Deep electrical structure of the Sulu orogen and neighboring areas

Abstract

Because of the discovery of ultrahigh pressure metamorphic (UHPM) belt beneath the Sulu (Jiangsu Province-Shandong Province) orogen, this area has become a focused subject of current geoscience, as it has a close relationship with the evolution of the orogen and the neighboring North China craton. Probing the deep structure beneath this area would be of great significance for the geological interpretation of this issue. In this study, we make an analysis of magnetotelluric (MT) data along a profile across the Sulu orogen to provide evidence of deep structure below this region. The profile begins in west from the North China block, extending in S129°E, across the Tan-Lu fault, Sulu UHPM zone, and Sulu high pressure metamorphic (HPM) zone, and terminates in the Yangtze block in east. We use the nonlinear conjugate gradient method and TE-TM combined mode to perform inversion and interpretation of the MT data, and obtain an electrical structure image above depth of 150 km along the profile. It shows that the structure can be divided into seven sections in lateral direction, between which the electric boundaries coincide well with the major faults, such as the Tan-Lu, Haizhou-Siyang, and Jiashan-Xiangshui faults. In vertical direction the electrical structure can be subdivided into six layers of different resistivities. It is noted that there exist high-conductivity areas in crust below the North China block and Yangtze block, while such a feature is not present beneath the Sulu orogen, which is very different from the Dabie orogen. It is also observed that a fairly continuous zone of relatively low-resistivity exists at depths of 50–90 km of the electrical structure image, which is presumably a weak zone in the uppermost mantle. Just below this low-resistivity zone are the relatively high- resistivity layer of the North China block, relatively low-resistivity layer of the Sulu orogen, and relatively high-resistivity layer of the Yangtze block, all in the shallow upper mantle, respectively. From the whole 2D electrical structure image, there is no abnormally low-resistivity layer in the shallow upper mantle beneath the Sulu orogen and neighboring areas, indicating that no hot asthenoshperic material associated with lithospheric thinning exists at present.