The geological development of the southern part of the New England Fold Belt

Two major divisions of the New England Fold Belt, Zone A and Zone B, are separated by the Peel Fault. Deposition in these two zones was probably contemporaneous (Lower Palaeozoic ‐ Lower Permian). Terminal orogenesis in both zones was also contemporaneous (Middle Permian) but whereas in Zone A deformation was only moderate, metamorphism was of burial type, and granitic emplacement was uncommon, in Zone B many rocks were severely deformed and regionally metamorphosed, and both syn‐tectonic and post‐tectonic granites are widespread.

Pre‐orogenic palaeogeography is envisaged in terms of an evolving volcanic chain ‐ fore‐chain basin ‐ trench system, with an outer non‐volcanic arc developed in the Carboniferous. Cessation of movement on a subduction zone dipping westward beneath the volcanic chain is believed to have caused the Middle Permian deformation, but neither metamorphism nor the granitic rocks are directly related to subduction.     

Geomorphology of the Barrington Tops area,New South Wales

K‐Ar total rock age determinations have been made on a sequence of metasedimentary rocks resting on a 2350 m.y.‐old basement in southern Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. The metasediments have an Rb‐Sr age of 1785 m.y., but K‐Ar isochrons suggest that relatively high temperatures persisted for a further 250 million years before the rocks became systems closed to K and Ar diffusion. A significant amount of ⁴⁰Ar was trapped in the metasediments at the time of closure of the K‐Ar system, 1550 million years ago.     

秦岭造山带新生代构造隆升与区域环境效应研究

据沉积，构造、地貌并结合地球物理资料综合研究认为，秦岭造山带新生代构造隆升是在中生代白垩纪晚期构造隆升基础上，于晚第三纪中新世迅速隆升，而早更新世早期则是新构造活动最强烈时期。秦岭造山带的新生代构造隆升的方式主要有地垒式、掀斜式、振荡式和翘板式4种。诱发这一地区新构造抬升的主要原因和动力学机制是华北地块自北而南，扬子地块自南而北相向向秦岭造山带之下陆内俯冲和秦岭地块深部软流圈抬升共同作用所致。     

Neoproterozoic trace fossils vs. microbial mat structures: Examples from the Tandilia Belt of Argentina

The Tandilia Belt in northeast Argentina includes a Neoproterozoic sequence of sediments (Sierras Bayas Group), in which the Cerro Largo Formation, ca. 750 Ma in age, forms a siliciclastic, shallowing upward succession of subtidal nearshore to tidal flat deposits. Trace fossils Palaeophycus isp. and Didymaulichnus isp. have been described from the upper part of this succession. Specific sedimentary structures consisting of round-crested bulges, arranged in a reticulate pattern, and networks of curved cracks are associated with the trace fossils. These structures are considered to be related to epibenthic microbial mats that once colonized the sediment surface. They reflect stages of mat growth and mat destruction, if compared to analogous structures in modern cyanobacterial mats of peritidal, siliciclastic depositional systems. Also the trace fossils are interpreted as mat-related structures, partly forming components of networks of shrinkage cracks, partly representing the upturned and involute margins of shrinkage cracks or circular openings in desiccating and shrinking, thin microbial mats.

The definition of Didymaulichnus miettensis Young as a Terminal Proterozoic trace fossil is questioned, and it may be considered to interpret the ‘bilobate’ structure as the upturned, opposite margins of microbial shrinkage cracks which have been brought back into contact by compaction after burial.     

贺兰山构造带及邻区中-新生代构造事件:来自不整合面和裂变径迹的约束

贺兰山构造带及邻区的构造属性长期以来存在争议,确定该地区中新生代的构造事件及隆升过程是了解这一重要陆内变形带动力学机制的关键所在。本文采用不整合面分析法和低温热年代学方法,综合分析探讨了贺兰山构造带及邻区中新生代的构造事件及其构造演化过程。通过对该地区的野外地质调查,本次在中-新生代地层中由底到顶识别出6个不同类型的不整合面,它们分别是:(1) T_2-3/P平行不整合面;(2) J/AnJ角度不整合面-微角度不整合面;(3) K_1/AnK_1高角度不整合面;(4) E_3q/AnE_3;(5) N_1/AnN_1;(6) Q/An Q。在T_3d^3、J_2y和K_1变形前锋,可见与逆冲-褶皱造山带相关的同构造沉积生长地层,其在形态上表现为超覆、削截,在黄草滩等地局部与倒转背斜相伴生。这些不整合和生长地层是构造活动的直接证据。本次研究对采自该地区的12件样品分别进行了磷灰石、锆石裂变径迹测年及热史模拟分析。结果表明,裂变径迹年龄主要分布在4个区间,对应地质时代分别为中侏罗世-晚侏罗世(168～159Ma)、早白垩世末(139～91Ma)、晚白垩世末(79～66Ma)、始新世(59～50Ma),反映出该地区在这4个时期发生了明显的冷却抬升事件,且这4期构造事件与野外观察到的地质特征有很好的地质响应。同时,热史模拟表明该地区整体上经历了晚侏罗世、早白垩世、晚白垩世末-始新世3期快速隆升事件。综合研究表明,该地区主体逆冲褶皱的时间是从中侏罗世开始,早白垩世末构造运动最强烈,新生代又有所活动。     

重力负载对库车褶皱冲断带盐构造的影响

库车褶皱冲断带新生代沉积了库姆格列木群和吉迪克组2套盐岩,发育复杂的盐构造,重力负载对其形成和发育具有重要影响。利用水压头分析方法,分析了重力对库车褶皱冲断带盐构造的影响。重力负载对盐岩流动的影响包括重力扩张和沉积负载2种,重力扩张作用由盐岩受自身重力控制,而沉积负载作用由上覆沉积物重力作用控制。水压头分析表明在盐岩高程大的地方,其沉积负载往往更小。在重力扩张和沉积负载共同作用下,库车褶皱冲断带不会发生由盐岩自身重力而形成的重力扩张,重力负载对库车褶皱冲断带盐岩的影响仅表现为沉积差异负载作用。     

Structure of Palaeogene sediments in east Ellesmere Island: Constraints on Eurekan tectonic evolution and implications for the Nares Strait problem

The “Nares Strait problem” represents a debate about the existence and magnitude of left-lateral movements along the proposed Wegener Fault within this seaway. Study of Palaeogene Eurekan tectonics at its shorelines could shed light on the kinematics of this fault. Palaeogene (Late Paleocene to Early Eocene) sediments are exposed at the northeastern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Judge Daly Promontory. They are preserved as elongate SW–NE striking fault-bounded basins cutting folded Early Paleozoic strata. The structures of the Palaeogene exposures are characterized by broad open synclines cut and displaced by steeply dipping strike-slip faults. Their fold axes strike NE–SW at an acute angle to the border faults indicating left-lateral transpression. Weak deformation in the interior of the outliers contrasts with intense shearing and fracturing adjacent to border faults. The degree of deformation of the Palaeogene strata varies markedly between the northwestern and southeastern border faults with the first being more intense. Structural geometry, orientation of subordinate folds and faults, the kinematics of faults, and fault-slip data suggest a multiple stage structural evolution during the Palaeogene Eurekan deformation: (1) The fault pattern on Judge Daly Promontory is result of left-lateral strike-slip faulting starting in Mid to Late Paleocene times. The Palaeogene Judge Daly basin formed in transtensional segments by pull-apart mechanism. Transpression during progressive strike-slip shearing gave rise to open folding of the Palaeogene deposits. (2) The faults were reactivated during SE-directed thrust tectonics in Mid Eocene times (chron 21). A strike-slip component during thrusting on the reactivated faults depends on the steepness of the fault segments and on their obliquity to the regional stress axes.Strike-slip displacement was partitioned to a number of sub-parallel faults on-shore and off-shore. Hence, large-scale lateral movements in the sum of 80–100 km or more could have been accommodated by a set of faults, each with displacements in the order of 10–30 km. The Wegener Fault as discrete plate boundary in Nares Strait is replaced by a bundle of faults located mainly onshore on the Judge Daly Promontory.     

Amphibole Ar/Ar Geochronology from the Okcheon Metamorphic Belt, South Korea and its Tectonic Implications

An understanding of the Okcheon Metamorphic Belt (OMB) in South Korea is central to unraveling the tectono-metamorphic evolution of East Asia. Amphibole-bearing rocks in the OMB occur as calcsilicate layers and lenses in psammitic rocks, in the psammitic rocks themselves, and in the mafic volcanic layers and intrusives. Most amphiboles fail to show ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar plateau ages; those that do have ages ranging from 132 to 975 Ma. The disturbed age pattern and wide variation in ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages can be related to metamorphic grade, retrograde chemical reactions, excess Ar and amphibole composition. The oldest age (975 Ma) can be interpreted either as an old igneous or metamorphic age predating sedimentation or a false age caused by excess Ar. The youngest age of 132 Ma and the disturbed age pattern found in amphiboles from rocks located close to Jurassic granitoids are the result of retrograde thermal metamorphic effects accompanying intrusion of the granitoids. Some medium- or coarse-grained amphiboles in the calcsilicates are aggregates of fine-grained crystals. As a result, they are heterogeneous and prove to be readily affected by excess Ar. A disturbed age pattern in amphiboles from the calcsilicates occurring in the high-grade metamorphic zone may also be the product of excess Ar. On the other hand, the disturbed pattern of amphiboles present in the calcsilicates from the low-grade metamorphic zone could arise from both excess Ar and mixed ages. However, amphiboles from psammitic rocks and some calcsilicates in the high-grade metamorphic zone and in intrusive metabasites display real plateau ages of 237 to 261 Ma. The temperature conditions in the high-grade metamorphic zone were higher than the argon closing temperature for amphibole, and the amphiboles in this zone give plateau ages only when they are homogeneous in composition, lack excess Ar, and have not been thermally affected by intrusion of the granitoids. The unmodified ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages prove rather younger than the age of the Late Paleozoic metamorphic event of 280 to 300 Ma, but they are close to muscovite K-Ar ages of 263 to 277 Ma. These ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar amphibole ages are interpreted as the time of cooling that followed the main regional, intermediate-P/T metamorphic climax. The results demonstrate that interpretation of ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar amphibole ages in an area subjected to several metamorphic events can be accomplished only by undertaking a thorough tectono-metamorphic study, accompanied by detailed chemical analysis of the amphiboles.     

吉黑东部花岗岩类的副矿物组合特征

吉黑东部花岗岩类分布广泛,形成历史漫长,岩石类型齐全.按成因类型划分,以I型为主,A型次之,S型较少,M型极少.各类型花岗岩副矿物组成具有明显特点,因此可以利用副矿物和其组合特征作为划分花岗岩成因类型的判别标志.