Morphology,sedimentology and palaeohydraulic significance of large gravel dunes,Altai Mountains,Siberia

Coarse-gravel bedforms which resulted from Pleistocene glacial outburst floods are identified as subaqueous dunes. Comparison of the morphology of these ‘fossil’ structures with modern dunes shows that the form of two-dimensional (2-D) transverse dunes and 3-D cuspate and lunate dunes developed in coarse gravels is comparable with sand-dune morphology within lesser-scale geophysical flows. The similarity of the steepest gravel dunes with equilibrium dunes in sand indicates that grain size is not a major factor in constraining primary duneform. Internal structure indicates that flow over 2-D dunes was relatively uniform but over 3-D bedforms flow was locally variable. Flow separation and complex streaming of flow occurred over the steepest 3-D dunes. Cross-beds are thin and few approach the angle of repose; consequently most dunes did not migrate primarily by avalanching but by stoss-entrained gravel transported over the crests rolling-down and depositing on the lee slopes. Lee-side sediments are often finer than the stoss-slope sediments, which indicates the lee formed when flood power was waning. Some dunes were slightly planed-down during falling stage because lee-side cross-beds tend to be steeper than the angle of the preserved lee slope. However, silt-rich caps indicate that any height reduction was contemporary with the final deposition of foresets. Post-flood modification has been negligible although the modern topography is subdued by loess deposits within the dune troughs.     

Denudation and cooling of the Lake Teletskoye Region in the Altai Mountains (South Siberia) as revealed by apatite fission-track thermochronology

Lake Teletskoye occupies a narrow graben located in the northwestern sector of the Altai fold belt in South Siberia. The lake basin is thought to have formed during the Pleistocene as a distant result of the Cenozoic collision of India and Eurasia that caused a tectonic reactivation of the Palaeozoic Gorny–Altai (GA) and West Sayan (WS) blocks.The present work reports of a pilot fission-track study performed on 13 apatite separates collected from rocks that were sampled along two profiles in close proximity of the lake. The age–length data and AFT thermochronological modelling reveal two important phases of cooling in the Altai Mountains, a first one during the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous and a second one that started in the Miocene–Pliocene and that persists until today. The first event is interpreted to result from uplift-induced denudation probably related to the closure of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean; the second event can be linked to the young Cenozoic movements that lie at the origin of the formation of the Lake Teletskoye basin.     

Quaternary glaciations in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, Northeast Siberia

Geomorphological mapping revealed five terminal moraines in the central Verkhoyansk Mountains. The youngest terminal moraine (I) was formed at least 50 ka ago according to new IRSL (infrared optically stimulated luminescence) dates. Older terminal moraines in the western foreland of the mountains are much more extensive in size. Although the smallest of these older moraines, moraine II, has not been dated, moraine III is 80 to 90 ka, moraine IV is 100 to 120 ka, and the outermost moraine V was deposited around 135 ka. This glaciation history is comparable to that of the Barents and Kara ice sheet and partly to that of the Polar Ural Mountains regarding the timing of the glaciations. However, no glaciation occurred during the global last glacial maximum (MIS 2). Based on cirque orientation and different glacier extent on the eastern and western flanks of the Verkhoyansk Mountains, local glaciations are mainly controlled by moisture transport from the west across the Eurasian continent. Thus glaciations in the Verkhoyansk Mountains not only express local climate changes but also are strongly influenced by the extent of the Eurasian ice sheets.     

中国阿尔泰山流域侵蚀速率及其控制因素

流域侵蚀速率的时空变化对于理解活动造山带的地貌演化具有重要意义。以阿尔泰山8个山地流域为研究对象,利用1964—2011年的水文数据,采用河流输沙量法估算了年代际山地流域侵蚀速率。首先确定悬移质、推移质和溶解质对河流输沙量的贡献,然后计算各流域的年代际侵蚀速率,并结合已有研究结果,探讨了阿尔泰山流域侵蚀速率的时空特征及其控制因素。结果表明：阿尔泰山8个山地流域的平均侵蚀速率为0.03 mm·a^-1,其中乌伦古河山地流域侵蚀速率最小（0.01 mm·a^-1）,额尔齐斯河支流克兰河山地流域侵蚀速率最大（0.05 mm·a^-1）。进一步对侵蚀速率与气候、地形、岩性、构造和植被等因素进行相关分析,发现流域侵蚀速率与地形因子（流域面积、地形起伏度）和气候因子（径流深度、平均温度）的相关性较强,表明这些因素可能对阿尔泰山山地流域侵蚀起主要影响。与阿尔泰山百万年尺度的剥蚀速率（0.07~0.3 mm·a^-1）相比,研究时段内的流域侵蚀速率偏低,这表明中亚地区晚新生代持续的干旱气候可能制约了阿尔泰山地表侵蚀。     

Chemical Characteristics of Snow-Firn Pack in Altai Mountains and Its Environmental Significance

In order to study the chemical characteristics of snow-firn pack in Altai Mountains and its environmental significance, a 1.5-m deep snow-firn pack was dug in the accumulation zone (3 300 m a.s.l.) of the Kanas Glacier in August 2009. A total of 15 samples were analyzed for major ions. Results show that the concentrations of major ions in the snow-firn pack are NH4+>SO42->Ca2+>NO3-> Na+>Cl->K+>Mg2+. NH4+ is the dominant cation with a medium value of 4.7 ueq·L-1, accounting for 39.8% of the total cations, an...     

阿尔泰山历史时期气候水文变化特征分析

通过分析总结在中国阿尔泰山区域已取得的树轮气候学和树轮水文学研究成果,选取了5条气温重建序列,3条降水重建序列和2条径流量重建序列,对各序列在全频域、低频域和高频域的相关系数、序列的阶段变化、极值年份、周期等特征展开了讨论和对比,并对阿尔泰山气候的年代际变化进行了分析。结果表明：（1）目前在阿尔泰山开展的气温重建中,重建时段均在树木生长季内,5条气温重建序列显示在1690年代-1700年代、1730年代、1780年代-1790年代为偏冷时期,1710年代-1720年代、1800年代-1830年代、1940年代-1960年代及1990年代以来为偏暖时期。有3条序列指示1830年为暖年,1698年、1784年、1911年、1985-1986年为冷年。（2）3条降水重建序列显示,1830年代-1860年代经历了一段降水量相对平稳的时期,1870年代-1900年代为持续时间最长的干旱时期,1900年为干旱年。（3）2条径流量重建序列显示,1730年代和1810年代-1820年代为丰水期,1750年代和1870年代-1890年代为枯水期,降水量对哈巴河径流量有较大影响。（4）年代际气候变化分析显示,阿尔泰山在1830年代-1990年代以暖干为主,1990年代以后进入了暖湿时期。     

The roads of the Sayan Mountains: Theorizing remoteness in eastern Siberia

The Sayan crossroads is a distinct cultural and economic region in the mountains of eastern Siberia. It spans three federal units in the Russian Federation: the national republics of Tyva (Todzha kozhuun) and Buryatia (Okinskii raion), as well as Irkutsk oblast (Tofalarskoe municipality). Attempts at integration by the state during the Soviet period and afterwards have privileged the construction of roads in a variety of forms to connect these areas economically with regional centers and, in turn, the rest of the country. Yet this process has been uneven and led to divergences in the economic regimes in each of the three regions that make up the crossroads. The evolution of subsistence economies, exploitation by extractive industries, and the development of tourism as an alternative source of income all differ across the three federal subunits. In turn, these divergences within the crossroads as a region point to variation in the condition of remoteness. Remoteness is an instance of relative immobility, determined by physical geography, environment, and ethnicity. And remoteness influences the function that roads play in integrating state spaces both economically and politically. In turn, this article argues for the foregrounding of the remote in the literature on mobilities in human geography, considering what the condition of remoteness allows for and forecloses in the articulation of state power and the integration of hard-to-reach areas.     

Early Mesozoic lamprophyres in Gorny Altai: petrology and age boundaries

The Mesozoic Chuya dike complex was recognized by R.V. Obolenskaya based on the similar mineral composition of dikes and their age characteristics. Lamprophyres occur along the large Terekta–Tolbonur and Kurai–Kobda shear zones. The Chuya complex was studied by the example of two areas, South Chuya and Yustyd, with different levels of erosional truncation. The dikes of the first area are localized in the South Chuya Ridge, where they cut Cambrian–Ordovician metamorphic rocks, and the dikes of the Yustyd area occur in the Devonian terrigenous blackshale deposits of the Yustyd trough. The dikes of these areas differ in structures, textures, the degree of carbonatization, and mineral composition. The performed studies of rocks and minerals confirmed that the dikes of both areas belong to the same complex. They helped to establish the regularities of the lithologic composition of the entire complex and its local areas and to substantiate the recognition of areas not only from their geologic position but also by the composition, structures, and textures of rocks and their mineral composition. Geochronological data show two stages of the complex formation: 236–234 and 250–242 Ma. The results of studies also demonstrate that the lamprophyres and coeval syenites of the Tarkhata massif are fractionates of the same parental melt and can be united into a hypabyssal-plutonic complex. Comparison with other Permo-Triassic lamprophyre complexes showed that the wide variations of the composition of the Chuya rocks and its trend as well as the geochemical anomalies are specific features of complexes of high-K lamprophyres.     

新疆阿尔泰山哈纳斯河流域及其邻域第四纪冰川作用

根据新疆阿尔泰山哈纳斯河流域及其邻域第四纪冰川遗迹的类型和特征,哈纳斯河流域第四纪时期至少发生过5次明显的冰川事件,即倒数第三冰期,倒数第二冰期,倒数第一冰期(末次冰期),新冰期和小冰期。其中,更新世的3次冰川作用规模巨大,倒数第三冰期的冰川呈半覆盖式,倒数第二冰期和倒数第一冰期时发育了长达96km以上的大型山谷冰川。古冰川属于冰温高、活动性大和侵蚀能力强的温冰川。从新到老,每次冰期的雪线下降幅度一次比一次大。     

A tale of elemental accumulation and recycling in the metamorphosed Keketale VMS-type Pb-Zn deposit,Altai Mountains

The elemental accumulation and recycling in the metamorphosed Keketale VMS-type Pb-Zn deposit of the Altai Mountains are presented in this study. Based on detailed fieldwork and microscopic observation, the formation of the deposit involved syngenetic massive sulfide mineralization and epigenetic superimposed mineralization. Different generations of iron sulfides (i.e., pyrite and pyrrhotite) with contrasting textural, elemental, and sulfur isotopic features were generated in primary mineralization (including hydrothermal iron sulfides, colloform pyrite) and secondary modification (including annealed iron sulfides, oriented iron sulfides, and vein-pyrite). It is revealed that the spatial variation in textures and elements of hydrothermal iron sulfides depends on the inhomogeneous fluid compositions and varied environment in VMS hydrothermal system. Both leached sulfur from the footwall volcanic rocks and reduced sulfur by the TSR process are regarded as important sulfur sources. Furthermore, large sulfur isotopic fractionation and negative δ³⁴S values were mainly caused by varied oxygen fugacity, and to a lesser extent, temperature fluctuation. The epigenetic polymetallic veins that contain sulfides and sulfosalts (e.g., jordanite-geocronite, bournonite-seligmannite, boulangerite) were considered as the products of metamorphic fluid scavenged the metal-rich strata. All things considered, it is indicated that two episodes of fluid with distinct origins were essential for the formation of the deposit. The predominant evolved seawater along with subordinate magmatic fluid mobilized metals from volcanic rocks and precipitated massive sulfides near the seafloor are vital for primary mineralization. The metamorphic fluid remobilized metals (i.e., FMEs: fluid mobile elements, e.g., Pb, As, Sb) from neighboring volcanic and pyroclastic rocks and destabilized them within the fractured zone are responsible for secondary mineralization, which enhances the economic value of the deposit. Accordingly, metal-rich Devonian strata had been successively swept by different origins of fluid, leading to progressively elemental enrichment and the formation of a large deposit. Furthermore, the current study enlightens that FME-bearing veins with economic benefits can be discovered near the metamorphosed VMS deposits.     

Geologic position,age, and petrogenesis of plagiogranites in northern Rudny Altai

The geologic position, age, petrologic composition, and petrogenesis of mesoabyssal plagiogranites in northern Rudny Altai, dated earlier at the Early–Middle Devonian, are considered. The Middle Carboniferous (322–318 Ma) age of granitoids has been substantiated by isotope-geochronological data (U–Pb zircon dating and Ar–Ar amphibole and biotite dating). Geologic-structural studies showed that the intrusion of granitoids took place at the time when compression was changed by sinistral faulting. This led to the conclusion that the granitoids formed at the peak of the collision between the Siberian and the Kazakhstan paleocontinents. Geochemical and isotope studies showed that most of the analyzed plagiogranites belong to high-alumina (continental) type and resulted from the deep melting (~ 15 kbar) of metabasic substrates compositionally similar to N-MORB (judging from results of geochemical modeling and the Nd isotope composition). The presence of plagiogranites of low-alumina (oceanic) type in the postgranite dike series testifies to the melting of the Rudny Altai heterogeneous crust at different depths during its collisional thickening.     

新疆阿尔泰山圆叶桦空间分布对温度变化的响应

阿尔泰山圆叶桦由于生长周期短、对气候变化反应灵敏,具有典型的指示意义.以长时间序列遥感数据为基础,借助GIS技术和分形插值方法,研究近24 a来阿尔泰山圆叶桦的空间分布对温度变化的响应,结果表明：近24 a来阿尔泰山气温上升速率为0.18℃·（10a）^-1,圆叶桦面积增速达7.28%,圆叶桦随随温度上升呈显著增长,且温度上升速率越大,圆叶桦面积增长越快;圆叶桦分布的平均海拔随温度升高呈上升趋势,温度上升不仅促进了圆叶桦面积的扩大,还抬高了圆叶桦分布的平均海拔,且温度变化对海拔较高区域的植被生长影响力较大;各坡向圆叶桦面积随温度的上升均有所增加,温度上升对阳坡圆叶桦影响显著,对阴坡圆叶桦影响微弱.     

中、新生代天山隆升过程及其与准噶尔、阿尔泰山比较研究

根据穿越天山地质剖面观察、系统裂变径迹(FT)测年年龄与热演化模拟结果分析,并综合前人研究结果,天山陆内造山带中、新生代主要经历2次明显的隆升事件,分别为晚侏罗世—早白垩世和中新世以来(25~0Ma)。从天山地区磷灰石FT年龄结果来看,主要记录了早期隆升年龄,但热演化模拟结果显示普遍经历了中新世以来的快速隆升。在天山北缘从盆山边缘的近25Ma开始隆升到前缘带的现今活动,表明天山陆内造山带在隆升的同时还逐渐“增生”扩展。系统研究和分析表明,东西准噶尔和阿尔泰地区则主要记录了晚中生代以来的持续隆升过程,新生代构造活动不明显或强度相对天山要弱。上述事实表明,天山及其中亚地区新生代的陆内活动是受喜马拉雅碰撞与青藏高原隆升的影响,具有向北渐弱的特征。     

中俄阿尔泰山中生代花岗岩与稀有金属矿床的初步对比分析

中国阿尔泰山和俄罗斯阿尔泰山均属于阿尔泰山脉的组成部分,地理上互相连接,地质上具有相似的古生代演化历史,同样都发育中生代花岗岩及伴生的稀有金属矿床.中国阿尔泰山和俄罗斯阿尔泰山的中生代花岗岩及其稀有金属矿床既表现出一定的相似性,也存在一定的差别.两地与稀有金属矿床有关的中生代花岗岩主要为S型花岗岩,属于非造山花岗岩类,但在俄罗斯阿尔泰山发育以岩珠和岩脉型钨-钼、锂-钽为主的稀有金属矿床,时限为晚三叠世和早侏罗世,而中国阿尔泰山则发育以花岗伟晶岩脉型锂-铍-铌-钽为主的稀有金属矿床,时限从晚三叠世到晚侏罗世.这些花岗岩具有相似的Sr-Nd同位素特征,但87Sr/86Sr初始比值变化很大,可能是岩浆-流体作用的结果,而变化较小的εNd(t)值与富集地幔来源的岩浆基本相当,或者可以解释为幔源岩浆与地壳物质混合的结果.     

中亚阿尔泰山南坡表土和泥炭沉积物GDGTs综合研究

相对于我国季风区,西北内陆地区表土和泥炭沉积物的甘油二烷基甘油四醚化合物（GDGTs）现代过程研究结果报道较少。对中亚干旱区阿尔泰山南坡海拔梯度表土、高山泥炭地哈拉沙子和那仁夏周边坡地表土以及哈拉沙子表层泥炭沉积物进行了GDGTs分析,结果表明：1）其海拔梯度表土当中细菌来源支链结构GDGTs（brGDGTs）的分子分布特征主要响应于湿度的变化;2）同样主要由于湿度变化的影响,奇古菌的影响和贡献在相对低海拔地区更为明显,产甲烷古菌的影响和贡献在相对高海拔地区上升,导致古菌来源的类异戊二烯结构GDGTs（isoGDGTs）的TEX₈₆参数随海拔上升具有显著的降低趋势;3）哈拉沙子和那仁夏泥炭地泥炭沉积物当中的brGDGTs和isoGDGTs都并非主要来自周边坡地土壤的异源输入,而主要都是泥炭地原地自生来源。这些研究结果,一方面为在该区域利用GDGTs开展古环境、古气候重建提供基础性参考;另一方面,也对其他区域相应研究结果形成有益补充。

     

Consistent long-term Holocene warming trend at different elevations in the Altai Mountains in arid central Asia

Recent results indicate contrasting Holocene moisture histories at different elevations in arid central Asia (ACA). However, relatively little is known about Holocene temperature changes at different elevations. Here we report an independently dated peat brGDGTs-based MBT'_5ME record from the Narenxia peatland (NRX) in the southern Altai Mountains. The record suggests a long-term warming trend since ~7.7 cal. kyr bp , with a warmer stage during ~7–5.5 cal. kyr bp , a cold stage during ~5.5–4 cal. kyr bp , and a warming trend over the last ~4 kyr. The long-term warming trend indicated by the NRX MBT'_5ME record is largely consistent with Holocene temperature records from nearby sites covering an altitudinal range of ~1700–4100 m above sea level. This consistent long-term warming trend at different elevations differs from the long-term Holocene drying/wetting trends at high/low elevations of the Altai Mountains. We propose that the warming trend and consequent permafrost thawing at high elevations could have resulted in increased meltwater runoff, which would have contributed to the long-term wetting trend at low elevations. Our findings potentially provide an improved understanding of regional climate change and associated water resource availability, with implications for their possible future status.     

阿尔泰构造带喀纳斯群时代的厘定及其意义

喀纳斯群分布于阿尔泰构造带西北部阿勒泰-青河韧性剪切带以北地区,是一套巨厚的浅变质陆源碎屑岩.由于喀纳斯群时代争议较大,该套地层所具有的大地构造意义一直存在不同的认识.本文通过对采自喀纳斯群的碎屑锆石及侵入到喀纳斯群的变质花岗岩体锆石U-Pb定年,获得了其沉积的下限和上限年龄,基本上限定了喀纳斯群的时代范围.喀纳斯群碎屑岩最年轻的碎屑锆石年龄为550±18Ma,而侵入喀纳斯群的变质花岗岩体的锆石岩浆结晶年龄为523±19Ma.因此,确定喀纳斯群沉积时代为晚震旦世-早寒武世(523～550Ma).喀纳斯群是一套形成于被动大陆边缘环境的复理石沉积,本文获得的喀纳斯群时代,暗示着阿尔泰构造带存在前寒武纪大陆地壳基底.