5 late variscan mineralizing systems related to orogenic processes the french massif central abstract the french massif central constitutes an exceptional study area due to the diversity of its metallic deposits its internal position in the variscan belt and the abundance of available geological geophysical and metallogenic data obtained within the geofrance 3d programme the deposits formed towards the end of the orogenic evolution represent the economic products of two distinct mineralizing systems a au sb hydrothermal system and a w sn and rare metals magmatic hydrothermal system which were simultaneously active during a short time span between ca 310 and 300 ma two types of gold deposit can be distinguished on the basis of their depth of emplacement deep seated gold deposits developed under lithostatic to hydrostatic pressure during rapid exhumation and shallow gold deposits emplaced under hydrostatic pressure with no significant uplift deposits of w sn and rare metals were emplaced in the upper crust during final crystallization of specialized magmas after their rapid ascent perhaps enhanced by simultaneous regional uplift the gold bearing systems are associated with a complex network of re activated crustal scale faults initially active during the period between 335 and 315 ma normal motion along the faults coeval with 335 to 315 ma granite migmatite domes played a major role in the 3d distribution of the hydrothermal plumbing system gold and related metals were carried within huge hydrothermal cells which reached ca 100 km by 10 km in area and 30 km in depth in contrast granites rich in magmatophile elements w sn rare metals generated smaller hydrothermal cells 10 km by 10 km in area and

extensional ductile tectonics of the sioule metamorphic series variscan french massif central in the northern part of the variscan french massif central the sioule series from top to bottom consists of a pre visean granite migmatite gneiss and mica schist two ductile deformations have been recognized the earlier phase is characterized by a north east south west trending stretching lineation the second phase characterized by a north west south east trending mineral stretching and crenulation lineation is better marked in the lower mica schist part than in the upper granito gneissic part this second phase occurred during retrogression of the metamorphic rocks related shear criteria indicate a top to the south west shear the namurian westphalian magmatic bodies such as the echassieres leucogranite pouzol servant microgranite and numerous north east south west trending microgranite dykes are emplaced in extensional fractures related to the same north west south east maximum stretching direction the asymmetrical shapes of the two granitic massifs indicate that they intruded towards the south east the synkinematic retrogression of the metamorphic rocks the shape of the magmatic bodies and a re examination of the numerous available data support the interpretation that the deformation is due to the extensional tectonic regime related to the variscan crustal re quilibration this interpretation is in agreement with the correlation of the sioule series with the chavanon series the two series belong to a unique tectono metamorphic unit left laterally offset by the stephanian motion of the sillon houiller fault this study also shows that the sillon houiller did not play a significant part during the namurian westphalian extensional tectonics of the massif central

mica liquid trace elements partitioning and the granite pegmatite connection the st sylvestre complex western french massif central abstract we constrain the genetic relation between granite and pegmatite parental melts from the variscan saint sylvestre leucogranite complex and associated pegmatite bodies massif central france through compositions of micas using mica trace element concentrations and available partition coefficients for li rb ba cs and f we calculated the trace element contents of granitic and pegmatitic melts at equilibrium with micas biotite in leucogranites and pegmatites ranges mostly from fe biotite to siderophyllite more evolved facies contain protolithionite and zinnwaldite and lepidolite occurs in the most fractionated pegmatite white micas have homogeneous compositions from muscovite to li phengite in granites biotite and muscovite trace element distributions are clustered in pegmatites mica trace element contents globally follow differentiation from the least to the most evolved body the reconstructed pegmatitic and granitic melts present strong compositional similarities such as enrichments in li rb cs and depletion in ba that suggest a similar origin however micas are shown to have selectively equilibrated with the last melt or fluid in contact and so trace element concentrations of early magmatic liquids are rarely preserved inversion of the mica data constrains the composition of parental melts and the trace element evolutions during crystallization leucogranite and pegmatite melts show mutual incompatible element evolutions inconsistent with a parent daughter genetic relation the data and the modelling suggest that they represent non cogenetic melts generated by discrete episodes of partial melting differentiation is thus inherited from source processes rather than being the consequence of fractional crystallization of a common parental melt magma we suggest that both the leucogranites and the pegmatites originate from partial melting of a heterogeneous source rather than pegmatites being the product of granite crystallization

deep crustal expressions of exhumed strike slip fault systems shear zone initiation on rheological boundaries abstract the formation of major exhumed strike slip faults represents one of the most important dynamic processes affecting the evolution of the earth s lithosphere detailed models of the potential initiation their properties and architecture of orogen scale exhumed strike slip faults which are often subparallel to mountain ranges are rare the initiation of strike slip faults is at depth where temperature controlled rheological weakening mechanisms play the essential role localizing future strike slip faults in this review study we highlight that in pluton and metamorphic core complex mcc controlled tectonic settings as end members the initiation of strike slip faults occurs by rheological weakening along hot to cold contacts deep within the crust and mantle lithosphere respectively these endmember processes are potential mechanisms for the initiation of orogen scale exhumed strike slip faults at depth result in a specific thermal and structural architecture similar processes guide the overall displacement and ultimately the exhumation at such deep levels these types of exhumed strike slip dominated fault zones expose a wide variety of mylonitic cataclastic and non cohesive fault rocks on the surface which were formed at different structural levels of the crust during various stages of faulting and exhumation exhumation of mylonitic rocks is therefore a common feature of such reverse oblique slip strike slip faults implying major transtensive and or transpressive processes accompany pure strike slip motion during exhumation a major aspect of many exhumed strike slip faults is their lateral thermal gradient induced by the lateral juxtaposition of hot and cold levels of the crust controlling relevant properties of such fault zones and thus the overall fault architecture e g fault core damage zone shear lenses fault rocks and its thermal structure these properties of the overall fault architecture include strength of fault rocks permeability and porosity the hydrological regime as well as the nature and origin of circulating hydrothermal fluids

paleomagnetic study of the eocene quxu pluton of the gangdese belt crustal deformation along the indus zangbo suture zone in southern tibet abstract forty five samples have been collected at nine sites on the 42 5 ma quxu pluton 90 50 e 29 20 n in the gangdese batholith westerly declination d 48 and 83 is observed in primary magnetizations from two sites about 25 km from the indus zangbo suture zone after thermal demagnetization this direction is consistent with the westerly paleomagnetic directions of the crustal blocks in other areas along the indus zangbo suture zone the quxu pluton of the gangdese belt was rotated in a domino style deformation process as a part of a long 840 km and narrow less than 100 km deformed zone between the india eurasia continents associated with the collision of india since 42 5 ma the pluton between 11 km and 14 km from the suture acquired the secondary magnetization d 28 and 39 during a cataclastic metamorphic process at sometime during the domino style deformation the primary magnetization was completely destroyed in the pluton within 11 km of the suture during slow cooling at the uplift stage and was replaced by thermoviscous remanent magnetization parallel to the present axial dipole field

intrusion level of granitic massifs along the hercynian belt balancing the eroded crust abstract hercynian granitoid intrusions form a long 3200 km belt comparable in size to other batholiths in the world six massifs have been selected which encompass cabeza de araya extremadura spain guitiriz galicia spain pontivy and mortagne brittany france la marche massif central france and fichtelgebirge bavaria germany detailed gravity surveys over these massifs and subsequent inversion provide their shape at depth correlation of the deeper zones with internal structures determine the place of the root zones the shape of the massifs is examined along the strike of the chain the emplacement of individual massifs is controlled by local tectonics most granites are not deeply rooted but one massif cabeza de araya spain shows a root zone presently as deep as 14 km most have about half of their volume in the first 3 km below the present surface estimates of the magma volume transferred result in 1500 km 3 issued from one specific feeder yielding a total of 70 000 km 3 of magma intruded all along the chain the depth of emplacement of the granitic massifs does not show any significant trend along the strike of the chain the shallower massifs in the french massif central correspond to more deeply eroded areas in the center of the chain their root zone as well as the change in the dip of the walls are presently observed at depths ranging between 4 and 6 km in hercynian granites both variations are interpreted as being related to the brittle ductile transition at the time of emplacement gross thermal considerations place the transition at its former place during magma emplacement indicating that the upper crust has not been eroded by more than 6 8 km this estimate severely contrasts with models involving a doubled crust

paleomagnetic evidence for clockwise rotation of the simao region since the cretaceous a consequence of india asia collision samples were collected for paleomagnetic analysis from 36 sites from six formations west of the red river fault in southwestern yunnan province china on the simao block 23 4 n 100 8 e in an attempt to examine the effects of the india asia collision on the asian continent paleomagnetic results from rocks ranging from cretaceous to miocene in age indicate a large clockwise rotation of these sites with respect to stable eurasia since the late cretaceous the tectonic corrected data from cretaceous samples mean direction of two formations are d 112 6 i 34 7 95 7 5 k 9 1 n 45 for eocene samples the data are d 84 7 i 38 9 95 7 6 k 12 0 n 32 and for miocene samples they are d 21 1 i 35 5 95 7 1 k 15 3 n 29 the samples from the paleocene and pliocene are either remagnetized or too weak to provide stable directions the cretaceous sites were sampled from folded beds and these sites pass the fold test the amount of rotation seen in this study r 86 1 9 9 as a mean value for the cretaceous r 76 8 11 for the eocene and r 14 7 10 0 for the miocene is significantly larger than that documented in previous studies from the lower cretaceous of northwestern and central yunnan province and may indicate that differential rotation has taken place in the region this rotation can be explained by the northward motion and collision of india with asia in the paleocene which caused continuous deformation of southwestern china in the form of strike slip faulting and clockwise rotation it is concluded that the rotation and deformation resulting from this collision probably continued from the paleocene until at least the miocene

is there a remnant variscan subducted slab in the mantle beneath the paris basin implications for the late variscan lithospheric delamination process and the paris basin formation abstract the paris basin northern france is a late paleozoic mesozoic intracratonic basin that settled upon the collapsed variscan collisional belt the lithospheric roots of the variscan orogenic system below the paris basin have been investigated using a european scale p wave velocity tomographic model tomography points out the existence of a significant high velocity anomaly in the upper mantle below the western part of the basin at 150 200 km depth the anomaly extends with a nw se trend along the buried northern france trace of the northern variscan suture zone i e the bray segment of the upper carboniferous lizard rhenohercynian lrh suture moreover the high velocity anomaly is spatially correlated with the prominent paris basin magnetic anomaly its downdip extent reaches depths greater than 200 km below the southern margin of the paris basin as suggested in previous tomographic studies below ancient suture zones these data argue for such anomaly being the remnant of a variscan subducted slab that escaped the extensive late orogenic delamination process affecting the lithospheric roots by late carboniferous early permian times and that was preserved stable over 300 ma at the base of the lithosphere on a general geodynamical perspective these results provide a new insight into the long term evolution of subducted lithosphere into the mantle in the case of the western european variscan orogenic belt they suggest that the subduction of the lrh slab below the previously thickened variscan crust and its final detachment from the orogenic root have played an important role in the collapse of the belt inducing thermal erosion and extension of the overriding lithosphere the spatial evolution of late orogenic extension across the belt and of subsequent thermal subsidence in the paris basin is suggested to result from the heterogeneous delamination of the lithospheric roots along strike and from the resultant pattern of asthenospheric rise

brittle deformation events at the western border of the bohemian massif germany investigations of brittle deformation structures present within the crystalline rocks of the bavarian oberpfalz reveal a complex late to post variscan crustal evolution upper carboniferous mainly westphalian granites were emplaced into semibrittle to brittle rocks of the zev zone of erbendorf vohenstraus and the egz erbendorf greenschist unit respectively from both the alignment of the granites and the direction of granite related tension gashes a north east south west extension must be assumed for the period of magmatic activities apart from the granite intrusions rapid crustal uplift about 1 5 km my led to an increase in the geothermal gradient from 40 c km late variscan post granitic the increased geothermal gradient persisted during the succeeding reverse faulting which results from late carboniferous probably stephanian east west and northeast south west compression although not evidenced directly in the area considered strike slip faults seem to have played an important part during the late variscan crustal evolution particularly in the early permian the strike slip events indicate further crustal shortening and indentation under north south compression a similar indentation was present in cretaceous time after a weak phase of early cretaceous reverse faulting which results from north south compression strike slip faults formed under north west south east and north south compression all these faults in particular the strike slip faults seem to be related to the cretaceous and lowermost tertiary convergence of the alpine carpathian orogeny a late stage of crustal extension characterized by a radial stress tensor 2 3 is indicated through high angle normal faults which probably formed during the subsidence of the adjacent neogene eger graben

structural petrological and thermal evolution of a tertiary ductile strike slip shear zone diancang shan yunnan the diancang shan a horst massif within the red river fault zone in yunnan people s republic of china preserves a structural petrological and thermal record of two distinct phases of tectonic activity a left lateral ductile shear that terminated between 20 and 17 ma and a ductile to brittle phase of normal faulting which began at 4 7 ma and remains active mylonitic rocks in the core of the range display an early steep high temperature ht schistosity and a horizontal stretching lineation that are both parallel to the trend of the belt kinematic indicators indicate that shear was left lateral the complex shape of the ht schistosity at the southern termination of the massif likely results from a large scale oblique left lateral c shear plane that dismembered the shear zone and separated the ailao shan and the diancang shan as left lateral deformation terminated thermochronological and thermobarometric results suggest that the gneisses were partially unroofed during this event along the eastern edge of the diancang shan the ht fabrics were overprinted by low temperature structures during activation of east dipping normal faults cooling associated with this normal right lateral faulting along the diancang shan and perhaps activation of the right lateral normal movement on the range front fault farther south along the ailao shan began at 4 7 0 1 ma these results tend to support the view that extrusion of indochina occurred along the left lateral red river shear zone between 35 and 19 17 ma initiation of right lateral normal slip during the late miocene may relate to eastward extensional collapse of the thickened tibetan crust or more probably to initiation of the second phase of extrusion

formation and evolution of strike slip faults rifts and basins during the india asia collision an experimental approach the processes which have governed the formation and evolution of large tertiary strike slip faults during the penetration of india into eastern asia are investigated by means of plane strain indentation experiments on layered plasticine models the steady state deformation of plasticine obeys a power creep flow law e c t n the stress exponent n is between 6 and 9 at 25 c uniaxial plane strain tests on cubic specimens show that the growth of faults in layered plasticine results from strain softening a process observed for strain rates ranging from 3 5 10 5 to 3 6 10 3 s 1 fault or shear zones form after only 7 10 bulk strain subsequent deformation is controlled by the geometry of the fault pattern rather than the physical properties of the plasticine a series of nine plane strain indentation experiments shows the influence of boundary conditions as well as that of the internal structure of the plasticine model on the faulting sequence the ubiquity of strain softening in experimental deformation of a variety of rocks as well as the widespread occurrence of shear zones in nature suggest that long term deformation of the continental lithosphere may also be primarily influenced by the geometry of large faults which rapidly develop with increasing strain the deformation and faulting sequence observed in the plasticine indentation experiments may thus be compared to collision induced strikeslip faulting in asia particularly to total offsets and rates of movements on the faults the experiments simulate the evolution of the western ends of the strike slip faults which have probably been analogous to trench fault fault triple junctions the experiments also illustrate mechanisms for the formation of extensional basins such as the south china sea north china basin and andaman sea near active continental margins the basins which appear to absorb terminal offsets along major strike slip faults near such margins may result from mismatch between the sharply angular shape of the deformed continental edge and the more regularly curved trench along which the smoothly flexed oceanic lithosphere subducts the existence of distinct phases of strike slip extrusion corroborates the idea that the discontinuities in time which typify intracontinental tectonics and orogenic cycles may often result from strain localization and the ensuing discontinuous non steady state deformation of the continental lithosphere

paleomagnetic study of permian and mesozoic sedimentary rocks from northern thailand supports the extrusion model for indochina abstract the mode of deformation of southeast asia resulting from the indian collision is still controversial is convergence between stable india and siberia absorbed principally by crustal shortening and thickening and minor strike slip faulting or by a mechanism of extrusion involving crustal thickening and lateral escape of blocks along major strike slip zones in order to test these models we have carried out a paleomagnetic study of sedimentary rocks of jurassic to cretaceous age on the khorat plateau in thailand a large discrepancy between the poles of indochina presented in this paper and a compilation of south china block pole positions both at the triassic jurassic and the jurassic cretaceous boundary imply some 1500 800 km of post middle cretaceous left lateral slip along the red river and xian shui he fault zones and approximately 14 7 of clockwise rotation for the indochina block relative to the south china block such relative motions are in agreement with a model of lateral extrusion of indochina during the india asia collision additional data of permian upper triassic and lower jurassic age collected in indochina indicate a post late permian remagnetization for the upper permian limestones a comparison of these data with those from yunnan south china the north china block and the south china block shows that these blocks have probably been in contact at least since the late triassic

palaeomagnetic study of eastern tibet deformation of the three rivers region summary a palaeomagnetic study was undertaken for cretaceous red beds and granitic rocks of three geological provinces the lhasa the qiangtang and the sichuan along a road between chengdu and lhasa in eastern tibet in an attempt to determine aspects of deformation of se asia high temperature characteristic directions were isolated from 20 sites the tilt corrected data from the qiangtang terrane at markam 29 7 n 98 6 e exhibit largely clockwise deflected declinations with steep inclinations d 48 2 i 49 0 a95 8 8 whereas the lhasa terrane at basu 3o l0n 96 9 e and the sichuan province at ya an 3o l0n 103 0 e have northerly directions with shallow inclinations d 3 9 i 23 4 a95 19 2 and d 2 lo z 30 7 ag5 11 3 respectively the palaeomagnetic data indicate that the qiangtang terrane was subjected to clockwise rotation through 50 with respect to the neighbouring provinces of the lhasa and sichuan since the cretaceous tectonic deformation occurred later than the cretaceous in the eastern part of the qiangtang terrane and formed the arcuate shape of the orogenic belt in the three rivers region

relationships between magmatism and extension along the autun la serre fault system in the variscan belt of the eastern french massif central the ene wsw autun shear zone in the northeastern part of the french massif central has been interpreted previously as a dextral wrench fault new field observations and microstructural analyses document a ne sw stretching lineation that indicates normal dextral motions along this shear zone further east similar structures are observed along the la serre shear zone in both areas a strain gradient from leucogranites with a weak preferred orientation to highly sheared mylonites supports a continuous autun la serre fault system microstructural observations and shape and lattice preferred orientation document high temperature deformation and magmatic fabrics in the autun and la serre granites whereas low to intermediate temperature fabrics characterize the mylonitic granite electron microprobe monazite geochronology of the autun and la serre granites yields a ca 320 ma age for pluton emplacement while mica 40ar 39ar datings of the autun granite yield plateau ages from 305 to 300 ma the ca 300 ma 40ar 39ar ages obtained on micas from autun and la serre mylonites indicate the time of the mylonitization the ca 15 ma time gap between pluton emplacement and deformation along the autun la serre fault system argue against a synkinematic pluton emplacement during late orogenic to postorogenic extension of the variscan belt a ductile to brittle continuum of deformation is observed along the shear zone with lower permian brittle faults controlling the development of sedimentary basins these results suggest a two stage late carboniferous extension in the northeastern french massif central with regional crustal melting and emplacement of the autun and la serre leucogranites around 320 ma followed at 305 295 ma by ductile shearing normal brittle faulting and subsequent exhumation along the autun la serre transtensional fault system

paleomagnetic constraints on the geodynamic history of the major blocks of china from the permian to the present paleomagnetic study of china and its environs has been the center of a major international effort for the last 10 years in this paper we critically review all available paleomagnetic poles of upper permian to tertiary age from the main blocks of china with the goal of placing constraints on models of the formation and the subsequent deformation of the region after selecting reliable poles by applying objective criteria we divide our analysis into first order motions of blocks and second order deformation within blocks for first order analysis apparent polar wander paths are constructed for the major blocks we discuss the compatibilities and contradictions between the geological and paleomagnetic records a sequence of paleogeographic configurations taking into account geological constraints but remaining within paleomagnetic uncertainties is presented in general the major blocks were probably in contact throughout the permian and triassic but the jurassic was the key age during which most of the movement toward china s present configuration took place our reconstructions include certain details which are suggested by the paleomagnetic record but whose geological signatures seem to have been hidden by subsequent events during the cretaceous chinese poles agree with poles from other continents transferred onto eurasia at the second order we observe that for almost each period with sufficient data the paleomagnetic poles are streaked along a small circle centered on the sampling region indicating that much of china has been affected by small 20 differential rotations this we interpret as deformation caused in part by the extrusion of the chinese blocks away from the indian collision the complete annotated list of poles is given as an appendix

intraplate deformation due to continental collisions a numerical study of deformation in a thin viscous sheet abstract one of the more successful conceptual models of the deformations associated with continental collisions involves the penetration of a rigid punch into a deformable sheet we have used the england and mckenzie 1982 mathematical description of this model to compute the magnitude and rate of change of crustal thickness mass point velocities strain rates and their principal axes modes of deformation areal changes and stress particular attention is payed to the various geophysical and mathematical assumptions that are used in the model finite element calculations show that the choice of lateral boundary conditions can dictate whether the shearing that occurs diagonally in front of the advancing punch terminates in compression or extension however the deformation in front of the punch is insensitive to the specific choice of lateral boundary conditions whenever the diameter of the viscous sheet is three times that of the punch or more for smaller sheets or wider punches crustal thickening in front of the punch is larger when the lateral boundary is fixed than when it is free for a rigid punch which maintains sharply defined edges deformation is concentrated near the punch corners conversely when the punch is not rigid the attendant shearing results in the deformation being concentrated near the leading point center of the punch the variation in compression rate with distance from the punch is sensitive to the choice of theological law and magnitude of tectonic stress for newtonian viscous flow in the lithosphere with viscosities greater than 10 23 pa sec the axial distance from the middle of the punch to the point of most rapid contraction is relatively invariant with time this maximum occurs much farther from the punch than is predicted from the recently published approximate analytical expressions of england et al 1985 for nonlinear viscous flow power law with n 3 coupling between horizontal tectonic stress and isostatic relaxation results in a propagation of the location of the maximum away from the punch sheet boundary

ductile normal faulting along the west bohemian shear zone moldanubian tepla barrandian boundary evidence for late variscan extensional collapse in the variscan internides structural and kinematic investigations of the west bohemian shear zone wbs clearly indicate late variscan orogen parallel wsw ene extension within the variscan internides along the wbs the western part of the tepla barrandian tb was downthrown to the east against the adjacent moldanubian according to seismic data the steeply east dipping wbs flattens with depth forming a prominent detachment zone the western part of the tb was tilted along this zone producing the patterns of metamorphic isograds the age of which is probably cadomian cross cutting relationships of wbs mylonites and carboniferous granites as well as the overall cooling ages of hornblende and mica suggest that ductile normal faulting along the wbs was active from about 330 to 310 ma

crustal thinning recorded by the shape of the namurian westphalian leucogranite in the variscan belt of the northwest massif central france in the western part of the variscan belt of the french massif central the gueret massif is an extensional allochthon emplaced to the southeast during namurian westphalian time the internal structure of the coeval leucogranites surrounding the western edge of the gueret massif consists of the plateau d9aigurande brame st sylvestre and st goussaud massifs these plutons are asymmetric diapirs rooted in the marche bussiere madeleine and arrenes faults respectively the plutons indicate diverging extravasation from the gueret massif whatever their shapes the plutons have a northwest trending stretching lineation that is also marked in the granite host rocks by retrograde metamorphic minerals the same extension direction is also inferred from namurian westphalian leucogranites and dikes intruding the gueret massif extension related granitoids present typical structural patterns such as asymmetric shapes extravasation from the collapsing area and persistence of a stretching lineation parallel to the regional extension direction these features may be used to diagnose crustal thinning

ams study of the pont de montvert borne porphyritic granite pluton french massif central and its tectonic implications thermomagnetic experiments isothermal remanent magnetization irm hysteresis loops x ray reflection analyses optic microscopic observations bulk magnetic susceptibility and natural remanent magnetization nrm show that the susceptibility signal of 56 sites in the pont de montvert borne pluton is derived mostly from biotite with a very small proportion of ferromagnetic material low anisotropy degree p parameter and consistent ams orientations among monzonite enclaves and aplitic dykes indicate that the ams was acquired during pluton emplacement in the subsolidus phase magnetic fabrics demonstrate that linear deformation is prominent in the area where the granite is in direct contact with micaschists and that planar deformation becomes more important in the area where the pluton is surrounded by non porphyritic peraluminous granites ams measurements also show that shallow plunging e w stretching lineations are the dominant structure over most of the studied area foliation orientations follow the pluton contour in the western part indicating that the pont de montvert borne pluton is probably rooted in the west and extruded towards the east these ams results agree to some extent with fabric inferred from mineral preferred orientation the ams data support an e w extensional tectonic setting during the pont de montvert borne pluton emplacement which resulted from the late carboniferous crustal thinning of the hercynian orogeny

structure of late variscan millevaches leucogranite massif in the french massif central ams and gravity modelling results in the limousin area variscan leucogranitic plutons are spatially associated with normal faults and major strike slip shear zones that are a continuation of the south armorican shear zone our study focuses on the large n s trending millevaches granitic massif massif central france and intends to highlight through gravity modelling structural and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams the massif structure at depth and to discuss the mode of emplacement of granites within a strike slip tectonic context the mica subfabric suggests that the magnetic foliations display a general nw se sub horizontal pattern on both sides of the n s pradines dextral wrench fault zone that deforms the core of the massif on 5 km width the magnetic lineation trend exhibits a sigmoidal pattern n s in the pradines fault zone and nw se on both sides of it which are consistent with a dextral wrench component the horizontal magnetic foliations and lineations are consistent with the thin granite laccolith model there is no significant imprint of the extensional variscan belt collapse on the internal fabric of millevaches granites than the tectonic dextral transcurrent movement prevailing in this area

pluton dyke relationships in a variscan granitic complex from ams and gravity modelling inception of the extensional tectonics in the south armorican domain france abstract the carnac granitic complex south armorican domain western france was emplaced during late carboniferous times in the deepest variscan unit roofed by two major extensional shear zones through the acquisition and interpretation of field data anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and gravity data emphasized by petrological and structural observations we address the emplacement model and possible magmatic processes involved between dyking to massive plutonism in a synkinematic context gravity modelling highlights an overall eastward thinning of the pluton and several deep zones in the western part of the complex interpreted as the pluton feeder zones the internal granitic fabric developed in a sub solidus state shows marked planar linear anisotropy consistent with a vertical shortening in the wnw ese regional stretching regime and eastward magma spreading this study documents the occurrence of numerous nne ssw trending dykes within the eastern part of the pluton suggesting that this granitic complex formed by the coalescence of dykes oriented perpendicular to the regional stretching direction and thus interpreted as large scale tension gashes the synkinematic character of the carnac complex intrusion recently dated at ca 319 6 ma thus times the inception of the late orogenic extensional deformation experienced in the whole south armorican domain

the hengshan low angle normal fault zone structural and geochronological constraints on the late mesozoic crustal extension in south china abstract we document in this paper a significant low angle normal fault namely the hengshan detachment fault which extends more than 150 km long in nne orientation and bounds an elongated early cretaceous basin in hunan province central south china detailed structural and geochronological analyses have been conducted along its southern segment where a well exposed 3 km thick flat ductile shear zone develops along the western margin of the hengshan granitic massif this zone is featured by shallow dipping foliations of varied trend from ne to nw which bear penetrative stretching lineations varying from nw to sw trend shear sense criteria indicate top to the nw and top to the sw motions along its northern and southern parts respectively quartz c axis orientations of mylonitic rocks from the shear zone exhibit asymmetric single or crossed girdle patterns and the distributions of fabric point maxima suggest a simultaneous operation of basal and prism slips indicating a deformation temperature ranging from 400 c to 550 c one zircon u pb age of the sheared albitite and three muscovite 40 ar 39 ar ages of the mylonitic rocks indicate that the ductile shearing initiated at 136 ma and lasted till 97 ma the zircon u pb dating results of five granitic samples from the hengshan granitic pluton yield two phases of crystallization ages of 232 228 ma and 150 151 ma respectively indicating two preceding magmatic events prior to the ductile shearing in the lower plate our structural and geochronological data allow defining the hengshan massif as an extensional dome rather than a metamorphic core complex as previously predicted due to the lack of syn tectonic plutonism and the origin of detachment fault associated with the reactivation of the inherited thrust this study provides crucial evidence for understanding how the mid upper crust deformed during the process of extension which testifies to a coeval occurrence of non coaxial deformation of the ductile flow in the middle crust and brittle faulting in the upper crust it also sheds new insights into the timing of the regional crustal extension in south china and permits to constrain its onset time to be ca 136 ma

polyphase wrench tectonics in the southern french massif central kinematic inferences from pre and syntectonic granitoids in the variscan french massif central the south limousin area consists of low to medium grade metamorphic rocks intruded by two granitic bodies the structural and textural analyses of these plutons undertaken in parallel with the structural analysis of their host rocks allow us to characterize and to date different stages in the tectonic evolution of this area this study shows that the south limousin area experienced successivelly two strike slip events along two geographically distinct shear zones from north to south the left lateral estivaux and the right lateral south limousin strike slip faults respectively these ductile faults subdivide the south limousin into three structural units from north to south they are the upper gneiss unit thiviers payzac unit and genis unit the two granitic bodies intrude the thiviers payzac unit only the younger estivaux granite is a syntectonic pluton which emplaced during left lateral wrenching 40ar 39ar dates from biotites indicate an early carboniferous age 346 3 ma the older granite is a pretectonic body it is the ordovician saut du saumon augen orthogneiss in which detailed structural analyses show the polyphase nature of the solid state deformation our microtectonic data indicate that the right lateral motions overprint the left lateral ones and produce apparently symmetrical fabrics

a multidisciplinary study on the emplacement mechanism of the qingyang jiuhua massif in southeast china and its tectonic bearings part i structural geology ams and paleomagnetism during the cretaceous the south china block scb experienced a widely distributed extensional event including numerous plutons emplacement and basin opening investigations on the tectonic regime coeval with pluton emplacement and emplacement mechanism of the pluton remain relatively rare in the scb in order to address these questions a multidisciplinary approach including field structural and petrographic observations anisotropy magnetic susceptibility ams and paleomagnetic analyses was carried out on the qingyang jiuhua granitic massif which intrudes into the lower yangtze fold belt in the northeastern part of scb the qingyang jiuhua massif is composed of the granodioritic qingyang and monzogranitic jiuhua plutons dated by zircon u pb method at ca 142 ma and ca 131 ma respectively our structural observations show that the intrusion of the qingyang jiuhua massif does not modify the fold strike a weak ductile deformation of the country rocks and granitoid can be only observed in the boundary zone with limited contact metamorphism in the contact aureole of the massif the foliation follows the pluton contour and the mineral lineation is rare when present it exhibits a down dip attitude field and microstructural observations indicate isotropic magmatic textures in most parts of the massif the ams analysis of 93 sites reveals weak values for the anisotropy degree pj 0 for most of the measured samples two principal foliation patterns are identified horizontal foliations in the center of the plutons and vertical foliations on the boundaries magnetic lineation strike is largely scattered and weakly inclined at the scale of the entire massif the paleomagnetic investigations indicate that a the younger jiuhua pluton did not produce a remagnetization in the older qingyang pluton b no relative movement can be observed between these two plutons c the entire massif did not experience any important relative movement with respect to south china considering the paleomagnetic uncertainties integrating the newly obtained results with previous observations our study favors a permissive emplacement mechanism for the two plutons i e vertical magma intrusion into an opening space controlled by the nw se brittle stretching of the upper crust which is in agreement with a weak extensional regional tectonic framework of the scb

a detailed view of the south pacific geoid from satellite altimetry images of sea surface undulations in the south pacific have been constructed from geos 3 and seasat altimeter data height discrepancies at crossover points associated with long wavelength radial orbit error were suppressed by taking along track derivatives of the ascending and descending profiles these geoid slopes were then rotated and scaled to produce the north and east components of the deflection of the vertical finally the results are displayed by using the hill shading technique where gray tone images represent the innner product of the deflection vector with an assigned sun vector less apparent sea surface undulations can be enhanced by varying the sun s zenith and azimuth shorterwavelength sea surface undulations reflect seafloor topography for instance fracture zones fz s appear as elongated sharp steps in the sea surface while seamounts produce circular bumps since large areas of the south pacific are unsurveyed many previously undetected features appear on the images comparisons with bathymetric charts reveal 72 uncharted seamounts having geoid expressions greater than or equal to easter island s expression the dominant features in the images however are the large age offset fz s such as the eltanin and udintsev fz s the images reveal that the eltanin fz is connected to the louisville ridge combined they produce a continuous geoid signature across most of the south pacific this supports the hypothesis of hayes and ewing 1968 that the louisville ridge is the northwest extension of the eltanin fz

clockwise rotation of the red river fault inferred from paleomagnetic study of cretaceous rocks in the shan thai malay block of western yunnan china more than 150 samples were collected at 23 sites from the lower cretaceous jingxing formation near the city of yongping 25 5 n 99 5 e which is located on the west side of the red river fault sixteen sites have characteristic directions with a high temperature component above 500 c the high temperature component of magnetization from twelve sites is of pre fold origin and reveals clockwise deflection in declination d 42 0 i 51 1 and 95 15 7 the easterly declination of more than 40 at yongping is consistent with the cretaceous paleomagnetic direction d 45 of chuxiong 25 n 101 5 e which is located on the east side of the red river fault both areas were subjected to about 25 clockwise rotation with respect to the eastern part of the yangtze block since cretaceous time we conclude that the red river fault was rotated through25 16 with respect to the eastern part of the yangtze block associated with rotation of the yongping and chuxiong areas removal of the rotation from the red river fault indicates that the latter and the jinsha suture formed a straight line along n55 w s55 e within the asian continent from vietnam to the tibetan plateau in the present coordinate system during the cretaceous the linear feature of the red river fault and jinsha suture was probably deformed to the present curved shape as a result of collision of the indian continent with the asian continent

paleomagnetic study of cretaceous rocks from the yangtze block central yunnan china implications for the india asia collision abstract more than 200 samples for this study were collected at 30 sites from the cretaceous matoushan and puchanghe formations around the city of chuxiong 25 n 101 5 e twenty four sites have characteristic directions with a high temperature component above 350 c paleomagnetic directions from 21 sites of the cretaceous formations reveal clockwise deflection in declination d 44 6 i 41 3 and 95 10 7 the reliability of the direction is ascertained through a positive fold test and the presence of normal and reversed polarities comparison with paleomagnetic data from other areas indicates that the chuxiong area was rotated clockwise through26 17 with respect to the eastern part of the yangtze block whereas it was subjected to more than 44 of clockwise rotation with respect to the neighboring blocks of lhasa 56 21 and western sichuan 44 16 since cretaceous time the clockwise rotation of chuxiong is a reflection of rotational motion of the large region including the southeastern qiangtang terrane and the jinsha suture red river fault paleomagnetic data and tectonic features suggest that the rotation occurred prior to the folding in the central yunnan province probably during the paleogene this large rotation is a spectacular example of the deformation in the southeastern part of the asian continent due to the collision of india

tectonic evolution of the anuy metamorphic rocks sikhote alin russia and their place in the mesozoic geodynamic framework of east asia abstract in sikhote alin the anuy river provides a representative cross section of the pre eocene structure of the area east of the central sikhote alin fault the mesozoic rocks are divided into the following groups from bottom to top anuy metamorphic rocks the tithonian berriasian samarkinsk accretionary complex early cretaceous zhuravlevsk tumnin turbidite and mid cretaceous al rich khungariisk granitoids the anuy metamorphic rocks have a postfolial ne sw trending antiformal structure from bottom to top they consist of 1 low grade schist and sandstone 2 gneiss and micaschist 3 migmatite and 4 ophiolitic nappe east west trending stretching lineation isoclinal folds and top to the east shear criteria are found in the ophiolite and migmatite units these structures are related to ophiolitic thrusting that likely occurred in early cretaceous times 40 ar 39 ar dating of migmatite and metagabbro indicates mid cretaceous ages about 110 ma close to those of the khungariisk granites the main deformation coeval to a high temperature metamorphism is characterized by ne sw trending stretching lineation with divergent senses of shear 40 ar 39 ar dating of biotite and muscovite from several lithologies give late cretaceous to paleogene ages 73 58 ma this tectono thermal event is related to ne sw trending strike slip faulting along the central sikhote alin fault system the unroofing of the anuy metamorphic rocks is likely related to granite emplacement the collision of the anuy microcontinent with asia can be compared to that of the southern japan microcontinent

an early miocene transition in deformation regime within the red river fault zone yunnan and its significance for indo asian tectonics recent work has tended to support the view that lateral extrusion of indochina along the red river fault zone was a significant factor in accommodating the convergence of india with asia to better understand the nature and timing of this feature 40ar 39 ar age spectrum analyses were undertaken on minerals from the ailao shan red river metamorphic belt in southern yunnan china interpreted using diffusion domain theory these results yield thermal histories in the temperature range 550 150 c discontinuities in cooling rates observed from these results suggest a transition in deformation style in the shear zone during the early miocene at least in the vicinity of our samples left lateral strike slip ductile deformation appears to have ceased by about 20 ma the mylonitic gneisses in the shear zone were subsequently obliquely unroofed probably due to a component of normal faulting along the eastern edge of the shear zone causing a brief locally 100 c m y cooling episode this transition may have resulted from a component of northeast southwest extension attributable to greater clockwise rotation of indochina relative to south china after 20 ma than that consistent with pure strike slip along the fault k ar ages on clay minerals from gouge within the normal faults bounding the ailao shan and diancang shan yield a range of ages between 20 and 185 ma but show a significant clustering at 20 25 ma these results suggest that early miocene movement on a precursor to the range front normal fault in the ailao shan caused oblique unroofing of the shear zone this early miocene event corresponds in time with a transition from low to very high denudation rates throughout the himalaya and southern tibet this coincidence may reflect that once left lateral strike slip motion on the red river fault zone slowed or was terminated accommodation of much of the continued northward convergence of india occurred on the main central thrust resulting in rapid uplift in the tethyan himalaya and gangdese belt

a thin viscous sheet model for continental deformation summary for the purposes of describing its large scale and long term deformation the continental lithosphere is regarded as a continuum obeying a newtonian or a power law rheology the flow of a thin sheet of power law material overlying an inviscid substrate is studied under the assumption that vertical gradients of the horizontal velocity are negligible a numerical model is used to investigate the deformation of such a sheet under conditions approximating those of continent continent collision the material flows in response to forces applied to its boundaries for example the indenting of one continent by another and to forces in its interior arising from gradients in crustal thickness the horizontal divergence of the flow produces changes in the crustal thickness and hence a time dependent form to the flow itself for a given set of boundary conditions the flow depends on the stress exponent in the power law rheology n and on the argand number which is a measure of the ratio between the stress arising from crustal thickness contrasts and the stress required to deform the material at the ambient strain rates when the effective viscosity of the medium is very high ar o crustal thickness variations do not influence the flow if the material is newtonian n l the deformation associated with an influx of material approximating an indenter is of much greater lateral dimension than the width of the indenter whereas when material has a power law rheology n 3 5 are used the deformation is confined to a region of lateral extent comparable to that of the indenter as ar increases the forces arising from crustal thickness contrasts exert more influence on the flow and the maximum crustal thickness that can be sustained by a given influx of material is related by a simple expression to the effective viscosity of the medium at the ambient strain rates in the limit of a very weak medium ar 10 the lithosphere is unable to sustain appreciable crustal elevation contrasts the results of these numerical experiments show that systems in which the effective viscosities are such that the maximum deviatoric stresses are between 1 kbar

the timing of w sn rare metals mineral deposit formation in the western variscan chain in their orogenic setting the case of the limousin area massif central france new 40ar 39ar dating performed on rare metal granites and w sn deposits in the northern limousin has provided evidence of two metallogenic episodes an early namurian episode c 325 ma was contemporaneous with the emplacement of the large peraluminous leucogranite bodies which are associated with small w sn deposits but also with some larger deposits at puy les vignes 323 4 0 9 ma and moulin barret 323 7 0 8 ma formed at a shallower level above cryptic granite plutons these new data indicate that the metallogenic potential of the namurian leucogranites might have been underestimated most other w sn deposits in the northern limousin area are attributed to a mid westphalian episode c 310 ma and are contemporaneous with the emplacement of all the rare metal granites both episodes were related to leucogranite emplacement and associated fluid circulations but in two different geodynamic contexts the early namurian episode may be related to syncollisional extension of the variscan belt whereas the mid westphalian one occurs during generalized extension and rapid exhumation of the belt associated with the granulite facies metamorphism of the lower lithosphere probably related to the delamination of the lower lithosphere thus w sn and rare metals ta nb be li deposits are clearly temporally and probably genetically related to leucogranitic magmatism

palaeomagnetic estimates of crustal shortening in the himalayan thrusts and zangbo suture this article reports new palaeomagnetic results from precisely dated late palaeocene limestones from the former northern margin of the indian subcontinent now in tibet between the major himalayan thrusts and the india tibet suture zone convergence in the suture and intracontinental thrusting can be estimated separately and are respectively found to be of the order of 550 km 650 km and 400 km 400 km comparison with kinematic models derived from magnetic anomalies constrains the age of the collision at about 50 myr

the himalayan arc large scale continental subduction oroclinal bending and back arc spreading abstract palaeomagnetic results from the himalayan arc and southern tibet compared with simulated apparent polar wander paths for the indian plate show a consistent pattern of rotations of the himalayan arc relative to the indian shield varying gradually from 45 clockwise in the northwestern himalaya to slightly counterclockwise in the lhasa region this pattern is consistent with continental underthrusting of greater india beneath the tibetan plateau since the early miocene over at least 650 km at the longitude of western nepal and oroclinal bending since the latest miocene available palaeomagnetic observations support the steady state model for the formation of the himalayan arc with refinements as follows 1 collision between greater india s northern boundary and southern asia occurred at equatorial latitudes with progressive suturing from palaeocene in the northwestern himalaya until early eocene in the eastern himalaya 2 continuing convergence and indentation of greater india into southern asia over about 2000 km up to the early miocene resulted in southeastward extrusion of indochina and 3 neogene counterclockwise rotational underthrusting of greater india along the main central thrust with pliocene quaternary oroclinal bending of the himalayan arc

a multidisciplinary study of a syntectonic pluton close to a major lithospheric scale fault relationships between the montmarault granitic massif and the sillon houiller fault in the variscan french massif central 1 geochronology mineral fabrics and tectonic implications 1 because of its location along one of the major faults the sillon houiller fault shf of the french massif central fmc the montmarault granitic pluton is well suited to better understand the place of the late orogenic magmatism in variscan orogeny through a methodological approach the close spatial association of the pluton with the lithospheric shf is investigated in order to clarify the relationships between faulting and magmatic processes during the late carboniferous therefore a multidisciplinary study has been carried out on the montmarault massif combining geochronology field and laboratory microstructural observations and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams methods presented in this paper and gravity and aeromagnetic modeling part 2 as well as similar studies from other plutons in the fmc allows us to draw the following conclusions 1 the montmarault pluton dated by the chemical u th pb method on monazite at 321 2 ma was emplaced in a nw se maximum stretching trend which is consistent with the regional extensional tectonic regime 2 the montmarault pluton is rooted in its eastern part along the shf with a laccolite like shape in its western part 3 at circa 320 ma the proto shf acted probably as a normal fault considered as the feeding channel for the magma emplacement and 4 late carboniferous ne sw extensional tectonics reworked the montmarault pluton in a brittle postsolidus stage

statistical significance of the fold test in palaeomagnetism summary the significance of the change in direction dispersion on applying the fold test in palaeomagnetism is used as the criterion for deciding whether or not the fold test has statistical significance a set of tables is compiled which can be used for quick application of the test

cooling pattern and mineralization history of the saint sylvestre and western marche leucogranite pluton french massif central i 40ar 39ar isotopic constraints abstract the saint sylvestre western marche leucogranite complex lc is a composite pluton emplaced 324 m y ago in the variscan continental crust of the northwestern limousin french massif central petrographic structural and new isotopic data are used to constrain the cooling pattern of the pluton in the temperature range for ar retention in muscovite part i and the genetic relationships with the subsequent uranium mineralization postdating the time of intrusion by 40 50 m y part ii a suite of thirty seven muscovite and nine biotite concentrates selected over the entire plutonic complex were analyzed by the 40 ar 39 ar technique muscovite is characterized by well defined plateau ages ranging between 314 and 301 ma while biotite gives less well behaved age spectra with apparent ages varying between 320 and 300 ma the muscovite age variations are systematic and clearly associated with regional trends at the scale of the pluton field petrographic gravimetric and structural relationships indicate that the age pattern is controlled by the intrusion shape and the regional post cooling fault network cutting through the laccolith when restored to their approximate pre faulting geometry the age variations are shown to correlate positively with sample elevation with a top to base difference as large as 10 14 m y over a mean intrusion thickness of 3 km this pattern is interpreted to reflect cooling driven by erosion and exhumation of the thickened variscan crust during the westphalian and is confirmed by two dimensional thermal modelling part ii the data show that 40 ar 39 ar mica ages can postdate the time of crystallization of the host pluton by up to 23 ma depending on the level sampled at the surface they warn against interpreting k ar mica ages from similar low relief igneous settings as closely postdating intrusive events without a precise knowledge of the thermal structure cooling mechanism and post cooling faulting of the pluton in turn provided that the pre faulting geometry of the intrusion is properly assessed the vertical cooling pattern can reveal fine scale variations in the thermal structure of old eroded intrusions that may be extremely useful for recovering quantitative information on the mechanisms and rates of cooling in ancient orogens

distorted drainage basins as markers of crustal strain east of the himalaya extensive lithospheric deformation on the eastern margin of the india eurasia collision has brought three major rivers into exceptionally close proximity for over 300 km the salween mekong and yangtze rivers are only tens of kilometers apart 10 times closer than rivers of comparable length elsewhere in the world we view deeply incised river valleys as displacement markers that move with the underlying crust over time scales of at least tens of millions of years accordingly the close spacing of these major rivers and their nearly parallel trends reflect the large crustal strains near the eastern himalayan syntaxis these river characteristics are consistent with two primary phases of deformation in this tectonic setting ne sw shortening of 0 5 oriented radially from the eastern syntaxis followed by dextral shear strain of 6 1 along a north trending zone pervasive shearing of this magnitude throughout the 150 km wide region of anomalous drainage would account for 1000 km of northward motion of india relative to southern china directly east of this region another 1000 km of northward motion is likely to have been accommodated by pervasive shearing through a zone hundreds of kilometers wide finally we draw attention to the remarkable accord between the arcuate paths of each of the three great rivers in the broader southeastern tibet region and small circles that curve around the eastern himalayan syntaxis

the gangotri granite garhwal himalaya laccolithic emplacement in an extending collisional belt the gangotri miocene leucogranite is composed of several laccoliths 6 7 km long 1 5 2 km thick which can be divided into two sets of lenses the southern lenses intruded in the lower part of the high himalaya sedimentary cover and the northern lenses intruded in an older porphyritic biotite bearing granite in both cases the magmatic fabric is commonly weak with no dominant stretching direction although a rough e w trend is present in the northern lenses the magnetic fabric is characterized by the fact that drastic changes in the direction in the magnitude of the magnetic parameters or in the fabric type planar or linear may take place over very short distances measurements of preferred orientations in thin sections indicate that the strain regime was largely dominated by a coaxial component for both sets of lenses in agreement with the large dispersion observed in both the field and magnetic lineations the comparison of the granite and host rock structures shows that the leucogranite emplacement dates the onset of the extensional tectonism in the high himalaya range and is not related to a southward directed thrust event associated with the main central thrust this is exemplified by the vertical attitude of the feeder dikes that intrude the metasedimentary rocks beneath die southern lenses the presence of these dikes indicates in turn that magma ascent occurred by fracture propagation the spatial disposition of the southern lenses could have resulted either from the disruption of a single laccolithic intrusion by crustal scale boudinage due to a northern gravity backslide of the top of the tibetan slab or from the intrusion of independent laccoliths the use of the elastic bending theory of pollard and johnson 1973 shows that in both hypotheses the current laccolith sizes are compatible with a laccolithic mode of magma emplacement however neither the density contrast between the magma and its enclosing rocks nor the lithological boundary between the tibetan slab and the overlying tibetan metasedimentary series controlled the level of magma emplacement rather flat lying collapse structures which intersected the upward propagating magma dikes are the most likely causes of magma arrest such a mechanism was favored by the schist rich lithology of the metasedimentary host rocks in addition field relationships indicate that the melt supply through the dike system was a continuous rather than pulsed process existing numerical treatments on the rates of magma transport through fractures show that in such a case the laccoliths could have been built in less than 100 years this short time of emplacement the small size of the laccoliths and their peripheral disposition relative to the badrinath granite suggest that the gangotri lenses may represent the initial stage of pluton accretion in the high himalaya which ultimately gave rise to a much larger massif such as the manaslu granite

revised and synthetic apparent polar wander paths of the african eurasian north american and indian plates and true polar wander since 200 ma we have reviewed paleomagnetic data available for the eurasian african north american and indian plates over the last 200 ma selection criteria are those generally accepted with an emphasis on evidence for lack of remagnetization accurate dating and proper structural analysis this results in 23 35 51 and 2 poles for eurasia africa north america and india respectively we believe that this limited set of higher quality data is more likely to reveal key features of apparent polar wander apw paths than averaging of larger data sets involving less stringent selection criteria we propose and describe revised apw paths but more importantly we next use relative motion models to transfer all data in a common reference frame we find good agreement between transferred data when they are averaged separately for each plate in independent 20 ma windows this is a check on consistency of paleomagnetic data kinematic models and of the geocentric dipole hypothesis transferred data from all plates are averaged in 20 ma windows to generate synthetic apw paths for all plates studied these synthetic paths are in agreement with the original revised apw paths that use only data from a single plate moreover both geographic and time resolution are improved spatial confidence intervals are of the order of 5 the synthetic paths display interesting features such as a previously ill recognized apw loop for eurasia paleomagnetic and hotspot apw are next compared and a determination of true polar wander tpw is derived we find significant tpw amounting to over 20 in the last 200 ma tpw appears to be episodic with a standstill between 180 and 110 ma there is general agreement with a previous study of livermore et al 1984 the tpw standstill appears to correlate with a time of decreasing reversal frequency ending with the cretaceous long normal superchron other periods of fast tpw would seem to correspond to increasing reversal frequency however it is suggested that the major tpw hairpin at 50 ma might correspond to the collision of india with eurasia tentative correlations with core or mantle indicators can be understood as a result of couplings between the core mantle and lithosphere we believe primarily related to episodic evolution of the d layer

paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of southern tibet since middle cretaceous time new paleomagnetic data and synthesis during the second french chinese paleomagnetic campaign in tibet in the summer of 1981 we sampled the middle cretaceous red beds of the takena formation and the cenozoic volcanics of the lingzizong formation a detailed analysis of about 400 specimens of red beds reveals a stable component of normal magnetization n in the north of the lhasa block north of the nyainqentanglha range and two stable components in the south lt ht where the red beds are more strongly folded and are unconformably overlain by the lingzizong volcanics all three components are carried by hematite blocking temperatures range from 400 to 600 c for lt and up to the neel temperature of hematite for both n and ht lt is shown to postdate part of the folding of the takena whereas n and ht both indicate a positive fold test at the 99 probability level in addition a small less than 10 of the natural remanent magnetization antiparallel component is superimposed in most samples and may be consistent with a model of long term acquisition of a chemical remanent magnetization for the red beds analysis of the volcanics reveals a single stable component with mixed polarities carried either by hematite or magnetite the paleomagnetic directions indicate that 1 the lhasa block stood at 12 5 3 n by upper cretaceous and at 13 5 6 5 n in the paleocene eocene thus confirming the limited displacement of the margin of eurasia between albian aptian deposition of the red beds and eocene onset of the india asia collision these values imply crustal shortening by as much as 1900 850 km north of the block since the upper cretaceous and by 1400 1200 km south of the block since the onset of the collision 2 southern tibet formed a single tectonic unit by middle cretaceous time and 3 differential rotations are observed within the block and are related to the collision these rotations are discussed in the frame of a recent propagating extrusion tectonics model this study confirms the close paleogeographic relationship between indochina khorat plateau and southern tibet prior to the india asia collision

finite strain calculations of continental deformation 1 method and general results for convergent zones a finite element method is used to calculate stresses and strain rates in a thin viscous sheet representing the continental lithosphere that is bordered in one part by an indenting boundary we calculate solutions for velocity fields crustal thickness distributions strain rates rotation time integrated vorticity and finite strain ellipsoids to show the dependence of these quantities on the controlling parameters the stress strain exponent n and the strength of the sheet relative to the gravitational forces which may be expressed as a dimensionless number the argand number ar for n 3 and ar between 1 and 10 a plateau of thickened crust is formed in front of the indenter the strain histories of individual elements within the viscous sheet may be quite complex and the finite strain at the end of deformation may bear no obvious relation to the principal stress orientations during the deformation the strain rate fields are interpreted in terms of the style of faulting that would be expected in the brittle upper crust if it were coupled to the ductile but stronger upper mantle in general the length scale of deformation increases with ar and time since the start of the collision and decreases with n for ar 3 the increase in length scale is accompanied by a change in the style of deformation from predominantly crustal thickening with thrust faulting in the brittle layer to predominantly transcurrent deformation strike slip faulting in the brittle layer

seismic and tectono metamorphic characters of the lower continental crust in phanerozoic areas a consequence of post thickening extension deep seismic profiles of phanerozoic continental crust commonly show a highly reflective lower crust rheological considerations suggest that the seismic fabric of the lower crust can be attributed to the tectonic transposition of various petrological heterogeneities in the main flow plane the variscan provinces of western europe have been affected during phanerozoic times by several extensional and compressional events the geometrical relationships between seismic and geological structures indicate that the layering of the lower crust was acquired during the late carboniferous to permian when the thickened variscan crust was affected by gravitational collapse petrological and geochronological analyses of deep crustal rocks xenoliths and exposed sections indicate that the lower crust has recorded a major high t medium p granulite facies metamorphism during the late variscan extension whereas on the surface upper carboniferous to permian basins were being deposited a similar scenario characterizes other phanerozoic orogenic belts in the caledonian provinces of the british islands the lower crust is seismically reflective it has undergone medium p granulitic metamorphism during the deposition of devonian sedimentary basins at the end of the caledonian orogeny in the same way collapse of the mesozoic belt in the western part of north america is responsible during the cenozoic for pervasive crustal extension whose consequence is a seismic layering of the lower crust accompanied by a low p granulite grade metamorphic event while in the mid and upper crusts low angle ductile normal faults give rise to the basin and range province therefore it is proposed that there is a genetic relationship between 1 post thickening crustal extension 2 low to medium p granulite facies metamorphism of the lower crust and 3 seismic layering of the lower crust

gravity inversion ams and geochronological investigations of syntectonic granitic plutons in the southern part of the variscan french massif central magnetic fabric analyses gravity inversion associated with chemical u th pb dating and structural observations are carried out to elucidate relationships between faulting and magmatic processes this multidisciplinary study has been undertaken on late carboniferous plutons situated in the southern part of the variscan french massif central fmc the glenat omps and boisset plutons crop out on both sides of the crustal scale sillon houiller fault shf the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams measurements and structural observations show that i the plutons acquired their final structure during the magma crystallization and record a nw se maximum stretching trend ii in the boisset pluton post magmatic fabrics predominate with a nnw sse trending lineation the structural pattern deduced from the ams study is thus consistent with the nw se late orogenic extensional tectonic regime that has been documented in other parts of the fmc during late carboniferous the 3d geological modelling refined by 3d gravity inversion does not show any evidence of rooting of the granites along the shf therefore despite the apparent cartographic relationship between the shf and the three plutons our study does not support a genetic link between fault and plutons it also questions the existence of the shf in this part of the massif central at the time of pluton emplacement and emphasises the dominant role of the regional tectonic framework rather than local faulting as a factor controlling pluton emplacement

modification of the regional stress field by magma intrusion and formation of tabular granitic plutons granitic intrusions typically have large aspect ratios with an horizontal major axis about 4 8 times the vertical one combined structural and geophysical gravity data allows distinction between two main types of plutons flat floored plutons the most represented are rather thin 3 4 km and extend in every horizontal direction with a gently dipping floor toward several root zones these contrast with the thick 10 km wedge shaped plutons more elongated in one direction with a few root zones we interpret the shape of flat floored plutons as the result of a switch in the stress pattern caused by the emplacement of magma magma is preferentially emplaced into the plane 1 2 perpendicular to the least principal stress component 3 this plane is initially vertical except for compressional conditions this dilation causes a local re organization of the stress field by increasing the minor and intermediate principal stress components when they overcome the lithostatic load a drastic change in the orientation of the opening plane results switching from vertical to horizontal this constitutes a change from vertically oriented dike shaped intrusions to sub horizontal laccoliths crustal anisotropies vertical faults or horizontal zones of different rheology also contribute to modify the shape of the intrusions the continual exchange of the intermediate stress components also explains the rounded shape of intrusions in strongly extended regions our analysis suggests that the concept of magmas rising to a level of neutral buoyancy is not applicable to many settings rather we suggest that the feedback between displacements resulting from magma intrusion and the local stress pattern controls the geometry of magma emplacement

paleomagnetic study of middle cretaceous rocks from yunlong western yunnan china evidence of southward displacement of indochina middle cretaceous red sandstones and siltstones were collected at 20 sites for paleomagnetic study from the nanxin formation around yunlong 25 8 n 99 4 e western part of yunnan province china after stepwise thermal demagnetization high temperature component magnetization with unblocking temperature of about 675 c is isolated a positive fold test at the 99 confidence limit shows that the high temperature component magnetization is primary for the middle cretaceous nanxin formation a tilt corrected formation mean direction is d 40 2 i 49 9 with 95 3 9 corresponding to a paleopole at 54 6 n 171 8 e with a95 4 4 comparison with previously reported cretaceous paleomagnetic directions indicates that the yunlong area has been subjected to southward displacement by 11 9 7 5 corresponding to 1300 800 km with respect to the stable yangtze craton since cretaceous time as well as clockwise rotation through 36 3 13 6 this study elucidates that indochina was squeezed out of the asian continent due to collision of india accompanied with clockwise rotation

tectono thermal evolution of deep crust in a mesoproterozoic continental collision setting the manicouagan example high pressure metamorphic rocks in continental collision belts provide important information on the orogenic evolution of deep crust in the grenville province a prime example is the manicouagan imbricate zone miz a mesoproterozoic crustal section that was metamorphosed up to 1800 mpa and 850 950 c at 1050 ma high tempera tures and the presence of synmetamorphic within plate tholeiitic gabbro intrusion in the miz attest to thermal perturba tion during burial and emplacement of mantle derived melts consistent with thinning of lithospheric mantle subsequently the miz was extruded by a combination of northwest directed thrusting over a crustal scale ramp and ex tension at higher crustal levels in the middle miz extension was coeval with thrusting but perpendicular to the thrust direction and was apparently controlled by ductility contrasts between slices in contrast the highest levels show evi dence of southeast directed extension i e of opposite sense to the thrust direction that postdated thrusting within the miz this episode was followed by renewed northwest directed thrusting of medium pressure mesoproterozoic units over the miz and then by final southeast directed extension overall configuration of the miz was achieved between 1040 990 ma and is consistent with outward propagation of the orogen alternating periods of thrusting and exten sion displacement are a likely result of adjustments permitting maintenance of dynamic equilibrium within the advanc ing stack the tectonothermal characteristics of the miz allow comparison between the grenville province and younger thermally perturbed orogens i e variscan belt and may be the final product of a tibetan plateau style evo lution

a tectonic model for the tertiary evolution of strike slip faults and rift basins in se asia abstract models for the tertiary evolution of se asia fall into two main types a pure escape tectonics model with no proto south china sea and subduction of proto south china sea oceanic crust beneath borneo a related problem is which if any of the main strike slip faults mae ping three pagodas and aliao shan red river asrr cross sundaland to the nw borneo margin to facilitate continental extrusion recent results investigating strike slip faults rift basins and metamorphic core complexes are reviewed and a revised tectonic model for se asia proposed key points of the new model include 1 the asrr shear zone was mainly active in the eocene oligocene in order to link with extension in the south china sea the asrr was less active during the miocene tens of kilometres of sinistral displacement with minor amounts of south china sea spreading centre extension transferred to the asrr shear zone 2 at least three important regions of metamorphic core complex development affected indochina from the oligocene miocene mogok gneiss belt doi inthanon and doi suthep around the asrr shear zone hence paleogene crustal thickening buoyancy driven crustal collapse and lower crustal flow are important elements of the tertiary evolution of indochina 3 subduction of a proto south china sea oceanic crust during the eocene early miocene is necessary to explain the geological evolution of nw borneo and must be built into any model for the region 4 the eocene oligocene collision of ne india with burma activated extrusion tectonics along the three pagodas mae ping ranong and klong marui faults and right lateral motion along the sumatran subduction zone 5 the only strike slip fault link to the nw borneo margin occurred along the trend of the asrr fault system which passes along strike into a right lateral transform system including the baram line

the late palaeozoic early mesozoic from the catalan pyrenees spain 60 myr of environmental evolution in the frame of the western peri tethyan palaeogeography the eastern catalan pyrenees form the southernmost segment of the pyrenean axial zone they experienced complex multistage process as the result of both the variscan and the pyrenean orogenic cycles after the late palaeozoic several small extensional sub basins were filled by continental successions as a response to the changing tectonic setting within the frame of the southwestern europe this stratigraphic record perfectly exposed in the studied eastern pyrenean areas preserves the signatures of the late palaeozoic pangea break up during the progressive dismantling of the variscan chain up to the triassic diffused extension despite structural network being severely affected by cenozoic reworking the stratigraphic framework can be unravelled by the detailed sedimentological and stratigraphical analysis of the well exposed sequences in short this paper addresses facies patterns and architectural elements of late carboniferous permian triassic continental sections studied in the catalan pyrenees and aims to use these signatures for correlation not only at a regional scale but also within the broader picture of the southwestern europe our stratigraphical reconstruction clearly demonstrates that the thick studied succession consists of fluvial lacustrine basal units affected by intense volcanic activity and overlaying predominantly fluvial fining upwards units for each unit several lithofacies architectural elements and bounding surfaces of different order have been identified and their lateral and vertical staking characterized deposition and erosion processes are controlled by alternating periods of tectonic activity producing different stages of high and low subsidence the uplift of the sub basin margins and subsequent extended erosive events marked by angular unconformities on the strength of the major rank bounding surfaces analysis the studied sedimentary packages have been grouped into different tectono stratigraphic units and then correlated they have been contextualized within the latest palaeogeographic reconstructions of the studied sector contributing to detail the role of the study area within the frame of the s european palaeogeography

transpressional tectonics and carboniferous magmatism in the limousin massif central france structural and 40ar 39ar investigations new structural microstructural and 40ar 39ar data from the nw massif central france provide additional constraints on the timing and tectonic setting of late variscan granite magmatism previous studies had emphasized the role of late orogenic extension in the emplacement of granite plutons in the limousin region in contrast the new data set is consistent with syntectonic emplacement of magma in a dextral simple shear active from 350 to 300 ma in a transpressional regime as an alternative hypothesis to late orogenic extension we propose that magmas migrated into tensional bridges between active p shears associated with a lithospheric shear zone comparable to a pop up structure the galician region in the western end of the ibero armorican tectonic arc exhibits major left lateral ductile shear zones which can be interpreted as conjugate structures to the limousin and armorican shear zones citation ge belin a m brunel p monie m faure and n arnaud 2007 transpressional tectonics and carboniferous magmatism in the limousin massif central france structural and 40ar 39ar investigations

internal crustal deformation in the northern part of shan thai block new evidence from paleomagnetic results of cretaceous and paleogene redbeds in order to describe the internal deformation of the northeast part of the shan thai block resulting from the penetration of the indian plate into asia a paleomagnetic study was carried out on the cretaceous and paleogene strata in the southern part of the simao terrane high temperature magnetic components with unblocking temperatures around 680 degrees c were isolated and positive fold test shows its primary nature of magnetization the tilt corrected site mean directions of the lower cretaceous and upper cretaceous from the menglun area are d s 46 2 degrees i s 45 9 degrees k 11 0 alpha 95 10 6 degrees and d s 33 2 degrees i s 30 9 degrees k 68 4 alpha 95 8 2 degrees respectively the site mean directions of the upper cretaceous and lower paleogene for the mengban area are d s 50 5 degrees i s 31 0 degrees k 207 6 alpha 95 6 4 degrees and d s 43 5 degrees i s 23 0 degrees k 26 1 alpha 95 13 4 degrees respectively the results of the lower cretaceous and upper paleogene from the mengla area are d s 46 9 degrees i s 42 2 degrees k 27 3 alpha 95 7 7 degrees and d s 41 8 degrees i s 23 8 degrees k 38 9 degrees alpha 95 5 8 degrees respectively in comparison with previous paleomagnetic data of the simao terrane the rotational deformation can be divided into four stages the cretaceous and paleocene sediments of the simao terrane experienced intensive folding before the early oligocene during the early oligocene to early miocene the shan thai and indochina blocks experienced southeastward extrusion with similar to 20 degrees clockwise rotation relative to the south china block during the middle to late miocene the shan thai blocks experienced more 15 degrees clockwise rotation since the late miocene the activity of strike slip faults surrounding the simao terrane enhanced the internal differential rotations of the terrane these deformation processes finally resulted in a complex internal deformation of the simao terrane c 2013 elsevier b v all rights reserved

oroclinal origin of the simao arc in the shan thai block inferred from the cretaceous palaeomagnetic data summary an active oroclinal bending is discovered in the shan thai block to the south of the eastern himalayan syntaxis to investigate the evolution of the simao arc using palaeomagnetic techniques the middle cretaceous red beds of the nanxin formation were sampled at the zhengwan 22 8 n 100 9 e and dadugang 22 4 n 101 0 e localities in the southern simao basin most of the studied samples revealed the presence of characteristic remnant magnetization with unblocking temperatures around 680 c a primary nature for this magnetization is interpreted on the basis of a positive fold and reversal test tilt corrected mean directions calculated for zhengwan and dadugang localities are characterized by large easterly deflected declination d 51 8 i 47 9 ks 45 0 95 6 9 n 11 and d 64 1 i 48 1 ks 36 0 95 7 3 n 12 respectively steep inclination values at both these localities with respect to those expected are in the range previously reported from the shan thai block confirming their southward displacement by 6 2 1 7 as part of the shan thai block combination of the present data two localities with those previously reported from simao basin seven localities reveals a positive palaeomagnetic oroclinal test indicating that the present day arc like geometry of the simao basin was formed by oroclinal bending comparison with recent gps and structural data suggest that formation of the simao curvature started after the early pliocene after 4 ma and continuing until the present origin of the simao arc is ascribed to southwestward movement of the crustal material across the ailao shan red river fault around the eastern himalaya syntaxis which was formed by westward movement of the decollement with progressive eastward deepening of the lanping simao basin decoupling between the upper and the middle lower crusts is a requisite condition for the arc formation on the continent

spatial distribution of melt bearing structures in anatectic rocks from southern brittany france implications for melt transfer at grain to orogen scale abstract in this study we present quantitative spatial information on the one and two dimensional distribution of inferred melt bearing structures in anatectic supracrustal rocks of the southern brittany migmatite belt south of the transcurrent south armorican shear zone sasz based on these data we infer the mechanism of melt extraction from partially molten crust former melt bearing structures include foliation parallel leucosomes and cross cutting granitic leucosomes that infill inter boudin partitions and extensional shear surfaces as well as discordant dykes of granite petrographic i e mineralogical and microstructural continuity of granite from structure to structure suggests that they once formed a continuous melt bearing network measurements along one dimensional line traverses perpendicular to layering of stromatic migmatite exposed in clean sub horizontal outcrop surfaces provide information about thickness and spacing distributions of foliation parallel leucosomes most leucosome thicknesses fall in the range of 1 10 mm with upper limits around 20 30 mm the number of thicker layers decreases abruptly with increasing thickness which is inconsistent with scale invariance this suggests that leucosome formation was controlled by short range melt movement along grain boundaries to form melt rich layers constrained by pre existing compositional layering spacing distributions also are not scale invariant however the large percentage of leucosomes 40 60 in these line traverses suggests that spacing distributions may be controlled in part by impingement of leucosomes making it difficult to derive genetic information from these data qualitative observation of inferred melt bearing structures in mutually perpendicular two dimensional exposures from the same outcrop reveals anisotropy of the leucosome network related to a well developed sub horizontal quartz feldspar lineation reflecting stretching associated with transcurrent movement along the sasz analysis of these two dimensional distributions using the box counting method corroborates the observed anisotropy but indicates that leucosome morphology and perhaps distribution is not scale invariant the applicability of the box counting method or of fractal analysis to understanding melt movement in migmatites is discussed in light of these results based on the anisotropy of melt bearing structures we infer that melt movement in structures now represented by layer parallel leucosomes was primarily sub horizontal these layers fed steeply dipping structures now represented by cross cutting leucosomes in particular those developed at inter boudin partitions and granite dykes the formation and orientation of these steeply dipping structures was in part controlled by far field stresses related to dextral displacement along the sasz melt extraction is inferred to have occurred along these steeply dipping structures extracted melt accumulated in plutons at higher crustal levels such as the quiberon sarzeau and guerande granites

metamorphic core complexes vs synkinematic plutons in continental extension setting insights from key structures shandong province eastern china abstract continental extension is an important geodynamical process mostly diagnostic of a peculiar behaviour of the crust accommodated by geological structures that highlight these specific conditions in the crust though a metamorphic core complex mcc reveals a much stronger crustal extension than a synkinematic pluton the nature of those two structures implies different implications in terms of crustal extension mechanisms and geodynamic significations in eastern asia a major continental extensional event occurred during mesozoic and early cenozoic times the resulting various extensional events described in previous studies consist in large intracontinental basins important volcanism emplacement of plutons in the upper crust and exhumation of mccs an efficient description of mccs and plutons in eastern asia is essential to discriminate important differences of those two structures in terms of strain amount undergone by continental crust and geodynamic significations in that way an integrated structural and geophysical study has been realized to precisely discriminate the structure in the jiaodong peninsula shandong province eastern china previously regarded as simple sheared plutons a succession of three main stages have been identified all pertaining to a nw se extensional setting 1 the exhumation of the late jurassic early cretaceous linglong mcc below the se dipping linglong detachment fault 2 the emplacement of the guojialing syntectonic pluton below the n dipping extensional guojialing intracrustal shear zone 130 124 ma and 3 a penetrative brittle normal faulting associated with gold mineralizations 120 ma as a result the maximum amount of extension in jiaodong peninsula characterized by partially melted lower to middle crust upward into the linglong mcc should be revised to late jurassic early cretaceous period

paleomagnetic results from cretaceous and jurassic rocks of south and southwest yunnan evidence for large clockwise rotations in the indochina and shan thai malay terranes abstract cretaceous and jurassic redbeds have been sampled from south and southwest yunnan china for paleomagnetic study the paleomagnetic directions resolved from the cretaceous rocks indicate that the xiaguan area which is located on the red river fault has not been rotated with respect to stable eurasia since at least late cretaceous times and that the jinggu mengla area 200 400 km farther south has been rotated by 46 65 clockwise the jurassic results reveal the same rotation pattern at face value the differences between the observed cretaceous paleolatitudes and those predicted from the eurasian apparent polar wander path apwp indicate a southward extrusion of the region but the amount of extrusion is not large enough to be resolved by paleomagnetic methods comparison with mesozoic paleomagnetic data from central yunnan northern thailand and northwestern borneo suggests that the red river fault is not a demarcation between unrotated and significantly rotated regions and that sundaland did not respond to the india asia collision as a single coherent unit the existing paleomagnetic data from east asia appear to indicate that the crust in central tibet and tien shan north of tarim directly in front of the indian indentor has been substantially shortened and thickened whereas the crust in the syntaxial areas has probably been largely squeezed out to further evaluate the relative importance of crustal thickening and extrusion in the tectonic evolution of the tibetan plateau paleomagnetic investigation should be intensified in the bounding zones to the indian indentor and be expanded into the cenozoic sedimentary rocks in tibet and surrounding regions

paleomagnetism of upper cretaceous rocks from south china paleomagnetic study of upper cretaceous redbeds from two areas in south china was undertaken in an effort to constrain better the history of tectonic movements in southeastern asia from the nanjing area 32 n l19 e high temperature characteristic directions which pass a fold test were obtained from ten sites 43 samples in the upper cretaceous puko and yanzijing formations the paleomagnetic pole position 76 3 n 172 6 e a95 10 3 agrees well with a late cretaceous reference pole for eurasia and thus confirms that this part of south china was fully sutured to eurasia by the end of the cretaceous with no paleomagnetically resolvable subsequent relative rotation in western sichuan 26 5 n 102 3 e high temperature characteristic directions of normal and reverse polarity were obtained from twelve samples 48 specimens in the upper cretaceous to lower paleocene xiaoba and leidashu formations a provisional paleomagnetic pole position 80 9 n 296 8 e a95 7 7 differs significantly from a late cretaceous eurasia reference pole in terms of apparent tectonic movement the difference in paleopole positions would indicate a 13 10 3 northward translation and 22 11 2 counterclockwise rotation of western sichuan relative to eurasia confirmation of this reconnaisance result which would suggest that western sichuan was pushed ahead of an impinging india is needed

palaeomagnetic evidence for southward displacement of the chuan dian fragment of the yangtze block summary cretaceous red sandstones of the feitianshan formation and the xiaoba formation were sampled at 33 sites from the dadeli and mishi synclines of xichang 27 9 n 102 3 e the study area is a part of the chuan dian fragment bounded by the xianshuihe xiaojiang and the red river fault systems which in turn constitute the southwestern part of the yangtze block almost all the samples give a characteristic palaeomagnetic direction with unblocking temperatures up to 680 c the primary nature of magnetization is ascertained by a positive fold test with a 99 per cent confidence level for the dadeli syncline the tilt corrected overall mean direction of the 33 sites is d 3 7 i 41 5 95 3 4 with a corresponding palaeopole at 85 2 n 241 7 e a95 3 5 this pole occupies the near sided position with respect to the estimate of the cretaceous pole of the sichuan basin indicating that the xichang area experienced a significant southward displacement combined with earlier reported palaeomagnetic data from the chuan dian fragment a significant southward displacement of 6 7 3 5 in latitude is estimated for the whole fragment with respect to the sichuan basin since the late cretaceous extrusion dynamics in the asian continent due to its collision with india brought about the southward displacement of the chuan dian fragment declination data indicate that the southern part of the chuan dian fragment was subjected to clockwise sense rotation of up to 45 this significantly large tectonic rotation probably occurred during extrusion of this

paleomagnetic results from the upper carboniferous of the shan thai malay block of western yunnan china the upper carboniferous basaltic woniusi formation was sampled at 21 sites from two limbs of a syncline near baoshan city 25 2 n 99 3 e and from a monocline near yongde county 23 9 n 99 2 e for paleomagnetic study the study area is generally thought to be part of the shan thai malay microplate thermal demagnetization reveals a single polarity characteristic remanent magnetization chrm which is carried by both magnetite and hematite with the former being the dominant mineral in basalt and the latter being the principal carrier in associated tuffaceous basalt and sandstone the tilt corrected formation mean from baoshan d 209 2 i 61 0 95 6 7 confirms the results reported by previous workers and a positive fold test constrains the chrm acquisition to be prefolding the paleomagnetic inclinations determined from this study are similar to that derived from the devonian rocks from the same area by other workers indicating a paleolatitude of about 42 for the baoshan area during the devono carboniferous time the paleomagnetic declinations however present a large difference between the two sampling localities for the upper carboniferous as well as between the sampling sites for the devonian and for the upper carboniferous the paleo declination difference can be partly explained by the apparent polar wander of gondwana if the shan thai malay microplate was rigidly attached to gondwanaland during this time interval the large part of it has to be ascribed to tectonic rotations between the sampling sites this fact suggests that extreme caution should be exerted when trying to establish an apparent polar wander path for and to reconstruct the paleo geographic position of the shan thai malay microplate

tectonics and paleomagnetic rotation pattern of yunnan 24 n 25 n china gaoligong fault shear versus megablock drift

sr nd al36 1997 99 122 hercynian granodiorites and monzogranites massif central france variations in sr nd and pb initial isotope ratios of three large hercynian granitoid massifs of the french massif central are consistent with formation of the granitoids by partial melting of the lower crust the nature of the lower crust of the massif central is known from the granulite facies lower crustal xenoliths brought to the surface by tertiary alkaline volcanics studies of the xenoliths have revealed that during the hercynian orogeny 360 290 ma ago the pre existing metasedimentary and acid metaigneous lower crust was intruded by basic magmas causing anatexis the mantle derived basic magmas mixed with melts from the pre existing lower crust forming the hercynian granitoids the peraluminous gueret and margeride granitoids which are very similar in their major and trace element compositions have 87sr 86sri 0 7089 to 0 7121 and ndi 7 5 to 3 9 values which indicate that they have a high sedimentary component considered to have been derived from lower crustal metasedimentary rocks however the granitoids differ significantly in their initial pb isotope compositions with the gueret granodiorites being less radiogenic indicating the presence of a slightly different crustal source component for the gueret massif in contrast monzogranites from the millevaches massif are less peraluminous and have higher la ybn and lower 87sr 86sri values 0 7064 to 0 7109 these features together with the relatively radiogenic pb isotope compositions of the millevaches granitoids suggest derivation from the acid metaigneous lower crust

a two stage exhumation in western french massif central new geochronological evidences of syn collisional extension abstract systematic 40ar 39ar dating of granitoids and surrounding metamorphic rocks has been performed in the limousin area w of french massif central in order to provide new constrains concerning its late orogenic thermal and tectonic evolution the same 40ar 39ar age of ca 335 338 ma is found on the present day outcrop surface for most of the limousin metamorphic rocks hence indicating that the entire massif was uniformly cooled down at this period these ages are very close to the 40ar 39ar ages proposed in the sioule and brevenne areas in the literature but also to the coupled tectonic and magmatic activity in the south limousin these results help to document the existence of two exhumation stages each one associated with an extensional stage a first exhumation stage has been active at ca 335 340 ma available data indicate that this extension and associated exhumation and cooling occurred over a distance of more than 200 km in the internal zones of the belt whereas compression was still active in the northern and southern parts of the belt a second exhumation stage may be related to the late orogenic extension and collapse of the belt at ca 310 305 ma and is characterized by the uplift of the st sylvestre complex by unroofing of the overlying metamorphic and granitoidic formations

paleomagnetic study of western tibet deformation of a narrow zone along the indus zangbo suture between india and asia abstract more than 150 oriented samples were collected along the kaxigal lhasa road in the southwestern part of the tibetan plateau to determine the deformation aspect of the tibetan region from a paleomagnetic point of view the counter clockwise deflection about 60 in declination was revealed at four localities in the narrow zone along the indus zangbo suture zone a north to northeast direction d 9 to 30 was observed at four localities more than 14 km from the suture zone in the western tibetan region significant tectonic deformation has occurred exclusively in a narrow zone whose width is about 40 km spanning the suture zone the crustal blocks of this narrow zone were rotated in a compressive regime accompanied by left lateral shear during the collision of the indo eurasia continents the deformation of the narrow zone behaves as a buffer zone in a tectonically gigantic dimension where the tangential stress is mainly absorbed

new tertiary paleomagnetic poles from mongolia and siberia at 40 30 20 and 13 ma clues on the inclination shallowing problem in central asia we report results of a paleomagnetic study of 490 cores from 59 sites corresponding to 52 distinct basaltic flows from mongolia and siberia khaton sudal 39 4 ma 44 5 n 101 4 e taatsyn gol 1 31 5 ma 45 4 n 101 3 e 2 28 0 ma 45 5 n 101 1 e ust bokson 19 9 ma 52 1 n 100 3 e and taatsyn gol 3 12 7 ma 45 5 n 101 0 e stepwise thermal and alternating field demagnetizations isolated a stable high temperature component htc of magnetization in most specimens which we interpret as the primary magnetization of these basaltic lava flows the four corresponding paleopoles appear consistent with coeval paleopoles from other asian effusive formations however except for the 12 7 ma paleopole the paleopoles are systematically far sided from the european apparent polar wander path apwp with respect to site locations corresponding to anomalously shallow inclinations in tertiary asian effusive formations in the hypothesis of a dipolar magnetic field in the tertiary this indicates a 1000 1500 km position of the siberia craton and amuria block farther south than expected at 40 and 30 ma tectonically this interpretation implies decoupling and relative rotations between the western and eastern parts of eurasia between the cretaceous and present we show that if siberia were located more to the south the 15 20 paleolatitude anomaly generally observed in sedimentary formations from central asia reduces to a more reasonable average value of 7 which could result from the superimposition of shallowing mechanisms due to sedimentary processes and northward motion of asian blocks under the effect of ongoing penetration of india into eurasia in the tertiary

late orogenic carboniferous extensions in the variscan french massif central the variscan french massif central experienced two successive stages of extension from middle carboniferous to early permian in the northern massif central the first stage began in the late visean immediately after nappe stacking and is well recorded by namurian westphalian synkinematic plutonism the middle carboniferous leucogranites widespread in the nw massif central limousin and sioule area were emplaced within a crust extending along a ne sw direction at the same time the hanging wall or gueret extensional allochton moved toward the se several examples of the synextensional plutonism are also recognized in central limousin saint mathieu dome la porcherie and cornil leucogranites these examples illustrate the relationship between granite emplacement and crustal scale deformation characterized by nw se stretching and ne sw shortening in the central and southern massif central cevennes ch taigneraie and margeride areas plutonism is dominantly granodioritic and exhibits the same structural features nw se maximum stretching and overturning to the se middle carboniferous namurian westphalian extension was parallel to the variscan belt both in the massif central and southern armorican area this extensional regime was active from the late visean in the north while compression dominated in the southernmost domains montagne noire and pyrenees the second extensional stage occurred from late carboniferous to early permian this event was responsible for the opening of intramontane coal basins brittle deformation in the upper crust and ductile normal faulting localized on the margin of cordierite granite migmatite domes data from the coal basins show that the half graben is the dominant structural style except for basins located along submeridianal left lateral faults which have pull apart geometries late carboniferous extension occurred along the ne sw direction the ne sw maximum stretching direction can be found in the whole massif central but is more developed in the eastern part the extensional direction is transverse to the general trend of the belt and top to the ne shearing is dominant correlations of these two extension directions with neighboring variscan massifs are discussed

structure kinematics and ages of transpression during strain partitioning in the chongshan shear zone western yunnan china abstract the chongshan shear zone extends from the eastern himalayan syntaxis to the lincang granitic pluton in yunnan province china the structure and kinematics show that the shear zone comprises mainly of mylonitic gneiss migmatite and schist with a dextral dominated strike slip motion in an n s trending northern segment and a sinistral strike slip shear in nw se trending middle and southern segments both were developed under a bulk regional scale sinistral transpression shrimp and la icpms u pb and 40 ar 39 ar dating reveal two tertiary magmatic events along the zone followed by younger sinistral strike slip shear the eocene magmatic event c 55 38 ma followed by metamorphism at c 36 ma happened before the strike slip motion the strike slip shear along the zone began c 32 ma which generated shear heating from 32 to 22 ma the 40 ar 39 ar ages of syn kinematic micas range from 19 to 14 ma and indicate that the strike slip shear continued to this time with coeval transpressional exhumation and uplift of the metamorphic rocks along the biluoxueshan chongshan chain the chongshan zone is thus a cenozoic shear zone which was contemporaneous with motion on the left lateral ailao shan red river shear zone and the right lateral gaoligong shear zone and should be important in accommodating the northwards movement of india during collision during oligocene to miocene times the continental block that was extruded between the ailao shan red river and gaoligong shear zones was dismembered into at least two major fragments by the chongshan shear zone

from late visean to stephanian pinpointing a two stage basinal evolution in the variscan belt a case study from the bosmoreau basin french massif central and its geodynamic implications post convergence evolution of the variscan belt is characterized by the development of intramontane coal bearing basins containing volcano sedimentary successions in the french massif central k ar ages on clay particles from fine grained sediments of the bosmoreau basin limousin area help pinpoint the evolution of the basin in the lower part of the sedimentary pile illite in a siltstone underlying a volcanic layer previously dated at 332 4 ma by the u pb method on zircon yields a consistent k ar age of ca 340 ma upward in the sedimentary succession illite yields stephanian k ar ages which can be combined to provide a mean deposition age of 296 5 3 5 ma the bosmoreau basin albeit mainly filled with stephanian deposits was initiated during the late visean i e ca 30 ma earlier than inferred from biostratigraphical constraints during the stephanian the same structure was reactivated and late visean deposits were eroded and subsequently blanketed by thick clastic sediments these results emphasise a two stage evolution for the bosmoreau basin which is closely related to extensional tectonics identified on basement country rocks and they are used to propose a geodynamic evolution of the studied area