direct determination of the timing of sea level change during termination ii an outcrop within the last interglacial terrace on barbados contains corals that grew during the penultimate deglaciation or termination ii we used combined 230th and231pa dating to determine that they grew 135 8 0 8 thousand years ago indicating that sea level was 18 3 meters below present sea level at the time this suggests that sea level had risen to within 20 of its peak last interglacial value by 136 thousand years ago in conflict with milankovitch theory predictions orbital forcing may have played a role in the deglaciation as may have isostatic adjustments due to large ice sheets other corals in the same outcrop grew during oxygen isotope 18o substage 6e indicating that sea level was 38 5 meters below present sea level about 168 0 thousand years ago when compared to the 18o signal in the benthic v19 30 v19 28 record at that time the coral data extend to the previous glacial cycle the conclusion that deep water temperatures were colder during glacial periods

centennial to millennial scale hard rock erosion rates deduced from luminescence depth profiles abstract the measurement of erosion and weathering rates in different geomorphic settings and over diverse temporal and spatial scales is fundamental to the quantification of rates and patterns of earth surface processes a knowledge of the rates of these surface processes helps one to decipher their relative contribution to landscape evolution information that is crucial to understanding the interaction between climate tectonics and landscape consequently a wide range of techniques has been developed to determine short 10 2 a and long term 10 4 a erosion rates however no method is available to quantify hard rock erosion rates at centennial to millennial timescales here we propose a novel technique based on the solar bleaching of luminescence signals with depth into rock surfaces to bridge this analytical gap we apply our technique to glacial and landslide boulders in the eastern pamirs china the calculated erosion rates from the smooth varnished surfaces of 7 out of the 8 boulders sampled in this study vary between 0 038 0 002 and 1 72 0 04 mm ka 1 the eighth boulder gave an anomalously high erosion rate possibly due to a recent chipping cracking loss of surface given this preferential sampling of smooth surfaces assumed to arise from grain by grain surface loss we consider these rates as minimum estimates of rock surface denudation rates in the eastern pamirs china

global distribution of beryllium isotopes in deep ocean water as derived from femn crusts the direct measurement of the ratio of cosmogenic 10be t12 1 5 ma to stable terrigenously sourced 9be in deep seawater or marine deposits can be used to trace water mass movements and to quantify the incorporation of trace metals into the deep sea in this study a sims based technique has been used to determine the 10be9be ratios of the outermost millimetre of hydrogenetic ferromanganese crusts from the worlds oceans 10be9be ratios time corrected for radioactive decay of cosmogenic 10be using 234u238u are in good agreement with ams measurements of modern deep seawater ratios are relatively low in the north and equatorial atlantic samples 0 4 0 5 10 7 in the southwest atlantic ratios increase up to 1 10 7 they vary between 0 7 and 1 0 10 7 in indian ocean samples and have a near constant value of 1 1 0 2 10 7 for all pacific samples if the residence time of 10be 10be in deep water is constant globally then the observed variations in 10be9be ratios could be caused by accumulation of 10be in deep water as it flows and ages along the conveyor following a transient depletion upon its formation in the northern atlantic in this view both 10be and 9be reach local steady state concentration in pacific deep water and the global 10be 600 a an alternative possibility is that the be isotope abundances are controlled by local scavenging for this scenario 10be would vary according to local particle concentration and would 600 a in the central pacific but 10be 230 a in the atlantic mass balance considerations indicate that hydrothermal additions of 9be to the oceans are negligible and that the dissolved riverine source is also small furthermore aeolian dust input of 9be appears insufficient to provide the dissolved 9be inventory the dissolution of only a small proportion 2 of river derived particulates could in principle supply the observed seawater 9be content if true ocean margins would be the sites for 9be addition due to the particle reactive nature of be these would also be the primary sites of be removal a possible net result of horizontal water masses passing through these marginal areas might be a decrease in seawater 10be9be and establishment of a relatively constant 9be concentration as 10be 600 a is less than the apparent age of deep water in the pacific 1500 a the pacific record of 10be9be is not expected to show secular variations due to changes in deep water flow despite the large variations in 10be9be between different water masses because of this insensitivity to deep water flow however it is suggested that the 10be9be ratio determined in the authigenic phase of marine sediments or hydrogenetic precipitates should be a suitable tool for monitoring changes in continental input or cosmic ray intensity on longer time scales

open system coral ages reveal persistent suborbital sea level cycles sea level is a sensitive index of global climate that has been linked to earth s orbital variations with a minimum periodicity of about 21 000 years although there is ample evidence for climate oscillations that are too frequent to be explained by orbital forcing suborbital frequency sea level change has been difficult to resolve primarily because of problems with uranium thorium coral dating here we use a new approach that corrects coral ages for the frequently observed open system behavior of uranium series nuclides substantially improving the resolution of sea level reconstruction this curve reveals persistent sea level oscillations that are too frequent to be explained exclusively by orbital forcing

cosmic ray labeling of erosion surfaces in situ nuclide production rates and erosion models a number of in situ cosmogenic radionuclides and stable nuclides have been measured in natural exposed rock surfaces with a view to study their in situ production and rock erosion rates 1 the in situ radionuclides can be used for a high resolution tomography of the erosional history of an exposed surface two stable nuclides 3he 21ne and five radionuclides 10be 26al 36cl 14c 39ar having half lives in the range of 300 1 5 106 yr half life are measurable in many rock types a prerequisite for the application of the in situ nuclides for the study of erosional histories of surfaces is a knowledge of their production rates under different irradiation conditions altitude latitude irradiation geometry and shielding relative nuclide production rates can be determined fairly accurately using the extensive available data on cosmic ray neutrons 2 absolute nuclide production rates cannot generally be predicted with any accuracy because of lack of data on excitation functions of nuclides unless some normalization is possible as was done in the case of several cosmic ray produced isotopes in the atmosphere 3 based on a recent natural calibration experiment in which erosion free surfaces exposed to cosmic radiation for 11 000 yrs were sampled the absolute production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz have been accurately estimated for mountain altitudes in sierra nevada 4 the absolute production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz can therefore be estimated fairly accurately for any given latitude and altitude some measurements of 14c in rocks of low erosion rate 5 similarly allow an estimate of its production rate attempts made to measure the in situ production rates of 3he in rocks have not yet led to a convergent production rate in view of the importance of knowing the production rates of isotopes of he ne and ar i present here theoretical estimates of their production rates based on available cross section data i discuss the information that can be extracted from the study of the in situ nuclides in rocks useful parameters characterizing the exposure history of a rock surface are 1 the effective surface exposure age and 2 the time averaged erosion rate the implications of these parameters for single and multiple nuclide studies are discussed in terms of the erosion models considered

five million year10be record in chinese loess and red clay climate and weathering relationships 10be measurements in bulk samples in different size fractions in selective chemically leached fractions of several representative loess paleosol sequences and in the underlying red clay sediments from the chinese loess plateau back to ca 5 ma were made using the ams accelerator mass spectrometer our data support but considerably extend the earlier studies of shen and beer and their colleagues in the upper 0 75 ma luochuan loess paleosol sequences the effect of climatic change is dramatically expressed by10be concentrations 1 in the red clay sediments for which we estimate model accumulation rates of 5 8 and 8 7 m ma 1 for the upper sequences in lingtai and baoji respectively 2 in the paleosols where soil maturation processes are manifest in the10be distribution within different size fractions accompanied by downward movement to zones of high authigenic mineral concentration and 3 in loess samples which at deposition had an appreciable endowment of10be from the dust source regions on the basis of leaching experiments we estimate that on average the paleosol layers lost about 3 3 of their initial10be content to the underlying layers by transport with water finally we estimate that the relative average zonal precipitation rate during glacial periods was 2 3 the average interglacial value the estimates of the initial10be concentrations and dust composition are consistent with the measured values for the recent atmospheric dust falls sampled from the loess plateau and the shandong peninsula

records of cosmogenic radionuclides 10be 26al and 36cl in corals first studies on coral erosion rates and potential of dating very old corals we present results of measurements of cosmogenic 10 be 26 al and 36 cl and the indigenous intrinsic concentrations of the stable elements be al and cl in 120 200 kyr old corals from barbados and puerto rico the concentration levels of these radionuclides in the corals lie in the range 10 4 to 10 8 atoms g a comparison of the measured nuclide concentrations with those expected to be produced in the corals by nuclear interactions of energetic cosmic radiation shows that i the radionuclides 26 al and 36 cl are derived from in situ cosmic ray interactions in the corals after their formation but that ii the radionuclide 10 be owes its provenance in the coralline lattice primarily due to incorporation of dissolved beryllium in seawater in the lattice structure of the corals copyright 2005 elsevier ltd we discuss production rates and potential uses of cosmogenic radionuclides in corals and the implications of the measure ments reported here on the concentration of the cosmogenic radionuclides 10 be 26 al and 36 cl we show that the latter two radionuclides serve as gauges of coral terrace erosion rates whereas the cosmogenic 10 be is suitable for determining the ages of old corals of ages exceeding a few million years up to 10 myr the erosion rates of the corals range from 0 7 to 5 10 3 cm yr corresponding to an appreciable surface loss after aerial exposure 1 3 m since the last interglacial and 8m since the penultimate interglacial

tims u series dating and stable isotopes of the last interglacial event in papua new guinea the extensive flight of uplifted reef terraces which occurs along the vitiaz strait on the northern flank of the huon peninsula in png papua new guinea contains a particularly good record of sea level changes in the last 250 ky the huon terraces were the target of an international expedition which took place in july august 1988 in particular we searched for suitable samples for u series dating in a reef complex designated as vii which is correlated with the last interglacial episode and high sea level stand this complex is composed of a barrier reef viib a lagoon and a fringing reef viia twelve corals from these terraces and two corals from the older reef complex viii were selected for analysis the petrography oxygen and carbon isotope compositions and magnesium and strontium concentrations were determined along with the concentrations and isotopic compositions of uranium and thorium 230 th 234 u ages of the corals with 99 aragonite having primary textures and which show u sr ratios around 0 4 10 3 and initial 234 u values close to that of present seawater appear to be reliable the most reliable ages from complex vii corals fall in two tight groups centered at 118 ky and 134 ky corals with 234 u t values higher than 160 and u sr ratios substantially lower than seawater are assumed to have undergone diagenetic alteration which appears to be common in this area the simplest model for sea level height for terrace vii is a continuous rise between 134 and 118 ky alternatively there may have been two periods of rapid sea level rise in contrast in the bahamas there is evidence that sea level remained rather constant over the time interval 132 to 120 ky the absence of ages between 132 and 120 ky in png could be the result of changes in the local tectonic uplift rates during that time or erosion that disrupted the continuous record in any event we find no basis for accepting a single brief time for the age of the last interglacial and applying this age as a precise chronometer for worldwide correlation or as a test of climatic models the older ages reported here precede the milankovitch solar insolation peak at 128 ky and the younger ages are 10 ky after this peak if the present high precision data are correct then it will be necessary to reassess the validity of the milankovitch theory of climatic changes the fundamental issue which must now be resolved is a means of identifying coral samples that have not been disturbed by diagenetic processes

surface ocean variability at galapagos from 1936 1982 calibration of geochemical tracers in corals a variety of geochemical tracers has been developed in reef corals as a means of reconstructing the natural variability of the tropical surface ocean over wide ranging time frames the purpose of this paper is to calibrate the performance of five of these tracers in a modern coral colony over an extended period a 47 year growth interval 1936 1982 in a colony of pavona clavus taken from san cristobal island galapagos islands was sectioned into 187 quarterly intervals and analyzed for 18o 13o ba ca cd ca and mn ca the resulting time series are compared with eastern pacific sea surface temperatures one of few instrumental data bases available for calibration over this time period linear least squares regressions of four of the tracers 18o 13o ba ca cd ca against peruvian sst show highly significant correlations p 0 0001 over the annual biennial and enso 3 8 years frequency bands cross spectral comparisons show even stronger coherency with sst frequently accounting for 70 80 of the variance in these tracers these results as well as the phase relationships determined from the spectral analyses suggest that the coupling between sst and 18o and the nutrientlike tracers ba and cd is controlled principally by seasonal upwelling cycles and interannual interruptions of these cycles brought about by el nino and anti el nino phenomena an inverse relationship between sst and 13c has its primary origins in the co occurrence of the warm sst phase with high light levels during the first half of the calendar year the association with sunlight derives from the photosynthetic response of algal symbionts which results in fractionation of light and heavy carbon isotopes between soft tissues and caco3 skeleton the fifth tracer the transition metal mn exhibits poorer correlations against both sst and the other tracers slight shifts in phasing of the historical mn ca annual cycle suggest that the general water column distribution of this tracer which is the reverse of a nutrient may not be stable the erratic behavior of mn illustrates how complex hydrography near galapagos may influence tracers with diverse source signatures

last interglacial reef growth beneath modern reefs in the southern great barrier reef studies of modem coral reefs have shown that holocene reef growth is relatively thin and that in many instances it has developed on an older limestone surface1 4 this surface is commonly associated with leaching and pedogenic processes indicative of subaerial exposure and has been termed the solution unconformity5 investigations into reef growth history have interpreted the pre holocene substrate as an older reef surface2 4 6 8 that may or may hot have undergone karst erosion during periods of lower sea level6 9 uranium series dating of corals directly below the uppermost solution unconformity at eniwetok10 and mururoa11 has shown that previous reef growth before the holocene occurred 120 kyr ago we present here 230th 234u dates that confirm a last interglacial age for reefal limestones directly beneath the uppermost solution unconformity in the southern great barrier reef

10be dating of neogene halite direct radioactive dating of ancient halite formations is difficult because this mineral typically lacks conventionally datable material we describe an attempt to date neogene halite using the cosmogenic isotope 10 be t1 2 1 39 ma we dated marine derived salt deposits from the sedom and amora the hebrew forms of sodom and gomorrah formations dead sea basin israel to verify whether be is incorporated into marine halite we measured the stable isotope 9 be 7 be the short lived cosmogenic brother of 10 be having t1 2 53 3 d and 10 be in evaporation pans of sea salt production plants the data suggest that seawater beryllium is incorporated into the halite with a halite brine distribution coefficient kd of about unity a 10 be 9 be decay curve constructed for sedom formation halite yielded an age that lies in the range of 2 6 ma the 10 be decay curve constructed for sedom formation halite yielded an age that lies in the range of 3 5 ma this age is consistent with previous estimates of the sedom formation age furthermore this age lies in the same range of 10 be in situ ages obtained on the lacustrine erq el ahmer formation located in the northern jordan valley this may imply that during the mid pliocene the sedom lagoon the water body that deposited the sedom formation might have been already disconnected from the open sea 2013 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

faulting associated with historical and recent earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region summary this paper summarizes evidence for surface faulting in historical and recent earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region and in the middle east such information is particularly important for studies of active tectonics and for palaeoseismology we have found 78 cases of faulting pre 1900 and 72 post 1900 some of which show that faults that have apparently been inactive this century had already ruptured before 1900 for some cases faulting could not have been predicted from 20th century activity and in others it could have been expected but has not been observed during the instrumental period the data are suycient to allow the derivation of relationships between magnitude and rupture length

the rachaya serghaya fault system lebanon evidence of coseismic ruptures and the ad 1759 earthquake sequence 1 the rachaya and serghaya faults are the easternmost fault branches of the dead sea transform fault within the lebanese restraining bend they lie east of the yammouneh fault the main strand of the dead sea transform fault within the restraining bend extend along the western and eastern flanks of the anti lebanon range respectively and show left lateral strike slip movement manifested as offset drainage we studied both faults through combined field investigations in geomorphology and paleoseismology young fault scarps mole tracks pressure ridges and offset streams detected along the faults traces attest to recent coseismic ruptures two paleoseismic investigations highlight their seismogenic potential and indicate earthquake recurrence along them the rachaya and serghaya faults are active and the sources of recent historical earthquakes the last of which might be the 30 october 25 november 1759 ms 6 6 and 7 4 earthquake sequence that caused severe damage in the eastern mediterranean region such a possible correlation suggests that the two faults are probably structurally interconnected as movement on one fault may stimulate movement on the other fault in addition both faults may define together an active seismogenic fault system that accommodates some of the regional displacement that takes place within the lebanese restraining bend our results highlight that the seismogenic potential of the rachaya and serghaya faults must be included in any seismic hazard assessment of the region

sea level during the penultimate interglacial period based on a submerged stalagmite from argentarola cave italy accurate constraints are presented for the absolute age duration and sea level for the highstand corresponding to marine isotope stage mis 7 1 our work is based on a stalagmite collected in a currently submerged cave from italy argentarola cave flooding of this coastal cave is clearly marked within the stalagmite by a thick marine overgrowth of serpulid worms precise uranium thorium u th ages measured by thermal ionization mass spectrometry suggest that the stalagmite growth varied in phase with climate during mis 7 2 and mis 6 the penultimate glacial period in addition the period of marine transgression is bracketed between 202 and 190 kyr bp defining a mis 7 1 duration of 11 2 kyr comparison with previous studies provides a new constraint on the sea level during mis 7 1 that has approximately remained between 318 and 39 m relative to present sea level the timing of the mis 7 1 highstand is in full agreement with the specmap chronology which contrasts with the growing body of evidence showing a significant phase difference for mis 5 5 a tempting conclusion is that second order sea level highstands such as mis 7 1 may be purely driven by astronomical changes in contrast with major terminations such as termination ii atmospheric co2 levels may partly explain this contrast since the two sea level transitions mis 7 2 7 1 and mis 6 5 5 are characterized by very different co2 rises 20 vs 100 ppm fl 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

new empirical relationships among magnitude rupture length rupture width rupture area and surface displacement source parameters for historical earthquakes worldwide are compiled to develop a series of empirical relationships among moment magnitude m surface rupture length subsurface rupture length downdip rupture width rupture area and maximum and average displacement per event the resulting data base is a significant update of previous compilations and includes the additional source parameters of seismic moment moment magnitude subsurface rupture length downdip rupture width and average surface displacement each source parameter is classified as reliable or unreliable based on our evaluation of the accuracy of individual values only the reliable source parameters are used in the final analyses in comparing source parameters we note the following trends 1 generally the length of rupture at the surface is equal to 75 of the subsurface rupture length however the ratio of surface rupture length to subsurface rupture length increases with magnitude 2 the average surface displacement per event is about one half the maximum surface displacement per event and 3 the average subsurface displacement on the fault plane is less than the maximum surface displacement but more than the average surface displacement thus for most earthquakes in this data base slip on the fault plane at seismogenic depths is manifested by similar displacements at the surface log linear regressions between earthquake magnitude and surface rupture length subsurface rupture length and rupture area are especially well correlated showing standard deviations of 0 25 to 0 35 magnitude units most relationships are not statistically different at a 95 significance level as a function of the style of faulting thus we consider the regressions for all slip types to be appropriate for most applications regressions between magnitude and displacement magnitude and rupture width and between displacement and rupture length are less well correlated and have larger standard deviation than regressions between magnitude and length or area the large number of data points in most of these regressions and their statistical stability suggest that they are unlikely to change significantly in response to additional data separating the data according to extensional and compressional tectonic environments neither provides statistically different results nor improves the statistical significance of the regressions regressions for cases in which earthquake magnitude is either the independent or the dependent parameter can be used to estimate maximum earthquake magnitudes both for surface faults and for subsurface seismic sources such as blind faults and to estimate the expected surface displacement along a fault for a given size earthquake

the structure of the dead sea basin abstract the dead sea basin is located along the left lateral transform boundary between the arabian and sinai plates its structure and history are known from surface geology drilling seismic reflection and other geophysical data the basin comprises a large pull apart almost 150 km long and mostly 8 10 km wide which is flanked by a few kilometres wide zones of normal faulting the basin formed at about 15 ma or earlier close to the beginning of the transform motion and it reached about half its present length before the end of the miocene a strong negative gravity anomaly records a thick sediment basin fill 5 km under half its length reaching a maximum of 10 km the fill includes a few km of salt ca 6 4 ma which forms several diapirs at any one time large parts of the basin subsided simultaneously but the site of fastest subsidence seems to have shifted northward sedimentation rates reached at least hundreds of metres per million years or more in the miocene and 1 km myr in later periods the basin structure is dominated by longitudinal faults intrabasinal faults which delimit the pull apart and which are the extensions of the major strike slip faults north and south of the basin and normal faults which extend along the basin margins the latter faults express a small component of extension across the basin whereas the pull apart resulted from the much larger lateral motion along the basin in addition transverse faults divide the pull apart into several segments with somewhat different histories the pull apart grew by becoming longer parallel to the transform motion at shallow levels this was probably achieved by normal slip on transverse listric faults while the fill between them was little deformed the crust under the basin was stretched and thinned during basin lengthening which caused its subsidence basin formation was accompanied by uplifting of its flanks by 1 km sparse igneous activity occurred along the basin and its flanks its presence suggests a thermal anomaly in the lower lithosphere beneath the basin and adjacent parts of the transform

micro and macroseismicity of the dead sea rift and off coast eastern mediterranean abstract the seismicity of israel has been evaluated from documented earthquake records of the present century and two years of routine monitoring of microearthquake activity by means of eleven stations spreading from the gulf of elat to northern galilee the dead sea rift asserts itself as the tectonic feature that accounts for the seismicity of our region the activity peaks at zones where the fault branches sideways or at a junction with other fault systems in particular the crescent fault of wadi faria seems to be a zone of high strain accumulation this is probably the site of many historical earthquakes which caused inland and coastal damage it is thus found that the most active fault today which constitutes the greatest seismic risk to israeli metropolitan areas extends along the dead sea rift from 31 2 n to 33 4 n the seismicity around the dead sea conforms with the proposed movement along en echelon faults while the southwest segment is presently inactive most of the seismic activity there is limited to the neighbourhood of its eastern shore with extreme seismicity at its southern tip near the prehistorical site of bab a dara a the seismicity of the arava is much lower than the jordan dead sea section the seismicity of the israeli coast was found to be somewhat higher than that of the arava

intrabasin paleoearthquake and quiescence correlation of the late holocene dead sea 1 a comprehensive multisite paleoseismic archive of the late holocene dead sea basin past 2500 years is established by constructing two age depth chronological models of two sedimentary sections exposed at the retreating shores of the modern dead sea two new paleoseismic study sites studied are the ein feshkha nature reserve outcrop located at the northern part of the basin and close to an active underwater transverse fault and the east ze elim gully outcrop at the southern part of the basin age depth regression models are calculated for these sections based on atmospheric radiocarbon ages of short lived organic debris calibrated with a bayesian model the uncertainties on individual model ages are smaller than 100 years the new chronological records are compared to a laminae counting study of the ein gedi core migowski et al 2004 located at the central dead sea basin the ein feshkha outcrop yielded the largest number of seismites in the studied time interval n 52 while lower numbers of seismites are recovered from the ze elim outcrop and ein gedi core n 15 and 36 respectively the seismites show no strong dependence on the limnological sedimentological conditions in the particular sampling sites they coappear in both shallow and deep water environments and in different sedimentary facies during time intervals when the chronologies are comparable it appears that the number of seismites is significantly larger in the northern part of the basin ein gedi and ein feshkha seismic quiescence intervals are apparent at all three sites from 2nd 4th century a d and at 500 150 b c at ze elim and ein gedi several synchronous seismites appear in all sections termed here the intrabasin seismites ibs among them 1927 1293 1202 1212 749 551 419 and 33 a d and 31 and mid 2nd century b c the recurrence time of the ibs from the 2nd century b c to the 14th century a d is 200 years compared with 100 years for all earthquakes on a diagram of epicentral distance versus magnitude historic earthquakes that are correlated with ibs plot in a field of high local intensity the farther and stronger ibs earthquakes require lower local intensities to be recorded this study demonstrates that a painstaking effort is still needed for unraveling the seismic history of the dead sea basin the results also indicate that such a study will likely be highly rewarding

rapid analysis of high precision sr ca ratios in corals and other marine carbonates a method for rapid determination of high precision sr ca ratios in scleractinian corals is presented using an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer samples are corrected for instrument drift using a reference solution similar to the approach used for analysis of stable isotopes using gas source mass spectrometry further correction for variation of the sr ca ratio with ca concentration is accomplished using internal standards the precision once all corrections have been made is better than 0 1 relative standard deviation 1 for samples of similar ca concentration and better than 0 2 for samples with variable ca concentrations this method increases the sample throughput by approximately a factor of 20 relative to thermal ionization mass spectrometry and significantly reduces instrument and per sample costs comparison of sr ca data for a coral from the galapagos islands with an instrumental temperature record shows excellent agreement and demonstrates the potential for application of this technique to samples of modern and fossil scleractinian corals and other marine carbonates including foraminifera

towards an improved understanding of erosion rates and tidal notch development on limestone coasts in the tropics 10 years of micro erosion meter measurements phang nga bay thailand knowledge and understanding of shore platform erosion and tidal notch development in the tropics and subtropics relies mainly on short term studies conducted on recently deposited carbonate rocks predominantly holocene and quaternary reef limestones and aeolianites this paper presents erosion rates measured over a 10 year period on notches and platforms developed on the permian ratburi limestone at phang nga bay thailand in so doing it contributes to informing a particular knowledge gap in our understanding of the erosion dynamics of shore platform and tidal notch development in the tropics and subtropics notch erosion rates on relatively hard ancient limestones measured directly on the rock surface using a micro erosion meter mem over time periods of a decade or more the average intertidal erosion rate of 0 231 mm yr is lower than erosion rates measured over 2 3 years on recent weaker carbonate rocks average erosion rates at phang nga vary according to location and site and are in rank order from highest to lowest mid platform 0 324 mm yr notch floor 0 289 mm yr rear notch wall 0 228 mm yr lower platform 0 140 mm yr notch roof 0 107 mm yr and supratidal 0 095 mm yr the micro relief of the eroding rock surfaces in each of these positions exhibits marked differences that are seemingly associated with differences in dominant physical and bio erosion processes the results begin to help inform knowledge of longer term shore platform erosion dynamics models of marine notch development and have implications for the use of marine notches as indicators of changes in sea level and the duration of past sea levels copyright 2014 john wiley sons ltd

broadband 0 4 hz ground motions for a magnitude 7 0 hayward fault earthquake with three dimensional structure and topography author s rodgers aj pitarka a petersson na sjogreen b mccallen db abstract 2018 the authors we performed fully deterministic broadband 0 4 hz high performance computing ground motion simulations of a magnitude 7 0 scenario earthquake on the hayward fault hf in the san francisco bay area of northern california simulations consider average one dimensional 1 d and three dimensional 3 d anelastic structure with flat and topographic free surfaces ground motion intensity measures gmims for the 3 d model display dramatic differences across the hf due to geologic heterogeneity with low wave speeds east of the hf amplifying motions the median gmims agree well with ground motion prediction equations gmpes however the 3 d model generates more scatter than the 1 d model ratios of 3 d 1 d gmims from the same source allow isolation of path and site effects for the 3 d model these ratios show remarkably similar trends as site specific factors for the gmpe predictions suggesting that wave propagation effects in our 3 d simulations are on average consistent with empirical data

uranium series dating of marine and lacustrine carbonates of the possible uranium series dating schemes the most important and most widely applied to marine carbonates is 230th dating with 231pa dating playing an increasingly important role for this reason this review will focus on these two methods 230th dating also referred to as u th dating or 238u 234u 230th dating involves calculating ages from radioactive decay and ingrowth relationships among 238u 234u and 230th 232th is also typically measured as a long lived essentially stable index isotope over the time scales relevant to 230th dating at present 230th dating can in principle be used to date materials as young as 3 years and in excess of 600 000 years edwards et al 1987a 1993 edwards 1988 see stirling et al 2001 for an example of dating corals in excess of 600 000 years old 231pa dating also referred to as u pa dating involves calculating ages from the ingrowth of 231pa from its grandparent 235u at present 231pa dating can be used to date materials as young as 10 years and as old 250 000 years edwards et al 1997 230th dating covers all of the 231pa time range and more with somewhat higher precision and is therefore the method of choice if a single method is applied however the combination of 231pa and 230th dating is of great importance in assessing possible diagenetic mobilization of the pertinent nuclides and thereby the accuracy of the ages allegre 1964 ku 1968 even if the primary age exceeds the 250 000 year limit of 231pa dating the combined methods can be used to assess the degree to which the samples have remained closed over the past 250 000 years e g edwards et al 1997 thus

measuring erosion with the micro erosion meter contributions to understanding landform evolution abstract we review the contribution made to understanding landform evolution through the use of the micro erosion meter mem and the variant the traversing micro erosion meter tmem the mem has allowed the direct measurement of bedrock erosion in terrestrial and coastal settings as well as of building stone as recorded in mem measurements world wide the average rate of surface lowering on shore platforms is 1 486 mm a 1 and on terrestrial rock surfaces measured lowering rates are on average 0 903 mm a 1 reported means obscure significant variation in rates from a range of environmental settings and lithologies the mem has in a number of examples allowed the identification of the contribution of individual processes in polygenetic settings particularly in shore platform studies the dynamic nature of rock weathering has been highlighted where the tmem has revealed rock surfaces swelling and contracting at time scales ranging from hours to years the mem will continue to provide useful data on erosion rates and processes but the most fruitful investigations will be those that combine the t mem with other techniques that transcend time and space scale issues in erosion and process measurement

high resolution geological record of historic earthquakes in the dead sea basin a 2000 year paleoseismic record of the dead sea area was recovered from a lacustrine sedimentary section the section is being exposed at the ze elim terrace on the shores of the dead sea due to the fast retreat of the lake the section consists of laminated detrital and chemical mainly aragonite sediments that were deposited in the holocene paleo dead sea eight layers in the section show deformed sedimentary structures and are identified as seismites their chronology was determined by radiocarbon dating on organic remains the seismite ages are well correlated with the historically documented earthquakes of 64 and 31 b c and 33 363 1212 1293 1834 and 1927 a d the few historically documented earthquakes that have no correlatives in the ze elim seismite record occurred in times of sedimentary hiatuses at this site e g 749 a d based on modern analogues and the association of similar disturbed layers with syndepositional faults the ze elim terrace seismites indicate m 5 5 earthquakes the average recurrence interval is estimated as 100 300 years and represents slip events on different faults in the dead sea area the ze elim section provides a unique opportunity to correlate two independent and extensive data sets the historical and sedimentary records this study opens the way for better understanding of spatial and temporal distribution of earthquakes along the dead sea transform and elsewhere

multiple dating approach 14c 230th u and 36cl of tsunami transported reef top boulders on bonaire leeward antilles current achievements and challenges abstract dating the transport deposition time of supratidal coarse clast deposits is difficult limiting their value for inferring frequency magnitude patterns of high energy wave events on bonaire leeward antilles caribbean these deposits form prominent landforms and transport by one or several holocene tsunamis is assumed at least for the largest clasts although a large dataset of 14c and electron spin resonance esr ages is available for major coral rubble ridges and ramparts it is still debated whether these data reflect the timing of major events and how these datasets are biased by the reworking of coral fragments as an attempt to overcome the current challenges for dating the dislocation of singular boulders three distinct dating methods are implemented and compared i 14c dating of boring bivalves attached to the boulders ii 230th u dating of post depositional secondary calcite flowstone and subaerial microbialites at the underside of the boulders and iii surface exposure dating of overturned boulders via 36cl concentration measurements in corals approaches ii and iii have never been applied to coastal boulder deposits so far the three 14c age estimates are older than 40 ka i e most probably beyond the applicability of the method which is attributed to post depositional diagenetic processes shedding doubt on the usefulness of this method in the local context the remarkably convergent 230th u ages all pointing to the late holocene period 1 0 1 6 ka are minimum ages for the transport event s the microbialite sample yields an age of 1 23 0 23 ka and both flowstone samples are in stratigraphic order the older onset of carbonate precipitation and younger flowstone layers yield ages of 1 59 0 03 and 1 23 0 03 ka respectively four coral samples collected from the topside of overturned boulders yielded similar 36cl concentration measurements however the computed ages are affected by large uncertainties mostly due to the high natural chlorine concentration after correction for the inherited component and chemical denudation since platform emergence inducing additional uncertainty the calculated 36cl ages cluster between 2 5 1 3 and 3 0 1 4 ka for three of four boulders whilst the fourth one yields an age of 6 1 1 8 ka probably related to a higher inheritance these 230th u and 36cl age estimates are coherent with a suggested tsunami age of

distribution of10be and9be in the pacific ocean abstract the vertical distributions of10be and9be at three locations in the pacific 25 n 170 e 17 n 118 w 3 s 117 w are presented the results show that both isotopes exhibit nutrient like profiles from the surface to the bottom the increase for10be is two to threefold and that for9be is about fivefold while the inter station variations in surface water concentrations may reach a factor of two deep water values tend to be much more uniform averaging about 2000 atoms g for10be and 30 pm for9be a similar situation applies to the10be 9be ratio it varies approximately from 1 to 3 10 7 atom atom at shallow depths but tends toward a value close to 1 1 10 7 in the deep ocean the variation of10be 9be can be viewed as resulting from the fact that10be in a given parcel of water consists of two components recycled and primary the recycled component is that part of10be which has reached tracer equilibrium with9be as opposed to the primary component which upon entering the sea from the atmosphere has yet to equilibrate with9be through particle cycling and mixing processes it is estimated that 70 to nearly 100 of10be at the three stations are being recycled and the recycled beryllium bears an atomic ratio of10be 9be close to 1 10 7 the oceanic residence time of be is of the order of 1000 4000 years comparable to or slightly longer than the ocean mixing time

cosmogenic 14c in carbonate rocks abstract the rate of in situ production of cosmogenic 14 co in limestone is 18 3 atom g caco3 year corrected to high latitude and sea level based on measurements of 14 co in limestone associated with the bonneville provo shoreline complex in utah in situ cosmogenic 14 co was separated cryogenically from co2 using 14 c dead co as a carrier for in situ cosmogenic 14 co this rate of production was used to estimate an age of 4360 1220 cal year b p for the last movement on the south oquirrh mountain fault zone in northern utah and an age of at least 10 600 900 years for the penultimate event of the pleasant valley fault in northern nevada

geochemical imprint of meteoric diagenesis in holocene ooid sands schooner cays bahamas correlation of calcite cement geochemistry with extant groundwaters abstract the geochemistry of meteoric calcite cements and their parent waters on three small holocene ooid sand islands in the schooner cays bahamas is explicated in terms of observed hydrologic and hydrochemical processes dissolved mg is derived soley from admixed seawater or aerosols the mg contents of the cements 0 4 to 3 0 mole are thus a salinity indicator and suggest cementation in waters composed of 16 mmoles liter per yr variations in mg and sr contents across cement mosaics reflect long term temporal fluctuations in the amou t of aragonite to calcite alteration and incursions of brackish waters the pore water oxygen reservoir is water buffered and derived from meteoric rainfall and seawater mixing but is seasonally enriched in 18o by evaporation the 18o values of the cements 3 4 to 5 0 pdb reflect the relative proportions of cements formed during and immediately after the rainy season versus those formed during the dry season the pore water carbon is derived from organic respiration atmospheric carbon and dissolved aragonite organic respiration dominates the 18c of the vadose cements 7 8 to 1 1 pdb and the 13c of phreatic groundwaters 2 2 to 14 0 pdb in contrast 13c enriched phreatic cements 1 2 to 3 7 pdb reflect carbon from dissolved aragonite and are not in carbon isotopic equilibrium with the present groundwaters this case example reveals the complex geochemical signal that can result from even a very simple diagenetic history such as a single phase of meteoric diagenesis acting on a purely aragonitic sediment

the 1759 earthquake in the bekaa valley implications for earthquake hazard assessment in the eastern mediterranean region analysis of macroseismic data based on primary sources for large though infrequent historical earthquakes ms 6 5 that occurred along an approximately 350 km long segment of the northern part of the dead sea fault system primarily in lebanon and syria for the period 1100 1988 reveals the following 1 ten events occurred in three relatively short periods tens of years with repeat times of 200 350 years 2 the events most probably broke this north segment of the dead sea fault system possibly including the westernmost segment of the east anatolian fault system near the border between syria and turkey 3 the lack of such large events during the past 100 years should not be interpreted to minimize potential earthquake hazard in this region and 4 the ms 7 plus earthquake on november 25 1759 almost certainly produced surface faulting probably along the yammouneh fault in the bekaa valley and caused heavy destruction with great loss of life in numerous villages and towns including safad damascus beirut and baalbek this main event was preceded by a ms 6 plus foreshock on october 30 1759 in the southern part of the epicentral area of the main shock near the towns of safad and qunaitra which were almost totally destroyed with considerable loss of life

evidence of coseismic ruptures along the roum fault lebanon a possible source for the ad 1837 earthquake abstract the roum fault is the westernmost branch within the lebanese restraining bend of the dead sea transform fault this strike slip fault extends for about 35 km from north of the hula basin to the awali river and shows left lateral strike slip displacements manifested as offset streams and vertical movements recent seismic records indicate its seismogenic potential as the source of the double shock of 16 march 1956 ms 4 8 5 1 earthquake we studied the roum fault using combined field investigations in geomorphology structural geology and palaeoseismology fresh fault scarps and pressure ridges visible along the fault trace attest to recent coseismic ruptures a palaeoseismic trench investigation exposed a complex fault zone with several rupture strands and a minimum of four faulting episodes in the last 10 000 years the most recent event being post 84 239 ad according to historical records the 1 january 1837 ms 7 1 earthquake which induced severe damage in the region is the most likely candidate our results assign a slip rate of 0 86 1 05 mm year along the roum fault which shows that it accommodates about 14 of the total predicted strike slip motion within the lebanese restraining bend and it should be considered a potential seismogenic fault for seismic hazard estimates in lebanon

weathering rates on a caribbean reef limestone results and implications abstract weathering of presently raised reef islands provides an analogue for the behaviour of pleistocene reefs made emergent by glacio eustatic falls in sea level micro erosion meter measurements on grand cayman island west indies have shown that high mean weathering rates 1 00 mm yr 1 are restricted to the marine environment large scale landform development is unlikely to have been the product of the last period of exposure but rather the result of successive phases of weathering and reef growth increasing the differential relief of the reef base throughout the pleistocene

evolution of marine terraces and sea level in the last interglacial cave hill barbados the uplifted marine terrace of last interglacial stage 5e age at cave hill barbados has been investigated with views toward terrace architecture developmental processes and sea level history methods include stratigraphic analysis of new deep exposures precise 230th geochronology and geomorphic mapping cave hill was central to earlier studies that led to important ideas on reef and terrace evolution but with which we find significant disagreement we present a new model of terrace evolution that emphasizes the role of marine erosion deposition of carbonate cover during the full eustatic cycle rather than only at highstand and principal reef development during transgression rather than at highstand by keep up rather than catch up growth the new model and geochronology contribute to an improved understanding of surficial processes during emergence of uplifting coral coasts and of global sea level changes in the last interglacial transgression in stage 5e at cave hill was accompanied by progressive marine erosion of a terrace floor and receding seacliff and deposition of a seaward thickening reefal wedge on the floor and above limestones of stage 6 and 7 ages the wedge contains a diachronous basal acropora palmata fringe reef this is overlain by an in place a cervicornis reef that aggraded progressively during sea level rise the transgressive phase took place between 136 ka or earlier and ca 128 ka during highstand between ca 127 and 120 ka the floor and seacliff continued to recede landward re gression began at or after ca 120 ka and sea level fell 37 m below the highstand level by ca 115 ka in stage 5c the seaward front of the last interglacial terrace was eroded landward an uncertain distance the sea level record at cave hill has implications for timing and constituent events of the penultimate glacial the last interglacial highstand and the fall in sea level at the transition from stage 5e to stage 5d shoreline angles which are isochronous linear geomorphic features are the most accurate markers of sustained highstand levels highstand levels and uplift rates interpreted from a palmata in barbados are less accurate and lower because the coral grew mainly in transgression the coral derived data therefore include uncertainties of depths of growth and collapse

protactinium 231 dating of carbonates by thermal ionization mass spectrometry implications for quaternary climate change measurement of protactinium 231 231pa in carbonates by thermal ionization mass spectroscopy yields 231pa ages that are more than 10 times more precise than those determined by decay counting carbonates between 10 and 250 000 years old can now be dated with 231pa methods barbados corals that have identical 231pa and thorium 230 230th ages indicate that the timing of sea level change over parts of the last glacial cycle is consistent with the predictions of the astronomical theory two devils hole calcite subsamples record identical 231pa and 230th ages suggesting that the chronology of this climate record is accurate

archaeology history and geology of the a d 749 earthquake dead sea transform historical records of earthquakes can contribute significantly to understanding active faulting and seismic hazards however pre twentieth century historians were unaware of the association of earthquakes and fault ruptures consequently historical texts usually report the time and damage caused by earthquakes but not the associated faults conversely observed fault ruptures are often difficult to date in order to overcome these difficulties we have analyzed archaeological and sedimentological observations in recent excavations in the ancient city of tiberias and have combined them with interpretation of historical accounts tiberias was founded in a d 19 by king herod on the western shore of the sea of galilee kinneret herod9s stadium exposed in these excavations for the first time was damaged by boulder bearing flash floods and by an earthquake later buildings dated as late as the early eighth century are all covered by alluvium and lake deposits they are also damaged and offset by normal faults whereas buildings from the late eighth century are intact we therefore attribute the damage to the earthquake of 18 january 749 the paleoseismic observations are in good agreement with the distribution of damage on the basis of historical records both data sets indicate a 100 km long rupture segment between the kinneret and the dead sea pull apart basins demonstrating that it is capable of generating m 7 earthquakes

late cenozoic sea level and the rise of modern rimmed atolls this paper is not subject to u s copyright the definitive version was published in palaeogeography palaeoclimatology palaeoecology 451 2016 73 83 doi 10 1016 j palaeo 2016 03 018

earthquakes and archaeology abstract this article examines the use of archaeological evidence for the assessment of historical earthquakes in the eastern mediterranean region and middle east long before the advent of modern seismology we ask the questions when and where have large earthquakes happened in the past how can this evidence contribute to our scientific understanding of earthquake activity is it possible on literary and archaeological grounds to distinguish between earthquake damage and damage from other causes it is found that archaeological evidence for an earthquake is not always clear or unambiguous and that there is a need for collaboration between archaeologists historians geologists engineering seismologists and workers in other disciplines to evaluate the traces of earthquakes in excavations both for understanding their effects at the site and for the information they can provide about the nature of the earthquake implicated

orbital forcing of the marine isotope stage 9 interglacial milankovitch orbital forcing theory has been used to assign time scales to many paleoclimate records however the validity of this theory remains uncertain and independent sea level chronologies used to test its applicability have been restricted largely to the past approximately 135 000 years here we report u series ages for coral reefs formed on henderson island during sea level high stands occurring at approximately 630 000 and approximately 330 000 years ago these data are consistent with the hypothesis that interglacial climates are forced by northern hemisphere summer solar insolation centered at 65 degrees n latitude as predicted by milankovitch theory

a high resolution authigenic 10be 9be record of geomagnetic moment variations over the last 300 ka from sedimentary cores of the portuguese margin a high resolution study of authigenic be isotopes 10be and 9be combined with continuous relative paleointensity records has been performed along the same marine sedimentary sequences from the portuguese margin n e atlantic covering the past 300 ka in order to assess relationships between geomagnetic moment variations and 10be production rate variations a carefull examination of the various ways of taking into account environmental disturbing effects on the authigenic 10be concentration leads to the conclusion that the most reliable proxy of cosmonuclide production rates is presently the authigenic 10be 9be ratio eight intervals of significant authigenic 10be 9be enhancement evidence geomagnetic moment drops related to global paleomagnetic excursions some being already admitted others being proposed as new geomagnetic features since contrarily to sedimentary magnetic remanence the authigenic 10be 9be records dipole moment variations without significant acquisition delay it provides better constraints on their timing comparison of 10be 9be and benthic 18o records from the same cores suggests that dipole moment lows preferentially occured during or at the end of interglacial episodes with a quasi period of 100 ka

orbital control of low latitude seasonality during the eemian 1 we used sr ca and stable isotope data from well dated and preserved corals from the northeastern caribbean to determine the seasonal environmental conditions for four continuous years during the eemian the last time the earth was in a prolonged warm phase we determined that the seasonal range in sst during the eemian was 25 30 c this is 1 2 larger than at present and caused primarily by winter cooling and only to a small degree by summer warming as climate modeling studies indicate the bias towards colder winters can be explained by changes in low latitude insolation induced by altered orbital parameters modulated by atmospheric co2 levels that were lower than today milankovitch forcing at higher latitudes was probably less important

effects of quaternary sea level cycles on strontium in seawater abstract the effects of quaternary sea level changes on the sr budget of the ocean are investigated using coupled numerical models of the seawater sr and ca budgets glacial interglacial sea level cycles influence the sr concentration of seawater directly through the periodic exposure and weathering of aragonite on continental shelves and indirectly by modulating the location and extent of carbonate deposition in the ocean as sea level recedes brief pulses of sr are added to the ocean from recrystallization of shelf aragonite this flux at its maximum is nearly ten times larger than the combined riverine and hydrothermal influx the large shelf recrystallization fluxes during glacial maxima produce rapid increases in the sr ca ratio of seawater despite the long residence time of sr in the ocean variations in the ratio of aragonitic vs calcitic sedimentation also influence on the sr content of seawater because the sr partitioning coefficient is higher in aragonite however this effect is minor compared to shelf aragonite recrystallization based on a variety of sensitivity tests the amplitude of sr ca variations ranges from 1 to 3 and is maximized by constant rates of total carbonate deposition extensive aragonite recrystallization and carbonate budgets which include dissolution of shelf carbonates such variation is sufficient to produce up to 1 5 c errors in paleotemperatures calculated from coral sr ca ratios since the last glacial maximum

timing and duration of the last interglacial evidence for a restricted interval of widespread coral reef growth abstract we report new mass spectrometric u series ages for eight last interglacial fossil reefs along the continental margin of western australia corals were selected in growth position from localities that are characterized by apparently low levels of diagenesis and relative tectonic stability so that the fossil reefs provide critical information on last interglacial sea levels without requiring corrections for tectonic movements in addition we have improved the constraint on the timing of onset of reef growth by recovering drill core coral from the base of the reefs uranium and thorium isotopes were measured with high levels of precision leading to improvements in age resolution and allowing samples which have undergone diagenetic exchange of uranium and thorium to be more easily identified and discarded these data supplement our previous results for rottnest island and leander point leading to more than seventy mass spectrometric u series ages from which constraints can be placed on the timing duration and character of the last interglacial sea level highstand reliable ages show that reef growth started contemporaneously at 128 1 ka along the entire western australian coastline while relative sea levels were at least 3 m above the present level because western australia is located far from the former penultimate glacial maximum ice sheets and are not significantly effected by glacial unloading these data constrain the timing of onset of the last interglacial period to 128 1 ka assuming reef growth started soon after sea level approached interglacial levels a unique regressive reef sequence at mangrove bay constrains the timing of termination of the last interglacial period to 116 1 ka the major episode of reef building however both globally and locally along the western australian coast is restricted to a very narrow interval occurring from 128 ka and 121 ka suggesting that global ocean surface temperatures were warm and or sea levels were stable enough to allow prolific reef growth only during the earlier part of the last interglacial

archaeological record of earthquake ruptures in tell ateret the dead sea fault the archaeological tell ateret north israel constructed on the active dead sea fault was intermittently settled for over six millennia structures on the tell that have been offset by earthquake ruptures provide a remarkable record of alternating construction and slip we excavated the site in order to resolve the geometry and to time the earthquake rupture history back to the earliest settlement the measurements of faulted archaeological walls are complemented with data from historical documents numismatic analysis and geological observations we report three newly discovered offsets that add to two previously resolved slip events the 20 may 1202 and 30 october 1759 earthquakes completing a three millennia archaeoseismic record the oldest offset measuring at least 2 m bisected iron age iia fortifications the second offset the largest of all five reaching 2 5 m is dated to circa 142 bce the third whose post hellenistic date is not determined is of 1 5 m possibly resulting from multiple earthquakes we constrain the time of the largest offset by a hoard of 45 coins the latest of which had been minted 143 142 bce indicative pottery and historic texts support the year 143 142 as terminus post quem of the rupture at this site these observations together with a new kinematic approach show uneven slip distribution in time and variable amounts of slip along the jordan gorge segment of the dead sea fault we suggest based on previous palaeomagnetic measurements that distributed deformation west of tell ateret can explain the apparent missing slip of 4 5 3 5 m since the hellenistic times

long term earthquake clustering a 50 000 year paleoseismic record in the dead sea graben the temporal distribution of earthquakes in the dead sea graben is studied through a 50 000 year paleoseismic record recovered in laminated sediments of the late pleistocene lake lisan paleo dead sea the lisan represents more than 10 times the 4000 years of historical earthquake records it is the longest and most complete paleoseismic record along the dead sea transform and possibly the longest continuous record on earth it includes unique exposures of seismite beds earthquake induced structures associated with slip events on syndepositional faults the seismites are layers consisting of mixtures of fragmented and pulverized laminae the places where the seismites abut syndepositional faults are interpreted as evidence for their formation at the sediment water interface during slip events on these faults thicker sediment accumulation above the seismites in the downthrown blocks indicates that a seismite formed at the water sediment interface on both sides of the fault scarps modern analogs and the association with surface ruptures suggest that each seismite formed during a m l 5 5 earthquake the 230 th 234 u ages of a columnar section obtained by thermal ionization mass spectrometry give a mean recurrence time of 1600 years of m l 5 5 earthquakes in the dead sea graben the earthquakes cluster in 10 000 year periods separated by quiet periods of similar length this distribution implies that a long term behavior of the dead sea transform should be represented by a mean recurrence of at least 20 000 year record this observation has ramifications for seismic hazard assessment based on shorter records

recent faulting in the southern arava dead sea transform evidence from single grain luminescence dating abstract colluvial sediments in tectonically active areas are associated with faults and dating them is important for timing earthquakes and assessing seismic hazards in hyperarid regions organic matter for radiocarbon is scarce and the dating method of choice is luminescence however colluvial sediments are difficult to date due to the short transport distance that is commonly involved and the resulting incomplete bleaching of the sediment single grain and small aliquot measurements of fault related colluvial sediments may isolate well bleached grains and provide reliable ages of faulting events elat southern israel lies on the active dead sea transform and paleoseismic data are crucial for city planners a small fresh looking nne trending graben within the late pleistocene to holocene alluvial fan of nahal shehoret near elat was trenched to expose recently active normal faults with a stack of colluvial wedges on the footwalls samples for luminescence dating were collected near the eastern fault from the alluvial fan and from the heels less than 1 m from the fault plane and toes 2 m away from the fault plane of a stack of five colluvial wedges single grain measurements of quartz were compared with large thousands of grains and small hundreds of grains single aliquots of quartz and alkali feldspar kf kf was measured using the infrared stimulated luminescence irsl signal and the single aliquot added dose saad or single aliquot regenerative dose sar protocols large aliquots and single grains of quartz were measured using the optically stimulated luminescence osl signal and the sar protocol large and small aliquots show large scatter in equivalent dose values with a distinct population of young ages quartz large aliquot ages of samples taken from the toes of the wedges range from 5200 to 2600 years however the ages of samples taken from the heels close to the fault are in reversed order from 4300 years at the base to 13 000 years at the upper wedge this results from progressive exposure and erosion of deeper and older beds on the fault scarp with continued faulting and incorporation of older poorly bleached grains into the upper wedges only single grain measurements could isolate a distinct small population of grains that were fully bleached at the time of deposition dating the colluvial wedges to between 500 and 1300 years large aliquots ages substantially overestimated the time of faulting the single grain ages record very young faulting events which may be correlated with the known historical earthquakes of the past 1500 years

the timing of high sea levels over the past 200 000 years the 230 th ages and 234 u 238 u ratios were determined for barbados corals that grew during periods of high sea level within the last 200 000 years the similarity of the initial 234 u 238 u ratios of some of the corals to the modern marine value suggests that these samples are pristine and that the marine 234 u 238 u ratio 83 000 and 200 000 years ago was within 2 per mil of the modern value the accuracies of the 230 th ages are evaluated on the basis of the 234 u 238 u values and a model of the behavior of uranium and thorium isotopes during diagenesis for the last three interglacial and two intervening interstadial periods sea level peaked at or after peaks in summer insolation in the northern hemisphere this overall pattern supports the idea that glacial interglacial cycles are caused by changes in earth9s orbital geometry the sea level drop at the end of the penultimate interglacial the last interglacial and a subsequent interstadial period lagged behind the decrease in insolation by 5 000 to 10 000 years

foredeep tectonics and carbonate platform dynamics in the huon gulf papua new guinea hawaii mr1 side scan sonar and six channel seismic reflection data reveal a history of carbonate platform growth drowning and back stepping in the huon gulf papua new guinea this is one of the few modern sites where active carbonate platform development and foredeep subsidence are linked 230 th methods date aragonitic shallow water corals recovered from a modern depth of 2000 m at 348 10 ka this documents rapid subsidence of the huon gulf in response to the encroaching finisterre mountains at an average rate of 5 7 mm yr for the past 348 k y the highest subsidence rate reported from any foredeep setting carbonate deposition has moved toward the foreland at an average rate of 110 mm yr over the same period comparisons of the measured age with sea level history derived from the oxygen isotope record suggest that the reefs may have formed during sea level lowstands and drowned during rapid rates of sea level rise

recognition of earthquake related damage in archaeological sites examples from the dead sea fault zone abstract archaeological structures that exhibit seismogenic damage expand our knowledge of temporal and spatial distribution of earthquakes afford independent examination of historical accounts provide information on local earthquake intensities and enable the delineation of macroseismic zones they also illustrate what might happen in future earthquakes in order to recover this information we should be able to distinguish earthquake damage from anthropogenic damage and from other natural processes of wear and tear the present paper reviews several types of damage that can be attributed with high certainty to earthquakes and discusses associated caveats in the rare cases where faults intersect with archaeological sites offset structures enable precise determination of sense and size of slip and constrain its time among the characteristic off fault damage types i consider horizontal shifting of large building blocks downward sliding of one or several blocks from masonry arches collapse of heavy stably built walls chipping of corners of building blocks and aligned falling of walls and columns other damage features are less conclusive and require additional evidence e g fractures that cut across several structures leaning walls and columns warps and bulges in walls circumstantial evidence for catastrophic earthquake related destruction includes contemporaneous damage in many sites in the same area absence of weapons or other anthropogenic damage stratigraphic data on collapse of walls and ceilings onto floors and other living horizons and burial of valuable artifacts as well as associated geological palaeoseismic phenomena such as liquefaction land and rock slides and fault ruptures additional support may be found in reliable historical accounts special care must be taken in order to avoid circular reasoning by maintaining the independence of data acquisition methods

earthquake damage history in israel and its close surrounding evaluation of spatial and temporal patterns abstract israel was hit by destructive earthquakes many times in the course of history to properly understand the hazard and support effective preparedness towards future earthquakes we examined the spatial and temporal distribution of the resulted damage we described in detail our systematic approach to searching the available literature collecting the data and screening the authenticity of that information we used gis geographic information system to map and evaluate the distribution of the damage and to search for recurring patterns overall it is found that 186 localities were hit 54 of them at least twice we also found that israel was affected by 4 17 8 and 2 damaging earthquakes that originated respectively from the southern central central northern and northern parts of the dead sea transform dst the temporal appearance of the northern earthquakes is clustered the central earthquakes are more regular in time whereas no damage from the north central and the central quakes with the exception of the year 363 earthquake seems to have occurred south of the dead sea region analyzing the distribution of the damage we realized that the number of the damage reports reflects only half of the incidents that actually happened attesting to incompleteness of the historical catalogue jerusalem is the most reported city with 14 entries followed by akko acre tiberias nablus and tyre with 8 7 7 and 6 reports respectively in general localities in the galilee and north of it suffered more severely than localities in central israel with the exception of nablus and the localities along the coastal plain of israel most probably due to local site effects for the sake of hazard management these observations should be considered for future planning and risk mitigation

the location and sizing of historical earthquakes using the attenuation of macroseismic intensity with distance we herein describe new methods for computing the quantitative parameters of earthquakes using macroseismic data and the uncertainties associated with these parameters the methods allow for the location of epicenters that are offshore or that have no intensities assigned to any points in the epicentral region by maximizing the likelihood function of an attenuation equation with observed intensity data in the most favorable cases such an approach also allows the estimation of the source depth and the local attenuation coefficients we compute the parameter uncertainties in two ways 1 using formal methods such as the inversion of the hessian of the log likelihood function at its maximum and 2 by using bootstrap simulations we tested the performance of our methods by comparison with reliable instrumental hypocenters of onshore earthquakes and found a reasonable agreement with the epicentral locations within 10 15 km for more than 70 of cases but not with the hypocentral depths for which our results are generally underestimated by a factor of 2 or more and are poorly related to instrumental estimates this finding indicates that the use of macroseismic depths in seismic hazard and seismotectonic investigations should be treated with caution we nevertheless found good agreement within 10 15 between the fault trace orientations that were computed using the macroseismic data and the associated focal mechanisms of earthquakes with m w 5 7 the surprising accuracy of the macroseismic orientations obtained using this method could in some cases allow the true fault to be inferred between the two conjugate planes of a given focal mechanism

cosmic ray production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz from glacially polished rocks we have studied the concentrations of 10be and 26al in quartz crystals extracted from glacially polished granitic surfaces from the sierra nevada range these surfaces were identified with the glacial advance during the tioga period 11 000 years ago our measurements yield the most accurate estimates to date for the absolute production rates of these nuclides in sio2 due to cosmic ray nucleons and muons for geomagnetic latitudes 43 8 44 6 n and altitudes 2 1 3 6 km the estimates are relatively free from uncertainties in snow cover since we studied a suite of rock surfaces inclined 0 75 with respect to the horizontal the principal uncertainty arises due to the lack of a precise date for the glacial retreat event about 10 the 26al 10be ratio at production 6 0 is determined more accurately since the exposure age of the samples is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the mean lives of the two nuclides production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz at other latitudes and altitudes in the troposphere can be determined from the present measurements by scaling using the known altitude and latitude dependence of cosmic ray fluxes of nucleons and negative muons knowledge of the production rates of these nuclides is a prerequisite for their application in erosion and geomorphological studies

recurrence pattern of holocene earthquakes along the dead sea transform revealed by varve counting and radiocarbon dating of lacustrine sediments abstract a high resolution holocene seismic history of the dead sea transform dst is established from laminated sedimentary cores recovered at the shores of the dead sea radiocarbon dating and annual laminae counting yield excellent agreement between disturbed sedimentary structures identified as seismites and the historical earthquake record all recent and historical strong events of the area were identified including the major earthquakes of a d 1927 1837 1212 1033 749 and 31 b c the total of 53 seismites recognized along the entire holocene profile indicate varying recurrence intervals of seismic activity between a few and 1000 years with a conspicuous minimum rate at 2100 31 b c and a noticeable maximum during the past six to eight centuries most of the epicenters of the correlated earthquakes are situated very close to the dead sea within 150 km or up to 400 km north of it along the dst between 1000 b c and a d 1063 and from a d 1600 to recent time the epicenters are all located on the northern segment of the dst whereas prior to 1000 b c and between a d 1000 and 1600 they appear to scatter along several segments of the dst we establish how the local intensity exerts a control on the formation of seismites at historically estimated intensities greater than vii all well documented earthquakes are correlated whereas at intensities smaller than vi none are matching the periods with enhanced earthquake rate along the dst correlate with those along the north anatolian fault as opposed to the intervening east anatolian fault this may indicate some elastic coupling on plate boundary scale that may also underlie escape and extrusion tectonics typical of continental collision

rapid sea level fall and deep ocean temperature change since the last interglacial period we have dated huon peninsula papua new guinea and barbados corals that formed at times since the last interglacial period applying both 230 th and 231 pa dating techniques as a test of age accuracy we show that marine isotope stage mis 5e ended prior to 113 1 8 0 7 kyr when sea level was 319 m during mis 5b sea level was 357 m at 92 6 8 0 5 kyr having dropped about 40 m in approximately 10 kyr during the mis 5c 5b transition sea level then rose more than 40 m during the mis 5b 5a transition also in about 10 kyr mis 5a lasted until at least 76 2 8 0 4 kyr at a level of 324 m at that time combined with earlier data that places mis 4 sea level at 381 m at 70 8 kyr our late mis 5a data indicate that sea level fell almost 60 m in less than 6 kyr 10 6 m kyr during the mis 5 4 transition the magnitude of the drop is half that of the glacial interglacial amplitude and approximatelyequivalent to the volume of the present dayantarctic ice sheet during this interval the minimum average rate of net continental ice accumulation was 18 cm yr likely facilitated by efficient moisture transport from lower latitudes at three specific times 60 6 8 0 3 50 8 8 0 3 and 36 8 0 2 kyr during mis 3 sea level was between 385 and 374 m sea level then dropped to 3107 m at 23 7 8 0 1 kyr early in mis 2 before dropping further to last glacial maximum lgm values and then rising to present values during the last deglaciation times of rapid sea level drop correspond to times of high winter insolation at low northern latitudes and high winter latitudinal gradients in northern hemisphere insolation supporting the idea that these factors mayhave resulted in high water vapor pressure in moisture sources and efficient moisture transport to high latitude glaciers therebycontributing to glacial buildup we combined our sea level results with deep sea n 18 o records as a means of estimating the temperature and ice volume components in the marine n 18 o record this analysis confirms large deep ocean temperature shifts following mis 5e and during termination i deep ocean temperatures changed bymuch smaller amounts between mis 5c and 2 maximum temperature shift in the deep pacific is about 2 whereas the shift at a site in the atlantic is 4 under glacial conditions temperatures at both sites are near the freezing point the shift in the atlantic is likelycaused bya combination of changing proportions of northern and southern source waters as well as changing temperature at the sites where these deep waters form

last interglacial sea stands on barbados and an early anomalous deglaciation timed by differential uplift three major sea level maxima between 137 and 120 kyr b p are documented by surveys of pairs of wave cut notches and other features associated with the broadly defined last interglacial coral terrace on barbados regression analysis of elevation differences between notch pair members as a function of their uplift rates at seven sites yields the age difference between first and third sea stands and their eustatic sea level difference these results when combined with stratigraphic data from the bahamas bermuda and western australia and a chronology based on age limits of corals from the bahamas and western australia yield an endpoint age and eustatic low tide elevation of 136 7 kyr b p and 7 4 m respectively for the first sea stand 126 kyr b p and 5 6 m for the second and 120 5 kyr b p and 3 0 m for the third the first sea stand is the result of an anomalous deglaciation that was completed during low northern summer milankovitch insolation this is contrary to the milankovitch hypothesis that orbitally controlled insolation largely determines the variations of glacial ice volume it implies that internal factors within the earth s climate system can be much stronger than the effects of insolation variations

26al in seawater and 26al 10be as paleo flux tracer measurements of water column 26al 27al ratios above 850 m depth in the pacific yield values in the range 10 13 10 14 translating into 26al concentrations of 20 200 atoms kg 1 the atomic ratio of 26al 10be in surface ocean is close to 1 10 4 at least an order lower than the atmospheric production ratio surface ocean particulate removal of al is about 30 times more rapid than that of be the results of this first set of data on 26al in seawater also suggest that the source of 26al in the sea is dominated by spallation of ar in the atmosphere as opposed to eolian and cosmic dust inputs and that the ratio 26al 10be in marine sediments can be potentially used to decipher past variations of oceanic particle flux hence biologic productivity

crusader castle torn apart by earthquake at dawn 20 may 1202 the crusader castle of vadum jacob an outpost overlooking the jordan river was deformed during a destructive earthquake triggered by motion along the dead sea transform the m 7 earthquake occurred at dawn 20 may 1202 and offset the castle walls by 1 6 m this exceptional precision in dating and estimating displacement was achieved by combining accounts from primary historical sources by excavating the dead sea transform where it bisects the castle and by dating faulted archaeological strata the earthquakes of october 1759 and or january 1837 may account for the remaining 0 5 m out of a total 2 1 m of offset our study exploits the potential embodied in interdisciplinary historical archaeological geological research and illustrates how detailed histories of seismogenic faults can be reconstructed

sources of the large a d 1202 and 1759 near east earthquakes the sources of the may 1202 and november 1759 m 7 5 near east earthquakes remain controversial because their macroseismal areas coincide straddling subparallel active faults in the lebanese restraining bend paleoseismic trenching in the yammouneh basin yields unambiguous evidence both for slip on the yammou neh fault in the twelfth thirteenth centuries and for the lack of a posterior event this conclusion is supported by comparing the freshest visible fault scarps which imply more recent slip on the r chaiya serghaya system than on the yammouneh fault our results suggest that the recurrence of an a d 1202 type earthquake might be due this century as part of a sequence similar to that of a d 1033 1202 possibly heralded by the occurrence of the 1995 mw 7 3 aqaba earthquake the seismic behavior of the levant fault might thus be characterized by millennial periods of quiescence separated by clusters of large earthquakes

cosmogenic chlorine 36 from calcium spallation calcium is a major target element for cosmogenic 36cl production consequently 36cl rapidly reaches detectable levels in minerals such as calcite and calcium feldspar exposed at the earth s surface spallation of calcium isotopes typically accounts for 80 90 of 36cl production in these minerals with subsidiary contributions from negative muon capture by 40ca and thermal neutron capture by 35cl to provide a basis for surface exposure dating we have calibrated cosmogenic 36cl production in calcium feldspar from the 17 300 year old tabernacle hill basalt at an altitude of 1445 m and an effective geomagnetic latitude of 40 9 the calcium spallation rate is 152 11 atoms g ca 1 a 1 the corresponding rate at sea level and high latitude is estimated at 48 8 3 4 atoms g ca 1 a 1 the muon capture rate used to derive these values is 8 8 2 2 atoms g ca 1 a 1 at the tabernacle hill site scaled from a value of 4 8 1 2 atoms g ca 1 a 1 at sea level and high latitude the calcium spallation rate determined in this study is in excellent agreement with previous whole rock calibration measurements at tabernacle hill when these are recalculated with respect to the absolute timescale the calibration of 36c1 production from calcium underpins development of an exposure dating technique for calcite due to its high calcium content the 36cl production rate in calcite is higher than in any other common rock forming mineral measurement of 36cl in calcite with an accelerator mass spectrometric detection limit of 5 103 atoms per gram allows dating of limestone surfaces exposed for periods ranging from 102 106 years alternatively erosion rates from less than 1 to greater than 1000 m per year can be determined in the case of eroding karst surfaces though the 36cl production rate is lower in calcium feldspar than in calcite measurements on this mineral will provide a useful means of dating young basalt lavas