Low strength of deep San Andreas fault gouge from SAFOD core

The San Andreas fault accommodates 28-34 mm?yr(-1) of right lateral motion of the Pacific crustal plate northwestward past the North American plate. In California, the fault is composed of two distinct locked segments that have produced great earthquakes in historical times, separated by a 150-km-long creeping zone. The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is a scientific borehole located northwest of Parkfield, California, near the southern end of the creeping zone. Core was recovered from across the actively deforming San Andreas fault at a vertical depth of 2.7 km (ref. 1). Here we report laboratory strength measurements of these fault core materials at in situ conditions, demonstrating that at this locality and this depth the San Andreas fault is profoundly weak (coefficient of friction, 0.15) owing to the presence of the smectite clay mineral saponite, which is one of the weakest phyllosilicates known. This Mg-rich clay is the low-temperature product of metasomatic reactions between the quartzofeldspathic wall rocks and serpentinite blocks in the fault. These findings provide strong evidence that deformation of the mechanically unusual creeping portions of the San Andreas fault system is controlled by the presence of weak minerals rather than by high fluid pressure or other proposed mechanisms. The combination of these measurements of fault core strength with borehole observations yields a self-consistent picture of the stress state of the San Andreas fault at the SAFOD site, in which the fault is intrinsically weak in an otherwise strong crust.     

Decay of aftershock density with distance indicates triggering by dynamic stress

The majority of earthquakes are aftershocks, yet aftershock physics is not well understood. Many studies suggest that static stress changes trigger aftershocks, but recent work suggests that shaking (dynamic stresses) may also play a role. Here we measure the decay of aftershocks as a function of distance from magnitude 2-6 mainshocks in order to clarify the aftershock triggering process. We find that for short times after the mainshock, when low background seismicity rates allow for good aftershock detection, the decay is well fitted by a single inverse power law over distances of 0.2-50 km. The consistency of the trend indicates that the same triggering mechanism is working over the entire range. As static stress changes at the more distant aftershocks are negligible, this suggests that dynamic stresses may be triggering all of these aftershocks. We infer that the observed aftershock density is consistent with the probability of triggering aftershocks being nearly proportional to seismic wave amplitude. The data are not fitted well by models that combine static stress change with the evolution of frictionally locked faults.     

Extreme winds and waves in the aftermath of a Neoproterozoic glaciation

The most severe excursions in the Earth's climatic history are thought to be associated with Proterozoic glaciations. According to the 'Snowball Earth' hypothesis, the Marinoan glaciation, which ended about 635 million years ago, involved global or nearly global ice cover. At the termination of this glacial period, rapid melting of continental ice sheets must have caused a large rise in sea level. Here we show that sediments deposited during this sea level rise contain remarkable structures that we interpret as giant wave ripples. These structures occur at homologous stratigraphic levels in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Namibia and Svalbard. Our hydrodynamic analysis of these structures suggests maximum wave periods of 21 to 30 seconds, significantly longer than those typical for today's oceans. The reconstructed wave conditions could only have been generated under sustained high wind velocities exceeding 20 metres per second in fetch-unlimited ocean basins. We propose that these extraordinary wind and wave conditions were characteristic of the climatic transit, and provide observational targets for atmospheric circulation models.     

Subcontinental-scale crustal velocity changes along the Pacific-North America plate boundary

Transient tectonic deformation has long been noted within approximately 100 km of plate boundary fault zones and within active volcanic regions, but it is unknown whether transient motions also occur at larger scales within plates. Relatively localized transients are known to occur as both seismic and episodic aseismic events, and are generally ascribed to motions of magma bodies, aseismic creep on faults, or elastic or viscoelastic effects associated with earthquakes. However, triggering phenomena and systematic patterns of seismic strain release at subcontinental (approximately 1,000 km) scale along diffuse plate boundaries have long suggested that energy transfer occurs at larger scale. Such transfer appears to occur by the interaction of stresses induced by surface wave propagation and magma or groundwater in the crust, or from large-scale stress diffusion within the oceanic mantle in the decades following clusters of great earthquakes. Here we report geodetic evidence for a coherent, subcontinental-scale change in tectonic velocity along a diffuse approximately 1,000-km-wide deformation zone. Our observations are derived from continuous GPS (Global Positioning System) data collected over the past decade across the Basin and Range province, which absorbs approximately 25 per cent of Pacific-North America relative plate motion. The observed changes in site velocity define a sharp boundary near the centre of the province oriented roughly parallel to the north-northwest relative plate motion vector. We show that sites to the west of this boundary slowed relative to sites east of it by approximately 1 mm yr(-1) starting in late 1999.     

Palaeoceanography: methane release in the Early Jurassic period

Dramatic global warming, triggered by release of methane from clathrates, has been postulated to have occurred during the early Toarcian age in the Early Jurassic period. Kemp et al. claim that this methane was released at three points, as recorded by three sharp excursions of delta13C(org) of up to 3 per thousand magnitude. But they discount another explanation for the excursions: namely that some, perhaps all, of the rapid excursions could be a local signature of a euxinic basin caused by recycling of isotopically light carbon from the lower water column. This idea has been proposed previously (see ref. 3, for example) and is supported by the lack evidence for negative delta13C excursions in coeval belemnite rostra. Kemp et al. dismiss this alternative, claiming that each abrupt shift would have required the recycling of about double the amount of organic carbon that is currently present in the modern ocean; however, their measurements are not from an ocean but from a restricted, epicontinental seaway and so would not require whole-ocean mixing to achieve the excursions.     

A new location precision model for multi-static over-the-horizon radar system

In this paper, a multi-static system working in an active way is made up of ionospheric oblique backscatter sounding system (IOBSS) and two separate receiving stations, which adopts discontinuous wave mechanism. We have advanced a new model that contains skywave condition to locate over-the-horizon targets. We use a single quasi-parabolic (QP) ionosphere model and an analytic ray-tracing program to obtain the coordinate registration (CR) index, which changes skywave group range to ground range. Also, IOBSS ...     

Chromatin dynamics during epigenetic reprogramming in the mouse germ line

A unique feature of the germ cell lineage is the generation of totipotency. A critical event in this context is DNA demethylation and the erasure of parental imprints in mouse primordial germ cells (PGCs) on embryonic day 11.5 (E11.5) after they enter into the developing gonads. Little is yet known about the mechanism involved, except that it is apparently an active process. We have examined the associated changes in the chromatin to gain further insights into this reprogramming event. Here we show that the chromatin changes occur in two steps. The first changes in nascent PGCs at E8.5 establish a distinctive chromatin signature that is reminiscent of pluripotency. Next, when PGCs are residing in the gonads, major changes occur in nuclear architecture accompanied by an extensive erasure of several histone modifications and exchange of histone variants. Furthermore, the histone chaperones HIRA and NAP-1 (NAP111), which are implicated in histone exchange, accumulate in PGC nuclei undergoing reprogramming. We therefore suggest that the mechanism of histone replacement is critical for these chromatin rearrangements to occur. The marked chromatin changes are intimately linked with genome-wide DNA demethylation. On the basis of the timing of the observed events, we propose that if DNA demethylation entails a DNA repair-based mechanism, the evident histone replacement would represent a repair-induced response event rather than being a prerequisite.     

Talc-bearing serpentinite and the creeping section of the San Andreas fault

The section of the San Andreas fault located between Cholame Valley and San Juan Bautista in central California creeps at a rate as high as 28 mm yr(-1) (ref. 1), and it is also the segment that yields the best evidence for being a weak fault embedded in a strong crust. Serpentinized ultramafic rocks have been associated with creeping faults in central and northern California, and serpentinite is commonly invoked as the cause of the creep and the low strength of this section of the San Andreas fault. However, the frictional strengths of serpentine minerals are too high to satisfy the limitations on fault strength, and these minerals also have the potential for unstable slip under some conditions. Here we report the discovery of talc in cuttings of serpentinite collected from the probable active trace of the San Andreas fault that was intersected during drilling of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) main hole in 2005. We infer that the talc is forming as a result of the reaction of serpentine minerals with silica-saturated hydrothermal fluids that migrate up the fault zone, and the talc commonly occurs in sheared serpentinite. This discovery is significant, as the frictional strength of talc at elevated temperatures is sufficiently low to meet the constraints on the shear strength of the fault, and its inherently stable sliding behaviour is consistent with fault creep. Talc may therefore provide the connection between serpentinite and creep in the San Andreas fault, if shear at depth can become localized along a talc-rich principal-slip surface within serpentinite entrained in the fault zone.     

小应力扰动下岩石弹性波速变化的波形检测

弹性波速变化能够反映岩石内部结构和应力的变化,成为工程结构监测的重要基础,其关键是实现小应力扰动下的高精度检测。在室内建立一套试验测量系统,对3类岩石的6块样品进行单轴压缩试验,同步记录小应力作用下岩石的应变、声发射及超声波波形。分析岩石非均质引起的多次散射波(尾波)特性,利用尾波干涉测量实现波速变化的高精度波形检测,发展小应力扰动下岩石弹性波速变化的检测方法,并对尾波波速随应力的变化规律进行分析。结果表明:尾波干涉测量可以实现小应力扰动下的高精度动态监测,具有对岩体扰动小、灵敏度高、稳定性好、操作简单的优点;所提方法应用的条件是介质散射强度高,尾波较为发育,观测系统重复性好;尾波波速随应力的相对变化率dv/v是岩石损伤状态的一种表征,尾波波速变化具有记忆效应;与声发射相比,所提方法稳定,易识别,可用于岩心地应力测试。     

矩形板中应力波主波和次波的传播与反射

弹性应力波的修正理论指出关于体积应变的波动方程与现有理论一致,但发展了一组关于体积应变和偏应变的弱耦合波动方程。针对矩形板受侧向集中载荷冲击下应力波的波动问题,建立了应力波传播的两组控制方程以及加载面和自由面的波动边界条件。采用有限差分方法求解波动方程,数值分析了应力波关于主波和次波的传播以及自由面上斜入射波的反射过程。偏应变在传播过程中分裂为两部分,一部分与体积应变共同传播组成主波,另一部分传播较慢形成次波。数值模拟结果显示与冲击载荷下纳钙玻璃板中应力波的传播图像是完全符合的。     

Carbon isotopic record from Upper Devonian carbonates at Dongcun in Guilin,southern China,supporting the worldwide pattern of carbon isotope excursions during Frasnian-Famennian transition

Carbon isotopic composition of carbonates and or-ganic matter in sediments has been a powerful tool for deducing perturbations in the global carbon cycle which, in many cases, is observed together with the occurrence of biological mass extinctions[1]. The Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) mass extinction[2,3], so-called F-F event or bio-crisis, has been recognized as one of the five major bioevents of Phanerozoic time[4—7], and more than 60% of all Frasnian genera were eliminated[3,11]. This event …     

The use of earthquake rate changes as a stress meter at Kilauea volcano

Stress changes in the Earth's crust are generally estimated from model calculations that use near-surface deformation as an observational constraint. But the widespread correlation of changes of earthquake activity with stress has led to suggestions that stress changes might be calculated from earthquake occurrence rates obtained from seismicity catalogues. Although this possibility has considerable appeal, because seismicity data are routinely collected and have good spatial and temporal resolution, the method has not yet proven successful, owing to the non-linearity of earthquake rate changes with respect to both stress and time. Here, however, we present two methods for inverting earthquake rate data to infer stress changes, using a formulation for the stress- and time-dependence of earthquake rates. Application of these methods at Kilauea volcano, in Hawaii, yields good agreement with independent estimates, indicating that earthquake rates can provide a practical remote-sensing stress meter.     

岩石破坏过程中波速变化特征

在单轴阶段加载条件下,对取自闽南地区的闪长岩岩样进行了不同方向上纵波传播速度的测试.首先根据实验结果总结出不同方向波速在岩石破裂过程中的变化规律,然后基于应力微小变化范围内波速与应力遵循线性关系的假设构建波速-应力关系模型,最后通过多参数分段拟合方式求解模型待定系数.研究结果表明:平行于加载方向的波速在压密阶段快速上升,岩石破裂前的波速降不明显.而垂直于荷载方向的波速在压密阶段少量上升后在临近岩石破裂出现非常明显的波速降.波速-应力关系模型通过参数的变化可以准确地描述不同方向波速的变化过程,证明了模型的适用性.     

预裂─缓冲爆破中柱状孔间应力波作用分析

利用新型全息动光弹,以南芬矿高台阶靠帮控制爆破的现场参数为实验模拟基础,研究了两预裂孔间应力波迭加的动态变化过程。在两炮孔均实行孔底和孔口同时起爆（四起爆点）,并对孔底进行加强装药条件下,获得了不同时刻的等差条纹图。发现沿炮孔方向应力波分布有很大不同,提出了初始Ｐ波与后出现的Ｓ波迭加形成的波是所有波中最重要的部分。研究表明,孔底加强装药是深孔孔底产生预裂效果的关键因素,孔底连线上应力场强度不受端部效应影响。     

亚丁湾地区春夏季气象水文要素特点

为找出亚丁湾地区春夏季气象水文要素变化的规律,为未来进行亚丁湾地区气象水文预报打下良好基础,依据亚丁湾地区春夏季气象水文要素实时及历史观测资料,分析了该地区春夏季气象水文要素的特点及气象水文预报的关键点。结果表明:亚丁湾地区春夏季的降水十分稀少,能见度较好;春夏季气象水文预报的重点是风浪的变化,而风浪的变化与当地的地形、地貌等自然地理环境密切相关,且在4月份存在明显的转折,即由4月份之前较弱的东北季风转为较强的西南季风,并使得亚丁湾不同区域的风浪呈现不同的变化规律。     

Constraining the Ediacaran oceanic dissolved organic carbon reservoir: Insights from carbon isotopic records from a drill core from South China

The evolution of the atmospheric oxygen content through Earth’s history is a key issue in paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental research. There were at least two oxygenation events in the Precambrian that involved fundamental changes in both biotic innovation and the surface environment. However, a large dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool maintained in deep oceans during the Neoproterozoic may have extended the time interval between the two oxygenation events. To test the DOC hypothesis, we conducted detailed micro-drilled analyses of carbonate carbon isotopes (δ13C_carb) of a long Ediacaran drill core (the Wangji drill core), for which whole-rock δ13C_carb and organic carbon isotope (δ13C_org) records were available. The micro-drilled δ13C_carb values obtained in this study are consistent with whole-rock δ13C_carb results, precluding the influence of severe authigenic carbonate incorporation. Importantly, the multiple negative δ13C_carb excursions in the Wangji drill core were likely linked with upwelling events, during which DOC was supplied to the surface water and oxidized. Using box models, we estimate that ~3.6 × 1019 mol and ~2.0 × 1019 mol DOC were converted to bicarbonate during two negative δ13C_carb excursions spanning millions of years. The estimations are approximately 1000 times the modern marine DOC reservoir. Our results support a relatively high oxidation capacity (elevated atmospheric pO₂ and/or oceanic [\begin{document}${\rm{SO}}_4^{2 - }$\end{document}]) of the Earth’s surface during the early Ediacaran Period.     

基于波包分解的主动Lamb波结构损伤监测方法

主动Lamb波结构健康监测研究中,监测信号的质量易受到环境参数变化以及人为操作误差的影响。在分析Lamb波传播特性以及主动Lamb波结构损伤监测技术原理基础上,研究采用波包分解方法获取Lamb波损伤散射信号。通过相关运算,从损伤结构响应信号中分离出健康响应信号部分,实现损伤散射信号的获取。给出了方法的基本原理和实现过程。结合时间反转损伤成像监测方法,在真实环氧玻璃纤维复合材料板结构上进行了实验验证,并与传统损伤散射信号获取方法进行了对比。实验结果表明,该方法能够较好的消除环境参数变化等误差对监测信号带来的影响,具有较好的实用性。     

Delayed triggering of the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake by viscoelastic stress transfer

Stress changes in the crust due to an earthquake can hasten the failure of neighbouring faults and induce earthquake sequences in some cases. The 1999 Hector Mine earthquake in southern California (magnitude 7.1) occurred only 20 km from, and 7 years after, the 1992 Landers earthquake (magnitude 7.3). This suggests that the Hector Mine earthquake was triggered in some fashion by the earlier event. But uncertainties in the slip distribution and rock friction properties associated with the Landers earthquake have led to widely varying estimates of both the magnitude and sign of the resulting stress change that would be induced at the location of the Hector Mine hypocentre-with estimates varying from -1.4 bar (ref. 6) to +0.5 bar (ref. 7). More importantly, coseismic stress changes alone cannot satisfactorily explain the delay of 7 years between the two events. Here we present the results of a three-dimensional viscoelastic model that simulates stress transfer from the ductile lower crust and upper mantle to the brittle upper crust in the 7 years following the Landers earthquake. Using viscoelastic parameters that can reproduce the observed horizontal surface deformation following the Landers earthquake, our calculations suggest that lower-crustal or upper-mantle flow can lead to postseismic stress increases of up to 1-2 bar at the location of the Hector Mine hypocentre during this time period, contributing to the eventual occurrence of the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake. These results attest to the importance of considering viscoelastic processes in the assessment of seismic hazard.     

Changes in the power spectrum of electrical signals in maize leaf induced by osmotic stress

To quantify the characteristics of the power spectrum of plant electrical signals, we defined the following concepts:spectral edge frequency (SEF), spectral center frequency (SCF), power index (PI) and power spectral entropy (PSE). These parameters were used to examine and quantify changes in the power spectrum of electrical signals in maize leaves under osmotic stress. In the absence of osmotic stress, the SEF of the electrical signal in maize leaves was approx. 0.2 Hz and the SCF was approx. 0.1 Hz. The electrical signal in maize leaves was mainly a slow wave signal with a frequency of 0-0.1 Hz. After 2 h osmotic stress, the SEF and SCF of the electrical signal increased to higher frequencies. The proportion of the fast wave frequency also increased to 0.1-0.2 Hz, resulting in a dramatic increase in PSE. We also found that the changes in PSE and SCF were significantly correlated during osmotic stress. We propose that the changes in the PSE and SCF in maize leaves can be used as a sensitive signal indicating water deficit in leaf cells under osmotic stress. Thus, measurement of SCF or PSE of electrical signals in maize leaves could be used to develop early warning and rapid diagnosis techniques for the water demands of plants.