Basic characteristics of active tectonics of China

Active tectonics is inferred to all the structures which have been active since the late Pleisto-cene, 100—120 ka B.P., are still active recently, and will be active in a certain time period in the future, such as active faults, active folds, active basi…     

Rapid Variscan exhumation and the role of magma in core complex formation: southern Brittany metamorphic belt, France

ABSTRACT The high-grade migmatitic core to the southern Brittany metamorphic belt has mineralogical and textural features that suggest high-temperature decompression. The chronology of this decompression and subsequent cooling history have been constrained with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹ Ar ages determined for multigrain concentrates of hornblende and muscovite prepared from amphibolite and late-orogenic granite sheets within the migmatitic core, and from amphibolite of the structurally overlying unit. Three hornblende concentrates yield plateau isotope correlation ages of c. 303–298 Ma. Two muscovite concentrates record well-defined plateau ages of c. 306–305 Ma. These ages are geologically significant and date the last cooling through temperatures required for intracrystalline retention of radiogenic argon. The concordancy of the hornblende and muscovite ages suggest rapid post-metamorphic cooling. Extant geochronology and the new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data suggest a minimum time-integrated average cooling rate between c. 725 °C and c. 125 °C of c. 14 ± 4°C Ma^-1, although below 600 °C the data permit an infinitely fast rate of cooling. Mineral assemblages and reaction textures in diatexite migmatites suggest c. 4 kbar decompression at 800–750 °C. This must have pre-dated the rapid cooling. Emplacement of two-mica granites into the metamorphic belt occurred between 345 and 300 Ma. The youngest plutons were emplaced synkinematically along shallow-dipping normal faults interpreted to be reactivated Eo-Variscan thrusts. A penetrative, west-plunging stretching lineation developed in these granites suggests that extension was orogen-parallel. Extension was probably related to regional uplift and gravitational collapse of thermally weakened crust during constrictional (escape) tectonics in this narrow part of the Variscan orogen. This followed slab breakoff during the terminal stages of convergence between Gondwana and Laurasia; detachment may have been consequent upon a change in kinematics leading to dextral displacement within the orogen. Dextral ductile strike-slip displacement was concentrated in granites emplaced synkinematically along the South Armorican Shear Zone. Rapid cooling is interpreted to have resulted from tectonic unroofing with emplacement of granite along decollement surfaces. The high-grade migmatitic core of the southern Brittany metamorphic belt represents a type of metamorphic core complex formed during orogen-parallel extensional unroofing and regional-scale ductile flow.     

A traverse through the western Kunlun (Xinjiang,China): tentative geodynamic implications for the Paleozoic and Mesozoic

The northern part of the western Kunlun (southern margin of the Tarim basin) represents a Sinian rifted margin. To the south of this margin, the Sinian to Paleozoic Proto-Tethys Ocean formed. South-directed subduction of this ocean, beneath the continental southern Kunlun block during the Paleozoic, resulted in the collision between the northern and southern Kunlun blocks during the Devonian. The northern part of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean, located to the south of the southern Kunlun, was subducted to the north beneath the southern Kunlun during the Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic. This caused the formation of a subduction-accretion complex, including a sizeable accretionary wedge to the south of the southern Kunlun. A microcontinent (or oceanic plateau?), which we refer to as “Uygur terrane,” collided with the subduction complex during the Late Triassic. Both elements together represent the Kara-Kunlun. Final closure of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean took place during the Early Jurassic when the next southerly located continental block collided with the Kara-Kunlun area. From at least the Late Paleozoic to the Early Jurassic, the Tarim basin must be considered a back-arc region. The Kengxiwar lineament, which “connects” the Karakorum fault in the west and the Ruogiang-Xingxingxia/Altyn-Tagh fault zone in the east, shows signs of a polyphase strike-slip fault along which dextral and sinistral shearing occurred.     

含油气盆地地球动力学模式

文章讨论了含油气盆地地球动力学模式,其中着重讨论了以下几个问题:(1)沉积盆地地球动力学研究的进展,使得能够提出一种根据盆地所处的板块位置和地球动力学模型进行划分的含油气盆地分类;(2)尽管我们有一些古生代克拉通盆地的地球动力学模式,但其成因机制仍缺乏令人信服的解释;(3)通过大陆内裂谷火山岩化学成分、地温场、构造变形、岩石圈结构以及区域板块构造背景综合分析,我们建立了六种大陆裂谷形成的地球动力学模式;(4)前陆盆地的形成与其周缘造山带密切相关,其地球动力学模式是大陆岩石圈对褶皱冲断带构造负载的挠曲响应;     

早期碰撞造山过程与板块构造：前寒武纪地质研究的机遇和挑战

普遍认为修正后的板块构造模式仍适用于新太古代地质研究，但是早期板块构造过程与后期有明显差异，包括陆块规模、造山带类型、碰撞造山过程等。典型碰撞造山带在地史上的初次形成具有划时代的构造演化意义，涉及典型板块构造初始发生过程、最早超级大陆拼合、威尔逊旋回及板块碰撞造山过程等方面。华北中部保留一条近南北向的碰撞造山带（2 600~2 500 Ma BP），保留特征的巨型复式褶皱、不同层次推覆构造、蛇绿岩混杂带等。围绕华北中部造山带及其25亿年重大构造热事件的研究，对认识华北早期构造演化及其超大陆再造具有重要意义，也是早期板块构造研究的关键突破口之一，开展其不同地壳层次构造变形及其前陆盆地的研究，将深化早期板块边界及其造山过程的科学认识。     

遵化新太古代豆荚状铬铁矿变形特征、变形机制及其大洋地幔扩张运移的指示意义

豆荚状铬铁矿是蛇绿岩套地幔构造岩中特征的矿产,其矿石发育丰富的岩浆活动-高温变形结构构造类型,豆荚状铬铁矿高温下仍具有稳定的物理化学特性,对认识大洋上地幔扩张、横向运移具有重要指示意义。在对遵化新太古代豆荚状铬铁矿显微构造的深入研究基础上,通过对比分析豆荚状铬铁矿结构构造特征(岩浆活动、低温变形),提出高温变形结构及其特征(拉长网孔结构、条带状、糜棱状结构等)。借鉴现代洋中脊及弧后盆地扩张的构造模型,提出华北新太古代豆荚状铬铁矿扩张中心形成后的显微构造演化序列,豆荚状铬铁矿变形机制的研究,可以提供认识早期大洋上地幔动力学过程的新线索。     

High-resolution seismic analysis of the coastal Mecklenburg Bay (North German Basin): the pre-Alpine evolution

The pre-Alpine structural and geological evolution in the northern part of the North German Basin have been revealed on the basis of a very dense reflection seismic profile grid. The study area is situated in the coastal Mecklenburg Bay (Germany), part of the southwestern Baltic Sea. From the central part of the North German Basin to the northern basin margin in the Grimmen High area a series of high-resolution maps show the evolution from the base Zechstein to the Lower Jurassic. We present a map of basement faults affecting the pre-Zechstein. The pre-Alpine structural evolution of the region has been determined from digital mapping of post-Permian key horizons traced on the processed seismic time sections. The geological evolution of the North German Basin can be separated into four distinct periods in the Rerik study area. During Late Permian and Early Triassic evaporites and clastics were deposited. Salt movement was initiated after the deposition of the Middle Triassic Muschelkalk. Salt pillows, which were previously unmapped in the study area, are responsible for the creation of smaller subsidence centers and angular unconformities in the Late Triassic Keuper, especially in the vicinity of the fault-bounded Grimmen High. In this area, partly Lower Jurassic sediments overlie the Keuper unconformably. The change from extension to compression in the regional stress field remobilized the salt, leading to a major unconformity marked at the base of the Late Cretaceous.     

Tectonics of the Simplon massif and Lepontine gneiss dome: deformation structures due to collision between the underthrusting European plate and the Adriatic indenter

This study presents a review of published geological data, combined with original observations on the tectonics of the Simplon massif and the Lepontine gneiss dome in the Western Alps. New observations concern the geometry of the Oligocene Vanzone back fold, formed under amphibolite facies conditions, and of its root between Domodossola and Locarno, which is cut at an acute angle by the Miocene, epi- to anchizonal, dextral Centovalli strike-slip fault. The structures of the Simplon massif result from collision over 50 Ma between two plate boundaries with a different geometry: the underthrusted European plate and the Adriatic indenter. Detailed mapping and analysis of a complex structural interference pattern, combined with observations on the metamorphic grade of the superimposed structures and radiometric data, allow a kinematic model to be developed for this zone of oblique continental collision. The following main Alpine tectonic phases and structures may be distinguished:

中国海洋国土的确定及矿产资源

我国是有辽阔海洋国土的海洋大国,海陆总国土面积约1 260×104km2。中国海处于大陆边缘,其海底地貌可分为大陆架、大陆坡、岛弧、海沟和深海海盆五大类。本文按地体构造分析我国海域及邻区的构造,其主体处于欧亚板块的华北亚板块、扬子亚板块、华南亚板块、南海亚板块和东南亚亚板块,其中亚板块可分为若干地体。台湾海岸山脉及其以东区域位于菲律宾海板块。三叠纪以来,这些板块、亚板块和地体处于不断拼合、增生或离散之中。按照联合国海洋法公约,渤海是内海。黄海的西部海域,东海和南海的大部分海域都是我国国家管辖的专属经济区,都是中国海洋国土,根本不是什么公海。我国海洋矿产资源极其丰富,海洋油气资源的勘探与开发居最重要的地位。除了已开采海滨砂矿、铜、煤等固体矿产之外,应特别要重视海洋多金属结核、天然气水合物等资源的勘探和开发。     

Heat flow in Italy

More than fifty heat flow measurements in Italy are examined. The values, corrected only for local influences (when present), are related to the main geological features with the following results: foreland areas, 55±19 mW m^–2, foredeep areas, 45±21 mW m^–2; folded regions and intermountain depressions, 76±29 mW m^–2. In volcanic areas the heat flow rises to in excess of 600 mW m^–2. From a tectonic point of view, these values are consistent with the hypothesis that the Apennine chain is intersected by two arcuate structures: the first from Liguria to Latium is very probably a continental arc, that is an are which occurs within a continent, and the second from Campania to Calabria is very similar from geophysical evidence to the classic island arcs.