The Betic Cordillera of southern Spain is an orogen formed in response to convergence between Africa and Iberia, from the late Mesozoic to the present. The orogen consists of three main tectonic complexes, two of which have been subducted to depth, then exhumed back to the surface over short timescales. Subduction in the structurally higher of these complexes is relatively well constrained to the Eocene, but the timing of high-pressure metamorphism in the structurally lower complex, known as the Nevado-Filabride Complex, has been a topic of debate for several years due to conflicting geochronological data. Several proposed tectonic models for the Nevado-Filabride Complex are based on ages of single mineral phases. For example, models based primarily on 40Ar/ 39Ar dating on white mica in high-pressure schists require that the Nevado-Filabride and the overlying tectonic unit, the Alpujarride Complex, were coevally subjected to high-pressure metamorphism in the Eocene, and subsequently exhumed at different rates. More recent models, based on Lu-Hf dating on prograde garnets in eclogites, separate the timing of high-pressure metamorphism of the Nevado-Filabride Complex from the Alpujarride Complex by at least 10 m.y. We examine the viability of these models using multimineral Rb-Sr dating of blueschist and eclogite facies rocks in the Nevado-Filabride Complex. The multimineral isochron method uses the whole high-pressure mineral assemblage rather than a single phase, which allows testing for isotopic disequilibrium. Statistically valid Rb-Sr ages of two schists and one eclogite from the Nevado-Filabride Complex yield ages of 15.78+/-0.47, 15.8+/-1.1, and 17.6+/-1.1 Ma, respectively. The early Miocene Rb-Sr ages are in agreement with garnet Lu-Hf ages and zircon U-Pb ages for high-pressure conditions in the Nevado-Filabride Complex. The new ages imply that two episodes of subduction, punctuated by a period of extension and exhumation, occurred in the Western Mediterranean.

Convergent plate boundaries evolve through the dynamic interaction between subducting oceanic lithosphere, overriding lithosphere, and adjacent flow of the convective mantle. These lithospheric plates contain remarkable heterogeneity in thickness, strength, and observable seismic character. I investigate the role of variable thickness of continental lithosphere with respect to mantle flow dynamics and develop a relationship of this subduction configuration with the construction of the Andes Mountains. By inclusion of this geodynamic model into the Andean Orogeny, numerous irreconcilable observations in the Eocene and Oligocene can be related with a comprehensive tectonic model. Lithospheric heterogeneity can be imaged with the inversion of seismic travel time data. I develop an analysis of a potential source of non-unique modeling of seismic velocity structure and then develop a case study of a currently subducting oceanic lithosphere using an iterative ray tracing approach. First, I consider the impact of the assumption of isotropic wave propagation implicit in a common methodology of data inversion. First-order structure is shown to be well resolved, but higher-order structure can be significantly different in regions of observed high-amplitude or null SKS splitting observations. The southern edge of the Juan de Fuca plate is imaged by traditional methods and an iterative ray tracing approach. The inclusion of ray tracing allows modeling of a more realistic velocity model by minimizing the error in source to receiver sensitivity. Compared to the standard imaging procedure, the resolved structure with this updated method contains smaller, more confined anomalies that represent the subducted oceanic lithosphere. Velocity perturbation amplitudes generally are decreased for slow structure and increase for fast structures. These changes in velocity structure provide an explanation for the decreased root mean square residual of the data that remain after inversion. I find that the high amplitude fast velocity of the Juan de Fuca is a robust feature and the currently subducting slab does not penetrate the mantle transition zone. I attribute the locus of very fast Juan de Fuca sub-continental lithosphere to be related to deformation of the plate prior to and during subduction. This dissertation includes previously published co-authored material.

The impact of subduction initiation on regional to global tectonics and the compositions of major Earth reservoirs are topics of vigorous ongoing research. Here, pristine glasses extracted from ~51.9 Myr old basalts and younger boninites that erupted in the Izu-Bonin Mariana forearc immediately after subduction initiation were analyzed by microbeam techniques, with goals of characterizing the mantle sources and the conditions under which melting occurred to produce nascent arc crust. Forearc basalts (FAB) have relatively differentiated major element compositions. Thus, to determine melting conditions and source compositions, primitive melt compositions were restored through an inferred crystallization history based on melt liquidus associations. Subsequent modeling indicates that they were generated at high temperatures and low pressures relative to a mid ocean ridge basalt (MORB). Incompatible trace element compositions of FAB show that they are similar to MORB in that they were generated largely by decompression melting. Differences in several trace element ratios between MORB and FAB indicate that the mantle sources for FAB were unusually depleted. Differences between FAB sub-units indicate a range of petrogenetic histories. Upper FAB sub-units are weakly enriched in fluid-mobile elements which may indicate that fluids from the subducting Pacific plate contributed to melting. Boninites are separated into high and low silica types based on preexisting whole rock analyses. Glasses separated from these boninites are highly differentiated and thus classify as high-Mg andesites rather than boninites on MgO-SiO2-TiO2 diagrams. These glasses are also enriched in a suite of fluid mobile elements indicating that they are products of flux melting of the mantle involving fluids and melts from the subducting plate. Olivine calcium concentrations are consistent with hydrous parental boninite melts. Aluminum partitioning between olivine and hosted spinel inclusions constrains the temperatures of initial crystallization between 1170 and 1330 degrees Celsius. The change from decompression melting which generated forearc basalts to flux melting which generated high silica boninites illustrates an evolution of the subduction system over the course of the initiation process. Based on trace element ratio plots, mixing relationships between upper forearc basalts and highly enriched fluids probably released by the nascent subducting slab suggest that both decompression melting and fluid fluxing operated to produce low silica boninite during subduction initiation. This melt composition progressively becomes dominated by fluid flux melts with additional components derived from the slab to make high silica boninite. These late volcanic rocks record melting of a highly depleted mantle source. The fact that heavy rare earth element concentrations become increasingly depleted from FAB to low silica boninite to high silica boninite indicates that the mantle source changed in composition over time. The progressive decrease suggests that the initial mantle source for FAB remained the mantle source for the duration of subduction initiation related magmatism.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Physique et Chimie de la Terre : Montpellier 2 : 2007. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre.

Arc-continent collision is associated with vigorous mountain building and terrane accretion on relatively short (<10 Ma) geologic timescales. It is believed to be an important mechanism for the growth of continents. Taiwan represents one of the few active examples of this process. As such, is the perfect natural laboratory to investigate the nature of the continent ocean boundary and the uncertain behavior of the accretionary prism and extended, transitional rifted margin crust during the collision process. Taiwan also provides a unique opportunity to investigate structures in the backarc, yielding key insights into the still controversial tectonic conditions that were responsible for the unique subduction-collision system observed today. The obliquity of the collision between the North Luzon Arc and the Chinese rifted margin allows for examination of different temporal stages of collision at different locations. Recently acquired seismic reflection and wide-angle seismic refraction data, offshore Taiwan, document the crustal structure of the incipient mountain belt and of the Philippine Sea Plate in the backarc domain to the east. Geophysical profiles offshore southern Taiwan show evidence for a transition from the subduction of ocean crust to highly extended, transitional continental crust of the northern South China Sea distal margin. During oceanic subduction, accretion and underplating of thick sedimentary cover sequences create a large 13-15 km thick accretionary prism. Prior to the encroachment of the continental shelf, there is evidence for further underplating of transitional distal margin crust to the base of the prism. These findings support a multi-phase collisional model in which early growth of the mountain belt is driven by structural underplating of the previously sedimentary-only accretionary prism with blocks of transitional crust from the distal rifted margin. Geophysical profiles offshore eastern Taiwan show evidence for asymmetric crustal thickening, from 12-18 km, along the entire length of the Gagua Ridge suggesting the West Philippine Basin oceanic crust is underthust beneath that of the Huatung Basin. In this interpretation, the Gagua Ridge was the result of a failed subduction initiation event during the early Miocene that may have existed simultaneously and, for a short time, competed with the Manila subduction zone in accommodating convergence between the Eurasia and Philippine Sea plates. / text

Mantle seismic tomography has historically relied on radially symmetric ID velocity models to trace ray paths through the mantle. The resulting travel time residuals are used to invert for seismic velocity perturbations around this 1D model. However, we know the Earth deviates from such ID velocity models; for example there are global variations in crustal thickness; in the age of oceanic lithosphere and presence of subducting oceanic lithosphere. In light of this, an a priori model which incorporated the three types of surface observable heterogeneity outlined above was constructed as part of this thesis. Tracing ray paths through this more heterogeneous starting model resulted in new travel time residuals which were subsequently employed in a simultaneous tomographic inversion solving for earthquake relocation parameters and slowness perturbations. This inversion method allows us to investigate whether tomography using a priori models results in improved images of mantle velocity perturbations and systematic earthquake relocations. A graphical earthquake browser was specifically written to establish, in a consistent manner, the shape of subducting oceanic lithosphere for all the major subduction zones. The resulting population of earthquakes, which best represent the shape of Wadati-Benioff zones, were subsequently interpolated into profiles following the path of oceanic lithosphere as it subducts. The temperature field in and around each profile was generated using a new analytic solution of the heat equation for subducting lithosphere, adapted to incorporate slab shape. The upper mantle a priori model was constructed on an equal area tomographic grid by combining the thermal models of the subducting lithosphere, plate cooling models of oceanic lithosphere and variations in crustal thickness away from that prescribed in a ID velocity model. Efficient 20 ray tracing through the a priori model was achieved via the adaptation of a ID ray tracer by perturbing the reference ID model, iasp91, using the a priori velocities in the cells connecting the event to the recording station for each ray. A new travel time residual was calculated and subsequently used in the simultaneous solution for slowness perturbation and earthquake relocation. So as not to bias the earthquake relocation procedure, phases were selected so as to maximise the azimuth and epicentral distance coverage, while minimising the number of duplicated ray paths which would be redundant in the inversion. The data selection resulted in some 3,450 events emitting 785,000 teleseismic P phases (bottoming in the lower mantle). The cell based SIRT inversion procedure, used to solve the standard system of linear tomographic equations, was augmented by explicit damping and smoothing matrices so as to control both poorly resolved cells and the relative importance between earthquake relocation parameters and slowness perturbations. For comparison, the ray population was also traced through the 3SMAC upper mantle model before undertaking a similar inversion. The 5° x 5° equal area, 100 km thick, cell inversions resulted in systematic earthquake relocations with an average relocation distance of= 5 km. In the upper mantle, the inversion procedure adjusts the a priori subducting slab velocity contrast, revealing images of subducting oceanic lithosphere. In the lower mantle, there is little difference between inversions produced in this thesis and those available digitally. Some of the main features are the pronounced lineations interpreted as the Farallon slab (beneath North and South America) and the Tethys (beneath Eurasia) clearly imaged between 1200 and 1500 km depth. All inversions undertaken in this thesis image hotspots throughout the upper mantle, and in places these pronounced slow features are observed passing through the upperllower mantle transition. A section through the South Pacific superswell images slow material as a continuous body, to at least 1300 km. Synthetic recovery tests indicate these hotspot features are well resolved.

Th.--Sci.--Montpellier--Université des sciences et techniques, 1984. / Bibliogr. p. 127-138. Résumé en français et en anglais.

Th. univ.--Tectonique et pétrologie--Montpellier II, 1988. / Bibliogr. p. 253-269. Résumé en français et en anglais.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-92). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-92). Also available on the Internet.