A mechanism for strain relaxation of barre granite: Opening of microfractures

Summary Strain relaxation in the Barre Granite and surrounding metasediments in Vermont, was measured by overcoring strain gauge rosettes bonded to outcrop surfaces. The average maximum expansion upon relieving 15.2 cm diameter cores trends N55°W, while the average maximum expansion of 7.6 cm diameter cores coaxial with 15.2 cm cores trends N70°W. The maximum strain relief of the internal overcores is normal to the microfracture fabric. Therefore, the mechanism of strain relaxation is attributed to the opening of microfractures either parallel to the rift direction of the Barre Granite or parallel to the foliation of the metasediment. The lack of parallelism between the normal to the rift plane and the maximum expansion of the initial overcore suggests an extenrally applied strain superimeposed on the strain caused by opening of microfractures.Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory Contribution No. 2455.     

Himalayan structure and metamorphism south of the Main Mantle Thrust, Lower Swat, Pakistan

Abstract During the Eocene-Oligocene, the Indian plate collided with the Kohistan arc along the Main Mantle Thrust (MMT) zone. The structure of the Lower Swat rock sequence, on the Indian plate directly south of the MMT, is a dome with a basement of granitic gneiss and quartz-rich schist unconformably overlain by amphibolitic and calcareous schist. The earliest superposed small-scale folds (F1 & F2) represent a progressive F1/F2 deformation that is associated with a single set of WSW-vergent large-scale folds (termed F2). These folds are inferred to have developed during oblique, WSW-directed overthrusting of the MMT suture complex onto the Lower Swat rock sequence. Metamorphism began during F1/F2 as indicated by an S1 foliation that developed during biotite-grade metamorphism. S1 is preserved as a relict texture in porphyroblasts that grew during a subsequent interkinematic phase during garnet- and higher grade metamorphism. The dominant, regional foliation (S2) developed following the interkinematic phase. S2 is associated with transposition of S1 and rotation or dismemberment of porphyroblasts. Annealing recrystallization followed S2 and continued during F3 thereby destroying or masking possible pre-existing stretching fabrics. Superposed F3 folds are upright and open with N-S axial trends. They may correlate with early doming of the Lower Swat rock sequence and with strike-slip displacement in the northern part of the MMT zone, north of the Lower Swat area. F3 was followed by retrograde metamorphism and development of E-W-trending, S-vergent F4 folds. F4 may be associated with a final phase of southward directed thrusting and inactivity in the MMT zone. Correlation of published ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages with the metamorphic fabrics suggests that F1/F2 and F3 occurred in the Eocene, and that F4 developed in the Oligocene. F4 is the earliest indication of southward verging structures on this part of the Indian plate.     

全球Schwiderski海潮模型M_2分波在中国大陆产生的应变负荷潮

本文利用计算应变负荷潮的积分Green函数方法,计算了全球Schwiderski海潮模型M_2分波在中国大陆产生的应变负荷潮.根据负荷潮的分布特点,中国大陆大致可以分成以东经100°为界的东、西两个区域.在东区,负荷潮主要受太平洋海潮的控制;在西部内陆地区,除太平洋海潮外,它们还明显地受印度洋海潮的影响.根据本文计算结果绘制的M_2分波应变负荷潮在中国大陆的地理分布图,为如何正确考虑M_2分波负荷潮对应变固体潮观测结果的影响提供了重要的参考资料.     

试论灾害学

灾害学是一门边缘学科,具有年轻性、交错性和综合性特点,且随着社会、经济和科学的发展及灾害的频繁发生日益受到各国重视与关注。当前应重点发展灾害分类、灾害统计、灾害地理、灾害经济、灾害预报、灾害防治及灾害工程等学科分支。中国应采取四方面途径和措施促进灾害学发展。     

Deformation inside a paleosubduction channel – Insights from microstructures and crystallographic preferred orientations of eclogites and metasediments from the Tauern Window,Austria

The Eclogite Zone, of the Tauern Window is an exhumed subduction channel comprising eclogites with different grades of retrogression in a matrix of high-pressure metasediments. The rocks were exposed to 600 °C and 20–25 kbars, and then retrogressed during their exhumation, first under blueschist facies and later under amphibolite facies metamorphism. To gain insights into the deformation within the subduction channel during subduction and exhumation, both fresh and retrogressed eclogites, as well as the surrounding metasediments were investigated with respect to their deformation microstructures and crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs). Pristine and retrogressed eclogites show grain boundary migration and subgrain rotation recrystallization microstructures in omphacite. A misorientation axes analysis reveals the activity of complementary deformation mechanisms including grain boundary sliding and dislocation creep. The omphacite CPOs of the eclogites correspond to dominant SL-fabrics characteristic of plane strain deformation, though there are local variations towards flattening or constriction within the paleosubduction channel. The glaucophane CPOs in retrogressed eclogites match those of omphacite, suggesting that a constant strain geometry persisted during exhumation at blueschist facies conditions. Plastic deformation of the host high-pressure metasediments outlasted that of the eclogites, as indicated by white mica fabrics and quartz CPO. The latter is consistently asymmetric, pointing to the operation of non-coaxial deformation. The microstructures and CPO data indicate a continuous plastic deformation cycle with eclogite and blueschist facies metamorphism related to subduction and exhumation of the different rock units.     

Transpressional deformation,strain partitioning and fold superimposition in the southern Chinese Altai,Central Asian Orogenic Belt

Transpressional deformation has played an important role in the late Paleozoic evolution of the western Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), and understanding the structural evolution of such transpressional zones is crucial for tectonic reconstructions. Here we focus on the transpressional Irtysh Shear Zone with an aim at understanding amalgamation processes between the Chinese Altai and the West/East Junggar. We mapped macroscopic fold structures in the southern Chinese Altai and analyzed their relationships with the development of the adjacent Irtysh Shear Zone. Structural observations from these macroscopic folds show evidence for four generations of folding and associated fabrics. The earlier fabric (S₁), is locally recognized in low strain areas, and is commonly isoclinally folded by F₂ folds that have an axial plane orientation parallel to the dominant fabric (S₂). S₂ is associated with a shallowly plunging stretching lineation (L₂), and defines ∼NW-SE tight-close upright macroscopic folds (F₃) with the doubly plunging geometry. F₃ folds are superimposed by ∼NNW-SSE gentle F₄ folds. The F₃ and F₄ folds are kinematically compatible with sinistral transpressional deformation along the Irtysh Shear Zone and may represent strain partitioning during deformation. The sub-parallelism of F₃ fold axis with the Irtysh Shear Zone may have resulted from strain partitioning associated with simple shear deformation along narrow mylonite zones and pure shear-dominant deformation (F₃) in fold zones. The strain partitioning may have become less efficient in the later stage of transpressional deformation, so that a fraction of transcurrent components was partitioned into F₄ folds.     

Shear zone evolution and timing of deformation in the Neoproterozoic transpressional Dom Feliciano Belt,Uruguay

New structural, microstructural and geochronological (U-Pb LA-ICP-MS, Ar/Ar, K-Ar, Rb-Sr) data were obtained for the Dom Feliciano Belt in Uruguay. The main phase of crustal shortening, metamorphism and associated exhumation is recorded between 630 and 600 Ma. This stage is related to the collision of the Río de la Plata and Congo cratons at ca. 630 Ma, which also involved crustal reworking of minor crustal blocks such as the Nico Pérez Terrane and voluminous post-collisional magmatism. Subsequent orogen-parallel sinistral shearing gave rise to further deformation up to ca. 584 Ma and resulted from the onset of the convergence of the Kalahari Craton and the Río de la Plata-Congo cratons. Sinistral shear zones underwent progressive strain localization and retrograde conditions of deformation during crustal exhumation. Dextral ENE-striking shear zones were subsequently active at ca. 550 Ma, coeval with further sinistral shearing along N- to NNE-striking shear zones. The tectonothermal evolution of the Dom Feliciano Belt thus recorded the collision of the Río de la Plata and Congo cratons, which comprised one of the first amalgamated nuclei of Gondwana, and the subsequent incorporation of the Kalahari Craton into Western Gondwana.     

Strain localization in clay: plane strain versus triaxial loading conditions

The paper presents a comparison between the behavior of slurry-consolidated Kaolin specimens tested under axisymmetric Conventional Triaxial Compression (CTC) and Plane Strain (PS) loading conditions. The PS experiments were conducted on an instrumented apparatus capable of capturing the onset of shear bands. The specimens were consolidated and then sheared under undrained condition. The PS specimens failed via a well-defined shear band that began to develop during the hardening stress regime whereas CTC specimens failed through a diffuse bulging mode. The undrained shear strength (S _u) of CTC experiments is smaller than the S _u of PS experiments. However, the normalized S _u of CTC experiments is very close to PS1, which was consolidated under similar K _o condition.     

The mechanics of a magma chamber-fault system in trans-tension with application to Coso

The mechanical interaction between an elliptically shaped magma chamber and a fault subject to transtension is investigated with particular reference to the Coso geothermal field. The geologic setting of the Coso field is interpreted as a releasing bend step-over structure formed by the Airport Lake and Owens Valley dextral strike-slip fault system. The role of the Coso volcano-magmatic center in the development of the “over-step” structure is examined by treating the magma chamber as a liquid inclusion in a viscoelastic crust containing a fault (Airport Lake). The problem is numerically solved using a 2D viscoelastic finite element model with thermally activated viscosity to account for thermal weakening of the rock. The temperature distribution around the magma body is calculated based on a 3D steady-state approach and using the mesh-less numerical method. The fault is modeled as a frictionless contact. The simulated distributions of stress and strain around the inclusion display a rotation caused by the shearing component of the applied transtension. The results indicate that the fault tends to overstep the chamber in a geometric pattern similar to a step-over. There is good correspondence between the computed distributions of the maximum shear stress in the vicinity of the magma chamber and the map of earthquake epicenters at a depth of 7–10 km in Coso.     

Secular change of permeability in the fracture zone near the Nojima fault estimated using strain changes due to water injection experiments

Water injection experiments were performed in 1997, 2000 and 2003 at the 1800 m borehole near the fracture zone of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. During these experiments, a contraction of about 10^− 8–10^− 7 was observed with three-component strainmeters at a bottom of the 800 m borehole, 70 m southwest of the 1800 m borehole. We estimated hydraulic properties of the fracture zone near the Nojima fault by using the strain data to investigate a healing of the fault during the postseismic stage. We calculated pore pressure changes due to the water injection using Darcy's equation and obtained strain changes due to the pore pressure changes as elastic deformations of the crust. The calculated strain changes have a nearly agreement with the observed strain changes. Hydraulic conductivity in 1997, 2000 and 2003 was determined to be 0.9 ± 0.2 × 10^− 6, 0.8 ± 0.2 × 10^− 6 and 0.4 ± 0.1 × 10^− 6 m/s, respectively. The reduced hydraulic conductivities in 2000 and 2003 suggest that the fractures had been healing.