tectonic implications of paleomagnetic research into upper cretaceous magmatic rocks in the apuseni mountains romania the paleomagnetism of upper cretaceous magmatic rocks from 47 collecting sites 172 samples 692 specimens in the apuseni mountains was studied after af cleaning characteristic magnetizations were identified for various collecting areas in the study zone which defined a few spatial and temporal units for which paleomagnetic poles could be derived statistically at 21 sampling sites the paleomagnetic directions showed a high level of intrasite and intersite consistency with a mean direction of if 38 and df 100 with 95 6 the paleomagnetic results show that to reach their present day position the apuseni mountains moved to the north around 14 with respect to europe or around 25 with respect to the geographic poles between the campanian and probably late miocene while a clockwise rotation of around 80 was taking place

quantitative subsidence analysis and forward modelling of the vienna and danube basins thin skinned versus thick skinned extension abstract we present the results of a quantitative study of the tectonic evolution of the vienna and danube basins by comparing tectonic subsidence histories derived from backstripping of more than 90 wells from slovakia hungary and austria with the predictions from forward tectonic modelling subsidence analysis and forward modelling using a modified non uniform extension model address the tectonic relations between different depocentres and the nature of tectonic subsidence we derived stretching values for the vienna basin between 1 04 and 1 30 for the crustal extension and between 1 00 in the northern part and 1 60 southern part for the lithospheric extension the danube basin is characterized by crustal extension values between 1 09 and 1 30 and lithospheric extension values between 1 00 northern part and 1 60 southern part the vienna basin shows a trend from thin skinned extension in the northwestern part to whole lithospheric extension in the central southern part the subsidence history of the northwestern part of the danube basin also reflects a thin skinned extensional basin formation mechanism the central and southern parts of the danube basin show an important component of lithospheric extension the basin evolution is strongly influenced by the rotating stress field through miocene times expressed in different phases of fault reactivation that are observed in the subsidence history

intraplate extension prior to continental extrusion along the ailao shan red river shear zone left lateral movement of the ailao shan red river shear zone lends support to the hypothesis of continental extrusion resulting from the collision of india with asia our new observations from northwestern yunnan china and northwestern vietnam on different sides of the shear zone demonstrate that the sinistral offset was 600 km according to correlations of permian triassic flood basalt successions and late paleogene highly potassic mafic magmas we conclude that the shear was propagating on the south china continental margin and does not correspond to a suture between south china and indochina furthermore the highly potassic magmas were emplaced from ca 40 to 30 ma before the shear movement which was caused by the late oligocene to early miocene ca 27 22 ma extrusion activity this suggests that a late eocene to early oligocene intraplate extension possibly induced by delamination of thickened continental lithosphere took place in northwestern yunnan or eastern tibet as a response to the india asia collision this extension and sea floor spreading of the south china sea that began ca 30 ma could have accounted for the initiation of the ailao shan red river shear zone

life cycle of the east carpathian orogen erosion history of a doubly vergent critical wedge assessed by fission track thermochronology apatite fission track b t thermochronology applied to the east carpathian fold and thrust belt in romania constrains the interaction between the erosion history and the tectonic evo lution of the orogen the long lived constant asymmetric topography of the orogen and the erosion pattern as inferred from apatite ft data are in agreement with the style of evolution predicted by doubly vergent critical coulomb wedge models during the miocene up to 4 km of erosion took place over the actively deforming orogen and the erosion patterns forms a mirrored image of the subsurface deforming wedge the erosion products are deposited in flanking molasse basins which subsided contemporaneously due to the growing topographic weight of the wedge deformation of the wedge was presumably active from the early to late miocene but apatite ft ages between 14 and 9 ma and track length modeling predict an acceleration of erosion rates 0 5 0 3 mm yr ini tially in the middle to late miocene 3 2 ma the onset of erosion coincides with the last phase of convergence and a climax in the deformation history these features are interpreted to have been caused by underplating of the european continental margin convergence ceased before the pliocene according to the activity of thrust faults during the pliocene and quaternary up to 2 km of overburden was removed by erosion leading to isostatic rock uplift of the entire region the use of apatite fission track minimum ages supports the general idea that the orogen has a di achronous evolution from north to south the orogen in the southern bend zone has a more juve nile tectonic character and the main erosion phase took place during the pliocene and quaternary 5 0 ma the integrated approach of large scale morphology and fission track analysis confirms the applicability of the theoretical coulomb wedge mechanics to a natural compressive fold and thrust belt the study complements the geometric features of the orogenic wedge with quantified erosion histories and illustrates the effects of orogen evolution on vertical movements in the entire convergent setting

cretaceous to cenozoic thermal evolution of the southwestern south carpathians evidence from fission track thermochronology abstract the southwestern south carpathian orogen is composed of various nappe complexes which were assembled during the cretaceous cenozoic orogeny these are from footwall to hangingwall 1 the danubian nappe complex including a cadomian variscan basement 2 the arjana and severin units with jurassic to early cretaceous rift and oceanic sequences and 3 the getic nappe complex with variscan continental basement fission track ft thermochronology on apatite zircon and sphene from samples collected from various units of the south carpathians in conjunction with field constraints and previous geochronology is used to characterise the alpine tectonic events and to restore the pattern and amount of exhumation since the cretaceous zircon from the flysch unit and the danubian liassic cover sequence yields ft ages around 200 ma suggesting cooling of the rift flanks prior to the opening of the severin rift zircon and sphene from the getic and danubian basement units yield ft ages averaging 110 ma and indicating cooling under 240 c of the basement contemporaneous with or postdating thrusting apatite ft ages display a decreasing age trend from the hangingwall 65 ma to the footwall units 30 ma the age data and corresponding horizontal confined track length distributions suggest that exhumation of the nappe pile occurred in two stages the first is related to the late cretaceous nappe stacking and the second one to the final thrusting of the south carpathians onto the top of the moesian platform apatite ft ages along major brittle wrench faults indicate reheating above ca 120 c during fluid flow associated with fault re activation during oligocene and neogene times thus shear zone rocks experienced a higher temperature overprint during cenozoic time than rocks of the unaffected nappe pile temperatures of hydrothermal flow along these zones decreased below 100 c progressively starting with the late oligocene early miocene when the area began to override the moesian platform

miocene facies associations and sedimentary evolution of the southern transylvanian basin romania implications for hydrocarbon exploration abstract the transylvanian basin is a mature hydrocarbon province of romania characterized by two petroleum systems mesozoic thermogenic and miocene biogenic an extensive outcrop based sedimentological and micropaleontological study correlated to seismic and well data discusses the elements of the miocene petroleum system the facies associations are indicative of alluvial fandelta shallow and deep marine settings these are grouped into four different depositional systems evaporite mud carbonate sand mud and sand gravel their evolution in time and space shows large differences between various parts of the basin that have important consequences for exploration the transylvanian gas is formed by more than 99 methane of bacterial origin this is sourced by low quality the largest traps typically have multistory up to 20 pay zones with a total of 100 bcf to 1 tcf reserves exploration to date has focused on structural traps but most of the obvious structures have been drilled it is argued that significant exploration potential lies in stratigraphic plays including confined submarine fans slope channels detached lowstand prograding wedges incised valleys diapir flanks salt tectonics related unconformities and various sub volcanic plays risks of the petroleum system elements associated to these plays in different areas of the basin are discussed

evolution of the transport direction of the carpathian belt during its collision with the east european platform the evolution of the carpathians is in its final stage with intermediate seismic activity 70 200 km mw 4 7 7 localized beneath its southeastern salient vrancea zone our analysis in the transition area between south carpathians and east carpathians reveals that the termination of convergence is characterized by a clockwise rotation of the carpathian belt transport direction using structural maps and cross sections we show that this change of convergence direction had several structural consequences including 1 the pliocene quaternary activation of out of sequence structures in the southern east carpathians and 2 the creation of dextral strike slip faults bounding the mobile belt to the west in the south carpathians our fracture analysis in syntectonic deposits allows us to distinguish and stratigraphically date two fanning stress patterns corresponding to the two last transport directions of the carpathian system 1 a burdigalian to early tortonian stress field with compression directions rotating along with the carpathian curved orogenic belt but with transpression nw se compression and a low strain partitioning along east trending internal strike slip faults in the south carpathians and 2 a late tortonian to pleistocene rotated and smaller radial stress pattern with n s compression in the south carpathians the rotation of the convergence direction is interpreted as the result of the miocene migration and progressive collision of the carpathian system with the thick crust of the nw trending tornquist teisseyre line and its prolongation in romania the area able to subduct determined by thickness of crust entering the subduction zone was progressively restricted to a foreland corner in front of the southeastern carpathians the progressive collision forced the convergence to slow down and rotate from eastward to southeastward in late miocene the dobrogea hills in front of the latest migrating system may represent the late neogene ne sw flexural bulge of the subducting foreland panel this clockwise rotation of the transport direction can be compared with the clockwise rotation that occurred in other subduction systems tyrrhenian subduction caribbean subduction etc which were controlled by the location of oceanic versus continental crust in front of the orogenic belt

tertiary tectonic evolution of the external south carpathians and the adjacent moesian platform romania depth interpreted seismic sections of the getic depression foredeep paleostress indicator data and analysis of outcrop to regional scale structures are integrated to derive the tectonic evolution of the south carpathians moesian platform area following late cretaceous and older orogenic phases the south carpathians moesian platform area underwent strike slip deformation with ne sw oriented compression and nw se tension in paleogene to early burdigalian times tensional deformation is recorded which led to the opening of wsw ene to e w trending extensional basins in the late burdigalian ne sw oriented contraction took over causing the oblique inversion of preexisting extensional structures during sarmatian times nw se and slightly younger n s trending compression caused the activation of mainly nw se dextral strike slip faults and in the frontal areas south directed thrusting the nw se direction of extension determined for paleogene to early burdigalian times is hardly compatible with presently accepted models of substantially continuous dextral wrenching between the intra carpathians units to the north of the south carpathians and the moesian platform to the south in contrast we have demonstrated dextral transpressive to transtensional movements within an e w trending corridor from the late burdigalian to late sarmatian which are compatible with available models

lateral variations in lithosphere strength in the romanian carpathians constraints on basin evolution lithospheric strength profiles constructed through extrapolation of rock mechanics data and constrained by crustal geophysics data demonstrate the existence of important spatial variations of thermomechanical properties in different domains of the romanian carpathians the pannonian basin and the transylvanian depression these models show important lateral variations in lithospheric rigidity along the southern and eastern carpathian foreland compatible with inferences from flexural modelling studies the modelling predicts an absence of mantle strength and the presence of weak lithosphere in the pannonian and transylvanian basins a nw se trending rheological transect is presented connecting the moesian platform the vrancea region of the carpathians the transylvanian basin and the apuseni mountains with the romanian part of the pannonian basin this transect demonstrates the existence of a close correlation of the inferred spatial variations in mechanical properties of the romanian lithosphere with observed patterns in large scale gravity anomalies and with tectonic units a notable feature of the rheological models is the presence of an intra carpathian weak zone the combination of a strong foreland lithosphere with a weak lithosphere in the inner part of the carpathian transylvanian pannonian system sheds light on a number of key features observed in the evolution of sedimentary basins in these areas remarkable differences in rheology predictions between flexural models and depth dependent rheology models indicate that the crustal lithosphere is detached from the mantle part of the lithosphere in the carpathian foreland

gravitational and tectonic forces controlling postcollisional deformation and the present day stress field of the alps constraints from numerical modeling 1 we perform numerical modeling to investigate the mechanisms leading to the postcollisional tectonic evolution of the alps we model the lithospheric deformation as a viscous thin sheet with vertically averaged rheology and coupled with surface mass transport the applied kinematic boundary conditions simulate the convergence between the adria indenter and the european foreland during the last 35 myr model predictions of elevation lithospheric structure erosion sedimentation pattern and vertical axis rotation are compared with observations of the planform shape of the chain topography crustal thickness distribution of rock exhumation and sediment thickness and paleomagnetic rotations thickening of the lithosphere in the alpine region is shown to be highly sensitive to the assumed viscosity law to the strength contrasts between the different regions and to the surface mass transport modeling results indicate that the large scale deformation of the alps during the postcollisional phase is mainly controlled by accommodation of convergence in a weak orogenic zone caught between a nearly rigid adria plate and a strong european foreland modeling of the present day stress field shows that 1 the present rotation of adria is responsible for the change of extension direction from strike perpendicular in the western alps to strike parallel in the east and 2 the strike perpendicular extension observed in the western alps is likely due to lateral variations of gravitational potential energy the results suggest a nne shift of about 700 km of the euler pole of adria relative to europe from its mean position during postcollisional deformation to the present day

where was the ailaoshan ocean and when did it open a perspective based on detrital zircon u pb age and hf isotope evidence abstract the indochina simao and yangtze blocks were separated by a branch of the paleo tethys ocean commonly referred as the ailaoshan ocean in the paleozoic remnants of this ailaoshan ocean have been variably suggested to locate along from east to west the ailaoshan fault jiujia anding fault and amojiang lixianjiang fault in order to test these models we have carried out comprehensive detrital zircon u pb dating and hf isotope analyses on the cambrian to devonian sedimentary units in the ailaoshan belt and its adjacent western margin of the yangtze block our results indicate marked detrital zircon provenance variation on different sides of the ailaoshan tengtiaohe fault detrital zircons from east of the fault display a diagnostic age peak at 730 900 ma which is characterized by both positive and negative e hf t values with a hf model age t dm c peak at 1 8 ga whereas detrital zircons from west of the fault display two major age populations of 400 500 and 900 1000 ma both characterized by mainly negative e hf t values with a hf model age t dm c peak at 2 1 ga our new data indicate that detritus from east and west of the ailaoshan tengtiaohe fault may have been mainly derived from respectively the yangtze block and indochina simao blocks thus suggesting the fault may represent the actual suture between the two blocks our study also reveals that the ailaoshan ocean may have started its early continental rift in the early silurian

the tertiary dynamics of the northern eastern alps austria changing palaeostresses in a collisional plate boundary abstract six tertiary deviatoric palaeostress tensor groups from 165 stations in the calcareous alps describe the upper crustal dynamics of the leading edge of the adriatic plate during protracted continental collision with the european lower plate palaeostress changes are correlated to the kinematic evolution of the plate boundary and to independently derived plate kinematic data of the alpine carpathian pannonian area each palaeostress direction is defined by 32 to 89 individual tensors which constrain 1 late eocene to oligocene nw directed compression during thrusting and dextral shearing on wnw striking faults nw directed compression along the northern margin of the adriatic plate is correlated to its n directed translation combined with a counterclockwise rotation 2a late eocene to early miocene n directed compression during n directed thrusting of penninic and helvetic units and the molasse 2b early to middle miocene n directed strike slip compression during the onset of eastward lateral extrusion the change from nw to n directed compression is interpreted to result from strain partitioning at the periadriatic fault which has formed the new adriatic plate boundary since the oligocene dextral shearing on this fault accommodated continued anticlockwise rotation and decoupled the northern eastern alps from the rotational component n directed compression in the calcareous alps paralleled the n directed translation of the adriatic plate 3 middle miocene ne directed compression of thrust and strike slip type during lateral extrusion ne directed compression in the calcareous alps resulted from the drag of the eastward extruding central eastern alps sinistral shear stress was transmitted across the ene trending salzach ennstal fault ne oriented 1 axes include 45 with the e w striking zone of distributed sinistral shear in the calcareous alps 4 middle miocene e directed extension associated with orogen parallel normal faulting of the central eastern alps e directed extension paralleled the direction of mass transfer towards the pannonian basin during lateral extrusion normal faulting was induced by reduced lateral confinement due to removal of material east of the alps on the large scale eastward motion was enabled by the e directed retreat of the eastern carpathian subduction zone 5 late miocene e directed compression orogen parallel compression obstructed lateral extrusion the stress change from extension to e directed compression was caused by the end of subduction retreat in the eastern carpathians due to dynamic changes in the subduction zone 6 n directed extension late to post miocene extension paralleled recent topographic slopes in the foothill of the eastern alps palaeostresses changes correspond to distinct phases in the kinematic evolution of the northern eastern alps and to the systematic formation and reactivation of major fault zones wnw striking faults changed deformation styles from dextral shear to dextral transpression reverse faulting and finally to sinistral shear the early to middle miocene salzach ennstal fault which formed the northern boundary of the extruded central eastern alps changed from sinistral transpression to sinistral shear sinistral transtension and finally to dextral shear

from pull apart to the rifting process the formation of the pannonian basin abstract during the middle and the late miocene intra carpathian basins have developed south and west of the carpathian arc these basins are bounded by normal faults and connected by conjugate shear zones sinistral strike slip fault systems trend ne sw whereas dextral ones trend nw se by means of geometrical analyses of fault system and paleostress tensor determinations it has been possible to consistently reconstruct the succession of tectonic events in the hungarian mountains the two main stages in the structural development of the intra carpathian basins are 1 1 the initiation of pull apart basins along conjugate shear zones in a n s compressional and e w extensional regime and 2 2 the development of these basins in a tectonic regime characterized by a dominant e w trending extension

multiple partial melting events in the ailao shan red river and gaoligong shan complex belts se tibetan plateau zircon u pb dating of granitic leucosomes within migmatites abstract thin layers and lenses of granitic leucosomes are widely distributed within migmatites from the ailao shan red river asrr and gaoligong shan gs complex belts se tibetan plateau they are parallel to or cross cut foliations in the host rocks at different scales and show evidence of coalescence and migration to form centimetre to decimetre scale segregations a combined study of mineral inclusions cathodoluminescence cl images u pb sims dates and in situ trace element compositions of zircons provides clear evidence on the nature and timing of partial melting in these rocks most zircons from the granitic leucosomes occur as distinct overgrowths around inherited detrital cores or as new euhedral crystals the inherited detrital cores are rounded or irregular contain felsic mineral inclusions of qtz kfs ab ap with abundant opaque impurities and show clear dissolution textures in contrast the overgrowths and new crystals commonly show perfectly euhedral shapes have pronounced oscillatory zoning contain felsic mineral inclusions such as qtz kfs ab ap and show pronounced high u 1419 6129 ppm and relatively low th 58 301 ppm contents with extremely low th u ratios 0 02 0 07 the chondrite normalized ree patterns show steep rising slopes from the hree to lree with evidently negative eu anomalies eu eu 0 10 0 31 and pronounced positive ce anomalies ce ce 35 145 these data suggest that the new zircons are anatectic in origin and that they grew during partial melting of the metamorphic rocks abundant u pb spot analyses of the magmatic zircons from granitic leucosomes reveal three discrete and meaningful ages of partial melting within the asrr and gs complex belts anatectic zircons from four granitic leucosomes in weakly deformed migmatites from the gs complex belt yield consistent mean u pb ages of 40 6 0 3 38 4 0 2 ma in contrast anatectic zircons from six granitic leucosomes in weakly deformed migmatites from the asrr complex belt record younger mean u pb ages of 33 7 0 3 30 9 0 3 ma however anatectic zircons from another six granitic leucosomes in mylonitic migmatites from both belts yield the youngest mean u pb ages of 27 8 0 2 26 3 0 3 ma these data imply that both the asrr and gs complex belts experienced multiple partial melting events the differences in the oldest u pb ages of zircons from granitic leucosomes indicate that the partial melting event related to the peak amphibolite granulite facies metamorphism within the gs complex belt occurred 7 10 ma earlier than that in the asrr complex belt the youngest u pb ages of zircons from granitic leucosomes within mylonitic migmatites in both the asrr and gs belts are genetically related to post peak isothermal decompressional retrogression accompanied by regional high temperature ductile shearing the 40 ar 39 ar age data 27 8 22 2 ma of biotites and amphiboles from migmatites strongly support this hypothesis

understanding the kinematic evolution and genesis of a back arc continental sag basin the neogene evolution of the transylvanian basin abstract formation and evolution of back arc basins is related to the interplay between subduction and convergence velocities during the formation of an orogenic chain sedimentary basins lacking fault systems that are genetically associated can be locally observed in the hinterland of the main orogenic belt in the usual location of a back arc basin these are interesting features potentially driven by a number of contrasting mechanisms such as lithospheric traction forces driven by plate boundary processes lateral migration of lower crustal material during orogenesis or sub lithospheric processes such as the rapid retreat of subducted slabs the transylvanian basin is a miocene basin that evolved at the rear of the main carpathians arc during the subduction of a slab attached to stable europe the pannonian basin is a typical continental extensional back arc domain to the east transylvania accommodated up to 3 5 km of middle upper miocene sediments deposited in a period coeval with the shortening in the neighbouring carpathians the basin fill was subsequently exhumed and partly eroded when the carpathians collided with the european craton in late miocene times this was associated with contractional deformation and widespread salt diapirism that forms the bulk of miocene deformation observed inside the basin our study shows that no significant normal faults are present inside the basin that could have accommodated 3 5 km subsidence in terms of upper crustal extension furthermore the basin kinematics cannot be linked directly with any other mechanical process explaining the observed miocene subsidence therefore we discuss several mechanisms that may explain regional scale observations and we conclude that the miocene transylvanian basin most likely formed in response to an asymmetric simple shear extension assisted by erosion and or lower crustal flow the upper crustal effects were localized in the neighbouring pannonian basin

timing of rotational motion of apuseni mountains romania paleomagnetic data from tertiary magmatic rocks paleomagnetic results are reported from 8 sites in eocene to oligocene magmatic rocks and 27 sites in middle miocene to upper miocene volcanic rocks of the apuseni mountains following af demagnetization 29 sites were selected for tectonic interpretation these results together with previously published data imply a northward displacement of the area studied between the late cretaceous and oligocene followed by a large clockwise rotation prior to the middle miocene after which no significant movement has occurred these results agree with other data from the carpatho pannonian domain showing a period of great mobility during the early miocene

regional patterns of tectonic stress in europe nearly 1500 stress orientation determinations are now available for europe the data come from earthquake focal mechanisms overcoring measurements well bore breakouts hydraulic fracturing measurements and young fault slip studies and sample the stress field from the surface to seismogenic depths three distinct regional patterns of maximum compressive horizontal stress shmax orientation can be defined from these data a consistent nw to nnw shmax stress orientation in western europe a wnw ese shmax orientation in scandinavia similar to western europe but with a larger variability of shmax orientations and a consistent e w shmax orientation and n s extension in the aegean sea and western anatolia the different stress fields can be attributed to plate driving forces acting on the boundaries of the eurasian plate locally modified by lithospheric properties in different regions on average the orientation of maximum stress in western europe is subparallel to the direction of relative plate motion between africa and europe and is rotated 17 clockwise from the direction of absolute plate motion the uniformly oriented stress field in western europe coincides with thin to medium lithospheric thickness approximately 50 90 km and high heat flow values 80 m w m2 in western europe a predominance of strike slip focal mechanisms implies that the intermediate principal stress is vertical the more irregular horizontal stress orientations in scandinavia coincide with thick continental lithosphere 110 170 km and low heat flow 50 m w m2 the cold thick lithosphere in this region may result in lower mean stresses associated with far field tectonic forces and allow the stress field to be more easily perturbed by local effects such as deglaciation flexure and topography the stress field of the aegean sea and western anatolia is consistent with n s extension in a back arc setting behind the hellenic trench subduction zone the stress field is influenced in places by regional geologic structures e g in the western alps where shmax directions show a slight tendency toward a radial stress pattern not all major geologic structures however appear to affect the shmax orientation e g in the vicinity of the rhine rift system horizontal stress orientations are continuous

sanjiang tethyan metallogenesis in s w china tectonic setting metallogenic epochs and deposit types abstract tectonically the sanjiang tethyan metallogenic domain stmd is located within the eastern himalayan tibetan orogen in the sanjiang tethys southwestern china although this metallogenic domain was initiated in the early palaeozoic extensive metallogenesis occurred in the late palaeozoic late triassic and himalayan tertiary epochs corresponding tectonic settings and environments in the domain are an arc basin system related to the subduction of the palaeo tethyan oceanic slabs a post collision crustal extension setting caused by the lithospheric delamination or slab breakoff underneath the sanjiang tethys during the late triassic large scale strike slip faulting and thrusting systems due to the indo asian continent collision since the palaeocene in this metallogenic domain important gold copper base metals rare metals and tin ore belts incorporating a large number of giant deposits were developed the main types of deposits include 1 porphyry copper deposits controlled by a large scale strike slip fault system 2 vhms deposits mainly occurring in intra arc rift basins and post collision crustal extensional basins 3 shear zone type gold deposits in the ophiolitic melange zone along the thrusting shearing system 4 hydrothermal silver polymetallic deposits in the triassic intra continental rift basins and tertiary strike slip pull apart basins and 5 himalayan granite related greisen type tin and rare metallic deposits within the metallogenic epochs of the late palaeozoic to cenozoic the styles and types of the ore deposits changed from vhms types in the late palaeozoic through exhalative sedimentary type deposits in the late triassic to porphyry type copper deposits shear zone type gold deposits hydrothermal vein type silver polymetallic deposits greisen type tin and rare metal deposits in the cenozoic correspondingly ore forming metals also changed from a pb zn cu ag association through ag cu pb zn fe ag pb and ag au hg associations to ag cu pb zn cu mo au sn and li rb cs nb zr hf y ce sc associations

inversion of field data in fault tectonics to obtain the regional stress i single phase fault populations a new method of computing the stress tensor summary we attempt a general definition of the inverse problem of computing the components of the regional stress tensor from a set of field data including the measurements of the strike and dip of several faults and the directions and senses of relative motion along these faults as indicated by slickenslides in previous treatments of this problem no experimental errors could be taken into account except those in measuring the pitch of slickenslides thus errors in the orientation of the fault strike and dip which have considerable practical importance were neglected in our work all experimental errors in the field measurements are taken into account so that the agreement between the computed stress tensor and the set of field measurements can be rigorously checked

towards a mechanical model for the formation of the pannonian basin abstract new maps showing crustal and lithospheric thickness variations in the pannonian basin and the surrounding east alpine carpathian and dinaric mountains have been prepared on the basis of recent seismic seismologic and electromagnetic data a map presenting miocene faults of regional significance has been also constructed for the same region by using a wealth of recently available national and or more local studies it is suggested that observed crustal and lithospheric structural contrasts have been controlled primarily by neogene kinematic history of the region kinematic history is characterized by the following main patterns 1 1 indentation by adria and large scale backthrusting in the southern alps 2 2 eastward escape and extension of the eastern alps 3 3 extensional collapse in the pannonian basin area 4 4 formation of broad wrench fault systems along strike in the dinarides and southern carpathians and the western carpathians with dextral and sinistral shear respectively 5 5 compression and accretion of the external thrust and fold belt in the eastern carpathians these kinematic patterns are thought to be interrelated and all are manifestations of the late stage evolution of an overthickened orogenic wedge in order to arrive at a better understanding of the mechanism of extension which formed the pannonian basin deep crustal seismic profiles hydrocarbon exploration reflection lines and borehole data have been analyzed in the little hungarian plain this plain represents the transition zone between the alps and the pannonian lowlands and the results are illustrated by eight interpreted cross sections one result of regional importance is the clear recognition that the transdanubian central range at the southeastern flank of the little hungarian plain is composed of alpine pre senonian thrust sheets this finding marks the end of a century of debate the allochthony of the substrata of the pannonian basin can be now considered proven another result of more general interest is that these cross sections document the mode of lithospheric extension preexisting compressional detachment planes reactivate as low angle normal faults and lead to tectonic unroofing of deeply buried metamorphic terranes characterized by ductile flow along subhorizontal lineation

the boundary between the simao and yangtze blocks and their locations in gondwana and rodinia constraints from detrital and inherited zircons abstract the simao block which is the northern extension of the indochina block and the yangtze block were amalgamated by the closure of a paleo tethys branch ocean commonly referred to as the ailaoshan ocean the exact location of the suture between these two continental blocks has been contested some researchers believed that it is located within the cenozoic ailaoshan shear zone whereas other researchers thought that it is present 50 km farther to the west the detrital and inherited xenocrystic zircons from paleozoic sedimentary rocks and a triassic granite dyke respectively in the laowangzhai mojiang suspect terrane which occurs between the two suggested locations for the same suture show that neither of these previously suggested locations is accurate the age distribution pattern of detrital and inherited xenocrystic zircons from the laowangzhai mojiang suspect terrane is similar to that of detrital zircons from the simao indochina block but different from that of those from the jianshui area in the western margin of the yangtze block this indicates that the laowangzhai mojiang suspect terrane belongs to the simao indochina block the actual location of the suture between the simao indochina and yangtze blocks is suggested to superimpose the ailaoshan late devonian to early carboniferous ophiolite belt within the suspect terrane the new interpretation is also supported by hf isotopes of detrital zircons from the related continental blocks the age distribution pattern of precambrian detrital zircons from the western part of the yangtze block is different from that of those from australia or tethyan himalaya the northern part of the indian continent indicating that the yangtze block was not an integral part of australia or india in rodinia the age distribution pattern of pre carboniferous detrital zircons from the simao indochina block is remarkably similar to that of those from the tethyan himalaya indicating that the simao indochina block was derived from indian gondwana

new tectono geochronological constraints on timing of shearing along the ailao shan red river shear zone implications for genesis of ailao shan gold mineralization abstract several world class gold deposits are located along the ailao shan als belt in eastern tibet china the genesis of gold mineralization along the belt however has been the subject of debates in the last decades which highlights the importance of dating shearing magmatism and mineralization along the ailao shan red river shear zone asrr through detailed field observations and microscopic analysis a group of leucocratic intrusions from within and outside the shear zone along the als belt are investigated in the present paper pre syn and post shearing intrusions are grouped based on structural and microstructural analysis la icp ms and sims dating of the intrusions revealed the existence of two age populations a group of ages older than 30 ma and the other younger than 28 ma the former are distributed both within and outside the shear zone and the latter in contrast occur only within the shear zone our new results show that the ductile shearing along the asrr shear zone initiated since ca 30 ma ago the dating results place major constraints on timing of shearing along the asrr shear zone and have profound implications on the genesis of gold mineralization along the als belt the present study reveals that ductile shearing along the asrr shear zone was resulted from extrusion of the indochina block late during the indian eurasian plate collision meanwhile we conclude that the gold mineralization took place prior to the shearing but in close relation to an early magmatism 30 ma ascribed to post collisional extension collapse involving mantle processes early during the plate collision

exhumation of the diancang shan metamorphic complex along the ailao shan red river belt southwestern yunnan china evidence from 40ar 39ar thermochronology abstract exhumation of the high grade metamorphic rocks from deep to shallow crustal levels in the diancang shan dcs massif is evident by the temporal transition from shearing and mylonitization at the amphibolite facies in the lower to middle crust through retrograde ductile brittle faulting at greenschist facies in the middle crust and brittle faulting near the surface new 40ar 39ar ages of amphibole muscovite biotite and k feldspar mostly from mylonitic rocks help constrain the thermal evolution of the massif during its exhumation the thermochronologic studies have shown at least three stages of exhumation and cooling from late oligocene to pliocene e g 28 13 ma 13 4 ma and 4 0 ma respectively the initiation of the unroofing history of the dcs massif resulted from ductile left lateral shearing along the ailao shan red river shear zone asrr since the late oligocene diachronous onset and subsequent parallel cooling and exhumation characterize the early thermal history of the massif the first stage of exhumation might have stopped due to the cessation of the left lateral shearing at ca 21 ma although cooling continued until 13 ma ago to relatively low temperature conditions the second and third stages of cooling started from 13 ma and lasted until the recent active faulting the diversity of cooling rates during the second stage from 13 to 4 ma suggests differences in exhumation rates at various localities ductile to brittle shearing along the eastern flank retrograde normal shear zone is the best explanation for the exhumation during this stage the inhomogeneous cooling and exhumation of the lower plate of the normal fault zone possibly resulted from the tilting of the lower plate or differential exhumation of slabs in the lower plate during the third stage cooling and exhumation of the dcs massif since 4 ma ago is recognized when higher temperature cooling paths are extended and plotted at a lower temperature of about 16 c the present day average surface temperature therefore the diachronous cooling and exhumation continuously spanned to the surface the tectonic exhumation of the dcs massif constitutes a part of the tectono thermal evolution and diachronous exhumation of the metamorphic complexes in the fan shaped area bounded broadly in se asia by the red river fault zone and sagaing fault zone since 36 ma extrusion induced strike slip shearing and rotation associated normal faulting played important roles in the diachronous cooling and exhumation of the dcs massif and other metamorphic complexes in se asia

horizontal lithosphere compression and subduction constraints provided by physical modeling physical modeling of the subduction is performed with a two layered mantle model elastico plastic lithosphere and low viscosity asthenosphere and is governed by the criteria of similarity compression of the lithosphere in the area of a passive continental margin has been shown to produce a buckling instability in the oceanic plate with wavelengths of 200 km on the average later a localization of deformation occurs in sagging at some distance from the margin where a strongly dislocated linear ridge is formed due to the thrusting the plate then experiences a failure along the inclined zone and subduction starts the inner trench slope which forms therefore has a scraped structure and include a block of crushed and dislocated oceanic crust and sediments in the lower section if there is an old inclined fault striking across the compression of an oceanic lithosphere it is on that fault that a subduction zone is initiated the inner trench slope has then a different structure and forms due to normal faulting in the frontal part of the overriding plate the formation of a subduction zone requires a compression that is smaller than that in the preceding case by a factor of 2 or 3 the subducting plate experiences an elastico plastic bending and under specific conditions thrusting along the zone dipping from under the overriding plate oceanward and crossing the entire lithosphere the best agreement between generalized relief in subduction zone in the model and nature is achieved when a shear yield limit s 1 3 108 pa modulus of elasticity e about a few times 1011 pa and a thickness h 60 km are adopted for the real lithosphere

timing of left lateral shearing along the ailao shan red river shear zone constraints from zircon u pb ages from granitic rocks in the shear zone along the ailao shan range western yunnan china as the boundary between the indochina and the south china blocks the ailao shan red river asrr shear zone underwent a sinistral strike slip shearing which is characterized by ductile deformation structures along the ailao shan range the timing issue of left lateral shearing along the asrr shear zone is of first order importance in constraining the nature and regional significance of the shear zone it has been therefore focused on by many previous studies but debates still exist on the age of initiation and termination of shearing along the shear zone in this paper we dated 5 samples of granitic plutons dykes along the ailao shan shear zone zircon u pb ages of four sheared or partly sheared granitic rocks give ages of 30 9 0 7 36 6 0 1 25 9 1 0 and 27 2 0 2 ma respectively an undeformed granitic dyke intruding mylonitic foliation gives crystallization age of 21 8 1 ma the th u ratios of zircon grains from these rocks fall into two populations 0 17 1 01 and 0 07 0 08 reflecting magmatic and metamorphic origins of the zircons detailed structural and microstructural analysis reveals that the granitic intrusions are ascribed to pre syn and post shearing magmatisms the zircon u pb ages of these granites provide constraints on timing of the initiation later than 31 ma from pre shearing granitic plutons but earlier than 27 ma from syn shearing granitic dykes and termination ca 21 ma from the post shearing granitic dykes of strong ductile left lateral shearing which is consistent with previous results on the diancang shan and day nui con voi massifs in the literature we also conclude that the left lateral shearing along the asrr shear zone is the result of southeastward extrusion of the indochina block during the indian eurasian plate collision furthermore the left lateral shearing was accompanied by the ridge jump postdating the opening of the south china sea

pressure temperature and timing of mineralization of the sedimentary rock hosted orogenic gold deposit at klipwal southeastern kaapvaal craton south africa gold mineralization in the klipwal shear zone ksz at the klipwal gold mine is confined to laminated quartz carbonate lodes stringers and associated alteration in sandstone and siltstone of the delfkom formation in the upper mozaan group of the mesoarchaean pongola supergroup the moderately dipping brittle ductile ksz strikes n s with an oblique reverse sinistral sense of shear the deformational events that are recognized include an early compressional phase that produced anastomosing shears defined by shear fabrics with numerous shear parallel laminated quartz carbonate fault fill veins and in places extensional quartz vein stockworks and a late brittle reactivation phase that produced fault breccias displacing earlier extensional veins three closely spaced economic reefs lodes are developed the main r reef constitutes the ksz while the j and h reefs represent footwall splays alteration comprises chlorite muscovite epidote feldspar and carbonates along with pyrite arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite pyrrhotite an inner alteration zone is dominated by laminated quartz carbonate veins with alternating quartz carbonate rich and muscovite chlorite rich laminae whereas the proximal zone is characterized by alteration halos of k feldspar albite epidote chlorite and muscovite along with carbonates and associated quartz veins chlorite thermometry from the inner and proximal zones yielded temperatures of 267 to 312 c arsenopyrite compositions provide temperatures in the same range 255 to 318 c fluid inclusion microthermometry and raman spectrometry of quartz veins in the mineralized reefs reveal the presence of metamorphogenic aqueous gaseous fluid with an average salinity of 6 5 wt nacl equiv fluid compositions and estimated pressure temperature p t range 1 1 to 2 5 kbar at 255 to 318 c are typical of orogenic gold deposits devolatilization during the regional facies metamorphism of the pongola supergroup is considered the likely fluid forming event with fluid flow focused into a compressional jog of the ksz shear induced pressure fluctuations generated a phase separation of the initial aqueous gaseous fluid producing a gaseous and low salinity aqueous fluid this together with fluid rock interaction and a decrease in fo2 lead to sulfide and gold precipitation at klipwal re os data from six sulfide samples constrain the age of sulfide precipitation and by inference gold mineralization to 2563 84 ma with an initial 187os 188os 0 29 0 08 mswd 0 38 this age is distinctly younger than the post pongola granites 2863 2721 ma ruling out the association of granite emplacement with mineralization this would suggest that mineralization is linked to the regional d3 folding event which reactivated the ksz after emplacement of the post pongola granites and that final brittle post mineralization reactivation is related to karoo age faulting low initial os values suggest that ore fluid interacted with mafic rocks leaching non radiogenic os the likely source being the deeper seated nsuze group volcanics and or the greenstone belts that underlie the pongola supergroup

helium and argon isotope geochemistry of alkaline intrusion associated gold and copper deposits along the red river jinshajiang fault belt sw china abstract the red river jinshajiang strike slip fault zone on the eastern margin of the tibetan plateau was originally produced by the india eurasia collision 60 70 myr ago numerous post collisional mantle derived alkaline igneous rocks with ages of 40 30 ma have been intruded along this fault zone in recent years several copper and gold deposits associated with the alkaline intrusions of this region were discovered such as the yao an and beiya gold deposits and the yulong and machangqing copper deposits studied in this paper the mineralised intrusions are felsic with sio 2 ranging from 61 4 to 67 7 wt k 2 o na 2 o from 8 1 to 11 5 wt and k 2 o na 2 o 1 the deposits are located at both the exo and endo contact zones of the intrusions the mineral deposits are of hydrothermal origin with the ore forming temperatures mainly in the range 150 450 c this paper presents he and ar isotope analyses of these four deposits the concentrations of 4 he trapped in fluid inclusions of pyrites from the ores are 0 7 54 1 10 6 cm 3 stp g 1 and those of 40 ar are 0 6 7 3 10 6 cm 3 stp g 1 3 he 4 he ratios are 0 3 2 5 ra ra represents the 3 he 4 he ratio of air 1 39 10 6 40 ar 36 ar ratios are 316 1736 and 3 he 36 ar ratios are 0 2 11 2 10 3 generally the 3 he 4 he 40 ar 36 ar and 3 he 36 ar ratios for the gold deposits are higher than those for the copper deposits we suggest that the ore forming fluids of both gold and copper deposits were differentiated from the mantle derived alkaline magmas but were diluted by modified air saturated water masw that experienced intensive interaction with crustal rocks however the magmatic fluids responsible for the gold deposits were less extensively diluted by masw resulting in higher 3 he 4 he 40 ar 36 ar and 3 he 36 ar ratios than the copper deposits

the style of the tyrrhenian subduction momentum and energy equations are solved simultaneously for an incompressible viscous fluid in order to model the changes in the shape of a subducted slab when active convergence between the subducting and overriding plates comes to the end and slab pull becomes the dominant tectonic mechanism this model can be applied to the tyrrhenian domain where it has been suggested that active convergence terminated about 7 9 myr ago during the active phase the angle of immersion of the slab at intermediate depths between 100 and 270 km is small about 45 50 and large about 80 90 at depths greater than 300 km the phase of passive gravitational sinking is characterized by a substantial modification in the shape of the slab with a large angle of immersion of 70 now at intermediate depths decreasing to 50 in proximity of the tip of the slab when the shape of the modelled slab is compared with the seismogenic portion of the subducted ionian lithosphere in the tyrrhenian our results are consistent with subduction driven by slab pull and with cessation of active convergence between 7 9 myr before present

formation of gold deposits a metamorphic devolatilization model a metamorphic devolatilization model can explain the enrichment segregation timing distribution and character of many goldfields such as those found in archean greenstone belts slate belts and other gold only provinces in this genetic model hydrated and carbonated greenschist facies rocks particularly metabasic rocks are devolatilized primarily across the greenschist amphibolite facies boundary in an orogenic setting devolatilization operates on the scale of individual mineral grains extracting not just h2o and co2 but also s and in turn au elevated gold in solution is achieved by complexing with reduced s and by h2co3 weak acid buffering near the optimal fluid ph for gold solubility the buffering is more important than being at the point of maximum gold solubility low salinity ensures low base metal concentrations in the auriferous metamorphic fluid migration of this fluid upwards is via shear zones and or into hydraulic fracture zones in rocks of low tensile strength the geometry of the shear zones dictates the kilometre scale fluid migration paths and the degree of fluid focusing into small enough volumes to form economic accumulations of gold deposition of gold from solution necessitates breakdown of the gold thiosulphide complex and is especially facilitated by fluid reduction in contact with reduced carbon bearing host rocks and or by sulphidation of wallrocks to generate iron bearing sulphide and precipitated gold as such black slate carbon seams banded iron formation tholeiitic basalt magnetite bearing diorite and differentiated tholeiitic dolerite sills are some of the important hosts to major goldfields gold deposition is accompanied by carbonation sulphidation and muscovite biotite alteration where the host rock is of suitable bulk composition the correlation of major gold deposits with rock type even when the gold is primarily in veins argues for rock dominated depositional systems not fluid dominated ones as a consequence a general role in gold deposition for fluid mixing temperature decrease and or fluid pressure decrease and boiling is unlikely although such effects may be involved locally several geological features that are recorded at gold only deposits today reflect subsequent modifications superimposed upon the products of this generic metamorphic devolatilization process overprinting by higher grade metamorphism and deformation and or palaeo weathering may provide many of the most obvious features of goldfields including their mineralogy geochemistry geometry small scale timing features geophysical response and even mesoscopic gold distribution

favoured states of palaeostress in the earth s crust evidence from fault slip data abstract in a major survey of published palaeostress estimates obtained by the use of fault slip data over 2000 stress tensors from shallow crustal levels have been compiled the results are derived from regions where deformation is dominated by brittle processes and consist of incomplete stress tensors in which the orientations of the principal stresses 1 2 3 are known together with the stress ratio 2 3 1 3 the orientations of the stress axes display a preferred orientation with a tendency for one of the axes to be vertical this accords with anderson s assumed standard state stress configuration near to the earth s free surface although the tendency is strong there are frequent deviations from the arrangement in 25 of cases the steepest stress axis deviates by more than 25 from the vertical in undertaking studies of palaeostress it would be therefore unwise to use methods that assume a priori one vertical stress axis unless previous local results indicate this to be the case normal strike slip and thrust stress arrangements with 1 2 and 3 as the steepest stress respectively occur in the database with frequencies approximately in the ratio 2 2 1 in the compiled results the raw stress ratios which have a theoretical range from 0 to 1 show a lack of very high values and to a lesser extent very low values this suggests that triaxial stress states are more common than axial compression deviatoric stress and axial tension deviatoric stress however this relative abundance of triaxial stress states is considered to be a natural feature of a uniform distribution of stress tensors in addition there is a marked bias in the collated ratios towards values less than 0 5 and this is expressed by an overall mean of 0 39 several possible explanations for the distribution of stress ratios are discussed these explanations are related to the tendency for tectonic deformation to be of plane strain type coupled with volume change and to the fact that gravitational loading makes an important contribution to the state of stress in the crust

kinematic evolution of the romanian carpathians abstract the regional pattern of contraction and extension directions and the evolution of the strain field from paleogene to neogene times enabled a reconstruction of the migration path of the carpathian collision front the carpathian nappes were thrust around the moesian plate during paleogene and early neogene times and protruded into a small oceanic embayment between the moesian and european plates the arc structure of the carpathian fold thrust belt was formed in late neogene times as a result of the eastward escaping tisza dacia block due to n directed convergence of the adriatic plate and the retreating subduction of an oceanic slab brittle deformation structures in the romanian carpathians suggest three tectonic events related to major plate motions 1 paleogene to middle miocene ne to ene contraction caused right lateral curved strike slip faults 2 middle miocene to pliocene fan shaped orientations of contraction directions were caused by right lateral oblique convergence in the southern carpathians frontal convergence in the southern eastern carpathians and left lateral convergence in the northern eastern carpathians 3 pleistocene to holocene general e w extension and n s contraction in the carpathian arc and local ese wnw contraction in the vrancea area is related to the late roll back stage and break off of the subducted slab in the bend area

cretaceous to miocene thrusting and wrenching along the central south carpathians due to a corner effect during collision and orocline formation field studies in the romanian south carpathians longitude 22 5 to 24 2 e and latitude 45 2 to 45 6 n demonstrate 1 cretaceous top to ne shearing parallel to the present strike of the thrust system connected with coaxial flattening within the generally northwest dipping foliation 2 paleogene ductile brittle dextral wrenching e w compression 1 87 15 and basin formation petrosani basin along the cerna jiu fault system 3 large scale miocene dextral wrenching along the northern margin of moesia 1 143 16 and 4 probably pliocene early pleistocene n s compression 1 205 25 we discuss the tectonics of the south carpathians stressing the corner effect of the moesian foreland promontory during convergence and formation of the carpathian orocline up to the late early cretaceous subduction of oceanic crust was active between europe moesia on one side and east carpathia rhodopia on the other side collision and intracontinental deformation occurred during the late early and late cretaceous the pinning of the thrust front at the western tip of moesia and the foreland recess north of it caused superposition of thrusting and wrenching during collision and lateral translation tangential stretching during orocline formation and spreading into the recess further convergence during the early tertiary resulted in dislocation of the previously welded east carpathian rhodopian and moesian fragments along the cerna jiu fault system and the further northeast translation of the western segment the intramontane petrosani basin opened as a northeasterly propagating transient pull apart structure along the cerna jiu fault system which acquired a curved northwesterly convex transtensional trace due to the shape of the moesian promontory tightening of the carpathian orocline and or rearrangement of the microplate geometry during the formation of the pannonian basin system led to large scale dextral wrenching along the northern margin of moesia pliocene n s compression reflects final shortening in the carpathian system before ongoing convergence between europe and africa was transferred to the mediterranean rotation of material lines around the moesian corner is corroborated by paleomagnetic studies

evolution of the miocene ailaoshan orogenic gold deposits southeastern tibet during a complex tectonic history of lithosphere crust interaction the orogenic gold deposits along the nnw trending ailaoshan shear zone are formed during miocene continental collision after a complex history of neoproterozoic subduction late triassic amalgamation between the indochina and south china blocks after closure of the paleo tethyan ocean and oligocene eocene continental scale shearing related to the indian eurasian continental collision as a result the eastern neoproterozoic basement with ductile shear zones was thrust over the western metasedimentary rocks and paleo tethyan ophiolites affected by brittle faulting these tectonically juxtaposed successions were underlain by lithosphere metasomatized in the neoproterozoic the gold hosting western succession is characterized by tightly folded silurian to permian metasedimentary rocks overlain by gently folded late triassic metasedimentary rocks and cut by secondary nw trending shear zones this crustal architecture controlled migration of ore fluid towards the cessation of regional ductile deformation at ca 22 ma with major ductile shear zones serving as the main conduit tight folds and jogs or intersections on subsidiary brittle shear zones as the fluid trap and late triassic rocks as the seal gold rich rims on disseminated gold poor sedimentary pyrite with a limited 34s range from 3 to 3 pyrite he ar isotope ratios and the timing of mineralization within retrograde metamorphism suggest an important metal contribution from mantle lithosphere the auriferous fluid derived from previously metasomatized mantle lithosphere is interpreted to have advected up the ailaoshan shear zone into the metasedimentary sequence during mantle upwelling clearly contrasting with widely accepted crustal metamorphic models for phanerozoic orogenic gold deposits

the tectonic expression slab pull at continental convergent boundaries examination of five thrust belt systems developed at continental subduction boundaries suggests that they comprise two distinct groups that display pronounced and systematic differences in structural style topographic elevation denudation metamorphism postcollisional convergence and foredeep basin geometry and facies the distinctive geological features developed within each thrust belt group appear to be causally linked to the relative rates of subduction and convergence via the magnitude of horizontal compressional stress transmitted across the subduction boundary at subduction boundaries where the rate of overall plate convergence is less than the rate of subduction termed here retreating subduction boundaries the transmission of horizontal compressive stress across the plate boundary is small and regional deformation of the overriding plate is by horizontal extension the tectonic expression of these retreating subduction boundaries includes topographically low mountains little erosion or denudation low grade to no metamorphism little to no involvement of crystalline basement in shortening little to no postcollisional convergence anomalously deep foredeep basins and a protracted history of flysch deposition within the adjacent foredeep basin analysis of deflection and gravity data across three retreating subduction boundaries apennine carpathian and hellenic systems shows that subduction is driven by gravitational forces acting on dense subducted slabs at depths between about 40 and 80 km carpathians 50 and 150 km apennines and 50 and 250 km hellenides the total mass anomalies represented by the slabs are approximately 3 1012 6 1012 and 12 1012 n m respectively the slabs are partially supported by flexural stresses transmitted through the subducted lithosphere to the foreland and partially supported by dynamic viscous stresses in the asthenosphere at subduction boundaries where the rate of overall plate convergence is greater than the rate of subduction termed here advancing subduction boundaries the transmission of horizontal compressive stress across the plate boundary is large and regional deformation of the overriding plate is by horizontal shortening the tectonic expression of these advancing subduction boundaries includes topographically high mountains antithetic thrust belts large amounts of erosion and denudation exposure of high grade metamorphic rocks at the surface extensive deformation of crystalline basement to midcrustal depths protracted postcollisional convergence tens of millions of years and a protracted history of molasse deposition within the adjacent foredeep basins analysis of gravity and deflection data across two advancing subduction boundaries developed within the continental lithosphere western to eastern and southern alps and himalayas shows that the thrust sheets have been translated for great distances over the foreland lithosphere relative to the point at which the subduction forces are applied thus obscuring any flexural and gravity signals from the subducted slab however it appears that far field stresses presumably related to global plate motions drive most of the convergent motion across these subduction boundaries the concept that orogenic belts formed above retreating subduction boundaries have recognizable tectonic signatures that differ from those of orogenic belts formed above advancing subduction boundaries suggests that it may be possible to interpret the plate boundary settings in which ancient orogenic belts evolved appendix b is available with entire article on microfiche order from the american geophysical union 2000 floridaavenue n w washington d c 20009 document t92 004 2 50 payment must accompany order

evolution of the pannonian basin system 1 tectonics the carpathian arc formed during cretaceous to miocene time by continental collision between europe and smaller continental fragments following southward and westward subduction of ocean floor during the last stages of thrusting in the outer carpathians a set of discrete basins formed behind the carpathian loop these basins are regions of middle to late miocene extension and are connected to each other and to areas of coeval shortening in the outer carpathian thrust belt by a system of strike slip faults sinistral northeast trending and dextral northwest trending sets of conjugate shears reflect overall east west extension of the intra carpathian region during middle to late miocene time palinspastic reconstruction of the basins indicates about 100 50 km of east west extension across the intra carpathian region during this time we interpret the vienna basin which is superimposed partly on the flysch nappes of the outer west carpathians as the result of thin skinned extensional tectonics above a shallow detachment surface within the crust extension of upper crustal rocks above this detachment was probably accomodated by thrusting of the outermost nappes of the west carpathians over the european platform extension of basins farther inside the carpathian loop probably involved rocks at deeper crustal levels and within the upper mantle the most internally situated basins formed by extensional processes that involved the entire lithosphere thus the depth to which extension occurred seems to be closely related to the proximity of each basin to the active thrust front in the carpathians this can be related to the geometry of the subduction zone extension within the intra carpathian basins began first in the northernmost basins and migrated southward and eastward over a ten million year period palinspastic reconstruction of the basins at three different times during the miocene 17 5 16 5 and 13 0 ma predicts eastward migration of the zone of thrusting and shortening within the carpathian mountains to accomodate the synchronous eastward and southward migration of areas of extension from these reconstructions about 120 60 km of east west shortening is predicted across the outer east carpathians from about 17 5 ma until present both predictions are in good agreement with the timing and magnitude of shortening in the carpathian thrust belt as determined directly from rocks within the belt from this we infer a close relationship for middle to late miocene extension of the intra carpathian region and middle to late miocene crustal shortening within the outer carpathians during middle and late miocene time deformation of the pannonian fragment was dominated by extensional and wrench tectonics except along a narrow zone in the outer carpathian thrust belt middle and late miocene thrusting in the carpathians is interpreted as the result of simple shear caused by relative motion between europe and the overriding pannonian fragment at the subduction boundary rather than of regional compression of lithospheric rocks at depth the initiation of extensional tectonics within the intra carpathian region in middle miocene time can be related to reorganization of major fragment boundaries of the eastern european alpine system

intraplate tectonics in asia a precise age for large scale miocene movement along the ailao shan red river shear zone china tertiary left lateral movement along the 1000 km long ailao shan red river shear zone appears to have played an important role in absorbing post collisional northward penetration of india into asia crustal strike slip shear along this zone caused the formation of a gneiss belt metamorphosed to amphibolite grade including anatectic melting both metamorphism and melting were induced by ductile deformation yielding the possibility to date the major tectonometamorphic event that shaped the ailao shan red river belt 17 u pb isotope analyses were performed on small size fractions of zircon monazite and xenotime extracted from two different leucogranitic layers the two samples are located about 50 km apart in the central segment of ailao shan in structurally well controlled settings where the melts crystallized within the strongly foliated gneisses during late stages of deformation all mineral u pb analyses had to be corrected for excess or deficit amounts of radiogenic 206 pb originating from initial 230 th disequilibrium in the 238 u decay series in monazite such disequilibrium 206 pb reaches 20 of total radiogenic 206 pb the corrected u pb ages of monazite and xenotime lie between 22 1 and 23 9 ma whereas zircon yields significantly discordant u pb ages between 30 5 and 33 9 ma pointing to precambrian material in the magma source region inherited components could also be detected in monazite the set of u pb data shows that monazite and xenotime formed simultaneously in both localities substantiating an early miocene age of 23 0 0 2ma for late kinematic crystallization of anatectic melts in the metamorphic belt of the ailao shan red river shear zone

age and origin of magmatism along the cenozoic red river shear belt china to decipher the geodynamic significance of cenozoic magmatism along the red river shear belt geochemical analyses u pb and rb sr dating and pb sr nd isotope tracing were undertaken zircon monazite titanite and a ti u oxide from foliated granitoid intrusions in the shear belt gneisses yield u pb emplacement ages of 33 1 0 2 2 31 9 0 3 25 8 0 2 and 24 7 0 2 ma and an age of 35 0 0 3 ma was obtained for the roughly 100 km long adjacent jinping phan si pang alkali granite together with our previous data the new ages suggest that magmatism and left lateral strike slip movements occurred coevally during latest eocene oligocene times from 33 to 22 ma the rb sr dating of muscovite and biotite from the northernmost gneisses indicates that cooling to 500 c occurred at 52 6 1 1 ma pre dating the onset of magmatism whereas further cooling to 300 c took place at 28 9 0 6 this shows that unroofing in the north took place almost 9 million years earlier than in the central gneiss segments of the shear zone geochemical data substantiate two types of magmas 1 amphibole bearing intrusions of alkaline trend which are derived from sources with isr 0 7065 0 7089 and i nd 3 7 to 6 6 2 leucogranitic layers and bodies having isr 0 7084 0 7354 and i nd 3 3 to 13 4 the former type of intrusion is found in both the gneisses and the adjacent unmetamorphosed cover rocks whereas leucogranites are restricted to the shear belt gneisses source signatures of the alkaline intrusions lie adjacent to the those of oib plotting at the lower end of the mantle array contamination of these melts by continental material seems to be very limited on the other hand the leucogranitic layers are essentially crustal derived but none of the them has country rock isotope signatures requiring melting of crust different from the actually exposed gneisses magma sources similar to those of ocean island basalt indicate magmatism to involve melting of light rare earth element and large ion lithophile element enriched mantle domains most likely present in the lithosphere underneath the region since lithospheric thickening or subduction can be ruled out to produce both types of magmas the presence of an important thermal anomaly is required which is coevally active with left lateral strike slip shear adiabatic decompression and melting within the rising anomaly is the most plausible mechanism to produce the mantle magmas which successively migrate through the crust to induce anatectic melting at 20 15 km crustal depth alkaline magmas largely dominate the volume of magmatism along the belt being continuously present in the shear zone for millions of years such lubrication potentially explains how very large amounts of displacement can be absorbed in surprisingly narrow shear zones such as the red river belt possibly also playing a role for where and when zones of plate scale lateral extrusion develop

tertiary evolution of the intra carpathian area a model abstract the outer carpathian flysch nappes encircle an intra carpathian domain which can be divided into two megatectonic units north pannonian and tisza mostly on the basis of contrasting mesozoic and palaeogene facies development we see two major kinematic problems to be solved 1 1 the present distribution of the mesozoic and palaeogene facies is mosaic like and some belts form exotic bodies within realms of austroalpine affinity 2 2 late eocene palinspastic reconstruction of the outer carpathian flysch nappes suggest that the entire intra carpathian area must have been located several hundreds of kilometres to the south and to the west of its present position neogene extension can account for shortening in the external carpathian nappes but is unable to explain mesozoic facies anomalies and offsets of palaeogene formations we suggest that evolution of the intra carpathian area involved first late palaeogene early miocene juxtaposition of the north pannonian and tisza megatectonic units accompanied by the closure of the external carpathian flysch troughs thereafter extension of this amalgamated unit occurred which was compensated by thrusting of flysch nappes onto the european foreland and formation of molasse foredeeps eastward escape of the north pannonian unit from the alpine collisional belt involved left lateral shear along the pieniny klippen belt and right lateral shear along the mid hungarian zone parts of the late palaeogene basin and an early miocene volcanic edifice were dissected offset and elongated by several 100 kms the driving mechanism of the eastward escape of the intra carpathian area can be related to the collision of apulia and europe and the subduction of the external carpathian crust under the pannonian units the escape ceased gradually in the early miocene when oblique collision between the north pannonian unit and european continent occurred neogene extension of the pannonian region was an areal deformation the extension at locally variable rate resulted in the break up of the heterogenous floor of the neogene basin the driving mechanism of basin extension and contemporaneous compressional deformation of the external carpathians is thought to be related to ongoing subduction involving the marginal part of the attenuated european continental crust tectonic activity in the carpathians and basin subsidence and volcanism shifted in time and in unison from the west toward the east southeast

duration of strike slip movements in large shear zones the red river belt china abstract sixty four size fractions of zircon monazite xenotime and titanite were dated by the u pb method to temporally and spatially constrain left lateral movements in the red river shear zone between the depths of 15 and 20 km the shearing led to the formation of the high grade metamorphic gneisses that form the bulk of the 4200 m high diancang shan and 3100 m high ailao shan mountain ranges the omnipresence of melt layers and pockets in these gneisses shows that temperatures associated with tectonometamorphism lie at and above the solidus of continental crust and deformation patterns are very homogeneous over the entire length of the belt north of the gneisses subvolcanic bodies intrude unmetamorphosed cover rocks in particular eocene red beds along the projected trend of the red river shear zone for a leucogranitic layer in the diancang shan gneisses an age of 24 2 0 2 ma 2 is obtained for monazite and 22 4 0 2 ma is obtained for xenotime whereas zircon formed through two growth stages at 24 23 ma these ages record solidification of the anatectic melts over a period of at least 1 8 0 4 ma during which left lateral shear was continuously active in the ailao shan gneisses zircon and titanite ages are 26 3 0 3 and 26 1 0 2 ma for two monzonitic bodies and 24 1 0 2 and 22 4 0 2 ma for two pegmatitic layers that occur within the monzonitic intrusions these results show that zircon monazite titanite and probably also xenotime are closed systems for u and pb under melting conditions 650 c therefore the ages date mineral formation in the melt rather than cooling below certain closure temperatures a significantly older age of 35 0 0 1 ma is obtained for a monzonitic subvolcanic intrusion north of the diancang shan gneisses because these intrusions follow the trend of the shear zone they most likely represent the surface expression of early activity along that zone indicating that strike slip movement had already occurred in latest eocene time the total set of u pb ages shows that magmatic and metamorphic activity occurred from 35 to 20 ma strengthening the idea that the red river shear zone absorbed most of the intraplate movements required to compensate the opening of the south china sea between 32 and 16 ma the existence of monzonitic syenitic intrusions along the red river zone implies that melting affected source rocks other than the diancang shan and ailao shan gneiss protoliths potential sources to produce such rocks lie in the deep crust possibly including melts from the mantle consequently the red river shear zone must be a deep rooted structure along which melts migrated to the surface moreover the contemporaneity of shear motion and magma generation suggests that melting occurred in direct relation to strike slip activity

the transylvania basin transfer zone between coeval extending and contracting regions inferences on the relative importance of slab pull and rift push in arc back arc regions 1 structural analysis and paleostress fault slip inversion of the transylvanian basin and its border regions with the surrounding east and south carpathians and the pannonian basin e g the apuseni mountains reveal at least two distinct tectonic phases for the neogene evolution for the eastern part of the pannonian basin system our main focus is on the role of the transylvanian basin and its border regions in the neogene as a transition zone between the extending pannonian basin and the converging east and south carpathians the results provide constraints on the mechanisms responsible for as well the formation of the transylvanian basin itself as on the relation between the basin formational processes operating in the pannonian basin and the contractional history of the east and south carpathian mountain belt in the middle miocene 17 14 12 myr the transylvanian basin underwent e w extension coeval with the first and major phase of overall e w extension affecting the pannonian basin and with submarine accretionary wedge tectonics in the east carpathian arc in the late miocene to early pliocene 12 8 6 myr the transylvanian basin experienced a strong pulse of e w oriented shortening coeval with the climax of compression in the east carpathians and a second rift phase affecting the pannonian basin continued contractional deformation affected the transylvanian basin during the pliocene and pleistocene with compression directions shifting to ese wnw directions

la icp ms trace element analysis of pyrite from the chang an gold deposit sanjiang region china implication for ore forming process abstract the chang an gold deposit yunnan province is one of five large gold deposits in the ailaoshan gold belt that is the most important ore belt of the sanjiang tethyan metallogenic domain geochemical study of pyrite in the deposit was conducted using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy three types of hydrothermal pyrite were identified in the ores and wall rocks i e the coarse euhedral crystals in syenite py1 the coarse grains disseminated in altered sandstones or sandstone ores py2 and the fine grained euhedral pyrite in sandstone ores py3 their trace elements exhibit different concentrations associations and rim core zoning implying different geneses and crystallization processes the cores of py1 were formed by magmatic fluids and have the lowest concentrations of au as cu and zn the cores of py2 were formed by metamorphic fluids and have relatively high au ag ni pb and cu concentrations the py3 grains and the growth rims of py1 and py2 show consistently high contents of au as pb and co suggesting that all of them were rapidly deposited from a mixing fluid system that was probably composed of fluids of metamorphic and magmatic origins this interpretation is supported by the observation that the high grade ores generally contain lots of py2 and py3 hence we consider that the deposit was formed during india asia collision slightly postdate the 33 35 ma tectono magmatism

the paleomagnetism of the upper cretaceous magmatic rocks in the banat area of south carpathians tectonic implications abstract forty four sites were sampled in upper cretaceous magmatic rocks in the western part of the southern carpathians banat area for a paleomagnetic study after detailed af demagnetization only 10 sites yielded primary remanent magnetizations the directions of which are similar to those identified in senonian magmatic rocks from the apuseni mountains and the ha eg and rusca montan basins the mean paleomagnetic pole for these three areas is compared with those from coeval formations of stable europe and stable africa this comparison shows a large clockwise rotation both with respect to africa and europe and a northward transport to reach their present day position during the tertiary the relations with adjacent zones of the tethys mobile belt are also discussed

transform faulting extension and subduction in the carpathian pannonian region the carpathian arc formed during the cretaceous to miocene continental collision of europe with a smaller continental fragment following southward and westward subduction of an oceanic terrane during and after the last stages of thrusting in the outer carpathians a set of discrete basins opened up inside the carpathian loop these basins are regions of local extension which appear to be associated with strike slip faults in general northeast and northwest trending sets of conjugate shears reflect east west extension of the intra carpathian region during the middle and late miocene palinspastic reconstruction of the basins indicates approximately 75 to 100 km of extension comparable to the magnitude of synchronous crustal shortening in the east carpathians extension may have occurred to accommodate continued westward a type subduction after plate convergence was prohibited by geometrical constraints and suggests that in this region miocene subduction is driven by forces acting on the downgoing plate

arcuate accretionary wedge formation at convex plate margin corners results of sandbox analogue experiments abstract indentation of a rigid box into a sand layer leads to accretion of sand into a wedge which has an arcuate shape in map view curvature of the wedge is most pronounced at the corners of the indentor where deformation has been investigated in detail in this study several features of the arcuate wedge in the corner region depend on the indentation angle i e the angle between the indentation direction and the normal to the frontal face of the indentor a the ratio between the widths of the lateral and frontal parts of the wedge increases linearly with increasing indentation angle b orogen parallel extension ope in the corner area is initially high and leads thus to large finite ope in the firstly formed nappes but decreases and attains a stable level during progressive convergence finite ope in the corner region is smaller at larger indentation angles c displacement vectors of accreted material exhibit fanning around the arc but in oblique indentation the spread of their orientation is smaller than the change of structural strike nappe traces and fold axes displacement vectors trend mainly in such positions normal to structural strike where displacement is parallel to the indentation direction the results from these experiments can be applied to natural arcuate fold thrust belts if natural conditions do not differ much from experimental boundary conditions such an application may give information about the former plate movement direction across an arcuate plate margin in the example of the eastern carpathian arc a tertiary plate movement direction of approx 125 130 was determined this direction is in accordance with current models of large scale tectonics of the carpathian region which indicates the applicability of the experimental results to natural examples

sulfur isotopes in sediment hosted orogenic gold deposits evidence for an early timing and a seawater sulfur source we report sulfur isotopic compositions of sulfides of various paragenetic stages in the giant sukhoi log sediment hosted orogenic au deposit in russia the overall mean value and the significant variability in early pyrite indicate that the sulfur was from the reduction of seawater sulfate the later generations of sulfide have 34s values in successively smaller ranges coincident with the mode that is around the median value of the whole data set together with textural evidence sulfide trace element data and gold occurrence the data demonstrate that metamorphism has gradually homogenized the early sulfur accompanied by the segregation of quartz and the release of au from the lattice of early pyrite and its reprecipitation as inclusions in later pyrite the s isotopic compositions of sulfides in sukhoi log and many other major orogenic au deposits hosted in sedimentary rocks of various ages show a pattern generally parallel to the seawater sulfate curve through geologic time indicating that the sulfur in most sediment hosted orogenic au deposits was probably also originally from the reduction of seawater sulfate we conclude that sulfidation and gold mineralization in many sediment hosted orogenic gold deposits was early during basin evolution when seawater was the principal active fluid rather than later during or after basin inversion as proposed in current models

multiple metamorphic events revealed by zircons from the diancang shan ailao shan metamorphic complex southeastern tibetan plateau abstract analyses of mineral inclusions within complexly zoned zircons combined with sims u pb ages for various domains within the zircons provide evidence of the origin and multistage metamorphic evolution of the diancang shan ailao shan metamorphic complex southeastern tibetan plateau zircons separated from paragneisses amphibolites garnet pyroxenites and marbles were subdivided into inherited magmatic or detrital and metamorphic zircons based on cathodoluminescence cl and laser raman spectroscopy weakly zoned inherited detrital zircons from paragneisses yield ages of 700 540 ma 1000 800 ma 1800 ma and 2550 2450 ma and contain inclusion assemblages of qtz kfs pl ap recording widespread geological events throughout the ancient gondwana continent in contrast clearly zoned inherited magmatic zircons in amphibolites and garnet pyroxenites yield ages of 778 773 ma and contain cpx pl qtz ap inclusions representing the crystallization age of the mafic protolith metamorphic zircons also record discrete early middle triassic and the eocene oligocene thermal events homogeneous metamorphic zircons with low th u ratios these new data suggest a clockwise p t t path for the diancang shan ailao shan metamorphic complex belt typical of continent continent collision indicating collision subduction tectonism prior to the strong left lateral ductile deformation along the ailao shan red river asrr shear zone that started at 32 ma and lasted until 25 ma causing mid crustal 18 25 km depth high temperature metamorphic conditions continued uplift and a slowing of left lateral ductile shearing occurred at 25 14 ma at a depth of 10 15 km and under relatively low temperature conditions this temporal and kinematic link between left lateral shearing along the asrr and the opening of the south china sea supports the occurrence of the block extrusion of indochina from eurasia along lithospheric scale strike up faults

structural evolution of the transylvanian basin romania a sedimentary basin in the bend zone of the carpathians abstract the transylvanian basin with its up to 10 km thick upper cretaceous to pliocene fill is one of the most important sedimentary basins of southeastern europe upper cretaceous coarse grained clastics lie unconformably on basement strongly tectonized during early cretaceous and older stages upper cretaceous sediments were mainly deposited along roughly n s trending grabens and were subsequently folded before the end of the paleocene eocene to middle oligocene rocks record mostly quiet sedimentation n s tension and extension took place in the oligocene and was followed by widespread nw se compression and contraction important thrusts are associated with this phase in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the basin widespread n s contraction followed during the early miocene in association with s vergent thrusting in the northern part of the basin a southward thinning clastic wedge developed during this stage the badenian basal unconformity marked a major change in the sedimentary and tectonic pattern of the transylvanian basin with new depocenters developing in the central parts of the present day basin late miocene e w extension affected vast areas and caused some important normal faulting in the southeast the youngest deformation recorded is associated with e w contraction and is of pliocene or younger age

from stretching to subduction in back arc regions dynamic considerations abstract we establish the relationship between buoyancy of the lithosphere with respect to the asthenosphere and its elevation discussing the effect of compressibility on this relationship we then use the uniform lithospheric stretching model to show that as stretching proceeds and subsidence of a new basin begins a rift push force similar to the ridge push force appears which eventually may be large enough to drive the stretching on the other hand once stretching stops this force decays by cooling as the basin subsides later on the basin becomes negatively buoyant and subject to compressive forces thus subduction of the basin becomes more likely and tectonic inversion may then appear

linking the indochina block and gondwana during the early paleozoic evidence from u pb ages and hf isotopes of detrital zircons abstract to constrain the paleoposition of indochina within gondwana during the early paleozoic we performed in situ u pb and hf isotope analyses on detrital zircons from three river sediment samples in the truong son belt of the indochina block the age distributions yield dominant neoarchean 2 5 ga mesoproterozoic 1 7 1 4 ga grenvillian 0 95 ga and pan african 0 65 0 5 ga age groups and minor paleo to meso archean zircons hf isotope compositions of zircons for each age group exhibit large ranges of ehf t suggesting that the zircon host rocks have diverse sources the oldest hf model ages for zircons of neoarchean grenvillian and pan african age group yield 3 7 ga or older while those of mesoproterozoic age group show 3 3 ga the remarkable similarity of age distribution and hf isotope compositions among detrital zircons of indochina and those of tethyan himalaya western cathaysia and qiangtang suggests that indochina was located outboard of qiangtang and south of south china in the indian margin of gondwana during the early paleozoic our results are consistent with the paleontological correlations of east gondwana margin during the early paleozoic

geology and structural evolution of the muruntau gold deposit kyzylkum desert uzbekistan abstract the muruntau gold deposit in the kyzylkum desert of uzbekistan is the largest single deposit 1100 tonnes of gold of the class of low sulfide syndeformation synigenous gold deposits formed in the brittle ductile transition zone of the crust within transpressional shear zones hosted by the cambrian to ordovician besopan suite the ores were deposited in pre existing thrust fault and metamorphism related permeabilities and in synmineralization dilational zones created in a large fault related fold the besopan suite is a 5 000 m thick sequence of turbiditic siltstones shales and sandstones the ore is primarily localized at the base of the besopan 3 unit which is a 2 000 m thick series of carbonaceous shales siltstones sandstones and cherts initial gold deposition took place within the sangruntau tamdytau shear zone which was developed along the stratigraphic contact between the besopan 3 and besopan 4 units during the mineralization process folding of the besopan suite and a left step adjustment in the sangruntau tamdytau shear zone were caused by two concurrent events 1 the activation of the left lateral muruntau daugyztau shear zone that developed at nearly a 90 angle to the preceding shear zone and 2 the intrusion of granitoid plutons these structural events also resulted in the refocusing of hydrothermal fluid flow into new zones of permeability

phases of compression during the evolution of the pannonian basin and its bearing on hydrocarbon exploration abstract progress in understanding the structural evolution of the pannonian basin is reported this has been driven by the application of seismic stratigraphy constrained by magnetostratigraphic data and the recent release of a great amount of hydrocarbon exploration data this has led to a redefinition and better understanding of the syn rift period and style of rifting in addition a complex structural evolution history during the post rift phase has been recognized two compressive events are defined one in the early stage and another in the late stage of evolution the importance of these findings for hydrocarbon exploration includes an improved knowledge of the timing of trap formations and a possible explanation for remarkably variable reservoir pressures in pools of the great hungarian plain

tethys tectonic evolution and its bearing on the distribution of important mineral deposits in the sanjiang region sw china abstract the sanjiang region in se tibet plateau and nw yunnan is known to have formed by amalgamation of gondwana derived continental blocks and arc terranes as a result of oceanic subduction followed by continental collision from paleozoic to mesozoic in this paper we provide a synthesis of tectonic evolution magmatism and metallogeny in the region based on data from literatures early paleozoic ophiolites 473 439 ma in the changning menglian belt indicate the existence of a proto tethys ocean in this region two episodes of subduction related magmatism in the early paleozoic one occurred in the baoshan and tengchong blocks at 502 455 ma and the other occurred in the simao block at 421 401 ma are regarded as evidence for two different events of subduction of the proto tethys ocean at different locations the proto tethys was succeeded in early devonian by the paleo tethys which comprised the main ocean and three branches ailaoshan jinshajiang and garze litang the changning menglian main ocean existed from middle devonian to middle triassic the remnants of the oceanic crust are preserved in a few places in the longmu tso shuanghu suture as well as in the changning menglian ophiolite belt the eastward subduction of the main oceanic plate from early permian to early triassic formed a prominent arc terrane stretching 1500 km from yunnan to eastern tibet from the waning stage of subduction to post subduction numerous s type granite plutons with ages varying between 230 and 219 ma such as the lincang batholith in yunnan were emplaced at or close to the suture this event produced several hydrothermal w sn deposits in the region the tectonic evolution and associated magmatism of the jinshajiang and ailaoshan branch oceans are generally comparable to those of the main ocean however the branch oceans were subducted westward instead the garze litang branch ocean also underwent westward subduction from middle devonian to late triassic arc related high sr y porphyry intrusions and associated porphyry skarn cu mo au deposits are common in the jinshajiang ailaoshan region especially in the yidun arc which formed prior to jurassic the vms deposits in the sanjiang region formed in diverse tectonic settings including middle silurian back arc basins carboniferous oceanic islands paleozoic subduction zones and triassic post subduction rifting environments the mesozoic and early cenozoic evolution of the baoshan and tengchong blocks was largely influenced by eastward oceanic subduction of the meso and neo tethys from late permian to middle cretaceous and from late cretaceous to 50 ma respectively abundant early cretaceous granitoids and associated skarn type pb zn and sn fe deposits in the baoshan and tengchong blocks were produced in the background of the shan boundary oceanic slab subduction to the west and the break off of the nujiang bitu oceanic slab to the north the subduction of the neo tethys oceanic plate beneath the tengchong block from late cretaceous to paleogene formed abundant s type granitoids and many skarn type and greisen type sn w deposits granitoids formed at 105 to 81 ma and contemporaneous hydrothermal w mo ag and au deposits which temporally coincided with the subduction of the neo tethys are common in the yidun arc terrane

kinematics of an arcuate fold thrust belt the southern eastern carpathians romania abstract flysch and molasse nappes of the eastern carpathians strike mainly n s and were folded and imbricated since the late early cretaceous boundaries of stratigraphic and structural units and calculated fold trend axes from the southern part of the eastern carpathians indicate a curvature of the orogen by 80 kinematic data from fault slip analysis of all nappe systems exposed in the arc document an overall nw se contraction nappes of the external moldavides nappe complex underwent deformation since the late cretaceous peaking in the miocene and exhibit fanning subhorizontal contraction axes from e w in the n striking part of the eastern carpathians through wnw ese and nw se in the northern part of the arc to nnw sse in its southwestern part geometric relations between faults and folds indicate that this fan pattern reflects an extended interval and was contemporaneous to nappe stacking and subsequent continental collision statistical analysis reveals correlation between orientation of the fanning kinematic axes and the structural trend where fanning of subhorizontal contraction axes is systematically smaller than change of strike of fold thrust structures orogen parallel extension in the tarcau nappe of the moldavides nappe complex is estimated to be 20 this low value of orogen parallel extension indicates a primary arc in contrast to bending of a previously straight fold thrust belt low orogen parallel extension and the observed pattern of structural and kinematic axes can be simulated in sand wedge indentation models where the indenter moves oblique to its margins in these models thrust traces and fold axes are curved around the arc but are parallel to the margins of the indenter away from the corner area the movement directions of the thrust faults in the models are deflected from normal to fault strike towards the movement direction of the indenter leading to fanning contraction directions similar to those observed in the eastern carpathian arc thus the main controlling factors on arc formation were the plate margin geometry i e the shape of the upper plate and the movement direction of the upper plate relative to the orientation of its margins the influence of the geometry of the continental margin in the lower plate was mainly by imposing constraints on the movement direction of the upper plate

mid late ordovician magmatism and metamorphism along the gander margin in central newfoundland fieldwork coupled with u pb dating has clarified the relationships between the exploits and gander derived rocks in central newfoundland during the mid ordovician opening of the exploits back arc basin reinforcing correlation across the peri gondwanan segments of the appalachian caledonian orogen we have separated a new back arc related unit the red cross group from the arc related victoria lake supergroup this group includes 466 3 ma felsic volcanic rock interlayered with alkali basalt enriched mid ocean ridge basalt 457 6 ma gabbro llanvirn caradoc normal mid ocean ridge basalt island arc tholeite limestone black shale and melange locally the red cross group is in parautochthonous contact with low grade gander psammite this contact was overrun by the meelpaeg metamorphic nappe during the devonian the nappe contains gander metapsammite meelpaeg subzone and the coticule bearing howley waters complex exploits which hosts 467 3 ma felsic porphyry the gander and exploits metasediments in the nappe are stitched by arenig llanvirn granite 467 6 ma and 468 3 5 3 ma and caradoc intrusions 458 3 ma and 454 2 ma metamorphic monazite 462 1 ma and titanite 460 3 ma from the nearby mount cormack subzone gander indicate the coeval formation of a low pressure high temperature metamorphic dome the widespread presence of caradoc magmatism suggests that the width of the back arc basin remained relatively narrow

subduction of the lithosphere and back arc dynamics insights from physical modeling physical modeling of the subduction of an elastico plastic lithosphere underlained by a low viscosity asthenosphere and driven by both horizontal compressional force and gravitational sinking of the subducting plate has shown the subduction regime to be strongly affected by 1 a where a and 1 are the asthenosphere and lithosphere densities at 0 a steady state process develops which requires a horizontal lithosphere compression of h 0 3 0 4 s 108 pa where s is the lithosphere yield limit the central part of the leading wedge of the overriding plate is nonisostatically elevated in this case especially in the region of the frontal arc which corresponds to a free air gravity anomaly maximum of 200 400 mgal a decrease in 0 compression of the overriding plate is considerably less from the onset of subduction and then decreases during subduction at some point compression changes into tension tensional nonhydrostatic stresses grow during the process to a value near h 0 1 0 2 s 0 4 108 pa both subsidence of the overriding wedge below the isostatic equilibrium level and an increase in the benioif dip angle accompany this process the gravity anomaly maximum is displaced into the volcanic arc in this subduction regime where it is normally less than 150 mgal if some weaknesses are present in the overriding plate tensional stresses result in a failure of the lithosphere at these locations and the broken lithosphere segment the arc plate starts to move counter to the subduction plate the arc plate slides along the underthrusting plate s surface without loss of contact and causes back arc opening hydrostatic suction prevents the plates from being separated this effect is caused by the peculiarity of a mechanical system whereby a low viscosity asthenosphere and a plastic lithosphere which effective yield limit is considerably lower than the hydrostatic stresses in the plate if the overriding lithosphere is not weakened enough to fail under the existing tension then the hanging slab breaks down under its own weight when it reaches a specific length both interacting plates undergo isostatic recovery in this case and the whole cycle is repeated again the hydrostatic suction effect also provides back arc tension under other conditions such as when asthenospheric flow forces the subducted plate to move away from the island arc

paleostress characterization of the wallachian phase in its type area southeastern carpathians romania abstract the wallachian phase is defined in the east carpathians a convex to the east mountain belt in romania as a tectonic event occurring between pliocene and quaternary times this event formed folds and minor thrusts structures that are usually located in internal parts of the somewhat older fold and thrust belt structure this location contrasts with the location one would predict from their recent age and contrasts with the older cretaceous middle tortonian piggyback thrust mode of propagation in the southeastern carpathians this late overstep sequence of thrusting resulted from a modification in the stress field our data indicate that the direction of compression changed from nw se to n s during middle tortonian time this is further supported by stratigraphic dating of structures and thereby paleostresses indicating that the wallachian episode was not a brief event at the pliocene quaternary boundary but lasted from middle tortonian to early pleistocene

evolution of the stress fields in the carpatho pannonian area during the neogene abstract observations of microtectonic faults in and around the pannonian basin suggest that the tertiary evolution of the area was controlled by large scale strike slip fault activity statistical analysis of the fault pattern for different localities makes it possible to separate several conjugate sets of strike slip faults and related dilatational and compressive structures these stress fields have a distinct rotation pattern with time inversion of fault data suggests a characteristic rotation of the principal stress axes with time some rigid body rotations are indicated by paleomagnetic data there are basically three contrasting mechanisms to explain this observation 1 1 appropriate rotation of the regional e g european stress field 2 2 rotation of larger tectonic units e g microcontinents under a stable regional stress field and 3 3 coherent rotation of smaller detached continental blocks under a stable regional stress field our model for the neogene tectonic evolution of the pannonian area combines these mechanisms moderate microcontinent rotation may have occurred during the paleogene early miocene in the early middle miocene the microcontinents were dissected by a system of strike slip and normal faults created by a n s compressive e w extensive stress field gravity spreading of the pannonian units and block rotation within bounding strike slip faults are suggested to explain rotated magnetic directions and fault patterns in the late neogene clockwise rotation of the general stress field by at least 40 is thought to be responsible for the reactivations of older strike slip faults and for the creation of new sets this change in the orientation of the stress field is related to the eastward and then southward shift of the carpathian subduction activity

late miocene quaternary volcanism tectonics and drainage system evolution in the east carpathians romania abstract middle miocene sarmatian convergence created the fold and thrust belt of the eastern carpathians of romania which subsequently experienced post collisional crustal deformation combined with calc alkaline and alkalic basaltic volcanism in late miocene quaternary time this deformation led to the rise of the c limani gurghiu harghita volcanic mountains and to the subsidence of the n s oriented intramontane borsec bilbor gheorgheni ciuc and brasov pull apart basins and the e oriented monocline related f g ras basin the regional drainage network is the composite of 1 older e se and s flowing rivers which cross the carpathians radiate towards the foreland and were probably established during the middle miocene sarmatian collision event 2 a more recent drainage system related to the contemporaneous development of the volcanoes and intramontaneous basins which generally drains westward into the transylvanian basin since late miocene time and has been capturing the older river system the older river drainage system has also been modified by late pliocene quaternary folding thrusting and monoclinal tilting along the pericarpathian orogenic front and by reactivated transverse high angle basement faults which cross the eastern carpathian foreland

zircon u pb and hf isotope constraints from the ailao shan red river shear zone on the tectonic and crustal evolution of southwestern china abstract the ailao shan red river asrr shear zone one of the most prominent geologic strike slip shear zones in southeast asia consists of high grade metamorphic complexes that provide a rare opportunity to sample the mid crustal rocks along the western margin of the yangtze block of south china here we report combined in situ analyses of zircon u pb and lu hf isotopes of eight gneisses from the diancang shan and ailao shan segments of the asrr shear zone our zircon u pb data indicate that the rocks contain abundant magmatic zircons ranging in age from 1785 to 25 ma with peak ages at ca 770 350 and 240 ma suggesting three major periods of protolith formation the 350 ma zircons observed only in an orthogneiss from the diancang shan show uniform initial hf isotopic ratios marked by high and positive e hf t values from 16 to 10 this is in contrast with the other two zircon populations that are more common occurring in both the diancang shan and ailao shan and overall delineate very heterogeneous hf isotopic compositions with e hf t values ranging from 15 to 16 many zircons reveal distinctive core rim age variations zircon rims formed between ca 34 and 26 ma show significant variations in th u ratios 5 0 01 and e hf t values 14 to 10 that suggest complicated magmatic and metamorphic zircon overgrowth during the oligocene the presence of both metamorphic and magmatic overgrowths on zircons suggests that the metamorphism reached upper amphibolite facies corresponding to mid crustal level p t conditions as also suggested by structural and petrologic data our data furthermore suggest that the asrr gneisses were not produced solely by shear heating during the tertiary strike slip faulting but are uplifted mid crustal basement rocks that formed essentially during two major stages of magmatism represented by the neoproterozoic kangding complex and late permian emeishan large igneous province as a result of the india asia collision these basement rocks underwent regional magmatic and metamorphic overprinting in the oligocene that based on our relevant work searle et al 2010 geosphere 6 1 23 predated the initial left lateral movement along the asrr shear zone the 350 ma protolith which requires a dominant depleted mantle input in the petrogenesis cannot be linked to any major magmatic events in south china but may be interpreted as part of the paleotethys remnants that were later incorporated into the asrr shear zone

mantle crustal and atmospheric noble gases in ailaoshan gold deposits yunnan province china abstract helium and argon isotopic and elemental compositions of fluids released by crushing pyrite grains are reported from the ailaoshan gold province china the province is a series of gold deposits hosted on a 200 km segment of a major normal fault formed during eocene extension the deposits have been well characterised using conventional geochemical and microthermometric techniques the results of which are consistent with a predominantly high temperature magmatic fluid present in the ore minerals in contrast analyses of noble gases from three gold deposits demonstrate the palaeofluids were a mixture between a mantle derived magmatic fluid and two different low temperature fluids similar to modern groundwaters the specific isotopic and abundance characteristics of helium and argon allow unequivocal identification of both a mantle derived component and a surface derived component to these fluids the magmatic fluid dominates deposits from the northern end of the fault the second groundwater is present only in deposits in the south of the province by assuming fluid inclusion homogenisation temperatures in coexisting quartz are representative of fluid temperature 3he heat ratios can be estimated the 3he heat ratios vary systematically along the fault from 30 10 12 cm3 stp j 1 in the northern deposits to

far field effects of late miocene subduction in the eastern carpathians e w compression and inversion of structures in the alpine carpathian pannonian region kinematic and paleostress data constrain a late miocene e w compressional event that affected the entire alpine carpathian pannonian system after 9 ma and prior to 5 3 ma the maximum horizontal compression directions obtained from 110 stations show a mean 1 orientation of 083 deformation is mainly strike slip e w directed compression followed early to middle miocene upper plate extension in the pannonian basin which was caused by the retreating subduction boundary in the outer carpathians this compressional event terminated early to middle miocene eastward lateral extrusion of the eastern alps and reverted strike slip faults which bounded earlier extruded wedges such as the salzachtal ennstal fault the periadriatic fault the mur murz vienna basin fault system and strike slip faults in the western carpathians e w compression caused the reorientation of the extension direction of the alpine crustal stack east directed tectonic unroofing of the metamorphic domes in the central eastern alps terminated between 9 and 6 ma and early to middle miocene orogen parallel e w extension switched to late miocene n s extension which parallels modern topographic slopes in the pannonian basin the change from synrift extension to late miocene compression during the postrift phase caused the pronounced postrift subsidence by stress induced downward flexure of the loaded lithosphere we relate late miocene e w compression to coeval late stage west directed subduction of the european plate below the eastern carpathians slab pull of the subducted plate caused subduction roll back and upper plate extension of the pannonian area up to the middle miocene subduction slowed down and ceased when up to 60 km thick buoyant continental crust entered the subduction zone during the short period of continued convergence e w directed compressive stress was transmitted across the subduction boundary into the upper plate compressive stress was transferred through the uppermost brittle crust of the earlier extended pannonian region into the eastern alps up to 1400 km behind the subduction zone e w compression terminated during the pliocene when the pliocene to recent nnw sse compressive stress field was established in central europe

early palaeozoic orogenesis along the indian margin of gondwana tectonic response to gondwana assembly abstract shrimp u pb dating of zircons from a peralkaline s type lesser himalayan granite from the kathmandu region nepal indicate an age of emplacement of 475 ma the granites along with metasedimentary xenoliths show a similar signature of inherited detrital zircon ages ranging from archaean to early palaeozoic with prominent late mesoproterozoic grenvillian and neoproterozoic pan african age peaks and have a maximum age of 500 ma based on the youngest detrital grains deformation structures in xenoliths are truncated by the granite and along with the granites are assigned to a cambro ordovician orogenic event herein termed the bhimphedian orogeny that can be traced across the himalaya from pakistan to the eastern himalaya and possibly extends west into afghanistan we interpret the orogeny as being related to andean type orogenic activity on the northern margin of the indian continent following gondwana assembly the magmatic arc was associated with andesitic and basaltic volcanism and was active from c 530 to 490 ma the arc activity overlaps with and is succeeded by regional deformation crustal melting and s type granite emplacement that extended to 470 ma orogenic activity was driven by coupling across the plate margin either during on going subduction or through accretion of microcontinental ribbons possibly represented by the lhasa and qiangtang blocks it represents the termination of an orogenic cycle termed the north indian orogen that commenced with neoproterozoic rifting and passive margin development and terminated with the bhimphedian orogeny this was succeeded by a return to passive margin setting along the northern indian margin of gondwana which continued until the cenozoic himalayan orogeny

tectonic framework and phanerozoic evolution of sundaland abstract sundaland comprises a heterogeneous collage of continental blocks derived from the india australian margin of eastern gondwana and assembled by the closure of multiple tethyan and back arc ocean basins now represented by suture zones the continental core of sundaland comprises a western sibumasu block and an eastern indochina east malaya block with an island arc terrane the sukhothai island arc system comprising the linchang sukhothai and chanthaburi blocks sandwiched between this island arc formed on the margin of indochina east malaya and then separated by back arc spreading in the permian the jinghong nan uttaradit and sra kaeo sutures represent this closed back arc basin the palaeo tethys is represented to the west by the changning menglian chiang mai inthanon and bentong raub suture zones the west sumatra block and possibly the west burma block rifted and separated from gondwana along with indochina and east malaya in the devonian and were accreted to the sundaland core in the triassic west burma is now considered to be probably cathaysian in nature and similar to west sumatra from which it was separated by opening of the andaman sea basin south west borneo and or east java west sulawesi are now tentatively identified as the missing argoland which must have separated from nw australia in the jurassic and these were accreted to se sundaland in the cretaceous revised palaeogeographic reconstructions illustrating the tectonic and palaeogeographic evolution of sundaland and adjacent regions are presented

age origin and significance of nodular sulfides in 2680 ma carbonaceous black shale of the eastern goldfields superterrane yilgarn craton western australia abstract sulfide nodules composed of pyrite occur within black shales in the lucky bay area of the bulong domain eastern goldfields superterrane yilgarn craton western australia that correlate with the neoarchean black flag group detailed petrography reveals a variety of shapes and textures from spherical to ovoid and zoned to uniform some nodules have recrystallized resulting in a later generation of pyrite all have been affected by post depositional metamorphism as evidenced by pressure shadows containing quartz mica carbonate assemblages la icp ms analyses show that these nodules are enriched in a range of trace elements including co ni cu ag sb te au tl pb and bi gold and te concentrations range from 0 3 to 1 ppm and 10 to 50 ppm respectively the black flag group equivalents stratigraphically and structurally underlie a younger basin east of lucky bay that contains turbidites sandy debris flows and bif the latter of which hosts several gold deposits at randalls 60 km se of kalgoorlie it is likely that the lateral equivalents of the nodular sulfide bearing black shale originally occurred stratigraphically beneath what is now the ore horizon at randalls given its anomalous au and te content this lithology is a potential contributor of gold to the bif hosted gold deposits of the randalls goldfield as well as other similar gold resources elsewhere in the eastern goldfields superterrane

evolution of the pannonian basin system 2 subsidence and thermal history analysis of sedimentation and thermal data indicates that for most parts of the pannonian basin observed heat flow thermal gradients rates of thermal subsidence and vitrinite reflectance are about twice those predicted by assuming a uniform extension model for basin formation in late miocene time a modified extension model whereby large amounts of heat are added to the uppermost mantle during extension roughly equivalent to replacing the entire sub crustal lithosphere by asthenosphere produced results in good agreement with observation and could also account for periods of uplift observed during extension crustal extension beneath most parts of the basin is estimated to have been about 80 to 170 1 8 to 2 7 although in the deepest parts of the basin deeper than 4 km crustal extension could have been much greater analysis of extension within the danube and zala basins indicates that the late miocene extension in these basins involved the entire lithosphere but subsidence and heat flow data are not well enough constrained to determine if extra heating is required during extension on the basis of tectonic and structural data the vienna basin has been interpreted as the result of thin skinned extensional tectonics above a shallow detachment surface within the upper crust royden et al this issue analysis of thermal and subsidence data from the northern vienna basin suggests that little or no heating occurred during basin extension these data are consistent with a thin skinned extensional origin for the vienna basin and are in better agreement with this interpretation than with the assumption of a uniformly extended lithosphere beneath the basin this study emphasizes the need for good thermal subsidence and structural data in making reconstructions of extensional and thermal histories of sedimentary basins when such data are available it is found that a simple uniform extension model does not explain very well the evolution of some sedimentary basins such as the vienna and pannonian basins in the first instance the basin is thought to be the result of upper crustal extension only due to its special tectonic setting in the second instance the extra heating during extension is due to some unknown processes in the lower lithosphere that may be a general feature of lithospheric extension thus lithospheric extension and associated heating may be distributed in a variety of ways not all extensional sedimentary basins form in the same way application of a uniform subsidence model to basins for which good thermal subsidence and structural data are not available or not properly analysed can lead to reconstructions of thermal histories in error by a factor of 2 or more

sources of recent tectonic stress in the pannonian region inferences from finite element modelling summary we present the results of finite element modelling of the recent stress field in the pannonian basin and surrounding alpine orogenic belt our results show that the recent predominantly compressive stress regime in the alpine pannonian carpathian dinaric system is governed by distinct tectonic factors of great importance is the deformation of crustal blocks with diverent geometries and rigidities in an overall convergent setting associated with the africa europe collision the most important stress source appears to be the counterclockwise rotation of the adriatic microplate at the southwest boundary of the pannonian basin this plate tectonic unit has been interpreted as moving independently of both the european plate and the african plate additional boundary conditions active shortening and compression in the vrancea zone and the bohemian massif and the evect of the immobile moesian platform also significantly influence the modelling results the incorporation of additional stress sources such as crustal thickness variation and the presence of two main fault zones separating the primary tectonic units in the study area have only locally important evects but improve the fit between the calculated results and the observed stress pattern

neogene kinematic development of the east carpathian bend area central romania abstract kinematic analysis of fault slip data from the junction of the eastern and southern carpathian fold thrust belt documents distinct movement patterns associated with successive phases of neogene deformation early to middle miocene deformation achieved ese to se shortening accommodated by nearly orthogonal to oblique sinistral thrusting in the eastern carpathians and oblique dextral thrusting in the southern carpathians following late miocene burial of the thrust front beneath foreland sediments the kinematic framework changed to one of sinistral escape of material from the eastern carpathians which drove minor nne ssw shortening in the southern carpathians the kinematic data indicate progressive clockwise rotation of the shortening direction until 11 ma which is consistent with clockwise rotation of the tisza dacia block as it converged with the european moesian platform

models for relative motion of crustal blocks within the carpathian region based on restorations of the outer carpathian thrust sheets details of the oligocene present day motion of the adriatic block with respect to europe can be determined by palinspastic restorations of the outer carpathians thrust sheets the arcuate nature of the carpathians poses problems for simple restorations of sections because they create converging restoration paths which require large amounts of strike parallel extension 40 50 such large amounts of extension are not seen on maps or in the field a combination of thrust transport directions changing with time between and within thrust sheets and divergent transport directions helps minimise the arc parallel extension necessary 18 25 the pannonian basin can be treated either as an area dominated by strike slip motion rigid block movements or as an area of back arc extension the differences in restoration geometry produced by these two scenarios help to indicate which of the two mechanisms was dominant the consequences of the rigid block restoration indicate the model is inappropriate because it requires approximately 20 clockwise rotation of the adriatic block during the late tertiary it also indicates at least 300 km strike slip motion distributed among the late tertiary faults of the dinaride balkanide and hellenide mountain belts the back arc extension model alleviates the the 20 clockwise rotation of the adriatic block and requires about 200 km distributed strike slip motion in yugoslavia and bulgaria

structure and shearing conditions in the day nui con voi massif implications for the evolution of the red river shear zone in northern vietnam 1 the day nui con voi massif bears a record of the red river shear zone rrsz activity in north vietnam it forms a large scale antiformal core complex type structure bounded by the song hong and song chay faults the kinematics of both faults are identical and reflect transtensional shear initiated under upper amphibolite facies conditions and propagated into greenschist facies microfabric analysis establishes that both extensional and strike slip shearing initiated between 700 and 500 c the rrsz evolved from a single subvertical fault which due to strike perpendicular extension underwent progressive dilation the created space was intruded by already metamorphosed and deformed ductile middle crust in the form of a gneissic dome both strike slip and extensional shearing were accommodated in the limbs of the antiform while its core was uplifted from midcrustal level bearing only a minor record of sinistral shear

orogenic gold common or evolving fluid and metal sources through time abstract orogenic gold deposits of all ages from paleoarchean to tertiary show consistency in chemical composition they are the products of aqueous carbonic fluids with typically 5 20 mol co 2 although unmixing during extreme pressure fluctuation can lead to entrapment of much more co 2 rich fluid inclusions in some cases ore fluids are typically characterized by significant concentrations of ch 4 and or n 2 common estimates of 0 01 0 36 mol h 2 s a near neutral ph of 5 5 and salinities of 3 7 wt nacl equiv with na k ca mg this fluid composition consistency favors an ore fluid produced from a single source area and rules out mixing of fluids from multiple sources as significant in orogenic gold formation nevertheless there are broad ranges in more robust fluid inclusion trapping temperatures and pressures between deposits that support a model where this specific fluid may deposit ore over a broad window of upper to middle crustal depths much of the reported isotopic and noble gas data is inconsistent between deposits leading to the common equivocal interpretations from studies that have attempted to define fluid and metal source areas for various orogenic gold provinces fluid stable isotope values are commonly characterized by the following ranges 1 18 o for precambrian ores of 6 to 11 and for phanerozoic ores of 7 to 13 2 d and 34 s values that are extremely variable 3 13 c values that range from 11 to 2 and 4 15 n of 10 to 24 for the neoarchean 6 5 to 12 for the paleoproterozoic and 1 5 to 10 for the phanerozoic secular variations in large scale earth processes appear to best explain some of the broad ranges in the o s and n data fluid rock interaction particularly in ore trap areas may cause important local shifts in the o s and c ratios the extreme variations in d mainly reflect measurements of hydrogen isotopes by bulk extraction of waters from numerous fluid inclusion generations many which are not related to ore formation radiogenic isotopes such as those of pb sr nd sm and os measured on hydrothermal minerals are even more difficult to interpret for defining metal source particularly as the low salinity ore fluids transport limited amounts of these elements and significant amounts of these may be locally added to the minerals during alteration reactions at the sites of gold deposition noble gas and halogen data are equally equivocal fluid exsolution from granitoids emplaced into the upper and middle crust metamorphism of the crust or fluids entering trans crustal fault zones from below the crust all remain as permissive scenarios associated with orogenic gold formation as the abundant geochemical data are equivocal however geological and geochronological data weigh heavily against a magmatic hydrothermal model in the upper to middle crust there is no universal temporal association between orogenic gold and magmatism and where there is an overlap in age there is no specific type of magmatism consistently associated with gold formation nor element zonation around any specific pluton a crustal metamorphic model for fluid and metal sources is very consistent with geological geochronological and geochemical data although metamorphism on a regional scale that releases these components into major fault zones can be associated with many processes along active continental margins these can include crustal thickening and radiogenic heating slab rollback and heating during crustal extension or subduction of a spreading ridge heating the base of an accretionary prism in rare examples where phanerozoic orogenic gold deposits are hosted in precambrian high grade metamorphic terranes fluids and metals must however enter a transcrustal fault system from a sub crustal source this could either be a devolatilized subducted relatively flat perhaps stalled slab and its overlying sediment or the corner of the fertilized mantle wedge that releases a fluid during a thermal event

dynamic modeling of the transition from passive to active rifting application to the pannonian basin we examine a number of first order features of pannonian basin evolution in terms of the feedback relation between passive far field induced extension and active raleigh taylor instable upwelling of the astheno sphere we show that active mantle upwelling following a phase of passive extension are viable mechanisms ex plaining the pannonian basin formation the dynamic interplay between far field driven passive extension and active thinning of the mantle lithosphere by convective upwelling beneath the rift zone is modeled using ther momechanical finite element methods our modeling results predict a first phase of passive lithospheric thin ning which is followed by a second phase of late synrift to postrift active mantle lithosphere thinning due to buoyancy induced flow beneath the rift zone we argue that the pattern of coeval extension in the thinning re gion and compression in the flanking regions may be explained by the buoyancy forces due to lithosphere thinning it is demonstrated that timescales of and stresses generated by both processes are comparable the model appears also to explain the occurrence of late shallow mantle related decompression melts in the pannonian region and late regional doming

the central ailaoshan ophiolite and modern analogs abstract the central ailaoshan cal ophiolite represents an important tectonic component of the jinshajiang ailaoshan song ma suture zone separating the south china and indochina blocks in the mainland se asia the cal ophiolite occurs as a complex tectonic melange and preserves the history of the opening and closure of the once vast jinshajiang ailaoshan song ma branch of the paleotethys new and existing geological data indicate that the cal ophiolite contains magmatic rocks generated by 1 l devonian e carboniferous ca 380 330 ma volcanic passive margin breakup development in the nw gondwana margin 2 l permian ca 258 ma emeishan large igneous province related continental rift magmatism together with and intruded by 3 earliest m triassic ca 244 ma continent continent syn collisional s type granitoids the devono carboniferous suites of the cal ophiolite are highly comparable with many continental margin type alpine tethyan ophiolites in addition the various cal magmatic suites have strong south china block affinities with coeval magmatism particularly in the western south china block jinshajiang song ma and song da terranes

oligo miocene midcrustal subhorizontal shear zone in indochina new structural observations of oligo miocene deformation in north vietnam along the red river shear zone suggest that left lateral strike slip shear was restricted to the upper and middle crust above a horizontal shear zone left lateral shear deformation is associated with low pressure low temperature parageneses high temperature deformation is restricted to zones where the foliation has a low dip in the core of the dai nui con voi antiformal dome these observations complete those made earlier in the bu khang extensional dome farther south above the horizontal shear zone left lateral transpression was active during the first stage and changed to transtension some 33 myr ago purely extensional metamorphic domes bu khang or transtensional domes dai nui con voi were exhumed during this younger stage our observations plead for caution when interpreting strike slip structures at lithospheric scale

record of tethyan ocean closure and indosinian collision along the ailaoshan suture zone sw china abstract zircon u pb and lu hf isotopic data along with whole rock elemental and sr nd isotopic analytical results for the xin anzhai and tongtiange granitic plutons in the ailaoshan suture zone record the transition from subduction to collision associated with the accretion of indochina to yangtze blocks the xin anzhai monzogranite yields zircon u pb age of 251 6 2 0 ma and e hf t values of 6 2 9 8 the tongtiange leucogranite gives zircon u pb age of 247 5 2 2 ma and e hf t values ranging from 3 1 to 11 1 the tongtiange leucogranites have lower mgo na 2 o cao feot and tio 2 contents but higher a cnk values than those of the xin anzhai monzogranites the e nd t values for xin anzhai and tongtiange plutons are in the range of 8 5 to 8 8 and 10 6 to 11 4 respectively similar to those of the ailaoshan metamorphic basement the tongtiange leucogranites are the product of dehydration melting of mica rich metasedimentary rocks whereas the primary source of the xin anzhai monzogranites is probably proterozoic gneiss with an addition of 35 45 proterozoic amphibolite our geochronological results together with other published data indicate the presence of permo triassic magmatism associated with the indosinian orogeny along the ailaoshan suture zone this zone links with the jinshajiang suture toward the northwest and the song ma hainan suture to the southeast it is herein proposed that latest permian convergent margin magmatism represented by the xin anzhai granitoid pluton 252 ma terminated through the accretion of the simao indochina to the south china blocks which marks the commencement of the indosinian orogeny resulting in the generation of the 247 ma tongtiange s type leucogranite

leakage pathway estimation in geologic co2 storage application of inverse analysis to synthetic heterogeneous domains the purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of inverse analysis to estimate a leakage pathway in a heterogeneous permeability field by using pressure anomalies from the intrusion of brine that is accompanied by gaseous co2 to achieve this goal the itough2 model is employed and applied to multiple brine reservoirs that are designed to realize pressure perturbations that are induced by leakage prior to inverse analysis forward modeling with the tough2 model illustrates brine and or co2 discharge through a leakage pathway that penetrates a caprock and the pressure anomalies in a permeable reservoir that overlies the caprock when co2 is injected into a storage reservoir the inverse modeling is applied to two types of heterogeneous permeability domains 1 a renormalized model domain from the known heterogeneity and 2 a simplified model domain that consists of a few homogeneous sections with unknown heterogeneity the inversion results from the simplified model domain are compared to those from the renormalized model domain to identify the applicability of the simplified model domain to detect a leakage pathway in complex heterogeneous permeability domains this inverse modeling on the renormalized and simplified model domains examines the effect of the number of monitoring wells monitoring periods and noises in measurements through 15 and 17 modeling scenarios respectively the accuracies of the inversions on the simplified model domain which depend on the monitoring scenarios are identical to those of the inverse modeling on the renormalized domain residual analysis illustrates that higher magnitude residuals in the storage formation should be weighted to match the residuals in the overlying formation to successfully estimate leakage pathways