Mechanism of formation of deep basins in continental crust in fold belts

Abstract

Formation of deep basins in continental crust is usually explained by stretching. Intense stretching produces typical deformations in sedimentary cover. These deformations are observed in rift valleys. Deformations produced by stretching can in principle be revealed in presentsedimentary basins. There are also simple ways to reveal such deformations in fold belts, where the remmants of numerous deep basins in the continental crust were found. The sedimentary cover structure was analyzed in the Urals, Appalachians, Scandinavian Caledonides, North-American Cordilleras and in the Alpine, Verkhoyansk and Franklinian fold belts, but no deformations that are typical for significant stretching of continental lithosphere have been found there in most of the deep basins in the continental crust. These basins were commonly formed in cool cratonic areas by very rapid subsidence of the duration of a few million years. Such subsidence cannot be explained by thermal relaxation. Thrust loading as a cause of subsidence can also be excluded in most cases. The authors suggest a gabbro to eclogite transformation with the destruction of the basaltic layer as a possible cause of rapid subsidence. This occurs under upwelling of wet asthenosphere of not too high temperature to the base of the crust. Crustal attenuation from destruction of the basaltic layer permits an intense subsequent crustal shortening. This may explain why continental crust was intensely compressed only in those regions, where rapid subsidence of large magnitude took place.