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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2019

Lithosphere and shallow asthenosphere rheology from observations of post-earthquake relaxation

In tectonically active regions, post-earthquake motions are generally shaped by a combination of continued fault slippage (afterslip) on a timescale of days to months and viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle on a timescale of days to years. Transient crustal motions have been observed following numerous magnitude >~7 earthquakes in various tectonic settings: continental rift zones (Basin and Range), continental plate boundary zones (San Andreas fault corridor; Alaska; Turkey), subduction zones (Japan, Chile, Sumatra), ongoing continental collision zones (Arabia; Tibet), and mid-ocean rifting zones (Iceland). When afterslip can be discriminated from viscoelastic relaxation and when temporal coverage of the postseismic measurements is broad (i.e., geodetic surveys of at least several years duration are available), a wide spectrum of relaxation timescales are usually identified. Current temporal resolution and modeling approaches (e.g., Burgers body analog) allow identification of transient (Kelvin) and steady-state (Maxwell) viscosities that are operable in the short-term and long-term, respectively. I compile results from 40 studies of post-earthquake motions, augmented by ten studies of contemporary surface loading or unloading, that illuminate current estimates of transient and steady-state viscosity of the lower crust and/or uppermost mantle. Lower crust viscosity estimates range from ~ 10 18 to 10 21 Pa s, with most estimates near the upper end except in areas of overthickened crust. Mantle lithosphere and asthenosphere viscosity estimates are particularly abundant and yield a picture of transient viscosity ranging from ~10 16 to 10 19 Pa s and steady-state viscosity ranging from ~10 18 to 10 21 Pa s. To first order, both transient and steady-state viscosities are well correlated with regional heat flow, and steady-state viscosities are comparable with temperature and strain-rate dependent rock viscosities from laboratory-based flow laws.

Physics of Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1991

Tritium concentrations in the active Pu'u O'o crater, Kilauea volcano, Hawaii: implications for cold fusion in the Earth's interior

The assertion that deuterium-deuterium fusion may occur at low temperature suggests a potential new source of geothermal heat. If a cold-fusion-like process occurs within the Earth, then a test for its existence would be a search for anomalous tritium in volcanic emissions. The Pu'u O'o crater is the first point at which large amounts of water are degassed from the magma that feeds the Kilauea system. The magma is probably not contaminated by meteoric-source ground water prior to degassing at Pu'u O'o, although mixing of meteoric and magmatic H2O occurs within the crater. Tritium contents of samples from within the crater are lower than in samples taken simultaneously from the nearby upwind crater rim. These results provide no evidence in support of a cold-fusion-like process in the Earth's interior. ?? 1991.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1996

The Flinn-Engdahl Regionalisation Scheme: The 1995 revision

The Flinn-Engdahl Regionalisation Scheme, also known as the F-E Code, has been used by seismologists for many years to identify and specify regions of the Earth. The Working Group on Regionalisation of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI) Commission on Practice has the task of defining a new standard for the regionalisation of the Earth. In the meantime, it was agreed that a revision of the F-E Code would be appropriate. This paper presents the 1995 revision and supersedes the F-E Code standard published in 1974.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1977

Orientale and Caloris

Applications of experimental explosion-crater data to Orientale and recent geologic mapping of the basin have produced a new stratigraphy and genetic model for Orientale that are also applicable to Caloris. The inner-basin scarp of Orientale is thought to be a bench separating the upper parts of the basin from its deep bowl-shaped interior. The elongated and complexly fractured domes of the basin floor formed by inward compression in the terminal stages of the cratering sequence. The Inner Montes Rook are considered a central peak ring. The Montes Rook and the nonlineated knobby and associated smoother materials that overlie the Cordillera scarp around much of its circumference are the uppermost parts of the overturned rim flap which formed early in the cratering event. The knobs and smaller massifs are probably coherent blocks quarried from deep within the moon. They were among the last materials to leave the basin and had little radial momentum unlike the lineated Hevelius which formed earlier by disaggregation of the rim flap, secondary cratering, and the ground surge. The Cordillera scarp, best seen on the east side of the basin but poorly developed and discontinuous on the west, is a primary feature formed early in the crater excavation process by basinward motions of the walls and the fractured zone beyond the rim of the expanding cavity. The Cordillera scarp is overlain by ejecta over most of its extent, and post-basin internal slumping, previously thought to be important, must be a subordinate process in development of the scarp. The basin fill in Caloris has no counterpart in Orientale but the materials between the most prominent scarp and the weakly developed outer scarp appear to be the degraded and possibly mantled equivalents of the massifs and knobs associated with the Montes Rook. The radially lineated terrain that generally lies beyond the outer scarp of Caloris is considered the subdued counterpart of the Hevelius Formation, which generally shows the same relation to the Cordillera scarp at Orientale. Thus, the prominent innermost scarp of the Caloris basin is the equivalent of the Montes Rook. Beyond this scarp is the overturned flap covered by large blocks and massifs derived from a deep horizon in Mercury where the bedrock is more coherent than the upper impact-brecciated layers. The radially lineated deposits, as in Orientale, are earlier-arriving basin ejecta and secondary-crater materials mixed with the pre-basin surface all of which were modified by the ground surge. This comparison between Orientale and Caloris suggests that one or more buried ring structures should be present inside Caloris and that Mercury is also layered internally as is the moon. The differences in spacing and development of the ring structures or circumferential scarps of Orientale and Caloris are probably gravitational effects. ?? 1977.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1968

Paleomagnetism and the compositions of highly-oxidised iron-titanium oxides in basalts

As a preliminary step towards determination of the source of the natural remanence in highly-oxidised basalt lava flows, electron probe microanalysis has been carried out on the two main phases in each of two types of highly-oxidised iron-titanium oxide. The discovery of the source of NRM in these basalts is important because the correlations obtained recently by several workers between high oxidation and reversed polarity in basalts appear to support the possibility of self-reversal, even though some of the rocks studied give independent indications that the reversed magnetizations are due to field reversal. In one type of grain analysed the probe data are consistent with a titanohematite phase and a pseudobrookite phase. This agrees with previous petrographic data. In the other type of grain the probe data are consistent with one phase of titanohematite but contradict petrographic data by showing that the other phase cannot be titanomagnetite. It is concluded that significant contributions to the NRM could possibly arise from the titanohematite (whose magnetic properties in basalts are little known) or the unindentified phase (unless subsequent work rules this phase out), but not in the pseudobrookite phase. However, the NRM may not lie in the analysed grains at all; and other workers are at present investigating this possibility.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1969

On the global variations of terrestrial heat-flow

Over 3 500 measurements of surface heat-flux have been catalogued and analyzed to study the large-scale variations of terrestrial heat-flow. It was found that heat-flow values are correlated with major geologic provinces: higher averages and scattered values in active tectonic regions, and lower averages and more uniform values in stable areas. Analyzing the data in the light of new global tectonics shows that the variations of heat-flow are consistent with the hypotheses of sea-floor spreading and plate tectonics. The observed heat-flow across the mid-oceanic ridges can be accounted for by a simple model of a spreading sea floor.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1976

A study of alternative schemes for extrapolation of secular variation at observatories

The geomagnetic secular variation is not well known. This limits the useful life of geomagnetic models. The secular variation is usually assumed to be linear with time. It is found that attenative schemes that employ quasiperiodic variations from internal and external sources can improve the extrapolation of secular variation at high-quality observatories. Although the schemes discussed are not yet fully applicable in worldwide model making, they do suggest some basic ideas that may be developed into useful tools in future model work. ?? 1976.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1979

Lunar magnetic anomalies detected by the Apollo substatellite magnetometers

Properties of lunar crustal magnetization thus far deduced from Apollo subsatellite magnetometer data are reviewed using two of the most accurate presently available magnetic anomaly maps - one covering a portion of the lunar near side and the other a part of the far side. The largest single anomaly found within the region of coverage on the near-side map correlates exactly with a conspicuous, light-colored marking in western Oceanus Procellarum called Reiner Gamma. This feature is interpreted as an unusual deposit of ejecta from secondary craters of the large nearby primary impact crater Cavalerius. An age for Cavalerius (and, by implication, for Reiner Gamma) of 3.2 ?? 0.2 ?? 109 y is estimated. The main (30 ?? 60 km) Reiner Gamma deposit is nearly uniformly magnetized in a single direction, with a minimum mean magnetization intensity of ???7 ?? 10-2 G cm3/g (assuming a density of 3 g/cm3), or about 700 times the stable magnetization component of the most magnetic returned samples. Additional medium-amplitude anomalies exist over the Fra Mauro Formation (Imbrium basin ejecta emplaced ???3.9 ?? 109 y ago) where it has not been flooded by mare basalt flows, but are nearly absent over the maria and over the craters Copernicus, Kepler, and Reiner and their encircling ejecta mantles. The mean altitude of the far-side anomaly gap is much higher than that of the near-side map and the surface geology is more complex, so individual anomaly sources have not yet been identified. However, it is clear that a concentration of especially strong sources exists in the vicinity of the craters Van de Graaff and Aitken. Numerical modeling of the associated fields reveals that the source locations do not correspond with the larger primary impact craters of the region and, by analogy with Reiner Gamma, may be less conspicuous secondary crater ejecta deposits. The reason for a special concentration of strong sources in the Van de Graaff-Aitken region is unknown, but may be indirectly related to the existence of strongly modified crustal terrain which also occurs in the same region. The inferred directions of magnetization for the several sources of the largest anomalies are highly inclined with respect to one another, but are generally depleted in the north-south direction. The north-south depletion of magnetization intensity appears to continue across the far-side within the region of coverage. The mechanism of magnetization and the origin of the magnetizing field remain unresolved, but the uniformity with which the Reiner Gamma deposit is apparently magnetized, and the north-south depletion of magnetization intensity across a substantial portion of the far side, seem to require the existence of an ambient field, perhaps of global or larger extent. The very different inferred directions of magnetization possessed by nearly adjacent sources of the Van de Graaff-Aitken anomalies, and the depletion in their north-south component of magnetization, do not favor an internally generated dipolar field oriented parallel to the present spin axis. A variably oriented interplanetary magnetizing field that was intrinsically strong or locally amplified by unknown surface processes is least inconsistent with the data. ?? 1979.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1981

The Montenegro, Yugoslavia, earthquake of April 15, 1979: source orientation and strength

Long-period teleseismic P, S and Rayleigh waves and geologic considerations indicate that the Montenegro earthquake involved thrust faulting on a plane striking nearly parallel to the Adriatic coast and dipping ca. 15?? toward the Yugoslav mainland. There is some support from modeling of body waves recorded on long-period WWSSN instruments for a focal depth of 22 km, but the possibility of a multiple source and the difficulty of matching some of the detailed characteristics of the P- and S-wave forms reduce our confidence in the determination of the depth. Fortunately, the source orientation and moment of the event are not sensitive functions of the depth. The long-period (256 s) moment was 4.6 ?? 1019 Nm (4.6 ?? 1026 dyne-cm). The moment obtained by fitting the first cycle of P and S waves recorded on WWSSN long-period instruments is about four times smaller. This increase of moment with period is consistent with spectral estimates of the moment from SH waves recorded at SRO and ASRO stations. ?? 1981.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1982

Earthquake location in island arcs

A comprehensive data set of selected teleseismic P-wave arrivals and local-network P- and S-wave arrivals from large earthquakes occurring at all depths within a small section of the central Aleutians is used to examine the general problem of earthquake location in island arcs. Reference hypocenters for this special data set are determined for shallow earthquakes from local-network data and for deep earthquakes from combined local and teleseismic data by joint inversion for structure and location. The high-velocity lithospheric slab beneath the central Aleutians may displace hypocenters that are located using spherically symmetric Earth models; the amount of displacement depends on the position of the earthquakes with respect to the slab and on whether local or teleseismic data are used to locate the earthquakes. Hypocenters for trench and intermediate-depth events appear to be minimally biased by the effects of slab structure on rays to teleseismic stations. However, locations of intermediate-depth events based on only local data are systematically displaced southwards, the magnitude of the displacement being proportional to depth. Shallow-focus events along the main thrust zone, although well located using only local-network data, are severely shifted northwards and deeper, with displacements as large as 50 km, by slab effects on teleseismic travel times. Hypocenters determined by a method that utilizes seismic ray tracing through a three-dimensional velocity model of the subduction zone, derived by thermal modeling, are compared to results obtained by the method of joint hypocenter determination (JHD) that formally assumes a laterally homogeneous velocity model over the source region and treats all raypath anomalies as constant station corrections to the travel-time curve. The ray-tracing method has the theoretical advantage that it accounts for variations in travel-time anomalies within a group of events distributed over a sizable region of a dipping, high-velocity lithospheric slab. In application, JHD has the practical advantage that it does not require the specification of a theoretical velocity model for the slab. Considering earthquakes within a 260 km long by 60 km wide section of the Aleutian main thrust zone, our results suggest that the theoretical velocity structure of the slab is presently not sufficiently well known that accurate locations can be obtained independently of locally recorded data. Using a locally recorded earthquake as a calibration event, JHD gave excellent results over the entire section of the main thrust zone here studied, without showing a strong effect that might be attributed to spatially varying source-station anomalies. We also calibrated the ray-tracing method using locally recorded data and obtained results generally similar to those obtained by JHD. ?? 1982.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1984

Preliminary results, Central Gneiss Complex of the Coast Range batholith, southeastern Alaska: the roots of a high-K, calc-alkaline arc?

The Central Gneiss Complex (CGC) of the Coast Range batholith is the oldest unit of the batholith east of Ketchikan, Alaska, being dated by the zircon UPb method (by T.W. Stern) at 128-140 Ma. Heterogeneous, layered, commonly migmatitic, orthogneiss of hornblende-biotite quartz diorite, tonalite, quartz monzodiorite and granodiorite compositions (IUGS terminology) form the major part of the CGC. These gneisses show a range of 50-65% SiO2 and are high in Al2O3 (c. 15-19%), K2O (1.5-4%) and Sr (800-900 ppm). Most major elements show coherent, typically magmatic trends with SiO2. La and Rb show maxima at ??? 58% SiO2. Initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios are relatively high and range from 0.7052 to 0.7066. Wallrocks of the CGC are mostly metagraywacke, pelite and metavolcanic rocks at amphibolite facies; they are geochemically dissimilar to the CGC. Major and minor elements of the CGC are very similar to those of high-K orogenic, calc-alkaline andesitic suites. The CGC may have formed largely by fractionation of mantle-derived, high AlKSr basaltic liquid in an ascending diapir, having hornblende, plagioclase, and biotite as major precipitating phases. The CGC probably represents the plutonic equivalent of a continental-margin or Andean arc that formed when the Taku terrane of the Insular belt on the west collided with the previously emplaced (but also allochthonous) Stikine terrane on the east in Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous time. ?? 1984.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1985

More on the alleged 1970 geomagnetic jerk

French and United Kingdom workers have published reports describing a sudden change in the secular acceleration, called an impulse or a jerk, which took place around 1970. They claim that this change took place in a period of a year or two and that the sources of the alleged jerk are internal. An earlier paper by this author questioned their method of analysis pointing out that their method of piecemeal fitting of parabolas to the data will always create a discontinuity in the secular acceleration where the parabolas join and that the place where the parabolas join is an a priori assumption and not a result of the analysis. This paper gives a very brief summary of this first paper and then adds additional reasons for questioning the allegation that there was a worldwide sudden jerk in the magnetic field of internal origin around 1970. These new reasons are based largely on new field models which give cubic approximations of the field right through the 1970 timeframe and therefore have no discontinuities in the second derivative (jerk) around 1970. Some recent Japanese work shows several sudden changes in the secular variation pattern which cover limited areas and do not seem to be closely related to each other or to the irregularity noted in the European area near 1970. The secular variation picture which seems to be emerging is one with many local or limited-regional secular variation changes which appear to be almost unrelated to each other in time or space. A worldwide spherical harmonic model including coefficients up to degree 13 could never properly depict such a situation. ?? 1985.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1985

The near-source strong-motion accelerograms recorded by an experimental array in Tangshan, China

A joint research project on strong-motion earthquake studies between the People's Republic of China and the United States is in progress. As a part of this project, an experimental strong-motion array, consisting of twelve Kinemetrics PDR-1 Digital Event Recorders, was deployed in the meizoseismal area of the Ms = 7.8 Tangshan earthquake of July 28, 1976. These instruments have automatic gain ranging, a specified dynamic range of 102 dB, a 2.5 s pre-event memory, programmable triggering, and are equipped with TCG-1B Time Code Generators with a stability of 3 parts in 107 over a range of 0-50??C. In 2 y of operation beginning July, 1982 a total of 603 near-source 3-component accelerograms were gathered from 243 earthquakes of magnitude ML = 1.2-5.3. Most of these accelerograms have recorded the initial P-wave. The configuration of the experimental array and a representative set of near-source strong-motion accelerograms are presented in this paper. The set of accelerograms exhibited were obtained during the ML = 5.3 Lulong earthquake of October 19, 1982, when digital event recorders were triggered. The epicentral distances ranged from 4 to 41 km and the corresponding range of peak horizontal accelerations was 0.232g to 0.009g. A preliminary analysis of the data indicates that compared to motions in the western United States, the peak acceleration attenuates much more rapidly in the Tangshan area. The scaling of peak acceleration with magnitude, however, is similar in the two regions. Data at more distant sites are needed to confirm the more rapid attenuation. ?? 1985.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1987

Moment tensor solutions estimated using optimal filter theory for 51 selected earthquakes, 1980-1984

The 51 global events that occurred from January 1980 to March 1984, which were chosen by the convenors of the Symposium on Seismological Theory and Practice, have been analyzed using a moment tensor inversion algorithm (Sipkin). Many of the events were routinely analyzed as part of the National Earthquake Information Center's (NEIC) efforts to publish moment tensor and first-motion fault-plane solutions for all moderate- to large-sized (mb>5.7) earthquakes. In routine use only long-period P-waves are used and the source-time function is constrained to be a step-function at the source (??-function in the far-field). Four of the events were of special interest, and long-period P, SH-wave solutions were obtained. For three of these events, an unconstrained inversion was performed. The resulting time-dependent solutions indicated that, for many cases, departures of the solutions from pure double-couples are caused by source complexity that has not been adequately modeled. These solutions also indicate that source complexity of moderate-sized events can be determined from long-period data. Finally, for one of the events of special interest, an inversion of the broadband P-waveforms was also performed, demonstrating the potential for using broadband waveform data in inversion procedures. ?? 1987.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1987

Analysis of broadband seismograms from selected IASPEI events

Broadband seismograms of body waves that are flat to displacement and velocity in the frequency range from 0.01 to 5.0 Hz can now be routinely obtained for most earthquakes of magnitude greater than about 5.5. These records are obtained either directly or through multichannel deconvolution of waveforms from digitally recording seismograph stations. In contrast to data from conventional narrowband seismographs, broadband records have sufficient frequency content to define the source-time functions of body waves, even for shallow events for which the source functions of direct and surface-reflected phases may overlap. Broadband seismograms for selected IASPEI events are systematically analysed to identify depth phases and the presence of subevents. The procedure results in improved estimates of focal depth, identification of subevents in complex earthquakes, and better resolution of focal mechanisms. We propose that it is now possible for reporting agencies, such as the National Earthquake Information Center, to use broadband digital waveforms routinely in the processing of earthquake data. ?? 1987.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗
USGS1987

On the interpretation of the geomagnetic energy spectrum

Two recent high-degree magnetic energy spectra, based mostly on MAGSAT data, are compared and found to agree very well out to order and degree n = 15, but the spectrum remains somewhat uncertain for higher degrees. The hypothesis that a primary break in the slope of the spectrum, plotted semi-logarithmically, is due to a transition from dominance by core sources to dominance by crustal magnetization is tested. Simple arrays of dipoles and current loops are found whose combined fields fit the spectrum. Two distinctly different ranges of source depth are found to be adequate. Because one range is shallow and the other deep, the hypothesis is supported. ?? 1987.

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors↗