Thick- and thin-skinned tectonics in the Pyrenees

A comparison is made between the Gavarnie thrust and the Mérens Fault in the Axial zone of the Pyrenees. The former has a gentle dip and quite a large displacement (at least 12 km) but does not cut through either Hercynian or Alpine isograds. The latter has a smaller displacement (~ 5 km) but dips steeply and cuts through both Hercynian and Alpine isograds at a high angle. On this basis and on the basis of shear zone geometries immediately north of it, it is proposed that the Mérens Fault nucleated as a steeply (65°–80°) dipping structure, while the Gavarnie thrust nucleated with a shallow attitude. The Mérens Fault is not a backward-rotated thrust fault, nor is it the root zone for any major nappe structure. Similar steep ductile structures occur within the Gavarnie nappe and may reflect considerable internal strain in basement lithologies.The relationship between steep and shallow structures is not yet clear; the shear zones may pre-date the thrusting in which case they may be thick-skinned structures affecting the whole lithosphere, or they may be contemporary with thrusting reflecting only local thickening above a décollement.Rheological models can be used to test proposed geometrical and kinematic models for the lithosphere-scale evolution of the Pyrenees. Suggested models are dominated by a cool, rigid, high-level mantle wedge beneath the North Pyrenean zone which probably controlled the location of north-dipping thrust faults. Thick-skinned shortening is possible in thick crust in the Axial zone but is very unlikely in the North Pyrenean zone where steeply rooted structures would have to cut through the strongest part of the lithosphere.     

On the consistency of proposed models for the Pyrenees with the structure of the eastern parts of the belt

The structure of the eastern Pyrenees consists mainly of south-directed thrusts involving basement and cover rocks. An antiformal stack developed by the piling up of basement thrust sheets which outcrop in the Axial zone. These structures account for a thin-skinned thrust model rather than a vertical fault model in which the Axial zone would be essentially autochthonous, and the North-Pyrenean fault the axial plane of a fan thrust system. New data from the Eastern Pyrenees and the thin-skinned model suggest that(1) the structure east of the Pedraforca nappe is similar to that of the Central Pyrenees; (2) the cover rocks of the South-Pyrenean units and of the Axial zone-after restoration—built up a northwards-thickening prism consistent with the existence of a unique Pyrenean sedimentary basin during Mesozoic time; (3) the Axial zone is only a complex antiformal stack developed as a part of South-Pyrenean system related to the Paleogene thrusting-tectonics. The Axial zone palaeogeographic area had no special meaning during Mesozoic time.     

秦岭南缘大巴山褶皱－冲断推覆构造的特征

秦岭造山带南缘的大巴山巨型逆冲推覆构造主要是在秦岭造山带板块俯冲碰撞造山与中、新生代以来陆内造山过程中长期复合作用形成的。详细的室内外构造研究表明,巴山逆冲推覆构造可以巴山弧形断裂带为界划分为北大巴山逆冲推覆构造和南大巴山逆冲推覆构造。北大巴山自北而南依次由安康－武当推覆体、紫阳－平利推覆体、高桥－镇坪推覆体和高滩推覆体逆冲叠置而成。南大巴山则以镇巴－阳日断裂为界,分为北部的前陆冲断褶皱带和南部的前陆褶皱带。北大巴山主要是印支期碰撞造山作用和燕山期陆内逆冲推覆作用叠加改造的结果,南大巴山则主要是燕山期递进变形过程中的产物。构造变形北强南弱,北以冲断褶皱变形为特征,南以皱褶作用为主;北部褶皱紧闭复杂,向南渐变为宽缓的薄皮构造。逆冲作用在时序上具有由北向南扩展传递的特点。     

鄂尔多斯西缘北段大型陆缘逆冲推覆体系

鄂尔多斯西缘北段是一个自中生代末以来形成的、结晶基底和早古生代大陆边缘沉积盖层同时卷入的巨型陆缘逆冲推覆构造体系。根据区域地层发育、变形岩石属性、冲断层几何学以及它们与联冲断层的关系,大体上可以分为不同形成阶段的3个冲断层构造组合,包括9个次级构造单元(B₁—B₇,B_N,B_S)。受冲断层运动自西向东的一致推进,整体呈现一个局部被近东西走向联冲断层切错、向东凸出的弧形:前端为陆缘褶皱冲断带;中部表现为一系列"原地"或"异地"推覆体和冲断席,发育低角度滑脱层和双冲构造;后部又被最晚期的冲断体叠置。侏罗-白垩纪为逆冲推覆构造的主要发展阶段,经历了3期主要的冲断层作用。第Ⅰ期发生在侏罗纪末,沿阿拉善—华北两类不同性质结晶基底之间的主滑脱面发生大规模冲断层作用,形成桌子山—岗德尔山褶皱冲断带。第Ⅱ期冲断层作用的持续位移,形成了具有上、下两个构造层的石嘴山—尖山大型异地推覆体,主滑脱面为石炭纪煤系地层,其中发育典型的双冲构造。新生代(距今65Ma)以来,印度—欧亚板块挤压碰撞和青藏高原早期向北推挤,加剧了鄂尔多斯西缘逆冲推覆构造的进一步发育,第Ⅲ期冲断层作用在东部陆缘褶皱冲断带形成了苏海图反冲构造的同时,在西部将异地推覆体下部的奥陶系再次推至地表。第Ⅰ期和第Ⅱ期冲断层作用累计位移幅度可能达到60~80km,第Ⅲ期冲断层作用的位移幅度为8km。相邻冲断席之间位移矢量的差异,通过近东西走向的联冲断层得到了调整。     

Thrust structures in the eastern Dauphinois Zone (French Alps), north of the Pelvoux Massif

An examination of thrust structures in the eastern part of the Dauphinois Zone of the external French Alps (referred to in the literature as the Ultradauphinois Zone) shows that major basement thrusts climb up section to produce cover-basement synclines. These thrusts also climb laterally and are continuous with thrust in the cover rocks. The external basement massifs are recognized as thrust sheets with variably deformed and thrust cover sequences. The distinction made in the previous literature between the Dauphinois and Ultradauphinois Zones is no longer tenable. Cover thrusting proceeded by both smooth slip and rough slip, the latter producing a duplex of cover thrust slices. Restoration of this duplex indicates that a shortening of 70 km in the cover occured during its formation. Possible errors in this estimate include uncertainties in the original stratigraphic thickness and in the overall shape of the duplex. Another duplex is thought to have formed at a basement ramp created by the presence of an early basement normal fault. Partial footwall collapse of this basement ramp gave rise to a basement horse at the bottom of the duplex. The overall relation between cover and basement thrusting is indicated using a hanging wall sequence diagram. Recent geophysical studies suggest that the basement thrusts developed from a mid-crustal décollement which passes down dip to offset the Moho. Model studies of thin-skinned tectonics may not be appropriate to such thrust geometries.     

鄂尔多斯北缘石合拉沟逆冲推覆构造的发现及意义

最近在包头市幅1／25万区域地质调查工作中，在黄河南部鄂尔多斯北缘隆起带中发现了由北向南逆冲的石合拉沟推覆构造。上盘逆冲推覆体由基底浅变质的石英岩、黑云变粒岩和大理岩构成，推覆在晚石炭统太原组和中三叠统二马营组之上。野外地质关系表明逆冲推覆变形作用发生在晚侏罗世，与河套新生代断陷盆地北缘大青山逆冲推覆构造晚期逆冲推覆变形作用是同时的，逆冲推覆方向相反，构成了以现代河套盆地为中心的晚侏罗世背冲型逆冲推覆构造。该逆冲推覆构造的发现对探讨华北地台北缘中生代地壳构造变形特点和新生代河套断陷盆地基底构造性质具有重要意义。     

From thickening to extension in the Variscan belt — kinematic evidence from Sardinia (Italy)

The Variscan nappe stack of SE Sardinia originated as a result of several stages of nappe imbrication during the Lower Carboniferous phases of the Variscan orogeny. The crustal shortening caused regional SSW-and W-directed thrusting, greenschist facies metamorphism and open-to-isoclinal polyphase folding. The final stage of shortening produced large-scale antiforms and synforms.
Post-collisional deformation resulted in inversion of earlier thrusts as normal faults, development of low-angle normal faults, and refolding of earlier foliation and thrust planes by asymmetric folds with subhorizontal axial planes. Facing directions of these latest folds are directed horizontally outward from the hinge zones of main antiforms, suggesting that they cannot be regarded as parasitic folds of the latest thickening phase, but instead are the consequence of vertical shortening during gravitational collapse of dome-like km-scale antiforms, leading to denudation of antiformal culminations.     

闽北仁寿地区逆冲推覆构造

逆冲推覆构造发育于闽北变质岩中，由一系列规模不等向南东倾的叠瓦状逆冲推覆断层及其上盘的推覆岩席组成，由南燕向北西方推覆，往逆冲方面可分为上，下2个逆冲推覆构造系，是前展式逆冲推覆构造，作用时期发生于印支期－燕山期。     

Sequence of thrusting and origin of culminations in the northern and central Oman Mountains

Detailed mapping and structural analysis of three large-scale culminations (Sumeini and Asjudi half-windows and Haybi-Hawasina window) in the Oman Mountains shows a considerably more complex history of deformation than a simple foreland (or downward) sequence of thrust development. Early thrusting processes tended to create a regular stacking order of imbricate slices and major thrust sheets, complying with the “rules’ of thrust propagation, assembled progressively downwards and forwards in the direction of translation. ‘Out-of-sequence’ thrusts can also be demonstrated in places by truncation of footwall structures (folds, imbricate slices, etc.), gross strain differences between thrust sheets, downward-facing structures in footwall units and elimination of thrust sheets beneath. Late stage thrusts frequently cut up-section through the previously assembled stack putting previously younger, lower thrust sheets over previously older, higher ones. Many of the culminations in the northern and central Oman Mountains were formed by ramping associated with this late-stage leap-frog rethrusting event.     

Polyphase late Palaeozoic deformation in the southeastern foreland and northwestern Piedmont of the Alabama Appalachians

Late Palaeozoic deformation in the southern Appalachians is believed to be related to the collisional events that formed Pangaea. The Appalachian foreland fold and thrust belt in Alabama is a region of thin-skinned deformed Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks ranging in age from Early Cambrian to Late Carboniferous, bounded to the northwest by relatively undeformed rocks of the Appalachian Plateau and to the southeast by crystalline thrust sheets containing metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks ranging in age from late Precambrian to Early Devonian. A late Palaeozoic kinematic sequence derived for a part of this region indicates complex spatial and temporal relationships between folding, thrusting, and tectonic level of décollement. Earliest recognized (Carboniferous(?) or younger) compressional deformation in the foreland, observable within the southernmost thrust sheets in the foreland, is a set of large-scale, tight to isoclinal upright folds which preceded thrafing, and may represent the initial wave of compression in the foreland. Stage 2 involved emplacement of low-angle far-traveled thrust sheets which cut Lower Carboniferous rocks and cut progressively to lower tectonic levels to the southwest, terminating with arrival onto the foreland rocks of a low-grade crystalline nappe. Stage 3 involved redeformation of the stage 2 nappe pile by large-scale upright folds oriented approximately parallel to the former thrusts and believed to be related to ramping or imbrication from a deeper décollement in the foreland rocks below. Stage 4 involved renewed low-angle thrusting within the Piedmont rocks, emplacement of a high-grade metamorphic thrust sheet, and decapitation of stage 3 folds. Stage 5 is represented by large-scale cross-folding at a high angle to previous thrust boundaries and fold phases, and may be related to ramping or imbrication on deep décollements within the now mostly buried Ouachita orogen thrust belt to the southwest. Superposed upon these folds are stage 6 high-angle thrust faults with Appalachian trends representing the youngest (Late Carboniferous or younger, structures in the kinematic sequence.     

Foreland- and hinterland-verging structures in fold-and-thrust belt: an example from the Variscan foreland of Sardinia

In the Variscan foreland of SW-Sardinia (Western Mediterranean sea), close to the leading edge of the nappe zone, nappe emplacement caused folding and repetition of stratigraphic successions, km-scale offset of stratigraphic boundaries and an extensive brittle-ductile shear zone. Thrusts assumed a significant role, accommodating a progressive change of shortening direction and forming complicated thrust triangle zones. During thrust emplacement of the nappes, strong penetrative deformation affected rocks beneath the basal thrust of the nappe stack and produced coeval structures with both foreland-directed and hinterland-directed (backthrusting) shear sense. Cross-cutting and overprinting relationships clearly show that the shortening direction changed progressively from N–S to E–W, producing in sequence: (1) E–W trending open folds contemporaneous with early nappe emplacement in the nearby nappe zone; (2) recumbent, quasi-isoclinal folds with axial plane foliation and widespread, “top-towards-the-SW”, penetrative shearing; (3) N–S trending folds with axial plane foliation, contemporaneous with late nappe emplacement; (4) backthrusts and related asymmetrical folds developed during the final stages of shortening, postdating foreland-verging structures. Structures at (3) and (4) occurred during the same tectonic transport “top-towards-the-E” of the nappe zone over the foreland. The several generations of folds, thrusts, and foliations with different orientations developed, result in a complex finite structural architecture, not completely explicable by the theoretical model proposed up to date.     

滇桂交界区印支期前陆褶皱冲断带

最近发现的蛇绿岩指示中、越交界区发育一条古特提斯的地缝合线,分开了越北地块和华南次大陆。滇桂交界处的印支期前陆褶皱冲断带为古特提斯造山带提供了进一步的证据。本文讨论了冲断-推覆构造的特征,提出该地的古特提斯洋具复杂的大陆边缘,沿北西走向段先发生碰撞,之后沿北东东向段发生碰撞,北西向断裂则发生右行的走滑(或右行斜冲)活动。冲断作用是向北或北东扩展的,仰冲的增生杂岩可能掩埋了大部分磨拉石沉积,造成了磨拉石不发育的假象。     

STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE KULU-RAMPUR AND LARJI WINDOW ZONES, WESTERN HIMALAYA, INDIA

STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE KULU-RAMPUR AND LARJI WINDOW ZONES, WESTERN HIMALAYA, INDIA     

塔里木盆地西南缘山前带逆冲推覆构造特征

塔里木盆地西南缘山前带是西昆仑逆冲推覆构造在前陆形成的冲断带,主要由断层相关褶皱、双重构造、叠瓦状构造、三角带等构造组成。通过地表构造剖面、地震与非震资料的综合解释与研究,结合平衡剖面的正演方法,对该冲断带进行了几何学、运动学与动力学研究,对冲断带断层的扩展方式以及冲断时代进行了讨论。研究认为塔西南逆冲推覆构造具有"南北分带、东西分段以及垂向结构变异"的特点。自南向北分为逆冲推覆的根带、中带、锋带和反冲断裂带,由西向东可以划分为帕米尔弧形构造段、齐姆根弧形构造段、甫沙-克里阳三角带构造段与和田南逆冲推覆体构造段。冲断带在垂向结构上由三套区域性滑脱层划分为浅构造层次的外来系统断坡背斜、中构造层次的准原地系统双重构造、三角带构造以及深构造层次的原地系统弱变形带三层结构。冲断席内断层的扩展方式为前展式,而不同冲断席间则为后展式模式。冲断带自中新世中期开始形成,中新世末发生位移推覆,上新世—早更新世定型,中更新世—全新世隆升均衡调整。     

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.     

DEFORMATIONAL AND METAMORPHIC HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL LONGMEN MOUNTAINS, SICHUAN CHINA

DEFORMATIONAL AND METAMORPHIC HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL LONGMEN MOUNTAINS, SICHUAN CHINA1　ArneDC ,WorleyBA ,WilsonCJL ,etal.Differentialexhumationinresponsetoepisodicthrustingalongtheeasternmar ginoftheTibetanPlateau[J] .Tectonophysics,1997,2 80 :2 39～ 2 56 . 2　ChenSF ,WilsonCJL ,WorleyBA .TectonictransitionfromtheSongpan GarzeFoldBelttotheSichuanBasin,south westernChina[J] .BasinResearch ,1995,7:2 35～ 2 53. 3　ChenSF ,WilsonCJL .Emplaceme…     

Investigating the kinematics of local thrust sheet rotation in the limb of an orocline: a paleomagnetic and structural analysis of the Esla tectonic unit, Cantabrian–Asturian Arc, NW Iberia

The Esla tectonic unit lies along the southern boundary of the Cantabrian–Asturian Arc, a highly curved foreland fold-thrust belt that was deformed during the final amalgamation of the Pangea supercontinent. Previous structural and paleomagnetic analyses of the Cantabrian–Asturian Arc suggest a two-stage tectonic history in which an originally linear belt was bent into its present configuration, creating an orocline. The Esla tectonic unit is a particularly complex region due to the interaction of rotating thrust sheets from the southern limb of the arc and the southward-directed thrusts of the Picos de Europa tectonic domain during late-stage north–south shortening and oroclinal bending. These structural interactions resulted in intense modification of early-phase thin-skinned tectonic structures that were previously affected by a deeper out-of-sequence antiformal stack that passively deformed the early thrust stack. A total of 75 paleomagnetic sites were collected from the Portilla and Santa Lucia formations, two carbonate passive-margin reef platform units from the middle Devonian. Similar to other regions of the Cantabrian–Asturian Arc, Esla Unit samples carry a secondary remanent magnetization that was acquired after initial thrusting and folding of Variscan deformation in the late Carboniferous. Protracted deformation during late-stage oroclinal bending caused reactivation of existing thrust sheets that include the Esla and younger Corniero and Valbuena thrusts. When combined with existing structural data and interpretations, these data indicate that the present-day sinuosity of the Esla Unit is the consequence of both secondary rotation of originally linear features in the western Esla exposures (e.g., frontal thrusts), and secondary modification and tightening of originally curvilinear features in the eastern Esla exposures (e.g., hanging-wall lateral/oblique ramps). Differences in structural style between the Esla and other tectonic units of the arc highlight the complex kinematics of oroclinal bending, which at the orogen-scale buckled an originally linear, north–south (in present-day coordinates) trending Cantabrian–Asturian thrust belt during the final stages of Pangea amalgamation.     

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.     

Thrust tectonics in the North Pyrenees

Balanced and restored cross-sections through the central and eastern Pyrenees, constructed using both surface and borehole data, demonstrate the presence of c.18km of shortening above a flat lying N-directed Alpine décollement surface. Hangingwall diagrams show how the North Pyrenean satellite massifs are culminations within this thrust system. Pre-thrusting structures such as subhorizontal stretching lineations in the North Pyrenean Fault zone became rotated above these culminations as the North Pyrenean Fault was cut by Alpine thrusts. Stratigraphic evidence demonstrates that N-directed thrust movements occurred between mid Eocene and Oligocene time, and this is similar to the age of major S-directed thrust movements on the south side of the Axial Zone. The N-directed thrust system probably originated as a series of backthrusts to the dominant S-directed structures.     

A Large-scale Tertiary Salt Nappe Complex in the Leading Edge of the Kuqa Foreland Fold-Thrust Belt, the Tarim Basin, Northwest China

The tectono-stratigraphic sequences of the Kuqa foreland fold-thrust belt in the northern Tarim basin, northwest China, can be divided into the Mesozoic sub-salt sequence, the Paleocene-Eocene salt sequence and the Oligocene-Quaternary supra-salt sequence. The salt sequence is composed mainly of light grey halite, gypsum, marl and brown elastics. A variety of salt-related structures have developed in the Kuqa foreland fold belt, in which the most fascinating structures are salt nappe complex. Based on field observation, seismic interpretation and drilling data, a large-scale salt nappe complex has been identified. It trends approximately east-west for over 200 km and occurs along the west Qiulitag Mountains. Its thrusting displacement is over 30 km. The salt nappe complex appears as an arcuate zone projecting southwestwards along the leading edge of the Kuqa foreland fold belt. The major thrust fault is developed along the Paleocene-Eocene salt beds. The allochthonous nappes comprise large north-dipping