Analysing the genesis of Quaternary sediments is important for understanding the glaciation history and development of marine sediments in the northern part of the Western Siberia. The key features of sedimentation and landform formation have been characterized for the first time in an example of a lithological column from the lower sources of the Nadym River. A comprehensive analysis was performed on the lithological, petrographic, and geomorphological data from the upper stratum of Quaternary.

The Ligurian Sea opened ~ 30–15 Ma during the SE migration of the Calabrian subduction zone. The extension of the continental lithosphere led to extreme crustal thinning and mantle exhumation in the Ligurian Basin. Seismic travel time tomography reveals the absence of oceanic crust, documenting that extension of the basin stopped before seafloor spreading was initiated. Our new interpretation on the nature of the crust is important for plate reconstruction modeling related to the Alpine orogen.

The paper is a review and evaluation of a digital method for characterising fracture networks. The method involves creating a series of scaled-digital traces from a georeferenced photograph of an outcrop. The digital vector data set can be used to deduce fracture network parameters such as density, spacing and mean length. There are a number of advantages to using this method such as time efficiency, generating large data sets, flexibility during data gathering and consistency of data.

Mapping island arc magma production rates is helpful for understanding arc magmatism processes. We map the first overview of island-arc magma production rates along the Aleutian arc strike via a gravity based method. The overview map demonstrates that the magma production rates have the same trend as the slab dips, and the peaks of magma production rates correspond to the subduction of fracture zones and ridges. And, we analyze the influence mechanisms of these factors on island-arc magmatism.

Normal faults have irregular geometries on a range of scales. A quantitative model has been presented which illustrates the range of deformation arising from movement on fault surface irregularities, with fault-bend folding generating geometries reminiscent of normal drag and reverse drag. We show that fault throw can be subject to errors of up to ca. 50 % for realistic fault bend geometries (up to ca. 40°), even on otherwise sub-planar faults with constant displacement.

Based on own and published age data, we infer tectonic pulses along-strike the northern rim of the Central Alps between 12–4 million years. Although lithologic variations largely influence the local deformation pattern, the tectonic signal is remarkably consistent all the way from Lake Geneva to Salzburg. This might result from a deep-seated tectonic force and marks a change from dominantly vertical to large-scale horizontal tectonics in the late stage of Alpine orogeny.

The deep geothermal project in St. Gallen, Switzerland, aimed at generating electricity and heat. The fluid pumped into the underground caused hundreds of small earthquakes and one larger one perceived by the local people. Here we use computer simulations to study the physical processes that led to the earthquakes. We find that gas present in the subsurface could have enhanced the seismicity. This may have implications for future geothermal projects conducted in similar geological conditions.

We have developed a model of what the Earth looks like in the upper 500 km beneath the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Within this model, we can see parts of the African tectonic plate that have sunk underneath the European plate over the past tens of millions of years. This model was constructed using seismic waveform tomography: by matching the seismograms from many earthquakes we record at the surface to synthetic seismograms that were generated by simulating earthquake wave propagation.

Simulations of seismic waves are very important; they allow us to understand how earthquakes spread and how the interior of the Earth is structured. However, whilst powerful, existing simulation methods usually require a large amount of computing power and time to run. In this research we use recent advances in machine learning to dramatically speed up these calculations for complex models of the Earth, potentially leading the way to real-time simulation.

We propose a methodology for the identification of rock types using geophysical and geological information. It relies on an algoritm used in machine learning called Self-organizing maps, to which we add plausibilty filtes to ensure that the results respect base geological rules and geophysical measurements. Application in the Yerrida Basin (Western Australia) reveals that the thinning of prospective greenstone belts at depth could be due to deep structures not seen from surface.

A shallow borehole was drilled to explore the petrophysical and hydraulic characteristics of a hydrothermally active fault in the crystalline Aar massif of the Alps. A key objective of studying surficial features of this kind is to establish analogies with natural and deep-seated engineered hydrothermal systems. A wide range of geophysical borehole logs was acquired, which revealed a complex fracture network in the damage zone of the fault and a related compartmentalized hydraulic behavior.

All rock forming minerals behave elastically, a property that controls their ability to support stress and strain, the transmission of seismic waves, and influences subsequent permanent deformation. All minerals are intrinsically anisotropic in their elastic properties – that is, they have directional variations that are related to the crystal lattice. We explore this directionality, and present new ways of visualising it. We hope this will enable further advances in understanding deformation.

We integrate seismic velocities from laboratory, core, and borehole measurements to better understand subsurface structures associated with mountain-building processes. The investigated seismic properties, including anisotropy, allow to distinguish metamorphic lithological units along the COSC-1 borehole, Sweden. We also investigate the influence of microcracks in both data sets and their role on the physical properties.

Hydraulic stimulation summarizes fracture initiation or reactivation due to high pressure fluid injection. Several borehole intervals covering intact rock and pre-existing fractures were target for high-pressure fluid injections within a decameter scale rock mass. The observed induced seismicity strongly de-pends on target geology, nearby fracture density and deformation mode. The severity of the induced seismicity per experiment counter correlates the observed transmissivity enhancement.

We use a sediment core from the Gobi Desert (Ejina Basin, NW China) to illustrate the environmental history of the area. During 2.5 million years a sediment package of 223 m thickness has been accumulated. Various sediment types document that the area turned from a lake setting to a playa environment (shallow water environment with multiple flooding events) and finally to an alluvial-fluvial environment after the arrival of the Hei River in the area. The river has been diverted due to tectonics.

This study investigates Cenozoic deformation during cooling and exhumation of the Tauern metamorphic and structural dome, Eastern Alps, through Th-Pb dating of fissure monazite-(Ce). Fissure (or hydrothermal) monazite-(Ce) typically crystallises in a temperature range of 400–200 °C. Three major episodes of monazite growth occurred at ca. 21, 17 and 12–8 Ma, corroborating previous crystallization and cooling ages.

In carbonate rocks, fault zones influence the fluid flows and lead to important diagenetic processes modifying reservoir properties. The aim of this study is to identify the impact of 2 polyphase fault zones on fluid flows and reservoir properties during basin history. We determined petro-physic and diagenetic properties on 92 samples. This study highlight that fault zones acted as drain at their onset, and induced fault zone cementation, what has strongly altered local reservoir properties.

In this field-based study, geological structures and hydrothermal alterations in one of the least known geological terrains in Sweden are investigated. The area is located above the polar circle in northwestern Sweden that produces a significant portion of the iron and copper in the EU. A new tectonic model based on field evidence and microstructures is presented and it is shown that minerals typical for iron and copper-gold deposits can be linked to different phases of the structural evolution.