Scattering parameters of the lithosphere below the Massif Central, France, from teleseismic wavefield records

Teleseismic P -wave recordings are analysed in the frequency range 0.3–6  Hz to derive structural (statistical) parameters of the lithosphere underneath the French Massif Central. For this we analyse differences in frequency-dependent intensities of the mean wavefield and the fluctuation wavefield. It is possible to discriminate a weak fluctuation regime of the wavefield in the frequency range below 1  Hz and a strong fluctuation regime starting above 1  Hz and continuing to higher frequencies. The observed wavefield fluctuations in the frequency range 0.3–3  Hz can be explained by scattering of the teleseismic P wave front at elastic inhomogeneities in the lithosphere. A statistical distribution of the inhomogeneities is assumed and the concept of random media is applied. The lithospheric structure under the Massif Central can be described as a 70  km thick heterogeneous layer with velocity fluctuations of 3–7 per cent and correlation lengths of the heterogeneities of 1–16  km.     

Influence Of The Atmosphere On Earth Rotation: What New Can Be Learned From The Recent Atmospheric Angular Momentum Estimates?

The interaction between the atmosphere and the underlying solid mantle is oneof the most important sources of changes in all three components of theEarth's rotation vector on different time scales. In this paper the NCEP/NCARreanalysis time series of four times daily atmospheric effective angularmomentum (EAM) estimates is used to investigate some selected aspects of theatmospheric influence on Earth rotation. Emphasis is placed on thecontroversial features which were difficult or impossible to study using theoperational EAM data, such as excitation of the free oscillations in polarmotion, the Chandler wobble (CW) and the free core nutation (FCN), or theroles of diurnal and semidiurnal atmospheric tides and atmospheric normalmodes in the rotational dynamics of the Earth.     

Paleomagnetism of Cretaceous units of the Mametchinskiy Peninsula, Kuyul Region, Northeastern Russia: implications for development and evolution of the Northwest Pacific Basin

The northernmost part of the Kamchatka Peninsula of northeastern Russia, located along the northwestern margin of the Bering Sea, consists of zones of complexly deformed accreted terranes. Progressing from the northwestern Bering Sea inland are the Olyutorskiy, Ukelayat, and Koryak superterranes, which were accreted to the Okhotsk–Chukotsk volcanic–plutonic belt (OChVB) during the Campanian–Maastrichtian (Koryak) to Middle Eocene (Olyutorskiy), respectively. To constrain the accretion paleolatitude of the Koryak superterrane, we paleomagnetically sampled a sedimentary series on the Mametchinskiy Peninsula. At the Mametchinskiy Peninsula, in the northeastern Penzhinskaya Guba (61.45° N, 163.75° E), a gently deformed, well-bedded section of fine-grained Lower to lower Upper Cretaceous turbidites, the Mametchinskaya and Tylakrylskaya Formations are exposed. These strata, which represent the lower part of the sedimentary cover of the terranes in this region and the forearc of OChVB, were sampled at 39 sites (three to seven samples per site). Within the Ainyn terrane, more than 1000 m of section of Cenomanian–Turonian age was sampled at a basal locality (sample groups I and II, sites 1–18, 19–29) and at an upper locality of Valanginian–Barremian age (sample group III, sites 30–39) along the western shore of the Peninsula. Thermal demagnetization and principal component analysis of the demagnetization data show lower-temperature (A) and higher-temperature (B) magnetic components. Although group III samples did not display a coherent A component, the A component of group I and II samples was observed as a single-polarity lower-unblocking temperature component generally removed by 100–400 °C. This component failed the fold test at the 95% confidence level. With respect to direction, the A component is similar to both the present-day field and axial–geocentric dipole directions expected at this site. The B component was observed during thermal demagnetization steps up to 580 °C and was always of downward-directed inclination. Coherence of bedding corrections within each section do not allow statistically meaningful fold tests within groups I, II or III. Assuming the B component represents a Cretaceous magnetization, two overall models are proposed. In the first model (preferred), with the highest clustering of directions (k-value=36.7, N (sites)=36), indicates significant poleward motion of the Ainyn terrane (observed paleolatitude λ_M1=61.0±6.5°; expected North America plate reference site paleolatitude λ_E=74.0±3.5°). In the second model, no significant poleward displacement is implied (λ_M2=72.0±9.6).     

Stable Isotope and Lithologic Evidence of Late-Glacial and Holocene Oceanography of the Northwestern Pacific and Its Marginal Seas

Stable isotopes, geochemical, lithological, and micropaleontological results from cores from the far northwest (FNW) Pacific and the Okhotsk and Bering seas are used to reconstruct the regional environment for the last glaciation, the deglacial transition, and the Holocene. δ¹⁸O records of planktonic foraminifera of the region show two “light” shifts during deglacial time, provoked by the freshening of the surface water and climate warming. These north Pacific terminal events (T1ANP and T1BNP) with ages of 12,500 and 9300 yr B.P., respectively, occur almost simultaneously with two episodes of accelerated glacier melting around the North Atlantic. Along with the isotopic shifts, the CaCO₃content in regional sediments increased abruptly (1A and 1B carbonate peaks), probably due to changes of productivity and pore water chemistry of surface sediments. Organic matter and opal concentration increased during the transition (between T1ANP and T1BNP events) in the sediments of the FNW Pacific and the southern part of the Bering Sea and opal content increased in the Holocene in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. δ¹³C records of cores from the Okhotsk and Bering seas and the FNW Pacific do not contradict the hypothesis of increased intermediate water formation in the region during glaciation. During deglaciation, accumulation of the coarse terrigenous component decreased in sediments of the Bering Sea and the FNW Pacific before the T1ANP event, probably as a result of rising sea level and opening of the Bering Strait.     

The Fazenda Largo off-craton kimberlites of Piauí State, Brazil

In the late 1990s, the Fazenda Largo kimberlite cluster was discovered in the Piauí State of Brazil. As with earlier known kimberlites in this area – Redondão, Santa Filomena-Bom Jesus (Gilbues) and Picos – this cluster is located within the Palaeozoic Parnaiba Sedimentary Basin that separates the São Francisco and the Amazonian Precambrian cratons. Locations of kimberlites are controlled by the ‘Transbrasiliano Lineament’. The Fazenda Largo kimberlites are intensely weathered, almost completely altered rocks with a fine-grained clastic structure, and contain variable amounts of terrigene admixture (quartz sand). These rocks represent near-surface volcano-sedimentary deposits of the crater parts of kimberlite pipes. By petrographic, mineralogical and chemical features, the Fazenda Largo kimberlites are similar to average kimberlite. The composition of the deep-seated material in the Fazenda Largo kimberlites is quite diverse: among mantle microxenoliths are amphibolitised pyrope peridotites, garnetised spinel peridotites, ilmenite peridotites, chromian spinel + chromian diopside + pyrope intergrowths, and large xenoliths of pyrope dunite. High-pressure minerals are predominantly of the ultramafic suite, Cr-association minerals (purplish-red and violet pyrope, chromian spinel, chromian diopside, Cr-pargasite and orthopyroxene). The Ti-association minerals of the ultramafic suite (picroilmenite and orange pyrope), as well as rare grains of orange pyrope-almandine of the eclogite association, are subordinate. Kimberlites from all four pipes contain rare grains of G10 pyrope of the diamond association, but chromian spinel of the diamond association was not encountered. By their tectonic position, by geochemical characteristics, and by the composition of kimberlite indicator minerals, the Fazenda Largo kimberlites, like the others of such type, are unlikely to be economic.     

Acoustic Emissions Monitoring during Inelastic Deformation of Porous Sandstone: Comparison of Three Modes of Deformation

In some reservoirs, large deformations can occur during oil or gas production because of the effective stress change. For very porous rocks, these production operations can be sufficient to cause inelastic deformation and irreversible damage. Rock formations can undergo deformation by different mechanisms, including dilatancy or pore collapse. In the laboratory, it has been shown that the inelastic deformation and failure mode of porous rocks are pressure sensitive. Indeed, when subjected to an overall compressive loading, a porous rock may fail by shear localization, compaction localization, or by cataclastic compaction. Acoustic emission (AE) records provide important information to understand the failure mode of rocks: the spatial evolution of damage as well as the source mechanisms can be followed using this technique. In this paper, we present three different laboratory axisymmetric compression experiments, performed on Bleurswiller sandstone, which enable us to compare the acoustic emission signature of these three modes of deformation. Our data show that compaction localization and cataclastic compaction are characterized by similar acoustic signatures (in terms of AE sources characteristics and evolution of AE number), in comparison to the acoustic signature from shear localization. This implies similar micromechanisms involved during compaction bands formation and cataclastic compaction.     

Indentation of a continent with a built-in thickness change: experiment and nature

Orogens oblique to the direction of plate convergence are currently attributed to obliquity between the margins of one or both of the sutured continents to their direction convergence. We use a single analogue experiment and natural examples to illustrate a potential additional factor: variations in strength of the indented continent at a high angle to the convergence direction. The wavelengths of structures in laterally shortened lithosphere depend on the strength of the most competent layers. Lateral variations in crustal thickness must therefore lead to structures oblique to any applied lateral compression.

An analogue experiment was performed to explore this phenomenon. A two-layer ‘indented continent’ was modelled by a brittle upper crust of sand above a lower crust of high-viscosity polymer floating on a single layer of low-viscosity syrup representing the mantle. The well-known strike-slip structures allowing lateral escape to distant weak boundaries were hindered by lateral boundaries in front of the indenter. This allowed us to focus on the effects of a thickness change built into the ‘indented continent’ along a zone parallel to the direction in which a vertical rigid wall advancing at a steady rate represented the indenter. Vertical escape led to an ‘orogenic belt’ oblique to the advancing wall; this obliquity influences subsequent lateral escape. Model scaling and interpretations are based on Extended Thin Sheet Approximation (ETSA) and standard theories of faulting.

Four sectors of the Alpine–Himalayan orogen (Iran, Tunisia, the Eastern Alps and the Himalaya) are oblique to the continental convergence direction, and we point to thickness changes at high angles to the suture that may account for this geometry. As crustal thicknesses north of oblique sectors of the Himalayas are not yet known, we speculate on them.

We infer from the main difference between our experiment and all our examples chosen from nature that vertical orogenic escape was oblique to our model suture but can be parallel to natural sutures.