琼北地区第四纪熔岩隧道群研究:形态学及其比较行星学意义

Quaternary lava tubes in northern Hainan Island:Morphology and significance of comparative planetology

熔岩隧道是全球第四纪玄武质火山区常见的火山活动产物,主要发育在绳状和块状熔岩分布区,是地表玄武质岩浆输送系统的重要组成部分。我国分布大量的第四纪玄武质火山岩,前人针对其熔岩地貌、岩浆成因及演化过程开展了大量的研究,但对其中的熔岩隧道却关注较少。而熔岩隧道的研究对于理解熔岩流的运移过程及地表熔岩构造地貌的演化均具有重要意义,尤为有意义的是,近年来在月球和火星上的玄武质熔岩区发现了大量的疑似熔岩隧道的熔岩地貌,这些巨大的管状地下空间是人类未来在地外岩石星球上建立稳定庇护基地的优选对象,因此开展地球熔岩隧道的比较行星学研究可以为地外熔岩隧道的探索工作提供重要线索。为此,本文通过对琼北地区的熔岩隧道群开展详细的形态学和比较行星学研究,为进一步探索月球和火星熔岩隧道特征和规模大小提供形态学信息。

Lava tubes are common basaltic products of Quaternary volcanism in the Earth,that mainly outcropped in pahoehoes and′a′ālavas as important parts of a basaltic lava transport system.There are abundant lava tubes distributed in Quaternary basalt regions of China.Although a great deal of research work had been carried out on the lava landforms,magma geneses and evolutionary histories of the Quaternary basalts,little attention has been paid to the lava tubes.However,the study of lava tubes is of great significance for understanding the migration process of a lava flow and the evolution of the surface lava tectonic landforms.More importantly,a large number of potential lava tubes have been discovered in the basaltic lava regions of the Moon and Mars in recent years,and these huge tubular underground spaces are the preferred candidates for establishing stable shelters on rocky extraterrestrial planets.The comparative planetary study of the Earth's lava tubes can provide important clues for exploring the morphological characteristics of the extraterrestrial lava tubes.Therefore,in this paper,we carried out detailed morphological and comparative planetary studies on the lava tunnel groups in the northern Hainan Island in order to provide morphological information for further exploration of the characteristics and size of the lava tubes in the Moon and Mars.