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1.
We use two suites of lithospheric-scale physical experiments to investigate the manner in which deformation of the continental lithosphere is affected by both (1) variations of lithospheric density (quantified by the net buoyant mass per area in the lithospheric mantle layer, MB), and (2) the degree of coupling between the crust and lithospheric mantle (characterized by a modified Ampferer ratio, Am). The dynamics of the experiments can be characterized with a Rayleigh–Taylor type ratio, CLM. Models with a positively buoyant lithospheric mantle layer (MB > 0 and CLM > 0) result in distributed root formation and a wide deformation belt. In contrast, models with a negatively buoyant lithospheric mantle layer strongly coupled to the crust (MB < 0, 0 > CLM > ≈ − 0.2, and Am > ≈ 10− 3) exhibit localized roots and narrow deformation belts. Syncollisional delamination of the model lithospheric mantle layer and a wide deformation belt is exhibited in models with negatively buoyant lithospheric mantle layers weakly coupled to the crust (MB < 0, CLM < 0, and Am < ≈ 10− 3). Syncollisional delamination of the continental lithosphere may initiate due to buoyancy contrasts within the continental plate, instead of resulting from wedging by the opposing plate. Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities dominate the style of deformation in models with a negatively buoyant lithospheric mantle layer strongly coupled to the crust and a slow convergence rate (MB < 0 and CLM > ≈ − 0.2). The degree of coupling (Am) between the model crust and lithospheric mantle plays a lesser role in both the style of lower-lithospheric deformation and the width of the crustal deformed zone with increasing density of the lithospheric mantle layer.  相似文献   

2.
The relative importance of the contribution of the lower crust and of the lithospheric mantle to the total strength of the continental lithosphere is assessed systematically for realistic ranges of layer thickness, composition, and temperature. Results are presented as relative strength maps, giving the ratio of the lower crust to upper mantle contribution in terms of crustal thickness and surface heat flow. The lithosphere shows a “jelly sandwich” rheological layering for low surface heat flow, thin to average crustal thickness, and felsic or wet mafic lower crustal compositions. On the other hand, most of the total strength resides in the seismogenic crust in regions of high surface heat flow, crust of any thickness, and dry mafic lower crustal composition.  相似文献   

3.
A 3-D density model for the Cretan and Libyan Seas and Crete was developed by gravity modelling constrained by five 2-D seismic lines. Velocity values of these cross-sections were used to obtain the initial densities using the Nafe–Drake and Birch empirical functions for the sediments, the crust and the upper mantle. The crust outside the Cretan Arc is 18 to 24 km thick, including 10 to 14 km thick sediments. The crust below central Crete at its thickest section, has values between 32 and 34 km, consisting of continental crust of the Aegean microplate, which is thickened by the subducted oceanic plate below the Cretan Arc. The oceanic lithosphere is decoupled from the continental along a NW–SE striking front between eastern Crete and the Island of Kythera south of Peloponnese. It plunges steeply below the southern Aegean Sea and is probably associated with the present volcanic activity of the southern Aegean Sea in agreement with published seismological observations of intermediate seismicity. Low density and velocity upper mantle below the Cretan Sea with ρ  3.25 × 103 kg/m3 and Vp velocity of compressional waves around 7.7 km/s, which are also in agreement with observed high heat flow density values, point out at the mobilization of the upper mantle material here. Outside the Hellenic Arc the upper mantle density and velocity are ρ ≥ 3.32 × 103 kg/m3 and Vp = 8.0 km/s, respectively. The crust below the Cretan Sea is thin continental of 15 to 20 km thickness, including 3 to 4 km of sediments. Thick accumulations of sediments, located to the SSW and SSE of Crete, are separated by a block of continental crust extended for more than 100 km south of Central Crete. These deep sedimentary basins are located on the oceanic crust backstopped by the continental crust of the Aegean microplate. The stretched continental margin of Africa, north of Cyrenaica, and the abruptly terminated continental Aegean microplate south of Crete are separated by oceanic lithosphere of only 60 to 80 km width at their closest proximity. To the east and west, the areas are floored by oceanic lithosphere, which rapidly widens towards the Herodotus Abyssal plain and the deep Ionian Basin of the central Mediterranean Sea. Crustal shortening between the continental margins of the Aegean microplate and Cyrenaica of North Africa influence the deformation of the sediments of the Mediterranean Ridge that has been divided in an internal and external zone. The continental margin of Cyrenaica extends for more than 80 km to the north of the African coast in form of a huge ramp, while that of the Aegean microplate is abruptly truncated by very steep fractures towards the Mediterranean Ridge. Changes in the deformation style of the sediments express differences of the tectonic processes that control them. That is, subduction to the northeast and crustal subsidence to the south of Crete. Strike-slip movement between Crete and Libya is required by seismological observations.  相似文献   

4.
In the fifteen years since the importance of collisional plateaus with thickened continental crust began to be recognized as one of the inevitable consequences of the processes of plate tectonics, rapid progress in their understanding has come from studies of the world's only active terminal collision zones in the Himalayan-Tibetan and Turkish-Iranian plateaus.Ancient collisional plateaus are being recognized throughout the geological record (back to 3.8 Ga) from the occurrence of extensive areas (typically > 500,000 km2) of 8 kbar metamorphism in granulite facies or from the occurrence of extensive areas of higher level minimum-melt composition granite rocks whose isotopic signatures indicate reactivation of existing continental crust rather than addition of new crust from the mantle at the time of collision. Recognition of strike-slip faulting in the ancient collisional plateau areas indicates that “tectonic escape” may have been as important in the past as it is today.Earth may not be the only planet on which collisional plateaus are important. The highlands of Venus (approximately 7% of the surface with elevations over 1.5 km above mean planetary radius) can only exist as a result of crustal thickening, and not as a product of lithospheric thinning. Most of these highlands can be explained by models involving volcanic construction. However, the highest peaks, including Maxwell Montes, the highest mapped area of Venus rising over 10 km above mean planetary radius, require much greater crustal thickening to support them than can reasonably be explained by a volcanic mechanism. Geological features of Maxwell Montes inferred from radar images suggest some analogy between Maxwell Montes and the Tibetan plateau.It is somewhat paradoxical that extensional tectonics are commonly associated with continental collision, and that collision-related rifts may be the only sites where the uppermost layers of a collision-thickened crust are preserved from erosion. Extensional stress fields are generated during continental collision, primarily in areas associated with strike-slip faulting and “tectonic escape”. Additional extensional stresses are gravitationally generated associated with the topography and thickened crust in a collision zone. Tectonically thickened crust is particularly susceptible to rifting as its lithosphere is weak as a result of heating associated with magmatism. This lithosphere is also compositionally weak because of the relatively thick crust, dominated by a weak quartz rheology, and thin mantle lithosphere, dominated by a strong olivine rheology, in comparison with a lithosphere with a more normal crustal thickness. Thus, the common association of rifts and collision zones may be a consequence of both stresses generated during collision and modification of the lithosphere by collision.  相似文献   

5.
The Illinois basin is one of several well-studied intracratonic sedimentary basins within the North American craton whose formational mechanisms and subcrustal structure are not well understood. We study the S-velocity structure of the upper mantle beneath the Illinois basin and its surrounding area through seismic tomography. We utilize continental scale waveform data of seismic S and surface waves, enhanced by regional earthquakes located near the Illinois basin. Our 3D tomographic model, IL05, confirms the existence of a slow S-velocity structure in the uppermost mantle beneath the Illinois basin region. This anomalously slow region exists from the base of the crust to depths of  90 km, and is slower than the North American cratonic average by about 200 m/s. This anomalous uppermost mantle beneath the Illinois basin is underlain by a faster lithosphere, typical of the surrounding craton, to depths of  200 km. Excluding the formation of the Reelfoot Rift, this area of North American has been stable for over 1.0 Gy. Thus, we do not expect thermal anomalies from before that time to persist into present day S-velocity anomalies and we consider a delamination origin as an explanation of Illinois basin subsidence unlikely. We cannot rule out that the slow mid-lithosphere beneath the Illinois basin is caused by an uppermost mantle enriched by a deep, but weak plume. We attribute the slow mid-lithosphere to the presence of either oceanic, hydrous crust, or, a relatively cool mantle wedge with preserved hydrous minerals in the Illinois basin's uppermost mantle, related to a fossilized flat subduction zone.  相似文献   

6.
Thermal and petrologic models of the crust and upper mantle are used for calculating effective viscosities on the basis of constant creep rates. Viscosity—depth models together with pressure—depth models are calculated for continental and oceanic blocks facing each other at continental margins. It is found from these “static models” that the overburden pressure in the lower crust and uppermost mantle causes a stress which is directed from the ocean to the continent. The generally low viscosity of 1020–1023 poise in this region should permit a creep process which could finally lead to a “silent” subduction. In the upper crust static stresses act in the opposite direction, i.e. from the continent to the ocean, favouring tension which could produce normal faulting in the continent. Differences between observations and the results obtained from the static models are attributed to dynamical forces.  相似文献   

7.
It is now admitted that the high strength of the subcontinental uppermost mantle controls the first order strength of the lithosphere. An incipient narrow continental rift therefore requires an important weakening in the subcontinental mantle to promote lithosphere-scale strain localisation and subsequent continental break-up. Based on the classical rheological layering of the continental lithosphere, the origin of a lithospheric mantle shear/fault zone has been attributed to the existence of a brittle uppermost mantle. However, the lack of mantle earthquakes and the absence of field occurrences in the mantle fault zone led to the idea of a ductile-related weakening mechanism, instead of brittle-related, for the incipient mantle strain localisation. In order to provide evidence for this mechanism, we investigated the microstructures and lattice preferred orientations of mantle rocks in a kilometre-scale ductile strain gradient in the Ronda Peridotites (Betics cordillera, Spain). Two main features were shown: 1) grain size reduction by dynamic recrystallisation is found to be the only relevant weakening mechanism responsible for strain localisation and 2), with increasing strain, grain size reduction is coeval with both the scattering of orthopyroxene neoblasts and the decrease of the olivine fabric strength (LPO). These features allow us to propose that grain boundary sliding (GBS) partly accommodates dynamic recrystallisation and subsequent grain size reduction.A new GBS-related experimental deformation mechanism, called dry-GBS creep, has been shown to accommodate grain size reduction during dynamic recrystallisation and to induce significant weakening at low temperatures (T < 800 °C). The present microstructural study demonstrates the occurrence of the grain size sensitive dry-GBS creep in natural continental peridotites and allows us to propose a new rheological model for the subcontinental mantle. During dynamic recrystallisation, the accommodation of grain size reduction by three competing deformation mechanisms, i.e., dislocation, diffusion and dry-GBS creeps, involves a grain size reduction controlled by the sole dislocation creep at high temperatures (> 800 °C), whereas dislocation creep and dry-GBS creep, are the accommodating mechanisms at low temperatures (< 800 °C). Consequently, weakening is very limited if the grain size reduction occurs at temperatures higher than 800 °C, whereas a large weakening is expected in lower temperatures. This large weakening related to GBS creep would occur at depths lower than 60 km and therefore provides an explanation for ductile strain localisation in the uppermost continental mantle, thus providing an alternative to the brittle mantle.  相似文献   

8.
D. Arcay  M.-P. Doin  E. Tric  R. Bousquet   《Tectonophysics》2007,441(1-4):27-45
At continental subduction initiation, the continental crust buoyancy may induce, first, a convergence slowdown, and second, a compressive stress increase that could lead to the forearc lithosphere rupture. Both processes could influence the slab surface P–T conditions, favoring on one side crust partial melting or on the opposite the formation of ultra-high pressure/low temperature (UHP-LT) mineral. We quantify these two effects by performing numerical simulations of subduction. Water transfers are computed as a function of slab dehydration/overlying mantle hydration reactions, and a strength decrease is imposed for hydrated mantle rocks. The model starts with an old oceanic plate ( 100 Ma) subducting for 145.5 Myr with a 5 cm/yr convergence rate. The arc lithosphere is thermally thinned between 100 km and 310 km away from the trench, due to small-scale convection occuring in the water-saturated mantle wedge. We test the influence of convergence slowdown by carrying on subduction with a decreased convergence rate (≤ 2 cm/yr). Surprisingly, the subduction slowdown yields not only a strong slab warming at great depth (> 80 km), but also a significant cooling of the forearc lithosphere at shallower depth. The convergence slowdown increases the subducted crust temperature at 90 km depth to 705 ± 62 °C, depending on the convergence rate reduction, and might thus favor the oceanic crust partial melting in presence of water. For subduction velocities ≤ 1 cm/yr, slab breakoff is triggered 20–32 Myr after slowdown onset, due to a drastic slab thermal weakening in the vicinity of the interplate plane base. At last, the rupture of the weakened forearc is simulated by imposing in the thinnest part of the overlying lithosphere a dipping weakness plane. For convergence with rates ≥ 1 cm/yr, the thinned forearc first shortens, then starts subducting along the slab surface. The forearc lithosphere subduction stops the slab surface warming by hot asthenosphere corner flow, and decreases in a first stage the slab surface temperature to 630 ± 20 °C at 80 km depth, in agreement with P–T range inferred from natural records of UHP-LT metamorphism. The subducted crust temperature is further reduced to 405 ± 10 °C for the crust directly buried below the subducting forearc. Such a cold thermal state at great depth has never been sampled in collision zones, suggesting that forearc subduction might not be always required to explain UHP-LT metamorphsim.  相似文献   

9.
Emphasized in this paper are the deformation processes and rheologies of rocks at high temperatures and high effective pressures, conditions that are presumably appropriate to the lower crust and upper mantle in continental collision zones. Much recent progress has been made in understanding the flexure of the oceanic lithosphere using rock-mechanics-based yield criteria for the inelastic deformations at the top and base. At mid-plate depths, stresses are likely to be supported elastically because bending strains and elastic stresses are low. The collisional tectonic regime, however, is far more complex because very large permanent strains are sustained at mid-plate depths and this requires us to include the broad transition between brittle and ductile flow. Moreover, important changes in the ductile flow mechanisms occur at the intermediate temperatures found at mid-plate depths.Two specific contributions of laboratory rock rheology research are considered in this paper. First, the high-temperature steady-state flow mechanisms and rheology of mafic and ultramafic rocks are reviewed with special emphasis on olivine and crystalline rocks. Rock strength decreases very markedly with increases in temperature and it is the onset of flow by high temperature ductile mechanisms that defines the base of the lithosphere. The thickness of the continental lithosphere can therefore be defined by the depth to a particular isotherm Tc above which (at geologic strain rates) the high-temperature ductile strength falls below some arbitrary strength isobar (e.g., 100 MPa). For olivine Tc is about 700°–800°C but for other crustal silicates, Tc may be as low as 400°–600°C, suggesting that substantial decoupling may take place within thick continental crust and that strength may increase with depth at the Moho, as suggested by a number of workers on independent grounds. Put another way, the Moho is a rheological discontinuity. A second class of laboratory observations pertains to the general phenomenon of ductile faulting in which ductile strains are localized into shear zones. Ductile faults have been produced in experiments of five different rock types and is generally expressed as strain softening in constant-strain-rate tests or as an accelerating-creep-rate stage at constant differential stress. A number of physical mechanisms have been identified that may be responsible for ductile faulting, including the onset of dynamic recrystallization, phase changes, hydrothermal alteration and hydrolytic weakening. Microscopic evidence for these processes as well as larger-scale geological and geophysical observations suggest that ductile faulting in the middle to lower crust and upper mantle may greatly influence the distribution and magnitudes of differential stresses and the style of deformation in the overlying upper continental lithosphere.  相似文献   

10.
This paper reports a new 1° × 1° global thermal model for the continental lithosphere (TC1). Geotherms for continental terranes of different ages (> 3.6 Ga to present) constrained by reliable data on borehole heat flow measurements (Artemieva, I.M., Mooney, W.D. 2001. Thermal structure and evolution of Precambrian lithosphere: a global study. J. Geophys. Res 106, 16387–16414.), are statistically analyzed as a function of age and are used to estimate lithospheric temperatures in continental regions with no or low-quality heat flow data (ca. 60% of the continents). These data are supplemented by cratonic geotherms based on electromagnetic and xenolith data; the latter indicate the existence of Archean cratons with two characteristic thicknesses, ca. 200 and > 250 km. A map of tectono-thermal ages of lithospheric terranes complied for the continents on a 1° × 1° grid and combined with the statistical age relationship of continental geotherms (z = 0.04  t + 93.6, where z is lithospheric thermal thickness in km and t is age in Ma) formed the basis for a new global thermal model of the continental lithosphere (TC1). The TC1 model is presented by a set of maps, which show significant thermal heterogeneity within continental upper mantle, with the strongest lateral temperature variations (as large as 800 °C) in the shallow mantle. A map of the depth to a 550 °C isotherm (Curie isotherm for magnetite) in continental upper mantle is presented as a proxy to the thickness of the magnetic crust; the same map provides a rough estimate of elastic thickness of old (> 200 Ma) continental lithosphere, in which flexural rigidity is dominated by olivine rheology of the mantle.Statistical analysis of continental geotherms reveals that thick (> 250 km) lithosphere is restricted solely to young Archean terranes (3.0–2.6 Ga), while in old Archean cratons (3.6–3.0 Ga) lithospheric roots do not extend deeper than 200–220 km. It is proposed that the former were formed by tectonic stacking and underplating during paleocollision of continental nuclei; it is likely that such exceptionally thick lithospheric roots have a limited lateral extent and are restricted to paleoterrane boundaries. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of the growth rate of the lithosphere since the Archean, which does not reveal a peak in lithospheric volume at 2.7–2.6 Ga as expected from growth curves for juvenile crust.A pronounced peak in the rate of lithospheric growth (10–18 km3/year) at 2.1–1.7 Ga (as compared to 5–8 km3/year in the Archean) well correlates with a peak in the growth of juvenile crust and with a consequent global extraction of massif-type anorthosites. It is proposed that large-scale variations in lithospheric thickness at cratonic margins and at paleoterrane boundaries controlled anorogenic magmatism. In particular, mid-Proterozoic anorogenic magmatism at the cratonic margins was caused by edge-driven convection triggered by a fast growth of the lithospheric mantle at 2.1–1.7 Ga. Belts of anorogenic magmatism within cratonic interiors can be caused by a deflection of mantle heat by a locally thickened lithosphere at paleosutures and, thus, can be surface manifestations of exceptionally thick lithospheric roots. The present volume of continental lithosphere as estimated from the new global map of lithospheric thermal thickness is 27.8 (± 7.0) × 109 km3 (excluding submerged terranes with continental crust); preserved continental crust comprises ca. 7.7 × 109 km3. About 50% of the present continental lithosphere existed by 1.8 Ga.  相似文献   

11.
The Saharan Metacraton   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  
This article introduces the name “Saharan Metacraton” to refer to the pre-Neoproterozoic––but sometimes highly remobilized during Neoproterozoic time––continental crust which occupies the north-central part of Africa and extends in the Saharan Desert in Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Chad and Niger and the Savannah belt in Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic and Cameroon. This poorly known tract of continental crust occupies 5,000,000 km2 and extends from the Arabian-Nubian Shield in the east to the Tuareg Shield to the west and from the Congo craton in the south to the Phanerozoic cover of the northern margin of the African continent in southern Egypt and Libya. The term “metacraton” refers to a craton that has been remobilized during an orogenic event but is still recognizable dominantly through its rheological, geochronological and isotopic characteristics. Neoproterozoic remobilization of the Saharan Metacraton was in the forms of deformation, metamorphism, emplacement of igneous bodies, and probably local episodes of crust formation related to rifting and oceanic basin development. Relics of unaffected or only weakly remobilized old lithosphere are present as exemplified by the Archean to Paleoproterozoic charnockites and anorthosites of the Uweinat massif at the Sudanese/Egyptian/Libyan boarder. The article explains why the name “Saharan Metacraton” should be used, defines the boundaries of the metacraton, reviews geochronological and isotopic data as evidence for the presence of pre-Neoproterozoic continental crust, and discusses what happened to the Saharan Metacraton during the Neoproterozoic. A model combining collisional processes, lithospheric delamination, regional extension, and post-collisional dismembering by horizontal shearing is proposed.  相似文献   

12.
New field, petrological, geochemical, and geochronological data (U–Pb and Sm–Nd) for Ordovician rock units in the southeastern Puna, NW Argentina, indicate two lithostratigraphic units at the eastern–northeastern border of salar Centenario: (1) a bimodal volcanosedimentary sequence affected by low- to medium-grade metamorphism, comprising metasediments associated with basic and felsic metavolcanic rocks, dated 485 ± 5 Ma, and (2) a plutonic unit composed of syenogranites to quartz-rich leucogranites with U–Pb zircon ages between 462 ± 7 and 475 ± 5 Ma. Felsic metavolcanic and plutonic rocks are peraluminous and show similar geochemical differentiation trends. They also have similar Sm–Nd isotopic compositions (TDM model ages of 1.54–1.78 Ga; εNd(T) values ranging from −3.2 to −7.5) that suggest a common origin and derivation of the original magmas from older (Meso-Paleoproterozoic?) continental crust. Mafic rocks show εNd(T) ranging from +2.3 to +2.5, indicating a depleted mantle source. The data presented here, combined with those in the literature, suggest Ordovician magmatism mainly recycles preexisting crust with minor additions of juvenile mantle-derived material.  相似文献   

13.
杨文采 《地质论评》2014,60(5):945-961
本篇讨论大陆岩石圈拆沉、伸展与裂解作用过程。由于大陆岩石圈厚度大而且很不均匀,产生裂谷的机制比较复杂。大陆碰撞远程效应的触发,岩石圈拆沉,以及板块运动的不规则性和地球应力场方向转折,都可能产生岩石圈断裂和大陆裂谷。岩石圈拆沉为在重力作用下"去陆根"的作用过程,演化过程可分为大陆根拆离、地壳伸展和岩石圈地幔整体破裂三个阶段。大陆碰撞带、俯冲的大陆和大洋板块、克拉通区域岩石圈,都可能产生岩石圈拆沉。大陆岩石圈调查表明,拉张区可见地壳伸展、岩石圈拆离、软流圈上拱和热沉降;它们是大陆岩石圈伸展与裂解早期的主要表现。从初始拉张的盆岭省到成熟的张裂省,拆离后地壳伸展成复式地堑,下地壳幔源玄武岩浆侵位,断裂带贯通并切穿整个岩石圈,表明地壳伸展进入成熟阶段。中国东北松辽盆地和西欧北海盆地曾处于成熟的张裂省。岩石圈破裂为岩浆侵位提供了阻力很小的通道网。岩浆侵位作用伴随岩石圈破裂和热流体上涌,成熟的张裂省可发展成大陆裂谷。多数的大陆裂谷带并没有发展成威尔逊裂谷带和洋中脊,普通的大陆裂谷要演化为威尔逊裂谷带,必须有来自软流圈的长期和持续的热流和玄武质岩浆的供应。威尔逊裂谷带岩石圈地幔和软流圈为地震低速带,其根源可能与来自地幔底部的地幔热羽流有关。  相似文献   

14.
Phase velocities of teleseismic Rayleigh waves have been measured in the central North Atlantic on both sides of the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge (AGR) by means of a specially designed long-period station network. The dispersion data obtained were regionalized and then subjected to a “hedgehog” inversion, which gives a set of upper mantle models compatible with the observational data within specified error bounds.Reasonable model solutions were selected by using regional body-wave observations, such as Pn- and Sn-wave velocities determined from earthquakes along the AGR. The S(itn) velocities measured indicate that the shear-wave velocity in the mantle part of the lithosphere is much higher on the northern side of the AGR. Strongly negative P-wave residuals in this area indicate faster seismic propagation than implied by the Jeffreys-Bullen travel-time tables, while propagation is much slower in the Gulf of Cadiz area. Furthermore the residuals show a clear difference for paths through oceanic and continental domains and suggest that the transition between these two domains extends much further into the ocean on the southern side of the AGR than on the northern side.The proposed model for the structure of the upper mantle in that region shows that there exists a pronounced velocity contrast across the AGR. Thickening of the lithospheric plate with increasing plate age is indicated to the south of the ridge. The greatest thickness is reached close to the continental margin within a zone about 500 km wide, whose velocity close to the Canary Islands and Madeira is significantly lower, probably due to the well-known volcanic activity there. These observations together with the travel time residuals reveal that this zone seems to be of a transitional nature somewhere between a continental and oceanic structure.  相似文献   

15.
B. Schurr  A. Rietbrock  G. Asch  R. Kind  O. Oncken   《Tectonophysics》2006,415(1-4):203-223
Data from three temporary seismic networks were merged for tomographic inversion. Although the deployments did not coincide in time, spatial overlap was achieved by re-occupying existing sites. Travel times and t operators of about 1600 earthquakes were inverted for 3D models of νp, νp/νs and P-wave attenuation (Qp− 1). All three attributes provide a consistent image of the entire subduction zone on a lithospheric scale. The tomographic images reveal low velocities and high attenuation in the crust and mantle underlying the Western Cordillera and most of the Puna plateau, indicative of weak rheology and mostly asthenospheric mantle. In contrast, forearc and eastern foreland are characterized by high Qp values, corresponding to cold temperatures in accordance with thermal models. In the backarc, between 23°S and 24°S, a high velocity, high Qp structure beneath the Eastern Cordillera and eastern Puna is interpreted as detaching continental lithosphere that has been thickened in the orogenic process. South of this structure, the mantle is characterized by low velocities, high νp/νs ratios, and low Qp values. Here it is believed that lithosphere originally underlying Andean crust has already been removed. This is supported by new estimates of crustal thickness and volcanic activity.  相似文献   

16.
A complete understanding of the processes of crustal growth and recycling in the earth remains elusive, in part because data on rock composition at depth is scarce. Seismic velocities can provide additional information about lithospheric composition and structure, however, the relationship between velocity and rock type is not unique. The diverse xenolith suite from the Potrillo volcanic field in the southern Rio Grande rift, together with velocity models derived from reflection and refraction data in the area, offers an opportunity to place constraints on the composition of the crust and upper mantle from the surface to depths of  60 km. In this work, we calculate seismic velocities of crustal and mantle xenoliths using modal mineralogy, mineral compositions, pressure and temperature estimates, and elasticity data. The pressure, temperature, and velocity estimates from xenoliths are then combined with sonic logs and stratigraphy estimated from drill cores and surface geology to produce a geologic and velocity profile through the crust and upper mantle. Lower crustal xenoliths include garnet ± sillimanite granulite, two-pyroxene granulite, charnokite, and anorthosite. Metagabbro and amphibolite account for only a small fraction of the lower crustal xenoliths, suggesting that a basaltic underplate at the crust–mantle boundary is not present beneath the southern Rio Grande rift. Abundant mid-crustal felsic to mafic igneous xenoliths, however, suggest that plutonic rocks are common in the middle crust and were intraplated rather than underplated during the Cenozoic. Calculated velocities for garnet granulite are between  6.9 and 8.0 km/s, depending on garnet content. Granulites are strongly foliated and lineated and should be seismically anisotropic. These results suggest that velocities > 7.0 km/s and a layered structure, which are often attributed to underplated mafic rocks, can also be characteristic of alternating garnet-rich and garnet-poor metasedimentary rocks. Because the lower crust appears to be composed largely of metasedimentary granulite, which requires deep burial of upper crustal materials, we suggest the initial construction of the continental crust beneath the Potrillo volcanic field occurred by thickening of supracrustal material in the absence of large scale magmatic accretion. Mantle xenoliths include spinel lherzolite and harzburgite, dunite, and clinopyroxenite. Calculated P-wave velocities for peridotites range from 7.75 km/s to 7.89 km/s, with an average of 7.82 km/s. This velocity is in good agreement with refraction and reflection studies that report Pn velocities of 7.6–7.8 km/s throughout most of the Rio Grande rift. These calculations suggest that the low Pn velocities compared to average uppermost mantle are the result of relatively high temperatures and low pressures due to thin crust, as well as a fertile, Fe-rich, bulk upper mantle composition. Partial melt or metasomatic hydration of the mantle lithosphere are not needed to produce the observed Pn velocities.  相似文献   

17.
The growth curve of the continental crust shows that large amounts of continental crust formed in the early part of the Earth history are missing. In order to test a hypothesis that the former crust was subducted to the deep mantle, we performed phase assemblage analysis in the systems of mid-oceanic ridge basalt (MORB), anorthosite, and tonalite–trondhjemite–granite (TTG) down to the core–mantle boundary (CMB) conditions. Results show that all these materials can be subducted to the CMB leading to the development of a compositional layering in the D″ layer. We speculate that there could be five layers of FeO-enriched melt from partial melting of MORB, MORB crust, anorthosite, TTG, and slab or mantle peridotite in ascending order. Although the polymorphic transformation of perovskite to post-perovskite in (Mg,Fe)SiO3 may explain the seismic discontinuity at the top of the D″ layer (D″ discontinuity), the effects of solid solution on the sharpness of the transformation suggest that the compositional layering is more plausible for the origin of the D″ discontinuity. The D″ layer can be an “anti-crust” made up mostly of TTG + anorthosite derived from the former continental crust. Tectonic style of the anti-crust at the CMB is similar to that at the surface. At both places, chemically distinct layers are density stratified and are also characterized by the processes of accretion, magmatism, and metasomatism.  相似文献   

18.
Several long-range seismic profiles were carried out in Russia with Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (PNE). The data from 25 PNEs recorded along these profiles were used to compile a 3-D upper mantle velocity model for the central part of the Northern Eurasia. 2-D crust and upper mantle models were also constructed for all profiles using a common methodology for wavefield interpretation. Five basic boundaries were traced over the study area: N1 boundary (velocity level, V = 8.35 km/s; depth interval, D = 60–130 km), N2 (V = 8.4 km/s; D = 100–140 km), L (V = 8.5 km/s; D = 180–240 km) and H (V = 8.6 km/s; D = 300–330 km) and structural maps were compiled for each boundary. Together these boundaries describe a 3-D upper mantle model for northern Eurasia. A map characterised the velocity distribution in the uppermost mantle down to a depth of 60 km is also presented. Mostly horizontal inhomogeneity is observed in the uppermost mantle, and the velocities range from the average 8.0–8.1 km/s to 8.3–8.4 km/s in some blocks of the Siberian Craton. At a depth of 100–200 km, the local high velocity blocks disappear and only three large anomalies are observed: lower velocities in West Siberia and higher velocities in the East-European platform and in the central part of the Siberian Craton. In contrast, the depths to the H boundary are greater beneath the craton and lower beneath in the West Siberian Platform. A correlation between tectonics, geophysical fields and crustal structure is observed. In general, the old and cold cratons have higher velocities in the mantle than the young platforms with higher heat flows.Structural peculiarities of the upper mantle are difficult to describe in form of classical lithosphere–asthenosphere system. The asthenosphere cannot be traced from the seismic data; in contrary the lithosphere is suggested to be rheologically stratified. All the lithospheric boundaries are not simple discontinuities, they are heterogeneous (thin layering) zones which generate multiphase reflections. Many of them may be a result of fluids concentrated at some critical P–T conditions which produce rheologically weak zones. The most visible rheological variations are observed at depths of around 100 and 250 km.  相似文献   

19.
Based on electromagnetic measurements we determined the current stress directions in the uppermost continental crust of Patagonia between the active plate margin of the Chilean Pacific coast and the Argentinean passive Atlantic margin. Regional variations of the observed stress pattern are giving details onto the acting tectonic processes. We distinguish five regional stress domains with different prevailing horizontal stress directions (SH): 1. Southern Coastal Cordillera and Longitudinal Valley (SH = SSW–NNE), 2. Chiloé Island (SH = SW–NE), 3. Northern Patagonian Andes (SH = WSW–ENE), 4. Argentinean Pampa and Atlantic margin (SH = WNW–ESE) and 5. Southern Patagonian Andes (SH = WNW–ESE). These stress regimes can be related to the geometry of the subducting Nazca- and Antarctic plates, to the transform fault between the South America and Scotia plates and to passive margin processes along the Atlantic coast. Absolute plate motion and rapid relative plate convergence control the subduction geometry and therefore the stress directions along the convergent margin of the South America Plate and the structural style within and landward of the Magmatic Arc. The knowledge of current local stress directions permits the characterisation of potential fault kinematics. By in situ measuring of electromagnetic emissions from rocks we determined the maximum horizontal stress orientation in the uppermost crust using a new geophysical tool. Our investigations on the orientation of the stress regimes also allow conclusions about the causative forces of either tectonic or gravitational origin in this part of the South-America Plate.  相似文献   

20.
A combined study of petrology and geochemistry was carried out for granulites from the Tongbai orogen in central China. The results reveal the tectonic evolution from collisional thickening to extensional thinning of the lithosphere at the convergent plate boundary. Petrographic observations, zircon U–Pb dating, and pseudosection calculations indicate that the granulites underwent four metamorphic stages, which are categorized into two cycles. The first cycle occurred at 490–450 Ma and involves high-P (HP) metamorphism (M1) at 785–815°C and 10–14 kbar followed by decompressional heating to 840–880°C and 8–9 kbar for medium-pressure granulite facies metamorphism (M2), defining a clockwise P–T path. The high pressure is indicated by the occurrence of inclusions of rutile+kyanite+K-feldspar in the garnet mantle. The second cycle occurred at c. 440 Ma and shows an anticlockwise P–T path with continuous heating to ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism (M3) at 890–980°C and 9–11 kbar, followed by decompressional cooling to 740–880°C and 7–9 kbar (M4) till 405 Ma. The HP metamorphism is synchronous with the ultrahigh-pressure eclogite facies metamorphism in the Qinling orogen, indicating its relevance to the continental collision in the Cambrian. The UHT metamorphism took place at reduced pressures, indicating thinning of the collision-thickened orogenic lithosphere. Therefore, the Tongbai orogen was initially thickened by the collisional orogeny and then thinned, possibly as a result of foundering of the orogenic root. Such tectonic evolution may be common in collisional orogens where compression during continental collision switched to extension during continental rifting.  相似文献   

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