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Proposed Short Course/Lecture Series

Architecture of the Continents

Interpretations based largely on Gravity & Magnetic expressions
by Dick Gibson, Gibson Consulting, Butte, Montana

> This program is based on Dick Gibson's experience with gravity and magnetic data sets from many parts of the world. The course would be modular (i.e., people could participate in any individual session, with attendance not required for every continent), with a 1- to 2-hour session (tending toward shorter, 1-1½ hours) covering each continent. A package progam lasting 1 day or 1½ days is available, though the outline given below may be changed and somewhat abbreviated. In addition to specific features expressed in gravity and magnetic data, the presentations would include overviews of tectonic history, structural style, and hydrocarbon resources of each area. Although the focus is on the continents, features in adjacent oceanic areas would not be ignored.

This program is designed for oil exploration personnel, but can be tailored to university audiences as well. Cost will be negotiable for all potential clients.

Tentative Outline

Session 1 (1-1½ hours - all participants should attend)

Overview of the kinds of information present in gravity and magnetic data. Fundamental concepts of gravity & magnetic interpretation. Types of data sets. Basics of acquisition, processing, etc.

Session 2 - North America (1½-2 hrs)

Regional expressions of basement terranes.
Orogenic belts, anorogenic magmatism
Amalgamation of North America: history of the continent, sutures and other features
Africa Suture (Brunswick Anomaly) Grenville Front Trans-Hudson Orogen + other Canadian Shield features Alaskan Terranes Mexico
Discussions of specific features, including:
East Coast Magnetic Anomaly Mid-Continent & Mid-Michigan Rift Systems New York-Alabama Lineament Wiggins Arch-Mississippi Salt Basin West Texas Williston Basin + eastern Montana Great Valley Anomalies (California) Wyoming Foreland Basin & Range

Session 3 - South America (1-1½ hrs)

Shields, Rifts, sutures The Andes Caribbean Complexities (including Venezuela & Colombia) Sub-Andean hydrocarbon basins; expressions of thrusting Discussion of Argentina-Texas connection hypothesis

Session 4 - Africa (1-1½ hrs)

Precambrian (Pan-African) amalgamation: the cratons Margins: extensional, transform, collisional Hercynian Suture Rifts: Karroo, Anza-Sudan-Libya, Niger, East Africa, Danakil-Red Sea Madagascar Central Africa Shear Zone Thick/thin crust

Session 5 - Europe (east of Urals) (1-1½ hrs)

Baikalian collisions and amalgamations: cratons Pre- and Post-Baikalian rifting (Russian Platform; Dnieper Graben, Rhine-North Sea rifts Caledonian, Variscan, Hercynian orogenesis Development of North Caspian basin region Alpine orogenesis, modern architecture of Mediterranean Sea area

Session 6 - Northern and Southwestern Asia (Siberia, Central Asia, Iran, etc.) (1½-2 hrs)

Plate tectonic history, cratons and microcontinents Ophiolites and sutures West Siberian Rift, West Siberian Basin East Siberia, Vilyuy Aulacogen, Verkhoyansk Collision Alpine-Cimmerian collisions & sutures in southern Central Asia Soviet Far East, Tertiary Island Arc tectonics, Alaska Connections?

Session 7 - South and East Asia (China, India, Himalayas, SE Asia, etc. 1-1½ hrs)

Cratons and microcontinents of China; history Sichuan Basin, Ordos Basin, coastal back-arc/rift basins Himalayas, crustal thickness, etc. Burma-Thailand-Indochina

Session 8 - Australia and vicinity (1-1½ hrs)

Australian cratons and tectonics New Guinea, New Zealand Indonesia; western Pacific tectonics

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