Journal of Geodynamics最新文献

We have investigated the local shear wave splitting of 30–300 km depth earthquakes from 38 BMKG stations between 2009 and 2020 to determine upper mantle dynamics beneath the Central and East Java (CEJ) region, Indonesia. A total of 2338 measurements is obtained and divided the analysis into two focal depths, i.e., shallow (≤ 100 km) and deep (100 – 300 km) events. (1) Both individual station measurements and spatially averaged data using shallow events (≤ 100 km) show the trench-perpendicular fast direction in the northern CEJ region. Thus, anisotropy in this domain may be associated with the downdip subduction-induced 2-D corner flow in the mantle wedge allowing A-type olivine fabric to develop. Meanwhile, the trench-parallel fast directions in the southern CEJ region may reflect some possible causes of anisotropy: the presence of a serpentinized mantle wedge that promotes the development of B-type olivine fabric and anisotropy through alignment of the melt pockets. We also suggest a change in the hydration state of the subducting slab can cause the predominant trench-perpendicular fast directions in the eastern CEJ region. (2) For deep events (100 – 300 km), fast directions are relatively trench-parallel in the eastern CEJ region and trench-perpendicular in the western CEJ region, suggesting the presence of fossilized anisotropy and 2-D mantle flow-induced anisotropy, respectively.

On 14 August 2021, a large earthquake struck the southern region of Haiti. The epicenter of this earthquake is located relatively close to the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault (EPGF) zone, a major active fault with a strike-slip mechanism in the southern part of Hispaniola. Since the epicenter of this earthquake is located relatively close to the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault zone, one might think that the EPGF is the causative fault. Using a Bayesian approach, the Sentinel-1 data is then utilized to investigate the seismogenic fault responsible for the 2021 Haiti earthquake. The Bayesian inversion indicated that the mainshock ruptured a north-dipping fault with a strike and a dip of 270.9° and 69.2°, respectively, and buried at a depth of 10.3 km from the earth’s surface. The preferred slip model showed that the rupture did not reach the surface and was confined at a depth of ∼6 km to ∼32 km. The preferred fault geometry is in good agreement with the relocated aftershock distribution and is inconsistent with the EPGF system configuration. It indicates that the EPGF is probably not the seismogenic fault responsible for the 2021 Haiti earthquake. Instead, results suggested that the 2021 Haiti earthquake ruptured an unmapped blind fault.

Conventional seismic tomography studies consider the Earth’s interior as mechanically isotropic, despite seismic anisotropy being widely observed. This current standard approach to seismic imaging is likely to lead to significant artefacts in tomographic images with first-order effects on interpretations and hinders the quantitative integration of seismology with geodynamic flow models. Although a few methodologies have been proposed for carrying out anisotropic tomography, their ability in simultaneously recovering isotropic and anisotropic structures has not been rigorously tested. In this contribution we use geodynamic and seismological modeling to predict the elastic properties and synthetic teleseismic P- and S-wave travel-time datasets for three different tectonic settings: a plume rising in an intraplate setting, a divergent margin, and a subduction zone. Subsequently, we perform seismic anisotropy tomography testing a recently developed methodology that allows for the inversion of an arbitrarily oriented weakly anisotropic hexagonally symmetric medium using multiple body-wave datasets. The tomography experiments indicate that anisotropic inversions of separate and joint P- and S-wave travel-times are capable of recovering the first order isotropic velocity anomalies and anisotropic patterns. In particular, joint P- and S-wave anisotropic inversions show that by leveraging both phases it is possible to greatly mitigate issues related to imperfect data coverage common in seismology and reduce parameter trade-offs. In contrast, by neglecting seismic anisotropy, isotropic tomographic models provide no information on the mantle fabrics and in all cases are contaminated by strong velocity artifacts. In the inversions the magnitude of anisotropy (as well as that of seismic anomalies) is always underestimated owing to regularization procedures and smearing effects. It follows that the true seismic anisotropy of mantle rocks is likely higher than estimated from anisotropic tomographies, and more consistent with predictions from laboratory and numerical micro-mechanical experiments. Altogether, these results suggest that anisotropic body-wave tomography could provide unprecedented information about the Earth’s deep geological structure, and that the latter could be better recovered by complementing teleseismic body-wave travel-times with other geophysical datasets.

We examined the microstructures and crystal-fabrics of peridotites within a large area (6 ×5 km) of the Horoman peridotite pomplex in the Hidaka metamorphic belt of Hokkaido, Japan. Thirteen peridotite samples were analyzed for olivine and orthopyroxene grain sizes, fabric strength (J-index), and crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs). Mean grain sizes of olivine and orthopyroxene were ranged in 295–497 µm and in 257–537 µm, respectively. The olivine fabric strength values decreased from the lower to the upper part of the complex, whereas the orthopyroxene fabric strength values showed no systematic trends. The peridotites contained three different olivine CPOs, previously known as A, E, and AG types. Combined with a previous study, we found that olivine CPOs showed a transitional distribution from E to A to AG type from south to north. E type peridotites occur at the basement of the complex in the south, suggesting that local water infiltration might occur at the basement of the complex. The A type peridotites occurred mainly in the middle of the studied area and subsequently the AG type peridotites occurred towards the north. Moreover, we calculated the seismic properties of peridotite as olivine 100% aggregates and mixed (olivine and orthopyroxene) aggregates. It showed that orthopyroxene CPOs reduce P-wave anisotropies of peridotite (0.2–2.2%) without modification of the P-wave propagation patterns.

The elastic properties of nineteen samples of crystalline rocks – amphibolites from different areas/boreholes were studied in order to elucidate possible depth effect on the elastic properties of these mineralogically relatively homogenous rocks. The samples were taken from three different crustal levels – shallow (tens of meters) Stařechov (Czech Republic), medium (first thousands of meters) KTB (Germany), and extreme crustal depths (up to 12 km) KSDB3 (Russia). The elastic properties were first determined experimentally using a high-pressure apparatus allowing for multidirectional (3D) ultrasonic sounding at various levels of confining pressure. The effect of main rock fabric components was evaluated using the method of inverse calculation from experimental data. The observed increase of elastic wave velocity and elastic constants with depth could be explained by the stress memory effect.

The Pelotas Batholith corresponds to the eastern margin of the Dom Feliciano Belt in southernmost Brazil. It comprises multiple intrusions formed by successive tectonic-magmatic processes during the Brasiliano / Pan-African Cycle. One of these intrusive igneous bodies is the Piquiri Syenite Massif (PSM), recently described as a multi-intrusive body formed by three successive pulses, dated by LA-MC-ICP-MS (U-Pb in zircon), with the oldest pulse located at the margins and the youngest in the centre of the intrusion. Pulse 1 (609.3 ± 1.5 Ma) comprises fine- to medium-grained equigranular syenite to quartz syenite and alkali-feldspar quartz syenite, with colour index M′15–30. Pulse 2 (603.4 ± 3.9 Ma) comprises medium- to coarse-grained equigranular alkali-feldspar syenite and alkali-feldspar quartz syenite, with colour index M′ 5–15 and fragments of Pulse 1 varieties. Pulse 3 (588.8 ± 3.1 to 583.2 ± 1.8)comprises medium- to coarse-grained inequigranular quartz syenites, with colour index M′ 2–10, containing fragments of pulses 1 and 2 varieties. As defined by the AMS data, the PSM magnetic fabric is concordant with the magmatic fabric, parallel to the outer edges of the body, dipping towards the centre. However, the construction and emplacement of the body have been the subject of different interpretations. The main objective of this work is to relate the general morphology of the massif and the behaviour of the pulses within the massif with the processes of formation and ascent of the magmas that have built it. For this, terrestrial geophysical surveys were carried out to obtain gravimetric data, with which the Bouguer Anomaly map was generated. Modelling by gravimetric inversion was carried out in nine profiles using tools from the Oasis Montaj software, which was the basis for constructing a three-dimensional geological model using the Leapfrog Geo software. Associating the geological model with the magmatic and magnetic foliations, including the magnetic lineation, it was possible to determine a change in behaviour between the youngest and the two oldest pulses related to the ascension process. In addition, the body’s general shape, with the greatest depths located in the eastern region, allowed us to relate the rise of magma to a structure in the region.

The anisotropy of elastic properties, including seismic velocities, has already been investigated in the lab over past seven decades. Here, we present a review related to the development of a unique apparatus for the detailed measurement of seismic velocity anisotropy. Its originality lies in measuring velocities on spherical specimens, which allows for determination of the velocity anisotropy as a function of confining pressure loading with high resolution. The 132 directions, covering the sphere in a regular 15° net of meridians and parallels, have proven to be optimal with respect to common heterogeneities of investigated rocks. The device was designed and the first measurements were performed by a research team of the Institute of Geophysics in Prague (Babuška, Pros and Klíma) in 1968, shortly following many pioneer velocity anisotropy studies. Since then, almost 100 papers have been published using the velocity anisotropy measured with this unique device. The review consists of three separate but mutually interconnected parts: (i) historical development; (ii) microstructural insights from an ultrasonic velocity measurement perspective; (iii) macroscale applications to practical problems in geophysics, structural geology and rock mechanics.

The plate boundary between the Pacific-Caroline and Australian plates in northwestern New Guinea is associated with a geographic concentration of earthquakes developed in the Ransiki region of the northeastern Bird’s Head Peninsula (West Papua, northwestern New Guinea) at the intersection of the Ransiki and Yapen faults. We examine these earthquakes based on regional geomorphological and lithostratigraphical frameworks, field observations of surface ruptures and liquefaction phenomena, and focal mechanisms of historical earthquakes. The Ransiki earthquakes are a set of 29 earthquakes from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor catalogue in the period 1977–2019 (magnitudes of Mw4.9 to Mw7.5). In the east, focal mechanisms show sinistral movement along the east-west trending Yapen Fault including the Mw6.7 earthquake on 21 April 2012. The largest earthquake was on 10 October 2002 (Mw7.5) and along with other earthquakes mainly in the southwest were associated with dextral movement indicated by focal mechanism solutions on the northwest trending Ransiki Fault south of its intersection with the Yapen Fault. The southern part of the Ransiki Fault therefore indicates local north-northeast compression that is also evident in the newly recognised Wainoei Fault south of Yapen Island. The two largest earthquakes (10 October 2002, 21 April 2012) show ground effects associated with liquefaction, indicated by surface offsets, open fissures, and sand blows, that all occurred in saturated sediments of the Ransiki delta. Earthquakes in the Ransiki region show that west-southwest oblique plate convergence between the Australian and Pacific-Caroline plates is partitioned into east-west sinistral strike-slip motion along the Yapen Fault and north-northeast compression associated with the Ransiki Fault.

Previous tectonic studies have indicated that the peri-cratonic lithosphere, located away from continental margins, is sensitive to far-field stresses propagating from active plate margins, which induce variable deformation. In order to gain a better understanding of potential intraplate tectonic events associated with the geodynamic evolution of the active margin of southwestern Gondwana, we conducted a tectono-sedimentary study of the Permian-Jurassic volcano-sedimentary record in the Deseado Massif, located in southern Patagonia. Our multidisciplinary analysis includes detailed geological mapping of an area of approximately 150 km², structural analysis, geoelectric tomography, 2D seismic data, new geochronological dating, petrographic studies, and stratigraphic loggings of the volcano-sedimentary basin record. This comprehensive data set has allowed us to establish the tectonic, sedimentary, and magmatic evolution of the eastern Deseado Massif. Specifically, we have identified major normal faults associated with the syn-extensional deposition of late Permian and Jurassic sedimentary and volcanic rocks, as well as the Late Triassic emplacement of intermediate and felsic intrusive bodies. Additionally, interspersed large-scale shortening events were recognized, which induced positive tectonic inversion events in the region, recording contrasting stress fields during the analyzed lapse. Based on this, six major intraplate tectonomagmatic events were defined: (i) a potential post-Devonian pre-late Permian exhumation of the Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic igneous-metamorphic basement, which we tentatively link to the Gondwanide orogeny; (ii) intraplate extension in the Late Permian (255 ± 4 Ma) related to the deposition of the Dos Hermanos Member of the La Golondrina Formation; (iii) Late Triassic (231 ± 3 Ma) intrusion of andesitic bodies, tentatively linked to the inland migration of arc magmatism associated with the South Gondwana flat slab; (iv) subsequent Late Triassic positive tectonic inversion of Permian extensional faults caused by a large-scale contractional event linked to the South Gondwana flat slab; (v) the extension-related emplacement and deposition of Early-Middle Jurassic (176 ± 3 Ma; 172 ± 4 Ma) sedimentary (lacustrine and fan deltas-related deposits), pyroclastic rocks (ignimbrites and ash tuffs), and lavas (lava domes and dykes) related to the Chon Aike silicic large igneous province; and (vi) poorly-constrained post-Middle Jurassic positive tectonic inversion of Jurassic faults. Therefore, we suggest that the geological events preserved in the Deseado Massif provide a key deformational record of the distal effects associated with ancient geodynamic processes that occurred along the southwestern active margin of Gondwana.