Mapping the Moho depth and ocean-continent transition in the South China Sea using gravity inversion

Zhang, Jie; Yang, Guangliang; Tan, Hongbing; Wu, Guoxiong; Wang, Jiapei

doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2021.104864

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In other words, the real Moho density contrast in the SCS basin may be less than the regional mean density contrast. This can be attributed to the oceanic lithosphere's thermal cooling effect (Bai et al., 2014; Gozzard et al., 2019; J. Zhang et al., 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Improved Method to Moho Depth Recovery From Gravity Disturbance and Its Application in the South China Sea

Chen

2022

JGR Solid Earth

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The Mohorovĩcíc discontinuity (Moho) is the boundary between the Earth's crust and upper mantle. It is critical to determine accurate Moho depth for gaining insight into the deep structure of the Earth, material and energy exchange processes, and geodynamic problems (Ebbing et al., 2018;Gozzard et al., 2019;Xu et al., 2017). Currently, the seismic and gravimetric methods are the primary geophysical methods for determining the depth of Moho. Seismic methods are quite expensive, and seismic stations are sparse in many regions with extreme conditions (e.g., ocean, plateau, and polar). In addition, seismic methods could be ineffective for recovering three-dimensional (3D) Moho topography across vast regions. Along with seismic surveys, gravity observations can also be used to estimate the Moho depth. In recent decades, as satellite-gravity missions, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) (Tapley et al., 2004), the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) (Floberghagen et al., 2011), GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) (Kornfeld et al., 2019), and satellite altimetry (Sandwell et al., 2014) have advanced, it is now possible to obtain high resolution and accurate gravity data with almost global and homogeneous coverage. At the moment, several global gravity field models (GGMs) have been constructed with high accuracy and resolution by combining terrestrial, altimetric, and satellite gravity data, such as EGM2008 (Pavlis et al., 2012), EIGEN-6C4 (Förste et al., 2014), and XGM2019e_2159 (Zingerle et al., 2020. These GGMs with maximum degree/order of 2190 (Spatial resolution ∼10 km) have been

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Improved Method to Moho Depth Recovery From Gravity Disturbance and Its Application in the South China Sea

Chen

2022

JGR Solid Earth

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“…The oldest identified magnetic lineations are about 32 Ma, and the latest magnetic lineations are about 15.5 Ma [41,42]. The distribution of striped magnetic anomalies (Figure 3) suggests that the SCS basin was formed by a gradual east-west expansion and that the eastern part of the basin began to expand before the western part [53], which began at about 32 Ma and stopped at 15.5 Ma [31]. The former N-S directional spreading formed the Northwest Sub-basin (NWSB) and the East Sub-basin (ESB), and the ESB seafloor spreading began at 29.7 Ma [54].…”

Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 98%

Geodynamic Mechanism of the Evolution of the South China Sea Basin: Simulation Based on the Finite Difference Method

Liu,

2024

Applied Sciences

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The South China Sea is in the convergence zone of the Pacific plate, the Indo-Australian plate, and the Eurasian plate. Its formation and tectonic evolution were influenced by continental margin spreading and plate interaction between the three plates and their microcontinents. It has a complex geodynamic background. To understand how continents break up to form ocean basins, the South China Sea Basin is taken as an example to study the dynamic mechanism of its formation and evolution and the driving force of seafloor spreading, so as to understand the relationship between oceanic–continental lithosphere plates. The South China Sea basin’s opening mechanism and its principal factors of control remain controversial. To explore the influence of different extension rates, we summarized the different genesis mechanisms of the South China Sea, and combined with the tectonic section of the basin, the numerical simulation was obtained based on the finite difference method. The results obtained from numerical simulations show that the rapid extension rate was one of the important factors in the asymmetric expansion of the model, with other factors such as the thickness and rheological properties of the lithosphere held constant. The lithospheric mantle continued thinning in the stress concentration area, with the crust being pulled apart before the lithospheric mantle, eventually forming an ocean basin corresponding to the east sub-basin. However, when the extension rate was low, the model expanded almost symmetrically, and the lithosphere thinning occurred at a slow rate. The simulation results confirm that, compared with the southwest sub-basin of the South China Sea, the spreading rate of the east sub-basin was even higher. We believe that the subduction of the proto-South China Sea played a crucial role in the opening of the South China Sea, providing a more reasonable mechanism. The opposite movement of the Indo-Australian plate and Kalimantan may have inhibited the formation of the southwest sub-basin of the South China Sea, resulting in a later spreading of the southwest sub-basin than the east sub-basin, as well as a lower rate of spreading than the east sub-basin.

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“…A crustal transition region is found between normal continental crust and oceanic crust, which is called ocean-continent transition (OCT). It's common in the passive continental margin (Zhang et al, 2021). The OCT can usually be identified by crust thickness and the Moho depth.…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D high-efficiency property inversion method for potential field data in ellipsoidal coordinate system and its application to South China Sea

Jiang,

Ma,

Wang

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The method of property inversion for gravity and magnetic data in ellipsoidal coordinate system is more suitable for obtaining large-area physical structure of the Earth. We built a method of high-efficiency property inversion for gravity and magnetic data in ellipsoidal coordinate system to obtain the density and magnetic susceptibility structure and used the exchangeability and equivalence of the grids at the same latitude to improve the inversion efficiency; in addition, a volume weight function was introduced to suppress the influence of the difference in grid size caused by latitudinal variation to improve the precision. We also first derived the forward formula of magnetic anomaly in ellipsoidal coordinate system according to the Gauss–Legendre quadrature (GLQ) and Poisson's formula for inversion. The high-efficiency inversion method for gravity and magnetic data in ellipsoidal coordinate system was tested on theoretical models, which can better restore the property distribution of the source, improve the computing efficiency and reduce memory requirements. The method was applied to the gravity data of South China Sea to obtain the 3D density structure, and the boundaries of ocean-continent transition were obtained based on the density and magnetic susceptibility variation characteristics. The results can better reveal the process of South China Sea expansion.

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Mapping the Moho depth and ocean-continent transition in the South China Sea using gravity inversion

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

An Improved Method to Moho Depth Recovery From Gravity Disturbance and Its Application in the South China Sea

An Improved Method to Moho Depth Recovery From Gravity Disturbance and Its Application in the South China Sea

Geodynamic Mechanism of the Evolution of the South China Sea Basin: Simulation Based on the Finite Difference Method

3D high-efficiency property inversion method for potential field data in ellipsoidal coordinate system and its application to South China Sea

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