Control of Earth system evolution on the formation and enrichment of marine ultra-deep petroleum in China

Taking the Paleozoic of the Sichuan and Tarim basins in China as example,the controlling effects of the Earth system evolution and multi-spherical interactions on the formation and enrichment of marine ultra-deep petroleum in China have been elaborated.By discussing the development of“source-reservoir-seal”controlled by the breakup and assembly of supercontinents and regional tectonic movements,and the mechanisms of petroleum generation and accumulation controlled by temperature-pressure system and fault conduit system,Both the South China and Tarim blocks passed through the intertropical convergence zone(ITCZ)of the low-latitude Hadley Cell twice during their drifts,and formed hydrocarbon source rocks with high quality.It is proposed that deep tectonic activities and surface climate evolution jointly controlled the types and stratigraphic positions of ultra-deep hydrocarbon source rocks,reservoirs,and seals in the Sichuan and Tarim basins,forming multiple petroleum systems in the Ediacaran-Cambrian,Cambrian-Ordovician,Cambrian-Permian and Permian-Triassic strata.The matching degree of source-reservoir-seal,the type of organic matter in source rocks,the deep thermal regime of basin,and the burial-uplift process across tectonic periods collectively control the entire process from the generation to the accumulation of oil and gas.Three types of oil and gas enrichment models are formed,including near-source accumulation in platform marginal zones,distant-source accumulation in high-energy beaches through faults,and three-dimensional accumulation in strike-slip fault zones,which ultimately result in the multi-layered natural gas enrichment in ultra-deep layers of the Sichuan Basin and co-enrichment of oil and gas in the ultra-deep layers of the Tarim Basin.

Mafic Dyke Swarms: Their Temporality and Bearing on the Secular Evolution of the Earth

Pioneering U-Pb isotopic studies by a small group of workers in the mid-late 1980s demonstrated the feasibility of using rare accessory mineral chronometers in mafic(gabbroic)intrusive rocks.These examples showed that mafic layered intrusions and diabase/dolerite dyke swarms alike crystallized high-temperature

Tectonic modes of mantle convection and their implications for Earth's tectonic evolution based on three-dimensional numerical simulations

Five tectonic modes of mantle convection are obtained and analyzed with three-dimensional numerical models in a spherical shell domain.The five tectonic convective modes are non-plate mobile-lid,plate-like mobile-lid,episodic plate-like mobile-lid,episodic stagnant-lid,and stagnant-lid convective modes,respectively.The typical characteristics of these five tectonic modes and their numerical classification criteria based on plateness,mobility,and their standard deviations are presented and discussed.The results show that the yield stress of the lithosphere has profound effects on the tectonic convective modes.With the gradual increase of yield stress,the tectonic mode of mantle convection changes from one to another sequentially through the aforementioned five modes.Additionally,as the Rayleigh number increases,the range of yield stress for the platelike mobile-lid convective mode decreases,and the dimensionless transition stress between different tectonic modes increases.Specifically,the dimensional transition stress between the non-plate mobile-lid convective mode and plate-like mobile-lid convective mode increases with the increase of Rayleigh number,but decreases between other tectonic modes.Furthermore,we find that the transition stress between different tectonic modes is inversely proportional to the internal heating rate,with the transition stress decreasing as the internal heating rate increases.The fitting analysis of the transition stress between tectonic modes shows that Earth's current plate tectonics correspond to a lithospheric yield stress of 150–250 MPa,which aligns with the strength of serpentinized mantle rock determined by experimental petrography.If the Archean mantle was 300℃warmer than it is today,then the Earth was in an episodic stagnant-lid convective mode.The tectonic evolution of the Earth's surface is closely related to the lithospheric strength and the process of thermal evolution.If the lithospheric strength was only 150 MPa,plate tectonics in the early mantle rapid cooling model would have begun before 3.8 Ga,and plate tectonics in the late mantle rapid cooling model would have begun at approximately 1.5 Ga.However,at a lithospheric strength of 200 MPa,plate tectonics in the late mantle rapid cooling model would have begun later than 0.95 Ga,and plate tectonics in the early mantle rapid cooling model would have begun at approximately 2 Ga.The early Earth was in the episodic stagnant-lid convective mode,which means that subduction might still have occurred at that time.The presence of the episodic plate-like mobile-lid convective mode in Earth's later history indicates that there might also have been intermittent surface stagnation during plate tectonics,which may provide an explanation for the quiet period of tectonic activity at approximately 1.0 Ga on Earth.This indicates that tectonic inactivity during a geological period is not an indicator that plate tectonics did not begin.

Atmospheric and Oceanic Oxygenation and Evolution of Early Life on Earth: New Contributions from China

The buildup of oxygen in the Earth＇s atmosphere and oceans has fundamentally reshaped the dynamics of nearly all major biogeochemical cycles and ultimately paved the way for the diversification of complex life on Earth. Over the past decades there have been sustained efforts to develop a more comprehensive understanding of ocean-atmosphere redox evolution and its relationship to the evolution of early life （Fig. 1）. It is generally accepted that the development of oxygenic photosynthesis at ~2.7 Ga may have been responsible for the Great Oxidation Event （GOE） at the beginning of the Proterozoic Eon, whereas a second big O2 rise at the end of the Proterozoic Eon （the so-called Neoproterozoic Oxidation Event or NOE） was responsible for the diversification of metazoans （Lyons et al., 2014）.

Comment on “Evolution model of the earth's limited expanding” from comparative planetology

In the article 'Evolution Model of the Earth’s Limited Expanding' published in Volume 45 Number (4) of Chinese Science Bulletin[1], the author suggests that the earth expands according to a law R(t) = R0+A(1 -exp(β(t-ts))) (remark: this formula was mistakenly printed as R(t) = R0 + Aexp(β(t-ts)) in the and formula (12) of the text of ref. [1]). According to ref. [1], the earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago. After 0.3 billion years from its birth (ts), it started expansion from an initial radius R0 of 4651 km, and may reach a final maximum radius of R0+A = 6511 km. In the 4.6 billion years history, the radius of the earch has increased by 1720 km, or the density decreased from 14200 km/m3 (2.57 times the present density) to 5520 kg/m3 within the latest 4.3 billion years.

New Long-Term Climate Oscillations

The astronomical theory of climate change is based on the solution of differential equations describing Earth’s orbital and rotational motions. The equations are used to calculate the change in insolation over the Earth’s surface. As a result of the author’s solution of the orbital problem, the periods and amplitudes of Earth-orbit variations and their evolution have been refined. Unlike previous studies, the equations of Earth’s rotational motion are solved completely. The Earth’s rotational axis precesses relative to a direction different from the direction of the orbit’s axial precession, and oscillates with periods of half a month, half a year and 18.6 years. Also, its oscillations occur with irregular periods of several tens of thousands of years and more. All these motions lead to oscillations of the obliquity in the range of 14.7° to 32.1°, which prove to be 7 - 8 times larger than obtained by a previous theory. In the same proportion, the Earth’s insolation oscillations increase in amplitude, with insolation extremes occurring in other epochs than those in the previous theory. The amplitudes and the onset times of the extremes correlate with known paleoclimate changes. Thirteen insolation periods of paleoclimate variation over an interval of 200 thousand years are identified. From the insolation evolution calculated over a time interval of 1 million years, 6 climate gradations from very cold to very warm are identified.