Geology of the Yap Trench: new observations from a transect near 10°N from manned submersible Jiaolong

This paper describes the petrology and geochemistry of rocks from the Yap Trench acquired by three dives of the Jiaolong research submarine. Combining the geophysical data and submersible observations, this paper describes the geomorphology, shallow structures, and sedimentology of the Yap Trench and further discusses the tectonics and activities of this region. Two obvious slope breaks are found on the landward slope, and horsts and grabens with small fault offsets are observed in the ocean-ward slope of the trench. Peridotites sampled from the Yap Trench inner wall are highly depleted subduction-related mantle residues. Volcanic rocks in the northern segment of the trench have subduction-related characteristics that Yap fore-arc rocks underwent metasomatism during Cenozoic subduction. The rocks with remarkable lithologic difference from lithospheric mantle and upper crust sampled in the break slopes suggest that the slope break area may represent a lithologic boundary or transition zone. The landward slope of the Yap Trench was removed by subduction erosion as a result of collision with the Caroline Ridge. The bending of the down-going plate caused normal faults, horsts, and grabens with little or no sediments indicating that the Caroline Ridge is subducting beneath the Yap arc along the trench even though the convergence rate is very slow.     

Jurassic and Cretaceous (Yanshannian) tectonics,magmatism and metallogenesis in South China: preface

ABSTRACT

South China is famous for its poly-metal deposits, with more than 50% of global W and Sb reserves, 20% of global Sn reserves, as well as abundant Cu-Mo-Pb-Zn-Au-Ag, Ta, Nb, REE and U deposits. This special issue consists of 21 papers, reporting recent progress on Yanshannian tectonic evolution, magmatism and ore deposits in South China, aiming at better understandings on the Mesozoic large-scale magmatism and mineralization events.     

华北地块中部新构造运动

由于印度板块持续向北运动,引起青藏高原的挤出,并于中新世末引起华北地块的向东挤出。大约在7.3 Ma,太行山西侧渭河盆地唐县面首先解体,继而向北、向东发展;到5 Ma左右,太行山东麓断裂带的右行走滑,导致华北中部唐县面全面解体,形成多个太行山内部山间盆地,以及太行山西侧山西地堑系。这些断陷盆地的断陷幅度各不相同,太行山西侧山西地堑系断陷幅度较大,太行山内部山间盆地断陷幅度较小,太行山东部的渤海湾盆地断陷活动不明显。伴随着盆地的形成,太行山相对进入快速隆升阶段。山西地堑系控盆断裂以及太行山东麓断裂带第四纪以来仍存在明显活动,切割并控制第四系,局部在地表形成地裂缝。华北地块中部的应力场恢复以及深部构造分析表明,深部地幔上涌对浅部伸展构造的形成具有重要的影响,深部构造演变与浅部构造演变具有高度的一致性和耦合性。太行山东部渤海湾盆地自中新世以来就进入拗陷阶段,断裂活动弱,构造演化与西侧差异较大,表明这期构造运动动力源于西侧,太行山东麓断裂带作为两侧差异演变的边界,调节着两侧的差异构造活动。     

遵化新太古代豆荚状铬铁矿变形特征、变形机制及其大洋地幔扩张运移的指示意义

豆荚状铬铁矿是蛇绿岩套地幔构造岩中特征的矿产,其矿石发育丰富的岩浆活动-高温变形结构构造类型,豆荚状铬铁矿高温下仍具有稳定的物理化学特性,对认识大洋上地幔扩张、横向运移具有重要指示意义。在对遵化新太古代豆荚状铬铁矿显微构造的深入研究基础上,通过对比分析豆荚状铬铁矿结构构造特征(岩浆活动、低温变形),提出高温变形结构及其特征(拉长网孔结构、条带状、糜棱状结构等)。借鉴现代洋中脊及弧后盆地扩张的构造模型,提出华北新太古代豆荚状铬铁矿扩张中心形成后的显微构造演化序列,豆荚状铬铁矿变形机制的研究,可以提供认识早期大洋上地幔动力学过程的新线索。     

大陆克拉通早期构造演化历史探讨:以华北为例

大陆早期构造演化的研究一直是大陆地质学研究的焦点问题.在华北克拉通基底构造1∶200万编图研究基础上, 本文开展基底断裂边界、构造样式及后期叠加关系的研究, 借鉴比较大地构造理论, 对华北克拉通基底重新进行了构造区划.结合标志性构造单元及其时代、同位素年龄数据库的综合研究, 提出华北早期构造格局演化及其重大构造热事件.华北克拉通基底主要由大面积的新太古代TTG杂岩及表壳岩系组成, 新太古代涉及活动陆缘环境的大规模陆壳增生及不同微陆块的碰撞聚合过程, 造成新太古代末期陆壳迅速增生和克拉通化.古元古代初期开始伸展裂解和早期盖层发育阶段, 古元古代晚期发生微陆块碰撞缝合, 形成超级克拉通, 并在克拉通西北边缘发生强烈改造作用.1.84Ga前后, 华北克拉通经历最强烈的一次伸展裂解过程, 从超级克拉通裂解, 开始了独立的构造演化, 在伸展构造背景下, 克拉通基底被强烈隆升冷却, 经历风化剥蚀, 发育沉积盖层.以上构造格局及其构造热事件提供了早期超级大陆再造研究的构造制约条件.      

阳江MS4.9级地震影响场与发震构造关系讨论

2004年9月17日02时31分广东省阳江市发生MS 4.9级地震,造成14个镇的57个行政村共1620多间房屋(主要为老旧民房)遭受轻微破坏,受影响居民21195户,经济损失2300多万元。震后进行了地震影响场调查,绘制了这次地震的等震线分布图,并对其发震构造进行了分析探讨。     

On the use of geochronology of detrital grains in determining the time of deposition of clastic sedimentary strata

Placing geologic events in a temporal framework is essential to telling the story of Earth history. However, clastic sedimentary rocks can be difficult to date in an absolute reference because they are made up of grains that are older than the rock in which they are now found, and some clastic rocks do not contain fossils that allow precise reference to the Geologic Timescale. For such rocks, the isotopic dating of detrital minerals can be used to estimate the time of deposition; the clastic rock must be younger than the youngest grain analysed. However, many researchers eschew this simple and straightforward approach in favour of schemes that estimate the maximum allowable depositional age as the weighted mean of the age of several grains, chosen by a variety of selection criteria. This is a mistake; in the absence of a geochemical resemblance apart from the similarity of their age, detrital grains should not be assumed to have originated in the same system and therefore any averaging or other manipulation of such data is statistically invalid and produces results without geologic significance. In the absence of interbedded volcanic rocks or index fossils, dating of detrital minerals can be an important aid in understanding the time of deposition of clastic rocks, but the best estimate will come from taking note of the youngest single grain and not by inappropriately averaging data.     

Flexural deformation controls on Late Quaternary sediment dispersal in the Garo-Rajmahal Gap,NW Bengal Basin

Subsurface deformation is a driver for river path selection when deformation rates become comparable to the autogenic mobility rate of rivers. Here we combine geomorphology, soil and sediment facies analyses, and geophysical data of the Late Quaternary sediments of the central Garo-Rajmahal Gap in Northwest Bengal to link subsurface deformation with surface processes. We show variable sedimentation characteristics, from slow rates (<0.8 mm/year) in the Tista megafan at the foot of the Himalaya to nondeposition at the exposed surface of the Barind Tract to the south, enabling the development of mature soils. Combined subsidence in the Tista fan and uplift of the Barind Tract are consistent with a N-S flexural response of the Indian plate to loading of the Himalaya Mountains given a low value of elastic thickness (15–25 km). Provenance analysis based on bulk strontium concentration suggests a dispersal of sediment consistent with this flexural deformation—in particular the abandonment of the Barind Tract by a Pleistocene Brahmaputra River and the current extents of the Tista megafan lobes. Overall, these results highlight the control by deeply rooted deformation patterns on the routing of sediment by large rivers in foreland settings.     

Wrench faults,pull-apart basins,and volcanism in central Oregon: A new tectonic model based on image interpretation

A tectonic study of the Newberry Crater region of central Oregon has been based on the interpretation of Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery. Two major faults, the Brothers-Tumalo and Eugene-Denio Faults, pass NW-SE through the region and step to the right at the eastern margin of the Cascades Range. Dextral wrench faulting on these structures during the Tertiary controlled the formation of the La Pine Basin, a pull-apart structure containing Tertiary and Quaternary sediments and volcanics. Tertiary wrench faulting appears to have been associated with rotations of crustal blocks at a plate margin, but was superseded in the Quaternary by extensional faulting of the Basin and Range province. Newberry Crater and other major bimodal volcanic centres in the NW Cordillera (Crater Lake, Medicine Lake, Mt. St. Helens) seem to have a similar tectonic setting in crustal pull-aparts. A relationship between magma type and fault trend at Newberry and Medicine Lake is suggested.     

Basin filling evolution of the central basins of Mallorca since the Pliocene

A new compilation of data from 436 drill cores using decompaction and backstripping techniques was used to reconstruct the basin filling history from the Pliocene until the present day in the Palma, Inca and Sa Pobla Basins on the island of Mallorca (Spain). Calcareous rocks dominate the source area and provide a limited amount of clastic input to the basins that has resulted in an average accumulation rate of between 5 and 20 m/Ma during the last 5.3 Ma. Carbonate sediment production dominated the basin filling history during early‐mid Pliocene, but during the Quaternary, the sedimentation processes in the Palma Basin were probably enhanced by an evolution in the drainage network that increased the sediment supply and the accumulated thickness caused by stream capture. However, the maximum sedimentation rate filling the depocentres of the three basins has been decreasing since the Pliocene, showing that not only the catchment transport efficiency but also the relative sea level have been controlling the sediment accumulation in these carbonate basins. The isopach cross‐sections support the idea that a palaeorelief was generated during the Messinian sea level drop and that heterogeneities were filled in from the Pliocene to the Quaternary. We conclude that the central basins of Mallorca were filled heterogeneously due to tectonic and geomorphic processes that controlled sediment transport and production, resulting in different average sedimentation thicknesses that decreased since the Pliocene as the accommodation space became filled and the relative sea level dropped.