Pleistocene aeolianites at Cape Spencer,South Australia; record of a vanished inner neritic cool‐water carbonate factory

Aeolianites are integral components of many modern and ancient carbonate depositional systems. Southern Australia contains some of the most impressive and extensive late Cenozoic aeolianites in the modern world. Pleistocene aeolianites on Yorke Peninsula are sculpted into imposing seacliffs up to 60 m high and comprise two distinct imposing complexes of the Late Pleistocene Bridgewater Formation. The lower aeolianite complex, which forms the bulk of the cliffs, is a series of stacked palaeodunes and intervening palaeosols. The diagenetic low Mg‐calcite sediment particles are mostly bivalves, echinoids, bryozoans and small benthic foraminifera. This association is similar to sediments forming offshore today on the adjacent shelf in a warm‐temperate ocean. By contrast, the upper aeolianite complex is a series of mineralogically metastable biofragmental carbonates in a succession of stacked lenticular palaeodunes with impressive interbedded calcretes and palaeosols. Bivalves, geniculate coralline algae and benthic foraminifera, together with sparse peloids and ooids, dominate sediment grains. Fragments of large benthic foraminifera including Marginopora vertebralis, a photosymbiont‐bearing protist, are particularly conspicuous. Palaeocean temperatures are interpreted as having been sub‐tropical, somewhat warmer than offshore carbonate factories in the region today. The older aeolianite complex is tentatively correlated with Marine Isotope Stage 11, whereas the upper complex is equivalent to Marine Isotope Stage 5e. Marine Isotope Stage 5e deposits exposed elsewhere in southern Australia (Glanville Formation) are distinctive with a subtropical biota, including Marginopora vertebralis. Thus, in this example, palaeodune sediment faithfully records the nature of the adjacent inner neritic carbonate factory. By inference, aeolianites are potential repositories of information about the nature of long‐vanished marine systems that have been removed due to erosion, tectonic obliteration or are inaccessible in the subsurface. Such information includes not only the nature of marine environments themselves but also palaeoceanography.     

云南哈播斑岩铜(-钼-金)矿床流体包裹体研究

哈播斑岩Cu-(Mo-Au)矿床产于哀牢山富碱斑岩带的南段,形成于青藏高原后碰撞阶段构造转换环境,属于陆-陆碰撞型斑岩矿床.根据脉体的交切关系,确定哈播矿床各种脉的演化序列为早期石英脉→石英-黄铜矿脉→石英辉钼矿脉.脉中流体包裹体的岩相学、显微测温和激光拉曼光谱分析等研究结果显示,各期脉中均有富气相包裹体、富液相包裹体和含子矿物多相包裹体,各种包裹体的气相均含有CO2、SO2、H2O等气体.各期脉中多种包裹体并存并具有相似的均一温度范围,富液相包裹体均一温度149～427℃,盐度ω(NaCleq)6.0％～15.0％;富气相包裹体均一温度205～405℃,盐度ω(NaCleq) 3.4％～19.0％;含子矿物多相包裹体均一温度305～516℃,盐度w(NaCleq) 33.5％～61.0％.哈播矿床的初始成矿流体由稳定共存、不混溶的低盐度流体和高盐度流体组成,高盐度流体是哈播矿床成矿元素迁移的主要载体.成矿流体在400℃左右发生“二次沸腾”、分相,温度下降和挥发分持续逃逸可能是Cu-Au成矿的诱因.Mo元素在成矿流体多次沸腾、分相过程中,持续优先分配进入高盐度流体中而逐步富集;温度下降,使含钼硫化物在流体中溶解度降低、沉淀,形成石英-辉钼矿±黄铜矿脉.     

Aeolianites reveal Pleistocene marine history of Bermuda

Bermuda is a reef atoll along the northern edge of Caribbean coral province. Although investigated by seismic and some shallow drilling, the Pleistocene marine depositional geohistory is poorly constrained. Islands along the southern rim are built by tropical calcareous aeolianites that range in age from Holocene to early Pleistocene (ca 880 kyr). These dunes are composed of particles that were derived from adjacent Pleistocene marine environments at the time of formation. Thus, the aeolianites should contain a record of marine deposition through the Early to Late Pleistocene. Carbonate grains from all aeolian deposits can, via Ward cluster analysis, be separated into two distinct groups: (i) a Halimeda‐rich group; and (ii) a crustose coralline‐rich group. Distribution of these two groups is interpreted to broadly reflect low‐energy (lagoonal) and high‐energy marginal reef (coralline algae and cup‐reef) environments, respectively. Unlike the beach sources, coral particles are perplexingly absent in the aeolianites. This conundrum is interpreted to partly reflect the domal nature of Bermudan corals, which are not incorporated into aeolian deposits due to their relatively large size. Aeolianites from Marine Isotope Stages 7, 9 and 11 record sediments produced in adjacent shallow marine settings that were similar to those present today. The spatially consistent sediment trends are not, however, present in aeolianites from Marine Isotope Stage 5E, where the aeolian bioclastic components are uniformly rich in Halimeda along both southern and northern shores. Such a distribution, where coralline‐rich sediments would be expected, suggests an extrinsic oceanographic control, interpreted herein to be elevated seawater temperature brought in by the Gulf Stream. This interpretation is consistent with palaeozoological studies of Bermuda, as well as North America, the Mediterranean, Japan and Western Australia.     

Meteorological analysis of the tornado in Ciudad Acuña,Coahuila State,Mexico, on May 25, 2015

Extreme meteorological conditions favor the development of severe storms and tornadoes that may have largely impacts on the population despite its relatively short life. Tornadic severe storms have been documented around the World. In Mexico (MEX), the study of the occurrence of tornadoes and severe storms is relatively new. In this research, we have selected an event of severe tornadic storm in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. The storm was driven by a frontal system moving southward from USA converging with a warmer moist air flux from the Gulf of Mexico. The tornado strikes on the Northeast of Mexico, in Coahuila State, on May 25, 2015. Imagery of infrared channel from GOES 13 satellite and the presence of a hook echo in radar data of May 25, 2015, indicate a supercell structure. The maximum values of radial velocity were about ?20 and 15 m s^?1. In this study, the WRF model was used in order to simulate the mesoscale meteorological conditions of the tornado. Model simulations capture atmospheric features observed in Doppler radar. The simulated storm-relative helicity values were between 400 and 500 m² s^?2. The simulated convective available potential energy values were of 3000 J kg^?1. These values were higher than values for convective storms, located over the region of Ciudad Acuña in Mexico and Del Rio in USA. The supercell was a result of high humidity and temperature gradients, conditioned by frontal activity and moisture flux intensifications from the Gulf of Mexico.

     

长江中下游成矿带成矿规律和成矿模式

长江中下游成矿带作为中国东部重要的成矿带之一,成矿地质条件、成矿规律和成矿模式的相关研究已经十分深入,形成了一系列公认的理论研究成果,本文重点论述了成矿带成矿地质条件和成矿规律方面研究的新进展,并在此基础上构筑了成矿带的成矿模式。本文主要开展了以下总结工作:(1)将成矿带的构造要素突破以往按构造单元分解的做法,确立跨构造单元的"复合构造系统",结合成矿带成岩成矿作用特点,重新确定了长江中下游成矿带的范围,并对成矿亚带进行了重新划分;(2)收集汇总了长江中下游成矿带近年来国内外学者最新的成岩成矿年龄数据,总结了矿床时空分布规律;(3)从地质,地球物理和地球化学等方面,总结归纳了沿基底结合带复活的网状断裂系统,阐明了成矿带的控矿构造格架,分析了长江中下游成矿带的成因规律;(4)补充和完善了断隆区和断凹区的成矿模式,并初步构筑了长江中下游成矿带综合成矿模式。提出长江中下游成矿带内主体成岩成矿作用总体上分为走滑挤压阶段(146~135Ma)、走滑引张阶段(135~126Ma)和拉张伸展阶段(126~123Ma)等三个阶段,古太平洋板块作用导致的壳幔过程,引发含元古代弧岩浆岩源区活化和中生代的构造活化("双活化")是长江中下游成矿带形成的主要机制。     

Analysis of fossil pigments from algae and bacteria in meromictic Lake Fidler, Tasmania, and its application to lake management

Lake Fidler is an ectogenic meromictic lake with a monimolimnion maintained by periodic incursions of brackish water from the lower Gordon River estuary. A dam across the middle reaches of the Gordon River has restricted these incursions of brackish water and meromictic stability has rapidly declined. A palaeolimnological study was carried in order to assess the historical development of meromixis and the impact of the dam on the microbiological communities in the lake. Fossil pigments in a 17 m sediment core were analysed using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (rp-HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS). In addition, taphonomic studies of pigment production, deposition and degradation in the water column and surface sediments were used to identify planktonic and benthic pigment degradation processes and constrain the stratigraphic interpretation. Results comparing the pigment composition of pelagic sediment traps and littoral surface sediments indicated that the core from the centre of the lake would permit a historical reconstruction of planktonic bacterial and algal communities. Marked increases in prokaryotic pigments ca 3500 yr B.P. suggested the possible colonisation of a chemocline by phototrophic bacteria. Further changes in chlorophyll: carotenoid ratios and changes in relative abundances of both chlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll c derivatives also indicated that a change in the depositional environment had occurred; possibly due to altered stratification or anoxia. From this we infer the onset of either intermittent or permanent meromixis. Further increases in prokaryotic pigment abundance suggested that the present state of permanent meromixis was firmly established by 2070 ±50 ¹⁴C yr B.P., and diatom analysis confirmed the development of a stable mixolimnion. High resolution studies of the top 10 cm of sediments measured pigments in mean concentrations of 15.1 ng g^-1 with a mean S.D. of only 2.78 indicating little change in pigment abundance since the construction of the dam. Thus, Lake Fidler still retains most of the features of meromixis. However, evidence from nearby Lake Morrison and Sulphide Pool has shown that any further declines in meromictic stability will cause a rapid reversion to holomixis. Palaeolimnological evidence from the early stages of meromictic development of Lake Fidler suggests that such reversion to holomixis may not permanently eliminate all the microbiological communities, and that, given time, they may return and prosper with re-establishment of a suitable chemocline. These studies will guide recommendations for a management strategy to prevent the further decay of meromixis in the Gordon River lakes.     

Adapting science to a warming world

Climate change is complicating the variables that Alaskans consider when planning for the future. Communities, agencies and other entities have begun to grapple with both the information that they need to adapt to a changing climate and how the processes and practices of science should change to make science more useful. We reviewed sixty-three documents that expressed practical research needs related to climate change in Alaska. Documents nearly unanimously expressed that science, as it is currently practiced, is inadequate to meet the challenges of climate change. They call for processes that are more transparent, collaborative, and accessible. They recommend changed practices including maintaining accessible data-sharing archives, building networks for knowledge sharing, and creating place-based long-term partnerships with communities. They advocate integrating local knowledge, but infrequently address the complexities of how this is best accomplished. They also suggest the need for improved training in interdisciplinary research and changes in the incentive structure of research institutions. This review complements the climate-change literature by providing concrete suggestions about how to increase the utility of science from a region that is experiencing some of the most dramatic climatic change on the planet.