喜马拉雅碰撞造山过程：变质地质学视角

本文从变质地质学视角出发，介绍了喜马拉雅造山带的研究意义、地质概况和近年来作者在喜马拉雅碰撞造山过程研究中的进展。喜马拉雅造山带是威尔逊旋回中陆陆碰撞造山带的典型代表，从中揭示的大陆碰撞造山过程、规律及效应，可为探索地球从古至今的碰撞造山带演化研究所借鉴。其中，大陆碰撞造山机制的研究是其核心内容。大陆碰撞造山机制存在临界楔和隧道流两种端元模型之争，其分别对造山带核部高级变质岩折返的P T t轨迹和时空演化序列进行了不同的预测。上述争议可通过研究喜马拉雅核部高级变质岩（高喜马拉雅）的P T t轨迹和折返过程来限定，据此可将喜马拉雅碰撞造山过程划分为三个演化阶段。阶段一：60～40 Ma，软碰撞期，造山带地壳加厚至约40 km并发生小规模部分熔融，这些早期地壳加厚记录大多已被剥蚀，零星保存于前陆飞来峰和北喜马拉雅片麻岩穹隆中；喜马拉雅山从海平面以下抬升至>1000 m。阶段二：40～16 Ma，硬碰撞期，造山带地壳加厚至60～70 km，发生大规模高级变质和深熔作用，高喜马拉雅内部的三个次级岩片沿着“原喜马拉雅逆冲断层”、“高喜马拉雅逆冲断层”、“主中央逆冲断层”顺序式向南挤出，形成了现今喜马拉雅造山带的核部主体，地壳堆叠使喜马拉雅山快速隆升至≥5000 m。阶段三：16～0 Ma，晚碰撞期，造山带山根榴辉岩化发生局部拆沉，但大陆汇聚仍在持续、造山带尚未发生垮塌，小喜马拉雅折返、前陆盆地形成，喜马拉雅山达到和维持现今平均高度~6000 m。因此，喜马拉雅生长过程的一级次序是顺序式向南扩展的，受控于临界楔模型，而隧道流只起次级作用。山根深部热流过程对造山带的地壳结构和地表高程有巨大的改造作用。未来对喜马拉雅造山带的变质地质学研究可能存在以下几个关键科学问题：① 喜马拉雅极端变质作用与重大碰撞造山事件的关联；② 喜马拉雅稀有金属成矿与接触变质作用的关联；③ 喜马拉雅变质脱碳作用与大陆碰撞带深部碳循环和通量。     

Future projections and uncertainty assessment of extreme rainfall intensity in the United States from an ensemble of climate models

Changes in climate are expected to lead to changes in the characteristics extreme rainfall frequency and intensity. In this study, we propose an integrated approach to explore potential changes in intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) relationships. The approach incorporates uncertainties due to both the short simulation periods of regional climate models (RCMs) and the differences in IDF curves derived from multiple RCMs in the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP). The approach combines the likelihood of individual RCMs according to the goodness of fit between the extreme rainfall intensities from the RCMs’ historic runs and those from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data set and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) to assess uncertainty in IDF predictions. We also partition overall uncertainties into within-model uncertainty and among-model uncertainty. Results illustrate that among-model uncertainty is the dominant source of the overall uncertainty in simulating extreme rainfall for multiple locations in the U.S., pointing to the difficulty of predicting future climate, especially extreme rainfall regimes. For all locations a more intense extreme rainfall occurs in future climate; however the rate of increase varies among locations.     

Origin of peraluminous minerals (corundum,spinel, and sapphirine) in a highly calcic anorthosite from the Sittampundi Layered Complex,Tamil Nadu,India

The highly calcic anorthosite (An_>95) from the Sittampundi Layered Complex (SLC) develops corundum, spinel and sapphirine that are hitherto not reported from any anorthositic rocks in the world. Petrological observations indicate the following sequence of mineral growth: plagioclase_matrix → corundum; clinopyroxene → amphibole; corundum + amphibole → plagioclase_corona + spinel; and spinel + corundum → coronitic sapphirine. Phase relations in the CaO–Na₂O–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O (CNASH) system suggest that corundum was presumably developed through vapour present incongruent melting of the highly calcic plagioclase during ultra-high temperature (UHT) metamorphism (T ≥ 1000 °C, P ≥ 9 kbar). Topological constraints in parts of the Na₂O–CaO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O (NCMASH) system suggest that subsequent to the UHT metamorphism, aqueous fluid(s) permeated the rock and the assemblage corundum + amphibole + anorthite + clinozoisite was stabilized during high-pressure (HP) metamorphism (11 ± 2 kbar, 750 ± 50 °C). Constraints of the NCMASH topology and thermodynamic and textural modeling study suggest that coronitic plagioclase and spinel formed at the expense of corundum + amphibole during a steeply decompressive retrograde P–T path (7–8 kbar and 700–800 °C) in an open system. Textural modeling studies combined with chemical potential diagrams (μSiO₂–μMgO) in the MASH system support the view that sapphirine also formed from due to silica and Mg metasomatism of the precursor spinel ± corundum, on the steeply decompressive retrograde P–T path, prior to onset of significant cooling of the SLC. Extremely channelized fluid flow and large positive solid volume change of the stoichiometrically balanced sapphirine forming reaction explains the localized growth of sapphirine.