scholarly journals Lithospheric Deformation at the South Island Oblique Collision, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sandra Bourguignon

<p>Lithospheric deformation is investigated within the Southern Alps oblique collision zone of the Australian and Pacific plate boundary. Seismological methods and gravity modelling are used to estimate seismic anisotropy, wave-speed anomalies and mass anomalies in the uppermost mantle. While seismic anisotropy is generally interpreted to result from Cenozoic mantle shear, wave-speed and mass anomalies can be explained solely by thermal contraction of mantle rocks that results from the downward deflection of isotherms during mantle shortening. Along the eastern Southern Alps foothills and approximately 15' clockwise from their axis, earthquake Pn waves propagate at 8.54 +/- 0.20 km/s. This high wave speed is attributed to a high average Pn speed (8.3 +/- 0.3 km/s) and Pn anisotropy (7 - 13 %) in the mantle lid beneath central South Island. Two-dimensional ray-tracing suggests that the crustal thickness is 48 +/- 4 km beneath the Southern Alps' southern extent near Wanaka (western Otago). Such a thickness represents an 18 +/- 4 km thick crustal root that is thicker than necessary to isostatically sustain the approximately 1000 m topographic load of this region. A mass excess is proposed in the mantle below the region of over-thickened crust to compensate for the crustal root mass deficit. Assuming that the crustal root represents a -300 kg/m3 density contrast with the mantle lid, this mantle mass excess requires a minimum density contrast of 35 +/- 5 kg/m3, 110 +/-20 km width and 70 +/- 20 km thickness that will impart a downward pull on the overlying crust.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sandra Bourguignon

<p>Lithospheric deformation is investigated within the Southern Alps oblique collision zone of the Australian and Pacific plate boundary. Seismological methods and gravity modelling are used to estimate seismic anisotropy, wave-speed anomalies and mass anomalies in the uppermost mantle. While seismic anisotropy is generally interpreted to result from Cenozoic mantle shear, wave-speed and mass anomalies can be explained solely by thermal contraction of mantle rocks that results from the downward deflection of isotherms during mantle shortening. Along the eastern Southern Alps foothills and approximately 15' clockwise from their axis, earthquake Pn waves propagate at 8.54 +/- 0.20 km/s. This high wave speed is attributed to a high average Pn speed (8.3 +/- 0.3 km/s) and Pn anisotropy (7 - 13 %) in the mantle lid beneath central South Island. Two-dimensional ray-tracing suggests that the crustal thickness is 48 +/- 4 km beneath the Southern Alps' southern extent near Wanaka (western Otago). Such a thickness represents an 18 +/- 4 km thick crustal root that is thicker than necessary to isostatically sustain the approximately 1000 m topographic load of this region. A mass excess is proposed in the mantle below the region of over-thickened crust to compensate for the crustal root mass deficit. Assuming that the crustal root represents a -300 kg/m3 density contrast with the mantle lid, this mantle mass excess requires a minimum density contrast of 35 +/- 5 kg/m3, 110 +/-20 km width and 70 +/- 20 km thickness that will impart a downward pull on the overlying crust.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 224 (1) ◽  
pp. 290-305
Author(s):  
Fenitra Andriampenomanana ◽  
Andrew A Nyblade ◽  
Michael E Wysession ◽  
Raymond J Durrheim ◽  
Frederik Tilmann ◽  
...  

SUMMARY The lithosphere of Madagascar records a long series of tectonic processes. Structures initially inherited from the Pan-African Orogeny are overprinted by a series of extensional tectonic and magmatic events that began with the breakup of Gondwana and continued through to the present. Here, we present a Pn-tomography study in which Pn traveltimes are inverted to investigate the lateral variation of the seismic velocity and anisotropy within the uppermost mantle beneath Madagascar. Results show that the Pn velocities within the uppermost mantle vary by ±0.30 km s–1 about a mean of 8.10 km s–1. Low-Pn-velocity zones (&lt;8.00 km s–1) are observed beneath the Cenozoic alkaline volcanic provinces in the northern and central regions. They correspond to thermally perturbed zones, where temperatures are estimated to be elevated by ∼100–300 K. Moderately low Pn velocities are found near the southern volcanic province and along an E–W belt in central Madagascar. This belt is located at the edge of a broader low S-velocity anomaly in the mantle imaged in a recent surface wave tomographic study. High-Pn-velocity zones (&gt;8.20 km s–1) coincide with stable and less seismically active regions. The pattern of Pn anisotropy is very complex, with small-scale variations in both the amplitude and the fast-axis direction, and generally reflects the complicated tectonic history of Madagascar. Pn anisotropy and shear wave (SKS) splitting measurements show good correlations in the southern parts of Madagascar, indicating coherency in the vertical distribution of lithospheric deformation along Pan-African shear zone as well as coupling between the crust and mantle when the shear zones were active. In most other regions, discrepancies between Pn anisotropy and SKS measurements suggest that the seismic anisotropy in the uppermost mantle beneath Madagascar differs from the vertically integrated upper mantle anisotropy, implying a present-day vertical partitioning of the deformation. Pn anisotropy directions lack the coherent pattern expected for an incipient plate boundary within Madagascar proposed in some kinematic models of the region.


2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 2685-2692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. DeWall ◽  
Laura C. Slane ◽  
Kenneth S. Lee ◽  
Darryl G. Thelen

2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
M B Helgerud ◽  
W F Waite ◽  
S H Kirby ◽  
A Nur

We report on compressional- and shear-wave-speed measurements made on compacted polycrystalline sI methane and sII methane–ethane hydrate. The gas hydrate samples are synthesized directly in the measurement apparatus by warming granulated ice to 17°C in the presence of a clathrate-forming gas at high pressure (methane for sI, 90.2% methane, 9.8% ethane for sII). Porosity is eliminated after hydrate synthesis by compacting the sample in the synthesis pressure vessel between a hydraulic ram and a fixed end-plug, both containing shear-wave transducers. Wave-speed measurements are made between –20 and 15°C and 0 to 105 MPa applied piston pressure. PACS No.: 61.60Lj


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Schulte-Pelkum ◽  
Thorsten Wolfgang Becker ◽  
Whitney M. Behr ◽  
Meghan Samantha Miller

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chennakesava Kadapa

AbstractThis paper presents a novel semi-implicit scheme for elastodynamics and wave propagation problems in nearly and truly incompressible material models. The proposed methodology is based on the efficient computation of the Schur complement for the mixed displacement-pressure formulation using a lumped mass matrix for the displacement field. By treating the deviatoric stress explicitly and the pressure field implicitly, the critical time step is made to be limited by shear wave speed rather than the bulk wave speed. The convergence of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by computing error norms for the recently proposed LBB-stable BT2/BT1 element. Using the numerical examples modelled with nearly and truly incompressible Neo-Hookean and Ogden material models, it is demonstrated that the proposed semi-implicit scheme yields significant computational benefits over the fully explicit and the fully implicit schemes for finite strain elastodynamics simulations involving incompressible materials. Finally, the applicability of the proposed scheme for wave propagation problems in nearly and truly incompressible material models is illustrated.


Choonpa Igaku ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroko IIJIMA ◽  
Toshifumi TADA ◽  
Hiroyuki HACHIYA ◽  
Takashi NISHIMURA ◽  
Junko NISHIMURA ◽  
...  

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