Showing papers in "Tectonophysics in 2012"

TL;DR: The Sundaland region was assembled by closure of Tethyan oceans and addition of continental fragments in the Cretaceous and Cenozoic as discussed by the authors, and a marked change in deep mantle structure at about 110°E reflects different subduction histories north of India and Australia since 90-Ma.

TL;DR: In this paper, a review of recent advances in time series SAR interferometry methods that further improve accuracy is presented, including improved algorithms applied to image deformation associated with the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano, slow slip on the Guerrero subduction zone in Mexico, and tectonic deformation in western Anatolia, Turkey.

TL;DR: The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) is a 1000 km long Neogene continental arc showing a large variation in composition and volcanic style, and an intra-arc extensional tectonics.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that only 42% of the post-35 Ma convergence is partitioned by shortening within central Iran, and the current subduction dynamics can be explained by the original lateral difference in the buoyancy of the distal margin.

TL;DR: In this article, a geodetic horizontal velocity field consistent at the scale of the Mediterranean and the surrounding Alpine belts is derived to discuss the boundary conditions around each major deforming area in the Mediterranean, to describe the main patterns of motion and deformation, to critically review the existing kinematics models and to finally point out the main unresolved kinematic questions.

TL;DR: In this paper, a geodynamic reconstruction of the Central-Western Mediterranean and neighboring areas during the last 50 million years was presented, including magmatological and tectonic observations.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that the Tananao schist in eastern Taiwan is consistent with its protolith being deposited on the South China continental margin at around, or soon after, 150 Ma.

TL;DR: A review of different experimental setups used to investigate intraplate strike-slip tectonics can be found in this article, from the classical Riedel experiment to more sophisticated setups using brittle and viscous analogue materials.

TL;DR: A detailed review of the main results obtained using both tectonic and geomorphic approaches can be found in this article, where the authors provide an almost complete state-of-the-art in the experimental study of relief dynamics to guide present and future researchers in their understanding of mountain belt evolution.

TL;DR: The 2011 Tohoku earthquake illustrates the limitations of earthquake hazard mapping as discussed by the authors, showing that earthquake occurrence is typically more complicated than the models on which hazard maps are based, and that the available history of seismicity is almost always too short to reliably establish the spatiotemporal pattern of large earthquake occurrence.

TL;DR: In this article, an initial SE-dipping slow subduction of the Ligurian-Tethys realm beneath the Malaguide upper plate unit is proposed as an efficient geodynamic mechanism to structure the arcuate Betic-Rif orogenic system.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use information entropy as an objective measure to compare and evaluate model and observational results, and apply it to the visualization of uncertainties in geological models, here understood as structural representations of the subsurface.

TL;DR: In this article, two sets of sand-silicone models were first extended orthogonally at different velocities to produce dissimilar pre-inversion internal geometries, and then shortened coaxially to vary the brittle-ductile coupling.

TL;DR: The evolution and characteristics of narrow continental rifting are illustrated in this article through a review of recent lithospheric-scale analog models of continental extension compared with selected examples from the East African Rift System.

TL;DR: PECUBE as discussed by the authors is a three-dimensional thermal-kinematic code capable of solving the heat production-diffusion-advection equation under a temporally varying surface boundary condition.

TL;DR: In this article, a review highlights that many aspects of the lithospheric mantle deformation remain however poorly understood, and a large discrepancy between the scale at which deformation processes are studied (a few kilometers, at most, due to the limited size of continuous mantle exposures at the Earth's surface) and the scale inferred for strain localization from geophysical observations (tens of kilometers).

TL;DR: In this paper, a review of stratal disruption and mixing processes shows that there exists a continuum of deformation structures and processes in the generation of melanges and broken formations directly controlled by the increase of the degree of consolidation with burial.

TL;DR: In this paper, the receiver function technique is applied to the lower boundary of the lithospheric plates and the results indicate that the low velocity zone exists already at shallower depths than obtained from surface waves.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the effect of stress on the materials in the borehole's vicinity and how these are used to infer stress states, and present a number of different but complementary techniques to best constrain in situ stress states.

TL;DR: In this article, a series of tests were performed to identify and quantify the progressive degradation of the properties: 1) petrographycal and chemical studies; 2) effective ( η e ) and total porosity (η t ) measurements and 3D pore reconstruction; ultrasonic pulse velocity and spatial attenuation (α s ) measurements.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the influence of data-quality, refined continental fits, and theoretical inclination shallowing corrections, and confirm that the paleomagnetic data can be reconciled with Pangea, without invoking alternative reconstructions or non-dipole fields.

TL;DR: In this article, the uncertainty introduced by geological orientation data was examined by producing a suite of implicit 3D models generated from orientation measurements subjected to uncertainty simulations and the resulting uncertainty associated with different regions of the geological model can be located, quantified and visualised, providing a useful method to assess model reliability.

TL;DR: In this article, a review of model studies of brittle thrust wedges in orthogonal compression, focussing on critical taper theory, analogue and numerical techniques for modelling brittle behaviour, and the most commonly investigated variations in wedge model studies, those in basal dip, basal strength, internal strength, and surface processes.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide an overview of classical tomography methods, key debates pertaining to the resolution of mantle tomographic models, as well as recent theoretical and computational advances in forward-modeling methods that spearheaded the developments in accurate computation of sensitivity kernels and adjoint tomography.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors reviewed geology and tectonics of the Vrancea region including post-collisional to recent deformations, syn-to-postcollisionally magmatism, and orogenic exhumation along the East and South Carpathians.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented detailed field mapping, petrographic and detrital zircon U-Pb data from an accretionary complex within the Yalung-Zangpo suture zone, southern Tibet.

TL;DR: In this paper, detrital zircon ages and trace elements are integrated to investigate the provenance of Middle Triassic strata from the Youjiang Basin, SW China, and they argue for an Indosinian mountain building event following the closure of a Paleo-Tethys branch ocean rather than for a thermotectonic reactivation event as recently proposed for the Indosinia orogeny in the southwestern China.

TL;DR: In this article, the anisotropic mantle fabric from SKS splitting shows arc-parallel "fast directions", consistent with toroidal flow around a narrow, westward retreating subducting slab.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on the understanding of fracture genesis in layered carbonate sedimentary sequences, focusing on field analysis of Jurassic to Maastrichtian age carbonates of Provence (France).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented results of systematic and densely spaced aeromagnetic measurements, which have been conducted in 2009/2010 across the Astrid Ridge (Antarctica) and in the western Riiser-Larsen Sea to provide constraints for the early seafloor spreading history between both continents.