As ice retreated from southern coastal Maine from 15,000 to 13,000 years ago, the ocean inundated coastal areas where the earth’s crust had been temporarily depressed by the weight of glacial ice. A thick veneer of glacial-marine clay and silt – the Presumpscot Formation – was deposited in coastal Maine lowlands. Due to its fine-grained character, shear waves from seismic events travel slowly t...

We compute the elastic constants tensor and the seismic properties of KAlSi3O8 and K0.8Na0.2AlSi3O8 up to the ferroelastic transition using density-functional theory and density-functional perturbation theory in the ABINIT implementation. We observe a softening of the tetragonal shear with pressure that precedes the ferroelastic transition. The Reuss shear moduli become negative at respectively...

The Mantle Electromagnetic and Tomography (MELT ) Experiment was designed to distinguish between competing models of magma generation beneath mid-ocean ridges. Seismological observations demonstrate that basaltic melt is present beneath the East Pacific Rise spreading center in a broad region several hundred kilometers across and extending to depths greater than 100 kilometers, not just in a na...

Knowledge of subsurface material response to seismic waves is important in developing a site-response model. Seismic velocities give insight into precautions that should be taken in anticipation of an earthquake. The method of fixed bandwidth extended Vibroseis correlation was used to extract reflections deeper than conventionally accomplished with only a 2-second listen time. A method to accur...

The Mantle Electromagnetic and Tomography (MELT) Experiment was designed to distinguish between competing models of magma generation beneath mid-ocean ridges. Seismological observations demonstrate that basaltic melt is present beneath the East Pacific Rise spreading center in a broad region several hundred kilometers across and extending to depths greater than 100 kilometers, not just in a nar...

Earth’s upper mantle includes a 200 km thick asthenosphere underneath the plates where viscosity and seismic velocities are reduced compared to the background. This zone of weakness matters for plate dynamics and may be required for the generation of plate tectonics itself. However, recent seismological and electromagnetic studies indicate strong heterogeneity in thinner layers underneath the p...

A monopole or a dipole source in a fluid borehole generates acoustic waves, part of which propagate along the borehole and the other part enter the formation propagating as Por S-waves. The refracted waves propagating along the borehole wall are used to determine Pand S-wave velocities. However, a significant fraction of the seismic energy radiates into the formation. In this laboratory study, ...

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: bedrock fractures threshold slopes landslides landscape evolution erosion Bedrock fracturing and rock strength are widely believed to influence landscape morphology and erosional resistance. Yet, understanding of the quantitative relationship between rock-mass strength and landscape evolution remains limited. Here we present a new application of seismic refractio...