Plate-driven extension and convergence along the East Gondwana active margin: Late Silurian–Middle Devonian tectonics of the Lachlan Fold Belt,southeastern Australia

The Lachlan Fold Belt of southeastern Australia developed along the Panthalassan margin of East Gondwana. Major silicic igneous activity and active tectonics with extensional, strike-slip and contractional deformation have been related to a continental backarc setting with a convergent margin to the east. In the Early Silurian (Benambran Orogeny), tectonic development was controlled by one or more subduction zones involved in collision and accretion of the Ordovician Macquarie Arc. Thermal instability in the Late Silurian to Middle Devonian interval was promoted by the presence of one or more shallow subducted slabs in the upper mantle and resulted in widespread silicic igneous activity. Extension dominated the Late Silurian in New South Wales and parts of eastern Victoria and led to formation of several sedimentary basins. Alternating episodes of contraction and extension, along with dispersed strike-slip faulting particularly in eastern Victoria, occurred in the Early Devonian culminating in the Middle Devonian contractional Tabberabberan Orogeny. Contractional deformation in modern systems, such as the central Andes, is driven by advance of the overriding plate, with highest strain developed at locations distant from plate edges. In the Ordovician to Early Devonian, it is inferred that East Gondwana was advancing towards Panthalassa. Extensional activity in the Lachlan backarc, although minor in comparison with backarc basins in the western Pacific Ocean, was driven by limited but continuous rollback of the subduction hinge. Alternation of contraction and extension reflects the delicate balance between plate motions with rollback being overtaken by advance of the upper plate intermittently in the Early to Middle Devonian resulting in contractional deformation in an otherwise dominantly extensional regime. A modern system that shows comparable behaviour is East Asia where rollback is considered responsible for widespread sedimentary basin development and basin inversion reflects advance of blocks driven by compression related to the Indian collision.     

Structure and metamorphism of the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage: Implications for middle to Late Devonian orogeny in the northern New England Fold Belt

The Late Silurian to Middle Devonian Calliope Volcanic Assemblage in the Rockhampton region is deformed into a set of northwest‐trending gently plunging folds with steep axial plane cleavage. Folds become tighter and cleavage intensifies towards the bounding Yarrol Fault to the east. These folds and associated cleavage also deformed Carboniferous and Permian rocks, and the age of this deformation is Middle to Late Permian (Hunter‐Bowen Orogeny). In the Stanage Bay area, both the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage and younger strata generally have one cleavage, although here it strikes north to northeast. This cleavage is also considered to be of Hunter‐Bowen age. Metamorphic grade in the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage ranges from prehnite‐pumpellyite to greenschist facies, with higher grades in the more strongly cleaved rocks. In the Rockhampton region the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage is part of a west‐vergent fold and thrust belt, the Yarrol Fault representing a major thrust within this system.

A Late Devonian unconformity followed minor folding of the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage, but no cleavage was formed. The unconformity does not represent a collision between an exotic island arc and continental Australia as previously suggested.     

Arc magmatism in the Delhi Fold Belt: SHRIMP U–Pb zircon ages of granitoids and implications for Neoproterozoic convergent margin tectonics in NW India

The northwestern region of Peninsular India preserves important records of Precambrian plate tectonics and the role of Indian continent within Proterozoic supercontinents. In this study, we report precise SHRIMP zircon U–Pb ages from granitoids from the Sirohi terrane located along the western fringe of the Delhi Fold Belt in Rajasthan, NW India. The data reveal a range of Neoproterozoic ages from plagiogranite of Peshua, foliated granite of Devala, and porphyritic granite of Sai with zircon crystallization from magmas at 1015 ± 4.4 Ma, 966.5 ± 3.5 and 808 ± 3.1 respectively. The plagiogranite shows high SiO₂, Na₂O and extremely low K₂O, Rb, Ba, comparable with typical oceanic plagiogranites. These rocks possess low LREE and HREE concentrations and a relatively flat LREE–HREE slope, a well-developed negative Eu-anomaly and conspicuous Nb and Ti anomalies. Compared to the plagiogranite, the foliated Devala granite shows higher SiO₂ and moderate Na₂O, together with high K₂O and comparatively higher Rb, Ba, Sr and REE, with steep REE profiles and a weak positive Eu anomaly. In contrast to the plagiogranite and foliated granite, the porphrytic Sai granite has comparatively lower SiO₂ moderately higher Na₂O, extremely high Y, Zr, Nb and elevated REE. The geochemical features of the granitoids [HFSE depletion and LILE enrichment, Nb- and Ta-negative anomalies], and their plots in the fields of Volcanic Arc Granites and those from active continental margins in tectonic discrimination diagrams suggest widespread Neoproterozoic arc magmatism with changing magma chemistry in a protracted subduction realm. Our results offer important insights into a long-lived active continental margin in NW India during early and mid Neoproterozoic, consistent with recent similar observations on Cryogenian magmatic arcs widely distributed along the margins of the East African Orogen, and challenge some of the alternate models which link the magmatism to extensional tectonics associated with Rodinia supercontinent breakup.     

兴蒙造山区及邻区早白垩世盆地岩石地层格架 与沉积古地理演化

在重点梳理兴蒙造山区及其相邻地区早白垩世地层分布与沉积古地理特征的基础上,从地层沉积学角度探讨了研究区早白垩世沉积盆地特征。兴蒙造山区中东部在晚侏罗世巨厚粗碎屑沉积建造之上发育了巨厚的酸性－中性火山岩－火山碎屑岩与河流－湖泊相沉积岩系,构成中国东北部巨型NE向火山岩－沉积岩带。兴蒙造山区中东部早白垩世早中期以断陷（裂谷）盆地为主,古地貌以高地、河流和湖泊共存为特征,气候温湿且炎热,热河生物群萌生;早白垩世中晚期,北东向地壳强烈伸展并进一步向外围地区扩展,沉积盆地及充填建造和热河生物群也相应地向更广泛区域辐射发展。兴安岭-燕山沉积-火山岩带与古太平洋板块俯冲无关,板内软流圈上涌导致的区域性伸展是其主要的成因动力机制,也是中国东部早白垩世中晚期更大规模区域性伸展作用的序幕。兴蒙东部早白垩世晚期沉积盆地发育和古地理格局受Izanagi板块向亚洲大陆东部俯冲弧后伸展构造机制约束。     

Variscan plate dynamics in the circum-carpathian area

Abstract

Magmatic and metamorphic events, imprinted in the crystalline rocks of the so-called core mountains inside the Alpine structure of the Inner Carpathians, allow the re-construction of the history of the Rheic Ocean opening, its development and its final closure. Intra-Carpathian core-mountains are the remnants of the continents that drifted away from Gondwana and docked, initially, with Baltica as part of Avalonia and later on as parts of the Gondwana-derived Armorica Terrane Group or as a separate micro-continent.

All magmatic suites, mafic and felsic, present in the Carpathians core mountains, show similarities to those found in the European Variscan Belt. All described- and dated metamorphic and magmatic events also have equivalents in the evolution of the Caledonian-Variscan Belts of Europe. The most pronounced feature of all Carpathian core mountains is the syn-collisional, multistage I/S granitoid magmatism (370-340 Ma) related to subduction, mafic-magma influx, extensional decompression and slab melting. That episode marked the Laurussia - Gondwana collision and closure of the Rheic Ocean, as in the whole of Central and Western Europe.

The Carpathian core-mountains, currently dispersed inside the Alpine mountain chain, can be considered the broken fragments of the eastern prolongation of the Variscan orogenic belts – possibly part of the Moldanubian Unit.     

Multistage Deformation in the Northeastern Segment of the Jiangshao Fault (Suture) Belt: Constraints for the Relationship between the Yangtze Plate and the Cathaysia Old Land

Multistage deformation events have occurred in the northeastern Jiangshao Fault (Suture) Belt. The earliest two are ductile deformation events. The first is the ca. 820 Ma top-to-the-northwest ductile thrusting, which directly resulted from the collision between the Cathaysia Old Land and the Chencai Arc (?) during the Late Neoproterozoic, and the Jiangnan Orogenic Belt that formed as the ocean closed between the Yangtze Plate and the jointed Cathaysia Old Land and the Chencai Arc due to continuous compression. The second is the ductile left-lateral strike-slipping that occurred in the latest Early Paleozoic. Since the Jinning period, all deformation events represent the reactivation or inversion of intraplate structures due to the collisions between the North China and Yangtze plates during the Triassic and between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates during the Cenozoic. In the Triassic, brittle right-lateral strike-slipping and subsequent top-to-the south thrusting occurred along the whole northeastern Jiangshao Fault Zone because of the collision between the North China and Yangtze plates. In the Late Mesozoic, regional extension took place across southeastern China. In the Cenozoic, the collision between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates resulted in brittle thrusts along the whole Jiangnan Old land in the Miocene. The Jiangshao Fault Belt is a weak zone in the crust with long history, and its reactivation is one of important characteristics of the deformation in South China; however, late-stage deformation events did not occur beyond the Jiangnan Old Land and most of them are parallel to the strike of the Old Land, which is similar to the Cenozoic deformation in Central Asia. In addition, the Jiangnan old Land is not a collisional boundary between the Yangtze Plate and Cathaysia Old Land in the Triassic.     

丝绸之路经济带沿线国家旅游资源与 入境旅游发展空间格局特征与差异

利用旅游资源丰度指数、旅游流质指数、空间一致性系数和二维矩阵等方法,定量比较分析了丝绸之路经济带沿线18个主要国家旅游资源丰度,入境旅游发展质量,以及旅游资源分布与入境旅游发展质量的空间格局特征与差异。研究表明：丝绸之路经济带沿线国家旅游资源数量与质量差异显著,正形成两极分化突出的格局,中西欧国家最优,中亚国家最弱,入境旅游发展质量也呈现出相似的特征。旅游资源资源分布与入境旅游发展质量,呈现较明显的弱协调性,旅游资源集聚具有较明显的国际旅游导向性,两者发生错位的国家超过三分之二。空间一致性表现为显著的区域差异特征,亚洲相对较好,中西欧次之,东欧最弱。为推进沿线国际旅游合作,提出如下建议：坚定“互联互通、平等包容和合作共赢”发展理念,成立国际旅游合作联盟,督促与落实相关战略部署与重点项目;在求同存异基础上,建立共享机制,提高国家间旅游合作一体化水平和协同发展程度;共同打造丝绸之路经济带世界级旅游线路与旅游资源品牌,着力提升国际旅游发展影响力。