The Zihuatanejo, Mexico, earthquake of 1994 December 10 (M= 6.6): source characteristics and tectonic implications

An analysis of the Zihuatanejo, Mexico, earthquake of 1994 December 10 ( M = 6.6), based on teleseismic and near-source data, shows that it was a normal-faulting, intermediate-depth ( H = 50 ± 5 km) event. It was located about 30 km inland, within the subducted Cocos plate. The preferred fault plane has an azimuth of 130°, a dip of 79° and a rake of −86°. The rupture consisted of two subevents which were separated in time by about 2 s, with the second subevent occurring downdip of the first. The measured stress drop was relatively high, requiring a Δσ of about a kilobar to explain the high-frequency level of the near-source spectra. A rough estimate of the thickness of the seismogenic part of the oceanic lithosphere below Zihuatanejo, based on the depth and the rupture extent of this event, is 40 km.
This event and the Oaxaca earthquake of 1931 January 15 ( M = 7.8) are the two significant normal-faulting, intermediate-depth shocks whose epicentres are closest to the coast. Both of these earthquakes were preceded by several large to great shallow, low-angle thrust earthquakes, occurring updip. The observations in other subduction zones show just the opposite: normal-faulting events precede, not succeed, updip, thrust shocks. Indeed, the thrust events, soon after their occurrence, are expected to cause compression in the slab, thus inhibiting the occurrence of normal-faulting events. To explain the occurrence of the Zihuatanejo earthquake, we note that the Cocos plate, after an initial shallow-angle subduction, unbends and becomes subhorizontal. In the region of the unbending, the bottom of the slab is in horizontal extension. We speculate that the large updip seismic slip during shallow, low-angle thrust events increases the buckling of the slab, resulting in an incremental tensional stress at the bottom of the slab and causing normal-faulting earthquakes. This explanation may also hold for the 1931 Oaxaca event.     

南天山蛇绿混杂岩和中天山南缘糜棱岩的40Ar/39Ar年龄及其大地构造意义

 ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar同位素年龄测定,获得南天山蛇绿混杂岩基质黑云母石英片岩单矿物黑云母的两个坪年龄分别为(370.0±4.8)Ma和(259.0±3.3)Ma;中天山南缘长英质糜棱岩单矿物黑云母的坪年龄为(250.5±7.9)Ma,二云母花岗岩单矿物白云母的坪年龄为(348.9±0.3)Ma。结合南天山古生代沉积特征和塔里木及伊犁-哈萨克斯坦板块古地磁数据的综合分析,提出南天山晚泥盆世至石炭纪早期完成向伊犁-哈萨克斯坦板块的B型俯冲,中-晚二叠世进行陆内A型俯冲造山的板块碰撞演化模式。     

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;     

Geodynamic Background of the Mesozoic Intracontinental Magmatism in Southeast China

The authors have proposed a dynamic model in this paper based on the ages,rock series and associations,Sr-Nd isotopic signatures of the Mesozoic intracontinental magmatism overlying the Cathaysian and Yangtze blocks.The model describes the relation of intracontinental collision and subduction in the Tethyan tectonic regie with Paleo-Pacific oceanic plate sudbuction-strike slip-extension in the Pacific tectonic regime.During 220-150Ma,the horizontal collision between the North China block and the Yangtze block,as well as the intracontinental subduction of some divergent microcontinental terranes in the southwestern part of South China are ascribed to the influence of the Tethyan tectonic regime,giving rise to a volume of high-Isr and low-εNd(t) S-type granites only in the Cathaysian Block.During 145-90Ma,under the geodynamic backgound of subduction-strike slip-extension of the Paleo-Pacific oceanic plate on the basis of the deep tectonic process in the Tethyan tectonic regime,high-K,alkalirich calc-alkaline and shoshonitic volcano-plutonic complexes were generated in the Yangtze block,and high-K calc-alkalic and bimodal volcano-plutonic complexes were generated in the Cathaysian block.The occurrence of A-type peralkaline granites in the coastal areas of South east China indicates the end of Mesozoic intracontinental magmatism.     

Paleogeographic maps of the Japanese Islands: Plate tectonic synthesis from 750 Ma to the present

Abstract A series of paleogeographic maps of the Japanese Islands, from their birth at ca 750–700 Ma to the present, is newly compiled from the viewpoint of plate tectonics. This series consists of 20 maps that cover all of the major events in the geotectonic evolution of Japan. These include the birth of Japan at the rifted continental margin of the Yangtze craton ( ca 750-700 Ma), the tectonic inversion of the continental margin from passive to active ( ca 500 Ma), the Paleozoic accretionary growth incorporating fragments from seamounts and oceanic plateaux ( ca 480-250 Ma), the collision between Sino-Korea and Yangtze (250–210 Ma), the Mesozoic to Cenozoic accretionary growth (210 Ma-present) including the formation of the Cretaceous paired metamorphic belts (90 Ma), and the Miocene back-arc opening of the Japan Sea that separated Japan as an island arc (25-15 Ma).