AWARDEE OF EARTH SCIENCES PRIZE

ZHOU XINHUA

Abstract

Zhou Xinhua, born on January 23, 1942 in Shanghai, graduated from the Chinese University of Sciences and Technology, honor in geochemistry 1964, held a variety level of research positions in Institute of Geology and Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences; present holds full research professorship at Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests are focused on isotope geochemistry, geochronology, mantle geochemistry and lithospheric deep processes. He has been in charge of, and involved in a series of national key projects in above fields, remarked progresses have been achieved and several academic awards at national and academy level have been offered. From 1980 to 1994, as a long-term visiting scientist and collaborator, he visited six western research institutions at seven times, such as University of British Columbia, Canada, Carnegie Institution of Washington, DTM, and University of California, Los Angeles, USA, University of Cambridge, UK, Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemie, F.R. Germany and ETH, Switzerland, has become an international known geoscientist. The following academic achievements have been made and acknowledged:
(1) Pioneered mantle geochemistry study in China: his work demonstrated the highly chemical heterogeneity and source affinity between subcontinental mantle beneath eastern China and suboceanic mantle beneath islands, and argued the upper crustal contamination does not play important role in mantle source of Cenozoic basalts from eastern China. Furthermore, the distinct mantle source components, or end-members have been recognized, PM-LOMU connection is confirmed to be the nature of EM l component; geochemical argument for mantle metasomatism provided, a three-component dynamic model and mantle chemical zoning have been proposed, which reveals the correlation of tectonic domain and mantle source characteristics, and would aid the tectonic study on lithosphere evolution.
(2) Postulated conceptions of source province and generalized crustal residence age, emphasize geochemical constraint on tectonic evolution, and applied to the study of lithospheric evolution of southeastern China. His work argued that the ultra-multiple stage evolution and episodic growth pattern of continental crust of southeastern China, and demonstrated the preservation of ancient Archearn crust material (3.1Ga), extensive continental rifting event in mid-Proterozoic (1.4Ga) and the regular variation of source material for Early Paoleozoic granitoids, which has been used to predict the distribution of pre-early Paleozoic tectonic facies in the region, and to construct a new classification of granitoid origin.
Conducted the systematic study on granulitic xenoliths entrained in volcanic rocks erupted in Archearn terraine, and the test of four-dimensional mapping of lithosphere; to provide isotopic, geochemical and geochronological arguments for the crust-mantle interaction in the deep part of lithosphere, such as underplating and delamination, to confirm the correlation between deep crust-mantle processes and tectonic episodes by precise dating, which opens a new way to study continental lower crust. To delineate the temporal and spatial variation of mantle source characteristics beneath circum-Bohai region, which aids the study on lithosphere thinning since late Mesozoic in eastern China, and to provide a case test of four-dimensional mapping of lithosphere.