Characterizing Melt Flow in the Anatectic Zone

地壳中岩石的熔融是造山(造山)过程中的一个重要过程。它可以解释山带上部的大量花岗岩，如出露在地质活动的喜马拉雅山脉带和被侵蚀的阿巴拉契亚和华力西造山带中的花岗岩，并负责大陆地壳的化学分异。此外，熔体和熔体运动的存在，特别是从深部地壳来源提取熔体和在浅层地壳侵位，影响地壳的流变性，并可能极大地影响与造山有关的变形方式。该项目旨在限制大陆地壳中岩石熔融产生的熔体运动的性质。为了做到这一点，一些成熟的和一些新颖的技术将被用来限制曾经容纳熔体的岩石中熔体分布的几何形状。新技术包括岩石中与熔体有关的结构的定量图像分析、高分辨率计算机X射线断层扫描和扫描电子显微镜阴极发光。由此获得的对熔体空间分布的约束将允许评估与熔体运动相关的可能的熔体流动和变形机制。反过来，这将有助于限制可能的大量熔体堆积的速度，以及熔体伴随的变形速度，从而洞察活动山带的物理和化学演化。

Brown 0003531Melting of rocks in Earth's crust is an important process during mountain building (orogeny). It can account for the large volume of granite in upper levels of mountain belts, such as are exposed in the geologically active Himalayan mountain belt and in the eroded Appalachian and Variscan orogenic belts, and it is responsible for the chemical differentiation of the continental crust. In addition, the presence of melt and melt movement, in particular the extraction of melt from deep crustal sources and emplacement of melt in shallower crust, influence the rheology of the crust and can greatly affect the style of deformation associated with mountain building. This project aims to constrain the nature of the movement of melt generated by the fusion of rocks in the continental crust. To do this, a number of techniques, some well established and some novel, will be used to constrain the geometry of melt distribution in rocks that once hosted melt. New techniques include quantitative image analysis of melt-related structures in rocks, high-resolution computed X-ray tomography, and scanning electron microscope cathodoluminescence. Constraints thus obtained on the spatial distribution of melt will allow an assessment of the possible melt flow and deformation mechanisms associated with melt movement. This, in turn, will serve to constrain the possible rates of melt accumulation in large volumes, and the rates of melt-attended deformation, providing insight into the physical and chemical evolution of active mountain belts.