early proterozoic ties between two suspect terranes and the mojave crustal block of the southwestern u s southern california and adjacent areas contain two suspect or exotic terranes comprised largely of ancient continental crust namely the tujunga san gabriel and joshua tree terranes that have been considered part of a larger displaced terrane the santa lucia orocopia allochthon paleomagnetic data for the allochthon indicate northward transport in excess of 2000 km and thus an origin extraneous to north america however early proterozoic plutons of the mojave crustal block and the joshua tree and tujunga terranes have strikingly comparable features including 1 crystallization ages of 1 63 to 1 68 ga 2 biotite sphene magnetite pm hornblende pm garnet mineralogy 3 high lil and enriched hfs elemental composition 4 wpg within plate granite trace element chemistry 5 similar and unique oxygen isotopic compositions and 6 distinct pb and nd isotopic signatures these features of the mojave block which clearly originated as part of native north america nevertheless distingui

influence of tidal effects on the periodicity of earthquake activity in diverse geological settings with particular emphasis on submarine hydrothermal systems abstract hydrothermal earthquakes may be defined as earthquakes caused by the hydrofracturing of the oceanic crust by submarine hydrothermal fluids it is suggested that they correspond to the cracking of the ocean crust at the brittle ductile transition that marks the downward limit of seawater circulation into the ocean crust semi diurnal variations in submarine hydrothermal discharge in backarc settings and at the crests of mid ocean ridges have been detected by hydrophone but no influence of tidal effects on the periodicity of microearthquakes around submarine hydrothermal vents has been observed so far although tidal stresses are too small to initiate earthquakes themselves they may trigger earthquake activity when imposed on slowly increasing tectonic stress these effects therefore tend to be observed in geologically active regions where stress levels in the earth s crust are high the influence of tides on the periodicity of microearthquakes tends to be complex because the effects of ocean and earth tides are not uniform at the surface of the earth and because the microearthquakes occur in a wide variety of geological settings earth tides cause compression and dilatation of the oceanic crust which may be the most significant factor in initiating changes in fluid flow rate and microseismicity in submarine hydrothermal systems much of the information now available on the tidal periodicity of microearthquakes is based on relatively short term monitoring which lacks statistical validity the development and installation of deep sea monitoring stations will permit rigorous long term monitoring programmes to be carried out which will lead to a better understanding of the nature and periodicity of microearthquakes around submarine hydrothermal vents

detection of changes in ridge crest morphology using repeated multibeam sonar surveys a quantitative analysis method is developed to objectively identify significant bathymetric changes between multibeam sonar surveys of the same seafloor area the technique involves mathematical gridding of bathymetric surveys from different years co registration of grids based on prominent features covered in both surveys calculation of slope weighted depth difference grids and determination of the boundaries of statistically significant differences the resulting difference grids are used in interpreting geological processes and calculating the volume of new material added to the seafloor the method is applied to data from the southern juan de fuca ridge where a seafloor volcanic eruption of 0 05 km3 is inferred to have occurred between 1983 and 1987 camera tow data and submersible observations provide ground truth which confirms the validity of the quantitative analysis method and indicates empirically that the detection limit of the method allows new seafloor landforms measuring 1 105 m2 in area or about 200 300 m in diameter and 5 15 m in thickness to be detected through repeated sea beam bathymetric surveys

observations of long period earthquakes accompanying hydraulic fracturing waveforms of most seismic events accompanying hydraulic fracturing have been reported to contain clear p and s waves and have fault plane solutions consistent with shear displacement across a fault this observation is surprising since classical hydraulic fracturing theory predicts the creation of a tensile opening of a cavity in response to fluid pressure very small long period events similar to long period earthquakes observed at volcanoes were found to occur during four hydraulic fracturing experiments carried out at fenton hill new mexico since the long period earthquakes occur in the same region as the shear type events it is concluded that the unusual character of the long period earthquake waveforms is due to a source effect and not a path effect the occurrence of long period earthquakes during hydraulic fracturing could indicate tensile fracturing many waveforms of these events are identical which implies that these events represent repeated activation of a given source a proposed source for these long period events is the sudden opening of a channel that connects two cracks filled with fluid at different pressures the sizes of the two cracks differ which causes two or more peaks to appear in the spectra each peak beingmore associated with one physical dimension of each crack from the frequencies at which spectral peaks occur crack lengths are estimated to be between 3 and 20m less

long term tilt and acceleration data from the logatchev hydrothermal vent field mid atlantic ridge measured by the bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter 1 long term seafloor deformations in the logatchev hydrothermal vent field lhf at the mid atlantic ridge are largely unexplored and unknown even though the lhf has been the focus of international research for many years as seafloor tilt and vertical acceleration provide key information about seafloor deformations the bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter obt was deployed in may 2005 at position 14 45 11 7 n 44 58 47 0 w 3035 m water depth in the lhf the obt recorded 384 days and was recovered in january 2007 strong tilt steps and strong gradual tilt changes over less than a minute to days in the range of some 10 mrad and aligned mostly with the topography possibly indicate nearby mass movements like avalanches of bulk material due to local uplift or subsidence or may show tectonic activity a vertically aligned high resolution microelectromechanical systems mems accelerometer of type servo k beam in the sensor package seems to be helpful to distinguish between tilt signals caused by a true rotation and fake tilt related to a transient translational motion of the obt in a horizontal direction hodographs show elliptic motion patterns with about 1 mrad total tilt amplitude and distinct orientations of tilt toward hydrothermal vents it is up to speculation whether the latter signals are related to hydrothermal fluid circulation the amplitude spectra of these tilt signals and acceleration show discrete lines mostly between 0 1 and 50 mhz the spectra show the periodic character of those signals and also proof that tides or bottom currents which are known to show lower signal frequencies or tremor which generally has higher frequencies are most likely not the reason compared with studies onshore and offshore the lhf is most likely an area of strong and highly variable seafloor deformations

microearthquakes at intermediate spreading rate ridges the cleft segment megaplume site on the juan de fuca ridge we discuss models for earthquake generation at intermediate spreading rate ridges and present results from an ocean bottom seismograph obs deployment on the cleft segment of the juan de fuca ridge jdfr although the cleft segment is spreading at approximately 6 cm yr an intermediate spreading rate it has no seismic activity detectable by land networks which provide a detection threshold of ml 4 or by northeast pacific underwater hydrophone arrays with a detection threshold of ml 2 to monitor seismicity four obss were deployed at the cleft segment for 11 days during august 1990 these obss detected 34 regional earthquakes associated with adjacent transform faults in addition 10 local microearthquakes ml 0 to 1 were observed over a 10 km segment of the ridge crest four local events were detected sufficiently well by multiple instruments to allow their hypocenters to be determined all these events occurred within the rift valley of the cleft segment spreading axis three events lie directly beneath a linear surface zone of hydrothermal venting this zone has been identified as the site of a seafloor volcanic eruption dike injection and large scale hydrothermal venting or megaplume event that occurred during 1986 and 1987 these earthquakes were located at depths coincident with the dike injection zone a possible mechanism for earthquake production might be tectonic release of stress acquired during the dike injection either along the dike zone or along the bounding faults of the rift valley an alternative mechanism may be stress release associated with hydrothermal activity and cooling of the dike a fourth event was located southeast of the linear hydrothermal venting and dike injection zone at a depth coincident with the spreading center crustal melt zone these observations suggest that the cleft segment may primarily experience seismic events correlated with periods of volcanic intrusion

heat flow variations correlated with buried basement topography on the juan de fuca ridge flank systematic heat flow variations are commonly observed on sedimented flanks of mid ocean ridges these variations have been attributed to the convective circulation of pore fluids within the oceanic crust and have been used to estimate the scale and pattern of this circulation here we report similar systematic variations observed in a detailed heat flow and seismic reflection survey over sediment covered 3 myr old sea floor on the eastern flank of the juan de fuca ridge we find that heat flow peaks are located above buried basement ridges and adjacent to two minor basement outcrops heat flow lows are found where thick sediments fill basement valleys the simple inverse relationship between heat flow and sediment thickness defined by the data indicates that hydrothermal circulation sealed within the permeable portion of the oceanic crust is vigorous enough to maintain approximately isothermal 10 k conditions at the sediment crust interface as no systematic variations in estimated basement temperatures are observed it seems that at this location the heat flow variations result only from sediment thickness variations and do not reflect a particular convective pattern

a microseismicity survey of axial seamount juan de fuca ridge an array of ocean bottom seismometers and hydrophones were deployed within the caldera of axial seamount located at the intersection of the cobb eickelberg seamount chain and the juan de fuca ridge recent manned submersible dives have discovered the presence of two distinct hydrothermal vent fields the objective of the microseismicity survey was to determine baseline information necessary for designing an optimal experiment to monitor seismicity associated with submarine volcanic and hydrothermal systems with an instrument deployment period of eight days over 1500 events were recorded and examined most events occurred within three periods of swarm activity the location of the swarm events is believed to be within the low temperature vent field in the northwest portion of axial s caldera these impulsive high frequency events are interpreted to be tectonic in origin no harmonic tremor like events were observed on any of the instruments indicating a lack of magmatic movement only nine local events were recorded on more than one instrument and none of these could be located unambiguously monochromatic 20 hz signals were also recorded and are interpreted to originate from whales observed in the immediate vicinity

source mechanism of volcanic tremor low frequency 10 hz volcanic earthquakes originate at a wide range of depths and occur before during and after magmatic eruptions the characteristics of these earthquakes suggest that they are not typical tectonic events physically analogous processes occur in hydraulic fracturing of rock formations low frequency icequakes in temperate glaciers and autoresonance in hydroelectric power stations we propose that unsteady fluid flow in volcanic conduits is the common source mechanism of low frequency volcanic earthquakes tremor the fluid dynamic source mechanism explains low frequency earthquakes of arbitrary duration magnitude and depth of origin as unsteady flow is independent of physical properties of the fluid and conduit fluid transients occur in both low viscosity gases and high viscosity liquids a fluid transient analysis can be formulated as generally as is warranted by knowledge of the composition and physical properties of the fluid material properties geometry and roughness of the conduit and boundary conditions to demonstrate the analytical potential of the fluid dynamic theory we consider a single phase fluid a melt of mount hood andesite at 1250 c in which significant pressure and velocity variations occur only in the longitudinal direction further simplification of the conservation of mass and momentum equations presents an eigenvalue problem that is solved to determine the natural frequencies and associated damping of flow and pressure oscillations for a simple constant pressure reservoir conduit orifice fluid system a change in orifice size can cause the source signal duration due to a single disturbance to change from several seconds to in excess of an hour fluid kinematic viscosity 0 412 m2 s is both included and neglected in the analysis to illustrate its effect upon system damping tremor magnitude is related to the magnitude of the conduit wall motion occurring in response to oscillating fluid pressures the entire volcanic fluid system does not generally experience a transient flow condition at a given time closed end and constant pressure fluid system boundaries reflect pressure waves and isolate components of the fluid system total fluid movement may not be accurately monitored by tremor data alone since steady state and slowly changing flows are aseismic

high closure temperatures of the u pb system in large apatites from the tin mountain pegmatite black hills south dakota usa abstract the cores of several large 1 2 cm apatites from the early proterozoic tin mountain pegmatite black hills south dakota have concordant u pb ages the age uncertainties of these samples are less than 5 ma the lead isotopic compositions of muscovite and k feldspar coexisting with the apatites were used for initial lead isotopic corrections the resulting u pb concordia ages agree well with u pb and pb pb isochron ages based solely on multiple fragments from single apatites this agreement justifies the use of coexisting muscovite and k feldspar for initial lead corrections the precision of these u pb ages is comparable to those of the u pb systems of more commonly analyzed minerals such as zircon monazite and sphene the estimated u pb closure temperature t c of these apatites is about 620 c this t c is in close agreement with the t c calculated for 0 5 cm diffusion radii and published data for diffusivity and activation energy of lead diffusion in apatite apatite can therefore yield high precision u pb ages that are close to its crystallization age in igneous rocks

seismic structure and anisotropy of the juan de fuca ridge at 45 n a seismic refraction experiment was conducted with air guns and ocean bottom seismometers on the juan de fuca ridge at 45 n at the northern cleft segment and at the overlapping rift zone between the cleft and vance segments these data determine the average velocity structure of the upper crust and map the thickness variability of the shallow low velocity layer which we interpret as the extrusive volcanic layer the experiment is unique because a large number of travel times were measured along ray paths oriented at all azimuths within a small 20 km by 35 km area these travel times provide evidence for compressional velocity anisotropy in the upper several hundred meters of oceanic crust presumed to be caused by ridge parallel fracturing compressional velocities are 3 35 km s in the ridge strike direction and 2 25 km s across strike travel time residuals are simultaneously inverted for anisotropy as well as lateral thickness variations in the low velocity layer extrusive layer thickness ranges from approximately 200 m to 550 m with an average of 350 m the zone of the thinnest low velocity layer is within the northern cleft segment axial valley in a region of significant hydrothermal activity layer thickness variability is greatest near the cleft vance overlapping rift zone where changes of 300 m occur over as little as several kilometers laterally these low velocity layer thickness changes may correspond to fault block rotations in an episodic spreading system where the low side of each fault block accumulates more extrusive volcanics

microseismicity linked to gas migration and leakage on the western svalbard shelf the continental margin off prins karls forland western svalbard is characterized by widespread natural gas seepage into the water column at and upslope of the gas hydrate stability zone we deployed an ocean bottom seismometer integrated into the masox monitoring arctic seafloor ocean exchange automated seabed observatory at the pinch out of this zone at 389 m water depth to investigate passive seismicity over a continuous 297 day period from 13 october 2010 an automated triggering algorithm was applied to detect over 220 000 short duration events sdes defined as having a duration of less than 1 s the analysis reveals two different types of sdes each with a distinctive characteristic seismic signature we infer that the first type consists of vocal signals generated by moving mammals likely finback whales the second type corresponds to signals with a source within a few hundred meters of the seismometer either due east or west that vary on short tens of days and seasonal time scales based on evidence of prevalent seafloor seepage and subseafloor gas accumulations we hypothesize that the second type of sdes is related to subseafloor fluid migration and gas seepage furthermore we postulate that the observed temporal variations in microseismicity are driven by transient fluid release and due to the dynamics of thermally forced seasonal gas hydrate decomposition our analysis presents a novel technique for monitoring the duration intensity and periodicity of fluid migration and seepage at the seabed and can help elucidate the environmental controls on gas hydrate decomposition and release

saturated and subcooled hydrothermal boiling in groundwater flow channels as a source of harmonic tremor the potential of hydrothermal boiling in groundwater flow channels for generating harmonic tremor a relatively monochromatic ground vibration associated with volcanic activity is examined we use simple organ pipe theory of normal mode fluid vibration and fundamental energy considerations to develop a first order analytical model of a hydrothermal boiling source of harmonic tremor we use this model to estimate order of magnitude groundwater flow channel lengths and boiling heat transfer rates required to produce harmonic tremor with dominant frequencies in the range 0 5 5 hz and surface wave reduced displacements of up to 100 cm2 depending on groundwater sound speed flow channel lengths of the order of 1 1000 m are required to produce fluid vibration eigenfrequencies in the range 0 5 5 hz the boiling heat transfer rate required to produce tremor with a given surface wave reduced displacement depends on the tremor frequency and on whether saturated boiling or subcooled boiling is the cause of the tremor saturated boiling produces groundwater vibration via steam bubble growth whereas subcooled boiling produces groundwater vibration via steam bubble collapse we find that subcooled hydrothermal boiling is from 102 to 104 times more efficient than saturated boiling in converting boiling thermal power to seismic power for example the boiling heat transfer rates required to produce 1 hz tremor with reduced displacements of up to 100 cm2 via subcooled boiling are generally less than a few thousand megawatts for saturated boiling the required boiling heat transfer rates are several orders of magnitude larger than this the highest values of heat flow reported in the literature for volcanic crater lakes and terrestrial and ocean floor geothermal areas are of the order of 1000 mw taking this value as a first order estimate of an upper limit on possible boiling heat transfer rates in volcanic hydrothermal systems our results suggest that saturated hydrothermal boiling is capable of generating only low amplitude harmonic tremor with surface wave reduced displacements no higher than a few square centimeters however subcooled hydrothermal boiling could potentially generate high amplitude harmonic tremor with reduced displacements as large as several hundred square centimeters as a specific application of our model we evaluate the potential of hydrothermal boiling for generating harmonic tremor at recently active mount st helens and nevado del ruiz volcanoes we conclude that subcooled boiling likely could have produced the tremor episodes considered at both volcanoes saturated boiling also could explain the nevado del ruiz tremor but probably not the more powerful mount st helens tremor

crustal structure of endeavour ridge segment juan de fuca ridge from a detailed seismic refraction survey a detailed seismic refraction survey was carried out over the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge a medium rate spreading center which lies off western north america to investigate the creation and evolution of oceanic crust a bathymetric high and the presence of hydrothermal vents suggested that the study area was the most recent locus of spreading travel time and amplitude data from 15 in line air gun ocean bottom seismometer profiles were forward modeled using asymptotic ray theory to obtain two dimensional velocity models consisting of four primary layers which correlate well with classic models of oceanic crust significant lateral variations in thicknesses and velocities on the scale of a few to 10 km are superimposed on this basic velocity structure but they appear to be random rather than distributed symmetrically about the ridge we attribute them to fracturing which causes porosity changes hydrothermal circulation which fills voids and fractures with alteration products and variations in magmatic and or deformational processes at the spreading center layer 2a is found to have low 2 6 2 8 km s velocities to average 0 4 km in thickness with variations up to 0 2 km and to be bounded at its base by a sharp velocity increase to 4 8 km s along the axial ridge velocities 0 4 0 6 km s higher than average are interpreted for layers 2b and 2c but these values are confined to a 2 km wide zone centered below the ridge velocities along ridge parallel lines offset 10 km are normal indicating that maturation to off ridge structure has occurred within at most 0 3 ma layer 3 velocities decrease by 0 1 0 2 km s for arrivals traveling along and under the axial ridge perhaps caused by higher temperatures however we find no anomalously low velocities beneath the ridge indicating that no large crustal magma chamber exists on the basis of this study we conclude that magmatic accretion is a fully three dimensional process within ridge segments such as endeavour ridge

deciphering the ocean bottom pressure variation in the logatchev hydrothermal field at the eastern flank of the mid atlantic ridge ocean bottom pressure data from the logatchev hydrothermal field lhf are presented and analyzed the data were collected with two ocean bottom pressure meters obps constructed at the university of bremen that are capable of recording signals with frequencies up to 0 25 hz over the long term a nearly 2 5 kpa 25 cm water column equivalent pressure variation over 3 7 years is observed which is consistent with uplift followed by subsidence but cannot unequivocally be discerned from instrumental drift medium term pressure variations are compared with satellite surface topography satellite gravity ocean modeling and in situ data from an obp 700 km away it is shown that fluctuations in the oceanic mass distribution dominate the variations in this frequency range and that oceanic modeling and data from a 700 km distant obp are positively correlated with the lhf bottom pressure time series the short term variations are dominated by microseisms originating from sea surface waves and pressure waves from earthquakes as can be shown by comparison with weather buoy and teleseismic data

basement involved thrust faulting in a thin skinned fold and thrust belt death valley california usa although dominated by a strong late tertiary extensional overprint the turtlebacks of the black mountains of death valley display evidence for earlier possibly laramide age basement involved thrust faulting the thrust faults consist of now highly deformed contacts in which 200 m thick bodies of basement gneiss structurally overlie upper proterozoic metasedimentary rock in addition the faults contain locally preserved east directed mylonitic fabrics in their footwalls that are demonstrably early tertiary or older the association of these fabrics with laramide age pegmatite suggests that they may have formed concurrently with the intrusions these basement thrust faults are significant because they formed in a region long considered to have exclusively thin skinned deformation their presence also places new constraints on this part of the fold and thrust belt s preextension geometry by limiting the amount of late tertiary extension specifically these faults disallow the correlation of thin skinned structures that currently exist to the east and west of the black mountains

geochronology of the proterozoic basement of southwesternmost north america and the origin and evolution of the mojave crustal province the proterozoic baldwin gneiss in the central transverse ranges of southern california a part of the mojave crustal province is composed of quartzofeldspathic gneiss and schist augen and granitic gneiss trondhjemite gneiss and minor quartzite amphibolite metagabbro and metapyroxenite sensitive high resolution ion microprobe shrimp data indicate that augen and granitic gneisses comprise a magmatic arc intrusive suite emplaced between 1783 12 and 1675 19 ma adjacent to or through thinned archean crust high u th rims on zircons in most samples suggest an early metamorphic event at 1741 ma but peak amphibolite facies metamorphism and penetrative west vergent deformation occurred after 1675 ma the baldwin gneiss is part of a regional allochthon emplaced by west vergent deformation over a proterozoic shelf slope sequence joshua tree terrane we hypothesize that emplacement of this regional allochthon occurred during a late early or middle proterozoic arc continent collision along the western margin of laurentia

systematics of and postulated controls on submarine hydrothermal solution chemistry the chemical compositions of seafloor hydrothermal solutions from the galapagos spreading center 21 n and 13 n on the east pacific rise the southern juan de fuca ridge and the guaymas basin gulf of california are examined for systematic variations several elemental ratios elemental products and empirical geothermometers show much consistency among the various areas in spite of large absolute differences in elemental concentrations the results suggest that most of the major cations in these solutions are solubility controlled with respect to a similar phase assemblage at all of the sites examination of the solution chemistry in conjunction with experimental results and seafloor rock alteration data permits identification of phases which may be important in controlling the solution chemistry as potassium appears to be solubility controlled its use to calculate water rock ratios is inappropriate lithium appears to be a better element to use in these calculations a model to explain the observed solution chemistries as a result of three component mixing is discussed all of the solutions are postulated to be either the result of mixing between a seawater hydrothermal solution which has not undergone a phase separation and is hence gas containing a gas rich vapor phase and a gas poor brine phase or any one of these individual components alone the vapor and brine phases are the result of phase separation which may have occurred at some time in the past essentially all of the reported data fall within the field defined by these three components the solutions apparently have had sufficient time after the mixing event s to reequilibrate with the rock this is true for quartz as well as other chemical components the best test of this model is chloride together with gas and isotropic data as the model predicts that solutions with elevated chlorinities will be depleted in gases and enriched in 18 o and low chlorinity solutions will have elevated gas contents and lower 18 o

the black mountains turtlebacks rosetta stones of death valley tectonics the black mountains turtlebacks expose mid crustal rock along the western front of the black mountains as such they provide keys to understanding the tertiary structural evolution of death valley and because of the outstanding rock exposure they also provide valuable natural laboratories for observing structural processes there are three turtlebacks the badwater turtleback in the north the copper canyon turtleback and the mormon point turtleback in the south although important differences exist among them each turtleback displays a doubly plunging antiformal core of metamorphic and igneous rock and a brittle fault contact to the northwest that is structurally overlain by miocene pleistocene volcanic and or sedimentary rock the turtleback cores contain mylonitic rocks that record an early period of top southeastward directed shear followed by top northwestward directed shear the earlier formed mylonites are cut by and locally appear concurrent with 55 61 ma pegmatite we interpret these fabrics as related to large scale basement involved thrust faults at the turtlebacks now preserved as areally extensive metamorphosed basement over younger cover contacts the younger and far more pervasive mylonites record late tertiary extensional unroofing of the turtleback footwalls from mid crustal depths available geochronology suggests that they cooled through 300 8c at different times 13 ma at badwater 6 ma at copper canyon 8 ma at mormon point at mormon point and copper canyon turtlebacks these dates record cooling of the metamorphic assemblages from beneath the floor of an 11 ma tertiary plutonic complex collectively these relationships suggest that the turtlebacks record initiation of ductile extension before 14 ma followed by injection of a large plutonic complex along the ductile shear zone ductile deformation continued during extensional uplift until the rocks cooled below temperatures for crystal plastic deformation by 6 8 ma subsequent low angle brittle fault slip led to final exposure of the igneous and metamorphic complex the turtleback shear zones can constrain models for crustal extension from map view as well as cross sectional perspectives in map view the presence of basement involved thrust faults in the turtlebacks suggest the black mountains were a basement

evidence for volcanic eruption on the southern juan de fuca ridge between 1981 and 1987 the formation of new ocean crust at mid ocean ridges is known to be a discontinuous process in both space and time but little is known about the frequency and duration of eruptions along an active ridge segment here we present evidence from sea beam surveys and underwater photography for the eruption of lavas along a segment of the juan de fuca ridge between 1981 and 1987 although previous studies have inferred volcanic activity on ridges in areas where recent seismicity or young lava flows have been observed1 4 none has yet had direct evidence to date such a recent submarine eruption the temporal coincidence between this eruptive episode and the megaplumes huge sudden emissions of hot mineral laden water observed over this part of the ridge5 6 in 1986 and 1987 supports previous suggestions5 10 that megaplumes are caused by sea floor spreading events

microevents produced by gas migration and expulsion at the seabed a study based on sea bottom recordings from the sea of marmara summary different types of 4 component ocean bottom seismometers obs were deployed for variable durations ranging from 1 week to about 4 months in 2007 over soft sediments covering the seafloor of the tekirdag basin western part of the sea of marmara turkey non seismic microevents were recorded by the geophones but generally not by the hydrophones except when the hydrophone is located less than a few tens of centimetres above the seafloor the microevents are characterized by short durations of less than 0 8 s by frequencies ranging between 4 and 30 hz and by highly variable amplitudes in addition no correlation between obss was observed except for two obss located 10 m apart interestingly a swarm of 400 very similar microevents based on principal component analysis was recorded in less than one day by an obs located in the close vicinity of an active gas prone fault cutting through the upper sedimentary layers the presence of gas in superficial sediments together with analogies with laboratory experiments suggest that gas migration followed by the collapse of fluid filled cavities or conduits could be the source of the observed microevents this work shows that obss may provide valuable information to improve our understanding of natural degassing processes from the seafloor

seismicity analysis at the prestige oil tanker wreck area galicia margin nw of iberia an evaluation of the geological hazard related to the sinking of the prestige oil tanker in november 2002 in the galicia margin nw of iberia was supported by the spanish research agency it included a specific seismic study of the local activity and of the regional seismicity in this margin results of which are presented here published global catalogues show that diffuse seismicity of moderate magnitude events up to 5 6 mb can be associated with the northern flank of the galicia margin with a roughly e w distribution however event locations in this area are poorly constrained due to the inappropriate geometry of permanent seismic networks we collected and analyzed new data from a dense deployment of 10 obs around the wreck site and from a network of 12 land stations at the nw corner of iberia during a 7 months operation period the land network permitted location of 120 events with magnitudes ranging from 1 6 to 4 8 more than 30 of which were not reported by the spanish permanent array confirming the existence of a moderate seismicity in this area five new focal solutions have been obtained for events on land providing additional information about the active faults in the region the obs network ran for 1 month and allowed the location of three earthquakes of magnitude 2 5 near the sinking site four more events have been identified with just a rough determination of their epicenters based on polarization of the p wave arrivals besides these earthquakes the obs data recorded numerous seismic events of different types they include i groups of very short and regularly spaced pulses that can be explained as acoustic calls generated by finback whales ii a large number of short duration seismic events 2 3 s long identified only at individual obs iii local intense monochromatic signals lasting for up to 4 h that can be described as harmonic tremors these last two types of seismic events might be related to hydrothermal activity within the uppermost sediments and deserve additional studies to appropriately establish the seismic hazard of this area 2007 elsevier b v all rights reserved

u th pb rb sr and ar ar mineral and whole rock isotopic systematics in a metamorphosed granitic terrane southeastern california mesozoic structural domes are developed in an older proterozoic crystalline basement of granitic to granodioritic foliate metaplutonic rocks in the halloran hills southeastern california isotopic analyses of whole rocks and mineral separates from these rocks by u th pb rb sr and ar ar techniques yield a complex pattern of discordance that is the result of a fairly simple geologic history individual mineral isotopic systems have variably equilibrated with each other in response to mesozoic regional metamorphism and locally to later heating during mesozoic batholith emplacement discordant u th pb zircon data indicate that the granitic core rocks are 1 710 ma and that one dioritic phase may be slightly older rb sr whole rock model dates scatter about 1 700 ma rb sr amphibole whole rock and u th pb amphibole dates are also proterozoic potassium feldspars retain a 207 pb 206 pb signature of their proterozoic age ar ar amphibole spectra from the flank of the main dome reveal disturbed dates of 1 450 ma to 1 100 ma and the dates become younger toward the structurally deeper core of the dome all remaining isotopic determinations yield mesozoic or younger dates for mineral whole rock systems rb sr whole rock apatite feldspar biotite analyses show nonequilibration of strontium isotopes with resultant mineral pair dates from 4 foliate plutonic rocks ranging from 200 to 50 ma no single metamorphic age is indicated by the rb sr data rb sr whole rock biotite dates are consistently younger than any other determinations and may be reduced by weathering or gain of nonradiogenic strontium from ground water u pb sphene and apatite analyses from rocks that yield 1 710 ma zircon dates are nearly concordant at 140 ma an amphibole from the structurally deepest rocks of the main dome that yield 140 to 150 ma u pb sphene dates has an ar ar plateau date of 144 ma the u pb sphene and ar ar amphibole analyses are believed to be the best age estimate for the end of the highest temperature phase of regional metamorphism th pb sphene and apatite dates and ar ar biotite dates cluster at 90 5 ma as a consequence of regional cooling during late cretaceous time following extensive mesozoic plutonism in the region at 97 to 90 ma we interpret the discordant mineral date patterns to have resulted from metamorphism of 1 700 ma plutonic rocks during the jurassic 140 50 ma and subsequent uplift and cooling to 200 c at about 90 ma on the basis of this study the isotope dating systems ranked in decreasing order of resistance to resetting are u th pb zircon concordia intercept rb sr whole rock rb sr amphibole u th pb amphibole pb pb whole rock ar ar amphibole rb sr sphene u pb sphene and apatite rb sr plagioclase potassium feldspar apatite th pb sphene and apatite ar ar biotite u pb feldspars rb sr biotite

the pinto shear zone a laramide synconvergent extensional shear zone in the mojave desert region of the southwestern united states the pinto shear zone is one of several late cretaceous shear zones within the eastern fringe of the mesozoic magmatic arc of the southwest cordilleran orogen that developed synchronous with continued plate convergence and backarc shortening we demonstrate an extensional origin for the shear zone by describing the shear zone geometry and kinematics hanging wall deformation style progressive changes in deformation temperature and differences in hanging wall and footwall thermal histories deformation is constrained between w74 and 68 ma by 40 ar 39 ar thermochronology of the exhumed footwall including multi diffusion domain modeling of k feldspar we discount the interpretations applied in other areas of the mojave desert region that widespread late cretaceous cooling results from refrigeration due to subduction of a shallowly dipping laramide slab or to erosional denudation and suggest alternatively that post intrusion cooling and exhumation by extensional structures are recorded widespread crustal melting and magmatism followed by extension and cooling in the late cretaceous are most consistent with production of a low viscosity lower crust during anatexis and or delamination of mantle lithosphere at the onset of laramide shallow subduction q 2005 published by elsevier ltd

a new hypothesis for the amount and distribution of dextral displacement along the fish lake valley northern death valley furnace creek fault zone california nevada 1 the fish lake valley northern death valley furnace creek fault zone a 250 km long predominantly right lateral structure in california and nevada is a key element in tectonic reconstructions of the death valley area eastern california shear zone and walker lane and central basin and range province total displacement on the fault zone is contested however with estimates ranging from 30 to 63 km or more here we present a new synthesis of available constraints preextensional thrust faults folds and igneous rocks indicate that offset reaches a maximum of 50 km neogene rocks constrain its partitioning over time most offset is interpreted as 13 10 ma accruing at 3 5 mm yr in the middle of the fault zone and more slowly toward the tips the offset markers imply 68 14 km of translation between the cottonwood mountains and resting spring nopah range 60 14 km since 15 ma through a combination of strike slip and crustal extension this suggests that a previous interpretation of 104 7 km based on the middle miocene eagle mountain formation is an overestimate by 50 our results also help to mitigate a discrepancy in the 12 0 ma strain budget for the eastern california shear zone displacement has previously been estimated at 100 10 km and 67 6 km for the basin and range and mojave portions of the shear zone respectively our new estimate of 74 17 km for the basin and range is within the uncertainty of the mojave estimate

seismoacoustic recordings of a spreading episode on the mohns ridge a period of very active seismicity near 72 7 n 4 e marks an episode of seafloor spreading on the mohns ridge the earthquakes were recorded from november 1995 to january 1996 by onshore seismic stations and by u s navy hydrophone arrays in the north atlantic both the temporal and spatial histories of the activity suggest that volcanism accompanied the tectonic events the hydrophone arrays recorded 2 3 orders of magnitude more events than the onshore seismic arrays with up to 1000 events per day observed during the most intense phase of activity a level of 50 200 events per day was sustained throughout the episode initial locations of the events were obtained from the seismic bulletin further refinement of the epicenters was possible using p s converted to an acoustic phase at the seafloor and t waves in the hydrophone data analysis of arrival time differences between these phases indicates that one main area and two subsidiary areas along the rift were active during the swarm a few events occurred at a more distant location the activity tends to concentrate in one area or another for short periods a few days but at times it is clear that events occur simultaneously at more than one location we have not found evidence of steady migration of activity such as might accompany propagation of a magma filled dike we thus infer that despite the 50 70 km length of ridge involved in the spreading episode rupture and magmatic eruption at the seafloor probably only occurred in a few discrete areas

evidence for the stability of the potential nuclear waste host sphene over geological time from uranium lead ages and uranium series measurements abstract a sphene based glass ceramic material is being investigated as a potential host for canadian nuclear fuel recycle waste the ability of sphene to retain certain radionuclides over geological time is examined using observed properties and age measurements of natural sphenes the long term stability of sphene is determined by comparing u th pb isotopic age data for sphene from the literature with ages determined for zircon and other minerals better internal agreement is found between u th pb sphene ages than for zircon ages indicating the resistance of sphene to daughter radionuclide loss over periods as long as 3000 ma excellent agreement was observed between sphene ages and the estimated age of crystallization of the host rocks or vein infillings except where subsequent metamorphim had reset the sphene age complete lead loss was generally found to accompany high grade metamorphic conditions when temperatures exceeded 500 c stability over shorter periods of geological time was found for vein infilling and mineral separates of sphene using uranium series disequilibrium analysis conditions of secular equilibrium in the decay chain 238 u 234 u 230 th 226 ra were observed for most of the 21 sphenes studied indicating that no radionuclide migration had occurred over periods as long as the last 1 ma exceptions to this were four sphenes that had 234 u deficiencies between 6 and 24 and two sphenes that showed 226 ra 230 rh disequilibrium no correlation was found between the extent of radiation damage suffered by the sphenes and the presence of uranium series disequilibrium the presence of alteration products in three sphenes did correlate however with measured disequilibrium indicating that some 234 u and 226 ra had been lost or gained by these samples in the last 1 ma and 8 ka respectively

the seismic attenuation structure of a fast spreading mid ocean ridge the two dimensional p wave attenuation structure of the axial crust of the east pacific rise was obtained from an inversion of waveform spectra collected during an active source seismic tomography experiment the structure shows that attenuation near the surface is high everywhere but decreases markedly within 1 to 3 kilometers of the rise axis the near axis variation is attributed to the thickening of the surface basalt layer and possibly to in situ changes in porosity related to hydrothermal circulation high attenuation is also observed beneath the rise axis at depths ranging from about 2 kilometers less than 1 kilometer beneath the axial magma lens to the base of the crust the levels of attenuation in this deeper region require at most only a small fraction of partial melt

seismicity at old faithful geyser an isolated source of geothermal noise and possible analogue of volcanic seismicity abstract old faithful geyser in yellowstone national park u s a is a relatively isolated source of seismic noise and exhibits seismic behavior similar to that observed at many volcanoes including bubblequakes that resemble b type earthquakes harmonic tremor before and during eruptions and periods of seismic quiet prior to eruptions although old faithful differs from volcanoes in that the conduit is continuously open that rock fracturing is not a process responsible for seismicity and that the erupting fluid is inviscid h2o rather than viscous magma there are also remarkable similarities in the problems of heat and mass recharge to the system in the eruption dynamics and in the seismicity water rises irregularly into the immediate reservoir of old faithful as recharge occurs a fact that suggests that there are two enlarged storage regions one between 18 and 22 m the base of the immediate reservoir and one between about 10 and 12 m depth transport of heat from hot water or steam entering at the base of the recharging water column into cooler overlying water occurs by migration of steam bubbles upward and their collapse in the cooler water and by episodes of convective overturn an eruption occurs when the temperature of the near surface water exceeds the boiling point if the entire water column is sufficiently close to the boiling curve that the propagation of pressure release waves rarefactions down the column can bring the liquid water onto the boiling curve the process of conversion of the liquid water in the conduit at the onset of an eruption into a two phase liquid vapor mixture takes on the order of 30 s the seismicity is directly related to the sequence of filling and heating during the recharge cycle and to the fluid mechanics of the eruption short 0 2 0 3 s monochromatic high frequency events 20 60 hz resembling unsustained harmonic tremor and in some instances b type volcanic earthquakes occur when exploding or imploding bubbles of steam cause transient vibrations of the fluid column the frequency of the events is determined by the length of the water column and the speed of sound of the fluid in the conduit when these events occur damping is controlled by the characteristic and hydraulic impedances which depend on the above parameters as well as on the recharge rate of the fluid two periods of reduced seismicity of a few tens of seconds to nearly a minute in duration occur during the recharge cycle apparently when the water rises rapidly through the narrow regions of the conduit causing a sudden pressure increase that temporarily suppresses steam bubble formation a period of decreased seismicity also precedes preplay or an eruption this appears to be the time when rising steam bubbles move into a zone of boiling that is acoustically decoupled from the wall of the conduit because of the acoustic impedance mismatch between boiling water c 10 3 g cm 2 s 1 and rock c 3 10 5 g cm 2 s 1 sustained harmonic tremor occurs during the first one to one and a half minutes of an eruption of old faithful but is not detectable in the succeeding minutes of the eruption the eruption tremor is caused by hydraulic transients propagating within a sublayer of unvesiculated water that underlies the erupting two phase liquid vapor mixture the resonant frequencies of the fluid column decrease to about 1 hz when all of the water in the conduit has been converted to a water steam mixture surges are observed in the flow at this frequency but the resonance has not been detected seismically possibly because the two phase erupting fluid is seismically decoupled from the rock on which seismometers are placed if old faithful is an analogue for volcanic seismicity this study shows that because the frequency of tremor depends on the acoustic properties of the fluid and on conduit dimensions both properties must be considered in analysis of tremor in volcanic regions because magma sound speed can vary over nearly two orders of magnitude as it changes from an undersaturated liquid into a saturated two phase mixture tremor frequency might vary by this magnitude and very broad band seismographs may be required if tremor is to be monitored as magma goes from an undersaturated liquid to a vesiculated froth cessation of fluid induced seismicity may indicate that the processes that drive the transients cease but it is also possible that the processes that drive the transients continue but the fluid properties change so that the fluid becomes acoustically decoupled from the rock on which seismometers are placed

metamorphic evolution of exhumed middle to lower crustal rocks in the mojave extensional belt southern california usa the waterman metamorphic complex of the central mojave desert was exposed as a consequence of early miocene detachment dominated extension however it has evidence consistent with a more extensive geological history that involves collision of a crustal fragment s tectonic thickening by overthrusting and two periods of extension the metamorphic complex contains granitoid intrusives and felsic mylonitic gneisses as well as polymetamorphic rocks that include marble calc silicate quartzite mafic granulite pyribolite amphibolite migmatite and biotite schist the latter group of rocks was affected by an initial series of high grade metamorphic events m1 and m2 and a localized lower grade overprint m3 the initial metamorphism m1 can be separated into two stages along its high grade p t path m1a a granulite facies metamorphism at 800 850 c and 7 5 9 kbar and mlb an upper amphibolite facies overprint at 750 800 c and 10 12 kbar m1a developed mineral assemblages and textures consistent with granulite facies conditions at a reduced activity of h2o and is associated with intense ductile deformation d1 and minor local partial melting m1b overprinted the granulite assemblages with a series of hydrous phases under conditions of increasing pressure and h2o activity and is accompanied by little or no deformation m2 developed at lower pressures and temperatures 650 750 c 4 5 5 5 kbar and is distinguished by a second local overprint of hydrous phases that reflects an input of aqueous fluids probably associated with the intrusion of a series of granitic dykes and veins effects of m3 are confined to the mitchel detachment zone an anastomosing early miocene detachment fault and are characterized by local ductile brittle deformation d2 of the pre existing high grade rocks and granitoid intrusives and by the production of mylonites and mylonitic gneisses under greenschist facies conditions 300 350 c 3 5 kbar the initial overprint m1a represents metamorphism devolatilization and minor partial melting of supracrustal rocks under granulite facies conditions as a consequence of tectonic and possibly magmatic thickening the increasing pressure transition of m1a to m1b reflects a period of continued compressional tectonism thrusting and influx of h2o in part locally related to crystallization of partial melts the near isothermal decompression between m1b and m2 probably represents a pre 112 ma extensional episode that may have been the result of a decompressional readjustment of a thickened crust following the initial extensional event the metamorphic complex remained at depths of 10 17 km for at least 90 ma until it was uplifted following miocene extension m3 develops locally in response to this second extensional period resulting from the early miocene detachment faulting

a spherical source model for low frequency volcanic earthquakes a resonant magma chamber is modeled by a spherically symmetric whole space consisting of a small gas filled chamber surrounded by magma which is encased in country rock source boundary conditions are specified on the cavity boundary simulating a possible sudden gas expansion in the magma the simplicity of this model leads to an analytical closed form solution for the fourier transform of radial displacement which predicts a peaked spectrum and an oscillating decaying seismogram for physically reasonable values of the rock and magma elastic properties and dimensions of the model the dominant frequency of the signal is in the range of 1 to 5 hz near the values observed for low frequency volcanic earthquakes and volcanic tremor furthermore the seismograms and spectra bear resemblance to those observed for low frequency earthquakes the fundamental mode of oscillation is a pure radial breathing mode which has markedly different properties from single cavity solutions the fundamental frequency is insensitive to the magma chamber boundary radius when both the inner and outer radii are greater than specified values this may help to explain the apparent similarity of the dominant frequency of volcanic earthquakes over a wide range of physical situations the presence of an inner effective bubble of a certain minimum size is necessary for the existence of the dominant low fundamental frequency spectral peak although highly idealized we believe that this fundamental fluid solid cavity mode may provide an explanation for the observations of tremor and low frequency volcanic earthquakes

la q icp ms apatite u pb geochronology using common pb in plagioclase examples from layered mafic intrusions apatite geochronology is a versatile method for providing medium temperature history constraints of magmatic and metamorphic rocks the la icp ms technique is widely applied to u pb geochronology using various minerals apatite u pb geochronology in contrast to e g zircon is compromised by variable amounts of common pb incorporated into the crystal during growth magmatic apatite often shows a sufficient spread in data to obtain a precise and accurate lower intercept age if this is not the case the initial pb isotopic composition needs to be estimated to obtain accurate and precise age information from apatite two approaches are common one being the estimation of common pb from a pb evolution model and the other being the measurement of a coexisting mineral phase that tends to incorporate pb but not u e g feldspar most recent studies applying la icp ms to the analysis of pb isotopes in feldspar utilize either multicollector or magnetic sector mass spectrometers in this study we first evaluate the application of quadrupole mass spectrometry for apatite u pb geochronology combined with pb isotopic measurements in feldspar and compare the results with modeled initial pb isotopic compositions the resulting age information is accurate and precise despite using plagioclase rather than k feldspar as is normally used to define initial pb isotope compositions we apply this method to apatite bearing gabbroic rocks from layered intrusions bushveld bjerkreim sokndal hasvik and skaergaard ranging in age from ca 2 ga to ca 55 ma and generate metamorphic cooling ages generally consistent with the known geologic history of these intrusions

geochemistry of hydrothermal fluids from axial seamount hydrothermal emissions study vent field juan de fuca ridge subseafloor boiling and subsequent fluid rock interaction hydrothermal fluids collected from the ashes vent field in 1986 1987 and 1988 exhibit a very wide range of chemical composition over a small area 60 m in diameter compositions range from a 300 c gas enriched 285 mmol kg co2 low chlorinity 33 of seawater fluid to a 328 c relatively gas depleted 50 mmol kg co2 high chlorinity 116 of seawater fluid the entire range of measured compositions at ashes is best explained by a single hydrothermal fluid undergoing phase separation while rising through the ocean crust followed by partial segregation of the vapor and brine phases other mechanisms proposed to produce chlorinity variations in hydrothermal fluids precipitation dissolution of a chloride bearing mineral or crustal hydration cannot produce the covariation of chlorinity and gas content observed at ashes there is good agreement of the measured fluid compositions with compositions generated by a simple model of phase separation in which gases are partitioned according to henry s law and all salt remains in the liquid phase significant enrichments in silica lithium and boron in the low chlorinity fluids over levels predicted by the model are attributed to fluid rock interaction in the upflow zone depletions in iron and calcium suggest that these elements have been removed by iron sulfide and anhydrite precipitation at some time in the history of the low chlorinity fluids the distribution of low and high chlorinity venting is consistent with mechanisms of phase segregation based on differential buoyancy or relative permeability the relatively shallow depth of the seafloor 1540 m and the observed chemistry of ashes fluids are consistent with phase separation in the sub critical or near critical region

excitation of a buried magmatic pipe a seismic source model for volcanic tremor recent observations of seismic events at various volcanoes suggest that harmonic tremor results from the sustained occurrence of so called long period or low frequency events accordingly we can view the long period volcanic event as the elementary process of tremor and interpret it as the impulse response of the tremor generating system we present a seismic model in which the source of tremor is the acoustic resonance of a fluid filled volcanic pipe triggered by excess gas pressure the model consists of three elements namely a triggering mechanism a resonator and a radiator for simplicity we assume a hemispherical trigger cylindrial resonator and circular radiator set in a vertical configuration with the trigger capping the top of the pipe and the disk shaped radiator shutting off its bottom considering the simple case of a source buried in a homogeneous half space we then apply the discrete wave number method to obtain a complete representation of the ground motion response at near and intermediate distances the results demonstrate that the displacement attributed to the pipe dominates the near field motion while that due to the disk is representative of the intermediate and far fields the trigger itself has a smaller contribution mainly limited to the field in the proximity of the source the characteristics displayed by the free surface response evolve from a strong impulsive signature in the immediate vicinity of the epicenter to a well developed harmonic wave train dominated by rayleigh waves at larger distances no clear shear arrival can be detected in the synthetic seismograms the displacement spectrum reflects the organ pipe modes of the conduit and the bandwidth associated with the dominant spectral peak of motion is controlled by the combined losses due to viscous attenuation in the fluid and elastic radiation into the solid in the case of the cylindrical magma column considered the radiation loss is proportional to the square of the pipe radius while the loss related to viscous damping is inversely proportional to the same factor indicating that the relative importance of the two loss mechanisms is critically dependent on the geometry of the magma reservoir the relative importance of the pipe and disk elements likewise is a function of the conduit cross section this suggests the possibility of determining the geometry of the source as well as the radiation loss and in situ magma viscosity from a comparison of near and far field observations

coupling of ocean bottom seismometers to sediment results of tests with the u s geological survey ocean bottom seismometer abstract the response of an ocean bottom seismometer obs to a transient pull that excites the natural obs sediment coupling resonance can be modeled as a mass spring dashpot system in which the resonant frequency and damping are functions of instrument mass and bearing radius and of the physical properties of the sediment primarily the shear modulus for the very soft sediments sometimes found on the sea floor this resonance may be within the main frequency band of interest 2 to 15 hz for many common instrument configurations to test the model and to find an anchor that would shift the coupling resonance to a higher frequency and decrease its amplitude we conducted a series of tests which measured the response of the vertical and horizontal components of the u s geological survey obs to transient pulls as a function of anchor configuration and sediment properties the tested anchors included a concrete flowerpot a tripod a plate and a perforated plate sites were on soft organic rich ooze and on firm sand several small shots were also fired at the ooze site in order to compare the response of the plate and flowerpot anchors to seismic signals for a given anchor at a given site the observed response was very repeatable we found that the model predicts the vertical coupling response quite well and that good vertical coupling can be achieved with the plate or perforated plate anchors the response to the horizontal pulls however was similar and resonant for all anchors

morphometric variability within the axial zone of the southern juan de fuca ridge interpretation from sea marc ii sea marc i and deep sea photography the morphometric characteristics of the axial regions of oceanic spreading centers are determined by 1 the type of volcanic flows 2 the relation between primary volcanic relief on a scale of a few meters to tens of meters and degree of sediment cover and 3 the extent of surficial expression and timing of tectonic disruption of the young oceanic crust even within a single continuous linear spreading ridge segment with relatively uniform axial valley dimensions over a distance of 50 or more kilometers such as along the southern juan de fuca ridge the changes in morphometric characteristics along axis within the youngest crust indicate distinct variation in tectonic and volcanic activity over short distances within short time periods an integrated analysis of sea marc i sea marc ii and photographic data for the southernmost continuous segment of the juan de fuca ridge shows that generalizations about tectonic and volcanic processes at spreading ridges must consider both the temporal scale of processes as well as the physical scales of observations if predictive models are to be successful comparison of the morphometric expression within the major hydrothermal vent area and the rest of the southernmost ridge segment suggests that the mapped distribution of hydrothermal vents may reflect the extent of survey effort rather than uniqueness of geologic setting

origin of gneisses in the aureole of the san gabriel anorthosite complex and implications for the proterozoic crustal evolution of southern california granulite facies gneisses along the southwestern margin of the san gabriel anorthosite complex include compositionally banded locally migmatitic felsic gneisses and mafic granulites with rare interlayered augen gneiss and garnet hypersthene spinel aluminous gneiss previous workers accepted a 1 4 ga age for these granulites and a 1 2 ga age for the adjacent anorthosite complex and hence that this proterozoic basement is allochthonous with respect to the southwestern united states part of the north american craton solvus geothermometry in felsic and mafic granulites yields minimum metamorphic temperatures of 900 950 c and new u pb zircon data yield a minimum metamorphic age of 1186 ma coincident with that of the adjacent anorthosite we reinterpret these rocks as a 1190 ma anorthosite complex and its granulite grade thermal aureole geochemical data suggest that the anorthosite complex intruded early proterozoic rocks correlative with the mojave crustal province representing the north american craton exposed to the northeast we conclude that these proterozoic basement rocks represent the southwestern margin of the north american craton and not an exotic terrane accreted in mesozoic or tertiary time

precambrian olistoliths masquerading as sills from death valley california olistolith production and magmatism are processes commonly associated with extensional tectonic settings such as rift basins we present a cautionary exemplar from one such precambrian basin in which we reinterpret metabasite bodies previously documented as sills to be olistoliths we nevertheless demonstrate that on the basis of field observation alone the previous but erroneous sill interpretation is parsimonious indeed it is only by using isotopic age and compositional analysis that the true identities of these metabasite olistoliths are revealed we present new data from metabasites and metasedimentary strata of the kingston peak formation cryogenian and crystal spring formation mesoproterozoic of death valley usa these include field observations u pb apatite ages u pb zircon ages detrital and igneous and whole rock geochemistry these data also provide a new maximum age for the base of the pahrump group and suggest that the crystal spring diabase was more tholeiitic than previously thought similar sill olistolith misinterpretations may have occurred elsewhere potentially producing erroneous age and tectonic setting interpretations of surrounding strata this is particularly relevant in precambrian rocks where fossil age constraints are rare this is illustrated herein using a potential example from the neoproterozoic literature of the lufilian belt africa we caution others against precambrian olistoliths masquerading as sills supplementary material details of a meta igneous boulder from p12 of the silurian hills la icp ms and whole rock geochemistry methods and standards and u pb apatite and zircon isotopic data including standards and selected cathodoluminescence images are available at https doi org 10 6084 m9 figshare c 3990639

seismicity and tremor in a submarine hydrothermal field the northern juan de fuca ridge we have made the first multi year deployments of a small number of ocean bottom seismometers on a mid ocean ridge we located our instruments in and around a vigorous hydrothermal vent field on the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge the deployments have revealed a consistent pattern of activity comprising several types of events most abundant are swarms of extremely small microearthquakes that we suggest are associated with cracking of the oceanic crust we also observe local tectonic earthquakes that occur about four times per day preliminary hypocentral locations place these tectonic events away from the ridge axis and outside the hydrothermal field the seismicity on the endeavour segment is remarkably different from the southern juan de fuca ridge where little if any tectonic activity is occurring we speculate that the endeavour and southern juan de fuca ridge are in two different phases of their long term evolution the latter has only rare activity that is only beginning to focus hydrothermal circulation along faults in contrast the endeavour segment is in an active tectonic phase and the faults have had time to develop robust hydrothermal circulation resulting in large hydrothermal vent deposits

an assessment of soil contamination due to heavy metals around a coal fired thermal power plant in india combustion of coals in thermal power plants is one of the major sources of environmental pollution due to generation of huge amounts of ashes which are disposed off in large ponds in the vicinity of the thermal power plants this problem is of particular significance in india which utilizes coals of very high ash content 55 wt since the thermal power plants and the ash ponds are located in densely populated areas there is potential chance for contamination of soil and groundwater of the surrounding areas from the toxic trace elements in the ash an attempt has been made to study the extent of soil contamination around one of the largest thermal power plants of india located at kolaghat west bengal india chemical analysis of the top soils and the soils collected from the different depth profiles surrounding the ash ponds show that the top soils are enriched in the trace elements mo as cr mn cu ni co pb be v zn which show maximum enrichment 2 5 in the top soils collected from all the soil profiles these elements are also enriched in the pond ash since there are no other sources of industrial effluents it can be said that the enrichment of the trace elements mn co mo cr cu pb zn as ni be v is attributed to their input from ash from the disposal pond the study has been further strengthened by log normal distribution pattern of the elements

uranium lead zircon and titanite ages from the northern portion of the western gneiss region south central norway abstract the geochronologic history of the northern portion of the western gneiss region south central norway has been investigated by u pb analyses of zircon and titanite from various basement units and one supracrustal gneiss a six point four zircon and two titanite discordia line from a migmatite melt pod and its host gneiss astfjord migmatite gneiss defines upper and lower intercept ages of 1659 1 1 8 ma and 393 6 3 6 ma respectively the upper intercept age is interpreted as a time of tonalite emplacement and migmatite formation in the region a seven point three zircon and four titanite discordia line from the ingdal granite gneiss has similar upper and lower intercept ages 1652 9 1 7 ma and 396 1 4 9 ma respectively and the upper intercept age is interpreted as the time of granite crystallization the lower intercept age from both theastfjord migmatite gneiss and the ingdal granite gneiss is interpreted as the time of regional metamorphic resetting and is evidence for caledonian influence in the region titanite from these two gneiss units as well as from other tonalite granite and supracrustal gneisses throughout the western gneiss region displays a remarkably uniform pattern of discordance titanite discordance is variable from 6 to 100 and in general the degree of discordance is proportional to the caledonian metamorphic grade of nearby supracrustal schists episodic diffusional lead loss from titanite during caledonian metamorphism probably caused the discordance pattern but a combined mechanism of mixing and diffusional lead loss cannot be ruled out in any case the seventeen point titanite and zircon discordia line clearly indicates that 1 the bulk of the granitoid terrane in this portion of the western gneiss region was emplaced migmatized and cooled in a short time interval about 1657 ma ago 2 a second short lived thermal event that exceeded the blocking temperature of titanite occurred about 395 ma ago and 3 titanite and zircon in the region were not isotopically disturbed by comparable geologic events in the period from 1657 to 395 ma or at any time after 395 ma

hydrothermal microseismicity at the megaplume site on the southern juan de fuca ridge abstract several thousand microearthquakes were recorded by ocean bottom seismometers during 11 days of deployment on the cleft segment of the southern juan de fuca ridge these microearthquakes primarily occurred in swarms lasting up to 1 hr and are characterized by complex time series with typical single event durations of just over 1 sec the events were too small to be detected by more than one instrument at minimum instrument spacings of about 4 km clear p and s wave arrivals were not observed for most events and the majority of the spectra are peaked at discrete frequencies that are not simply related i e not integer multiples these peaked spectra are quite similar to those observed from geysers and long period events in volcanoes calibration tests performed during the deployment indicate that the event spectral peaks are not explained by instrument resonance or seafloor coupling based on these observations the vigorous hydrothermal activity in the area and thermodynamic considerations we postulate that the majority of the microseismicity observed is generated within the seafloor hydrothermal system by pressure transients and hydraulic fracturing

parameters and a magnitude moment relationship from small earthquakes observed during hydraulic fracturing experiments in crystalline rocks using source parameters estimated from seismic spectra and magnitudes estimated from coda lengths we demonstrate that the log linear relationship between moment and magnitude holds for events with magnitudes as low as 6 using as a data set events induced by hydraulic fracturing experiments at the fenton hill new mexico hot dry rock hdr geothermal site we find that the relationship between magnitude m and seismic moment mo is log mo 17 27 0 77m moreover the linear relationship between seismic moment and source radius r holds for the fenton hill microearthquakes analyses of the fenton hill data yield the following relationship log r 2 28 0 19log mo

response of two phase fluids to fracture configurations within submarine hydrothermal systems submarine hydrothermal systems at mid ocean ridges evolve within a region of brittle deformation overlying a region of ductile deformation the interplay between brittle and ductile modes of deformation and the geometry of fracture systems within the brittle zone can exert a significant influence on fluid flow especially under conditions leading to aqueous two phase separation within the brittle region fractures vary between large conduits directly open to the seafloor and small veins and microcracks with constricted or indirect connections to the seafloor in the ductile region fluids may be trapped under near lithostatic pressure while fluids within throughgoing veins in the brittle region will experience hydrostatic pressure in a narrow transition zone between these two extremes a steep pore fluid pressure gradient must exist in the brittle region itself fluid pressures will vary between lithostatic and hydrostatic as fluid occupies interstices varying from isolated pores through tortuous microcracks to channels directly connected to the main upflow conduits a hydrostatic gradient modified by the decreased density of hot fluid and the effects of the flow itself should be applicable in major conduits open to the seafloor fluctuating pressure conditions in the transition zone may induce phase changes in a fluid remaining at constant depth as a result of the large volume increase that accompanies two phase separation a two phase fluid must either accelerate upward or exert an increased pressure on its surroundings possibly leading to enhanced fracturing the fracture configuration will also affect the behavior of the mixed fluid after phase separation a two phase fluid experiencing rapid turbulent flow in a large open conduit is more likely to remain a well mixed suspension of vapor and liquid whereas a two phase mixture in a constricted branching series of channels moving more slowly in a laminar flow regime is more likely to undergo physical isolation of the phases leading to venting of a vapor phase and retention of a saline brine phase at depth we propose a possible configuration for the fracture pattern within a submarine hydrothermal system consisting of a feeder zone comprised of anastomozing microcracks and veinlets progressively increasing in diameter and decreasing in abundance feeding into a main upflow stockwork zone in which flow directly to the surface takes place in relatively large unconstricted conduits fluid movement within a feeder zone may be modified by capillary flow tortuous channelways disconnected fractures blocking of cracks by mineral deposition and opening of new fractures

microearthquake patterns following the 1998 eruption of axial volcano juan de fuca ridge mechanical relaxation and thermal strain 1 ocean bottom seismic networks deployed following the 1998 eruption of axial seamount reveal an evolving pattern of microearthquake activity associated with subsurface magmatism and thermal strain seismicity rates decay steadily over 15 months of observation february 8 1998 to april 30 1999 consistent with a trend toward thermal and mechanical equilibrium in the shallow crust after the magmatic event immediately after the eruption seismicity rates were high for about 60 days in the southeast corner of the caldera where lava flows from the 1998 eruption were mapped a small burst of seismic activity was observed on the southeast shoulder of the volcano from 100 to 150 days after the eruption these events which are characterized by slip on nearly vertical faults in the shallow crust extend about 6 km from the southeast corner of the caldera and overlie a mid crustal low velocity zone after this episode seismicity rates remain low until the end of the observation period 455 days after the eruption shallow 0 7 km depth events consistent with thermal contraction and volume changes of 2 10 3 m3 in 5 m3 sources are observed in individual clusters beneath hydrothermal vents within the 1998 lava flow at the southeast edge of the caldera microearthquakes observed during the last 70 days of observation are distributed around the central caldera most likely representing small amounts of subsidence on caldera faults during the final stages of equilibration following melt withdrawal associated with the 1998 eruption

tectonic subsidence of the early paleozoic passive continental margin in eastern california and southern nevada quantitative analysis of tectonic subsidence in cambrian and ordovician platform carbonates and associated strata exposed in the spring mountains nevada and the nopah funeral and inyo ranges california indicates that subsidence associated with this segment of the early paleozoic passive continental margin is exponential in form consistent with thermal contraction of the lithosphere following extension as in other parts of the north american cordillera continental separation in the southern great basin appears to have taken place between 590 and 545 ma these results are not sensitive to uncertainties in stratigraphic thickness biostratigraphic age control or paleobathymetry uncertainties in the cambrian time scale lead to predictable variations in the inferred time of onset of thermal subsidence but they have no effect on the inferred stratigraphic position of the rift to post rift transition a younger age for the base of the middle cambrian results in a younger inferred age of onset of thermal subsidence accompanied by greater rates of subsidence during the cambrian whereas a significantly older estimate of the onset of thermal subsidence can be obtained only if the base of the middle cambrian is substantially older than 540 ma a possibility that is inconsistent with available data results of the subsidence analysis are particularly significant because this is one of the few regions along the length of the north american cordillera where they can be compared directly to the geologic evidence for syn rift and post rift deposition basement involved faulting associated with the amargosa basin aulacogen ceased during deposition of the noonday dolomite which is thought to be older than 700 680 ma on the basis of stromatolites of late riphean affinity the overlying johnnie formation contains supposed vendian stromatolites younger than 700 680 ma if it is assumed that our results indicate the timing of the final rift to post rift transition then either the ages inferred from stromatolites are incorrect or the lithosphere was thinned regionally after deposition of the noonday the latter possibility is supported by limited geologic evidence for extension in latest proterozoic and early cambrian time the lack of appreciable physical evidence for crustal extension after deposition of the noonday however may imply that 1 a uniform extension model for lithospheric thinning is inappropriate for this part of the margin or that 2 some or all of the localities studied are continentward of the hinge zone and that the observed subsidence is exaggerated by flexural loading in a deeper basin to the west

shear wave properties of marine sediments derived from cepstral analysis of background noise cepstral analysis of background noise recorded on a horizontal borehole seismometer in the northwest pacific reveals strong cepstral peaks corresponding to shear wave reverberation in the marine sediments shear reverberation intervals in the marine sediments derived from the cepstral analysis are within 10 of results obtained from a detailed analysis of seismic refraction profiling at the site the close correspondence between the cepstral analysis and seismic profile analysis results are indicative that cepstral analysis is a useful tool in measuring and constraining marine sediment properties

new age controls on initiation and timing of foreland belt thrusting in the clark mountains southern california new geochronologic data from the clark mountain area eastern california better define the regional development of the cordilleran magmatic arc and the timing of hinterland and foreland deformation at this latitude the new ages show that sevier belt thrusting started in the clark mountain thrust complex in late jurassic time this is consistent with other studies that suggest a similar age of initiation of the sevier belt in areas to the north the clark mountain thrust complex is located at the intersection of the mesozoic magmatic arc and the east sierran and sevier thrust belts new u pb zircon ages for granitic rocks establish the timing of deformation within the thrust complex the pachalka thrust structurally the highest fault in the complex carries plutonic rocks eastward above cambrian rocks hanging wall and footwall rocks are mylonitic near the thrust hanging wall plutonic rocks previously considered precambrian are dated at 146 62 ma and thus are late jurassic folds kinematically related to thrusting in footwall metasedimentary rocks are overturned eastward and cut by the pachalka pluton dated at 142 7 ma this brackets thrusting and related deformation in structurally high levels of the complex to be latest jurassic the ivanpah and striped mountain plutons in the ivan pah mountains have been dated at 147 7 ma and 141 11 ma respectively these plutons are cut by the keaney mollusk mine and morning star mine thrusts which are in turn cut by the middle to late cretaceous teutonia batholith these data indicate that these thrusts are early to middle cretaceous in age

geology of the northern cleft segment juan de fuca ridge recent lava flows sea floor spreading and the formation of megaplumes geologic mapping and lava sampling were carried out after the discovery of large bursts of hydrothermal fluids megaplumes over the southern juan de fuca ridge in 1986 and 1987 our investigations of the northernmost section of the cleft segment have discovered 1 semicontinuous low temperature venting and one major high temperature vent site along 17 km of the neovolcanic zone and 2 very glassy lightly sedimented sheet flows and pillow mounds superimposed on older terrain over about 24 km along the northern most part the pillow mounds are documented to have erupted between 1981 and 1987 the occurrence of the megaplumes during this same time period strengthens the hypothesis that megaplumes are caused by sea floor extension events although the basalts from the entire length of the neovolcanic zone of the cleft segment appear to have been derived from the same mantle source a systematic northward increase in mg number along the segment within the neovolcanic zone indicates less shallow level differentiation to the north possibly related to the development of new magma chambers during the recent phase of sea floor spreading that has occurred there

tracking fin whale calls offshore the galicia margin north east atlantic ocean data recorded during a temporary deployment of ocean bottom seismometers obss are used in this study to monitor the presence of fin whales around the array in the summer of 2003 ten obss were placed 250 km from the nw coast of iberia in the galicia margin ne atlantic ocean for a period of one month the recorded data set provided a large variety of signals including fin whale vocalizations identified by their specific acoustic signature the use of a dense array of seafloor receivers allowed investigation into the locations and tracks of the signal generating whales using a seismological hypocentral location code individual pulses of different sequences have been chosen to study such tracks problems related to the correct identification of pulses discrimination between direct and multiple arrivals and the presence of more than one individual have been considered prior to location fin calls were concentrated in the last two weeks of the deployment and the locations were spread around the area covered by the array these results illustrate that besides its classical seismological aim deployment of semipermanent seafloor seismic arrays can also provide valuable data for marine mammal behavior studies