Radiogenic trigger and driver for continental rifting and initial ocean spreading

Closure and opening of oceans on time‐scales of a few hundred million years is a fundamental tectonic process on Earth, typically referred to as a “Wilson cycle”. Subduction of oceanic and continental crust leading up to and during continent–continent collision can refertilize and enrich the orogenic continental lithospheric mantle in heat‐producing elements. The resulting thermal anomaly weakens the lithosphere and, along with structural weaknesses (e.g. sutures), make this orogenic lithosphere more prone to rifting given an extensional stress field. Thermal modelling shows that anomalously hot lithosphere can focus asthenospheric upwellings over time‐scales of a few hundred million years. Processes related to closure of oceans thus provide a mechanism for later localization of rifting and an extensional driving force.     

The deep thermal field of the Glueckstadt Graben

With this paper, we assess the present-day conductive thermal field of the Glueckstadt Graben in NW Germany that is characterized by large salt walls and diapirs structuring the graben fill. We use a finite element method to calculate the 3D steady-state conductive thermal field based on a lithosphere-scale 3D structural model that resolves the first-order structural characteristics of the graben and its underlying lithosphere. Model predictions are validated against measured temperatures in six deep wells. Our investigations show that the interaction of thickness distributions and thermal rock properties of the different geological layers is of major importance for the distribution of temperatures in the deep subsurface of the Glueckstadt Graben. However, the local temperatures may result from the superposed effects of different controlling factors. Especially, the upper sedimentary part of the model exhibits huge lateral temperature variations, which correlate spatially with the shape of the thermally highly conductive Permian salt layer. Variations in thickness and geometry of the salt cause two major effects, which provoke considerable lateral temperature variations for a given depth. (1) The “chimney effect” causes more efficient heat transport within salt diapirs. As a consequence positive thermal anomalies develop in the upper part and above salt structures, where the latter are covered by much less conductive sediments. In contrast, negative thermal anomalies are noticeable underneath salt structures. (2) The “thermal blanketing effect” is caused by thermally low conductive sediments that provoke the local storage of heat where these insulating sediments are present. The latter effect leads to both local and regional thermal anomalies. Locally, this translates to higher temperatures where salt margin synclines are filled with thick insulating clastic sediments. For the regional anomalies the cumulative insulating effects of the entire sediment fill results in a long-wavelength variation of temperatures in response to heat refraction effects caused by the contrast between insulating sediments and highly conductive crystalline crust. Finally, the longest wavelength of temperature variations is caused by the depth position of the isothermal lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary defining the regional variations of the overall geothermal gradient. We find that a conductive thermal model predicts observed temperatures reasonably well for five of the six available wells, whereas the steady-state conductive approach appears not to be valid for the sixth well.     

Low-frequency layer-induced dispersion in a weak-contrast vertically heterogeneous orthorhombic medium

In this paper, we consider wave propagation in a periodically layered medium with orthorhombic symmetry. The weak-contrast approximation is utilized to derive the low-frequency dispersion in effective properties for P, S1 and S2 waves. We show that the dispersion term for all effective properties is controlled by the second-order contrasts in elastic properties from the layers. We also compute the sensitivity matrices for second- and fourth-order coefficients from eigenvalues of frequency-dependent system matrix associated with kinematic parameters for individual wave modes.     

B.S. Daya Sagar,Qiuming Cheng and Frits Agterberg: Handbook of Mathematical Geosciences: Fifty Years of IAMG

Mathematical Geosciences -     

Experimental investigation of the effect of metasomatism by carbonatic melt on the composition and structure of the deep mantle

The compositions of various transition-zone and lower-mantle phases and coexisting carbonatic melts were determined by exploratory melting experiments in chemically complex CO₂-bearing systems at 20–24.5 GPa and 1600–2000 °C. The melts are highly ultramafic, enriched in K, Na, Ca, Fe, and Mg, and depleted in Al and Si. Melting experiments were also carried out with the compositions on the join Mg₂SiO₄–Na₂CO₃ at 3.7 GPa and 1200–1600 °C. The solidus assemblage of MgCO₃ and Na₂MgSiO₄ melts incongruently to produce forsterite and Na-rich melt. The new results and other recent studies in CO₂-bearing systems suggest that carbonatic melt could be present, either transiently or permanently, in the whole Earth's upper mantle and at least the uppermost lower mantle. Carbonate-melt metasomatism is recognized as a process that could have a major effect on the composition and structure of the deep mantle, and thus play an important role in its evolution. Due to the unique properties of the carbonatic melt, its circulation in an otherwise static mantle could be a more efficient process than the solid-state convection for maintaining equilibrium in most of the mantle not involved directly in plate tectonics.     

Galactic cosmic rays—clouds effect and bifurcation model of the Earth global climate. Part 2. Comparison of theory with experiment

The solution of energy-balance model of the Earth global climate and the EPICA Dome C and Vostok experimental data of the Earth surface palaeotemperature evolution over past 420 and 740 kyr are compared.In the framework of proposed bifurcation model (i) the possible sharp warmings of the Dansgaard-Oeschger type during the last glacial period due to stochastic resonance is theoretically argued; (ii) the concept of climatic sensitivity of water in the atmosphere, whose temperature instability has the form of so-called hysteresis loop, is proposed, and based on this concept the time series of global ice volume over the past 1000 kyr, which is in good agreement with the time series of δ¹⁸O concentration in the sea sediments, is obtained; (iii) the so-called “CO₂ doubling” problem is discussed.     

On shear‐wave triplications in a multilayered transeversely isotropic medium with vertical symmetry axis

The presence of triplications (caustics) can be a serious problem in seismic data processing and analysis. The traveltime curve becomes multi‐valued and the geometrical spreading correction factor tends to zero due to energy focusing. We analyse the conditions for the qSV‐wave triplications in a homogeneous transversely isotropic medium with vertical symmetry axis. The proposed technique can easily be extended to the case of horizontally layered vertical symmetry axis medium. We show that the triplications of the qSV‐wave in a multilayered medium imply certain algebra. We illustrate this algebra on a two‐layer vertical symmetry axis model.     

Gravity signals from the lithosphere in the Central European Basin System

We study the gravity signals from different depth levels in the lithosphere of the Central European Basin System (CEBS). The major elements of the CEBS are the Northern and Southern Permian Basins which include the Norwegian–Danish Basin (NDB), the North-German Basin (NGB) and the Polish Trough (PT). An up to 10 km thick sedimentary cover of Mesozoic–Cenozoic sediments, hides the gravity signal from below the basin and masks the heterogeneous structure of the consolidated crust, which is assumed to be composed of domains that were accreted during the Paleozoic amalgamation of Europe. We performed a three-dimensional (3D) gravity backstripping to investigate the structure of the lithosphere below the CEBS.Residual anomalies are derived by removing the effect of sediments down to the base of Permian from the observed field. In order to correct for the influence of large salt structures, lateral density variations are incorporated. These sediment-free anomalies are interpreted to reflect Moho relief and density heterogeneities in the crystalline crust and uppermost mantle. The gravity effect of the Moho relief compensates to a large extent the effect of the sediments in the CEBS and in the North Sea. Removal of the effects of large-scale crustal inhomogeneities shows a clear expression of the Variscan arc system at the southern part of the study area and the old crust of Baltica further north–east. The remaining residual anomalies (after stripping off the effects of sediments, Moho topography and large-scale crustal heterogeneities) reveal long wavelength anomalies, which are caused mainly by density variations in the upper mantle, though gravity influence from the lower crust cannot be ruled out. They indicate that the three main subbasins of the CEBS originated on different lithospheric domains. The PT originated on a thick, strong and dense lithosphere of the Baltica type. The NDB was formed on a weakened Baltica low-density lithosphere formed during the Sveco-Norwegian orogeny. The major part of the NGB is characterized by high-density lithosphere, which includes a high-velocity lower crust (relict of Baltica passive margin) overthrusted by the Avalonian terrane. The short wavelength pattern of the final residuals shows several north–west trending gravity highs between the Tornquist Zone and the Elbe Fault System. The NDB is separated by a gravity low at the Ringkøbing–Fyn high from a chain of positive anomalies in the NGB and the PT. In the NGB these anomalies correspond to the Prignitz (Rheinsberg anomaly), the Glueckstadt and Horn Graben, and they continue further west into the Central Graben, to join with the gravity high of the Central North Sea.