No abstract

Human activity causes vibrations that propagate into the ground as high-frequency seismic waves. Measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread changes in human activity, leading to a months-long reduction in seismic noise of up to 50%. The 2020 seismic noise quiet period is the longest and most prominent global anthropogenic seismic noise reduction on record. While the reduction is strongest at surface seismometers in populated areas, this seismic quiescence extends for many kilometers radially and hundreds of meters in depth. This provides an opportunity to detect subtle signals from subsurface seismic sources that would have been concealed in noisier times and to benchmark sources of anthropogenic noise. A strong correlation between seismic noise and independent measurements of human mobility suggests that seismology provides an absolute, real-time estimate of population dynamics.

No abstract

Most mountain belts on Earth show some degree of curvature in plan view, from a slight bend to horseshoe shapes. Such curvatures may occur on different scales, from individual thrust sheets to entire plate boundaries. Curvature may be acquired by vertical-axis rotation during or after orogenesis, or reflect primary lateral variations in shortening directions or physiographical features. Quantifying the amount of vertical-axis rotations of plan-view curvature is therefore helpful to our understanding of orogenesis, geodynamics, and paleogeography. The orocline test assesses to what extent vertical-axis rotations have played a role in the acquisition of an orogen's curvature. The test quantifies through linear regression the relationships between changes in structural trends and the orientations of a geologic fabric. However, the current mathematical approaches to the orocline test show potential biases. In this paper we aim to overcome such biases by developing a novel orocline test that applies total least squares (TLS) regression combined with a novel approach to bootstrapping. This bootstrap TLS orocline test can be used with all types of directional data acquired from structural geology, paleomagnetism, or sedimentology. It quantifies, for the first time, secondary curvature with confidence bands. We also provide several graphical and analytical tests to evaluate the statistical significance of the result. An open source online application implementing this method is available for use on www.paleomagnetism.org. We illustrate the use of the methodology by reanalyzing published data sets from two well-known oroclines in the Cantrabrian (northwest Iberia) and Aegean (Greece) regions.

Scientific communities are placing an increasing emphasis on the implementation of data management protocols concerning data archiving and distribution. For instance, every proposal submitted to the European Horizon 2020 program, as well as to the National Science Foundation in the USA, requires a dedicated section that outlines project data management and accessibility. The widely adopted FAIR data guidelines identify core principles concerning modern data management conventions. The wide variety of data formats, the low data volume, and the general lack of a culture of data sharing makes that the paleomagnetic community rarely follows any of the FAIR principles. Most institutions define their own data formats and use in‐house software to analyze their demagnetization data, which are critical to Paleomagnetic research. Efforts to overcome these problems exist in the form of the MagIC database for data archiving, and the online paleomagnetic data analysis and interpretation platform Paleomagnetism.org. In this contribution, we describe the second iteration of Paleomagnetism.org: an online multiplatform open‐source environment for paleomagnetic data analysis. This update comprises a full overhaul of the application to satisfy the increasingly demanding data management requirements. The application now facilitates a workflow that aligns with FAIR guidelines by documenting data provenance. All data analyzed through the application are easily submitted to a public data library that distributes data and results through an HTTPS web service that lives up to modern data management standards.

Abstract. To quantitatively reconstruct the kinematic evolution of Central and Eastern Anatolia within the framework of Neotethyan subduction accommodating Africa-Eurasia convergence, we paleomagnetically assess the timing and amount of vertical axis rotations across the Ulukışla and Sivas regions. We show paleomagnetic results from ∼ 30 localities identifying a coherent rotation of a SE Anatolian rotating block comprised of the southern Kırşehir Block, the Ulukışla Basin, the Central and Eastern Taurides, and the southern part of the Sivas Basin. Using our new and published results, we compute an apparent polar wander path (APWP) for this block since the Late Cretaceous, showing that it experienced a ∼ 30-35 • counterclockwise vertical axis rotation since the Oligocene time relative to Eurasia. Sediments in the northern Sivas region show clockwise rotations. We use the rotation patterns together with known fault zones to argue that the counterclockwise-rotating domain of south-central Anatolia was bounded by the Savcılı Thrust Zone and Deliler-Tecer Fault Zone in the north and by the African-Arabian trench in the south, the western boundary of which is poorly constrained and requires future study. Our new paleomagnetic constraints provide a key ingredient for future kinematic restorations of the Anatolian tectonic collage.

Knowledge of the spatio-temporal changes in the characteristics and distribution of subsurface fluids is key to properly addressing important societal issues, including: sustainable management of energy resources (e.g., hydrocarbons and geothermal energy), management of water resources, and assessment of hazard (e.g., volcanic eruptions). Gravimetry is highly attractive because it can detect changes in subsurface mass, thus providing a window into processes that involve deep fluids. However, high cost and operating features associated with current instrumentation seriously limits the practical field use of this geophysical method. The NEWTON-g project proposes a radical change of paradigm for gravimetry through the development of a fieldcompatible measuring system (the gravity imager), able to real-time monitor the evolution of the subsurface mass changes. This system includes an array of lowcosts microelectromechanical systems-based relative gravimeters, anchored on an absolute quantum gravimeter. It will provide imaging of gravity changes, associated with variations in subsurface fluid properties, with unparalleled spatio-temporal resolution. During the final ∼2 years of NEWTON-g, the gravity imager will be field tested in the summit of Mt. Etna volcano (Italy), where frequent gravity fluctuations, easy access to the active structures and the presence of a multiparameter monitoring system (including traditional gravimeters) ensure an excellent natural laboratory for testing the new tools. Insights from the gravity imager will be used to i) improve our knowledge of the causeeffect relationships between volcanic processes and gravity changes observable at the surface and ii) develop strategies to best incorporate the gravity data into hazards assessments and mitigation plans. A successful implementation of NEWTON-g will open new doors for geophysical exploration.

Abstract. To quantitatively reconstruct the kinematic evolution of Central and Eastern Anatolia within the framework of Neotethyan subduction accommodating Africa-Eurasia convergence, we paleomagnetically assess timing and amount of vertical axis rotations across the Ulukışla and Sivas regions. We show paleomagnetic results from ~ 30 localities identifying a coherent rotation of a block – comprising the southern Kırşehir Block, the Ulukışla basin, the Central and Eastern Taurides, and the southern part of the Sivas basin. This block experienced a ~ 30° counter-clockwise vertical axis rotation since Oligocene time. Sediments in the northern Sivas region show clockwise rotations. We use the rotation patterns together with known fault zones to argue that the counter-clockwise rotating domain of south-central Turkey was bounded by the Savcılı Thrust Zone and Deliler-Tecer Fault Zone in the north and by the African-Arabian trench in the south, the western boundary of which is poorly constrained and requires future study. Our new paleomagnetic constraints provide a key ingredient for future kinematic restorations of the Anatolian tectonic collage.