Showing papers on "Continental margin published in 2017"

Earth's Continental Lithosphere Through Time

Abstract: The record of the continental lithosphere is patchy and incomplete; no known rock is older than 4.02 Ga, and less than 5% of the rocks preserved are older than 3 Ga. In addition, there is no recognizable mantle lithosphere from before 3 Ga. We infer that there was lithosphere before 3 Ga and that ∼3 Ga marks the stabilization of blocks of continental lithosphere that have since survived. This was linked to plate tectonics emerging as the dominant tectonic regime in response to thermal cooling, the development of a more rigid lithosphere, and the recycling of water, which may in turn have facilitated plate tectonics. A number of models, using different approaches, suggest that at 3 Ga the volume of continental crust was ∼70% of its present-day volume and that this may be a minimum value. The continental crust before 3 Ga was on average more mafic than that generated subsequently, and this pre-3 Ga mafic new crust had fractionated Lu/Hf and Sm/Nd ratios as inferred for the sources of tonalite-trondhjemite-g...

Variscan orogeny in the Black Sea region

Abstract: Two Gondwana-derived Paleozoic belts rim the Archean/Paleoproterozoic nucleus of the East European Platform in the Black Sea region. In the north is a belt of Paleozoic passive-margin-type sedimentary rocks, which extends from Moesia to the Istanbul Zone and to parts of the Scythian Platform (the MOIS Block). This belt constituted the south-facing continental margin of the Laurussia during the Late Paleozoic. This margin was deformed during the Carboniferous by folding and thrusting and forms the Variscan foreland. In the south is a belt of metamorphic and granitic rocks, which extends from the Balkanides through Strandja, Sakarya to the Caucasus (BASSAC Block). The protoliths of the metamorphic rocks are predominantly late Neoproterozoic granites and Paleozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks, which were deformed and metamorphosed during the Early Carboniferous. There are also minor eclogites and serpentinites, mostly confined to the northern margin of the BASSAC Block. Typical metamorphism is of low pressure–high temperature type and occurred during the Early Carboniferous (Visean, 340–330 Ma) coevally with that observed in the Central Europe. Volumetrically, more than half of the crystalline belt is made up of Carboniferous–earliest Permian (335–294 Ma) granites. The type of metamorphism, its concurrent nature over 1800 km length of the BASSAC Block and voluminous acidic magmatism suggest that the thermal event probably occurred in the deep levels of a continental magmatic arc. The BASSAC arc collided with Laurussia in the mid-Carboniferous leading to the foreland deformation. The ensuing uplift in the Permian resulted in the deposition of continental red beds, which are associated with acidic magmatic rocks observed over the foreland as well as over the BASSAC Block. In the Black Sea region, there was no terminal collision of Laurussia with Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic and the Laurussia margin continued to face the Paleo-Tethyan ocean in the south.

Ultrafast magmatic buildup and diversification to produce continental crust during subduction

Abstract: Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding [PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0217]; U.S. National Science Foundation [EAR-1049884, EAR-1447266]

Constraining the timing of the India-Asia continental collision by the sedimentary record

Abstract: Placing precise constraints on the timing of the India-Asia continental collision is essential to understand the successive geological and geomorphological evolution of the orogenic belt as well as the uplift mechanism of the Tibetan Plateau and their effects on climate, environment and life. Based on the extensive study of the sedimentary record on both sides of the Yarlung-Zangbo suture zone in Tibet, we review here the present state of knowledge on the timing of collision onset, discuss its possible diachroneity along strike, and reconstruct the early structural and topographic evolution of the Himalayan collided range. We define continent-continent collision as the moment when the oceanic crust is completely consumed at one point where the two continental margins come into contact. We use two methods to constrain the timing of collision onset: (1) dating the provenance change from Indian to Asian recorded by deep-water turbidites near the suture zone, and (2) dating the age of unconformities on both sides of the suture zone. The first method allowed us to constrain precisely collision onset as middle Palaeocene (59±1 Ma). Marine sedimentation persisted in the collisional zone for another 20–25 Ma locally in southern Tibet, and molassic-type deposition in the Indian foreland basin did not begin until another 10–15 Ma later. Available sedimentary evidence failed to firmly document any significant diachroneity of collision onset from the central Himalaya to the western Himalaya and Pakistan so far. Based on the Cenozoic stratigraphic record of the Tibetan Himalaya, four distinct stages can be identified in the early evolution of the Himalayan orogen: (1) middle Palaeocene-early Eocene earliest Eohimalayan stage (from 59 to 52 Ma): collision onset and filling of the deep-water trough along the suture zone while carbonate platform sedimentation persisted on the inner Indian margin; (2) early-middle Eocene early Eohimalayan stage (from 52 to 41 or 35 Ma): filling of intervening seaways and cessation of marine sedimentation; (3) late Eocene-Oligocene late Eohimalayan stage (from 41 to 25 Ma): huge gap in the sedimentary record both in the collision zone and in the Indian foreland; and (4) late Oligocene-early Miocene early Neohimalayan stage (from 26 to 17 Ma): rapid Himalayan growth and onset of molasse-type sedimentation in the Indian foreland basin.

Sediment partitioning, continental slopes and base-of-slope systems

Abstract: Deciphering the role slope topography plays in partitioning sediment on siliciclastic continental slope and base‐of‐slope systems helps our understanding of slope depositional processes in significant ways: (1) by validation of large‐scale depositional process models for continental margins, (2) by validation of numerical basin‐scale stratigraphic forward models used to test and deploy source‐to‐sink (S2S) concepts and (3) by creating models for setting reservoir presence and quality expectations in frontier areas poorly constrained by wells and seismic. A global database consisting of >700 km of drilled stratigraphy provide empirical rock data lacking from most S2S studies. Analysis of calibrated seismic stratigraphic units characterised using the contextual framework laid out in this paper show that both gross depositional environments (GDEs) and sand content occur across slope profiles in systematic ways. The challenge in using these observations to quantify reservoir risk and uncertainty lies with relating the observations to depositional processes that can be used to characterise frontier basins that lack calibration. Depositional process‐based understanding encoded in 3D stratigraphic forward models (SFM) can simulate both lithologies and GDEs providing broad predictions for exploration at the scale of an entire basin or slope system. Stratigraphic forward models allow the integration of S2S understanding and provide a framework for testing sediment‐partitioning hypotheses in frontier settings. Valid S2S models must balance sediment yield from the source catchments with sinks, and be consistent with basin specific observations. The proportions of GDEs across the slope provide additional validation criteria to ensure the models are plausible.

Sedimentary record of Jurassic northward subduction of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean: insights from detrital zircons

Abstract: The subduction polarity and related arc–magmatic evolutional history of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean, which separated the South Qiangtang terrane to the north from the North Lhasa terrane to the south during the Mesozoic, remain debated. This study tries to reconstruct the subduction and evolution of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean on the basis of U–Pb and Hf isotopic analyses of detrital zircons in samples from sedimentary rocks of the middle-western section of the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone in Gerze County, central Tibet. The Middle Jurassic Muggargangri Group in the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone was deposited in a deep-sea basin setting on an active continental margin. The Late Jurassic strata, such as the Sewa Formation, are widely distributed in the South Qiangtang terrane and represent deposition on a shelf. The Early Cretaceous Shamuluo Formation in the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone unconformably overlies the Muggargangri Group and was probably deposited in a residual marine basin setting. The detrital...

Global high resolution monthly pCO 2 climatology for the coastal ocean derived from neural network interpolation

Abstract: . In spite of the recent strong increase in the number of measurements of the partial pressure of CO2 in the surface ocean (pCO2), the air–sea CO2 balance of the continental shelf seas remains poorly quantified. This is a consequence of these regions remaining strongly under-sampled in both time and space and of surface pCO2 exhibiting much higher temporal and spatial variability in these regions compared to the open ocean. Here, we use a modified version of a two-step artificial neural network method (SOM-FFN; Landschutzer et al., 2013) to interpolate the pCO2 data along the continental margins with a spatial resolution of 0.25° and with monthly resolution from 1998 to 2015. The most important modifications compared to the original SOM-FFN method are (i) the much higher spatial resolution and (ii) the inclusion of sea ice and wind speed as predictors of pCO2. The SOM-FFN is first trained with pCO2 measurements extracted from the SOCATv4 database. Then, the validity of our interpolation, in both space and time, is assessed by comparing the generated pCO2 field with independent data extracted from the LDVEO2015 database. The new coastal pCO2 product confirms a previously suggested general meridional trend of the annual mean pCO2 in all the continental shelves with high values in the tropics and dropping to values beneath those of the atmosphere at higher latitudes. The monthly resolution of our data product permits us to reveal significant differences in the seasonality of pCO2 across the ocean basins. The shelves of the western and northern Pacific, as well as the shelves in the temperate northern Atlantic, display particularly pronounced seasonal variations in pCO2, while the shelves in the southeastern Atlantic and in the southern Pacific reveal a much smaller seasonality. The calculation of temperature normalized pCO2 for several latitudes in different oceanic basins confirms that the seasonality in shelf pCO2 cannot solely be explained by temperature-induced changes in solubility but are also the result of seasonal changes in circulation, mixing and biological productivity. Our results also reveal that the amplitudes of both thermal and nonthermal seasonal variations in pCO2 are significantly larger at high latitudes. Finally, because this product's spatial extent includes parts of the open ocean as well, it can be readily merged with existing global open-ocean products to produce a true global perspective of the spatial and temporal variability of surface ocean pCO2.

Intraoceanic subduction spanned the Pacific in the Late Cretaceous–Paleocene

Abstract: The notorious ~60° bend separating the Hawaiian and Emperor chains marked a prominent change in the motion of the Pacific plate at ~47 Ma (million years ago), but the origin of that change remains an outstanding controversy that bears on the nature of major plate reorganizations. Lesser known but equally significant is a conundrum posed by the pre-bend (~80 to 47 Ma) motion of the Pacific plate, which, according to conventional plate models, was directed toward a fast-spreading ridge, in contradiction to tectonic forcing expectations. Using constraints provided by seismic tomography, paleomagnetism, and continental margin geology, we demonstrate that two intraoceanic subduction zones spanned the width of the North Pacific Ocean in Late Cretaceous through Paleocene time, and we present a simple plate tectonic model that explains how those intraoceanic subduction zones shaped the ~80 to 47 Ma kinematic history of the Pacific realm and drove a major plate reorganization.

Iron isotopes reveal distinct dissolved iron sources and pathways in the intermediate versus deep Southern Ocean.

Abstract: As an essential micronutrient, iron plays a key role in oceanic biogeochemistry. It is therefore linked to the global carbon cycle and climate. Here, we report a dissolved iron (DFe) isotope section in the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean. Throughout the section, a striking DFe isotope minimum (light iron) is observed at intermediate depths (200–1,300 m), contrasting with heavier isotopic composition in deep waters. This unambiguously demonstrates distinct DFe sources and processes dominating the iron cycle in the intermediate and deep layers, a feature impossible to see with only iron concentration data largely used thus far in chemical oceanography. At intermediate depths, the data suggest that the dominant DFe sources are linked to organic matter remineralization, either in the water column or at continental margins. In deeper layers, however, abiotic non-reductive release of Fe (desorption, dissolution) from particulate iron—notably lithogenic—likely dominates. These results go against the common but oversimplified view that remineralization of organic matter is the major pathway releasing DFe throughout the water column in the open ocean. They suggest that the oceanic iron cycle, and therefore oceanic primary production and climate, could be more sensitive than previously thought to continental erosion (providing lithogenic particles to the ocean), particle transport within the ocean, dissolved/particle interactions, and deep water upwelling. These processes could also impact the cycles of other elements, including nutrients.

Early Cenozoic drainage reorganization of the United States Western Interior–Gulf of Mexico sediment routing system

Abstract: Continental-scale drainages host the world’s largest rivers and offshore sediment accumulations, many of which contain significant petroleum reserves. Rate of sediment supply in these settings may be a signal of external controls (e.g., tectonics) on landscape evolution, yet deciphering these controls remains a major challenge in interpreting the ancient stratigraphic record. Integration of new and published detrital zircon U-Pb ages from the United States Rocky Mountain region and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) sedimentary basin demonstrates profound changes in the U.S. continental drainage divide that controlled the rate of sediment delivery to the northern GOM during Paleocene–Eocene time. Sedimentation rate increased dramatically during deposition of the lower Wilcox Group, reaching approximately three times the Cenozoic average, accompanied by pronounced shoreline regression and delivery of a large volume of sand to the basin floor. We hypothesize that this increase in sediment delivery to the GOM resulted from drainage capture of a significant portion of the Sevier-Laramide structural province (∼900,000 km2) that included the headwaters of the California and Idaho Rivers. Capture of the California River drainage may have occurred in the vicinity of the Hanna Basin of eastern Wyoming that previously emptied northward into a shallow seaway, but was subsequently diverted southward to the Rockdale delta, which accumulated within the Houston embayment during the time of deposition of the lower Wilcox Group. Detrital zircon U-Pb ages from Wilcox samples within the Rockdale delta show a remarkable similarity with contemporaneous Laramide synorogenic units, including enrichment in detritus derived from the Cordilleran arc and basement terranes of western North America relative to older and younger units in the Houston embayment. A subsequent order of magnitude decline in sedimentation rate to the GOM can be partly attributed to well-documented drainage closure (∼800,000 km2) that accompanied lake formation in interior Laramide basins (ca. 53–51.8 Ma). Our results demonstrate that tectonically induced drainage migration in the high-relief segments of continental-scale drainages can have a pronounced effect on the rate of sediment transfer to continental margins.

Archaean zircons in Miocene oceanic hotspot rocks establish ancient continental crust beneath Mauritius.

Abstract: A fragment of continental crust has been postulated to underlie the young plume-related lavas of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius based on the recovery of Proterozoic zircons from basaltic beach sands. Here we document the first U–Pb zircon ages recovered directly from 5.7 Ma Mauritian trachytic rocks. We identified concordant Archaean xenocrystic zircons ranging in age between 2.5 and 3.0 Ga within a trachyte plug that crosscuts Older Series plume-related basalts of Mauritius. Our results demonstrate the existence of ancient continental crust beneath Mauritius; based on the entire spectrum of U–Pb ages for old Mauritian zircons, we demonstrate that this ancient crust is of central-east Madagascar affinity, which is presently located ∼700 km west of Mauritius. This makes possible a detailed reconstruction of Mauritius and other Mauritian continental fragments, which once formed part of the ancient nucleus of Madagascar and southern India. There is growing evidence for the presence of continental fragments within the young oceanic basins, but this is still based on limited geological data. Here, the authors use zircon isotope geochronology to demonstrate the presence of Archaean continental crust beneath the young hotspot volcanoes of Mauritius.

Is the Paleoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt (North China Craton) a rift?

Abstract: As a typical example of the Paleoproterozoic crust in the Eastern Block of the North China Craton, the Paleoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt consists principally of the Liaohe Group (and its equivalents), Liaoji granites and mafic intrusions. Previous studies indicate that the evolution of the Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt has been mainly attributed to the opening and closing of an intracontinental rift along the eastern continental margin of the North China Craton. Here we synthesize the Paleoproterozoic magmatism, sedimentation, metamorphism and metallogeny against the rift model and propose a process of arc-continent collision between the northern Longgang and the southern Nangrim Blocks. This conclusion is consistent with the observations, including that (a) the 2.0- to 2.2-Ga magmatism shows a typical subalkaline series, rather than a bimodal distribution, since the mafic rocks mostly have arc affinities and the acidic–intermediate rocks belong to the calc-alkaline series; (b) the main source of the 1.9- to 2.0-Ga sedimentary rocks is the Paleoproterozoic arc materials, indicating a fore-arc or back-arc basin setting; (c) a couple of big borate deposits occur in the boron-rich volcanic rocks that were formed in convergent continental margins; (d) the North and South Liaohe Groups show different rock associations and metamorphic histories (P–T paths); and (e) the Nangrim and Longgang Blocks vary in lithological units, geochronology and metamorphic features. Thus, an arc-continent collision tectonic scenario for the Paleoproterozoic Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt is involved: (a) a southward subduction in the period 2.0–2.2 Ga; (b) sedimentation during the period 1.9–2.0 Ga; (c) arc-continent collision at ca. 1.9 Ga; and (d) post-collisional extension at 1.82–1.87 Ga, marking the end of the Paleoproterozoic tectonothermal event.