The earthquake in the Swabian Jura of 16 November 1911 and present concepts of seismotectonics

Beginning with the Swabian Jura earthquake in 1911 the seismic activity in Central Europe is concentrated to this area. A comparison with other events of the same epicentral region shows that the largest earthquake in Germany has the character of a left-lateral horizontal strike slip striking N — NNE. The focal parameters can be assumed within the following intervalls: Seismic moment M_o = 1…8·10¹⁷ Nm; focal area F_o = 18…53 km²; average dislocation d_o = 20…53 cm and stress drop Δp_o = 13…19 bar.     

Zur Tektonik im westlichen Fichtelgebirge

Zusammenfassung Es wird zu einigen tektonischen Problemen im westlichen Fichtelgebirge (Gradabteilungsblätter Weidenberg und Ebnath) Stellung genommen, wobei andere Deutungsmöglichkeiten zur Diskussion gestellt werden. Vor allem wird eine schichtparallele Verschieferung einer älteren Schiefrigkeit abgelehnt und das Umlaufen der Schieferung am SW-Rand des Fichtelgebirges durch sekundäre Kippungen erklärt.

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The author expresses his opinion on some tectonic problems in the western Fichtelgebirge (Topographical maps: Gradabteilungsblätter Weidenberg und Ebnath).He proposes different ways of interpretation. Above all he rejects that an older schistosity became again foliated parallel to the strata, and he ascribes the bending of the schistosity on the south-west border of the Fichtelgebirge to secundary tilts.

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Résumé L'auteur critique quelques problèmes tectoniques qui se posent à l'ouest du Fichtelgebirge. (Tebles topographiques: Gradabteilungsblätter Weidenberg und Ebnath). Il indique d'autres interprétations possibles. Avant tout il réfute qu'une ancienne schistosité au sud-ouest du Fichtelgebirge est attribuée à un basculement secondaire.

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Fichtelgebirge. .

     

A Three-year Study of Nonmethane Hydrocarbons in Surface Air over Saxony (Germany)

Measurements of the nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC) mixing ratio over a period of 42 months were carried out for the first time in the air of a research station situated in the former East Germany during the SANA project. Apart from four species, all other species analysed showed a statistically significant downward trend at the 95% significance level. The decrease of the hydrocarbon concentrations was superimposed by seasonal variations. A drop of about 40% of the annual mean values from 1993 to 1995 was observed. This development reflects the dramatic changes in traffic, industry, power economy, and agriculture in Saxony after the reunification of Germany. The remove of two-stroke engined cars is reflected in NMHC mixing ratio changes, as is the removal of obsolete chemical plants. Generally it was not possible to relate causes and effects of a single event, but in some cases major changes in concentrations and NMHC ratios occurred coincidentally with the disappearance of a specific emission source.     

Atmospheric noble gases in volcanic glasses from the southern Lau Basin: origin from the subducting slab?

Noble gas concentrations and isotopic compositions have been determined for four submarine volcanic glasses from the Valu Fa Ridge (VFR) in the southern Lau Basin. The samples are the least differentiated ones from this area, and they display enrichments in fluid-mobile elements similar to the nearby island arc. ³He/⁴He ratios are slightly below average MORB (6.8–7.8 times atmospheric), whereas Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe have isotopic compositions very similar to air. Together with previously published data from the Valu Fa Ridge and other spreading segments in the Lau Basin, our data show a systematic latitudinal variation of increasing Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe abundances from north to south as well as Ne and Ar isotopic compositions changing from MORB-like to atmosphere-like in the same direction. Moreover, isotopic compositions and noble gas abundances of the lavas correlate strongly with Ba/Nb ratios and H₂O concentrations. Based on these observations and mass balance arguments, we propose that the atmospheric noble gases come from the subducting oceanic crust and are not due to shallow contamination with air dissolved in seawater or assimilation of old crust. Our data suggest that the noble gases released from the subducting slab are atmospheric and thus contain little or no solar He and Ne. In addition to the fact that ratios of He to heavy noble gases are small in aged ocean crust, He has possibly fractionated from the other noble gases due to its higher diffusivity, and thus He transport from the subducting slab into the mantle wedge is probably insignificant. We propose that the ³He/⁴He ratios lower than MORB observed in the VFR lavas result from radiogenic ingrowth of He in a highly depleted, and hence degassed, mantle wedge after the enrichment of U and Th released from the downgoing slab.     

Anomalously nucleogenic neon in North Chile Ridge basalt glasses suggesting a previously degassed mantle source

Fresh basalt glasses from the North Chile Ridge (NCR) in the southeastern Pacific have Ne isotopic compositions distinctly different from typical mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB). In a three-isotope plot of ²⁰Ne/²²Ne vs. ²¹Ne/²²Ne, the NCR data define a correlation line with a slope smaller than that of the MORB correlation line, i.e. their Ne composition is more nucleogenic than that of MORB. ³He/⁴He ratios are slightly lower than the MORB average, whereas in a few stepwise heating fractions very high ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar ratios up to 28,000 are found. One model to explain the data assumes contamination of the NCR mantle source by material from the continental or oceanic crust, but in addition to difficulties with quantitatively reconciling the noble gas patterns with such a model it seems unable to account for some geochemical characteristics of NCR basalts reported earlier [Bach et al., Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 142 (1996) 223–240], such as depletions in highly incompatible elements and unradiogenic Sr isotope compositions. Therefore we favor the scenario of a mantle source which was depleted and degassed previously, possibly as a residue from mantle melting beneath the southern East Pacific Rise that was transported to the NCR and melted again. The time during which such a depleted reservoir would have to be separated from the MORB mantle is estimated at 10–100 Ma based on U/Th–Ne systematics, in reasonable agreement with the time scale deduced from the formation history of the NCR and the temporal evolution of the southeast Pacific.     

X-Ray investigations on the deformation of experimentally shock-loaded quartzes

Quartz single crystals submitted to dynamic pressures higher than 200 kbar show intensive anisotropic postshock cell expansions and lattice disordering which gradually increase along with the degree of shock compression. Maximum expansion and lattice distortion occur parallel to [10.0] followed by [21.0] and [20.1], whereas the lowest expansion rates and comparatively little lattice damage can be observed parallel to [10.2] and [00.1]. [10.0], [21.0], and [20.1] represent short Burgers vectors within the quartz lattice. They are probably preferred directions of a structure-controlled deformation.Annealing experiments carried out at 300, 605 and 900 ° C make the expanded cell parameters approach the values of unshocked quartz. Two different types of recrystallization can be observed:

Turnover of Eastern Caribbean deep water from 14C measurements

A¹⁴C balance for the Eastern Caribbean deep water indicates the average inflow of Atlantic water into the basin to be 2.3 × 10⁵ m³/sec (±30%), or about 2–4 times the values estimated previously. The balance uses a model representation of the deep-water turnover, and is based on¹⁴C concentrations at a station in the Venezuelan Basin which average Δ¹⁴C= 89‰ below 800 m depth with a total range of only 9‰, as well as on a¹⁴C concentration of the Atlantic inflow of Δ¹⁴C= ?71%. as obtained from measurements outside the Antilles Arch. The turnover time of the basin water below 2500 m depth is 55 years, which corresponds to an average upwelling velocity at this depth of about 35 m/year. With such upwelling, the temperature profile below 1800 m (the depth of the sill determining the inflow of new water) requires a vertical eddy diffusivity of about 5 cm²/sec. The oxygen consumption, and silica and CO₂ regeneration, rates below 2500 m depth are obtained as ?0.18, + 0.08, and + 0.2 μmole kg^?1 yr^?1, respectively. The CO₂ regeneration has but a negligible effect on the¹⁴C balance.     

Die wachsende Bedeutung der Ingenieurgeologie im Zeitalter der Umweltzerstörung

Zusammenfassung Die Entwicklung der Technik führt zu immer größeren Bauprojekten im Bereich des Talsperrenbaus, Verkehrswegebaus, Untertagebaus, Bergbaus und Grundbaus. Diese großen Bauprojekte stellen in vielfacher Hinsicht eine erhebliche Belastung der Natur sowie eine Beeinträchtigung ihres Gleichgewichts dar und rufen teilweise unvorhergesehene Wechselwirkungen von Bauwerk und Baugrund hervor. Die technische Entwicklung überrollte die Natur so stürmisch, daß ihre ökologischen Folgen weder von den Wissenschaftlern noch von den Praktikern erkannt und bedacht wurden. Die Aufgaben, die sich in diesem Rahmen dem Ingenieurgeologen stellen, bestehen nicht nur in der möglichst genauen Erfassung der geologischen Parameter zur Gewährleistung der Sicherheit des Bauwerks, wirtschaftlich vertretbarer Baukosten unter optimaler Berücksichtigung geologischer Gegebenheiten, sondern sie haben auch die Vorhersage der Wechselwirkungen von Bauwerk und Baugrund sowie von Störungen des oft erstaunlich labilen Gleichgewichts von Geo-, Bio- und Atmosphäre einzubeziehen. Dabei spielen oft rezente geologische Vorgänge eine bisher in der Ingenieurgeologie viel zu wenig gewürdigte Rolle. Die Notwendigkeit, die Ingenieurgeologie schon bei der allerersten Planung, beim Entwurf und der Bauwerksüberwachung mitbestimmen zu lassen, wird an einzelnen Projekten erläutert.

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Summary Technical development leads to dams, roads, tunnels, mines and foundations of always larger dimensions. Various aspects of these projects represent a serious encumbrance of nature and an impairment of her equilibrium and can cause unforeseen interactions between structure and the earth. Development has taken place so quickly, that the ecological consequences have not been recognised or considered in many cases — neither by the scientists nor by the practitioners. The tasks, confronting the engineering geologists in this regard, consist not only in an exact investigation of the geological parameters to guarantee the safety of the construction project and to achieve project costs by taking into consideration the geological conditions, but must encompass the recognition of the interactions of construction and the earth as well as the disturbance of the often astonishingly fragile equilibrium of the geo-, bio- and atmosphere. Specifically recent geological processes are often not accounted for, despite their possibly disadvantageous effects. The necessity, that the engineering geologist contributes in all project stages from the first planning, to the design upto the surveillance of the construction, is stressed by giving examples.

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Résumé Le développement technique a conduit à des projets de construction toujour plus grands dans le domain des barrages, des routes, des tunnels, des mines et des fondations. Ces grands projets représentent sous beaucoup d'aspects une immense contreinte pour l'environnement naturel, un préjudice pour son équilibre et conduisent parfois à une interaction imprévue entre la construction et le sol. Le développement fut si rapide que les conséquences écologiques ne furent pas reconnues et prises en compte, ni par la science ni par la pratique. Les taches, qui se présentent au géologue ingénieur sur le terrain, comprennent non seulement l'investigation exacte des paramètres géologiques dans le but d'assurer la securité de la construction pour des frais raisonnables tout en prenant en compte d'une façon optimale les conditions géologiques, mais aussi la prévision de ces interactions entre l'ouvrage et le sol, ainsi que les perturbations de l'équilibre de l'environnement géologique, biologique et atmosphérique, équilibre qui est souvent éxtrêmement fragile.Les phénomènes géologiques récents ne sont que très peu considérés dans ces études. La necessité de la participation du géologue ingénieur dès le début des études pendant la conception et la surveillance de l'ouvrage est illustrée à l'aide de projets particuliers.

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