Thermo-Rheological Structure and Passive Continental Margin Rifting in the Qiongdongnan Basin, South China Sea, China

To investigate the thermo-rheological structure and passive continental margin rifting in the Qiongdongnan Basin(QDNB),thermo-rheological models of two profiles across the western and eastern QDNB are presented.The continental shelf of western QDNB,having the lowest crustal extension factor,is recognized as the initial non-uniform extension crust model.This regime is referred to as the jelly sandwich-1(JS-1)regime,having a lower crustal ductile layer.The oceanward part of the western QDNB changes from the relatively strong JS-1 to the weak crème brûlée-1(CB-1)regime with a significantly thinned lower crust.However,the crustal extension in the eastern QDNB is significantly higher than that in the western QDNB,with conjugate faults extending deep into the lower crust.The central depression zone of the eastern QDNB is defined as the much stronger JS-2 regime,having a brittle deformation across the entire crust and upper mantle and characteristics of a cold and rigid oceanic crust.Unlike the widespread lower crustal high-velocity layers(HVLs)in the northern margin of the South China Sea,the HVLs are confined to the lower crustal base of the central depression zone of the QDNB.The HVLs of QDNB are the results of non-uniform extension with mantle underplating during the lower crustal-necking stage,which is facilitated by the lower crustal ductile layer and derived by mantle lat-eral flowing.The gigantic mantle low-velocity zone related to the Red River Fault should be a necessary factor for the east-west differential margin rifting process of QDNB,which may drive the lateral flowing in the mantle.

Mechanism of Structure Variations at Rifted Margins in the Central Segment of South Atlantic:Insights from Numerical Modeling

Rifted margins in the central South Atlantic portray spatial variability in terms of preserved width and thickness,which relates to complex rift-related fault activities.However,there is still a lack of systematic and quantitative explanations for the causes of the variations that are observed along the paired rifts.To elucidate this issue,2D viscous-plastic thermomechanical numerical models are applied to capture the behavior of deformation,in which we investigate the effects of extensional rate,crustal strength and thickness on crust-mantle coupling,and timing of transition from rifting to breakup.Our numerical experiments demonstrate that crust-mantle decoupling accounts for crustal hyperextension,and that incorporating moderate-intensity rheology into lower crust may yield insights into the hyper-extended crust and asymmetric architecture observed in the central South Atlantic.The results also suggest that undulations in lithospheric basement cause asymmetric mantle upwelling.The lower crust of fold belts takes priority to be thermally weakened over craton and induces rift migration simultaneously.A new mechanism for the formation of failed rift is described,where the mechanical decoupling derived from thermally weakened lower crust gives access to dual rift migration.These results reinforce the interpretation on how crustal rheology shapes margins architectures and highlight the first-order effects of crust-mantle coupling.

Provenance of the Late Permian Xuanwei Formation in the Upper Yangtze Block: Constraints from the Sedimentary Record and Tectonic Implications

Xuanwei Formation is composed of mudstone,siltstone,and sandstone,with local conglomerate.However,its provenance and tectonic setting have been scarcely studied.In this paper,we use sedimentology,electron probe microanalysis(EPMA),and detrital zircon dating to investigate its source area and depositional tectonic setting.The facies assemblages indicate that it formed in alluvial fan and fluvial river sedimentary environments.The strata thicknesses and facies distribution indicate that the sediment supply was from the west.The results of EPMA show that chromian spinels within the sediments are characterized by high Cr#and varying Mg#.Discrimination plots suggest that these spinels were sourced from large igneous province(LIP)magmatic rocks.The laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(LA-ICP-MS)U–Pb chronology of detrital zircons suggests that the sediments were derived from intermediate–acid igneous rocks dating back to 251–260?Ma.We could,therefore,conclude that the provenance of the Xuanwei Formation is from Emeishan basalt and synchronous felsic igneous rocks,which is consistent with the composition of the detrital framework.The detrital zircon dates also suggest that felsic magmatism occurred during the Late Permian,not after the eruption of the Emeishan basalt.Based on the sedimentary successions and provenance analysis,the tectonic setting for Xuanwei Formation deposition was a volcanic rifted margin.

Topography,structural and exhumation history of the Admiralty Mountains region,northern Victoria Land,Antarctica

The Admiralty Mountains region forms the northern termination of the northern Victoria Land,Antarctica.Few quantitative data are available to reconstruct the Cenozoic morpho-tectonic evolution of this sector of the Antarctic plate,where the Admiralty Mountains region forms the northern termination of the western shoulder of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic West Antarctica Rift System.In this study we combine new low-temperature thermochronological data(apatite fission-track and(U-Th-Sm)/He analyses)with structural and topography analysis.The regional pattern of the fission-track ages shows a general tendency to older ages(80-60 Ma)associated with shortened mean track-lengths in the interior,and younger fission-track ages clustering at 38-26 Ma with long mean track-lengths in the coastal region.Differently from other regions of Victoria Land,the younger ages are found as far as 50-70 km inland.Single grain apatite(U-Th-Sm)/He ages cluster at 50-30 Ma with younger ages in the coastal domain.Topography analysis reveals that the Admiralty Mountains has high local relief,with an area close to the coast,180 km long and 70 km large,having the highest local relief of>2500 m.This coincides with the location of the youngest fission-track ages.The shape of the area with highest local relief matches the shape of a recently detected low velocity zone beneath the northern TAM,indicating that high topography of the Admiralty Mountains region is likely sustained by a mantle thermal anomaly.We used the obtained constraints on the amount of removed crustal section to reconstruct back-eroded profiles and calculate the erosional load in order to test flexural uplift models.We found that our back-eroded profiles are better reproduced by a constant elastic thickness of intermediate values(Te=20-30 km).This suggests that,beneath the Admiralty Mountains,the elastic properties of the lithosphere are different with respect to other TAM sectors,likely due to a stationary Cenozoic upper mantle thermal anomaly in the region.