华北大陆地壳─上地幔岩石学结构与演化

本文基于出露的前寒武纪变质岩系、中、新生代岩浆活动以及新生代玄武岩中上地幔包体的岩石学与地质压力计研究，结合地球物理测涤资料与高温高压下岩石中地震波传播速度的实验成果，提出了华北大陆三个地区（河北平原、太行－五台、鄂尔多斯）的地壳－上地幔岩石学结构，讨论了界面性质及其演化。在强调ｖ＿ｐ、ｖｂ、σ结构与岩石学结构共同约束的基础上，有效地识别了不同地区硅铝质陆壳在物质组成上的差异和上地幔低速层或矿物相转变等特征。本文提出壳－幔岩石学结构及其演化，密切地与陆壳主要形成时期的太古－早元古构造岩浆事件相关，又与显生宙构造岩浆事件对它的改造程度有关，壳－幔岩石学结构是我们追索大陆的构造性质及其演化的一个重要记录和科学依据。     

Variability of theS q focus position in the South American continent

The daily variation of the H component at Pilar (31.7°S, 63–9°W) and Trelew (43.3°S, 65.3°W) in the South American continent indicates a great variability in amplitude from season to season and even from day to day. However, Pilar always remains equatorward of the southern S_q, focus. On the other hand, Trelew is in most cases slightly poleward of the S_q, focus; but the focus has large latitudinal excursions above and near Trelew. A cause of this variability could be the encroachment of polar ionospheric current systems into the low latitude ionospheric S_q, current system.     

Lithosphere mapping beneath the North American plate

Major- and trace-element analyses of garnets from heavy-mineral concentrates have been used to derive the compositional and thermal structure of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) beneath 16 areas within the core of the ancient Laurentian continent and 11 areas in the craton margin and fringing mobile belts. Results are presented as stratigraphic sections showing variations in the relative proportions of different rock types and metasomatic styles, and the mean Fo content of olivine, with depth. Detailed comparisons with data from mantle xenoliths demonstrate the reliability of the sections.

In the Slave Province, the SCLM in most areas shows a two-layer structure with a boundary at 140–160 km depth. The upper layer shows pronounced lateral variations, whereas the lower layer, after accounting for different degrees of melt-related metasomatism, shows marked uniformity. The lower layer is interpreted as a subcreted plume head, added at ca. 3.2 Ga; this boundary between the layers rises to <100 km depth toward the northern and southern edges of the craton. Strongly layered SCLM suggests that plume subcretion may also have played a role in the construction of the lithosphere beneath Michigan and Saskatchewan.

Outside the Slave Province, most North American Archon SCLM sections are less depleted than similar sections in southern Africa and Siberia; this may reflect extensive metasomatic modification. In E. Canada, the degree of modification increases toward the craton margin, and the SCLM beneath the Kapuskasing Structural Zone is typical of that beneath Proterozoic to Phanerozoic mobile belts.

SCLM sections from several Proterozoic areas around the margin of the Laurentian continental core (W. Greenland, Colorado–Wyoming district, Arkansas) show discontinuities and gaps that are interpreted as the effects of lithosphere stacking during collisional orogeny. Some areas affected by Proterozoic orogenesis (Wyoming Craton, Alberta, W. Greenland) appear to retain buoyant, modified Archean SCLM. Possible juvenile Proterozoic SCLM beneath the Colorado Plateau is significantly less refractory. The SCLM beneath the Kansas kimberlite field is highly melt-metasomatised, reflecting its proximity to the Mid-Continent Rift System.

A traverse across the continent shows that the upper part of the cratonic SCLM is highly magnesian; the decrease in mg# with depth is interpreted as the cumulative effect of metasomatic modification through time. The relatively small variations in seismic velocity within the continental core largely reflect the thickness of this depleted layer. The larger drop in seismic velocity in the surrounding Proton and Tecton belts reflects the closely coupled changes in SCLM composition and geotherm.     

On the rigidity of the North American plate

Recently reported Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) observations between Green Bank, West Virginia, Haystack, Massachusetts and Owens Valley, California, show that the linear distance between these sites has not changed for at least three years (i.e., smooth rate of change less than 1 cm/yr). This level of stability is logically consistent with the hypothesis that the continental U.S. North American plate is geodetically rigid at least on the 2 cm level. Model studies show that this result is in accord with present knowledge of the intra-plate stress field and the elastic properties of typical continental lithosphere.     

Upper mantle structure of the South American continent and neighboring oceans from surface wave tomography

We present a new three-dimensional SV-wave velocity model for the upper mantle beneath South America and the surrounding oceans, built from the waveform inversion of 5850 Rayleigh wave seismograms. The dense path coverage and the use of higher modes to supplement the fundamental mode of surface waves allow us to constrain seismic heterogeneities with horizontal wavelengths of a few hundred kilometres in the uppermost 400 km of the mantle.The large scale features of our tomographic model confirm previous results from global and regional tomographic studies (e.g. the depth extent of the high velocity cratonic roots down to about 200–250 km).Several new features are highlighted in our model. Down to 100 km depth, the high velocity lid beneath the Amazonian craton is separated in two parts associated with the Guyana and Guapore shields, suggesting that the rifting episode responsible for the formation of the Amazon basin has involved a significant part of the lithosphere. Along the Andean subduction belt, the structure of the high velocity anomaly associated with the sudbduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate reflects the along-strike variation in dip of the subducting plate. Slow velocities are observed down to about 100 km and 150 km at the intersection of the Carnegie and Chile ridges with the continent and are likely to represent the thermal anomalies associated with the subducted ridges. These lowered velocities might correspond to zones of weakness in the subducted plate and may have led to the formation of “slab windows” developed through unzipping of the subducted ridges; these windows might accommodate a transfer of asthenospheric mantle from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. From 150 to 250 km depth, the subducting Nazca plate is associated with high seismic velocities between 5°S and 37°S. We find high seismic velocities beneath the Paraná basin down to about 200 km depth, underlain by a low velocity anomaly in the depth range 200–400 km located beneath the Ponta Grossa arc at the southern tip of the basin. This high velocity anomaly is located southward of a narrow S-wave low velocity structure observed between 200 and 500–600 km depth in body wave studies, but irresolvable with our long period datasets. Both anomalies point to a model in which several, possibly diachronous, plumes have risen to the surface to generate the Paraná large igneous province (LIP).     

Intraplate tectonics of the western North American plate

Fault-plane solutions, Cenozoic geology, and in-situ stress measurements are used to infer contemporary extension between subplates of the western North American plate. Intraplate, northwest extension is accommodated by strike-slip and oblique normal faulting along present-day seismic zones. Cenozoic volcanism, facilitated by regional extension above a subducting plate, may have spread radially outward from the northern Great Basin to form a continental triple junction with the principal arms: the central Great Basin, the Snake River Plain and a southeast-trending zone of rhyolite domes in the southern Columbia Plateau.     

从阿巴拉契亚-阿钦塔造山带看中国北方大陆南缘古生代的油气前景

阿巴拉契亚-阿钦塔造山带是北美乃至世界著名的大陆边缘挤压碰撞推覆造山带,是地质学研究的经典地区之一,也是许多经典地学理论和概念的发源地.其中,对地质学影响最大的当属地槽学说.继20世纪60年代由深海钻探带来地学革命之后,由COCORP实施的地震反射剖面和深钻揭示了该造山带的巨大推覆构造.人们惊奇地发现,在巨大推覆体之下...     

North American Trends in Extreme Precipitation

An analysis of extreme precipitation events indicates that there has been a sizable increase in their frequency since the 1920s/1930s in the U.S. There has been no discernible trend in the frequency of the most extreme events in Canada, but the frequency of less extreme events has increased in some parts of Canada, notably in the Arctic. In the U.S., frequencies in the late 1800s/early 1900s were about as high as in the 1980s/1990s. This suggests that natural variability of the climate system could be the cause of the recent increase, although anthropogenic forcing due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations cannot be discounted as another cause. It is likely that anthropogenic forcing will eventually cause global increases in extreme precipitation, primarily because of probable increases in atmospheric water vapor content and destabilization of the atmosphere. However, the location, timing, and magnitude of local and regional changes remain unknown because of uncertainties about future changes in the frequency/intensity of meteorological systems that cause extreme precipitation.     

Species concept in North American stegosaurs

The plated thyreophoran or stegosaurian dinosaur Stegosaurus armatus was named in 1877 by Marsh for fragmentary remains from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Colorado, USA. Subsequent discoveries from the same formation in Wyoming and Colorado (USA) have been assigned to separate stegosaurian genera and species, but most of these are no longer considered valid. More recently, a partial stegosaurian skeleton from Wyoming was named Hesperosaurus mjosi. However, the validity of this genus has been questioned recently, raising the question: how much osteological difference among stegosaur taxa is needed to separate genera from species? The question is examined vis-à-vis species and genus recognition in other dinosaurs, including iguanodonts, lambeosaurine iguanodontids, chasmosaurine ceratopsians, tyrannosaurid theropods, and diplodocid sauropods. The basis for taxonomic distinction is largely philosophical: if the species are morphologically distinct enough, they should be treated as separate genera. Based on these criteria, Hesperosaurus mjosi is a distinct taxon.     

Mountain building processes during continent–continent collision in the Uralides

Since the early 1990's the Paleozoic Uralide Orogen of Russia has been the target of a significant research initiative as part of EUROPROBE and GEODE, both European Science Foundation programmes. One of the main objectives of these research programmes was the determination of the tectonic processes that went into the formation of the orogen. In this review paper we focus on the Late Paleozoic continent–continent collision that took place between Laurussia and Kazakhstania. Research in the Uralides was concentrated around two deep seismic profiles crossing the orogen. These were accompanied by geological, geophysical, geochronological, geochemical, and low-temperature thermochronological studies. The seismic profiles demonstrate that the Uralides has an overall bivergent structural architecture, but with significantly different reflectivity characteristics from one tectonic zone to another. The integration of other types of data sets with the seismic data allows us to interpret what tectonic processes where responsible for the formation of the structural architecture, and when they were active. On the basis of these data, we suggest that the changes in the crustal-scale structural architecture indicate that there was significant partitioning of tectonothermal conditions and deformation from zone to zone across major fault systems, and between the lower and upper crust. Also, a number of the structural features revealed in the bivergent architecture of the orogen formed either in the Neoproterozoic or in the Paleozoic, prior to continent–continent collision. From the end of continent–continent collision to the present, low-temperature thermochronology suggests that the evolution of the Uralides has been dominated by erosion and slow exhumation. Despite some evidence for more recent topographic uplift, it has so far proven difficult to quantify it.     

Discs and discord: The paleontological record of Ediacaran discoidal structures in the south American continent

Discoidal sedimentary structures are commonly described in Proterozoic strata, and even more common in Ediacaran to lower Cambrian sedimentary successions. Many abiotic processes are able to produce such circular or discoidal structures in bedding planes, however, their abundance in Ediacaran strata suggests a possible correlation with the evolution and preservation of epibenthic metazoans that emerged at the end of this period. In the South American paleontological record, studies regarding the Ediacaran soft-bodied organisms are meager and restricted to few reports in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. In many cases, such “fossils” were only tentatively characterized in terms of their general morphology and putative taxonomic affinity. Thus, considering the almost absence of work on these enigmatic structures in South America, this paper aims to make a critical analysis on the main occurrences of Ediacaran-Cambrian discoidal structures described in this continent. Based on a detailed review and unpublished data, it was possible to provide a general picture concerning the main paleoenvironmental and sedimentary significance of this structures, as well as on the most promising prospects in terms of the paleontological record of Ediacaran soft-bodied metazoans in South American. In this sense, it was settled that occurrences such as those in the Jaibaras and Itajaí basins should be reassessed in order to establish reliable criteria of biogenicity. In the case of the material from the Sete Lagoas and Tagatiya Guazu formations, it is considered more parsimonious to interpret the discoidal features as resulting from microbial processes. Similarly, the discoidal structures of the Cerro Negro Formation presents a series of internal laminations and textures that resembles those developed by processes of microbial grain binding and trapping suggesting that, at least part of this material, can be related to microbially induced sedimentary structures. Finally, for the ichnologically diversified Puncoviscana and Camaquã basins, two different scenarios were identified. The first presents an ichnological assemblage strongly indicative of lower Paleozoic, and possibly Cambrian affinity. Thus, the discs in association with these traces, should be viewed with caution and interpretations made in light of a Paleozoic context. The second possesses an ichnological association typical of that expected for the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, and the diversity of discoidal forms can potentially represent imprints of macroorganisms on a microbially bounded substrate, thus deserving a more detailed approach.     

Assessing the adequacy of North American agricultural land resources

This paper provides a prospective analysis of supply/demand conditions for agricultural land in Canada and the U.S.A. according to various growth scenarios and an assessment of the economic and environmental costs associated with expanding and intensifying the cropland base. Future cropland expansion is estimated on the basis of the interrelationship between growth in demand and the productivity of cereal output. The adequacy of the land resource base is assessed by comparing individual projections with expected reserves of cropland adjusted for non-agricultural demands for land. Within the context of these findings the paper proceeds with a general discussion of the man-made, resource and environmental constraints to expanding production and the resulting economic and environmental costs to society.     

华北大陆边缘造山过程与成矿研究的重要进展和问题

本文简要总结了国家973计划项目"华北大陆边缘造山过程与成矿"前4年取得的重要进展,包括提出了镁铁质岩石容矿的热液铜镍一贵金属矿床、浅成作用的概念,将热液成矿系统分为岩浆热液、变质热液和浅成热液三大系列;基于一批造山型银、铅锌、铜、钼等矿床的发现或识别,将造山金矿的概念和成矿分带模式拓展为造山型矿床;确定华北克拉通南缘和北缘均发生了印支期成矿事件,尤其是浆控高温热液型钼矿床;发现大陆内部浆控高温热液成矿系统以富CO_2、富钾、富氟为特征,不同于岛弧区同类矿床;挤压造山带的卡林型-类卡林型金矿成矿系统也以含CO_2-H_2O包裹体而区别于弧后盆岭省的同类成矿系统;发现中央造山带和中亚造山带在成矿类型、优势矿种等方面差异显著,缘于它们分别经历了弱增生-强碰撞和强增生-弱碰撞的造山作用;确定华北陆块及其陆缘造山带东部在燕山期大规模成矿,自西向东成矿年龄梯级变新,优势成矿类型和矿种不同,缘于太平洋板块作用叠合于造山带自身的演化;发现碰撞前的热液成矿系统均或多或少地遭受改造,甚至活化、再就位成另类矿床;在秦岭造山带新发现了1.9Ga和1.75Ga浆控热液钼矿床以及430Ma的造山型银金钼矿床,在兴蒙造山带新发现了泥盆纪造山型铜金矿床,据此预测了前中生代矿床的找矿潜力;提出矿床是地球动力学研究的探针,厘定秦岭-大别-苏鲁造山带在120Ma之后的隆升剥蚀幅度总体小于10km,平均每年0.04mm,快速隆升剥蚀只能发生在130Ma之前;初步厘定古亚洲洋沿索伦-延吉缝合带自西向东闭合于260～250Ma,古特提斯洋北支最终闭合于220Ma;揭示华北克拉通对于Kenor、Columbia、Rodinia、Gondwana和Pangea超大陆事件均有响应,发现了拉马甘迪(Lomagundi)事件的碳同位素正向漂移现象,确定孔兹岩系主要形成于2.3Ga以后.提出急需加强研究的重要科学问题是大陆碰撞造山事件的起止时限和标志,前中生代成矿系统的识别和预测,燕山期大规模成矿的区域规律性和差异性,构造域叠合-转化过程的细节和机理.     

The temporal evolution of North American kimberlites

North American kimberlite magmatism spans a period of time in excess of 1 billion years from Mesoproterozoic kimberlites in the Lake Superior and James Bay Lowlands region of Ontario to Eocene kimberlites in the Lac de Gras field, N.W.T. Based on a compilation of more than 150 robust radiometric age determinations, several distinct kimberlite emplacement patterns are recognized. In general, the temporal pattern of kimberlite emplacement in North America can be broadly subdivided into five domains: (1) a Mesoproterozoic kimberlite province in central Ontario, (2) an Eocambrian/Cambrian Labrador Sea Province in northern Québec and Labrador, (3) an eastern Jurassic Province, (4) a central Cretaceous corridor and (5) a western mixed domain that includes two Type-3 kimberlite provinces (i.e. multiple periods of kimberlite emplacement preserved in the Slave and Wyoming cratons). For some provinces the origin of kimberlite magmatism can be linked to known mantle heat sources such as mantle plume hotspots and upwelling asthenosphere attendant with continental rifting. For example, the timing and location of Mesoproterozoic kimberlites in North America coincides with and slightly precedes the timing of 1.1 Ga intracontinental rifting that culminated in the Midcontinent Rift centered in the Lake Superior region. Many of the kimberlites in the Eocambrian/Cambrian Labrador Sea province were emplaced soon after the opening of the Iapetus Ocean at about 615 Ma and may also be linked to mantle upwelling associated with continental rifting. The eastern Jurassic kimberlites record an age progression where magmatism youngs in a southeast direction from the 200 Ma Rankin Inlet kimberlites to the 155–126 Ma Timiskaming kimberlites. The location of several kimberlite fields and clusters in Ontario and Québec lie along a continental extension of the Great Meteor hotspot track and represents one of the best examples in the world of kimberlite magmatism triggered by mantle plumes. The central Cretaceous (103–94 Ma) corridor extends for more than 4000 km from Somerset Island in northern Canada through the Fort à la Corne field in Saskatchewan to the kimberlites in central USA. This is the first recognized corridor of kimberlite magmatism of this magnitude. The possible westward younging of Cretaceous to Eocene corridors of kimberlite magmatism could reflect major changes in plate geometry during subduction of the Kula–Farallon plate.     

Glacial geography and native North American languages

This study tests the hypothesis that the number and distribution of some native American languages may be related to ice-margin changes of the Wisconsin glaciation. The analysis indicated that the number of languages per unit area is much greater in unglaciated areas of the last glacial maximum than in glaciated areas. The pattern of languge overlap between land areas sequentially exposed during deglaciation appears to indicate the direction of movement of populations from the periphery toward the core of the area once covered by the Wisconsin Ice Sheet. The data strongly indicate that North America was inhabited prior to the Wisconsin glacial maximum, because glacial maximum conditions apparently influenced linguistic distributions. Evidence suggests that ancestral Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene speakers occupied the northwestern edge of the continental ice mass, and that ancestral Algonquian speakers were south of the ice mass during the Wisconsin glacial maximum (approximately 18,000 yr ago). These three linguistic groups were the principal ones to spreas into areas exposed by the recession of the Wisconsin ice.     

North American farmland protection strategies in retrospect

The arenas in which farmland protection strategies have developed in North America vary in terms of perceptions of the farmland resource and the role of planning, and in terms of administrative structures. Administratively, farmland protection strategies have developed in a variety of structures, ranging from the very decentralized ones of many US states to the more centralized, though still mixed, ones found in some Canadian provinces. Farmland protection strategies can thus be investigated in terms of how they address a variety of fundamental issues. Difficult questions are raised by policy evaluation, e.g. are objectives coherent, how do objectives relate to goals and objectives for other land uses and what would have happened in the absence of the program? It is argued that, while it is essential to encourage more analyses of how results, e.g. farmland removal rates, relate to stated objectives, it is equally important to study the decision-making process of implementation to establish both stated and implied objectives and therefore how farmland protection strategies relate to the broader land use planning and management context for other land uses.     

Modeling North American Freshwater Runoff through the Last Glacial Cycle

The Northern Hemisphere ice sheets decayed rapidly during deglacial phases of the ice-age cycle, producing meltwater fluxes that may have been of sufficient magnitude to perturb oceanic circulation. The continental record of ice-sheet history is more obscured during the growth and advance of the last great ice sheets, ca. 120,000–20,000 yr B.P., but ice cores tell of high-amplitude, millennial-scale climate fluctuations that prevailed throughout this period. These climatic excursions would have provoked significant fluctuation of ice-sheet margins and runoff variability whenever ice sheets extended to mid-latitudes, giving a complex pattern of freshwater delivery to the oceans. A model of continental surface hydrology is coupled with an ice-dynamics model simulating the last glacial cycle in North America. Meltwater discharged from ice sheets is either channeled down continental drainage pathways or stored temporarily in large systems of proglacial lakes that border the retreating ice-sheet margin. The coupled treatment provides quantitative estimates of the spatial and temporal patterns of freshwater flux to the continental margins. Results imply an intensified surface hydrological environment when ice sheets are present, despite a net decrease in precipitation during glacial periods. Diminished continental evaporation and high levels of meltwater production combine to give mid-latitude runoff values that are highly variable through the glacial cycle, but are two to three times in excess of modern river fluxes; drainage to the North Atlantic via the St. Lawrence, Hudson, and Mississippi River catchments averages 0.356 Sv for the period 60,000–10,000 yr B.P., compared to 0.122 Sv for the past 10,000 yr. High-amplitude meltwater pulses to the Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic, and North Pacific occur throughout the glacial period, with ice-sheet geometry controlling intricate patterns of freshwater routing variability. Runoff from North America is staged in the final deglaciation, with a stepped sequence of pulses through the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Arctic, and Hudson Strait drainages.