Effectiveness of visually analyzing LiDAR DTM derivatives for earth and debris slide inventory mapping for statistical susceptibility modeling

Landslide inventories are the most important data source for landslide process, susceptibility, hazard, and risk analyses. The objective of this study was to identify an effective method for mapping a landslide inventory for a large study area (19,186 km²) from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) digital terrain model (DTM) derivatives. This inventory should in particular be optimized for statistical susceptibility modeling of earth and debris slides. We compared the mapping of a representative set of landslide bodies with polygons (earth and debris slides, earth flows, complex landslides, and areas with slides) and a substantially complete set of earth and debris slide main scarps with points by visual interpretation of LiDAR DTM derivatives. The effectiveness of the two mapping methods was estimated by evaluating the requirements on an inventory used for statistical susceptibility modeling and their fulfillment by our mapped inventories. The resulting landslide inventories improved the knowledge on landslide events in the study area and outlined the heterogeneity of the study area with respect to landslide susceptibility. The obtained effectiveness estimate demonstrated that none of our mapped inventories are perfect for statistical landslide susceptibility modeling. However, opposed to mapping polygons, mapping earth and debris slides with a point in the main scarp were most effective for statistical susceptibility modeling within large study areas. Therefore, earth and debris slides were mapped with points in the main scarp in entire Lower Austria. The advantages, drawbacks, and effectiveness of landslide mapping on the basis of LiDAR DTM derivatives compared to other imagery and techniques were discussed.     

Three‐dimensional seismic analysis of sediment waves and related geomorphological features on a carbonate shelf exposed to large amplitude internal waves,Browse Basin region,Australia

This study analyses the three‐dimensional geometry of sedimentary features recorded on the modern sea floor and in the shallow subsurface of a shelf to upper slope region offshore Australia that is characterized by a pronounced internal wave regime. The data interpreted comprise an extensive, >12 500 km² industrial three‐dimensional seismic‐reflection survey that images the northern part of the Browse Basin, Australian North West Shelf. The most prominent seismic–morphological features on the modern sea floor are submarine terrace escarpments, fault‐scarps and incised channels, as well as restricted areas of seismic distortion interpreted as mass wasting deposits. Besides these kilometre‐scale sea floor irregularities, smaller bedforms were discovered also, including a multitude of sediment waves with a lateral extent of several kilometres and heights up to 10 m. These sedimentological features generally occur in extensive fields in water depths below 250 m mostly at the foot of submerged terraces, along the scarps of modern faults and along the shelf break between the outer shelf and the upper continental rise. Additional bedforms that characterize the more planar regions of the outer shelf are elongate, north‐west/south‐east oriented furrows and ridges. The formation of both sediment waves and furrow‐ridge systems requires flow velocities between 0·3 m sec^?1 and 1·5 m sec^?1, which could be generated by oceanic currents, gravity currents or internal waves. In the studied setting, these velocities can be best explained as being generated by bottom currents induced by internal waves, an interpretation that is discussed against oceanographic background data and modelling results. In addition to the documentation of three‐dimensional seismic–geomorphological features of the modern sea floor, it was also possible to map kilometre‐scale buried sediment wave fields in the seismic volume down to ca 500 ms two‐way‐time below the present sea floor, indicating the general potential for the preservation of such bedforms in the sedimentary record.     

Late Pleistocene–early Holocene fluvial facies and depositional processes in the Fehmarn Belt, between Germany and Denmark, revealed by high-resolution seismic and lithofacies analysis

In the narrow offshore border zone between Germany and Denmark, 550 km of high‐density 3·5‐kHz subbottom seismic reflection profiles were recorded within a 70‐km² area in order to reconstruct the seismic stratigraphy of late Pleistocene to early Holocene lacustrine and fluvial environments. Using detailed line drawings, seismic facies analyses and a hierarchy of bounding surfaces, a depositional unit was recognized and subdivided into subunits 4^a (oblique‐parallel), 4^b (mound, oblique‐tangential), 4^c (sigmoid, oblique), 4^d and 4^e (shingled and parallel). The base of this seismic facies association defines a wide U‐shaped valley with well‐defined scours and, in the valley sides, ‘steps’ are located above deep steep‐dipping reflections. Stratigraphic control was available from 32 coring sites (5‐ to 12‐m‐deep vibrocores). Subunit 4^b represents coarsening‐up silt and sand, and samples from subunit 4^d show fining‐up fine sand, silt and clay. The seismic facies association is proposed to have formed by a fluvial event of short duration some time in the period between 10·3 ¹⁴C ka BP and 9·0 ¹⁴C ka BP. Subunits 4^a to 4^e represent gradually decreasing flow power. A peak flow initiated the fluvial event, after which water discharge and level fell rapidly. Subsequently, the normal background discharge from the Baltic Sea area dominated the flow style. Reflections beneath the ‘step’‐like valley side with high dip angles are interpreted as faults. This tectonic activity resulted in subsidence in the analysed area and could possibly have influenced the fluvio‐dynamic development. The seismic stratigraphic succession reveals a high‐resolution record of sediments in this area. In particular, the stepwise uncovering of the morphology of the subunits, preserved in high‐resolution seismic facies associations, is proposed as a useful tool in modelling the dynamic development of the near sea‐floor environment.     

Reservoir induced landslide at Assar,Jammu and Kashmir: A case study

In February 2009, a huge landslide occurred at Assar in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir state. The slide triggered after the reservoir level of the Baglihar dam increased from initial water level of 850 m to 870 m. The impounding of reservoir water created high angle scarps at number of fossil slide sites on either side of the river within the reservoir area. One such scarp (about 250 m long) at Assar caused a huge landslide washing out about 150 m road stretch. The sliding material is dominated by finer fraction (71.5 %) of micaceous silty sand and coarser fraction of gravel to boulder size. Over saturation of the slope forming material, weak rocks and high absorption and swelling nature of the soil, high slope angle and toe cutting by the water are the main reasons that triggered this slide.     

Rio Muni盆地第四纪陆坡地震地貌学

基于Rio Muni盆地深水区1 400 km2的高分辨率三维地震资料,对第四纪陆坡开展地形、地貌单元的构型、成因及演化研究。主要取得3点结论:①依据海底坡度,研究区海底地形具有东西分带,南北分区的特点。②研究区发育水道（顺直水道和弯曲水道）、滑坡（陆坡滑坡和水道壁滑坡）及海底麻坑（孤立麻坑和条带状麻坑）3类典型地貌单元。上陆坡主要发育顺直水道,弯曲水道带发育在中-下陆坡。弯曲水道主要分布在南北2区,而顺直水道在南中北3区均有发育。水道的弯曲程度与海底坡度、重力流供给密切相关。③条带状海底麻坑主要分布在南北2区,孤立麻坑3区均发育。单一麻坑任意方向的剖面均具有“U”形或“V”形特征,其下方的气烟囱具有振幅增强,同相轴下拉特征。条带状麻坑分布在古水道上方或两侧的海底, 其走向剖面具有脊-槽相间地形特征。古水道和浅层气的逸散是形成条带状海底麻坑的主要因素。     

四川盆地北部长兴组生物礁地震响应特征与分布规律

井下钻探结果和地震资料表明四川盆地北部上二叠统长兴组生物礁发育,通过对典型井长兴组岩性与电性资料的分析,明确了生物礁的岩性与储层发育特征。根据井下生物礁及围岩岩性与电性资料并结合过井地震剖面反射波的几何特征,建立台地边缘生物礁的地震正演数值模型,通过对比生物礁模型地震正演记录与实际生物礁地震剖面,建立针对研究区台地边缘生物礁的地震响应特征模式。依据生物礁的地震响应特征对该地区连片二、三维地震测线开展地震相分析,通过已有钻井地震相与沉积相对应关系分析,指出了长兴组生物礁在该地区的分布规律。四川北部地区地震相与沉积相带具有良好的对应关系,存在环台棚-海盆相的台地前缘斜坡-台地边缘生物礁相-开阔台地相沉积体系,地震剖面上生物礁的外部形态呈丘状或透镜状,内部为杂乱反射特征;礁盖白云岩具有亮点反射特征,生物礁底界面出现上凸或者下凹反射现象,生物礁的上部地层具有披覆反射结构,四川盆地北部地区长兴组台地边缘生物礁相在台棚-海盆相东、西两侧沿北西向呈条带状展布,分布面积大于2000km~2,生物礁气藏勘探潜力巨大。     

Sheet slides and rotational failures on a convergent margin: the Kidnappers Slide, New Zealand

The Kidnappers Slide, on the upper continental slope of the convergent margin off eastern North Island, New Zealand, has been re-examined using a grid of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles. The slide is not a single feature but a complex of sheet slides and rotational failures ranging from 20 to 140 m thick, and covering a total area of 720 km². Failures occurred in several phases, on slopes of 1–5°, in late Quaternary, muddy, shelf-edge clinoforms that have prograded into an accretionary, trench-slope basin. Piston cores and seismic stratigraphy show that the main failure probably occurred in early Holocene times but that movements ranged from mid last glacial to late Holocene times. The sheet slides exhibit tensional collapse via numerous listric normal faults that sole out on glide planes; there is no clear evidence of compressional structures anywhere within the complex. The glide planes occur at progressively deeper stratigraphic levels towards the northeastern end of the complex, and near the steep slope that defines the seaward edge of the trench-slope basin. There is retrogressive failure at the top of the slope. The surficial slides are being deformed by growth of active tectonic faults and folds associated with the convergent plate margin. This type of slope failure may be partially related to metastable sandy layers within the last glacial age progradational sequence, and possibly to formation of bubble phase gas at shallow depths. Failure was probably triggered by earthquake loading of sediments in this highly seismic region.     

The 1988 Tennant Creek,northern territory,earthquakes: A synthesis

Three large earthquakes with surface‐wave magnitudes 6.3–6.7 on 22 January 1988 were associated with 32 km of surface faulting on two main scarps 30 km southwest of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. These events provide an excellent opportunity to study the mechanics of midplate earthquakes because of the abundance of geological and geophysical data in the area, the proximity of the Warramunga seismic array and the ease of access to the fault zone. The 1988 earthquakes were located in the North Australian Craton in an area that had no history of moderate or large earthquakes before 1986. Additionally, no smaller earthquakes from the fault zone were identified at the Warramunga array, which is situated only 30 km from the nearest scarp, between the 1965 installation of the array and 1986. The main shocks were preceded by a swarm of moderatesized (magnitude 4–5) earthquakes in January 1987 and many smaller aftershocks throughout 1987. Careful relocation of all teleseismically recorded earthquakes from the fault zone shows that the 1987 activity was concentrated in an area only 6 km across in the gap between the two main fault scarps. The main shocks also nucleated in the centre of the fault zone near the 1987 activity. Field observations of scarp morphology indicate that the scarp is divided into three segments, each showing primarily reverse faulting. However, whereas the western and eastern segments show movement of the southern block over the northern, the central scarp segment shows the opposite, with the northern block thrust over the southern block.

Analysis of the first arrival times at Warramunga suggests that the three main shocks were associated with the western, central and eastern scarp segments, respectively. The locations of aftershocks determined using data from temporary seismograph arrays in the epicentral area define three inclined zones of activity that are interpreted as fault planes. In the western and eastern portions of the aftershock zone, these concentrations of activity dip to the south at 45° and 35°, respectively, but in the central section the aftershock zone dips to the north at 55°. Focal mechanisms derived from modelling broadband teleseismic data show thrust and oblique thrust faulting for the three main shocks. The first event ruptured unilaterally up and to the northwest on the westernmost fault segment, while the third main shock ruptured horizontally to the southeast. Modelling of repeat levelling data from the epicentral area requires at least three distinct fault planes, with the eastern and western planes dipping to the south and the central plane dipping to the north. The combination of scarp morphology, aftershock distribution and elevation data makes a strong case for rupture of fault planes in conjugate orientation during the 22 January 1988 Tennant Creek earthquakes. More than 20000 aftershocks have been recorded at Warramunga and activity continues to the present‐day with occasional shocks felt in the town of Tennant Creek and some recent off‐fault aftershocks located directly under the Warramunga seismic array. Stratigraphic relationships exposed in trenches excavated across the scarps suggest that during the Quaternary, a large earthquake ruptured the surface along one segment of the 1988 scarps.     

On the origin of large shelf embayments on glaciated margins—effects of lateral ice flux variations and glacio-dynamics west of Svalbard

Glaciated continental shelves are characterised by large amphitheatre-like embayments between prominent cross-shelf troughs. The integration of swath bathymetry and high-resolution seismic data (3D, 2D) collected across the western Svalbard continental margin indicates how such embayments form. Although their bathymetric expression resembles headwall scarps of submarine slope failures, the shelf embayments are the result of the interplay between sediment dynamics and transport underneath fast-moving ice streams in the cross-shelf troughs and the slower-moving parts of the ice sheets on the adjacent shallower shelf banks during full glacial conditions. This is supported by (1) the absence of major landslide deposits at their toe, (2) continuous prograding shelf deposition and (3) absence of landslide-related faulting. Instead, the seismic data suggest a depositional origin of the shelf embayments that is characterised by continuous sediment input at lower rates off a slow-moving ice mass in the centre of the embayment which is fringed by the lateral ice-stream ridges. These findings put into perspective the importance of submarine slope failure on glaciated margins.     

The role of sedimentation rate and permeability in the slope stability of the formerly glaciated Norwegian continental margin: the Storegga slide model

Despite the gently dipping slopes (ca 1°), large-scale submarine slope failures have occurred on the mid-Norwegian continental margin (Storegga, Sklinnadjupet, Traenadjupet), suggesting the presence of special conditions predisposing to failure in this formerly glaciated margin. With a volume estimated between 2,400 and 3,200 km³ and an affected area of approximately 95,000 km², the Storegga slide represents one of the largest and best-studied submarine slides of Holocene age known worldwide. Finite element modeling of slope failure indicates that a large (6.5 < Ms < 7.0) seismic triggering mechanism would not be sufficient to cause failure at more than 110 m below the seabed as observed for the slip planes at Storegga (northern sidewall). This implies that other factors (e.g., liquefaction, strain softening, gas charging, rapid burial) are needed to explain the occurrence of the Storegga slide with a deep surface of failure. In this paper, we discuss the importance of the compaction effect of rapidly accumulated sediments in the slide area. During compaction, sediment grains reorganize themselves, thereby, expelling pore water. Consequently, depending on sedimentation rate and permeability, excess pore pressures might result beneath less permeable sediments. Our modeling and cross-checking illustrate how excess pore pressure generation due to high sedimentation rate could explain the development of layers of weakness, and thus, how such a large slide might have been initiated in deep sediments. Using the highest sedimentation rate estimated in the area (36 and 27 m/kyr between 16.2 and 15 kyr BP), 1D modeling shows excess pore pressure values of around 200 kPa at a depth of 100 m below the seafloor 15 kyr BP and 60 kPa at a depth of 100 m at the time of the slide (8 kyr BP). Excess pore pressure apparently drastically reduced the resistance of the sediment (incomplete consolidation). In addition, 2D modeling shows that permeability anisotropies can significantly affect the lateral extent of excess pore pressure dissipation, affecting, that way, normally consolidated sediments far from the excess pore pressure initiation area.     

南海北部神狐陆坡限制型滑塌体特征及成因机理

滑塌体是深水沉积的重要组成部分,研究滑塌体沉积有助于揭示深水沉积过程。利用高精度多道地震资料,首次在南海北部神狐陆坡段发现了规模逾千平方千米的限制型滑塌体,它在顺坡滑塌时,未能超越下坡地层的围限,突然终止于下坡未变形地层中,因此陡冲斜坡两侧的地震相特征发生截然的变化。滑塌体整体呈楔形,内部呈杂乱反射,前端存在逆冲断层以及挤压褶皱。由于顺坡滑塌距离较短,因此与非限制型滑塌体相比,限制型滑塌体内部地层连续性较好。结合神狐滑塌体地震反射特征并通过与世界典型滑塌体的对比,可知滑塌体的厚度、地形坡度二者共同控制了神狐滑塌体的发育类型,前端地形突起对其发育没有影响。     

Origin and terminal architecture of a submarine slide: a case study from the Permian Vischkuil Formation,Karoo Basin,South Africa

Submarine mass movement deposits exposed in the Vischkuil Formation, Laingsburg Karoo Basin, South Africa, provide a rare opportunity to analyse and interpret their emplacement history and deformation processes at a scale comparable to seismic examples. An up to 80 m thick slide deposit, continuously exposed in two 2 km long sub‐parallel sections, passes from extensionally deformed material (clastic dykes and down‐dip facing low‐angle shear surfaces) down‐dip into a compressional toe zone with large (tens of metres amplitude) folds dissected by steep, up‐dip facing thrust planes. The compressional shear planes sole out onto a highly sheared décollement and cross‐cutting relationships indicate an up‐depositional dip younging in the timing of fold dissection. Lithofacies characteristics and detailed correlation of volcanic ash and other marker beds over more than 500 km² in the bounding undeformed stratigraphy indicate a low‐gradient (<0·1°) basin floor setting. The slide is abruptly overlain by an up to 50 m thick debrite with sandy clasts supported by an argillaceous matrix. Shear loading of the debris flow is interpreted to have driven large‐scale deformation of the substrate through the generation of high shear stresses at a rheological interface due to: (i) the abrupt contact between the slide and the debrite; (ii) the coincident thickness distributions of the debrite and slide; (iii) the distribution of the most intense folding and thrusting under the thickest parts of the debrite; (iv) the preservation of fold crests with only minor erosion along fold limbs; (v) the presence of the debrite under overturned folds; (vi) the presence of laterally extensive marker beds directly above deformation units indicating minimal depositional topography; and (vii) the demonstrably local derivation of the slide as individual folded beds are mapped into undeformed strata outside the areas of deformation. The debrite is directly overlain by fine‐grained turbidite sandstone beds that show widespread vertical foundering into the debrite. This case study demonstrates that intensely deformed strata can be generated by negligible amounts of down‐dip movement in a low‐gradient, fine‐grained basin floor setting with the driver for movement and deformation being the mass imbalance resulting from emplacement of episodic debris flows. Simple interpretation of an unstable slope setting based on the presence of such deformed strata should be treated with caution.     

南海南沙海槽大型海底滑坡的发育特征及成因机制

大型海底滑坡的研究对认识海底斜坡的稳定性具有重要意义.利用最新的高精度多波束数据和重处理的二维地震资料,识别了南海南沙海槽一处大型海底滑坡,描述了其发育特征,探讨了其可能的形成原因.该滑坡体覆盖面积达6 300 km2,横向最宽50 km,延伸最远140 km.上部源头区外形呈半环形,滑坡后壁的高度落差200~350 m,平均坡度0.7°,发育基底剪切面和掀斜断块.中部滑移区呈拱形,分布于1 600~2 400 m水深段,平均坡度1°~3°,发育基底侵蚀面和大量残余块体.下部堆积区呈扇形,分布于2 400~2 800 m水深段,平均坡度0.1°~1.0°,发育大型碎屑流朵体和逃逸块体.研究表明不断隆升的背斜脊对高供给率沉积物的阻挡是海底斜坡失稳的内在条件,而高通量流体的聚集以及天然气水合物的分解使其变得更加不稳定.      

The role of the diagnostic areas in the assessment of landslide susceptibility models: a test in the sicilian chain

The aim of the research was to verify and compare the predictive power of different diagnostic areas in assessing landslide susceptibility with a multivariate approach. Scarps, landslide areas (the union between scarp and accumulation zones) and areas uphill from crowns, for rotational slides, source or scarp areas and landslide areas, for flows, have been tested. A multivariate approach was applied to assess the landslide susceptibility on the basis of three selected conditioning factors (lithology, slope angle, and topographic wetness index), which were combined in a Unique Condition Unit (UCU) layer. By intersecting the UCU layer with the vector layer of the diagnostic areas, landslide susceptibility models were produced, in which the susceptibility is assigned to each UCUs on the basis of the computed density function. In order to test the effects produced by selecting different diagnostic areas in the performance of the susceptibility models, validation procedures have been applied to evaluate and compare the performances of the derived predictive models. The validation results are estimated by comparing the prediction and the success rate curves, exploiting three morphometric indexes. A test area, the Guddemi river basin, was selected in the northern Sicilian Apennines chain, having a total area of nearly 25 km² and being mainly characterized by the outcropping of clays, calcilutites, and marly limestones. Aerial analysis, integrated with a field survey, resulted in the recognition of 111 earth-flow and 145 earth-rotational slide landslides. Scarps, for rotational slides, and both source and landslide areas, for flows, produced very satisfactory validation results. For rotational slides, areas uphill from crowns and landslide areas are both responsible for lower predictive performances, characterized by validation curves close to being flat shaped, due to their incapability of identifying specific slope (UCU) conditions. Moreover, because of their limited size, the areas uphill from crowns seem to suffer from a relevant geostatistical “instability”, when a splitting is performed to produce the validation domains, so that an enhanced shift between success and prediction rate curves is produced. By comparing the relative susceptibility maps, the research allowed us to evaluate the key role played by the selection of the diagnostic areas; the validation of the models is proposed as a tool to quantify such differences in terms of predictive performance.     

Kilometre‐scale sand injectites in the intracratonic Murzuq Basin (South‐west Libya): an igneous trigger?

Mount Telout, situated at the edge of the Murzuq Basin, is a 325 m high conical hill within a circular collapse structure that records 0·5 km³ of sand intrusion into Silurian shales. Based on a comparison with other similar circular collapse structures around the Murzuq Basin, it is argued that sand injection in the form of pipes occurred during the Devonian. The overpressures triggering the process are inferred to result from a combination of: (i) tectonic uplift at a basin scale that initially focused regional ground water flows; and (ii) igneous intrusion within the sand‐rich Cambrian–Ordovician strata. The palaeorelief buried under the regionally extensive Silurian shales may have locally focused overpressures and localized sand injection at the 1 to 10 km scale. The Mount Telout injected sandbody and related features offer exceptional, seismic‐scale outcrop analogues for sand injections that are often identified in seismic reflection data. Large‐scale sand injections might be essential in petroleum exploration of the North African Lower Palaeozoic basins as they form seal‐bypass systems.     

Exhumation of the Dayman dome metamorphic core complex, eastern Papua New Guinea

The ～750 km² Dayman dome of the Late Cretaceous Suckling‐Dayman massif, eastern Papua New Guinea, is a domed landform that rises to an elevation of 2850 m. The northern edge of the dome is a fault scarp >1000 m high that is now part of an active microplate boundary separating continental crust of the New Guinea highlands from continental and oceanic crust of the Woodlark microplate. Previous work has shown that a parallel belt of eclogite‐bearing core complexes north‐east of the Dayman dome were exhumed from up to 24–28 kbar in the last few millions of years. The remarkably fresh and lightly eroded scarp of the Dayman dome exposes shallowly‐dipping mylonitic (S1) metabasite rocks (500 m thick) on the northern flank of Mount Dayman. Field relationships near the base of this scarp show a cross cutting suite of ductile and brittle meso‐structures that includes: (i) rare ductile S2 folia with a shallowly ESE‐plunging mineral elongation lineation defined by sodic‐calcic blue amphibole; (ii) narrow steeply‐dipping ductile D2 shear zones; and (iii) semi‐brittle to brittle fault zones. Pumpellyite‐actinolite facies assemblages reported by previous workers to contain local aragonite, lawsonite and/or glaucophane are found in the core of the complex at elevations greater than 2000 m. These assemblages indicate peak metamorphic pressures of 6–9.5 kbar, demonstrating exhumation of the core of the Dayman dome from depths of 20–30 km. The S1 metamorphic mineral assemblage in metabasite includes actinolite‐chlorite‐epidote‐albite‐quartz‐calcite‐titanite, indicative of greenschist facies conditions for the main deformation. New mineral equilibria modelling suggests that this S1 assemblage evolved at 5.9–7.2 kbar at ～425 °C. Modelling variable Fe³⁺ indicates that the sodic‐calcic blue amphibole (D2) formed under a higher oxidation state compared with the S1 assemblage, probably at <4.5 kbar. A SE‐dipping, Mio‐Pliocene sedimentary sequence (Gwoira Conglomerate) forms a hangingwall block juxtaposed by low‐angle fault contact with the metabasite footwall. Prehnite‐bearing D3 brittle fault zones separate the two blocks and likely accommodated the final exhumation of the S1 greenschist facies assemblage in the footwall. These results indicate that the extensive Mt Dayman fault surface coincides with a domed S1 greenschist facies foliation that was last active at >20 km depth. Exhumation of this foliation must therefore be controlled by brittle faults of the active microplate boundary that are largely not observed in the study area. The structural record of the final exhumation of the Dayman dome to the surface was likely lost as a result of erosion, poor exposure or wide spacing of semi‐brittle to brittle fault zones.     

临潼-长安断裂带所在陡坎的成因分析

临潼-长安断裂带主要由两条主断层和两条分支断层组成,断层基本沿北东向的黄土塬陡坎展布,陡坎高30～128m不等。虽然断层和陡坎有很好的重合关系,但陡坎并不完全是断层所形成,主要原因有:1)野外断层露头表明,断层错断S1古土壤层一般为0.2～1.5m,最大为6.0m,错断S₂～S₄古土壤层也仅有几米,与断层所在的陡坎高度相比,断层的错距很小;2)高桥和月登阁钻探结果显示,钻孔中早更新世地层上部断层错距分别不大于24.45m和8.49m,即断层在黄土塬基座中的错距比相应的黄土陡坎高度要小;3)在某些局部地段断层并不随陡坎拐弯而拐弯;4)深孔资料显示有侵蚀现象。综合分析,临潼-长安断裂带所在的陡坎是侵蚀作用和断层错动共同作用的结果,陡坎的形成以侵蚀作用为主,断层的错动量很小。地壳抬升、断块掀斜运动产生断层,新近纪或早更新世"三门湖"在已有的断层位置发生侵蚀,两者共同作用形成了现今地貌陡坎。     

Syn‐rift mass flow generated ‘tectonofacies’ and ‘tectonosequences’ of the Kingston Peak Formation,Death Valley,California, and their bearing on supposed Neoproterozoic panglacial climates

The Kingston Peak Formation of the Pahrump Group in the Death Valley region of the Basin and Range Province, USA, is the thick (over 3 km) mixed siliciclastic–carbonate fill of a long‐lived structurally‐complex Neoproterozoic rift basin and is recognized by some as a key ‘climatostratigraphic’ succession recording panglacial Snowball Earth events. A facies analysis of the Kingston Peak Formation shows it to be largely composed of ‘tectonofacies’ which are subaqueous mass flow deposits recording cannibalization of older Pahrump carbonate strata exposed by local faulting. Facies include siltstone, sandstone and conglomerate turbidites, carbonate megabreccias (olistoliths) and related breccias, and interbedded debrites. Secondary facies are thin carbonates and pillowed basalts. Four distinct associations of tectonofacies (‘base‐of‐scarp’; FA1, ‘mid‐slope’; FA2, ‘base‐of‐slope’; FA3, and a ‘carbonate margin’ association; FA4) reflect the initiation and progradation of deep water clastic wedges at the foot of fault scarps. ‘Tectonosequences’ record episodes of fault reactivation resulting in substantial increases in accommodation space and water depths, the collapse of fault scarps and consequent downslope mass flow events. Carbonates of FA4 record the cessation of tectonic activity and resulting sediment starvation ending the growth of clastic wedges. Tectonosequences are nested within regionally‐extensive tectono‐stratigraphic units of earlier workers that are hundreds to thousands of metres in thickness, recording the long‐term evolution of the rifted Laurentian continental margin during the protracted breakup of Rodinia. Debrite facies of the Kingston Peak Formation are classically described as ice‐contact glacial deposits recording globally‐correlative panglacials but they result from partial to complete subaqueous mixing of fault‐generated coarse‐grained debris and fine‐grained distal sediment on a slope conditioned by tectonic activity. The sedimentology (tectonofacies) and stratigraphy (tectonosequences) of the Kingston Peak Formation reflect a fundamental control on local sedimentation in the basin by faulting and likely earthquake activity, not by any global glacial climate.