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At least 1,315 records · Page 73Linked to original sources
USGS1997

Crustal structure along the west flank of the Cascades, western Washington

Knowledge of the crustal structure of the Washington Cascades and adjacent Puget Lowland is important to both earthquake hazards studies and geologic studies of the evolution of this tectonically active region. We present a model for crustal velocity structure derived from analysis of seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection data collected in 1991 in western Washington. The 280-km-long north-south transect skirts the west flank of the Cascades as it crosses three tectonic provinces including the Northwest Cascades Thrust System (NWCS), the Puget Lowland, and the volcanic arc of the southern Cascades. Within the NWCS, upper crustal velocities range from 4.2 to 5.7 km s-1 and are consistent with the presence of a diverse suite of Mesozoic and Paleozoic metasediments and metavolcanics. In the upper 2-3 km of the Puget Lowland velocities drop to 1.7-3.5 km s-1 and reflect the occurrence of Oligocene to recent sediments within the basin. In the southern Washington Cascades, upper crustal velocities range from 4.0 to 5.5 km s-1 and are consistent with a large volume of Tertiary sediments and volcanics. A sharp change in velocity gradient at 5-10 km marks the division between the upper and middle crust. From approximately 10 to 35 km depth the velocity field is characterized by a velocity increase from ???6.0 to 7.2 km s-1. These high velocities do not support the presence of marine sedimentary rocks at depths of 10-20 km beneath the Cascades as previously proposed on the basis of magnetotelluric data. Crustal thickness ranges from 42 to 47 km along the profile. The lowermost crust consists of a 2 to 8-km-thick transitional layer with velocities of 7.3-7.4 km s-1. The upper mantle velocity appears to be an unusually low 7.6-7.8 km s-1. When compared to velocity models from other regions, this model most closely resembles those found in active continental arcs. Distinct seismicity patterns can be associated with individual tectonic provinces along the seismic transect. In the NWCS and Puget Lowland, most of the seismicity occurs below the base of the upper crust as defined by a seismic boundary at 5-10 km depth and continues to 20-30 km depth. The region of transition between the NWCS and the Puget Lowland appears as a gap in seismicity with notably less seismic activity north of the boundary between the two. Earthquakes within the Cascades are generally shallower (0-20 km) and are dominated by events associated with the Rainier Seismic Zone.

Washington↗
USGS1997

Permian deposition in the north central Brooks Range, Alaska: Constraints for tectonic reconstructions

Two opposing tectonic models have been offered to explain the regional structural relations in the north central Brooks Range fold-thrust belt of northern Alaska. The first suggests that rocks of the northern Endicott Mountains were thrust from south to north over the area of the present Mount Doonerak high and are therefore highly allochthonous. The second implies that the rocks of the northern Endicott Mountains were deposited in a basin that lay north of the Mount Doonerak high and later were thrust a short distance southward onto the northern flank of the high and are thus parautochthonous. To provide stratigraphic constraints for these models, this study examines Permian facies of the north central Brooks Range. Permian rocks in the north central Brooks Range comprise a thin (40 to 160 m thick), fining-upward succession of clastic, storm-influenced shelf deposits. When the rocks of the northern Endicott Mountains are restored south of the Mount Doonerak area, a minimum distance of 80 km, the Permian deposits grade systematically from distal facies (Siksikpuk Formation) in the southwest to proximal facies (Echooka Formation) in the northeast. Facies trends in the reconstructed Permian basin include, from southwest to northeast, (1) an increase in carbonate content and corresponding decrease in silica content, (2) a general darkening and thickening of shaley intervals, (3) an increase in proximal features of storm beds, including coarser, thicker, more abundant, and more closely spaced beds, and (4) an increase in abundance and diversity of the faunal assemblage with a corresponding decrease in age. These stratigraphic relations imply that rocks of the northern Endicott Mountains are allochthonous and structurally overlie a proximal stratigraphie succession similar to that exposed in the Mount Doonerak area and northeastern Brooks Range.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Strengths of serpentinite gouges at elevated temperatures

Serpentinite has been proposed as a cause of both low strength and aseismic creep of fault zones. To test these hypotheses, we have measured the strength of chrysotile-, lizardite-, and antigorite-rich serpentinite gouges under hydrothermal conditions, with emphasis on chrysotile, which has thus far received little attention. At 25°C, the coefficient of friction, μ, of chrysotile gouge is roughly 0.2, whereas the lizardite- and antigorite-rich gouges are at least twice as strong. The very low room temperature strength of chrysotile is a consequence of its unusually high adsorbed water content. When the adsorbed water is removed, chrysotile is as strong as pure antigorite gouge at room temperature. Heating to ∼200°C causes the frictional strengths of all three gouges to increase. Limited data suggest that different polytypes of a given serpentine mineral have similar strengths; thus deformation-induced changes in polytype should not affect fault strength. At 25°C, the chrysotile gouge has a transition from velocity strengthening at low velocities to velocity weakening at high velocities, consistent with previous studies. At temperatures up to ∼200°C, however, chrysotile strength is essentially independent of velocity at low velocities. Overall, chrysotile has a restricted range of velocity-strengthening behavior that migrates to higher velocities with increasing temperature. Less information on velocity dependence is available for the lizardite and antigorite gouges, but their behavior is consistent with that outlined for chrysotile. The marked changes in velocity dependence and strength of chrysotile with heating underscore the hazards of using room temperature data to predict fault behavior at depth. The velocity behavior at elevated temperatures does not rule out serpentinite as a cause of aseismic slip, but in the presence of a hydrostatic fluid pressure gradient, all varieties of serpentine are too strong to explain the apparent weakness of faults such as the San Andreas.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

A dynamic balance between magma supply and eruption rate at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii

The dynamic balance between magma supply and vent output at Kilauea volcano is used to estimate both the volume of magma stored within Kilauea volcano and its magma supply rate. Throughout most of 1991 a linear decline in volume flux from the Kupaianaha vent on Kilauea's east rift zone was associated with a parabolic variation in the elevation of Kilauea's summit as vent output initially exceeded then lagged behind the magma supply to the volcano. The correspondence between summit elevation and tilt established with over 30 years of data provided daily estimates of summit elevation in terms of summit tilt. The minimum in the parabolic variation in summit tilt and elevation (or zero elevation change) occurs when the magma supply to the reservoir from below the volcano equals the magma output from the reservoir to the surface, so that the magma supply rate is given by vent flux on that day. The measurements of vent flux and tilt establish that the magma supply rate to Kilauea volcano on June 19, 1991, was 217,000±10,000 m 3 /d (or 0.079±0.004 km 3 /yr). This is close to the average eruptive rate of 0.08 km 3 /yr between 1958 and 1984. In addition, the predictable response of summit elevation and tilt to each east rift zone eruption near Puu Oo since 1983 shows that summit deformation is also a measure of magma reservoir pressure. Given this, the correlation between the elevation of the Puu Oo lava lake (4 km uprift of Kupaianaha and 18 km from the summit) and summit tilt provides an estimate for magma pressure changes corresponding to summit tilt changes. The ratio of the change in volume to the change in reservoir pressure ( dV / dP ) during vent activity may be determined by dividing the ratio of volume erupted to change in summit tilt ( dV / d tilt ) by the ratio of pressure change to change in summit tilt ( dP / d tilt ). This measure of dV / dP , when combined with laboratory measurements of the bulk modulus of tholeitic melt, provides an estimate of 240±50 km 3 for the volume of Kilauea's magma reservoir. This estimate is much larger than traditional estimates but consistent with seismic tomographic imaging and geophysical modeling of Kilauea's magma system.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Quantifying Anderson's fault types

Anderson [1905] explained three basic types of faulting (normal, strike-slip, and reverse) in terms of the shape of the causative stress tensor and its orientation relative to the Earth's surface. Quantitative parameters can be defined which contain information about both shape and orientation [ Célérier , 1995], thereby offering a way to distinguish fault-type domains on plots of regional stress fields and to quantify, for example, the degree of normal-faulting tendencies within strike-slip domains. This paper offers a geometrically motivated generalization of Angelier's [1979, 1984, 1990] shape parameters ϕ and ψ to new quantities named A ϕ and A ψ . In their simple forms, A ϕ varies from 0 to 1 for normal, 1 to 2 for strike-slip, and 2 to 3 for reverse faulting, and Aψ/ranges from 0° to 60°, 60° to 120°, and 120° to 180°, respectively. After scaling, A ϕ and A ψ agree to within 2% (or 1°), a difference of little practical significance, although A ψ has smoother analytical properties. A formulation distinguishing horizontal axes as well as the vertical axis is also possible, yielding an A ϕ ranging from −3 to +3 and A ψ from −180° to +180°. The geometrically motivated derivation in three-dimensional stress space presented here may aid intuition and offers a natural link with traditional ways of plotting yield and failure criteria. Examples are given, based on models of Bird [1996] and Bird and Kong [1994], of the use of Anderson fault parameters A ϕ and A ψ for visualizing tectonic regimes defined by regional stress fields.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Seismic-geodynamic constraints on three-dimensional structure, vertical flow, and heat transfer in the mantle

Joint inversions of seismic and geodynamic data are carried out in which we simultaneously constrain global-scale seismic heterogeneity in the mantle as well as the amplitude of vertical mantle flow across the 670 km seismic discontinuity. These inversions reveal the existence of a family of three-dimensional (3-D) mantle models that satisfy the data while at the same time yielding predictions of layered mantle flow. The new 3-D mantle models we obtain demonstrate that the buoyancy forces due to the undulations of the 670 km phase-change boundary strongly inhibit the vertical flow between the upper and lower mantle. The strong stabilizing effect of the 670 km topography also has an important impact on the predicted dynamic topography of the Earth's solid surface and on the surface gravity anomalies. The new 3-D models that predict strongly or partially layered mantle flow provide essentially identical fits to the global seismic data as previous models that have, until now, predicted only whole-mantle flow. The convective vertical transport of heat across the mantle predicted on the basis of the new 3-D models shows that the heat flow is a minimum at 1000 km depth. This suggests the presence at this depth of a globally defined horizon across which the pattern of lateral heterogeneity changes rapidly.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Depth dependence of earthquake frequency-magnitude distributions in California: Implications for rupture initiation

Statistics of earthquakes in California show linear frequency-magnitude relationships in the range of M 2.0 to M 5.5 for various data sets. Assuming Gutenberg-Richter distributions, there is a systematic decrease in b value with increasing depth of earthquakes. We find consistent results for various data sets from northern and southern California that both include and exclude the larger aftershock sequences. We suggest that at shallow depth (∼0 to 6 km) conditions with more heterogeneous material properties and lower lithospheric stress prevail. Rupture initiations are more likely to stop before growing into large earthquakes, producing relatively more smaller earthquakes and consequently higher b values. These ideas help to explain the depth-dependent observations of foreshocks in the western United States. The higher occurrence rate of foreshocks preceding shallow earthquakes can be interpreted in terms of rupture initiations that are stopped before growing into the mainshock. At greater depth (9–15 km), any rupture initiation is more likely to continue growing into a larger event, so there are fewer foreshocks. If one assumes that frequency-magnitude statistics can be used to estimate probabilities of a small rupture initiation growing into a larger earthquake, then a small ( M 2) rupture initiation at 9 to 12 km depth is 18 times more likely to grow into a M 5.5 or larger event, compared to the same small rupture initiation at 0 to 3 km.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Southern California Permanent GPS Geodetic Array: Continuous measurements of regional crustal deformation between the 1992 Landers and 1994 Northridge earthquakes

The southern California Permanent GPS Geodetic Array (PGGA) was established in 1990 across the Pacific-North America plate boundary to continuously monitor crustal deformation. We describe the development of the array and the time series of daily positions estimated for its first 10 sites in the 19-month period between the June 28, 1992 ( M w =7.3), Landers and January 17, 1994 ( M w =6.7), Northridge earthquakes. We compare displacement rates at four site locations with those reported by Feigl et al. [1993], which were derived from an independent set of Global Positioning System (GPS) and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) measurements collected over nearly a decade prior to the Landers earthquake. The velocity differences for three sites 65–100 km from the earthquake's epicenter are of order of 3–5 mm/yr and are systematically coupled with the corresponding directions of coseismic displacement. The fourth site, 300 km from the epicenter, shows no significant velocity difference. These observations suggest large-scale postseismic deformation with a relaxation time of at least 800 days. The statistical significance of our observations is complicated by our incomplete knowledge of the noise properties of the two data sets; two possible noise models fit the PGGA data equally well as described in the companion paper by Zhang et al . [this issue]; the pre-Landers data are too sparse and heterogeneous to derive a reliable noise model. Under a fractal white noise model for the PGGA data we find that the velocity differences for all three sites are statistically different at the 99% significance level. A white noise plus flicker noise model results in significance levels of only 94%, 43%, and 88%. Additional investigations of the pre-Landers data, and analysis of longer spans of PGGA data, could have an important effect on the significance of these results and will be addressed in future work.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Gravity anomalies, Quaternary vents, and Quaternary faults in the southern Cascade Range, Oregon and California: Implications for arc and backarc evolution

Isostatic residual gravity anomalies in the southern Cascade Range of northern California and southern Oregon are spatially correlated with broad zones of Quaternary magmatism as reflected by the total volume of Quaternary volcanic products, the distribution of Quaternary vents, and the anomalously low teleseismic P wave velocities in the upper 30 km of crust. The orientation of Quaternary faults also appears to be related to gravity anomalies and volcanism in this area, trending generally north-south within the magmatic regions and northwest-southeast as they enter the neighboring amagmatic zones to the north and south. The relationship between gravity anomalies, vent density, and fault orientations may indicate in a broad sense the strength of the middle and upper crust. The southern Cascade Range occupies a transition zone where horizontal stress is transferred from the northwest-southeast dextral shear of the Walker Lane belt to the east-west extension characteristic of the Cascade arc in central Oregon. Faulting along north-south strikes in the volcanically active areas indicates the east-west extensional stresses in thermally weakened crust, whereas northwest faulting between the volcanically active areas reflects the northwest trending, right lateral shear strain of the Walker Lane belt. The segmentation of the arc reflected in Quaternary magmatism may be caused by differential extension behind crustal blocks of the forearc rotating clockwise with respect to North America. In this view the volcanic centers at Mount Shasta, Medicine Lake volcano, and Lassen Peak in northern California are situated along the southern parts of the trailing edges of two distinct segments of the forearc where additional extension is implied by their differential clockwise rotation.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Morphology and distribution of seamounts surrounding Easter Island

We investigate the morphology and distribution of a seamount population on a section of seafloor influenced by both superfast seafloor spreading and hotspot volcanism. The population under investigation is part of a broad chain of seamounts extending eastward from the East Pacific Rise, near Easter Island. In order to define the morphological variability of the seamounts, basal shape, cross-sectional area, volume, flatness, and flank slope are plotted against height for 383 seamounts with heights greater than 200 m, based on bathymetry data collected by GLORI-B and SeaBeam 2000, during three cruises onboard the R/V Melville in the spring of 1993. Nearly complete swath mapping coverage of the seamounts is available for the analysis of size and shape distribution. We quantitatively describe the seamount population of this active region, in which seamounts cover ???27% of the seafloor, and account for ???4.2% of the total crustal volume. Over 50% of the total volume (61,000 km3) of seamounts used in this study is made up by the 14 largest seamounts, and the remaining volume is made up by the 369 smaller seamounts (>200 m in height). Our analysis indicates there are at least two seamount populations in the Easter Island-Salas y Gomez Island (25??-29??S, 113??-104??W) study area. One population of seamounts is composed of short seamounts (<1200 m in height) with variable flatness from pointy cones to flattened domes (flatness from 0.01 to 0.57) and predominantly steep flanks (slopes from 5?? to 32??). A second population is of massive (>1200 m), shield-like, pointy cones (flatness < 0.2) and gentle slopes (from 5?? to 15??). An exponential maximum likelihood distribution is fit to the binned raw frequency of height and gives a characteristic height of the seamount population of 308??12m and an expected number of seamounts per 1000 km2 of 2.7??0.15. Many seamounts that have different slope and flatness relationships with height are formed next to each other. We speculate that the larger volcanoes (>???1200 m) originate exclusively from a hotspot source, but only a portion of the smaller volcanoes (<???1200 m) are formed from a hotspot source. The remainder would be presumably formed by a normal mantle or mixed source.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

The physical basis of glacier volume-area scaling

Ice volumes are known for only a few of the roughly 160,000 glaciers worldwide but are important components of many climate and sea level studies which require water flux estimates. A scaling analysis of the mass and momentum conservation equations shows that glacier volumes can be related by a power law to more easily observed glacier surface areas. The relationship requires four closure choices for the scaling behavior of glacier widths, slopes, side drag and mass balance. Reasonable closures predict a volume-area scaling exponent which is consistent with observations, giving a physical and practical basis for estimating ice volumes. Glacier volume is insensitive to perturbations in the mass balance scaling, but changes in average accumulation area ratios reflect significant changes in the scaling of both mass balance and ice volume.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

The roles of time and displacement in velocity-dependent volumetric strain of fault zones

The relationship between measured friction μ A and volumetric strain during frictional sliding was determined using a rate and state variable dependent friction constitutive equation, a common work balance relating friction and volume change, and two types of experimental faults: initially bare surfaces of Westerly granite and rock surfaces separated by a 1 mm layer of less than 90 μm Westerly granite gouge. The constitutive equation is the sum of a constant term representing the nominal resistance to sliding and two smaller terms: a rate dependent term representing the shear viscosity of the fault surface (direct effect), and a term which represents variations in the area of contact (evolution effect). The work balance relationship requires that μ A differs from the frictional resistance that leads to shear heating by the derivative of fault normal displacement with respect shear displacement, d δ n / d δ s . An implication of this relationship is that the rate dependence of d δ n / d δ s contributes to the rate dependence of μ A . Experiments show changes in sliding velocity lead to changes in both fault strength and volume. Analysis of data with the rate and state equations combined with the work balance relationship preclude the conventional interpretation of the direct effect in the rate and state variable constitutive equations. Consideration of a model bare surface fault consisting of an undeformable indentor sliding on a deformable surface reveals a serious flaw in the work balance relationship if volume change is time-dependent. For the model, at zero slip rate indentation creep under the normal load leads to time-dependent strengthening of the fault surface but, according to the work balance relationship, no work is done because compaction or dilatancy can only be induced by shearing. Additional tests on initially bare surfaces and gouges show that fault normal strain in experiments is time-dependent, consistent with the model. This time-dependent fault normal strain, which is not accounted for in the work balance relationship, explains the inconsistency between the constitutive equations and the work balance. For initially bare surface faults, all rate dependence of volume change is due to time dependence. Similar results are found for gouge. We conclude that μ A reflects the frictional resistance that results in shear heating, and no correction needs to be made for the volume changes. The result that time-dependent volume changes do not contribute to μ A is a general result and extends beyond these experiments, the simple indentor model and particular constitutive equations used to illustrate the principle.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Seismic reflection images beneath Puget Sound, western Washington State: The Puget Lowland thrust sheet hypothesis

Seismic reflection data show that the densely populated Puget Lowland of western Washington state is underlain by subhorizontal Paleogene and Neogene sedimentary rocks deformed by west and northwest trending faults and folds. From south to north beneath the Lowland, features seen on the seismic data include: the horizontally-stratified, 3.5 km thick Tacoma sedimentary basin; the Seattle uplift with south dipping (∼20°) strata on its south flank and steeply (50° to 90°) north dipping strata and the west-trending Seattle fault on its north flank; the 7.5 km thick, northward-thinning Seattle sedimentary basin; the antiformal Kingston arch; and the northwest trending, transpressional Southern Whidbey Island fault zone (SWIF). Interpreting the uplifts as fault-bend and fault-propagation folds leads to the hypothesis that the Puget Lowland lies on a north directed thrust sheet. The base of the thrust sheet may lie at 14 to 20 km depth within or at the base of a thick block of basaltic Crescent Formation; its edges may be right-lateral strike-slip faults along the base of the Cascade Range on the east and the Olympic Mountains on the west. Our model suggests that the Seattle fault has a long-term slip rate of about 0.25 mm/year and is large enough to generate a M 7.6 to 7.7 earthquake.

Washington↗
USGS1997

Chemical and isotopic evidence of gas-influenced flow at a transform plate boundary: Monterey Bay, California

Chemical and isotopic compositions of pore fluids document upward flow through communities of vesicomyid clams in Monterey Bay, California. Within the clam communities, the sulfate reduction zone is only 10 cm thick, and Ca and Mg concentrations decrease to values as low as 2.2 m M and 34.5 m M , respectively, at depths less than 30 cm below the sediment-water interface. Less than 5 m outside the communities, the base of the sulfate reduction zone is deeper than the greatest penetration of the cores (∼30 cm), and Ca and Mg exhibit only minor changes from seawater values. The sediment exhibits no significant variation in grain size, mineralogy, organic carbon, nitrogen, or carbonate content throughout the region. The composition of pore fluid within clam communities results from upward flow of altered fluid rather than different diagenetic reactions within and outside the communities. Isotopically light dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), with δ 13 C values ranging from −3.2 to −54.1‰, could reflect carbon sources from either oxidized thermogenic methane and/or a mixture of oxidized microbial methane and solid organic carbon. The C 1 /(C 2 +C 3 ) ratios (ranging from 34 to 1142) and the hydrogen and carbon isotopic compositions of methane (δD values of −109 to −156‰; δ 13 C values of −30.6 to −86.6‰) suggest that methane is primarily microbial but that a minor component could be thermally generated. Any thermogenic methane would have migrated from great depths, possibly >2 km. The presence of methane is likely to contribute to fluid flow by reducing the density of the fluids. Past fluid migration and venting are reflected by widespread carbonate mineralization at the sediment-water interface. This mineralization and the geographic distribution and proportions of microbial and thermogenic methane suggest that vent sites migrate when permeability is reduced during carbonate cementation. These results demonstrate that along with convergent and divergent plate boundaries, transform plate boundaries are characterized by fluid flow and that the flow may be widespread, occurring at sites away from fault zones.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1998

Ductile shear zones beneath strike-slip faults: Implications for the thermomechanics of the San Andreas fault zone

We have carried out two-dimensional (2-D) numerical experiments on the bulk flow of a layer of fluid that is driven in a strike-slip sense by constant velocities applied at its boundaries. The fluid has the (linearized) conventional rheology assumed to apply to lower crust/upper mantle rocks. The temperature dependence of the effective viscosity of the fluid and the shear heating that accompanies deformation have been incorporated into the calculations, as has thermal conduction in an overlying crustal layer. Two end-member boundary conditions have been considered, corresponding to a strong upper crust driving a weaker ductile substrate and a strong ductile layer driving a passive, weak crust. In many cases of practical interest, shear heating is concentrated close to the axial plane of the shear zone for either boundary condition. For these cases, the resulting steady state temperature field is well approximated by a cylindrical heat source embedded in a conductive half-space at a depth corresponding to the top of the fluid layer. This approximation, along with the application of a theoretical result for one-dimensional shear zones, permits us to obtain simple analytical approximations to the thermal effects of 2-D ductile shear zones for a range of assumed rheologies and crustal geotherms, making complex numerical calculations unnecessary. Results are compared with observable effects on heat flux near the San Andreas fault using constraints on the slip distribution across the entire fault system. Ductile shearing in the lower crust or upper mantle can explain the observed increase in surface heat flux southeast of the Mendocino triple junction and match the amplitude of the regional heat flux anomaly in the California Coast Ranges. Because ductile dissipation depends only weakly on slip rate, faults moving only a few millimeters per year can be important heat sources, and the superposition of effects of localized ductile shearing on both currently active and now inactive strands of the San Andreas system can explain the breadth of the heat flux anomaly across central California.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS2012

Stratigraphic contrasts and tectonic relationships between Carboniferous successions in the Trans-Alaska Crustal Transect corridor and adjacent areas, northern Alaska

The Carboniferous succession along the Trans-Alaska Crustal Transect (TACT) corridor in the Atigun Gorge area of the central Brooks Range consists of the Kayak Shale (Kinderhookian) and the Lisburne Group (Kinderhookian through Chesterian). The Kayak Shale is at least 210 m thick; it is chiefly black, noncalcareous shale with several limestone beds of pelmatozoan-bryozoan packstone and formed in an open-marine setting. The Lisburne Group is a carbonate rock succession about 650 m thick and consists mainly of skeletal packstone, wackestone, and milestone which contain locally abundant calcispheres, ostracodes, algae, and sponge spicules; it accumulated largely in a shallow water platform environment with restricted circulation. This restriction was probably produced by a coeval belt of skeletal sand shoals recognized 70 km to the west in the Shainin Lake area. Significant and apparently abrupt shifts in the age and lithofacies of Carboniferous strata occur across the central and eastern Brooks Range. These shifts are most marked in a zone roughly coincident with what is interpreted by many workers to be the leading edge of the Endicott Mountains allochthon. Notable lithologie contrasts are also observed, however, between sections in the northern and southern parts of the Endicott Mountains allochthon. This suggests that considerable tectonic shortening has taken place within the allochthon, as well as between it and parautochthonous rocks to the northeast. The Carboniferous section near Mount Doonerak is more similar in age and lithofacies to coeval sections in the central Brooks Range that are considered allochthonous than to parautochthonous sections to the northeast.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1998

Effects of slip, slip rate, and shear heating on the friction of granite

The stability of fault slip is sensitive to the way in which frictional strength responds to changes in slip rate and in particular to the effective velocity dependence of steady state friction Δμ ss /Δ ln V . This quantity can vary substantially with displacement, temperature and slip rate. To investigate the physical basis for this behavior and the possible influence of shear heating, we slid initially bare granite surfaces in unconfined rotary shear to displacements of hundreds of millimeters at normal stresses, σ n of 10 and 25 MPa and at room temperature. We imposed step changes in slip rate within the range 10 −2 to 10 3.5 μm/s and also monitored frictional heating with thermistors embedded in the granite. The transient response of μ to slip rate steps was fit to a rate- and state-dependent friction law using two state variables to estimate the values of several parameters in the constitutive law. The first 20 mm of slip shows rising friction and falling Δμ ss /Δ ln V ; further slip shows roughly constant friction, Δμ ss /Δ ln V and parameter values, suggesting that a steady state condition is reached on the fault surface. At V ≤ 10 μm/s, Δμ ss /Δ ln V = −0.004 ± 0.001. At higher rates the response is sensitive to normal stress: At σ n = 25 MPa granite shows a transition to effective velocity strengthening (Δμ ss /Δ ln V = 0.008 ± 0.004) at the highest slip rates tested. At 10 MPa granite shows a less dramatic change to Δμ ss /Δ ln V ≈ 0 at the highest rates. The maximum temperature measured in the granite is ∼60°C at 25 MPa and 10 3.5 μm/s. Temperatures are in general agreement with a numerical model of heat conduction which assumes spatially homogeneous frictional heating over the sliding surface. The simplest interpretation of our measurements of Δμ ss /Δ ln V is that the granite is inherently velocity weakening (∂μ ss /∂ ln V < 0) and temperature strengthening (∂μ ss /∂ T −1 < 0) at all velocities. At high slip rates the response of μ to changes in temperature from shear heating may outweigh the response to changing velocity, such that the net effect Δμ ss /Δ ln V > 0 mimics velocity strengthening. These results have implications for the frictional behavior of faults during earthquakes. High slip rates may cause a switch to effective velocity strengthening which could limit peak coseismic slip rate and stress drop. For fluid-saturated faults, strengthening by this mechanism may be partly or fully offset by weakening due to thermal pressurization of a poorly drained pore fluid.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1997

Uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains and the bedrock beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet

In recent years the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM), the largest noncontractional mountain belt in the world, have become the focus of modelers who explained their uplift by a variety of isostatic and thermal mechanisms. A problem with these models is a lack of available data to compare with model predictions. We report here the results of a 312-km-long geophysical traverse conducted in 1993/1994 in the hinterland of the TAM. Using detailed subglacial topography and gravity measurements, we confirm the origin of the TAM as a flexural uplift of the edge of East Antarctica. Using an elastic model with a free edge, we can jointly fit the topography and the gravity with a plate having an elastic thickness of 85±15 km and a preuplift elevation of 700±50 m for East Antarctica. Using a variety of evidence, we argue that the uplift is coincident with a relatively minor tectonic event of transtensional motion between East and West Antarctica during the Eocene rather than the Late Cretaceous rifting event that created the Ross Embayment. We suggest that this transtensional motion caused the continuous plate to break, which created an escarpment that significantly increased the rates of erosion and exhumation. Results from the geophysical traverse also extend our knowledge of the bedrock geology from the exposures within the TAM to the ice covered interior. Our interpretation suggests that the Ferrar flood basalts extend at least 100 km westward under the ice. The Beacon Supergroup of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments thins gradually under the ice and its reconstructed thickness is reminiscent of profiles of foreland basins. Finally, there is no indication in the gravity field for an incomplete rebound due to significant melting of the East Antarctic ice sheet since the last glacial period.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗