汶川8级大地震同震破裂的特殊性及构造意义——多条平行断裂同时活动的反序型逆冲地震事件

汶川地震是有仪器记录以来发生的世界上最大的板内逆冲型地震之一。野外调查表明,沿北东走向的龙门山断裂带上,至少有两条逆冲断裂同时参与汶川地震的同震破裂过程,即北川断裂和安县灌县断裂（彭灌断裂）。倾向北西的高角度北川逆冲断裂上的地表破裂长度大于200 km,可能达225 km。运动方式在南部表现为以北西盘抬升的逆冲为主,往北东转为逆冲右旋走滑,走滑分量与垂向陡坎高度相当,陡坎高度最大值约为11 m。在彭灌断裂上,地表破裂表现为北西盘抬升的近纯逆冲性质的破裂,破裂长度达70 km,陡坎最高达3~3.5 m。汶川地震是世界上第一次明确记录到多条平行断裂参与同震破裂的逆冲型地震,而且因发震断层是龙门山断裂带内部的高角度逆冲断裂,而非断裂带前锋的低角度逆冲断裂,所以汶川地震属于反序型逆冲断裂活动。这与1999年我国台湾7.5级集集地震和2005年克什米尔7.6级地震类似,说明反序型逆冲地震具有普遍性。汶川地震这一震级大、破裂长的逆冲地震事件是对目前流行的青藏高原下地壳流动的变形假说提出的严峻挑战,同时也表明加强青藏高原东缘南北地震带上其他滑动速率较低但同样具有发生大地震可能性的活动断裂的滑动速率和古地震定量研究的紧迫性,因为这一地区人口密度与东部相当,但发生强震的频率更高。     

Constraining P–T conditions during thrusting of a higher pressure unit over a lower pressure one (Gran Paradiso,Western Alps)

Identifying higher pressure units overlying lower pressure ones is a first order argument to determine the presence of large‐scale thrusting. For the first time, petrology is used to quantify the pressure difference between two stacked units in the Western Alps. In the Gran Paradiso Massif, the Money unit crops out as a tectonic window below the Gran Paradiso unit. The reconstruction of the Alpine evolution of these two units and the history of their tectonic contact has been achieved using a multidisciplinary approach that combines meso‐ and microstructural analysis and pseudosection calculations. In both units, four stages of deformation and metamorphism have been identified. Stage 1 reflects the phase of continental crust subduction and P–T conditions of ~18–20 kbar, 480–520 °C and of ~13–18 kbar, 500–530 °C have been estimated for the Gran Paradiso and the Money units respectively. This yields a maximum difference of ~20 km in the depth reached by these two units during the early Alpine history. Thrusting of the Gran Paradiso unit over the Money unit (stage 2) led to the development of the main foliation and occurred in the high‐P part of the albite stability field at P–T conditions of ~12.5–14.5 kbar and 530–560 °C, identical in both units. The thrust contact was folded during stage 3 together with the entire Money unit, and then both units were exhumed together (stage 4). During this polyphase evolution, detrital garnet has been partially dissolved, while the earliest Na‐bearing phases (glaucophane, paragonite) have been overprinted by the low‐P mineral associations. The uncertainties on derived pressures between the two units are unfortunately larger than hoped, and this is attributed to the muscovite solid‐solution model not incorporating a pyrophyllite component.     

青藏高原西北缘晚新生代构造变形研究

晚新生代,印亚碰撞的远程效应使青藏高原周缘发生了强烈的构造变形和隆升作用,然而不同学者对高原强烈构造变形和隆升时代的认识却大相径庭。本文通过对青藏高原西北缘晚新生代褶皱冲断带的构造变形、沉积作用、岩浆活动与地貌响应等的综合研究,依据古新统至中新统地层的连续沉积和产状的协调一致,提出青藏高原西北缘在古新世—中新世末并未发生区域性强烈的构造变形,并基于褶皱、生长地层、楔顶沉积和冲断带中局部不整合等标定青藏高原西北缘强烈构造变形的时代为上新世—早更新世,其中最强烈的构造变形发生于西域砾岩沉积结束阶段,即约1.1～0.7Ma的昆黄运动最终使中更新世以前地层全面褶皱-抬升,形成区域性的乌苏群与西域砾岩之间的角度不整合,这为青藏高原西北缘晚新生代的构造变形提供了关键的构造地质学证据;同时,根据磷灰石裂变径迹的研究成果提出青藏高原西北缘的主要隆升可能是在上新世—早更新世通过高原边缘的边界断层系以后展式逆冲扩展作用抬升形成的,并就裂变径迹热历史模拟的剥蚀厚度提出西域砾岩很可能主要来自高原边缘地形变化最剧烈的陡坡带,支持西域砾岩属构造成因的认识。     

The Late Paleozoic fold-thrust structure of the Tunka bald mountains, East Sayan (southern framing of the Siberian Platform)

According to the new geological, geochronological, and structural data, the Tunka bald mountains (East Sayan) have a nappe structure, which formed in the Late Carboniferous–Early Permian. The deformations have been dated by the ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar method on the basis of syntectonic micas and amphiboles, whose structural and spatial positions have been determined in oriented thin sections. The geometrical analysis of macro- and microstructures has revealed three development stages of the structures, which followed one another in progressive deformation. The first (thrust-fault) stage (316–310 Ma) comprised a group of N-verging thrust sheets. In the second (fold deformation) stage (305–303 Ma), they were folded. The third (strike-slip fault) stage (286 Ma) comprised high-angle shears, along which V-shaped blocks were squeezed westward from the most compressed areas. All the structures developed under near-N–S-trending compression. The thrusting in the Tunka bald mountains was coeval with the major shear structures in the eastern Central Asian Fold Belt (Main Sayan Fault, Kurai, Northeastern, and Irtysh crumpled zones, etc.). Also, it was simultaneous with the formation of continental-margin calc-alkalic and shoshonite series (305–278 Ma) as well as that of the alkali and alkali-feldspar syenites and granites (281–278 Ma) of the Tarim mantle plume in the Angara–Vitim pluton, located near and east of the studied region. Thus, the simultaneous development of the Late Paleozoic structures, active-margin structures, and plume magmatism in southern Siberia might have resulted from the global geodynamic events caused by the interaction between the tectonic plates which formed the Central Asian Fold Belt.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987110000319

The 3-D geometry of the seismicity in Hindu Kush–Pamir–western China region has been defined by seismic records for 1975–1999 from the National Earthquake Information Center, the U.S. Geological Survey, and over 16,000 relocated earthquakes since 1975 recorded by the Xinjiang seismic network of China. The results show that most Ms ≥ 5.0 hypocenters in the area are confined to a major intracontinental seismic shear zone (MSSZ). The MSSZ, which dips southwards in Pamir has a north-dipping counterpart in the Hindu Kush to the west; the two tectonic realms are separated by the sinistral Chaman transform fault of the India–Asia collisional zone. We demonstrate that the MSSZ constitutes the upper boundary of a south-dipping, actively subducting Pamir continental plate. Three seismic concentrations are recognized just above the Pamir MSSZ at depths between 45–65 km, 95–120 km, and 180–220 km, suggesting different structural relationships where each occurs. Results from focal mechanism solutions in all three seismological concentrations show orientations of the principal maximum stress to be nearly horizontal in an NNW–SSE direction. The south-dipping Pamir subduction slab is wedge-shaped with a wide upper top and a narrow deeper bottom; the slab has a gentle angle of dip in the upper part and steeper dips in the lower part below an elbow depth of ca. 80–120 km. Most of the deformation related to the earthquakes occurs within the hanging wall of the subducting Pamir slab. Published geologic data and repeated GPS measurements in the Pamir document a broad supra-subduction, upper crustal zone of evolving antithetic (i.e. north-dipping) back-thrusts that contribute to north-south crustal shortening and are responsible for exhumation of some ultrahigh-pressure rocks formed during earlier Tethyan plate convergence. An alternating occurrence in activity of Pamir and Chaman seismic zones indicates that there is interaction between strike-slip movement of the Chaman transform fault system and deep-subduction of the Pamir earthquake zone. Pamir subduction-related seismicity becomes shallower in depth with increasing distance east of the transform fault. Therefore, sinistral movement of the Chaman transform fault appears to be influencing continental deep-subduction in the Pamir region and may provide an explanation for the unusual south-dipping geometry of the intracontinental Pamir plate.     

Invariant shape solutions of the spinning three craft Coulomb tether problem

In this paper we study shape-preserving formations of three spacecraft, where the formation keeping forces arise from the electric charges deposed on each craft. Inspired by Lagrange’s 3-body problem, the general conditions that guarantee preservation of the geometric shape of the electrically charged formation are derived. While the classical collinear configuration is a solution to the problem, the equilateral triangle configuration is found to only occur with unbounded relative motion. The three collinear spacecraft problem is analyzed and the possible solutions are categorized based on the spacecraft mass–charge ratio. Precise statements on the number of solutions associated with each category are provided. Finally, a methodology is proposed to study boundedness of the collinear solution that is inspired by past understanding and results for the 3-body problem. Given the initial position and the velocity vectors of each craft along with the charges, analytical solutions are provided describing the resulting relative motion.     

Contrasting pressure–temperature–deformation history across a vestigial craton–mobile belt boundary: the western margin of the Eastern Ghats Belt at Deobhog, India

At Deobhog, migmatitic gneisses and granulites of the Eastern Ghats Belt are juxtaposed against a cratonic ensemble of banded augen gneiss, amphibolite and calcsilicate gneiss, intruded by late hornblende granite and dolerite. In the migmatitic gneiss unit, early isoclinal folds (syn‐D_1M and D_2M) are reoriented along N–S‐trending and E‐dipping shear planes (S_3M), with (S_1M–S_3M) intersection lineations having steep to moderate plunges. The near‐peak P–T condition was syn‐D_3M (≥900 °C, 9.5 kbar), as inferred from syn‐D_3M Grt+Opx‐bearing leucosomes in mafic granulites, and from thermobarometry on Grt (corona)–Opx/Cpx–Pl–Qtz assemblages. The P–T values are consistent with the occurrence of Opx–Spr–Crd assemblages in spatially associated high‐Mg–Al pelites. A subsequent period of cooling followed by isothermal decompression (800–850 °C, c. 7 kbar) is documented by the formation of coronal garnet and its decomposition to Opx+Pl symplectites in mafic granulites. Hydrous fluid infiltration accompanying the retrograde changes is manifested in biotite replacing Opx in some lithologies. The cratonic banded gneiss–granite unit also documents two phases of isoclinal folding (D_1B & D_2B), with the L_2B lineation girdle different from the lineation spread in the migmatitic gneiss unit. Calcsilicate gneiss (Hbl–Pl–Cpx–Scap–Cal) and amphibolite (Hbl–Pl±Grt±Cpx) within banded gneisses record syn‐D_2B peak metamorphic conditions (c. 700 °C, 6.5 kbar), followed by cooling (to c. 500 °C) manifested in the stabilization of coronal clinozoisite–epidote. The D_3B shear deformation post‐dates granite and dolerite intrusions and is characterized by top‐to‐the‐west movement along N–S‐trending, E‐dipping shear planes. Deformation mechanisms of quartz and feldspar in granites and banded gneisses and amphibole–plagioclase thermometry within shear bands in dolerites document an inverted syn‐D_3B thermal gradient with temperature increasing from 350 to 550 °C in the west to ≥700 °C near the contact with the migmatitic gneiss unit. The thermal gradient is reflected in the stabilization of chlorite after hornblende in S_3B shears to the west, and post‐D_2B neosome segregation along D_3B folds and shears to the east. The contrasting lithologies, early structures and peak metamorphic conditions in the two units indicate unconnected pre‐D₃P–T –deformation histories. The shared D₃ deformation in the two units, the syn‐D₃ inverted thermal gradient preserved in the footwall cratonic rocks and the complementary cooling and hydration of the hanging wall granulites across the contact are attributed to westward thrusting of ‘hot’ Eastern Ghats granulites on ‘cool’ cratonic crust. It is suggested that the Eastern Ghats migmatitic gneiss unit is not a reworked part of the craton, but a para‐autochthonous/allochthonous unit emplaced on and amalgamated to the craton.     

Spores from a carboniferous section in the hunter valley,New South Wales

In this initial systematic study of Carboniferous spores from New South Wales, Australia, fifteen species (all but one of them new) are formally described and are distributed among eight established genera and two new genera (Rattiganispora, a distally annulate trilete form, and Psomospora, an inaperturate or proximally hilate form). The species were selected as being the most characteristic and distinctive forms found in the Italia Road Formation at its well‐exposed type section in the Hunter Valley, east‐central New South Wales. The formation is a cyclical non‐marine unit, over 300 metres (1,000 ft) thick, consisting of lithic arenites together with carbonaceous shales, claystones, and siltstones; its age is regarded as West‐phalian‐Stephanian. The microfiora is compared with those known from sediments of similar age elsewhere and its place in the Australian Palaeozoic palynostratigraphic record is discussed.

New specific institutions are as follows: Punctatisporites lucidulus, P. sub‐tritus, Verrucosisporites aspratilis, V. italiaensis, Raistrickia accincta, R. radiosa, Reticulatisporites asperidictyus, R. magnidictyus, Foveosporites pellucidus, Rattiganispora apiculata (type species), Kraeuselisporites kuttungensis, Grandispora maculosa, Psomospora detecta (type species), and Wilsonites australiensis.     

The link between tectonics and sedimentation in asymmetric extensional basins: Inferences from the study of the Sarajevo-Zenica Basin

The coupled tectonic and depositional history of extensional basins is usually described in terms of stratigraphic sequences linked with the activity of normal faults. This depositional-kinematic interplay is less understood in basins bounded by major extensional detachments or normal fault systems associated with significant exhumation of footwalls. Of particular interest is the link between tectonics and sedimentation during the migration of normal faulting in time and space across the basin. One area where such coupled depositional-kinematic history can be optimally studied is the Late Oligocene - Miocene Sarajevo-Zenica Basin, located in the Dinarides Mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This intra-montane basin recorded Oligocene – Pliocene sedimentation in an endemic and isolated lake environment. We use field kinematic and sedimentological mapping in outcrops correlated with existing local and regional studies to derive a high-resolution evolutionary model of the basin. The novel results demonstrate a close correlation between moments of normal faulting and high-order sedimentological cycles, while the overall extensional basin was filled by a largely uni-directional sediment supply from the neighbouring mountain chain. The migration in time and space of listric NE-dipping normal faults was associated with a gradual shift of the sedimentological environment. Transgressive-regressive cycles reflect sequential displacements on normal faults and their footwall exhumation, defining a new sedimentological model for such basins. This Early - Middle Miocene extension affected the central part of the Dinarides and was associated with the larger opening of the neighbouring Pannonian Basin. The extension was preceded and followed by two phases of contraction. The Oligocene - Early Miocene thrusting took place during the final stages of the Dinarides collision, while the post-Middle Miocene contraction is correlated with the regional indentation of the Adriatic continental unit. This latter phase inverted the extensional basin by reactivating the inherited basal listric detachment.     

Garzón Massif basement tectonics: Structural control on evolution of petroleum systems in upper Magdalena and Putumayo basins,Colombia

The Garzón Massif, is an active Laramide style basement uplift flanked by the Upper Magdalena Valley (UMV) and the Putumayo Basin. In this paper we use new gravity, magnetic, well and seismic data for the first geophysical interpretation of the Garzón Massif. The Garzón/Algeciras fault has been previously interpreted as a right-lateral strike-slip fault. The new seismic, well, and gravity data demonstrates that the Garzón fault is also a low-angle (12–17°) Andean age fault thrusting PreCambrian basement 10–17 km northwestward over Miocene sediments of the UMV in a prospective footwall anticline.The new geophysical data as well as previous field mapping were used to produce the first gravity and magnetic maps and retrodeformable structural cross section of the northern Garzón Massif. The new model distinguishes for the first time distinct episodes of “thin-skinned” and “thick-skinned” deformation in the Garzón Massif. The model indicates approximately 43 km of Early to Middle Miocene shortening by “thin-skinned” imbricate thrusting contemporaneous with the uplift of the nearby southern Central Cordillera (∼9–16 Ma) and the main hydrocarbon expulsion event for the UMV and Putumayo Basin. This was followed by at least 22 km of Late Miocene (3–6 Ma) “thick-skinned” Andean shortening and 7 km of uplift on the symmetrical Garzón thrust and a SE-verging basement thrust fault zone. The Andean uplift interrupted and exposed the hydrocarbon migration pathways to the Putumayo Basin.3-D volume fracture analysis was used for the first time in this paper together with the first seismic and well data published for the Topoyaco and Miraflor structures to test closure models for the Topoyaco foothills. Intense fracturing is observed in the Topoyaco basement monocline from the near-surface to depths of over 3.5 km. The high level of fracturing permitted freshwater flushing and oil biodegradation and hydrocarbon escape. In contrast, the Miraflor-1 well, located just southwest of the Topoyaco block, tested light gravity oil and is sealed from groundwater flushing and biodegradation by a backthrust.