Terrane sutures in the Maine Appalachians,USA and adjacent areas

Terrane sutures in the Maine Appalachians and adjacent areas are recognized as melange dominated, deformed accretionary prisms of Ordovician age, and as a broad synmetamorphic transcurrent fault zone of probable Late Silurian-Early Devonian age. Although the accretionary prisms are associated with present day aeromagnetic and Bouguer gravity anomalies, they are probably not associated with present day crustal penetrating boundaries. The geology of the accretionary prisms indicates subduction-obduction dominated regimes during which (1) the Gander and Boundary Mountain (Dunnage) terranes amalgamated and (2) the composite Boundary Mountain-Gander terrane accreted to the Laurentian margin. The Penobscottian orogeny produced and deformed the older of the two accretionary prisms. This accretionary prism indicates that the Penobscottian was a continuous or perhaps diachronous event which spanned the late Cambrian to early Late Ordovician. The younger accretionary prism was produced and deformed during the Taconian orogeny during late Middle to early Late Ordovician. Initial deformation of this accretionary prism may have overlapped the waning stages of the Penobscottian. Portions of the Taconian arc locally overlie the Penobscottian accretionary prism. A synmetamorphic fault zone lies within Precambrian(?) to Ordovician(?) bimodal metavolcanic and metapelitic rocks assigned here to the Avalon terrane. This zone is several kilometres wide and is interpreted to be the postsubduction suture between the Avalon and Gander terranes, and may, in part, represent a fossil transform fault system. The fault zone contains phyllonites as well as shear zones which generally record dextral motion. The phyllonites were previously interpreted as a stratigraphic unit, whereas the shear zones span or are contained within mappable compositional units. Formation of and movement along these phyllonites and shear zones ceased before the intrusion of Early Devonian plutons. Not all faults in south-western Maine are related to the suture. Younger dip and/or strike-slip and thrust faults are approximately parallel to, or may lie within, the older shear zones and they complicate the recognition of the older faults.     

内蒙古大青山逆冲推覆体系中生代逆冲构造活动的40Ar-39Ar定年

内蒙古大青山呼和浩特段北侧发育3条走向北东东、指向北西的逆冲断层,并与被其分割的3个逆冲席体及一个原地系构成大青山逆冲推覆体系。逆冲断层上盘底部发育较深层次的糜棱岩,下盘顶部多发育低温的千糜岩。本研究在构造地质调查基础上,结合宏-微观岩石矿物学分析,采用⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar定年对该逆冲体系的活动时间进行约束。逆冲断层带内3个千糜岩绢云母⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar年龄范围为120~119Ma,另一样品给出了120Ma的概率统计峰值年龄。千糜岩为低温同变形变质产物,细粒绢云母为同变形新生矿物,其⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar年龄可代表变形年龄。侵位在断层内弱变形的花岗闪长岩为同构造晚期侵位,角闪石⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar年龄限定其冷却时间下限为121Ma,概率统计峰值年龄为119Ma。逆冲断层上盘底部发育较高温的糜棱岩,而低温千糜岩的形成时间应属于变形后期。因此,120Ma至119Ma期间,大青山逆冲推覆体系的逆冲作用应已是处于变形晚期。