Contribution To Knowledges Of Tectonics And Mineral Resources In East Asia

Extensive descriptions of a wide range of key or world-class mineral deposits of China are presented in the context of the country’s general geology, tectonic units and mineral systems and their geodynamic evolution within the tectonic framework of the Asian continent. This comprehensive overview, incorporating the latest geological concepts, is the first such coverage written in English by a western expert, and will be of benefit to mineral explorers and miners, as well as to research scientists and students in institutions of higher education. In his compilation of this compendium of Chinese geology and mineral systems, Franco Pirajno draws on first-hand knowledge of China’s geology and mineral deposits gained in numerous field visits and research projects with Chinese colleagues from various academic institutions over the past 18 years. First time that a western-based book on China’s geology and mineral deposits is published Appropriate for use by the mineral exploration industry Modern English-language geological and mineral deposits information on China Most useful to Western (and Chinese) geoscientists

The book provides the results of tectonic, geological and geophysical studies of Northern, Central and Eastern Asia obtained over the last 20 years, and a Tectonic map for this area overview as well as essays on its geodynamic evolution. These new results were obtained by an international team of specialists within the project “Atlas of geological maps of Central Asia and adjacent areas,” scale 1: 2,500,000, initiated in 2003 by geological surveys of Russia, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and South Korea under the auspices of the CGMW. The most of the book contains the descriptions of the tectonic structure of major geological regions of Asia, such as the Ural, Sayan-Baikal and Tien Shan orogenic systems. The tectonic structure of the Pamirs, Turan Plate, Mongolia, Southern China, Korea and other regions is also discussed. The book contains maps of gravity and magnetic anomalies, sketch maps of deep structures of the area, and the geotransect crossing the most important geological structures of Asia. The final chapter of the book describes the tectonic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt from the Neoproterozoic to the Mesozoic.

Orogenic belts and their shallow-soled fringes, the fold-thrust belts, are globally distributed in up to 20,000 km long mountain chains along the edges of the continents. Their locations, their geological origin in a mobile Earth, and their natural resources have drawn attention from the time of the Spanish and Portuguese global explorers to modernage geologists such as Emile Argand, Rein van Bemmelen, Albert Bally. Walter Bucher, Peter Coney, Augusto Gansser, A.M. Spencer, Hans Stille, Eduard Suess, and many others. Petroleum explorers have also accumulated and interpreted data from fold-thrust belts, but their collections have largely remained unpublished. The book is of interest to all geologists, resources engineers, technical consultants, and of course to the academic readership from all fields of the geosciences.

"The major purpose of this volume is to provide a comprehensive synthesis of the regional geology, tectonics, and metallogenesis of Northeast Asia for readers who are unfamiliar with the region and for researchers who desire detailed information on the region. The major parts of the volume are (1) an introductory chapter; (2) a chapter on methodology of regional metallogenic and tectonic analysis; (3) a chapter on mineral deposit models for the region; (4) five chapters that describe the regional metallogenesis and tectonics of the region from the Archean through the Present for successive time stages; (5) a chapter on a metallogenic and tectonic model for the region; and (6) three appendixes, including on a description of the project and products, a description of map units for the Northeast Asia geodynamics map, and a summary table of metallogenic belts for the region. An important goal of the volume is to demonstrate how a high-quality metallogenic and tectonic analysis, including construction of an associated metallogenic-tectonic model, greatly benefits other mineral resource studies by (1) synthesizing of mineral-deposit models, (2) improving prediction of undiscovered mineral deposits as part of quantitative mineral-resource-assessment studies, (3) assisting land-use and mineral-exploration planning, (4) improving knowledge of regional geology; (5) improving interpretations of the origins of host rocks, mineral deposits, and metallogenic belts, and (6) suggesting new research. Research on the metallogenesis and tectonics of such major regions as Northeast Asia requires a complex methodology including (1) definitions of key terms, (2) compilation of a regional geologic base map that can be interpreted according to modern tectonic concepts and definitions, (3) compilation of a mineral-deposit database that enables a determination of mineral-deposit models and clarification of the relations of deposits to host rocks and tectonic origins, (4) synthesis of a series of mineral-deposit models that characterize the known mineral deposits and inferred undiscovered deposits in the region, (5) compilation of a series of metallogenic-belt belts constructed on the regional geologic base map, and (6) construction of a unified metallogenic and tectonic model. The Northeast Asia study area consists of eastern Russia (most of eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East), Mongolia, northern China, South Korea, Japan, and adjacent offshore areas. Major cooperative agencies are the Russian Academy of Sciences; the Academy of Sciences of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia); VNIIOkeangeologia and Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation; the Mongolian Academy of Sciences; the Mongolian University of Science and Technology; the Mongolian National University; Jilin University, Changchun, People's Republic of China; the China Geological Survey; the Korea Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources; the Geological Survey of Japan/AIST; the University of Texas, Arlington; and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This study builds on and extends the data and interpretations from a previous project on the Major Mineral Deposits, Metallogenesis, and Tectonics of the Russian Far East, Alaska, and the Canadian Cordillera conducted by the USGS, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, and the Geological Survey of Canada. The major products of the Northeast Asia project are described in appendix A."--Executive summary.

Contains publications compiled in 1997 and 1998 on mineral resource data files, articles on mineral deposits models, metallogenesis, regional tectonics, and tectonic map explanations; with color regional tectonic maps and figures.