Age of Glacial and Fluvioglacial Deposits of the Chibit Glaciocomplex in Gornyi Altai

Doklady Earth Sciences - The aerial stratotype of the Chibit Glaciation in a stratigraphic chart of Quaternary deposits of the Altai–Sayan Mountains, which corresponds to the Last Glacial...     

Lithology and stratigraphy of the Ordovician facies complexes of Gornyi Altai

In the Ordovician time, the transform margin of the Gornyi Altai region consisted of two bathymetric stages: (1) shelf and upper parts of continental slope; (2) foothills and lower parts of continental slope. The first stage includes the shallow-water facies complexes (terrigenous and terrigenous-carbonate schlieren and variegated flyschoid), while the second stage is composed of deep-water (black shale terrigenous) and subflysch gray (carbonate terrigenous) complexes. Model series of the facies complexes established in our work should be taken into account during the geodynamic analysis of fold zones.     

New data on the most ancient early quaternary glaciation in Gornyi Altai

The data presented in this work introduce substantial corrections into the Upper Cenozoic stratigraphy and geological history of Gornyi Altai. They provide evidence for the most ancient Early Pleistocene glaciation in this region. This follows from finds of faceted boulders buried in the Bashkaus Formation. Pale-omagnetic investigations revealed in the latter a wide zone of negative polarity corresponding to the Matuyama Chron in the magnetostratigraphic scale and made it possible to correlate the formation with the Lower Pleistocene in the standard stratigraphic scale. It is shown that global cooling at the beginning of the Quaternary Period stimulated development of glaciation on the southern slope of the Kuraiskii Range exceeding in size its present-day scale.     

The First Data on Late Pleistocene Ostracods from the Kurai Depression (Gornyi Altai)

Doklady Earth Sciences - In the sections of Late Pleistocene deposits of the Kurai Depression of Gornyi Altai studied, an ostracod assemblage, including Leucocythere sp. 1, L. sp. 2, Leucocythere...     

Excess of Rare-Earth Elements in Plant Foods as a Cause of Geophagy among Ungulates in Gornyi Altai

Doklady Earth Sciences - Geological and hydrobiogeochemical studies carried out in two areas of active geophagy among herbivorous animals in the area of Teletskoye Lake in the Altai Mountains...     

Age assessments for siliciclastic metasediments of the Bodonchin tectonic sheet, the South Altai metamorphic belt

In South Mongolia, the Hercynian structures of a linear collisional thrust-and-fold zone formed in the Carboniferous are bounded by the Caledonides of Central and North Mongolia on the north, being truncated on the south by the Indosinides of the Inner Mongolia. Tectonic sheets of the Caledonides-Hercynides junction zone confined to southern flank of the Mongolian-Gobi Altai are composed of high-gradient metamorphites of the South Altai metamorphic belt. The belt of these rocks traceable northwestward in China and eastern Kazakhstan delineates margin of the North Asian Caledonian paleocontinent. According to results of the previous geochronological study, the high- and low-gradient metamorphic rocks of the belt originated respectively 385 and 360–370 Ma ago. However, tectonic position of crystalline rock sequences, which have not been dated, remains unclear. Geochronological interval postulated for these rocks is very broad, ranging from the Early Precambrian to the Devonian. Dating results obtained in this work for detrital zircons from siliciclastic metasediments of the Bodonchin tectonic sheet of the belt show that their protoliths accumulated during the time span of 460–390 Ma (Late Ordovician-Early Devonian) on a passive continental margin. Transformation of the latter into active continental margin took place in the Early Devonian, when development of the Siberian subduction zone resulted in formation of the South Altai metamorphic belt at deep crustal levels of the Caledonian paleocontinent.     

昆仑山垭口地区的冰期系列

通过对昆仑山垭口地区冰碛和其它沉积物的野外调查及室内分析,并在运用条件年代学手段测定沉积物绝对年代的基础上,建立了垭口地区第四纪以来的冰期系列,即望昆冰期,垭口冰期,玉珠峰冰期,晚冰期,新冰期和小冰期,本区迄今未发现早更新世冰期。     

从"全球冰川"到"雪球假说"——关于新元古代冰川事件的最新研究

新元古代冰期地层不同于显生宙冰期地层，近年来，一些学者提出了雪球假说，掀起了关于新元古代冰期环境特征与因演化的研究热潮，成为当前地学前沿的一个热门课题。本轮研究的一个突出特点，是它的高度综合性，涉及岩石圈，水圈，大气圈和生物圈，此外还牵攫到天体运行等学科。研究重点有新元古代冰川作用的低纬和低海拔特征。与Rodinia超大陆裂解的关系，冰室效应和温室效应的矛盾运动，海洋封冻的探索，碳酸盐岩岩帽的成因，碳，硫，锶等同位素的峰谷变化的环境含义，冰期地层中铁矿的成因，新元古代冰期的次数争议，雪球理论的数值模拟和冰期环境特征及其变化与生物演化，特别是与早寒武世生物大辐射的关系等。我国南方已成为研究新元古代冰期地层及其与寒武系生物大辐射关系的重要地区之一。     

The Pleistocene Glaciation in China

During the last decades several authors have published dataconcerning the Pleistccene and recent glaciation of China,but.theseinformations are scattered and partly of difficult access.Therefore I     

Radiocarbon Age Constraints on Rates of Advance and Retreat of the Puget Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Last Glaciation

Calibrated radiocarbon dates of organic matter below and above till of the last (Fraser) glaciation provide limiting ages that constrain the chronology and duration of the last advance–retreat cycle of the Puget Lobe in the central and southeastern Puget Lowland. Seven dates for wood near the top of a thick proglacial delta have a weighted mean age of 17,420 ± 90 cal yr B.P., which is the closest limiting age for arrival of the glacier near the latitude of Seattle. A time–distance curve constructed along a flowline extending south from southwestern British Columbia to the central Puget Lowland implies an average glacier advance rate of ca. 135 m/yr. The glacier terminus reached its southernmost limit ca. 16,950 yr ago and likely remained there for ca. 100 yr. In the vicinity of Seattle, where the glacier reached a maximum thickness of 1000 m, ice covered the landscape for ca. 1020 yr. Postglacial dates constraining the timing of ice retreat in the central lowland are as old as 16,420 cal yr B.P. and show that the terminus had retreated to the northern limit of the lowland within three to four centuries after the glacial maximum. The average rate of retreat was about twice the rate of advance and was enhanced by rapid calving recession along flowline sectors where the glacier front crossed deep proglacial lakes.     

湖南第四纪冰川的证据

通过十多年来反复观测到的洞庭湖周边近岸岗地的巨砾和网纹红土中孤立镶嵌的包括巨砾级的砾石,以及浏阳市大围山花岗岩岩面上无以数计的臼状圆穴,用排他法进行研究;结合前人对洞庭湖区第四纪的气候信息研究。认为湖南有第四纪山岳冰川活动,支持中国东部中低山区有第四纪冰川活动的认识。     

Late Weichselian Glaciation of the Russian High Arctic

A numerical ice-sheet model was used to reconstruct the Late Weichselian glaciation of the Eurasian High Arctic, between Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya. An ice sheet was developed over the entire Eurasian High Arctic so that ice flow from the central Barents and Kara seas toward the northern Russian Arctic could be accounted for. An inverse approach to modeling was utilized, where ice-sheet results were forced to be compatible with geological information indicating ice-free conditions over the Taymyr Peninsula during the Late Weichselian. The model indicates complete glaciation of the Barents and Kara seas and predicts a “maximum-sized” ice sheet for the Late Weichselian Russian High Arctic. In this scenario, full-glacial conditions are characterized by a 1500-m-thick ice mass over the Barents Sea, from which ice flowed to the north and west within several bathymetric troughs as large ice streams. In contrast to this reconstruction, a “minimum” model of glaciation involves restricted glaciation in the Kara Sea, where the ice thickness is only 300 m in the south and which is free of ice in the north across Severnaya Zemlya. Our maximum reconstruction is compatible with geological information that indicates complete glaciation of the Barents Sea. However, geological data from Severnaya Zemlya suggest our minimum model is more relevant further east. This, in turn, implies a strong paleoclimatic gradient to colder and drier conditions eastward across the Eurasian Arctic during the Late Weichselian.     

关于冰期演变三个问题的讨论

施雅风和李吉均（1994）在总结80年代以来中国冰川学研究的新进展中,提出了3个有待深化和争论的问题：1）不同地区最大冰期出现先后差别的原因尚不清楚;对是否存在一种与季风区相反的模式,即冰期与雨期同步;3）在冰期变化中"气候因素与构造因素何者为主".这3个问题也可以说是本世纪冰川学研究留给下世纪的3个问题．它的解决只有冰川学、气候学和地球动力学等的结合才有可能文章拟对此3个问题提点看法,以期"抛砖引玉"．