Biotite composition as a tool for the identification of Quaternary tephra beds

Stratigraphically important Quaternary rhyolitic tephra deposits that erupted from the Okataina and Taupo volcanic centers in New Zealand can be geochemically identified using the FeO and MgO contents of their biotite phenocrysts. The FeO/MgO ratio in biotite does not correlate with FeO/MgO in the coexisting glass phase so that tephra beds with similar glass compositions can be discriminated by their different biotite compositions. Some individual tephra deposits display sequential changes in biotite composition that allow separate phases of the eruption to be identified, greatly increasing the potential precision for correlation. In addition, devitrified lavas that are unsuitable for glass analysis can be correlated to coeval tephra deposits by their biotite compositions. Biotite is common in high-K₂O (>4 wt%) tephra beds and is widely dispersed in ash plumes because of its platy form, thus making it important in correlation studies.     

The Quaternary geology of the British Isles

This editorial accompanies the second of two sets of papers in the Proceedings (the first set appeared in Part 4 of 2009) that arise from the Annual Discussion Meeting of the Quaternary Research Association, co-hosted by the Royal Geographical Society. This collection represents two main categories of paper: on (1) on sand and gravel, several arising from projects funded from the British Government's Aggregates Levy, and (2) glaciation, with a degree of overlap between these. Both categories also include results of PhD research. The first category includes presentation of fluvially-based data from SW England, North Yorkshire, the Trent and the Fen Basin, as well as studies of raised beach deposits in southern England and County Durham. At the boundary between the categories is a paper on a pre-glacial fluvial valley system in the glaciated Dyfi basin, west Wales, and another on the marginal area between the Late Devensian Welsh ice cap and the contemporaneous Irish Sea ice stream, encompassing glacio-fluvial sands and gravels as well as fully glacigenic diamictons. There are also papers on the Woore Moraine, in Shropshire, and the glaciofluvial deposits of the Brampton kame belt, east of Carlisle, Cumbria. Studies at either end of Yorkshire include a paper on the sedimentology and luminescence dating of Glacial Lake Humber deposits, in the central Vale of York, and another that documents deglaciation and the emergence of the rivers in the watershed area between the rivers of this Vale (the Swale-Ure-Ouse system) and the Tees, to the north. The latter is followed up by a third paper on the palaeo-environmental evidence from the middle ‘piedmont’ reaches of these rivers. Two final papers fall outside of these categories. One documents periglacial activity during the Loch Lomond Stadial in south London, revealing significant complexity. The second reviews the engagement of the Quaternary community with the formal education system, with institutions, policy makers, planners and with the public at large, offering examples of good practice and setting out aspirations for continuation of such ‘outreach’ in the future.     

北京平原地区第四纪地质研究新进展

北京平原地处山前冲洪积扇分布区,区内湖泊密布,河流纵横,沉积环境多样。由于第四系三维结构的复杂性,对第四系进行地层划分有一定的难度。前人根据不同的资料对北京平原第四系进行过地层划分,建立了泥河湾组、周口店组、马兰组等多个岩石地层单位。这些地层单位主要是依据沉积凹陷钻孔岩心中的孢粉、有孔虫、介形虫等化石和少量的古地磁数据划分的,实际上仍是年代地层单位。由于这些地层单位划分依据不统一,识别标志不清晰,因此难以得到广泛的共识。近十余年来,随着资料的积累和对第四系三维结构的认识提高,特别是古地磁测年技术的普及,为北京平原第四纪地层的划分奠定了基础。本文依据40余个钻孔的古地磁测试数据,初步厘定了下更新统底界、中更新统底界、上更新统底界3个等时面。依据工程地质勘察、水文地质钻孔、考古发掘和泥炭调查等资料编绘了平原区全新统等厚度图。     

辽宁庄河鞍子山超单元岩浆侵位变形构造

鞍子山超单元由4个单元组成,各单元不同程度地发育岩浆侵位变形构造。侵位变形构造主要由叶理构造组成,闪长质包体,钾长石斑晶总体按优选方位定向,三者产状一致,平行接触带分布。从早期单元至晚期单元,随着岩浆侵位叶理构造变形强度减弱,闪长质包体数量减少,压扁变形程度降低,钾长石斑晶从明显按优选方位定向到杂乱分布。根据上述特征,将该超单元浆侵位变形、中等侵位变形、弱侵位变形及基本无侵位变形4个带。     

The importance of applied Quaternary geology for planning of land use and natural resources

Book reviewed in this article:
De Mulder, F. J. & Hageman, B. P. (eds.) 1989: Applied Quaternary Research     

Quaternary geology and deglaciation of the continental shelf off Troms, north Norway

The study is based mainly on 4700 km shallow seismic profiling, soil mechanical, and micropaleontological analyses from forty localities, and seven radiocarbon datings. Six foraminiferal assemblages are recognized. The thickness of Quaternary deposits ranges from sparse to more than 200 m. They consist of top sand, soft sensitive clay, and glacial drift divided into four seismic stratigraphic units. The oldest unit, which is the thickest and most extensive, is built up of various sediments and is partly eroded, especially in the southern part. The remaining units occur as three complex linear belts running broadly parallel to the present coast and were deposited during deglaciation. Dating of the outer unit, the Nordvestsnaget Drift, suggests a maximum age of 13,300 years B.P., and datings from the top of the middle unit, the Mulegga Drift, have given a minimum age of about 12,200 years B.P. Seismic stratigraphy shows that the inner unit, the Havbrobakken Drift, is younger than the Mulegga Drift, but no datings have been obtained so far.     

An attempt to analyze the development of geology as a science

The Eocene (42 to 41 Ma) El Salvador porphyry copper deposit in the Indio Muerto district, northern Chile (26° 15′ S Lat.), formerly thought to have formed at the culmination of a 9-m.y. period of episodic magmatism, is shown by new mapping, U-Pb and K-Ar geochronology, and petrologic data to have formed during the younger of two distinct but superposed magmatic events-a Paleocene (～63 to 58 Ma) and an Eocene (44 to 41 Ma) event. In the district, high-K Paleocene volcano-plutonic activity was characterized by a variety of eruptive styles and magmatic compositions, including a collapse caldera associated with explosive rhyolitic magmatism (El Salvador trapdoor caldera), a post-collapse rhyolite dome field (Cerro Indio Muerto), and andesitic-trachyandesitic stratovolcanos (Kilometro Catorce-Los Amarillos sequence). Pre-caldera basement faults were reactivated during Paleocene volcanism as part of the collapse margin of the caldera. Beneath Cerro Indio Muerto, where the porphyry Cu deposit subsequently formed, the intersection of two major basement faults and the NNE-striking rotational axis of tilted ignimbrites of the Paleocene El Salvador caldera localized emplacement of post-collapse rhyolite domes and peripheral dikes and sills. Subsequent Eocene rhyolitic and granodioritic-dacitic porphyries intruded ~14 m.y. after cessation of Paleocene magmatism along the same NNE-striking structural belt through Cerro Indio Muerto as did the post-collapse Paleocene rhyolite domes. Eocene plutonism over a 3-m.y. period was contemporaneous with NW-SE-directed shortening associated with regional sinistral transpression along the Sierra Castillo fault, lying ～10 km to the east. Older Eocene rhyolitic porphyries in the Indio Muerto district were emplaced between 44 and 43 Ma, and have a small uneconomic Cu center associated with a porphyry at Old Camp. The oldest granodioritic-dacitic porphyries also were emplaced at ～44 to 43 Ma, but their petrogenetic relation to the rhyolitic porphyries and younger granodioritic-dacitic porphyries in the district is unclear. The main porphyry Cu-Mo-related granodioritic-dacitic stocks in Quebrada Turquesa on Cerro Indio Muerto intruded, cooled, and were mineralized within ～1 m.y. between 42 and 41 Ma. Volumetrically minor late- to post-mineral porphyries are slightly more mafic than earlier granodioritic-dacitic porphyries, a compositional trend possibly repeated on several scales and more than once over the 3-million-year Eocene magmatic history of the Indio Muerto district. This compositional trend requires either addition of basaltic material into an open-system silicic magma chamber or tapping of progressively deeper levels of a vertically zoned magma chamber. Eocene porphyry magmas were more hydrous and their residual source mineralogy richer in garnet than the relatively anhydrous Paleocene rocks, whose source was rich in pyroxene. The presence of inherited zircons in Paleocene and Eocene rocks requires interaction with crustal rocks of Paleozoic and/or Proterozoic age.

Paleocene and Eocene igneous rocks in the Indio Muerto district were emplaced during distinct magmatic-tectonic events that are unrelated, although spatially associated. The districtscale Paleocene and Eocene eruptive styles and geochemical and mineralogic characteristics mimic characteristics of similar-aged igneous rocks throughout northern Chile (20°30′ S Lat. to 27° S Lat.), attesting to the regional nature of the Paleocene and Eocene events. Porphyry Cu mineralization in the district furthermore is associated not only with an Eocene granodioriticdacitic (42 to 41 Ma) complex, but also with one of an older Eocene (44 to 43 Ma) rhyolitic porphyry, implying that a long period of precursor magmatism is not required for generation of the El Salvador porphyry Cu-Mo deposit. Rather, the episodic magmatism preceding porphyry Cu mineralization reflects repeated structural localization through time of superimposed highlevel volcano-plutonic complexes in an active magmatic arc.     

Geomorphological models as a tool for environmental studies

Relief is understood as a fundamental component of the environmental system. The structure of geomorphodynamic processes and of the relief sphere as the main energy transformation surface is a determining factor for environmental conditions of both sites and areas. Modelling is the instrument of the applied and systems analytic approach to geomorphology. Geomorphological tools are appropriate means of determining, structuring, assessing and predicting the geoecological potential of the environment. This is demonstrated by quantitative and multivariate models to describe spatial patterns of the environment (fluvial network analysis) and to evaluate and present environmentally relevant geomorphological disposition (slope stability analysis).     

Gravity data as a tool for landfill study

This paper shows the potential of gravity data to map a buried landfill bottom topography. To this end, a gravity inversion method is presented for estimating the landfill’s bottom depths at discrete points assuming a decrease of the density contrast with depth according to a hyperbolic law. The method’s efficiency was tested using synthetic data from simulated waste landfills, producing estimated bottom topographies very close to the true ones. The method’s potentiality has been further evaluated in applying it to the gravity data from the abandoned Thomas Farm Landfill site, Indiana, USA, whose bottom topography is known. The estimated topography showed close agreement with the known Thomas Farm Landfill’s bottom topography.     

Evidence for mass-dependent isotopic fractionation of strontium in a glaciated granitic watershed

The stable isotope composition of strontium (expressed as δ^88/86Sr) may provide important constraints on the global exogenic strontium cycle. Here, we present δ^88/86Sr values and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios for granitoid rocks, a 150 yr soil chronosequence formed from these rocks, surface waters and plants in a small glaciated watershed in the central Swiss Alps. Incipient chemical weathering in this young system, whether of inorganic or biological origin, has no resolvable effect on the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and δ^88/86Sr values of bulk soils, which remain indistinguishable from bedrock in terms of Sr isotopic composition. Although due in part to the chemical heterogeneity of the forefield, the lack of a resolvable difference between soil and bedrock isotopic composition indicates that these soils have thus far witnessed minimal net loss of Sr; a low degree of chemical weathering is also implied by bulk soil chemistry. The isotopic composition of Sr in streamwater is more radiogenic than median soil, reflecting the preferential weathering of biotite in the catchment; streamwater δ^88/86Sr values, however, are indistinguishable from bulk soil δ^88/86Sr values, implying that no resolvable fractionation of Sr isotopes takes place during release to the weathering flux in the Damma forefield. Analyses of plant tissue reveal that plants (Rhododendron and Vaccinium) preferentially assimilate the lighter isotopes of Sr such that their δ^88/86Sr values are significantly lower than those of the soils in which they grow. Additionally, δ^88/86Sr values of foliar and floral tissues are lower than those of roots, contrary to observations for Ca, for which Sr is often used as an analogue in weathering studies. We suggest that processes that discriminate against Sr in favour of Ca, due to the different nutritional requirement of plants for these two elements, are responsible for the observed contrast.     

一幅新的第四纪地质及地貌图的编制——以宁夏与山东为例

为了更好地与生态环境及灾害地质紧密结合,第二代全国区域地质志编制项目规定第四纪地质及地貌图为必编图件之一。图件内容包括第四纪地质体的时代、成因类型、岩性和地貌成因形态组合类型、活动断裂及海侵范围等重要地质内容,同时,附第四纪地质-地貌典型剖面和重要的地貌景点。图件特点:(1)图件的地理底图是首次用数字高程模型(DEM)数据灰度图作背景;(2)第四纪地质内容与地貌成因形态类型同编为一幅图;(3)第四纪地质体的面色用成因类型色表示;(4)地貌部分划分了不同级别成因形态类型和有特色的微地貌景点。总之,图面有立体感,地形高差明显,层次分明,色彩鲜艳,是一幅崭新的图件,可供防灾治理和地质旅游参考应用。     

Petrological evidence for the development of refolded folds during a single deformational event

The Pelona Schist, which forms the lower plate of the Vincent thrust in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, has undergone a complex history of folding. The youngest folds in the schist (style 2 folds) range in shape from open to tight and fold both compositional layering and schistosity. These are superposed upon isoclinal folds with axial-plane schistosity (style 1 folds) that, in turn, overprint older isoclinal folds (also called style 1 folds). Samples from the hinges of style 2 folds contain two generations of muscovite. Muscovites of the older generation are parallel to the folded (style 1) schistosity. The newer muscovites recrystallized during and/or after style 2 folding. Microprobe analysis indicates that the two generations of muscovite are very similar in composition, although the new muscovites tend to have slightly higher paragonite and celadonite contents than the old muscovites. From the gross similarity of the two groups of muscovite, it is concluded that the style 1 and style 2 folds were produced during a single progressive deformation. The slightly higher paragonite and celadonite contents of the new muscovites are thought to indicate that both pressure and temperature were increasing during the deformation. This is consistent with the deformation being due to underthrusting of the Pelona Schist beneath the upper plate of the Vincent thrust.     

Photogrammetry as a tool for detecting recent crustal movements

Progress in model building and in advanced exposure and evaluation methods is leading photogrammetry up into the field of precise point determination, up to now solved by classical geodetic triangulation and/or trilateration. In combination with the statistical test theory, photogrammetry can be used as a tool to detect recent crustal movements or deformations of man-made constructions, such as in coal mining or oil and gas exploitation.

For these reasons, this paper deals with model building for modern aerial triangulation with respect to hypothesis tests to detect point displacements greater than the measurement noise. An example from brown-coal mining demonstrates accuracies and the application of some statistical tests shows the efficiency of advanced aerial photogrammetry.     

中国大陆第四纪以来构造活动加剧及其环境影响

统计分析了中国大陆第四纪以来构造沉降,构造隆升,火山活动及地震活动,得出第四纪初至今构造活动强度一直在加速度增强,总体上增强了１～３个数量级,构造活动强度时间谱呈“多序级节律性指数”增长曲线,构造活动的加强,将对环境产生一系列重大影响,人类将面临更为严酷的生存环境。     

Considerations regarding the definition of a geochemical baseline of elements in the surficial materials in areas differing in basic geology

The problem of a geochemical baseline in areas differing in basic geology was studied by comparing the results of regional geochemical mapping programmes undertaken in Finland and Lithuania using different sample media and a variety of analytical methods. The authors discuss issues relevant to the definition of a geochemical baseline.Most of the differences in geochemical baselines between Lithuania and Finland are due to the dissimilarities in basic geology, which in Lithuania is controlled by Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, but in Finland by Archaean and Proterozoic metamorphic and intrusive rocks. Other important factors are the geological processes that after the last glaciation created the present surficial materials. In Finland, for instance, the abundances of potentially harmful elements derived from crystalline bedrock tend to be higher than in Lithuania. However, in both countries element concentrations are higher in finely-grained marine and lacustrine sediments than in glacial till, and they are also higher in the finer grain size fractions than in the coarser fractions of till samples. Only a small proportion of the total heavy metal concentrations is bioavailable. Thus the baseline concentrations depend not only on the basic geology, but also on sample material collected, its grain size and the extraction method.     

Zircon crystal morphology and internal structures as a tool for constraining magma sources: Examples from northern Portugal Variscan biotite-rich granite plutons

In northern Portugal, large volumes of granitoids were emplaced during the last stage (D₃) of the Variscan orogeny and display a wide range of petrological signatures. We studied the morphologies and internal structures of zircons from syn-, late- and post-D₃ granitoids. The sin-D₃ granitoids include the Ucanha–Vilar, Lamego, Felgueiras, Sameiro, and Refoios do Lima plutons, the late- and post-D₃ granitoids are represented by the Vieira do Minho and the Vila Pouca de Aguiar plutons, respectively. Typological investigations after Pupin (1980) along with scanning electron microprobe imaging reveal that the external morphology of zircon changes consistently with a decrease in the crystallization temperature. Zircon populations from the Refoios do Lima and the Vieira do Minho granites show gradual changes in the internal morphologies and their typologic evolution trends are consistent with their mainly crustal origin. The Sameiro, Felgueiras, Lamego and Ucanha-Vilar granites have more complex internal and external morphology and typological evolution trends that cross the domain of the calc-alkaline to the aluminous granites compatible with a mixing process. Finally, the morphological types of the Vila Pouca de Aguiar granites are found both in calc-alkaline and sub-alkaline granites and their typological evolutionary trends follow the calc-alkaline/sub-alkaline trend, suggesting crustal sources with some mantle contribution.     

第四纪作为地质年代和地层单位的国际争议与最终确立

第四纪(Quaternary)是地球科学中广泛使用的术语,代表地质年代中最晚的时段.在探讨全球环境变化趋势时,第四纪研究具有重要地位.但第四纪作为地质年代和地层单位的地位和底界问题,自18世纪提出以来,在国际学术界中就一直存在不同的观点;尤其是2004年部分权威学者和国际组织提出取消第四纪的方案,引发了激烈的国际大辩论.直到2009年,第四纪在地质年代中的正式地位及其底界划分方案,才最终获得了国际地科联的官方批准.回顾第四纪最初命名到正式地位确定的过程,特别强调了中国科学家立足于黄土等地质记录的研究工作,积极地参加了这场讨论,对于第四纪在地质学中的地位确立做出了重要贡献.