Instability structures, synsedimentary faults and turbidites, witnesses of a Liassic seismotectonic activity in the Dauphiné Zone (French Alps): A case example in the Lower Pliensbachian at Saint-Michel-en-Beaumont

Instability structures, synsedimentary faults and turbidites have been studied in the Lower Pliensbachian succession of Saint-Michel-en-Beaumont, belonging to the Taillefer block, an ancient half-graben emplaced during the Liassic Tethyan rifting. Geometrical and mechanical analyses demonstrate that the instability structures occurred thanks to movements along spineless synsedimentary normal faults, when the turbiditic and limestone layers were already case-hardened and partly fractured by tension gashes even when the mudstones were still unlithified. Both the tension gashes and the synsedimentary faults are homogeneous in strike with the major regional faults and are in good agreement with the regional direction of extension for this period. The characters of the turbiditic beds, with erosive base, graded bedding, and incomplete Bouma sequence, are in favour of a seismic origin. Instability structures, spineless synsedimentary faults and turbiditic inflows are thus considered as seismites and interpreted as the result of high seismicity periods including some events with M > 5 in the general extensive ambiance of the Liassic Tethyan rifting. The analysis of the geometrical relationships between all these sedimentary features allows to distinguish the successive stage of occurrence of an instability structure, from the sedimentation of alternating marls and limestones, and sudden turbiditic inflows, then early case-hardening of the turbidites, until the important seismotectonic event generating the spineless normal faults, themselves triggering the fall of indurated blocks and locally the forming of breccias. The Ornon Fault, which constitutes the border of the Taillefer block, 15 km eastward, played a major role during the Liassic sedimentation and may represent the major seismic fault related to the seismites occurrence in the Beaumont basin.     

黑龙江东部白垩纪-古近纪古地磁初步结果及其构造意义

陆内块体旋转是周边构造环境和深部构造活动相互作用的结果.前人研究表明华北东部和俄罗斯远东地区晚中生代以来的块体旋转样式,很可能以牡丹江断裂为界发生了显著变化.进一步对牡丹江断裂两侧块体晚中生代以来的块体旋转样式的限定,有助于正确理解这一差异旋转的机制.对采自黑龙江省东部白垩纪和古近纪岩石的(51个采点)古地磁学研究表明...     

汶川8．0级地震序列时空分布研究

基于四川防震减灾信息网以及中国地震台网中心、中国地震信息网、国家地震科学数据共享中心提供的汶川8．0级地震目录资料,对2008年S月12日至2010年3月1日共1613次3．0级及以上余震的地震序列进行了时空分布分析。结果表明：汶川8．0级地震的余震大致可分为7个阶段,主震后18天应列为大地震强余震发生的警戒时间;地震序列的b值为0．751,印证了在类型相同的情况下主震震级越大b值越高的观点;地震序列的P值为1．117,与全球地震衰减速率相当;汶川地震的余震分布主要沿龙门山断裂走向北东向扩展,且具有明显分区性,自南向北分为南、中、北3区段,南区为地震起始破裂段,地震后期余震则主要分布在北区;震源深度分布在10～40km,集中在10～20km,表明龙门山断裂主要发生在中上地壳,且震源深度由南向北呈现逐渐变浅的趋势;震源深度扩展,南区呈明显脉冲状,中区主要是依次由15、30、25km深度向深、浅层同时扩展,北区余震深度分布呈“乙”字型,最后稳定在15km左右。     

鄂西白垩纪远安盆地的变形带构造

鄂西白垩纪远安盆地中大量发育变形带及其密切相关的断层,主要分为两期,早期为带有正断性质的北北东向组变形带及简单的正断层,形成在同沉积或早成岩阶段,而晚期为带走滑性质的北-南向组和北东向组变形带及复活断层,形成在白垩纪以后.根据实测的共轭变形带和断层滑动数据,古应力分析的结果表明,早期为北西西-南东东向拉张的伸展状态,而...     

藏北低速体存在的地震学证据——INDEPTH4宽频地震结果

位于青藏高原东北部的INDEPTH-IV地震探测剖面,始于柴达木盆地南缘,穿越东昆仑造山带、金沙江缝合线,终止于羌塘地体.本文作者利用天然地震体波完成了该区的三维走时残差反演,勾划出了青藏高原东北部的深部构造格局.研究区最显著的现象则是分布在昆仑地体、可可西里地体、羌塘地体北部下地壳、上地幔中的低速体.对其成因,有可能...     

首都圈地区卫星热红外亮温变化特征研究

利用1999年和2003-2006年共5年的NOAA卫星热红外遥感数据,对北京及周边地区的热红外影像特征和红外亮温年变特征进行了跟踪观测、统计分析与对比研究.结果表明:①不同地质构造单元,特别是线性断裂构造在热红外影像上有清晰的显示,通过不同时期红外影像的对比研究可以很好地揭示断裂构造的空间展布及规模形态,为活动构造研...     

南堡凹陷东营组同沉积构造活动性与沉积格局的配置关系研究

应用构造-层序地层分析的思维,通过构造格架与地层格架的关联分析,对南堡凹陷东营组沉积充填样式与过程、控制要素进行了综合研究。通过沉降史分析,并结合区域构造演化特征,古近纪可划分为4个次级构造幕。凹陷内断裂发育,同沉积断裂及其时空配置关系对凹陷内结构和沉积体系类型及其展布起着重要的控制作用。控凹断裂直接控制了局部构造带的可容纳空间变化和古地貌形态,从而形成不同的沉积展布特征。高柳断层是南堡凹陷内最为重要的二级断裂,其活动始于Es1沉积时期,在东营组沉积时期活动最为强烈。在东营组沉积时期,高柳断层将凹陷分为南、北两个独立的沉积系统,尤其在Ed3沉积期其强烈的翘倾作用使高柳地区成为一个孤立的湖盆,直接影响到了高柳地区的沉积充填。根据东营组沉积时期同沉积断裂组合样式划分出4种断裂坡折带:断崖型、断坡型、同向断阶型和反向断阶型,为研究南堡凹陷东营组同沉积断裂对沉积格局的控制作用提供了有利的指导,具有重要的石油地质意义。     

Neogene-Quaternary tectonic evolution of the Leeward Antilles islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) from fault kinematic analysis

Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are islands aligned along the crest of a 200-km-long segment of the east-west-trending Leeward Antilles ridge within the broad Caribbean-South America plate boundary zone presently characterized by east-west, right-lateral strike-slip motion. The crust of the Leeward Antilles ridge represents the western segment of the Cretaceous-early Cenozoic Great Arc of the Caribbean, which obliquely collided, with the continental margin of northern South America in early Cenozoic time. Following the collision, the ridge was affected by folding and was segmented by oblique, northwest-striking normal faults that have produced steep-sided, northwest-trending, elongate islands and narrow shelves separated by deepwater, sediment-filled and fault-controlled basins. In this paper, we present the first fault slip observations on the Neogene carbonate rocks that cover large areas of all three islands. Our main objective is to quantify the timing and nature of Neogene to Quaternary phases of faulting and folding that have affected the structure and topography of this area including offshore sedimentary basins that are being explored for their petroleum potential. These data constrain three fault phases that have affected Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao and likely the adjacent offshore areas: 1) NW-SE-directed late Paleogene compression; 2) middle Miocene syndepositional NNW-SSE to NNE-SSW extension that produced deep rift basins transverse to the east-west-trending Leeward Antilles ridge; and 3) Pliocene-Quaternary NNE-trending compression that produced NW-SE-trending anticlines present on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire islands. Our new observations - that include detailed relationships between striated fault planes, paleostress tensors, and bedding planes - show that prominent bedding dips of Neogene limestone on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao were produced by regional tectonic shortening across the entire Leeward Antilles ridge rather than by localized, syndepositional effects as proposed by previous workers. We interpret Pliocene-Quaternary NNE-directed shortening effects on the Leeward Antilles ridge as the result of northeastward extrusion or “tectonic escape” of continental areas of western Venezuela combined with southeastward shallow subduction of the Caribbean plate beneath the ridge.     

Sub-seismic scale fracture pattern and in situ permeability data in the chalk atop of the Krempe salt ridge at Lägerdorf, NW Germany: Inferences on synfolding stress field evolution and its impact on fracture connectivity

Chalk is exposed in the Heidestrasse quarry at Lägerdorf, at the top of the NE-SW trending Krempe salt ridge. Structural data indicate the presence of two joint sets, striking almost parallel and perpendicular to the salt ridge, respectively, and of a set of conjugate extensional faults and fault zones striking NW-SE, i.e. almost perpendicular to the salt ridge. Within the overall NW-SE trend of joints and faults, strike variations occur from the massive chalk exposed in the lower half of the quarry, to the overlying layered chalk. A large variability characterizes the normalized spacing of both joint sets, which does not show any clear trend with layer dip. In situ measurements indicate that the cross-sectional permeability of tight joints increases 1-2 orders of magnitude with respect to the undeformed chalk. We propose that joint and fault azimuthal variability resulted from changes through time of the stress ellipsoid at the top of the salt ridge, while joint spacing variability is associated with the weak mechanical influence of bedding in chalk. Azimuthal variability improves fracture connectivity and, hence, permeability and fluid flow.     

Structural evolution of a salt-cored,domed, reactivated fault complex,Jebel Madar,Oman

Fault and fracture patterns associated with domal structures are observed around the world both at outcrop and in the subsurface. However, the structural evolution of domes and the influence of previous fault and fracture sets are not yet fully understood. This study provides the first structural evolution analysis of Jebel Madar, a domal outcrop in the Adam Foothills of Northern Oman, and evaluates the role of multiple local tectonic events and the associated salt diapirism on fracture and fault distribution pattern development of a salt-cored domal outcrop.Analyses at Jebel Madar suggest that three local tectonic events with different stress regimes that are tentatively linked to three regional tectonic events resulted in a salt-cored, domed, reactivated fault complex: 1) initial dome-formation and NE–SW oriented mode 1 opening fractures and subsequent grabens; 2) E–W oriented dextral strike-slip faulting; and 3) reactivation and inversion of faults, and final dome formation. Salt emplacement is associated with the first and last tectonic events.This integrated study highlights the complicated evolution of fault and fracture distribution patterns at a salt-cored dome. Caution is therefore required in interpretation of similar structural patterns on top of and around salt-cored domes.