IGCP PROJECTS
2013
A P R I L
Geodynamic:
Control of our environment
UNESCO-IUGS-IGCP
1 rue Miollis
75732 Paris cedex 15
France
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 41 17 or 18
Fax: +33 (0)1 45 68 58 22
www.unesco.org/science/
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 574
BENDING AND BENT OROGENS, AND CONTINENTAL RIBBONS
Understanding how map-view
bends of mountain belts form and
evolve is a first order Earth System problem and is the focus of
this proposal. Earth’s great
mountain systems, both modern
and ancient, are characterized by
significant map-view bends. The
Bolivian bend (or Orocline) of
the Andes is coincident with and
formed at the same time as the
Altiplano, Earth’s second greatest
high plateau. Significant changes in
Earth’s climate, including the onset of the most recent ice age,
have been linked to the growth
of the Altiplano. The bends
(Syntaxes) adorning the western
and eastern ends of the Himalaya
are characterized by some of the
greatest topographic relief on
Earth, and are flanked by Earth’s
two greatest mountains, K2 and
Everest, respectively. The late
Paleozoic Variscan mountain system that records formation of
Pangea is characterized by a 180°
bend in Iberian peninsula. The
Iberian orocline is central and
formed at the same time as a
massive magmatic – thermal
province that seeded much of the
supercontinent with mineral deposits, and which, by weakening
the crust, presaged Pangea’s
eventual break-up. Hence the
origin and evolution of bends of
mountain belts is central to
Earth’s climatic, topographic, and
tectonic evolution. Furthermore,
much of Earth’s budget of mineral
deposits, and its thermal evolution (and hence its potential for
hydrocarbons and other energy
reserves) can be related to the
formation of great bends of
mountain systems. An improved
understanding of the processes
responsible for the formation of
bent mountain systems therefore
promises both scientific advances,
such as an improved understand-
ing of the mechanisms and processes responsible for plate tectonics and for changes in Earth
geography through time; and
directly applicable societal benefits, including refined models of
climate and climate evolution,
and increased exploration efficiency for both mineral deposits
and hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Two main research directions
are apparent:
(1) determining if the processes
is responsible for the development of bent mountain belts, and
(2) documenting the geology and
evolution of specific bends. Progress in both venues is to be
achieved through a series (two
per year over the five year
course of the project) of fieldbased meetings in remote, developing regions, that can provide us
with access to key mountain
ranges. An added benefit of this
work plan will be our ability to
efficiently disseminate research
advances and transfer knowledge
into these developing regions.
Areas identified as key include:
(1) Andean South America;
(2) South-central Asia
(Kazakhstan); (3) the Caribbean
region; (4) Melanesia; (5) the
Gondwanides, including Patagonia, the Cape belt (S. Africa) and
the Tasmanides (Australia); (6)
the Mediterranean-Alpine domain
including the Rif of Morocco and
related Betics of southern Spain,
the Calabrian / Sicilian region of
southern Italy, the Carpathian
mountains, and the Isparta Angle
(Turkey); (7) the Cordillera of
western North America; and (8)
the Variscides of western Europe.
Results are to include the publication of field guides covering the
geology of regions visited over
the course of this project, refereed papers in international, high
impact journals, and books pub-
lished by national geological societies. The project is multidisciplinary and will involve the collection and dissemination of data
spanning the fields of paleomagnetism, geochronology, structural
geology, stratigraphy and sedimentology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, geochemistry,
paleogeography, geophysics, paleontology, tectonics and mineral
deposit studies. Direct societal
benefits will include improved
understanding of the geological
evolution of our specific target
regions, and enhanced comprehension of the links between
mountain systems, mineralization
and hydrocarbon reserves. In
addition, our project provides
numerous opportunities for the
transfer of knowledge into remote and developing regions, and
for the involvement and funding
of young, active researchers
within these regions.
Contact:
Prof. Stephen T. Johnston
School of Earth & Ocean Sciences
University of Victoria
PO Box 3055
STN CSC, Victoria
British Columbia
Canada V8W 3P6
[email protected]
Tel: 250 472 4481
Website: click here
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 589
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASIAN TETHYAN REALM
The development of the Tethyan
Realm is such a complicated
problem that it remains far from
being clarified. Anyhow, execution of successive IGCP projects
(321, 411, 516) targeted at geological evolution of (mainly East
and South) Asia and other related researches have contributed
much in working out more constraints on the evolution of the
Tethys and to provide more data
for interpretation. Continued
study is the only way to find out
more appropriate explanations
and to approach gradually the
truth.
At the business meeting of IGCP516 (Geological Anatomy of East
and South Asia) held on 26 September 2009 during the 5th International Symposium of IGCP516 in Kunming, China, the participants decided unanimously
that a new IGCP project be applied, which might be a successor
of IGCP-516. In this way the investigation into the complicated
problems related to the geological evolution of Asia can continue.
The proposed new IGCP project
“Development of Asian Tethyan
Realm: Genesis, Process and
Outcomes” is aimed to maintain
the existing team and possibly to
mobilize more participants
(mainly from Asian developing
countries), to carry out multidisciplinary investigations in related areas, to find out more constraints on the interpretation of
the development of the Asian
Tethyan Realm, and to contribute
to elucidate the history of the
Tethys. In specific, participants of
the project are advised to carry
out their work with emphasis on
problems related to one or more
of the following topics:
 Regional extension and property of suture zones and other
structural lineaments
 Stratigraphic successions and
magmatic series on continental
blocks
 Paleobiogeographic evolution
of the Tethyan Realm
 Timing and process of continental blocks rifting from large
cratons
 Sizes of oceanic basins and the
positions of continental blocks at
different times
 Timing and process of the suturing of continental blocks
 Validity of the one Tethys
model, the Paleo-Tethys + NeoTethys model, and the PaleoTethys + Meso-Tethys + NeoTethys model
 Recent analogues of tectonic
environments in the Tethyan
Realm
 Geological background for
hydrocarbon and mineral resource formations
In doing so, participants from
different countries will carry out
their investigations in well selected places which are either geologically critical or lacking of
proper data. Scientific approaches and techniques of different
disciplines are to be employed,
such as tectonics, paleogeography, paleontology, stratigraphy,
sedimentology, structural geology, petrology, geochemistry, paleomagnetism, and geophysics.
Cooperation with other IGCP
projects that deal with geological
or evolutionary problems of a
limited time range or certain region is planned, for example
IGCP- 572: Restoration of Marine Ecosystems following the
Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction;
IGCP-597: Amalgamation and
Breakup Pangaea: the Type Example of the Supercontinent Cycle.
Cooperation with the CGMW
(Commission for Geological Map
of the World) project
“International Geological Map of
Asia (IGMA)” is assured. The
proposed project is also going to
cooperate with IESO
(International Earth Science
Olympiad), which is supported by
COGE (Commission on Geoscience Education, Training and
Technology Transfer) of IUGS.
Contact:
Prof. Dr Xiaochi Jin
Institute of Geology
Chinese Academy of Geological
Sciences
26 Baiwanzhuang Road
Beijing 100037
P.R.China
[email protected]
Tel: + 86-10-68999 702
Website: click here
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 592
CONTINENTAL CONSTRUCTION IN CENTRAL ASIA
Understanding how does continental crust form, overgrow and
evolve is a highly important Earth
Science problem. The focus of
the newly proposed IGCP project is continental crust construction in Central and East Asia and
its desktop comparison with
Western Pacific. The project is
planned as a successor to IGCP
480 (Tectonics of Central Asia),
420 (Phanerozoic Crustal
Growth) and, to some extent,
283 (Evolution of the Paleo-Asian
Ocean). The complementary
projects could be regarded IGCP
574 (Bending and Bent Orogens
and Continental Ribbons), 516
(Geological Anatomy of East and
South East Asia), 473 (GIS Metallogeny of Central Asia), 436
(Pacific Gondwana Margin), 321
(Gondwana Dispersion and Asian
Accretion), and 224 (Pre-Jurassic
Evolution of Eastern Asia) and a
separate USGS-Russia project on
"Metallogenesis and Tectonics of
Northeast Asia".
However, none of those previous
and current IGCP and other projects addressed key goals, objectives, questions and tasks of this
proposal in their interrelationships, whereas we will build upon
those precursor data, fill the remained gaps, solve the unanswered questions and introduce
all previous and new data into a
single holistic pattern of continental construction.
The main goal is to undertake a
broad-scale and multi-method
investigation of continental construction in the Central Asian
Orogenic Belt (hereinafter
CAOB) in order to prove that
the Phanerozoic was an important period of juvenile continental crust formation versus an
idea of its dominantly Archean
origin.
The specific goals are linked with
distinguishing main stages of continental construction:
1) crustal growth (juvenile crust)
and
2) crustal formation (recycled
crust);
3) continental growth (accretion
minus tectonic erosion);
4) continental formation
(collisional processes).
All these stages will be carefully
reconstructed within each individual orogenic belt and across
them within the whole orogenic
belt: Altai-Sayan and Transbaikalia
(Russia), Eastern and Central
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Tienshan,
Chinese Altai and Tienshan, Russian Far East.
Four geological transects crossing
these areas will be studied:
1) Russian Altai-Chinese AltaiMongolian Altai;
2) Kazakhstan-Kyrgyz-Chinese
Tienshan;
3) Transbaikalia (Russia) - northern Mongolia-Southern Mongolia
- Inner Mongolia (China);
4) Primorje-Japan-Korea. The
reconstruction will be based on
the currently available and expected future data (mainly geochronological, geochemical and
geophysical).
The inferred processes, events
and mechanisms of continental
construction will be carefully
compared in relative aspects
(geochronological isotopic ages,
geochemistry, structural styles,
tectonic patterns, lithology, etc.)
with the present-day or recent/
Quaternary examples from the
Western Pacific (north to south:
Japan, Korea, East China). These
regions have been better studied
than the Central Asian Orogenic
Belt and will be used for comparison, i.e. for desktop studies.
Another important specific goal
to be reached is which social
benefits or geohazards are related to the formation of huge orogenic belts, such as the Altaids
including formation of minerals
deposits and surface/
environmental impact through
volcanism and seismicity.
All this would finally allow us to
reconstruct a whole evolutionary
pattern of this huge orogenic
system. During previous projects
many questions have been solved,
however, much more new appeared and their solution requires truly integrative activity of
a multi-country team with leaders directly from the countries
within the region of investigation
(Russia, China) and those who
have obtained a great experience
in organizing and performing scientific research in that region
during many years (UK, France).
Undoubtedly, such a team will be
capable not only to organize scientific meetings, but to accomplish the whole regional and
methodological spectrum of field
and analytical works and thus will
guarantee the successful performance of the Project.
The Project will be based on an
interdisciplinary approach including U-Pb and Ar-Ar isotope geochronology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, isotope (HfSm-Os-O) and major/trace element geochemistry, lithology,
sedimentology, micropalaeontology, tectonics, structural analysis,
palaeomagnetism, geophysics,
metallogeny and environmental
geology.
Contact:
Dr Inna Safonova
Senior research scientist
Brain Pool Program Researcher
I.V.S Sobolev Institute of Geology
and Mineralogy SBRAS
Koptyuga ave.3
Novosibirsk 630090
Russian Federation
[email protected]
Tel: + 82-42-468-3039
Website: click here
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 597
AMALGAMATION AND BREAKUP PANGÆA : THE TYPE EXAMPLE OF THE SUPER
CONTINENT CYCLE
There is widespread acceptance
that between 300 and 200 million
years ago, all of the Earth’s continental land masses were assembled into a giant supercontinent,
Pangæa, surrounded by a superocean, Panthalassa. However,
different configurations have
been proposed, e.g. Pangæa A
and B. The breakup of Pangæa
over the last 200 million years
resulted in the formation of new
oceans (such as the Atlantic, Indian and Southern) between the
dispersing continental fragments.
For the past 25 years, however,
evidence has been amassing that
Pangæa was only the latest in a
series of supercontinents that
assembled and dispersed over
the last 2.5 billion years. Although the mechanisms responsible are controversial, many geoscientists agree that repeated
cycles of supercontinent amalgamation and dispersal have not
just taken place, but have had a
profound effect on the evolution
of the Earth’s crust, atmosphere,
climate, and life.
The focus of the proposed research is to understand the
mechanisms that led to the formation of the latest supercontinent, Pangæa, and in so doing
provide a template by which the
origin of the older supercontinents can be evaluated. Although
we know to a first-order where
and when Pangæa formed, we do
not know the locations and precise timing of assembly of the
constituent pieces, and how or
why Pangæa formed. The tectonic processes involved resulted in
the creation and destruction of
oceanic lithosphere, mountains,
and by implication the mineral
endowments that accompanied
them. We will focus on the evolution of two types of Palaeozoic
oceans whose contrasting fates
were pivotal in the development
of Pangæa; (a) interior oceans,
such as the Rheic and Iapetus
oceans which were located between converging continents and
were consumed to produce
Pangæa, and (b) exterior oceans
which surrounded the continents
during the entire Paleozoic, and
became one superocean
(Panthalassa) when Pangæa
formed. Interior oceanic lithosphere originated between 600
and 500 million years ago and its
closure produced a series of orogenic events culminating about
300 million years ago with terminal collision between Laurentia
(North America), Baltica
(western Europe) and Gondwana
(South America-Africa), arguably
the principal collisional event in
the assembly of Pangæa. The evolution of the exterior ocean is
primarily preserved in the 18,000
km long Terra Australis orogen,
which was located along the periphery of Pangæa and records
sem-continuous subduction between 570 Ma and 230 Ma.
The geology that records the
evolution of these ancient oceans
was widely dispersed by the
breakup of Pangæa, and is now
widely distributed. There are
major uncertainties in the identification of the ancient margins of
these oceans, the mechanisms
and timing of initial rifting and
opening, and the geodynamics of
their closure. Key areas have
been identified for field workshops and conferences that shed
light on the origin of Pangæa.
By definition, any study of Pangæa
is global in scope. Many countries
and every continent have pieces
of the puzzle and only by bringing
geoscientists together from many
nations can we obtain a comprehensive understanding of its
origin. Our project will bring
together scientists from at least
thirty countries, from different
geological disciplines with expertise in different regions, and
from academia, government, and
industry, with the goal of understanding the processes that resulted in the amalgamation of
Pangæa will provide natural constraints for future geodynamic
models of supercontinents.
Contact:
Prof. J. Brendan Murphy
Dept. of Earth Science
St. Francis Xavier University
P.O. Box 5000,
Antigonish
NS
B2G 2W5
Canada
[email protected]
Tel: +1 902 867 2481
Website: click here
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 628
THE GONDWANA MAP PROJECT
Gondwana was the first recog‐
nised supercon nent and as such has played a pivotal role in our understanding of supercon nent cycles. It was one of the largest and long las ng supercon nents on Earth´s history, comprising five large con nents (Africa, Aus‐
tralia, Antarc ca, South America and India) and many other small‐
er masses sca ered today around the globe (e.g. Madagas‐
car, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guin‐
ea, New Zealand, Falklands, and others now embedded in Asia, Europe and USA). Amalgama on of Gondwana complete at ca. 500 million years ago, during the Cambrian period, when marine life was flourishing evolving fast to visible organisms. For more than 350 million years, this su‐
percon nent as an en ty moved between the South Pole and the low la tudes of the southern hemisphere. Large intracon nen‐
tal basins developed and regis‐
tered the evolu on of life on Earth as plants and vertebrates migrated from water to terrestri‐
al environments, culmina ng with the biggest rep les in the Mesozoic Era. The con nental margins of Gondwana were very heterogeneous. From the present day loca on of the Andes to the Papua New Guinea, ac ve tec‐
tonics predominated, with sub‐
duc on zones, collisions and ac‐
cre on of new terranes along the Gondwanides. The northern mar‐
gin of Gondwana ‐ facing the Te‐
thys Ocean ‐ was en rely differ‐
ent, with stable, wide con nental shelves and shallow seas from Northern Africa to Papua New Guinea. This extensional tectonic se ng allowed small con nental blocks to separate from Gondwa‐
na, dri ing away to be deformed and welded onto Laurasia. Finally for about 100 million years, star ng ca. 200 million years ago (Jurassic period), Gondwana started to break up into several land fragments evolving steadily into the present‐day picture of the con nents and oceans on Earth. Gondwana research involves the understanding of the evolu on of our planet, its clima c, thermal and tectonic processes and the evolu on of life itself. Since 1872, when the geologist Medlico iden fied the Gondwana flora in India, through the defini on of the Gondwana Land by Suess in 1885 and the first maps by We‐
gener and Du Toit in the dawn of the twen eth century, this major subject has been inves gated by many scien sts worldwide. A new geological map of Gondwa‐
na was published in 1988 by the AAPG, conceived by Prof. Maar‐
ten de Wit and his colleagues in South Africa. Much new data, par cularly based on modern geochronology has been generat‐
ed since, and our proposal “The Gondwana Map Project” aims to update the Gondwana Map of de Wit with an approach of the 21st century. Since 1988, the geologi‐
cal data for the regions con‐
cerned have improved incredibly in the wake of new geochrono‐
logical laboratories and inves ga‐
ve methodologies. Thorough airborne geophysical reconnais‐
sance has been extended across most parts of the cons tuent con nents. A new GIS data‐base is planned, with a dynamic digital process that will allow the con‐
struc on not just an improved Gondwana Map but also a wide variety of maps showing the evo‐
lu on of this supercon nent. Geophysical advances at con ‐
nental margins and oceanic floors, the modelling of the resto‐
ra on with new so ware and the analysis of satellite imagery per‐
mits scien fically rigorous recon‐
struc on of Gondwana. The main products will be: (a) a new Gond‐
wana Map and sets of thema c maps showing its evolu on through me; (b) a website providing to all the geological data taken into the project at the Gondwana Digital Center of Geo‐
processing (GDCG); (c) three complete book volumes about Gondwana; (d) new detailed ge‐
ology of key areas for correla on; (e) an interac ve 4‐D GIS of Gondwana (f) crea on of a per‐
manent exposi on at the Gond‐
wana Memory Center (GMC), in South America, with specimens representa ve of all parts of Gondwana. This project includes vast interna‐
onal collabora on between scien sts and students, universi‐
es, surveys and global ins tu‐
Page 7
ons. This is the only way to inte‐
grate scien fic thinking about Gondwana. In order to promote this integra on it is essen al to have undergraduate and gradu‐
ate students from many fields, making their disserta on and thesis on subjects within the pro‐
ject. The main issue is to get stu‐
dents from developing countries to access developed countries laboratories and universi es. This integra on is fundamental for the achievement of this project. It is important to stress here that Gondwana was formed mostly by the territory of actual developing countries. Africa is the key con ‐
nent to be mostly included scien‐
fically during this process of the Gondwana Map. All these digital tools, allied with the essen al basic geological data will help scien sts to review and improve the knowledge about this supercon nent that played a major role in the evolu‐
on of the Earth. These conclu‐
sions allow a be er understand‐
ing of the global geological pro‐
cesses that today affect our lives. This is one alterna ve to harmo‐
nize a sustainable future on the planet. Contact:
Dr. Renata da Silva Schmitt
Departamento de Geologia-IGEO
CCMN–Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro
Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos 274
– Sala J2-020
Ilha do Fundão
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
[email protected]
Tel: +55 (21) 2598-9482
Website: click here