Orogenic Belts Flashcards
Fold Mountain Belts
- Curvilinear tracts of mostly high-standing, folded and faulted rocks
Active orogenic belts
- Ongoing deformation
- Rapid vertical motion
Orogenic belts require?
- Lateral compression or plate convergence
- Elevated regions w/o compression are not orogenic belts (eg. thermal doming near rift systems, Africa, or volcanic edifices, Hawaii)
Subduction orogen
- Andes style
- Ocean-continent subduction
- Continental crust built by thickening and possible underplating
- Minor role of magmatism in crustal addition
Collisional orogen
- Himalayas, Alps style
- Continent-Continent collision
- Little/no mantle-derived material added to crust
- Thickening through duplexing/shortening
Accretionary orogen
- Canadian Cordillera style
- Material added laterally and vertically (by stacking)
- Forms extensive new continental crust
Alpine-Himalayan fold belt
Continental collision following the closure of Tethyan oceans btwn Laurasia (North) and Gondwana (South)
Alpine-Himalayan fold belt
Continental collision following the closure of Tethyan oceans btwn Laurasia (North) and Gondwana (South)
- Affected an area at least 3000 x 4000 km
Tibetan plateau contains how much of the Earth’s surface?
- 82 percent of Earth’s surface >4km
Collision of India w/ Asia
- First contact 50Ma
- South edge of Eurasia has been displaced approx. 2000km north relative to Siberia (stable Eurasia)
- Convergence continues at 5cm/yr
Geology of Himalayan collision
- Main collision preceded by collision of several microcontinents and island arcs
Suture zones of Himalayan collision
- Preserve ophiolites, high-P metamorphic rocks
- Some ultra-high-P minerals from 60-140km depth
- Jinsha suture, Bangong Nujiang suture, Indus-Zangpo suture
Himalaya Tectonic History
- Permian-Triassic: Rifting of Tibet from Gondwana
- Late-Triassic-Early Jurassic, 200Ma: N.Tibet-Asia collision, possible back-arc extension separating N and S Tibet
- Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous 100Ma: S.Tibet-N.Tibet collision, Collision and distributed shortening, closing of Paleo-Tethys ocean, subduction of ocean under Tibet, India moves closer
- Late Cretaceous 80-60Ma: Andean-type subduction margin, shortening w/ some uplift, 10cm/yr Neo-tethys closing
- Early Cainozoic 50Ma: 1st contact of India w/ Tibet and 1st terrestrial sedimentation
- Late Cenozoic 40Ma: Underthrusting at Indus-Zangpo suture, Shortening began, 5cm/yr convergence
- 20Ma: thrusting on MCT
Present Himalaya tectonic history
- Thrusting on Main Boundary Thrust
- Convergence at 1.5cm/yr
- India only partly underthrusting Tibet
- India underthrust Eurasia by at least a few 100 km
Himalaya-Tibetan seismicity
- MBT, MCT, MHT (Main Himalaya Thrust, detachment, top of underthrusting Indian plate)
- Shallow seismicity, thrust mechanisms on all 3)
- Deeper EQ’s (200-300km) to west (contorted continental slab?)
Large-Picture Himalayan collision
- N-S shortening, E-W extension
- N,S,W boundaries of Tibetan plateau well defined
- E margin of Tibet more diffuse, alt deep valleys and high mnt ranges running N-S
- Tibet/China are extruding to E, ‘lateral escape’
What produces double-thickness crust beneath Tibetan plateau?
- Underthrusting by India crust for 1000km
- And/or
- India is ‘rigid indentor’ and thickens Tibetan crust by lateral compression
Lithospheric Delamination
- Underthrusting by India
- Brittle-Ductile transition of crust (quartz, 340-400C), Mantle (olivine, 800C)
- Weak ductile channel in lower crust: detachment zone where strong cooler India crust can be inserted, process of crustal delamination or mantle wedging