Discussion on measurement and calculation principle of petrogenetic depth

Geologic and geophysical data certificate that lithosphere and its down rock behave as solid, therefore, it is better to measure petrogenetic and metallogenetic depth according to internal stress of solid states. Lithomechanic experiment found that the bigger the confining pressure, the bigger the tensile and shear strength of rocks,so rock can bear very high differential stress but it is not broken. Sibson put forward that the property of rocks under 10–15km of the surface changes from brittle to ductile (rather than from elastic to plastic). Rock with ductile deformation is still solid with elasticity, and it is not in the hydrostatic pressure state. Now ingored differential stress has already been measured at deeper place, it cannot be used to measure depth with the static fluid model but with the elastic model for lack of rheological experiment data. The more correct depth could be calculated by the elastic model rather than the static fluid model. It is an advance to describe rock property with the viscoelastic or elastic-viscosity model, but it is not the progress to come back to the static fluid model from the elastic model. Generally speaking, isotropic equante normal stress in the tectonic stress field, namely tectono-original additional hydrostatic pressure is one order of magnitute more than differential stress in the tectonic stress field, which, superimposed on additional hydrostatic stress of gravity, will bring about ultrahigh pressure metamorphism (UHPM), no matter how big the differential stress is.