The global mid-ocean ridge system is one of the most active plate boundaries on the earth and understanding the dynamic processes at this plate boundary is one of the most important problems in geodynamics. In this paper I present recent results of several aspects of mid-ocean ridge studies concerning the dynamics of oceanic lithosphere at these diverging plate boundaries. I show that the observed rift valley to no-rift valley transition (globally due to the increase of spreading rate or locally due to the crustal thickness variations and/or thermal anomalies) can be explained by the strong temperature dependence of the power law rheology of the oceanic lithosphere, and most importantly, by the difference in the rheological behavior of the oceanic crust from the underlying mantle. The effect of this weaker lower crust on ridge dynamics is mainly influenced by spreading rate and crustal thickness variations. The accumulated strain pattern from a recently developed lens model, based on recent seismic observations, was proposed as an appealing mechanism for the observed gabbro layering sequence in the Oman Ophiolite. It is now known that the mid-ocean ridges at all spreading rates are offset into individual spreading segments by both transform and nontransform discontinuities. The tectonics of ridge segmentation are also spreading-rate dependent: the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge is characterized by distinct bulls-eye shaped gravity lows, suggesting large along-axis variations in melt production and crustal thickness, whereas the fast-spreading East-Pacific Rise is associated with much smaller along-axis variations. These spreading-rate dependent changes have been attributed to a fundamental differences in ridge segmentation mechanisms and mantle upwelling at mid-ocean ridges: the mantle upwelling may be intrinsically plume-like (3-D) beneath a slow-spreading ridge but more sheet-like (2-D) beneath a fast-spreading ridge. 相似文献
The texture of digital rock images, as recorded, for instance, with borehole imaging devices, is shown to reflect different bedding types. Textural segmentation of borehole images, therefore, subdivides the recorded sequence into bedding units. We show that a textural segmentation algorithm based on the concept of texture energy achieves good results when compared with synthetic as well as real data in which petroleum geologists have performed zonations on cores. Texture energy involves filtering of the original image with a set of texture sensitive masks. The filtering is done as a finite convolution over the size of the masks. On the resulting images the variance is computed over a relatively large sliding window, which, in its practical implementation, covers the full width of the image. The resulting nine one-dimensional curves are then clustered hierarchically into a user-determined number of image texture or lithological bedding classes. Principal component analysis previous to clustering can be used to reduce redundancy in the data. A recurring and relatively ill-defined problem in this field are macro-textures, i.e., the cyclic interbedding of two or more bedding types. We show that sliding Fourier transforms and variable mask scale can successfully address the zonation of macro-textures. In general, the method gives best results with mask sizes equivalent to 2–4 centimeters, reflecting the length scale at which the investigated geological bedding seems to have its highest variation. 相似文献
The existence of a suspected geological fault has been confirmed using Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTDs) by measuring radon concentration variations in the upper soil above its inferred position. The results obtained prompted us to increase the natural radon signal in the soil, using an additional radon source; this enhancement technique, has been experimentally checked with SSNTD detectors.On leave from Faculté des Sciences, Laboratoire des D.S.T.N. Université de Dakar, Dakar-Fann, Sénégal 相似文献
This study provides a detailed magnetostratigraphy of sediments composing the Cold Creek cataclysmic flood bar in the Pasco Basin, Washington. Our interpretation suggests onset of Missoula floods or similar events prior to 1.1 myr, later than previously suggested by Bjornstad et al. [Bjornstad, B.N., Fecht, K.R., Pluhar, C.J., 2001. Long history of pre-Wisconsin, Ice Age cataclysmic floods: evidence from southeastern Washington State. Journal of Geology 109 (6), 695-713]. Nonetheless these data suggest that Channeled Scabland features formed over a much longer timespan than commonly cited, that continental ice sheets of the early Pleistocene reached as far south as those of the late Pleistocene, and that similar physiography existed in eastern Washington and perhaps Montana to both generate and route Missoula-flood-like events. This study adds paleomagnetic polarity results from 213 new samples of silts and sands derived from nine new drill cores penetrating the Cold Creek cataclysmic flood bar to our previous database of 53 samples from four boreholes, resulting in a much more robust and detailed magnetostratigraphy. Rock magnetic studies on these sediments show pure magnetite to be the predominant remanence-carrying magnetic mineral, ruling out widespread remagnetization by secondary mineralization. The magnetostratigraphy at eastern Cold Creek bar is characterized by a normal polarity interval bracketed by reversed polarities. Equating the normal zone with the Jaramillo subchron (0.99-1.07 myr) affords the simplest correlation to the magnetic polarity timescale. Western Cold Creek bar was likely deposited during the Brunhes chron (0-0.78 myr) since it exhibits mainly normal polarities with only two thin reversed-polarity horizons that we interpret as magnetic excursions during the Brunhes. 相似文献
Precambrian fluvial systems, lacking the influence of rooted vegetation, probably were characterised by flashy surface runoff, low bank stability, broad channels with abundant bedload, and faster rates of channel migration; consequently, a braided fluvial style is generally accepted. Pre-vegetational braided river systems, active under highly variable palaeoclimatic conditions, may have been more widespread than are modern, ephemeral dry-land braided systems. Aeolian deflation of fine fluvial detritus does not appear to have been prevalent. With the onset of large cratons by the Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic, very large, perennial braided river systems became typical. The c. 2.06–1.88 Ga Waterberg Group, preserved within a Main and a smaller Middelburg basin on the Kaapvaal craton, was deposited largely by alluvial/braided-fluvial and subordinate palaeo-desert environments, within fault-bounded, possibly pull-apart type depositories.
Palaeohydrological data obtained from earlier work in the Middelburg basin (Wilgerivier Formation) are compared to such data derived from the correlated Blouberg Formation, situated along the NE margin of the Main basin. Within the preserved Blouberg depository, palaeohydrological parameters estimated from clast size and cross-bed set thickness data, exhibit rational changes in their values, either in a down-palaeocurrent direction, or from inferred basin margin to palaeo-basin centre. In both the Wilgerivier and Blouberg Formations, calculated palaeoslope values (derived from two separate formulae) plot within the gap separating typical alluvial fan gradients from those which characterise rivers (cf. [Blair, T.C., McPherson, J.G., 1994. Alluvial fans and their natural distinction from rivers based on morphology, hydraulic processes, sedimentary processes, and facies assemblages. J. Sediment. Res. A64, 450–489.]). Although it may be argued that such data support possibly unique fluvial styles within the Precambrian, perhaps related to a combination of major global-scale tectono-thermal and atmospheric–palaeoclimatic events, a simpler explanation of these apparently enigmatic palaeoslope values may be pertinent. Of the two possible palaeohydrological formulae for calculating palaeoslope, one provides results close to typical fluvial gradients; the other formula relies on preserved channel-width data. We suggest that the latter will not be reliable due to problematic preservation of original channel-widths within an active braided fluvial system. We thus find no unequivocal support for a unique fluvial style for the Precambrian, beyond that generally accepted for that period and discussed briefly in the first paragraph. 相似文献