Seamounts off the West Antarctic margin: A case for non-hotspot driven intraplate volcanism

New radiometric age and geochemical data of volcanic rocks from the guyot-type Marie Byrd Seamounts (MBS) and the De Gerlache Seamounts and Peter I Island (Amundsen Sea) are presented. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of the shield phase of three MBS are Early Cenozoic (65 to 56 Ma) and indicate formation well after creation of the Pacific–Antarctic Ridge. A Pliocene age (3.0 Ma) documents a younger phase of volcanism at one MBS and a Pleistocene age (1.8 Ma) for the submarine base of Peter I Island. Together with published data, the new age data imply that Cenozoic intraplate magmatism occurred at distinct time intervals in spatially confined areas of the Amundsen Sea, excluding an origin through a fixed mantle plume. Peter I Island appears strongly influenced by an EMII type mantle component that may reflect shallow mantle recycling of a continental raft during the final breakup of Gondwana. By contrast the Sr–Nd–Pb–Hf isotopic compositions of the MBS display a strong affinity to a HIMU-type mantle source. On a regional scale the isotopic signatures overlap with those from volcanics related to the West Antarctic Rift System, and Cretaceous intraplate volcanics in and off New Zealand. We propose reactivation of the HIMU material, initially accreted to the base of continental lithosphere during the pre-rifting stage of Marie Byrd Land/Zealandia to explain intraplate volcanism in the Amundsen Sea in the absence of a long-lived hotspot. We propose continental insulation flow as the most plausible mechanism to transfer the sub-continental accreted plume material into the shallow oceanic mantle. Crustal extension at the southern boundary of the Bellingshausen Plate from about 74 to 62 Ma may have triggered adiabatic rise of the HIMU material from the base of Marie Byrd Land to form the MBS. The De Gerlache Seamounts are most likely related to a preserved zone of lithospheric weakness underneath the De Gerlache Gravity Anomaly.     

Magnetostratigraphic evidence for deep-sea erosion on the Pacific Plate,south of Mariana Trench,since the middle Pleistocene: potential constraints for Antarctic bottom water circulation

Abstract

The Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) current plays a crucial role in storing and transporting heat, water, and nutrients around the world. However, it is impossible to monitor AABW in the Plio-Pleistocene by direct measurement. Hence, abyssal erosion was usually chosen as an effective indicator of the presence of the AABW in the Indian and Eastern Pacific Oceans during that period. Here, we report a high-resolution magnetostratigraphy of a gravity core, the JL7KGC-01A from the south of the Mariana Trench, northwest Pacific Ocean. The main results are as follows: (1) polarity data suggest that the sequence recorded the late Gauss chron to the early Brunhes chron, including the Jaramillo, Cobb Mountain, and Olduvai normal subchrons; (2) the sedimentary processes in the study area since 2.9 Ma show three stages of sedimentation: 83 cm/Ma during 2.9–1.2 Ma, 183 cm/Ma during 1.2–0.7 Ma, and no sedimentation since ~0.7 Ma; (3) the area south of the Mariana Trench experienced a significant change in the deposition rate at 1.2 Ma, which could be correlated with the intensified desertification in inland Asia, and experienced a prominent depositional hiatus since the early middle Pleistocene, which likely resulted from the enhanced/expanded AABW. Based on these new polarity data and comparisons with previous studies around the Pacific Ocean, we therefore propose that the AABW experienced a notable change during the early–mid Pleistocene transition.     

西南极中—新生代古地磁与板块重建研究进展

根据西南极已发表的中—新生代古地磁数据,对西南极不同地块进行了古大陆重建。识别出古太平洋板块对西南极构造演化影响广泛的两次构造事件:一是120~100 Ma古太平洋板块内翁通爪哇-马尼希基-希库朗基大火成岩省的喷发与全球板块洋壳扩张速率高峰期引起的西南极瑟斯顿岛-埃茨海岸与东玛丽·伯德地快速南向移动;二是古太平洋-凤凰板块洋中脊在~100 Ma俯冲至西南极之下导致的以罗斯海区域为主的岩石圈伸展、瑟斯顿岛-埃茨海岸与玛丽·伯德地远离东南极以及南极半岛发生南向运动与顺时针旋转。证明太平洋板块俯冲与西南极板块运动的耦合关系。未来需要在西南极获得更多具有准确年代学限制的可靠的古地磁数据,这将对西南极的构造演化模式提供更多的制约,并有助于深入理解南极大陆的构造演化过程、板块生长与裂解的地球动力学机制。      

Passive-margin prolonged volcanism,East Australian Plate: outbursts,progressions, plate controls and suggested causes

Prolonged intraplate volcanism along the 4000 km-long East Australian margin for ca 100 Ma raises many genetic questions. Studies of the age-progressive pulses embedded in general basaltic activity have spawned a host of models. Zircon U–Pb dating of inland Queensland central volcanoes gives a stronger database to consider the structure and origin of Australian age-progressive volcanic chains. This assists appraisal of this volcanism in relation to plate motion and plate margin tectonic models. Inland Queensland central volcanoes progressed south-southeast from 34 to 31 Ma (～5.4 cm/yr) until a surge in activity led to irregular southerly progression 31 to 28 Ma. A new inland southeastern Queensland central volcano line (25 to 22 Ma), from Bunya Mountains to North Main Range, followed 3 Ma behind the adjacent coastal progression. The Australian and Tasman Sea age-progressive chains are compared against recent plate motion modelling (Indian Ocean hotspots). The chain lines differ from general vector traces owing to west-facing swells and cessations in activity. Tectonic processes on the eastern plate margin may regulate these irregularities. These include subduction, rapid roll-back and progressive detachment of the Loyalty slab (43 to 15 Ma). West-flowing Pacific-type asthenosphere, related to perturbed mantle convection, may explain the west-facing volcanic surges. Such westward Pacific flow for over 28 Ma is known at the Australian–Antarctic Discordance, southeast of the present Australian plume sites under Bass Strait–West Tasman Sea. Most basaltic activity along eastern Australia marks asthenospheric melt injections into Tasman rift zone mantle and not lithospheric plate speed. The young (post-10 Ma) fields (Queensland, Victoria–South Australia) reflect new plate couplings, which altered mantle convection and stress regimes. These areas receive asthenospheric inputs from deep thermal zones off northeast Queensland and under Bass Strait.     

Geochemical evolution of southern Red Sea and Yemen flood volcanism: evidence for mantle heterogeneity

The Red Sea is part of the Afro-Arabian rift system, the world’s largest active continental rift system. The early opening phases of the Red Sea Rift were accompanied by continental flood magmatism. Large volumes of flood basalts emplaced in the Oligocene through to the present time at discrete eruptive centres along the western margin of the Arabian plate. Some of these rocks, in Southern Yemen, were investigated by geochemistry and K/Ar whole rock (WR) geochronology. In addition, the Jabal At-Tair (JAT) volcano, in the Red Sea trough, was investigated by geochemistry, with particular concern to the lavas of the last eruption of September 2007. The magmatism of Yemen is divided in: Oligocene–Early Miocene trap series (YOM), Tertiary intrusive rocks, and Late Miocene–recent volcanic series (YMR). YOM and Tertiary intrusions yielded K/Ar WR ages mostly in the range 31.6–16.6 Ma. Three older ages of 34.6, 35.4 and 49.0 Ma, if confirmed by further investigation, could suggest an Eocenic pre-trap phase of magmatic activity. YMR samples yielded K/Ar WR ages between 2.52 and 8.14 Ma. Both YOM and YMR basalts are alkaline, but YMR tend to be richer in alkalis than YOM. JAT basalts have subalkaline tholeiitic character, are geochemically homogeneous, and in the hygromagmaphile element spidergrams display increasing normalised concentrations from Cs to Ta, then decreasing up to Lu, with negative spikes of Nb, K and Pb. YOM have patterns almost identical to those of JAT, whereas YMR have higher normalized concentrations of all trace elements, but REE. The geochemical characteristics of JAT, YOM and YMR, framed in the broader context of the Red Sea Rift, are mostly consistent with a model of continental uplift and magmatism occurring across a linear, north–south axis of mantle upwelling, which intersects the Red Sea axis at the initiation site of axial seafloor spreading. The symmetrical propagation of the rift system to opposite sides of the N–S lineament, along the Red Sea axis, resulted in the observed symmetrical distribution of geochemical signatures of the Red Sea basalts and Yemen continental magmas.     

Tectonics of the Lepontine Alps: ductile thrusting and folding in the deepest tectonic levels of the Central Alps

The Lepontine dome represents a unique region in the arc of the Central and Western Alps, where complex fold structures of upper amphibolite facies grade of the deepest stage of the orogenic belt are exposed in a tectonic half-window. The NW-verging Mont Blanc, Aar und Gotthard basement folds and the Lower Penninic gneiss nappes of the Central Alps were formed by ductile detachment of the upper European crust during its Late Eocene–Early Oligocene SE-directed underthrust below the upper Penninic and Austroalpine thrusts and the Adriatic plate. Four underthrust zones are distinguished in the NW-verging stack of Alpine fold nappes and thrusts: the Canavese, Piemont, Valais and Adula zones. Up to three schistosities S1–S3, folds F1–F3 and a stretching lineation XI with top-to-NW shear indicators were developed in the F1–F3 fold nappes. Spectacular F4 transverse folds, the SW-verging Verzasca, Maggia, Ziccher, Alpe Bosa and Wandfluhhorn anticlines and synclines overprint the Alpine nappe stack. Their formation under amphibolite facies grade was related to late ductile folding of the southern nappe roots during dextral displacement of the Adriatic indenter. The transverse folding F4 was followed since 30 Ma by the pull-apart exhumation and erosion of the Lepontine dome. This occurred coevally with the formation of the dextral ductile Simplon shear zone, the S-verging backfolding F5 and the formation of the southern steep belt. Exhumation continued after 18 Ma with movement on the brittle Rhone-Simplon detachment, accompanied by the N-, NW- and W-directed Helvetic and Dauphiné thrusts. The dextral shear is dated by the 29–25 Ma crustal-derived aplite and pegmatite intrusions in the southern steep belt. The cooling by uplift and erosion of the Tertiary migmatites of the Bellinzona region occurred between 22 and 18 Ma followed by the exhumation of the Toce dome on the brittle Rhone–Simplon fault since 18 Ma.     

Evidence of a full West Antarctic Ice Sheet back to the early Oligocene: insight from double dating of detrital apatites in Ross Sea sediments.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is the most unstable component of the Antarctic cryosphere. Its fluctuations are well documented since the Pliocene, but its behaviour over the last 35 Ma is more controversial, particularly during periods of past high global pCO₂ values similar to those predicted in future global climate scenarios. Here, we present new U–Pb dating of detrital apatite grains (previously dated by the fission‐track method) from Cape Roberts Project Oligocene to Pliocene marine sediments in the Ross Sea. Two past ice‐flow patterns were identified: one formed by outlet glaciers sourcing short‐travelled apatites and one, northerly directed, bringing far‐travelled apatite grains. The latter provides the first robust physical evidence for the presence and repeated expansion of an Oligocene West Antarctic Ice Sheet.     

The Central Main Ethiopian Rift is younger than 8 Ma: confirmation through apatite fission‐track thermochronology

An isolated block of Precambrian basement rocks and Mesozoic sediments is exposed at Kella along the western margin of the Central Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), surrounded by Tertiary to Quaternary volcanic rocks. Apatite fission‐track thermochronology on two basement samples yielded ages of 7.2 ± 1.0 Ma and 6.7 ± 3.0 Ma and a long mean track length (>14.5 μm). Rapid Late Miocene cooling is attributed to denudation related to rifting. Despite the paucity of data, due to the absence of suitable lithologies in the area, our data confirm that the Central MER is younger than 8 Ma as recently proposed on the basis of field evidence and radiometric dating of volcanics. This implies that the Central MER formed after the Northern MER, indicating a diachronous development of this third arm of the Red Sea–Gulf of Aden–Ethiopian Rift system. Terra Nova, 00, 000–000, 2010     

Regional compilation and analysis of aeromagnetic anomalies for the Transantarctic Mountains–Ross Sea sector of the Antarctic

Magnetic observations over the area of the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) and the Ross Sea have been compiled into a digital database that furnishes a new regional scale view of the magnetic anomaly crustal field in this key sector of the Antarctic continent. This compilation is a component of the ongoing IAGA/SCAR Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly Project (ADMAP). The aeromagnetic surveys total 115 000 line km, and are distributed across the Victoria Land sector of the TAM, the Ross Sea, and Marie Byrd Land. The magnetic campaigns were performed within the framework of the national and international Italian–German–US Antarctic research programs and conducted with differing specifications during nine field seasons from 1971 until 1997. Generally flight line spacing was less than 5 km while survey altitude varied from about 610 to 4000 m above sea level for barometric surveys and was equal to 305 m above topography for the single draped survey. Reprocessing included digitizing the old contour data, improved levelling by means of microlevelling in the frequency domain, and re-reduction to a common reference field based on the DGRF90 model. A multi-frequency grid procedure was then applied to obtain a coherent and merged total intensity magnetic anomaly map. The shaded relief map covers an area of approximately 380 000 km². This new compilation provides a regional image of the location and spatial extent of the Cenozoic alkaline magmatism related to the TAM–Ross Sea rift, Jurassic tholeiites, and crustal segments of the Early Palaeozoic magmatic arc. A linear, approximately 100-km wide and 600-km long Jurassic rift-like structure is newly identified. Magnetic fabric in the Ross Sea rift often matches seismically imaged Cenozoic fault arrays. Major buried onshore pre-rift fault zones, likely inherited from the Ross Orogen, are also delineated. These faults may have been reactivated as strike-slip belts that segmented the TAM into various crustal blocks.     

Discussion on the dextral movement and its effect in continental China and adjacent areas since Cenozoic

Continental China has moved dextral Eastward since Cenozoic time, driven by the collision of the Indian with the Eurasian plate. Evidence for this comes from landscape evolution, the distribution of earthquake epicenters, Cenozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks, and the measurement of GPS velocity vectors, the distribution of crustal stress, paleomagnetic data, and deep mantle structure, among others. This movement commenced around 40 Ma, coupled with thickened lithosphere and widespread stress release along strike-slip faults that bound the continental Chinese block. Because of continued Northward subduction of the Indian plate, manifestation of the dextral movement has intensified since 25 Ma. Far-reaching effects include extensive strike-slip movement on the Tan-Lu fault in Eastern China, formation of the Dabie ultrahigh pressure metamorphic terrane, extensive thrust faults in East China, delamination and thickening of the lithosphere of South China, a possible tectonic doubling of the Middle-Lower Yangtze Valley metallogenic belt, and the formation of the Japan, Huanghai (East China), and South China Sea.     

An Early Cretaceous extinct spreading center in the northern Natal valley

We have identified an extinct E–W spreading center in the northern Natal valley on the basis of magnetic anomalies which was active from chron M11 (133 Ma) to 125.3 Ma, just before chron M2 (124 Ma) in the Early Cretaceous. Seafloor spreading in the northern Natal valley accounts for approximately 170 km of north–south motion between the Mozambique Ridge and Africa. This extension resolves the predicted overlap of the continental (central and southern) Mozambique Ridge and Antarctica in the chron M2 to M11 reconstructions from Mesozoic finite rotation parameters for Africa and Antarctica. In addition, the magnetic data reveal that the Mozambique Ridge was an independent microplate from at least 133 to 125 Ma. The northern Natal valley extinct spreading center connects to the spreading center separating the Mozambique Basin and the Riiser-Larsen Sea to the east. It follows that the northern Mozambique Ridge was either formed after the emplacement of the surrounding oceanic crust or it is the product of a very robust spreading center. To the west the extinct spreading center connects to the spreading center separating the southern Natal valley and Georgia Basin via a transform fault. Prior to chron M11, there is still a problem with the overlap of Mozambique Ridge if it is assumed to be fixed with respect to either the African or Antarctic plates. Some of the overlap can be accounted for by Jurassic deformation of the Mozambique Ridge, Mozambique Basin, and Dronning Maud land. It appears though that the Mozambique Ridge was an independent microplate from the breakup of Gondwana, 160 Ma, until it became part of the African plate, 125 Ma.     

Slip sense inversion on active strike-slip faults in southwest Japan and its implications for Cenozoic tectonic evolution

Analyses of deflected river channels, offset of basement rocks, and fault rock structures reveal that slip sense inversion occurred on major active strike-slip faults in southwest Japan such as the Yamasaki and Mitoke fault zones and the Median Tectonic Line (MTL). Along the Yamasaki and Mitoke fault zones, small-size rivers cutting shallowly mountain slopes and Quaternary terraces have been deflected sinistrally, whereas large-size rivers which deeply incised into the Mio-Pliocene elevated peneplains show no systematically sinistral offset or complicated hairpin-shaped deflection. When the sinistral offsets accumulated on the small-size rivers are restored, the large-size rivers show residual dextral deflections. This dextral offset sense is consistent with that recorded in the pre-Cenozoic basement rocks. S–C fabrics of fault gouge and breccia zone developed in the active fault zones show sinistral shear sense compatible with earthquake focal mechanisms, whereas those of the foliated cataclasite indicate a dextral shear sense. These observations show that the sinistral strike-slip shear fabrics were overprinted on dextral ones which formed during a previous deformation phase. Similar topographic and geologic features are observed along the MTL in the central-eastern part of the Kii Peninsula. Based on these geomorphological and geological data, we infer that the slip sense inversion occurred in the period between the late Tertiary and mid-Quaternary period. This strike-slip inversion might result from the plate rearrangement consequent to the mid-Miocene Japan Sea opening event. This multidisciplinary study gives insight into how active strike-slip fault might evolves with time.     

An 40Ar–39Ar investigation of the Mertz Glacier area (George V Land,Antarctica): Implications for the Ross Orogen–East Antarctic Craton relationship and Gondwana reconstructions

George V Land (Antarctica) includes the boundary between Late Archean–Paleoproterozoic metamorphic terrains of the East Antarctic craton and the intrusive and metasedimentary rocks of the Early Paleozoic Ross–Delamerian Orogen. This therefore represents a key region for understanding the tectono-metamorphic evolution of the East Antarctic Craton and the Ross Orogen and for defining their structural relationship in East Antarctica, with potential implications for Gondwana reconstructions. In the East Antarctic Craton the outcrops closest to the Ross orogenic belt form the Mertz Shear Zone, a prominent ductile shear zone up to 5 km wide. Its deformation fabric includes a series of progressive, overprinting shear structures developed under different metamorphic conditions: from an early medium-P granulite-facies metamorphism, through amphibolite-facies to late greenschist-facies conditions. ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar laserprobe data on biotite in mylonitic rocks from the Mertz Shear Zone indicate that the minimum age for ductile deformation under greenschist-facies conditions is 1502 ± 9 Ma and reveal no evidence of reactivation processes linked to the Ross Orogeny. ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar laserprobe data on amphibole, although plagued by excess argon, suggest the presence of a ∼1.7 Ga old phase of regional-scale retrogression under amphibolite-facies conditions. Results support the correlation between the East Antarctic Craton in the Mertz Glacier area and the Sleaford Complex of the Gawler Craton in southern Australia, and suggest that the Mertz Shear Zone may be considered a correlative of the Kalinjala Shear Zone. An erratic immature metasandstone collected east of Ninnis Glacier (∼180 km east of the Mertz Glacier) and petrographically similar to metasedimentary rocks enclosed as xenoliths in Cambro–Ordovician granites cropping out along the western side of Ninnis Glacier, yielded detrital white-mica ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar ages from ∼530 to 640 Ma and a minimum age of 518 ± 5 Ma. This pattern compares remarkably well with those previously obtained for the Kanmantoo Group from the Adelaide Rift Complex of southern Australia, thereby suggesting that the segment of the Ross Orogen exposed east of the Mertz Glacier may represent a continuation of the eastern part of the Delamerian Orogen.     

郯庐断裂中段新生代右行走滑位移

依据走滑拉分盆地中盆地沉降（或抬升）速率与边界断层走滑速率之间的数值关系,通过对夹在郯庐断裂中段两分支断层间的潍北凹陷沉积埋藏史的恢复,间接求取郯庐断裂中段新生代右行走滑位移。潍北凹陷内不同构造位置4口井的埋藏史恢复结果表明：凹陷新生代经历了古近纪早、中期的快速沉降,古近纪末-新近纪初的抬升剥蚀和中新世以来的缓慢沉降3个阶段;各阶段的平均沉降速率分别为0.142 9、-0.072 8、0.032 5 km/Ma。通过对太平洋板块与欧亚板块间俯冲速率和方向变化的分析推断,中新世中期（39.5 Ma）太平洋板块由北西向俯冲转而变成正西向俯冲所产生的西南向应力分量是导致新生代郯庐断裂开始右行走滑的主要因素,且走滑活动持续至今。根据走滑活动发生和持续的时间,结合各个时期内潍北凹陷的沉降和抬升速率,计算出郯庐断裂中段新生代右行走滑位移量为15 km左右。     

Miocene emplacement and rapid cooling of the Pohorje pluton at the Alpine-Pannonian-Dinaridic junction,Slovenia

New laser ablation-inductive coupled plasma-mass spectrometry U-Pb analyses on oscillatory-zoned zircon imply Early Miocene crystallization (18.64 ± 0.11 Ma) of the Pohorje pluton at the southeastern margin of the Eastern Alps (northern Slovenia). Inherited zircon cores indicate two crustal sources: a late Variscan magmatic population (~270–290 Ma), and an early Neoproterozoic one (850–900 Ma) with juvenile Hf isotope composition close to that of depleted mantle. Initial εHf of Miocene zircon points to an additional, more juvenile source component of the Miocene magma, which could be either a juvenile Phanerozoic crust or the Miocene mantle. The new U-Pb isotope age of the Pohorje pluton seriously questions its attribution to the Oligocene age ‘Periadriatic’ intrusions. The new data imply a temporal coincidence with 19–15 Ma magmatism in the Pannonian Basin system, more specifically in the Styrian Basin. K-Ar mineral- and whole rock ages from the pluton itself and cogenetic shallow intrusive dacitic rocks (~18–16 Ma), as well as zircon fission track data (17.7–15.6 Ma), gave late Early to early Middle Miocene ages, indicating rapid cooling of the pluton within about 3 Million years. Medium-grade Austroalpine metamorphics north and south of the pluton were reheated and subsequently cooled together. Outcrop- and micro scale structures record deformation of the Pohorje pluton and few related mafic and dacitic dykes under greenschist facies conditions. Part of the solidstate fabrics indicate E–W oriented stretching and vertical thinning, while steeply dipping foliation and NW–SE trending lineation are also present. The E–W oriented lineation is parallel to the direction of subsequent brittle extension, which resulted in normal faulting and tilting of the earlier ductile fabric at around the Early / Middle Miocene boundary; normal faulting was combined with strike-slip faulting. Renewed N–S compression may be related to late Miocene to Quaternary dextral faulting in the area. The documented syn-cooling extensional structures and part of the strike-slip faults can be interpreted as being related to lateral extrusion of the Eastern Alps and/or to back-arc rifting in the Pannonian Basin.     

Sequential granite emplacement: a structural study of the late Variscan Strzelin intrusion, SW Poland

The Strzelin Massif in SW Poland (Central European Variscides) records a protracted igneous evolution, with three main magmatic stages: (1) tonalitic I, (2) granodioritic and (3) tonalitic II/granitic. In the northern part of this Massif, the Strzelin intrusion proper comprises three successively emplaced rock types: a medium-grained biotite granite (303 ± 2 Ma), a fine-grained biotite granite (283 ± 8 Ma) and a fine-grained biotite-muscovite granite; based on field evidence, the third variety postdates both types of the biotite granites. The structural data from the three granites, including their parallel, approximately E–W striking and steeply dipping lithological contacts and ENE–WSW trending subhorizontal magmatic lineations, suggest that the emplacement of all three successive granite varieties was controlled by an active, long-lived strike-slip fault, striking ESE–WNW, with a dextral sense of movement. After the emplacement of the youngest biotite-muscovite granite, the intrusion underwent brittle extension which produced “Q joints” striking NNW–SSE to N–S and dipping at 55–70° WSW to W, and showing evidence of broadly N–S directed sinistral displacements. The structural observations, supported by new geochronological data, indicate that the internal structure of the composite granitoid intrusion, including the faint magmatic foliation and lineation, formed in a long-lived strike-slip setting, different from the subsequent, post-emplacement extensional tectonics that controlled the development of brittle structures.     

Timing of left-lateral shearing along the Ailao Shan-Red River shear zone: constraints from zircon U–Pb ages from granitic rocks in the shear zone along the Ailao Shan Range, Western Yunnan, China

As the boundary between the Indochina and the South China blocks, the Ailao Shan-Red River (ASRR) shear zone underwent a sinistral strike-slip shearing which is characterized by ductile deformation structures along the Ailao Shan range. The timing issue of left-lateral shearing along the ASRR shear zone is of first-order importance in constraining the nature and regional significance of the shear zone. It has been, therefore, focused on by many previous studies, but debates still exist on the age of initiation and termination of shearing along the shear zone. In this paper, we dated 5 samples of granitic plutons (dykes) along the Ailao Shan shear zone. Zircon U–Pb ages of four sheared or partly sheared granitic rocks give ages of 30.9 ± 0.7, 36.6 ± 0.1, 25.9 ± 1.0 and 27.2 ± 0.2 Ma, respectively. An undeformed granitic dyke intruding mylonitic foliation gives crystallization age of 21.8 ± 1 Ma. The Th/U ratios of zircon grains from these rocks fall into two populations (0.17–1.01 and 0.07–0.08), reflecting magmatic and metamorphic origins of the zircons. Detailed structural and microstructural analysis reveals that the granitic intrusions are ascribed to pre-, syn- and post-shearing magmatisms. The zircon U–Pb ages of these granites provide constraints on timing of the initiation (later than 31 Ma from pre-shearing granitic plutons, but earlier than 27 Ma from syn-shearing granitic dykes) and termination (ca. 21 Ma from the post-shearing granitic dykes) of strong ductile left-lateral shearing, which is consistent with previous results on the Diancang Shan and Day Nui Con Voi massifs in the literature. We also conclude that the left-lateral shearing along the ASRR shear zone is the result of southeastward extrusion of the Indochina block during the Indian–Eurasian plate collision. Furthermore, the left-lateral shearing was accompanied by the ridge jump, postdating the opening, of the South China Sea.     

An expression of Philippine Sea plate rotation: the Parece Vela and Shikoku Basins

The Philippine Sea plate, located between the Pacific, Eurasian and Australian plates, is the world's largest marginal basin plate. The motion of the Philippine Sea plate through time is poorly understood as it is almost entirely surrounded by subduction zones and hence, previous studies have relied on palaeomagnetic analysis to constrain its rotation. We present a comprehensive analysis of geophysical data within the Parece Vela and Shikoku Basins—two Oligocene to Miocene back-arc basins—which provide independent constraints on the rotational history of the Philippine Sea plate by means of their seafloor spreading record. We have created a detailed plate model for the opening of the Parece Vela and Shikoku Basins based on an analysis of all available magnetic, gravity and bathymetric data in the region. Subduction along the Izu–Bonin–Mariana trench led to trench roll-back, arc rupture and back-arc rifting in the Parece Vela and Shikoku Basins at 30 Ma. Seafloor spreading in both basins developed by chron 9o (28 Ma), and possibly by chron 10o (29 Ma), as a northward and southward propagating rift, respectively. The spreading orientation in the Parece Vela Basin was E–W as opposed to ENE–WSW in the Shikoku Basin. The spreading ridges joined by chron 6By (23 Ma) and formed a R–R–R triple junction to accommodate the difference in spreading orientations in both basins. At chron 6No (20 Ma), the spreading direction in the Parece Vela Basin changed from E–W to NE–SW. At chron 5Ey (19 Ma), the spreading direction in the Shikoku Basin changed from ENE–WSW to NE–SW. This change was accompanied by a marked decrease in spreading rate. Cessation of back-arc opening occurred at 15 Ma, a time of regional plate reorganisation in SE Asia. We interpret the dramatic change in spreading rate and direction from E–W to NE–SW at 20±1.3 Ma as an expression of Philippine Sea plate rotation and is constrained by the spacing between our magnetic anomaly identifications and the curvature of the fracture zones. This rotation was previously thought to have begun at 25 Ma as a result of a global change in plate motions. Our results suggest that the Philippine Sea plate rotated clockwise by about 4° between 20 and 15 Ma about a pole located 35°N, 84°E. This implies that the majority of the 34° clockwise rotation inferred to have occurred between 25 and 5 Ma from paleomagnetic data may have in fact been confined to the period between 15 and 5 Ma.     

Occurrence of ice-rafted erratics and the petrology of the KR1 seamount trail from the Australian–Antarctic Ridge

ABSTRACT

A multi-disciplinary study of the KR1 segment of the Australian–Antarctic Ridge has been conducted since 2011. We present geochemical and age dating results for samples dredged from three sites on the KR1 seamount trail. The majority of the samples are alkaline ocean island basalts with subdominant enriched tholeiites. The samples from the DG05 bathymetric depression include ice-rafted erratics from Antarctica, which consist of gabbro, diabase, various granitoids, volcanic rocks such as trachyte and rhyolite and deformed or undeformed sedimentary rocks. The main provenance of glacial erratics is considered to be the Ross Sea region. However, Carboniferous to Cretaceous ages of erratics indicate that some of these may originate from the western regions of West Antarctica. Based on the size and topography of the volcanic features and geochemical characteristics of the alkaline ocean island basalts (La/Sm_N = 2.62–3.88; Tb/Yb_N = 1.54–2.67) and the enriched tholeiites, the KR1 seamount trail is interpreted to be a submarine hotspot chain that is the product of alkaline volcanic eruption and seafloor spreading.     

Age and composition of Antarctic sub-glacial bedrock reflected by detrital zircons,erratics, and recycled microfossils in the Ellsworth Land–Antarctic Peninsula–Weddell Sea–Dronning Maud Land sector (240°E–0°–015°E)

The age and composition of the 14 × 10⁶ km² of Antarctica's surface obscured by ice is unknown except for some dated detrital minerals and erratics. In remedy, we present four new analyses (U–Pb age, T_DM^C, εHf, and rock type) of detrital zircons from Neogene turbidites as proxies of Antarctic bedrock, and review published proxies: detrital hornblendes analysed for Ar–Ar age and bulk Sm–Nd isotopes; Pb isotope compositions of detrital K-feldspars; erratics and dropstones that reflect age and composition; and recycled microfossils that reflect age and facies. This work deals with the 240°E–0°–015°E sector, and complements Veevers and Saeed's (2011) analysis of the 70°E–240°E sector. Each sample is located in its ice-drainage basin for backtracking to the potential provenance. Gaps in age between sample and upslope exposure are specifically attributable to the provenance. The major provenance of detritus west of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is West Antarctica, and of detritus east of the AP East Antarctica. We confirm that the Central Antarctic provenance about a core of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM) and the Vostok Subglacial Highlands (VSH) contains a basement that includes igneous (mafic granitoids) and metamorphic rocks with peak U–Pb ages of 0.65–0.50, 1.20–0.9, 2.1–1.9, 2.8–2.6, and 3.35–3.30 Ga, T_DM^C of 3.6–1.3 Ga, and mainly negative εHf. The potential provenance of zircons of 650–500 Ma age with T_DM^C ages of 1.55 Ga, and of zircons of 1200–900 Ma age with positive εHf lies beneath the ice in East Antarctica south and southeast of Dronning Maud Land within the Antarctic part of the East African–Antarctic Orogen. Zircons with the additional ages of 1.7–1.4 Ga, 2.1–1.9 Ga, and 3.35–3.00 Ga have a potential provenance in the GSM.