evidence for floatation or near floatation in the mouth of kamb ice stream west antarctica prior to stagnation 1 ice penetrating radar profiles reveal distinctive internal structure within the flat ice terrains that bound the lower reaches of the now stagnant kamb ice stream west antarctica slightly warped but continuous upper layers overlie extensive deep line diffractors located at a uniform depth several hundreds of meters above the bed on the basis of their orientation and morphology we interpret the line diffractors to be the tips of basal crevasses at the boundary between these terrains and the inter ice stream ridges internal layers are strongly downwarped and the deepest layers are truncated at the bed results from simple kinematic ice flow modeling indicate that the observed layer pattern requires a cumulative basal melt of 120 350 m over a time period that is less than 300 years fields of basal crevasses are typically observed in ice shelves however isolated basal crevasses can also be found in grounded ice when the subglacial water pressure is close to overburden on the basis of the presence of these crevasses we argue that these terrains were once floating or near floating in the past we combine model results with estimates of recent ice thickness change to suggest that floatation was transitory and the region may have become fully grounded roughly 200 years prior to stagnation of kamb ice stream

volcanic degassing geological society special publication 213 c oppenheimer d m pyle and j barclay editors pp 432 geological society publishing house unit 7 brassmill enterprise centre brassmill lane bath ba1 3 jn united kingdom isbn 1 86239 136 x 2003 price 100 00 volcanic degassing is one of several recent special publications on volcanoes and volcanic processes offered by the geological society this publication resulted from a two day long meeting convened in honor of the late peter francis the volume covers various aspects of magmatic volatiles and their influence on eruption dynamics and effects on the atmosphere although wide ranging this is not a comprehensive treatment of the subject rather the thematic volume is a compilation of papers which presumably were presented at the meeting consequently some of the gaps and imbalance are likely to frustrate many regular readers of economic geology particularly those who might want to improve their general knowledge on the topic the volume nevertheless

earthquake nests as natural laboratories for the study of intermediate depth earthquake mechanics article the physical mechanism of intermediate depth earthquakes is still under debate in contrast to conditions in the crust and shallow lithosphere at temperatures and pressures corresponding to depths 50 km rocks ought to yield by creep or flow rather than brittle failure some physical process has to enable brittle or brittle like failure for intermediate depth earthquakes the two leading candidates for that are dehydration embrittlement and ther mal shear runaway given their great depth intermediate depth earthquake processes can t be observed direct ly insteadwe must relyona combination ofseismologyand thestudy of laboratory analogs tounderstand them earthquake nests are regions of highly concentrated seismicity that are isolated from nearby activity in this paper we focus on three intermediate depth earthquake nests vrancea hindu kush and bucaramanga and what they reveal about the mechanics of intermediate depth earthquakes we review published studies of tectonic setting focal mechanisms precise earthquake locations and earthquake source physics at these locations with an emphasis on the bucaramanga nest all three nests are associated with subducting litho sphere and at least two of the nests have consistently larger stress drops compared to shallow seismicity in contrast the bucaramanga nest has a larger b value larger variability of focal mechanisms and shows no evidence of aftershock sequences unlike the other two we also report for the first time finding a signifi cant number of repeating earthquakes some with reverse polarity

internal layer tracing and age depth accumulation relationships for the northern greenland ice sheet clues to previous ice sheet structure and long term glaciological processes are preserved in the internal layering configuration of the greenland ice sheet information about these internal layers has been retrieved over many parts of the ice sheet with the university of kansas ice penetrating radar we report on the coherence of these layers over very large distances describe a method of tracing these layers along thousands of kilometers of flight line and do so for one flight during the 1999 program for arctic regional climate assessment parca aircraft campaign we determine the ages of these layers based on information at the grip ice core site and extend these ages along the flight line to camp century where they are compared to modeled derived age estimates these ages agree with each other to between 2 and 15 differences that can be substantially reduced with minor changes to the model parameters accumulation rate and shear layer depth finally we are able to derive estimates of accumulation rates along the flight line by fitting the age depth data from layer tracing to a dansgaard johnsen model with a minimization technique providing estimates that match recent accumulation patterns within a few centimeters per year

fracture propagation to the base of the greenland ice sheet during supraglacial lake drainage surface meltwater that reaches the base of an ice sheet creates a mechanism for the rapid response of ice flow to climate change the process whereby such a pathway is created through thick cold ice has not however been previously observed we describe the rapid 2 hours drainage of a large supraglacial lake down 980 meters through to the bed of the greenland ice sheet initiated by water driven fracture propagation evolving into moulin flow drainage coincided with increased seismicity transient acceleration ice sheet uplift and horizontal displacement subsidence and deceleration occurred over the subsequent 24 hours the short lived dynamic response suggests that an efficient drainage system dispersed the meltwater subglacially the integrated effect of multiple lake drainages could explain the observed net regional summer ice speedup

influence of subglacial drainage system evolution on glacier surface motion haut glacier d arolla switzerland 1 the relationship between the evolution of subglacial drainage system morphology and spatial patterns of glacier surface velocity was investigated using dye tracing experiments and ground surveying throughout the 1995 melt season at haut glacier d arolla switzerland with the onset of high and variable melt season discharges subglacial drainage changed from a predominantly distributed system to a predominantly channelized system the change occurred later farther up glacier during the period of drainage evolution the glacier was subjected to three periods of rapidly rising meltwater discharge the magnitude and spatial pattern of the glacier s velocity response differed between these periods and can be explained in terms of the impact of the evolving drainage system morphology on the amplitude and spatial distribution of basal hydrological forcing increasing discharge through a distributed drainage system caused widespread basal forcing and high glacier velocity increasing discharge through incipient channels below moulins not yet connected to the main channel caused more localized basal forcing and slightly increased glacier velocity increasing discharge through a fully channelized drainage system caused no significant basal forcing and glacier velocity was not significantly different from the annual deformation flow pattern empirical orthogonal function analysis of flow patterns defined two distinct spatial modes of surface velocity which corresponded closely with the drainage system morphologies inferred to be present during each event the relative importance of these modes changed through the melt season suggesting a temporal change in the spatial pattern of hydrologically induced basal forcing

modelling the evolution of supraglacial lakes on the west greenland ice sheet margin we present a model study investigating the summer evolution of supraglacial lakes on the greenland ice margin using a one dimensional 1 d model we calculate the surface ablation for a bare ice surface and beneath supraglacial lakes for 30 days in the summers of 1999 and 2001 the surface ablation beneath the lake was enhanced by 110 in 1999 and 170 in 2001 compared with the ablation for bare ice we then use the results from the 1 d model to further model the vertical and horizontal evolution of the supraglacial lakes the results of which are compared with satellite images within the region of the ice sheet where supraglacial lakes presently occur the area covered by supraglacial lakes is found to be more or less independent of the summer melt rate but controlled by topography we therefore predict that inside this region the area covered by supraglacial lakes will remain constant even in a warmer climate however in a warmer climate surface melting will occur higher on the ice sheet where small surface slopes favour formation of large supraglacial lakes enhanced surface melting beneath such lakes is a hitherto overlooked feedback mechanism related to climate warming

characterizing englacial drainage in the ablation zone of the greenland ice sheet rapid local drainage of surface meltwater to the base of the greenland ice sheet is thought to result in surface velocity variations as far inland as the equilibrium zone zwally and others 2002 ice penetrating radar surveys throughout this region allow us to characterize englacial drainage features that appear as vertically stacked diffraction hyperbolae in common offset profiles these data are used with a radar simulation model which allows for variations in geometry penetration depth and infill material to understand the characteristics of these hyperbolae and the likelihood that they are produced by moulins we find only a moderate correlation between the locations of these possible moulins and supraglacial lakes indicating that many lakes drain over the surface of the ice sheet or do not contain sufficient water to reach the bed through moulin formation we find a strong correlation between moulin location in the ablation region and elevated along flow tension due to flow over rough bedrock which generates surface crevassing and provides an entry point for meltwater although theory suggests that moulins may form anywhere on the ice sheet given sufficient meltwater input our data suggest that they are far more common in the ablation zone than near or inland from the equilibrium line

large intermediate depth earthquakes and the subduction process this study provides an overview of intermediate depth earthquake phenomena placing emphasis on the larger tectonically significant events and exploring the relation of intermediate depth earthquakes to shallower seismicity especially we examine whether intermediate depth events reflect the state of interplate coupling at subduction zones and whether this activity exhibits temporal changes associated with the occurrence of large underthrusting earthquakes historic record of large intraplate earthquakes m b 7 0 in this century shows that the new hebrides and tonga subduction zones have the largest number of large intraplate events regions associated with bends in the subducted lithosphere also have many large events e g altiplano and new ireland we compiled a catalog of focal mechanisms for events that occurred between 1960 and 1984 with m 6 and depth between 40 and 200 km the final catalog includes 335 events with 47 new focal mechanisms and is probably complete for earthquakes with m b 6 5 for events with m 6 5 nearly 48 of the events had no aftershocks and only 15 of the events had more than five aftershocks within one week of the mainshock events with more than ten aftershocks are located in regions associated with bends in the subducted slab focal mechanism solutions for intermediate depth earthquakes with m 6 8 can be grouped into four categories 1 normal fault events 44 and 2 reverse fault events 33 both with a strike nearly parallel to the trench axis 3 normal or reverse fault events with a strike significantly oblique to the trench axis 10 and 4 tear faulting events 13 the focal mechanisms of type 1 events occur mainly along strongly or moderately coupled subduction zones where a down dip extensional stress prevails in a gently dipping plate in contrast along decoupled subduction zones great normal fault earthquakes occur at shallow depths e g the 1977 sumbawa earthquake in indonesia type 2 events with strike subparallel to the subduction zone and most of them with a near vertical tension axis occur mainly in regions that have partially coupled or uncoupled subduction zones and the observed continuous seismicity is deeper than 300 km the increased dip of the downgoing slab associated with weakly coupled subduction zones and the weight of the slab may be responsible for the near vertical tensional stress at intermediate depth and consequently the change in focal mechanism from type 1 to type 2 events events of type 3 occur where the trench axis bends sharply causing horizontal parallel to the trench strike extensional or compressional intraplate stress type 4 are hinge faulting events for strongly coupled zones we observed temporal changes of intermediate depth earthquake activity associated with the occurrence of a large underthrusting event after the occurrence of a large underthrusting event the stress axis orientation of intermediate depth earthquakes changes from down dip tensional to down dip compressional e g 1960 chile 1974 peru 1982 tonga and 1952 kamchatka earthquakes or the number of large intermediate events decreases for a few years e g 1964 alaska and 1985 valparaiso earthquakes we conclude that even though the stress changes induced by slab pull and slab distortion control the general pattern of intermediate depth seismicity spatial and temporal variations of the intraplate stress associated with interplate coupling are important in controlling the global occurrence of large intermediate depth events

the effect of oceanic crustal structure on phase changes and subduction abstract recent numerical models for the thermal regime of subduction zones are in disagreement with observations of depth to formation of eclogite which require higher temperatures than those found in the models this discrepancy may be reconciled if more accurate geometric depictions of the subducted slab are incorporated in the modelling studies the transition from 15 dip along the thrust plane to 30 along the benioff zone starts at depths of about 40 km dehydration reactions and the gabbro eclogite phase change are presumed to increase the average density of the lithosphere and to cause the steepening of the subducted lithosphere the benioff zone seismicity which starts at about 40 km depth may itself be a result of stresses caused by the phase changes since the gabbro eclogite transformation occurs in gabbroic sections of the crust thickened crustal sections beneath oceanic plateaus will affect subduction first the width of the thrust zone is reduced due to the increased dip angle because of early transformation of lower and warmer crustal sections second incomplete conversion of the entire crustal thickness results in an average density intermediate between unsubducted oceanic lithosphere and fully transformed normal lithosphere the first effect leads to decreased thrust mechanism seismicity because the coupling between the plates is reduced the second effect leads to flat lying subcontinental subduction or arcward advance of the trench in suboceanic subduction

transition from interplate slip to double seismic zone along the kuril kamchatka arc during subduction the downgoing slab interacts with a strong overriding plate at shallow depths and with the surrounding asthenosphere at intermediate depths thus the transition from earthquakes representing interplate slip to those reflecting intraplate deformation within subducting lithosphere is important for understanding how the mechanics of subduction varies with depth to characterize this transition we studied 44 large to moderate sized earthquakes that occurred between 1964 and 1990 in two regions along the central portion of the kuril kamchatka arc precise earthquake source parameters are determined by analyzing body waveforms recorded at teleseismic distances at depths of 30 50 km our results delineate a transitional thrust zone characterized by earthquakes showing thrust faulting on moderately dipping nodal planes the northwesterly dipping nodal plane dips approximately 40 some 10 15 steeper than the dip of low angle earthquake faulting along the interplate thrust zone at depths shallower than 30 km for earthquakes along the transitional thrust zone secondary features in observed waveforms suggest that either a thick layer of sediments is present in the forearc region or the sources are embedded in materials with crustal seismic wave speeds in the former case the transitional thrust zone is interpreted as the deep seated portion of the plate interface whose dip increases with depth the alternative implies that the transitional thrust zone occurrs below the plate interface within subducted crust of the pacific plate and that the occurrence of earthquakes along the transitional zone may indicate a locked plate interface between depths of 30 and 50 km the inference of a locked plate interface is consistent with the occurrence of compressional earthquakes beneath the outer rise region however a locked interface does not seem to affect the state of strain in the double seismic zone the upper compressional layer of the double seismic zone abuts the transitional thrust zone at a depth of approximately 50 km at this depth the two layers of seismicity in the double seismic zone are separated by as much as 30 40 km too large a distance to be accommodated by models of seismogenesis invoking either the gabbro eclogite transition or dehydration of subducted oceanic crust

mechanisms of fast flow in jakobshavn isbrae west greenland part iii measurements of ice deformation temperature and cross borehole conductivity in boreholes to the bedrock at a site on the ice sheet adjacent to the jakobshavn ice stream in west greenland ice deformation rates and temperatures have been measured in boreholes to the bedrock at 830 m depth enhanced deformation rates were recorded just below the holocene wisconsin transition at 680 m depth a 31 m layer of temperate ice and the temperature minimum of 22 c at 520 m depth were detected the good agreement of these data with results of a two dimensional thermomechanically coupled flow model implies that the model input is adequate discrepancies between modelled and measured temperature profiles on a flowline at the ice stream centre have been attributed to effects not accounted for by the model we have suggested that the convergent three dimensional flow leads to a vertical extension of the basal ice entering the stream a thick basal layer of temperate and wisconsin ice would explain the fast flow of this ice stream as a test of this hypothesis the new core borehole conductivity cbc method has been used to compare conductivity sequences from the ice stream to those of the adjacent ice sheet the correlation thus inferred suggests that the lowest 270 m of the ice sheet correspond to the lowermost 1700 m of the stream and consequently that the lower part of the ice stream has experienced a very large vertical extension

seasonal evolution of supra glacial lakes on the greenland ice sheet abstract a survey of supra glacial lakes on the western margin of the greenland ice sheet reveals a seasonally driven hydrological system culminating in widespread lake drainage in late summer we used satellite imagery to study the evolution of 292 lakes across two sites totalling 22 000 km 2 in area during 2001 the lakes combined area increased to 75 5 km 2 by the beginning of july over the following 25 days an area totalling 36 3 5 km 2 drained from 216 lakes at one study site we used meteorological data and a positive degree day model to calculate the volume of water generated by melting in the lake catchments based on this estimate the mean depth of filling lakes surveyed rose from 1 5 0 7 m on 7th july to 3 9 1 1 m on 1st august in agreement with a value for one lake of 4 4 0 9 m we have derived from airborne altimetry during this 25 day period we estimate that 38 18 10 7 m 3 of water drained from the surface at this site and that there was an average water flux of 1 3 0 3 m 3 s 1 passing through each lake that drained completely

slab pull and the seismotectonics of subducting lithosphere this synthesis links many seismic and tectonic processes at subduction zones including great subduction earthquakes to the sinking of subducted plate earthquake data and tectonic modeling for subduction zones indicate that the slab pull force is much larger than the ridge push force interactions between the forces that drive and resist plate motions cause spatially and temporally localized stresses that lead to characteristic earthquake activity providing details on how subduction occurs compression is localized across a locked interface thrust zone because both the ridge push and the slab pull forces are resisted there the slab pull force increases with increasing plate age thus because the slab pull force tends to bend subducted plate downward and decrease the force acting normal to the interface thrust zone the characteristic maximum earthquake at a given interface thrust zone is inversely related to the age of the subducted plate the 1960 chile earthquake mw 9 5 the largest earthquake to occur in historic times began its rupture at an interface bounding oceanic plate 30 m y old however this rupture initiation was associated with the locally oldest subducting lithosphere weakest coupling the rupture propagated southward along an interface bounding progressively younger oceanic lithosphere terminating near the subducting chile rise prior to a great subduction earthquake the sinking subducted slab will cause increased tension at depths of 50 200 km with greatest tension near the shallow zone resisting plate subduction plate sinking not only leads to compressional stresses at a locked interface thrust zone but may load compressional stresses at plate depths of 260 350 km provided that the shallow sinking occurs faster than the relaxation time of the deeper mantle this explains k mogi s observations of m 7 thrust earthquakes at depths of 260 350 km immediately downdip and within 3 years prior to five great shallow earthquakes of northern japan the slab pull model explains the lower layer of double seismic zones as due to tension from the deeper sinking plate and the upper layer as due to localized in plate compression as plate motion is resisted by the bounding mantle just downdip of the interface thrust zone there occurs an aseismic 20 50 dip increase of subducted plate this slab bend reflects the summed slab pull force of deeper plate and probably is at the crustal basalt to eclogite phase change resistance to subduction provided by a continually developing slab bend may be an important factor in the size of slab pull force delivered to an interface thrust zone

three dimensional flow influences on radar layer stratigraphy variations in the depth of radar detectable englacial layers isochrones are commonly used to assess past variability in accumulation rates but little is known about the effect of internal and basal flow variations on isochrone deflections e g bumps troughs in this paper we show how the isochrones are affected by such variation using a three dimensional flow model to investigate changes in the flow mode and in increased basal melting we also investigate how transverse flows with lateral velocity gradients affect the development of isochrones we use the model to visualize how such variations will be seen in radar lines which cross the flow direction we show that in the presence of lateral gradients in the flow field we can produce bumps and troughs when viewed along transects perpendicular to the flow the model results show that the influences of flow convergence melting and changes in flow mode when coupled together affect isochrones over the whole depth of the ice sheet finally changes in the near surface layers cannot be solely attributed to spatial variation in the accumulation rate there can also be a strong signal from changes in the flow mode

relationship between shallow and intermediate depth seismicity in the eastern aleutian subduction zone the transition from shallow interplate thrusting to intermediate depth seismicity is often poorly observed but critical for understanding the fate of the downgoing slab in order to better examine the transition 1448 earthquakes are relocated from data recorded by a regional seismic network in the eastern aleutian arc using an improved three dimensional velocity model and accurate ray tracing single event first motion solutions are determined from these rays for 31 slab events the interplate thrust zone is a planar fault zone dipping 10 15 at 25 35 km depth and is no more than 5 10 km wide most intermediate depth earthquakes are localized to a plane no wider than 5 km near the top of the descending plate fault plane solution orientations for these events vary by several tens of degrees in orientation although 73 show t axes aligned within 45 of the slab dip a parallel seismic zone 20 25 km deeper into the slab also shows down dip plunges of t axes for 3 of 5 solutions the fault plane solutions are poorly explained by plate bending or unbending about a neutral fiber hypocenters show that intermediate depth events are confined near the subducted oceanic crust supporting compositional rather than pure thermal control of intermediate depth seismicity one explanation is that the upper plane events are an indirect consequence of phase changes in subducted crust perhaps similar processes are important in producing earthquakes in the lower parallel zone

seasonal reorganization of subglacial drainage inferred from measurements in boreholes the effect of the formation of a major subglacial drainage channel on the behaviour of the subglacial drainage system of haut glacier d arolla switzerland was investigated using measurements of borehole water level and the electrical conductivity and turbidity of basal meltwaters electrical conductivity profiles were also measured within borehole water columns to identify the water sources driving water level changes and to determine patterns of water circulation in boreholes prior to channel formation boreholes showed idiosyncratic and poorly coordinated behaviour diurnal water level fluctuations were small and driven by supraglacial englacial water inputs even when boreholes were connected to a subglacial drainage system this system appeared to consist of hydraulically impermeable patches interspersed with storage spaces and transmitted a very low water flux drainage reorganization which occurred around 31 july 1993 in response to rapidly rising meltwater and rainfall inputs seems to have involved the creation of a connection between an incipient channel and a well established channelized system located further down glacier once a major channel existed within the area of the borehole array borehole water level fluctuations were forced by discharge related changes in channel water pressure although a diversity of responses was observed these included i synchronous ii damped and lagged iii inverse and iv alternating inverse lagged responses synchronous responses occurred in boreholes connected directly to the channel while damped and lagged responses occurred in boreholes connected to it by a more resistive drainage system pressure variations within the channel resulted in diurnal transfer of mechanical support for the ice overburden between connected and unconnected areas of the bed producing inverse and alternating patterns of water level response 1998 john wiley sons ltd

an investigation into the mechanisms controlling seasonal speedup events at a high arctic glacier bingham r g hubbard a l nienow p w sharp m j 2008 an investigation into the mechanisms controlling seasonal speedup events at a high arctic glacier journal of geophysical research earth surface 113 f2 f02006 sponsorship nerc nserc the university of alberta circumpolar institute and northern science training programme the geological society of america

detailed structures of the subducted philippine sea plate beneath northeast taiwan a new type of double seismic zone we studied the detailed structure of the subducted philippine sea plate beneath northeast taiwan where oblique subduction regional collision and back arc opening are all actively occurring simultaneous inversion for velocity structure and earthquake hypocenters are performed using the vast high quality data recorded by the taiwan seismic network we further supplement the inversion results with earthquake source parameters determined from inversion of teleseismic p and sh waveforms a critical step to define the position of plate interface and the state of strain within the subducted slab the most interesting feature is that relocated hypocenters tend to occur along a two layered structure the upper layer is located immediately below the plate interface and extends down to 70 80 km at a dip of 40 50 below approximately 100 km the dip increases dramatically to 70 80 the lower layer commences at 45 50 km and stays approximately parallel to the upper layer with a separation of 15 5 km in between down to 70 80 km below that the separation decreases and the two layers seem to gradually merge into one wadati benioff zone we propose to term the classic double seismic zones observed beneath japan and kuril as type i and that we observed as type ii respectively a global survey indicates that type ii double seismic zones are also observed in new zealand near the southernmost north island cascadia just north of the mendocino triple junction and the cook inlet area of alaska all of them are located near the termini of subducted slabs in a tectonic setting of oblique subduction we interpret the seismogenesis of type ii double seismic zones as reflecting the lateral compressive stress between the subducted plate and the adjacent lithosphere originating from oblique subduction and the downdip extension from slab pulling force the upper seismic layer represents seismicity occurring in the upper crust of a subducted plate and or along the plate interface whereas the lower layer is associated with events in the uppermost mantle

surficial glaciology of jakobshavns isbrae west greenland part i surface morphology jakobshavns isbrae is a large fast moving ice stream outlet glacier in west greenland which ends at a floating calving front it drains about 6 5 of the area of the greenland ice sheet studies of its surface morphology are described in this paper the surface is relatively steep 0 01 0 03 and the thickness is large up to 2600 m along the center line clarke and echelmeyer 1989 indicating very high driving stresses 200 300 kpa the ice stream is about 6 km wide and 85 90 km long all of which is in an area of surface melting the base of the ice stream and of much of the drainage area is below sea level marginal crevasse zones have a width on the order of the width of the ice stream itself unique surficial features are ice blisters and lakes the latter have a sequence of ogive like features on their floating ice cover which can be used to determine velocity there is a pinning point near the terminus which may act as a stabilizing influence possibly playing a role in halting at least temporarily a recent retreat of the terminus ice thickness estimates at the terminus lead to a flux which is less than previously assumed by others e g bindschadler 1984 pelto and others 1989 when estimating jakobshavns isbrae s drainage basin to be nearly in balance the driving stresses on jakobshavns isbrae are an order of magnitude higher than those of the ice streams of west antarctica its crevasse patterns are much less localized its relatively unconfined terminus is more comparable to that of relatively unbuttressed ice streams such as pine island and thwaites glaciers than it is to other west antarctic ice streams which terminate in large confined ice shelves

recent movements of the juan de fuca plate system analysis of the magnetic anomalies of the juan de fuca plate system allows instantaneous poles of rotation relative to the pacific plate to be calculated from 7 ma to the present by combining these with global solutions for pacific america and absolute relative to hot spot motions a plate motion sequence can be constructed this sequence shows that both absolute motions and motions relative to america are characterized by slower velocities where younger and more buoyant material enters the convergence zone pivoting subduction the resistance provided by the youngest portion of the juan de fuca plate apparently resulted in its detachment at 4 ma as the independent explorer plate in relation to the hot spot framework this plate almost immediately began to rotate clockwise around a pole close to itself such that its translational movement into the mantle virtually ceased after 4 ma the remainder of the juan de fuca plate adjusted its motion in response to the fact that the youngest material entering the subduction zone was now to the south differences in seismicity and recent uplift between northern and southern vancouver island may reflect a distinction in tectonic style between the normal subduction of the juan de fuca plate to the south and a complex underplating occurring as the explorer plate is overridden by the continent the history of the explorer plate may exemplify the conditions under which the self driving forces of small subducting plates are overcome by the influence of larger adjacent plates the recent rapid migration of the absolute pole of rotation of the juan de fuca plate toward the plate suggests that it too may be nearing this condition

a cut and closure origin for englacial conduits in uncrevassed regions of polythermal glaciers on uncrevassed regions of polythermal glaciers englacial conduits can form by incision of supraglacial stream channels followed by roof closure the origin and evolution of examples in longyearbreen svalbard and khumbu glacier nepal were determined by speleological survey the development of perennial incised channels requires that incision is significantly faster than glacier surface ablation and thus will be favoured by high meltwater discharges in combination with cool climatic conditions or thick debris cover incised canyons can become blocked by drifted winter snow refrozen meltwater ice rafting from non local sources allochthonous breccias and roof collapses autochthonous breccias conduit closure can also occur in response to ice creep particularly at depth following isolation from the surface englacial conduits continue to evolve by vadose incision down to local base level in the case of longyearbreen incision allowed the channel to reach the glacier bed but on khumbu glacier deep incision is prevented because an effectively impermeable terminal moraine provides a high base level for the glacier drainage system during our period of observations deeper parts of the longyearbreen conduit became blocked by a combination of ice accumulation and creep causing the stream course to be re routed to higher levels on that glacier incision blockage and upward re routing are cyclic we conclude that cut and closure is the dominant mechanism of englacial conduit formation on uncrevassed regions of polythermal glaciers

englacial drainage systems formed by hydrologically driven crevasse propagation recent work has shown that surface to bed drainage systems re form annually on parts of the greenland ice sheet and some high arctic glaciers leading to speed up events soon after the onset of summer melt surface observations and geophysical data indicate that such systems form by hydrologically driven fracture propagation herein referred to as hydrofracturing although little is known about their characteristics using speleological techniques we have explored and surveyed englacial drainage systems formed by hydrofracturing in glaciers in svalbard nepal and alaska in hansbreen svalbard vertical shafts were followed through 60 m of cold ice and 10 m of temperate basal ice to a subglacial conduit deep hydrofracturing occurred at this site due to a combination of extensional ice flow and abundant surface meltwater at a glacier confluence the englacial drainage systems in khumbu glacier nepal and matanuska glacier alaska usa formed in areas of longitudinal compression and transverse extension and consist of vertical slots that plunge down glacier at angles of 558 or less the occurrence of englacial drainages initiated by hydrofracturing in diverse glaciological regimes suggests that it is a very widespread process and that surface to bed drainage can occur wherever high meltwater supply coincides with ice subjected to sufficiently large tensile stresses

till beneath ice stream b 3 till deformation evidence and implications most of the velocity of ice stream b near the upstream b camp upb west antarctica appears to arise from deformation of a seismically detected subglacial till layer that averages 6 m thick available evidence indicates that the entire thickness of this till layer is deforming and is eroding subjacent bedrock into flutes parallel to ice flow and hundreds of meters across the resulting till flux beneath upb is equivalent to an average erosion rate of about 0 4 mm yr 1 in the catchment area and suggests that till deltas tens of kilometers long have been deposited at the grounding line during the holocene such deltas should be characterized by partial ice till decoupling across a water film and by a small ice air surface slope they may have been discovered by recent geophysical work

double seismic zones and stresses of intermediate depth earthquakes data from japanese local seismograph networks suggest that the stresses in double seismic zones are in plate compression for the upper zone and in plate tension for the lower zone the stresses do not necessarily appear to be down dip it may therefore be possible to identify other double seismic zones on the basis of data which indicate that events with differing orientations of in plate stresses occur in a given segment of slab a global survey of published focal mechanisms for intermediate depth earthquakes suggests that the stress in the slab is controlled at least in part by the age of the slab and the rate of convergence old and slow slabs are under in plate tensile stresses and the amount of in plate compression in the slab increases with increasing convergence rate or decreasing slab age young and fast slabs are an exception to this trend all such slabs are down dip tensile since these slabs all subduct under continents they may be bent by continental loading double seismic zones are not a feature common to all subduction zones and are only observed in slabs which are not dominated by tensile or compressive stresses unbending of the lithosphere and upper mantle phase changes are unlikely to be the causes of the major features of double zones although they may contribute to producing some of their characteristics sagging or thermal effects possibly aided by asthenospheric relative motion may produce the local deviatoric stresses that cause double zones

a triple planed structure of seismicity and earthquake mechanisms at the subduction zone off miyagi prefecture northern honshu japan abstract a detailed cross section of seismicity combined with types of earthquake mechanisms was constructed for the subduction zone off miyagi prefecture northern honshu japan where a large m s 7 5 earthquake occurred on june 12 1978 nodal plane solutions were determined for fourteen earthquakes with body wave magnitudes 5 4 using data recorded at wwssn and japanese stations for smaller magnitude events the types of focal mechanism were analysed using p wave first motion data recorded at regional stations the results obtained are 1 for the area 150 200 km landward from the trench axis the cross section suggests a triple planed seismic zone that is the zone of thrusting overlaps the so called double planed seismic zone the upper and lower planes of the double planed seismic zone are characterized by down dip compression and down dip tension respectively 2 thrusting terminates at a depth of 60 km where the aseismic front in the area is located and it merges into the zone of down dip compression in the deeper part in a down dip direction in contrast the depth of the zone of down dip compression appears to shift by 10 km at the aseismic front 3 the extension of the zone of down dip compression seaward beyond the aseismic front and the shift of the depth of the zone may be caused by loading within the descending slab through a mechanical coupling between the plates at the focal area of the 1978 earthquake prior to its occurrence

a hypothesis for the seismogenesis of a double seismic zone summary the seismogenesis of a double seismic zone in particular the lower layer of a double seismic zone has not been adequately explained in the literature on the basis of seismic data and geothermal structures along three well studied cross sections in the kuril kamchatka and japan subduction zones we investigate the temperature pressure conditions associated with seismogenic structures of the double seismic zones the corresponding tip loci seem to suggest that earthquakes observed in the lower layer and in the lower part below approximately 130 20 km of the top layer of a double seismic zone were caused by metastable phase transition a mechanism similar to that responsible for deep focus earthquakes only at lower temperature pressure conditions under this hypothesis the wedge shaped configuration of a double seismic zone is interpreted to represent the loci of the kinetic boundary of the phase transition according to theoretical experimental studies and the constraints imposed by our observations a likely candidate for such a phase transition is the metastable al rich enstatite decomposing into the assemblage of al poor enstatite plus garnet earthquakes in the upper part of the top layer were most probably due to conventional mechanisms such as dehydration of subducted materials and or facies change from basalt to eclogite that the top layer involves more than one seismogenic mechanism is also implied by the distinct behaviour of seismicity in the vicinity of 130 f 20 km because the presence of deviatoric stress is critical to the reaction rate of a metastable phase transition it is inferred that single seismic zones are also caused by the same mechanisms except that the implicit layer of a supposed double seismic zone is missing due to the insufficient amount of appropriate metastable minerals or to the lack of appropriate deviatoric stresses in the source region

seismic reflection imaging of the subducting juan de fuca plate mckenzie and parker s early suggestion1 that the juan de fuca plate is underthrusting north america has since been confirmed by numerous studies evidence for plate convergence along this junction includes a sediment filled trench2 7 intense compressional deformation of the continental slope and shelf sediments2 7 seafloor magnetic anomalies that extend beneath the continental slope2 4 inland andesitic volcanoes8 paired low high heat flow and gravity anomalies9 10 active onshore deformation11 12 onshore crustal earthquakes with compressional axes parallel to the direction of plate convergence13 sinistral strike slip earthquakes along the nootka fault fig 1 14 and a well defined benioff wadati zone6 15 16 here we report the results of a seismic reflection survey that has delineated two slabs of oceanic lithosphere underlying vancouver island one that is currently being subducted and one that is underplated these findings lead us to speculate that successive underplating of oceanic lithosphere may be an important process in the evolution and growth of continents

epithermal deposits in north xinjiang nw china the north xinjiang region nw china is an important part of the central asia orogenic belt situated at the junction of siberia tarim and kazakhstan plates it is an area characterized by multiple stages of phanerozoic continental growth during which several porphyry and epithermal systems were formed the relationship of these mineral systems to the geodynamic evolution of the region has not yet been well understood in this paper we list the main geological characteristics of 21 significant epithermal precious and base metal deposits in north xinjiang and classify them into high sulfidation and low sulfidation styles with the latter being predominant we have selected seven epithermal deposits representing different styles formed under different tectonic regimes and discuss their geology and geochemistry in some detail the deposit scale geology and geochemistry of epithermal systems in north xinjiang are essentially similar to those in other parts of the world all epithermal deposits in north xinjiang are hosted in volcanic rocks with ages ranging from devonian to triassic with the early carboniferous volcanic sequences being the most important followed by the permian and triassic the devonian early carboniferous host rocks belong to the calc alkaline series that developed in pre collisional arc back arc basin systems whereas the permian triassic host volcanic rocks of shoshonite series formed in post subduction regimes available isotopic ages of these epithermal systems cluster in two periods early carboniferous 320 ma and late carboniferous triassic 320 220 ma reflecting two metallogenic episodes that occurred during subduction related accretion and post subduction collision regimes respectively accordingly three groups of epithermal deposits in north xinjiang can be recognized as 1 pre collisional deposits without or with negligible collisional related modification 2 deposits formed in collision regime and 3 ore systems strongly overprinted by fluid flow in post subduction collision regime

porphyry mo and epithermal au ag pb zn mineralization in the zhilingtou polymetallic deposit south china the zhilingtou polymetallic deposit south china provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the magmatic hydrothermal evolution of the porphyry mo to epithermal au ag pb zn ore spectrum new zircon u pb sphalerite 40ar 39ar and pyrite rb sr ages together with previous molybdenite re os ages indicate that the granitic magmatism and mo au ag pb zn mineralization were coeval and cogenetic in the early cretaceous 113 ma fluid inclusions and h o isotope results have established the evolution from an early high temperature h2o nacl magmatic fluid system mo mineralization to a medium temperature mixed fluid system of magmatic and meteoric water au ag mineralization to a peripheral late stage low temperature h2o nacl meteoric water fluid system epithermal au ag pb zn mineralization moreover the sulfur isotopic compositions 34s 2 1 7 8 of the sulfide minerals confirm a genetic link to the granitic magma lead isotope data from pyrite and the granite rhyolite porphyries are similar indicating that they share a common pb source the geochronological geochemical and isotopic lines of evidences consistently suggest that the porphyry mo and epithermal au ag pb zn mineralization formed in one magmatic hydrothermal system the porphyry epithermal mineralization model for zhilingtou has significant importance for prospecting work in south china where mo and associated pb zn ag resources are abundant

thermodynamic constraints on phase changes as earthquake source mechanisms in subduction zones abstract application of thermodynamic equations for phase transitions with a shock wave output from metastable to stable phases that are believed to occur in subduction zones indicates that while many show a volume reduction and thus may contribute to slab pull mechanisms of plate tectonics they do not satisfy criteria for the generation of shock waves of the reactions considered only one antigorite clinoenstatite forsterite talc satisfies the criteria and for this case the shock wave pressure is in fact less than the pressure calculated for the leading edge of the subduction zone this would imply that if the transition does occur under shock conditions in the subduction zone dilatational rather than compressional first motions for the associated earthquake are expected

seasonal changes in the morphology of the subglacial drainage system haut glacier d arolla switzerland dye tracing techniques were used to investigate the glacier wide pattern of change in the englacial subglacial drainage system of haut glacier d arolla during the ablation seasons of 1990 and 1991 analysis of breakthrough curve characteristics indicate that over the course of a melt season a system of major channels developed by headward growth at the expense of a hydraulically inefficient distributed system by the end of the melt season this channel system extended at least 3 3 km from the snout of the 4 km long glacier and drained the bulk of supraglacially derived meltwater passing through the glacier the upper limit of the channel system closely followed the retreating snowline up glacier rates of headward channel growth reached c 65 m d 1 although these rates decreased in the upper 1 km of the glacier where snowline retreat exposed a patchy firn aquifer it appears that the removal of snow with its high albedo and significant water storage capacity from the glacier surface resulted in a dramatic increase in the volume of runoff into moulins and in the peakedness of daily runoff cycles this induced transient high water pressures within the distributed drainage system which caused it to evolve rapidly into a channelised system it is therefore likely that at a local scale channel growth occurred down glacier from moulins and that the overall up glacier directed pattern of channel formation was caused by the retreating snowline exposing new moulins and crevasses to inputs of ice derived meltwater damping of diurnal melt inputs by storage in the firm aquifer accounts for the slowing of channel growth in the upper glacier 1998 john wiley sons ltd

combined measurements of subglacial water pressure and surface velocity of findelengletscher switzerland conclusions about drainage system and sliding mechanism interpretation des mesures de pression dans les forages et des vitesses superficielles la comparaison avec les modeles suggere que l on a neglige le frottement du aux debris dans les modeles et qu il n existe jamais de chenaux cylindriques rectilignes

surface melt induced acceleration of greenland ice sheet flow ice flow at a location in the equilibrium zone of the west central greenland ice sheet accelerates above the midwinter average rate during periods of summer melting the near coincidence of the ice acceleration with the duration of surface melting followed by deceleration after the melting ceases indicates that glacial sliding is enhanced by rapid migration of surface meltwater to the ice bedrock interface interannual variations in the ice acceleration are correlated with variations in the intensity of the surface melting with larger increases accompanying higher amounts of summer melting the indicated coupling between surface melting and ice sheet flow provides a mechanism for rapid large scale dynamic responses of ice sheets to climate warming

polarities of p and s waves and shear wave splitting observed from the bucaramanga nest colombia the bucaramanga nest colombia is an intense seismic source centered at 6 48 n 73 10 w and 161 km depth beneath the eastern andes during a 3 week period 161 microearthquakes mb 4 3 were recorded by a 260 by 140 km array of 12 three component university of wisconsin uw seismographs centered above the nest eighty eight percent of the events recorded were from the nest providing a unique opportunity to study natural events that have different source parameters but nearly the same ray paths shear wave splitting analysis shows that the average polarization direction of the first arriving shear waves from the nest events at nine of the seismographs is n12 e 18 after corrections based on the amount of discrepancy between the observed average p wave azimuth and the expected event to station azimuth average s wave polarization is n6 e 15 variation in time delays with azimuth and epicentral distance appears to be due to the varying angles between the ray path and the principal axes of the anisotropic system shear wave splitting observed from 17 events along the wadati benioff zone outside the nest shows that the time delays increase with increasing depth and defines a wedge shaped anisotropic volume above the subducting plate the anisotropic layer has a maximum thickness of approximately 60 km at the depth of the nest and is thinning updip the anisotropy most likely results from aligned anisotropic minerals such as olivine and orthopyroxene in a localized mantle flow in the lithosphere above the wadati benioff zone a region weakened by active fluid migration and mobilized by the heating and shearing along the suducting slab

upper crustal fluids in a large fault system microstructural trace element and oxygen isotope study on multi phase vein quartz at the bavarian pfahl se germany fault systems are zones of crustal weakness and are used as pathways for ascending hydrothermal fluids one impressive example is the more than 150 km long bavarian pfahl system at the sw boundary of the bohemian massif dextral ductile shearing of moldanubian basement has shaped a several hundred meter wide zone of mylonites and ultramylonites this setting was reactivated under brittle conditions and infiltrated by fluids resulting in a multi phase quartz lode structural analysis using scanning electron microscopy cathodoluminescence sem cl images has been carried out in combination with trace element and oxygen isotope analysis on quartz along the system three successive quartz phases have been distinguished due to their structural details and trace element contents cryptocrystalline quartz fabric in the first quartz phase results from crystallization from a silica gel whereas in phases ii and iii quartz precipitation is characterized by repeated fragmentation and sealing visible due to strongly varying cl intensities the 18o of bavarian pfahl quartz decreases from 13 8 in the nw to 8 5 in the se whereas quartz from the close by situated wolsendorf fluorite deposit shows 18o between 15 9 and 18 5 vs smow flat shale normalized rare earth element patterns point towards an upper crustal origin of the hydrothermal fluids the southeastern part of the bavarian pfahl is interpreted to represent a deeper crustal level with higher mineralization temperatures about 350 c compared to the rest of the pfahl 250 c

subduction system and flat slab beneath the eastern cordillera of colombia seismicity at the northern terminus of the nazca subduction is diffused over a wide area containing the puzzling seismic feature known as the bucaramanga nest we relocate about 5000 earthquakes recorded by the colombian national seismic network and produce the first 3 d velocity model of the area to define the geometry of the lithosphere subducting below the colombian andes we found lateral velocity heterogeneities and an abrupt offset of the wadati benioff zone at 5 n indicating that the nazca plate is segmented by an e w slab tear that separates a steeper nazca segment to the south from a flat subduction to the north the flat nazca slab extends eastward for about 400 km before dip increases to 50 beneath the eastern cordillera where it yields the bucaramanga nest we explain this puzzling locus of intermediate depth seismicity located beneath the eastern cordillera of colombia as due to a massive dehydration and eclogitization of a thickened oceanic crust we relate the flat subducting geometry to the entrance at the trench at ca 10 ma of a thick buoyant oceanic crust likely a volcanic ridge producing a high coupling with the overriding plate sub horizontal plate subduction is consistent with the abrupt disappearance of volcanism in the andes of south america at latitudes 5 n

a new high resolution digital elevation model of greenland fully validated with airborne laser altimeter data a new digital elevation model of the greenland ice sheet and surrounding rock outcrops has been produced at 1 km postings from a comprehensive suite of satellite remote sensing and cartographic data sets height data over the ice sheet were mainly from ers 1 and geosat radar altimetry these data were corrected for a slope dependent bias that had been identified in a previous study the radar altimetry was supplemented with stereophotogrammetric data sets synthetic aperture radar interferometry and digitized cartographic maps over regions of bare rock and where gaps in the satellite altimeter coverage existed the data were interpolated onto a regular grid with a spacing of 1 km the accuracy of the resultant digital elevation model over the ice sheet was assessed using independent and spatially extensive measurements from an airborne laser altimeter that had an accuracy of between 10 and 12 cm in a comparison with the laser altimetry the digital elevation model was found to have a slope dependent accuracy ranging from 1 04 1 98 m to 0 06 14 33 m over the ice sheet for a slope range of 0 0 1 0 the mean accuracy over the whole ice sheet was 0 33 6 97 m over the bare rock areas the accuracy ranged from 20 to 200 m dependent on the data source available the new digital elevation model was used as an input data set for a positive degree day model of ablation the new elevation model was found to reduce ablation by only 2 compared with using an older 2 5 km resolution model which suggests that resolution induced errors in estimating ablation are no longer important

role of shallow phase changes in the subduction of oceanic crust detailed studies of the seismicity of several subduction zones demonstrate that shallow dipping thrust zones turn to steeper angles at depths of about 40 kilometers an increased downward body force resulting from shallow phase changes in subducted oceanic crust may be the cause of this increased dip angle in addition the volume reduction associated with phase changes may produce sufficiently large stresses in neighboring rocks to cause the seismicity of the upper benioff zone

densities and porosities in the oceanic crust and their variations with depth and age we have used drilling and downhole logging results from deep sea drilling project holes 395a and 418a measured properties of core samples from the seafloor and from ophiolites and seismic velocity structure models of the oceanic crust to constrain empirical statistical relationships between in situ densities porosities and seismic velocities and to estimate densities and porosities in the oceanic crust with the following principal results our review of drilling results and studies of ophiolites suggests that the velocity structure of the oceanic crust is more closely related to changes in porosity and alteration or metamorphic grade than to its igneous structure the transition from layer 2a 3 7 0 4 km s 1 to 2b 5 2 0 4 km s 1 occurs within the extrusive pile the top of layer 2c 6 2 0 2 km s 1 is associated with the top of the sheeted dike complex and with the first appearance of greenschist facies alteration products ophiolite studies have shown that the top of layer 3 occurs within the sheeted dikes where the metamorphic grade of alteration products increases from greenschist to amphibolite facies a comparison of reprocessed and corrected downhole logs from holes 395a and 418a indicates that in situ densities and fractional porosities differ by 0 2 mg m 3 and 0 07 respectively these differences are consistent with prevailing views of the progressive alteration of the upper oceanic crust statistical relationships between in situ density porosity and slowness are highly linear and indicate that the density slowness relation estimated from laboratory samples pb 3 81 0 02 6 0 0 1 s applies to in situ properties as well we obtained a similar empirical relationship for porosities from the hole 418a log data f 0 35 0 03 2 37 0 15 s r2 0 84 s e 0 015 applying these empirical models to seismic velocity structure models yields the following crustal densities and porosities layer 2 2 62 2 69 mg m 3 0 10 0 12 and layer 3 2 92 2 97 mg m 3 the estimated average density of the oceanic crust is 2 86 0 03 mg m 3 densities and porosities estimated from a seismic crustal structure model for old atlantic crust agree very well with the logging data from hole 418a suggesting that in situ densities and porosities can be estimated from seismic velocities high density and porosity gradients are characteristic of the upper oceanic crust increasing densities reflect both a progressive decrease of porosity and increasing grain density with depth based on the seismic properties of layer 2a we estimate that the layer thins at an approximate rate 20 to 45 m m y 1 while the velocity increases by 0 040 km s 1 m y 1 the corresponding rates of change of density and porosity are 0 016 0 009 mg m 3 m y 1 and 0 005 0 003 m y 1 respectively

structural control of englacial conduits in the temperate matanuska glacier alaska usa fourteen englacial conduits were mapped within 2 km of the terminus of the temperate matanuska glacier alaska usa to ice depths of 65 m using speleological techniques detailed three dimensional maps of the conduits were made over 3 years to characterize conduit relationships with glacier structural features and to track conduit evolution through time all conduits consisted of single unbranching passages that followed fractures in the ice all conduits were either too constricted to continue or became water filled at their deepest explored point and were not able to be followed to the glacier bed conduit morphology varied systematically with the orientation of the glacier principal stresses allowing them to be categorized into two broad classes the first class of conduits were formed by hydrostatic crevasse penetration where a large supraglacial stream intersected longitudinal crevasses these conduits plunged toward the glacier bed at angles of 30 408 the second class of conduits formed where smaller streams sank into the glacier on shear crevasses many of these conduits changed direction dramatically where they intersected transverse crevasses at depth these results suggest that the conduits observed in this study formed along fractures and over their surveyed length were not affected by gradients in ice overburden pressure

evolution of the subglacial drainage system beneath the greenland ice sheet revealed by tracers predictions of the greenland ice sheet s response to climate change are limited in part by uncertainty in the coupling between meltwater lubrication of the ice sheet bed and ice flow1 2 3 this uncertainty arises largely from a lack of direct measurements of water flow characteristics at the bed of the ice sheet previous work has been restricted to indirect observations based on seasonal and spatial variations in surface ice velocities4 5 6 7 and on meltwater flux8 here we employ rhodamine and sulphur hexafluoride tracers injected into the drainage system over three melt seasons to observe subglacial drainage properties and evolution beneath the greenland ice sheet up to 57 km from the margin tracer results indicate evolution from a slow inefficient drainage system to a fast efficient channelized drainage system over the course of the melt season further inland evolution to efficient drainage occurs later and more slowly an efficient routing of water was established up to 41 km or more from the margin where the ice is approximately 1 km thick overall our findings support previous interpretations of drainage system characteristics thereby validating the use of surface observations as a means of investigating basal processes

thermal stresses in subducting lithosphere can explain double seismic zones the discovery of double planed zones of intermediate depth seismicity associated with subducting oceanic lithosphere refs 1 7 and l s h and k h j in preparation has generated much interest in the origin and distribution of stresses in descending plates several mechanisms have been proposed to explain why double zones occur8 here we investigate the role of thermal stresses for the state of stress in a descending plate and test whether they can account for the observed characteristics of double seismic zones by modelling the descending slab as a thin elastic plate and using the temperatures in the slab estimated by toksoz et al 9 we find that the polarities of thermally generated stresses agree with those obtained from the focal mechanisms of earthquakes in the two zones thermal stresses also can explain the separation between the two zones of seismicity at shallow depths and their gradual merging at greater depth

structural genesis of the eunsan and moisan low sulphidation epithermal au ag deposits seongsan district southwest korea the seongsan district in the jindo haenam basin of southwest korea comprises precambrian gneissic basement overlain and intruded by cretaceous volcanic 98 71 ma and plutonic 86 68 ma rocks respectively haenam formation volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks are the dominant rock type exposed in the district and are the main host to high sulphidation 82 77 ma and low sulphidation 79 73 ma epithermal deposits the eunsan and moisan low sulphidation epithermal deposits have similar vein mineralogy zoned hydrothermal alteration mineral assemblages structural framework and interpreted deformation events these similarities suggest that they formed by district scale hydrothermal fluid flow at about 77 5 ma at this time ore fluid movement along subvertical wnw trending faults was particularly focussed in dilatant fault bends jogs and at intersections with n trending splays at eunsan au ag ore shoots coincide with these areas of structural complexity whereas at moisan narrower ore zones correspond with several parallel poorly connected veins a secondary control on the location of ore zones is the intersection between mineralised wnw striking structures and rocks of the haenam formation the higher permeability and porosity of these rocks in comparison with mudstones and siltstones of the underlying uhangri formation resulted in the more efficient lateral migration of ore fluids away from subvertical faults and into wall rocks the intersection between subvertical wnw striking faults and the gently dipping haenam formation imparts a low angle sw plunge to both ore bodies wnw striking post mineralisation faults displace ore zones up to 100 m and complicate the along strike exploration and mining of wnw trending ore zones future exploration strategies in the district involve the systematic testing of wnw trending mineralised structures along strike from known deposits with a particular emphasis on identifying structurally complex areas that experienced local dilation during the mineralisation event poorly exposed regions have historically been under explored however based on the proposed exploration model for the eunsan and moisan deposits these areas of poor outcrop are now considered important target areas for hidden ore bodies using ground based geophysical exploration tools such as seismic surveys

geoscience the plumbing of greenland s ice observations of the water pressure in drilled boreholes and natural moulins on the greenland ice sheet show how its underlying plumbing system controls ice motion during the course of the summer melt season see letter p 80 increased meltwater delivery to the base of the greenland ice sheet will increase the ice sheet velocity accelerating its inevitable rush towards the ocean and subsequent sea level rise or will it debate on this topic is at the forefront of cryospheric research but has been hampered by the lack of simultaneous observations of hydraulic head in moulins vertical shafts that deliver water to the base of the ice sheet and boreholes which monitor basal water pressure lauren andrews and colleagues now provide these observations from a small region in western greenland and reveal that water delivery by moulins into channelized basal flow is indeed linked to short term fluctuations in ice velocity late season decelerations in ice velocity however seem to be controlled by changes in unchannelized flow rather than any shifts in the moulin system

single link cluster analysis of earthquake aftershocks decay laws and regional variations using single link cluster analysis the authors investigate how various properties of aftershock sequences depend on their tectonic regime and focal depth for international seismological centre earthquakes of m sub b ge 4 8 they find that earthquakes deeper than 70 km have the fewest and smallest aftershock sequences even after accounting for differences in detectability and maximum magnitude they find that ridge transform earthquakes have smaller aftershock sequences that shallow subduction zone earthquakes among different subduction zones they find that zones with high moment release rates possess larger aftershock sequences comparing ridge transform zones they find those with slower spreading rates possess larger aftershock sequences by transposing origin times of several different aftershock sequences as if all had main shocks occurring at time zero they are able to study the properties of aftershock sequences which individually have too few aftershocks to study by other means secondary events determined by single link cluster analysis follow a modified omori s power law decay for time separations of 0 1 day to 20 days from the parent event with p values ranging from 0 539 plus minus 0 022 intermediate and deep focus earthquakes to 0 928 plus minus 0 024 ridge transform earthquakes they find that earthquake foreshocks and multiplets also follow a modified omori s law atmore greater times from the main shock the decay is steeper than a power law decay more like an exponential decay aftershocks in the adak catalog m sub b ge 2 0 show a marked decrease in activity between 40 and 50 km depth they speculate that the observed differences in number of aftershocks and p values may be caused by variations in fault heterogeneity or in fluid pressures less

interslab earthquakes and phase changes in subducting lithosphere at 0033 ut on 9 june 1994 a great deep earthquake occurred 635 km beneath the amazonian rain forest of northern bolivia the deep rupture of this record setting magnitude 8 3 shock lasted about a minute harvard university centroid moment tensor catalogue the seismic strain release of this single event as indicated by its seismic moment was greater than the total strain release for all deep earthquakes in the harvard cmt catalogue during the previous 17 years of its coverage of global seismicity incredibly ground motion was felt as far north as seattle washington and toronto canada evidently it occurred within the subducting nazca plate that is descending beneath south america this earthquake reminds us of the sometimes grand scale of deep seismic failure and of the need to consider more closely the physical processes that accompany slab descent and in particular how such earthquakes may reflect the inner workings of slabs

microseismicity and focal mechanisms of the intermediate depth bucaramanga nest colombia the bucaramanga nest of intermediate depth seismicity in northern colombia was investigated from microearthquakes m sub b less than or equal to4 3 recorded from june 20 to july 6 1979 by a local array of 12 digital three component seismographs of 161 events studied 142 are from the nest and 19 define a thin wadati benioff w b zone mainly from 110 to 190 km depth the w b zone part of the bucaramanga segment strikes n10 sup 0 e with a dip increasing wtih depth from 30 sup 0 e to near vertical beneath the nest the 89 best located events from within the nest define a volume of about 8 km nw by 4 km ne by 4 km depth centered at 161 km depth with relative location accuracies of 0 5 to 1 0 km double couple fault plane solutions of 59 events were determined from an objective procedure using p wave polarities and s p amplitude ratios there is no dominant trend in focal mechanisms nor any reasonable correlation with regional stress patterns or previously determined mechanisms from teleseismic data the subduction and assimilation of a linear feature such as an island arc undergoing a phase transformation may explain the existence of the bucaramanga nest however the extraordinarilymore high rate of seismicity suggests that the nest may be moving rate several orders of magnitude faster than the rate of relative plate motion alone the intense seismicity and variation in focal mechanisms suggest that the nest represents some aspect of stress release associated with the ascent of fluids perhaps brine or magma that will ultimately result in the initiation of volcanic activity over this recently emplaced w b zone copyright american geophysical union 1987 less

black box modeling of the subglacial water system measurements of water pressure beneath trapridge glacier yukon territory canada yield the following generalizations about subglacial conditions in the studied region 1 even over short distances the subglacial water system is highly heterogeneous 2 the subglacial water system consists of at least two distinct components which we refer to as the connected and unconnected water systems 3 regions of the glacier bed can switch back and forth from being part of the connected or part of the unconnected water system 4 large spatial pressure gradients can exist within the unconnected water system and between the connected and unconnected systems 5 rapid pressure variations can occur in the unconnected water system 6 pressure variations in the unconnected water system do not match those in the connected system and can in fact be strongly anticorrelated with pressure variations in the connected system if the water pressure variations in the connected system are viewed as a forcing and those in the unconnected system as a response to this forcing the input output relation between forcing and response can be efficiently represented as a low order nonlinear ordinary differential equation the response of the unconnected system to forcing from the connected system is governed by time constants having approximate magnitudes of 1 7 hours and 7 4 hours that we believe are associated with process rates for substrate compression and pore water diffusion respectively

high pressure metamorphism and deep crustal seismicity evidence from contemporaneous formation of pseudotachylytes and eclogite facies coronas the metamorphic complex of the western gneiss region wgr norway constitutes the root of the caledonian mountain belt and experienced temperatures of 700 800 c and pressures in excess of 20 kbar during peak metamorphism mafic bodies surrounded by strongly banded felsic gneisses commonly exhibit variable reequilibration to granulite and eclogite facies conditions and locally preserve igneous minerals and textures the krakeneset gabbro located on the island of vagsoy in the mixed hp uhp zone of the western wgr display evidence for extensive metastability through the entire prograde and retrograde p t histories eclogite constitutes less than a few percent of the total volume of the body and high pressure assemblages typically form thin coronas around magmatic phases or occur along localized zones of brittle deformation and fluid infiltration the gabbro displays pseudotachylyte vein networks that define subparallel brittle fault zones 50 cm wide transecting the gabbro body the pseudotachylytes contain m to mm scale amoeboid and dendrite like textures of garnet and plagioclase with inclusions of the eclogite facies minerals orthopyroxene omphacite amphibole and dolomite suggesting rapid disequilibrium growth of minerals during high pressure conditions textural and petrological evidence from pseudotachylytes and corona structures show that the growth of these unusual textures occurred shortly after pseudotachylyte crystallization by a process of rapid solid state alteration of a microcrystalline pseudotachylyte matrix the pseudotachylyte lined fault zones are in close spatial association with numerous amphibole carbonate filled hydrofractures with conspicuous fracture parallel alteration zones defined by hydrous eclogite facies assemblages these eclogite facies hydrofractures testify to the existence of high fluid pressures and to fluid infiltration following brittle failure during high grade metamorphic conditions geothermobarometric estimates ca t 650 700 c p 20 kbar and petrological data imply that hydrofracturing pseudotachylyte crystallization and the subsequent pseudotachylyte alteration process must have occurred during high pressure metamorphism our observations are suggestive of a deep crustal earthquake scenario where a high pressurized fluid phase plays a double role by causing both seismic failure through the embrittlement effect and facilitating eclogitization of the metastable anhydrous gabbro metamorphic reaction along hydrofractures and fault planes led to the development of eclogite facies foliation fabrics and illustrate the rheological change from brittle to plastic behavior associated with the gabbro to eclogite transition the formation of weak deep crustal shear zones following brittle failure represents an arrested initiation of the physical breakup and metamorphic reequilibration of the krakeneset gabbro during its residence deep in the former caledonian collision zone

internal geometry and evolution of moulins storglaciaren sweden depart ment of physical geog raphy university of stoc kholm s 106 91 stockholm sweden abstract the initial conditions needed for formation of moulins are crevasses and a supply of melt water water pouring into a crevasse may fill it until it ove rflows at the lowest point which is normally near the margin however as the crev asse deepens it intersects englacial chann els through which the water can drain these chann els may be finger tip tributaries in a dendritic system such as that described by shreve 1972 and observ ed by raymond and harrison 1975 when the cre vasse closes heat in the melt water keeps the conne ction open and a moulin is formed the englacial channel enlarges rapidly by melt ing utilizing mechanical energy released by the descending water descents into moulins and mapping of stru ctures exposed at the surface after many years of melting demonstrate that the drainage channels leading down from the bottoms of the moulins have incli nations of 0 450 from the vertical these channels trend in the dire ction of the original crevasse but appear to be deeper than the expected depth of the crevasse they have not

water flow through temperate glaciers understanding water movement through a glacier is fundamental to several critical issues in glaci ology including glacier dynamics glacier induced floods and the prediction of runoff from glacierized drainage basins to this end we have synthesized a conceptual model of water movement through a temper ate glacier from the surface to the outlet stream pro cesses that regulate the rate and distribution of water input at the glacier surface and that regulate water movement from the surface to the bed play important but commonly neglected roles in glacier hydrology where a glacier is covered by a layer of porous perme able firn the accumulation zone the flux of water to the glacier interior varies slowly because the firn tempo rarily stores water and thereby smooths out variations in the supply rate in the firn free ablation zone in con trast the flux of water into the glacier depends directly on the rate of surface melt or rainfall and therefore varies greatly in time water moves from the surface to the bed through an upward branching arborescent net work consisting of both steeply inclined conduits formed by the enlargement of intergranular veins and gently inclined conduits spawned by water flow along the bottoms of near surface fractures crevasses engla cial drainage conduits deliver water to the glacier bed at a limited number of points probably a long distance downglacier of where water enters the glacier englacial conduits supplied from the accumulation zone are quasi steady state features that convey the slowly varying water flux delivered via the firn their size adjusts so that they are usually full of water and flow is pressurized in contrast water flow in englacial conduits supplied from the ablation area is pressurized only near times of peak daily flow or during rainstorms flow is otherwise in an open channel configuration the subglacial drainage system typically consists of several elements that are distinct both morphologically and hydrologically an up glacier branching arborescent network of channels in cised into the basal ice conveys water rapidly much of the water flux to the bed probably enters directly into the arborescent channel network which covers only a small fraction of the glacier bed more extensive spatially is a nonarborescent network which commonly includes cav ities gaps between the glacier sole and bed channels incised into the bed and a layer of permeable sediment the nonarborescent network conveys water slowly and is usually poorly connected to the arborescent system the arborescent channel network largely collapses during winter but reforms in the spring as the first flush of meltwater to the bed destabilizes the cavities within the nonarborescent network the volume of water stored by a glacier varies diurnally and seasonally small temper ate alpine glaciers seem to attain a maximum seasonal water storage of 200 mm of water averaged over the area of the glacier bed with daily fluctuations of as much as 20 30 mm the likely storage capacity of subglacial cavities is insufficient to account for estimated stored water volumes so most water storage may actually occur englacially stored water may also be released abruptly and catastrophically in the form of outburst floods

direct observations of evolving subglacial drainage beneath the greenland ice sheet simultaneous observations of moulins and boreholes in western greenland show that water delivery to the base of the ice sheet via moulins affects short term ice velocity fluctuations but not late season ice velocity decelerations increased meltwater delivery to the base of the greenland ice sheet will increase the ice sheet velocity accelerating its inevitable rush towards the ocean and subsequent sea level rise or will it debate on this topic is at the forefront of cryospheric research but has been hampered by the lack of simultaneous observations of hydraulic head in moulins vertical shafts that deliver water to the base of the ice sheet and boreholes which monitor basal water pressure lauren andrews and colleagues now provide these observations from a small region in western greenland and reveal that water delivery by moulins into channelized basal flow is indeed linked to short term fluctuations in ice velocity late season decelerations in ice velocity however seem to be controlled by changes in unchannelized flow rather than any shifts in the moulin system seasonal acceleration of the greenland ice sheet is influenced by the dynamic response of the subglacial hydrologic system to variability in meltwater delivery to the bed1 2 via crevasses and moulins vertical conduits connecting supraglacial water to the bed of the ice sheet as the melt season progresses the subglacial hydrologic system drains supraglacial meltwater more efficiently1 2 3 4 decreasing basal water pressure4 and moderating the ice velocity response to surface melting1 2 however limited direct observations of subglacial water pressure4 5 6 7 mean that the spatiotemporal evolution of the subglacial hydrologic system remains poorly understood here we show that ice velocity is well correlated with moulin hydraulic head but is out of phase with that of nearby 0 3 2 kilometres away boreholes indicating that moulins connect to an efficient channelized component of the subglacial hydrologic system which exerts the primary control on diurnal and multi day changes in ice velocity our simultaneous measurements of moulin and borehole hydraulic head and ice velocity in the paakitsoq region of western greenland show that decreasing trends in ice velocity during the latter part of the melt season cannot be explained by changes in the ability of moulin connected channels to convey supraglacial melt instead these observations suggest that decreasing late season ice velocity may be caused by changes in connectivity in unchannelized regions of the subglacial hydrologic system understanding this spatiotemporal variability in subglacial pressures is increasingly important because melt season dynamics affect ice velocity beyond the conclusion of the melt season8 9 10

borehole water level variations and the structure of the subglacial hydrological system of haut glacier d arolla valais switzerland late summer subglacial water pressures have been measured in a dense array of boreholes in the ablation area of haut glacier d arolla switzerland interpolated surfaces of minimum diurnal water pressure and diurnal water pressure variation suggest the presence of a subglacial channel within a more widespread distributed drainage system the channel flows along the centre of a variable pressure axis vpa some tens of metres wide that is characterized by low minimum diurnal water pressures frequently atmospheric and high diurnal water pressure variations these characteristics are transitional over a lateral distance of c 70 m to higher and more stable subglacial water pressures in the adjacent distributed system water pressure variations recorded in boreholes located close to the centre of the vpa reflect the delivery of surface derived meltwater to the glacier bed and result in a diurnally reversing transverse hydraulic gradient that drives water out from the channel into the distributed system during the afternoon and back to the channel overnight subglacial observations suggest that such flow occurs through a vertically confined sediment layer borehole turbidity records indicate that the resulting diurnal water flows are responsible for the mobilization and transport of fine debris in suspension analysis of the propagation velocity and amplitude attenuation of the diurnal pressure waves suggests that the hydraulic conductivity of the sediment layer decreases exponentially with distance from the channel falling from c 10 4 m s 1 at the channel boundary to c 10 7 ms 1 70m away these apparent hydraulic conductivities are consistent with darcian flow through clean sand and typical glacial till respectively we suggest that fine material is systematically flushed from basal sediments located adjacent to large melt season drainage channels beneath warm based glaciers this process may have important implications for patterns of glacier erosion hydrochemistry and dynamics

stress distribution and geometry of the subducting nazca plate in northern chile using teleseismically recorded earthquakes summary the stress distribution along the subducting nazca plate in northern chile is analysed using focal mechanism solutions obtained from the inversion of long period p sv and sh waveforms of 15 earthquakes mb 5 5 and from 212 events with reported focal mechanisms which occurred between 1962 and 1993 a joint hypocentral determination was carried out to control the depth of 261 events mb 5 0 recorded at teleseismic distances a change from tensional to compressional stress field along the upper part of the subducting slab is associated with the maximum depth extent of the coupled zone this change occurs in northern chile at 200 250 km from the trench at depths of 60 10 km this depth is larger than the maximum depth observed for the thrusting interplate events 40 10 km probably meaning that at depths of between 40 and 60 km large low dip angle thrust events do not nucleate seismic slip however probably extends down to 40 km in depth the shallow dip angle up to 60 km in depth of the wadati benioff zone does not show variations along the strike of the trench however a gradual southward flattening of the slab is observed at distances greater than 200 250 km from the trench this change observed from about 21 s could be associated with a younger and probably more buoyant lithosphere than that observed to the north of this latitude there are two gaps located between the three main clusters of seismicity these gaps are clearly not related to detachments in the descending litosphere the first cluster is located in and beneath the seismogenic interplate contact and is characterized by reverse and thrust faulting events over a scarce tensional activity in the second cluster the compressional seismicity is scarce for teleseismic events and is located beneath the normal faulting events the third cluster corresponds to tensional events therefore these gaps in seismicity could be associated with alternating changes from compressional to tensional stress field in the subducting slab

persistent englacial drainage features in the greenland ice sheet 1 surface melting on the greenland ice sheet is common up to 1400 m elevation and in extreme melt years even higher water produced on the ice sheet surface collects in lakes and drains over the ice sheet surface via supraglacial streams and through the ice sheet via moulins water delivered to the base of the ice sheet can cause uplift and enhanced sliding locally here we use ice penetrating radar data to observe the effects of significant basal melting coincident with moulins and calculate how much basal melt occurred we find that more melting has occurred than can be explained by the release of potential energy from the drainage of surface meltwater during one melt season suggesting that these moulins are persistent for multiple years we find only a few persistent moulins in our study area that drain the equivalent of multiple lakes per year and likely remain active over several years our observations indicate that once established these persistent moulins might be capable of establishing well connected meltwater drainage pathways

seasonal evolution of subglacial drainage and acceleration in a greenland outlet glacier an acceleration of ice mass loss has been observed near the margin of the greenland ice sheet partly as a result of faster ice motion observations by gps receivers reveal high seasonal variability in ice motion with summer motion up to 220 higher than winter background levels the greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise sea levels by 7 m however its present mass balance and future contribution to sea level rise is poorly understood1 accelerated mass loss has been observed near the ice sheet margin partly as a result of faster ice motion2 3 4 surface melt waters can reach the base of the ice sheet and enhance basal ice motion5 6 however the response of ice motion to seasonal variations in meltwater supply is poorly constrained both in space and time here we present ice motion data obtained with global positioning system receivers located along a 35 km transect at the western margin of the greenland ice sheet throughout a summer melt season our measurements reveal substantial increases in ice velocity during summer up to 220 above winter background values these speed up events migrate up the glacier over the course of the summer the relationship between melt and ice motion varies both at each site throughout the melt season and between sites we suggest that these patterns can be explained by the seasonal evolution of the subglacial drainage system similar to hydraulic forcing mechanisms for ice dynamics that have been observed at smaller glaciers

mechanism and tectonic implications of the great banda sea earthquake of november 4 1963 abstract the banda sea earthquake of november 4 1963 h 100 km mb 7 8 is probably one of the largest intermediate depth shocks to have occurred worldwide this century the mechanism of this earthquake is studied in detail on the basis of p wave first motion surface wave and aftershock data from the analysis of long period multiple surface waves a seismic moment of 3 1 1028 dyn cm is obtained which is the largest reported so far for any intermediate or deep focus shock this value together with the estimated fault area of 90 70 km2 gives an average dislocation of 7 0 m and a stress drop of 120 bar this event represents an oblique thrust movement on a plane with dip direction n170 e dip 48 and rake 52 a geometrical consideration for the fault plane and the configuration of the inclined seismic zone beneath the banda arc suggests almost definitely that the large scale faulting took place within the subducted plate and offset it further repetition of such large scale faulting might eventually break the subducted plate the 1963 banda sea earthquake thus represents a seismological manifestation of the large scale deformation of the subducted plate in the mantle

the role of hydrologically driven ice fracture in drainage system evolution on an arctic glacier 1 observations from ellesmere island suggest that the connection between surface and subglacial drainage on a predominantly cold glacier is made abruptly by hydrologically driven propagation of fractures from the surface to the bed where ice is 150 m thick water ponded to a depth of 6 9 m within a supraglacial stream system before establishing a permanent bed connection multiple premonitory drainage events preceded the final drainage of ponded water implying that fracturing is necessary but insufficient to establish a permanent link between surface and subglacial drainage refreezing of water that penetrates the first fractures to form may reseal the connection while flow resistance within the subglacial system may delay the onset of continuous through flow a large volume of ponded water is required to enlarge fractures sufficiently by melting to maintain continuous drainage while feedbacks between subglacial hydrology and ice dynamics may assist in maintaining the connection and initiating subglacial outflow