origin and formation of metabreccia in the parkin offset dike sudbury impact structure canada the 1 85 ga sudbury impact structure is considered a remnant of a peak ring or multi ring basin with an estimated original diameter of 150 to 200 km the offset dikes are radial and concentric dike

chronology and petrogenesis of shijiawan granite porphyry in shannxi province constrains from zircon u pb geochronology and hf isotopic compositions the shijiawan mo deposit is located in huanglongpu area of the east qinling molybdenum belt and its ore bodies mostly occur within the wall rocks at the exo contact zone of shijiawan granite porphyry rocks have porphyritic textures phenocrysts and matrixes have similar minerals mainly composed of potassic feldspar quartz plagioclase and biotite the granite porphyry is characterized by the enrichment of silica w sio2 70 52 73 04 and alkali w na2o w k2o 8 13 9 12 and para aluminous nature a cnk 0 99 1 13 the chondrite normalized ree patterns have ree concentrations ranging from 145 27 to 156 97 ppm lree enrichment and weak negative eu anomalies they are depleted in p ti ta nb and rich in rb ba u in the primitive mantle normalized spidergrams they have high initial 87sr 86sr ratios 0 7073 0 7077 and low end t values 14 8 16 0 zircons from the granite porphyry have u pb ages of 139 9 to 145 6 ma with a weighted mean age of 141 4 0 6 ma suggesting that the intrusion was emplaced in early cretaceous corresponding to 138 ma mo mineralization age obtained by the re os method zircon in situ analysis gives 176hf 177hf ratios ranging from 0 282056 to 0 282312 and the average ehf 141 ma of 20 64 indicating that their parental magma was mainly derived from the lower crust this conclusion is consistent with the sr nd isotopic results in addition sulfur isotopic analysis and re content of molybdenites imply that there were some inputs from the mantle in comparison of geochemical features with laoniushan granite and jinduicheng granite porphyry of the same area shijiawan may share a congenetic magmatic source with the others they were all formed from the melts of the upper crust and underwent a strong crystal differentiation during the evolutionary process based on regional geological data it can be concluded that this area have experienced three times of magmatic intrusion activities which corresponded respectively to three times of mo mineralization since late triassic

elevation changes and the great 1960 chilean earthquake support for aseismic slip we reanalyse the near field vertical displacement data for the great chilean earthquake of 1960 to provide constraints on the down dip slip distribution a recent study of free oscillation data confirms earlier proposals of a slow precursor comparable in size to the main shock we seek evidence for this event in the displacement data spatial coverage of the data is inadequate to allow determination of a unique fault model but inversions show that thrust slip must extend over a width of about 300 km and to a depth between 60 km and 85 km well below the seismogenic zone for interplate events we propose that this deeper slip is the source of the slow event our preferred class of solutions has moments ranging from 1 6 1023 n m to 2 5 1023 n m only 30 to 45 of the free oscillation value underestimation of the near trench displacements by 50 together with a seismic overestimation of moment by 30 due to tradeoff with rise time would result in satisfactory agreement

order or chaos origin and mode of emplacement of breccias in floors of large impact structures abstract breccias in the crater floor of large impact structures are pseudotachylites sensu largo authigenic monomict and polymict clastic matrix breccias so called footwall breccias and impact melt breccias pseudotachylite bodies in the center of large impact structures e g vredefort dome south africa appear to have a random distribution and orientation but most dip steeply or vertically large bodies of pseudotachylite in the more distal sectors of the 200 km diameter sudbury structure have been interpreted as ring and terrace collapse features in the vredefort dome networks of randomly distributed pseudotachylite veins accompany large mother lode pseudotachylite dikes in general pseudotachylites in the floors of central parts of impact craters may form through explosive transfer of thermal shock energy in a process that could be termed flash replacement melting whereas pseudotachylites at large distances from the centers of large impact structure are believed to have formed through friction leading to partial or complete melting similar to the formation of tectonic pseudotachylites in smaller structures e g ries and slate islands clastic matrix breccias instead of pseudotachylites occur as the most common breccias in the crater floors they have a chaotic distribution pattern their dips are commonly also steep to vertical melt breccia dikes in the target rocks of the crater floor are associated with melt sheets that fill the lower part of the excavation cavity at vredefort erosion has removed the coherent melt sheet but melt breccia dikes vredefort granophyre in the crater floor are preserved they are characterized by a remarkably homogeneous chemical composition and are believed to represent the initial undifferentiated impact melt near the vredefort collar the granophyre forms more or less concentric dikes in the more central parts of the dome their orientation is more random but in places may be controlled by the archean fabric of the crater basement the offset dikes of the sudbury structure are associated with the sudbury igneous complex that represents in total or in part a differentiated impact melt sheet the dikes in many aspects are similar to vredefort granophyres but their interpretation as undifferentiated bulk melt is problematic on geochemical and structural grounds chemically these dikes are not homogeneous and in places they contain massive sulfide deposits that are unlikely components of an undifferentiated impact melt differentiation and precipitation of massive sulfides are slow processes compared with the presumably high energy and fast emplacement of a supposedly undifferentiated melt pseudotachylites of the central impact crater apparently are mainly produced in the compression phase of the impact process whereas clastic matrix breccias form during the uplift and crater modification phases impact melt breccia dikes contain pseudotachylite bearing inclusions and cut across pseudotachylite bodies such impact melt breccia dikes were probably emplaced during uplift and crater modification

the nature age and petrogenesis of the cartier batholith northern flank of the sudbury structure ontario canada abstract the cartier batholith exposed about 50 km northwest of sudbury ontario canada is a late archean k rich granitic batholith along with the levack gneiss complex it forms the footwall of the north range of the sudbury igneous complex the cartier batholith dominantly monzogranitic to granodioritic is relatively homogeneous unfoliated and contains k feldspar megacrysts it shows several distinctive chemical features including high concentrations of zr th u and lree and low concentrations of nb ti and hree several discriminants suggest a post orogenic tectonic environment for the batholith this inference is consistent with a u pb age of 2642 1 ma obtained on zircon only slightly younger than the inferred timing of high grade metamorphism of the levack gneiss complex the cartier batholith could have formed as a result of approximately 33 partial melting of the levack gneiss complex

observations and interpretations at vredefort sudbury and chicxulub towards an empirical model of terrestrial impact basin formation the structural topographic and other characteristics of the vredefort sudbury and chicxulub impact structures are described assuming that the structures originally had the same morphology the observations interpretations for each structure are compared and extended to the other structures this does not result in any major inconsistencies but requires that the observations be scaled spatially in the case of vredefort and sudbury this is accomplished by scaling the outer limit of particular shock metamorphic features in the case of chicxulub scaling requires a reasoned assumption as to the formation mechanism of an interior peak ring the observations interpretations are then used to construct an integrated empirical kinematic model for a terrestrial peak ring basin the major attributes of the model include a set of outward directed thrusts in the parautochthonous rocks of the outermost environs of the crater floor some of which are pre existing structures that have been reactivated during transient cavity formation inward directed motions along the same outermost structures and along a set of structures at intermediate radial distances during transient cavity collapse structural uplift in the center followed by a final set of radially outward directed thrusts at the outer edges of the structural uplift during uplift collapse the rock displacements on the intermediate inward and innermost outward sets of structures are consistent with the assumption that a peak ring will result from the convergence of the collapse of the transient cavity rim area and the collapse of the structural uplift

geochemical relationships in the sudbury igneous complex origin of the main mass and offset dikes petrological models relating the different rock types constituting the 1 85 ga sudbury igneous complex are constrained with extensive new geochemical data we show that the main mass felsic norite transition zone quartz gabbro and granophyre have similar ratios of the highly incompatible trace elements e g la sm 4 5 7 la nb 2 8 4 2 th zr 0 04 0 05 and that these variations are consistent with the crystallization and differentiation of magma types largely 80 derived from the upper crust with a smaller contribution from a mantle source although there is presently no conclusive proof that magma was generated in situ as a melt sheet produced by meteorite impact we find no principal reason why this model should be rejected however we propose that a small contribution of mantle derived picritic magma is required to explain the abundant ni cu and platinum group elements pge in the sudbury deposits as well as the compositions of the ultramafic inclusions mgo 12 36 wt fo sub 68 87 olivines with 450 3 700 ppm ni and abundant chrome rich spinel and the magnesian composition of the mafic norite 8 14 wt mgo and the sublayer 6 12 wt mgo we believe that the main mass of the sudbury complex achieved its present composition through incorporation of up to 20 percent mantle derived picritic magma emplaced along crustal fractures produced by the impact event these picritic magmas entered the melt sheet as a dense plume vigorously mixing with it and due to the marked compositional shift the mixed magma formed magmatic sulfides which sank through the magma column depleting the melt in ni cu and pge since both the felsic norite and granophyre have indistinguishable ratios of the incompatible trace elements we see no requirement to derive these units of rock by the crystallization of magmas derived from different sources rather the compositional difference between the felsic norite and granophyre is attributed to the in situ differentiation of the magma we show that the main mass has many compositional traits similar to those of most of the offset dike quartz diorites e g the parkin offset dike la sm 6 3 la nb 4 5 th zr 0 05 and of embayment related leucocratic norites from the whistle mine la sm 6 2 la nb 5 0 th zr 0 02 these rocks have compositions intermediate between the felsic norite and the granophyre and therefore crystallized from the same magma type arguably the unmineralized quartz diorites provide the best possible estimate of the original magma from which the sudbury complex crystallized in detail there are subtle variations in composition within and between offset dikes with the largest difference being between the north and south range offsets the north range offset dikes cut archean granitoids and gneisses and have elevated sr la yb la sm and gd yb and low tio 2 whereas the south range dikes cut early proterozoic sediments mafic volcanics and intrusions and have low sr la yb gd yb la sm and high tio 2 these differences may be caused by the assimilation of different country rocks during emplacement of the dike a strongly mineralized offset dike at the creighton mine has geochemical variations that are different when compared to the main mass and in the case of creighton are more similar to the local mineralized sublayer these data suggest that mineralized and barren quartz diorites have different geochemical compositions and that these traits may be of value in mineral exploration

neoproterozoic paleozoic and mesozoic granitoid magmatism in the qinling orogen china constraints on orogenic process abstract the qinling orogen is one of the main orogenic belts in asia and is characterized by multi stage orogenic processes and the development of voluminous magmatic intrusions the results of zircon u pb dating indicate that granitoid magmatism in the qinling orogen mainly occurred in four distinct periods the neoproterozoic 979 711 ma paleozoic 507 400 ma and early 252 185 ma and late 158 100 ma mesozoic the neoproterozoic granitic magmatism in the qinling orogen is represented by strongly deformed s type granites emplaced at 979 911 ma weakly deformed i type granites at 894 815 ma and a type granites at 759 711 ma they can be interpreted as the products of respectively syn collisional post collisional and extensional setting in response to the assembly and breakup of the rodinia supercontinent the paleozoic magmatism can be temporally classified into three stages of 507 470 ma 460 422 ma and 415 400 ma they were genetically related to the subduction of the shangdan ocean and subsequent collision of the southern north china block and the south qinling belt the 507 470 ma magmatism is spatially and temporally related to ultrahigh pressure metamorphism in the studied area the 460 422 ma magmatism with an extensive development in the north qinling belt is characterized by i type granitoids and originated from the lower crust with the involvement of mantle derived magma in a collisional setting the magmatism with the formation age of 415 400 ma only occurred in the middle part of the north qinling belt and is dominated by i type granitoid intrusions and probably formed in the late stage of a collisional setting early mesozoic magmatism in the study area occurred between 252 and 185 ma with the cluster in 225 200 ma it took place predominantly in the western part of the south qinling belt the 250 240 ma i type granitoids are of small volume and show high sr y ratios and may have been formed in a continental arc setting related to subduction of the mianlue ocean between the south qinling belt and the south china block voluminous late stage 225 185 ma magmatism evolved from early i type to later i a type granitoids associated with contemporaneous lamprophyres representative of a transition from syn to post collisional setting in response to the collision between the north china and the south china blocks late mesozoic 158 100 ma granitoids located in the southern margin of the north china block and the eastern part of the north qinling belt are characterized by i type i to a type and a type granitoids that were emplaced in a post orogenic or intraplate setting the first three of the four periods of magmatism were associated with three important orogenic processes and the last one with intracontinental process these suggest that the tectonic evolution of the qinling orogen is very complicated

shallow impact isotopic insights into crustal contributions to the sudbury impact melt sheet abstract the largest known terrestrial impact melt sheet occurs within the 1850 ma sudbury structure ontario in order to evaluate the relative contributions of different target lithologies to the melt sheet we have investigated the pb isotope compositions of feldspar separates from early formed quartz diorite magmas within offset dykes from around the impact structure the samples define a linear array on plots of age corrected 206 pb 204 pb versus 207 pb 204 pb samples from offset dykes hosted by the huronian supergroup south range have a range of 206 pb 204 pb 1850 from 15 424 to 17 255 and 207 pb 204 pb 1850 from 15 390 to 15 801 whilst those hosted by archean gneisses of the superior province north range cluster around 206 pb 204 pb 1850 14 8 and 206 pb 204 pb 1850 15 1 these values can be approximated by binary mixing between the two major groups of target lithologies a mix of 60 70 of superior province gneisses with 30 40 of huronian metasedimentary material closely matches the pb isotope compositions of north range offset dyke samples whereas in the south range the required huronian component is up to ca 80 these mixing proportions are consistent with sr nd and os isotope and trace element constraints a third minor component either locally exposed paleoproterozoic mafic rocks or the lower crust is also required however the isotopic trace element and ni cu platinum group element characteristics of the melt sheet can be accommodated without the involvement of an average lower crustal or meteoritic component a major contribution of huronian supracrustal material which had a pre impact thickness of up to 12 km is required to explain the chemical characteristics of the impact melts which also have a strong upper crustal affinity e g eu sm 0 22 rb sr 0 2 0 35 as such a shallower level of melting is apparent than that predicted by many previous impact models for the sudbury event this can be accommodated by considering approach trajectories for the impactor oblique to the earth s surface in addition the isotopic and trace element variability identified indicates that the melt sheet was heterogeneous at an early stage and may not have been completely homogenised during crater formation our findings have significant implications for the nature of the sudbury impact event the evolution of the melt sheet and the crustal sources of metals contained in sudbury s world class ni cu pge sulphide ores

interseismic deformation along the san andreas fault in southern california eight trilateration networks located along the san andreas fault in southern california have been surveyed 8 to 19 times within a 14 to 17 year interval between 1971 and 1992 the data measurements of distances between the same 10 to 32 pairs of geodetic monuments within a network in each of the surveys have been corrected for coseismic offsets from nearby earthquakes calculated from dislocation models the corrected data a total of 2027 measurements are displayed in the form of plots of measured distance versus time for each of the 167 lines measured the hypothesis that the interseismic deformation is steady is tested by examining whether deviations from linear fits to the data in the plots are within the range expected for observational error a significant deviation from steady deformation is found only for the network located neax palmdale california in that network many of the measurements made in the survey of early 1982 deviate from the trend defined by the measurements in other surveys the deviations are not of the form fixed proportional error one would generally expect from systematic survey error if the survey of early 1982 is excluded the remaining data at palmdale are consistent with steady deformation thus the apparent strain event observed near palmdale in 1982 was transient

large scale porphyry type mineralization in the central asian metallogenic domain a review abstract a series of porphyry type cu mo au deposits including some giant world class deposits such as kounrad aktogai kal makyr oyu tolgoi and chalukou occur in the central asian metallogenic domain camd the outline of the camd almost overlaps with that of the central asian orogenic belt caob which is located between the east europe siberia tarim and north china cratons the camd comprises sparsely exposed tectonic slices of precambrian high grade metamorphic basement rocks that are sandwiched between phanerozoic accretionary complexes and arc rocks according to geological metallogenic geochronological and tectonic setting characteristics the camd comprises three metallogenic provinces 1 the kazakhstan cu au mo 2 the mongolia cu au and 3 the northeast china mo cu metallogenic provinces early paleozoic 490 to 440 ma and late paleozoic 330 to 295 ma large scale porphyry type mineralization in the kazakhstan metallogenic province is intimately associated with the evolution of the central tianshan yili northern tianshan kokchetav chingiz paleozoic arc system which was terminated by the late permian closure of the western segment of the paleo asian ocean in contrast the 370 ma and 240 ma porphyry type mineralization of the mongolia metallogenic province is related to the tuva mongolia arc collage system that was formed during the evolution of the paleo asian ocean in the paleozoic and the mongol okhotsk ocean in the early mesozoic furthermore the northeast china metallogenic province was affected by three distinct geodynamic processes that were associated with the paleo asian mongol okhotsk and paleo pacific oceans during the paleozoic 250 ma the early mesozoic 200 ma and the late mesozoic 200 90 ma respectively except for the early paleozoic cu mineralization at duobaoshan 480 ma and bainaimiao 440 ma the porphyry type mineralization of this metallogenic province is predominantly characterized by widespread mesozoic mo mineralization in general porphyry type deposits of the camd have geological structural metallogenic alteration and fluid characteristics which are consistent either with those related to the oceanic subductional arc settings of the circum pacific metallogenic domain or with those of the continental collisional environment in the tethyan metallogenic domain the involvement of highly oxidized intermediate to felsic magmas is fundamental for the formation of porphyry deposits even though the prevalent mash and slab melting models can be employed to interpret the genesis of some porphyry cu deposits in the camd a here newly suggested model which is based on pre enriched mafic lower crust and the subduction of a relictic mid oceanic ridge is thought to explain the large scale copper mineralization in the balkhash west junggar metallogenic belt of the kazakhstan metallogenic province nevertheless most of the porphyritic suites associated with the mo deposits in the northeast china metallogenic province have relatively depleted mantle like neodymium and hafnium isotopic compositions suggesting that the ore forming granitic magma may have predominantly been derived from juvenile lower crust upwelling of asthenosphere may have triggered the melting of the lower crust during post collisional extension subsequent to the closure of the paleo asian ocean in the triassic the subduction of the paleo pacific ocean in the jurassic and the thinning of the lithosphere caused by rollback of the paleo pacific plate in the cretaceous ancient crustal components were only locally found to have been involved in the magma source of several medium large mo deposits

a slow earthquake sequence on the san andreas fault earthquakes typically release stored strain energy on timescales of the order of seconds limited by the velocity of sound in rock over the past 20 years observations1 13 and laboratory experiments14 have indicated that rupture can also occur more slowly with durations up to hours such events may be important in earthquake nucleation15 and in accounting for the excess of plate convergence over seismic slip in subduction zones the detection of events with larger timescales requires near field deformation measurements in december 1992 two borehole strainmeters close to the san andreas fault in california recorded a slow strain event of about a week in duration and we show here that the strain changes were produced by a slow earthquake sequence equivalent magnitude 4 8 with complexity similar to that of regular earthquakes the largest earthquakes associated with these slow events were small local magnitude 3 7 and contributed negligible strain release the importance of slow earthquakes in the seismogenic process remains an open question but these observations extend the observed timescale for slow events by two orders of magnitude

evolution of the sublayer of the sudbury igneous complex geochemical sm nd isotopic and petrologic evidence abstract the mineralized sublayer at the base of the sudbury igneous complex sic consists of two variants the noritic contact sublayer and radial and concentric quartz dioritic offset dykes both are characterized by the presence of significant quantities of ni cu pge sulphides and by a prominent population of recrystallized diabasic textured and melanocratic to ultramafic fragments the two variants of the sublayer contain compositionally distinct inclusion populations and inclusion bearing matrices contact sublayer and offset dykes hosted by north range granitoid footwall can be distinguished from those hosted by south range basaltic and metasedimentary footwall environments the compositional variation in sic rocks can be described in terms of contributions from exposed crustal rocks and differentiation of the resultant melt s the basaltic inclusion population is characterized by hornfels recrystallization of the plagioclase and is geochemically and isotopically identified with huronian basalts which comprise the south range footwall with ce yb n ratios of around 2 5 and e nd 1850 between 2 to 5 the melanocratic inclusions in the sublayer are typically coarse grained and undeformed with incompatible element contents and radiogenic isotopic compositions intermediate between those of the basaltic inclusions and those of the melt sheet which has ce yb n ratios of around 10 and e nd 1850 around 9 calculated crystallization models are consistent with derivation of the ultramafic inclusions by crystallization from a magma produced by mixing of molten basaltic footwall with basal melt sheet it is proposed that the sublayer appeared as the marginal facies of a meteorite impact melt sheet as a result of footwall melting following the impact this basal layer was progressively enriched in sulphides and mafic cumulates from above through differentiation during cooling offset dykes were emplaced and the magmas effectively removed from the system subsequently continued evolution of the marginal facies produced the more mafic inclusions in the contact sublayer no extracrustal e g mantle component is envisioned in this model to explain the silicate compositional distributions in the sic and mafic crustal rocks in the target zone are implicated as the metal source for the sic deposits

the sudbury structure controversial or misunderstood the origins of the sudbury structure and associated igneous complex have been controversial most models call for a major impact event followed by impact induced igneous activity although totally igneous models are still being proposed much of the controversy is due in our opinion to a misunderstanding of the size of the original sudbury structure by analogy with other terrestrial impact structures the spatial distribution of shock features and huronian cover rocks at the sudbury structure suggest that the transient cavity was 100 km in diameter which places the original final structural rim diameter in the range of 150 200 km theoretical calculations and empirical relationships indicate that the formation of an impact structure of this size will result in 104 km3 of impact melt more than sufficient to produce a melt body the size of the igneous complex present volume 4 8 103 km3 for the igneous complex to be an impact melt sheet it must have a composition similar to that of the target rocks evidence for this has been presented previously for sr and nd isotopic data which suggest a crustal origin here we also present new evidence from least squares mixing models that the average composition of the igneous complex corresponds to a mix of archean granite greenstone terrain with possibly a small component of huronian cover rocks this is a geologically reasonable mix based on the interpreted target rock geology and the geometry of melt formation in an impact event of this size the igneous complex is differentiated which is not a characteristic of previously studied terrestrial impact melt sheets this can be ascribed however to its great thickness and slower cooling that large impact melt sheets can differentiate has important implications for how the lunar samples and the early geologic history of the lunar highlands are interpreted if this working hypothesis is accepted namely that both the sudbury structure and the igneous complex are impact in origin then previous hybrid impact igneous hypotheses can be discarded and the sudbury structure can be studied specifically for the constraints it provides to large scale cratering and the formation of basin sized multiring impact structures

la icp ms zircon u pb dating trace element and hf isotope geochemistry of the heyu granite batholith eastern qinling central china implications for mesozoic tectono magmatic evolution article i nfo mesozoic granitoids are widespread in the southern margin of the north china craton and of particular geo logical interests because of their indication for lithospheric evolution and close association with porphyry mo mineralization in this contribution in situ la icp ms u pb hf isotope and trace element analyses of zircon crystals have been combined to constrain the emplacement time and petrogenesis of the heyu granitic bath olith which hosts the yuchiling porphyry mo system henan province china as inferred from field investiga tions the concentrically zoned heyu batholith mainly consists of four texturally distinguishable phases and displays a pattern of monotonically decreasing u pb age from 143 0 1 6 ma for phase 1 through 138 4 1 5 ma for phase 2 through to ca 135 ma for phase 3 and to 133 6 1 3 ma for the mo mineralized yuchiling granite porphyry phase 4 the ehf t values 27 7 to 3 4 and the two stage hf model ages 1403 to 2924 ma of zircon grains together with the ages of local strata suggest that the magmas forming the heyu batholith were dominantly sourced from the crust with input of a mantle component the higher ce ce ratios of the zircon crystals in the mineralized yuchiling porphyry compared to those in the mo barren phases suggests that fluids exsolved from oxidic magmas might be more favorable for mo enrichment a regional synthesis suggests that intensive lithospheric thinning in the southern margin of the north china craton should not be earlier than 130 ma

geology mineralization and emplacement of the whistle parkin offset dike sudbury the whistle parkin dike is a 12 km long radial offset dike located in the northeast sector of the 1 85 ga sudbury impact structure the dike is connected to the sudbury igneous complex via a 0 5 km long 250 m wide embayment the whistle segment of the dike narrows to a width of approximately 30 m and extends for about 1 5 km from the complex where it is cut by the post creek fault zone this fault displaces the dike 2 km to the northwest beyond which it continues as the parkin portion of the dike the parkin segment extends a further 10 km north northeast the dike and genetically associated embayment are comprised of numerous rock types these include the sublayer radial breccia mafic sulfide bearing breccia inclusion rich quartz diorite and inclusion poor quartz diorite economic ni cu pge mineralization is found in association with the sublayer mafic sulfide bearing breccia and inclusion bearing quartz diorite phases rare earth element ree data reveal that the dike lithologies are representative of bulk sudbury igneous complex melt we propose a multistage emplacement mechanism for the dike the breccia units including the inclusion bearing quartz diorite phase were forcefully injected laterally into an impact generated radial crack during the excavation stage of crater formation subsequent early modification processes facilitated the intrusion of inclusion poor quartz diorite particularly along the dike margins inclusion poor quartz diorite emplacement may have been gravitationally driven from the overlying impact melt sheet later stage modification i e final transient cavity collapse caused decoupling of the whistle and parkin dike segments via faulting this occurred concurrently with the settling of the sublayer unit and associated economic sulfides into the embayment and main dike segments

the basal onaping intrusion in the north range roof rocks of the sudbury igneous complex the 1 85 ga sudbury impact structure is one of the largest impact structures on earth igneous bodies the so called basal onaping intrusion occur at the contact between the sudbury igneous complex sic and the overlying onaping formation and occupy 50 of this contact zone the basal onaping intrusion is presently considered part of the onaping formation which is a complex series of breccias here we present petrological and geochemical data from two drill cores and field data from the north range of the sudbury structure which suggests that the basal onaping intrusion is not part of the onaping formation our observations indicate that the basal onaping intrusion crystallized from a melt and has a groundmass comprising a skeletal intergrowth of feldspar and quartz that points to simultaneous cooling of both components increasing grain size and decreasing amounts of clasts with increasing depth are general features of roof rocks of coherent impact melt rocks at other impact structures and the basal onaping intrusion planar deformation features within quartz clasts of the basal onaping intrusion are indicators for shock metamorphism and together with the melt matrix point to the basal onaping intrusion as being an impact melt rock by definition importantly the contact between granophyre of the sic and basal onaping intrusion is transitional and we suggest that the basal onaping intrusion is what remains of the roof rocks of the sic and thus is a unit of the sic and not the onaping formation we suggest henceforth that this unit be referred to as the upper contact unit of the sic

chemical variations and genetic relationships between the hess and foy offset dikes at the sudbury impact structure offset dikes are found concentrically around and extending radially outward from the sudbury igneous complex sic which represents an 3 km thick differentiated impact melt sheet the dikes are typically composed of an inclusion rich so called quartz diorite iqd in the center of the dike and an inclusion poor quartz diorite qd along the margins of the dike new exposures of the intersection between the concentric hess and radial foy offset dikes provide an excellent opportunity to understand the relationship between the radial and concentric offset dikes and their internal phases the goal was to constrain the timing of the dike emplacements relative to the impact and formation of the sic results herein suggest that 1 the timing between the emplacement of the qd and iqd melts was geologically short 2 the hess and foy dikes coexisted as melts at the same time and the intersection between them represents a mixture of the two 3 the foy dike has a slightly more evolved chemical composition than the hess dike and 4 the iqd melt from the foy dike underwent some degree of chemical fractionation after its initial emplacement

isotopic heterogeneity in the sudbury impact melt sheet abstract a unique terrestrial large impact melt sheet is preserved in the 1850 ma sudbury structure ontario we have undertaken a pb isotope investigation of the southern limb of the melt sheet termed the south range main mass the model initial pb isotope ratios 207 pb 204 pb m vary stratigraphically through the predominantly quartz monzogabbroic lower unit varying from 15 40 to 15 45 at the base to ca 15 35 at the top of the sequence lateral variations of similar range occur in basal lower unit samples over scales of less than 5 km the range of these variations is similar to those of locally exposed upper crustal target rocks and it is evident that the melt sheet has efficiently preserved inherited variability during the violent phases of crater formation superheated impact melts are expected to be well mixed mechanically therefore significant post impact melting of target rocks fallback material and entrained clasts is required to explain such heterogeneity the sudbury structure hosts world class ni cu pge sulphide ore deposits systematic variation in 207 pb 204 pb m occurs throughout sulphide ores within the creighton embayment from massive 15 42 15 45 to interstitial ca 15 40 15 41 and disseminated ca 15 39 sulphide linking the pb isotope composition of these ores to the immediately overlying lower unit stratigraphy a protracted sulphide segregation history is apparent massive sulphides segregated early prior to or during initial silicate crystallisation although the total time involved in sulphide accumulation spanned much of the crystallisation of the lower unit it is also shown that lateral variations in ni depletion throughout the main mass correlate with pb isotopes those segments with the strongest chalcophile element depletion signatures reflecting the accumulation of significant basal sulphides have high initial pb isotope values consistent with early sulphide segregation the characterisation of pb isotopic heterogeneity has therefore provided insights into the evolution and scales of mixing of the melt sheet with the identified chemical variability between melt cells having a significant influence on ore forming processes

aseismic fault slip and block deformation in north china in north china the tectonic fault block system enables us to use the discontinuous deformation analysis dda method to simulate the long term cross fault survey and other geodetic data related to aseismic tectonic deformation by the simulation we have found that 1 slips on faults with different orientation are generally in agreement with the ene wsw tectonic stress field but the slip pattern of faulting can vary from nearly orthogonal to pure shear along the strike of the faults this pattern cannot be explained by simple geometric relation between the strike of the fault and the direction of the tectonic shortening this phenomenon has been observed at many sites of cross fault geodetic surveys and might be caused by the interactions between different blocks and faults 2 according to the dda model if the average aseismic slip rate along major active faults is at the order of several tenths of millimeter per year as observed by the cross fault geodetic surveys the typical strain rate inside a block is at the order of 10 8 year 1 or less so that the rate of 10 6 year 1 as reported by observations in smaller areas cannot be the representative deformation rate in this region 3 between the slips caused by regional compression and block rotation there is a possibility that the sense of slip caused by rigid body rotation in two adjacent blocks is opposite to the slip caused by the tectonic compression but the magnitude of slip resulting from the tectonic compression is much larger than that due to the block rotation thus in general the slip pattern on faults as a whole agrees with the sense of tectonic compression in this region that is to say the slip caused by regional compression dominates the entire slip budget 4 based on 3 some observed slips in contradiction to ene tectonic stress field may be caused by more localized sources and have no tectonic significance

constraints on slow earthquake dynamics from a swarm in central italy several clustered slow earthquakes have been recorded by a geodetic interferometer in central italy the strain rise times of the events range from tens to thousands of seconds and the seismic moment scales with the square root of the rise time this scaling law contrasts with the conservative assumption of constant rupture velocity in fault modeling but is consistent with the occurrence of a slow rupture propagation analogous to heat diffusion in a slab

formation of large scale impact melt dikes a case study of the foy offset dike at the sudbury impact structure canada abstract hypervelocity impacts frequently result in the formation of dikes in the crater floor and central uplift impact melt bearing dikes in large terrestrial impact basins such as the offset dikes at the sudbury impact structure occur at a large scale often tens of meters wide and several kilometers in length the offset dikes host significant ni cu pge deposits which include several well known mines such as totten and copper cliff that have been mined for nearly 100 years the offset dikes typically consist of a clast and sulfide rich core and clast poor margins their formation has been a subject of debate for decades the most widely proposed model is the early emplacement of clast poor impact melt shortly after the impact event followed by the later emplacement of clast and sulfide rich impact melt in the center of the dike an alternative hypothesis is that a single pulse of clast rich impact melt flowed into the fractured target rocks and flow differentiation resulted in a clast rich core and a clast poor margin in this study we examine field and petrographic relationships of the foy offset dike to better understand its emplacement our results show that the characteristics of the foy offset dike namely the gradational nature of the contact between the clast rich and clast poor phases the alignment of clasts sub parallel to this contact the geochemical similarities and the presence of sulfides within both phases of the dike are more consistent with the single injection and flow differentiation hypothesis

late mesozoic felsic magmatism and mo au pb zn mineralization in the southern margin of the north china craton a review abstract the widespread large scale mo au pb zn mineralization in the southern margin of the north china craton ncc is spatially and temporally associated with the voluminous late mesozoic granitic magmatism relationship between the granitic magmatism and ore mineralization has been extensively investigated in the last decade however controversy still exists regarding the magma source metallogeny and geodynamic settings this paper systematically reviews the major features of the mesozoic granitic magmatism and associated mo au pb zn mineralization in the southern margin of the north china craton including temporal and spatial variations of magmatic rocks composition of ore fluids sources of ore metals and metallogeny the granitic rocks were mainly formed in late mesozoic and emplaced in two stages the early stage 158 128 ma granites are of typical i type derived from remelting of ancient crust of the southern margin of the ncc with input of mantle material under lithospheric thinning tectonic regime the late stage 127 112 ma granites include a type and or highly fractionated i type granites which commonly contain more fractions of mantle materials as exhibited by more depleted isotopic signatures suggestive of an intracontinental extensional setting mo mineralization 155 130 ma related to the early stage granitic magmatism includes mainly of porphyry or porphyry skarn type with ore metals mainly derived from the mixed source of the mantle and crust whereas the late stage mo mineralization 127 116 ma is mainly of porphyry type with the ore metals from similar sources with more input of mantle materials pb zn deposits 144 130 ma associated with the early stage granitic magmatism are mainly of hydrothermal vein and skarn types whereas those 125 117 ma related to the late stage granites are of hydrothermal vein type the pb zn deposits are most likely distal products of the mo deposits together forming a metallogenic system au deposits are located in the xiaoqinling and xiong ershan areas and were formed during middle jurassic to early cretaceous 163 118 ma mostly from 132 to 120 ma the ores mainly occur in quartz veins and altered rocks and are hydrothermal magmatic in origin with au derived from a mixed source of crust and mantle

impact related dike breccia lithologies in the icdp drill core yaxcopoil 1 chicxulub impact structure mexico petrographic descriptions of three dike breccia lithologies from drill core yaxcopoil 1 yax 1 are presented they occur within allochthonous units of displaced sedimentary megablocks of the chicxulub impact structure the suevitic dike breccias are the uppermost dike lithology they contain melt rock particles and melt injections into the dike groundmass shock features occur ubiquitously and indicate a strong thermal annealing flow textures suggest a highly energetic emplacement process possibly during the excavation stage as a ground surge related deposit the impact melt rock dikes are present in a strongly brecciated megablock interval as flow textured anastomozing veinlets of impact melt rock that were altered to clay minerals the melt impregnated a dolomitic host rock indicating a low viscosity and thus high initial temperatures brecciation of the impact melt rock dikes occurred while they were still below the glass transition temperature suggesting that dynamic conditions prevailed shortly after the emplacement process major element data indicates that the impact melt rock dikes differ in composition from the homogenized impact melt rock of chicxulub this could point to an emplacement during the late compression or early excavation stages of cratering the clastic polymict dike breccias are coeval with pervasive brittle fracturing of the host rocks they bear clasts including some crystalline basement and possible melt rock particles in a fine grained dolomite matrix with turbulent flow textures fabric and texture indicate a granular flow at ambient pressures such conditions could be envisaged for the excavation phase while the transient cavity grew and fractures opened

timing of the yuchiling giant porphyry mo system and implications for ore genesis the yuchiling mo deposit is a recently discovered giant porphyry system in the east qinling mo belt china its apparent causative intrusion i e the yuchiling granite porphyry is the youngest intrusion phase 4 of the heyu multiphase granite batholith which was emplaced between 143 and 135 ma new robust constraints on the formation of the yuchiling porphyry mo system are provided by combined zircon u pb biotite 40ar 39ar and molybdenite re os dating zircon grains from the mo mineralized granite porphyry yield weighted 206pb 238u age of 134 0 1 4 ma n 19 2 error mswd 0 30 magmatic biotite from the same sample yield a 40ar 39ar plateau age of 135 1 1 4 ma 2 error and an inverse isochron age of 135 6 2 0 ma n 7 2 error mswd 10 8 which are effectively coincident with the zircon u pb age within analytical error three pulses of mineralization can be deduced from the molybdenite re os ages namely 141 137 and 134 ma which agree well with the zircon u pb ages of granitic phases 1 2 and the yuchiling porphyry phase 4 respectively these well constrained temporal correlations indicate that mo mineralization was caused by pulses of granitic magmatism and that the ore forming magmatic hydrothermal activity responsible for the yuchiling porphyry mo system lasted about 8 ma the yuchiling mo deposit represents a unique style of porphyry mo system formed in a post collision setting and associated with f rich high k calc alkaline intrusions which differ from convergent margin associated porphyry mo deposits

nd hf isotopic mapping of late mesozoic granitoids in the east qinling orogen central china constraint on the basements of terranes and distribution of mo mineralization abstract voluminous late mesozoic granitoids and the world s largest mo deposits occur in the east qinling this paper presents the results of nd hf isotopic mapping for the late mesozoic granitoids 155 105 ma and demonstrates their constraint on the basements and distribution of the mo deposits in the east qinling this isotopic map made by 98 21 new and 77 published whole rock nd isotopic and 29 7 new and 22 published average zircon hf isotopic data shows large variations of whole rock end t values from 22 1 to 1 5 and the correspondingly nd model ages tdm nd from 2 83 to 0 79 ga and zircon ehf t values from 26 3 to 0 1 and two stage hf model ages tdm2 hf from 2 86 to 0 96 ga three regions of variations have been identified from north to south a end t values range from 22 1 to 10 9 with tdm nd of 2 82 1 47 ga and ehf t values 26 3 to 13 5 with tdm2 hf 2 86 2 04 ga b end t values 13 9 to 1 5 with tdm nd 2 02 0 79 ga and ehf t values 16 2 to 0 1 with tdm2 hf 1 96 0 96 ga and c end t values 6 3 to 4 5 with tdm nd 1 28 1 12 ga and ehf t values 1 0 to 0 3 with tdm2 hf 1 25 1 22 ga respectively the three regions approximately correspond to the three different terranes the southern margin of the north china block ncb the north qinling belt nqb and the south qinling belt sqb respectively these demonstrate that the granitoids in the different terranes have distinct sources and their sources change from old to more juvenile from the north southern margin of the ncb to the south sqb these also reveal the distinct basements for the terranes in late mesozoic the southern margin of the ncb contains widespread neoarchaean to paleoproterozoic basement the nqb comprises archaean to neoproterozic basement and the sqb mesoproterozic to neoproterozic basement all these suggest that the three terranes underwent different tectonic evolution and the continental crust of the east qinling were mainly formed during archaean to neoproterozic different from a typical accretion orogen the old sources of the granitoids and basements of the terranes constrain the distribution scale and number of the mo mineralization and deposits mo mineralization is closely related to the small granitic bodies with old continental component sources and mo deposits are mainly hosted by the terranes with oldest basement the scale and number of the mo mineralization and deposits decreased from the southern margin of the ncb to sqb

igneous rocks formed by hypervelocity impact abstract igneous rocks are the primary building blocks of planetary crusts most igneous rocks originate via decompression melting and or wet melting of protolith lithologies within planetary interiors and their classification and compositional petrographic and textural characteristics are well studied as our exploration of the solar system continues so too does the inventory of intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks settings and processes the results of planetary exploration have also clearly demonstrated that impact cratering is a ubiquitous geological process that has affected and will continue to affect all planetary objects with a solid surface whether that be rock or ice it is now recognized that the production of igneous rocks is a fundamental outcome of hypervelocity impact the goal of this review is to provide an up to date synthesis of our knowledge and understanding of igneous rocks formed by hypervelocity impact following a brief overview of the basics of the impact process we describe how and why melts are generated during impact events and how impact melting differs from endogenic igneous processes while the process may differ we show that the products of hypervelocity impact can share close similarities with volcanic and shallow intrusive igneous rocks of endogenic origin such impact melt rocks as they are termed can display lobate margins and cooling cracks columnar joints and at the hand specimen and microscopic scale such rocks can display mineral textures that are typical of volcanic rocks such as quench crystallites ophitic porphyritic as well as features such as vesicles flow textures and so on historically these similarities led to the misidentification of some igneous rocks now known to be impact melt rocks as being of endogenic origin this raises the question as to how to distinguish between an impact versus an endogenic origin for igneous like rocks on other planetary bodies where fieldwork and sample analysis may not be possible and all that may be available is remote sensing data while the interpretation of some impact melt rocks may be relatively straightforward e g for clast rich varieties and those with clear projectile contamination we conclude that distinguishing between impact and endogenic igneous rocks is a non trivial task that ultimately may require sample investigation and analysis to be conducted caution is therefore urged in the interpretation of igneous rocks on planetary surfaces

sub million year age resolution of precambrian igneous events by thermal extraction thermal ionization mass spectrometer pb dating of zircon application to crystallization of the sudbury impact melt sheet a new approach to zircon dating is described that potentially offers a considerable improvement in the accuracy of 207 pb 206 pb ages on a wider variety of samples and at less cost than that generally available from conventional techniques zircon is first preheated in a vacuum to evaporate pb from altered domains leaving predominantly pb with isotopes that preserve the primary age of the sample refractory pb is removed from the zircon by thermal extraction at higher temperature directly into a silica melt ionization activator within a thermal ionization mass spectrometer this produces strong ion beams that allow 207 pb 206 pb isotope ratios to be measured to high precision 10 4 with almost negligible contamination from common pb isotope fractionation appears to be more reproducible than with conventional solution analysis allowing routine age determinations with precision of 0 2 m y for the precambrian as a test application zircon from a noritic boundary phase of the sudbury impact melt gives 1849 53 0 21 ma while a phase from several hundred meters higher in the noritic layer is resolvably younger at 1849 11 0 19 ma 95 confidence errors the enhanced precision and ease of application of this method should greatly increase the scientific power and availability of zircon dating

models of crustal deformation this review is principally concerned with theoretical models of crustal deformation developed during this quadrennium observational data as well as topics in lithospheric flexure and isostasy are covered in companion reviews in this volume progress has been made toward constructing both new inelastic and inhomogeneous elastic models of earthquake induced crustal deformation most of the inelastic models involve dislocations or green s functions in an elastic or anelastic lithosphere which overlies a maxwell viscoelastic asthenosphere

tectonic implications from re os dating of mesozoic molybdenum deposits in the east qinling dabie orogenic belt abstract the east qinling dabie molybdenum belt is part of a larger east west trending metallogenic belt in eastern china most of the molybdenum deposits occur as porphyry or porphyry skarn type but there are also some vein type deposits following systematic re os dating of molybdenite from 13 deposits and comparisons with two previously dated deposits we have recognized that the molybdenum mineralization in the east qinling dabie belt was developed during hydrothermal activity linked to magmatism and the emplacement of granitoid stocks three pulses of granitoid magmatism and mo mineralization are recognized corresponding to significant tectonic events in the east qinling dabie belt vein type deposits dated at 233 221 ma were formed in detachment fractures indicating localized extension within the collisional setting of the north china and yangtze cratons i type and transitional i and s type granites and related mineralization dated at 148 138 ma may have formed part of a continental magmatic arc with widespread magmatism and back arc extension caused by subduction of the izanagi or paleopacific plate beneath the eurasian continent in a wnw ese direction in the late jurassic early cretaceous both s type and transitional s and i type granite associated porphyry molybdenum deposits dated at 131 112 ma are part of an extensive mineralization event throughout east china that can be ascribed to regional large scale lithospheric thinning delamination and thermal erosion

early mesozoic mo mineralization in the qinling orogen an overview abstract as one of the most important mo provinces in the world the qinling orogen is host to mainly late mesozoic late jurassic early cretaceous porphyry mo systems recently additional early mesozoic mainly triassic plus minor early jurassic mo deposits have been identified which occur as fault controlled quartz veins or as carbonatite veins and as such they are fundamentally different from the commonly observed porphyry systems furthermore early mesozoic porphyry systems are also present but they are different from those of late mesozoic age thus early mesozoic mo systems not only offer a new and comprehensive view of the mo metallogenesis but also provide unique insight into the tectonic evolution of the qinling orogen taking into consideration the role of mineral deposits as ideal probes of the geodynamic evolution the known early mesozoic mo deposits in qinling can be classified into three types based on their geological and geochemical features porphyry carbonatite and orogenic systems porphyry mo systems including porphyry porphyry skarn and intrusion related veins are spatially and genetically associated with granitic porphyries they display typical porphyry type alterations and are formed by magmatic water carbonatites are considered as mantle derived igneous rocks and mo mineralization is associated with magmatic fluids orogenic mo systems occur as fault controlled quartz lodes and the ore forming fluids are medium high temperature co2 rich metamorphic fluids spatially early mesozoic porphyry mo systems are concentrated in the western and middle part of the qinling orogen whereas carbonatite veins and orogenic mo systems are located in the northeastern part temporally orogenic mo deposits were the earliest mainly between 220 and 250 ma followed by carbonatite veins mainly between 205 and 225 ma and porphyry mo systems mainly between 190 and 205 ma with some exceptions there is generally a trend of decreasing deposit ages toward the western part of the orogen detailed comparison reveals that the early mesozoic porphyry mo systems in the qinling orogen are different from the late mesozoic ones in terms of their economic importance spatial distribution ore causative intrusions hydrothermal alteration and the ore forming fluids to explain the above geological and geochemical features the triassic qinling is considered as an active continental margin caused by the northward subduction of the mian lue oceanic plate a transition from continental arc to back arc basin is suggested for the formation of triassic orogenic and carbonatite vein mo deposits whereas continental arc is host to the early mesozoic porphyry mo systems

stress redistribution and slow earthquakes abstract earthquakes are usually assumed to result when the gradual stress buildup in a region eventually exceeds some initial local strength there are observations which suggest that a number of mechanisms must have a significant role in stress redistribution in active earthquake regions the stress build up could be non linear in time there is evidence that this is so in the case of some major earthquakes one mechanism that might explain non linear strain buildup is a slow earthquake this is similar to a normal earthquake except that the rupture and slip velocities are very low so that negligible energy is radiated in the normally observed seismic frequency band the slow earthquakes studied here have been recorded by a network of sacks evertson borehole strainmeters installed along the seismically active pacific coast of honshu japan larger slow events may have slow foreshocks and aftershocks in a manner similar to that for normal earthquakes the aftershocks appear to have lower stress drops than the foreshocks the static field changes associated with the izu oshima earthquake m 7 of january 1978 were sufficiently large that they were clearly recorded by the nearest three strainmeters interpretation of the records indicate that this earthquake was in essence a normal quake followed by a slow event of similar moment this interpretation is corroborated by reports of ground vibration and faulting on the izu peninsula

origin of late mesozoic granitoids in the newly discovered zha shan porphyry cu district south qinling central china and implications for regional metallogeny abstract the newly discovered porphyry cu deposits in the south qinling belt sqb have not been well researched as compared with the large porphyry mo province in the southern north china block s ncb and the origin of granitoids associated with porphyry cu mineralization in the zha shan district sqb is poorly constrained here we present detailed zircon u pb geochronological whole rock elemental and sr nd isotopic data for important late mesozoic granitoid stocks associated with porphyry cu deposits in the zha shan district these data are used to constrain the age and the source of magmas that formed these granitoids and implication of regional metallogeny the new zircon la icpms u pb ages presented here indicate that the granitoids related to porphyry cu system at chigou beishagou shuangyuangou and yuanjiagou developed at 148 144 ma 144 ma 145 144 ma and 146 ma respectively these rocks are high k calc alkaline i type granitoids which are enriched in large ion lithophile elements e g th u and pb and light rare earth elements are depleted in nb ta and ti characterizing by wide variations in initial end t 3 8 to 9 5 and moderate radiogenic sr isotopes 87 sr 86 sr i 0 7046 to 0 7093 these features indicate that the magmas that formed the granitoids related to porphyry cu system in the zha shan district formed as a result of variable degrees of mixing between crustal and metasomatic lithospheric mantle the new zircon la icpms u pb ages in this study combined with previous published data suggest that regional scale late jurassic to early cretaceous granitoid stocks and associated porphyry cu and mo systems in both the s ncb and sqb formed almost contemporaneously with 147 139 ma porphyry mo deposits in the s ncb and 148 145 ma porphyry cu deposits in the sqb the cu related intrusions contained a greater contribution of lithospheric mantle component than the mo related intrusions in the east qinling orogeny

geology mineralization and emplacement of the foy offset dike sudbury impact structure the foy offset dike is the longest of the known radial dikes associated with the 1 85 ga sudbury igneous complex the foy dike extends for at least 30 km from the complex into the north range archean and proterozoic footwall rocks of the sudbury impact structure the dike ranges in width from 400 m where it connects to the sudbury igneous complex to 50 m at its most distal known exposure we divide the dike into a proximal segment and a distal segment based on where it intersects the concentric hess offset dike three main dike lithologies are distinguished all referred to as varieties of quartz diorite inclusion rich pyroxene quartz diorite occurs in the embayment adjacent to the base of the main mass of the sudbury igneous complex this constitutes the sublayer northward the sublayer gives way to amphibole biotite inclusion bearing quartz diorite and amphibole biotite inclusion poor quartz diorite the dike is mineralized and deposits in the proximal segment have been mined mineralization is associated with the inclusion rich dike phase at the nickel offset mine the dike contains inclusion bearing massive ni cu sulfides that also host platinum group minerals the orebodies occurred as strike parallel sheets within the central parts of the dike in association with inclusion bearing quartz diorite the geochemistry of the dike lithologies indicates that both the inclusion poor and inclusion bearing quartz diorite varieties are close in composition to the postulated bulk composition of the sudbury igneous complex this implies that the dike was emplaced prior to any significant fractionation of the main melt body and hence very early in the evolution of the sudbury complex we envisage dike emplacement rapidly following rebound and central uplift formation as part of the impact process early dike emplacement implies that the ore was also introduced early in the evolution of the melt sheet when the inclusion poor quartz diorite phases were still unconsolidated uplift would have caused extension in the target rocks and so dilated the footwall fractures and faults that then became hosts primarily via gravitationally driven intrusion to the primitive polymict impact melt breccias and sulfide ores the chilled margin compositions of the foy inclusion poor quartz diorite are considered good indicators of the original bulk composition of the sudbury igneous complex this idea is supported by comparison with calculated estimations of the bulk composition a shift in geochemical trends a grain size increase and a decrease in inclusion content occurs 22 km along the length of the dike which we believe corresponds to a fault system that downfaults to the north given that the dense ore would have preferentially settled toward the base of the foy dike fracture system postimpact downfaulting of the distal segment of the dike may have displaced any mineralized zones present to deeper levels relative to the proximal segment

geology of the giant sudbury polymetallic mining camp ontario canada a new 1 100 000 scale compilation bedrock geology map provided with this issue presents a geologic synthesis of canada s most prolific mining camp the world class sudbury structure with total past production and current reserves of over 1 7 billion tonnes of ni cu co pt pd au ag ore lydon 2007 the polymetallic ore is hosted within one of earth s largest preserved impact craters the new map of the ni cu pge sudbury district after ames et al 2005 is included in a pocket at the back of this issue map 1 and is linked to mineral deposit commodity and geochronology data in tables 1 and 2 of this paper view this table table 1 list of mineral deposits and occurrences of the sudbury map area map 1 view this table table 2 u pb isotope data across the map area since 1891 six compilation maps of the geology of sudbury have been published bell 1891 collins 1937 cooke 1946 card 1969 dressler 1984 ames et al 2005 fig 1 some of the ni cu pge mines have operated for over a century whereas new ore deposits discovered as recently as 2004 are already in production or are in the process of being developed i e advanced prospects in the last 15 years sudbury has been the training ground for 60 postgraduate geoscience students in north america fig 1 from 1903 to 1990 only 23 graduate theses were completed on sudbury related topics eight of them in the 1970s after the discovery of shatter cones dietz 1964 fig 1 number of graduate theses of north american geoscientists trained on sudbury geology per decade showing the minor peak in training after the discovery of shatter cones and the recent education boom with over 50 geoscience graduate theses completed since 1990 the dashed lines represent the regional geologic maps of the sudbury area

episodic aseismic earthquake precursors shallow earthquakes are generally believed to be brittle fractures in a stressed medium with rupture velocity at a speed close to that for shear waves we know however that the earth allows failure over a wide range of timescales creep events occur on the san andreas fault system and for some earthquakes the high speed rupture is accompanied by a slower process1 5 here we report on episodic slow events which occurred before the japan sea earthquake of magnitude 7 7 on 26 may 1983 a sacks evertson borehole strain meter6 90 km from the earthquake recorded about 100 aseismic strain events in a five month period before and immediately following the earthquake none has been detected after the large aftershocks the observed signals are consistent with a precursory redistribution of stress through aseismic slip on a deep extension of the main shock fault plane such episodic aseismic events may provide a mechanism for relatively rapid stress concentration before earthquakes

the mesozoic caosiyao giant porphyry mo deposit in inner mongolia north china and paleo pacific subduction related magmatism in the northern north china craton abstract the caosiyao giant porphyry mo deposit is located in the wulanchabu area of inner mongolia within the northern north china craton ncc it contains more than 2385 mt of ore with an average grade of 0 075 mo in the caosiyao mining district mo mineralization occurs mainly in a mesozoic granite porphyry as disseminations and stockworks with some mo distributed in archean metamorphic rocks and diabase as stockworks and veins the host granite porphyry is composed of two different phases that can be distinguished based on mineral assemblages and textures one phase contains large and abundant phenocrysts coarse grained while the other phase is characterized by fewer and smaller phenocrysts medium grained zircon u pb hf analyses of the former phase yielded a concordant 206pb 238u age of 149 8 2 4 ma with a 206pb 238u weighted mean age of 149 9 2 4 ma and ehf t values ranging from 12 2 to 18 3 while the latter phase gave a concordant 206pb 238u age of 149 0 2 2 ma with a 206pb 238u weighted mean age of 149 0 2 1 ma and ehf t values ranging from 13 1 to 17 7 five samples of disseminated molybdenite have a 187re 187os isochron age of 149 5 5 3 ma with a weighted average age of 149 0 1 8 ma whereas six veinlet type molybdenite samples have a well constrained 187re 187os isochron age of 146 9 3 1 ma and a weighted average age of 146 5 0 8 ma thus it is suggested that the mo mineralization of the caosiyao deposit occurred during the late jurassic ca 147 149 ma almost coeval with the emplacement of the host granite porphyry ca 149 150 ma the host granite porphyry is characterized by high silica sio2 71 52 74 10 wt relatively high levels of oxidation fe2o3 feo 0 32 0 94 wt and high alkali element concentrations na2o k2o 8 21 8 76 wt the host granite porphyry also shows enrichments in u and k and depletion in ba sr p eu and ti suggesting strong fractional crystallization of plagioclase biotite and accessory minerals these observations together with high sio2 contents and a high differentiation index di 89 04 92 44 indicate a strong differentiation of the granite magma based on geological geochronological isotope systematics and geochemical studies we propose for the first time a genetic model for the caosiyao porphyry mo deposit under a regional extensional setting caused by far field tectonics related to the paleo pacific subduction during the late jurassic a series of geodynamic magmatic and ore forming processes took place including formation of multi directional and multi phase faults emplacement of the granitic host rocks and mo mineralization highly silicic highly oxidized and alkali rich granitic magma derived from partial melting of old lower crust intruded into the country rocks this highly differentiated granitic magma and the exsolved ore forming fluids enriched in mo migrated upward and interacted with the wall rocks eventually ore minerals precipitated in fractures resulting in the extensive deposition of molybdenite

the evolution of the onaping formation at the sudbury impact structure the 1 4 1 6 km thick onaping formation consists of a complex series of breccias and melt bodies lying above the sudbury igneous complex sic at the sudbury impact structure based on the presence of shocked lithic clasts and various glassy phases the onaping has been described as a suevitic breccia with an origin at least in part as fallback material recent mapping and a redefined stratigraphy have emphasized similarities and differences in its various vitric phases both as clast types and discrete intrusive bodies the nature of the onaping and that of other suevitic breccias overlying impact melt sheets is reviewed the relative thickness internal stratigraphic and lithological character and the relative chronology of depositional units indicate multiple processes were involved over some time in the formation of the onaping the sudbury structure formed in a foreland basin and water played an essential role in the evolution of the onaping as indicated by a major hydrothermal system generated during its formation taken together observations and interpretations of the onaping suggest a working hypothesis for the origin of the onaping that includes not only impact but also the interaction of sea water with the impact melt resulting in repeated explosive interactions involving proto sic materials and mixing with pre existing lithologies this is complicated by additional brecciation events due to the intrusion of proto sic materials into the evolving and thickening onaping fragmentation mechanisms changed as the system evolved and involved vesiculation in the formation of the upper two thirds of the onaping

differentiation and emplacement of the worthington offset dike of the sudbury impact structure ontario the offset dikes of the 1 85 ga sudbury igneous complex sic constitute a key topic in understanding the chemical evolution of the impact melt its mineralization and the interplay between melt migration and impact induced deformation the origin of the melt rocks in offset dikes as well as mode and timing of their emplacement are still a matter of debate like many other offset dikes the worthington is composed of an early emplaced texturally rather homogeneous quartz diorite qd phase at the dike margin and an inclusion and sulfide rich quartz diorite iqd phase emplaced later and mostly in the centre of the dike the chemical heterogeneity within and between qd and iqd is mainly attributed to variable assimilation of host rocks at the base of the sic prior to emplacement of the melt into the dike petrological data suggest that the parental magma of the worthington dike mainly developed during the pre liquidus temperature interval of the thermal evolution of the impact melt sheet 1200 c based on thermal models of the cooling history of the sic the two stage emplacement of the worthington dike occurred likely thousands to about ten thousand years after impact structural analysis indicates that an alignment of minerals and host rock fragments within the worthington dike was caused by ductile deformation under greenschist facies metamorphic conditions rather than flow during melt emplacement it is concluded that the worthington offset dike resulted from crater floor fracturing possibly driven by late stage isostatic readjustment of crust underlying the impact structure

a u pb age for mineralized nipissing diabase gowganda ontario concordant baddeleyite and rutile analyses from mineralized nipissing diabase at gowganda s castle mine yield a u pb age of baddeleyite is a primary phase of the diabase therefore the age dates the magmatic emplacement the genesis of rutile is less certain rutile could have formed during an episode of alteration veining and ag mineralization in which case the u pb age would also date the secondary event and demonstrate that ag mineralization was related to the nipissing magmatism however a primary magmatic origin of the rutile cannot be completely excluded for now thus the u pb age may not constrain the time of ag mineralization further research is needed to clarify this point

geologic framework and tectonic evolution of the qinling orogen central china abstract the geologic framework of the qinling orogen was built up through interplay of three blocks the north china block including the north qinling the south qinling and the south china block separated by the shangdan and mianlue sutures the shangdan suture resulted from middle paleozoic collision of the north china block and the south qinling the mianlue suture resulted from late triassic collision of the south qinling and the south china block present upper crust of the qinling is structured dominantly by thrust fold systems the north qinling displays thick skinned deformation with crystalline basement involved whilst the south qinling is characterized by thin skinned thrusts and folds detached above the lower sinian two types of precambrian basement crystalline and transitional are defined according to lithology and metamorphic grade and different in age stratigraphic and sedimentary architecture is characterized by distinct zonation the qinling orogen experienced a prolonged continental divergence and convergence between blocks during the period from late neoproterozoic to early paleozoic times the south qinling was the northern margin of the south china block and the north qinling was the southern margin of the north china block separated by a proto tethyan qinling ocean the north qinling evolved into an active margin when the proto tethyan qinling ocean subducted northward during ordovician time collision of the south and north qinling took place in middle paleozoic along the shangdan suture synchronous with the collision rifting occurred at the southern rim of the south qinling and was followed by the opening of the paleo tethyan qinling ocean during the late paleozoic resulting in the splitting of the south china block from the south qinling collision of the south qinling and the south china block came about in the late triassic along the mianlue suture the late triassic collisional orogeny caused extensive fold and thrust deformation and granitoid intrusions throughout the qinling and led to final amalgamation of the north and south china blocks

origin of the lengshuigou porphyry skarn cu deposit in the zha shan district south qinling central china and implications for differences between porphyry cu and mo deposits porphyry cu and mo deposits are two economically important types of metal deposits worldwide but factors controlling their difference remain enigmatic compared with the well studied large porphyry mo province in the south margin of the north china block s ncb the origin of newly discovered porphyry cu deposits in the south qinling sqb is poorly constrained integrated zircon la icpms u pb and molybdenite re os ages and geological evidence indicate three stages of magmatism at lengshuigou 1 late neoproterozoic 718 to 704 ma quartz diorite albitite granite association during the pre ore stage 2 146 to 145 ma granodiorite porphyry during the syn ore stage and 3 145 ma granite porphyry during the post ore stage elemental and sr nd isotopic evidence provide important constraints on their magma source pre ore neoproterozoic quartz diorite albitite granite was derived by re melting of a mixture of crustal and juvenile mantle materials and stronger fractional crystallization was involved in these ore hosting intrusions than in contemporary granitoids hosted in the douling group syn ore granodiorite porphyry was derived from mantle derived magma with contributions from different proportions of crustal components post ore granite porphyry was derived mainly from a crustal source nearly contemporaneous porphyry cu and mo systems were identified in qinling province including the 147 139 ma porphyry mo systems in the s ncb and 150 146 ma porphyry cu systems in the sqb granitic stocks related to porphyry cu systems in the sqb are characterized by moderate sio2 contents 58 01 69 07 and less radiogenic nd hf isotopes end t 3 8 to 6 3 ehf t 4 5 to 1 6 whereas the granitic stocks related to porphyry mo deposits in the s ncb have high sio2 concentrations 64 00 76 00 and more radiogenic nd hf isotopes end t 18 0 to 11 6 ehf t 26 3 to 13 5 in addition molybdenite from the chigou and lengshuigou porphyry cu deposits in the s ncb show higher re contents 77 50 394 3 ppm than those from nearly contemporaneous porphyry mo deposits 9 34 49 7 ppm in the s ncb these lines of evidence indicate that a higher proportion of mantle component was involved in the formation of porphyry cu deposits in the sqb than nearly contemporaneous porphyry mo deposits in the s ncb it is most likely that the nature of the magma source plays an essential role in the differences between porphyry cu and mo deposits

seismicity focal mechanisms and tectonics in the last four years there has been a tremendous increase in the detail of tectonic processes reported in the typical seismotectonic study new data from many local and regional networks of seismographs established during the previous four year period plus the now routine application of improved hypocentral location procedures long period body wave modelling and moment tensor inversion using digitally recorded data have increased resolution of both the hypocentral location and the nature of the faulting process consequently research emphasis has been on local tectonics or those aspects of regional and global tectonics requiring high resolution i briefly describe below some of the highlights of these studies

mesozoic molybdenum deposits in the east qinling dabie orogenic belt characteristics and tectonic settings abstract the east qinling dabie orogenic belt accommodates the largest mo ore district in the world it contains 8 43 mt of proven mo metal reserves which accounts for 66 of the total proven chinese mo reserves the mo ore district includes 24 deposits and 12 occurrences with four major types of mo mineral systems i e porphyry porphyry skarn skarn and hydrothermal veins the latter can be further subdivided into quartz vein and carbonatite vein types although mo mineralization in the belt began in the paleoproterozoic 1680 24 to 2044 14 ma all economically significant deposits were formed during the mesozoic re os dating of molybdenite has shown that there are three episodes of mo mineralization i e late triassic 233 221 ma late jurassic to early cretaceous 148 138 ma and early to middle cretaceous 131 112 ma late triassic mo deposits developed as molybdenite quartz veins and carbonatite vein types stable isotope systematics c o s and high contents of re and sr indicate that the carbonatite mo veins are mantle derived porphyry and porphyry skarn mo mineral deposits were formed in the late jurassic to early cretaceous and early to middle cretaceous the late jurassic to early cretaceous granite porphyries that are associated with the mo deposits usually occupy less than 1 5 km2 at the surface and are situated in the east qinling area far west of china s continental margin on the other hand the early to middle cretaceous batholiths and granite porphyries with associated mo deposits are located in the dabieshan area and eastern part of the east qinling area the late jurassic to early creataceous granitoids and related mo deposits possibly formed in a back arc extensional setting of the eurasian continental margin which was probably triggered by the oblique subduction of the izanagi plate the early to middle cretaceous batholiths and granite porphyries are linked to the tectonic regime of lithospheric thinning asthenospheric upwelling and partial melting of the crust induced by a change in izanagi plate motion parallel to the continent margin in the east qinling dabie belt there are vein type pb zn ag deposits surrounding porphyry and or porphyry skarn mo w deposits forming well defined ore clusters the same spatial arrangement i e porphyry mo stockworks and outlying pb zn ag ore veins is also observed at the deposit scale thus mo porphyry stockworks and distal polymetallic veins belong to the same ore system and may reflect an outward temperature decrease from the highly fractionated granite plutons both porphyry stockworks and polymetallic veins can be used as vectors for further prospecting

radial gravity anomalies associated with the ejecta of the orientale basin abstract grail gravity data shows small scale gravity anomalies radiating out from the orientale basin between distances of 550 km average distance to the cordillera ring and 1000 km these radial gravity lineations are sometimes associated with secondary crater chains or catenae of which the specific details of formation and their relation to the basin ejecta remain unclear however many of the radial gravity anomalies have no clear topographic signature at all typical anomalies have an average width of about 20 km with a magnitude of 20 mgal and a length of 50 200 km here we use gravity inversions hydrocode modeling and observations to investigate the radial gravity anomalies in more detail density inversion models show that the gravity can be matched by solutions ranging from broad low amplitude anomalies with density contrasts of 20 kg m3 extending to depths of tens of kilometers to shallow high amplitude anomalies with density contrasts of about 200 400 kg m3 confined to the top 1 2 km of the crust hydrocode models of the low velocity secondary impacts of basin ejecta show that the impacting material does not disperse as occurs for hypervelocity impacts but instead remains as a thin layer within the secondary craters this remaining secondary projectile material derived from orientale ejecta can explain the linear gravity anomalies associated with secondary crater chains and catenae however this does not explain the majority of linear gravity features that are not associated with secondary crater chains therefore we conclude that the majority of radial gravity anomalies represent the structure of the ejecta deposit this density variability within the ejecta of basins likely contributes substantially to the density variability of the shallow upper crust as a whole

a review of the geological characteristics and geodynamic setting of the late early cretaceous molybdenum deposits in the east qinling dabie molybdenum belt east china abstract the east qinling dabie molybdenum belt which is located in the nearly east west trending qinling dabie orogen east china is the largest mo belt in the world and is characterized by extensive mesozoic mineralization although the late early cretaceous ca 120 100 ma is the latest stage of the mo mineralization in the east qinling dabie mo belt this period shows relatively intensive mo mineralization such as the world class shapinggou mo deposit all of the late early cretaceous mo deposits are closely related to granitic magmatism some of which are typical porphyry type deposits e g donggou tangjiaping shapinggou homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions in the late early cretaceous mo deposits range from 115 to 550 c with salinities ranging from 0 02 to 62 1 wt nacl equivalent different amount of co2 have been recognized in the hydrothermal systems of these mo deposits indicating h2o nacl co2 systems the ore forming fluids in these mo deposits were magmatic water mixed with different amount of meteoric water except the donggou deposit the 34s values of sulfides from the late early cretaceous mo deposits have a narrow range of 0 4 6 3 suggesting a deep magmatic source for the sulfur the donggou mo deposit has slightly higher 34s values 7 5 9 4 reflecting that the ore sulfur was mainly derived from magma probably with some upper crust materials available isotopic data show that the ore associated magmas of the late early cretaceous mo deposits were mainly derived from crustal materials probably with some contribution of mantle or newly added crust the donggou tangjiaping and shapinggou mo deposits are genetically related to a type magmatism suggesting that they formed in an extensional setting the late early cretaceous mo deposits in the east qinling dabie mo belt formed in an intraplate extensional setting accompanied by the lithospheric thinning and asthenospheric upwelling

emplacement history of granophyre dikes in the vredefort impact structure south africa inferred from geochemical evidence abstract the central vredefort impact structure is characterised by impact melt rocks known as the vredefort granophyre dikes the mode of emplacement of which is not well known whole rock and petrographic analyses of two dikes were conducted and compared to published geochemical data to elucidate the mode and timing of dike formation the dikes are characterised by compositional and textural heterogeneity between and within individual dikes specifically central dike portions are felsic and rich in wall rock fragments whereas marginal dike phases are more mafic and fragment poor collectively this suggests that melt was derived from compositionally different parental melts and emplaced in at least two pulses in addition the chemical heterogeneity between fragment rich and fragment poor dike zones can be explained by variable assimilation of a mafic component notably ventersdorp basalt at the base of the impact melt sheet from which melt of the granophyre dikes is derived this scenario accounts for the mafic and fragment poor character of melt emplaced first in the dikes and the more felsic and fragment rich nature of melts of the following emplacement pulse i e when the impact melt was less hot and thus less capable of digesting large quantities of mafic wall rock fragments differences in geometrical textural chemical and fragment characteristics between the granophyre dikes and pseudotachylite bodies can be explained by the same process i e impact melt drainage but operating at different times after impact

theory of time dependent rupture in the earth at a velocity x which is a well defined function of k this propagation is stable and quasi static and is referred to as subcritical crack growth we shall use the terms stable quasistatic and subcritical to mean propagation at velocities much less than the sonic velocities of the medium this behavior results from stress induced corrosion at the crack tip the principal corrodent for the present application being h20 this behavior has been firmly established in the laboratory for mode i tensile cracks in a wide variety of materials ineluding silicates and silicate glasses see cholz 1968a 1972a martin 1972 wiederhorn and bolz 1970 atkinson 1979 lawn and wilshaw 1975 knott 1973 the form of the relationship between k and x does not vary significantly with the material only the parameters in the law vary as an example we show in figure 1 data on subcritical crack growth in quartz after atkinson 1979 the empirical relationship is found to take the form

the sudbury igneous complex a differentiated impact melt sheet the sudbury structure ontario is the remnant of a 1 85 ga old impact crater which originally had a diameter of 200 to 250 km the sudbury igneous complex occurs within the sudbury structure the sudbury igneous complex is a 2 5 to 3 0 km thick 60 27 km elliptical igneous rock body which consists of four major lithologies from top to bottom traditionally termed granophyre quartz gabbro norite and contact sublayer sulfide and inclusion bearing noritic rock with the exception of the latter all these lithologies are continuous across the structure modal analyses reveal that following the iugs system of nomenclature quartz gabbro samples are in fact quartz monzogabbros a few of the norite samples are quartz gabbros and most norite samples are quartz monzogabbros in view of these observations and in order to clarify the nomenclature an updated terminology is proposed from top to bottom upper unit middle unit lower unit and contact sublayer the bulk composition of the sudbury igneous complex from north range data is granodioritic continuous and gradational mineralogical and geochemical variations between the lithological units are evidence that the complex behaved as a single melt system all the sudbury igneous complex lithologies have the same light to heavy rare earth element ree ratio and an overall pattern of increased light ree and depleted heavy ree the occurrence of primary hydrous minerals hornblende and biotite deuteric alteration and abundant micrographic and granophyric intergrowths demonstrate that the melt was rich in h2o moreover the granophyric and other far from equilibrium textures are most likely due to rapid crystallization triggered by exsolution of a volatile phase the sudbury igneous complex differs from traditional layered mafic complexes in the following aspects it has an overall intermediate composition a hydrous nature a crustal isotopic signature normative corundum and an unusually large volume of granophyre the sudbury complex differs from known terrestrial impact melt sheets only by its great thickness and the presence of chemical and therefore mineralogical layering reported here for the first time and similar to those found in impact melt rocks elsewhere are the occurrences of plagioclase xenocrysts with complex twinning and zoning patterns and planar deformation features in quartz xenocrysts the well known ore deposits of the sudbury region are directly related to the genesis of the sudbury igneous complex some ores precipitated from the sudbury melt whereas others were concentrated by hydrothermal fluids that percolated through the crystallized complex it is concluded that the sudbury igneous complex is the best exposed and only well documented to date terrestrial impact melt sheet to have differentiated

impact glasses in fallout suevites from the ries impact structure germany an analytical sem study t impact generated glasses from fallout suevite deposits at the ries impact structure have been investigated using analytical scanning electron microscopy approximately 320 analyses of glass clasts were obtained four glass types are distinguished on the basis of composition and microtextures type 1 glasses correspond to the aerodynamically shaped glass bombs studied previously by many workers major oxide concentrations indicate the involvement of granitic rocks amphibolites and minor al rich gneisses during melting type 2 glasses are chemically heterogeneous even within individual clasts with variations of several wt in most of the major oxides e g 57 70 wt sio2 this suggests incomplete mixing of 1 mineral derived melts or 2 whole rock melts from a wide range of lithologies aluminium rich clinopyroxene and fe mg rich plagioclase quench crystals are present in type 1 and 2 glasses respectively type 3 glasses contain substantial amounts of h2o 12 17 wt low sio2 50 53 wt high al2o3 17 21 wt and high cao 5 7 wt contents this suggests an origin due to shock melting of part of the sedimentary cover type 4 glasses form a ubiquitous component of the suevites based on their high sio2 content 85 100 wt the only possible protolith are sandstones in the lowermost part of the sedimentary succession calcite forms globules within type 1 glasses with which it develops microtextures indicative of liquid immiscibility unequivocal evidence also exists for liquid immiscibility between what are now montmorillonite globules and type 1 2 and 4 glasses indicating that montmorillonite was originally an impact melt glass clearly the melt zone at the ries must have incorporated a substantial fraction of the sedimentary cover as well as the underlying crystalline basement rocks impact melts were derived from different target lithologies and these separate disaggregated melts did not substantially mix in most cases type 2 3 and 4 glasses and carbonate melts