Diffuse magnetic anomalies in marginal basins: Their possible tectonic and petrologic significance

Marginal basins, areas of oceanic lithosphere peripheral to large ocean basins, may be formed by several processes, but the young active marginal basins have the geophysical and geochemical characteristics of young normal oceanic lithosphere. We recognize two distinct tectonic settings in which new oceanic lithosphere may be formed in areas which would be termed marginal basins:

1. (1) Upwelling of fractional melts of mantle material from the region above subducted lithospheric slabs leads to the generation of new oceanic lithosphere behind island arcs. The general case for this tectonic setting involves random location of magma leaks and does not produce correlatable magnetic anomalies. In special cases, an orthogonal ridge—transform system may duplicate the magnetic patterns found on ocean-basin crust.

2. (2) The second tectonic setting develops on very long “leaky” transform faults separating spreading ridges. In areas where the transform has dislocated a block of continental crust, or an island arc, the map view of the resulting marginal basin may resemble the setting of a basin behind an active island arc. However, the “leaky” transform setting is unrelated to active plate convergence or to Benioff zones.

At “normal” ridge-crests, and possibly in some marginal basins, basalt is erupted on long linear magma leaks and rapid cooling forms thick lithosphere with correlatable linear magnetic anomalies. Some marginal basins have high thermal flux, spread slowly and may have thick sediment cover. Slow cooling, numerous point-source magma leaks and extensive hydrothermal alteration diminish magnetic intensities and cause diffuse magnetic patterns. The correlation problems caused by diffuse magnetic anomalies make interpretations of spreading rates and directions in young marginal basins a difficult, if not futile, task.It is likely that fragments of marginal-basin lithosphere form some of the ophiolite complexes; their recognition is critical to paleo-tectonic interpretations. The geochemical characteristics of marginal-basin basalts do not appear to be useful criteria for distinguishing them from ocean-ridge basalts. However, the abundance of short ridges and seamounts in many young marginal basins suggests that an abundance of seamount material, as well as differentiated volcanic and plutonic rocks, in ophiolites may be an indication of derivation from marginal-basin lithosphere.     

Oil and gas potential of continental margins of the Pacific Ocean

Oil and gas basins (OGB) of active and transform margins of the Pacific Ocean are discussed. Their western and eastern parts differ substantially in the evolution, tectonic pattern, and scope of resources. In the west, marginal seas incorporated into the Cenozoic geodynamic system of deep-water basins (marginal seas) and conjugate island arcs exhibit a greater oil and gas potential (hereafter, petroleum potential) as compared to the eastern margin bounded by a deep-water trench and transformed into the framing with OGBs only in separate sectors. The abundance of siliceous rocks influenced the formation and accumulation of oil and gas in the Pacific region. The most part of hydrocarbon accumulations is related to organogenic edifices and channels of shelf fans. Oil and gas fields confined to fans on slopes of deep-water troughs of active and transform margins are also known. Proceeding from the global practice, significant petroleum potential in Russia is associated with back-arc seas of the Pacific. The poorly studied deep-water basins on slopes are worthy of special attention.     

Evolution of sedimentary basins from Mesozoic times in Australia's continental slope and shelf

Three basic tectonic styles are described from structural trends and sedimentary sequences within sedimentary basins in the Australian continental slope and shelf. These tectonic styles are related to sea-floor spreading events and plate-tectonic movements within the adjacent ocean floor. The same tectonic styles occur within sedimentary basins of different ages; Mesozoic and early Tertiary basins contain rift valley sequences and late Cainozoic basins contain geosynclinal sedimentary suites.Northwestern, western and southern continental margins reflect spreading events explained by an Atlantic-type model in which there are rift-valley sedimentary sequences. The oldest rift valleys in the northwest and the youngest rifts in the south formed ahead of Gondwanaland break-up. After sea-floor spreading commenced, the rate of continental margin collapse varied from place to place. The eastern and northeastern slopes and shelves border marginal seas and do not contain recognizable rift-valley sequences, except for tensional splays (triple junctions) in the Tasman Sea. Short-lived spreading within marginal seas started in the Late Cretaceous in the south and in the Paleocene in the northeast. The tectonism of the northern margin is mainly recorded on land in Timor, Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea, where, in the Neogene to Holocene, the Australian continent collided with the Asian Plate at the Banda Arc and the sub-plates of the western Pacific at the Louisiade and Bismarck Arcs.     

Past and present geotectonic position of Sulawesi, Indonesia

Sulawesi with its peculiar K-shaped pattern is situated in an area where the Eurasian, Indian—Australian and Pacific plates interact and collide.Complex geological processess in this area resulted in the transformation of a normal island-arc structure into an inverted one, deformation of an already tectonized belt, sweeping of fragments against unrelated terrain, thrusting of oceanic and mantle material over the island arc, closing of deep-sea basins behind the arc, trapping of old oceanic crust caused by the rolling up of an island arc, formation of a marginal basin by the spreading of the sea floor behind the arc, development of small subduction zones with reverse polarities etc.Small deep-sea basins surrounding Sulawesi such as the Gulf of Bone and the Gulf of Gorontalo originally formed the arc—trench gap of the Sulawesi island arc.The Banda Sea is considered as an oceanic crust trapped by the bending of the east—west trending Banda arc due to the northward drift of Australia combined with the westward movement of the Pacific plate. Similarly the Sulawesi Sea consists of an old Pacific crust trapped by the westward bending of the Sulawesi island arc, caused by the spearheading westward thrust along the Sorong transform-fault system, in which later a minor spreading center became active in its central part. The Molucca Sea comprises tectonic mélange in which presumably a small spreading center developed between the two colliding arcs of northern Sulawesi and western Halmahera. While the Benioff zones dip under the northern Sulawesi and Halmahera arcs in normal fashion, the mélange thrusts over them. The Strait of Makassar is a marginal basin which was brought into existence by the spreading of the sea floor between Kalimantan and Sulawesi.The evolution of Sulawesi started in Miocene time or even earlier when 800 km east of Kalimantan a north—south trending east-facing island arc came into existence, originating from a spreading center located in the Pacific Ocean. Volcanism and plutonism accompanied this subduction process.Collision between Sulawesi and the Australian—New Guinea plate which occurred in early Pliocene time severely transformed Sulawesi into an island with its convex side turned towards the continent, at the same time causing obduction of ophiolite in the eastern arc of this island.The movement of the Pacific plate continued and gradually pushed Sulawesi towards the Asian continent, resulting in the closing of the sea between Kalimantan and Sulawesi islands separated by small straits and deep seas resembling the complicated pattern of the Philippine Archipelago, in which the original double island-arc structure can no longer be recognized.     

The Sr isotope composition of the world ocean, marginal and inland seas: Implications for the Sr isotope stratigraphy

We studied the Sr isotope composition of shells of modern shallow-water mollusks and coral fragments. Twenty five of the studied samples were collected in beach zones of open oceans and marginal seas; twelve and eight additional samples are from saline and freshened inland seas respectively. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio in samples from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans and their marginal seas corresponds on average to 0.709202 ± 0.000003 and coincides with the average ratio in the standard USGS EN-1 sample. The average ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio in inner parts of evaporite subbasins of the Mediterranean and Red seas is identical to that of the oceanic water. In shells of shallow-water mollusks from the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, where the degree of seawater dilution by riverine runoff is as high as 50 to 70%, the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio is lower than that in the oceans by only a value of 0.00002 on average. As oceanic waters penetrated into these freshwater basins no earlier than in the Holocene, we conclude that the Sr isotopic equilibration with the oceanic water is realized very rapidly in the epicontinental seas even under conditions of restricted water exchange with the World Ocean. The established uniformity of the Sr isotope composition in all geographic types of currently existing sea basins open to the World Ocean proves the efficiency of the Sr isotope stratigraphy in correlation of contemporaneous chemogenic sediments.     

陆缘扩张型地洼盆地系及其形成机制探讨

本文提出“陆缘扩张型地洼盆地系”这一概念,以突出表述分布于东亚陆缘壳体之上,形成于地洼余动期的张性地洼盆地系列的壳体演化—动力环境。指出陆缘海中的裂陷盆地的成因难于与大洋板块俯冲导致弧后扩张的理论模式相联系,也不同于大西洋型盆地,而是大陆地壳演化到地洼余动期,并经历过华夏期地洼型造山运动之后拉伸裂陷的结果。论证了“岩石圈底层剥落、华夏期地洼造山带拉伸裂陷”是东亚陆缘扩张发生的一种重要机制,进而建立了由华夏期地洼型挤压造山带到盆岭型构造带和陆缘海盆地系的构造发展模式。     

Comments on the development of rifts and transform faults during continental breakup; examples from the Gulf of Aden and northern Red Sea

A number of basins are observed to extend inland from the coasts on both sides of the Gulf of Aden. The basins are orientated at approximately right angles to the spreading direction and intersect the coasts at the meeting of sheared and rifted continental margins. They appear to be grabens, one wall of which is continuous with the half graben of the neighbouring rifted margin. It is suggested that these were once parts of a number of discrete rifts arranged en-echelon along a zone of lithospheric weakness during the early opening of the Gulf of Aden, which became redundant when transform faults formed. The proposed development of rifts and transform faults is similar to that of a spreading centre, transform fault, spreading centre pattern developed in the freezing wax model of Oldenburg and Brune (1975). The Gulf of Suez at the northern end of the Red Sea is interpreted in a similar way since it has a number of features in common with the basins in the continents adjacent to the Gulf of Aden.     

Plate kinematics, origin and tectonic emplacement of supra-subduction ophiolites in SE Asia

A unique feature of the Circum Pacific orogenic belts is the occurrence of ophiolitic bodies of various sizes, most of which display petrological and geochemical characteristics typical of supra-subduction zone oceanic crust. In SE Asia, a majority of the ophiolites appear to have originated at convergent margins, and specifically in backarc or island arc settings, which evolved either along the edge of the Sunda (Eurasia) and Australian cratons, or within the Philippine Sea Plate. These ophiolites were later accreted to continental margins during the Tertiary. Because of fast relative plate velocities, tectonic regimes at the active margins of these three plates also changed rapidly. Strain partitioning associated with oblique convergence caused arc-trench systems to move further away from the locus of their accretion. We distinguish “relatively autochthonous ophiolites” resulting from the shortening of marginal basins such as the present-day South China Sea or the Coral Sea, and “highly displaced ophiolites” developed in oblique convergent margins, where they were dismantled, transported and locally severely sheared during final docking. In peri-cratonic mobile belts (i.e. the Philippine Mobile Belt) we find a series of oceanic basins which have been slightly deformed and uplifted. Varying lithologies and geochemical compositions of tectonic units in these basins, as well as their age discrepancies, suggest important displacements along major wrench faults.We have used plate tectonic reconstructions to restore the former backarc basins and island arcs characterized by known petro-geochemical data to their original location and their former tectonic settings. Some of the ophiolites occurring in front of the Sunda plate represent supra-subduction zone basins formed along the Australian Craton margin during the Mesozoic. The Philippine Sea Basin, the Huatung basin south of Taiwan, and composite ophiolitic basements of the Philippines and Halmahera may represent remnants of such marginal basins. The portion of the Philippine Sea Plate carrying the Taiwan–Philippine arc and its composite ophiolitic/continental crustal basement might have actually originated in a different setting, closer to that of the Papua New Guinea Ophiolite, and then have been displaced rapidly as a result of shearing associated with fast oblique convergence.     

Tectonics and petroleum potential of the East Arctic province

Tectonics and petroleum potential of the underexplored East Arctic area have been investigated as part of an IPY (International Polar Year) project. The present-day scenery of the area began forming with opening of the Amerasia Ocean (Canada and Podvodnikov—Makarov Basins) in the Late Jurassic—Early Cretaceous and with Cretaceous—Cenozoic rifting related to spreading in the Eurasia Basin. The opening of oceans produced pull-apart and rift basins along continental slopes and shelves of the present-day Arctic fringing seas, which lie on a basement consisting of fragments of the Hyperborean craton and Early Paleozoic to Middle Cretaceous orogens. By analogy with basins of the Arctic and Atlantic passive margins, the Cretaceous—Cenozoic shelf and continental slope basins may be expected to have high petroleum potential, with oil and gas accumulations in their sediments and basement.     

A classification of mineral systems,overviews of plate tectonic margins and examples of ore deposits associated with convergent margins

In this contribution I presents definitions of mineral systems, followed by a proposed classification of mineral deposits. The concept of mineral systems has been tackled by various authors within the framework of genetic models with the aim of improving the targeting of new deposits in green field areas. A mineral system has to be considered taking into account, by and large, space-time patterns or trends of mineralisation at the regional scale, their tectonic controls and related metallogenic belts. This leads to a suggested classification of mineral systems, together with a summary of previous ideas on what is, without doubt, a kind of “mine field”, because if a classification is based on genetic processes, these can be extremely complex due to the fact that ore genesis usually involves a number of interactive processes. The classification presented is based on magmatic, magmatic-hydrothermal, sedimentary-hydrothermal, non-magmatic, and mechanical-residual processes.An overview of plate tectonics (convergent and divergent margins) is discussed next. Convergent plate margins are characterised by a tectonic plate subducting beneath a lower density plate. Convergent plate margins have landward of a deep trench, a subduction–accretion complex, a magmatic arc and a foreland thrust belt. An important feature is the subduction angle: a steep angle of descent, is exemplified by the Mariana, or Tonga–Kermadec subduction systems, conducive to porphyry-high-sulphidation epithermal systems, whereas in an intra-arc rift systems with spreading centres is conducive to the generation of massive sulphide deposits of kuroko affinity. A shallower subduction zone is the domain of large porphyry Cu–Mo and epithermal deposits. The implications of this difference in terms of metallogenesis are extremely important. Continent–continent, arc–continent, arc–arc, amalgamation of drifting microcontinents, and oceanic collision events are considered to be a major factor in uplift, the inception of fold-and-thrust belts and high P metamorphism. Examples are the Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt formed by the closure of the Tethys oceanic basins and the great Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), a giant accretionary collage of island arcs and continental fragments. The closing of oceanic basins, and the accretion of allochthonous terranes, result in the emplacement of ophiolites by the obduction process. Divergent plates include mid-ocean ridges, passive margins and various forms of continental rifting. At mid-ocean spreading centres, magma chambers are just below the spreading centre. Once the oceanic crust moves away from the ridge it is either consumed in a subduction zone, or it may be accreted to continental margins, or island arcs. Spreading centres also form in back arc marginal basins. Transform settings include transtensional with a component of tension due to oblique divergence, transform or strike–slip sensu stricto and transpressive with a component of compression due to oblique convergence. Strike–slip faults that form during extensional processes lead to the formation of pull-apart basins.Mineral systems that form at convergent margins, the topic of this special issue, are succinctly introduced in Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, as follows: principal geological features of selected mineral systems at convergent plate margins and back-arcs (Table 1); their recognition criteria (Table 2); principal geological features of selected ore deposits of back-arc basins and post-subduction rifting (Table 3) and of subduction-related magmatic arcs (Table 4), their respective recognition criteria (Table 5); accretionary and collisional tectonics and associated mineral systems (Table 6); principal geological features and associated mineral systems of transform faults (Table 7).     

东亚西太平洋岩石圈三维结构及其地幔动力学

欧亚大陆及其边缘海地区是由约30多块尺度不同、形成时代和性质各异的板块或地块拼合而成。这些岩石圈板块或地块经过长时间的漂移,多次聚合与分离,碰撞与增生,在新生代最后形成现代的拼合欧亚大陆。欧亚大陆及其边缘海的板块或地块可以分为以下六类:(1)前寒武纪巨型克拉通地块及地盾;(2)前寒武纪小型克拉通地块及板块;(3)显生宙造山带及汇聚地块;(4)陆陆碰撞型地块及造山带;(5)新生代边缘海海盆;(6)大陆裂谷盆地及增生地块。高分辨率地震面波层析成像,显示同一类型的板块或地块的岩石圈和软流圈的速度结构十分相似,呈现出其独有的速度分布特征。不同类型板块或地块的速度结构有重大差异。直到400km深度,各个板块和地块的横向差异才逐渐减小。一般而言,前寒武纪克拉通板块及地块的岩石圈巨厚具有高速性质、软流圈很薄或不存在;边缘海、造山带等区域岩石圈较薄和速度较低,软流圈发育。根据欧亚大陆及边缘海地区天然地震层析成像,人工地震剖面数据及其他有关资料,建立了欧亚大陆及其边缘海岩石圈模型。     

南海大陆边缘盆地构造演化差异性及其与南海扩张耦合关系

南海大陆边缘盆地由于边界条件的差异,不仅形成了不同类型的陆缘盆地,如离散型、走滑伸展型和伸展挠曲复合型,而且这些盆地构造演化存在明显的非同步性。这些陆缘破裂过程与南海扩张作用过程呈现明显不一致性。研究表明,南海扩张时期南海南、北大陆边缘均形成了一系列裂陷盆地,然而,南海南部、北部大陆边缘盆地裂陷作用结束时间不同,北部大陆边缘盆地裂陷作用结束于23 Ma或21 Ma,而南部大陆边缘盆地裂陷作用结束于15.5 Ma,显然北部大陆边缘盆地裂陷结束时间明显早于南部大陆边缘盆地。南海扩张停止后,南海南、北部陆缘仍表现出明显差异,北部陆缘仍以伸展作用为主,晚中新世以来出现快速沉降幕,而南海南部陆缘则以挤压作用为主,且其挤压时间及强度呈现南早北晚的特点,即南部曾母盆地明显早于南薇西盆地和北康盆地。南海南、北大陆边缘盆地形成演化的差异性,特别是构造转型差异变化,为新生代南海扩张的迁移性提供了有力的佐证,可以推断南海不同期次海盆扩张可能存在向南的突然跃迁。因此,本次研究梳理出的南海不同陆缘盆地张裂伸展的非同步性可为南海洋盆扩张演化过程解释提供新的证据。     

Sedimentary basins of passive margins filled with sediments of river deltas and submarine fans

Rivers transport huge quantities of terrigenous material mobilized in their drainage areas and represented by rock fragments and grains of quartz, feldspars, and other weathering-resistant minerals. Large volumes of fine clay particles and organic components in the form of suspended matter and dissolved salts are also transported from the land to seas and oceans. This material is deposited in river deltas located on shelves and submarine fans, which are formed on the continental slope and at its foothill. Thick lenses of deltaic and submarine fan sediments turn gradually into oil-and gas-bearing basins, the largest among which is the Gulf of Guinea basin.     

Plate tectonics and geosynclines

Kay's (1951) classification of geosynclines, involving bulk sedimentary, volcanic and tectonic assemblages, is accommodated within the megaframework of oceanic expansion and contraction by lithospheric accretion and consumption. Apparently, entirely continental eugeosynclines do not exist; geosynclines occur in oceans with marginal continental shelves, continental rise, deep ocean basins, small ocean basins and island arcs. An orogen, resulting from crustal loss in trenches at Benioff zones, grows progressively away from the trench, either on the continental margin or as an island arc. The term, kinegeosyncline, is proposed for the contracting trough, trapped between continental margins and growing orogens. The arrival of a continental mass, with its continental margin sediments, at a trench results in collision and an orogen, which may suture continents together.     

Consolidation of the American Cordilleras

The continental margin orogenic systems of the western Americas are enormous features that formed along the Pacific margins of the North and South American plates during late Mesozoic through Cenozoic time. There has been considerable debate concerning their origin, and they are often compared with intra-oceanic fringing arc-trench systems more typical of the Australasian margins of the Pacific Ocean, in that both involve the subduction of oceanic lithosphere, often with similar convergent relative motion vectors. The onset of orogenesis in the two Cordilleras, as shown in reversal of sedimentary polarity from sources generally on the continent to sources along the Pacific margin, seems to date from shortly after emplacement of the oldest oceanic crust in that part of the Atlantic Ocaen east of each continent — i.e., about 170 Ma, or Middle Jurassic, in the case of the Central Atlantic, and about 135 to 100 Ma, or Early to mid-Cretaceous, in the case of the South Atlantic. These ages also seem to mark the onset of westward motion of the two continents over the Pacific Ocean basin and subsequent crustal thickening and uplift, with development of thrust belts, foreland basins, and foredeeps. Prior to this prolonged westward drift, both margins had been convergent for at least several hundred million years, but no massive mountain building had taken place. Instead, the margins were tectonically “neutral”, with typically submarine fringing arc-trench systems or shallow marine to continental margin arcs which stood “outboard” of shallow marine platformal shelves or basins whose main sedimentary polarity was from the continent. Although accretion of “suspect” terranes, high rates of convergence, and age of subducting lithosphere all may have influenced particularly local tectonic response and/or phases of orogenic activity in the two chains, the absolute motion of the two continental margins over the Pacific Ocean basin is considered to have been the dominant factor in Cordilleran tectonic evolution.     

Volcanic evolution of the marginal and interarc basins

Volcanic evolution of the interarc and marginal basins is analysed using the available data on volcanics from the presently existent and ancient back-arc basins of the western Pacific and Mediterranean. It is shown that in early (pre-spreading) stages of back-arc rifting, the character of volcanism is determined by “maturity” of the adjacent island arc. It is predominantly alkaline or mildly alkaline for back-arc basins related to the island-arcs with high-potash calc-alkaline and shoshonitic volcanism. The back-arc alkaline and mildly alkaline basalts strongly differ from the continental and oceanic rift volcanoes by constantly lower Ti, Nb and Zr contents. Because of these features these basalts are akin to the basaltic members of the island-arc volcanic series. As the latter, they are generally strongly enriched in K₂O and LIL elements, whereas Na₂O reveals comparatively small variability. With initiation of spreading a sharp depression of K₂O, LIL and light REE occurs in the axial basalts of back-arc basins, that progressively approach the MORB composition. But even tholeiites from the most evolved basins that underwent a considerable spreading reveal slight but detectable geochemical peculiarities, indicating their island-arc affinities. Origin of the low-Ti alkaline basaltic magmas of the active continental margins is discussed.     

Active faulting at the Eurasian, North American and Pacific plates junction

The active faults known and inferred in the area where the major Pacific, North American and Eurasian plates come together group into two belts. One of them comprises the faults striking roughly parallel to the Pacific ocean margin. The extreme members of the belt are the longitudinal faults of islands arcs, in its oceanic flank, and the faults along the continental margins of marginal seas, in its continental flank. The available data show that all these faults move with some strike-slip component, which is always right-lateral. We suggest that characteristic right-lateral, either partially or dominantly, kinematics of the fault movements has its source in oblique convergence of the Pacific plate with continental Eurasian and North American plates. The second belt of active faults transverses the extreme northeast Asia as a continental extension of the active mid-Arctic spreading ridge. The two active fault belts do not cross but come close to each other at the northern margin of the Sea of Okhotsk marking thus the point where the Pacific, North American and Eurasian plates meet.     

"第四届全国青年地质大会论文"专栏前言

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