The Cretaceous megabreccias of the Gargano Promontory (Apulia, southern Italy): their stratigraphic and genetic meaning in the evolutionary framework of the Apulia Carbonate Platform

Huge megabreccias occur at the eastern margin of the Cretaceous Apulia Carbonate Platform (Gargano Promontory, southern Italy). Their stratigraphic and genetic meaning are controversial in the debated geological evolution of the Apulia Platform. New stratigraphic analyses have revealed that three distinct megabreccia levels occur within the coarse debrites that were previously interpreted to be the result of repeated collapses of a scalloped platform margin during the late Albian–Cenomanian. Each level has peculiar chronostratigraphic distribution, geometry, composition and genetic features. They are the Posta Manganaro Megabreccias (late early Aptian to late Albian pp. ), Monte S. Angelo Megabreccias (early–middle Cenomanian) and Belvedere di Ruggiano Megabreccias (middle Turonian). These deposits overlie regional, tectonically enhanced unconformities of late early Aptian, late Albian and late Cenomanian age. These megabreccias, which were formed, respectively, during drowning, prograding and exposure events of the Apulia Platform, reflect important turning points in its Cretaceous geodynamic evolution.     

长周期层序形成机制的探索:层序地层学进展之二

将不整合面所限定的地层单位定义为层序,赋予这种层序以"构造旋回"的概念;将"不整合面及其可以对比的整合面"所限定的地层单位定义为"沉积层序",简称为"层序",并将沉积层序的形成过程解释为海平面变化过程。如果将前者作为"构造层序",则这种层序代表了二级层序,新定义的"沉积层序"则属于三级层序。概念的调整和变化意味着层序存在一个级别或序次问题。地质学家长期研究的结果表明,海平面变化主要存在两种基本的驱动机制,一种是由于构造运动所造成的"洋盆体积"的变化,另一种是气候变化所造成的地球极地冰盖消长而最终产生的海水体积的变化;前者所造成的变化以周期长、速度慢为特征,被简称为"构造型海平面变化",后者所产生的变化则以高频率和高速率为特征,被简称为"冰川型海平面变化"。根据上述概念,显生宙可识别出两个一级旋回,并可以进一步划分为6个二级层序(Sloss模型)或13个二级层序(Vail模型),显生宙二级层序划分的差别反映了长周期层序形成机制研究的一些重要变化和进展。对长周期层序形成机制的研究,除了考虑地球本身的构造活动所造成的洋盆体积的变化以外,地质学家们还将一级旋回与银河年旋回对应、二级旋回与银道面旋回对应、三级旋回与奥尔特星系旋回对应起来进行更大范围的思考和探索,也为研究长周期层序形成的最终驱动机制提供了一个重要的思考途径。如果把对Exxon层序地层模式概念体系不协调的研究而产生的各种层序地层模式作为层序地层学的第1个进展,长周期层序形成机制的研究则可以作为层序地层学的第2个进展。包括:(1)把来自于显生宙的一些重要模型和概念应用到前寒武纪,由此在更长的时间框架内探索一级旋回与超大陆旋回的成因联系;(2)二级旋回与地球水圈和大气圈演变的成因关联;(3)进一步总结三级旋回的形成机制。追索这方面的进展,可以更加深入地理解当年Exxon科学家们将层序形成机制归因于海平面变化的初衷以及所包含的科学意义,从而有利于今后的深入研究。     

Tectonic episodes of cratons: conflicting North American concepts

Over the past one hundred years North American geologists have been influenced by concepts of Earth history based on periodic events involving marked (‘Neocatastrophic’) changes and competing concepts involving steady-state (‘Uniformitanan’) behaviour. T.C. Chamberlin, a late 19th-/early 20th-Century exponent of a nonuniformitarian scenario of earth history, proclaimed ‘diastrophism as the ultimate basis of correlation’ - meaning that geological history is punctuated by orogenic paroxysms causing retreat of epicontinental waters to oceanic basins, creating segmentation of the stratigraphic and chronological record. At mid-Century James Gilluly gained wide support for the proposition that orogeny has followed a Uniformitarian, near-steady-state course. Accordingly, episodic diastrophism is a myth and cannot be the basis for periodic eustatic sea-level change, interregional unconformities, etc. In more recent decades two powerful new influences on geological thought have emerged. The global tectonic paradigm has forced upon us the realization that rearrangements of lithospheric plates are capable of changing the freeboard of continents. At the same time technological advances in the acquisition and processing of seismic-reflection data have been seized by receptive minds to organize the newly available stratigraphic imagery for application to the discipline of seismic stratigraphy which emphasizes the identification and correlation of unconformity-bounded successions of strata. Expansion of the methodology to the outcrop, beyond the limitations of seismic resolution, has brought about the flowering of the New Sequence Stratigraphy, doctrine that has deservedlyachieved wide application and acclaim. Practitioners of sequence stratigraphy, impressed by the distances over which unconformity-bounded stratal units can be correlated, hew to the belief that eustatic (commonly glacially engendered) sea-level change is the control. This paper examines evidence of tectonic episodes affecting cratons and their margins. These offer promise of a more satisfactory understanding of stratigraphic sequences and of the Earth history they represent. Consideration of these matters makes it inescapable that the elevation and subsidence of cratons (and their component basins and arches) reflect tectonic phenomena of the continental lithosphere quite independent of eustatic events.     

Global and regional factors responsible for the drowning of the Central Apennine Chattian carbonate platforms

This work discusses and interprets the factors responsible for the Oligocene–Miocene drowning of the Central Apennine platform deposits, based on facies and stable‐isotope analyses of two representative stratigraphic sections. The Mediterranean carbonate platforms were affected during the Oligocene–Miocene boundary by a carbonate production crisis that was induced by global factors and amplified by regional events, such as volcanic activity. The positive δ¹³C shift observed in the studied sections corresponds to vertical facies changes reflecting the evolution from middle carbonate ramp to outer ramp‐hemipelagic depositional environments. This drowning event is recorded not only in the Apennine platforms, but also in other Mediterranean platforms such as in southern Apulia, Sicily and Malta, and outside the Mediterranean Basin. The ~24–23.5 Ma Mi‐1 glacial maximum may have had a significant influence on this drowning event because it was associated with high rates of accumulation of continent‐derived sediments. The increased continental weathering and runoff sustained high trophic conditions. These probably were a consequence of the Aquitanian–Burdigalian volcanic activity in the Central‐Western Mediterranean, that may have led to an increase in nutrient content in seawater and an increase in atmospheric and marine CO₂ concentrations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temperate carbonate platform drowning linked to Miocene oceanographic events: Maiella platform margin, Italy

Carbonate platform drownings are frequent, often synchronous global occurrences, yet explanations for these world-wide events remain unsatisfactory. In the Central Apennines, Lower and Middle Miocene carbonate rocks deposited on a 'temperate' ramp in the Maiella platform margin record two episodes of platform drowning followed by hemipelagic sedimentation, dated as latest Oligocene–Aquitanian (26–23 M a) and as Burdigalian–Langhian (20–16 Ma). A high-resolution stratigraphy, based on strontium- isotopes, allows us to correlate key phases of platform evolution with events recorded in deep water ocean sediments. This paper suggests that high weathering rates and nutrient input in the Mediterranean during the early and middle Miocene –possibly linked to the uplift of the Tibetan region – set the preconditions for platform drowning, which were ultimately caused by rapid eustatic sea-level rises.     

层序地层学:问题与讨论

论文回顾地震地层学对层序地层学的贡献与影响、层序地层学理论积淀,指出沉积层序存在的诸如层序边界（不整合面及其可比的整合面）跨界系统阶等年代地层单位、沉积层序"T-R"水侵-水退建模理论基础与层序边界不断调整、基准面曲线滞后水侵-水退（R-T）曲线和纯几何学的相对应整合面（可比的整合面）禁锢等4个问题.针对4个问题论文建议:（1）静止正常水退（SNR）取代高位正常水退（HNR）,解决层序地层学由高位正常水退不合理设定造成的非周期性问题;（2）鉴于残留最大水泛面（RMFS）潜在地接近或一致于年代地层单位界线或全球界线层型剖面和点（GSSP）阶的下界的特征,层序地层学有可能建立残留最大水泛面与其相对应不整合面组成的复合层序边界,其中的残留最大水泛面部分用于解决现行层序边界跨年代地层单位界线的问题;（3）复合层序边界由盆朝陆的"一对一"追踪方式解决层序边界由陆朝盆"一对多"不断调整的问题;（4）降级"相对应整合面"为体系域边界,解决双定义"相对应整合面"问题,其中,Hunt and Tucker（1992）的"相对应整合面"被复合层序边界相对应不整合面部分向盆内延伸（ESU）取代而作为低位体系域底界（ESU亦兼有水侵体系域在不整合处的底界作用）,Posamentier and Allen（1999）的"相对应整合面"被复合层序边界之上的恢复的强迫水退底界取代而作为下降期体系域底界.此外,强迫水退底界同义术语现在采用的海相侵蚀海退面（RSME）术语不能全部代表海相与非海相背景.      

Sedimentology,biostratigraphy and event stratigraphy of the Early Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE1A) in the Apulia Carbonate Platform Margin – Ionian Basin System (Gargano Promontory,southern Italy)

The stratigraphic and biotic signatures of severe environmental changes across the late Early Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE1a) in central Tethyan settings have been investigated in the almost undeformed Apulia Carbonate Platform Margin-Ionian Basin system (ACPM-IB) exposed in the Gargano Promontory (southeastern Italy). The nature of the observed Lower Aptian biofacies shifts within the investigated carbonate system are analyzed using an integrated biostratigraphic approach, based on ammonite-calibrated orbitolinids and caprinids coupled with the published δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O record of coeval pelagic sections of the Ionian basin (Coppitella, eastern Gargano, and Paliambela, northwestern Greece). Detailed field analysis of facies and tracing out of key biosedimentary and chemostratigraphic markers of the Lower Aptian have elucidated the evolution of the platform margin and allowed integrated correlations across the Gargano margin to basin transition.It is shown here that the global-scale environmental changes leading to the OAE1a event (i.e., fluctuations of surface-ocean temperature, available trophic resources and, above all, pCO₂) are matched consistently by significant shifts of the biotic associations inhabiting the ACPM. The onset of greenhouse, mesotrophic conditions in the surface ocean undergoing an increasing acidification by CO₂ excess favored the rapid spread of calcite shelled, filter feeding, eurytopic opportunist organisms (chondrodontids, ostreids, chaetetids sponges, along with minor bryozoans) as well as echinoids and orbitolinids (foramol productivity mode); this change is recorded by the deposition of a 4–6 m Crisis Interval (CI) that sharply overlies the “Urgonian”-type, rudist-rich platform margin complex (Montagna degli Angeli Limestones) formed from predominantly aragonite shelled, stenotopic organisms (mostly caprinid rudists, with minor corals and Dasycladales and Bryopsidales green algae) (chlorozoan productivity mode). The CI heralded the incipient drowning of the ACPM which occurred immediately after the deposition of a hothouse “out of balance” brachiopod (Orbirhynchia nadiae)-cyanobacteria association (microbial productivity mode). The biostratigraphically constrained CI and the related drowning of the ACPM have been physically correlated with specific chemostratigraphic segments of the δ¹³C_carb curve that is available for the facing, proximal Ionian Basin. The early (earliest ?) Late Bedoulian, greenhouse CI (early D. deshayesi – early P. cormyi zones) was deposited during the late C2 interval, whereas the early Late Bedoulian, hothouse “out-of-balance” guild and the ACPM drowning (early deshayesi zone) accompanied the subsequent negative excursion and culmination, respectively, at the very base of the Chemostratigraphic Selli Level (CSL) (latest C2 and C3 interval). These correlations permit regional to global interpretations of historical patterns and explanatory paleoeanographic and paleoecologic hypotheses; furthermore, they suggest that the Apulia shallow-water ecosystem reacted to the environmental disruptions linked with the OAE1a sooner than that of the facing open ocean. The onset of the drowning event was synchronous with the hothouse-induced bloom of the “out of balance” brachiopod-cyanobacteria association that occurred simultaneously with the pronounced negative excursion of the δ¹³C_carb curve. This suggests a cause-and-effect relationship with the sudden environmental perturbations linked with the injection into the atmosphere-hydrosphere system of ¹³C-depleted CO₂. The numerical age model of the major biotic and stratigraphic events at the Lower Aptian ACPM, along with their inferred genetic processes call for different timings and causal mechanisms associated with platform demise in northern and central Tethyan settings.     

Stratigraphic,sedimentological and palaeoenvironmental constraints on the rise of the Urgonian platform in the western Swiss Jura

Urgonian‐type carbonates are a characteristic feature of many late Early Cretaceous shallow‐marine, tropical and subtropical environments. The presence of typical photozoan carbonate‐producing communities including corals and rudists indicates the prevalence of warm, transparent and presumably oligotrophic conditions in a period otherwise characterized by the high density of globally occurring anoxic episodes. Of particular interest, therefore, is the exploration of relationships between Urgonian platform growth and palaeoceanographic change. In the French and Swiss Jura Mountains, the onset and evolution of the Urgonian platform have been controversially dated, and a correlation with other, better dated, successions is correspondingly difficult. It is for this reason that the stratigraphy and sedimentology of a series of recently exposed sections (Eclépens, Vaumarcus and Neuchâtel) and, in addition, the section of the Gorges de l’Areuse were analysed. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, the evolution of phosphorus contents of bulk rock, a sequence‐stratigraphic interpretation and a correlation of drowning unconformities with better dated sections in the Helvetic Alps were used to constrain the age of the Urgonian platform. The sum of the data and field observations suggests the following evolution: during the Hauterivian, important outward and upward growth of a bioclastic and oolitic carbonate platform is documented in two sequences, separated by a phase of platform drowning during the late Early Hauterivian. Following these two phases of platform growth, a second drowning phase occurred during the latest Hauterivian and Early Barremian, which was accompanied by significant platform erosion and sediment reworking. The Late Barremian witnessed the renewed installation of a carbonate platform, which initiated with a phase of oolite production, and which progressively evolved into a typical Urgonian carbonate platform colonized by corals and rudists. This phase terminated at the latest in the middle Early Aptian, due to a further drowning event. The evolution of this particular platform segment is compatible with that of more distal and well‐dated segments of the same northern Tethyan platform preserved in the Helvetic zone of the Alps and in the northern subalpine chains (Chartreuse and Vercors).     

Lower Palaeozoic unconformities in an intracratonic platform setting: glacial erosion versus tectonics in the eastern Murzuq Basin (southern Libya)

The stratigraphic record of the eastern Murzuq Basin has been importantly influenced by deformation resulting in angular and/or deeply erosional unconformities, though the overall context is intracratonic. Major transgressive events and the Ordovician glaciation are nevertheless documented, allowing the delineation of tectonic-, eustasy- or climate-driven unconformities. Lower Palaeozoic key events and related unconformities that characterize the North Gondwana platform have therefore a signature in the eastern Murzuq Basin. The basement/cover unconformity, also known as the infra-Tassilian surface, truncates all the deformed and metamorphosed Lower Cambrian and older rocks. Above is a ?Middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician megasequence (Murizidié and Hasawnah Fms.), which is in turn truncated by an intra-Ordovician, angular unconformity. This megasequence is unconformably overlain by a Middle Ordovician (Hawaz Fm.) to Silurian (Tanzzuft and Akakus Fms) megasequence, which includes the Upper Ordovician glaciogenic unit (Mamuniyat Fm.), bounded at the base by a polygenic glacial erosion surface showing corrugated glacial lineations, tillites, and glaciotectonic structures. The Middle Ordovician to Silurian megasequence is finally truncated by a base-Devonian, angular unconformity overlain by fluvial sandstones. Regarding the possibility that those fluvial deposits may be as younger as Late Devonian in the eastern Murzuq Basin based on palaeoflora, the so-called Caledonian unconformity might be here a much younger (mid-Eifelian?) surface, and the occurrence of the Lower Devonian “Tadrart Fm.” is questioned. The Upper Ordovician glacial erosion surface, which is sometimes referred to as the Taconic unconformity, usually truncates Middle Ordovician strata in the Murzuq Basin but reaches significantly deeper stratigraphic levels in places that have been previously involved in the intra-Ordovician deformation event. In the Murizidié (southeastern Murzuq Basin), the infra-Tassilian surface, the intra-Ordovician unconformity, and the Upper Ordovician glacial erosion surface amalgamate together. Here, an estimate of the glacial erosion depth cannot be derived from the stratigraphic hiatus beneath the glacial incision, the main part of which relate to the intra-Ordovician tectonic event. The Upper Ordovician climate-related glacial erosion surface is not a valid unconformity for a sequence hierarchy framework of the Lower Palaeozoic, although it presents most of the physical attributes of tectonic-driven unconformities.     

沉积波动过程分析在地层层序分析中的应用--以塔里木盆地为例

沉积波动过程是地壳波状运动的具体表现,它是各种天文因素、地质因素共同作用的结果,沉积波动过程的时空演化控制着地层层序的时空展布特点。在介绍沉积波动过程分析概念、技术思路、工作方法的基础上,利用沉积波动曲线在剖面上的预测功能及对沉积－剥蚀过程起止时间、不整合的研究成果,分析了塔里木盆地震旦系至第四系各主要构造层的地层展布特征,并对其形成过程及成因进行了分析,在理论和方法研究方面,试图将沉积波动特征的研究与层序地层学的研究结合起来,提出了地层格架－沉积波动特征连井对比图的概念和编制方法,该类图件能直观地反映多期不整合的存在及不整合间断的时间,并能直观地反映各层序的时空分布,而且能够解释地层格架的形成过程,进而进行成因分析,是沉积波动过程分析方法与层序地层学结合的一种具体、有益的偿试。     

升平油田葡萄花油层高分辨率层序地层格架及储层特征

利用高分辨率层序地层理论分析方法,在升平油田葡萄花油层三维地震资料及15口井岩心和356口井测井资料综合研究的基础上,通过不同级次基准面旋回界面特征的识别,将本区划分为1个长期、2个中期、6个短期和13个超短期层序,以超短期层序为目标,建立了单砂体等时对比单元的地层格架。以超短期层序为控制目标,详细研究了葡萄花油层沉积微相及单砂体分布规律:基准面上升期是三角洲河道砂体发育最有利时期,单砂体厚度大连续分布广;湖泛期细粒沉积物分布广泛,储集层不发育;基准面下降期受下切作用影响,河道砂体不发育。提出了葡萄花油层超短期旋回层序由于同沉积构造抬升作用所导致的从北到南逐渐减薄超覆尖灭新地层模式。     

How global are the Jurassic–Cretaceous unconformities?

The reality of the global‐scale sedimentation breaks remains controversial. A compilation of data on the Jurassic–Cretaceous unconformities in a number of regions with different tectonic settings and character of sedimentation, where new or updated stratigraphic frameworks are established, permits their correlation. Unconformities from three large reference regions, including North America, the Gulf of Mexico, and Western Europe, were also considered. The unconformities, which encompass the Jurassic‐Cretaceous, the Lower–Upper Cretaceous and the Cretaceous–Palaeogene transitions are of global extent. Other remarkable unconformities traced within many regions at the base of the Jurassic and at the Santonian–Campanian transition are not known from reference regions. A correlation of the Jurassic–Cretaceous global‐scale sedimentation breaks and eustatic curves is quite uncertain. Therefore, definition of global sequences will not be possible until eustatic changes are clarified. Activity of mantle plumes is among the likely causes of the documented unconformities.     

Depositional bias and environmental change—important factors in sequence stratigraphy

Differences among depositional systems, here called depositional bias, strongly influence sequence patterns. Siliciclastics and shallow-water carbonates, for instance, shed most of their sediment during opposite phases of a sea-level cycle (lowstand shedding and highstand shedding, respectively). Furthermore, the two systems generate their own, system-specific relief on the sea floor, disperse their sediment load along different avenues and differ in the way they are deactivated: reefs and carbonate platforms can be drowned, whereas siliciclastic deposition can be shut off and renewed at any depth. As a consequence of these differences, pronounced unconformities (drowning unconformities) develop where carbonate platforms are terminated and buried by siliciclastics (the siliciclastic-to-carbonate transition tends to be more gradual). Drowned platforms and drowning unconformities appeared world-wide in great abundance in the Miocene, Cretaceous (Valanginian-Turonian), Jurassic (Toarcian) and Devonian (Frasnian/Famennian). Examples of drowning unconformities interpreted as sequence boundaries, include those of the Early Cretaceous platforms off New Jersey and off Morocco, the mid-Cretaceous unconformity in the Gulf of Mexico and Miocene unconformities on top of reefs in the Far East.

The eustatic cycles postulated from sequence stratigraphy are a very unlikely cause for the mass drownings of reefs and platforms: either the rates of rise are an order of magnitude lower than the growth potential of platforms, or cycle amplitudes are too small, or the cycles are too short and subsidence too slow to remove platforms permanently from the photic zone. The critical element in the mass drowning seems to be environmental stress that reduces the growth potential of carbonate systems. Thus, drowning unconformities demonstrate the importance of environmental change as a control on sequence development. Other examples of dominantly environment-controlled sequences include slope deposits shaped by shifting currents (e.g. Florida and Blake Plateau) and basin fills that were controlled by changes in sediment input related to tectonic alteration of the drainage in the hinterland (e.g. Gulf of Mexico).

Environmental change must be considered as a third, independent factor that competes with eustatic and tectonically driven regional changes of sea-level for control of sequences. The definition of sequences and sequence boundaries should be broad enough to include the possibility of non-sea-level controls.     

Platform margin collapses and sequence stratigraphic organization of carbonate slopes: Cretaceous–Eocene,Gargano Promontory,southern Italy

We describe the sequence stratigraphic organization and the associated sedimentological characteristics of Cretaceous to Eocene slope and base-of-slope carbonate successions. The study area is located in the Gargano Promontory which belongs to the stable foreland of southern Italy. The succession consists of three superimposed depositional sequences separated by major unconformities. The upper two sequences are clear examples of sequence stratigraphic organization; in fact, they both start with huge megabreccia wedges (LST) followed upward by thin pelagic units (TST) and a thick package of calciturbidites and debrites that alternate with pelagic mudstone (HST). The Cretaceous highstand systems tract is clearly arranged in a number of coarsening-upward cycles while the Eocene one which also comprises a toplap shallow water unit, is not. The Gargano stratigraphic palimpsest and the entire margin of the Apulia Platform show remarkable similarities with present-day carbonate platform margins and slopes where irregular, convex-bankward embayments suggest large-scale failures. It is clear that classic sequence stratigraphic organization can result from simple platform dismantling, having no or little time relation with global sea-level fluctuations. In fact, as the margin failure (LST) interrupts the carbonate production, a period of starvation (TST) along the entire slope and base-of-slope follows necessarily. Finally, when the margin once again becomes active and productive, sediment exportation starts again and the system begins to prograde (HST).     

Why Terrestrial Stable Carbon-isotope Stratigraphy Works: a Review

Carbon-isotope stratigraphy launched since the early technological development of carbon- isotope measurement in 1950s, however, the emergence and advance of terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy took quite a long way. At early stage the exploration of carbon-isotope stratigraphy based on the marine biological shell carbonates was verified by repeatable carbon-isotope stratigraphic data, laboratory chemical experiments and the later laboratory foraminiferal culture experiments. The breakthrough for testifying the fundamentals of terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy lies on the synchronous fluctuations between the carbon-isotope stratigraphic curves derived from marine biological shell carbonates and those derived from terrestrial C3 plants. The character that carbon-isotope stratigraphic curves can be globally synchronously correlated over the marine and terrestrial/atmospheric reservoir mainly excludes the potential biasing factors, such as diagenetic bias, carbon-isotope variations in intra/inter individual plant in same species or between species, ecological changes, changes in aridity, changes in source input and representative sampling. Therefore, the fundamentals of terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy based on C3 plant successfully established. The terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy can be used for global stratigraphic correlation, reconstructing the evolution of atmospheric CO2 and can further verify the published global carbon-cycle models. The terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy based on the compound specific biomarkers and single-grained pollen may be a promising perspective in future.     

东海瓯江凹陷下第三系层序地层学研究

运用威尔(P. R. Val)等人层序地层学的新慨念,对瓯江凹陷下第三系进行了层序地层分析和研究,确定了四个区域不整合面,三套层序,每一套层序又可划分出低水位体系域,海进体系域,高水位体系域。每个体系域,在钻井上可以发现相应的各种沉积相和生物化石。沉积环境的变化,生物化石带的演变反映了海平面变化的控制作用,并能同全球海平面变化对比。     

Limitations of sequence stratigraphic correlation between marine and continental deposits: a 3D experimental study of unconformity-bounded units

Experiments have been carried out in a model basin 16 × 1·2 × 0·9 m to address the effect of base‐level and discharge changes on actively growing alluvial‐shoreline wedges. Two distinct types of erosive surfaces were investigated: one produced by base‐level fluctuations in the coastal zone and the other by discharge and supply fluctuations in the upstream alluvial basin. In the first experiment, three similar base‐level cycles were simulated keeping sediment supply and basin tilting constant within each cycle, and changing discharge from one cycle to the next. In the second experiment, rises and falls of base level were instantaneous and discharge changes were in phase (high discharge linked to high water levels in the basin). In the third experiment, base level and discharge changed gradually, at different rates and they were out of phase, resembling a typical glacio‐eustatic cycle in which sea‐level rises and falls are linked to increased and decreased discharge, respectively. The resulting stratigraphy of the alluvial to deltaic sedimentary wedge was analysed in terms of the development of unconformities and the evolving depositional geometry. An intervening decoupled zone between parts of the model basin dominated by alluvial processes and that at the coastal zone is identified. Within this decoupled zone, unconformities in the alluvial succession tend to vanish basinward, and base‐level generated coastal unconformities disappear landward. The two types of unconformity can be generated at different times during a glacio‐eustatic cycle, and it is thus erroneous to correlate them, even though they may appear to form a continuous surface. Unconformities within the modelled stratigraphy do not constitute time lines nor do they consistently separate younger from older beds, as they require a significant time to form and they have thick sedimentary packages as depositional correlatives. The experiments also support a fourfold division of sequences, showing the development of a significant sedimentary package during base‐level falls.     

Evolution of an incised valley coastal plain estuary under low sediment supply: a ‘give‐up’ estuary

The literature on incised river valley sedimentology is dominated by studies of sediment‐rich systems in which the valley has been filled during and/or shortly after drowning. In contrast, the Holocene evolution of the Kosi Lagoon, South Africa (an incised coastal plain river valley) took place under very low sedimentation rates which have produced a distinctive stratigraphy and contemporary sedimentary environments. The findings are based on a synthesis of the results of studies of seismic stratigraphy, sediment distribution, morphodynamics and geomorphology. Barrier migration was prevented by a high pre‐Holocene dune barrier against which Holocene coastal deposits accumulated in an aggradational sequence. Holocene evolution of the back barrier involved: (i) drowning of the incised valley; (ii) wave‐induced modification of the back‐barrier shoreline leading to segmentation during the highstand; and (iii) marine sedimentation adjacent to the tidal inlet. Segmentation has divided the estuary into a series of geochemically and sedimentologically distinctive basins connected by channels in the estuarine barriers. The seismic stratigraphy of the back barrier essentially lacks a transgressive systems tract, shoreline modification and deposition having been accomplished during the highstand. The lack of historical geomorphological change suggests that the system has achieved morphological equilibrium with ambient energy conditions and low sediment supply. This study presents a classification for estuarine incised valley fills based on the balance between sea‐level rise and sedimentation in which Kosi represents a ‘give‐up’ estuary where much of the relict incised channel form is drowned and preserved. It exhibits a fundamentally different set of evolutionary processes and stratigraphic sequences to those of the better known incised valley systems in which sedimentation either keeps pace with sea‐level (‘keep‐up’ estuaries) or occurs after initial drowning (‘catch‐up’ estuaries).     

川东下三叠统飞仙关组一嘉陵江组界线附近的锶同位素组成

作为化学地层学的重要分支之一,锶同位素地层学已经逐步成为全球海平面变化、造山运动、古气候和古环境等全球事件研究和对比的有效工具,根据锶同位素地层学的基本原理,在对样品进行沉积岩组构、化学成分分析和对同期海水代表性评估的基础上,测试了四川东部华蓥山地区下三叠统飞仙关组-嘉陵江组界线附近6个碳酸盐岩样品的锶同位素组成。结果表明,该界线附近的锶同位素组成与前人公布的早三叠世同期海水的锶同位素组成数据基本一致。锶同位素地层学研究的引入,可望为我国南方海相三叠系飞仙关组和嘉陵江组的年代地层学对比研究提供重要依据。     

Meso-Cenozoic geodynamic evolution of the Paris Basin: 3D stratigraphic constraints

3D stratigraphic geometries of the intracratonic Meso-Cenozoic Paris Basin were obtained by sequence stratigraphic correlations of around 1 100 wells (well-logs). The basin records the major tectonic events of the western part of the Eurasian Plate, i.e. opening and closure of the Tethys and opening of the Atlantic. From earlier Triassic to Late Jurassic, the Paris Basin was a broad subsiding area in an extensional framework, with a larger size than the present-day basin. During the Aalenian time, the subsidence pattern changes drastically (early stage of the central Atlantic opening). Further steps of the opening of the Ligurian Tethys (base Hettangian, late Pliensbachian;...) and its evolution into an oceanic domain (passive margin, Callovian) are equally recorded in the tectono-sedimentary history. The Lower Cretaceous was characterized by NE–SW compressive medium wavelength unconformities (late Cimmerian–Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary and intra-Berriasian and late Aptian unconformities) coeval with opening of the Bay of Biscay. These unconformities are contemporaneous with a major decrease of the subsidence rate. After an extensional period of subsidence (Albian to Turonian), NE–SW compression started in late Turonian time with major folding during the Late Cretaceous. The Tertiary was a period of very low subsidence in a compressional framework. The second folding stage occurred from the Lutetian to the Lower Oligocene (N–S compression) partly coeval with the E–W extension of the Oligocene rifts. Further compression occurred in the early Burdigalian and the Late Miocene in response to NE–SW shortening. Overall uplift occurred, with erosion, around the Lower/Middle Pleistocene boundary.