Ar / Ar dating of high-pressure rocks from the Ligurian Alps: Evidence for a continuous subduction–exhumation cycle     

Laura Federico  Giovanni Capponi  Laura Crispini  Marco Scambelluri  Igor M. Villa   《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》2005,240(3-4):668-680

We present ³⁹Ar–⁴⁰Ar dating of phengite, muscovite and paragonite from a set of mafic and metasedimentary rocks sampled from the high-pressure (HP) metaophiolites of the Voltri Group (Western Alps) and from clasts in the basal layer conglomerates from the Tertiary molasse which overlie the high-pressure basement. The white mica-bearing rocks display peak eclogitic and blueschist-facies parageneses, locally showing complex greenschist-facies replacement textures. The internal discordance of age spectra is proportional to the chemical complexity of the micas. High-Si phengites from eclogite clasts record a ³⁹Ar–⁴⁰Ar age of ca. 49 Ma for the eclogite stage and ca. 43 Ma for the blueschist retrogression; phengites from a blueschist basement sample yield an age of ca. 40 Ma; low-Si muscovite from a metasediment dates the formation of the greenschist paragenesis at ca. 33 Ma. Our data indicate that the analyzed samples reached high-pressure conditions at different times over a time-span of c.a. 10 Ma. Subduction was continuing during exhumation and blueschist retrograde re-equilibration of higher-pressure, eclogite-facies rocks. This process kept the isotherms depressed, allowing the older HP-rocks to escape thermal re-equilibration. Our results, added to literature data, fit a tectonic model of a subduction–exhumation cycle, with different tectonic slices subducted at different times from Early Eocene until the Eocene–Oligocene boundary.  相似文献   

The Europeans: A Geography of People,Culture, and Environment     

《The Professional geographer》2005,57(4):612-614

  相似文献   

Hydro-geomorphic hazards and impact of man-made structures during the catastrophic flood of June 2000 in the Upper Guil catchment (Queyras, Southern French Alps)   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Gilles Arnaud-Fassetta  Etienne Cossart  Monique Fort 《Geomorphology》2005,66(1-4):41

The Guil River Valley (Queyras, Southern French Alps) is prone to catastrophic floods, as the long historical archives and Holocene sedimentary records demonstrate. In June 2000, the upper part of this valley was affected by a “30-year” recurrence interval (R.I.) flood. Although of lower magnitude and somewhat different nature from that of 1957 (>100-year R.I. flood), the 2000 event induced serious damage to infrastructure and buildings on the valley floor. Use of methods including high-resolution aerial photography, multi-date mapping, hydraulic calculations and field observations made possible the characterisation of the geomorphic impacts on the Guil River and its tributaries. The total rainfall (260 mm in four days) and maximum hourly intensity (17.3 mm h⁻¹), aggravated by pre-existing saturated soils, explain the immediate response of the fluvial system and the subsequent destabilisation of slopes. Abundant water and sediment supply (landsliding, bank erosion), particularly from small catchment basins cut into slaty, schist bedrock, resulted in destructive pulses of debris flow and hyperconcentrated flows. The specific stream power of the Guil and its tributaries was greater than the critical stream power, thus explaining the abundant sediment transport. The Guil discharge was estimated as 180 m³ s⁻¹ at Aiguilles, compared to the annual mean discharge of 6 m³ s⁻¹ and a June mean discharge of 18 m³ s⁻¹. The impacts on the Guil valley floor (flooding, aggradation, generalised bank erosion and changes in the river pattern) were widespread and locally influenced by variations in the floodplain slope and/or channel geometry. The stream partially reoccupied former channels abandoned or modified in their geometry by various structures built during the last four decades, as exemplified by the Aiguilles case study, where the worst damage took place. A comparative study of the geomorphic consequences of both the 1957 and 2000 floods shows that, despite their poor maintenance, the flood control structures built after the 1957 event were relatively efficient, in contrast to unprotected places. The comparison also demonstrates the role of land-use changes (conversion from traditional agro-pastoral life to a ski/hiking-based economy, construction of various structures) in reducing the Guil channel capacity and, more generally, in increasing the vulnerability of the human installations. The efficiency of the measures taken after the 2000 flood (narrowing and digging out of the channel) is also assessed. Final evaluation suggests that, in such high mountainous environments, there is a need to keep most of the 1957 flooded zone clear of buildings and other structures (aside from the existing villages and structures of particular economic interest), in order to enable the river to migrate freely and to adjust to exceptional hydro-geomorphic conditions without causing major damage.  相似文献   

Relief-rejuvenation and topographic length scales in a fluvial drainage basin, Napf area, Central Switzerland   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：2  

Fritz Schlunegger  Heinz Schneider 《Geomorphology》2005,69(1-4):102-117

This paper explores how, and to what extent, a phase of relief-rejuvenation modifies the mode of surface erosion in an approximately 63 km² drainage basin located at the northern border of the Swiss Alps (Luzern area). In the study area, the retreat of the Alpine glaciers at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) caused base level to lower by approximately 80 m. The fluvial system adapted to the lowered base level by headward erosion. This is indicated by knickzones in the longitudinal stream profiles and by the continuous upstream narrowing of the width of the valley floor towards these knickzones. In the headwaters above these knickzones, processes are still to a significant extent controlled by the higher base level of the LGM. There, frequent exposure of bedrock in channels and especially on hillslopes implies that sediment flux is to a large extent limited by weathering rates. In the knickzones, however, exposure of bedrock in channels implies that sediment flux is supply-limited, and that erosion rates are controlled by stream power.The morphometric analysis reveals the existence of length scales in the topography that result from distinct geomorphic processes. Along the tributaries where the upstream sizes of the drainage basins exceed 100,000–200,000 m², the mode of sediment transport and erosion changes from predominantly hillslope processes (i.e., landsliding, creep of regolith, rock avalanches and to some extent debris flows) to processes in channels (fluvial processes and debris flows). This length scale reflects the minimum size of the contributing area for channelized processes to take over in the geomorphic development (i.e., threshold size of drainage basin). This threshold size depends on the ratio between production rates of sediment on hillslopes, and export rates of sediment by processes in channels. Consequently, in the headwaters, erosion rates and sediment flux, and hence landscape evolution rates, are to a large extent limited by weathering processes. In contrast, in the lower portion of the drainage basin that adjusts to the lowered base-level, rates of channelized erosion and relief formation are controlled mainly by stream power. Hence, this paper shows that base-level lowering, headward erosion and establishment of knickzones separate drainage basins in two segments with different controls on rates of surface erosion, sediment flux and relief formation.  相似文献   

Preferential embrittlement of graphitic schists during extensional unroofing in the Alps: the effect of fluid composition on rheology in low-permeability rocks   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

J. SELVERSTONE 《Journal of Metamorphic Geology》2005,23(6):461-470

Interlayered graphitic and non‐graphitic schists from the Tauern Window, Eastern Alps, record contrasting mechanical behaviour during extensional exhumation. Graphitic schists contain mesoscale extension fractures, pervasive microcracks in garnet, and abundant secondary fluid inclusion planes; all three types of structures are oriented perpendicular to the stretching lineation. Crack spacings in garnet from graphitic samples are tightly clustered around a mean of 180 μm. Non‐graphitic schists have fewer and more randomly oriented microcracks and fluid inclusion planes and maintained strain compatibility via crystal plasticity. The presence or absence of graphite appears to have exerted a fundamental control on rheology during unroofing. Calculations for a model graphitic rock at 500 °C and f_O2 = 10^?24 MPa show that the equilibrium metamorphic fluid evolves from X_CO2 = 0.07 to 0.38 during decompression from 700 to 400 MPa, in agreement with microcrack fluid inclusion data that show a change from X_CO2 < 0.1 to 0.45 in graphitic samples over the same pressure interval. This compositional shift results in >60% expansion of the pore fluid during decompression. H₂O‐rich fluid in non‐graphitic rocks expands <15% over the same pressure interval. The greater pore fluid expansion in low‐permeability graphitic horizons likely promoted tensile failure during unroofing. These results suggest that microcracking should be an inevitable consequence of decompression in many graphitic schists, whereas rocks that lack graphite are less likely to undergo microcracking. Microseismicity is predicted to be more common in graphitic than non‐graphitic rocks during unroofing of mountain belts.  相似文献   

Influence of the Neotethys rifting on the development of the Dampier Sub-basin (North West Shelf of Australia), highlighted by subsidence modelling     

Laurent Langhi  Gilles D. Borel 《Tectonophysics》2005,397(1-2):93

During the Late Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic, the development and evolution of the North West Shelf of Australia have been mostly driven by rifting phases associated with the break-up of Gondwana. These extensional episodes, which culminated in the opening of the Neotethys Ocean during the Permo-Carboniferous and a series of abyssal plains during the Jurassic-Cretaceous, are characterised by different stress regimes and modes of extension, and therefore had distinctive effects on the margin, and particularly on the Northern Carnarvon Basin.Interpretation of 3D and 2D seismic data enables a structural and stratigraphic analysis of the Late Palaeozoic sediments deposited in the proximal part of the Dampier Sub-basin (Mermaid Nose). Based on their seismic characters, stratigraphic relationship, internal patterns, lateral continuity, and architecture, these units are associated here with the Pennsylvanian?–Early Sakmarian glaciogenic Lyons Group and the Sakmarian–Artinskian Callytharra Formation. The former were deposited in a half-graben whose development is associated with the onset of the Neotethys rifting, and the latter is characterised by restricted deposition, inversion of prograding patterns, and uplift.The integration of seismo-stratigraphic characterisation of the Late Palaeozoic sequences and Mesozoic data from one exploration well (Roebuck-1) enables the construction of subsidence curves for the Mermaid Nose and the interpretation of its geohistory.The tectonic subsidence curves show a striking Permo-Carboniferous rifting phase related to the Neotethys rifting and a discrete Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous event coeval with the opening and the spreading of the Argo Abyssal Plain.This result points out the predominance of the effects of the Permo-Carboniferous Neotethys episode, whereas the extension related to the Argo Abyssal Plain rifting that occurred later and closer to the studied area, had only limited effects on the subsidence of the proximal Dampier Sub-basin. Therefore, it supports a tectonic model with two distinct modes of extension for the Late Palaeozoic (widespread) and the Mesozoic (localised) rifting phases.  相似文献   

Western Alpine back-thrusting as subsidence mechanism in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (Western Po Plain, NW Italy)     

B. Carrapa  D. Garcia-Castellanos 《Tectonophysics》2005,406(3-4):197-212

Basin formation dynamics of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB) are here investigated by means of cross-section numerical modelling. Previous works hypothesised that basin subsidence occurred due first to extension (Oligocene) and then to subsequent loading due to back-thrusting (Miocene). However, structural evidence shows that the TPB was mainly under contraction from Oligocene until post Pliocene time while extension played a minor role. Furthermore, thermal indicators strongly call for a cold (flexure-induced) mechanism but are strictly inconsistent with a hot (thermally induced) mechanism. Our new modelling shows that the TPB stratigraphic features can be reproduced by flexure of a visco-elastic plate loaded by back-thrusts active in the Western Alps in Oligo-Miocene times. Far-field compression contributed to the TPB subsidence and controlled the basin infill geometry by enhancing basin tilting, forebulge uplift and erosion of the southern margin of the basin. These results suggest that the TPB subsidence is the result of a combination of mechanisms including thrust loading and far-field compressional stresses.  相似文献   

川西坳陷南段天然气来源与碳同位素地球化学研究   总被引：6，自引：0，他引：6       下载免费PDF全文

樊然学  周洪忠  蔡开平 《地球学报》2005,26(2):157-162

川西坳陷南段是四川盆地主要的天然气产区之一。前人对该区天然气的来源有多种见解。为了更清楚地认识此地区天然气的来源与运移，本文分析了平落坝、大兴西和白马庙气田16件天然气样品的C1-C4烃及CO2组份的碳同位素组成。所获得的同位素数据结合化学成份和地质资料表明，3个气田的烃类完全是热解成因的，都来源于气田下面的上三叠统烃源岩。这些气田的甲、乙烷碳同位素组成随深度呈不同规律的变化，这些变化归因于烃源岩生烃的热解过程和烃类运移的动力学过程。平落坝气田中侏罗统气藏的烃类大部份形成于烃源岩低成熟和成熟的早期阶段并受到晚期成熟气体的不断补给。平落坝和大兴西气田多数气藏的烃类被认为是从源区垂直向上运移通过上伏地层而进入气藏的，白马庙气田的烃类被认为是沿断裂通道向上侏罗统气藏聚集的。平落坝和大兴西气田的δ^13Cco2值有很宽的分布范围(-10.7‰～-0.7‰)，这表明气田的CO2由来自基底的海洋碳酸盐岩无机碳成份和沉积地层的有机碳成份混合而成。这些气田的[He／CH4]-[N2／CH4]值之间和δ^13Cco2-δ^13Cc1值之间的相关性表明，非烃气体在进入气藏前已同烃类很好地混合，并被CH4为主流相的气流携带着向气藏运移。  相似文献   

Thermal evolution of an extensional detachment as constrained by organic metamorphic data and thermal modeling: Graz Paleozoic Nappe Complex (Eastern Alps)   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Gerd Rantitsch  Reinhard F. Sachsenhofer  Christian Hasenhüttl  Barbara Russegger  Thomas Rainer 《Tectonophysics》2005,411(1-4):57-72

Following Early Cretaceous nappe stacking, the Eastern Alps were affected by late-orogenic extension during the Late Cretaceous. In the eastern segment of this range, a Late Cretaceous detachment separates a very low- to low-grade metamorphic cover (Graz Paleozoic Nappe Complex, GPNC) above a low- to high-grade metamorphic basement. Synchronously, the Kainach Gosau Basin (KGB) collapsed and subsided on top of the section.Metamorphism of organic material within this section has been investigated using vitrinite reflectance data and Raman spectra of extracted carbonaceous material. In the southern part of the GPNC, vitrinite reflectance indicates a decrease in organic maturity towards the stratigraphic youngest unit. The remaining part of the GPNC is characterized by an aureole of elevated vitrinite reflectance values and Raman R2 ratios that parallels the margins of the GPNC. Vitrinite reflectance in the KGB shows a steep coalification gradient and increases significantly towards the western basin margin. The observed stratigraphic trend in the southern GPNC is a result of deep Paleozoic to Early Cretaceous burial. This maturity pattern was overprinted along the margins by advective heat and convective fluids during Late Cretaceous to Paleogene exhumation of basement rocks.During shearing, the fault zone was heated up to ca. 500 °C. This overprint is explained by a two-dimensional thermal model with a ramp-flat fault geometry and a slip rate of 1 to 1.5 cm/year during 5 Ma fault movement. The collapse basin above the detachment subsided in a thermal regime which was characterized by relaxing isotherms.  相似文献   

Modélisation géométrique 3D des granites stéphaniens du massif du Pelvoux (Alpes,France)     

Pierre Strzerzynski  Stéphane Guillot  Gabriel Courrioux  Patrick Ledru 《Comptes Rendus Geoscience》2005,337(14):1284-1292

The structural analysis and the 3D modelling of Stephanian granites of the Pelvoux Massif characterize an emplacement along sinistral NW–SE- and dextral NE–SW-trending shear zones in the Pelvoux and in the Aiguilles Rouges–Mont Blanc Massifs, respectively. This Carboniferous shear system is consistent with a north–south extension direction known in the whole Variscan belt at this time. To cite this article: P. Strzerzynski et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).  相似文献