近日，中国地质大学Yu-Xin Chang团队揭示了两次造山旋回后沉积物输运对锆石边缘的擦除。相关论文发表在2025年9月17日出版的《地质学》杂志上。

锆石的物理化学弹性是其越来越多地应用于破译地球历史上的地质过程的关键。然而，锆石并非不受机械磨损和化学蚀变的影响。在S2S体系输沙过程中，中位锆石边缘厚度减少了约50%，表明在两次造山旋回和相关沉积旋回的作用下，锆石边缘的信息丢失。

为了在全球范围内验证这一发现，研究组对全球碎屑锆石岩心和边缘年龄数据集进行了蒙特卡罗加权自举重采样。在解析了构造机制变化的影响（新元古代晚期以来变质边缘的增加和大陆碰撞事件期间边缘的形成）后，边缘与岩心的比例随着时间的推移而增加，并清楚地表明，在多次造山旋回的影响下，经过几轮沉积物再循环，旧边缘已被抹去。该研究表明，除了岩石圈剥离、俯冲侵蚀和沉积物俯冲等深层熔岩再循环过程外，保存在锆石中的熔岩信息也可能在地表沉积物运输过程中丢失。

附：英文原文

Title: Erasure of zircon rims by sediment transport after two orogenic cycles

Author: Xin-Meng Liu, Li Liu, Di-Cheng Zhu, Peter A. Cawood, Michael D. Blum, Liang-Liang Zhang, Yao Wang, Yao Lu, Qing Wang, Yu-Xin Chang, Daniel F. Stockli

Issue&Volume: 2025-09-17

Abstract: The physio-chemical resilience of zircons has been key in their increasing application to deciphering geological processes through Earth history. However, zircons are not immune to mechanical abrasion and chemical alteration. This study quantifies the loss of zircon rims from the Brahmaputra source-to-sink (S2S) system, which drains the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen and transports sediment to the deep Bay of Bengal over a total vertical relief of some 7000 m. During sediment transport from this S2S system, median zircon rim thickness decreases by ～50%, suggesting that information contained in the rim would be lost after reworking of grains through two orogenic and associated sedimentary cycles. To validate this discovery at a global scale, we apply Monte Carlo weighted bootstrap resampling of a global detrital zircon core and rim age data set. After the impacts from changing tectonic regime (increasing metamorphic rim since the late Neoproterozoic and rim formation during continental collision events) were decoded, proportions of rim versus core increase over time and clearly show that old rims have been erased after several rounds of sediment recycling in response to multiple orogenic cycles. Our work suggests that crustal information archived in zircons can be lost during surficial sediment transport in addition to deep crustal-recycling processes such as lithospheric delamination, subduction erosion, and sediment subduction.

DOI: 10.1130/G53821.1

Source: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/G53821.1/661289/Erasure-of-zircon-rims-by-sediment-transport-afterredirectedFrom=fulltext