Tectono-metamorphic evolution of the Cretaceous Shimanto accretionary complex, central Japan: Constraints from a fluid inclusion analysis of syn-tectonic veins

Abstract   Micro-thermometry of water-rich fluid inclusions from two syn-tectonic veins sets ( D1 and D2 veins) in the Otaki Group, part of the Cretaceous Shimanto accretionary complex of the Kanto Mountains, central Japan reveals the following tectono-metamorphic evolution. Combining the results of microthermometric analyses of fluid inclusions from D1 veins with an assumed geothermal gradient of 20–50°C/km indicates that the temperature and fluid pressure conditions during D1 were 270–300°C and 140–190 MPa, respectively. Peak metamorphic conditions during the development of D2 slaty cleavage involved temperatures in excess of 300°C and fluid pressures greater than 270 MPa, based on analyses of microthermometry of water-rich fluid inclusions from the D2 vein and illite crystallinity. The estimated fluid pressure increased by approximately 80 MPa from D1 accretionary processes to metamorphism and slaty cleavage development during D2 . Assuming that fluid pressure reached lithostatic pressure, the observed increase in fluid pressure can be accounted for by thrusting of the Jurassic Chichibu accretionary complex over the Cretaceous Shimanto accretionary complex. Following thrusting, both accretionary complexes were subjected to metamorphism during the latest Cretaceous.     

The Oka Belt (Southern Siberia and Northern Mongolia): A Neoproterozoic analog of the Japanese Shimanto Belt?

Abstract   The Oka Belt, composed of clastic rocks and greenschists, extends for approximately 600 km in the South-Siberian Sayan region and adjacent northern Mongolia. For a long time the Oka Belt's age and tectonic setting were the most controversial problem in the region. We argue that the belt was formed in Late Neoproterozoic as an accretionary prism. The Oka Belt shows imbricated thrust structure, which had originally seaward vergence and reflected the Neoproterozoic accretion process. The Early Paleozoic orogeny had minor effect on its structural style. The belt contains tectonic slivers of mid-ocean ridge basalts, some oceanic-island basalts and possible pelagic sediments. In several localities they are associated with gabbro and serpentinite. All these rocks represent the oceanic lithosphere subducting beneath the Oka prism and trapped within it. In the inner zone of the Oka Belt are the blueschists exhumed from the deeper prism level. The northern Oka Belt includes mafic intrusions geochemically similar to normal mid-oceanic ridge basalt and felsic volcaniclastic rocks. This segment of the belt is very similar to the Tertiary portion of northern Shimanto Belt, in Japan, and has also experienced the subduction of orthogonal oceanic ridge beneath the prism. This event dates back to 753 ± 16 Ma (the U-Pb zircon discordia). The Oka prism started accreting in Mid-Neoproterozoic after the subduction had initiated under the Japan-like South-Siberian continental terrain. The prism existed through the second half of Neoproterozoic and accumulated a huge volume of sialic material to enlarge the nearby continent. Currently, the Oka Belt remains poorly studied and is very promising for further investigation and discoveries.     

International Conference on “Ultramafite-Mafite Complexes of Precambrian Fold Belts” held on the shore of Lake Baikal

Information on the International Conference “Ultramafite-Mafite Complexes of Precambrian Fold Belts,” which was held on September 6–9, 2006, in the Settlement of Enkhaluk in the Kabansky district of the Buryat Republic is presented. Brief contents of the contributions are also given.     

Tepee-shaped agglutinated microbialites: an example from a Famennian carbonate platform on the Lennard Shelf, northern Canning Basin, Western Australia

Distinctive, metre‐scale antiformal structures are well developed in a Famennian carbonate platform in the Chedda Cliffs area of the Lennard Shelf reef complexes. The structures are distinguished by chevron‐shaped crests and thickened cores and contain abundant non‐skeletal allochems (ooids/pisoids, peloids and intraclasts) of silt to pebble size and variably developed laminations and fenestrae. The internal morphology and pervasive occurrence of fenestral clotted and wavy laminated fabrics suggest that these structures are microbial mounds composed of agglutinated stromatolites and thrombolites. Microbial fabrics most probably originated through sediment trapping and binding by microbial mats with early lithification involving microbial calcification and cementation of trapped sediment. The facies and stratigraphic context of the mounds support a shallow subtidal, transitional backreef to reef‐flat setting; however, alone these mounds do not provide unequivocal environmental information. Other large antiformal structures in Famennian platforms on the Lennard Shelf, previously described as tepee structures, show morphological similarities to the Chedda Cliffs mounds, which suggests that these other structures may also be microbial mounds. The presence of microbial mounds in platform successions further highlights the importance of microbial communities in the Lennard Shelf reef complexes.     

Sequence stratigraphy, structural style, and age of deformation of the Malaita accretionary prism (Solomon arc–Ontong Java Plateau convergent zone)

Possibilities for the fate of oceanic plateaus at subduction zones range from complete subduction of the plateau beneath the arc to complete plateau–arc accretion and resulting collisional orogenesis. Deep penetration, multi-channel seismic reflection (MCS) data from the northern flank of the Solomon Islands reveal the sequence stratigraphy, structural style, and age of deformation of an accretionary prism formed during late Neogene (5–0 Ma) convergence between the 33-km-thick crust of the Ontong Java oceanic plateau and the 15-km-thick Solomon island arc. Correlation of MCS data with the satellite-derived, free-air gravity field defines the tectonic boundaries and internal structure of the 800-km-long, 140-km-wide accretionary prism. We name this prism the “Malaita accretionary prism” or “MAP” after Malaita, the largest and best-studied island exposure of the accretionary prism in the Solomon Islands. MCS data, gravity data, and stratigraphic correlations to islands and ODP sites on the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) reveal that the offshore MAP is composed of folded and thrust faulted sedimentary rocks and upper crystalline crust offscraped from the Solomon the subducting Ontong Java Plateau (Pacific plate) and transferred to the Solomon arc. With the exception of an upper, sequence of Quaternary? island-derived terrigenous sediments, the deformed stratigraphy of the MAP is identical to that of the incoming Ontong Java Plateau in the North Solomon trench.We divide the MAP into four distinct, folded and thrust fault-bounded structural domains interpreted to have formed by diachronous, southeast-to-northwest, and highly oblique entry of the Ontong Java Plateau into a former trench now marked by the Kia–Kaipito–Korigole (KKK) left-lateral strike-slip fault zone along the suture between the Solomon arc and the MAP. The structural style within each of the four structural domains consists of a parallel series of three to four fault propagation folds formed by the seaward propagation of thrust faults roughly parallel to sub-horizontal layering in the upper crystalline part of the OJP. Thrust fault offsets, spacing between thrusts, and the amplitude of related fault propagation folds progressively decrease to the west in the youngest zone of active MAP accretion (Choiseul structural domain). Surficial faulting and folding in the most recently deformed, northwestern domain show active accretion of greater than 1 km of sedimentary rock and 6 km, or about 20%, of the upper crystalline part of the OJP. The eastern MAP (Malaita and Ulawa domains) underwent an earlier, similar style of partial plateau accretion. A pre-late Pliocene age of accretion (3.4 Ma) is constrained by an onshore and offshore major angular unconformity separating Pliocene reefal limestone and conglomerate from folded and faulted pelagic limestone of Cretaceous to Miocene age. The lower 80% of the Ontong Java Plateau crust beneath the MAP thrust decollement appears unfaulted and unfolded and is continuous with a southwestward-dipping subducted slab of presumably denser plateau material beneath most of the MAP, and is traceable to depths >200 km in the mantle beneath the Solomon Islands.     

The Liuchiu Hsu island offshore SW Taiwan: tectonic versus diapiric anticline development and comparisons with onshore structures

A structural and microtectonic analysis performed in the Liuchiu Hsu island demonstrates that its Plio-Pleistocene tectonic evolution was dominated by alternating NW–SE shortening and local radial extension caused by mud diapirism. Previous models based on seismic data considering both the formation of the Liuchiu Hsu island and the fold development in SW Taiwan as mainly driven by mud diapirism, fail to account for both the asymmetry of the west vergent thrust-related anticlines onshore and the elongated character of the ridges formed by diapir alignments offshore, which rather argue in favour of a tectonic origin. To cite this article: O. Lacombe et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

我国中亚热带山地土壤有机质研究

本文研究中亚热带地区湖南连云山、万洋山各垂直地带的A层土壤的有机质某些性质的垂直变化规律.TC、TN、Kos、HA/FA、总酸度、羧基和酚羟基含量均表现为随海拔的增高而增加的趋势,E4/E6的结果则相反.Ca键腐殖质变化不明显,Fe.Al键腐殖质、紧结态腐殖质均随海拔的升高而增加.G0%和G1%含量随海拔的升高而减小,G2%含量随海拔的升高而增加,G1/G2比值表现为基带土壤＞0.5,而山地土壤＜0.5.基带土壤中G2组有机碳在复合体有机碳总量中所占的比例较小,山地土壤中G2组有机碳占的比例却最大,都超过50%.聚类分析表明海拔高度对低海拔和高海拔地带土壤的有机质性质的影响小于中间过渡地带.     

History and modes of Mesozoic accretion in Southeastern Russia

Abstract The history of Mesozoic accretion and growth of the Asia eastern margin, occupied by Southeastern Russia, includes five main events; two main tectonic regimes were responsible for the growth of the continent. In the Triassic-Jurassic, Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous-Paleogene, the subduction of the oceanic lithosphere resulted in the formation of wide accretionary wedges of the Mongol-Okhotsk, Khingan-Okhotsk and Eastern Sikhote-Alin active continental margins, respectively. These stages of the comparatively slow growth of the continent were broken by stages of rapid growth and drastic changes in the shape of the continent, since at these stages large terranes of various tectonic nature collided with active continental margins. At the end of the Early-Middle Jurassic, the Bureya terranes collided with the Mongol-Okhotsk active margin, and at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous there was collision of the Central and Southern Sikhote-Alin terranes with the Khingan-Okhotsk active margin.
Collision-related structural styles in all cases are indicative of oblique collision and great strike-slip motions along the main sutures. The peculiarities of the terrane's geological structure show that prior to collision with the Mongol-Okhotsk and Khingan-Okhotsk active margins, they had already accreted to Asia and then migrated along its margins along the strike-slip faults. The Bureya terranes were squeezed out of the compression zone between Siberia and North China. This compression zone originated after the Paleozoic oceans which divided these cratons had closed. The Khanka terranes and Mesozoic accretionary wedge terranes of the Sikhote-Alin shifted along the strike-slip faults subparallel to the Asia Pacific margin. Strike-slip motions resulted in duplication of the primary tectonic zonation.     

Layer-parallel faults, duplexes, imbricate thrusts and vein structures of the Miura Group: Keys to understanding the Izu fore-arc sediment accretion to the Honshu fore arc

Abstract The Miura Group (Miocene-Pliocene) of south-central Japan shows a number of unique lithological and structural features. The group is composed of volcanic arc-derived marine sediments, and those in the south of the Mineoka Tectonic Belt particularly show various kinds of complex structures such as layer-parallel faults, thrust duplexes, imbricate thrusts and vein structures, yet the degree of compaction of the sediments is still remarkably low. These structures involve deformations at a very early stage and at shallow depths. They arose shortly after sedimentation within the Izu fore arc, and continued during accretion to the Honshu fore arc. The deformational stages are classified here into three stages, the first comprises bedding-parallel faulting associated with gravitational sliding and sediment injection. The first vein structures formed during this stage in the Izu fore arc area. These structures are cut by features developed during the second and third stages: especially thrusting, including duplex and imbricate thrusts. This horizontal shortening occurred during the accretionary prism formation on the subduction plate boundary. The second vein structures formed during this stage in the accretionary prism formation. The origin of the vein structures was discussed both by field observation and laboratory experiments. The latter suggests earthquake origin and the formative process is explained in relation to the field evidence.     

Structure of the Nankai accretionary prism as revealed from IZANAGI sidescan imagery and multichannel seismic reflection profiling

Abstract The Nankai accretionary prism, off southwest Japan represents one of the best developed clastic prisms in the world. A combination of swath mapping including Sea Beam and 'IZANAGI' sidescan sonar and closely spaced seismic reflection data was used to investigate the relationship between the progressive landward change in surface morphology and the internal structural evolution of the prism. The prism surface is divided into three zones sub-parallel to the trough axis on the basis of the IZANAGI backscattering image. The frontal part of the prism is characterized by several continuous lineaments that are approximately perpendicular to the plate convergence direction. These lineaments correspond to anticlinal ridges caused by active imbricate thrusting. Landward, these anticlinal ridges become progressively masked by fine-grained hemipelagic slope sediments that are constantly supplied to the entire prism slope. However, these overlying sediments show little deformation. This implies a change in deformation style from frontal thrusting with fault-bend folds to internal refolding of thrust sheets. In the middle to upper prism slope, the IZANAGI image shows numerous landslide features and large fault scarps, suggesting that exposed sediments are lithified enough to fail in brittle mode compared with the wet sediment deformation at the prism toe. Prism evolution is strongly affected by the decollement depth which may be indirectly controlled by oceanic basement relief; a topographic embayment coincides with a regional minimum of sediment offscraping where a basement high has been subducted. The small tapered prism observed in the embayment may be due to lateral supply of overpressured pore fluids from the adjacent prism. Strain caused by the differential rate of prism growth across the basement relief forms faults trending at high angles to the trough axis.