propagation characteristics of lg across the tibetan plateau abstract we present the results of a study on the propagation of lg within the tibetan plateau we analyze over 1200 seismograms for lg propagation from 185 local and regional earthquakes recorded at distances from 150 to 2000 km 52 of which are located within the tibetan plateau although the propagation of lg has been observed across most of asia lg has not been observed for paths crossing the tibetan plateau we analyze paths that cross the plateau boundaries and paths contained entirely within the tibetan plateau lg is generated within the tibetan plateau and can propagate to epicentral distances of at least 600 km for events located outside of the tibetan plateau lg is either absent or severely diminished for paths that cross both the himalayan and kunlun ranges confirming that the margins of the plateau weaken lg transmission based on the observations from our qualitative analysis we invert lg amplitudes for event station paths that are confined to the tibetan plateau to estimate the quality factor q the inversion yields a frequency dependent q function q f 366 37 f 0 45 0 06 0 5 f 16 h z similar observations in other areas indicate that frequency dependent apparent q within the tibetan plateau is well below that expected for a typical continental interior instead it has a frequency dependence that is characteristic of a tectonically active region

the 11 25 88 m 6 saguenay earthquake near chicoutimi quebec evidence for anisotropic wave propagation in northeastern north america on november 25 1988 a magnitude 6 earthquake occurred in the province of quebec canada this earthquake triggered nine digital strong motion instruments in new york and maine at epicentral distances of 200 to 820 km which were installed as part of an effort by the national center for earthquake engineering research nceer to study ground motions and wave propagation in eastern north america we calculate q f at discrete frequencies from 0 6 to 26 hz assuming that geometrical spreading causes a l r0 5 decay in spectral amplitudes of the nine stations four are in the adirondack mountains in new york and three are in eastern maine if we calculate q f for these two clusters of stations separately we obtain higher values for the adirondack stations the quebec adirondack path is along the strike of the predominant structural trends in northeastern north america in the grenville province crust while the quebec maine path is at high angle to the structural grain and crosses the boundary between the grenville and the appalachian provinces we thus have instrumental data in support of earlier observations based on contours of intensity from historic earthquakes seismic wave propagation in northeastern north america is more efficient along the predominantly ne sw striking geological trends we address possible biases due to site effects

reply to comment on revisiting the 1872 owens valley california earthquake by susan e hough and kate hutton by william h bakun bakun 2009 argues that the conclusions of hough and hutton 2008 are wrong because the study failed to take into account the sierra nevada attenuation model of bakun 2006 in particular bakun 2009 argues that propagation effects can explain the relatively high intensities generated by the 1872 owens valley earthquake using an intensity attenuation model that attempts to account for attenuation through the sierra nevada bakun 2006 infers the magnitude estimate m w 7 4 7 5 that is currently accepted by national earthquake information center neic

from granitoid to kyanite bearing micaschist during fluid assisted shearing ile d yeu france we describe amphibolite facies shear zones affecting an orthogneiss from the armorican hercynian belt ile d yeu western france the deformation pattern is consistent with top to the south thrusting followed by e w extension as documented elsewhere in the region shearing was accompanied by channelled fluid flow that transformed the orthogneiss into a peraluminous micaschist structural and mineralogical data indicate rather early strain localization then temperature increase associated with crustal thickening favoured more distributed deformations marked by shear zone stretching and the development of a ht regional foliation chemical analyses made across five shear zones show mass transfers that mainly implied losses in ca and na and gains in h2o mg and k most results indicate constant volume transformation but some suggest records of either gains or losses of volume between 20 and 30 this might reflect variable records of fluid rock interactions according to the timing of initiation and subsequent evolution of individual shear zones early thrusting stages being marked by up temperature flow and late thrusting stages by down temperature flow 18o analyses suggest that fluids experienced significant isotopic exchange with orthogneisses

laser ablation coupled with icp ms applied to u pb zircon geochronology a review of recent advances abstract improvements in the technology of laser ablation and icp ms instruments make la mc icpms a rapid precise and accurate method for u pb zircon geochronology in this review we describe the main stages of the evolution of this in situ approach from the early 1990s to the present time some key points have been progressively improved the crater size has been reduced to achieve real in situ measurements the laser wavelength has been reduced as well as the duration of each pulse in order to lower inter element fractionation the blank from the gas has to be lowered as far as possible double focusing instruments and magnetic field sectors allow flat topped peaks required for precise isotope ratio measurement to be obtained the use of a multi ion counting system significantly improves the sensitivity of the method and the static mode of integration favours the precision of measurement of the transient signal originating from a noisy laser ablated particle beam combining the use of a 213 nm uv laser and a mc icpms equipped with a multi ion counting system operating in static mode the common precisions achieved for the key ratios 207 pb 206 pb and 206 pb 238 u are better than 1 and 3 2 respectively including error propagation associated with standard normalization until now the use of a zircon standard has remained necessary to ensure the accuracy of the calculated age a strategy for common pb correction is proposed according to the age of the zircon and according to the th u ratio of the grains after recording sixteen to twenty spot analyses the precision usually achieved on the age is about 1 and even significantly better for proterozoic samples in order to show the performance achieved by modern la mc icpms geochronology we tested four zircon samples covering a wide age range from 290 to 2440 ma these new age determinations can be compared in term of precision and accuracy since they have already been dated by reference methods id tims and shrimp further developments in the technology of ion counters equipping modern mc icpms and in laser systems will certainly be applied to a large field of geochronology studies in the near future as an alternative to sims for in situ age determination

great jurassic thrust sheets in beishan north mountains gobi areas of china and southern mongolia abstract jurassic thrust sheets with minimum displacements of 120 180 km have been discovered within the hercynian indosinian orogenic belt of the beishan of china and south gobi area the thrusts strike e w extend over 1200 km in length and carried meso proterozoic massive dolomitic limestones over strata ranging from neoproterozoic cryogenian and terminal proterozoic to lower middle jurassic slip linear plots based on kinematic indicators such as slickenlines and groove lineations fiber lineations and drag folds adjacent to the fault surface vergence of folds and imbricated thrusts in the upper plate indicate northward movement in the beishan area to the west and southward movement in the south gobi area to the east the two major thrust faults the beishan thrust and south gobi thrust are presumably separated by a major tear fault the ruo shui fault the major thrust faults were later deformed into a series of e w antiforms and synforms and the sheets are separated due to erosion into a number of klippen mainly located on synforms of the major faults the yagan metamorphic core complex which is a result of an extensional event that postdates the thrust event yields an 40 ar 39 ar plateau age of 155 1 10 ma and rb sr isochron age of 153 6 2 ma the thrust sheets formed during the late middle jurassic long after the closure of any oceans in the study area previously reported for this region and are ascribed to a phase of intracontinental deformation the closing of the jurassic tethys or retroarc deformation behind an active continental margin at the southern edge of asia prior to the tethyan collision or and the closing of mongolo okhotsk oceans might be responsible for this event

power series solution for ponded infiltration on sloping surfaces summary recently it has been shown that the philip power series solution can also be applied for falling head ponded infiltration mollerup and hansen 2007 or more generally for variable head vh ponded infiltration on flat surfaces mollerup 2007 in this study it is shown that the power series solution can also be applied for vh ponded infiltration on sloping surfaces numerical simulations have been made for a guelph loam for a vh scenario the power series solution was compared with a 2d fem solution of richards equation with good agreement using the developed series solutions a vh scenario was compared with constant head ch simulations with both a ponding depth of zero and the average ponding depth as used in the vh simulations especially the latter gave small differences in the cumulative infiltration compared with the vh results simulations showed that cumulative infiltration normal to the slope as function of time is decreasing with increasing slope angles for similar vertical ponding depths corresponding to equal amount of surface water on a given horizontal slope section in contrast the infiltration on a given projected horizontal area increases with the slope angle

exhumation of the ultrahigh pressure continental crust in east central china cretaceous and cenozoic unroofing and the tan lu fault the orogenic architecture of the world s largest ultrahigh pressure exposure the hong an dabie mountains of the triassic qinling dabie orogenic belt is dominated by cretaceous and cenozoic structures that contributed to its exhumation from 30 km depth cretaceous magmatic crustal recycling 50 for the entire dabie and heating 250 to 700 c were most prominent in dabie and exhumation magmatism and cooling were all controlled by cretaceous transtension exhumation was accomplished principally by an asymmetric cordilleran type extensional complex in the northern dabie northern orthogneiss unit between 140 and 120 ma at rates as fast as 2 mm yr and average horizontal stretching rates of up to 6 mm yr cretaceous reactivation occurred within a regional transtensional strain field as a result of far field collisions and pacific subduction the onset of crustal extension was preceded and possibly facilitated by a reheating of the hong an dabie crust 140 ma coeval with the onset of voluminous magmatism in eastern china 145 ma which resulted from a change in pacific subduction from highly oblique to orthogonal the tan lu continental scale fault was a normal fault zone in the mid cretaceous 110 90 ma and underwent 5 4 km dip slip and 4 km throw in the cenozoic during the india asia collision the qinling dabie belt acted as the structural discontinuity between the strike slip dominated escape tectonics south of the qilian qinling dabie belt and the rifting dominated tectonism north of it the most prominent cretaceous and cenozoic structures of the hong an dabie the xiaotian mozitang and the jinzhai fault zones respectively reactivated major lithospheric structures of the triassic orogen i e the huwan detachment zone and the suture

early cretaceous denudation related to convergent tectonics in the baikal region se siberia we present 24 new apatite fission track aft ages and 18 track length measurements from the baikal region se siberia most samples have aft ages between 140 and 100 ma with relatively high mean track lengths c 13 2 m the relationship between aft ages elevation and mean track lengths indicate that the samples record rapid cooling during the early cretaceous 140 120 ma as also shown by thermal history inversion of track length distributions cooling took place during a late jurassic early cretaceous orogenic phase related to closure of the mongol okhotsk ocean and reflected in the exhumation of metamorphic core complexes followed by thrusting and reverse faulting basin inversion and large vertical motions the variation in aft ages throughout the study area can be partly explained by differences in geothermal structure but differential denudation also played a role minimum amounts of early cretaceous denudation are estimated at 2 3 km

la mc icpms and shrimp u pb dating of complex zircons from quaternary tephras from the french massif central magma residence time and geochemical implications abstract analyses of zircon grains from the queureuilh quaternary tephras pumice provide new information about their pre eruptive history u pb dating was performed in situ using two methods shrimp and la mc icpms equipped with a multi ion counting system both methods provided reliable 207pb 206pb and 206pb 238u ratios as well as u and th abundances required for u pb concordia intercept age determination after initial 230th disequilibrium correction the new la mc icpms method was validated by dating a reference zircon 61 308b and zircons from a phonolitic lava dated independently with the two techniques a time resolution of about 20 kyr for 1 ma zircon crystals was achieved for both methods the clear euhedral zircon population from queureuilh tephras is quite complex from several points of view 1 some grains are reddish or yellowish while others are colorless 2 the u and th composition changes by more than an order of magnitude and th u is generally high 1 2 3 there are three discrete ages recorded at 2 35 0 04 1 017 0 008 and 0 640 0 010 ma from the previously determined 40ar 39ar age at 0 571 0 060 ma duffell h 1999 contribution geochronologique a la stratigraphie volcanique du massif des monts dore par la methode 40ar 39ar d e a univ clermont ferrand 56 p the discontinuous zircon age populations the color of the grains and their composition we favor the following model as explanation the oldest less numerous group of reddish zircons represents xenocrystic grains resulting from assimilation of the local material during magma ascent a primitive magma chamber perhaps deep in crustal level was formed at 1 0 ma the related magma previously characterized by high th u ratio 2 2 1 1 underwent rejuvenation during ascent to a new chamber at shallow depth and or during injection of more mafic magmas during this stage at 0 64 ma the colorless zircon grains of lower th u ratio 1 3 0 5 crystallized this last stage defined the magma residence time of 70 kyr prior to eruption dated by the 40ar 39ar method however if the primitive magma is considered the magma residence time as a whole from this first stage reached 446 kyr in the light of the complex history of such magmas which commonly involves recycling of zircon grains that precipitated tens to hundreds of kyr earlier than eruptions the use of zr concentration in geochemical modeling of whole rock compositional data can be problematic

c slip in quartz from subsolidus deformed granite abstract the slip behaviour of quartz from a granite and granitic veins during subsolidus high temperature conditions 700 800 c of deformation is studied by lattice preferred orientation lpo and microstructural techniques lpos with a point maximum of c axes parallel to the shear direction which is close to the stretching lineation are presented and interpreted with the aid of light and electron microscopy in terms of c as the dominant slip direction during plastic deformation microscopy of such samples reveals the presence of 0001 tilt boundaries and free 0001 burgers vector dislocations in edge orientations a change in lpo in a decreasing temperature environment from c axes parallel to the shear direction to c axes normal to the shear direction documents a fabric transition from the rare c slip to the more common a slip fabric it is concluded that conditions of high temperature and partial pressure of water are required to initiate dominant c slip during deformation at geological strain rates

similarity in catchment response 2 moving rainstorms the influence of storm motion on runoff is explored with a focus on dimensionless hydrologic similarity parameters one and two dimensional physically based runoff models are subjected to moving rainstorms a dimensionless storm speed parameterute lp where u is the storm speed te is the runoff plane kinematic time to equilibrium and lp is the length of the runoff plane is identified as a similarity condition storm motion effects on the peak discharge are greatest when the storm is traversing a one dimensional runoff plane in the downslope direction at a dimensionless speed of ute lp 0 5 this conclusion holds for all values of the dimensionless storm sizes ls lp where ls is the length of the storm in the direction of motion simulations with a two dimensional rainfall runoff model confirm the applicability of this similarity parameter on natural watershed topography results indicate that the detailed simulation of storm motion is necessary when the storm is moving near the velocity of maximum effect which is considerably slower than typical storm velocities

late holocene rupture history of the rose canyon fault in old town san diego implications for cascading earthquakes on the newport inglewood rose canyon fault system

a fracture model for quartz ribbons in straight gneisses abstract polycrystalline composite quartz ribbons in straight gneisses of the grenville province are explained as dilatant quartz filled fractures formed parallel to a strong preexisting gneissosity the ribbons are thin 3 mm but long and continuous and have straight and truncating contacts with bordering grains of other minerals they are similar in morphology to polycrystalline ribbons interpreted in the literature as resulting from high strains in contrast little strain is required if the ribbons form as quartz filled fractures a monoclinic symmetry of the shapes of ribbons and inclusions can be explained by fracture interactions as they propagate the symmetry is consistent with a late extensional south side down sense of shearing which has been documented elsewhere in the grenville province

coseismic slip variation assessed from terrestrial lidar scans of the el mayor cucapah surface rupture abstract we analyze high resolution 103 points m2 terrestrial lidar surveys of the 4 april 2010 el mayor cucapah earthquake rupture baja california mexico collected at three sites 12 18 days after the event using point cloud based tools in an immersive visualization environment we quantify coseismic fault slip for hundreds of meters along strike and construct densely constrained along strike slip distributions from measurements of offset landforms uncertainty bounds for each offset determined empirically by repeatedly measuring offsets at each site sequentially illuminate measurement uncertainties that are difficult to quantify in the field these uncertainties are used to define length scales over which variability in slip distributions may be assumed to reflect either recognizable earthquake mechanisms or measurement noise at two sites characterized by 2 3 m of concentrated right oblique slip repeat measurements yield 2 uncertainties of 11 12 each site encompasses 200 m along strike and a smoothed linear slip gradient satisfies all measurement distributions implying along fault strains of 10 3 conversely the common practice of defining the slip curve by the local slip maxima distorts the curve overestimates along fault strain and may overestimate actual fault slip by favoring measurements with large positive uncertainties at a third site characterized by 1 2 5 m of diffuse normal slip repeat measurements of fault throw summed along fault perpendicular profiles yield 2 uncertainties of 17 here a low order polynomial fit through the measurement averages best approximates surface slip however independent measurements of off fault strain accommodated by hanging wall flexure suggest that over the 200 m length of this site a linear interpolation through the average values for the slip maxima at either end of this site most accurately represents subsurface displacement in aggregate these datasets show that given uncertainties of greater than 11 2 slip distributions over shorter scales are likely to be less uneven than those derived from a single set of field or lidar based measurements this suggests that the relatively smooth slip curves we obtain over 102 m distances reflect real physical phenomena whereas short wavelength variability over 100 101 m distances can be attributed to measurement uncertainty

scale effects on the estimation of erosion thresholds through a distributed and physically based hydrological model abstract slope incision and subsequent development of rills gullies and channels are responsible for significant soil losses and are often irreversible with very high restoration costs particularly in semiarid environments the location of potential areas of erosion where these processes occur is vital to land management and conservation the study of the relationship between the local slope s and the drainage area a through the geomorphological relationship s a b combined with hydrologic simulation models has proved to be appropriate for the identification and characterisation of potential areas of incision especially when it takes into account the spatial distribution of soil properties and the evolution of hydrological processes however physical properties of soil digital elevation models dems and flow algorithms used may affect the results this study employs a distributed physically based hydrological model to evaluate the infiltration runoff relationships and their influence on selecting critical area from three dems with different resolutions the results show a significant scale effect on flow distribution and the location of threshold points on slopes the results obtained from a 30 m dem significantly differ from those obtained from 10 and 5 m dems because the former was unable to capture the spatial variability of geomorphic processes the selected set of critical points shows high s a correlations for different values of critical shear stress the physical model confirmed the dominance of surface runoff in the study site and was validated from field identification of erosion risk areas although for incision areas

the 2010 m w 7 2 el mayor cucapah earthquake sequence baja california mexico and southernmost california usa active seismotectonics along the mexican pacific margin the el mayor cucapah earthquake sequence started with a few foreshocks in march 2010 and a second sequence of 15 foreshocks of m 2 up to m4 4 that occurred during the 24 h preceding the mainshock the foreshocks occurred along a north south trend near the mainshock epicenter the mw 7 2 mainshock on april 4 exhibited complex faulting possibly starting with a m6 normal faulting event followed 15 s later by the main event which included simultaneous normal and right lateral strike slip faulting the aftershock zone extends for 120 km from the south end of the elsinore fault zone north of the us mexico border almost to the northern tip of the gulf of california the waveform relocated aftershocks form two abutting clusters each about 50 km long as well as a 10 km north south aftershock zone just north of the epicenter of the mainshock even though the baja california data are included the magnitude of completeness and the hypocentral errors increase gradually with distance south of the international border the spatial distribution of large aftershocks is asymmetric with five m5 aftershocks located to the south of the mainshock and only one m5 7 aftershock but numerous smaller aftershocks to the north further the northwest aftershock cluster exhibits complex faulting on both northwest and northeast planes thus the aftershocks also express a complex pattern of stress release along strike the overall rate of decay of the aftershocks is similar to the rate of decay of a generic california aftershock sequence in addition some triggered seismicity was recorded along the elsinore and san jacinto faults to the north but significant northward migration of aftershocks has not occurred the synthesis of the el mayor cucapah sequence reveals transtensional regional tectonics including the westward growth of the mexicali valley and the transfer of pacific north america plate motion from the gulf of california in the south into the southernmost san andreas fault system to the north we propose that the location of the 2010 el mayor cucapah as well as the 1992 landers and 1999 hector mine earthquakes may have been controlled by the bends in the plate boundary

the barrow in furness earthquake of 15 february 1865 liquefaction from a very small magnitude event high intensity and liquefaction phenomena are usually associated only with relatively large magnitude earthquakes an earthquake in 1865 in the northwest of england suggests that a sufficiently shallow small event can also produce liquefaction the effects are well documented in historical sources and include sand fountaining modern investigation is confined to documentary evidence owing to the tidal environment of the area where liquefaction occurred analysis shows that the felt area of the earthquake was probably only about 200 km2 however heavy damage occurred in the village of rampside and the maximum intensity is assessed at 8 liquefaction is not uncommon at this intensity but such a high intensity is not usually produced by such small erathquakes the magnitude was probably in the range 2 5 3 5 m l

dem based modelling of surface runoff using diffusion wave equation a digital elevation model dem based overland flow routing model was developed for computation of surface runoff for isolated storm events the model operates on a grid or cell basis and routes the rainfall excess generated over the cells following the dem derived drainage paths to the catchment outlet the rainfall excess for each cell of the catchment was computed using the philip two term infiltration model utilizing the physical properties of the cell the overland flow was described by a finite volume based numerical solution of the diffusion wave approximation of the st venant equations the cell physical properties such as topographic characteristics land use soil etc were extracted from published maps for discretized cells of the catchment using a geographic information system the results of model application indicate that the model satisfactorily predicted the runoff hydrograph the cell based structure of the model allowed for generation of spatially distributed catchment information in terms of the model computed variables such as the depth of flow and discharge

a storm event watershed model for surface runoff based on 2d fully dynamic wave equations the main purpose of this work concerns the development and testing of an overland flow model based on the two dimensional fully dynamic shallow water equations three key aspects fundamental to get accurate efficient and robust computation of surface runoff at basin scale are discussed by transferring the main findings obtained by the recent research on the topic of dam break wave and flood propagation in the context of rainfall runoff modelling in particular attention is focused on the numerical flux and bottom slope source terms computation on a numerical treatment of friction slope terms and on an algorithm for dealing with wetting drying fronts the performances of the numerical model have been preliminarily evaluated using experimental or ideal tests characterized by very critical conditions for the stability of a numerical model then attention was focused on a real event occurred in a sub basin of reno river in italy to analyse the suitability of the model in simulating real flood situations the numerical results highlight the good performances of the model in all the simulations discussed in the paper copyright 2012 john wiley sons ltd

evidence for deformation induced k feldspar replacement by myrmekite several examples of deformation induced myrmekite have been found in two amphibolite facies mylonites derived from granitic protoliths namely a muscovite poor s c mylonite and a single foliation muscovite poor mylonitic gneiss back scattered sem and conventional optical microscopy show that in both rock types syntectonic myrmekitic intergrowths of oligoclase and quartz formed on the two sides of k feldspar grains that faced the local inferred incremental shortening direction for the mylonite myrmekite does not occur on the two ends of the grain that faced the incremental stretching direction the replacement of k feldspar by plagioclase and quartz results in a volume decrease and is favoured on high normal stress sites around the grains we suggest that the ambient temperature pressure and chemical activities were such that the replacement reaction was favoured but the addition of extra strain energy along the high pressure sides of the grains localized the reaction at these sites this energy could arise from elastic strain or strain associated with tangled dislocations or twin boundaries the relative roles of stress and strain energy concentrations in driving the replacement reaction are not known but both were probably important

quartz plastic segregation and ribbon development in high grade striped gneisses quartz microstructures and c axis fabrics formed during development of polycrystalline quartz ribbons in striped gneisses from the high grade alem paraiba shear zone in southeastern brazil are documented cluster analysis of quartz grains in samples exhibiting different degrees of shear strain revealed that formation of ribbons was a mass conservative process where isolated quartz grains became plastically segregated and then coalesced to form polycrystalline ribbons these ribbons are separated by feldspar rich domains devoid of quartz the stage at which individual stretched quartz grains start to contact each other and initiate ribbon development represents a crucial microstructural change from single grain to polycrystalline ribbon deformation mode which is reflected by an abrupt increase in the smoothness of the ribbon boundaries this change is interpreted to represent a strain softening kink in the stress strain time path progressive ribboning is accompanied by strengthening of the c axis fabric z maximum indicative of continued plastic flow by basal glide operation of basal glide at these high temperature conditions 680 700 c is interpreted to be a consequence of relatively dry deformation conditions a model is then proposed for development of straight quartz ribbons in high grade striped gneisses where scattered quartz grains are continuously stretched and segregated by crystal plastic processes the small angle misorientation of the contacting grains enables subsequent coalescence and resulting grain size enlargement pervasive grain boundary migration accounts for the straight grain boundaries and rectangular grain shapes within the ribbons

sedimentary rock hosted gold mineralization at zalaa uul khentii range northeastern mongolia the recently discovered zalaa uul occurrence exhibits gold concentrations averaging about 1 ppm in silicified breccias as wide as 100 m most mineralization is hosted in brecciated siltstone shale and calcareous sandstone of the permian ulz formation that exhibits multiple stages of silicification rock geochemistry indicates 1 gold is strongly associated with arsenic and silver 2 antimony tellurium and thallium are locally anomalous but poorly correlated with gold 3 mercury is spatially correlated with copper and 4 ag au ratios are low 3 a low level cu hg sb au as anomaly occurs over an hypothesized feeder breccia the feeder breccia occupies a major northwest dipping reverse fault zone between dominantly greenschist facies phyllite and schist of the upper proterozoic toshint formation and unmetamorphosed marine clastic rocks of the permian ulz formation ground magnetometer surveys identified a magnetic body thought to represent part of an intrusive complex at depth within the reverse fault zone down plunge from the 70 northwest dipping feeder breccia altered rhyolite dikes crop out in the vicinity of the feeder breccia the potentially economic gold grades are 2 to 3 km outboard of the feeder breccia and may represent the distal au as zone of an intrusion related mineralizing system alteration regional structural and geophysical setting host rocks and trace element geochemistry and finely disseminated nature of gold particles are similar to carlin type gold systems in the great basin of the western usa but local geology magnetically mapped intrusive bodies and trace element zonation suggest affinity with some intrusion related gold systems

mesozoic granitic magmatism in extensional tectonics near the mongolian border in china and its implications for crustal growth abstract the yagan area of the southernmost sino mongolian border is characterized by an extensional structure where a large metamorphic core complex yagan onch hayrhan and voluminous granitoids are exposed new isotopic age data indicate that the granitoids which were previously regarded as paleozoic in age were emplaced in early and late mesozoic times the early mesozoic granitoids have 228 7 ma u pb zircon age and consist of linear mylonitic quartz monzonites and biotite monzogranites their chemical compositions are similar to those of potassic granites and shoshonitic series and show an intraplate and post collisional environment in tectonic discrimination diagrams their fabrics reveal that they experienced syn emplacement extensional deformation all these characteristics suggest that the adjustment thinning and extensional deformation at middle to lower crustal levels might have occurred in the early mesozoic the late mesozoic granitoids have a u pb zircon age of 135 2 ma and are made up of large elliptical granitic plutons they are high k calc alkaline and were forcefully emplaced in the dome extensional setting both the early and late mesozoic granitoids have end t values of 2 3 to 5 in strong contrast with the negative end t values 11 of the precambrian host rocks this suggests that juvenile mantle derived components were involved in the formation of the granitoids the similar situation is omnipresent in central asia this study demonstrates that tectonic extension magmatism and crustal growth are closely related and that post collisional and intraplate magmatism was probably a significant process for continental growth in the phanerozoic

a comparison of drainage networks derived from digital elevation models at two scales abstract automated generation of drainage networks has become increasingly popular with powerful analytical functions in geographic information systems gis and with the increased availability of digital elevation models dems this paper compares drainage networks derived from dems at two scales 1 250 000 250k and 1 24 000 24k using various drainage parameters common in hydrology and geomorphology the comparison of parameters derived from the 250k dems with those from the 24k dems in 20 basins ranging from 150 to 1000 km2 in west virginia shows that the goodness of fit between parameter estimates based on the dems varies results clearly show that superior estimations are produced from the 24k dems better estimates can be obtained from the 250k dems for stream length and frequency parameters than for gradient parameters however the estimation of the mean gradient parameters based on the 250k dems seems to improve with increasing terrain complexity finally basin size does not strongly affect the accuracy of parameter estimates based on the 250k dems

location of aftershocks of the 4 april 2010 mw 7 2 el mayor cucapah earthquake of baja california mexico a magnitude m w 7 2 earthquake occurred on 4 april 2010 at approximately 50 km southwest of the city of mexicali baja california mexico the regional networks red sismica del noroeste de mexico resnom that the centro de investigacion cientifica y de educacion superior de ensenada cicese operates and the southern california seismic network scsn located the main event between the sierras el mayor and cucapah at the southeastern end of the pescadores fault twenty four hours after the origin time of the main event a temporal seismic network was installed around the faults that ruptured during this event we used body wave arrival times recorded by the first 14 stations installed to obtain precise hypocentral locations of this important sequence of earthquakes most of the aftershocks located on 6 and 7 april are distributed near the traces of the pescadores and cucapah faults particularly at the southern end of these faults the spatial distribution of the epicenters indicates that these faults and possibly others may extend southeast of sierra cucapah where the faults were buried by sediments and were activated during the seismic sequence in this area north of the sierra el mayor where no faults were previously mapped the epicenters align in the northwest southeast direction most hypocenters have depths less than 15 km suggesting that an important portion of the seismic slip was shallow based on the distribution of focal depths of the aftershocks we infer that the seismogenic zone must be between 5 and 10 km

quartz ribbons in high grade granite gneiss modifications of dynamically formed quartz c axis preferred orientation by oriented grain growth quartz ribbons form a well defined ls fabric in granitic gneisses sheared and metamorphosed in the upper amphibolite facies boundaries of quartz grains are smooth and sub perpendicular to ribbon walls suggesting post deformational growth whereas c axes display asymmetric girdle patterns consistent with the sense of shear indicated by mesoscopic fabrics subdivision of the microfabrics according to the proportion of ribbon length occupied by individual grains indicates that the c axes of relatively short grains exhibit across girdle pattern similar to that of the whole sample longer grains reproduce elements of the pattern of the short grains suggesting that oriented grain growth occurred grain boundary mobility which clearly ended in a post deformational static regime probably began during dynamic recrystallization owing to space limitations imposed by the feldspathic matrix grain growth in the ribbons ceased before the initial dynamic fabric was erased in summary this study shows that the c axes pattern of longer grains within quartz ribbons reproduces part of the dynamically formed pattern of the shorter grains reflecting an oriented grain growth which concluded in a static episode although possibly initiated in the dynamic regime

late quaternary activity of the laguna salada fault in northern baja california mexico faulted alluvial fans and bajadas along the central laguna salada fault zone in northernbajacaliforniarecordarecurrent history of oblique slip holocene earthquakes alluvialsurfaces whichrangefrom late pleistocene to historic in age have been progressively displaced along the base of the crystalline rangefront as well as along more basinward fault splays in alluvium the recurrence interval determined from displacedalluvialdepositsthataredatedby soil profile development is in the range of 1 2 ka with a corresponding right lateral slip rate of 2 3 mm yr similar to that of thesouthernelsinorefaultinsoutherncalifornia the most recent event along the fault zone is probably the widely felt earthquake of february 23 1892 at least 22 km ofthefaultzonerupturedduringthisevent along both an oblique dextral section of the northwest strikinglagunasaladafaultand

geometric and temporal evolution of an extensional detachment fault hohhot metamorphic core complex inner mongolia china the early cretaceous hohhot metamorphic core complex and its master hohhot detachment fault are 400 km west of beijing in the daqing shan mountains of inner mongolia the complex developed across the east trending yinshan fold and thrust belt within 4 m y following cessation of thrusting ca 125 ma see note added in proof in main text postcontractional extension was initiated within a mid crustal zone of mylonitic and ductile shear that was in part controlled by carboniferous strata sandwiched between its proterozoic and archean crystalline basement and an overlying thrust sheet of similar crystalline rocks the hohhot detachment fault appears to have rooted into deep kinematically active levels of the mid crustal shear zone higher inactive levels of the mylonitic section were transected by the fault and carried upward in its footwall geometries of the footwall mylonitic rocks indicate localized ramp flat geometries of the fault within and across them the crosscut top of the mylonitic sequence defines a mylonitic front that departs from the gently south dipping detachment fault and dips northward into its footwall early cretaceous extension was widespread elsewhere in northern china and was particularly pronounced in the yunmeng shan core complex north of beijing the gravitational collapse of orogenically thickened crust acting in concert with localized centers of deep seated plutonism appear to have led to the development of isolated metamorphic core complexes within a broad region of more distributed extensional deformation

on the modified mercalli intensities and magnitudes of the 1811 1812 new madrid earthquakes we reexamine original felt reports from the 1811 1812 new madrid earthquakes and determine revised isoseismal maps for the three principal mainshocks in many cases we interpret lower values than those assigned by earlier studies in some cases the revisions result from an interpretation of original felt reports with an appreciation for site response issues additionally earlier studies had assigned modified mercalli intensity mmi values of v vii to a substantial number of reports that we conclude do not describe damage commensurate with intensities this high we investigate several approaches to contouring the mmi values using both analytical and subjective methods for the first mainshock on 02 15 lt december 16 1811 our preferred contouring yields m 7 2 7 3 using the area moment regressions of johnston 1996 for the 08 00 lt on january 23 1812 and 03 45 lt on february 7 1812 mainshocks we obtain m 7 0 and m 7 4 7 5 respectively our magnitude for the february mainshock is consistent with the established geometry of the reelfoot fault which all evidence suggests to have been the causative structure for this event we note that the inference of lower magnitudes for the new madrid events implies that site response plays a significant role in controlling seismic hazard at alluvial sites in the central and eastern united states we also note that our results suggest that thrusting may have been the dominant mechanism of faulting associated with the 1811 1812 sequence

mesozoic extensional tectonics in eastern asia the south liaodong peninsula metamorphic core complex ne china abstract in the north china block the south liaodong peninsula massif is an elliptical metamorphic core complex mcc with a long axis trending ne sw in cross section view it is asymmetric with a steeply dipping northwestern flank and a gently dipping southeastern flank it consists of three lithotectonic units a gneissic migmatite unit a paleo to meso proterozoic micaschist slate unit and a neoproterozoic to mesozoic sedimentary cover three deformation events related to extensional tectonics are distinguished in the study area d1 is a ductile deformation related to the exhumation of the mcc the following event d2 corresponds to the development of recumbent folds formed during the early exhumation of the mcc and the youngest event d3 corresponds to brittle normal faulting that controlled the opening of a cretaceous continental half graben basin a pre d1 event characterized as northward verging is interpreted as the result of n s shortening that occurred in the late triassic during the fin

a contour based topographic model for hydrological and ecological applications a digital model for discretizing three dimensional terrain into small irregularly shaped polygons or elements based on contour lines and their orthogonals is described from this subdivision the model estimates a number of topographic attributes for each element including the total upslope contributing area element area slope and aspect this form of discretization of a catchment produces natural units for problems involving water flow as either a surface or subsurface flow phenomenon the model therefore has wide potential application for representing the three dimensionality of natural terrain and water flow processes in the fields of hydrology sedimentology and geomorphology three example applications are presented and discussed they are the prediction of zones of surface saturation the prediction of the distribution of potential daily solar radiation and the prediction of zones of erosion and deposition in a catchment

deformation of granitic rocks across the brittle ductile transition abstract a microstructural analysis has been carried out on mylonites and mylonitic gneisses of the eastern peninsular ranges mylonite zone which were formed over a range of metamorphic conditions from lower greenschist to amphibolite facies composite planar fabrics in the form of c and s planes are found at all metamorphic grades fractured feldspars kinked biotites and ductile deformation of quartz characterize the lower greenschist facies mylonites at mid upper greenschist grade orthoclase grains show dynamic recrystallization textures whereas plagioclase exhibits low temperature plasticity with only minor recovery biotite ribbons form by progressive rotation and coalescence of kink band segments to produce chevron fold patterns at epidote amphibolite grade and above recovery processes and annealing recrystallization predominate in all minerals residual orthoclase porphyroclasts show strain related myrmekite formation along those sides of the grains that face the instantaneous shortening direction myrmekite formation due to replacement reactions cannot explain this geometry it is proposed that the myrmekites formed due to a combination of exsolution replacement and strain enhanced diffusion

diffusion wave model for simulating storm water runoff on highway pavement surfaces at superelevation transition on a curved section of highway the cross slope of the road is often designed to be superelevated to balance the centrifugal force and gravity applied on vehicles the accumulation of storm water runoff sheet flow near superelevation transitions may significantly increase due to the extended flow path and converging flow lines a two dimensional finite volume based diffusion wave model is developed to simulate the sheet flow on these geometrically complex surfaces both dirichlet and neumann type boundary conditions are developed for open boundaries based on kinematic wave theory results show that the distribution of sheet flow is closely related to the cross slope longitudinal slope rainfall intensity and the width of the road the analysis of sheet flow characteristics on superelevation transition areas suggests that the optimal longitudinal slope in the range of 0 3 0 4 minimizes the depth of storm water runoff on the road surface

microstructures in feldspars from a major crustal thrust zone the grenville front ontario canada abstract samples collected across the nw grenville front in ontario canada have been used to document the change in feldspar microstructures produced during shearing under metamorphic conditions that range from upper amphibolite to lower greenschist grade the differential displacement across this 5 km thick section of the grenville front tectonic zone is at least 10 km at upper to mid amphibolite conditions both plagioclase and potassium feldspars behave plastically grainsize reduction occurs through grain boundary migration and or subgrain rotation and produces a core and mantle structure at middle to lower amphibolite grade grain size reduction is accomplished through grain boundary migration at lower amphibolite to upper greenschist grade grain size reduction occurs by the nucleation and growth of new grains with a different composition the abundance of intracrystalline deformation at this grade is inversely proportional to the amount of fine grained matrix in ultramylonite with a high matrix to porphyroclast ratio few intracrystalline strain features occur other than ubiquitous undulatory extinction myrmekite is well developed on the high stress boundaries in k feldspar at upper to mid greenshist conditions feldspars deform mainly by slip on synthetic shear fractures deformation twins undulatory extinction deformation bands and kink bands occur in plagioclase and perthite flames and myrmekite occur principally on high stress boundaries in k feldspar grain size reduction in feldspar is accomplished through cataclasis at middle to lower greenschist facies deformation in feldspars is dominated by antithetic fractures the transition from the dominance of synthetic to antithetic fractures is gradational below lower greenschist grade rocks deform by pervasive cataclasis of all minerals

geology fluid inclusions isotope geochemistry and geochronology of the paishanlou shear zone hosted gold deposit north china craton abstract the paishanlou gold deposit lies along the northern margin of north china craton gold province the third largest au province in china the deposit is mainly hosted in archean metamorphic rocks of the jianping group and is structurally controlled by two sets of ductile shear zones gold mineralization is closely associated with intense hydrothermal alteration along the ductile shear zones with a typical greenschist facies alteration assemblage of sericite chlorite calcite biotite quartz and a distinct alteration zoning of inner pyrite sericite zone middle carbonate zone and outer epidote biotite chlorite zone from orebody to wall rock fluid inclusion petrography and microthermometric results suggest that four types of fluid inclusions are present at the deposit type 1 co 2 rich inclusions have homogenization temperatures of 22 4 27 9 c type 2 h 2 o co 2 inclusions show salinities of 4 6 12 3 wt nacl equivalent and th tot of 242 to 337 c type 3a primary aqueous inclusions have salinities of 5 9 11 2 wt nacl equivalent and th tot of 187 289 c while type 3b secondary aqueous inclusions have salinities of 3 1 8 3 wt nacl equivalent and th tot of 128 239 c type 4 multiphase inclusions have salinities ranging from 31 4 to 35 2 wt nacl equivalent and th tot of 370 447 c the close association of co 2 rich inclusions and h 2 o rich inclusions in groups and along the same trail suggests the presence of fluid immiscibility estimated p t values range from 1 4 to 1 9 kbar at 322 417 c the 18 o values of the ore forming fluids are calculated to range from 3 8 to 7 4 and the d values from 87 3 to 116 2 indicating a mixed source of deep seated magmatic water and shallower meteoric water the 34 s values 0 3 7 5 of sulfide ore minerals are similar to those of both pyrite from metamorphic country rocks and whole rock sulfur of metamorphic country rocks the 206 pb 204 pb 207 pb 204 pb and 208 pb 204 pb of sulfide ores range within 16 40 17 0 15 21 15 37 and 36 69 37 38 respectively with the model ages of 397 727 ma consistent with those of late mesozoic granites and lying between archean metamorphic rock lead and the proterozoic dolomitic marble lead these sulfur and lead features reflect the fact that the ore forming materials originated mainly from multiple wall rock sources the well defined ar ar plateau age 126 6 1 1 ma of biotite from the nne ductile shear zone provides a possible temporal link between au mineralization magmatism and deformation at the paishanlou deposit the concordance of the biotite age with other well constrained mineralization ages for the deposit and the intrusion age of the granite suggests that au mineralization was essentially contemporaneous with late mesozoic granitic magmatism and the second stage of mylonitization in terms of its genetic linkage with the subduction process at the leading northern edge of the north china craton the paishanlou deposit can be favored as an orogenic gold deposit its formation benefited from the combined action of protracted activity of ductile fault zones hydrothermal circulation associated with granitoid intrusion and preferred structural setting favoring gold deposition the major geodynamic switch towards generalized extensional tectonics that occurred during uplift and thinning of the upper crust after the collisional stages in the northern edge of the north china craton may be the key factors controlling au concentration and enrichment in the paishanlou deposit

age and evolution of late mesozoic metamorphic core complexes in southern siberia and northern mongolia numerous cretaceous metamorphic core complexes mccs extend from transbaikalia in russia to northern mongolia within the central asian orogenic belt we investigated the buteel and zagan mccs in detail shear sense indicators in mylonitized rocks show footwall to the nw tectonic transport single zircon dating of footwall rocks in the buteel mcc establishes the emplacement of granitoid orthogneiss precursors at 240 211 ma a felsic metavolcanic rock at 265 0 1 2 ma a syenite at 265 5 1 2 ma and a metarhyolite of the pre granitoid basement at 553 6 2 9 ma a peralkaline granite intruding orthogneisses of the zagan mcc has a new u pb zircon age of 151 6 0 7 ma 40 ar 39 ar ages of 133 5 1 8 ma of hornblende from amphibolite and 122 6 1 8 ma of biotite from mylonitized gabbro dolerite of the buteel mcc are interpreted as cooling ages representing the time of deformation in the footwall geological data suggest that the mccs in transbaikalia and northern mongolia formed as a result of extension in a crust that had previously been thickened by abundant calc alkaline magmatism in an andean type setting on the border of the closing mongol okhotsk ocean by widespread collisional to post collisional thrusting and by extensive alkaline peralkaline magmatism

the origin of ribbon lineation within the southern adirondacks u s a abstract multiply deformed metamorphic rocks of the southern adirondacks exhibit a pronounced linear fabric consisting of elongate flat ribbons oriented parallel to early fold axes and lying within foliation planes the ribbons which are often monomineralic consist of quartz feldspar and mafic minerals as seen in transition from least to most deformed rocks these ribbons appear to be the result of elongation of grains or grain aggregates in response to a regional rotational strain which also rotated early fold axes into parallelism with the lineation a consistent sense of asymmetry of feldspar tails with respect to foliation suggests that simple shear was the dominant component of strain the long dimension of these ribbons is believed to mark the maximum elongation direction x of the finite strain ellipsoid

lg and rg waves on the california regional networks from the december 23 1985 nahanni earthquake we investigate lg and rg propagation in california using the central and southern california regional networks approximately 550 stations constitute these two short period networks providing a dense coverage of almost the entire state the waveforms recorded from the december 23 1985 nahanni canada earthquake are used to construct three profiles along the propagation path almost n s and three perpendicular to the propagation path almost e w to look at the nature of propagation of these two types of surface waves groups of records from stations in various geological and tectonic provinces in california are also examined in order to establish regional characteristics of the surface waves we find that the propagation characteristics of lg differ from those of rg across california lg waves are apparently more sensitive to crustal heterogeneities the most striking observations are the similarity of coda for both the lg and the rg waves within geologic provinces and the marked difference in coda between regions these differences are seen in the amplitudes coda duration shape of the energy envelope frequency content and sharpness of the phase initiation in general a decrease in the moho depth near the pacific coast is correlated with a decrease in the surface wave amplitude especially at higher frequencies 0 15 0 2 hz most interesting is the association of the san andreas fault with abrupt changes in the wave train amplitudes the surface waves are amplified in the vicinity of the fault zone and then decrease in amplitude after the zone is crossed in the coast ranges amplitudes are low and waveform coherence is poor the rg phase dominates the record in the sierra nevada and both surface waves are amplified by the thick sedimentary sequence of the great valley

phase boundary mobility in naturally deformed high grade quartzofeldspathic rocks evidence for diffusional creep abstract grain shape fabrics and optical microstructures of some quartzofeldspathic rocks deformed under upper amphibolite facies conditions in the southwestern grenville province ontario canada suggest that quartz and feldspar have accommodated intracrystalline plastic strains by both diffusional and dislocation creep in these rocks quartz and feldspar form polycrystalline domains separated by gently curved and locally cuspate phase boundaries whose morphology is similar in certain respects to the phase boundary morphology of rocks annealed experimentally under hydrostatic stress conditions in the naturally deformed rocks however phase boundary cusps consistently point along the foliation and parallel to the mineral fibre lineation i e in directions of inferred finite extension which implies that phase boundary motion and cusp formation occurred during deformation optical microstructures in feldspar and crystallographic preferred orientations in quartz are consistent with the accommodation of some intracrystalline plastic strains by dislocation creep however the morphology of quartz feldspar phase boundaries cannot be explained by either dislocation creep or static annealing alone we propose that phase boundary motion resulted from a diffusion assisted process involving dissolution at foliation parallel quartz feldspar phase boundaries mass transfer over length scales of the order of feldspar domain size 200 m or greater and precipitation at quartz feldspar phase boundary cusps this study extends the range of natural deformation conditions under which diffusional creep has been identified in quartzofeldspathic rocks it also has important implications for the natural rheological behavior of the mid and lower continental crust

quartz fabric transition in a cooling syntectonic granite hermitage massif france abstract the hermitage granite situated in the northwest massif central france is a syntectonic hercynian leucogranite emplaced along an active transcurrent shear zone during emplacement and cooling the progressive deformation is marked by the development of a primary homogeneous foliation gradually affected by ductile shear bands c s mylonites increase in strain heterogeneity during cooling corresponds to a change of dominant deformation mechanism of the quartz phase from grain growth and migration recrystallization to intracrystalline a slip and rotation recrystallization migration recrystallization is characterized by preferred orientations of c axes close to the principal extension direction we discuss relevant deformation mechanisms and rheological implications for syntectonic plutons in particular we argue that the transitions between homogeneous and heterogeneous accumulation of strain cannot generally be correlated with transition between magmatic and solid state flow

power series solution for falling head ponded infiltration with evaporation 1 assumptions for many of the derived analytical infiltration models are either a constant infiltration rate or a constant head at the soil surface for many realistic infiltration situations a falling head boundary condition is more appropriate philip showed that both the wetting profiles and the cumulated infiltration in one dimensional infiltration into homogenous soil with constant head at the upper boundary can be written as a power series in t presently it is shown that a power series solution can be applied for falling head infiltration with evaporation when comparing with the constant head solution the falling head solution differs only from the second term i e the sorptivity remains unchanged a result which can be applied to falling head infiltrometer technique the effect of a constant evaporation rate in the falling head scenario appears from the third term in the presented numerical examples the retention model by van genuchten and the hydraulic conductivity model by mualem are applied by comparing the wetting profiles obtained with a fem solution it is shown that the discrepancies between the models are very small also the estimation of the time at which the pond is emptied is concordant the infiltration model is compared with a model by parlange and colleagues and a simple infiltrometer method for determining the saturated hydraulic conductivity is proposed

the ereendavaa range north eastern mongolia an additional argument for mesozoic extension throughout eastern asia mesozoic rift basins locally bounding metamorphic core complexes have been recognized in transbaikalia and northern china numerous basement outcrops located between these two regions in eastern mongolia are considered as pre palaeozoic in age one of these the ereendavaa range appears as a gneissic core marked by amphibolite facies metamorphic conditions the range is overlain to the nw by the unmetamorphosed mesozoic onon basin below the basin the upper part of the range consists of a gently nw dipping shear zone associated with top to the nw motion the structural pattern is consistent with syn extensional exhumation of the range preliminary geochronological data indicate that the shear zone is late jurassic to early cretaceous in age coeval with the onon basin these new data from eastern mongolia constitute a link between transbaikalia and northern china indicating that nw se extensional mesozoic tectonics occurred throughout the entire region

quantifying the media bias in intensity surveys lessons from the 2001 bhuj india earthquake many seismologists have looked at the 26 january 2001 bhuj earthquake as a key modern calibration event that could be used to improve estimates of magnitudes of large historic mainshocks in stable continental regions since no instrumental data are available for important historic events such as the 1819 allah bund india and the 1811 1812 new madrid central u s mainshocks calibration hinges on comparisons of the macroseismic effects of these earthquakes with those of comparable modern earthquakes for which a reliable instrumentally determined moment magnitude is available however although such a comparison is conceptually straightforward in practice it is complicated by potentially significant inconsistencies in methods used to quantify macroseismic effects in different regions and or times for the bhuj earthquake extensive intensity data sets have been compiled and published from both media accounts and detailed direct surveys comparing the two provides a quantification of the previously suspected media bias whereby earthquake effects can be exaggerated in media accounts this bias is a strong function of intensity level with substantial bias at the highest shaking levels and significantly less bias at low intensities because only sparse documentary data are in general available for older historic earthquakes the results of this study suggest that their inferred intensity distributions might be similarly biased we further use the survey based intensity values to develop a new relationship between intensities and ground motions

late jurassic early cretaceous closure of the mongol okhotsk ocean demonstrated by new mesozoic palaeomagnetic results from the trans baikal area se siberia summary we present new palaeomagnetic results from the transba ikal area se siberia from the mongol okhotsk suture zone the boundary between the amuria and siberia blocks in order to better constrain the time of closure of the mongol okhotsk ocean in the mesozoic we col lected 532 rock samples at 68 sites in six localities of basalts trachy basalts and andesites from both sides of the mongol okhotsk suture at unda river j 3 51 7 n 117 4 e kremljevka peak k1 51 8 n 117 5 e and torey lakes k 1 50 1 n 115 9 e on the southern side of the suture and at monostoy river j 1 51 1 n 106 8 e ingoda river k 1 51 2 n 112 2 e and bichura town k 1 50 6 n 107 6 e on the northern side progressive thermal demagnetization enabled us to resolve low ltc and high htc temperature components of magnetization at most sites jurassic palaeopoles computed from the htcs show a large discrepancy with respect to the apparent polar wander path of eurasia which we interpret in terms of 1700 2700 km of post late jurassic northward movement of amuria with respect to siberia although ge ological data suggest a middle jurassic closure of the mongol okhotsk ocean in the west trans baikal region our data give evidence of a large remaining palaeolatitude difference between the amuria and siberia blocks in contrast early cretaceous sites cluster remarkably well along a small circle which is centred on the average site location this implies the absence of post early cretaceous northward motion of amuria relative to siberia and demonstrates the pre early cretaceous closure of the mongol okhotsk ocean finally we interpret the very large tectonic rotations about local vertical axes evidenced by the small circle distribution of poles as arising both from collision processes and from left lateral shear movement along the suture zone due to the eastward extrusion of amuria under the effect of the collision of india into asia

late mesozoic calc alkaline volcanism of post orogenic extension in the northern da hinggan mountains northeastern china abstract late mesozoic calc alkaline volcanism in the northern da hinggan mountains ndhm ne china exhibits geochemical and sr nd isotopic characteristics similar to those of cenozoic calc alkaline volcanism in the basin and range province usa whole rock k ar dating results show that these volcanic sequences were erupted during 138 116 ma composed of basaltic andesites trachyandesites group 1 hornblende andesites trachytes group 2 and rhyolite lavas group 3 they are characterized by low mgo contents 4 20 lile lree enrichment and significant nb ta depletion as well as a little depleted to slightly enriched nd and weakly enriched sr isotopic ratios group 1 initial 87sr 86sr 0 70502 0 70572 nd t 0 78 to 0 91 group 2 initial 87sr 86sr 0 70497 0 70518 nd t 0 86 to 1 26 group 3 initial 87sr 86sr 0 70510 0 70635 nd t 0 41 to 0 25 the systematic variations in major and trace elements homogeneous sr nd isotope data and temporal consistency among three volcanic groups indicate that they were derived from a similar mantle source metasomatized by fluids related to the closure of the paleo asian and or mongolia okhotsk oceans and were produced through different degrees of fractional crystallization of the primary melts group 1 basaltic rocks were formed through removal of olivine and pyroxene of the primary melts while group 2 trachytes which contain the lowest lree contents e g la 24 28 ppm and relatively less enriched sr and higher nd isotope ratios were generated after removal of a few percent of lree rich minerals such as hornblende clinopyroxene and apatite of melts like group 1 group 3 rhyolite lavas exhibiting the highest abundances of strongly incompatible elements such as rb and k moderate lree contents e g la 28 53 ppm as well as apparently negative eu and sr anomalies represent the final crystallized products following a plagioclase predominant fractionation of melts like group 2 the low mgo contents and evolved affinities of the volcanic rocks imply that beneath the ndhm there existed many crustal magma reservoirs throughout the eruption episodes in which mantle derived primary melts had experienced intense differentiation these facts in combination with the contemporaneous basin and range tectonic regime suggest that the extensive calc alkaline volcanism in the ndhm was attributed to post orogenic diffuse extension rather than either an upwelling mantle plume or mesozoic oceanic plate subduction

geodynamics of the western part of the mongolia okhotsk collisional belt trans baikal region russia and mongolia abstract after the western edge of the mongolian microcontinent joined the siberian continent in the region of central mongolia in the earliest permian these two continental blocks remained turned at an angle of about 120 with respect to each other and separated on greater extent of their present day boundary by an enormous gulf of the paleopacific called the mongolia okhotsk ocean closure of this ocean at the early middle jurassic boundary led to the complete collision of siberia and mongolia which by then had already become part of the mongolia north china continent this main collisional episode which lasted through the middle and late jurassic involved thrusting folding and magmatism and produced the mongolia okhotsk belt the onon island arc which was located in the mongolia okhotsk ocean was squeezed between the two major continents inasmuch as the third element the island arc was involved in the collision it is reasonable to distinguish two branches of the mongolia okhotsk suture these branches control the spatial distribution of gold mineralization in the trans baikal region on the southeastern periphery of siberia the crust thickened considerably after the collision and a plateau like uplift formed in the early cretaceous when compression ceased the collisional uplift collapsed and the thrusts were transformed into low angle normal faults the motions on which were responsible for the formation of rift basins and exhumation of metamorphic core complexes

occurrence age and implications of the yagan onch hayrhan metamorphic core complex southern mongolia mylonitic rocks associated with the south dipping detachment fault of the yagan onch hayrhan metamorphic core complex in southernmost mongolia indicate subhorizontal south southeast directed extension in the early cretaceous synkinematic biotites give 40 ar 39 ar ages of 129 to 126 ma the yagan onch hayrhan core complex demonstrates that late mesozoic localized high strain extension recently recognized in other parts of eastern asia also occurred in mongolia the presence of mesozoic metamorphism at onch hayrhan previously presumed to be precambrian brings into question the existence of the south gobi microcontinent

shift a distributed runoff model using irregular triangular facets abstract shift sistema hidrologico de facetas triangulares is a computational system that allows for the 1 creation editing and visualization of a watershed digital elevation model dem based on the triangular irregular network tin concepts 2 input and interpolation of soil river bed and rainfall data and 3 calculation and routing of runoff in all the facets and reaches the tin dem model is constructed from a set of points where the slope changes abruptly afterwards the drainage network is automatically identified and an interactive editor allows the addition or deletion of points to eliminate network discontinuities rainfall data are interpolated by means of a procedure based on the minimization of the bending energy of a thin plate in order to calculate and route the runoff the system determines the routing sequence of river segments and for each one identifies the facets forming the contributing area and determines a cascade of overland flow planes then for each element and time interval the system calculates the infiltration and routes the resultant runoff by a numerical solution of the kinematic wave equations this information is saved and the user can see the hydrograph for any facet or reach

sources of phanerozoic granitoids in the transect bayanhongor ulaan baatar mongolia geochemical and nd isotopic evidence and implications for phanerozoic crustal growth abstract the central asian orogenic belt caob is renowned for massive generation of juvenile crust in the phanerozoic mongolia is the heartland of the caob and it has been subject to numerous investigations particularly in metallogenesis and tectonic evolution we present new petrographic geochemical and sr nd isotopic analyses on phanerozoic granitoids emplaced in west central mongolia the data are used to delineate their source characteristics and to discuss implications for the phanerozoic crustal growth in central asia our samples come from a transect from bayanhongor to ulaan baatar including three tectonic units the baydrag cratonic block late archean to middle proterozoic the eo cambrian bayanhongor ophiolite complex and the hangay hentey basin of controversial origin the intrusive granitoids have ages ranging from ca 540 to 120 ma the majority of the samples are slightly peraluminous and can be classified as granite s s including monzogranite syenogranite and alkali feldspar granite most of the rocks have initial 87sr 86sr ratios between 0 705 and 0 707 late paleozoic to mesozoic granitoids 250 ma are characterized by near zero end t values 0 to 2 whereas older granitoids show lower end t values 1 5 to 7 the data confirm the earlier observation of kovalenko et al geochemistry international 34 1996 628 who showed that granitoids emplaced outside of the pre riphean basement rocks are characterized by juvenile positive end t values whereas those within the pre riphean domain and the baydrag cratonic block as for the present case show a significant effect of contamination by precambrian basement rocks nevertheless mass balance calculation suggests that the granitoids were derived from sources composed of at least 80 juvenile mantle derived component despite our small set of new data the present study reinforces the general scenario of massive juvenile crust production in the caob with limited influence of old microcontinents in the genesis of phanerozoic granitoids

the liaonan metamorphic core complex southeastern liaoning province north china a likely contributor to cretaceous rotation of eastern liaoning korea and contiguous areas abstract the mesozoic liaonan metamorphic core complex mcc of the southeastern liaoning province north china is an asymmetric cordilleran style complex with a west rooting master detachment fault the jinzhou fault a thick sequence of lower plate fault related mylonitic and gneissic rocks derived from archean and early cretaceous crystalline protoliths has been transported ese ward from mid crustal depths u pb ages of lower plate syntectonic plutons ca 130 120 ma 40 ar 39 ar cooling ages in the mylonitic and gneissic sequence ca 120 110 ma and a cretaceous supradetachment basin attest to the early cretaceous age of this extensional complex the recent discovery of the coeval and similarly west rooting waziyu mcc in western liaoning darby b j davis g a zhang x wu f wilde s yang j 2004 the newly discovered waziyu metamorphic core complex yiwulushan western liaoning province north china earth science frontiers 11 145 155 indicates that the gulf of liaoning which lies between the two complexes was the center of a region of major crustal extension clockwise crustal rotation of a large region including eastern liaoning province and the korean peninsula with respect to a non rotated north china block has been conclusively documented by paleomagnetic studies over the past decade the timing of this rotation and the reasons for it are controversial lin et al lin w chen y faure m wang q 2003 tectonic implication of new late cretaceous paleomagnetic constraints from eastern liaoning peninsula ne china journal of geophysical research 108 b 6 epm 5 1 to 5 17 proposed that a clockwise rotation of 22 5 10 2 was largely post early cretaceous in age and was the consequence of extension within a crustal domain that tapers southwards towards the bohai sea of which the gulf of liaoning is the northernmost part paleomagnetic studies of early cretaceous strata ca 134 120 ma in the yixian fuxin supradetachment basin of the waziyu mcc indicate the non rotation of north china and the basin zhu r x shao j a pan y x shi r p shi g h li d m 2002 paleomagnetic data from early cretaceous volcanic rocks of west liaoning evidence for intracontinental rotation chinese science bulletin 47 1832 1837 such upper plate non rotation supports our conclusion that the lower plates of the waziyu and liaonan metamorphic core complexes were displaced ese ward in an absolute sense away from the stable north china block thus contributing to the rotation of korea and contiguous areas rotation is inferred to have affected only the upper crust above mid crustal levels into which we believe the jinzhou and waziyu detachment fault zones flattened if this is the case the regional tan lu fault that lies between the two core complexes was truncated at mid crustal depth since in areas to the south it forms the boundary between the north and south china lithospheric blocks it is noteworthy that the two extensional complexes lie not far north of the bohai bay the area proposed by lin et al lin w chen y faure m wang q 2003 tectonic implication of new late cretaceous paleomagnetic constraints from eastern liaoning peninsula ne china journal of geophysical research 108 b 6 epm 5 1 to 5 17 as the site of the pole of rotation for korea s clockwise displacement lin et al lin w chen y faure m wang q 2003 tectonic implication of new late cretaceous paleomagnetic constraints from eastern liaoning peninsula ne china journal of geophysical research 108 b 6 epm 5 1 to 5 17 were unaware of the liaonan and waziyu mcc s and argued that most of the regional block rotation was post early cretaceous and in part early cenozoic however the ca 130 120 ma ages of the two liaoning mcc s and a songliao basin mcc xujiaweizi the latter discovered only by recent drilling through its younger stratigraphic cover support our and some korean coworkers conclusions that most of the clockwise rotation was early cretaceous

what drove late mesozoic extension of the northern china mongolia tract the northern china mongolia tract exhibited a tectonic transition from contractional to extensional deformation in late mesozoic time late middle to early late jurassic crustal shortening is widely thought to have resulted from collision of an amalgamated north china mongolia block and the siberian plate but widespread late late jurassic early cretaceous extension has not been satisfactorily explained by existing models some prominent features of the extensional tectonics of the northern china mongolia tract are 1 late jurassic voluminous volcanism prior to early cretaceous large magnitude rapid extension 2 overlapping in time of contractional deformation in the yinshan yanshan belt with development of extensionrelated basins in the interior of the northern china mongolia tract and 3 widespread occurrence of alkali granitic plutonism extensional basins and metamorphic core complexes in the early cretaceous a new explanation is advanced in this study for this sequence of events the collision of amalgamated north china mongolia with siberia led to crustal overthickening of the northern china mongolia tract and formation of a high standing plateau subsequent breakoff at depth of the north dipping mongol okhotsk oceanic slab is suggested as the main trigger for late mesozoic lithospheric extension of that tract slab breakoff resulted in mantle lithospheric stretching of the adjacent northern china mongolia tract with subsequent ascent of hot asthenosphere and magmatic underplating at the base of the crust collectively these phenomena triggered gravitational collapse of the previously thickened crust leading to late late jurassic early cretaceous crustal extension and importantly coeval contraction along the southern margin of the plateau in the yinshan yanshan belt the proposed model provides a framework for interpreting the spatial and temporal relationships of distinct processes and reconciling some seemingly contradictory phenomena such as the synchronous extension of northerly terranes during major contraction in the neighboring yanshan yinshan belt d 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

reassessment of the 1892 laguna salada earthquake fault kinematics and rupture patterns we present the results of intensive field investigations of the scarp associated with the 23 february 1892 earthquake in northern baja california newly recognized additional offsets suggest the rupture was about 58 km in length twice as long as previous estimates slip produced in the 1892 event varied from purely dextral slip near the international border to roughly 1 1 oblique normal slip farther south along the 2 4 km deep portion of the laguna salada basin the portion of the 1892 rupture with oblique normal slip comprises a number of short poorly organized and discontinuous fault scarps with heights that vary in concert with their strike slip was linked farther south to a short purely normal fault that forms a large releasing bend at the southern termination of the fault zone given the distribution of slip along the earthquake and a likely range of locking depths we conclude the 1892 earthquake was between m w 7 1 7 3 in magnitude consistent with previous estimates from macroseismic observations the length of the laguna salada fault that ruptured in 1892 also accommodated minor normal sense displacement along much of its length in the recent 2010 m w 7 2 el mayor cucapah earthquake which guided the remapping effort online material table of displacement measurements with uncertainty location waypoint number soil unit designation and the strike dip and type of feature measured

revisiting the 23 february 1892 laguna salada earthquake according to some compilations the laguna salada baja california earthquake of 23 february 1892 ranks among the largest earthquakes in california and baja california in historic times although surface rupture was not documented at the time of the earthquake recent geologic investigations have identified and mapped a rupture on the laguna salada fault that can be associated with high probability with the 1892 event mueller and rockwell 1995 the only intensity based magnitude estimate for the earthquake m 7 8 was made by strand 1980 based on an interpretation of macroseismic effects and a comparison of isoseismal areas with those from instrumentally recorded earthquakes in this study we reinterpret original accounts of the laguna salada earthquake we assign modified mercalli intensity mmi values in keeping with current practice focusing on objective descriptions of damage rather than subjective human response and not assigning mmi values to effects that are now known to be poor indicators of shaking level such as liquefaction and rockfalls the reinterpreted isoseismal contours and the estimated magnitude are both significantly smaller than those obtained earlier using the method of bakun and wentworth 1997 we obtain a magnitude estimate of m 7 2 and an optimal epicenter less than 15 km from the center of the mapped laguna salada rupture the isoseismal contours are elongated toward the northwest which is qualitatively consistent with a directivity effect assuming that the fault ruptured from southeast to northwest we suggest that the elongation may also thus reflect wave propagation effects with more efficient propagation of crustal surface lg waves in the direction of the overall regional tectonic fabric

the 1952 kern county california earthquake a case study of issues in the analysis of historical intensity data for estimation of source parameters abstract seismic intensity data based on first hand accounts of shaking give valuable insight into historical and early instrumental earthquakes comparing an observed intensity distribution to intensity prediction models based on modern calibration events allows the magnitude to be estimated for many historic earthquakes magnitude estimates can also potentially be refined for earthquakes for which limited instrumental data are available however the complicated nature of macroseismic data and the methods used to collect and interpret the data introduce significant uncertainties in this paper we illustrate these challenges and possible solutions using the 1952 kern county california earthquake as a case study published estimates of its magnitude vary from mw 7 2 7 5 making it possibly the second largest in california during the 20th century we considered over 1100 first hand reports of shaking supplemented with other data and inferred the magnitude in several ways using intensity prediction equations yielding a preferred intensity magnitude mi 7 2 0 2 where the uncertainty reflects our judgement the revised intensity distribution reveals stronger shaking on the hanging wall south of the surface expression of the white wolf fault than on the footwall characterizing the magnitude and shaking distribution of this early instrumental earthquake can help improve estimation of the seismic hazard of the region such reinterpreted intensities for historic earthquakes combined with u s geological survey usgs did you feel it data for more recent events can be used to produce a uniform shaking dataset with which earthquake hazard map performance can be assessed

investigation of teleseismic lg blockage and scattering using regional arrays abstract incoherent beamforming and continuous frequency wavenumber polar scan analysis have been applied to study the characteristics of p coda and lg waves recorded at the regional arrays noress and arcess from presumed explosions on the northwestern russian platform and at test sites of novaya zemlya and eastern kazakh also recordings at the graefenburg array near the new geress regional array of novaya zemlya events and an eastern european platform white sea event have been compared with the norwegian array recordings of the same events the white sea explosion at distances of 14 and 22 from noress and graefenburg respectively exhibits lg rms amplitudes on incoherent beams that exceed those of sn however for explosions at novaya zemlya at 20 from noress and eastern kazakh at 30 from arcess the lg waves have much smaller amplitudes than sn in the case of novaya zemlya the lg wave is almost completely blocked at both noress and arcess but is well recorded at graefenburg this reduction of the lg amplitudes relative to those from events at longer distances cannot be accounted for by anelastic attenuation and spreading comparison of propagation paths suggests that the reduction in amplitudes may be due to blockage and scattering of lg in the barents sea analysis of sn coda waves on incoherent beams and continuous frequency wavenumber analysis polar scans suggests that they can result from lg to sn scattering from the coastline between the barents sea and scandinavia recent geologic studies have revealed significant variations in crustal structure in the barents sea basin which may cause the blockage of lg waves from novaya zemlya in the case of eastern kazakh explosions arcess incoherent beams show much reduced lg amplitudes relative to the p coda waves compared with noress even though the distance to arcess 31 is less than that to noress 38 this reduction in lg amplitude at both noress and arcess is accompanied by enhancement of p and sn coda the timing of the coda waves and the propagation paths suggest that lg waves may be partially blocked and scattered by the ural mountains and that the p and sn coda waves may result from lg to pn pn to sn sn to lg and lg to sn conversions from lateral heterogeneities in the crust beneath the urals the blockage is greater for the eastern kazakh to arcess path because it crosses the middle part of the urals whereas the eastern kazakh to noress path crosses the southern part of the urals chain these blockage effects seem to result from sudden lateral variations in shallow crustal structure such as variations in sediment thicknesses in the sedimentary basins of the russian platform and adjacent to the urals these blockage effects can be predicted from geologic studies and need to be accounted for when using lg amplitudes to estimate absolute yields of explosions and for event identification

finite volume two dimensional unsteady flow model for river basins the paper presents a two dimensional unsteady flow model rbfvm 2d based on the finite volume method with a combination of unstructured triangular and quadrilateral grids in a river basin system the attractive feature of this model is that it calculate of the mass and momentum flux across each side of elements as a riemann problem which is solved using the osher scheme this feature enables this model to deal with the wetting and drying processes for flood plain and wetland studies dam breaking phenomena involving discontinuous flows subcritical and supercritical flows and other cases the computations of tributary inflows and regulated flows through gates weirs and culverts or bridges are also included sample applications of this model to two dam break problems showed fairly satisfactory results also this model was applied to a portion of the kissimmee river basin in florida for flow simulations and the results agreed well with the field and laboratory data in a physical model study of this ri

estimating earthquake location and magnitude from seismic intensity data analysis of modified mercalli intensity mmi observations for a training set of 22 california earthquakes suggests a strategy for bounding the epicentral region and moment magnitude m from mmi observations only we define an intensity magnitude m i that is calibrated to be equal in the mean to m m i mean m i where m i mmi i 3 29 0 0206 i 1 68 and i is the epicentral distance km of observation mmi i the epicentral region is bounded by contours of rms m i rms m i m i rms m i m i where rms is the root mean square rms m i m i is the minimum rms over a grid of assumed epicenters and empirical site corrections and a distance weighting function are used empirical contour values for bounding the epicenter location and empirical bounds for m estimated from m i appropriate for different levels of confidence and different quantities of intensity observations are tabulated the epicentral region bounds and m i obtained for an independent test set of western california earthquakes are consistent with the instrumental epicenters and moment magnitudes of these earthquakes the analysis strategy is particularly appropriate for the evaluation of pre 1900 earthquakes for which the only available data are a sparse set of intensity observations

revisiting the 1872 owens valley california earthquake the 26 march 1872 owens valley earthquake is among the largest historical earthquakes in california the felt area and maximum fault displacements have long been regarded as comparable to if not greater than those of the great san andreas fault earthquakes of 1857 and 1906 but mapped surface ruptures of the latter two events were 2 3 times longer than that inferred for the 1872 rupture the preferred magnitude estimate of the owens valley earthquake has thus been 7 4 based largely on the geological evidence reinterpreting macroseismic accounts of the owens valley earthquake we infer generally lower intensity values than those estimated in earlier studies nonetheless as recognized in the early twentieth century the effects of this earthquake were still generally more dramatic at regional distances than the macroseismic effects from the 1906 earthquake with light damage to masonry buildings at nearest fault distances as large as 400 km macroseismic observations thus suggest a magnitude greater than that of the 1906 san francisco earthquake which appears to be at odds with geological observations however while the mapped rupture length of the owens valley earthquake is relatively low the average slip was high the surface rupture was also complex and extended over multiple fault segments it was first mapped in detail over a century after the earthquake occurred and recent evidence suggests it might have been longer than earlier studies indicated our preferred magnitude estimate is mw 7 8 7 9 values that we show are consistent with the geological observations the results of our study suggest that either the owens valley earthquake was larger than the 1906 san francisco earthquake or that by virtue of source properties and or propagation effects it produced systematically higher ground motions at regional distances the latter possibility implies that some large earthquakes in california will generate significantly larger ground motions than san andreas fault events of comparable magnitude

a type granites in northeastern china age and geochemical constraints on their petrogenesis abstract a type granites are widely distributed in northeastern china ne china they were emplaced during three major episodes the permian late triassic to early jurassic and early cretaceous and evolved in different tectonic regimes according to their mineralogical and geochemical characteristics two subgroups of a type granites aluminous and peralkaline can be recognized the peralkaline subgroup contains alkali mafic minerals such as riebeckite arfvedsonite and sodic pyroxene while the aluminous subgroup contains annite and fe rich calcic or sodic calcic amphibole with respect to the aluminous subgroup the peralkaline granites contain higher rb ga and total rare earth elements ree but lower mgo cao al 2 o 3 ba and sr based on the discrimination criteria of eby geology 20 1992 641 the permian and late triassic to early jurassic a type granites belong to the a 2 post orogenic type whereas the early cretaceous granites are of the a 1 anorogenic type nd isotopic compositions of these a type granites indicate their derivation from a dominantly juvenile crustal source their origin is thought to have involved partial melting of an underplated lower crustal source because the generation of a type granites requires high melting temperature we propose models involving slab break off lithospheric delamination and extension the permian a type granites have the same age range as those in eastern junggar southern mongolia and central inner mongolia they occur along a major suture and form a narrow belt between the north china and siberian cratons we suggest that their formation was associated with post collisional slab break off the late triassic to early jurassic a type granites are likely to be the product of lithospheric delamination after the final collision of the major crustal blocks in the late paleozoic to early triassic the early cretaceous a type granites have an anorogenic affinity and were possibly associated with rifting in eastern china at this time associated with the onset of paleo pacific subduction consequently we conclude that the a type granites in ne china were generated at three different times involving multiple processes operative in different tectonic environments

two phases of mesozoic north south extension in the eastern altyn tagh range northern tibetan plateau 1 the 300 km long east striking lapeiquan fault lies in the eastern altyn tagh range along the northern margin of the tibetan plateau and was interpreted as a north dipping thrust in early studies however our mapping shows that the fault is a south dipping normal fault juxtaposing archean proterozoic gneisses beneath an early paleozoic volcanic and sedimentary sequence its dip angle varies from 30 to 60 the central fault segment is expressed as a 30 50 m thick ductile shear zone with well developed mylonitic fabrics and stretching mineral lineations where the eastern and western segments are characterized by cataclastic deformation kinematic indicators such as asymmetric boudinage asymmetric folds and minor brittle and ductile faults within the fault zone consistently indicate a top south normal slip sense of shear the age of the lapeiquan fault is constrained by two types of information first a sequence of early middle jurassic sediments is locally present in the hanging wall of the lapeiquan fault the clasts of the jurassic strata particularly the stromatolite bearing cherty limestone and purple quartzite can be correlated uniquely with those in the footwall of the fault we interpret that the early middle jurassic strata were deposited in an extensional basin related to motion along the lapeiquan fault second 40ar 39ar thermochronologic analyses indicate two prominent cooling events in the lapeiquan footwall the older event occurred in the latest triassic earliest jurassic between 220 and 187 ma while the younger event occurred in the latest early cretaceous at 100 ma because the 220 187 ma cooling ages are widespread in the lapeiquan footwall we suggest it to represent the main stage of faulting we interpreted the younger phase of fault motion at 100 ma to have been related to fault reactivation the deformation was aided by motion along the south dipping qiashikan normal fault that merges with the eastern lapeiqaun fault from the regional tectonic setting it appears that mesozoic extension in northern tibet to have occurred in a back arc setting during northward subduction of the tethyan oceanic plate the findings of mesozoic extensional structures in northern tibet suggest that compressive stress induced by collision of the qiangtang and lhasa terranes with asia was not transmitted beyond northern tibet this in turn implies that the popularly inferred contractional setting for mesozoic evolution of the tian shan north of tibet needs a reevaluation based on a combination of both structural and sedimentological observations

coeval extensional shearing and lateral underflow during late cretaceous core complex development in the nigde massif central anatolia turkey 1 the nigde massif at the southern tip of the central anatolian crystalline complex consists of two structural units foliations in the lower unit define a dome cored by migmatites the contact between the two units bears all the elements of a ductile to brittle extensional detachment hence the nigde massif represents an extensional metamorphic core complex top to ne ene shearing at higher levels of the lower unit relates to displacement along the detachment deeper levels of the lower unit display high temperature top to ssw ductile shearing the two shearing deformations show a difference in the mean trend of stretching lineations of up to 58 new 40ar 39ar ages combined with previously published data enable us to infer that the two shears were contemporaneous in our favored interpretation oblique shearing in the core of the dome reflects lateral underflow i e horizontal flowing of the lower crust in a direction highly oblique to the direction of extension as a result of the interaction between lateral underflow and downdip shearing along the overlying detachment distinct structural domains are expected to exist within the migmatitic part of the core complex with observed counterparts in the nigde dome lateral underflow may reflect inward flow on the scale of the core complex regional scale channel flow is an alternative that would better account for the record of non coaxial deformation in the core of the dome more generally we suspect that the development of lateral underflow in a metamorphic core complex more likely reflects regional channel flow rather than local inward flow

tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the mongolian people s republic and its influence on hydrocarbon geology and potential abstract the stratigraphy of mongolia can be divided into five megasequences each characterized by a common tectonic and stratigraphic history the earliest megasequence 1 precambrian silurian records the amalgamation of precambrian early palaeozoic passive and active margin terranes and the resulting growth of a caledonian fold belt in western mongolia megasequence 2 devonian permian appears to be the most complex with a variety of active margin collisions in southern and eastern mongolia and the continued deformation of the caledonian fold belt in the west a substantial fold belt underpinned by a variety of granitic plutons existed across mongolia by the triassic there was widespread erosion and limited deposition in small foreland and intermontane basins megasequence 3 triassic early jurassic megasequence 4 mid jurassic cretaceous records extension across the partially eroded fold belt with deposition confined to a series of alluvial and lacustrine rift basins these basins later experienced transpression inversion and erosion followed by onlap and overstep giving more widespread sedimentation from large post rift alluvial systems during the late cretaceous and tertiary megasequence 5 megasequences 1 3 are usually extensively folded megasequences 4 and 5 have been involved in transpressive inversion and mongolia is an area of present day compressive and transpressive tectonics erosion and general uplift the late jurassic early cretaceous sequences megasequence 4 are the most prospective for finding extractable hydrocarbons oil has been successfully produced from megasequence 4 alluvial and lacustrine rift sequences with rich oil prone lacustrine mudrocks which can form both source and seal facies interbedded sandstones siltstones and mudstones form various combinations of reservoirs and seals a large number of hydrocarbon trap types are yet to be tested past drilling has been concentrated around surface seeps and on simple structures that can be mapped at the surface with usually only shallow tests