从源到汇：大陆边缘的沉积作用

大陆边缘作为地球上沉积物堆积的主要区域,其沉积层保存着全球海平面变化、气候变化、岩石圈变形、大洋环流、地球化学循环、有机生产力和沉积物补给等重要信息。然而,尽管对大陆边缘沉积系统进行了几十年的研究,但仍有许多问题没有得到充分的解决,尤其是没能实现对大陆边缘沉积物扩散系统和相关地层的定量解释。为此,近年来国际地学界开始构思源到汇---大陆边缘沉积作用的系统过程研究,以提高对大陆边缘物质扩散系统行为的预测能力。介绍了源到汇---大陆边缘的沉积作用的研究对象、内容和拟解决的主要科学问题以及DSDP和ODP在大陆边缘沉积作用研究中的主要贡献和目前的进展情况。

SOURCE TO SINK: SEDIMENTATION IN THE CONTINENTAL MARGINS

Continental margins are the principal locus of sediment accumulation on the Earth. The resulting strata have documented important information on global sea-level change, climate change, lithosphere deformation, ocean currents, geochemical cycles, organic productivity and sediment replenishment. However, although the continental margins sediment dispersal systems have been studied for several decades, still are there many problems remained to be less well understood, especially, quantitative explanation to the dispersal systems and the strata formed from them has not been achieved. So a initiative to study the source-to-sink: margin sedimentation systems and relating geological processes is being conceived by geological sciences communities around the world, to better predict the behavior of the margin sediment dispersal systems. The research objects, contents and major intended scientific problems around source-to-sink margin sedimentation were outlined is this paper, major contributions of DSDP and ODP and recent development in this domain have also been introduced.