An outline of the geology of the Afghan Pamirs

In the Great Afghan Pamir (Pamir-e Kaland) the following formations can be distinguished, from bottom to top: Wakhan Fm. (3000–4000 m thick anchimetamorphic slates and sandstones with frequent intercalations of quartzites and rare beds of crystalline limestones; conodonts of Lower Triassic); Qal'a-e Panja Tonalite (epimetamorphic, cataclastic); Qal'a-e Ust Gneiss (meta- and orthogneisses); Issik Granodiorite (batholite of the Afghan Pamirs, equivalent to Baba Tangi-Lunkho Granodiorite; xenoliths, flow structures and diaphtoritic portions; Upper Jurassic to Eocene). The tectonics are determined by the Peripheric Southern Fault of the Pamirs and the Wakhan Fault, showing vertical dislocation up to 1000 m and sinistral thrusting in connection with the Western Himalayan Syntaxis. Late Variscan and Alpine deformations and an intensive middle Alpine metamorphism can be observed. Interpretations of satellite pictures lead to an insertion of the regional tectonic features into the model of plate tectonics of the Himalayan arc.     

中国喜马拉雅构造运动的陆内变形特征与油气矿藏富集

在前人研究的基础上,结合近年来在油气勘探中不断积累的地质资料和地质认识,提出了中国喜马拉雅构造运动的陆内变形特征及其分布规律受控于小型克拉通板块拼贴的基底结构和印/欧碰撞与太平洋板块俯冲所主导的双重控制因素;喜马拉雅构造运动的发育特征主要表现为三种动力学机制:青藏高原隆升、盆地与造山带体制和东部拉张活动。喜马拉雅构造运动的大地构造格局及其构造变形分布规律集中体现为4个构造域:青藏高原隆升区、环青藏高原盆山体系、稳定区和环西太平洋裂谷活动区。我国沉积盆地在喜马拉雅构造运动中的构造特征分为三种类型:(1)东部渤海湾、松辽等盆地受拉张构造环境控制的裂谷沉降;(2)中部四川、鄂尔多斯等盆地受青藏高原的向东推挤、盆缘冲断、盆内抬升剥蚀;(3)西部的塔里木、准噶尔、柴达木等盆地受青藏高原的向北推挤、冲断挠曲沉降,表现为克拉通单边或双边的压缩挠曲沉降与克拉通内部的冲断隆升沉降等多种盆山耦合形式。喜马拉雅构造运动控制着中国油气晚期定位与富集成藏,主要体现在:盆地的沉积与成藏,形成新生界自生自储的含油气盆地和油气藏;圈闭形成与油气运聚成藏;早期油气藏的调整和再分配;油气藏的破坏。     

Structures along the Orobic thrust, Central Orobic Alps, Italy

A series of regional deformation phases is described for the metamorphic basement and the Permian cover in an area in the central Orobic Alps, northern Italy. In the basement deformation under low-grade amphibolite metamorphic conditions is followed by a second phase during retrograde greenschist conditions. These two phases predate the deposition of the Permian cover and are of probable Variscan age. An extensional basin formed on the eroded basement during the Late Carboniferous, filled with fan conglomerates and sandstones, and rhyolitic volcanic rocks. Well-preserved brittle extensional faults bound these basins. Further extension deformed basement and cover before the onset of Alpine compressional tectonics. Cover and basement were deformed together during two phases of compressional deformation of post-Triassic age, the first giving rise to tectonic inversion of the older extensional faults, the second to new thrust faults, both associated with south-directed nappe emplacement and regional folding. Foliations develop in the cover only during the first phase of deformation as part of the activity on “shortening faults”. Main activity on the Orobic thrust actually postdates the first phase of thrusting and foliation development in the cover.     

Alpine polyphase tectono-metamorphic evolution of the South Carpathians: A new overview

The main terrains involved in the Cretaceous–Tertiary tectonism in the South Carpathians segment of the European Alpine orogen are the Getic–Supragetic and Danubian continental crust fragments separated by the Severin oceanic crust-floored basin. During the Early–Middle Cretaceous times the Danubian microplate acted initially as a foreland unit strongly involved in the South Carpathians nappe stacking. Multistage folding/thrusting events, uplift/erosion and extensional stages and the development of associated sedimentary basins characterize the South Carpathians during Cretaceous to Tertiary convergence and collision events. The main Cretaceous tectogenetic events responsible for contraction and crustal thickening processes in the South Carpathians are Mid-Cretaceous (“Austrian phase”) and Latest Cretaceous (“Laramide” or “Getic phase”) in age. The architecture of the South Carpathians suggests polyphase tectonic evolution and mountain building and includes from top to bottom: the Getic–Supragetic basement/cover nappes, the Severin and Arjana cover nappes, and Danubian basement/cover nappes, all tectonically overriding the Moesian Platform. The Severin nappe complex (including Obarsia and Severin nappes) with Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous ophiolites and turbidites is squeezed between the Danubian and Getic–Supragetic basement nappes as a result of successive thrusting of dismembered units during the inferred Mid- to Late Cretaceous subduction/collision followed by tectonic inversion processes.

Early Cretaceous thick-skinned tectonics was replaced by thin-skinned tectonics in Late Cretaceous. Thus, the former Middle Cretaceous “Austrian” nappe stack and its Albian–Lower Senonian cover got incorporated in the intra-Senonian “Laramide/Getic” stacking of the Getic–Supragetic/Severin/Arjana nappes onto the Danubian nappe duplex. The two contraction events are separated by an extensional tectonic phase in the upper plate recorded by the intrusion of the “Banatitic” magmas (84–73 Ma). The overthrusting of the entire South Carpathian Cretaceous nappe stack onto the fold/thrust foredeep units and to the Moesian Platform took place in the Late Miocene (intra-Sarmatian) times and was followed by extensional events and sedimentary basin formation.     

Tectonic Evolution of the Lufilian Arc (Central Africa Copper Belt) During Neoproterozoic Pan African Orogenesis

The Lufilian arc of Central Africa (also called Katangan belt or Copperbelt) is a zone of low to highgrade metasedimentary (and subsidiary igneous) rocks of Neoproterozoic age hosting highgrade CuCoU and PbZn mineralizations. The Lufilian arc is located between the Congo and Kalahari cratons and defines a structure which is convex to the north. Three major phases of deformation characterize the construction of the Lufilian arc. The first phase (D1) called the “Kolwezian phase” developed folds and thrust sheets with a northward transport direction. D1 deformation occurred in the Lufilian arc between ca. 800 and 710 Ma, with a peak in the range 790–750 Ma. It is here correlated with the main deformation in the Zambezi belt. Southward-verging folds with the same trends as the D₁ structures were previously linked to a second tectonic event named Kundelunguian phase of the Lufilian orogeny. We show in this paper that they are backfolds developed during D1 along Katangan ramps and especially along the Kibaran foreland. The second phase (D2) of the Lufilian orogeny is the “Monwezi phase” including several large leftlateral strikeslip faults which have been activated successively. During this deformation phase, the eastern block of the belt rotated clockwise, giving the present day NWSE trend of D1 structures in this part of the Lufilian arc, and generating its convex geometry. The Mwembeshi dislocation, the major transcurrent shear zone separating the Zambezi and Lufilian arc, was mostly active during the D2 deformation phase. D2 deformation occurred between ca. 690 and 540 Ma. Such a long time interval is attributed to the migration of strikeslip faults developed sequentially from south to north, and probably to a slow convergence velocity during the collision between the Congo and Kalahari cratons. The third phase (D3) of the Lufilian orogeny is a late event called the “Chilatembo phase”, marked by structures transverse to the trends of the Lufilian arc. This deformation and the post-D_2′ uppermost Kundelungu sequence (Ks3 Plateaux Group), are younger than 540 Ma and probably early Paleozoic.     

Geologic and tectonic evolution of the Himalaya before and after the India-Asia collision

The geology and tectonics of the Himalaya has been reviewed in the light of new data and recent studies by the author. The data suggest that the Lesser Himalayan Gneissic Basement (LHGB) represents the northern extension of the Bundelkhand craton, Northern Indian shield and the large scale granite magmatism in the LHGB towards the end of the Palæoproterozoic Wangtu Orogeny, stabilized the early crust in this region between 2-1.9 Ga. The region witnessed rapid uplift and development of the Lesser Himalayan rift basin, wherein the cyclic sedimentation continued during the Palæoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic. The Tethys basin with the Vaikrita rocks at its base is suggested to have developed as a younger rift basin (～ 900 Ma ago) to the north of the Lesser Himalayan basin, floored by the LHGB. The southward shifting of the Lesser Himalayan basin marked by the deposition of Jaunsar-Simla and Blaini-Krol-Tal cycles in a confined basin, the changes in the sedimentation pattern in the Tethys basin during late Precambrian-Cambrian, deformation and the large scale granite activity (～ 500 ± 50 Ma), suggests a strong possibility of late Precambrian-Cambrian Kinnar Kailas Orogeny in the Himalaya. From the records of the oceanic crust of the Neo-Tethys basin, subduction, arc growth and collision, well documented from the Indus-Tsangpo suture zone north of the Tethys basin, it is evident that the Himalayan region has been growing gradually since Proterozoic, with a northward shift of the depocentre induced by N-S directed alternating compression and extension. During the Himalayan collision scenario, the 10–12km thick unconsolidated sedimentary pile of the Tethys basin (TSS), trapped between the subducting continental crust of the Indian plate and the southward thrusting of the oceanic crust of the Neo-Tethys and the arc components of the Indus-Tangpo collision zone, got considerably thickened through large scale folding and intra-formational thrusting, and moved southward as the Kashmir Thrust Sheet along the Panjal Thrust. This brought about early phase (M1) Barrovian type metamorphism of underlying Vaikrita rocks. With the continued northward push of the Indian Plate, the Vaikrita rocks suffered maximum compression, deformation and remobilization, and exhumed rapidly as the Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC) during Oligo-Miocene, inducing gravity gliding of its Tethyan sedimentary cover. Further, it is the continental crust of the LHGB that is suggested to have underthrust the Himalaya and southern Tibet, its cover rocks stacked as thrust slices formed the Himalayan mountain and its decollement surface reflected as the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), in the INDEPTH profile.     

Basement control on oblique thrust sheet evolution: seismic imaging of the active deformation front of the Central Andes in Bolivia

In the area of the Bolivian Orocline, we examine the deformation pattern associated with the active development of a new thrust sheet. A dense grid of reprocessed 2-D seismic lines from hydrocarbon exploration industry is interpreted and a 3-D simplified structural and kinematic model is deduced. In the Boomerang Hills, onlapping Paleozoic and foredeep sediments are detached from the underlying S-dipping basement. They are thrust northeastwards by less than 2 km. Two zones can be differentiated along the Andean deformation front: (1) a W–E to NW–SE striking frontal segment of predominantly orthogonal shortening, comprising a thrust and anticline system; (2) a WSW–ENE striking lateral zone of oblique shortening within a complex system of thin-skinned strike–slip faults and minor folds. The deformation front always follows a pronounced edge in the topography of the top basement surface close to the boundary of the Paleozoic basin. The observed deformation pattern indicates intensified strain partitioning caused by the interaction of contraction direction and basement topography, which provides a near oblique ramp for the onlapping wedge of sediments. The SW–NE thrusting direction is divided into orthogonal and tangential components. These are accommodated by convergent and strike–slip structures, respectively, which sole into a common detachment horizon. The structural evolution of the new thrust sheet in the Bolivian Orocline is primarily controlled by the paleorelief of the Brazilian Shield because: (1) the shape of the basement affects the taper of the thrust wedge and localizes the deformation front and (2) small asperities in/close to the top of the basement promote fault localization. The coincidence of a relatively high basement position and a structural high of the Eastern Cordillera leads to the conclusion that the shape of the Brazilian Shield also controls the structural evolution of the pronounced eastern border of the Bolivian Orocline.     

淮北夹沟—桃山集地区推覆构造研究

本区存在大型中生代推覆构造,所有震旦纪—古生代的沉积岩层都卷入了褶皱和断裂,构造推覆发生在较高构造部位,属脆性变形域,以台阶状逆断层和断层相关褶皱为特征。区内存在若干推覆构造,每个岩片均可分为上盘、下盘和滑动层系三部分,共查明8个滑动岩系。是一种发生在早中生代的盖层推覆,无根褶皱,也是徐宿地区最重要的控煤构造。最后对推覆构造的地球动力学机制进行了讨论。     

Late Cenozoic deformation in the South Caspian region: effects of a rigid basement block within a collision zone

Active deformation in the South Caspian region demonstrates the enormous variation in kinematics and structural style generated where a rigid basement block lies within a collision zone. Rigid basement to the South Caspian Basin moves with a westward component relative both to stable Eurasia and Iran, and is beginning to subduct at its northern and western margins. This motion is oblique to the approximately north–south Arabia–Eurasia convergence, and causes oblique shortening to the south and northeast of the South Caspian Basin: thrusting in the Alborz and Kopet Dagh is accompanied by range-parallel strike–slip faults, which are respectively left- and right-lateral. There are also arcuate fold and thrust belts in the region, for two principal reasons. Firstly, weaker regions deform and wrap around the rigid block. This occurs at the curved transition zone between the Alborz and Talysh ranges, where thrust traces are concave towards the foreland. Secondly, a curved fold and thrust belt can link a deformation zone created by movement of the basement block to one created by the regional convergence: west-to-east thrusts in the eastern Talysh represent underthrusting of the South Caspian basement, but pass via an arcuate fan of fold trains into SSW-directed thrusts in the eastern Greater Caucasus, which accommodates part of the Arabia–Eurasia convergence. Each part of the South Caspian region contains one or more detachment levels, which vary dependent on the pre-Pliocene geology. Buckle folds in the South Caspian Basin are detached from older rocks on thick mid-Tertiary mudrocks, whereas thrust sheets in the eastern Greater Caucasus detach on Mesozoic horizons. In the future, the South Caspian basement may be largely eliminated by subduction, leading to a situation similar to Archaean greenstone belts of interthrust mafic and sedimentary slices surrounded by the roots of mountain ranges constructed from continental crust.     

中国前陆盆地构造地质特征综述与油气勘探

中国特定环境下发育的前陆盆地和冲断带在地质构造上具有许多的特殊性。在综述前人认识的基础上,笔者通过对中国前陆盆地的构造演化历程、沉积充填特征、构造成因及其空间分布规律、构造变形特征等的研究,提出了中国前陆盆地构造地质发育的5个主要特征:(1)两种不同性质的原型盆地发生正反转的叠合性,即挤压构造下作为“本体”的前陆层序与拉张构造下作为“基础”的裂谷、断陷盆地之间的叠置;(2)显生宙以来中国大陆先后发生了4期前陆冲断构造演化的多期性,它们分别是加里东晚期、海西晚期、印支期和喜马拉雅晚期;(3)基于小克拉通基底拼贴后在造山带前缘复活再生的继承性,即统一拼合大陆内部的构造变形导致古造山带的复活,在古造山带边缘发育新生代前陆盆地或前陆冲断带;(4)在空间分布上受环青藏高原巨型盆山体系控制发生陆内变形的系统性,在环青藏高原巨型盆山体系内构造变形强度、盆地沉降幅度、盆山耦合程度等从内环向外环依次降低,从古造山带向克拉通方向构造变形强度依次降低,构造变形样式逐渐简单、构造变形时间依次变新;(5)前陆冲断带的构造样式由于受边界力学条件和沉积地层介质作用而具有多变性,存在沉积盖层内脆性变形的断层相关褶皱、造山带前缘韧性变形的基底卷入构造、与走滑构造相伴生的基底卷入的断层相关褶皱、盆地内部塑性变形的盐构造。正是因为上述地质构造的特殊性,决定了油气聚集与分布特征的规律性和复杂性,由此提出了相应的一些构造地质研究与油气勘探工作的建议。     

Structural framework of the Bashkirian anticlinorium, SW Urals

The Bashkirian anticlinorium of the southwestern Urals shows a much more complex structural architecture and tectonic evolution than previously known. Pre-Uralian Proterozoic extensional and compressional structures controlled significantly the Uralian tectonic convergence. A long-lasting Proterozoic rift process created extensional basement structures and a Riphean basin topography which influenced the formation of the western fold-and-thrust-belt with inversion structures during the Uralian deformation. A complete orogenic cycle during Cadomian times, including terrane accretion at the eastern margin of the East European platform, resulted in a high-level Cadomian basement complex, which controlled the onset of Uralian deformation, and resulted in intense imbrication and tectonic stacking in the subjacent footwall of the Main Uralian fault. The Uralian orogenic evolution can be subdivided into three deformation stages with differently oriented stress regimes. Tectonic convergence started in the Late Devonian with ophiolite obduction, tectonic accretion of basin and slope units and early flysch deposits (Zilair flysch). The accretionary complex prograded from the SE to the NW. Continuous NW/SE-directed convergence resulted finally in the formation of an early orogenic wedge thrusting the Cadomian basement complex onto the East European platform. The main tectonic shortening was connected with these two stages and, although not well constrained, appears to be of Late Devonian to Carboniferous age. In the Permian a final stage of E–W compression is observed throughout the SW Urals. In the west the fold-and-thrust-belt prograded to the west with reactivation of former extensional structures and minor shortening. In the east this phase was related to intense back thrusting. The East European platform was subducted beneath the Magnitogorsk magmatic arc during the Late Paleozoic collision. The thick and cold East European platform reacted as a stable rigid block which resulted in a narrow zone of intense crustal shortening, tectonic stacking and high strain at its eastern margin. Whereas the first orogenic wedge is of thick-skinned type with the involvement of crystalline basement, even the later west-directed wedge is not typically thin-skinned as the depth of the basal detachment appears below 15 km and the involvement of Archean basement can be assumed.     

Large-scale slope failure involving Triassic and Middle Miocene salt and shale in the Gulf of Cádiz (Atlantic Iberian Margin)

Sheets of salt and ductile shale advancing beyond the thrust front of the Gibraltar Arc (Iberian–Moroccan Atlantic continental margin) triggered downslope movements of huge allochthonous masses. These allochthons represent the Cádiz Nappe, which detached from the Gibraltar Arc along low‐angle normal faults and migrated downslope from the Iberian and Moroccan continental margins towards the Atlantic Ocean. Extensional tectonics initiated upslope salt withdrawal and downslope diapirism during large‐scale westward mass wasting from the shelf and upper slope. Low‐angle salt and shale detachments bound by lateral ramps link extensional structures in the shelf to folding, thrusting and sheets of salt and shale in the Gulf of Cádiz. From backstripping analyses carried out on the depocentres of the growth‐fault‐related basins on the shelf, we infer two episodes of rapid subsidence related to extensional collapses; these were from Late Tortonian to Late Messinian (200–400 m Myr^?1) and from Early Pliocene to Late Pliocene (100–150 m Myr^?1). The extensional events that induced salt movements also affected basement deformation and were, probably, associated with the westward advance of frontal thrusts of the Gibraltar Arc as a result of the convergence between Africa and Eurasia. The complexities of salt and/or shale tectonics in the Gulf of Cádiz result from a combination of the deformations seen at convergent and passive continental margins.     

Two-sided Variscan thrust tectonics in the Vosges Mountains,northeastern France

Abstract

Variscan convergence produced two-sided (bivergent) crustal-scale thrusting in the Vosges Mountains. In the northern Vosges the central polymetamorphic crystallines were thrust to the NW over Cambrian to Silurian low-grade and very low-grade metamorphic clastics. Synorogenic upper Devonian - lower Carboniferous turbidites and volcanics were folded into NW-vergent structures which display SE-dipping slaty cleavage. The entire sequence shows increasing metamorphism and deformation from NW to SE. Late right-lateral strike-slip faulting along the Lalaye-Lubine fault zone outlasted thrusting. In the southern Vosges a lower Carboniferous turbiditic basin that was fringed on the south by a volcanic arc was tectonically shortened by south-directed tectonic imbrication of slivers of varied rocks including ultramafics, gneissic basement, and synorogenic elastics. The increasing degree of deformation and metamorphism towards the north suggests a thrust contact with the polymetamorphic gneisses of the central Vosges. The final stages of Variscan convergence were accompanied by voluminous granitic plutonism and by faulting along NNE-SSW and E-W-trending strike-slip faults. The tectonic evolution reflects progressive Variscan closure of a previously extended basinal crust in a high-temperature regime.     

Oligocene to Recent tectonic history of the Central Solomon intra-arc basin as determined from marine seismic reflection data and compilation of onland geology

Systematic analysis of a grid of 3450 km of multichannel seismic reflection lines from the Solomon Islands constrains the late Tertiary sedimentary and tectonic history of the Solomon Island arc and its convergent interaction with the Cretaceous Ontong Java oceanic plateau (OJP). The OJP, the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, subducted beneath the northern edge of the Solomon arc in the late Neogene, but the timing and consequences of this obliquely convergent event and its role in the subduction polarity reversal process remain poorly constrained. The Central Solomon intra-arc basin (CSB), which developed in Oligocene to Recent time above the Solomon arc, provides a valuable record of the tectonic environment prior to and accompanying the OJP convergent event and the subsequent arc polarity reversal. Recognition of regionally extensive stratigraphic sequences—whose ages can be inferred from marine sedimentary sections exposed onland in the Solomon Islands—indicate four distinct tectonic phases affecting the Solomon Island arc. Phase 1: Late Oligocene–Late Miocene rifting of the northeast-facing Solomon Island arc produced basal, normal-fault-controlled, asymmetrical sequences of the CSB; the proto-North Solomon trench was probably much closer to the CSB and is inferred to coincide with the trace of the present-day Kia-Kaipito-Korigole (KKK) fault zone; this protracted period of intra-arc extension shows no evidence for interruption by an early Miocene period of convergent “soft docking” of the Ontong Java Plateau as proposed by previous workers. Phase 2: Late Miocene–Pliocene oblique convergence of the Ontong Java Plateau at the proto-North Solomon trench (KKK fault zone) and folding of the CSB and formation of the Malaita accretionary prism (MAP); the highly oblique and diachronous convergence between the Ontong Java plateau and the Solomon arc terminates intra-arc extension first in the southeast (Russell subbasin of the CSB) during the Late Miocene and later during the Pliocene in the northwest (Shortland subbasin of the CSB); folds in the CSB form by inversion of normal faults formed during Phase 1; Phinney et al. [Sequence stratigraphy, structural style, and age of deformation of the Malaita accretionary prism (Solomon arc-Ontong Java Plateau convergent zone)] show a coeval pattern of southeast to northwest younging in folding and faulting of the MAP. Phase 3: Late Pliocene–early Pleistocene arc polarity reversal and subduction initiation at the San Cristobal trench. Effects of this event in the CSB include the formation of a chain of volcanoes above the subducting Australia plate at the San Cristobal trench, the formation of the broad synclinal structure of the CSB with evidence for truncation at the uplifted flanks, and widespread occurrence of slides and “seismites” (deposits formed by seismic shaking). Phase 4: Pleistocene to Recent continued shortening and synclinal subsidence of the CSB. Continued Australia-Pacific oblique plate convergence has led to deepening of the submarine, elongate basin axis of the synclinal CSB and uplift of the dual chain of the islands on its flanks.     

The nappe pile of eastern Crete

In eastern Crete four allochthonous units with different styles of deformation are piled up above the autochthonous Cherty Limestone (“Plattenkalk”). The emplacement of the nappes is discussed. Diapiric uplift of the Cycladic area was accompanied by large-scale gravity sliding in the direction towards the Aegean arc. There is no evidence from geophysical data for the existence of a subduction zone. Therefore, the transport of the eastern Cretan nappes may be better explained by gravity tectonics than by the model of plate tectonics.     

Structure of Palaeogene sediments in east Ellesmere Island: Constraints on Eurekan tectonic evolution and implications for the Nares Strait problem

The “Nares Strait problem” represents a debate about the existence and magnitude of left-lateral movements along the proposed Wegener Fault within this seaway. Study of Palaeogene Eurekan tectonics at its shorelines could shed light on the kinematics of this fault. Palaeogene (Late Paleocene to Early Eocene) sediments are exposed at the northeastern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Judge Daly Promontory. They are preserved as elongate SW–NE striking fault-bounded basins cutting folded Early Paleozoic strata. The structures of the Palaeogene exposures are characterized by broad open synclines cut and displaced by steeply dipping strike-slip faults. Their fold axes strike NE–SW at an acute angle to the border faults indicating left-lateral transpression. Weak deformation in the interior of the outliers contrasts with intense shearing and fracturing adjacent to border faults. The degree of deformation of the Palaeogene strata varies markedly between the northwestern and southeastern border faults with the first being more intense. Structural geometry, orientation of subordinate folds and faults, the kinematics of faults, and fault-slip data suggest a multiple stage structural evolution during the Palaeogene Eurekan deformation: (1) The fault pattern on Judge Daly Promontory is result of left-lateral strike-slip faulting starting in Mid to Late Paleocene times. The Palaeogene Judge Daly basin formed in transtensional segments by pull-apart mechanism. Transpression during progressive strike-slip shearing gave rise to open folding of the Palaeogene deposits. (2) The faults were reactivated during SE-directed thrust tectonics in Mid Eocene times (chron 21). A strike-slip component during thrusting on the reactivated faults depends on the steepness of the fault segments and on their obliquity to the regional stress axes.Strike-slip displacement was partitioned to a number of sub-parallel faults on-shore and off-shore. Hence, large-scale lateral movements in the sum of 80–100 km or more could have been accommodated by a set of faults, each with displacements in the order of 10–30 km. The Wegener Fault as discrete plate boundary in Nares Strait is replaced by a bundle of faults located mainly onshore on the Judge Daly Promontory.     

Large-scale distributed deformation controlled topography along the western Africa–Eurasia limit: Tectonic constraints

In the interior of the Iberian Peninsula, the main geomorphic features, mountain ranges and basins, seems to be arranged in several directions whose origin can be related to the N–S plate convergence which occurred along the Cantabro–Pyrenean border during the Eocene–Lower Miocene time span. The Iberian Variscan basement accommodated part of this plate convergence in three E–W trending crustal folds as well as in the reactivation of two left-lateral NNE–SSW strike-slip belts. The rest of the convergence was assumed through the inversion of the Iberian Mesozoic Rift to form the Iberian Chain. This inversion gave rise to a process of oblique crustal shortening involving the development of two right lateral NW–SE shear zones. Crustal folds, strike-slip corridors and one inverted rift compose a tectonic mechanism of pure shear in which the shortening is solved vertically by the development of mountain ranges and related sedimentary basins. This model can be expanded to NW Africa, up to the Atlasic System, where N–S plate convergence seems also to be accommodated in several basement uplifts, Anti-Atlas and Meseta, and through the inversion of two Mesozoic rifts, High and Middle Atlas. In this tectonic situation, the microcontinent Iberia used to be firmly attached to Africa during most part of the Tertiary, in such a way that N–S compressive stresses could be transmitted from the collision of the Pyrenean boundary. This tectonic scenario implies that most part of the Tertiary Eurasia–Africa convergence was not accommodated along the Iberia–Africa interface, but in the Pyrenean plateboundary. A broad zone of distributed deformation resulted from the transmission of compressive stresses from the collision at the Pyrenean border. This distributed, intraplate deformation, can be easily related to the topographic pattern of the Africa–Eurasia interface at the longitude of the Iberian Peninsula.Shortening in the Rif–Betics external zones – and their related topographic features – must be conversely related to more “local” driven mechanisms, the westward displacement of the “exotic” Alboran domain, other than N–S convergence. The remaining NNW–SSE to NW–SE, latest Miocene up to Present convergence is also being accommodated in this zone straddling Iberia and Morocco, at the same time as a new ill-defined plate boundary that is being developed between Europe and Africa.     

A crustal thrust system in an intracratonic tectonic environment

An intracratonic thrust belt, developed during the early Carboniferous in central Australia, deformed the Amadeus Basin and its basement, the Arunta Block. This belt is characterized by a marked structural asymmetry (vergence) and by the deposition of a thick molasse basin on the foreland. A review of existing field data shows that décollement tectonics produced folding, thrusting, faulting and back-faulting of the sedimentary sequence. Thin-skinned tectonics extend into the basement to produce recumbent folds and têtes plongeantes of nappe structures rooted in steeply dipping mylonite zones of greenschist to amphibolite grade. Minimum horizontal shortening displacements are 50–100 km resulting in a 50–70% contraction of the upper part of the basement. The structures and shortening are best explained by a crustal duplex, characterized by a crustal-scale thrust system, i.e. a sole thrust and imbricate faults, responsible for an isostatic bending of the underthrust slab. The observed Bouguer anomaly profiles support this crustal model. The dynamic evolution of this thrust belt on the scale of the crust is of thin-skin type.     

Plate kinematics, origin and tectonic emplacement of supra-subduction ophiolites in SE Asia

A unique feature of the Circum Pacific orogenic belts is the occurrence of ophiolitic bodies of various sizes, most of which display petrological and geochemical characteristics typical of supra-subduction zone oceanic crust. In SE Asia, a majority of the ophiolites appear to have originated at convergent margins, and specifically in backarc or island arc settings, which evolved either along the edge of the Sunda (Eurasia) and Australian cratons, or within the Philippine Sea Plate. These ophiolites were later accreted to continental margins during the Tertiary. Because of fast relative plate velocities, tectonic regimes at the active margins of these three plates also changed rapidly. Strain partitioning associated with oblique convergence caused arc-trench systems to move further away from the locus of their accretion. We distinguish “relatively autochthonous ophiolites” resulting from the shortening of marginal basins such as the present-day South China Sea or the Coral Sea, and “highly displaced ophiolites” developed in oblique convergent margins, where they were dismantled, transported and locally severely sheared during final docking. In peri-cratonic mobile belts (i.e. the Philippine Mobile Belt) we find a series of oceanic basins which have been slightly deformed and uplifted. Varying lithologies and geochemical compositions of tectonic units in these basins, as well as their age discrepancies, suggest important displacements along major wrench faults.We have used plate tectonic reconstructions to restore the former backarc basins and island arcs characterized by known petro-geochemical data to their original location and their former tectonic settings. Some of the ophiolites occurring in front of the Sunda plate represent supra-subduction zone basins formed along the Australian Craton margin during the Mesozoic. The Philippine Sea Basin, the Huatung basin south of Taiwan, and composite ophiolitic basements of the Philippines and Halmahera may represent remnants of such marginal basins. The portion of the Philippine Sea Plate carrying the Taiwan–Philippine arc and its composite ophiolitic/continental crustal basement might have actually originated in a different setting, closer to that of the Papua New Guinea Ophiolite, and then have been displaced rapidly as a result of shearing associated with fast oblique convergence.     

三江地区义敦岛弧碰撞造山过程：花岗岩记录

义敦岛弧碰撞造山带是特提斯－喜马拉雅巨型造山带中的一个复合造山带。本文利用义敦岛弧碰撞造山带29个花岗岩体的43件同位素测年数据，结合岩石地球化学特征，建立了造山带花岗岩的时间坐标。初步识别出4套不同成因类型的花岗岩，即印支期弧花岗岩、燕山早期同碰撞花岗岩、燕山晚期A型花岗岩和喜马拉雅期花岗岩。据此，再造了造山带的形成过程与演化历史：印支期的大规模俯冲造山作用（238－210Ma)，形成义敦火山岩浆弧；大约自206Ma始，发生弧－陆碰撞，伴随岛弧地壳挤压收缩和剪切变形，发育同碰撞花岗岩；进入燕山晚期（138－73Ma)，岛弧碰撞造山带发生造山后伸展作用，形成A型花岗岩带；喜马拉雅期发生陆内造山作用（65－15Ma)，岛弧碰撞造山带出现逆冲－推覆和大规模走滑平移，伴随喜马拉雅期花岗岩的侵位和拉分盆地的形成。