Systematic inversion of double couple focal mechanisms of shallow earthquakes in the northern Andes reveals relatively homogeneous patterns of crustal stress in three main regions. The first region, presently under the influence of the Caribbean plate, includes the northern segment of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia and the western flank of the Central Cordillera (north of 4°N). It is characterized by WNW–ESE compression of dominantly reverse type that deflects to NW–SE in the Merida Andes of Venezuela, where it becomes mainly strike–slip in type. A major bend of the Eastern thrust front of the Eastern Cordillera, near its junction with the Merida Andes, coincides with a local deflection of the stress regime (SW–NE compression), suggesting local accommodation of the thrust belt to a rigid indenter in this area. The second region includes the SW Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador, currently under the influence of the Nazca plate. In this area, approximately E–W compression is mainly reverse in type. It deflects to WSW–ENE in the northern Andes south of 4°N, where it is accommodated by right-lateral displacement of the Romeral fault complex and the Eastern front of the northern Andes. The third, and most complex, region is the area of the triple junction between the South American, Nazca and Caribbean plates. It reveals two major stress regimes, both mainly strike–slip in type. The first regime involves SW–NE compression related to the interaction between the Nazca and Caribbean plates and the Panama micro-plate, typically accommodated in an E–W left-lateral shear zone. The second regime involves NW–SE compression, mainly related to the interaction between the Caribbean plate and the North Andes block which induces left-lateral displacement on the Uramita and Romeral faults north of 4°N.Deep seismicity (about 150–170 km) concentrates in the Bucaramanga nest and Cauca Valley areas. The inversion reveals a rather homogeneous attitude of the minimum stress axis, which dips towards the E. This extension is consistent with the present plunge of the Nazca and Caribbean slabs, suggesting that a broken slab may be torn under gravitational stresses in the Bucaramanga nest. This model is compatible with current blocking of the subduction in the western northern Andes, inhibiting the eastward displacement of slabs, which are forced to break and sink in to the asthenosphere under their own weight. 相似文献
Gimli beach in Manitoba is one of the lowest elevation beaches in the southern Lake Agassiz basin, and is a distinct ridge composed of bedded sand and gravel that rises above the lake plain and extends for more than 40 km. Ten new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from Gimli beach yield ages mostly ranging from 9.7 ± 0.7 to 10.5 ± 0.8 ka (average 10.3 ± 0.5 ka), which is older by 0.6 to >1.0 ka than age estimates of previous researchers. Two of our new OSL ages are notably older than the others, dating to ~11.3 ± 0.8 and 13.9 ± 1.0 ka, which we attribute to poorly bleached sands. We ascribe an age of about 10 ka to Gimli beach, which is several centuries before overflow from Lake Agassiz and its vast drainage basin shifted from the western Great Lakes to glacial Lake Ojibway and the St. Lawrence Valley. 相似文献
An innovative mode of groundwater recharge to a buried esker aquifer is considered. The current conceptual model affords a natural safeguard to underlying aquifers from the overlying muds. A hypothesis of groundwater recharge to a buried esker aquifer via preferential pathways across its overlying muds is tested here by heuristic numerical one-dimensional and two-dimensional modeling simulations. The hypothesis has been tested against two other conventionally accepted scenarios involving: (1) distal esker outcrop areas and (2) remote shallow-bedrock recharge areas. The main evidence comes from documented recharge pressure pulses in the overlying mud aquitard and in the underlying esker hydraulic-head time series for the Vars-Winchester esker aquifer in Eastern Ontario, Canada. These perturbations to the potentiometric surface are believed to be the aquifer response to recharge events. The migration rate of these pressure pulses is directly related to the hydraulic diffusivity of the formation. The measured response time and response amplitude between singular radar precipitation events and well hydrographs constituted the heuristic model calibration targets. The main evidence also includes mud-layering deformation (water escape features) which was observed in seismic surveys of the over-esker muds. These disturbed stratigraphic elements provide a realistic mechanism for migrating water to transit through the muds. The effective hydraulic conductivities of these preferential pathways in the muds were estimated to be between 2?×?10?6 and 7?×?10?6 m/s. The implications of these findings relate to the alleged natural safeguard of these overlying muds. 相似文献
In this study, we investigate the Lesser Antilles forearc basin, focusing on the late Pliocene to Pleistocene sedimentary archives in order to track the occurrence of extreme events triggered by enhanced subduction‐related tectono‐volcanic activity. We identify late Piacenzian deposits covering a major regional erosional surface, displaying sedimentary dykes and large marine boulders embedded in a mixed continental–marine matrix, characteristic of tsunamites. We interpret this episode of platform emersion and the successive cataclysmic deposits as resulting from enhanced tectonic activity at the interface of the subduction zone, synchronous with the initiation of the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc. We then discuss the implications in terms of the mechanical behaviour of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. 相似文献
The filling history of the Níspero deeply buried Lower Cretaceous carbonate reservoir (below 4000 m) from the south part of Gulf of Mexico was studied using a combination of data from petrography, stable isotopes and fluid inclusions and compared with a one-dimensional burial model to derive timing. 相似文献
Dissolution experiments of a tholeiite basalt glass carried out at different pH and T (up to 300°C) using a rotatingdisc apparatus show that, depending on pH and T, dissolution can be controlled by one of the following steps: (1) surface reaction; (2) transport of reactants in solution; and (3) mixed reaction. The activation energies of these different processes were found to be 60, 9 and 15–50 kJ mol−1, respectively. Taking account of these results, it appears likely that surface reactions are not rate limiting for the hydrolysis of most crystalline silicate minerals in hydrothermal and metamorphic processes, and that caution should be exercised when predicting rate of reactions at high temperatures solely on the basis of activation energies measured at low temperatures.
Comparison of experimental and theoretical potentiometric titrations of the basalt glass and its constituent oxides indicates that the adsorption of H+ and OH− ions at the basalt surface is metal cation specific and that the net adsorption can be predicted from the sole knowledge of the acidity constants of the network-forming constituent oxides. We found that in the acidic pH region dissolution is promoted by the adsorption of H+ on al and Fe surface sites while in the basic region, dissolution is promoted by the adsorption of OH− on Si sites. The combination of the two distinct types of surface sites, Al and Fe on the one hand, and Si on the other hand, results in a dissolution rate minimum at a pH-value between the pHzpc of the two groups of oxide components. Linear regressions with a slope n=3.8 are observed both in acid and alkaline solutions in logarithmic plots of the rate of dissolution vs. the surface charge. The value of n, which represents the number of protonation or hydroxylation steps prior to metal detachment, has been found equal to the mean valence of the network-forming metals.
Combining concepts of surface coordination chemistry with transition state theory afforded characterisation of the activated complexes involved in basalt dissolution processes. From the values obtained for the thermodynamic properties of activation for basalt dissolution it is assumed that the activated complexes formed during the H2O-promoted dissolution of the basalt glass are more tightly bonded than those formed during H+- or OH−-promoted dissolution. 相似文献
A gravimetric survey on the sea-bottom was performed on the Erimo Seamount by the French submersible “Nautile”. It took place during the second phase of the Kaiko French-Japanese Program. The reference station was established on the Erimo submarine observatory at a depth of 3942 m and from this point the survey of four stations was carried out. The obtained accuracy of the gravity field measurements was about 0.1 mGal.
A three-dimensional model of the seamount and its surroundings was constrained by the free-air anomaly values from the sea surface and from the sea bottom and by the perfect Seabeam topography survey of the whole area. The model which fitted the observed values best, allowed us to identify a low-density layer of coral limestones and volcaniclastics capping the seamount and to define the geometry of the interface between basalts and coral rocks. 相似文献