Helium and carbon isotope variations in Liaodong Peninsula,NE China

Chemical and C–He isotopic compositions have been measured for N₂-rich hydrothermal gases from the Liaodong (abbreviation of East Liaoning Province) Peninsula from which the oldest crustal rocks in China with ⩾3.8 Ga outcrop. With the exception of one sample containing tritogenic ³He and atmospheric ⁴He in Liaoyang, the observed ³He/⁴He ratios from 0.1 Ra to 0.7 Ra indicate 1–8% helium from mantle, 92–98% from crust and 0.1–0.8% from atmosphere. Despite the lack of Quaternary volcanism, such ³He/⁴He ratios suggest, together with geophysical evidences, the existence of intrusive magmas that contain mantle helium and heat within the Liaodong middle-lower crust. The ³He/⁴He ratios are high along the NE-trending Jinzhou faults and gradually decrease with the increase of distance from the faults. Such a spatial distribution suggests that the mantle helium exsolves from magmatic reservoir in the middle-lower crust, becomes focused into the root zones of Jinzhou faults, and subsequently traverses the crust via permeable fault zones. When transversely migrated by groundwater circulation in near surface, mantle helium with high ³He/⁴He ratio may have been further diluted to the observed values by addition of radiogenic helium produced in the crust. This pattern shows strong evidence that the major faults played an important role on mantle-derived components transport from mantle upwards.     

The large aftershocks triggered by the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake,Japan

The Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake that occurred off the Pacific coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, was followed by thousands of aftershocks, both near the plate interface and in the crust of inland eastern Japan. In this paper, we report on two large, shallow crustal earthquakes that occurred near the Ibaraki-Fukushima prefecture border, where the background seismicity was low prior to the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. Using densely spaced geodetic observations (GPS and InSAR datasets), we found that two large aftershocks in the Iwaki and Kita-Ibarake regions (hereafter referred to as the Iwaki earthquake and the Kita-Ibarake earthquake) produced 2.1 m and 0.44 m of motion in the line-of-sight (LOS), respectively. The azimuth-offset method was used to obtain the preliminary location of the fault traces. The InSAR-based maximum offset and trace of the faults that produced the Iwaki earthquake are consistent with field observations. The fault location and geometry of these two earthquakes are constrained by a rectangular dislocation model in a multilayered elastic half-space, which indicates that the maximum slips for the two earthquakes are 3.28 m and 0.98 m, respectively. The Coulomb stress changes were calculated for the faults following the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake based on the modeled slip along the fault planes. The resulting Coulomb stress changes indicate that the stresses on the faults increased by up to 1.1 MPa and 0.7 MPa in the Iwaki and Kita-Ibarake regions, respectively, suggesting that the Tohoku-Oki earthquake triggered the two aftershocks, supporting the results of seismic tomography.     

Influence of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (Mw 7.9) on the occurrence probability of future earthquakes on neighboring faults

The Longquan–Shan fault and the Huya fault are two major neighboring faults of the Longmen–Shan fault zone where the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (M_w 7.9) occurred. To study the influence of the Wenchuan event on these two active faults, we calculate changes of Coulomb stress on the Longquan–Shan fault and the Huya fault caused by the Wenchuan mainshock. Our results indicate that the Coulomb stress in the northern section (Zone A) of the Longquan–Shan fault is increased by 0.07–0.10 bars, that in the middle section (Zone B) by 0.04–0.11 bars, and that in the southern section (Zone C) shows almost no change. For the Huya fault, the Coulomb stress is decreased by 0.01–0.03 bars in the northern section (Zone A), 0.10–0.35 bars in the middle section (Zone B), and nearly 0.5 bars in the southern section (Zone C). The epicenter distribution of small earthquakes (M_L ⩾ 1.5) on the Longquan–Shan fault and the Huya fault after the Wenchuan earthquake is consistent with the distribution of the Coulomb stress change. This implies that the Wenchuan earthquake may have triggered small events on the Longquan–Shan fault, but inhibited those on the Huya fault. We then use the rate/state friction law to calculate the occurrence probability of future earthquakes in the study region for the next decade. They include the distribution of b-values, magnitude of completeness (M_c), the background seismicity rate, a value of Aσ_n and the duration for the transient effect (t_a) in the study region. We also estimate the earthquake occurrence probabilities on the neighboring faults after the Wenchuan earthquake. Our results show that, the occurrence probability of future earthquakes in the Longquan–Shan has a slight increase, being 7% for M ⩾ 5.0 shocks during the next decade, but the earthquake probability in the Huya region is reduced obviously, being 5–20%, 7–26% and 3–9% for M ⩾ 5.0 shocks during the next decade in sections A, B and C of the Huya fault, respectively.     

Spatial variations in 3He/4He ratios along a high strain rate zone,central Japan

A linear zone with high strain rates along the Japan Sea coast, the Niigata-Kobe Tectonic Zone (NKTZ), is considered to be associated with rheological heterogeneities in the lower crust and/or upper mantle. Helium isotope variations along the NKTZ reveal a close association with the geophysical evidence for rheological heterogeneities in the crust and mantle. In the southern NKTZ, the ³He/⁴He ratios lower than 3.4 Ra (Ra denotes the atmospheric ³He/⁴He ratio of 1.4 × 10⁻⁶) could be interpreted as a two-component mixture of helium stored in aqueous fluids driven off the subducting oceanic crust and radiogenic crustal helium. Higher ³He/⁴He ratios are observed in the central NKTZ where Quaternary volcanoes and high-temperature hot springs are concentrated, suggesting that the ³He emanation manifest in the central NKTZ results from the effective transfer of mantle helium by intrusion and degassing of mantle-derived magma in the crust. In the northern NKTZ where two large inland earthquakes occurred recently, there appears to be many samples with ³He/⁴He ratios significantly higher than those observed in the fore-arc side of northeast Japan. A plausible source of mantle helium could be attributed to upward mobilization of aqueous fluids generated by dehydration of the subducting Pacific Plate slab.     

Co and postseismic characteristics of Indian sub-continent in response to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake

The M_w 9.3 Sumatra earthquake of December 26, 2004 caused extensive coseismic displacements globally, measurements of which were made essentially using modern geodetic techniques. This earthquake induced considerable perturbation in stress distribution as far as ∼8000 km away from the epicenteral region, which is tending to relax to its normal rates as seen from postseismic transient deformation. The monitoring of crustal displacements from strategically located sites using GPS provides coseismic as well as postseismic deformation that facilitates the understanding of the fault geometry, elastic thickness, postseismic relaxation mechanisms, rheology and earthquake recurrence time interval.We investigated coseismic and postseismic GPS derived displacements in Indian region together with the GPS data collected from Andaman and Sumatra region. It is found that while EW displacements are significantly large in peninsular India, those in the region to the north of Central India Tectonic Zone (CITZ) are relatively small. We could delineate the postseismic transients from position time series and interpreted them in terms of viscoelastic relaxation. It is inferred that the postseismic deformation is characterized by a power-law viscoelastic flow in the mantle. In Indian peninsula region, the timescale parameter of the exponential decay (τ = 250 days) would require an extremely low viscosity for the upper mantle. Relying on the prevailing coseismic and postseismic displacement fields, the present study also reflects upon the contemporary litho-tectonics of the Indian sub-continent.     

Static stress drop inferred from near-fault parameters for the 1999 Chi–Chi earthquake in Taiwan

In 2001, a special issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) featured seismological research for the 1999 Chi–Chi Taiwan earthquake. This study uses source parameters suggested by the first author in this special issue to estimate static stress drop associated with the Chi–Chi earthquake. The waveform simulation method was used to carefully examine these source parameters. The simulation results indicate that source parameters, inferred from near-fault observations, are well determined. According to the rupture area and slip, the static stress drops (Δσ_s) obtained were distributed between a small value of 47 bars near the epicentral region and a much larger value (>200 bars) to the north. Similar trends in dynamic stress drop (Δσ_d) were also recognized by the first author in his paper published in 2001 BSSA special issue. Comparing the Δσ_s with Δσ_d, satisfies the relation Δσ_s/Δσ_d ≈ 1. This relation suggests that fault motion is mostly spent releasing seismic wave energy during the rupture process of the Chi–Chi earthquake. The consistency between static and dynamic stress drops thus provides a measure of energy-moment (E_s/M₀) ratios, which range from 9.0 × 10⁻⁵ to 6.5 × 10⁻⁴. The average E_s/M₀ ratio estimated for the northern portions of the fault is 3.4 × 10⁻⁴, which is about 3 times that of the south. Such a high E_s/M₀ ratio can be interpreted as having low strength in the rupture for the northern portions of the fault, where the fault would release less energy per unit rupture surface to create the new rupture.     

Source complexity of the 4 March 2010 Jiashian,Taiwan, Earthquake determined by joint inversion of teleseismic and near field data

The Jiashian earthquake (M_L 6.4) occurred on 4 March 2010. It was the largest inland event in southern Taiwan of 2010. The mainshock location was unexpected since it occurred in an area with relatively low background seismicity. In addition, reports of earthquake focal mechanisms do not fit with any known active fault geometry. In order to understand the origin of this earthquake, especially its rupture process, we perform a joint source inversion by using teleseismic body wave, GPS coseismic displacements and near field ground motion data. In this study, we considered a northwest–southeast trending fault with a northeast dip retrieved from GPS coseismic data and aftershocks distribution. To analyze the detailed slip distribution in space and time, we used near field 3D Green’s functions provided by spectral-element method and a full time–space inversion technique. We find a complex rupture process with several slip patches distributed inside two main asperities. The slip map reveals a mean slip of 12.9 cm for a maximum slip of 27.3 cm leading to a M_w 6.47 for this event. The rupture initiates in the deepest portion of the fault at 20 km depth, and propagated upward up to 2 km depth to form the two asperities. The source time function of this event revealed two pulses corresponding to the two asperities, for a total duration time of about 16 s. Most aftershocks occurred near the upper boundary of the deepest asperity while no aftershocks are located close to the shallowest one. We infer that the locations of these slip patches are related to the surrounding fault systems that may have restricted the rupture propagation during the earthquake.     

Helium–carbon relationships in geothermal fluids of western Anatolia,Turkey

We investigate the helium, carbon and oxygen–hydrogen isotopic systematics and CO₂/³He ratios of 8 water and 6 gas samples collected from 12 geothermal fields in western Anatolia (Turkey). ³He/⁴He ratios of the samples (R) normalized to the atmospheric ³He/⁴He ratio (R_A = 1.39 × 10^? 6) range from 0.27 to 1.67 and are significantly higher than the crustal production value of 0.05. Fluids with relatively high R / R_A values are generally found in areas of significant heat potential (K?z?ldere and Tuzla fields). CO₂/³He ratios of the samples, ranging from 1.6 × 10⁹ to 2.3 × 10¹⁴, display significant variation and are mostly higher than values typical of an upper mantle source (2 × 10⁹). The δ¹³C (CO₂) and δ¹³C (CH₄) values of all fluids vary from ? 8.04 to + 0.35‰ and ? 25.80 to ? 23.92‰ (vs. PDB), respectively. Stable isotope values (δ¹⁸O–δD) of the geothermal waters are conformable with the Mediterranean Meteoric Water Line and indicate a meteoric origin. The temperatures calculated by gas geothermometry are significantly higher than estimates from chemical geothermometers, implying that either equilibrium has not been attained for the isotope exchange reaction or that isotopic equilibration was disturbed due to gas additions en route to the surface.Evaluation of He–CO₂ abundances indicates that hydrothermal degassing and calcite precipitation (controlled probably by adiabatic cooling due to degassing) significantly fractionate the elemental ratio (CO₂/³He) in geothermal waters. Such processes do not affect gas phase samples to anywhere near the same extent. For the gas samples, mixing between mantle and various crustal sources appears to be the main control on the observed He–C systematics: however, crustal inputs dominate the CO₂ inventory. Considering that limestone is the main source of carbon (～ 70 to 97% of the total carbon inventory), the carbon flux from the crust is found to be at least 20 times that from the mantle. As to the He-inventory, the mantle-derived component is found to vary up to 21% of the total He content and is probably transferred to the crust by fluids degassed from deep mantle melts generated in association with the elevated geotherm and adiabatic melting accompanying current extension. The range of ³He/enthalpy ratios (0.000032 to 0.19 × 10^? 12 cm³ STP/J) of fluids in western Anatolia is consistent with the release of both helium and heat from contemporary additions of mantle-derived magmas to the crust. The deep faults appear to have facilitated the deep circulation of the fluids and the transport of mantle volatiles and heat to the surface.     

Potential of future seismogenesis in Hebei Province (NE China) due to stress interactions between strong earthquakes

Northeast China, a densely populated area, is affected by intense seismic activity, which includes large events that caused extensive disaster and tremendous loss of life. For contributing to the continuous efforts for seismic hazard assessment, the earthquake potential from the active faults near the cities of Zhangjiakou and Langfang in Hebei Province is examined. We estimate the effect of the coseismic stress changes of strong (M ⩾ 5.0) earthquakes on the major regional active faults, and mapped Coulomb stress change onto these target faults. More importantly our calculations reveal that positive stress changes caused by the largest events of the 1976 Tangshan sequence make the Xiadian and part of Daxing fault, thus considered the most likely sites of the next strong earthquake in the study area. The accumulated static stress changes that reached a value of up to 0.4 bar onto these faults, were subsequently incorporated in earthquake probability estimates for the next 30 years.     

Is earthquake activity along the French Atlantic margin favoured by local rheological contrasts?

The seismological study of recent seismic crises near Oleron Island confirms the coexistence of an extensional deformation and a transtensive regime in the Atlantic margin of France, which is different from the general western European stress field corresponding to a strike-slip regime. We argue that the switch of the principal stress axes σ₁/σ₂ in a NW–SE vertical plane is linked with the existence of crustal heterogeneities. Events of magnitude larger than 5 sometimes occur along the Atlantic margin of France, such as the 7 September 1972 (M_L = 5.2) earthquake near Oleron island and the 30 September 2002 (M_L = 5.7) Hennebont event in Brittany. To test the mechanism of local strain localization, we model the deformation of the hypocentral area of the Hennebont earthquake using a 3D thermo-mechanical finite element code. We conclude that the occurrence of moderate earthquakes located in limited parts of the Hercynian shear zones (as the often reactivated swarms near Oleron) could be due to local reactivation of pre-existing faults. These sporadic seismic ruptures are favoured by stress concentration due to rheological heterogeneities.     

Geologic hazards associated with seismogenic faulting in southern Siberia and Mongolia: forms and location patterns

The forms and location patterns of geologic hazards induced by earthquakes in southern Siberia, Mongolia, and northern Kazakhstan in1950 through 2008 have been investigated statistically, using a database of coseismic effects created as a GIS MapInfo application, with a handy input box for large data arrays. The database includes 689 cases of macroseismic effects from M_S = 4.1–8.1 events at 398 sites. Statistical analysis of the data has revealed regional relationships between the magnitude of an earthquake and the maximum distance of its environmental effects (soil liquefaction and subsidence, secondary surface rupturing, and slope instability) to the epicenter and to the causative fault. Thus estimated limit distances to the fault for the M_S = 8.1 largest event are 40 km for soil subsidence (sinkholes), 80 km for surface rupture, 100 km for slope instability (landslides etc.), and 130 km for soil liquefaction. These distances are 3.5–5.6 times as short as those to the epicenter, which are 150, 450, 350, and 450 km, respectively. Analysis of geohazard locations relative to nearest faults in southern East Siberia shows the distances to be within 2 km for sinkholes (60% within 1.5 km), 4.5 km for landslides (90% within 1.5 km), 8 km for liquefaction (69% within 1 km), and 35.5 km for surface rupture (86% within 2 km). The frequency of hazardous effects decreases exponentially away from both seismogenic and nearest faults. Cases of soil liquefaction and subsidence are analyzed in more detail in relation to rupture patterns. Equations have been suggested to relate the maximum sizes of secondary structures (sinkholes, dikes, etc.) with the earthquake magnitude and shaking intensity at the site. As a result, a predictive model has been created for locations of geohazard associated with reactivation of seismogenic faults, assuming an arbitrary fault pattern. The obtained results make basis for modeling the distribution of geohazards for the purposes of prediction and estimation of earthquake parameters from secondary deformation.     

Misattributed tsunami 2: The Tōhoku Japan (Mw 9.0) 2011.3.11 earthquake

Like the tsunamis that accompanied the 2010 Maule (Chile) and the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman and 2005 Nias earthquakes, the tsunamis associated with the Tōhoku, Japan (M_w 9.0), earthquake of 11 March 2011 may owe more to slip on superficial faults on the sea floor than to the megathrust itself. The pattern of shallow aftershocks during the 24 h immediately following the main shock suggests that the crucial structures include faults in the upper plate, in the accretionary wedge landwards of the trench and on the outer rise. Seafloor geodetic observation could thus usefully contribute routinely to local hazard preparedness.     

Seismicity of the Baikal rift system from regional network observations

In the paper we report the state-of-the-art of seismicity study in the Baikal rift system and the general results obtained. At present, the regional earthquake catalog for fifty years of the permanent instrumental observations consists of over 185,000 events. The spatial distribution of the epicenters, which either gather along well-delineated belts or in discrete swarms is considered in detail for different areas of the rift system. At the same time, the hypocenters are poorly constrained making it difficult to identify the fault geometry. Clustered events like aftershock sequences or earthquake swarms are typical patterns in the region; moreover, aftershocks of M ⩾ 4.7 earthquakes make up a quarter of the whole catalog. The maximum magnitude of earthquakes recorded instrumentally is M_LH7.6 for a strike-slip event in the NE part of the Baikal rift system and M_LH6.8 for a normal fault earthquake in the central part of the rift system (Lake Baikal basin). Predominant movement type is normal faulting on NE striking faults with a left lateral strike-slip component on W–E planes. In conclusion, some shortcomings of the seismic network and data processing are pointed out.     

Possible roles of the Zipingpu Reservoir in triggering the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

To better understand the role the Zipingpu Reservoir may have played in triggering the 2008 M_s8 (M_w7.9) Wenchuan earthquake in China, this study evaluates changes of Coulomb failure stress (ΔCFS) and assesses their role in local seismicity and their potential impact on the Wenchuan earthquake. In addition, key aspects associated with reservoir-triggered earthquake (RTS), including mechanisms of stress triggering and permeability of fault zones, is briefly reviewed. ΔCFS was calculated at the faults involved in the Wenchuan earthquake due to the combined effects of gravitational loading and pore-pressure diffusion from the impoundment history of the reservoir. ΔCFS on the major source fault is larger than 0.1 MPa in the upper 10 km below the reservoir and reached a few tens of kPa at the focal depth. Such levels of ΔCFS are large enough to modulate the secular stress buildup of a few kPa/yr in the Longmen-shan thrust zone. Based on detailed analysis of numerical results and local seismicity, the author suggests that it is not proper to rule out the possibility of the Wenchuan earthquake being a RTS only based on very limited knowledge from a few cases of historical RTS so far.     

The 2007 Talala,Saurashtra, western India earthquake sequence: Tectonic implications and seismicity triggering

A damaging and widely felt moderate (M_w 5.0) earthquake occurred in the Talala region of Saurashtra, Gujarat (western India) on November 6, 2007. The highly productive sequence comprised about 1300 micro earthquakes (M > 0.5) out of which 325 of M ? 1.5 that occurred during November 6, 2007–January 10, 2008 were precisely located. The spatial aftershock distribution revealed a NE–SW striking fault in accordance with the centroid moment tensor solution, which in turn implies left-lateral motion. The orientation and sense of shear are consistent with similarly orientated geological fault identified in the area from satellite imagery and field investigation.The aftershocks temporal decay, b-value of frequency–magnitude distribution, spatial fractal dimension, D, and slip ratio (ratio of the slip occurred on the primary fault to the total slip) were examined with the purpose to identify the properties of the sequence. The high b-value (1.18 ± 0.01) may be attributed to the paucity of the larger (M ? 4.0) aftershocks and reveals crustal heterogeneity and low stress regime. The high p-value (1.10 ± 0.39), implying fast decay rate of aftershocks, evidences high surface heat flux. A value of the spatial fractal dimension (D) equal to 2.21 ± 0.02 indicates random spatial distribution and source in a two-dimensional plane that is being filled-up by fractures. A slip ratio of 0.42 reveals that more slip occurred on secondary fault systems.The static Coulomb stress changes due to the coseismic slip of the main shock, enhanced off fault aftershock occurrence. The occurrence of a moderate earthquake (M_w 4.3) on October 5, 2008 inside a region of positive Coulomb stress changes supports the postulation on aftershock triggering. When the stress changes were resolved on a cross section including the stronger (M4.8) foreshock plane that is positioned adjacent to the main fault, it became evident that the activity continued there due to stress transfer from the main rupture.     

Evidence for Holocene activity of the Yilan-Yitong fault,northeastern section of the Tan-Lu fault zone in Northeast China

The Tan-Lu fault zone (TLFZ) is the largest of the major faults in eastern China. Many strong earthquakes have occurred on its section in North China, but no quake greater than M ⩾ 6 has been documented in history at its northeastern section, the Yilan-Yitong fault (YYF) in Northeast China. It is usually considered that this fault has been inactive since late Quaternary and incapable of generating moderate-sized quakes. This conclusion is, however, questioned by our recent work based on high-resolution satellite image interpretation and field investigation. We found a 70-km-long surface scarp near Fangzheng county in Heilongjiang province (HLJP) and a 20-km-long scarp near Shulan county in Jilin province (JLP), and both are associated with the YYF. The trenches across these two scarps reveal a ¹⁴C displacement date of 1730 ± 40 years BP at Fangzheng and of 4410 ± 30 years BP at Shulan. The dextral offsets of the Songhua River and Second Songhua River and nearly horizontal fault striations indicate that the new activity of the YYF has been dominated by dextral strike slipping with a normal component. These new data suggest that, at least for partial sections, the YYF has been active since the Holocene, implying a potential seismic hazard. However, current quake-protection standards in this region are very low due to the previous view that the YYF fault has not been active since the late Quaternary. If an M ⩾ 7 quake takes place on this fault, it will be a devastating event. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a detailed study on the whole YYF and to reassess its future seismic risk.     

Exhumation history and faulting activity of the southern segment of the Longmen Shan,eastern Tibet

The Longmen Shan (LMS), which constitutes the eastern border of the Tibetan Plateau, is about 400 km in length and characterized by a steep topographic transition from the Sichuan Basin to the plateau. The 2008 M_w7.9 Wenchuan earthquake and 2013 M_w6.6 Lushan earthquake were associated with the central to northern segments and southern segment of the LMS fault belt, respectively. In this paper, zircon and apatite fission track (ZFT and AFT, respectively) dating in combination with previously published low temperature thermochronology studies are used to constrain both the exhumation history and fault activity along the LMS, with a special focus on the southern segment. In the southern segment of the LMS, the ZFT ages in the hanging wall of the Wulong-Yanjing fault 10–14 Ma, increasing to ca. 30 Ma to the northwest of the faults and to 100–200 Ma in the plateau region. The AFT ages are 3–5 Ma at the mountain front and increase to 8–26 Ma in the plateau. We show that these age distributions are controlled by fault geometry. Two stages of rapid exhumation were identified using apatite fission track length modeling and the age distributions in the southern segment of the LMS. The first stage is from ca. 30 Ma and the second stage is from 3–5 Ma to present. In contrast with the middle segment of the LMS, the Cenozoic exhumation rate is higher in the southern segment of the LMS, which may be due to the influence of the collision between the India and Eurasia plates and/or different faulting mechanisms in the different segments.     

基于分裂节点法的地震同震和震后形变数值模拟及其在汶川大地震中的应用

大地震导致的同震及震后效应,对于分析不同地震之间的相互影响及区域地震危险性等有着重要的作用.文中开发了模拟地震同震及震后效应的三维黏弹性有限元程序,通过计算走滑断层震例(概念性模型)引起的同震及震后效应,并与解析/半解析解进行对比,验证了程序的可靠性.同时基于概念性模型,分析了不同介质参数对同震及震后的地表变形的影响....     

Helium isotopes on the Macdonald seamount (Austral chain): constraints on the origin of the superswell

We present new helium isotope data from the Macdonald seamount (Austral chain). The helium isotopic ratio varies from ⁴He/³He=45 000 (R/Ra=16.0) to 200 170 (R/Ra=3.6). The helium content is between 1.5×10^?8 and 1.1×10^?5 ccSTP/g. These helium results show clearly the presence of primitive mantle material in the source of the Austral chain. Macdonald has the lowest ⁴He/³He ratio among the Polynesian submarine volcanoes, except Hawaii (Loihi). The simplest explanation for the primitive helium signature is the presence under Macdonald of a mantle plume that derives either from the 670 km or 2900 km boundary layers, or, eventually, from the top of a large mantle dome resulting from a stratified two-layer convection. This plume contains less-degassed material with low ⁴He/³He ratio. To cite this article: M. Moreira, C. Allègre, C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

Fluid geochemistry of the Sardinian Rift-Campidano Graben (Sardinia,Italy): fault segmentation,seismic quiescence of geochemically “active” faults,and new constraints for selection of CO2 storage sites

Sardinia is typically seismically quiescent, displaying an almost complete lack of historical earthquakes and instrumentally recorded seismicity. This evidence may be in agreement with the presence of a ductile layer in the northern sector of the island, as suggested by the He isotopic signature in fluids rising to the surface through quiescent fault systems. The fault systems have been found to be “segmented” and therefore isolated in fluid circulation. The study of fluid behaviour along fault systems becomes strategically important when applied to solve some geological risk assessments such as Rn-indoor, or to define geological structures like potential CO₂ storage sites. Both of these have been recently requested by the exploitation in Italy of the Euratom Directive and the evolution of the KyotoProtocol policy.Four water-dominated hydrothermal areas of Sardinia, located along regional fault systems, were considered: Campidano Graben, Tirso Valley, Logudoro and Casteldoria. A fluid geochemical survey was carried out taking into account physical–chemical and environmental parameters, major elements within gaseous and liquid phases, a few minor and trace elements, selected isotope ratios (²H, ¹⁸O, ¹³C, ³He/⁴He), ²²²Rn concentration, and some dissolved gases.Two different fluids have been recognised as regards both water chemistry and dissolved gases: (i) CO₂-rich gases, poor in He and Rn, with a relatively high ³He/⁴He ratio (up to R/R_a = 2.32), associated with Na–HCO₃–(Cl) thermal and cold groundwater; (ii) gases rich in He and N₂, poor in CO₂ and Rn, with a low ³He/⁴He ratio, associated with alkaline thermal and cold waters. The distribution of these two groups of fluids characterises the Sardinian tectonic systems. In fact, gas fluxes are not homogeneous, being mainly related to the different fault segments and to the areas where Quaternary basalts crop out. The underground geochemical evolution of the Sardinian fluids, as a function of the geological and tectonic systems, provides some suggestions for solving one of the most important problems: CO₂ geological sequestration. In order to reduce the CO₂ excess produced by human activity, the best geological disposal sites are reservoirs with low hydraulic conductivity, sealed to fluid movement, or aquifers characterised by maximum pH buffering capacity of their mineralogical matrix. The knowledge of the role of faults, as permeability barriers or as deep fluid uprising pathways, is prerequisite.