SUMMARY The Swan Islands Transform Fault (SITF) marks the southern boundary of the Cayman Trough and the ocean–continent transition of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary offshore Honduras. The CAYSEIS experiment acquired a 180-km-long seismic refraction and gravity profile across this transform margin, ∼70 km to the west of the Mid-Cayman Spreading Centre (MCSC). This profile shows the crustal structure across a transform fault system that juxtaposes Mesozoic-age continental crust to the south against the ∼10-Myr-old ultraslow spread oceanic crust to the north. Ocean-bottom seismographs were deployed along-profile, and inverse and forward traveltime modelling, supported by gravity analysis, reveals ∼23-km-thick continental crust that has been thinned over a distance of ∼70 km to ∼10 km-thick at the SITF, juxtaposed against ∼4-km-thick oceanic crust. This thinning is primarily accommodated within the lower crust. Since Moho reflections are not widely observed, the 7.0 km s−1 velocity contour is used to define the Moho along-profile. The apparent lack of reflections to the north of the SITF suggests that the Moho is more likely a transition zone between crust and mantle. Where the profile traverses bathymetric highs in the off-axis oceanic crust, higher P-wave velocity is observed at shallow crustal depths. S-wave arrival modelling also reveals elevated velocities at shallow depths, except for crust adjacent to the SITF that would have occupied the inside corner high of the ridge-transform intersection when on axis. We use a Vp/Vs ratio of 1.9 to mark where lithologies of the lower crust and uppermost mantle may be exhumed, and also to locate the upper-to-lower crustal transition, identify relict oceanic core complexes and regions of magmatically formed crust. An elevated Vp/Vs ratio suggests not only that serpentinized peridotite may be exposed at the seafloor in places, but also that seawater has been able to flow deep into the crust and upper mantle over 20–30-km-wide regions which may explain the lack of a distinct Moho. The SITF has higher velocities at shallower depths than observed in the oceanic crust to the north and, at the seabed, it is a relatively wide feature. However, the velocity–depth model subseabed suggests a fault zone no wider than ∼5–10 km, that is mirrored by a narrow seabed depression ∼7500 m deep. Gravity modelling shows that the SITF is also underlain, at >2 km subseabed, by a ∼20-km-wide region of density >3000 kg m−3 that may reflect a broad region of metamorphism. The residual mantle Bouguer anomaly across the survey region, when compared with the bathymetry, suggests that the transform may also have a component of left-lateral trans-tensional displacement that accounts for its apparently broad seabed appearance, and that the focus of magma supply may currently be displaced to the north of the MCSC segment centre. Our results suggest that Swan Islands margin development caused thinning of the adjacent continental crust, and that the adjacent oceanic crust formed in a cool ridge setting, either as a result of reduced mantle upwelling and/or due to fracture enhanced fluid flow.

This paper uses Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law, which guarantees the “ethnic-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish,” as a lens to reveal the ongoing socio-political change in Israel and processes of democratic erosion. In addition to having immediate relevance for contemporary Israeli policy, especially concerning the status of Arab Israelis and the likely annexation of the West Bank, the law poses a profound, existential challenge for the maintenance of Israel as a democratic state. Drawing on Fareed Zakaria’s theory of “illiberal democracy,” this paper analyses the implications of this law for Israel, for the linked concepts of liberalism and democracy, and for the future of the democratic state in an increasingly illiberal world. The law is a culmination of other basic laws and political thresholds, and accelerates settler colonialism. Gaining more international attention than previous basic laws, the political thresholds prior to the Nation-State Law and cumulative legislation building up to the debate have been ignored. Analysing these thresholds will reveal the efficacy of supporting such a law and using nationhood provisions in other Western democratic constitutions as justification. This paper is a warning: to act upon seemingly insignificant anti-democratic legislation before political actions become irreparable.     The law is a culmination of other basic laws, political thresholds, and accelerates settler colonialism. Gaining more international attention than previous basic laws, direct discriminatory implications on Arab minorities as well as powerful legal consequences, the political thresholds prior to the Nation-State Law and cumulative legislation building up to the debate have been ignored. This paper will hopefully reveal the efficacy of supporting such a law and using the nationhood provisions in other constitutions in Western democracies as justification. This paper is a warning: to act upon seemingly insignificant anti-democratic legislation before political actions become irreparable.

A partnership between Ukraine's National University of Kyiv MohylaAcademy and Emporia State University in the United States enabled the author to visit Ukraine in 2011 to tour libraries and talk with librarians. Ukrainian librarians are embracing intellectual freedom, but the vestiges of the Soviet legacy can still be seen in aspects ranging from closed stacks to the lack of technology in libraries. This paper discusses the author's experiences and observations and how, almost twenty-five years after the country's independence, Ukrainian libraries continue to develop in ways to enhance the lives and support open information for Ukrainians. It also examines why, even in the wake of recent political upheavals when the country is again facing questions and an uncertain future, hope can still be found in a library.