Cleaved microgranite dykes of the Shap swarm in the Silurian of NW England

Felsite-microgranite dykes, chemically comparable with the Shap swarm and associated with the Shap intrusion, are present in Silurian sediments of the southern Lake District. They were emplaced after the country rocks had undergone Acadian (late Caledonian) folding and cleavage-formation but are themselves weakly cleaved. This confirms a ‘flattened buckle’ model for the Acadian deformation in NW England, which in turn establishes the link between sinistral transpression in this region and the clockwise transection of the folds by cleavage. The evidence also shows that the Acadian cleavage developed episodically, and that the Shap-Skiddaw magmatism occurred during one or more stress-relief episodes. The emplacement age of these intrusions thus constrains the age of the Acadian orogeny in NW England which was late in the Lower Devonian (according to currently available isotopic evidence), significantly later than the Silurian deformation of the Southern Uplands.     

基墨里造山与松潘-甘孜锂矿链成因的探讨

晚三叠世—早侏罗世,基墨里大陆和泛华夏陆块与欧亚大陆的碰撞,形成了4000 km 长的基墨里造山带。位于三大陆之间、现今青藏高原北部的松潘 甘孜地体的造山属性的确定,对于探索松潘 甘孜锂矿链的成因有重要意义。松潘 甘孜地体西部和北部的早侏罗世陆相火山岩、底砾岩和煤系地层(~201 Ma)不整合在晚三叠世褶皱地层及花岗岩体之上,为晚三叠世—早侏罗世的基墨里造山时限提供了直接证据。松潘 甘孜地体中的甲基卡、可尔因、扎乌龙和白龙山 大红柳滩等稀有金属矿集区具有共同特征：赋存在由核部高分异S型花岗岩和幔部中晚三叠世浊积岩组成的片麻岩穹隆构造中、经历了巴罗 巴肯变质作用、含锂伟晶岩脉侵位在花岗岩体上部的伸展空间。通过对松潘 甘孜地体区域地质调查和对矿集区的变质、变形、岩浆和成矿作用及同位素年代学研究,提出该地体经历晚三叠世—早中侏罗世的基墨里造山过程：① 230~220 Ma：地壳缩短和加厚阶段,以盖层大规模强烈褶皱、逆冲带,盖层与基底之间向南的滑脱变形为特征,伴随深熔和巴罗式变质作用;② 220~190 Ma：地壳减压折返阶段,大量花岗岩侵位在中晚三叠世浊积岩中、形成片麻岩穹隆并伴随巴肯式变质作用。由于花岗质岩浆的高度分异及岩浆不混溶作用,导致侵位在片麻岩穹隆顶部伸展空间的伟晶岩稀有金属富集成矿。此外,伟晶岩型锂矿科学钻探(JSD)揭示了甲基卡矿集区多层次穹状花岗岩席控制含锂伟晶岩脉的成矿机制,推测大规模中下地壳基底深熔驱动岩浆上升,岩浆体沿上地壳中的构造面推叠形成岩席。     

Tectonic evolution of the Cape and Karoo basins of South Africa

The Cape and Karoo basins formed within the continental interior of Gondwana. Subsidence resulted from the vertical motion of rigid basement blocks and intervening crustal faults. Each basin episode records a three-stage evolution consisting of crustal uplift, fault-controlled subsidence, and long periods of regional subsidence largely unaccompanied by faulting or erosional truncation. The large-scale episodes of subsidence were probably the result of lithospheric deflection due to subduction-driven mantle flow. The early Paleozoic Cape basin records the combined effects of a north-dipping intra-crustal décollement (a late Neoproterozoic suture) and a right-stepping offset between thick Rio de la Plata craton and Namaqua basement. Following the Saldanian orogeny, a suite of small rift basins and their post-rift drape formed at this releasing stepover. Great thicknesses of quartz sandstone (Ordovician–Silurian) and mudstone (Devonian) accumulation are attributed to subsidence by rheological weakening and mantle flow. In contrast, the Karoo basin is a cratonic cover that mimics the underlying basement blocks. The Permian Ecca and lower Beaufort groups were deposited in a southward-deepening ramp syncline by extensional decoupling on the intra-crustal décollement. Reflection seismic and deep-burial diagenetic studies indicate that the Cape orogeny started in the Early Triassic. Deformation was partitioned into basement-involved strike-slip faults and thin-skinned thrusting. Uplift of the Namaqua basement resulted in erosion of the Beaufort cover. East of the Cape fold belt, contemporaneous subsidence and tilting of the Natal basement created a late Karoo transtensional foreland basin, the Stormberg depocentre. Early Jurassic tectonic resetting and continental flood basalts terminated the Karoo basin.     

Late Pan-African magmatism and crustal development in northeastern Egypt

The voluminous Pan-African calc-alkaline granitic suite of the Ras Gharib crustal segment in northeastern Eygpt provides a typical example of orogenic magmatism. The 552 ± 7 Ma-old granodiorite–adamellite and leucogranite suite is compositionally broad (58 to 77 wt.% SiO₂) and exhibits calc-alkaline geochemical trends and trace-element characteristics typical of the volcanic-arc granites. The rocks contain oligoclase, albite, K-feldspar, calcic amphibole, biotite, titanite, zircon, and magnetite. The suite exhibits typical features characteristic of I-type granites. We contend that the magma was formed by partial melting of a modified oceanic crust at an active continental margin during the late stage of the Pan-African orogeny. The process may have involved assimilation of Early Pan-African dioritic country rocks. The more felsic units were produced by progressive fractionation of that magma. The petrological–geochemical evidence suggest that the Pan-African crust in northeastern Egypt did not develop in an extensional tectonic regime, as proposed recently.     

Low-pressure granulite facies metamorphism in the Larsemann Hills area, East Antarctica; petrology and tectonic implications for the evolution of the Prydz Bay area

ABSTRACT Thermobarometric studies on various granulite facies areas along the Prydz Bay coast, East Antarctica (73°-79°E, 68°-70°S), show that, at around 1100 Ma, during a late Proterozoic orogeny, the rocks of the Larsemann Hills suffered a lower pressure metamorphic peak than the surrounding areas. Along the Prydz Bay coast, the rocks affected by this event include parts of the Vestfold Hills block plus all of the Rauer Group, the Larsemann Hills and the Munro Kerr Mountains. The dykes in the south-west corner of the Vestfold Hills were recrystallized during this event with little deformation at temperatures not quite as high as in the areas further south-west (650°C, 6.5 kbar) (Collerson et al., 1983), the Rauer Group was metamorphosed at 800°C and 7.5 kbar (Harley, 1987a), the Larsemann Hills at 750°C and 4.5 kbar, and the Munro Kerr Mountains probably at around 850°C and 5 kbar. Retrograde equilibration in the different areas occurred during decompression to about 10 km depth in all areas, followed by isobaric cooling at this depth. This paper shows that the peak metamorphism in the Larsemann Hills occurred at a pressure which is too low to have been the consequence of thermal relaxation of overthickened crust with normal mantle heat flow. Although other areas in Prydz Bay were metamorphosed at sufficiently high pressures so that their decompression paths are not inconsistent with a continental collision model, the inferred pre-metamorphic peak histories and the requirement of consistency with the Larsemann Hills, make it unlikely that collision followed by erosion-driven decompression is an appropriate model. We suggest that the thermal regime of the crust in the Larsemann Hills region was controlled by a perturbation in the asthenosphere, with magma invasion of the crust. We suggest that the 500 Ma event, represented in Prydz Bay by granitic outcrops at Landing Bluff and by several K/Ar ages from the Larsemann Hills area, was responsible for the final excavation of the terrane.     

中国滇西-泰国地区侏罗纪——第四纪盆地发育及其对比研究

 侏罗纪时东南亚大陆上形成两个大盆地,西为海相盆地,东为陆相红盆。白垩纪时大盆地闭合或解体。第三纪出现裂谷盆地,其发育受燕山期构造格局控制;拉张应力自南向北变弱,裂谷发育自南向北变晚。第四纪为上叠盆地阶段。滇西与泰国各时期盆地的对比研究有助于更好地认识其演化特征,恢复东南亚大陆侏罗纪以来不断碎裂、局部解体的历史。     

A structural synthesis of the Proterozoic Arabian-Nubian Shield in Egypt

Detailed structural geological and related studies were carried out in a number of critical areas in the Proterozoic basement of eastern Egypt to resolve the structural pattern at a regional scale and to assess the general characteristics of tectonic evolution, orogeny and terrane boundaries. Following a brief account of the tectonostratigraphy and timing of the orogenic evolution, the major structural characteristics of the critical areas are presented. Collisional deformation of the terranes ended about 615-600 Ma ago. Subsequent extensional collapse probably occurred within a relatively narrow time span of about 20 Ma (575 – 595 Ma ago) over the Eastern Desert and was followed by a further period of about 50 Ma of late to post-tectonic activity. The regional structures originated mainly during post-collisional events, starting with those related to extensional collapse (molasse basin formation, normal faulting, generation of metamorphic core complexes). Subsequent NNW-SSE shortening is documented by large-scale thrusting (towards the NNW) and folding, distributed over the Eastern Desert, although with variable intensity. Thrusts are overprinted by transpression, which was localized to particular shear zones. Early transpression produced, for example, the Allaqi shear zone and final transpression is documented in the Najd and Wadi Kharit-Wadi Hodein zones. Two terrane boundaries can be defined, the Allaqi and South Hafafit Sutures, which are apparently linked by the high angle sinistral strike-slip Wadi Kharit-Wadi Hodein shear zone with a tectonic transport of about 300 km towards the W/NW. In general, the tectonic evolution shows that extensional collapse is not necessarily the final stage of orogeny, but may be followed by further compressional and transpressional tectonism. The late Pan-African high angle faults were reactivated during Red Sea tectonics both as Riedel shears and normal faults, where they were oriented favourably with respect to the actual stress regime.     

漳州-华安“地震窗”及其机制

漳州-华安是一个中强地震活动区,现今小震活动频繁。本文分析该区历史和现今地震活动特点,发现该区地震活动性涨落与闽台强震活动存在一定的相关性,因而得出该区是一个“地震窗”的认识。进而对“地震窗”的形成条件进行讨论,认为该区“地震窗”的形成是与其深部热作用所产生的向上垂直作用力紧密相关     

华北块体(地台)北缘几个地质问题的探讨及其成矿作用

本文以卫星图象信息为依据,结合野外调研,提出并确定了华北块体北缘存在:块体缝合线,褶皱-逆掩断层带,后孤碰撞带(断裂带),台槽过渡带,岩浆弧,以及燕山-喜山期的NNE向岩浆活动带、断陷带(断陷盆地)等双重构造的新认识。并在此基础上,对华北块体北缘与深成岩浆岩,燕山期岩浆活动带(包括火山岩带)有关的铀矿化作用的独特构造环境及“岩浆”型,断陷带中和面型等主要铀矿床成矿模式和铀成矿带的划分及其划分依据作了研究和探讨。并以铀矿床的实例作为佐证。     

Metabasites with eclogite facies relics from Variscides in Sardinia,Italy: a review

Metabasites with eclogite facies relics occur in northern Sardinia as massive to strongly foliated lenses or boudins embedded within low- to medium-grade rocks (Anglona) and migmatites (NE Sardinia). U–Pb zircon dating yielded 453 ± 14, 457 ± 2 and 460 ± 5 Ma as the protolith ages; 400 ± 10 and 403 ± 4 Ma have been interpreted as the ages of the HP event and 352 ± 3 and 327 ± 7 Ma as the ages of the main Variscan retrograde events. A pre-eclogite stage is documented by the occurrence of tschermakite, zoisite relics within garnet porphyroblasts (Punta de li Tulchi) and an edenite–andesine inclusion within a relict kyanite porphyroblast (Golfo Aranci). Four main metamorphic stages have been distinguished in the eclogite evolution: (1) eclogite stage, revealed by the occurrence of armoured omphacite relics within garnet porphyroblasts. The Golfo Aranci eclogites also include kyanite, Mg-rich garnet and pargasite; (2) granulite stage, producing orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene–plagioclase symplectites replacing omphacite. At Golfo Aranci, the symplectitic rims around relict kyanite consist of sapphirine, anorthite, corundum and spinel; (3) amphibolite stage, leading to the formation of amphibole–plagioclase kelyphites between garnet porphyroblasts and pyroxene–plagioclase symplectites and to the growth of cummingtonite on orthopyroxene. Tschermakite to Mg-hornblende, plagioclase, cummingtonite, ilmenite, titanite and biotite are coexisting phases; (4) greenschist to sub-greenschist stage, defined by the appearance of actinolite, chlorite, epidote ss, titanite, sericite and prehnite. The following P–T ranges have been estimated for the different stages. Eclogite stage 550–700°C; 1.3–1.7 GPa; granulite stage 650–900°C; 0.8–1.2 GPa, clustering in the range 1.0–1.2 GPa; amphibolite stage 550–740°C; 0.3–0.7 GPa; greenschist stage 300–400°C; 0.2–0.3 GPa. Comparable ranges characterise the other Variscan massifs in Europe; eclogite stage: T = 530–800°C; P from 0.7–1.1 to 1.7 ± 0.3 GPa; granulite stage T = 760–870°C and P from 1.1–1.4 to 7.2–9.9 GPa, clustering around 1.0–1.2 GPa. Whole-rock chemistry: Sardinian eclogites are N- to T-MORB; European ones N- to E-MORB or calc-alkaline.