Pie de Palo, Argentina: A cataclastic diapir

The term cataclastic diapirism is proposed for the low-temperature extrusion of highly fractured rocks through more competent strata to produce domed topographies at the surface. The process is illustrated by reference to the geomorphology, neotectonics and microseismicity of the Pie de Palo, an elongated ridge in the western Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina composed of shattered and sheared Lower Palaeozoic rocks and subject to coseismic uplift. The Pie de Palo is conventionally interpreted as a fault-driven basement fold linked to low-angle eastward subduction of the Nazca plate beneath South America; the diapiric model implies instead that deformation is powered by regional compression from west-verging, near-surface, crustal shortening which results ultimately from Atlantic spreading.     

青海东昆仑埃达克岩的构造环境及成矿意义

东昆仑地区沿昆中深大断裂分布的一些晚三叠世火山岩和花岗岩,具有高Al2O3、Sr、Sr/Y、(La/Yb)N和低Y、Yb含量,弱负至正Eu异常,表现出与埃达克岩(Adakite)相似的地球化学特征,与岩浆混合作用形成的花岗岩(简称浆混杂岩体)时空伴生,其稀土、微量元素特征和同位素组成与底侵作用形成的基性岩有亲缘性。研究表明:东昆仑地区的埃达克质花岗岩和火山岩不是由俯冲的洋壳熔融形成,而是由晚三叠世幔源岩浆的底侵作用形成,该埃达克质火成岩的物质来源与底侵作用形成的基性岩相似,都为富集地幔Ⅱ。埃达克质岩的发现标志着昆中深大断裂向东延入鄂拉山构造带的南端,揭示了昆中深大断裂独特的动力学背景及成矿意义。在埃达克(质)岩的发育地段,多形成了东昆仑最具魅力的矿产集中区,进一步分析初步认为其中的赛什塘铜矿与埃达克质岩及其共生岩石成矿关系密切,有明显斑岩矿床特点,具进一步找矿潜力。     

冷底辟与热底辟地震信息

冷底辟是指盐、膏、泥岩等塑性地层向上侵入或刺穿所产生的构造样式;热底辟主要指岩浆侵入或喷发所产生的底辟构造样式。不论哪种底辟构造,在人工地震剖面上反映均非常明显,其底辟内部呈杂乱反射,而围岩反射界面在此突然中断。在岩浆底辟处常出现磁力高异常,并有较高的层速度,冷底辟具有较低的层速度,盐膏底辟也具有较高的层速度。构造与火山地震关系密切,而冷底辟也可以形成破坏性地震,是今后值得注意的研究课题     

吐－哈盆地大地构造环境分析──兼论大陆板内盆地与造山带的成因关系

学术界普遍认为吐－哈盆地为板块碰撞作用所形成的压（扭）性盆地。本文研究发现，吐－哈盆地在沉积演化、构造变形、盆地结构、地球物理场及其所反映的壳幔结构等方面都与中国东部张性伸展盆地具有相似的特征；盆地自晚二叠世发育起，经历了两次（Ｐ２—Ｊ，Ｋ—Ｒ）持续稳定而漫长的伸（扩）展演化，其间在侏罗纪末期和第四纪早期，盆地伸展与沉积受到两次短暂挤压作用的遏制而中断，同时改造了盆地长期形成的伸展构造。盆地伸展是由于“地幔底辟”作用，而两次挤压作用（火焰山运动和西域运动）则是由于盆地伸展，使其南、北邻区遭受挤压变形而长期积累应力，以至于在短时间内发生断裂作用并释放应力而反作用于盆地的结果。从而本文提出吐－哈盆地为张性伸展盆地这一新的观点；结合有关模拟实验结果，同时提出“地幔底辟—盆地伸展—两侧挤压变形与应力积累—应力释放—伸展与沉积中断”的大陆板内地球动力学与运动学模式。     

南海北部深水区荔湾凹陷构造演化及其石油地质意义

荔湾凹陷北与白云凹陷相邻,南与双峰盆地（南海西北次海盆）相接,发育于洋陆过渡边界,具有独特的结构构造特征。选取荔湾凹陷为研究对象,在3D地震资料解释的基础上,以断裂特征分析厘定凹陷性质、构造古地貌恢复解析凹陷结构,进而指出古地貌恢复和构造演化对油气勘探的影响。研究获得三方面的创新性认识：①荔湾凹陷为洋陆过渡壳上发育的断坳,断坳作用占主导地位;②32Ma的底辟作用将荔湾凹陷改造为“四洼三凸”的构造格局,恩平组沉积期凹陷北部是一个连通的洼陷;③恩平组沉积期连通洼陷的古地貌有利于三角洲（烃源岩）的发育,背斜型圈闭的定型受控于32Ma的底辟作用,是荔湾凹陷油气勘探的有利目标。     

库车褶冲带博孜敦底辟新生代盐构造变形期次:来自盐动力层序的证据

盐动力层序是指被动盐底辟周缘发育的一套角度不整合地层,是识别盐盆地早期被动底辟的标识。库车地区盐构造由于被上新世区域大规模挤压事件显著破坏,其古新世–中新世的早期演化过程尚存在争议。本文首次将盐动力层序的研究方法运用在库车地区盐构造研究中,并通过对库车褶冲带的博孜敦盐底辟进行野外观察、地层恢复、地震解译后发现,库车地区博孜敦盐底辟南西翼渐新统–中新统发育一套与盐底辟活动相关的沉积层序,小层序之间以角度不整合为界,但随着远离底辟地层之间的接触关系很快变为整合接触,符合直立状复合型盐动力层序的模型。由此认为,库车地区早期被动盐底辟发育,盐构造的演化变形可分为两个期次:早期被动底辟期(渐新世–上新世早期)与后期挤压改造期(上新世–现今)。通过对比物理模拟结果与地震资料解译结果认为,库车地区早期被动底辟作用很可能受控于始新世以来的冲积扇沉积加载作用。     

Base-salt relief controls salt-tectonic structural style,São Paulo Plateau,Santos Basin,Brazil

Base-salt relief influences salt flow, producing three-dimensionally complex strains and multiphase deformation within the salt and its overburden. Understanding how base-salt relief influences salt-related deformation is important to correctly interpret salt basin kinematics and distribution of structural domains, which have important implications to understand the development of key petroleum system elements. The São Paulo Plateau, Santos Basin, Brazil is characterized by a >2 km thick, mechanically layered Aptian salt layer deposited above prominent base-salt relief. We use 3D seismic reflection data, and physical and conceptual kinematic models to investigate how gravity-driven translation above thick salt, underlain by complex base-salt relief, generated a complex framework of salt structures and minibasins. We show that ramp-syncline basins developed above and downdip of the main pre-salt highs record c. 30 km of Late Cretaceous-Paleocene basinward translation. As salt and overburden translated downdip, salt flux variations caused by the base-salt relief resulted in non-uniform motion of the cover, and the simultaneous development of extensional and contractional structures. Contraction preferentially occurred where salt flow locally decelerated, above landward-dipping base-salt and downdip of basinward-dipping ramps. Extension occurred at the top of basinward-dipping ramps and base-salt plateaus, where salt flow locally accelerated. Where the base of the salt layer was broadly flat, structures evolved primarily by load-driven passive diapirism. At the edge of or around smaller base-salt highs, salt structures were affected by plan-view rotation, shearing and divergent flow. The magnitude of translation (c. 30 km) and the style of salt-related deformation observed on the São Paulo Plateau afford an improved kinematic model for the enigmatic Albian Gap, suggesting this structure formed by a combination of basinward salt expulsion and regional extension. These observations contribute to the long-lived debate regarding the mechanisms of salt tectonics on the São Paulo Plateau, ultimately improving our general understanding of the effects of base-salt relief on salt tectonics in other basins.     

Inverted intracontinental basin and vertical tectonics: The Saharan Atlas in Tunisia

The present-day architecture of the Saharan Atlas in Tunisia can be defined by two principal models: (1) The first model emphasizes a general SW–NE geological structure in the North forming successive and parallel bands (the Tellian zone, the diapir zone) and the central Atlas, which are cut by the southern Atlas ranges located within a NW–SE corridor. These zones are bordered to the East by the “North–South Axis”. (2) The second model defines the Tunisian Atlas in terms of an E–W strike-slip corridor, which initially controls the sedimentary facies distribution during the Meso-Cenozoïc, and which then generates elongate en echelon folds in the sedimentary cover by dextral shearing.In this study, we aim to show that the Saharan Atlas in Tunisia appears today as a triangular megablock, that we call the Tunisian Block (TB), bounded by three structural trends (N–S, SW–NE and NW–SE) belonging to the African strike-slip fault network: (1) The eastern boundary appears as a complex faulted and folded corridor limiting the folded zone of the central Atlas in the West and the depressed zone of the Sahel in the East: it corresponds to the “North–South Axis” as defined classically in the literature. (2) The southern boundary also corresponds to a faulted belt (Gafsa–Negrine-Tozeur corridor), which cuts off the continuation of the North–South axis southward into the Gabès region; it corresponds to the Southern Saharan Atlas, delimited by the Gafsa fault in the North and the Negrine-Tozeur fault in the South. (3) The northern boundary, trending SW–NE, appears rather in the form of a reverse tectonic bundle, facing SE or S (oblique convergence), whose major feature corresponds to the El Alia-Téboursouk fault. This northern boundary cuts across and delimits the N–S corridor towards the North, in such a way that its extension is limited at both extremities. Finally, the inner part of the TB actually corresponds to a mosaic of second-order blocks, each of which contains an arrangement of widely spaced SW–NE trending anticlines forming the main relief separated by vast plains very often occupied by sebkhas. The paleogeographic and structural evolution of this region during the Mesozoic and Palaeogene shows that the TB, along with its limits as defined here, developed an increasingly distinct identity at a very early stage, being characterized by an extensive and/or transtensive tectonic regime. Finally, the Tunisian Atlas Chain defines a triangular domain that owes its origin and particular character precisely because of the paleogeographic and structural history of this paleoblock. The boundaries of this paleoblock remain mobile, thus tectonically controlling the geometry and morphology of a typical intracontinental basin. The extension directions and the frequent changes of stress regime (or rotations) are related to the existence of two active basins: the strike-slip margin of the western branch of Tethys and the Mesogea oceanic basin, with tectonic activity becoming alternately dominant in one or other of the basins at different times. In this context, the Tunisian basin is characterized by rhythmic sedimentation, composed of a succession of filling sequences linked to the continuing tectonic instability of the sedimentary floor associated with two major crises: one at the end of the Aptian and the other at the end of the Ypresian. The vertical movements related to the extension and/or transtension of the blocks is accentuated by Triassic salt tectonics, giving rise to linear (salt axes) or point (salt domes) structures that lead to the formation of shoal zones during development of the basin, thus enhancing the vertical tectonics. The diapirism developed slowly and gradually from late Triassic through to Langhian times, leading to numerous sedimentary wedges on the flanks of the structures. The uprise of the diapirs exhibits three pauses corresponding to the end-Aptian, end-Ypresian and pre-Burdigalian. The vertical tectonics is characterized by abundant drape folds giving rise to an extensional fault-related folding and strike-slip/dip-slip faults creating frequent unconformities that are nevertheless always localized.Finally, the folded chain results from the structural inversion of this paleoblock from Tortonian times onward. We can only account for the various folds-axis directions in the context of an intracontinental chain where the pre-existing major vertical faults are able to develop on the surface as draped-folds in a transpressive regime by the local reorientation of stresses in crustal-scale faults. In detail, the structures produced by this vertical tectonic activity, which are profoundly controlled by inheritance, display a highly original style at very shallow levels in the crust.