Surface faulting earthquake clustering controlled by fault and shear-zone interactions.

Surface faulting earthquakes are known to cluster in time from historical and palaeoseismic studies, but the mechanism(s) responsible for clustering, such as fault interaction, strain-storage, and evolving dynamic topography, are poorly quantified, and hence not well understood. We present a quantified replication of observed earthquake clustering in central Italy. Six active normal faults are studied using 36Cl cosmogenic dating, revealing out-of-phase periods of high or low surface slip-rate on neighboring structures that we interpret as earthquake clusters and anticlusters. Our calculations link stress transfer caused by slip averaged over clusters and anti-clusters on coupled fault/shear-zone structures to viscous flow laws. We show that (1) differential stress fluctuates during fault/shear-zone interactions, and (2) these fluctuations are of sufficient magnitude to produce changes in strain-rate on viscous shear zones that explain slip-rate changes on their overlying brittle faults. These results suggest that fault/shear-zone interactions are a plausible explanation for clustering, opening the path towards process-led seismic hazard assessments.

Mid-Holocene pulse of thinning in the Weddell Sea sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet.

Establishing the trajectory of thinning of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) since the last glacial maximum (LGM) is important for addressing questions concerning ice sheet (in)stability and changes in global sea level. Here we present detailed geomorphological and cosmogenic nuclide data from the southern Ellsworth Mountains in the heart of the Weddell Sea embayment that suggest the ice sheet, nourished by increased snowfall until the early Holocene, was close to its LGM thickness at 10 ka. A pulse of rapid thinning caused the ice elevation to fall ∼400 m to the present level at 6.5-3.5 ka, and could have contributed 1.4-2 m to global sea-level rise. These results imply that the Weddell Sea sector of the WAIS contributed little to late-glacial pulses in sea-level rise but was involved in mid-Holocene rises. The stepped decline is argued to reflect marine downdraw triggered by grounding line retreat into Hercules Inlet.

The dynamics of water-protein interaction studied by ultrafast optical Kerr-effect spectroscopy.

Changes in the ultrafast dynamics and terahertz Raman spectrum accompanying a helix-to-coil transition of a homo-polypeptide have been observed for the first time. Formation of the alpha-helix is associated with a shift to lower frequency of a broad Raman band attributable to solvent-peptide intermolecular hydrogen bonding. This band facilitates direct spectroscopic observation of so-called hydration water near a peptide and yields the first quantitative estimate of the time scale of the ultrafast dynamics in the solvation shell, which range from 0.18 to 0.33 ps (185-100 cm(-1)) depending on the secondary structure of the peptide. Such fast motions of solvent molecules have been referred to as the "lubricant of life" and are thought to play key roles in determining structure and activity of proteins.