impact of active faulting on the post lgm infill of le bourget lake western alps france we have used high resolution seismic imaging to detect and characterize the recent deformation recorded by the quaternary sediments of le bourget lake the last glacial episodes mis 6a and 2 i e riss and wurm scoured out an elongated over deepened basin to more than 300 m below the present lake level and the basin accumulated 150 m of post lgm to holocene sediments the well stratified character of the infill is locally disturbed by tectonic deformations and gravity reworking a northern fault zone in continuation with the left lateral strike slip culoz fault is imaged within the holocene and late glacial accumulations a southern fault zone is also detected which can be related to the sublacustrine continuation of a much smaller fault affecting the jura alpine foreland the col du chat left lateral strike slip fault different generations of fractures have been identified in the lake allowing correlation and mapping in pre quaternary substratum the culoz fault has a n 160 orientation within the post lgm sediments fractures related to the culoz fault have an orientation between n135 and 95 a cloos model 1932 is thus proposed to explain the observed pattern of lacustrine deformations the calculated horizontal slip rate for culoz fault during holocene is about 1 3 mm yr 1 and for the col du chat fault is around 0 6 mm yr 1

the eastern jura relations between thin skinned and basement tectonics local and regional the thesis area of hans cloos in the eastern jura straddles the boundary between the paleogene structures of the tabular jura a part of the southeastern end of the rhine graben and the neogene folds and thrusts of the folded jura a recent reflection seismic survey in the area adjacent to the east provides new information on the subsurface structure and the relation between three superposed tectonic events the main boundary fault zones of a deep and complexly faulted late paleozoic trough trending ene were reactivated in the early tertiary faulted flexures and small folds rooted in the basement and paleozoic with an amplitude of usually 100 to 300 m were produced rather than the normal faults typical for the extensional fields of the rhine bresse graben system in the west and the bavarian molasse basin in the east this suggests their being part of a transform zone between these extensional fields during jura decollement in the neogene these inherited deeply rooted sub decollement structures remained passive their small size is kinematically incompatible with the intense subsequent thrusting and folding of the thin mesozoic tertiary skin however thrust ramps were apparently nucleated at the respective southern foot of these paleogene flexures and folds the best defined and simplest of these composite structures is the mandach structure within the tabular jura a south facing flexure of about 300 m relief developed in the paleogene by reactivation of the northern border fault zone of the paleozoic trough in the neogene a north vergent decollement thrust which is connected with the regional jura decollement in the middle triassic evaporites was initiated at its site

veins in clay rich aquitards as records of deformation and fluid flow events in northern switzerland abstract the jurassic clay rich aquitard sequence underlying the swiss molasse basin is locally penetrated by unusually frequent veins consisting of calcite celestite in particular in the schlattingen 1 and oftringen drill cores the veins are linked to extensional brittle structures with shear senses ranging between dip slip and strike slip deformation triggered transient and localised events of fluid flow within the aquitard followed by sealing of the structures by the vein minerals vein calcite was dated by la icp ms analysis using the u pb method while this was a demanding undertaking given the low u and high common pb contents of calcite 9 significant ages could be obtained two groups of ages can be distinguished namely 31 39 and 11 18 ma both age groups are consistent with the known regional tectonic evolution the older age group corresponds to the main phase of rifting in the upper rhine graben a major crustal discontinuity whose effects were not limited to the graben proper but affected large parts of the molasse basin the younger age group is linked to crustal tilting and related extensional deformation isotopic compositions of o and c in vein calcite from the schlattingen 1 core show substantial variability but do not discriminate between veins of the two age groups in contrast 87sr 86sr ratios in veins show different signatures the depth trend of 87sr 86sr ratios in veins fits well with that in pore water obtained by rock squeezing the two data sets define a trend of values increasing with depth connecting the current values in the embedding malm and keuper aquifer waters this trend is best explained as a near steady state diffusion profile while advective mixing of waters originating from the embedding aquifers to produce the veins implying structures that cross cut the whole low permeability sequence cannot be discarded on the basis of existing data it is considered more likely that the veins have local fluid sources these are mixtures of local pore water with a possible contribution of water from the nearest aquifer implying maximum vertical advection distances in the order of 50 100 m

detached neotectonic stress field in the northern jura mountains switzerland geodetically determined recent elevation changes plio pleistocene uplift history and quarternary fault movements suggest that the folded jura is neotectonically active this concept is supported by measurements of in situ rock stress in this region

seismic wave attenuation from borehole and surface records in the top 2 5km beneath the city of basel switzerland summary we investigate attenuation q 1 of sediments of 2 5 3 5 km thickness underneath the city of basel switzerland we use recordings of 195 induced events that were obtained during and after the stimulation of a reservoir for a deep heat mining project in 2006 and 2007 the data set is ideally suited to estimate q as all events are confined to a small source volume and were recorded by a dense surface network as well as six borehole sensors at various depths the deepest borehole sensor is positioned at a depth of 2 7 km inside the crystalline basement at a mean hypocentral distance of 1 8 km this allows us to measure q for frequencies between 10 and 130 hz we apply two different methods to estimate q first we use a standard spectral ratio technique to obtain q and as a second measure we estimate q in the time domain by convolving signals recorded by the deepest sensor with a q operator and then comparing the convolved signals to recordings at the shallower stations both methods deliver comparable values for q we also observe similar attenuation for p and s waves qp qs as expected q increases with depth but with values around 30 50 it is low even for the consolidated permian and mesozoic sediments between 500 and 2700 m

why the western pacific subtropical high has extended westward since the late 1970s the western pacific subtropical high wpsh is closely related to asian climate previous examination of changes in the wpsh found a westward extension since the late 1970s which has contributed to the inter decadal transition of east asian climate the reason for the westward extension is unknown however the present study suggests that this significant change of wpsh is partly due to the atmosphere s response to the observed indian ocean western pacific iwp warming coordinated by a european union s sixth framework programme understanding the dynamics of the coupled climate system dynamite five agcms were forced by identical idealized sea surface temperature patterns representative of the iwp warming and cooling the results of these numerical experiments suggest that the negative heating in the central and eastern tropical pacific and increased convective heating in the equatorial indian ocean maritime continent associated with iwp warming are in favor of the westward extension of wpsh the sst changes in iwp influences the walker circulation with a subsequent reduction of convections in the tropical central and eastern pacific which then forces an enso gill type response that modulates the wpsh the monsoon diabatic heating mechanism proposed by rodwell and hoskins plays a secondary reinforcing role in the westward extension of wpsh the low level equatorial flank of wpsh is interpreted as a kelvin response to monsoon condensational heating while the intensified poleward flow along the western flank of wpsh is in accord with sverdrup vorticity balance the iwp warming has led to an expansion of the south asian high in the upper troposphere as seen in the reanalysis

the jura mountains an active foreland fold and thrust belt abstract recently completed in situ stress measurements using the borehole slotter at 33 new test sites within the swiss and french jura mountains combined with previously published stress data allow a detailed description of the contemporary state of stress in this fold and thrust belt and the adjacent foreland five stress provinces can be recognized with two different general orientations of maximum horizontal stress sh 1 the central and southwest provinces with a nnw sse to nne ssw orientation 2 the east northwest and southeast provinces with an e w to nw se orientation stress magnitudes are in general higher in the southern than in the northern jura mountains characteristic of the northern jura is an e w trending zone of low stress magnitudes which can be traced from the bresse depression south of besancon to the eastern end of the jura northwest of zurich boundaries of stress provinces show poor agreement with boundaries of tectonic units in the jura in addition stress provinces extend beyond the boundaries of the jura mountains into their foreland furthermore palaeo stress orientations show large discrepancies with respect to the contemporary stress orientation these findings are considered to indicate a termination of jura thin skinned foreland tectonics which probably took place some time between 9 and 4 ma according to palaeontological and tectonic evidence it is suggested that a new style of tectonics has commenced in the jura mountains deforming both the basement directly below the jura fold and thrust belt and the cover rocks in a similar mode

synoptic scale characteristics and atmospheric controls of summer heat waves in china summer heat waves with persistent extreme high temperatures have been occurring with increasing frequency in recent decades these extreme events have disastrous consequences for human health economies and ecosystems in this study we examine three summers with intense and protracted heat waves the summers of 2003 2006 and 2013 with high temperatures located mainly in southeastern southwestern and eastern china respectively the synoptic scale characteristics of these heat waves and associated atmospheric circulation anomalies are investigated in the early heat wave episode of 2003 a heat center was located in the southeast coastal provinces during the first 20 days of july the maximum southward displacement of the east asian jet stream eajs induced anticyclonic anomalies to the south associated with southwestward intensification of the western north pacific subtropical high wnpsh and extreme high temperatures were found only to the south of the yangtze river in the later episode a poleward displacement of the eajs and an enhanced wnpsh over the midlatitudes of eastern china resulted in a heat dome over the region and the heat wave extended northward to cover a larger area of eastern china the coupling between the westward enhanced wnpsh and poleward displaced eajs was found in the east china heat wave of 2013 as well but the area of high temperatures reached far to the north in august 2013 with below normal temperatures located in a small region of south china in the 2006 southwestern drought and heat wave extreme poleward displacement of the eajs associated with extraordinary westward extension of the wnsph resulted in further blocking of the moisture supply from the southwest monsoon large scale moisture deficiencies dry conditions and downslope winds were common features of all investigated heat wave episodes but in 2006 low level heat lows associated with a well mixed layer due to intensive daytime heating and atmospheric turbulence were emphasized

rupture histories of eastern north american earthquakes abstract digital worldwide records of p and sh waves are used to invert for rupture histories of the recent larger eastern north american earthquakes the data include a broad bandwidth to facilitate recovery of both source details and total moment the following events are studied 9 january 1982 new brunswick 5 october and 23 december 1985 nahanni 25 november 1988 saguenay and 25 december 1989 ungava earthquakes we employ a finite fault waveform inversion scheme that discretizes the slip history as a function of position on the fault this formulation allows estimation of rise time and slip velocity in addition to the spatial distribution of slip static stress drops averaged over the entire rupture surface range from a few tens of bars to just over 100 bars and are similar to values estimated for western united states earthquakes estimates of stress drop for spatially limited asperities are in the range of a few hundred bars with the value for the saguenay earthquake asperity being the largest approaching 1 kbar the variation in stress drop is considerable but no evidence is seen for a scaling relation in which stress drop increases with moment maximum slip velocities on the fault also have a wide range from 50 cm sec to perhaps greater then 200 cm sec with the saguenay and 5 october nahanni earthquakes lying at the upper end of this range of the events studied the saguenay earthquake is unique in terms of its greater depth spatially concentrated source and large asperity stress drop

drought reconstructions for the continental united states abstract the development of a 2 lat 3 long grid of summer drought reconstructions for the continental united states estimated from a dense network of annual tree ring chronologies is described the drought metric used is the palmer drought severity index pdsi the number of grid points is 154 and the reconstructions cover the common period 1700 1978 in producing this grid an automated gridpoint regression method called point by point regression was developed and tested in so doing a near optimal global solution was found for its implementation the reconstructions have been thoroughly tested for validity using pdsi data not used in regression modeling in general most of the gridpoint estimates of drought pass the verification tests used in addition the spatial features of drought in the united states have been faithfully recorded in the reconstructions even though the method of reconstruction is not explicitly spatial in its design the drought reconstructions show that the 1930s dust bow

temperature variations in the southern great lakes during the last deglaciation comparison between pollen and gdgt proxies abstract our understanding of deglacial climate history in the southern great lakes region of the united states is primarily based upon fossil pollen data with few independent and multi proxy climate reconstructions here we introduce a new well dated fossil pollen record from stotzel leis oh and a new deglacial temperature record based on branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers brgdgts at silver lake oh we compare these new data to previously published records and to a regional stack of pollen based temperature reconstructions from stotzel leis silver lake and three other well dated sites the new and previously published pollen records at stotzel leis are similar but our new age model brings vegetation events into closer alignment with known climatic events such as the younger dryas yd brgdgt inferred temperatures correlate strongly with pollen based regional temperature reconstructions with the strongest correlation obtained for a global soil based brgdgt calibration r2 0 88 lending confidence to the deglacial reconstructions and the use of brgdgt and regional pollen stacks as paleotemperature proxies in eastern north america however individual pollen records show large differences in timing rates and amplitudes of inferred temperature change indicating caution with paleoclimatic inferences based on single site pollen records from 16 0 to 10 0ka both proxies indicate that regional temperatures rose by 10 c roughly double the 5 c estimates for the northern hemisphere reported in prior syntheses change point analysis of the pollen stack shows accelerated warming at 14 0 1 2ka cooling at 12 6 0 4ka and warming from 11 6 0 5ka into the holocene the timing of bolling allerod b a warming and yd onset in our records lag by 300 500 years those reported in syntheses of temperature records from the northern mid latitudes this discrepancy is too large to be attributed to uncertainties in radiocarbon dating and correlation between pollen and brgdgt temperature reconstructions rules out vegetation lags as a cause however the yd termination appears synchronous among the brgdgt record regional pollen stack and northern hemisphere stack the cause of the larger and lagged temperature changes in the southern great lakes relative to northern hemisphere averages remains unclear but may be due to the effects of continentality and ice sheet extent on regional climate evolution

strain measurements with the borehole slotter abstract in the past the doorstopper method has been used successfully for determining in situ tectonic stresses here an example is given about the application of the borehole slotter in the domain of tectonic stress determinations which is an innovative strain relief technique without overcoring data are presented that test the reliability of the strain measurements by the borehole slotter under well known stress conditions that indicate the reproducibility of borehole slotter strain data compared with those from doorstopper measurements and that demonstrate the utility of the borehole slotter even for the determination of weak tectonic strains in northern switzerland the borehole slotter was used in a horizontal borehole under lithostatic loading conditions only in a rock slope area with very heterogeneous stress conditions and in a vertical borehole where tectonic stress should be dominant the results show that the borehole slotter is a reliable technique which allows precise determination of in situ strains in addition borehole slotter measurements are less time consuming and therefore less costly than most other stress measuring techniques an important aspect in a future of reduced research budgets summary the borehole slotter is a strain relief technique using a recoverable strain sensor that need not be glued to the rock surface and need not be overcored it is quicker to use than most other stress or strain measuring techniques especially in comparison to standard overcoring techniques fig 14 the borehole slotter supplied convincing results with respect to principal stress orientations in good agreement with i principal stress orientations related to lithostatic stress conditions dittingen 2 site ii palaeostress orientations during the main stage of jura folding only 13 to 7 ma laufen 1 site iii the results of neighboring door stopper measurements dittingen 1 site the borehole slotter tests do not supply stress magnitudes directly thus the elastic properties of the rock mass have to be determined independently stress ratios from borehole dotter tests in dittingen 2 are realistic in conclusion the borehole slotter is a fully developed probe to measure in situ strains in boreholes it allows the reliable determination of a large number of data within a short time even in weakly stressed rocks this makes the borehole slotter a powerful tool for the determination of contemporary regional tectonic stress fields

the ml 5 3 epagny french alps earthquake of 1996 july 15 a long awaited event on the vuache fault the ml 5 3 epagny earthquake that occurred on 1996 july 15 in the vicinity of annecy french alps was the strongest event to shake southeastern france in the last 34 years moderate to serious damage in the annecy area is consistent with msk intensities of vii viii this earthquake occurred on the vuache fault a geologically well known morphologically clear nw se trending strike slip fault that links the southern jura mountains with the northern subalpine chains the hypocentre was located in mesozoic limestones at shallow depths 1 3 km the focal mechanism indicates left lateral strike slip motion on a n136 e striking plane dipping 70 to the ne abundant field evidence was gathered in the days following the main shock several hundred aftershocks were recorded thanks to the rapid installation of a 16 station seismic network all aftershocks occurred along the southernmost segment of the vuache fault defining a 5 km long 3 5 km deep n130 e striking rupture zone dipping 73 to the ne the fault plane solutions of 60 aftershocks were found to be consistent with left lateral slip on nw se striking planes at the se tip of the aftershock zone we found ground cracks parallel to the fault close to the annecy meythet airport runway at the nw tip near bromines we observed left lateral displacement of concrete walls in a building we also noticed flow changes in two springs close to that locality geodetic levelling across the fault revealed about 1 cm of uplift for the region north of the fault the recording of aftershocks with a six station accelerometric network showed that lacustrine deposits locally amplified the ground motion up to eight times which explains how this moderate magnitude shock could cause such heavy damage historical records draw attention to the central segment of the vuache fault which has been locked for at least 200 years situated nw of the 1996 aftershock zone between the mandallaz and vuache mountains this segment forms a 12 km long potential seismic gap where other m5 events or one single m6 event might occur

neogene to ongoing normal faulting in the inner western alps a major evolution of the late alpine tectonics 1 widespread brittle extension occurs in the internal zones of the southwestern alps forming a dense fault network which overprints the compressional structures the extension has been followed by transcurrent motions in terms of paleostress this extension is radial to the belt close to the crustal penninic front and multidirectional in the eastern part of the internal zones the paleostress field of the strike slip phase is coherent with the extensional one and compatible with dextral shear along longitudinal faults globally we propose that the internal zones of the southwestern alps underwent a single neogene transtensive tectonic regime to strengthen our structural results the current tectonics has been analyzed using seismotectonic tools this approach allowed the recognition of several active faults moreover the ongoing tectonics is coherent with the observed brittle deformation the fault network controls the present day seismicity the combined seismotectonic and structural approaches give coherency and continuity from the neogene to ongoing extensional tectonics in the southwestern alps in the framework of the whole western alps a synthesis of our results with neotectonic related data allowed us to provide an accurate map of the neogene to present kinematics of the belt extension which appears as a major feature of the internal zones has been coeval with the propagation of thrusts in the outer zones during neogene times the geodynamic processes which rule this major tectonic evolution of the belt remain a matter of debate

syntectonic fluid flow and deformation mechanisms within the frontal thrust of a foreland fold and thrust belt example from the internal jura eastern france abstract structural mapping and microstructural analyses are combined with stable clumped and radiogenic isotopes to unravel deformation mechanisms and syntectonic fluid flow during upward propagation along the frontal thrust fuans thrust of the internal part of the jura fold and thrust belt the fuans thrust cuts through upper jurassic lower cretaceous carbonate deposits branches into two splays and generates a system of fault propagation folds folding was accomodated by layer parallel shortening and layer parallel shear which generated flexural slip along bedding surfaces stylolites and foliated fabric in marly limestone interbeds thrusting was characterized by cycles of mutually overprinting pressure solution and brittle processes such as frictional sliding and fracturing veining this generated foliated tectonites in marls and limestones without significant cataclasis of the host rock pressure solution and micrometer slip along slickenfibers are evidence of aseismic slip in agreement with the ongoing aseismic growth of anticlines in the jura fold and thrust while crackle like vein texture may account for episodic seismic fracturing geochemical data show that fuans thrust acted as a conduit for the downward infiltration of meteoric derived fluids which channeled along foliated tectonites during syntectonic fluid flow calcite mineralizations precipitated at temperatures between 54 c and 10 c showing an increased contribution of organic carbon from soils in colder paleofluids this indicates a progressive opening of the system characterized by a more efficient and extensive meteoric fluids circulation considering the highest recorded temperature of 54 c and assuming the modern geothermal gradient of 30 c km thrusting in the study outcrop initiated at a burial depth of at least 1 4 km

active tectonism in the central alps contrasting stress regimes north and south of the rhone valley an integrated interpretation of seismicity fault plane solutions and deep seismic reflection data suggests that the ne sw to nw se trending rhone simplon fault zone and the gently s dipping basal penninic thrust separate fundamentally different stress regimes in the western swiss alps north of the rhone simplon fault zone strike slip earthquakes on steep dipping faults within the helvetic nappes are a consequence of regional nw se compression and ne sw extension to the south vertical maximum stress and n s extension are responsible for normal mechanism earthquakes that occur entirely within the penninic nappes above the basal penninic thrust such normal faulting likely results from extension associated with southward movements collapse of the penninic nappes and or continued uplift and relative northward displacements of the underlying alpine massifs geological mapping and fission track dating suggest that the two distinct stress regimes have controlled tectonism in the western swiss alps since at least the neogene

geometry amount and sequence of thrusting in the subalpine molasse of western austria and southern germany european alps in this paper we review the structure of the most external thrust belt of the alps between the rhein valley and salzburg based on a new tectonic map and the re interpretation of seismic sections specifically we address the correlation between deformation in the subalpine molasse and the alpine thrust belt in general and focus on the control of sedimentary facies on the structural style a dramatic change in architecture from a ramp flat structure to buckle folding is related to a change from coarse grained fans to fine grained deposits within the subalpine molasse additionally the interaction of escape tectonics with postcollisional shortening controls the decrease of late early miocene and younger shortening within the subalpine molasse from 50 km near the rhine valley to almost zero near salzburg transfer of shortening into the hinterland which is the zone of lateral escape ended foreland propagation of the alpine thrusts and initiated a general break back sequence of thrusting throughout this time the thrusts remained active in such a scenario tectonic units on top of the subalpine molasse are expected to undergo clockwise rotation around vertical axes as thrusting in the subalpine molasse is closely related to contemporaneous transport and shortening within the tectonically higher helvetic thrust sheets amounts of miocene differential shortening and related clockwise vertical axis rotation are minimum amounts true clockwise vertical axis rotation is probably larger than the 12 deduced from the subalpine molasse thrust belt

stress field determinations in france by hydraulic tests in boreholes the stress field has been determined at eight different sites in france four in crystalline or metamorphic rocks four in sedimentary formations by hydraulic tests in boreholes for seven of these sites the complete stress field has been determined using the hydraulic tests on pre existing fractures htpf inversion method validity of the results is demonstrated by the good fit between a priori and a posteriori values for the data and by the low values of the a posteriori standard deviation on the unknowns for four sites results have been compared with those derived according to the hydraulic fracturing theory the two methods yield comparable results for the orientation of the maximum horizontal principal stress h a generally satisfactory fit for the magnitude of the minimum horizontal principal stress h but a very poor agreement for the magnitude of h this latter misfit has been attributed to the effect of fluid percolation prior to the actual opening of the fractures below a depth of 500 m a homogeneous h direction n150 e has been determined at the crystalline sites auriat echassieres le mayet de montagne chassoles all located in the northern massif central for three of these sites the vertical stress is significantly lower than the weight of overburden as computed from the rock density and the depth of the corresponding measurement at auriat and echassieres the stress field is consistent with a mostly strike slip faulting regime at le mayet de montagne and chassoles the maximum stress is vertical but nearly equal to h the stress field has been found to be much more heterogeneous at two of the four sites in sedimentary rocks because of the large variability in mechanical rock properties in such heterogeneous formations inversion with the htpf method must be limited to those data which pertain to the same rock horizon however because of its structure this heterogeneity does not restrict the possibility of defining large scale uniform principal stress directions all the results are consistent with the local seismotectonics

interaction of folding and thrusting during fold and thrust belt evolution insights from numerical simulations and application to the swiss jura and the canadian foothills abstract we use two dimensional numerical simulations to investigate the interaction of folding buckling and thrusting localized shearing during the structural evolution of fold and thrust belts ftb we model layer parallel shortening of mechanically strong layers resting above a weaker layer referred to as detachment we consider a viscoplastic rheology with linear viscosity and frictional plastic drucker prager yield criterion the detachment thickness is larger in one model half and only this geometrical thickness perturbation triggers folding and thrusting in the simulations we conduct a systematic analysis to quantify the impact of model parameters such as magnitude of the thickness perturbation or detachment rheology frictional or viscous on the ftb evolution the magnitude of the perturbation determines whether or not folding is favoured over thrusting and hence controls the progressive interaction of folding and thrusting during ftb evolution the asymmetry of modelled anticlines is proportional to the relative height of the initial perturbation we also adapt the model configuration to specific mechanical stratigraphies of two regions in natural ftb namely the haute chaine of the jura mountains switzerland and the foothills of alberta canada the modelled fold and thrust geometries agree with different types of observed anticlinal structures such as symmetric detachments folds and asymmetric thrust folds our results suggest that an initial stage of low amplitude buckling likely occurred prior to the main folding and thrusting phase we argue that folding and thrusting are equally important and interacting processes during the structural evolution of many natural ftb

present day stress orientation in the molasse basin abstract the present day state of stress in western europe is considered to be controlled by forces acting at the plate boundaries it is assumed that the alpine orogen only influence the regional pattern of present day stress in western europe within the alps themselves we examine the present day maximum horizontal stress orientation in the molasse basin in the alpine foreland in order to investigate the possible influence of the alps on the far field stress pattern of western europe four arm caliper and image logs were analysed in 137 wells in which a total of 1348 borehole breakouts and 59 drilling induced fractures were observed in 98 wells in the german molasse basin the borehole breakouts and drilling induced fractures reveal that stress orientations are highly consistent within the molasse basin and that the present day maximum horizontal stress orientation rotates from n s in southeast germany 002 n 19 to approximately nnw sse in southwest germany and the swiss molasse basin 150 n 24 the present day maximum horizontal stress orientation in the molasse basin is broadly perpendicular to the strike of the alpine front indicating that the stress pattern is probably controlled by gravitational potential energy of alpine topography rather than by plate boundary forces the present day maximum horizontal stress orientations determined herein have important implications for the production of hydrocarbons and geothermal energy in the german molasse basin in particular that hydraulically induced fractures are likely to propagate n s and that wells deviated to the north or south may have reduced wellbore instability problems

geometry and evolution of fold thrust structures at the boundaries between frictional and ductile detachments abstract fold thrust belts formed above a ductile detachment typically contain detachment folds whereas those formed above frictional detachments contain fault related fold complexes such as imbricate thrust systems analog models using silica sand to represent sediments and silicone gel to represent salt were conducted to study the fold geometry fold fault relations and sequential development of structures formed in each setting and at the boundaries between the two settings the results showed a relatively thinner wedge above a ductile detachment so that the deformation front propagated farther forward than that above a frictional detachment the thrust front connects across the two settings with a significant change in position and a resulting change in orientation the geometry of the deformation front is strongly controlled by that of the detachment boundary so that an oblique detachment boundary results in an oblique thrust front in the transition zone modifications in the taper geometry also result from the presence of a frictional belt behind a ductile belt the width of the ductile detachment which limits the location of the deformation front and the lateral propagation of thrust faults between the two regimes the experimental models can be used to explain observed geometries in natural examples of fold thrust belts marked by transitions between frictional and ductile detachments

recent stress field and neotectonics in the eastern jura mountains switzerland the regional stress field and its local variation were determined for the northern part of central switzerland fig 1 by using overcoring techniques doorstopper triaxial strain cell and observations of breakouts in deep boreholes the results are compared with fault plane solutions of earthquakes and with the orientation of horizontal stylolites in the northern part of central switzerland the nw se orientation of the maximum horizontal stress sh which is characteristic for central europe was observed only in the crystalline basement in the folded jura and south of it in one well the greatest principal horizontal stress above the triassic decollement horizon is oriented approximately in a n s to nne ssw direction this direction persists into the western tabular jura and the southernmost rhine graben only in the eastern part of the tabular jura the greatest principal horizontal stress shows a nnw sse to nw se orientation comparison of the near surface stress field as determined by in situ stress measurements and borehole breakouts with the directions of horizontal stylolites generated during the evolution of the folded jura indicates that the orientation of the recent stress field near the earth s surface is the same as that which prevailed during the upper miocene to lower pliocene the central part of northern switzerland is therefore the first area in central europe where it is possible to demonstrate that the near surface stress field is decoupled from that in the crystalline basement the difference in the orientation of the greatest principal horizontal stress is about 50

in situ stress data from the jura mountains new results and interpretation recently completed in situ stress measurements using the borehole slotter at 33 new test sites within the swiss and french jura mountains are presented when combined with previously published stress data these new measurements allow a detailed description of the contemporary state of stress in this fold and thrust belt and the adjacent foreland the data now allow the recognition of five stress provinces within which two general and different orientations of maximum horizontal stress sh can be distinguished the central and the southwest provinces with a nnw sse to nne ssw orientation and the east northwest and southeast provinces orientated e w to nw se each province has its own characteristic orientation measurements in three study areas are presented for comparison with already published acoustic anisotropy measurements borehole breakout data overcoring tests and triangulation measurements the results show a generally good agreement with the new borehole slotter measurements the tectonic implications of these stress data are discussed in terms of a large scale stress reorientation of the nw se orientated contemporary central european stress field in the foreland of the western alpine arc

estimating present day displacement fields and tectonic deformation in active mountain belts an example from the chartreuse massif and the southern jura mountains western alps abstract determination of relative movements between the alpine foreland and the external crystalline massif is a key point for the understanding of the present day tectonics of the western alps in this study we try to test the continuity of the present day tectonics with the mio pliocene deformation in particular we will test if the present day displacements are localized along the thrusts of the jura mountains or along a blind thrust in the bas dauphine molasse basin definition of relative movements is achieved by several methods including a comparison of two high precision leveling networks to estimate vertical displacements horizontal deformation measurements performed by triangulation triangulation and triangulation gps comparison in situ stress measurements performed in the different tectonic units and geomorphologic observations that constrain the location and the magnitude of the quaternary deformation comparison of leveling data demonstrates 1 an uplift of the southern bas dauphine molasse basin relative to its northern part 0 8 mm year also revealed by geomorphologic analysis 2 a significant uplift of the most external jurassian anticlines 0 8 to 2 mm year also recorded by the deformation of a paleo river bed and 3 an important uplift up to 2 mm year of the subalpine massifs the horizontal strain estimated from comparison of horizontal geodetic data triangulation gps shows 1 a nw se directed shortening between the eastern chartreuse massif and the bas dauphine molasses basin approximately 3 mm year 2 an e w directed shortening in the jura mountains approximately 4 3 mm year and 3 a dextral strike slip motion consistent with focal mechanisms along a nne ssw direction between the eastern chartreuse massif and the eastern belledonne massif these data reveal a present day strain partitioning between the belledonne external crystalline massif and the bas dauphine molasses basin the westward motion of the subalpine massifs is partitioned along two southern jurassian thrust folds and a dextral nne ssw strike slip shear zone between the chartreuse massif and the belledonne massif this strain partitioning is also accompanied by a stress partitioning between the alpine foreland and the external crystalline massifs

zonal oscillation of western pacific subtropical high and subseasonal sst variations during yangtze persistent heavy rainfall events abstractthis study examines the relationship between the zonal oscillation of the western pacific subtropical high wpsh and underneath sea surface temperature sst variation on a subseasonal time scale associated with the persistent heavy rainfall phr events over the middle and lower reaches of the yangtze river valley mlyrv in china a total of 76 phr events and 45 break events in the summers of 1979 2011 are first identified over the mlyrv and divided into early and late summer groups during the phr events over the mlyrv for both groups the wpsh stretches more westward accompanied by the positive anomalies of the 500 hpa geopotential height field over east asia and its coastal region south of 30 n and the subseasonal warmer ssts beneath the wpsh western edge the time lagged composites suggest that the wpsh western edge exhibits westward then eastward migration on a subseasonal time scale for the phr events the zonal changes of the wpsh and anomalous circulation and sst anomaly ssta signal

eocene oligocene tectonics and kinematics of the rhine saone continental transform zone eastern france a tectonic analysis of brittle deformaton was performed in the rhine saone transform in order to decipher and understand the deformation processes in a typical continental hansfer zone cenozoic major and minor fault patterns are described and brittle structures are interpreted in terms of paleostress orientations the eocene n s compression related to africa eurasia convergence is marked mainly by strike slip faults it was followed by a major phase of crustal extension mainly oligocene in age related to the west european rifting this extensional phase is expressed by normal faults tension gashes and extensional strike slip faults which are especially abundant in the transform zone these two events are found to be quite different in terms of distribution of horizontal shess trajectories the trend of ol axes is very homogeneous for the n s compression whereas o3 orientations associated with the major extension vary from e w in most of the rift system to i v se within the transform zone finally the mio pliocene tectonic emplacement of the jura fold and thrust belt is marked in the field by strike slip faults associated with a well defined trend of ol oriented w iiw e se to nw se the preexisting basement fracture pattern between the grabens was also considered in order to estimate which faults were likely to have been reactivated during the oligocene transform kinematics and the theoretical shear motion on these inherited fault surfaces when submitted to e w extension was calculated left laterauextensional reactivation of a preexisting 60 n trending fault system in the brittle upper crust is likely to have accommodated the shear strain arising between the rift segments in response to crustal stretching two independent numerical modelings based on distinct element and finite element analyses respectively enabled us to verify and to refine the hypothesis of transform kinematics related to e w extension and inducing regional perturbations of extensional stress trajectories the overall mechanism and the transtensional kinematics of the rhine saone transform zone are thus tightly conshained the inherited crustal anisotropy the large scale perturbations of extensional stress trajectories and the development of distributed brittle deformation within the sedimentary cover are found to play a major role in the tectonic evolution of continental rift transform systems

graben width controlling syn rift sedimentation the palaeogene southern upper rhine graben as an example eocene to early oligocene syn rift deposits of the southern upper rhine graben urg accumulated in restricted environments sedimentation was controlled by local clastic supply from the graben flanks as well as by strong intra basinal variations in accommodation space due to differential tectonic subsidence that in turn led to pronounced lateral variations in depositional environment three large scale cycles of intensified evaporite sedimentation were interrupted by temporary changes towards brackish or freshwater conditions they form three major base level cycles that can be traced throughout the basin each of them representing a stratigraphic sub unit a relatively constant amount of horizontal extension l in the range of 4 5 km has been estimated for the urg from numerous cross sections the width of the rift lf however varies between 35 and more than 60 km resulting in a variable crustal stretching factor between the bounding masterfaults apart from block tilting tectonic subsidence was therefore largely controlled by changes in the initial rift width l0 the along strike variations of the graben width are responsible for the development of a deep trough like evaporite basin potash basin in the narrowest part of the southern urg adjacent to shallow areas in the wider parts of the rift such as the colmar swell in the north and the rhine bresse transfer zone that delimits the urg to the south under a constant amount of extension the along strike variation in rift width is the principal factor controlling depo centre development in extensional basins

seismic reflection evidence for thick skinned tectonics in the northern jura newly released seismic reflection data from the northern jura mountains and southern rhine graben provide the first high quality subsurface images from this area these throw light on the details of the fault patterns in the area and show that the ferrette and le glaserberg jura structures are largely the result of thrust faulting however the faults differ in their nature from those usually assumed in jura tectonics they are not low angle thrusts converging on a decollement zone in triassic evaporites they appear instead to be high angle faults that cross the entire sedimentary section indicating that thick skinned tectonics prevailed in this part of the jura embryonic jura folds can be seen on the images from the nearby mulhouse horst folds that are not supported by thickened triassic evaporites the existence of recent earthquake activity taken together with the prevalence of thick skinned tectonics suggests that occasional large earthquakes cannot be ruled out in this area

short scale variations of tectonic regimes in the western european stress province north of the alps and pyrenees the data of the european part of the world stress map wsm are used to study the western european stress province north of the alps and pyrenees the study area is characterised by an almost homogeneous n 145 degrees e orientation of the maximum horizont

on the causes and modes of exhumation and lateral growth of the alps 1 a compilation of the apatite and zircon fission track ages of the alpine chain points to markedly different patterns of cooling and exhumation of the eastern alps compared to the central and western alps the site of exhumation and shortening in the western alps migrated outward whereas it was more stationary in the eastern alps where it created a narrower metamorphic belt a correlation of these observations to the deep structure of the orogen suggests that north directed lower crustal wedging induces northward propagation of the deformation and exhumation front in the middle and upper crust of the central and western alps the absence of such lower crustal wedges in the eastern alps does not induce a similar shift of deformation but rather a long term localization of shortening and exhumation in one and the same area namely the axial zone of the orogen a critical review of the temporal correlations between inferred changes in the erosional efficiency of the alps and tectonic phases points to a negative correlation and hence no erosional control on the shifts of the deformation front of the alps therefore we conclude that changes in the deep structure and rheology of the orogen instead of changes in its erosional efficiency exerted the prime control on the lateral growth of the alps

deformation of brittle ductile thrust wedges in experiments and nature 1 even though the rheology of thrust wedges is mostly frictional a basal ductile decollement is often involved by comparison with purely frictional wedges such brittle ductile wedges generally display anomalous structures such as backward vergence widely spaced thrust units and nonfrontward sequences of thrust development laboratory experiments are used here to study the deformation of brittle ductile thrust wedges results are compared with natural systems in the jura mountains and the northern pakistan salt range and potwar plateau two series of three models are used to illustrate the effects of varying the basal wedge angle and shortening rate v these two parameters directly control variations in relative strength between brittle and ductile layers bd coupling wedges with strong bd coupling low and high v give almost regular frontward sequences with closely spaced thrust units and as such are not significantly different from purely frictional wedges weak bd coupling high and low v gives dominantly backward thrusting sequences intermediate bd coupling produces frontward backward oscillating sequences the spacing of thrust units increases as coupling decreases back thrusts develop in parts of a wedge where bd coupling is weak regardless of the thrust sequence wedges with weak bd coupling need large amounts of bulk shortening more than 30 to attain a state of equilibrium at which stable sliding along the base occurs on this basis we argue that a state of equilibrium has not yet been attained in at least some parts of the jura mountains and eastern salt range and potwar plateau thrust systems

decadal variations in the relationship between the western pacific subtropical high and summer heat waves in east china abstractthe western pacific subtropical high wpsh is regarded as the key circulation system that dominates the summer heat waves over eastern china but whether the wpsh summer heat wave connecti

tectonic control on the late stage exhumation of the aar massif switzerland constraints from apatite fission track and u th he data 1 we examine the hypothesis that pliocene exhumation of the external massifs in the central alps is controlled by climatic change new thermochronological data from the western gastern aar massif are used to investigate the timing extent and reasons for neogene exhumation our data reveal that exhumation was constant with 0 5 km ma over the last 10 ma in the north in the southern part exhumation was of the same order until 3 5 ma but then increased gradually toward the south to values of up to 1 2 km ma resulting in overall northward tilting of the western aar massif we explain this accelerated exhumation in the south after 3 5 ma mainly by tectonic denudation in the footwall of the rhone simplon fault and discuss changes in deep crustal configuration which may have triggered south directed normal faulting we propose that the rhone river was structurally trapped by the rhone simplon normal fault zone which additionally enhanced erosion in the southern section of the aar massif climatic forcing may have an impact in the very late stage of exhumation due to alpine glaciation in the late pliocene

ground surface temperature reconstruction for the jinggangshan mountains interpreting the hydro thermal coupling pattern in southeastern china abstract understanding the spatial temporal variations of climatic factors and hydro thermal coupling patterns htcp is crucial to forecasting and preparing for future climate change based on accurately dated tree rings we developed the first dekad 10 days 6 to dekad 27 minimum ground surface temperature gstmin6 27 reconstruction for the jinggangshan mountains jgsm in southeastern china sc spanning the period 1791 2014 ad this reconstruction explains 57 9 of observed temperature during the instrumental period 1960 2014 ad our record exhibits a slow cooling trend before 1834 ad followed by drastic fluctuations between 1835 and 1850 ad and progressive warming r2 0 31 thereafter the highest gstmin6 27 variance occurs during the 1820s 1840s and from the 1900s to the early 1930s our reconstruction not only captures the characteristics of temperature variability over a large portion of sc but also reveals decadal scale temperature fluctuations that are approximately synchronous with conditions across north china and the northern hemisphere this research suggests that the western pacific subtropical high wpsh was likely the primary control of gstmin6 27 variability in the jgsm while the pacific decadal oscillation pdo tropical indian and western pacific ocean sea surface temperatures along with the north atlantic oscillation nao indirectly influenced decadal scale temperature variations based on our new reconstruction we identified regional decadal scale differences in the htcp over sc with an insignificant warm dry cold wet coupling pattern dominating the jgsm and a significant warm wet cold dry pattern in coastal areas

decadal variations of the relationship between the summer north atlantic oscillation and middle east asian air temperature 1 the relationship between the summer july september north atlantic oscillation snao and simultaneous east asian air temperature is investigated the results show that the snao is related to middle east asian summer air temperature however this linkage varies with time on decadal timescale a strong connection appears after the late 1970s but a weak connection before the late 1970s further analysis indicates that this instable relationship may have resulted from the shift of the snao mode around the late 1970s in the period of 1979 2003 the centers of the snao mode are located more eastward a positive phase negative phase snao produces a strong lower level divergence convergence over the asian jet entrance region in turn stimulates a strong upper level convergence divergence via the ekman pumping such a convergence divergence then excites a zonally oriented quasi stationary barotropical rossby wave train along the asian upper level jet thus the snao signal is transported eastward to east asia resulting in an anomalous summer air temperature over middle east asia however in the period of 1951 1975 the centers of the snao mode are located more westward the associated upper level divergence convergence is away from the asian jet entrance region and the snao signal cannot be transported eastward to east asia hence the connection is broken

are the alps collapsing abstract orogenic collapse is a process that transfers gravitational potential energy from regions of high potential energy to regions of lower potential energy this transfer is classically considered to be accomplished by extension in the orogenic core and by synchronous shortening in foreland regions of the orogen not all extensional features in collisional mountain belts need however reflect orogenic collapse normal faulting thrust faulting and strike slip faulting are all active in different parts of the alps today and reflect complex local responses to ongoing europe adria convergence the western alps is the only area today where extension and shortening radial to orogen trend occur synchronously and where orogenic collapse may be an important process elsewhere in the alps normal faults are oriented at a high angle to orogen trend and were primarily active in oligocene and miocene time most present day activity in the central and eastern alps is on strike slip faults that are accommodati

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

tree ring stable carbon isotope based may july temperature reconstruction over nanwutai china for the past century and its record of 20th century warming growth anomaly of trees in some regions was detected under current episode of rapid warming thisraises a dilemma for temperature reconstructions by using tree ring width which is believed to be themost important proxy on inter annual temperature reconstruction during the past millenniums here weemployed the tree ring d13c to reconstruct temperature variations for exploring their potential oncapturing signals of rapid warming and to test how its difference with the tree ring width basedreconstruction in this study the mean mayejuly temperature tmej was reconstructed over the pastcentury by tree ring d13c of chinese pine trees growing in the nanwutai region the explained varianceof the reconstruction was 43 3 42 1 after adjusting the degrees of freedom compared to a ring widthtemperature reconstruction mayejuly from the same site the tree ring d13c based temperaturereconstruction offered two distinct advantages 1 it captured a wider range of temperature variability i e at least mayejuly even over a longer part of the year januaryeseptember and 2 the reconstructionpreserved more low frequency climate information than that of ring width did the 20th century warming was well represented in the nanwutai tree ring d13c temperature reconstruction which implied that stable carbon isotope of tree rings potentially represents temperaturevariations during historical episodes of rapid warming a spatial correlation analysis showed that ourtemperature reconstruction represented climate variations over the entire loess plateau in north centralchina significant positive correlations p 0 1 were found between the temperature reconstruction andenso as well as ssts in the pacific and indian oceans the reconstruction showed the periodicities of22 78 4 16 3 45e3 97 and 2 04e2 83 year quasi cycles at a 95 confidence level our results suggestedthat temperature variability in the nanwutai region may be linked to pacific and indian ocean sstvariations and solar activity less

thick skinned tectonics and basement involved fold thrust belts insights from selected cenozoic orogens defining the structural style of fold thrust belts and understanding the controlling factors are necessary steps towards prediction of their long term and short term dynamics including seismic hazard and to assess their potential in terms of hydrocarbon exploration while the thin skinned structural style has long been a fashionable view for outer parts of orogens worldwide a wealth of new geological and geophysical studies has pointed out that a description in terms of thick skinned deformation is in many cases more appropriate this paper aims at providing a review of what we know about basement involved shortening in foreland fold thrust belts on the basis of the examination of selected cenozoic orogens after describing how structural interpretations of fold thrust belts have evolved through time this paper addresses how and the extent to which basement tectonics influence their geometry and their kinematics and emphasizes the key control exerted by lithosphere rheology including structural and thermal inheritance and local regional boundary conditions on the occurrence of thick skinned tectonics in the outer parts of orogens

general characteristics of temperature variation in china during the last two millennia three alternate china wide temperature composites covering the last 2000 years were established by combining multiple paleoclimate proxy records obtained from ice cores tree rings lake sediments and historical documents five periods of temperature variation can be identified a warm stage in ad 0 240 a cold interval between ad 240 and 800 a return to warm conditions from ad 800 1400 including the medieval warm period between ad 800 1100 the cool little ice age period between 1400 1920 and the present warm stage since 1920 regional temperature variation is found during ad 800 1100 when warm conditions occurred in eastern china and in the northeastern tibetan plateau and in ad 1150 1380 when the southern tibetan plateau experienced a warm interval in contrast evidence for cool conditions during the lia is more consistent among the proxy records the temperature reconstructions for china and the northern hemisphere show good agreement over the past millennium

paleomagnetism and tectonics of the jura arcuate mountain belt in france and switzerland abstract goethite and hematite in ferriferous oolitic beds of callovian age from the jura mountains switzerland france carry either pre and or post tectonic magnetization the frequent pre tectonic origin of goethite magnetization indicates a temperature range during formation of the arcuate jura mountain belt below the goethite neel temperature of about 100 c the scatter of the pre tectonic paleomagnetic directions d 11 5 e i 55 5 95 4 7 which reside both in goethite and hematite provides strong evidence that the arcuate mountain belt was shaped without significant rotation the paleomagnetic results support tectonic thin skinned models for the formation of the jura mountain belt

continental scale temperature variability during the past two millennia past global climate changes had strong regional expression to elucidate their spatio temporal pattern we reconstructed past temperatures for seven continental scale regions during the past one to two millennia the most coherent feature in nearly all of the regional temperature reconstructions is a long term cooling trend which ended late in the nineteenth century at multi decadal to centennial scales temperature variability shows distinctly different regional patterns with more similarity within each hemisphere than between them there were no globally synchronous multi decadal warm or cold intervals that define a worldwide medieval warm period or little ice age but all reconstructions show generally cold conditions between ad 1580 and 1880 punctuated in some regions by warm decades during the eighteenth century the transition to these colder conditions occurred earlier in the arctic europe and asia than in north america or the southern hemisphere regions recent warming reversed the long term cooling during the period ad 1971 2000 the area weighted average reconstructed temperature was higher than any other time in nearly 1 400 years

interannual relationships between the tropical sea surface temperature and summertime subtropical anticyclone over the western north pacific 1 the interannual variability of the western north pacific subtropical high wnpsh in boreal summer is investigated with the use of the ncep ncar reanalysis data the most significant change of the 500 hpa geopotential height field appears at the western edge of the wnpsh with dominant 2 3 year and 3 5 year power spectrum peaks the 2 3 year oscillation of the wnpsh and associated circulation and sea surface temperature sst patterns possess a coherent eastward propagating feature with a warm sst anomaly ssta and anomalous ascending motion migrating from the tropical indian ocean in the preceding autumn to the maritime continent in the concurrent summer of a strong wnpsh a strong wnpsh is characterized by anomalous anticyclonic circulation and maximum subsidence in the western north pacific wnp the anomalous wnpsh circulation has an equivalent barotropic vertical structure and resides in the sinking branch of the local hadley circulation triggered by enhanced convection over the maritime continent a heat budget analysis reveals that the wnpsh is maintained by radiative cooling the 3 5 year oscillation of the wnpsh exhibits a quasi stationary feature with a warm ssta anomalous ascending motion located in the equatorial central eastern pacific and indian ocean and a cold ssta anomalous descending motion located in the western pacific the anomaly pattern persists from the preceding winter to the concurrent summer of a high wnpsh the greatest descent is located to the southeast of the anomalous anticyclone center where a baroclinic vertical structure is identified the zonal phase difference and the baroclinic vertical structure suggest that the anomalous anticyclone on this timescale is a rossby wave response to a negative latent heating associated with the persistent local cold ssta echam4 model experiments further confirm that the 2 3 year mode is driven by the ssta forcing over the maritime continent while the 3 5 year mode is driven by the local ssta in the wnp

interactions between thin and thick skinned tectonics at the northwestern front of the jura fold and thrust belt eastern france 1 this study investigates spatial and temporal interactions of thin and thick skinned tectonics in a classical foreland setting located at the front of the jura fold and thrust belt in eastern france the working area coincides with the intracontinental rhine bresse transfer zone and represents the most external front of the deformed alpine foreland the investigation combines analyses of largely unpublished and newly available subsurface information with our own structural data including an exhaustive paleostress analysis and geomorphologic observations results are provided in the form of a new tectonic map and a series of regional cross sections through the study area the besancon zone forming the most external part of the thin skinned fold and thrust belt encroached onto the eo oligocene rhine bresse transfer fault system until early pliocene times thrust propagation was largely controlled by the late paleozoic to paleogene preexisting fault pattern that characterizes the rhine bresse transfer zone thick skinned deformation dominant throughout the avant monts zone located farther to the west was associated with compressional to transpressional reactivation of such faults overprinting and crosscutting criteria of fault slip data allow distinguishing between systematically fanning maximum horizontal stress axes that define the front of the thin skinned jura fold and thrust belt and consistently nw se directed maximum horizontal stress axes that characterize deformation of the autochthonous cover of the foreland which is affected by thick skinned tectonics tectonic and geomorphic analyses indicate that thick skinned tectonics started at a very late stage of foreland deformation post early pliocene geomorphic observations imply that deformation between mesozoic cover and basement is locally still decoupled however overprinting relationships and recent seismicity suggest that present day tectonic activity is thick skinned which probably reflects ongoing tectonic underplating in the alpine foreland

mechanical validation of balanced cross sections the case of the mont terri anticline at the jura front nw switzerland abstract close to north west front of the jura thrust belt in switzerland the mont terri anticline is located at a disruption of the muschelkalk decollement due to a former normal fault numerous geological data are available thanks to a motorway tunnel cross cutting the fold and an underground laboratory original field data two geological maps a borehole and a highway tunnel constrain the inner structure the anticline is characterized by an overturned frontal limb a steep back limb and a ramp cross cutting older normal faults three geological cross sections and three 2d kinematic models are proposed as various combinations of fault bend folding fault propagation folding and detachment folding the main motivation of this study is to illustrate how geometrical constructions can be constrained by the kinematic approach of limit analysis which determines the optimal deformation including faults that verifies mechanical equilibrium and the coulomb criterion matching some of the important kinematic steps assumed in each three interpretations to the optimal deformation leads us to define the compatible ranges of values of the frictional parameters these ranges allow us to assess the likeliness of the important kinematic steps of each kinematic model the present analysis provides a quantitative link between the assumed evolution of the internal structure and the concomitant evolutions of the topography and of the frictional parameters

long term summer warming trend during the holocene in central asia indicated by alpine peat α cellulose δ13c record abstract the long term cooling or warming trend is one of the most important aspects of holocene paleoclimatic research however there are currently significant discrepancies among climatic simulation results sedimentary and synthesized holocene temperature records these discrepancies call for new holocene temperature records with a robust chronology and unambiguous indicative significance here we present a ca 45 year resolution alpine peat cellulose carbon isotopic 13c record from the altai mountains in central asia the chronology of the record has been well constrained by 22 ams 14c dates of the peat cellulose samples based on detailed modern process study results the indicative significance of the record has been carefully determined as summer temperature indicator the record reveals an overall trend of increasing summer temperature for the past ca 11 ka with a warmer early from ca 8 6 ka bp and late from ca 4 0 ka bp holocene and colder middle holocene from ca 6 4 ka bp the general pattern of a warmer early and late holocene and colder middle holocene is consistent with previously reported temperature records from central asia the tibetan plateau and north china the long term warming trend in our summer temperature record is consistent with recently reported winter temperature records from high latitudes of continental eurasia all these results further support the reliability of our summer temperature record from central asia the better understandings about the holocene temperature history and its possible driven mechanism s can be benefited potentially from more reliable holocene temperature records including our record reported in this paper

increase in late neogene denudation of the european alps confirmed by analysis of a fission track thermochronology database abstract a sharp increase in deposited sediment volume since pliocene times has been observed worldwide and in particular around the european alps this phenomenon has been linked to a rise in denudation rates controlled by an increase of either climatic or tectonic forcing observation of in situ cooling histories for orogens is critical to assess the reality of the inferred increase in denudation rates and to determine whether this phenomenon is widespread or localized at active tectonic structures we exploit the unique density of fission track ages in the western european alps to reconstruct cooling isoage surfaces and to estimate exhumation rates on the orogen scale between 13 5 and 2 5 ma our novel technique is based on the association of isoage contours with age elevation relationships it uses map view interpolation enabling a spatio temporal analysis of exhumation rates over the entire western alps the resulting exhumation histories reconstructed for eight areas of the western alps display strong similarities in timing and rates with orogen wide average denudation rates inferred from sediment volumes this consistency validates the use of both techniques for the study of an orogen characterized by strong relief and high recent exhumation rates we conclude that exhumation rates in the western alps have increased more than twofold since late miocene times this increase may have been locally modulated by the distinct response of different tectonic units

the basel 1356 earthquake which fault produced it the 1356 basel earthquake was the strongest event to have shaken nw europe in the last thousand years the peculiar location of this historical event makes it possible to relate it to normal faulting along the edges of the rhine graben as well as to reverse faulting along the jura frontal thrust or to fault reactivation within the hercynian basement alternate hypotheses are discussed and their implications compared taking into account available structural data and results of the morphotectonic study performed in the epicentral area this study combines field observations with the analysis of spot satellite imagery aerial photographs and detailed topography it is concluded that the basel earthquake most probably reactivated a basement fault reverse or wrench fault beneath the shallow depth aseismic detachment that underlies the jura mountains

two centuries temperature variations over subtropical southeast china inferred from pinus taiwanensis hayata tree ring width high resolution long term temperature reconstructions in subtropical southeast china ssc are very scarce yet indispensable for the comprehensive understanding of climate change in china even in east asia we reconstructed the first previous growth season temperature in the sanqingshan mountains sqs southeast china since 1806 based on tree ring width data the reconstruction accounts for 56 4 of the total variance in the instrumental record over 1954 2009 unlike the northern hemispheric warming during recent two centuries the reconstruction captured a slowly cooling trend from 1806 to 1980 followed by a rapid warming afterward 2003 2009 was the warmest period in the reconstruction 1970 2000 was colder than the last stage of the little ice age lia most of the warm and cold periods in this reconstruction could be found in the tree ring based temperature reconstructions of vicinity area indicating that the temperature variations in ssc were almost synchronous at least at decadal scale this regional coherence of temperature variation was further confirmed by the spatial correlation patterns with the cru ts3 22 grid dataset a strong positive relationship between the temperature over sqs region and sea surface temperature sst over the north pacific ocean np has been noted suggesting that sst variations over np and the related pacific decadal oscillation significantly influenced the temperature variability over ssc to better understand the climate variability during the lia and the regional differences in temperature variations over sqs and northern hemisphere long data sets from more diverse areas of southern china are needed