1 / 25

Passive margins and their terminal collisions through Earth history

Explore the history of passive margins colliding with arcs, from Neoarchean to today, identifying peaks and lulls in continental dispersal. Understand the origin of Precambrian margins and changes in collision styles over time. Mechanisms for heat loss and modern passive margin statistics are discussed, along with case studies like the Wopmay Orogen. Comprehensive insights into Earth's tectonic evolution and margin formation.

dcandice
Download Presentation

Passive margins and their terminal collisions through Earth history

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Passive margins and their terminal collisions through Earth history Dwight Bradley U.S. Geological Survey

  2. Conclusions about passive margins • Passive margins are not known before the Neoarchean • As far back as the Neoarchean, most passive margins have ended their tenure by colliding with an arc • Peaks in the passive margin population at 1900 Ma, 550 Ma, and today correspond to times of continental dispersal • Lulls at 1750-1000 Ma and 300 Ma correspond to known (Pangea) or inferred supercontinents • Unexpectedly, the seven longest-lived margins are Precambrian. No evidence for short lifespans in Precambrian • Age distribution of blueschists and foredeep magmatism attests to real secular change in style of arc-passive margin collision, but does not require a fundamentally different tectonic regime

  3. Mechanisms for greater heat loss Longer ridge system ( = more plates) Faster spreading with modern-size plates (after Pollack, 1997)

  4. Modern passive margins • 94,000 km aggregate length • oldest one is ~175 m.y.

  5. Ancient passive margins • 55 margins so far, Neoarchean to Neogene • compilation still in progress

  6. Wopmay Orogen— Paleoproterozoic arc-passive margin collision Hoffman & Bowring, 1981

  7. SELECTED PASSIVE MARGINS

  8. Karlstrom, 2005 Laurentian NE-trending Proterozoic accretionary provinces– one of the most voluminous accretionary orogens in Earth history

  9. Conclusions about passive margins • Passive margins are not known before the Neoarchean • As far back as the Neoarchean, most passive margins have ended their tenure by colliding with an arc • Peaks in the passive margin population at 1900 Ma, 550 Ma, and today correspond to times of continental dispersal • Lulls at 1750-1000 Ma and 300 Ma correspond to known (Pangea) or inferred (Columbia) supercontinents • Unexpectedly, the seven longest-lived margins are Precambrian. No evidence for short lifespans in Precambrian • Age distribution of blueschists and foredeep magmatism attests to real secular change in style of arc-passive margin collision, but does not require a fundamentally different tectonic regime

  10. The End Taconic orogeny, forebulge unconformity, Newfoundland

  11. The Mesoproterozoic gap in passive margin that collided with an arc is either: An artifact a. compilation incomplete b. recognition problems 2. Real a. no plate tectonics b. plate tectonics but somehow different

More Related