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Geosciences
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Active Deformation and Rheology of the Continental Lithosphere
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Active Deformation and Rheology of the Continental Lithosphere

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2019) | Viewed by 9971

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Carole Petit

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Geoazur, Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France
Interests: tectonics; geomorphology; strength of the lithosphere; isostasy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Strain localization in continental plates, whatever the tectonic regime, depends both on external factors (far-field plate motions and/or local body forces) and on the mechanical resistance of the continental lithosphere. The latter is inherited from previous tectonic episodes and is modified during active deformation. Positive or negative feedback loops may then arise from the combination of thermal and mechanical processes, which may lead to either increasing strain localisation and eventually give birth to new plate boundaries, or instead generate short-lived tectonic features. Actively deforming areas are key areas to understand how tectonic deformation localizes, since their kinematics (far-field plate boundaries and local fault motions) can be monitored and their mechanical behaviour can be estimated or modelled from various proxies (seismicity distribution at depth, flexure of the lithosphere…).

This special issue welcomes papers dealing with the analysis, interpretation and/or modelling of active deformation in continental domains, in any tectonic (compressional, strike-slip or extensional) setting. Multi-disciplinary approaches involving geological and geophysical datasets or either numerical or analogue models will be appreciated.

Dr. Carole Petit
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Geosciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Active tectonics
  • Continental plates
  • Strain localization
  • Strength of the lithosphere

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5357 KiB  
Article
Why Are There No Earthquakes in the Intracratonic Paris Basin? Insights from Flexural Models
by Carole Petit, Louis de Barros, Guillaume Duclaux and Yves Mazabraud
Geosciences 2019, 9(12), 502; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9120502 - 28 Nov 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2748
Abstract
Comparing nearby areas with contrasted seismicity distributions like the French Variscan Armorican Massif (AM) and the surrounding intracratonic Paris Basin (PB) can help deciphering which parameters control the occurrence or absence of diffuse, intraplate seismicity. In this paper, we examine how lithosphere temperature, [...] Read more.
Comparing nearby areas with contrasted seismicity distributions like the French Variscan Armorican Massif (AM) and the surrounding intracratonic Paris Basin (PB) can help deciphering which parameters control the occurrence or absence of diffuse, intraplate seismicity. In this paper, we examine how lithosphere temperature, fluid pressure, and frictional strength variations, combined with horizontal and bending stresses, may condition brittle, ductile or elastic behaviours of the crust in the AM and PB. We compute yield stress envelopes (YSE) and lithospheric flexure across a 1000 km-long SW–NE profile crossing the AM and PB approximately parallel to the direction of the minimum horizontal stress. Flexural models slightly better fit measured Bouguer gravity data if we apply two vertical loads on the AM and PB, with values (positive downward) ranging between −3 and −2.1012, and between 4 and 6.1012 N·m−2, respectively, depending on the chosen crustal composition. Our results evidence that whatever the crustal composition, bending stresses and heat flow variations alone are not sufficient to explain the difference in seismogenic behaviour between the AM and the PB. Variations in friction coefficient, in the range of standard values, are not totally satisfying either, since they do not restrain the brittle crustal thickness in the PB to less than 10 km, which is still large enough to be the locus of shallow earthquakes. Oppositely, increasing the cohesion from 10 to 80 MPa has a stronger effect on the thickness of the brittle upper crust, decreasing it from 10 to 15 km beneath the AM to 0–5 km beneath the PB. This suggests that the Mesozoic sedimentary pile can act as a sticky layer holding together basement rocks of the PB, which is equivalent to an increase in cohesion, and protects them from failure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Active Deformation and Rheology of the Continental Lithosphere)
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28 pages, 6662 KiB  
Article
Late Orogenic Heating of (Ultra)High Pressure Rocks: Slab Rollback vs. Slab Breakoff
by Elena Sizova, Christoph Hauzenberger, Harald Fritz, Shah Wali Faryad and Taras Gerya
Geosciences 2019, 9(12), 499; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9120499 - 27 Nov 2019
Cited by 42 | Viewed by 6689
Abstract
Some (ultra)high-pressure metamorphic rocks that formed during continental collision preserve relict minerals, indicating a two-stage evolution: first, subduction to mantle depths and exhumation to the lower-crustal level (with simultaneous cooling), followed by intensive heating that can be characterized by a β-shaped pressure–temperature–time (P–T–t) [...] Read more.
Some (ultra)high-pressure metamorphic rocks that formed during continental collision preserve relict minerals, indicating a two-stage evolution: first, subduction to mantle depths and exhumation to the lower-crustal level (with simultaneous cooling), followed by intensive heating that can be characterized by a β-shaped pressure–temperature–time (P–T–t) path. Based on a two-dimensional (2D) coupled petrological–thermomechanical tectono-magmatic numerical model, we propose a possible sequence of tectonic stages that could lead to these overprinting metamorphic events along an orogenic β-shaped P–T–t path: the subduction and exhumation of continental crust, followed by slab retreat that leads to extension and subsequent asthenospheric upwelling. During the last stage, the exhumed crustal material at the crust–mantle boundary undergoes heating from the underlying hot asthenospheric mantle. This slab rollback scenario is further compared numerically with the classical continental collision scenario associated with slab breakoff, which is often used to explain the late heating impulse in the collisional orogens. The mantle upwelling occurring in the experiments with slab breakoff, which is responsible for the heating of the exhumed crustal material, is not related to the slab breakoff but can be caused either by slab bending before slab breakoff or by post-breakoff exhumation of the subducted crust. Our numerical modeling predictions align well with a variety of orogenic P–T–t paths that have been reported from many Phanerozoic collisional orogens, such as the Variscan Bohemian Massif, the Triassic Dabie Shan, the Cenozoic Northwest Himalaya, and some metamorphic complexes in the Alps. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Active Deformation and Rheology of the Continental Lithosphere)
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