Geology of the Heimaey volcanic centre, south Iceland: early evolution of a central volcano in a propagating rift?

Heimaey is the southernmost and also the youngest of nine volcanic centres in the southward-propagating Eastern Volcanic Zone, Iceland. The island of Heimaey belongs to the Vestmannaeyjar volcanic system (850 km²) and is situated 10 km off the south coast of Iceland. Although Heimaey probably started to form during the Upper Pleistocene all the exposed subaerial volcanics (10 monogenetic vents covering an area of 13.4 km²) are of Holocene age. Heimaey is composed of roughly equal amounts of tuff/tuff-breccias and lavas as most eruptions involve both a phreatomagmatic and an effusive phase. The compositions of the extrusives are predominantly alkali basalts belonging to the sodic series. Repeated eruptions on Heimaey, and the occurrence of slightly more evolved rocks (i.e. hawaiite approaching mugearite), might indicate that the island is in an early stage of forming a central volcano in the Vestmannaeyjar system. This is further substantiated by the development of a magma chamber at 10–20 km depth during the most recent eruption in 1973 and by the fact that the average volume of material produced in a single eruption on Heimaey is 0.32 km³ (dense rock equivalent), which is twice the value reported for the Vestmannaeyjar system as a whole. We find no support for the previously postulated episodic behaviour of the volcanism in the Vestmannaeyjar system. However, the oldest units exposed above sea level, i.e. the Norðurklettar ridge, probably formed over a 500-year interval during the deglaciation of southern Iceland. The absence of equilibrium phenocryst assemblages in the Heimaey lavas suggests that magma rose quickly from depth, without long-time ponding in shallow-seated crustal magma chambers. Eruptions on Heimaey have occurred along two main lineaments (N45°E and N65°E), which indicate that it is seismic events associated with the southward propagation of the Eastern Volcanic Zone that open pathways for the magma to reach the surface. Continuing southward propagation of the Eastern Volcanic Zone suggests that the frequency of volcanic eruptions in the Vestmannaeyjar system might increase with time, and that Heimaey may develop into a central volcano like the mature volcanic centres situated on the Icelandic mainland.     

俄罗斯贝加尔湖-日本石卷地学断面西段地质-地球物理基本特征

对于贝加尔湖-石卷地学断面(BAMSIP)的西段俄罗斯贝加尔湖-中国满洲里断面城内的地质构造背景、地震剖面波类型和基本特征等研究发现：(1)断面域中贝加尔裂谷带地震波速度结构存在异常地幔带；结晶地壳物质成分基性程度较高；基底顶面和Moho界面未观察到明显的镜象关系；(2)西伯利亚南部的复杂相故基底由古生代和前寒武纪岩层所组构；区域构造由古褶皱系、中生代沉积盆地、裂谷带构成。     

易门式大型铜矿床构造成矿动力学模型

针对金属矿床隐伏矿定位预测的关键问题,在提出构造成矿动力学的分支学术方向的基础上,以易门式大型铜矿床为例,从成矿地质背景、矿田构造、构造地球化学和成矿构造应力场等方面进行构造成矿动力学研究,阐述在构造应力场控制下成矿流体运移和聚集的规律。构造地球化学研究认为,构造地球化学异常反映矿体的原生晕;构造地球化学异常受构造控制,其分带特征可指示成矿流体的流向,并提供矿床成因和隐伏矿(化)体相对埋深的信息。构造应力场的控矿特征主要表现在:构造应力场导致控矿构造的形成,并驱动成矿流体的运移;构造应力场控制了成矿能量场;应力和能量的高值集中区分布特点可反映某些构造型式。在此基础上建立构造成矿动力学模型,概括隐伏矿成矿预测准则,据此提出若干重点找矿靶区和靶位,其中部分靶区得到工程验证,表明构造成矿动力学方法对隐伏矿定位预测和评价具有重要的指导意义。     

攀西裂谷存在吗？

大陆裂谷以地幔上隆、岩石圈伸展、减薄、断陷和沉降为特征，伸展构造环境是大陆裂谷形成的必要条件和本质特征。中国学者以前所认为攀枝花-西昌裂谷的主要标志是海西期层状堆晶杂岩、晚二叠世峨眉山玄武岩、印支期环状碱性杂岩和晚三叠世裂谷盆地沉积。最近一系列研究成果表明攀西地区海西期-印支期构造岩浆热事件是地幔柱和岩石圈相互作用的结果，不是裂谷作用的产物。进一步对上扬子西缘二叠纪-三叠纪的沉积作用和构造特征综合分析表明攀西地区不存在裂谷盆地沉积。该区晚二叠世-中三叠世为古陆隆起遭受剥蚀，晚三叠世断陷型类磨拉石建造是前陆走滑复合盆地的产物。本文根据对攀西地区二叠纪-三叠纪的岩浆活动、沉积作用、构造特征和地球物理资料等方面综合研究对攀西裂谷的存在提出质疑，并以峨眉山地幔柱活动为主线探讨了攀西地区古生代和中生代的地质构造演化历史。     

喜马拉雅造山带中段定结地区拆离断层

定结地区位于喜马拉雅造山带中段,发育大量的低角度伸展拆离断层,这些拆离断层中部分构成了藏南拆离系的主体。它们基本上垂直于造山带走向伸展,各拆离断层特征显著,普遍发育糜棱岩,糜棱岩类型复杂,主要有硅质糜棱岩、长英质糜棱岩、花岗质糜棱岩。在研究区的北部,拆离断层呈环状产出,构成变质核杂岩三层结构中的中间层,规模一般较大;同时拆离断层使变质核杂岩体盖层中的部分地层拆离减薄;在研究区南部拆离断层呈线状延伸很远,总体上平行造山带延伸,构成了藏南拆离系重要组成部分。部分拆离断层同韧性剪切带平行产出,形成拆离剪切的脆韧性体系。     

Paléoenvironnements et caractérisation des roches mères pétrolières des séries pré-salifères du bassin intérieur du Gabon

The Interior Basin of Gabon, created during the break-up between South America and Africa, displays thick Neoproterozoic to Aptian p.p. fluvio-lacustrine deposits overlain by Aptian to Albian marine facies. Rock–Eval analyses from outcrop and drillhole samples show high content in organic matter (up to 25%) related to types I and II. These intervals are encountered within Permian, Neocomian–Barremian as well as Aptian siliciclastic succession. They constitute fairly good to excellent potential petroleum source rocks, which are most probably at the origin of oil indices recognized both in drillholes and in surface.     

New structural and petrologic data on Mesozoic schists in the Rhodope (Bulgaria): geodynamic implications

Structural analysis of low-grade rocks highlights the allochthonous character of Mesozoic schists in southeastern Rhodope, Bulgaria. The deformation can be related to the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous thrusting and Tertiary detachment faulting. Petrologic and geochemical data show a volcanic arc origin of the greenschists and basaltic rocks. These results are interpreted as representing an island arc-accretionary complex related to the southward subduction of the Meliata–Maliac Ocean under the supra-subduction back-arc Vardar ocean/island arc system. This arc-trench system collided with the Rhodope in Late Jurassic times. To cite this article: N.G. Bonev, G.M. Stampfli, C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

The electrical structure of the Slave craton

The Slave craton in northwestern Canada, a relatively small Archean craton (600×400 km), is ideal as a natural laboratory for investigating the formation and evolution of Mesoarchean and Neoarchean sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM). Excellent outcrop and the discovery of economic diamondiferous kimberlite pipes in the centre of the craton during the early 1990s have led to an unparalleled amount of geoscientific information becoming available.

Over the last 5 years deep-probing electromagnetic surveys were conducted on the Slave, using the natural-source magnetotelluric (MT) technique, as part of a variety of programs to study the craton and determine its regional-scale electrical structure. Two of the four types of surveys involved novel MT data acquisition; one through frozen lakes along ice roads during winter, and the second using ocean-bottom MT instrumentation deployed from float planes.

The primary initial objective of the MT surveys was to determine the geometry of the topography of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) across the Slave craton. However, the MT responses revealed, completely serendipitously, a remarkable anomaly in electrical conductivity in the SCLM of the central Slave craton. This Central Slave Mantle Conductor (CSMC) anomaly is modelled as a localized region of low resistivity (10–15 Ω m) beginning at depths of 80–120 km and striking NE–SW. Where precisely located, it is spatially coincident with the Eocene-aged kimberlite field in the central part of the craton (the so-called “Corridor of Hope”), and also with a geochemically defined ultra-depleted harzburgitic layer interpreted as oceanic or arc-related lithosphere emplaced during early tectonism. The CSMC lies wholly within the NE–SW striking central zone defined by Grütter et al. [Grütter, H.S., Apter, D.B., Kong, J., 1999. Crust–mantle coupling; evidence from mantle-derived xenocrystic garnets. Contributed paper at: The 7th International Kimberlite Conference Proceeding, J.B. Dawson Volume, 1, 307–313] on the basis of garnet geochemistry (G10 vs. G9) populations.

Deep-probing MT data from the lake bottom instruments infer that the conductor has a total depth-integrated conductivity (conductance) of the order of 2000 Siemens, which, given an internal resistivity of 10–15 Ω m, implies a thickness of 20–30 km. Below the CSMC the electrical resistivity of the lithosphere increases by a factor of 3–5 to values of around 50 Ω m. This change occurs at depths consistent with the graphite–diamond transition, which is taken as consistent with a carbon interpretation for the CSMC.

Preliminary three-dimensional MT modelling supports the NE–SW striking geometry for the conductor, and also suggests a NW dip. This geometry is taken as implying that the tectonic processes that emplaced this geophysical–geochemical body are likely related to the subduction of a craton of unknown provenance from the SE (present-day coordinates) during 2630–2620 Ma. It suggests that the lithospheric stacking model of Helmstaedt and Schulze [Helmstaedt, H.H., Schulze, D.J., 1989. Southern African kimberlites and their mantle sample: implications for Archean tectonics and lithosphere evolution. In Ross, J. (Ed.), Kimberlites and Related Rocks, Vol. 1: Their Composition, Occurrence, Origin, and Emplacement. Geological Society of Australia Special Publication, vol. 14, 358–368] is likely correct for the formation of the Slave's current SCLM.     

Cenozoic Plate interaction of the Australia and Philippine Sea Plates: “hit-and-run” tectonics

Recent studies in northwest New Guinea have shown the presence of at least two marginal basins of different age, both of which formed in back-arc settings. The older basin opened between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, a remnant of which is now preserved as the New Guinea Ophiolite. Its obduction started at 40 Ma and it was finally emplaced on the Australian margin at 30 Ma. The younger basin was active during the Oligocene to Middle Miocene and was obducted in the Early Pliocene. Studies of the western edge of the Philippine Sea also reveal an important deformation of the Philippine arc in the Oligocene, which hitherto has remained unexplained. Using information from these systems, paleomagnetic results, kinematic reconstructions and geochemistry of the supra-subduction ophiolite, we present a plate model to explain the region's Eo–Oligocene development. We suggest that an extensive portion of oceanic crust extended the Australian Plate a considerable distance north of the Australian Craton. As Australia began its steady 7–8 cm/year northward drift in the Early Eocene, this lithosphere was subducted. Thus, the portion of the Philippine Sea Plate carrying the Taiwan–Philippine Arc to its present site may have actually been in contact with the ophiolite now in New Guinea and obduction led to deformation of the Philippine Sea Plate itself. Neogene Plate kinematics transported the deformed belt in contact with the Sunda block in the Late Miocene and Pliocene. This interpretation has implications for the origin for the Philippine Sea Plate and the potential incorporation of continental fragments against its boundaries.     

Neoproterozoic accretionary and collisional events on the western margin of the Siberian craton: new geological and geochronological evidence from the Yenisey Ridge

The geological, structural and tectonic evolutions of the Yenisey Ridge fold-and-thrust belt are discussed in the context of the western margin of the Siberian craton during the Neoproterozoic. Previous work in the Yenisey Ridge had led to the interpretation that the fold belt is composed of high-grade metamorphic and igneous rocks comprising an Archean and Paleoproterozoic basement with an unconformably overlying Mesoproterozoic–Neoproterozoic cover, which was mainly metamorphosed under greenschist-facies conditions. Based on the existing data and new geological and zircon U–Pb data, we recognize several terranes of different age and composition that were assembled during Neoproterozoic collisional–accretional processes on the western margin of the Siberian craton. We suggest that there were three main Neoproterozoic tectonic events involved in the formation of the Yenisey Ridge fold-and-thrust belt at 880–860 Ma, 760–720 Ma and 700–630 Ma. On the basis of new geochronological and petrological data, we propose that the Yeruda and Teya granites (880–860 Ma) were formed as a result of the first event, which could have occurred in the Central Angara terrane before it collided with Siberia. We also propose that the Cherimba, Ayakhta, Garevka and Glushikha granites (760–720 Ma) were formed as a result of this collision. The third event (700–630 Ma) is fixed by the age of island-arc and ophiolite complexes and their obduction onto the Siberian craton margin. We conclude by discussing correlation of these complexes with those in other belts on the margin of the Siberian craton.