Chocolate tablet aspects of tectonics of Meshkenet Tessera on Venus

The intrablock deformation of Meshkenet Tessera on Venus is mostly due to responses of the uppermost surface bedrock to tensional stresses. It is found that complex deformation structures within the highland blocks resemble those of formed in chocolate tablet boudinaging which has taken place after original parallel faulting and bar-like crustal block formation. The high-angle tessera structures with varying cross-cutting relations define styles and locations of multiphase deformation most evidently related to local relaxation of tessera topography. Series of progressive or superposed fracturing events with alternating fault directions took place at high angles during this relaxational deformation. Compressional ridges often surround these tesserae.     

辽宁省深部构造特征及其地质意义

本文应用了最新取得的“五统一”区域重力成果，并经过对浅表松散槽（如下辽河断陷，大岩体等）的密度亏损进行补偿改正后，求取了全省的区域重力场及其垂向二次导数，计算了莫氏面等深度图。在分析区域重力场及其垂向二次导数异常特征和莫氏面起伏特征的基础上，划分出辽宁深部构造的基本格局。从平面上探讨了深部构造与地形地势、地质构造及矿产分布的关系，从剖面上剖析了辽宁省地壳分层的宏观特征     

再论贺兰山南部北西向构造成因

贺兰山南部分布着多个方向的构造，其中最明显地是一系列的北西向构造，目前这些构造的相互关系以及形成机制还没有得到合理地解释，争论很大；野外构造研究表明，贺兰山南部北西向构造的形成与青铜峡一固原断裂活动有密切的关系，是该断裂由走滑运动向挤压运动转换时的派生构造；从另一角度也说明，在中新生代由青铜峡一固原断裂所限定的地块(卫宁北山)向东运动，而这些北西向构造的形成主要发生在新生代。由于卫宁北山向东运动的动力来源于青藏高原，因此，贺兰山南部北西向构造的形成与青藏高原的演化有密切的联系。所以。作为中国重要地质界限的南北向构造——贺兰山已经被青藏高原的构造活动所叠加。     

Quaternary fault segmentation and interaction in the epicentral area of the 1561 earthquake (Mw = 6.4), Vallo di Diano, southern Apennines, Italy

The main structural characteristics of the Caggiano and Polla faults, exposed in the epicentral area of the 1561 earthquake (Mw = 6.4), southern Italy, have been investigated in detail to assess their spatial and temporal properties, and to evaluate their seismogenic potential. These right stepping normal faults show an overlap of about 7 km and an across strike separation of about 4 km. The geometric relationships between the Caggiano and Polla faults, but also the displacement distribution along each fault, demonstrate that they have been strongly interacting throughout the Pleistocene. Nevertheless, geological evidence of Holocene tectonic activity was mainly recognized along the Caggiano Fault (faulted late glacial deposits) and in the southernmost part of the Polla Fault (faulted deposits of probably Late Pleistocene age). This suggests that the Caggiano Fault can be considered as the most tectonically active fault in the Vallo di Diano Fault System. By calculating Coulomb stress changes, we have constrained modes of mechanical interactions between the two faults in a scenario compatible with the 1561 earthquake. This approach allows us to argue that both the Caggiano and the Polla Faults are probably linked at depth, and part of the same seismogenic structure which may be potentially responsible for composite ruptures with magnitude ≥ 6.5.     

Age estimates of coastal terraces in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and their tectonic implications

The great Indian Ocean earthquake of December 26, 2004 caused significant vertical changes in its rupture zone. About 800 km of the rupture is along the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which forms the outer arc ridge of the subduction zone. Coseismic deformation along the exposed land could be observed as uplift/subsidence. Here we analyze the morphological features along the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in an effort to reconstruct the past tectonics, taking cues from the coseismic effects. We obtained radiocarbon dates from coastal terraces of the island belt and used them to compute uplift rates, which vary from 1.33 mm yr^− 1 in the Little Andaman to 2.80 mm yr^− 1 in South Andaman and 2.45 mm yr^− 1 in the North Andaman. Our radiocarbon dates converge on  600 yr and  1000 yr old coastal uplifts, which we attribute to the level changes due to two major previous subduction earthquakes in the region.     

Opening of the Fram Strait gateway: A review of plate tectonic constraints

We have revised the regional crustal structure, oceanic age distribution, and conjugate margin segmentation in and around the Lena Trough, the oceanic part of the Fram Strait between the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and the Eurasia Basin (Arctic Ocean). The Lena Trough started to open after Eurasia–Greenland relative plate motions changed from right-lateral shear to oblique divergence at Chron 13 times (33.3 Ma; earliest Oligocene). A new Bouguer gravity map, supported by existing seismic data and aeromagnetic profiles, has been applied to interpret the continent–ocean transition and the influence of Eocene shear structures on the timing of breakup and initial seafloor spreading. Assuming that the onset of deep-water exchange depended on the formation of a narrow, oceanic corridor, the gateway formed during early Miocene times (20–15 Ma). However, if the initial Lena Trough was blocked by terrigenous sediments or was insufficiently subsided to allow for deep-water circulation, the gateway probably formed with the first well developed magnetic seafloor spreading anomaly around Chron 5 times (9.8 Ma; Late Miocene). Paleoceanographic changes at ODP Site 909 (northern Hovgård Ridge) are consistent with both hypotheses of gateway formation. We cannot rule out that a minor gateway formed across stretched continental crust prior to the onset of seafloor spreading in the Lena Trough. The gravity, seismic and magnetic observations question the prevailing hypotheses on the Yermak Plateau and the Morris Jesup Rise as Eocene oceanic plateaus and the Hovgård Ridge as a microcontinent.