Tectonically induced climate and its control on the distribution of depositional systems in a continental foreland basin, Cloverly and Lakota Formations (Lower Cretaceous) of Wyoming, U.S.A.

Continental sediments of the Cloverly and Lakota Formations (Lower Cretaceous) in Wyoming are subdivided into three depositional systems: perennial to intermittent alluvial, intermittent to ephemeral alluvial, and playa. Chert-bearing sandstones, conglomerates, carbonaceous mudrocks, blocky mudrocks, and skeletal limestones were deposited by perennial to intermittent alluvial systems. Carbonaceous mudrocks contain abundant wood fragments, cuticle and cortical debris, and other vascular plant remains representing deposition in oxbow lakes, abandoned channels, and on floodplains under humid to seasonal conditions. Intraformational conglomerates, sandstones, bioturbated and blocky mudrocks with caliche nodules, and bioturbated limestones characterize deposition in intermittent to ephemeral alluvial systems. Bioturbated limestones are encased in bioturbated mudrocks with abundant pseudo-slickensides. The presence of caliche nodules in some of the blocky to bioturbated mudrocks is consistent with supersaturation and precipitation of calcium carbonate from groundwater under semi-arid conditions. Caliche nodules, pseudo-slickensides, and carbonate-rich floodplain sediments are interpreted to have been deposited by intermittent to ephemeral alluvial systems under seasonal to semi-arid climatic conditions. Laminated mudrocks, siltstones, vuggy carbonates, bedded to nodular evaporites, pebbly mudrocks, and diamictites were deposited in evaporative alkaline lakes or playas. Pebbly mudrocks and diamictites are interpreted to represent deposition from channelized and unchannelized hyperconcentrated flows on a playa, resulting from intense rain events within the basin.The areal abundance and distribution of these depositional systems change systematically across the overfilled portion of the Early Cretaceous Cordilleran foreland basin in Wyoming. The lower part (A-interval) of the Cloverly and Lakota Formations is characterized by deposits of perennial to intermittent rivers that existed 300 to 1000 km east of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt. Proximal to the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, the A-interval of the Cloverly Formation and upper Ephraim Formation of the Gannett Group are typified by deposits of intermittent to ephemeral rivers and their associated floodplains. In the middle part (B-interval) of the Cloverly Formation, intermittent to ephemeral alluvial systems expand to 600 km into the basin. The upper part (C-interval) of the Cloverly Formation is characterized by playa deposits in the Bighorn and Wind River Basins and intermittent to ephemeral alluvial deposits along the front of the ancestral Sevier Mountains. Deposits of perennial to intermittent alluvial systems in the C-interval of the Cloverly and Lakota Formations are restricted to the Black Hills region, almost 900 km to the east of the Sevier Mountains. The change in the areal distribution of depositional systems through time within this continental foreland basin may be attributed to the development of a rain shadow associated with the uplift of the Sevier Mountains in the Early Cretaceous.     

A Late Archean foreland fold and thrust belt in the North China Craton: Implications for early collisional tectonics

The Archean North China craton is divided into the Western and Eastern blocks along the Central Orogenic belt. A 1600 km long Archean foreland basin and thrust belt fringes the eastern side of the Central Orogenic belt. Rocks in the orogen form tectonically-stacked east-vergent fold and thrust sheets including foreland basin sediments, 2.50 Ga ophiolitic mélange, and an island arc complex. Foreland basin sediments overlie a passive margin sequence, and include a 2.50 Ga deep-water turbidite sequence that grades upward and westward into shallow-water molasse, now disposed in structurally imbricated east-verging thrusts and asymmetric folds that gradually migrated craton-ward with deformation, uplift, and erosion of the orogen. There is a strong linked relationship of the formation of the foreland basin to collision of the east and west blocks of the North China craton along the Central Orogenic belt at 2.50 Ga. The Qinglong foreland basin and Central Orogenic belt of the North China craton represents one of the best-preserved Archean orogen-to-craton transitions in the world. Its classic internal to external zonation, and flexural response to loading, demonstrate that convergent tectonics in the Archean were broadly similar to Phanerozoic convergent margin processes.     

Sedimentary evolution of a foreland basin from the northeastern Qilian Mountains based on the integration of geomorphological and luminescence dating of alluvial conglomerates and fluvial terrace sediments

Sedimentary deposits in the foreland basin of the northeastern Qilian Mountains are crucial documents recording tectonic activity and climate changes on the Tibetan Plateau. In this study, luminescence dating was used to date alluvial conglomerates and fluvial terrace sediments collected from the Beida River in the Jiuquan Basin, a foreland basin in the Hexi Corridor, northeastern Qilian Mountains. Detailed sedimentology and luminescence ages reveal that alluvial conglomerates accumulated from before 620 ka to 12 ka and that sediment accumulation rates increased at ∼330 ka and ∼35 ka, coinciding with the dates of two tectonic events (∼350 and ∼50 ka) and followed by climate cooling (from marine isotope stage (MIS) 9 to MIS 8 and from MIS 3 to MIS 2). This reveals that variations in the sediment accumulation rates are controlled by the coupling of tectonic uplift and climate cooling. The highest terrace (T7) that developed on the alluvial conglomerate base formed at ∼ 12 ka. The incision rate in the early Holocene was ∼2.1 mm/yr and increased to ∼14.6 mm/yr during the middle and late Holocene. The variations in the river incision rate provide geomorphic evidence for Holocene climate patterns in arid and semiarid areas. Luminescence dating offers a credible temporal framework for the deposits and reveals climate and tectonic effects on the evolution of the foreland basin, northeastern Qilian Mountains.     

The North Patagonian orogenic front and related foreland evolution during the Miocene,analyzed from synorogenic sedimentation and U/Pb dating (∼42°S)

Miocene sedimentary successions of the Ñirihuau and Collón Cura formations east of the El Maitén Belt constitute a partial record of the Andean exhumation, defining a synorogenic infill of the Ñirihuau Basin in the foothills of the North Patagonian fold and thrust belt. Gravimetric and seismic data allow recognizing the internal arrangement and geometry of these depocenters that host both units, separating a synextensional section previous to the Andean development at these latitudes, from a series of syncontractional units above. A series of progressive unconformities in the upper terms shows the synorogenic character of these units corresponding to the different pulses of deformation that occurred during the middle Miocene. New U–Pb ages constrain these pulses to the ∼13.5–12.9 Ma interval and allow reconstructing the tectonic history of this region based on the detrital zircon source populations. The U–Pb maximum ages of sedimentation give to the Ñirihuau Formation in particular a younger age than previously assumed. Additionally, synsedimentary deformation in strata of the upper exposures of the Collón Cura Formation associated with contractional structures and U–Pb ages allow identifying a younger paleoseismogenic pulse in ∼11.3 Ma. Thus, based on these data and a compilation of previous datasets, a tectonic evolution is proposed characterized by a contractional episode that migrated eastwardly since ∼19 to 15 Ma producing the Gastre broken foreland and then retracted to the eastern North Patagonian Precordillera, where out-of-sequence thrusts cannibalized the wedge top zone in the El Maitén belt at ∼13.5–11.3 Ma.     

Role of latitudinal shift and climate change in evolution of red and yellow palaeosols of the Himalayas: Implications for early Oligocene seasonality and Mid-Miocene enhanced precipitation

Cenozoic atmospheric circulation, climatic changes, sedimentation and weathering over the Indian sub-continent were mainly influenced by the northward drift of the Indian Plate, the shrinking Paratethys, India-Asia collision and the rise of the Himalayas. This study is aimed at exploring the fluvial sedimentary record of the north-west part of the Himalayan Foreland Basin to interpret weathering and pedogenesis during early Oligocene to Mid-Miocene time. Palaeopedological investigation of a 3.1 km thick succession from Kangra sub-basin of the Himalayan Foreland Basin shows that the lower 2 km part of the succession is characterized by the red (10R hue) and the upper 1.1 km part of the succession by the yellow (2.5Y hue) palaeosols with varying intensity of weathering and pedogenesis. The association of sedimentary rocks and pedogenic expression in palaeosols indicate four (Type-A to Type-D) pedofacies in the entire Oligocene–Miocene succession. The pedofacies are defined by a decrease in the intensity of palaeopedogenic development from strongly-developed palaeopedofeatures in Type-A, moderately-developed palaeopedofeatures in Type-B, weakly-developed palaeopedofeatures in Type-C and to the only incipient stage of palaeopedogenesis in Type-D pedofacies. The palaeolatitudinal shift during the convergence of the Indian Plate played a major role in weathering and palaeopedogenesis with the inception of seasonality during the early Oligocene, which is demonstrated by the formation of the red palaeosols with pedogenic CaCO₃ and vertic features in tropical conditions. The transition to yellow palaeosols at about 20 Ma is marked by increased humidity, rapid aggradation, pronounced uplift and enhanced erosion of the hinterland. These yellow palaeosols are characterized by the abundance of weakly-developed Bw and Bss horizons, pure clay pedofeatures and absence of any pedogenic CaCO₃ during short pedogenic intervals in subtropical conditions.     

复杂构造解析中的几何学方法与应用

复杂构造地区的地震反射资料并没有直观地反映出深、浅层构造的真实形态。综合地表、地震和钻井、测井资料,应用等倾角区划分和轴面分析确定断层形态和褶皱形态在几何学上的定量关系,以达到预测地震资料较差地区的构造形态之目的,是行之有效的构造解释方法。在获得解释方案后可通过断层相关褶皱分析获得构造变形量、变形机制、变形过程和变形时间,进而定量模拟不同时代和不同序次台阶状逆断层及其相关褶皱的叠加过程。本文提供了塔里木盆地周边和准噶尔盆地南缘4个冲断带的研究实例,实例1详述了应用等倾角区划分和轴面分析开展构造精细解析的步骤;实例2从几何学和运动学的角度探讨帕米尔北缘乌帕尔冲断带在形成过程中断层形态、褶皱形态与位移量之间的定量关系;实例3从西昆仑山前甫沙冲断带三排背斜的生长地层底界由南向北逐渐抬升的现象阐述深部台阶状逆断层的"前列式"扩展作用;实例4运用构造趋势分析解释库车前陆盆地秋里塔格背斜带中段地表背斜轴线扭曲的运动学机理。     

THE MESOZOIC QIANGTANG FORELAND BASIN IN QINGHAI—XIZANG PLATEAU,CHINA

THE MESOZOIC QIANGTANG FORELAND BASIN IN QINGHAI—XIZANG PLATEAU,CHINANationalKeyFundamentalResearchProjects(973) (G1990 40 80 15 ) ;NSFCGeneralProjects(4980 2 0 13)     

Confined channel-levee complex development in an elongate depo-center: Deep-water Tertiary strata of the Austrian Molasse basin

A basin axial-channel belt was largely responsible for the observed distribution of coarse-grained gravity-flow deposits in the Tertiary Puchkirchen and basal Hall formations of the Molasse foreland basin in Upper Austria. Elements of this depositional system, mapped in three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection data, include channel-belt thalweg, mass-transport complexes, overbank wedge, overbank lobe, and tributary channel. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the sedimentary processes that were prevalent in the channel-belt complex through the analysis of well data, including drill cores and wireline logs, in conjunction with 3D seismic interpretations.     

The role of syntectonic sedimentation in the evolution of doubly vergent thrust wedges and foreland folds

This paper shows the evolution of time-constrained two-dimensional scaled analogue models of doubly vergent thrust systems in the presence of syntectonic sedimentation. Two sets of experiments were considered: (1) the addition of a syntectonic layer composed of a polymer and overlying sand in the prowedge; and (2) the addition to the previous condition of a progradational sedimentary load. Results from the first set of experiments indicate that the foreland fold-and-thrust belt has a strong relationship with the competence of the syntectonic layers. When the competence is low, the deformation produces tight asymmetric detachment-folds. As the competence increases, the fold-and-thrust belt shows break-trough folds with longer and better defined foreland-vergence. Results from the second set of experiments indicate that structural vergence is determined by the sense of progradation of the syntectonic layers, and in the case of strong aggradation at the prowedge, extension and reactive diapirism form contemporaneously with the contraction. Three end-members are proposed for mountain front thrust systems formed in the presence of syntectonic polymer and sand sedimentation: (1) outcropping fold-and-thrust belt sequence, in the case of no syntectonic sedimentation; (2) long displacement blind-thrust sheets, in the case of under-filled basins and (3) short displacement blind-thrust sheets, in the case of over-filled basins. All results indicate that ductile units at the base of syntectonic layers increase the displacement of the underlying frontal thrusts at the prowedge, and reduce the critical taper. Results also indicate that at very high sedimentary rates and hyper-critical taper conditions the prowedge collapses. Conclusions drawn from this research may be applied as an analogue to foreland evolution and to evaluate hydrocarbon generation, migration, and entrapment in thrust belts in areas where seismic imaging is generally poor.     

库车再生前陆盆地的构造演化

库车再生前陆盆地位于塔里木盆地的北缘,其沉积和构造特征具有典型的前陆盆地性质.库车再生前陆盆地开始形成于吉迪克组沉积早期(距今25Ma),叠置于晚二叠世-三叠纪前陆盆地之上,是始新世末印度-西藏碰撞的远距离构造效应所致.其中的前陆逆冲带是由浅部和深部两个层次的构造组成的,其构造特征具有不一致性和不协调性.库车再生前陆逆冲带内的台阶状逆断层及其相关褶皱都是伴随着中新世以来的造山运动形成的,由山前向盆地以背驮式渐次连续扩展,自渐新世晚期一直持续到现在.印度-西藏碰撞作用引起的陆内俯冲及壳内拆离-缩短作用是库车再生前陆盆地的形成机制.