Dynamics of ductile crust

韧性地壳动力学

• 批准号: 8999-2010
• 负责人: Bailey, Richard
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=521208
• 关键词: Dynamics; ductile; crust

Our ability find mineral resources is guided by our understanding of past geologic processes that created those mineral resources, which can suggest the geologic signatures that can guide us to future resources. The precambian shield forms a very large part of Canada, and hosts many of the country's mines as well as undiscovered future resources. Despite this reliance on some of the oldest rocks on Earth for our mineral wealth, we still do not fully understand the large scale geologic processes that formed them. Two major enigmas stand between us and understanding these early rocks (and modern ones). The first enigma is how subduction initiates, at a tectonic plate edge. Subduction is the process by which one edge of a plate sinks into the Earth's mantle below the crust of an adjacent plate, pulling its own plate behind itself across the surface of the planet. Using sophisticated computer simulation of the physics (stresses, strains, heat flows, and heat-generated softening of rocks), I will investigate whether the ductile deformation of the softer water-altered (serpentinized) rocks of the ocean floor, buried under sediments at a continental margin, can destroy the mechanical integrity of a tectonic plate there, permitting the severed edge to sink, initiating subduction.

我们发现矿产资源的能力取决于我们对过去地质过程的理解，这些地质过程创造了这些矿产资源，这可以表明地质特征，可以指导我们找到未来的资源。前寒武纪地盾构成了加拿大很大的一部分，并拥有该国的许多矿山以及未被发现的未来资源。尽管我们依赖地球上一些最古老的岩石来获得矿产财富，但我们仍然不完全了解形成它们的大规模地质过程。我们在理解这些早期岩石（和现代岩石）之间存在两个主要的谜团。 第一个谜是俯冲是如何在构造板块边缘开始的。俯冲是板块的一个边缘沉入邻近板块地壳下的地幔的过程，将自己的板块拉过地球表面。利用复杂的物理学计算机模拟（应力、应变、热流和岩石的热软化），我将研究埋藏在大陆边缘沉积物下的海底较软的水蚀变（蛇纹化）岩石的韧性变形是否会破坏那里构造板块的机械完整性，使切断的边缘下沉，引发俯冲。