evolution of the south central segment of the archean abitibi belt quebec part iii plutonic and metamorphic evolution and geotectonic model textural criteria permit distinction between the pre kenoran and kenoran phases of plutonism and metamorphism the pre kenoran plutons and pre kenoran metamorphic phases are directly related to the volcanic evolution synvolcanic tonalite trondhjemite plutons and swarms of mafic and felsic dykes core central volcanic complexes the volcanic rocks underwent three types of pre kenoran metamorphism namely a pervasive alteration a thermal contact metamorphism that affected narrow aureoles around synvolcanic plutons and a high intensity hydrothermal alteration that affected cross cutting pipes in central volcanic complexes synkinematic kenoran metamorphism resulted in the growth of minerals chlorite actinolite etc parallel to schistosities synkinematic metamorphic grade ranges form the pumpellyite prehnite facies to the amphibolite facies late to post kinematic metamorphic phases resulted in the growth of minerals across schistosities syn to post kinematic plutons are not voluminous in the part o

deformation of the pacific north america plate boundary at queen charlotte fault the possible role of rheology published 2018 this article is a u s government work and is in the public domain in the usa the definitive version was published in journal of geophysical research solid earth 123 2018 4223 4242 doi 10 1002 2017jb014770

structural evolution of archean rocks in the western wawa subprovince minnesota refolding of precleavage nappes during d2 transpression recent mapping in the western wawa subprovince the vermilion district and its westward extensions in minnesota has identified a major northeast trending stratotectonic break informally called the leech lake structural disconformity llsd that separates two contrasting terranes north of the llsd are elongate east northeast trending fault bounded panels of volcanic rocks which are mostly north topping and homoclinal south of the llsd large scale northwest trending folds involve basaltic sequences that are stratigraphically overlain by thick sections of dacitic volcaniclastic and turbiditic rocks however the most prominent outcrop scale deformational features are northeast trending vertical folds and associated axial planar cleavage related to transpression in d2 d1 minor folds and cleavage are rare new field data indicate that the large folds in a predominantly sedimentary part of the southern terrane are early formed d0 d1 and nappe like the precise form of the early folds is largely ob

deformation at an archean subprovince boundary northern minnesota structural analysis in the northern margin of the quetico subprovince part of the archean superior province of the canadian shield in minnesota reveals that the main deformation involved polyphase folding f1 recumbent and nappe like and f2 upright east west trending and tight to isoclinal during regional ductile transpression and amphibolite facies metamorphism a younger deformation developed during the latter stages of regional transpression resulted in the generation of localized ultraphyllonites along the steeply dipping rainy lake seine river fault rlsrf the major fault separating the quetico subprovince from the rainy lake wrench zone a wedge shaped block between the quetico and wabigoon subprovinces the transpression involved north south shortening and east west dextral shear the presence of shear zones in amphibolite facies wall rock south of the fault and in lower grade ultraphyllonites within the rlsrf suggests that localization of shear occurred by work and or reaction softe

structure seismicity and thermal regime of the queen charlotte transform margin 1 this study examines structural seismicity thermal and current deformation constraints on the tectonic regime of the queen charlotte margin located off the northwest coast of canada the margin is primarily a transcurrent boundary between the oceanic pacific plate and the continental north america plate but plate motion models indicate 20 of current oblique convergence that initiated 5 myr the estimated 120 km of convergence has been variously explained as accommodated by underthrusting or by crustal shortening the near vertical queen charlotte transcurrent fault and lack of wadati benioff earthquakes argue against underthrusting however structural models for the margin from receiver function and refraction studies show little evidence of crustal thickening the pattern of landward decreasing heat flow gravity anomalies an accretionary prism landward of the trench or trough down bowing ocean crust and sediments horizons and a variety of other geophysical evidence support underthrusting receiver function analysis on teleseismic data indicates a 10 km thick low velocity layer at 35 km depth dipping 20 to the east which is interpreted as underthrusting oceanic crust the heat flow across the fault zone rapidly decreases landward in agreement with predictions from a finite element thermal model of underthrusting

pacific north america plate boundary reorganization in response to a change in relative plate motion offshore canada 1 the transition from subduction in cascadia to the transform queen charlotte fault along western canada is often drawn as a subduction zone yet recent studies of gps and earthquake data from northern vancouver island are not consistent with that model in this paper we synthesize seismic reflection and gravity interpretations with microseismicity data in order to test models of 1 microplate subduction and 2 reorganization of the preexisting strike slip plate boundary we focus on the critical region of outer queen charlotte sound and the adjacent offshore on much of the continental shelf several million years of subsidence above thin crust are a counterindicator for subduction an undated episode of compression uplifted the southernmost shelf but subsidence patterns offshore show that recent subduction is unlikely to be responsible previously unremarked near vertical faults and a mix of extensional and compressional faults offshore indicate that strike slip faulting has been a significant mode of deformation seismicity in the last 18 years is dominantly strike slip and shows large amounts of moment release on the revere dellwood fault and its overlap with the queen charlotte fault the relative plate motion between the pacific and north american plates rotated clockwise 6 ma and appears to have triggered formation of an evolving array of structures we suggest that the paleo queen charlotte fault which had defined this continental margin retreated northward as offshore distributed shear and the newly formed revere dellwood fault propagated to the northwest

upper crustal structure of southern queen charlotte basin from sonobuoy refraction studies the queen charlotte basin which lies on the west coast of canada was the location of a petroleum exploration program in the 1960 s recently published tectonic models indicate that estimates of hydrocarbon potential require re evaluation and a renewed exploration interest has been expressed in 1981 a seismic refraction survey of the upper crust using radio telemetering sonobuoys and a 27 l air gun source was carried out a particular objective of the study was to determine the existence and depth extent of any sedimentary layer hypothesized on the basis of other studies beneath or within the tertiary masset volcanics in which some of the exploration wells had terminated three reversed profiles and one unreversed profile up to 40 km long were recorded interpretation of the data made use of the travel time and amplitude information of the seismic sections by comparison with theoretical sections computed by two dimensional ray tracing and a new asymptotic ray theory synthetic seismogram algorithm co

interpretation of three dimensional seismic refraction data from western hecate strait british columbia structure of the queen charlotte basin the queen charlotte basin consists of up to 6 km of tertiary clastic sediments in a complex sequence of fault bounded subbasins the tectonic evolution of the basin in still being debated with recent interpretations including distributed strike slip extension oblique or en echelon rifting simple extension orthogonal to the plate margin and block faulting and vertical tectonics a combined seismic reflection and refraction survey was carried out in 1988 to investigate the structure and tectonic evolution of the basin and underlying crust while the marine multichannel reflection data were being collected refracted and wide angle reflected energy from the large air gun array was recorded at surrounding land sites in both two dimensional in line and three dimensional broadside geometries the broadside refraction data recorded on the queen charlotte islands provide good three dimensional coverage of western hecate strait these data are modelled to determine the three dimensional structure of the qu

crustal thickness beneath the queen charlotte basin canada results of a seismically constrained gravity inversion a gravity inversion routine was used to calculate crustal thickness variations in the queen charlotte basin western canada first a crustal bouguer anomaly was derived using a digital well constrained depth to basement map and densities determined from well logs and rock samples this anomaly was subsequently inverted for crustal thickness assuming a single density contrast at depth and an average crustal thickness provided by seismic refraction data the results restricted to that portion of the basin for which there are good quality data show crustal thickness variations of the order of 12 km regions of thin crust are located off northern vancouver island 20 km along the axis of hecate strait and in northern queen charlotte sound 24 km thicker crust is associated with central queen charlotte ridge and northeastern hecate strait tests show these trends in crustal thickness prevail for all reasonable ranges of input parameters calculated residual gravity anomalies contain information useful for mapping the distribution of volcanics interbedded with sediments in subbasins and for refining estimates of depth to basement derived from seismic data alone our results are for the most part in excellent agreement with seismically derived estimates of moho depth they show minimum crustal thickness beneath regions of maximum sediment accumulation supporting an extensional origin for the basin they indicate that this extension was quite heterogeneous and yield minimum estimates which vary from 13 in some parts of the basin to as much as 65 in others the results can be used to discriminate between models on the tertiary evolution of the basin the observed trends are not predicted by the lithospheric flexure or simple margin perpendicular extension models but are consistent with a model of crustal thinning by distributed shear in a transtensional regime

fabric analysis using the intercept method abstract the intercept method is a convenient yet powerful method for the numerical analysis of fabrics for geological applications it can be used when a set of objects e g pores grains or aggregates of a specific mineral lineaments etc with unique characteristics can be identified in an image the intercept method analyses boundaries of objects as a population of lines how intercepts are definined is therefore important in order to establish the significance of the intercept counts when the method is applied to digital images the subdivision of the information into square pixels must also be considered we apply a linear filter which minimizes the effects of grid anisotropy on the counting of intercepts analysis of the resulting rose of intercept counts by a fourier series considerably facilitates the interpretation of the data a rose of directions can readily be derived for the phase boundaries if a population of objects can be assumed to have started with an originally isotropic orientation and to have been deformed passively the fourier components of the rose of intercepts also give the sectional strain the fourier components also permit an objective test of the validity of describing a fabric as resulting from a homogeneous strain on an initially isotropic section two computer programs for the counting and analysis of intercepts on digital images are presented and applied in four examples which illustrate the usefulness of the intercept method for magmatic fabric measurement strain analysis and lineament analysis we also illustrate the importance of fourier series decomposition of rose of intercept counts for fabric interpretations intercept results are also shown to be compatible with those derived by other methods eigenvector surfor inertia tensor autocorrelation methods

continental signature of a ridge trench triple junction northern vancouver island south of the juan de fuca pacific north america triple junction located off northern vancouver island there is subduction and to the north there is oblique convergence along the queen charlotte transform fault in the mid tertiary periods of extension including crustal thinning and volcanism formed queen charlotte basin heat flow on northern vancouver island 67 mw m2 is the same as in queen charlotte basin to the north but it decreases abruptly to the south over a distance of 70 km to an average value of 46 mw m2 compared to the rest of the island the northern island has more subdued topography a lower mean elevation slightly higher bouguer gravity values and lower seismicity late tertiary volcanics which occur only on the northern part of the island geochemically resemble the tertiary masset formation which formed during periods of extension in queen charlotte basin these data are consistent with a tertiary history including periods of extension for northern vancouver island similar to queen charlotte basin and distinguish it from the rest of vancouver island the southern boundary of this northern block extends northeastward from brooks peninsula approximately above the inferred northern edge of the subducted juan de fuca plate and parallel to a series of linear magnetic anomalies associated with a northeasterly trending fault zone the abrupt transition in observed heat flow is most likely associated with the edge of the subducted plate which produces large temperature differences at depths of 30 40 km the time constant for these thermal effects to reach the surface conductively indicates that this boundary has been stable over tens of millions of years and therefore the location of the subducting plate s northern edge must have been stationary or moving very slowly over this period consequently it is likely that the triple junction has been located on average for the last 40 myr off brooks peninsula

a review of the superior province of the canadian shield a product of archean accretion abstract the superior province consists of northern and southern high grade gneiss subprovinces and a central region of alternating granite greenstone and metasedimentary belts subprovinces are commonly fault bounded and display contrasting lithological assemblages metamorphic and structural styles geophysical characteristics and ages they are comparable to phanerozoic suspect terranes the middle and late archean rocks of the superior province are of mantle and juvenile crustal origin with little evidence of inheritance of components older than ca 3 1 ga high grade gneiss subprovinces are mainly deeper level equivalents of the supracrustal rich belts but one minnesota river valley is part of an older ca 3 6 ga terrane that was juxtaposed late in the tectonic history granite greenstone terranes are characterized by low grade volcano sedimentary sequences tholeiitic komatiitic submarine lava plain tholeiitic calc alkalic submarine to subaerial central complexes early platform type quartz arenite stromatolitic carbonate late timiskaming type shoshonitic alkalic volcanic fluvial sediment that range in age from ca 3 0 ga to 2 7 ga the volcanics represent oceanic island arc and continental arc volcanism the quartz arenite carbonate sequences deposition on relatively stable early formed ca 3 0 ga crust and the timiskaming type sequences deposition in pull apart basins developed along strike slip faults late archean ca 2 75 2 70 ga greenstone sequences occur throughout the superior province middle archean ca 3 0 2 8 ga sequences are common in northern and central superior province rare or absent in the south volcanism was accompanied by mafic to trondhjemitic plutonism the metasedimentary belts consist of variably metamorphosed volcanogenic turbidites with detrital zircons ranging in age from ca 3 0 ga to 2 7 ga the metasediments were deposited after major volcanism and probably represent accretionary prisms late archean orogenesis accompanied and followed by calc alkalic plutonism youngs southward from about 2 73 2 72 ga to 2 70 2 68 ga it involved large scale north south compression and dextral transpression and displays thin to thick skinned transitions the contemporaneity of events along the lengths of the belts and their southward younging coupled with the evidence of major compression are consistent with subduction driven oblique accretion of oceanic and continental volcanic arcs accretionary sedimentary wedges older microcontinental fragments etc in a convergent margin setting analogous to parts of the pacific rim differences eg abundance of komatiites and tonalitic plutonic suites are attributable to a hotter archean mantle

structural and kinematic analysis of the shagawa lake shear zone superior province northern minnesota implications for the role of vertical versus horizontal tectonics in the archean the steeply dipping shagawa lake shear zone which strikes ene through the vermilion district of the superior province in northeastern minnesota is marked by zone parallel foliation and a mineral elongation lineation le le includes i a broad population with pitch of 90 60 and ii a less abundant population with pitch of 15 15 shallowly plunging le is rare and where it occurs it overprints the pervasive steeply plunging le shear sense indicators occur within the l s tectonite motion plane normal to foliation and parallel to le microstructures define both south side up and north side up displacement domains but no spatial patterns emerge across the shear zone l s tectonites with east plunging le indicate either south or north side up shear parallel to le whereas l s tectonites with west plunging le indicate predominantly north side up shear parallel to le strike slip l s tectonites are rare but consistently record sinistral shear overprinting relationships and structural kinemat

spatiotemporal distribution of events during the first week of the 2012 haida gwaii aftershock sequence abstract we systematically relocated the 2012 haida gwaii aftershock sequence by re examining continuous seismic waveforms of the canadian national seismographic network cnsn because of the sparse station density in the source area and the offshore location of the majority of events precise determination of hypocenters is extremely challenging constraints on the back azimuth and incident angle of ray paths were derived from the cross correlation of three component waveforms and incorporated into the locating process to improve the results we located 1228 aftershocks for the first week after the mainshock effectively double the size of the cnsn routine earthquake catalog the distribution of aftershocks tends to form two linear trends roughly parallel to the strike of the plate margin in the northwest southeast direction the trend located updip from the mainshock within the subducting pacific plate appears to have three clusters spanning a lateral distance of 80 km the other trend coincides with the surface trace of the queen charlotte fault qcf spanning the northern two thirds of the main rupture zone the overall area of aftershock distribution is 120 km 40 km aftershocks overlap the southern part of the estimated rupture zone of the 1949 earthquake with no activity in the seismic gap farther to the south therefore it is likely that the 2012 earthquake only partially released the accumulated stress on the strike slip transform fault system in this scenario the possibility of a major strike slip earthquake along the southernmost part of the qcf should not be ignored online material table of source parameters of relocated mainshock and aftershocks

basement controlled structure and evolution of the queen charlotte basin west coast of canada abstract fault block tectonics usually associated with intracontinental areas characterizes the western part of the north america plate immediately adjacent to the pacific plate the long lived basement supported mosaic of fault bounded blocks controlled the evolution of this part of the west coast of canada since at least the late jurassic manifesting itself strongly in the tertiary this conclusion is based on recently collected geological and geophysical data gravity and magnetic maps and seismic profiles reveal orthogonal fault networks across the region in the tertiary queen charlotte sedimentary basin and on its pre tertiary rim the faults were reactivated and block movements sometimes inverted in the cenozoic similarity of fault networks across the region suggests inheritance of many structures in the basin from earlier time passage of the region over a mantle hot spot in the miocene may have been a partial cause of renewed block movements crosscutting relationships of large faults and their displacement histories onshore preclude regional strike slip faulting in the tertiary tectonic extension within the basin was small maximum 10 the previous model of formation of the queen charlotte basin by continental rifting sensu mckenzie 1978 is negated evolution of the region was not affected fundamentally by plate interactions at the adjacent continental margin in particular by the change from subduction to strike slip regime at 42 ma a similar structural style existed in the area before and after that event

winona basin west coast canada crustal structure from marine seismic studies winona basin is a deep water sedimentary basin forming part of explorer plate and located off the northern end of vancouver island british columbia during 1975 a deep seismic sounding survey using explosive charges and multiple hydrophones as receivers was carried out over the basin three reversed refraction profiles were shot one along and two across the basin a preliminary look at data along the basin indicated reasonable lateral homogeneity so interpretation was based on both travel time and amplitude characteristics through the use of synthetic seismograms however the two profiles across the basin indicated significant lateral variations in crustal structure so a ray tracing approach was used the sediments of winona basin have a maximum thickness of approximately 5 km consisting of approx 2 km of low velocity average approx 2 5 km s layers and approx 3 km of higher velocity approx 4 3 km s material beneath the sediments there is a rapid increase in velocity to approx 5 4 km s the top of the oceanic crust below this and along the basin the interpretation indicates three zones with thicknesses of 1 to 3 km and having low velocity gradients these being separated by transition zones with depth intervals less than 1 km and having high velocity gradients the three zonesmore with low velocity gradients are represented approximately by 1 km at 5 4 km s 2 7 km at 6 2 km s and 2 5 km at 6 7 km s with the inclusion of the zones of high velocity gradient an average subsedimentary crustal velocity of approx 6 3 km s and thickness of approx 8 km are obtained the upper mantle velocity is approx 7 8 km s across the basin the crustal model shows layers dipping eastward from the westward side forming a bowllike structure two dimensional gravity calculations based on the seismic model are compatible with a gravity profile derived from a free air anomaly map less

fabric attractors in general triclinic flow systems and their application to high strain shear zones a dynamical system approach high strain zones may deform by flow with a triclinic symmetry this paper describes triclinic flow in a reference frame where instantaneous stretching axes isa are fixed the operation of triclinic flow is described in two ways first in terms of flow and the nature of flow eigenvectors and in the second part of the paper in terms of finite strain in monoclinic flow at least one of the eigenvectors of the flow coincides with one of the isa and one or two of the eigenvectors act as attractors of foliation or lineation elements in triclinic flow some flow eigenvectors are undefined since the two largest eigenvalues controlling the flow are imaginary imaginary eigenvalues are particularly common at high kinematic vorticity and within flow with deviation of the vorticity vector of more than 20 from one of the isa strong deviation from monoclinic flow is therefore possible but this will not produce permanent foliations or lineations for triclinic flow that does produce permanent fabrics the angle between isa and the fabric is so small that it is unlikely that it can be recognised in nature a discussion of the potential application of such results within real shear zones is presented

queen charlotte area cenozoic tectonics and volcanism and their association with relative plate motions along the northeastern pacific margin cenozoic relative plate interactions along the queen charlotte margin based on published models for the north america and northeast pacific plates are related to the tectonic and igneous history of the region plate motion models indicate convergence and subduction prior to the eocene since that time there has been transcurrent motion with varying small amounts of oblique extension or compression assuming that the pacific america farallon triple junction was to the south of the region a late miocene or early pliocene about 4 ma to present period of oblique convergence is well resolved the present queen charlotte fault zone along the west coast of the islands may have initiated more recently within the cenozoic transcurrent regime a period of oblique extension in the mid tertiary 36 20 ma in one model is supported by a variety of volcanic and tectonic evidence a small plate motion change at about 20 ma may have resulted in the transfer of the yakutat terrane from the north america plate to the pacific plate and the resulting motion of the terrane northwestward to its present position along the margin of alaska the onset of tertiary masset volcanism that is extensive on the queen charlotte islands corresponds within a few million years to the time of major plate reorganization at 43 ma that has tectonic expression around the entire pacific basin the period of most extensive masset volcanism and plutonism appears to correlate with the model oblique extension in the mid tertiary for one model the geochemistry and physical volcanology of the masset volcanic s are indicative of an extension regime the main syntectonic deposition in the queen charlotte basin skonun formation as inferred from seismic reflection and well data also appears temporally correlated with this time interval of oblique extension a variety of data including plate models dikes normal faults basin subsidence crustal thickness from seismic refraction and present and paleo heat flow indicate mid tertiary crustal extension of at least 20 in the queen charlotte region with up to 150 up to 2 5 in the main queen charlotte basin posttectonic basin subsidence and deposition may correlate with the model time interval of general transcurrent or oblique convergence motion from 20 to 4 ma more recent shortening deformation observed in outcrop and seismic sections of the northern parts of the basin may correlate with plate model oblique convergence from 4 ma to the present the latter convergence is associated with underthrusting that formed a trough or trench and an accretionary sedimentary prism off the west coast of the queen charlotte islands and with inferred uplift and erosion of the western part of the islands

interface inversion using broadside seismic refraction data and three dimensional travel time calculations a procedure has been developed to interpret densely sampled broadside seismic refraction data recorded from a large air gun array first arrival travel times are inverted to find the structure on an interface beneath the shot line travel times are calculated for three dimensional velocity models using a rapid finite difference algorithm adapted to allow variable sampling of the model and the determination of rays a simple inversion parameterization eliminates the need for matrix inversion the complete inversion procedure is computationally rapid yet allows the determination of detailed three dimensional structure broadside refraction data recorded in the queen charlotte basin offshore western canada during a multichannel reflection experiment are used to demonstrate the procedure the data are inverted for the basement interface beneath the shot line defining a rapidly varying thickness of sedimentary basin fill the results of the inversion stimulate a reinterpretation of the reflection data and identify a new major basement fault structure out of the plane of the reflection section is determined including the strike of the fault and other nearby features

lithoprobe southern vancouver island cenozoic subduction complex imaged by deep seismic reflections reply the lithoprobe seismic reflection project on vancouver island was designed to study the large scale structure of several accreted terranes exposed on the island and to determine the geometry and structural characteristics of the subducting juan de fuca plate in this paper we interpret two lithoprobe profiles from southernmost vancouver island that were shot across three important terrane bounding faults leech river san juan and survey mountain to determine their subsurface geometry and relationship to deeper structures associated with modem subduction the structure beneath the island can be divided into an upper crustal region consisting of several accreted terranes and a deeper region that represents a landward extension of the modern offshore subduction complex in the upper region the survey mountain and leech river faults are imaged as northeast dipping thrusts that separate wrangellia a large mesozoic paleozoic terrane from two smaller accreted terranes the leech river schist mesozoic rock

tectonic history of the queen charlotte islands and adjacent areas a model the region including queen charlotte islands hecate strait and queen charlotte sound is underlain by two allochthonous terranes wrangellia and the alexander terrane the suture between them occurs in central graham island and central hecate strait and is coincident with the traces of the sandspit and rennell sound fault zones each of which developed in response to crustal rifting in queen charlotte sound during mid tertiary time the stratigraphic succession comprises four tectonic assemblages 1 the allochthonous assemblages comprise paleozoic rocks of the alexander terrane and upper triassic and jurassic rocks of wrangellia which on the basis of paleomagnetic and biogeographical data are clearly exotic the distribution of these terranes beneath queen charlotte sound and hecate strait is supported by geophysical information and subsurface data obtained from offshore wells 2 the suture assemblage is represented by extremely coarse conglomerates massive graywackes and turbidites of early cretac

recent movements of the juan de fuca plate system analysis of the magnetic anomalies of the juan de fuca plate system allows instantaneous poles of rotation relative to the pacific plate to be calculated from 7 ma to the present by combining these with global solutions for pacific america and absolute relative to hot spot motions a plate motion sequence can be constructed this sequence shows that both absolute motions and motions relative to america are characterized by slower velocities where younger and more buoyant material enters the convergence zone pivoting subduction the resistance provided by the youngest portion of the juan de fuca plate apparently resulted in its detachment at 4 ma as the independent explorer plate in relation to the hot spot framework this plate almost immediately began to rotate clockwise around a pole close to itself such that its translational movement into the mantle virtually ceased after 4 ma the remainder of the juan de fuca plate adjusted its motion in response to the fact that the youngest material entering the subduction zone was now to the south differences in seismicity and recent uplift between northern and southern vancouver island may reflect a distinction in tectonic style between the normal subduction of the juan de fuca plate to the south and a complex underplating occurring as the explorer plate is overridden by the continent the history of the explorer plate may exemplify the conditions under which the self driving forces of small subducting plates are overcome by the influence of larger adjacent plates the recent rapid migration of the absolute pole of rotation of the juan de fuca plate toward the plate suggests that it too may be nearing this condition

insignificant buffering capacity of antarctic shelf carbonates 1 we combined data sets of measured sedimentary calcium carbonate caco3 and satellite derived pelagic primary production to parameterize the relation between caco3 content on the antarctic shelves and primary production in the overlying water column caco3 content predicted in this way was in good agreement with the measured data the parameterization was then used to chart caco3 content on the antarctic shelves all around the antarctic using the satellite derived primary production the total inventory of caco3 in the bioturbated layer of antarctic shelf sediments was estimated to be 0 5 pg c this quantity is comparable to the total co2 uptake by the southern ocean in only one to a few years dependent on the uptake estimate and area considered indicating that the dissolution of these carbonates will neither delay ocean acidification in this area nor augment the southern ocean co2 uptake capacity

p wave velocity structure of the earth s crust beneath vancouver island refraction data were recorded from three shot points out to a maximum distance of 330 km as part of the 1980 vancouver island seismic project visp80 these vertical component data are partially reversed and so can be interpreted in terms of two dimensional structures by iterative modeling of p wave travel times and amplitudes the structure of the upper crust is the best constrained part of the model it consists generally of a gradually increasing velocity from 5 3 km s at the surface to 6 4 km s at 2 km depth to 6 75 km s at 15 5 km depth where the velocity increases sharply to 7 km s below 20 km depth the model becomes speculative because the data provide only indirect constraints on velocities at these depths an interpretation that fits the observed times and amplitudes has a low velocity zone in the lower crust and a moho at 37 km depth the only significant departure from this general structure is beneath the central part of vancouver island where the 15 5 km boundary in the model atta

triclinic transpression zones with inclined extrusion data from natural transpressional shear zones reveal a large range of lineation orientations that can spread along complete girdles one possible way to account for such a type of fabrics is variation in the extrusion direction this work presents a new theoretical model of oblique transpression with inclined extrusion the model is kinematic and the flow is considered as homogeneous and steady the angle between the simple shear direction and the extrusion direction is one of the main parameters controlling the final fabric low values of 40 can generate strain ellipsoids very close to the abscissa axis of the flinn plot depending on the vorticity of the flow the finite strain and the actual value of the angle the model predicts the generation of lineation fabrics ranging from point maxima to patterns with opposite plunge senses these patterns can display monoclinic nearly monoclinic or clearly triclinic symmetry lineation patterns spreading along complete girdles can be obtained by allowing the extrusion direction to deviate less than 30 about the vertical in either direction

contrasts in the response to dextral transpression across the quetico wawa subprovince boundary in northeastern minnesota folds and shear zones in the central and western vermilion district greenstone belt wawa subprovince are consistent with deformation in a regime of regional dextral transpression however the shear strain associated with this deformation regime is only locally evident in the schist and migmatite of the adjacent southeastern vermilion granitic complex vgc quetico subprovince we suggest that differential partitioning of shear and flattening strains between the two terranes was controlled by the lower ductility higher competency contrast and steeper dip of orogen parallel rock units in the vermilion district compared with the variably oriented rocks in the adjacent vgc contact strains adjacent to plutonic bodies played a greater role in the development of complex fold geometries in the vgc in the central vermilion district northwest directed subhorizontal shortening produced easterly striking zones of brittle ductile dextral shear and northeast trending en echelon folds the en echelon folds with

the tectonic evolution of the abitibi greenstone belt of canada based on structural geochemical sedimentological and geochronological studies we have formulated a model for the evolution of the late archaean abitibi greenstone belt of the superior province of canada the southern volcanic zone svz of the belt is dominated by komatiitic to tholeiitic volcanic plateaux and large bimodal mafic felsic volcanic centres these volcanic rocks were erupted between approximately 2710 ma and 2700 ma in a series of rift basins formed as a result of wrench fault tectonics the svz superimposes an older volcanic terrane which is characterized in the northern volcanic zone nvz of the abitibi belt and is approximately 2720 ma or older the nvz comprises basaltic to andesitic and dacitic subaqueous massive volcanics which are cored by comagmatic sill complexes and layered mafic anorthositic plutonic complexes these volcanics are overlain by felsic pyroclastic rocks that were comagmatic with the emplacement of tonalitic plutons at 2717 2 ma the tectonic model envisages the svz to have formed in a series of rift basins which dissected an earlier formed volcanic arc the nvz analogous rift environments have been postulated for the hokuroko basin of japan the taupo volcanic zone of new zealand and the sumatra and nicaragua arcs the difference between rift related submergent volcanism in the svz and emergent volcanism in the nvz resulted in the contrasting metallogenic styles the former being characterized by syngenetic massive sulphide deposits whilst the latter was dominated by epigenetic porphyry type cu au deposits

an outline of shear sense analysis in high grade rocks ductile shear zones are important in tectonic reconstructions as a source of information on the relative motion of large crustal blocks or plates in the geological past methods to interpret fabric in ductile shear zones were mostly developed for low grade rocks where overprinting relations are usually well preserved however high grade shear zones are common and dominate in many precambrian terrains high grade shear zones should be analysed in a different way from low grade zones the plane on which shear sense markers should be observed the vorticity profile plane is more difficult to find than in low grade shear zones the most reliable shear sense markers in high grade shear zones are shear bands mineral fish mantled porphyroclasts sigmoids and asymmetric boudins 2006 published by elsevier b v on behalf of international association for gondwana research

accretion and recent deformation of sediments along the northern cascadia subduction zone new multichannel seismic reflection profiles acoustic imagery and swath bathymetric data from the vancouver island continental margin reveal the surface morphology cross sectional geometry and deformation style of this part of the cascadia accretionary prism the incoming 3 to 5 km thick sediment section fails most commonly along landward dipping thrusts that penetrate to or very close to the top of the underlying oceanic crust the faults are listric with approximately circular cross sections and hanging wall sediments are back tilted in a planar manner high near lithostatic pore pressures in the deeper part of the section are inferred from the flattening of the faults near the decollement and from the long distances over which the decollement has propagated seaward the faults dip more steeply at 40 45 near the surface where pleistocene turbidites are displaced similar folds have developed where the turbidites are particularly thick 4 km and near hydrostatic pore pressures are inferred to occur in the turbidite part of the section an increase in pore pressure with depth is expected as a consequence of sedimentation and tectonic loading particularly because the deeper hemipelagic sediments are probably far less permeable than are the overlying turbidites the top of the downgoing juan de fuca plate which defines the base of the accreted sedimentary wedge beneath the margin is well imaged in the new seismic reflection profiles and is further defined by land reflection data seismic refraction and earthquake hypocenters the landward dipping continental backstop to the prism is also well located if these constraints are used for the geometry of the accretionary prism a general balance is found between the present prism volume and the estimated total sediment supply over the approximately 42 m y accretion history this result along with the observation that deformation front faults penetrate most or all of the sediment section suggests that little or no sediment has been subducted since initiation of the present phase of subduction in the eocene application of the critically tapered wedge model of davis and others to the observed prism geometry suggests that high average pore pressures occur in the prism particularly the seawardmost part beneath the lower slope beneath the continental shelf the dip of the subducting slab increases to greater than 11 a dip that according to the critically tapered wedge model is too steep to allow upward growth of an accretionary prism this provides a simple explanation for ongoing subsidence of the tofino sedimentary basin over the older part of the accretionary complex to the southeast the juan de fuca plate dips much more gently beneath the olympic peninsula of northern washington allowing the accretionary prism to grow upward well above sea level to form the olympic mountains

tectonic evolution of the north sea basin crustal stretching and subsidence summary the lithospheric stretching model for the formation of sedimentary basins was tested in the central north sea by a combined study of crustal thinning and basement subsidence patterns a profile of crustal structure was obtained by shooting a long range seismic experiment across the central graben the main axis of subsidence a seabed array of 12 seismometers in the graben was used to record shots fired in a line 530 km long across the basin the data collected during the experiment were interpreted by modelling synthetic seismograms from a laterally varying structure and the final model showed substantial crustal thinning beneath the graben subsidence data from 19 exploration wells were analysed to obtain subsidence patterns in the central north sea since jurassic times changes in water depth were quantified using foraminiferal assemblages where possible and observed basement subsidence paths were corrected for sediment loading compaction and changes in water depth through time the seismic model is shown to be compatible with the observed gravity field and the small size of observed gravity anomalies is used to argue that the basin is in local isostatic equilibrium both crustal thinning and basement subsidence studies indicate about 70 km of stretching across the central graben during the mid jurassic to early cretaceous extensional event this extension appears to have occurred over crust already slightly thinned beneath the graben and the seismic data suggest that total extension since the early permian may have been more than 100km the data presented here may all be explained using a simple model of uniform extension of the lithosphere

archean plate tectonics what can be learned from continental geology some basic questions about archean plate tectonics can be addressed by examining accretionary archean margins in particular fault zones with significant strike slip components on the canadian shield 1 were the oceanic plates typically rigid like modern plates yes significant lateral viscosity contrasts in the lithosphere between plates and plate boundaries are required for major strike slip faults to exist conversely strike slip faults are a kinematic consequence of rigid plates 2 did large oceanic plates exist in the archean probably first the length and offset of the longest preserved segments of archean faults are similar to modern examples such as in alaska less directly the duration of a period with a consistent sense of strike slip at a point on the continental side of an accretionary margin should be related to the time that a typical oceanic plate remains outboard of the margin this time varies proportionally with size of typical ocean plates and inversely with their velocity the

tectonics and structure of the queen charlotte fault zone haida gwaii and large thrust earthquakes abstract this article provides a summary of the structure and tectonic history of the queen charlotte transform fault zone off western canada as background to understanding the 2012 m w 7 8 thrust earthquake off haida gwaii there was margin subduction prior to the eocene the fault zone then became the mainly transcurrent pacific north america boundary there was mid tertiary oblique extension then 15 20 oblique convergence from 6 ma to the present that resulted in underthrusting and subduction initiation the total underthrusting has been too small for benioff wadati seismicity or arc volcanics but is indicated by 1 a trench the queen charlotte trough into which the oceanic plate bows downward and an offshore flexural bulge the oshawa rise 2 the queen charlotte terrace an accretionary sedimentary prism 3 seismic receiver function delineation of the underthrusting pacific plate 4 heat flow decreasing landward as predicted for underthrusting 5 low gravity offshore and high onshore consistent with underthrusting and 6 late tertiary uplift and erosion of the west coast of the islands oblique convergence is partitioned into nearly margin normal underthrusting i e m w 7 8 event relative to the terrace which is moving along the margin and margin parallel on the queen charlotte strike slip fault just off the coast that produced the 1949 m s 8 1 earthquake landward on the mainland global positioning system data suggest slow coast parallel shear with no historical seismicity the convergence rate decreases to the north of haida gwaii off dixon entrance but large thrust earthquakes are possible to the south underthrusting of the winona basin margin also could generate large earthquakes

stable positions of rigid objects in non coaxial flow a study in vorticity analysis abstract distortions of a homogeneous fabric which occur around rigid objects in rocks deformed by non coaxial ductile flow are useful to determine the sense of shear but also contain information on other aspects of the flow rigid objects in a non coaxial flow fall into two categories those which are permanently rotating and those which can reach stable positions at high finite strain the orientation of such immobilized objects with respect to eigenvectors of instantaneous flow is a function of the vorticity number of the flow the ratio of instantaneous stretches and the axial ratio of the object in naturally deformed rocks immobilized rigid objects may be recognized from the geometry of the surrounding fabric tails of recrystallized material around porphyroclasts in a mylonite rotate towards parallellism with the extensional eigenvector of the flow and the shape of tails reflects the rotational behaviour of the porphyroclast the axial ratio of immobilized porphyroclasts and their orientation with respect to the tails can theoretically be used to determine the vorticity number of the flow and deviations from isochoric plane strain in practice such an analysis is as yet difficult but a tentative example is given of the way in which the vorticity number can be calculated from a population of feldspar porphyroclasts in a quartzite mylonite from the french pyrenees

evolution of the south central segment of the archean abitibi belt quebec part ii tectonic evolution and geomechanical model in this paper we describe the relations between the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the southwestern part of the archean abitibi and bellecombe belts volcanism in the abitibi belt created a very thick anisotropic plate composed of competent volcanic rocks and broken by the duparquet destor break the depocenters of the upper division of diverse volcanic rocks subsided about 10 km relative to their surroundings and some central volcanic complexes within this division were consolidated by synvolcanic plutons and their thermal metamorphic aureole the cadillac break a normal fault separated the abitibi and bellecombe belts the latter consisted of comparatively incompetent sedimentary rocks on top of a basement composed of ultramafic mafic flows north south compression of the volcanic terrain during the kenoran orogeny produced a set of flexure folds f1 that curve around the consolidated cores of central volcanic complexes generally in an easterly direction synclinoria nucleated at the dee

seismotectonics of the explorer region 1 the explorer region offshore western canada is a tectonically complex area surrounded by the pacific north america and juan de fuca plates existing tectonic models for the region differ fundamentally proposed plate configurations range from multiple independent plate fragments to an explorer plate now fused to north america along the continental margin and cut by pacific north america transform faults in the west we present new seismological data constraining the region s current tectonics we use three component regional waveforms to determine the source parameters of 84 earthquakes with magnitude greater than 4 combined with 34 harvard centroid moment tensor solutions they represent the region s largest earthquake source parameter data set obtained by robust waveform modeling techniques in addition we perform joint epicenter determination to relocate larger earthquakes recorded since 1918 the source parameters and improved locations provide a consistent tectonic picture earthquake slip vector azimuths along the pacific plate boundary change smoothly and are significantly less northerly oriented than the pacific north america plate motion direction requiring an independent explorer plate the present day pacific explorer boundary is formed by transform faults subparallel to the revere dellwood wilson fault plate motion vectors indicate that the winona block is part of the explorer plate current explorer motion is more northerly than indicated by magnetic anomalies prior to 2 ma implying a recent change possibly coinciding with a northwestward ridge jump near explorer plate s northern end transferring the winona block from the pacific to the explorer plate in response to these plate motion changes the region north of the western sovanco fracture zone was assimilated into the pacific plate the region around the eastern sovanco fracture zone characterized by broadly distributed seismicity is composed of well defined sets of conjugate faults bounding rotating crustal blocks earthquake fault strikes agree with the dominant northwest southeast fault sets however the conjugate sets must be also active to fully accommodate present day explorer plate motion the sw portion of the strike slip nootka fault zone the explorer juan de fuca plate boundary is well defined by focused seismicity however its full extent under nootka island remains unresolved the explorer north america boundary shows sporadic low magnitude seismicity our explorer north america rotation pole predicts convergence varying from negligible at the boundary s northwest end to 2 cm yr at the se end this convergence can be accommodated either by subduction or by crustal thickening extending to the north american continent we favor subduction based on low deformation rates observed by onshore gps sites the present explorer plate system configuration is a result of stepwise reorientation of the explorer ridge system each step successively reducing the subduction rate relative to north america

queen charlotte fault zone microearthquakes from a temporary array of land stations and ocean bottom seismographs a temporary array of land and ocean bottom seismograph stations was used to accurately locate microearthquakes on the queen charlotte fault zone which occurs along the continental margin of wester

deep crustal seismology of continental margins this review discusses results from recent seismic experiments at continental margins conducted by u s investigators as well as those by non u s investigators necessary to place the results of u s workers into context continental margins may be characterized as either rifted transform or convergent rifted or passive margins form where continents are torn apart during continental drift transform margins accommodate transform plate motions along strike slip faults such as the san andreas fault at convergent margins oceanic crust is being thrust beneath or subducted under the continental crust all three types of margins are found in north america

subsidence and thermal history of queen charlotte basin a tectonic model for the formation subsidence and thermal history of queen charlotte basin is developed based upon regional geological and geophysical data subsidence data from offshore wells in hecate strait and queen charlotte sound and thermal criteria derived from present heat flow and vitrinite reflectance information queen charlotte basin is seen to have resulted from two distinct mechanisms 1 during a period of broad regional uplift rifting and crustal extension occurred in queen charlotte sound up to about 17 ma ago and the queen charlotte islands were displaced northwards toward their present position by transcurrent motion along the louscoone inlet sandspit fault system the rifting generated a significant thermal anomaly and a restricted deep basin as a consequence of crustal thinning and subsequent thermal cooling 2 beginning about 6 ma ago oblique underthrusting commenced along the margin resulting in flexural uplift of the western part of the queen charlotte islands and comp

the northern cascadia subduction zone at vancouver island seismic structure and tectonic history the structure and tertiary tectonic history of the northern cascadia subduction zone have been delineated by a series of new multichannel seismic lines acquired across the continental shelf to the

transition from oceanic to continental crustal structure seismic and gravity models at the queen charlotte transform margin seismic refraction data have been interpreted along a line crossing the queen charlotte transform just north of the triple junction where the explorer ridge intersects the continental margin these data observed at three onshore sites help to define the structure of the continental crust beneath the queen charlotte sedimentary basin sediment thicknesses of up to 4 km were determined from a coincident multichannel reflection line beneath the sediments velocities increase from about 5 5 to 6 3 km s 1 at 8 km depth then increase from 6 5 to 6 7 km s 1 at 18 km depth below this depth the lower crust is partly constrained by moho wide angle reflections at the three receiving sites which indicate a lower crust velocity of 6 8 6 9 km s 1 and a moho depth of 26 28 km the crustal velocity structure is generally similar to that in southern queen charlotte sound it is in contrast to the velocity structure across hecate strait to the north where a prominent mid crust interface at 15 km depth was observe

strain in an archean greenstone belt of minnesota abstract we measured strain at more than 60 locations in metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the vermilion district an e w trending archean greenstone belt in minnesota strain ellipsoid orientations and shapes correlate strongly with n s location in the belt but magnitudes do not flattening strains occur near the present vermilion fault which bounds the greenstone belt to the north with constrictional strains to the south the observed strain patterns can be mathematically modeled by deformation paths which produce the flattening strains with west plunging 1 axes by dextral shear of the constrictional strains with east plunging 1 axes using reasonable geologic constraints the shear plane must dip to the north with a subhorizontal shear direction structures throughout the district also indicate dextral shear a geometrical finite element program uses the measured strains to destrain the rocks and find the configuration which most closely satisfies strain compatibility equations the linear e w strain patterns and minor rotations about horizontal axes during the deformation preclude origin of the greenstone belt by infolding and shear off the flanks of a rising granitic diapir by accounting for rotations which result in the deformed curvature of the original surface a true estimate of 50 n s shortening across the belt can be made the data and deformation models favor the origin of the vermilion district rocks at a convergent margin most likely as a n dipping subduction zone complex with shallow slab dip the origin of the constrictional strains remains enigmatic

the deformation matrix for simultaneous simple shearing pure shearing and volume change and its application to transpression transtension tectonics simultaneous simple shearing and pure shearing with or without additional volume change can be combined into a single upper triangular deformation matrix the off diagonal term is named the effective shear strain and is a simple function of the pure shearing and simple shearing components a three dimensional deformation matrix for the simultaneous combination of coaxial deformation with or without additional volume change and up to three simple shearing systems with mutually orthogonal shear planes is also presented by using this matrix one can easily extract the various properties of incremental as well as finite strain and the progressive as well as finite rotation of passive markers during deformation the case of transpression transtension is revised using the unified deformation matrix the orientation of the major axis of the strain ellipsoid 1 is always horizontal if the deformation is transtensional switches from horizontal to vertical during transpressional wrenching 1 wk 0 81 for constant vorticity deformations and is always vertical for highly transpressional deformations wk 0 81 for transpression material lines initially rotate towards the horizontal shearing direction but generally turn to rotate towards the vertical axis after a certain strain for transtension all material lines rotate towards a direction in the horizontal plane which is oblique to the shearing direction

evidence for underthrusting beneath the queen charlotte margin british columbia from teleseismic receiver function analysis summary the queen charlotte fault zone is the transpressive boundary between the north america and pacific plates along the northwestern margin of british columbia two models have been suggested for the accommodation of the 20 mm yr 1 of convergence along the fault boundary 1 underthrusting 2 internal crustal deformation strong evidence supporting an underthrusting model is provided by a detailed teleseismic receiver function analysis that defines the underthrusting slab forward and inverse modelling techniques were applied to receiver function data calculated at two permanent and four temporary seismic stations within the queen charlotte islands the modelling reveals a 10 km thick low velocity zone dipping eastward at 28 interpreted to be underthrusting oceanic crust the oceanic crust is located beneath a thin 28 km eastward thickening 10 continental crust

structure beneath queen charlotte sound from seismic refraction and gravity interpretations a combined multichannel seismic reflection and refraction survey was carried out in july 1988 to study the tertiary sedimentary basin architecture and formation and to define the crustal structure and associated plate interactions in the queen charlotte islands region simultaneously with the collection of the multichannel reflection data refractions and wide angle reflections from the airgun array shots were recorded on single channel seismographs distributed on land around hecate strait and queen charlotte sound for this paper a subset of the resulting data set was chosen to study the crustal structure in queen charlotte sound and the nearby subduction zone two dimensional ray tracing and synthetic seismogram modelling produced a velocity structure model in queen charlotte sound on a margin parallel line moho depth was modelled at 27 km off southern moresby island but only 23 km north of vancouver island excluding the approximately 5 km of the tertiary sediments the crust in the latter area is onl

three dimensional grain fabric measurements using high resolution x ray computed tomography abstract high resolution x ray computed tomography hrxct provides detailed imagery of the interiors of rocks up to hand sample size non destructively and in three dimensions new tools described here allow these data to be used for analysis of grain fabrics two separate sets of measurement techniques have been developed the first concentrates on quantifying individual crystals phenocrysts porphyroblasts or other discrete objects or void spaces within a sample quantifiable properties include location size shape orientation and contact relationships with adjacent objects the second set of techniques performs a more general fabric analysis on any distinguishable component in a sample a fabric tensor can be computed based on a number of metrics including the star volume distribution svd star length distribution sld and mean intercept length mil methods the fabric tensors provide principal component directions and magnitudes which in turn provide a measure of degree of anisotropy and shape indices because the svd and sld measure only the material of interest whereas the mil is also influenced by spatial distribution results can be divergent for sparse phases also introduced is a three dimensional rose diagram that can be viewed interactively and inspected to reveal further details about non orthogonal directional components these techniques are demonstrated through analysis of a garnet kyanite schist from mica dam british columbia

constrains on vorticity and non coaxial shear direction in neoarchean l s tectonites an example from northern minnesota usa abstract we present a detailed kinematic study of seven neoarchean l s tectonite samples in order to constrain vorticity and non coaxial shear direction relative to foliation and elongation lineation samples are l s tectonites from the wawa subprovince of the archean superior province more specifically the vermilion district of ne minnesota a ne trending belt of greenschist grade supracrustal rocks and granitoid bodies supracrustal rocks host multiple l s tectonite packages with a well developed sub vertical metamorphic foliation and elongation lineation elongation lineation generally plunges steeply to gently although zones of shallow plunge occur locally the wawa subprovince is widely interpreted as a transpressional plate margin with shear zones recording unidirectional dextral strike slip an interpretation held up as fundamental evidence for archean plate tectonic processes however vorticity and shear direction within vermilion district l s tectonites remain unconstrained we compare data from thin sections x ray computed tomography and quartz crystallographic fabric analysis to monoclinic shear models to constrain vorticity and better understand the geometric relationships between vorticity non coaxial shear direction foliation and elongation lineation kinematic indicators in thin section and image slices from x ray computed tomography consistently record asymmetric microstructural fabrics in foliation normal lineation parallel planes whereas planes normal to foliation and elongation lineation display dominantly symmetric microstructural fabrics mantled porphyroclast 3d shapes and star volume distribution analyses indicate that porphyroclast short axes are normal to foliation and long axes parallel elongation lineation quartz crystallographic preferred orientation data show a axes maxima sub parallel to foliation normal lineation parallel planes kinematic data consistently show a vorticity vector within the foliation plane and normal to elongation lineation thus non coaxial shear direction is sub parallel to elongation lineation data are inconsistent with shear models in which non coaxial shear direction is normal to lineation or in which the vorticity vector is normal to foliation rather kinematic data indicate that tectonites record non coaxial shear broadly parallel to elongation lineation regardless of the geographic orientation of lineation

vorticity analysis in a metachert from the sanbagawa belt sw japan abstract common tectonic features of deformed metachert include both sets of extended and shortened veins and quartz c axis preferred orientation patterns in such rocks information is also commonly available on the orientation and magnitude of the finite strain these features can be used to derive two independent estimates of the degree of non coaxiality during deformation in an example from the sanbagawa belt sw japan the two methods give consistent results and show that deformation was intermediate between simple and pure shear such types of progressive deformation distributed over a broad region could cause substantial subvertical thinning and be a significant factor in the exhumation of high p t rocks in the region

magmatism at rifted continental margins the intense volcanism and uplift observed on many rifted continental margins forming basaltic seaward dipping reflector sequences is accompanied by the emplacement of a thick igneous section at depth partial melting by decompression of passively upwelling asthenosphere that is hotter than normal because it is near a hotspot explains both the thickness of the new igneous crust and the initial elevation of the rifted margins

high velocities and seismic anisotropy in pleistocene turbidites off western canada summary the winona basin is a young deep water basin along the base of the continental slope off central british columbia which is filled primarily with turbidite sediments seismic reflection profiles in the basin indicate that in places the sediment thickness is greater than 4 0 s two way travel time and simple interpretations of seismic refraction data indicate that velocities up to 6 0 kni s exist within the sediment section because the turbidite sediments are acoustically layered with large velocity contrasts between layers the sediments are probably highly anisotropic a simple model to account for this has been used to estimate the errors involved in using refraction data to determine layer thicknesses and average velocities if the effects of anisotropy are ignored as they usually are values for thickness and velocity may be overestimated by as much as 10 20 per cent even the corrected velocities are still high however and the inferred high densities and high degrees of lithification are remarkable when the youth of the sediments is considered nearly the entire depositional history is contained within the pleistocene and the age of the sediments whose velocity exceeds 4 km s l is estimated to be only 1 o myr old corrected velocities in the deepest part of the basin where the sediment section is over 6 kin thick exceed 5 km s the nature of samples dredged from the basin mudstones to coarse grained sandstones and conglomerates suggests a mechanism for initial diagenesis the mudstones are moderately porous 40 60 per cent and possess little carbonate whereas the coarser grained rocks are all well cemented with calcium carbonate with carbonate contents ranging up to 37 per cent measured porosities are as low as 8 per cent but porosities calculated on a carbonate free basis range from 35 to 55 per cent it appears that the fine grained sediments are first consolidated primarily by gravitational and or tectonic compaction and the coarsegrained sediments are cemented by carbonate which is precipitated from pore fluids escaping through the highly permeable coarse grained layers as lithification deeper in the basin continues pore fluids must continue to escape tectonic fracturing may facilitate this

the northern limit of the subducted juan de fuca plate system analysis of data recorded at an array of three component broadband seismograph stations deployed on northern vancouver island and the adjacent british columbia mainland at the northern end of the cascadia subduction zone provides the first constraints on the s wave velocity structure of this region and permits us to define the northern limit of the subducted juan de fuca plate system during a 2 year period more than 80 teleseisms were recorded at our five stations the method of receiver function analysis was used to constrain the s velocity structure to upper mantle depths beneath the northern three stations a relatively simple continental crust is interpreted with a well defined moho near 37 39 km depth an upper crustal s velocity discontinuity at these stations is interpreted as the top of the high velocity rocks of the wrangellia terrane in contrast more complicated structure dominated by pronounced low velocity zones dipping to the ne are interpreted beneath our southern two stations the shallower low velocity zone is 6 8 km thick has an s velocity contrast of 0 6 1 1 km s and lies within the continental crust this feature is similar to a pronounced low velocity layer the e zone imaged beneath southern vancouver island the deeper low velocity zone is interpreted as the subducted oceanic crust we interpret the pronounced change in s velocity structure that we observe as the northern limit of the subducted oceanic plate beneath vancouver island this change coincides with significant changes in topography heat flow gravity and geochemistry

depositional gaps in abitibi greenstone belt stratigraphy a key to exploration for syngenetic mineralization models of greenstone belt development are crucial for exploration allochthonous models predict belts to be a collage of unrelated fragments whereas autochthonous models allow for prediction of syngenetic mineral deposits within specific stratigraphic intervals superior province greenstone belts consist of mainly volcanic units unconformably overlain by largely sedimentary timiskaming style assemblages and field and geochronological data indicate that the abitibi greenstone belt developed autochthonously we describe major revisions to stratigraphy of the abitibi greenstone belt and the implications of an autochthonous development of the volcanic stratigraphy for exploration for syngenetic mineralization the abitibi greenstone belt is subdivided into seven discrete volcanic stratigraphic episodes on the basis of groupings of numerous u pb zircon ages of pre 2750 2750 to 2735 2734 to 2724 2723 to 2720 2719 to 2711 2710 to 2704 and 2704 to 2695 ma we present revised lithotectonic and or stratigraphic nomenclature using these time intervals including 1 isotopic inheritance in younger episodes which indicates that the older episodes 2750 2735 and 2734 2724 ma had greater extent than is presently seen 2 dikes feeding younger volcanic episodes 2706 ma cutting older volcanic units 2734 2724 ma and 3 2710 to 2704 ma mafic to ultramafic sills intruding the 2719 to 2711 ma episode changes to the nomenclature include the identification of pre 2750 ma volcanic episode supracrustal fragments in the northern and southern abitibi greenstone belt and subdivision of the 2719 to 2711 ma 2710 to 2704 ma and 2704 to 2695 ma episodes into lower and upper parts we present the results of this lithostratigraphic subdivision as the first geochronologically constrained stratigraphic and or lithotectonic map of the abitibi greenstone belt many of the volcanic episodes are intercalated with and capped by a relatively thin sedimentary interface zone dominated by chemical sedimentary rocks stratigraphic and geochronological analysis of these zones indicates discontinuous deposition with localized gaps of 2 to 27 m y between volcanic episodes the zones consist of up to 200 m of iron formation chert breccia heterolithic debris flows of volcanic provenance sandstone and or argillite and conglomerate modeling of the time required for deposition of the volcanic units based on rates of magma production in modern arc and plume environments is on the order of 103 to 104 years whereas the time interval between basalt rhyolite cycles is 106 years the sedimentary interface zones are therefore interpreted as condensed sections zones with very low rates of sedimentation in a basinal setting or zones with negligible rates of sedimentation marked by silicification of existing rock types the sedimentary interface zones are therefore considered submarine correlative conformities disconformities or unconformities separating the equivalent of group level stratigraphic and lithotectonic units the unconformity bounded stratigraphic model provides a new regional to deposit scale interpretive model for use in exploration for syngenetic mineralization

testing models for obliquely plunging lineations in transpression a natural example and theoretical discussion theory predicts that stretching lineations in an ideal vertical transpressional zone should be either vertical or horizontal many field descriptions of transpressional zones however indicate a range of lineation orientations between these extremes several theoretical models have been developed to explain such departures from expected lineation orientation and we discuss these in the context of a field example from the archean superior province in the north american craton existing models are insufficient to explain obliquely plunging lineations in this example because 1 obliquely plunging lineations cannot be accounted for by shear zone boundary effects imposed by a no slip condition 2 foliations and lineations vary independently 3 the vorticity normal section is subhorizontal limiting possibilities for inclined simple shear 4 high vorticity is needed for finite strains and lineations to match previously proposed triclinic models but vorticity is relatively low and 5 juxtaposed east and west plunging lineations are unlikely in the previously proposed triclinic models because existing theoretical models are not applicable to our field example we contemplate a new model to explain obliquely plunging lineations within quasi homogeneous transpression

the correction for the travel time effects of seafloor topography in the interpretation of marine seismic data problems associated with the application of topographic corrections to deep ocean marine seismic data are described synthetic travel time data are used to show that corrections for the delay time introduced by the water column are inferior to corrections for the true water path water path corrections place the shots at the ray entry points on the seafloor require no assumptions about the structure under investigation and maintain the correct distribution of data with range the water path correction can be most accurately applied during the stacking operation that transposes the observed data into intercept time slowness space there is then no requirement to make determinations of slowness and for experiments involving seafloor receiver and surface shots the data may be transposed to the seafloor with complete objectivity water path corrected stacks from different locations may then be compared in the sure knowledge that any observed differences are due to real structural changes and not to topographic correction errors or to invalid assumptions of lateral homogeneity

deformation path partitioning within the transpressional white mountain shear zone california and nevada most numerical simulations of transpression zones predict a change in finite stretching direction from subhorizontal to subvertical for simple shear dominated zones we provide a detailed description of a dextral transpression zone the white mountain shear zone wmsz with a range of lineation orientations and compare these natural data to numerical models the wmsz is characterized by steeply dipping foliations with dominant shallowly plunging lineations and coeval subordinate domains of steeply plunging lineations within shallowly lineated domains foliation geometry shear sense indicators and quartz c axis fabrics indicate a large component of simple shear while microstructural and quartz c axis fabric data from steeply lineated domains indicate a large component of pure shear geometric relationships between foliations and lineations and quartz c axis fabrics demonstrate that lineation orientation has remained constant during much of the deformation history comparison of numerical models with the data collected from wmsz shows that the shear zone geometry and the observed strain path partitioning do not match any of these models we propose a conceptual kinematic model for the wmsz involving stable segregated coeval kinematic domains of simple shear dominated fabrics and pure shear dominated fabrics that accommodate the transcurrent and contractional components of deformation respectively

the queen charlotte islands refraction project part i the queen charlotte fault zone the active margin between the continental north american plate and oceanic pacific plate west of the queen charlotte islands was the site of an extensive onshore offshore seismic refraction project

dipping seismic reflectors electrically conductive zones and trapped water in the crust over a subducting plate the lithoprobe program across the northern cascadia subduction zone at vancouver island has obtained geophysical data that suggest a dipping zone of trapped free pore water in the overlying continental crust land and marine multichannel seismic reflection profiles show several bands of reflectors the primary one at a depth of about 30 km is about 5 km thick dips inland and appears to coincide with an electrically conductive layer defined by magnetotelluric data the downgoing oceanic crust is imaged as a thin reflector dipping at about 15 and 10 km deeper than the primary reflector a location that is consistent with seismicity and seismic refraction data both the reflectors and the conductor have been modeled by near horizontal lamellae with 1 4 saline water porosity detailed geothermal measurements defining heat flow that decreases inland indicate that the dipping bands are nearly isothermal at a temperature of 400 500 c it is suggested that free water generated by dehydration of the downgoing oceanic plate migrates upward until reduced temperature results in hydration reactions and mineral precipitation that forms an impermeable barrier low vertical permeability is required to keep the water from separating to the top of the layer this can be reconciled with the low electrical resistivity if pore interconnection is through thin grain boundary tubes as predicted by theoretical equilibrium pore geometry although very small effective grain size is necessary an abrupt transition from high permeability to very low permeability is predicted at a several percent porosity in agreement with the modeled porosity such pore geometry with low permeability may be restricted to temperatures above about 400 c i e in greenschist to amphibolite facies conditions where grains will deform to equilibrium geometry and cracks are annealed the region above the reflective and conductive band is estimated to be within blueschist conditions consistent with the inferred high seismic velocity from refraction data and high density from gravity data

3d seismic analysis of the coast shear zone in se alaska and western british columbia broadside analysis of accrete wide angle data abstract the multidisciplinary accrete project addresses the question of continental assemblage in southeast alaska and western british columbia by terrane accretion and magmatic addition the previous studies of this project yielded important information for understanding the structures across the coast shear zone csz and the formation of the csz and the coast mountains batholith cmb the present study extends these interpretations into pseudo 3 d by using two additional wide angle accrete seismic lines by analyzing the broadside wide angle data using a series of laterally homogeneous 2 d models we derive a lower resolution 3 d velocity model of the outboard terranes and constrain variations in crustal thickness across and along the csz models of the broadside data confirms major structural and compositional trends extend along strike to the northwest the key features are a a steep moho ramp only 15 km wide is coincident with the csz and divides thin 25 1 km crust to the west below the west vergent thrust belt wtb from thicker 31 1 km crust to the east below the cmb b low velocity mantle 7 7 7 9 km s extends beneath the entire study region indicating high crustal and upper mantle temperatures below the wtb and cmb and c the alexander terrane is characterized by strong mid crustal reflectivity and high lower crustal velocities that are consistent with gabbroic composition this study extends the earlier interpretation and implies that the ramp is indeed likely associated with transpressional tectonics and magmatic crustal addition east of the csz

crustal structure of the cascadia subduction zone southwestern british columbia from potential field and seismic studies the northern cascadia subduction zone is a region of convergence between the oceanic explorer and northern juan de fuca plates and the continental north american plate potential field and new seismic reflection data coupled with previous seismic results and geology enable derivation of a series of density magnetic susceptibility cross sections and a block density model from the ocean basin to the volcanic arc from 2 5 and 3 dimensional interpretations the lateral extent and thickness of the accreted wedge vary significantly along the zone the narrow metasedimentary pacific rim terrane lies immediately west of wrangellia and extends the length of vancouver island consistent with its emplacement by strike slip faulting following the accretion of wrangellia the ophiolitic crescent terrane is a narrow slice lying seaward of the pacific rim terrane but not extending northward beyond the juan de fuca plate in this region the crescent terrane was emplaced in a strike slip or obliquely convergent style

dislocation creep regimes in quartz aggregates abstract using optical and tem microscopy we have determined that three regimes of dislocation creep occur in experimentally deformed quartz aggregates depending on the relative rates of grain boundary migration dislocation climb and dislocation production within each regime a distinctive microstructure is produced due primarily to the operation of different mechanisms of dynamic recrystallization at lower temperatures and faster strain rates the rate of dislocation production is too great for diffusion controlled dislocation climb to be an effective recovery mechanism in this regime recovery is accommodated by strain induced grain boundary migration recrystallization with an increase in temperature or decrease in strain rate the rate of dislocation climb becomes sufficiently rapid to accommodate recovery in this regime dynamic recrystallization occurs by progressive subgrain rotation with a further increase in temperature or decrease in strain rate dislocation climb remains sufficiently rapid to accommodate recovery however in this regime grain boundary migration is rapid thus recrystallization occurs by both grain boundary migration and progressive subgrain rotation the identification of the three regimes of dislocation creep may have important implications for the determination of flow law parameters and the calibration of recrystallized grain size piezometers in addition the identification of a particular dislocation creep regime could be useful in helping to constrain the conditions at which a given natural deformation has occurred

seismic structure across the active subduction zone of western canada the vancouver island seismic project was conducted in 1980 to study the structure of the subducting oceanic juan de fuca plate and the overriding continental america plate the principal seismic refraction line line i was a 350 km onshore offshore profile perpendicular to the continental margin an array of 32 receivers was located on the america plate on the mainland and across vancouver island and extended offshore with three ocean bottom seismometers obs s two shots were fired at the eastern end of the line and 17 shots were located along the westernmost 100 km of the profile control for the interpretation of the onshore offshore profile was provided by a reversed refraction profile along the length of vancouver island and by a marine refraction profile recorded on the obs s modeling of the seismic structure of this complex region utilized an iterative inversion method for travel times from explosions in which shots at several locations are recorded on the same set of receivers and utilized an algorithim based on asymptotic ray theory for the calculation of synthetic seismograms through two dimensional media the major features of the refraction structural model are that 1 the oceanic lithosphere dips at 3 or less beneath the continental slope so the bend in the subducting slab occurs landward of the foot of the slope 2 the oceanic lithosphere dips at 14 16 beneath the continental shelf until it passes beneath the continental moho at 37 km depth below western vancouver island 3 an upper mantle reflector may correspond to the base of the subducting lithosphere and 4 a segment of high velocity material above the downgoing crust with velocity 7 7 km s and depth range 20 25 km may represent a remnant of subducted lithosphere perhaps detached when the subduction zone jumped westward to its present position