英国牛津大学Jimmy Moneron团队近日揭示了石膏成岩作用下巨型崩塌构造的盆地尺度发育。相关论文发表在2025年5月29日出版的《地质学》杂志上。

在埋藏的沉积盆地中，蒸发岩序列易于溶解的性质推动了崩塌结构（如天坑）的形成，从根本上改变了大规模的景观。考虑到这些结构构成的地质灾害可能威胁到人类安全和基础设施的稳定，或可能影响地下阻力提取和地质储存，了解这些结构形成的地点、原因和方式至关重要。

研究组利用来自北海南部盆地的三维地震反射和钻孔数据，记录了在盆地规模（10,000平方公里）上发育的Zechstein超群（二叠纪）内的巨大（宽数公里，深数百米）崩塌结构。至关重要的是，这些结构总是覆盖在厚厚的岩盐覆盖的石膏上，地震-地层关系使得精确的年代测定和精确的建模成为可能。

研究组认为，早埋期石膏向硬石膏的转化引发了氯化钠欠饱和水的析出，引起盖层岩盐的溶解，导致沉积表面塌陷。由此产生的景观被掩埋，并由钾肥充填装置保存下来。据他们所知，这些构造的规模和成因机制在以前的地层记录中都没有记载。

附：英文原文

Title: Basin-scale development of giant collapse structures induced by gypsum diagenesis

Author: Jimmy Moneron, Christopher Aiden-Lee Jackson

Issue&Volume: 2025-05-29

Abstract: Across buried sedimentary basins, the dissolution-prone nature of evaporite sequences drives the formation of collapse structures (e.g., sinkholes), fundamentally transforming landscapes at large scales. Understanding where, why, and how such structures form is crucial, given that they pose geological hazards that may threaten human safety and infrastructure stability or may affect subsurface resource extraction and geological storage. We use three-dimensional seismic reflection and borehole data from the Southern North Sea Basin to document giant (kilometers wide and several hundred meters deep) collapse structures within the Zechstein Supergroup (Permian) that developed at the basin scale (>10,000 km2). Critically, these structures invariably overlie gypsum buildups capped by thick halite, with seismic-stratigraphic relationships enabling precise dating and facilitating accurate modeling. We propose that the transformation of gypsum to anhydrite during early burial initiated the extrusion of NaCl-undersaturated water, which provoked dissolution of the capping halite, leading to collapse at the depositional surface. The resulting landscape was buried and thus preserved by a potash infilling unit. To the best of our knowledge, neither the scale nor the genetic mechanism of these structures has previously been documented in the stratigraphic record.

DOI: 10.1130/G53338.1

Source: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/G53338.1/654869/Basin-scale-development-of-giant-collapseredirectedFrom=fulltext