Following the M•o 6.7 Northridge earthquake, significant postseismic displacements were resolved with GPS. Using a three-dimensional viscoelastic model, we suggest that this deformation is mainly driven by viscous flow in the lower crust. Such flow can transfer stress to the upper crust and load the rupture zone of the main shock at a decaying rate. Most aftershocks within the rupture zone, esp...

U-Pb and Hf isotope analyses of zircons from felsic granulite xenoliths in Mesozoic volcanics reveal Early Archean ($3.6 Ga) lower crust beneath the younger (,2.85 Ga) southern margin of the North China craton, and suggest that the eastern part of the craton formed a coherent block by 3.6 Ga. Hf model ages indicate extraction of protoliths from the mantle ca. 4 Ga or earlier, followed by remelt...

the study area is located south of ghonabad in eastern iran. this area is situated between two major faults, darouneh to the north and dashtbyaz to the south. the movements of these faults cased major dislocation of this block. najmabad granodiorite to granite batholith is elongated trending east-west 2×8 km2. mineralization is associated with granite and monzonite. alteration zones are: propyl...

Mapping the distribution and extent of major terrain types on a planet's surface helps to constrain the origin and evolution of its crust. Together, MESSENGER and Mariner 10 observations of Mercury now provide a near-global look at the planet, revealing lateral and vertical heterogeneities in the color and thus composition of Mercury's crust. Smooth plains cover approximately 40% of the surface...

Axial melt lenses sandwiched between the lower oceanic crust and the sheeted dike sequences at fast-spreading mid-ocean ridges are assumed to be the major magma source of oceanic crust accretion. According to the widely discussed "gabbro glacier" model, the formation of the lower oceanic crust requires efficient cooling of the axial melt lens, leading to partial crystallization and crystal-melt...

The exposure of 1300 meters of upper oceanic crust at the Blanc0 Fracture Zone allows near-bottom gravity measurements to determine the in situ density of the seafloor as a function of depth. Gravity measurements along the north wall of the Blanc0 Depression indicate an outcrop density of 2530 * Kg/m3 for the upper 800 meters of crust and a calculated porosity of 23%. The lower 500 meters of cr...

[1] Seismic tomography has revealed two large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) in the lowermost mantle beneath the central Pacific and Africa. The LLSVPs are further shown to be compositionally different from their surroundings. Among several hypotheses put forth in recent years to explain the cause of the LLSVPs, one postulates that they are thermochemical piles caused by accumulation of ...

Crustal growth in the Coast Mountains, along the leading edge of the Canadian Cordillera, was the result of processes associated with horizontal flow of material during transpression and subsequent transtension, and the vertical accretion of mantle derived melts. From 85 to 58 Ma, as exotic terranes were translated northward during transpression, the crust was thickened to about 55 km, and melt...

We use a simple toy-model to discuss global MHD modes of a neutron star, taking into account the magnetic coupling between the elastic crust and the fluid core. Our results suggest that the notion of pure torsional crust modes is not useful for the coupled system, all modes excite Alfvén waves in the core. However, we also show that the modes that are most likely to be excited by a fractured cr...

We predict gravity from a three-dimensional Vp model of the upper crust and compare it to the observed isostatic residual gravity field. In general this comparison shows that the isostatic residual gravity field reflects the density variations in the upper to middle crust. Both data sets show similar density variations for the upper crust in areas such as the Peninsular Ranges and the Los Angel...