Albian extrusion evidences of the Triassic salt and clues of the beginning of the Eocene atlasic phase from the example of the Chitana-Ed Djebs structure (N.Tunisia): Implication in the North African Tethyan margin recorded events, comparisons

In the northern part of Tunisia, close to Testour/Slouguia, new observations and updated biostratigraphy make it possible to highlight the relation between the Triassic saliferous mass and the surrounding Mesozoic beds (T. M.). Near the (T. M.) boundary, the formations observed consist dominantly of Triassic evaporites reworked in the Early and Late Albian deep-water sedimentary deposits. Throughout the studied area, Jurassic rocks are absent. We propose to interpret the Chitana-Ed Djebs structure originally emplaced as gravitational stretch masses in a passive margin in the same way as the salt bodies of widespread salt province in the Gulf of Mexico. A reconstructed schematic position of the Chitana-Ed Djebs salt body displays a scenario of setting of the salt mass on a submarine palaeo-slope. Moreover, the starting clues of the paroxysmal event of the Late Mesozoic tectonic inversion clearly fossilized through the discordance of the Middle Eocene–Early Lutetian limestone on the Albian series.     

济阳坳陷惠民凹陷临盘地区始新统孔店组一段—沙河街组四段红层划分和对比

受气候控制的洪水事件沉积因其短暂性、广布性和周期性等特征,具有相对的等时效应,可以作为地层划分和对比的标志层。通过分析不同规模周期下的事件沉积和正常沉积特征,并结合基准面旋回理论,识别出济阳坳陷惠民凹陷临盘地区始新统孔店组一段—沙河街组四段下亚段红层短期、中期和长期三个级次的基准面旋回特征,短期旋回以洪水期和间洪水期内发育的不同类型沉积微相组合为特征,中期旋回以发育一套完整的洪水期—间洪水期沉积为标志,长期旋回则以多个中期旋回组成的地层叠加为特征;以此为依据将惠民凹陷临盘地区孔店组一段—沙河街组四段下亚段划分为5个长期旋回、16个中期旋回及若干个短期旋回层序,并对第一个长期旋回进行了精细层序地层对比,在此基础上建立了干旱气候控制下的红层层序的划分和对比模式。     

基于气候变化特征的红层划分对比——以东营凹陷南坡为例

首次利用气候变化特征,对由于缺少特征古生物化石资料而长期难以进行地层划分的东营凹陷南坡始新统沙河街组四段下亚段——孔店组一段的红层进行了有效划分。采用基于孢粉化石Ephedripites相对含量约束下的测井数据法恢复相对古气候变化,首先根据Ephedripites相对含量的变化确定气候变化拐点(最干旱点)的位置段,再根据能谱测井数据或常规测井数据计算出的连续粘土矿物组成确定气候拐点的具体点,即为层位界线。根据标准井测井数据建立的数学模型,可以对该井附近新钻探井的红层进行划分对比,其科学性、合理性已被之后的勘探成果所证实。该方法为缺少古生物化石数据的"哑地层"划分提供了一种新思路。     

Eocene mafic volcanism in northern Anatolia: its causes and mantle sources in the absence of active subduction

Eocene mafic volcanic rocks occurring in an E–W-trending, curvilinear belt along and north of the Izmir–Ankara–Erzincan suture zone (IAESZ) in northern Anatolia, Turkey, represent a discrete episode of magmatism following a series of early Cenozoic collisions between Eurasia and the Gondwana-derived microcontinents. Based on our new geochronological, geochemical, and isotope data from the Kartepe volcanic units in northwest Anatolia and the extant data in the literature, we evaluate the petrogenetic evolution, mantle melt sources, and possible causes of this Eocene volcanism. The Kartepe volcanic rocks and spatially associated dikes range from basalt and basaltic andesite to trachybasalt and basaltic trachyandesite in composition, and display calc-alkaline and transitional calc-alkaline to tholeiitic geochemical affinities. They are slightly to moderately enriched in large ion lithophile (LILE) and light rare earth elements (LREE) with respect to high-field strength elements (HFSE) and show negative Nb, Ta, and Ti anomalies reminiscent of subduction-influenced magmatic rocks. The analysed rocks have ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_(i) values between 0.70570 and 0.70399, positive ?_Nd values between 2.7 and 6.6, and Pb isotope ratios of ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_(i) = 18.6–18.7, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_(i) = 15.6–15.7, and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_(i) = 38.7–39.1. The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar cooling ages of 52.7 ± 0.5 and 41.7 ± 0.3 Ma obtained from basaltic andesite and basalt samples indicate middle to late Eocene timing of this volcanic episode in northwest Anatolia. Calculated two-stage Nd depleted mantle model (T_DM) ages of the Eocene mafic lavas range from 0.6 to 0.3 Ga, falling between the T_DM ages of the K-enriched subcontinental lithospheric mantle of the Sakarya Continent (1.0–0.9 Ga) to the north, and the young depleted mantle beneath central Western Anatolia (0.4–0.25 Ga) to the south. These geochemical and isotopic features collectively point to the interaction of melts derived from a sublithospheric, MORB-like mantle and a subduction-metasomatized, subcontinental lithospheric mantle during the evolution of the Eocene mafic volcanism. We infer triggering of partial melting by asthenospheric upwelling beneath the suture zone in the absence of active subduction in the Northern Neotethys. The geochemical signature of the volcanic rocks changed from subduction- and collision-related to intra-plate affinities through time, indicating an increased asthenospheric melt input in the later stages of Eocene volcanism, accompanied by extensional deformation and rifting.     

Late Eocene foraminifers and palaeoenvironment,Cascade Seamount,southwest Pacific Ocean: implications for seamount subsidence and Australia Antarctica Eocene correlation

A Late Eocene foraminiferal fauna of free specimens is recorded from Cascade Seamount, a feature of volcanic origin, whose age and fauna were previously studied only in thin section. The fauna is of Late Eocene (P15) age because of the presence of Globigerapsis index, Globigerapsis rubriformis, Subbotina linaperta, Subbotina angiporoides and Chiloguembelina cubensis. Many typical Eocene indicators, such as Hantkenina, Pseudohastigerina and key globorotaliids, are absent. The age is a little older than that estimated for previous samples from the seamount. The fauna is dominated (78%) by benthic species, especially species of Cibicides that have greater affinities with New Zealand faunas than with coeval southern Australian faunas. The sediment and its fauna accumulated near the lower limits of wave activity, off the coast of a volcano that probably stood at least 400 m above sea level. The location has subsided nearly 1000 m over the past 40 million years to its present water depth of 1000 m, suggesting that the entire East Tasman Plateau was approximately 1000 m above its current depth at the time. Conditions were cool temperate and the fauna lacks any warm water indices, consistent with a palaeolatitude of 55–60°S, but also with cool waters at a time of oscillating conditions in southern Australia and also in Antarctica. There is essentially no infauna and the waters were highly oxygenated in the turbulent zone.     

Sequences and biofacies packages in the mid‐Cenozoic Gambier Limestone,South Australia: Reappraisal of foraminiferal evidence

The mid to outer neritic carbonates of the Gambier Limestone (Upper Eocene to lower Middle Miocene) can be divided into seven units by using criteria of sequence stratigraphy and foraminiferal biofacies. The boundaries fall mainly on erosional surfaces, even though the temporal duration of these surfaces appears to be largely beyond the resolution of foraminiferal biostratigraphy. The Eocene/Oligocene contact is distinctively unconformable in several sections, with at least part of the Upper Eocene sediments missing. Chert nodules, common to abundant in most sections, are associated with deep‐ or cool‐water benthic assemblages (> 100–200 m and <15°C), indicating cool, nutrient‐rich bottom conditions probably influenced by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current beginning during the Early Oligocene. The mid‐Oligocene fall in sea‐level was probably coupled with a major local uplift that removed at least part of the Lower Oligocene, an event widely recorded in the Australian‐New Zealand region. In areas weakly affected, this glacioeustatic lowstand is represented by chert‐free limestone and grey to pink dolomites in some sections, with a poorly preserved assemblage comprising few planktonic and deep‐water benthic species. Local unconformities separate regional unconformity‐bounded or allostratigraphic packages of strata to represent third‐order sequences. Although variations in local subsidence might have influenced accumulation space and sediment thickness, glacioeustatic influence on the packaging of the sequences and units of the Gambier Limestone was easily the more effective and concordant with the global patterns.     

Origin of the Mt Ashmore structural dome,west Bonaparte Basin,Timor Sea

New insights into the 3D structure, composition and origin of the Mt Ashmore dome, west Bonaparte Basin, Timor Sea, are enabled by reprocessed seismic-reflection data and by optical microscopic, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses of drill cuttings. The structural dome, located below a major pre-Oligocene post-Late Eocene unconformity and above a ～6 km-deep-seated basement high indicated by marked gravity and magnetic anomalies, displays chaotic deformation at its core and a centripetal kinematic deformation pattern. A study of drill cuttings of Lower Oligocene to Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks intersected by the Mt Ashmore 1B petroleum-exploration well reveals microbrecciation and extreme comminution and flow-textured fluidisation of altered sedimentary material. The microbreccia is dominated by aggregates of poorly diffracting micrometre to tens of micrometres-scale to sub-millimetre particles, including relic subplanar fractured quartz grains, carbonate, barite, apatite and K-feldspar. A similar assemblage occurs in fragments in basal Oligocene sediments, probably derived from the eroded top section of the dome, which protrudes above the unconformity. SEM coupled with EDS show the micrometre to tens of micrometres-scale particles are characterised by very low totals and non-stoichiometric compositions, including particles dominated by Si, Al–Si, Si–Ca–Al, Si–Al–Ca, Si–Mg, Fe–Mg–Ca, Fe–Mg and carbonate. XRD analysis identifies a high proportion of amorphous poorly diffracting material. TEM indicates internally heterogeneous, fragmented and recrystallised structure of the amorphous grains, which accounts for the low totals in terms of the high-volatile and porous nature of the particles. Another factor for the low totals is the uneven thin-section surfaces which affect the totals. No volcanic material or evaporites were encountered in the drillcore, militating against interpretations of the structure in terms of magmatic intrusion or salt diapirism. Such models are also inconsistent with the strong gravity and magnetic anomalies, which signify a basement high below the dome. An interpretation of the dome in terms of a central rebound uplift of an impact structure can not be proven due to the lack of shock metamorphic effects such as planar deformation features, impact melt or coesite. However, an impact model is consistent with the chaotic structure of the domal core, centripetal sense of deformation, microbrecciation, comminution and fluidisation of the Triassic to Eocene rocks. In this respect, an analogy can be drawn between the Mt Ashmore structural dome and likely but unproven impact structures formed in volatile (H₂O, CO₂)-rich sediments where shock is attenuated by high volatile pressure, such as Upheaval Dome, Utah. In terms of an impact hypothesis the Mt Ashmore dome is contemporaneous with a Late Eocene impact cluster (Popigai: D = 100 km, 35.7 ± 0.2 Ma; Chesapeake Bay: D = 85 km, 35.3 ± 0.1 Ma).     

Haines Structure: a probable Eocene complex impact structure in the offshore Canning Basin,Western Australia

A seismic structure imaged in a single 2D seismic profile from the offshore Canning Basin, Western Australia, is interpreted to be a possible complex impact crater on the basis of its seismic character. The feature, herein referred to as the Haines Structure, is symmetrical in two dimensions over ～2.5 km and comprises a centrally uplifted basal surface, a depressed upper surface, a highly deformed intervening package and an overlying horizon that is ‘sagging’ over the depression. The possible impact structure lies within carbonate units of Eocene or Early Oligocene age as determined from seismic correlation to petroleum exploration wells. The structure has not been drilled; therefore distinguishing characteristics used to define an impact origin, such as shock metamorphism, are not available. Comparison with other features in the Neogene succession of Australia's North West Shelf that have previously been interpreted as impact structures highlights the presence of key elements in the Haines Structure that characterise known complex impact craters, and the absence of seismic features related to alternative processes, such as a link to deeper structures that would be expected beneath a volcanic pipe.     

Late Eocene pollen records and palaeoenvironmental changes in northern Tibetan Plateau

The Eocene palaeovegetation landscape and palaeoclimate reconstructed from the pollen records in the Jiuquan Basin, northwest China provide some important information on the early uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the origin and evolution of the aridification in northwest China. The records show the arid-semiarid scrubs with open forest palynofloras controlled by the subtropical high existed in northwest China during the 40.2–33.4 Ma. Four pollen assemblages are found: Nitrariadites-Cheno-podipollis-Pinaceae assemblage (40.2–37.9 Ma) is followed by Chenopodipollis-Nitrariadites assemblage (37.9–34.6 Ma), Pinuspollenites & Abietineaepollenites-Chenopodipollis assemblage (34.6–33.9 Ma), and Chenopodipollis-Nitrariadites assemblage (33.9–33.4 Ma). The percentage of thermophilic types is in anti-correlation with that of the dry types, which means the palaeoclimate is relatively warm-wet or cold-dry during most of that time. Such aridity may be related to the water vapor reduction and the planetary wind system movement northward in response to the cooling caused by small-ephemeral ice-sheets. Supported by the National Key Program for Developing Basic Sciences (Grant No. 2005CB422001), the National Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40334038, 40421101) and the President Fund of Chinese Academy of Sciences