安徽铜陵新桥铜-硫-铁-金矿床中石英闪长岩和辉绿岩锆石SHRIMP年代学及其意义

对安徽铜陵新桥铜-硫-铁-金矿床区内的石英闪长岩和辉绿岩中的锆石分别进行了SHRIMP精确定年研究,石英闪长岩中锆石206Pb/238U年龄为(140.4±2.2)Ma,辉绿岩中锆石的年龄较复杂,其中发现了元古代锆石颗粒,其锆石207Pb/206Pb年龄为(2261±14)Ma,(1612±8)Ma,(919±12)Ma,(831±17)Ma。另外还有一组早古生代年龄的锆石,锆石206Pb/238U年龄为(443±13)Ma。以上这些新资料说明该区可能存在元古代基底的信息,且燕山期岩浆活动对本区成矿具有重要意义。     

四川雅安地质灾害时空预警试验区初步研究

借鉴美国旧金山湾和香港地区的经验,提出了地质灾害监测预警试验区建设和研究思路。经过近两年的工作,初步建成了四川雅安地质灾害监测预警试验区。取得的阶段性成果主要有:(1)根据现场考察和试验区地质灾害数据库,统计研究了降雨型滑坡的几何特征;(2)建成了由20台遥测雨量计构成的降雨观测网,取得了2002年4月～2003年8月的降雨观测数据;(3)结合历史降雨资料分析,初步研究了雅安试验区的年、日、小时和十分钟最大降雨特征;(4)研制了斜坡岩土体含水量野外监测仪,取得了桑树坡试验点2003年4月～8月的实时监测数据;(5)自上而下分4层研究了斜坡岩土层含水量变化,发现了岩土层含水量变化对降雨过程的滞后性;(6)基于区域地质灾害评价预警的递进分析理论与方法(AMFP),利用地质灾害因子分析结果,分别计算了雅安试验区地质灾害"发育度"和"潜势度";(7)利用2003年8月23～25日的过程降雨观测资料,对雅安试验区在该降雨过程中发生的地质灾害事件进行了时空预警反演模拟研究,计算出的地质灾害"危险度"分布比较符合实际,"危险度"可以作为预警指数使用。     

East African Rift System (EARS) Plume Structure: Insights from Quaternary Mafic Lavas of Turkana, Kenya

Quaternary mafic lavas from Lake Turkana (northern Kenya) provideinformation on processes operating beneath the East AfricanRift in an area of anomalous lithospheric and crustal thinning.Inferred depths of melting beneath Turkana (15–20 km)are shallower than those recorded elsewhere along the rift,consistent with the anomalously thin crustal section. The maficlavas have elevated incompatible trace element contents whencompared with mid-ocean ridge basalts, requiring an enrichmentevent in the source region. Basalts with low Sr isotopic ratios(     

Centrifuge modelling of the influence of crustal fabrics on the development of transfer zones: insights into the mechanics of continental rifting architecture

Centrifuge analogue experiments are used to model the reactivation of pre-existing crustal fabrics during extension. The models reproduced a weakness zone in the lower crust whose geometry was varied in order to investigate its role in controlling the architecture of rift segments and related transfer zones. The typical rift system geometry was characterised by two offset rift segments connected by a major transfer zone in which boundary faults were oblique to the extension vector and displayed a significant transcurrent component of movement. The transfer zone was also characterised by cross-basin faults with both trend and strike-slip component of movement opposite to that displayed by the master faults. Typically, different structural patterns were obtained by changing the offset angle φ between the rift segments, supporting that the structural pattern at transfer zones is strongly influenced by the orientation of pre-existing discontinuities with respect to the stretching vector. In the models, the aspect ratio (ratio of length vs. width) of the transfer zone shows a positive correlation with the offset angle (i.e., the more the inherited fabric is parallel to the extension direction, the longer and narrower the transfer zones). In case of staircase offset of the rift segments (φ=90°), the structural pattern was characterised by two isolated rift depressions linked by a narrow transfer zone in which border faults with alternating polarity overlapped. Prominent rise of the ductile lower crust was also observed at the transfer zone. Many of these geometrical features display striking similarities with natural rift systems. The results of the current experiments provide useful insights into the mechanics of continental rift architecture, supporting that rift propagation, width and along-axis segmentation may be strongly controlled by the reactivation of pre-existing pervasive crustal fabrics.     

Processing and interpretation of the gravity field of the East African Rift: implication for crustal extension

Compilation of new and existing gravity data were undertaken to assess the nature of the crust beneath the East African Rift System. Using 3D gravity modeling code crustal model of gravity profiles across two sectors of the rift were computed. The results are discussed in light of the structure of the rift system.The results of the 3D modeling of gravity profiles across the two rift zones revealed northward thinning of the crust. The maximum crustal attenuation occurs beneath the Afar depression, indicating the Afar rift undergoes an intense fragmentation of the crust resulting from faulting and magmatic activity. However, our computed crustal thickness below the Afar depression falls within an upper bound compared to elsewhere below tectonically active rift zones. This can be explained in terms of crustal accretion resulting from an impact of the Afar mantle plume since 30 Ma ago.The residual gravity obtained using high-cut filtering techniques reveals significant density contrast between the northern and southern sectors of the rift. The northern part of the rift is characterized by regular patterns of positive gravity anomalies, which can be interpreted in terms of a zone of crustal thinning through which relatively dense materials have intruded the overlying crust. In contrast, south of the Main Ethiopian Rift, the anomalies are characterized by random patterns and low amplitudes. The along-rift-axis variation in gravity anomalies implies that the style of crustal deformation changed progressively, beginning with regionally distributed crustal deformation, such as the one we observe within the more juvenile and wider southern segment of the rift, to localized deformation within the active and narrow rift zones of the northern sector of the Ethiopian Rift. We suggest that the key parameters controlling along-rift-axis variation in gravity anomalies are the rate of crustal extension, faulting and magmatic activities.     

Volcanic resurfacing and the early terrestrial crust: Zircon U-Pb and REE constraints from the Isua Greenstone Belt, southern West Greenland

The oldest known bona fide succession of clastic metasediments occurs in the Isua Greenstone Belt, SW Greenland and consists of a variety of mica schists and rare metaconglomerates. The metasediments are in direct contact with a felsic metavolcanic lithology that has previously been dated to 3.71 Ga. Based on trace element geochemical data for > 30 metasediments, we selected the six samples with highest Zr concentrations for zircon extraction. These samples all yielded very few or no zircon. Those extracted from mica schists yielded ion probe U/Pb ages between 3.70 and 3.71 Ga. One metaconglomerate sample yielded just a single zircon of 3.74 Ga age.The mica schist hosted zircons have U/Pb ages, Th / U ratios, REE patterns and Eu anomalies indistinguishable from zircon in the adjacent 3.71 Ga felsic metavolcanic unit. Trace element modelling requires the bulk of material in the metasediments to be derived from variably weathered mafic lithologies but some metasediments contain substantial contribution from more evolved source lithologies. The paucity of zircon in the mica schists is thus explained by incorporation of material from largely zircon-free volcanic lithologies. The absence of older zircon in the mica schists and the preponderance of mafic source material imply intense, mainly basaltic resurfacing of the early Earth. The implications of this process are discussed.Thermal considerations suggest that horizontal growth of Hadean crust by addition of mafic-ultramafic lavas must have triggered self-reorganisation of the protocrust by remelting. Reworking of Hadean crust may have been aided by burial of hydrated (weathered) metabasalt due to semi-continuous addition of new voluminous basalt outpourings. This process causes a bias towards eruption of Zr-saturated partial melts at the surface with O-isotope compositions potentially different from the mantle. The oldest zircons hosted in sediments would have been buried to substantial depth or formed in plutons that crystallised at some depth, from which it took hundreds of millions of years for them to be exhumed and incorporated into much younger sediments.     

区域生态地球化学评价核心与对策

生态地球化学是地学与土壤学、农业、环境学和生态学等多学科交叉融合产生的新学科,是地球化学领域新的发展方向。区域生态地球化学评价是在区域地球化学调查基础上,针对影响流域/区带生态系统安全性的元素异常而开展的一项评价和研究工作。多目标区域地球化学调查获得的海量高精度地球化学数据,可为环境质量评价提供背景值、为土地的质量和生态管护提供地球化学依据;调查还发现了一系列影响流域生态安全性的元素异常,针对异常元素分布特征,区域生态地球化学评价将开展异常元素追踪和成因甄别、生态效应评价和生态系统安全性的预警预测等项评价和研究工作。文章论述了区域地球化学调查成果,介绍了区域地球化学评价的思路,阐述了区域生态地球化学评价的主要问题与对策。     

A timescale decomposed threshold regression downscaling approach to forecasting South China early summer rainfall

A timescale decomposed threshold regression(TSDTR) downscaling approach to forecasting South China early summer rainfall(SCESR) is described by using long-term observed station rainfall data and NOAA ERSST data. It makes use of two distinct regression downscaling models corresponding to the interannual and interdecadal rainfall variability of SCESR.The two models are developed based on the partial least squares(PLS) regression technique, linking SCESR to SST modes in preceding months on both interannual and interdecadal timescales. Specifically, using the datasets in the calibration period 1915–84, the variability of SCESR and SST are decomposed into interannual and interdecadal components. On the interannual timescale, a threshold PLS regression model is fitted to interannual components of SCESR and March SST patterns by taking account of the modulation of negative and positive phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation(PDO). On the interdecadal timescale, a standard PLS regression model is fitted to the relationship between SCESR and preceding November SST patterns. The total rainfall prediction is obtained by the sum of the outputs from both the interannual and interdecadal models. Results show that the TSDTR downscaling approach achieves reasonable skill in predicting the observed rainfall in the validation period 1985–2006, compared to other simpler approaches. This study suggests that the TSDTR approach,considering different interannual SCESR-SST relationships under the modulation of PDO phases, as well as the interdecadal variability of SCESR associated with SST patterns, may provide a new perspective to improve climate predictions.     

The variation of crustal stretching and different modes of rifting along the Australian southern continental margin

The southern margin of Australia is a passive continental margin, formed during a Late Jurassic–Cretaceous rifting phase. The development of this passive margin is mainly associated with extensional processes that caused crustal thinning. In this work, we have measured the amount of extension and the stretching factor (β factor) across seven transect profiles approximately evenly distributed across the margin. The obtained results show that the amount of extension and the β factor along the margin vary from west to east. The lowest amount of extension, low–intermediate β factors and a very narrow margin are observed in the western part with 80 km of extension and is underlain mostly by the Archean Yilgarn Craton and the Albany–Fraser Orogen. The Gawler Craton in the centre of the south Australian margin is another region of low extension and low–intermediate β factor. The largest amount of extension (384 km) and the largest β factor (β = 1.88) are found in the eastern part of the passive margin in an area underlain by Phanerozoic Tasman Orogen units. Our results imply that there is a strong control of the age and thickness of the continental lithosphere on the style of rifting along the Australian passive margin. Rifting of old and cold lithosphere results in a narrow passive margin, with the formation of relatively few faults with relatively wide spacing, while rifting of younger, warmer lithosphere leads to wide rifting that is accommodated by a large number of faults with small spacing.     

Internal Microanatomy and Zoological Affinity of the Early Cambrian Olivooides

The early Cambrian pentamerous microfossil Olivooides/Punctatus in South China, which is characterized by a diagnostic stellate tubular apex, has been well-known for its almost complete development sequence that can be confidently traced from embryos and hatched juveniles, to conical adults. However, its zoological affinity remains highly controversial. Here we describe the internal microanatomic structures of the soft-body inside the peridermal theca of Olivooides multisulcatus Qian, 1977, including interradial pairs of tentacles, adradial and perradial frenula, perradial oral marginal lappets and twins of perradial gastric saccule-like humps as well as a circular velarium with striated coronal muscles. Particularly, one specimen shows bifurcated velarial canals along the bell aperture. Both the components of the soft-body and the external theca (or cyst) are arranged in perfect pentaradial symmetry. These characteristics are more compatible with those of living cubomedusans and co-occurring Cambrian athecate embryonic cubozoans. Concerning the presence of peridermal theca, Olivooides most likely represents an extinct thecate stem-group cubomedusae but devoid of both perradial eyes and specialized pedalia. The well-grown soft body inside the peridermal tube displays a set of mixed features of both polyp and medusa.