Mechanism for the rapid motion of the Qianjiangping landslide during reactivation by the first impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir, China

The first impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir in China started from a water surface elevation of 95 m on June 1, 2003 and reached 135 m on June 15, 2003. Shortly after the water level reached 135 m, many slopes began to deform and some landslides occurred. The Qianjiangping landslide is the largest one; it occurred on the early morning of July 14, 2003 and caused great loss of lives and property. Field investigation revealed that, although failure occurred after the reservoir reached 135 m, the stability of the slope was already reduced by preexisting sheared bedding planes. To study the mechanism of the rapid motion of this reactivated landslide, two soil samples were taken from a yellow clay layer and a black silt layer in the sliding zone, respectively, and a series of ring shear tests were conducted on the samples. One series of ring shear tests simulates the creep deformation behavior, while the other series simulates different shear rates. Conclusions drawn from analysis of the ring shear tests indicate that the mechanism of the rapid motion of the reactivated landslide was caused by the rate effect of the black silt layer during the motion phase after the creep failure. The yellow clay layer did not play any important role in the rapid motion in the 2003 event.     

俯冲带榴辉岩的变形作用及其对俯冲-折返过程的意义

榴辉岩是大洋和大陆俯冲带的重要岩石类型,在研究俯冲带的形成过程、热结构、壳幔相互作用等方面有重要意义。通过对天然和实验样品中石榴子石、绿辉石等矿物的变形特征、变形机制、变形的影响因素等的综合分析,系统总结了高压变质带中榴辉岩矿物显微和超微变形研究的进展,探讨了榴辉岩的变形特征在恢复俯冲与折返过程研究中的意义及一些尚待解决的一些问题。     

Thermal evolution of the orogenic lower crust during exhumation within a thickened Moldanubian root of the Variscan belt of Central Europe

At the eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif (Variscan belt of Central Europe), large bodies of felsic granulite preserve mineral assemblages and structures developed during the early stages of exhumation of the orogenic lower continental crust within the Moldanubian orogenic root. The development of an early steep fabric is associated with east–west-oriented compression and vertical extrusion of the high-grade rocks into higher crustal levels. The high-pressure mineral assemblage Grt-Ky-Kfs-Pl-Qtz-Liq corresponds to metamorphic pressures of ∼18 kbar at ∼850 °C, which are minimum estimates, whereas crystallization of biotite occurred at 13 kbar and ∼790 °C during decompression with slight cooling. The late stages of the granulite exhumation were associated with lateral spreading of associated high-grade rocks over a middle crustal unit at ∼4 kbar and ∼700 °C, as estimated from accompanying cordierite-bearing gneisses. The internal structure of a contemporaneously intruded syenite is coherent with late structures developed in felsic granulites and surrounding gneisses, and the magma only locally explored the early subvertical fabric of the felsic granulite during emplacement. Consequently, the emplacement age of the syenite provides an independent constraint on the timing of the final stages of exhumation and allows calculation of exhumation and cooling rates, which for this part of the Variscan orogenic root are 2.9–3.5 mm yr⁻¹ and 7–9.4 °C Myr⁻¹, respectively. The final part of the temperature evolution shows very rapid cooling, which is interpreted as the result of juxtaposition of hot high-grade rocks with a cold upper-crustal lid.     

~(40)Ar/~(39)Ar Dating of Deformation Events and Reconstruction of Exhumation of Ultrahigh-Pressure Metamorphic Rocks in Donghai, East China

Recent investigations reveal that the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic (UHPM) rocks in the Donghai region of East China underwent ductile and transitional ductile-brittle structural events during their exhumation. The earlier ductile deformation took place under the condition of amphibolite facies and the later transitional ductile-brittle deformation under the condition of greenschist facies. The hanging walls moved southeastward during both of these two events. The 40Ar/39Ar dating of muscovites from muscovite-plagioclase schists in the Haizhou phosphorous mine, which are structurally overlain by UHPM rocks, yields a plateau age of 218.0±2.9 Ma and isochron age of 219.8Ma, indicating that the earlier event of the ampibolite-facies deformation probably took place about 220 Ma ago. The 40Ar/39Ar dating of oriented amphiboles parallel to the movement direction of the hanging wall on a decollement plane yields a plateau age of 213.1±0.3 Ma and isochron age of 213.4±4.1 Ma, probably representing the age o     

The Discovery of Diamond from the Zhimafang Pyrope Peridotite of the Sulu UHP Metamorphic Zone, East China, and Its Geological Implications

From Donghai County of Jiangsu Province to Rongcheng County of Shandong Province on the southern border of the Sulu orogen, there exposes an ultramafic belt, accompanied with an ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic zone. It can be further divided into the Xugou belt (the northern belt), and the Maobei-Gangshang belt (the southern belt). One grain of diamond has been discovered from the Zhimafang pyrope peridotite in the southern belt using the heavy mineral method. The diamond grain is 2.13 mm × 1.42 mm × 0.83 mm in size and weighs 9.4 mg. The occurrence of the diamond suggests that the Zhimafang pyrope peridotite xenolith is derived from the lithospheric upper mantle. The tectonic emplacement mechanism of the pyrope peridotite xenoliths in granite-gneisses is obviously different from those in kimberlite. The Sulu orogen was located on the active continental margin of the Sino-Korean craton in the Neoproterozoic. The relatively cold and water-bearing oceanic crustal tholeiite slab subducted beneath the lith     

Strain partitioning and preservation of Ar/Ar ages during Variscan exhumation of a subducted crust (Malpica–Tui complex, NW Spain)

The Malpica–Tui complex (NW Iberian Massif) consists of a Lower Continental Unit of variably deformed and recrystallized granitoids, metasediments and sparse metabasites, overridden by an upper unit with rocks of oceanic affinities. Metamorphic minerals dated by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method record a coherent temporal history of progressive deformation during Variscan metamorphism and exhumation. The earliest stages of deformation (D1) under high-pressure conditions are recorded in phengitic white micas from eclogite-facies rocks at 365–370 Ma. Following this eclogite-facies peak-metamorphism, the continental slab became attached to the overriding plate at deep-crustal levels at ca. 340–350 Ma (D2). Exhumation was accompanied by pervasive deformation (D3) within the continental slab at ca. 330 Ma and major deformation (D4) in the underlying para-autochthon at 315–325 Ma. Final tectonothermal evolution included late folding, localized shearing and granitic intrusions at 280–310 Ma.

Dating of high-pressure rocks by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method yields ages that are synchronous with published Rb–Sr and Sm–Nd ages obtained for both the Malpica–Tui complex and its correlative, the Champtoceaux complex in the French Armorican Massif. The results indicate that phengitic white mica retains its radiogenic argon despite been subjected to relatively high temperatures (500–600 °C) for a period of 20–30 My corresponding to the time-span from the static, eclogite-facies M1 peak-metamorphism through D1-M2 eclogite-facies deformation to amphibolite-facies D2-M3. Our study provides additional evidence that under certain geological conditions (i.e., strain partitioning, fluid deficiency) argon isotope mobility is limited at high temperatures, and that ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology can be a reliable method for dating high pressure metamorphism.     

Rapid cooling and exhumation of eclogitic rocks from the Great Caucasus, Russia

Diffusion modelling of growth-zoned garnet is used in combination with standard geothermometric and geobarometric techniques to estimate cooling and denudation rates from the mafic eclogites of the Red Cliff area, Great Caucasus, Russia. Euhedral garnet porphyroblasts exhibit different degrees of prograde growth zoning depending on the size of the grain (100 μm to several mm in diameter). Zoning patterns are mainly expressed in terms of Fe–Mg exchange, with 100*Mg/(Mg+Fe) increasing from 18–20 to 33–37 from core to rim. Geothermobarometry yields conditions of 680±40 °C and a minimum of 1.6±0.2 GPa and of 660±40 °C and 0.8±0.2 GPa for the high-pressure and retrograde stages of equilibration, respectively. A temperature of 600±40 °C has been recorded for the late-stage metamorphic overprint in the mica schists surrounding the eclogites. Relaxation of garnet zoning profiles was modelled for three different hypothetical P–T –t trajectories, all with an initial temperature of 680 °C and a pressure change of 0.8 GPa. The first two trajectories involve decompression associated with regular cooling down to 660 °C (near isothermal) and 600 °C. The third path is a two-step trajectory comprising near-isobaric cooling down to 600 °C followed by isothermal decompression to 0.8 GPa. These P–T trajectories cover as wide a range of pressure and temperature changes endured by the rocks as possible, thus representing extreme cases for calculating cooling and exhumation rates. Calculations indicate that the zoning pattern of the smallest garnet (i.e. garnet for which the zoning is most easily eliminated during post-growth processes) along the different paths can be preserved for the following average exhumation and cooling rates: path 1, 143 mm a^?1 and 102 °C Ma^?1; path 2, 60 mm a^?1 and 171 °C Ma^?1; path 3, 11–30 mm a^?1 and 200–400 °C Ma^?1. These results are discussed in light of theoretical P–T–t paths extracted from thermal models of regions of thickened crust, and from analogue models of accretionary wedge and continental lithosphere subduction.     

Timing and exhumation of eclogite facies shear zones, Musgrave Block, central Australia

Timing constraints on shear zones can provide an insight into the kinematic and exhumation evolution of metamorphic belts. In the Musgrave Block, central Australia, granulite facies gneisses have been affected, to varying degrees, by mylonitic deformation, some of which attained eclogite facies. The Davenport Shear Zone is a dominant strike-slip system that formed at eclogite facies conditions ( T  ≈650  °C and P ≈12.0  kbar). Sm–Nd mineral isochrons obtained from equilibrated high-pressure assemblages, as well as ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar data, show that the eclogite and greenschist facies high-strain overprints were coeval, at c .  550  Ma. Mylonitic processes do not appear to have reset the U–Pb system in zircon, but may have partially disturbed it. The thermal gradient in the Musgrave Block crust at c .  550  Ma was c .  16  °C  km⁻¹ and at c .  535  Ma was c .  18  °C  km⁻¹, based on P – T  estimates of eclogite and greenschist facies shear zones, respectively. These estimates are similar to present-day geothermal gradients in many stable continental shield areas, suggesting that the region did not undergo a significant transient perturbation of the geotherm. Therefore, in the Musgrave Block, cooling subsequent to eclogite facies metamorphism appears to have been controlled by exhumation, rather than by the removal of a heat source. Estimated exhumation rates in the range 0.2 to ≥1.5  mm year⁻¹ are comparable with other orogenic belts, rather than cratonic areas elsewhere.     

Heat influx and exhumation of the Shimanto accretionary complex: Miocene fission track ages from the Kii Peninsula, southwest Japan

Abstract   To determine how local geological events contributed to the evolution of accretionary complexes and eventual exposure of rocks with different structural levels, geochronological mapping was carried out using fission track (FT) analysis at the Kii Peninsula, southwest Japan. At this site, the original zonal structure of Cretaceous accretionary complexes parallel to the subduction zone is disturbed by the northward projection of the Shimanto accretionary complex. Twenty-six zircon FT ages were obtained from an area of ∼12 km in an east–west direction and ∼15 km in a north–south direction, and classified into three groups: (i) ages ∼15 Ma (range ∼10–20 Ma), which are distributed along the northwest–southeast valley; (ii) ages of ∼50 Ma in the northwest of the study area; and (iii) ages older than those in Groups 1 and 2. Based on results from eight zircon FT length distributions, the Miocene ages appear to be the result of spatial variations in heat influx and cooling after the regional exhumation of the area, as recorded by FT ages of ∼50 Ma.     

The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: wetland mitigation banking and problems in environmental governance

Wetland mitigation banking is an American neoliberal environmental policy that has created a functioning market in `ecosystem services', commodities defined using the holistic measures of ecological science. The development of this market is discussed as a project of environmental governance, defined as the nation-state's regulation of ecological relations within its territory towards stabilizing capitalist relations of power and accumulation. I argue that the wetland banking industry serves as a bellwether that presages problems that other strategies of neoliberal environmental governance will experience. Ethnographic, economic and ecological data from the Chicago-area wetland banking industry inform a discussion of two major obstacles to neoliberal strategy: the problem of relying on ecological science to define the unit of trade, and the problem of aligning the somewhat independent relations of law, politics, markets and ecosystems across an array of spatial scales. Theoretical guidance is sought from recent work on `social natures' and from the Regulationist approach to institutional political economics.