Earth's history has been witness to recurrently alternating phases of catastrophic evolution and dominant tectonic deformations, contractions and extension of rifting and spreading leading to quasi-cyclic changes in sedimentary environment and various earth processes. Recent studies have shown quasi-periodicities of 32 2 Million years (Myr) in various endogenic (geomagnetic reversals, magmatic ...

This chapter presents the Late Quaternary neo-tectonic movement in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China and its effects on the coastal sedimentary environment. Taking the Xilin Hill fault as the example, we have explained the reason of the PRD formation, inferred its interactions with local/regional climate and sea-level changes, and analyzed the evolution of the PRD formation and its co...

Building upon the foundation of the prior investigations, a three-fold classification of tight gas reservoirs is proposed in this paper which is based primarily on dynamic relationship between gas charging history and reservoir tightening process, coupled with tectonic evolution, source-reservoir relationship, migration and charging pattern. The three categories of tight gas are: (1) “pre-exist...

Passive continental margin subsidence is initiated by the synrift mechanical stretching of the lithospheric upper brittle layer and continues during the postrift phase; the thermal cooling and contraction of the upwelled asthenosphere forces the margin to subside in addition to the overloads from sea water and sediments. Therefore, the total subsidence in stretched basins includes faultcontroll...

Rapid India-Asia convergence has led to a major continental collision and formation of the Himalayas, the highest mountain range on Earth. Knowledge of the paleolatitude of the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc (KLA), an intermediate tectonic unit currently situated between the converging Indian and Eurasian continents in Western Himalaya, would constrain the tectonic history and dynamics of Himalayan orogen...

The Tian Shan range lies in the actively deforming part of the India-Asia collision zone. The uplift rate and deformation pattern of the Tian Shan are important for understanding the dynamics of crustal deformation in the region. The river terraces in northern Tian Shan provide key records of past changes in climate and/or regional tectonics. In this study, a terrace sequence along the Manas Ri...

Geological models of subduction zones impact thinking about many of the central problems in the structure, dynamics, chemistry, and history of the solid earth. Should those models change, the effects will reach across the earth sciences. We are currently in the midst of such a change, brought on by several causes. First, the earth science community recently began an organized, multi-disciplinar...

Past plate motions display a range of variability, including speedups and slowdowns that cannot easily be attributed to changes in mantle related driving forces. One key controlling factor for these variations is the surface topography at convergent margins, as previous modeling shows that the topographic load of large mountain belts consumes a significant amount of the driving forces available...

[1] Sediment fans are a potentially useful and underexploited recorder of Earth’s climatic and tectonic history, but historical observations have led to conflicting views on the importance of tectonic, climatic, and lithologic variables in controlling fan morphology and deposition. A one-dimensional model of a sediment fan and its associated catchment is used to explore the sensitivity of such ...