Volcanological and petrological evolution of Marsili Seamount (southern Tyrrhenian Sea)

A swath bathymetric survey was conducted on Marsili Volcano, the biggest seamount in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It stands 3000 m above the surrounding oceanic crust of the 3500 m-deep Marsili back-arc basin and is axially located within the basin. The seamount has an elongated shape and presents distinctive morphology, with narrow (<1000 m) ridges, made up of several elongated cones, on the summit zone and extensive cone fields on its lower flanks. A dredging campaign carried out at water depths varying between 3400 and 600 m indicates that most of Marsili Seamount is composed of medium-K calc-alkaline basalts. Evolved high-K andesites were only recovered from the small cones on the summit axis zone. Petrological and geochemical characteristics of the least differentiated basalts reveal that at least two varieties of magmas have been erupted on the Marsili Volcano. Group 1 basalts have plagioclase and olivine as dominant phases and show lower Al, Ca, K, Ba, Rb and Sr, and higher Fe, Na, Ti and Zr with respect to a second type of basaltic magma. Group 2 basalts reveal the presence of clinopyroxene as an additional phenocryst phase. In addition, the two basaltic magmas have different original pre-eruptive H₂O content (group 1, H₂O-poor and group 2, H₂O-rich). Moreover, comparison of the compositional trends and mineralogical compositions obtained from MELTS [Ghiorso, M.S., Sack, R.O., Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 119 (1995) 197–212] fractional crystallization calculations reveal that the evolved andesites can only exclusively be derived from a low-pressure (0.3 kbar) fractionation of magmas compositionally similar to the least evolved group 2 basalts. Finally, we suggest that the high vesicularity of the basalts sampled at relatively great depths (>2400 m) on the edifice is governed by H₂O and, probably, CO₂ exsolution and is not a feature indicative of shallow water depth eruption.     

Paleolatitudes of the Kerguelen hotspot: new paleomagnetic results and dynamic modeling

The Kerguelen Plateau, a Large Igneous Province in the southern Indian Ocean, was formed as a product of the Kerguelen hotspot in several eruptive phases during the last 120 Myr. We obtained new paleolatitudes for the central and northern Kerguelen Plateau from paleomagnetic investigations on basalts, which were drilled during ODP Leg 183 to the Kerguelen Plateau-Broken Ridge. The paleolatitudes coincide with paleolatitudes from previous investigations at the Kerguelen Plateau and Ninetyeast Ridge (the track of the Kerguelen hotspot) and indicate a difference between paleolatitudes and present position at 49°S of the Kerguelen hotspot. We show that true polar wander, the global motion between the mantle and the rotation axis, cannot explain this difference in latitudes. We present numerical model results of plume conduit motion in a large-scale mantle flow and the resulting surface hotspot motion. A large number of models all predict southward motion between 3° and 10° for the Kerguelen hotspot during the last 100 Myr, which is consistent with our paleomagnetic results.     

Modes of raising northeastern Tibet probed by explosion seismology

New wide-angle reflection and refraction seismic data provide constraints on the structure of the upper lithosphere, and test models of its evolution to raise the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. Amplitudes observed for reflections from the crust-mantle boundary are sufficiently large to suggest that there is no significant partial melt in the deep crust. The data show an increase of the crustal thickness between terranes from north of the Kun Lun Fault into the Qang Tang of central Tibet, and a contrast among their intracrustal images and compositions. In the north, P and S velocities are consistent with a dominantly felsic composition and show that only the upper crust thickened. South of the Kun Lun Fault a thicker crust made of two layers could result from the superposition of the originally thin crust of the Bayan Har terrane on the lower part of the crust of the domain to the north, which upper crust it shoved and thickened. Different modes of crustal thickening, either by thickening of individual layers or superpositions and imbrication among them appear to work jointly to raise the topography.     

PRELIMINARY NUMERICAL STUDY OF TOPOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU ON SURFACE DIRECT RADIATION*

To improve the simulating ability of a model,this paper presents a scheme of calculating direct radiation at land surface with topography in the model.A numerical study is conducted for the topographic effects of the Tibetan Plateau on the direct radiation using NCEP terrain data.Results show that,after taking account into the topographic radiation effect,the regional average of the radiation over the Plateau obviously increases in the local early morning and late afternoon,but changes less around noon.The effect is stronger in winter than that in summer.And heterogeneous topography has also affected the distribution of the radiation in this area.A simple numerical experiment shows that considering the effect will lead ground temperature to increase on the slope having more sunshine,and vice versa.     

中国大陆及邻近海域的Rayleigh波群速度分布

利用Rayleigh波群速度资料反演得到中国大陆及其临近海域的(70°E-145°E,10°N-55°N)15-120s周期的群速度分布图像. 塔里木盆地在15s处清楚地显示为低速,在16-33s左右没有显示,但在36-5s显示为高速,说明塔里木盆地有较深的根. 青藏高原块体是44s至120s图像中最为突出的低速块体,南面与印度板块的分界线以及与北面的塔里木盆地、柴达木盆地的分界清晰,其块体中西部的速度低于东部. 泰国清迈附近存在一尺度为1000km左右的低速带,可能是青藏高原块体的物质向东南方向迁移造成上地幔物质上涌的结果. 南北地震带表现为强烈的速度梯度带,西面为低速,东面为高速. 中国南海的中央、日本海中央、菲律宾海表现为海洋性地壳. 菲律宾海的图像与地形及地震带完全吻合. 环绕菲律宾海及日本海存在400km左右宽的低速带,可能是岩浆活动带.     

剥蚀及地幔作用下青藏高原隆升过程的数值模拟

修改了England和Mckenzie的黏性薄层流变模型中控制大陆形变的连续性方程,将剥蚀作用对高原隆升演化的影响直接引入该方程,并考虑下伏地幔小尺度对流对增厚岩石层的搬离作用对高原隆升演化后期的影响,用有限差分法直接模拟青藏高原隆升过程. 数值模拟结果所显示的高原隆升演化过程与实际观测资料吻合较好,揭示了高原隆升演化过程的非平稳和多阶段的特性;同时还表明上地幔小尺度对流对岩石层底部的搬离作用可能是最近8Ma以来高原快速隆升的主导机制.     

Predicting average annual groundwater levels from climatic variables: an empirical model

On the basis of one-dimensional theoretical water flow model, we demonstrate that the groundwater level variation follows a pattern similar to recharge fluctuation, with a time delay that depends on the characteristics of aquifer, recharge pattern as well as the distance between the recharge and observation locations. On the basis of a water budget model and the groundwater flow model, we propose an empirical model that links climatic variables to groundwater level. The empirical model is tested using a partial data set from historical records of water levels from more than 80 wells in a monitoring network for the carbonate rock aquifer, southern Manitoba, Canada. The testing results show that the predicted groundwater levels are very close to the observed ones in most cases. The overall average correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed water levels is 0.92. This proposed empirical statistical model could be used to predict variations in groundwater level in response to different climate scenarios in a climate change impact assessment.     

Evaluating Earthquake-Triggered Landslide Hazard at the Basin Scale Through Gis in the Upper Sele River Valley

To evaluate techniques for assessing earthquake-triggeredlandslide hazard in the Southern Apennines (Italy), a GIS-based analysis was used to modelseismically induced slope deformations. Geological, geotechnical, geomorphological and seismologicaldata were integrated into a standard earthquake slope stability model. The model assessed thelandslide potential that existed during the 1980 Irpinian earthquake in the Upper Sele river Valley.The standard Newmark displacement analysis, widely used for predicting the location of shallowunstable slopes, does not take into account errors and/or uncertainties in the input parameters.Therefore, a probabilistic Newmark displacement analysis technique has been used. Probabilistictechniques allow, e.g., an estimation of the probability that a slope will exceed a certain criticalvalue of Newmark displacement. In our probabilistic method, a Monte-Carlo based simulation modelis used in conjunction with a GIS. The random variability of geotechnical data is modelled by probabilitydensity functions (pdfs), while for the seismic input three different regression laws wereconsidered. Input probability distributions are sampled and the resulting values input into empiricalrelations for estimating Newmark displacement. The outcome is a map in which to each siteis related a spatial probability distribution for the expected displacement in response to seismic loading.Results of the experiments show a high grade of uncertainty in the application of the Newmarkanalysis both for the deterministic and probabilistic approach in a complex geological setting suchas the high Sele valley, quite common in the Southern Apennines. They show a strong dependence onthe reliability of the spatial data used in input, so that, when the model is used at basin scale,results are strongly influenced by local environmental condition (e.g., topography, lithology, groundwatercondition) and decrease the model performance.     

PRELIMINARY NUMERICAL STUDY OF TOPOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU ON SURFACE DIRECT RADIATION

To improve the simulating ability of a model,this paper presents a scheme of calculatingdirect radiation at land surface with topography in the model.A numerical study is conducted forthe topographic effects of the Tibetan Plateau on the direct radiation using NCEP terrain data.Results show that,after taking account into the topographic radiation effect,the regional averageof the radiation over the Plateau obviously increases in the local early morning and late afternoon,but changes less around noon.The effect is stronger in winter than that in summer.Andheterogeneous topography has also affected the distribution of the radiation in this area.A simplenumerical experiment shows that considering the effect will lead ground temperature to increase onthe slope having more sunshine,and vice versa.     

湘桂黔滇藏红色岩溶风化壳发育模式

基于对湘，桂、黔，滇，藏等地岩溶区红色风化壳的野外和室内研究，从表生地貌学，粘土矿物学和地球化学角度分析红色石灰土性质与地貌演化的关系，提出红色岩溶风化壳发育的二阶段模式；1）地貌夷平-风化物质积累阶段，在地貌演化过程中溶蚀残余物质不断积累，最后在夷平面上形成厚层连续的泥质风化壳，夷平面的地貌水文条件有利于粘粒的形成和保存，但限制了富铝化作用的有效进行，造就了岩溶风化壳粘粒含量高，富铝化程度低的特点，这与研究区23个红色岩溶风化壳剖面化学，粒度特征和粘土矿物组合特点一致。2）地貌切割-风化壳淋溶阶段，原始夷平面上的风化壳大多呈灰色，只有在构造隆升和地表微切割导致地下水位降低，淋溶条件开始改善的情况下，风化壳才有可能枞根本上转为红色。