The Geologic Time Scale and the Italian stratigraphic record

The construction of the Geologic Time Scale (GTS) is a titanic scientific challenge that has been under way for two centuries and will require much dedicated effort in the future. Italy preserves a paramount stratigraphic record of Mesozoic and Cenozoic marine sediments that have been significant in the development of the modern GTS. The Italian stratigraphic record has been histori-cally important in introducing and defining the standard Chronostratigraphic Units (CUs) of the Neogene and Quaternary. Pelagic successions from Northern Apen-nines and Southern Alps have been used in the seventies for integrating the late Cretaceous-Paleogene Geomag-netic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS) with planktonic microfossil biostratieraohv and standard CUs. This was a major contribution to the construction of a new gener-ation of GTS based on integrated magnetobiochronol-ogy. The middle Miocene to early Pleistocene marinerecord from Sicily and southern Italy has been funda-mental for establishing the recently developed Astro-nomical Time Scale (ATS). In prospect, there are many potentials still to be exploited in the Italian marine stratigraphic record for implementing the GTS by defin-ing GSSPs of various CUs, improving magneto-biochronology and extending downwards the ATS.     

Mantle processes during ocean formation：Petrologic records in peridotites from the Alpine－Apennine ophiolites

Mantle peridotites were early exposed at the sea-floor of the Jurassic Tethys derived from the subcontinental mantle of the Europe-Adria system. During continental rifting and oceanic spreading, these lithospheric peri-dotites were percolated via diffuse reactive porous flowby melt fractions produced by near-fractional melting of the upwelling asthenosphere. Ascending melts inter-acted with the lower lithosphere, dissolving pyroxenes and precipitating olivine, and crystallized at shallower levels in the mantle column causing melt impregnation.Subsequent focused porous flow formed replacive dunitechannels, cutting the impregnated oeridotites, which were conduits for upward migration of MORB-type liq-uids. Melt migration produced depletionlrefertilization and significant heating of the percolatedlimpregnated mantle, i.e the thermochemical erosion of the litho-sphere. Impregnated and thermally modified lithos-pheric mantle was cooled by conductive heat loss dur-ing progressive lithosphere thinning and was intrudeaby MORB magmas, which formed Mg-rich and Fe-richgabbroic dykes and bodies. Alpine-Apennine ophiolitic peridotites record the deep-seated migration of melts which changed their compositions and dynamics during the rift evolution. The thermochemical erosion of the lithospheric mantle by the ascending asthenospheric melts, which induces significant compositional and rhe-ological changes in the lower lithosphere, is a major process in the evolution of the continent-ocean transi-tion towards a slow spreading oceanic system.     

全球Ms≥7￣3／4级地震的定向迁移

对全球尺度的６条大地震带内１９００～１９９０年中１８４次Ｍｓ≥７３／４级地震进行了沿地震带方向定向迁移的分析，获得了全球统一的地震定向迁移规律，总体是由西向东，迁移速度由７００ｋｍ／ａ变为１５０ｋｍ／ａ，此现象可以作多种暂态地球动力作用过程的推论，如以大西洋脊间歇式张裂引起上地幔软流物质自西向东运动，呈现纵波式的振荡传播；也可解释为非洲板块、阿拉伯板块和印度板块自西南向东北对欧亚地震带依次的推压引起向东的应变波的传播；太平洋脊两侧洋底板块向西北和东北两侧的斜向推压，可能是造成两侧地震带地震向北迁移的触发源