A Statistical Framework for Calculating and Assessing Compositional Linear Trends Within Fault Zones: A Case Study of the NE Block of the Clark Segment,San Jacinto Fault,California, USA

Utilizing chemical data derived from the various fault zone architectural components of the Clark strand of the San Jacinto fault, southern California, USA, we apply for the first time non-central principal component analysis to calculate a compositional linear trend within molar A–CN–K space. In this procedure A–CN–K are calculated as the molar proportions of Al₂O₃ (A), CaO* + Na₂O (CN), and K₂O (K) in the sum of molar Al₂O₃, Na₂O, CaO*, and K₂O. CaO* is the molar CaO after correction for apatite. We then derive translational invariant chemical alteration intensity factors, t, for each architectural component through orthogonal projection of analyzed samples onto the compositional linear trend. The chemical alteration intensity factor t determines the relative change in composition compared to the original state (i.e., the composition of the altered wall rocks). It is dependent on the degree of intensity to which the process or processes responsible for the change in composition of each architectural component has been active. These processes include shearing, fragmentation, fluid flow, and generation of frictional heat. Non-central principal component analysis indicates that principal component 1 explains 99.7 % of the spread of A–CN–K data about the calculated compositional linear trend (i.e., the variance). The significance level for the overall one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is 0.0001. Such a result indicates that at least one significant difference across the group of means of t values is different at the 95 % confidence level. Following completion of the overall one-way ANOVA, the difference in means t test indicated that the mean of the t values for the fault core are different than the means obtained from the transition and damage zones. In contrast, at the 95 % confidence level, the means of the t values for the transition and damage zones are not statistically distinguishable. The results of XRD work completed during this study revealed that the <2 µm fraction is composed primarily of illite/smectite with ~15 % illite in the damage zone, of illite/smectite with ~30 % illite in the transition zone, and of discreet illite with very minor smectite in the fault core. These changes parallel the increasing values of the chemical alteration intensity factors (i.e., t). Based on the above results, it is speculated that when fault zones are derived from tonalitic wall rocks at depths of ~400 ± 100 m, the onset of the illite/smectite to illite conversion will occur when t values exceed 0.20 ± 0.12, the average chemical alteration intensity factor calculated for the transition zone. Under such conditions during repeated rupturing events, frictional heat is produced and acidic fluids with elevated temperatures (≥ ~125 °C) are flushed through the fault core. Over time, the combination of shearing, fragmentation, and frictionally elevated temperatures eventually overcomes the kinetic barrier for the illite/smectite to illite transition. Such settings and processes are unique to fault zones, and as a result, they represent an underappreciated setting for the development of illite from illite/smectite. The success of non-central principal component analysis in this environment offers the first statistically rigorous methodology for establishing the existence of compositional linear trends in fault zones. This method also derives quantifiable alteration intensity factors that could potentially be used to compare the intensity of alteration at different segments of a fault, as well as offer a foundation to interpret the potential driving forces for said alteration and differences therein.     

What Do Data Used to Develop Ground-Motion Prediction Equations Tell Us About Motions Near Faults?

A large database of ground motions from shallow earthquakes occurring in active tectonic regions around the world, recently developed in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center’s NGA-West2 project, has been used to investigate what such a database can say about the properties and processes of crustal fault zones. There are a relatively small number of near-rupture records, implying that few recordings in the database are within crustal fault zones, but the records that do exist emphasize the complexity of ground-motion amplitudes and polarization close to individual faults. On average over the whole data set, however, the scaling of ground motions with magnitude at a fixed distance, and the distance dependence of the ground motions, seem to be largely consistent with simple seismological models of source scaling, path propagation effects, and local site amplification. The data show that ground motions close to large faults, as measured by elastic response spectra, tend to saturate and become essentially constant for short periods. This saturation seems to be primarily a geometrical effect, due to the increasing size of the rupture surface with magnitude, and not due to a breakdown in self similarity.     

Structural features and seismotectonic implications of coseismic surface ruptures produced by the 2016 <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>w</Subscript> 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake

Field investigations and analyses of satellite images and aerial photographs reveal that the 2016 M _w 7.1 (Mj 7.3) Kumamoto earthquake produced a ～40-km surface rupture zone striking NE-SW on central Kyushu Island, Japan. Coseismic surface ruptures were characterized by shear faults, extensional cracks, and mole tracks, which mostly occurred along the pre-existing NE-SW-striking Hinagu–Futagawa fault zone in the southwest and central segments, and newly identified faults in the northeast segment. This study shows that (i) the Hinagu–Futagawa fault zone triggered the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake and controlled the spatial distribution of coseismic surface ruptures; (ii) the southwest and central segments were dominated by right-lateral strike-slip movement with a maximum in-site measured displacement of up to 2.5 m, accompanied by a minor vertical component. In contrast, the northeast segment was dominated by normal faulting with a maximum vertical offset of up to 1.75 m with a minor horizontal component that formed graben structures inside Aso caldera; (iii) coseismic rupturing initiated at the jog area between the Hinagu and Futagawa faults, then propagated northeastward into Aso caldera, where it terminated. The 2016 M _w 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake therefore offers a rare opportunity to study the relationships between coseismic rupture processes and pre-existing active faults, as well as the seismotectonics of Aso volcano.     

Fluid infiltration into fault zones: Chemical,isotopic, and mechanical effects

Fluid infiltration into fault zones and their deeper-level counterparts, brittle-ductile shear zones, is examined in diverse tectonic environments. In the 2.7 Ga Abitibi greenstone belt, major tectonic discontinuities, with lateral extents of hundreds of kilometres initiated as listric normal faults accommodating rift extension and acted as sites for komatiite extrusion and locally intense metasomatism. During reverse motion on the structures, accommodating shortening of the belt, these transcrustal faults were utilised as a conduit for the ascent of trondhjemitic magmas from the base of the crust and of alkaline magmas from the asthenosphere and for the discharge of thousands of cubic kilometres of hydrothermal fluids. Such fluids were characterised by ¹⁸O=+6±2, D=–50±20, ¹³C=–4±4, and temperatures of 270 to 450°C, probably derived from devolatilisation of crustal rocks undergoing prograde metamorphism. Hydrothermal fluids were more radiogenic (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr=0.7010 to 0.7040) and possessed higher than did contemporaneous mantle, komatiites or tholeiites, and thus carried a contribution from older sialic basement. A provinciality of⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹³C is evident, signifying that fault plumbing sampled lower crust which was heterogeneous at the scale of tens of kilometres. Mineralised faults possess enrichments of large ion lithophile (LIL), LIL elements, including K, Rb, Ba, Cs, B, and CO₂, and rare elements, such as Au, Ag, As, Sb, Se, Te, Bi, and W. Fluids were characterised by X_{CO 2}0.1, neutral to slightly acidic pH, low salinity 3 wt-%, K/Na=0.1, they carried minor CH₄, CO, and N₂, and they underwent transient effervescence of CO₂ during decompression. Clastic sediments occupy graben developed at fault flexures. The⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar release spectra indicate that fault rocks experienced episodic disturbance on time scales of hundreds of millions of years.At the Grenville front, translation was accommodated along two mylonite zones and an intervening boundary fault. The high-temperature (580°C) and low-temperature (430 to 490°C) mylonite zones, formed in the presence of deep-level crust-equilibrated fluids of metamorphic origin. Late brittle faults contain quartz veins precipitated from fluids with extemely negative ¹⁸O (–14 per mil) at 200 to 300°C. The water may have been derived from downward penetration into fault zones of precipitation of low¹⁸O on a mountain range induced by continental collision, with uplift accommodated at deep levels by the mylonite zones coupled with rebound on the boundary faults.Archean gneisses overlie Proterozoic sediments along thrust surfaces at Lagoa Real, Brazil; the gneisses are transected by brittle-ductile shear zones locally occupied by uranium deposits. Following deformation at 500 to 540°C, in the presence of metamorphic fluids and under conditions of low water-to-rock ratio, shear zones underwent local intense oxidation and desilication. All minerals undergo a shift of –10 per mil, indicating discharge of meteoric-water-recharged formation brines in the underlying Proterozoic sediments up through the Archean gneisses, during overthrusting; 1000 km³ of solutions passed through these structures. The shear zones and Proterozoic sediments are less radiogenic (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr=0.720) than contemporaneous Archean gneisses (0.900), corroborating the transport of fluids and solutes through the structure from a large external reservoir.Major crustal detachment faults of Tertiary age in the Picacho Cordilleran metamorphic core complex of Arizona show an upward transition from undeformed granitic basement through mylonitic to brecciated and hydrothermally altered counterparts. The highest tectonic levels are allochthonous, oxidatively altered Miocene volcanics. This transition is accompanied by an increase of 12 per mil in ¹⁸O, from +7 to +19, and a 400°C decrease in temperature. Lower tectonic levels acted as aquifers for the expulsion of large volumes of higher-temperature reduced metamorphic fluids and/or evolved formation brines. The Miocene allochthon was influenced by a lower-temperature reservoir inducing oxidative potassic alteration; mixing occurred between cool downward-penetrating thermal waters and the hot, deeper aqueous reservoir.In general, flow regimes in these fault and shear zones follow a sequence, from conditions of high temperature and pressure with locally derived fluids at low water-to-rock ratios, during initiation of the structures, to high fluxes of reduced formation or metamorphic fluids along conduits as the structures propagate and intersect hydrothermal reservoirs. Later in the tectonic evolution and at shallower crustal levels there was incursion of oxidising fluids from near-surface reservoirs into the faults. In general, magmatism, tectonics, and fluid motion are intimately related.     

Structural characteristics of epicentral areas in Central Europe: study case Cheb Basin (Czech Republic)

The earthquake distribution pattern of Central Europe differs systematically from the neighbouring areas of NW and southern Europe regarding the fault plane kinematics. Within a belt between the French Massif Central and the northern part of the Bohemian Massif (1000 km) sinistral faulting along N-S zones dominates on the contrary to the Alps and their foreland with common bookshelf shears. One of the prominent N-S structures is the Regensburg-Leipzig-Rostock Zone (A) with several epicentral areas, where the main seismic center occurs in the northern Cheb Basin (NW Bohemia). The study demonstrates new structural results for the swarm-quake region in NW-Bohemia, especially for the Nový Kostel area in the Cheb Basin. There the N-S-trending newly found Počatky-Plesná zone (PPZ) is identical with the main earthquake line. The PPZ is connected with a mofette line between Hartušov and Bublák with evidence for CO₂ degassing from the subcrustal mantle. The morphologically more prominent Mariánské Lázně fault (MLF) intersects the PPZ obliquely under an acuate angle. In the past the MLF was supposed to be the tectonic structure connected with the epicentral area of Nový Kostel. But evidence from the relocated hypocentres along the PPZ (at 7–12 kms depth) indicate that the MLF is seismically non-active. Asymmetric drainage patterns of the Cheb Basin are caused by fault related movement along Palaeozoic basement faults which initiate a deformation of the cover (Upper Pliocene to Holocene basin filling). The PPZ forms an escarpment in Pliocene and Pleistocene soft rock and is supposingly acting as an earthquake zone since late Pleistocene time. The uppermost Pleistocene of 0.12–0.01 Ma deposited only in front of the fault scarp dates the fault activity. The crossing faults envelope crustal wedges under different local stress conditions. Their intersection line forms a zone beginning at the surface near Nový Kostel, dipping south with increasing depth, probably down to about 12 km. The intersection zone represents a crustal anomaly. There fault movements can be blocked up and peculiar stress condition influence the behaviour of the adjacent crust. An ENE-WNW striking dextral wrench fault was detected which is to expect as kinematic counterpart to the ca. N-S striking sinistral shear zones. Nearly E-W striking fracture segments were formerly only known as remote sensing lineaments or as joint density zones. The ENE shear zone is characterized by a set of compressional m-scale folds and dm-scale faults scattered within a 20 m wide wrench zone. It is built up of different sets of cleavage-like clay plate pattern of microscopical scale. The associated shear planes fit into a Riedel shear system. One characteristic feature are tiny channels of micrometer scale. They have originated after shear plane bending and are the sites of CO₂ mantle degassing.     

Agrigan: An introduction to the geology of an active volcano in the Northern Mariana Island arc

Agrigan is the tallest (965 m a.s.l.) and largest (44 km²) of the volcanoes of the northern Mariana Islands. Its slopes are asymmetric to the east; a small caldera (4 km²) dominates the interior. The volcanic edifice has been disrupted along three sets of faults: 1) exterior slump faults, 2) radial faults, and 3) interior faults related to caldera-collapse. The rocks of the volcano are characterized by porphyritic clinopyroxene-olivine-plagioclase basalts and subordinate andesites. Cumulate xenoliths composed of Fo₈₁, An₉₅ and diopside are common in the basalts. Development of the volcano began with 3–4 km of submarine growth. The earliest recognizable flows are the result of fissural Hawaiian- and Strombolian-type eruptions. These were followed by the eruption of more viscous lavas from above the present summit. Flank eruptions of basalt and andesite preceded voluminous outpourings of andesitic pyroclastics contemporaneous with caldera-collapse. Subsequent magmatic resurgence is localized along a N10E rift zone. Violent ejection of lapilli and ash occurred in 1917.     

Influence of Outcrop Scale Fractures on the Effective Stiffness of Fault Damage Zone Rocks

We combine detailed mapping and microstructural analyses of small fault zones in granodiorite with numerical mechanical models to estimate the effect of mesoscopic (outcrop-scale) damage zone fractures on the effective stiffness of the fault zone rocks. The Bear Creek fault zones were active at depths between 4 and 15 km and localize mesoscopic off-fault damage into tabular zones between two subparallel boundary faults, producing a fracture-induced material contrast across the boundary faults with softer rocks between the boundary faults and intact granodiorite outside the boundary faults. Using digitized fault zone fracture maps as the modeled fault geometries, we conduct nonlinear uniaxial compression tests using a novel finite-element method code as the experimental “laboratory” apparatus. Map measurements show that the fault zones have high nondimensional facture densities (>1), and damage zone fractures anastamose and intersect, making existing analytical effective medium models inadequate for estimation of the effective elastic properties. Numerical experiments show that the damage zone is strongly anisotropic and the bulk response of the fault zone is strain-weakening. Normal strains as small as 2% can induce a reduction of the overall stiffness of up to 75%. Fracture-induced effective stiffness changes are large enough to locally be greater than intact modulus changes across the fault due to juxtaposition of rocks of different lithologies; therefore mesoscopic fracturing is as important as rock type when considering material or bimaterial effects on earthquake mechanics. These results have important implications for earthquake rupture mechanics models, because mesoscopic damage zone fractures can cause a material contrast across the faults as large as any lithology-based material contrast at seismogenic depths, and the effective moduli can be highly variable during a single rupture event.     

Comparative microstructures of natural and experimentally produced clay-bearing fault gouges

Fault rocks formed in phyllosilicate-bearing rocks formed over a wide range of environmental conditions within the Earth's crust are characterised by similar structural and microstructural features. The most striking of these are (a) P foliation, defined by the preferred alignment of phyllosilicates in a plane oblique to the direction of shear and (b) small-scale shear zones either parallel to the shear direction (Y shears) or oblique to the direction of shear but with the opposite sense of obliquity relative to the P foliation (Riedel shears, R₁). The minor shear zones have the same sense of displacement as the host shear zone.The occurrence of these and other structures in clay-rich fault gouges from exceptionally well-exposed fault zones in southeastern Spain is described. The pervasive development of these flow structures throughout large volumes of fault gouge permits fault-displacement vectors to be inferred. For the region studied the movement pictures is relatively simple and is superposed on a complex network of variably oriented fault zones.The naturally produced fault-gouge structures are compared with fault gouges produced experimentally by shearing kaolinite-quartz mixtures between intact blocks over a wide range of experimental conditions. Good correspondence between their respective microstructural features was observed.Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that natural clay-bearing fault gouges are the products of deformation accompanied by very low-grade retrogressive metamorphism, and that part of the micro-structure of these rocks may be ascribed to crystallization under stress. Microstructures are described that are from long-duration experimental runs, (5 months at high temperature and in the presence of water) which go some way towards simulating these effects.     

The structural characteristics,age of origin,and tectonic attribute of the Erguna Fault,NE China

The Erguna Fault runs along the east bank of the Erguna River in NE China and is a large-scale ductile shear zone comprising granitic mylonites. This paper reports on the geometry, kinematic indicators, and 40Ar/39 Ar biotite ages of the granitic mylonites, to constrain the structural characteristics, forming age, and tectonic attribute of the Erguna ductile shear zone. The zone strikes NE and records a top-to-the-NW sense of shear. A mylonitic foliation and stretching lineation are well developed in the mylonites, which are classified as S-L tectonites. Logarithmic flinn parameters(1.18–2.35) indicate elongate strain which approximates to plane strain. Kinematic vorticity numbers are 0.42–0.92 and 0.48–0.94, based on the polar Mohr diagram and the oblique foliation in quartz ribbons, respectively, suggesting that the ductile shear zone formed under general shear, or a combination of simple and pure shear. According to finite strain and kinematic vorticity analyses, the Erguna Fault is a lengthening-thinning ductile shear zone that formed by extension. The deformation behavior of minerals in the mylonites indicates that the fault was the site of three stages of deformation: an initial stage of middle- to deep-level, high-temperature shear, a post-stress recovery phase of high-temperature static recrystallization, and a final phase of low-temperature uplift and cooling. The 40Ar/39 Ar plateau ages of biotite from the granitic mylonites are 106.16 ± 0.79 and 111.55 ± 0.67 Ma, which constrain the timing of low-temperature uplift and cooling but are younger than the ages of metamorphic core complexes(MCCs) in the Transbaikalia-northeast Mongolia region. Using measured geological sections, microtectonics, estimates of finite strain and kinematic vorticity, and regional correlations and geochronology, we conclude that the Erguna Fault is an Early Cretaceous, NNE-trending, large-scale, sub-horizontal, and extensional ductile shear zone. It shares a similar tectonic background with the MCCs, volcanic fault basins, and large and super-large volcanic-hydrothermal deposits in Transbaikalia-northeast Mongolia and the western Great Khingan Mountains, all of which are the result of overthickened crust that gravitationally collapsed and extended in the Early Cretaceous after plate collision along the present-day Sino-Russia-Mongolia border tract.     

GPS-based crustal deformations in Azerbaijan and their influence on seismicity and mud volcanism

Using Shen’s method (Shen et al., 1996), deformations of the Earth’s crust in Azerbaijan were studied based on GPS measurements. For estimating the rate of deformation, we used the field of velocity vectors for Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, and Armenia that were derived from GPS measurements during 1998–2012. It is established that compression is observable along the Greater Caucasus, in Gobustan, the Kura depression, Nakhchyvan Autonomous Republic, and adjacent areas of Iran. The axes of compression/contraction of the crust in the Greater Caucasus region are oriented in the S-NE direction. The maximum strain rate (approximately 200 × 10^?9 per annum) is documented in the zone of mud volcanism at the SHIK site (Shykhlar), which is marked by a sharp change in the direction of the compression axes (SW-NE). It is revealed that the deformation field also includes the zones where strain rates are very low approximating 5 × 10^?9 per annum. These zones include the Caspian-Guba and northern Gobustan areas, characterized by extensive development of mud volcanism. The extension zones are confined to the Lesser Caucasus and are revealed in the Gedabek (GEDA) and Shusha (SHOU) areas, as well as in the zone located between the DAMO and PIRM sites (Iran), where the deformation rate amounts to 100 × 10^?9 per annum. It is concluded that the predominant factor responsible for the eruption of mud volcanoes is the intensity of gas-generation processes in the earth’s interior, while deformation processes play the role of a trigger. The zone of the epicenters of strong earthquakes is correlated to the gradient zone in the crustal strain rates.     

渤海海域主要新构造活动断裂带

渤海位于渤海湾盆地的东部,是我国华北地区新构造活动最强烈的地区之一,盆地内的沉积盖层(N-Q)中断裂极为发育。许多研究者从不同角度对渤海新构造进行过研究,但认识不一。笔者基于以往的工作,对该区新构造作了较深入的分析,确定渤海新构造运动起始于中新世晚期(12~10Ma BP)。从三维空间分析盖层断裂,并按其与盆地基底断裂的成因关系,将新构造活动的断裂分为继续活动断裂和新生断裂,并划分出3条主要的新构造活动断裂带:北东(偏北)向营口-潍坊断裂带北段是继续活动构造带,右旋逆平移活动,活动性弱;北西西向北京-蓬莱断裂带亦为继续活动构造带,左旋正平移活动,活动性较强;北东向庙西北-黄河口断裂带为新生构造带,右旋平移活动,活动性强。后两者组成一对以庙西北-黄河口断裂带为主的偏共轭活动构造带,该区域地震活动与之关系密切。最后探讨了渤海地区新构造期北东东-南西西至近东西向水平挤压的构造应力场及其与新构造活动断裂带发育的关系。提出新构造应力场与古近纪盆地裂陷阶段的应力场截然不同,新构造为地壳共轭剪切破裂系统,古近纪盆地构造是发育于地壳上部的伸展构造系统,这是两期不同体制的构造系统。     

The Beni-Ilmane (North-Central Algeria) Earthquake Sequence of May 2010

Starting on 14 May 2010 and lasting several months, the village of Beni-Ilmane (Msila District, North-Central Algeria) and its surroundings were struck by an important seismic crisis marked by three successive moderate shocks (5.0 ≤ M _d ≤ 5.2). This sequence of events caused severe damage in the Beni-Ilmane village and in the epicentral area. The poor quality of masonry construction and the cumulative effects of the large number of aftershock events played a key role in the destruction. To follow this earthquake sequence, 11 temporary seismic stations, in addition to the permanent stations of the Algerian seismic network, were deployed in the region. A representative set of well located aftershocks in the period of maximum activity (lasting 18 days) were selected. The horizontal distribution of the aftershocks shows two main earthquake clusters located near Beni-Ilmane village, one cluster oriented E–W and the other oriented NNE–SSW, crossing the first cluster at its eastern tip. The aftershocks distribution suggests that the three main shocks ruptured two distinct and adjacent fault segments of about 8 km length. The focal mechanisms of the first and third events, located in the NNE–SSW cluster, show near-vertical left-lateral strike-slip fault planes. In the second cluster, oriented E–W, focal mechanisms show a high-angle reverse fault. A field survey, initiated immediately after the first main shock, identified surface fissures generated by the three largest events in the sequence. The fissures, concentrated in a narrow area at the western termination of the NE–SW Jebel Choukchot anticline (location of Beni-Ilmane village), showed several orientations which were mainly related to gravity instabilities. The 2010 Beni-Ilmane earthquake sequence, located in the Bibans–Hodna Mountains transition zone, demonstrates that the Tellian Atlas–High Plateaus border region is an active seismic zone marked by moderate and possibly strong earthquakes; thus, a reevaluation of the seismic hazard in the region is needed.     

Interseismic Strain Localization in the San Jacinto Fault Zone

We investigate interseismic deformation across the San Jacinto fault at Anza, California where previous geodetic observations have indicated an anomalously high shear strain rate. We present an updated set of secular velocities from GPS and InSAR observations that reveal a 2–3 km wide shear zone deforming at a rate that exceeds the background strain rate by more than a factor of two. GPS occupations of an alignment array installed in 1990 across the fault trace at Anza allow us to rule out shallow creep as a possible contributor to the observed strain rate. Using a dislocation model in a heterogeneous elastic half space, we show that a reduction in shear modulus within the fault zone by a factor of 1.2–1.6 as imaged tomographically by Allam and Ben-Zion (Geophys J Int 190:1181–1196, 2012) can explain about 50 % of the observed anomalous strain rate. However, the best-fitting locking depth in this case (10.4 ± 1.3 km) is significantly less than the local depth extent of seismicity (14–18 km). We show that a deep fault zone with a shear modulus reduction of at least a factor of 2.4 would be required to explain fully the geodetic strain rate, assuming the locking depth is 15 km. Two alternative possibilities include fault creep at a substantial fraction of the long-term slip rate within the region of deep microseismicity, or a reduced yield strength within the upper fault zone leading to distributed plastic failure during the interseismic period.     

Rayleigh wave phase velocity tomography and strong earthquake activity on the southeastern front of the Tibetan Plateau

To investigate the relationship between velocity structure and earthquake activity on the southeastern front of the Tibetan Plateau, we make use of continuous observations of seismic ambient noise data obtained at 55 broadband stations from the regional Yunnan Seismic Network. These data are used to compute Rayleigh wave Green's Functions by cross-correlating between two stations, extracting phase velocity dispersion curves, and finally inverting to image Rayleigh wave phase velocity with periods between 5 and 34 s by ambient noise tomography. The results show significant lateral variations in crustal and uppermost mantle structures in the studied region. Phase velocity anomalies at short periods(5–12 s) are closely related to regional tectonic features such as sediment thickness and the depth of the crystalline basement. The Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block, enclosed by the Honghe, Xiaojiang and Jianchuan faults, emerges as a large range of low-velocity anomalies at periods of 16–26 s, that inverts to high-velocity anomalies at periods of 30–34 s. The phase velocity variation in the vicinity of the Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block suggests that the low-velocity anomaly area in the middle-lower crust may correspond to lower crustal channelized flow of the Tibetan Plateau. The spatial distribution of strong earthquakes since 1970 reveals that the Yunnan region is inhomogeneous and shows prominent characteristics of block motion. However, earthquakes mostly occur in the upper crust, with the exception of the middle-Yunnan block where earthquakes occur at the interface zone between high and low velocity as well as in the low-velocity zones, with magnitudes being generally less than 7. There are few earthquakes of magnitude 5 at the depths of 15–30 km, where gather earthquakes of magnitude 7 or higher ones which mainly occur in the interface zone between high and low velocities with others extending to the high-velocity abnormal zone.     

Features and origin time of Mesozoic strike-slip structures in the Yilan-Yitong Fault Zone

The NE-striking Yilan-Yitong Fault Zone(YYFZ) with a length of ca. 900 km is an important major fault zone in northeastern China. Its origin has been a controversial issue for a long time. Detailed field investigation and comprehensive analyses show that strike-slip faults or ductile shear belts exist as the origination structures on the both shoulders of the Cretaceous-Paleogene grabens. These strike-slip structures are dominated by brittle transcurrent faults, and appear as ductile shear belts only in the Weiyuanpu-Yehe and Shulan parts in the south and middle of the fault zone, respectively. The shear belts strike NE-SW and show steep mylonitic foliation and gentle mineral elongation lineation. Outcrop structures, microstructures and quartz c-axis fabrics demonstrate a sinistral shear sense with minor reverse component for the ductile shear belts. The microstructures suggest deformation temperatures of 400–450°C for the Weiyuanpu-Yehe shear belts and 350–400°C for the Shulan shear belt. A series of zircon U-Pb dating results for deformed and undeformed plutons or dikes in the shear belts constrain the strike-slip motion to the time between 160 and 126 Ma. It is further inferred from ages of main geological events in this region that the fault zone originated in the earliest Early Cretaceous. It is suggested therefore that the southern and middle parts of the Tan-Lu Fault Zone, which originated in Middle Triassic, propagated into northeastern China along the sinistral YYFZ under the earliest Early Cretaceous regional compression that is referred to as the Yanshan B event. The earliest Early Cretaceous initiation of the YYFZ results from both the high-speed oblique subduction of the Izanagi Plate and the final closure of the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean, but the Izanagi Plate subduction played a major dynamic role in the fault zone origin.     

The composition of basaltic lavas from Bayuda,Sudan and their place in the cainozoic volcanic history of north-east Africa

Six new analyses of young basaltic rocks from the Bayuda field show the predominant rock types to be strongly undersaturated basanites and nepheline trachybasalts. Both types are believed to represent magmas of deep-seated origin. Similar rocks are widely distributed in north-east Africa but mildly alkaline to tholeiitic basalts were erupted along the eastern margin of the continent in early and late Cainozoic times, whereas along the Tripoli-Tibesti zone to the west mildly alkaline basalts were probably confined to the early Tertiary. The Tripoli-Tibesti zone was one of uplift and strongly tensional tectonics in the late Mesozoic and early Cainozoic, and at this time may have been a line of potential lithospheric rifting, but a period of quiescence followed and resurgence of activity in the late Cainozoic produced weaker tensional structures and more strongly alkaline basic magmas. The region between these two main zones of activity was characterized throughout by intermittent alkaline volcanicity and weak tectonism. Neverthless, fracture zones which apparently controlled the volcanicity are beginning to be recognized in this area. It is argued that African volcanic activity is related to linear, rather than circumscribed, areas of mantle activity. Possible connections with epeirogenic movements within the Alpine orogenic belt appear to have been neglected in the debate on the causes of African igneous activity.     

Avalonian (Pan-African) mylonitic deformation west of Boston, U.S.A.

West of Boston, Mass., Castle and others (1976) recognized an up to 5km wide, possibly folded, NE-SW trending Burlington Mylonite Zone. We have extended mapping south into Natick and Framington quadrangles, and supplemented it by fixing local directions of tectonic motion, which are more variable than reported by Goldstein (1989). In Natick the mylonite zone is partly migmatized and converted into blastomylonites, forming the lithodemic Rice Gneiss and is intersected by the Dedham Granite dated ca 630 Ma. The granite also invades deformed, folded, and commonly mylonitized Westboro Quartzite. Thus mylonitization, folding, and formation of migmatitic blastomylonites are all earlier than ca 630 Ma, and can collectively be attributed to the main phase of the Avalonian orogeny that in Africa is referred to as the Pan-African I. The sense of movements in the Rice Gneiss is generally sinistral strike-slip with a NE-SW trend of foliation. Other local mylonites have more variable directions of motion.A narrower E-W zone of mylonitization has been recognized by Grimes (M.S. thesis 1993, Boston College) and named the Nobscot Shear Zone. It affects the Milford Granite, also about 630 Ma in age, while similar but narrow shear zones affect other local granites including the Dedham. These zones, dipping steeply north and including the Nobscot, are less intensely mylonitized and are not associated with migmatites. Their age is not known, but since they affect only Precambrian rocks, they are assumed to be late Proterozoic. We attribute these zones to the second stage of the Avalonian or the Pan-African II.The older rocks west of Boston are widely affected by numerous brittle faults. These are all of unknown age, but probably Phanerozoic. The most significant brittle fault in the Burlington area is the mid to late Paleozoic Bloody Bluff Fault. We do not associate large scale mylonitization with that fault, because the mylonites are commonly cut by undeformed or little deformed Siluro-Devonian gabbro-diorites.     

Holocene slip rate and paleoearthquake records of the Salt Lake segment of the Northern Zhongtiaoshan Fault,Shanxi Province

The Northern Zhongtiaoshan Fault is a major deep fault at the southern margin of the Yuncheng Basin. There have been few studies on the fault, and the historical earthquakes are few and weak. However, the intensity of activity on the fault should never be underestimated. Through interpretations of aerial images, topography measurements and excavation of trenches, this paper studied the fault distribution, the surface deformation and the activity of the normal fault south of Salt Lake near the city of Yuncheng. By tracing faults in the three trenches, it was found that there had been at least three large paleoseismic events, at 1–3.5, 3.6–4.4 and 7.4–8.8 ka BP. Employing 14 C dating, we determined the same gravel layers in the uplifted side and downthrown side. Making differential Global Positioning System measurements of the vertical difference and topographic profile, we obtained the mean slip rate of the Northern Zhongtiaoshan Fault since 24.7 ka BP(0.75±0.05 mm/a). Using the results of relevant studies, we calculated the possible vertical fault displacement of one earthquake(2.35 m) and obtained the recurrence interval of characteristic earthquakes as 2940–3360 a after dividing the displacement by the mean slip rate.     

Morphological characteristics of the earthquake surface ruptures on Awaji Island, associated with the 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake

Abstract The earthquake surface ruptures on the northern side of Awaji Island accompanying the 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake in Japan consist of three earthquake surface rupture zones called the Nojima, Matsuho, and Kusumoto Earthquake Surface Rupture Zones. The Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone is - 18 km long and was formed from Awaji-cho at the northern end of Awaji Island to Ichinomiya-cho. It occurred along the pre-existing Nojima geological fault in the northern segment and as a new fault in the southern segment. The northern segment of the Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone is composed of some subparallel shear faults showing a right-step en echelon form and many extensional cracks showing a left-step en echelon form. The southern segment consists of some discontinuous surface ruptures which are concentrated in a narrow zone a few tens of meters in width. This surface rupture zone shows a general trend striking north 30°-60° east, and dipping 75°-85° east. The deformational topographies and striations on the fault plane generated during the co-seismic displacement show that the Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip fault with some reverse component. Displacements measured at many of the outcrops are generally 100-200 em horizontally and 50-100 em vertically in the northern segment and a few em to 20 em both horizontally and vertically in the southern segment. The largest displacements are 180 em horizontally, 130 em vertically, and 215 em in netslip measured at the Hirabayashi fault scarp. The Matsuho Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone striking north 40°-60° west was also found along the coastline trending northwest-southeast in Awaji-cho for ～1 km at the northern end of Awaji Island. The Kusumoto Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone occurred along the pre-existing Kusumoto geological fault for ～ 1.5 km near the northeastern coastline, generally striking north 35°-60° east, dipping 60°-70° west. From the morphological and geomorphological characteristics, the Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone can be divided into four segments which form a right-step en echelon formation. The geological and geomorphological evidence and the aftershock epicenter distributions show clearly that the distributions and geometry of these four segments are controlled by the pre-existing geological structures.     

Internal structures and high-velocity frictional properties of a bedding-parallel carbonate fault at Xiaojiaqiao outcrop activated by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

This paper reports internal structures of a bedding-parallel fault in Permian limestone at Xiaojiaqiao outcrop that was moved by about 0.5 m during the 2008 M_W7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. The fault is located about 3 km to the south from the middle part of Yingxiu-Beichuan fault, a major fault in the Longmenshan fault system that was moved during the earthquake. The outcrop is also located at Anxian transfer zone between the northern and central segments of Yingxiu-Beichuan fault where fault system is complex. Thus the fault is an example of subsidiary faults activated by Wenchuan earthquake. The fault has a strike of 243° or N63°E and a dip of 38°NW and is nearly optimally oriented for thrust motion, in contrast to high-angle coseismic faults at most places. Surface outcrop and two shallow drilling studies reveal that the fault zone is several centimeters wide at most and that the coseismic slip zone during Wenchuan earthquake is about 1 mm thick. Fault zone contains foliated cataclasite, fault breccia, black gouge and yellowish gouge. Many clasts of foliated cataclasite and black gouge contained in fault breccia indicate multiple slip events along this fault. But fossils on both sides of fault do not indicate clear age difference and overall displacement along this fault should not be large. We also report results from high-velocity friction experiments conducted on yellowish gouge from the fault zone using a rotary shear low to high-velocity frictional testing apparatus. Dry experiments at normal stresses of 0.4 to 1.8 MPa and at slip rates of 0.08 to 1.35 m/s reveal dramatic slip weakening from the peak friction coefficient of around 0.6 to very low steady-state friction coefficient of 0.1-0.2. Slip weakening parameters of this carbonate fault zone are similar to those of clayey fault gouge from Yingxiu-Beichuan fault at Hongkou outcrop and from Pingxi fault zone. Our experimental result will provide a condition for triggering movement of subsidiary faults or off-fault damage during a large earthquake.