Preliminary geological interpretation of long-wavelength magnetic anomalies over China and surrounding regions

Long-wavelength(>500 km)magnetic anomalies originating in the lithosphere were first found in satellite magnetic surveys.Compared to the striking magnetic anomalies around the world,the long-wavelength magnetic anomalies in China and surrounding regions are relatively weak.Specialized research on each of these anomalies has been quite inadequate;their geological origins remain unclear,in particular their connection to tectonic activity in the Chinese and surrounding regions.We focus on six magnetic high anomalies over the(1)Tarim Basin,(2)Sichuan Basin(3)Great Xing’an Range,(4)Barmer Basin,(5)Central Myanmar Basin,and(6)Sunda and Banda Arcs,and a striking magnetic low anomaly along the southern part of the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau.We have analyzed their geological origins by reviewing related research and by detailed comparison with geological results.The tectonic backgrounds for these anomalies belong to two cases:either ancient basin basement,or subduction-collision zone.However,the geological origins of large-scale regional magnetic anomalies are always subject to dispute,mainly because of limited surface exposure of sources,later tectonic destruction,and superposition of multi-phase events.

Residual Magnetic Anomalies Mapping from CHAMP Observations

CHAMP high-quality vector magnetometer observations collected from July 2000 to September 2010 have been used to map the residual vector magnetic anomaly fields. This field is so called the lithospheric magnetic field which is the result of two contributions of the induced and the remanent magnetization. It is therefore essential to study the magnetic properties of the crustal rocks. Isolating this field from the other contributions, interpreting and even defining are however difficult and still debated. We investigate how to identify and separate the lithospheric vector magnetic field ΔX, ΔY and ΔZ from other contributions. For this purpose we use selected night magnetic data from which we remove a model field of degree 16 and external model field of degree 2 developed by spherical harmonics analysis. Concerning the induced lithospheric field which is assumed to be aligned with the internal dipole was also removed. To minimize the secular variation effects, we calculated internal models for each two months. The method developed here has been successfully applied to isolate lithospheric field produced by remanent magnetizations from CHAMP satellite data. The resolution and altitude measurements make it very hard to map short wavelength crustal magnetic anomalies. The large-scale strong magnetic anomalies detected using this technique are in agreement with previous global magnetic maps. These anomalies appear with an amplitude of about 10 nT at satellite altitude such as Bangui’s anomaly.

A two-dimensional lithospheric magnetic anomaly field model of Egypt using the measurements from Swarm satellites

We use magnetic field data observed by the Swarm mission from 2014 to 2020 to construct,for the first time,a two-dimensional(2 D)lithospheric magnetic anomaly model of Egypt and its surrounding area.Nighttime data during quiet geomagnetic conditions has been expanded in terms of the Legendre polynomial in harmonic terms N=6-50.The damped least square method has been used to estimate the model coefficients based on the lithospheric magnetic data.Modeled data at two different altitudes(438-448 km and 503-511 km)were compared with the CHAOS model.Results exhibit that the 2 D model is superior to the CHAOS model in the capability of extracting more information about small-scale crustal anomaly field.At low altitudes(438-448 km),the strength of the anomaly field increases,but the noise of the external fields has greatly reduced at high altitudes(503-511 km).Besides,the magnetic anomaly field at low altitudes has illuminated short-scale anomalies that didn’t appear at high altitudes.Both the total and vertical magnetic anomaly vectors showed their ability to reveal tectonic structures compared with Moho depth map and the geological maps.

Three-dimensional lithospheric density distribution of China and surrounding regions

In this paper, we analyze lithospheric density distribution of China and surrounding regions on the basis of 30＇ × 30＇ gravity data and 1°×1 °P-wave velodty data, Firstly, we used the empirical equation be- tween the density and the P-wave velocity difference as the base of the initial model of the Asian lithospheric density. Secondly, we calculated the gravity anomaly, caused by the Moho discontinuity and the sedimentary layer discontinuity, by the Parker formula. Thirdly, the gravity anomaly of the spherical harmonics with 2 40 order for the anomalous body below the lithosphere is calculated based on the model of EGM96. Finally, by using Algebra Reconstruction Techniques （ART）, the inversion of 30＇ ~ 30＇ residual lithospheric Bouguer gravity anomaly caused by the lithosphere yields a rather detailed struc- tural model. The results show that the lithospheric density distribution of China and surrounding regions has a certain connection with the tectonic structure. The density is relatively high in the Philippine Sea plate, Japan Sea, the Indian plate, the Kazakhstan shield and the Western Siberia plain, whereas the Tibetan Plateau has low-density characteristics. The minimum value of density lies in the north of Philippines, in the Taiwan province and in the Ryukyu island arc.

Study of seismic tomography in Panxi paleorift area of southwestern China——Structural features of crust and mantle and their evolution

Structural features of the typical continental paleorift in Panxiarea are revealed by seismic tomography. (1) In the profile along the minor axis of Panxi paleorift, we found alternating high and low-velocity strips existing at different depths in the crust, presenting itself as a "sandwich" structure. The existence of these high and low-velocity anomaly strips is related to the basal lithology in the rift area. (2) An addition layer with velocity values of 7.1-7.5 km/s and 7.8 km/s exists from the base of lower crust to uppermost mantle and its thickness is about 20 km. Some study results indicate that the addition layer results from the invasion of mantle material. (3) A lens-shaped high-velocity body surrounded by relatively low-velocity material is observed at depths of 110-160 km between Huaping and Huidong in the axis of the paleorift. This is the first time to discover it in the upper mantle of the paleorift. Based on the results of geology, petrology and geochemistry, we infer that the formation of the addition layer and the lens-shaped high-velocity body in the upper mantle are related to the deep geodynamic process of generation, development and termination of the rift. On the one hand, the upwelling of asthenosphere mantle caused partial melting, and then the basaltic magma from the partial melted material further resulted in underplating and formed the crustal addition layer. On the other hand, the high-density content of mineral facies was increased in the residual melted mass of intensely depleted upper mantle, formed by basalt withdrawing. The solid-melt medium in the depleted upper mantle was mainly an accumulation of garnet and peridotite because the heating effect of lithosphere was relatively weakened in the later riftogenesis, so that a lens-shaped high-density and high-velocity zone was produced in the upper mantle. The results indicate that the energy and material exchange between asthenosphere and lithosphere and remarkable underplating would have an important effect on the material state and propagation of seismic wave in the lower crust, crust-mantle interface, asthenosphere and lithosphere. This process possibly is an important mechanism on the growth of continental crust and the evolution of deep mantle.