Elastic and inelastic triggering of earthquakes in the North Anatolian Fault zone

Deformation models used to explain the triggering mechanism often assume pure elastic behaviour for the crust and upper mantle. In reality however, the mantle and possibly the lower crust behave viscoelastically, particularly over longer time scales. Consequently, the stress field of an earthquake is in general time-dependent. In addition, if the elastic stress increase were enough to trigger a later earthquake, this triggered event should occur instantaneously and not many years after the triggering event. Hence, it is appropriate to include inelastic behaviour when analysing stress transfer and earthquake interaction.In this work, we analyse a sequence of 10 magnitude M_s > 6.5 events along the North Anatolian Fault between 1939 and 1999 to study the evolution of the regional Coulomb stress field. We investigate the triggering of these events by stress transfer, taking viscoelastic relaxation into account. We evaluate the contribution of elastic stress changes, of post-seismic viscoelastic relaxation in the lower crust and mantle, and of steady tectonic loading to the total Coulomb stress field. We analyse the evolution of stress in the region under study, as well as on the rupture surfaces of the considered events and their epicentres. We study the state of the Coulomb stress field before the 1999 İzmit and Düzce earthquakes, as well as in the Marmara Sea region.In general, the Coulomb stress failure criterion offers a plausible explanation for the location of these events. However, we show that using a purely elastic model disregards an important part of the actual stress increase/decrease. In several cases, post-seismic relaxation effects are important and greater in magnitude than the stress changes due to steady tectonic loading. Consequently, viscoelastic relaxation should be considered in any study dealing with Coulomb stress changes.According to our study, and assuming that an important part of the rupture surface must be stressed for an earthquake to occur, the most likely value for the viscosity of the lower crust or mantle in this region is 5 · 10¹⁷–10¹⁸ Pa · s. Our results cannot rule out the possibility of other time-dependent processes involved in the triggering of the 1999 Düzce event. However, the stress increase due to viscoelastic relaxation brought 22% of the 1999 Düzce rupture area over the threshold value of Δσ_c ≥ 0.01 MPa (0.1 bar), and took the whole surface closer to failure by an average of 0.2 MPa. Finally, we argue that the Marmara Sea region is currently being loaded with positive Coulomb stresses at a much faster rate than would arise exclusively from steady tectonic loading on the North Anatolian Fault.     

榴辉岩相变质岩中石榴石的塑性微裂隙

在变质岩中石榴石广泛发育微裂隙，这些微裂隙一直认为是在脆性变形过程中产生的。本文应用透射电子显微镜（ＴＥＭ）研究证明，在榴辉岩相变质岩中，石榴石的微裂隙是塑性变形的产物。同时较为深入的探讨了这些塑性微裂隙的形成机制     

Quartz microstructures developed during non-steady state plastic flow at rapidly decaying stress and strain rate

Synseismic loading to very high stresses (>0.5 GPa) and subsequent creep during stress relaxation in the uppermost plastosphere at temperatures of ca. 300–350 °C, near the lower tip of an inferred once seismically active crustal scale fault, was proposed based on peculiar microstructures identified in rocks exposed over >100 km² in the Sesia Zone, European Western Alps. Here we discuss the conspicuous and highly heterogeneous microstructural record of quartz in disseminated small-scale shear zones. Sub-basal deformation lamellae and arrays of elongate subgrains on the TEM-scale indicate an early stage of glide-controlled deformation at high stresses. Distributed brittle failure is indicated by healed microcracks. Very fine-grained recrystallised aggregates with a pronounced crystallographic preferred orientation reflect intense plastic flow by dislocation creep. Locally, a fine-grained foam microstructure indicates a final stage of static grain growth at low differential stress. For the previously inferred peak stresses of about 0.5 GPa and given temperatures, initial strain rates on the order of 10⁻¹⁰ s⁻¹ are predicted by available flow laws for dislocation creep of quartz. We emphasise the importance of short-term non-steady state deformation in the uppermost plastosphere underlying seismically active upper crust. The related heterogeneous record of quartz is governed by the local stress history at constant temperature.     

阿尔金南缘断裂安南坝段滑动量的初步研究

结合航、卫片解译,对阿尔金南缘断裂东端附近的安南坝段的断裂滑动量进行了野外调查。结果显示,在安南坝盆地南缘,冲沟的阶地位错量分别为T1＝2．5m,T2=23m,T3=48m,T4=96m,T5=185m。最大走滑量可达3500m,估计平均水滑动速率约为3mm/a。     

GRACE和地面重力测量监测到的中国大陆长期重力变化

自2002年以来,GRACE卫星探测计划可提供高精度的时变地球重力场,用以探测地球系统的物质分布.自1998年中国大陆重力监测网建立以来,利用FG5绝对重力仪和LCR-G型相对重力仪每2年对该网进行重复测量获取重力场时变信息.基于此,本文利用GRACE和地面重力测量获得了中国大陆重力场的长期年变率,利用位错理论根据USGS发布的断层模型计算了2008年汶川M_s8.0级地震的同震重力变化并进行了300 km高斯滤波.GRACE卫星重力和地面重力结果均表明华北地区地下水流失严重,在绝对重力基准站上,GRACE卫星重力与绝对重力变化率较为一致,汶川区域的地面重力变化结果可视为大地震前兆信息.     

台湾地区地壳形变的弹性块体位错模型

在经典的非震形变位错模型中,地壳形变被认为是活动块体刚性运动和上部断层锁定影响的叠加,本文对此模型进行了改进: (1) 用活动块体整体运动和内部线性应变、旋转的贡献代替活动块体刚性运动的贡献;(2) 用分层介质地壳模型代替半无限介质模型计算断层锁定的影响. 利用改进后的非震形变位错模型,拟合了台湾地区1990～1995年间GPS观测资料. 结果显示,在东部海岸山脉区,约有30 mm·a^-1的汇聚率被奇美断层消耗掉,运动速度从奇美断层向北迅速衰减. 在西部平原地区,南部断层是岛内锁定最为强烈的断层,该地区相应的也是史上灾害性地震多发的地区. 根据反演结果计算出的应变率与旋转率分布与前人结果在大部分地区一致,主应变率场显示台湾大部分地区存在近NW-SE方向的主压应变,主压应变方向呈扇形分布. 旋转率场显示台湾东部和南部地区存在着逆时针旋转率,而西部和北部地区则为顺时针旋转率.     

Combining ECCI and FIB milling techniques to prepare site-specific TEM samples for crystal defect analysis of deformed minerals at high pressure

Dislocation microstructures in experimentally deformed single-crystal pyrope-rich garnet, (Mg,Fe)₃(Al,Cr)₃Si₃O₁₂, and polycrystalline forsterite, Mg₂SiO₄, were investigated by using electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with a focused ion beam (FIB)-microsampling. In the orientation-optimized ECCI method, we successfully observed individual dislocations across subgrain boundaries in a low-atomic-number mineral, pyrope-rich garnet (averaged Z-numbers, AZs ～ 10). Dislocations in a deformed forsterite (iron-free olivine) were also visible in the ECCI. In the ECCI on the single-crystal garnet, deformation bands consisting of dislocations, unusual contrasts in stripes and inhomogeneous distributions of sub-micrometer-sized pores were found. Further site-specific TEM observation on the deformation band revealed a high density of partial dislocations and stacking fault ribbons. The site-specific characterizations from ECCI to TEM, with assistance of FIB, can provide a new approach to investigate dislocation microstructures of deformed materials at high pressure and high temperature.     

Simulations of Vertical and Horizontal Displacement Fields in the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

By using the Yoshimitsu Okada and Steketee fault dislocation model,we calculated the vertical and horizontal displacements along the Yingxiu-Beichuan inverse fault and Guanxian-Anxian inverse fault along which the Wenchuan MS8. 0 earthquake occurred in 2008. Compared to the achievements of field surveying along the surface rupture zone,we found that our computational results are comparable to the real displacement variation trend. Furthermore,the computational results indicated that the surface displacement...     

西南天山地表三维位移场及断层位错模型

利用1992—2012年间西南天山GPS观测和2003—2009年EnviSAT卫星InSAR图像,构建西南天山与塔里木盆地间(喀什坳陷)震间变形的三维位移场,约束区域内滑脱断层运动模型.结果显示:位于喀什坳陷基底与沉积盖层间埋深为12~18km的主滑脱断层进入西南天山(迈丹—喀拉铁克断裂带以北)沿高角度断坡深入天山底部至23~33km,并北倾1°~2°延伸至天山内部,从完全闭锁到自由蠕滑,滑动速率9~10mm·a-1.依据断层位错模型,1902年阿图什M8大地震可能从铁列克断层根部23km左右开始破裂,沿高角度断坡断层扩展25~30km的距离至科克塔木背斜南翼托特拱拜孜—阿尔帕雷克断裂.1902年阿图什地震可能导致阿图什背斜下方埋深2~12km的高角度断坡断层以2~3mm·a-1速率持续蠕滑,蠕滑过程释放的应力等价于一次Mw6.7左右的中强地震,西南天山及喀什坳陷基底滑脱断层控制了西南天山及前陆地带的现今变形和地震活动.     

Deformation-related microstructures in magmatic zircon and implications for diffusion

An undeformed glomeroporphyritic andesite from the Sunda Arc of Java, Indonesia, contains zoned plagioclase and amphibole glomerocrysts in a fine-grained groundmass and records a complex history of adcumulate formation and subsequent magmatic disaggregation. A suite of xenocrystic zircon records Proterozoic and Archaean dates whilst a discrete population of zoned, euhedral, igneous zircon yields a SHRIMP U-Pb crystallisation age of 9.3 ± 0.2 Ma. Quantitative microstructural analysis of zircon by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) shows no deformation in the inherited xenocrysts, but intragrain orientation variations of up to 30° in 80% of the young zircon population. These variations are typically accommodated by both progressive crystallographic bending and discrete low angle boundaries that overprint compositional growth zoning. Dispersion of crystallographic orientations are dominantly by rotation about an axis parallel to the zircon c-axis [001], which is coincident with the dominant orientation of misorientation axes of adjacent analysis points in EBSD maps. Less common <100> misorientation axes account for minor components of crystallographic dispersion. These observations are consistent with zircon deformation by dislocation creep and the formation of tilt and twist boundaries associated with the operation of <001>{100} and <100>{010} slip systems. The restriction of deformation microstructures to large glomerocrysts and the young magmatic zircon population, and the absence of deformation within the host igneous rock and inherited zircon grains, indicate that zircon deformation took place within a low-melt fraction (<5% melt), mid-lower crustal cumulate prior to fragmentation during magmatic disaggregation and entrainment of xenocrystic zircons during magmatic decompression. Tectonic stresses within the compressional Sunda Arc at the time of magmatism are considered to be the probable driver for low-strain deformation of the cumulate in the late stages of initial crystallisation. These results provide the first evidence of crystal plastic dislocation creep in zircon associated with magmatic crystallisation and indicate that the development of crystal-plastic microstructures in zircon is not restricted to high-strain rocks. Such microstructures have previously been shown to enhance bulk diffusion of trace elements (U, Th and REE) in zircon. The development of deformation microstructures, and therefore multiple diffusion pathways in zircon in the magmatic environment, has significant implications for the interpretation of geochemical data from igneous zircon and the trace element budgets of melts due to the potential enhancement of bulk diffusion and dissolution rates.