Progress in studies on the structure and physical properties of the mantle in China

The studies on the structure and physical properties of the mantle by Chinese geophysicists from 2003 to 2007 are reviewed in this report. It mainly contains studies on the seismic velocity structure of the mantle,anisotropy of the mantle,mantle discontinuities,mantle convection and the physical properties of mantle. The review concerns mainly the contents,the methods used and the results of the studies. It can be found that new progress in the study on the structure and physical properties of mantle has been made in the last four years in China. In some preexis-tent areas much progress has been made,advanced methods have been adopted,extensive international co-operation has been conducted in many ways,and the scope of the co-operation has gradually expanded. More-over,some new fields appear as well.     

P.ecent progress in studies of experimental rock mechanics and tectonophysics in China

This paper reviews the recent progress in the studies of experimental rock mechanics and tectonophysics concern-ing seismology and physics of the Earth‘s interior in China. The progress is presented in the following aspects: a) A lot of results of experiment and numerical simulation enrich our knowledge of the brittle fracturing process under the condition with heterogeneity in material and structure; b) Some new results on frictional behavior of non-homogeneous faults reveal the complexity of faulting behavior; c) Some new results on the brittle-plastic tran-sition and plastic flow are obtained; especially the important progress is obtained on theological properties of rocks in the lower crust and the upper mantle; d) A lot of experimental results are obtained on rock physics at high tem-perature and pressure and have been used in study of material composition and state. These results provide useful information for understanding the physical properties and deformation mechanisms of material of the Earth‘s inte-rior and earthquake physics.     

Structure and physical properties of the Earth''''s interior

Introduction Progress in the study on the structure and physical properties of the Earths interior has been made in the last 4 years. ZANG, et al (1999) had reviewed the studies on the structure, geodynamics and the physical properties of the Earths interior in China during 1994~1998. This review will summarize the work done by Chinese geophysicists on the structure and physical properties of the Earths interior from 1999 to 2002. The contents are mainly on the structure and physics of the…     

Study on the variation characteristics of the geoelectric field preceding earthquakes

Introduction Geoelectric field is one of the proper physical fields of the Earth. It is controlled by the vari-ous current systems originating outside of the Earth and the internal electrical structure of the Earth as well as the underground current origin. It carries a great amount of information coming from the Earths interior. At present, a lot of observations and studies about the geoelectric field have been made in the world. Many applications and studies of the geoelectric field in the…     

Adaptability of the ocean and earth tidal models based on global observations of the superconducting gravimeters

As the gravity field is the most primary and direct physical quantity reflecting the density variation of the Earth’s interior and its geodynamic properties under various environmental changes and as the knowledge of the fine structure of the Earth’s interior and its geo-dynamics has a strong impact on space research, grav-ity observations become more and more important in Earth sciences. Therefore based on a global network of superconducting gravimeters (SGs), the Global Geo-dynamic Proje…     

Progress in the numerical modeling of mantle plumes

The mantle plume model, as an integral part of the Earth’s internal convection system, is complementary to the theory of plate tectonics. They together constitute the key configuration of material circulation and energy transport in the Earth’s interior. Seismology, high-temperature and high-pressure mineralogy, geology, and geodynamic numerical modeling have conducted comprehensive studies on the mantle plume model since it was proposed. In particular, numerical simulation, which investigates t...     

Experimental studies of electrical conductivities and P-wave velocities of gabbro at high pressures and high temperatures

The studies on the physical properties of minerals and rocks in combination with the work in petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry are not only a useful mean to look into the composition and structure of the earth抯 interior, but also can provide extreme…     

Review on study of seismotectonics in China

This paper reviews briefly the progresses made during the last four years (1999～2002) in study of seismotectonics in China, especially appraises the achievements in the fields of the crustal and upper mantle‘s structure, the active faults and tectonic setting of large earthquakes, the crustal deformation, and the numerical simulation. Most earth-quakes occurred in China belong to continental earthquakes. Therefore, Chinese seismologists pay more attention to the continental earthquakes. Based on improvements of the observation systems in China during the ninth Five-Year Plan, the studies on seismotectonics have achieved great progresses.     

Lithospheric structure and evolution of the North China Craton:An integrated study of geophysical and xenolith data

Determination of the physical and chemical structures of the inaccessible continental lithosphere by comprehensive geophysical and geochemical studies can provide valuable information on its formation and evolution.Extensive studies from various disciplines have revealed complex lithospheric modification of the North China Craton(NCC),but less attention has been paid to an integrated study from different fields.Here we provide an integrated constraint on the lithospheric mantle structure of the NCC by comprehensive semiology,gravity and thermal studies with xenolith data involving depth(levels in the lithosphere),property(chemical and physical),and timing(formation and reworking ages).Our results suggest that the NCC has a relatively heterogeneous lithospheric mantle.Its margins and internal weak zones,especially in the eastern NCC,are generally underlain by the fertile,weakly metasomatized mantle with generally young formation ages.In contrast,its core tends to preserve the refractory,strongly metasomatized mantle with ages roughly coupled to the overlying Archean crust.Such a lithospheric structure shows the preferential modification of the lithospheric mantle in the eastern NCC and in the peripheral regions of the western NCC.The interior of the craton,especially most of the western NCC,remains stable and has been weakly modified.     

Advances on Active Tectonics Research

The tectonic movement at human scale has not been fully understood yet, especially for active tectonics, although it is the basis to study natural hazards and environmental variations. Many national and international scientific plans related closely to active tectonics research have been made in the past ten years. This paper briefly summarized the background of the undertaking of active tectonics research, its advances and existing problems, and the key points in its future studies are also pointed out. The emerging of new technologies like the Earth Observing Sys tem, Digital Seismology and so on provides unusual opportunities for tectonic research. It is emphasized, however, that careful analyses and building up of new theoretical frame are sill the key problems for studies of active tectonics, especially for active tectonics in China‘ s conti nent.     

Regionalized difference of the 660 km discontinuity beneath Izu-Bonin

Introduction The detail structure of the Earths interior is a major field of geophysics and the existences and properties of mantle discontinuities are its important content. Based on the seismic tomographic results (Fukao, et al, 1992, Van der Hilst, et al, 1991) and the distribution of earthquake hypocenters in the Circum-Pacific region and other regions, the effects of subducting slab at different regions on the 660 km discontinuity are different: some subducting slabs penetrate through; …     

Crustal and upper mantle structure and deep tectonic genesis of large earthquakes in North China

From the 1960 s to 1970 s, North China has been hit by a series of large earthquakes. During the past half century,geophysicists have carried out numerous surveys of the crustal and upper mantle structure, and associated studies in North China.They have made significant progress on several key issues in the geosciences, such as the crustal and upper mantle structure and the seismogenic environment of strong earthquakes. Deep seismic profiling results indicate a complex tectonic setting in the strong earthquake areas of North China, where a listric normal fault and a low-angle detachment in the upper crust coexist with a high-angle deep fault passing through the lower crust to the Moho beneath the hypocenter. Seismic tomography images reveal that most of the large earthquakes occurred in the transition between the high-and low-velocity zones, and the Tangshan earthquake area is characterized by a low-velocity anomaly in the middle-lower crust. Comprehensive analysis of geophysical data identified that the deep seismogenic environment in the North China extensional tectonic region is generally characterized by a low-velocity anomalous belt beneath the hypocenter, inconsistency of the deep and shallow structures in the crust, a steep crustalal-scale fault,relative lower velocities in the uppermost mantle, and local Moho uplift, etc. This indicates that the lithospheric structure of North China has strong heterogeneities. Geologically, the North China region had been a stable craton named the North China Craton or in brief the NCC, containing crustal rocks as old as ～3.8 Ga. The present-day strong seismic activity and the lower velocity of the lower crust in the NCC are much different from typical stable cratons around the world. These findings provide significant evidence for the destruction of the NCC. Although deep seismic profiling and seismic tomography have greatly enhanced knowledge about the deep-seated structure and seismogenic environment, some fundamental issues still remain and require further work.     

Study on tidal gravity observations obtained at stations Zhongshan and Changcheng, Antarctic

IntroductionThe purpose of the studies on the tidal gravity observations on the Earth(s surface is to investigate the properties of the deformation and the tidal gravity variations of the Earth under the action of the luni-solar tidal force. These variations relate to the internal structure, shape and the medium(s rheology properties of the Earth (Wahr, 1981; Dehant, 1987). The theoretical studies and observations indicated that the amplitudes and the tidal parameters, including the amplitud…     

Frequency-dependent attenuation of P and S waves in Yunnan region

Introduction Attenuation parameter Q~(-1) is an important factor for understanding the physical mechanism of seismic wave attenuation in relation to the composition and physical condition of the Earth′s interior (Sato, 1992) and it is also an indispensable parameter for the quantitative prediction of strong ground motion from the viewpoint of engineering seismology. Hence numerous studies of Q~(-1) have been carried out worldwide by using different methods and concentrate on seismically acti…     

三维非均匀地幔中深源电场和磁场的谱理论(Ⅱ)——横向缓变摄动和极型场快速扩散

It is one of the classical problems in Earth′s electromagnetism that continuation of the observatory data of magnetic field into the conducting region. This paper built the coupling vector equations governing the poloidal, toroidal and potential fields in 3-D inhomogeneous conducting mantle. Considering the limitation on variable scale of inhomogeneities in global mantle from study of the Earth′s deep interior, a perturbation　theory of gradually lateral variation was presented. It is unnecessary that the 1-D spherical symmetric distribution of electric conductivity as zero-degree approximation. Serving as a example of solvability of the zero-degree approximation, it was demonstrated how the gradually lateral variation of electric conductivity effect on anti-diffusive problem of poloidal field in Earth′s mantel.     

Effects of Integrated Exploration in Hydrocarbon-Prospective Areas of South China

The complicated topography, morphology and geology are characteristic of South China, where the frequently covered waters and igneous bodies and widely exposed carbonates are difficult to seismic survey. This paper describes the effect of combining exploration of gravitational, magnetic and electric methods in the complicated hydrocarbon areas in South China by some case histories. Many year‘‘s exploration practices in the exploring areas of more than 20 show that the non-seismic integrated (gravity/magnetic/electric) geophysical prospecting can play an important role not only in regional assessment, basin optimization and early basin evaluation,but also in finding objective of low resistance in areas of exposed carbonate with high resistance, contouring local structure, outlining igneous body and reef, and differentiating rock facies of basement. The results of the non-seismic integrated geophysical survey have pointed out the direction for deploying next prospecting in the specific areas of South China and the valuable experiences have been accumulated to carry out hydrocarbon-hunting in the future.     

Current Status and Future Development of Integrated Geophysical Technology in China

The gap between China‘‘s integrated geophysical technology and the world‘‘s advanced technologies has been significantly narrowed as the result of developments in the last decade.The new technology has played a very important role in oil and gas exploration in China, especially for the purposes of targeting seismically opaque zones, decreasing exploration risk, and improving exploration efficiency in the western territories and complex areas in China. The current status and future development of non-seismic integrated geophysical teams in China is discussed.     

Thermal Structure and Rheology of the Upper Mantle Derived from Mantle Xenoliths from Gansu Province, Western China

Mantle xenoliths brought up by Cenozoic volcanic rocks onto the earth‘s surface may provide direct information about the upper mantle beneath the volcanic region. This paper presents the study on mantle xenoliths collected from Haoti village, Dangchang County, Gansu Province, western China. The main purpose of the study is to gain an insight into the thermal structure and rbeology of the upper mantle beneath the region. The results show that the upper mantle of the region is composed mainly of spinel lherzolite at shallower depth (52-75km), and garnet iberzolite at greater depth (greater than 75km), instead of harzburgite and dunite as proposed by some previous studies. The upper mantle geotherm derived from the equilibrium temperatures and pressures of xenoliths from the region is lower than that of North China, and is somewhat closer to the Oceanic geotherm. The crust-mantle boundary is determined from the geotherm to be at about 52km, and the Moho seems to be the transition zone of lower crust material with spinel iberzolite. If we take 1280℃ as the temperature of the top of asthenosphere, then the fithospbere-asthenosphere boundary should be at about 120km depth. The differential stress of the upper mantle is determined by using recrystallized grain size piezometry, while the strain rate and equivalent viscosity are determined by using the high temperature flow law of peridotite. The differential stress, strain rate and viscosity profiles constructed on the basis of the obtained values indicate that asthenospberic diapir occurred in this region during the Cenozoic time, resulting in the corresponding thinning of the lithosphere. However, the scale and intensity of the diapir was significantly less than that occurring in the North China region. Moreover, numerous small-scale shear zones with localized deformation might occur in the iithospberic mantle, as evidenced by the extensive occurrence of xenoliths with tabular equigranular texture.     

Analysis and comparison of the tidal gravity observations obtained with LCR-ET20 spring gravimeter

Introduction The tidal variation signals of the solid Earth recorded with the modern measuring techniques can be used to provide effectively the means to cognize the Earths motion, deformation and structure character, especially to monitor the material motion in the Earths interior. In the recent 20 years, the distribution character of the global gravity field has made great progress since the continuous and deep theoretical studies in geophysics and geodesy domains. The successful manufactur…     

Detection and interpretation of the Earth’s free oscillations excited by the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake with GGP station data

The mode serials of the Earth’s free oscillation provide some important information on the Earth’s deep structure and superconducting gravimeters (SG) can investigate the phenomena of the Earth’s free oscillations with high accuracy. The great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake fully excited the Earth’s free oscillations and these signals were perfectly recorded by five superconducting gravimeters in the globe. After the pre-treatment and spectral analysis on the SG observation data, we obtained the experimented mo...