Lattice-preferred orientation of olivine found in diamond-bearing garnet peridotites in Finsch,South Africa and implications for seismic anisotropy

Seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle provides important constraints on mantle dynamics, continental evolution and global tectonics and is believed to be produced by the flow-induced lattice-preferred orientation (LPO) of olivine. Recent experimental studies at high pressure and temperature have suggested that the LPO of olivine is affected by pressure in addition to water and stress. However, there has been no report yet for the pressure-induced LPO of natural olivine because samples from the deep upper mantle are rare and often unsuitable for study due to ambiguous foliation and lineation. Here we show evidence of the pressure-induced LPO of natural olivine in diamond-bearing garnet peridotites from Finsch, South Africa. We found that the [010] axes of olivine are aligned subnormal to foliation and that the [001] axes are aligned subparallel to lineation, which is known as B-type LPO of olivine. The equilibrium pressure of the samples, as estimated using geobarometer, was greater than 4 GPa, indicating that the samples originated from a depth greater than ∼120 km. In addition, FTIR spectroscopy of the olivine showed that the samples are dry, with a water content of less than 90 ± 20 ppm H/Si (5.5 ± 1.2 ppm wt. H₂O). These data suggest that the samples are the first natural examples of olivine displaying B-type LPOs produced due to high pressure under dry condition. Our data indicate that the trench-parallel seismic anisotropy observed in many subduction zones in and below subducting slabs at depths greater than ∼90 km under dry condition may be attributed to the pressure-induced olivine fabrics (B-type LPO) and may be interpreted as the entrainment of the sub-lithospheric mantle in the direction of subduction rather than anomalous trench-parallel flow.     

Exploring the relative contribution of mineralogy and CPO to the seismic velocity anisotropy of evaporites

We present the influence of mineralogy and microstructure on the seismic velocity anisotropy of evaporites. Bulk elastic properties and seismic velocities are calculated for a suite of 20 natural evaporite samples, which consist mainly of halite, anhydrite, and gypsum. They exhibit strong fabrics as a result of tectonic and diagenetic processes. Sample mineralogy and crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) were obtained with the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique and the data used for seismic velocity calculations. Bulk seismic properties for polymineralic evaporites were evaluated with a rock recipe approach. Ultrasonic velocity measurements were also taken on cube shaped samples to assess the contribution of grain-scale shape preferred orientation (SPO) to the total seismic anisotropy. The sample results suggest that CPO is responsible for a significant fraction of the bulk seismic properties, in agreement with observations from previous studies. Results from the rock recipe indicate that increasing modal proportion of anhydrite grains can lead to a greater seismic anisotropy of a halite-dominated rock. Conversely, it can lead to a smaller seismic anisotropy degree of a gypsum-dominated rock until an estimated threshold proportion after which anisotropy increases again. The difference between the predicted anisotropy due to CPO and the anisotropy measured with ultrasonic velocities is attributed to the SPO and grain boundary effects in these evaporites.     

Anisotropic attenuation of stratified viscoelastic media

An important cause of seismic anisotropic attenuation is the interbedding of thin viscoelastic layers. However, much less attention has been devoted to layer‐induced anisotropic attenuation. Here, we derive a group of unified weighted average forms for effective attenuation from a binary isotropic, transversely isotropic‐ and orthorhombic‐layered medium in the zero‐frequency limit by using the Backus averaging/upscaling method and analyse the influence of interval parameters on effective attenuation. Besides the corresponding interval attenuation and the real part of stiffness, the contrast in the real part of the complex stiffness is also a key factor influencing effective attenuation. A simple linear approximation can be obtained to calculate effective attenuation if the contrast in the real part of stiffness is very small. In a viscoelastic medium, attenuation anisotropy and velocity anisotropy may have different orientations of symmetry planes, and the symmetry class of the former is not lower than that of the latter. We define a group of more general attenuation‐anisotropy parameters to characterize not only the anisotropic attenuation with different symmetry classes from the anisotropic velocity but also the elastic case. Numerical tests reveal the influence of interval attenuation anisotropy, interval velocity anisotropy and the contrast in the real part of stiffness on effective attenuation anisotropy. Types of effective attenuation anisotropy for interval orthorhombic attenuation and interval transversely isotropic attenuation with a vertical symmetry (vertical transversely isotropic attenuation) are controlled only by the interval attenuation anisotropy. A type of effective attenuation anisotropy for interval TI attenuation with a horizontal symmetry (horizontal transversely isotropic attenuation) is controlled by the interval attenuation anisotropy and the contrast in the real part of stiffness. The type of effective attenuation anisotropy for interval isotropic attenuation is controlled by all three factors. The magnitude of effective attenuation anisotropy is positively correlated with the contrast in the real part of the stiffness. Effective attenuation even in isotropic layers with identical isotropic attenuation is anisotropic if the contrast in the real part of stiffness is non‐zero. In addition, if the contrast in the real part of stiffness is very small, a simple linear approximation also can be performed to calculate effective attenuation‐anisotropy parameters for interval anisotropic attenuation.     

Measurements of upper mantle shear wave anisotropy from a permanent network in southern Mexico

Upper mantle shear wave anisotropy under stations in southern Mexico was measured using records of SKS phases. Fast polarization directions where the Cocos plate subducts subhorizontally are oriented in the direction of the relative motion between the Cocos and North American plates, and are trench-perpendicular. This pattern is interpreted as subslab entrained flow, and is similar to that observed at the Cascadia subduction zone. Earlier studies have pointed out that both regions have in common the young age of the subducting lithosphere. Changes in the orientation of the fast axes are observed where the subducting plates change dip and/or are torn, and are thus indicative of 3-D flow around the slab edges. They are consistent with slab rollback, as previously shown by other authors. Some stations located away from the plate boundaries have their fast directions controlled by the absolute motion of the North American plate. The fast axis for station ZAIG, located in the Mesa Central, is oriented WNW-ESE and is different from all the other measurements in this study.     

利用莫霍面Ps震相研究中国东北地区地壳各向异性

利用中国东北地区布设的65套宽频带数字地震仪2009年6月—2011年6月记录的远震事件, 用时间域最大熵谱反褶积方法提取接收函数, 并用改进的剪切波分裂分析方法对该区地壳介质各向异性参数进行研究, 获得了该区地壳介质各向异性图像. 结果表明, 该区地壳介质各向异性快波偏振方向大致为北西向, 快慢波时间延迟在0.15—0.3 s之间; 但有7个台站下方地壳各向异性快波方向表现为北东向, 可能与当地复杂构造有关. 该区地壳各向异性快波偏振方向与主压应力场方向近乎垂直, 与板块移动方向基本一致, 与SKS/SKKS各向异性快波方向也基本一致. 推断本研究区地壳介质各向异性反映了该区的主张应力方向, 且主要各向异性来源于中下地壳, 暗示了壳-幔垂直变形的一致性.      

On the peak level of tearing instability in an ion-scale current sheet: The effects of ion temperature anisotropy

We have systematically surveyed the effects of the ion temperature anisotropy on the peak reconnected flux level of the tearing instability excited in a thick current sheet (its half-thickness D equal to the ion inertial length). A series of two- and three-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) simulations have been performed for a magnetotail-like situation, where the ion perpendicular temperature is fixed to balance the magnetic pressure of the lobe while the ion parallel temperature can be varied to give rise to the temperature anisotropy α_i=T_i,perp/T_i,para. Focusing on the behavior of the fastest growing mode (wavelength λ=12D), the results are summarized as follows: (1) The peak levels are larger when the initial α_i is larger and lobe reconnection is obtained only when α_i>1.5. (2) 3-D effects do speed-up the reconnection process but do not change the peak level substantially. (3) The time-scale of gas pressure build-up at the center of magnetic islands relative to the time-scale of reconnected flux growth is identified to be the key issue in determining the peak level. Based on these results for the fastest growing mode with λ=12D, discussion is given on the larger-scale development, that is, what happens when longer wavelength modes are allowed to develop.     

Dark matter electron anisotropy: A universal upper limit

We study the dipole anisotropy in the arrival directions of high energy CR electrons and positrons (CRE) of dark matter (DM) origin. We show that this quantity is very weakly model dependent and offers a viable criterion to discriminate among CRE from DM or from local discrete sources, like e.g. pulsars. In particular, we find that the maximum anisotropy which DM can provide is to a very good approximation a universal quantity and, as a consequence, if a larger anisotropy is detected, this would constitute a strong evidence for the presence of astrophysical local discrete CRE sources, whose anisotropy, instead, can be naturally larger than the DM upper limit. We further find that the main source of anisotropy from DM is given by the fluctuation in the number density of DM sub-structures in the vicinity of the observer and we thus devote special attention to the study of the variance in the sub-structures realization implementing a dedicated Montecarlo simulation. Such scenarios will be probed in the next years by Fermi-LAT, providing new hints, or constraints, about the nature of DM.     

Assessment of radar-based locally varying anisotropy on daily rainfall interpolation

ABSTRACT

Spatial variability of rainfall has been recognised as an important factor controlling the hydrological response of catchments. However, gauged daily rainfall data are often available at scattered locations over the catchments. This paper looks into how to capitalise on the spatial structure of radar rainfall data for improving kriging interpolation of limited gauge data over catchments at the 1-km² grid scale, using for the case study 117 gauged stations within the 128 km × 128 km region of the Mt Stapylton weather radar field (near Brisbane, Australia). Correlograms were developed using a Fast Fourier Transform method on the Gaussianised radar and gauged data. It is observed that the correlograms vary from day to day and display significant anisotropy. For the radar data, locally varying anisotropy (LVA) was examined by developing the correlogram centred on each pixel and for different radial distances. Cross-validation was carried out using the empirical correlogram tables, as well as different fitting strategies of a two-dimensional exponential distribution for both the gauged and the radar data. The results indicate that the correlograms based on the radar data outperform the gauged ones as judged by statistical measures including root mean square error, mean bias, mean absolute bias, mean standard deviation and mean inter-quartile range. While the radar data display significant LVA, it was observed that LVA did not significantly improve the estimates compared with the global anisotropy. This was also confirmed by conditional simulation of 120 rainfields using different options of correlogram development.

EDITOR M.C. Acreman; ASSOCIATE EDITOR Q. Zhang     

基于地震各向异性分析郯庐断裂带中段深部构造特征

利用郯庐断裂带中段附近10个宽频带台站的远震波形资料,基于上地幔地震各向异性来分析郯庐断裂带中段深部构造特征。本研究得到,郯庐断裂带中段深部平均快波偏振方向为93．8°,即郯庐断裂带中段深部主张应变（张应力）方向,对照GPS资料和地震资料的研究表明,郯庐断裂带中段地壳和深部上地幔的形变存在总体的一致性,即郯庐断裂带中段岩石层的形变具有统一特征,地壳与深部上地幔处于相似的应力应变状态中。     

基于各向异性AVO的裂缝弹性参数叠前反演方法

基于各向异性理论,将具有水平对称轴的高角度裂缝介质等效为HTI介质。首先,通过分析HTI介质反射界面的纵波反射系数公式,研究裂缝介质振幅随偏移距和方位角的变化特征,探索了方位各向异性介质弹性参数和各向异性参数的叠前反演方法。其次,为更好地估测介质的弹性参数:纵波阻抗IP、横波阻抗IS以及各向异性梯度Γ,对反射系数近似式进行了简化,同时对简化公式的精度进行了对比分析。最后,选取2D逆掩断层模型,利用褶积公式制作不同方位的合成地震道集,并对合成地震道集添加随机噪声(信噪比为2∶1),将其应用于方位AVO叠前反演算法试算中。结果表明,当信噪比为2时,方位AVO叠前反演所得纵波阻抗、横波阻抗及各向异性梯度的估测值与模型真实值基本吻合,而且估测值能够较准确地反映原始模型的地层特征,验证了方位AVO叠前反演算法的准确适用性。