Variability in Early Amazonian Tharsis stress state based on wrinkle ridges and strike-slip faulting

We present evidence for a decrease in the magnitude of Tharsis-circumferential compressive stress during the Late Hesperian to the Middle Amazonian based on chronologic changes in the predominant style of faulting in southern Amazonis Planitia. Using high-resolution MOLA topography, we identify a population of strike-slip faults that exhibit Middle Amazonian-aged displacements of regional chrono-stratigraphic units. These strike-slip faults are adjacent to an older population of previously documented Late Hesperian-aged thrust faults (wrinkle ridges). Along-strike orientations of these thrust and strike-slip faults reveal the Tharsis-radial stress to be the area's most compressive remote principal stress and that this stress orientation and magnitude persisted throughout the Late Hesperian to the Middle Amazonian. We show that the change in the predominant style of faulting from thrust faulting to strike-slip faulting during this time requires a decrease of the Tharsis-circumferential compressive stress to a magnitude less than lithostatic load, with negligible change in stress orientation.     

Early Jurassic rift structures associated with the Soapaga and Boyacá faults of the Eastern Cordillera, Colombia: Sedimentological inferences and regional implications

The NW-trending Bucaramanga fault links, at its southern termination, with the Soapaga and Boyacá faults, which by their NW trend define an ample horsetail structure. As a result of their Neogene reactivation as reverse faults, they bound fault-related anticlines that expose the sedimentary fill of two Early Jurassic rift basins. These sediments exhibit the wedge-like geometry of rift fills related to west-facing normal faults. Their structural setting was controlled further by segmentation of the bounding faults at approximately 10 km intervals, in which each segment is separated by a transverse basement high. Isopach contours and different facies associations suggest these transverse anticlines may have separated depocenters of their adjacent subbasins, which were shaped by a slightly different subsidence history and thereby decoupled. The basin fill of the relatively narrow basin associated with the Soapaga fault is dominated by fanglomeratic successions organized in two coarsening-upward cycles. In the larger basin linked to the Boyacá fault, the sedimentary fill consists of two coarsening-upward sequences that, when fully developed, vary from floodplain to alluvial fan deposits. These Early Jurassic rift fills temporally constrain the evolution of the Bucaramanga fault, which accommodated right-lateral displacement during the early Mesozoic rift event.     

灌丛对川西北高寒草甸土壤资源的影响

以川西北高原红原县为研究区,用方格取样法,在相邻的高寒灌丛草地和高寒草甸样地中分别随机取0~20 cm土样50个,并分析了这些土样的土壤性状。利用SPSS(11.0)软件对实验数据进行了统计、分析和比较,研究了两个样地的各种土壤养分的平均含量、空间异质性和相关关系。结果表明,草甸样地的粘粒含量、Ptotal、Ntotal、ORG、Pavail、Navail、Kavail的含量都高于灌丛样地,且两样地速效养分差异极显著,但草甸样地土壤的ORG、Navail、Kavail的变异系数(CV)却明显小于灌丛样地,特别是Kavail的CV值,灌丛样地比草甸样地高出了53.37%;相关分析还表明,相对于草甸,灌丛样地中各养分元素之间的相关性明显增强。说明灌丛对高寒草甸土壤资源的异质性有明显的影响,其存在降低了草甸土壤养分的均值含量并增强了土壤养分的变异性和侵蚀潜力,不利于高寒草甸土壤养分的保持。     

Alpine reworking of Ordovician protoliths in the Western Carpathians: Geochronological and geochemical data on the Muráñ Gneiss Complex, Slovakia

Magmatic protoliths of Ordovician age have been identified in the metamorphic rocks of the Muráñ Gneiss Complex, Veporic Unit (Central Western Carpathians). Vapor digestion single zircon U–Pb dating yields an intrusion age of 464 ± 35 Ma (upper intercept) for the granite protolith. A lower intercept age of 88 ± 40 Ma records amphibolite-facies metamorphic overprint in the Cretaceous, during the Alpine orogeny. Geochemical and isotopic data suggest crustal origin of the orthogneiss. Nd_initial are between − 2.6 and − 5.0 and T_DM^Nd between 1.3 and 1.5 Ga (two-step approach). ⁸⁷Sr / ⁸⁶Sr_initial ratios vary between 0.7247 and 0.7120, and a steep REE pattern further constrains the crustal affinity of these rocks. Associated amphibolite bodies have Nd_initial values of 6.5, ⁸⁷Sr / ⁸⁶Sr_initial ratio of 0.7017, and a flat REE pattern. They are interpreted as MORB derived metabasites. Whole-rock Pb isotope analyses define a linear array in a ²⁰⁶Pb / ²⁰⁴Pb vs. ²⁰⁷Pb / ²⁰⁴Pb diagram with an age of ca. 134 Ma, consistent with intense Alpine metamorphism and deformation.

These basement rocks of the Central Western Carpathians are interpreted as Ordovician magmatic rocks intruded at an active margin of Gondwana. They represent the eastern prolongation of Cambro–Ordovician units of the European Variscides, which were part of the peri-Gondwana superterrane and accreted to Laurussia during the Variscan orogeny. Variscan metamorphic overprint is not recorded by the isotopic data of the Muráñ Gneiss Complex. Alpine metamorphism is the most dominant overprint.     

On the Importance of Geolithological Features for the Estimate of the Site Response: The Case of Catania Metropolitan Area (Italy)

The evaluation of seismic site response in the urban area of Catania was tackled by selecting test areas having peculiar lithological and structural features, potentially favourable to large local amplifications of ground motion. The two selected areas are located in the historical downtown and in the northern part of Catania where the presence of a fault is evident. Site response was evaluated using spectral ratio technique taking the horizontal- to-vertical component ratio of ambient noise. Inferences from microtremor measurements are compared with results from synthetic accelerograms and response spectra computed at all drillings available for this area. Such method is particularly suitable in urban areas where the nature of the outcropping geological units is masked by city growth and anthropic intervention on the surface geology. The microtremor H/V spectral ratios evaluated at soft sites located within the downtown profile tend to be smaller than that usually reported in the literature for such soils. A tendency for amplifications to peaks near 2 Hz is observed only in some sites located on recent alluvial deposits. Evidences for amplifications of site effects (frequency range 4–8 Hz) were observed in the sampling sites located on the fault, with a rapid decrease of spectral amplitude just a few tenths of metres away from the discontinuity. Numerical simulations evidenced the importance of geolithological features at depth levels even greater than 20–30 m. Besides this, the results strongly confirm the importance of the subsurface geological conditions, in the estimate of seismic hazard at urban scale.     

2-D deformation of two welded half-spaces due to a blind dip-slip fault

The solution of two-dimensional problem of an interface breaking long inclined dip-slip fault in two welded half-spaces is well known. The purpose of this note is to obtain the corresponding solution for a blind fault. The solution is valid for arbitrary values of the fault-depth and the dip angle. Graphs showing the variation of the displacement field with the distance from the fault, for different values of fault depth and dip angle are presented. Contour maps showing the stress field around a long dip-slip fault are also obtained