Geophysical characterisation of the ocean–continent transition at magma-poor rifted margins

Minshull, T. A.

doi:10.1016/j.crte.2008.09.003

Cited by 84 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(76 reference statements)

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“…True oceanic crust seems to be present close to the continental slope, leaving very little space for a COT. If the graben-bounding faults take the lead and penetrate down to the Moho, the rifting process may result in exhumation of the mantle at the COT, as at the Newfound-Iberia nonvolcanic rifted margins (Minshull 2009;Tucholke et al 2007;Ranero and Pérez-Gussinyé 2010; . But, we have yet to see evidence for mantle exhumation at the South China Sea.…”

Section: Rifting To Drifting Transition Of the Southwest Subbasinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Song

2015

Mar Geophys Res

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Continental rupturing process and related dynamics on the onset of seafloor spreading remain poorly understood in the opening of the South China Sea. To constrain the timing and cause of major tectonic events, we focus on the rifting-to-drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin, which has very wide extended continental margins. By carefully interpreting rifting structures and carbonate platforms and reefs, we distinguished two major unconformities, i.e., the breakup unconformity (BRU) and the mid-Miocene unconformity, in the two conjugate margins of the Southwest Subbasin. The age of the BRU in our study area is near the Oligocene/Miocene boundary (*23 Ma). Pre-stack depth migration of a recently acquired multichannel reflection seismic profile reveals complex structures and strong lateral velocity variations associated with a 3.5 km thick syn-rifting sequence developed right at the continent-ocean boundary (COB) of the Southwest Subbasin. This syn-rifting sequence is bounded landwards by a large seaward dipping fault, and tapers out seawards. An erosional truncation, which represents the mid-Miocene unconformity landwards but the older breakup unconformity on the seaward side, occurred at the top of this sequence. The overall transitional deformation style from the rifting to drifting suggests a successive episode of rifting, faulting, compression, tilting, and erosion at the COB during the crustal thinning and mantle upwelling. Localized thick syn-rifting deposition and early deposition beneath the BRU in the oceanic domain exist only at the seaward concave part of the COB, indicating discrete rifting and seafloor spreading prior to the buildup of a unified spreading center for the entire subbasin.

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Section: Rifting To Drifting Transition Of the Southwest Subbasinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Song

2015

Mar Geophys Res

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“…On the other hand, first-arrival models do not include all the information recorded by the ocean bottom seismometers (e.g. Minshull, 2009). Travel-time residuals between picked and calculated first arrivals combined with the partial derivatives of travel-times with respect to the model parameters are used to solve the inverse problem.…”

Section: Seismic Tomography and Full Waveform Inversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crustal structure and evolution of the Arctic Caledonides: Results from controlled-source seismology

et al. 2017

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“…On the other hand, the serpentinisation of the Iberian crust would provide a simple alternative explanation for both the disparition of Moho at depth and for the signature of the Iberian crust/European mantle interface in the migrated sections. Indeed, in hyperextended margins, it is common to observe a gradual transition between crust and mantle resulting from the serpentinisation of the lithosphere, with no visible signature of the Moho in seismic reflection data (e.g Minshull 2009).…”

Section: Implications Of the Ccp Images For The Structure And Formatimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pyrenean architecture as revealed by teleseismic P-to-S converted waves recorded along two dense transects

Chevrot¹,

Sylvander²,

Díaz³

et al. 2015

Geophysical Journal International

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S U M M A R YBetween 2011 and 2013, two dense transects were deployed across the central and western Pyrenees to get better constraints on the deep lithospheric architecture and discriminate the competing models of the structure and formation of the Pyrenees. Each transect recorded the regional and global seismicity during a period of approximately 1 yr. Here, we exploit the records of teleseismic compressional waves and of their conversions to shear waves on internal discontinuities in order to map lithospheric interfaces beneath the two transects. The migrated sections, obtained by performing common conversion point stacks, are in remarkable agreement with the results of the ECORS-Pyrenees and ECORS-Arzacq deep seismic surveys. However, the migrations of converted waves reveal new details of the deep lithospheric architecture that could not be seen with the active source experiments. The new images provide clear and definite evidence for the subduction of a thinned Iberian crust down to at least ∼70 km depth, a result that has important implications for the formation of the Pyrenees. The subduction of the Iberian lithosphere leads to reconsider the amount of convergence between Iberia and Europe during the Cenozoic. A recent regional P-wave tomography, relying on the data of the PYROPE and IBERARRAY temporary experiments, revealed the segmentation of lithospheric structures by inherited Hercynian NE-SW transfer faults that were reactivated during the Albian rifting. Our migration images are consistent with this model, and give further support to the idea that the Pyrenees were produced by the tectonic inversion of a segmented hyperextended rift that was buried by subduction beneath the European Plate.

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Geophysical characterisation of the ocean–continent transition at magma-poor rifted margins

Cited by 84 publications

References 65 publications

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Crustal structure and evolution of the Arctic Caledonides: Results from controlled-source seismology

The Pyrenean architecture as revealed by teleseismic P-to-S converted waves recorded along two dense transects

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