An Eocene magmatic belt across central Tibet: mantle subduction triggered by the Indian collision?

Mountain domes rising to ≈ 6600 m along Tibet's Tanggula range herald the Eocene intrusion of calcalkaline granites into terranes accreted much earlier. Together with coeval, cogenetic volcanics, such intrusives, which have similar crystallization and cooling ages, may be part of an ESE-trending belt cutting central Tibet in half. This magmatic belt may have marked a former northern boundary of the plateau, testifying to S-directed subduction of the Asian mantle. Such subduction would have developed soon after India's collision but long before the rise of the plateau's present rims, along one of central Tibet's Mesozoic sutures.     

青藏高原东南缘构造地貌、活动构造和下地壳流动假说

利用高精度的SRTM 数字高程模型（DEM）,定量勾画出青藏高原东南缘大尺度地形地貌的特征。分析表明,高原东南缘地貌特征为“负地形”,即海拔高程与地形坡度,与地形起伏度之间均为负相关关系,与高原中部的“正地形”--海拔高程或地形坡度与地形起伏度之间呈正相关关系,形成鲜明对比。但是,在高原东南缘,在河谷之间保留有高海拔、低起伏的残留面。这些残留面与高原内部的平坦面具相似的渐变地貌特征,从腹地的正地形逐渐变为川西的高海拔平坦面与深切河谷相间的负地形。虽然随着河流下切深度往南逐渐增加,残留面虽越来越少,但仍然可以识别,最终终止在雅砻江逆冲断裂带附近,该断裂带以南地区没有明显负地形特征。北东向展布的雅砻江逆冲断裂带对应着50～200 km宽的地形相对陡变带。综合区域新构造和构造地貌研究的最新成果表明： 1）雅砻江逆冲断裂带可能代表着现今正经受侵蚀改造和弱化的高原老边界,该边界以北和以南地区抬升历史不同; 2）三江地区的峰值抬升期已过,目前以侵蚀为主。虽然不能排除与河流侵蚀对应的均衡反弹抬升作用,但具有真正意义的地壳增厚型的构造抬升较弱。国际上流行的高原东缘下地壳流动模式的依据之一是从高原内外流分界线到南中国海,存在一个区域上延伸数千公里的抬升前低海拔“类夷平面”的残留面。地貌特征,构造和地质综合分析都表明高原东缘不存在这样的类夷平面,不支持解释高原东缘地形演化和相应构造变形的下地壳流动模式。     

A possible dependence of tectonic strength on the age of the crust in Asia

In Asia, the intensity and style of active tectonics appears to depend on the age of the last orogenic activity. The shields have remained essentially undeformed during the India-Eurasian collision, but Paleozoic and Mesozoic orogenic belts apparently have been reactivated by this collision, with a suggestion of greater reactivation and more diffuse deformation of the younger belts. If the greater observed heat flow in regions of more recent orogenic activity reflects, at least in part, a greater heat flow from the mantle beneath the younger belts, then the temperatures in the mantle beneath the younger belts should be higher than beneath older belts and shields. Because of the strong dependence on temperature of the creep strength of minerals, particularly of olivine, the crust and mantle beneath the hotter, younger belts should be much weaker than those beneath older belts. This difference in temperature, and consequent difference in strength, may be the cause of the greater reactivation of younger belts.     

Seismic anisotropy beneath Tibet: evidence for eastward extrusion of the Tibetan lithosphere?

Strong seismic anisotropy beneath Tibet has recently been reported from the study of SKS shear wave splitting. The fast split waves are generally polarized in an easterly direction, close to the present day direction of motion of the Tibetan crust relative to stable Eurasia, as deduced from Holocene slip rates on the major active faults in and around Tibet. This correlation may be taken to suggest that the whole Tibetan lithosphere is being extruded in front of indenting India and that the anisotropic layer is the deforming asthenosphere, that accommodates the motion of the Tibetan lithosphere relative to the fixed mantle at depth. Uncertainties about this motion are at present too large to bring unambiguous support to that view. Assuming that this view is correct however, a simple forward model is used to compute theoretical delay times as a function of the thickness of the anisotropic layer. The observed delay times would require a 50–100 km thick anisotropic layer beneath south-central Tibet and an over 200 km thick layer beneath north-central Tibet, where particularly hot asthenosphere has been inferred. This study suggests that the asthenospheric anisotropy due to present absolute block motion might be dominant under actively deforming continents.     

Fault propagation and climatic control of sedimentation on the Ghoubbet Rift Floor: insights from the Tadjouraden cruise in the western Gulf of Aden

A detailed geophysical survey of the Ghoubbet Al Kharab (Djibouti) clarifies the small-scale morphology of the last submerged rift segment of the propagating Aden ridge before it enters the Afar depression. The bathymetry reveals a system of antithetic normal faults striking N130°E, roughly aligned with those active along the Asal rift. The 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profiler shows how the faults cut distinct layers within the recent, up to 60 m thick, sediment cover on the floor of the basin. A large volcanic structure, in the centre of the basin, the 'Ghoubbet' volcano, separates two sedimentary flats. The organization of volcanism and the planform of faulting, with en echelon subrifts along the entire Asal–Ghoubbet rift, appear to confirm the westward propagation of this segment of the plate boundary. Faults throughout the rift have been active continuously for the last 8400 yr, but certain sediment layers show different offsets. The varying offsets of these layers, dated from cores previously retrieved in the southern basin, imply Holocene vertical slip rates of 0.3–1.4 mm yr⁻¹ and indicate a major decrease in sedimentation rate after about 6000 yr BP, and a redistribution of sediments in the deepest troughs during the period that preceded that change.     

Surface Rupture of the 1857 Southern Italian Earthquake?

In October 1862, Robert Mallet published an extensive study of a large earthquake that occurred on 16 December 1857, 150 km south-east of Naples. This event is one of the most destructive ever recorded in Italy. Although continental earthquakes of similar size are almost invariably associated with surface faulting, Mallet did not identify any surface rupture and subsequent workers have also failed to find surface traces. Using satellite images and aerial photographs as a guide, we examined two prominent Quaternary normal fault systems in the field. Flanking the Val d'Agri and the Val di Diano, both trend NW–SE and dip to the SW. The distribution of damage suggests that one or both moved in 1857. On one fault segment in Val d'Agri, we found a 2.5-m high scarp whose youthfulness and height suggest it is due to the 1857 earthquake. Comparison of the observed slip with rates derived from geomorphic evidence suggests a recurrence time for 1857 type events of about 3000 years. While the new data we provide are consistent with the event having a magnitude of M _s≈ 7.0, there are also grounds for supposing it might have been bigger.     

阿尔金断裂带晚第四纪左旋走滑速率及其构造运动转换模式讨论

在高分辨率SPOT卫星数字影像和大比例尺航片处理、断错地貌制图、野外核实与位移测量基础上, 利用宇宙成因核素(¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al)、碳十四(¹⁴C)和热释光(TL)等多种测年手段, 厘定了各断错地貌面的形成年龄, 得到了阿尔金断裂带不同段落全新世左旋走滑速率: 阿克赛以西的中、西段左旋走滑速率可达(17.5±2) mm/a, 肃北-石包城段为(11±3.5) mm/a左右, 疏勒河口段减少到(4.8±1) mm/a左右, 东端宽滩山段仅约(2.2±0.2) mm/a, 左旋走滑速率突变点位于阿尔金断裂带中东段存在分支活动逆断层向南东扩展的肃北、石包城和疏勒河等三联点上. 矢量分析表明, 三联点东、西两侧左旋滑动速率的减少量转换成了阿尔金断裂带中东段南盘北西向活动逆断层上的地壳缩短和上盘推覆体抬升, 形成了党河南山、大雪山、祁连山等条块山地. 因此, 青藏高原北部物质向东挤出的速率和幅度是有限的, 符合“叠瓦状逆冲转换——有限挤出模型”.