rayleigh wave tomography beneath intraplate volcanic ridges in the south pacific sources recorded over a 12 month period provides resolution of phase velocities at periods upto100s theaveragephasevelocitiesforthestudyarearevealapronouncedlow velocity zone reaching a minimum shear velocity of 3 95 km s the negative velocity gradient defining the base of the lithosphere observed at 40 15 km abruptly reverses at 70 km depth the underlying positive gradient changes slope at 125 km we attribute these changes in gradient to the onset of incipient partial melting of upwelling mantle in thepresenceofwaterat125km followedbyincreasedmeltproductionat70kmthatleadsto dehydration of the residual matrix and migration of melt to the surface spreading center rayleigh wave tomography shows that there are anomalously low shear velocities extending to at least 50 km depth beneath the sojourn ridge and the hotu matua volcanic complex with relatively high velocities between these volcanic chains these observations are not consistent with passive models for the origin of the volcanic ridges involving lithospheric extension or thermoelastic cracking dynamic models invoking flow in the asthenosphere in the form of small scale convection or viscous fingering instabilities may explain the observed pattern of seismic velocity anomalies

seismic imaging of melt in a displaced hawaiian plume the precise location of the mantle plume upwelling beneath hawaii is debated seismic data reveal a thick layer of melt in the mantle beneath western hawaii implying that the upwelling plume may be deflected around an ancient resistive root beneath the island

stable isotope composition of late pleistocene holocene eobania vermiculata muller 1774 pulmonata stylommatophora shells from the central mediterranean basin data from grotta d oriente favignana sicily abstract this paper presents stable isotopic results oxygen and carbon from both modern and late pleistocene holocene shells of the land snail eobania vermiculata muller 1774 from favignana island sicily it aims to contribute to the understanding of climate and vegetation history of this region during formation of upper palaeolithic mesolithic and meso neolithic deposits of grotta d oriente ort results from both an evaporative model fbm and an empirical regional isotopic model i e linear relation between oxygen isotopic composition of shells 18 os and those of local precipitation 18 op indicate that the 18 os values of modern specimens are mainly controlled by local temperature relative humidity and 18 op at the time of snail activity data also suggest that the modern snails are nocturnally active almost all year round in the study area the carbon isotopic compositions of shells 13 cs of the same specimens indicate a diet prevalently or exclusively composed of c3 vegetation the 18 os values of late pleistocene specimens suggest that climate conditions at 14 2 ka cal bp were similar to the present day in agreement with additional 18 os records from southern italy by contrast early middle holocene shells are notably 18 o depleted and suggest wetter conditions possibly combined with a decrease in isotopic composition of precipitation source compared to the present day when compared with regional palaeoclimatic records a large scale isotopic response to millennial scale changes in atmospheric and hydrological conditions e g enhanced rainfall in the central eastern mediterranean is observed during the early middle holocene the 13 cs of late pleistocene and holocene specimens are consistently higher than those of modern ones for the late pleistocene this could be reasonably explained in terms of water stressed vegetation on the other hand this seems to be less valid for holocene counterparts when the climate was wetter probably 13 cs values result from the combination of distinct competing factors involving atmospheric co 2 concentration seasonal water budget vegetation type cover and other carbon sources results reveal coherent relationships between regional 18 os and 13 cs demonstrating that late pleistocene holocene land snail shell remains from archaeological sites may provide useful snapshots of past seasonal climate conditions

marine geophysical investigation of the chain fracture zone in the equatorial atlantic from the pi lab experiment the chain fracture zone is a 300 km long transform fault that offsets the mid atlantic ridge we analyzed new multibeam bathymetry backscatter gravity and magnetic data with 100 multibeam bathymetric data over the active transform valley and adjacent spreading segments as part of the passive imaging of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary pi lab experiment analyses of these data sets allow us to determine the history and mode of crustal formation and the tectonic evolution of the transform system and adjacent ridges over the past 20 myr we model the total field magnetic anomaly to determine the age of the crust along the northern ridge segment to better establish the timing of the variations in the seafloor fabric and the tectonic magmatic history of the region within the active transform fault zone we observe four distinct positive flower structures with several en echelon fault scarps visible in the backscatter data we find up to 10 mgal residual mantle bouguer anomaly in the region of the largest positive flower structure within the transform zone suggesting crustal thickening relative to the crustal thinning typically observed in fracture zones in the atlantic the extensional compressional features observed in the chain transform are less pronounced than those observed further north in the vema st paul and romanche and may be due to local ridge segment adjustments

oxygen isotope signatures from land snail helix melanostoma shells and body fluid proxies for reconstructing mediterranean and north african rainfall abstract in this paper we show that oxygen isotope ratios from the shell carbonate of the land snail helix melanostoma reflect local rainfall parameters stable oxygen isotopes were measured in the body fluid 18 o body and shells 18 o shell of live collected h melanostoma along a north south transect across the gebel akhdar in northeast libya 18 o body ranged between 8 1 and 13 0 whilst 18 o shell ranged between 1 0 and 2 8 to investigate the relationship between snail oxygen isotope composition and climate these measurements were correlated with ambient air temperature relative humidity rainfall amount and the 18 o composition of rainwater 18 o rain strong and significant correlations were found between 18 o shell and 18 o rain and between 18 o shell and rainfall amount r 2 0 79 and 0 85 respectively suggesting that h melanostoma shells can be used as a proxy for past rainfall conditions when combined in multiple linear regressions 18 o rain and rainfall amount explained 90 of the variance in 18 o shell r 2 0 90 simple and multiple linear regressions were used to develop predictive models for these climate parameters as h melanostoma shells are commonly found in mediterranean and north african archaeological and geological deposits the predictive equations developed in this study hold great potential for reconstructing pleistocene to holocene rainfall and aridity patterns in the gebel akhdar and for assessing the relationship between environmental changes and human behavioural changes

the influence of diet on the δ13c of shell carbon in the pulmonate snail helix aspersa abstract the influence of diet and atmospheric co2 on the carbon isotope composition of shell aragonite and shell bound organic carbon in the pulmonate snail helix aspersa raised in the laboratory was investigated three separate groups of snails were raised on romaine lettuce c3 plant 13c 25 8 corn c4 plant 13c 10 5 and sour orange 12c enriched c3 plant 13c 39 1 the isotopic composition of body tissues closely tracked the isotopic composition of the snail diet as demonstrated previously however the isotopic composition of the acid insoluble organic matrix extracted from the aragonite shells does not track diet in all groups in snails that were fed corn the isotopic composition of the organic matrix was more negative than the body by as much as 5 whereas the matrix was approximately 1 heavier than the body tissues in snails fed a diet of c3 plant material these results indicate that isotopic composition of the organic matrix carbon cannot be used as an isotopic substrate for paleodietary reconstructions without first determining the source of the carbon and any associated fractionations the isotopic composition of the shell aragonite is offset from the body tissues by 12 3 in each of the culture groups this offset was not influenced by the consumption of carbonate and is not attributable to the diffusion of atmospheric co2 into the hemolymph the carbon isotopic composition of shell aragonite is best explained in terms of equilibrium fractionations associated with exchange between metabolic co2 and hco3 in the hemolymph and the fractionation associated with carbonate precipitation these results differ from previous studies based primarily on samples collected in the field that have suggested atmospheric carbon dioxide contributes significantly to the shell 13c the culture results indicate that the 13c of aragonite is a good recorder of the isotopic composition of the snail body tissue and therefore a better recorder of diet than is the insoluble shell organic carbon because the systematic fractionation of carbon isotopes within the snail is temperature dependent the 13c of the shell could provide an independent technique for estimating paleotemperature changes

imaging crustal discontinuities and the downgoing slab beneath western crete the migration of teleseismic receiver functions yields high resolution images of the crustal structure of western crete data were collected during two field campaigns in 1996 and 1997 by networks of six and 47 short period three component seismic stations respectively a total of 1288 seismograms from 97 teleseismic events were restituted to true ground displacement within a period range from 0 5 to 7 s the application of a noise adaptive deconvolution filter and a new polarization analysis technique helped to overcome problems with local coda and noise conditions the computation and migration of receiver functions results in images of local crustal structures with unprecedented spatial resolution for this region the crust under crete consists of a continental top layer of 15 20 km thickness above a 20 30 km thick subducted fossil accretionary wedge with a characteristic en echelon fault sequence the downgoing oceanic moho lies at a depth of 40 60 km and shows a topography or undulation with an amplitude of several kilometres as a consequence of slab depth and distribution of local seismicity the mediterranean ridge is interpreted as the recent accretionary wedge

links between marine and atmospheric processes oscillating on a millennial time scale a multi proxy study of the last 50 000 yr from the alboran sea western mediterranean sea abstract the large dataset obtained from the extensive study of images core md95 2043 recovered from the alboran sea western mediterranean shows the periodicities and phase relationships of oceanographic and atmospheric processes on a millennial time scale the 1470 yr cycle is the most significant with the exception of the records reflecting climatic or environmental changes on land which show statistically significant 3300 and 8000 frequency bands the investigation of these core records on a millennial scale resolution allows us to establish the evolution of oceanographic and atmospheric mechanisms that influenced the western mediterranean region in the course of the dansgaard oeschger cycles accordingly possible land sea interactions can be identified and situated in the context of the temporal succession of the different climatic processes for instance saharan dust supply from northern africa appears to lead high latitude climate changes suggesting that low latitude feedback processes were involved in forcing the millennial climatic variability in the westernmost mediterranean

evolution of the oceanic lithosphere in the equatorial atlantic from rayleigh wave tomography evidence for small scale convection from the pi lab experiment

imaging pacific lithosphere seismic discontinuities insights from ss precursor modeling oceanic lithosphere provides an ideal location to decipher the nature of the lithosphere asthenosphere system which is vital to our understanding of plate tectonics it is well established that oceanic lithosphere cools thickens and subsides as it ages according to the conductive cooling models yet this simple realization fails to explain various observations for example old oceanic lithosphere does not subside as predicted further precise imaging of the lower boundary of the oceanic lithosphere has proven challenging here we use ss precursors to image the discontinuity structure across the pacific ocean using 24 years of teleseismic data we image a sharp pervasive velocity discontinuity 3 15 drop over 36 my there is no age depth dependence and we image the discontinuity at an average depth of 60 1 5 km the amplitude and sharpness of the boundary suggests a compositional variation and or layered carbonatitic melt may be required to explain our observations rather than temperature alone the strength and pervasiveness of the boundary suggests that it is likely related to the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary an additional deeper discontinuity at 80 120 km depth is imaged intermittently that in most cases likely represents a continuing negative velocity gradient in depth

plio quaternary stress state in the burdur basin sw turkey abstract this study defines the plio quaternary to present day stress regime in the burdur basin located at the northeastern end of the fethiye burdur fault zone in sw turkey this fault length which is considered the landward continuation of the pliny strabo trench is an important feature in sw turkey the inversion slip vectors measured on fault planes indicate a consistent normal faulting stress regime during plio quaternary time continuing into recent times as indicated by earthquake focal mechanism inversions both states have consistent nw se trending horizontal minimum stress axes 3 the orientation of fault sets is predominantly around the ne sw direction in the major fethiye burdur fault zone making the extension nw se the mean stress ratio is 0 74 indicating a triaxial stress state which is clearly different from radial extension the nw se extension is probably responsible for the formation of the burdur basin during plio quaternary time this extension which is probably caused by slab pull force due to the subduction process along the cyprus arc produces a dominant normal motion along the fbfz

buoyant mantle upwelling and crustal production at oceanic spreading centers on axis segmentation and off axis melting numerical experiments are used to examine the effect of buoyant mantle flow on melt generation near spreading centers buoyancy results from 1 the depletion of residual mantle in fe relative to mg mantle depletion buoyancy 2 the presence of low density melt melt retention buoyancy and 3 thermal expansion thermal buoyancy thermal buoyancy drives off axis convective rolls that develop closer to the spreading axis at slower spreading rates melt retention buoyancy drives focused upwelling into isolated melting centers with increasing spreading rate the amplitude of on axis crustal segmentation decreases the melting region being essentially two dimensional at full spreading rates greater than 100 km m y these numerical experiments predict centers of mantle upwelling that are more widely spaced than the actual wavelength of inferred crustal thickness variations this discrepancy indicates that short wavelength segmentation of slow spreading centers requires some process not included in our models of mantle flow at fast spreading rates when the lithosphere is thinner melt retention buoyancy gives rise to isolated focused centers of off axis upwelling and melt production off axis melting centers begin to form at about 300 km from the axis with a characteristic along axis spacing of 200 km successive off axis melting centers are shifted along axis so that crustal thickness far from the axis is increased at a 100 km wavelength

stable isotope δ18o δ13c and δd signatures of recent terrestrial communities from a low latitude oceanic setting endemic land snails plants rain and carbonate sediments from the eastern canary islands abstract stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon extracted from fossil land snail shells have been used increasingly to interpret past environments to evaluate the utility of this approach for low latitude oceanic islands populations of the modern helicid land snail theba geminata a species also abundant in the quaternary fossil record of the region were sampled at ten low altitude d and 2 v smow for 18 o ranging from 11 to 2 v smow and from 2 6 to 0 7 v smow respectively the local vegetation is heterogeneous including c 3 c 4 and cam plants 13 c values vary from 13 0 to 29 0 v pdb across plant species of the 24 species five are c 4 15 are c 3 and four are cam plants the 18 o values for shells represent a narrow range of values from 0 3 to 2 5 v pdb which is consistent with the low climate seasonality typifying low latitude oceanic settings hypothetical model of the expected 18 o value for shell aragonite precipitated in equilibrium suggests that the most negative 18 o shell represent the closest estimate for 18 o rain water the 13 c values of shells range from 9 4 to 1 7 v pdb the most positive 13 c values are attributed to a diet based on c 4 plants the comparison of 13 c values of soft tissues and shells suggests that snails ingested notable amounts from 20 up to 40 of foreign carbonates consequently fossil shells with the most negative 13 c values should be selected for radiocarbon dating in future geochronological studies of the region the 13 c values of body tissues vary from 12 0 to 27 2 v pdb indicating that land snails consumed c 3 and c 4 plants indiscriminately the mean carbon isotopic composition averaged across multiple fossil specimens may thus provide a useful tool for reconstructing paleoclimates and paleoenvironments throughout the quaternary history of the canary islands and other comparable low latitude oceanic settings

reproducing the velocity and stress fields in the aegean region recent satellite geodetic measurements help to clearly define the velocity field in the aegean anatolian area the velocity field can be broadly characterized by anticlockwise rotation of this region relative to eurasia around a pole located at lat 32 73 long 32 03 north of the egyptian shoreline studies of the fault kinematics in the region also provide information on the time evolution of the stress field in this work we model deformation in the aegean anatolian region to better understand the tectonic origin of the observed stress and velocity fields we found that the observed deformation pattern can be well reproduced by imposing simple boundary conditions including 1 northward displacement of the arabian plate 2 locking of eastward motion in northwestern greece and 3 suction force at the hellenic trench the observed variation in the stress field occurred at 0 9 ma can be partially explained by a change in the activity of the north anatolian fault

the use of land snail shells in paleoenvironmental reconstruction fossil land snail shells constitute a valuable source of paleoenvironmental information for the quaternary they can be dated by a variety of methods including radiocarbon amino acid racemization and epimerization and perhaps also thu and esr the vast majority of paleoenvironmental studies based on land snail shells have examined the faunal composition of fossil assemblages from which a variety of paleoenvironmental characteristics such as biome temperature and moisture conditions have been reconstructed still there are a number of problems involved in using this approach and these are discussed shell morphology has occasionally been used to reconstruct such factors as rainfall and temperature stable isotope studies on quaternary land snails include analysis of 18o values of organic matter in the shells to reconstruct c4 plant distributions from which rainfall amounts can be inferred and analysis of 18o values of shell carbonate from which trends in the oxygen isotope composition of rainfall can be reconstructed stable carbon isotopes of shell carbonate have also been studied but their interpretation is not clear amino acid epimerization analysis dalloisoleucinel isoleucine ratios of land snail shells has been used for estimation of paleotemperatures some potential uses of land snail shells for paleoenvironmental reconstruction include the study of stable isotopes of h and n periodic growth lines and deposits of pedogenic carbonates on the shells

temporal variation in the stress field of the aegean region we use a forward numerical model to analyse the intra plate stress field in an area of active extension of continental lithosphere the aegean region recent tomographic images of the hellenic subduction zone offer the unique opportunity to address the relation between the evolving aegean stress field and temporal variations in the subduction process to this extent we apply our model to both the present day and the late pliocene situation regarding the current situation it is found that subduction related forces largely explain the observed pattern of tension results obtained for the pliocene indicate that detachment of the slab subducted below western greece may have controlled the observed temporal variation in the pattern of tension

p and s deep velocity structure of the hellenic area obtained by robust nonlinear inversion of travel times we derived a new model for the p and s velocity structure of the lithosphere in the subduction area of the hellenic arc and the aegean sea from the inversion of travel times of local events the inversion technique applied is nonlinear since three dimensional ray tracing is incorporated at the same time an appropriate preconditioning of the final linearized system is used in order to reduce ray density effects on the results the p s coherency is controlled by an additional damping of the vp vs ratio the study focuses mainly on the structure of the hellenic subduction in the southern aegean region interesting features and details of the subducted slab can be recognized in the final tomographic images on the western part the shallower section of the slab is dipping at a very small angle 10 this changes to approximately 25 for the deeper part of the subduction resulting in a prominent kink at a depth of about 70 km which is in accordance with the general characteristics of the associated benioff zone the smaller eastern part of the slab is not resolved with the same detail but a clearly steeper subduction zone can be recognized moreover detailed information about the crustal thickness variations are inferred from the velocity structure and correlate very well with the existing results from refraction experiments finally the results confirm the recent suggestion concerning the existence of a low velocity crustal layer at shallow depths 10 15 km in the accretionary prism of the alpine belt

dynamic models of subduction geophysical and geological evidence in the tyrrhenian sea summary predictions based on a 2 d finite element model for subduction underneath the calabrian arc in southern italy are compared with a variety of geophysical and geological data such as the present day stress pattern within the slab uplift from the elevation of marine terraces in calabria and subsidence in the tyrrhenian marsili basin from odp leg 107 we model the behaviour of the slab driven by slab pull in agreement with the present tectonic style in this part of the mediterranean as suggested by several investigators the model accounts for the crustal lithospheric and mantle structures in a vertical cross section perpendicular to the calabrian subduction zone the shape of the slab is constrained on the basis of new tomographic images in the southern tyrrhenian sea which were obtained from the regional seismic stations of the istituto nazionale di geofisica while the rheological properties of the mantle are taken from global dynamic models density contrasts between the subducted slab and the surrounding mantle based on petrological models drive the flow in our viscoelastic model stress values displacements and vertical velocities at the surface are sampled at different times after loading until dynamic equilibrium is reached our estimates are appropriate for a time window of 100 kyr the validity of our comparison with the geological record is based on the assumption that the tectonic configuration in the past was not substantially different from that of the present day two families of models with unlocked and locked subduction faults are considered the unlocked models allow for roll back of the trench of about 20 mm yr in agreement with some geological estimates the same family of models predicts uplift of the calabrian arc of about 1 mm yr l and subsidence in the marsili basin of 1 2 mm yr in agreement with geological surveys the deviatoric stress obtained from the unlocked model is consistent with the continuous distribution of deep seismicity in the southern tyrrhenian sea with minor concentration within the lithospheric wedge locked models fail to reproduce these geophysical and geological observations predictions derived from a detached slab model are not consistent with the continuous hypocentral distribution of deep seismicity in the southern tyrrhenian sea deformation at the surface and the stress patterns at depth for a detached slab differ substantially from those of a continuous plate dynamic topography and horizontal motions are reduced when compared with the continuous plate with deviatoric stresses concentrated within the relict slab our results indicate that subduction is a major tectonic process in the southern tyrrhenian sea

slab detachment beneath eastern anatolia a possible cause for the formation of the north anatolian fault in this paper we discuss the possibility that the north anatolian fault naf results from the deep deformation of the slab beneath the bitlis hellenic subduction zone we described the tectonic evolution of the anatolia aegean area in three main steps before during and after the formation of the naf we remark that the tectonic conditions that are assumed to have triggered the formation of the naf i e collision to the east and extension to the west was already achieved before the onset of that strike slip fault system we also highlight that the formation of the naf was accompanied by the uplift of the turkish iranian plateau and by a surge of volcanism in the eastern anatolia collisional area and probably by the acceleration of the aegean trench retreat we show tomographic images from global p wave model of piromallo and morelli c piromallo a morelli p wave tomography of the mantle under the alpine mediterranean area j geophys res 108 2003 doi 10 1029 2002jb001757 showing that the slab beneath the bitlis collisional belt is not continuous and that its possible rupture pursues to the west at least up to cyprus and possibly up to the eastern end of the hellenic trench all these observations suggest that the plate tectonic re organization occurred in the late miocene early pliocene in the region results from slab break off in the bitlis area and from its lateral propagation to the west this idea is tested in analogue laboratory experiments which confirm that the break of the slab under the collisional belt may trigger 1 the acceleration of slab retreat to the west due to the increase in slab pull force 2 the indentation of the continent in the collisional area and 3 produce the conditions that permit the lateral escape of material towards the west and the formation of the naf

a study of the crust stress field for the aegean region greece abstract the in situ stress field may be assessed from data such as the fault plane solutions of the earthquakes occurring in the region and by estimation of a stress field compatible with the kinematic behavior of the crust the regional kinematics may be derived from the velocity field estimated from gps data and other geodetic observations in the present work an investigation of the stress field of the aegean sea is carried out following two approaches both use the same tectonic characteristics for the hellenic region and the same assumptions referring to the mechanical properties of the medium in the first approach the yearly rate of the in situ crustal stresses based on a two dimensional fe linear analysis are evaluated solving for the inverse problem given the gps observed displacement field for the broader aegean region the results have been compared with published papers and with stresses obtained from available focal mechanism solutions in the second approach the borders of the probable lithospheric micro plates and the active faults are considered as discontinuities in an elastic half space representing the earth s crust the coulomb stress changes due to the tectonic slip are evaluated providing an insight of the way these tectonic elements interact assuming succeeding activation of the tectonic structures of the region the accumulation of the coulomb stress changes has been estimated the accumulated coulomb shear stress distribution provides a criterion for the selection of the more realistic boundary conditions for the fe modeling in this respect the two approaches complement each other and enrich the final picture discussed here

new finite element techniques for modeling deformation histories of continents with stratified temperature dependent rheology previous techniques for modeling anelastic deformation of the lithosphere have included plane strain models restricted to two dimensional problems and quasi three dimensional plane stress or thin plate models that did not accurately include the effects of the shallow frictional layer or of kinematic detachment of crust from mantle this paper presents techniques to remedy these deficiencies of thin plate models an iteration strategy in which the rheology is linearized using artificial prestress and a particular effective viscosity tensor causes the calculation of horizontal velocities to converge monotonically even with a frictional layer at the top of the lithosphere a technique using two planar grids allows deformation and displacement to be different at the crust and mantle levels at far less cost than that of a three dimensional grid a finite element technique is developed for computing the changes in thickness of these layers caused by pure shear simple shear and pressure gradients a technique based on relaxation of perturbation eigenfunctions solves the heat equation in the lithosphere during deformation accuracy of component numerical methods is good for simple test problems but in realistic nonlinear problems utilizing all components only the precision can be determined because of the lack of analytic solutions precision of the combined program is tested with a realistic sample problem and presented as a function of the number of iterations in each velocity solution convergence factor 0 73 to 0 88 size of time step in the predictor corrector time integration convergence as t0 8 and number of degrees of freedom in the finite element grid convergence as n 0 5 to 0 8 for most variables overall cost of a simulation varies with the fractional precision as 3 3 a new consequence of kinematic detachment a moving wave of crustal thickness is found unfortunately the form of the wave depends on the finite element size this means that element size must be chosen to approximate the smoothing by flexural rigidity effects that were neglected because of cost

carbon isotope signatures from land snail shells implications for palaeovegetation reconstruction in the eastern mediterranean in this study we compare carbon isotope values in modern helix melanostoma shell carbonate 13cshell from the gebel al akhdar region of libya with carbon isotope values in h melanostoma body tissue 13cbody local vegetation 13cplant and soil 13csoil all vegetation in the study area followed the c3 photosynthetic pathway however the 13cplant values of different species formed two distinct isotopic groups this can be best explained by different water use efficiencies with arid adapted species having significantly more positive 13cplant values than less water efficient species the ranges and means of 13cbody and 13cplant were statistically indistinguishable from one another suggesting that 13cbody was primarily a function of local vegetation composition h melanostoma 13cshell reflected the 13cplant of local vegetation with a positive offset between body diet and shell of 14 5 1 4 therefore in the gebel al akhdar where only c3 plants are present higher mean 13cshell values likely reflect greater abundances of water efficient c3 plants in the snails diet and therefore in the landscape whilst lower mean 13cshell values likely reflect the consumption of less water efficient c3 plants the distribution of these plants is in turn affected by environmental factors such as rainfall these findings can be applied to archaeological and geological shell deposits to reconstruct late pleistocene to holocene vegetation change in the southeast mediterranean

stable isotope composition of land snail body water and its relation to environmental waters and shell carbonate abstract day to day and within day diel variations in d and 18 o of the body water of the land snail theba pisana were studied at a site in the southern coastal plain of israel three phases of variation which relate to isotopic changes in atmospheric water vapor were distinguished 1 on rain days snail water becomes isotopically depleted approximately in the direction of the rain isotope values but always less depleted in d as is atmospheric water vapor 2 during the 1 3 days following a rain the snail water becomes isotopically enriched along a line with slope 18 o space this relates to an increasing influence of humidity derived from the mediterranean sea 3 a period of relative stability of the isotopic composition persists until the next rain event the isotopic variations can be explained by isotopic equilibration with atmospheric water vapor and or uptake of dew derived therefrom during the winter when the snails are active there is only very minor enrichment in 18 o relative to equilibrium with water vapor or dew apparently as a result of metabolic activity but this enrichment becomes pronounced after long periods of inactivity within day variation in body water isotopic composition is minor on non rain days shell carbonate is enriched in 18 o by ca 1 2 relative to equilibrium with body water in most regions the isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapor or dew is a direct function of that of rain because the isotopic composition of snail body water is related to that of atmospheric water vapor and the isotopic composition of shell carbonate in turn is related to that of body water land snail shell carbonate 18 o should provide a reliable indication of rainfall 18 o however local environmental conditions and the ecological properties of the snail species must be taken into account

oxygen isotope composition of living land snail shells data from italy sixty seven shells of living land snails were selected from 31 different localities across italy to investigate the relationships between their oxygen isotopic composition 18os and the mean value of local rainfall 18op despite the difficulty for some localities to correctly estimate the oxygen isotopic composition of local rainfall a good relationship was found this indicates that the oxygen isotopic composition of environmental water used by the snails is in italy strictly related to that of the local meteoric precipitation however the relationship found is substantially different from that previous established for central europe indicating that regional climatic conditions are important in defining the final isotopic composition of land snail shells moreover these equations may not hold for different climatic conditions existing during for instance glacial and interglacial periods the data also show that isotopic differences among species are relatively narrow and that they may depend on ecological factors i e style of life rather than any clearly identifiable different vital offset

geodetic determination of the kinematics of central greece with respect to europe implications for eastern mediterranean tectonics we use a new satellite laser ranging global positioning system slr gps solution at seven sites in anatolia and aegea to obtain a better definition of the extrusion motion of the anatolian aegean block with respect to europe we show that this motion can be described in a first approximation by a counterclockwise rotation which transfers most of the motion of arabia to anatolia we combine 78 displacement vectors obtained at common points of two triangulation nets measured in central greece in 1895 and 1975 with the slr gps measurements to compute the velocity field over greece with respect to europe these measurements indicate that central greece is a zone of extension between the anatolian aegean counterclockwise rotation to the south and the northern greece clockwise rotation to the north this extension is principally localized within the gulf of corinth to the east but is distributed to the west we then extrapolate this velocity field to the whole aegea and western anatolia using recently published gps results as well as the slr results the narrow dextral north anatolian fault which limits the velocity field to the north progressively gives way to a much wider boundary zone where extension becomes dominant we show that the collision between the mediterranean ridge and africa began 3 6 ma and we describe the modifications that this collision has produced on the kinematic pattern both in aegea and on the mediterranean ridge

contemporary kinematics of the southern aegean and the mediterranean ridge summary this study focuses on the kinematics of the southern aegean and the mediterranean ridge mr a quantification of the deformation of the mr is essential for both evaluating physical models of accretionary wedges in general and for obtaining a self consistent model of the surface deformation over the entire nubia eurasia nu eu plate boundary zone in the eastern mediterranean previous kinematic studies have not properly considered the deformation field south of the hellenic arc although this study focuses on the deformation field of the mr we also discuss the kinematics of the southern aegean because the geometry and movement of the hellenic arc determine to a large extent the kinematic boundary conditions for kinematic studies of the mr we calculate a continuous velocity and strain rate field by interpolating model velocities that are fitted in a least squares sense to published global positioning system gps velocities in the interpolation we use information from a detailed data set of onshore and offshore active faulting to place constraints on the expected style and direction of the model strain rate field in addition we use the orientations of tracks left by seamounts travelling into the wedge to further constrain the offshore deformation pattern our model results highlight the presence of active shear partitioning within the mediterranean ridge high compressional strain rates between the ridge crest and the deformation front accommodate approximately 60 70 per cent of the total motion over the wedge and the outward growth rate of the frontal thrust is 4m m yr 1 strain partitioning within the wedge leads to 19 23 mm yr 1 of dextral motion at the wedge backstop contact of the western mr whereas the pliny and strabo trenches in the eastern mr accommodate 21 23 mm yr 1 of sinistral motion the backstop of the western mr is kinematically part of the southern aegean which moves as a single block the aegean block ae at 33 34 mm yr 1 in the direction of s24 w 1 towards stable nubia nu our model confirms that there is a clear divergence between the western and eastern hellenic arc and we argue for a causal relation between the outward motion of the arc and the gradient in the regional geoid anomaly our results suggest that a significant driving source of the surface velocity field lies south of the hellenic arc and only for the southeastern aegean could there be some effect as a result of gravitational collapse associated with density differences within the overriding plate

present day kinematics of the middle east and eastern mediterranean the middle east and eastern mediterranean regions contain three major strike slip fault zones the dead sea fault zone dsfz and the north and east anatolian fault zones nafz and eafz these accommodate northward motion of the african and arabian plates relative to eurasia and westward motion of the small turkish plate this study deduces an internally consistent solution for the present day kinematics of these plates which is accurate to better than 20 and applicable throughout time since 5 ma by constraining the slip senses and rates on these strike slip fault zones the 7 0 5 mm yr 1 left lateral slip rate on the dsfz is associated with counterclockwise rotation of arabia relative to africa at 0 33 m y 1 around an eulcr pole near 33 n 23 e the nafz takes up counterclockwise rotation of the turkish plate relative to eurasia at 0 83 m y 1 13 around a pole at 31 n 35 5 e with right lateral slip rate 15 mm yr 1 the resulting prediction for the eafz involves 14 mm yr 1 left lateral motion and 2 mm yr 1 of shortening between arabia and turkey the triple junction of africa arabia and turkey is near the city of kahramanmaras this locality contains a narrow promontory bounded by ssw trending left lateral faults at the edges of the arabian and turkish plates which is loosely attached to the african plate moving westward relative to its interior at 4 mm yr 1

increased seasonality in the western mediterranean during the last glacial from limpet shell geochemistry the seasonal cycle is a fundamental aspect of climate with a significant influence on mean climate and on human societies assessing seasonality in different climate states is therefore important but outside the tropics very few palaeoclimate records with seasonal resolution exist and there are currently no glacial age seasonal resolution sea surface temperature sst records at mid to high latitudes here we show that both mg ca and oxygen isotope 18o ratios in modern limpet patella shells record the seasonal range of sst in the western mediterranean a region particularly susceptible to seasonal change analysis of a suite of fossil limpet shells from gibraltar shows that sst seasonality was greater during the last glacial by 2 c as a result of greater winter cooling these extra tropical seasonal resolution sst records for the last glacial suggest that the presence of large ice sheets in the northern hemisphere enhances winter cooling this result also indicates that seasonality in the mediterranean is not well represented in most palaeoclimate models which typically show little change in seasonal amplitude and provides a new test for the accuracy of climate models

gps derived strain rate field within the boundary zones of the eurasian african and arabian plates we use the gps velocity field 1988 1998 for eastern mediterranean and asia minor to determine the crustal deformation strain rate field in an area bounded by 35 n and 43 n and 20 e and 48 e we calculate the normal and shear strain rate components associated with the major faults and compare these qualitatively with seismological data uncertainties in the calculation of the strain rates reach 50 nstrain yr 1 in sparsely observed parts of anatolia whereas we estimate errors 20 nstrain yr 1 in the aegean and marmara regions the largest compressional strain rate components in the eastern part of the study area occur along the greater caucasus mountain front reaching 70 nstrain yr 1 1 nstrain yr 1 0 0317 10 15 s 1 the north anatolian fault zone is the clearest feature in the shear strain rate field it is expressed as a pronounced dextral strike slip fault zone reaching rates of up to 170 nstrain yr 1 this holds true also for the izmit area where the august 17 1999 earthquake occurred central anatolia is almost strain free whereas extension prevails in western anatolia the principal axes of extension vary around the n s direction with strain rates of up to 85 nstrain yr 1 these extensional areas coincide with graben features and normal faulting earthquakes the central and southwestern aegean sea is strain free with values far below 40 nstrain yr 1 the seismic cluster around the dodekanissa islands southeastern aegean sea coincides with nw se oriented extension attaining strain rates of up to 90 nstrain yr 1 this area of extension also exhibits recent active volcanism the entire hellenic arc shows compressional strain rates perpendicular to the arc the pliny strabo troughs along the eastern segment of the arc show left lateral shear strain rates reaching 80 nstrain yr 1 significant extension is found in central greece with a nne ssw oriented maximum of 120 nstrain yr 1 centered around the gulf of corinthos the kephalonia fault zone in nw greece is a distinct dextral fault zone separating apulia from the rapidly moving aegean microplate right lateral shear strain rates reach 150 nstrain yr 1

fault slip directions in central and southern greece measured from striated and corrugated fault planes comparison with focal mechanism and geodetic data fault slip directions recorded by outcropping striated and corrugated fault planes in central and southern greece have been measured for comparison with extension directions derived from focal mechanism and global positioning system gps data for the last 100 years to test how far back in time velocity fields and deformation dynamics derived from the latter data sets can be extrapolated the fault slip data have been collected from the basin bounding faults to plio pleistocene to recent extensional basins and include data from arrays of footwall faults formed during the early stages of fault growth we show that the orientation of the inferred stress field varies along faults and earthquake ruptures so we use only slip directions from the centers of faults where dip slip motion occurs to constrain regionally significant extension directions the fault slip directions for the peloponnese and gulfs of evia and corinth are statistically different at the 99 confidence level but statistically the same as those implied by earthquake focal mechanisms for each region at the 99 confidence level they are also qualitatively similar to the principal strain axes derived from gps studies extension directions derived from fault slip data are 043 047 for the southern peloponnese 353 for the gulf of corinth and 015 014 for the gulf of evia extension on active normal faults in the two latter areas appears to grade into strike slip along the north anatolian fault through a gradual change in fault slip directions and fault strikes to reconcile the above with 5 myr 1 clockwise rotations suggested for the area we suggest that the faults considered formed during a single phase of extension the deformation and formation of the normal fault systems examined must have been sufficiently rapid and recent for rotations about vertical axes to have been unable to disperse the fault slip directions from the extension directions implied by focal mechanisms and gps data thus in central and southern greece the velocity fields derived from focal mechanism and gps data may help explain the dynamics of the deformation over longer time periods than the 100 years over which they were measured this may include the entire deformation history of the fault systems considered a time period that may exceed 1 2 myr

rayleigh wave phase velocities small scale convection and azimuthal anisotropy beneath southern california 1 we use rayleigh waves to invert for shear velocities in the upper mantle beneath southern california a one dimensional shear velocity model reveals a pronounced low velocity zone lvz from 90 to 210 km the pattern of velocity anomalies indicates that there is active small scale convection in the asthenosphere and that the dominant form of convection is three dimensional 3 d lithospheric drips and asthenospheric upwellings rather than 2 d sheets or slabs several of the features that we observe have been previously detected by body wave tomography these anomalies have been interpreted as delaminated lithosphere and consequent upwelling of the asthenosphere beneath the eastern edge of the southern sierra nevada and walker lane region sinking lithosphere beneath the southern central valley upwelling beneath the salton trough and downwelling beneath the transverse ranges our new observations provide better constraints on the lateral and vertical extent of these anomalies in addition we detect two previously undetected features a high velocity anomaly beneath the northern peninsular range and a low velocity anomaly beneath the northeastern mojave block we also estimate the azimuthal anisotropy from rayleigh wave data the strength is 1 7 at periods shorter than 100 s and decreases to below 1 at longer periods the fast direction is nearly e w the anisotropic layer is more than 300 km thick the e w fast directions in the lithosphere and sublithosphere mantle may be caused by distinct deformation mechanisms pure shear in the lithosphere due to n s tectonic shortening and simple shear in sublithosphere mantle due to mantle flow

subsidence of normal oceanic lithosphere apparent thermal expansivity and seafloor flattening abstract seafloor topography has been a key observational constraint on the thermal evolution of oceanic lithosphere which is the top boundary layer of convection in earth s mantle at least for the first 70 myr the age progression of seafloor depth is known to follow the prediction of half space cooling and the subsidence rate is commonly believed to be 350 m ma 1 2 here we show that based on a new statistical analysis of global bathymetry the average subsidence rate of normal oceanic lithosphere is likely to be 320 m ma 1 2 i e 10 lower than the conventional value we define the normal seafloor as regions uncorrelated with anomalous crust such as hotspots and oceanic plateaus but the lower subsidence rate appears to be a stable estimate not depending on how exactly we define the normal seafloor this low subsidence rate can still be explained by half space cooling with realistic mantle properties if the effective thermal expansivity of a viscoelastic mantle is taken into account in light of a revised model of half space cooling the normal seafloor unperturbed by the emplacement of anomalous crust exists for all ages and the so called seafloor flattening seems to be mostly caused by hotspots and oceanic plateaus

seismic structure of the upper mantle in a central pacific corridor the seismic structure of the tonga hawaii corridor has been investigated by combining two data sets revenaugh and jordan s reflectivity profile from scs reverberations which provides travel times to and impedance contrasts across the major mantle discontinuities and 1500 new observations of frequency dependent phase delays for the three component s ss and sss body waves and the r1 and g1 surface waves which constrain the velocity structure within this layered framework the shear waves turning in the upper mantle showed significant splitting of the sh and sv components indicative of shallow polarization anisotropy the data set was inverted in conjunction with attenuation and mineralogical constraints to obtain a complete spherically symmetric radially anisotropic structure the final model pa5 is characterized by a high velocity anisotropic lid bounded at 68 km depth by a large negative g discontinuity a low velocity anisotropic layer below g extending to a small l discontinuity at 166 km an isotropic steep gradient region between 166 km and 415 km and transition zone discontinuities at 415 507 and 651 km the depth of the radial anisotropy in pa5 is shallower than in most previous studies based on surface waves and higher modes the average value of radial shear anisotropy in the lid 3 7 is consistent with the magnitude expected from the spreading controlled models of olivine orientation while anisotropy in the low velocity zone which is required by our data set could be induced either by paleostrains that took place near the ridge crest or by shearing in the asthenosphere as a result of present day plate motions on the basis of recent work by hirth and kohlstedt we suggest that the g discontinuity is caused by a rapid increase in the water content of mantle minerals with depth marking the fossilized lower boundary of the melt separation zone active during crust formation the high gradient zone between 200 and 400 km is a characteristic feature of convecting oceanic upper mantle and is probably controlled by a steady decrease in the homologous temperature over this depth interval the average shear velocity gradient in the transition zone is lower than in most previous seismic models in better agreement with the predictions for a pyrolitic composition

upper mantle seismic wave velocity effects of realistic partial melt geometries we investigate seismic wave velocity reduction resulting from the presence of partial melt in the upper mantle the amount of shear and bulk modulus reduction produced by the presence of a connected network of realistically shaped and naturally organized melt inclusions is found using finite element calculations the geometries of the inclusions are taken directly from laboratory experiments of mantle melting with finite element meshes constructed to conform to these shapes the shear and bulk moduli of the composite material are found for both the unrelaxed isolated inclusions and relaxed pressure equalized inclusions cases by assigning appropriate material properties to the fluid modulus reduction from deformation simulations of a solid containing realistically shaped and ellipse shaped melt inclusions quantify the effect of melt pocket cuspateness and melt pocket organization on seismic velocity reduction the three dimensional response is estimated from two dimensional distributions of the melt phase by determining the mode ii and mode iii components of elastic modulus reduction separately and summing their effects in general cuspate and naturally organized melt inclusions cause greater velocity reduction it is shown that v and vs reduction per percent partial melt are at least 3 6 and 7 9 respectively even higher values for velocity reduction are possible above 1 melt fraction if melt exists only in tubules below 1 melt fraction the lower more conservative values of velocity reduction are 070 greater for vp and 84 greater for vs than the analytically determined values for ellipsoidal inclusions somewhat greater effects are possible if nonrandom organization of melt occurs on scales greater than our model

continental collision gravity spreading and kinematics of aegea and anatolia we have carried out experiments using a layered medium of sand and silicone to investigate the lateral extrusion of a material which spreads over its own weight while being compressed by the advance of a rigid indenter boundary conditions in the box mimic those prevailing in the anatolian aegean system both shortening in front of the rigid piston which models the northward motion of arabia and extension resulting from the gravity spreading of the sand silicone layer are necessary to initiate the lateral extrusion strike slip faults accommodate the lateral escape and link the normal faults accompanying gravity spreading with the thrust faults in front of the rigid indenter strike slip faults begin to accommodate extrusion at a late stage in the experiments after the normal and thrust faults have developed experiments also show that the initial geometry of the boundary of the spreading layer may result in the formation of two arcs behind which material extends in a manner analogous to the hellenic and cypriot arcs without invoking a rheological change at the junction of the two arcs the experiments also suggest that southward motion of the eastern part of the spreading region is compensated by the northward advance of the piston which is a possible explanation for the slower movement of the cypriot arc compared to the aegean arc

tectonic consequences of the collision of the arabian and eurasian plates finite element models abstract the tectonic consequences of northward motion of the arabian plate and its push against the anatolian plate are modeled using a two dimensional plane stress finite element scheme interaction of four plates african arabian anatolian and eurasian and rupture of major faults inside and around anatolia are investigated by assigning northward motions to the arabian 5 cm yr and the african 3 cm yr plates a number of boundary conditions are used to match the known fault motions with theoretical models the faults are modeled as weak zones which could fail by slip strike slip faulting and or separation normal faulting numerical models show that northward convergence of the arabian and african plates alone cannot explain movements on all known faults an additional driving force that would produce about 2 cm yr westward motion of the anatolian plate is required with such a boundary condition added the finite element models produce movements along five major faults north anatolian east anatolian dead sea or levant fracture tuz golu and ecemis with current magnitudes and directions

the role of mantle depletion and melt retention buoyancy in spreading center segmentation abstract numerical experiments are used to examine the structure of mantle flow beneath the axis of a spreading center buoyancy results from the depletion of residual mantle in iron relative to magnesium as melt is extracted mantle depletion buoyancy and from the presence of low density melt melt retention buoyancy 3 d buoyant mantle flow arises spontaneously from an initially 2 d solution for low mantle viscosity and low spreading rate at high viscosity and high spreading rate initially 2 d solutions remain 2 d this may explain the fundamentally different structure of fast and slow spreading centers in a uniform viscosity halfspace the along axis wavelength of 3 d buoyant upwelling scales with the maximum depth of melting the only length scale in this system for reasonable maximum depths of melting 60 90 km along axis wavelengths of 200 300 km are preferred longer than the 50 100 km segmentation length of slow spreading centers in a viscosity layered halfspace the thickness of the asthenosphere introduces another length scale a wavelength of segmentation comparable to the asthenosphere thickness also develops in our numerical experiments this suggests the possibility that a wavelength corresponding to the spacing between gravity lows may be controlled by the asthenosphere thickness while the spacing of major fracture zones corresponds to the longer wavelength 3 times the maximum depth of melting intrinsic to the melting region the along axis structure of 3 d flow varies from narrow focused upwellings at low spreading rates and mantle viscosities to broad regions of upwelling at high spreading rates and mantle viscosity to allow an along axis crustal thickness variation no larger than that which is observed 3 4 km the highly focused upwelling and crustal production predicted at slow spreading rates requires appreciable along axis transport of melt

mechanisms for the origin of mid ocean ridge axial topography implications for the thermal and mechanical structure of accreting plate boundaries to better understand the implications of ridge axis morphology for the thermal and mechanical structure of accreting plate boundaries we examine mechanisms for the creation of stress supported axial topography and its dependence on parameters such as spreading rate asthenosphere viscosity and plate thickness near the ridge axis three basic mechanisms are considered 1 asthenospheric upwelling in a narrow steady state conduit beneath a ridge axis 2 mantle flow stresses due to plate spreading extending ridge axis lithosphere or melt segregation and associated mantle compaction and 3 topography supported by moments due to horizontal extensional stresses in a thickening lithosphere if mid ocean ridge topography is due to asthenosphere rising in a narrow conduit at the ridge axis then the conduit structure cannot be thermally controlled as the associated thermal structure has relatively broad flat isotherms instead of a conduitlike shape mantle flow associated with plate spreading alone induces no stress supported topography thus the intuitive notion that diverging flow at the ridge axis due solely to plate spreading produces the axial valley is incorrect vertical mantle flow at the base of a stretching accreting lithosphere and mantle flow associated with melt segregation can however lead to stress supported axial topography however for these mantle flow related processes to produce significant amounts of axial relief the mantle viscosity beneath the ridge axis must be on the order of 1020 pa s 1021 p poise significantly higher than generally accepted values of 1018 pa s 1019 p horizontal extensional stresses in a strong brittle lithosphere that thickens with distance from the ridge axis can produce axial topography of the form and amplitude observed on slow spreading ridges a continuum idealization of deformation due to faulting is used to examine this mechanism this model predicts the axial valley width is controlled by the plate thickness near the ridge axis an 8 km thick plate near the ridge axis would produce the 30 km wide axial valley observed at slow spreading ridges an increased lithosphere thickness of only several kilometers over the half width of the axial valley can produce kilometer scale relief to examine whether a plate 8 10 km thick at the ridge axis that thickens by several kilometers within 15 km of the axis is plausible at a slow spreading ridge thermal models that include both the heat of magmatic crustal accretion on the ridge axis and upwelling mantle flow beneath the axis are formulated hydrothermal cooling that increases the effective conductivity by about a factor of 10 is required for an 8 km thick plate to exist at a slow spreading ridge axis however even with this enhanced hydrothermal cooling the plate thickness at a fast spreading ridge axis and the resulting horizontal force in the plate are too small to result in appreciable topography while mid ocean ridge axial topography is strongly influenced by spreading rate other factors also shape axial structure for example the anomalously shallow slow spreading reykjanes ridge has an axial structure more like that of a fast spreading ridge and the anomalously deep intermediate spreading australian antarctic discordance has a median valley axial structure typical of a slower spreading ridge in addition within a given spreading segment there is often a systematic deepening of the ridge axis toward transform offsets these non spreading rate dependent axial topographic variations may be produced by variations in magmatic heat input associated with crustal emplacement which shapes the thermal structure and lithosphere thickness near the ridge axis

modern tectonic regime in the tyrrhenian area observations and models summary the rapid opening since 10 ma of the tyrrhenian sea in a context of convergence between eurasia and africa remains a puzzling geodynamic problem one of the most plausible scenarios proposed by malinverno ryan 1986 attributes extension to southward and eastward migration of the trench resulting from subduction of the african adriatic lithosphere below the european lithosphere at present subduction only continues along the calabrian arc a compilation of recent strain and stress indicators by rebai philip taboada 1992 indicates that an extensional regime still prevails in the tyrrhenian sea whereas compression dominates north and south of this area in an earlier paper bassi sabadini 1994 used a numerical model to demonstrate the necessity of a trench suction force acting along the subduction trench to produce the present extension in the tyrrhenian domain this study however did not discuss in detail the tectonic regime in the different areas composing the domain nor the match between the observations and the model in this paper we first review the constraints provided by the observations compiled by rebaiet al 1992 and by more recent measurements we then investigate how much of the observed tectonic regime can be understood in terms of plate interaction forces using thin plate models bird 1989 the geometry and heterogeneous lithospheric properties of the models are constrained by observations the best constrained boundary conditions are held constant the remaining are regarded as parameters that we tune in order to fit the observations our results indicate that the present day tectonic regime in the tyrrhenian area can be explained as a consequence of trench retreat associated with the subduction of ionian oceanic lithosphere under the calabrian arc combined with a rotation of the apennines possibly related to a rotation of the adriatic microplate this study supports therefore the model of malinverno ryan 1986 and suggests moreover that rotation of the apennines is an ongoing process which is supported by seismological and geodetic data but remains to be understood in terms of geodynamics a discrepancy between observations and models is observed in western sicily which can be attributed to modelling limitations the weak extensional activity of the corsica sardinia block however is not explained by this model

ridge asymmetry and deep aqueous alteration at the trench observed from rayleigh wave tomography of the juan de fuca plate using rayleigh wave tomography of noise removed ocean bottom seismometer obs data from the cascadia initiative we illuminate the structure of the upper mantle beneath the juan de fuca plate beneath the juan de fuca ridge there is strong asymmetry with a pronounced low velocity zone in the 25 65 km depth range extending to the west from the spreading axis this anomaly has velocities low enough to indicate the presence of melt the asymmetry in velocity structure and the much greater abundance of seamounts on the west flank of the ridge suggest that dynamic buoyant upwelling is important perhaps triggered by thermal or compositional anomalies beneath axial seamount in contrast there is no evidence for asymmetry in the axial zone or lower than expected velocities beneath the gorda ridge on the eastern flank of the juan de fuca ridge the shear velocity in the 25 65 depth range is higher than expected the lithosphere appears to be colder and thicker than predicted by standard plate cooling models perhaps caused by the downwelling counterpart of the upwelling on the west side of the ridge close to the trench there is a sharp decrease in shear velocity we interpret this as aqueous alteration caused by hydrothermal circulation through deep normal faults associated with bending of the plate beneath the astoria and nitinat fans where abyssal plain sediment is thickest the velocity decrease is much smaller which is consistent with a thick sediment cap that prevents hydrothermal alteration of the plate

a seismic reflection image for the base of a tectonic plate a high resolution image for the base of an oceanic plate that is subducting beneath north island new zealand reveals a channel which is interpreted as a sheared zone of ponded partial melts or volatiles this low viscosity channel decouples the plate from mantle flow beneath allowing plate tectonics to work tim stern and co authors use explosion generated seismic waves to form a high resolution image of the base of an oceanic plate that is subducting beneath north island new zealand they find an abrupt seismic wave speed transition less than a kilometre thick at a depth of 100 km dipping at an angle of 15 the presence of a parallel 10 km deeper reflection event shows that the decrease in compressional wave speed is confined to a channel at the base of the plate which the authors interpret as a sheared zone of ponded partial melts or volatiles they conclude that this is independent evidence for a low viscosity channel at the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary that decouples plates from mantle flow beneath and allows plate tectonics to take place plate tectonics successfully describes the surface of earth as a mosaic of moving lithospheric plates but it is not clear what happens at the base of the plates the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary lab the lab has been well imaged with converted teleseismic waves1 2 whose 10 40 kilometre wavelength controls the structural resolution here we use explosion generated seismic waves of about 0 5 kilometre wavelength to form a high resolution image for the base of an oceanic plate that is subducting beneath north island new zealand our 80 kilometre wide image is based on p wave reflections and shows an approximately 15 dipping abrupt seismic wave speed transition less than 1 kilometre thick at a depth of about 100 kilometres the boundary is parallel to the top of the plate and seismic attributes indicate a p wave speed decrease of at least 8 3 per cent across it a parallel reflection event approximately 10 kilometres deeper shows that the decrease in p wave speed is confined to a channel at the base of the plate which we interpret as a sheared zone of ponded partial melts or volatiles this is independent high resolution evidence for a low viscosity channel at the lab that decouples plates from mantle flow beneath and allows plate tectonics to work

a numerical model of the hellenic subduction zone active stress field and sea level changes a 2 d viscoelastic finite element model for subduction in the southern aegean sea allows us to study the distribution of stress and surface velocities in a vertical cross section through the island of crete recent tomographic results constrain the geometry of the slab and the structure of the crust lithosphere and mantle two models are considered the first for passive subduction driven solely by slab pull and the second one where active convergence between the african and aegean plates is also included both models predict subsidence of the hellenic trench and of cretan trough uplift of crete and of the aegean volcanic arc the island of crete is subject to differential uplift highest in the southern part with maximum rates of 1 5 and of 3 2 mm yr for the two models respectively these results agree with the tectonic uplift inferred from holocene sea level changes in the island the style of stress within the modeled african and aegean plates is in general agreement with the focal mechanisms of the largest earthquakes along the subduction zone

stable isotope analyses on the last 30 ka molluscan fauna from pampa grassland bonaerense region argentina abstract fossil and living shells of terrestrial and freshwater molluscs collected from various sites in the bonaerense and patagonia regions of argentina were analysed for their stable isotope content as a possible tool for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction the oxygen isotope composition of calcareous shell from freshwater samples was interpreted in terms of a change in moisture condition and the related evaporative effect on surficial bodies of water linked to a climatic shift the carbon isotope composition mainly records changes in biological productivity interpretation of the isotopic composition of the land snail carbonate is more complex and worldwide data from living shells have been used to decipher to some extent the palaeoenvironmental record contained in their isotopic composition overall the interpretations deduced from isotopic data of land snails as well as from nearby freshwater molluscs are quite comparable the isotopic data suggest that arid conditions occurred between 35 and 15 ka b p and warmer conditions around 35 25 ka b p a shift toward a new phase comparable with the present meteorological and climatic situation probably began around 9 ka b p and it was linked to some short but severe climatic fluctuations thus suggesting that high climatic stress characterised this period moreover a trend toward slightly arid conditions is suggested by isotopic data possibly sometimes after 5 ka the differences arising from the geographical location and the short duration of each single series studied still hamper an extensive interpretation of the isotopic data

tomography reveals buoyant asthenosphere accumulating beneath the juan de fuca plate the boundary between earth s strong lithospheric plates and the underlying mantle asthenosphere corresponds to an abrupt seismic velocity decrease and electrical conductivity increase with depth perhaps indicating a thin weak layer that may strongly influence plate motion dynamics the behavior of such a layer at subduction zones remains unexplored we present a tomographic model derived from on and offshore seismic experiments that reveals a strong low velocity feature beneath the subducting juan de fuca slab along the entire cascadia subduction zone through simple geodynamic arguments we propose that this low velocity feature is the accumulation of material from a thin weak buoyant layer present beneath the entire oceanic lithosphere the presence of this feature could have major implications for our understanding of the asthenosphere and subduction zone dynamics

age spreading rates and spreading asymmetry of the world s ocean crust we present four companion digital models of the age age uncertainty spreading rates and spreading asymmetries of the world s ocean basins as geographic and mercator grids with 2 arc min resolution the grids include data from all the major ocean basins as well as detailed reconstructions of back arc basins the age spreading rate and asymmetry at each grid node are determined by linear interpolation between adjacent seafloor isochrons in the direction of spreading ages for ocean floor between the oldest identified magnetic anomalies and continental crust are interpolated by geological estimates of the ages of passive continental margin segments the age uncertainties for grid cells coinciding with marine magnetic anomaly identifications observed or rotated to their conjugate ridge flanks are based on the difference between gridded age and observed age the uncertainties are also a function of the distance of a given grid cell to the nearest age observation and the proximity to fracture zones or other age discontinuities asymmetries in crustal accretion appear to be frequently related to asthenospheric flow from mantle plumes to spreading ridges resulting in ridge jumps toward hot spots we also use the new age grid to compute global residual basement depth grids from the difference between observed oceanic basement depth and predicted depth using three alternative age depth relationships the new set of grids helps to investigate prominent negative depth anomalies which may be alternatively related to subducted slab material descending in the mantle or to asthenospheric flow a combination of our digital grids and the associated relative and absolute plate motion model with seismic tomography and mantle convection model outputs represents a valuable set of tools to investigate geodynamic problems

implications of grain size evolution on the seismic structure of the oceanic upper mantle abstract we construct a 1 d steady state channel flow model for grain size evolution in the oceanic upper mantle using a composite diffusion dislocation creep rheology grain size evolution is calculated assuming that grain size is controlled by a competition between dynamic recrystallization and grain growth applying this grain size evolution model to the oceanic upper mantle we calculate grain size as a function of depth seafloor age and mantle water content the resulting grain size structure is used to predict shear wave velocity v s and seismic quality factor q for a plate age of 60 myr and an olivine water content of 1000 h 10 6 si we find that grain size reaches a minimum of 15 mm at 150 km depth and then increases to 20 30 mm at a depth of 400 km this grain size structure produces a good fit to the low seismic shear wave velocity zone lvz in oceanic upper mantle observed by surface wave studies assuming that the influence of hydrogen on anelastic behavior is similar to that observed for steady state creep further it predicts a viscosity of 10 19 pa s at 150 km depth and dislocation creep to be the dominant deformation mechanism throughout the oceanic upper mantle consistent with geophysical observations we predict larger grain sizes than proposed in recent studies in which the lvz was explained by a dry mantle and a minimum grain size of 1 mm however we show that for a 1 mm grain size diffusion creep is the dominant deformation mechanism above 100 200 km depth inconsistent with abundant observations of seismic anisotropy from surface wave studies we therefore conclude that a combination of grain size evolution and a hydrated upper mantle is the most likely explanation for both the isotropic and anisotropic seismic structure of the oceanic upper mantle our results also suggest that melt extraction from the mantle will be significantly more efficient than predicted in previous modeling studies that assumed grain sizes of 1 mm

long term elasticity in the continental lithosphere modelling the aden ridge propagation and the anatolian extrusion process summary the evolution of the gulf of aden and the anatolian fault systems are modelled using the principles of elastic fracture mechanics usually applied to smaller scale cracks or faults the lithosphere is treated as a plate and simple boundary conditions are applied that correspond to the known plate boundary geometry and slip vectors the models provide a simple explanation for many observed geological features for the gulf of aden the model predicts why the ridge propagated from east to west from the owen fracture zone towards the afar and the overall form of its path the smaller en echelon offsets can be explained by upward propagation from the initially created mantle dyke while the larger ones may be attributed to the propagating rupture interacting with pre existing structures for anatolia the modelling suggests that the east anatolian fault was created before the north anatolian fault could form once both faults were formed however activity could switch between them the time scales over which this should take place are not known but evidence for switching can be found in the historical seismicity for aden and anatolia pre existing structures or inhomogeneous stress fields left from earlier orogenic events have modified the processes of propagation and without an understanding of the existence of such features the propagation processes cannot be fully understood furthermore a propagating fault can extend into an active region where it would not have initiated the north anatolian fault encountered slow but active extension when it entered the aegean about 5 ma and the stress field associated with the extending fault has progressively modified aegean extension in the central aegean activity has been reduced while to the north west on features such as the gulfs of evvia and corinth activity has been increased the field observation that major structures propagate and the success of simple elastic models suggest that the continental crust behaves in an elastic brittle or elastic plastic fashion even though laboratory tests may be interpreted to suggest viscous behaviour there are major problems in scaling from the behaviour of small homogeneous samples to the large heterogeneous mantle and large scale observations should be treated more seriously than extrapolations of the behaviour of laboratory experiments over many orders of magnitude in space and time the retention of long term elasticity and localised failure suggests a similar gross rheology for the oceanic and continental lithospheres even though it is incorrect to attribute differences in behaviour to the former being rigid i e elastic and the latter viscous oceanic and continental lithosphere behave in different ways unlike oceanic crust continental crust is buoyant and cannot be simply created or destroyed the process of thickening or thinning works against gravity preventing large displacements on extensional or contractional features in the upper mantle the equivalents of ridge or subduction systems are suppressed before they can accommodate large displacements and activity must shift elsewhere on the other hand strike slip boundaries and extrusion processes are favoured

the deformation of aegea a finite element study abstract the concentration of extension in southern aegea is a consequence of the velocities imposed along the boundaries of this region this result is demonstrated by using the finite element method and velocities derived independently from the kinematics of the hellenic subduction zone and that of the north anatolian fault the thinning of the lithosphere resulting from this extension is in good agreement with that required to explain the aegean subsidenceand the forces along the boundaries are approximately normal to the aegean arc neotectonic data agree with these results

an overview of biomineralization processes and the problem of the vital effect biomineralization links soft organic tissues which are compositionally akin to the atmosphere and oceans with the hard materials of the solid earth it provides organisms with skeletons and shells while they are alive and when they die these are deposited as sediment in environments from river plains to the deep ocean floor it is also these hard resistant products of life which are mainly responsible for the earth s fossil record consequently biomineralization involves biologists chemists and geologists in interdisciplinary studies at one of the interfaces between earth and life leadbeater and riding 1986 biomineralization refers to the processes by which organisms form minerals the control exerted by many organisms over mineral formation distinguishes these processes from abiotic mineralization the latter was the primary focus of earth scientists over the last century but the emergence of biogeochemistry and the urgency of understanding the past and future evolution of the earth are moving biological mineralization to the forefront of various fields of science including the earth sciences the growth in biogeochemistry has led to a number of new exciting research areas where the distinctions between the biological chemical and earth sciences disciplines melt away of the wonderful topics that are receiving renewed attention the study of biomineral formation is perhaps the most fascinating truly at the interface of earth and life biomineralization is a discipline that is certain to see major advancements as a new generation of scientists brings cross disciplinary training and new experimental and computational methods to the most daunting problems it is however by no means a new field the first book on biomineralization was published in 1924 in german by w j schmidt schmidt 1924 and the subject has continued to intrigue a dedicated community of scientists for many years until the early 1980s the field was known as

thermal evolution of the oceanic lithosphere an alternative view abstract the most common model used for representing the evolution with age of the oceanic lithosphere is the plate model where the temperature is set at a fixed depth called the base of the plate this base of the plate has no physical meaning but this model provides a mathematical substitute for a system where small scale convection occurs through instabilities growing at the base of the cooling lithosphere and becomes effective only below old ocean another possible view is that convection provides heat at the base of the lithosphere whatever the age of the overlying plate this last process can be modeled by a constant heat flow applied on the bottom lithospheric isotherm chablis model a good fit to the observables bathymetry and geoid as function of age and old age heat flow can be obtained both for plate and chablis models in spite of an experimentally determined thermal expansion coefficient much larger than assumed in previous plate models these models have important consequences for several geodynamic processes the plate at an age of 100 ma is only 80 km thick for both models melting above a hot spot can then occur in the garnet spinel transition field without much plate thinning in the plate model the subsidence is stopped at an age of about 80 ma while according to the chablis model several hundred meters of subsidence are expected after 100 ma thus the two models predict quite a different long term pattern of subsidence in the sedimentary basins finally in the chablis model the global cooling of the mantle coming from cold material eroded by secondary convection at the base of the plates is considerably larger than in plate models it amounts to 40 the remaining 60 being due to the subduction process

convection beneath young oceanic lithosphere implications for thermal structure and gravity small scale convection under the oceanic lithosphere which begins in the first 5 m y of cooling can produce a gravity signal with the amplitude and wavelength observed for large areas of the central pacific and southern indian oceans using seasat altimeter data the trend of the observed anomalies is parallel to the direction of plate motion as might be expected if they were produced by small scale convection models predict that the wavelengths of gravity anomalies increase more rapidly with age than is observed the persistence of short relatively uniform wavelength anomalies 200 km to crustal ages of 50 ma may indicate that they were produced when the lithosphere was very young and thin and were frozen in as cooling thickened the elastic lithosphere small scale convection which begins under very young lithosphere does not violate other geophysical data such as the rate of seafloor subsidence and variations of geoid height with age after convection has begun the subsidence due to thermal contraction within the lithosphere varies linearly with age in the absence of mantle heat sources although the rate of change of these quantities is affected by convection much of the variation of the geoid height across fracture zones can be fit by a model which includes small scale convection

a geodynamic framework for eastern mediterranean kinematics we use a finite element model incorporating plate motion boundary conditions fault constraints and space geodetic velocities to calculate eastern mediterranean plate kinematics and to estimate the motion of the region s major faults we then use subsets of these constraints to generate models testing different scenarios of driving forces slab roll back at the hellenic arc arabian plate push gravitational collapse of w anatolia to match the expected pattern of deformation we find that models combining only trench rollback and arabian push are unable to provide a good match to the observed deformation across western anatolia and the aegean and that we need to introduce the effects of mantle corner flow and gravitational collapse to fit observations

oxygen isotopic evidence for greater seasonality in holocene shells of donax variabilis from florida abstract donax variabilis the variable coquina clam has been a common inhabitant of exposed sandy beach intertidal and shallow subtidal zones in the southeastern united states throughout the pleistocene and holocene it is ideally suited for paleotemperature studies because it is restricted to environments of well mixed normal marine seawater with a fairly uniform isotopic composition as a result oxygen isotopic variability in d variabilis shells is largely explained by temperature variation although d variabilis is small and short lived its shell represents an important paleoclimate archive because of its unique habitat preference high resolution sampling of individual d variabilis shells and comparison of oxygen isotopic temperature profiles with historical seawater temperatures from the northeastern florida coast indicate rapid shell growth over a brief life span of three to five or six months analysis of two modern shells reveals a close correspondence between isotopically determined water temperatures and historical water temperatures during the spring summer growing season paleotemperature profiles from four archaeological shells however suggest a longer growth interval spanning summer autumn two preceramic archaic period shells ca 4240 and 5570 14c yr bp and two orange period archaic shells ca 3600 and 3760 14c yr bp from four different archaeological sites yield paleotemperatures that average 3 5 c higher than present summer autumn water temperatures these warm paleotemperatures highlight seasonality differences associated with the mid holocene hypsithermal climatic interval in this region

thickening of young pacific lithosphere from high resolution rayleigh wave tomography a test of the conductive cooling model direct seismic measurements of the thickening of oceanic lithosphere away from the spreading axis are rare due to the remoteness of mid ocean ridges on the east pacific rise at 17 s there were two long term broadband ocean bottom seismometer deployments the melt and glimpse experiments these arrays spanned young pacific plate seafloor ranging in age from 0 to 8 ma combining these two data sets we describe the increase in rayleigh wave phase velocities for 16 100 s period as function of distance from the ridge with two parameterizations an arbitrary function of seafloor age and a simple polynomial function of age on the pacific and nazca plates although resolution analysis shows that 10 to 15 independent pieces of information about the age variation of phase velocity on the pacific plate can be resolved at periods of 50 s the three parameter polynomial model fits the data almost as well indicating a simple pattern of the evolution of structure with age to compare our observations to the predictions for the conductive cooling of the lithosphere we convert a thermal half space cooling model to shear velocity using anharmonic and anelastic contributions the patterns in the velocities are not consistent with simple conductive cooling the conductive cooling model under predicts the changes in phase velocity with age observed in the 20 to 78 s period range we observe significant changes in shear velocity in the asthenosphere at depths greater than conductive cooling should extend the asthenospheric low velocity zone is asymmetric dipping to the west with the lowest velocities beneath the pacific plate west of the spreading center the conductive cooling model also over predicts the shear velocities in the lithosphere by 0 2 km s these anomalies indicate that more complicated mantle flow and significant mantle heterogeneities such as melt are required

stress tensor inversions along the westernmost north anatolian fault zone and its continuation into the north aegean sea summary gephart forsyth s method has been applied to estimate stress orientations from earthquake fault plane solutions of the westernmost north anatolian fault zone nafz its westward continuation in the northern aegean sea where it interacts with the normal faulting of central greece and of the western coastal parts of anatolia in total 163 fault plane solutions were used to invert for the stress tensor of 9 seismotectonic subregions magnitudes range from 1 1 to 7 4 all events have shallow focal depths most occurred in the uppermost 15 km and very few in the 15 to 40 km depth range the region studied is characterized by strike slip nafz by transtension central greece and western anatolia and by a strong signature of transpression in the marmara area from nafz to central greece the 3 axis changes continuously and smoothly its orientation from n35 e in the westernmost nafz to nearly north south in continental central greece and the maximum horizontal stress hmax changes from wnw ese to e w the total angle of lateral variation in the direction of either hmax or 3 is 40 in central western anatolia the orientation of 3 is nne ssw n10 e while in southern western anatolia it is nnw sse n33 w in both cases the development of the major grabens simav gediz menderes is in agreement with the resolved stress tensor at the termination of the nafz against central greece the regime is complex the dextral shear motion transferred from the east crosses the pilion peninsula and northern evia island where it interacts with the major normal faults of continental greece these faults have variable orientations the e w trending quaternary fault system and the nw se trending fault system which is inherited from the past the latter faults under the presently acting stress field are reactivated either as strike slip faults with sinistral strike slip component when oriented at small angle in respect to 3 or as normal faults with small sinistral strike slip component when oriented at high angle in respect to 3 the occurrence of the recent 2001 july 26 skyros event which was clearly connected to a nnw sse fault with sinistral strike slip motion provides strong seismological evidence that the old structures can equally well be reactivated under the presently active stress field

modern tectonic stress field in the mediterranean region evidence for variation in stress directions at different scales summary a compilation of more than one thousand stress indicators which include in situ stress measurements focal mechanisms microtectonic and other geological data allowed us to reconstruct the modern stress field in the mediterranean region and the surrounding area average stress directions at different scales have been reconstructed by means of a linear interpolation method this method takes into account the distribution scale and quality of stress data the results of the interpolation at plate scale allow us to recognize slightly deformed regions such as the northwestern european platform where average maximum horizontal stress direction is oriented roughly nnw sse subparallel to absolute and relative plate velocity directions other regions such as the caucasus alps and pyrenees where recent tectonic deformation and seismicity are present display important variations of stress directions the reconstruction of the average stress directions at different scales within the french alps pointed out that the average stress field pattern may vary from one scale to another nevertheless variations of stress directions at a given scale are consistent with the kinematics of faults of the same scale

oxygen and carbon stable isotopes of modern land snail shells as environmental indicators from a low latitude oceanic island abstract land snails provide a unique opportunity to study terrestrial paleoenvironments because their shells which are generally highly abundant and well preserved in the fossil record contain a temporal record of environmental change in the form of isotope codes to evaluate the utility of this approach for a low latitude oceanic setting 207 modern shells of 18 species of land snail were analyzed for their oxygen and carbon isotope composition along a north and south facing altitudinal gradient 10 2160 m a s l in tenerife island 28 n of the canary archipelago shells collected at each locality showed a relatively large range in isotope composition which was greater along the south facing transect drier and hotter suggesting that the variance in shell isotope values may be related to water stress although pooled isotope values did not generally show strong relationships with environmental variables i e altitude temperature and precipitation mean isotope values were strongly associated with some climatic factors when grouped by site the mean 18o value of the shell 18oshell by site displayed a negative correlation with elevation which is consistent with the positive relationship observed between temperature and the 18o value of rain 18orain calculated 18o values of the snail body water 18obody derived from observed temperatures and 18oshell values using the equation of grossman and ku grossman e l and ku t l 1986 oxygen and carbon isotope fractionation in biogenic aragonite chem geol isotope geosci sec 59 59 74 displayed a trend with respect to altitude that was similar to measured and hypothetical 18o values for local rain water the calculated 18obody values from the shell declined 0 17 vsmow per 100 m which is consistent with the altitude effect observed for tropical rains in western africa and it correlated negatively with rainfall amount accordingly lower 18oshell values indicate lower temperatures lower 18orain values and possibly higher rainfall totals a positive correlation between the mean 13c values of shells 13cshell and plants by site suggests that shells potentially record information about the surrounding vegetation the 13cshell values varied between 15 7 and 0 6 vpdb indicating that snails consumed c3 and c4 cam plants where more negative 13cshell values probably reflects the preferential consumption of c3 plants which are favored under wetter conditions individuals with more positive 13cshell values consumed a larger percentage of c4 plants other potential factors such as carbonate ingestion or atmospheric co2 contribution were unlikely that were more common at lower elevations of the hotter and drier south facing transect the relatively wide range of shell isotope values within a single site requires the analysis of numerous shells for meaningful paleoclimatic studies although small differences were observed in isotope composition among snail species collected at a single sampling site they were not significant suggesting that isotope signatures extracted from multi taxa snail data sets may be used to infer environmental conditions over a broad range of habitats

stable isotope record in mollusca and pedogenic carbonate from late pliocene soils of central italy abstract the late pliocene younger than 2 5 ma alluvial fan succession of toppetti quarry near todi umbria central italy includes many palaeosols pedogenic carbonate concretions and mollusc remains were separated from 73 palaeosols collected along 150 m of exposure and analysed for their oxygen and carbon stable isotope content 13c and 18o of the pedogenic carbonate and land snail shells suggest that no dramatic change in local climate took place values of the pedogenic carbonates are similar to other data reported for the mediterranean region 18o data suggest a mean annual temperature and or 18o similar to modern climatic conditions carbon isotope data from both land snails and pedogenic carbonate are consistent with a prevailing type c3 vegetation a mixture of forest and c3 grassland sustained by a mean annual precipitation between 300 and 1000 mm mainly in the cool periods of the year seems to be the most likely scenario the limited variation shown by the isotope composition of the biogenic and inorganically precipitated carbonate indicates that the environmental variations are referable mainly to change of humidity rather than temperature

early middle holocene land snail shell stable isotope record from grotta di latronico 3 southern italy this paper compares stable isotope d 18 o and d 13 c records of early middle holocene land snail shells from the archaeological deposits of grotta di latronico 3 ltr3 southern italy with modern shell isotopic data no substantial interspecific variability was observed in shell d 18 o d 18 os of modern specimens pomatias elegans cornu aspersum eobania vermiculata helix ligata and marmorana fuscolabiata in contrast interspecific shell d 13 c d 13 cs variability was significant probably due to different feeding behaviour among species the d 18 os values of living land snails suggest that species hibernate for a long period during colder months so that the signal of 18 o depleted winter rainfall in their d 18 os is lost this suggests that d 18 os and d 13 cs values of pomatias elegans from this archaeological succession provide valuable clues for seasonal spring autumn climatic con ditions during the early middle holocene the d 18 os values of fossil specimens are significantly lower than in modern shells and in agreement with other palaeoclimatic records suggesting a substantial increase of precipitation and or persistent changes in air mass source trajectories over this region between ca 8 8 cal ka bp and 6 2 6 7 ka ago the d 13 cs trend suggests a transition from a slightly 13 c enriched to a 13 c depleted diet between early and middle holocene compared to present conditions we postulate that this d 13 cs trend might reflect changes in the c3 vegetation community potentially combined with other environmental factors such as regional moisture increase and the progressive decrease of atmospheric co2 concentration copyright 2010 john wiley sons ltd

final stages of the variscan orogeny at the southern iberian massif lateral extrusion and rotation of continental blocks 1 the southern part of the iberian massif contains one of the sutures of the european variscan belt several systems of faults and dikes appear as a result of a period of brittle deformation during the late stages of the variscan tectonic evolution of this zone a detailed analysis of these structures has been carried out in this work four successive deformation phases have been identified a first strike slip normal faulting stage a transcurrent stage a second strike slip normal faulting stage and finally a thrusting stage the age of these phases vary between around 310 ma and less than 270 ma the computed trajectories of the deformation axes show a progressive anticlockwise rotation of around 90 these data together with the results of previous geological and geophysical studies of this zone and of the variscan belt as a whole lead us to propose a model of tectonic evolution for the last stages of the variscan collision comparison with modern examples of collisional belts and with the results of analog experiments suggests that a promontory of the continental lithosphere of the downgoing plate indented against the active continental margin of the upper plate the indenter suffered an intense deformation in accordance with the predictions of some recent analog models simulating the indentation of a four layer continental lithosphere the variscan and late variscan brittle deformation episodes represent the waning stages of the variscan collision and not an independent tectonic event

sediment characterization at the equatorial mid atlantic ridge from p to s teleseismic phase conversions recorded on the pi lab experiment accurate marine sediment characteristics for example thickness and seismic velocity are important for constraining sedimentation rates with implications for climate variations and for seismic imaging of deeper structures using ocean bottom seismic deployments we analyze p to s seismic phase conversions from the sediment crust boundary recorded by the passive imaging of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary pi lab experiment to infer the sediment thickness across the mid atlantic ridge covering 0 to 80 myr old seafloor we find p d s p delay times of 0 04 0 37 s or 5 to 82 m thickness sediment thickness increases with age thickness agrees with global estimates for young 15 20 myr seafloor but is thinner on older lithosphere our result may represent a lower limit on sediment thickness given that several of our stations are on topographic highs the sedimentation rate decrease observed from 5 to 1 2 mm kyr at 10 myr suggests a recent increase in productivity related to climate change eolian dust fluxes and or biogenic marine activity

the north aegean region a tectonic paradox in the past two decades several publications have been presented concerning the recent and active fault geometry kinematics and geodynamics of the aegean region and particularly of the northern sector data and results are often contradictory and because of the complexity of the area most hypotheses and models should be considered carefully the right lateral movement of the north anatolia fault continues into some branches of the north aegean fault system there strike slip motion along ne sw trending faults coexists with dip slip e w trending faults in the frame of an extensional regime related to n s crustal stretching if we take into account the geodynamic environment of the region several mechanical problems arise to the east the aegean is compressed by the westward convergence of anatolia while to the south and west along the hellenic arc a hemiradial compression occurs due to subduction although the north anatolia north aegean trough fault system resembles a restraining bend the whole area is in fact affected by pure extension and local transtension along ne sw trending structures accordingly the major paradox of the area and especially in the western sector fault termination is the occurrence of extension where compression should regionally or at least locally predominate

non hotspot volcano chains produced by migration of shear driven upwelling toward the east pacific rise while most oceanic volcanism is associated with the passive rise of hot mantle beneath the spreading axes of mid ocean ridges mor volcanism occurring off axis reflects intraplate upper mantle dynamics and composition yet is poorly understood off the south east pacific rise sepr volcanism along the pukapuka hotu matua and sojourn ridges has been attributed to various mechanisms but none can reconcile its spatial temporal and geochemical characteristics our three dimensional numerical models show that asthenospheric shear can excite upwelling and decompression melting at the tip of low viscosity fingers that are propelled eastward by vigorous sublithospheric flow this shear driven upwelling is able to sustain intraplate volcanism that progresses toward the mor spreads laterally close to the axis and weakly continues on the opposite plate these predictions can explain the anomalously fast eastward progression of volcanism and its spatial distribution near the sepr moreover for a heterogeneous mantle source involving a fertile component the predicted systematics of volcanism can explain the geochemical trend along pukapuka and the enriched anomaly of sepr mid oceanic ridge basalt at 16 20 5 s our study highlights the role of horizontal asthenospheric flow and mantle heterogeneity in producing linear chains of intraplate volcanism independent of a deep rooted buoyancy source

water rich sublithospheric melt channel in the equatorial atlantic ocean the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary is the most extensive boundary on earth separating the mobile plate above from the convecting mantle below but its nature remains a matter of debate using an ultra deep seismic reflection technique here we show a systematic seismic image of two deep reflectors that we interpret as the upper and lower limits of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary beneath a 40 70 million year old oceanic lithosphere in the atlantic ocean these two reflections correspond to 1 260 c and 1 355 c isotherms and bound a low velocity channel suggesting that the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary is thermally controlled we observe a clear age dependency of this sublithospheric channel its depth increases with age from 72 km where it is 40 myr old to 88 km where it is 70 myr old whereas its thickness decreases with age from 18 km to 12 km we suggest that partial melting facilitated by water is the main mechanism responsible for the low velocity channel the required water concentration for melting increases with age nevertheless its corresponding total mass remains relatively constant suggesting that most of the volatiles in the oceanic sublithospheric channel originate from a horizontal flux near the ridge axis

viscoelastic deformation from north anatolian fault zone earthquakes and the eastern mediterranean gps velocity field 1 we have modeled linear viscoelastic relaxation of a uniform viscosity asthenosphere following large earthquakes in the aegean anatolian region during the 20th century to evaluate whether this process contributes significantly to the regional velocity field we address in particular whether southward motion of the aegean sea region relative to central anatolia and thus extension of western turkey can be attributed to a postseismic strain pulse our models show that postseismic relaxation of a thick 250 km viscoelastic substrate cannot generate the observed extension in western turkey regardless of the choice of viscosity we also find that the asthenosphere viscosity must exceed about 5 1020 pa s at least north of the north anatolian fault zone nafz to be consistent with low gps site velocities in the black sea region and highly localized strain around the fault

oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of modern terrestrial gastropod shells from lipari island aeolian archipelago sicily abstract oxygen 18os and stable carbon 13cs isotopic compositions of modern terrestrial gastropod shells from lipari island in the aeolian archipelago sicily have been analysed and compared with local meteoric water 18o 18op and vegetation 13c 13cv respectively results reveal that the 18os 18op relationship over the study area differs from those obtained on continental europe and italian shells implying that even at the scale of the mediterranean basin different relationships may co exist these differences have been interpreted as the increasing influence of mediterranean vapour water on tyrrhenian coasts at relatively low altitude up to 600 m asl which compensates for the effect of the 18op and possibly of temperature on shell 18o the steady state flux balance model fbm in agreement with previous studies suggests that snails are active prevalently at night shell carbon isotope ratios reflect the 13cv as predicted by the metabolic model and represent a valuable tool for identifying c3 plants with very distinct isotopic signatures

3d mechanical modeling of the gps velocity field along the north anatolian fault the north anatolian fault naf extends over 1500 km in a complex tectonic setting in this region of the eastern mediterranean collision of the arabian african and eurasian plates resulted in creation of mountain ranges i e zagros caucasus and the westward extrusion of the anatolian block in this study we investigate the effects of crustal rheology on the long term displacement rate along the naf heat flow and geodetic data are used to constrain our mechanical model built with the three dimensional finite element code adeli the fault motion occurs on a material discontinuity of the model which is controlled by a coulomb type friction the rheology of the lithosphere is composed of a frictional upper crust and a viscoelastic lower crust the lithosphere is supported by a hydrostatic pressure at its base representing the asthenospheric mantle we model the long term deformation of the surroundings of the naf by adjusting the effective fault friction and also the geometry of the surface fault trace to do so we used a frictional range of 0 0 0 2 for the fault and a viscosity varying between 10 19 and 10 21 pa s one of the most striking results of our rheological tests is that the upper part of the fault is locked if the friction exceeds 0 2 by comparing our results with geodetic measurements mcclusky et al j geophys res b 105 2000 5695 5719 and tectonic observations we have defined a realistic model in which the displacement rate on the naf reaches v17 mm yr for a viscosity of 10 19 pa s and a fault friction of 0 05 this strongly suggests that the naf is a weak fault like the san andreas fault in california adding topography with its corresponding crustal root does not induce gravity flow of anatolia rather it has the counter intuitive effect of decreasing the westward anatolian escape we find a poor agreement between our calculated velocity field and what is observed with gps in the marmara and the aegean regions we suspect that the simple lithosphere model is responsible for this discrepancy taking into account the weaknesses of these deforming regions should allow us to build a more realistic model that would match ground observations more appropriately on the other hand our results fit well gps measurements in central anatolia setting the basis of modeling crustal strain in turkey b 2003 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

stable carbon and oxygen isotopic variations in modern rabdotus land snail shells in the southern great plains usa and their relation to environment abstract variations of stable isotopic ratios of carbon 13c 12c and oxygen 18o 16o were investigated in modern shells of two species of rabdotus land snails r dealbatus and r alternatus in the southern great plains geographic variation in relation to climate and vegetation microgeographic variation variability among individuals and detailed records of seasonal variations within individual shells were studied stable carbon isotopic ratios in shell carbonate are primarily a function of the isotopic composition of the diet of the snails as represented by the isotopic composition of shell organic matter this in turn reflects the presence or absence of cam crassulacean acid metabolism or c4 plants vegetation density may have a small effect on the carbon isotope ratios microgeographic variation samples within 25 to 300 m is greater than that seen across different climatic regions and points to very local control of isotopic variations predominantly related to vegetation seasonal variations as assessed through serial analysis of individual shells up to 35 samples per shell may provide a means for distinguishing between isotopic influences of perennial cam vs annual c4 plants carbon isotopic variations in time series of shells from a site provide a means of reconstructing temporal changes in environment and climate oxygen isotopic values of shell carbonate are uniform across the region and also show no significant microgeographic variation the oxygen isotopic composition appears to be mainly a function of the rainwater isotopic composition with no direct influence of rainfall amount or evaporative effects the 18o values are only 2 enriched relative to estimated equilibrium with rainwater variability is low sd of 0 8 among sites so the isotopic composition of fossil rabdotus shells can provide a precise record of changes in the isotopic composition of rain over time

linear stability analysis of richter rolls presence of vertical shear rayleigh numbers up to 10 6 are considered the transition rayleigh number over which longitudinal rolls are unstable is derived as a function of surface velocity effects of nonlinear vertical shear are shown to be insignificant unless nonlinearity becomes extreme our results are in good agreement with previous studies except at high rayleigh numbers where the meaning of roll stability becomes ambiguous owning to inherently time dependent convection when applied to small scale convection in the upper mantle our results suggest that the roll stability is very sensitive to plate velocity if the upper mantle viscosity is relatively high 10 20 pa s richter rolls may be expected only beneath fast moving plates such as the pacific plate index terms 3010 marine geology and geophysics gravity 3040 marine geology and geophysics plate tectonics 8150 8155 8157 8158 8121 tectonophysics dynamics convection currents and mantle plumes 8180 tectonophysics tomography citation korenaga j and t h jordan linear stability analysis of richter rolls geophys res lett 30 22 2157 doi 10 1029 2003gl018337 2003

spreading rate dependence of three dimensional structure in oceanic spreading centres segmentation by transform faults and other types of along axis discontinuity1 is a well described but poorly explained characteristic of oceanic spreading centres here we use numerical experiments to explore the dynamics of mantle flow and melting beneath a mid ocean ridge buoyant upwelling driven by compositional density variations resulting from the extraction of the melt that forms the ocean crust exhibits a spreading rate dependent transition between two dimensional and three dimensional upwelling structures for low spreading rates and mantle viscosities an initial two dimensional structure transforms into a three dimensional one at high spreading rates an initially two dimensional structure remains two dimensional these results suggest that the origin of spreading centre segmentation may be different at fast and slow spreading rates

active tectonics of the aegean region the aegean sea and its surrounding regions comprise one of the most rapidly deforming parts of the alpine himalayan mountain belt though the deformation of the belt as a whole is related to thc northward move ment of africa arabia and india relative to eurasia the tectonics of the aegean region itself is dominated by strike slip and extensional motions the actively deforming part of the aegean region is not large about 700 x 700 km2 compared with that in asia yet it has had an influence on our views of continental tectonics disproportionate to its size and comparable perhaps only to tibet fundamental contributions from the aegean have been made to many topics including