Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Apr 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....5712n&link_type=abstract
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #5712
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Observations in the Lower Archaean (>3.3 Ga) of the Pilbara and Kaapvaal Cratons point to a direct genetic relationship between the thickness and facies distribution of volcano-sedimentary basin fills and non-linear patterns of extensional faults in early Earth. The basin fills consist of mafic volcanic products, largely pillow basalts, with distinct phases of intermediate to felsic volcanism and concentration of silica, either primary or secondary, in sediments deposited near base-level. The extensional structures are listric growth-faults, arranged in superposed arrays, that migrated upwards with the growth of the Early Archaean stratigraphical column. The faults linked intermittently occurring shallow-level felsic intrusions via porphyry pipes, veins and hydrothermal circulations with the surficial sedimentary basin fill of cherty sediments, concurrent mineralisation and alteration products. The non-linear pattern of the fault systems is recorded by their restored facing directions over large areas and corresponds best with over 100 km-wide (semi)circular crustal collapse structures. Crustal collapse, and therefore basin formation, did not represent a reaction to compression and crustal thickening. It also had no relationship with the present-day distribution of granitoid domes and greenstone belts. Collapse followed crustal uplift recorded by shallowing of the basin fill from a general subaqueous level of deposition of pillow basalts towards zero water level for the sediments and low-relief emersion. Maxima of extension coincide with the appearance of intermediate or felsic volcanic rocks in the overall mafic environment. The geodynamical setting is most appropriately explained by crustal delamination and related plume activity. Although individual features may be compared to Phanerozoic and Recent geological phenomena, like calderas, for the collapse structures as a whole such younger counterparts cannot be found. Rather they have their equivalents in collapse structures on neighbouring planets, such as the corona structures of Venus for which a similar geodynamic scenario has been proposed. This study forms part of an international project on Earth's Earliest Sedimentary Basins, supported by the Foundation Dr. Schürmannfonds.
de Vries Sjoukje T.
Nijman Wouter
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