deep seismic reflection images of the wharton basin oceanic crust and uppermost mantle offshore northern sumatra relation with active and past deformation 1 we present deep seismic reflection images along two profiles collected in 2006 in the wharton basin offshore northern sumatra the main profile is located subparallel to the sumatran trench at a distance of 32 66 km faulting of the entire sedimentary section strike slip deformation sometimes accompanied by a dip slip component is imaged over two fracture zones of the extinct wharton spreading center that prior studies have shown to be reactivated as left lateral faults the western fracture zone is associated with a wide region of strong basement topography a difference in crustal thickness of 1 5 km and an age offset of 9 ma the epicenters of the 11 april 2012 mw 8 6 great strike slip earthquake its mw 7 2 foreshock and mw 8 2 aftershock align along this major structure 100 km south of the profile intersection our high quality long offset seismic reflection data also reveal bright dipping reflections extending down to a maximum of 24 km into the oceanic mantle 37 km below sea level apparent dips are mostly 25 35 corresponding to 30 55 along either n s to nne ssw or e w to wnw ese directions which encompass the directions of plate fabric and nodal planes of the mw 8 6 event we suggest that these enigmatic reflections arise from presently inactive dip slip fault planes reaching for the deepest ones to the base of the brittle layer possible origins include extension related to plate bending or an episode of now inactive thrust type deformation reactivating paleonormal faults similar to that taking place in the central indian basin

detailed rupture imaging of the 25 april 2015 nepal earthquake using teleseismic p waves we analyze the rupture process of the 25 april 2015 nepal earthquake with globally recorded teleseismic p waves the rupture propagated east southeast from the hypocenter for about 160 km with a duration of 55 s backprojection of both high frequency hf 0 2 to 3 hz and low frequency lf 0 05 to 0 2 hz p waves suggest a multistage rupture process from the low frequency images we resolve an initial slow downdip northward rupture near the nucleation area for the first 20 s stage 1 followed by two faster updip ruptures 20 to 40 s for stage 2 and 40 to 55 s for stage 3 which released most of the radiated energy northeast of kathmandu the centroid rupture power from lf backprojection agrees well with the global centroid moment tensor solution the spatial resolution of the backprojection images is validated by applying similar analysis to nearby aftershocks the overall rupture pattern agrees well with the aftershock distribution a multiple asperity model could explain the observed multistage rupture and aftershock distribution

the 2002 denali fault earthquake alaska a large magnitude slip partitioned event the mw moment magnitude 7 9 denali fault earthquake on 3 november 2002 was associated with 340 kilometers of surface rupture and was the largest strike slip earthquake in north america in almost 150 years it illuminates earthquake mechanics and hazards of large strike slip faults it began with thrusting on the previously unrecognized susitna glacier fault continued with right slip on the denali fault then took a right step and continued with right slip on the totschunda fault there is good correlation between geologically observed and geophysically inferred moment release the earthquake produced unusually strong distal effects in the rupture propagation direction including triggered seismicity

aftershocks of the 2012 off coast of sumatra earthquake sequence abstract aftershocks of the 2012 off coast of sumatra earthquake sequence exhibit a complex and diffuse spatial distribution the first order complexity in aftershock distribution is clear and well beyond the influence of typical earthquake location uncertainty the sequence included rupture of multiple fault segments spatially separated we use surface wave based relative centroid locations to examine whether at the small scale the distribution of the aftershocks was influenced by location errors surface wave based relative location has delineated precise oceanic transform fault earthquake locations in multiple regions however the relocated aftershocks off the coast of sumatra seldom align along simple linear trends that are compatible with the corresponding fault strikes as estimated for the gcmt catalog the relocation of roughly 60 moderate earthquake epicentroids suggests that the faulting involved in the 2012 earthquake aftershock sequence included strain release along many short fault segments statistical analysis and temporal variations of aftershocks show a typical decay of the aftershocks but a relatively low number of aftershocks as is common for intraplate oceanic earthquakes coulomb stress calculations indicate that most of the moderate magnitude aftershocks are compatible with stress changes predicted by the large event slip models the patterns in the aftershocks suggest that the formation of the boundary and eventual localization of deformation between the indian and australian plate is a complicated process

strike slip earthquakes in the oceanic lithosphere observations of exceptionally high apparent stress summary the radiated energies e s and seismic moments m0 for 942 globally distributed earthquakes that occurred between 1987 to 1998 are examined to find the earthquakes with the highest apparent stresses a e s m0 where is the modulus of rigidity the globally averaged a for shallow earthquakes in all tectonic environments and seismic regions is 0 3 mpa however the subset of 49 earthquakes with the highest apparent stresses a greater than about 5 0 mpa is dominated almost exclusively by strike slip earthquakes that occur in oceanic environments these earthquakes are all located in the depth range 7 29 km in the upper mantle of the young oceanic lithosphere many of these events occur near plate boundary triple junctions where there appear to be high rates of intraplate deformation indeed the small rapidly deforming gorda plate accounts for 10 of the 49 high a events the depth distribution of a which shows peak values somewhat greater than 25 mpa in the depth range 20 25 km suggests that upper bounds on this parameter are a result of the strength of the oceanic lithosphere a recently proposed envelope for apparent stress derived by taking 6 per cent of the strength inferred from laboratory experiments for young less than 30 ma deforming oceanic lithosphere agrees well with the upper bound envelope of apparent stresses over the depth range 5 30 km the corresponding depth dependent shear strength for young oceanic lithosphere attains a peak value of about 575 mpa at a depth of 21 km and then diminishes rapidly as the depth increases in addition to their high apparent stresses which suggest that the strength of the young oceanic lithosphere is highest in the depth range 10 30 km our set of high a earthquakes show other features that constrain the nature of the forces that cause interplate motion first our set of events is divided roughly equally between intraplate and transform faulting with similar depth distributions of a for the two types secondly many of the intraplate events have focal mechanisms with the t axes that are normal to the nearest ridge crest or subduction zone and p axes that are normal to the proximate transform fault these observations suggest that forces associated with the reorganization of plate boundaries play an important role in causing high a earthquakes inside oceanic plates extant transform boundaries may be misaligned with current plate motion to accommodate current plate motion the pre existing plate boundaries would have to be subjected to large horizontal transform push forces a notable example of this is the triple junction near which the second large aftershock of the 1992 april cape mendocino california sequence occurred alternatively subduction zone resistance may be enhanced by the collision of a buoyant lithosphere a process that also markedly increases the horizontal stress a notable example of this is the aleutian trench near which large events occurred in the gulf of alaska in late 1987 and the 1998 march balleny sea m 8 2 earthquake within the antarctic plate

back projection imaging of earthquakes back projection analysis of earthquakes is a type of array processing that images the source of seismic waves coherently recorded at stations throughout the seismic network the method was developed following the magnitude 9 2 sumatra andaman earthquake in 2004 although properties of earthquakes have been investigated using array data prior to the introduction of the back projection method this technique differs from other approaches because it makes limited assumptions and allows detailed and complex rupture propagation to be examined these advantages have led several researchers to apply the method to many of the largest earthquakes to occur this century the method has also been effective for the detection of smaller events a critical component of the success of back projection has been the development of large scale dense seismic arrays further improvements and future applications of the method will depend greatly on the continued maintenance and development of these networks

suppression of slip and rupture velocity increased by thermal pressurization effect of dilatancy we investigated the effect of dilatancy on dynamic rupture propagation on a fault where thermal pressurization tp is in effect taking into account permeability varying with porosity the study is based on three dimensional 3 d numerical simulations of spontaneous ruptures obeying a slip weakening friction law and coulomb failure criterion the effects of dilatancy on dynamic ruptures interacting with tp have been often investigated in one or two dimensional numerical simulations the sole 3 d numerical simulation gave attention only to the behavior at a single point on a fault moreover with the sole exception based on a single degree freedom spring slider model the previous simulations including dilatancy and tp have not considered changes in hydraulic diffusivity however the hydraulic diffusivity which strongly affects tp can vary as a power of porosity in this study we apply a power law relationship between permeability and porosity we consider both reversible and irreversible changes in porosity assuming that the irreversible change is proportional to the slip rate and dilatancy coefficient our numerical simulations suggest that the effects of dilatancy can suppress slip and rupture velocity increased by tp the results reveal that the amount of slip on the fault decreases with increasing or exponent of the power law and the rupture velocity is predominantly suppressed by this was observed regardless of whether the applied stresses were high or low the deficit of the final slip in relation to can be smaller as the fault size is larger

en echelon and orthogonal fault ruptures of the 11 april 2012 great intraplate earthquakes the magnitude 8 7 earthquake that occurred off the coast of the sumatra subduction zone on 11 april 2012 is shown to have had an extraordinarily complex four fault rupture these great ruptures represent large lithospheric deformation that may eventually lead to a localized boundary between the indian and australian plates on 11 april 2012 two of the largest strike slip earthquakes ever recorded at magnitudes of 8 7 and 8 2 occurred in the northeastern indian ocean a few hundred kilometres off the coast of sumatra three groups now report the analysis of seismic data from the days and months before and after these events as well as the events themselves matthias delescluse and co authors show that these earthquakes are part of the ongoing boost of intraplate deformation between india and australia that followed the aceh 2004 and nias 2005 megathrust earthquakes they conclude that the australian plate driven by slab pull forces at the sunda trench is gradually detaching from the indian plate han yue and colleagues show that the 11 april event involved a complex four fault rupture lasting several minutes followed two hours later by a magnitude 8 2 aftershock these great ruptures on a lattice of strike slip faults that extends through the crust and into the upper mantle represent large lithospheric deformation that may eventually create a localized boundary between the indian and australian plates fred pollitz and colleagues show that in the six days following 11 april the global rate of remote earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 5 5 increased nearly fivefold and events up to magnitude 7 seem to have been triggered the unprecedented delayed triggering power of this earthquake may arise from its strike slip source geometry or because it struck at a time of an unusually low global earthquake rate and increased the number of nucleation sites that were very close to failure the indo australian plate is undergoing distributed internal deformation caused by the lateral transition along its northern boundary from an environment of continental collision to an island arc subduction zone1 2 on 11 april 2012 one of the largest strike slip earthquakes ever recorded seismic moment magnitude mw 8 7 occurred about 100 200 kilometres southwest of the sumatra subduction zone occurrence of great intraplate strike slip faulting located seaward of a subduction zone is unusual it results from northwest southeast compression within the plate caused by the india eurasia continental collision to the northwest together with northeast southwest extension associated with slab pull stresses as the plate underthrusts sumatra to the northeast here we use seismic wave analyses to reveal that the 11 april 2012 event had an extraordinarily complex four fault rupture lasting about 160 seconds and was followed approximately two hours later by a great mw 8 2 aftershock the mainshock rupture initially expanded bilaterally with large slip 20 30 metres on a right lateral strike slip fault trending west northwest to east southeast wnw ese and then bilateral rupture was triggered on an orthogonal left lateral strike slip fault trending north northeast to south southwest nne ssw that crosses the first fault this was followed by westward rupture on a second wnw ese strike slip fault offset about 150 kilometres towards the southwest from the first fault finally rupture was triggered on another en echelon wnw ese fault about 330 kilometres west of the epicentre crossing the ninetyeast ridge the great aftershock with an epicentre located 185 kilometres to the ssw of the mainshock epicentre ruptured bilaterally on a nne ssw fault the complex faulting limits our resolution of the slip distribution these great ruptures on a lattice of strike slip faults that extend through the crust and a further 30 40 kilometres into the upper mantle represent large lithospheric deformation that may eventually lead to a localized boundary between the indian and australian plates

back propagating super shear rupture in the 2016 mw7 1 romanche transform fault earthquake how an earthquake rupture propagates strongly influences the potentially destructive ground shaking complex ruptures often involve slip along multiple faults which masks information on the frictional behaviour of fault zones geometrically smooth ocean transform fault plate boundaries offer a favourable environment to study fault dynamics because strain is accommodated along a single wide fault zone that offsets the homogeneous geology here we present an analysis of the 2016 mw 7 1 earthquake on the romanche fracture zone in the equatorial atlantic using data from both nearby seafloor seismometers and global seismic networks we show that this rupture had two phases 1 upward and eastward propagation towards a weaker region where the transform fault intersects the mid ocean ridge and then 2 an unusual back propagation westwards at a supershear speed towards the centre of the fault we suggest that deep rupture into weak fault segments facilitated greater seismic slip on shallow locked zones this highlights that even earthquakes along a single distinct fault zone can be highly dynamic observations of back propagating ruptures are sparse and the possibility of reverse propagation is largely absent in rupture simulations and unaccounted for in hazard assessments in one earthquake an oceanic transform fault ruptured in one direction and then backwards at a speed exceeding that of shear wave propagation according to an analysis of data recorded by nearby seafloor and global seismometers

a statistical study on the characteristics of ionospheric storms in the equatorial ionization anomaly region gps tec observed over taiwan 1 positive and negative signatures of the ionospheric storms caused by the penetration electric field disturbance dynamo neutral wind neutral composition etc have been reported in this paper the ionospheric total electron content tec derived from the records of a network of ground based gps receivers in taiwan is used to statistically study the characteristics such as local time of appearance and duration of the storm signatures of various casuals in the equatorial ionization anomaly eia region during 1994 2003 a bias corrected accelerated bootstrap method and a z test are employed for the first time to detect each event and the overall storm signatures and characteristics respectively it is found that the positive signatures that appeared minutes to hours after the geomagnetic storm onset are pronounced on the storm day and the next day while the negative signatures that started hours after the geomagnetic storm onset can last for as long as the next 4 days the positive signature is statistically significant and most pronounced when the intense geomagnetic storm onset occurs during local afternoon which suggests that the signature may result from a combination of the prompt penetration electric field effect and mechanical effects of equatorward neutral wind additionally the negative signature that is statistically significant and most pronounced in the local afternoon of the storm onset day and or the next day may be produced by the disturbance dynamo or overshielding effects the long lasting negative signature occurred in local midnight noon period on days 2 4 after the storm onset may result from the neutral composition disturbances

how fast is rupture during an earthquake new insights from the 1999 turkey earthquakes we report that during the two devastating 1999 earthquakes in turkey rupture propagated over a large part of the nearly 200km long fault zone at supershear speed approaching 5km s we present observations and modeling which confirm the original inference of supershear rupture during the izmit earthquake and we show that supershear rupture also occurred during the duzce earthquake we show that the rupture velocity measured about 2 times the shear wave velocity is the value predicted by theoretical studies in fracture dynamics we look for clues to explain these observations

tsunamis from strike slip earthquakes in the wharton basin northeast indian ocean march 2016 mw7 8 event and its relationship with the april 2012 mw 8 6 event

from sub rayleigh to supershear ruptures during stick slip experiments on crustal rocks supershear earthquake ruptures propagate faster than the shear wave velocity although there is evidence that this occurs in nature it has not been experimentally demonstrated with the use of crustal rocks we performed stick slip experiments with westerly granite under controlled upper crustal stress conditions supershear ruptures systematically occur when the normal stress exceeds 43 megapascals mpa with resulting stress drops on the order of 3 to 25 mpa comparable to the stress drops inferred by seismology for crustal earthquakes in our experiments the sub rayleigh to supershear transition length is a few centimeters at most suggesting that the rupture of asperities along a fault may propagate locally at supershear velocities in turn these sudden accelerations and decelerations could play an important role in the generation of high frequency radiation and the overall rupture energy budget

seismoionospheric gps total electron content anomalies observed before the 12 may 2008 mw7 9 wenchuan earthquake 1 the global ionospheric map gim is used to observe variations in the total electron content tec of the global positioning system gps associated with 35 m 6 0 earthquakes that occurred in china during the 10 year period of 1 may 1998 to 30 april 2008 the statistical result indicates that the gps tec above the epicenter often pronouncedly decreases on day 3 5 before 17 m 6 3 earthquakes the gps tec of the gim and electron density profiles probed by six microsatellites of formosat3 cosmic f3 c are further employed to simultaneously observe seismoionospheric anomalies during an mw7 9 earthquake near wenchuan china on 12 may 2008 it is found that gps tec above the forthcoming epicenter anomalously decreases in the afternoon period of day 6 4 and in the late evening period of day 3 before the earthquake but enhances in the afternoon of day 3 before the earthquake the spatial distributions of the anomalous and extreme reductions and enhancements indicate that the earthquake preparation area is about 1650 km and 2850 km from the epicenter in the latitudinal and longitudinal directions respectively the f3 c results further show that the ionospheric f2 peak electron density nmf2 and height hmf2 significantly decreases approximately 40 and descends about 50 80 km respectively when the gps tec anomalously reduces

a spatial analysis on seismo ionospheric anomalies observed by demeter during the 2008 m8 0 wenchuan earthquake this paper examines seismo ionospheric anomalies sias observed by the french satellite demeter detection of electro magnetic emissions transmitted from earthquake regions during the 12 may 2008 m8 0 wenchuan earthquake both daytime and nighttime electron density ne electron temperature te ion density ni and ion temperature ti are investigated a statistical analysis of the box and whisker method is utilized to see if the four demeter datasets 1 6 days before and after the earthquake are significantly different the analysis is employed to investigate the epicenter and three reference areas along the same magnetic latitude discriminating the sias from global effects results show that the nighttime ne and ni daytime ti over the epicenter significantly decrease increase 1 6 days before the earthquake the intersections of the global distribution of the significant differences or anomalous changes in the nighttime ne the nighttime ni and the daytime ti 1 6 days before and after the earthquake specifically appear over the epicenter which strongly suggests that demeter observes sias of the 2008 m8 0 wenchuan earthquake

multiple branching rupture of the 2009 tonga samoa earthquake several source models have been proposed to explain the enigmatic 2009 tonga samoa earthquake the long period data require a composite source model and can be fit with a normal faulting subevent followed by one or more reverse faulting subevents the short period data in contrast indicate a more compact rupture pattern around the epicenter the lack of a unified source model reflects the complexity of the event we analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of this earthquake with p wave back projection from globally distributed stations in different frequency bands low frequency 0 05 0 2 hz high frequency 0 2 2 hz and a multiple moment tensor inversion the rupture propagation revealed by back projection exhibits frequency dependent behavior with two branches of high frequency enriched bilateral rupture around the epicenter and a high frequency deficient rupture branch at the subduction interface a composite source model with one mw 8 0 normal faulting earthquake east of the trench axis seaward followed by one mw 8 1 reverse faulting earthquake along the subduction interface west of the trench axis landward can explain the very long period data 200 500 s combined with high resolution swath bathymetry data the back projection images show that the azimuth of rupture branches east of the trench axis were controlled by the geometry of bending related faults on the pacific plate and that the rupture branch west of the trench axis may correlate with the along strike fore arc segmentation the rupture along the subduction interface was triggered by the seaward rupture and a partially subducted normal fault may have played a key role in facilitating the triggering the apparent normal reverse faulting interactions pose a higher seismic risk to this region than their individual strands at the northernmost corner of the tonga subduction zone

supershear rupture of the 5 january 2013 craig alaska mw 7 5 earthquake supershear rupture in which a fracture s crack tip expansion velocity exceeds the elastic shear wave velocity has been extensively investigated theoretically and experimentally and previously inferred from seismic wave observations for six continental strike slip earthquakes we find extensive evidence of supershear rupture expansion of an oceanic interplate earthquake the 5 january 2013 mw 7 5 craig alaska earthquake this asymmetric bilateral strike slip rupture occurred on the queen charlotte fault offshore of southeastern alaska observations of first arriving sn and sg shear waves originating from positions on the fault closer than the hypocenter for several regional seismic stations with path calibrations provided by an empirical green s function approach indicate a supershear rupture process several waveform inversion and modeling techniques were further applied to determine the rupture velocity and space time distribution of slip using regional seismic and geodetic observations both theoretical and empirical green s functions were used in the analyses with all results being consistent with a rupture velocity of 5 5 to 6 km s exceeding the crustal and upper mantle s wave velocity and approaching the crustal p wave velocity supershear rupture occurred along 100 km of the northern portion of the rupture zone but not along the shorter southern rupture extension the direction in which supershear rupture developed may be related to the strong material contrast across the continental oceanic plate boundary as predicted theoretically and experimentally the shear and surface wave mach waves involve strongly enhanced ground motions at azimuths oblique to the rupture direction emphasizing the enhanced hazard posed by supershear rupture of large strike slip earthquakes

local near instantaneously dynamically triggered aftershocks of large earthquakes aftershocks are often triggered by static and or dynamic stress changes caused by mainshocks the relative importance of the two triggering mechanisms is controversial at near to intermediate distances we detected and located 48 previously unidentified large early aftershocks triggered by earthquakes with magnitudes between 7 and 8 within a few fault lengths approximately 300 kilometers during times that high amplitude surface waves arrive from the mainshock less than 200 seconds the observations indicate that near to intermediate field dynamic triggering commonly exists and fundamentally promotes aftershock occurrence the mainshocks and their nearby early aftershocks are located at major subduction zones and continental boundaries and mainshocks with all types of faulting mechanisms normal reverse and strike slip can trigger early aftershocks

the 2012 mw 8 6 wharton basin sequence a cascade of great earthquakes generated by near orthogonal young oceanic mantle faults we improve constraints on the slip distribution and geometry of faults involved in the complex multisegment mw 8 6 april 2012 wharton basin earthquake sequence by joint inversion of high rate gps data from the sumatran gps array sugar teleseismic observations source time functions from broadband surface waves and far field static gps displacements this sequence occurred under the indian ocean 400 km offshore sumatra the events are extraordinary for their unprecedented rupture of multiple cross faults deep slip large strike slip magnitude and potential role in the formation of a discrete plate boundary between the indian and australian plates the sugar recorded static displacements of up to 22 cm along with time varying arrivals from the complex faulting which indicate that the majority of moment release was on young wnw trending right lateral faults counter to initial expectations that an old lithospheric nne trending fracture zone played the primary role the new faults are optimally oriented to accommodate the present day stress field not only was the greatest moment released on the younger faults but it was these that sustained very deep slip and high stress drop 20 mpa the rupture may have extended to depths of up to 60 km suggesting that the oceanic lithosphere in the northern wharton basin may be cold and strong enough to sustain brittle failure at such depths alternatively the rupture may have occurred with an alternative weakening mechanism such as thermal runaway

fault interactions and triggering during the 10 january 2012 mw 7 2 sumatra earthquake the 10 january 2012 mw 7 2 sumatra earthquake in the wharton basin occurred 3 months before the great mw 8 6 and mw 8 2 earthquakes in the same region which had complex ruptures and are the largest strike slip earthquakes ever recorded teleseismic p wave back projection of the mw 7 2 earthquake images a unilateral rupture lasting 40 s without observable frequency dependency low frequency 0 05 0 3 hz high frequency 0 3 1 hz in addition to radiation bursts during the mw 7 2 main shock coherent energy releases from 50 to 75 s and from 100 to 125 s are observed about 143 km northeast of the main shock rupture and landward of the trench analysis of globally recorded p waves in both 0 02 0 05 hz velocity records and 1 5 hz stacked envelope functions confirms the presence of coherent sources during the time windows the observed energy bursts are likely to be large early aftershocks occurring on or near the subduction interface both dynamic and static triggering could have induced these early aftershocks as they initiated after the surface wave passed by and the coulomb stress perturbations from the mw 7 2 main shock promote earthquakes in the observed locations the earthquake sequence is a clear example of a seaward intraplate strike slip earthquake triggering landward intraplate earthquakes in the same region in contrast to previously reported normal reverse or reverse normal interactions at subduction zones

fast rupture propagation for large strike slip earthquakes abstract studying rupture speeds of shallow earthquakes is of broad interest because it has a large effect on the strong near field shaking that causes damage during earthquakes and it is an important parameter that reflects stress levels and energy on a slipping fault however resolving rupture speed is difficult in standard waveform inversion methods due to limited near field observations and the tradeoff between rupture speed and fault size for teleseismic observations here we applied back projection methods to estimate the rupture speeds of 15 m w 7 8 dip slip and 8 m w 7 5 strike slip earthquakes for which direct p waves are well recorded in japan on hi net or in north america on usarray we found that all strike slip events had very fast average rupture speeds of 3 0 5 0 km s which are near or greater than the local shear wave velocity supershear these values are faster than for thrust and normal faulting earthquakes that generally rupture with speeds of 1 0 3 0 km s

supershear rupture on multiple faults for the mw 8 6 off northern sumatra indonesia earthquake of april 11 2012 1 we perform a back projection method to image the rupture propagation and short period energy release of the 2012 off northern sumatra earthquake mw8 6 using hi net data recorded in japan the results show a complex pattern of four conjugate faults over about 180 sec there is a striking correspondence between the lengths and orientations of our rupture pattern with the distribution of aftershocks each of the first three stages of the rupture corresponds to a clear lineation in the aftershocks with lengths of 200 to 400 km rupture speeds for several of the fault segments were very high about 5 km s and exceed the local s wave velocity this is the first example of an oceanic earthquake with supershear rupture speed

non magnetic indicators of pedogenesis related to loess magnetic enhancement and depletion examples from the czech republic and southern siberia abstract we carried out a multiparameter investigation for non magnetic proxies of the intensity of pedogenesis in loess paleosol sections from two different climate settings dolni v stonice central europe and krasnogorskoye southern siberia the work was performed in order to clarify the problem of two opposite scenarios of magnetic susceptibility ms patterns in these two profiles the chinese model with magnetically enhanced paleosols and the siberian alaskan model with magnetically depleted paleosols the age constraints on the krasnogorskoye section were inferred from an independent correlation with the well dated dolni v stonice section based on ms and sediment color cie l and with the ms log from lake baikal the pedologic description of the loess paleosol sections and their correlation was considerably improved by the use of vis spectral proxies cie l reflectance in the red band their weathering intensity can be effectively characterized by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy drs and geochemical cec and rb sr proxies whereas the ms is strongly dependent on the type of soil chernozems vs brown soils the geochemical proxies in particular cec proved to be relatively independent of the soil type these parameters are less affected by region specific conditions than the ms signal the non magnetic proxies indicate relatively dissimilar climatic trends at the two sites during the last glacial interglacial cycle a long distance correlation based solely on the ms signal can be adversely affected by switching between the chinese and the siberian alaskan magnetic modes this having been observed at the krasnogorskoye section in general no single universal proxy of weathering or pedogenesis intensity would be applicable across broad regions or considerable climatic gradients paleoclimatologic interpretations of large regions should always be based on a carefully designed multi proxy approach

simulating earthquake rupture and off fault fracture response application to the safety assessment of the swedish nuclear waste repository abstract to assess the long term safety of a deep repository of spent nuclear fuel upper bound estimates of seismically induced secondary fracture shear displacements are needed for this purpose we analyze a model including an earthquake fault which is surrounded by a number of smaller discontinuities representing fractures on which secondary displacements may be induced initial stresses are applied and a rupture is initiated at a predefined hypocenter and propagated at a specified rupture speed during rupture we monitor shear displacements taking place on the nearby fracture planes in response to static as well as dynamic effects as a numerical tool we use the 3dimensional distinct element code 3dec because it has the capability to handle numerous discontinuities with different orientations and at different locations simultaneously in tests performed to benchmark the capability of our method to generate and propagate seismic waves 3dec generates results in good agreement with results from both stokes solution and the compsyn code package in a preliminary application of our method to the nuclear waste repository site at forsmark southern sweden we assume end glacial stress conditions and rupture on a shallow gently dipping highly prestressed fault with low residual strength the rupture generates nearly complete stress drop and an m w 5 6 event on the 12 km 2 rupture area of the 1584 secondary fractures 150 m radius with a wide range of orientations and locations relative to the fault a majority move less than 5 mm the maximum shear displacement is some tens of millimeters at 200 m fault fracture distance

slow earthquakes along oceanic fracture zones evidence for asthenospheric flow away from hotspots abstract the regime of strain release along transform faults of the mid oceanic ridge system is studied it is shown that earthquakes along certain fracture zones exhibit systematic discrepancies between values of their magnitudes measured at short and long periods implying a regime of slower strain release also observed in a pattern of complex body waveshapes these slow fracture zones do not correlate with simple geographic or kinematic properties but usually occur in the neighborhood of hotspot volcanism frequently also characterized by gravity and bathymetry anomalies we propose that regimes of slow strain release may be due to a partial lubrication of the fault along these fracture zones which may itself be due to asthenospheric flow from the nearby hotspots along the pattern of pipelines described by vogt and johnson and by morgan

light acidification in n fertilized loess soils along a climosequence affected chemical and mineralogical properties in the short term some evidences indicate that n fertilization of crops decreased ph values of loess soils of the argentinean pampas in the last decades we analyzed the a horizons of four n fertilized f and non fertilized nf paired soils developed on similar parent materials within a climatic sequence ustic to udic water regimes and measured 1 the extent of ph changes 2 how these changes affected chemical and mineralogical soil properties and 3 how the soils according to their h buffering substances can react in the future if n fertilization and acidification continue results indicated that all f and nf soils were lightly acidified differences between phw and phkcl higher than 1 0 and that fertilization produced ph decreases in all studied soils but particularly in those with udic water regimes in agreement with their longer n fertilization histories fertilized ustic soils showed less crystalline illites and kaolinites and higher contents of amorphous al oxides than nf soils it remains unclear if the higher contents of amorphous al are related with the dissolution of phyllosilicates the transformation of the abundant volcanic glasses of these soils or both processes at the same time the cation exchange capacity cec and the percent of base saturation v did not change between f and nf soils probably due to the large influence of soil organic matter som in the studied soils if n fertilization and consequently ph decreases continue soils placed in both the moistest argiudolls and the driest extremes of the climosequence haplustolls would be the less affected this is because udic soils contain high som as well as illitic clays and silts while ustic soils contain free lime and high density charged clay minerals which have high h neutralization capacity the most affected soils by acidification should be those placed in the intermediate zone of the climosequence hapludolls which have low amounts of substances with high buffer capacity

cation exchange capacity and mineralogy of loess soils with different amounts of volcanic ashes the cation exchange capacity of soils cec is largely affected by the mineralogy of their parent material soils of the argentinean pampas develop on illitic loess mixed in variable proportions with volcanic ashes it is whether a question of how pedogenesis can modify this mineralogy affecting cec differentially in order to answer this question we analyzed four soils two of them placed in semiarid conditions and developing on parent materials with high volcanic ash contents and two placed in the humid pampas developing on ash free parent materials results indicated that pedogenesis transformed coarse lithogenic illites into smaller illites in ash free soils accumulating them not only in clays but also in silts in ash enriched soils illites were not altered by pedogenesis but they were the volcanic glasses which were transformed into less crystallized smectites these smectites accumulated mainly not only in clays but also in fine silts the mineral fraction of ash free soils had higher cec 15 07 cmolc kg 1 than ash enriched soils 9 50 cmolc kg 1 being the contribution of the 50 m sized fractions to the total cec similar in all the studied soils on average 54 as a consequence of this clays and silts of ash free soils made a relatively low contribution to the total cec while poorly crystallized smectites of ash enriched soils made a relatively high contribution this was explained on the basis of the kind of minerals present smectitic minerals with high cec rather than on the proportion of the mineral fraction itself in ash enriched soils and on the relatively high content of the mineral fractions rather than on their mineralogy illites with low cec in ash free soils the contribution of silts to cec was similar and relatively high in all the studied soils 17 5 of the total cec and 32 of the mineral fraction cec these results confirm that the electrochemical properties of the studied soils are defined not only by clays but also by silts mainly those with sizes between 2 and 20 m

hidden aftershocks of the 2011 mw 9 0 tohoku japan earthquake imaged with the backprojection method 1 the first 25 h of the aftershock sequence following the 11 march 2011 mw 9 0 tohoku japan earthquake is investigated using a backprojection method in total 600 aftershocks are imaged during this time period these aftershocks are distributed over a 500 by 300 km area and include many events in the outer rise the backprojection events are compared with the japan meteorological agency jma catalogue which is composed of earthquakes recorded by local seismic networks in japan surprisingly half of the backprojection events are not found in the jma catalogue these events cluster near the japan trench and in the outer rise and fill in gaps in the spatial distribution of the early aftershock sequence where large main shock slip is thought to have occurred these results show that the jma magnitude of completeness is very high near the trench following the 2011 tohoku main shock and earthquakes as large as magnitude 6 8 went undetected by local seismic networks

global patterns of radiated seismic energy and apparent stress radiated energies from shallow earthquakes with magnitudes 5 8 that occurred between 1986 and 1991 are used to examine global patterns of energy release and apparent stress in contrast to traditional methods which have relied upon empirical formulas these energies are computed through direct spectral analysis of broadband seismic waveforms velocity squared spectra of body waves are integrated after they have been corrected for effects arising from depth phases frequency dependent attenuation and focal mechanism the least squares regression fit of energy es to surface wave magnitude ms for a global set of 397 earthquakes yields log es 4 4 1 5ms which implies that the gutenberg richter relationship overestimates the energies of earthquakes the least squares fit between es and seismic moment m0 is given by the relationship es 1 6 10 5 m0 which yields 0 47 mpa as the average global value of apparent stress however the regression lines of both es ms and es m0 yield poor empirical predictors for the actual energy radiated by any given earthquake the scatter of data is more than an order of magnitude about each of the regression lines on the other hand global variations between es and mo while large are not random when subsets of es m0 are plotted as a function of seismic region and faulting type the scatter in data is substantially reduced the es m0 fits for many seismic regions and tectonic environments are very distinctive and a characteristic apparent stress c can be derived the lowest apparent stresses 3 0 mpa are associated with strike slip earthquakes that occur at oceanic ridge ridge transforms and in intraplate environments seaward of island arcs intermediate values of apparent stress 1 5 a 3 0 mpa are associated with strike slip earthquakes at incipient or transitional plate boundaries in general the dominant mode of failure for a tectonic environment is associated with the faulting type that has the lowest apparent stress an energy magnitude me can complement moment magnitude mw in describing the size of an earthquake me being derived from velocity power spectra is a measure of seismic potential for damage mw being derived from the low frequency asymptote of displacement spectra is more physically related to the final static displacement of an earthquake when earthquake size is ranked by moment a list of the largest events is dominated by earthquakes with thrust mechanisms when earthquake size is ranked by energy the list of the largest events is dominated by strike slip earthquakes

a reassessment of the rupture characteristics of oceanic transform earthquakes 1 we investigate the long period source spectra of oceanic transform earthquakes and find that previously proposed slow rupture components can be explained as artifacts generated by the modeling procedure we use low frequency 20 mhz rayleigh and love waves to calculate the amplitude spectra of five earthquakes on the romanche and chain transform faults in the equatorial mid atlantic ocean we find that errors and approximations in the centroid depth focal mechanism and earth structure at the source have significant effects on the shape of the source spectra if global catalog values and an average crustal model are assumed the spectra exhibit apparent anomalous energy at long periods which has previously been interpreted as a result of slow rupture we recalculate the source spectra using precise independently determined depths and moment tensors and a more realistic oceanic crustal structure in the source region the resulting source spectra are flat at long periods with no indication of anomalous long period energy our results imply that oceanic transform earthquakes do not commonly have detectable slow rupture components

variation in soil surface area in a chronosequence of soils from glen feshie scotland and its implications for mineral weathering rate calculations abstract the inorganic component of soil horizons from a chronosequence of six soils developed in glen feshie scotland shows an increase in surface area with soil age and a decrease in surface area with increasing depth in the soil profiles surface area increases due to the development of discontinuous porous coatings on mineral grains the preferential dissolution of specific areas of individual minerals resulting in complex highly irregular grain shapes and a general reduction in grain size due to dissolution the discontinuous coatings consist predominantly of oxalate extractable al si oxyhydroxides and account for between 61 and 94 of the total inorganic surface area failure to take into account the increase of mineral surface area with time can lead to predictions of decreasing mineral dissolution rate with soil age in contrast to laboratory studies which assume that mineral dissolution can reach a steady state the difference between total and reactive mineral surface area may help to explain the frequently reported result that laboratory measured mineral dissolution rates are up to several orders of magnitude greater than those measured in the field

macrofracturing of oceanic lithosphere in complex large earthquake sequences major earthquakes in oceanic lithosphere seaward of the subduction zone outer trench slope are relatively uncommon but several recent occurrences have involved very complex sequences rupturing multiple nonaligned faults and or having high aftershock productivity with diffuse distribution this includes the 21 december 2010 m w 7 4 ogasawara bonin 11 april 2012 m w 8 6 indo australia 23 january 2018 m w 7 9 off kodiak island and 20 december 2018 m w 7 3 nikol skoye northwest pacific earthquakes major oceanic intraplate event sequences farther from plate boundaries do not tend to be as complex in faulting or aftershocks outer trench slope extensional faulting can involve complex distributed sequences particularly when activated by great megathrust ruptures such as 11 march 2011 m w 9 1 tohoku and 15 november 2006 m w 8 3 kuril islands intense faulting sequences also occur near subduction zone corners with many fault geometries being activated including some in nearby oceanic lithosphere as for the 29 september 2009 m w 8 1 samoa 6 february 2013 m w 8 0 santa cruz islands and 16 november 2000 m w 8 0 new ireland earthquakes the laterally varying plate boundary stresses from heterogeneous locking recent earthquakes or boundary geometry influence the specific faulting geometries activated in nearby major intraplate ruptures in oceanic lithosphere preexisting lithospheric structures and fabrics exert secondary influences on the faulting intraplate stress release in oceanic lithosphere near subduction zones favors distributed macrofracturing of near critical fault systems rather than localized single fault failures both under transient loading induced by plate boundary ruptures and under slow loading by tectonic motions and slab pull

tracking high frequency seismic source evolution 2004 mw 8 1 macquarie event the 2004 mw 8 1 event on 23 december 2004 near the macquarie ridge is a very large intraplate event that has been overshadowed by the mw 9 3 sumatra andaman event only 3 days later we are able to track the progress of source evolution by estimating the progression of the points of energy emission exploiting the good azimuthal distribution of available stations the results indicate that this event ruptured on two nearby fault systems reactivating fossil fracture zones with the second subevent to the west triggered by the first the total duration of high frequency radiation is quite short about 60 s for such a large event much of the high frequency radiation occurs on a fault subparallel to that inferred from long period studies this composite fault behavior with displaced triggered failure appears to be a characteristic of large intraplate events beneath the oceans

complex and diverse rupture processes of the 2018 mw 8 2 and mw 7 9 tonga fiji deep earthquakes author posting american geophysical union 2019 this article is posted here by permission of american geophysical union for personal use not for redistribution the definitive version was published in geophysical research letters 46 5 2019 2434 2448 doi 10 1029 2018gl080997

on moment length scaling of large strike slip earthquakes and the strength of faults 1 several large strike slip earthquakes have occurred in various tectonic settings in the past 5 years adding well documented data to the global collection of moment and length estimates for such earthquakes based on this augmented dataset we reexamine the controversial issue of scaling of seismic moment with length of rupture we find that the global dataset of large strike slip earthquakes follows a bi modal distribution most oceanic and or intraplate strike slip earthquakes have stress drops that are 5 times larger than interplate continental ones when distinguishing these two classes the scaling is compatible with that predicted by simple dislocation theory

estimating high frequency energy radiation of large earthquakes by image deconvolution back projection abstract high frequency energy radiation of large earthquakes is a key to evaluating shaking damage and is an important source characteristic for understanding rupture dynamics we developed a new inversion method image deconvolution back projection idbp to retrieve high frequency energy radiation of seismic sources by linear inversion of observed images from a back projection approach the observed back projection image for multiple sources is considered as a convolution of the image of the true radiated energy and the array response for a point source the array response that spreads energy both in space and time is evaluated by using data of a smaller reference earthquake that can be assumed to be a point source the synthetic test of the method shows that the spatial and temporal resolution of the source is much better than that for the conventional back projection method we applied this new method to the 2001 m w 7 8 kunlun earthquake using data recorded by hi net in japan the new method resolves a sharp image of the high frequency energy radiation with a significant portion of supershear rupture

gravel mantled megaripples of the argentinean puna a model for their origin and growth with implications for mars gravel megaripples in the puna of argentina are the most extreme aeolian megaripples on earth and are useful analogs for aeolian processes on mars field observations supplemented by experimental and numerical constraints on wind characteristics and aeolian transport reveal their conditions of formation and growth to be an aeolian geomorphology perfect storm the bedforms are formed on a substrate of weakly indurated ignimbrite aeolian deflation of which yields a bimodal lag of lithics and pumice clasts onto an undulating surface under normal wind conditions in this region the lithics are organized into bedforms on local upslopes and highs through creep induced by the impact of saltating sand and pumice the gravel bedforms grow through shadowing and trap sand and silt that is gradually kinetically sieved down to lift the gravel mantle upwards to form the megaripples these observations connote that the largest features are not ripples in the sense of migrating bedforms but rather nucleation sites of wind transported sediment strong control by bedrock topography means that the largest bedform wavelengths are not a result of particle trajectories and this complicates their comparison with other ripples and may require a new classification of relevance to mars the puna megaripples are morphologically and contextually similar to small ripple like transverse aeolian ridges tars moreover the puna gravels have similar equivalent weight mg to those composing granule ripples at meridiani planum and their local origin may have implications for the origin of sediment in martian aeolian bedforms finally the stable yet dynamic character of the puna megaripples could help reconcile current models of tars with periodic bedrock ridges that may be produced by aeolian erosion

features of skeleton water extractable fines from different acidic soils abstract the skeleton water extractable fines swef is a soil fraction smaller than 2 mm located at the interface between rock fragments rf and fine earth fe it is made of illuvial and or rf weathering products comprising neoformed clay size particles and organic substances contrary to fe and even to soil rf swef represents a poorly documented soil fraction despite its unique ion exchange properties to fill this knowledge gap we compared mineralogy effective cation exchange capacity ecec and exchangeable cation composition of swef with those of fe and rf from three acidic soils derived from either mica schist mottarone italy granite aubure france or glacial till of varied lithology gardsjon sweden and subjected to distinct climatic conditions further we provided a general hypothesis on the formation of swef the swef had a different acidity level a significantly higher accumulation of organic c a higher al p and or fe p content in two over three soils was enriched in neoformed minerals and had a larger concentration of exchangeable cations than both fe and rf a key role in the development of the swef properties was attributed to mineralogy weathering and pedogenesis the interactions between mineralogical composition ph and organic c content not only determined the extent of ecec in swef but also the source of exchangeable cations originating either from organic complexes mottarone soil or from the dissolution of the mineral phases aubure and gardsjon soils however the abundance of swef appeared to be independent from the actual abundance of rf its formation was rather controlled by the combination of mineralogy of the parent material weathering intensity pathway of mineral dissolution congruent and or incongruent dissolution and to the duration of pedogenesis

the 2012 mw 8 6 sumatra earthquake evidence of westward sequential seismic ruptures associated to the reactivation of a n s ocean fabric 1 the 11 april 2012 mw 8 6 earthquake offshore sumatra is the largest of the rare great intraplate earthquakes of the instrumental era this major strike slip event occurred in the diffuse zone of deformation that accommodates differential rotation between indian and australian plates we perform a back projection analysis calibrated with well located aftershocks of short period teleseismic p waves recorded by the european array to image the rupture process during the mainshock in complement a love wave analysis is conducted for tracking azimuthal change in the apparent global source duration due to the source spatio temporal extent the combined analysis reveals a complex rupture pattern characterized by three main episodes of energy release the latest being located 370 km west of the epicenter on the ninety east ridge with a delay of 120 s we interpret the 11 april 2012 mw 8 6 offshore sumatra earthquake as a complex westward propagating sequence of dynamically triggered strike slip fault ruptures associated to the reactivation of the inherited nne striking sea floor fabric the dynamic triggering mechanism could result from the interaction between transient surface wave stress perturbations and fluids

the 2010 qinghai china earthquake a moderate earthquake with supershear rupture abstract from analyses using near field and teleseismic data we estimate the rupture speed of the 2010 qinghai china earthquake m w 6 9 comparisons of model calculations of the initiations to the observed near field seismogram at station yus indicate a fast supershear rupture propagation of about 5 0 km s from the teleseismic analyses using an envelope deconvolution method with an empirical green s function event two high frequency pulses are identified at 6 5 km and 41 8 km southeast of the epicenter indicating two subevents the location and timing of the high frequency events also show a supershear rupture velocity of 4 7 to 5 8 km s the supershear speed of the rupture likely contributed to the severe damage caused in the forward direction of the rupture toward the town of yushu

rupture imaging of the mw 7 9 12 may 2008 wenchuan earthquake from back projection of teleseismic p waves 1 the mw 7 9 wenchuan earthquake of 12 may 2008 was the most destructive chinese earthquake since the 1976 tangshan event tens of thousands of people were killed hundreds of thousands were injured and millions were left homeless here we infer the detailed rupture process of the wenchuan earthquake by back projecting teleseismic p energy from several arrays of seismometers this technique has only recently become feasible and is potentially faster than traditional finite fault inversion of teleseismic body waves therefore it may reduce the notification time to emergency response agencies using the iris dmc we collected 255 vertical component broadband p waves at 30 95 from the epicenter we found that at periods of 5 s and greater nearly all of these p waves were coherent enough to be used in a global array we applied a simple down sampling heuristic to define a global subarray of 70 stations that reduced the asymmetry and sidelobes of the array response function arf we also considered three regional subarrays of seismometers in alaska australia and europe that had apertures less than 30 and p waves that were coherent to periods as short as 1 s individual arfs for these subarrays were skewed toward the subarrays however the linear sum of the regional subarray beams at 1 s produced a symmetric arf similar to that of the groomed global subarray at 5 s for both configurations we obtained the same rupture direction rupture length and rupture time we found that the wenchuan earthquake had three distinct pulses of high beam power at 0 23 and 57 s after the origin time with the pulse at 23 s being highest and that it ruptured unilaterally to the northeast for about 300 km and 110 s with an average speed of 2 8 km s it is possible that similar results can be determined for future large dip slip earthquakes within 20 30 min of the origin time using relatively sparse global networks of seismometers such as those the usgs uses to locate earthquakes in near real time

earthquake in a maze compressional rupture branching during the 2012 mw 8 6 sumatra earthquake seismological observations of the 2012 moment magnitude 8 6 sumatra earthquake reveal unprecedented complexity of dynamic rupture the surprisingly large magnitude results from the combination of deep extent high stress drop and rupture of multiple faults back projection source imaging indicates that the rupture occurred on distinct planes in an orthogonal conjugate fault system with relatively slow rupture speed the east southeast west northwest ruptures add a new dimension to the seismotectonics of the wharton basin which was previously thought to be controlled by north south strike slip faulting the rupture turned twice into the compressive quadrant against the preferred branching direction predicted by dynamic coulomb stress calculations orthogonal faulting and compressional branching indicate that rupture was controlled by a pressure insensitive strength of the deep oceanic lithosphere

imaging short period seismic radiation from the 27 february 2010 chile mw 8 8 earthquake by back projection of p pp and pkikp waves 1 teleseismic short period 0 5 5 s p waves from the 27 february 2010 chile earthquake mw 8 8 are back projected to the source region to image locations of coherent short period seismic wave radiation several receiver array configurations are analyzed using different p wave arrivals including networks of stations in north america p japan pkikp and europe pp as well as a global configuration of stations with a broad azimuthal distribution and longer period p waves 5 20 s coherent bursts of short period radiation from the source are concentrated below the chilean coastline along the downdip portion of the megathrust the short period source region expands bilaterally with significant irregularity in the radiation comparison with finite fault slip models inverted from longer period seismic waves indicates that the regions of large slip on the megathrust are located updip of the regions of short period radiation a manifestation of frequency dependent seismic radiation similar to observations for the great 2011 tohoku earthquake mw 9 0 back projection of synthetic p waves generated from the finite fault models demonstrates that if the short period energy had radiated with the same space time distribution as the long period energy back projection analysis would image it in the correct location updip we conclude that back projection imaging of short period signals provides a distinct view of the seismic source that is missed by studies based only on long period seismic waves geodetic data and or tsunami observations

the 2012 mw 8 6 indian ocean earthquake deep nucleation on a listric like fault abstract the 2012 mw 8 6 indian ocean earthquake the largest instrumentally recorded strike slip event has been described as a westward rupture on orthogonal faults that are part of the original oceanic fabric of the region reported estimates of its depth vary from 10 to 45 km while the maximum depth of its inferred rupture extends to 50 60 km the complexity of the earthquake is undeniable both in terms of fault geometry and rupture propagation with debates on the geometry of the causative faults results from recent seismic surveys enable a fresh look at the earthquake fault geometry nucleation depths and lithospheric rheology in the present study these new findings are incorporated into 22 forward models using a revised velocity structure and n s geometries that flatten with depth the rupture initiation is modeled in the uppermost mantle 25 30 km as well as in the upper mantle at 45 km the latter of which is 15 20 km below the commonly accepted values of maximum depth for frictional failure our study shows that the westward directionality of wave propagation is achieved for strike slip failure on a listric like fault in contrast to subvertical geometries as previously suggested this propagation is persistent for a strike slip failure only for events nucleating at upper mantle depths 45 km rather than for those set to originate at depths between 25 and 30 km however for a dip slip failure the westward propagation is found to be consistent at both nucleation depths on a listric like fault this study highlights a deep nucleation within the lithospheric mantle for the 2012 mw 8 6 earthquake that could be due to strain localization induced by fluid rock interaction and or mineral transformation crystallization near the 680 c isotherm at 45 km depth 1 4 gpa which correlates with deep serpentinization on faults

clay mineralogy cation exchange capacity and specific surface area of loess soils with different volcanic ash contents the loessical soils of the semiarid argentinean pampas sap contain variable amounts of volcanic ashes their influence on the mineral composition and some physicochemical properties of soils like soil specific surface area ssa and cation exchange capacity cec have been still not elucidated because of that we analyzed 24 topsoil samples 0 to 20 cm of soils with high and low volcanic ashes contents for clay mineralogy and its influence on soil chemical and physical properties and cec and ssa results showed that ash enriched soils were placed to the south and ash free soils to the north east of the sap in agreement with the volcanic ash deposition pattern of 1932 quizapu vocano eruption mineralogy of the clay fraction was dominated by amorphous minerals and less crystallized and expansible smectites in ash enriched soils and by illites in ash free soils no differences in crystallinity or expansibility were found between montmorillonites of ash free and ash enriched soils fine sized clays 0 2 m were dominated by illites and illite montmorillonite intergrades in ash free soils and by amorphous materials in ash enriched soils such results indicated that montmorillonites tend to form more when volcanic ashes are present but their crystallinity and expansibility do not change with ashes content ssa was positively related with silt contents in both ash free and ash enriched soils r2 0 70 p 0 05 the clay fraction 2 m explained only 9 of ssa variability and the fine clay fraction 0 2 um did not affect ssa the influence of silt on ssa was attributed to the existence of 2 1 minerals in the silt fraction these results also indicated that ash contents did not influence ssa cec correlated positively with clay r2 0 67 p 0 001 in ash enriched soils and with organic matter in ash free soils r2 0 837 p 0 001 but it did not correlate with fine clay contents in any of both soil types these trends were explained on the basis of the higher cec conferred by smectites in ash enriched soils and by om in ash free soils it can be deduced that soil degradation processes producing losses of fine sized particles like wind or water erosion will decrease ssa in both the ash enriched and the ash free soils but only cec in ash enriched soils organic matter losses due to excessive cultivation will decrease cec in ash free soils

subevent location and rupture imaging using iterative backprojection for the 2011 tohoku mw 9 0 earthquake summary knowledge of the rupture speed and spatial temporal distribution of energy radiation of earthquakes is important for earthquake physics backprojection of teleseismic waves is commonly used to image the rupture process of large events the conventional backprojection method typically performs temporal and spatial averaging to obtain reliable rupture features we present an iterative backprojection method with subevent signal stripping to determine the distribution of subevents large energy bursts during the earthquake rupture we also relocate the subevents initially determined by iterative backprojection using the traveltime shifts from subevent waveform cross correlation which provides more accurate subevent locations and source times a bootstrap approach is used to assess the reliability of the identified subevents we apply this method to the mw 9 0 tohoku earthquake in japan using array data in the united states we identify 16 reliable subevents in the frequency band 0 2 1 hz which mostly occurred around or west of the hypocentre in the downdip region analysis of tohoku aftershocks shows that depth phases can often produce artefacts in the backprojection image but the position and timing of our main shock subevents are inconsistent with depth phase artefacts our results suggest a complicated rupture with a component of bilateral rupture along strike the dominant energy radiation between 0 2 and 1 hz is confined to a region close to the hypocentre during the first 90 s a number of subevents occurred around the hypocentre in the first 90 s suggesting a low initial rupture speed and repeated rupture or slip near thehypocentre therupturereachedthecoastalregionabout106kmnorthwestofthehypocentreat43sandtheregionabout110kmnorthofthehypocentreat105swithanorthwardrupture speed 2 0 kms 1 at 60 110 s after 110 s a series of subevents occurred about 120 220 km southwest of the hypocentre consistent wit ha3k ms 1 along strike rupture speed the abundant high frequency radiation in the downdip region close to the coast suggests intermittent rupture probably in the brittle ductile transition zone the lack of high frequency radiation in the updip region suggests the rupture near the trench was more continuous probably due to more homogeneous frictional properties of the shallow slab interface the lack of early aftershocks in the updip region indicates that most of the accumulated slip in the updip region during the interseismic period was probably released during the main shock

seismic characteristics of supershear and sub rayleigh earthquakes implication from simple cases numerous investigations of supershear earthquakes make a conclusion that a supershear earthquake produces a seismic shock wave on the ground that may increase the resulting destruction we investigate a supershear rupture promoted by the free surface and find out that although the seismic energy of a supershear earthquake can be transmitted further with large amplitudes the peak slip velocity on a fault near the free surface is smaller than that caused by a subshear rupture earthquake our results show that the free surface induced supershear rupture mitigates the amplitudes of ground motions near the fault plane compared with the subshear rupture the coulomb failure change derived from dynamic modeling further suggests that this free surface induced supershear reduces aftershock potential compared to a subshear rupture both ground motion at near fault and aftershock possibility show low risk for the free surface induced supershear rupture earthquake than subshear earthquake contrary to the traditional concept