Micromorphological Analysis of Coastal Sediments from Willapa Bay, Washington, USA: A Technique for Analysing Inferred Tsunami Deposits

Tsunami deposits are provisionally distinguished in the field on the basis of anomalous sand horizons, fining-up and fining-landward, coupled with organic-rich, fragmented `backwash' sediments. In this paper, micromorphological features of a sediment sequence previously interpreted as being of tsunami origin are described. These characteristics are shown to be consistent with the macro-scale features used elsewhere, but show additional details not seen in standard stratigraphies, including possible evidence for individual waves, possibly wave-magnitude progression, organic fragment alignment and intraclast microstructures. Although replication and more complete studies are needed, this analysis confirms the identification of a tsunami in Willapa Bay in ca.1700 AD, while demonstrating a widely applicable technique for confirming or refuting possible tsunami deposits.     

断裂构造研究进展对工程地质学的启示

在长期地质作用下形成的岩体和岩体结构是工程地质学研究的基本内容，它们的形成和演化主要受控于构造作用，而系统地解析体所经历的构造作用是认知岩体结构，抽象和概括岩体工程地质模型的突破口，因此，重视和应用现代构造地质学研究的新理论，新方法必将会对岩体工程地质学研究起着重要的指导意义。本文系统总结了与工程地质研究相关的现代构造地质学理论和思维观的研究进展，在此基础上分析了这些理论方法对工程地质工作的启示和指导意义，希望起到抛砖引玉的作用。     

"数字地球"与实时地震学

“数字地球”是对真实地球及其相关现象的统一性的数字化重现和认识，是信息化的地球，是地球的虚拟对照体。“数字地球”的科学体系由基础研究、技术支撑和科学工程三部分组成。现代地震学同样需要基础研究、支撑技术和科学工程，其中，最后一个体系即相当于实时地震学。实时地震学调基础研究和现代技术的结合，强调地震学研究成果的转化和对社会与公众的服务，是地震学发展的“最高境界”。实时地震学需要基础研究和现代技术，更需要建立地震速报系统、地震趋势分析系统、灾害评估系统和地震救灾系统这样的系统工程。     

Latent heat effects of the major mantle phase transitions on low-angle subduction

Very low to zero shallow dip angles are observed at several moderately young subduction zones with an active trenchward moving overriding plate. We have investigated the effects of latent heat for this situation, where mantle material is pushed through the major mantle phase transitions during shallow low-angle subduction below the overriding plate. The significance of the buoyancy forces, arising from the latent heat effects, on the dynamics of the shallowly subducting slab is examined by numerical modeling. When a 32-Ma-old slab is overridden with 2.5 cm/yr by a continent, flat subduction occurs with a 4–5 cm/yr convergence rate. When latent heat is included in the model, forced downwellings cause a thermal anomaly and consequently thermal and phase buoyancy forces. Under these circumstances, the flat slab segment subducts horizontally about 350 km further and for about 11 Ma longer than in the case without latent heat, before it breaks through the 400-km phase transition. The style of subduction strongly depends on the mantle rheology: increasing the mantle viscosity by one order of magnitude can change the style of subduction from steep to shallow. Similarly, an overriding velocity of less than 1 cm/yr leads to steep subduction, which gradually changes to flat subduction when increasing the overriding velocity. However, these model parameters do not change the aforementioned effect of the latent heat, provided that low-angle subduction occurs. In all models latent heat resulted in a substantial increase of the flat slab length by 300–400 km. Varying the olivine–spinel transition Clapeyron slope γ from 1 to 6 MPa/K reveals a roughly linear relation between γ and the horizontal length of the slab. Based on these results, we conclude that buoyancy forces due to latent heat of phase transitions play an important role in low-angle subduction below an overriding plate.     

大兴安岭—燕山晚中生代岩浆活动与俯冲作用关系

本文通过对华北的大兴安岭－燕山地区晚中生代火山－深成岩岩石化学、同位素地质学的分析，认为该地区岩浆的形成和演化与板内伸展环境下的底侵作用有关，而与太平洋板块俯冲无直接的成因联系。本文展示了较高分辨率的日本海沟－长白山－蒙古额尔德尼查干的地震层析图像，揭示了太平洋俯冲板片的形态特征；再结合对俯冲时间及俯冲作用与岩浆作用时差的研究，进一步证明板块俯冲与研究区的岩浆活动无直接关系。最后通过底侵作用年代学的研究，将大兴安岭－燕山中生代岩浆活动与层析图象显示的大陆板内软流圈上涌体联系起来。     

Special Issue Devoted to Petroleum Geology in Marginal Sea Deepwater Settings—Take the South China Sea as an Example Preface

High‐resolution tomographic images of the belt crossing the Japan Trench‐Changbai Mountains‐Dong Ujimqin Qi are represented in this paper, revealing the shape of a subducted slab in the western Pacific region and characteristics of the lithospheric structures under the Changbai Mountains and the Da Hinggan Mountains. Studies of the spatial distribution, subduction time and the time‐lag between the subduction and magmatism, combined with petrology and isotope geochemistry of the Late Mesozoic volcano‐plutonic rocks from the Da Hinggan Mountains‐Yanshan Mountains have further proved the independence of magmatic activities from the subduction of the Pacific plate. The Mesozoic tectono‐thermal evolutionary history and structural characteristics of the lithosphere in the Da Hinggan Mountains and North China suggest that the formation and evolution of magma have probably a close relationship with the delamination and thinning of the continental lithosphere and the underplating resulting from the consequent upwelling of the asthenosphere. On the other hand, the large‐scale strike‐slip fault system, resulting from sinistral shearing of the Pacific plate relative to the Asian continent in the Mesozoic, is responsible for the formation and emplacement of magma on the continental margin. It was the intense crust‐mantle interaction, together with structural deformation at the shallower levels that led to the large tectono‐magmatic belt in the East Asian continental margin.     

Study on the sources of some deep focus earthquakes in Northwest Pacific region

The sources for thirteen deep focus earthquakes ofm _b≥5.5 andh>400 km in Northwest Pacific region were studied using waveform fitting and shear fracture source model. The source parameters were obtained as follows: focal depth, faulting plane, slip direction, rupture velocity, rupture length, rupture direction and scalar moment tensor. It was found that all these earthquake sources can be interpreted as shear faulting and have simple source time functions. The strike direction of faulting plane for most deep focus earthquakes coincides with that of the subduction zone, especially in the deep part of the subduction zone, it results in the tendency of reducing the dip angle of the subduction zone. The multiple point source model was also used to study the source process. The waveform fitting is better than the shear fracture model, but the general rupture direction which coincides with that from unilateral shear source model can not be obtained from the multiple point source model. This study is supported by the National Science Foundation of China and the Chinese Joint Seismological Science Foundation.     

龙门山断裂带测区古构造残余应力随深度分布及带中残余能量

以岩体正交异性弹性理论为基础，用Ｘ射线法，在龙门山断裂带测区，选取３个小区深钻孔系列的岩心，测量了岩体中宏观残余应力场的水平和铅直三维主分量、水平和铅直最大剪应力，及其应变能密度随深度的分布，分析了它们沿深度的分布规律，估算了该断裂带岩体中储存的宏观残余弹性应变能的量级     

Collision orogeny at arc-arc junctions in the Japanese Islands

Abstract In the Japanese Islands, collision tectonics are operating at arc-arc junctions in three regions: Hokkaido, Central Japan and Kyushu. Hokkaido is situated at the junction of the Kuril and Northeast Japan Arcs. The Kuril fore arc sliver collides with the Northeast Japan Arc, and the lower crust of the Kuril Arc thrusts upon the fore arc of the Northeast Japan Arc in Hokkaido. Outcrops of the lower crust are observed in the Hidaka Mountains in the fore arc of the junction area. Central Japan is in the juncture area among the Northeast Japan, Izu-Bonin, and Southwest Japan Arcs. The Izu-Bonin arc is colliding against the Honshu mainland, which has been bent by the collision. Kyushu is a juvenile collision area between the Southwest Japan and Ryukyu Arcs. The fore arc of the Southwest Japan Arc is starting to underthrust beneath the Kyushu islands along the Bungo Strait, where shallow seismicity within the crust is active in terms of the collision. Collision tectonics are observed at most of the arc-arc junctions in the circum-Pacific orogenic belts and may be an important process contributing to the relatively rapid growth of new continental crust in subduction zones.     

Episodic accretion and metamorphism of Jurassic accretionary complex based on biostratigraphy and K-Ar geochronology in the western part of the Mino-Tanba Belt, Southwest Japan

Abstract The low grade metamorphic Jurassic accretionary complex in the western part of the Mino-Tanba Belt, Southwest Japan, is a chaotic sedimentary complex which consists of argillaceous matrices with allochthonous blocks of chert, greenstone, siliceous mudstone, terrigenous sandstone and mudstone. The complex is divided into three distinct geologic units, Units I, II and III, with a tectonic boundary (thrust) between them, forming a pile-nappe structure. They have different features for lithologies, fossil age, metamorphic condition and K-Ar age. Microfossil researches revealed that their timings of accretion were in the early Early Jurassic ( ca 195 Ma) for Unit III, in the early Middle Jurassic ( ca 175 Ma) for Unit II and in the latest Late Jurassic (ca 147 Ma) for Unit I. On the other hand, K-Ar age determinations of white mica separated from pelitic rocks of the three units clarified that the subsequent subduction-related metamorphism was 23 million years after the accretion of each unit. These results strongly suggest that the accretionary and metamorphic process had taken place episodically with an interval of 20 to 28 million years during Mesozoic time in the western part of the Mino-Tanba Belt, Southwest Japan.