Teh-Quei Lee

Magnetic discrimination of pyrrhotite‐ and greigite‐bearing sediment samples

By using bulk samples, rock magnetic measurements were performed to discriminate between pyrrhotite- and greigite-bearing shallow marine sediments that are now uplifted above sea level in southwestern Taiwan. Thermal demagnetization of a composite isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) was found to be effective in differentiating between the two types of sediments. To check the thermal instability and estimate the true unblocking temperature (TB) spectra of sediments containing these minerals, saturation IRMs (SIRMs) were imparted at each temperature step during demagnetization. While pyrrhotite-bearing samples showed unambiguous TB temperature spectra, greigite-bearing samples underwent considerable alteration which is responsible for most of the decrease in magnetization during thermal demagnetization. Such thermal instability of greigite is a practical and important clue for its identification. Zero-field warming of IRM from 5 to 300 K sensitively indicates the presence of pyrrhotite and trace magnetite in bulk samples without any magnetic separation.

Magnetic fabric analysis of the Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary formations of the Coastal Range of Taiwan

Abstract Over 2100 samples were collected from 130 sedimentary sites of early Pliocene to Pleistocene age in the Coastal Range of Eastern Taiwan. Their lithology is mainly unmetamorphosed marls, siltstones and sandstones and the formations are folded and faulted at different scales. Different shapes of the susceptibility ellipsoid were observed from an oblate form, with K min closely perpendicular to the bedding plane, to a “pencil” structure, with K min a K int forming a girdle around K max , reflecting an increasing tectonic contribution to the magnetic fabric. At sites where fault tectonic analysis is available, the magnetic lineation is perpendicular to the main compression. These results have a twofold significance: first, confirming previous preliminary results, they show that in such visually undeformed sediments the magnetic fabric may be, at least in part, of tectonic origin. Second, when considered together with recent paleomagnetic and tectonic data, they suggest that in the Plio-Pleistocene sediments of the Coastal Range of Taiwan the magnetic lineation arises from the compression due to the collision of the Philippine Sea and the Eurasian plates. In our interpretation, the stress pattern has rotated clockwise along with the structures during this collision.

Paleomagnetic evidence for a diachronic clockwise rotation of the Coastal Range, eastern Taiwan

Abstract Paleomagnetic results obtained from over 2100 cores sampled at 132 early Pliocene to late Pleistocene sites in the Coastal Range of eastern Taiwan indicate that, since the late Pliocene, the margin of the Philippine Sea plate has undergone a clockwise rotation of about 30° as a direct consequence of the Plio-Pleistocene collision of this plate with the Chinese Continental plate. The rotation is diachronic and started between 3 and 4 Ma ago in the northern Coastal Range then propagated southward at an average speed of the order of 70 ± 10 km/Ma. This value is in very good agreement with estimates of the southward propagation of the collision between the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasian margin in Taiwan. It is suggested that the rotation reflects the deformation of the Philippine Sea plate at depth and does not results from the shallow deformations involved in the building of the Coastal Range orogen.

From continental margin extension to collision orogen: structural development and tectonic rotation of the Hengchun peninsula, southern Taiwan

As a result of oblique collision, the Taiwan orogen propagates southward. The Hengchun peninsula in the southern tip of the Taiwan Central Range, preserving the youngest, the least deformed and the most complete accretionary prism sequences, allows therefore better understanding of the tectonic evolution of Taiwan orogen. On the Hengchun peninsula, four main stages of paleostress can be recognized by the analysis of brittle tectonics. After recording the first two stages of paleostress, rocks of the Hengchun peninsula (the Hengchun block) have undergone both tilting and counterclockwise rotation of about 90j. The structural boundaries of this rotated Hengchun block are: the Kenting Melange zone in the southwest, the Fongkang Fault in the north, and a submarine backthrust in the east. The angle of this rotation is principally calculated by the paleomagnetic analysis data and a physical model experiment. Through a systematic back-tilting and back-rotating restoration, the original orientations of the four paleostress stages of Hengchun peninsula are recognized. They are, from the ancient to the recent, a NW-SE extension, a combination of NW-SE transtension and NE-SW transpression, a NE-SW compression, and finally a combination of NE-SW transtension and NW-SE transpression. This result can be explained by a phenomenon of stress axes permutation, instead of a complex polyphase tectonism. This stress axes permutation is caused by the horizontal compression increase accompanying the propagation of the accretionary prism. Combining the tectonic and paleomagnetic data with paleocurrent and stratigraphic data enables us to reconstruct the tectonic evolution of the Hengchun peninsula. This reconstruction corresponds to the deformation history of a continental margin basin, from its opening to its intense deformation in the accretionary prism. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

An earthquake slip zone is a magnetic recorder

During an earthquake, the physical and the chemical transformations along a slip zone lead to an intense deformation within the gouge layer of a mature fault zone. Because the gouge contains ferromagnetic minerals, it has the capacity to behave as a magnetic recorder during an earthquake. This constitutes a conceivable way to identify earthquakes slip zones. In this paper, we investigate the magnetic record of the Chelungpu fault gouge that hosts the principal slip zone of the Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw 7.6, 1999, Taiwan) using Taiwan Chelungpu-fault Drilling Project core samples. Rock magnetic investigation pinpoints the location of the Chi-Chi mm-thick principal slip zone within the 16-cm thick gouge at ~1 km depth. A modern magnetic dipole of Earth magnetic field is recovered throughout this gouge but not in the wall rocks nor in the two other adjacent fault zones. This magnetic record resides essentially in two magnetic minerals; magnetite in the principal slip zone, and neoformed goethite elsewhere in the gouge. We propose a model where magnetic record: 1) is preserved during inter-seismic time, 2) is erased during co-seismic time and 3) is imprinted during post-seismic time when fluids cooled down. We suggest that the identification of a stable magnetic record carried by neoformed goethite may be a signature of friction-heating process in seismic slip zone.

Tectonic significance of magnetic susceptibility fabrics in Plio-Quaternary mudstones of southwestern foothills, Taiwan

Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) was studied in three Plio-Pleistocene turbiditic mudstone sequences accumulated in the foreland basin of southwestern Taiwan. These formations were incorporated in the front units of the collision belt and underwent folding and thrusting during the last 2 Ma. Five types of fabrics were identified from more than 3,000 samples collected in 352 sites, with 251 sites allowing determination of a magnetic lineation. NNE-SSW trends are predominant, minor N-S and NE-SW trends are present. Magnetic lineations are widespread in the lower section where folds are tight, and scarce in the youngest sediments where folds are gentle. The strong correlation between the structural features and the AMS orientations suggests a tectonic origin for most magnetic lineations superimposed on the initial flattening that results from sediment compaction. This is confirmed by tectonic studies based on structural analysis and paleostress tensor reconstructions. The tectonic studies reveal a major WNW-ESE compression, which provide orientations of compressive tectonic regimes consistent for resulting the magnetic lineations. In contrast, the hypothesis of a sedimentary origin can be ruled out in most cases, because the orientations of magnetic lineations and those of depositional fabrics (paleocurrents, sediment supply directions and even slumps) are oblique at a variety of angles. Furthermore, based on magnetostratigraphy, we conclude that this compression culminated about 0.9–1 Ma ago. Earlier minor events, NW-SE and W-E compression, have also been found and we propose that they have occurred in approximately 1 and 2 Ma ago, respectively. Thus, the main cause of AMS trend is thought to be the WNW-ESE Quaternary compression responsible for major folding and thrusting. In addition, the magnetic fabric of tectonic origin is absent, or poorly marked, in formations younger than about 0.9 Ma to the north. However, it is still recognized but decreased after about 0.7 Ma ago to the south. This indicates that the WNW-ESE compression propagated southward between 0.9 and 0.7 Ma ago, consistent with the migration of folding and thrusting during the last Taiwan collision. 527-538

Disentangling Natural and Anthropogenic Signals in Lacustrine Records: An Example from the Ilan Plain, NE Taiwan

The impact of human activities has been increasing to a degree where humans now outcompete many natural processes. When interpreting environmental and climatic changes recorded in natural archives on historical time scales, it is therefore important to be able to disentangle the relative contribution of natural and anthropogenic processes. Lake Meihua on the Ilan Plain in northeastern Taiwan offers a particularly suitable opportunity to test how human activities known from historical records can be recorded in lacustrine sediment. For this purpose, three cores from Lake Meihua have been studied by a multiproxy approach, providing the first decadal-resolution lacustrine records covering the past 150 years in Taiwan. Profiles of excess 210Pb, 137Cs and 239,240Pu from two short cores (MHL-09-01 and MHL-11-02) allowed a precise chronology to be established. The presence of a yellow, earthy layer with lower levels of organic material coincide with the record of land development associated with the construction of the San-Chin-Gong Temple during AD 1970-1982. Furthermore, in the lower part of the cores, the upwards increasing trend of inc/coh, TOC, TOC/TN, and grain size, coupled with the palynological data (increase of Alnus, Mallotus, Trema and herbs) from the nearby core MHL-5A with radiocarbon chronology, suggest that the area surrounding the lake has been significantly affected by agricultural activities since the arrival of Chinese settlers around ~AD 1874. In sum, this study demonstrates that this suite of lacustrine sediments in northeastern Taiwan has recorded human activities in agreement with historical documents, and that different human activities will leave distinct sedimentological, geochemical, and palynological signatures in the sedimentary archives. Therefore, multiproxy reconstructions are important to capture the complex nature of human-environmental interactions. A better understanding of the weathering and erosion response to human activities can also provide useful information for sustainable land-use management.

Relative paleointensity of the geomagnetic field during the past 0.8 Ma from Nihewan Basin, Hebei Province, China

We conducted a detailed rock magnetic study on upper 80 m of Jing’erwa core from the Nihewan basin. The results indicate that the sediments from Jing’erwa core are suitable for relative paleointensity study, and anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) can be used as the normalization parameter of the natural remanent magnetization (NRM). Our relative paleointensity data of upper 80 m of Jing’erwa core provide a continuous record of the intensity variation during the last 0.8 Ma, which correlates well with the results from marine sediments cores in the Pacific Ocean. This means that the sediments records are reliable for relative paleointensity of Earth’s magnetic field, and suggests that these sediments have recorded the real changes of geomagnetic field, which would provide a new method for regional stratigraphic correlation.

Multidecadally resolved polarity oscillations during a geomagnetic excursion

Significance A stalagmite-based paleomagnetic record of the post-Blake excursion reveals details of repeated centennial–millennial interhemispheric polarity drifts and saw-tooth inclination oscillations during periods of low geomagnetic field intensity at 100 thousand years before present. One surprisingly abrupt centennial reversal transition occurred in 144 ± 58 years (2σ) and provides unprecedented evidence that raises fundamental questions about the speed of geomagnetic field shifts. Such rapid polarity changes could severely affect satellites and human society in the future if the current geomagnetic field intensity continues to decrease. Polarity reversals of the geomagnetic field have occurred through billions of years of Earth history and were first revealed in the early 20th century. Almost a century later, details of transitional field behavior during geomagnetic reversals and excursions remain poorly known. Here, we present a multidecadally resolved geomagnetic excursion record from a radioisotopically dated Chinese stalagmite at 107–91 thousand years before present with age precision of several decades. The duration of geomagnetic directional oscillations ranged from several centuries at 106–103 thousand years before present to millennia at 98–92 thousand years before present, with one abrupt reversal transition occurring in one to two centuries when the field was weakest. These features indicate prolonged geodynamo instability. Repeated asymmetrical interhemispheric polarity drifts associated with weak dipole fields likely originated in Earth’s deep interior. If such rapid polarity changes occurred in future, they could severely affect satellites and human society.