An unconformity in the early Miocene syn-rifting succession, northern Noto Peninsula, Japan: Evidence for short-term uplifting precedent to the rapid opening of the Japan Sea

Abstract   The present paper describes the newly discovered early Miocene unconformity in the northern Noto Peninsula, on the Japan Sea side, central Japan. The unconformity marks the boundary between an early Miocene non-marine to marine succession and a more extensive, late early to early middle Miocene marine succession, and contains a time gap of an order of 1 million years or less from 18 Ma or earlier to 17 Ma. The early Miocene succession likely represents an early phase of marine transgression and initial slow rifting. The overlying early to early middle Miocene succession records the climax of the opening of the Japan Sea at ca  16 Ma with widespread, rapid subsidence of the Japan Arc. The unconformity between the two transgressive successions may represent a global sealevel fall or, more likely, crustal uplifting because no upward-shallowing or regressive facies remains between the two successions. Early Miocene unconformities that are thought to be correlative with this unconformity in the northern Noto Peninsula occur in places along the Japan Sea coast of Sakhalin and Japan. They are likely to have been produced during rifting in response to upwelling of asthenospheric mantle, although more accurate age constraints are necessary to evaluate this idea.     

History and Causes of Variations in the Caspian Sea Level: the Miopliocene, 7.1–1.95 Million Years Ago

It is shown that the awareness of the regularities and causes of variations in the Caspian Sea level from the moment of its origin as an isolated lake basin in the Late Miocene (7.2 mln years ago) is of great importance for paleohydrology. Out of the seven principal hydrologic stages of the Caspian Sea history, four stages are considered in this paper: two lake stages (the Late Miocene and Middle Pliocene), the intermediate stage when the Caspian and Zanklinian basins were connected, and the stage of the Manych runoff. An important fact in the Caspian Sea history is emphasized: penetration of the Akchagylian fauna forebears into the Caspian Sea Basin through the Black Sea and the nowadays nonexistent Kuban–Terek Channel (between 5.3 and 3.3 mln years ago). Three phases of penetration of the Mediterranean Zanklinian fauna into the Caspian Basin are recognized. The channel became closed during the Middle Pliocene phase of the Great Caucasian Range elevation (3.3–2.5 mln years ago). This isolation of the Caspian Basin caused the formation of the Great Akchagylian Lake. Its water washed out the New Manych Channel 2.5 mln years ago. From this moment on, the events that occurred in the Caspian Basin and in the Black and Mediterranean seas can be correlated in greater detail, link by link, within the 413-thousand-year period of water abundance.     

Cenozoic stratigraphy and sedimentation history of the northern Philippine Sea based on multichannel seismic reflection data

Abstract To clarify the regional distribution and characteristics of the sedimentary deposits in the northern part of the Philippine Sea, multichannel seismic reflection surveys of 26 864 km in total length were performed. The seismic reflection data were interpreted and correlated with available Deep Sea Drilling Project/Ocean Drilling Program (DSDP/ODP) data and a general stratigraphic framework of the area was established. The sedimentary deposits in this area were divided into five layers; Units I, II, III, IV and V in ascending order. Their approximate geological ages are the Early Eocene, Middle to Late Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene‐Pleistocene, respectively. Seismic records were classified into three seismic facies, Facies A, B and C, on the basis of their characteristics. They were judged to represent pelagic and hemipelagic sediments of non‐volcanic origin, fine pyroclastic sediments and coarse pyroclastic or volcanic sediments, respectively, by comparing them with lithological data in the DSDP/ODP holes. From the thickness and facies distributions of these sediments, a sedimentary history in the area was reconstructed as follows. The oldest sediments in the study area, Unit I, interfinger with some parts of the Daito Ridge (acoustic basement) in the Minami Daito Basin. The geological age of the unit is estimated by microfossils in the sediment and supports the idea that this part of the Daito Ridge is composed of the Early Eocene oceanic basalt. Later, a fair amount of sediments were deposited in the Minami Daito Basin in the Middle to Late Eocene age. A large volume of volcanic materials was supplied from the Paleo‐Kyushu‐Palau Ridge in the Kita Daito Basin in the Eocene and Oligocene ages. The eastern part of the Shikoku and Parece Vela basins is characterized by volcanic sediments supplied from the Nishi Shichito and West Mariana Ridges in the Miocene age. However, pelagic and hemipelagic sediments prevail in the northern part of the Shikoku Basin in the Miocene or later. In short, the area of principal sedimentation has generally shifted from west to east through geological time, reflecting the evolution of the island arc systems with the same trend in the northern Philippine Sea.     

The Sinai subplate and tectonic evolution of the northern Red Sea region

Although the precise boundaries and kinematics of the Sinai subplate are still doubtful, it has a significant role in the tectonic evolution of the northern Red Sea region. On the basis of earthquake distribution, the Sinai region can be considered as a subplate partially separated from the African plate by the Suez rift. The relative motion between Africa, Sinai and Arabia is the main source generating the present-day earthquake activity in the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba regions.According to geological observations, the southern segment of the Dead Sea fault system can be characterized by a left-lateral displacement of about 107km since the Middle Miocene, in contrast to the northern segment where only 25 to 35km offset can be inferred. We think that along the southern segment the total displacement was 72km until the late Miocene (10Ma). The earthquake activity is strongly reduced along the northern segment of the Dead Sea fault segment. Therefore, we suggest that the northern part (Yammouneh fault) evolves through initial cracking of the crust due to build-up of stress since the Pliocene time (5Ma) and propagates northward into Lebanon and Syria. This last 5 million years is the period when the southern and northern segments became linked and formed a single fault system with a new displacement of 35km.According to the proposed model the predicted opening pole of the Red Sea is near 34.0oN, 22.0oE with an angle of total rotation of 3.4o since the early miocene, providing a 0.82cm/a opening rate in the northern Red Sea. We suggest that the Dead Sea strike-slip fault was active since Middle Miocene time (15Ma) with a slip rate of 0.72cm/a to provide a total displacement of about 107km. This strike slip motion occured about an Euler pole near 33.0oN, 21.0oE with a rotation angle of about 3.0o. It can be inferred from the proximity of the pole and angle of rotations for the Red Sea and Dead Sea fault that more than 85% of the motion has been accommodated on the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea fault and less than 15% in the Gulf of Suez.This model predicts a normal extensional motion in the Gulf of Suez with a minor left-lateral strike-slip component. We expect the pole of this motion to be at 31.0oN, 29.0oE, offshore of Alamein city about 320 km west of the Nile Delta. The rate of motion through the last 15Ma (Middle Miocene) is about 0.1 cm/a and the angle of rotation is 0.9o. During this period the total opening of the Suez rift is 15 km while the rest of the motion (45 km) occured mainly through the first phase of the development before the Middle Miocene.     

Thermo-tectonic history of Ryoke Basement in Hohi volcanic zone, northeast Kyushu, Japan: Constraints from fission track thermochronology

Abstract Apatite and zircon fission track ages from Ryoke Belt basement in northeast Kyushu show late Cretaceous, middle to late Eocene, middle Miocene and Quaternary groupings. The basement cooled through 240 ± 25°C, the closure temperature for fission tracks in zircon, mainly during the interval 74-90 Ma as a result of uplift and denudation, the pattern being uniform across northeast Kyushu. In combination with published K-Ar ages and the Turonian-Santonian age of sedimentation in the Onogawa Basin, active suturing along the Median Tectonic Line from 100-80 Ma, at least, is inferred. Ryoke Belt rocks along the northern margin of Hohi volcanic zone (HVZ) cooled rapidly through ∼100°C to less than 50°C during the middle Eocene to Oligocene, associated with 2.5-3.5 km of denudation. The timing of this cooling follows peak heating in the Eocene-Oligocene part (Murotohanto subbelt) of the Shimanto Belt in Muroto Peninsula (Shikoku) inferred previously, and coincides with the 43 Ma change in convergence direction of the Pacific-Eurasian plate and the demise of the Kula-Pacific spreading centre. Ryoke Belt rocks along the southern margin of HVZ have weighted mean apatite fission track ages of 15.3 ± 3.1 Ma. These reset ages are attributed to an increase in geothermal gradient in the middle Miocene combined with rapid denudation and uplift of at least 1.4 km. These ages indicate that heating of the overriding plate associated with the middle Miocene start of subduction of hot Shikoku Basin lithosphere extended into the Ryoke Belt in northeast Kyushu. Pleistocene apatite fission track ages from Ryoke Belt granites at depth in the centre of HVZ are due to modern annealing in a geothermal environment.     

Possible Miocene rifting of the Izu–Ogasawara (Bonin) arc deduced from magnetic anomalies

A magnetic anomaly map of the northern part of the Philippine Sea plate shows two conspicuous north–south rows of long-wavelength anomalies over the Izu–Ogasawara (Bonin) arc, which are slightly oblique to the present volcanic front. These anomalies are enhanced on reduced-to-pole and upward-continued anomaly maps. The east row is associated with frontal arc highs (the Shinkurose Ridge), and the west row is accompanied by the Nishi-Shichito Ridge. Another belt of long-wavelength anomalies very similar to the former two occurs over the Kyushu–Palau Ridge. To explain the similarity of the magnetic anomalies, it is proposed that after the spreading of the Shikoku Basin separated the Izu–Ogasawara arc from the Kyushu–Palau Ridge, another rifting event occurred in the Miocene, which divided the Izu–Ogasawara arc into the Nishi-Shichito and Shinkurose ridges. The occurrence of Miocene rifting has also been suggested from the geology of the collision zone of the Izu–Ogasawara arc against the Southwest Japan arc: the Misaka terrain yields peculiar volcanic rocks suggesting back-arc rifting at ～ 15 Ma. The magnetic anomaly belts over the Izu–Ogasawara arc do not extend south beyond the Sofugan Tectonic Line, suggesting a difference in tectonic history between the northern and southern parts of the Izu–Ogasawara arc. It is estimated that the Miocene extension was directed northeast–southwest, utilizing normal faults originally formed during Oligocene rifting. The direction is close to the final stage of the Shikoku Basin spreading. On a gravity anomaly relief map, northeast–southwest lineaments can be recognized in the Shikoku Basin as well as over the Nishi-Shichito Ridge. We thus consider that lines of structural weakness connected transform faults of the Shikoku Basin spreading system and the transfer faults of the Miocene Izu–Ogasawara arc rifting. Volcanism on the Nishi-Shichito Ridge has continued along the lines of weakness, which could have caused the en echelon arrangement of the volcanoes.     

New evidence of delamination in the Western Alboran Sea: Geodynamic evolution of the Alboran domain and its margins

The presence of continuous upper crustal blocks between the Iberian Betics and Moroccan Rif in the western and middle Alboran Sea, detected with tomography, can add new information about the lithosphere structure and geodynamic evolution in this region. A large volume of seismic data (P and S wave arrival times) has been collected for the period between 1 December 1988 and 31 December 2008 by 57 stations located in northern Morocco (National Institute of Geophysics, CNRST, Rabat), southern Portugal (Instituto de Meteorologia, Lisbon) and Spain (Instituto Geografico National, Madrid) and used to investigate the lithosphere in the western Alboran Sea region. We use a linearized inversion procedure comprising two steps: (1) finding the minimal 1-D model and simultaneous relocation of hypocenters and (2) determination of local velocity structure using linearized inversion. The model parameterization in this method assumes a continuous velocity field. The resolution tests indicate that the calculated images give near true structure imaged at 5 km depth for the Tanger peninsula, the Alhoceima region and southern Spain. At 15, 30 and 45 km depth we observe a near true structure imaged in northern Morocco, and southern Spain. At 60 and 100 km, southern Spain and the SW region of the Alboran Sea give a near true structure. The resulting tomographic image shows the presence of two upper crustal bodies (velocity 6.5 km/s) at 5–10 km depth between the Betics, Rif, western and central Alboran Sea. Low velocities at the base of these two bodies favor the presence of melt. This new evidence proves that the Tethysian ocean upper crust was not totally collapsed or broken down during the late Oligocene–early Miocene. These two blocks of upper crust were initially one block. The geodynamic process in the eastern of the Mediterranean is driven by slab rollback. The delamination process of the lithospheric mantle terminates with the proposed slab rollback in the western part of the Mediterranean. This can be explained by the removal of the major part of the lithosphere beneath the area, except in the SW part of the Alboran Sea where a small part of the lithospheric mantle is still attached and is extends and dips to SE beneath the Rif, slowly peeled back to the west. A second detached lithospheric mantle is located and extends to eastern part of the Rif and dips to the SE. The removal of lithosphere mantle from the base of the crust was replaced and heated by extrusion of asthenospheric material coming from depth to replace the part of crust detached. A combination of isostatic surface/topographic uplift and erosion induced a rapid exhumation and cooling of deep crustal rocks.     

Long-period eccentricity control on sedimentary sequences in the continental Madrid Basin (middle Miocene,Spain)

The middle Miocene Valdearenas–Muduex section in the internally-drained, continental Madrid Basin (central Spain) is dated bio-magnetostratigraphically between 15.2 Ma and 11.5 Ma. The section contains two formation-scale, sedimentary sequences, that both consist of a siliciclastic lower part and a calcareous upper part. Siliciclastic sedimentation took place in distal floodplain and fluvial environments, while limestones resulted from carbonate precipitation in calcic soil profiles and in ephemeral lacustrine water bodies. Spectral analysis of the L* colour time series points to the influence of the ～ 405-kyr and 0.97-Myr eccentricity cycles, while the bases of the two calcareous intervals correlate to successive minima of the 2.4-Myr eccentricity cycle. The 405-kyr cycle lags maximum eccentricity, whereas the 0.97 and 2.4-Myr cycles lag minimum eccentricity, each by approximately a quarter of a cycle. No obliquity forcing is detected. The observed orbital configuration of 2.4-Myr minima at the base of limestone-dominated intervals is similar to a previously documented Late Miocene shift in the Teruel Basin of northeast Spain. Our results indicate that long-period eccentricity climate forcing may well be a significant player on long, tectonic time scales in continental basin fill.     

Crustal shortening of Southwest Japan in the Late Miocene

Abstract Tectonic deformation of an island arc is interpreted on the basis of geophysical data. Extensive reflection seismic, gravity, geomagnetic data around the back-arc region of Southwest Japan delineate east-west to northeast-southwest folding, and imply conspicuous compression on the southern margin of the Sea of Japan. Because geological data of exploration boreholes indicate that the coinpressive regime was dominant in the late Miocene, the tectonic event seems to be linked with coeval resumption of subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate. Strong coupling of the young buoyant oceanic plate brought about north-south shortening of the overriding continental lithosphere, and left wrench deformation at the southwestern corner of the Sea of Japan. Amount of shortening for the back-arc shelf and mountainous ranges of Southwest Japan is estimated to be ca 10 km, adopting a uniform ratio of shortening (0.944) since the Miocene determined on the shelf from depth-converted seismic profiles. Along the western side of a bend of boundary between the Eurasian Plate and Philippine Sea Plate, the middle Miocene and younger sediments upon the back-arc shelf are much less deformed than the northern equivalents, and the fore-arc Miocene strata are deformed by left wrenching, facts which are indicative of northerly initial convergence of the Philippine Sea Plate at the end of Miocene and crustal decoupling on the west of Kyushu Island.     

Dead Sea Basin Imaged by Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography

In the framework of the Dead Sea Integrated Research project (DESIRE), 59 seismological stations were deployed in the region of the Dead Sea Basin. Twenty of these stations recorded data of sufficiently high quality between May and September 2007 to be used for ambient seismic noise analysis. Empirical Green’s functions are extracted from cross-correlations of long term recordings. These functions are dominated by Rayleigh waves, whose group velocities can be measured in the frequency range from 0.1 to 0.5 Hz. Analysis of positive and negative correlation lags of the Green’s functions makes it possible to identify the direction of the source of the incoming energy. Signals with frequencies higher than 0.2 Hz originate from the Mediterranean Sea, while low frequencies arrive from the direction of the Red Sea. Travel times of the extracted Rayleigh waves were measured between station pairs for different frequencies, and tomographically inverted to provide independent velocity models. Four such 2D models were computed for a set of frequencies, all corresponding to different sampling depths, and thus together giving an indication of the velocity variations in 3D extending to a depth of 10 km. The results show low velocities in the Dead Sea Basin, consistent with previous studies suggesting up to 8 km of recent sedimentary infill in the Basin. The complex structure of the western margin of the Basin is also observed, with sedimentary infill present to depths not exceeding 5 km west of the southern part of the Dead Sea. The high velocities associated with the Lisan salt diapir are also observed down to a depth of ~5 km. The reliability of the results is confirmed by checkerboard recovery tests.     

Thermochronological data from Sudan in the frame of the denudational history of the Nubian Red Sea margin

Low‐temperature thermochronology provides information on the timing of rifting and denudation of passive margins, and the Red Sea with its well‐exposed, young rift margins is a suitable setting for its application. Here we present new apatite fission‐track (AFT) data from Sudan northern hinterland and Red Sea coastal areas. From the former region we obtained ages between 270 ± 2 Ma ad 253 ± 53 Ma, and from the coastal belt between 83 ± 8 Ma and 39 ± 7 Ma. These data prompted a review and comparison with low‐temperature thermochronological data from the whole Nubian Red Sea Margin, and a discussion on their implication in assessing the margin evolutionary style. AFT data are available for Egypt and Eritrea as well as apatite (U‐Th)/He (AHe) ages for two transects transversal to the margin in Eritrea. Both in Egypt and Eritrea AFT data record a cooling event at about 20–25 Ma (Early Miocene) and an earlier, more local, cooling event in Egypt at about 34 Ma (Early Oligocene). The thermal modeling of the Sudan samples provides an indication of a rapid cooling in Miocene times, but does not support nor rules out an Early Oligocene cooling phase. The re‐assessment of new and existing thermochronological data within the known geological framework of the Nubian and conjugate Arabian margins favours the hypothesis that early rifting stages were affecting the whole Gulf of Suez–Red Sea–Gulf of Aden system since the Oligocene. These precocious, more attenuated, phases were followed by major extension in Miocene times. As to the mode of margin evolution, AFT age patterns both in Egypt and Eritrea are incompatible with a downwarp model. The distribution of AHe ages across the Eritrean coastal plain suggests that there the escarpment was evolving predominantly by plateau degradation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cs baseline levels in the Mediterranean and Black Sea: A cross-basin survey of the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch programme

The common mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was selected as unique biomonitor species to implement a regional monitoring programme, the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch (MMW), in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As of today, and upon standardization of the methodological approach, the MMW Network has been able to quantify ¹³⁷Cs levels in mussels from 60 coastal stations and to produce the first distribution map of this artificial radionuclide at the scale of the entire Mediterranean and Black Seas. While measured ¹³⁷Cs levels were found to be very low (usually <1 Bq kg⁻¹ wet wt) ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations in the Black Sea and North Aegean Sea were up to two orders of magnitude higher than those in the western Mediterranean Basin. Such effects, far from representing a threat to human populations or the environment, reflect a persistent signature of the Chernobyl fallout in this area.     

Japan Sea: a pull-apart basin?

Recent field work in the Hokkaido Central Belt and marine geology studies along the eastern margin of Japan Sea in addition to previously published data lead us to propose a new model of opening of the Japan Sea. The synthesis of both on-land and offshore structural data gives new constraints about the structural evolution of the system. The rhombohedral shape of the Japan Basin and the particular tectonic behaviour of the margins on both east and west sides can be explained by an early Eo-Oligocene rifting of a pull-apart basin accommodated along two large right-lateral shear zones, east of Korea and west of northeast Japan and Sakhalin. It is followed, during Upper Oligocene/Lower Miocene, by the main opening of the Japan Basin as a mega pull-apart. Then a back-arc spreading probably related to the subduction process, induced the creation of the Yamato and Tsushima Basins at the end of Lower Miocene and in Middle Miocene. Clockwise rotation of southwest Japan larger than 20° or major bending of Honshu mainland deduced from paleomagnetic studies is unlikely at this time. Since 1 or 2 My B.P. to Present, compression prevails along the eastern margin of the Japan Sea. The generation of marginal basins as pull-apart basins along intracontinental strike-slip faults is a mechanism which has been proposed by other authors concerning the South China Sea, the question then is whether the fragmentation of the Asiatic continent is an intracontinental deformation related process as proposed here or a subduction related one.     

137Cs baseline levels in the Mediterranean and Black Sea: A cross-basin survey of the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch programme

The common mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was selected as unique biomonitor species to implement a regional monitoring programme, the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch (MMW), in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As of today, and upon standardization of the methodological approach, the MMW Network has been able to quantify ¹³⁷Cs levels in mussels from 60 coastal stations and to produce the first distribution map of this artificial radionuclide at the scale of the entire Mediterranean and Black Seas. While measured ¹³⁷Cs levels were found to be very low (usually <1 Bq kg⁻¹ wet wt) ¹³⁷Cs activity concentrations in the Black Sea and North Aegean Sea were up to two orders of magnitude higher than those in the western Mediterranean Basin. Such effects, far from representing a threat to human populations or the environment, reflect a persistent signature of the Chernobyl fallout in this area.     

Latest Middle Miocene fauna and flora from Kumkol Basin of northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and paleoenvironment

We report 7 mammalian and 16 pollen species from the top of the Shimagou Formation in Kumkol Basin of northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, whose age is latest Middle Miocene(about 12.5 Ma). We erect a new species of fossil rodent,Spermophilinus kumkolensis sp. nov. The micromammalian fauna from the Kumkol Basin shares high similarities with contemporary faunas from Europe and northern China, indicating the existence of active zoogeographic exchange between Europe and northern Asia. Trees are dominant in pollen fossils, and herbs and shrubs are minorities. Broadleaved Quercus and Fagus predominate in tree pollens. The flora reconstructed by pollens displays a mixture of evergreen broadleaved forest and dry and warm steppe landscape. Compared to the modern vegetation in Yunnan region, the latest Middle Miocene flora in the Kumkol Basin represents a distinct vertical distribution. The ecotypes of the latest Middle Miocene fauna and flora in the Kumkol Basin,as a whole, are markedly different from those of modern animals and vegetation, the past climate being more suitable than today.     

Age of the Taishu Group,southwestern Japan,and implications for the origin and evolution of the Japan Sea

The Taishu Group, a marine formation with a thickness of >5400 m, crops out on Tsushima Island, located in the southwestern Japan Sea. The group, which is generally regarded as early Eocene to early Miocene in age, provides important information about the tectonic setting of the Japan Sea. In this study, we present new SHRIMP U–Pb dates for igneous zircons from the Kunehama Tuff, which is in the basal part of the Taishu Group, and the Oobaura Tuff, which is in the uppermost part of the group. Results show that the Taishu Group was deposited rapidly, during the short interval of 17.9–15.9 Ma (early–middle Miocene), and is equivalent to other early–middle Miocene strata found in the Japan Sea region. Our results provide new constraints on the geological history of the Japan Sea and its islands.     

Paleomagnetic evidence for a mid-Miocene clockwise rotation of about 25° of the Guide Basin area in NE Tibet

Ten sections of Neogene molasse-type sediments were sampled in the Guide Basin of northeastern Tibet for magnetostratigraphy [X.M. Fang, M.D. Yan, R. Van der Voo, D.R., Rea, C. Song, J.M. Parés, J. Gao, J. Nie, S. Dai, Late Cenozoic deformation and uplift of the NE Tibetan plateau: evidence from high resolution magnetostratigraphy of the Guide Basin, Qinghai Province, China, Geol. Soc. America Bull. 107 (2005) 1208–1225 [1]], but they also yield seven well-dated formation-mean directions that reveal changing declinations as rotations occurred in response to crustal deformation north of the India–Asia collision zone. Three formations are of early Miocene and Oligocene age, as indicated by fossils and magnetic reversal records, whereas four younger formations yield late Miocene and Pliocene ages. The dual-polarity magnetizations are typically antipodal, but reveal inclinations that are too shallow, most likely because of post-depositional inclination flattening. The late Miocene and younger directions show formation-mean declinations between 354° and 7°, whereas three early Miocene and late Oligocene mean declinations range from 31° to 44°. This indicates that a clockwise rotation of 25.1 ± 4.6° took place during the middle part of the Miocene (best estimate 11–17 Ma). No rotations appear to have occurred, during that time, in the Xining, Lanzhou, Linxia and Jingning basins (Longzhong Basin) to the northeast and east of the Guide Basin; however, a rotation of similar magnitude has been documented by Dupont-Nivet and colleagues for pre-Miocene (> 29 Ma) time in these areas. Collectively, these results show that the basins in NE Tibet have had independently evolving structural histories.     

Post-rift stress history of Southwest Japan inferred from early to middle Miocene intrusions and meso-scale faults in the Tajima–Myokensan area

Miocene igneous dikes older and younger than 15 Ma in Southwest Japan are thought to be oriented parallel and perpendicular to the arc, respectively. This difference of orientations was referred to as significant evidence for termination of the opening of the Japan Sea at 15 Ma. The tightest constraint comes from ~60 dikes in the Tajima–Myokensan area, northern Hyogo Prefecture. Here we present orientations of 716 planar intrusive bodies and the directions of 143 meso-scale faults, obtained using the latest stress inversion techniques from the lower to middle Miocene Hokutan Group in the Tajima–Myokensan area. The results contradict the 15 Ma hypothesis for the end of the opening of the Japan Sea. We find that intrusive bodies cannot be separated into two groups by their orientations as reported previously. Rather, the orientations of their poles comprise a horizontal girdle and a vertical cluster. The former indicates NE-SW extensional stress, and the latter NW-SE compression. However, the latter are interpreted as not representative of regional stress, based on common sill intrusions (the formation of which was not influenced by regional stress) in the well-stratified Muraoka Formation resulting in the vertical cluster of pole orientations from which compression was recognized. The results of fault-slip analysis are consistent with the extensional stress. Fission-track and U–Pb ages of zircons were obtained from seven intrusive bodies. These and previously published ages suggest that the area underwent NW-SE extension both before and after 15 Ma. In the main part of Southwest Japan, the weak extension was kept after 16 Ma when intra-arc rifting was terminated. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the Japan Sea continued to open until 13.5 Ma.     

Neotectonics of the Dinarides–Pannonian Basin transition and possible earthquake sources in the Banja Luka epicentral area

This study provides evidence for post-5 Ma shortening in the transition area between the Dinarides fold-and-thrust belt and the Pannonian Basin and reviews possible earthquake sources for the Banja Luka epicentral area (northern Bosnia and Herzegovina) where the strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake (M_L 6.4) occurred on 27 October 1969. Geological, geomorphological and reflection seismic data provide evidence for a contractional reactivation of Late Palaeogene to Middle Miocene normal faults at slip rates below 0.1 mm/a. This reactivation postdates deposition of the youngest sediments in the Pannonian Basin of Pontian age (c. 5 Ma). Fault plane solutions for the main 1969 Banja Luka earthquake (M_L 6.4) and its largest foreshock (M_L 6.0) indicate reverse faulting along ESE–WNW-striking nodal planes and generally N–S trending pressure axes. The spatial distribution of epicentres and focal depths, analyses of the macroseismic field and fault-plane solutions for several smaller events suggest on-going shortening in the internal Dinarides. Seismic deformation of the upper crust is also associated with strike-slip faults, likely related to the NE–SW trending, sinistral Banja Luka fault. Possibly, this fault transfers contraction between adjacent segments of the Dinarides thrust system. The study area represents the seismically most active region of the Dinarides apart from the Adriatic Sea coast and the bend zone around Zagreb. We propose that on-going thrusting in the internal Dinarides thrust system takes up a portion of the current Adria–Europe convergence.     

Variations in sediment thickness and type along the northern Philippine Sea Plate at the Nankai Trough

Abstract   We documented regional and local variations in basement relief, sediment thickness, and sediment type in the Shikoku Basin, northern Philippine Sea Plate, which is subducting at the Nankai Trough. Seismic reflection data, tied with ocean drilling program drill cores, reveal that variations in the incoming sediment sequences are correlated with basement topography. We mapped the three-dimensional seismic facies distribution and measured representative seismic sequences and units. Trench-parallel seismic profiles show three regional provinces in the Shikoku Basin that are distinguished by the magnitude of basement relief and sediment thickness: Western (<200–400 m basement relief, >600 m sediment thickness), Central (>1500 m relief, ∼2000 m sediments), and Eastern (<600 m relief, ∼1200 m sediments) provinces. The total thickness of sediment in basement lows is as much as six times greater than that over basement highs. Turbidite sedimentation in the Shikoku Basin reflects basement control on deposition, leading to the local presence or absence of turbidite units deposited during the middle Oligocene to the middle Miocene. During the first phase of sedimentation, most basement lows were filled with turbidites, resulting in smooth seafloor morphology that does not reflect basement relief. A second phase of turbidite deposition in the Eastern Province was accompanied by significant amounts of hemipelagic sediments interbedded with turbidite layers compared to the other provinces because of its close proximity to the Izu–Bonin Island Arc. Both regional and local variations in basement topography and sediment thickness/type have caused lateral heterogeneities on the underthrusting plate that will, in turn, influence lateral fluid flow along the Nankai accretionary prism.