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R. O. Castle

Publications and source records attributed to R. O. Castle.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

An examination of the southern California field test for the systematic accumulation of the optical refraction error in geodetic leveling

Appraisals of the two levelings that formed the southern California field test for the accumulation of the atmospheric refraction error indicate that random error and systematic error unrelated to refraction competed with the systematic refraction error and severely complicate any analysis of the test results. If the fewer than one-third of the sections that met less than second-order, class I standards are dropped, the divergence virtually disappears between the presumably more refraction contaminated long-sight-length survey and the less contaminated short-sight-length survey.

Geophysical Research Letters↗
USGS2012

Empirical estimates of cumulative refraction errors associated with procedurally constrained levelings based on the Gaithersburg- Tucson refraction tests of the National Geodetic Survey

Analyses of results of the National Geodetic Survey's leveling refraction tests indicate that the standard deviation about the mean (σ) for high-scale minus low-scale rod readings closely correlates with measured refraction error. Use of this relation in conjunction with values for σ obtained from routinely constrained surveys provides a basis for estimating the refraction error associated with levelings of stipulated order and class.

Geophysical Research Letters↗
USGS2012

An assessment of the accuracy of the geodetic measurements that define the southern California uplift

Examination of the charge that the geodetic measurements which define the southern California uplift are seriously flawed by height-dependent systematic errors indicates that this charge is unfounded. Our review of those factors designed to minimize the effects of rod error shows that systematic errors attributable to rod miscalibration are trivial and would tend to cancel during the particularly pertinent period 1955–1965. Comparisons between the results of measurements in which the correlation between topography and signal is generally poor reveal large aseismic tilts in a number of places within and around the margins of the uplift. Especially significant in this context are the results of preuplift and postuplift levelings over routes characterized by diverse length, topography, and atmospheric conditions that produce closely matching, temporally equivalent heights for a representative bench mark within the uplift. Statistical analyses of the short-wavelength components of uplift signal and elevation along a frequently repeated survey line indicate variable correlations between the two. However, the spatial and temporal patterns of these correlations are inconsistent with their attribution to height-dependent systematic errors. Statistically significant short-wavelength correlations along this survey line are reasonably explained in part as due to real movement associated with differentially subsiding bench marks, and there is a strong likelihood that this movement tends to dominate many of the correlations.

Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth↗
USGS1996

The southern California uplift and associated earthquakes

Southern California earthquakes ≥ M5.5 during the period 1955/01/01–1994/01/17 were concentrated along or adjacent to the south flank of the southern California uplift, as defined both at its culmination and following its partial collapse. Spatial clustering of these earthquakes within three more-or-less distinct groups suggests either gaps along the south flank that were previously filled or are yet to be filled. Nearly all of the indicated earthquakes accompanied or followed partial collapse of the uplift, and seismic activity within this regime seems to have been increasing through at least 1994/01/17.

Geophysical Research Letters↗
USGS1993

An exsolution silica-pump model for the origin of myrmekite

Myrmekite, as defined here, is the microscopic intergrowth between vermicular quartz and modestly anorthitic plagioclase (calcic albite-oligoclase), intimately associated with potassium feldspar in plutonic rocks of granitic composition. Hypotheses previously invoked in explanation of myrmekite include: (1) direct crystallization; (2) replacement; (3) exsolution. The occurrence of myrmekite in paragneisses and its absence in rocks devold of discrete grains of potassium feldspar challenge those hypotheses based on direct crystallization or replacement. However, several lines of evidence indicate that myrmekite may in fact originate in response to kinetic effects associated with the exsolution of calcic alkali feldspar into discrete potassium feldspar and plagioclase phases. Exsolution of potassium feldspar system projected from [AlSi2O8] involves the exchange CaAlK-1Si-1, in which the AlSi-1 tetrahedral couple is resistant to intracrystalline diffusion. By contrast, diffusion of octahedral K proceeds relatively easily where it remains uncoupled to the tetrahedral exchange. We suggest here that where the ternary feldspar system is open to excess silica, the exchange reaction that produces potassium feldspar in the ternary plane is aided by the net-transfer reaction K+Si=Orthoclase, leaving behind indigenous Si that reports as modal quartz in the evolving plagioclase as the CaAl component is concomitantly incorporated in this same phase. Thus silica is "pumped" into the reaction volume from a "silica reservoir", a process that enhances redistribution of both Si and Al through the exsolving ternary feldspar. ?? 1993 Springer-Verlag.

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology↗
USGS1992

A revised configuration of the southern California uplift

Recently recovered archival leveling data from southwestern Arizona and adjacent parts of California compel major revisions in the configuration and interpretation of the southern California uplift, both at its culmination and following its partial collapse. Re-examination of the older vertical-control record indicates that similar modifications may be equally appropriate in any reconsideration of the early-20th-century analogue of the southern California uplift. The impact of these revisions is limited to the southeastern part of the uplift, which is now believed to have projected well into northern Mexico. The chief changes in our earlier reconstructions appear as a sharply diminished isobase gradient south of Cottonwood Pass, dramatically reduced tectonic subsidence centering on the Salton Sea, and short-lived uplift of at least 0.3 m at the latitude of El Centro. A newly refined qualitative interpretation of the data implies contraction and decoupling at the base of the seismogenic zone, in conjunction with right-stepping movement and extension between an en echelon transform pair through the Salton Basin, combining to produce both the regional uplift and concurrently developed and relatively localized differential subsidence within the Salton Trough.

California↗
USGS1980

Tectonic state: its significance and characterization in the assessment of seismic effects associated with reservoir impounding

Any analysis of seismicity associated with the filling of large reservoirs requires an evaluation of the natural tectonic state in order to determine whether impoundment is the basic source, a mechanically unrelated companion feature, or a triggering stimulus of the observed seismicity. Several arguments indicate that the associated seismicity is usually a triggered effect. Among the elements of tectonic state considered here (existing fractures, accumulated elastic strain, and deformational style), deformational style is especially critical in forecasting the occurrence of impoundment-induced seismicity. The observational evidence indicates that seismicity associated with impounding generally occurs in areas that combine steeply dipping faults, relatively high strain rates, and either extensional or horizontal-shear strain. Simple physical arguments suggest: (1) that increased fluid pressures resulting from increased reservoir head should enhance the likelihood of seismic activity, whatever the tectonic environment; (2) that stress changes resulting from surface loading may increase the likelihood of crustal failure in areas of normal and transcurrent faulting, whereas they generally inhibit failure in areas of thrust faulting. Comparisons with other earthquake-producing artificial and natural processes (underground explosions, fluid injection, underground mining, fluid extraction, volcanic emissions) indicate that reservoir loading may similarly modify the natural tectonic state. Subsurface loading resulting from fluid extraction may be a particularly close analogue of reservoir loading; "seismotectonic" events associated with fluid extraction have been recognized in both seismically active and otherwise aseismic regions. Because the historic record of seismicity and surface faulting commonly is short in comparison with recurrence intervals of earthquake and fault-slip events, tectonic state is most reliably appraised through combined studies of historic seismicity and faulting, instrumentally measured strain, and the geological record, especially that of the Quaternary. Experience in California and elsewhere demonstrates that the character and activity of recognized faults can be assessed by means of: instrumental earthquake investigations, repeated geodetic measurements, written history, archeological studies, fault topography, and local stratigraphic relations. Where faults are less easily distinguished, appraisals of tectonic state may be based on both the regional seismicity and the regional history of vertical movement as shown by: repeated levelling and sea-level measurements, written history, archeologic investigations, terrace and shoreline deformation, and denudation and sedimentation studies.

Engineering Geology↗
USGS1979

Initiation and development of the southern California uplift along its northern margin

Analysis of three first-order leveling lines that traverse the White Wolf fault (site of the 1952 M = 7.7 earthquake), each resurveyed nine times between 1926 and 1974, reveals probable preseismic tilting, major coseismic movements, and a spatial association between these movements and the subsequently recognized southern California uplift. In examining the vertical control record, we have both searched for evidence of systematic errors and excluded from consideration portions of the lines contaminated by subsurface fluid and gas extraction. Movements have been referred to an invariant datum based on the 1926 position of tidal BM 8 in San Pedro, corrected for subsequent eustatic sea-level change. An 8 μrad up-to-the-north preseismic tilt (6 cm/7.5 km) was apparently recorded on two adjacent line segments within 10 km of the 1952 epicenter between 1942 and 1947. It is possible, however, that this tilt was in part caused by extraction-induced subsidence at one of the six releveled benchmarks. Data also show evidence of episodic tilts that are not earthquake related. At the junction of the Garlock and San Andreas faults, for example, an ≥5 μrad up-to-the-north tilt (7.2 cm/≤16 km) took place between Lebec and Grapevine within three months during 1964. Comparison of the 1947 and 1953 surveys, which includes the coseismic interval, shows that the SW-fault end (nearest the epicenter) and the central fault reach sustained four times the uplift recorded at the NE end of the fault (+72 cm SW, +53 cm Central, +16 cm NE). A regional postseismic uplift of 4 cm extended ≥25 km to either side of the fault after the main event, from 1953 to 1956. An interval of relative quiescence followed at least through 1959, in which the elevation change did not exceed ±3 cm. The detailed pattern of aseismic uplift demonstrates that movement proceeded in space—time pulses: one half of the uplift at the SW-fault end and extending southward occurred between 1959 and 1961, one half of the uplift at the NE-fault end and extending eastward occurred between 1961 and 1965, while the central fault reach sustained successive pulses of subsidence, uplift, and collapse (−4 cm, 1953–1960; +7 cm, 1960–1965; −2 cm, 1965–1970). In addition, the number of aftershocks concentrated near the fault ends increased in the NE relative to the SW from 1952 to 1974. These observations suggest that the aseismic uplift may have migrated northeastward from 1959 to 1965 at an approximate rate of 7–16 km/yr. Evidence for a mechanical coupling between the earthquake and the subsequent aseismic uplift is equivocal. At both fault ends, the major NWbounding flexure or tilted front of the southern California uplift is spatially coincident with the coseismic flexure that preceded it. In addition, the postulated migration of vertical deformation is similar to the 1952 seismic event in which the rupture initiated at the SW end of the fault and then propagated to the NE-fault end. However, the spatial distribution of aseismic uplift, nearly identical at both fault ends and to the south and east, and near zero in the central fault reach, is distinctly different from the nonuniform and localized coseismic deformation.

California↗
USGS1976

Seismicity and faulting attributable to fluid extraction

The association between fluid injection and seismicity has been well documented and widely publicized. Less well known, but probably equally widespread are faulting and shallow seismicity attributable solely to fluid extraction, particularly in association with petroleum production. Two unequivocable examples of seismicity and faulting associated with fluid extraction in the United States are: The Goose Creek, Texas oil field event of 1925 (involving surface rupture); and the Wilmington, California oil field events (involving subsurface rupture) of 1947, 1949, 1951 (2), 1955, and 1961. Six additional cases of intensity I-VII earthquakes (M < 4.6) without reported faulting may be attributable to shallow production from other large oil and gas fields. In addition to these examples are thirteen cases of apparently aseismic surface rupture associated with production from California and Texas oil fields. Small earthquakes in the Eloy-Picacho area of Arizona may be attributable to withdrawal of groundwater, but their relation to widespread fissuring is enigmatic. The clearest example of extraction-induced seismicity outside of North America is the 1951 series of earthquakes associated with gas production from the Po River delta near Caviga, Italy. Faulting and seismicity associated with fluid extraction are attributed to differential compaction at depth caused by reduction of reservoir fluid pressure and attendant increase in effective stress. Surface and subsurface measurements and theoretical and model studies show that differential compaction leads not only to differential subsidence and centripetally-directed horizontal displacements, but to changes in both vertical- and horizontal-strain regimes. Study of well-documented examples indicates that the occurrence and nature of faulting and seismicity associated with compaction are functions chiefly of: (1) the pre-exploitation strain regime, and (2) the magnitude of contractional horizontal strain centered over the compacting materials relative to that of the surrounding annulus of extensional horizontal strain. The examples cited include natural systems strained only by extraction of fluids, as well as some subsequently subjected to injection. Faulting and seismicity have accompanied both decrease and subsequent increase of fluid pressures; reversal of fluid-pressure decline by injection may enhance the likelihood of subsurface faulting and seismicity due chiefly to earlier fluid pressure reduction. A consistent common denominator appears to be continuing compaction at depth; the relative effects of fluid extraction followed by injection are not easily separated.

Engineering Geology↗