Intracontinental basins and strong earthquakes

The September 17, 1303 Hongtong M=8 earthquake occurred in Linfen basin of Shanxi down-faulted basin zone. It is the first recorded M=8 earthquake since the Chinese historical seismic records had started and is a great earth-quake occurring in the active intracontinental basin. We had held a Meeting of the 700th Anniversary of the 1303 Hongtong M=8 Earthquake in Shanxi and a Symposium on Intracontinental Basins and Strong Earthquakes in Taiyuan City of Shanxi Province on September 17~18, 2003. The articles presented on the symposium discussed the relationships between active intracontinental basins of different properties, developed in different regions, in-cluding tensional graben and semi-graben basins in tensile tectonic regions, compression-depression basins and foreland basins in compressive tectonic regions and pull-apart basins in strike-slip tectonic zones, and strong earth-quakes in China. In this article we make a brief summary of some problems. The articles published in this special issue are a part of the articles presented on the symposium.

From foredeep to orogenic wedge-top: The Cretaceous Songliao retroforeland basin, China

Songliao Basin,the largest Mesozoic intracontinental nonmarine basin in eastern China,initiated during the latest Jurassic as a backarc extensional basin;rifting failed and thermal cooling controlled subsidence through the early Late Cretaceous.Integrating 2-D and 3D reflection seismic and borehole data with regional geological studies,we interpret sedimentary sequence and structural patterns of the Coniacian-Maastrichtian fill of Songliao Basin as defining a retroforeland basin system developed after 88 Ma(marked by the T11 unconformity in the basin),including(1)significant increase in the thickness of the Nenjiang Formation eastward towards orogenic highlands of the Zhangguangcai Range and the convergent continental margin;(2)a shift of detrital provenance in the basin from north to southeast;and(3)propagation of E-W shortened structures,increasing eastward in amplitude,frequency,and degree of inversion toward the orogen.During latest Cretaceous,foreland basin fill progressively deformed,as the foredeep evolved to a wedge-top tectonic setting,marked by the basin-wide T04 unconformity within the upper Nenjiang Formation at 81.6 Ma.Much of the basin was brought into the orogenic wedge and eroded by the end of the Cretaceous.Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous backarc rifting of uncratonized basement comprised of accreted terranes likely facilitated and localized the foreland.Synrift normal faults reactivated and extensively inverted as thrust faults are prominent in the eastern 1/3 of the basin,whereas folds developed above detachments in shaley early post-rift strata dominate the western 2/3 of the basin.Songliao foreland development likely was driven by changing plate dynamics and collision along the Pacific margin after 88 Ma.

Application of grouped detrital zircon analyses to determine provenance and closely approximate true depositional age:Early Cretaceous McMurray-Clearwater succession,Canada

In the Lower CretaceousMcMurray-Clearwater succession of the intracontinental Alberta Foreland Basin,Canada,detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology samples(referred to herein as DZ samples)have been used to interpret the strata as representing a paleo-continental-scale drainage system.However,the majority of DZ samples are relatively small(n≈90–100),and syndepositional DZ(i.e.,crystallization age<5 Ma older than depositional age)are rare.This has forced a reliance on dinocysts with long stratigraphic ranges to chronostratigraphically subdivide the McMurray-Clearwater succession rather than employing maximum depositional ages(MDAs)derived from DZ samples.Herein,43 DZ samples(taken from20 subsurface cores)are assigned to 1 of 5 stratigraphic intervals,and in each stratigraphic interval all associated DZ samples are combined to produce a grouped DZ sample.Analysis and comparison of individual and grouped DZ samples are used to(1)assess variability in provenance through time and space,and(2)assess the accuracy of chronostratigraphically subdividing the succession using MDAs.Along the main paleo-drainage axis,a comparison of dissimilarity between DZ samples from the same stratigraphic interval,as well as between stratigraphic intervals,reveals increasing average dissimilarity between individual DZ samples and their respective grouped DZ samplewith increasing spatial separation of samples.These data indicate that in the McMurray Depocenter some sediment is sourced from local tributaries,leading to geographical provenance variability.CalculatedMDAs for all 43 DZ samples and groupedMDAs(gMDAs)for the 5 grouped DZ samples are compared to an ash-derived absolute age and existing biostratigraphy.In theMcMurray Formation,comparison of MDAs to gMDAs shows that in basins with rare syndepositional DZ,the gMDA method improved depositional age estimates by transforming low-confidence MDAs(e.g.,youngest single grains)into high-confidence(multi-grain)gMDAs.In the Clearwater Formationwhere syndepositional DZ are plentiful(i.e.,>5%of the total DZ population),calculating maximumlikelihood ages fromgrouped DZ samples avoids negatively biased(i.e.,too young)MDAs.We suggest grouped DZ samples and the gMDA method be used in systems with multiple DZ samples from a well-defined stratigraphic interval as a means of assessing variability in provenancewithin a depositional system and for improving estimates of depositional ages using DZ.