The Influence of Path Corrections and a Three-dimensional Global <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>-wave Velocity Model on Seismic Event Location in Kazakhstan

We relocate 81 large nuclear explosions that were detonated at the Balapan and Degelen Mountain subregions of the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan during the years 1978 to 1989. The absolute locations of these explosions are available, as well as very accurate estimates of their origin times. This ground truth information allows us to perform a detailed analysis of location capability. We use a sparse network of stations with highly accurate first arrival picks measured using a waveform cross-correlation method. These high quality data facilitate very accurate location estimates with only a few phases per event. We contrast two different approaches: 1) a calibration-based approach, where we achieve improved locations by using path corrections, and 2) a model-based approach, where we achieve improved locations by relocating in a recently published global 3-D P-velocity model. Both methods result in large improvements in accuracy of the obtained absolute locations, compared to locations obtained in a 1-D reference earth model (ak135). The calibration-based approach gives superior results for this test site, in particular when arrival times from regional stations are included. Estimated locations remain well within a 1000 km² region surrounding the ground truth locations when the path corrections for the Balapan and Degelen Mountain subregions are interchanged, but even for the short separation between these two regions, we find variations in the path corrections that cause systematic mislocations. The model-based approach also results in substantially reduced mislocation distances and has the distinct advantage that it is, in principle, transportable to other source regions around the world.     

Effects of an oil spill in outdoor model tidal flat ecosystems

For several reasons the fate and effects of oil pollution are not easily studied in natural ecosystems. Furthermore, the results of laboratory tests cannot easily be extrapolated to natural systems. A logical objective of ecotoxicological research is, therefore, to simulate natural systems in model ecosystem experiments. A one-year feasibility study was carried out with MOdel TIdal Flat ecosystems (MOTIFs), designed to represent tidal flat systems typical of the Wadden Sea and other temperate estuarine areas. During the first 6 months the 4 MOTIFs studied developed very similarly. After this period an oil spill was simulated by exposing two of the four MOTIFs to a floating oil mousse for one week. During this week part of the oil was buried in the sediment by bioturbation. This sediment-bound fraction caused a prolonged exposure of the MOTIFs to oil compounds. Short- and long-term effects resulted in large differences between oil-treated and control MOTIFs. These differences persisted to the end of the experiment, 7 months after the removal of most of the oil.     

A map-view restoration of the Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaridic system for the Early Miocene

A map-view palinspastic restoration of tectonic units in the Alps, Carpathians and Dinarides reveals the plate tectonic configuration before the onset of Miocene to recent deformations. Estimates of shortening and extension from the entire orogenic system allow for a semi-quantitative restoration of translations and rotations of tectonic units during the last 20 Ma. Our restoration yielded the following results: (1) The Balaton Fault and its eastern extension along the northern margin of the Mid-Hungarian Fault Zone align with the Periadriatic Fault, a geometry that allows for the eastward lateral extrusion of the Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian (ALCAPA) Mega-Unit. The Mid-Hungarian Fault Zone accommodated simultaneous strike-perpendicular shortening and strike-slip movements, concomitant with strike-parallel extension. (2) The Mid-Hungarian Fault Zone is also the locus of a former plate boundary transforming opposed subduction polarities between Alps (including Western Carpathians) and Dinarides. (3) The ALCAPA Mega-Unit was affected by 290 km extension and fits into an area W of present-day Budapest in its restored position, while the Tisza-Dacia Mega-Unit was affected by up to 180 km extension during its emplacement into the Carpathian embayment. (4) The external Dinarides experienced Neogene shortening of over 200 km in the south, contemporaneous with dextral wrench movements in the internal Dinarides and the easterly adjacent Carpatho-Balkan orogen. (5) N–S convergence between the European and Adriatic plates amounts to some 200 km at a longitude of 14° E, in line with post-20 Ma subduction of Adriatic lithosphere underneath the Eastern Alps, corroborating the discussion of results based on high-resolution teleseismic tomography.The displacement of the Adriatic Plate indenter led to a change in subduction polarity along a transect through the easternmost Alps and to substantial Neogene shortening in the eastern Southern Alps and external Dinarides. While we confirm that slab-pull and rollback of oceanic lithosphere subducted beneath the Carpathians triggered back-arc extension in the Pannonian Basin and much of the concomitant folding and thrusting in the Carpathians, we propose that the rotational displacement of this indenter provided a second important driving force for the severe Neogene modifications of the Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaridic orogenic system.     

The impact of surface‐wave attenuation on 3‐D seismic survey design

Three‐dimensional seismic survey design should provide an acquisition geometry that enables imaging and amplitude‐versus‐offset applications of target reflectors with sufficient data quality under given economical and operational constraints. However, in land or shallow‐water environments, surface waves are often dominant in the seismic data. The effectiveness of surface‐wave separation or attenuation significantly affects the quality of the final result. Therefore, the need for surface‐wave attenuation imposes additional constraints on the acquisition geometry. Recently, we have proposed a method for surface‐wave attenuation that can better deal with aliased seismic data than classic methods such as slowness/velocity‐based filtering. Here, we investigate how surface‐wave attenuation affects the selection of survey parameters and the resulting data quality. To quantify the latter, we introduce a measure that represents the estimated signal‐to‐noise ratio between the desired subsurface signal and the surface waves that are deemed to be noise. In a case study, we applied surface‐wave attenuation and signal‐to‐noise ratio estimation to several data sets with different survey parameters. The spatial sampling intervals of the basic subset are the survey parameters that affect the performance of surface‐wave attenuation methods the most. Finer spatial sampling will reduce aliasing and make surface‐wave attenuation easier, resulting in better data quality until no further improvement is obtained. We observed this behaviour as a main trend that levels off at increasingly denser sampling. With our method, this trend curve lies at a considerably higher signal‐to‐noise ratio than with a classic filtering method. This means that we can obtain a much better data quality for given survey effort or the same data quality as with a conventional method at a lower cost.     

The CM carbonaceous chondrite regolith Diepenveen

A carbonaceous chondrite was recovered immediately after the fall near the village of Diepenveen in the Netherlands on October 27, 1873, but came to light only in 2012. Analysis of sodium and poly‐aromatic hydrocarbon content suggests little contamination from handling. Diepenveen is a regolith breccia with an overall petrology consistent with a CM classification. Unlike most other CM chondrites, the bulk oxygen isotopes are extremely ¹⁶O rich, apparently dominated by the signature of anhydrous minerals, distributed on a steep slope pointing to the domain of intrinsic CM water. A small subset plots closer to the normal CM regime, on a parallel line 2 ‰ lower in δ¹⁷O. Different lithologies in Diepenveen experienced varying levels of aqueous alteration processing, being less aqueously altered at places rather than more heated. The presence of an agglutinate grain and the properties of methanol‐soluble organic compounds point to active impact processing of some of the clasts. Diepenveen belongs to a CM clan with ~5 Ma CRE age, longer than most other CM chondrites, and has a relatively young K‐Ar resetting age of ~1.5 Ga. As a CM chondrite, Diepenveen may be representative of samples soon to be returned from the surface of asteroid (162173) Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft.     

Power law or power flaw?

Since its introduction by Svensson in 1959, the power law curve y = ax^b (where x and y are horizontal and vertical direction, respectively) has been widely used in morphological analysis of glacial trough cross-profiles. The numerical constants a and b are obtained by a linear regression analysis of the logarithmic form of the power law curve (ln y = ln a + b ln x). The value b then gives a measure for the form of the cross-section. However, over the years this form of the power law has endured a lot of criticism. This criticism is well founded, since this particular form of the power law is not suitable for curve fitting in morphological analyses. In this paper a general power law is proposed, of the form y − y₀ = a|x − x₀|^b (where x₀, y₀ are the coordinates of the origin of the cross-profile). A unique and unbiased solution for this equation is obtained with a general least-squares method, thereby minimizing the error between the cross-profile data and the curve, and not between the logarithmic transform of the data and its regression line. This provides a robust way to characterize trough cross-section forms. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quantifying garnet-melt trace element partitioning using lattice-strain theory: assessment of statistically significant controls and a new predictive model

As a complement to our efforts to update and revise the thermodynamic basis for predicting garnet-melt trace element partitioning using lattice-strain theory (van Westrenen and Draper in Contrib Mineral Petrol, this issue), we have performed detailed statistical evaluations of possible correlations between intensive and extensive variables and experimentally determined garnet-melt partitioning values for trivalent cations (rare earth elements, Y, and Sc) entering the dodecahedral garnet X-site. We applied these evaluations to a database containing over 300 partition coefficient determinations, compiled both from literature values and from our own work designed in part to expand that database. Available data include partitioning measurements in ultramafic to basaltic to intermediate bulk compositions, and recent studies in Fe-rich systems relevant to extraterrestrial petrogenesis, at pressures sufficiently high such that a significant component of majorite, the high-pressure form of garnet, is present. Through the application of lattice-strain theory, we obtained best-fit values for the ideal ionic radius of the dodecahedral garnet X-site, r ₀(3+), its apparent Young’s modulus E(3+), and the strain-free partition coefficient D ₀(3+) for a fictive REE element J of ionic radius r ₀(3+). Resulting values of E, D ₀, and r ₀ were used in multiple linear regressions involving sixteen variables that reflect the possible influence of garnet composition and stoichiometry, melt composition and structure, major-element partitioning, pressure, and temperature. We find no statistically significant correlations between fitted r ₀ and E values and any combination of variables. However, a highly robust correlation between fitted D ₀ and garnet-melt Fe–Mg exchange and D _Mg is identified. The identification of more explicit melt-compositional influence is a first for this type of predictive modeling. We combine this statistically-derived expression for predicting D ₀ with the new expressions for predicting E and r ₀ outlined in the first of our pair of companion papers into an updated set of formulae that use easy-to-measure quantities (e.g. garnet composition, pressure, temperature) to predict variations in E, r ₀, and D ₀. These values are used in turn to calculate D values for those garnets. The updated model substantially improves upon a previous model (van Westrenen et al. in Contrib Mineral Petrol 142:219–234, 2001), and accounts well for trivalent cation partitioning in nominally anhydrous systems up to at least 15 GPa, including for eclogitic bulk compositions and for Fe-rich systems appropriate to magmagenesis on the Moon and Mars. The new model is slightly less successful in predicting partitioning with strongly majoritic garnets, although the mismatch is much less than with the original 2001 model. Although it also improves upon the 2001 model in predicting partitioning in hydrous systems, the mismatch between model and observation is still unacceptably large. The same statistical tools were applied in an attempt to predict tetravalent partitioning as well, because lattice-strain based techniques are not applicable to such partitioning. However, no statistically significant predictive relationships emerged from that effort. Our analyses show that future efforts should focus on filling the gap in partitioning data between ∼10 and 25 GPa to evaluate more closely the gradual transition of garnet to majorite, and on systematically expanding the hydrous partitioning database to allow extension of our model to water-bearing systems.