conductivity and fluids in the oceanic upper mantle abstract three deep electromagnetic soundings in the north pacific ocean were re examined our inversion of existing data showed the presence of conductors below the three sites in very good agreement with previous results we showed that h 2 o rich fluids as well as partial melting account for the conductivities observed this led us to determine temperatures ranging firstly from 1050 to 1150 c when only h 2 o rich fluids were present and secondly from 1300 to 1350 c for partial melting only we suggest that the upper mantle below the two oldest sites 30 and 72 ma is characterized by about 1 of partial melting in the presence of about 1 of h 2 o rich fluids below the third site that nearest to the ridge zone 1 ma the degree of partial melting might reach 10 the presence of 1 of h 2 o rich fluids would reduce the effect of the asthenospheric outflows on the lithospheric magmatism this agrees with the principle of thermodynamic decoupling of the asthenosphere and lithosphere the weakening effect of fluids particularly water on upper mantle rheology is also discussed we suggest that the asthenosphere and lithosphere might be decoupled mechanically which if true would affect small scale convection below the oceanic lithosphere

electromagnetic active source sounding near the east pacific rise an active source electrical conductivity sounding was carried out near the east pacific rise at 21 n the average electrical conductivity from 2 km beneath the seafloor into the upper mantle was found to be about 0 004 s m there is no evidence of fully molten magma at a distance of 7 km from the spreading axis the inferred conductivity with depth of the crustal rock is consistent with brace s model of connected seawater filled pores in rocks heated from beneath

geoid anomalies over cooling lithosphere source for a third kernel of upper mantle thermal parameters and thus an inversion summary the geoid anomaly over an isostatic mass redistribution on an infinite flat earth is simply 27 c g times the differential mass moment on a spheroidal earth the limiting value can never quite be reached because the external effect of a spherical shell of mass dipole is identically zero so distant portions of the spherical surface subtract from the effect of the region under the point of observation the width of the integrating kernel varies with the depth of the mass distribution but the observable fraction of the limiting geoid slope can be estimated at least for ocean basins of moderate extent where it should reach about 90 per cent for very small 3 cm yr 1 ocean basins the observable geoid slope is smaller a consideration of published geoid data together with gravity anomalies in the same area compared to the theoretical free geoid gravity anomalies gravity observed on the geoid leads with great caution to a crude estimate of the thermally produced slope of 0 14 0 02 m myr 1 given a value of the thermal geoid signal it is possible to conduct an inversion for the upper mantle thermal parameters if two the density and specific heat are assumed to be known the parameter kernels for the heat flow topographic decay and geoid give three equations to solve for expansion coefficient diffusivity and initial temperature ti the results are different from common modelling assumptions 3 1 10 5 c 1 17 per cent 0 0065 cm2 s l 45 per cent and 1660 c 29 per cent manipulation of the equations in the case of general temperature variable parameters leads to partial explanations appears multiplied by k0 7 k0 conductivity at 0 7 of t1 at surface temperature while k is weighted toward the lower values in the low to medium temperature range an estimate of t1 using the shape of the temperature variations of k and k in the most reliable available data for olivine remains at about 1660 c 30 per cent in spite of the large error band the higher initial temperature is plausible because decompression of upwelling material produces enough partial melting to generate the oceanic crust the latent heat of melting must be supplied from somewhere and the only other possible source is a large amount of mechanical work applied to the system in the divergent flow

imaging the continental upper mantle using electromagnetic methods abstract the internal structure of the continental lithosphere holds the key to its creation and development and this internal structure can be determined using appropriate seismic and electromagnetic methods these two are complementary in that the seismic parameters usually represent bulk properties of the rock whereas electrical conductivity is primarily a function of the connectivity of a minor constituent of the rock matrix such as the presence of a conducting mineral phase e g carbon in graphite form or of a fluid phase e g partial melt or volatiles in particular conductivity is especially sensitive to the top of the asthenosphere generally considered to be a region of interconnected partial melt knowledge of the geometry of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary is important as this boundary partially controls the geodynamic processes that create modify and destroy the lithosphere accordingly collocated seismic and electromagnetic experiments result in superior knowledge than would be obtained from using each on its own this paper describes the state of knowledge of the continental upper mantle obtained primarily from the natural source magnetotelluric technique and outlines how hypotheses and models regarding the development of cratonic lithosphere can be tested using deep probing electromagnetic surveying the resolution properties of the method show the difficulties that can be encountered if there is conducting material in the crust examples of data and interpretations from various regions around the globe are discussed to demonstrate the correlation of electromagnetic and seismic observations of the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary also the observations from laboratory measurements on candidate mineralogies representative of the mantle such as olivine are presented

electrical properties of granite with implications for the lower crust the electrical properties of granite appear to be dominantly controlled by the amount of free water in the granite and by temperature minor contributions to the electrical properties are provided by hydrostatic and lithostatic pressure structurally bound water oxygen fugacity and other parameters the effect of sulfur fugacity may be important but is experimentally unconfirmed in addition to changing the magnitude of electrical properties the amount and chemistry of water in granite significantly changes the temperature dependence of the electrical properties with increasing temperature changes in water content retain large but lessened effects on electrical properties near room temperature a monolayer of water will decrease the electrical resistivity by an order of magnitude several weight percent water may decrease the electrical resistivity by as much as 9 orders of magnitude and decrease the thermal activation energy by a factor of 5 at elevated temperatures just below granitic melting a few weight percent water may still decrease the resistivity by as much as 3 orders of magnitude and the activation energy by a factor of 2 above the melting temperature 650 to 1100 c depending upon water pressure a few weight percent water will decrease the resistivity by less than an order of magnitude and will barely change the activation energy remarkably the few weight percent water must be present as free water experiments with hydrated hornblende schist with structural water indicate an electrical resistivity very similar to that for dry granite the implications of these results together with the findings of deep magnetic sounding and magnetotelluric surveys suggest much more free water than is commonly associated with the lower crust and possibly into the upper mantle

contribution at satellite altitude of electromagnetically induced anomalies arising from a three dimensional heterogeneously conducting earth using sq as an inducing source field summary the induced magnetic signature at satellite altitude associated with crustal and mantle electrical heterogeneities is examined using five different earth models the three dimensional induction problem is solved in these models using the solar quiet daily variation as an inducing source field every model has an upper shell representing the land ocean electrical conductivity distribution the different models have either a homogeneous mantle or a heterogeneous mantle containing either subduction zones a ridge system or conductive blocks electromagnetic anomalies presented in the form of geographical maps are calculated for wavelengths related to spherical harmonics of degrees in the ranges 1 12 and 13 27 respectively magnetic anomalies are calculated at an altitude of 400 km and for three different local times 6 12 and 18 h

magnetotelluric results opposing magma origin of crustal conductors in the rio grande rift although conductive intracrustal layers appear to be characteristic of continental rift zones they also have been detected in stable crustal environments the low resistivity layers are often explained by free water or crustal magma however alternative explanations are possible purely geometrical effects can be mistaken as conductive layers at depth in the interpretation of magnetotelluric or geomagnetic depth soundings certain minerals such as graphite and hydrated minerals e g serpentine may be important thermally activated processes associated with ductile flow mechanisms may also enhance conductivity two dimensional analysis of a portion of 25 new magnetotelluric stations in the central rio grande rift supports the presence of a conductive zone at 10 km depth or less however very significant differences are apparent in the crustal sections at two close localities mid crustal magma lenses well defined by seismic data cannot explain these differences in fact the crust is modeled to be more conductive by at least an order of magnitude where magma is not detected compared to where it occurs at shallow and intermediate levels only the possible effects of regional three dimensional current channeling could conceivably alter this conclusion to explain the unexpected result it is suggested that a conductive horizon occurs where an impermeable ductile cap traps pore fluids beneath the cap may be nearly an order of magnitude more conductive 100 s m than the dry brittle crust above the zone of trapped pore fluids much more conductive by more than an order of magnitude 10 m where active magma injection destroys the integrity of the ductile cap trapped fluids may escape and produce an overall decrease in conductivity the final electrical signature with this dynamic concept depends on the thermal gradient the relative impermeability of the cap the extent of pore fluids beneath and the amount and frequency of magma intrusion the temporal and spatial distribution of earthquake foci in our study area supports the existence of a ductile layer at about 10 km depth and the hypothesis of magma injection

clay mineralogy crystallinity and k ar ages of illites within the polish zechstein basin implications for the age of kupferschiefer mineralization a discussion sir bechtel et al 1999 suggest that the formation of diagenetic illite in the kupferschiefer of the polish zechstein basin was coeval with the mineralizing event the ages estimated for the diagenetic illites are in the range of 190 to 216 ma a middle to late triassic date 240 220 ma for the high grade mineralization in the kupferschiefer was inferred from the remanent magnetization of hematite inside the rote faule zone in southwestern poland and the polar wander paths of europe and russia jowett et al 1987 in conclusions p 271 bechtel et al 1999 stated within limits of error the ages inferred for the diagenetic illites inside the mining district of the polish kupferschiefer 190 216 ma are in agreement with the date of the kupferschiefer mineralization proposed by jowett et al 1987 from paleomagnetic measurements thus paleomagnetic data were used for verification of indirect age determination of the main mineralizing event according to bechtel et

the apparent polar wander path of the european plate in upper triassic lower jurassic times and the liassic intraplate fracturing of pangaea new palaeomagnetic constraints from nw france and sw germany summary in order to constrain the european plate motions during triassic lower jurassic times new palaeomagnetic data were acquired from various triassic liassic sediments of northeastern france and southwestern germany a carnian palaeopole 49 n 131 e k 193 a95 7 n 4 was obtained for keuper marls with consistent directions of normal and reversed polarities rhaetian sandstones also with both polarities and carnian dolomites with a magnetization of probable secondary origin provide a mean pole 51 n 112 e k 109 a95 6 n 6 more westerly than that given above the lower hettangian sampled in limestones of the xeuilley quarry near nancy shows a n r n polarity sequence with well defined anti parallel directions the mean hettangian pole is 55 n 100 e k 123 a95 11 n 3 induan sandstones from the northern vosges show two distinct overprints one consistent with the ladinian carnian magnetizations already observed in the same region the second consistent with the recalculated mean lower jurassic pole of europe five other sites with different rock types also exhibit late overprints with lower jurassic directions the mean pole calculated from these overprints is 74 n 124 e k 125 a95 6 n 6 the revised apparent polar wander path apwp presented here shows that for the mid permian to the earliest jurassic the palaeopoles of europe stayed around 50 latitude while the longitudes drifted from 185 e to 100 e the previously established upper triassic lower jurassic loop of the apwp is shifted westwards by about 25 the revised apwp involves the following plate motions after the late alleghanian tectonic phase which marked the end of the variscan orogeny central western europe rotated counterclockwise during about 70 myr up to the earliest jurassic the south north drift in latitude by 35 nearly 4000 km remained regular from 320 to 205 ma with a constant rate of 3 4cm yr 1 around 205 ma this motion ceased probably because of a collision somewhere in the north of eurasia then in the lower liassic the plate underwent a rapid counterclockwise rotation with a eulerian pole located in northeastern asia synchronous with fracturing in the atlantic and the neotethys areas it is proposed that the intraplate fracturing of pangaea was initiated by the rapid change of the megacontinent motion at the end of the trias

an application of thin sheet electromagnetic modelling to the tasman sea abstract the method of thin sheet approximation is invoked for the ocean layer to model and interpret magnetotelluric mt data observed on the floor of the tasman sea between australia and new zealand a technique to remove 3d distortion from the observed seafloor mt data is developed from the thin sheet model mt responses the de distorted data then appear isotropic and are reinverted using 1d procedures this approach thus assists interpretation through a combination of 3d forward modelling procedures and 1d inversion a seafloor sediment layer is shown to have a strong effect on observed seafloor mt data also an exercise is carried out to compare the results given by the vertical gradient sounding vgs method with seafloor mt data the electrical conductivity structure beneath the tasman sea is analysed in terms of an upper mantle lithosphere and asthenosphere and a highly conducting lower mantle the observed anisotropy in seafloor mt data is diagnostic of a lithospheric conductivity of less than 10 4 s m 1 conductivity rises by two orders of magnitude below 80 km to greater than 10 2 s m 1 and is probably related to an asthenospheric layer in the upper mantle seismic interpretations similarly place a low velocity zone below a depth of 70 km at a depth of approximately 400 km the conductivity is approximately 1 s m 1 consistent with global estimates for the lower mantle there is little evidence for major change with age in the structure across the tasman sea

mapping convection in the mantle long period 100 250 sec love and rayleigh waves are used to map heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy in the upper mantle spherical harmonic descriptions of anisotropy up to l m 3 and 2 are derived azimuthal anisotropy obtains values as high as 1 there is good correlation of fast rayleigh wave directions with upper mantle return flow directions derived from kinematic considerations this is consistent with the a axis of olivine being aligned in the flow direction the main differences between the flow models and the rayleigh wave azimuthal variation maps occur in the vicinity of hotspots hawaii for example appears to perturb the return flow there is strong correlation of the geoid and surface wave velocity at l 4 and 5 slow regions at this scale are associated with geoid highs and high heat flow consistent with upwelling convective flow or with isostatically compensated regions of low density the correlation of azimuthal anisotropy with upper mantle return flow directions rather than with plate directions suggests that part of the return flow is in the upper mantle and this in turn implies a low viscosity channel

water in the mantle results from electrical conductivity beneath the french alps 1 a deep magnetotelluric sounding in the french alps provided a vertical electrical conductivity profile between 200 1000 km two prominent features are observed first the conductivity in the depth range 400 800 km is smaller than the conductivity of a pyrolite mantle obtained from laboratory results for a normal geotherm second the data do not require the conductivity to change throughout the transition zone 410 660 km in this part of the mantle a temperature of 350 450 c less than normal explains the magnetotelluric conductivity profile at 200 400 km our model favors a cold mantle with 1000 1500 ppm of water dissolved in olivine if correct this model suggests that the subducted slab is dehydrated before reaching the transition zone

magnetostratigraphy of the sherwood sandstone group lower and middle triassic south devon uk detailed correlation of the marine and non marine anisian the sherwood sandstone group in south devon consists of the budleigh salterton pebble beds and the otter sandstone formation the otter sandstone formation comprises four lithostratigraphic sub units from the base labelled a d and contains tetrapods corresponding to the perovkan land vertebrate faunachron and is consequently a key european non marine anisian succession a total of 181 palaeomagnetic specimens from 92 horizons were measured to determine the palaeomagnetic signal the magnetic properties and characteristic remanence is predominantly carried by haematite most of which probably formed early in the depositional and diagenetic history the lower part of the sherwood sandstone group budleigh salterton pebble beds and otter sandstone formation unit a lower part of unit b has predominantly normal polarity magnetozones bs1 bs2 and bs3n with three thin reversed polarity magnetozones the lower part of unit b to the lower part of unit c of the otter sandstone formation is predominantly reverse polarity magnetozones bs3r bs4 and bs5 but includes three short normal polarity intervals the upper ca 50 m of unit c shows a mix of normal and reverse polarity bs6 bs7 with normal dominating the ca 15 m thick unit d is entirely of normal polarity bs8n the magnetostratigraphy allows unambiguous comparison with conodont and ammonite calibrated magnetostratigraphies from elsewhere in europe these show that the bs2 and bs3n magnetozones of the otter sandstone formation are lower aegean to middle pelsonian lower to middle anisian the bs3r to bs5r magnetozone interval is middle pelsonian to lower illyrian middle to upper anisian and the bs6 to bs8n magnetozone interval is middle illyrian to lower fassanian the top of unit d is correlated to an interval in the middle of the nevadites zone close to the anisian ladinian boundary consequently the otter sandstone formation correlates with the muschelkalk in the polish basin but is equivalent to only part of the germanic basin muschelkalk the continuous magnetostratigraphy from the sherwood sandstone group provides additional details of the polarity pattern through the pelsonian to illyrian interval which appears to be lacking in discontinuous marine sections a synthesis of adjacent european sedimentary basins in combination with the magnetostratigraphy suggests that the budleigh salterton pebble beds are probably late spathian to lower aegean

pre drift extension of the atlantic margins of north america and europe based on paths of permo triassic apparent polar wander summary we reconstruct the relative configuration of north america and europe prior to separation using paths of apparent polar wander apw for the interval 300 to 200 ma the bullard et al 1965 reconstruction closely superimposes the 300 ma points on the two apw paths but leaves the 200 ma points far apart conversely anomaly based reconstructions for later times approximately superimpose the 200 ma ends of the paths but leave the older ends far apart this indicates that separation of the interiors of the two continents began during the interval 300 to 200 ma long before surficial rifting commenced in the late mesozoic this in turn requires pre rift extension in the two continental margins extension appears to have occurred in two phases of approximately equal magnitude but significantly different direction the change in direction occurred at about 200 ma the earlier 300 to 200 ma episode of extension appears to have involved a strong element of sinistral shear based on our preferred reconstruction the total amount of pre rift extension of the two continental margins may have been as much as 1400 km

paleomagnetism of the moenkopi and chinle formations in central new mexico implications for the north american apparent polar wander path and triassic magnetostratigraphy in central new mexico red sedimentary rocks unconformably overlying permian carbonates of the san andres formation have been correlated with the early middle triassic moenkopi and late triassic chinle formations of the colorado plateau paleomagnetic samples from triassic sections exposed on basement cored uplifts along both the east and west side of the rio grande rift near albuquerque yield upon thermal and chemical demagnetization well defined high unblocking temperature dual polarity magnetizations carried by hematite the characteristic magnetization is interpreted as an early acquired chemical remanent magnetization based on a positive intraformational microconglomerate test and bedding parallel magnetization polarity zonation the moenkopi and lowermost chinle formations produced paleomagnetic poles respectively at 57 6 n 100 3 e n 36 sites k 74 1 a95 2 8 and 60 8 n 88 9 e n 17 sites k 130 3 a95 3 1 these data plus previously published and additional results from the underlying permian strata suggest that portions of central new mexico have experienced a small clockwise rotation i e less than 10 similar to that of the colorado plateau with respect to the north american craton the paleomagnetic directions of the chinle formation and related strata in eastern new mexico document about 12 great circle distance of rapid apparent polar wander during mid carnian to late norian times along a track which contains other cratonic poles of similar age we present a preliminary magnetic polarity time scale for the triassic that incorporates the present new mexico data and previously published data mostly form continental red bed sequences this magnetic polarity scale provides a basic framework which can be tested with future data from triassic sections where additional biostratigraphic control exists

controlled electromagnetic sources for measuring electrical conductivity beneath the oceans 1 forward problem and model study exact closed form expressions for the electromagnetic induction fields produced by vertical and horizontal current sources in the conducting ocean overlying a one dimensional earth are derived from the maxwell equations numerical methods for the evaluation of the solutions are given including correction for the finite size of real sources simple models of the electrical conductivity structure of the ocean crust and lithosphere are deduced from geologic petrologic and laboratory data and their electromagnetic response is modeled horizontal electric dipole sources produce much larger field amplitudes than their vertical counterparts for a given frequency and range and the horizontal electric field offers superior received signal performance reflections of electromagnetic waves from the sea surface and thermocline must be considered for low enough frequencies or long ranges estimates of the ambient noise level from natural electromagnetic sources in the frequency range 0 01 10 hz are presented the ability of controlled sources to determine features of the conductivity of the ocean crust and upper mantle especially low conductivity zones is demonstrated if the mantle conductivity is low enough horizontal ranges of 50 km and conductivity estimates to over 20 km depth can be achieved

geomagnetic variation sounding of the asthenosphere beneath the juan de fuca ridge two ocean bottom magnetometers have been deployed at sites on either side of the juan de fuca ridge 20 and 40 km from the crest near latitude 47 n twelve days of data were recorded simultaneously at the two sites and these data have been used to determine the electrical conductivity structure beneath the region the vertical field variations at both stations are of very low amplitude in the period range 0 25 to 8 hours with no detectable phase reversal across the ridge electric fields in the ocean layer have been estimated from the attenuation of sea floor horizontal fields with respect to victoria and the resulting impedance spectra inverted to find resistivity as a function of depth using the technique of oldenburg 1979 resistivity models which fit the data within the specified bounds are characterized by a comparatively resistive crust and upper lithosphere overlying a low resistivity zone between depths of 55 and 75 km which in turn appears to be underlain by a higher resistivity section the average resistivities are used to estimate temperature and melt fraction on the basis of the effective medium theory of shankland and waff 1976 for a basalt melt fraction within an olivine matrix for the low resistivity zone and depending on the water content of the melt 0 to 10 the estimated temperature range is 1400 c to 1250 c and the corresponding melt fraction 0 05 to 0 09 the data suggest that the melt fraction decreases below 80 km the conductivity profile from magnetotelluric data on 72 ma ocean floor in the north central pacific filloux 1977 has similar characteristics to the 1 ma old conductivity structure near the juan de fuca ridge but with the low resistivity layer at depths of 140 to 220 km in both cases the resistivity minimum should be equated with the region of maximum partial melt within the asthenosphere rather than with the base of the lithosphere the increase in depth to this zone with increasing lithosphere age is in general agreement with plate tectonic concepts

rheology of the lithosphere selected topics we review recent results concerning the rheology of the lithosphere with special attention to the following topics 1 the flexure of the oceanic lithosphere 2 deformation of the continental lithosphere resulting from vertical surface loads and forces applied at plate margins 3 the rheological stratification of the continents 4 strain localization and shear zone development and 5 strain induced crystallographic preferred orientations and anisotropies in body wave velocities we conclude with a section citing the 1983 1986 rock mechanics literature by category

a middle triassic paleomagnetic pole for the eurasian plate from heming france the paleomagnetic study of middle triassic limestones 91 cores 160 samples from a 40 m thick section in heming france yields a paleomagnetic pole for stable europe at lat 53 5 n lon 140 8 e dp 2 3 dm 3 9 this pole fills an important gap of the apparent polar wander path apwp of the eurasian plate the comparison of this pole with available data shows a standstill of the eurasian plate from the late paleozoic to the middle triassic followed by a rapid drift until the lower jurassic the beginning of the rapid drift is contemporaneous with the initiation of main rifting processes in the tethyan oceans

electrical conductivity temperatures and fluids in the lower crust we have compiled both laboratory and worldwide field data on electrical conductivity to help understand the physical implications of deep crustal electrical profiles regional heat flow was used to assign temperatures to each layer in regional electrical conductivity models we avoided those data where purely conductive heat flow suggested temperatures more than about 1000 sup 0 c substantially higher than solidus temperatures and outside the range of validity of heat flow models the resulting plots of log conductivity sigma versus 1 t demonstrate that even low conductivity layers lcl have conductivities several orders of magnitude higher than dry laboratory samples and that the data can be represented by straight line fits in addition tectonically active regions show systematically higher conductivities than do shield areas because volatiles are usually lost in laboratory measurements and their absence is a principal difference between laboratory and field conditions these materials probably account for the relatively higher conductivities of rocks in situ in the crust free water in amounts of 0 01 0 1 in fracture porosity could explain crustal conductivities other possibilities are graphite hydrated minerals in rare instances and sulfur in combination with other volatiles as most of the temperatures are less than 700 sup 0 c partial melting seems likely onlymore in regions of highest heat flow where the conductive temperature profiles are inappropriate another result is that at a given temperature crustal high conductivity layes hcl are more conductive by another order of magnitude and show more scatter than do lcl s less

upper mantle lateral heterogeneities and magnetotelluric daily variation data we use telluric and magnetic data of the diurnal variation recorded in europe australia and north america to study the magnetotelluric tensor in the 6h 24h period range we use associate directions and we eliminate the effects of deviation of telluric currents we thus obtain for each observatory reliable phases and apparent resistivity values representative of the neighbouring stratified substratum it appears that the values obtained in the four european observatories saint maur france ebro spain toledo spain nagycenk hungary give similar results and that these results are different from those obtained either in tucson usa or in watheroo australia

electrical conductivity of dry lower crustal rocks this study provides values of electrical conductivity of possible lower crustal materials to assist interpretation of lower crustal magnetotelluric soundings we present mean values of conductivity measurements collected from the literature for dry mafic and silicic rocks in the temperature range of 500 c to 1000 c we observe statistically significant differences between rock types mafic rocks are better conductors than granites by about half an order of magnitude and within the mafic group aphanitic fine grained rocks have higher conductivity than phaneritic coarse grained ones best fitting curves of log conductivity versus temperature are presented for each rock type to show mean log conductivity values together with standard deviations so that most probable temperature ranges can be inferred from conductivity because the laboratory rocks are dry their conductivities are lower at a given temperature than they would be if fluids or volatiles were present hence any temperatures inferred from

revised and synthetic apparent polar wander paths of the african eurasian north american and indian plates and true polar wander since 200 ma we have reviewed paleomagnetic data available for the eurasian african north american and indian plates over the last 200 ma selection criteria are those generally accepted with an emphasis on evidence for lack of remagnetization accurate dating and proper structural analysis this results in 23 35 51 and 2 poles for eurasia africa north america and india respectively we believe that this limited set of higher quality data is more likely to reveal key features of apparent polar wander apw paths than averaging of larger data sets involving less stringent selection criteria we propose and describe revised apw paths but more importantly we next use relative motion models to transfer all data in a common reference frame we find good agreement between transferred data when they are averaged separately for each plate in independent 20 ma windows this is a check on consistency of paleomagnetic data kinematic models and of the geocentric dipole hypothesis transferred data from all plates are averaged in 20 ma windows to generate synthetic apw paths for all plates studied these synthetic paths are in agreement with the original revised apw paths that use only data from a single plate moreover both geographic and time resolution are improved spatial confidence intervals are of the order of 5 the synthetic paths display interesting features such as a previously ill recognized apw loop for eurasia paleomagnetic and hotspot apw are next compared and a determination of true polar wander tpw is derived we find significant tpw amounting to over 20 in the last 200 ma tpw appears to be episodic with a standstill between 180 and 110 ma there is general agreement with a previous study of livermore et al 1984 the tpw standstill appears to correlate with a time of decreasing reversal frequency ending with the cretaceous long normal superchron other periods of fast tpw would seem to correspond to increasing reversal frequency however it is suggested that the major tpw hairpin at 50 ma might correspond to the collision of india with eurasia tentative correlations with core or mantle indicators can be understood as a result of couplings between the core mantle and lithosphere we believe primarily related to episodic evolution of the d layer

tertiary paleomagnetism of north and south china and a reappraisal of late mesozoic paleomagnetic data from eurasia implications for the cenozoic tectonic history of asia abstract to contribute to the understanding of the cenozoic tectonic history of china and eastern eurasia in general we collected paleomagnetic samples from tertiary rocks in both north and south china our miocene paleomagnetic data for northern china are from four widely separated basalt sections in the inner mongolia autonomous region and shandong province both normal and reversed polarities of the characteristic magnetization are present in the stratigraphie sequence and the mean normal and reversed directions are closely antiparallel to each other the fact that the same characteristic direction was carried by both magnetite and hematite suggests that the hematite was probably formed by auto oxidation processes during primary cooling of the basalts the paleomagnetic data from these four areas also pass a regional generalized fold test the corresponding mean miocene paleomagnetic pole for northern china is longitude 261 6 e latitude 88 3 n a 95 6 4 our early tertiary paleomagnetic results for south china are from two sandstone sections around the city of nanning 22 7 n 108 3 e in guangxi zhuang autonomous region high temperature characteristic directions isolated in 31 samples from five sites pass both tilt and reversal tests the paleomagnetic pole position determined from the five sites lies at longitude 228 0 e latitude 83 6 n a 95 8 5 the tertiary paleomagnetic poles for north and south china are statistically indistinguishable from each other and thus confirm that north and south china were fully assembled at least by the tertiary our new tertiary paleomagnetic data are consistent with the hypothesis that the major continental blocks of north and south china were in the same position as today during the tertiary a critical evaluation and selection of paleomagnetic results from the late jurassic onward for siberia europe and north and south china further corroborate this hypothesis most previously existing jurassic and cretaceous paleomagnetic poles from europe siberia are of uncertain reliability and should not be used for tectonic reconstruction using poles derived from transferring reliable data from other continents we show that the previous paleomagnetic inferences of large eastward displacements between these chinese blocks during the cenozoic are no longer warranted the available paleomagnetic data that meet our acceptance criteria are also of interest concerning the boundary conditions of the propagating extrusion model for asian tectonics additional mesozoic and cenozoic paleomagnetic data from siberia and north and south china are still needed to resolve the smaller second order displacements that appear to characterize the cenozoic tectonic history of this part of asia

interior structure of terrestrial planets modeling mars mantle and its electromagnetic geodetic and seismic properties 1 we present a new procedure to describe the one dimensional thermodynamical state and mineralogy of any earth like planetary mantle with mars as an example the model parameters are directly related to expected results from a geophysical network mission in this case electromagnetic geodetic and seismological processed observations supplemented with laboratory measurements we describe the internal structure of the planet in terms of a one dimensional model depending on a set of eight parameters for the crust the thickness and the mean density for the mantle the bulk volume fraction of iron the olivine volume fraction the pressure gradient and the temperature profile and for the core its mass and radius currently available geophysical and geochemical knowledge constrains the range of the parameter values in the present paper we develop the forward problem and present the governing equations from which synthetic data are computed using a set of parameter values among all martian models fitting the currently available knowledge we select eight candidate models for which we compute synthetic network science data sets the synergy between the three geophysical experiments of electromagnetic sounding geodesy and seismology is emphasized the stochastic inversion of the synthetic data sets will be presented in a companion paper

magnetotelluric imaging of the society islands hotspot in april june 1989 seafloor magnetotelluric data across and along the leading edge of the tahiti hotspot were obtained the magnetotelluric response functions were found to be strongly influenced by bathymetric and island effects and a new procedure for modeling and removing this distortion using a thin sheet approach combined with the measured water depths is introduced the corrected response functions are consistent with a two dimensional structure inversion of the data shows a slightly higher conductivity relative to a reference site located away from the hotspot down to 130 km depth beneath the active area southeast of tahiti underlain by a more resistive structure there is a suggestion for a change in conductivity in the 400 450 km depth range which is consistent with elevated temperatures this result is consistent with a mantle plume of limited extent less than 150 km radius located near the leading edge of the tahiti hotspot the magnetotelluric data provide no evidence for lithospheric thinning or for a strong thermal influence over a large area as would be required by a superswell model

laboratory electromagnetic model results for the emslab region apparent resistivities and vertical to horizontal magnetic field ratios for the lincoln line traverse in the emslab project region are studied using a scaled laboratory analogue model the model includes a simulation of the juan de fuca plate subducting the canadian u s pacific northwest region in the model the subducting plate is taken to be horizontal offshore dipping at 10 beneath the coast then inland bending farther to dip at 45 in the washington oregon region and at 30 in the british columbia region the model results show that for inland sites the apparent resistivity for the telluric field component parallel to the coast and thus also parallel to the strike of the dipping conductive substructure depends strongly on period while the resistivity for the telluric field perpendicular to the coast is largely a galvanic effect and changes less with period the amplitude of the vertical to horizontal magnetic field ratio along the lincoln line shows a saddle shaped response with the coastal maximum followed by a second maximum inland due to the dipping substructure further rather than decreasing rapidly with distance inland as expected for a simple coast effect the field ratios retain significant values large distances inland for periods of 3 120 min model results for 120 min period are compared with one example of field results for the emslab project region

subducted slabs and the geoid constraints on mantle rheology and flow geoid anomalies are primarily the result of the density contrasts driving mantle convection and plate motion the total geoid anomaly resulting from a given density contrast in a convecting earth is affected by the mass anomalies associated with the flow induced deformation of the upper surface and internal compositional boundaries as well as by the density contrast itself these boundary deformations and hence the total gravity field depend on the radial distribution of effective viscosity if the internal density contrasts can be estimated as is the case for subducted slabs useful constraints can be placed on the depth and on the variation of viscosity with depth of the convecting system the degree 4 9 components of the observed long wavelength geoid are highly correlated with those predicted by a density model for seismically active subducted slabs the positive sign of the correlation requires that the effective viscosity increases with depth by a factor of 30 or more the amplitude of the correlation cannot be explained by the density contrasts associated with just the seismically active parts of subducted slabs however the amplitude can be explained if the density contrasts associated with subduction extend into the lower mantle or if old lithosphere is piled up at the base of the upper mantle beneath subduction zones to a thickness in excess of 350 km over horizontal distances of thousands of kilometers mantlewide convection in a mantle that has a viscosity increasing with depth provides a simple explanation of the long wavelength geoid anomalies over subduction zones

free carbon electrical conductivity in the earth s mantle laboratory measurements indicate that solid carbon either amorphous or as graphite enhances the electrical conductivity of rocks carbon in quantities of only a few ppm providing it forms an interconnected phase could give rise to electrical conductivities of the order seen in the high conductivity layers in the earth s mantle this possibility is consistent with carbon petrology in mantle rocks and puts the formation and migration of abiogenic carbon compounds into a broader context

the middle triassic magnetostratigraphy from the peri tethys basin in poland abstract the paper presents the first complete magnetic polarity scale obtained for the middle triassic of the northern peri tethys area the roetian and muschelkalk deposits of southern poland upper silesia the holy cross mountains were studied paleomagnetically the obtained paleopole a 52 n 143 e fits well to the middle triassic ca 240 ma segment of the stable european apwp a set of various quality characteristic directions isolated in 106 samples was used for construction of the composite polarity scale this peritethyan scale has been tied with conodont zonation and referred to the scale erected earlier in the tethyan realm comparison of both scales indicates that the whole roetian succession in the southern polish basin should be correlated with the latest olenekian the normal marine sedimentation ceased in the polish basin as early as in the late fassanian time the obtained magnetostratigraphic scale combined with the sequence stratigraphic framework enables a reliable chronological correlation of the late olenekian ladinian succession over the entire peri tethys basin

magneto biostratigraphy of the middle to upper triassic transition central spitsbergen arctic norway palaeomagnetic and biostratigraphic data were obtained for the latest ladinian and most of the carnian botneheia formation to basal kapp toscana group from two sections in central spitsbergen svalbard archipelago thermal and alternating field af demagnetization reveals a magnetization of both normal and reversed polarities the mean directions pass reversal and fold tests and are similar to other european late triassic palaeopoles one of the sections displays 15 of vertical axis clockwise tectonic rotation on a decollement in the underlying botneheia formation the magnetostratigraphy is dominated by normal polarity in the uppermost botneheia formation and into the tschermakfjellet and basal de geerdalen formations a substantial hiatus characterizes the ladinian carnian boundary in central spitsbergen so reverse magnetozones identified in tethyan sections near this boundary are absent magnetostratigraphic correlation along with palynostratigraphic constraints indicates that most of the de geerdalen formation is lower carnian the magnetostratigraphy and palynology indicates that the isfjorden member upper unit of the de geerdalen formation is probably mid carnian in age change in the lithological architecture in the isfjorden member compared with the underlying parts of the de geerdalen fm suggests a hiatus near the base of the member which may represent a mid carnian unconformity not previously recognized on spitsbergen

thermospheric winds over japan comparison of ionosonde and radar measurements the magnetic meridional component of the thermospheric neutral wind is derived from the f2 layer height measured from ionograms collected at kokubunji japan and compared with the winds measured by the middle and upper atmosphere radar at shigaraki japan and the winds predicted by the empirical horizontal wind model 1990 hwm90 good agreement is found between the ionosonde and the radar winds this agreement supports the previous finding of the radar study that the winds over japan are smaller in amplitude than the winds reported elsewhere by a factor of 1 5 2 on the other hand disagreement is found at some local times between the ionosonde and hwm90 winds the ionosonde winds in the period from 1986 to 1988 are on average poleward in the daytime and equatorward in the nighttime the daytime nighttime difference remains at about 100 m s summer or winter but this diurnal pattern is superposed upon a daily average drift of about 10 m s southward in summer and 10 m s northward in winter suggesting a consistent summer to winter circulation pattern this limited study validates the ionosonde wind method as applied at japanese longitudes and opens the way for comprehensive studies of the thermospheric wind over japan from the long and continuous ionogram libraries from the japanese ionosonde chain

conductivity structure of oceanic upper mantle beneath the pacific plate summary ocean bottom magnetotelluric responses from three ages on the pacific plate have been inverted to reveal the presence of a conductive zone whose depth is a function of lithospheric age the conductivity achieves its maximum value 0 1 sm 1 at depths near 70 120 and 180 km for lithospheric ages of 1 30 and 72 myr respectively the existence of this conductive structure has firmly been established by constructing a number of different acceptable models and also by obtaining unique averages over depth of the conductivity an explanation in terms of partial melting in the upper mantle has produced lower bounds for the volume fraction of melt which must exist in order to produce the high conductivity beneath jdf t 1 myr the lower bound lies in the range 0 04 0 12 beneath cal t 30 myr it lies in the range 0 02 0 10 and beneath ncp t 72 myr it lies in the range 0 008 0 02 the distributions of partial melt show that the major portion of melt beneath jdf lies between 40 and 90 km and that melting has ceased by depths of about 170 km at all three sites geotherms have been computed and they are qualitatively similar to those predicted from a convective system where the temperature increases rapidly through a boundary layer to achieve a maximum value and then possibly decreases with depth the depth at which the maximum temperature is reached is about 125 km for cal and about 175 km for ncp and the maximum temperatures are estimated to be 1400 1500 c lastly as an independent check upon the partial melt explanation the location and magnitude of the seismic low velocity zone has been correlated positively with the computed distribution of partial melt at all three ocean bottom sites

lower jurassic palaeomagnetic results from yorkshire england and their implications palaeomagnetic study of middle liassic siltstones shows a stable magnetization with a mean direction of d 12 3 i 64 6 n 60 k 26 95 3 9 corresponding to a palaeomagnetic pole at 79 8 n 125 6 e similar to that for southern germany and confirming predictions based on palaeogeographic reconstructions using north american data sideritic concretions of lower liassic age show a higher magnetic stability with a mean direction of d 12 6 i 61 4 n 125 k 50 95 1 8 which is not significantly different from the siltstones this confirms the sedimentological evidence that suggests that such concretions grew very shortly after deposition i e within the liassic and suggests that similar concretions of other ages could thus be used for palaeomagnetic studies although the liassic palaeomagnetic pole 76 9 n 134 7 e based on this work appears valid it is still not possible to evaluate a sensible mesozoic polar wandering curve for the north atlantic bordering continents

paleomagnetic implications on the evolution of the tethys belt from the atlantic ocean to the pamirs since the triassic abstract we first re examined the apparent polar wander curves for stable eurasia and africa since the triassic these curves were then combined together with curves of north and south america according to the kinematics of the atlantic ocean and a synthetic polar wander curve was given then most of the paleomagnetic results from the tethys mobile belt from the atlantic to the pamirs were analysed several groups of plates microplates and blocks can be seen first relatively stable regions like maghreb and sicily which have not moved much then we have a group formed by iberia sardinia italy and to a lesser extent corsica and the western and central alps for these blocks movements are anticlockwise rotations chiefly driven by the anticlockwise rotation of africa but they are sometimes stronger to the east a major change takes place the north of the aegean sea and the ionian zone are clockwise rotated and these rotations are recent oligocene miocene for the first part pliocene to the present for the second part a major problem arises in turkey caucasus and iran paleomagnetic results indicate a position far to the south of eurasia and at the same time geological evidence is in favour of a position close to eurasia we discuss these discrepancies

the electrical conductivity of the oceanic upper mantle summary previous inversions of sea floor magnetotelluric mt sounding data have predicted upper mantle electrical conductivities which are more than an order of magnitude higher than laboratory measurements of the conductivity of olivine would suggest and controlled source field electromagnetic csem soundings require a lithospheric mantle conductivity of 3 x lop5 sm which is so low that the electromagnetic em coast effect would produce more anisotropy in mt soundings than is observed we address these issues by constructing an olivine mantle model for conductivity and examining the inversion of mt data from three sea floor sites and show that the incompatibilities can be largely resolved if the effects of oceans and coastlines are considered our mantle model is based on recent measurements of olivine conductivity the conductivity of tholeiite melt a thermal model for the upper mantle based on lithospheric cooling and the temperature of a a 3 olivine transition the pyrolite model of mantle petrology and conductivities derived from csem sounding we propose archie s law with exponent 2 and interconnected tubes as realistic lower and upper bounds for the effect of partial melt on rock conductivity and archie s law with exponent 1 5 as the preferred estimate the 1 d forward response of this model is not compatible with observed sea floor mt data three data sets presented by oldenburg 1981 pass a test for one dimensionality based on the size of the residuals when fit with parker s d algorithm but two of the three soundings fail a test for independence of residuals we also find that the presence of the upper mantle high conductivity zone previously inferred from these data is highly dependent on data misfit and not required when the misfit criterion is relaxed a reasonable amount re inversions of the mt data produce models which are incompatible with our petrological model of mantle conductivity however by adding an ocean with various coastlines of simple geometry to our petrological model and solving the forward 3 d problem using thin sheet analysis we predict mt responses which are distorted in a manner that is remarkably similar to the observed data

the drift history of iran from the ordovician to the triassic new late ordovician and triassic palaeomagnetic data from iran are presented these data in conjunction with data from the literature provide insights on the drift history of iran as part of cimmeria during the ordovician triassic a robust agreement of palaeomagnetic poles of iran and west gondwana is observed for the late ordovician earliest carboniferous indicat ing that iran was part of gondwana during that time data for the late permian early early tri assic indicate that iran resided on subequatorial palaeolatitudes clearly disengaged from the parental gondwanan margin in the southern hemisphere since the late early triassic iran has been located in the northern hemisphere close to the eurasian margin this northward drift brought iran to cover much of the palaeotethys in approximately 35 ma at an average plate speed ofc 7 8 cm year 21 and was in part coeval to the transformation of pangaea from an irvin gian b to a wegenerian a type configuration

long period magnetotelluric measurements near the central california coast a land locked view of the conductivity structure under the pacific ocean summary telluric data from hollister california were combined with magnetic data from the fresno california magnetic observatory to determine the mt response at long periods the shifted eigenstate analysis of latorraca et al 1986 was used to determine the maximum apparent resistivities and corresponding eih phases for periods from 1 to 30 h the apparent resistivity and phase at hollister are greatly influenced by the ocean with the mantle branch beginning at a period of about 12 h in typical continental areas the mantle branch usually begins at periods of 10s or less a maximum likelihood inversion algorithm was used to invert the observed data and to determine the sensitivity of the model parameters the data required a resistivity thickness product of approximately 1 x lo9 q m2 1 x lo6 q m km for the oceanic lower crust and upper mantle the oceanic mantle shows a rather small gradient of conductivity from approximately 200 to 640 km in depth and a rapid conductivity increase below 640km the sensitivity analysis shows the data are most sensitive to the oceanic parameters except for the electric field amplitudes which are also sensitive to the resistivities under the observation site

inversion of ocean bottom magnetotelluric data revisited three ocean bottom magnetotelluric data sets from sites on the pacific plate are reinterpreted the initial analysis found a correlation between the lithospheric age and the depth to a conductive zone beneath each site that work also suggested that the resistivity increased below the conductor this analysis which includes new methods for constructing one dimensional conductivity models shows that the postulated increase in resistivity is not demanded by the data it also reveals an unexpectedly large nonuniqueness inherent in the interpretation of these data the previously reported trends with lithospheric age still exist but they are not as strong as initially believed finally it is shown rigorously that the different age sites are distinct in that no one dimensional model can account for all three data sets

early triassic paleomagnetic data from the dolomites italy prefolding high unblocking temperature magnetization components have been resolved from 28 sites of red siltstones from the lower triassic werfen formation in the dolomites southern alps site mean declinations are more scattered than site mean inclinations indicating small scale relative rotation among thrust sheets particularly in the eastern part of the dolomites affected by dinaric paleogene thrusting two sites from close to the valsugana line indicate large scale 80 anticlockwise rotation in this zone of alpine sinistral transpression the overall mean direction number of sites n 26 declination 331 inclination 13 95 6 6 excluding sites close to the valsugana line gives a pole position latitude 42 n longitude 233 e dp dm 3 4 6 8 which lies close to published early permian poles from the southern alps and to permian and early triassic poles for africa implying very little net rotation of the dolomites relative to africa since permian time

the role of water in the deformation of dunite specimens of two natural dunites anita bay of 100 m grain size and aheirn of 900 m grain size have been deformed in experiments at temperatures between 1200 and 1400 c and constant strain rates between 10 4 and 10 6 s 1 in a gas medium deformation apparatus at 300 mpa confining pressure prior to these experiments the specimens were given a heat treatment in a controlled oxygen fugacity furnace at 1200 c for 60 hours to dehydrate the trace layer silicate minerals present and drive off adsorbed water the predried specimens are much stronger than specimens tested under wet conditions in an earlier study the predried specimens also do not show the apparent grain size dependence seen under wet conditions infrared absorption measurements on the present specimens and those of the earlier study indicate that for a given rock flow stress can be correlated with the intensity of a residual water related broad absorption the addition of water to a predried specimen results in both a mechanical reweakening and an intensifying of the broadband infrared component the weakening of the dunites under wet conditions is probably strongly influenced by the presence of small amounts of a water related species in the grain boundaries but intragranular weakening may also be contributing it is suggested that the concentration of the water related species in the grain boundaries is governed by its concentration in the small melt fraction present the amounts of water that have been found to be of importance for the strength of these dunites are of the order of 0 01 wt amounts much less than most estimates of the water content of the earth s undepleted upper mantle such water may have an important role in determining upper mantle flow behavior stress strain curves for all experiments are available with entire manuscript on microfiche order from american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington dc 20009 document b84 008 2 50 payment must accompany order

magnetotelluric experiment over the rose area seafloor observations in natural electromagnetic fluctuations diffusing into the earth have been made in the vicinity of the pacific rise at 12 sup 0 n and 21 sup 0 n to gather information on the electrical conductivity structure of the oceanic basement near a spreading ridge at 21 sup 0 n the close proximity of land baja california introduces a noticeable distortion of the em fields and consequently the magnetotelluric sounding for this area must be interpreted with caution at both locations the conductance of the upper 200 km appears exceptionally high and the conductivity rises rapidly below reaching 1 s m sup 1 or more at 350 km the statistical significance of a prominent conductivity increase near a depth of 22 5 km detected in the inverted data from 12 sup 0 n and of a less developed one at 30 km in the case of 21 sup 0 n is discussed records of the magnetic variations of 21 sup 0 n taken above the spreading center compared to records from 40 and 120 km to the west reveal a conspicuous enhancement of the high frequency horizontal variations in a direction slightly west of magnetic north we interpret this distinctive feature as the signature of an electric current sheet concentrated in an extremely highmore conductance relatively shallow layer electrically bridging the two seafloor areas adjacent to the spreading center an approximate calculation suggests a conductance in excess of 3000 s per meter of ridge crest in the close vicinity of the accretion center equivalent to 1 to 8 km of molten basalt depending on temperature 1000 sup 0 1200 sup 0 c and depth 2 10 km this structure is consistent with seismic refraction information for the same area and with stratigraphic reconstruction of a fossil accretion center in samail ophiolite an interpretation in terms of a well developed magma chamber is irresistable although confirmation of the existence of this feature as well as improvement of its resolution by means of additional em data would be of major interest less

comparison of analogue model and field station em responses on southern vancouver island abstract measurements of geomagnetic induction responses for a laboratory analogue model that includes a simulation of the subducting juan de fuca plate are compared with those obtained at three sites on vancouver island good agreement between model and field responses at the central vancouver island site is observed over the period range 3 60 min while at the east and west coastal sites good agreement is achieved only for periods greater than 20 min at shorter periods departures of the observed responses from those of the model are possibly the result of upper crust inhomogeneities not replicated in the simulation and the complex strait with its numerous small islands and its irregular coastlines inadequately simulated in the course model nevertheless the analogue model results are consistent with the premise of a juan de fuca plate underlain by the conductive asthenosphere subducting at a shallow depth beneath vancouver island