Spatial and temporal cross-cutting relationships between fault structures and slope failures along the outer Kumano Basin and Nankai accretionary wedge, SW Japan

2018 ◽  
Vol 477 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. K. Lackey ◽  
G. F. Moore ◽  
M. Strasser ◽  
A. Kopf ◽  
C. S. Ferreira

AbstractNew, high-resolution multi-beam bathymetric data from RV Sonne cruise SO251 show a widely variable surface morphology along the southern Kumano Basin and Nankai accretionary prism off SW Japan. Combined with a three-dimensional seismic volume, these data provide insight into the ubiquitous and varied nature of faulting typical of accretionary prism settings, a high number of submarine landslides across the entire study area that vary both spatially and temporally, a pronounced absence of slide deposit bathymetric manifestations, widely varied slope angles and a potential subducted seamount scar. We have mapped scars of 442 primary and 184 secondary landslides and have measured the areas evacuated by these slides. Most of the slides are completely disintegrative, so surficial landslide deposits are almost absent. The incidence with which temporally sequential slope failures and fault structures cross-cut themselves and one another provides evidence of potential failure pre-conditioning such as gas hydrates, pore fluid overpressures and bottom current activity. Seismic loading and slope over-steepening are then the most likely final trigger mechanisms to slope failure. The majority of observed landslides (64%) occur seawards of the outer ridge, providing insight into the relationship between surficial landsliding and subsurface tectonic processes along this accretionary prism.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-94
Author(s):  
Maheshwar Prasad Yadav ◽  
Radhe S. Pradhan

This paper aims at determining key factors for enterprise development in biogas sector in Nepal. The variables are introduced via an extension of the econometric model, which explicitly includes Almon (1965) Polynomial Lag Model using SPSS. The number of biogas companies comprises as a dependent variable for the indicator of enterprise development while number of biogas plants, numbers of biogas plants constructed with loan, micro credit i.e., loan, and subsidy are included as independent variables. The empirical results were estimated using annual data of 22 years from fiscal year 1992/93 to 2013/14 with entire study period divided into different sub-periods. The study reveals that enterprise development is influenced not only by the current values of the key factors but also by the past values. The study also shows that number of biogas plants and subsidy play a very strong role while number of plants constructed with loan and loan play a weak role in enterprise development in the context of biogas sector of Nepal. The paper can be extended by investigating characteristics of renewable energy enterprises and renewable energy entrepreneurs to get a greater insight into the results.



2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 543-550
Author(s):  
Roberto Fainstein ◽  
Juvêncio De Deus Correia do Rosário ◽  
Helio Casimiro Guterres ◽  
Rui Pena dos Reis ◽  
Luis Teófilo da Costa

Regional geophysics research provides for prospect assessment of Timor-Leste, part of the Southeast Asia Archipelago in a region embracing the Banda Arc, Timor Island, and the northwest Australia Gondwana continental margin edge. Timor Island is a microcontinent with several distinct tectonic provinces that developed initially by rifting and drifting away from the Australian Plate. A compressive convergence began in the Miocene whereby the continental edge of the large craton collided with the microcontinent, forming a subduction zone under the island. The bulk of Timor Island consists of a complex mélange of Tertiary, Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic, Permian, and volcanic features over a basal Gondwana craton. Toward the north, the offshore consists of a Tertiary minibasin facing the Banda Arc Archipelago, with volcanics interspersed onshore with the basal Gondwana pre-Permian. A prominent central overthrust nappe of Jurassic and younger layers makes up the mountains of Timor-Leste, terminating south against an accretionary wedge formed by this ongoing collision of Timor and Australia. The northern coast of the island is part of the Indonesian back arc, whereas the southern littoral onshore plus shallow waters are part of the accretionary prism. Deepwater provinces embrace the Timor Trough and the slope of the Australian continental margin being the most prospective region of Timor-Leste. Overall crust and mantle tectonic structuring of Timor-Leste is interpreted from seismic and potential field data, focusing mostly on its southern offshore geology where hydrocarbon prospectivity has been established with interpretation of regional seismic data and analyses of gravity, magnetic, and earthquake data. Well data tied to seismic provides focal points for stratigraphic correlation. Although all the known producing hydrocarbon reservoirs of the offshore are Jurassic sands, interpretation of Permian and Triassic stratigraphy provides knowledge for future prospect drilling risk assessment, both onshore and offshore.



2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 1127-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria L G Todd ◽  
Laura D Williamson ◽  
Sophie E Cox ◽  
Ian B Todd ◽  
Peter I Macreadie

Abstract Offshore Oil & Gas (O&G) infrastructure creates artificial reef complexes that support marine communities in oceans. No studies have characterized the first wave of colonization, which can reveal information about habitat attraction and ecological connectivity. Here we used opportunistically-collected industrial Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to investigate fish and invertebrate colonization on a new North Sea O&G platform and trenching of an associated pipeline. We observed rapid colonization of fish communities, with increases in species richness (S), abundance (N), and diversity (H′) over the first four days (the entire study period). By contrast, there was minimal change in motile invertebrate communities over the survey period. After trenching, invertebrate S, N and H′ decreased significantly, whilst fish S, N and H′ increased. This study is the first to report on the pioneer wave of fish and invertebrate colonization on O&G infrastructure, thereby providing rare insight into formation of new reef communities in the sea. These short and opportunistic data are valuable in terms of showing what can be discovered from analysis of ‘pre-installation’ ROV footage of O&G structures, of which there are terabytes of data held by O&G companies waiting to be analyzed by environmental scientists.



2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Erik Schytt Holmlund

Abstract Photogrammetric reconstructions of the Aldegondabreen glacier on Svalbard from 17 archival terrestrial oblique photographs taken in 1910 and 1911 reveal a past volume of 1373.7 ± 78.2 · 106 m3; almost five times greater than its volume in 2016. Comparisons to elevation data obtained from aerial and satellite imagery indicate a relatively unchanging volume loss rate of − 10.1 ± 1.6 · 106 m3 a−1 over the entire study period, while the rate of elevation change is increasing. At this rate of volume loss, the glacier may be almost non-existent within 30 years. If the changes of Aldegondabreen are regionally representative, it suggests that there was considerable ice loss over the entire 1900s for the low elevation glaciers of western Svalbard. The 1910/11 reconstruction was made from a few of the tens of thousands of archival terrestrial photographs from the early 1900s that cover most of Svalbard. Further analysis of this material would give insight into the recent history and future prospects of the archipelago's glaciers. Photogrammetric reconstructions of this kind of material require extensive manual processing to produce good results; for more extensive use of these archival imagery, a better processing workflow would be required.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquina Alvarez-Marrón ◽  
Dennis Brown ◽  
Juan Alcalde ◽  
Ignacio Marzán ◽  
Hao Kuo-Chen

<p>The region of Taiwan is undergoing active, oblique arc-continent colision between the Luzon Arc on the Philippine Sea Plate and the continental margin of Eurasia. The Fold-and-Thrust Belt (FTB) in Taiwan passes southwards into a submarine accretionary wedge at the Manila subduction zone. The aim of this contribution is to examine how an on land FTB changes into a marine accretionary prism in the context of an oblique arc-continent collision. The Miocene pre-orogenic sediments of the continental margin are widespread in the FTB ca. 23° latitude while the offshore wedge is built up dominantly by Pliocene to recent syn-orogenic sediments. In the transition area from the marine accretionary wedge ca. 21° latitude to the on land FTB, the thrust wedge is climbing up the slope of the Eurasian continental margin. The deformation front is at sea floor depth of ca. 4 km in the south to less than 1 km as it reaches the coast line. Here we use the island surface geology, marine reflection seismic profiles, and seismic tomography models to construct contour maps of the basal thrust and the depth to the Moho across a transition area from near 23° to near 21° latitude. In this zone, the deformation front draws a convex curvature as the wedge widens from ca. 50 in the north and south, to more than 130 km near 22° latitude. The basal thrust surface shows a scoop shape as its dip changes from southeast near the coast line to east southward. The basal thrust reaches over 7 km deep beneath the rear of the FTB before ramping into de basement and merging into the Chaochou fault at 10 km depth. Offshore, it shows a gentler dip from 7 km to c. 10 km depth before getting steeper towards the east below the Hengchung Ridge. The basal cuts laterally along-strike through the margin’s sedimentary cover to incorporate thicker Miocene pre-orogenic sediments onto its hanging wall as it passes from the offshore wedge to the on land FTB.</p><p>In the offshore area, the Moho (we use a Vp proxy of 7.5 km/s extracted from the seismic tomography) shallows southeastward, from near 25 km depth below the shelf slope break to less than 17 km depth below the offshore wedge near 21.5° latitude before it starts to deep east towards beneath the Taiwan coast. The Moho dips northeast from near 25 km depth below the coast near Kaohsiung, to near 40 depth below the rear of the FTB at 23.5°, latitude. This complex morphology of the Moho may be related to the changes in crustal thickness and the obliquity of the collision. Because of this, crustal thickening is less pronounced beneath southern Taiwan where the thinner part of the margin is colliding with the arc.</p><p>This research is part of project PGC2018-094227-B-I00 funded by the Spanish Research Agency from the Ministry of Science Innovation and Universities of Spain.</p>



2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1784-1798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad Habib ◽  
Alemseged Tamiru Haile ◽  
Yudong Tian ◽  
Robert J. Joyce

Abstract This study focuses on the evaluation of the NOAA–NCEP Climate Prediction Center (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH) satellite-based rainfall product at fine space–time resolutions (1 h and 8 km). The evaluation was conducted during a 28-month period from 2004 to 2006 using a high-quality experimental rain gauge network in southern Louisiana, United States. The dense arrangement of rain gauges allowed for multiple gauges to be located within a single CMORPH pixel and provided a relatively reliable approximation of pixel-average surface rainfall. The results suggest that the CMORPH product has high detection skills: the probability of successful detection is ~80% for surface rain rates >2 mm h−1 and probability of false detection <3%. However, significant and alarming missed-rain and false-rain volumes of 21% and 22%, respectively, were reported. The CMORPH product has a negligible bias when assessed for the entire study period. On an event scale it has significant biases that exceed 100%. The fine-resolution CMORPH estimates have high levels of random errors; however, these errors get reduced rapidly when the estimates are aggregated in time or space. To provide insight into future improvements, the study examines the effect of temporal availability of passive microwave rainfall estimates on the product accuracy. The study also investigates the implications of using a radar-based rainfall product as an evaluation surface reference dataset instead of gauge observations. The findings reported in this study guide future enhancements of rainfall products and increase their informed usage in a variety of research and operational applications.



1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Calvert ◽  
R. M. Clowes

Multichannel deep seismic reflection data from the subduction zone of western Canada delineate the wedge of accereted sediments and the principal terranes (Crescent, Pacific Rim, and Wrangellia) that form the convergent margin. The top of the igneous oceanic crust is defined by subhorizontal reflections extending at least 100 km landward of the deformation front. Upon incorporation into the accretionary wedge, the clearly defined stratigraphy of the incoming oceanic sedimentary section is destroyed over a distance of about 10 km. Initially, an unreflective zone, which correlates well with maximum fluid expulsion, is formed. Farther landward, a predominantly landward-dipping reflectivity exists. A number of reflections are thrust faults, which appear to merge at depth with the subhorizontal reflections, but most have another origin. These reflections may be related to the movement of fluids generated by the compaction of sediments or possibly by the dehydration of the subducting plate. They are strongest in a region of depressed seismic velocities beneath the continental slope, where an analysis of reflection amplitude with offset implies that a high Poisson's ratio exists; this is consistent with the presence of elevated pore pressures. Thus, pore pressure variations associated with the migration of fluids may be the cause of much of the reflectivity within the accreted wedge, although the precipitation of minerals from rising fluids could also be important. Evidence from the seismic data also indicates that fluids from the accretionary prism are being expelled into the sediments of the overlying Tofino basin. A number of anomalously strong reflections and disruption of the horizontally stratified sediments within the lower levels of the basin probably represent fluids that migrated upward from the accreted wedge and were trapped against impermeable barriers created through the deposition of sediments on the continental slope and in the basin.



2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 309 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.E Marsellos ◽  
W.S.F Kidd ◽  
J.I. Garver ◽  
K.G. Kyriakopoulos

Below the Potamos extensional detachment fault exposed in northern Kythera, the phyllite-quartzite unit (PQU) shows very consistent zircon FT cooling ages of c.11 Ma reflecting the time just after the rapid exhumation through the brittle-ductile transition. In contrast, a wide range of Mesozoic and some Paleozoic zircon FT cooling ages from Eocene-Oligocene Tripolis and Pindos flysch sandstones from above the detachment reflect sedimentary source ages. Early Miocene apatite fissiontrack cooling ages characterize the flysch sandstones, and show that early Miocene exhumation affected rocks above the detachment. The thermotectonic evolution of the flysch of Tripolis and Pindos units within the rocks above the Potamos detachment on Kythera is reconstructed using zircon and apatite fission-track (FT) thermochronology. The apatite FT data provide evidence for a burial depth of at least 6km for the samples, which were reset. Burial was not deeper than 11km, since the zircon fission-track system in the same rocks was not reset. The exposed rocks of Tripolis and Pindos flysch on Kythera represent part of an accretionary wedge with a burial shortly after deposition in or near the subduction trench, and a cooling history due to exhumation of the flysch in the early Miocene. The subsequent Mid-Late Miocene exhumation of the PQU unit follows from beneath the (mostly carbonate) Tripolis and Pindos sedimentary rocks.



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