Thermochronology and exhumation rates of granitic intrusions at Mesa Central,Mexico

ABSTRACT

The Mesa Central of Mexico (MC) is an elevated plateau located 2000 m above sea level in central Mexico, where intrusions outcrop that register the history of exhumation-erosion occurring during the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene. The tectonic history of the region records formation of the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene ‘Mexican orogen’; this was followed by extension of the entire region and several plutons were then exhumed. The age and magnitude of the crustal uplift and erosion occurring during exhumation has not been addressed to date. Therefore, this study reports the crystallization and cooling ages of two plutons, the Tesorera Granodiorite and the Comanja Granite, and estimates their emplacement depths. Based on these data, the exhumation age of the Tesorera Granodiorite is estimated to be between ~73 Ma and ~63 Ma at an exhumation rate of ~528 m/m. y. and that of the Comanja Granite is 52 Ma and 48 Ma at an exhumation rate of ~2500 m/m. y. Exhumation-erosion event of the Tesorera Granodiorite was located on the trace of the San Luis-Tepehuanes Fault System and that of the Comanja Granite on the a trace of the El Bajío Fault System. Furthermore, the high exhumation rate in the Comanja Granite suggests that gravitational collapse played an important role during exhumation.     

Mesozoic exhumation history of the Grenvillian Oaxacan Complex,southern Mexico

We present the first fission‐track results from the Grenvillian Oaxacan Complex, southern Mexico. Time–temperature modelling of the data indicates that two significant Mesozoic cooling episodes are recorded in the Oaxacan Complex and these are interpreted as resulting from exhumation. The older cooling event took place from the Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic and is possible linked to the break‐up of Pangea (including the initial opening of the Gulf of Mexico during the Jurassic). The younger exhumation period in the Early Cretaceous is contemporaneous with the final stages of rifting of the Gulf of Mexico. Key stratigraphic records also provide independent evidence for these exhumation episodes. In our view, both Mesozoic rapid exhumation events were controlled by the activity of the Caltepec Fault Zone and the Oaxaca Fault. Our data suggest that both these large fault systems have remained active since, at least, the Late Triassic.     

Strong motion displacement waveforms using 10‐Hz precise point positioning GPS: an assessment based on free oscillation experiments

The recently developed precise point positioning (PPP) technique permits to compute instantaneous coordinates of a GPS station relatively to distant reference stations and waveforms of ground displacements during strong motions at the 1 Hz level. This is another application of GPS, different from the computation of static coseismic movements or of accurate monitoring of dynamic displacements of structures using a static receiver and a nearby moving receiver (DGPS). Recently, earthquake ground displacement waveforms using 10‐Hz GPS data have also been calculated, but no independent evidence to assess their quality exists. To overcome this problem, we evaluated the output of 10‐Hz PPP results on the basis of supervised learning experiments. Semistatic and dynamic displacements (damped harmonic oscillations) of known characteristics of the order of a few centimeter were produced and were recorded by GPS, an accelerometer, and a robotic total station. Time series of instantaneous displacements were analyzed using different PPP techniques and were compared with reference (true) values derived from DGPS and the other sensors. Our analysis revealed that the PPP‐derived coordinates are contaminated by long‐period noise but they can display the details of semistatic displacements, while their short‐period component describes well the pattern of waveforms and spectra (at least up to 4 Hz) of dynamic displacements, with up to 20 mm accuracy for isolated points. These results indicate that 10‐Hz PPP‐GPS is useful for earthquake engineering and can safely be used to reconstruct waveforms of deflections of the ground and of various points on structures during strong motions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic multipath in structural bridge monitoring: an experimental approach

Vehicles such as passing trains produce significant short-term biases in coordinates of nearby GPS stations, preventing these coordinates from being used for structural monitoring of bridges. In order to study this problem, we carried out experiments with receivers recording at 100 Hz and located on both sides of a rail next to passing trains. The experiments focused on trains with similar characteristics and velocity. The analysis of the data revealed a short-duration bias in coordinates with amplitude up to 10 cm and high spectral frequencies. This bias is not due to wrong integer ambiguity fixing, software defects, and changing geometry of satellites and it does not significantly improve with the addition of GLONASS satellites. It is partly due to temporary blocking of certain satellites by passing vehicles and a dynamic multipath due to fast-moving, near-field reflective surfaces. This dynamic multipath seems to depend on the geometry of satellites and to be characterized by a shift of coordinates during the whole interval of the vehicle passage, as well as by very short-period coordinate fluctuations which are related to specific morphological characteristics of the train reflective surfaces. The amplitude of the dynamic multipath is smaller in the horizontal coordinates, which are also characterized by a clearer pattern than the vertical coordinates. On the basis of the above results, certain strategies for the modeling of the dynamic multipath are proposed.