The Role of Lower Crustal Rheology in Lithospheric Delamination During Orogeny

The continental lower crust is an important composition- and strength-jump layer in the lithosphere. Laboratory studies show its strength varies greatly due to a wide variety of composition. How the lower crust rheology influences the collisional orogeny remains poorly understood. Here I investigate the role of the lower crust rheology in the evolution of an orogen subject to horizontal shortening using 2D numerical models. A range of lower crustal flow laws from laboratory studies are tested to examine their effects on the styles of the accommodation of convergence. Three distinct styles are observed: 1) downwelling and subsequent delamination of orogen lithosphere mantle as a coherent slab; 2) localized thickening of orogen lithosphere; and 3) underthrusting of peripheral strong lithospheres below the orogen. Delamination occurs only if the orogen lower crust rheology is represented by the weak end-member of flow laws. The delamination is followed by partial melting of the lower crust and punctuated surface uplift confined to the orogen central region. For a moderately or extremely strong orogen lower crust, topography highs only develop on both sides of the orogen. In the Tibetan plateau, the crust has been doubly thickened but the underlying mantle lithosphere is highly heterogeneous. I suggest that the subvertical high-velocity mantle structures, as observed in southern and western Tibet, may exemplify localized delamination of the mantle lithosphere due to rheological weakening of the Tibetan lower crust.

Geophysical signature of the alpine slab: Field analogues and direct models

<div> <div> <div> <p>Recent geophysical data (receiver functions and body wave tomography) in the Alps show the continuity of the alpine dipping slab with the lower continental crust of the European plate. The eclogitization of the continental crust is often mentioned to explain its signature and its disappearing in the mantle beneath 80 km.</p> <p>The aim of the present study is to use potential lithological analogues sampled in the outcropping European crust to directly predict the seismic properties of the buried crust. Here, we focus on mafic intercalations, present in the variscan basement series of the external crystalline massifs. We compare them with acknowledged generic chemical compositions for the continental lower crust or regional granulite facies rock units. Using the bulk rock chemistries of these samples and representative rocks, we calculate pressure-temperature on which we represent the seismic velocities (Vp, Vs ot Vp/Vs) assuming that the rocks have completely rebalanced during burial. In these diagrams, the main seismic contrasts seem to match the onset of jadeite formation (mostly Vp/Vs diagram), as well as the boundaries of the garnet and omphacite stability fields.</p> <p>Considering the selected rocks are relevant analogues, we then compare the evolution of the seismic properties along the top of the alpine dipping slab with the profiles deduced from recent Vp and Vs tomography models (CIFALPS and AlpArray), varying the effective thermal profile of the Alpine slab, its reaction rate and its overall chemistry. Preliminary results suggest the Alpine lower crustal slab inherited most of his properties from its burial stage, with limited impact of subsequent evolution.</p> </div> </div> </div>

U-depleted versus U-enriched signatures in complementary crust-mantle sources of volcanic rocks from Asia

<p>The Nb/U~47 and Th/U~4 ratios are considered as indicative for the OIB source referred by some authors to lower mantle plumes that in fact have no specific geochemical signatures but HIMU component. The Th/U ratio may vary because of the different garnet–melt and/or clinopyroxene–melt partition coefficients of U and Th. Anomalously high or low Th/U values in rocks can also be related to the input or removal of U, the migration of which is controlled by its mobility under oxidizing conditions owing to the formation of water-soluble uranyl  compounds with hexavalent U. These variations definitely distinguish non-plume magmatic sources. The Th/U ratio decreases to 2.5 in the MORB source and increases to 6 in the continental lower crust one. We describe anomalous behavior of uranium in sources of Cenozoic basalts and basaltic andesites from Primorye, Lesser Khingan, Tunka Valley, as well as similar Cretaceous-Paleogene rocks from Tien Shan. Significant deviations of the Th/U and Nb/U ratios from the OIB values are characteristics mostly of garnet-free sources. The U-depleted and U-enriched signatures are used as sensitive indicators for deciphering crust–mantle transitional processes.</p><p>This work is supported by the RSF grant 18-77-10027.</p>

Relations between earthquake distributions, geological history, tectonics and rheology on the continents

This paper is concerned with the distribution of earthquakes, particularly their depths, with the temperature of the material in which they occur, and with the significance of both for the rheology and deformation of the continental lithosphere. Earthquakes on faults are generated by the sudden release of elastic energy that accumulates during slow plate motions. The nonlinear high-temperature creep that localizes such energy accumulation is, in principle, well understood and can be described by rheological models. But the same is not true of seismogenic brittle failure, the main focus of this paper, and severely limits the insights that can be obtained by simulations derived from geodynamical modelling of lithosphere deformation. Through advances in seismic tomography, we can now make increasingly detailed maps of lithosphere thickness on the continents. The lateral variations are dramatic, with some places up to 300 km thick, and clearly relate to the geological history of the continents as well as their present-day deformation. Where the lithosphere thickness is about 120 km or less, continental earthquakes are generally confined to upper crustal material that is colder than about 350°C. Within thick lithosphere, and especially on its edges, the entire crust may be seismogenic, with earthquakes sometimes extending into the uppermost mantle if the Moho is colder than 600°C, but the continental mantle is generally aseismic. Earthquakes in the continental lower crust at 400–600°C require the crust to be anhydrous and so are a useful guide or proxy to both composition and strength. These patterns and correlations have important implications for the geological evolution of the continents. They can be seen to have influenced features as diverse as the location of post-collisional rifting; cratonic basin formation; the location, origin and timing of granulite-facies metamorphism; and the formation, longevity and strength of cratons. In addition, they have important consequences for earthquake hazard assessment in the slowly deforming edges and interiors of continental shields or platforms, where the large seismogenic thickness can host very large earthquakes. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Understanding earthquakes using the geological record'.

Comparative geochemical study on Furongian (Toledanian) and Ordovician (Sardic) felsic magmatic events in south-western Europe

A geochemical comparison of Early Palaeozoic felsic magmatic episodes throughout the south-western European margin of Gondwana is analysed. The comparison is made between (i) Furongian–Early Ordovician (Toledanian) activies recorded in the Central Iberian and Galicia-Trás-os-Montes Zones of the Iberian Massif, and (ii) Early–Late Ordovician (Sardic) activities in the eastern Pyrenees, Occitan Domain (Albigeois, Montagne Noire and Mouthoumet massifs) and Sardinia. Both phases are related to uplift and denudation of an inherited palaeorelief, and stratigraphically preserved as distinct angular discordances and paraconformities involving gaps of up to 30 m.y. The geochemical features of the Toledanian and Sardic, felsic-dominant activies point to a predominance of byproducts derived from the melting of metasedimentary rocks, rich in SiO2 and K2O and with peraluminous character. Zr / TiO2, Zr / Nb, Nb / Y and Zr vs. Ga / Al ratios, and REE and ƐNd values suggest the contemporaneity, for both phases, of two geochemical scenarios characterized by arc and extensional features evolving to distinct extensional and rifting conditions associated with the final outpouring of mafic tholeiitic-dominant lava flows. The Toledanian and Sardic phases are linked to neither metamorphism nor penetrative deformation; on the contrary, their unconformities are associated with foliation-free open folds subsequently affected by the Variscan deformation. The geochemical and structural framework precludes a subduction scenario reaching the crust in a magmatic arc to back-arc setting, but favours partial melting of sediments and/or granitoids in a continental lower crust triggered by the underplating of hot mafic magmas during extensional events related to the opening of the Rheic Ocean.

Effect of Rheology on Afterslip and Viscoelastic Patterns Following the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile, Earthquake

<p>After large earthquakes at subduction zones, the plate interface continues moving due to mostly frictional afterslip processes. Below depths of 60 km, little frictional afterslip is to be expected on the plate interface due to low shear strength, lack of apparent geodetic interseismic locking, and low seismic moment release from aftershocks. However, inversion models that consider an elastic crust above a mantle with viscoelastic rheology result in a significant portion of afterslip at depths > 60 km. In this study, we present a forward 3D geomechanical-numerical model with power-law rheology that simulates dislocation creep processes for the crust and upper mantle in combination with an afterslip inversion. The linear rheology case is also considered for comparison. We estimate the cumulative viscoelastic relaxation and the afterslip distribution for the first six years following the 2010 M<sub>w</sub> 8.8 Maule earthquake in Chile. The cumulative afterslip distribution is obtained from the inversion of the residual surface displacements between continuous GPS (cGPS) observations and predicted displacements from viscoelastic forward modelling. We investigate three simulations: two with the same dislocation creep parameters in the slab and upper mantle but different ones in the continental crust, and another with elastic properties in the crust and slab and a linear viscoelastic upper mantle. Our preferred simulation is the one with power-law rheology in the crust and upper mantle with a weak continental crust since the corresponding afterslip distribution shows the best overall fit to the cGPS displacements (cumulative and time series) as well as having a good correlation with aftershock activity. In this simulation, most of the viscoelastic relaxation occurs in the continental lower crust beneath the volcanic arc due to dislocation creep processes. The resulting afterslip pattern from the inversion is reduced at depths > 60 km, which correlates well with the spatial distribution of cumulative seismic moment release from aftershocks. We conclude that by allowing for non-linear stress relaxation in the continental lower crust due to dislocation creep processes, the resulting afterslip distribution is in better agreement with the physical constraints from the shear strength of the plate interface at depth, the predicted locking degree, and the aftershock activity.</p>