Tectonic Processes Active
Geophysical research utilizes analytical and numerical tools to quantify tectonic processes. Basic geophysical research lays the ground for understanding of Earth processes, which affect natural hazards and resource estimation.
Mid-plate volcanoes load tectonic plates and cause the plates to flex. Plate flexure, in turn, can modify the volcanic eruptions. In transform plate boundaries, the majority of relative plate motion takes place by lateral displacement between two tectonic plates. Read ten Brink and others research papers.
- Queen Charlotte Fault (SE Alaska-Canada)
- The Dead Sea Transform
- California
At rift zones the continental crust and lithosphere are subjected to extensional stresses, which result in the formation of sedimentary basins. These basins sometime accumulate natural resources of oil, gas and water. Read ten Brink and others research papers.
- Basins along the Dead Sea Transform
- Baikal rift and Cayman Trough
- Rift-margin uplift: The Transantarctic Mountains
In subduction plate boundaries, one tectonic plate sinks under another tectonic plate. The process of sinking is often accompanied by large earthquakes, volcanism, and the building of mountains. Read ten Brink and others research papers.
- Northern Caribbean subduction zone around U.S. territories
- Cascadia subduction zone in the northwestern U.S.
Electronic Media
Podcast Title: Science in the Middle East New York Academy of Sciences - Science and the City. June 20, 2008 Format: MP3, 11.8 MByte Running Time: 00:25:08
Webinar Lecture Title: Size Distribution of Submarine Landslides and Its Implication to Tsunami Hazards Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:12:00 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Size_Distribution_Submar…
Lecture Title: Assessing Tsunami Hazards to U.S. East Coast Using Relationships Between Submarine Landslides and Earthquakes Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:21:30 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Assessing_Tsunami_Hazard…
Lecture Title: Deformation of the Pacific-North-American plate boundary at queen Charlotte Fault: The possible role of rheology USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Seminars, October 2017.Running Time:00:45:00 https://earthquake.usgs.gov/contactus/menlo/seminars/1100
Educational Film Title: The Puerto Rico Trench: Exploring the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean 14-minute educational film about sea floor mapping and tsunami and earthquake hazards, 2004, by Joram ten Brink For a DVD copy of the movie, please contact: Dr. Uri ten Brink, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543 1-508-457-2396; utenbrink@usgs.gov
Publications associated with Uri ten Brink's tectonic processes research.
Seismic imaging of deep low-velocity zone beneath the Dead Sea basin and transform fault: Implications for strain localization and crustal rigidity
Vertical motions of the Puerto Rico Trench and Puerto Rico and their cause
The Puerto Rico trench exhibits great water depth, an extremely low gravity anomaly, and a tilted carbonate platform between (reconstructed) elevations of +1300 m and -4000 m. I argue that these features are manifestations of large vertical movements of a segment of the Puerto Rico trench, its forearc, and the island of Puerto Rico that took place 3.3 m.y. ago over a time period as short as 14-40
Stress interaction between subduction earthquakes and forearc strike-slip faults: Modeling and application to the northern Caribbean plate boundary
Strike-slip faults in the forearc region of a subduction zone often present significant seismic hazard because of their proximity to population centers. We explore the interaction between thrust events on the subduction interface and strike-slip faults within the forearc region using three-dimensional models of static Coulomb stress change. Model results reveal that subduction earthquakes with sli
The Hula Valley subsurface structure inferred from gravity data
Lower crustal flow and the role of shear in basin subsidence: An example from the Dead Sea basin
Crustal structure of central Lake Baikal: Insights into intracontinental rifting
The nature of the crust under Cayman Trough from gravity
Considerable crustal thickness variations are inferred along Cayman Trough, a slow-spreading ocean basin in the Caribbean Sea, from modeling of the gravity field. The crust to a distance of 50 km from the spreading center is only 2–3 km thick in agreement with dredge and dive results. Crustal thickness increases to ∼5.5 km at distances between 100 and 430 km west of the spreading center and to 3.5
Bouguer gravity anomaly map of the Dead Sea fault system, Jordan and Israel: contour interval 2 mGal
Salt diapirs in the Dead Sea basin and their relationship to Quaternary extensional tectonics
Geophysical evidence for the evolution of the California Inner Continental Borderland as a metamorphic core complex
Three-dimensional velocity structure of Siletzia and other accreted terranes in the Cascadia forearc of Washington
Deep seismic reflections beneath the Trans-Antarctic Mountain Front, from reprocessed SERIS seismic data
- Overview
Geophysical research utilizes analytical and numerical tools to quantify tectonic processes. Basic geophysical research lays the ground for understanding of Earth processes, which affect natural hazards and resource estimation.
Mid-plate volcanoes load tectonic plates and cause the plates to flex. Plate flexure, in turn, can modify the volcanic eruptions. In transform plate boundaries, the majority of relative plate motion takes place by lateral displacement between two tectonic plates. Read ten Brink and others research papers.
- Queen Charlotte Fault (SE Alaska-Canada)
- The Dead Sea Transform
- California
At rift zones the continental crust and lithosphere are subjected to extensional stresses, which result in the formation of sedimentary basins. These basins sometime accumulate natural resources of oil, gas and water. Read ten Brink and others research papers.
- Basins along the Dead Sea Transform
- Baikal rift and Cayman Trough
- Rift-margin uplift: The Transantarctic Mountains
In subduction plate boundaries, one tectonic plate sinks under another tectonic plate. The process of sinking is often accompanied by large earthquakes, volcanism, and the building of mountains. Read ten Brink and others research papers.
- Northern Caribbean subduction zone around U.S. territories
- Cascadia subduction zone in the northwestern U.S.
Electronic Media
Podcast Title: Science in the Middle East New York Academy of Sciences - Science and the City. June 20, 2008 Format: MP3, 11.8 MByte Running Time: 00:25:08
Webinar Lecture Title: Size Distribution of Submarine Landslides and Its Implication to Tsunami Hazards Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:12:00 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Size_Distribution_Submar…
Lecture Title: Assessing Tsunami Hazards to U.S. East Coast Using Relationships Between Submarine Landslides and Earthquakes Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:21:30 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Assessing_Tsunami_Hazard…
Lecture Title: Deformation of the Pacific-North-American plate boundary at queen Charlotte Fault: The possible role of rheology USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Seminars, October 2017.Running Time:00:45:00 https://earthquake.usgs.gov/contactus/menlo/seminars/1100
Educational Film Title: The Puerto Rico Trench: Exploring the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean 14-minute educational film about sea floor mapping and tsunami and earthquake hazards, 2004, by Joram ten Brink For a DVD copy of the movie, please contact: Dr. Uri ten Brink, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543 1-508-457-2396; utenbrink@usgs.gov
- Publications
Publications associated with Uri ten Brink's tectonic processes research.
Filter Total Items: 40Seismic imaging of deep low-velocity zone beneath the Dead Sea basin and transform fault: Implications for strain localization and crustal rigidity
New seismic observations from the Dead Sea basin (DSB), a large pull-apart basin along the Dead Sea transform (DST) plate boundary, show a low velocity zone extending to a depth of 18 km under the basin. The lower crust and Moho are not perturbed. These observations are incompatible with the current view of mid-crustal strength at low temperatures and with support of the basin's negative load by aAuthorsUri S. ten Brink, A. S. Al-Zoubi, C.H. Flores, Y. Rotstein, I. Qabbani, S.H. Harder, Gordon R. KellerVertical motions of the Puerto Rico Trench and Puerto Rico and their cause
The Puerto Rico trench exhibits great water depth, an extremely low gravity anomaly, and a tilted carbonate platform between (reconstructed) elevations of +1300 m and -4000 m. I argue that these features are manifestations of large vertical movements of a segment of the Puerto Rico trench, its forearc, and the island of Puerto Rico that took place 3.3 m.y. ago over a time period as short as 14-40
AuthorsUri S. ten BrinkStress interaction between subduction earthquakes and forearc strike-slip faults: Modeling and application to the northern Caribbean plate boundary
Strike-slip faults in the forearc region of a subduction zone often present significant seismic hazard because of their proximity to population centers. We explore the interaction between thrust events on the subduction interface and strike-slip faults within the forearc region using three-dimensional models of static Coulomb stress change. Model results reveal that subduction earthquakes with sli
AuthorsUri S. ten Brink, J. LinThe Hula Valley subsurface structure inferred from gravity data
We use the 3-D gravity inversion technique to model the shape of the Hula basin, a pull-apart basin along the Dead Sea Transform. The interpretation was constrained using the Notera-3-well density logs and current geological knowledge. The model obtained by inversion shows a rhomb-shaped graben filled with approximately 4 km of young sediments in the deepest part of the basin. The reliability of tAuthorsM. Rybakov, L. Fleischer, Uri S. ten BrinkLower crustal flow and the role of shear in basin subsidence: An example from the Dead Sea basin
We interpret large-scale subsidence (5–6 km depth) with little attendant brittle deformation in the southern Dead Sea basin, a large pull-apart basin along the Dead Sea transform plate boundary, to indicate lower crustal thinning due to lower crustal flow. Along-axis flow within the lower crust could be induced by the reduction of overburden pressure in the central Dead Sea basin, where brittle exAuthorsA. Al-Zoubi, Uri S. ten BrinkCrustal structure of central Lake Baikal: Insights into intracontinental rifting
The Cenozoic rift system of Baikal, located in the interior of the largest continental mass on Earth, is thought to represent a potential analog of the early stage of breakup of supercontinents. We present a detailed P wave velocity structure of the crust and sediments beneath the Central Basin, the deepest basin in the Baikal rift system. The structure is characterized by a Moho depth of 39–42.5AuthorsUri S. ten Brink, Michael H. TaylorThe nature of the crust under Cayman Trough from gravity
Considerable crustal thickness variations are inferred along Cayman Trough, a slow-spreading ocean basin in the Caribbean Sea, from modeling of the gravity field. The crust to a distance of 50 km from the spreading center is only 2–3 km thick in agreement with dredge and dive results. Crustal thickness increases to ∼5.5 km at distances between 100 and 430 km west of the spreading center and to 3.5
AuthorsUri S. ten Brink, D.F. Coleman, William P. DillonBouguer gravity anomaly map of the Dead Sea fault system, Jordan and Israel: contour interval 2 mGal
No abstract available.AuthorsUri S. ten Brink, Abdallah Al-Zoubi, Michael RybakovSalt diapirs in the Dead Sea basin and their relationship to Quaternary extensional tectonics
Regional extension of a brittle overburden and underlying salt causes differential loading that is thought to initiate the rise of reactive diapirs below and through regions of thin overburden. We present a modern example of a large salt diapir in the Dead Sea pull-apart basin, the Lisan diapir, which we believe was formed during the Quaternary due to basin transtension and subsidence. Using newlyAuthorsA. Al-Zoubi, Uri S. ten BrinkGeophysical evidence for the evolution of the California Inner Continental Borderland as a metamorphic core complex
We use new seismic and gravity data collected during the 1994 Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE) to discuss the origin of the California Inner Continental Borderland (ICB) as an extended terrain possibly in a metamorphic core complex mode. The data provide detailed crustal structure of the Borderland and its transition to mainland southern California. Using tomographic inversion as wellAuthorsUri S. ten Brink, Jie Zhang, Thomas M. Brocher, David A. Okaya, Kim D. Klitgord, Gary S. FuisThree-dimensional velocity structure of Siletzia and other accreted terranes in the Cascadia forearc of Washington
Eocene mafic crust with high seismic velocities underlies much of the Oregon and Washington forearc and acts as a backstop for accretion of marine sedimentary rocks from the obliquely subducting Juan de Fuca slab. Arc-parallel migration of relatively strong blocks of this terrane, known as Siletzia, focuses upper crustal deformation along block boundaries, which are potential sources of earthquakeAuthorsT. Parsons, R. E. Wells, M. A. Fisher, E. Flueh, Uri S. ten BrinkDeep seismic reflections beneath the Trans-Antarctic Mountain Front, from reprocessed SERIS seismic data
No abstract available.AuthorsS. Bannister, A. Melhuish, S. Henrys, T. Stern, Uri S. ten Brink