shear wave polarizations near the north anatolian fault ii interpretation in terms of crack induced anisotropy summary the polarizations of shear waves recorded by networks of digital thxee component seismometers immediately above small earthquakes near the north anatolian fault in turkey display shear wave splitting on almost all shear wave seismograms recorded within the shear wave window this splitting is incompatible with source radiation patterns propagating through simple isotropic structures but is compatible with effective anisotropy of the internal structure of the rock along the ray paths this paper interprets the phenomena in terms of widespread crack induced anisotropy distributions of stress induced cracks model many features of the observations and synthetic polarization diagrams calculated for propagation through simulated cracked rock are similar to the observed patterns this evidence for widespread crack induced anisotropy lends strong support to the hypothesis of extensive dilatancy anisotropy eda suggested by laboratory experiments in subcritical crack growth the crucial evidence confirming some form of eda would be observations of temporal changes in shear wave splitting as the stress field alters the crack density and crack geometry there is some weak evidence for such temporal changes at one site but further analysis of suitable digital three component seismometer networks in seismic areas is required to confirm eda

acoustic facies on the inner kara sea shelf implications for late weichselian to holocene sediment dynamics abstract we studied the impact of the last glacial late weichselian sea level cycle on sediment architecture in the inner kara sea using high resolution acoustic sub bottom profiling the acoustic lines were ground truthed with dated sediment cores furthermore we refined the location of the eastern lgm ice margin by new sub bottom profiles new model results of post last glacial maximum lgm isostatic rebound for this area allow a well constrained interpretation of acoustic units in terms of sequence stratigraphy the lowstand or regressive system tract sediments are absent but are represented by an unconformity atop of pleistocene sediments on the shelf and by a major incised dendritic paleo river network the subsequent transgressive and highstand system tracts are best preserved in the incised channels and the recent estuaries while only minor sediment accumulation on the adjacent shelf areas is documented the kara sea can be subdivided into three areas estuaries a the shelf b and c deeper lying areas that accumulated a total of 114 1010 t of holocene sediments

worldwide initiation of holocene marine deltas by deceleration of sea level rise radiocarbon dated deltaic sequences of holocene age from different parts of the world began to accumulate within a restricted time range from about 8500 to 6500 years ago evaluation of major delta processes indicates that deceleration in sea level rise was the key factor in holocene delta formation within many deltas there is as much as a 2000 year age range between basal deposits in seaward and landward cores this age difference records the progressive landward migration of near mean sea level depositional environments during the lower to mid holocene establishment of a chronostratigraphic framework for holocene delta development provides a fundamental global baseline for distinguishing sea level change from vertical land motion by tectonism and isostasy and for evaluating rates of future marine incursion into low lying deltas

observation of glacial isostatic adjustment in stable north america with gps 1 motions of three hundred and sixty global positioning system gps sites in canada and the united states yield a detailed image of the vertical and horizontal velocity fields within the nominally stable interior of the north american plate by far the strongest signal is the effect of glacial isostatic adjustment gia due to ice mass unloading during deglaciation vertical velocities show present day uplift 10 mm yr near hudson bay the site of thickest ice at the last glacial maximum the uplift rates generally decrease with distance from hudson bay and change to subsidence 1 2 mm yr south of the great lakes the hinge line separating uplift from subsidence is consistent with data from water level gauges along the great lakes showing uplift along the northern shores and subsidence along the southern ones horizontal motions show outward motion from hudson bay with complex local variations especially in the far field although the vertical motions are generally consistent with the predictions of gia models the horizontal data illustrate the need and opportunity to improve the models via more accurate descriptions of the ice load and laterally variable mantle viscosity

isostatic uplift driven by karstification and sea level oscillation modeling landscape evolution in north florida isostatic uplift of tectonically stable passive margin lithosphere can preserve a record of paleo shoreline position by elevating coastal geomorphic features above the influence of nearshore wave activity conversely depositional ages and modern elevations of these features can provide valuable information about the uplift history of a region we present a numerical model that combines sea level oscillation subaerial exposure a precipitation karstification function and isostatic uplift to explore the dynamic geomorphic behavior of coastal carbonate landscapes over multiple sea level cycles the model is used to estimate ages of coastal highstand depositional features along the atlantic coast of north florida numerical simulations using current best estimates for pleistocene sea level and precipitation histories suggest ages for trail ridge 1 44 ma the penholoway terrace 408 ka and the talbot terrace 120 ka that are in agreement with fossil evidence in addition model results indicate that the rate of karstification void space creation or equivalent surface lowering rate within the north florida platform is 3 5 times that of previous estimates 1 m 11 2 k y vs 1 m 38 k y and uplift rate is 2 times as high as previously thought 0 047 mm yr vs 0 024 mm yr this process has implications for landscape evolution in other carbonate settings and may play an underappreciated role within the global carbon cycle

earthquake prediction a new physical basis summary subcritical crack growth in the laboratory occurs slowly but progressively in solids subjected to low stresses at low strain rates the cracks tend to grow parallel to the maximum compressive stress so that when this stress is aligned over a large enough region the cracks will also be aligned and possess effective seismic anisotropy it is suggested that such subcritical crack growth produces extensive dilatancy anisotropy eda throughout earthquake preparation zones this process is a possible driving mechanism for earthquake precursors observed at substantial distances from impending focal zones and provides in the shear wave splitting which has been observed in several seismic regions a possible technique for monitoring the build up of stress before earthquakes

evaluation of anisotropy by shear wave splitting the polarizations of three component shear wavetrains carry unique information about the internal structure of the rock through which they pass specifically commonly observed shear wave splitting may contain information about the orientation of crack distributions this information cannot usually be recovered from shear waves recorded at the free surface because of interference with the interaction of the shear wave with the surface even for nearly vertical incidence however shear wave splitting in synthetic three component vertical seismic profiles in some cases may be interpreted directly in terms of the direction of strike of vertical cracks because the human eye is not skilled at identifying the phase relationships between three component seismograms played out conventionally as parallel time series the polarizations are displayed in orthogonal sections of the particle displacements to facilitate recognition and evaluation of the shear wave splitting estimating the orientations of cracks an

how stable is the mississippi delta large deltas are commonly believed to exhibit rapid rates of tectonic subsidence largely due to sediment loading of the lithosphere as a result deltaic plains are prone to accelerated relative sea level rise coastal erosion and wetland loss hurricane katrina s devastation testifies to the severe threat that these processes pose to the mississippi delta but the relative role of tectonics versus other mechanisms causing land subsidence remains elusive relative sea level records derived from basal peat have the potential to quantify differential crustal movements over holocene time scales with exceptionally high accuracy and precision here we present new sea level index points from two study areas in the southwestern mississippi delta that essentially coincide with a recently published detailed relative sea level record from the eastern part of the delta our results show that differential vertical movements among the three study areas have been only 0 1 mm yr 1 w e compare our evidence with a recent sea level compilation from the caribbean to a large extent based on data from areas that are tectonically stable our sea level index points nearly coincide with the caribbean data showing surprising tectonic stability for considerable sections of the mississippi delta however the well documented high subsidence rates in and near the birdfoot of the mississippi delta indicate that different conditions prevail there the rapid wetland loss in coastal louisiana is likely due to a considerable extent to the compaction of holocene strata

vertical land motion from present day deglaciation in the wider arctic vertical land motion vlm from past and ongoing glacial changes can amplify or mitigate ongoing relative sea level change we present a high resolution vlm model for the wider arctic that include

effects of the free surface on shear wavetrains summary the behaviour of shear waves is of great importance in identifying and investigating seismic anisotropy in the earth however shear wavetrains recorded at the earth s surface do not always reflect the motion at depth introducing practical problems of interpretation shear wavetrains incident on the surface of an isotropic half space at angles less than critical about 35 are broadly preserved but at greater angles substantial distortions can occur for stations situated close to the source as in local earthquake studies the local sp phase a radially polarized precursor to s may occur the behaviour at the surface of an anisotropic half space is further complicated by the divergence of phase and energy propagation vectors all of these complications suggest that detailed seismogram modelling is essential to any study of shear wave propagation in the earth and in particular to investigations of anisotropy induced shear wave splitting

late quaternary ice sheet history of northern eurasia the maximum limits of the eurasian ice sheets during four glaciations have been reconstructed 1 the late saalian 140 ka 2 the early weichselian 100 80 ka 3 the middle weichselian 60 50 ka and 4 the late weichselian 25 15 ka the reconstructed ice limits are based on satellite data and aerial photographs combined with geological field investigations in russia and siberia and with marine seismic and sediment core data the barents kara ice sheet got progressively smaller during each glaciation whereas the dimensions of the scandinavian ice sheet increased during the last ice age the barents kara ice sheet attained its maximum size as early as 90 80 000 years ago when the ice front reached far onto the continent a regrowth of the ice sheets occurred during the early middle weichselian culminating about 60 50 000 years ago during the late weichselian the barents kara ice sheet did not reach the mainland east of the kanin peninsula with the exception of the nw fringe of taimyr a numerical ice sheet model forced by global sea level and solar changes was run through the full weichselian glacial cycle the modeling results are roughly compatible with the geological record of ice growth but the model underpredicts the glaciations in the eurasian arctic during the early and middle weichselian one reason for this is that the climate in the eurasian arctic was not as dry then as during the late weichselian glacial maximum

neotectonics of the marmara sea region of turkey seismological investigations in western anatolia nw turkey have identified linear patterns of earthquake epicentres outlining a wedge shaped block in the area of the marmara sea this block shows different seismic characteristics from the rest of western anatolia and appears to act as a separate tectonic unit earthquake fault plane mechanisms show that the marmara block is being rotated and sheared in order to accommodate the right lateral motion of the north anatolian fault and the extensional tectonics of the southwestern anatolia investigations of the behaviour of seismic shear waves suggest that neotectonic stress aligns water filled microcracks throughout the upper brittle 10 20 km of the crust and that in situ stress directions can be monitored by analysis of shear waves recorded on three component instuments

analysis of records of local earthquakes the turkish dilatancy projects tdp1 and tdp2 summary this is the introduction to a series of papers analysing records from three component seismometers immediately above a swarm of small earthquakes near the north anatolian fault in turkey the networks were set up to investigate the possibility of estimating dilatancy induced adisotropy by monitoring shear wave splitting in shear waves from local earthquakes as suggested by the hypothesis of extensive dilatancy anisotropy eda these networks were among the first closely spaced digital three component seismometers to be deployed in the shear wave window immediately over a seismic source zone where the polarizations of incident shear waves can be recognized from surface recordings consequently the seismograms display several new phenomena that have not been previously observed 1 the polarizations of almost all shear waves arriving within the shear wave window showed abrupt changes in direction characteristic of shear wave splitting in synthetic seismograms modelling wave propagation through anisotropic rocks 2 the polarizations of the faster split shear waves are in patterns characteristic of propagation through distributions of cracks aligned by the principal axes of stress but not characteristic sf shear waves propagating through isotropic rock from a double couple source oriented by the same stress axes 3 many characteristics of the observed polarization patterns are similar to synthetic polarization diagrams for wave propagation through vertical parallel cracks 4 the orientation of the anisotropy derived from the shear wave polarizations is consistent with the common axes of stress of the fault plane mechanisms 5 the orientation of the shear wave anisotropy is also similar to the orientation of the anisotropy derived independently from inverting p and s wave arrival times and 6 there is some indication of a temporal change in polarization in one locality such as might be expected if a change in a local stress anomaly altered the crack geometry

geomorphic tectonic control of sediment discharge to the ocean the importance of small mountainous rivers analysis of data from 280 rivers discharging to the ocean indicates that sediment loads yields are a log linear function of basin area and maximum elevation of the river basin other factors controlling sediment discharge e g climate runoff appear to have secondary importance a notable exception is the influence of human activity climate and geology on the rivers draining southern asia and oceania sediment fluxes from small mountainous rivers many of which discharge directly onto active margins e g western south and north america and most high standing oceanic islands have been greatly underestimated in previous global sediment budgets perhaps by as much as a factor of three in contrast sediment fluxes to the ocean from large rivers nearly all of which discharge onto passive margins or marginal seas have been overestimated as some of the sediment load is subaerially sequestered in subsiding deltas before the proliferation of dam construction in the latter half of this century rivers

on post glacial sea level i general theory summary modern analyses of sea level changes due to glacial isostatic adjustment gia are based on the classic sea level equation derived by farrell clark 1976 geophys j r astr soc 46 647 667 the connection between global sea level variations and changes to ocean height that is assumed within this equation breaks down in the presence of a time varying shoreline geometry we present a generalized sea level equation that overcomes this difficulty we also derive analytic expressions for and present schematic illustrations of the error in the ocean height change over finite time intervals introduced in published efforts to incorporate shoreline evolution into the theory of gia induced sea level change this comparison includes studies of shoreline migration due to either local sea level changes or the growth and ablation of marine based ice we conclude that the theories applied by johnston 1993 geophys j int 114 615 634 milne 1998 phd thesis university of toronto toronto and co workers are more accurate than the procedure advocated by peltier 1994 science 265 195 201 1998a geophys res lett 25 3955 3958 1998b rev geophys 114 615 634 although an improvement in the latter has recently been reported peltier drummond 2002 geophys res lett 29 10 1029 2001gl014273 our generalized theory is valid for any earth model in a companion paper we derive the equations necessary to treat the special case of a spherically symmetric linear viscoelastic and rotating earth and we quantify errors associated with previous work

sea level change glacial rebound and mantle viscosity fornorthern europe northwestern europe remains a key region for testing models of glacial isostasy because of the good geological record of crustal response to the glacial unloading since the time of the last glacial maximum models for this rebound and associated sea level change require a detailed knowledge of the ice sheet geometry including the ice thickness through time existing ice sheet reconstructions are strongly model dependent and inversions of sea level data for the mantle response may be a function of the model assumptions thus inverse solutions for the sea level data are sought that include both ice and earth model parameters as unknowns sea level data from fennoscandia the north sea the british isles and the atlantic and english channel coasts have been evaluated and incorporated into the solutions the starting ice sheet for fennoscandia is based on a reconstruction of a model by denton hughes 1981 that is characterized by quasi parabolic cross sections and symmetry about the load centre both global northwestern europe as a whole and regional subsets of the data solutions have been made for earth model parameters and ice height scaling parameters the key results are as follows 1 the response of the upper mantle to the changing ice and water loads is spatially relatively homogenous across scandinavia the north sea and the british isles 2 this response can be adequately modelled by an effective elastic lithosphere of thickness 65 85 km and by an effective upper mantle viscosity from the base of the lithosphere to the 670 km depth seismic discontinuity of about 3 4 1020 pa s the effective lower mantle viscosity is at least an order of magnitude greater 3 the ice thickness over scandinavia at the time of maximum glaciation was only about 2000 m much less than the 3400 m assumed in the denton hughes model 4 the ice profiles are asymmetric about the centre of the ice sheet with those over the western part being consistent with quasi parabolic functions whereas the ice heights over the eastern and southern regions increase much more slowly with distance inwards from the ice margin

decontaminating tide gauge records for the influence of glacial isostatic adjustment the potential impact of 3 d earth structure 1 we investigate the potential impact of lateral variations in mantle viscosity and lithospheric thickness on predictions of present day relative sea level change due to glacial isostatic adjustment gia we consider three viscoelastic earth models the first is a 1 d model with a lithospheric thickness of 120 km and upper and lower mantle viscosities of 5 1020 pa s and 5 1021 pa s respectively the second model includes global lithospheric thickness variations and lateral heterogeneities in upper mantle viscosity ranging over three orders of magnitude while the third model includes lateral variations in lower mantle viscosity alone we find that the impact of 3 d structure is significant indeed the difference between the 3 d and 1 d model predictions at 300 sites with tide gauge records longer than 40 years duration is greater than 0 2 mm yr and 0 5 mm yr for 50 and 25 of the sites respectively the maximum difference exceeds several mm yr we conclude that efforts to decontaminate tide gauge records for ongoing gia to determine the rate and origin of global sea level rise should incorporate 3 d mantle structure into the gia modelling

continuous gps measurements of postglacial adjustment in fennoscandia 1 geodetic results 1 data collected under the auspices of the bifrost gps project yield a geographically dense suite of estimates of present day three dimensional 3 d crustal deformation rates in fennoscandia johansson et al 2002 a preliminary forward analysis of these estimates milne et al 2001 has indicated that models of ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment gia in response to the final deglaciation event of the current ice age are able to provide an excellent fit to the observed 3 d velocity field in this study we revisit our previous gia analysis by considering a more extensive suite of forward calculations and by performing the first formal joint inversion of the bifrost rate estimates to establish insight into the physics of the gia response in the region we begin by decomposing a forward prediction into the three contributions associated with the ice ocean and rotational forcings from this analysis we demonstrate that recent advances in postglacial sea level theory in particular the inclusion of rotational effects and improvements in the treatment of the ocean load in the vicinity of an evolving continental margin involve peak signals that are larger than the observational uncertainties in the bifrost network the forward analysis is completed by presenting predictions for a pair of fennoscandian ice histories and an extensive suite of viscoelastic earth models the former indicates that the bifrost data set provides a powerful discriminant of such histories the latter yields bounds on the assumed constant upper and lower mantle viscosity nu um nu lm specifically we derive a 95 confidence interval of 5 x 10 20 less than or equal to nu um less than or equal to 10 21 pa s and 5 x 10 21 less than or equal to nu lm less than or equal to 5 x 10 22 pa s with some preference for elastic lithospheric thickness in excess of 100 km the main goal of the bayesian inverse analysis is to estimate the radial resolving power of the bifrost gps data as a function of depth in the mantle assuming a reasonably accurate ice history we demonstrate that this resolving power varies from similar to 200 km near the base of the upper mantle to similar to 700 km in the top portion of the lower mantle we conclude that the bifrost data are able to resolve structure on radial length scale significantly smaller than a single upper mantle layer however these data provide little constraint on viscosity in the bottom half of the mantle finally elements of both the forward and inverse analyses indicate that radial and horizontal velocity estimates provide distinct constraints on mantle viscosity

continuous deformation of the tibetan plateau from global positioning system data global positioning system velocities from 553 control points within the tibetan plateau and on its margins show that the present day tectonics in the plateau is best described as deformation of a continuous medium at least when averaged over distances of 100 km deformation occurs throughout the plateau interior by ese wnw extension and slightly slower nne ssw shortening relative to eurasia material within the plateau interior moves roughly eastward with speeds that increase toward the east and then flows southward around the eastern end of the himalaya crustal thickening on the northeast ern and eastern margins of the plateau occurs over a zone 400 km wide and cannot be the result of elastic strain on a single major thrust fault shortening there accommodates much of india s penetration into eurasia a description in terms of movements of rigid blocks with elastic strain associated with slip on faults between them cannot match the velocity field

glacial isostatic adjustment as a control on coastal processes an example from the siberian arctic the geomorphology of the western siberian arctic coast represents a significant departure from the global trend of holocene delta formation by major rivers the ob and yenisei rivers in western siberia drain into the arctic ocean via estuaries 900 and 500 km long respectively eastern siberian rivers such as the lena indigirka and kolyma terminate at significant marine deltas we show that this spatial variation in coastal geomorphology can be explained by the glacial isostatic adjustment of the region the development and collapse of a peripheral bulge in western siberia associated with the glaciation and subsequent deglaciation of the eurasian ice sheets led to a distinct spatial variation in sea level change that continues to this day in particular since the marked decrease in global scale ice melting ca 7 ka our model predicts a sea level rise at the mouth of the ob river of 14 m compared to a rise of 6 m at the mouth of the lena river which ceased at 3 ka we propose that the enhanced sea level rise in the western siberian arctic associated with peripheral bulge subsidence has prevented the establishment of marine deltas at the mouths of the ob and yenisei rivers we conclude that regional variations in relative sea level change driven by glacial isostatic adjustment should be considered when interpreting large scale coastal morphology and deltaic stratigraphy which is normally assumed to correlate with eustatic fluctuations

coastal changes in the arctic the arctic s climate system is changing air temperatures major river discharges and open water season length have increased and storm intensities and tracks are changing thirteen quantitative studies of the rates of coastline position change throughout the arctic show that recently observed changes have not increased coastal erosion rates which currently range between 0 and 2 m yr when averaged for the arctic shelf seas current data is probably insufficient both spatially and temporally however to capture change at decadal to sub decadal time scales in this context we describe the current understanding of arctic coastal geomorphodynamics with an emphasis on erosional regimes of coasts with ice rich sedimentary deposits in the laptev east siberian and beaufort seas where local coastal erosion can reach 30 m yr we also examine coasts with lithified rocky substrates where geomorphodynamics are intensified by rapid glacial retreat coastlines of svalbard greenland and the canadian archipelago are less frequently studied than ice rich continental coasts of north america and siberia and studies often focus on coastal sections composed of unlithified material as air temperature and sea ice duration and extent change longer thaw and wave seasons will intensify coastal dynamics in the arctic

modelling holocene relative sea level observations from the caribbean and south america abstract holocene data from the caribbean and the atlantic coast of south america have been critically assessed and a subset of the best quality data are presented these data cover a large north south geographic extent and display a distinct spatial variation we make the first comparisons of this data set to predictions based on a realistic model of glaciation induced sea level change with the main aims of understanding the cause of the observed spatial trend and estimating a eustatic signal for the holocene the spatial variation is dominated by the influence of the ice and ocean mass redistribution on sea level change with the ice induced effect dominating the observed north south trend a best fitting model is applied to estimate a holocene eustatic signal from the observations we find that the model corrected data are consistent with a relatively rapid rise of 7 8 mm yr in the early holocene with a marked reduction in this rate around 7 cal kyr bp from this time until present the model corrected data suggest that the volume of mass transfer between ice sheets and oceans was no more than 1 m eustatic sea level equivalent

ice sheet and solid earth influences on far field sea level histories previous predictions of sea level change subsequent to the last glacial maximum show significant systematic discrepancies between observations at tahiti huon peninsula and sunda shelf during lateglacial time 14 000 to 9000 calibrated years before the present we demonstrate that a model of glacial isostatic adjustment characterized by both a high viscosity lower mantle 4 1022 pa s and a large contribution from the antarctic ice sheet to meltwater pulse ia 15 meters eustatic equivalent resolves these discrepancies this result supports arguments that an early and rapid antarctic deglaciation contributed to a sequence of climatic events that ended the most recent glacial period of the current ice age

evidence for mixing of re os isotopes at 2 7 ga and support of a remobilized placer model in witwatersrand sulfides and native au abstract this study analyzes re and os contents of au rich sulfides from the carbon leader tau lekoa and mponeng the vcr mponeng and tau lekoa and the black reef modder east as well as native au in the carbon leader to further investigate the detrital placer modified detrital placer and hydrothermal models for the source of au in mines from the witwatersrand an isochron plot of the results from the four locations yields an imprecise isochron age of 2381 140 ma mswd 17 and initial 187 os 188 os 0 24 0 21 isochron plots for the individual reefs also yielded ages that are younger than the deposition of the basin witwatersrand sediments samples that possess higher concentrations of os 100 ppb and low 187 re 188 os ratios to unify all of the data providing a large variation of chronologic information os mixing diagrams for both gold and sulfide minerals produce realistic mixing trends when solving os initial ratios for 2050 ma the two most probable end members for the mixing relationships are a high os concentration non radiogenic source and a low os concentration highly radiogenic source the high concentration non radiogenic os source has been measured in multiple studies and has been clearly derived from the subcontinental lithospheric mantle sclm the low concentration highly radiogenic source is debatable the measured concentrations of os in the witwatersrand ores are much greater than published os concentrations in other hydrothermal ores the data could indicate a redistribution of the detrital os signatures at 2050 ma thus a modified detrital model best explains the previously published data and this data

ice 3g a new global model of late pleistocene deglaciation based upon geophysical predictions of post glacial relative sea level change a new high resolution global model of late pleistocene deglaciation is inferred on the basis of geophysical predictions of postglacial relative sea level variations in which the ice ocean solid earth interaction is treated in a gravitationally self consistent fashion for the purpose of these analyses the radial viscoelastic structure of the planet is assumed known on the basis of previously published sensitivity tests on solutions of the forward problem only radiocarbon controlled relative sea level histories from sites that were actually ice covered with one or two additions are employed to constrain the model leaving relative sea level rsl data from sites that were not ice covered to be employed to confirm its consistency results for these confirmatory analyses are reported elsewhere here the new deglaciation model referred to as ice 3g is compared to previous models derived by several independent means and tested against a number of additional observations other than sea level histories including geologically controlled retreat isochrones oxygen isotope data from deep sea sedimentary cores and coral terrace elevations the latter two observations strongly constrain the net sea level rise that has occurred since the onset of deglaciation and therefore the mass of ice that melted during the last glacial interglacial transition

constraints on the late weichselian ice sheet over the barents sea from observations of raised shorelines abstract direct evidence for late weichselian grounded glacier ice over extensive areas of the barents sea is based largely on indirect observations including elevations of old shorelines on svalbard and arguments of isostatic rebound such isostatic models are discussed here for two cases representing maximum and minimum ice sheet reconstructions in the former model the ice extends over the kara sea whereas in the latter the ice is limited to the barents sea and island archipelagos comparisons of predictions with observations from a number of areas including spitsbergen nordaustlandet edgeoya kong karls land franz josef land novaya zemlya and finnmark support arguments for the existence of a large ice sheet over the region at the time of the last glacial maximum this ice sheet is likely to have had the following characteristics conclusions that are independent of assumptions made about the earth s rheological parameters i the maximum thickness of this ice was about 1500 2000 m with the centre of the load occurring to the south and east of kong karls land ii the ice sheet extended out to the western edge of the continental shelf and its maximum thickness over western spitsbergen was about 800 m iii to the north of svalberg and frans josef land the ice sheet extended out to the northern shelf edge iv retreat of the grounded ice across the southern barents sea occurred relatively early such that this region was largely ice free by about 15 000 bp v by 12 000 bp the grounded ice had retreated to the northern archipelagos and was largely gone by 10 000 bp vi the ice sheet may have extended to the kara sea but ice thicknesses were only a fraction of those proposed in those reconstructions where the maximum ice thickness is centered on novaya zemlya models for the palaeobathymetry for the barents sea at the time of the last glacial maximum indicate that large parts of the barents sea were either very shallow or above sea level providing the opportunity for ice growth on the emerged plateaux as well as on the islands but only towards the end of the period of fennoscandian ice sheet build up

late quaternary sedimentation history of the lena delta abstract core and outcrop analysis from lena mouth deposits have been used to reconstruct the late quaternary sedimentation history of the lena delta sediment properties heavy mineral composition grain size characteristics organic carbon content and age determinations 14c ams and ir osl are applied to discriminate the main sedimentary units of the three major geomorphic terraces which form the delta the development of the terraces is controlled by complex interactions among the following four factors 1 channel migration according to the distribution of 14c and ir osl age determinations of lena mouth sediments the major river runoff direction shifted from the west during marine isotope stages 5 3 third terrace deposits towards the northwest during marine isotope stage 2 and transition to stage 1 second terrace to the northeast and east during the holocene first terrace deposits 2 eustasy sea level rise from last glacial lowstand to the modern sea level position reached at 6 5 ka bp resulted in back filling and flooding of the palaeovalleys 3 neotectonics the extension of the arctic mid ocean ridge into the laptev sea shelf acted as a halfgraben showing dilatation movements with different subsidence rates from the continent side differential neotectonics with uplift and transpression in the siberian coast ridges are active both likely have influenced river behavior by providing sites for preservation with uplift in particular allowing accumulation of deposits in the second terrace in the western sector the actual delta setting comprises only the eastern sector of the lena delta 4 peat formation polygenetic formation of ice rich peaty sand ice complex was most extensive 7 11 m in thickness in the southern part of the delta area between 43 and 14 ka bp third terrace deposits in recent times alluvial peat 5 6 m in thickness is accumulated on top of the deltaic sequences in the eastern sector first terrace

on postglacial sea level summary an exact method is presented for calculating the changes in sea level that occur when ice and water masses are rearranged on the surface of elastic and viscoelastic non rotating earth models the method is used to calculate the instantaneous elastic and delayed vi scoelastic sea level changes following the partial melting of late quaternary ice sheets we find that there can be large errors in the usual assumption that changes in sea level are uniform over the ocean basins if a quantity of ice equivalent to a uniform 100 m rise in sea level melts from the laurentide and fennoscandian ice sheets then in the south pacific the instantaneous rise in sea level can be as large as 120m in the north atlantic the instantaneous rise is always less than 100 m there is a zone in the north atlantic with almost no sea level change and near greenland and norway the sea level falls rather than rises by over 100 m one thousand years after the melting a forebulge migrating towards the ice loads causes water to flow from the south pacific into the north pacific suggesting that raised beaches should occur in the south pacific the gravitational attraction of an ice mass upon a nearby ocean tends to hold sea level high in the vicinity of the ice this extra load near the ice may have a significant influence on postglacial isostatic adjustment

influence of glacial isostatic adjustment on river evolution along the u s mid atlantic coast abstract long term river evolution depends partly on crustal deformation which shapes the topography crossed by rivers on glacial timescales ice sheet growth and decay can produce crustal vertical motion of 10 mm yr resulting from the solid earth s adjustment to variations in ice and water loads comparable to tectonically driven rates in the most rapidly uplifting mountains on earth this process of glacial isostatic adjustment gia can influence river courses and drainage basins substantially particularly near former ice margins we explore the extent to which gia influenced the evolution of rivers along the united states east coast during the last glacial cycle we compute gravitationally self consistent gia responses that incorporate recent constraints on the laurentide ice sheet history through the last glacial build up phase and we connect the predicted variations in topography to abrupt changes in river dynamics recorded in the hudson delaware susquehanna and potomac rivers from 40 ka to present to the extent that increases in sediment transport capacity imply increases in river incision rate the gia driven changes in slope and drainage area are consistent with episodes of erosion and sedimentation observed in the hudson delaware and potomac rivers but inconsistent with the observed accelerated river incision in the susquehanna river at 30 14 ka these analyses add to a growing body of evidence showing that gia strongly influences river evolution over millennial timescales

lithosphere rheology and active tectonics in mongolia relations between earthquake source parameters gravity and gps measurements in this paper we use observations of earthquake source parameters and gravity to investigate the mechanical properties and the active faulting of the lithosphere in mongolia well determined earthquake centroid depths including 10 from inversions of p and sh waveforms that are presented here for the first time show that the seismogenic thickness ts within mongolia itself is less than 20 km however to both the east in parts of the lake baikal rift system and the west adjacent to the junggar basin and kazakhstan platform the seismogenic thickness is considerably greater and includes essentially the whole crust from the admittance between the free air gravity and the topography and also from profiles across a flexural foreland basin we determine the effective elastic thickness te in central mongolia to be 30 km in both mongolia and its surroundings te is comparable with ts and where it is well determined te ts these data are consistent with the view that the strength of the continental lithosphere resides in its seismogenic part which in mongolia is the upper crust but to both the east and west appears to be the whole crust the earthquake source parameters also allow us to ask how the active faulting in mongolia accommodates the velocity field revealed by gps measurements it is likely that the entire mongolian altay range in the west rotates counter clockwise relative to stable asia and is responsible for the distributed e w left lateral shear seen further east in central mongolia the admittance observations show no evidence at the present day for convective mantle support or a hotspot responsible for the elevated region of the hangay dome in central mongolia even though the geochemical data from nodules in late cenozoic basalts and seismic tomography studies suggest elevated temperatures at shallow depths 125 km and probably thinned lithosphere

three dimensional numerical modeling of deltaic depositional sequences 1 influence of the rate and magnitude of sea level change abstract a three dimensional numerical model of deltaic deposition is used to investigate the influence of sea level changes on delta development and sequence variability results illustrate the three dimensional morphology of key stratal surfaces and architecture of stratal units systems tracts and highlight the importance of the rate and magnitude of sea level change in controlling the evolution of deltaic depositional sequences high rates of sea level fall lead to the development of a limited number of major incised channels that focus sediment supply to a few elongate finger like forced regressive lobes separated by large areas of nondeposition in contrast low rates of sea level fall cause only minor channel incision which occurs late during sea level fall as a result sediment is supplied more uniformly to the delta front leading to an attached laterally continuous forced regressive apron during lowstand and subsequent sea level rise the delta morphology and internal geometry are strongly controlled by the rate of rise high rates lead to i poorly developed lowstand wedges that are drowned early ii high magnitude transgressions and iii the late development of maximum flooding surfaces the stratigraphy developed during sea level rise is also strongly influenced by the incised valley system created during the preceding sea level fall if deep major valleys developed that captured most of the sediment supply the resultant stratigraphy has well developed lowstand wedges that are flooded relatively late during sea level rise even within a single delta systems tracts and key stratal surfaces show three dimensional variability and two dimensional sections often lack significant elements of the stratigraphy as a result analysis of two dimensional sections can often lead to miscorrelation and erroneous interpretations of the controlling processes

shear wave polarizations near the north anatolian fault i evidence for anisotropy induced shear wave splitting summary the turkish dilatancy projects tdp1 in 1979 and tdp2 in 1980 recorded small earthquakes near the north anatolian fault with closely spaced networks of three component seismometers in order to investigate the possibility of diagnosing dilatancy from its effects of shear wave propagation this paper examines the polarizations of shear wavetrains recorded in the shear wave window immediately above the earthquake foci abrupt changes in the orientation and or ellipticity of the shear wave polarizations are almost always observed during the first few cycles following the initial shear wave arrival on each seismogram the horizontal projections of the polarizations of the first shear wave arrivals at any given station show nearly parallel alignments with approximately the same orientations at each of the recording sites with one exception it is difficult to explain this uniform alignment over a wide area in terms of scattering at the irregular surface topography or by earthquake focal mechanisms we demonstrate that the shear wave splitting is likely to be the result of anisotropy in the region above the earthquake foci which could produce polarizations displaying the observed alignments the temporal change of the azimuth of alignment observed at one locality between 1979 and 1980 may be due to the release of a local stress anomaly by a very near earthquake

the variation of delays in stress induced anisotropic polarization anomalies summary polarization anomalies in seismic shear wavetrains diagnostic of propagation through anisotropic media have now been observed in dilatancy zones in seismic regions stress induced dilatancy will open cracks with preferred orientations which will be effectively anisotropic to short period seismic waves the polarization anomalies are due to the shear waves splitting in propagation through anisotropic media into components with different polarizations and different velocities this writes characteristic signatures into the shear wavetrains the paper examines ways in which the differential shear wave anisotropy the delay between the split shear waves varies with direction by plotting stereograms of the relative delays and their polarizations for possible dilatancy symmetry systems it seems likely that if sufficient observations of these anomalies can be obtained at each stage of the dilatancy episode it will be possible to estimate the symmetry directions of the dilatancy and the geometry of the stress induced crack system as well as monitoring the progress of the dilatancy episode