Amount of Asian lithospheric mantle subducted during the India/Asia collision

Body wave seismic tomography is a successful technique for mapping lithospheric material sinking into the mantle. Focusing on the India/Asia collision zone, we postulate the existence of several Asian continental slabs, based on seismic global tomography. We observe a lower mantle positive anomaly between 1100 and 900 km depths, that we interpret as the signature of a past subduction process of Asian lithosphere, based on the anomaly position relative to positive anomalies related to Indian continental slab. We propose that this anomaly provides evidence for south dipping subduction of North Tibet lithospheric mantle, occurring along 3000 km parallel to the Southern Asian margin, and beginning soon after the 45 Ma break-off that detached the Tethys oceanic slab from the Indian continent. We estimate the maximum length of the slab related to the anomaly to be 400 km. Adding 200 km of presently Asian subducting slab beneath Central Tibet, the amount of Asian lithospheric mantle absorbed by continental subduction during the collision is at most 600 km. Using global seismic tomography to resolve the geometry of Asian continent at the onset of collision, we estimate that the convergence absorbed by Asia during the indentation process is ~ 1300 km. We conclude that Asian continental subduction could accommodate at most 45% of the Asian convergence. The rest of the convergence could have been accommodated by a combination of extrusion and shallow subduction/underthrusting processes. Continental subduction is therefore a major lithospheric process involved in intraplate tectonics of a supercontinent like Eurasia.     

东南亚的活动俯冲和碰撞

东南亚位于欧亚、印-澳和菲律宾海三大板块汇聚结合带,现代及古代汇聚区域广泛,弧陆碰撞起着重要作用。根据地质、古地磁和浅源地震等地球动力演化的研究建立了一系列构造模式,表明该区地表构造运动的复杂性。尽管规模较小,台湾地区的弧陆碰撞可能是目前全世界的研究热点之一,因为这一碰撞带较年青(数百万年),非常活跃,易于通过地质、地球物理、大地测量和遥感手段进行测定和监控。未来对活动俯冲带和造山带的研究应与地震、海啸、污染、气候变化等这些与自然灾害有关的社会问题紧密联系起来。     

GPS-based modeling of the interaction between the lithospheric plates in Sakhalin

The recent geodynamics of Sakhalin are determined by the convergence between the Eurasian and North American lithospheric plates, which is reflected in the high seismicity of the island. The method of inversion of the horizontal velocities of the island surface with account for the geological features of the region is used to analyze the different models of the convergence between the plates. This made it possible to estimate the depth of the mechanical contact between the plates and the velocities of their convergence for the southern, central, and northern segments of the island.     

Impact of India–Asia collision on SE Asia: The record in Borneo

Borneo occupies a central position in the Sundaland promontory of SE Asia. It has a complex Cenozoic geological history of sedimentation and deformation which began at about the same time that India is commonly suggested to have started to collide with Asia. Some tectonic reconstructions of east and SE Asia interpret a large SE Asian block with Borneo at its centre which has been rotated clockwise and displaced southwards along major strike–slip faults during the Cenozoic due to the indentation of Asia by India. However, the geological history of Borneo is not consistent with the island simply forming part of a large block extruded from Asia. The large clockwise rotations and displacements predicted by the indentor model for Borneo are incompatible with palaeomagnetic evidence and there is no evidence that the major strike–slip faults of the Asian mainland reach Borneo. Seismic tomography shows there is a deep high velocity anomaly in the lower mantle beneath SE Asia interpreted as subducted lithosphere but it can be explained just as well by alternative tectonic models as by the indentor model. Very great thicknesses of Cenozoic sediments are present in Borneo and circum-Borneo basins, and large amounts of sediment were transported to the Crocker turbidite fan of north Borneo from the Eocene to the Early Miocene, but all evidence indicates that these sediments were derived from local sources and not from distant sources in Asia elevated by India–Asia collision. The Cenozoic geological history of Borneo records subduction of the proto-South China Sea and Miocene collision after this ocean lithosphere was eliminated, and a variety of effects resulting from long-term subduction beneath SE Asia. There is little to indicate that India–Asia collision has influenced the Cenozoic geological record in Borneo.     

Isotopic and trace-element indications of lithospheric and asthenospheric components in Tertiary alkalic basalts, northeastern Brazil

Plate reconstructions at 30 Ma place northeastern Brazil over the Fernando de Noronha hotspot, presently 250 km offshore northeastern Brazil. Tertiary basaltic centers in northeastern Brazil may therefore be products of the Fernando de Noronha hotspot. We examined alkalic basalt from seven 30–13 Ma old centers in Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco states to assess this possible link. Compositions are primitive, where MgO concentrations range from 12.5 to 17 wt.%, and SiO₂ from 41 to 48 wt.%. Trace-element abundances and Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic compositions compare well with those of ocean island basalt: =0.7038–0.7051, =0.51266–0.51280, and =18.52–19.35. There are correlations among SiO₂-undersaturation, incompatible-element abundances, relative percentages of partial melting (based on La/Yb and La/Y ratios), and the degree of isotopic ‘enrichment' inherited from mantle sources. There is also a negative correlation for La/Nb (0.6–0.86) vs. Ba/Nb (6.6–10.6), where lower La/Nb samples represent larger percentages of melting of a source comparatively enriched in radiogenic Sr. We attribute these compositional relationships to the lavas representing mixing of melts mainly from asthenosphere of largely HIMU plus DM characterization, probably the Fernando de Noronha plume, with melts from subcontinental lithosphere that was isotopically closer to EM1. Isotopic and trace-element compositions of the northeastern Brazil basalts are generally similar to those of Fernando de Noronha lavas (12–2 Ma), and some minor trace-element differences observed (e.g., more Zr, Nb, and less Th compared to northeastern Brazil basalts) are probably due to heterogeneity within the asthenospheric plume and to melt contributions from delaminated subcontinental lithosphere that may underlie Fernando de Noronha.     

Mesozoic lithospheric mantle of the northeastern Siberian craton (evidence from inclusions in kimberlite)

Several thousand clinopyroxene, garnet, and phlogopite inclusions of mantle rocks from Jurassic and Triassic kimberlites in the northeastern Siberian craton have been analyzed and compared with their counterparts from Paleozoic kimberlites, including those rich in diamond. The new and published mineral chemistry data make a basis for an updated classification of kimberlite-hosted clinopyroxenes according to peridotitic and mafic (eclogite and pyroxenite) parageneses. The obtained results place constraints on the stability field of high-Na lherzolitic clinopyroxenes, which affect the coexisting garnet and decrease its Ca contents. As follows from analyses of the mantle minerals from Mesozoic kimberlites, the cratonic lithosphere contained more pyroxenite and eclogite in the Mesozoic than in the Paleozoic. It virtually lacked ultradepleted harzburgite-dunite lithologies and contained scarce eclogitic diamonds. On the other hand, both inclusions in diamond and individual eclogitic minerals from Mesozoic kimberlites differ from eclogitic inclusions in diamond from Triassic sediments in the northeastern Siberian craton. Xenocrystic phlogopites from the D’yanga pipe have ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of 384.6, 432.4, and 563.4 Ma, which record several stages of metasomatic impact on the lithosphere. These phlogopites are younger than most of Paleozoic phlogopites from the central part of the craton (Udachnaya kimberlite). Therefore, hydrous mantle metasomatism acted much later on the craton periphery than in the center. Monomineral clinopyroxene thermobarometry shows that Jurassic kimberlites from the northeastern craton part trapped lithospheric material from different maximum depths (170 km in the D’yanga pipe and mostly < 130 km in other pipes). The inferred thermal thickness of cratonic lithosphere decreased progressively from ~ 260 km in the Devonian-Carboniferous to ~ 225 km in the Triassic and to ~ 200 km in the Jurassic, while the heat flux (Hasterok-Chapman model) was 34.9, 36.7, and 39.0 mW/m², respectively. Dissimilar PT patterns of samples from closely spaced coeval kimberlites suggest different emplacement scenarios, which influenced both the PT variations across the lithosphere and the diamond potential of kimberlites.     

Recent plate tectonics of the Arctic Basin and of northeastern Asia

The recent tectonics of the Arctic Basin and northeastern Asia are considered as a result of interaction between three lithospheric plates: North-America, Eurasia and Spitsbergen. Seismic zones (coinciding in the Norway-Greenland basin with the Kolbeinsey, Mohns and Knipovich ridges, and in the Arctic Ocean with the Gakkel Ridge) clearly mark the boundaries between them. In southernmost Svalbard (Spitsbergen), the secondary seismic belt deviates from the major seismic zone. This belt continues into the seismic zone of the Franz Josef Land and then merges into the seismic zone of the Gakkel Ridge at 70°–90°E. The smaller Spitsbergen plate is located between the major seismic zone and its secondary branch.Within northeastern Asia, earthquake epicenters with magnitude over 4.5 are concentrated within a 300-km wide belt crossing the Eurasian continent over a distance of 3000 km from the Lena estuary to the Komandorskye Islands. A single seismic belt crosses the northern sections of the Verkhoyansky Ridge and runs along the Chersky Ridge to the Kolymo-Okhotsk Divide.To compute the poles of relative rotation of the Eurasian, North-American and Spitsbergen plates we use 23 new determinations of focal-mechanism solutions for earthquakes, and 38 azimuths of slip vectors obtained by matching of symmetric mountain pairs on both sides of the Knipovich and Gakkel ridges; we also use 14 azimuths of strike-slip faults within the Chersky Ridge determined by satellite images. The following parameters of plate displacement were obtained: Eurasia/North America: 62.2°N, 140.2°E (from the Knipovich Ridge section south of the triple junction); 61.9°N, 143.1°E (from fault strikes in the Chersky Ridge); 60.42°N, 141.56°C (from the Knipovich section and from fault strikes in the Chersky Ridge); 59.48°N, 140.83°E, α = 1.89 · 10⁻⁷ deg/year (from the Knipovich section, from fault strikes in the Chersky Ridge and from the Gakkel Ridge section east of the triple junction). The rate was calculated by fitting the 2′ magnetic lineations within the Gakkel Ridge).North-America/Spitsbergen: 70.96°N, 121.18°E, α = −2.7 · 10⁻⁷ deg/year from the Knipovich Ridge section north of the triple junction, from earthquakes in the Spitsbergen fracture zone and from the Gakkel Ridge section west of the triple junction). Eurasia/Spitsbergen: 70.7°N, 25.49°E, α = −0.99 · 10⁻⁷ deg/year (from closure of vector triangles).     

微陆块属性及过程:我国东北地区岩石圈地幔性质差异之根本

我国东北地区位于中亚造山带的东段,由多个微陆块俯冲拼合所组成,是研究壳幔相互作用的理想地区。但该区岩石圈地幔性质,包括壳幔属性是否解耦、是否有古老地幔残留、导致地幔性质差异的机制是什么,都还不清楚。东北地区多地出露新生代玄武岩并有橄榄岩捕虏体,如松嫩-张广才岭地块的阿巴嘎、五大连池和蛟河,兴安地块的哈拉哈、诺敏和科洛,以及与华北拼合褶皱带处的双辽、伊通和汪清等。其中阿巴嘎、哈拉哈、诺敏、科洛和蛟河的橄榄岩含有Mg#≥91.5的橄榄石,最大Re亏损年龄是2.1~1.9Ga,富集Sr、Nd同位素组成且变化范围大,反映交代作用强烈,这些特征与大陆岩石圈地幔有明显的相似性;而拼合带处的双辽、伊通、汪清及松嫩-张广才岭地块中的五大连池地幔包体橄榄石,Re亏损年龄总体为中元古代,Sr、Nd同位素组成变化范围小,交代作用弱,与大洋岩石圈地幔亲缘性更明显。这些差别总体反映出地块内部与地块边缘相比,有岩石圈地幔形成时代相对较老、亏损程度较高、地幔交代作用较强的特点。但也有例外的情况,如五大连池与科洛相比,更远离贺根山-黑河断裂带,但地幔属性更饱满,反映地块内部深部作用过程可能更强烈。因此,我们认为东北岩石圈地幔性质差异的根本原因与微陆块初始属性和后来的俯冲拼合及软流圈-岩石圈相互作用等有关。     

Post-collisional magmatism of western Chukotka and Early Cretaceous tectonic rearrangement in northeastern Asia

The paper presents new data on the isotopic age and chemical composition of volcanic rocks from the Tytyl’veem and Mangazeika basins of western Chukotka superposed on Mesozoides of the Verkhoyansk–Chukotka Tectonic Region. The results of SIMS U–Pb zircon dating (121.4 ± 2.8 and 118.0 ± 2.0 Ma) corroborate the Aptian age of the Tytyl’veem Formation. This age, in turn, indicates its formation after closure of the South Anyui ocean (Neocomian), but before origination of the Okhotsk–Chukotka Belt (Albian–Campanian). Post-collisional Aptian igneous rocks are widespread in the northern Verkhoyansk–Chukotka Tectonic Region; the legth of the corresponding igneous province is no less than 1400 km. In geochemical characteristics, the post-collisional volcanic rocks occurring in Western Chukotka are similar with the rocks from Andean-type igneous belts.     

Small-volume melts of lithospheric mantle during continental collision: Late Cenozoic lavas of Mahabad,NW Iran

Basanites and alkali basalts from Mahabad in the West Azerbaijan province of Iran are part of a widespread series of Late Miocene–Quaternary mantle-derived magmas erupted within the Turkish–Iranian orogenic plateau, itself part of the active Arabia–Eurasia collision zone. New elemental and Sr–Nd isotopic results are combined with geophysical and geological constraints to suggest that these lavas formed predominantly by small degrees of partial melting of the thick (≫100 km) Eurasian lithospheric mantle within the garnet facies. Samples are highly enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and the light rare earth elements (LREE), up to 600 times chondritic values. They mostly possess negative primitive mantle-normalised Rb, K, Nb–Ta, Zr–Hf and Ti anomalies, with an overall signature that indicates a mantle source metasomatised by fluids or melts derived from crust during continental collision or the Tethyan oceanic subduction that preceded it. Sr–Nd isotopic values are similar to other Quaternary centres in NW Iran; ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr is slightly depleted with respect to Bulk Silicate Earth, at ∼0.7045, and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd is slightly enriched, at ∼0.5127. Crustal contamination does not appear to be an important process in the chemistry of these samples. Possible triggers for melting may include: breakdown of hydrous phases during lithospheric thickening; hydration of the mantle lithosphere by underthrusting of the Arabian passive margin; small-scale sub-lithospheric convection due to a significant thickness gradient in the Zagros lithosphere. Such processes may account for small-volume syn-collisional mantle-derived magmatism elsewhere in regions of thick lithosphere where recent slab break-off or lithospheric delamination cannot be proven.     

辽西地区构造系统的形成与东北亚区域构造演化

燕山造山带东部辽西地区的构造填图，地质研究，以及中生代火山－沉积岩系的同位素资料 ，提供了东北亚和燕山板内造山带的演化历史。华北板块北部燕山－辽西地区自中元古宙至中生代，与整个华北克拉通一起，接受相同的地台盖层沉积，其沉积历史完全相同。在中晚三叠世之后，该区沉积了中生代火山碎屑岩和陆相沉积岩，并发生强烈的构造变形，这才有别于华北克拉通的其它稳定区。同位素资料表明，兴隆沟期火山岩，蓝旗期火山岩和义县期火山岩形成时间分别为200－170Ma,170-155Ma,140-100Ma。按构造成因和系统的指导思想，将该区构造构造归并成3种构造系统，即逆冲推覆构造系，正滑断裂系和走滑断裂系。这3种断裂系统的发育顺序是：逆冲推覆构造形成于早白垩世中期（相当于义县组，九佛堂组之间的界面）；正滑断裂构造系是九佛堂组和阜新组的同沉积构造；走滑断裂构造系形成最晚，为晚白垩世形成的构造。其中早期逆冲推覆构造起了主导作用，奠定了本区构造格局的基本格架，晚期构造的叠加并未从根本上改变已有的构造格局。三叠纪到早白垩世期间，在欧亚板块向南挤压和古太平洋板块向北向西方向的挤压作用下，于早白垩世中期形成本区的逆冲推覆构造；早白垩世晚期受古来洲大陆区域扩张的影响，形成了辽西地区的正滑断裂系，晚白垩世北北东向的走滑断裂系形成则与郯庐断裂活动有关。     

最新的岩石圈磁场模型及中国磁异常特征的几点认识

介绍了最新的地球磁场模型,包括MF5,NGDC-720和WDMAM。模型MF5是由CHAMP卫星测量得来,它的球谐展开阶次为n=16~100,对应的波长段为400~2500km。模型NGDC-720和WDMAM是综合了卫星磁测、航空磁测、海洋磁测与地面磁测得到数据经过处理后得来,它们有不同的球谐阶次和分辨率。NGDC-720模型是由美国国家地球物理数据中心(The National Geophysical Data Center,NGDC)提供,它的球谐阶次从16阶到720阶,对应于由2500km到56km的波带。M.Purucker博士公布的WDMAM参考模型1是一张分辨率为3′,高度位于WGS84上方5km的磁异常图,它向上延拓后的结果与MF5中的岩石圈磁异常保持一致。作者根据国际上公布的CHAMP、NGDC-720与WDMAM Candidate1的最新数据,绘制了中国及毗邻地区的磁异常图,对中国及毗邻地区明显的大地构造,如造山带,盆地等地区的磁异常特征进行了描述和分析,塔里木、四川、松辽等盆地地区及华北平原部分地区模型中均表现为正异常,西藏高原、天山造山带等地区表现为负异常,而一些深大断裂表现为磁异常高梯度带。通过四川盆地和西藏高原地区三个模型的相互对比,我们发现模型阶次越高,它所反映的磁性体(尤其是浅部地质体)的情况越丰富,不同的是四川盆地的结果随着阶次的增高就越接近航磁结果,而西藏高原随着阶次的增高却和航磁结果差别越来越大。     

吉林蛟河地幔橄榄岩捕虏体的Sr-Nd-Hf-Os同位素特征与岩石圈地幔时代

吉林省蛟河市境内大石河新生代玄武岩中含有丰富的地幔橄榄岩包体,详细的岩石学与矿物学研究显示,这些包体的主要岩石类型为尖晶石二辉橄榄岩-方辉橄榄岩,未发现石榴石橄榄岩.岩相学及地球化学资料显示它们都是经历过熔体抽取而形成的岩石圈地幔残留.矿物平衡温度计算发现,本区的这些地幔橄榄岩包体来自地下40～60km深度,且下部以二辉橄榄岩为主,而上部以贫单斜辉石的二辉橄榄岩和方辉橄榄岩为主,显示明显的岩石圈地幔分层现象.Sr-Nd-Hf同位素资料反映这些地幔包体均表现为亏损性质,而Re-Os同位素资料确定上述岩石圈地幔形成于中元古代,明显老于上覆地壳的新元古宙时代,反映壳幔年龄上的解耦.因此我们推测,该区曾经历过华北克拉通类似的早期岩石圈地幔的整体丢失事件,然后形成于其它地区的中元古宙岩石圈地幔在本区增生.     

Influence of precambrian basement on the chemical composition of Mesozoic granitoid rocks in northeastern Asia

A hypothesis for effects of stable tectonic elements on chemical composition of Mesozoic granitoids in northeastern Asia is tested. Chemical compositional change of granitoid rocks is examined in nine-dimensional space of rock-forming oxides. Stable geologic structures of the region are outlined by trends of Euclidean distances between rock recognized as a standard in a space of major rock-forming oxides and composition of individual samples. A data-smoothing polynomial of the fourth order corresponds closely to the geology of the region. Chemically stable masses of quartz diorite are thought to be delivered directly from magmatic sources along deep faults. A great variety of acidic granites, which occupy for each analysis separate cells in the nine-dimensional classification, are presumed to be palingenetic in origin.     

Movement of lithospheric plates relative to subduction zones: Formation of marginal seas and active continental margins

Subduction zones with deep seismicity are believed to be associated with the descending branches of convective flows in the mantle and are subordinated to them. Therefore, the position of subduction zones can be considered as relatively fixed with respect to the steady-state system of convective flows. The lithospheric plate overhanging a subduction zone (as a rule of continental type) may:

1. (1) either move away from the subduction zone; or

2. (2) move onto it. In the first case extensional conditions originate behind the subduction zone and the new oceanic crust of back-arc basins forms. In the second case active Andean-type continental margins with thickening of the crust and lithosphere are observed.

Behind the majority of volcanic island-arcs, along the boundary with marginal-sea basins, independent shallow seismicity belts can be traced. They are parallel to the main seismicity belts coinciding with the Benioff zones. The seismicity belts frame island-arc microplates. Island-arc microplates are assumed to be a frame of reference to calculate relative movements of the consuming and overhanging plates. Using slip vector azimuths for shallow seismicity belts in the frontal parts of the Kurile, Japan, Izu-Bonin, Mariana and Tonga—Kermadec arcs, the position of the pole of rotation of the Pacific plate with respect to the western Pacific island-arc microplates was computed. Its coordinates are 66.1°N, 119.2°W. From the global closure of plate movements it has been determined that for the past 10 m.y. the Eurasian and Indian plates have been moving away from the Western Pacific island-arc system, both rotating clockwise, around poles at 31.1°N, 164.2°W and 1.3°S, 157.5°W, respectively. This provides for the opening of the back-arc basins. At the same time South America is moving onto the subduction zone at the rate of 4 cm/yr. Some “hot spots”, such as Hawaiian, Tibesti, and those of the South Atlantic, are moving relative to the island-arc system at a very low rate, viz. 0.5–0.7 cm/yr. Presumably, the western Pacific subduction zone and “hot spots” form a single frame of reference which can generally be used for the analysis of absolute motions.