The role of tectonic flow of crustal material in the formation of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk

Based on the concept of tectonic delamination of the lithosphere, we revealed that the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk were formed as a result of the tectonic flow of crustal material. The intermittent southward movement of southwestern Japan (Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic) along the eastern Japanese leftlateral strike-slip fault zone resulted in the formation of paired structures: back-arc extensional (Central Japan rift) and frontal compressional (South Japan imbricate–thrust belt) structures. The Sea of Okhotsk was formed in a similar tectonic setting: South Okhotsk rift (back-arc extensional structure) and Kamuikotan–Susunai compressional belt (frontal imbricate-thrust structure). Synchronous extension, compression, and strike-slip movements suggest that the tectonic flow of crustal material played a critical role in the formation of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.     

Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic rifting and its dynamic setting in Eastern China and adjacent areas

During the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic, extension was widespread in Eastern China and adjacent areas. The first rifting stage spanned in the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous times and covered an area of more than 2 million km² of NE Asia from the Lake Baikal to the Sikhot-Alin in EW direction and from the Mongol–Okhotsk fold belt to North China in NS direction. This rifting was characterized by intracontinental rifts, volcanic eruptions and transform extension along large-scale strike–slip faults. Based on the magmatic activity, filling sequence of basins, tectonic framework and subsidence analysis of basins, the evolution of this area can be divided into three main developmental phases. The first phase, calc-alkaline volcanics erupted intensely along NNE-trending faults, forming Daxing'anling volcanic belt, NE China. The second phase, Basin and Range type fault basin system bearing coal and oil developed in NE Asia. During the third phase, which was marked by the change from synrifting to thermal subsidence, very thick postrift deposits developed in the Songliao basin (the largest oil basin in NE China).Following uplift and denudation, caused by compressional tectonism in the near end of Cretaceous, a Paleogene rifting stage produced widespread continental rift systems and continental margin basins in Eastern China. These rifted basins were usually filled with several kilometers of alluvial and lacustrine deposits and contain a large amount of fossil fuel resources. Integrated research in most of these rifting basins has shown that the basins are characterized by rapid subsidence, relative high paleo-geothermal history and thinned crust. It is now accepted that the formation of most of these basins was related to a lithospheric extensional regime or dextral transtensional regime. During Neogene time, early Tertiary basins in Eastern China entered a postrifting phase, forming regional downwarping. Basin fills formed in a thermal subsidence period onlapped the fault basin margins and were deposited in a broad downwarped lacustrine depression. At the same time, within plate rifting of the Lake Baikal and Shanxi graben climaxed and spreading of the Japan Sea and South China Sea occurred. Quaternary rifting was marked by basalt eruption and accelerated subsidence in the area of Tertiary rifting. The Okinawa Trough is an active rift involving back-arc extension.Continental rifting and marginal sea opening were clearly developed in various kind of tectonic settings. Three rifting styles, intracontinental rifting within fold belt, intracontinental rifting within craton and continental marginal rifting and spreading, are distinguished on the basis of nature of the basin basement, tectonic location of rifting and relations to large strike–slip faults.Changes of convergence rates of India–Eurasia and Pacific–Eurasia may have caused NW–SE-trending extensional stress field dominating the rifting. Asthenospheric upwelling may have well assisted the rifting process. In this paper, a combination model of interactions between plates and deep process of lithosphere has been proposed to explain the rifting process in East China and adjacent areas.The research on the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic extensional tectonics of East China and adjacent areas is important because of its utility as an indicator of the dynamic setting and deformational mechanisms involved in stretching Lithosphere. The research also benefits the exploration and development of mineral and energy resources in this area.     

Mesozoic transtensional basin history of the Eastern Cordillera, Colombian Andes: Inferences from tectonic models

Backstripping analysis and forward modeling of 162 stratigraphic columns and wells of the Eastern Cordillera (EC), Llanos, and Magdalena Valley shows the Mesozoic Colombian Basin is marked by five lithosphere stretching pulses. Three stretching events are suggested during the Triassic–Jurassic, but additional biostratigraphical data are needed to identify them precisely. The spatial distribution of lithosphere stretching values suggests that small, narrow (<150 km), asymmetric graben basins were located on opposite sides of the paleo-Magdalena–La Salina fault system, which probably was active as a master transtensional or strike-slip fault system. Paleomagnetic data suggesting a significant (at least 10°) northward translation of terranes west of the Bucaramanga fault during the Early Jurassic, and the similarity between the early Mesozoic stratigraphy and tectonic setting of the Payandé terrane with the Late Permian transtensional rift of the Eastern Cordillera of Peru and Bolivia indicate that the areas were adjacent in early Mesozoic times. New geochronological, petrological, stratigraphic, and structural research is necessary to test this hypothesis, including additional paleomagnetic investigations to determine the paleolatitudinal position of the Central Cordillera and adjacent tectonic terranes during the Triassic–Jurassic. Two stretching events are suggested for the Cretaceous: Berriasian–Hauterivian (144–127 Ma) and Aptian–Albian (121–102 Ma). During the Early Cretaceous, marine facies accumulated on an extensional basin system. Shallow-marine sedimentation ended at the end of the Cretaceous due to the accretion of oceanic terranes of the Western Cordillera. In Berriasian–Hauterivian subsidence curves, isopach maps and paleomagnetic data imply a (>180 km) wide, asymmetrical, transtensional half-rift basin existed, divided by the Santander Floresta horst or high. The location of small mafic intrusions coincides with areas of thin crust (crustal stretching factors >1.4) and maximum stretching of the subcrustal lithosphere. During the Aptian–early Albian, the basin extended toward the south in the Upper Magdalena Valley. Differences between crustal and subcrustal stretching values suggest some lowermost crustal decoupling between the crust and subcrustal lithosphere or that increased thermal thinning affected the mantle lithosphere. Late Cretaceous subsidence was mainly driven by lithospheric cooling, water loading, and horizontal compressional stresses generated by collision of oceanic terranes in western Colombia. Triassic transtensional basins were narrow and increased in width during the Triassic and Jurassic. Cretaceous transtensional basins were wider than Triassic–Jurassic basins. During the Mesozoic, the strike-slip component gradually decreased at the expense of the increase of the extensional component, as suggested by paleomagnetic data and lithosphere stretching values. During the Berriasian–Hauterivian, the eastern side of the extensional basin may have developed by reactivation of an older Paleozoic rift system associated with the Guaicáramo fault system. The western side probably developed through reactivation of an earlier normal fault system developed during Triassic–Jurassic transtension. Alternatively, the eastern and western margins of the graben may have developed along older strike-slip faults, which were the boundaries of the accretion of terranes west of the Guaicáramo fault during the Late Triassic and Jurassic. The increasing width of the graben system likely was the result of progressive tensional reactivation of preexisting upper crustal weakness zones. Lateral changes in Mesozoic sediment thickness suggest the reverse or thrust faults that now define the eastern and western borders of the EC were originally normal faults with a strike-slip component that inverted during the Cenozoic Andean orogeny. Thus, the Guaicáramo, La Salina, Bitúima, Magdalena, and Boyacá originally were transtensional faults. Their oblique orientation relative to the Mesozoic magmatic arc of the Central Cordillera may be the result of oblique slip extension during the Cretaceous or inherited from the pre-Mesozoic structural grains. However, not all Mesozoic transtensional faults were inverted.     

Mesozoic lithospheric deformation in the North China block: Numerical simulation of evolution from orogenic belt to extensional basin system

Horizontal extension of a previously thickened crust could be the principal mechanism that caused the development of widespread extensional basins throughout the North China block (Hua-Bei region) during the Mesozoic. We develop here a regional tectonic model for the evolution of the lithosphere in the North China block, based on thin sheet models of lithospheric deformation, with numerical solutions obtained using the finite element method. The tectonic evolution of this region is defined conceptually by two stages in our simplified tectonic model: the first stage is dominated by N–S shortening, and the second by E–W extension. We associate the N–S shortening with the Triassic continental collision between the North and South China blocks, assuming that the Tan-Lu Fault system defines the eastern boundary of the North China block. The late Mesozoic E–W extension that created the Mesozoic basin systems requires a change in the regional stress state that could have been triggered by either or both of the following factors: First, gravitational instability of the lithosphere triggered by crustal convergence might have removed the lower layers of the thickened mantle lithosphere and thus caused a rapid increase in the local gravitational potential energy of the lithosphere. Secondly, a change to the constraining stress on the eastern boundary of the North China block, that might have been caused by roll-back of the subducting Pacific slab, could have reduced the E–W horizontal stress enough to activate extension. Our simulations show that widespread thickening of the North China block by as much as 50% can be explained by the collision with South China in the Triassic and Jurassic. If convergence then ceases, E–W extension can occur in the model if the eastern boundary of the region can move outwards. We find that such extension may occur, restoring crustal thickness of order 30 km within a period of 50 Myr or less, if the depth-averaged constitutive relation of the lithosphere is Newtonian, and if the Argand number (the ratio of buoyancy-derived stress to viscous stress) is greater than about 4. Widespread convective thinning of the lithosphere is not required in order to drive the extension with these parameters. If, however, the lithospheric viscosity is non-Newtonian (with strain-rate proportional to the third power of stress) the extensional phase would not occur in a geologically plausible time unless the Argand number were significantly increased by a lithospheric thinning event that was triggered by crustal thickening ratios as low as 1.5.     

东海陆架盆地新生代扩张率的估算

东海陆架盆地是位于中国大陆东部边缘大陆地壳之上的边缘海盆地。盆地新生代构造演化经历了断陷(初始沉降)和坳陷(热控沉降)两个阶段。本文利用钻井及地震反射剖面资料,通过钻井古地层剥蚀量和剥蚀时间的恢复,应用Mckenzie(1978)的均一拉伸模式和Sclater(1985)的双层拉伸模式对陆架盆地,主要是浙东坳陷的西湖凹陷进行了基底沉降和地壳岩石圈扩张率的定量估算。计算结果表明东海陆架盆地沉降速率早期较快,后期变慢。西湖凹陷新生代以来地壳岩石圈扩张率,在凹陷北部(D800测线)为40%-50%,中部(D688测线)为100%-140%,南部(G455测线)为60%-120%。     

Tertiary granitoids of Rhodope, northern Greece: Magmatism related to extensional collapse of the Hellenic Orogen?

Many granites that occur in orogenic belts such as the Himalaya, the Hercynides or Caledonides are thought to result from anatexis of the lower parts of over-thickened thrust-stacked crustal units, just preceding termination of the orogenic cycle. Numerous Tertiary granitoids occur in the Rhodope Zone of northern Greece (and adjacent regions of Bulgaria), a belt regarded as an eastern extension of the Alpine System. These granites could also be regarded as syn- or late-tectonic crustal melts in that some have been emplaced as sheet-like bodies along major Alpine thrust planes, and show a strong marginal foliation parallel to the pervasive Alpine compressional fabrics. In detail, however, the geochemistry of the granitoids, their timing and relationships with country rocks, suggest they have been emplaced in an extensional regime that is related to the collapse of the Hellenic Orogen and, more particularly, to the crustal thinning that the Aegean region has suffered since the mid-Tertiary. Rather than being products of crustal thickening, it is suggested that their petrogenesis is related to the elevation of thermal gradients during the extensional phase, which initiated thermal breakdown of hydrous minerals in the lithosphere and lower crust that had existed metastably during compression and the subduction of cool ocean lithosphere beneath the region in the late Mesozoic-early Tertiary.     

Stratigraphic and structural characteristics of the Romanian Black Sea shelf

The Western Black Sea basin opened during Cretaceous times by back-arc rifting in association with a north dipping subduction at the rear of the Cretaceous–Early Tertiary Pontide volcanic arc. The sedimentary wedge developed on the shelf of the Romanian Black Sea sector reflects a complex interplay between large scale rifting, uplift of the orogenic flanks, large-scale post-rift subsidence and sea level changes. We examine the detailed structural configuration of this sector for a regional correlation with the adjacent offshore in Ukraine and Bulgaria. The evolution of the western Black Sea basin started in the Albian–Cenomanian times, when two extensional phases with significantly different directions (N–S and subsequently E–W) lead to the formation of a complex interplay between isolated blocks organised in horsts and grabens generally deepening eastwards. Superposition of normal faults footwall blocks from the two extensional episodes generated a deeply subsided area with enhanced accommodation space, i.e., the Histria Depression, and, consequently, recorded a larger thickness of Paleogene sediments in the post-rift stage. (Re)activation of faults and associated folding reflects repeated inversion during the Late Cretaceous–Oligocene times, associated with subsequent periods of non-deposition and/or erosion during moments of basin fill exposure. These periods of inversion recorded in the Black Sea are controlled by coeval orogenic deformations taking place in the Balkans, Pontides and the Crimean thrust belt. Sea level fluctuations during the Neogene and late Alpine tectonics in the neighbouring orogens caused massive sedimentation followed by sediment starvation and/or significant erosion. Large thicknesses of sediments accumulated during the Pontian, presumably associated with an extensional episode deepening the distal parts of the basin and with differential compaction structures. The interpretation of a high-quality seismic dataset combined with published data allowed the correlation of major structural units and lineaments defined onshore towards the Carpathians with the ones deeply buried below the western Black Sea basin sediments. Unit correlations are furthermore used to derive an integrated tectonic image of the western Black Sea area.     

北黄海盆地构造变形及动力学演化过程

以北黄海盆地构造几何学、运动学特征为基础,探讨了北黄海盆地的构造变形样式及动力学演化过程。研究表明,北黄海盆地的构造变形包括伸展构造变形、挤压构造变形、扭动构造变形以及反转构造变形等,北黄海盆地发育的区域动力学背景即是以区域拉伸作用为主、且叠加有水平挤压作用以及相关的扭动作用,并由此导致了北黄海盆地是以一系列地堑、半地堑式坳陷组成的拉张断陷盆地;北黄海盆地的伸展、挤压与升降作用受控于板块相互作用引起的区域引张与挤压应力场并辅以深部软流圈的微弱上拱隆起作用,其动力学演化过程包括晚侏罗世—早白垩世伸展断陷、晚白垩世—古新世热隆、始新世—渐新世裂陷、渐新世末期—新近纪早期构造反转以及新近纪热沉降等5个阶段。     

Types of crust beneath the Ligurian Sea

The structural setting beneath the Ligurian Sea resuJts from several tectonic events reflected in the nature of the crust. The central-western sector, called the Ligurian basin, is part of the northwestern Mediterranean. It is a marginal basin that was generated in Oligocene-Miocene time by subduction of the Adriatic plate beneath the European plate and by the eastward drift of the Corsica-Sardinia block. The eastern sector belongs to the Tyrrhenian basin system and is characterized by extensional activity which since Tortonian time superimposed an earlier compressional regime. Our effort has been addressed in particular towards simplifying the complex nature of the crust of the Ligurian basin by modelling its genesis using uniform extension and sea-floor depth variation with age. In the rift stage of the basin's evolution, the initial subsidence reaches the isostatic equilibrium level of the asthenosphere by a thinning factor of 3.15. The additional passive process, corresponding to the cooling of the lithosphere since 21 Ma, leads to a total tectonic subsidence of 3.4 km, representing the boundary of the extended continental crust. For values up to 4.1 km a transitional-type crust is expected, whereas for higher tectonic subsidence values a typical oceanic crust should exist. After setting these constraints, the boundaries of the different crust types have been drawn based on total tectonic subsidence observations deduced from bathymetry and post-rift sediment thickness. Although there is a general agreement with the previous reconstructions deduced from other experimental data, the oceanic realm has wider extent and more complex shape. The northernmost part of this realm shows crust of sub-oceanic type altemating basement highs with lower subsidence values. The observed surface heat flux is consistent with the predicted geothermal held in the Alpine-Provençal continental margin and in the oceanic domain. However, a characteristic thermal asymmetry is clearly visible astride the basin, due to the enhanced heat flux of the Corsica margin. Even if the uniform extension model accounts well at a regional level for the present basement depth, a remarkable tectonic subsidence excess has been found in the Alpine-Provençal continental margin. This evidence agrees with the reprise in compression of the margin; the direction of the greatest principal stress is N120°E on average.     

Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic evolution of the North German Basin—results from 3-D geodynamic modelling

The Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic evolution of the North German Basin has been investigated by 3-D thermomechanical finite element modelling. The model solves the equations of motion of an elasto-visco-plastic continuum representing the continental lithosphere. It includes the variations of stress in time and space, the thermal evolution, surface processes and variations in global sea level.The North German Basin became inverted in the Late Cretaceous–Early Cenozoic. The inversion was most intense in the southern part of the basin, i.e. in the Lower Saxony Basin, the Flechtingen High and the Harz. The lower crustal properties vary across the North German Basin. North of the Elbe Line, the lower crust is dense and has high seismic velocity compared to the lower crust south of the Elbe Line. The lower crust with high density and high velocity is assumed to be strong. Lateral variations in lithospheric strength also arise from lateral variations in Moho depth. In areas where the Moho is deep, the upper mantle is warm and the lithosphere is thereby relatively weak.Compression of the lithosphere causes shortening, thickening and surface uplift of relatively weak areas. Tectonic inversion occurs as zones of preexisting weakness are shortened and thickened in compression. Contemporaneously, the margins of the weak zone subside. Cenozoic subsidence of the northern part of the North German Basin is explained as a combination of thermal subsidence and a small amount of deformation and surface uplift during compression of the stronger crust in the north.The modelled deformation patterns and resulting sediment isopachs correlate with observations from the area. This verifies the usefulness and importance of thermomechanical models in the investigation of intraplate sedimentary basin formation.     

沉降量约束下的黄骅裂谷形成的地球的动力学模式

在计算覆盖整个黄晔裂谷２００口人工井（包括少部分探井）沉降量的基础上，总结本区二种基本沉降曲线模式。统计出热沉降（Ｓｔ）与初始沉降（Ｓｉ）之比为０．６，依此为约束条件与大陆岩石圈伸展的地球动力学正演模式进行对比，与简单剪切模式预测的热沉降与初始沉降之比值及几何效应更接近。进一步证实黄骅裂谷以简单剪切机制形成的地球动力学模式更合理，这与著名的以纯剪模式形成的北海伸展盆地不同     

Effect of local variations of vertical and horizontal stresses on the Cenozoic structuring of the mid-Norwegian shelf

The mid-Norwegian margin has a complex history and has experienced several phases of changing horizontal and vertical stresses on regional and local scale during the Cenozoic time. In addition to regional stresses related to the opening of the North Atlantic (i.e. ridge push), local variations in stress history may be important for development, distribution and reactivation of structures in the Vøring area in Cenozoic time. Presence and stability of flexural hinge zones between areas of relative uplift and subsidence have played an important role for focusing shallow horizontal stresses within the basins. Emplacement of lower crustal bodies during break-up will, whatever the nature of these bodies, have substantial isostatic effects, and modelling show that this could cause many hundred meters of temporal uplift above the lower crustal bodies, locally exceeding 1300 m of surface uplift. Effects of intra plate stress (IPS) are modelled along three 2D transects across the Vøring Basin. Modelling shows that IPS may have given substantial vertical motions in certain areas of the mid-Norwegian shelf, both with extensional IPS at the time of break-up, and later with compressive IPS during Tertiary time. The modelling assumes a strongly reduced effective elastic thickness (EET) due to lithospheric heating at break-up and later increasing EET as the lithosphere cooled towards present time. Our modelling takes into account the tectonic and isostatic effects of loading faulting and lithospheric thinning throughout the geological history, including several phases of extension prior to the Cenozoic compression. This approach emphasizes the importance of the deformation history of the lithosphere compared to other studies that only take into account the effects of Cenozoic processes of compression and loading on the sedimentary units. We do not state that isostatic uplift or intra plate stress are the most important causes for Cenozoic uplift and compressional deformation in this area, but point to the fact that these factors locally may have played an important role in focusing deformation caused by an interplay of different mechanisms.     

Crustal structure of the Alpine–Pannonian transition zone: a combined seismic and gravity study

 The crustal structure of the transition zone between the Eastern Alps and the western part of the Pannonian depression (Danube basin) is traditionally interpreted in terms of subvertical Tertiary strike-slip and normal faults separating different Alpine tectonic units. Reevaluation of approximately 4000-km-long hydrocarbon exploration reflection seismic sections and a few deep seismic profiles, together with data from approximately 300 wells, suggests a different structural model. It implies that extensional collapse of the Alpine orogene in the Middle Miocene was controlled by listric normal faults, which usually crosscut Alpine nappes at shallow levels, but at depth merge with overthrust planes separating the different Alpine units. The alternative structural model was tested along a transect across the Danube basin by gravity model calculations, and the results show that the model of low-angle extensional faulting is indeed viable. Regarding the whole lithosphere of the western Pannonian basin, gravity modelling indicates a remarkable asymmetry in the thickness minima of the attenuated crust and upper mantle. The approximately 160 km lateral offset between the two minima suggests that during the Miocene extension of the Pannonian basin detachment of the upper crust from the mantle lithosphere took place along a rheologically weak lower crust. Received: 13 July 1998 / Accepted: 18 March 1999     

Post-mid-Cretaceous eastern North Sea evolution inferred from 3D thermo-mechanical modelling

The Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic evolution of the eastern North Sea region is investigated by 3D thermo-mechanical modelling. The model quantifies the integrated effects on basin evolution of large-scale lithospheric processes, rheology, strength heterogeneities, tectonics, eustasy, sedimentation and erosion.

The evolution of the area is influenced by a number of factors: (1) thermal subsidence centred in the central North Sea providing accommodation space for thick sediment deposits; (2) 250-m eustatic fall from the Late Cretaceous to present, which causes exhumation of the North Sea Basin margins; (3) varying sediment supply; (4) isostatic adjustments following erosion and sedimentation; (5) Late Cretaceous–early Cenozoic Alpine compressional phases causing tectonic inversion of the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone (STZ) and other weak zones.

The stress field and the lateral variations in lithospheric strength control lithospheric deformation under compression. The lithosphere is relatively weak in areas where Moho is deep and the upper mantle warm and weak. In these areas the lithosphere is thickened during compression producing surface uplift and erosion (e.g., at the Ringkøbing–Fyn High and in the southern part of Sweden). Observed late Cretaceous–early Cenozoic shallow water depths at the Ringkøbing–Fyn High as well as Cenozoic surface uplift in southern Sweden (the South Swedish Dome (SSD)) are explained by this mechanism.

The STZ is a prominent crustal structural weakness zone. Under compression, this zone is inverted and its surface uplifted and eroded. Contemporaneously, marginal depositional troughs develop. Post-compressional relaxation causes a regional uplift of this zone.

The model predicts sediment distributions and paleo-water depths in accordance with observations. Sediment truncation and exhumation at the North Sea Basin margins are explained by fall in global sea level, isostatic adjustments to exhumation, and uplift of the inverted STZ. This underlines the importance of the mechanisms dealt with in this paper for the evolution of intra-cratonic sedimentary basins.     

Western Alpine back-thrusting as subsidence mechanism in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (Western Po Plain, NW Italy)

Basin formation dynamics of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB) are here investigated by means of cross-section numerical modelling. Previous works hypothesised that basin subsidence occurred due first to extension (Oligocene) and then to subsequent loading due to back-thrusting (Miocene). However, structural evidence shows that the TPB was mainly under contraction from Oligocene until post Pliocene time while extension played a minor role. Furthermore, thermal indicators strongly call for a cold (flexure-induced) mechanism but are strictly inconsistent with a hot (thermally induced) mechanism. Our new modelling shows that the TPB stratigraphic features can be reproduced by flexure of a visco-elastic plate loaded by back-thrusts active in the Western Alps in Oligo-Miocene times. Far-field compression contributed to the TPB subsidence and controlled the basin infill geometry by enhancing basin tilting, forebulge uplift and erosion of the southern margin of the basin. These results suggest that the TPB subsidence is the result of a combination of mechanisms including thrust loading and far-field compressional stresses.     

Structural relationship between the Sea of Marmara Basin and the North Anatolian Fault Zone

The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) zone is 1500 km long, extending almost up to the Greek mainland in the west. It is a seismically active right-lateral strike-slip fault that accommodates the relative motion between the Turkish block and Black Sea plate. The Sea of Marmara lies along the western part of the NAF and shows evidence of subsidence. In this area pure strike-slip motion of the fault zone changes into extensional strike-slip movement that is responsible for the creation of the Sea of Marmara and the North Aegean basins. The northern half of the Sea of Marmara is interpreted as a large pull-apart basin. This basin is subdivided into three smaller basins separated by strike-slip fault segments of uplifted blocks NE-SW. Basinal areas are covered by horizontally layered sedimentary sequences. Uplifted blocks have undergone compressional stress. All the blocks are subsiding and are undergoing vertical motions and rotations relative to one another. The uplifted blocks exhibit positive Bouguer gravity anomalies. According to gravity interpretation, there is relative crustal thinning under the Sea of Marmara. The northern side of the Sea of Marmara is marked by a distinctive deep-rooted magnetic anomaly, which is dissected and shifted southward by strike-slip faulting. The southern shelf areas of the Sea of Marmara are dominated by short-wavelength magnetic anomalies of shallow origin.     

北黄海盆地构造运动学解析

以最新的地质 地球物理资料和北黄海盆地构造几何学特征为基础,采用盆地反演模拟与宏观分析相结合的方法,系统解析了北黄海盆地的构造运动学特征。研究表明,北黄海盆地在中、新生代时期经历了水平伸展、水平挤压、相对平移(走滑)以及垂直差异升降等几种运动型式,其中,水平伸展运动和垂直差异升降运动是北黄海盆地构造运动及形成演化的主体。水平伸展运动可以划分为J3-K1、E2和E3三个主要“伸展事件”,并控制着盆地的成盆演化,其南北向伸展强度均东强西弱,东西向最大伸展强度自中生代到新生代由东向西迁移。水平挤压运动主要有晚白垩世和渐新世末-中新世初期两期。相对平移(走滑)运动伴随水平伸展运动和水平挤压运动发生,使多数NNE向、NW向断裂具有相对压扭或张扭平移(走滑)性质,其中尤以NNE向断裂更为明显。垂直差异升降运动具有“幕式”渐进之特点,晚侏罗世、早白垩世、始新世、渐新世以及中新世中晚期以来为沉降期,其中尤以始新世的沉降速率最大,晚白垩世、古新世、中新世早期为抬升剥蚀期;盆地的中、新生代沉降作用具有明显的自东向西迁移规律:东部坳陷以中生代沉降作用最为显著,中部坳陷主沉降期为始新世,而西部坳陷的快速沉降主要发生在始新世,并一直持续到渐新世。     

SHRIMP U–Pb zircon dating of a metagabbro and eclogites from western Dabieshan (Hong''an Block), China, and its tectonic implications

The Tyrrhenian Sea is a Neogene back-arc basin formed by continental extension at the rear of the eastward migrating Apennine subduction system. Its central part, generated from Tortonian to Pliocene, includes the Sardinia rifted margin to the west, an area with large volcanoes in the deep central sector, and the Campania rifted margin to the east. A reprocessing of some 2000 km of MCS lines, a new swath bathymetric map, and a review of previous geological and geophysical data allow to analyse the nature and distribution of continental vs. oceanic crust in this area, which evolved in a short time span.The central portion of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea is characterized by MOHO at about 10 km depth. North of Magnghi and Vavilov Smts, this thinned crustal domain include a wide continent–ocean transition, with the occurrence of extensional allochthons and of serpenitinzed sub-continental mantle, recalling other well known rifted margins, as the Iberia one. Sectors floored by oceanic crust should occur, mainly in the southern part of the study area, but they do not appear related to discrete spreading ridges. The continent–ocean boundary cannot be drawn unequivocally in the area, due also to the occurrence of widespread and huge magmatic manifestations not related to oceanic spreading. These portions of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea represents therefore a complex oceanic back-arc basin surrounded by magma-rich rifted continental margins.The abundant igneous manifestations and the very high stretching rates observed in the area may be related to the fact that the present Tyrrhenian area was occupied by an orogenic domain affected by shortening until middle Miocene times, which is just before the Late Miocene onset of back-arc extension. The lithosphere in the region had then to be rheologically weak. Abundant generation and ascent of magmas, mostly of Ocean Island Basalt type, was favoured by the large lithospheric permeability induced by strong extensional deformations.     

Two layer model of lithospheric compression and uplift/exhumation in an intracratonic setting: an example from the Cooper–Eromanga Basins,Australia

Seismic reflection profiles indicate the compressive nature of the structural style associated with the major uplift events in the Cooper–Eromanga Basins. Inversion geometries and reactivated features attest to a period of compression during Late Triassic–Early Jurassic times. In the Eromanga Basin, compressional structural styles associated with Late Cretaceous–Tertiary are apparent. Many of the Late Cretaceous–Tertiary structures coincide with exhumation highs in Late Cretaceous–Tertiary times. The two-layer lithospheric compression model is considered as the most complete explanation of both the uplift of areas subject to compression and crustal thickening, and of the regional uplift of areas not subject to any apparent Late Cretaceous–Tertiary compression. In the model, compression and thickening in the lower lithosphere is decoupled and laterally displaced from that in the upper crust. Thickening of the mantle lithosphere without thickening of the overlying crust can account for the initial subsidence then uplift of not inverted platform areas. The opening of the Tasman Sea and the Coral Seas can lead to stress transmission in the interior of the continent. These stresses are likely to generate uplift but cannot explain the distribution of uplift in areas not subject to compression.     

Geodynamic evolution of the Vulcan Sub‐basin,Timor Sea,northwest Australia: A pre‐compression New Guinea analogue?

The Vulcan Sub‐basin lies immediately inboard of the incipient arc‐continent collision in the Timor Sea and comprises part of the Bonaparte Basin system, the northernmost basin on Australia's North West Shelf. Given the high level of preservation of its extensional fabric, the region can provide important analogues for the likely pre‐orogeny architecture of New Guinea, which enables a better understanding of the onset of, and response to, orogenesis. Structural restoration of regional, depth‐converted 2–D seismic lines shows that although the Late Jurassic Swan Graben is significant and contains a thick source‐rock section, the principal phase of crustal extension took place in the Triassic to Middle Jurassic. Within the Vulcan Sub‐basin, the southern Tilted Fault Block Domain records ～10% Triassic to Middle Jurassic extension, whereas <5% upper crustal extension has been measured in the northern Hourglass Domain. Similarly, while Jurassic extension in the Tilted Fault Block Domain is both deep and focused, the Hourglass Domain is expressed as a broad sag to the northeast, indicating a strong underlying basement influence on compartmentalisation. The Vulcan Sub‐basin shows four principal stages of evolution: (i) regional, evenly spaced crustal faulting and subsidence in the Triassic ‐ Middle Jurassic; (ii) focused faulting in the Late Jurassic that created grabens with uplift of the shoulders; (iii) regional subsidence from the Middle Valanginian; and (iv) minor extensional and contractional reactivation in the Mio‐Pliocene. The measured brittle extension is much less than that suggested by modelling of lithospheric subsidence, which suggests long wavelength distribution of strain in the ductile lower crust, with upper crustal extension mainly focused along the continent‐ocean boundary. Along the North West Shelf and on a smaller scale within the Vulcan Sub‐basin per se, the obvious, basement‐involved, rectilinear compartments defined by prominent offsetting of both extensional fault systems and abyssal plains have important implications for the development of the New Guinea orogen. Similar scale compartments are recognised in New Guinea and display different structural styles and hydrocarbon prospectivity. The transfer zones separating the compartments are the sites of the major copper‐gold deposits in New Guinea. Using the Vulcan Sub‐basin ‐ Timor area as an analogue, it can be seen that an arc could originally collide with a promontory, such as what is now Timor, and reactivate the lineaments allowing local extension and mineralisation. In addition, interpretation of the structure of the New Guinea Fold Belt may be aided by considering the effects of compression on the geometry of the Vulcan Sub‐basin and of the similar Carnarvon Basin and adjacent extended and broken Exmouth Plateau.