Revised age of proximal deposits in the Zagros foreland basin and implications for Cenozoic evolution of the High Zagros     

Mohammad D. Fakhari  Gary J. Axen  Brian K. Horton  Jamshid Hassanzadeh  Abdolhossein Amini 《Tectonophysics》2008,451(1-4):170-185

The regionally extensive, coarse-grained Bakhtiyari Formation represents the youngest synorogenic fill in the Zagros foreland basin of Iran. The Bakhtiyari is present throughout the Zagros fold-thrust belt and consists of conglomerate with subordinate sandstone and marl. The formation is up to 3000 m thick and was deposited in foredeep and wedge-top depocenters flanked by fold-thrust structures. Although the Bakhtiyari concordantly overlies Miocene deposits in foreland regions, an angular unconformity above tilted Paleozoic to Miocene rocks is expressed in the hinterland (High Zagros).

The Bakhtiyari Formation has been widely considered to be a regional sheet of Pliocene–Pleistocene conglomerate deposited during and after major late Miocene–Pliocene shortening. It is further believed that rapid fold growth and Bakhtiyari deposition commenced simultaneously across the fold-thrust belt, with limited migration from hinterland (NE) to foreland (SW). Thus, the Bakhtiyari is generally interpreted as an unmistakable time indicator for shortening and surface uplift across the Zagros. However, new structural and stratigraphic data show that the most-proximal Bakhtiyari exposures, in the High Zagros south of Shahr-kord, were deposited during the early Miocene and probably Oligocene. In this locality, a coarse-grained Bakhtiyari succession several hundred meters thick contains gray marl, limestone, and sandstone with diagnostic marine pelecypod, gastropod, coral, and coralline algae fossils. Foraminiferal and palynological species indicate deposition during early Miocene time. However, the lower Miocene marine interval lies in angular unconformity above ~ 150 m of Bakhtiyari conglomerate that, in turn, unconformably caps an Oligocene marine sequence. These relationships attest to syndepositional deformation and suggest that the oldest Bakhtiyari conglomerate could be Oligocene in age.

The new age information constrains the timing of initial foreland-basin development and proximal Bakhtiyari deposition in the Zagros hinterland. These findings reveal that structural evolution of the High Zagros was underway by early Miocene and probably Oligocene time, earlier than commonly envisioned. The age of the Bakhtiyari Formation in the High Zagros contrasts significantly with the Pliocene–Quaternary Bakhtiyari deposits near the modern deformation front, suggesting a long-term (> 20 Myr) advance of deformation toward the foreland.  相似文献   

Detrital zircon provenance of Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic deposits in Iran: Implications for chronostratigraphy and collisional tectonics   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

B.K. Horton  J. Hassanzadeh  D.F. Stockli  G.J. Axen  R.J. Gillis  B. Guest  A. Amini  M.D. Fakhari  S.M. Zamanzadeh  M. Grove 《Tectonophysics》2008,451(1-4):97-122

Ion-microprobe U–Pb analyses of 589 detrital zircon grains from 14 sandstones of the Alborz mountains, Zagros mountains, and central Iranian plateau provide an initial framework for understanding the Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic provenance history of Iran. The results place improved chronological constraints on the age of earliest sediment accumulation during Neoproterozoic–Cambrian time, the timing of the Mesozoic Iran–Eurasia collision and Cenozoic Arabia–Eurasia collision, and the contribution of various sediment sources of Gondwanan and Eurasian affinity during opening and closure of the Paleotethys and Neotethys oceans. The zircon age populations suggest that deposition of the extensive ~ 1 km-thick clastic sequence at the base of the cover succession commenced in latest Neoproterozoic and terminated by Middle Cambrian time. Comparison of the geochronological data with detrital zircon ages for northern Gondwana reveals that sediment principally derived from the East African orogen covered a vast region encompassing northern Africa and the Middle East. Although most previous studies propose a simple passive-margin setting for Paleozoic Iran, detrital zircon age spectra indicate Late Devonian–Early Permian and Cambrian–Ordovician magmatism. These data suggest that Iran was affiliated with Eurasian magmatic arcs or that rift-related magmatic activity during opening of Paleotethys and Neotethys was more pronounced than thought along the northern Gondwanan passive-margin. For a Triassic–Jurassic clastic overlap assemblage (Shemshak Formation) in the Alborz mountains, U–Pb zircon ages provide chronostratigraphic age control requiring collision of Iran with Eurasia by late Carnian–early Norian time (220–210 Ma). Finally, Cenozoic strata yield abundant zircons of Eocene age, consistent with derivation from arc magmatic rocks related to late-stage subduction and/or breakoff of the Neotethys slab. Together with the timing of foreland basin sedimentation in the Zagros, these detrital zircon ages help bracket the onset of the Arabia–Eurasia collision in Iran between middle Eocene and late Oligocene time.  相似文献   

Extensional Late Paleozoic deformation on the western margin of Pangea, Patlanoaya area, Acatlán Complex, southern Mexico     

M.A. Ramos-Arias  J.D. Keppie  A. Ortega-Rivera  J.W.K. Lee 《Tectonophysics》2008,448(1-4):60-76

New mapping in the northern part of the Paleozoic Acatlán Complex (Patlanoaya area) records several ductile shear zones and brittle faults with normal kinematics (previously thought to be thrusts). These movement zones separate a variety of units that pass structurally upwards from: (i) blueschist-eclogitic metamorphic rocks (Piaxtla Suite) and mylonitic megacrystic granites (Columpio del Diablo granite ≡ Ordovician granites elsewhere in the complex); (ii) a gently E-dipping, listric, normal shear zone with top to the east kinematic indicators that formed under upper greenschist to lower amphibolite conditions; (iii) the Middle–Late Ordovician Las Minas quartzite (upper greenschist facies psammites with minor interbedded pelites intruded by mafic dikes and a leucogranite dike from the Columpio del Diablo granite) unconformably overlain by the Otate meta-arenite (lower greenschist facies psammites and pelites): roughly temporal equivalents are the Middle–Late Ordovician Mal Paso and Ojo de Agua units (interbedded metasandstone and slate, and metapelite and mafic minor intrusions, respectively) — some of these units are intruded by the massive, 461 ± 2 Ma, Palo Liso megacrystic granite: decussate, contact metamorphic muscovite yielded a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar plateau age of 440 ± 4 Ma; (iv) a steeply-moderately, E-dipping normal fault; (v) latest Devonian–Middle Permian sedimentary rocks (Patlanoaya Group: here elevated from formation status). The upward decrease in metamorphic grade is paralleled by a decrease in the number of penetrative fabrics, which varies from (i) three in the Piaxtla Suite, through (ii) two in the Las Minas unit (E-trending sheath folds deformed by NE-trending, subhorizontal folds with top to the southeast asymmetry, both associated with a solution cleavage), (iii) one in the Otate, Mal Paso, and Ojo de Agua units (steeply SE-dipping, NE–SW plunging, open-close folds), to (iv) none in the Patlanoaya Group. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar analyses of muscovite from the earliest cleavage in the Las Minas unit yielded a plateau age of 347 ± 3 Ma and show low temperature ages of  260 Ma. Post-dating all of these structures and the Patlanoaya Group are NE-plunging, subvertical folds and kink bands. An E–W, vertical normal fault juxtaposes the low-grade rocks against the Anacahuite amphibolite that is cut by megacrystic granite sheets, both of which were deformed by two penetrative fabrics. Amphibole from this unit has yielded a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar plateau age of 299 ± 6 Ma, which records cooling through  490 °C and is probably related to a Permo-Carboniferous reheating event during exhumation. The extensional deformation is inferred to have started in the latest Devonian ( 360 Ma) during deposition of the basal Patlanoaya Group, lasting through the rapid exhumation of the Piaxtla Suite at  350–340 Ma synchronous with cleavage development in the Las Minas unit, deposition of the Patlanoaya Group with active fault-related exhumation suggested by Mississippian and Early Permian conglomerates ( 340 and 300 Ma, respectively), and continuing at least into the Middle Permian (≡ 260 Ma muscovite ages). The continuity of Mid-Continent Mississippian fauna from the USA to southern Mexico suggests that this extensional deformation occurred on the western margin of Pangea after closure of the Rheic Ocean.  相似文献   

Silica phase transformations in the petroliferous sequences     

Yu. K. Burlin  I. I. Plyusnina 《Moscow University Geology Bulletin》2008,63(3):154-161

The joint evolution of organic matter and silica in petroliferous sequences is considered in the terms of the laws of transformation of dispersion systems. The dispersion systems are transformed under conditions of low-temperature solid-phase processes accompanied by the silica phase transition and dehydration that favors the evolution of organic matter.  相似文献   

Sensitivity analysis of support safety factor for predicting the effects of contributing parameters on roof falls in underground coal mines   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

S.K. Palei  S.K. Das 《International Journal of Coal Geology》2008,75(4):241-247

Roof falls accounted for 18.18% of all fatal accidents in Indian coal mines, contributing about 35.29% of all fatal accidents in below-ground operations in 2005. The support safety factor, always preferred in support planning and design of underground coal mines, may be an important predictor for roof falls. In this paper, geotechnical data were collected from 14 roof fall incident places in an underground coal mine, located in the Eastern India, which has bord and pillar method of workings. The mean value of probabilistic support safety factor for the case study mine was found to be 1.24. However, the probability, of the estimated support safety factor of less than or equal to one, was found to be 0.246. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the effects of the contributing parameters on support safety factor and the likelihood of the roof fall. The multi-variate regression analysis was carried out for the data generated by Monte Carlo method to correlate the contributing factors to support safety factor. It ranked gallery width as the first parameter to control the support safety factor.  相似文献   

Mineralogy and composition of Kuroko deposits from northeastern Honshu and their possible modern analogues from the Izu-Ogasawara (Bonin) Arc south of Japan: Implications for mode of formation     

G.P. Glasby  K. Iizasa  M. Hannington  H. Kubota  K. Notsu 《Ore Geology Reviews》2008,34(4):547-560

The Kuroko deposits of NE Honshu are a key type deposit for the study of volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. However, these deposits have not been studied in detail since the early 1980's and knowledge of their mode of formation is now dated. In this study, we present the analysis of 12 samples of the Kuroko deposits, 12 samples of submarine hydrothermal minerals from the Sunrise deposit and 6 samples from Suiyo Seamount, both of which are located on the Izu-Ogasawara (Bonin) Arc, for 27 elements. For the Kuroko deposit, Cd>Sb>Ag>Pb>Hg>As>Zn>Cu are highly enriched, Au>Te>Bi>Ba>Mo are moderately enriched, In>Tl are somewhat enriched and Fe is not significantly enriched relative to the average continental crust. Within each of these deposits, a similar pattern of element associations is apparent: Zn–Pb with As, Sb, Cd, Ag, Hg, Tl and Au; Fe–Cu–Ba with As, Sb, Ag, Tl, Mo, Te and Au; Si–Ba with Ag and Au; CaSO₄. The enrichment of the chalcophilic elements in these deposits is consistent with hydrothermal leaching of these elements from the host rocks which are dominantly rhyolite–dacite in the case of the Kuroko deposits, rhyolite in the case of the Sunrise deposit and dacite–rhyolite in the case of the Suiyo Seamount deposit. However, this pattern of element enrichment is also similar to that observed in fumarolic gas condensates from andesitic volcanoes. This suggests that there may be a significant magmatic contribution to the composition of the hydrothermal fluids responsible for the formation of the Kuroko deposits, although it is not yet possible to quantify the relative contributions of these two sources of elements.The compositional data show that Sunrise and Suiyo Seamount deposits are much closer compositionally to the Kuroko deposits from NE Honshu than are the submarine hydrothermal deposits from the JADE site in the Okinawa Trough which contain, on average, significantly higher concentrations of Pb, Zn, Sb, As and Ag than each of these deposits. In spite of the greater similarity in tectonic setting of the Hokuroku Basin in which the Kuroko deposits formed to the Okinawa Trough (intracontinental rifted back-arc basin) compared to Myojin Knoll and Suiyo Seamount (active arc volcanoes), it appears that submarine hydrothermal deposits from Myojin Knoll and Suiyo Seamount are closer analogues of the Kuroko deposit than are those from the Okinawa Trough. The present data are consistent with the magmatic hydrothermal model for the formation of Kuroko-type deposits as formulated by Urabe and Marumo [Urabe, T., Marumo, K., 1991. A new model for Kuroko-type deposits of Japan. Episodes 14, 246–251].  相似文献   

Magnetotelluric investigations for imaging electrical structure of Garhwal Himalayan corridor,Uttarakhand, India     

M. Israil  D. K. Tyagi  P. K. Gupta  Sri Niwas 《Journal of Earth System Science》2008,117(3):189-200

Magnetotelluric investigations have been carried out in the Garhwal Himalayan corridor to delineate the electrical structure of the crust along a profile extending from Indo-Gangetic Plain to Higher Himalayan region in Uttarakhand, India. The profile passing through major Himalayan thrusts: Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFF), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and Main Central Thrust (MCT), is nearly perpendicular to the regional geological strike. Data processing and impedance analysis indicate that out of 44 stations MT data recorded, only 27 stations data show in general, the validity of 2D assumption. The average geoelectric strike, N70°W, was estimated for the profile using tensor decomposition. 2D smooth geoelectrical model has been presented, which provides the electrical image of the shallow and deeper crustal structure. The major features of the model are (i) a low resistivity (<50Ωm), shallow feature interpreted as sediments of Siwalik and Indo-Gangetic Plain, (ii) highly resistive (> 1000Ωm) zone below the sediments at a depth of 6 km, interpreted as the top surface of the Indian plate, (iii) a low resistivity (< 10Ωm) below the depth of 6 km near MCT zone coincides with the intense micro-seismic activity in the region. The zone is interpreted as the partial melting or fluid phase at mid crustal depth. Sensitivity test indicates that the major features of the geoelectrical model are relevant and desired by the MT data.  相似文献   

Paleosol at the Archean—Proterozoic contact in NW India revisited: Evidence for oxidizing conditions during paleo-weathering?     

Manoj K. Pandit  Helga de Wall  Narendra K. Chauhan 《Journal of Earth System Science》2008,117(3):201-209

A number of fine-grained sericite bearing pelitic, schistose lithologies occur along the Archean (Banded Gneiss Complex)-Proterozoic (Aravalli Supergroup) contact (APC) in the Udaipur valley in NW Indian craton. These Al-rich lithologies (subsequently metamorphosed) have been described as ‘paleosols’, developed over a 3.3 Ga old Archean gneissic basement and are overlain by Paleoproterozoic Aravalli quartzite. The paleosol was developed between 2.5 and 2.1, coincident with the globally recognized Great Oxidation Event (GOE). In previous studies these paleosol sections were interpreted to have developed under reducing environment, however, the finding of a ‘ferricrete’ zone in the upper part of Tulsi Namla section (east of Udaipur) during the present study (in addition to earlier reported lithologies) has led to an alternative suggestion of oxygen-rich conditions during paleosol development. The Tulsi Namla paleosol section shows all the features characteristic of a complete paleosol section described from other Archean cratons. The paleosol includes sericite schist with kyanite as the prevalent Al-silicate in the lower part of profile while chloritoid and Fe-oxides typify the Fe-rich upper part. Alumina has remained immobile during the weathering process while Fe and Mn show a decrease in the lower part of the section and an abrupt rise in the upper part, in the ferricrete zone. The field and geochemical data indicate that the Tulsi Namla section is an in situ weathering profile and at least the upper part shows evidence of oxidizing conditions.  相似文献   

Migration of the Ganga river and its implication on hydro-geological potential of Varanasi area, U.P., India     

U. K. Shukla  N. Janardhana Raju 《Journal of Earth System Science》2008,117(4):489-498

Borehole data reveals that during Late Quaternary, the Ganga river was non-existent in its present location near Varanasi. Instead, it was flowing further south towards peripheral craton. Himalayan derived grey micaceous sands were being carried by southward flowing rivers beyond the present day water divide of Ganga and mixed with pink arkosic sand brought by northward flowing peninsular rivers. Subsequently, the Ganga shifted to its present position and got incised. Near Varanasi, the Ganga river is flowing along a NW-SE tectonic lineament. The migration of Ganga river is believed to have been in response to basin expansion caused due to Himalayan tectonics during Middle Pleistocene times. Multi-storied sand bodies generated as a result of channel migration provide excellent aquifers confined by a thick zone of muddy sediments near the surface. Good quality potable water is available at various levels below about 70 m depth in sandy aquifers. Craton derived gravelly coarse-to-medium grained sand forms the main aquifer zones of tens of meter thickness with enormous yield. In contrast, the shallow aquifers made up of recycled interfluve silt and sandy silt occur under unconfined conditions and show water-level fluctuation of a few meters during pre-and post-monsoon periods.  相似文献   

Simultaneous transport of water and solutes under transient unsaturated flow conditions — A case study     

B. K. Purandara  N. Varadarajan  B. Venkatesh 《Journal of Earth System Science》2008,117(4):477-487

The imbalance between incoming and outgoing salt causes salinization of soils and sub-soils that result in increasing the salinity of stream-flows and agriculture land. This salinization is a serious environmental hazard particularly in semi-arid and arid lands. In order to estimate the magnitude of the hazard posed by salinity, it is important to understand and identify the processes that control salt movement from the soil surface through the root zone to the ground water and stream flows. In the present study, Malaprabha sub-basin (up to dam site) has been selected which has two distinct climatic zones, sub-humid (upstream of Khanapur) and semi-arid region (downstream of Khanapur). In the upstream, both surface and ground waters are used for irrigation, whereas in the downstream mostly groundwater is used. Both soils and ground waters are more saline in downstream parts of the study area. In this study we characterized the soil salinity and groundwater quality in both areas. An attempt is also made to model the distribution of potassium concentration in the soil profile in response to varying irrigation conditions using the SWIM (Soil-Water Infiltration and Movement) model. Fair agreement was obtained between predicted and measured results indicating the applicability of the model.  相似文献