Title

i and iii) Effective strength of the lithosphere lies in the seismogenic layer.
ii) Strength of the lithosphere is not limited to the seismogenic layer. Strength of the lithosphere can also reside in any layer that is aseismic. This also gives support to a strong mantle concept if we consider it aseismic.

Do you think that the failure of this model in predicting the large peak in the African residual topography is an indication that the theory is incorrect (Busfar)?
Why did the author neglect the effect caused by heterogeneity of the mantle below 670 km depth (Busfar)?
Describe the mean features of models that used to explain rift-flank uplift (El-Hussein).
Illustrate the main steps used by the author in formulation of his model (El-Hussein).
What the author claimed about the tilting of the Arabian platform (El-Hussein)?
What do you mean by seismically fast mantle (Akram)?
In the mega-plume area, would you expect high velocities or low velocities (Akram)?
Why don't the thermal and mechanical models offer a good explanation for tilting of Arabia (Akram)?
What does thermal model say about the rift-flank uplift (Akram)?

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Week 6: Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains

Figure 2 shows a large lateral velocity variation in the upper mantle. The author suggests that these differences could be a reflection of the temperature variation within the asthenosphere. Could there be other factors that contribute to the velocity variation within the Asthenosphere (Busfar)?
The article suggests that western North America (e.g., from the Canadian shield to the Pacific plate margin) contains the largest mantle-velocity gradient on Earth. If this is true, what do you think causes this phenomenon (Busfar)?
What do you think is the origin of the high velocity lower crustal layer?
Why authors selected North America for such study (El-Hussein)?
How the Proterozoic lithosphere of Colorado and New Mexico differs from lithosphere beneath the Archean core of the continent (El-Hussein)?
How Moho layer formed at Rocky Mountains as per the authors' point of view (El-Hussein)?
What does the combined geophysical and geologic data from the CD-ROM experiment provide (Al-Bulaihed)?
What does the integrated data set for the Cheyenne belt, the Farwell-Lester Mountain zone, and the Jemez lineament, and their corresponding velocity anomalies in the mantle (to >200 km) indicate (Al-Bulaihed) ?
What are the two provocative and testable hypotheses concerning lithospheric evolution (Al-Bulaihed)?

Week	Title of weekly reading Review those given papers below in responding provided questions
1	Strength of the continental lithosphere	Review 1
2	Imaging the Deep Seismic Structure Beneath a Mid-Ocean Ridge	Review2
3	Which forces drive North America?	Review3
4	Earthquake Conversation	Review4
5	Mantle, topography and rift-flank uplift of Arabia	Review5
6	Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains:	Review6
7	The crustal structure of the interior Arabian Platform	Review7
8	Continental Lithosphere of New Zealand	Review8
9	Low-frequency earthquakes beneath Mt. Fuji, Japan	Review8
10	Arabia-Eurasia convergence in the Zagros-Makran zone	Review9
11	GPS constrains on Africa (Nubia) and Arabia Plate motions	Review9
12	Gravity anomalies in the larger earthquake zones	Review10
13	Uppermantle discontinuity structure in a Subduction Zone	Review10
Week 1: Strength of the continental lithosphere What are the differences between the conventional view of the continental lithosphere, and the new view claimed by the author (El-Hussein)? What are the possible implications if the author view is correct (El-Hussein)? How the depths of earthquakes in India and Southern Tibet have been determined (Bulaihed)? Why the effective elastic thickness, Te, is smaller than the seismogenic thickness, Ts (Bulaihed)? Where earthquakes on the continent are confined, in most places (Bulaihed)? How will you define the strength of the lithosphere (Akram)? What is the effect of temperature for moho on lithospheric strength (Akram)? Why continents are more complicated than oceans. In general, continental convergence zones should have intermediate or deep focus earthquakes or not (Akram)? What is the effect of topography on crustal thickness and depth of moho (Akram)? Which other factor than the temperature is related to the lithospheric strength (Akram)? `In the area where the Indian plate collides with the Eurasian plate, how would you explain the idea that the deeper earthquakes would have shown extension (normal faulting) and not shortening (thrust faulting) have these deep earthquakes had been at the top of a separate strong upper mantle layer (Busfar)?` `How do we get normal faulting at the shallow events (about 20 km deep) (Busfar)?` `In figure 3B, why is the gravity profile decreasing as we move to the north (Busfar)?` top Week 2a: Imaging the Deep Seismic Structure Beneath a Mid-Ocean Ridge Week 2b: Lithospheric strength in related to seismogenic layer thickness Lithospheric strength and its relationship to Te and Ts! Why Seismic activity in the oceanic lithosphere is limited to a depth range of around 15km (Al-Omar)? Is there a difference in the mechanism that originates shallow and deep earthquakes (Al-Omar)? Could Te and Ts follow each other and Te is always less than Ts (Al-Omar)? What are the factors on which elastic thickness depends (Akram)? How can you estimate elastic thickness from the gravity data and topography (Akram)? How'll you interpret (Akram)? i) Te nearly equals Ts ii) Te >> Ts iii) Te < Ts i and iii) Effective strength of the lithosphere lies in the seismogenic layer. ii) Strength of the lithosphere is not limited to the seismogenic layer. Strength of the lithosphere can also reside in any layer that is aseismic. This also gives support to a strong mantle concept if we consider it aseismic. Compare the MEM method, the “no-load” approach and the topography method for the estimation of Te, and state what author implied out of comparing the Te values predicted from these methods (El-Hussein)? Why the author considered that the sub-crustal mantle is and important contributor to the support of long term beds in both the oceans and continents (El-Hussein)? How in contrary to Ts, Te reflects the integrated strength of the entire lithosphere (El-Hussein)? What is the elastic thickness of the lithosphere (Tå) for oceans and continents (Bulaihed)? What is the Byerlee’s law of frictional brittle failure, which characterizes deformation in the uppermost part of lithosphere (Bulaihed)? How we can determine the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere (Bulaihed)? top Week 3: Which forces drive North America? Which are the forces you think can be responsible for driving plates (Akram)? If the north American plate is driven from below then what should happen to the motion of North America (Akram)? How would lithospheric thickness effect degree of coupling with mantle (Akram). How can we test the assumption that hold simple shear responsible for lithospheric deformation (Akram). If the plate is driven by side forces or by below then where do you think orogenesis to occur (Akram)? Stations in western United States have northeast trending fast directions. What does this fact suggest (Busfar)? What came first gravity drag-pull, or mantle flow (Busfar)? Will north America really stop (Busfar)? Why the author used a technique based on angular variations of P-wave delays (Bulaihed)? What the anisotropic layers that the deep Canadian Shield consists of (Bulaihed)? Why North America has slowed dramatically throughout the past 100 m.y. (Bulaihed)? Does the orientation of minerals supports the mantle role in plate motion (Al-Omar)? How is that related to the thickness of the lithosphere (Al-Omar)? How is the dip direction supports the claim (Al-Omar)? top Week 4: Earthquake Conversation Is there enough evidence of such theory other than the ones related to the San Andrea’s fault (Omar)? Would it matter if the earthquake is a long a strike-slip fault formation or underneath a convergent zone (Omar)? Could this production be the next forecast after the daily news, next to weather forecast (Omar)? What happen when the shear stress exceeds the frictional resistance on the fault or when the stress pressing the two sides of the fault (Bulaihed)? Explain how come in Turkey and in southern California that even tiny stress changes can have momentous effects, both calming and catastrophic (Bulaihed)? What the author and his colleagues observe after mapping the locations of Landers, Big Bear and hundreds of other California earthquakes (Bulaihed)? Are earthquakes the only mechanism in which stresses are generated and released (Busfar)? Could we estimate the stresses in the earth accurately? In other words, how accurate is the “Coulomd stress change” map that the author presented in his paper? Are they accurate enough for the purpose of earthquake forecasting (Busfar)? What is the capital of Turkey (Busfar)? Explain how aftershocks generated in North America as per the author interpretation (El-Hussein). What is the renewal probability forecast (El-Hussein)? What is main aspect of the author’s forecast method (El-Hussein)? top Week 5: Mantle, topography and rift-flank uplift of Arabia Do you think that the failure of this model in predicting the large peak in the African residual topography is an indication that the theory is incorrect (Busfar)? Why did the author neglect the effect caused by heterogeneity of the mantle below 670 km depth (Busfar)? Describe the mean features of models that used to explain rift-flank uplift (El-Hussein). Illustrate the main steps used by the author in formulation of his model (El-Hussein). What the author claimed about the tilting of the Arabian platform (El-Hussein)? What do you mean by seismically fast mantle (Akram)? In the mega-plume area, would you expect high velocities or low velocities (Akram)? Why don't the thermal and mechanical models offer a good explanation for tilting of Arabia (Akram)? What does thermal model say about the rift-flank uplift (Akram)? top Week 6: Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains Figure 2 shows a large lateral velocity variation in the upper mantle. The author suggests that these differences could be a reflection of the temperature variation within the asthenosphere. Could there be other factors that contribute to the velocity variation within the Asthenosphere (Busfar)? The article suggests that western North America (e.g., from the Canadian shield to the Pacific plate margin) contains the largest mantle-velocity gradient on Earth. If this is true, what do you think causes this phenomenon (Busfar)? What do you think is the origin of the high velocity lower crustal layer? Why authors selected North America for such study (El-Hussein)? How the Proterozoic lithosphere of Colorado and New Mexico differs from lithosphere beneath the Archean core of the continent (El-Hussein)? How Moho layer formed at Rocky Mountains as per the authors' point of view (El-Hussein)? What does the combined geophysical and geologic data from the CD-ROM experiment provide (Al-Bulaihed)? What does the integrated data set for the Cheyenne belt, the Farwell-Lester Mountain zone, and the Jemez lineament, and their corresponding velocity anomalies in the mantle (to >200 km) indicate (Al-Bulaihed) ? What are the two provocative and testable hypotheses concerning lithospheric evolution (Al-Bulaihed)? top Week 7: The crustal structure of the interior Arabian Platform What do you suggest that implications of more stations to record earthquake data in Saudi Arabia will help in imaging the crustal structures? And What do you think that the crustal model suggested by the author and described in Table2 can be improved as it already shows a lot of velocity variations in the crustal layers (Akram)? When do the Nyquist frequency cause aliasing while digitization? What do you think (Akram)? If we consider the assumptions regarding the vertical velocity gradient and lateral velocity variations, the solutions to elastodynamic equation becomes easy or very difficult (Akram)? Explain briefly Thomson and Haskell matrix method (El-Hussein)? How was the Arabian Platform divided structurally (El-Hussein)? What are the main results generated by the author's model (El-Hussein)? Why do plates move with different velocities (Busfar)? Don’t you think that the results obtained for Arabia is less accurate, and this less reliable than other regions in this study (Busfar)? Why is the DSF rate higher in comparison with regional GPS studies (Busfar)? top Week 8a: Continental Lithosphere of New Zealand What are large magnitudes of shear-wave splitting and orientations of fast polarization parallel to the Alpine fault shown (Bulaihed)? What happen for oceanic lithosphere when we have much greater creep strength of olivine than of crustal minerals (Bulaihed)? What are the two processes that can align anisotropic minerals (Bulaihed)? Week 8b: Low-frequency earthquakes beneath Mt. Fuji, Japan What do you think that why Mt.Fuji has been chosen for this study (Akram)? Can Island arc type volcanoes erupt basaltic products (Akram)? Do you find anything in this paper which can be helpful in the future prediction about Mt. Fuji (Akram)? What do you think the NIED stands for (Akram)? top Week 9a: Arabia-Eurasia convergence in the Zagros-Makran zone What are the tectonic study and fault slip vector analyses indicated (El-Hussein)? What you think the paper's main result (El-Hussien)? What are the hypotheses can explain the apparent faulting regime change from EW to NE-SW σ1 (El-Hussein)? Week 9b: GPS constrains on Africa (Nubia) and Arabia Plate motions What do you suggest that implications of more stations to record earthquake data in Saudi Arabia will help in imaging the crustal structures? And what do you think that the crustal model suggested by the author and described in Table2 can be improved as it already shows a lot of velocity variations in the crustal layers (Akram)? When do the Nyquist frequency cause aliasing while digitization? What do you think (Akram)? If we consider the assumptions regarding the vertical velocity gradient and lateral velocity variations, the solutions to elastodynamic equation becomes easy or very difficult (Akram)? Are GPS readings alone appropriate to determine plate motions (Busfar)? How would we be able to construct a reliable model for plate movement when geodetic coverage is not equally distributed over the earth (Busfar)? top Week 10 a: Gravity anomalies in the larger earthquake zones Week 10b: Upper mantle discontinuity structure in a Subduction Zone Why the seismic velocities increase abruptly in the upper mantle (Akram)? What makes the Olivine to change into other minerals in the deep subsurface (Akram)? What do you think the objective of this paper (Akram)? In this paper, author used Pds. What is it (Akram)? What the authors used to study the discontinuities near the Tonga subduction zone (Bulaihed)? What is the objective of this study (Bulaihed)? What are the authors observations of the seismic discontinuities within the region of the Tonga slab consistent with (Bulaihed)? top

Week 1: Strength of the continental lithosphere

Week 2a: Imaging the Deep Seismic Structure Beneath a Mid-Ocean Ridge

Week 3: Which forces drive North America?

Week 4: Earthquake Conversation

Week 5: Mantle, topography and rift-flank uplift of Arabia

Week 6: Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains

Figure 2 shows a large lateral velocity variation in the upper mantle. The author suggests that these differences could be a reflection of the temperature variation within the asthenosphere. Could there be other factors that contribute to the velocity variation within the Asthenosphere (Busfar)?

The article suggests that western North America (e.g., from the Canadian shield to the Pacific plate margin) contains the largest mantle-velocity gradient on Earth. If this is true, what do you think causes this phenomenon (Busfar)?

What do you think is the origin of the high velocity lower crustal layer?

Why authors selected North America for such study (El-Hussein)?

How the Proterozoic lithosphere of Colorado and New Mexico differs from lithosphere beneath the Archean core of the continent (El-Hussein)?

How Moho layer formed at Rocky Mountains as per the authors' point of view (El-Hussein)?

What does the combined geophysical and geologic data from the CD-ROM experiment provide (Al-Bulaihed)?

What does the integrated data set for the Cheyenne belt, the Farwell-Lester Mountain zone, and the Jemez lineament, and their corresponding velocity anomalies in the mantle (to >200 km) indicate (Al-Bulaihed) ?

What are the two provocative and testable hypotheses concerning lithospheric evolution (Al-Bulaihed)?

Week 7: The crustal structure of the interior Arabian Platform

When do the Nyquist frequency cause aliasing while digitization? What do you think (Akram)?

If we consider the assumptions regarding the vertical velocity gradient and lateral velocity variations, the solutions to elastodynamic equation becomes easy or very difficult (Akram)?

Explain briefly Thomson and Haskell matrix method (El-Hussein)?

How was the Arabian Platform divided structurally (El-Hussein)?

What are the main results generated by the author's model (El-Hussein)?

Why do plates move with different velocities (Busfar)?

Don’t you think that the results obtained for Arabia is less accurate, and this less reliable than other regions in this study (Busfar)?

Why is the DSF rate higher in comparison with regional GPS studies (Busfar)?

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Week 8a: Continental Lithosphere of New Zealand

What are large magnitudes of shear-wave splitting and orientations of fast polarization parallel to the Alpine fault shown (Bulaihed)?

What happen for oceanic lithosphere when we have much greater creep strength of olivine than of crustal minerals (Bulaihed)?

What are the two processes that can align anisotropic minerals (Bulaihed)?

Week 9a: Arabia-Eurasia convergence in the Zagros-Makran zone

Week 9b: GPS constrains on Africa (Nubia) and Arabia Plate motions

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Week 10 a: Gravity anomalies in the larger earthquake zones

Week 10b: Upper mantle discontinuity structure in a Subduction Zone