Subsidence history and tectonic evolution of Atlantic-type continental margins

1982 ◽  
pp. 184-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Stecklerl ◽  
A. B. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Tectonic Evolution ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Subsidence History

scholarly journals Role of the Down-Bending Plate as a Detrital Source in Convergent Systems Revealed by U–Pb Dating of Zircon Grains: Insights from the Southern Andes and Western Italian Alps

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 632
Author(s):  
Andrea Di Giulio ◽  
Chiara Amadori ◽  
Pierre Mueller ◽  
Antonio Langone
Keyword(s):  
Tectonic Evolution ◽  
Subduction Zones ◽  
Western Alps ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Provenance Analysis ◽  
Clastic Sediments ◽  
Continental Block ◽  
Back Arc ◽  
Subduction System

In convergent zones, several parts of the geodynamic system (e.g., continental margins, back-arc regions) can be deformed, uplifted, and eroded through time, each of them potentially delivering clastic sediments to neighboring basins. Tectonically driven events are mostly recorded in syntectonic clastic systems accumulated into different kinds of basins: trench, fore-arc, and back-arc basins in subduction zones and foredeep, thrust-top, and episutural basins in collisional settings. The most widely used tools for provenance analysis of synorogenic sediments and for unraveling the tectonic evolution of convergent zones are sandstone petrography and U–Pb dating of detrital zircon. In this paper, we present a comparison of previously published data discussing how these techniques are used to constrain provenance reconstructions and contribute to a better understanding of the tectonic evolution of (i) the Cretaceous transition from extensional to compressional regimes in the back-arc region of the southern Andean system; and (ii) the involvement of the passive European continental margin in the Western Alps subduction system during impending Alpine collision. In both cases, sediments delivered from the down-bending continental block are significantly involved. Our findings highlight its role as a detrital source, which is generally underestimated or even ignored in current tectonic models.

The IPOD programme on passive continental margins

1980 ◽  
Vol 294 (1409) ◽  
pp. 17-33 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Plate Edge ◽  
Passive Margins ◽  
The Past ◽  
Subsidence History ◽  
Lithospheric Plates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Active Continental Margins

During the past 200 Ma (1 Ma = 10 6 years) the arrangement of continents and ocean basins has been reorganized from a pattern of one supercontinent, with mainly plate edge, subduction, or active continental margins bordering one essentially contiguous ocean basin, to the present configuration of dispersed continents and several oceans. Most of the world’s present continental margins which were formed during that 200 Ma period are ‘passive’ margins lying within the interiors of lithospheric plates. Several models of rifting and evolution of these passive margins have been proposed. The objectives of IPOD include testing of these models by learning as much as we can about the history of rifting of passive continental margins, their internal structure, distribution of facies, subsidence history, and the nature of the transition and modification of the crust at the margin. These objectives cannot be attained by drilling alone, and geophysical surveying and analysis of samples from the drilling are essential parts of the overall programme.

Spatial and temporal evolution of Cenozoic carbonate platforms on the continental margins of the South China Sea: Response to opening of the ocean basin

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. SP1-SP19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiguo Wu ◽  
Xinyuan Zhang ◽  
Zhen Yang ◽  
Tuoyu Wu ◽  
Jinwei Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
South China ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Tectonic Evolution ◽  
Middle Miocene ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Carbonate Platforms ◽  
Relative Sea Level

Widespread and tremendously thick Cenozoic carbonate sequences are present along the margins of the South China Sea (SCS). However, most of the sequences have been drowned since the Late Miocene. The stratigraphic architecture of the carbonate platforms in the SCS can provide information on the tectonic evolution of the ocean basin. Based on 2D/3D seismic, well and regional geologic data, we have interpreted the Cenozoic SCS carbonate platforms along the continental margins. The carbonate platforms developed during rifting and initiated on the fault block of the conjugate rifted margins. Most of the carbonate platforms became drowned after the Middle Miocene. The Malampaya Carbonate Sequences, which have thicknesses of greater than 600 m, developed on a horst of an Oligocene rifted block. Tectonic subsidence provided accommodation for the growth of the carbonate platforms. Tectonic tilting, faulting, and the foreland bulge controlled the distributions, thicknesses, and horizontal seismic reflection variations of the drowned carbonate platforms. The tectonic evolution and relative sea-level fluctuations controlled the depositional cycles of the carbonate platforms. We quantitatively calculated the factors that affected the extension and subsidence rates using balanced cross section and backstepping techniques. Our results have demonstrated that the carbonate platforms flourished during the Middle Miocene due to stable tectonic conditions and shrank during the Late Miocene due to rapid subsidence. The relative sea level exerted a second-order control on the evolutionary trend of the carbonate platforms and a third-order control on the evolutionary periods in each stage.

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