Provenance of Conglomerate and Sandstone from Early Permian Shoushangou Formation in Xi Ujimqin, Inner Mongolia: Implications for Understanding Paleo-Asian Ocean Subduction

During the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian, a rift was formed by post-collisional extension after ocean closure or an island arc-related basin formed by Paleo-Asian Ocean (PAO) subduction in the Xi Ujimqin area. Nevertheless, the closure time of the PAO is still under debate. Thus, to identify the origin of the PAO, the geochemistry and U-Pb age of zircons were analyzed for the extra-large deep marine, polymict clastic boulders and sandstones in the Shoushangou Formation within the basin. The analyses revealed magmatic activity and tectonic evolution. The conglomerates include megaclasts of granite (298.8 ± 9.1?Ma) and granodiorite porphyry (297.1 ± 3.1?Ma), which were deposited by muddy debris flow. Results of this study demonstrated that the boulders of granitoids have the geochemistry of typical I-type granite, characterized by low Zr + Nb + Ce + Y and low Ga/Al values. The granitoid boulders were formed in island arc setting, indicating the presence of arc magmatism in the area that is composed of the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian subduction-related granitoid in southern Xi Ujimqin. Multiple diagrams for determining sedimentary provenance using major and trace elements indicate that Shoushangou sediments originated from continental island arc-related felsic rocks. Detrital zircon U-Pb age cluster of 330–280?Ma was obtained, indicating input from granite, ophiolite, Xilin Gol complex, and Carboniferous sources to the south. The basin was geographically developed behind the arc during the Early Permian period because the outcropped intrusive rocks in the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian form a volcanic arc. The comprehensive analyses of source areas suggest that Shoushangou sediments developed in a backarc basin in response to the northward subduction of the PAO. The backarc basin and intrusive rocks, in addition to previously published Late Carboniferous to Early Permian magmatic rocks of arc unit in Xilin Gol, confirm the presence of an Early Permian trench-arc-basin system in the region, represented by the Baolidao arc and Xi Ujimqin backarc basin. This study highlights the importance and potential of combined geochemical and geochronological studies of conglomerates and sandstone for reconstructing the geodynamic setting of a basin.     

青藏高原东南缘次林错岩体晚白垩世- 早新生代快速剥蚀

青藏高原东南缘是研究构造、地貌演化和气候变化相互作用的理想场所，前人研究主要揭示了晚始新世—早中新世和晚中新世以来的快速剥蚀事件，缺乏晚白垩世—早新生代时期地貌演化过程的研究。次林错花岗岩已有的低温热年代学数据覆盖了整个新生代时期，为探索该区域新生代早期的剥露演化历史提供了重要资料。该岩体新生代早期冷却事件是岩浆冷却单一作用的结果，还是受快速剥蚀作用的影响，目前仍然存疑，需要定量研究。因此，本文结合已有的岩石地化和年代学数据，对次林错花岗岩开展了锆石饱和温度和一维岩浆冷却模拟研究。锆石饱和温度计算结果表明次林错花岗岩的岩浆结晶温度介于647~705℃之间，属低温花岗岩。一维岩浆冷却模拟结果显示岩体侵位时的最小围岩温度为160~120℃，对应深度约为3. 7~5. 0 km。结合锆石和磷灰石(U- Th)/He年代学数据，本文认为该岩体在晚白垩世—早新生代时期(67~40 Ma)经历了一期剥蚀量至少为2 km的快速剥蚀事件。已发表成果的综合分析表明，此次快速剥露事件可能是整个青藏高原地区广泛存在的构造剥蚀事件，新特提斯洋的俯冲闭合与印亚板块的初始碰撞可能是触发此次大规模区域剥蚀的主要原因     

“地震预警”法律概念的构成及延展

“地震预警”法律概念是讨论和规范地震预警相关行为的基础,也是地震预警立法首先要明确的问题。目前,国家层面尚未制定专门的地震预警法律法规,地方已经颁布的管理办法中对“地震预警”法律概念的规定也不完全一致。随着地震预警立法进程的不断推进,“地震预警”法律概念的确定和统一愈发重要和迫切。“地震预警”法律概念应涵括其技术属性和社会属性,秉持完整规范、避免歧义的原则,将时间、空间、机理和影响等要素排列组合而成。为深入理解这一概念,本文还讨论了发布主体、预警客体、技术服务、法律责任等地震预警法律规范的基本内容。     

Early Jurassic rift structures associated with the Soapaga and Boyacá faults of the Eastern Cordillera, Colombia: Sedimentological inferences and regional implications

The NW-trending Bucaramanga fault links, at its southern termination, with the Soapaga and Boyacá faults, which by their NW trend define an ample horsetail structure. As a result of their Neogene reactivation as reverse faults, they bound fault-related anticlines that expose the sedimentary fill of two Early Jurassic rift basins. These sediments exhibit the wedge-like geometry of rift fills related to west-facing normal faults. Their structural setting was controlled further by segmentation of the bounding faults at approximately 10 km intervals, in which each segment is separated by a transverse basement high. Isopach contours and different facies associations suggest these transverse anticlines may have separated depocenters of their adjacent subbasins, which were shaped by a slightly different subsidence history and thereby decoupled. The basin fill of the relatively narrow basin associated with the Soapaga fault is dominated by fanglomeratic successions organized in two coarsening-upward cycles. In the larger basin linked to the Boyacá fault, the sedimentary fill consists of two coarsening-upward sequences that, when fully developed, vary from floodplain to alluvial fan deposits. These Early Jurassic rift fills temporally constrain the evolution of the Bucaramanga fault, which accommodated right-lateral displacement during the early Mesozoic rift event.     

New specimens of a fossil ostrich from the Miocene of Kenya

Fossilised hind limb bones from the late Middle Miocene (approximately 14 million-year-old [MYA]) Fort Ternan, Kadianga West and Ngorora localities in Western Kenya indicate the presence of a new representative of the ostrich genus Struthio. These new fossils represent some of the oldest known records for Struthio yet described, slightly younger than Struthio coppensi, from the Lower Miocene of Namibia. Because the four sub-species of the modern-day ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus, Struthio camelus australis, Struthio camelus massaicus, and Struthio camelus molybdophanes) inhabit the plains of Africa, and as recently as the 1940s, a fifth sub-species was also present in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia (Struthio camelus syriacus), records of Struthio from Kenya and Namibia testify to the much wider distribution of these cursorial birds in the relatively recent past. This is further supported by the very high frequency of ostrich eggshell fragments found across Africa and Eurasia, which vastly outweighs the amount of skeletal material uncovered over the last century.     

Holocene climate variability in Sicily from a discontinuous stalagmite record and the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition

Fabric and stable isotopic composition of a Holocene stalagmite (CR1) from a cave in northern Sicily record changes in paleorainfall in the early Holocene. High δ¹³C stable isotope values in the calcite deposited from ca. 8500 to ca. 7500 yr ago are interpreted as reflecting periods of high rainfall. The wet phase was interrupted by two periods of multi-century duration characterized by relatively cool and dry winters centered at ca. 8200 and ca. 7500 yr ago, highlighted by low δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values. A high variability of δ¹³C values is recorded from ca. 7500 to ca. 6500 yr ago and indicates that the transition from a pluvial early Holocene to the present-day climate conditions was punctuated by decadal-scale periods of relatively dry winters. In northern Sicily, the traditional elements of the Neolithic appear at ca. 7700 yr ago. It is possible that changes in rainfall influenced the passage from hunter-gathering to farming and sheep-herding economies.     

Présence d'une mangrove à Avicennia au Miocène moyen dans la région de Digne (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence,France) : implications stratigraphiques et paléoclimatiques

Avicennia pollen grains have been discovered in marine facies from the Middle Miocene deltaic series of Châteauredon (southeastern France). Based on the local stratigraphy, an age between 15.8 and 16.5 Ma is proposed for these grains. The age and the transgressive context of the Avicennia bearing-levels are in agreement with the maximum extension of the mangrove known in the western Mediterranean during interval N8–NN4 pro parte, in relation with the Langhian highstand. This mangrove occurrence at 42°N latitude during Middle Miocene is a more northern witness of the mangrove sites known in Languedoc and Provence areas. It also implies a lower climatic gradient than today. To cite this article: J.-J. Châteauneuf et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

Holocene climate and cultural evolution in late prehistoric-early historic West Asia

The precipitation climatology and the underlying climate mechanisms of the eastern Mediterranean, West Asia, and the Indian subcontinent are reviewed, with emphasis on upper and middle tropospheric flow in the subtropics and its steering of precipitation. Holocene climate change of the region is summarized from proxy records. The Indian monsoon weakened during the Holocene over its northernmost region, the Ganges and Indus catchments and the western Arabian Sea. Southern regions, the Indian Peninsula, do not show a reduction, but an increase of summer monsoon rain across the Holocene. The long-term trend towards drier conditions in the eastern Mediterranean can be linked to a regionally complex monsoon evolution. Abrupt climate change events, such as the widespread droughts around 8200, 5200 and 4200 cal yr BP, are suggested to be the result of altered subtropical upper-level flow over the eastern Mediterranean and Asia.The abrupt climate change events of the Holocene radically altered precipitation, fundamental for cereal agriculture, across the expanse of late prehistoric-early historic cultures known from the archaeological record in these regions. Social adaptations to reduced agro-production, in both dry-farming and irrigation agriculture regions, are visible in the archaeological record during each abrupt climate change event in West Asia. Chronological refinement, in both the paleoclimate and archaeological records, and transfer functions for both precipitation and agro-production are needed to understand precisely the evident causal linkages.     

Lermontovskoe Tungsten Skarn Deposit: the Oldest Mineralization in the Sikhote-Alin Orogen, Far East Russia

Abstract. Lermontovskoe tungsten skarn deposit in central Sikhote-Alin is concluded to have formed at 132 Ma in the Early Cretaceous, based on K-Ar age data for muscovite concentrates from high-grade scheelite ore and greisenized granite. Late Paleozoic limestone in Jurassic - early Early Cretaceous accretionary complexes was replaced during hydrothermal activity related to the Lermontovskoe granodiorite stock of reduced type. The ores, characterized by Mo-poor scheelite and Fe^3+- poor mineral assemblages, indicate that this deposit is a reduced-type tungsten skarn (Sato, 1980, 1982), in accordance with the reduced nature of the granodiorite stock.
The Lermontovskoe deposit, the oldest mineralization so far known in the Sikhote-Alin orogen, formed in the initial stage of Early Cretaceous felsic magmatism. The magmatism began shortly after the accretionary tectonics ceased, suggesting an abrupt change of subduction system. Style of the Early Cretaceous magmatism and mineralization is significantly different between central Sikhote-Alin and Northeast Japan; reduced-type and oxidized-type, respectively. The different styles may reflect different tectonic environments; compressional and extensional, respectively. These two areas, which were closer together before the opening of the Japan Sea in the Miocene, may have been juxtaposed under a transpressional tectonic regime after the magmatism.