Crust-mantle interactions beneath the Hangai Mountains in western Mongolia: Insights from 3D magnetotelluric studies and 4D thermo-mechanical modelling

蒙古西部的汉盖山脉是研究地壳-地幔相互作用在空间和时间上造成的正在进行和过去的陆内造山和岩浆过程的理想天然实验室。虽然这种大陆内部的隆起和沉降长期以来被认为是大陆构造的重要组成部分，但其起源仍然是个谜。解释是多样的和有争议的，包括热上涌地幔上方的隆起，小规模的软流圈上涌，岩浆底侵，地壳拆沉和下地壳流动。在地球物理和地质数据和模型的约束下，热-力学模拟现在可以模拟真实的构造过程并检验不同的地球动力学假设。虽然过去和正在进行的地球物理研究集中在重力和地震学，大地电磁（MT）数据是从汉爱失踪。然而，大地电磁数据特别重要，因为这些是估计地壳和上地幔电导率的唯一手段，而电导率对流体和部分熔融非常敏感。另一方面，含水相和熔体为校准热机械模型提供了关键参数。在这个项目中，我们建议使用3D MT成像Hangai山下的地壳和上地幔电导率，并推导出4D高分辨率热机械模拟研究的约束条件。我们希望得到流体/熔体体积的估计，并确定流变学薄弱的MT数据，如果存在的地区。这项研究的目的是了解造成杭爱山动态地形发展的过程，并将其置于壳幔相互作用和动态地形的更大框架内。该项目的关键组成部分是：1）在蒙古西部采集、处理和反演MT数据，建立三维电导率模型; 2）利用实验室电导率模型的约束条件指导四维热机械建模; 3）进行四维热机械建模。拟议的项目是ETH苏黎世（ETH，瑞士）和明斯特大学（UoM;德国）在德国-奥地利-瑞士（DACH）联合计划框架内的合作，并将与蒙古科学院天文学和地球物理学研究中心（RCAG）合作开展。该项目的合作伙伴联合收割机在大地电磁数据采集、大地电磁数据处理、大地电磁正反演模拟和受地球物理约束的四维正演热-力学模拟等领域具有专长。该项目的主要预期成果是：1）蒙古汉盖穹隆下的第一个三维地电模型; 2）大陆内部岩石圈变形、岩浆活动、与地球物理和地质观测相一致的动态地形演化。

The dome-shaped Hangai Mountain range in western Mongolia is an ideal natural laboratory for studying on-going and past intra-continental orogenic and magmatic processes resulting from crust-mantle interactions in space and time. While such intra-continental uplift and subsidence have long been recognized as an important part of continental tectonics, their origin remains enigmatic. The explanations are diverse and controversial and include uplift above a hot upwelling mantle, small-scale asthenospheric upwelling, magmatic underplating, crustal delamination and lower crustal flow. Thermo-mechanical modelling, when constrained by geophysical and geological data and models, can nowadays simulate realistic tectonic processes and test for different geodynamic hypotheses. While past and on-going geophysical studies have focused on gravity and seismology, magnetotelluric (MT) data are missing from the Hangai. MT data are particularly important, however, as these are the sole means of estimating crustal and upper mantle electrical conductivity, which is very sensitive to fluids and partial melt. Hydrous phases and melt, on the other hand, provide critical parameters for calibrating thermo-mechanical models. In this project, we propose to image crustal and upper mantle electrical conductivity beneath Hangai Mountains using 3D MT and to derive constraints for 4D high-resolution thermo-mechanical modelling studies. We expect to derive estimates on fluid/melt volumes and to identify regions of rheological weakness from the MT data, if present. The study aims to understand the processes responsible for developing dynamic topography in the Hangai Mountains and to place them within the larger framework of crust-mantle interactions and dynamic topography. The key components of the project are to 1) acquire, process, and invert MT data in western Mongolia in terms of 3D conductivity models; 2) to guide 4D thermo-mechanical modelling with constraints that derive from laboratory-based electrical conductivity models; 3) to perform 4D thermo-mechanical modelling. The proposed project is a collaboration between ETH Zurich (ETHZ, Switzerland) and the University of Münster (UoM; Germany) in the framework of the joint German-Austrian-Swiss (DACH) program and will be carried out in cooperation with the Research Center of Astronomy and Geophysics (RCAG) of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. The project partners combine expertise in the fields of MT data acquisition, MT data processing, MT forward and inverse modelling, and geophysically-constrained 4D forward thermo-mechanical modelling.The main expected outputs from the project are 1) the first 3D geo-electrical model beneath the Hangai dome in Mongolia and 2) a geomorphological-thermo-mechanical model of intra-continental lithospheric deformation, magmatic activity, and evolution of dynamic topography that is consistent with the geophysical and geological observations.