scholarly journals Drainage Development in the Dunhuang Basin, NE Tibet, Controlled by Multi-Segment Fault Growth

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gan Chen ◽  
Wenjun Zheng ◽  
Jingjun Yang ◽  
Lei Duan ◽  
Shumin Liang ◽  
...  

The Dongbatu Shan (DBTS, also known as the Nanjie Shan), which interrupts the northern Tibetan foreland in the Dunhuang basin, is an active anticline. It has accommodated the northwestern growth of the eastern Altyn Tagh fault system (ATF). Although several thrust faults have been identified around the DBTS, their evolution history and influence on regional landscape have received little attention during the late-Quaternary. In this study, several geomorphic methods are used to investigate the interaction between drainage development and tectonic movement around DBTS. Based on high-resolution satellite images, field investigation, and cosmogenic nuclide 10Be dating method, the fluvial landform sequences around DBTS were constructed. Using quantitative geomorphology methods including landscape relief profile, asymmetry factor (AF), and transverse topographic symmetry factor (T), we hypothesize that drainage deflection is controlled by multi-segment fault growth. Combining the results of the above-mentioned methods, we propose that Yulin He, flowing across the DBTS, had gone through several abandonments since the late mid-Pleistocene due to the lateral propagation of DBTS. Affected by the discharge of channel and multi-segment fault growth, our research confirms that the direction of river abandonment may have decoupled with the mountain range propagation trend. Based on the chronology dating, the DBTS has gone through two severe uplifts since ∼208 ka and the shortening rate across the central DBTS is constrained to be ∼1.47 mm/yr since ∼83 ka. Given the fact that thrust faults are widely developed around DBTS, we propose that the flower-like structure formed by the northward growth of the eastern ATF could better explain the development of the secondary subparallel faults.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Zhang ◽  
Zhiping Wu ◽  
Shiyong Yan

<p>Buried-hills, paleotopographic highs covered by younger sediments, become the focused area of exploration in China in pace with the reduction of hydrocarbon resources in the shallow strata. A number of buried-hill fields have been discovered in Tanhai area located in the northeast of Jiyang Depression within Bohai Bay Basin, which provides an excellent case study for better understanding the structural evolution and formation mechanism of buried-hills. High-quality 3-D seismic data calibrated by well data makes it possible to research deeply buried erosional remnants. In this study, 3-D visualization of key interfaces, seismic cross-sections, fault polygons maps and thickness isopach maps are shown to manifest structural characteristics of buried-hills. Balanced cross-sections and fault growth rates are exhibited to demonstrate the forming process of buried-hills. The initiation and development of buried-hills are under the control of fault system. According to strike variance, main faults are grouped into NW-, NNE- and near E-trending faults. NW-trending main faults directly dominate the whole mountain range, while NNE- and near E-trending main faults have an effect on dissecting mountain range and controlling the single hill. In addition, secondary faults with different nature complicate internal structure of buried-hills. During Late Triassic, NW-trending thrust faults formed in response to regional compressional stress field, preliminarily building the fundamental NW-trending structural framework. Until Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, rolling-back subduction of Pacific Plate and sinistral movement of Tan-Lu Fault Zone (TLFZ) integrally converted NW-trending thrust faults into normal faults. The footwall of NW-trending faults quickly rose and became a large-scale NW-trending mountain range. The intense movement of TLFZ simultaneously induced a series of secondary NNE-trending strike-slip faults, among which large-scale ones divided the mountain range into northern, middle and southern section. After entry into Cenozoic, especially Middle Eocene, the change of subduction direction of Pacific Plate induced the transition of regional stress field. Near E-trending basin-controlling faults developed and dissected previous tectonic framework. The middle section of mountain range was further separated into three different single hill. Subsequently, the mountain range was gradually submerged and buried by overlying sediments, due to regional thermal subsidence. Through multiphase structural evolution, the present-day geometry of buried-hills is eventually taken shape.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Jose Segovia ◽  
Daniel Diaz ◽  
Katarzyna Slezak ◽  
Felipe Zuñiga

AbstractTo analyze the process of subduction of the Nazca and South American plates in the area of the Southern Andes, and its relationship with the tectonic and volcanic regime of the place, magnetotelluric measurements were made through a transversal profile of the Chilean continental margin. The data-processing stage included the analysis of dimensional parameters, which as first results showed a three-dimensional environment for periods less than 1 s and two-dimensional for periods greater than 10 s. In addition, through the geomagnetic transfer function (tipper), the presence of structural electrical anisotropy was identified in the data. After the dimensional analysis, a deep electrical resistivity image was obtained by inverting a 2D and a 3D model. Surface conductive anomalies were obtained beneath the central depression related to the early dehydration of the slab and the serpentinization process of the mantle that coincides in location with a discontinuity in the electrical resistivity of a regional body that we identified as the Nazca plate. A shallow conductive body was located around the Calbuco volcano and was correlated with a magmatic chamber or reservoir which in turn appears to be connected to the Liquiñe Ofqui fault system and the Andean Transverse Fault system. In addition to the serpentinization process, when the oceanic crust reaches a depth of 80–100 km, the ascending fluids produced by the dehydration and phase changes of the minerals present in the oceanic plate produce basaltic melts in the wedge of the subcontinental mantle that give rise to an eclogitization process and this explains a large conductivity anomaly present beneath the main mountain range.


2012 ◽  
Vol 263 ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Wenske ◽  
Manfred Frechen ◽  
Margot Böse ◽  
Tony Reimann ◽  
Chia-Han Tseng ◽  
...  

Geology ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Cowgill ◽  
An Yin ◽  
Wang Xiao Feng ◽  
Zhang Qing

2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gi Young Jeong ◽  
Chang-Sik Cheong

AbstractRecurrence characteristics of a Quaternary fault are generally investigated on the basis of field properties that are rapidly degraded by chemical weathering and erosion in warm humid climates. Here we show that in intense weathering environments, mineralogical and micromorphological investigations are valuable in paleoseismological reconstruction. A weathering profile developed in Late Quaternary marine terrace deposits along the southeastern coast of the Korean Peninsula was disturbed by tectonic movement that appears to be a simple one-time reverse faulting event based on field observations. A comparative analysis of the mineralogy, micromorphology, and chemistry of the weathering profile and fault gouge, however, reveals that both the microfissures in the deformed weathering profile and larger void spaces along the fault plane were filled with multi-stage accumulations of illuvial clay and silt minerals of detrital origin, suggesting a repetition of fissuring and subsequent sealing in the weathering profile as it underwent continuous mineralogical transformation and particle translocation. We reconstruct a sequence of multiple faulting events unrecognized in previous field surveys, which requires revision of the view that the Korean Peninsula was tectonically stable, during the Late Quaternary.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M. Mendoza ◽  
Wilmar Bolívar-García ◽  
Ella Vázquez-Domínguez ◽  
Roberto Ibáñez ◽  
Gabriela Parra Olea

The complex geological history of Central America has been useful for understanding the processes influencing the distribution and diversity of multiple groups of organisms. Anurans are an excellent choice for such studies because they typically exhibit site fidelity and reduced movement. The objective of this work was to identify the impact of recognized geographic barriers on the genetic structure, phylogeographic patterns and divergence times of a wide-ranging amphibian species,Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni. We amplified three mitochondrial regions, two coding (COI and ND1) and one ribosomal (16S), in samples collected from the coasts of Veracruz and Guerrero in Mexico to the humid forests of Chocó in Ecuador. We examined the biogeographic history of the species through spatial clustering analyses (Geneland and sPCA), Bayesian and maximum likelihood reconstructions, and spatiotemporal diffusion analysis. Our data suggest a Central American origin ofH. fleischmanniand two posterior independent dispersals towards North and South American regions. The first clade comprises individuals from Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and the sister speciesHyalinobatrachium tatayoi; this clade shows little structure, despite the presence of the Andes mountain range and the long distances between sampling sites. The second clade consists of individuals from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and eastern Honduras with no apparent structure. The third clade includes individuals from western Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico and displays deep population structure. Herein, we synthesize the impact of known geographic areas that act as barriers to glassfrog dispersal and demonstrated their effect of differentiatingH. fleischmanniinto three markedly isolated clades. The observed genetic structure is associated with an initial dispersal event from Central America followed by vicariance that likely occurred during the Pliocene. The southern samples are characterized by a very recent population expansion, likely related to sea-level and climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene, whereas the structure of the northern clade has probably been driven by dispersal through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and isolation by the Motagua–Polochic–Jocotán fault system and the Mexican highlands.


2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Alexander Robson ◽  
Rosalind King ◽  
Simon Holford

The authors used three-dimensional (3D) seismic reflection data from the central Ceduna Sub-Basin, Australia, to establish the structural evolution of a linked normal fault assemblage at the extensional top of a gravitationally driven delta system. The fault assemblage presented is decoupled at the base of a marine mud from the late Albian age. Strike-linkage has created a northwest–southeast oriented assemblage of normal fault segments and dip-linkage through Santonian strata, which connects a post-Santonian normal fault system to a Cenomanian-Santonian listric fault system. Cenomanian-Santonian fault growth is on the kilometre scale and builds an underlying structural grain, defining the geometry of the post-Santonian fault system. A fault plane dip-angle model has been created and established through simplistic depth conversion. This converts throw into fault plane dip-slip displacement, incorporating increasing heave of a listric fault and decreasing in dip-angle with depth. The analysis constrains fault growth into six evolutionary stages: early Cenomanian nucleation and radial growth of isolated fault segments; linkage of fault segments by the latest Cenomanian; latest Santonian Cessation of fault growth; erosion and heavy incision during the continental break-up of Australia and Antarctica (c. 83 Ma); vertically independent nucleation of the post-Santonian fault segments with rapid length establishment before significant displacement accumulation; and, continued displacement into the Cenozoic. The structural evolution of this fault system is compatible with the isolated fault model and segmented coherent fault model, indicating that these fault growth models do not need to be mutually exclusive to the growth of normal fault assemblages.


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