Terrestrial vertebrates show striking changes in species richness across topographic gradients. For mammals, nearly twice as many species per unit area occur in topographically complex regions as in adjacent lowlands. The geological context of this pervasive biogeographic pattern suggests that tectonic processes have a first-order impact on regional diversity. I evaluate ecological, evolutionar...

In northern Tunisia, the Cretaceous period is described as a spectacular episode of soft-sediment deformations exposed for several kilometers. These gravity-driven are interpreted to be associated with Tethyan passive margin rifting. Slump folds and fault kinematics analysed in order characterize structural style Northern Tunisia basin during period. As result, Early sedimentation reflects syn-...

Abstract The Upper Cretaceous Fort Crittenden Formation exposed in the Santa Rita and Huachuca Mountains of southeastern Arizona is a syntectonic deposit that has been associated with Laramide tectonic activity. However, spatio-temporal relationships among sedimentation, magmatism, basement exhumation, possible flat slab-related processes southern region remain poorly understood. Age controls f...

Opening of the Japan Sea back arc basin was accompanied by extensional tectonics in drifting southwest arc. Various trends Early Miocene grabens suggest multi-directional rifting, which necessarily involved strike-slip components some basin-margin faults. However, such are not well understood. In this work we conducted a field survey Ichishi on northern side Median Tectonic Line, central Japan....

[1] Although Mars is currently not tectonically active, it may have experienced plate tectonics early in its history. The southern hemisphere of Mars possesses a thick crust which probably renders the lithosphere positively buoyant. In this paper we present numerical and scaling arguments which show that if the area of positively buoyant lithosphere grows beyond a critical fraction ( 50% for Ma...

The Earth is likely to have acquired most of its water during accretion. Internal heat of planetesimals by short-lived radioisotopes would have caused some water loss, but impacts into planetesimals were insufficiently energetic to produce further drying. Water is thought to be critical for the development of plate tectonics, because it lowers viscosities in the asthenosphere, enabling subducti...

Archaeologists and historians working on topics such as agricultural technology, resource distribution, settlement patterns, raw materials procurement, artifact analysis and natural disasters are automatically involved in geological questions. The geologic history of the Japanese Islands is, therefore, of basic importance to our enquiries, but those interests are poorly served by the current li...