Two extensometer stations have been set up at the margin of the Pannonian Basin to monitor tectonic movements as well as Earth tides and related phenomena. Because the Sopronbánfalva Geodynamic ...Observatory (SGO) in Hungary and the Vyhne Tidal Station (VTS) in Slovakia are located in different geological, topographic, and tectonic environments, the analysis and comparison of the extensometer data measured here provides a useful opportunity to interpret the observed data. The tectonic deformation at the SGO shows an average contraction of: −2.94 μstr y−1 (1 μstr is 10−6 relative deformation) which can be explained by the uplift of the Alps and the anticlockwise motion of the Adria microplate, causing compression in the Eastern Alps. At the VTS an average compression of −14.8 nstr y−1 (1 nstr is 10−9 relative deformation) was measured which can be explained by the NW compression direction in this area. The measured deformations in both observatories show a good agreement with the results of GPS measurements. The deformation at the VTS is characterized by small dilatation anomalies caused by the different topographic, tectonic environment and probably by the high heat flow in the area of the station. At this station the calculated amplitude factors for O1, P1, K1, M2 are 1.01482, 1.21691, 0.83173, 1.09392 and the ocean load corrected values are 1.10817, 1.35717, 0.92809, 1.28812, respectively. At the SGO the calculated amplitude factors for the same tidal components are 0.58776, 0.38967, 0.41548, 1.00564 and the ocean load corrected values are 0.98893, 1.89117, 1.00430, 1.04962, respectively. These results show that the effect of the ocean tide loading is greater at Sopronbánfalva, than at Vyhne. Based on the comparison, we can say that the result of the local strain measurement can be considered realistic.
Tidal strain time series recorded at the Vyhne Tidal Station are used to test thirteen different ocean tide loading models. Ten models have been calculated using SPOTL: EOT11a, HAMTIDE11a, ...OSU.TPXO72atlas, OSU.TPXO72, TPX070, DTU10, CSR4.0, FES2004, FES95.2.1, SCHW1 and three other models were chosen from the Free Ocean Tide Loading Provider (FOTLP) created by Scherneck and Bos: FES2012, FES2014b, GOT00.2. Hourly sampled strain data, corrected for temperature, were subjected to correction for ocean tide loading. The test of models was focused on the diurnal and semi-diurnal tidal harmonic constituents O1, P1, K1 and M2. A negligible difference between the individual global ocean tide loading models was only found mainly due to using different Earth models and Green functions. The amplitude factors for O1, P1, K1 and M2 derived from the measurements are 1.019, 1.226, 0.842 and 1.131, respectively. The average amplitude factors for these tidal components were obtained after ocean load correction using SPOTL routines: 1.121, 1.332, 0.916, 1.283, and in the case of the three models using FOTLP: 1.046, 1.486, 1.067, 1.317. The corrected amplitude factor became closer to the theoretical value only for K1.
Thermo-elastic strains and stresses play a considerable role in the stress state of the lithosphere and its dynamics, especially at pronounced positive geothermal anomalies. Topography has a ...significant effect on ground deformation. Two methods for including the topographic effects in the thermo-viscoelastic model are described. First we use an approximate methodology which assumes that the main effect of topography is due to the distance from the source to the free surface and permits to have an analytical solution very attractive for solving the inverse problem. A numerical solution (for 2D plain strain case) is also computed using finite element method (FEM). The numerical method allows to include the local shape of the topography in the modeling. In the numerical model the buried magmatic body is represented by a finite volume thermal source. The temperature distribution is computed by the higher-degree FEM. For analytical as well as numerical model solution only the forces of thermal origin are considered. The results show that for the volcanic areas with prominent topography, its effect on the perturbation of the thermo-viscoelastic solution (deformation and total gravity anomaly) can be quite significant. In consequence, neglecting the topography could give erroneous results in the estimated source parameters.
In the present study, we have attempted to map the plate boundary between Arabia and Africa at the Northern Red Sea rift region including the Suez rift, Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea transform and ...southeastern Mediterranean region by using gravity data analysis. In the boundary analysis method which was used; low-pass filtered gravity anomalies of the Northern Red Sea rift region were computed. Different crustal types and thicknesses, sediment thicknesses and different heat flow anomalies were evaluated. According to the results, there are six subzones (crustal blocks) separated from each other by tectonic plate boundaries and/or lineaments. It seems that these tectonic boundaries reveal complex structural lineaments, which are mostly influenced by a predominant set of NNW–SSE to NW–SE trending lineaments bordering the Red Sea and Suez rift regions. On the other side, the E–W and N–S to NNE–SSW trended lineaments bordering the South-eastern Mediterranean, Northern Sinai and Aqaba-Dead Sea transform regions, respectively. The analysis of the low pass filtered Bouguer anomaly maps reveals that the positive regional anomaly over both the Red Sea rift and South-eastern Mediterranean basin subzones are considered to be caused by the high density of the oceanic crust and/or the anomalous upper mantle structures beneath these regions whereas, the broad medium anomalies along the western half of Central Sinai with the Suez rift and the Eastern Desert subzones are attributed to low-density sediments of the Suez rift and/or the thick upper continental crustal thickness below these zones. There are observable negative anomalies over the Northern Arabia subzone, particularly in the areas covered by Cenozoic volcanics. These negative anomalies may be attributed to both the low densities of the surface volcanics and/or to a very thick upper continental crust. On the contrary, the negative anomaly which belongs to the Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea transform zone is due to crustal thickening (with limited heat flow values) below this region. Additionally in this study, the crustal thinning was investigated with heat flow, magnetic and free air gravity anomalies in the Northern Red Sea rift region. In fact, the crustal thinning of the study area was also proportional to the regions of observable high heat flow values. Finally, our results were found to be well correlated with the topography, free air, aeromagnetic and heat flow dataset profiles crossing most of the study area.
The surface deformation of the Tatra Mountains region in Western Carpathians can nowadays be studied directly thanks to precise geodetic measurements using the GNSS. The strain or stress tensor field ...is, however, a rather complex “data structure” difficult to present legibly and with sufficient resolution in the form of a classical map. A novel and promising approach to the solution of this problem is coding the three principal strain or stress values into the three colour channels (red, green, blue) of an RGB colour. In our previous study, the colour depended on the stress tensor shape descriptors. In the current study, the adapted colouring scheme uses a subset of shape descriptors common to stress and strain, which differ only in the scaling factor. In this manner, we generate the colour map of the surface strain rate field, where the colour of each grid point carries the information about the shape of the strain rate tensor at that point. The resulting strain rate colour map can be displayed simultaneously with the map of the faults or elevations and be easily checked for the data or interpolation method errors and incompatibility with the geophysical and geological expectations.
The Vyhne Tidal Station of the Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences is located in the former mining gallery of St. Anthony of Padua in the Vyhne valley, Štiavnické vrchy Mts., ...Central Slovakia. It is equipped with a 20.5 metre long quartz-tube extensometer measuring Earth’s tides, and long-term tectonic deformations of the Earth’s crust. Data between 2001 and 2015 with some diverse gaps were digitally collected, processed and analysed. The effects of the local conditions, such as structure of the observatory, cavity effect, topography and geological features of the surrounding rocks, were investigated in detail and these effects were taken into consideration during the interpretation of the results of the data analysis. Tidal analysis of the extensometric data between 2005 and 2015 revealed that the measured tidal amplitudes are close to the theoretical values. The tidal transfer of the observatory was also investigated by coherence analysis between the theoretical and the measured extensometric data. The coherence is better than 0.9 both in the diurnal and semidiurnal band. The effect of the free core nutation resonance was also investigated in the case of the K1 and P1 tidal components. Since the K1/O1 ratio was about the theoretical value 0.8, than the P1/O1 was between 1.0 and 1.15 instead of the theoretical value of 0.9. The rate of the long-term strain rate was also investigated and the obtained −0.05
str/y shows a good agreement with the strain rate inferred from GPS measurements in the Central European GPS Reference Network.
Thermo-elastic strains and stresses play a considerable role in the stress state of the lithosphere and its dynamics, especially at pronounced positive geothermal anomalies. Topography has a ...significant effect on ground deformation. In this paper we describe two methods for including the topographic effects in the thermo-viscoelastic model. First we use an approximate methodology which assumes that the main effect of the topography is due to distance from the source to the free surface and permits to have an analytical solution very attractive for solving the inverse problem. A numerical solution using Finite Element Method (FEM) is also computed. The numerical method allows to include the local shape of the topography in the modelling. In the numerical model the buried magmatic body is represented by a finite volume thermal source. The temperature distribution is computed by the higher-degree FEM. For analytical as well as numerical model solution only the forces of thermal origin are considered. The comparison of the results obtained using both analytical and numerical techniques shows the qualitative agreement of the vertical displacements. In the numerical values small differences were obtained. The results show that for the volcanic areas with an important relief the perturbation of the thermo-viscoelastic solution (deformation and total gravity anomaly) due to the topography can be quite significant. In consequence, neglecting topography could give erroneous results in the estimated source parameters.
The present study is concerned with the analysis of magnetic gravity and seismic data for the regions of the South Sinai and the Red Sea areas aiming to evaluate the subsurface geologic active ...structures. The magnetic method of prospecting gives an effective presentation of the subsurface structures. Moreover, the wavenumber filtering is carried out utilizing three types of filters with varying wavelengths. The application of these tools on the magnetic and gravity data discriminated the variable sources of specific depth ranges for the residual and regional anomalies, as well as those limited to a certain depth interval. Also it was found that the main tectonic trends have taken the NE–SW and NW–SE directions. A three-dimensional (3D) interpretation of the Bouguer anomaly and aeromagnetic maps of the Gulf of Suez rift and the northern part of the Red Sea rift are presented. A high-resolution 3D model constrained with the seismic results reveals a possible crustal thickness and density distribution of the north Red Sea rift between the sedimentary cover and the mantle.
In the present work, we present a reconnaissance study to elucidate and delineate the subsurface structures and tectonics of the area between Dahshour and El Fayoum province using available magnetic ...data; including land magnetic survey and aeromagnetic data. The study area has been selected due to its active tectonic situation. The magnetic data have been analyzed to provide new information about the tectonic setting and subsurface structures of the study area. A detailed land magnetic survey has been carried out for the total component of geomagnetic field using two Proton magnetometers, one of them as a local reading base station placed in the middle part of the area, while the second was used for measuring the total intensity of the different points in a mesh-like configuration. The necessary corrections for the measured magnetic data have been carried out. The total land intensity and aeromagnetic maps have been reduced to the north magnetic pole. Moreover, wave number filtering technique has been carried out on the magnetic data utilizing three types of filters with varying wavelengths. The application of these tools on magnetic data discriminated the variable sources of specific depth ranges for the residual and regional anomalies, as well as those limited to a certain depth interval. It was found that the main tectonic trends taken the directions NE–SW, NW–SE and E–W. Three basement cross-sections have been generated using the 2-D modeling to support the interpreted structures and give idea about the configuration of subsurface basement shape. Depth estimations have been conducted by application of the Power spectrum, analytical signal and 2-D modeling techniques. The results indicate that the average calculated depth ranges between 1.8 km to 3.5 km, while the depth to volcanic intrusions ranges between 0.20 km and 0.30 km.
The microseismic survey method was applied to the study of the geological structures in the region around the Mochovce nuclear power plant. The previous geological and geophysical investigations ...considered a contact between the Miocene volcanites and sediments as a neotectonic fault. The results of the microseismic investigations allow us to interpret the zone of a supposed neotectonic fault as a transgressive contact of the sediments and the volcanic rocks without a tectonic disruption.