青藏高原始新世构造岩相古地理

在前人研究成果的基础上,分析青藏高原始新世残留盆地的构造背景、岩石地层序列和青藏高原始新世期间的构造岩相古地理特征。松潘-甘孜和冈底斯带为大面积构造隆起蚀源区,塔里木东部、柴达木、羌塘、可可西里地区主体表现为大面积的构造压陷湖盆-冲泛平原沉积,高原西部和南部为新特提斯海。从构造岩相古地理演化的角度揭示青藏高原始新世构造隆升与沉积响应的耦合关系,划分出2个强隆升期,分别是强隆升期Ⅰ(55-51Ma)和强隆升期Ⅱ(45-34Ma)。     

Badchisestis,a new genus of continental gastropods from the Middle Eocene of Turkmenia

A new genus of terrestrial gastropod Badchisestis and three included species are described and assigned to the Cyclophoridae. Badchisestis cupaeformis, B. piriformis and the type species B. digitulus all come from the Middle Eocene, Alayan series of Badkhyz, southeast Turkmenia, in the region of Mt. Chakmaly-Chonga. Korobkov's diagnosis of the genus is as follows: Shells of medium (30 mm) to considerable (60 mm) size, elongate-ovate, dolioform, pyriform or oval-digitiform, consisting of six to nine slightly convex, low whorls, separated by a distinct surface suture. Height of last whorl 1;3, 2/5 or 1;2 the height of the whole shell. Aperture comparatively small, broader than high, in the form of a slightly truncated broad oval, angular in the parietal part, with a sulcus in the sutural angle. Peristomatal margins thickened and turned back towards the dorsal surface. Pseudo-umbilicus, narrow not fringed. Outer surface with oblique, converging slender riblets. — N. F. Sohl.     

Estuarine sedimentation in the Eocene of southern England

A temporary section in the Cuisian Bagshot Beds, which has been mapped in detail, displayed estuarine sediments with interlayered sands and muds, fine sands, channel-fill sands and intraformational (mainly mud clast) conglomerates. The facies show rapid lateral and vertical changes in grain size and bed form and a restricted suite of trace fossils including Ophiomorpha nodosa and Arenicolites sp. The sequence is shown to have been deposited in a subtidal channel where tidal, wave and fluvial processes were dominant at different times. The following points are considered to be characteristic of sedimentation in this environment: (i) correlation is difficult and facies predictability is low; (ii) there are frequent lateral facies changes from the channel to the subtidal bank environment; (iii) pene-contemporaneous erosion removes considerable amounts of sediment; (iv) load structures may be exposed, eroded, buried and reactivated; and (v) muddy layers and bioturbated horizons offer similar resistance to penecontemporaneous erosion.     

Simulation and Investigation of the Greenhouse Climate During the Cooling of the Eocene

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Gigantic volcanic eruptions and climatic change in the early Eocene

23 layers of altered volcanic ash (bentonites) originating from the North Atlantic Igneous Province have been recorded in early Eocene deposits of the Austrian Alps, about 1,900 km away from the source area. The Austrian bentonites are distal equivalents of the “main ash-phase” in Denmark and the North Sea basin. We have calculated the total eruption volume of this series as 21,000 km³, which occurred in 600,000 years. The most powerful single eruption of this series took place 54.0 million years ago (Ma) and ejected ca. 1,200 km³ of ash material, which makes it one of the largest basaltic pyroclastic eruptions in geological history. The clustering of eruptions must have significantly affected the incoming solar radiation in the early Eocene by the continuous production of stratospheric dust and aerosol clouds. This hypothesis is corroborated by oxygen isotope values, which indicate a global decrease of sea surface temperatures between 1 and 2°C during this major phase of explosive volcanism.     

The Paleocene and Eocene in the Russian part of West Eurasia

Biostratigraphic charts of marine Paleocene and Eocene in the European and West Siberian parts of Russia include the unified zonations of nannoplankton, planktonic and benthic foraminifers, dinocysts, radiolarians, diatoms, and palynomorphs of higher plants. These regional zonations summarize comprehensive data on the Lower Paleogene, which have been obtained by paleontologists and biostratigraphers in the last century. In the content and resolution degree, they represent a solid basis for geological and paleogeographic consideration and characterize the time succession of diverse biotic and abiotic events. On the other hand, the depicted biotic events have been controlled by successive tectonic, paleogeographic, and paleoclimatic events, because organisms determining contents of biostratigraphic zones changed not only in the course of evolution, but also in response to transformation of surroundings. As elements of general communication systems, epicontinental seas of the Paleogene have been interconnected via straits and seaways, which promoted interchange of water masses and biotas belonging to the Tethys, Atlantic or Arctic oceans, and inner seas. Size and configuration of the seas and seaways changed under influence of tectonic processes and eustatic events of epeirogenic or regional origin. Widening, narrowing, and cessation of communication ways have been responsible for different-scale changes in sedimentation and biotic environments. New materials on the Paleogene in a vast territory of Russian sector of West Eurasia offer an opportunity to revise somewhat the dynamics of climatic changes in the Northern Hemisphere during the Early Cenozoic, which characterize the terminal phase of transition from the warm to cold biosphere of the Earth.     

Anatomy of shelf deltas at the edge of a prograding Eocene shelf margin, Spitsbergen

Abstract Although shelf‐edge deltas are well‐imaged seismic features of Holocene and Pleistocene shelf margins, documented outcrop analogues of these important sand‐prone reservoirs are rare. The facies and stratigraphic architecture of an outcropping shelf‐edge delta system in the Eocene Battfjellet Formation, Spitsbergen, is presented here, as well as the implications of this delta system for the generation of sand‐prone, shelf‐margin clinoforms. The shelf‐edge deltas of the Battfjellet Formation on Litledalsfjellet and Høgsnyta produced a 3–5 × 15 km, shelf edge‐attached, slope apron (70 m of sandstones proximally, tapering to zero on the lower slope). The slope apron consists of distributary channel and mouth‐bar deposits in its shelf‐edge reaches, passing downslope to slope channels/chutes that fed turbiditic lobes and spillover sheets. In the transgressive phase of the slope apron, estuaries developed at the shelf edge, and these also produced minor lobes on the slope. The short‐headed mountainous rivers that drained the adjacent orogenic belt and fed the narrow shelf, and the shelf‐edge position of the discharging deltas, made an appropriate setting for the generation of hyperpycnal turbidity currents on the slope of the shelf margin. The abundance of organic matter and of coal fragments in the slope turbidites is consistent with this notion. Evidence that many of the slope turbidites were generated by sustained turbidity currents that waxed then waned includes the presence of scour surfaces and thick intervals of plane‐parallel laminae within turbidite beds in the slope channels, and thick spillover lobes with repetitive alternations of massive and flat‐laminated intervals. The examined shelf‐edge to slope system, now preserved mainly below the shelf break and dominated by sediment gravity‐flow deposits, has a threefold stratigraphic architecture: a lower, progradational part, in which the clinoforms have a slight downward‐directed trajectory; a thin aggradational zone; and an upper part in which clinoforms backstep up onto the shelf edge. A greatly increased density of erosional channels and chutes marks the regressive‐to‐transgressive turnaround within the slope apron, and this zone becomes an angular unconformity up near the shelf edge. This unconformity, with both subaerial and subaqueous components, is interpreted as a sequence boundary and developed by vigorous sand delivery and bypass across the shelf edge during the time interval of falling relative sea level. The studied shelf‐margin clinoforms accreted mostly during falling stage (sea level below the shelf edge), but the outer shelf later became estuarine as sea level became re‐established above the shelf edge.     

Lower Eocene phosphorites of the western desert,Iraq

Marine sedimentary phosphorites of Eocene age (Upper Ypresian) are exposed in the extreme west of Iraq within the Dammam Formation. They are associated with limestone and chert, and their deposition seems to have taken place in a shallow marine environment within a structurally controlled basin open to the sea from the northern and western sides only.The studied phosphorites are granular in texture, coarse-grained and cemented by calcite which is occasionally silicified. Bone fragments are present in small amounts. Carbonate-fluorapatite is the only phosphate mineral detected in these phosphorites, with relatively high amounts of the components SO₄^?2, CO₃^?2, F^?1, H₃O¹ and Na¹ substituting in the crystal structure.The Lower Eocene phosphorites of Iraq are part of the Tethyan phosphorite province, and are comparable in many aspects with those of Paleocene and Upper Cretaceous age in the Western Desert of the country.     

Facies analysis and palaeoclimatic significance of ironstones formed during the Eocene greenhouse

Lower and middle Eocene ironstone sequences of the Naqb and Qazzun formations from the north‐east Bahariya Depression, Western Desert, Egypt, represent a proxy for early Palaeogene climate and sea‐level changes. These sequences represent the only Palaeogene economic ooidal ironstone record of the Southern Tethys. These ironstone sequences rest unconformably on three structurally controlled Cenomanian palaeohighs (for example, the Gedida, Harra and Ghorabi mines) and formed on the inner ramp of a carbonate platform. These palaeohighs were exposed and subjected to subaerial lateritic weathering from the Cenomanian to early Eocene. The lower and middle Eocene ironstone sequences consist of quiet water ironstone facies overlain by higher energy ironstone facies. The distribution of low‐energy ironstone facies is controlled by depositional relief. These deposits consist of lagoonal, burrow‐mottled mud‐ironstone and laterally equivalent tidal flat, stromatolitic ironstones. The agitated water ironstone facies consist of shallow subtidal–intertidal nummulitic–ooidal–oncoidal and back‐barrier storm‐generated fossiliferous ironstones. The formation of these marginal marine sequences was associated with major marine transgressive–regressive megacycles that separated by subaerial exposure and lateritic weathering. The formation of lateritic palaeosols with their characteristic dissolution and reprecipitation features, such as colloform texture and alveolar voids, implies periods of humid and warm climate followed major marine regressions. The formation of the lower to middle Eocene ironstone succession and the associated lateritic palaeosols can be linked to the early Palaeogene global warming and eustatic sea‐level changes. The reworking of the middle Eocene palaeosol and the deposition of the upper Eocene phosphate‐rich glauconitic sandstones of the overlying Hamra Formation may record the initial stages of the palaeoclimatic transition from greenhouse to icehouse conditions.     

西藏中白垩世和始新世岩相古地理

西藏中白垩世海相区可以识别出9种沉积相类型6个相组合带，老第三纪时可以鉴别出约5种岩相类型4个相组合带。建议将这些岩相组合带视为对应的海相次级地层分区。拉萨地体和羌塘地体在白垩纪中期海水分布可能继承了侏罗纪时的格局，并进一步扩展到了羌塘地体的南部和中部；与此同时，拉萨地体主体和特提斯喜马拉雅仍然被海水淹没，与全球同期海侵事件表现一致。     

Lower-middle Eocene formations of the Crimea: Facial peculiarities and forming conditions

This work considers the structure and conditions of the formation of deposits of the Simferopolskoe regional stage of the Crimea. The deposits of this stage include planktonic foraminifera zones Morozovella aragonensis and Acarinina bullbrooki and nanoplaktonic zones Marthasterites tribrachiatus (the upper part), Discoaster lodoensis, Discoaster sublodoensis (lower part). The deposits of this interval throughout most of the Crimea represent a nummulitic bank, which formed in shallow warm-water basin and was isolated carbonate platform. The distribution of rocks of this regional stage, the facial change, and a number of interruptions are shown in the chronostratigraphic profile. The facial transitions within the carbonate platform point to variations in the basin’s depth, as well as periodical changes in the relative sea level, which were not only of a eustatic nature, but were determined by the periodic rise of the Simferopol Uplift.     

Eocene to Miocene geometry of the West Antarctic Rift System

Tectonic models for the Late Cretaceous/Tertiary evolution of the West Antarctic Rift System range from hundreds of kilometres of extension to negligible strike-slip displacement and are based on a variety of observations, as well as kinematic and geodynamic models. Most data constraining these models originate from the Ross Sea/Adare Trough area and the Transantarctic Mountains. We use a new Antarctic continental crustal-thinning grid, combined with a revised plate-kinematic model based on East Antarctic – Australia – Pacific – West Antarctic plate circuit closure, to trace the geometry and extensional style of the Eocene – Oligocene West Antarctic Rift from the Ross Sea to the South Shetland Trench. The combined data suggest that from chron 21 (48 Ma) to chron 8 (26 Ma), the West Antarctic Rift System was characterised by extension in the west to dextral strike-slip in the east, where it was connected to the Pacific – Phoenix – East Antarctic triple junction via the Byrd Subglacial Basin and the Bentley Subglacial Trench, interpreted as pullapart basins. Seismic-reflection profiles crossing the De Gerlache Gravity Anomaly, a tectonic scar from a former spreading ridge jump in the Bellingshausen Sea, suggest Late Tertiary reactivation in a dextral strike-slip mode. This is supported by seismic-reflection profiles crossing the De Gerlache Gravity Anomaly in the Bellingshausen Sea, which show incised narrow sediment troughs and vertical faults indicating strike-slip movement along a north – south direction. Using pre-48 Ma plate circuit closure, we test the hypothesis that the Lord Howe Rise was attached to the Pacific Plate during the opening of the Tasman Sea. We show that this plate geometry may be plausible at least between 74 and 48 Ma, but further work especially on Australian – Antarctic relative plate motions is required to test this hypothesis.