How many sutures in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt:Insights from East Xinjiang-West Gansu(NW China)?

How ophiolitic mèlanges can be defined as sutures is controversial with regard to accretionary orogenesis and continental growth.The Chinese Altay,East junggar,Tianshan,and Beishan belts of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt（CAOB） in Northwest China,offer a special natural laboratory to resolve this puzzle.In the Chinese Altay,the Erqis unit consists of ophiolitic melanges and coherent assemblages,forming a Paleozoic accretionary complex.At least two ophiolitic melanges（Armantai,and Kelameili） in East Junggar,characterized by imbricated ophiolitic melanges,Nb-enriched basalts,adakitic rocks and volcanic rocks,belong to a Devonian-Carboniferous intra-oceanic island arc with some Paleozoic ophiolites,superimposed by Permian arc volcanism.In the Tianshan,ophiolitic melanges like Kanggurtag,North Tianshan,and South Tianshan occur as part of some Paleozoic accretionary complexes related to amalgamation of arc terranes.In the Beishan there are also several ophiolitic melanges,including the Hongshishan,Xingxingxia-Shibangjing,Hongliuhe-Xichangjing,and Liuyuan ophiolitic units.Most ophiolitic melanges in the study area are characterized by ultramafic,mafic and other components,which are juxtaposed,or even emplaced as lenses and knockers in a matrix of some coherent units.The tectonic settings of various components are different,and some adjacent units in the same melange show contrasting different tectonic settings.The formation ages of these various components are in a wide spectrum,varying from Neoproterozoic to Permian.Therefore we cannot assume that these ophiolitic melanges always form in linear sutures as a result of the closure of specific oceans.Often the ophiolitic components formed either as the substrate of intra-oceanic arcs,or were accreted as lenses or knockers in subduction-accretion complexes.Using published age and paleogeographic constraints,we propose the presence of （1） a major early Paleozoic tectonic boundary that separates the Chinese Altay-East Junggar multiple subduction systems of the southern Siberian active margin from those of the northern Tarim;and （2） a major Permian suture zone that separates the Tianshan-Beishan from the northern active margin of the Tarim Craton.These new observations and interpretations have broad implications for the architecture and crustal growth of central Asia and other ancient orogens as well.

Accretionary processes and metallogenesis of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt:Advances and perspectives

As one of the largest Phanerozoic orogens in the world,the Central Asian Orogenic Belt(CAOB)is a natural laboratory for studies of continental dynamics and metallogenesis.This paper summarizes the research progresses of the accretionary processes and metallogenesis of the CAOB since the Peopled Republic of China was founded,and puts forward the prospect for future research.During the early period(1950s-1970s),several geological theories were applied to explain the geological evolution of Central Asia.In the early period of China's reform and opening-up,the plate tectonics theory was applied to explain the evolution of the northern Xinjiang and Xingmeng regions,and the opinion of subduction-collision between Siberian Kazakhstan and China-North Korea-Tarim plates was proposed.The idea of the Solonker-Yanbian suture zone was established.In the 1990s,the study of the CAOB entered a period of rapid development.One school of scholars including geologists from the former Soviet Union proposed a multi-block collision model for the assemblage of the CAOB.In contrast,another school of scholars,led by a Turkish geologist,Celal Sengor,proposed that the Altaids was formed through the growth and strike-slip duplicates of a single island arc,and pointed out that the Altaids is a special type of collisional orogen.During this period,Chinese geologists carried out a lot of pioneering researches on ophiolites and high-pressure metamorphic rocks in northern China,and confirmed the main suture zones accordingly.In 1999,the concept of"Central Asian metallogenic domain"was proposed,and it became one of the three major metallogenic domains in the world.Since the 21st century,given the importance for understanding continental accretion and metallogenic mechanism,the CAOB has become the international academic forefront.China has laid out a series of scientific research projects in Central Asia.A large number of important scientific research achievements have been spawned,including the tectonic attribution of micro-continents,timing and tectonic settings of ophiolites,magmatic arcs,identification and anatomy of accretionary wedges,regional metamorphism-deformation,(ultra)high-pressure metamorphism,ridge subduction plume-plate interaction archipelagic paleogeography and spatio-temporal framework of multiple accretionary orogeny,continental growth accretionary metallogenesis,structural superposition and transformation etc.These achievements have made important international influences.There still exist the following aspects that need further study:(1)Early evolution history and subduction initiation of the Paleo-Asian Ocean;(2)The accretionary mechanism of the extroversion Paleo-Asian Ocean;(3)The properties of the mantle of the Paleo-Asian Ocean and their spatiotemporal distribution;(4)The interaction between the Paleo-Asian Ocean and the Tethys Ocean;(5)Phanerozoic continental growth mechanism and its global comparison;(6)Accretionary metallogenic mechanism of the Central Asian metallogenic domain;and(7)Continental transformation mechanism.

Web-based visualization of large 3D urban building models

Adaptive rendering of large urban building models has become an important research issue in three-dimensional(3D)geographic information system(GIS)applications.This study explores a way for rendering web-based 3D urban building models.A client-server hybrid rendering approach is presented for large 3D city models,stored on a remote server through a network.The approach combines an efficient multi-hierarchical building representation with a novel image-based method,3D image impostor generated on demand by a remote server.This approach allows transferring complex scenes progressively while keeping high visualization quality.We also evaluated the rendering and data transferring performance of the proposed approach.

Joint shape and color descriptors for 3D urban model retrieval

With the rapid development of photogrammetry,computer vision and three-dimensional(3D)modeling technologies,it is possible to efficiently construct detailed 3D urban models.Accordingly,large corpora of 3D models,such as the Google 3D Warehouse,are now becoming freely available on the web.How to find the proper 3D urban models is a challenging research issue.In this paper,we join shape descriptors and color descriptors for 3D urban model retrieval.The query objects are localized and segmented automatically from the input images by using a new selective search voting algorithm.Through combining the normalization with the light field descriptor,the Horizontal Light Descriptor is introduced to measure the shape similarity among the normalized urban models.The color descriptors are used to represent the color information of the urban models.The two types of descriptors are joined to search 3D urban models similar to the query objects.Experimental results have shown the effectiveness of our approach.

Research on SAR data integrated processing methodology oriented on earth environment factor inversions

As an important advanced technique in the field of Earth observations,Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)plays a key role in the study of global environmental change,resources exploration,disaster mitigation,urban environments,and even lunar exploration.However,studies on imaging,image processing,and Earth factor inversions have often been conducted independently for a long time,which significantly limits the application effectiveness of SAR remote sensing due to the lack of an overall integrated design scheme and integrated information processing.Focusing on this SAR application issue,this paper proposes and describes a new SAR data processing methodology–SAR data integrated processing(DIP)oriented on Earth environment factor inversions.The simple definition,typical integrated modes and overall implementation ideas are introduced.Finally,focusing on building information extraction(man-made targets)and sea ice classification(natural targets)applications,three SAR DIP methods and experiments are conducted.Improved results are obtained under the guidance of the SAR DIP framework.Therefore,the SAR DIP theoretical framework and methodology represent a new SAR science application mode that has the capability to improve the SAR remote sensing quantitative application level and promote the development of new theories and methodologies.