coefficient integrals after this refinement grooming of resulting coefficients and multistage tomographic inversion of the data tomographic maps for the set of periods from 14 to 24 s which exhibit clear correlation with geology and tectonics of the territory under study were obtained validation of these maps using the inter station measurements confirms their accuracy in predicting the observations

late silurian early devonian transpressional rift origin of the quebec reentrant northern appalachians constraints from geochemistry of volcanic rocks silurian devonian rocks in the northwestern mainland appalachians form part of an overstep sequence deposited across the vestiges of iapetus after the collision of laurentia and gondwana they occur in three synclinoria gasl connecticut valley merrimack aroostook and fredericton synclinoria separated by two anticlinoria munsungun pennington boundary mountain bronson hill and miramichi silurian rocks in gasp6 connecticut valley and merrimack aroostook synclinoria consist of shelf and trough sediments derived mainly from laurentia to the northwest with some local contributions from an ephemeral landmass appalaclfia and from the miramiclfi highlands in contrast early devonian rocks in all three synclinoria are mainly flysch derived froxn the southeast in avalonia interbedded volcanic rocks are predominantly late silurian early devonian in age they are generally bimodal with the mafic rocks exhibiting a change from transitional alkalic tholeiitic to tholeiitic around the siluro devonian boundary broadly coincident with the salinic disturbance in the gaspe peninsula the geochemical characteristics of the basalts indicate that they were erupted in a continental intraplate environment with melting migrating upward through time across the garnet to spinel phase boundary as stretclfing increased thermal uplift during rifting is inferred to have led to erosion associated with the salinic disturbance the start of the volcanism appears to coincide with a switch from sinistral to dextral transpression along the orogen that may be related to the change from clockwise to anticlockwise rotation of laurentia relative to gondwana the effects of dextral transpression vary with the trend of the orogen intense deformation and metamorplfism occurred in the central mobile belt opposite the new york and st lawrence promontories whereas rifting developed in the quebec reentrant leading to tlfinning of the crest up welling of the asthenosphere melting and magmatism

the global attenuation structure of the upper mantle 1 a large data set of fundamental mode rayleigh wave amplitudes is analyzed to derive a new global three dimensional model of shear wave attenuation in the upper mantle the amplitude observations span a range of periods between 50 and 250 s and are derived from earthquakes with mw 6 0 that occurred between 1993 and 2005 four separate factors may influence an amplitude anomaly intrinsic attenuation along the raypath elastic focusing effects along the raypath uncertainties in the strength of excitation and uncertainties in the response at the station in an earlier paper dalton and ekstrom 2006a dependence of the retrieved attenuation structure on these terms was shown to be significant and an approach was developed to invert the amplitudes simultaneously for each term the new three dimensional attenuation model qrfsi12 which is the subject of this paper is derived using this method the model contains large lateral variations in upper mantle attenuation 60 to 100 and exhibits strong agreement with surface tectonic features at depths shallower than 200 km at greater depth qrfsi12 is dominated by high attenuation in the southeastern pacific and eastern africa and low attenuation along many subduction zones in the western pacific resolution tests confirm that the change in pattern of attenuation above and below 200 km depth can be determined with confidence using the fundamental mode data set the new model is highly correlated with global models of shear wave velocity particularly in the uppermost mantle suggesting that the same factors may control both seismic attenuation and velocity in this depth range however forcing the lateral perturbations in attenuation to match those found in global velocity models decreases the data variance reduction which suggests that subtle differences between patterns of attenuation and velocity are robust

alleghanian paleostress reconstruction in the northern appalachians intraplate deformation between laurentia and gondwana a numerical paleostress tensor analysis using striated fault planes has been conducted in the quebec reentrant of the northern appalachians to characterize the stress field of late paleozoic deformations three directions of maximum compressional stress axes s1 have been found and correlated to 1 an early north northwest south southeast compression 2 a north northeast south southwest compression and 3 a late west northwest east southeast compression fault populations associated with these stress regimes are present in all tectonic zones of the quebec and northern new brunswick appalachians directions of 1 axes determined in the northern appalachians resemble in orientation and in relative chronology layer parallel shortening fabrics and joint patterns found in the appalachian foreland of the central appalachians the paleostress regimes are interpreted as the record of intraplate deformation related to the indentation of gondwana into laurentia during the late paleozoic alleghanian orogeny

taconian and acadian transpression between the internal humber zone and the gaspe belt in the gaspe peninsula tectonic history of the shickshock sud fault zone the shickshock sud fault has a history of ordovician taconian silurian salinic and devonian acadian movements taconian deformation involving ductile dextral oblique slip faulting is recorded in cambrian rocks in the footwall of the shickshock sud fault metabasalt and metaarkose at amphibolite grade are converted into phyllonite and mylonitic schist shear bands asymmetric garnet porphyroclasts c s fabrics and mica fish textures indicate dextral shearing the regional sense of shear is top to west and southwest on generally southeast dipping shear zones hornblende of metabasalt yielded an 40ar 39ar age of 455 9 2 ma and muscovite from the mylonitic schist yielded an 40ar 39ar age of 454 3 0 9 ma which indicate metamorphism and deformation during the taconian orogeny evidence for silurian activity is indicated by the salinic unconformity to the south related to normal block faulting deformation features in the ordovician and silurian devonian rocks in the hanging wall were predominantl

along strike acadian structural variations in the quebec appalachians consequence of a collision along an irregular margin the quebec appalachians have been shaped by two major orogenies the middle to late ordovician taconian and the middle devonian acadian thrust faults and nappe structures characterized the taconian deformation throughout the quebec appalachians whereas structural styles pertaining to the acadian orogeny differ from southern quebec to the gaspe peninsula structural analysis of late ordovician to middle devonian supracrustal rocks shows two different acadian deformational regimes strike slip tectonics in the gaspe peninsula and thrust or dip slip tectonics in southern quebec in southern quebec acadian regional deformation produced folds which vary from upright to overturned and tight to isoclinal from the nw to the se major faults e g la guadeloupe are northwestward directed thrust faults marked by highly ductile shear zones outlined by mylonite in the gaspe peninsula structural trend is ne and major e w dextral strike slip faults transect this trend folds are open and upright inclined and tighter near the major faults where they have a clockwise rotation like the regional cleavage major faults e g grand pabos follow corridors delimiting high strain zones where the fabrics developed are indicative of a ductilebrittle regime of deformation in the temiscouata region major structural features of both southern quebec and the gaspe peninsula are recognized structures of this region consist of ene trending dextral strike slip faults and high angle wnw verging reverse faults parallel to major nne folds these structures reflect the transition from purely horizontal movement along major strike slip faults of the gaspe peninsula to vertical movement along thrust faults in southern quebec acadian structural variations within the quebec appalachians are interpreted in terms of a continental collision of gondwana along the irregular margin of laurentian and its taconian accreted terranes

a lost arc back arc terrane of the dunnage oceanic tract recorded in clasts from the garin formation and mccrea melange in the gaspe appalachians of quebec upper ordovician garin conglomerates base of the gaspe belt quebec appalachians contain three igneous clast populations 1 calc alkaline intermediat felsic rocks resemble exploits new brunswick maine and notre dame quebec newfoundland subzone lavas clasts monzonite rhyodacite give u pb zircon ages between 465 and 466 ma precluding correlation with exploits rocks we suggest that the suite represents peri laurentian continental arc magmas coeval with the red indian lake group of newfoundland correlation of lavas from a gaspe well with the popelogan arc implies that the red indian line passes through southern gaspe 2 mafic tholeiitic to alkaline clasts resemble new brunswick and maine exploits subzone alkaline lavas we interpret them as magmas associated with initiation of a back arc basin possibly on the laurentian margin 3 mafic intermediate tholeiitic to calc alkaline clasts have an oceanic subduction component and correlate with notre dame subzone lavas quebec newfoundland they are interpreted as products of spreading and off axis magmatism of a peri laurentian back arc basin we correlate mccrea melange lavas to the calc alkaline intermediat felsic and mafic intermediate suites and interpret them as samples of a notre dame subzone terrane coeval with the red indian lake group of newfoundland during initiation of a successor arc back arc a terrane which is no longer preserved in new brunswick and maine but that provides some evidence for possible extensions of newfoundland9s geology into the gaspe appalachians of quebec a mid ocean ridge basalt like intrusion in the mccrea melange ar ar age 471 2 11 2 ma is coeval with peri laurentian ophiolites in newfoundland and may record a back arc opening event

ophiolite obduction in the quebec appalachians canada 40 ar 39 ar age constraints and evidence for syn tectonic erosion and sedimentation 1 2 3 detailed field work conducted in the dunnage zone of the quebec appalachians is herein combined with 40 ar 39 ar dating on a series of ophiolitic massifs crosscutting granites and associated metamorphic rocks occurring along the baie verte brompton line the taconian suture between laurentia and lower paleozoic peri laurentian oceanic terranes studied massifs are the lac brompton ophiolite and the riviere des plante ultramafic complex in southern quebec and the nadeau ophiolitic melange in the gaspe peninsula our work suggests that these massifs form remnants of eroded ophiolitic nappes which are unconformably overlain by the saint daniel and riviere port daniel melanges and correlate with the thetford mines and mont albert ophiolitic complexes our 40 ar 39 ar data and compiled regional age constraints indicate that ophiolite obduction was diachronous along the strike of the orogen the timing of obduction and melange formation varies according to the irregular geometry of the early paleozoic laurentian margin with earlier collision occurring along or at the margins of promontories obduction was initiated with the formation of infraophio litic metamorphic soles between ca 479 and 472 ma in southern quebec and the nadeau ophiolitic melange and pos sibly as late as ca 470 466 ma for the mont albert complex these sole rocks were later exhumed and translated onto the laurentian margin with the overlying ophiolites between 475 and 460 457 ma the uplifting and erosion of the orogenic wedge during the waning stages of obduction has resulted in the sedimentation of olistostromal melanges and onlapping flysch units above the ophiolitic nappes as well as foredeep flysch successions during the latest arenig to earliest caradoc