热年代学年龄温度法和年龄高程法的应用条件：对采样策略及年龄表达的启示

热年代学的年龄温度法和年龄高程法是研究造山带长期构造演化过程的常用方法。相对于年龄温度法而言,年龄高程法在计算岩石剥露速率上的优势在于回避了地温梯度的假设,但前提条件中最重要的方面则要求地温梯度达到稳定状态。然而,地温场通常会受到地形变化、地表剥露速率、断层活动及岩浆侵入等作用的干扰,导致地温梯度处于非稳定状态。此时,...     

利用低温热年代学数据计算造山带剥露速率

利用低温热年代学数据计算造山带剥露速率时需要考虑热流、地形、放射性物质的生热等因素,因此近20年来发展起诸多计算方法,包括矿物对法、年龄高程法、Turcotte法、Stüwe法、Mancktelow法、谱分析法、有限元三维模拟等。其中,当地温场处于稳态时,对于钻井或垂直剖面连续采样可采用年龄高程法,对于二维有周期性地形可采用Turcotte法、Stüwe法、Mancktelow法,对于二维非周期性地形可采用谱分析法,有限元三维模拟适合于求取区域剥露速率。     

Thermochronological evidence for a late Pliocene climate-induced erosion rate increase in the Alps

(U–Th)/He and fission-track analyses of apatite along deep-seated tunnels crossing high-relief mountain ranges offer the opportunity to investigate climate-tectonic forcing on topographic evolution. In this study, the thermochronologic analysis along the Simplon tunnel (western-central Alps; Italy and Switzerland) constrains in detail the mechanisms controlling the topographic evolution of the Simplon Massif. Cooling rates vary from about 10°C/Ma at about 10 Ma to about 35°C/Ma in the last 3 Ma. Such increase in cooling rates corresponds to the inception of glacial cycles in the northern hemisphere. Age patterns show correlation with faults distribution until 2 Ma, suggesting that tectonics-controlled rocks exhumed up to that age. After 2 Ma thermo-chronometric data show that the Simplon area has experienced primarily erosional exhumation. All age patterns provided are not affected by topographic effects, thus indicating that present-day topography has been carved in the last 2 Ma, most likely controlled by glacial erosion.     

Cold subduction zone in northern Calabria (Italy) revealed by lawsonite–clinopyroxene blueschists

Lawsonite blueschists are important markers of cold subduction zones, subjected to intense fluid circulation. This is because lawsonite preservation in exhumed blueschists and eclogites is typically linked to cold exhumation paths, accompanied by hydration. In the Catena Costiera (Calabria, southern Italy), lawsonite–clinopyroxene blueschists of the Diamante–Terranova Unit, affected by ductile shearing and retrogression, are exposed. Blueschists contain zoned clinopyroxene crystals, showing core–rim compositional variation from diopside to omphacite and hosting primary inclusions of lawsonite and titanite. Thermodynamic modelling of phase equilibria in the NCKFMASHTO system revealed peak metamorphic conditions of 2.0–2.1 GPa and 475–490°C for the Alpine subduction in Calabria. The subsequent post-peak metamorphic evolution mainly proceeded along a decompression and cooling path up to ~1.1 GPa and ~380°C. The final exhumation stages are recorded in the sheared blueschists where a mylonitic to ultramylonitic foliation developed at ~0.7 GPa and 290–315°C. Therefore, the P–T evolution of the Diamante–Terranova blueschists mostly occurred in the stability field of lawsonite, sustained by H₂O-saturated conditions during the exhumation path. The results of this study indicate that the blueschists underwent peak metamorphic conditions higher than previously thought, reaching a maximum depth of ~70 km under a very cold geothermal gradient (~6.6°C/km), during the Eocene subduction of the Ligurian Tethys oceanic crust in Calabria.     

Late Mesozoic‐Cenozoic exhumation history of the Lesser Hinggan Mountains,NE China,revealed by fission track thermochronology

This study uses zircon and apatite fission‐track (FT) analyses to reveal the exhumation history of the granitoid samples collected from the Lesser Hinggan Mountains, northeast China. A southeast to northwest transect across the Lesser Hinggan Mountains yielded zircon FT ages between 89.8 ± 5.7 and 100.4 ± 8.6 Ma, and apatite FT ages between 50.6 ± 13.8 and 74.3 ± 4.5 Ma with mean track lengths between 11.7 ± 2.0 and 12.8 ± 1.7 µm. FT results and modelling identify three stages in sample cooling history spanning the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Stage one records rapid cooling from the closure temperature of zircon FT to the high temperature part of the apatite FT partial annealing zone (∼210–110 °C) during ca. 95 to 65 Ma. Stage two records a period of relative slow cooling (∼110–60 °C) taking place between ca. 65 and 20 Ma, suggesting that the granitoids had been exhumed to the depth of ∼1−2 km. Final stage cooling (60–20 °C) occurred since the Miocene at an accelerated rate bringing the sampled rocks to the Earth's surface. The maximum exhumation is more than 5 km under a steady‐state geothermal gradient of 35 °C/km. Integrated with the tectonic setting, this exhumation is possibly led by the Pacific Plate subduction combined with intracontinental orogeny associated with asthenospheric upwelling. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neoproterozoic tectonothermal evolution of the Central Eastern Desert, Egypt: a slow velocity tectonic process of core complex exhumation

Regional cooling in the course of Neoproterozoic core complex exhumation in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt is constraint by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of hornblende and muscovite from Meatiq, Sibai and Hafafit domes. The data reveal highly diachronous cooling with hornblende ages clustering around 580 Ma in the Meatiq and the Hafafit, and 623 and 606 Ma in the Sibai. These ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages are interpreted together with previously published structural and petrological data, radiometric ages obtained from Neoproterozoic plutons, and data on sediment dynamics from the intramontane Kareim molasse basin. Early-stage low velocity exhumation was triggered by magmatism initiated at 650 Ma in the Sibai and caused early deposition of molasses sediments within rim synforms. Rapid late stage exhumation was released by combined effect of strike-slip and normal faulting, exhumed Meatiq and Hafafit domes and continued until 580 Ma. We propose a new model that adopts core complex exhumation in oblique island arc collision-zones and includes transpression combined with lateral extrusion dynamics. In this model, continuous magma generation weakened the crust leading to facilitation of lateral extrusion tectonics. Since horizontal shortening is balanced by extension, no major crustal thickening and no increase of potential energy (gravitational collapse) is necessarily involved in the process of core complex formation. Core complexes were continuously but slowly exhumed without creating a significant mountain topography.     

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.     

From source terrains of the Eastern Alps to the Molasse Basin: Detrital record of non-steady-state exhumation

Fission-track cooling ages of detrital apatite (AFT) in the East Alpine Molasse Basin display age groups corresponding to geodynamic events in the orogen since Jurassic times. These age groups are typical of certain thermotectonic units, which formed a patchwork in the Swiss and Eastern Alps. By a combination of petrographic and thermochronologic data, progressive erosion of source terrains is monitored in different catchments since the Oligocene. The AFT cooling ages show a decrease in lag time until when rapidly cooled debris derived from tectonically exhumed core complexes became exposed. After termination of tectonic exhumation, lag times of debris derived from the core complexes increased. Neither on the scale of the entire Eastern Alps, or on the scale of individual catchments, steady-state exhumation is observed, due to the highly dynamic changes of exhumation rates since Late Eocene collision.     

Exhumation of UHP Terranes: A Case Study from the Dabie Mountains,Eastern China

Two processes are suggested to explain how UHP rocks are exhumed from mantle depths. One is removal of the overburden either by erosion or by extension, whereas the other involves the uplifting of the UHP rocks through the overburden. Application of either of these mechanisms to the Dabie Mountains, however, is fraught with difficulty. When combined with previously published data, new studies on metamorphic P-T paths, regional structures, and deep upper-mantle architecture revealed by seismic tomography lend support to a multi-stage exhumation process that operated in the Dabie Mountains.

The first stage (230 to 200 Ma) is characterized by ductile deformation, produced during eclogite-facies recrystallization under a geothermal gradient as low as 10°C/km, implying a synsubduction exhumation. Some of the UHP rocks evidently were exhumed to a depth of ~60 km, as indicated by petrological study of the Shuanghe eclogite. The second stage (200 to 170 Ma) attended ductile deformation and amphibolite-facies retrograde metamorphism. Subduction of the Yangtze block was halted by slab breakoff at a depth of ～200 km. The resultant geothermal gradient recovered to ～20″C/km. Slab breakoff permitted buoyancy-driven ascent of the UHP low-density melange to shallow crustal levels in a diapir structure. When the UHP portion of the mountain root rose, the shallow portion was heated to a temperature higher than that of the peak metamorphic pressure. The third stage (170 to 120 Ma) is characterized by extension and thermal uplift, as well as erosion. Sedimentary basins and volcanic rocks developed on both sides of the Dabie Mountains. Gab-bro-pyroxenite intruded the hanging wall of the UHP terrane, and granite, as well as migmatite, developed in that stage.

Exhumation mechanisms might include corner flow for the first stage, buoyancy-driven squeezing-up for the second stage, and crustal extension, as well as erosion, for the third. Rupture and loss of the subducted lithospheric plate generated the gravity instability that resulted in exhumation of the subducted UHP section.     

Long-term cooling history of the Albertine Rift: new evidence from the western rift shoulder,D.R. Congo

To determine the long-term landscape evolution of the Albertine Rift in East Africa, low-temperature thermochronology was applied and the cooling history constrained using thermal history modelling. Acquired results reveal (1) “old” cooling ages, with predominantly Devonian to Carboniferous apatite fission-track ages, Ordovician to Silurian zircon (U–Th)/He ages and Jurassic to Cretaceous apatite (U–Th–Sm)/He ages; (2) protracted cooling histories of the western rift shoulder with major phases of exhumation in mid-Palaeozoic and Palaeogene to Neogene times; (3) low Palaeozoic and Neogene erosion rates. This indicates a long residence time of the analysed samples in the uppermost crust, with the current landscape surface at a near-surface position for hundreds of million years. Apatite He cooling ages and thermal history models indicate moderate reheating in Jurassic to Cretaceous times. Together with the cooling age distribution, a possible Albertine high with a distinct relief can be inferred that might have been a source area for the Congo Basin.     

Zircon fission‐track ages from Newfoundland—A proxy for high geothermal gradients and exhumation before opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean

Following Appalachian orogenesis, metamorphic rocks in central Newfoundland were exhumed and reburied under Tournaisian strata. New zircon fission‐track (ZFT) ages of metamorphic rocks below the Tournaisian unconformity yield post‐depositionally reset ages of 212–235 Ma indicating regional fluid‐absent reheating to at least ≥220°C. Post‐Tournaisian sedimentary thicknesses in surrounding basins show that burial alone cannot explain such temperatures, thus requiring that palaeo‐geothermal gradients increased to ≥30–40°C/km before final late Triassic accelerated cooling. We attribute these elevated palaeo‐geothermal gradients to localized thermal blanketing by insulating sediments overlying radiogenic high‐heat‐producing granitoids. Late Triassic rifting and magmatism before break up of Pangaea likely also contributed to elevated heat flow, as well as uplift, triggering late Triassic accelerated cooling and exhumation. Thermochronological ages of 240–200 Ma are seen throughout Atlantic Canada, and record rifting and basaltic magmatism on the conjugate margins of the Central Atlantic Ocean preceding the onset of oceanic spreading at ~190 Ma.     

Estimating exhumation rate and relief evolution by spectral analysis of age–elevation datasets

Extracting independent information on mean exhumation rate and the rate of surface relief change from thermochronometric datasets is essential to improve our understanding of the complex coupling between tectonics and surface erosion, i.e. the time-scale over which landforms react to changes in uplift rate and/or climate. A new method, based on spectral analysis of age–elevation data collected along one-dimensional profiles, is presented that provides independent estimates of the mean exhumation rate and the relative change in surface relief. The results are shown to be independent of the assumed geothermal gradient. The method is applied to an existing age dataset from the Sierra Nevada, California, and provides constraints on the evolution of the present-day relief. The spectral analysis demonstrates how current sampling strategies should be modified to optimize the tectonic and geomorphic information that can be retrieved from a thermochronometric dataset.     

Along-strike topographic variation of the Longmen Shan and its significance for landscape evolution along the eastern Tibetan Plateau

Regional topographic and geomorphic analyses reveal first-order topographic variations from high-elevation and low-relief interior plateau to the relatively low elevation, high-relief marginal plateau in eastern Tibet. Field investigation and slip distribution modeling after 2008 Ms. 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake indicate significant along-strike variability during the rupture that appears to correspond to different segments of a single fault system. This observation motivates a more careful examination of topographic features along the Longmen Shan to explore the connection between the seismic cycle and mountain building. Analyses of topographic relief, hillslope gradient, and channel gradient indices reveal significant differences in the character of topography along the Longmen Shan mountain front. The central portion of the range exhibits the highest slope, relief and steepness of river longitudinal profiles. Whereas the southern Longmen Shan exhibits only subtle differences associated with slightly lower hillslope and channel gradients, the northern Longmen Shan is characterized by topography of significantly lower relief, lessened hillslope gradients, and low-gradient channels. We consider two explanations for these topographic differences; first, that the differences in topographic development along the Longmen Shan reflect different stages of an evolutionary history. Alternatively, these may reflect differences in the rate of differential rock uplift relative to the stable Sichuan Basin.     

High T/P evolution and metamorphic ages of the migmatitic basement of northern Sierras Pampeanas,Argentina: Characterization of a mid-crustal segment of the Famatinian belt

New petrologic, thermobarometric and U-Pb monazite geochronologic information allowed to resolve the metamorphic evolution of a high temperature mid-crustal segment of an ancient subduction-related orogen. The El Portezuelo Metamorphic-Igneous Complex, in the northern Sierras Pampeanas, is mainly composed of migmatites that evolved from amphibolite to granulite metamorphic facies, reaching thermal peak conditions of 670–820 °C and 4.5–5.3 kbar. The petrographic study combined with conventional and pseudosection thermobarometry led to deducing a short prograde metamorphic evolution within migmatite blocks. The garnet-absent migmatites represent amphibolite-facies rocks, whereas the cordierite-garnet-K-feldspar-sillimanite migmatites represent higher metamorphic grade rocks. U-Pb geochronology on monazite grains within leucosome record the time of migmatization between ≈477 and 470 Ma. Thus, the El Portezuelo Metamorphic-Igneous Complex is an example of exhumed Early Ordovician anatectic middle crust of the Famatinian mobile belt. Homogeneous exposure of similar paleo-depths throughout the Famatinian back-arc and isobaric cooling paths suggest slow exhumation and consequent longstanding crustal residence at high temperatures. High thermal gradients uniformly distributed in the Famatinian back-arc can be explained by shallow convection of a low-viscosity asthenosphere promoted by subducting-slab dehydration.     

Middle Miocene high-pressure metamorphism and fast exhumation of the Nevado-Filábride Complex, SE Spain

This study provides new constraints on fast cooling and exhumation rates of high-pressure metamorphic rocks in young active mountain belts. Ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb analysis of zircon in a pyroxenite layer of the Cerro del Almirez ultramafic rocks (Nevado-Filábride Complex, southern Spain) gave an age of 15.0 ± 0.6 Myr (95% c.l.). Mineral inclusions demonstrate that zircon formed close to the high-pressure peak. Combined with previous fission track data, the 15 Myr age suggests high cooling (˜ 80 °C Myr⁻¹) and exhumation (˜1.2 cm yr⁻¹) rates for the unit. The new results indicate that both the Nevado-Filábride Complex and the overlying Alpujárride Complex, with somewhat higher ages and exhumation rates, underwent similar metamorphic evolutions at different times. This implies that the Alpujárride rocks were exhumed when the Nevado-Filábride was subducting and that the same tectonic scenario propagated from one portion of the Betic Cordilleras to another.     

山区太阳辐射对水热过程影响的敏感性分析

山区短波辐射的空间异质性非常强, 地形的遮蔽影响在山区能水循环模拟研究中不容忽视. 改进了SHAW模型和SHAWDHM模型的辐射模块, 使之能考虑地形的遮蔽作用对山区辐射平衡及其空间分布的影响, 并在单点和流域尺度进行数值模拟实验, 对比分析山区辐射过程对流域能水循环和径流的影响. 结果表明, 因地形的遮蔽作用, 地表接收的太阳直射辐射可减少25%左右, 模型模拟的土壤温度和蒸散发量分别降低约0.5 ℃和20%. 考虑山区辐射过程后, 模型模拟的春季融雪和夏季蒸散发均有所减缓, 导致春季融雪径流降低和夏季径流增加. 与观测径流对比发现, 考虑山区辐射过程后, 模型对径流量的模拟精度有所提高, 逐时径流量的纳什效率系数由0.677提高到0.711, 径流量的观测值与模拟值间的相关系数由0.835提高到0.851.     

龙门山冲断隆升及其走向差异的裂变径迹证据

大量的低温年代学研究用来讨论龙门山晚新生代的隆升,但很少涉及其走向差异和中生代隆升。本文分别沿龙门山北、中、南段3条剖面进行了锆石和磷灰石裂变径迹测试,结合已有的热年代学数据,以期揭示整个中-新生代期间龙门山隆升历史及其时空变化。中生代以来,龙门山主要有印支期(约200 Ma)、早白垩世末(约100 Ma)、早新生代(65～30 Ma)以及晚中新世(15～9 Ma)等或快或慢的冷却事件,总体上经历了中生代至早新生代的缓慢冷却和晚新生代快速冷却2个阶段,快速剥露开始于15～9 Ma,剥蚀速率由早期的0.1 mm/a增加到0.15～0.3 mm/a左右,局部可达0.9 mm/a左右。走向上,龙门山北段相对偏小的锆石裂变径迹年龄和相对偏大的磷灰石裂变径迹年龄反映其在中生代较中、南段隆升更快,而裂变径迹年龄总体上从北段向中、南段减小,表明中、南段在新生代发生了更快的隆升。倾向上,多种热年代学数据显示新生代期间在北川断裂和彭灌断裂两侧存在明显的差异剥露,这种差异在中、南段表现比北段更为突出。龙门山晚新生代快速隆升和剥露是青藏高原区域隆升背景上叠加的冲断活动所致,而非下地壳流动驱动。     

Cretaceous and Cenozoic cooling history of the eastern Qilian Shan,north‐eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau: evidence from apatite fission‐track analysis

The exhumation history and tectonic evolution of the Qilian Shan at the north‐eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau has been widely debated. Here, we present apatite fission‐track (AFT) data for 12 Ordovician granodiorite samples along a vertical transect in the eastern Qilian Shan. These thermochronometry data indicate that the eastern Qilian Shan experienced a three‐stage cooling history, including: (i) rapid initial cooling in the late Cretaceous; (ii) a stage of quasi isothermal quiescence from ~ 80 to 24 Ma; and (iii) rapid subsequent cooling beginning in the early Miocene. The inferred cooling rates for the three stages are 6.8 ± 4.9 °C Ma^?1, 0.6 ± 0.2 °C Ma^?1 and 2.7 ± 0.9 °C Ma^?1 respectively (±1 σ). Assuming a geothermal gradient of 25 °C km^?1, the exhumation rates for the three stages are 0.27 ± 0.20 mm a^?1, 0.017 ± 0.007 mm a^?1 and 0.11 ± 0.04 mm a^?1 respectively (±1 σ). We suggest that the late Cretaceous cooling records collision of the Lhasa block with the Eurasian continent and that the Miocene cooling represents uplift/exhumation of the Qilian Shan.     

大别山碰撞造山带的地球动力学

大别山碰撞造山带的形成和其中超高压变质岩的形成折返具有统一的动力学过程。对大别山超高压变质岩形成 -折返的研究表明 ,大别山的超高压变质作用是冷大陆地壳被前导洋壳下拽而持续俯冲的结果。超高压变质岩的折返是多阶段的。第一阶段 (2 30～ 2 10Ma)在低地温梯度 (约10℃ /km)下发生同俯冲折返 ;第二阶段 (2 10～ 170Ma)的折返由深俯冲板片的断离引发 ,浮力开始起作用 ;第三阶段 (170～ 12 0Ma) ,以区域性岩浆活动、穹隆伸展构造活动和深剥蚀沉积为特征。从分析超高压变质岩的形成折返过程入手 ,以侏罗纪末作为时间参照点 ,以合肥盆地的侏罗系顶界作为当时的地理参照点 ,根据不同岩石单元中岩石的形成深度和碰撞造山中的位移状态 ,可把大别山碰撞造山带划分为原位系统、准原位系统、异位系统和热穹隆改造系统等结构单位。陆陆碰撞造山带形成的物理学前提是俯冲陆壳物质的低密度 ,而最终形成造山带的直接动力学过程则是深俯冲板片的断离及其引发的一系列近垂向运动的地质过程。     

Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic Exhumation History of the Lüliang Mountains, North China Craton: Constraint from Fission-track Thermochronology

The Lüliang Mountains, located in the North China Craton, is a relatively stable block, but it has experienced uplift and denudation since the late Mesozoic. We hence aim to explore its time and rate of the exhumation by the fission-track method. The results show that, no matter what type rocks are, the pooled ages of zircon and apatite fission-track range from 60.0 to 93.7 Ma and 28.6 to 43.3 Ma, respectively; all of the apatite fission-track length distributions are unimodal and yield a mean length of ~13?μm; and the thermal history modeling results based on apatite fission-track data indicate that the time-temperature paths exhibit similar patterns and the cooling has been accelerated for each sample since the Pliocene (c.5 Ma). Therefore, we can conclude that a successive cooling, probably involving two slow (during c.75-35 Ma and 35-5 Ma) and one rapid (during c.5 Ma-0 Ma) cooling, has occurred through the exhumation of the Lüliang Mountains since the late Cretaceous. The maximum exhumation is more than 5 km under a steady-state geothermal gradient of 35°C/km. Combined with the tectonic setting, this exhumation may be the resultant effect from the surrounding plate interactions, and it has been accelerated since c.5 Ma predominantly due to the India-Eurasia collision.