extracting time domain green s function estimates from ambient seismic noise 1 it has been demonstrated experimentally and theoretically that an estimate of the green s function between two seismic stations can be obtained from the time derivative of the long time average cross correlation of ambient noise between these two stations this tdgf estimate from just the noise field includes all tensor components of the green s function and these green s function estimates can be used to infer earth structure we have computed cross correlations using 1 to 30 continuous days of ambient noise recorded by over 150 broadband seismic stations located in southern california the data processing yielded thousands of cross correlation pairs for receiver separations from 4 500 km which clearly exhibit coherent broadband propagating dispersive wavetrains across frequency band 0 1 2 hz

lithospheric processes and products in the southern canadian cordillera a lithoprobe perspective analyses of lithoprobe and other data from southwestern canada provide new insights on how this portion of the cordillera formed during plate convergence along the western margin of north america crustal rocks are detached from their mantle lithosphere which must have been consumed during subduction detachment occurred at or near the base of the crust beneath the intermontane and or omineca belts probably along the tips of tectonic wedges while the rocks were still outboard of the relatively cool mechanically rigid north american craton during the late cretaceous and early tertiary rotation of detached rocks caught between the north american craton and the oceanic plates accounts for some apparently conflicting results between paleomagnetic data that indicate large northward translation of rocks in the western cordillera and regional geological features that appear to preclude comparable amounts of translation of rocks in the eastern cordillera during the same time interval transpression assoc

anisotropy of schists contribution of crustal anisotropy to active source seismic experiments and shear wave splitting observations we have made sets of five independent compressional and shear wave velocity measurements which with density allow us to completely characterize the transverse isotropy of samples from five metamorphic belts the haast schist terrane south island new zealand poultney slate chugach phyllite coldfoot schist and pelona schist united states these velocity measurements include compressional wave velocities for propagation parallel perpendicular and at 45 to the symmetry axis shear wave velocity for propagation and particle motion perpendicular to the symmetry axis and shear wave velocity for propagation parallel to the symmetry axis velocity measurements were made up to pressures of 1 gpa 35 km depth where microcracks are closed and anisotropy is due to preferred mineral orientation our samples exhibit compressional wave anisotropy of 9 20 as well as significant shear wave splitting metamorphic terranes that are anisotropic to ultrasonic waves may also be anisotropic at the scale of active and passive seismic experiments our data suggest that a significant thickness 10 20 km of appropriately oriented steeply dipping foliation schist in the crust could contribute as much as 45 of observed shear wave splitting our data set can also be used to model the effects of crustal anisotropy for active source seismic experiments in order to determine if the anisotropy of the terrane is significant and needs to be taken into account during processing and modeling of the data

shear velocity structure radial anisotropy and dynamics of the tibetan crust geophysical and geological data suggest that tibetan middle crust is a partially molten mechanically weak layer but it is debated whether this low viscosity layer is present beneath the entire plateau what its properties are how it deforms and what role it has played in the plateau s evolution broad band seismic surface waves yield resolution in the entire depth range of the tibetan crust and can be used to constrain its shear wave velocity structure indicative of crustal composition temperature and partial melting and radial anisotropy indicative of the patterns of deformation we measured love and rayleigh wave phase velocity curves in broad period ranges up to 7 200 s for a few tens of pairs and groups of stations across tibet combining in each case hundreds of interstation measurements made with cross correlation and waveform inversion methods shear velocity profiles were then determined by extensive series of non linear inversions of the data designed to constrain the depth dependent ranges of isotropic average shear speeds and radial anisotropy shear wave speeds within the tibetan middle crust are anomalously low and also show strong lateral variations across the plateau the lowest mid crustal shear speeds are found in the north and west of the plateau 3 1 3 2 km s 1 within a pronounced low velocity zone in southeastern tibet crustal shear wave speeds increase gradually towards southeast whereas in the north the change across the kunlun fault is relatively sharp the lateral variations of shear speeds within the crust are indicative of those in temperature a mid crustal temperature of 800 c reported previously can account for the low shear velocities across lhasa in the north the temperature is higher and exceeds the solidus resulting in partial melting that we estimate at 3 6 per cent strong radial anisotropy is required by the data in western central tibet 5 per cent but not in northeastern tibet the amplitude of radial anisotropy in the crust does not correlate with isotropic average shear speed and by inference with crustal rock viscosity or with surface elevation instead radial anisotropy is related to the deformation pattern and is the strongest in regions experiencing extension crustal flattening as noted previously the growth of tibet by the addition of indian crustal rocks into its crust from the south is reflected in the higher crustal seismic velocities and thus lower temperatures in the southern compared to northern parts of the plateau more recently added rocks having had less time to undergo radioactive heating within the thickened tibetan crust gravity driven flattening the basic cause of extension and normal faulting in the southern western and central tibet is evidenced by pervasive radial anisotropy in the middle crust beneath the regions undergoing extension the overall eastward flow of the crust is directed by the boundaries and motions of the lithospheric blocks that surround tibet

tectonic significance of potential field anomalies in western canada results from the lithoprobe snorcle transect potential field anomalies within the lithoprobe snorcle slave northern cordillera lithospheric evolution transect area provide geometrical constraints for regional crustal and lithospheric structures as well as for local anomalies when coupled with subsurface geometry visible on nearly 2500 km of deep seismic reflection and refraction profiles areal distribution of gravity and magnetic anomalies permit structures to be projected away from seismic cross sections and forward modelling provides tests of different interpretations of deep crustal and upper mantle density structures in a key result from modelling a paleoproterozoic subduction zone beneath the wopmay orogen probably consists of high density rocks such as eclogite within the upper mantle this result supports the concept of moderate to low angle intra lithospheric sutures on an even larger scale applications of bandpass and directional filters assist in detecting anomalies according to wavelength or azimuthal orientation and thus

lithospheric structure across the craton cordilleran transition of northeastern british columbia the lithospheric structure of the transition from the craton to the cordillera in northeastern british columbia is interpreted from inversion of seismic refraction wide angle reflection data along a 460 km profile and from 3 d 3 dimensional inversion and 2 5 d forward modelling of bouguer gravity data the seismic profile extends westward from the sediment covered edge of cratonic north america across the foreland and omineca morphogeological belts to the eastern boundary of accreted terranes beyond the tintina fault across the ancient cratonic margin the resultant models reveal a westward thickening package of low upper crustal velocities 6 2 km s and less and low densities to almost 20 km depth below the western canada sedimentary basin overlying a west facing ramp of higher velocities and densities in the middle and lower crust these features are inferred to represent passive margin sediments deposited on the ancient rifted margin during the mid to late proterozoic and early paleozoic a we

imaging structures below dipping ti media seismic anisotropy in dipping shales causes imaging and positioning problems for underlying structures we developed an anisotropic depth migration approach for p wave seismic data in transversely isotropic ti media with a tilted axis of symmetry normal to bedding we added anisotropic and dip parameters to the depth imaging velocity model and used prestack depth migrated image gathers in a diagnostic manner to refine the anisotropic velocity model the apparent position of structures below dipping anisotropic overburden changes considerably between isotropic and anisotropic migrations the ray tracing algorithm used in a 2 d prestack kirchhoff depth migration was modified to calculate traveltimes in the presence of ti media with a tilted symmetry axis the resulting anisotropic depth migration algorithm was applied to physical model seismic data and field seismic data from the canadian rocky mountain thrust and fold belt the anisotropic depth migrations offer significant improvements in positioning and reflector continuity over those obtained using isotropic algorithms

anisotropic shear wave velocity structure of the earth s mantle a global model 1 we combine a new large data set of surface wave phase anomalies long period waveforms and body wave travel times to construct a three dimensional model of the anisotropic shear wave velocity in the earth s mantle our modeling approach is improved and more comprehensive compared to our earlier studies and involves the development and implementation of a new spherically symmetric reference model simultaneous inversion for velocity and anisotropy as well as discontinuity topographies and implementation of nonlinear crustal corrections for waveforms a comparison of our new three dimensional model s362ani with two other models derived from comparable data sets but using different techniques reveals persistent features 1 strong 200 km thick high velocity anomalies beneath cratons likely representing the continental lithosphere underlain by weaker fast anomalies extending below 250 km which may represent continental roots 2 weak velocity heterogeneity between 250 and 400 km depths 3 fast anomalies extending horizontally up to 2000 3000 km in the mantle transition zone beneath subduction zones 4 lack of strong long wavelength heterogeneity below 650 km suggesting inhibiting character of the upper mantle lower mantle boundary and 5 slow velocity superplumes beneath the pacific and africa the shear wave radial anisotropy is strongest at 120 km depth in particular beneath the central pacific lateral anisotropic variations appreciably improve the fit to data that are predominantly sensitive to the uppermost and lowermost mantle but not to the waveforms that control the transition zone and midmantle depths tradeoffs between lateral variations in velocity and anisotropy are negligible in the uppermost mantle but noticeable at the bottom of the mantle

a relic proterozoic subduction zone in western canada new evidence from seismic reflection and receiver function data lithoprobe seismic reflection profiles in the western canada sedimentary basin reveal a prominent band of dipping reflections that appear to extend into the upper mantle the nne strike of these reflections determined from intersecting profiles is parallel to the trend of the ca 1 8 ga rimbey domain an overlying magmatic belt receiver function analysis of teleseismic data recorded at a nearby site shows evidence for a low velocity zone lvz beneath the rimbey domain between 13 and 16 km depth the unusually low s wave velocity of the lvz 2 9 0 2 km s suggests a composition similar to serpentinized peridotites that occur in ophiolites taken together our data support a model of proterozoic subduction beneath the hearne province we interpret the dipping reflections observed on the seismic profiles as a shear zone that developed during subduction of a se dipping slab and the lvz as a fragment of oceanic lithosphere that was obducted to the overriding plate

radial anisotropy in the crust of se tibet and sw china from ambient noise interferometry 1 we use rayleigh and love wave green s functions estimated from ambient seismic noise to study crustal structure and radial anisotropy in the tectonically complex and seismically active region west of the sichuan basin and around the eastern himalaya syntaxis in agreement with previous studies low velocity zones are ubiquitous in the mid lower crust with substantial variations both laterally and vertically discrepancies between 3 ds hear velocity from either rayleigh vsv o r love vsh waves are examined both in view of non uniqueness of tomographic solutions and radial anisotropy low shear wave speed and radial anisotropy with vsh vsv are most prominent in mid lower crust in area northwest to the lijiang muli fault and around the red river and xiaojiang faults this anisotropy could be caused by sub horizontal mica fabric and its association with low velocity zones suggests mica alignment due to flow in deep crustal zones of relatively low mechanical strength citation huang h h yao andr d vanderhilst 2010 radialanisotropyinthecrust of se tibet and sw china from ambient noise interferometry geophys res lett 37 l21310 doi 10 1029 2010gl044981

crustal imprints of precambrian orogenesis in western laurentia crustal low velocity zones lvzs have been reported in active orogens such as the himalayas and the andes but rarely in stable cratonic regions in this study we provide compelling evidence for a significant midcrustal lvz beneath eastern central alberta an integral part of the precambrian canadian shield covered by thick phanerozoic sedimentary deposits this 200 km wide over 10 km thick midcrustal lvz is well resolved by shear velocity inversions using p to s receiver functions from more than 4600 earthquakes it is generally overlain by a high velocity upper crust in the depth range of 8 15 km especially in western central alberta which coincides with the previously documented winagami reflection sequence we interpret the lvz to be of granitic composition potentially in connection with the crystallization of partially molten crust during the paleoproterozoic eon in addition to the precambrian tectonic history of western laurentia which featured plate convergence conducive to crustal melting our crustal model is further supported by 1 a moderate spatial correlation between the lvz and heat flow and 2 shear velocities consistent with that of granite the well preserved winagami reflection sequence and the lvz are potential evidence of distinct episodes of magmatism and crust modification in the precambrian basement of the western canada sedimentary basin the existence of a broad crustal lvz suggests extensive subduction orogenesis and crustal melting during the precambrian assembly of the north american craton

crustal vs structure in northwestern canada imaging the cordillera craton transition with ambient noise tomography 1 crustal seismic velocity structure in northwest canada is imaged using group velocity measurements derived from ambient noise cross correlations the focus area surrounds the canadian northwest experiment canoe array a 16 month deployment of 59 broadband seismic stations the canoe array extended from the northern cordillera on the west into the archean slave province to the east crossing crustal terranes that span 4 gyr of earth history forty broadband stations from the canadian national seismograph network and the polaris network are also included the green s function for each pair of stations is estimated by cross correlating 24 h long time series of ambient noise for each day in the time period july 2004 to june 2005 fundamental mode rayleigh waves are observed on cross correlated vertical component records and love waves on the transverse components the group velocity measurements are inverted for 3 d shear wave velocity within the crust local sensitivity kernels are used to account for the effects of a laterally variable sedimentary layer at shallow depths and receiver function p s differential times at the canoe stations constrain total crustal thickness known sedimentary basins dominate lateral variations in wave speed in the shallow crust in the middle crust the model contains a strong low velocity region that correlates spatially with the location of proterozoic metasedimentary rocks that have been inferred from active source reflection profiles to occupy much of the crust beneath the cordilleran terranes velocity variations in the lower crust which are weakly resolved due to the limited period range of our data set 5 20 s suggest a west to east transition from lower to higher wave speeds that aligns with the cordilleran deformation front in parts of the study area the results presented here are consistent with but do not confirm the notion of proterozoic strata throughout much of the cordilleran crust these metasedimentary rocks if present must have experienced some deformation and metamorphism in order to also be consistent with upper mantle seismic models that contain a sharp transition from low to high velocity across the deformation front

structure and tectonic development of the southern rocky mountain trench the rocky mountain trench is one of the youngest most prominent and most enigmatic structures of the canadian cordillera approximately 650 km of seismic reflection data providing regional three dimensional coverage over an area of 10 000 km include six crossings of the rocky mountain trench between 49 n and 50 15 n prominent reflections from mid proterozoic moyie sills outline thrust and fold structures of a late jurassic to early cretaceous fault system that was cut by the rocky mountain trench fault in the tertiary the near basement reflections outline a 10 km high west facing basement ramp the hinge line of which spatially coincides with the rocky mountain trench in this area this ramp is part of a mid proterozoic margin upon which the belt purcell supergroup was deposited and is preserved beneath the trench during mesozoic contraction the basal detachment of the foreland belt closely followed the craton cover contact across the basement ramp thrusting ceased and extension was initiated when a culmination of thick basinal strata was juxtaposed with the basement ramp in the eocene miocene the basement ramp and the culmination above it focused stress reactivating the basal detachment and causing extensional faulting in the southern rocky mountain trench the rocky mountain trench fault may be linked via the basal detachment to the flathead fault on the east and the eocene extensional faults that flank the omineca belt on the west

origin of crustal anisotropy shear wave splitting studies in japan shear wave splitting manifested as leading shear wave polarization that is parallel alignment of leading shear wave particle motions from a variety of sources has been observed at a number of seismograph stations in japan detected on shear wave seismograms from crustal earthquakes over a wide range of source zones and source receiver azimuths the shear wave splitting can be attributed to crustal anisotropy this paper discusses the relation between leading shear wave polarization directions and tectonic features of japan to explain the observed shear wave splitting the author proposes that at least three phenomena should be taken into account stress induced microcracks primarily aligned in vertical or subvertical planes cracks or fractures in the vicinity of active faults having their orientation parallel to the fault planes and intrinsic rock anisotropy resulting from preferred orientation of minerals travel time differences between leading and slower split shear waves from crustal and upper mantle earthquakes analyzed for about one third of the stations suggest that the crustal anisotropy which causes the observed shear wave splitting may be limited to the upper 15 25 km this implies that the density of nonhorizontally aligned cracks or fractures below 15 25 km and into the upper mantle is muchmore smaller than that in the crust above 15 25 km less

a uniform database of teleseismic shear wave splitting measurements for the western and central united states we present a shear wave splitting sws database for the western and central united states as part of a lasting effort to build a uniform sws database for the entire north america the sws measurements were obtained by minimizing the energy on the transverse component of the pks skks and sks phases each of the individual measurements was visually checked to ensure quality this version of the database contains 16 105 pairs of splitting parameters the data used to generate the parameters were recorded by 1774 digital broadband seismic stations over the period of 1989 2012 and represented all the available data from both permanent and portable seismic networks archived at the incorporated research institutions for seismology data management center in the area of 26 00 n to 50 00 n and 125 00 w to 90 00 w about 10 000 pairs of the measurements were from the 1092 usarray transportable array stations the results show that approximately 2 3 of the fast orientations are within 30 from the absolute plate motion apm direction of the north american plate and most of the largest departures with the apm are located along the eastern boundary of the western us orogenic zone and in the central great basins the splitting times observed in the western us are larger than and those in the central us are comparable with the global average of 1 0 s the uniform database has an unprecedented spatial coverage and can be used for various investigations of the structure and dynamics of the earth

geochronology and tectonic implications of magmatism and metamorphism southern kootenay arc and neighbouring regions southeastern british columbia part ii mid cretaceous to eocene a north south trending belt of amphibolite facies regional metamorphism parallels the purcell trench transects the kootenay arc and is in part fault bounded towards the axis of this belt progressively higher pressure metamorphic mineral assemblages are exposed in the contact aureoles of post kinematic mid cretaceous 100 ma plutons and in metapelites contours of k ar biotite dates for plutonic rocks 55 95 ma are regular are broadly conformable with metamorphic isograds appear to cross internal intrusive contacts of post kinematic plutons and young towards the highest pressure and temperature regional metamorphic zones within the sillimanite zone most micas yield k ar dates between 40 and 55 ma rb sr muscovite dates for deformed and undeformed pegmatites and for muscovite bearing monzogranite and granodiorite fall between 53 and 84 ma u pb zircon dates for the kaniksu batholith and nearby gneiss of uncertain origin yield a lower concordia intercept of 94 ma micas from mid jurassic and mid

potential field signatures of buried precambrian basement in the western canada sedimentary basin an internally consistent levelled compilation of magnetic data is derived for alberta and northeastern british columbia with bouguer gravity data this compilation is used to refine the definition of precambrian basement domains within the western canada sedimentary basin magnetic data are draped at a constant distance above the mapped basement surface to reduce the effects of varying magnetic source depths automated interpretation methods that effectively map outlines of magnetic sources are used to characterize the internal structure of the domains and to aid in their delineation the basement domain map thus derived differs from previous interpretations in the extension of domains further to the southwest due mainly to the availability of new public domain magnetic data and the more precise definition of domain boundaries based on the magnetic source location maps the nahanni hottah chinchaga thorsby vulcan and kiskatinaw domains are weakly magnetic and characterized by magnetic sources tha

a comparison of the receiver structure beneath stations of the canadian national seismograph network three component broadband data from the recently deployed canadian national seismograph network provide a new opportunity to examine the structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath the canadian landmass receiver function analysis is an ideal method to use with this data set as it can provide constraints on the s velocity structure beneath each station of this seismograph network this analysis method is particularly useful in that it provides site specific information i e within 5 15 km of the station low velocity layers can be identified and it is possible to examine structure to upper mantle depths in this study receiver functions were computed for each of the 19 stations that made up the seismograph network in june 1994 five stations sampling a variety of tectonic environments including the appalachian orogen the canadian shield the western canadian sedimentary basin and the cascadia subduction zone were chosen for detailed modelling the results presented here are the first estimates of the s velocity structure beneath these five stations for those stations where comparisons can be made with seismic reflection and refraction results there is excellent agreement in eastern canada simple receiver functions and clear moho ps conversions at most stations indicate a relatively transparent crust and a moho depth of 40 45 km in northwestern canada moho ps phases indicate a crustal thickness of 33 38 km beneath inuvik northwest territories the moho is interpreted as two velocity steps separated in depth by 5 km and an upper mantle low velocity zone is near 47 km depth in western canada the data indicate a mid crustal low velocity zone beneath edmonton the moho of the subducting juan de fuca plate is interpreted at 52 krn depth beneath southern vancouver island several stations exhibiting complex receiver functions warrant further study they include stations at scheffewille quebec in the canadian shield deer lake newfoundland on the boundary of the grenville province and the appalachian orogen and yellowknife northwest territories at the intersection of the churchill and slave provinces and the western plains

anisotropic models of the upper mantle long period rayleigh wave and love wave dispersion data particularly for oceanic areas have not been simultaneously satisfied by an isotropic structure in this paper available phase and group velocity data are inverted by a procedure which includes the effects of transverse anisotropy anelastic dispersion sphericity and gravity we assume that the surface wave data represents an azimuthal average of actual velocities thus we can treat the mantle as transversely isotropic the resulting models for average earth average ocean and oceanic regions divided according to the age of the ocean floor are quite different from previous results which ignore the above effects the models show a low velocity zone with age dependent anisotropy and velocities higher than derived in previous surface wave studies the correspondence between the anisotropy variation with age and a physical model based on flow aligned olivine is suggestive for most of the earth sh sv in the vicinity of the low velocity zone neat the east pacific rise however sv sh at depth consistent with ascending flow anisotropy is as important as temperature in causing radial and lateral variations in velocity the models have a high velocity nearly isotropic layer at the top of the mantle that thickens with age this layer defines the lid or seismic lithosphere in the pacific the lid thickens with age to a maximum thickness of 50 km this thickness is comparable to the thickness of the elastic lithosphere the lid thickness is thinner than derived using isotropic or pseudo isotropic procedures a new model for average earth is obtained which includes a thin lid this model extends the fit of a prem type model to shorter period surface waves

basement heat flow in the western canada sedimentary basin abstract the effective thermal conductivity of the entire sedimentary succession is calculated at 487 locations in the western canada sedimentary basin based on net rock analyses and thermal conductivity values corrected for temperature and porosity effects an easterly trend of increasing values is caused by shallower burial depth and by a reduced proportion of low conductivity shales geothermal gradients calculated previously and corrected for pleistocene glaciations are used in estimating the basement heat flow after subtracting the heat generated by radioactive decay in the sedimentary strata the distribution of basement heat flow with values between 30 and 80 mw m 2 is linked with the complex structure of the basement which is comprised of archean blocks accreted terranes orogenic belts and magmatic arcs heat flow heat generation relations in alberta show that the reduced heat flow and the characteristic length scale for the uppercrust thermal layer are of the order of 35 mw m 2 and 6 km respectively

broadband ambient noise surface wave tomography across the united states 1 this study presents surface wave dispersion maps across the contiguous united states determined using seismic ambient noise two years of ambient noise data are used from march 2003 through february 2005 observed at 203 broadband seismic stations in the us southern canada and northern mexico cross correlations are computed between all station pairs to produce empirical green functions at most azimuths across the us coherent rayleigh wave signals exist in the empirical green functions implying that ambient noise in the frequency band of this study 5 100 s period is sufficiently isotropically distributed in azimuth to yield largely unbiased dispersion measurements rayleigh and love wave group and phase velocity curves are measured together with associated uncertainties determined from the temporal variability of the measurements a sufficient number of measurements 2000 is obtained between 8 and 25 s period for love waves and 8 and 70 s period for rayleigh waves to produce tomographic dispersion maps both phase and group velocity maps are presented in these period bands resolution is estimated to be better than 100 km across much of the us from 8 40 s period for rayleigh waves and 8 20 s period for love waves which is unprecedented in a study at this spatial scale at longer and shorter periods resolution degrades as the number of coherent signals diminishes the dispersion maps agree well with each other and with known geological and tectonic features and in addition provide new information about structures in the crust and uppermost mantle beneath much of the us

deep structure and seismic anisotropy beneath the east pacific rise seismic velocities in the upper mantle beneath mid ocean ridges are known to exhibit anisotropy especially at depths shallower than 200 km in this study we present evidence for deeper anisotropy beneath fast spreading ridges based on simultaneous inversion of body wave travel times waveforms and surface wave phase velocities the dverticalt bsv shear wave speed is systematically faster by more than 2 than the dhorizontalt bsh one at depths of 200 300 km beneath the east pacific rise a result that is consistent with vertical alignment of the fast crystallographic axis of olivine this anomaly is especially coherent beneath the northern east pacific rise where the observations also support the presence of a modest mantle reflector near 260 km depth the anisotropy may be associated with deep vertical flow or finite strain and the presence of this reflector could signal a rheological transition near the bottom of the asthenosphere reflecting changes in flow direction development of partial melt or the persistence of a deep pre existing strain regime d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

imaging the indian subcontinent beneath the himalaya new seismic images reveal the geometry of the indian plate as it passes beneath the himalayan plateau several important subsurface features of vanished india are revealed including a shear zone above the base of the indian crust beneath the himalaya and conversion of the deep indian crust into denser rock the rocks of the indian subcontinent are last seen south of the ganges before they plunge beneath the himalaya and the tibetan plateau they are next glimpsed in seismic reflection profiles deep beneath southern tibet1 yet the surface seen there has been modified by processes within the himalaya that have consumed parts of the upper indian crust and converted them into himalayan rocks2 3 the geometry of the partly dismantled indian plate as it passes through the himalayan process zone has hitherto eluded imaging here we report seismic images both of the decollement at the base of the himalaya and of the moho the boundary between crust and mantle at the base of the indian crust a significant finding is that strong seismic anisotropy develops above the decollement in response to shear processes that are taken up as slip in great earthquakes at shallower depths north of the himalaya the lower indian crust is characterized by a high velocity region consistent with the formation of eclogite a high density material whose presence affects the dynamics of the tibetan plateau

seismic anisotropy of shales the seismic properties and preferred clay mineral orientation of a suite of shales are investigated using laboratory velocity measurements as a function of confining pressure x ray diffraction techniques and electron microprobe backscatter bse imaging the velocity measurements indicate that these shales are transversely isotropic with the main symmetry axis perpendicular to bedding anisotropy at elevated pressures caused mainly by preferred orientation of clays illite parallel to bedding ranges from 20 vp and 19 vs for a sample of new albany shale to 30 vp and 35 vs for a sample of chattanooga shale the degree of clay mineral alignment in the shales is constrained by orientation indices produced using simple x ray diffraction techniques a strong positive correlation is found between the degree of preferred orientation as expressed in the orientation indices and seismic anisotropy bse images of the shale fabrics confirm in a qualitative manner the results of the x ray study to investigate wave propagation in the shales elastic constants of each sample are calculated and used to produce phase and group wave velocity surfaces which describe variation in velocity as a function of angle to the bedding normal the calculated velocity surfaces constrained by independent velocity measurements display a lack of shear wave splitting at near normal incidence in even the most anisotropic shales for the highly anisotropic chattanooga shales group velocity surfaces differ significantly from corresponding phase velocity surfaces

crustal structure beneath the western canada sedimentary basin constraints from gravity and magnetic modelling regional gravity and magnetic anomalies that originate from crystalline basement rocks extend over many parts of the western canada sedimentary basin although these potential field anomalies provide a basis for tectonic subdivisions of the basement crust most previous interpretations of these features have been largely qualitative in nature this study focuses on numerical simulation and quantitative interpretation of five regional potential field anomalies in alberta canada for which independent constraints on crustal structure are available from lithoprobe seismic and electromagnetic studies the kimiwan high 55 n 116 w is a roughly 250 km long linear magnetic high seismic profiles across this anomaly provide evidence for a crustal scale extensional fault system that offsets the winagami reflection sequence a series of mid crustal sills we find that the magnetic anomaly can be modelled as either a 15 40 km wide zone of moderate positive susceptibility 4 5 10 3 si units in the hanging wall

seismic evidence for widespread western us deep crustal deformation caused by extension morgan moschetti and colleagues use ambient noise tomography data from the western united states to show that strong radial seismic anisotropy exists in the deep crust confined mainly to the geological provinces that have undergone significant extension during the cenozoic era since about 65 million years ago the coincidence of crustal radial anisotropy with these extensional provinces supports the hypothesis that the deep crust within these regions has undergone widespread and relatively uniform strain in response to crustal thinning and extension here a method of seismic wave imaging known as ambient noise tomography is used to generate high resolution images of seismic wave speeds in the crust and uppermost mantle the observations reveal strong and uniform anisotropy where waves travel through rock at different speeds depending on direction in the deep crust in areas of the western united states that have undergone significant extension during the past 65 million years laboratory experiments have established that many of the materials comprising the earth are strongly anisotropic in terms of seismic wave speeds1 observations of azimuthal2 3 and radial4 5 anisotropy in the upper mantle are attributed to the lattice preferred orientation of olivine caused by the shear strains associated with deformation and provide some of the most direct evidence for deformation and flow within the earth s interior although observations of crustal radial anisotropy would improve our understanding of crustal deformation and flow patterns resulting from tectonic processes large scale observations have been limited to regions of particularly thick crust6 here we show that observations from ambient noise tomography in the western united states reveal strong deep middle to lower crustal radial anisotropy that is confined mainly to the geological provinces that have undergone significant extension during the cenozoic era since 65 myr ago 7 8 the coincidence of crustal radial anisotropy with the extensional provinces of the western united states suggests that the radial anisotropy results from the lattice preferred orientation of anisotropic crustal minerals caused by extensional deformation these observations also provide support for the hypothesis that the deep crust within these regions has undergone widespread and relatively uniform strain in response to crustal thinning and extension9 10 11

lithospheric structure in the southern canadian cordillera from a network of seismic refraction lines lithospheric velocity structure and its relationship to regional tectonics and development of the southern canadian cordillera are derived from a synthesis of interpretations from nine in line seismic refraction wide angle reflection profiles and broadside data recorded during the lithoprobe southern cordillera refraction experiment score and other refraction experiments across southern british columbia and one profile in northwestern washington consistency of the score two dimensional models at their intersection positions is achieved through application of a simultaneous inversion of all relevant traveltime data the cross sectional and map presentations demonstrate the strong degree of three dimensional heterogeneity within the crust and upper mantle a first order characteristic is the continuous increase in crustal velocities westward from the foreland belt to the insular belt the variations do not correlate with the morphogeological belts they do correspond with large scale geological and or

tectonic setting of the taltson magmatic zone at 1 92 0 ga a granitoid based perspective the paleoproterozoic taltson magmatic zone is one of the key tectonic features of western laurentia the existing tectonic model for the belt envisions its formation by subduction of oceanic crust beneath a continental margin followed by direct collision between formerly separate crustal blocks we tested this model by comparing the large geochemical and isotopic database available for taltson magmatic zone granitoids with similar databases for phanerozoic granitoid suites from different tectonic environments the comparison reveals that the early granitoid suite of the taltson magmatic zone which had been ascribed to the subduction phase of orogenesis lacks the mantle signature apparent in granitoids of phanerozoic continental margin arc settings instead both early and late suites appear to have an intracrustal origin similar to mesozoic and cenozoic granitoids of the cordilleran interior of western north america which formed in the distant hinterland of a convergent plate margin in light of thes

modeling of highly anisotropic crust and application to the altiplano puna volcanic complex of the central andes 1 the altiplano puna volcanic complex apvc is located in the central andes and covers an area over 50 000 km2 the style of volcanism is predominately caldera forming ignimbrite eruptions active between 10 and 1 ma chmielowski et al 1999 used teleseismic events recorded from seven portable broadband seismic stations deployed in the apvc to identify a 1 km thick very low velocity zone at a depth of 19 km based on the correlation with surface volcanics the extremely low shear velocities of 1 km s or less and the depth of the layer the low velocity zone was interpreted to be a magma body using local events recorded during the same seismic deployment we have improved the crustal model for the apvc and detected seismic anisotropy in the crust above the low velocity zone using a hexagonal symmetry anisotropy code we computed synthetic receiver functions for many models of layered anisotropic media and found two different models consistent with the data in both models approximately 20 30 anisotropy is present in a 3 km thick surface low velocity layer and 15 20 anisotropy is present in the remaining crust above the buried low velocity zone the first model has the 1 km thick low velocity zone at 17 km while the alternate model has the low velocity zone at 14 km depth overlain by a 4 km thick transition zone of intermediate velocities this anisotropy may be due to the fracture system by which magma migrates to the surface from the midcrustal sill like magma body

integrated teleseismic studies of the southern alberta upper mantle this paper presents results from a teleseismic experiment conducted across the hearne province in south central alberta data from an array of nine portable broad band seismographs deployed along a 500 km nw se array have been supplemented with recordings from two canadian national seismograph network stations p wave delay times from 293 earthquakes have been inverted for upper mantle velocity structure below the array the recovered model reveals high velocities beneath much of the southern hearne province to depths of 200 250 km which are interpreted as deep seated lithospheric structure contrary to recent tectonic models these results suggest that the hearne lithosphere has remained intact in particular it appears unlikely that evidence for extensive lower crustal melting derives from lithospheric delamination however the results admit the possibility that high mantle conductivity as revealed in magnetotelluric studies originates through small volumes of connected hydrous minerals or other c

crustal structure and early tertiary extensional tectonics of the omineca belt at 51 n latitude southern canadian cordillera a crustal cross section through the omineca belt at the latitude of the trans canada highway has been drawn to satisfy available surface geological information and lithoprobe seismic data from this part of the cordilleran hinterland palinspastic restoration of tertiary normal sense shear zones leads to the conclusion that the omineca belt at latitude 51 n was extended in the eocene by approximately 45 km 20 25 of the width of the belt it is shown that the okanagan eagle river fault which defines the western margin of the shuswap metamorphic core complex is likely to have accommodated approximately 30 km of displacement restoration of this fault and of 15 km displacement on the columbia river fault eastern margin of the shuswap complex juxtaposes upper crustal rocks with similar stratigraphic structural and metamorphic characteristics and indicates that the crust was over 50 km thick prior to eocene extension comparison of the crustal geometry in the present and restored sections suggests that

development of shape and lattice preferred orientations application to the seismic anisotropy of the lower crust abstract we review the physical basis of the development of fabrics in plastic and viscous flow and illustrate the typical fabrics formed by these processes in the main rock forming silicates of the lower crust feldspar quartz pyroxene and amphibole the orientation process in plastic deformation where a single slip is dominant is recalled and the role of the constraint of neighbouring grains is emphasized the fabric development of anisometric crystals in viscous flow is discussed as a function of the main controlling parameters shear strain aspect ratio and interference between crystals the same sense of fabric asymmetry is introduced by plastic and viscous flow between the flow plane and the shape preferred orientation and hence coherent kinematic analysis can be undertaken in both modes of flow in order to assess the role of such fabrics in the seismic laminations of the lower continental crust we have calculated the seismic p wave properties of typical fabrics for hypothetical monomineralic and polymineralic rocks the calculations show that the strongest anisotropies develop in monomineralic rock with values between 5 and 16 compared with 5 and 8 for typical rock compositions the strongest anisotropies for layered monomineralic rocks generated by fabrics is only 6 compared to the 14 suggested by model studies of the observed seismic laminations we suggest that other effects such as compositional layering and or constructive interference of seismic waves are responsible for augmenting the apparent anisotropy

mediterranean outflow strengthening during northern hemisphere coolings a salt source for the glacial atlantic abstract high resolution grain size and magnetic susceptibility records from the eastern gulf of cadiz site md99 2339 1170 m water depth reveal contourites formed by the mediterranean outflow mow during the last 47 kyr bp oscillations in the mow s intensity occurred in phase with greenland temperature variations with a stronger outflow during northern hemisphere coolings such as dansgaard oeschger stadials heinrich events and the younger dryas benthic 13c data implies the western mediterranean deep water as one of the main sources feeding the outflow current while differential changes in the properties of the mediterranean source and entrained north atlantic central water largely control the mow s strength detailed studies for heinrich events 1 4 and 5 show that the flow strength peaked only when subtropical surface waters prevailed in the eastern gulf of cadiz while incursions of icebergs and subpolar surface water were not favorable for the mow s intensification as the mow was strong when the atlantic s thermohaline circulation thc was weakened the heat and salt injected by the mow into the intermediate north atlantic waters might have preconditioned the thc to switch from the stadial to the interstadial mode

evolutionary history of the mesosiderite asteroid a chronologic and petrologic synthesis abstract recent petrologic chemical and isotopic analyses of mesosiderite clasts and whole rocks allow reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the mesosiderite parent body mpb chronologic measurements indicate that initial melting of the mpb occurred shortly after accretion 4 56 ga ago at about the same time that the eucrites and angrites formed significant crustal remelting 4 47 ga ago probably associated with metal silicate mixing is responsible for forming abundant gabbroic clasts with extreme positive eu anomalies localized impact melting 4 5 3 9 ga ago produced quench textured clasts and matrices and may be responsible for causing mesosiderite metamorphism as well as the extensive melting of type 4 mesosiderites collisional disruption and gravitational reassembly 3 9 ga ago is indicated by thorough ar degassing at this time metallographic cooling rates of 1 c ma were likely initiated by this event the history of higher temperature events measured by thermoluminescence was annealed out impact excavation and ejection of deeply buried breccias occurred 3 9 ga ago the 10 160 ma cosmic ray exposure ages of mesosiderites represent the epoch when individual mesosiderites were excavated from the mpb or from a 10 m size fragment it is unlikely that mesosiderites and hed howardite eucrite diogenite samples come from the same parent body there is no evidence for metal silicate mixing with attendant redox effects or major crustal remelting on the hed body bulk howardites have flat chondrite normalized rare earth element ree patterns whereas many bulk mesosiderites have ree patterns with positive eu anomalies and relative enrichments in light ree the nature of the heating mechanism which caused the initial differentiation of mesosiderites and howardites is problematic

crustal radial anisotropy across eastern tibet and the western yangtze craton 1 phase velocities across eastern tibet and surrounding regions are mapped using rayleigh 8 65 s and love 8 44 s wave ambient noise tomography based on data from more than 400 program for array seismic studies of the continental lithosphere and chinese earthquake array stations a bayesian monte carlo inversion method is applied to generate 3 d distributions of vsh and vsv in the crust and uppermost mantle from which radial anisotropy and isotropic vs are estimated each distribution is summarized with a mean and standard deviation but is also used to identify highly probable structural attributes which include 1 positive midcrustal radial anisotropy vsh vsv across eastern tibet spatial average 4 8 1 4 that terminates abruptly near the border of the high plateau 2 weaker 1 0 1 4 negative radial anisotropy vsh vsv in the shallow crust mostly in the songpan ganzi terrane 3 negative midcrustal anisotropy 2 8 0 9 in the longmenshan region 4 positive midcrustal radial anisotropy 5 4 1 4 beneath the sichuan basin and 5 low vs in the middle crust 3 427 0 050 km s of eastern tibet midcrustal vs 3 4 km s perhaps consistent with partial melt is highly probable only for three distinct regions the northern songpan ganzi the northern chuandian and part of the qiangtang terranes midcrustal anisotropy provides evidence for sheet silicates micas aligned by deformation with a shallowly dipping foliation plane beneath tibet and the sichuan basin and a steeply dipping or subvertical foliation plane in the longmenshan region near vertical cracks or faults are believed to cause the negative anisotropy in the shallow crust underlying tibet

seismic fracture anisotropy in the earth s crust an overview fluid filled fractures and microcracks are the most stress sensitive component of crustal rock and often determine the pathways and volume of crustal fluid movement if we are to comprehend the role of fractures and fluids in tectonic processes to formulate an accurate hypothesis for phenomena precursory to catastrophic seismic failure or to monitor hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoirs for the presence or absence of major fluid pathways we must understand how seismic waves interact with the fracture crack and microcrack structures within the rock mass a salient feature of fracture related rock structure is the effective seismic anisotropy of aligned fractures and microcracks with the advent of large volume digital seismic data sets it is feasible to use polarized shear waves to explore the anisotropic fracture properties of the crust crustal fracture structures which may be monitored by polarized shear waves range in dimensions from the 10 100 km scale of crustal stress orientation and preseismic stress buildup through the 100 1000 m scale of fluid reservoir structure and characterization and the 1 10 scale of mining and geoengineering rock strain monitoring to millimeter and micrometer or possibly smaller fluid filled inclusions determining the elastic response of the intact rock mass to focus developments in seismic anisotropic studies of crustal fracture phenomena the american geophysical union and the society of exploration geophysicists sponsored a chapman conference on seismic anisotropy in the earth s crust held may 31 to june 4 1988 at the lawrence berkeley laboratory of the university of california this was the third international workshop on seismic anisotropy 3iwsa nineteen conference papers are presented in this special section of the journal of geophysical research

integrating borehole information and surface seismic for velocity anisotropy analysis and depth imaging two of the most active areas of current geophysical research and development involve depth imaging and velocity anisotropy this is fitting given that the potential benefits of the former may be fully realized only if the latter is appropriately taken into account it is well established that depth images depend on the accuracy of the velocity model zhu et al 1998 parkes and hatton 1987 if anisotropy is present and not accounted for in velocity model building and migration the final image will be incorrect giving rise to mispositioned and or false structures isaac and lawton 1999 vestrum et al 1999 and hence increasing the risk of dry holes it is therefore important to determine which formations exhibit seismic anisotropy and to quantify their anisotropy parameters

shallow crustal radial anisotropy beneath the tehran basin of iran from seismic ambient noise tomography abstract we studied the shear wave velocity structure and radial anisotropy beneath the tehran basin by analyzing the rayleigh wave and love wave empirical green s functions obtained from cross correlation of seismic ambient noise approximately 199 inter station rayleigh and love wave empirical green s functions with sufficient signal to noise ratios extracted from 30 stations with various sensor types were used for phase velocity dispersion analysis of periods ranging from 1 to 7 s using an image transformation analysis technique dispersion curves extracted from the phase velocity maps were inverted based on non linear damped least squares inversion method to obtain a quasi 3d model of crustal shear wave velocities the data used in this study provide an unprecedented opportunity to resolve the spatial distribution of radial anisotropy within the uppermost crust beneath the tehran basin the quasi 3d shear wave velocity model obtained in this analysis delineates several distinct low and high velocity zones that are generally separated by geological boundaries high shear velocity zones are located primarily around the mountain ranges and extend to depths of 2 0 km while the low shear velocity zone is located near regions with sedimentary layers in the shallow subsurface our results indicate strong radial anisotropy with negative magnitude vsv vsh primarily associated with thick sedimentary deposits reflecting vertical alignment of cracks with increasing depth the magnitude of the radial anisotropy shifts from predominantly negative less than 10 to predominantly positive greater than 5 our results show a distinct change in radial anisotropy between the uppermost sedimentary layer and the bedrock

crustal velocity structure from sarex the southern alberta refraction experiment lithoprobe s southern alberta refraction experiment sarex extends 800 km from east central alberta to central montana it was designed to investigate crustal velocity structure of the archean domains underlying the western canada sedimentary basin from north to south sarex crosses the loverna domain of the hearne province the vulcan structure the medicine hat block previously considered part of the hearne province the great falls tectonic zone and the northern wyoming province ten shot points along the profile in canada were recorded on 521 seismographs deployed at 1 km intervals to extend the line an additional 140 seismographs were deployed at intervals of 1 25 2 50 km in montana data interpretation used an iterative application of damped least squares inversion of traveltime picks and forward modeling results show different velocity structures for the major blocks loverna medicine hat and wyoming indicating that each is distinct wavy undulations in the velocity structure of the lov