Collisional Magmatism during the Amalgamation of Pangea: Implications for Crustal Growth Processes

大陆地壳几乎覆盖了地球表面的40%，一般认为地壳生长从太古代早期一直持续到今天。传统上，地壳生长被认为主要是通过岛弧和大陆弧岩浆作用完成的，碰撞造山作用负责改造大陆地壳。 然而，现代碰撞造山带的最新研究表明，许多岩浆岩记录亏损地幔同位素的签名。 这种关系表明，大陆俯冲和碰撞带可能是壳幔相互作用和物质转移、新生岩浆生成和陆壳生长的关键场所。 岩浆作用发生在从大陆俯冲、折返到造山塌陷的碰撞过程中的不同阶段，围绕着岩浆作用的成因、壳幔相互作用的过程、岩浆作用与大陆生长的关系以及大陆地壳的演化等问题，至今仍存在许多争议。 为了研究这些关系，我将集中在晚古生代华力西造山带的西欧，在组装期间形成的，合并的最近的超大陆，盘古大陆。这一有据可查的碰撞造山带提供了在大陆碰撞的不同阶段形成的各种岩浆岩的出露，因此，为研究超大陆合并过程中的壳幔过程和地壳生长提供了一个很好的框架，进而评估晚古生代碰撞岩浆活动对全球地壳演化的作用。 拟议的研究将集中在华力西造山带周围的关键地点，每个地点都包含在大陆碰撞期间不同时间形成的暴露的岩浆岩。我和我的学生将研究岩浆岩的场关系、年龄（U/Pb年代学）和构造演化，为区域构造演化提供时空框架。 这些观测结果和数据将被用来帮助解释地球化学和同位素特征，以评估地壳和地幔之间的相互作用如何随着不断演变的碰撞过程而变化。 这项研究是基于我现有的研究实力，并代表了许多本科生，研究生和其他HQP的机会。我提出的计划的总体目标是有助于了解华力西造山带期间的碰撞岩浆活动，提供深入了解造山岩浆活动，潜在的晚古生代地壳生长和复杂的构造与超大陆合并的成因。

Continental crust covers almost 40% of the earth's surface and it is generally accepted that crustal growth has lasted from the early Archean to present-day. Traditionally, crustal growth was considered as accomplished primarily through island arc and continental arc magmatism with collisional orogenesis responsible for reworking of the continental crust. However, recent investigations of modern collisional orogens suggest that many magmatic rocks record depleted mantle isotopic signatures. This relationship suggests that continental subduction and collision zones may be key sites for the interaction and mass transfer between the crust and the mantle, the generation of juvenile magmas and the growth of continental crust. Magmatism occurs at different stages during the collisional process from continental subduction, exhumation to orogenic collapse, and much controversy still exists surrounding the (i) genesis of this magmatism, (ii) processes associated with crust and the mantle interaction, (iii) relationship of this magmatism to continental growth, and (iv) detailed evolution of the continental crust throughout earth's history. In order to investigate these relationships, I will focus on the late Paleozoic Variscan orogen of Western Europe, which formed during the assembly, and amalgamation of the most recent supercontinent, Pangea. This well-documented collisional orogen provides exposure of a wide range of magmatic rocks, which formed at different stages of the continental collision and, therefore, provides an excellent framework to investigate crust-mantle processes and crustal growth during supercontinent amalgamation and, in turn, assess the role of late Paleozoic collisional magmatism to the global crustal evolution. The proposed research will focus on key locations around the Variscan orogen that each contains exposed magmatic rocks that formed at different times during the continental collision. My students and I will study the field relationships, age (U/Pb geochronology) and structural evolution of magmatic rocks to provide a space-time framework for the regional tectonic evolution. These observations and data will then be used to help interpret the geochemistry and isotopic signatures to assess how the interaction between the crust and mantle potentially changes with the evolving collision process. This research is based solidly on my existing research strengths, and represents many undergraduate, graduate student and other HQP opportunities. The overall goal of my proposed program is to contribute to the understanding of the collisional magmatism during the Variscan Orogen, providing insight into the understanding of the genesis of orogenic magmatism, potential late Paleozoic crustal growth and the complex tectonics associated with supercontinent amalgamation.