No abstract

The Song Ma region, which is located in the northwestern Vietnam represents the zone of amalgamation between Indochina and South China blocks. Numerous scattered ultramafic rocks occur in this region in association with Early to Middle Palaeozoic greenschists and paragneisses, and all these rocks were subjected to hydrous metamorphism and deformation. Here, we present new field data, mineral chemistry and geochemistry from a suite of hydrated peridotites within the Song Ma region and discuss the tectonic significances of the region. We also combine the available data within the Song Ma region and Indochina–South China blocks to discuss the tectonic evolution of the subduction zone. Based on the results, we suggest that the peridotites from the Song Ma are mantle residues that suffered a high degree of partial melting in a forearc tectonic setting. The present data together with the available data within the Song Ma region and the Indochina and South China blocks clearly represent a southward directed Middle Palaeozoic subduction system. The Middle Palaeozoic subduction and accretion events mark the evolutionary history along an active convergent margin between the Indochina and South China blocks, possibly related to the amalgamation of the Pangaea supercontinent. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Intraplate-basaltic volcanism was widespread throughout Southeast (SE) Asia during the Cenozoic (Figure 1; Flower et al., 1998). Vietnam is located at the southeastern edge of SE Asia (Figure 1a) and represents the most volcanically active field on the Indochina Peninsula (Figure 1b; Flower et al., 1998). The upwelling of hot asthenospheric materials, revealed by seismic tomography (Huang et al., 2015), is considered to be a primary cause of the volcanism in this region.Lithospheric thinning, induced by the collision of the Indo-Australian plate and Eurasian plate, has long been proposed as a cause of asthenospheric upwelling (

The Indochina Block is considered as a part of the Indian and Australian margins of Gondwana, and the Tam Ky-Phuoc Son Suture Zone (TPSZ) lies in its central region as the boundary between the Truong Son Belt and Kon Tum Massif (KTM). However, the early Palaeozoic tectonic nature and timing of magmatism within the TPSZ are still controversial. To tackle the issue, we present herein the zircon U-Pb ages with their trace-element compositions of five dioritic-granitic granitoids in the TPSZ.U-Pb age dating of magmatic zircons from them suggests emplacement ages of ca. 447-450 Ma. Whole-rock geochemistry of the samples shows low TiO 2 contents (0.36-1.18 wt%) and Mg# (42.04-53.07). They display enrichment in light rare earth elements ([La/Yb] N = 4.10-15.19), pronounced negative Nb, Ta and Ti anomalies relative to the chondrite-normalized rare earth element patterns and primitive mantlenormalized trace-element distribution diagrams. The whole-rock geochemical characteristics together with zircon trace-element compositions from the same samples revealed their petrogenesis of a continental arc tectonic setting. Combining the results from this study together with available data from the TPSZ and its neighbouring units, we suggest accretionary orogenesis was responsible for generation of the Ordovician magmatic arc in the KTM, which will provide better understanding of the Early Palaeozoic evolution of the eastern Indochina Block.

Earthquake is currently one of the biggest concerns in Vietnam, especially, when a number of earthquakes recorded by seismometers in recent years imply the danger of earthquake in the country. In Vietnam, the recorded earthquakes were pinpointed as the consequence of stratigraphic movements along active fault zones. Identifying of the activities of fault is mainly based on tectonics, geomorphology and observation techniques utilizing geophysical methods with data on seismic waves of earthquakes. However, determining the active fault intervals is generally a difficult task which is of the interest of many domestic and worldwide scientists. One of the methods of identifying the active intervals of faults that has been applied in many countries is studying authigenetic clay mineral forming in fault planes and cataclasites due to fault activities. The movement of fault surface will create fault gouges formed at low temperature, the typical of which is illite mineral. In order to date active phases of faults, K-Ar dating of illite mineral is now proved to be an effective method. Based on the successful studies on modern fault activities using the method of K-Ar dating of authigeneticillite, and with the goal of having a general view on the activities of Red Rive Fault, Vietnam and more information on earthquakes caused by this fault, the authors have conducted a study on characteristics of the authigenetic clay minerals formed by fault activities, accordingly identifying their formation periods using K-Ar dating method. Based on the recorded ages, we hope to be able to explain the active fault intervals and its relationship with earthquake activity in the surround areas. In this paper, we are presenting the initial results about characteristics of clay minerals in gouges of the Red River fault zone, Vietnam. Several gouges amples were collected from the Red River fault zone. Then, they were separated into four grain-size fractions (<0.1, 0.1 - 0.4, 0.4 - 1.0, and 1-2µm) using standard gravitational settling and high-speed centrifuging techniques based on a preliminary analysis. The samples after separating were characterized by using FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). The results indicated that authigenetic clay minerals forming in fault planes due to fault activities such as illite, illite/smectite is in samples with significant amounts. These are important results in defining modern active time of Red River fault zone using method of K-Ar dating for authigenetic clay minerals.