IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-32484-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Crustal melting in orogenic belts revealed by eclogite thermal properties

Author

Listed:
  • Baohua Zhang

    (School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University)

  • Hongzhan Fei

    (University of Bayreuth)

  • Jianhua Ge

    (Guizhou Light Industry Technical College
    Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Lingsen Zeng

    (Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences)

  • Qunke Xia

    (School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University)

Abstract

Partial melting in the continental crust may play a critical role on the behavior of continents during collision. However, the occurrence of partial melt in orogenic continental crust is not well understood. Since the temperature of the orogen is controlled by the thermal properties of constituent rocks, we measured the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of eclogite, the most important ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks, as a function of pressure, temperature, composition, and water content, and simulated the thermal structure of the Sulu and Himalaya-Tibet orogens in eastern and southwestern China, respectively. Our results show that the temperature at ~30-km depth beneath the orogens reaches the solidus of wet granite and phengite (~940 K), therefore, the partial melting in the orogenic continental crust is well explained. The melt may facilitate the exhumation of subducted crust, produce the low seismic-velocity zone, and cause the high-conductivity anomaly in the shallow depth of orogenic belts.

Suggested Citation

  • Baohua Zhang & Hongzhan Fei & Jianhua Ge & Lingsen Zeng & Qunke Xia, 2022. "Crustal melting in orogenic belts revealed by eclogite thermal properties," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-32484-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32484-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32484-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-32484-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lu Wang & Timothy M. Kusky & Ali Polat & Songjie Wang & Xingfu Jiang & Keqing Zong & Junpeng Wang & Hao Deng & Jianmin Fu, 2014. "Partial melting of deeply subducted eclogite from the Sulu orogen in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. M. J. Unsworth & A. G. Jones & W. Wei & G. Marquis & S. G. Gokarn & J. E. Spratt, 2005. "Crustal rheology of the Himalaya and Southern Tibet inferred from magnetotelluric data," Nature, Nature, vol. 438(7064), pages 78-81, November.
    3. Bjørn Jamtveit & Yehuda Ben-Zion & François Renard & Håkon Austrheim, 2018. "Earthquake-induced transformation of the lower crust," Nature, Nature, vol. 556(7702), pages 487-491, April.
    4. Thomas J. Owens & George Zandt, 1997. "Implications of crustal property variations for models of Tibetan plateau evolution," Nature, Nature, vol. 387(6628), pages 37-43, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Guiling & Liu, Yanguang & Duan, Hexiao & Liu, Zhiyan & Hu, Jing & Bian, Kai & Xing, Linxiao, 2023. "Crust-mantle differentiation and thermal accumulation mechanisms in the north China plain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 63-74.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhipeng Zhou & Hans Thybo & Irina M. Artemieva & Timothy Kusky & Chi-Chia Tang, 2024. "Crustal melting and continent uplift by mafic underplating at convergent boundaries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Chaofeng Wu & Xiangyun Hu & Guiling Wang & Yufei Xi & Wenjing Lin & Shuang Liu & Bo Yang & Jianchao Cai, 2018. "Magnetotelluric Imaging of the Zhangzhou Basin Geothermal Zone, Southeastern China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Zhanwu Lu & Xiaoyu Guo & Rui Gao & Michael Andrew Murphy & Xingfu Huang & Xiao Xu & Sanzhong Li & Wenhui Li & Junmeng Zhao & Chunsen Li & Bo Xiang, 2022. "Active construction of southernmost Tibet revealed by deep seismic imaging," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-32484-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.