Extension across the Indian–Arabian plate boundary:the Murray Ridge

Seismic reflection profiles from the Murray Ridge in the Gulf of Oman, northwest Indian Ocean, show a significant component of extension across the predominantly strike-slip Indian–Arabian plate boundary. The Murray Ridge lies along the northern section of the plate boundary, where its trend becomes more easterly and thus allows a component of extension. The Dalrymple Trough is a 25 km wide, steep-sided half-graben, bounded by large faults with components of both strike-slip and normal motion. The throw at the seabed of the main fault on the southeastern side of the half-graben reaches 1800 m. The northwest side of the trough is delineated by a series of smaller antithetic normal faults. Wide-angle seismic, gravity and magnetic models show that the Murray Ridge and Dalrymple Trough are underlain by a crystalline crust up to 17 km thick, which may be continental in origin. Any crustal thinning due to extension is limited, and no new crust has been formed.
We favour a plate model in which the Indian–Arabian plate boundary was initially located further west than the Owen Fracture Zone, possibly along the Oman continental margin, and suggest that during the Oligocene–Early Miocene Indian Ocean plate reorganization, the plate boundary moved to the site of the present Owen Fracture Zone and that motion further west ceased. At this time, deformation began along the Murray Ridge, with both the uplift of basement highs, and subsidence in the troughs tilting the lowest sedimentary unit. Qalhat Seamount was formed at this time. Subsequent sediments were deposited unconformably on the tilted lower unit and then faulted to produce the present basement topography. The normal faulting was accompanied by hanging-wall subsidence, footwall uplift, and erosion. Flat-lying recent sediments show that the major vertical movements have ceased, although continuing earthquakes show that some faulting is still active along the plate boundary.     

Geomorphological effects of plate movement during Quaternary in China'' s tropics

China'stropicsliesintheregionsouthofabout24oN,occupyinganareaofabout51.85×104km2(5.4%ofChina).InChina,thistropicalregionisquiteclosetotheeasternandwesternconvergentboundariesbetweentwoplatessothatthegeomorphologicaleffectsofplatetectonicsaremoreobviousthanthoseinnorthernChina.Thisstudywillpresentsevenexamplesofappearanceofplatemovementingeomorphology.1ThesourceoftectonicforceTheregionofChina'stropicsundergoesconvergingattackfromeasternandwestern"fronts"ofplatemovement.Thewesternfrontofther…     

中国热带第四纪板块运动的地貌效应

The eastern and western fronts of plate movement in Taiwan Island and Tibetan Plateau respectively are the two major sources of tectonic force for the morphogensis during Quaternary in China′s tropics. Seven examples of geomorphological effects of plate movement are enumerated to discuss the differentiation of tectonic landforms in space and time during Quaternary. The tectonic movement tends to be more active since middle Pleistocene. Some phenomena such as the arc-shape mountain systems, volcanism and crustal deformation imply that the juncture zone of eastern and western tectonic forces is located at about 1 1O°E.     

Global heat budget, plate tectonics and climatic change

For the past 2000 Ma, the temperature of the Earth's surface has fluctuated around a mean similar to that of today, although individual locations have undergone long-term changes of ∼30°C at different times in different places. Water bodies absorb at least five times as much solar radiation as land surfaces, and ocean currents transport the excess heat absorbed in the tropics towards the poles. Changes in the distribution of land and sea due to plate tectonics explain the major temperature fluctuations (>25°C) around the globe in the last 350 Ma, and are first-order controls. Large-scale changes in ocean currents and thermohaline circulations are probably second-order controls (15–25°C). The Milankovitch orbital cycles are third-order controls producing variations in air temperature of the order of 10°C, while massive volcanic eruptions and changes in carbon dioxide are amongst the fourth-order controls producing minor perturbations (<5°C). The major climatic fluctuations are continuous but regional in effect and not global. Extraterrestrial factors may not cause major changes in climate when viewed from a geological perspective.