fission track analysis reveals character of collisional tectonics in new zealand during the late cenozoic the pacific plate has been obliquely converging with the australia plate in south island new zealand this has resulted in westward obduction of continental crust of the pacific plate and consequently a major mountain range the southern alps has formed east of the alpine fault and within the leading edge of the pacific plate we have applied the apatite and zircon fission track dating technique to a suite of outcrop samples from three transects across the southern alps starting at the alpine fault to better understand the uplift age and structure of the continental collision the results show the following 1 uplift was underway at 7 ma in the south at haast pass and by 5 ma in the north at arthur s pass 2 profiles of the total amount of late cenozoic uplift show an exponential increase toward the alpine fault adjacent to the alpine fault there has been 14 5 to 21 5 km of uplift in the vicinity of haast pass 14 5 to 21 km near mt cook and 12 5 to 15 5 km in the arthur s pass transect adjacent to the alpine fault in the mount cook region the average uplift rate from 5 5 ma to 1 ma was 2 3 to 2 5 mm yr between 1 ma and the present it has averaged 6 2 mm yr the strongly asymmetric uplift pattern is responsible for the exposure of a 13 25 km wide belt of greenschist to midamphibolite facies rocks immediately east of the alpine fault known as the alpine schists 3 late cenozoic uplift of torlesse greywackes and alpine schists was preceeded during the jurassic early cretaceous by 5 8 km of uplift the otago schist belt to the south was uplifted much more during this interval and in addition western parts of the otago schists were uplifted 5 6 km during the late cretaceous 4 the fission track data do not support the notion of significant late cenozoic shear heating about the alpine fault as previously suggested from spatial variations in k ar ages of the otago and alpine schists

spatiotemporal sequence of himalayan debris flow from analysis of high frequency seismic noise 1 during the 2003 summer monsoon the hi climb seismological stations deployed across the himalayan range detected bursts of high frequency seismic noise that lasted several hours to days on the basis of the cross correlation of seismic envelopes recorded at 11 stations we show that the largest transient event on 15 august was located nearby a village partially destroyed on that day by a devastating debris flow this consistency in both space and time suggests that high frequency seismic noise analysis can be used to monitor debris flow generation as well as the evacuation of the sediment a systematic study of one year of seismic noise focusing on the detection of similar events provides information on the spatial and temporal occurrence of mass movements at the front of the himalayas with a 50 probability of occurrence of a daily event a total of 46 debris flows are seismically detected most of them were generated in regions of steep slopes large gullies and loose soils during the 2003 summer monsoon storms these events are compared to local meteorological data to determine rainfall thresholds for slope failures including the cumulative rainfall needed to bring the soil moisture content to failure capacity the inferred thresholds are consistent with previous estimates deduced from soil studies as well as sediment supply investigations in the area these results point out the potential of using seismic noise as a dedicated tool for monitoring the spatiotemporal occurrence of landslides and debris flows on a regional scale

cooling and uplift patterns in the lepontine alps south central switzerland and an age of vertical movement on the insubric fault line 96 new fission track ft apatite and zircon k ar and rb sr biotite and muscovite ages are presented for 19 samples mainly acid gneisses from a 40 km traverse through the lepontine alps in the maggia valley south central switzerland plotting measured mineral ages against assumed system closure temperatures yields cooling rates for each sample the entire profile shows a fairly uniform late neogene recent mean uplift rate of 0 5 mm a confirmed by a gradient of ft apatite age with elevation cooling from higher temperatures occurred earlier in the south where uplift rates of 2 2 mm a in the steep belt root zone indicate 9 km early miocene uplift of the northern pennine block this uplift started before 23 ma and is interpreted as resulting from a major phase of backthrusting along the insubric line and as dating the formation of the mylonite belt estimated cooling rates constrain the timing of lepontine mid tertiary metamorphism 3 schematic models are proposed which also consider published rb sr k ar mica and hornblende and u pb monazite ages slow cooling differential initial heating and subsequent cooling of different parts of the central alps and post 38 ma cooling with syntectonic metamorphism at 27 ma are postulated as alternative interpretations of isotopic data and geologic evidence from extrapolation between k ar and rb sr mica ages and apatite ft ages 240 50 c is proposed as the closure temperature for the retention of fission tracks in zircon

characterization of alpine rockslides using statistical analysis of seismic signals 1 seismic data analysis is a powerful tool for remote characterization of rock slope failures here we develop quantitative estimates of fundamental rockslide properties e g volume based solely on data from an existing regional seismic network we assembled a data set of twenty known rockslides in the central alps with volumes between 1 000 and 2 000 000 m3 and analyzed their corresponding seismograms common signal characteristics include emergent onsets slowly decaying tails and a triangular spectrogram shape the main component of seismic energy is contained in frequencies below 3 4 hz while higher frequency signals may be caused by block impacts location estimates were generated using automatic arrival time picks and resulted in a mean location error of 10 9 km a linear relationship for the detection limit of a rockslide as a function of volume was identified for our seismic station network to estimate rockslide volume runout distance drop height potential energy and fahrboschung angle of reach we extracted five simple metrics from each seismogram signal duration peak value of the ground velocity envelope velocity envelope area risetime and average ground velocity using multivariate linear regression the combination of duration peak envelope velocity and envelope area best estimated event parameters with r2 values ranging between 0 8 and 0 88 three new rockslides were then used to validate our method and volume runout drop height and potential energy were estimated within the correct order of magnitude when provided with a suitable data set of rockslide events our method can be easily adapted to other regions and seismic networks

some thermal and mechanical consequences of rapid uplift an example from the southern alps new zealand abstract the thermal evolution of continental crust during active collision is modeled through numerical solutions of the two dimensional heat conduction equation for a rapidly moving medium the boundary conditions used in the modeling are derived from geological and geophysical observations from the active collision zone in the south island of new zealand the problem domain over which the solutions are obtained consists of a 40 km horizontal by 25 km vertical spatial plane with a vertical discontinuity at 10 km from the western boundary to the east of this discontinuity vertical uplift rates of up to 10 mm a occur over a timespan of up to 4 ma temperature distributions are calculated at 10 ka intervals over the 4 ma duration a two dimensional high temperature region is established upon initiation of uplift of the eastern block due to the advective component carrying heat upwards more rapidly than it can be dissipated laterally from the problem domain temperatures within the upper 5 km are greater than 400 c after 2 25 ma with geothermal gradients of up to 200 c km attained within the upper 3 km at times greater than 2 5 ma the vertical temperature distribution changes little while the anomalously high temperatures spread laterally into the stationary crust using rheological equations to describe the brittle behaviour of a water saturated upper crust and the ductile behaviour of a quartz dominated lower crust together with the thermal distribution of the conduction models the mechanical evolution of a collision zone is investigated in addition to high crustal temperatures and associated high heat flow rapid uplift produces a weakening of the crust by raising of the depth of transition from brittle to ductile behaviour within the zone of most rapid uplift the brittle ductile transition rises from 13 km to less than 5 km after 1 5 ma of uplift further uplift reduces the brittle layer to 3 km thickness and causes lateral spreading of the low strength zone the reductions in crustal strength caused by the thermal weakening produce a high strain zone within the region of maximum uplift which is incapable of sustaining large differential stresses this causes horizontal and vertical stress transfer and results in shallow seismicity increases in the adjacent crust as well as in intermediate depth seismicity within the high strength upper mantle because the thermal and mechanical anomalies discussed are a function of rapid uplift all regions of active continental collision may be expected to exhibit similar behaviour some mechanical and thermal characteristics of the himalayan collision zone are briefly examined in light of the numerical modeling

fission track analysis of the late cenozoic vertical kinematics of continental pacific crust south island new zealand during the late cenozoic the pacific plate has been converging obliquely with the australia plate in south island new zealand a result of this convergence has been the growth of a major mountain range the southern alps at the leading edge of the pacific plate the results of fission track analysis of 140 samples from 13 transects across the alps reported here establish the late cenozoic vertical kinematics amount age and rate of rock uplift of the pacific crust underlying the alps the late cenozoic rock uplift of the pacific crust is asymmetrical with respect to the alpine fault being a maximum 19 km immediately east of the central part of the fault with lesser values at the eastern 3 km northern 10 km and southern 8 km extremities of the alps the age of the start of rock uplift varies spatially across the southern alps the earliest indications from fission track analysis being at 8 ma at the southern end of the alps decreasing to 5 ma at the northern end and 3 ma along the southeastern margin this age variation reflects the longer time over which the southern parts of the alps have been in collision the rate of propagation of rock uplift southeastward into the pacific plate has been 30 mm yr nearly 4 times the late cenozoic average rate of convergence normal to the plate boundary late cenozoic mean rock uplift rates range from a maximum of 2 8 mm yr at the alpine fault to a minimum of 1 0 mm yr in the east and have been sustained for periods of 3 8 m y accompanying denudation has exhumed amphibolite grade rocks immediately east of the alpine fault the rock uplift has been controlled by oblique slip displacement on the alpine fault a continental crustal section at least 19 km thick has been uplifted on the alpine fault comparison of the late cenozoic mean rock uplift rates with uplift rates derived from reset zircon data 2 10 mm yr near the alpine fault shows that uplift has accelerated over time but only significantly since 1 3 0 3 ma the amount of mesozoic uplift ranged from minimal amounts north of arthur s pass to 3 km near mount cook to 10 km in the south at lake wanaka

dynamics of the bingham canyon mine landslides from seismic signal analysis joint interpretation of long and short period seismic signals generated by landslides sheds light on the dynamics of slope failure providing constraints on landslide initiation and termination and on the main phases of acceleration and deceleration we carry out a combined analysis of the seismic signals generated by two massive landslides that struck the bingham canyon mine pit on 10 april 2013 inversion of the long period waveforms yields time series for the bulk landslide forces and momenta from which we deduce runout trajectories consistent with the deposit morphology comparing these time series with the short period seismic data we are able to infer when and where major changes take place in landslide momentum along the runout path this combined analysis points to a progressive fracturing of the masses during acceleration indicates that deceleration starts the moment they reach the pit floor and suggests that the bulk movement is stopped by a topographic barrier

development of glacial and interglacial conditions in the nordic seas between 1 5 and 0 35 ma sedimentological and geochemical proxy records of a deep sea sediment core from the southern central nordic seas were used to reconstruct the development of glacial and interglacial conditions during the early and middle pleistocene i e late matuyama to middle brunhes chron 1 5 0 35 ma an enhancement of both glacial and interglacial characteristics is observed during early brunhes oxygen isotope stages ois 16 and 15 respectively any intensification of the climatic conditions prior to this as was previously described for the eastern part of the nordic seas is not recognized at our study site it is further shown that the glacial interglacial environmental contrasts increased from the early to the middle bruhnes chron of all glacial periods investigated ois 12 is characterized by the most severe conditions showing both maximum input of iceberg rafted debris ird as well as planktic foraminiferal 18o values comparable to those of the last glacial maximum among the interglaciations ois 11 is by far the longest interval and the first to show fully developed interglacial conditions i e holocene like 18o values and a minimum of ird deposition hence our comparison supports bottom water 18o studies that have indicated the existence of a gradual intensification of glacial interglacial climate contrasts during the middle pleistocene

analysis of rock fall and rock fall avalanche seismograms in the french alps this study reviews seismograms from 10 rock fall events recorded between 1992 and 2001 by the permanent seismological network sismalp in the french alps a new seismic magnitude scale was defined which allowed us to compare and classify g round motion vibrations generated by these alpine rock falls each rock fall has also been cha racterized by its ground motion duration t30 at an epicentral distance of 30 km no relation was found between rock fall parameters fall height runout distance volume potential energy and rock fall s eismic magnitudes derived from seismogram amplitudes on the other hand the signal duration t30 shows a rough correlation with the potential energy and the runout distance highlighting the co ntrol of the propagation phase on the signal length the signal analysis suggests the existence of at le ast two distinct seismic sources one corresponding to the initial rupture associated with an elastic r ebound during the detachment and the other one generated by the rock impact on the slope although the fall phenomenon includes other complex processes fragmentation of the block interaction with topography plastic deformation during and after impact 2d finite element simulations of thes e two seismic sources are able to retrieve the main seismogram characteristics

natural long term annealing of the zircon fission track system in vienna basin deep borehole samples constraints upon the partial annealing zone and closure temperature abstract fission track ft analysis of zircon from cretaceous and tertiary sandstone samples in vienna basin boreholes has provided constraints for the thermal stability of the zircon ft system over a geological timescale confined track lengths and ages were measured for samples from depths of 1 5 7 5 km the deepest with a present environmental temperature of 200 c mean track lengths range from 10 3 to 10 8 m indistinguishable within error from the unannealed reference length of 10 7 0 1 m 1 standard error thus showing no sign of systematic downhole reduction central zircon ages are consistently older than stratigraphic ages of parent rocks with no single grain ages significantly younger than their respective stratigraphic ages such ft age and length evidence strongly suggests that the tracks have not been significantly annealed since sediment deposition because the present geothermal regime as well as sample burial depths have been near constant for at least the past 5 m y the lower temperature limit of the zircon ft partial annealing zone is 200 c for a heating duration of the order of 5 10 m y such evidence from long term natural annealing is compatible with a zircon ft partial annealing zone cf 200 350 c derived by the extrapolation of laboratory annealing results based on onfined track length measurements but cannot alone discriminate between different annealing models for the zircon ft closure temperature a perhaps over simplified concept these results are consistent with the oft quoted temperature of 250 c for cooling rates of 10 100 c m y

analysis of long period seismic waves excited by the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens a terrestrial monopole long period 100 to 260 s love and rayleigh waves excited by the eruption of mount st helens on may 18 1980 and recorded by ida sro and asro stations were analyzed to determine the mechanism of the eruption the amplitude radiation patterns of both rayleigh and love waves are two lobed with a nodal direction in e5 s for rayleigh waves and in n5 e for love waves these radiation patterns preclude any double couple mechanism the radiation pattern the initial phase the relatively large amplitude ratio of love to rayleigh waves and the existence of clear nodes in the radiation patterns of fundamental mode and higher mode rayleigh waves suggest that the source is represented by an almost horizontal less than 15 from the horizontal single force pointed toward s5 w the surface wave spectra fall off very rapidly at periods shorter than 75 s suggesting a very slow source process although the details of the source time history could not be determined a smooth bell shaped time function f o s t 1 2 f o l cos t for 0 t 2 and f o s t 0 for t 2 with 75 s is considered appropriate on the basis of comparison between synthetic and observed seismograms and of the shape of the source spectrum the peak value of the force f 0 is about 10 18 dynes the tailing end of the source time function could not be resolved and some overshoot may be added the magnitude and the time history of the force can be explained by a northward landslide followed by a lateral blast observed at the time of the eruption two distinct events about 110 s apart can be identified on body wave and short period surface wave records the first event may correspond to the earthquake which triggered the landslide and the lateral blast the second event appears to correspond to a second large earthquake and explosion which took place about 2 minutes after the first earthquake

strain distribution across the australian pacific plate boundary in the central south island new zealand from 1992 gps and earlier terrestrial observations as part of a geodetic experiment aimed at understanding the deformation associated with the australian pacific plate boundary in the south island of new zealand in 1992 we reoccupied using global positioning system gps techniques a first order triangulation and trilateration network established in 1978 between christchurch on the east coast and hokitika on the west the network crosses the south island a few tens of kilometers southwest of the region where the plate boundary changes from a single throughgoing oblique slip fault the alpine fault to a series of subparallel strike slip faults the marlborough faults the gps data have been analyzed as daily network solutions with about 12 stations in each solution rms repeatabilities for stations with multiple occupations are 4 mm 8 mm and 15 mm in the north east and vertical components respectively the observed strain across the network is consistent with the entire nuvel ia pacific australia plate velocity being accommodated on land across this part of the south island shear strain rates derived from the gps and terrestrial data show that the highest strain rate 0 4 rad yr occurs in the region of the southern alps and alpine fault this rate is about two thirds of the rate predicted from the nuvel ia plate velocity model assuming that all the plate boundary deformation occurs across this region implying that about two thirds of the plate motion is accommodated in the vicinity of the alpine fault significant shear strain rates greater than 0 2 rad yr are also observed farther east particularly in the region of the porters pass amberley fault zone demonstrating that this zone accommodates a significant part of the plate boundary deformation using dislocation modeling we show that the variation in fault parallel shear strain rates across the alpine fault is reasonably consistent with a nonoptimized dislocation model involving a 50 dipping fault that is presently locked to a depth of 12 km one explanation for this observation is that the upper 12 km of the crust in this area is storing most of the right lateral shear component of the relative plate motion as elastic energy that will be released in a future major earthquake the variation in the other component of shear strain which may be interpreted as fault normal relative contraction is not explained by a simple dislocation model implying that the normal component of plate motion is taken up in other ways

the seismic signatures of the surge wave from the 2009 xiaolin landslide dam breach in taiwan the catastrophic xiaolin landslide occurred on 9 august 2009 after typhoon morakot struck taiwan this landslide formed a dam that subsequently breached burying and flooding the village of xiaolin seismic signals were induced by the landslide and dam breaching and recorded at the jiaxian broadband seismic station in taiwan the time frequency spectra for the data from this station were analysed to extract the seismic characteristics of the landslide and to deduce the timing of processes associated with the landslide dam break flooding the duration of the river blockage the time of the dam breach the duration of the surge wave and the mean speed of the surge wave were estimated and the hydrological implications of the flood behaviour were interpreted the spectral characteristics of the different stream discharges were also studied stream water level discharge is closely related to the frequency of the seismic signals the broadband stations are particularly useful for flood monitoring due to their ability to continuously record measurements and their high sensitivity copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

fission track evidence for quaternary uplift of the nanga parbat region pakistan the north striking nanga parbat haramosh massif protrudes into the northwestern himalaya along the axis of a great syntaxis1 2 fig 1 where the hindu kush karakorum and himalayan ranges converge as the indus suture zone3 enters this region from the east it bifurcates into two branches encircling what may be a docked island arc terrane4 the southern branch the main mantle thrust crops out on both flanks of the nanga parbat massif forming a tight structural loop5 this massif and the adjacent terrane contain some of the highest peaks in the himalaya nanga parbat and the indus river located just 20km away define the world s greatest continental relief 6 930 m we report here the discovery of unexpectedly young sphene zircon and apatite fission track dates from the nanga parbat haramosh massif these dates as low as 1 3 myr for zircon and 0 4 myr for apatite imply that during the pleistocene the nanga parbat region was uplifted and eroded at nearly 1 cm yr 1

topographic development of the southern alps recorded by the isotopic composition of authigenic clay minerals south island new zealand abstract the southern alps are developing as a consequence of oblique collision between the pacific and australian plates the southern alps lie on the west side of the south island of new zealand and create a massive rain shadow where greater than 12 m year of rain falls on the west coast and semiarid conditions exist to the east the rain out effect across the mountains causes precipitation west of the southern alps to have d and 18 o values averaging 30 and 5 5 whereas precipitation in the rain shadow to the east is isotopically lighter d 72 and 18 o 9 8 such large differences in the isotopic composition of precipitation would not have existed prior to the development of significant topography we have examined the topographic evolution of the southern alps using oxygen isotope analyses of authigenic kaolinites formed in the rain shadow to the east of the mountains between the cretaceous low topography and the pleistocene changes in the isotopic composition of authigenic clay minerals forming in equilibrium with meteoric water in the stratigraphic sequence record the development of southern alps topography and the resultant rain shadow our oxygen isotope analyses of authigenic kaolinites show a 5 6 decrease in the early pliocene from 18 2 in older rocks to 12 3 in younger rocks in addition smectite is abundant in all samples from the late miocene to recent but is conspicuously absent in most older rocks suggesting a change to a generally drier climate roughly coincident with the isotopic shift in kaolinites this method may be useful in unraveling timing of development of mountain belts elsewhere in the world

the approach to steady state thermochronological distribution following orogenic development in the southern alps of new zealand a diachronous sequence of isotopic ages along the southern alps of new zealand illustrates details of the development of the modern tectonic regime of this orogen at about 5 ma coupled with the rapid cooling rates experienced in the southern alps which ensure negligible residence time at temperatures allowing partial radiogenic product retention during exhumation and thus effectively instantaneous thermochronological closure this record presents important general insight into the transient physical and thermal effects of changes in tectonic conditions the tectono thermal response of the southern alps to the change in dynamical conditions at 5 ma is resolved into two evolutionary stages that are observed with progressive exhumation the removal by erosion of material that had cooled below the relevant closure temperature prior to the change in dynamics at 5 ma results in an initial decrease in age this is followed by a sharp drop to younger ages as material subjected to thermal re equilibration associated with the modern orogenic regime is exposed culminating in the eventual exposure of time invariant ages reflecting the new steady state dynamics of the region this two step response is a direct result of the relationship between cooling and exhumation and illustrates the care needed in reconstructing physical histories from isotopic ages and cooling rates in tectonically active regions

the obliquely convergent plate boundary in the south island of new zealand implications for ancient collision zones abstract the alpine fault of new zealand forms the western boundary of a zone of distributed deformation formed by the oblique convergence of continental crust belonging to the pacific and australian plates structural and geodetic data from the alpine fault show that a large proportion of the total plate displacement is accommodated by rapid oblique slip on the fault the remaining displacement is distributed over a 200 km wide zone to the east the collision may be modelled as a two sided deforming orogen with the partitioning of deformation being controlled by erosional differences between the narrow high strain inboard and broad low strain outboard sides in ancient collision zones little evidence may remain of the nature and amount of displacement on the inboard side partitioning of deformation among pre existing structures complicates interpretation of the outboard zone radiometric ages may post date collision by several tens of millions of years and indicate slow isostatic uplift and unroofing collision ages if preserved may be recognized by high uplift rates calculated from muscovite biotite pairs

slope instabilities in dolomieu crater reunion island from seismic signals to rockfall characteristics 1 the seismic signals of hundreds of rockfalls within dolomieu crater piton de la fournaise volcano reunion island have been analyzed to investigate a possible link between physical rockfall generating processes and associated seismic signal features moreover indirect observation of rockfalls via the seismic signals they generate can provide useful data for studying volcanoes and the temporal variations of their structure an increase in the number of rockfall events and their volumes might be an indicator of structural weakness and deformation of the volcano associated with potential eruptive activity the study focuses on a 10 month period following the 6 april 2007 crater floor collapse within dolomieu crater from may 2007 to february 2008 for granular flows a scaling law is revealed between seismic energy and signal duration a semiempirical approach based on both analytical analysis and numerical simulation of these flows shows that a similar scaling law exists between the difference of potential energy computed for an event and its propagation times and also emphasizes the effect of local topography on this scaling law simulated and observed data were compared to evaluate the proportion of potential energy dissipated in the form of seismic waves and confirm a direct link between the seismic energy and potential energy of a given granular flow the mean ratio of seismic to potential energy is of the order of 10 4 comparable to the range of values observed in previous studies a simple method based on these ratios is proposed to estimate the volumes of rockfalls from their seismic signal observed seismic energy and the frequency of rockfalls decreased at the beginning of the studied period and reached a stable level in july thus suggesting a postcollapse relaxation time of dolomieu crater structure of about 2 months from seismic signal analysis which is confirmed by deformation data the total rockfall volume over the study period is estimated to be 1 85 mm3

shallow level metamorphic fluids in a high uplift rat metamorphic belt alpine schist new zealand fluids some of which are co2 rich up to 40 mol co2 and some of which are highly saline up to 18 wt nacl equivalent are trapped as fluid inclusions in quartz calcite metallic minerals veins which cross cut the pumpellyite actinolite to amphibolite facies rocks of the alpine schist fluids were commonly trapped as immiscible liquid vapour mixes in quartz and calcite showing open space growth textures fluid entrapment occurred at fluid pressures near 500 bars possibly as low as 150 bars at temperatures ranging from 260 to 330 c saline fluids may have formed by partitioning of dissolved salts into an aqueous phase on segregation of immiscible fluids from a low density co2 rich fluid calcite deposited by these fluids has 13c ranging from 8 4 to 11 5 and 18o from 4 to 13 isotopic data fluid compositions and mode of occurrence suggest that the fluids are derived from high grade metamorphic rocks fluid interaction with wall rock has caused biotite crystallization and or recrystallization in some rocks and retrogression of biotite to chlorite in other rocks fluid penetration through the rock is almost pervasive in many areas where permeability probably related to alpine fault activity has focussed fluids on a regional scale into fractured rocks the fluid flow process is made possible by high uplift rates in excess of 10 mm year bringing hot rocks near to the surface

dynamic landslide processes revealed by broadband seismic records 1 we use broadband seismic recordings to trace the dynamic process of the deep seated akatani landslide that occurred on the kii peninsula japan which is one of the best recorded large slope failures combining analyses of the seismic records with precise topographic surveys done before and after the event we can resolve a detailed time history of the mass movement during 50 s of the large landslide we observe a smooth initiation acceleration with changes in basal friction and reversal of the momentum when the mass collides with the opposite valley wall of particular importance is the determination of the dynamic friction during the landslide the coefficient of friction is estimated to be 0 56 at the beginning of the event and drops to 0 38 for most of the sliding the change in the frictional level on the sliding surface may be due to liquefaction or breaking of rough patches and contributes to the extended propagation of the large landslide

the tectonic evolution of the southern alps new zealand insights from fully thermally coupled dynamical modelling summary we present here the results of numerical models of the southern alps in which the thermal and dynamical developments of the orogen are fully coupled to one another this interlinkage allows the use of a wide range of thermal and physical features of the orogen as constraints on the applicability of our models in particular the thermal aspect of this method enables the prediction of the distribution of thermochronological ages at the surface of the model perturbation of the geothermal structure due to rapid uplift and exhumation causes an intrinsic weakening and concentration of strain along the equivalent of the alpine fault zone in these models this thermal weakening of the crust also produces a zone of high strain antithetic to the alpine fault in the upper crust that is comparable to the main divide fault zone within the southern alps the introduction of orographic rainfall and erosional processes into the model leads to the development of high asymmetric topography comparable to that of the southern alps this topographic profile results from the capture of available precipitation by the windward side of the orogen and the resultant rain shadow on the leeward side due to the time required to accumulate suycient topography for this rain capture evect to become significant the establishment of this high asymmetric topography lags the initiation of surface uplift by several million years comparison of the observed thermal history of the southern alps with that seen in models based on divering hypotheses of the tectonic evolution of the south island shows that the present tectonic regime of the orogen most probably developed in a single rapid reorganization of plate motions at approximately 5 ma with relative stability of the tectonic regime since that time the variation in isotopic ages along the southern alps is consistent with that expected from variation in accumulated uplift and exhumation along the orogen arising from the obliquity of convergence of the australian and pacific plates

simple scaling of catastrophic landslide dynamics catastrophic landslides involve the acceleration and deceleration of millions of tons of rock and debris in response to the forces of gravity and dissipation their unpredictability and frequent location in remote areas have made observations of their dynamics rare through real time detection and inverse modeling of teleseismic data we show that landslide dynamics are primarily determined by the length scale of the source mass when combined with geometric constraints from satellite imagery the seismically determined landslide force histories yield estimates of landslide duration momenta potential energy loss mass and runout trajectory measurements of these dynamical properties for 29 teleseismogenic landslides are consistent with a simple acceleration model in which height drop and rupture depth scale with the length of the failing slope

ground vibrations produced by rock motions and debris flows 1 in this study we compare ground vibrations generated by various rocks and debris flows at the same channel to explore the origin of ground vibrations caused by debris flows in field experiments we identified the ground vibrations caused by motions of individual rocks ground vibrations were detected by geophones and analyzed in the time frequency domains we found that ground vibrations caused by individual rocks were 10 150 hz and that larger stones generate ground vibrations with lower peak frequencies a sphere packing model of granular rocks was used to estimate the propagation speed of ground vibrations this was found to be underestimated when compared with our experimental data the signal decay rate was obtained under the assumption that ground vibrations propagate as exponentially attenuating cylindrical waves ground vibrations produced by a debris flow at ai yu zi creek nan tou taiwan on 2 july 2004 revealed that the debris flow forefront produced vibrations lower than 50 hz and ranged between 50 and 100 hz after the front had passed when the main front was closest to the sensor the frequency spectrum covered a wide range from 10 to 250 hz the mean velocity of the debris flow front was 13 3 m s frequencies of ground vibrations caused by individual rocks are within the frequency range of ground vibrations captured during the debris flow confirming that one of the main sources of ground vibration caused by debris flows is the interaction of rocks or boulders with the channel bed

brittle and ductile deformation in a zone of rapid uplift central southern alps new zealand schists exposed in the central southern alps new zealand 1 5 km east of the alpine fault zone have been rapidly uplifted during the late cenozoic a regionally consistent sequence of mesoscopic structures discordant to the schistosity is recognized extending backward in time from recent brittle displacements of deglaciated surfaces through structures exhibiting brittle ductile transitional behaviour to ductile deformational features kinematic analysis of these structures gives consistent principal subhorizontal shortening directions similar to the present day principal horizontal shortening direction indicating their relation to late cenozoic uplift of the southern alps analysis of deformed veins suggests a minimum shortening strain of about 50 perpendicular to the foliation the veins crosscut upright mesoscopic to macroscopic folds which commonly develop high strain zones on their limbs within such zones a strong stretching lineation plunges gently sw approximately perpendicular to the stretching lineation in the mylonites along the alpine fault the folds and high strain zones do not appear to be related to late cenozoic uplift but may have originated during an earlier phase of dominantly strike slip motion fluid inclusion studies give depth temperature estimates of around 3 km and 285 c for the development of the brittle structures and 6 8 km at 310 350 c for the brittle ductile transition the deformed veins show evidence of extensive fluid infiltration during the later phases data from fluid inclusions and metamorphic assemblages give an estimate of 15 20 km and 400 450 c for their deformation these data combined with uplift rates determined by other studies allow the construction of a depth temperature time path which indicates nearly isothermal decompression associated with rapid uplift a shallow brittle ductile transition 6 8 km is consistent with numerical modeling of thermal and mechanical behavior of the crust during rapid uplift associated with continental collision and with the presence of high heat flow in the area because of the small temperature change over a large amount of decompression pressure may be an important factor in controlling the depth of the brittle ductile transition the marked temperature drop above the brittle ductile transition is thought to be enhanced by the influence of convection as an effective cooling mechanism

new insight into the dynamic development of the southern alps new zealand from detailed thermochronological investigation of the mataketake range pegmatites

source mechanism of the magnitude 7 2 grand banks earthquake of november 1929 double couple or submarine landslide we have examined p s and surface waves derived from seismograms that we collected for the 1929 grand banks canada earthquake this event is noteworthy for the sediment slide and turbidity current that broke the trans atlantic cables and for its destructive tsunami both the surface wave magnitude m s and the body wave magnitude m b calculated from these seismograms are 7 2 fault mechanisms previously suggested for this event include a nw se striking strike slip mechanism and an approximately e w striking thrust mechanism in addition because of the presence of an extensive area of slump and turbidity current there exists the possibility that sediment slumping could also be a primary causative factor of this event we tested these fault models and a horizontal single force oriented n5 w model representing a sediment slide against our data among these models only the single force model is consistent with the p s and surface wave data our data however do not preclude fault models which were not tested from the spectral data of love waves at a 50 sec period we estimated the magnitude of the single force to be about 1 4 10 20 dynes from this value we estimated the total volume of sedimentary slumping to be about 5 5 10 11 m 3 which is approximately 5 times larger than a recent estimate of volume from in situ measurements the difference in estimates of overall volume is likely due to a combination of the inherent difficulty in estimating accurately the displaced sediments from in situ measurements and of inadequacy of the seismic model or perhaps because not only the slump but also a tectonic earthquake could have been the cause of this event and contributed significantly to the waveforms studied

thermal modeling of the southern alps new zealand finite element modeling of the thermal regime across the southern alps of new zealand has been carried out along two profiles situated near the franz josef and haast valleys the modeling involves viscous deformation beneath the southern alps including both uplift and erosion and crustal lithospheric thickening as a result of crustal shortening extending to 20 mm y of a 25 km thick crust published uplift rates and crustal thickness variations along the two profiles are used to constrain the modeled advection of crustal material and results are compared with the recent heat flow determinations 190 50 mw m2 in the franz josef valley and 90 25 mw m2 in the haast valley comparisons of the model with published k ar and fission track ages show that the observed heat flow in the franz josef valley is consistent with observed zircon fission track ages of around 1 ma if the present day uplift rate is close to 10 mm y major thermal differences between the franz josef and haast profiles appear to be due to different uplift and erosion rates there is weak evidence that frictional heating close to the alpine fault zone is not significant the modeling provides explanations for the distribution of seismicity beneath the southern alps and predicts a low surface heat flow over the eastern foothills due to the dominant thermal effect of crustal thickening beneath this region predicted temperatures at mid crustal depth beneath the zone of maximum uplift rate are 50 100 c cooler than those indicated in previously published models which implies that thermal weakening of the crust may not be the main factor causing the aseismicity of the central southern alps the results of the modeling demonstrate that the different types of reset age data in the region within 25 km of the alpine fault are critical for constraining models of the deformation and the thermal regime beneath the southern alps

model space exploration for determining landslide source history from long period seismic data the seismic signals generated by two large volcanic debris avalanches montserrat lesser antilles 1997 and mount st helens usa 1980 and a large rock ice avalanche mount steller usa 2005 have been analyzed for the two debris avalanches given the times and locations of such landslides their signals were recorded by only a few seismic stations moreover these signals cover only a very narrow frequency band and include considerable noise the mount steller on the contrary was precisely recorded for each event the source mechanism i e point force has been determined by waveform inversion using at most two broadband seismic stations the resulting force is very difficult to interpret in terms of landslide characteristics a monte carlo inversion was therefore performed by imposing a simple force model associated with the landslide based on the schematic view of an accelerating decelerating mass traveling down the slope the best parameter set of the force model was then found by minimizing misfits and maximizing correlations between data and synthetic signals this model appears to contain the minimum degree of complexity required to well reproduce the seismic data we detail here the method for the montserrat debris avalanche and then present it s validation on the well studied mount st helens debris avalanche and the well recorded mount steller rock ice avalanche the horizontal and vertical components of the resulting force have different source time functions the best force model compares well with the force obtained by waveform inversion finally this simple force model was interpreted using analytical and empirical relations derived from the sliding block model granular flow model and landslide studies this made it possible to estimate the order of magnitude of the mass flow duration and direction initial topography slope mean velocity and travel distance of the avalanches for these three avalanches the calculated characteristics are consistent with former studies

dynamics of pacific plate crust in the south island new zealand zone of oblique continent continent convergence here we analyze topographic and fission track data to quantify the response of the surface of the pacific plate in south island new zealand to late cenozoic oblique continental convergence across the alpine fault over the central 350 km length of the southern alps mountain chain we derive and map the rates of mean surface uplift the rates of working associated with mean surface uplift during the late cenozoic mountain building the amounts and rates of denudation and consequent isostatic rebound and the tectonic component of rock uplift the rate of mean surface uplift ranges from 0 3 mm yr over most of the area east of the main divide the highest rates of mean surface uplift occur to the southeast of the regions of highest mean elevation and relief the rate of working against gravity during uplift of the mean surface ranges from 2 5 mw m 2 in the southwest to 10 mw m 2in the central eastern parts of the alps areas of lower mean elevation uplifted most recently have received rates of energy input similar to that of areas of higher mean elevation where uplift started earlier the amount of denudation is large compared with the mean surface uplift and ranges from 18 km adjacent to the alpine fault to 2 km along the southeast margin of the southern alps the rate of denudation ranges from 2 5 to 0 5 mm yr with increasing distance from the alpine fault across the alps to the southeast the amount of isostatic uplift ranges from a maximum of 14 km adjacent to the alpine fault to 2 km along the southeast margin of the alps the tectonic component of uplift varies from 4 km along the alpine fault to 1 km along the eastern margin of the alps

modelling the effect of arbitrary p t t histories on argon diffusion in minerals using the macargon program for the apple macintosh argon diffusion in mineral grains has been numerically modelled using p t t histories that may be relevant to multiply metamorphosed orogenic terranes and for rocks that have resided at high ambient temperatures in the earth s crust for long durations the macargon program1 generates argon concentration profiles in minerals assuming argon loss occurs via volume diffusion it can be run on an apple macintosh computer with arbitrary p t t histories used as input finite difference equations are used in the calculation of 40ar concentration profiles across individual diffusion domains the associated macspectrometer generates model spectra after a p t t history has been specified the form of model 40ar39ar apparent age spectra suggests that considerable caution needs to be exercised in the use of the closure temperature concept and in the interpretation of the significance of plateaux observed in many 40ar39ar apparent age spectra particularly in cases involving metamorphic rocks where complex p t t histories might apply although modelled spectra cannot be directly compared to experimentally determined 40ar39ar age spectra especially when hydrous phases are involved or in cases where loss of argon has not occurred via volume diffusion they do provide insight into theoretically expected age spectra for samples that have experienced complex p t t histories

single force representation of earthquakes due to landslides or the collapse of caverns summary earthquakes due to landslides and the collapse of caverns are caused by the release of gravitational potential energy rather than elastic strain energy landslide or cavern collapse is assumed to start with dislocation motion along the lubricated interface of the slide block or fallen block that intersects the earth s free surface it can be shown that if each component of the dislocation vector is positionindependent and varies only as a function of time the resultant static displacement is spatially uniform both inside and outside the block and therefore no change occurs in static strain energy in particular if the medium is unbounded the static displacement is zero outside the block the force system equivalent to this dislocation model is a distribution of single forces equal but opposite to the dislocation acceleration multiplied by the density at each point of the volume constituting the slide block the physics behind the equivalence is discussed single force appears to be a common mechanism for indigeneous earthquakes that do not change the static strain field

laboratory study of the underground sound generated by debris flows 1 this experimental study investigates the underground sound generated by different kinds of rock motions that occur in debris flows the experiments were divided into two parts the first part consisted of measuring the main characteristics of the underground sound caused by friction of a rock rubbed against a bed of gravel and of that caused by a free falling rock hitting a similar bed of gravel in the second part a hydrophone was installed at the bottom of a laboratory channel to measure the underground sound of debris flows in that channel the sound signals were analyzed using both the fast fourier transform and the gabor transform to represent the signals in both the frequency and time frequency domains the measurement results reveal that the frequency of the sound generated by the rock gravel bed friction is relatively low being mostly between 20 and 80 hz in contrast the frequency range of the collision sound is relatively higher between 10 and 500 hz finally the frequency of the underground sound caused by the debris flows in the flume is in the range of 20 300 hz

analysis of seismic body waves excited by the mount st helens eruption of may 18 1980 seismic body waves which were excited by the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens and recorded by the global digital seismographic network stations are analyzed to determine the nature and the time sequence of the events associated with the eruption the polarity of teleseismic p waves period 20s is identical at six stations which are distributed over a wide azimuthal range this observation together with a very small s to p amplitude ratio at 20 s suggests that the source is a nearly vertical single force a simple model shows that for seismic radiation a volcanic eruption can be represented by a single force applied in the direction opposite to the blast direction the time history of the vertical force suggests two distinct groups of events about 2 min apart each consisting of several subevents with a duration of about 25 s the magnitude of the force is approximately 2 6 10 12 n this vertical force is in contrast with the long period 150 s southward horizontal single force which has been determined by a previous study and interpreted to be due to the massive landslide an m s 5 2 earthquake initiated the eruption sequence the direction of the p wave first motion of this event observed at two nearby stations is consistent with the radiation pattern expected for the landslide and suggests that it represents the onset of the landslide the ground motions observed at station lon 67 km are dominated by rayleigh waves i e lamb pulse and provide tight constraints on the time sequence of the events

spectral analysis of seismic noise induced by rivers a new tool to monitor spatiotemporal changes in stream hydrodynamics to 20 db relative to m s 2 hz for all the stations located along a steep 30 km long narrow and deeply incised channel of the trisuli river a major trans himalayan river the early summer increase in high frequency energy is modulated by a 24 h periodicity where the minimum of seismic noise level is reached around noon and the maximum is reached late in the evening a detailed study of seismic noise amplitude reveals a clear correlation with both regional meteorological and hydrological data along the trisuli river seasonal increase in ambient noise coincides with the strong monsoon rainfall and a period of rapid melting of snow and ice in the high elevations the observed 24 h cyclicity is consistent with the daily fluctuation of the precipitation and river discharge in the region river induced seismic noise is partly generated by stream turbulence but this mechanism fails to explain the observed clockwise hysteresis of seismic noise amplitude versus water level this pattern is better explained if a significant part of the observed seismic noise is caused by ground vibrations generated by bed load transport this points out the potential of using background seismic noise to quantify in continuous river bed load and monitor its spatial variations which remain difficult with classical approaches

frequency characteristics and numerical computation of seismic records generated by a giant debris flow in zhouqu western china the catastrophic sanyanyu and luojiayu debris flows which were induced by heavy rain struck zhouqu county in gannan prefecture gansu province at approximately midnight 7 august 2010 beijing time utc 8 causing 1765 fatalities and huge economic loss the zhq seismic station is located approximately 170 m west of the outlet of the sanyanyu gully and its power system was destroyed by the sanyanyu debris flow when its leading edge reached the vicinity of the seismic station in this paper seismic signals recorded approximately 10 min before its termination are collected and analyzed to study the sanyanyu debris flow a double exponential model is first proposed to quantitatively characterize seismic energy distributions in the frequency domain which reveals that the peak frequency of seismic signals is around 5 hz influenced by the doppler effect the peak frequency of the n s component is the highest and the u d component is the lowest time frequency analysis is applied to the seismic signals from the spectrogram it is easily observed that the formation time of the sanyanyu debris flow is around 23 33 10 the entire debris flow is divided into three phases with distinct frequency characteristics using 23 36 20 and 23 37 35 as crucial times the frequency energy distributions in the first two phases are relatively stable and are constrained in 0 8 8 hz and 0 17 8 hz respectively for the third phase the upper boundary of frequency energy increases in a nearly linear manner reaching approximately 35 hz at the end we calculate synthetic seismograms of the sanyanyu debris flow generally synthetic seismograms have morphological features and characteristics in key stages similar to those of the actual seismic records and their maximum values are of the same magnitude our results suggest that the seismic source of a debris flow can be represented by a single force model and reveal that real time monitoring and rapid identification of potential debris flows using broadband seismic network records is possible which can provide approximately 15 min of pre event warning for local residents and hopefully save many lives