全球构造研究的若干重要进展

全球构造是百余年来国际地学界普遍关注的最重要研究领域之一，近十多年来研究不断取得新的重大进展；揭示出全球现今大洋中脊系统良好的定向性与等距性分布规律、地球各圈层不等速的西向运动规律及其他全球构造运动与地球自转的种种相关性；证明大陆板块内部存在不同类型的强烈陆内造山作用；发现了古今不同时期巨厚的大陆山根与岩石圈的去根作用等重要现象。当今全球构造研究出现若干新的趋势。在全球构造驱动力源与驱动机制研究方面，开始由单一动力驱动机制研究转入多种动力因子所构成地球动力系统的综合研究。大陆动力学中的山脉隆升过程与隆升机制、陆内造山机理、大陆岩石圈去根作用等已成为新的研究热点，中国颇具特色的大陆地质构造正吸引着越来越多国家众多地球科学家们的重视。     

Geodynamic models for the Alpine type of orogeny (Test-case II: the Alps in central Europe)

Two modern geodynamic models on the Alps are tested: plate tectonics (mechanical effects of colliding lithospheric mega-units), and mantle diapirism (mechanical and geochemical effects of ultra-lowvelocity bodies, rising from the low-velocity layer or asthenosphere). Verification occurs by means of comparing the expectations of these models (their ‘prognoses’) with the great wealth of available ‘diagnostic’ facts on the geology and geophysics of the Alps. It appears that the picture of the Alpine structural evolution, drafted by plate tectonics, is inadequate to describe the observed reality, whereas the idea of mantle diapirism, combined with crustal corrosion (geochemical oceanization) and gravity tectonics, provides a functionally correct model, that logically and coherently explains the entire Alpine cycle of orogeny.In the concluding remarks comparisons are made with the formation of island arcs in the western Pacific, the origin of the basin-and-range topography and volcanicity along the eastern margin of the Pacific, as well as the Sunda arc of Indonesia.     

Polar motion of a triaxial earth and dynamic plate tectonics

A theoretical and quantitative analysis of the earth's polar motion, the Chandler wobble and the polar wandering was made under a triaxial, quasi-rigid and rotationally imbalanced earth model and the assumption that the polar excitation was due to the episodic energy perturbation in the earth's upper layers. The Chandler wobble was found to have two frequency components and was quasi-permanent; whereas the polar wandering linked dynamically with the secular tectonic movements in the earth's upper layers. The attempt of the earth to damp its products of inertia for rotation stability maintained the polar motion, while the polar wandering would produce a system of Coriolis torques that provided driving mechanisms to the continental drift, sea-floor spreading and related phenomena, as well as inducing viscous flows in the interior. The secondary deformation due to the earth's non-rigidity was not analyzed in the paper, but the probable connections between the dynamics of polar wandering and the thermal convection in the interior were briefly discussed. The analysis presents the attempt for an integral interpretation of the earth's dynamic evolution or an interpretation of the polar motion, plate tectonics, and the earth's generation and dissipation of excess energy under a unified dynamic theory.     

地壳运动整体观论纲

本文在全面讨论了构造体系与全球运动场、板块构造与旋转扩张、断块构造、镶嵌构造、地洼说与地球自转、构造迁移的方向性及地球水圈、气圈和生物圈的运动规律以后,提出了地球动力系统统一观,并进一步论述了包括重力、热力、离心惯性力等在内的地球动力系统中,地球自转和自转速度不均衡乃是发动地壳运动的主因,而地球整体的运动和变化,又受着天体活动的影响。
本文纲要性地指出,地壳上各种地质现象与相关的自然现象是一个有联系的整体,受控于地球整体的运动系统。      

Geodetic reference systems for crustal motion studies

The behaviour of geodetic reference systems as a function of time cannot be ignored in determinations of position for secular geodynamic modelling. While non-specialist users are likely to appreciate the uncertainty surrounding the concept of a “fixed” point in regional surveys for crustal motion, its extension to global surveys based on techniques in dynamic geodesy is not widely understood. Such solutions are related to the natural coordinate system defined by the instantaneous geocentre (earth's centre of mass) and the instantaneous rotation axis whose location in earth space cannot be expected to be time invariant.The effect of such movements of the natural system of reference on the coordinates of points at the earth's surface is computed for a plausible model of the former. The resulting changes in solutions for three-dimensional position from dynamic considerations are discussed. It is shown that for the model adopted, the earth-space variations of the natural reference system with time produce coordinate changes with magnitudes not dissimilar to those resulting from reasonable variations in the earth's figure, though with different wavelengths, when computed from three-dimensional considerations alone.The resulting displacements, along with an accepted model for plate motions, are used to study changes in the shape of the level surfaces of the earth's gravity field with time. It is shown that plausible models for the deformation of the earth's figure produce significant changes in the geopotential and the shape of the geoid. However, the transfer of mass implied in extreme models of plate motion produce no significant changes in the datum level surface for crustal motion studies over periods as long as 10² yr.     

THE GLOBAL TECTONIC SYSTEMS AND A LATITUDINAL MOUNTAIN-PLATEAU CHAIN ON THE NORTH HEMISPHERE

THE GLOBAL TECTONIC SYSTEMS AND A LATITUDINAL MOUNTAIN-PLATEAU CHAIN ON THE NORTH HEMISPHERE     

全球构造研究的思考

“板块构造”并不直接等价于全球构造。将各板块同一构造力学属性和特征的边界分别连接起来 ,可以建立起环太平洋深俯冲构造系、南半球为主体的洋脊构造系和北半球为主体的陆 /陆浅俯冲构造系 ,它们空间展布的分区 ,揭示了全球表层构造格架具有N/S半球与 0°/ 180°半球双棕胀缩耦合非对称性。这一认识获得全球地热与地幔质量分布非均一性的初步证明。此全球构造格局和运动 ,可作为启发和约束地幔运动和动力学分析的表层边界条件。全球板块内部的次级构造 ,在大陆型板内有两种 ,一是以盆、山、原 (高、低 )作为次级构造单元 ,重点是研究它们的演化耦合关系 ;二是以次板块、地块、块体之类的概念作为次级、再次级构造单元 ,重点是研究块体以及多块体之间的应力、应变和运动的相互关系。两种研究方式的不同 ,也可能与研究的目的和时间尺度要求不同有关。两者能否融合 ,应不应该融合 ,需深入思考。地球多圈层相互作用的科学目的是建立地球大系统科学。流体地球部分与固体地球部分以往因研究的时间尺度很难匹配而分立。但地球一系列“微动态”行为 ,如地震、火山、洋脊涌流等 ,其时间尺度和多级的动态韵律与地球流体的动态韵律是可以比较的。固体地球微动态行为对地下流体的运动有重要影响。     

Comments on: Carbonatites in a subduction system: The Pleistocene alvikites from Mt. Vulture (southern Italy) by d'Orazio et al., (2007)

[D'Orazio, M., Innocenti, F., Tonarini, S., Doglioni, C., 2007. Carbonatites in a subduction system: the Pleistocene alvikites from Mt. Vulture (southern Italy). Lithos 98, 313–334] describe a new finding of alvikite Ca-carbonatite at Vulture. They stress its importance as being the first carbonatite to be discovered in a subduction environment. They suggest that this rock is different from the other Italian carbonatites, considered as ‘rocks sharing a carbonatitic affinity’, which are radiogenic and chemically diluted by addition of sedimentary limestone. They note that Vulture ‘alvikite’ is not diluted and is very unradiogenic with respect to other Italian carbonatites. However, they maintain that Vulture ‘alvikite’ carbonate is derived from subducted limestones. We present an account of the field relationships relating to the above-mentioned rocks, setting the geological and petrographic records straight and describing pyroclastic rocks. We did not find that these rocks are formed from alvikite dykes or lava, but instead recognised them to be a continuous blanket of ‘flaggy’, welded tuff. We found that the rocks consist of physically separated melilitite and carbonatite juvenile lapilli settled into a carbonatite ash matrix form the rock. We disagree with the geochemical interpretation of the rock by [D'Orazio, M., Innocenti, F., Tonarini, S., Doglioni, C., 2007. Carbonatites in a subduction system: the Pleistocene alvikites from Mt. Vulture (southern Italy). Lithos 98, 313–334], and are particularly concerned by their conclusion of its carbonate origin. We remark on the rock's geodynamic assignment in the frame of an extensional tectonic setting, also referring to the other Italian carbonatite occurrences. We reject any ad hoc modified subduction as a direct source of Vulture and Italian carbonatites.     

Salt tectonics at the margins of young oceans

The paper is devoted to salt tectonics in marginal oceanic salt-dome basins and is based on a wide synthesis of the literature and the author’s data. For the first time, the general pattern of global distribution of these basins has been illustrated by a map. Their localization and structure, tectonic position and evolution, and peculiar morphokinematic features of salt tectonics are characterized and compared with the attributes of salt tectonics inherent to continental regions. The geodynamic settings of the initial formation of marginal oceanic basins and their present-day arrangement have been refined, as well as the onset of salt tectonics therein, manifested in various styles. It has been shown that the geodynamic type of basin and stages of its geodynamic evolution determine the morphokinematic type of salt tectonics, character of its manifestation, and dislocations in host sedimentary complexes, and, therefore, they are auxiliary indicators of geodynamic regimes. The mechanisms of salt tectonics, its effect on the structure of overlying sedimentary sequences, and localization of hydrocarbon fields are discussed.     

Seismotectonics of the Papua New Guinea—Solomon Islands region

Earthquakes for the period 1964–1973 are relocated by the method of Joint Hypocenter Determination in order better to resolve the configuration and the structure of the New Guinea—New Britain—Solomon Islands region. Focal mechanism solutions are integrated with the seismicity and interpreted closely with it. A zone of subduction exists beneath New Britain and the Solomon Islands, a zone of left-lateral strike-slip movement extends from New Ireland to New Guinea. The zone of seismicity in northern New Guinea has developed as a result of a continent—island-arc collision in late Oligocene—Miocene times and does not exhibit a well-developed inclined seismic zone. It is proposed that plate tectonics theory does not apply rigorously, but slip-line field theory allows the presentation of a new geodynamic model for this region.     

Structural architecture of the northern composite terrane, the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt, India: Implications for Gondwana tectonics

New data from structural mapping and tectonic evaluation in the northern parts of the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt (EGMB-north) involving the interpretation of satellite images, field traverses, critical outcrop mapping and kinematic studies of macro- as well as microstructures of the shear zone rocks together with the geometry and disposition of Gondwana basins led to, for the first time, the elucidation of post-Grenvillian structural architecture of the terrane. This helps in assessing the sequence of successive tectonothermal events that were responsible for the origin and progressive evolution of the Permo-Carboniferous coal bearing sediments along the Mahanadi rift that forms significant in the reconstruction models of east Gondwana.The composite terrane of high-grade metamorphic rocks (EGMB-north), strikes E–W in contrast to the regional NE–SW trend of the EGMB. The structural architecture obtained from this study is controlled by the boundary shear zones and associated link shear zones. The dextral kinematic displacements along the Northern Boundary Shear Zone (NBSZ) as well as the Mahanadi Shear Zone (MSZ) and Koraput–Sonapur–Rairakhol Shear Zone (KSRSZ) were derived from multi-scale field based structural observations. A N–S structural cross-section presents a crustal-scale ‘flower structure’ across the composite terrane exposing different domains displaying distinctive internal structures with widely varying different geological evolution history and strain partitioning, separated by crustal-scale shear zones. Deep seismic imaging and gravity signatures support ‘flower structure’ model. The pervasive first formed gneissic fabrics were continuously reworked and partitioned into a series of E–W, crustal-scale shear zones.The Neoproterozoic regional dextral transpressional tectonics along the shear zones and their repeated reactivation could be responsible for initiation and successive evolution of Gondwana basins and different episodes of sedimentation. Available geochronological data shows that the structural architecture presented here is post-Grenvillian, which has been repeatedly reactivated through long-lived transpressional tectonics. The composite terrane is characterized by all the typical features of an oblique convergent orogen with transpressional kinematics in the middle to lower crust. The kinematic changes from transpression to transtensional stresses were found to be associated with global geodynamics related to the transformation from Rodinia to Gondwana configuration.     

The Break-up of a Long-term Relationship: the Cretaceous Separation of New Zealand from Gondwana

After a prolonged period of convergent margin tectonics in the Late Paleozoic and Mesozoic, resulting in terrane accretion, uplift and erosion of the New Zealand segment of Gondwana, the region saw a rapid change to extensional tectonics in mid-Cretaceous times. The change in regime is commonly marked by a major angular unconformity that separates the older, often strongly-deformed subduction-related ‘basement’ rocks from the younger, less-deformed ‘cover’ strata. The youngest ‘basement’ strata locally contain Albian fossils, and the youngest associated zircons have been radiometrically dated at ca. 100 Ma. In general the oldest strata overlying the unconformity contain fossils of similar Albian age, and the oldest radiometric dates also give similar dates of ca. 100 Ma, indicating a very rapid transition between the two tectonic regimes.The onset of extension resulted in the widespread development of grabens and half grabens, associated in the northwest of the South Island with a metamorphic core complex. In the west and south, on the thicker and more buoyant crust of most of the South Island, the new basins were infilled with mainly non-marine deposits. Non-marine graben infill consists of locally-derived breccia deposited as talus or debris flows on alluvial fans, passing directly as fan deltas or via fluvial deposits into lacustrine deposits. Active faulting continued in some areas until the initiation of sea floor spreading in Santonian times. Post-subduction strata on the thinner continental crust of the northeastern South Island and eastern North Island (East Coast Basin) were mainly marine. Initial sedimentary deposits in the west of the basin, reflecting extensional tectonism, consist of coarse-grained debris-flow deposits or olistostromes, generally fining upwards as tectonic activity waned: those in the east, including allochthonous sediments derived from the northeast, are dominated by turbidites. Early Cenomanian (ca. 96–98 Ma) injection of intraplate alkaline igneous rocks in central New Zealand caused updoming, resulting in shallowing and local uplift of the basin floor above sea level. A long (ca. 10 Ma) period of slow subsidence and transgressive marine sedimentation interrupted by episodic relative sea level changes followed.This pattern changed in the Late Coniacian (ca. 87–86 Ma), with a sudden influx of coarse, transgressive sands in eastern New Zealand. This was immediately preceded in parts of the region by uplift and erosion, probably driven by convective upwelling of the mantle just prior to sea-floor spreading, resulting in a ‘break-up’ unconformity. In the Late Santonian (ca. 85–84 Ma), development of a new, diachronous, widespread low-relief erosion surface, overlain by fine-grained deposits accompanying a rapid rise in relative sea level, coincided with the beginning of sea-floor spreading, rapid passive margin subsidence, and final separation of New Zealand from Gondwana.     

构造古地理重建与动力地形

摘要：构造古地理是研究地质历史时期的构造过程和自然地理演化的科学。大数据时代的计算能力和效率的迅速提高及地球动力学模拟技术的发展,要求古地理研究应建立在全球板块构造背景下,重建“深时”、原位、原型的活动古地理。本文在综合分析国际、国内关于GPlates和CitcomS的地球动力学模拟软件平台的研究成果基础上,系统阐述了板块构造古地理重建思路、内容和方法,残余地形(动力地形)的分离技术、动力地形与板块俯冲、深部地幔流动的动力成因关系;介绍了利用地表动力地形等古地理资料进行约束,揭示板块运动过程、地幔动力学过程研究思路、方法;提出了古地理重建和地球动力学研究中应遵循的“定时、定位、定向和定型”的原则。将全球板块构造古地理模型(GPlates)与基于物理特性的地幔和岩石圈有限元模型(CitcomS)相结合,将动力地形与地幔活动过程研究相结合,对揭示4-D地球动力学具有重要理论意义。     

Whither stratigraphy?

There have been three revolutions in sedimentary geology. The first two began in the 1960s, consisting of the development of process-response sedimentary models and the application of plate-tectonic concepts to large-scale aspects of basin analysis. The third revolution, that of sequence stratigraphy, began in the late 1970s and helped to draw together the main results of the first two: the knowledge of autogenic processes learned through facies analysis, and the understanding of tectonism implicit in the unravelling of regional plate kinematics. Developments in the use of seismic-reflection data and the evaluation of a hypothesis of global eustasy provided considerable stimulation for stratigraphic research.Current developments in the field of sequence stratigraphy are focusing on three areas. (1) Elaboration of the sequence-architecture models for various configurations of depositional environment and sea-level history. (2) Exploration of various mechanisms for sequence generation, especially tectonism and orbital forcing. (3) Attempts to improve the level of precision in stratigraphic correlation and to refine the geological time scale, as a means to test the model of global eustasy.The growth in the power of computers and our knowledge of physical and chemical processes has led to the evolution of an entirely new way of evaluating earth history, termed quantitative dynamic stratigraphy. Mathematical modelling and numerical simulation of complex earth processes are now possible, and require the collection and integration of a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data sets. Applications include the study of the geodynamic evolution of sedimentary basins, modelling of stratigraphic sequences and global climates, studies of Milankovitch cycles (cyclostratigraphy) and simulation of fluid flow through porous media. The Global Sedimentary Geology Program has brought many of these areas of study together in multidisciplinary, global-scale studies of the sedimentary history of the earth. The results of these studies have wide application to many problems of importance to the human condition, including the past history of global climate change and other environmental concerns. The study of stratigraphy is at the centre of the new view of the earth, termed earth-systems science, which views earth as an ‘organic’ interaction between the lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.     

中国含油气盆地构造分析主要进展与展望

本文简要总结了中国含油气盆地构造分析的主要进展。中国区域大地构造理论特别是板块构造理论，对于指导盆地构造研究起了重要作用。通过各种地球物理探测方法，揭示了中国含油气盆地的上地幔结构，地壳结构、基底结构与盖层构造的关系。中国含油气盆地在地质历史中的演化过程十分复杂，伸展盆地、前陆盆地、走滑盆地、克拉通盆地和叠合具有各自独特的地球动力学系统。构造样式分析是盆地构造分析的重要方面，直接与寻找油气圈闭有关，可以划分出伸展构造、挤压构造、走滑构造、反转构造和潜山－披覆构造等。断裂和不含油气盆地中的重要构造要素，控制着油气运聚成藏、叠合盆地多期成盆、多期改造造成的复杂构成图像，是中国含油气盆地的重要特色之一。展望21世纪 中国油气盆地构造分析，需要重点关注的是：叠合盆地形成演化和地球动力学过程分析；盆－山耦合过程的深部－浅部耦全过程分析；盆地三维构造精细描述和盆地模拟技术，盐构造和天然气构造分析。     

Mesozoic-Cainozoic volcanism of Australia

Mesozoic—Cainozoic volcanism was concentrated on the youngest eastern Australian craton. Basaltic activity (with some felsic fractionation) has predominated over Mesozoic interludes of calcalkaline volcanism (rhyolites, dacites, trachytes andesites) and more isolated shoshonitic activity (now represented by appinitic, syenitic, granitic and lamprophyric complexes).Epeirogenic movements and associated sea-floor spreading and orogenic episodes at the continental margins, initiated and controlled much of the volcanism. Basin edges, faults, lineaments and their intersections were important in locating sites of volcanism; some fundamental structural lines have focussed volcanism over 300–600 km.The eastern Mesozoic basaltic volcanism shows a late Jurassic N-S trend from undersaturated to saturated compositions, with increasing intensity of melting towards a major Tasmanian-Antarctic thermo-tectonic event. A late Jurassic-late Cretaceous E-W trend may extend from possible ‘kimberlites’ through shoshonitic to calcalkaline activity with increasing proximity to orogenic movements along the New Zealand ‘Geosyncline’.Cainozoic basaltic volcanism reflects the NNE drift of Australia under Atlantic-Indian-Southern Ocean sea-floor spreading, with a debatable role for subduction along the Tasman Sea margin. The ultimate mechanisms of volcanism are not clearly understood. Drift of cratonic structural weaknesses over thermal anomalies in the mantle, with generation of magmas from a geochemically zoned Lower Velocity Zone under influence of uplifts, lithospheric thickness and periodic release of thermal energy, seems to partly explain observed patterns of E. Australian volcanism.     

Tight Reassembly of Gondwana Exposes Phanerozoic Shears in Africa as Global Tectonic Players

Aeromagnetic surveys help reveal the geometry of Precambrian terranes through extending the mapping of structures and lithologies from well-exposed areas into areas of younger cover. Continent-wide aeromagnetic compilations therefore help extend geological mapping beyond the scale of a single country and, in turn, help link regional geology with processes of global tectonics. In Africa, India and related smaller fragments of Gondwana, the margins of Precambrian crustal blocks that have escaped (or successfully resisted) fracture or extension in Phanerozoic time can often be identified from their aeromagnetic expression. We differentiate between these rigid pieces of Precambrian crust and the intervening lithosphere that has been subjected to deformation (usually a combination of extension and strike-slip) in one or more of three rifting episodes affecting Africa during the Phanerozoic: Karoo, Early Cretaceous and (post-) Miocene. Modest relative movements between adjacent fragments in the African mosaic, commensurate with the observed rifting and transcurrent faulting, lead to small adjustments in the position of sub-Saharan Africa with respect to North Africa and Arabia. The tight reassembly of Precambrian sub-Saharan Africa with Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka and Antarctica (see animation in http://kartoweb.itc.nl/gondwana) can then be extended north between NW India and Somalia once the Early Cretaceous movements in North Africa have been undone. The Seychelles and smaller continental fragments that stayed with India may be accommodated north of Madagascar. The reassembly includes an attempt to undo strike-slip on the Southern Trans-Africa Shear System. This cryptic tectonic transcontinental corridor, which first formed as a Pan-African shear belt 700–500 Ma, also displays demonstrable dextral and sinistral movement between 300 and 200 Ma, not only evident in the alignment of the unsuccessful Karoo rifts now mapped from Tanzania to Namibia but also having an effect on many of the eventually successful rifts between Africa-Arabia and East Gondwana. We postulate its continuation into the Tethys Ocean as a major transform or megashear, allowing minor independence of movements between West Gondwana (partnered across the Tethys Ocean with Europe) and East Gondwana (partnered with Asia), Europe and Asia being independent before the 250 Ma consolidation of the Urals suture. The relative importance of primary driving forces, such as subduction ‘pull’, and ‘jostling’ forces experienced between adjacent rigid fragments could be related to plate size, the larger plates being relatively closely-coupled to the convecting mantle in the global scheme while the smaller ones may experience a preponderance of ‘jostling’ forces from their rigid neighbours.     

Evidence from physical geodesy for geodynamics in the Caribbean area

Geodynamic studies in the Caribbean consider a great deal of geophysical and geological information. Geodetic data have only been applied but little. Physical geodesy provides different parameters of the gravity field, such as geoid heights, deflections of the vertical, and gravity anomalies. As the gravity field is a function of the mass distribution within the earth, these parameters give information about mass inhomogeneities, in particular also about those correlated with geodynamics.

This paper presents some results concerning geodynamic features in the Caribbean obtained from the inversion of the gravity field into a theoretical mass distribution of the earth. The effect of irregular mass distributions in the lithosphere is separated from the global gravity field and interpreted with respect to plate tectonics. A clear correlation between the geometry of the Caribbean plate and the lithospheric part of the gravity field can be found.     

Gravitational potential as a source of earthquake energy

Some degree of tectonic stress within the earth originates from gravity acting upon density structures. The work performed by this “gravitational tectonics stress” must have formerly existed as gravitational potential energy contained in the stress-causing density structure.According to the elastic rebound theory (Reid, 1910), the energy of earthquakes comes from an elastic strain field built up by fairly continuous elastic deformation in the period between events. For earthquakes resulting from gravitational tectonic stress, the elastic rebound theory requires the transfer of energy from the gravitational potential of the density structures into an elastic strain field prior to the event.An alternate theory involves partial gravitational collapse of the stress-causing density structures. The earthquake energy comes directly from a net decrease in gravitational potential energy. The gravitational potential energy released at the time of the earthquake is split between the energy released by the earthquake, including work done in the fault zone and an increase in stored elastic strain energy. The stress associated with this elastic strain field should oppose further fault slip.