a suggestion for the origin of mesoscopic fabric in accretionary melange based on features observed in the chrystalls beach complex south island new zealand the chrystalls beach complex a probable accretionary melange of triassic age cropping out in south island new zealand contains a distinctive set of mesoscopic structures all of which contribute to the typically chaotic appearance of the melange these structures are 1 soft sediment bedding pull aparts 2 weakly developed slaty cleavage 3 folds in dismembered bedding with slaty cleavage as the axial surface foliation and 4 quartz fiber lineated shear surfaces analysis of overprinting relations indicates that these structures formed during a single progressive deformation rather than in several discrete events as such they record a change in response to incremental strain from initial ductile behavior toward one dominated by brittle failure it is suggested that this variation resulted from progressive dewatering during shallow level accretion at the base of an inner trench slope

provenance of triassic cretaceous sandstones in the antarctic peninsula implications for terrane models during gondwana breakup abstract the antarctic peninsula is the largest of twelve micro continental fragments between southern south america east antarctica and new zealand their original positions and movement history following gondwana breakup are poorly constrained recent work on the antarctic peninsula fore arc arc back arc suggests it consists of two suspect terranes that originated elsewhere and collided with the pacific margin of gondwana in the cretaceous this study reviews provenance models for three laterally extensive kilometers thick sedimentary units in the antarctic peninsula using previous studies and new sandstone detrital modes and chemistry 1 the trinity peninsula group accretionary complex triassic was possibly derived from a glaciated continental margin and may consist of several accreted tracts the deformed quartzose view point and legoupil formations were eroded from a deeply eroded stable continental margin containing an old arc and mature quartzose sandstones with provenance ages suggesting sources in north patagonia and local antarctic peninsula basement the weakly deformed and more feldspathic hope bay formation was derived from an eroded arc possibly the early permian arc of the north patagonian massif 2 the lemay group accretionary complex middle triassic middle cretaceous is dominated by arkoses derived from an eroded continental margin of carboniferous and permian age possibly in the marie byrd land sector with several belts of volcanilithic sandstones representing episodes of arc magmatism the youngest part of the lemay group contains abundant metamorphic detritus derived from basement uplifted during mid cretaceous terrane docking 3 the latady formation in the southern antarctic peninsula has a completely different petrology comprising mature sublitharenites 190 ma of gondwanan provenance deposited in restricted rift basins younger volcanic litharenites 180 ma are dominated by ree enriched low eu eu rhyolitic material eroded from silicic calderas associated with gondwana breakup abundant dacitic to andesitic detritus in the youngest lf 160 145 ma was derived from a contemporaneous arc possibly on the thurston island block as the latady evolved into a back arc basin

controls of the altyn tagh fault on the early middle miocene sedimentation in the honggouzi area qaidam basin western china abstract the altyn tagh fault atf has important controls on the sedimentation in the qiadam basin in this study detailed sedimentological and geochemical analyses were presented to deduce the impact of the atf on deposition in the honggouzi area during the early middle miocene which is a significant period for atf strike slip movements the early middle miocene strata of the honggouzi area are deposits of a fan delta and show retrogradation by sedimentary characteristic of drilled wells the elementary geochemical analysis indicates that the early middle miocene deposits of the honggouzi area was mainly composed of felsic rocks formed in the continental island arc or active continental margin setting and derived from a segment of the altyn tagh mountains atm in addition the seismic data suggests that 1 the nearly nw se directed anticlines which were caused by the flexural deformation and uplift of the piedmont area in the northwestern qaidam basin occurred simultaneously during the early middle miocene and 2 retrogradational sedimentation was caused by greatly increased accommodation during the early middle miocene when the subsidence amount of flexural deformation was larger than the uplift amount the flexural deformation uplift of the piedmont area of the northwestern basin and uplift of the atm were all controlled by the atf strike slip movements and therefore were the ways in which the atf strike slip movements affected the early middle miocene deposition of the honggouzi area

deep crustal structure of the indian shield from joint inversion of p wave receiver functions and rayleigh wave group velocities implications for precambrian crustal evolution 1 the s wave velocity structure of the crust and uppermost mantle of the indian shield has been investigated by jointly inverting p wave receiver functions and rayleigh wave group velocities at 38 broadband stations in the subcontinent the indian shield is an amalgamation of several terranes of archean and proterozoic age that were partly flooded by deccan trap volcanism during cenozoic times and that make up a natural laboratory for assessing models of precambrian crustal evolution our results reveal significant variations in crustal thickness and deep crustal velocities 45 50 km thick under the archean west dharwar craton and southern granulite terrane with lower crustal velocities around 4 1 km s 32 35 km thick beneath the archean east dharwar and bundelkhand cratons with lower crustal velocities around 3 8 3 9 km s 50 65 km thick under the proterozoic bhandara craton with lower crustal velocities around 4 2 4 3 km s and 55 km thick under the proterozoic aravalli delhi belt with lower crustal velocities around 4 2 km s s velocities in the 4 1 4 3 km s range in the deep crust can be attributed to mafic lithologies suggesting there has been no secular change in the precambrian evolution of the south indian shield moreover pervasive mafic dike swarming throughout the indian shield suggests that the layer of mafic cumulates is 2 5 1 6 ga old and that it delaminated from some archean terranes our interpretation is that mafic underplating of the terranes making up the indian shield occurred in proterozoic times and that a refractory root developed under the archean terranes after the proterozoic event

geochemical characterization evolution and source of a mesozoic accretionary wedge the torlesse terrane new zealand whole rock major and trace element compositions of quartzofeldspathic permian cretaceous sandstones of the torlesse terrane new zealand display progressive changes which compare well with published petrographic data chemical indices in three permian early late triassic rakaia subterrane petrofacies show small contrasts as do the modes reflecting original source compositions a late triassic rakaia petrofacies displays sharp increases in sio 2 al 2 o 3 k 2 o na 2 o th sc la sc ce sc la n y n and decreases in ti zr and v la consistent with partial cannibalistic recycling and a small influx of lithic volcanic detritus in the post collisional late jurassic early cretaceous pahau subterrane sio 2 al 2 o 3 remains high but other indices decrease to levels seen in the permian due to recycling of the earlier rakaia petrofacies and influx of 10 30 mafic intermediate volcaniclastic detritus derived from inboard volcanogenic terranes the results are confirmed by additional suites including mudstones which cover a larger area but also show that some spatial variation occurs within the terrane as a whole whole rock data and chemical index of alteration indices indicate that the torlesse was derived from a relatively unweathered source with granodioritic bulk composition comparisons with data from a proposed rakaia source in the new england and hodgkinson orogens of eastern australia suggest that the observed chemical and modal compositions cannot be simply derived from that area as presently exposed

origin of the torlesse terrane and coeval rocks south island new zealand the carboniferous to lower cretaceous torlesse terrane and haast schist derivatives constitute the major part of the complexly deformed facies of the eastern province of new zealand strata consist mainly of quartzofeldspathic graywacke and mudstone intercalated with minor but widely distributed conglomerate and volcanics with associated chert and limestone clastic rocks were deposited largely by sediment gravity flow mechanisms in a deep marine environment also present are a few highly fossiliferous shallow marine and terrestrial deposits of limited areal extent which rest unconformably on or in fault contact with torlesse flysch several periods of deformation are recognized and melange is present on both local and regional scales metamorphism ranges from zeolite to greenschist facies the bulk of the rocks fall into five areally extensive and mutually exclusive fossil zones of the following ages permian atomodesma middle triassic early late triassic torlessia late triassic monotis and late jurassic early cretaceous contacts between major fossil zones are mainly tectonic petrographic analysis permits subdivision of torlesse sandstones into five major petrofacies that correspond in age to the five major fossil zones the sandstone petrofacies mainly arkosic together with the composition of conglomerate clasts mainly indurated torlesse rocks indicate that the source terrane was a continental volcano plutonic arc probably part of gondwanaland coupled with autocannibalistic reworking of older uplifted torlesse rocks in contrast to the quartzofeldspathic nature of the torlesse coeval sedimentary rocks of the eastern province are volcanogenic they are thought to represent related forearc basin maitai murihiku terranes and trench complex caples terrane deposits derived from a volcanic island arc brook street terrane three petrofacies are established for maitai murihiku and caples sandstones the petrofacies indicate a common evolving immature to submature volcanic island arc source for these terranes a reconstruction of new zealand s eastern and western provinces is proposed in permian and triassic times the torlesse was deposited in trench slope or borderland basins along a trench transform margin fronting a continental volcano plutonic arc source western province gondwanaland deposition was spasmodic but voluminous and was accompanied by concurrent deformation and accretion resulting in parallel belts of torlesse rock younging outward from the gondwanaland margin at the same time the brook street terrane volcanic arc and associated terranes were forming to the west of the torlesse site separated from gondwanaland by a marginal sea in latest triassic or early jurassic times the torlesse was rafted into the volcanic arc system via transform faulting approximately parallel to the gondwana margin the collision event resulted in tectonic thickening of torlesse and caples rocks at the plate interface and metamorphism to haast schist the source was then dominated by older partly metamorphosed torlesse terrane newly uplifted along the collision front closing of the marginal sea behind the brook street terrane in late jurassic early cretaceous times resulted in juxtapositioning with the western province gondwanaland along the median tectonic line

characterisation and tracing of permian magmatism in the south western segment of the gondwanan margin u pb age lu hf and o isotopic compositions of detrital zircons from metasedimentary complexes of northern antarctic peninsula and western patagonia abstract metasedimentary rocks in the antarctic peninsula and south western patagonia record detrital zircon evidence for significant permian magmatic events along the palaeo pacific margin of south west gondwana however it is unclear where and how this magmatism formed due to the lack of outcropping permian igneous sources at similar latitudes combined u pb o and lu hf isotope analyses of detrital zircon grains in permo triassic metasedimentary rocks indicate that the permian magmatism resulted from the interaction of crust and mantle derived sources in an active continental margin permian detrital zircons from the trinity peninsula group in the antarctic peninsula range from crustal signatures in the northern part 18 o of 8 initial e hf of 6 to mantle like values in the south 18 o of 5 initial e hf of 3 zircons from the northern domain have isotopic features similar to those from the patagonian duque de york complex they also share a secondary ordovician component of ca 470 ma the middle jurassic cape wallace beds in low island record a ca 250 ma igneous source with stronger crustal signatures 18 o and initial e hf values of 7 5 to 10 8 and 3 2 to 14 2 respectively in contrast zircons from the upper jurassic miers bluff formation on livingston island and cretaceous sediments on james ross island have similar permian u pb ages o and hf trends to their trinity peninsula group counterparts suggesting reworking after the late jurassic our results provide evidence for a permian subduction related magmatic arc partly located in patagonia and extending to west antarctica the southerly decrease in 18 o coupled with increasing initial e hf indicate fewer sedimentary components in the magma source and is consistent with a glaciated cold and dry climate these conditions are comparable with west antarctica climate settings located close to the south pole during the carboniferous and permian

30 million years of permian volcanism recorded in the choiyoi igneous province w argentina and their source for younger ash fall deposits in the parana basin shrimp u pb zircon geochronology evidence abstract we present four shrimp u pb zircon ages for the choiyoi igneous province from the san rafael block central western argentina dated samples come from the yacimiento los reyunos formation 281 4 2 5 ma of the cochico group lower choiyoi section andesitic breccias dacitic to rhyolitic ignimbrites and continental conglomerates agua de los burros formation 264 8 2 3 ma and 264 5 3 0 ma and cerro carrizalito formation 251 9 2 7 ma upper choiyoi section rhyolitic ignimbrites and pyroclastic flows spanning the entire permian succession of the choiyoi igneous province a single zircon from the el imperial formation that is overlain unconformably by the choiyoi succession yielded an early permian age 297 2 5 3 ma while the main detrital zircon population indicated an ordovician age 453 7 8 1 ma the new data establishes a more precise permian age artinskian lopingian for the section studied spanning 30 ma of volcanic activity volcanological observations for the choiyoi succession support the occurrence of explosive eruptions of plinian to ultraplinian magnitudes capable of injecting enormous volumes of tephra in the troposphere stratosphere the new shrimp ages indicate contemporaneity between the choyoi succession and the upper part of the parana basin late paleozoic section from the irati up to the rio do rasto formations encompassing about 24 ma geochemical data show a general congruence in compositional and tectonic settings between the volcanics and parana basin permian ash fall derived layers of bentonites thickness and granulometry of ash fall layers broadly fit into the depletion curve versus distance from the remote source vent of ultraplinian eruptions thus we consider that the choiyoi igneous province was the source of ash fall deposits in the upper permian section of the parana basin data presented here allow a more consistent correlation between tectono volcanic permian events along the paleo pacific margin of southwestern gondwana and the geological evolution of neighboring paleozoic foreland basins in south america and africa

revised tectonic implications for the magnetic anomalies of the western weddell sea abstract ten years after the usac u s a rgentina c hile project which was the most comprehensive aeromagnetic effort in the antarctic peninsula and surrounding ocean basins questions remain regarding the kinematics of the early opening history of the weddell sea key elements in this complex issue are a better resolution of the magnetic sequence in the western part of the weddell sea and merging the usac data set with the other magnetic data sets in the region for this purpose we reprocessed the usac data set using a continuation between arbitrary surfaces and equivalent magnetic sources the equivalent sources are located at a smooth crustal surface derived from the existing bathymetry topography and depths estimated by magnetic inversions the most critical area processed was the transition between the high altitude survey over the antarctic peninsula and the low altitude survey over the weddell sea that required downward continuation to equalize the distance to the magnetic source this procedure was performed with eigenvalue analysis to stabilize the equivalent magnetic source inversion the enhancement of the mesozoic sequence permits refining the interpretation of the seafloor spreading anomalies in particular the change in shape and wavelength of an elongated positive in the central weddell sea suggests that it was formed during the cretaceous normal polarity interval the older lineations in the southwestern weddell sea are tentatively attributed to susceptibility contrasts modeled as fracture zones numerical experimentation to adjust synthetic isochrons to seafloor spreading lineations and flow lines to fracture zones yields stage poles for the opening of the weddell sea since 160 ma to anomaly 34 time the corresponding reconstructions look reasonable within the known constraints for the motions of the antarctic and south america plates however closure is not attained between 160 and 118 ma if independent published east antarctica africa south america rotations are considered the lack of closure may be overcome by considering relative motion between the antarctic peninsula and east antarctica until 118 ma time an important component of convergence

inversion of the hz ratio of microseisms for s wave velocity in the crust summary s wave velocity in the shallow crust is an important controlling parameter for ground motion amplification it is a key parameter for prediction of ground motion and thus for earthquake hazard mitigation in general shallow s wave velocity structure has often been obtained from phase velocity of microtremors and microseisms we present a new approach which directly inverts the ratio of horizontal to vertical amplitudes of microseisms which is referred to as the hz ratio in this paper our approach consists of i isolation of rayleigh wave dominant portions in seismograms by using the 90 degree phase shift between horizontal and vertical component ii measurement of the hz ratios as a function of frequency and iii iterative inversion for s wave velocity structure in the crust depth sensitivity kernels of the hz ratios for density p wave velocity and s wave velocity are derived by a numerical method examples of the application of this method to data in southern california show that the hz ratio data require modification of the standard seismic velocity model in this region southern california earthquake center community velocity model 3 0 or scec cvm in the upper 10 15 km the derived models show amplification of incident sh waves by factors of 2 8 relative to the prediction by the scec cvm the proposed approach has promise for applications to other regions in the world because microseisms are observed everywhere in the world the method may become even more powerful if it is combined with phase velocity data

prediction of some weathering trends of plutonic and volcanic rocks based on thermodynamic and kinetic considerations abstract the exposed crust consists mainly of plagioclase 35 quartz 20 k feldspar 11 volcanic glass 12 biotite 8 and muscovite 5 quartz is a resistate thus feldspars and glass represent approximately 75 percent of the labile minerals the weathering characteristics of these constituents are summarized in the context of thermodynamic mass balance and kinetic considerations experimentally determined release rate constants were used to predict the proportions of ca na and k released by feldspars of plutonic rocks granites to gabbros to weathering solutions the chemical weathering trends of the weathered residues calculated from the kinetic data conform closely to the initial trends observed in some recent weathering profiles demonstrating the accuracy of the predictions since the weathering of feldspars is controlled by processes that should not change through geological time the relative release rates of ca na and k from the feldspars of granitic rocks can be calculated for future and past episodes of continental weathering experimentally determined release rate constants are not available for a wide range of volcanic glass compositions but the limited data indicate that compositional trends are predictable in weathering profiles developed on volcanic rocks the kinetic data available for rhyolitic glasses accurately predict the initial weathering trends observed in a recent rhyolite weathering profile

cathodolumenescence spectra of quartz as provenance indicators revisited abstract we present a discrimination scheme for cathodoluminescence cl spectra of quartz as a tool in provenance studies we analyzed 1000 quartz crystals from 58 samples of different plutonic volcanic metamorphic and pegmatitic rocks the technique is based on the measurement of the relative intensity of the two main emission centers in visible light at 470 490 nm and 600 640 nm the results confirm a red violet or bright to medium blue luminescence for volcanic phenocrysts mainly bright blue colors for felsic plutonic and high temperature metamorphic quartz as well as brown to dark blue cl for quartz of low temperature metamorphic origin these and additional results for mafic plutonic dark blue and pegmatitic quartz bright blue lead to a possible discrimination with the following rock grouping 1 volcanic quartz 2 low temperature metamorphic and mafic plutonic quartz and 3 felsic plutonic high temperature metamorphic and pegmatitic quartz in the proposed scheme 87 of the spectra are classified correctly the three quartz groups can be taken as an estimate for the amount of volcanic metamorphic and plutonic quartz in sediments unless major input from plutonic high temperature metamorphic or pegmatitic quartz has taken place hence despite criticism within the literature during the last decades the cl colors of detrital quartz still can be used as provenance indicators we finally conclude that the measurement of wavelength spectra is a fast and straightforward method to determine quartz bearing source rocks of siliciclastic sediments

shear wave velocity structure in the northern basin and range province from the combined analysis of receiver functions and surface waves a new method based on the joint inversion of receiver functions and surface wave phase velocities results in well determined shear velocity structures that are consistent with the compressional wave structure gravity heat flow and elevation data in the northern basin and range this new inversion method takes advantage of average velocity information present in the surface wave method and differential velocity information contained in the receiver function method thus min imizing the nonuniqueness problem that results from the velocity depth trade off an unusually thick 38 kin and relatively faster crust and upper mantle are found in central and eastern nevada compared to the thin 28 to 34 km and slower crust and upper mantle of the western basin and range we interpret the regions of thicker and faster crust and upper mantle as zones that have undergone less cenozoic ex tension relative to the surrounding regions to the west and north the thick crust and consequently greater depth to the dense mantle material is consistent with the gravity low pattern in central and eastern nevada simple gravity modeling shows both local and regional isostatic compensation occur within 40 km of the surface indicating a near classical airy type of compensation in the province we analyze in detail the shear wave s wave velocity model derived from the receiver functions at station bmn and compressional wave p wave velocity models derived from the 1986 passcal experiment in northwestern nevada the most interesting feature of these models is the presence of negative velocity gradients in the s wave model with no corresponding velocity decrease in the p wave models between depths of 10 and 24 km this combined velocity model may be explained by high pore fluid pressures at these depths this model favors a layered fluid porosity model proposed in the literature to explain extensive middle to lower crust conti nental seismic reflections and high electrical conductivity an upper mantle grada tional low velocity zone is present between 32 and 38 km in the s wave model this upper mantle shear wave low velocity zone is consistent with partial melt which may be the source material for magmatic underplating in this region

joint inversion of body wave receiver function and rayleigh wave ellipticity abstract in recent years surface wave dispersion has been used to image lithospheric structure jointly with receiver function or rayleigh wave ellipticity because surface wave dispersion is the total propagation effect of the travel path the joint inversion relies on dense seismic arrays or high seismicity to obtain local velocity structure however both receiver function and rayleigh wave ellipticity are single station measurements with localized sensitivities and could be combined for joint inversion naturally in this article we explored the feasibility of the joint inversion of rayleigh wave ellipticity and receiver function we performed sensitivity tests with forward modeling and found that the receiver function is sensitive to sharp velocity interfaces but shows weak sensitivity to long wavelength structure almost complementary to rayleigh wave ellipticity therefore joint inversion with two single station measurements provides tighter constraints on the velocity structure beneath the seismic station a joint inversion algorithm based on the fast simulated annealing method is developed to invert rayleigh wave ellipticity and receiver function for the lithospheric structure application of the algorithm to the indian craton and the williston basin in the united states demonstrates its effectiveness in reducing the nonuniqueness of the inversion however the joint inversion may fail to resolve the average crustal velocity suggesting the need to combine surface wave dispersion or other type of observations receiver function and rayleigh wave ellipticity to more accurately resolve the velocity structure

the late palaeozoic to early mesozoic evolution of southern south america a plate tectonic interpretation the limits of 3 distinct upper palaeozoic to lower mesozoic tectono stratigraphic zones of the ancestral pacific margin of gondwana in southern south america are documented these are a fore arc region consisting in part of oceanic components a magmatic arc that is coincident with carboniferous to triassic continental sedimentation and a back arc region comprising the upper palaeozoic epicratonic sequences of the samfrau geosyncline these zones traceable 2300 km from 29 56 s cape horn document the semi continuous subduction of the ancestral pacific floor from the middle devonian to the triassic between 29 s and 37 s the palaeo subduction zone was roughly coincident with the present pacific coast line between 37 s and cape horn the subduction zone migrated progressively westward as an alaskan style accretionary prism grew to a width of 250 km while in the northern sector jurassic are intrusions are coincident with the upper palaeozoic are intrusions in the s they intruded the upper palaeozoic to lower mesozoic accretionary prism 200 km w of their palaeozoic equivalents no post middle palaeozoic sutures have been identified in southern south america hence there is no evidence of late palaeozoic mesozoic or cenozoic accretion of discrete microplates

provenance of the sedimentary rakaia sub terrane torlesse terrane south island new zealand the use of igneous clast compositions to define the source abstract the permian to late triassic rakaia sub terrane part of the torlesse superterrane of the new zealand eastern province is an accretionary complex that comprises an enormous volume of quartzofeldspathic sandstones and mudstones with subsidiary conglomerates plus minor oceanic assemblages the field of provenance analysis has undergone a revolution with the development of single crystal isotope dating techniques using mainly silt to sand sized single mineral grains fine sand and mud may be transported over thousands of kilometres with potential problems for provenance studies reinforcing the need for caution when interpreting provenance evidence from single heavy mineral grains this study focuses on coarser grained rocks notably conglomerates which involve much shorter transport distances and therefore may be used to trace proximal sources a detailed rock sampling programme and geochronological geochemical and sr nd isotope analysis of igneous clasts from four conglomerates boundary creek te moana mckenzie pass and lake hill have broadly characterised the igneous source for the rakaia sub terrane shrimp u pb zircon ages of rakaia sub terrane igneous clasts define three distinct periods of magmatic crystallisation the first period ranges in age from 292 to 243 ma permian to middle triassic with two clusters recognisable a minor early permian one ranging in age from 292 to 277 ma and a major late permian to middle triassic one from 258 to 243 ma all these clasts are confined to the kazanian permian te moana the dorashamian permian mckenzie pass and the carnian late triassic lake hill conglomerates the clasts which are subduction related calc alkaline to high k calc alkaline and metaluminous to peraluminous range in lithology from andesite to rhyolite and their plutonic equivalents many clasts at lake hill have chemical compositions characteristic of partial melts of a source of basaltic composition in equilibrium with amphibole pyroxene garnet adakites indicative of a thick crust in the clast source area the second period comprises carboniferous calc alkaline metaluminous to weakly peraluminous clasts of the permian boundary creek conglomerate ranging in age from 356 to 325 ma the third group consists of two cambrian clasts a monzogranite from te moana c 497 8 ma and a dacite from lake hill c 517 ma geochronology geochemistry and sr nd isotopes of rakaia igneous clasts correlate broadly with those of permian to triassic plutons and volcanics from the amundsen and ross provinces of marie byrd land thus the antarctic sector of the panthalassan margin of gondwana is the probable source for the rakaia sub terranes as opposed to the other postulated sources in eastern australia

using element geochemistry and detrital zircon geochronology to constrain provenance of the eocene sediments in the deep water area of the pearl river mouth basin south china sea abstract as the largest sag in the zhu ii depression within the pearl river mouth basin the baiyun sag bys lies in an area of interaction among the eurasian plate pacific plate and indian plate the bys mainly experienced the paleogene rift stage and neogene quaternary post rift stage thick syn rift sediments in the bys have recorded the nature of provenance and provide an excellent record of regional tectonic evolution prior to the opening of the south china sea in this study elemental geochemical analysis combined with published zircon detrital u pb dating results are applied to better understand the provenance change and tectonic setting of the bys during the eocene in this respect the chondrite normalized ree patterns of eocene samples from six wells are highly similar to upper continental crust ucc and post archean australian shale paas particularly with respect to lree enrichment significantly negative eu anomalies and slight ce anomalies geochemical results confirm that the bys eocene sediments were derived from a continental island arc to an active continental margin in addition the rock types of sources and the relatively narrow detrital zircon ages show that mesozoic intermediate felsic igneous and metamorphic rocks derived from local topographic highs contributed to infilling most of the bys furthermore the results show that the panyu low uplift began to accept large sediments transported by the paleo pearl river from the south china coast during the active syn rift stage prior to the opening of the south china sea

the zh ratio method for long period seismic data sensitivity kernels and observational techniques summary amplitude ratio between vertical and horizontal components of rayleigh waves is controlled by structure beneath a seismic station this ratio measured as a function of frequency has been extensively analysed for shallow crustal structure study in earthquake engineering and applied seismology this quantity termed the zh ratio in this paper may be useful for deep earth structure study and its feasibility for the frequency range between 0 004 and 0 05 hz period 20 250 s is explored in this paper for depth sensitivity kernels we demonstrate that a numerical approach is practical and provides sufficient accuracy for structural inversion depth extent of sensitivity kernels are about half of depth extent in phase velocity kernels indicating that the zh ratio is useful for studying the lithospheric structure two observational approaches for measurement of the zh ratio are presented the first approach uses simple envelope amplitude ratio and the second approach uses waveform correlation technique between vertical and horizontal components the zh ratio data alone only constrains structure beneath seismic stations but recent densification of seismic networks may make it possible to extend the analysis to regional scale structure a greater opportunity may exist in combination of the zh ratio method and the phase and group velocity measurements

u pb ion microprobe zircon geochronology from the basement inliers of eastern graham land antarctic peninsula new geological mapping combined with u pb ion microprobe zircon geochronology on the isolated but locally extensive exposures of crystalline basement inliers of eastern graham land has greatly improved our understanding of the region s early crustal evolution and has allowed a more thorough evaluation of patagonia antarctic peninsula connections prior to gondwana break up at eden glacier diorite gneisses yield early ordovician protolith ages of 487 3 and 485 3 ma and represent the oldest in situ rocks recorded on the antarctic peninsula and indicate a significant spatial extension of famatinian age magmatism of patagonia zircon overgrowths in the early ordovician protoliths and granitic leucosomes developed within them record two phases of permian metamorphism at c 275 and c 257 ma coincident in part with diorite plutonism of the area at 272 2 ma at adie inlet granitic leucosomes from paragneiss have been dated at 276 3 ma and these are in turn cut by 257 3 ma xenolith rich diorite gneiss the diorite intruded during a second phase of deformation which folded the paragneiss leucosomes into tight folds this whole assembly is cut by intensely brecciated megacrystic granodiorite which yielded a 259 3 ma age south of cabinet inlet a very different sequence of events is evident with triassic magmatism at c 236 ma extensive along the joerg peninsula migmatitic leucosomes are dated at c 224 ma and magmatism and deformation events apparently continued to c 209 ma at cape casey our data indicate that the devonian and carboniferous magmatism at target hill considered to represent the classic basement complex of the antarctic peninsula is not representative regionally the target hill crustal block contains a major break along cabinet inlet to the north ordovician and permian protoliths were variably migmatized during two episodes of permian deformation and metamorphism whereas to the south triassic protoliths and triassic metamorphism are encountered supplementary material u pb isotopic data are available at http www geolsoc org uk sup18526

algal and archaeal polyisoprenoids in a recent marine sediment molecular isotopic evidence for anaerobic oxidation of methane 1 analyses of 13c contents of individual organic molecules in a marine sediment show that crocetane 2 6 11 15 tetramethylhexadecane an isomer of phytane is produced by microorganisms that use methane as their main source of carbon the sediments lie at a water depth of 68 m in the kattegat the strait between denmark and sweden crocetane appears first 185 cm below the sediment water interface in the zone marking the transition from sulfate reduction to methanogenesis its 13c value is 90 10 versus vienna pee dee belemnite vpdb its structure which includes four isoprene units arranged symmetrically around a tail to tail linkage suggests that it is produced by a member of the archaea growing at the intersection of the diffusion gradients for sulfate and methane in sedimentary pore waters the source organism apparently functions as a methane consuming member of the microbial consortium responsible for the anaerobic oxidation of methane hoehler et al 1994 in which as first demonstrated quantitatively in these sediments iversen and jorgensen 1985 electrons are transferred from methane to sulfate the presence of archaeal biomass throughout the sediment section is indicated by significant concentrations of 2 6 10 15 19 pentamethylicosane pmi and of ether bound phytane and biphytane the pmi reaches a minimum value of 47 well below the transition zone its isotopic depletion could reflect either methanogenic or methanotrophic sources the ether bound lipids are isotopically uniform throughout the section and are presumed to derive from archaea that utilize a carbon source unaffected by the oxidation of methane

a wave equation migration method for receiver function imaging 2 application to the japan subduction zone 1 the newly developed wave equation poststack depth migration method for receiver function imaging is applied to study the subsurface structures of the japan subduction zone using the fundamental research on earthquakes and earth s interior anomalies freesia broadband data three profiles are chosen in the subsurface imaging two in northeast ne japan to study the subducting pacific plate and one in southwest sw japan to study the philippine sea plate the descending pacific plate in ne japan is well imaged within a depth range of 50 150 km the slab image exhibits a little more steeply dipping angle 32 in the south than in the north 27 although the general characteristics between the two profiles in ne japan are similar the imaged philippine sea plate in eastern sw japan in contrast exhibits a much shallower subduction angle 19 and is only identifiable at the uppermost depths of no more than 60 km synthetic tests indicate that the top 150 km of the migrated images of the pacific plate is well resolved by our seismic data but the resolution of deep part of the slab images becomes poor due to the limited data coverage synthetic tests also suggest that the breakdown of the philippine sea plate at shallow depths reflects the real structural features of the subduction zone rather than caused by insufficient coverage of data comparative studies on both synthetics and real data images show the possibility of retrieval of fine scale structures from high frequency contributions if high frequency noise can be effectively suppressed and a small bin size can be used in future studies the derived slab geometry and image feature also appear to have relatively weak dependence on overlying velocity structure the observed seismicity in the region confirms the geometries inferred from the migrated images for both subducting plates moreover the deep extent of the pacific plate image and the shallow breakdown of the philippine sea plate image are observed to correlate well with the depth extent of the seismicity beneath ne and sw japan such a correlation supports the inference that the specific appearance of slabs and intermediate depth earthquakes are a consequence of temperature dependent dehydration induced metamorphism occurring in the hydrated descending oceanic crust

basement chronology of the antarctic peninsula recurrent magmatism and anatexis in the palaeozoic gondwana margin abstract a revised pre jurassic chronology is presented for the antarctic peninsula on the basis of new u pb zircon dating using both conventional 11 samples and shrimp microprobe data 10 samples the age range for plutonism and high grade metamorphism is from 435 8 ma silurian to c 206 ma approximately the triassic jurassic boundary with peaks of activity in devonian carboniferous permian and mid triassic times although some are represented by rocks with limited outcrops the new data confirm the importance of mid and latest triassic magmatic events previously identified using rb sr geochronology the adie inlet gneiss previously thought to be neoproterozoic is recognized as a permian migmatite derived from paragneiss with a provenance dominated by cambrian granitoids granite gneiss from nw palmer land previously dated as cambrian is shown to be triassic detrital zircons in metasedimentary rocks and inherited zircons in granitoids are dominated by mesoproterozoic to cambrian components with sparse palaeoproterozoic to archaean grains suggesting sources within gondwana at times these sources were nearby as shown by an archaean cobble sized granite clast from a permo triassic conglomerate another clast in the same conglomerate previously thought to be devonian in age has an ordovician crystallization age

the post variscan development of the british isles within a regional transfer zone influenced by orogenesis abstract the break up of pangaea after the variscan orogeny included rifting extending southwards from the barents sea via the norwegian greenland rift and into the north sea and northwards from the central atlantic these two major rift systems interacted to form an approximately 1200 km wide transfer zone across the british isles where a complex network of basins developed during the mesozoic fault patterns were commonly controlled by reactivation of precambrian caledonian and variscan structures the two main rift systems were unable to breach this regional transfer zone where the crust had been thickened by the caledonian and variscan orogenies until the eocene breaching did not occur down the north sea and through the english channel because of alpine contraction in nw europe instead breaching occurred around the west of ireland and nw scotland so the british isles remained connected to europe rather than to the north american plate

recognition and significance of inherited quartz overgrowths in quartz arenites abstract inherited quartz overgrowths represent remnants of cement adhering to a grain s surface from a previous sedimentary cycle and can be recognized in petrographic studies on the basis of textural criteria they may occur as rounded double or penetrating overgrowths since these features occupy only a part of a grain s surface and are randomly positioned when studied in two dimensional sections the likelihood of their being transected and observed is significantly less than their whole rock abundance this has resulted in an underestimation of their importance as a provenance indicator probability that a random cut will transect a cap of inherited cement on any particular grain depends upon proportion of the grain s surface covered by the cap position of the cap on the grain s surfac and orientation of the cut through the grain an experiment was devised to analyze the relationship between size of a grain coating cap and likelihood that it will be transected in a random cut this involved using an eccentric stereonet one in which the origin is not at the projection sphere s center to project random planes results of the experiment were plotted as a curve and then derived mathematically since size of a coating cap is related to its projection angle measured from the sphere s center a second experiment was devised to determine the relationship between projection angles and equivalent apparent projection angles seen when a cut does not pass through a sphere s center it was found that the true projection angle equals the mode of apparent projection angles relati nships determined in these two experiments enable calculation of the whole rock proportion of grains with inherited overgrowths from petrographic data although at the present time results must be considered as estimates this capability leads to a more precise understanding of importance of inherited overgrowths as an indicator of sedimentary provenance the procedure was applied to samples of upper precambrian quartz arenites from the uinta mountain group the grand canyon supergroup and the belt supergroup resulting in calculated whole rock proportions of grains with inherited overgrowths that are in general twice the values observed in thin section this procedure may also be useful in a variety of other applications including studies of sediment distribution intrabasinal sedim nt maturation lithostratigraphic correlation and rates of grain surface abrasion

permo carboniferous conglomerates in the trinity peninsula group at view point antarctic peninsula sedimentology geochronology and isotope evidence for provenance and tectonic setting in gondwana field observations from the trinity peninsula group at view point on the antarctic peninsula indicate that thick southward younging and overturned clastic sedimentary rocks comprising unusually coarse conglomeratic lenses within a succession of fine grained sandstone mudstone couplets are the deposits of debris and turbidity flows on or at the foot of a submarine slope three detrital zircons from the sandstone mudstone couplets date deposition at 302 3 ma at or shortly after the carboniferous permian boundary conglomerates predominantly consist of quartzite and granite and contain boulders exceeding 500 mm in diameter zircons from granitoid clasts and a silicic volcanic clast yield u pb ages of 466 3 ma 373 5 ma and 487 4 ma respectively and have corresponding average ehft values between 0 3 and 7 6 a quartzite clast conglomerate matrix and sandstone interbedded with the conglomerate units have broadly similar detrital zircon age distributions and hf isotope compositions the clast and detrital zircon ages match well with sources within patagonia however the age of one granite clast and the ehf characteristics of some detrital zircons point to a lesser south africa or ellsworth mountain like contribution and the quartzite and granite dominated composition of the conglomerates is similar to upper palaeozoic diamictites in the ellsworth mountains unlike detrital zircons large conglomerate clasts limit possible transport distance and suggest sedimentation took place on or near the edge of continental crust comparison with other upper palaeozoic to mesozoic sediments in the antarctic peninsula and patagonia including detrital zircon composition and the style of deformation suggests deposition of the trinity peninsula group in an upper plate basin on an active margin rather than a subduction related accretionary setting with slow extension and rifting punctuated by short periods of compression

very low and low grade metamorphism in the trinity peninsula group permo triassic of northern graham land antarctic peninsula the permo triassic trinity peninsula group is a widespread regionally metamorphosed metasedimentary sequence in northern graham land antarctica which forms the local basement to the mainly jurassic cretaceous antarctic peninsula magmatic arc the metamorphic grade thermal evolution and pressure series of this major tectono stratigraphical unit are largely unknown determining the nature of the metamorphism has relied hitherto on conventional optical identifications of the major phases mainly in rare volcanic beds however diagnostic mineral parageneses are generally absent and the precise metamorphic grade is unknown or has to be inferred over large areas using white mica illite crystallinity of interbedded mudrocks the trinity peninsula group is now shown to have been pervasively altered mainly at anchizonal and epizonal grades conditions ranged from upper anchizonal in the northeast to thoroughly epizonal in the southwest outwith thermal aureoles near plutonic intrusions the alteration temperatures ranged mainly from 250 to 325 c exceeding 300 c in the highest grade epizone greenschist facies parts of the sequence the facies series k white mica b cell dimension measurements and mineral phases present are characteristic of an intermediate pressure series altered under moderate geothermal gradients 35 c km corresponding to burial depths of c 7 10 km unroofing and substantial erosion of the trinity peninsula group took place during polyphasal vertical tectonic movements linked to the development of the magmatic arc in northern graham land the geological setting of the trinity peninsula group is ambiguous and could have been a foreland or back arc basin or the mid to upper levels of an accretionary prism

crustal growth of the antarctic peninsula by accretion magmatism and extension a subduction accretion model incorporating new geophysical data is presented to explain the geology of the antarctic peninsula from late palaeozoic to cenozoic time according to the model the peninsula consists of overlapping accretionary magmatic and extensional regimes that were diachronous across the peninsula and have built the crust to its present form the crust which contains a small proportion of sialic basement was mainly formed by accretionary and magmatic processes and modified to its present shape by extension the gondwanide orogeny for the antarctic peninsula is interpreted in terms of the accretionary processes

provenance of late palaeozoic metasediments of the patagonian proto pacific margin southernmost chile and argentina in this provenance study of late palaeozoic metasediments of the eastern andean metamorphic complex eamc along the south patagonian proto pacific margin of gondwana the palaeogeological setting of the continental margin in devonian carboniferous and permian times is reconstructed the study is based on detrital heavy mineral contents chemical compositions of tourmaline grains and whole rock element and nd sr isotopic compositions element and isotopic compositions reveal that devonian carboniferous metaturbidites deposited before the development of a late carboniferous permian magmatic arc along the margin were mainly fed from felsic recycled old continental rocks the last recycling phase involved erosion of metasediments that were exposed in patagonia feeder systems to the basin cut either through epidote rich or garnet rich metasediments in permian time eamc metaturbidites were deposited next to the evolving magmatic arc and were derived from felsic crustal rocks two provenance domains are recognised the metasediments of the northern one are chemically similar to those of the devonian carboniferous metasediments this domain was fed from the metasedimentary host rocks of the magmatic arc the southern domain probably was fed from the arc proper as indicated mainly by the dominance of metaplutonic lithic fragments abundant detrital biotite and the major element composition of the metasediments

paleomagnetism and tectonics of the south shetland islands and the northern antarctic peninsula new paleomagnetic data presented here from 61 sites in paleozoic mesozoic and cenozoic igneous and sedimentary rocks from the antarctic peninsula and the south shetland islands constrain the relative motion of the antarctic peninsula since the mid cretaceous and allow the quantification of tectonic rotation between the different blocks recognized within the area paleozoic and jurassic results failed the fold test and suggest an important remagnetization in the area the similarity between these results and those obtained from cretaceous intrusives indicates a mid cretaceous age for the remagnetization the paleopoles obtained for the different blocks and for different ages suggest that there is no relative rotation among them these combined results allow us to obtain a cretaceous 90 ma and paleocene 60 ma paleopole these paleopoles document a very low apparent polar wandering of the antarctic peninsula for the last 100 ma

the eastern palmer land shear zone a new terrane accretion model for the mesozoic development of the antarctic peninsula a major ductile fault zone the eastern palmer land shear zone has been identified east of the spine of the southern antarctic peninsula this shear zone separates newly identified geological domains and indicates that during late jurassic terrane accretion and collision two and possibly three separate terranes collided resulting in the palmer land orogeny the orogeny is best developed in eastern palmer land and eastern ellsworth land there shallow marine sedimentary rocks of the latady formation and a metamorphic and igneous basement complex of possible lower palaeozoic to pre early jurassic age are thrust and folded this forms an arcuate east directed foreland fold and thrust belt up to 100 km wide and 750 km long parallel to the axis of the antarctic peninsula the newly identified antarctic peninsula domains include 1 a parautochthonous eastern domain that represents part of the margin of the gondwana continent comparable to the western province of new zealand the ross province superterrane of marie byrd land the eastern series of south central chile the pampa de agnia and tepuel rocks of north patagonia and the cordillera darwin rocks of tierra del fuego 2 a suspect central domain that represents an allochthonous microcontinental magmatic arc terrane comparable to the median tectonic zone of new zealand the amundsen province superterrane of marie byrd land and coastal cordillera of north chile and 3 a suspect western domain with strong similarities to the eastern province of new zealand western series of south central chile and chonos metamorphic complex of north patagonia that represents either a subduction accretion complex to the central domain or another separate crustal fragment although an allochthonous terrane hypothesis for the antarctic peninsula remains to be fully tested this has much in common with models for the new zealand and south american parts of the pacific margin of gondwana the identification of a potential allochthonous terrane continent collision zone allows us to define the edge of the gondwana continent in the antarctic peninsula sector of the supercontinent margin which has implications for mesozoic reconstructions of gondwana

tectonic environment of the devonian gramscatho basin south cornwall framework mode and geochemical evidence from turbiditic sandstones the portscatho formation within the allochthonous unit of the middle and upper devonian gramscatho group is a thick sequence of deep water sandstones and interbedded slates deposited by southerly derived turbidity currents into the gramscatho basin of south cornwall throughout an approximately 3 5 km thick sequence the portscatho formation is petrographically and chemically coherent except that the upper section shows a higher proportion of metamorphic clasts high but variable cr and low uniform zr abundances complementary framework mode and bulk geochemistry indicate that the sandstones were derived from a dissected continental magmatic arc of predominantly acidic composition similar to average upper continental crust but with an admixture of minor intermediate basic material flysch deposition took place in a fore arc setting the presence of an arc to the south of cornwall during the devonian implies that there was subduction at the margin of the gramscatho basin whose ultimate closure was accommodated by the northward stacking of flysch ophiolite nappes

joint analysis of teleseismic receiver functions and surface wave dispersion using the genetic algorithm teleseismic p wave receiver function data and rayleigh wave phase velocity measurements are combined using the genetic algorithm a global optimi zation technique to model crustal structure in southern korea the two datasets complement each other because receiver functions are sensitive to shear wave ve locity contrasts in layered structures while surface wave dispersion is sensitive to averages of shear wave velocities the genetic algorithm is more useful than line arized inversion in regions where there is little a priori information about local velocity structure because it is not sensitive to the initial model the stability and variability of resulting crustal model parameters are quantified by using a monte carlo technique in specifying a suite of initial models depths to the moho discon tinuity in southern korea were estimated to be 29 30 km for stations near the western coast and 33 36 km for inland stations a well resolved crustal low velocity zone was inferred for some stations

seismic evidence for an ancient rift beneath the cumberland plateau tennessee a detailed analysis of broadband teleseismic p waveforms broadband receiver functions developed from teleseismic p waveforms recorded on the midperiod passband of regional seismic test network station rscp are inverted for vertical velocity structure beneath the cumberland plateau tennessee the detailed broadband receiver functions are obtained by stacking source equalizd horizontal components of teleseismic p waveforms the resulting receiver functions are most sensitive to the shear velocity structure near the station a time domain inversion routine utilizes the radial receiver function to determine this structure assuming a crustal model parameterized by many thin flat lying homogeneous layers lateral changes in structure are identified by examining azimuthal variations in the vertical structure the results reveal significant rapid lateral changes in the midcrustal structure beneath the station that are interpreted in relation to the origin of the east continent gravity high located northeast of rscp the results from events arriving from the northeast show a high velocity midcrustal layer not present in results from the southeast azimuth this velocity structure can be shown to support the idea that this feature is part of a keweenawan rift system another interesting feature of the derived velocity models is the indication that the crust mantle boundary beneath the cumberland plateau is a thick probably laminated transition zonemore between the depths of 40 and 55 km a result consistent with interpretations of early refraction work in the area less

composition and classification of paleozoic flysch mudrocks of eastern australia implications in provenance and tectonic setting interpretation abstract the mudrock suites of paleozoic flysch sequences of eastern australia can be characterised on the basis of the relative abundances of phyllosilicates and tectosilicates mainly feldspar and quartz a mudrock maturity index is defined as the ratio of total phyllosilicates to phyllosilicates feldspar quartz mudrocks are classified into tectic phyllo tectic and phyllic types on the basis of increasing maturity based on studied examples of eastern australia preliminary characteristics of mudrocks of various tectonic settings are identified oceanic island arc mudrocks are of the tectic type characterised by high feldspar and low phyllosilicate content they are derived from calc alkaline andesitic rocks of the magmatic arc mudrocks of the continental island arc and active continental margins andean type and strike slip basins are characterised by a higher phyllosilicate content and are mainly phyllo tectic in type passive margin mudrocks are of the phyllic type characterised by extremely high phyllosilicate and low feldspar contents suggesting their recycled nature mudrock maturity is accompanied by an increase in the k2o na2o ratio from oceanic island arc to continental island arc and active continental margin to passive margin type mudrocks

late palaeozoic early mesozoic fore arc basin sedimentary rocks at the pacific margin in western antarctica we infer that the trinity peninsula group of the antarctic peninsula was deposited in a fore arc basin s of composite type located between the gondwanian arc massif consisting of plutonic and older gneissose basement rocks and a subduction complex now represented by greenschists blueschists and albite epidote hornblende bearing rocks of the pre jurassic metamorphic complex

the formation and evolution of the paleo pearl river and its influence on the source of the northern south china sea abstract the paleo pearl river has been suggested as one of the major source terrains for the northern south china sea which headstreams in the hinterland of the tibetan plateau and flows through the south china block eventually discharges into the pearl river mouth basin prmb of the south china sea scs however the drainage history of the paleo pearl river remains a matter of debate detrital zircon u pb ages trace elements nd and sr isotopes and clay minerals from the eocene to miocene sediments in the pearl river mouth basin of the south china sea have been used to investigate the sedimentary provenance and reconstruct the drainage history of the paleo pearl river the eu eu la sc la co th sc and th co ratios the hf la th and la sc co th diagrams and the chondrite normalized ree patterns of the samples suggested that the eocene to miocene sediments were mainly derived from felsic source rock the lower eocene sediments were mainly provided by the intrabasinal uplift regions the dong river and bei river initiated since upper eocene supplied large amounts of felsic detritus from the southern china coast to zhu depression and then transported sediments into the zhu depression during the upper early oligocene the nd and sr isotopes of the sediments suggested that the liu river may not provide sediments for the prmb however the gui river may have made a very small contribution the nd and sr isotopes of the sediments also suggested that the paleo pearl river began to extend westward to form xi river and eventually the hongshui river in the late oligocene the trace element ratios of the samples also suggested that the miocene sediments may have received more input from an intermediate rock area indicating the main provenance switch from the coast of south china to a northern source during this time this conclusion has been supported by the detrital zircon u pb ages nd and sr isotopes and clay minerals data of the samples which show that the provenance of the sediments supplied by the paleo pearl river had an abrupt shift in the middle miocene the southeastern tibetan plateau rapid uplifted and experienced erosion in the middle miocene leading to the progressive headward erosion of the pearl river system into the continental interior

application of very fast simulated annealing to the determination of the crustal structure beneath tibet summary the simulated annealing method has recently been applied to several multiparameter optimization problems including those of geophysical inversion a new variant of simulated annealing called very fast simulated annealing vfsa overcomes some of the drawbacks of a conventional simulated annealing it has been found to be a practical tool for geophysical inversion sen stoffa 1995 the method is particularly useful for non linear problems with multiple parameters where a grid search method is prohibitively expensive here we have applied vfsa to retrieve the crustal structure beneath seismic stations in tibet using teleseismic body waveform data our approach is to compare the radial component records with generalized ray synthetics directly in the time domain for any given crustal structure we have formulated a direct relationship between the radial and the vertical component signal so that we can generate synthetic radial component data from recorded vertical component seismograms zhao frohlich 1996 we have tested the vfsa inversion algorithm using synthetics and confirmed that it works very well i e it finds solutions very close to the true solution using the algorithm we have determined the crustal structures beneath 11 stations in tibet from south to north the total crustal thickness is quite uniform our tectonic interpretation of these crustal models is that they may represent crust from the eurasian plate injected beneath the crust of the converging indian plate certain features of the models are consistent with the presence of a small convection cell or plume beneath north central tibet as suggested by molnar 1990

provenance of late palaeozoic metasediments of the sw south american gondwana margin a combined u pb and hf isotope study of single detrital zircons combined u pb and lu hf isotope measurements of single detrital zircon grains in carboniferous metasediments from patagonia delineate the source areas of the sediments the detritus represented by four metasandstone samples was deposited prior to onset of subduction in late carboniferous time along the south patagonian proto pacific gondwana margin a broad series of detrital zircon age peaks 0 35 0 7 ga 0 9 1 5 ga and a large spread 0 3 3 5 ga in the age spectra require numerous sources a fifth metasediment was deposited after the onset of subduction this syncollisional sample shows two distinct u pb age peaks at c 290 ma and 305 ma this points to a few sources only patagonia west antarctica initial hf isotope compositions of selected u pb dated zircons from the carboniferous metasediments reveal zircon protoliths originating from both recycled crust and juvenile sources ehf t 0 4 3 5ga 14 to 12 a comparison with crustal compositions of possible source areas indicates that the detritus mainly originated from the interior of gondwana extra andean patagonia the argentine sierra de la ventana southernmost africa east antarctica as well as northern chile and northwestern argentina the sediment transportation paths are consistent with an autochthonous palaeogeographical position of patagonia with respect to gondwana in carboniferous time

a multistep approach for joint modeling of surface wave dispersion and teleseismic receiver functions implications for lithospheric structure of the arabian peninsula 1 we present a multiple step procedure for joint modeling of surface wave group velocity dispersion curves and teleseismic receiver functions for lithospheric velocity structure the method relies on an initial grid search for a simple crustal structure followed by a formal iterative inversion an additional grid search for shear wave velocity in the mantle and finally forward modeling of transverse isotropy to resolve love rayleigh surface wave dispersion discrepancy it considers longer period surface wave group velocity swgv dispersion allowing for the resolution of deeper structure compared to previous joint inversions the grid search for simple crustal structure is facilitated using a library of precomputed receiver functions and swgv dispersion curves the iterative inversion improves fit to the data by increasing the number of layers in the crust when necessary in order to fit the swgv for periods greater than about 50 s we perform a grid search over mantle velocities including the mantle lid and low velocity zone keeping the crustal structure fixed to the values from the previous step in some cases a clear love rayleigh discrepancy prevents a simultaneous fit of the group velocities with an isotropic model the love rayleigh discrepancy can be resolved by allowing shear wave transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis vsh vsv differences in the uppermost mantle the method is applied to 10 stations in the arabian peninsula sampling various tectonic environments including active continental rifting and stable regions the resulting shear velocity models confirm rapid crustal thinning of the arabian shield toward the red sea however we do not find strong evidence for crustal thickening toward the arabian platform our results suggest that the mantle lithosphere thickness varies regionally but that the mantle shear velocities beneath the arabian shield and red sea coast are generally anomalously low furthermore our results indicate the presence of strong polarization anisotropy up to about 10 in the lithospheric upper mantle in the vicinity of as well as farther away from the red sea our modeling yields vsv vsh in the southwestern part of the arabian peninsula consistent with vertical flow and vsh vsv in the northwestern part of the arabian peninsula and the continental interior consistent with horizontal flow indicating that the mantle flow pattern is not uniform along the axis of the red sea

petrography and geochemistry of the carboniferous triassic trinity peninsula group west antarctica implications for provenance and tectonic setting the carboniferous triassic trinity peninsula group is a metasedimentary sequence that crops out widely in the northern antarctic peninsula these are some of the most extensive outcrops in the area and hold the key to evaluating the connections of the antarctic peninsula in gondwana however they are still poorly understood here we present our provenance study of the trinity peninsula group using petrographic and geochemical approaches in combination with cathodoluminescence of detrital quartz in order to constrain its source characteristics and tectonic setting using differences in modal composition and quartz cathodoluminescence characteristics we define three petrofacies derived from the progressive uplift and erosion of a volcano plutonic continental arc which exposed the plutonic metamorphic roots as indicated by major and trace elements the source is felsic with a composition ranging from tonalitic to granodioritic the relatively unweathered condition of the source area points to a dry and cold climate at the time of deposition but this does not necessarily mean that it was glaciated deposition of the sediments occurred within an active continental margin relatively close to the source area probably along the south patagonia antarctic peninsula sector of gondwana strong chronological petrological and chemical similarities with the sediments of the duque the york complex in patagonia suggest that they were derived from the same source

seismic properties of the central indian shield we use broadband seismic data at hyderabad to investigate average crustal properties of the central indian shield crustal receiver functions p to sv conversions based on data of excellent quality and azimuthal coverage show essentially no signal on the transverse component indicating laterally homogeneous structures near this station a joint analysis of receiver functions and the dispersion of fundamental mode rayleigh waves result in a simple model for the shear wave speed v s with a moderate gradient of 0 010 0 028 km sec km in the crust the moho is sharp with a contrast of approximately 0 7 km sec in v s across a small thickness of only 0 4 km measured from the middle of the moho region the crust is 30 34 km thick with an average v s of 3 58 0 10 km sec by modeling the timing and waveforms of sp and sspmp phases sv to p conversions we estimate the average crustal poisson9s ratio to be 0 26 0 01 this value is comparable to that found in the tanzanian craton which is also of archean age both values being somewhat lower than the global average of 0 29 0 02 for shield regions that include both proterozoic and archean crust a low poisson9s ratio and a slow v s in the crust indicate that on average archean crust beneath the central indian shield is intermediate to felsic in composition somewhat less mafic than globally averaged precambrian crust

receiver functions for the tien shan analog broadband network contrasts in the evolution of structures across the talasso fergana fault we determined the structure of the crust beneath the central and western tien shan by analyzing broadband 1 20 s analog seismograms of converted p sv phases generated by earthquakes at teleseismic distances and recorded by 14 seismograph stations the one dimensional structures that best explain the waveforms reveal pronounced differences in crustal velocities east and west of the talasso fergana fault specifically the transition zone between the crust and the mantle east of the fault is about 2 times broader than that west of the fault also velocities at depths between 10 and 35 km are about 10 lower in the east although the depth range of these lower velocities is not well resolved the talasso fergana fault is an important boundary for other observables in addition to the structural discontinuities observed at the surface the areas east of the talasso fergana fault are associated with abnormally low mantle velocities outcrops of basalt low q and short wavelength variations in anisotropy integrating these observations we interpret the broad mantle gradient as being due to vertical intrusions of mantle material into the lower crust likewise the low velocities in the midcrust could be thermally induced or due to the introduction of magmatically derived fluids the gross contrast in structure east and west of the talasso fergana fault could reflect a contrast in the dynamics of mountain building in these two regions we postulate that while crustal shortening is the dominant mechanism controlling topography west of the talasso fergana fault vertical uplift caused by a mass deficiency in the upper mantle may contribute significantly to the generation and maintenance of the high elevations east of the fault