Pliocene and Quaternary regional uplift in western Turkey: the Gediz River terrace staircase and the volcanism at Kula

Along the upper reaches of the Gediz River in western Turkey, in the eastern part of the Aegean extensional province, the land surface has uplifted by 400 m since the Middle Pliocene. This uplift is revealed by progressive gorge incision, and its rate can be established because river terraces are capped by basalt flows that have been K–Ar and Ar–Ar dated. At present, the local uplift rate is 0.2 mm a⁻¹. Uplift at this rate began around the start of the Middle Pleistocene, following a span of time when the uplift was much slower. This was itself preceded by an earlier uplift phase, apparently in the late Late Pliocene and early Early Pleistocene, when the uplift rate was comparable to the present. The resulting regional uplift history resembles what is observed in other regions and is analogously interpreted as the isostatic response to changing rates of surface processes linked to global environmental change. We suggest that this present phase of surface uplift, amounting so far to 150 m, is being caused by the nonsteady-state thermal and isostatic response of the crust to erosion, following an increase in erosion rates in the late Early Pleistocene, most likely as a result of the first large northern-hemisphere glaciation during oxygen isotope stage 22 at 870 ka. We suggest that the earlier uplift phase, responsible for the initial 250 m of uplift, resulted from a similar increase in erosion rates caused by the deterioration in local climate at 3.1 Ma. This uplift thus has no direct relationship to the crustal extension occurring in western Turkey, the rate and sense of which are thought not to have changed significantly on this time scale. Our results thus suggest that the present, often deeply incised, landscape of western Turkey has largely developed from the Middle Pleistocene onwards, for reasons not directly related to the active normal faulting that is also occurring. The local isostatic consequences of this active faulting are instead superimposed onto this “background” of regional surface uplift. Modelling of this surface uplift indicates that the effective viscosity of the lower continental crust beneath this part of Turkey is of the order of 10¹⁹ Pa s, similar to a recent estimate for beneath central Greece. The lower uplift rates observed in western Turkey, compared with central Greece, result from the longer typical distances of fluvial sediment transport, which cause weaker coupling by lower-crustal flow between offshore depocentres and eroding onshore regions that provide the sediment source.     

Paleomagnetic constraints on the paleogeography and oroclinal bending of the Devonian volcanic arc in Kazakhstan

Numerical modelling, incorporating coupling between surface processes and induced flow in the lower continental crust, is used to address the Quaternary evolution of the Gulf of Corinth region in central Greece. The post-Early Pleistocene marine depocentre beneath this Gulf overlies the northern margin of an older (Early Pleistocene and earlier) lacustrine basin, the Proto Gulf of Corinth Basin or PGCB. In the late Early Pleistocene, relief in this region was minimal but, subsequently, dramatic relief has developed, involving the creation of  900 m of bathymetry within the Gulf and the uplift by many hundreds of metres of the part of the PGCB, south of the modern Gulf, which forms the Gulf's main sediment supply. It is assumed that, as a result of climate change around 0.9 Ma, erosion of this sediment source region and re-deposition of this material within the Gulf began, both processes occurring at spatial average rates of  0.2 mm a^− 1. Modelling of the resulting isostatic response indicates that the local effective viscosity of the lower crust is  4 × 10¹⁹ Pa s, indicating a Moho temperature of  560 °C. It predicts that the  10 mm a^− 1 of extension across this  70 km wide model region, at an extensional strain rate of  0.15 Ma^− 1, is partitioned with  3 mm a^− 1 across the sediment source,  2 mm a^− 1 across the depocentre, and  5 mm a^− 1 across the ‘hinge zone’ in between, the latter value being an estimate of the extension rate on normal faults forming the major topographic escarpment at the southern margin of the Gulf. This modelling confirms the view, suggested previously, that coupling between this depocentre and sediment source by lower-crustal flow can explain the dramatic development in local relief since the late Early Pleistocene. The effective viscosity of the lower crust in this region is not particularly low; the strong coupling interpreted between the sediment source and depocentre results instead from their close proximity. In detail, the effective viscosity of the lower crust is expected to decrease northward across this model region, due to the northward increase in exposure of the base of the continental lithosphere to the asthenosphere; in the south the two are separated by the subducting Hellenic slab. The isostatic consequences of such a lateral variation in viscosity provide a natural explanation for why, since  0.9 Ma, the modern Gulf has developed asymmetrically over the northern part of the PGCB, leaving the rest of the PGCB to act as its sediment source.     

Late Quaternary basin evolution of the Gulf of Corinth: Sequence stratigraphy, sedimentation, fault–slip and subsidence rates

The Gulf of Corinth is a graben, which has undergone extension during the Late Quaternary. The subsidence rate is rapid in the currently marine part whereas uplift now affects a large part of the initially subsiding area in the North Peloponnese. In this paper, we document the rates of subsidence/uplift and extension based on new subsurface data, including seismic data and long piston coring in the deepest part of the Gulf. Continuous seismic profiling data (air gun) have shown that four (at least) major oblique prograding sequences can be traced below the northern margin of the central Gulf of Corinth. These sequences have been developed successively during low sea level stands, suggesting continuous and gradual subsidence of the northern margin by 300 m during the Late Quaternary (last 250 ka). Subsidence rates of 0.7–1.0 m kyr^− 1 were calculated from the relative depth of successive topset to foreset transitions. The differential total vertical displacement between the northern and the southern margins of the Corinth graben is estimated at about 2.0–2.3 m kyr^− 1.

Sequence stratigraphic interpretation of seismic profiles from the basin suggests that the upper sediments (0.6 s twtt thick) in the depocenter were accumulated during the last 250 ka at a mean rate of 2.2–2.4 m kyr^− 1. Long piston coring in the central Gulf of Corinth basin enabled the recovery of lacustrine sediments, buried beneath 12–13.5 m of Holocene marine sediments. The lacustrine sequence consists of varve-like muddy layers interbedded with silty and fine sand turbidites. AMS dating determined the age of the marine–lacustrine interface (reflector Z) at about 13 ka BP. Maximum sedimentation rates of 2.4–2.9 m kyr^− 1 were calculated for the Holocene marine and the last glacial, lacustrine sequences, thus verifying the respective rates obtained by the sequence stratigraphic interpretation. Recent accumulation rates obtained by the ²¹⁰Pb-radiometric method on short sediment box cores coincide with the above sedimentation rates. Vertical fault slip rates were measured by using fault offsets of correlated reflector Z. The maximum subsidence rate of the depocenter (3.6 m kyr^− 1) exceeds the maximum sedimentation rate by 1.8 m kyr^− 1, which, consequently, corresponds to the rate of deepening of the basin's floor. The above rates indicate that the 2.2 km maximum sediment thickness as well as the 870 m maximum depth of the basin may have formed during the last 1 Ma, assuming uniform mean sedimentation rate throughout the evolution of the basin.     

Reflection–refraction seismics in the Gulf of Corinth: hints at deep structure and control of the deep marine basin

The Gulf of Corinth is a natural laboratory for the study of seismicity and crustal deformation during continental extension. Seismic profiling along its axis provides a 24-fold normal-incidence seismic reflection profile and wide-angle reflection–refraction profiles recorded by sea-bottom seismometers (OBS) and land seismometers. At wide-angle incidence, the land receivers document the Moho at 40-km depth under the western end of the Gulf north of Aigion, rising to 32-km depth under the northern coast in the east of the Gulf. Both refraction and normal-incidence reflection sections image the basement under the deep marine basin that has formed by recent extension. The depth to the base of the sedimentary basin beneath the Gulf, constrained by both methods, is no more than 2.7 km, with 1 km of water underlain by no more than 1.7 km of sediment, less than what was expected from past modeling of uplift of the south coast in the East of the Gulf. Unlike the flat sea-bottom, the basement and sedimentary interfaces show topography along this axial line. Several deeps are identified as depocenters, which suggest that this axial line is not a strike line to the basin. It appears instead to be controlled by several faults, oblique to the S60°E overall trend of the south coast of the Gulf, their more easterly strikes being consistent with the instantaneous direction of extension measured by earthquake slip vectors and by GPS.     

Morphodynamic evolution of the Orb River (Languedoc,France): evidence of eustatic,tectonic and climatic controls

This study aims to reconstruct the Cenozoic and Pleistocene morphodynamic evolution of the Orb, a Mediterranean river which crosses all the structural units of the south Massif Central border. A geomorphological and sedimentological analysis of detrital deposits was carried out as a basis for correlating the different formations and reconstructing the palaeodrainage. Heavy minerals were used to reconstruct the main sedimentary palaeochannels since the Messinian. The successive Orb longitudinal profiles show anomalies which can be caused by structure and by interactions between fluvial dynamics and tectonics. Evidence of volcanic heavy minerals on the Faugères Mountains and in the Upper Pliocene deposits of the Languedocian piedmont demonstrates that a north–south flow took place during the Upper Pliocene. Nevertheless, a palaeo‐Orb existed at the place of the present course when the basaltic lava flows were spreading, but headward erosion did not reach them until the Upper Pleistocene, because the Orb middle and high terraces do not contain volcanic minerals sourced from the Escandorgue. The successive Orb longitudinal profiles show that headward erosion due to Pleistocene low sea levels does not reach beyond Béziers and that a tectonic hinge has functioned near the shoreline. The non‐lithologic knickpoints are explained by the Montagne Noire and Avant‐Monts uplift up until the Pleistocene. A progressive continental uplift is necessary to explain the Orb terraces staircase in the Béziers district, and the fluctuations of incision from upstream to downstream are due to laterally differential movements, which are isostatic effects of thick regressive deposits on the Gulf of Lion shelf during the cold periods. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Along strike changes in the structural evolution over a brittle detachment fault: Example of the Pleistocene Corinth–Patras rift (Greece)

The Patras, Corinth, and northern Saronic gulfs occupy a 200-km-long, N120° trending Pleistocene rift zone, where Peloponnese drifts away from mainland Greece. The axes of Patras and Corinth basins are 25 km apart and linked by two transfer-fault zones trending N040°. The older one defines the western slope of Panachaïkon mountain, and the younger one limits the narrow Rion–Patras littoral plain. Between these two faults, the ca. 4-km-thick Rion–Patras series dips 20–30° SSW. It is part of the Patras gulf synrift deposits, which pile in an asymmetric basin governed by a fault dipping ca. 25–35° NNE, located in the southern Gulf of Patras. Mapping of this fault to the east in northern Peloponnese shows that it is an inactive north-dipping low-angle normal fault (0° to 30°N), called the northern Peloponnese major fault (NPMF). The structural evolution of the NPMF was different in the gulfs of Patras and Corinth. In the Gulf of Patras, it is still active. In northern Peloponnese, footwall uplift and coeval southward tilting flattened the fault and locked its southern part. Steeper normal faults formed north of the locked area, connecting the still active northern part of the NPMF to the surface. After several locks, the presently active normal faults (Psathopyrgos, Aigion, Helike) trend along the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth. This migration of faults caused the relative 25 km northward shift of the Corinth basin, and the formation of NE–SW trending transfer-faults between the Corinth and Patras gulfs.     

东、西昆仑山晚新生代以来构造隆升作用对比

东、西昆仑晚新生代以来隆升过程和程度存在明显差异。东昆仑山现代地貌格局主要是在第四纪以来经过早中更新世之交的昆黄运动和中更新世晚期的共和运动形成的,山系的崛起在时空演化上呈现出由北向南的迁移趋势,而西昆仑山在第三纪已有明显的地貌反差,第四纪地貌反差加剧。东昆仑地区在昆黄运动后尽管形成了近东西向的东流水系,但向南的强烈溯源侵蚀并奠定现代河流水系格局主要发生于中更新世晚期,与共和运动大体同时,而西昆仑地区向南的强烈溯源侵蚀主要发生于早更新世晚期,与东昆仑的昆—黄运动大体同时。在剥蚀程度上,东昆仑最上部3km的去顶至少延续了45Ma,而西昆仑公格尔—塔什库尔干地貌单元只延续了2~5Ma。控制东、西昆仑晚新生代构造隆升的动力背景可能取决于强烈加厚及强烈隆升的青藏高原岩石圈边缘的重力伸展垮塌与来自南部的挤压应力之间的动态平衡。考察青藏高原隆升过程与机制,不仅要注意隆升作用的共性,更要强调不同部位隆升过程及动力学的差异性。     

Stratigraphic architecture of the Plio-Pleistocene infill of the Corinth Rift: Implications for its structural evolution

An integrated study of the stratigraphy, structure, sedimentology, and geomorphology of the Akrata–Derveni region (southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece) forms the basis for a tectono-stratigraphic model for the evolution of the Plio-Pleistocene central Corinth Rift.

The syn-rift sediments exposed on the uplifted southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth comprise three stratigraphic groups. Maximum total thickness of the syn-rift sediments can reach 2800 m in the middle of the studied area. The Lower Group is made of fluvio-lacustrine deposits. The Middle Group corresponds to thick alluvial fan conglomerates and their equivalent Gilbert-type fan deltas that built toward the north. The Upper Group is composed of uplifted terrace deposits, slope breccias and small Gilbert-type deltas. These groups have been subdivided into informal formations and depositional systems. Restoration of the stratigraphic architecture along a N–S transect provides a linked structural and depositional model for this part of the rift. Reconstruction of the latest phases of uplift is based on a study of geomorphological features.

Evolutionary phases include, (1) an overall increase in accommodation space during deposition of the Lower and Middle Groups followed by (2) a drastic decrease in accommodation space during deposition of the Upper Group. Sedimentary signals indicate that most of the major normal faults were active during deposition of the Lower Group. The depocentre was located in the middle part of the study area and paleocurrents were predominantly toward the ENE. The main depositional system shifted south at the onset of deposition of the Middle Group, recording a widening and deepening of the rift. This major event also corresponds to a change in paleocurrent direction to a clear northward polarity. The southernmost border fault, the Killini Fault, was sealed during deposition of the Middle Group. A northward migration of fault activity was associated with northward progradation of giant Gilbert-type fan deltas that record water depths up to 500 m. Finally, the fan delta system was abandoned as progressive tilting to the south and uplift of the margin induced a reversal of the drainage system with the development of an endorheic depression. Sediment supply to the basin thus decreased and a forced regression took place during deposition of the Upper Group recording a northward shift of more than 5 km and a 600 m relative sea-level drop. As no major eustatic sea-level falls of such amplitude are documented during the Pleistocene, the uplift is linked to regional tectonics. Uplift and fault reactivation gave the present day configuration of the southern coast of the Gulf.     

Suspended sediment dynamics in the Amazon River of Peru

The erosion and transport of sediments allow us to understand many activities of significance, such as crust evolution, climate change, uplift rates, continental processes, the biogeochemical cycling of pollutants and nutrients. The Amazon basin of Peru has contrasting physiographic and climatic characteristics between the Andean piedmont and the plains and between the north and south of the basin which is why there are 8 gauging stations located along the principal rivers of the Andean piedmont (Marañón, Huallaga, Ucayali) and the plain (Marañón, Tigre, Napo, Ucayali and Amazon rivers). Since 2003, the ORE-Hybam (IRD-SENAMHI-UNALM) observatory has performed out regular measurements at strategic points of the Amazon basin to understand and model the systems, behavior and long-term dynamics. On the Andean piedmont, the suspended yields are governed by a simple model with a relationship between the river discharge and the sediment concentration. In the plain, the dilution effect of the concentrations can create hysteresis in this relationship on a monthly basis. The Amazon basin of Peru has a sediment yield of 541 *10⁶ t year⁻¹, 70% comes from the southern basin.     

Sedimentary budget of the Northwest Sub-basin,South China Sea: controlling factors and geological implications

ABSTRACT

We calculated the sedimentary budget of the Northwest Sub-basin (NWSB), South China Sea for different geological times based on interpretations of four multichannel seismic profiles across the basin with constraints from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expeditions 367 and 368 drilling results. Sedimentation was generally dominated by regional tectonic events and climate change, but complicated by local tectonic events and geographic position, which resulted in a specific sedimentary budget in the NWSB compared with other marginal basins and the Southwest Sub-basin. The sedimentation rate was relatively low following the opening of the NWSB but increased gradually during the Middle Miocene, corresponding to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the Asian monsoon. It reached its peak in the Late Miocene, corresponding to uplift of the Dongsha Island region that caused intensive bypass of eroded sediments from the Baiyun Sag into the abyssal basin, and reduced again during the Pliocene because of sediment storage on the wide northern continental shelf area compared to the abyssal basin during a period of high-stand sea level. Increase in sedimentation during the Pleistocene suggests that continental erosion and sediment transport to the abyssal basin were enhanced by an intensified Asian summer monsoon and glacial-interglacial climate fluctuations. Since the opening of the NWSB, the primary sediment provenance has been from southern China, with minor contributions from the Red River, Hainan Island, as well as local uplifts on the continental shelf.     

南海边缘海减薄陆壳成因剖析

南海中央海盆南、北两侧陆缘分布着面积较广的减薄陆壳,正确认识海盆减薄陆壳的成因是研究南海构造演化的重要一环.通过分析基于地壳伸展因子公式计算的南海地壳拉张伸展特征和解释中生代以来的陆壳隆升特征等,证实晚中生代以来至渐新世末,该区不仅发生了地壳拉张伸展作用,还发生了较长期的地壳隆升挤压作用,致使酸性侵入岩出露地表,减薄陆壳区的上地壳厚薄分布不均.始新世南海南部发育海陆过渡相和海相沉积、北部仅为陆相沉积,暗示始新世南海古地理格局是南、北陆缘具有不同沉积环境的盆地群,二者之间应该被隆起所隔.这些地质现象说明该区地壳隆升剥蚀与地壳拉张伸展活动时间有较长的重叠.南海中央海盆两侧减薄陆壳的成因不仅仅是地壳拉张伸展所致,而是拉张伸展与隆升剥蚀共同作用的结果,因此可以认为在曾经发生了地壳隆升挤压而遭受长期剥蚀的区域,如果用全地壳伸展因子的公式来估算地壳拉张伸展程度,将得出错误的结论.      

龙门山均衡重力异常及其对青藏高原东缘山脉地壳隆升的约束

青藏高原东缘处于不均衡状态，自西而东可分为青藏高原弱负均衡重力异常区、龙门山正均衡重力异常区和四川盆地负均衡重力异常区，表明该区的不均衡状态并未导致Airy均衡运动的产生，即龙门山没有均衡下降，而处于不断的隆升状态，显示该地区反均衡运动的构造抬升是导致龙门山隆升的主因。本次采用似三度体重力异常计算方法对该区的正均衡重力异常进行模拟和反演，研究了大尺度地貌分异与均衡重力异常分区之间的相互关系，结果表明，龙门山的下地壳顶面抬升了11．2～12．6km，造成了龙门山的正均衡异常，揭示了构造抬升和剥蚀作用在相似的时间尺度上和空间尺度上控制着龙门山地貌的形成，龙门山的表面隆升是构造隆升和剥蚀作用相叠加的产物。     

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.     

Geologic evolution of the Gulf of Maine region

In this study we reconstruct the evolution of the northern New England passive margin whose development has been influenced by Pleistocene glaciations. The morphology of the northern New England shelf is rather unique consisting of a inner lowland, the Gulf of Maine, with an average depth of 150 m and an area of 90,700 km² and Georges Bank, a high whose crest is less than 40 m deep and has an area of 27,000 km². The bank's northern slope, facing the Gulf of Maine, has a maximum relief of 377 m. On the seaward side of Georges Bank is the 2000 m high continental slope deeply cut by canyons. Two channels, Northeast and Great South Channels, east and west of Georges Bank, provide passageways from the Gulf of Maine to the open sea. This morphology was acquired by a combination of Tertiary fluvial erosion, Pleistocene glacial erosion/deposition and Pleistocene/Holocene marine processes. Fluvial/glacial erosion in the Gulf of Maine was so extensive as to expose basement, thus making it possible to map the various terranes making up this foundation. These terranes include the pre-Carboniferous Avalon and Meguma units, a Carboniferous–Permian rift basin formed by the oblique continental collision during the closure of the Paleozoic proto-Atlantic and a Late Triassic–Early Jurassic rift system created during the opening of the present Atlantic. Basement in the Gulf of Maine remained above sea level from the opening of the Atlantic 190 Ma (Early Jurassic) to the Eocene 55 Ma. That the Gulf of Maine remained a high for so long may have been due to igneous activity along the northwest-trending Boston–Ottawa Lineation extending from the vicinity of the St. Lawrence River, Canada to Gulf of Maine from Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous. The northwest-trending New England Seamounts south of Georges Bank may represent a seaward extension of this lineation. On Georges Bank, rising hundreds of meters above the Gulf of Maine, the basement exposed in the gulf is mantled by sediments thousands of meters thick. Included in these sediments are Early Jurassic- to earliest Cretaceous reefs along the continental slope and carbonates north of the reefs grading landward into continental sediments, Cretaceous–Cenozoic continental/marine terrigenous sediments and Pleistocene glacial deposits. The continental slope on the seaward flank of Georges Bank has a complex history of early to mid Mesozoic carbonate accretion, mid to late Mesozoic and Cenozoic calcareous/terrigenous sediments and canyon erosion, burial and exhumation going back to Early Cretaceous.     

Pleistocene/Holocene climate change, re-establishment of fluvial drainage network and increase in relief in the Swiss Alps

ABSTRACT Data are presented about modern sediment discharge of the Swiss rivers and related to the size of catchments. The information reveals that the Central Alps have experienced denudation rates of ≈0.15 mm yr⁻¹ in the foreland, and ≈0.5 mm yr⁻¹ in the Alpine core. Mapping, however, indicates that modern erosion only affects 30–50% of the Alpine surface, and that fluvial and associated hillslope processes have focused erosion in 50–200-m-deep valleys. These valleys are incised into the glacial surface. If this limited spatial extent of erosion is considered, then effective erosion rates are significantly higher than average denudation rates. These effective rates equal or locally exceed modern rates of rock uplift. This implies that the modification of erosional processes related to the Pleistocene/Holocene climate change has resulted in an increase in the relief at a local scale. At a drainage basin scale, however, the relief appears not to change at present.     

CHARACTERIZATION AND FORMATION MECHANISM OF THE CENTRAL UPLIFT OF THE QIANGTANG BASIN

The Qiangtang basin is located between Kekexili-Jingshajiang suture belt and Bangong-Lujiang suture belt, and is divided into the north part and south part by the central uplift that has no crop out of Mesozoic strata. When the Jinshajiang Ocean was closed, the subducting plate was subducted southward. In the central part of the Qiangtang basin, the cushioning effect of the asthenosphere resulted in the thermal doming of the mantle and subsequent large-scale anatexis. Mantle source materials and antectic materials were upwelled and extruded into the middle crust, leading to the thickening of the middle crust and the heating and weakening of the middle to upper crust, and resulting in the rapid deformation (detachment) and tectonic erosion, and in the isostatic uplifting and the formation of metamorphic core complex. The upwelling of anatectic materials would further enhance the buoyant repercussion, which would combine with the side stress due from extrusion in resulting in the formation of an extension     

长江澄通河段河床冲淤对流域减沙的响应

为研究潮汐河道不同区段在流域来沙减少条件下的冲淤响应机制,以长江澄通河段为例,根据水动力特性将其划分为江阴—天生港和天生港—徐六泾两段,结合1950—2014年的水沙资料及2005—2014年的地形资料,比较两段冲淤对流域减沙的响应差异。结果表明:上游江阴—天生港段对流域减沙敏感,较快地由淤积转为冲刷;下游天生港—徐六泾段1998—2004年期间受洪季平均径流流量减小、潮汐顶托作用相对增大的影响,冲刷速率为减小趋势,2004年以后受洪季平均径流流量增大、潮汐顶托作用相对减小及流域来沙持续减少的共同影响,冲刷速率为增大趋势。使得潮汐动力对天生港—徐六泾段由促淤变为促冲的临界洪季平均径流流量为36 000 m3/s,该径流流量也是使得潮汐顶托作用在江阴—天生港段由不显著变为显著的临界流量。目前,流域减沙已加剧澄通河段整体的冲刷。     

Cenozoic landscape evolution of the Kruger National Park as derived from cosmogenic nuclide analyses

In contrast to active tectonic settings, little is known about the potential feedback between surface processes and climate change in tectonically inactive cratonic regions. Here, we studied the driving forces of erosion and landscape evolution in the Kruger National Park in South Africa using cosmogenic nuclide dating. ¹⁰Be‐derived catchment‐wide erosion rates (~2 and ~10 mm ka^?1) are similar in magnitude to erosion and rock uplift elsewhere in South Africa, suggesting that (1) rock uplift is solely the isostatic response to erosion and (2) the first‐order topography is likely of Cretaceous age. The topographic maturity is promoted by widespread exposure of rocks resistant to erosion. Our data, however, suggest that local variations in rock resistance lead to transient landscape changes, with local increases in relief and erosion rates.     

Syn-convergence exhumation of the Central Alps

Abstract

The exhumation of rocks in a plate convergence setting is commonly related to erosion and/or tectonic denudation accompanied by isostatic adjustment. Isostatic compensation is the physical response to denudation. It leads to unroofing of deep levels of the crust. A new model for producing topographic relief is proposed which explains well the rapid exhumation of high-temperature rocks in the Central Alps via erosion and tectonic denudation (i.e. gravitational collapse and normal faulting). It is shown that the forward motion of the cold and rigid Adriatic indenter into the European crust is twofold. Firstly, horizontal compression led to the vertical extrusion of the deepest ductile European basement into shallower levels. This tectonic process induced heat transfer through the southern steep belt as well as heat advection together with the extruded material, resulting in the metamorphic aureole observed in the Central Alps. Secondly, the lower part of the Adriatic crust protruded into the warm European crust as a result of continuous forward motion. Geophysical data suggest that the isostatic response to indentation (i.e. deepening of the alpine root) has been inhibited by the mechanical strength of the cold and rigid Adriatic crust. Then, the indentation process induced a deviation from isostatic equilibrium by creating a tremendous topographic relief. This relief disappeared rapidly, possibly as fast as it forms, by enhanced erosion and tectonic denudation leading to rapid exhumation of the metamorphic dome.     

青藏高原东南缘玉龙雪山（5596m）晚新生代隆升的侵蚀与构造控制作用

玉龙雪山位于青藏高原东南缘,它以其独特的地貌特征而引人关注。其顶部为一古残留面,在30×20km²范围内海拔>5000m的山峰达18座,高出其周围地区平均海拔近1000m。在分析该区地质地貌特征基础上,我们根据岩石圈弹性挠曲地壳均衡理论,以较保守的残留面海拔4250m为当时金沙江下切玉龙雪山的基准面,结果表明:由于虎跳峡中大规模物质剥蚀而引起玉龙雪山地壳均衡反弹,导致山体隆升了468m,这完全是侵蚀作用对于玉龙雪山隆升的贡献。而玉龙雪山与周围地区的剩余地势高差,主要由正断层等构造作用造成。因此,玉龙雪山的隆升是侵蚀与构造作用共同控制的结果。该区最大量地壳均衡反弹的触发机制是5.0².5M a期间玉龙雪山东西两侧正断层的发生。另一方面,作为玉龙雪山的南东延伸部分——点苍山（4122m）在5.0².5M a同样也发生了构造伸展,但是没有遭受大规模的河流侵蚀作用,因此其海拔相对要低很多。这进一步说明地壳均衡反弹导致了玉龙雪山隆升,并加大了玉龙雪山与点苍山在原有基础上的地势高差。